A/N: I know the last chapter was short, but hopefully this one makes up for it! Also, to those following regularly I am going to start updating every two weeks so that I can maintain a writing pace that similarly matches the publishing pace. Thanks for reading! please review!

-Polkadot4946

If it was possible for time to move slower than it did on Friday, it had. Harry felt like every meeting took days. He and Percy both finished their last meeting at 7:00pm. Harry's parents were expected at his house in an hour, and Fred should be flooing into the burrow early the next morning.

Upon flooing home, he found his living room full. Harry's eyes jumped to Andromeda who was sitting very close to her husband, her eyes still slightly red as her head lay on his shoulder. He smiled big. Looking to the left of them, his heart skipped a beat. Teddy was beaming in light brown hair, on the lap of his father, Remus Lupin.

Harry might have stood there in shock for a while, but Teddy grabbed his attention.

"MY DAD'S HOME!" He shrieked, "Harry he's right here, I'm sitting in his lap and his favorite animal is a dog! Harry, I know what his favorite animal is now!"

Teddy nearly jumped of his dad's lap before looking back at him and then curling back into him. He settled on cuddling closely to his dad and looking directly at Harry.

"I can hug him and kiss him and cuddle him, and when I start coughing it's my dad who helps me, not someone else, and he says that he loves me more than I can know just like you told me he would, and he says that I'm his favorite little boy in the world which is crazy, and I can't believe it Harry!" Teddy stopped to breath heavily, and shy away into his dad.

Remus stood with Teddy in his arms and moved towards Harry.

"We're going to have to hug with Teddy in my arms, because I don't think he's going to let go of me until the last second." Remus enveloped Harry with one arm, and both could hear Teddy still breathing heavily as they held onto each other for several long moments. "Thank you," Remus whispered to Harry so that Teddy couldn't hear Harry nodded blankly, unable to comprehend Remus's presence.

The two stepped away from each other, "I'm not complaining, but why are you home so soon?"

"It's full moon tonight, they pushed a couple of us to the front of the list so that we could be home when it started in about an hour. I surprised this little goof right after dinner."

"It was crazy Harry," Teddy was still breathing shallowly, so he couldn't scream in excitement in quite the same way. "He just flooed in without any notice, and I was napping with grandma Molly on the big chair, and I thought it was just Gramdromeda and Grandpa Ed coming back so I stayed sleeping." He took a big breath in, "And then Grandma Molly gave a big gasp and shook me really hard, and I started to complain to her, but then I looked up at her, and she was looking scared at the floo, well now I know that she was just shocked, but I thought she was scared, so I thought it was a bad guy, and I looked at the floo but instead it was my DAD!" He yelled the last word before settling into Remus and breathing quickly.

"That's amazing Teddy!" Harry ruffled his brown hair, "My dad is coming home in about an hour," Harry spoke to Remus now, "I bet he'd go with you tonight."

"He will do no such thing," Remus moved back towards the couch.

"We already talked to him Harry," Ginny said from the recliner, "You're not allowed to disagree."

"Your father will spend his first hours here with you." Remus stated, "There will be plenty of full moons in the future where James and Sirius can accompany me. For now, he will be with you."

The idea of putting up a fight left Harry as he imagined his dad coming home only to leave seconds later. Remus was right, Harry had been waiting several days, nevermind the last 23 years of his life, for this moment and no one was going to take it away from him.

"Thank you," Harry nodded at Remus, he then heard Ginny sigh in relief from the chair.

"I'd placed all my betting money on you accepting that Harry, so it's a good thing you did," Ginny said with a smirk.

"I personally had my bets placed on your fight lasting until your parents came in and you realized we were talking sense." Arthur joked, "You took that well."

"He wants to see his dad!" Teddy seemed offended at Arthur's surprise, "And if his dad leaves then he's worried that he'll never see him again. Of course, he's gonna let him stay."

The room grew quiet as Teddy curled impossibly tighter into his father's arms.

"You just about nailed it Teddy," Harry sat down on the couch next to Remus. "I'm assuming you've talked to Hermione?"

"Yes, I have," Remus smiled, grateful for the change of subject, "She told me where to floo to and how to get registered tomorrow morning."

Remus's smile had grown, and Harry could tell that Hermione had spent some time discussing reformed werewolf law with him. The man's death had been more influential in werewolf politics than anyone else. This included Fenrir Greyback who was killed by an auror a month later, with many claiming that his absence allowed fear of werewolves to decrease. Hermione however found data which nearly proved that Remus's fight against Riddle, as well as Teddy's orphanage, had a greater impact.

"Harry dear, do you want something to eat?" Molly asked, "I made dinner for everyone, it's in the kitchen.

Harry nodded and moved into the kitchen where the Longbottoms, Ron, and George were loudly watching Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Products in action. He grabbed a bowl of chili and began silently eating it.

"Did you see Remus?" Ron asked, "He's back already!"

"Actually Ron, the family let me make my way to dinner before Teddy could announce his dad's return. I had no idea that Remus was in the living room."

"Fair enough, it's still crazy though. I still can't believe it even with them sitting there."

"I was telling Ginny last night," Harry set his spoon down, lost in thought "This feels just as hard to comprehend as their death, except it's not utter shit."

The group laughed a little, but then seemed to be encompassed by their own thoughts. Harry saw Alice, whose hand was on Neville's, give a little squeeze causing his attention to go up to her. They both smiled at each other.

"Hey!" Ron looked at Harry, "Hermione and I were talking earlier about how crazy it was that Dumbledore wouldn't come back. She was going off about how interesting it would be to see what would happen to people who changed their mind last minute. She was going off about Snape for a while, but then she realized that Regulus might be back. What do you think?"

Harry sat still for a while. "I don't know," He answered honestly. "We could put in a request for him, but there's no way he puts one in for us, he doesn't even know we exist."

"Can you pull some things at work?"

"No," Harry shook his head sadly, "They're not really letting any string pulling get done for a few days for P.R. reasons. We'll have to wait for Sirius to get home so he can fill out the form and get Regulus here."

"But you think he's back?" Ron leaned forward.

"I don't see why he wouldn't be," Harry shrugged as he ate his chili.

The next hour was full of laughter and stories and joy at the return of Remus and Ed, for most in the room it went by fast. For Harry, time dragged on. For Teddy, time was lightening quick. The tantrum that occurred when Remus announced his need to leave resulted in Harry forcing the wheezing boy off his father as Remus hurried to the floo in order to make his arrival time. Teddy remained their crying for the next couple minutes as the rest of the room slowly began chattering again.

At 8:08pm the floo erupted to the sight of James, then Lily Potter. The room went quiet at the sight.

"Err… We're supposed to be at Harry Potter's house, he's our…" Her sentence trailed off as she spotted Harry on the floor with a five-year-old, suddenly quiet, in his arms.

"Hiya," Harry waved. Andromeda quickly motioned for Teddy to move onto her lap, an instruction which he obliged to.

"Why don't we step outside quick," Harry suggested, standing up and walking towards the kitchen which lead to the backyard. In the doorway of the kitchen stood Alice and Frank Longbottom.

"Lily," Alice whispered, "You're still so young!"

Lily gave a half-hearted smile and took James's' hand. "We've got a lot of catching up to do." The couple allowed themselves to be led to the backyard with Harry. They made their way over to the bench outside and sat down in silence.

"How are you?" James asked from Harry's right.

Harry turned around to answer but found himself engulfed in a hug from either side.

"I'm in shock," He said from between them, "I've almost a week now to understand what's going on, and I still don't know what to do."

"If it helps, neither do we," Lily smiled, a tear falling down her cheek. "We just showed up and our baby boy was twenty-four years old, and from the looks of it you have a son."

"What?!"

"No?" James asked.

"I mean, Ginny's pregnant, but I don't… Oh! Teddy!"

"Teddy?" Lily asked.

"Pregnant?" James spoke at the same time.

"You know who Teddy is?" Harry asked slowly.

"No," they answered in unison.

"He's a kid who was orphaned in the war, his grandma and I take care of him." Harry left out important details so that Remus could surprise James later. "He's a real cutie."

"Pregnant?" James asked, accepting the answer to Lily's question.

"Oh yeah, Ginny and I are expecting a baby in about two months." Harry stopped at the end of the sentence. His parents would meet his child. They would be there when the kid was born. They would be able to hold them.

"We're going to be grandparents?" Lily whispered more to herself than anyone.

"Yeah," Harry responded.

A comfortable silence stretched between them as they sat down on the porch steps, arms still around each other.

"Ginny is Molly Weasley's daughter," Harry said, "She was born a few months before you guys died."

"I remember that!" Lily said, "Molly was so happy!"

Harry looked to see his parents smiling proudly at him. They looked just like the stone sculpture that he passed every Christmas in Godric's Hollow. That made everything even more surreal.

"Sirius is coming home the day after tomorrow, and Remus is-"

"We want to hear about you, Harry." His mom interrupted him. "What house are you in, what's your favorite subject, why did you want to become an auror, what was your first word?"

Harry sat there for a few seconds. There were absolute strangers who knew the answers to most of the questions they wanted to know. The general public could pick up a book and read about his favorite subject, but his parents didn't know.

He began answering their questions, purposefully skipping anything that would give away his life at the Dursleys. They would talk about that, but not tonight. He started asking them questions. How did they start dating? Why did they get married so young? How hard was it to become an animagus?

They seemed to find it slightly unnerving to be asked such specific question by a son they hadn't told anything. The conversation was forced and awkward at times, but overall it was one of the best moments of Harry's life.

After a few hours Ginny knocked on the door before opening it to her husband and his parents.

"Harry, I've gotta get some sleep, everyone else has gone home. You guys can take your time, just wanted to let you know." Ginny said, leaning on the doorway.

"Thanks for staying up," Harry stood up, his mom and dad behind him following his lead "I'd like you to meet my parents. Mom, Dad, this is my wife Ginny Potter."

Ginny moved to shake hands and was pulled into a hug by both Potters. "You know your son's a real jerk." She said as Lily finished hugging her. "He waited a year and a half into our marriage before I could even meet his parents. He's so immature."

The space grew more comfortable with the joke. "You should've seen his behavior when I knew him," Lily sassed, "He pooped on me several times."

"And one time he ran around the living room naked and we couldn't get him to stop laughing about it for days." James joined in the fun "He giggled every time I changed his diaper and tried to get off the changing table. We considered trying to potty train him at one but didn't think he'd have the self-control."

"I wonder if the giggling lasted into the Dursleys house," Ginny's joke fell to a dead audience as James and Lily both looked stunned from Ginny to Harry.

"Vernon Dursley?" Lily asked quietly. All eyes fell on Harry.

"When did you live with that son of a bitch?" James sounded angry.

"You moved in with Petunia?" Lily was upset too.

"Who the hell put you with him and his spoiled brat of a son!" James was yelling now.

"Stop please," Harry whispered. Ginny gave him a worried look, noticing how small he looked.

"There is no way that we would ever have allowed you to be taken care of by them! What the hell happened?"

Harry took a step back and Lily noticed how scared he was.

"James," She put a hand on his arm. The room froze looking at Harry. He felt their eyes on him and his heart was beating in his ears. A distant part of him was screaming to run away.

"We can talk about it later," James's tone changed to one of fatherly worry. "I… it's not important now."

Harry nodded, his breath evening out slightly.

"Am I good to go to bed Harry?" Ginny tried to keep it casual, but they could all hear the worry in her voice.

He nodded again.

"Get him to tell you about the dragon he rode out of Gringotts," She said standing up out of her chair. Harry gave her a hand as his parents smiled.

"He told us that one," James said.

"He did not?!" Ginny gasped, "You must be pretty special he never brags."

This calmed the room down and Harry felt himself stand up taller as his mother pulled him into a tight hug.

"We should maybe go to bed too," Lily yawned.

"I can show you where you're sleeping," Harry walked inside and towards the stairs with the rest of the family following him. He stopped in front of the guest bedroom and Ginny smiled as she made her way into their room and closed the door behind herself.

The three pulled themselves into a tight hug. The last bits of panic left Harry as he felt their embrace, and everything felt okay again. The awkwardness of the last few hours didn't matter, the Dursley's could wait, and he didn't have to work for the next couple days. Everything was good.

Eventually his parents moved into their room and Harry told them where everything in the house was. Awkwardness fell back to the three when told them about where food was and that they could have anything they'd like. He had to treat his parents like guests new to the house. All the awkwardness fell away when they smiled at him and told him goodnight.

"I love you guys," He said as he was closing the door. It wasn't the first time he said it, and it wasn't the first time they told him that they loved him too, but it still felt like the world.