Chapter ten

Charlie decided to give Harry and James time, so Minerva let them out through the gates so they could apparated to the Burrow. It was better than stepping out into the kitchen with everyone there. Harry stood staring up at the house that he had stayed in so often.

'It's so strange looking, and bent,' James said.

'Yep it is James, but it's a wonderful home, a great place to grow up,' Charlie smiled.

'It is James, I stayed here as often as I could. I love the Burrow.'

'I can see you're nervous Harry, but it'll be fine, everyone will probably just hug the stuffing out of you.'

'Yeah,' Harry said softly, 'Okay, let's go see everyone,' Harry took his son's hand, they walked towards the door.

'Just wait, I'll go in then let you in, okay?'

'Yeah, we'll be here,' Harry gave a nervous smile.

Charlie kissed Harry softly then stepped into the kitchen, 'Hi, I'm glad mum was able to get you all here.'

'Blimey, you're smiling and talking, what happened Charlie, did you meet someone?' Bill asked.

'You could say that, I'll bring him in,' Charlie turned and opened the door, took Harry's hand and led him inside. Everyone fell silent as they stared at Harry and his son, Charlie's son.

Hermione screamed after she got over her shock and ran to Harry, engulfing him in her arms then started crying.

'Um, father, why is this woman crying over dad?'

'That's Hermione, one of your dad's best friends,' Charlie smiled down at James who looked a little nervous, so he turned back to everyone, 'James isn't used to a lot of people, so he's a bit shy at the moment, it's all daunting for him.'

Molly knelt down in front of James, 'Hello James, I'm your grandma, you look so much like your dad.'

'Hi,' James said shyly, 'You all have red hair, well, almost, I have red hair, but darker than yours.'

'Yes, you have your other grandma's hair, Lily Potter's hair. Do you want to sit down?'

'I'll stay with dad.'

'You might have a long wait James, my wife will not let Harry go, not now he's back,' Ron said as he walked over, 'I'm your uncle Ron and I was your father's best friend when we were growing up.'

'You look like my father.'

Ron looked at Charlie, 'Yes, I suppose we do look alike. Hermione, sweetheart, will you let me say hi to Harry.'

Hermione sniffed, pulled back then punched Harry hard in the arm, 'You shit Harry Potter.'

'Blimey you hit hard Hermione,' Harry grimaced as he rubbed his arm, 'Don't start okay, I don't need one of your lectures. But say hello to my son, James this is Hermione Weasley.'

Hermione knelt down, 'Hi James, oh you look like your dad, but with red hair.'

'Yeah, you're going to have a baby.'

'Yes, I am, a little girl, do you think I could hug you?'

'You're not going to cry on me are you?'

Harry gave a small smile as Ron laughed, 'She might.'

'I will not Ron, so no James, I won't.'

'Okay then,' James shrugged then she hugged him, 'You smell nice.'

'Thank you,' Hermione pulled back then stood up, 'But you're dad caused me a lot of pain, I haven't forgiven him for leaving.'

'Hermione, please don't start or tell James that,' Harry put his arm around his son's shoulder.

'Why don't you all sit down and James can meet his family,' Arthur said smiling at the boy.

Charlie led Harry and James over to the table and they sat, 'Okay, I'll go around the table and introduce everyone James. So you met grandma, that's your grandad,' Arthur smiled and waved, 'Then the oldest is Bill and his wife Fleur, next to them is Victoire and Dominique, two of your cousins and you have another cousin called Louis due soon. Then there's Percy, he's just younger than me, with his wife Audrey and their children Molly and Lucy. Then George and Angelina with Fred and Roxanne. Ron and Hermione who are about to have Rose. Last is Ginny and Seamus who don't have any children yet,' they all waved to James giving him a smile.

'So Seamus, you finally got Ginny, you had a thing for her when we dated,' Harry said.

'Yep, but all she wanted was the chosen one, until you let everyone know you were gay and with Charlie. We heard you got your hearing back not long before you left.'

'Yeah, I woke up one morning and I could hear but it was fuzzy, Madame Pomfrey said it would be back within a few days. I never believed I'd ever hear again.'

'So where did you disappear to, we tried for years to find you?' Hermione asked.

'I never left, bought a property in the country, placed enchantments around it and used polyjuice potion when I went out. I was using the name Jonathan Williams.'

'That was one of the names of the men that gave birth to a son,' Charlie blurted out, 'But the description was a blonde man in his forties and they said he had another man with him.'

'Yeah, that was me,' Harry shrugged, 'I paid this bloke to pretend to be my partner to throw everyone off.'

'We were so close,' Charlie sighed then took Harry's hand kissing his palm.

'You checked out men who were pregnant?'

'We checked everyone and everything Harry. But two men together and that name, we figured it wasn't you and we were told you had an accent. But why Jonathan Williams?' Ron asked.

'Williams, well Bill Weasley, sort of a name I would recognise easily until I got used to it and it's a common man's name, either first or last. Jonathan,' Harry sighed, 'Remus' middle name was John. I knew I couldn't use any names like Black or Evans, to easy.'

'So will you and Charlie live at Hogwarts with James?' Bill asked.

'No, James doesn't want to leave Spooky or Padfoot,' Harry smiled down at his son then he noticed everyone looked curious, 'His horse and dog, I have a few horses, we ride quite a lot, don't we James?'

'Yep, we sometimes race,' James smiled up at his father.

'So is he like you and Charlie, does he fly?'

'Fly,' James looked puzzled.

'We mainly lived like muggles, but I did tell him about magic, but no, I never showed him that I fly or that he could.'

'Fly, what do you mean fly, like a bird?'

Everyone gave a small snigger, 'No, on brooms, we fly on brooms. Bill mentioned if you would be as good as me and your father, well, we both played on our teams when we were at Hogwarts. Quidditch and it's played up in the air on brooms. I'll show you soon.'

'I can do that now,' Ron ran up the stairs.

'What's he up to?'

'You'll see Harry,' Hermione smiled.

Ron ran down with a thick book, opened it and placed it in front of James, 'That's your dad, he was captain of the team, I'm in the background, there's aunt Ginny there as well.'

James stared down at the picture, 'Wow, you really fly, but you had glasses dad.'

'Yeah, I got contact lenses, you've seen me put them in.'

James nodded then read the writing under the picture, 'Harry James Potter was the youngest player to ever get picked for one of the house teams at Hogwarts, Gryffindor, and it had nothing to do with the boy who lived, he was a natural on a broom as he is with a wand. Harry captained his team at the age of sixteen and won the cup for Gryffindor his first year, with the help of his girlfriend at the time, Ginny Weasley who took Harry's position as seeker when Professor Severus Snape put Harry in detention so he couldn't play against his house team, Slytherin. When Harry played a fair game he usually caught the snitch before the other teams seeker and he still holds the records for most snitches caught in a season by an individual player,' James looked up at his father, 'Okay, three things here dad, girlfriend, you're gay, what is this boy who lived thing and what are Gryffindor and Slytherin?'

Everyone around the table chuckled, 'Oh Harry, you have not told your son anything have you?' Hermione shook her head.

'No, nothing really, but I told him we will talk tonight. Then shop for some books so he can read up on stuff for himself. I might have been teaching him at home, but I kept everything mainly muggle. But I knew now he was getting older I would need to start telling him things, especially about the war.'

James stared up at his dad and even though he knew him and loved him, it was like there was this whole other side of him that he never knew. He wasn't sure how he felt about that and wondered how he would feel about this other Harry Potter.

'So how are you and Charlie going to work it out, you at home and Charlie at Hogwarts?' Molly asked.

Charlie saw Harry was a little hesitant, 'We're taking things slow, Harry needs to trust me again after the way I hurt him. So we'll visit, I'll go there on the evenings I don't patrol or have detentions. Harry and James will come to Hogwarts, we can see each other on weekends as well. Minerva is going to open my floo but it'll be restricted to just us and Harry's home.

'So you're not back together then?' Ron asked.

'No, I need time, but James wants to know Charlie, so we'll just see how it goes.'

'Why now Harry, why did you decide to come back now?' Hermione asked.

'I've wanted to for the last few years, but I was scared. I sometimes stood outside Hogwarts, watching Charlie, trying to decide if I could see him again, then how I felt about him. When I left, I was so angry, I cursed his name so much, cursed his pictures too.'

Charlie sighed, then put his arm around Harry, 'I know, so we'll take it slow, like we said and I gave my word to James that I will never hurt you again.'

Harry stared into Charlie's eyes and could see how sorry he really was, but he could see the love there.

'When father walked into the office, he snogged dad, a lot,' James said watching his parent's.

'They used to do that a lot James, they always snogged,' Ron gave his nephew a smile.

'Okay, it's dinner time,' Molly called and started to float food onto the table, 'I hope you like it James.'

'Wow,' James stared at all the food, 'Dad's not the best cook, but we have a woman that comes in and makes us meals a couple of times a week, but nothing like this,' James started eating.

'So you hired a cook?' George asked.

'Yeah, I was going to try and learn, but being pregnant, I really didn't feel like standing in a kitchen for too long, then I was on bed rest for the last two months. After James was born, I never had time.'

'Why were you on bed rest?' Molly asked as she sat down.

'Complications due to stress, I went into early labour, the healer stopped it, but from then on I had to stay in bed and I gave birth at home. The healer I was seeing used to come see me since I was stuck in bed, and was just about to leave when I went into labour. It was three weeks early this time, but he said it was fine, so James was born after twelve hours,' Harry put his arm around James, 'Bloody painful, but worth it.'

'Tell me about it Harry,' Angelina smirked, 'You are the one bloke here that can understand what us woman go through. I asked George if it was possible would he'd carry and give birth,' Angelina smirked at her husband.

'He said no, right,' Harry gave a small smile.

'Yep, but all the blokes got asked and only one said they would,' Angelina smiled at all the men around the table.

'Well I know Ron wouldn't, there's no way he would. Bill, no, he'd leave it for Fleur. Percy, I don't know, I can't say, so who said they would?'

'Me,' Charlie said, 'I want to feel what it's like.'

'Then if we do end up together again, you can have the next one.'

Charlie grinned hugely then grabbed Harry's head and kissed him hungrily, 'Now, let's have another one now.'

'Charlie,' Harry sighed, 'slow remember which means no sex, so no pregnancy.'

'Okay,' Charlie sighed, 'okay, slow, but are you serious, no sex?'

Everyone around the table laughed as they noticed the look on Charlie's face. 'No sex,' Harry shook his head.

'Fine,' Charlie sighed, 'But I get it, you said slow, so slow. When we first got together it was me saying slow and you always trying to seduce me, then you did, on your birthday.'

'So it was that day, when you explained to everyone about being deaf,' Ron grinned.

Harry shrugged, 'I told Charlie that's what I wanted for my birthday, he finally gave in.'

'Why did you make Harry wait that long Charlie? Because that is not you at all,' Bill said.

'I wanted to make sure Harry was ready to get that serious. But I woke up with him kissing my back and,' Charlie looked at James, 'I won't say what else.'

'No, the children Charlie,' Molly said.

'Dad has told me all about sex, so I probably know what you were going to say especially if you were on your stomach.'

'Harry, he's a bit young for that,' Hermione said.

'He's very intelligent and likes to know about everything. So when he started asking about how babies get made and all that, I decided to tell him. He sat there and just listened, then went to find one of the books that shows pregnant women and how they give birth, he found it fascinating. I just never told James I was gay or that it was me that gave birth to him, not a woman. You would love my library Hermione and James has read everything in there. He's been reading since he was three, children's books that was, as he got older and began to read other books, we'd sit discussing things he read. This all started from the time he was five, some serious discussions as well.'

'So you love to read James?' Hermione asked.

'Yeah, I do, that or go riding, or swimming, but reading is my main passion.'

'So you have a horse, and a pool or is it a lake, pond, what?' George asked.

Harry smiled down at James, who answered, 'A pool in the house and a pool outside. But we have four horses, dad and I ride every day, Padfoot comes with us, then we sit under a tree and have a picnic and read more.'

'Padfoot?' Ron raised his eyebrows at Harry.

'I bought this cute little black dog for James when he was two, I called him Padfoot. I know I need to explain everything to James now I'm back, but I learned to change, took sixth months.'

'A stag like your dad,' Hermione said.

'No, a dog like Sirius,' Ron said.

'Neither, I actually thought of Sirius, but no and what I became surprised me because there has only ever been one once before, in all history.'

'Well, tell us, what do you change into?' George asked.

'I'll show you and James will see as well,' Harry looked down at James, then stood up. He concentrated and a large phoenix flew around the room before it changed back into Harry who sat down to stunned looks from everyone, but James was staring at him in shock, 'A phoenix, the first person to change into a phoenix since Godric Gryffindor.'

'Didn't Dumbledore become a phoenix?' George asked.

'No, his patronus was a phoenix, but he told me he never bothered learning to change, it wasn't something that interested him.'

'You aren't smiling Harry, except when you look at James, why?' Hermione asked.

'I've been like that for years, only James brings a smile to my face,' Harry looked down at James and gave him a smile, 'I suppose it just became part of me,' Harry ran his hand down James hair, 'I look him at him and I see me, see my mother and just a trace of Charlie.'

'I would watch dad a lot, he always looked sad,' James put his small hand in Harry's, then took Charlie's hand and placed his in Harry's, 'Now hopefully he won't look sad.'

'Oh son,' Harry said giving him a small smile before looking up at Charlie.

'Don't,' Charlie said softly then wiped the tears from Harry's face, 'Please don't.'

Harry chewed on his lip but his eyes never left Charlie. Everyone around the table was silent as they watched the two men. James sat there gazing at his parent's and even though he loved his dad and his dad loved him, he could see these two men loved each other. Now he hoped his father never hurt his dad again.