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Chapter 4: James, Albus, Lily & Teddy.

The Potter children were never going to escape the past, and rather than hide it from them, Harry and Ginny determined that the best way was to tell the story gradually.

By the time the Potter children were eleven, ten and seven they knew most of it. James was almost Hogwarts age, so Harry and Ginny had told him the whole story, removing the odd torture of his Aunt Hermione of course. Harry also showed him a list of names of the people who'd died in the war, with special mention of those who were closest to him.

What Harry didn't know, James never told him, was that he knew the names. Since early childhood the Potter children had been regularly woken up by their parents' nightmares. Lily and Albus would creep into James' room and would sit with a torch (a gift from their Grandad Arthur), huddle round a piece of paper and write down every single name that they (mostly their father) shouted in their sleep. The number of names and who they were signified how bad the nightmares were and the kind of mood their parents would be in the next morning. That day, Albus and Lily would distract their parents while James would check the book in the study (The Second Wizarding War, compiled by the Order of the Phoenix, edited by H.J. Granger) for any unknown names. It became the ritual of their childhood.

It was always bad during certain times of the year. Halloween, Christmas sometimes, May and June. And it was always worse when their parents added commentary to the names. James didn't think he could stomach many more howls of grief and despair whenever Sirius' name was mentioned.

Their father's nightmares were bad enough, but their mother's, although rarer, took it to a whole new dimension. Lily refused to sleep in her own room for a week after a particularly bad night and bunked up with Albus, who was secretly glad to have her. Their father cried out but their mother? She screamed. And Ginny Potter could outscream a banshee. All three children could remember that one horrible night they spent sobbing in James' room, with the paper left blank.

Their mother knew they woke up, for what mother wouldn't? James knew she knew and there was a silent agreement that their father was to remain ignorant. Of course, had Ginny known the full story it would have broken her heart, but she didn't and James kept it that way.

Ginny's nightmares often came forward when Teddy came to stay. Because Harry and Ginny made a point of answering Teddy's questions, their memories would often spill over into their dreams. When Teddy stayed over, he would participate in the ritual as well, his hair turning bubblegum pink as Ginny screamed out his mother's name over and over, or Harry apologising endlessly to his father for his death.

In the morning, Harry would always apologise if he kept him awake, and Teddy would always reply by holding up his earphones and making some joke about the 'typical noisy Potter house, I always come prepared,' and Harry would smile a sad smile because his Tonks and Sirius side was showing; he was related to both of them after all.

The "Count of the Dead" was eventually revealed to Harry accidentally when he was helping Lily pack for her first term at Hogwarts. He and Ginny were nothing short of horrified, despite the fact the nightmares had mostly ended when James had started at the school. It would take another generation for the damage to be erased completely. Lily, at ninety-six, could still remember half of the names her father shouted in his sleep.

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Of course the Potter children would have had their own rooms, even when young, because Ginny remembered her brothers sharing and Harry remembered the cupboard. And they would have definitely had a spare room solely for Teddy's use.

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