Harry

Harry whisked a bowl of eggs, groaning at the shlff shlff of the metal whisk against the glass.

"Hangover potion not kicked in yet?" Ginny asked sympathetically. She agitated a huge pan of frying sausages and they hissed in protest.

"Might need a second one," Harry acknowledged.

"Told you not to drink any of Seamus' concoctions." She summoned a vial from the Potion Cabinet and sent it to her husband, while simultaneously setting off the Slicing charm on the bread knife and sending the steaming kettle over to the table, where the teapot was waiting for it. "Do you think Albus is going to make it down for breakfast?" she asked.

"Lost track of him last night," Harry admitted, swallowing down the potion. "Was he drinking?"

"He was practically comatose when I levitated him home at two."

"I'll let him sleep, then." Harry handed over his bowl of egg mixture. "Shall I wake the others, though? Do you think they'll be ready for a proper breakfast?"

Ginny laughed. "I hope so, there's too much here for just the two of us!"

"I dunno," Harry muttered. The second vial of potion had just knocked off his nausea and now he was starving.

He looked at the big table on his way past it and smiled as he always did. It was a Weasley kitchen, now, the sort he'd always wanted, full of warmth and good smells and people every day. So different from Petunia's gleaming, sterile surfaces. His children had grown up at that table, making noise and mess and making him happy. They had finished growing now. A part of him was in limbo, waiting for the grandchildren he wanted to fill his kitchen with. Not for a while, though. Let them finish their childhoods in peace, the way he and Ginny hadn't been able to do.

It was great to have them all at home. And Teddy, too. He grinned. Teddy was back in the right place now. He started to climb the stairs, slowly and softly as he mused. It would be great to have a full table for breakfast this morning. All the family bustle was meaningless and yet it was everything. It meant that his chicks were in the nest he'd built for them. Safe.

He didn't even think to knock, just pushed at the first bedroom door he passed, the words, "Breakfast in five minutes" freezing in his mouth.

Two heads snapped round to stare at him as he stared back and tried to process the image before him. The man on his knees was Teddy: the boy he'd mentored, the disgraced absent groom whom he'd eased back into the family, the young man he had invited into his home. Naked, his bare back looked huge, much more muscular than he looked dressed. Covered in light hair, it was an adult back, and the youth it loomed over was Harry's son.

Harry's stomach dropped. He had allowed this predator into his home, into his son's bedroom, the space where he should have felt safe. Harry had known what Teddy was and he had failed to protect his son from him.

James' hair was shining with sweat, damped down and sticking to his forehead, which had been forced against the headboard of his bed. He was on all-fours. Naked. He looked so pale and slim and vulnerable.

Harry found his voice. "Get away from my son! Get the fuck out of my house. Go! I don't want you anywhere near us!"

Teddy hadn't moved, but James was talking. Harry didn't hear him. He wanted to put his arms round his baby boy and comfort him and make everything right again, but at the same time he didn't want to touch him, not like this, not naked and glistening and stinking like this.

"How can you do this to me after everything I've done for you?" Harry demanded of Teddy, because he couldn't stand to look at James.

"Harry, I-" Teddy's voice was clogged with something. Harry didn't want to think about it.

Harry raised his hands, to block the view, to fend off Teddy's words, and to protect himself from the horror. "Don't talk to me. You've got five minutes to clear the fuck out of our lives!" Harry turned and ran down the stairs.

Ginny was standing at the bottom, looking up at him questioningly. Stunned and heartbroken he ran past her. What could he say? How could he tell her that he had welcomed a monster into their home?