Characters are the property of JK Rowling.

Earlier that day

"How ya doing, Jamie?" Hugo Weasley asked eagerly, crawling onto James Potter's bed and curling up by his side.

"Yeah sweetie, how is your wrist?" Ginerva Weasley fretted by her son's bedside, inspecting him anxiously.

"'M fine, mum." James murmured. He avoided her eyes, instead looking down at his cousin and ruffling Hugo's hair with his uninjured right hand. "Have you… have you," he began hesitantly, "heard about Teddy?"

"We're leaving for St. Mungo's soon," Ginny replied. "Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"I can't face him yet!" James cried, panicked. "I broke him! Who says he'd even want to see me? I wouldn't want to see me, if I were him!"

Ginny sighed in exasperation. Since the accident two days ago, James had become completely insistent in a way only a sixteen-year-old could that he was totally responsible for the accident. Admittedly, he actually was. Sort of. As soon as it had happened, Ginny and Harry had frantically rushed to Hogwarts to assess the damage. They'd found Teddy unconscious and James wide-eyed and terrified, cradling his wrist and confessing everything. That it had been his idea to practice Quidditch after hours, that it had been his idea to race on said brooms to the Forbidden Forest.

But James didn't know, couldn't have known, that Teddy's broom would flip out while they were coasting over the dark trees and dump its rider, sending him plummeting into the darkness below. As soon as James was back home and Teddy safely in St. Mungo's, Ginny had talked herself hoarse trying to calm her son down.

So instead she kissed her son on the forehead, grabbed her nephew's hand and led him away.

"JAMES! HURRY UP OR WE'LL BE LATE!" Rose hollered up the stairs. "Even Al is ready before you!"

"That's because Al's been packed for the last month," James muttered under his breath. He trudged down the stairs, lugging his trunk behind him. "Ickle Albie-kins terrified of being left behind on his first year."

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, James realized Al had been sitting unseen on the bottom of the stairs. His brother shot him a dirty look; clearly showing that he'd heard and did not appreciate the comment.

James was about to say something when he spotted his mother standing in the open doorway, watching his dad pack Lily and Al's trunks in the magically enhanced car, much like the one his Granddad Weasley used to have.

"Mom!" Wincing, James hated the desperation in his voice. "Are you sure Teddy's gonna be there?"

Ginny turned and smiled indulgently at her son, having had to answer this question sixty or seventy times already. "Yes, dear. The healers at St. Mungo's said that Teddy's well enough to not need to stay there anymore, but not so well that he doesn't need supervision. We discussed it and they deemed it safe enough for Teddy to continue at Hogwarts, where a medi-witch in the hospital wing can take care of him more than we can here at home."

"So we'll see him at the platform, right?" James couldn't help himself from asking.

"Of course." She checked her watch. "Well, that is if we're not late! Get a move on!"

James spent the whole car ride to King's Cross lost in thought. It had been such a long time since he'd last seen Teddy, it seemed liked forever! The separation had, of course, been self-inflicted, because the young Potter could have easily gone to visit Teddy at the hospital whenever he wanted.

But how could he? How could he look Teddy in the eyes and tell him that James was the reason he had been injured? That, because of him, he had to miss the end of his seventh year and now had to repeat the second half before graduating? That he himself was why the metamorphagus had to spend the whole summer in the hospital, taking therapeutic sessions in order to coax his memories from the dark recesses of his mind?

Of course he couldn't. So he had stayed away, rejecting every single urge he had to visit Teddy. Unfortunately, that had caused a new problem – he missed him. James missed Teddy terribly, the way one always misses one's best friend. So while James had avoided Teddy he was fighting the overwhelming guilt and sadness that enveloped him whenever he thought of him. Even now James blamed himself, but he figured now that Hogwarts was starting again, there was no reason to keep avoiding the other boy. In fact, it could be the perfect time for him to find Teddy and beg for forgiveness, which would eventually lead to a fantastic make-up and they would live happily ever after, forever and ever, amen.

As Harry Potter rolled the car into a parking space, James bounced impatiently in his seat. He couldn't wait to see his boyfriend.

Harry and his family caught up with the rest of Ron's. Rose went over to give her little brother Hugo a hug, since she had slept over with Lily the night before. Together, the three friends – the golden trio – led their families through Platform 9 ¾.