The hour ended and before Albus had time to really analyze his conversation, at least more so than he already had, with Donny he was forced to make his way down to the grounds for Care of Magical Creatures. Fortunately, Donovan did not have this class with us. Unfortunately, this class only had two students from Gryffindor, those so happened to be Albus and Alisha. Until last year, the class had been taught by Hagrid. While everyone loved him, no one could bother take the class seriously, so once they finished the O.W.L. for the class they moved on and dropped the class. It wasn't until after the students had signed up for their classes that it was announced that Hagrid was retiring from teaching leaving the position to Teddy Lupin. This of course caused many girls to go begging their respective Heads of Houses for a class change, but they were disappointed. Hagrid still lived and worked at the school, he just decided not to continue teaching, instead focus on the animals.

Teddy Lupin's parents Remus and Tonks Lupin were both murdered in the Battle of Hogwarts. He had only been a month or two old when Voldemort finally met his end and although he had lost his parents, he was never forced to meet the same fate that so many other children who had been born during the war had to suffer through. Directly after Teddy's birth, his father had met up with Harry Potter. Remus had been best friends with Harry's father and godfather, and they had been more accepting of Remus than words could have believed. Since both of Remus' friends had been murdered, he named Harry as young Teddy's godfather. That way he knew that if something were to happen to himself and his wife he would have someone who knew what it was like to lose their parents, and his son would never be mistreated. Remus and Tonks had died in hopes of leaving a better world for their son and they had.

Teddy was raised by his grandmother, but had never been far from the Potter home. He attended weekly family dinners and had been present for every major event including weddings, birthdays, holidays, and had been in the waiting room for all three of the Potter children's births. In the end, Teddy fell in love with Victoria Weasley, the eldest daughter of Bill and Fleur and the oldest of the Potter-Weasley children. They were now engaged to be married over the holidays.

Due to that fact that this was their final year at Hogwarts and with NEWTs coming up at the end of the year, Teddy had decided it would be best to spend their year reviewing with a few new creatures added in here and their. Today they were planned to venture into the Forbidden Forest to see if they would be lucky enough to spot a few threastals. This fact had escaped Albus' mind until he reached the spot in which the class was beginning to assemble. Alisha, like always, was already there reading a book up against a tree.

A few minutes later the ten students in the advanced Care of Magical Creatures class began to make their way through the forest, being led by their teacher. Albus decided to chat with his brother/friend/cousin, truth be told they never really found the perfect name to describe Teddy's relationship with the Potter family.

"How is Vic doing?" Albus asked, referring to the older man's fiance.

"Busy at her mum's planning the wedding. All I can say is the merlin I work here and don't have the opportunity to be at easy reach whenever a detail falls through. Just last week she found out the band was double booked and there was a mistake on all invitations. Thankfully they hadn't been mailed yet. But the women had to take out all the cards and fix the mistakes. Even with magic it took ages because Vic had to have either her or her mother inspect that the correct change had been made."

Al laughed. "That sound like Vic."

"What's up with you, how is the term going so far?" Teddy asked.

"Um, do you know who Donavan Jackson?" Al decided that he needed to talk to someone about the conversation he had just had.

"Oh yeah, met him the other day. He seemed alright, he helped me track down a few of the thestrals for todays lesson. It helps to have someone who can see them . . ." Teddy trailed off as he saw the look on Albus' face. "Why do you ask?" But just then a few students still gasped in shock as they saw the slabs of meat suspended in mid air and slowly disappearing. "We are talking later." Teddy warned.

"Okay class, gather around." Teddy shouted. "I know you all learned about thestrals a few years back, but we are working our way through all that you learned in the past."

He surveyed the crowd, since he wasn't here the first time they saw these creatures, he didn't know if anyone could see them that hadn't before. "Can anyone see them?" He asked and was surprised to see only two people raise their hands. He almost cursed himself, of course only Albus and Alisha could see them. But no one else really?

Albus stood with his eyes fixed on the horse like creature with black wings. This wasn't his first time seeing them, he had already had the ability the first time they had learned about them in class. It had happened when he was a little kid, actually it was when Lily was born. Albus had been a baby at the time, therefore his parents weren't sure if his brain would be able to recognize what he was witnessing, apparently it had. His parents were in the delivery room as well as was Hermione. Ron and Neville were watching Teddy, James and Albus when James and Teddy began to complain about being hungry. Ron took baby Albus with him to go look for some kind of food. He walked through the main lobby when an old wizard walked in, his family frantic but he seemed at peace. Almost as if he knew he was going to die, but his family wouldn't allow it. They hurried try and get him seen by a medi-witch, but it was too late. The old man simply sat down in a chair and peacefully died in his sleep. Ron had seen too many people die, but so few had expected and embraced it so easily. What he neglected to think about was the fact that he was holding in his arms his sister's youngest boy and he had never seen any form of death.

They returned with food and shortly after they ate, little Lily Luna was born. As the family gathered around the hospital bed, James asleep in a chair and Teddy was preoccupied reading a book for school, Ron explained what happened. Harry and Ginny, whether it was because they were enjoying the birth of their little boy, or because it had not been a man dying in pain and agony that their child had watched, they simply said their was nothing they could do to change it. They later told Albus about this before he went off for his second year of school, afraid of what would happen when he saw the thestrals pulling the carriages when no one else could.

Alisha was another story however, she had watched her mother die, internal bleeding. One day her mother decided to finally fight back, she was killed because of it. In front of her own daughter, to crush any possibility of her trying to rebel against her father.

Second year Alisha had no idea what was awaiting to pull her up to school. She thought something was wrong with her, and held that belief until the first trip to Hogsmeade in her third year. The thestrals were waiting to bring them down to the small town. Albus went up to feed one of them and apple, seeming to know exactly where they were. As a result, he spent the whole shopping trip explaining what these creatures were and why only they could see them.

Class ended and Albus held back to talk to Teddy, but Teddy got an owl stating their was a new wedding emergency and he needed to get to a fireplace.

With classes over for the day, Albus decided to head back to his room before the Prefect meeting later on that evening. Due to the fact that she left before him, Albus turned to corner to see Alisha waiting for her question at the portrait.

"Define Family." the ominous voice of the painting spoke.

"Those who are their even when the rest of the walks out on you. The people who can always tell something is wrong, and always know whether to ask 'what's wrong' or simply remain silent as they let you cry." She had silent tears falling down her face and her voice began to quiver towards the end. Alisha looked like she was going to continue but she need say anything else, the portrait had already swung open. Albus let the portrait swing closed before he approached, hoping that Alisha wouldn't know he heard.

"Your family is those who have the same blood as you. True?" The portrait asked. It's funny how these questions always seemed to relate to whatever was on Al's mind. Teddy had no blood relation to him and he was family. Neville, Luna, Sirius Black, Remus and Tonks Lupin, Scorpius, none of them were related. Hell, even looking back at his parents childhood. Harry and Hermione were welcomed into the Weasley family with open arms. Petunia, Vernon and Dudley Dursley were Harry's biological family and for the first part of his life, they were horrid to him.

"False, family is who you love and who loves you, whether you've known them a week or you're whole life. No matter how you meet them or the relationship you have with them, you choose your family." Again the door swung open. As Albus stepped inside he began to wonder what would happen if he had said true. Would the portrait have let him in, or said he was wrong and locked him out until he agree?

Those who are their even when the rest of the walks out on you. She had been talking about him, even if she didn't know it. Even if she hadn't wanted him to hear it, they had understood each other without a doubt, that is until he not only but that doubt in her mind, but he forced her to question all that she had learned. He had tried to help her see that not everyone was like her father. How could he prove that to her if she went and left? People warned him, that night before he said goodbye. An emergency family meeting.

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I just want to thank all of you, seriously. 1,000 reads is a lot, well to me it is. And I love each of you reading this right now. Of course I would like to have more than five reviews but I love those five reviews. So thank you.
Please let me know what you think.
Storywriter