CH 31 Thirteen Privet Drive

Teddy wanted to go to the Caribbean, to help take down a family of witches that had been terrorizing the Caribbean for over five hundred years. … And if you were lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to go undercover on the Caribbean island your changes of escaping unharmed, if you took the record of the last five hundred years, was exactly zero percent. Half killed or missing and never heard from again, the other half seriously hurt.

Damn.

It was the first week in June, 2016. Harry was in his office when Peggy Todd, a professor from Hogwarts, asked to see him. Harry knew that Peggy helped teach Muggle Studies, but also was the primary contact most Muggle parents had when they found out that their child was a witch or wizard and could go to Hogwarts, free of tuition and room and board, with scholarships available for books and other supplies if the family could not afford it.

"I have a student I think you will be interested in," Peggy said when she was let in. "Daniel Rodgers is an eleven year old boy who lives with his grandfather at Thirteen Privet Drive. His parents and grandmother are dead, and in all honesty his grandfather is overwhelmed, still working part time trying to get enough money to stay in the house and raise Daniel.

"Daniel is obviously magical, and is on the list of students to go to Hogwarts next year. From what Mrs. Figg has told me Daniel has always been unusual, and has had a very hard time fitting in at school. He is a good student, but has no close friends outside of school, although he has several students in his class he is friends with during school time.

"After classes he goes to the classroom of a former teacher, Gretel Coombs, who it seems has let a steady stream of misfit children stay in her classroom between the time school lets out and the time she leaves for home at about six."

"Mrs. Coombs is still there?" Harry asked.

"Mrs. Figg says that Mrs. Coombs let you stay in her classroom so you would not have to face Dudley, and encouraged you. She thinks Gretel would be delighted to see you, and meet your family, and see how one of her former misfits has turned out. Maybe by doing that you could encourage Daniel as well."

"I'd love to!" Harry exclaimed. He and Peggy talked more about what Harry would have to cover, and how to arrange to visit the school.

That night Harry told the family at dinner, "I would like you to come with me and visit a former primary school teacher of mine, Mrs. Coombs. She encouraged me when I was little and scared and I didn't think I had a friend, and from the time I got to her class at six until I left that school at ten she was one adult I could always count on to love me and encourage me."

"I would really like that, Harry," Ginny said.

"I'd like to see a Muggle school," Albus said.

That Friday it was arranged. Mrs. Todd was going to meet the Potter family Friday at 4:00 PM close to the primary school, and they were all going to go to the school in a big black Auror Range Rover, a second Range Rover following with additional Aurors, since the school was not 'safe space.' Harry picked up Teddy from Hogwarts so he could come along; Harry and Ginny really did consider Teddy one of their children, even though he slept at the New Burrow.

Daniel was watching out the window as the big cars arrived and all these people piled out, his eyes wide open. Not only were these the most important looking vehicles he had ever seen arrive at his school, but somehow he knew that these people were important, and he hoped important to him.

Mrs. Todd went into the school and talked to the head, who was expecting them. She led the group to Mrs. Coombs room. Harry opened the door and peeked in. Mrs. Coombs was sitting at a table working with four students, and there were eight more engaged in their own tasks in the room, all ranging in age from six to ten. It reminded Harry of all the hours he has stayed in the same room, with the same much younger teacher, feeling safe and loved for a few hours most weekdays.

"Mrs. Coombs?" Harry tentatively said.

"Come in, come in," Gretel Coombs said. "I don't bite."

Harry walked in, Ginny holding onto his arm for balance, the four children trooping in after.

Gretel stood up and said, "What do you want?" Then she recognized Harry. "Harry? Harry! HARRY POTTER! My god it's been a long time. It's been a very long time since you sat at one of these tables dreading going home. How are you?"

While this was going on Jim Snook came in and stood in a corner watching the proceedings. Gretel Coombs looked at him, and Jim said, "Sorry, Mrs. Coombs. I work for Harry, and I'm supposed to stay close to him."

Gretel looked at these two men in their gray suits, looking very professional. Ginny was wearing a beautiful dress, her unbound red hair down to her waist, looking very striking. James was trying to look important and like a big boy, but Albus had his head on a swivel trying to see everything. Teddy was on the other side of Ginny watching her, and Lily was holding on to Teddy's hand.

"This is my family, Mrs. Coombs," Harry said.

"Call me Gretel, Harry. You are quite obviously a grown up now, with this family."

Harry laughed. "Somehow when I walked into this room I was back to being a scared ten year old boy again. Ginny, Mrs. Coombs, Gretel, she believed in me and loved me when no one else did. My wife Ginny," introducing Ginny. Gretel went up Ginny, looked at her, and asked, "Should I shake your hand or hug you?"

"If you loved Harry when those awful Dursleys' didn't, I ought to hug you," Ginny said. "My balance isn't very good since a sports accident before the children were born, so just don't let me go suddenly." The two ladies hugged. "Thank you for loving Harry," Ginny whispered. "His childhood was so awful. Sometimes something comes up and I just feel so bad for Harry."

"There wasn't much I could do, but I did what I could," she answered.

"I can't begin to tell you how much your love and encouragement meant to me!" Harry exclaimed. "I think you and Mrs. Figg were the reason I didn't end up hating everybody and everything."

Ginny gave Gretel another big hug and said, "Thank you!"

Teddy grabbed onto his godmother's arm as the women separated.

"Harry," Gretel said, "Do you remember a drawing you must have spent a month working on, Knight Harry and the dragon head and the princess?"

"I think I have the drawing you are referring to," Ginny said.

"And you're the redheaded princess," Gretel said

"She sure is my redheaded princess," Harry said, pride shining in his eyes. "She's the best thing that ever happened to me, my beautiful, fantastic, brave, and tough bride."

"Our godson and foster son Teddy Lupin," Harry said, introducing Teddy. "I'm going to have to start calling you Ted instead of Teddy soon." Teddy nodded.

"James," Harry called, and James stepped forward. "This is my oldest son James Sirius, and my younger son Albus Severus. And we can't forget the youngest, Lily Luna."

"And what are you doing, other than producing beautiful children?" Gretel asked.

"I'm a government worker," Harry said.

Jim broke into laughter. "That's like the head of Scotland Yard or M5 saying they are just a government worker, Harry," he said.

"Dad's real important!" James said. "Here and in Switzerland and all round the world real important!"

"Don't brag," Albus said. "It's not nice to brag."

"But he is!" James said.

Harry put a hand on both boys and they glared at each other and shut up.

"I have somebody you need to meet, Harry," Gretel said. She reached for a phone that was in her room and dialed. "Nannette, I have someone here you need to see! … Sure, bring your husband and children!"

A moderately tall lady came into the room. Two little children, Ginny guessed about five and three and a tall good looking man followed. Nannette was thin, with a good figure, but she was not what you would call a beauty. Nannette's face was not balanced, and her hair, although neat, was thin and an undistinguished brown. One side of her body was obviously a little smaller than the other, and she looked unbalanced. She was wearing hearing aids, and had glasses on.

Harry and Nannette looked at each other. Harry spoke first. "Your glasses, they are not those thick ug…"

"They were thick and ugly, Harry," Nannette said. "I almost had to go to a special school for the blind. Laser surgery and newer lens material took care of that. The hearing aids are much better and much smaller too."

"And you've grown up to be a beauty," Harry said.

"That's very kind of you to say so, even if it's not totally true," Nannette replied.

"I think she's a beauty," the tall man replied.

Nannette looked at the five very small stars on the top of Harry's lapels. "The people dressed like you have these stars, just not so many."

Harry nodded yes.

"It's binary, isn't it? The arrangement of the stars gives you a number, with your five stars being grade ten at least."

"You always were good at math, Nannette," Harry said.

"Are there any people with more than five stars?" Nannette asked.

Harry shook his head no.

"Can you tell me what this is all about?" Nannette asked, looking at the stars.

"Top secret," Harry replied. "You already know more than ninety nine percent of the people who meet us."

"I'm just a school teacher, Harry, with a husband, Willis, his, now our, two girls, and our two small children, Daren and Karen," Nannette said. "I am trying to be a kind and caring teacher like Gretel, and am thrilled to be teaching in the same school she is teaching in."

"I would like to introduce you to my wife, Ginny," Harry said. "Teddy is our godchild, and our children are James, the oldest," James stepped out to acknowledge himself, "Albus and Lily."

"We have to go, Harry, but it was FANTASTIC meeting you," Nannette said. "It's always good meeting some of Gretel's successes."

"You are obviously another success story," Harry said to Nannette. "After all the horrible names some of the students called you, it is so good to see you a successful grown up mother and teacher."

"And wife!" exclaimed the man, giving Nannette a passionate kiss.

Nannette melted into her husband's arms, coming out with tears in her eyes. "Primary school was so AWFUL. Even the University wasn't easy. I wake up in the morning with Willis beside me, and get up and look at my children, my family, and I can't believe it!

"Even after school, when I started teaching, I was lonely. I didn't know how to date. I didn't get the really good hearing aids until my second year in college, and by then it was just that Nannette didn't date.

"I got a job teaching here. It was good. I felt I could sort of have a good enough life. Then I met a man whose wife had died, leaving him with two little daughters to raise. I had one in class, and we met, but I was too shy to say anything to him about how good he was with those girls, what a good man he seemed to be. Then two years later I had his other daughter, and he asked me to dinner at his house with his girls.

"Harry, I know you grew up unloved. I lived with a grandmother because I never knew my dad, and mother was a piece of work, and grandmother was, well she put up with me because she had to, she wasn't as bad as those horrible Dursleys', but it wasn't good.

"I hope you found love like I did. It looks like you did!"

"Ginny is just the perfect woman for me!" Harry said. "I can't begin to tell you how brave she is, and what she has done. Her family is my family now, with all her brothers and their wives and her mother's dozen grandchildren, plus Teddy.

"Just look at you, Nannette! Ginny, doesn't she look beautiful, and happy. There are Happily Ever After endings."

"Yes there are, Harry," Nannette said, and she gave Harry a big hug, and then hugged Ginny.

Nannette and her family took their leave, saying they really had to go.

"Is this just a social call, or are you here for a reason?" asked Gretel once Nannette had left.

"When I left this school I went to a boarding school in Scotland, where I learned to handle some unusual abilities I had. I made friends there, good friends, and learned what I needed to know to grow into the responsibilities and position I have today," Harry said. "I have been told that there is another little boy in this classroom who has unusual abilities, and who might like to go to my school. Is Daniel Rodgers here?"

Daniel was just a little taller than James, skinny. He wasn't ill dressed, but the clothes on him were a little too small and obviously well worn. "Grandpa can't send me to no expensive school," he said in a small voice.

"Grandpa won't have to pay for anything," Harry said. "We can even cover books and incidentals, and give you a little spending money. We would like to take you home and talk to your grandfather, and see if we can make sure you go to school where I went to school, when Teddy is going now and where James will start with you next year.

Daniel looked at the Potter family, not sure what to say or think.

"Why don't you send the children out to play," Gretel said. "All of you can play with each other. Just let someone know if anyone tried to cause trouble."

"We'll have three or four adults watching, Mrs. Coombs," Jim Snook said. "No one will cause any trouble." Gretel looked outside at the four sharply dressed Aurors, two men and two women, obviously standing guard, and wondered just how important Harry was.

The children all put their homework away and trouped out.

Ginny had noticed some family photographs on Gretel's desk and said "Is that your family?"

"My husband, two married daughters and three grandchildren," Gretel proudly said, and proceeded to tell Harry and Ginny a little about her family. Finally she asked Ginny "You're not an only child like Harry?"

"The only daughter, but mum had seven boys before she had me," Ginny said. "She has twelve grandchildren now." Ginny had photographs on her mobile, and had to show Gretel some of them.

"Whatever happened to the Dursley family?" Gretel asked.

"Vernon died, pretty much un-mourned except for his sister," Harry said. "I'm not sure how Petunia felt or feels about it, but Dudley has a little hard time because he found out how bad a man his father was, and that's hard."

"How is Dudley?" Gretel asked.

"Married, prosperous. He had a few real life changing experiences about twenty years ago, and has really changed," Harry said. "He is surrounded by the right kind of people, and he and I are friends now. He is always apologizing for how badly he treated me when he was younger. He doesn't see any of the friends he had in primary school, and he thinks Smelting's, where his dad went, and where they sent him, is perverted."

"Petunia?"

Harry pondered a moment. "I'm not sure how often Dudley sees his mother. She's not comfortable with his wife, or around his children, and they know it. The grandparents and cousins in North America are much closer to them, despite not seeing them much."

"Your uncle was just a nasty piece of work, Harry," Gretel said. "I can see the good in most people, but it was hard to see any good in that man. I don't know if he just ruined Petunia or what. She wasn't always mad at you, and in some ways I think she was embarrassed by how she had to treat you."

"I'd like her to be nice to me and the children, but so far that hasn't happened," Harry said. "She's kind of withdrawn inside herself, I think, which isn't good for her or for Dudley's children.

"What can you tell me about Daniel?"

"I think Grandma and Mum and Dad died in a car accident," Gretel said. "Grandpa was driving and was belted in, as was baby Daniel. The rest did not have seat belts on and were thrown from the car and died. It took a while for grandpa to recover, and he never could go back to work full-time. He has been trying to raise Daniel for the last ten years.

Daniel reminds me a little of you, not the abusive parents, but the unusual abilities. He's a serious child too. I do hope you can get him to that school."

"He will go to the school I went to," Harry said. "The school can offer a full scholarship, even an allowance for clothes and spending money."

"That's how you went?" Gretel asked. "I can't see Vernon Dursley paying for you to go away to a boarding school."

"I learned that the Dursley family was getting seven hundred pounds a month to take care of me, was getting it until I turned seventeen. I never saw a farthing, nothing. There was some family money, though, that I used."

After some more talk Harry took Daniel Rodgers home, so he and Peggy could talk to Grandpa Rodgers. The rest of the family was taken home.

"Mr. Rodgers," Peggy started in after grandpa opened the door. "I represent a private school in Scotland that is prepared to offer your grandson Daniel a full scholarship, including a clothing allowance and spending money. We would like to talk to you about it."

"Why?" Mr. Rodgers asked, still standing in the doorway.

"That's what we want to explain," Harry said. "I grew up on this street, with the Dursley family, and I went to that school."

"You're not that big good for nothing Dursley bully," Mr. Rodgers said.

"No, I'm his cousin, the one he was always beating up," Harry said.

"He still a bully?"

"No, he's changed, and he seems never to tire of apologizing for how he treated me when we were growing up."

"That bastard of a father of his?"

"Vernon never changed."

"I hope he rots in hell! I guess you can come in. I'll listen to anyone who made an enemy of that bastard."

Harry and Peggy went inside. Daniel stayed close.

Peggy said, "Daniel is a wizard, Mr. Rodgers. So is Harry, and I'm a witch. I grew up in a household that was not magical, and I was the first person in our family, as far as anyone knows, who has magical abilities."

"We don't have no money to send Daniel to no fancy foreign school," Mr. Rodgers said.

"The school offers free tuition, room and board, and a stipend for books and supplies, for children who need it," Peggy said.

"Can you see Vernon Dursley paying good money to send me to some fancy school?" Harry asked. "Everything will be paid for." Harry did not mention that his generosity, and the scholarship funds he had set up, was the reason that poor parents no longer had to struggle to send their children to Hogwarts.

After much more discussion it was agreed that Daniel Rodgers would accompany James to Hogwarts in the fall.

"I feel ancient," said Ginny as she looked at the parchment informing 'the guardians of Theodore Remus Lupin' that he had graduated from Hogwarts. "I thought all the parents who had children graduating from Hogwarts were really old!"

"Ever since we took Teddy to San Francisco we have been his legal guardians," said Harry, "and you did nurse him for those first 3 months after the Battle of Hogwarts, but I don't think thirty three is old at all."

"James starts in the fall," said Ginny. "We don't have any babies! They're growing up. And I'll be thirty four by then. I'm getting old!"

"Donna Lionheart was older than you when she started having babies," Harry replied. "It's not uncommon for a witch to start having babies in her thirties or even forties. You are still very young. You're young and beautiful, still cute and freckled, and the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Maybe if I had a baby I'd feel young again," Ginny mused. "I do still have the freckles and the long red hair, well I work hard at looking good, but I can't get rid of the extra pounds. The Quidditch column keeps me sort of busy, but I want more."

"What do you want?" Harry asked.

"I want to play in an adult Quidditch league," Ginny sighed in reply. "I know, I know, I can't even play in family games. Damn. Boggarts. Bollocks and Boggarts. My balance isn't any better than the day I was hurt; I've just learned how to compensate better. But right after I was hurt I started having babies."

Harry grinned, saying "I'll change more nappies."

Ginny looked at Harry with the trademark intimidating stare of hers saying, "You don't have to be pregnant for nine blasted months." Ginny sort of mumbled, "Being pregnant isn't so bad. Pushing a quaffle out your bottom's no fun, but nursing feels good. Ties you up. Nine months of having a baby inside you then a year of having one sucking on you. Still I do miss babies." Ginny looked at Harry again. "I just don't know."

They had a party at the New Burrow for Teddy's graduation, and it was a lot of fun, thought Harry. Excellent grades, second best boy in the school, and just missed being Head Boy. Teddy had made everybody who had a hand in raising him proud.

They gave essay tests to prospective new Aurors, asking them how they would handle certain situations. They were not really pass/fail tests. Some of the questions were designed to see if you were suited to become a foreign Auror for a while, and if maybe you could handle some of the more dangerous assignments. There were also performance tests, given by Aurors not from your country, Aurors who did not know the candidate.

Harry was given the results. One prospective new Auror stood out, one who could probably do any task he was given, but one who would excel in the dangerous work of the International Auror Association, one who liked the Caribbean and could probably make a major contribution to bringing down the hidden Island of Horrors in the Caribbean, if he survived. One Theodore Lupin. Teddy. Damn.

DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!

Damn.

Two years of training. No beginning Auror had ever been seriously hurt since the Battle of Hogwarts. Teddy was safe for two years.

Teddy wanted to go to the Caribbean, to help take down a family of witches that had been terrorizing the Caribbean for over 500 years. Every year 200 or so Aurors on assignment, and an average of one or two seriously hurt or killed. Sounded bad enough, but 90% were safe assignments, The 20 or so on dangerous assignments were almost always among the one or two hurt. And if you were lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to go undercover on the Caribbean island your chances of escaping unharmed, if you took the record of the last five hundred years, was exactly zero percent. Half were killed or missing and never heard from again, the other half seriously hurt.

Damn.

How was Harry going to tell Ginny, or Andromeda? No way, until Teddy was on a dangerous assignment. If. No, when. Harry knew Teddy. When.

Damn.

Harry was listening to a whole series of recordings of Lucius Malfoy talking to members of his family.

Harry asked, "How often is Astoria seeing Lucius alone?"

"At least four times a year," the bailiff said.

"Are there always these arguments?" Harry asked.

"Normally Astoria gets along well with Lucius, but he is getting more and more agitated about Narcissa's teaching. He does not want the children going to Hogwarts! He is afraid that Hogwarts will corrupt Scorpius."

"He might become friends with Albus, or even Rose," Harry said. "Does he fight with Draco?"

The bailiff said, "Draco and he fight every time they are there without anyone else present. Draco wants Scorpius to go to Hogwarts. I do not think either Draco or Lucius care what happens to Cleopatra, except that her great-grandmother has promised to get Lucius out of prison if Draco and Cleopatra marry."

Harry asked, "Does he fight with Narcissa? None of these recordings show more than a strained, polite conversation with his wife."

The bailiff said, 'I think she is beginning to intimidate him. If he begins to raise his voice she just walks out. I've heard her yell at him once, and I think she has taken lessons from Molly Weasley. I went to school with the twins, and heard plenty of Molly's Howlers to the twins."

"I never have trusted Lucius, and never will," Harry said. "Keep making these recordings, and let me know if there are any I should hear."