AN: All of it belongs to Rowling.
True to Andromeda's words, Teddy started bawling as soon as Harry landed in the visitor's room of the Manor. For a baby hardly reaching Harry's knee, Teddy sure had a strong set of lungs. Harry was sure, that Teddy's wails would be carried down all the way to the study. Sighing Harry took off his glasses and waved them in front of Teddy, who immediately stopped crying to reach out to the glinting object. Harry let Teddy throw off his glasses, this distraction gave him enough time to summon Teddy's rattler from his bag. Teddy gave a shout of glee, before grabbing his rattler and sucking it promptly. As he put on his glasses Harry grinned looking down at Teddy. It really was so damn easy to distract babies. Before he could take another step, a purple mass came flying through the door and hugged Harry's leg.
"Master Harry! You are back! I knew you would come back, all of us were afraid that you won't come back, but you did!" Grumpy hugged Harry's leg happily again before letting go. His smile grew wider as he saw Teddy who was sporting Harry's hair and eyes, looking uncannily like baby Harry.
"Who is this young one, Master Harry? Master Harry, are you coming here to live with us with mistress and young Master Potter?"
Harry blushed at the idea of a future mistress Potter and young master Potter. He could almost see Ginny chasing two black haired boys on toy broomsticks. "No Grumpy, this young one here is little Teddy Lupin, he is my godson and a very gifted wizard. He is a metamorphmagus; he has just morphed his looks to look like me."
"Oh! If you want master, we can look after young master Teddy for you. House elves come with a natural instinct to look after babies."
"No, that would be fine, Grumpy. However, if it's not much trouble to you, do you think you could go to the Burrow for a day, with some lunch and help Mrs. Weasley out with some household chores? I know you are not bound to me or anything and this is purely your choice."
Grumpy smiled "Anything for you Master Harry. I will go inform Doc and then help Mrs. Weezly. It is no trouble at all. Someone here will be able to handle my chores."
"Thank you so much Grumpy." Harry said with a smile, the house elf grinned at him before disappearing with a loud crack. Teddy, who had been silently observing Grumpy with great interest, gave a start at the crack, hitting Harry's nose with his rattler.
"Ow Teddy!" Harry said, rubbing his nose with his free hand, as Teddy laughed swaying his rattler in front of Harry's face. Talking softly to Teddy, who cooed and tried to respond with gibberish Harry led Teddy to the study. As soon as Harry entered the study he heard his dad say "Oh great, he is here! I will go call dad and Sirius." Harry turned in time to watch his dad leave his portrait; his mother and grandmother were smiling excitedly at him; that smile however faltered when they saw Teddy in Harry's arm. Dumping the baby bag on the desk, Harry walked up to the chair and turned it to face the portraits with a flick of his wand. Keeping his back to his mother and grandmother, he flicked his wand again, to summon a chair and transfigure it into a baby cot. Satisfied with his work, he finally turned around to see the horrified faces of his mother and grandmother while his father, grandfather and Sirius were eyeing Teddy with apprehension. Harry cleared his throat loudly, but before he could say anything-
"Harry James Potter! You did NOT tell us that you have a child! What did you do? Ginny is hardly of age! This is Ginny's child right? This is not some illegitimate child you had while you went into hiding. Answer me will you!" Harry watched as his grandmother walked to his parents' portrait to calm his mother down. Harry didn't know what to feel, how can his mother believe that he would have an affair with someone else when he loved Ginny with his soul and how can she ever believe that he would do something like this to Ginny. The choice of being a mother would always reside with Ginny because she had to go through the pregnancy and he wanted her to be prepared for it, and he would never abandon his child for anything. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realised that his family knew nothing about him, people his age did stupid things, look at Dumbledore himself; he was friends with Grindlewald.
Harry cleared his throat again, "This is Teddy Lupin, my Godson. He is a metamorphmagus and right now the little bugger has morphed himself to look like me." He looked at Teddy who was now drooling all over Harry's shoulder.
"Lupin? Did you just say Lupin? As in your uncle Moony, Remus Lupin's son?" Harry nodded glumly, keeping his eyes on Teddy who was now dozing off on his shoulder.
"YES!" Sirius and James shouted together, pumping their fists in the air, Teddy stirred but didn't wake up; Harry turned his back on them and put a sleeping Teddy in his cot.
"So, he finally married someone. That is great. I wish I was there to plan his wedding, it would have happened here, at the Manor." His mother said, but he didn't look back, he fished Teddy's stuffed wolf out of the bag, he didn't want to turn back and tell them that Remus Lupin was no more.
"Do we know his bride?" His father asked.
"I think I do Prongs; if little Teddy here is a metamorphmagus I know he finally gave in. Tonks had been in love with him before I died, I tried arguing with him but you know how he is or rather was. He didn't think he deserved her; more like she deserved someone young, healthy and whole." Sirius snorted.
"But who is Tonks? The only Tonks I remember was Ted Tonks, the one Andromeda married; they had a daughter- OH MY GOD!" His mother shrieked.
"What? What is it?" James demanded.
"He married Andromeda's daughter. Don't you remember James? She was a metamorphmagus; she had bubblegum pink hair when we met her."
"Are we talking about Cygnus' daughter, Andromeda, the one who married a muggleborn?" Dorea asked with interest.
"The very same aunt Dori." Sirius replied. "By the way Harry, where is that stupid wolf and little Dora? Why didn't he come with you to meet us? Afraid that we would take the mickey out of him?" Sirius laughed.
Harry didn't reply; he kept staring at a sleeping Teddy whose hair was slipping back to turquoise now that he was asleep clutching his stuffed wolf. He felt guilt rip his heart out, how will he tell them that they were dead? He didn't think he had it in him to be the bearer of bad news.
"Harry? Is everything alright?" Sirius asked again.
"Harry? Where are Remus and his wife? I want to see him again." His father said.
"Harry Potter, turn around right now and tell us where the two of them are, what happened to them? Did they get injured during the battle? Are they at Mungo's? Is that why you are looking after Teddy?"
Harry closed his eyes as he turned to face his family, he could hear his mother and grandmother gasp. His father and Sirius swore softly and his grandfather sighed before saying, "They are no more, they died didn't they?" Harry nodded, trying really hard to not break down in front of his family. Taking a few deep breaths, Harry opened his eyes slowly; Sirius was sitting on his chair, his head in his hands. His mother was sobbing in his father's shoulder, who had silent tears leaking down his eyes, his grandmother sat with her head bowed down, while his grandfather gripped the back of her chair. Harry threw himself down on his chair, staring glumly at his shoes.
"How? When? How did they die?" Sirius asked after what looked like an eternity.
Harry looked up to see that all five of them were looking at him solemnly. "I don't really know since I was fighting elsewhere, but it was during the final battle this May. I know that Remus had left Tonks and Teddy with Andromeda, but Tonks came anyway. From what Mr. Weasley says and he was the one who saw them die." Harry paused to take a deep breath, "Remus was duelling Dolohov while, Tonks was duelling Bellatrix. It was going fine, till Tonks narrowly missed the killing curse from Bellatrix, this distracted Remus, giving Dolohov time to throw the killing curse at him. Tonks saw the curse aimed at Remus and tried to protect him, giving Bellatrix a chance to throw the killing curse at Tonks. It was just a confusion of jets of lights and then Remus and Tonks were on the floor, on top of each other, dead."
Sirius swore loudly, Lily was sobbing harder, James who was holding her looked heartbroken even his grandparents looked sad. All six of them collapsed into silence, broken by Lily's sniffs.
"So, you are Teddy's legal guardian now?" His grandmother asked in an attempt to alleviate the grief engulfing them. Harry looked up and smiled at her, shaking his head. "No, Andromeda is his legal guardian but I participate as much as I can in his life. After everything that she has lost, I didn't think taking Teddy away from her would be fair, plus I have a career to build. I don't know if I am ready to be a parent." His grandmother nodded as Harry continued, "She left him with me today because she had to go-" Harry stopped, his eyes widening.
"What is it Harry?" His grandmother asked.
"She is gone to get Remus and Tonks' portraits made. Tonks left her with enough blood for two portraits, on is to reside at Andromeda's place and the other at my place. Since, I am going to come here to live with you. Tonks and Remus would be coming here to live with you too." Harry finished smiling broadly. Everyone smiled but they really would have preferred a living Tonks and Remus.
"Harry, weren't you going to tell us about your life today? We told you we want to know everything." His grandfather said grinning slightly for successfully changing the topic. Harry blushed, he didn't know if he wanted to talk about himself at all, he would much rather know everything about them.
"I know I said I would, but I know nothing about my family. Do you think you could tell me about you too?"
"We will, in due course, pretty much your whole life; we would keep on telling you little things about us. How I met your grandmother and fell in love with her, about your father's childhood, family trees. Everything that you want to know; but before that tell us about you. The people who took you in, how were they, how was your childhood. We have heard so much from Leonis about your years at Hogwarts. We would like to know about all of it."
"You are not going to give up are you?"
His grandfather grinned at him and shook his head. Harry sighed, "Okay, what do you want to know?"
"How did my sister treat you? She hates magic, I believe she had a son your age, were you friends with him at least?"
Harry looked down at his shoes uncomfortable beyond belief. Then taking a deep breath in; he told them about his life with the Dursleys; how he was cooking as soon as he reached five, how he believed that his name was "boy" and was shocked to find out his real name when he was enrolled in school; in fact how for the first few weeks he wouldn't respond to Mr. Potter because he was used to being addressed as "boy". He told them about how when he was five Dudley broke his arm and Aunt Petunia scolded him for raising their expenses because of the visit to the doctor and thus to compensate for the loss and because he had been bad enough to make Dudley mad, she locked him in his cupboard for 3 days, with one meal a day and two bathroom breaks.
"She did WHAT?" Lily growled, "How dare she do that? How dare she treat a child like that? He broke his arm; he must be in so much pain. Instead of comforting him, how could she? I wish I was alive, I would have hexed her to the next century." His father made an angry noise in his throat, too worked up to say anything, his grandmother and Sirius looked almost alike with murderous glints in their grey eyes, while his grandfather like his father was too angry to make coherent sentences.
Harry smiled to himself; how long had he wished for someone to defend him. As a child he would continually pray for someone to come take him away from Aunt Petunia, for someone to come and stop Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Dudley from hurting him. From whatever Aunt Petunia said about his parents, and before knowing the truth, in his weak moments Harry wondered if his parents ever really loved him, for if they loved him why would they leave him. Harry grinned again; it was as if, the little boy inside him now knew that he was well loved and cared for.
"What are you smiling about?" His grandfather asked curiously.
Harry shook his head, "It's a little stupid really. When I saw all of you being so angry for me; I remembered how as a kid I used to go to church on Sundays and leave notes for Santa on Christmas to send back my parents or just about anyone who could stop the Dursleys from hurting me. Aunt Petunia always said that mom and dad died in a car crash. Dad was a good for nothing drunkard and it was a drunken driving case; well that made me wonder at times when I was really feeling low that maybe you and dad never loved me, mum. It's just that now when all of you are getting so angry for me, some part of me feels relieved, that my parents loved me enough."
"Oh Harry" Lily said extending her hand to Harry, Harry got up and placed his hand over his mother's hand on the portrait. "We love you so much Harry, not just James and I; but your grandparents, Sirius and Remus too. When you were little, Sirius would turn into Padfoot and sleep next to you so that you could hold on to him, he joked he was your Teddy bear, warding away all nightmares." Harry smiled at Sirius, who smiled back though his eyes looked strained.
"Yes, and Remus would have all serious conversations with you. Like one morning, Lily and I woke up to find Remus and you in the kitchen, where Remus was having this very serious discussion with you about his unhealthy obsession with chocolate and how only you could make him sacrifice his chocolate bar; while you sucked at it; without a care in the world." James laughed as Harry grinned.
"And do you remember his first Christmas? When Prongs turned into a stag and I dressed him in a cape and a crown and he entered the kitchen riding the stag like a prince?" Sirius laughed. His parents laughed as Harry grinned, even his grandparents looked amused.
Lily sighed, "Harry we really do love you-"
"I know mum; I have known this since the day I found out that you had a choice. You had a choice to step aside because he wanted to kill me and yet you begged him for mercy and died to save me. It is the fact that you chose to die for me, that gave the shield in my blood and dad tried to hold off Voldemort, knowing that he would die, but he still did go so that you and I have a chance to run away and Sirius ran off to the Ministry the moment he heard about me being there so that he could protect me. All of you loved me enough to die for me, even when I didn't want any of you to die; I have loved someone enough to want to die for them, I know how great that love is. You don't have to convince me for it. Please remember, this was before I found out that I was a wizard or how you died-"
"What do you mean by you didn't know you were a wizard?" his grandmother demanded, eyes flashing dangerously. She really struck as a formidable figure, standing tall, with those aristocratic features and anger in her eyes.
"It means that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon believed that by punishing me severely for every bit of underage magic I exhibited and every mistake I made, they could make the magic disappear. So, I was punished without any explanation at times with weeks of being locked up in the cupboard or finishing all the chores like gardening, cooking, cleaning the house. Being beaten and bullied by Dudley on a regular basis and an occasional backhand from uncle Vernon. It was only when my Hogwarts letter arrived that they started treating me a little better, like giving me the spare bedroom, asking Dudley to back off."
Harry looked up when he heard a weird sound, all five of them were staring at him with horror, and the noise was coming from his mother who was fighting the urge to cry or snarl or do both; thus the noise was a mix between a snarl and a sob. All of them looked a little sickened. His grandmother sat down shakily on her chair as his grandfather put a hand on her shoulder; for the first time Harry appreciated the fact that he was head of the Auror department, the look on his face was deadly. His father was sitting on the chair with his hands over his face, his mother was perched on one arm of the chair, holding his father and looking thoroughly revolted, as Sirius sat on the other arm, one arm around his mother while gripping his father's shoulder with the other hand, he looked more like the Sirius that Harry had met in his third year.
"So, who wants to know about the time when I accidentally set a boa constrictor on Dudley?" Harry asked cheerfully. His mother looked amused, his dad, granddad and Sirius grinned and his grandmother shook her head, smiling slightly.
AN: Okay, I am trying to make some progress here, if you think the story is going too slow let me know. I as it plan to speed it up a little. On that note, watchout for my next Jily fic named "Love always, Lily". As always read and review please and Happy reading.
