Quidditch League Season 10
Round 2, All Hail the King
Team: Wigtown Wanderers
Position: Chaser 3
Title: 08/04/97
Prompt: 11/22/63
Additional Prompts: 2. Forgiveness; 11. Trying to change the future by stopping one event; 15. Starting a club
Summary: No matter how pure the intentions, this club he had started with Malfoy was a breeding ground for flashbacks.
Warnings: Canon war, PTSD, Discussion of canon deaths
Topics: Established Draco-Harry friendship, Healer Harry, Healer Draco, Professor Neville, Professor Hermione
Author's Note: This story is told through alternating flashbacks and present events. Thanks to everyone on my team who beta-d and helped me learn a few new things!
"He was simply out of practice, Harry. Both him and Dora."
"But he left a child! I never wanted my godson to grow up an orphan like I did. He left his own son!" he screamed. Sobbing, he added, "He left me."
Andromeda placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "I lost a daughter too, love. And I can't imagine the pain you've been through over the years. But Remus would be proud of you. And Teddy may be an orphan now, but you're his godfather. You can make things better for him than they were for you. You can break that cycle."
There was a knock against the frame of the classroom door where Harry had hidden with his godson's grandmother.
oOo
"Potter!" Harry was brought back to the present by the sound of Draco Malfoy rapping his clipboard against the desk.
"What?" he grumbled. This project he had taken up with his partner was taking a toll on his emotional health. He believed full-heartedly in the project. But the flashbacks were certainly becoming more frequent.
The blond raised an eyebrow. "This club is just as much your brainchild as it is mine. I'd appreciate your mental presence in this meeting, considering it's our first."
Malfoy hadn't been rude… but still, Harry wasn't appreciative of being put on the spot like this. He glared at the blond. "Might be my project as well, but it's your rehabilitative project. If it doesn't work out, it won't be me sitting in a cell in Azkaban."
Draco's eyes narrowed. Hermione cleared her throat. "Harry, what have you invited us all here for? Mal—Healer Malfoy's welcome was quite well spoken, but we'd love to hear from you now." Sitting around the conference table were Hermione and Ron, Luna, Neville, Blaise Zabini, both Greengrass sisters, Hannah Abbott, Ginny, and at least fifteen other wizards and witches from various departments of St. Mungo's and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Harry tried to shake the memories from his mind to focus. "Yes. My apologies. Healer Malfoy and I are trying to start an organization within the hospital strictly for children. And we need members." He swept his gaze around the conference tables. "We're calling it: Wixen for the Protection of Children and Teens, or WPCT. As many of you know, there is a continuing lack of support for Muggle-born and magical born children in life-altering circumstances. We hope to alleviate some of those issues by building a team of healers, aurors, and educators to provide support, as well as setting up fundraisers to build financial resources that will be utilized to carry out our mission."
"For children like us," Neville commented. "It's brilliant."
oOo
"I was able to get the class C Time-Turner," Neville whispered, passing the object as discreetly as possible to Harry. "Each turn will take us back a month rather than a year. But unlike a standard Time-Turner, you only have an hour per turn before you'll be transported back. Go back three months, you have three hours. And this is far more dangerous."
"Is it? Perhaps for you. On the list of dangerous situations I've been in, I don't think this would even make the top ten," Harry muttered, slipping the chain around his neck and spreading it open for Neville. "Well? Are you coming?"
Neville grasped the chain but didn't move to wrap it around himself just yet. "Harry. I know your plan is to get me to convince past you to take Lupin along. But you need to prepare yourself mentally for this plan to fail."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, Neville. I've heard it all from Hermione. You coming or not?"
Neville closed his eyes and took a deep breath before his gaze met Harry's. He ducked under the chain, letting it fall on the back of his neck, so it now encompassed the two of them. "Back to hell we go then."
Harry spun the moon at the center of the Time-Turner twelve times and held his breath. The world rushed around him, faster and faster, until it stopped. It took him a moment to get his bearings about him, but when he did, Neville was nowhere to be seen.
He cursed under his breath. "This wasn't supposed to happen!" He glanced around. He had not moved from his position in the Black Manor kitchen. But Neville had vanished. He felt a burning in his pocket. "Ouch. What the…?" Then he remembered. The mirror. Neville had the other piece of the two-way communicator.
As soon as his hands grasped the piece of glass, it cooled. "It didn't work the way we hoped it would, mate," Neville reported through the glass. "I'm back home; I guess that's where I was twelve months ago. You'll have to do this on your own." This, he hadn't anticipated. And how to know if he was even in the right place.
He listened intently. "But let's go upstairs to the kitchens." That'd be Lupin. But that meant… he had to move NOW.
He just barely managed to move out the back door into the hallway before he, his two friends, and his mentor entered the room. With Neville in a different place, there was no plan. He couldn't bust in on himself. Remus would not take him seriously if he appeared to have an instant change of heart after such a disastrous disagreement. Not to mention, peeking through the door, Harry could see he wasn't even dressed the right way. And trying to follow him was out of the question. He'd be killed by Death Eaters for certain. Despite all of his planning, there was nothing he could do.
From the other side of the kitchen door, he heard the continuing of conversation and the clink of butterbeer glasses as they were passed around the table.
oOo
The clink of glass on glass echoed through the conference room as Ron set his mug of butterbeer down a little too hard. "So, what do you need from us, mate?"
"Your talents. Your expertise. Your ideas. What we are doing with this club is setting up children for success. Healer Malfoy and I know the medical side of things; physical development, the immune system, nutrition, and so on. But there is more to raising children in a healthy environment than just medical care. We need education." He glanced toward Hermione and Neville. "Law representatives, social work of sorts, experts who can integrate Muggle-born children into a world of magic."
Malfoy picked up where Harry left off. "And if you don't fall into any of those categories, we can use support in other ways. We'll need to fund the program. Donating a percentage of proceeds on merchandise sales, selling art, hosting shows, volunteering your time. Whatever you're able to give." At this, Harry's gaze swept from Ron and George, Luna, and his other friends.
Ron spoke up again. "And why should we trust you, Malfoy? Who's to say that you won't turn your back on the club as soon as you've proven yourself reformed to the DLE?" Leave it to Ron to have a snarky remark. Though to be fair, he would have once shared those same thoughts. But having studied with Malfoy during Healer training, and now working together, Harry had grown a lot of respect for his colleague.
"Because he has a reason to see that children are protected just as much as I have. This project is in large part his idea."
"Just because a child has parents doesn't mean the child is safe. We're here to support and protect all children, Mr. Weasley." Malfoy's comment came as an unexpected shock to everyone but Harry. The room suddenly felt heavy.
Harry cleared his throat. "We've brought membership applications for anyone who wishes to join us today. Our membership fee is 5 galleons, but any donations will help. And if you'd like to join as a specialty member and hold an administrative position, that'd be great as well. There's only so much the two of us can do on our own, obviously."
"And please make a note of your availability so we can find a monthly meeting time that works for the majority of our members."
The occupants of the meeting each turned their attention to the stack of paper making its way around the table, grabbing quills from wherever they could procure them. "Harry? What did you say the name of your club is? I thought it was something different than what is printed here." Luna's question caught him off guard.
oOo
"Hi Harry. Neville told me about your trip. I'm sorry I didn't turn out the way you hoped it would," Luna's airy voice cut through Harry's self-loathing.
He'd wanted to be alone, but if anyone had to find him, he was glad it was Luna. With Luna, he could just be. "After the wedding, Lupin visited Ron, Hermione and I at Grimmauld Place. He asked to join our mission. But when I learned he was only offering to abandon his wife and unborn child… I don't know. I lost my temper. Both of my parents—his friends—had given their life to protect me. And I know why they did it but for years of my life, I've felt so abandoned by the adults around me. I looked up to Remus, but in that moment, all I saw was someone abandoning their child."
Luna lowered herself onto the ground next to him. "You regret losing your temper? Especially since it was one of the last interactions you had with him."
It was a question. And yet it wasn't. "I regret… I regret turning him away. Had I let him come with me… Andromeda could have taken care of Tonks. Lupin would have been fighting, rather than sitting idle. And maybe. Maybe he'd still be here."
Luna placed a hand on Harry's. "But maybe he wouldn't be. Have you considered, maybe Professor Lupin made you his son's godfather for that reason? He trusted you. Not because you're the boy-who-lived. He trusted you because you're Harry, the boy who reminded him what was important." Harry mulled this over. "Besides, now he's gone on to be with his friends again. How lovely that must be for him."
"But he was the last connection I had to my parents."
"And now you have a godson that connects you to all of them. And you're going to be a wonderful parent, Harry. Just as you're a wonderful friend."
After another moment of sitting in silence, she stood. "Well. I'll leave you to your thoughts. See you later, Harry." He was left in the ambience of the forest, feeling at least a little lighter than he had before. He watched the blonde as she skipped barefoot back up to the castle grounds where reconstruction was continuing.
oOo
The blond sat in the chair across from him. The meeting had adjourned and everyone who had attended had gone their separate ways, leaving Harry and Malfoy alone in the conference room. Malfoy had collected the applications into a new stack of papers, which he slid across the table to Harry. The page on top was the legal documentation of their newly founded club, complete with vault information at Gringotts, and the signatures of approval from the Wizengamot. But the approved name was not the one that he and Malfoy had agreed on.
"LACY. It stands for the Lupin Association for Children and Youth."
Harry looked up at his rival-turned-friend. "You changed the name."
"I realize how important he was to you. And I know his loss was particularly difficult."
"Thank you. Sincerely."
Malfoy shrugged. Neither of them spoke for a moment, until, "You defended me against your best friend."
"I didn't have parents. You had parents, but they only cared if you were like them. Like you said, we want to support all children. Not just the ones considered worthy."
"I don't deserve your forgiveness, Potter."
Loss is hard. Forgiveness is hard. But in the end, Harry supposed, they were manageable. The world would continue turning. And with each new day, came new inspiration to change their world, to make it better. Without darkness, there couldn't be light.
He stood from the desk, glancing at his watch. He had a patient to see in the next ten minutes. "Too bad. You already have it."