June 8th
"Hey Theo?"
"Hmm?"
"What do you think you're going to name the baby?"
Theo looked up from the book he had been reading, his expression was scrunched up at Harry's question.
"I have no idea," he said slowly. "We haven't really talked about it much yet. Why?"
"Just curious," Harry murmured. He ignored Theo's bewildered stare as he turned back to the parchment he had been working on.
Dear Hermione and Theo's Daughter,
You don't know me, I don't know if we'll even get to meet, but I'm your dad's brother, Harry. I thought you should know that your parents are brilliant; smart and sensible and steady.
So you're a bit of a surprise, obviously.
But you couldn't ask for better parents if you tried. Your dad is a good bloke, a good man, and he's going to be a terrific father to you. And if he isn't, you tell your Aunt Susan and she'll kick his arse. Your mum's a bit of a pain, she thinks she knows everything, and usually she does, but she doesn't know how to have fun really. You'll have to teach her since I won't be able to anymore. Uncle Blaise can help you, he only knows how to have fun.
I hope we get to meet and I wish I could be there for you, but since that's not possible, instead I hope your parents give you a good name and a good life.
I'm leaving you my house, Invisibility Way. Now, even if your parents die, even if everyone lets you down and leaves you alone, you'll at least always have a home.
Love,
Your godfather,
Uncle Harry
Harry calmly marked off 'Theo's baby' from his list of letters he needed to write and folded the letter up and stuck it in a sealed envelope with 'Theo's Daughter' neatly labeled on the front.
One letter down, over a dozen more to go.
Not for the first time, Harry kicked himself a little for befriending so many people.
He really hated handwriting things.
Harry put the envelope and his list away and checked the time.
"You ready to go?" he asked Theo.
Theo checked his watch as well and grimaced a little. "This is going to be a bloody nightmare," he sighed.
Harry gave Theo his best attempt at a bracing smile, but it was more of a pained grimace. "At least we'll be tortured together?" he offered.
"Shopping for robes with Draco is certainly going to feel worse than crucio," Theo sighed. "I didn't expect you to be so… so meticulous about a wedding, Harry."
Harry shrugged and swapped his well-loved Weasley jumper for his more light weight long-sleeved shirt. "You only get one, don't you?" he asked with a forced lightness to his tone.
Harry certainly would only get one.
Fred might have another one in the future, but Harry kind of hoped he wouldn't because he'd be pissed as hell.
And really Fred only gets the memory to look back on one day soon when Harry's gone.
Might as well make it perfect.
"Take this."
Harry stopped at the foot of the staircase and looked from the flask in Sev's hand up to his serious face.
"You want me to get drunk?" Harry asked. "I thought you said I shouldn't?"
Technically, he only said that Harry shouldn't get drunk off his liquor, because it was expensive. But it still seemed like an odd thing to ask of Harry just to go robe shopping. Surely he didn't think it would be that bad.
"It is not alcohol, idiot," Sev said, his upper lip only twitching a very small amount. "It is Polyjuice. If you insist on going to Diagon Alley with your merry band of misfits, I insist on additional protections for your safety."
Harry scoffed at the flask. "I'm not scared," he sneered. "What do you think's going to happen, huh? Timmy's going to be getting an ice cream and try to kiss me?"
Theo edged away from Harry just the slightest amount.
"I can't take Polyjuice and try robes on," Harry told Sev. "The sizes would be all fucked up, wouldn't they?"
"Have you ever considered listening to a perfectly sound and well-thought out plan before jumping to conclusions?" Sev asked calmly.
"No."
Draco, who was leaning against the fireplace, waiting on the others, hid a snicker behind an unconvincing cough.
Sev sighed and shook his head at Harry. "You will be going as Nymphadora, Nymphadora will be going as you. Thus, your robes will not be oddly sized as she can accurately mimic your proportions, you insolent brat."
"Well, you… insolent bastard… that's disgusting," Harry said, actually pushing Sev's proffered flask away from him. "I don't wanna look like your bloody girlfriend, do I?"
"Take the damn potion," Sev snapped, losing patience for the argument.
"No," Harry said stubbornly.
"Harry," Sev growled.
"Severusss," Harry mimicked him.
The two of them were at a standstill at the foot of the steps as they glowered at one another.
Harry wasn't going to spend one of his last trips to Diagon Alley with his friends, possibly even his last, disguised as fuckin Tonks. He had no idea why Sev was even worried about his 'safety'. Harry would be dead by next summer, so what if it happened a little sooner? He thought Sev would be pleased, really. If Harry got murdered by one of Timmy's followers, then Sev wouldn't have to do it.
But, judging by the flaring of Sev's nostrils and the thinness of his lips, he was not pleased by that idea at all.
"I'm ready!"
Harry turned his head just enough to see a duplicate Harry Potter step out of the library. It was weird, and probably just as arrogant as Sev always accused him of being, but seeing himself strut over to the group gave Harry a peculiar thought.
He was actually rather good looking.
Tonks had mimicked Harry from his carefully styled messy hairdo down to the summer tan on his skin that gave him a light dusting of freckles on his nose and made his green eyes look more vibrant.
Harry would never date himself, considering that he was an arse and as broken on the inside as the scar down his cheek made him look on the outside, but he could kind of see why Fred wanted to marry him.
Sev turned and inspected Tonks, nodding at her precision. "Excellent," he said smoothly. "A slight change in plans, Nymphadora. You will both being going as Harry Potter."
Draco and Theo, who had managed to slip away from the brewing argument, burst into laughter by the fireplace and didn't even attempt to hide it this time.
Harry blinked at Sev. "What the fuck?" he asked. "That's bloody stupid, isn't it? Nobody's going to believe that we're both Harry Potter!"
"Precisely," Sev said calmly now. "It will be confusing and will add an uncertain element to any who wishes to cause you harm. Unless you would prefer that Black, Lupin, and myself all accompany you?"
"Nope," Harry said quickly. They'd already had this argument, Harry wasn't keen to rehash it. It was nothing against Sev, but Charlie was already going, and now Tonks, Harry didn't need more 'babysitters' to rush along what was meant to be a fun outing for his friends; something they could smile and laugh about at Harry's funeral anyway.
Harry sidestepped Sev and looked around the sitting room with a scowl. "Where's Blaise? And Ron and Neville? And fuckin Susan, Mione, and Lue?"
Did nobody understand that this was supposed to be a day for the gang to spend together?!
Why were Draco and Theo the only ones ready to go?
"Susan and Ron are already at the shop," Draco said. "Blaise and Hermione are at Moon Lodge and should be back any minute. And Luna and Neville are…"
"Here!" Luna cried. She ran in the room, pulling Neville by the hand. She dropped Neville's hand and threw her thin, and dirt smeared, arms around Harry in a brief, but tight, hug. "We were planting a memory garden," she told Harry after letting go of him just as he began to twitch from the contact. "Do we need to change?"
Harry looked over Luna's shorts and tshirt, that he was pretty sure belonged to Draco. He glanced at her loose blonde hair, slightly tangled where there were a few stray leaves in it, and the streaks of mud she had on her arms and cheek. He glanced at Neville and saw a similar look, though Harry didn't think Neville was wearing Draco's shirt since his tshirt was maroon with a lion on the front.
"You look fine," Harry assured her. He scowled at Tonks over his shoulder, "Much better than some people," he added sourly.
"When will he admit that he loveeees having me around?" Tonks asked Sev with a cheery grin that Harry had never seen on his own face before.
"Possibly never, Harry is a brat," Sev said without any bite to his tone. "Harry, would you like me to send along any of your straggling misfits to join you?"
"That'd be brill, thanks Sev," Harry nodded gratefully at him.
Sev was a good bloke, really. Harry irritated him just a few minutes ago and he was still willing to do him a favor for no reason.
Harry didn't think he'd miss anyone as much as he would Sev.
Harry cleared his mind quickly, refusing to let fog fill it back up as it liked to do when he didn't pay attention. He tossed in a handful of floo powder and stepped in the green flames. "George Weasley's flat! Password: Angelina's arse."
As much as Harry loved Fred, his twin brother was an idiot.
"Harrikins!" Harry was pulled almost immediately into a vigorous handshake with the idiot in question the moment he stepped from the floo. "How's my favorite brother?"
"Sick of mentioning your girlfriend's arse every time I come over," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. He yanked his hand free from George and nodded at Lee Jordan, who was sitting at the little table in the kitchen. "Where's everyone else?"
As soon as Harry spoke, Draco stepped out of the floo hand-in-hand with Luna, his cheeks a little pink. "You are insufferable," he told George.
"I like your password," Luna said sweetly as she looked around the messy and sparsely decorated flat. "It's very original and quite unlikely to be guessed."
"It's gross," Harry said flatly.
"It's funny," George grinned. "Angie loves it, really."
Harry sighed and sent a pointed look at his wristwatch. "Where are the others?"
"Downstairs," George said, waving his hand toward the door. "Fred's probably giving away a bunch of our new products to Susan so she'll be nicer to him."
Harry grinned and immediately made his way to the door. Susan and Fred's faux-feud was one of Harry's favorite things. Susan acted like she hated Fred, but she always encouraged him to pursue Harry. And Fred acted real putout by Susan's constant presence in Harry's life, but he'd slept on the sofa, willingly, more than once so Harry and Susan could have their bed.
Harry headed downstairs as he heard Neville and Theo flooing in. He called to them all over his shoulder, "As soon as Mione and Blaise get here, come downstairs! We're going to be late!"
Someone, Theo probably, called Harry a bossy prat, but Harry didn't want to waste his day hanging out in George's flat.
Harry roamed around the shop, looking for his friends, when he was suddenly waylaid by a little kid with an arm full of what looked like Pygmy Puffs.
"You're Harry Potter!" the kid breathed as he stared up at Harry with gleeful sparkles in his eyes.
Harry glanced around a bit desperately, either for one of his friends or the kids' parents; seeing none, he sighed. "Ronald Weasley, actually."
The boy's brow furrowed for a minute before it smoothed away and he laughed. "Nuh uh, you're Harry Potter! I saw your picture in the paper!"
"Congrats," Harry muttered, backing away a little. "Have fun shopping, kid…" Harry spun on his heel and stalked away to the back room as quickly as he could.
He tucked his trembling hands in his pockets and adopted a passive look of boredom as he moved, uncertain why the kid had shaken him so much. It wasn't until Harry parted the thick purple curtain that separated the defensive magic section of the store that it dawned on him.
The kid had a little gap between his front teeth, just like Trent.
Like Trent had.
"Darlin?"
Harry hadn't realized he was still standing in the doorway, his hands in his pockets and his eyes faraway as he pictured Trent's earnest face. Harry shook his head and cleared his mind.
"Hey," he greeted Fred, Susan, and Ron. "You lot ready to go?"
Fred frowned at him for a moment and slowly reached out to poke at his wrist, a silent question that Harry answered by moving his hand from his pocket to Fred's hand.
"Want to see our new merchandise first?" Fred asked him with a playful grin and mischievous eyes. "I think you'll like it."
Harry sighed and checked the time again. "Sure," he agreed. He was losing time that he was planning on spending with all of his friends, but Fred looked pretty excited and even Susan was smirking in a very self-satisfied way.
Fred led Harry over to a shelf that had a curtain hanging in front of it. "Ta da!" Fred cried, yanking the curtain down dramatically.
Harry raised his brows at the small black guns that lined the shelf. "You're allowed to sell guns?" he asked. "Brill."
"No," Fred laughed. He plucked one off the shelf and began showing Harry its features. "It shoots spells, love. Here, look…" Fred grabbed a box of what Harry incorrectly assumed was ammunition and spilled a few 'bullets' in his hand. Harry held them up and squinted at it. They were golden bullets, but they glimmered and glittered in a way that normal bullets didn't.
"What do they do?" Harry asked.
To answer him, Fred snagged one of the bullets and loaded it in the gun.
Before Harry could even stop him, Fred cocked it and shot the bullet at Susan.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Harry screamed. Instinctively, he snatched the gun from Fred's hand and it took him the most agonizing second of his life to realize that Susan was laughing and not bleeding anywhere.
"Tickling hex," Fred said with a weak smile and a bit hesitant tone. "I told you it's spells in the bullets, they don't even break skin."
Harry scowled at him and quickly moved to Susan's side.
Fred was a lunatic, clearly.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
Susan nodded between her bursts of laughter. "End- end- it!" she gasped. "Can't- breathe."
Harry glared at Fred again before briefly touching Susan's arm and ending the spell on her.
"We agreed that I was going to shoot you," Susan said hotly the moment the spell lifted. "You bloody prat."
"Oops," Fred grinned. "I forgot, Suzie-Q, that happens when someone is… how'd you word it? Oh," Fred nodded, "dumber than a pile of hippogriff dung."
Despite himself, Harry snorted with Ron while he ignored the playful bickering between Fred and Susan and instead inspected the gun in his hand.
"What all spells are in those bullets?" Harry asked, impressed with the creative idea of combining a muggle weapon with magical spells as ammo. "Can you add anything? Like—"
"You have your own box of highly illegal, yet not technically outlawed, bullets," Fred cut in. He snatched a box off the top of the shelf, an easy feat for his taller frame that would have made Harry resort to a summoning charm. "Here, love. Red are crucio, green are AK's."
"Abracadabra," Harry said quietly. He was pleased that his hand didn't shake when he caught the box. The problem was that the gun looked like a regular handgun. It felt like a regular handgun.
And Harry was beginning to think that handguns were unlucky.
Sure, he killed Bellatrix with one, a real blip of joy in his life. But he'd been framed and sent to Azkaban because of a handgun and Trent died after firing one.
Suddenly though, as Harry studied it, the black gun in his hand shimmered and turned a shade of pink so bright that it hurt his eyes to look directly at it. Instead, he looked from the gun to Fred and saw him wink.
"If you prefer rainbow, my dearest fiancé, I can do that instead."
Harry tried to keep up his stern look of disapproval (his 'Professor Snape' face), but it softened a little as he realized that Fred just instinctively knew that the gun made Harry a little uncomfortable.
If a chance to shoot some death eaters came up, Harry would take it. Otherwise, he didn't much care for it.
"If you ever, even as a joke, shoot Susan again, I will kill you," Harry told him seriously with a genuine narrowing of his eyes. "It's not funny."
"You lecturing Fred on gun safety is a bit funny though," Hermione said as she breezed in the back room followed by the rest of Harry's friends. Harry spared her a quick and cursory glance, mostly checking to see that his goddaughter was still growing, as evident by the bulge in her stomach that her robe didn't hide.
"You'd make yourself a widow so soon?" Fred joked in response to Harry's threat.
That also wasn't funny.
Harry wasn't the one who would be widowed soon.
Instead of answering, Harry looked over his friends heads until he saw the one he wanted to see. Harry squished between them until he reached Blaise's side.
"Alright there?" he asked as calmly as he could.
He hadn't seen Blaise much at all since the night he'd been attacked. He saw him a couple of times when he popped over to Moon Lodge, but only briefly. Blaise, it seemed, had been avoiding him.
"Fine." Blaise smiled, his teeth still a perfect white contrast to his dark skin, but now his smile stretched the scars on the side of his face- the silver lines that cut down his 'perfect jawline' (Susan's words, not Harry's) and went down the side of his neck and the top of his chest.
Harry hoped the Contessa felt like werewolf hunting when she arrived before the next alliance meeting, because he was going to peel the skin of Fenrir Greyback and he promised to wait for her so they could do it together.
Slowly.
"You lot ready?" George poked his head in and Harry could see
Harry counted everyone up, aside from Lee and Charlie, who he assumed were out in the shop somewhere, they were all there.
No. Wait.
"Where's Tonks?" he asked slowly.
George laughed and held the curtain open. Harry and the others turned and Harry groaned to see that 'Harry Potter' was standing in the middle of the shop, surrounded by eager witches and wizards, smiling and signing autographs.
"Well, at least I won't mix you two up," Fred said as he wrapped an arm around Harry's waist. "Ready to go get dress robes, Mister Weasley?"
Harry grinned and stuffed the pink gun and box of cursed bullets in his bag before sliding his hand in Fred's back pocket. "Ready as I'll ever be, Mister Potter."
Fred laughed again as he led the group through the store, drawing a lot of odd looks as there were two Harry Potter's present, but he didn't argue the point.
Harry didn't want to change his name to Weasley. Harry Potter was an important name that had gotten him far in the past when he used it. There were tons of Weasleys and Fred already said he didn't mind being a Potter.
Plus, Harry already paid for his tombstone, it'd be a pain to change it now.
"You all look quite dashing," Tonks said in a haughty tone as Harry and the others got their robes pinned. "Suave and positively dashing."
"You're the worst Harry Potter imitator I've ever seen," Harry said with a short laugh. He held his arms out and tried to not clench his jaw when the witch pinning them accidentally poked his shoulder.
Hermione was sitting in a chair by the door and she rubbed her stomach while laughing at Tonks' antics. "She fooled Fred for a while," she said.
Luna and Susan, who already had dresses purchased by Narcissa Malfoy, were sitting on the floor and quietly giggling at Harry, Fred, Theo, Charlie, Lee, George, Ron, Draco, and Blaise as they got their robes fitted. Harry had tried talking Neville into getting a matching set with them, but Neville stubbornly insisted on wearing a pair he'd already purchased that matched Luna's dress.
Instead, Neville propped himself against the wall by the door with his wand in hand and a wary look in his eyes.
Harry had to admit that if it weren't for Tonks' presence, none of them would have done much laughing at all. Diagon Alley had changed drastically in the last few months. It wasn't the whimsical and magical place it had once been- a bright welcoming when Harry finally rejoined the wizarding world. Now Diagon Alley was bleak; there were many shops boarded up, replaced with stalls offering all manners of defensive trinkets that Tonks had been glowering at so harshly that Harry figured they were shams.
Harry's hand had twitched, wanting to blow up the stalls that were trying to get rich off people's fear, but Theo prevented it with a reminder that they were trying to not be noticed.
A hard thing to accomplish when Diagon Alley was mostly empty of shoppers and Harry's group was so damn large that they drew heads even without anyone noticing Harry Potter in the middle of the group.
The whole thing had put a gloomy scenery to the memory Harry hoped to leave his friends with.
At least Tonks was willing to act like a posh little prat as she pranced around in her Harry disguise and made stupid comments. And Fred looked like his chest was going to burst with pride every time he caught Harry's eye.
Harry tested the theory that he could make Fred actually explode by smirking the next time he caught his eye and followed it with a playful wink.
"Did you really fall for Tonks' act?" Harry asked Fred after his chest didn't explode, but he did start smiling like mad at Harry's wink.
"Love, she walked up, smirked at me, smelled like tobacco, and had on your lucky trainers," Fred said deadpan. "It wasn't until she called Remus by his name that I knew it wasn't you."
Harry considered that for a moment.
It would do no good to be predictable.
"I call him Remus?" he said uncertainly.
"No you don't," Blaise said, his usual smooth drawl gone for a bit of a raspy tone. "You call him 'wolf' or 'Lupin'."
Harry hummed. "Well, I'll just call him Remus from now on, won't I?" He gave Fred a steely look, "And you better be able to still tell the diff—"
BOOM!
Several things happened in what seemed to be a split second:
The force of an explosion outside the shop knocked Harry and few others off the footstools they had been standing on.
A few of the witches in the shop screamed.
Theo ran to Hermione so quickly that Harry swore he apparated to her side before he grabbed her wrist and immediately apparated away.
And Harry went ahead and grabbed the ridiculous bright pink gun that Fred made him.
Harry was the first one to the door with Tonks, still as Harry, by his side and he was the first one to assess what was going on.
Mayhem.
And screaming.
And fire.
Harry's perfect day with his friends was ruined— but at least it seemed like he'd get to kill someone for ruining it.
"Brill."
It wasn't even the actual Harry who said it, it was Tonks who gave Harry a sharp smile that suited his stolen face very well.
"Let's go kill some death eaters," she said simply, drawing the same conclusion about the source of it all as Harry had.
Harry hesitated long enough to look over his shoulder and make eye contact with Draco.
Take her home or I'll kill you slowly and painfully, he thought very harshly in Draco's direction.
Draco's face paled just a shade, but he stuck his chin out with determination and grabbed Luna's hand and nodded.
Pleased that Luna and Hermione were out of the way, and knowing that he'd never keep Susan from a fight, Harry quickly threw himself in to the alley.
There were shopkeepers running, arms full of their merchandise, mothers with tiny children on their hips popping out of existence before their eyes, and smoke obscuring anything helpful.
Harry's body was tense as he looked for the source of the explosion and grimaced when he saw that it was further down the alley- close to Fred's shop.
Fred's shop that had been full of little kids filling bags with toys and fuckin Pygmy Puffs.
"RUN!" Harry yelled to the others. He waved his arm largely over his head, the neon pink gun serving as a beacon for the others to follow. "THE SHOP!"
"NO!" Fred yelled and raced to Harry's side, easily catching up with his longer legs. "There's kids…"
"I know." Harry gave him a grim look and the two of them put a burst of speed in their pace and quickly seemed to outstrip the others.
Even running at full speed, Harry did take a couple chances to blast some of the stalls filled with trash novelty items. He figured it was his presence that triggered the attack, no need to lie low now.
The closer they got, the more certain Harry was that it had been his presence that triggered it. Because the death eaters, and Harry was extremely confident that's who did it based on the Dark Mark hovering in the sky, had clearly tried to strike Harry where it would hurt the worst with maximum casualties.
Fred groaned quietly at the sight of his bright and cheerful shop engulfed in flames, but he didn't dwell on it. He tossed up a quick shield and ran straight through the door, followed by George, Lee, and Neville.
"We're evacuating!" Fred yelled at Harry.
Harry pointed at Charlie, Ron, and Blaise, "Put the fire out!" he yelled. It wasn't fiendfye, Harry was positive, so it could be extinguished with water.
Harry, Tonks, Susan, and Theo, who must have apparated back at some point during the run there, split off in pairs to look for whoever did it. Susan easily gravitated to Harry's side with her wand drawn and Tonks took off with Theo.
Harry circled the building and kept his magic drawn up in one hand and his new gun in the other. The two of them ducked around corners, moving swiftly and silently on practiced feet, but the block directly surrounding the building was empty.
So was the next one.
"FUCKING COWARDS!" Susan screamed, just as enraged by their absence as Harry was.
Harry ran smack into himself in front of the shop. "Nothing," Harry said. He used his already drawn up magic to release as much water over the shop as he could.
Harry's spell, in addition to the other's, put out the last of the flames and caused great billows of smoke to begin pouring out where there had once been orange flames.
Tonks and Susan helped the others finish pulling out the unlucky shoppers who had been trapped in the burning building while Harry and Theo moved to the line of injured people on the pathway.
It twisted Harry's stomach to see the kid with the gap toothed smile crying quietly in an order man's lap with the side of his face obviously burnt.
"Hey," Harry went straight to the kid and forced away the fog that tried to convince him that it was Trent. "I'm going to touch your face and try to heal you, alright?" he murmured as gently as he could.
Admittedly, it wasn't very gentle, but Harry didn't have a lot of patience or practice with kids so young.
The boy didn't seem to hear him though, but the grey-haired man holding him nodded at Harry. Harry softly put his hand on the side of the boys face, driving a fresh yelp and round of thick and childish tears.
Heal the skin.
Harry waited until the burnt skin began shimmering away, leaving only pink skin in its place, before he got to his feet. "Are you hurt?" he asked the man.
The man seemed beyond words, but he shook his head so Harry moved along to the next burnt victim he could see.
It was annoying that a good duel, a duel that could make Harry's heart race and his senses all sharpen, could last hours and it would only feel like minutes. But the thirty or so minutes that Harry moved around healing those he could heal seemed to last for hours. Days, maybe.
It probably had something to do with the ashen and ashy faces of his friends when they gently deposited a new body to what Tonks referred to as the 'black triage' area.
Apparently 'black triage' meant: they can't be healed.
Or it had everything to do with the sobs and the tears and the way people wanted to touch Harry as he healed them.
One woman clung to Harry after he healed her daughters broken leg. "Thank you," she sobbed. "Merlin and Morgana blessed you."
Actually, they cursed him, but Harry merely patted her back and gently detached her.
Tonks was at Harry's side the instant that a series of pops indicated the arrival of either the Order of the Phoenix or Aurors- neither of which Harry's group wanted to have any interaction with.
"Fred," Harry said abruptly after he watched most of his friends pop away back to his house. "Where's Fred?"
"There." Tonks pointed to where Fred stood in front of the shop with Charlie, George, and Lee by his side and his older brother Bill talking to him quietly. "The Order is here, and aurors, let Fred give them a statement and he'll meet us at home, okay?"
Harry waited until Fred caught his eye and it hurt to read the emotion in his eyes and see his heartbreak so clearly.
'Come home?' Harry mouthed at him, unsure if Fred would now that Harry's presence in Diagon Alley cost him his dream.
Fred glanced at George and then at the building. Harry thought it was a silent question for 'Can George come since his house was just caught on fire and probably not easily repairable or even safe anymore?', or something similar anyway, and Harry nodded.
Fred gave him a weak grin then turned back to Bill and Harry popped home with Tonks.
Sev was on his feet the instant that Harry and Tonks appeared. Her feet had no more than touched the floor before Tonks shifted back to her own tall, thin, and pink-haired appearance.
"What happened?" Sev asked, looking them over carefully. They were dirty, but uninjured.
Harry counted his friends, double checking that they'd all made it back, and gave them all the same look that Sev gave him.
Theo was a bit pale as he held Hermione, probably terrified that his girlfriend and daughter had been there when the explosion happened, but nobody looked hurt at all.
"They broke Bill's wards," Harry said flatly. "They blew up the shop, cast the dark mark, then fuckin fled before we could retaliate."
"Theodore said there were casualties?" Sev aimed his question at Tonks, who nodded.
"Two kids, an older man, and… and I think a student Hogwarts age," Tonks said slowly. She looked toward Ron and Neville who had been helping carry people out, but they both shook their heads.
"There was too much going on, I don't know," Ron admitted.
"Suppose we'll find out in the paper tomorrow," Neville said morosely as he ran an anxious hand through his thick blonde hair.
"Any idea what prompted the attack?" Sev asked with an almost imperceptible glance towards Harry.
Sev knew what prompted it just as he knew why it was Fred's shop that had been targeted instead of the bank or the Leaky Cauldron.
"Me," Harry spat, anger boiling in him. "They're fuckin toying with me, trying to piss me off."
Someone muttered that it was like playing with fire, but Harry didn't acknowledge them. Sev also began quietly interrogating Tonks on 'how long would it have taken to send him a message?' but Harry also ignored them. Instead, he told them all to call for him the second Fred got home and he stormed up the stairs.
Harry warded his door, not wanting bothered at the moment, and summoned a piece of parchment. He was too angry to write the letter he wanted to leave to Fred, but he settled for writing out a simple statement stamped with his Potter ring in a small puddle of wax.
I, Harry James Potter-Snape-Black, leave complete control over my Potter Vault (Vault #687) to Frederick Fabian Weasley. I leave this in hopes that he uses some of the money within it to build the biggest, best, and brightest joke shop in the country.
Simple, to the point, and exactly what Harry wanted for Fred when he wasn't there with him anymore. As far as he knew, Fred would get co-ownership of his vault when they were married, but this way there would be no question about it.
Harry didn't get to leave his friends with the happy memory, he'd be damned if he didn't leave Fred with a chance to rebuild his dream too.
Harry didn't return to the sitting room until a little jack rabbit appeared in his room and told him that Fred and the other Weasley brothers were back.
"When'd you learn to cast a patronus?" Harry asked Luna, genuinely impressed.
"While you were away," she said airily as she traced a nonsensical pattern on Susan's golden arm. "I thought it would be handy if I needed to break you out."
Harry laughed, but judging from the serious expression's on his friends' faces, he suddenly wondered who all could cast a patronus now. He didn't get a chance to ask though, because Fred caught him in a tight hug and began whispering in his ear.
"It wasn't your fault," he said too softly to be overheard. "I know you're thinking it was, but it wasn't."
"Liar," Harry whispered back. "Don't fuckin lie, we know why they did it."
"Love." Fred kept Harry wrapped up close to him, but he pulled back just enough to give him a weak smile. "The poster in the window said 'YOU-NO-POO: the constipation sensation that's sweeping the nation'. We sold edible dark marks. We knew we were a target."
"That's why we got a helluva insurance policy," George said. His smile was strained, forced really, but at least he wasn't slinging hexes at Harry like Harry might have done if he were in George's position. "Suppose I'll just kip in your room, Harrikins?"
"You suppose wrong," Theo said with a scowl. "I'm not sharing a room with you."
"Actually…" Harry tilted his head side-to-side as he considered it for a minute. "We should probably shuffle rooms anyway. Not your guys'," he quickly assured Sev, Tonks, Narcissa, and Lucius who were standing off to the side of the packed room, "but Theo and Mione need a room they can share with the baby, yeah?"
"Wait!" Draco jumped to his feet and shared a quick smile with Luna. "Before we go moving stuff, Luna and I have a surprise!"
Bit of an odd time for surprises, but Harry waited with as much patience as he could while Draco ran to the dining room and then rushed back and stood in the middle of the sitting room with Luna; dramatically wanting the spotlight apparently.
Draco and Luna, who Harry thought might be annoyed at missing out on what wound up being more healing than fighting (all healing, no fighting, really), looked so smug that Harry couldn't figure out what their smirks were meant to mean.
"Ahem." Draco cleared his throat and deposited the stack of fabric on the table in the center of the room. "Luna had a thought, Harry, she said 'you know what would make Harry love his wedding even more?'"
Harry cocked his head curiously at them as he squinted at the fabric.
"Stolen dress robes," Luna said with a smile bright enough to light up the whole room. "We snatched all the robes up before we came back."
Harry looked from the fabric that was apparently nine sets of expensive dress robes half-sized up to Luna.
"Lue, you're a genius," Harry grinned. "Stolen dress robes really will make the whole thing perfect, won't it?"
Luna beamed all the harder at Harry's praise and Draco's cheeks turned a little pink with his own pleasure that they'd obviously made the right decision.
"I don't know about perfect, you are marrying Fred," he said haughtily, "but at least now it'll be a little illegal- just the sort of thing to make it absolutely a Harry Potter event."
***
A couple of mornings later, Harry was sitting at the dining table, chewing on the nib of a quill as he tried to compose his next letter.
What were you meant to say?
What could he put in a letter to sum up gratitude for years of friendship and loyalty?
Harry still hadn't written a single word when Sev walked in and took a seat across from him.
"What are you plotting?"
"Nothing," Harry said defensively. He grabbed the blank parchment and shoved it in the box he had began storing his belongings and letters in.
Sev didn't look like he believed him. "You look as if you are plotting something."
"I'm not," Harry said truthfully. "I was writing a letter and now I'm eating breakfast with you, aren't I?"
As soon as Harry said that, breakfast popped up on the table.
"Your elf is still avoiding you then?" Sev asked as he poured them both a cup of coffee.
Harry shrugged, "Guess so." He hadn't seen Mavis since the night Trent died, just as he'd told Mavis he wanted to happen. He did hear some odd little sniffles on occasion, but he hadn't actually seen Mavis to know for sure if they were from him or not.
He planned on talking to him soon, but every time he thought about talking with Mavis, his chest tightened and he thought about Trent and he wound up getting pissed and storming away from his little elf quarters.
He knew, rationally, that it wasn't necessarily Mavis' fault that Trent died, no more than it was Sapphire's, but it didn't stop Harry from picturing his little god brother every time he even thought about Mavis.
Harry cleared his throat, "Meeting this weekend," he reminded Sev. "Suppose you'll make this one, yeah?"
Sev snorted and slid Harry his sugar filled cup of coffee. "I miss one meeting and suddenly my loyalty is brought into question."
"Nah." Harry gave him a small grin. "Just your patience mostly. The Contessa is coming in for this one and Viktor couldn't get a portkey because the Ministry isn't authorizing any international travel for anyone, so—"
Sev cut in with a scornful sound. "For anyone without a dark mark, I presume."
"Probably," Harry agreed. "But Viktor's close enough to Italy to fly to the Contessa's and portkey in with her. So it'll be a full house this weekend."
"How was Juliana able to procure a portkey?" Sev asked.
Harry smirked and snagged a few pastries off a platter. "She just does whatever she wants, doesn't she? It's so brill."
"Indeed," Sev snorted. He pulled a familiar potion from his pocket and slid it across the table to Harry. "It is the tenth," he reminded him.
Harry slid it right back. "I'm not taking it."
Sev looked surprised for a split-second before he looked irritated. "You are," he said, pushing it back. "We have never fought about it before, will we do so now?"
"We definitely won't fight about it," Harry grinned and slid it back. "Because I'm not taking it."
"Why?"
Harry shrugged and toyed with the food on his plate. "What's the point?" he asked quietly. He kept his eyes on his plate while he spoke. "I'm gonna be gone in a year, Sev. I just- I just don't wanna spend my last year dependent on a potion. Plus," Harry's lips quirked up at the edges a little, "I'd like a few days of flying before I go, ya know?"
"Harry." Sev waited until Harry glanced up at him. His face was as passive and obscure as usual, but his eyes were tight with what Harry assumed was a pretty specific kind of pain.
Probably pain that comes from taking over guardianship of a little brat of a kid, teaching him how to function almost normally in society, working your arse off to try and make sure he had a good future ahead of him, also working your arse off to make the kid see that he could have a future, getting attached, then knowing you had to kill him.
A damn specific kind of pain, really.
"You do not want to spend this year swinging from high's to low's," Sev said softly. "You will have withdrawals and depression and your thinking will be irrational. I would prefer it if you took the potion."
Harry didn't actually think he'd have depression because he was planning on taking some of his stolen Felix Felicis when he started drowning.
"Yeah," Harry nodded and averted his eyes, "I know you'd prefer it, but will we fight about it if I don't take it?" He glanced quickly back at Sev and hoped he could see the truth of Harry's words in his eyes. "Because I'd really rather not waste any of our time fighting."
Sev cleared his throat and plucked the potion off the table. "We will not," he said evenly. "Inform me when you begin to feel ill."
Harry let out a breath and nodded in agreement. He really thought they'd have to fight a lot more about it than they did.
It was a little quiet, but thankfully Sevvie flew through the window and broke up the silence with a cheery hoot when he dropped the paper beside Harry's plate.
"Good job, Sevvie," Harry murmured. He reached up and stroked his owl's feathers gently. "Here," he handed him a strip of bacon, "eat up."
Sev didnt laugh, but it sounded like he tried. "Harry, you will give your owl heart disease if you continue to feed him bacon every morning."
"Tell Sev he's just jealous," Harry told Sevvie. "He's jealous because you're a sweet little owl and he's a grumpy old man, isn't he, buddy?"
Sevvie hooted in an agreeable way and Harry smirked at Sev.
Sev rolled his eyes and snatched the paper from Harry while Harry was still fawning over Sevvie.
"You've made the front page," Sev said. "You and your idiotic misfits have been painted as heroes, 'Boy-Who-Healed' they are calling you." He turned the paper so Harry could see a picture of himself healing one of the injured people on the pathway and Harry rolled his eyes.
"I liked being called the Boy-Who-Killed," Harry quipped, thinking of something Draco told him the paper called him back in February when he was dying over and over again in Azkaban. "The Boy-Who-Healed sounds…" Harry trailed off as he reached for another pastry and saw there there was a whole plate of mini treacle tarts shaped like lopsided hearts.
Mavis always made those when he knew Harry was having a hard time.
"Harry?"
Harry didn't realize how long he'd been staring at the tarts with his hand outstretched until Sev snapped him back to reality. "Sorry," he said. He cleared his throat and tried to pretend he wasn't getting emotional over fucking treacle tarts. "What'd you say, Sev?"
"Harry…" Sev's face looked soft in a way it didn't usually and it made Harry's insides squirm and his skin itch. "I- let's leave," he said abruptly. "Before the wedding, before your friends go back to school and are not within the walls of this safe house. We can take the vacation we discussed before."
Harry smiled a little, if only for Sev's benefit. "To our island where I'll fly and you'll brew?" he said.
He could almost imagine it.
Just a quiet little shack, big enough for just the two of them.
Harry could walk around the beach with the sun on his bare torso because it would be private and secluded and he didn't care if Sev saw his scars or not.
Sev would wear black shirts and trousers still, and Harry would laugh at him for it.
Harry would fly above the ocean, skim his toes in the water and Sev would pretend not to notice while he brewed with exotic island ingredients, but Harry would know he'd keep checking on him.
They'd come back and Harry would have a dark tan while Sev would have a sunburn.
But they would come back to some, if not all, of Harry's people dead because he left them unprotected.
"I can't," Harry said, truly regretfully. "We said after Timmy's dead, and he's still alive."
Sev nodded, but Harry saw in his eyes the same thing they both knew in their hearts:
There wouldn't be an island vacation for them after Timmy died.
Harry had to die first.
Dear Mavis,
I, Harry James Potter, leave you, Mavis (why do you not have a last name? Do you want to be Potter? I'm calling you Mavis Potter from now on), my first ever wand- the holly wand with the phoenix tail core in the hopes that when Susan becomes Minister of Magic that you'll be able to use it freely.
Thank you for everything you've done for me Mavis.
You've always been a good friend and I'm sorry I didn't always see it.
I'm going to miss your baking, you always knew just the treat I needed.
More than that though, I'm going to miss you.
You're the best and I'll never regret you manipulating me into being my elf and my friend.
Love always,
Harry.