Bathwater

The Visitor

With a jolt, Harry Potter woke up from a nightmare drowning in green light. Before, when he was a child, he often saw mismatched pieces of things he was not sure were memories or figments of his overactive imagination, but now—now Harry knew every flash in his mind was real. Every bit of it had been collected in the journey to take down Voldemort. Every bit of it had cost Harry a piece of his soul, too. Even if everyone looked him in the eye, grabbed his hand, and reassured him none of it was his fault, he knew that it was. 

He rolled onto his back, trying to feed his lungs mouthfuls of air. For the last couple of days at the Burrow, he had been dreaming of Fred. In every nightmare, Harry chased him down, urging him to come back with him, urging him to return to his family, but Fred would laugh and wave, saying things like I can see them from here, Harry or we'll meet again, Harry. All of us. This time, however, the person that appeared behind the green light was Remus Lupin. 

Harry was standing just at the edge of the Forbidden Forest again, the Resurrection Stone in his hand. He knew his parents and Sirius were around him, but his emerald eyes locked in on Remus. Harry felt the guilt stirring in his chest, gaining momentum, becoming hurricanes of destruction when he said, Remus, your son...

The war had created orphans again. 

Harry felt the same hurricanes threatening to form, but the door of Percy's old room opened, distracting him. He was reaching for his glasses to identify the blur of red hair that had come in to wake him when his cheeks were slapped by two tiny hands. 

"Someone's here to wake up their godfather," said Ginny when she came in to focus, smiling down as a young Teddy Lupin bounced on Harry's chest, smacking him on the face again with a burst of loud, happy laughter. 

For a second, Harry could not feel anything but the guilt, the grief, and the rage the war had left him with, but one look into Teddy's silver eyes reminded him of all the good things he had still. He put his arms around the baby, pulling him up and pressing a whiskered kiss on his chubby left cheek. 

"Come to help Gin and me pick out our wedding things, Ted?"

Teddy laughed again, reaching for Harry's glasses.

"Andromeda just got here," Ginny said, still smiling as she looked at the scene. Bliss flooded her chest; of course, she had had daydreams about this, about Harry and a baby, back when she was young and naive, a hopeless romantic who had yet known of war and Dark Lords, but this wave of joy wasn't for herself, but for Harry. 

She knew about his nightmares, even if he did not share all of them with her. She knew that the war had taken so much from everyone, but not quite like it had done for Harry. She knew she would love him always, but there were pieces of himself that needed to heal in a way she could not help. 

It started with little Teddy.

"I've not slept in, have I?" asked Harry as he stood, the boy now on his hip. "Your mum's going to kill me. Again."

As Ginny kissed him and Harry smiled against her lips, Teddy tried to force them apart with his hands. They laughed at his reaction, knowing well enough Ron might have had a little influence there. 

"Yeah, Mum's still quite cross with us," said Ginny, as they started making their way out of the bedroom, "about letting her know about our wedding date literally days before it's meant to happen." 

Harry knew by the smirk on her face that she was not at all remorseful for the tornado Mrs. Weasley was going to cause throughout the Burrow from here to New Year's Day. 

When they reached the bottom landing, Teddy attempting to answer all the questions Ginny asked him about his morning, Harry saw Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Tonks having a cup of tea, both talking loudly about the lack of consideration Harry and Ginny showed by announcing their wedding so late.