Operation Homeward (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Five

Sorry, I'm an hour late!

It's short, but I'll see you again next Thursday! I think it's got enough attention to start scheduling it for Thursdays.

Wack-A-Harry will be updated on Mondays.

Please comment and thanks for reading!

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"New look, Teddy Bear?" teased James as he took in Teddy's appearance.

"You could have chosen literally any hairstyle you wanted, and you went with Potter hair?" asked Albus incredulously.

With burning cheeks, Teddy quickly willed his hair to turn back to its usual turquoise; his eyes brown instead of green.

James smirked slightly, an old flicker of mischief lighting up his hazel eyes. "It was a strange choice, but not unwise; the ladies love it."

Teddy felt himself blush even more. "I hadn't really noticed," he said sheepishly.

James's smile faded, dropping the subject completely—Teddy was more than than happy to do the same. Lily, however, walked straight over to Teddy to hug him tightly.

"How are you holding up, Lily-Lu?" he asked as she pulled away.

Lily smiled softly up at him. "Better. And you will be, too, once you hear what we have to say."

Teddy raised a brow at this.

Whatever prompted all three Potter children to be in the same room together without an explosive argument—on the anniversary of the father's death, no less—must be very important indeed.

"Oh, don't mind me," piped up Victoire from behind them, "I'm only your favorite cousin."

Lily, ever the sweetest of the Potters, skipped around Teddy to embrace Victoire.

James, ever the most facetious (although today, his attitude seemed to be less forced and more light than usual), only said, "Our favorite cousin? That's a little unfair, Torie ... Our cousin count rivals Ravenclaw's population of know-it-alls."

Victoire's responding smile held an impressive mixture of sugar and poison. "And Gringott's successful robbery rates are higher than your I.Q."

To his credit, James did not seem deterred. Instead, his smile widened. Teddy could only watch in awe as he replied, "It's good to see you, Cousin Goldilocks."

Albus snickered quietly from the corner of the room, and Teddy himself couldn't keep the smile from his face as Victoire's sky blue eyes flickered with irritation and a bit of cousinly affection. "Do not call me Goldilocks. Honestly, you'd think you were twelve instead of seventeen."

"Twelve?" James said dramatically, feigning offense. "No, that's far too pubescent for me ... I was thinking more along the lines of eight or nine."

"So," said Teddy in an attempt to change the subject, "what brings you three here?"

"Uh ...." Lily glanced nervously at Victoire, who sighed and muttered something about wedding plans before kissing Teddy on the cheek and disapparating.

Teddy looked over at Lily, James, and Albus with curiosity as they slumped down on the leather couch. All three, even James, looked anxious as Teddy sat down on the chair across from them. "So ... what is it you wanted to to talk to me about?"

He watched as they all exchanged glances. Then Lily straightened up and took a deep breath. "Teddy ... We need you to promise you won't tell anyone about this. We'd only get shut down."

That's it—they'd done something. Or were planning something, at least. Teddy battled with himself from a moment. One side of him was telling him to throw responsibility to the wind and be apart of whatever grand scheme they were planning, but a second, more logical part of him contradicted the first quite strongly. There were about fifty things that could happen if he did promise to keep .... whatever this was a secret, and there were more negative consequences on that list than positive.

But ...

Teddy examined his surrogate siblings carefully. He knew them well enough to know that they'd do it with or without him, so ... what the hell? It'd be better than letting them off alone. "Alright," he said, "I promise."

Lily started to fidget nervously with her hands. "This might seem a little crazy, but .... wethinkourdadmightbealive."

The words came out in a rush, leaving Teddy clueless. "Come again?"

She let out a breath. "We think Dad might be alive."

But Teddy still misheard her. He must have, because if she said what he thought she said ...

Teddy frowned, starting to feel a little sick. "Not funny, you guys. Not funny at all. He was your dad—I'd have thought you cared more about his memory than this."

James's eyes narrowed at him. "Yeah, he was—or is, I don't know anymore—our dad! Why would we have any reason to lie about this? Why would we suddenly stop missing him for a joke when we've been missing him for the past five years of our childhoods?"

His words struck Teddy like a knife. James, who used to love joking about everything, was now scolding him for not taking something seriously. But he was right—he should've known they wouldn't lie about something like this.

"Look, Ted," said Albus cautiously, glancing between his brother and Teddy, "James and I were a little hesitant to believe this as well, but hear us out. That's all we're asking."

Still feeling sick and his mind whirling with the very thought that Harry could be alive, Teddy nodded dazedly.

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I know, a little shitty and short, but I'll be updating again on May 14th. Please comment!