Chapter 21 - We Are Family (I got all my sisters with me)
Sirius slumped down in a seat beside his little brother, across from Snape who didn't even look up to scowl.
Regulus glanced over at him, "You okay?"
"James and Lily are awake, they're okay."
"I asked about you."
Sirius sighed.
"Lily wrote that it was weird, but she didn't say exactly what was weird. Did Potter?" Snape asked, finally looking up from his defiled potion's book.
"No," Sirius said. "He just wrote that he was okay. That he and Lily had some type of dream attack together. But he didn't say what the dream was about. And he hasn't responded to my return owl yet."
Snape scowled at him, "If Lupin went home, why didn't you?"
Sirius exchanged a look with Regulus, who shook his head, telling his older housemate, "Mind your own business, Severus. It doesn't go unnoticed that you don't return home for the holidays either."
Snape looked down at his hands, Sirius thought that he would shut up, but oddly, and most un-Slytherin of him, he said, "My mum married a muggle. My father… he's awful. I guess a part of me always assumed that pure-bloods were better."
"Nah," Sirius said with far more cheer than he felt, "People are terrible, magic and muggle alike."
Snape studied his face, "You pretend to be as spoiled as Potter, but really, your just as scared and lost as the rest of us. With Potter, you can pretend to be cool, but deep down, you're just another Slytherin."
Sirius could have been angry and exploded at Snivellus, instead he plopped his elbow on the table, his chin in his palm and said, "I'm cool because I'm one of the top students of the century in transfiguration, one of the top students in the school, and I hardly have to try. I'm cool because I'm a beater on the Quidditch team that demolishes every other team. And that isn't to mention my good looks, my charming personality, and regrettably, my family name. I don't need James to be cool. While you…"
Sirius let his gaze go up and down the other student, "Are a potions nerd, hiding in the corner to study the Dark Arts, which half the purebloods families are homeschooled in, your clothes are second-hand, your hygiene is questionable, your personality is- on a good day- sour. And your only true friend is a girl from the house your house fundamentally hates with the added bonus of her to be a muggleborn. And as far as true friends go, having a major crush on them when she obviously doesn't return those feelings doesn't typically en-"
"Shut up," Snape growled.
"And nothing against Lily, but she's a bit odd herself. You're her only true friend, she doesn't exactly click with anyone in our house. Which means she is partly your friend because she enjoys, for some inexplicable reason, likes your company, and partly, because you are the best she's got."
Snape's face was red, "I said, shut it."
"And you, brother," Regulus said with a bit bite in his voice, "Are so afraid to admit you're a Black in any way that you attack any Slytherin, with or without reason, just so no one would willingly acknowledge that you are one of us. Because while you say you're one of the best in Transfiguration, you're also one of the best in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and we both know, that's because you're one of the best in the Dark Arts. Only Bella and Andromeda could compete with you."
Sirius glowered at his little brother as Snape said, "Potter doesn't know that, does he? He wouldn't be friends with you if he knew you practised the Dark Arts."
Sirius said in a voice so low that no one, and hardly even, Snape and Regulus could hear, "My parents didn't give me a choice," and he turned to look his brother in the eye, "or do you want to be Mama's whipping boy instead?"
Regulus looked down at his desk, "I want to make them proud."
"Why?" Sirius asked, truly not understanding, "You know what they are, why on Earth would you care if they are proud of you or not?"
"Because they are our parents."
"No, they are people who clinically decided to have heirs, they aren't-"
"Because of Bella, Andromeda, and Cissa!" Regulus exclaimed, "They are our family too. We are the Blacks, we-"
"Andromeda was cast out for marrying Ted, you know that."
"She's in the wedding."
"Excuse me?"
"Andromeda is Bella's maid of honour."
"Excuse me?"
"Sirius, you know Bella is marrying the Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt, right?"
"Yes- but…"
"No but's, Uncle Cygnus got Andromeda, and her daughter, Nymphadora, back into the family circle. Grandfather isn't pleased with her, but she's been forgiven."
"And Ted's still breathing?"
"Ted's still breathing."
"How?"
Snape piped in then, "I heard a rumour they did something to Malfoy."
Regulus smiled, "Maybe."
"What did they do?"
He shrugged, "Malfoys line is considered over, and Lucius has been proclaimed dead."
Snape sat up, "Wait, how long has it been?"
"Our Grandfather, Pollux Black filed a complaint of a violation of a marriage contract. Narcissa owns the Malfoy Vaults now, as Lucius's dad is in prison for life."
"But when?" Snape pressed, "And is he dead?"
Regulus shrugged again, "Sometime this week, I think."
"So let me get this straight," Sirius said, "Bella is going through with a marriage with an Auror, Andromeda is back in the family, Narcissa, the youngest female in our line, is now independently wealthy?"
"Nymphadora is technically the youngest now," Regulus said.
"Nymphadora, the half-blood," Sirius stated.
Nod.
He was quiet for a long moment before Sirius leaned back and his seat, saying, "I didn't think our family was capable of change."
Narcissa wasn't sure how happiness had fallen into her lap so swiftly. She was back with both her sisters and she was married to a man who she probably should have had more time with before she decided that she loved him.
But she did love him.
Watching Harry, sitting on the floor playing a game with both her niece Nymphadora and his son Teddy in his lap, her heart was fit to bursting.
Andromeda wrapped an arm around her, whispering so only she could hear, "You did good, little sister."
"Sometimes it is hard to believe he's real."
"No!" Nym shouted, "you went last time."
Teddy's hair flashed yellow, "Did not!"
"I went last, it is Nym's turn," Harry said easily, there was no unease in him. Narcissa had the distinct feeling that he would speak in that same easing voice if the two little ones were trying to set the house on fire.
This was definitely a good thing, Teddy was a pretty well behaved child, but seeing as Nym was half Black, and any future kids Harry and she had would also be decedents of the Black line.
Yes, peacefulness in the midst of chaos was certainly a desirable quality.
"I felt that way about Ted," Andromeda said, they were standing together in the kitchen having just finished clearing the table. The others were in the living room, Kingsley and Ted watching on as Harry, Bella, Teddy, and Nym played a board game. Bella had despised the fact that it was a muggle game and had wasted little time in making the game less so.
And she was pretty sure it was Harry who was countering Bella's charm work to be less potentially harmful. Judging by the ready look in Kingsley's body, not all the charms she was using were safe.
Harry though, Harry just grinned at Bella as one of his pieces ate one of hers.
Nym and Teddy broke out into uncontrollable laughter.
"I know Bella and you both thought I was betraying you, abandoning you, but I wanted a family of my own. Cissa, I wanted this."
This.
And this, this life, this family was beautiful, it was something Narcissa hadn't known she could have wished for.
She hadn't wanted to be the good girl, to have children and keep her family, keep her family's traditions in place.
But she hadn't truly wished for happiness, she had wished for the appearance of it.
And this, was more than appearances.
That Andromeda could have dreamt of this life, made her jealous, that Andromeda had fought for this dream to become reality, made her proud.
Love, life, and family were worth fighting for.
Happiness was worth fighting for.
Andromeda bumped her with her hip, and together they joined them.
Andromeda sat beside her husband and Narcissa sat beside hers, taking Nym into her arms so she could sit pressed to Harry's side.
His arm coming around her felt safe and right, as did his laugh when Teddy's piece turned into an elephant and began rampaging across the board, Teddy brought his arm up and began to mime having an elephants trunk to egg on the piece.
At which point Bella managed to send the rest of the pieces loose, so there was a mini stampede of animals clattering back and forth across the living room coffee table. Nymphadora began laughing so hard tears spilled out of her eyes as she tried to breathe through helpless cackles.
Bella rubbed her hands together as Harry did something that made the loose strands of Narcissa's hair wave in the corner of her vision, as a small forest and grasslands grew out of the table, completely hiding the boardgame and whatever the original game had been was thrown to the wind as the two children began bossing around their aunt, uncle and father around to get the animal pieces to wage animal war on one another.
It should have been horrifying but with both, Nymphadora and Teddy exposed to muggle 'science TV' they were very explicit about which animals were capable of what.
Harry was slipping in more educational facts than Narcissa was even aware existed about mundane animals, as Bella was simply delighting in the mayhem.
And if that didn't sum up Narcissa's life, she didn't know what did.
Lily and James weren't allowed to return to Hogwarts for another week.
And when they did the following Monday evening they were waiting for their Dear Professor Peverell after his last class.
Seeing them standing in his door after the last of the previous class ran, yes, ran out of the room.
A part of Lily really wanted to ask about the spiders disappearing into the stones, another part of her just wanted reasurement that they wouldn't have to go through the same in their class.
But seeing as it was Professor Peverell, just asking the question would likely bring it into being.
The question she did ask as the Professor waved his hand at the shield around Teddy was; "Are you our son?"
The professor with her eyes and James's hair and features smiled at her softly, "Possibly."
She didn't have to look to know that James was gaping at him too.
Though James got a hold of himself first, "Just like that, you're just going to tell us?"
Rell sighed, their son, sat back on his desk, "With the insanity of my own child to go on… no matter how inane the truth was, I would have wished to hear it rather than have been so 'protected' by the adults around me. Protected in such a way that had I simply been let in on more of the secrets around me, I wouldn't have made so many mistakes, perhaps, wouldn't have lost as many people as I did."
"How is this possible?" Lily asked, "How can we be your parents? You're older than us."
"Time travel."
"No," James said, "We thought of that, but Lily's sister's fiancé said he had grown up with you."
"Unless," Lily mused, "your little kid self time travelled?"
"Is your name really Henry Peverell?" James asked.
"My birth name," he said, "was Harry James Potter. The name I was given when I came to this world was Henry Black Peverell. From what I can discern, both are true names. Though, I still prefer Harry. Rell is simply what the kids at the daycare called me."
"But we exist in this world," Lily argued, "how can we have memories of an adulthood we have never lived?"
Harry sighed, running his hand over his long hair, "I do not know. In my world, timeline, whatever you would like to call it, the goblins brought me here. I know it involved pixie dust, but I don't know how or for what purpose. I don't know how it is that I have two separate memories of two lives that both mirror each other and yet were extremely different, and more so than just the decade the took place. I am the same age now as when I time travelled, but Henry Peverell and Teddy Peverell existed before the time travel."
"Is Teddy our grandson?" Lily asked, looking at the little boy who was building a tower out of blocks, seemingly ignoring them.
"I don't know. In my original world, Teddy was my godson, here he is genetically my son. What exactly do you two remember?"
"Torture," James said, "Some guy with red eyes was using the Unforgivables on us and you- our son who wasn't two years old was hiding in a kitchen cupboard."
"Is that all?"
James's face darkened, "What do you mean all?"
"I mean has there been any other memories, because I can't find anything on the Peverell's aside from myself and the fact that you- they were murdered. I can find endless evidence of Henry Peverell and Teddy Peverell in this timeline but little to nothing on my parents. In my world, Lily and James Potter died quickly, it was the killing curse, not the torture one. I was in my crib, and Voldemort, Tom Riddle, the man with the red eyes tried the killing curse on me, Tom destroyed himself."
"Wait," James said, "you survived the killing curse?"
Harry pointed at the scar on his forehead.
"Sev told me that a lightning bolt is the wand motion of that curse."
James looked at her, rolling his eyes, "Of course, Snape would tell you that. Why do you hang out with that loser?"
She put her hands on her hips, "Focus Potter, we have bigger problems at the moment."
"To answer your question, Lily, I don't know how this is possible, any of it. But I would urge you both to come to me if you have any more visions."
"How do you not know what's happening?" James asked.
"I took Teddy to St. Mungo's last week."
"Is he okay?" Lily asked immediately.
He smiled at her, "Yes, he will be fine, but the healer did a blood test on him. And apparently, Teddy has four parents."
"That isn't possible," James breathed.
Harry opened his palms, "The only answer I have is that our magic has no bounds, whatever happened, whatever set this into motion, it is bigger than all of us."
"How are the goblins involved?" Lily asked.
"I'm not sure it is just the goblins," Harry said, "but we are all going to be late for dinner."
"But-"
"Ms. Evans, I understand better than most what living through one of those visions, memories, is like. I'm looking into it, and if I can tell you anything definitely, then I will tell you. But we could theorize all night and be no closer to any answers."
"But, you're our son, we- we-"
"We are family," Harry stated, "and if you wish me to speak to your parents about what has happened, or what we think has happened. I will, if you wish to keep this a secret, then I will keep your confidences."
"Why are you so blasé about this?" James asked, "This could affect you terribly if this got out."
"With all the chaos I've survived, I assure you, Mr. Potter, I'm well versed in the ordering of disorder."
"Is it weird for you that we are younger than you? Is it weird to be teaching us?" he asked.
"I didn't know you in either of my lives, so it was not terribly hard to get used to."
"But you still see us as family," Lily said.
He nodded, "Of course. In this life and the other, you both risked life and sanity for me. Family is family. I grew up with none, I not going to quibble about how it takes form now."
"I want you to tell my parents," Lily said, "Maybe not right away. But maybe when… if more happens or, or…"
"I want you to talk to mine, too," James added, "Just not-"
"Right away," Harry finished for them. "But for now, let's go eat." With a motion of his hand, a shimmering shield fell around Teddy and Teddy stood, eyes still glued on his tower as he went to his father.
"Are you really married to Narcissa Black?" James asked, having seen it in the papers but not really believing that his best friends' cousin was now his daughter-in-law.
There was just too much weird happening to take in.
"Yes, Narcissa is now my wife," he said it with a soft smile, a smile that grew as he said, "The future, Mr. Potter, holds many surprises."
And if that wasn't the understatement of the century, James couldn't have thought of a better one.