Here, There And Everywhere
Friday, 11 December 1998
“C’mon,” Harry said, grabbing Theo’s hand and pulling him down the hall as they left potions.
“What is happening right now?”
“Birthday weekend.”
“Birthday weekend?”
“Birthday weekend,” Harry confirmed with a grin.
“Something about your smile right now is scaring me.”
“Don’t you trust me, Theodore?”
“Right now? Hardly.”
“It’ll be fine. Neville is staying with Teddy and we’ll be back in time for dinner on Sunday.”
“Term exams start next week, Harry.”
“And you could pass them right now under a heavy confundus charm. Plus, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are dedicated study days and we don’t even sit our first exam until Friday.”
“You’ve convinced me,” Theo said with a laugh as they stepped through a shortcut up to the third floor, “what are we doing?”
“That’s a surprise.”
“How am I meant to pack for a surprise?”
“I’ve already packed. You just need to change out of your uniform and then hold on tight.”
“You’re apparating us?”
“I could, but no. We’re taking a portkey.”
“Is it a legal portkey?”
“Who do you think I am?”
“I repeat, is it a legal portkey?”
“Yes,” Harry said with a huff, “got it from the Minister himself.”
“You bugged Kingsley just to get a portkey? Why didn’t you go to the transportation office?”
“Because that’s less fun.”
“You’re impossible,” Theo laughed, “but you said you could apparate us?”
“Yes.”
“That means it’s somewhere between here and Cairo.”
“Well done, Nott, you’ve narrowed it down to the entirety of continental Europe and most of North Africa.”
“Do they speak a different language?”
“Yes.”
“Do either of us speak the language?”
“I do,” Harry said, “mostly. Though I’ve gotta be honest, I don’t have much practice with the modern version.”
“Well, that narrows it down to countries that speak languages that either Salazar or Death taught you.”
“If someone had spoken that sentence to me a year ago I’d have had them committed,” Harry joked as he stepped up to the portrait hole at the base of Founder’s Tower, “once more we saw the stars.”
“What’s the reason for that password?” Theo asked, momentarily distracted from his guessing game, “I keep forgetting to ask.”
“It’s from Dante’s Inferno,” Harry responded, “from the moment they emerge from Hell and back into the world, I saw appear some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears, where we came forth, and once more saw the stars.”
“Are we going to Italy?”
“No, though it was an option.”
“What languages are you learning again?”
“I’ll tell you when the portkey lands otherwise you’re going to guess, and I want you to be surprised.”
“Fine,” Theo huffed, taking Harry’s hand in his right and holding on to the dented tea kettle Harry held out with his left.
A moment later they fell through space and reappeared nearly 3,000 miles away on a stretch of white sand along bright blue water with the sun beating down overhead. Behind them, amongst what appeared to the Muggle eye as the ruins of the ancient city of Itanos was a beautiful home.
“I’ve been learning Latin, French, Hindi, Welsh, Gaelic, and…” Harry paused gesturing at their surroundings, “Greek.”
“Where are we?” Theo asked, “like, specifically?”
“The eastern tip of Crete.”
“And whose house is that?”
“For the land? That question would take several hours and a diagram of the Greek Pantheon to answer so let’s just go with the house itself is officially a Peverell property.”
“Let me guess, you got the full lecture and diagram?”
“Right in one,” Harry responded with a wry laugh, taking Theo by the hand and pulling him up the beach, “the whole weekend is free to do whatever you’d like though I do need to pop over to Delos to harvest a couple of plants we’ll need for Neville’s parents. Blaise mentioned you’d always wanted to come to Greece.”
“He did?” Theo said with a bright smile, “he’s right. My mum read me Greek myths growing up and I loved them. Did you know Crete is the home of Zeus? And there’s a Temple of Apollo here. Can we apparate around to other islands? Or other countries? The Sanctuary of Hecate is in Western Turkey and the Temple of Poseidon is on Cape Sounion. Also, there’s a -”
“Theo,” Harry interrupted with a light laugh and a fond smile, “we can apparate around as much as you’d like. How about we go inside and make a list of the places you most want to go, and we’ll make a plan? Also, like I said, this is a Peverell property so we can come back as often as we’d like.”
Theo grinned and pressed a quick kiss to Harry’s cheek before tugging him the rest of the way to the entrance of the house. He hardly even looked around before he found a table and summoned a piece of parchment and pulled a pen he’d stolen from Harry out of his pocket.
Harry shook his head and went looking for a bedroom and then the kitchen so he could empty out his bag.
“Harry?” Theo called up the stairs, “do you have a preference between museums, archaeological sites, or magical sites?”
“Whatever will make you happy, but I’d rather be outside if possible. It’s actually warm here.”
“Perfect,” Theo said, “can we leave now?”
“Sure,” Harry responded, “you’re in charge, I’ll just follow your lead.”
Harry spent the next four hours being dragged through Knossos Palace, the Cave of Zeus, and the Temple to Apollo before he took over and dragged Theo back to the house to watch the sunset from the upper balcony.
“Thank you for this, love,” Theo said, leaning back against Harry’s chest, “and thank you for making me take a break from studying. I was already driving myself crazy and exams haven’t even started yet.”
“Theo,” Harry started before trailing off.
“What is it?” Theo asked, turning around to face Harry.
“How do you feel about Teddy?”
“What do you mean?” Theo asked, entirely confused, “I love him, you know that. He’s one of the most important things in my life.”
“Last week at Susan’s birthday dinner you made that quip about me baby trapping you and it was funny in the moment and then I just kept thinking about it and I got worried. I don’t want to make you feel like you’re stuck, and I don’t want to force you into taking responsibility for him, I just need you to tell me if it’s too much.”
“Harry, I love you and I love Teddy. I don’t feel stuck, and I don’t feel like either you or him is too much. You are everything to me and I love you with all I am, and Teddy isn’t just some entity that comes along with loving you, I love him in his own right. I want both of you in my life. Well, really, the both of you are my life, Harry.”
“You see him as yours?” Harry asked, sounding shier than he had in years.
“I do,” Theo responded, “I really do. I know we’ve only really been together since September and I know that he’s your son, not mine and I don’t want to overstep, I really don’t, but I love him far too much to only think of him as someone else’s kid.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Harry let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and pulled Theo into a tight hug, pressing his nose into the crook of Theo’s neck, “I love you, Theodore.”
“I love you, Hadrian.”
* * *
Sunday, 13 December 1998
“Happy birthday, darling,” Harry whispered, pressing light kisses across Theo’s face.
“Good morning,” Theo responded through a wide yawn, “what time is it?”
“It’s only 6 but our portkey is set to leave at 3 and I know you have a few more places you want to visit.”
“Then let’s go,” Theo said, scrambling out from under Harry.
“Could I at least get a good morning kiss before you drag us out the door?”
“Fine,” Theo grumbled, darting back over to the bed to give Harry a quick kiss, “good morning, now get up and get dressed.”
“Yes, sir,” Harry said with a laugh, “what’s on the list for today?”
“Can the portkey leave from anywhere or does it have to be here?”
“Anywhere.”
“Do you still have to go to Delos?”
“Yes,” Harry said looking at his watch, “and we should go there first because some of the plants are more potent when harvested at dawn.”
“Okay, there are several archaeological sites I want to see there so we could just spend the day and portkey out from there?”
“Sounds good,” Harry responded, looking around the room to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything when he’d re-packed the night before, “I think there’s and apparition site next to the House of Dionysus, do you want to side-along?”
“Sure,” Theo said with a shrug, “do you know where to look for the plants? Also, what are you harvesting that’s only on Delos?”
“The Curse of Delos,” Harry told him, “It’s a little yellow daisy, incredibly useful in nerve draughts but not all that prevalent in modern potions.”
“Huh,” Theo hummed, “do you know yet how much you’ll be able to heal them?”
“Not exactly, but I do know that Alice will likely make more improvement than Frank. I think we’ll be able to improve both of their minds, but the nerve damage is so extensive that it’s unlikely either of them will ever be able to walk again, even assisted. But I think any improvement will be welcomed.”
“Could you heal anyone there? Like Lockhart for example?”
“To an extent,” Harry said with a slight shrug, reaching out his hand to Theo so he could apparate them. Once they hit the ground, Harry looked around and then started leading Theo up the street. He walked quietly for a minute before he started to explain, “my healing is like any other magical healing, it only goes so far. I have specific skills or affinities, there are certain spells I can do and potions I can make that go further than the average healing and there are certain things I can do intuitively, but nothing is perfect or complete. Healing, like the injury itself, leaves scars. There are certain things that will never fully heal, and damage done to the mind is more complex than any other sort of injury. We don’t understand the intricacies of a person’s mind, so healing has to be so much more delicate. Do I think I could heal Lockhart? Maybe, but when it comes to the mind, it’s not just the healer that matters, it’s also the patient. So, the question becomes, does he want to be healed? And I can’t answer that question so I can’t tell you whether I’d be able to heal him.”
“That makes sense,” Theo said after a moment of thought, “it must be difficult to have access to so much power and knowledge and not be able to just fix everything you want to fix.”
“It’s infuriating,” Harry said with a hollow laugh, “but at least I can try. At least I can do something when I spent so long not being able to do anything.”
“I’m proud of you, you know that right?”
“I know,” Harry said, wrapping his arm around Theo’s shoulders as they walked, “that means the world to me.”
“You mean the world to me.”
“Cheesy,” Harry responded with a soft smile, turning his head to press a kiss to Theo’s temple, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Theo said, leaning into Harry’s side.
* * *
“Time to go,” Harry said, pulling the same dented tea kettle they’d used to travel on Friday out of his bag.
“Are we going back to Hogwarts?”
“Yes, it’ll be one there so we can spend some time with Teddy before taking him to Grimmauld.”
“Why’s he going to Grimmauld?”
“Because our seven-month-old isn’t coming to your birthday party that you can stop pretending you don’t know about?”
“How’d you know I knew?”
“You’re not subtle, Theo,” Harry said with a laugh, “now grab hold and let’s go.”
They reappeared a few minutes later in Harry’s living room where Neville was across the room sitting on the floor playing with Teddy.
“Hello,” he greeted, not looking up from the toys they had spread around, “how was Greece?”
“It was incredible,” Theo said with a bright smile, reaching out to steady Harry who had yet to get used to portkey travel.
“Thanks for staying with Teddy,” Harry said once he’d readjusted, “see you tonight?”
“You told him?”
“He figured it out.”
“Of course he did,” Neville said, grunting slightly as he stood up.
“You sound like an old man,” Harry commented with a laugh.
“You sound the exact same way,” Theo pointed out, “both of you have the joints of seventy-year-olds, it’s absurd.”
“Ouch,” Harry said, poking Theo lightly in the side, “we’re trying out best.”
“I’ll see you two later,” Neville said, shaking his head, “Teddy was great, he slept through the night both nights and only tried to bite me once.”
“Well done, Ted,” Harry cheered, scooping the boy off the floor and spinning him around.
“See you tonight, Neville,” Theo said, walking toward Harry and Teddy, “thanks for staying with him.”
“Any time,” Neville said with a smile as he headed out the door, “glad the trip was fun.”
“How many kids do you want?” Harry asked Theo out of nowhere.
“I have no clue,” Theo responded once he’d processed the question, “I wasn’t sure I wanted kids until I met Teddy, I think at least one more?”
“Me too,” Harry said as Teddy settled against his chest, “I never thought I’d live long enough to even consider it. But I love Teddy so much and I always wanted a sibling. And, with how much time I’ve been spending with Susan going over the plans for the orphanage, it’s been on my mind.”
“I can understand that, love,” Theo said, winding his arm around Harry’s waist and leaning his head against his shoulder, “how about talk more seriously about it in a couple of years?”
“Alright,” Harry said, leaning his head against Theo’s.
“You called him ‘our seven-month-old’ earlier,” Theo said into the silence, “are you sure?”
“Am I sure you love him and care for him like he’s your own kid? Or am I sure I’m alright with you seeing him as yours?”
“Both, I guess.”
“The answer to both is yes, Theo. You heard Remus on Samhain, don’t hold yourself back. Love us and let us love you.”
“I will,” Theo vowed, “I do.”
“Good,” Harry said, turning his head to kiss Theo’s forehead, “now, if I’m da, what are we calling you?”
“I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Liar,” Harry said with a light laugh.
“Fine,” Theo grumbled, “Regulus mentioned you’d have called him papa, I think that’d work.”
“Papa it is,” Harry whispered, pressing another kiss to Theo’s head, “do you ever think about how amazing it is that he has so much family when we hardly had any?”
“I think it’s incredible,” Theo whispered back.
They fell into silence as Teddy started to snore softly from where he’d fallen asleep in Harry’s arms.
“How do you want to spend the afternoon?” Harry asked.
“Just like this.”
“Could we at least sit down?”
“I guess,” Theo said with a sigh.
“Do you want your birthday present now or later?”
“I thought the trip was my present?”
“It was the main present,” Harry said with a soft smile, “but I got you something small as well.”
“Now, I guess.”
“Here.” Harry pulled a small package out of his back pocket as he sat down on the couch. Theo took the gift and settled down next to Harry as he unwrapped it. He opened the box to find a small gold charm about the size of a knut.
“Open it,” Harry said, gesturing to the small latch along the side.
Theo clicked the locket open to find two photos. Both had been taken with Harry’s Muggle camera so they didn’t move, but Theo could remember the scenes clearly all the same. On the left was a picture of Teddy and Theo from a few weeks prior; Teddy had fallen asleep on Theo’s chest while he was reading, and Theo was looking down at him like he’d hung the moon. The picture on the right was of Harry, Theo, and Teddy after the first quidditch game that year. Harry was still in his robes, Theo was wearing Harry’s Slytherin Quidditch hoodie and Teddy was in his little green Potter jersey. He was holding his broom in one hand and had the other arm wrapped around Theo who was holding Teddy.
“I didn’t get a chain because I didn’t think you’d want to wear two chains and I didn’t think you’d want to take the lily charm off so you can just add it to that necklace,” Harry explained.
“It’s perfect, love,” Theo said with a soft smile, blinking away the tears that had sprung up in the corners of his eyes as he unclipped the necklace he’d been wearing since the day Harry gave it to him and slipped the locket next to the lily.
“Happy birthday, darling.”