Day Twenty
“Oh, Dizzy is most excited, Master Harry, sir,” Dizzy squeaks.
“Me too,” Harry laughs.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?” Molly asks, a worried expression written on her face.
“Mum,” Ron rolls his eyes. “Bill and Percy are already coming,”
“Oh, alright. But you promise we can come to see it eventually?”
“Of course,” Harry laughs.
“Good luck, you three,” Arthur grins, wrapping his arm around Molly.
“Ready?” Bill asks.
“Ready,”
He takes Dizzy’s hand and braces himself for that uncomfortable ripping sensation. There’s a flash and a crack, and suddenly, he’s standing somewhere new.
“I’ll never get used to that,” he mutters as Ron appears with Bill. Another pop and a crack brings Dizzy with Percy and Hermione.
“Where is it?” Hermione frowns, looking around. He realizes she’s right. There’s not a house in sight—just the long bend of the river and trees as far as the eye can see.
“We’re outside the property line,” Bill explains. “But if you step forward-” he demonstrates.
Harry takes a few steps forward and is blown away by the sight before him. In the middle of a picture-perfect frame of trees, a long winding drive leads to a large circular courtyard with a fountain in the middle. The house beyond is a large expanse of intricate stone, topped with an aged copper roof. Harry had dreaded it would look like Malfoy Manor, cold and stately, but instead, it’s tastefully overgrown, looking magical and full of promise.
“Oh, Harry, it’s beautiful,” Hermione sighs happily.
“I- I have no words,” he laughs. He eagerly steps forward, leading them up the drive towards the front door. The teal blue door has a gold lion knocker and a small plate above it.
“Semper Ad Meliora? What does that mean?” Ron asks.
Percy squints at it for a moment before answering, “It means ‘Always Towards Better Things.’,”
Tears already threaten to form as he traces his fingers over the doorknob. He suddenly feels very nervous.
“Well, go on!” Ron encourages.
“Okay, okay!”
He pushes open the door, expecting to see a dusty, abandoned portal to the past. Instead, he’s met with a definitely aged but beautiful home. He grins wildly to see the dark woods and deep colors, not a speck of white in the whole place.
“Does Master Harry like it?” Dizzy asks nervously.
“Dizzy, it looks amazing!” he exclaims, stepping further in. “You kept this up all by yourself?”
The little elf shrugs. “Was not too hard for Dizzy,”
“We swept the whole place,” Bill explains. “There wasn’t a single thing wrong with it, not like I expected there to be once I realized all the work Dizzy was doing,”
“Well,” Harry grins. “You’re the expert, Dizzy. What shall we see first?”
“Dizzy knows!” she says excitedly, grabbing not Harry’s but Hermione’s hand.
“Me?” Hemione laughs as they follow the elf. She gasps in excitement as they cross into a room. “A library?!?”
The room is tall, stretching over both floors of the house. A spiral staircase in the corner leads to a balcony full of bookshelves. An ornate fireplace is across from a wall of windows, illuminating the room with morning light. It’s decorated with plush sofas and chairs—the perfect reading haven.
“Well, we’ve lost her!” Ron jokes as Hermione walks the room, her hands lovingly tracing the bookshelves.
“No, no, I want to see more,” she assures them.
They wander around the house, Dizzy showing them the things she thinks they’ll like the most. As they pass through, they make a few remarks about things they might change, but Harry finds himself falling in love with the house, content to leave it the way it is.
“And here is the kitchen!” Dizzy says proudly. Harry stops dead in his tracks, something sparking in him he didn’t expect.
The kitchen feels just as big as the library. A large arched window looks out over the back gardens, making the room feel even bigger. The appliances need to be updated, but for the first time, Harry can see his future in this room. He can see himself cooking, Hermione and Ron sitting at the large kitchen island, friends and family coming and going, sharing a meal, and enjoying the safe haven of his home.
His fingers twitch as if they are itching to dive in, eager to create magic in a way he hasn’t for a long time.
✦✦✦✦✦
Billy and Percy leave them to themselves, and between Hermione and Dizzy, it doesn’t take long for them to move in. Most of their possessions were still tucked away in Hermione’s beaded bag, and Dizzy insisted on making the house lively again, all on her own.
As Harry sits in the large master bedroom they’ve claimed as their own, he feels a sudden urge to know more, to be close to the people who might have walked this home. He reaches for the stack of letters, the one Hermione had carefully tucked away on the dresser, and pulls out the one from his father.
Harry,
I can’t quite believe I’m writing this letter. Knowing that there’s even a chance you will be without us is… unthinkable. So forgive me if this is clumsy or not everything you want to hear. I’m afraid I’ve never been good with words.
I think about what you might be like, whether it be more like me or your mum or your dad. Do you like Quidditch? I bet you're a seeker like your dad, eh? You're a bit too reckless on your toy broom to be anything else.
I hope that whoever you are, whatever you enjoy, you’re happy. That’s all we ever wanted for you. It’s why we’re cooped up in this old cottage, separated from the people we love the most, because all of us love you more. I hope that if we’re not around, that someone is. That someone who loves you makes it out the other side and can raise you, tell you how much we love you. Sirius, Remus, Peter, anybody. Even Alice and Frank. If there’s no one left after that… Merlin, I can’t even imagine it.
Your mum will probably say all the right things, tell you whatever I’m missing. But there’s one thing I think I can give you that she can’t.
“Semper Ad Meliora,” Always Towards Better Things.
When I heard that growing up, I rolled my eyes. Of course, we should always go towards better things. I mean, that’s what life is, isn’t it? Flitting from one good thing to the next. But then I met Sirius and Remus, and I realized how hard life could be, how sometimes the only hope you had was that there would be a better thing after the bad. And not even always a good thing… just a better one.
And then I met your dad. Merlin, Harry, your dad, is… he would put himself down for any horrible thing if it meant there was a better one for someone else. He’s done it for Sirius, he did it for me, your mum, you. How he does the things he does, yet somehow, when he comes home, he’s the most positive out of all three of us? I don’t understand how, but I can only hope to be like him.
I hope you are like him. That whatever hardships you face in life, son, no matter how hard, you can find the better thing and head towards it. Sometimes, you might not be able to find the good, and that’s okay. But I hope you can always find your better.
I hope you’re like your mum too. You’ve already got her smarts, I can tell. But I hope you’ve got her light, her fierceness, her talent. I hope you learn to love her world. I admit I’ve been bad at that. She could use someone to appreciate the finer things of muggle life with her.
Practically, I know you’ll be a bit like me. For your sake, I hope you get the best bits.
Above all, I hope you’re your own person, that you develop your own quirks and habits, and that whatever dreams you have, you achieve them and then some. I’m only sorry that if you’re reading this, I’m not there to see them.
I love you son.
Love, Dada (you’re probably too old for that now, but I’m working with your current five-word vocabulary)
P.S. Give Dizzy a hug for me, will you? If anyone toughs this thing out to take care of you, it will be her. And that brings me more peace than you know.
Harry reads the final words with a tearful laugh. Then he reads the letter again, something in it giving him pause. His dad had said Harry was probably a seeker “like your dad” but not “like me,” which meant… he was referring to Regulus. He knew the parts of him that were like James, like Lily, so to find these tidbits that told him he was like Regulus? They mean the world to him.
“You okay, love?”
He looks up to see Hermione leaning against the door frame, smiling at him.
“Yeah, just-” he holds up the letter. “Reading,”
“Can I see?”
He nods and holds up the letter, waiting for her to walk up and take it. She scans it quickly and laughs when she gets to the end.
“Your handwriting is similar,” she smiles, handing it back to him. “It’s funny, seeing the differences. James didn’t even feel the need to explain Regulus to you. It must have been unthinkable to him that you wouldn’t know,”
“I think it was all unthinkable,” Harry sighs. “I mean, I think about if I had to write Teddy a letter like that. I don’t know if I could, and he’s not even, you know, mine,”
“True,”
“Oi! Are you two snogging without me?”
Hermione rolls her eyes. Then, with a teasing grin, she calls back, “Why don’t you come find out!”
Harry laughs as Ron appears in the doorway, his eager look quickly turning to disappointment.
“You know people do things other than snogging, right?” she chuckles.
“I know that! I just thought you know a big house, all alone…”
“Mmm, it is nice, isn't it?” Hermione sighs. “I didn’t realize how claustrophobic I felt,”
“Agreed,”
“What do we even do now?” Ron laughs. “I mean- for the last year, we were working towards the end of the war. For the last few weeks, we’ve been working towards this. What’s next?”
Harry glances back at the letter. “Semper Ad Meliora,”
“Huh?”
“We find the next thing, the better thing,” he explains. “And we work towards it,”
“Like what?”
He thinks for a moment. “A date,”
“A date?” Hermione laughs.
“We haven’t had a proper date. We should have one,”
“One problem,” Ron sighs. “Cameras,”
Harry groans. “Right. I mean… we have all the privacy we want now. We could do something here. Tomorrow maybe,”
Hermione looks sheepish. “I was hoping I could drag you muggle shopping tomorrow, Harry,”
“Oh,” he says, surprised. “Not-”
“It’s Charlie’s last day tomorrow,” Ron explains. “Mum mentioned it this morning and asked if I would come back for lunch, just me. I think she misses having us together,”
He looks at them both pointedly. “So you two planned an activity so I won’t be anxious about you being out of sight,”
“Maybe…” Hermione mutters.
He laughs and shakes his head. “I’d be annoyed, but it’s probably for the best,”
“It’ll be fun,” she assures him. She’s got that look in her eye like she’s planning something.
“And it’s an afternoon plan. There’s nothing that says we can’t have a date when we get home,”
“I’m happy with that,” Ron agrees.
“Alright then,” he grins. “It’s a date,”