Chapter 1
“AVADA KEDAVRA!” Yaxley yelled, sinking to his knees in the mud.
Colin screamed something unintelligible, reaching towards Harry as though he could pull him out of the way of the Killing Curse. His warning was too late. The sickly green light hit Harry right in the chest and he fell backwards, slipping through Colin’s fingertips. He watched, horror-struck, as his best friend fell further and further until he simply disappeared.
“H?” he said, unable to comprehend the lack of a body. “Wh– Harry? How? Where did you go?”
“I KILLED HARRY POTTER!” cheered Yaxley, and was instantly hit with a Stupefy from Harry’s coworker, Hopkins.
He ran over to where Harry had fallen, too. A lightning bolt was burnt into the ground; Colin hadn’t noticed until Hopkins touched it. He ran his hands through it, hoping to find some secret passageway only the dead could find.
“No, no, no. C’mon, H. You can’t leave me alone, not now. Please, Harry, please. I shouldn’t have told you where he was, I’m so sorry. Please, It’s my fault, I should’ve been better, I should’ve seen it, please.” There was wetness on his cheeks, and Colin realised he was crying. A great heaving sob escaped his chest, and he started properly weeping. Fat tears rolled down his face and snot leaked from his nose as he hyperventilated over the burn. As always, everything vanished into smoke before it could hit the ground.
It could’ve been hours or days before Colin became aware of his surroundings again to the crunching of boots through the underbrush and voices coming closer.
“Is this it?” a familiar voice said, and Colin whipped around to see Ginny being guided by an Auror.
“Why the fuck did they let you come here? Harry wouldn’t have wanted this! What if something here damages the baby?” He ran a hand through his hair as he floated circles around Ginny.
“He just vanished then?” Ginny demanded, glaring at the Auror, hands on her hips.
They cowered back with a “Yes, miss,” and Colin realised that Ginny had absolutely barged into the MLE offices and forced them to take her here. It was Harry, and she was a ferocious creature who wouldn’t take no for an answer on a good day.
She knelt next to the seared ground, and as Colin followed, he saw her mask break, her determined facade giving way to massive amounts of grief. It quickly reformed as she stood up.
“They didn’t find an Apparation or Portkey signatures? Nothing that would explain the lack of something for me to bury?”
“No, miss. We sent Cursebreakers and Unspeakables to inspect it and they found nothing. I’m sorry for your loss.”
Colin frowned. He hadn’t seen or heard anyone, but maybe his grief had tuned it out. It was still odd, seeing as he had startled out of his trance when Ginny arrived.
“Thank you. Please inform me when there’s more information.” And she turned with a twirl of her fiery hair and apparated away.
He found her in her bedroom, holding one of Harry’s pillows to her chest, sobbing. Colin wished he could do the same. He missed the comfort of a soft pillow and the smell of a friend, but that was how death was, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. He could, however, make Ginny’s life slightly easier.
He shot an underpowered cheering charm and a warming charm at her, not enough for her to notice. Colin drifted to the kitchen, still untethered from the living world and unable to interact with the ground. He used Wingardium Leviosa to interact with the fridge and its contents, and a Diffindo to dice up the fruit and veg. He portioned them up into containers and stacked them neatly in the fridge. While Colin couldn’t cook safely, he figured that getting everything ready would help at least. Harry also had made premixed foods and precooked lunches, so Colin took a few of those out of the freezer and in the fridge to thaw.
Satisfied he’d done everything he could with the food, he gathered up all of the dirty dishes and set them to wash. This spell was much more difficult than the others, and he had to watch closely to make sure nothing broke.
By the time he’d finished and checked up on Ginny, she’d fallen asleep, sprawled out on top of the duvet. Another succession of careful spells and she was tucked under the covers. The next hour or so left the flat tidied up, and Colin could sit in a corner of the bedroom and cry until Ginny was awake and he had more work to do.
This went on for around five days while Ginny got Harry’s affairs in order. While she ran around, getting funeral preparations and telling the family and her work (all while bothering the DMLE for more information), Colin cleaned up and helped around the house (and sometimes checked on the DMLE too. They weren’t going much).
On the fifth day, Harry was officially declared dead. His will was read in front of his teary friends, leaving most of his fortune and Grimmauld Place to Ginny and mentioning Colin by name, much to the surprise and confusion of both the Creevey brothers in attendance (Dennis got some Galleons). The next day, Ginny packed up her lonely flat and left for Grimmauld Plac. Colin followed.
Grimmauld Place was as bright, clean, and infested with dead as ever. The first few days, Colin and Kreacher kept squabbling about who would do the chores around the house, but they reached a tentative truce when they noticed Ginny taking too close of an interest. Eventually, life moved on like normal. Colin spent the next months following Ginny, talking to the Blacks, helping Kreacher, and tucking Ginny in every night since she still couldn’t fall asleep under the covers.
Exactly eight months after Harry died, Ginny gave birth to their son. He had his father’s messy black hair, the Weasley nose and freckles, and, oddly, pure white eyes. Ginny named him Harry Sirius Potter, and, like his namesakes, he grew up to constantly accidentally get into trouble and then make it worse. Colin loved him instantly, and that love only grew as time went by.
“He can see us,” Regulus cried, barreling down the hall at full speed.
“What? Who?” Colin asked, jerking away from where he was sneakily trying to braid Ginny’s pretty red hair.
“What are you- nevermind, Junior can see us! He pointed right at me and said ‘Reggie’! That is so proof he can see us. I told you Uncle Arcturus wasn’t lying,” Regulus said, waving his arms up and down excitedly.
“Holy shit.”
Colin sprinted down the hall towards the nursery and through the door to see Harry Sirius, now almost a year old, gently playing with a stuffed stag. He looked up when Colin came in and screamed, “Cowin!”, giggling his baby laughter Orion swore sounded just like Sirius’.
“Oh Merlin, he can actually see us. Tell the others. We can’t swear around Junior ever.”
Colin was so, so grateful that Junior had named all of his stuffed animals after the dead people he could see because he kept running around talking to and about them. Ginny just thought it was the toys.
Junior had found the invisibility cloak. He had hidden somewhere in the house, invisible, and Colin was dying. Three-year-olds should not have been able to get into this much trouble, but Junior was certainly trying.
Two hours later, he came out from wherever he was hiding for lunch, dragging the cloak along behind him. Colin went inside the wall and screamed. Ginny, also worried to bits, fussed over him and took the cloak away.
They couldn’t take the cloak away. Every time Ginny did and put it somewhere no toddler could reach: under wards, at another house, even once in Gringotts, he somehow had it in his hands by the end of the day. In the end, both Ginny and the dead set up separate rules for using the cloak and hoped for the best.
“Harry Sirius Potter, where did you get that rock?” Colin said, trying to hold his composure while Junior had the fucking Ressurection Stone.
“Dunno. ‘S mine now because i’s pretty,” Junior said, in the smuggest tone a five-year-old could muster.
“Okay, just be careful with it.” Colin was going to kill him. He swore he was getting grey hairs because of Junior despite not being able to age.
Harry Sirius Potter had just turned seven. The party was over, and he had wandered off to play (possibly with some other dead). Colin was hovering on a chair in the living room with Ginny, content when a bright light overtook him.
Do you want to go on, Colin Creevey? What remains to attach you to life, to stop you from drifting into the world after this?
Colin, understandably terrified by the deep, echoing voice, screamed.
That’s not an answer, Colin Creevey. What will it be, stay or move on?
Colin thought of all the memories he had with Harry, Junior, Ginny, and Dennis, and knew his decision was made. Even if he wouldn’t be seen by most of them, he had to–
“Stay. I’ll stay.”
The glowing light vanished and Colin heard Ginny scream. He shot up, wand drawn, ready to fight, but saw her staring directly at him.
“Gin?” he asked, voice soft and pleading.
“Colin? Wh– why are you here?”
“You can see me. Oh, Merlin, you can see me!” he cheered, swooping around the room.
“What- answer my question, Creevey!” Ginny demanded, but Colin saw the slight smile on her face.
Getting serious, Colin hovered above one of the armchairs and said, “It’s a long story, Gin. Are you sure you want to know the full truth?”
“Yes, of course,” she snapped, a fierce scowl crossing her face.
Colin blushed, his ghostly heart skipping a beat. “It began after the Battle of Hogwarts. I didn’t have any idea I was dead, so I kept walking up to people only to get no reaction. Harry, though, noticed me. When we learned I was dead, I just started to follow him around. He was the only living person I could talk to, and I, the only dead person that willingly would follow him anywhere, so we became very close. He told me everything, and eventually, one thing became obvious: the same time Harry began seeing the dead, he lost all of his emotions.”
Ginny gasped, a stricken look on her face. “But-”
He cut her off. “I think he cared for us as much as he could, truly, but, well, he couldn’t feel anything. When he wasn’t with the living, he never smiled or frowned, or showed any emotion at all. He didn’t like faking it, but it was like he was a puppet and the strings were people’s expectations.
I was the reason he knew when to laugh and cry, the reason he knew exactly when to flip the pancakes on time, why he always knew what was going on around him.
He was going to be such a great dad, you know? The day after he found out, he went to Muggle London and got a ridiculous number of parenting books and read them all in a day. And when those didn’t have enough information he went to parenting classes and birthing classes and asked Andy and all of the dead Blacks for advice and instruction and he was going to care for Junior so much, Gin, and I’m so sorry he died and I couldn’t do anything more, I’m sorry I couldn’t warn him fast enough, I’m so, so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Ginny said, voice firm and unyielding. He looked up and saw her looking at him, eyes red with unshed tears. “I’ve played the ‘what if’ game and blamed myself and you don’t get to. It’s that bastard Yaxely’s fault and that’s that.”
There was a pause as Colin mourned Harry’s loss, the gap inside him still aching after almost eight years.
“Why did you stay?”
“What?”
“After all this time, you could’ve left. Gone on with your death, but you haven’t. You’ve stayed with me, with Junior even after Harry was gone. Why?”
Colin looked Ginny right in the eye. “How could I not? Harry was my best friend, of course I cared for you, too. You were the one that awoke me from my trance when Harry died, the one that gave me purpose again. For years, helping you and Harry Sirius has been my only goal. Besides, you know Harry told me to protect you in the will. What kind of friend would I be to disobey his last wishes,” Colin said, smiling sadly.
“Oh,” Ginny breathed. “You were in love with him.”
Colin blushed furiously, covering his face with his hands. “WHAT? Noooooooo. I was never jealous of you or anything, there’s no way I was in love with him. Are you crazy? I’m totally straight, I think, I mean guys are pretty but no, uh, you’re way prettier than Harry. Wait-”
“Oh. You’re in love with me, too,” she said in that same, soft tone. Her cheeks were red as she looked at him, eyes wide.
“I didn’t say that!” Colin protested, silver flushing his translucent face.
“Sure. I’ll ignore your blush. This doesn’t explain why I can see you now, though.”
“I don’t know that either,” Colin said, avoiding looking at Ginny. He could feel the heat on his face and knew she was smirking at him. “I was just relaxing on the couch and suddenly this voice asked me if I wanted to stay or go on and, well, I thought of you and Harry Sirius and said stay, and then you could see me.”
They sat in silence for a while until Harry Sirius burst in.
“Mum! I found a wand in the closet! Hi Col! It’s mine now!”
“That’s nice, Junior,” the two said, in sync.
“Wait- Col? You can see Colin?” Ginny exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
“Of course I can, Mum. He’s kind of obvious,” Junior replied, looking perfectly innocent.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention both Harrys could see dead people. No idea why,” Colin said sheepishly, running a hand through his hair.
“I think I’m going to need a detailed list of exactly what you’ve done to help me at some point, Colin, because I think you've helped parent my child,” Ginny said, smiling at him, and he blushed furiously.
“I’m, uh, I’m going to visit Dennis now. Bye!”
Being seen and heard again, while amazing and wonderful, came with awful realisations. Ginny, in her never-ending wisdom, had been right in saying that Colin had been very, very much in love with Harry, and was now in love with her. Honestly, they were both so pretty that Colin couldn’t even be properly mad about it, and had complained to Dennis (after he’d gotten used to seeing his big brother’s ghost) in depth about both of them being simply too attractive. Dennis had ignored him by sticking his fingers in his ears.
Ginny had made a point of getting to know him better, too, which didn’t help his troubles. Colin would’ve thought she was dating him if not for the fact that he was decidedly dead and not dateable in the slightest. It was hard to counter those notions, though, when she looked at him with so much fondness while walking down Diagon Alley.
Before Colin knew it, his days were filled with air kisses from Ginny and cries of ‘Dad!’ from Junior, and his nights were spent next to Ginny in what became their bed. He was in bliss, aside from the other dead teasing him, and four years passed in a breeze.
Junior had just gotten his Hogwarts letter a couple of days ago and was finally being allowed to go school shopping with Colin. For the most part, it had been uneventful with Colin scaring off any nosy bystanders trying to get near The-Boy-Who-Lived’s son. They had just entered Ollivander’s shop when they heard a loud crash. Colin flew around the shop, finding Ollivander on the floor, covered in wand boxes.
“Are you alright?” he said, hovering worriedly.
Ollivander gently extracted himself from the pile, waving his wand and putting them all back on their shelves. “Perfectly fine, Mr. Creevey. It’ll take more than a shock to hurt me,” he said, dusting off his robes, which seemed to be determined to accumulate even more dust.
Colin followed the old man to the front of the shop as he interrogated him about his ghostly wand. He stopped short when he saw Junior, causing Colin to pass right through him.
“Ah, Harry Sirius Potter. Why have you come here? I may have given all three of your parents their wands, but a wand has most certainly already chosen you,” Ollivander said, his eerie, raspy voice almost accusing.
“What? We didn’t know about this!” Colin demanded, looking between Ollivander’s stern countenance and his son’s rapidly paling face.
“Hey, Dad? You know on my seventh birthday you became a ghost? So when you were doing that I found a wand and it sent up sparks, but you and Mum didn’t say anything about it, so I figured it was okay.” Junior shrugged, white eyes wide and pleading. “I honestly didn’t think much of it, it’s just been in my nightstand with that cool stone I found when I was like, five.”
Colin closed his eyes and took a deep breath, despite not actually needing to breathe. “It’s fine, we’ll talk about this when we get home. Sorry for taking up your time, Mr Ollivander.” As they left, Colin turned to Junior and hissed, “We thought it was a prank wand your uncle had left in the house!”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I’M THE MASTER OF DEATH!”