The Returns

Ginny Potter was not a woman to be trifled with. Especially on her youngest child’s seventeenth birthday and especially when her entire family, not to mention a few friends, were coming for a rather large party at her home. Therefore when the family owl, Widget, showed up at the kitchen window with a note from Harry, she was already fuming. Reading the note, however, she quickly sank into the nearest chair. It couldn’t be true. They couldn’t be back. But there it was, in her husband’s overly recognizable writing. She smiled and then frowned and then read it all again.

“Incredible” she whispered as one of her sons walked in and started poking around for the food which was, of course, meant for the party.

“What’s incredible, mum?” Ginny jumped a bit and quickly slipped the note into her back pocket.

“Oh, nothing, nothing. Your father and Teddy are running a bit behind.” She turned to Al and smiled weakly.

“That doesn’t seem incredible, that seems pretty normal actually.” He wasn’t wrong. Harry, even in school, was often late and Teddy seemed to have picked that up around the age of ten. However, Al did not seem too worried by the interaction and continued his search for something to eat.

“You can have one of the canapes before everyone comes.” Ginny said hurriedly as she gathered herself, realizing Harry and Teddy would be back soon.

“But just one!” She said behind her shoulder on her way out of the kitchen as he found the cupboard he had been searching for.

The three new rooms and five new guests she had to accommodate was not what worried Ginny as she organized the sheets and towels necessary for such additions. Her Godson and husband had living parents now - or, the thought came obtrusively to her - for now? She shook her head and pushed that thought aside. After spending the last few years of her childhood in the depths of war and then the first half of her adult life with an active Auror husband and brother in the field, she knew to focus on the moment at hand instead of worrying about what came next. So, she continued to organize the sheets and pillows, calling Pisky, their family house elf, to bring them upstairs.

Guests would be arriving in a little over an hour for the annual family Quidditch match and Ginny hoped that Teddy and Harry would be home before then. As she handed the last of the linens to Pisky, thanking the elf as she went, there was a light popping sound from the garden.
She opened the back door and sighed as she saw Ron and Hermione walking towards her.

“Thought you could use some extra hands setting up!” Ron said casually as he walked by her into the house.

Hermione studied Ginny’s demeanor a bit “You ok, Gin? You look a bit pale. If you need to rest before people show up we can leave!” Ginny smiled and closed the door behind them.

“No, no...I’m fine, Harry and Teddy are just running a bit behind. They’re bringing some extra people along.”

Hermione looked suspiciously at her sister-in-law and close friend, after close to twenty five years in the Weasley family, she knew she could read Ginny better than any book in the Hogwarts library.

“Really? You’re sure there’s nothing wrong?”

Ron by this time had already made his way to the kitchen and was making himself a cup of tea. The two women followed him in, Ginny giving him a dirty look when he pulled down three mugs.

“What?” He said feigning confusion. “I thought I might start helping by making myself a cuppa. Wouldn’t be much good without it!” Ginny sighed and sat down in a kitchen chair.

“Ok, there is something I should tell you both - but we need to act normal! We’ll tell the family but we don’t want to overshadow Lily’s day.” Hermione gasped

“You’re pregnant!”

“No! Merlin...no. Nothing like that. It’s just well...ok, I’m going to tell you guys this but this doesn’t leave this room until Harry and Teddy come home. Deal?” The couple nodded and leaned towards her as she began to fill them in on that morning’s events.

***

“Alright, so the team is going to be Al and Hugh as Chasers, you and Vic as Beaters, Rose as the Keeper, and me as Seeker.” James Sirius nodded towards his sister in approval.

“Great! Then I bet the other side will be Mum and Angie as Chaser, Lucy as Keeper, George and Charlie as Beaters, and Dad as Seeker.”

“Since when does Lucy get to play Keeper on the adult team?”

“Since Ron took a jinx to the back on his last raid and Hermione won’t let him play.” Lily rolled her eyes.

“Alright, then who are we gonna have ref?”

“I think I can manage that.” She turned at the new voice and saw her oldest brother, Teddy, walking towards them from the gate.

“Ted! Where’s dad? I thought he was headed home with you?” She hugged him and he winced a bit at her grip before looking down at her bright face and realizing she had the exact same eyes as her grandfather. He swallowed.

“Well he is…he’s right behind me. We were just handling something in the office.”

There was a pop from behind him and he turned to see Victoire. She was still wearing her healer robes and she had a look on her usually soft and pristine face that showed obvious worry. Before he left Hogwarts, he had sent her a note that she needed to get to the Potter house as soon as she could but didn’t provide any more information - a fact that he now regretted as she practically ran towards him.

“Uh, actually do you mind meeting us all in the living room? We’ve got some news to share.” Lily nodded hesitantly, eyes darting between Victoire and Teddy. When Victoire stopped in front of Teddy, hands on her hips, Lily nodded again and sensing the brewing tension, ran to catch up to James and Albus.

“Are you ok?!” Victoire almost yells but catches herself. Teddy was fine, no visible wounds and she saw Lily, James, and Albus walking towards the house - all perfectly fine.

“Is it your gran?” She asked breathlessly before he could even answer her first question. He shakes his head and sighed.

“Vic, everyone’s fine…it’s just uh….something weird happened today and I needed to tell you before the rest of the family gets here.”

He proceeds to tell his fiance everything that had happened that day, from Roger’s sending him to Hogwarts, to his fainting spell, to the brief but intense conversation he had with his parents. Walking the grounds, they eventually ended up sitting in Teddy and Jame’s old treehouse. By the end of his rambling, Victoire was wiping at her eyes as tears threatened to spill over.

“Oh, Ted….this is just so amazing.” She was now sitting in between his legs with his arms wrapped around her front and their hands intertwined.

Teddy rested his forehead on the top of her head and breathed in a long breath. The light scent of cherries and vanilla that always seemed to cling to her calmed him.
“It could be, yeah.”

“What do you mean ‘it could be’?? Ted, you get to meet your parents! You get to talk to them and ask them questions…they can be here for our wedding!” She twisted around so that they faced each other, piercing him with a quizzical look that he knew held more compassion than most people had in their big toe.

Again, he took a deep breath. “Vic…I know, it’s amazing and a miracle….”

“But?”

“But…I have parents…I’ve always had parents, a family. Gran, Ginny, Harry. Lily, James, Albus. It’s not like Harry where he didn’t have anyone growing up. I know I got sad about them when I was younger, but I’m so used to being without them…and now there here….I’m just scared that the reality of them won’t match up to all the stories and I don’t want to make Ginny and Harry feel like they were some sort of filler…”

“Teddy, you know they’re just going to be happy for you.” Vic reached up and placed a light kiss to his forehead.

“I know…I know they will. I’m just…Gods, I’m nervous.”

She nodded and they were quiet for a bit, sitting comfortably together. Their bodies leaned into one another, supporting each other’s weight. They breathed together.

“Ok.” Victorie said finally. “We need to go back to the house. I’m sure Ginny and probably your Gran are waiting for you.”

He groaned but nodded against her neck. After almost a decade of being an Auror, facing some of the darkest corners of the magical world, no one scared Teddy Lupin more than a worried Ginny Potter and Andromeda Tonks. Slowly he rose and helped Vic up, thanking Merlin, Morgana, and any other magical guardians that she was with him.

***

“Bloody hell.” Ron sighed into his tea for the third time since Ginny had completed her story, prompting Hermione to swat him lightly on the back of the head.

“I’m sorry, love, we don’t all have your extensive vocabulary and right now those are the only words that come to mind.” He smirked at his wife who nodded.

“Sorry, habit really.” Hermione mumbled and her mouth formed an almost straight line. There was a small wrinkle in her forehead as she scrunched up her face in deep thought.

Ginny was just watching them from her chair, nodding and sighing along. Despite a million emotions still rolling around in her chest, it helped that she knew they felt the same.

“It just….it doesn’t make any sense.” Hermione, for her part, had said this at least four times since they had all sat at the table.

Ron rolled his eyes lovingly and Ginny snorted.
“‘Mione, since when has anything in our lives really made sense?”

“Yes, but everything before this…I don’t know…it had an explanation.”

“I’m sure this does too, love, we just haven’t found it yet.” He reached over and grabbed his wife’s hand and Ginny saw an immediate release of tension from Hermione’s shoulders.

“Right now, I’m less worried about the explanation behind all of it and more worried about how it will affect the family.” Ginny stated this like a general making plans for battle, a tone which made both Ron and Hermione Granger-Weasley snap up and out of their internal musings.

“Right…right….well have you told-”

“GINNY POTTER!” All three adults looked up, heads whipping in the direction of the yell, which they knew came from the guest Floo in the library. Only one person used that entrance regularly in the Potter household, despite being given access to the family Floo and being told time and again to use that one. Quick, determined footsteps were heard coming towards the kitchen.

“Right…about that…Harry may not have told her in the best way…”

“How did he tell her?”

Ginny did not answer. Instead she stood and started collecting the mugs from the table quickly, placing them in the sink and swishing her wand towards a cloth which swiftly began wiping down the table, anxiously cleaning in a way that reminded both Hermione and Ron of an anxious Mrs. Weasley. The couple shared a quick look of concern and Hermione turned to her friend again.
“Ginny?” she spoke softly but firmly as the footsteps grew closer and before Ginny could even think to respond, a willowy witch with black and gray curls and large hazel eyes came banging into the kitchen. She wore traditional dark, high necked witch robes and In her hand she clutched a note and shoved it towards Ginny.

“Andromeda how nice to-”

“No, no. First, is it true?” Her eyes bore into the younger woman.

“Yes.”
Andromeda sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“So my daughter, her husband, and my late cousin are back from the dead..”

Ginny nodded and when Andromeda gave her a prodding look.
“Yes.”

“And they are on their way here now with your husband’s parents…also back from the dead.”

“Yes.”

“And your husband thought it was best to relay this information in a two line note?”

“To be fair, Andy, it’s also how I found out.”

“Is your dead daughter about to walk through the door?” Andy asked this seething in a way that made both Hermione and Ron shuffle their feet a bit.

“No.” All three adults replied solemnly like a group of scolded school children.

“Exactly and it didn’t cross your husband’s mind that a note scratched out in two lines might not have been the best way to tell me my only daughter came back from the dead?”

Ginny sighed, tapped her wand on the kettle and turned full force towards Andromeda, her shoulders slumped in defeat but there was now a small glint of humor in her eyes.

“I believe if we’re going to discuss my husband’s stupidity and all its forms I’m going to need another cup of tea…would you like to sit Andromeda?”

***

Lily was nervous. She was surprised and a little annoyed to see her husband and Sirius looking so jolly. Since they had left Hogwarts they had been joking and jostling each other about like they were still seventeen. Like they were not back from the dead. Like they had woken up this morning in the Gryffindor boy’s dorm and were headed to the Quidditch pitch. She sniffed and pulled a bit at her hair.

James looked down at her and smiled at her obvious annoyance. “They’ll love you, Lils.” He slipped his hand into hers and slyly brought her knuckles to his lips.

“How could they not?” Lily smiled despite her anxiety. She couldn’t remember anything about death but she could sense what she missed about life.

At that moment they walked through the protective barrier and the house materialized before them. Sirius slapped James on the back and smiled widely. His smile spread to James and then Remus. They had all seen Potter Manor as home at one point in their lives and seeing it in its former glory...James sighed and approached Harry.

“It looks just like it used to - really, I’m glad to see you and Ginny have put some love back into it.”

Harry smiled at his father, nodding slightly.

“We moved here after Jamie was born - it’s been good to us.”

As if on cue, the heavy door of the manor swung open and two dark haired young men came flying out of the foyer, already on their brooms. Almost knocking Sirius over in the process Jemmy swung around and yelled back

“Oi, dad! Mum’s ready to absolutely bust over you and Teddy being so late and Nana Tonks is already here…I’d get inside and work some charm if I were you!”

Lily noticed quickly that while James Sirius had the Potter hair and smile, he had a smattering of freckles and bright blue eyes she recognized immediately as Weasley attributes. Albus, on the other hand, looked like a younger copy of his father with her green eyes and her husband’s messy black hair. The resemblance made Lily’s breath catch, a small sound that she tried to stifle but that caught Albus’s attention nonetheless. The young man adjusted his glasses, eyes widening. His older brother was already preparing to zip off towards the family Quidditch pitch, obviously not paying attention to the group his father was standing with.

“Uh, Jamie…”

“What, Al?” The young man asked distractedly as he was fiddling with his Beater's bat, looking up towards his brother, he only stopped when he saw his face. He then looked down at the group. His father, standing with a small smile on his face, had behind him five other people who Jamie thought he recognized from somewhere. Then it snapped into place.

“Who…what…bloody hell.”