Unidentified Flying Harry
Stefan was very excited, as he was going round to the Potters that afternoon to play with Harry. There were children in the town were the Lupins lived, but Stefan didn’t want to play with them.
To be honest, Stefan was scared of the other children, Stefan had been scared of all strangers even children since that night a few months ago. Strangers had come into his house, and tortured and killed his whole family. So, Stefan couldn’t even bring himself to play with the little children playing in the street who were completely harmless, and never even left the house without Remus or Hope or Lyall.
But this afternoon, Remus was taking Ophelia and Stefan to the Potters, so that Remus could spend time with James and Lily, and the children could all play together.
Stefan had been living with the Lupins for nearly three months now as it was halfway through October. His bedroom was what had used to be the guest room, and he had all of his books from his old room, along with all of Remus and Lyall’s old children’s books. Stefan was an avid reader, but it was going to take even him a long time to work through all these books as there were so many of them.
Stefan loved to read, but the other thing he loved about his room at the Lupins, was that it was also full of Muggle toys including toy cars and something called Lego, which Lyall would sometimes play with, with Stefan in the evenings. Stefan had inherited his fascination for everything Muggle from his sister, so found these toys amazing.
He had to share his bedroom with Ophelia on night a month, during the full moon. Ophelia was now sleeping in the nursery, which had used to be the boxroom, and Remus still had to use for his transformation once a month. So, during the full moon, they moved Ophelia’s cradle through to Stefan’s room for the night.
Ophelia was very sweet, she was three months old now, and thick curly locks of bright blonde hair. Stefan always knew a special way to make Ophelia laugh, sometimes he would pull faces at her, or he would talk through her teddy bear in a funny voice. He just loved to hear her laugh, and her giggles would bounce around the house like tiny fairy echoes.
Stefan was currently in the sitting room, reading The Tales of Beadle the Bard. They were far beyond his reading capability, but he was reading to Ophelia on the sofa next to him and he thought he should read her some fairy tales sometimes, rather than the fantasy series he was currently reading about Arthur and Merlin.
The doorbell rung clearly throughout the house, and Stefan lifted Ophelia out of her basket, and ducked behind the sofa in one swift movement. He didn’t trust strangers, and he didn’t want anyone to hurt little Ophelia either.
‘Hello Mrs Evans,’ beamed Hope greeting one of her Muggle friends and showing her into the sitting room.
‘Hope,’ laughed Mrs Evans sitting down at the sofa, ‘why is there a small boy hiding behind here?’
‘Oh that’s Stefan,’ said Hope, ‘he’s painfully shy.’
‘Remi!’ Hope called up the stairs, ‘he’s behind the sofa!’
Stefan had started hiding in the strangest of places whenever anyone came to visit, and for some reason Remus was the only one could coax him back out. Usually they could convince the Muggle friends that Stefan was playing a game of Hide and Seek or something, so they friends were never too worried.
‘Why don’t we go have tea in the kitchen,’ suggested Hope, ‘I can put the kettle on.’
Hope and Mrs Evans went through to the kitchen, and Remus came running into the sitting room frantically.
He crouched down by the sofa to talk to Stefan properly. Stefan was shaking with fright, and was clutching Ophelia to his chest.
‘Stef,’ sighed Remus shaking his head, ‘you’ve got to stop doing this.’
‘I’m scared,’ mumbled Stefan.
‘I know you’re scared mate,’ said Remus, ‘but not every person who walks through that door is going to be a deatheater.’
‘I don’t like strangers,’ he sobbed, ‘I have to protect Ophelia.’
‘It’s my job to protect you and Ophelia,’ said Remus gently stroking Stefan’s hair and coaxing him into coming out from behind the sofa.
Stefan passed Ophelia to Remus, he had been holding onto Ophelia protectively in case the stranger had tried hurting them.
‘I would never let anyone into this house who would even think of hurting you. And neither would Hope, or Lyall. If we don’t know who they are, we talk to them outside of the house, alright?’
‘Alright,’ said Stefan smiling slightly.
‘Go and get cleaned up then, we’re leaving for the Potters in ten minutes.’
‘Ok Remus,’ said Stefan feeling much better and running upstairs to get ready.
Ten minutes later, Remus and Stefan walked to the disused alleyway down the road form their house so they could apparate to Godric’s Hollow, Remus carrying Ophelia in her travel cot.
When they got to the Potter cottage, Remus felt the strange sensation he always felt going through the Fidelius charm around the house. When he walked into his own house, the wards felt different, warm almost loving, but the Fidelius charm felt like his whole body had been hit by a freezing charm for a split second before it went away.
Remus opened the door to the Potter cottage, and instantly had to dodge out of the way of a small flying object that had nearly hit him right on the shins. Harry was flying around on his little broomstick that Sirius had given him for his last birthday, and James came chasing out of the house after Harry, to catch Harry and bring his back into the safety of the house.
‘That was close one Moons,’ chuckled James putting Harry on his hip, and tucking his broom under his arm.
‘I’m telling you if he hits you it hurts a fu…’
‘James,’ scolded Lily inclining her head towards the three children.
‘A flipping lot,’ finished James laughing.
‘Hello Stefan,’ said Lily smiling warmly, ‘I found some books I think you might like.’
‘Really?’ exclaimed Stefan.
‘He’s got far too many books already Lils,’ said Remus firmly.
‘I thought you always said you could never have too many books’ Moons?’ said James.
‘Or are you giving your children contradicting opinions?’
Lily shook her head at Remus and James and went to go and fetch the books from her room.
‘They’re quite advanced for a boy your age, but I think you’ll enjoy them.’
She passed Stefan a stack of four well read books, in a series by someone called J.R.R.Tolkien.
‘Just remember though,’ said Lily, ‘these are Muggle books, so the descriptions of elves and trolls and dragons are far from accurate.’
‘How far from accurate?’ asked James smirking.
‘Until I came to school, I though elves were tall immortal philosophical warriors, with long blonde hair and pointed ears,’ she said flusteredly and blushing.
‘You’re joking,’ choked James.
‘They sound like Xeno Lovegood,’ laughed Remus.
‘How is Xeno?’ asked Lily.
‘Xeno and Pandora are great,’ said Remus, ‘their daughter Luna is about nine months now.’
‘I’d love a little girl,’ said Lily longingly picking Ophelia out of her basket.
‘They’re so pretty,’ she cooed.’
‘I seem to remember you thought Harry was pretty cute when he was born,’ said James.
‘Daddy!’ called Harry.
‘Yes Prongslet?’ asked James.
‘Broom!’ said Harry sticking out his lip.
‘No Harry,’ said James, ‘I’m talking to Uncle Moony. I can’t play with you.’
‘Broom!’ screamed Harry scrunching up his face and balling.
‘Now you’ve done it,’ sighed Lily going to comfort her son.
It took a few minutes and some chocolate from Remus’ pocket for Lily to get Harry to calm down. Eventually Stefan went to play with Harry and his broom, and the two boys were laughing as Stefan chased Harry through the house and Stefan kept Harry from getting hurt.
‘Remus mate,’ said James running fingers through his hair.
‘We didn’t just invite you around so the kids could play.’
James had a serious tone, which he only used once in a blue moon for something vitally important. Lily who had been fussing over Ophelia bit her lip and suddenly went quiet.
‘What is it?’ asked Remus into tense silence of the room.
‘Now Remus, I want you to hear us and not interrupt,’ stammered Lily.
‘Tell me what it is,’ said Remus.
‘You can ask questions afterwards,’ said James, ‘just we need to tell you this.’
‘Before we say anything,’ started Lily, ‘we’ve talked about all this with Dumbledore, and he agrees.’
Dumbledore was involved? This must be even more serious than Remus thought!
‘We don’t think we’re going to live to see the end of this war,’ said James.
‘What?’ said Remus.
‘Just let us talk Remus,’ said James.
‘We’re at the top of his hit list,’ continued Lily.
‘If we do die, we want you to look after Harry and bring him up.’
‘You’ll be fully compensated,’ said James handing Remus a piece of parchment.
‘I don’t care about the money,’ stammered Remus.
‘Remus,’ said Lily gently, ‘we know you’re not well off. But we are, if you are going to be bringing up our son, we want the best for him, and for you.’
‘But’ started Remus.
‘But nothing mate,’ said James gesturing with his hands.
‘Look, we were going to hire you to tutor Harry when he turned four anyway, and Alice and Frank are going to do the same. You love teaching, and you’ll be home schooling Ophelia, and you’re already teaching Stefan, so we were going to ask you to teach Harry and Nev.’
Remus looked at the parchment again, there were indeed two columns of neatly figured spells in Lily’s handwriting. One read tutor, and had a substantial monthly figure written under it, enough to safely support him and Ophelia, and probably even get a flat. The other read guardian, and it was double the first figure.
Remus was already getting an amount of money from the McKinnon vault once a month for Stefan’s upkeep, but nothing near this amount.
‘But this is too much,’ said Remus shaking his head.
‘No it’s not Remus,’ said Lily.
‘And you’ll bloody take it,’ said James putting his foot down knowing how stubborn Remus could be about money.
‘It’s not a charity case, you’re the best teacher I know, and I’ll be damned if my son doesn’t get the best!’
‘Alright,’ laughed Remus.
‘I’ll do it.’
‘Dumbledore really doesn’t mind a werewolf bringing up three children on his own?’ asked Remus.
‘It was his idea,’ said Lily, ‘Harry was going to go to Petunia’s. but after what happened with the McKinnon’s, he felt Harry would be much better protected in a magical house.’
‘I’m not going to have Frank and Alice asking me to be Neville’s guardian to am I?’ asked Remus raising his eyebrows.
‘Nah,’ shrugged James, ‘he’s getting Sirius.’
‘No he’s not,’ said Lily hitting James.
‘Franks still got his parents,’ explained Lily, ‘they’ll bring him up if anything happens, heavens forbid.’
It had been a very strange afternoon, discussing the possibility of his friends dying and bringing up their son in their absence. But Remus left the Potters that afternoon knowing that he and his little family had a stable future if he had a steady job tutoring for the Potters and the Longbottom’s. Who knows, he might even move out of home if this war even ended.