Bloodlines
AN: Yo, I'm just going to say writing 72 years into the future of Harry Potter is a pain in the ass. You get one year of it, but damn, so much plotting that isn't even going to make it on screen. This is why I tend to time travel backwards.
Chapter 3 - Bloodlines
Harry was one of the first to arrive, mostly because of the things he had to transport with him more than any great desire to spend more time with the Weasleys. James and Rose had messaged him that they would be late.
"I'm always surprised when you lot show up," Harry remarked as he approached the in-laws on the edge of the circles in the Weasley’s backyard.
Harry already had a drink in hand. He had no intention of getting drunk, but this would be the first family reunion he would attend alone with neither his best friend nor his lover on his arm.
"Don't want us here, Potter?" Blaise Zabini asked.
"On the contrary," Harry said. "I count on it. You spread out the hostility from the in-laws and reflect it away from the kids. I swear the grandchildren think we are only grumpy about parties rather than the people at them."
Theo snorted, "You mean they don't understand that we have all tried to kill each other at one point or another?"
"Nah, I've only ever tried to murder Malfoy and your fathers."
"More's the pity you succeeded in neither," Blaise drily.
Theo let out a short laugh, "Oh Merlin, not that I actually want them here, but just to see Arthur's face if Draco walked through the door."
"I think Ginny slept with him to try and get back at me," Harry shared.
Theo raised a brow, "Did that hurt?"
Harry smiled, "Not really, I haven't cared about that mosswipe since seventh year. But when I told Ron… oh, Gin wasn't so pleased with herself then."
Blaise shook his head, "Merlin, I wish you had been sorted into Slytherin. We could have had such fun."
"I feel like I would have been murdered in my sleep," Harry said lightly. "But seeing Snape having to be nice to me might have been worth it."
Theo grinned, "No, seeing Dumbledore's face would have been worth it."
Harry laughed, "Ah, I don't want to know what the old coot would have done to sidestep that one."
"What are you snakes laughing about?" George called as he came over, Bill and Charlie following at his heels.
For men approaching their hundreds, Harry had to admit they had all aged well.
Considering the majority of their generation was dead by war, murder, or suicide, merely surviving was most impressive indeed.
As far as Harry knew, Astoria Greengrass Malfoy was the only one out of hundreds to die from natural causes.
Although, their graceful ageing might be related to the fact that none of them were drinkers, until it came to days like this.
"The despair of Britain," Blaise answered. "What else?"
"So," Charlie rolled his eyes but looked at Harry. "We hear your Lovegood has run off with a dragon?"
Harry sighed and took a sip of his whiskey, before saying, "Aye, the dragon started talking to her, I told her to follow the voices, and she found passage into another dimension."
The five other men paused and stared at him as if he had lost his mind.
As if he hadn’t lost that decades ago.
Harry burped a bit of flame.
Theo spoke first, "I take it back, you don't belong in Slytherin, you belong in an asylum. By the gods, Potter, doesn't anything surprise you anymore?"
Harry pointed at him, "You, my friend, are not a Professor at Hogwarts. What I would like to know is what the hell happened with this current generation? Our children were angels, each and every one of them, complete darling angels. The grandkids?" He shook his head, "Riddle couldn't get me but they might. I swear, if I have to re-spell the roof of the castle with more repelling wards, I'm going to tie them all together for a day and put them on top of the north tower."
Bill cocked his head to the side, "The roof?"
"You know how we all snuck around the corridors at night?"
"Yeah?" Bill asked warily.
"The children have taken to climbing out the windows, and either flying or using magicked ropes, or sticky charms to scale the outside walls or roofs."
Another silence.
George scowled, "Damn, how did we never think of that?"
"I don't know," Harry said, "But patrolling is a nightmare."
Theo was quiet for a long moment before asking, "The girl's dormitories?"
"We have spelled both boys’ and girls’ doors and the windows," Harry said before grinning, "Susan is an evil Headmistress. If the girls try going to the boys’ dormitories, they break out in zits."
Bill laughed, "Oh come on, they can't be-" He stopped at the look in Harry's eyes.
"What?"
"Let's just say that sex ed is a mandatory class now, for all age groups, and we've put up a great deal more portraits throughout the castle," Harry said.
"Now the real question," Blaise said. "Is this generation so much worse or is the new generation of professors simply not doing their jobs?"
Harry opened his mouth, then closed it. He had wanted to defend them, but then he realised how much Hogwarts had changed. Partly because the French school had been forced to merge with theirs and partly because the staff was far larger and the regulations far more substantial.
"The parents are more involved," Harry said, "And Susan has been pushing criminal investigation on any family whose kids show any sign of abuse. This generation is safer than any generation before them and whether a student is good at magic or hard-working does not matter, they know the dangers of our world, of magic."
"It made our kids fearful," George said. "Wary and mistrustful, but for the grandkids? I have never known a generation with such few superstitions. They know where the hardlines are and feel free to play within anything below it."
Theo said in earnest, "I am so glad I didn't become a teacher." Then took a swig of his beer.
George touched Harry's arm lightly, and Harry turned, surprised such a serious face from George directed at him.
"Before my sister says anything, I am sorry for your loss, Andromeda Tonks was a remarkable woman. You will always be one of our brothers, no matter how our lives unfolded."
Harry blinked back tears, rapidly.
The last time he had seen them all together had been at the funeral.
Luna had taken charge of that event and sat all the Weasleys in the back and refused to let them come up to speak with Harry, no matter how well meaning they were.
There wasn't anyone who would try to tell Harry that his ex-wife wasn't relieved, perhaps happy even, that Andromeda had passed on in her sleep, in their bed.
Luna and Rose had picked out his apartment in London, and Teddy and Megan had moved his and Andromeda's belongings between the apartment and Teddy's own home.
"Thanks, George," Harry said tightly.
"Andromeda Tonks was a great woman," Theo said. "And a hell of a catch."
Bill shook his head, "I still don't know why you didn't marry her."
Before Harry could answer that seriously, Blaise said, "I can't believe you didn't fuck her sister. Mrs. Malfoy adores you."
Harry smirked, "Who says I haven't?"
Theo chortled, "Only you would be crazy enough to cheat on Black sister with another Black sister."
"It's not cheating if both were involved," Harry teased.
Theo's grin fell, his dark eyes searching Harry’s expression. "No, no way. They hated each other, and you wouldn't honestly sleep with Draco's mother. He would have killed you."
Harry shook his head, "Correction, Narcissa and Andromeda hated each other's husbands, they never stopped loving one another. And do you honestly believe Draco could ever best me? Much less dictate Narcissa’s actions?"
George was falling apart in silent laughter as Charlie and Blaise stared at him in dumbfounded horror.
Theo blustered, "No, there's no way you actually…"
"Narcissa has very soft hands," Harry responded, neither confirming nor denying anything.
Bill laughed, "Oh, Harry, when you first entered our lives, you were my parents' wildest dream come true."
Charlie snorted, "Now you're the definition of their worst nightmare."
"I don't see why you three took Harry's side in the divorce," Blaise said bluntly.
Charlie smiled sadly, "We didn't take sides. We lost Fred in the war, Ron was assassinated, Percy followed his wife out, and we saw no reason to lose another brother just because our sister was young and became a manipulative brat to the man she claimed to love."
"Plus," Bill added motioning to the circle of matriarchs gathered together and likely trying to slay one another with small tal. "My wife had a second falling out with my sister, there are some things you can't recover from."
"And besides," George said. "It isn't about them or us really, the more of us that gets along the happier our children are. Trying to cast out the guy who sees them more regularly than we do is foolish."
Teddy apparated in then, his wife Sonya Shacklebolt, having arrived early because she had to leave early for a shift at the office. Teddy had taken her name, both because Sonya was proud and hadn't wanted to change and because, as Teddy had confided, he had been more Harry's son than he cared for what might have been with his own father.
Teddy Tonks Shacklebolt approached them, smiling, Hufflepuff that he was, he was usually smiling, "Hey, Uncles."
"Hey, kid, hear you're about to make this one a great-grandfather," George greeted.
Teddy's smile widened, "Aye, Magnolia and Judah are going to take the semester off."
"Susan hired the French Professors as replacements," Harry informed them, hugging his son around the shoulder.
Teddy hugged him back, "Hey, Dad, how are you?"
"I'll be alright, how are you?"
Teddy smiled, "I'm good. Did Aunt Luna really steal that dragon?"
"Apparently," Theo made to inform him. "It's a talking dragon that has taken her to an alternate dimension."
Teddy grinned, "That sounds about right. Maybe she'll find out why she stopped ageing."
Teddy was assuredly a Potter at heart. It was one reason he had taken his wife's name, well that, and Sonya Shacklebolt was very in control of her own personhood and did not tolerate some of the old laws well.
"My wife still wants to strangle her for that," Charlie said.
Fleur, who had begun to glide over to them when she spotted Teddy, said supremely, "I do not. Age is a gift."
Bill kissed her cheek, "Aye, but that's because you became more beautiful."
Which was and wasn't true. After passing the age in which she could bear children, Fleur's Veela allure was nearly completely diminished, she was still more graceful and elegant for a human. Yet even she had proven herself mortal.
However, for all who loved her, the removed veil of magic made her more beautiful. Or maybe, Harry just loved his sister-in-law enough that even if she was the most hideous being on the planet, he would still find her lovely.
Fleur turned that smile on him and stepped forward for a hug and to kiss his cheeks, which he returned.
Hermione wasn't far behind Fleur’s arrival. Despite how they had parted last, she still hugged him.
Harry kissed her temple before whispering, "We are going to be okay, Mione."
She nodded as she stepped back.
Things hadn't been the same since Ron had been murdered. Every funeral was just another reminder of everyone they lost and everyone they stood to lose if they slipped up again.
Before any more conversation could start, everyone was called to sit at the table.
James and his wife, Eliza Nott Potter, Rose and her husband, Dharmik Greengrass Zabini, along with Harry's grandchildren, two Potters and three Zabinis, arrived with a loud pop as people began to claim their seats.
Harry was greeted with a whirlwind of Grandpa! and rapid tight hugs before they rushed off to be with their cousins. The exception was Rosario Potter, who Harry scooped up in his arms.
She was eleven, with his and James's unruly but soft hair and her father's darker complexion. Rosio, as her family called her, had large brown eyes that he was convinced could lure a thousand hippogryphs to bow before her.
"How are you, my little Rosio?" he asked her, as he approached the table. Magnolia sat across the table from Harry. She needed needed to hold on both to Teddy's hand and her husband's, Judah's hand to make it to her seat. Harry smiled at her father and husband’s clear worry. Harry was convinced that the babies would be quite healthy, but his poor granddaughter Magnolia wasn't enjoying additional baby-weight on her spine.
"I'm good, Grandpa, but Sander thinks I'm going to be sorted into Gryffindor," Rosio said with a nose wrinkle.
A funny thing had happened over the course of Harry's life and career, somewhere along his years of teaching, getting the Potter House back into the political loop, his kids marrying 'respectable families', and his ability to talk to snakes, everyone younger than James and Rose believed that Harry had been sorted into Slytherin.
Everyone.
Even some of the phoney history books had been edited to say he had been a Slytherin.
Luna, George, and even Hermoine thought that it was hilarious, and Harry had long ago given up trying to change people's perspectives.
Unsurprisingly, the only one who believed him was his grandson Gerald, who had been sorted into Gryffindor, the only one in his line as it happened who had been.
So he told Rosio, "They would be lucky to have you but remember, you can change the Hat's mind if you ask very nicely and sincerely."
Some tension went out of her and she hugged him and he hugged her tightly back, breathing in this moment that felt like home and late summer.
These were the moments that made life worth living. When he set her back down, she ran off to the far end of the table to sit beside Fredrick, Fred, George's son who would be entering the first year with her.
Rose kissed Harry's cheek before taking her seat beside him.
"How's my favourite daughter?" he asked.
Rose whose hair was blood auburn. It was ruby-like that even among the Weasleys she stood out as having truly red and not orange hair. It contrasted beautifully with her emerald eyes which she rolled at him, "I'm your only daughter, Papa."
"Nonsense," he tsked. "I have Sonya and Eliza, but you're still my favourite."
Sonya beside her husband, Teddy flipped Harry off in a bored manner as she continued speaking with Hermione.
Eliza leaned over the table to glare at Harry around Rose, Dharmik, and James, "I'm crushed, Dad, really crushed."
Theo laughed, "Don't take it personally, Eliza, I'll always like you better than Rose, even if Rose got higher grades than you-"
Eliza threw a curse at her father, and Daphne Greengrass gave her daughter a look. "Liza darling, what have I told you about committing homicide in public?"
"This isn't homicide," Eliza responded cheerfully. "It's patricide."
Dinner was a boisterous affair and Harry found himself just listening, more than participating.
He felt somewhat hollowed out having said goodbye to both Andromeda and Luna, but his family filled his heart. He wasn't sure how he could still feel disoriented, almost disconnected because of the intensity of the contradicting emotions.
Grief and happiness.
Harry was pulled from his musings, by a vicious comment Molly sent at Rose.
Harry had been Molly's darling for years and years, even when Ginny confided that Harry had been having an affair. Molly hadn't been forced to face reality until Harry had delivered the divorce papers.
Which Molly had burned, repeatedly, until Ron had called it, If he doesn't love your daughter, Mum, do you really want them to stay married?
But Molly had held out hope that Harry was simply being manipulated by Andromeda.
Things had taken a turn, however, when both Rose and James had been sorted into Slytherin House.
It was the 'Earth to Molly' that had been a long time coming.
But when Rose took the Zabini name, well, that's when things had started getting ugly. Harry had had to escort Arthur from Rose's wedding and had made a formal public apology to Blaise and Daphne Zabini. Which apparently was a bigger thing in the Wizarding World between Pureblood families than he had understood at the time.
Neither Molly nor Arthur had attended James's marriage to Eliza Nott, to both Harry and Theo's eternal relief.
At this point, Molly and Arthur were, well, old wasn't quite a strong enough description for the age they had reached. Ancient, perhaps, was more sound fit. Although, they weren't unhealthy, all of their kids, Harry included, had pitched into giving their parents a worriless retirement. Charlie and his wife had even moved in with them after remodelling their house.
Harry wasn't completely unsympathetic to his in-laws, they had lost three sons which is something no parent should have to live through.
However, Harry took about as well to anyone saying snide things to his daughter as anyone might expect.
Ginny, who was sitting beside her mother, long red hair having turned grey-white around a face that had more frown lines than smile lines, was not quick enough to smooth over Molly's words.
Rose's expression had gone mild, pleasant, and distant.
A generation in the shadow.
Slytherin and Hufflepuff Houses had become two of the largest in their generations, as children gravitated in two different directions when their parents were still caught in an endless loop of sorrow, fear, and chaos, they became survivalists or peacemakers.
For a few years, Gryffindor House had almost entirely become comprised of muggleborn students. And Ravenclaw had the quietest and shyest children Harry had ever met.
"I don't see why Rose never took after our Ginny. If that woman–” Andromeda, "–had stayed in her role-"
"You know who you remind me of, Molly?" Harry called across the table.
Everyone at the table tensed, Arthur ran a weathered hand over his face.
Molly had not grown more stable over the decades, nor less fond of screaming in rage.
Molly glared at him, and asked in a warning tone, "Who, Harry?"
He smiled back brightly, "Sirius' mother, Mrs. Walburga Black."
The entire table held its breath, except for the grandkids, who ignored the adults and continued on with their various conversations.
Where the rest of them were all used to dancing on eggshells, the grandkids had learned that if you just walked normally, eventually the adults got over their moments of neurotic behaviour.
Molly's face went an interesting shade of pink under her cloud of white hair, but she said nothing.
She couldn't say anything, because if she did, she would start screaming, thus proving Harry’s point.
And everyone knew it.
Bill diverted the conversation.
Teddy’s look of approval was all he needed but the verbal affirmation didn’t hurt. "That was brilliant, Dad."
Harry smirked and hid it behind a sip of rum.
It was, perhaps at this point, Harry should have realised that mixing whiskey and rum was a poor idea.
The rest of dinner passed without incident –if one excluded Molly refusing to speak to anyone for any reason for the rest of the evening.
When it came time for dessert, every pair of eyes turned to him.
Harry looked at the puppy dog eyes of the grandkids with false bewilderment.
Harry Potter's grandchildren did not think of him as the Boy Who Lived.
They loved him for his baking.
Harry rubbed his chin, and frowned, "Why is everyone staring at me? Is something on my face?"
Rosio gave him a look, before crossing her arms, "Grandpa."
It was very, very difficult not to laugh at her tone, and even the ever-stoic Blaise covered his lips with a hand.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Damnit, Grand-dad," Magnolia interrupted, "I am nine months pregnant with twins, if there isn't a piece of chocolate raspberry cake in front of me before I have to waddle to the loo, I'm going to break into your office and set everything on fire."
Harry blinked at her, "What- oh!? Dessert, right, how could I have forgotten? That is typically my job isn't it?"
He waited for a response.
When no desserts were immediately forthcoming, an almighty chorused shout came from the younger end of the table, " Grandpa Harry!"
Harry laughed then snapped his fingers, and the table filled with plates and trays he had spent the last three days preparing.
There was a cheer that went up around the entire table, and the kids and the grandkids called, variants of, "Thank you, Grandpa! Thanks, Dad! Thank you, Harry!"
Hermione caught his gaze across the table, she alone, knew what these moments meant to him.
True happiness.
Baking was something he had been forced to learn under his Aunt with a threat of beating if he messed up.
Now, food was the thing he had used to bring and keep his loved ones together.
Luna had called it a transformation of something painful to something cherished. A thing without love given life with the addition of that elusive expression of the heart that had been absent for most of his life, but never, ever, from his descendants' lives.
That was his legacy, more than anything else, this was his legacy, this wild assortment of people he called family.
It was more than Harry had ever dreamed of having.
But all lights cast shadows.
Gin pulled him aside as the family took up broomsticks. Harry was only ever allowed to play the last round.
"I don't need your false condolences," Harry said as they rounded a corner.
She glared at him, "You didn't know what I was going to say, Potter."
Harry ignored her to look behind her as Rose and James began ribbing Teddy for becoming a grandfather.
"We could have been better for them," Gin said sadly, turning to look at them too.
But he knew she meant just the twins. She never acknowledged Teddy as his son. Still, he didn't have the energy to argue with her about that tonight.
"I may not have agreed with your reasons, but no, I never regretted them. Teddy, Rose, and James are the very best things to ever grace my life."
"But it wasn't enough to make you stay," she said, stepping into his space.
Harry backed up before she could touch him, hiding them from the view of the others, and said darkly. "That you threatened to take the twins away from me, Gin, that was the moment you lost me forever."
"Oh please, you were sleeping with Andromeda Black for years before-"
"Andromeda Tonks," Harry corrected, his will to fight given wings by grief-driven frustration. He didn’t want to fight here, but did want to rage at this woman who still wouldn’t let it go. A woman who would rub his nose in his partner’s death. Like always, he stamped his emotions down. "And you're right and I am sorry for the additional pain I caused you, but Gin, by the time the twins were born, our marriage was dead."
"Because of her," she hissed.
He rolled his eyes, "No. No, Gin, not because of Andromeda."
"Then because of Luna."
Harry had a temper, he knew it, everyone else knew it too. But he had made a vow to himself that he would never lose the temper on his wife or children. It hadn't been easy, not by a long shot. He had even sought therapy for it, so afraid that he might slip into a habit the Dursleys had beaten into him. No matter how much Gin had raged at him over the years, no matter what trouble his kids got into, he had never raised a hand or voice or wand against them. That his kids were terrified of his 'quiet voice' was just necessary parenting one needed to keep your kids from being monsters or getting themselves irrevocably hurt.
And until this moment, he had succeeded in that vow.
But on this day, there was no Andromeda to return home with because she was now gone like so many who had come before her, nor was Luna there to ground him.
So when Harry turned on Ginny, who flinched back from him before reclaiming that ground and getting in his space, he snapped like a bow whose constant abuse by arrowless recoil split the wood.
He was done with this woman spitting poison in his face, so sick of the woman he had once pledged his loyalty to, seeking to make him miserable, treating him like a toy on a shelf.
Gin was so obviously happy Andromeda was dead, it shone in the vindictive pleasure in her gaze as glowered up at him. She happier still that Luna was gone and that he was now living on his own. It's what she wanted for him since the divorce papers had been signed.
He knew because she had screamed it enough times at him, cursing him anytime they were out of earshot of the twins.
Harry was sick of taking her abuse. He had foolishly hoped that divorcing her would have freed him from the toxicity in their lives. In the end, the only thing divorcing her did was free him from the public pretence of being happy anytime they were thrown in the limelight together.
"Harry, it was your-"
"Shut up!" he yelled, "Just shut up! You listen to me for one bloody-damned minute. It's been decades. Are you honestly telling me that you don't know why I divorced you?"
"Because you were sleeping with other women!" she bellowed back.
Gin had always hated that he never got into this type of fight with her.
Well fine, if this what she wanted, fucking fine.
"Damnit, Gin! We married young right after a war. We were child soldiers, I might have loved you once, but we didn't know who we were back then; who we wanted to be. And we certainly didn't know each other."
And even as he spoke, he felt the anger retreating.
It was difficult to be pissed when you brought compassion and logic into the equation.
But Ginerva Weasley was a fireball and having finally lit a spark, she wasn't going to stop stirring the embers.
Even if the reason for his slip in control was brought about by grief.
"Oh, get off your high horse, Potter, don't tell me you didn't love the witches fawning over you–"
"Get off it?" Harry scoffed. “You should know I never gave a damn about strangers. Had I known, had I really understood, that you still hero-worshipped me, I would have never married you."
Her face contorted, "I never worshipped-"
"No, you paraded me about, you used my connections to get you through the Junior Quidditch leagues and onto the team you wanted. All those damned parties you made me attend and the interviews you allowed Molly to do."
She puffed up, "I got onto the teams through merit-"
"Gin, I'm not a professional athlete and I could still fly you around a maypole before you could identify where the quaffle was."
"Damn you, for always thinking you're better at everything-"
"I'm not better at everything. Quidditch was my only real skill, and my perverse luck that forced me to learn how to survive. But you never saw that, did you? I never really stopped being a child book character for you. You literally don't know the first thing about me."
"I was your wife! Of course, I knew you until you let your dick-"
He growled at her, "Oh, yes, let's go there, shall we? You were spiking my drinks with aphrodisiacs then left me alone on Halloween to go out to some party–"
"You should have been with me!"
"You shouldn't have been spiking my drinks without my consent!" he roared back. "You were my wife, I counted on you to be-"
"To watch you mope around or raise another woman's baby?"
"Teddy is my son!" Harry was nearly screaming now. "And you can go to hell for ever making him feel otherwise or feel un-welcomed in my home!"
Ginny laughed derisively, "Oh, so it was just Teddy? How long are you going to use him as your cover for having a kept mistress?"
Harry had to take a breath before he did something truly unfortunate, but he didn't hold his tongue. "Andromeda Tonks wouldn't have been so entangled in our lives if you had just let me bring Teddy home."
"I didn't want-"
"Kids, yes, you've made that abundantly clear. You were a fool for marrying me if that's the life you envisioned for yourself. I was never going to be your kept husband to parade around in society. I never wanted a public life, I only ever wanted a family and friends. But you didn't want that. You never stayed in, you wouldn't let me live with Teddy, and you took custody of the twins who you only bore in an attempt to entrap me in our disaster of a marriage!"
"I loved you!" she wailed, "I'd have done anything to keep you happy-"
It was Harry's turn to laugh, "Happy? Happy!? Is that what you call drugging me, never listening to me, never for a moment- putting me before your own selfish desires?"
"Selfish?" she spat, "You are the cheating bastard! I never was untrue to you!"
"Funny then how you keep dodging the issue of drugging me, then, isn't it?" he challenged.
"You were losing interest-"
"I fell out of love!" he exclaimed. "I didn't trust you anymore, I wasn't happy, and love does not thrive under such conditions."
"But Andromeda-"
"Never gave a damn about my being the Boy Who Lived. She thought our world was stupid for believing Voldemort was gone and even stupider for thinking it was my job to fix it. She saw me hurting, struggling, and I saw her as the same. And she needed help with Teddy, Gin. You fail to grasp how difficult it is to care for a baby."
She turned her nose up, "I had twins."
"Yes, you did, and for whatever else is between us, I will forever be grateful for Rose and James. But I was the one who took care of the babies. Even after separating, I was the one who raised them, who cooked their meals…"
"You didn't let me-"
"Bugger off, you haven't cooked a day since you moved out of your mother's house."
"Yet you still divorced me, and you left them for a boy who already had a family."
Harry almost slapped her then.
"My godson is not an orphan," he said in a voice so contained, he could feel his magic rising to meet the pressure. "He is nothing like me because Teddy is my son. And you are a monster for ever trying to separate me from any of my children."
"That was your choice," she snarled.
He leaned in close, "No, Gin, it was your choice to let the sorrows of our lives turn you into a manipulative, possessive, and heartless bitch."
She blinked back tears, he had never called her such before, despite everything, he had never used such words against her, not like this.
But he was old and neither Rose nor James were naive to who their parents were.
"I loved you," she said like a broken record as if those words alone were a talisman against all the mistakes made between them. "I still do. And I love our children."
"Not enough," he said. "Not enough by half. You may love us, but none of us trusts you to be there when it counts."
"I did as much in that war as you did!" she yelled. "I suffered as much!"
He looked at her, just looked at her.
All her friery beauty, dissolved into a self-destructive obsession that had eaten her from the inside out.
"Yes,” he agreed. “And you were a stronger person then, or maybe you needed someone who wasn't broken in the ways I was."
And he stepped back from her, out from behind the house and found, unsurprisingly, a crowd gathered. Said crowd had put a wall between themselves and where the grandkids were soaring across a quidditch pitch that was technically on Lovegood and not Weasley land.
Harry could have done a lot of things then, could have confronted the understanding in Teddy's eyes, the rage in Rose's, or the sorrow in James's, but right then, the only two people he would have wanted to go to were the two people beyond his reach.
So instead, Harry took a bow to the assembly before disapparating away.
oOo
Thorin Oakenshield had never thought long or hard on the topic of halflings, or hobbits as Bilbo preferred to be called.
Nor after meeting one, had he thought much of Bilbo, whatever the wizard had to say about him. He just knew that they were a queer and simple people that lived in the shelter of men greater than themselves.
He had expected him to whine about the hardships, indeed he had, until Luna Lovegood, the queerest Daughter of Men he had ever encountered, engaged the hobbit in conversation.
And by his beard, could hobbits talk, and talk, and talk…
The one thing Thorin could say about all the chatter, was that Bilbo had a pleasant voice and was not by any means a poor storyteller.
That Thorin had tuned out of the topic and precise tales long, long, long ago was neither here nor there.
Yet Lady Luna listened to him with rapt attention. Days passed and her birdlike voice was interwoven with Bilbo's, asking for details and asking for side stories that the hobbit had clearly never had such an audience for.
Indeed, as Gandalf confided in him, most hobbits grew up hearing these stories and cared mostly for their own family histories, so by the time they were older, most tales were quite familiar to them. So Luna, being neither a hobbit nor a child, was the most singular opportunity for stretching his talents as a storyteller.
After the first day of travel, Thorin knew the little hobbit considered the girl a friend, after a week, he wouldn't have doubted that Bilbo would have given his life for hers.
To tell the truth, Thorin was growing quite fond of her too, even if she sometimes spoke in strange riddles and made comments that seemed both completely random to be spoken out loud, yet rang with a truth he often found impossible to argue with.
At any rate, he would have liked her just for the perplexed expressions she so often inspired in Gandalf.
Luna, though not a fighter, a hunter, nor a burglar, rather was good with the ponies. In fact, she tended to the ponies each and every morning and evening. Thorin was quite sure the ponies understood her when she spoke to them and would follow her to the death if they must.
How Luna Lovegood inspired such loyalty, Thorin hadn't the faintest, and neither did the Wizard.
So it was that Thorin, one night after Gandalf had finished recounting his finding of his father and a clash with a necromancer, asked Luna. "What of your people, Child of Man?"
She looked at him, and tilted her head to the side like a fox assessing a thing, toy or threat?
The first thing she said was not at all what he expected, "My mother's name was Pandora Lovegood, she blew herself up when I was little."
Kili spit his soup, and squawked, "What?"
"She was an weapons inventor," Luna said airly. “It was an accident, and after that it was just me and my father, Xenophilius Lovegood, for a long time."
"Is that all of your family?" Bilbo asked worriedly.
She turned a smile on him, "No, there is also Harry. My best friend. He is the greatest friend, the greatest person.” She paused to give Gandalf an odd smile. “And perhaps the greatest wizard you could ever meet."
“One of the Blue wizards,” Gandalf asked with a frown.
She shook her head, “Not unless they live in Exhile.”
"What of his people then?" Bilbo asked, "Seeing as he is your people as well."
Her smile grew, "Well, first there is Teddy, Harry's first son. Well, really his godson, but in all the ways that matter. I love him very much, and his daughter Magnolia-"
And on she went. There was something enchanting about the way the young girl spoke. But there was also something bothering Thorin about her tale, and when she reached Rose Lilian Zabini's wedding.
"But why would her grandparents hate any boy that much? Her father had no objections,” he asked, startled out of his own pounderings.
"Old families," Luna explained. "Blood feuds, mostly."
Balin shook his head, "Over what? Humans don't typically hold such feuds through generations."
"We were a small community that had survived several wars," Luna explained. “In the last war, most of us were children and were cleared for any crimes we commited. Old annomincities became quite current.”
"When you say war, do you mean by an outside force, or civil wars?" Throin asked, not liking the sound of that at all.
“Yes,” she answered. “It made our small community even smaller.”
Wars were not uncommon in Middle Earth, but to speak so casually about one's own people turning against themselves felt disturbingly wrong to Thorin.
"Harry was actually the one who killed the Dark Lord,” she explained further. “He led our fraction against the fallen government. When the war ended, he was one of the only voices that kept the youngest soldiers from being charged.”
Thorin felt a chill go up his spine and at his side, Gandalf went very still.
“When you say young?” Dwalin asked.
“The older ones were in their twenties, but most who were forced to pick sides were eighteen, but there were a lot of children as young as eleven who fought and did not survive.”
Thorin knew, he knew, that humans aged faster than any other race, but that was still to young. Twenties was somewhat normal, but eleven?
Fili asked, "What was the war about?"
"The Dark Lord, Voldemort, and his followers, the Death Eaters, wanted to kill and enslave all non-magical beings and their descendants as well as the magical creatures that were human-like. Voldemort was very evil and wanted to shroud the world in darkness. But Harry killed him, a lot actually. He didn't like staying dead, but then Harry isn't good at staying dead either."
Thorin looked at Gandalf, surely the wizard among them, but no, Gandalf looked just as lost as the rest of them.
Luna stood abruptly.
"What is it?" Kili asked.
She shook her head, "Nothing, I just thought I heard one of the ponies. I'll be right back."
When she was out of earshot, Thorin asked, "Did you understand any of that?"
Gandalf sighed, "Not much, only that there was much she must be leaving out."
Kili and Fili began to theorize, and it wasn't until forty minutes had passed did they all became worried about Luna who had yet to return. Though she did like to linger with the ponies, they decided to check on her before turning in for the night.
The ponies were indeed agitated, but all present.
Luna, however, was not.
They searched the area for her, they found not a single track or sign of her passing.
After an hour though, they found something far more disturbing in the light of Luna's sudden disappearance.
Troll footprints.
oOo
Thank you Nauze!
AN: I just reread the Hobbit fully, and I am going to follow mainly Luna through it while Harry is slowly going to be pulled in as well ;D Please tell me what you think of the direction of this story or if you have anything you would really like to see?