Chapter 5
The nightmares never stopped completely when Harry would stay the night with Tony and Pepper over the five years of knowing them. He didn’t expect them to, but his loves did everything they could to help Harry through them. Since moving back into the Stark home, the nightmares continued as if he was still living alone in his London flat. Thankfully, having Pepper by his side made them feel more muted and almost completely tolerable. Whether it was him just getting older and learning to deal with them, or it was the comfort of having someone sleep by his side again, Harry didn’t know, but he wasn’t about to question it in fear that the nightmares would come back in full force.
Leading up to Teddy’s first day in America, Harry tried his best to not let the dreams get to him. Every night he’d lie in bed staring out into the darkness feeling his muscles tense with anxiety and fear. Some nights his mind would rapidly list out every worse case scenario, and some nights it would be radio silence which somehow made him feel just as bad. Once Harry was finally able to shut his eyes, images would plague his sight. He’d desperately try to shut them out, but his eyes were already closed. Harry would tell himself that they weren’t real, that he wasn’t on the battlefield. He was far from the hell that was his teenage years, and he was allowed to move on from them.
It was only then that he could feel himself drifting off. His muscles would relax and the world would float away with the sounds of Pepper breathing next to him. And of course, it is the exact moment the voice would start jarring him back awake. Harry had his fair share of dealing with voices, but this one was different. He knew it was just in his head, but it felt realer than anything else. It was a hushed, deep voice as if it didn’t want to scare Harry, which it failed at, being a disembodied voice and all.
Although the voice had made itself scarce once Teddy began living with them, it did return waking the poor wizard up just as the sun rose above the horizon. Having a built in alarm clock would be convenient if hearing voices wasn’t incredibly troubling in the first place. So, unable to fall back asleep, Harry would simply get a jump start to his day. Making lunches for the four of them, getting well into the mountain of paperwork mocking him from his office, and writing several drafts of his resignation as well as a letter long overdue to Hermione. He rather liked the early mornings. He liked waking up beside Pepper, and sometimes when she would wake at the same time, talking to her until she really needed to get ready for work. It was nice, but Harry’s life never got to stay nice for long.
“You are needed, Master Potter.” The deep voice was practically yelling in Harry’s ear this particular morning. The wizard jumped up, instinctively grabbing for his wand on the bed side table. His breath short and sweat covering his skin.
“Harry?” Pepper’s voice wavered with worry, but her voice was real, he reminded himself. Her voice existed. She clicked on her lamp and sat up on her arm to face him. With a deep breath, Harry stared back at her silhouette. Through the dim light he could see the concern in her eyes. “Harry, what’s wrong?”
“I…” He tightened his grip on his wand. It didn’t feel like his. “I don’t know-” It was only a quick glance down, but what he saw made him drop the wand and jump onto the bed trying to get away from it. Pepper wrapped her arms around him as he backed into her. She didn’t know what to say to him, but she knew that he needed to be held.
“The elder wand.” Harry whispered.
Pepper blinked trying to remember what that meant. From his reaction and voice, it was bad, very bad, but she couldn’t exactly remember why. She hushed him stroking his arm. “It’s ok. We’re going to figure this out. I’m here to help you.”
Harry moved stiffly and stared off into the distance as he attempted to pour cheerios into a bowl. The cereal had narrowly missed the bowl landing on the counter and skidding to the floor. Coming to, Harry cursed under his breath before setting the box onto the counter and his head into his hands. He could still feel how holding the elder wand felt again. The power that radiated from it enticing him to hold on tighter promising to make all his troubles go away.
“It’s ok, Harry.” Morgan caused him to jump as she placed a tiny hand on his side. “I spill all the time. I just blame the box, and mommy only gets a little bit mad.”
Harry sighed into a smile. “Thanks, kiddo.” He kneeled beside her, “and mommy only gets mad when you don’t clean it up even if it is the boxes fault.”
She giggled. “I’ll help you.”
Thanking her again, the two began picking up stray cheerios. Once that was finished and two bowls were filled without any more spills, Teddy had joined them for breakfast.
“Mornin’, Ted!” Morgan greeted.
“Mornin’, munchkin.” Teddy yawned stretching his limbs. The man hadn’t changed his appearance significantly enough for Morgan to pick up on it, but he still managed to have a little fun. Today, Teddy’s long hair was up in a messy black bun showing off intricate runes shaved into the sides of his head. His eyes were a bright green much like Harry’s, and if it wasn’t for the incredibly obvious skin tone difference between the two men, Teddy nearly looked related to the older man.
Harry passed Teddy a bowl of cereal and a hot cup of tea and asked, “any plans for the day?”
“Harley’s actually taking me to the compound.” Teddy replied. “Says there’s some people he wants me to meet.”
“He even allowed to do that?”
“That kid has more clearance than you.” Pepper answered for him entering the kitchen still putting on her earrings. She stopped to kiss Harry on the cheek and grab her cup of coffee. “You should take Harry along with you. Get him out of the house.”
“I appreciate it, Pep, but I got an ungodly amount of paperwork to get through.” Harry tried to brush off the offer. Pepper returned his words with a look and entered into her office with her hands up in surrender.
But at the kitchen counter, Teddy wasn’t having it. “Oh, c’mon prongslet!” Harry rolled his eyes at the old nickname. “Can’t you take one day off? That paperwork isn’t going anywhere.”
“And it’s not going to do itself.”
“I mean it could-”
“Teddy,” Harry cut him off as a warning, gesturing to the oblivious Morgan munching away at her cereal.
Teddy huffed. “All I’m saying is that you deserve a day out. We’ll drop off this little hellion,” He ruffled the young girls hair making her giggle, “and then you have a nice day out with your godson and his future husband.”
Pepper laughed from her office. Morgan turned to Teddy with sparkling eyes and amazement in her voice. “You and Harley are getting married?”
“Yep!” Teddy responded with a mischievous grin. “He doesn’t know it yet, but that man is going to be mine.”
“Wow,” the five year old gasped.
“So is the marriage coming before or after you ask him out?” Harry pointedly asked receiving another laugh from Pepper as she reemerged from her office.
Sputtering, Teddy’s face furiously blushed. “I don’t see why I should have to be the one to ask him!”
“I don’t want to startle you or anything, hon, but I’m pretty sure all of those sight seeing trips and coffee runs would qualify as dates.” And with this realization coming from Pepper’s mouth, Teddy bolted up from his chair.
“Bloody hell.” He then fled to his room in a panic.
An unmistakable honk followed soon after signalling Happy’s arrival. With quick hugs and kisses goodbye, Pepper was off to work leaving Harry to do the washing up, and Morgan to get dressed for school. Harry was once again left alone with his thoughts, and too quickly did he sink back into that unpleasant feeling. The elder wand was calling, and it didn’t like being ignored. The wizard tried to put all of his focused into rinsing out the bowls, but he felt his eyes drifting off back into the distance. It wasn’t until the hot water on the back of his hand became unbearable did Harry snap back into motion. Dropping the plate, he quickly shut the water off and conjured some ice.
“Merlin, are you alright?”
The older wizard jumped. “Bloody fu- hell, Teddy!”
Teddy help up his hands in defense grimacing. “Oh shit, sorry. You alright?”
“Yeah,” Harry huffed a reply. “I’m fine.” It wasn’t necessarily a lie since his hand no longer burned. Harry then finally looked at Teddy from head to toe. “Are you really dropping off Morgan dressed like that?”
“What’s wrong with it?” Teddy’s long black hair was pulled to one side in his signature large thick curls. Extravagant black makeup lined his eyes and black lipstick popped against his pale skin. He wore Sirius’ old leather jacket that Harry gave him for his 16th birthday and a Twisted Sisters shirt underneath. His black skinny jeans hand a small pattern of skull and crossbones dotted across them which were tucked into his red dragonhide boots.
“It’s just… those moms already hate me, and you look so much cooler than I do.”
“Oh, shut it, prongsy. Go put on your jumper and look nice for those Karens.” Teddy winked draping himself across the couch. Harry scrunched up his face in annoyance that Teddy would just assume that’s what he was going to do, then entered his bedroom to do exactly that. “And would it kill you to use a brush just once!” This was going to be a long day.