Questions and Answers

little_bird

Story Summary:
What happens when the past collides with the present and threatens to cast the Potters' and Weasleys' lives into disarray...

Chapter 04 - Sunday Lunch

Posted:
03/21/2010
Hits:
2,400


'Okay, let me make sure I've got everyone straight,' Scorpius said to Lily. 'Your grandmother and grandfather. Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur who have Victoire, Madeline, Alexander, and Nicholas. Uncle Charlie and Aunt Bronwyn who have Isabella, Aidan, and Owen. Uncle Percy and Aunt Penny who have Parker, Payton, and Patrick. Uncle George and Aunt Katie who have Jacob, Fred, and Sophia. Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione who have Rosie and Hugo. Then there's your mother and father, you, James, and Al. And your father's godson, Teddy, and his grandmother Andromeda. Is that everyone? Or have I forgotten someone?'

'Nope, that's the lot,' Lily said absently. She struggled to put her coat on. One of her sleeves had turned inside-out when she took it off the night before.

'Here, wait a minute.' Lily felt a hand pull the coat sleeve back to its proper position, and help her put the coat on. Lily turned around to see Scorpius standing behind her, his hand smoothing down the collar of her coat.

'Thanks,' she said. He blushed and ducked his head

'You do this every Sunday?' Scorpius leaned closer to Lily, whispering in her ear.

'Yep. Usually it's all of us. Well, only when everybody's home from school.' Lily looked at James and Al's nearly identical disheveled black heads, close together in front of them. They appeared to be intently discussing something. 'I have a feeling something is going to happen, though. They're not usually that...' Lily trailed off, groping for just the right word. 'Friendly,' she finished.

'Lily? Scorpius?' Ginny held out the flower pot with Floo powder so each of them could take a handful. Ginny put the pot back on the mantle and watched as each child spun through the emerald green flames. She grabbed Harry's coat sleeve, just as he was about to throw his handful of Floo powder in the flames. 'Do you think one of us should have gone first? You know, just to warn everyone?'

Harry snorted. 'You think there are still members of our family who don't know we have Draco Malfoy's son, and only child, staying with us for the holiday?'

'Yeah, you're right.' Ginny smiled. 'We're rubbish at keeping secrets amongst ourselves.'

'Too right,' muttered Harry, as he spun into the flames.

Ginny threw her Floo powder in the fireplace and headed to the Burrow, unable to shake the nagging feeling that one of them should have gone through first, just to smooth things over.

When Lily tumbled out of the Burrow's fireplace after Scorpius, she was met by stunned silence.

Scorpius was standing on the hearthrug, staring at Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Percy, and George, who were staring back at him in open-mouthed shock.

'Dear Merlin, it's the ferret!' breathed George.

'Uncle George, what are you talking about?' demanded Lily. 'This is Scorpius. He's in Al's year in Gryffindor,' she explained. 'He's not a ferret...'

'Of course.' Arthur rose to greet the boy. 'Where are my manners?' He held out his hand. 'Arthur Weasley. Welcome.'

Scorpius looked up at a tall balding man, whose once-red hair had gone sandy with age. 'Scorpius Malfoy.' He gingerly took Arthur's hand.

'You're in Gryffindor?' Arthur asked kindly.

'Yes, sir.' Scorpius gazed at all the men in the room. 'I've been playing Quidditch with Victoire, Madeline, Isabella, Fred, Jacob, Parker, James, and Al,' he offered lamely, searching for something to say to this roomful of strangers. Scorpius didn't particularly care for strangers.

'Good, good.' Arthur took Scorpius in hand. 'Let me introduce you to the rest of the family, then.'

Scorpius' head was spinning. A plump lady in an apron offered him a handful of chocolate biscuits and Scorpius was trying to remember the names and faces of the numerous aunts and uncles, not to mention the additional eight cousins. Lily had trailed behind them, piping up with random information, as each person was introduced.

The introductions completed, Scorpius perched on a chair, nibbling his biscuits. Lily's hand darted out and she snagged one. 'Wanna go outside and have a snowball fight with us?' she asked around a mouthful of biscuit. Scorpius eyed the people milling about the overly warm kitchen, and nodded with alacrity.

Outside, a young man with bright turquoise hair was organizing the children into two teams, putting an equal number of older cousins with the younger ones. 'Who's that?' Scorpius inquired, pointing.

'That's Teddy. Dad's godson. He's going out with Victoire.' Lily made kissing noises and giggled.

Teddy was listing the rules for the fight. 'No magic! No Impervious charms, or Cushioning charms, or Summoning or Banishing charms! And no enchanted snowballs or snow forts. Do not put stones in the snowballs, unless you want Molly to shout at you.' He paused, considering. 'Or anybody else's mum for that matter. You have thirty minutes to make as many snowballs as you can and the snow fort. Are there any questions?' After a chorus of 'no' from the group, Teddy said, 'Okay. Your time starts... now!'

Scorpius and Lily frantically made a pile of snowballs to join the ones that Alex, Sophie, Patrick, and Rose were making. Parker, Madeline, Fred, and Teddy worked on the fort. It seemed to Scorpius that the thirty minutes ended in just ten. 'Ready?' whispered Teddy, his hair as blonde as Scorpius'. 'Now!' he shouted, and the air filled with snowballs.

Rose had deadly accurate aim, and she caught James right in the face with a snowball. Al started laughing at him until Lily, whose aim was almost as good, pegged him on the side of the head. Lily and Rose grinned at each other, slapped their mittened hands together, and then continued to throw several very well-aimed snowballs.

The snowball supply dwindled to nothing and Teddy led a charge to the other team's fort. Patrick and Sophie snuck around to the back and captured their flag, which happened to be James' bright red scarf that day. Victoire tapped Teddy on the shoulder, and smashed a double handful of snow in his face. The orderly snowball fight disintegrated into a melee of flying snow. Even Scorpius wasn't safe. Rose screeched as Hugo shoved a handful of snow down the back of her jumper. Like the Quidditch games at school, it was certainly intense, but nobody got seriously hurt. Nothing a quick Episkey couldn't handle.

The battle ended only when Bill came out to irritably yell at them lunch was ready. They trooped back inside, to be met by a wall of resigned parents, who performed Drying charms on the younger ones' clothes.

Lunch was unusually quiet that day. Normally, conversation flowed in scattered bursts around the table, but the adults pensively pushed the food around their plates, something that didn't go unnoticed by the older children.

Finally, lunch eaten, and pudding served, Bill pushed his plate away at an unspoken signal from the others. 'Right. We know you lot would like some information - '

'Dad.' Victoire spoke up from her end of the table. 'We actually have a list of questions we'd like answers to. Real answers, not just trying to dodge them like you've done.' Bill's brows rose at Victoire's assumption of the leadership role. Victoire held out a hand. 'Rosie?' Rose fished the parchment from her pocket and handed it to Victoire.

Teddy got up and nudged Scorpius. 'Come on, mate. Let's you and me go take a bit of a stroll.' Scorpius nodded and he and Teddy grabbed their coats and went out the back door. Victoire had warned Teddy about the conversation they intended to have with their parents, and after growing up around Weasley tempers, he thought a strategic retreat was in order.

Victoire studied the parchment, and fixed Harry with a stare she must have inherited from Molly. 'Uncle Harry, how did you survive the Killing curse?'

'Way to ease into it, Victoire,' muttered George.

Harry ran a hand through his hair. 'Hm. Let's see... what was it? Four? Five times?'

'The one when you were a baby, the one in the graveyard, the one when you left the Dursleys, the one in the Forest and the one in the duel?' ventured Hermione, ticking off each event on her fingers. 'That's five.'

'You survived the Killing curse five times?' squeaked James.

'Uh, yeah.' Harry looked uncomfortable. 'The first one was because my mum died protecting me. She had a chance to save herself and didn't. Very, very old magic. It's how I got this.' Harry rubbed the scar that bisected his forehead. 'The others were just plain luck for the most part, except the on in the Forest, and that's a lot more complicated.' Harry rubbed an area on his chest over his heart. 'The other three...' Harry shrugged. 'Those were more the curse bounced off a charm I did. See? Dumb luck.'

'But Uncle Harry, that's cool!' exclaimed Fred.

'Not so much when people stare at you all the time,' Katie informed her son acidly. Fred wilted at the tone in his mother's voice.

'Half the stuff I did, I only managed to do because I had help,' Harry said wearily. 'I wouldn't have made it to seventeen without Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Dobby...'

'Who's Dobby?' piped up Lily.

'A house-elf. He broke Harry's arm second year.' Ron grinned. 'Charmed a Bludger to follow Harry around the Quidditch pitch.'

'Yeah, that was a real laugh riot,' retorted Harry.

'But you did give him his freedom,' Hermione reminded him.

'I had to. He didn't deserve the family he was bound to,' Harry protested.

'Okay, next question... Why did you and Uncle Ron get school awards your second year?' Victoire asked smoothly.

'Because of me,' Ginny said suddenly. 'Someone slipped an artifact of Voldemort's in my school things when we went to get them for my first year. It was a diary. I thought it was just a regular diary. I wrote in it, and he, well, used me through it.' She felt Harry's hand close around hers under the table. She clasped it gratefully. 'He was able to use me to open something called the Chamber of Secrets, so he could terrorize the students and teachers at Hogwarts with a basilisk.' Ginny paused to take a steadying breath. 'He took me down to the Chamber to die. Harry and Ron came for me.' Ginny gave Harry a small, sad smile, her eyes bright with unshed tears. 'Harry killed the basilisk and the part of Voldemort that was in that diary.'

'But that was still luck,' Harry interjected. 'If Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, hadn't brought the Sorting Hat to me, and Gryffindor's sword hadn't fallen out...' He shook his head. 'I almost died myself. Basilisk fang went through my arm. If Fawkes hadn't been there... Phoenix tears can heal just about anything. Even basilisk venom.'

'Where were you, Dad?' asked Hugo thoughtfully.

'Trying to dismantle a wall of rubble that fell when that git of a DADA professor who was sent to retrive Ginny tried to Obliviate Harry and me with my broken wand after we'd discovered he was useless. Sort of backfired and he Obliviated himself. He's still in St. Mungo's.' Ron chuckled a bit.

'Calling Lockhart a professor is going a bit far, don't you think?' asked Percy

'He was pretty worthless,' agreed Katie.

'It was a cursed position,' explained Charlie. 'Until Voldemort was defeated, nobody lasted more than a year.'

'Really?' said Madeline. 'I thought that was some sort of urban legend.'

'Nope. It's true. We had two really good ones. Teddy's dad, Remus, and Mad-Eye Moody. Well, someone posing as Mad-Eye,' mused George.

'Why did they only last a year, if they were so good?' asked James. Defense was one of his favorite subjects.

'Remus was a werewolf, so he was forced out,' Harry said. 'He's the reason why Hermione works so hard for werewolf rights. And as for Mad-Eye... It wasn't really Mad-Eye. It was a Death Eater using Polyjuice potion to pose as Mad-Eye.'

'But we did learn loads from him,' said Hermione ruefully.

'What's a Death Eater?' asked Rose.

'Someone who followed Voldemort,' said Arthur. 'Most of them are gone. Killed in the last battle. There are a few that are still alive. They're not active anymore, though.'

'What's the Triwizard tournament?' It was Isabella.

'Zat's a contest between 'Ogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang,' said Fleur. 'Each school has a champion, chosen by the Goblet of Fire. You must complete three tasks. It was... dangerous,' she said, shaking her head. ''Arry and I competed in it.'

'Yeah, Uncle Harry. That book Rosie found says you won,' Jacob said.

'What bloody book is this?' Harry asked perplexed.

'Famous Witches and Wizards of the Twentieth Century,' answered Rose promptly.

'Of course it is,' muttered Harry mutinously.

'So, did you?' asked James. 'Win?'

'Yes,' Harry sighed.

'But the Triwizard Cup was a Portkey. The fake Mad-Eye made it into one, and basically ensured Harry got to the center of the obstacle course-maze that was the third task so it would take him to a graveyard,' said Hermione, knowing Harry didn't like to talk about that. 'Except another student was with Harry, and he was murdered,' she finished quietly.

Harry swallowed hard. 'When Riddle's Killing curse bounced off me when I was a baby, he sort of disappeared. He needed my blood to come back, and part of his father's remains. The graveyard was where his father was buried. So, he took some of my blood, got his body back, and we fought a duel.'

'Who's Riddle?' asked Owen. He looked a bit confused.

'That was Voldemort's real name,' said Ginny. 'Tom Riddle. He hated it. His father was a Muggle, and Riddle hated anything to do with Muggles, so he changed it.'

'Why did he hate Muggles if his father was one?' wondered Alexander.

'That's a long story, and I don't have the energy to go into it right now,' said Harry.

'Dumbledore's Army?' inquired Al.

'Ah, Dumbledore's Army,' grinned George. 'Our illicit student organization.'

'Why was it illicit?' asked Madeline.

'We had a Ministry official at Hogwarts teaching Defense that year. Umbridge. She banned all student groups and we met in secret,' explained Ginny.

'That was the year the Ministry tried to take over Hogwarts,' said Percy. 'In hindsight, it was a bloody stupid thing to try,' he added.

'We fought a group of Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry my fourth year,' said Ginny. 'Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and me.'

'Why would you do something daft like that?' exclaimed Parker, flabbergasted.

'Oh, well...' Harry leaned his chair back on its two back legs. 'When I was in my fifth year, Riddle found out we had this... bond. We could see what the other was thinking, if a strong emotion was tied to it. He made me think my godfather was being tortured in the Department of Mysteries. So the six of us went to rescue him.

'But it had all been a horrible mistake. He made me see something that wasn't real, and my godfather died because of it.' Harry took his glasses off and rubbed a hand over his face. 'That bond gave me nightmares for the better part of four years,' Harry said to Al, who nodded, the comment Harry had made to him that morning, finally making sense.

The room was silent for a moment. Then timidly, Rose asked, 'What was the Battle of Hogwarts?'

'Which one, Rosie?' asked Ron.

'The first one.'

'Death Eaters attacked the castle while Dumbledore and Harry were gone, trying to find a way to defeat Riddle,' said Ginny.

'That was when Dumbledore died,' said Harry.

'And the second?' James asked.

'That was when Fred died,' said Molly haltinging.

'It was a year after the first one,' George said softly.

'We, Harry, Hermione and me, spent about eight or nine months trying to find ways to defeat Voldemort. Usually trying to evade Death Eaters intent on finding us.' Ron seemed more interested in the grain of the table.

'What do you mean 'ways'?' asked Victoire, eyes narrowed.

'Riddle split his soul into seven pieces and put them into things. In order for him to die we had to destroy them,' said Hermione.

'But one of them was me.' Harry glanced at his children, and saw the looks of fear and awe on their faces. This was exactly what he had wanted to avoid. 'I had to die,' he finished quietly.

'But, Dad, you're not dead,' pointed out Al, as if Harry was being unreasonable.

'No, I'm not.' Harry blindly reached for Ginny's hands. He needed to touch her to get through this. 'But part of the deal was I had to willingly sacrifice myself to save everyone else. I had a choice, though, after the Killing Curse hit. To go back or not.' Harry shrugged. 'Either way, though, the part of Riddle that was in me died.'

'And you killed him,' whispered James, wide-eyed.

'No,' Harry replied automatically. 'He killed himself. He had a chance to show any kind of remorse for all the shite he had done, but he didn't. His Killing Curse bounced off my Disarming charm. Plus, he was using a wand that hadn't chosen him.'

'So all that claptrap that Ollivander said about the wand choosing the wizard is true?' asked Rose skeptically.

'Very.'

'So that's why people stare at you?' Al looked at him, face creased in bemusement.

'It wasn't just me. It was all of us. I did nothing by myself. If I didn't have Ron or Hermione that year we spent on the run from Death Eaters, I wouldn't have been able to succeed. If Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Fred, George, Percy, Ginny, Katie, Penny, Molly, or Arthur or the Order or the DA hadn't been at that battle...' Harry trailed off.

'Why didn't you bother to tell any of us this before?' demanded Victoire.

'We just wanted to put the last couple of years behind us and live without fear for the first time in years,' said Arthur gently. 'We all knew we'd have to tell you at some point or another. We just didn't know when.'

'It's just really difficult for us to talk about it,' added George.

'Talking about it makes it real. All over again,' stated Ginny, looking at Harry.

'We all had nightmares about it. For weeks and months,' Ron mumbled.

'So you can see why this wasn't something we wanted to talk about with you,' Charlie said heavily. 'We really weren't trying to hide anything.'

The cousins exchanged looks amongst themselves. 'Thank you,' whispered Victoire. She got up, and motioned to the others to go up to what had been Fred and George's old room.

'Well, that could have gone worse,' said Harry wryly, as the kitchen door swung shut behind them.

*****

As the session in the kitchen went on, Scorpius and Teddy walked along the snowy lane toward Stoatshead Hill. 'So you're Draco's son,' said Teddy.

Scorpius nodded. 'How do you know my father?'

'You don't know?'

'What?'

'Your grandmother Narcissa is my Gran's sister. So that makes us cousins.'

'Were you in Slytherin, then?' Scorpius looked at Teddy from the corner of his eye.

'Merlin, no! Gryffindor, like my dad.'

'And your grandmother didn't mind?'

'No. She was proud of me. And since her family had disowned her when she married a Muggle-born, they couldn't disown me any more than I already was.' Teddy shrugged. 'Didn't matter. I had Harry and Ginny. And Molly and Arthur. And all the rest of them.' Teddy examined the serious-looking boy trudging in the snow next to him. 'I take it your family didn't take kindly to you being in Gryffindor?'

'My mother seems to be all right with it.'

'But not your father?' Scorpius shook his head no. 'Ah.'

'Doesn't matter,' said Scorpius, echoing Teddy.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Scorpius asked, 'What are they talking about in there?'

'The war. What they did in it.' Teddy gave a half-shrug.

'Oh.' Scorpius was quiet again. 'Teddy?'

'Yeah?'

'How do you do that?' Scorpius fingered a lock of pale blonde hair that peeped from under his hat. 'Your hair?'

Teddy laughed. 'I'm a Metamorphmagus. I can change my appearance at will. My mum was one.'

'Oh. That's what Al said, but he didn't tell me what that meant, Metamorphmagus.' Scorpius carefully sounded out the unfamiliar word. He looked at Teddy. 'What do you really look like?'

Teddy looked at Scorpius in surprise. 'Well, like this...' His eyes unfocused a bit and his spiky turquoise hair turned sandy. Teddy didn't change his appearance drastically most of the time. He had his father's grey eyes in his mother's heart-shaped face, but it was the echoes of his father that stared back at him in a mirror more and more as the years passed.

'Thank you.'

'You're welcome.'

Scorpius suddenly stopped. 'I'm glad you're my family,' he blurted.

'Thanks.' Teddy was taken aback by the openness of Scorpius. Andromeda had warned him that he might be aloof and snobbish, given his father's influence. But Scorpius was not what he had expected at all. 'You're all right, yourself.'

'Think they're done?' Scorpius was starting to get cold.

'They might be by the time we get back.'

They turned and headed back to the Burrow.