Questions and Answers

Harry set the parchment down on his desk. It held a list of the former Death Eaters on probation. Two weeks after the boys went back to school, they would come into his office, one by one, and he would perform Legilimency on them. As always, Draco Malfoy was on the bottom of the list - the last person of the day. Harry often wondered if it would be easier to do Draco first and get it over with, rather than fret and stew the whole day about it.

He pulled his glasses off and rubbed his gritty eyes. Closer to home, there were more worries. Lily hadn't managed a repeat of her performance with Scorpius on Boxing Day, but she'd held him at arm's length since. Poor Scorpius was terribly confused by her behavior, and Al and James were at a loss to explain it. Ginny had pulled Lily aside yesterday and tried to explain to Lily that she was being unreasonable; Scorpius had nothing to do with what had happened to Ginny. Harry wasn't surprised. Lily was acting just like he had in the past. It had been terribly difficult for him to see Andromeda as something other than a relative of Bellatrix Lestrange at first. He slumped down, so his head rested on the desk. People often assumed Lily's somewhat volatile temper came from her mother. That was true to a certain extent.

But Harry knew otherwise.

He normally kept a rather tight rein on his temper publicly, so most people didn't know or had forgotten he could get rather explosive when provoked. He could also hold a grudge longer than most people lived. And Lily was in the process of working herself into holding a grudge against an innocent boy. Harry knew better than to try and make Lily see reason. As far as she was concerned, reason didn't exist right now, and it would be better for her to come to terms with Scorpius on her own time.

'Dad?' Harry squinted at the figure standing in the doorway. He was unable to make out the features, but it had black hair, and was too tall to be Al.

'Yes, James?'

'Could we stay up late tonight?' James asked, a hopeful expression on his face.

'How late?' Harry countered.

'Midnight?'

'Make it eleven.'

'But Dad... It's the last day of the holiday!' James protested.

Harry slid his glasses back over his nose. 'Yes, and you lot have to get up early tomorrow and catch the train back to school.'

'Don't see why we can't take the Knight Bus...' James grumbled.

'You could,' Harry agreed. 'If you didn't get sick so much.' The few times the Potters had used the Knight Bus, James spent the entire trip throwing up into a paper bag.

'Dad, that was a long time ago.'

'That was last summer when we went to watch the Ireland-Ukraine match.'

James waved off the minor detail. 'That was July. Months ago.'

'You, Al, and Scorpius will take the train, and that's my final answer, James. And don't bother going to pester your mother, either,' Harry added, seeing a calculating look come over his son's face.

'How'd you know I was going to ask Mum?' James asked suspiciously.

Harry snickered. 'You look just like your uncles George and Fred when they got an idea going. Your mum, too, come to think of it. I've seen that look way too many times.'

'Why does everyone in this family have to look like someone else in this family?' James groused.

'Bad luck all around, I suppose.' Harry shoved the parchment into his desk drawer, and stood up, slinging an arm around James' shoulders. 'Consider yourself lucky you didn't get red hair.'

'Yeah, but I got yours,' retorted James darkly.

'Sorry, about that. I wouldn't have wished it on my worst enemy.' Harry kissed James' forehead, making him squirm. 'DNA's a bitch if you're a Potter or a Weasley, and you got it on both ends, kiddo.'

'Blech.' James wiped his forehead, making a comically disgusted face at his father. 'Don't do that!'

'I expect all of you to be in bed at eleven, all right?'

'Fine,' James sighed in defeat.

'And make sure you get your things packed up before dinner. You don't want your mum to fuss at you in the morning, do you?'

'Merlin's sagging - ' James bit off what he was going say. 'No.' He blew out a gusty breath. 'Between you and me, Dad, when she gets going, not even a Stunner would stop her.'

Harry herded James to the stairs. 'She gets it honestly. You should have heard your grandmum in her prime.'

'I've heard her now, thanks,' James said, going up the stairs. 'Hey, Al, Scorpius!' he shouted. 'If we get our things packed up now, Dad says we can stay up until eleven!'

'That's not - ' Harry started to object, but stopped. Shrugging, he went into the kitchen to help Ginny with dinner. If it got the boys to get their things ready before they got up in the morning, who was he to complain?

*****

Lily stood quietly on the platform, waiting for the train to leave. Normally, she would have been standing on the edge, waving furiously to her brothers, but she was watching Teddy and Scorpius. Teddy had given her a lot to think about, and while she understood Teddy was related to Lucius Malfoy, he wasn't Teddy's grandfather. But he was Scorpius'. It was that relationship that made her wary of Scorpius. She was having a hard time letting go of the fact that her parents had nearly died at the hands of Lucius Malfoy.

'Lily?' Scorpius' hesitant voice broke through her thoughts. She blinked and spun around. Teddy was standing behind him, a hand on his shoulder. 'Um... Have a good term at school,' he blurted, and dashed for the train.

'Bye...' she called after him. He threw a glance over his shoulder and gave her a small wave. Teddy trailed after him to the edge of the platform, and waved vigorously, as the train began to move and slowly chugged out of sight. He turned back to Lily as the scarlet train disappeared.

'Hey, pumpkin,' he said. 'Kneazle got your tongue?' Lily mutely shook her head. Lily was still small enough for Teddy to sling her onto his back. She rested her cheek on his shoulder. 'So, given any thought to what we talked about the other night?' he asked, twisting his head to look at her.

'Uh-huh.'

'So?'

'It's not the same, Teddy,' she explained with a patient air. 'He wasn't your grandfather.' She settled against his back. 'Except for Scorpius and his mother and grandmother, nobody in that family even talks to you.'

Teddy snorted. 'The only ones left in the family are Scorpius, Narcissa, Daphne, and Draco. And from what Gran tells me, Narcissa says Draco barely even talks to Scorp.' He shifted Lily into a more comfortable grip. 'Frankly, I'm better off. Gran was full of stories about them growing up. You know, she ran away when she married my grandfather. If she hadn't, Lucius Malfoy would have been my grandfather.'

'Ewww.'

'Exactly,' Teddy agreed. Teddy squeezed one of Lily's ankles. 'Lighten up on the kid, will you? I'm pretty sure he doesn't know anything about it.'

'How do you know that?'

'I've heard him talking with Al and James. And since they don't know about this, all three of them are confused.' Teddy could feel Lily heave a sigh as it stirred his hair.

'What should I do? If Scorpius asks?'

Teddy stopped near the entrance back into King's Cross, waiting for Harry and Ginny to finish their conversation with Hermione and Ron. 'I don't know, pumpkin,' he admitted. 'That's up to you and Gin.'

'You're a lot of help,' Lily scoffed.

'I try,' Teddy said with a smile.

'Hey, Lils,' Harry said, tugging on one of her plaits. 'How about we take the Tube over to the Leaky Cauldron and have some lunch? Maybe Neville will still be there.' Lily adored Neville, and he doted on Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione's children. Neville and Hannah hadn't been able to have children, but it hadn't been for lack of trying. They had both been rather sanguine publicly about it all, but Harry knew it had been difficult for them both. He still held a scrap of hope that someday things would work for the two of them. Neville often joked as the Head of Gryffindor, he had several children, but he got to skip all the toilet-training and terrible twos.

'Okay,' Lily said, sliding down Teddy's back to the ground. 'Wanna come with us, Teddy?'

'I'd love to, but I have to get back to work. I just came to see the boys off. I can come round for dinner, though,' he added cheekily.

'Teddy, we keep a place set for you.' Ginny had bid farewell to Ron and Hermione and walked to where her husband and daughter stood. She rose on her toes to kiss Teddy's cheek, and she, Lily, and Harry went through the entrance, while Teddy Disapparated to the Ministry.

Harry took Lily's hand as they meandered their way to the correct platform. 'Maybe we can stop by Quality Quidditch Supplies, and start looking for a good broom for you. Or we can go to the shop, and see what your uncles have out for the post-holiday sale.'

'Actually, I need to stop at Flourish and Blotts,' Ginny said. 'Could we fit that in while we're here?'

'Sure,' Harry said cheerfully, looking around for the platform number. Suddenly he froze, a look of utter horror on his face. 'Bloody, effing shite,' he muttered, feeling the blood drain from his face.

'Dad!' Lily exclaimed.

'Harry, do you feel all right?' Ginny asked, trying to feel his forehead for fever.

'I'm fine,' he growled, irritably shaking Ginny's hand off. 'Come on,' he said pulling Lily along by the hand, walking faster.

'Ruddy freaks with owls,' floated an infuriated voice Ginny recognized from her one encounter with it nearly twenty years ago.

'Oh, bloody hell,' she sighed, patting her pocket for her wand.

'Vernon, this way,' a second voice joined the first one, nasally, but no less annoyed than the first.

'Ow. Dad, you're hurting my arm,' protested Lily.

Harry stopped walking and loosened his grip on Lily's hand. 'Sorry, sweetie,' he sighed, looking down at her hand, rubbing at the reddened areas where his hand had tightened around her fingers. He dropped a kiss on the back of her hand. 'There you go. All better,' he said distractedly.

Lily looked up at the couple who had come to a dead stop in front of her and her parents. The man was large and beefy with a walrus-like graying moustache. The woman was thin with a mouth full of overly large teeth and a long, nearly rectangular face. The woman looked at her with a strange look on her face. She felt a hand land on her shoulder, and knew it belonged to her father. She backed up a few steps until she bumped into his legs. 'What's your name?' the rather horsy looking woman demanded.

'Lily,' she blurted.

The woman looked at Harry. 'You named her Lily?' she asked.

'Yeah, I did.' Harry looked at Vernon and Petunia Dursley. The past twenty years had not been kind to them. He blinked a few times and realized he felt...

Nothing.

No rage. No anger. Not even pain or regret. He felt a small smile curve his lips, and slid his arm around Ginny's shoulders.

'So you're still married to her, I assume,' Petunia sniffed disdainfully.

Harry felt the smile twist wryly. 'Yes. This is my wife, Ginny.'

'We've met,' Vernon huffed.

'You have?' Harry felt his eyebrows drift up in surprise.

'I'll explain later,' Ginny said in an undertone. 'And this is our daughter, Lily,' she said in a louder voice. 'Pity, you just missed our boys. They're on their way back to school.'

'More freaks?' Vernon ground out.

'We're not freaks!' piped up Lily.

'Children ought to keep their mouths shut,' growled Vernon.

'Don't speak to my daughter that way,' Harry said quietly, an undercurrent of steel in his voice. It made Vernon blink.

'Harry?' A new voice joined the tense knot of people. 'Is that you?'

Harry's head swiveled around. Dudley was walking toward them, obviously meeting his parents. 'Dudley,' he said shortly.

Dudley extended a hand to Ginny. 'You must be Ginny,' he said warmly. 'The photographs don't do you justice.' He knelt on the floor of the station, eye-level with Lily. 'And you must be Lily,' he said, offering his hand to her. 'I'm Dudley,' he said.

'Oh! You're Dad's cousin. The one who sends the cards at Christmas.' Lily looked up at Dudley. 'Dad makes us take a Muggle photograph to send to you.'

'Ah. The one this year was nice,' Dudley told her. 'You look just like your mum,' he added.

'Thanks,' Lily replied with a smile.

'We should get going,' Dudley said, looking up at his parents. 'It was nice to meet you,' he said to Lily, rising to his feet. 'And you,' he added to Ginny. 'It was good to see you, Harry,' Dudley said sincerely. 'Maybe next time you're in London, we can get together for coffee or something.' He held out a large hand to Harry, and after a moment, Harry grasped it, and the two men stood there for a moment. They released each other's hand, and Dudley smiled at Harry, Ginny, and Lily, before turning to his parents and gently herding them toward an exit.

'Well, that was unexpected,' Ginny said softly.

'You can say that again,' Harry murmured.

They stood there in silence, watching the retreating forms of the Dursleys vanish into a crowd of people. 'Well, shall we?' Ginny proposed, gesturing toward the platform for the train that would take them down to Charing Cross Road.

On the ride to Charing Cross, Ginny touched the back of Harry's neck. 'Are you all right?'

He gazed at her for a moment. 'I am,' he replied. When Ginny's look of concern turned skeptical, he repeated, 'Really, Gin, I'm fine.' He smiled at her reassuringly. 'They don't matter anymore.'

'I thought Dudley was married...' Ginny mused.

'He is. Back when Lily was about two, I think. But Petunia and Vernon like to pretend Aaron doesn't exist. He doesn't fit their idea of what's "proper". I'm sure Petunia was thrilled when her Ickle Diddydums turned out to be a pouf.' Harry sighed. 'I'm not sure which is worse. The outright disapproval, like they did with me, or that subtle shite they do with Dudley and Aaron.'

'And you know this how...?' Ginny asked.

'He's mentioned it a time or two,' Harry admitted. 'We've gone from just cards at Christmas to exchanging letters a couple times a year.'

'Oh, okay.' Ginny idly watched as the walls of the tunnel flew by. 'That's good.'

'You think so?'

'Yes, I do. You two may not be best friends, but you have to admit, he's not the same person you grew up with.'

'True enough,' Harry agreed.

*****

Harry watched Neville sit with Lily at the end of the bar inside the Leaky Cauldron. He was telling her stories about a toad named Trevor and all his adventures. Harry was sure most of them were what Neville imagined happened to his venturesome toad at school. 'It really is a shame,' he commented to Ginny. 'He and Hannah should have had a Quidditch team's worth of little ones.'

'Yeah,' Ginny sighed. 'I wonder what happened with that.'

'With what?' asked Hannah, setting their lunches down on the table. 'I gave Lily hers at the bar with Neville.'

'Oh, nothing,' Ginny said smoothly. 'We ran into Harry's Muggle relations at King's Cross.'

'I'll bet that was a laugh riot,' Hannah responded dryly. She knew about the Dursleys from Neville.

'Can't wait to do it again,' Harry responded, picking up his fork. 'If it happens in another twenty years, it'll be twenty years too soon.'

Neville and Lily joined them later, Lily sporting an impressive orange pumpkin juice moustache staining her upper lip. 'I have to get back to the school,' he told Hannah. 'I'll see you at dinner?' Hannah nodded, and Neville kissed her on the cheek, before he turned to Harry and Ginny. 'I hope you had a talk with your boys over the holiday,' he said to them.

'About what?' Ginny asked apprehensively.

'Their Quidditch game,' Neville said seriously. 'I've had that cup in my office for the past three years. I fully expect to keep it this year.' He grinned at them, and left the main room of the pub, to the private office that had a Floo connection from the pub to his and Hannah's quarters at Hogwarts.

'He's starting to sound like Minerva,' Ginny commented. 'I wonder if it's something in the water...'

*****

Lily sat alone in the backseat of the car, looking forlorn without her brothers crowding the seat on either side of her. 'Dad?'

'Yes, Lily?'

'Who were those people in the station?'

'My Muggle relatives,' he replied, his eyes glued to the highway in front of them. 'My mum's sister and her husband. And their son. I lived with them after my parents died from the age of one until I was seventeen. Except when I was at Hogwarts, of course.'

'They're not very nice,' Lily pronounced. 'Dudley seemed all right, though,' she amended.

'No, Lils, they're not the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.'

'Why are they like that?' she asked. 'They were mean.'

'I don't know,' Harry said. 'They just don't like things to be different.'

'Why did that big man call us freaks?'

Harry sighed, and glanced in the rearview mirror at Lily. 'Some people like to call other people names. It makes them feel better about themselves.'

'I don't understand...' Lily began.

'You know how Regina McLeod at school makes fun of your freckles?' Ginny asked Lily.

'Yes.'

'She's not in a good way, so she's trying to make you feel like she does,' Ginny explained, twisting around in her seat to face Lily.

'So that man calls us freaks because...?' Lily persisted.

'Oh, who knows?' Harry grumbled. 'Maybe Petunia's still forcing him to eat a quarter of a grapefruit for breakfast. Or perhaps the elastic in his Y-fronts is shot. Or maybe Petunia's used too much starch in them.' He glared at the highway. 'Or maybe he hasn't had a decent shag in nearly forty years,' he mumbled under his breath.

'I heard that,' Ginny chided, amused.

'But you're a good dad,' Lily said, sliding forward in the seat, so her head bobbed between Harry and Ginny's. 'If they were so nasty, how could you be so nice?'

'I have no idea, Lily. Just lucky, I suppose.'

'Then how did Dudley turn out to be so nice?'

'He wasn't always nice,' Harry said neutrally. 'He was a right git when we were kids.'

'What do you mean?'

'Did anyone ever tell you that you ask too many questions?' Harry asked his daughter.

'No,' Lily said promptly. 'Why was he a git?'

'He used to call me names, slap me around when he was bored. Bullied me quite a lot.' Harry was surprised to find it didn't make his heart twist to say it anymore.

'What happened?' Lily rested her chin on the back of Ginny's seat, so she could look at Harry.

'He got a chance to see how other people saw him,' Harry said softly. 'It took a couple of years, but he managed to change for the better. It's a rare gift to be able to do that.'

'Who's Aaron?'

'His partner,' Ginny replied.

'What's that?' Lily asked.

'Uh... Like Gareth and Rafa,' Ginny said.

'Oh, okay,' Lily said, satisfied with the answer. She had known Gareth and Rafa her entire life.

'Anything else?' Ginny asked.

'Not right now.' Lily settled into her seat again.

*****

'When did you meet the Dursleys?' Harry asked. He slid into bed, and turned out the light, plunging the bedroom into darkness. The ceiling began to glow with charmed starlight.

'Before we were married,' Ginny confessed.

'How did you manage that?'

'You don't want to know,' Ginny murmured.

'Yes, I do.'

Ginny sat up and looked down at Harry. 'Do we have to do this now?'

'It's as good a time as any.'

'You're not going to let it go, are you?'

'No.'

'Do you remember the night we were making up the list of people to invite to our wedding?'

'Yeah,' Harry said warily.

'Do you remember what happened?'

'Vaguely,' Harry acknowledged. 'It was a long time ago.'

'I asked about them. The Dursleys. And you got... Well, not shirty, but rather unhappy, and drank quite a lot of Firewhisky in the process of telling me about growing up with them,' she said, matter-of-factly.

'All right,' Harry said slowly.

'I went to Surrey after I put you to bed that night,' Ginny confessed in a whisper.

'You did what?' Harry nearly shouted.

'Harry, it was twenty years ago,' Ginny beseeched.

'Why, Ginny? Why would go there to see them?' Harry demanded.

'I needed to see them,' she said. 'I needed to...' Ginny trailed off helplessly. 'Someone had to confront them!' she burst out. 'They were horrible people who abused you and you came through to the other side. Someone had to tell them you succeeded. In spite of them.' Ginny grew quiet. 'And I had to go see for myself,' she added nearly inaudibly. Harry threw back the bedclothes and got out of the bed. 'Where are you going?' she asked.

'Downstairs,' Harry said shortly. He stopped with one hand on the doorknob. 'You had no right to do that, Ginny.'

'I had every right,' she retorted.

Harry said nothing, but opened the door, and just barely refrained from slamming it, lest he wake Lily.

Ginny flopped back into bed. 'Arse,' she muttered darkly. Harry was more stubborn that Ron sometimes.

*****

After dinner, Scorpius went up to the second year boys' dormitory in Gryffindor Tower. Lily had said something the other night that had been bothering him since then. Something about his grandfather Malfoy. He knew his father wouldn't say anything, and it was highly probable his mother knew less than he did. But Narcissa might know enough to explain to him why Lily had been so aloof to him. He climbed into his bed, and drew the curtains around it. He didn't want to have to answer questions about this letter he was about to send to his grandmother.

2 January 2019

Dear Grandmother,

I arrived at school in one piece. The trip up was uneventful and Geoffery and his lot left me alone, thankfully.

So, I have something I need to ask you, Grandmother. I think you're the only one who can give me an answer. The night I went to the Potters', Lily said something about Grandfather doing something to her mother. I thought Teddy might know something, but I couldn't get him alone to even try to ask.

I know Grandfather didn't really like the Weasleys, or the Potters, but what did he do to them that would have done something bad to Mrs. Potter? Lily is upset. At me. Because of Grandfather, and I want to know why, so I can try to make it up to her.

I'll write again soon, and let you know how my classes are going, and I'll see you at the Easter holiday.

Love,

Scorpius

He sealed the letter and laid it on his bedside table. He would take it down to the Owlery in the morning. He wondered if Narcissa would actually answer his questions. His parents and grandparents had been exceedingly close-mouthed about their roles in the war. Not for the first time, Scorpius envied James, Al, and Rosie, and the other Weasleys. Their parents had told them quite a lot last Christmas, and had promised to tell them more, if they needed it. Harry had explained what that rather odd-looking tattoo was on his father's arm was, and from the looks of it, Scorpius could only assume he had been on the bad side. Scorpius had tried to look it up just what the design was in the library last year, but hadn't gotten very far. He'd been too shy to ask for help, even from Rosie, who had learned the library backwards and forwards by the end of the first month.

Scorpius turned on his side, and stared at the letter. Not for the first time in his life, he wondered just what it was that his father felt he had to hide.