Hey! You mentioned that harry explained everything to Teddy a bit to late in the Biography piece and I’d just love to see how that went down. Also I love your writing! :)
‘Harry,’ came Teddy’s cautious voice, ‘I have some questions.’
Harry looked at his godson’s nervous, solemn face for a moment, and then pointed his wand over his shoulder at the kettle, which began to boil. He had known this was coming. He and Andromeda had agreed the previous month that, at the age of eight, Teddy was clearly growing frustrated with their vague, child-friendly explanations for Teddy’s missing parents and Harry’s fame and George’s missing ear and Bill’s scars, all of which usually boiled down to, ‘there was a fight against some bad wizards during the war.’ When he had finally howled ‘you never tell me anything!’ at Harry over the dinner table at the Burrow, having enquired about where he got the scar on his forearm and been told ‘a bad guy did it,’ they decided that enough was enough.
They had sat with Teddy in his room and given him a basic, carefully worded overview of everything. That a prophecy had been made. The confusion over who was passing information, and how Harry’s parents had been betrayed and died and the wrong man went to prison. That Voldemort kept trying to come back and that on one occasion Ginny had been kidnapped as part of it. That finally he succeeded, and Harry saw him return to his full power. That Teddy’s parents, and many other brave people, had restarted the Order of the Phoenix to fight him. That Harry had been tricked into going to the Ministry of Magic and had found out about the prophecy, and then spent a year learning about Voldemort’s past so he could fight him better, and that Death Eaters broke into the school and killed Dumbledore and hurt Bill. They had softened it by telling him, once again, how his mother had declared her love for his father. Then, with great difficulty as there were parts even Andromeda didn’t know about, Harry had explained that he, Ron and Hermione had been on the run for a year, looking for objects that had to be destroyed before Voldemort could die, and that finally the battle happened, and Harry learned that he had to die himself.
Teddy had sobbed violently as Harry had described, in the gentlest terms he could think of, how he had walked to meet his death and been cursed once again by the killing curse. Teddy did not even seem reassured when Harry explained that once again it didn’t work, that he had been carried out of the forest by Hagrid and then been able to stop Voldemort once and for all, but Teddy had just continued to shake with huge, gulping sobs, clinging to him as Harry looked helplessly at Andromeda.
‘It’s all just a lot to take in, isn’t it?’ Andromeda had said quietly, and Teddy had nodded as he cried. Harry resolved there and then to drip feed this sort of thing to James and the new baby, when he or she came. ‘I’m sorry, Teddy,’ he said. ‘I’ll always answer your questions, but I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to hear any of it.’
So now, just a few weeks later, the cups of tea floated over from the kettle as Harry sat with Teddy at the kitchen table. He suspected that Teddy had waited for Ginny to get in the bath before speaking to him, that he had been looking for the right opportunity since he arrived at Sparrow Cottage yesterday morning. ‘I’ll answer your questions,’ Harry said carefully, ‘as best as I can. But there are some things I don’t even like to tell grown ups, all right?’
Teddy nodded, and took his tea. ‘OK,’ he said. His voice was quiet and calm but determined, and with a jolt to his stomach, Harry was reminded forcefully of Remus. ‘I wanted to make sure,’ began Teddy, ‘that the man you mentioned who went to prison for your parents deaths even though it wasn’t him, I wanted to check that someone let him out of prison. Because you said the man who really did it, Pettigrew, you said that he ended up helping Voldemort and dying, but you never told me if the other man was OK in the end, and I realised he must have been friends with my dad too, because you said our dads were friends-’
Harry, who had expected questions asking for greater detail on the “action” parts of the story, felt a great ache in his heart as once again his godson surprised him with his unrelenting consideration for others, that after that whole story, the loose thread that Teddy had decided to tug on was the fate of a man Harry had mentioned only briefly. ‘Ah, Ted,’ he said sadly. ‘I’ve really never told you about him?’
Teddy just stared at him, his thin face watching with hesitation.
‘The man who went to prison, he was called Sirius Black. And yes, he and our fathers and Peter Pettigrew, they were all friends at school.’
‘Sirius like James’s middle name?’ asked Teddy.
Harry nodded, and, though he tried very hard to stop it, his voice was a little hoarser when he said, ‘yes, he was my godfather.’
Teddy blinked at him - it had clearly never occurred to him that Harry might have a godfather, but, as intelligent as he was, he had clearly grasped that he was no longer here, that there could only be one reason he had never met him.
‘You know that photo, in my study?’ Harry asked him. ‘Of my parents on their wedding day. Sirius is the man beside my father.’
‘What happened to him?’ Teddy asked.
‘Well, he was in prison for a long time,’ said Harry. ‘He broke out the same year I met your father, actually. I’ve told you before that my dad and your dad’s friends could turn into animals to help him during the full moon. Sirius could turn into a dog, and using that disguise he came to Hogwarts, looking for Peter Pettigrew.’
‘Why would he be there? Wasn’t he all grown up by then?’
‘He could disguise himself as a rat,’ said Harry patiently. ‘He had been hiding all this time too, at Hogwarts. When Sirius found out, he found the energy to break out and made his way there. There was a confrontation - your father was there too, it was in the Shrieking Shack. It was how I found out about it all.’ He hesitated. He felt sure he would give Teddy the full story of it all one day, but for now… ‘Your father had believed Sirius was the betrayer too, but Sirius was able to prove, once he found Peter, that he wasn’t. Unfortunately there was a scuffle and Peter escaped before we could return him to the castle. Without proof Sirius had to remain in hiding so he wouldn’t be sent back to Azkaban. But,’ he added, with a more hopeful air, ‘I’ve told you, haven’t I, about how Grimmauld Place was the headquarters? And how your parents fell in love there? It’s because the house belonged to my godfather, and your father lived with him there for a bit. I think it’s very wonderful they were able to have that friendship again before they died.’
‘How did he die?’ asked Teddy. Harry could see Teddy’s eyes watering already, watching Harry intently.
Harry took a few moments, sighing heavily, looking down at his mug of tea. ‘He… ‘ He looked up at the ceiling, then then back down at Teddy with another slight sigh. ‘You remember I said I was tricked into going to the Ministry, to get the prophecy?’ Teddy nodded. ‘I was tricked because Voldemort made me believe that Sirius was there, being tortured.’
‘Tortured?’ asked Teddy, his eyes widening.
‘He wasn’t,’ said Harry quickly, trying to ignore the prickling in his eyes. He cleared his throat. ‘Like I said, it was a trick. When I got there… Sirius wasn’t there. He never had been… But obviously… When he found out I was, he came to… came to come and get me,’ he said heavily, unable to keep looking at his godson. ‘But he… ended up being killed. By the same Death Eater who killed your mother, actually.’
‘Were you sad?’ Teddy whispered.
‘I was very sad,’ said Harry, the words seeming to tumble out of his mouth. Teddy rose from his chair and hugged Harry, who immediately pulled him onto his lap even though was getting a bit big for it.
‘Sorry,’ whispered Teddy again, against Harry’s neck. ‘I’m sorry - I shouldn’t have asked-’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Harry, pressing his lips against Teddy’s sandy brown hair. ‘I can’t believe I’ve never told you about him before. He was very important to me. And to your father. He was very upset too.’
He remembered, vividly, Remus’s arms around his chest, holding him back. Now Remus’s son was pressed against that same chest, his small hands gripping the robes at Harry’s shoulders. Harry could feel him trembling slightly, could hear the little sniffing breaths, the slight dampness on his collar.
‘I don’t know what I’d do if…’ choked Teddy.
‘Hey,’ said Harry firmly, pulling Teddy away from him so he could look into his tearful face. ‘That’s what the whole war was for. So stuff like that wouldn’t happen again, all right?’
Teddy nodded, and sniffed again.
‘Did you have any other questions?’ Harry asked him.
‘Yes,’ said Teddy wiping at his eyes and sitting a little straighter on Harry’s lap. ‘But I don’t need to ask them now.’
‘All right,’ said Harry quietly. He knew there would be more, and there was - for weeks, a constant stream of difficult questions and tears as Teddy’s vivid imagination helped him picture it all and torment his caring nature. But for now that was enough, and they were happy to sit together with their tea, Harry summoning a packet of chocolate biscuits too.
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