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There was only one thing different that morning in the Potter household, and that was the presence of Teddy Lupin in some of Dad’s pyjamas, pale and ruffle haired, clutching his head at the kitchen table.
‘What are you doing here?’ James asked him loudly, leaning over Lily’s head to grab a piece of toast.
Teddy winced. ‘Oh, don’t, I’ve got a banging headache.’
‘Teddy and your father decided to go to the White Lion last night,’ said Mum sternly. She looked across at her husband, who was lazily frying bacon. ‘Look at him, look what you’ve done to your godson.’
‘Don’t look at me, I did warn him that beer was stronger than it looked. Eat up, Ted, you’ll feel better.’
Teddy yawned and slowly grabbed the half eaten bacon sandwich in front of him. James sat heavily next to Lily and poured himself a glass of orange juice.
‘When are you going home?’ James asked him.
‘Charming,’ replied Teddy, round a mouthful of bacon.
‘Not in a bad way, I just think if all of us are here we could do some Quidditch. So if you’re planning on hanging around-’
‘I’m not here today,’ said Al. ‘I’m going after this, I’m going to Scor-’
Ted, James and Lily all started making ringing noises with their tongues - it was a testament to the power of The Scorpius Alarm that Teddy did it in his fragile state.
Albus scowled. ‘Mum! They’re doing it again-’
Stop that you lot,’ she said absent-mindedly, without looking up from her newspaper.
‘Teddy can’t play like this anyway,’ continued Lily. ‘Look at him, he falls off his broom all the time anyway-’
‘Rude,’ said Teddy. ‘Anyway, I’ll be all right in a bit - you’ve got some of that potion, haven’t you, Ginny? To fix hangovers-’
She hissed, still reading her paper. ‘Think I ran out.’
‘Come on, don’t wind me up - I think I might be dying-’
‘You’re not meant to rely on those potions,’ said Al. ‘They lose their effectiveness. Scorpius says-’
They all made the ringing noise again, and Al flung the crust of his toast at James.
‘Dad,’ said Lily, suddenly excited. ‘Daddy, there’s a muggle postman! Dad!’
They looked out the window, and sure enough, there was the muggle postman, walking up the garden path. James watched with rapt curiosity, Lily practically bouncing in her seat beside him.
Dad frowned and headed to the door; they heard low murmurings before he returned with an envelope.
‘Who’s it from?’ Lily asked, smiling broadly.
Dad didn’t answer her, just opened the letter and scanned it silently for a few moments.
‘Harry?’ Mum said gently.
His expression didn’t change. ‘My aunt died,’ he said, quite matter-of-factly.
The table went silent. Teddy swore. ‘Harry, I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘Dad…’ said Al softly.
But still Dad’s face didn’t change, and James realised he felt weirdly upset about it. Dad just gave an odd jerk of the head and a slight shrug. ‘She wasn’t very nice.’
‘When’s the funeral?’ asked Mum. ‘Do you want to go?’
‘Ah… They’ve already had it,’ he replied, turning the letter over. ‘Dudley just says there’s a couple of things in the house I might want.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘I’ll head there now, should make it back in time for Quidditch, all right?’
They all stared at him, except for Mum, who raised her plate of toast. ‘Take some to go,’ she said. ‘Want me to come?’
‘Nah, don’t worry, Vernon won’t be there,’ said Harry, grabbing a couple of slices. ‘He’s with Marge. I’ll be back in twenty.’
‘All right. See you soon.’ He kissed her on the top of her head, and then left, vanishing with a crack and leaving the house in uncharacteristic quiet. Mum went back to her newspaper.
It was Albus who broke it. ‘Is Dad a psychopath?’
Mum looked up and frowned at him. ‘Of course he’s not, don’t say that.’ She looked around the table, taking in their stunned expressions. ‘Oh, look, I’m sure he’s a bit sad, somewhere, but you all know they didn’t get on.’
‘There’s not getting on and then there’s that,’ said Lily. ‘He wasn’t even told about the funeral?’
‘Sounds like they wouldn’t have told him at all if he didn’t have stuff to pick up,’ said Ted.
Mum shrugged, her expression glum. ‘They haven’t spoken in a very long time. I don’t think he would have gone to the funeral even if he’d known about it, he wouldn’t have been welcome.’
‘But they raised him,’ said James. ‘I know they were horrible and him and Dudley got into fights-’
Mum snorted. ‘Got into fights - Dudley and his friends relentlessly beat him up, he’s just too ashamed to admit it, so Harry plays along when he makes out that it was all in good fun. I think his aunt and uncle knocked him about a fair bit too, until he learnt magic and then they were too scared. He had a miserable childhood.’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘We’ve told you all this, you know this - Ron’s told you about the bars on the window incident, hasn’t he?’
‘I dunno, I thought that was just Uncle Ron,’ said Al. ‘You know, every story’s got a bit of whimsical ridiculousness.’
She sighed heavily, shaking her head. ‘No, I know your Dad and Uncle Ron are flippant about it all, but…’ She shook her head. ‘They were always horrible to him.’
‘But he was just a baby when he was left there,’ said Ted, looking bewildered. ‘I mean, they must have looked after him at some point, you know, he wouldn’t have been able to talk or anything-’
Mum seemed to consider Teddy for a few moments. ‘No… ‘ she said slowly. ‘My understanding… And we only found this out later… Was that it was easier to just tuck him away somewhere and let him cry it out.’ Her fingers tapped against the table; she looked as though she were going to say something else, but thought better of it.
‘Why would they do that?’ asked Lily in a small voice.
The tapping got more rapid, Mum pressed her lips together in consideration. She glanced out the window as though checking he hadn’t returned. ‘I don’t know. They just didn’t love him. Or care about him, and they made that very clear. I think all of that was much worse for him than getting knocked about, that’s what stayed.’
Teddy rubbed his hands hard over his eyes, and into his hair. ‘But they were nice to their son? They treated them differently?
‘Oh, yes, their son was very loved.’
‘How can he be so flippant about it then?’
‘He always has been. You know what he’s like, he’s not going to get sentimental about it. Unless he gets quite drunk,’ she added as an afterthought.
James squirmed. He felt oddly guilty. All those times when dad had joked and he had laughed - little passing comments about having to stay out the way of heavy objects when his uncle was on the rampage, responses to their whining about chores of ‘well I’ll give you a toothbrush to clean the toilet next time, like my aunt expected’, how much they all laughed and teased him when he got a bit drunk and went round telling people he loved them and how lucky he was…
Lily burst into tears, and hugged Teddy, who gripped her shoulder back.
‘Hey,’ said Mum firmly. ‘Enough of that. He gets embarrassed about it all, if he wants to be flippant, we’ll just be flippant, all right?’
‘What do you think the stuff is? That Dudley’s asked him to get?’ asked Al.
‘I don’t know,’ said Mum, frowning. ‘He didn’t have any toys or anything-’
Lily cried harder, and Teddy tried to shush her. ‘Could she have left him something? In her will?’
‘I don’t think so - really, Lily, it’s all right - I imagine it would have all gone to her husband and son. Perhaps it’s something to do with his mum; they certainly didn’t get on either, but they might have as children.’
There was a crack from outside, and Harry reappeared on the front lawn, carrying a cardboard box. The moment he stepped back into the kitchen, Lily gave a wail and rushed towards him.
‘Lily!’ he said in surprise as she flung her arms around his waist. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘They were so horrible to you!’
‘What? It’s fine… No need to cry about it.’ He gave an exasperated look at Mum, who grimaced in response.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘What’s in the box?’
He set it on the kitchen table, and started peeling back the tape. ‘Dudley’s pretty cut up, and he couldn’t tell me what’s in it because Hyacinth was there, so I suppose it’s something to do with magic - I probably left some old school stuff or…’ he trailed off as he opened it, reaching in and pulling out a very old looking blanket. In one corner, hand stitched, were the letters HP.
‘Was that yours?’ Lily asked.
Dad didn’t answer; his face was very still as he reach in again and pulled out a letter - it was too far away for James to read it, but he could see looping handwriting. ‘It’s the letter Dumbledore wrote to my aunt explaining,’ Dad said. ‘I suppose this is what I arrived in.’
He handed the letter to Mum, who read it with a slight frown, and he reached in again. He pulled out tiny blue pyjamas, and collapsed into a chair, closing his eyes.
‘Dad-’ James blurted out, and Lily was hugging him again, Mum rubbing his shoulder, Teddy leaning forward as though unsure whether or not to approach.
‘I’m fine,’ Dad said, his voice perfectly calm. ‘Really, you’re all sweet, but I’m fine.’ He rubbed his eyes under his glasses. ‘Reckon I’m a bit hungover too, I’m going to head back to bed.’
‘All right,’ said Mum quietly. She took the pyjamas from him and placed them carefully back in the box. ‘I’ll bring you up a coffee in an hour or so.’
‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘Really, Lily, I’m fine-’ He kissed her on the forehead and rose, picking up the box. ‘I’ll join you for Quidditch after I’ve had a kip, boys.’
‘OK,’ said James, who felt unsure of what to say. ‘Will you play chaser?’
‘If you want,’ his father said vaguely. Then he left the room with the box, and they listened to his footsteps slowly creaking up the stairs.