Chapter Text
Harry James Potter, the boy-who-lived, the man-who-conquered, the savior of the wizarding world, was not usually a man who procrastinated on big projects. With his journey to his own death, he had realized that there is no point in putting things off, they will always happen, better to rip the bandaid off so to speak, but somehow he had put off clearing out the attic of Grimmauld Place for years.
In the aftermath of the death of Voldemort, many things had happened, the trials for supposed Deatheaters, funerals, the claimage of his titles of Lord Potter and Lord Black, and most importantly the realization that he had a godson. A godson who was less than a year old, and in dire need of a permanent guardian. While his grandmother, Andromeda Tonks nee Black, was more than happy to watch over her only grandchild, the death of her husband and daughter weighed heavily on her mind. She loved having Teddy around but admitted one night after the young infant had fallen asleep that she would be unable to care for the child much longer.
Knowing this Harry went to the goblins to apologize and repay them for the damages caused to Gringotts and the loss of their dragon. Luckily for him, they realized that what was done was done for the betterment of the Wizarding world, and only took a sizable chunk of his vaults. He hired a curse breaker and a team of goblins to go through the Black Family home and remove any and all dark artifacts and cursed items.
By the end of the whole project his vault was much lighter than before, but he had a good home to raise his godson. He took official custody of Teddy and a week later Andromeda passed peacefully in her sleep at home in her bed. Her funeral was attended only by Harry, Teddy, and surprisingly Kreacher. They chose the traditional rites of cremation and used the ashes to fertilize a tree of the witch or wizards choosing, and so a wisteria tree was planted in the back garden of Grimmauld Place.
The next 8 years were spent in relative seclusion. Harry had very few people over. After the end of the war, he had realized he was in fact gay and when he told the Weasley’s, Arthur, Bill, George and surprisingly Percy, were supportive. Molly, Ron and Ginny on the other hand started to pitch hissy fits about how Harry should ‘do the right thing and marry Ginny’. When they were met with a resounding no, they cut off any sort of communication with Harry.
After that the only school friends he had really kept in touch with were Neville and Luna. They came over for tea anytime they were in town, but both were busy with their partners and getting their lives back together after nearly dying. Bill and Fleur were also some of the few people Harry spoke to. After the birth of their daughter, Victoire, they started to have joint playdates with the two children.
Even though Harry had plenty of time in those 8 years, he had never gotten around to cleaning out the attic. It had been cleared by the goblins, but he had never taken the time to go through all the old stuff. Harry awoke the morning of December 31, 2006, and decided over his morning cup of tea, that today he was going to change that. He sat at the little nook that served as their dining room with parchment and a quill and wrote down a small list of how he would organize everything
- Clothing - donate or keep
- Books
- Storage
- Heirlooms
By the time he had made his list (just a few short minutes that felt longer due to the early time) Teddy was already at the other side of the table, devouring his favorite cereal.
“So, what are we gonna do today?” the 8-year-old asked, his hair languidly changing though the colors of the rainbow before settling on a coral, orange color.
“I am going to clean out the attic, if you would like to help, you may, but I won’t force you. I have no idea what sort of stuff will be up there, if there is anything even worth going though if I’m honest.” Harry told him.
“I guess I can at least check it out and if there is nothing interesting, I can always come down and play or something.” Teddy mumbled through a mouthful of Lucky Charms, continuing his breakfast.
“Don’t talk with your mouthful, pup,” the admonishment was said with exasperation and a fond amusement “I’m going to head up stairs, when you are done make sure to clean up.” Harry ruffled the now purplish red hair.
Harry heard the halfhearted grumble coming from the boy as he headed toward the attic.
The next few hours were spent going through trunks, finding some interesting things but mostly stuff that was just forgotten about. Teddy filtered in and out, sometimes staying long enough to help take down the rubbish and other times just popping in to see if anything really interesting had been found.
Harry was just starting the last trunk when he heard Teddy start to come up the stairs, probably to get him for lunch. He opened the lid to the trunk only to be greeted with a plume of dust straight to the face, coughing and sneezing he heard giggles from the doorway.
“Find anything interesting there, dad?” Teddy asked still snickering
Finally clearing his lungs Harry looked down into the trunk and shrugged his shoulders “Just looks like a couple more knickknacks.” He started to reach for the first, which seemed to be an oddly shaped paperweight with some sort of etching on it when he heard Teddy yelp from behind him. He started to turn only to have Teddy’s weight fall onto him and force his hand into contact with the paperweight. Just as he wrapped an arm around Teddy, his fingers grasped the paperweight, and suddenly a feeling similar to that of a portkey, whisked the two wizards away.
Should they have stuck around for just a few seconds more they might have heard a melodic tinkling of bells and the raspy cackle of two of the most powerful beings in all time.