Harry hadn't slept well. Tim's early morning night terror had them both up at a ghastly hour. With some gentle Legillimancy, Harry was able to get the boy calmed and back to sleep.

After some attempt to turn over and go back to sleep, Harry just gave up in favor of taking a long shower.

He stared at himself in the glass, noting the dark circles and the grey hairs that were starting to show in the black. He pulled one out of the crown of his head, "You'll snatch yourself bald doing that, mate." said his reflection rudely.

Sad thing was, the reflection was likely right. He wondered if he should ask Ginny about spells to color his hair back to black, or should he just get used to the grey?

By the time he walked down to the kitchen, Ginny was up and drinking her coffee, in her dressing gown. Her back was to the door as she pored over some parchment. "Hey, Ginny," Harry said as he came in the door. Ginny didn't like being snuck up on anymore than Harry did.

"Good morning." Ginny replied absently.

Harry leaned over her back to kiss her neck and look at what she was reading. It was the list the undertaker's had sent of service options.

Ginny rested her hand on Harry's face for a moment, "What time d'you think we should have the burial?" she asked.

Harry sighed, "The vicar said noon worked for him."

"Mm." replied Ginny noting it down, "They want to know if we want the hearse pulled by thestrals."

"Oh, Merlin, no." said Harry sitting down beside her and pulling his own coffee cup over, "They do realize that the burial is at a Muggle cemetary, right? They can give us a car."

The funeral was being handled by Nekroun and Cenotaph, who handled most of the wizard funerals in London, except for those families who preferred to do it themselves. Harry had been rather impressed at how easily they had handled the muggle relations when picking up Mary's body from the coroner, but apparently this was a normal happening for them. Wizards and muggles were all alike in death, they said

"Shall we do the lunch at the Leaky Cauldron? I can owl Bert to reserve the big private dining room."

"Why not here?" asked Harry. The Leaky Cauldron seemed a bit public for this.

"Because we don't have enough room." said Ginny firmly.

"Oh, come on." said Harry, "The four of us and Ron and Hermione?"

Ginny gave him an impatient look, "And Mum and Dad. The boys. George and Lee. Percy and Pansy. Bill and Fleur. That's ten there. Rose, Hugo and Eleanor. Another three. Dudley and Phillip. That's fifteen, nineteen altogether. Mr. Clark makes it an easy twenty. Victoire and Teddy are still away, but Andromeda should get an invite. I don't know if she'll want to come, she'd been having some trouble with her knee...And then Charlie and..."

"All right, all right," laughed Harry, "Enough. Do you want to frighten the poor little thing to death? I thought we were going to take this slowly."

Ginny said very seriously, "Listen Harry," she said, "I think its important that Tim knows he's got a big family. That we're all here for him. At a time like this...Well, its more important than ever that he knows he's not alone."

"I suppose." Harry wasn't convinced, though.

Ginny sighed at the look on Harry's face, "If Tim starts to get overwhelmed, we can just leave. That's rather more difficult if we're here. Another reason to have it at the Leaky Cauldron."

Harry nodded, reluctantly.

For a few minutes they drank their coffee in silence.

"And then, I just keep thinking about poor Mary." said Ginny quietly, "If anyone deserves a proper funeral, its her."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry. Ginny had called the woman an "effing cow" only two weeks ago.

"Ginny?" asked Harry slowly, when she didn't answer.

Ginny sighed, "Don't you see? When Hermione spoke to her about Tim, Mary made sure that she wouldn't be told where Tim was. If she didn't know, then that bastard couldn't get it out of her. As long as everyone thought Mary might have visitation, she would be told where Tim was. Our names, at least"

"I never thought of it that way," Harry said, it made sense.

"I'm not trying to paint her as a saint, Harry." said Ginny, "But she was only seventeen or so when Tim was born. And if she'd been cursed very often...well, given what Hermione tells me are the effects of heroin on muggles, I'd've started taking the stuff too."

Harry nodded. Covered Ginny's smaller hand with his own, "You've never talked much about that last year a Hogwarts," he'd never had the courage to ask before, either.

Ginny shrugged, "Long dead past, Harry. What's the point?"

"It might help me figure out Snape's cure. How many times did the Carrows curse you and Luna and Neville?" Harry persisted, steeling himself for the answer.

"Two, three times a week that first term." said Ginny in a detached voice , "More between Christmas and Easter. Crabbe and Goyle got pretty good at it too." Ginny looked at him and her brown eyes, normally so expressive, had gone flat, "It was bad until Snape started with that potion of his."

Harry closed his eyes, not being able to face her blank ones.

She took a long tremulous breath, "After the first few times, you start to find that the ache never really goes away. All your joints hurt. All the time. And you're so tired. I couldn't get warm, and I remember not being able to follow what anyone was saying in class. Minerva kept sending me to Poppy, for Pepper Ups and Dreamless Sleep, but they didn't help much. It was only after one bad round...I thought I was losing my mind...Snape came in and gave me this potion. He told the Carrows that the Dark Lord didn't want any Pure Bloods to die. And then, the first time he gave it to me, my whole body tingled, like when something's been asleep. Hurt like hell. Slept for sixteen hours. Poppy told me that Neville was worse. When Snape gave him the potion, he had some sort of seizure. She thought Snape'd killed him."

She stopped as her breath caught in her throat, "I would do the same thing as Mary, if I couldn't kill the bastard first." she said hoarsely.

Harry leaned forward and took her in his arms.

They sat like that until they heard steps on the stairs. Ginny sat up, wiped her eyes, "I better get a move on." she said, still hoarse, "Lily, darling, get some breakfast. We need to go soon. You've still got school."

"Yes, Mum." said Lily, unusually quiet.

"Come on, Tim, you too." Ginny said, recovering her usual efficient self.

Tim flinched from Ginny as she tried to pat him on the shoulder. Harry caught something in the boy's eyes that looked like disappointment. The cups on the table began to shake a little. Ginny knelt down in front of him, "Lovey, what's wro..." she stopped, "That's a stupid question, isn't it?" she said to him softly.

He shrugged, looked down, "I thought..." he stopped, shrugged, "Nevermind. I'll get ready for school." he sounded tired and resigned.

She put her hand on his arm, "Listen to me, love, " She said quietly, even as the cups trembled as though with cold. Harry picked up his wand, just in case they started flying around. Ginny went on "I'm going to take Lily to school, and then I have some errands to run. You and Harry are going to meet me in Diagon Alley before lunch." she paused, as his eyes came up to look at her furtively, "That's where your Mum is now."

He nodded, slowly. The cups stopped shaking quite so ominously.

"Did you think we changed our minds?" Ginny asked gently.

To Harry's surprise, the boy answered, "I just thought, maybe, it was something you were just saying." he whispered.

"Sorry." she said, "That wasn't what I meant. I meant you need to sit and eat. Come on."

The cups stopped shaking.

"So I can go...go see her?" Tim asked as he sat down and was given a plate by Kreacher.

"Yes, love." said Ginny, "Harry and I will take you." she gave Harry a resigned sort of look, "Since, its so important to you."

After Lily and Ginny left, Harry sent off the parchments to Nekroun and Cenotaph's. He sent Tim up to get a bath and get ready to go. Again, Tim with his precocious self sufficiency. He hated anyone, even Kreacher to help him.

Harry headed up the stairs to make himself presentable and heard Tim talking. He peeked in the slightly open door. Tim appeared to be having a serious discussion with his teddy. On another day it would have been sweet. Today it made Harry's throat ache as he heard the boy say, "I don't know how long they'll really keep me. I know I'm no good to them. They've got other boys and Lily who are really theirs."

Harry went to find his good cloak, reminding himself that he fairly regularly thought the same things about the Weasleys, when he was young. Even after he had married Ginny, Molly had had to continue to be aggressively affectionate to get Harry to understand that he really was family.

Nekroun and Cenotaph's was at the junction of Diagon and Knock Turn Alleys, the crossroads being the traditional setting for wizarding undertakers. It was a fairly nondescript building with modest well kept windows and facade. Harry had never had need to come here before, never having had to arrange a funeral himself.

Molly and Ginny waited for Harry and Tim on the steps, "Tim, this is..." Ginny hesitated not sure how Molly wanted Tim to address her.

"All the children call me Gran," said Molly kindly, "Very pleased to meet you, at last."

Tim was paler than usual and managed to squeak out a little "Hello."

Molly looked seriously at Harry, "I went over with Mr. Nekroun what we needed. He said there was no problems with a private viewing. He said it...well, it's not uncommon and he agreed its often very helpful for the bereaved."

It was clear that Molly had reservations, but she led the three of them in through the door.

Inside was a comfortable sitting room, decorated in lavender and grey. Molly and Ginny sat together on the grey velvet love seat. Harry sat down on the matching settee. Tim surprised Harry by coming to stand leaning against him. Harry slipped his arm around the boy's shoulder and the boy didn't throw it off. Harry could feel Tim's trembling and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Mr. Nekroun was a thin, tallish man with a swarthy complexion, dark hair and black eyes. Harry had a sudden vivid recollection of Professor Snape staring at him over the rim of a whiskey glass. Where did that come from? Then it was gone.

"Mr. and Mrs. Potter." the man put out his hand to each of them, as they stood and then bent down a little to greet Tim, "And this must be young Mr. Dawson." Mr. Nekroun had a pleasant, low voice, pitched to be soothing.

Tim gave a jerky little nod of greeting.

"I'm very sorry for your loss." The man said gently, "I understand you'd like a private viewing?" he asked the three of them.

Harry replied, "Yes, we would."

"Well, we have her all ready. We've put her in a private room and the four of you can go in and spend as much time as you need. All right?" He led the way to a little room off to the side.

Tim was flanked by both Harry and Ginny, although he didn't take either one's hand. As they rounded the corner into the room, Harry heard Tim's breath catch.

A white coffin sat alone at the far end of the room. Harry breathed a little sigh of relief, to himself. Mary's face was composed and tranquil, although pale. She wore pink robes with lace sleeves.  Ginny had chosen them from the undertakers selection, because they went so well with Mary's blond hair. Hair that her son had inherited.

Harry used his wand to lower the table the coffin rested on so that Tim could see. He walked to within a foot of it, staring, his eyes huge and shadowed.

"That's her." he whispered, tonelessly. Harry knew that the boy had been hoping for some mistake.

Harry and Ginny still stood on either side of him. Harry was aware of Molly somewhere near the door.

"She hates pink." Tim said.

"What was her favorite color?" asked Ginny.

"Blue. She used to say she loved blue, like my eyes."

"Tim?" said Molly, coming up beside them, "Can you look at me?"

Tim looked. Molly took a good look into his eyes then raised her wand, pointing it at Mary's body, "Divum puteulanus vestio" she said giving the wand an artful little wave.

Mary's robes turned the same sky blue as Tim's eyes.

"Thank you." he said, softly.

"It's nothing." Molly said sadly, "I wish I..." she trailed off helplessly.

Tim walked a little forward, closer to the body. Ginny raised her hand as if to stop him, but Harry gently took her hand instead. He glanced at her worried face and shook his head.

Tim put a shaking hand out, touching Mary's cold one. The stasis charm on the body would have chilled it down to less than room temperature. Tim drew his hand back, startled by the cold stiffness of the dead hand.

Now Harry and Ginny came forward. Tim started to cry again, but there were no threatened explosions of accidental magic. Harry picked the child up and was gratified that Tim put his hands around his neck. Ginny encircled them both.

After a long time, Tim said, "Can we go home now?"