Harry walked through the Floo and was thankful to find the house quiet, despite the fact that it was only half past seven. It was the kind of quiet that told Harry that most, if not all, of the boys were asleep.

“Hey, Love, what did Dad want?” Ginny asked from the doorway, leaning against the frame.

Harry looked over at Ginny and frowned.

“You aren’t gonna like it, Gin. In fact, you are going to hate what is going on.” Harry said.

His hands were shaking. That was the first thing that Ginny noticed.

“Harry, what is wrong? What has happened?”

Ginny felt the fear that she had not felt in years grip her stomach and heart. Something was wrong. Ginny hadn’t seen Harry shake like he was now since the final battle.

Harry was silent.

“Tell me, Harry. What is going on?” Ginny demanded.

Harry took a deep breath.

“The Veil opened back up last night.”

“What? Did someone else come through the Veil?” Ginny was confused.

“Yes. Dumbledore.” Harry felt that it would probably be easier to throw it out there quickly. Like tearing off a muggle band aid. Fast and smooth was always easiest.

Ginny froze. She no longer felt that gripping tightness in her stomach.

What she felt was pure, unadulterated anger.

“Love…” Harry started. Ginny held her hand up. She couldn’t talk. Not yet.

Several moments passed before Ginny finally looked at Harry after a deep breath.

“How old is he?”

“He is the same age he was when he died.”

“I am going to see him.” Ginny said, going towards the closet to grab her cloak.

“Love, no. Not right now. The boys are asleep, and you are tired…”

“I am going, Harrison James Potter! I will not let this happen again. I will not let him…”

“Mummmmmmmmy!” A scream filled the room.

Ginny dropped the cloak she had picked up out of the closet on the couch and just stared at Harry for a few moments.

Tears of anger were pooling in her eyes.

“Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!”

“Once again, he is saved from hardship by our son, Harry, but rest assured, he will get what he deserves.”

With that, Ginny rushed towards Severus’ room where the little boy’s crying was getting louder and louder.

Harry followed her and stopped behind her when she froze in the doorway of the child’s room.

“It’s okay, Sev. It’s okay to cry and be afraid. Everyone is afraid sometimes.”

Teddy.

Harry scooted in closer to Ginny and leaned against the door frame, watching the two little boys who had not yet noticed their parents.

“I want Mummy.” Severus cried. Teddy patted his back.

“How bout I stay with you? Me an’ you can both fit in your bed easy. And, I will stay all night long.” Teddy told Severus.

Teddy watched Severus as the little boy cried, but then crawled under the blankets with Sev and lightly patted his back until the little boy fell asleep.

Soon, both the boys were fast asleep and Ginny and Harry looked at the duo. They were so proud of their children.

They were especially proud of Teddy, who seemed to be growing up and maturing right in front of them.

“Come on, Love, we have things to talk about.” Harry said, gently pulling Ginny with him towards the study.

~sdrawkcab~

Ginny lay awake all night. It should not have been possible, as she had not slept at all the night before either, but she had too many things running through her mind.

Harry was laying beside her, his arm over her protectively. They had talked for several hours before he had fallen asleep, but nothing had truly soothed either of their nerves and emotions.

Ginny thought of her children. Of Teddy, who had lost his parents, his biological parents, in a war that could have been ended years sooner than it had; to Sirius and Severus, who had lost their own lives in that war; to Jamie, the child born so soon after the war, another light for two devastated individuals; to Alby, a child who shared his name with a manipulative man.

That bothered both Potters. Alby was close to three years old, and had been born nearly three years after the war had ended. No one had really said anything about the war, or the people lost in it. In fact, most refused to even talk about it.

They had named Alby, Albus Severus Potter minutes after he was born.

Later that year, Rita Skeeter had started printing things about Dumbledore. Things that no one thought were true.

Until they found out that they had been.

Pansy, who had kept her secrets from everyone at first, had slowly but surely told Ginny and Harry…with Narcissa and Draco by her side… what had happened during her years at Hogwarts.

It had still taken them a while to accept everything. There had been a short while where they had seriously deliberated on changing their youngest child’s name, but one night Harry had come home, stared at his wife and three children on the floor.

“Ginny, Dumbledore messed up. We know that he was cunning and manipulative. We know that he screwed up everything. But when we named our son we still thought he was a half-way decent guy. We named Alby with the best of intentions. And besides, his middle name, Severus, more than makes up for the shite Dumbledore brought to our world.”

It had still taken time, but slowly they stopped thinking about changing the baby’s name.

After all, Dumbledore had done great things. They had not been with the best intentions, but they had been great.

Harry said the man, in many ways, reminded him Ollivander’s words to him the first time they had met. After all, Voldemort had been inherently evil; yet, he, too, had done great things with his magic.

Ginny sighed with the thought and curled up next to her husband as closely as she could. She wanted him to hold her as close as he could.

Almost as if Harry, in his sleep, could sense that exactly what she needed. He instantly pulled her close to him and placed his chin on top of her head.

It was position that made Ginny feel safer than any other.

~sdrawkcab~

The next morning, Ginny and Harry Floo’d back to Hogwarts with the children, as Harry needed to do some work before the new term started. They had packed what little they had brought with them and then woke the boys to go straight through. If they had left anything, they would come back and get it later.

Over breakfast shortly after they had gotten back to Hogwarts, Ginny and Harry placed cut up waffles with syrup, and scrambled eggs on the boys’ plates. The boys were quiet, and all of them looked slightly tired.

“Mummy, I wanna play outside.” Alby said, shoving a handful of eggs into his mouth. His talking was getting better every day.

“Daddy, you wanna go ride brooms today?” Sirius asked Harry.

“Kids, let’s eat and then see what we want to do.” Harry said.

“I’m sleepy.” Severus said, laying his head on the table.

Teddy nodded.

Ginny looked at Harry. She was supposed to go to work in thirty minutes, her first day back after the Holidays, though the previous day was supposed to have been.

“We will go outside and play for a bit, and then after lunch we can all rest.” Harry said, shoveling food in his mouth almost as fast as the boys.

Ginny smiled. She was glad that there were no apparent tantrums going to occur today.

“Okay, boys, I have to go to work. I know that it will be tough, but you guys can clean up before you change…into warm clothing…and then go outside. I will be back this afternoon.”

With that, she quickly kissed the boys on the forehead, and the wrapped her arms around Harry with a quick hug and kiss.

Before long, she was walking through the Floo, headed to work.

Harry looked at the boys with a huge smile.

“So, how about we make this quick, as I see you are all finished eating. How about I clean,” he flicked his wand and everything vanished to the kitchen, “and you all go put on warm clothes so that we can go outside!”

Immediately, the boys all jumped up and ran towards their rooms, except for Sev, who was waiting on Alby. Then, together, they both ran towards their rooms.

Harry, not one to normally pay attention to what the boys wore like Ginny did, realized that he probably should have helped them pick out their clothes when they came into the living room ten minutes later.

Sirius was dressed from head to two in red. The only thing was that the reds were not all the same color red. Even his shoes, which changed colors to match his clothes was a burnt red color that didn’t match any of the other reds.

Teddy matched better than Sirius, except that he had forgotten to put on a sweater and warm cloak.

Jamie came running out in his underwear and a long sleeved shirt with a flying snitch on it, yelling that he couldn’t find his pants.

Both Severus and Alby came out dressed from head to toe in black. They matched, had on warm cloaks, and hats, but neither had put on their shoes nor socks.

Harry looked at the five boys and just barely stifled a laugh.

“Okay, guys. You all did a fantastic job dressing, but we know how Mummy can be sometimes if we are not dressed exactly right when we go out in public. So, Sirius, how about you go change into some warm trousers and get your heavier, black, winter cloak? Teddy, you need on a sweater, and also your winter cloak. Also hats and gloves. It is cold outside. Sev, Alby, you need socks and shoes on your feet. Jamie, come on and I will help you find your pants, and your warm, outside stuff.”

Obediently, they all followed Harry’s directions. Within twenty minutes they were headed outside, Harry with shrunken playground equipment in his pocket and the child’s toy broom in his hands with five little boys marching in front of him through Hogwarts so that they would be able to play on the grounds

It was nice, Harry thought, that the boys were acting just like children, playing amongst one another with contentment after he had unshrunk the play equipment that they kept in a box in the living room for times when they brought the boys outside at the Castle.

Teddy and Severus were swinging, Jamie and Alby were building something in the sand box, and Sirius was taking his turn on the broom, flying in circles around Harry.

“Sev, don’t swing too high. I don’t want you to fall off and break anything.”

“Yes, sir.” Sev said quietly. To Harry’s surprise, he immediately slowed the swing down, all the while talking to Teddy.

“Teddy, let’s go look at the plants over there.” Severus said, pointing to a small plot of plants which Harry knew were non-lethal, and nodded to the two boys as they ran over to the little plants.

Harry could hear the boys talking, Severus explaining to Teddy which plants were which, and which plants were used in certain potions while Teddy interjected every once in a while asking questions.

This was the part of life that Harry loved. The part of life that made the tough areas worth it.

“Come Back!” Harry heard a yell.

It was McGonagall.

“No! You no longer have rights here!” She yelled again. Harry looked up and saw her racing towards the little area where the boys were all playing and he was watching them.

Severus and Teddy both looked up at the same time. But Severus saw something that Harry did not immediately see.

He jumped up to his feet, a bit of dandelion flower and root, dirt still intact, clutched in his small, clamped hand.

He stared into the damnable, twinkling, blue eyes of a man that nearly always graced his nightmares.

Dumbledore stopped right in front of the two children, but Severus especially.

“Why Severus, how good it is to see you. Though I never imagined this was the form you would be in.”

“Daddddddddddy!” Severus yelled, and backed up. He fell backwards, catching himself with the palms of his hands with a sickening crack to the left one.

Severus didn’t notice it though. He was only able to focus, at that moment, on one thing.

And that was the man in front of him, and how much bigger he seemed than his own five, nearly six, year old self.

“Stupefy!”

The spell hit the man immediately, sending him backwards nearly ten feet and unconscious.

“Sirius, get off the broom, Bud. We’ll fly more in a while.” Harry said as he ran over to Severus and Teddy. Jamie and Alby were standing still, their eyes wide with shock at what had just happened in front of them. Sirius, too, was standing still, staring. He had already been coming down when Harry had told him to.

Teddy was kneeling beside Sev, his hand on his leg, staring at the bearded, unconscious man on the ground.

“Sev, Sev, are you okay?” Harry asked frantically. Severus didn’t speak though, he only looked up into Harry’s emerald green eyes with his deep, obsidian ones, tears pooling in them.

Minerva was already running scans over the little boy’s body, as she had heard the crack when he had hit the ground.

“Harry, his left arm is broken from his fall. You need to take him to Poppy. I can watch the boys.” She told him.

“No! I’m going with Sev and Daddy!” Teddy said, though stepping back a bit. He knew that McGonagall was a strict one at the best of times.

“Me, too!” Sirius yelled, walking up beside his two brothers, followed closely by his youngest brothers.

“It’s okay. I will take them with me. But, Minerva, get him out of here. If he comes near my sons again, I will not simlpy stupefy him. And when I am done, I will let Ginny take a turn followed by Draco, Narcissa…I think you get my point. Please make sure that he, too, understands. We will talk with him on our terms. Not his. And he will NOT talk to my children.”

“No worries, Harry. I will make bloody well sure the man knows it.”

That was when Harry realized just how pissed the woman looked and the fact that she had her wand drawn.

Pointing straight at the unconscious form of Albus Dumbledore, dare the man not follow her rules when he woke up.

“Thank you, Min. I will talk to you later. Please don’t bring him to the infirmary.”

And with that, Harry, holding Severus close to his body as tears fell down the little boy’s cheeks, started walking to the Castle with Sirius holding Alby’s hand, Teddy holding Jamie’s, all following close behind their father and brother.