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While his work robes billowed around his thighs, Harry rapidly rushed through the ground halls of Hogwarts with a type of peril in his bones he had experienced in the same stretch of corridor before but this time, it was worse. So much worse. He’d run amongst a bloody war in the hall he was sprinting through now and somehow, the feeling of panic he currently had was tenfold despite the fact bodies weren’t dropping beside him.
The words from Minerva echoed in his mind, over and over again.
‘They’re both still unconscious- we don’t know all the specifics yet, all we know is that it was dark magic.’
It was a hasty conversation between him and his old Head of House and thankfully, he’d been in his office when she came through the Floo unprompted. He didn’t really get the entire story due to his haste, but apparently Albus, Rose and James had chosen this particular Saturday in Hogsmeade to venture out of bounds to an abandoned manor outside of town and break in, to which they were greeted by a hidden dark artifact that had missed inspection years prior after the war. Albus had apparently picked something up that glued to his hands then emitted some sort of booming pulse which swiftly knocked both him and Rose unconscious. James came out unscathed due to his distance to the pair, but was positively distraught according to Minerva.
Upon crashing through the Hospital Wing doors, he stopped dead in his tracks and his heart filled with relief upon seeing one of the two kids who had sent him into a frenzy was awake and well.
Rose was sitting up in a bed at the end of the wing, sobbing loudly as Ron and Hermione sat right beside her. Ron standing there with his hand on his mouth in thought and Hermione trying her best to soothe Rose’s cries. Though he was over the moon that she (both his niece and upon his marriage to Ron, his stepdaughter) was awake, the relief fell like a brick plummeting towards the ground as he realized Albus wasn’t .
He was lying in the bed next to Rose, his hands having dark veins wrapping and curling around his skin. If one didn’t know any better, if they didn’t see the evidence of an adventure gone wrong, they would think he was simply in a peaceful sleep. But he wasn’t. Within his tunnel vision, Harry caught sight of his firstborn pacing the end area of his bed as Madam Pomfrey stood at Albus’s side quickly preparing something in a small cauldron. The second James saw Harry, he rushed to him and Harry did the same, erasing the distance between them in a flash of a second.
“I’m sorry!” James cried, a rare display of panic written all over his face. “I told him not to touch it! I told them both not to touch anything!”
Harry roughly grabbed his hands in his hastily, looking for any sign of what was covering his brother. He pulled his sweater sleeves up as his breaths heaved out of his lungs then took James’ face into his hands, pushing his head from side to side to make sure for certain there wasn’t any of the dark magic on him as well.
There wasn’t- Harry felt he could cry in relief with that knowledge, but instead, he exploded with anger.
“What were you thinking ?!” he hissed in a seething manner that made James’s lip wobble dangerously- he had never been so cross with him. “Your brother could die , do you realize this?!”
At his very audible exclamation, Rose’s sobs grew louder. Ron right then appeared at his side and gently put his hand on his arm.
“Hey, it wasn’t his fault- just, just calm do-”
“Calm down?! Calm down?! ” Harry pointed to Albus. “How could you even tell me to calm down, Ron?! Look at our son! ”
He wanted to allow his husband’s comfort, wanted to cry into his arms- in ‘Mione’s arms- but he was pissed. And scared. More so the latter. Harry pushed past his husband before he could respond and rushed to Albus’s side, looking up at Madam Pomfrey in alarm as she suddenly slapped her hand out to the side to stop him from touching Albus’s hand.
“No!” she barked. “We don’t know what type of dark magic it is yet! Don’t touch him!”
Her words hit him right in the chest. He looked down at Albus with his lips tight, his hand hovering right over his as if it would allow him to feel he was there. He couldn’t bear not being able to touch him, comfort him, wake him up. James appeared at his side slowly and leaned his forehead against his arm.
“I’m sorry…” he croaked. “It was just supposed to be a laugh.”
“Yeah, a right laugh it is now, I bet.”
Harry moved abruptly which made James stand straight. He proceeded to pull the chair beside him near and sit down in it, not even bothering to look his way. He knew at the back of his mind that he wasn’t making the right decision in being cross with him but he was blinded by the overall panic and shock of the situation.
“McGonagall can’t get a hold of Mum. Go use your cell phone to ring her- the game should be in intermission by now,” he said icily.
James stood there for a second. Harry could feel his eyes on him, his guilt pooling out in waves that could almost be heard by how dense a form they held. He then suddenly tore from the room, small cries leaving his lips in which he was trying his best to stifle as he fled. Harry then felt another layer of guilt rise at the sound of James’s cries, ones that were rarely heard by anyone- he needed comfort just as much as him in this moment and yet, he was giving him choler instead. Now that the sight of Albus was sinking in, the severity of the moment was making its way into his brain. Though he felt terrible for immediately reacting to James’s distress with anger, Harry felt he knew better than to let his siblings go out of bounds and into a house of dark artifacts - he was older, he was responsible .
With that thought though, came the realization he of course wasn’t at fault. But he needed someone to blame, and Albus wasn’t awake for him to scream at. He didn’t know if he ever would be. Rose was, but he couldn’t bear to yell at her while she cried the way she was. Ron replaced James at his side, summoning the chair on the other side of the bed near so he could sit beside him. He took both his hands in his strongly, a rare display of public endearment. He had never been good at such things before.
“Harry.”
“What if he dies? ” Harry croaked out hoarsely, meeting his husband’s eyes.
Madam Pomfrey touched his shoulder lovingly from where she stood at the end table on the other side of him.
“I’ve entirely stopped the spread to his heart and brain, love- it’s only in his hands. That’s a good sign, a very good sign. Don’t you fret now, alright?”
“Hear that?” Ron whispered, leaning in close to Harry and forcing him to look his way with a soft touch on his chin. “He’ll wake up soon- he will - he’ll be fine .”
Harry took comfort in how certain Ron sounded- it was the only thing he could take solace in at that moment. Though Ron was his constant, the closest person to him in his life since they were eleven, a part of him craved Ginny in that moment. Though he and Ron pulled a bit of a ‘double divorce’ with their wives after Albus was born (Rose appearing just months later), Ginny was still Harry’s best friend and she was still the mother of his children. The mother of their unconscious child before him. He felt a bit bitter that she didn’t let her stand-in take the tournament this year, but of course knew this wasn’t in their plans for how their kids' school year would go and couldn’t hold onto that resentment. He was told by McGonagall that the operator of the stadium the Holyhead Harpies were playing at against the Chudley Cannons had been notified, but everyone knew the operator was dodgy and especially untrustworthy, especially in a case like this; their hopes weren’t high that he would relay the message. Harry felt thankful they charmed James’s cell phone the year prior to work within the school, for during intermission there was a chance Ginny would check it.
He needed her terribly, but he felt thankful his husband was beside him and their best friend inches away.
“What the fuck were they thinking ?” Harry whispered, shaking his head. “Fuck sakes …” he massaged his forehead stressfully.
“It was an accident,” Ron explained gently, something Harry clearly already knew. “A stupid mistake-”
He put up his hand as Harry glared at him, already knowing what he was about to try and interject with.
“- yes , a wildly stupid one, but still a mistake . And you can’t blame James for this.”
“He’s two years older than them! He was responsible for their well being!”
“Maybe when they were tiny but they're twelve now, love! He can’t watch over them forever! This is not his fault!”
Harry didn’t know why the words struck him so- maybe it was imagining Rosie and Albus tiny, playing in the yard back when they still had their eyes constantly upon them- but they caused him to immediately put his elbows on his thighs and began sobbing right then and there. Ron sighed exasperatedly and leaned his forehead onto his shoulder as he rubbed his back.
“He’s gonna be fine - I promise. Promise , okay?”
His words were hoarse- Albus started as his nephew but he became his son by the time he was one. The same year Rose became Harry’s daughter. After all the confusion related to their emotions in their teens, their experimental occurrences in their dorm late at night, it all ended up with the two of them realizing by 2006 that yes, they loved their wives, loved them more than the world , but not in the way they once had; it was the other, it always had been. What made it complicated was the kids, but thankfully they realized rather quickly that raising them in marriages neither of them wanted to be in wasn’t the path they wanted to take. The same went for lying to Ginny and Hermione- they would rather die than break their hearts to that degree. Thankfully (well, sort of), their relationships with the pair had been falling out of the desperate bond they made with them after the war by the time they were fully honest about their feelings for one another. In terms of being blessed with Lily and Hugo, that was a total accident. The irony of them getting both Ginny and Hermione pregnant when they had that tiny split second of a breakup became something to smile about after the shock wore off, for they loved their final children dearly.
As Harry cried with his fists clenching his hair, he realized it was making Rose cry even worse. He tried to stop, tried to keep himself level but he was terrified. He had lost so much already- they all had and he couldn’t lose him too. After a few minutes of Ron trying to soothe him with encouraging whispers and a soft, loving hand on his back, Hermione suddenly said his name which made him pause the motions against the back of his robe. Harry then felt Ron sigh, kiss the side of his head for a long second, and leave his side. Hermione took his place in the chair seconds after and she gripped his kneecap.
“Pomfrey told you she stopped the spread- it’s only in his hands. Which means his brain hasn’t been affected, his heart hasn’t- everything is isolated in his hands,” she began in a firm whisper.
Usually Harry hated her over explanations and couldn’t keep up with her point, but right now he clung to it as his tears flowed freely out of his eyes.
“It was probably meant to kill, yes-” she squeezed Harry’s knee as he sputtered out a more pronounced cry. “-but it didn’t because of James’s quick thinking- you know what he did?”
Hermione leaned into him, her face cocked below his.
“He used his satchel strap to tie off both his wrists- so tight he cut off the blood flow for a while, just so it wouldn’t spread. And it didn’t .”
Harry felt his previous guilt make a reappearance, this time even stronger. He let out a softly sputtered ‘fuck sakes…’ and Hermione gently took one of his hands away from the grip on his hair, clasping it at the level of their laps. He let his other hand go and put it over top of their embrace, his eyes hooked onto Albus’s sleeping form.
“He’s gonna wake up,” she said firmly. “It just may take some time, we haven’t figured everything out yet. Him and Rose are to go to St. Mungo’s once Pomfrey gives him the tonic that will act as a guard for any possible leftover dark magic spreading through him. They’re already expecting him. Have a team in place and everything.”
Harry looked up at Rose, who was staring at Albus; her brother, the one she had been raised right alongside with like a twin. She was gazing into him brokenly through Ron’s loving embrace around her. He shuddered out a breath and a tiny nod and stood, aching to comfort at least one of his children. And since Albus was in a sleep he previously feared he wouldn’t wake up from and he’d just sent James away, Rose was it. As he walked over to her, his face as soft and reassuring as he could make it, Rose broke away from Ron and stared up at him fearfully.
Upon the divorces, they tried to take away the divide of which one of their children was their blood, tried to make sure the kids grew up with the knowledge that they were all loved equally within his and Ron’s household and they were - if it was in the reverse, Harry would be just as distraught- but Rose stared up at him with a type of vivid guilt that showed a fraction of the belief they tried to quell when they were younger still existed; Albus was his , she was Ron’s; and she almost let his die.
“I’m s-sorry, Dad- I’m so, s-so, so sorry,” she whispered gravely and Harry shook his head, taking a seat in the spare chair beside her bed.
“No apologies, alright?” Harry whispered, cupping her cheek. “I shouldn’t have gotten mad at James like that- I was just scared… mad at him for not stopping the two of you.”
Rose stared over his shoulder at Albus.
“M-Mum says he’s not gonna die- is she right? H-He won’t?”
Harry was able to allow a small smile slip through, his own relief at Hermione’s words able to finally fill his chest; she was always right.
“Mum’s right. When is she not?”
Ron grimaced out a smile and stroked Harry’s thigh as he continued to rub Rose’s back. Hermione scoffed lightly and Harry looked back at her to see she was forcing out a smile as well towards him, happy he was trying to make a joke for their kid’s sake.
“Aunty Gin’s gonna go mental on James and I…”
“No,” Harry stated firmly at the same time as Ron while looking back at Rose then allowed Ron to continue for him.
“She can… go mental sometimes-” Ron said softly. “-but this won’t be one of those times. Not at you, at least. She’s not gonna be mad at you , she’s just gonna be scared.”
“We just… i-it looked cool, the manor,” Rose whispered, her long, straight red hair falling in front of her face as she looked down at her lap. “We just wanted to look a-around… Albus found the trapdoor under the carpet and f-found the box… James told us-” her words wavered. “-he told us not to touch anything but…”
Harry sighed, rubbing her arm lovingly.
“...we didn’t listen.”
Just then, James came through the doors and stopped as Harry, Ron and Hermione all looked up at him.
“Mum… she says she’s-” James looked away guiltily as Harry stood. “-she’s coming right now, just has to get to the apparition point outside the stadium.”
“Thanks, Jamie,” Hermione said softly and turned back to Albus as Harry passed the two of them, right for his first son.
The second he reached him, he pulled him right into his arms and James stood there motionless for a couple seconds, surprised at the change of tone.
“I’m sorry. For going mental.”
He clasped his hand at the back of his messy, dark auburn brown hair and coaxed him into his shoulder.
“So bloody proud of you, y’know that?” Harry whispered thickly. “Must have been terrified but you sprung right into action- Aunt ‘Mione tells me you saved his life.”
James hurriedly hugged him tightly and nodded.
“Thought he was dead,” he croaked, beginning to cry again. “Thought they both were. R-Red wouldn’t wake up.”
Harry found it slightly comical that even in the worst of times, he still used Rose’s nickname- he couldn’t even recall the last time he had used her real one. He nodded against his son’s head (he swore was on the path to becoming taller than him in just a couple years) then pressed a quick kiss to his hair.
“It’s all gonna be fine, alright?”
James nodded and parted from Harry, wiping his tears. He then glared angrily at Rose.
“Why’d you encourage him?!” he said heatedly. “You could have fucking died! ”
Harry inwardly sighed and put his hand on James’s shoulder to try and calm him. Rose glared back at him with the fire of her mother.
“You don’t think I feel bad enough already?! ” she yelled back while choking back a cry.
Ron stood to try and block her view of her brother but failed as she craned her body to the side.
“Bet you would feel better if it was me in his place, wouldn’t you?!”
James scoffed, entirely affronted and Harry, Ron and Hermione all made surprised noises of shock at her comment.
“Rose!” Ron snapped. “What a fuckin’ thing to say! ”
“Ron, language! ” Hermione skipped snapping at Rose despite seeming like she wanted to. “You wonder where these three get it from?!”
Harry knew he was partially to blame as well- and Ginny, of course. He wouldn’t be surprised if Lily and Hugo arrived to their sorting next year with the vocabulary of a drunk Seamus Finnigan circa fourth year.
“How- how could you even say something like that?!” James yelled back, his cheeks reddening in a way they only did when he became angry or upset.
Ron sighed exasperatedly again.
“Both of you need to-”
“You went to him first!” Rose cried. “That person on the street you flagged down, they woke me up! You w-were right at his side when I opened my eyes! Clearly it’s him you would be most distraught over if one of us were to die!”
James blinked, his face contorting a moment in both surprise and offense. He pointed at Rose indignantly. Harry rubbed his forehead- sometimes when they fought, they could break it apart but now, there was no breaking their heated argument.
“I was at your side! Y-You wouldn’t bloody wake up! I th-thought you were dead! That’s why I left to get help! And I was at his side when you woke up because his hands look like death, you twit!”
James then laughed coldly and gestured his hands outward.
“Has this really turned into a pissing contest on who’s more loved by me?!” He gestured to Albus. “My brother almost died , Red!”
“ Our brother!”
Harry looked at Rose, his heart clenching as he saw the heartbroken and angered look written all over her face. He then switched his attention to James, to see him purse his lips with the threat of more tears. Finally, he settled his eyes on Ron with a hopeless expression, he too sharing the same look. Clearly, despite the fact they raised the five of their kids with the belief that they were all siblings despite their previous marriages, some of the confusion stuck. And they felt it may, but it never really seemed an issue until this moment. James was born when he and Ginny were still happy- and when Albus and Rose were born, he saw one as his brother and one as his cousin. Though he was only three when he and Ron finally got together and Rose became his sister, it seemed that maybe a portion of his difference in relationship to the two of them still stayed. Harry knew that James’s despair would be no different if Rose had touched the artifact- he would still be just as upset- but it seemed from that tiny little comment he just made, that he was yet to fully view her as his sister. And by the way Rose looked at Harry when he walked over to her after first going to Albus’s side, it seemed she didn’t fully view herself as his daughter. Though she was born before Lily, she didn’t seem to think she was ‘his’ like Lily was- no matter how much Harry had tried to remind her she was.
“Fuck you!” James stammered out, earning a deep sigh from Hermione before she stood.
Tears resumed their place in waves down his cheeks.
“Just- f-fuck you, Red!”
James tore away from Harry’s side in the direction of the Hospital Wing doors.
“Jamie, come on-” Harry sighed, rushing after him.
Right before he reached the doors, they swung open to reveal Ginny clad in her dirty yellow Chaser uniform with panic written all over her face. James stopped in his tracks right before her and she looked between everyone in the room with confusion, her eyes then settling on Albus and gaining a look of dread within them. But before she could rush to him, James ran toward her and crashed into her chest, sobbing into her uniform. Harry blinked away his own returning tears and walked up to the pair.
“What the fuck?” Ginny whispered to him as he approached. “What the fuck happened? ”
She held James tightly to her chest while her gaze flicked back and forth between Albus and Harry. Harry grimaced and looked off to the side.
“The three of them broke into that old manor just outside of Hogsmea-”
“The one owned by Nott?!”
“Yes.”
“I thought you and Ron cleared that years ago?!”
“ No, we cleared the one down the way. If we had been the team on the manor, we would have been a little more thorough-” Harry replied bitterly while shaking his head. “Al found a trapdoor under the carpet, touched a box that made his hands…”
He looked back at their son’s hands for a moment and pursed his lips in disgust, the image of dark magic intertwined into his child’s skin being downright sickening .
“...look like that.”
Ginny blinked in disbelief then massaged her mouth, tears springing to her eyes.
“Why isn’t he awake? What’s wrong?”
“They don’t know-” Harry began as Ron approached them, finishing his sentence for him.
“-but he’s gonna wake up, Gin- he will, okay? It’s probably just the after effects. The dark magic’s only in his hands.”
Ginny let go of James and ran her hands through her hair while shaking her head wildly, causing Harry to pull his son in while his mother had the scare of their lives.
“And Rosie?”
She then looked to Rose, her next words spoken directly toward her.
“Are you okay? Do you-”
Rose looked away from her, and pulled her knees to her chest to hide her face in her knees which made Hermione rush over to her to try and console her. Ron put a hand on Ginny’s arm.
“She got hit by the blast it made- she’s okay. The two of them have to go to St. Mungo’s soon, though.”
Ginny then touched James’s head and coaxed it to the side while he tried to hide his tears in Harry’s robes.
“ Why, James?” she whispered in disapproving disbelief as she shook her head. “ Why would you go into such a place? You know better!”
James made a painful contortion of the face and instantly hid it back in Harry’s chest. Harry gave Ginny a look.
“Be easy on him- he’s already gotten it from me…”
Ginny grimaced, rubbing James’s back hurriedly while inhaling a stressful breath. She then rushed over to Albus and began a hurried conversation with Madam Pomfrey as she too, tried to reach out for their son. Ron sighed and took Ginny’s place with a hand on James’s back and lowered his lips to his head.
“You and Rosie can’t be mad at each other, okay?”
James scoffed through a cry, but didn’t reply. Harry raised his head for a moment to see Madam Pomfrey administer the potion she just made to Albus, who stayed asleep for the entire process, much to their dismay. Ron caught his eye and looked back as well, grimacing at their unconscious son.
“We’ll send the kids to Mum and Dad when we go, yeah?”
Harry nodded.
“No!” James croaked. “I’m coming t-too!”
“ No, you're going to be with Lily and Hugo at Nana and Grandad’s. They're gonna be distraught when they find out, they need you to tell them everything’s gonna be alright.”
James held onto Harry tighter.
“Can you do that for us, kiddo?” Ron asked. “Be there for them? We’ll update you as soon as we know anything.”
It took some convincing, but eventually after some coaxing from Ginny, James agreed. She was to take him back with Hermione so they could assure both Lily and Hugo that everything would be just fine and explain the situation to Molly and Arthur. The two usually stayed with their grandparents when the four of them were at work as they lost their ‘home alone privileges’ once Lily set the couch on fire (still swears it was an accident, Ginny didn’t care) and Hugo floo’d himself to Hogwarts to hang out in Hogsmeade. Upon the arrival of the two healers from St. Mungo’s who were to do a more safer apparition only used by their profession, Harry and Ron watched as James made his way over to Rose and crossed his arms tightly.
“I reckon they’ll let you out quick, so…” He looked away sheepishly- emotional moments were never his strong suit. “...meet you back at the Burrow soon?”
Rose nodded, her anger having faded now. Her eyes stayed on her lap though, not wanting to meet James’s eye.
“Love you,” he mumbled quickly, turning around before she could reply and stalking over to Ginny and Hermione.
“We’ll meet you both there soon.” Ginny said, then took one last look at Albus before forcing herself to look away. “Should only be a few minutes- seventh floor, right?”
Harry and Ron nodded. Ginny rubbed Harry’s arm soothingly and Hermione did the same for Ron as they departed with James to the apparition point, Ginny putting a hand at his back comfortingly as they walked through the wing’s large doors. Harry sighed as Rose’s curt, snapping tone proceeded to echo through the space. He rubbed Ron’s arm in support before they approached her and the one healer standing by her bedside.
“- look scathed? I’m fine, alright! Just let me go back to my grandparents with my brother!”
Ron shook his head at her as they reached her bed.
“Not the plan and you know it. Why’re you fighting this, Rosie?”
Rose glared at him.
“Because I just wanna go back with James! They’re wasting their time on me when they should be looking over Al! ”
“We’ve got multiple healers in place for both of you, love.” The healer, an older woman around Molly’s age, explained slowly as if she was speaking to a child. “Just need to make sure you’re as well as you say you are.”
“Piss off, will you? I’m not five, ” Rose drawled, clearly not pleased by how she was being spoken to.
Harry knew she needed gentleness in this moment and he wanted to give it, he truly did, but he needed to get this going- needed to see Albus open his eyes.
“Watch your tone,” Harry shot back firmly. “You’re going. Now let this nice woman here assist you over.”
“You can have one of your dads come along, lass,” the healer added.
Rose’s eyes flicked up to the pair of them and for just a fraction of a second, they settled on Harry. But then she looked away, glaring at the side.
“Let’s go, then.” Harry instantly put his hand out to her to help her up. “Dad will meet us there with Al right at the same time, you won’t be apart a moment.”
Rose looked at him in surprise for a second then to Albus’s sleeping form.
“No…” she said quietly. “ Just… just go with-”
“Rosie, up. Come on,” Harry whispered gently, extending his palm.
Ron kissed Rose’s head and rubbed her back for a moment.
“Meet you there, love.”
They weren’t giving her a choice in the matter- they both needed her to know she was just as loved by him. Rose looked away sheepishly as she stood, ignoring the offer of Harry’s hand.
“Told you I’m fine. ”
Harry wrapped his arm around hers in position and watched as the healer wrapped her own around Rose’s other one.
“Meet us right there?” Rose asked Ron nervously.
“Right there, Rosie. Two seconds after you two- the board’s already under.”
A young man around their age but that they weren’t familiar with had placed a sort of board under Albus with a strap around his body. He had one hand on it, motioning for Ron to take the other side. But he knew the drill, they both did in their line of work as Aurors. Rose nodded a little.
“We’ll see you soon,” Harry said quietly to Ron, watching him look at Albus the same way he and Ginny had- aching to touch him while he lay there motionless.
Ron nodded back, giving him a grimace of a comforting smile that lasted barely a second. Harry looked down to Rose, attempting to give her a longer one.
“Ready?”
She nodded. Harry looked to the healer and nodded as well. Then, with a rapid tug at the navel, they were gone.
Rose thankfully, was correct- she was just fine apart from a bruise on her back from where she hit the wall and had been sent back to be with Molly and Arthur along with James, Lily and Hugo just an hour after arrival. For almost ten minutes straight, she’d begged them to allow her to stay, but they were all in agreement it would be better for her to be in the comfort of Molly than with them, who could barely smile a moment. It had been about seven hours since their arrival and as Harry sat beside Albus’s bedside with Ron’s hand clasped in his, Hermione sat on the couch with Ginny asleep in her lap. Harry wanted to be annoyed at her that she could sleep at a time like this, but it had been a constant week of pre-tournament practice and half a game. Hermione had dozed off as well, but not before her cheeks became stained with the same amount of tears that he, Ron and Ginny’s held.
They were told Albus would wake soon. Hermione was right, the dark magic was contained to his hands… but he no longer had one of them as of two hours prior.
James saved his life, he did the only thing he could in that moment- something all of them would do in such a situation as well. Even the healers commended their oldest for such quick thinking. They were told without it, he would have died within a mere hour. But because of the severity of the dark artificat’s effects coupled with how tight James had tied Albus’s wrists, one of his hands lost complete blood circulation. By the point of being relayed that information, they were allowed to touch him and Harry cried silently as he brushed Albus’s dark black bangs lovingly. Ginny had her face in his abdomen, her tears being just a level above the rest of theirs as her chest heaved from gentle sobs. Ron meanwhile, gripped Harry’s leg with the same amount of tears as Hermione went over with the healer in charge of the soon to commence operation on how much it would cost to get him a new hand, how that would even go and how realistic a prosthetic could be. At one point, Harry looked over at Ron and gripped his knee back supportively while giving him a sad look for a few moments. It was rare for him to display such emotion, he’d never been one for it while they were growing up and it was only in the years after Fred died he really showed a large level of it at all. He knew Ron always thought of Albus as his, but in that moment it was crystal clear how much that statement rang true. He looked as grief stricken as he and Ginny did upon hearing he would have to lose a limb. As Harry looked into the eyes of his best friend and husband, he wanted to say something… anything to make it better, but there was nothing to say besides one tiny sentence.
“We just need to be thankful it wasn’t worse.”
Ron nodded a little at that and put his hand overtop his as it rested firmly on his knee, his eyes switching back to gaze at Albus.
As Harry stared at their son in the present, he couldn’t help but wonder a million things; like how much pain he would be in upon waking… if pain relievers would even touch it. Memories of the war came back when the injured were treated across the floor of the spot they all used to eat in as children and Harry saw the potions the healers tried to administer had done very little for the wounded. But then again, Harry thought , that was war amputation and thankfully, Albus was asleep during his surgery and had been given the appropriate course of treatment one usually expects when put into such a situation. His next thoughts were how he would face having lost a bloody hand - what he would feel about having been given no option of it being taken away. What made it worse was that it was his right… his dominant one. He would have to learn his dexterity and skill with a quill, wand and pen all over again. Then there were the thoughts of a prosthetic… Harry knew from the war as well that though they were miles ahead of muggles in types offered, they weren’t perfect. You could move your fingers with training, but it took time to learn. Years to perfect, in some cases. And sometimes, phantom pain existed for just as long.
There were so many thoughts coursing through his brain on how much this would change Albus’s life. He squeezed Ron’s hand tighter to level his thoughts and felt the weight in his heart lessen just a little as Ron squeezed back.
After the shock, the tears, and the many apologies, Albus finally was able to smile. Quicker than Harry and Ron expected, actually. While giving him, Rose and James a few moments alone with each other, they stood just outside the room against the wall listening in out of curiosity. Hermione and Ginny had gone to break the news to Lily and Hugo about Albus’s hand with the help of Molly and Arthur, who already knew due to the telephone they installed years prior just for occasions like these.
“- wicked story to tell when we go back to school, hey?”
Rose scoffed in disbelief and a quick slap of a hand against skin was heard. James snickered quietly.
“Hey!” Albus said quickly. “You can’t hit me, I’m injured! ”
“You're such a prat!” Rose hissed, though Harry and Ron could hear the smile in her voice and for the first time in hours, they truly gave each other one- albeit small- while listening in on their kids.
“Reckon I can get Scorp to carry all my shit around until I get that fancy new hand?”
“Reckon you won’t even have to do any studies until you do- it’s your casting hand.” James added.
“Yeah…” Albus laughed a little, though halfheartedly. “True…”
There was a bit of silence for a couple seconds. Ron took a quiet breath in while staring down at the ground with a glare. Harry looked up to the ceiling.
“You saved my life y’know? That’s what Mum told me…”
James didn’t answer.
“I can tell you feel bad about me losing it and all so like… don’t, ” Albus continued firmly. “I’d be dead if you hadn’t done what you did.”
“Yeah, yeah…” James said dismissively with a sigh. “Alright.”
A few more seconds of silence ensued.
“How’re Lily and Hugo?”
“Annoying.” James and Rose both said at the same time then laughed a little at their unison before James spoke.
“Hell, Lily cried more than me and I was there .”
“It’s true-” Rose agreed. “Nana had to give her a calming draught. She was convinced you were gonna die… wasn’t making it any easier while we waited on word back from mums and dads.”
Harry always found it sweet when they referred to him, Ron, Ginny and Hermione that way. Rose and Hugo still called Ginny ‘aunty’ and James, Albus and Lily did the same for Hermione, but when referring to the lot of them it was always ‘mums and dads’ - a tiny little habit Lily started when she was about two.
Albus let out a small sigh and a sheepish chuckle.
“Reckon we should make Dads get them here, yeah? Get the rest of the tears over with?”
“Mum says they’re bringing them back once they get them calmed down enough. Didn’t wanna stress you out anymore than you need,” Rose replied.
“I think I’m as stressed out as one can get .”
Harry felt despair tightening his chest and looked down at the ground hard. Ron took his hand wordlessly, giving him an empathetic look. Albus then went into the conversation he had with Ron once he’d calmed down enough upon waking.
“Dad said I’ll get a new hand, though- best one there is. Which I reckon isn’t hard for a Weasley-Potter, eh? Can’t have the nephew of the Ministry of Magic walking ‘round with a cheap product.”
Amongst the severity of the moment, Harry felt a slight sliver of relief that all of their kids were able to find the light in the darkness, the humour- no matter the circumstance. They were always cracking jokes to diffuse life’s periodic sadness, which he was certain they all got from Ron and Ginny. He wasn’t the best in that department.
“Hey.”
Harry looked up at Ron as he let go of his hand to suddenly draw him into a strong hug. Harry hugged him back just as tightly, not really knowing what he was trying to convey through it- it seemed more than a supportive one.
“Love you…” he said in a sigh. “Just wanted you to know that.”
Harry whispered out a small laugh in reply.
“It’s all gonna be alright now… worst part is over.”
He nodded against Ron’s chest. They were in for a hard road; Albus may be smiling now and taking the news easily, but soon he would be hit with the trauma of that moment in the manor. But overall, Ron was right- the hardest part was over. The surgery was done, he and Rosie were alright, and most importantly, they survived . He nodded once more against his husband’s chest that smelt of pine and old books, just as it always had for over twenty five years.
“I know.”