The story of Three: Harry Potter and the Next Generation

Christmas At The Burrow

    Lily, James and Teddy all sat quietly in the living room of the Burrow, waiting for the others to wake up. A clatter of feet came from upstairs and a symphony of pops announced the arrival or awakening of the rest of the Weasley-Potter family.
   "Presents!" Lily Potter exclaimed rushing over to the tree
   Ginny laughed as the young girl sat next to James who was struggling to keep the ten year old in check.
   "Harry." She whispered to her sleepy husband "Do you think we should tell them today?"
   "If you want." Harry replied, kissing his wife
   A series of "ew!" and "gross." told the adults that five nosey children were in the hallway.
  "Living room!" Ginny said "Let's open presents."
   The children eagerly ran back to the living room.
   "Then Ginny and I have a surprise for the family." Harry added
  The Weasley family, Ginny,Ron, George, Percy, Bill, Charlie, Molly and Arthur Weasley and there wives or in Ginny's case husband gathered in the living room with the children and began to pass out presents.
     "I think our guest should open her present first." Molly said, handing Lily a soft package like all of her grandchildren had
   Lily opened it and pulled a red and gold sweater with a big L on the front out of the package. She gladly put the warm sweater on and smiled broadly.
   "Thank you." She said, hugging the elderly matriarch
   "No problem dear." Molly said
The Weasley-Potter children and Teddy opened their identical presents and put the sweaters on.
   "Mine next." Harry said, handing all of the children a different shaped box
    Lily, Teddy and James opened theirs all at the same time and gasped. Lily's was a small, blue box that held a necklace with her birthstone set in the center along with both the Black and Dumbledore family crests, James' present was a large black box that held a statue of a small silver stag surrounded by a larger Silver stag, a silver dog and a silver wolf and Teddy's was wooden carving of a full moon that had a picture of his mother and father placed in the center. The three best friends tackled Harry in a hug, shouting thank you's and I love you dad's profusely. Albus was the next to open his present, a small, rectangular package. He ripped the wrapping paper off to reveal a red box. With shaky hands he opened the box that held a specially made wand. Twelve and a half inches, oak with veela hair at it's core. The rest of the kids opened their presents shouting the same amount of thank you's as Teddy, Lily and James had then came the youngest Potter. Lily. She gentle tore the wrapping paper and revealed a box similar to Lily's. She opened the box and gasped. The box held a necklace that matched her mother's. Her mum wore a blue necklace with a silver mare around her neck and the necklace in the box was blue with a silver doe in the center. Smiling at his little sister, James offered to help her with the clasp. The rest of the presents went smoothly, everyone seemed to enjoy what they received from the adults. Then came the adults presents from the children. Each child including Lily and Teddy had pitched in to by each adult a present. A Gryffindore sweater for Molly, spark plugs for Arthur, Zonko's products for George, Burn and Scar Cream for Charlie, a potion kit for Bill, a notebook with protection charms placed on it, courtesy of Lily and an owl for Ginny. Harry's gift is where the water works happened because it wasn't just Harry's gift. It was for the whole family, Lily, James, Teddy, Albus, Fred and Roxanne had all worked on this for days.
    "Mr. Potter your present is outside." Lily said
  The whole family gathered outside as Hagrid came up the hill carrying a large mass in his arms.
   "Sit it down right there Hagrid!" Teddy yelled
    Hagrid sat the large gift a few feet away from the family. James looked guilty.
   "We have to tell them." James said
  "Tell us what?" Harry asked
  "The gift isn't just yours." Lily admitted "It's for all of you. All of us that are already at Hogwarts have been working on it for days. Hagrid hasn't even seen it yet."
   James and Teddy walked over to the covered gift and pulled the sheet off. Before the entire family stood a statue of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Lily and James Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Fred Weasley the first, Alice and Frank LongBottom, Ted Tonks and (much to Lily and Teddy's annoyance) Severus Snape. Not only that but each person had an animal at their feet. It was their patronus. Tears were in Ginny's eyes as she walked up and touched the face of her brother. Harry bent down and read the inscription on the bottom of the statue aloud.
   "These eleven people are just a few of the many that fought valiantly in the first and second war. They sacrificed not only their lives but so much more. Their freedom, watching their children grow, some even gave their sanity in order to see Voldemort fall. The last enemy the shall be defeated is death."
   Harry stood again and looked at the children whom he saw everyday, ate with, taught and loved. Tears came to his eyes as he looked at his eldest son who looked so much like his grandfather then his second eldest who looked like him and then back at the statue. He grabbed his sons and hugged them as the tears fell. They didn't even live during the war and yet they knew the significance of it. He drew Teddy and Lily into the hug as well as his nephews and nieces.
   "Thank you." He whispered
  He released them from the hug and saw Molly and Ginny wiping tears from their eyes and Hermione and the other men using drying charms on their eyes. He smiled. Yes, they'd lost people years ago and yes he missed each and every one of them (Snape included) but he had a family now. One that he wouldn't trade for the world, filled with people who tried to be tough and those who knew it was okay to be a little soft. He lived them and as he looked at Lily. His son's best friend, he knew she was becoming a part of that family as well.
   "Now." Molly said finally, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen over the family "Why don't we go eat and Ginny and Harry can tell us what this surprise is."
   Everyone eagerly agreed and began to walk back to the house. Teddy nudged Harry who looked down at him.
  "Lily's not coming." He said confused
  Harry turned and said "Lily. Are you coming?"
   When she didn't answer he walked back to her, waving Teddy inside as he did so.
  "Is something wrong?" He asked her
  "No." She answered "I thought I'd stay out here until the surprise is over."
  "Why?"
"It's for the family."
Harry looked at her understandingly.
   "Lily." He said gently "You don't get it do you?" 
   Lily gave him a confused look.
  "It's always been like this with our family." He began "The second you crossed that threshold, you became a part of this family. Now can we go eat? Please?"
Lily laughed at Harry's silliness and followed him inside. Harry smiled as Lily took her place next to Teddy and he stood next to his wife. The couple looked at their family nervously. How would they react? Oh well, here goes nothing.