Fatherhood | drarry teen adoptive parents au

epilogue part II | the story of us

To our children.

If someone had told us all those years ago when we first got together that we'd be sat here today writing this letter to our seven kids, we would never have believed half of the words we'd have to say. But it's all true, and because of all of you we're the happiest fathers imaginable.

As we sit and write this it's mid May, summer is sweet in the air, and you're all playing together on the lawn outside our home. The bigger ones of you are chucking the little ones between them, and all of you are laughing hysterically - when are you ever not laughing? - and we've just set a pitcher of cold iced tea on the table for you all to cool down with.

We told you one day we'd tell the story of us, and of you all by extension. So this is what we're doing now, from start to finish. It's a story of loss, sacrifice, betrayal and terror, things we've never told any of you before, and about love through it all, on the hardest days.

Picture the start: two boys, unimaginably in love, making a promise to care for the baby of their friend. New life in the heat of a war, fresh love lacing over the old. It sounds beautiful, doesn't it?

The story is mostly sad, though.

It's filled with terrible things we wished we could have prepared ourselves for, and actions we'll regret till our dying day, but maybe without those things, we wouldn't have all of you. It's funny how life works like that.

But between the sad parts, there are funny memories too. Odd little fissures of light in the darkness of the past. Your Dad telling those awful Muggle pick-up lines in the Three Broomsticks (I finally understand the mobile phone one, Harry!), for example, or Uncle Ron laughing every time one of us had to call the other "Daddy" because Cassy was there.

It helps to weave those memories in with every story of our trauma, to remind us that it wasn't all terrible back then, and there were beautiful days too.

We try and be everything you need, and surround you with all our friends so you don't feel our pain too keenly, but you should know that to an extent it's always there and it always will be. You'll never know your grandparents on either side, and some of you have been asking about that recently. Only one of them is alive, and it would probably be better if he wasn't. You'll never know your Uncle Fred or Auntie Luna, or Sirius, or plenty of others who would have loved you, and that's just a sad fact of life.

The war takes the best things from us. Thank God we only had one of you, back in those days.

This letter is our chance to be honest with you, tell you everything you want to know. You can read about your grandparents if you like, about our time at Hogwarts, about the war, or the battle at the Weasleys', about Uncle George's life after Uncle Fred, any of the awful hard questions we'd been protecting you from.

Or you can skip to the part about the beautiful summer we spent hiding out at Malfoy Manor, about the house in the trees, about how we delivered Casper on the floor of the bathroom at Hogwarts, or what the sky looked like on the day we got engaged.

When you're ready, darlings, you can turn the page. The story is waiting for you all to read it, all fifty chapters. We owe you that much. We owe you the story of us.

With all the love in our hearts, from your Fathers.