Chapter Text
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I’ve loved them all
...
Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life, I love you more.
--
Saturday, 26 June 1999
“Hey,” Harry said, sliding open the compartment door once he’d finally located Theo, Draco, Pansy, and Blaise. “We need to pick floo addresses for the townhomes.”
“I thought the floos were already set up?” Blaise said. “Didn’t we use the floo to get there for Weasley’s birthday?”
“I think you could probably start calling him Ron at this point,” Harry laughed before explaining, “that was just a temporary connection and they were officially shut off long enough ago that the old floo addresses aren’t even on the records anymore.”
“Do they have a street address?” Draco asked. “Like Grimmauld Place?”
“No, and don’t ask me how any of this works because I haven’t the foggiest clue, but these were built in magical space while Grimmauld was built in the real world and then converted. On Grimmauld Place the houses skip from 11 to 13 but on Birdcage Walk there’s no space in the addresses even though our houses are numbered so if they had real street addresses there’d be two Number Five Birdcage Walks.”
“That was a lot,” Pansy said once Harry’d finished ranting.
“Thanks, Parkinson, that was really helpful.”
Pansy just shrugged as she settled back in her seat.
“Do you have any ideas for the floo addresses?” Theo asked before Harry could start a battle of snark with Pansy.
“I thought we could just come up with a name for our ‘street’ and then use the existing house numbers.”
“That’s a good plan, do you have any ideas for street names?”
“Well according to Hermione it’d be proper to call it a Place, a Grove, a Drive, a Lane, or a Vale. Apparently we could also do Green or Court because we’re not technically in London, but I have no ideas for actual names.”
“Your girlfriend knows a lot of random shit,” Pansy said.
“Why do you insist on calling her my girlfriend?”
“Because it pisses you off.”
“Quit,” Theo laughed before turning to Harry, “they’re Potter properties so you could do something with a stag or a griffin.”
“I thought about Prongs, but we call Nev Prongs as well and I don’t feel like giving him a complex. Then I thought about Griffin Place but that’s far too similar to Grimmauld Place and I’ve already had one mishap with being spit out of the floo for a mispronunciation and don’t really care to relive the experience.”
“I don’t think naming it anything to do with Prongs would give Neville a complex, we use it less to refer to him and more to refer to his stag form which is nearly identical to James’.”
“Fair,” Harry shrugged. “So, Prongs what? Place, Grove, Drive, Lane, or Vale?”
“Prongs Place is a mouthful,” Pansy said. “Imagine being slightly tipsy and trying to call that out into a floo.”
“Good point,” Harry said. “That leaves Green, Court, Grove, Drive, Lane, or Vale. Or, on an only slightly different note, we could do something with Evans.”
“I like Evans,” Theo said.
“Let’s do Grove,” Draco decided.
“Works for me. The houses already look out on to St. James’s Park so we can avoid giving Neville and my dad a complex,” Harry laughed. “I’ll go check in with everyone else and see what they think, see you lot later.”
“Bye, love,” Theo said, reaching up and pulling Harry down by the tie to give him a quick kiss.
“Love you,” Harry said, a soppy smile on his face.
“I love you too,” Theo responded as Harry stepped back into the corridor.
“Wotcher,” Harry greeted, stepping into a compartment with Neville, Hannah, Ron, and Hermione, “thoughts on Evans Grove for our floo addresses?”
“I like it,” Neville said and the other nodded.
“Great,” Harry said with a grin, “I’ll send a note to the Transportation Office now so I don’t forget. Our houses are numbered five through nine, even though there’s no one through four, don’t ask me why because I do not know.”
“Good plan,” Neville said. “Did I tell you Seamus and Dean are living with me?”
“You did and I commend you once again for your bravery.”
“If mum asks Ginny’s living with us,” Ron said.
“And where’s she living if I ask?”
“Three houses down with Blaise and the Slytherins.”
“Wonderful,” Harry laughed. “Then the last house is full of Hufflepuffs, it’s almost like the doors were color-coded.”
“Then why are you living in the house with the light-blue door, Lord Slytherin?” Neville asked.
“Because it’s Theo’s favorite color, Lord Gryffindor.”
“I’ve actually not gotten a full count on who I’m living with,” Hannah cut in before Harry and Neville could devolve further. “Do you know?”
“I think it’s just you, Susan, Justin, and Ernie but Susan’s officially in charge of that house.”
“And who’s in charge of the Slytherin house?” Neville asked.
“Me, but if Draco asks it’s him.”
“That checks out.”
* * *
“Hey, Draco, have you seen Harry?” Neville asked, his voice raised just enough to be heard over the music.
“Last I saw he was running upstairs with Granger and Bones on his heels so, if I had to make an educated guess, he’s getting high on the roof.”
“Thanks,” Neville said, clapping him on the shoulder before maneuvering his way out of the room.
“Did you find him?” Lavender called.
“I’ve got a lead,” he responded. “We’ll be back in a couple of minutes and then the floor is yours.”
“Thanks!”
Neville hiked the four flights of stairs to the top floor where Harry had discovered that if you climb out the window of the owlery, you could sit on a flat section of the roof that overlooked St. Ives Bay. He found Harry perched up there with Susan, Hermione, Justin, and Hannah.
“There you all are,” he said with a smile. “Lavender is looking for you so she can start the superlatives.”
“Oh, I’d forgotten about those!” Hermione said, scrambling to climb back through the window, “this’ll be fun!”
“She’s oddly enthusiastic about superlatives,” Susan said as she watched Hermione take off down the hall at a full tilt.
“If I were feeling introspective,” Harry started. “I’d say it has something to do with finally getting to be a part of something resembling a normal secondary education, but I’m not so I’m saying she’s just thrilled to see what she’ll win. Now, Nev, you’re going to have to help me back through this window because both of my legs fell asleep some time ago.”
Harry winced as his feet hit the ground but dutifully hobbled after Neville back down to where the actual party was happening.
“You look like an old man.”
“Fuck off, Bones.”
“Just saying,” she said, holding up her hands in surrender.
“There you lot are,” Parvati said. “Everyone’s in the conservatory.”
“Lead the way,” Harry said, slinging an arm around her shoulder.
“Alright!” Lavender called, getting everyone’s attention. “Time for the Hogwarts class of what should’ve been 1998 but became 1999 because some tosser decided to take over the country superlatives!”
“That’s a really long title,” Harry muttered.
“It’s accurate, though,” Hermione shrugged.
“First up!” Lavender said, taking the certificate Daphne passed her, “best bromance goes toooo… Ron Weasley and Harry Potter!”
“That’s not even fair,” Draco huffed. “Those two were obviously going to win.”
“How is that not fair?” Harry laughed, ruffling Draco’s hair as he passed by before stumbling slightly as Ron leapt onto his back. “Merlin, Ron, warn a guy next time.”
“You still caught me,” Ron said, shrugging slightly as he wrapped his arms tighter around Harry’s neck. “Now keep walking so Lav can give us the award we gave our blood, sweat, and tears for.”
“That’s oddly accurate.”
“I know, that’s why I said it.”
“If I give you two the certificate will you stop talking so I can move onto the next one?” Lavender asked, an amused smile on her face.
“I guess,” Harry sighed, reaching out a hand to take the award before passing it up to Ron so he could get a better grip on his legs. “Any plans to walk on your own sometime soon?”
“Not really.”
“Got it,” Harry nodded, maneuvering back through the crowd with Ron attached to his back like a koala.
“Next up!” Daphne said. “Most changed since first year … was a tie between Draco Black and Theodore Nott!”
“This is your fault, Potter,” Theo said, smacking a kiss to Harry’s cheek before taking a running leap to jump onto Draco’s back, “lead the way, Black.”
“I want to go back in time and stop you and Potter from happening, this is absurd.”
“Blaise already threatened to do that months ago so you’re unoriginal, also the Gryffindors destroyed all the time turners, so you’re also out of luck.”
Harry watched on as Most Likely to be Minister went to, surprise, Hermione Granger, Class Clown went to Seamus, Biggest Flirt to Pansy, Biggest Gossip to Parvati, Teacher’s Pet to Padma, and so on, and so forth. He was surrounded by his friends and loved ones, he was safe, and he had a future to look forward to. He truly couldn’t have asked for anything else.
* * *
Wednesday, 30 June 1999
Hermione opened the door with a confused look on her face, “Theo? What are you doing here?”
“Harry is currently painting our house with Charlie and the twins and the fact that he looks ridiculously hot in that stupid cutoff t-shirt only does so much to distract me from the fact that those four are complete and utter disaster magnets. Yesterday they spilled an entire can of paint down the hall and instead of immediately cleaning it up they used it as what Fred called a ‘slip-n-slide,’ so I came to see if you wanted to go to the park with Teddy and me?”
Before she could respond, Susan and Hannah appeared over Theo’s shoulders with grins on their faces, “ignore him, Charlie Weasley is currently shirtless painting the back fence so we’re going to go watch until Harry tells us we’re being creepy.”
“That’ll last five minutes, tops,” Hermione laughed before turning back to Theo. “Where’s Ron? I thought he was helping.”
“He and Neville are building furniture.”
“Ah,” Hermione nodded. “I’ve got a better idea than the park though, it’s about time for his nap, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then grab the pram and let’s go to the British Museum. They’ve stolen a lot of cool art from a lot of different places.”
“That feels unethical.”
“Oh, it absolutely is but I’m not exactly in a position to do anything about it.”
“Alright,” Theo laughed. “Let’s go.”
* * *
“Harry?” Theo called, stepping back through the front door after spending an afternoon in the museum with Hermione. “You here?”
“Upstairs!” Harry called back. “In Teddy’s room.”
“Did you lot finish painting?” Theo asked as he walked up the stairs with Teddy on his hip.
“Yeah, I’m just finishing putting things away in here. How was your afternoon?”
“It was fun,” Theo answered, smiling as he took in Teddy’s new room, the top half of the walls were cream and the bottom halves were dark green, the décor was yellow and green with his crib from their quarters at Hogwarts and a new shelf Ron and Neville had put together for his books and toys, there was a plush rug over the dark hardwood floors and a perfect chair in the corner for them to sit and read with him, “it looks great, love.”
“Thanks,” Harry said with a grin, climbing to his feet to kiss Theo hello, “and how’s the pup?”
“Pup?” Teddy asked, reaching out for Harry.
“Yeah, pup, that’s you,” Harry said with a warm smile. “How was your day?”
Harry made out the word ‘papa’ before it became an unintelligible string of baby babble.
“You spent the day with papa and Aunt Hermione? Sounds like a good day, Teds. How do you like your new room?”
Teddy looked around for a second before grinning up at Harry, “dada!”
“Merlin our kid is cute,” Theo laughed, leaning down to kiss Teddy’s forehead before tucking himself against Harry’s side.
“He sure is,” Harry said with a fond smile. “Hey, why don’t I go shower and get changed and then we can go out for dinner? Explore the area a bit?”
“Sounds like a plan, love,” Theo said, kissing Harry’s cheek before taking Teddy from him. “I can’t believe we actually live here now. Since when are we adults?”
“I don’t know,” Harry laughed. “But I think I like it so far.”