Soul Bond

Harry and Draco, along with their two children apparated to the Burrow for Arthur Weasley’s birthday celebration. When they appeared outside the gate they were stunned by the amount of people there. The Weasley’s were a very large family, but it seemed that even this large amount couldn’t possibly be just family.

“Harry! Draco!” Molly yelled as she waved them over to her.

“Here we go,” Draco hissed.

Harry laughed. “They’re your family, dear,” he said rubbing in the information that they had found the night before.

“Oh you will pay for that, Harry!” Draco told him.

“Daddy, grandma Lilly says you have to be nice. These are daddy’s parents.” Lilly told her blond haired father.

Both men turned as one towards their daughter scowling. “Lilly Narcissa, do you remember what we told you before we left the house?” Draco demanded.

Sirius snickered at her whole name behind her. “Yes, father. I am not to talk about dead people to anyone. I am not to mention talking to dead people to anyone. I am not to say that I have talked to dead people,” she told him rolling her eyes.

Harry tried to hold back a snicker and instead said, “She is her fathers daughter, you know.”

“Harry, you are not helping things!” Draco said glaring at his mate. “And you, Sirius, stop hiding behind your sister and giggling. If you want to do it, then do it where she can see you! It gives you more effect that way! And Lilly, what have I told you about rolling your eyes at me?”

Harry laughed. He couldn’t help it. Draco was on a roll. He had been overly emotional since he had gotten up that morning and the rest of the family had tried to walk lightly around him. “Relax, love. We are here among our family and friends. We are going to have a wonderful time enjoying ourselves and not thinking about anything but enjoying ourselves.”

“I suppose you are right, Harry.”

“Aren’t I always, dear?”

“I am not even going to dignify that with an answer!”

“Daddy, what does effect mean?” Sirius said tugging on Draco’s pant leg.

Draco reached down and pulled his small son up into his arms. “Siri, lets you and I have a talk about effect and presentation. There is a time and a place for all,” he said carrying off the bemused child. Draco like how calm Siri always was. He reminded him of his mother and how there could be constant chaos around her and she would still seem so serene. She could walk into a room full of angry death eaters and they would immediately calm down.

“Daddy?”

Harry bent down to his daughter’s eye level. “Yes, my darling?”

Lilly leaned over and whispered in her father’s ear, “Grandmother Narcissa said that you should not let daddy turn Sirius into a drama queen. What’s a drama queen, daddy?”

Harry threw his head back and howled with laughter. He couldn’t help himself. “Promise me something, Lilly,” Harry said to his daughter. “Never ever tell your father that Narcissa said that!” Harry laughed again.

“Will he be angry?”

“Oh yes!”

“Ok. Daddy, can I walk around?”

“Sure, baby, just don’t go far.”

“I won’t. I like her slippers, daddy,” she said pointing to Arabella Figg, who was wearing her standard plaid slippers and smiling in their direction.

“Would you like to meet her, Lilly?”

“I already know her.”

“How do you know her?” Harry asked wondering how they would meet. He knew that Draco would never associate with a squib.

“She talks to me in my dreams, daddy.”

Harry turned and looked at Arabella Figg with a piercing look. He remembered the kind woman whose house was full of cats and smelled like cabbage. She had been kind to him while he had been growing up. She had even stood up for him when the Ministry had threatened to take away his wand for using a patronus charm in front of his Muggle cousin. When their eyes met across the distance understanding shot through him.

Years of living alone with only cats for company, hiding behind the title of squib so that she wouldn’t be bothered by those in the Wizarding world, and a genuine goodness and yearning to help those around her. She was the current Medium. She would be Lilly’s teacher. He felt relief shoot through him knowing that Lilly would be safe while she learned. “She is your teacher, isn’t she, Lilly?”

“Yes. She says to tell you that she will keep me safe.”

“I know, darling. She used to keep me safe when I was a little boy all lost and alone.”

“But now you have daddy and Siri.”

“And I have you, princess.”

Lilly shook her head. “Not for very much longer, daddy.”

Harry gasped. “What do you mean by that?” he demanded.

“I have to go away to learn. I am almost five now, daddy. That is when I begin.”

“No! I won’t have it! I have just found you, Lilly! God’s Draco will have a fit!” he said.

“That is why you have to help him, daddy. He isn’t as strong as you are. He won’t understand. He will try to hold onto me, but he must let me go. I must live up to my destiny, and I can’t if daddy won’t let me. Be strong for him, daddy, and let me go. Help him understand that others need me more than he does.”

Harry looked at his little girl. She was so old for her age. He wanted to cry when he thought of her lost childhood and the rest of her life that she would spend away from her family trying to help others. He knew that when your life was predicted before you were even born that you would never be free. “I will, Lilly,” Harry cried pulling her tightly into his arms. “I love you so much, please, never doubt that.”

Lilly smiled at her father. “I love you too, daddy.”

“Harry! Lilly! What’s the matter?” Molly Weasley demanded.

“I was telling daddy stories that made him sad.” Lilly said when Harry couldn’t speak.

“Well I guess we had better cheer your daddy up then, hadn’t we?” Molly said wondering what was really going on.


Hermione and Neville sat at the dinning room table as Augustus lectured them on what it meant to carry the Longbottom name. She did not like the idea of Hermione keeping her maiden name.

“I assure you, Hermione, that in all the pureblood families, that the witch takes her husbands name. It is an honor to marry into such a family. When the witch refuses to take her husbands name, it dishonors her new family.”

Neville reached under the table and grabbed his bride’s hand. “I guess it’s a good thing that we are no longer a pureblood family then,” he quipped taking a bite of his salad.

“Neville!” his grandmother gasped, though secretly she was proud of his newfound courage in standing up to her. “You can’t toss away years of family history in one night!”

“Sure I can, I just did. This family now consists of Hermione, you and myself. How the outside world looks at us makes no difference to me.”

“Neville! What about your parents? Surely you haven’t forgotten them!” she gasped again.

“Grandmother, my parents died years ago while I was still a child. Though they may still physically live, they are not part of the living. A gum wrapper once a month does not constitute a mother and son relationship. Father is about as lively as a vegetable on his good days. I am sorry that this hurts you, but they are gone. They will never return. Bellatrix Lestrange killed them years ago and it is time to let go and move on with our lives.”

“Neville,” Hermione whispered feeling his grandmother’s pain.

He squeezed her hand again and stood up and walked around the table to his shocked grandmother. “I love you grandmother, and I will always appreciate the things that you have done for me, and the sacrifices that you have made. Now, however, is my time. I plan to love my wife and any future children that we many have. I will no longer live in the past. I am very proud of the Longbottom name, and I am equally as proud of what my parents did to save our world. I will not, however, make my life a shrine to them hoping that they will eventually wake up and return home. They never will return grandmother.” He pulled his grandmother into a tight hug and heard her sob. “Don’t cry, grandmother, you still have me,” he whispered.

“I am very proud of you, Neville,” she said hugging him back.

“Now if you will excuse us, we have made plans to go to a birthday party. We shall see you this evening. Perhaps, you can have the elves work on clearing out the master suite for Hermione and I.”

His grandmother looked like she wanted to argue, but she pursed her lips and said, “Enjoy your day, dears.”

Hermione stood and took her husband’s outstretched hand and followed him out of the room. “Hermione?” she heard.

She turned to look at Augustus. “Yes?”

“Welcome to the family, dear.”

Hermione grinned. “Thank you.”

“Of course you must now call me grandmother, never grandma. I detest that variation.”

“Of course.”