Chapter Text
Edward Lupin, Teddy to his friends and family was nervous. His hair kept flashing different colors and his bow tie felt like a noose. It wasn’t that he was worried about what was to come it was that he was not a fan of being the center of attention. His whole life attention had been on him by usually only by proxy of who he was with at the time. Now that crowd out there was here for him. He heaved a huge sigh when his favorite man in the world walked through the door.
Harry Potter was the only father Teddy had ever known. Sure he had seen memories and photos of Remus and Nymphadora his birth parents but they died shortly after his birth and Harry had been the one to raise him. He had his Gran for a while too but she had married the year he began secondary school. He still saw her on weekends and spent a week in the summers with her but she had gone from being the main female in his life to more like the way his friends grandparents were. That was fine, he gained a new grandfather in Garrett and even a bunch of aunts and uncles. Which was kinda weird that he was so much older than them but it was fun to tease anyhow.
Harry though had stayed his Dad. Even though he called him Uncle he had always seen him as Dad. He came home from his work trips to spend the weekends with him during school and by that first summer Teddy had gotten to stand next to Harry as his best man. Aunt Zaria became the mum he hadn’t realized he needed. It wasn’t until things changed that Teddy realized his gran had always let Harry be more of the parent and she had tried to maintain being his grandmother because when Zaria joined the picture it was obvious there was difference. It didn’t bug Teddy any he had finally gotten his wish and had not only a new mum and grandfather but he got more younger siblings, aunts and uncles than he knew what to do with at times. He loved every minute of it though even if he would deny it if asked.
Harry wrapped his arms around him and rubbed his back like he had been doing for over 2 decades now anytime Teddy was overwhelmed. He whispered reassurances in his ear and cracked jokes about picturing people dress funny to get over his nerves. Easy for him to say Harry was never nervous in front of people. He had always been confident and stood tall. It was a surprise when Harry laughed as he said as much to him.
Harry told him more in the next 30 minutes than Teddy had ever heard from him about how he felt about his fame and the public. Teddy had always thought he liked it all because he always smiled and was polite, he invited the press over for tea and gave interviews in their home. Teddy never realized it was all because it was the only way to keep them on his side. Harry admitted that much of the way they lived now wouldn’t have been conceivable when Harry was at Hogwarts. It was keeping the majority of the public on his side and trusting in him rather than even the ministry that allowed him to put forth the ideas and see them become reality to advance their world and begin to unite them. He hated it, just wanted to be plain old Harry and live a normal peaceful life. But he was never going to get that, others ensured it before he even knew his own name. So when he could finally make his own choices he listened to those smarter than him and used the influence the public gave him to make their world into a place he could raise a family.
And now it was Teddy’s turn to start his family. Teddy turned red from head to toe at that, it wasn’t that he regretted anything but he would admit it was poor timing. He loved his soon to be wife and they had talked about getting married, but the little bump made that a reality ahead of their initial plans. Teddy wasn’t ashamed though, sure they’d gotten carried away and had been a bit careless but new life was a blessing and precious. The people out there might judge them for going about it in the wrong order but it wasn’t like those weren’t the same people who had a betting pool on he and his bride since they were 13 and bickering in the library at the Pottery. Her with that silver blonde hair and the blue eyes that had so much fire in them he thought they would turn orange. He still remembered looking her father in the eye at 14 when he barely came to the man’s chin and telling him he was going to marry her someday. It wasn’t that Teddy didn’t understand their concerns back then, at least he understood it better as the years went by. She was captivating all fire and ice and her nature drew others guys to her whether she wanted their attention or not. It wasn’t as bad as it had been for her mother but it wasn’t enough that Teddy spent a good bit of time in detention. They weren’t from defending her honor, he was enough of his forebears to not get caught by the adults doing that, instead it was from the rows he and she would end up in in the aftermath. She was often right next to him in those detentions. It only took that first year before the instructors decided to put that energy to better use, the two of them became the best duelists in the school rather quickly.
It had always been like that with them though, even when they were little when they finally gave in at 17 because Teddy knew no one would save him if he didn’t at least wait til they were legal adults, he was surprised the house didn’t catch fire around them. And now she would be his wife, their little one already taken root in her waiting to join the world. Teddy just hoped he’d be half the father Harry had been for him.
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Harry couldn’t believe the little imp that had kept him up for nights on end when he was teething was the man he was watching now. It seems as if he blinked and he went from watching Voldemort’s corpse fall to watching his grandchildren chase their uncle and father around the garden.
Zaria his wonderful wife had ended up being all he wanted and more. She gave him 4 sons and when she said she wanted more children but worried about carrying them they chose to have a surrogate and then moved to adoption. Not all of them kept the Potter name, in an effort to revive old family lines he’d gotten a bill through allowing people to name an heir for any previously lost magical surname in the family tree. So long as there were no living heirs with the name and your line was the last who had claim to it you could revive it. So he had potters, Evans, Fleamonts, Gaunts and even Peverell children. Their world and not just his homeland had exploded in population over the last decade.
The success of melding muggle medical practice with magical ones and finding ways to use the concepts in purely magical ways in some cases had done a lot to get people to accept the new ideas and use them. It wasn’t such a hardship to have multiple children if you could pay someone willing to carry them for you or if the healers could guarantee the embryo would be viable when the couple had been struggling and were lucky if they could have even one naturally. Added to the immigration that had begun and became a phenomenon all it owns as magical territories opened their boarders and began to offer incentives for people to come there family trees again had branches and a lot less wreaths these days. Surprising even him it became a lot less about blood purity and more about viability. And with the advances in medical care and plenty of willing donors world wide even that wasn’t as much an issue now. People married more for love now than they did to ensure a family continue. A bonus was that gifts that had become so rare were now far more prevalent everywhere.
Travel was as simple as presenting your passbook at the Portal station and paying the fee to go where you wished so leaving your family behind to marry and relocate wasn’t a deterrent. Magical Territory had greatly expanded as well and was far better hidden than it had ever been. While there was still a rare occurrence of a magical child being found amongst the non magical world and having to bring them and their family in few ever ventured into the mundane world at all now. Those that did were one who either had ties there or were trained to be go betweens.
The ICW had come to an agreement with the UN as well. In exchange for helping to clean up the muggles pollution they agreed to leave magicals alone period. It was a magically binding contract the new treaty they signed. And it was signed on behalf of the magical world and the non magical world rather than the names on it. Even the muggles would be punished by magic should they willfully break it, so would the magicals though. It was far better than the resentful truce that had been in place since the Statute was enacted and now the muggles were responsible for ensuring their technology didn’t give away magical areas. It wasn’t perfect but it was more than Harry had ever expected to get them to agree to.
Students in all magical schools upon reaching adulthood were made to register on a global registry. Should they break the terms of the treaty or turn against their own people an alert was immediately sent to the ICW and the local territories. There had been no more dark lords, a few had tried but the moment they violated the register they found themselves apprehended. Even government workers weren’t immune, the minister after Kingsley foolishly thought he could take things back to the “glory days” and found himself promptly arrested for sedition and treason.
Corruption was sadly never going to go away it was part of human nature but rather than it resulting in lost lives it was now more tame. Bribes to get a tip on something that could advance someone’s career or blackmail because someone doesn’t want anyone to know they prefer to use polyjuice behind closed doors to keep things fresh in their marriage.
As Harry sat back and watched his family he could be more proud of the people around him. He didn’t care what profession they chose or even if they were top of their class. He was proud because he could the love they had for eachother. Every one of them had a heart that encompassed anyone they drew in. Blood or not family was family.