Chapter Text
“Dad!” James shouted from the front door and went back to staring at the Muggle letter carrier in wonderment.
“What is it?” Harry yelled back from the kitchen because he was trying to get lunch on the table before Ginny got home.
“There’s someone at the door! A mug... uh… someone is here for you!” James yells back to his father.
Harry puts his wand down, and the knives stopped chopping the carrots in front of him. He looks over at his daughter, Lily, and says, "get the plates on the table. Alright, when Mum gets here, we will have lunch," and heads towards the door to see what his eldest son is going on about.
When Harry gets to the door, he sees a confused looking Muggle letter carrier standing on the porch. James is staring at the Muggle postman in wonderment, and the Postman is looking uncomfortable at the intensity of James’ staring, considering James is eleven. By muggle, standards he shouldn't be this interested in someone bringing the mail.
"Hello," Harry says politely but confused. Since leaving Number 4 Privet Drive almost fifteen years ago, he hadn't had much use for Muggle post.
“You, Harry Potter?” The letter carrier asks.
“I am. How can I help you?” Harry answers still confused.
“I got something for you,” the man hands him a large package and hands him an electronic device, “just need a signature.”
Harry takes the device and takes up the pen attached and signs his name and hands it back to the man. The post carrier hands over the package and as if he couldn’t help saying it, “never been here before. This house new?”
"Just don't get much mail," Harry says and laughs.
Nodding, the post carrier gives a wave and heads down the drive. Harry closes the door and is curious as to who would send him mail through the muggle post. He didn’t know anyone well the Muggle world anymore that would send him something.
"Dad, I thought you said my letter to Hogwarts came with an owl," James said, looking at the package curiously in his father’s hand.
"They do. It should be here any day now," Harry assures his oldest son, distractedly having seen the return address, Number 4 Privet Drive.
"Then why did we get the muggle postman?" James asks.
"James, go help your sister with lunch."
"But Dad," James whined.
"Now!" Harry says firmly, leaving no room for James to argue with him. James shuffles off to the kitchen, knowing that if his Dad’s tone sounded like his Mum’s, it was a good idea to clear out. Fast.
Harry went into his study and just stared at the package, completely forgetting about getting lunch ready. Why would any of the Dursley's send him a package? How did they know where to send it? He hadn't seen any of them since he left to start his hunt for the Horcruxes. Fifteen years ago.
***
Ginny Potter apparated into the back garden of the home she shared with her husband and three children. It had been a long week, the Quidditch game she had been covering for the Prophet had gone on for four days and it rained for two of them. She had missed her family terribly. Harry had only just gotten back from a month-long assignment with his team of Aurors. They had been in the same room only long enough to give her to give him a kiss before she had to leave to cover the match. She and Harry had been missing each other the last month. She was very much looking forward to the quiet lunch with her family. Harry had promised in his last letter to her when he had been on assignment.
"No, let me do it." James was shouting.
"No, let me," Albus yelled back.
Ginny saw through the window that her boys seemed to be wrestling over something, but she couldn’t see what.
“You aren’t supposed to touch Daddy’s wand,” Lily was yelling still louder to make herself heard over her brothers.
Ginny rushes into the house to see that James and Albus are, in fact, holding Harry's wand and seem to be shoving each other with their free hand trying to get the other to let go. Upon seeing their mother in the kitchen with them but drop the wand and back away as if Ginny might not have seen them with Harry’s wand in their hand.
“What is going on?” Ginny demands of her kids.
"James was trying to make the knives chop up the carrots like Daddy does. Then Albus wanted to try. But they wouldn't let me," Lily says, ratting her brothers out and pouting that they wouldn’t let her try.
“Shut it!” James and Albus hiss towards their little sister.
Ginny picks up Harry’s wand and looks over at her sons, “don’t tell your sister to shut it. Lily don’t tattle on your brothers.”
"But Mum…" they all start, and with a look, Ginny can silence her children. Harry says it's the same one her own Mum gives. Ginny still isn’t sure how she feels about the comparison.
"Now, where is your Dad?" Ginny asks, noticing Harry isn't in the room.
"In his study. Some muggle postman came, and Dad's been in there since," James tells his mother.
“Muggle post?” Ginny asks.
"Yea, Dad, seemed odd when he took the package from the Muggle man," James tells her.
"Alright, let me go get your Dad, and we can all have lunch," Ginny says.
Ginny heads towards her husband's study. She sees that the door isn't closed all the way, and she quietly steps into the room, and she notes that Harry is just staring at the package on his desk. He looks pale and can't take his eyes off the box in front of him.
“Sweetie,” Ginny says softly.
Harry's head jerked up, surprised to see her standing in front of him," Hey, Gin, when did you get home?"
“Just now. Came home to see the boys fighting over your wand,” Ginny smiles and hands over the wand to her husband.
"My wand?" Harry asks blankly and absently, taking it from her.
“Yea, you okay?” Ginny asks a bit more worried about what is going on with her husband.
“Um… I don’t know,” Harry says honestly.
“Who was the package from?”
"The Dursley's. Or Dudley, I guess." Harry says, reading the return label.
“What would he want to send you?”
“Dunno, do I. Haven’t seen any of them since the War.”
“You gonna open it?”
"I… no, I don't think so. Let's go get lunch ready before the boys manage to burn the house down," Harry opens the bottom drawer in his desk and tosses the package in there. Ginny holds out her hand, and Harry walks over to her taking it, "I have missed you, Gin."
“Me too, Harry,” Ginny leans in and gives him a long kiss. Enjoying a moment without the kids around them.
"Eww," James shouts and turns back towards the kitchen, "they are kissing. Mum, Dad, we're hungry," he finishes dramatically.
"Well, we can't have that, can we?" Harry jokes bending down to be eye level with James.
"No, we can't," James answers seriously and heads back towards the kitchen.
As the Potters begin sitting down for lunch, they all hear the door opening and closing and hear, “Oi, Potters!”
“Uncle Ron!” All three of the Potter children shout and jump up to go greet their uncle.
"They act like they haven't seen him years," Hermione says, coming into the kitchen, "oh no. See, I told you, Ron, we should have sent an owl over; first, they are eating."
Ron comes into the kitchen too with the Potter children and his own children trailing behind him intent on getting their hands on the latest Wheezing Weasley Wizards product. Ron looks over at his wife, "good, I'm starved, and Harry cooks almost as well as Mum does."
“Ron,” Hermione starts exasperated by her husband’s ability to always be hungry.
"It's alright, we have plenty," Harry says, going over to the cupboard to get out four more plates.
“Sorry, Ginny. I tried to convince Ron today wasn’t a good day to drop in,” Hermione says quietly to Ginny while both of their husbands are occupied with their tasks.
“It’s okay. But I’m pretty sure someone beat us to it,” Hermione gives Ginny a questioning look, Ginny shakes her head and goes to help Harry to get the rest of the plates out for their new guests.
Ginny looks over at what her brother is doing, "those had better not ruin anyone's appetite," after she sees something that looks like a new snack box capsule.
"Oh right," Ron says, straightening up, "after lunch then," he promises the kids, and everyone sits back down to eat.
"Dad, what was in the package the Muggle post gave you?" James asks curiously, working on his second helping of food.
“Muggle post?” Hermione asks.
"Yea, he came to the door and everything," James tells his Aunt knowingly.
"Of course, they do, when the Muggle post comes to our house, it means Grandpa and Grandma sent us gifts. And a toothbrush," Rose says.
“A toothbrush?” Albus asks Rose confused.
“They are dentists. They don’t think magic goes with teeth care, but we take care of our teeth why do they have to send one every time?” Rose says the last bit directed at her mother.
"Grandpa and Grandma just want to make sure," Hermione says diplomatically.
"There's an idea for the joke shop, a toothbrush that stains your teeth," Ron says suddenly.
"Ronald, if you send my parents that I will…," Hermione starts but doesn’t finish her threat.
“I won’t,” Ron quickly promises, though he does think Mr. Granger would see the humor if he explained what it was before he gave it to him. Mr. Granger is always asking about the joke shop. He thinks it’s all in good fun. And he’s even explained some of the muggle magic tricks to Ron in hopes that Ron can develop something like it. Last Christmas he got his father in law a deck of cards that does the Muggle card tricks of its own accord.
"Did Grandpa and Grandma get you a toothbrush, Uncle Harry?" Rose asks, bringing everyone back to the package currently sitting in Harry's bottom drawer.
“No. It was from Dudley actually,” Harry tells the table.
"Dudley. Dudley." Ron says over and over, trying to remember who that is.
“Your cousin.” Hermione says.
“Yea,” Harry confirms.
“You have a cousin? I thought well I thought we didn’t have any family on your side, Dad,” James says.
"Dad and his cousin aren't as close as you three are to Rose and Hugo," Ginny tells his son.
“But how come we haven’t met them?” Albus asks.
The four adults look at each other; finally, Hermione talks, "how about you five eat outside in the garden. It's a lovely day," the kids look ready to argue that they wanted to stay and eat with their parents before she adds, "I need to talk to Uncle Harry about work stuff. You don't want to hear that do you?" All at once, five chairs pushed away from the table. And the kids take their plates out to the garden to finish eating.
“What was that about?” Harry asks.
“I think I might know why Dudley sent you something,” Hermione starts nervously.
“Okay, why?” Harry asks curiously.
"Well, you know that when a muggle-born starts to develop their powers and are tapped to go to Hogwarts, a Ministry official and Professor McGonagall go to explain it to the parents."
"Yea?" Harry says, slowly thinking that the most logical reason Hermione would bring this up can't actually be the reason she brought it up.
"Well, it seems that Dudley had a daughter who is…" Hermione trails off.
“No way!” Harry says disbelievingly. He looks over at Ginny, but she doesn’t look as surprised as Harry was to hear this.
"Hermione sent me an owl while I was on an assignment about it. I was gonna tell you tonight, Harry, but I wanted to wait until I got home. But it looks like your cousin beat us to it." Ginny explained.
“Yea, when my department was notified, I went myself with McGonagall. I was going to tell you, but I kept finding reasons not too.” Hermione nervously admits.
“Wow. Dudley Dursley had a witch for a daughter. Wow. Can’t imagine what Uncle Vernon thought.” Harry says.
“That’s the other thing,” Hermione says.
"What?" Harry says, fearing the worst for this little girl. Knowing what Uncle Vernon was like about magic.
"Your aunt and uncle died a couple years ago in a car crash," Ginny says for Hermione.
Harry bursts out with a laugh startling everyone at the table, "it's… that's awful… it's not funny. It's just that before I got my letter, that was what they had always told me happened to my parents."
Ginny takes her husband’s hand, “you okay?”
"Yea, I mean, I haven't thought about them in a long time," Harry says, and that was true, but he would sometimes find himself wondering about his Aunt. Despite himself, he has always been curious as to what she was going to say the last time he saw her before she changed her mind and left Privet Drive.
“You sure, mate?” Ron checks.
"Yea," Harry reassures everyone at the table giving his wife's hand a squeeze. Then looking at Hermione, he asked, "how did Dudley take it."
"Seemed interested, and he asked if we knew you. And when we said we did, he asked if we could give him a way to contact you. His wife had gone into the other room, and I told him that if he was planning on sending something horrible, I wouldn't. He swore it wasn't anything horrible he just wanted to get something to you and didn't know how to. So, I gave him your address."
“What could he have to send to me?” Harry asks the room.
"Well, your Aunt and Uncle died, perhaps it was an inheritance of some sort," Ron says optimistically.
“Uncle Vernon would never have left anything to me,” Harry says flatly.
"I don't know. Dudley didn't tell us, he seemed to want to reach out on his own." Hermione says.
"Oh, this is ridiculous. It can't be any worse than the gift I got from them for my birthday and Christmas," and with that, Harry gets up from the table and heads back to his study, gets the package, and comes back to the table.
"Harry, are you sure?" Ginny says, knowing that her husband has worked hard to put his issues with his Aunt and Uncle to rest.
"Yes. It's just a stupid box." Harry says, ripping off the tape.
Harry opens the flaps of the box and sees two envelops inside lying on top of a blanket. Harry pulls the letters and out of the box and the blanket. Confused. Why would Dudley send a blanket? He then looks closer at the envelopes. One has his name on it block letters, and under it says, please open first. Harry sets the blanket back in the box and opens the first envelope.
Harry,
I've thought about trying to get ahold of you for a while now. After that Professor from Hogwarts and that Ministry woman left, I thought it might be now or never. Turns out, my daughter, Jasmine, is a witch. I think my Dad might be rolling over in his grave. Mum and Dad died a few years ago. Anyway, I was hoping you would be willing to meet for a coffee somewhere. I have a few questions that I didn't want to ask when those women were here. I don't think they thought too much of me. I suppose that makes sense since they know you. I asked them, and the Professor made it clear that she thought you were an exceptional pupil when you went to her school. And that Ministry woman was downright scary when I asked for a way to contact you. I thought she might use her wand to give me another tail.
I had wanted to find you since my parents died. I found something in my Mum closet that I thought you might want it back. The other envelope has letters written to you from Mum that she never sent.
I hope you would be willing to have that coffee, the Professor said that someone who be in contact to help get Jasmine's school things for her, since both her mother and I are, what did say? Muggles? I think it was the term they used.
I like to think that I'm different than my parents and that I won't treat my daughter like they treated you. I am proud of her for getting into your school. Jasmine is a very loved little girl, and being a witch hasn't changed that.
Dudley
Looking up from the letter, Harry says, "It looks like you gave Dudley a bit of a fright, Hermione."
“What? How?” she demands.
“He thought you were gonna give him a tail like Hagrid did when he came to get me,” Harry chuckles and hands the letter over to Ginny to read too.
“I would never!” Hermione exclaims.
"He said you were a bit scary." Ginny smiles, still reading the letter.
"Well, then I could see it," Ron chuckles.
"Ron!" Hermione exclaims, wanting her husband to back her up but seeing she isn't going to get it.
"Well, when you’re mad, it is a bit scary," Ron shrugs. Hermione and Ron begin bickering much like they did in school, but know there is a playful hint to it that wasn’t there when they were all younger.
Harry had tuned out the three of them and looks back into the box and picks the blanket back up. And unfolds it. It was a light blue blanket. Very soft. It looked a lot like a baby blanket. Why would Dudley send him this?
"Harry, look," Hermione is pointing at something on the blanket that Harry couldn't see. He turns it over and sees his name HARRY J. POTTER stitched into it. It was his baby blanket.
“It’s my blanket?” Harry says in wonder. Aunt Petunia kept this all these years. Harry carefully folds it back up and sets it gingerly back in the box and picks up the envelope that Dudley said contained half started letters to him from Aunt Petunia.
Harry,
I already know I won't send this; I wouldn't know where to send it. I imagine you have no interest in what I would have to say, and I wouldn't blame you. These wizards that have been protecting us have a radio, and they all listen to it regularly. They called it Potterwatch. They read out a list of people who have died, and despite myself, I breathe easier every time they finished, and you aren't among the dead. They say the fact that no one knows where you are is an achievement. That you have lasted this long. It's been months since your birthday and this radio program… I knew Lily had to go into hiding, but I didn't know… this Lord Voldemort… Do be careful.
Harry,
They have let us go home. I suppose that means that this is all over, and those wizards protecting us told us you were okay. That you survived. That you won. They said there was something of an epic showdown. This wizard, Shackle… something said you were amazing. That your compassion saved the wizarding world. You looked like your father, I didn't know him well, but I did know Lily, and you were very much her son. Despite how horrible Vernon and I were to you, we couldn't stamp out that compassion. It was something you got from her.
Harry,
Dudley has recently gotten married. She's a lovely girl. I find myself wondering if you have settled down. I have wondered about your life more and more since we last saw you. Do you have a wife? A career? Kids, even? I think you might be a bit young, but Lily was only 20 when she had you. Did you know? I suppose you could have found out in that world quickly enough about your parents. She sent a birth announcement. She was so excited. She expressed hope that you and Dudley could be real cousins and know each other. She even sent a gift. It was a book of odd fairy tales, I suppose. And there was a small broomstick. Looking back, I think they were meant to be real gifts and not a joke being played on me. I wished I had kept them; they would be all Dudley would have had from his Aunt.
Harry,
When we woke up and found you on the doorstep on November 1, with a letter from that man, telling us what had happened to Lily and your father. Vernon and I argued about giving you straight to the orphanage. I didn't want her sort in my house. Then I read the letter. That Lily gave her life for you. That that scar of yours was more than a cut. It was proof of the impossible, even in your world. That Lily somehow made it possible for you to survive something called a killing curse. The letter explained that you had to stay here because that man didn't believe this Lord Voldemort was really dead and that he would return one day. I knew that I couldn't let that happen. So, we kept you, grudgingly. Those eyes of yours, it really was like looking at my sister again. I wish I could tell you that keeping you miserable was done to make you non-magically. That we thought if we could stamp it out, then you wouldn't have this target on your back, and you wouldn't be in danger. But it wasn't I made you miserable because I could. I treated you horribly because I could. Because even with Lily dead, I was still taking out childhood jealousy out on her son. I hated my sister so very much for being a witch. Until that day, the day we found out she was a witch, we had done everything together. We were the best of friends, but then Lily went where I couldn't follow. I hated her for it. I took it out on you.
Harry,
Dudley's wife has given birth to a daughter, Jasmine, and again I find myself wondering about the kind of man you have become. If you have become a husband and a father. I suppose you wouldn't know, but the women in my family all have flower-like names it started after the first world war. My Mum, your grandmum, said it was because, after the war, her grandfather wanted to name his daughter after something beautiful after all the ugliness he had seen in the war. Your grandparents had all died before you were born. Lily and I's Dad got sick from the coal mines he had worked when he was younger, and it caught up with him. Mum died shortly after, Lily said was because they had been together for so long that Mum didn't want to be without Dad for the holidays. It was something Lily would say, I turned my nose at it, but it is a beautiful thought too, I suppose. Lily mentioned your father's parents were quite old when he was born, and they died shortly after your parents finished school. After Lily died, it was the first time I had been glad my parents were dead. I don't know what they would have done if they had known what happened to Lily. I can't imagine what they must think about how I treated you all those years. After you were dropped off with us. I wrote back and found that your parents' funerals hadn't been seen yet. They were buried in the small cemetery in the village they had lived in, Godric's Hallow. I suppose this is something else you could have found out being a part of their world.
Harry,
Jasmine is almost six. She is displaying the same odd behavior that Lily and later you displayed. I have a suspicion that she's going to be like the two of you. A witch. She's going to go to that school. She's going to grow up and have a job I don't understand. Vernon isn't going to handle it well. But what worries more is that my jealousy will again get the better of me, and I would treat my own granddaughter as horribly as I tried Lily and you. I don't want too. I want to do better. I love my granddaughter very much. I have spent most of my life, convincing myself that your lot were freaks and dangerous and needed to be separated from us normal people. That I had all but forgotten how sad I was when I was told I couldn't go to that school too, with Lily. I haven't let myself think about the fact that I was jealous when I found out in a long time. When you began doing the same odd stuff Lily had, I was jealous again. Because this is something, you would always share with Lily that I couldn't. Lily tried to make up with me when she was home for holidays, and I always resisted her attempts, and when she and your Dad met Vernon and me for dinner. It went horribly. And I told myself they were just freaks that I wanted nothing to do with. Your Dad tried to reach out once to have another go at dinner, I do regret that I never took him up on the offer. I just thought there would be more time. I don't want to make the same mistakes with Jasmine that I did with you and Lily. I intend to try and do better. Be, for once in my life, proud to have a witch in the family.
Harry,
It's been ten years since I have seen you last. You'd be 27. You might have your own family now. A career. I imagine it is an exciting career. I do hope that you are happy. You'd be six years older than your parents were when they died. When we got home after you beat that Voldemort man, I went into your room and found a drawing you must have done of that owl of yours. It really was a pretty bird. I threw everything in that room out, but I couldn't get rid of the drawing I kept it with your baby blanket in the back of my closet. Something to hold onto as proof that you and Lily were here. I suppose. I got rid of all the pictures of Lily in a fit of anger long before she died. After all these years, I wish I could express the sorrow I feel about how I treated you. How Vernon and I treated you. How I couldn't muster up an ounce of compassion for my dead sister's son. I have no right to ask, but I do hope you forgive me for everything. I do love you, and I loved my sister very much. You lost a mother that night in Godric's Hollow, but I also lost a sister that night too. And I have felt that all these years. I just wish I had handled everything better than I did. How I treated Lily, and later you have become my biggest regret in life. Like all of these that I have written over the years, I know I won't send it. But something about writing to you, even like this, has been cathartic. My regret is never telling how sorry I am about everything, but I'm afraid I am too cowardly to ever admit any of this to you.
Harry finished reading the last of his Aunt's letters. Aunt Petunia had written seven letters to him. She confirmed something he had long suspected after seeing Professor Snape's memories, Aunt Petunia had been jealous of her sister. There was another paper behind the last letter, and it was drawing of Hedwig he had done his first summer after his first year at Hogwarts.
“I can’t believe she kept this,” Harry said in surprise.
"What?" Ginny asks, and Harry noticed that she had been watching him as he read his Aunt's letters. Harry handed the drawing of Hedwig to his wife, "is this Hedwig?"
“Yea, I drew it after my first year,” I tell her. Ginny shows Hermione the drawing.
"You were always a fantastic artist, Harry," Hermione says, taking the drawing from Ginny.
Abruptly Harry gets up from the table and takes the drawing from Ron’s hand and puts it back in the box with his baby blanket. He took the letters his Aunt had written, and the one Dudley had written and put them in the box. He put the flaps back down and left the room.
“Harry?” Ginny called out.
"I'll be right back," Harry assures her.
The three left in the kitchen staring at each other. Ginny stands and begins cleaning up. After she had finished cleaning the table, she kept looking over her shoulder, becoming more worried about her husband, who had not returned yet.
“Do you two mind watching the kids while I go check on him?" Ginny asks, having exhausted her ability to ignore Harry's absence.
“Course not,” Ron says and heads outside to show the kids whatever he was gonna show them before lunch.
Ginny finds Harry in their bedroom. The box is sitting on the bed, and Harry is staring out the window. Watching the kids running around with Ron chasing after. Ginny walked up behind her husband and rested her head on his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his waist. Harry absently put a hand over hers.
After a while, Harry speaks, "she regretted how she and Uncle Vernon treated me. Said she had been jealous. She actually wondered about my life."
"Of course, she did," though privately Ginny is a bit surprised everything Harry had ever told her about his Aunt and uncle they weren't kind people. Not to their nephew anyway.
"I knew she had been jealous of my Mum but to see her admit it. It's strange. To know Dudley will have a witch for a daughter just seems unbelievable. How could any magical genes survive being mixed with Uncle Vernon."
“Are you worried that Dudley will treat his daughter like they did you?”
“I don’t think so. Dudley seemed to be changing a bit the last time I saw him.”
“What’s on your mind then?”
“I think I want to have that cup of coffee with Dudley, but I’m not sure I want to go alone.”
“When have you ever really been alone, Potter? I told you when we got married. It was you and me. Always. And you know Ron and Hermione wouldn’t ever let you face anything alone.”
“You’ll come with then?”
Ginny turns Harry to face her and gives him a kiss, “if that’s what you need. I’ll be there.”