Watching Teddy Grow

2006:

By this point Harry and Ginny had been married almost four years (they had married when Teddy was five and he had proved to be a most able ring-bearer). Ginny was now six months pregnant with their second child and both were looking forward to being parents again. She had recently retired from her stint as Chaser with the Holyhead Harpies and intended to devote the majority of her time to marriage and family with Harry. (Their first child, James II, had been born in 2003.) Once number two was out of diapers, however, she intended to take a part-time job as Quidditch sportswriter for the Daily Prophet as she had been asked to do numerous times since her retirement from Quidditch.

Even at that, there had also been numerous times that Teddy had asked him questions which Harry had never imagined the boy capable of coming up with at his age, but after talking it over with Molly and Andromeda, he decided to answer them. Even in the Wizarding world, it wasn't seen every day. Maybe part of it was because of Remus's having been the intellectual of the four Marauders, so much so that he had even gotten a teaching degree.

But it came to a head when Teddy had actually caught him and Ginny going at it one day shortly after she had become pregnant again. He had been too involved with what they were doing to have noticed that they had an audience, and it wasn't until Ginny alerted him that he had reluctantly released her (what was worse, they had not been under the bedcovers, having decided to make love on top of them) ... and without clothes, that could turn into a most compromising position should anyone catch them like that.

Harry had been convinced that because of the way Teddy usually slept, that it would be safe enough to make love to Ginny, especially if a Silencing Charm was put on the door--but after this, he made a mental note to put a Locking Charm on it as well so as to avoid incidents like this in the future. But in the meantime, he had some explaining to do.

He had put on a dressing-gown and they had left the bedroom together, settling down on the big sofa in the living room. Harry settled himself before the fire and Teddy settled himself next to his godfather. Once they were settled, his big blue eyes met Harry's own green ones with a questioning look on his small face.

"Uncle Harry?" By this time, Teddy was able to pronounce correctly, although he still stayed with Harry and Ginny on occasion--and it was during one of these occasions that the compromising incident had occurred.

"Yes?"

"What were you and Auntie Ginny doing in your bedroom?"

"Something married people do when they love each other," Harry explained. "And there are many different ways to do it. Some things the man does to the woman, others the woman does to the man."

"Was Auntie Ginny eating you up one of those ways?"

"It wasn't 'eating up' as such, mate. It's called 'fellatio', basically oral sex where the woman takes the man's ... genitalia into her mouth and ..." In spite of himself Harry found himself blushing and fought against it, but knew his face was still flaming even as he made himself answer Teddy's question.

"What happens then?"

"She usually ... does something to ... arouse her partner."

"Is that why she had her head ... between ..." Teddy couldn't bring himself to finish, but Harry knew what he had not said.

"That's right," he confirmed, feeling better when he saw that the boy's hair was pink on the ends in addition to his face being red, definite signs of embarrassment. "And it's all right for you to be curious, mate. Just don't ask us in front of other people; only when we're alone. What we were doing is considered a private thing and it's best if it's kept between the partners themselves or those closest to them, the ones they can trust."

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do, mate." It was a cinch that Andromeda would think twice about letting Teddy stay again if he started asking her too many questions like this, because she would surely wonder why he was asking and where he had seen the things he was asking about and if she surmised that it must have happened while he was staying with Harry ...

"And is what you did to Auntie Ginny another one of the ways married couples ... do what they do to have babies?"

"Sex--physical love--isn't just for babies, mate, although that is part of its purpose. Its main purpose is to enable the couple in question to show love for one another."

"Is there only that one kind of love in the world?"

"Of course not. There's many types of love--such as love between friends, such as your Uncle Ron and I have between us, as well as your Aunt Hermy" (Harry knew Teddy was still having trouble pronouncing Hermione's name, so he called her this when talking to Teddy). "There's also the love of parents for children or grandparents for grandchildren, such as your Nana has for you, or the love Auntie Ginny's parents have for her, her brothers and their families ... and me, too. They've considered me family since I was eleven years old."

"I'm told that you look very much like your father, but that you have your mother's eyes," the boy remarked.

"That's true," Harry confirmed. "But I seem to remember showing you pictures of my parents. Last year, I believe."

"Could you show me again?"

"I suppose so." Harry sighed, then raised a hand in the direction of the bedroom, where the album with pictures of not only his parents but Sirius, Remus and Tonks was kept. "Accio album!"

A moment later the album was in his hands and he opened it on his lap; Harry soon found the wedding picture of his parents and Sirius. As with most Wizarding photographs, the subjects were moving, smiling and waving at the camera. Teddy seemed utterly fascinated, looking back and forth between Harry and James several times--then his gaze lingered on Lily for a while before looking at Harry to note his green eyes.

"Who's the bloke with them?"

"My dad's best friend, Sirius Black," Harry explained. "He was best man at their wedding, just as Ron was best man at mine and Ginny's wedding. It's customary for the closest friends or family of the couple to attend them at their wedding."

"Auntie Ginny said this ... Sirius was also your godfather."

"That's right."

"Why haven't I ever met him?"

"He was ... killed in my fifth year of school," Harry returned quietly, the pain of the loss still with him even after all these years. He frankly doubted it would ever go away. His eyes closed in pain and his reaction wasn't lost on the boy.

"You ... loved him, didn't you?"

"Very much, mate. He was the closest thing I had to a father other than Mr. Weasley. Sirius was also a close friend of your parents."

"I've also heard Aunt Hermy mention someone called Dumbledore. Who was he?"

"The greatest wizard who ever lived. The only one Voldemort ever feared--and the Head of Hogwarts when I went there. He was ... one of my role models and the closest thing I had to a grandfather while I was growing up."

"What happened to him?"

"He was ... killed in my sixth year of school. This prompted me to go after the man who had killed him, although he wasn't punished until the following year when we had what is generally termed 'The Final Battle' with the Dark Lord, Voldemort."

"You ... killed him, didn't you?"

"I had to. There was a ... prophecy made when I was a baby which stated that I was the one destined to destroy him."

"Didn't he have several ... things you had to destroy first before you could kill him?"

"Horcruxes, yes," Harry had to admit, making another mental note to have some choice words with his friends about mentioning this to the child before he did. He hadn't planned on telling Teddy anything about them until the boy was considerably older. "He had seven of them made, placing a part of his soul in each one."

"How did he make them?"

"It is ... necessary to kill someone for each Horcrux made," Harry returned quietly. Nothing had ever been more difficult to discuss than this--and not simply because so many people had died at Voldemort's hands, some of them very close to him, like Remus and Dora. Both he and Teddy were orphans because of him; so many had been robbed of so much, including their lives. The only good thing was that Voldemort himself had now been wiped off the face of the earth--all due to the efforts of Harry and company.

"Can you tell me which things were made into Horcruxes?"

Harry related the stories of the diary and the ring, the stone of which had turned out to be one of the Deathly Hallows; the locket from Salazar Slytherin; the cup from Helga Hufflepuff; the diadem from Rowena Ravenclaw and the giant snake Nagini, Voldemort's familiar ... even Harry himself, the 'unintentional' Horcrux, made when Voldemort attempted to kill him as a baby.

The final Horcrux was in Voldemort himself, and Harry had managed to destroy him with Draco Malfoy's wand after having Disarmed him (Voldemort had another of the Hallows, the Elder Wand, which had once belonged to Dumbledore) and caught it as he would have a Snitch, with all the Seeker's skills at his command. Another memorable moment was when Nagini had been beheaded under Voldemort's very nose by Neville, which had earned him the Order of Merlin, Second Class--as Harry, Hermione and Ron had each earned the Order of Merlin, First Class.

By this point Harry had reached the page where he had placed his award, pointing it out to the boy. "This is the award they gave me for defeating Voldemort."

"I guess that makes you a hero, huh?"

"I guess so. Not too many people are around who can say they fought Voldemort more than once and survived, much less defeated him ... although--as far as I'm concerned, anyway--
the ones who fought in the two Wizarding wars are just as much heroes as I am, which include my parents and yours."

Both then turned their attention to the picture of Remus and Dora, taken while she was pregnant with Teddy, looking at each other with love as Remus rested his hand on his wife's large belly. It was truly incredible how much Teddy resembled his mother, and not only because he possessed her Metamorphmagus ability. Which reminded him ...

"Teddy, did I ever tell you that my dad, Sirius and your dad could change into animals?"

"They were ... what is it ... Animagi?"

"That's right. Or at least my dad and Sirius were. Your dad was a ... werewolf."

"How did he become a ... werewolf?"

"He was bitten as a child by the evil werewolf Greyback."

"Do you think I'll eventually show werewolf characteristics?"

"It's possible, but I doubt it. From what I've seen, you seem to take more after your mum, who was a shape-changer. To get back to the earlier subject, my dad could turn into a stag--that's a male deer--and my Patronus, incidentally ... and Sirius could turn into a dog. Which reminds me--did you know that there's a star in the sky called Sirius? It's referred to as the 'Dog Star.' I'll have to point it out to you sometime, as Sirius once pointed it out to me."

"Do you think your godfather was named for this star?"

"It's possible, but I couldn't say for sure. Sirius never said just where his name originated."

"I also heard that you have some relatives on your mother's side which you keep in touch with."

"Yes. They raised me, such as it is." Harry didn't like to think of all he had endured under their so-called care, but what mattered was that he had survived--and to his surprise, Dudley had eventually matured enough so that Harry could make tentative moves toward ... if not family kinship, friendship at the very least. Harry had even heard that Dudley had found himself a steady girlfriend. It was, in fact, so serious that it wouldn't surprise Harry if Dudley actually got married one of these days. Definitely not something Harry could have foreseen in the early days, that was for sure.

"Why did they treat you so badly?"

"I think a lot of it had to do with their dislike of anything having to do with the Wizarding world. They had basically lost my mother to the Wizarding world when she was eleven years old, although from what I understand, she was showing signs of magic far earlier than that. The relationships deteriorated over the years, but the final break between my mum and her sister, Aunt Petunia, came when she married my dad. They never mentioned them in my hearing if they could help it and disliked it intensely when I did. I didn't have friends until I started Hogwarts; Dudley saw to that. There's too much to go into here, things I don't think your grandmother would want you to know about just yet. Maybe later on. Right now, we'll just concentrate on life as it is right now ... the love and closeness presently between our friends and ourselves."

At this point Harry looked up to see Ginny leaning against the doorjamb, her fiery hair tousled with sleep and passion, smiling provocatively at him, and he found himself wanting her all over again. However, they wouldn't be able to get back to business until he could get Teddy taken care of.

"Is everything all right now, Harry?" Ginny's musical voice asked, her brown eyes soft as she gazed upon her husband and the child.

"I think so, Gin ... at least for the time being," Harry replied with a smile. "What about you? Feeling all right?"

"Pretty good. Just took some more Anti-Nausea Potion. Looks like I'm going to have morning sickness for the duration this time, not just until the fourth month, as I did the first time."

"Do you think you'll be up to our getting together again later?"

"Oh, I think so ... especially if you can manage to take care of Teddy in the meantime." Ginny came over and kissed her husband on the top of his head, then squeezed him around his shoulders. Harry rolled his eyes up to meet hers and smiled at her again. "Let me know when you want to get together again. Meanwhile, I think I'll go visit with Mum for a while, and take James. See you later, luv." Ginny then stood up again after kissing Harry's nearest ear and left the room, both Harry and Teddy watching her go.

"Uncle Harry ..."

"What?"

"You haven't answered my earlier questions ... you know, the ones about why people get married, why they live and sleep together and all that."

"Sorry, mate. Got involved with other subjects."

With that, Harry began his additional explanations. By the time he managed to finish, he couldn't help noting a strange look on the boy's facer and couldn't help asking what he was thinking about.

"I ... think I like Victoire, Uncle Harry."

"Bill's daughter?"

"That's the one. She's so pretty and nice. In fact, I think I may even ask her to ... marry me at the proper time."

"You're kind of young to talk about marriage, mate. Also, have you any idea how she feels about you?"

"I think she likes me, too."

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. If you two do decide to eventually get married, I'm here if you need advice. Of course, you should discuss things with her and her parents first. Bill's very protective of his daughters and won't release them to just anyone."

"I would never hurt her, Uncle Harry, you know that."

"I'm sure you wouldn't, but I'm not the one you have to convince. As I said, time will tell if you and Victoire are meant to be together. Meanwhile, just enjoy the friendship you have with her. Remember how Aunt Ginny and I are, and we started out as just friends. It's best that a couple is friends before coming lovers ... in essence, they should like each other as well as love each other."

"Thanks, Uncle Harry." The boy hugged Harry and Harry returned it, resting his cheek for a moment on the top of the boy's head and stroking his hair.

"You're very welcome, Teddy ... and you know I'll help you in whatever way I possibly can. Just ask."

"Can I go home now?"

"If you want. I just need to check and see if Nana is ready for you."

With that, Harry went to Floo Andromeda and found that she was indeed ready; had, in fact, just finished fixing a meal and told Harry that she had been about to call him and ask him to send Teddy home. Now all he had to do was wait for Gin to come back and they could get back to the very pleasant business they had been so happily engaged in earlier, but which had been inadvertently interrupted by the overly curious child. While he was waiting for his wife to return and after he had sent Teddy back home, Harry decided to owl his office at the Ministry and find out the latest developments on both the Auror front and the latest laws he had helped get passed, which were under the jurisdiction of Arthur Weasley's new job in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Come to think of it, Hermione had just started working there, so it wouldn't surprise him if they--she and Arthur--eventually teamed up at some point. He would have to ask Gin upon her return if she had heard anything in that regard while at the Burrow. She and Hermione were as close as sisters, just as he and Hermione were like brother and sister ... and now that she and Ron had married, Molly was as likely to know the details of their lives almost as well as they did themselves. Meanwhile, all he had to concern himself with was just living his life, his wife, his marriage and upcoming child ... and eventually furthering his relationship with Teddy, which if the present was any indication, should be even closer in the future.