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He had a full week before he was due back at Hogwarts, which ordinarily would be plenty of time for him to finish an essay, but the question Professor Higgs had set was so wordy and confusing that Teddy found himself reading it through several times, still unable to make any sense of it. He was completely stuck on it, and Nana didn’t have a clue either. ‘Embarrassing for me,’ she muttered unhappily, frowning down at the essay question. 'It wasn’t like I was bad at Defence Against the Dark Arts, you’d think I’d be able to handle some third year work.'
'I don’t know if it’s just phrased weirdly,’ said Teddy. 'Professor Higgs does that sometimes. He’s quite old and posh.’
Nana frowned again, and held the parchment further away, leaning back slightly as she read it. 'What a lot of words that mean absolutely nothing,’ she said irritably.
’D'you reckon Harry would know?'
'Of course he would,’ she said. 'Are you going to pop round?'
'Yeah. Might stay for tea.'
'All right, but send a message if you decide to stay overnight.'
Within ten minutes he’d packed his school bag with his essay, some quills, and a school book, and he was cheerfully taking a pinch of floo powder from the little pot on the mantelpiece.
His godfather’s living room span into view, and Teddy was immediately faced with a shriek of horror as he stepped out. A large blond man was staring, aghast, at the fireplace, but the woman beside him was utterly hysterical - she had burst into tears and was flapping her hands.
Harry lunged forward, pointing his wand at her. 'Obliviate!'
She calmed immediately, looking a little dazed and confused. 'Hyacinth,’ said Ginny brightly, 'why don’t we take a little walk round the garden? Or down towards the village? Let the boys catch up.'
'Oh… yes, good idea,’ said the woman vaguely, placing her teacup back on the coffee table, apparently unaware she had spilt all the tea down her front, and getting up with the air of someone who couldn’t not quite remember what they had come into a room for.
'What - what have you done?’ spluttered the blond man, his head frantically swivelling as he looked from Teddy to his dazed wife to Harry.
'Don’t worry, she won’t remember,’ Harry told him hurriedly, as Ginny and Hyacinth left. 'I’m sorry, we forgot to turn off the Floo-’
'I’m sorry,’ said Teddy at once, having frozen in shock on the hearth. 'I… I didn’t know you had guests, I didn’t know muggles were-’
'He - but - Cinth-’ the blond man was spluttering, looking rather pale.
'Remember when the Weasleys picked me up and got stuck in the fireplace?’ Harry prompted him, to a slow, rather afraid nod. The man’s hand also rose and, bizarrely, prodded at his own tongue. 'It’s just that, it’s fine - there’s nothing dangerous, it’s just one of the ways we travel. Hyacinth won’t remember - by the time she gets back with Ginny we can pretend Teddy got the bus over or something - Ted, hair!'
'Right, sorry,’ said Teddy hastily, his hand jumping to his electric blue hair. He concentrated and the blond man stared at him, amazed, as it turned into a sandy brown colour. Harry went over to the fireplace, tapped his wand to it, and shut the grate to visitors.
'Sorry, Ted, I should have let you know-’
'No, I’m sorry-’
'It’s not your fault. Teddy, this is my cousin Dudley, Dudley, this is my godson.'
'Hello,’ said Teddy politely, but hit by a sudden bout of unusual shyness. He looked up at Harry. 'Sorry,’ he whispered. 'I just needed help on my Defence homework.'
'All right,’ Harry whispered reassuringly back. 'It’s fine, I’ll take a look at it-’
’D'you want me to go?'
Harry looked over at Dudley, who was ashen faced and still clutching his tongue as he stared at the fireplace. 'Er, probably best not get the Floo going again just yet… Just sit and have a cup of tea with us, all right?'
'Where’s the others?'
'I sent them to the Burrow - just sit, look, there’s cake.'
Teddy nervously sat on the sofa opposite Dudley, who still looked to be in a state of shock. He didn’t think Harry helped matters by conjuring up another cup of tea for Teddy; he could see Dudley’s eyes following the floating tea cup.
'Dudley,’ said Harry, loudly and clearly, as though to a small child, 'this is Teddy,’ he repeated. 'My godson.'
'Hello,’ said Dudley, finally letting go of his tongue and seeming to shake himself a little. Teddy was well used to adults, but he was not sure he had ever had a conversation with a Muggle for any significant amount of time, and found himself unsure of what to say. He couldn’t exactly discuss his homework, or Quidditch, or school, or gobstones, or chocolate frog cards, and for a thirteen year old this was essentially what his life was made up of. Purely for something to do, he reached for a slice of Battenburg cake.
'I… I think we’ve met before,’ said Dudley, frowning slightly. 'Harry, did I meet him? When Dedalus and Hestia dropped us off?'
'Ah,’ said Harry, and to Ted’s surprise his godfather seemed to tense slightly beside him. 'Yes. Briefly. Well remembered.’
'Oh,’ said Teddy. 'I don’t remember.'
'You wouldn’t,’ said Harry delicately. 'You were only a month old.'
'Oh.'
None of them really seemed to know what to say. There was a strange, heavy silence. Teddy was aware that Harry had a cousin, and he had heard James, Al and even Lily, who was just four, complain many times about how much they detested being dragged to Surrey to meet with them. Teddy had never been invited along, and this had never bothered him before - indeed, he had goaded and bragged to James about it many times - but now that he was sat here in front of him, hearing that they had in fact met before, he was left wondering why Harry had kept them separate for all these years.
'That’s nice, that you still see each other after all these years,’ said Dudley.
'Well, he’s my godson,’ said Harry, rather defensively. 'He’s round a lot - several times a week.'
'Oh,’ said Dudley cheerfully. He looked at Teddy. 'And do you get on with Harry’s children?'
'Yeah,’ said Teddy.
'It must be very nice for you,’ said Dudley loudly, with what Teddy supposed was meant to be a warmly sympathetic smile, 'to be treated like one of the family. So good of Harry and Ginny.'
'Er…’ Teddy glanced up at Harry, who looked livid. 'Yeah… I s'pose-’
'Ted,’ said Harry suddenly, 'could you go and see if there are any more biscuits?’
'All right,’ he said quickly, putting down his cake and hurrying out, closing the door behind him. Rather than head further into the kitchen and look for biscuits, however, he pressed his ear against the thin gap between the door and the frame.
'Don’t say that,’ he heard Harry say in a low hiss. 'Why would you say that?'
'What? It is good. Better than Mum and Dad did for you, Cinthy made me realise-’
'Yes, I know that. But don’t… just don’t say that to him.'
'I’m just saying, I’m impressed - I remember Mum saying in the hotel after, she said you wouldn’t cope for more than-’
'For God’s sake, Dudley, stop,’ said Harry heavily. There was a long pause. 'Have some more cake,’ Harry said, a little snappishly.
Teddy backed away from the door and hurried over to the cupboards, reaching for the old cereal box he knew Harry and Ginny hid the biscuits in (no pack would last more than half an hour if James spotted it). He was not really sure what he was feeling. He was certainly feeling some kind of discomfort and unease, but nothing like the offence that Harry appeared to have taken.
He pulled out the packet of biscuits and went back to the silent living room with them, and when he sat beside Harry he felt Harry’s hand briefly rub his back - a very casual, barely noticeable moment of contact, but Teddy knew it was deliberate all the same. It suddenly occurred to him that the strange feeling he had was that he was upset.
Thankfully, with classically perfect timing, Ginny chose that moment to return with Hyacinth, who apparently remembered nothing of Teddy’s arrival, and believed that he had got the bus.
'What are you learning about at school, Teddy?’ she asked kindly.
'Er…'
Harry pretended to reach for a biscuit so he could lean close to Teddy. 'Pick a Muggle book, pretend you’re studying it,’ he muttered.
'Goodnight Mr Tom,’ Teddy blurted out off the top of his head.
'Oh, gosh, I remember that one,’ she said. 'Lovely.'
He managed to bluff his way through the rest of the awkward visit, Harry whispering things like 'football’ and 'Blue Peter’ whenever Hyacinth asked a question that flummoxed him.
'And what do your parents do?’ she asked politely at one point.
'Oh, I live with-’ he began, just as Harry was saying, 'he lives with-’
'They died, Cinthy,’ said Dudley. 'In a… car crash.'
Teddy saw Ginny exchange a highly exasperated look with Harry.
'Oh, I’m so sorry!’ said Hyacinth, who seemed mortified. 'But-’ she looked at Harry, aghast. 'What a strange, horrible coincidence!'
Harry hummed noncommittally. 'Ted lives with his grandmother,’ he said. 'How are your family, Hyacinth? I got along with them at the wedding.'
'Oh, yes, what a wonderfully perfect day that was!’ she said happily. From her armchair, Ginny smirked.
After they had finally left, Teddy helped Ginny hide away the rest of the cake and the biscuits. 'I’d better go and pick up the kids,’ she said, putting her hands on her hips and throwing her head back with a sigh. 'God, that was dire, wasn’t it? Hyacinth’s so boring, her idea of a conversation is just to interrogate you about the most mundane things, and Dudley is just so thick it makes me want to check him for a pulse. So sorry you stumbled into it, Teddy, we should have warned you they’d be round. I managed to save the other three from it, but I should have remembered to close the grate.'
'It’s fine,’ Teddy said. 'At least I’ll be able to empathise with James more now.'
She gave a scathing laugh. 'At least it was here and not in Little Whinging. You staying for dinner?'
'Yeah, and maybe overnight - where’s Harry gone? I came for help with my homework.'
Ginny seemed to hesitate, and then make up her mind as she shoved the old cereal box back into the cupboard. 'I expect he’s slunk off to his study. He’d probably like to help you with your homework though. What is it?'
'Defence.'
'Perfect. You take that to him while I go and get the Terrible Trio.'
When Teddy entered his godfather’s study, he found Harry slouching in his desk chair and gazing out of the window, his hand covering the lower half of his face as though deep in thought.
'Hello?’ Teddy said hesitantly.
Harry slowly turned to look at him, and gave a rather forced smile. 'Ted,’ he greeted, as though Teddy hadn’t been there all afternoon already. He picked up his wand, and drew up a chair for Teddy beside him.
'What’s your homework?’ Harry asked him quietly.
Teddy reached into his bag and pulled out the essay. 'It’s about Grindylows, but I don’t get the question.'
He showed it to Harry, who scanned it for a few moments and grunted. 'What a stupid question,’ he said gruffly. 'What happened to practical defence?’
'Yeah, that’s what I thought. I don’t see why the etymology is important at all, or the history of attempts to domesticate them. Who would try and domesticate them, anyway, what are you going to do, keep it in the bath?'
'You can keep them in a tank,’ said Harry vaguely. His voice sounded a little odd, and Teddy looked up from the question into his godfather’s face, to see his expression troubled and unhappy.
'Are you all right?’ Teddy asked, surprised.
Harry gave a slight start, and glanced at Teddy. 'Yeah. Course. Are you?'
'Yeah.'
'Good.’ He hesitated. 'Look, I’m… I’m sorry about what my cousin said today, just ignore him. He’s an idiot. He means well, though, he just lacks tact. And intelligence.’
'I know he is,’ said Teddy, who, despite his mild hurt, did not want to trouble Harry any further. 'James is always complaining about him. I’m not bothered.'
Harry gave a curt nod. 'I would have been quite happy if you had gone your whole life and never met a single Dursley, to be honest.'
Now Teddy was hesitating. 'Is that why I never have to go? To Surrey?'
Harry looked at him carefully. 'Do you want to go?'
'No,’ said Teddy quickly. 'It sounds awful.'
Harry grinned. 'It’s pretty dull.'
'So why do you drag the others there and not me?’ asked Teddy.
Harry looked back down at the essay for a few moments; his face was as tense and stoic as it had been when Teddy had first sat next to him earlier that day, when Dudley had realised that they had met before. 'I…’ his voice was low, and slightly hoarse, and he continued to stare at Teddy’s Grindylow essay I he spoke. 'You’re very much part of my family, Teddy, but though you’ve never met them I have quite confused thoughts about you and my relatives.’ He looked back at Teddy, his face uncharacteristically stern. 'I don’t want to entangle them any further, and I certainly don’t want to put you in an uncomfortable position. Although,’ he added, relaxing slightly, 'it’s harder to get more uncomfortable than today, eh?'
Teddy did not completely understand, but smiled at him, and gave a slight nod.
'Now,’ said Harry, briskly. 'Grindylows.’ He squinted again at the essay question and tutted again. 'This is what happens when you hire ex-Ministry old hats. A load of waffle. But I think I see the question here - he’s trying to get you to describe the morphology and how to combat it - I suppose the domestication stuff is to get you to talk about how they can slip through very small spaces so it’s hard to contain them. Grab some scrap parchment, and we’ll plan out the structure.'
Teddy did so, happy to see his godfather look more like himself as they spent several hours happily untangling the complicated, poorly worded question on Grindylows.