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“Come on or we are going to miss it!” The tinny voice of his godson rang out and Harry resisted the urge to laugh at the young boy.
“Ted, the game doesn’t start for another forty-five minutes,” Harry chuckled good-naturedly as Teddy jutted his lower lip out in a pout, giving his hand another tug.
“We gotta get to our seats and get snacks and that isn’t counting the team intros. We can’t miss that Harry,” Teddy was clearly exasperated at his godfather and this time Harry couldn’t hold in his laugh.
He grabbed the young boy and swung him on his shoulders, smiling as Teddy squealed in delight.
“Then I guess we better get a move on!” urged on by his godson Harry made sure to stop for all the best snacks, loading his pockets with pasties and balancing his squirming godson in addition to a butterbeer for himself and a pumpkin juice for Ted.
They managed to get to their seats with a few minutes to spare, Harry watching delightedly as Teddy smashed two cauldron cakes into his small mouth at the same time, pastry cream dripping down his chin.
“Remember Ted, we don’t tell your grandmother about this. If she asks, you had a very well-balanced lunch,” Harry urged, wiping the boy’s face with a napkin as Teddy nodded happily, eyes trained on the field.
The players had begun to warm up and Harry felt his heart warm as he watched Teddy’s eyes follow eagerly. “Thank you for taking me to the game today Harry.” Teddy finally managed, eyes still on the pitch.
“Of course Ted! This is exactly how I wanted to spend my birthday. Beautiful day, quidditch and great company,” Harry beamed down at Teddy, unable to resist rustling the boy’s turquoise hair. “It isn’t every day England plays a scrimmage on my birthday either.”
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and Harry took a deep breath, relaxing into his plastic seat, his eyes automatically searching the air for the beating gold wings of the snitch.
Harry so rarely got time off from work let alone an entire day off to hang with his godson and enjoy a quidditch game live as opposed to listening to them on the wireless late at night at his desk, hunched over paperwork. As the announcer introduced the players currently representing England in the World Cup playoffs Harry realized he didn’t recognize any of them.
“Teddy, who is your favorite player?” Harry prompted, his eyes taking in the burly team and the one smaller member who he assumed was the seeker.
“Ginny Weasley! She’s the best chaser in the league. She plays for Holyhead!” Teddy exclaimed, his hands waving excitedly causing Harry to have to dodge the pumpkin juice spilling from his glass.
Harry focused on the only female member of the team who Teddy had identified as Ginny Weasley. It was no wonder he had mistakenly identified her as the seeker. She was petite but athletic, with shiny red hair plaited down her back and a determined look on her face Harry could see from his place in the stands.
Once the snitch was officially released and the game started Harry found himself appreciating her not only for her striking looks but for her flying ability and talent. She was clearly an extraordinary flyer and Harry was mesmerized by the graceful dance of her working with the other chasers.
The game went quickly, Teddy and Harry getting into the friendly, screaming at the players and eating their snacks. The English seeker caught the snitch after about 90 minutes of playtime, and Harry gripped Teddy ecstatically as the younger boy screamed until he turned hoarse.
A sudden tap on the shoulder caused him to spin around wildly, wand out with one hand and Teddy restrained in the other.
“I’m sorry Mr. Potter, I work with the team and we saw you in the stands and thought you might want to come back to meet the team,” a wizard’s deep voice permeated his adrenaline-filled thoughts and Harry scowled at the interruption. Couldn’t he have one afternoon with his godson without being recognized?
It was on the tip of his tongue to reject the offer when he felt Teddy pull on his arm. “Please Harry! Can we go back and meet the team? Please?” Teddy pleaded and Harry felt himself softening.
Harry gave a terse smile. “Of course Teddy.” Harry then turned to the other man wearing dark robes and a pass labeled “Security”.
The two followed under the stands and into a back area clearly meant for VIPs and friends and family of the players. Harry recognized some ministry undersecretaries as well as a member of a popular music group. Teddy was practically vibrating with excitement under his guiding arm and Harry couldn’t hold back his grin. Perhaps using his name once in a while for special treatment wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Particularly if it got his godson to smile that big.
In the staging area, there was a large table set up with all manner of foods and drink and a few players were hovered around looking freshly showered and signing autographs or chatting with fans.
Automatically Harry searched for red hair and fought irrational disappointment that the red-headed chaser who had caught his eye was not out from the locker room yet.
He decided to take Teddy’s lead, following the boy around as he happily made his way over to the snack table, waving at the players he recognized. Harry chose to ignore the double-takes he got as people began to notice him, even among VIPs he was unable to hide or avoid the whispers.
“Quite the circus!” a husky voice said from behind him and he turned suddenly to find himself face to face with Ginny Weasley. She had changed out of her quidditch leathers and was in a green shirt and the best fitting pair of jeans Harry had ever seen. Her hair had been freshly washed and hung down her back. This close Harry was able to see the freckles on her face and the way her chocolate eyes sparkled when she smiled.
Harry found himself temporarily speechless. Luckily his precocious godson was not as debilitated. Teddy stepped in front of him, jumping up and down.
“Ginny Weasley! You were fantastic!” He squeaked out at her and she smiled widely at him, lowering down so she was eye to eye with him.
“Thank you! What is your name?”
“Teddy! Teddy Lupin! And this is my godfather Harry!” Teddy burst out, and Ginny laughed straightening up to look now at Harry again. Her eyes flickered to his forehead and Harry inwardly cringed.
She didn’t comment on it, however, reaching out her hand towards him. “Hello Harry, godfather of Teddy. My name is Ginny.”
Harry gave her a genuine smile, reaching his own hand to grip hers.
“Did I hear that you were a Lupin? Remus taught me for a year at Hogwarts. Best Defense professor I ever had,” Ginny said a little wistfully, her hand still wrapped in Harry’s own.
Harry tightened his grip for a second before realizing it was far past the time a normal handshake would take place and dropped her smaller hand before running his own through his hair nervously.
“That’s my dad!” Teddy said proudly and Harry looked down, smiling fondly. Ginny returned his smile and directed her next question at Teddy.
“What are you two gentlemen doing the rest of the day then?” She asked, brushing off a man in dress robes who was clearly trying to catch her attention.
“We are gonna get ice cream! It’s Harry’s birthday today!” Teddy exclaimed, delighted to still have Ginny’s attention.
Ginny laughed and looked up at Harry. “Well happy birthday Harry! I admit I am also a fan of ice cream,” she told him conspiratorially and Teddy clapped in response.
“You should come with us! We are going to go to Diagon Alley and look at the brooms and animals and get ice cream!” Teddy replied with the enthusiasm only a four-year-old could provide.
Harry decided to step in before Ginny felt awkward rejecting them but before he could she replied, directing her attention back at Teddy.
“I would love to come! As long as your godfather doesn’t mind?” She gave Harry a sidelong glance, blushing deeply and Harry felt some sort of monster in his chest growling in response.
“Don’t feel obligated to come Miss Weasley…I know you must have a lot of important things to do what with being a professional quidditch player and all,” Harry offered, trying to give her a way out.
He needn’t have bothered because Ginny insisted, grabbing her satchel and following the two to the apparition point. Teddy, in a show of blatant favoritism, abandoned Harry’s hand and grabbed Ginny’s, letting her side along apparate the boy to Diagon Alley.
Harry watched as Teddy led Ginny around the Alley, his little hand in hers, stopping every so often to let her know a fact about him like that his favorite ice cream flavor was pumpkin and that he wanted to tame dragons when he grew up or be an auror like his godfather. Ginny appeared to be an appreciative audience, ooing and ahhing in the appropriate places and helpfully providing that her favorite ice cream flavor was vanilla, a fact that Harry stowed away as if he would need it in the future.
Every so often she would look back at him and smile in a way that caused his chest to constrict rather painfully and his skin to prickle. All in all, it was the happiest birthday he had ever spent really which wasn’t necessarily saying much of anything because his past birthdays had all been rather lonely or he had some sort of unspeakable evil to get ready to fight.
“This is the best joke shop in all of London,” Teddy was explaining to Ginny proudly, gesturing to Weasely’s Wizard Wheezes. Ginny gave a sly smile, leaning over Teddy as if about to tell him a secret.
“I’ll let you in on something Teddy. My brothers own that store!” She told him happily and he jumped up and down in excitement.
“Can we go in Harry?” Teddy asked, his hair rapidly changing colors reflecting his untamed joy. Harry gave him an indulgent smile as if he would be able to refuse anything Teddy wanted on this day or any other.
Teddy led Ginny into the store and she turned and gave Harry an impish grin, surprising him by reaching for his hand and giving it a yank causing him to stumble over himself as he followed them into the joke shop.
Her grip was strong, her fingers callused in his own and he was conscious of whether or not his hands were still clammy, of whether his nails were blunt enough so as not to cause her any discomfort. When was the last time he had put on lotion?
“Teddy, why don’t you find Harry a nice birthday present while we are here?” Ginny suggested and Teddy took off into the shop.
“I don’t need a present,” he told her ruefully now that the two of them were alone. She turned her sparkling eyes on him, still smiling.
“Mr. Potter I am very well aware that you are a part-owner of this shop and as charming as I find your godson I thought I might take this opportunity to get to know you,” she squeezed his hand, pulling him until he was right in front of her. “One on one,” she said, and Harry knew for sure this time his palms were sweating.
“Are you having a nice birthday?” she asked, her voice low but still carrying over the din of the store.
“I don’t think I’ve had nicer,” Harry told her honestly and was rewarded with another wide smile. Up close he could see her freckles, the tiny scar above her eyebrow and even smell her shampoo, some gloriously floral thing that gave him a heady almost drunk feeling.
“Your nephew seems to be enjoying himself,” she motioned over to where Teddy was approaching, his arms overflowing with various Weasley products, hair now a gleaming orange.
Ginny insisted on using her discount on Harry’s gifts which almost certainly were more gifts for Teddy than anyone else and Harry charmed their purchases to his home where Teddy could pick them up later. It had been a long day and the younger boy was clearly starting to wear down, his steps becoming slower, eyes starting to droop dangerously.
“Maybe we should call it a day, Ted?” Harry offered and Teddy’s eyes snapped open in horror.
“No! I’m not tired! We haven’t even had ice cream yet,” Teddy pleaded, making a big show of being awake.
Ginny put her hands on her hips in mock outrage, her hair swinging wildly giving Harry another breath of flowers.
“You are absolutely right Teddy! This is no way to finish your godfather’s birthday! We must get ice cream!” Teddy grabbed her hand again in one hand and Harry’s in another and the three of them set out for Florean’s.
Harry insisted on paying for all of their ice creams as a thank you for his wonderful birthday gifts and as he enjoyed his own ice cream he sat back, basking in the atmosphere good company and sugar created.
Teddy was entertaining Ginny with stories of his preschool classmates as he took bites of both their ice creams, Ginny listening attentively.
For a moment Harry flashed to a vision of a breakfast table, loud voices and laughing, sunshine and full bellies and the smell of flowers. Just as quickly as it came it was gone and he shook his head, clearing the vestiges of the fantasy.
Looking up, he locked eyes with Ginny, brown meeting green and staying there, something unspoken but all the more important passing between them.
As they walked out of the parlor and back onto the cobblestones their arms brushed, her hand grazing his, the whisper of a connection and fingers so close they were basically touching.
They approached the apparition point, Teddy already in Harry’s arms fast asleep, the rush of the sugar not enough to counter all the excitement from earlier in the day.
“I guess this is where we part, birthday boy,” Ginny said, brushing her hair away from her eyes and looking, for the first time since he had met her, rather unsure.
“I want to thank you Ginny for making today wonderful for both Teddy and me. I can’t see how I might have had a better birthday,” he told her honestly from around Teddy, still fast asleep, his hair having returned to the turquoise of the morning.
They stood there awkwardly, Harry wanting to say so much but none of the words he had seemed adequate. Thank you for being so amazing, could I see you again and then every day after that? Do you like pie, what’s your favorite book, does your hair always smell like flowers?
Instead, all he could manage was an awkward hug around Teddy’s prone form.
“Maybe one day I can return the favor,” he finally was able to say rather pathetically.
“You are in luck Harry, my own birthday just happens to be in a couple of weeks,” she blushed and he saw the opening she had generously left open for him.
“It would be my honor,” he told her honestly and she gave him a blazing look.
She reached up, bypassing Teddy’s snores and Harry’s awkwardness, placing her lips on his own, briefly but enough to warm him all the way down to his toes.
“Happy birthday, Harry,” she said softly, her lips still close enough he could feel the puffs of air against his own and his hands gripped Teddy tighter, fighting the impulse to bring her close again, to feel those lips one again under his.
He watched as she stepped backward, still smiling at him before she was gone with a light ‘pop.’
Teddy stirred in his arms. “Did Ginny leave?” He mumbled, voice still full of sleep.
“I’m sorry Ted, she just left,” Harry told him, hefting him up in his arms. Teddy frowned but curled back into his godfather’s chest.
“Did you have a good birthday Harry?” Teddy asked voice muffled in Harry’s shirt.
Harry thought back, the taste of his ice cream still in his mouth, the sound of Teddy’s laughter in his ears, and the vision of a smile, full of promise and mischief.
“It was the best birthday ever.”