Teddy is warm and slightly squishy, and Harry is unsure exactly how to hold the squirming bundle that is his godson.
Adromeda hovers nearby, her lips pursed anxiously. Lines of grief are permanently etched onto her face. Still, she cannot help but let her expression dissolve into a tenuous smile. "Here, like this," she says, and positions Harry's awkward limbs, one cradling the child's head and the other supporting his back.
It feels instantly natural, and a sheepish, elated grin flickers across his face. The smile vanishes, however, when Teddy begins to wail, beating the air with one tiny pink fist. Harry looks panicked then, and leaps up from his chair, thrusting Teddy out to Andromeda.
She laughs at him. It's not a robust laugh, or even a pleasant one, because she hasn't yet shaken the sadness, but it is enough for the moment. "No, no. He's your godson."
"But he's crying!" Harry insists, pleading.
"You know," Andromeda begins, and her voice lowers. The melancholy is back, but there's something else there, too, just beneath the surface. "Remus said the same thing."
The frantic look evaporates, and Harry squints down at Teddy, rocking him—slightly stiffly—from side to side and humming a tuneless ditty. Teddy's shrieks fade away, and his hair is suddenly not brown, but vibrant blue. His godfather grins that unstable grin.
"He seems to favor blue," Andromeda murmurs absently, smoothing her robes with trembling hands. "I was afraid of bubblegum pink…"
Teddy's eyes spring open, and Harry nearly drops the child in his surprise.
"Merlin's beard! His eyes are green!"
She leans over, peering into her grandson's face with one of those sad smiles. "So they are, Harry. He likes you."
He stares at the fragile creature he's still rocking and wonders, idly, if Sirius had once done the same for him. Sirius had wanted to guide him, protect him, but circumstance had made that impossible. He's caught up in the moment, some weighty vow dangling from the tip of his tongue. He opens his mouth, but before he lets the words drop, he hesitates. No, no, it's best not to make a promise he may not be able to keep. Instead, he leans down to whisper into Teddy's ear,
"I'll buy you your first broomstick."
Teddy, tickled by the breath of his godfather, giggles.
