A/N: I wrote this story as keeper for the Caerphilly Catapults in the first round of QLFC finals. We had to pick one character as a team, Lily Luna Potter, and write her with any secondary character of our choice. I chose Teddy Lupin.
"I WANT TO GO THE QUIDDITCH MATCH!" Lily shrieked, stomping her feet in frustration.
"Lily, sweetheart," Harry tried desperately to explain as he fixed Albus' wonky, woolly hat. "You can't come to the match. It's too late for you to be up. You'll be too tired."
At that, Lily promptly burst into tears and threw herself to the ground. "B-but it's the world cup!" she sobbed, spread eagled across the hall. Ginny clattered into the hall and sighed reproachfully when she saw her only daughter.
"Really, Harry, dear, you must learn to control her. Albus, James, floo to Grandma and Granddad's while I sort out your sister."
James and Albus cheerfully ran into the living room, eager to see their family and to attend a Quidditch match without their infuriating little sister. Lily, who realised she was getting very little attention, started to scream and flail about on the floor. Ginny crouched beside her daughter and gave her a stern look.
"Lily…" she said warningly.
Lily screamed in reply.
"Lily…" Ginny repeated, the force behind her voice growing. Harry glanced awkwardly at the door.
"Maybe I'll just go and check that James and Al arrived safely-" he began, but was interrupted by a knock at the door. "That'll be Teddy," he said, looking relieved.
"Lily, do you want to be this badly behaved for Teddy?" Ginny asked without standing up.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
The door was opened by Harry to reveal a smirking Teddy Lupin, who raised his eyebrows at the scene; Harry looked tired and harassed, Ginny was looking equally as tired although a little angrier than her husband, and Lily had dissolved into tears once more.
"I'm so sorry, Teddy, we should have called you. We can't leave you with her like this. It's OK, I'll stay behind…" Harry said reluctantly.
"Honestly, it's fine," Teddy reassured him. "I'll take her from here. You two go to the Quidditch match."
Ginny and Harry exchanged uncertain glances.
"Go."
"Well," Ginny said, finally straightening up. "If she doesn't get better send me a text and we'll come back right away."
Teddy grinned. "Will do, Mrs P." Ginny rolled her eyes at the silly nickname.
Harry ruffled his godson's hair and both adults apparated on the spot, leaving Teddy alone with Lily.
"OK, well I'm going to watch the Quidditch. I've got brownies, if you feel like joining me." Lily's cries decreased to sniffles as Teddy sidled past her, into the living room. He had time only to collapse onto the sofa before Lily made an appearance, her dark hair sticking up in all directions. She nibbled on the nail of her thumb sheepishly.
"Can I have a brownie?"
Teddy shifted along the sofa to make more room for the young girl, completely absorbed in the warm up commentary before the game. Lily clambered up and burrowed down beside him as Teddy turned the volume up a few notches.
"Where are the brownies?" asked a muffled voice. Teddy chuckled.
"In my bag."
"Can I have some?"
Teddy sighed thoughtfully, tapping his chin for emphasis. Lily looked worried.
"I suppose," he said eventually, casually reaching for his bag as if Lily didn't look 100% more relieved. She relaxed back into the sofa and studied her babysitter as he handed her a brownie.
"Why's your hair red?" she asked as he turned back to the TV. Teddy's face broke into a grin.
"It's the Wales/England match!" he cried. "I have to show some patriotism."
"Oh," Lily said. "But aren't you English?"
Teddy's remained glued to the TV as the Quidditch players zoomed by. "My dad," he explained after a moment of silence. "He was Welsh."
"Do you miss your parents?"
The question was so unexpected, so abrupt, that Teddy almost looked away from the screen as the match began with a roar. "I guess," he admitted at length. "Look, let's see if we can spot anyone we know," he said without pausing for breath, hoping to divert Lily's attention from his late parents.
Lily stared intently at the TV screen as the match began, but the cameras were much more interested in the game itself than in the crowd.
"I can't see anyone," she whined. Teddy ignored her, already sitting forward in his seat in anticipation for the game ahead. Without any invitation, Lily reached across Teddy for his backpack, retrieving the brownies for her amusement. Teddy didn't react.
Lily nibbled at her brownie and wondered how best to get Teddy's attention. She didn't fully understand Quidditch, now matter how many times her mother had sat her down and tried to explain the rules. But, not wanting to disappoint her mother or be left out of her brothers' antics, she claimed to be a huge fan of Quidditch, which left her bored when the game was actually on TV. She usually found a way to entertain herself – often by annoying those around her.
"Teddy, do you have a girlfriend?"
Teddy turned a shade of red not dissimilar to that of his hair. "No," he muttered.
"Do you like anyone?"
The shade of red deepened. Lily wondered if his head would pop off. "No," he repeated, slumping further into the sofa.
"Why are you upset then?" she asked innocently.
"I'm not!" he insisted.
"But you're all red."
Teddy groaned and buried his face in his hands. Lily paused.
"People who get upset don't get brownies. You said."
Teddy didn't reply, peaking through his fingers at the TV. There was no way he was going to tell Lily who he fancied; in part because she was 8, but also because his crush was her cousin. Telling Lily would be a Bad Idea, even if it would get her to shut up.
Lily remained silent for several minutes and Teddy almost allowed himself a sigh of relief, thinking that maybe Lily was finally going to leave him to watch the Quidditch.
"I'm bored," she drawled. Teddy ignored her. "And hungry."
Knowing that it was his duty as a babysitter to keep his charge fed, Teddy rolled off the sofa and padded into the kitchen with one last regretful glance at the TV. Lily smirked as she followed him.
"OK, well, what do you want to eat?" Teddy asked, checking the cupboards for food and wondering if he actually knew how to cook anything.
"Pasta," Lily told him decisively.
"Pasta," Teddy murmured under his breath, as if that way the pasta would effortlessly appear. He was still only sixteen, so it would have to be cooked the Muggle way. Teddy wasn't sure he had ever seen pasta cooked without magic.
As he stared distastefully at the packets of pasta, sauces, pots and pans in the cupboards, Lily decided to take pity on him. "I know how to make pasta," she said, looking a little disgusted at
"Oh yeah?" Teddy glanced sideways at her. "How?"
Lily gave a world-weary sigh, but held out her arms to be hoisted up by Teddy so that she could examine the cupboards. After pointing out what he needed and setting him on task - boiling water and emptying pasta into a saucepan - Lily asked a question which had been at the back of her mind all evening. "Teddy, can you turn into anything?"
Teddy nodded, his brow furrowed as he wondered exactly how much pasta a child was capable of eating.
"Like polyjuice potion?"
"What do you know about polyjuice potion?" Teddy asked, turning around curiously. Lily shrugged.
"James was talking about it."
"Really?" Teddy allowed himself a small smile for his mischievous cousin. "Interesting."
"I thought about telling Mum and Dad."
"Yeah, I wouldn't. Let James do his evil work. It'll be good for him, in the end. I mean, Jesus, just look at your mum and dad. Look at mine."
Lily scrunched up her nose. "Who's Jesus?"
"He's-" Teddy paused, thinking perhaps explaining the complexities for Muggle religion to an eight year old in one evening might be a bit much. "Never mind."
All of a sudden, Lily was screeching. "Teddy, Teddy, the pasta!"
Teddy whipped around to look at the pasta, where the water appeared to be spilling over the side of the pot, boiling menacingly. "Oh my fucking God," Teddy cried. Lily gasped at He took at his wand, pointed it at the pot and yelled, "Evanesco!"
When Harry and Ginny arrived home, it was to find Teddy and Lily trying badly to explain why underage magic was being used to a uniformed witch.
"Well, you see, you see the water-"
"Yeah, the water!"
"It just started coming out of the pot!"
"It was like lava! Teddy vanished it and saved our lives!"
The witch sighed. "Did you try turning the heat down on the hob?"
"Well-" Teddy thought about this. "Well, no, not really."
"Excuse me, but what's going on in here?" Ginny asked, marching in to her kitchen and throwing her arm around Lily protectively.
"There's been a simple case of underage magic."
"I'm sure there's been some kind of mistake," Harry said as he followed his wife, smiling sweetly. He would usually loath any idea of using his fame to his advantage, but when the matter came to his family…
However, the witch looked unimpressed by Harry's half-hearted attempt. "I'm giving Edward Lupin an official warning."
Teddy hung his head in shame, although Harry recognised it as the insincere expression which always seemed to get him out of trouble. The witch – apparently not won over by his godson's acting either – pursed her lips and apparated without another word.
Teddy looked up at the family – James and Albus having just crept in, Ginny smirking, Harry doing his best to look cross through his urge to laugh and Lily's cheeky grin – and offered a sheepish, "Sorry?"