When they were young-The Curious Case of the Cauldron Cakes
Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron stared open-mouthed at Teddy, George and Al. None of them bothering to hide their surprise.
"Wha…?"
Four hours ago
"No, Al. Watch out for the….."
Thud! Flump! Whoosh!
"Umbrella stand."
Harry sighed dramatically, trying hard to stifle his laughter, as he snatched his son from the air cushion.
"Watch out for the umbrella stand, baby boy."
"But da, Uncle George said that it was okay for me to run into it. He said I would fly! And I was flying before you pucked me out of the ceiling!"
"It's plucked, baby. Not pucked. Plucked you from the air."
Little Al's hand would have hit him in the face had he not deflected it.
"Who cares? Rose cares about the spellings. I am not Rose, da."
"No?"
"No."
Al giggled and laid his head down on Harry's shoulder.
"I wanna go to Potage's today, da."
Ginny grinned at Harry as she passed them by, a sleeping Lily against her torso and a disgruntled James holding her hand.
"Of course, Al. Be a good boy."
"You aren't coming with, ma?"
"Na. Gotta take your little sister to the healer's."
Al's head shot up and he stared at his mother, a grin spread across his face.
"So da and I'll be going to the Digon Alley alone."
"Diagon. And yes you will be going alone."
"Cool."
"He's hanging out with Dean too much."
"Am not!"
His ma winked at him and went outside.
"Da…."
"No."
"But, da! I didn't say nothing!"
His da sighed again and shook his head.
"Teddy has already been with Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur. He has all of his books and everything. And yes, Vic too. So we are going alone."
Al dramatically deflated against his da's chest.
"Okay then."
"But…."
"Yes? Yes? Yes? Yes?"
"I could ask Teddy to come. Maybe he has forgotten quills or something."
"Yay!"
So it was two hours later, in the company of Teddy Lupin (whose hair was electric blue today for some reason) that Al found himself staring at Potage's front door, his mouth open and a puddle of drool at his feet.
There were all sorts of cakes and pasties inside. White and as little as Al' hand and red and bigger than Al. There were thin and short ones. There were broad and tall ones. There were round and plum-sized ones. There were cone-shaped and pumpkin-sized ones. There were cakes that looked so much like the fruit that had gone into making them that they were difficult to discern from the real thing. There were those that looked like animals, trees, dwarves-dwarves!-pixies and frosted butterflies. And that was only the merchandise behind the shiny, sparkling glass that advertised the goodies. Mouth-watering aromas floated out of the door. Cinnamon, apples, pumpkin, pineapple, grapefruit, oranges, milk, fresh bread, sugar and a host of other things. The shop was filled to the brim with so many people-big ones, small ones, weird-looking ones, dumpy ones, and one who looked suspiciously like an elf-that Albus couldn't look farther than the first few sets of boots and billowing cloaks.
"Let's go!"
He tugged on Harry's hand, who didn't move for some reason.
"What is it?"
Harry looked at him and he knew it was something bad.
Al's shoulders slumped.
"We are not going in there, are we?"
He asked, his eyes downcast.
"I am sorry, Al. But Ginny called me from the healer's. I have to go there. Probably tomorrow….."
"You always say that! Always! And then you leave for business! You promised me you would take me to Potage's three weeks ago! Three weeks, da!"
Al snatched his hand out of his fathers and sat down right there on the road.
"C'mon, Al. Don't be such a baby. We'll come back tomorrow. And I'll buy you the pixie cake and even an apple pie."
"No! I'll wait right here with Teddy until you come back. Then you can buy me the cake and pie. I am not leaving here. Not leaving!"
"Albus Severus Potter! Your sister is ill! I have to go to the hospital!"
"Then go! I don't care! All you have talked about since she came was Lily! Lily is ill, Lily needs a new toy wand, Lily needs a chocolate, Lily needs a dress…..Lily! Lily! Lily! Go to her then! Why are you still standing here?!"
A big fat drop of tear plopped on the pavement and was shortly followed by pathetic sniffles.
Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"I am sorry, Al."
"Fine. Whatever."
He looked at Teddy whose hair was flame red by now.
"You think I am getting between you and little Al?"
Harry looked at him with pleading eyes.
"That would be a nooooooooooooooooo."
"Betraying git."
"When it comes to situations like these…I frankly admit it."
Harry looked from one of his sons to the other and threw up his hands.
"Fine! I will leave you here with Teddy and here….", Harry gave Teddy five Galleons, "buy a cake or two. And I better not see you anywhere but in this shop when you come back, you understand me? I should be back by the time you get your stuff from Madam Renée. If I am not back by the time you come out of the shop, go to George's shop and wait for me there. Both of you. Together. Don't you dare leave your little brother alone Teddy. Understand?"
Al, tears replaced by a hearty grin, hugged Harry's legs.
"You are the best, da!"
Harry did his best not to smile but he couldn't stop his grin.
"Yeah. Yeah. Fine. Whatever."
Harry disapparated out of the Diagon Alley, the look of unholy glee on Albus's face imprinted upon his brain.
Al looked at Teddy and Teddy looked at Al.
Both of them grinned and they simultaneously dived inside the store and among the mass of the bodies.
"Woohoo!"
Al paid three Sickles for his treacle pudding, stood on his tip toes to retrieve it and thanked the stoopy old wizard behind the tall counter.
He was just about to eat it when he saw a boy the size of a giant raise his meaty fist and bring it close to Teddy's face. Al narrowed his eyes when he saw that Teddy was dangling from biggo's other hand.
That was all he needed to see.
Al turned around and bought tree more puddings. A chocolate one, an apple one and a pumpkin one. Then he turned around and moved as fast as his stubby legs would carry him to the biggo and Teddy. He was so small that most people tended to dismiss him at the first glance but he had listened avidly to Uncle George when he had explained about self-defence. He marched over the toes of the big boy making him to howl in pain and drop Teddy. The giant boy kept hollering like his ma was behind him with a frying pan-it was a bad sound too, very scary-stumbling here and there in the big store, demolishing the glass displays of pasties and cakes. As soon as his eyes opened he sought Al. They were beady. Beady and bulbous and a dirty brown. He roared at Al. And then was he to do except for turning around and running for his life? Teddy and the rest of the people in the shop were hot on his heels. Little Al in the lead, four puddings balanced on his hands.
He screamed when the giant lifted him and roared again in his face. Al barely kept from puking at the funky smell. He only stopped because he didn't think that the biggo would appreciate it. He used the only weapon he had, gave a war cry, and slammed all four of the puddings into the biggo's eyes. Biggo dropped Al and Al took off like dementors were hot on his heels. Realising too late that he was going into the shop and not out of it. Nowhere to turn around now. He screamed, opened the first crate he saw and dived into it. He started to scream but stopped when he drowned in what felt like….was that…..
"Chocolate!"
He scooped some up and tasted it.
"Hmmm. Tasty!"
Al made a mental note to ask ma to make some for him as he gulped down the chocolate as fast as he could. Finally giving up and sticking his head in the stuff and drinking until he couldn't breath. Fantastic!
He totally forgot about the biggo until…..
"Enjoying yourself, are you?"
Al squealed in surprise and slapped his hands on the biggo's face. He smelled disgusting, the biggo did. Like rotten eggs and cabbages. And looked even scarier up close. There was something wrong with his teeth too. All yellow and pointy. Was anyone supposed to have so many teeth?
Al gulped and looked fearfully in the cruel eyes of biggo. His eyes moving back and forth and back and forth between the yellow teeth and the dirty brown eyes. A whimper escaped him as he realized-too late!-that he was likely going to feel those teeth soon. The biggo looked like he was going to pick his teeth with Al's bones.
But Al hadn't known that! He had thought that the biggo had just been a freakishly sized human!
He didn't look human up close though.
Al gagged as a third eye-larger than the other two-almost the width of biggo's shaggy forehead-opened and glared at him.
Nope, definitely not human.
So Al did the only thing that he could.
He called on his magic and hoped to Merlin he had some.
Water shot out of him and the room began filling up with it. The biggo shouted in surprise and dropped Al.
Not too bright, was he?
"Daddy! Mamma!"
He knew from what da had told him that wizards had magic from the time they were born. He just hoped he had enough power to carry his message to ma and da.
He needn't have bothered.
Because Teddy was there with George. George whipped out his wand and said something that made the biggo fall down in a funky-smelling mound. Next he pointed his want towards the water and it dried up as if it had never been there.
Teddy, for some reason covered in frosting, was already wading his way toward Al. He picked Al up in his arms and looked him over checking for wounds and then went over to George, who was covered in everything from apples to whipped cream, so that he could look him over too.
George was serious only until he had checked Al over, at which point he broke into an enormous grin.
"Saving Teddy, distracting a troll, surviving a troll…..all in an hour."
George brushed an imaginary tear out of his eye.
"Uncle George is so proud of you."
There was an overwhelming sadness in his eyes behind the pride as he leaned close to Al and hugged him.
"And Uncle Fred would be too."
Present.
"What happened to you?"
Ron finally put into words what all of them were thinking. All of their faces similarly befuddled. And even more so when they looked at all the cakes and pasties that they were carting in behind them. (Apparently, the owner thought that the debacle had been Al's fault. Oh, well.)
Teddy and George looked at each other but Al launched into the tale.
By the time he completed, Ron was rolling on the floor with laughter not even bothering to hide it like Hermione. Ginny was glaring at Harry who had a small smile on his face as he first looked at Al and then shared a fond glance with Hermione and Ron.
"Al…..I don't even know what to say." And Harry was not totally kidding. He had never thought that Al-little Al who could successfully fake tears-would be the most like him and his father among all his children. James, maybe. But little Al?
"How can you say that? How can you even think that? My baby! You left my baby alone-alone!-with Teddy and George…."
"Hey!"
"What did you expect? Did you expect him to sit and wait? When have you ever done that? I blame you for this Harry James Potter! You better make this right!"
"What did I do?"
"What di…? How dare you?!..."
Al looked around for escape. When his parents got like this…..there was no telling when they would stop. And he really didn't want to be here to face ma's anger-the troll's ma mightn't have gone after him but Al's ma would-when they did stop.
Teddy was silently backing away from the room and Uncle George had disapparated out of the house.
Al started backing away too and sighed in relief as he left the arguing elders behind, a smile on his face entire time.
He would remember this day forever.