Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 2

It really didn't take long for Harry to finish those brownies. Three days later and with a slightly sick stomach from failing to eat practically anything else, Harry was taking the plate back over the street. This time filled with his own special brand of cookies.

A middle-age man answered the door.
"Hello." Harry greeted, holding up the plate. "I just wanted to give these in thanks for the brownies."

"Harry, right?" the man looked at Teddy asleep in his carrier in Harry's right hand and took the plate of cookies before shaking his left. "I'm Burt, come in."

They went into the kitchen where Burt immediately put half of the cookies in a bag and hid them at the back of the freezer. "My doc says I need to cut down on the sweets," Burt explained without Harry asking, "Kurt won't let me eat anything but rabbit food."

"Ah," Harry snatched one of his own cookies. "Then he can be assured that these are made of nothing but the finest natural ingredients."

"Oh?" Burt took a tentative bite and then a larger one.

"Butter, flour, sugar, oatmeal and raisins." Harry grinned. "One hundred percent natural."

"Right." Burt grinned, "I'll have to try that one on him. It won't work, but it might be funny. Milk? It's skim, but it's all we've got unless you want soya."

"Milk's fine." Harry glanced around, "Where is Kurt? I thought he said that he finished work by three today." It was five.

"He went over to his friend Mercedes." Burt shrugged, "Something about Vogue Italy."
Harry didn't really know what that meant either.

"So how old is he?" Burt asked, looking at Teddy.

"Six months."

"And you're…?"

"Seventeen, but I'll be eighteen at the end of the month."

"And the mother?"

"Teddy's parents were friends of mine. I think his mum thought of me like a kid brother." Harry explained easily, Kurt hadn't asked before and Harry didn't often volunteer information but this man seemed to be trying to look out for his son. "They didn't really expect me to do more than spoil him rotten when they named me Godfather. But then they died in one of those Terrorist attacks last year on the metro and his grandmother was too old to take care of him. So he's mine. Legal age is sixteen back home."

"So he's not yours?"

"He's mine. Legally, that is."

Burt nodded, obviously thinking. "And family?"

"My parents are dead since I was a baby, the rest might as well be. And my girl-friend. Well, she was with them when the bomb went off." Ginny. Beautiful Ginny. He really had planned on marrying that girl. Maybe not right away. But she was the one.

Burt breathed in sharply. "Kid, I'm so sorry."

"It's all right. I can't say I'm over it. I'm not. But I have Teddy," Burt seemed to understand. He probably did understand. Kurt said his mom died when he was eight or something. "My friends didn't want me to come here. But I thought we could get a fresh start. I was pretty popular back home and people were always coming over, always waking him up. Always wanting to go out."

"I remember how that was." Burt nodded. When he and Elizabeth had Kurt it was suddenly really hard to do anything with their old friends who didn't have responsibilities and the like yet. And it happened all over again when he was clinging to Kurt right after she died. "Have you got a car? I haven't seen one."

"I don't have a license." Harry ducked his head, a little embarrassed. Most kids got theirs as soon as they were sixteen. But magical children didn't and, really, with the tube who needed one in London? "I've never actually been behind the wheel of a car. I've always taken the tube. The subway." He tried to get the americanese right.

"Well," Burt thought that over. "You really need a license in Ohio. You can take a course with the department of motor vehicles. Or you could just get your learners and I'll teach you."

"Yeah?" Harry ducked his head a bit. "I don't want to put you out."

"Naw." Burt waved it off. "Kurt said you have some money. Would getting a car crump your budget?"

"No. Not at all."

Just the way he said that gave Burt the feeling that the kid could probably afford to take Kurt shopping every day for the next fifty years and still be alright.

"I know a couple of people looking to sell their cars. Do you have any preferences?"

"Uh, safe? Like for a baby?"

Burt grinned. "I think we can figure something out."