Memories

Disclaimer: I might be Batman, but I'm still not allowed ownership of Harry Potter. D: It's really rather disappointing.

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait! I've tried to get myself to work on this chapter from the day I updated the first chapter, but alas… writer's block came in. And with the holidays and all… Well. You know how it goes. So, with that being said, I apologize in advance for crap writing, mistakes, etc.! I haven't proofread anything so... yeah.

Chapter Two: Frights in the Night

It had been about three weeks since Teddy last spent time with his godfather. Harry had been busy lately with life; between Auror training and his girlfriend Ginny, he hadn't had much time to babysit. But Teddy insisted upon spending time with him soon, as he was starting to go through Godfather-withdrawals. Harry agreed and finally cleared a day for just him and Teddy to do whatever they wanted.

Teddy, the ever energetic four year old that he is, couldn't wait to spend the day with Harry. He planned plenty of different things to do with his godfather.

The first thing on his agenda was to play outside. As it was fall, Teddy loved to play in the multi-colored leaves that scattered the ground. It was his favorite season! Uncle Harry needed to get some yard work done anyway, he said, so they can play and work at the same time. Teddy thought it was the best idea ever and he and his godfather spent at least two and half hours just playing in the leaves.

Needless to say, there wasn't much yard work being done. "Oh, well," Harry had said when he realized they had been playing far too long with not enough work. "I'll just have to do it another day," he said, and attacked his godson with tickles.

The next thing on Teddy's master plan was to play hide and seek. His godfather insisted they eat lunch first; much to the four year old's dismay. Who cared about eating when there could be playing? But when Harry announced they were going to have his favorite—peanut butter and jelly with a side of macaroni and cheese—Teddy suddenly didn't feel as opposed to it anymore.

After lunch, Harry was subjected to the game of hide and seek his godson longed for. Teddy, it seemed, was one of the best hide and seek players Harry has ever known. Unfortunately, he had the unfair advantage that he could change his appearance at will and blend into his surroundings just as well as a chameleon. If Teddy didn't giggle each time Harry got close to him, he feared that he'd have never found the little squirt.

They spent hours just playing and spending time with one another—precious bonding time they both needed. Nighttime fell upon them before either of them realized how late it had become.

Teddy, of course, absolutely refused to go to bed. "Nooo!" he whined as Harry announced it was bedtime. "No bed! I wanna stay up with you, Unca Harry!"

Harry sighed. He was sorely tempted to just forget it and let Teddy stay up, but knowing what the boy was like on a low amount of sleep quickly pushed that thought from his mind. Teddy's a right terror without much sleep, and Harry was not prepared to fight that battle any time soon. "C'mon, squirt," he murmured and picked the squirming lad up into his arms. "Let's go to sleep."

"Unca Harry!" Teddy protested, glaring at his godfather. "No!"

"Yes," he countered, getting a better grip on the wriggling form in his arms, "and that's the end of it." They reached Teddy's room, and Harry plopped him onto the bed.

Teddy had other plans. He scrambled off the bed and clutched onto Harry's leg. "I'll be nice and quiet, I promise! Just let me stay up!"

Hardening his heart to Teddy's wide and innocent puppy eyes, Harry picked him up, placed him back onto the bed, and magically transformed his godson's clothes into pajamas. On a normal occasion, he'd have done it the muggle way, but Harry had no intentions of attempting to change a struggling four year old. "I'm sorry, squirt," he apologized, tapping Teddy's protruding lower lip. "I know you want to stay up, but both of us need our sleep. We'll play more tomorrow."

"But—!"

"Hush," Harry interrupted in a soothing tone as he sat on the edge of Teddy's bed. He kissed the top of the child's head. "Rest for me now, squirt, alright?"

"I wanna stay up!"

"I know."

"Can I then?"

"No."

"Unca Harry!"

Even as Teddy continued to protest, Harry could see his eyelids drooping lower and lower as time went on. "Quiet, now," he said as he wrapped the child in a blanket, gently laid his head down on the pillow, and rubbed his back in a calming matter in hopes of getting his stubborn godson to settle down.

Several minutes later, to Harry's immense relief, Teddy was out like a light. He swiftly made his exit, quiet as a mouse.

Not too long after Teddy fell asleep, he burrowed himself comfortably in his own bed and found himself roaming through Dream-Land.

Red.

That's all Harry could see for miles: long strands of red blowing around like things caught in the wind. The first thing he thought of when faced with the color red was blood. Perhaps it was the effects of the horrors he's been through in his life, or perhaps something else, but that's always what Harry first thought of when faced with something red.

Well, almost.

Ginny's red hair did not remind him of blood. It reminded him a sweet, red rose in field of daisies.

That's almost the feeling he got now as he looked upon the horizon of total redness. And to finish it off, there was a drift in the wind that felt peaceful and—dare he say it—pretty.

Suddenly, the air shifted. Faintly, Harry heard something in the distance.

What is that? he thought to himself as he took a step towards the sound.

The noise rose louder and clearer. He could almost make it out…

Leaning in its general direction, Harry listened hard.

Screaming.

Someone was screaming.

The sound was frightful and sort of… childlike?

Wait, what?

Childlike?

Teddy!

Harry took off in a run towards the sound of the racket, but the word full of red abruptly dissolved into a world of darkness.

A jolt of pain hit his hip as Harry's eyes flew open. Close under his face was the carpet of his bedroom and he blinked in confusion.

The carpet? But wasn't I just—?

A sudden scream ripped through the air, and Harry quickly jumped into the air.

Teddy! he remembered quickly and took off in the direction of his godson's bedroom.

He burst inside, wand at the ready—though, he wasn't sure when he had picked it up off his bedside table where it was usually kept. The blanket Teddy had been wrapped up in sat on the floor in a heap, and Teddy himself lay bucking and squirming in his sleep atop the bed.

"Teddy?" Harry questioned softly as he carefully approached the small bed, "wake up." Gently, he shook the sweating child. "Teddy Bear, wake up!"

Teddy's eyes popped open.

A second later, he flung himself onto his godfather, crying, "Unca Harry!"

"Hush, now," Harry murmured, gently rubbing his back calmly. "I'm here. It's alright, Teddy Bear, relax."

Harry held the crying and shuddering lad for nearly fifteen minutes, but nothing could calm him down. He sang. He hummed. He murmured assurances—'It's not real', or 'It can't hurt you', or 'I'm here, Teddy Bear, you're okay'—but nothing helped. Nothing, it seemed, would help Harry in this situation. Fifteen minutes turned into twenty, which turned into thirty-five, when Harry was staring to get desperate.

"Why don't you tell me about it, squirt? Will that help, you think?" he suggested.

Teddy firmly held onto his godfather and shook his head into the chest that Harry believed to become forever damp from all these tears. Harry sighed softly to himself, too low for Teddy to hear, and thought hard.

What do people do to calm down four year olds? Harry had never been comforted after a nightmare as a child growing up with the Dursley's. He'd had plenty nightmares at Hogwarts, but never sought out comfort there. After all, he wasn't some sort of child needing a cuddle.

But sometimes throughout his childhood it might have been a good idea.

Not that he'd ever ask Aunt Petunia that. Or Uncle Vernon, for that matter. He started to shudder just thinking about it.

This was the sort of thing parents took care of, and Harry was most definitely not a parent—

Oh, of course! Parents!

Gently, Harry lifted Teddy into his arms and carried him to his bedroom. Teddy didn't mind so much, as long as he stayed tightly planted in his godfather's arms. Harry nonverbally summoned the box of memories and pensieve as he positioned himself and Teddy onto his bed.

"Hush, now," Harry repeated for what felt like the thousandth time. "Do you want to see a memory, squirt?"

He felt a furious nod into his chest, and he took it as a yes.

Now, which memory?

He briefly looked at the labels. He didn't know which to show Teddy, but as he chose one at random, he thought it would fit perfectly for his situation and poured it in the pensieve.

Soon they both found themselves in Tonks' memory once again.

The two landed in a small, bubble gum pink room. A little girl, whom they knew to be Tonks, as it was her memory, was sleeping peacefully in her bed.

For the moment.

She suddenly shot up, eyes wide with fear, and panting. "Mummy!" she screamed.

Teddy glanced at Tonks, who seemed to be about five in this memory, and then back at Harry. "Did she have a nigh'mare?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, squirt, just like someone else I know."

His godson only sniffled in response and rested his head on his godfather's shoulder.

Memory Andromeda flew into the room and straight for her child's bedside. Noting the fresh tears streaming down her daughter's face, she quickly pulled the little girl into her lap. "Oh, Dora," she murmured. "Did you have a bad dream?"

Tonks nodded into her mother's chest. "Yeah! And it was really scary, too!"

Andromeda nodded. "I'm sure. Those dreams sure can be scary, can't they?"

"Yeah!" came the tear-filled reply.

"Shh, shh," she murmured soothingly. "I know."

Tonks unwrapped herself from her mum for a minute to look at her curiously. "How do you know? You don't ever get scared!"

Andromeda chuckled. "Oh, love, of course I do. Everyone gets scared sometimes and everyone has nightmares."

"Really?" Tonks' eyes widened in awe at the thought. "Even you?"

"Even me," she confirmed, kissing Tonks' forehead. "And I'll let you in on a little secret," she leaned close to her daughter's ear and whispered quietly, but it was still loud enough for Harry and Teddy to hear, "Those frights in the night aren't real, love, and never will be."

"But they seem so real, Mummy."

"I know they do, but a bad dream is nothing more than that—a bad dream. It isn't real and nothing you saw from it can hurt you. When you have a nightmare the best thing to do is to just," she reached for her daughter's face, gathered a runaway tear onto her forefinger and flicked it away with her thumb, "toss it away."

Tonks sniffled. "Just like that?"

"Just like that. All gone."

She hugged her mother tightly across the waist. "Oh, Mummy, you're so smart!"

She chuckled again. "Why, thank you, Dora."

The memory around them swirled away and they found themselves back in Harry's room. Ah, a short memory then, Harry thought. Straight to the point.

Harry sat himself on the bed, pulling Teddy onto his lap. A few stray tears still ran down his face but for the most part Teddy was calmed down. "Did that help? Seeing that memory?"

Teddy nodded. "Thanks, Unca Harry," he sniffed and laid his head upon Harry's chest. "Unca Harry? Have you had nigh'mares?"

His godfather nodded. "Loads of times." Well… sometimes dark images had been implanted in his mind by Voldemort, and other times he had been unknowingly looking into Voldemort's mind… But why be technical with a four year old? Especially about that subject.

"Were they bad?"

You could say that, he thought. "Yeah, squirt. All nightmares are bad."

"Oh."

"Like your Gran said, though, all nightmares are just bad dreams. They aren't real."

Teddy nodded. "I know… but they seem like it!"

"They do," he agreed. "But just remember that even in the darkest of dreams nothing can hurt you. And when you wake up, you take that dream, and tell it 'I'm not afraid of you! Go away!' and toss it." He picked up a tear off Teddy's cheek and followed Andromeda's example, flicking it away. "See? Gone."

The corners of Teddy's mouth quirked up. "Just like Gran did for Mummy!"

"Just like that." He gently brushed another tear off his godson's cheek, grabbed his hand, and placed it on his finger. "Go on. Say 'I'm not afraid of you! Go away!' and toss it."

Sniffling, Teddy repeated, "I'm not afraid! Go 'way!" and flicked the tear off his forefinger. He beamed up at Harry. "I did it! I tossed it away!"

"See? Wasn't that easy?"

"Yeah!" He cried excitedly. His little body lightened as a burden lifted off his shoulders. The bad dream was gone! No more!

Soon enough, his eyelids began to droop slowly, showing Harry just how tired the squirt was. Now, at least, he could sleep peacefully.

"Now it can't hurt you anymore. All gone." He rubbed Teddy's back and murmured into his ear, "And now it's time for all Teddy Bears to sleep."

"Do I hafta?" The soft protest came, though it carried no weight. Teddy was already drifting back into dream land.

"Sleep," he ordered softly. Within moments, Harry found himself with a four year old Teddy Bear sleeping softly upon his chest.

Well. At least he knew that Teddy would have no more bad dreams tonight. Not with Tonks' memory fresh in his mind, and Harry's presence there to fight them off.

There shall be no more frights this night in Harry's house.

A/N: Whew! Finally! It's a relief to finally finish this chapter! Damn that writer's block!

Question for any who reads this: should the next chapter have another one of Tonks' memories or shall we give Remus a turn? Please let me know!

Also, I might start a parody series of one-shots about Batman and Superman soon! I have it planned and on my to-do list but when I'll get to it is unknown. Another chapter sometime! Hopefully soon, but I make no promises!