Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter stuff.
A/N: So here is the anticipated arrival of Theodore Lupin. I found an untapped mine of inspiration! I cannot be more excited about the first appearance of Teddy and the Weasleys. This is based 11 years after the final battle, just so you know.
Chapter 3: The First, Official Trip to Diagon Alley
It was mid afternoon on a sunny Saturday. Harry had gotten off of his auror duties to spend the day with his family at Diagon Alley, more specifically with his godson.
Teddy Lupin was an excitable eleven year old boy, who happened to be a Metamorphmagus whose hair flashed the color of his mood. When his Hogwarts letter came, it took all of his might not to start spouting accidental fireworks, while his hair jumped through all shades and hues of the rainbow. He had been begging Harry for weeks to go to Diagon Alley to get his new school things. Teddy had been to Diagon Alley before, but only if Ginny or Andromeda couldn't leave him at home alone, which they all knew was a recipe for disaster. There was something special about going to Diagon Alley for new Hogwarts robes, books, and a pet (Teddy was hoping for an owl) for the very first time.
Ginny, Andromeda, Molly, Arthur, Ron, and Hermione had all offered to go with him to Diagon Alley before today. Teddy absolutely refused to go without his godfather. Teddy's godfather was practically a deity to the young wizard. Going to Diagon Alley without Harry would be like going to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and not seeing George. Hopefully they would have time after their shopping to view the latest of George's products.
On previous occasions, Teddy had arrived in Diagon Alley by Floo Powder; this time he forced his family to ride the Knight Bus to an abandoned alleyway near the Leaky Cauldron (Side-Apparition was too much for the children to handle). Teddy wanted the full-fledged effect of entering the pub and going through the brick wall.
As they were walking toward the pub, Teddy held the hand of his godfather and stared in awe at the hustle and bustle of the Muggles. He looked up at the pub's sign, "Harry," he pulled at his godfather's sleeve, his hair in its usual bright lime green.
"Yeah, bud?"
"If the cauldron is so leaky, why don't they just fix it?" Teddy asked innocently.
"Now that is a good question," Harry replied, attempting to stifle his laughter at his godson's innocence.
"Teddy, don't act so dumb. It's just a name, for heaven's sake," a short, silvery-blond girl snapped.
"Now, Victoire. Don't be rude to your cousin," Molly said at once. Lord knows, she's heard about every argument in the book, she doesn't care to hear another.
Teddy stuck his tongue out at Victoire. She looked irate.
"Ron, don't they remind you of how we acted in our first few years at Hogwarts?" Hermione whispered reminiscently.
"Teddy, Victoire, calm down, we're here to buy Teddy's new school things," Ginny said, looking a little flustered. She and her mother were trying to keep account of all of the Weasleys and sole Lupin, even though Teddy was considered a Weasley. It was no easy matter watching Teddy, James, Victoire, Albus, Rose, Hugo, and Lily. Having Ron, Hermione, Harry, her mother, and herself there made it all the harder to watch the children. Fortunately, Andromeda, Bill, Fleur, and George were all working that day so she didn't have more people in their already large party of twelve.
As they walked into the bar, Tom's eyes widened at the sight of the Weasley party. "I hope you aren't needing rooms, Harry," he said, worrying he would have to squeeze this size of a party into his small inn.
"Oh no, Tom. We're here to visit Diagon Alley," he replied. Whispering, Harry added, "Teddy wanted the full effect of entering through The Leaky Cauldron."
"Gotcha," Tom winked.
Harry led the party through the pub, to the alleyway littered with trash cans. Harry smiled down at Teddy and said, "Watch this." Harry tapped the correct bricks in the wall, and it melted before their very eyes.
Teddy was speechless. To him, the power of magic was tremendous. If only he could go to Hogwarts now.
The Weasleys walked through the threshold that led to Diagon Alley. The children stood in awe of the different buildings, creatures, and devices. Teddy didn't know what shop to go to first. Did he want to get fitted for robes, choose a wand, buy books, withdraw money from his Gringotts vault?
"All right, Teddy. Where do you want to go?" Harry asked, remembering his first trip to Diagon Alley. He was hoping Teddy didn't encounter any characters like the former Draco Malfoy.
"Harry, why don't you and Teddy shop for his school things. My mom and I will watch the rest of the group," Ginny said, knowing that Teddy would be perfectly content with this suggestion.
"Yeah!" Teddy exclaimed, while his hair flashed a violent yellow.
After walking for a little while through the crowded alley, Teddy asked, "Harry, can we go to Gringotts so I can get some money for my things?"
"Teddy, don't worry. Today is on me," Harry said with a smile. "Let's stop by the cauldron shop, you can keep other things in your cauldron while we're shopping."
The pair walked into the cauldron shop, like many other stores in Diagon Alley it was very busy, especially with first years and their parents. Avoiding being trampled, Teddy quickly found a standard pewter cauldron, size two, near the front of the shop.
Afterward, Teddy excitedly asked, "Can we get my wand?"
"Of course, bud."
The godfather and godson walked past more stores and stopped right outside of Ollivander's wand shop. There was a plaque commemorating the founder of the shop, Mr. Ollivander. It read:
"Many decades ago, Mr. Ollivander founded this wand shop.
He did so to benefit all of those in need of a wand, especially
the eleven year-olds anxiously anticipating their first year
at Hogwarts. After his sad death a few years ago, I, Adrian
Ollivander, his son, have continued to run his shop in
order to benefit the people he cherished most."
"Did you know Mr. Ollivander?"
"Oh yes. To be honest with you, Teddy, he gave me the creeps when I was a kid," Harry said remembering Mr. Ollivander's praise of the terrible work Voldemort's wand performed.
The pair walked into the wand shop and saw they were the only ones buying a new wand at the moment.
"Mr. Ollivander? Are you here?" Harry asked, not seeing Adrian.
"Yes, yes! I'm in the back, one moment please!" Adrian yelled. He walked out of the back room covered in dust. "Scourgify!" The dust vanished from the wand maker immediately.
"Hello, first year at Hogwarts? Let me find some wands to test," Adrian said quickly. He left the pair standing there, neither of them had had time to get a word in. Harry remembered that Ollivander always seemed to be in a rush also. "Here we are."
Adrian Ollivander handed wand after wand to Teddy. After what seemed like thousands of wands causing havoc in the wand shop, Teddy found the perfect one. When he flicked the wand, beautiful green, red, silver, and blue sparks shot out of the end, creating the three-dimensional shape of a dragon breathing fire. Teddy was astounded, once again, by what magic can do.
"This is a very fine wand, indeed. It's built for a very powerful wizard. Thirteen and three quarter inches, made from an elder tree, core of dragon heartstring," Adrian said, almost jealously. "Be sure to polish your wand, at the very least once a week. There have been wizards in the past that have forgotten to take proper care of their wands," Adrian's eyes met Harry's for a moment with an accusing look as he said this. Harry wondered, did Mr. Ollivander share the story of my fourth year wand inspection?
"One last thing about your new wand. The dragon heartstring came from a very powerful Hungarian Horntail, that I'm sure Mr. Potter here knows very well."
As they walked out of the wand maker's shop Teddy inquired, "What did Mr. Ollivander mean you would know the - what was it - Hungarian Horntail?"
"Teddy that's a pretty scary story. I'll tell you about it when you're older, okay?" Harry knew Teddy wouldn't like this answer. Teddy had asked many questions about the war and Harry's past. Harry had shared only what he thought his godson could handle.
Teddy looked disappointed, his hair exemplified his mood when it slumped into a sad, dark gray. He understood that Harry had been through many traumatic ordeals in his lifetime, but he always gave the same answer, "I'll tell you when you're older."
The two didn't speak for a while until they reached the book shop.
"Teddy, let's look around for your school books. The sheet lists: The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1), A History of Magic, Magical Theory, A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, Beginning Herbology, Magical Drafts and Potions, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Defeating the Dark Arts: A Guide for All Ages. I remember some of these books quite well, and I've noticed Neville has assigned a new Herbology book."
The godfather and godson scoured the store until they found most of the books. "All we need now is Magical Drafts and Potions," Teddy said, clearly bored, hair going to a lighter shade of grat.
"I'll search behind this bookshelf, Teddy," Harry indicated the largest of the shelves, "And you can look around here."
Teddy found his final book and was on his way to find Harry, when he bumped into someone approximately his size. Teddy's hair flashed a bright orange, mostly likely representing surprise.
"Watch where you're going, you insolent, little prat!" spat an extremely pale boy with very sleek black hair.
"Sorry, I didn't see you there," Teddy said, feeling somewhat afraid. Teddy noticed the boy's stare was very stony and cold.
A rather large woman with a kind face approached. "It's no problem, honey. Lisle and I were just leaving," she said kindly to Teddy.
"Mother! Do not tell me what to do!" he screamed as his mother pushed him out of the book shop.
Harry found Teddy just as the boy was being dragged out of the front window. "Who was that, Teddy?"
"I don't know, but he was really angry."
The two bought the rest of Teddy's school things and still had time to meet the Weasley clan in George's shop. As they were walking further into the cluttered Diagon Alley, Harry decided to surprise Teddy with a present. The pair pushed through crowds within the busiest shop in all of Diagon Alley, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. They quickly found a group of eleven (George had joined them) Weasleys, easily distinguishable by their heads of flaming red hair. Teddy morphed his hair to match the others.
"How'd the day go?" Ginny asked.
"Pretty well, Adrian Ollivander, Mr. Ollivander's son, mentioned the Hungarian Horntail from the tournament to Teddy, though. I told him he was too young to know the whole story," Harry said halfheartedly, seeing the disappointed look on Teddy's face (and hair) had almost killed him.
"He'll understand when he's older," Ginny said consolingly.
"Well, I'm headed off to get a surprise for Teddy," Harry said before he ducked through the crowds.
"Wait, Harry!" Ginny wanted to know what he was doing. But he had already gone. She rejoined the group to make sure no one had gotten themselves lost, and found that, unsurprisingly, Victoire and Teddy were arguing.
"You'll only be able to get a girl if you use a love potion," Victoire teased, as Teddy blushed violently red and his hair flashed bright pink.
"Victoire, leave Teddy alone," Molly and Ginny said in unison.
"Ginny, where'd Harry go?" Teddy said, slightly confused.
"I don't know, he didn't say."
The Weasley clan strolled the aisles of the joke shop and searched the shelves upon shelves of pranks, ranging from Instant Peruvian Darkness Powder to Nosebleed Nougats. Teddy looked through the window and saw the pale, angry boy from the book shop arguing with his mother. It looked as though she was suggesting that he should look at some of the jokes and he was absolutely refusing to conform as the rest of the Hogwarts students did. Right as Teddy was about to point them out to Ginny, he saw Harry returning to the shop with a large object covered in a brown tarp. Teddy raced down to see what Harry was carrying.
"Harry, what is that?" Teddy asked. Teddy was so excited and curious that his hair was practically emanating the lime green.
"Well, this is a surprise present for you, Teddy. I got a gift just like this on my first trip to Diagon Alley, too."
Harry removed the brown tarp to reveal a cage with a pure white, snowy owl perched within.
Teddy gasped. The thing he wanted most from Diagon Alley was a snowy owl, how could he have forgotten?
"Harry, thank you so much!" Teddy's hair was streaked with all colors imaginable, he was too happy to choose just one.
A/N: Okay, I like this ending so much more than before. I finally remembered to put in that Teddy is a Metamorphmagus. Duh. Please review! :)
