I know I said the next chapter would be set after their honeymoon, but this is me and by now, even I have given up on listening to myself after I post a chapter because really... I'm in love with Teddy and Amelie together and I'm sorry, but you're going to have to put up with random extra chapters like this because the fluff is real!

Sorry that this is only about 4000 words long, but the next chapter will hopefully be coming asap, as I'm getting back into writing them now!

Lots of responses to the M/T question, and it's been decided that M is the way to go. Like I said before, this chapter won't be affected by the M rating, but subsequent ones might! Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote and to leave lovely messages too - I love you all, and you don't know how much joy and happiness you've brought me on this, the type of week which had me crying at my desk at work!

I wish I could reply to all of your messages on here, but I know you all want to get to reading, so I'll just say thank you to fandomtainment (I hope your interview went well!), shawnta. horton (sorry, I had to add in the space because it deleted your username the first time), DB88, Gryffindork1307, Mystery Angle, xxx-Miss-Bella-Swan-xxx, Alcachofu, kankananime123, codebreakerofcodes, FairiesandDemons, CaptainCumberbatch, alexxxela and everyone else who's reading this story!

I hope you enjoy this, and there aren't too many errors!

Chapter Three

On the last day of our mini-moon, as Teddy decided it should be called, we woke up earlier than we had before. Somehow, I ended up falling asleep halfway through our moonlit picnic the night before. And by somehow, I mean... When your new husband (that's still very odd to say) is as adept with warming and comfort charms as mine is, it's pretty easily done... Especially if he was, and I'm not bragging about this (oh wait, I am) absentmindedly singing old-school Weird Sisters songs in an unfairly soothing tone.

Anyway, I swear to Merlin that I closed my eyes for two seconds on that blanket we'd set up in the otherwise freezing cold garden of the cottage we're staying at, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up snuggled into the warmest, albeit hardest, mattress I've ever slept on. By that, of course, I mean I've woken up sprawled across poor Teddy again, with the palm of my hand smushed against his chin in what I can only imagine was my unconscious self trying to stroke his cheek or something. I think after two days of this, he might actually already be used to waking up in highly uncomfortable positions, considering how well he slept through his nose being pushed out of joint yesterday, but I for one haven't.

Hmm... I wonder if that's because of his ability to change his appearance at will, so perhaps if I actually do end up injuring him he'll be fine?

Anyway. I try to extract myself as carefully as possible, thinking about the fact that I've never realised I slept in such ridiculous positions before, when the slow rumble which seems to emit from Ted's chest as he sleeps cuts out suddenly, and he frowns, opening his eyes and squinting at my hand as I stop moving.

"Are you trying to strangle me already?" He asks, voice still thick with sleep, as both our eyes focus on my offending appendage and the way that it's currently resting against his neck. I guess I wasn't as careful as I thought? Maybe I should have focused on moving more quickly and less on his morning stubble?

I give him a sheepish smile as he raises an eyebrow and reaches up to remove my hand from his throat, and I struggle to retain my composure when he kisses my palm and then sighs, pulling me back against him and resting my hand over the beating pulse of his heart instead.

"You could at least wait until after the mini-moon, you know?" He winks at me sleepily and leans down to try to kiss my lips, but I'm too conscious of the fact that he woke up to me half strangling him, and duck my head down, which causes his chest to rise and fall rapidly with laughter. "I don't think anyone would blame you, of course, I've been told I'm a terror to share a bed with, what with the snoring and all. Positively wolflike, I hear-"

He cuts off as I give him a sharp look as something hot and stabbing invades the vicinity of my heart. I'm speaking before I can hold myself back.

"Who said that?" Okay, that came out in a much more confrontational way than I thought it would, but it's too late to do anything more than run with it, so I stay silent as he leans his head up and studies me for a few moments in silence. It's beginning to make me feel uncomfortable by the time he starts to press his lips together in an odd way, almost as if he's holding back another laugh, but then he finally opens his mouth to speak, holding my firm as I go to move away from him.

"Am..." He presses his lips together again as I work to avoid his stare. "..." I'm not just saying that for the heck of it, it actually does sound like he made the stalling noise of three dots in a row... Or at least what I imagine it would sound like when I read books. This is getting awkward enough now, that I find myself glaring more to cover my embarrassment as I manage to push away from him finally, or rather, he lets me go, and decide to change the subject as soon as I look down and notice that I'm now in my pyjamas.

"Did you change m-"

"James and Alb-"

"What?" We ask in unison, having spoken over each other a moment before. Teddy's hair begins to turn red at the roots whilst my cheeks begin to feel the heat of blushing whilst we wait to see who will clarify first. Not going to be me this time, i-

"When I was younger and went to visit the Potters, I'd switch between sharing a room with James and Albus. They decided I should get my own room if I ever came to live with them, which they really wanted me to despite the snoring I should add, but-" as he's speaking, Ted's arms are sneaking around me, his tone gentle as if trying to distract me from this fact. It is very distracting, to be honest. I mean... It's just so much deeper and rumbly in the morning and his voice is deep and rumbly to begin with. Ah, I'm just going to go with it, but resist just enough to save face. "-so after that summer, we all realised they could never share a bedroom with each other at the risk of only one of them surviving, and that was that."

Damn, I wish I'd heard the rest of that story. With a firm tug, I'm launched off balance and find myself staring at his black t-shirt.

"Did you change my clothes?" I ask, the words coming out muffled as my mouth is pressed against his chest. Again, I don't think I have many complaints about this, especially after my weird heart stabby feeling thing. Teddy's response is a faint strangled sound before he starts rambling in a vaguely horrified tone about how transfiguration spells are his specialty and he wrapped me up in the covers so he didn't see anything.

It's my turn to bite back a smile as he continues his long-winded and adorably awkward explanation whilst I settle myself within his hold for comfort purposes. I know it might sound terrible that I'm letting him sweat, but I've only encountered awkward Teddy a few times, and most seem to be since we've been married. I'll put him out of his misery soon, but I think I'll wait for about the same amount of time he let me go on apologising for walking in on him topless without realising he would be yesterday.

Of course, I probably could have apologised much more quickly if he hadn't been so confused about why I'd been doing so in the first place that he'd taken far too long to put on a shirt. Not that I was still staring, of course...

"... I still just think it was a bit mean of you to let me go on and on for ten minutes, but that's all I'll say on the matter." I steal a glance in Teddy's direction as his hand slips to the small of my back, but only manage to get in a little-disgruntled glare before he pulls me to him. I settle my hands on his upper chest and push just enough to get him to loosen his grip, which he does, but he might have only allowed it because that movement also gives him time to adjust his backpack which is slung over one shoulder.

"And I just think," I begin, feeling my lips tilting to one side as a grin forms, something echoed in his eyes as he continues to give me an otherwise gravely serious look. "That if you had been a little nicer to me about the whole topless situation, then I would have been nicer to you about the whole clothes removal. Of course, I can't help it if yo-" I cut off with a squeal as I'm simultaneously lifted from the ground and tickled, laughing and trying to fight my way free. I don't know about you, but I don't think it's really quite fair that when you're tickled, your arms and legs become so weak that you can't put up a good defence.

Ahh! Foc-us-on-def-en-ce!-

I'm still giggling intermittently and trying to get loose when Teddy begins to stalk over to the portkey. I suppose I should complain about the fact that he's doing so with me slung over his shoulder, but I'm beginning to find that there are quite a few things I probably should mind about the situation but don't, although perhaps that's because as it's the second time he's done it in the past few days, I'm becoming used to it now? It sort of reminds me of that scene in the Mummy, when Brendan Fraser throws Rachel Weisz over his shoulder... Or the Mummy 2 when he does it again... Either way, it's sort of fun and also-

"Am I really-tha-" Breathing is key to the remaining calm and not a giggling mess. Teddy's laughter tells me that he caught my attempt to speak, and his ducking down to lower me back to the ground tells me that he also accepts that I can be put down now without collapsing in a tickled heap. I'm not just saying that because he just decided that was something he should begin to judge... It's kind of embarrassing, but that did actually happen last time he tickled me, so he's actually being quite considerate to think of it.

When I deem my legs strong enough to hold me, I give him a brusque nod and then grin up at him as he ducks down to plant a kiss on my lips that becomes slightly too passionate for the countryside, but slightly too short for me to complain about.

"You were asking something, I believe?" Ted asks, looking around us to see whether there's an innocuous-looking trainer still lying around to take us back to our regular lives. This gives me a second or two to remember what I was asking and where we are and you know, those general things you're supposed to remember despite being kissed soundly.

"Yes. Right, of course. Am I really that light, is what I was going to ask." I reply, cocking my head to one side and tucking my hair behind my ear as I feel suddenly a little shy in asking. It was a lot easier when I couldn't see his dark hair falling about his face whilst he straightens up, the trainer in hand, with a triumphant grin.

That grin fades into a much more cheeky expression as he looks me up and down, which of course makes me over analyse the way I'm standing. I'm looking down to check that I don't look that bad and I'm not standing in a strange pose when my hair is untucked from behind my ear by a gentle hand, and I'm forced to look up into Ted's silver-grey eyes as he tilts my head up.

"Would you rather I told you that you weighed nothing at all, or that I reminded you of the fact that I play Quidditch for two different teams which requires a lot of strength?"

"Erm... We-Well I don't mind either, but which one's the truth?" I reply awkwardly, suddenly nervous for reasons I can only imagine stem from the look in his eyes, one I can't identify but makes me feel like he's subtly mocking and reassuring me in equal measure.

"The truth," he says, wrapping me up tightly in his arms for the third time today. "Is that you don't weigh very much to me be-" OH DEAR MERLIN AND GRYFFINDOR ON A STICK! PORTKEY!

When I come back down to earth, no pun intended, Teddy's arms are still wrapped around me, and he seems to have realised that holding me up when we travel is always a good idea because that's what he's currently doing. It's a good move, I'd say, as I feel worse than ever seeing as I had no warning that it was going to happen. He does that a lot, now that I think about it... Suprise me with travel, not hold me upright... Although, he's been doing his fair share of that lately too.

"I-I've said it once," I murmur, trying to regain any semblance of composure and failing miserably at it. "And I'll say it a thousand times more-" I have to break off to grimace as my stomach finally seems to realign itself with the rest of my body, but Teddy helpfully picks up where I've left off.

"All magical transportation seems to have been created specifically to be so horrible that no one should ever want to use it?" He asks - a rhetorical question really, made evident by his tone. "I have a couple of theories about why that is, but none of them are going to help right now. I don't know why, but it's like your body just kind of skips over the graceful landing thing and goes straight for asking 'how hard can I crash into the ground this time?'. I almost lost you for a second there, and right after impressing you with my strength." He trails off, almost as if thinking aloud as I straighten up in his arms and he lets me go, hands hovering at my sides in case my legs give out.

"I-oh merlin." To my utter horror, I think maybe taking a portkey whilst incredibly tired and half drunk is actually preferable to doing it sober.

The rush is finally leaving me, albeit slower than usual this time. I nod curtly to Ted, who replies with a salute worthy of a lieutenant. Shaking my head to clear it, I test out my legs by giving a little jump and then nod again before waving off my new husband's assistance and turning towards the path leading through the trees to our back garden.

Was it really only three days ago that we got married here?

Thanks to magic, there's really nothing to let on about the fact that we pretty much littered the place with lupins and wildflowers for the occasion, and if you'd somehow wandered through to the back of the house, I doubt you'd even realise there was a possibility of a wedding having taken place, what with how dense the trees seem to be today. I'm sure they weren't this close before...

We're walking in silence round to the doors at the back of the house which lead into the kitchen, the only thing to cut through the companionable void that Ted is obviously maintaining for my benefit is the sound of keys which jangle as he removes them from his jacket pocket.

I asked him about this yesterday when I came across the collection on the bedside table, and he explained that it gives him a bit of a muggle feeling and something to fidget with if he ever gets nervous and stuffing his hands in his pockets doesn't work. He's going to get me a set cut and was a bit ashamed that he hadn't thought of getting them for me earlier, but I don't really need any considering how the wards are set up around the house and that when I do live here full time, I'll be travelling in and out by floo every day for the first few months.

In reality, considering he's already sorted the wards out, either one of us could open any of the doors just by putting our wand hand to it, but it's a nice gesture anyway, and I like the idea of having muggle style keys to add to the ones from home.

Teddy unlocks the door, jiggling the second lock slightly and pulling the door towards him as he turns the handle and key simultaneously to get it to unlock, and then sighs when it works on the first try, the door swinging inwards. That's another thing he told me, sometimes the door decides it wants to mess with him and doesn't open until it wants to. I would usually put this down to someone not being able to get it on the first try every time, but they are magical locks, so anything is possible.

I step forward, ready to follow him in, when he throws his backpack with all of our things and presents we got for people, I should mention through onto the kitchen floor, and turns to me with his hands on his hips, bright blue haired and cobalt eyed, with a mischevious glint in his eye.

"What?" I ask suspiciously, narrowing my eyes at him slightly. He grins and gestures towards the house.

"Threshold." He tells me simply. "The only question is, are you carrying me over it, or do I have the honour of carrying you? Figured I'd give you the choice and all, it's only fair that we're equal. That being said, one of us is going over it being carried by the other as per tradition, and we do have a New Year's party to attend in-" he sucks in breath through his teeth with a hiss as he pulls out the pocket watch and clicks it open. "Oooh, only four hours. Yeah, Potter New Year parties start surprisingly early," he adds at the look of confusion on my face. "So yeah, lady-or wife, rather. You or me? It's a wolf carry wolf world out here you know, and-"

"Oh Godric! If I don't decide, you're just gonna keep talking, aren't you?" I ask, laughing at the mock seriousness on his face. He nods gravely, the action ruined by the almost boyish grin he's now giving me, and I shake my head at him, rolling my eyes even as I move to place my arms around his neck. "You can carry me over this time, but only because of the fact that you weigh so much and I do want to be able to enjoy the party without taking five of Mr. Potter's pain potions first!"

"That's Mr. Uncle Potter to you!" He tells me, swinging me into his arms and stealing a kiss before forging ahead into one of the two most used rooms in the house. The other is the lounge if you were wondering. Which you weren't... And I wasn't either... At least, I hope it's the lounge? I've just been thinking more since we've been married about how many people Te-

"Surprise!" AHHHH!

It's a good job I've got my arms around Ted's neck, which tighten by reflex, because he drops the arm around my back immediately and grabs his wand from the holster on his side, hidden under his jacket, and has it pointed at the assailant quicker than a gun drawn in an old western movie.

"James!?" He asks in a half angry, half shocked to death tone as my heart rate decreases enough that I can register that it is, in fact, James who just jumped out of nowhere and is now standing by the island in the kitchen looking both nervous and triumphant in a way that only a Potter sibling can pull off.

Oh. Now he's dispensed with the nervousness and is doing what appears to be some sort of mildly stereotypical leprechaun jig, pulling something out of his pocket as he does so. Oh, Merlin's beard! No!

Ted sacrifices himself, swinging me behind him as James fires the glitter cannon and sprays Teddy from head to toe with heart-shaped glitter which swirls around him for a few seconds before disappearing, leaving an eery silence in the room and a very stiff-spined husband in front of me. I can only see his back, but as I peek around him to steal a glance at James and see that my brother-in-law-ish is gulping visibly, right eye twitching a little, I'm not sure I want to guess at the expression on his face.

I can't say this is what I expected when we returned home, but I really don't know why I wasn't expecting it at the same time.

I mean, maybe not the whole glitter situation, as I thought James was banned from buying or receiving magical glitter cannons from his uncles' shop after the whole Auror office glitter explosion some six years ago, but maybe the ban was lifted due to good beha-

"WELCOME HOME!" Clearly not reading the room, Lily!

I duck this time, clearly not meant to be a Gryffindor, and cover my head with my arms as my best friend turned sister-in-law-ish attacks from the side this time, jumping onto one of the dining table chairs and shooting glitter so that it cascades around us both this time. I just about get a glance in to see her look, which is more that of a child with their hand caught in the pygmy puff cage at WWW, when Ted's scarily calm voice emanates from above me.

"Lily. As you are the younger of the two, I will give you the benefit of enough time to run. James. You have been warned, and have age and experience that your sister does not have. Therefore, you know what is about to happen." Well. I guess by the speed at which Ted's running after James, he wasn't giving it his all when he chased after me the day we got engaged. Huh.

I stand up hesitantly, still half shielding myself for further attack, and hear the clatter of the chair moving across the floor followed by footsteps approaching me.

Arms wrap around my middle, and I move my own around my shorter best friend, vaguely registering that we're both still watching the door to the hallway and listening for any signs that Ted may be heading off to Azkaban for having murdered the eldest son of Harry 'The Chosen One' and Ginny 'The Fearless' Potter.

"You'll protect me, won't you?" Lily asks me quietly, both of us wincing as we hear a loud crash, followed by a yelp. Not sure who that came from, but I'm not putting galleons on it being Teddy.

"Just give him the old Weasley glare and he'll back away," I reply, my voice sounding hollow and not quite sure of myself.

"I'm not sure that's going to help me this time," she tells me solemnly, and finally I look down to meet her eyes, both of us biting our lips together before bursting out into peals of laughter as I vaguely register James running back across the hallway towards the stairs.