Godfather

Walk

"That's right Teddy! Over this way! You can do it now!" Harry grinned and held out his arms to the toddling child who was slowly making his way over to him. Every once in a while Teddy would teeter and fall right on his rump but every time he would get up and continue walking as if he'd never fallen at all.

"That's the spirit Teddy, keep on going and don't give up!"

Teddy stepped forward again directly into Harry's waiting arms and toppled over with a giggle.

"You did it! I'm very proud of you Teddy." Harry said with a smile.

For a child not completely aware of his surroundings Teddy looked extremely smug as if to say, 'Of course I did, and who wouldn't be proud of me?' Well… as smug as a baby face could get.

"Don't look so arrogant Teddy Bear that was only walking five feet; let's see you do a whole room."

If babies could groan, he imagined that was what Teddy was doing right now.

Harry stifled a laugh and brought Teddy into the kitchen for lunch.

It was about a week later when Teddy's surprised him again, he'd been sitting on the small back porch of his house, cleaning and tweaking his Firebolt. Originally it had been lost when during his flight with Hagrid but after everything was said and done he'd made an attempt to go back and find it. Surprisingly enough, he'd found it in a small second hand shop not far from Surrey. The owner had found the broom on his front lawn one morning as he went to get the paper, and had taken to his shop to sell. It was a nice broom; he'd figured someone would buy it. But for nearly a year it sat in his shop gathering dust, as no one wanted such a broom to clean with. So when Harry stepped into the store one day to do some shopping (He hadn't quite felt like going to London after his mishaps with the elderly female population, and Surrey was the only other place he knew.) he'd been shocked to find it lying there in a rubbish pile set aside to be dumped.

Quite honestly, it had felt a little awkward buying something he already owned.

When Harry heard the bang of his back door, he didn't bother looking up; just assuming it was either Ron or Hermione. He was startled when not a second later and overactive Teddy, who was supposed to be with his grandmother today, fell into his lap with a bright smile.

"Teddy! What in Merlin's beard are you doing here? And where is your grandmum?"

"Right here Harry."

Harry looked up to meet Andromeda's eyes. The woman, though still tired and a little drawn after the death of Tonks and Ted, was looking much better. The bags under her eyes had diminished somewhat and her face wasn't red or puffy like the last time he'd seen her.

"I thought you would be gone a while longer."

She gave him a small smile, "Teddy managed to walk across the entire house today, he was desperate to show you. Kept trying to go through the Floo to get here."

"Did you really Teddy? You naughty boy you, you must have given you're poor old grandmum and dreadful time."

Andromeda slapped the back of his head lightly, "I'm not that old yet, thank you very much."

Harry ignored her and turned back to Teddy, who disappeared from his lap and was making his way across the lawn after a butterfly. Albeit slowly…

"Wait! Teddy! Watch out for that-"

Harry didn't get to finish his sentence before Teddy tripped over and rock and tumbled into a flower bed, where he poked his head out from some lilies, a few petals stuck to his face. Over all he looked a little shocked and confused at what happened. Harry sighed, at least he wasn't hurt.

"I suppose he hasn't gotten t he whole walking thing down after all…"


LBH: I confess to writing these things out of order, I was in the middle of writing this chapter, after typing Word, when I realized… You have to crawl before you can walk… I feel a little silly now…