"Teddy!" Teddy felt a poke to his shoulder and squinted in the dark.
"Teddy!" It was Al. Teddy sat up with some difficulty, groaning at his full stomach. Nana Molly had fussed that he looked "too, too thin" and insisted that he needed seconds of everything on the table. That wasn't an exaggeration.
Teddy flicked his lamp on to see little Rosie climbing up the foot of his bed as Al settled down next to him. Rose sat down on his other side, next to the wall, and handed him a card.
"It's your mum!" she whispered.
Teddy looked down at the chocolate frog card in wonder. He'd spent years looking for a Nymphadora Tonks card and when he'd finally found one, his grandmother had accidentally thrown it away when they moved house.
"Malfoy made me give up my Dumbledore, Flamel and Bosworth for her." Rose grumbled.
"Don't forget my Regulus Black." said Al, looking across Teddy at Rose.
Teddy started at the card, at the pink haired witch, his mother. She was trying to balance her wand on the tip of her finger and snatched it up out of the air when it fell. She turned to him and winked, pointing a finger gun in his direction. Teddy smiled.
"She's so pretty." Rose said, reaching out to trace the gold lettering.
"She looks just like you." Al said. Teddy felt warmth flood his chest.
"I look just like her." he corrected.
"Yeah..." Al said, not quite registering the correction.
"Do you know what she was like?" Rose asked with a nudge to his shoulder.
Teddy swallowed, he didn't remember anything of his mother, all he knew was what he'd heard from others.
"Well, she was very funny."
Rose giggled. "She looks funny."
"Yeah, she made your Aunt Ginny laugh when all she wanted to do was cry." He turned to Al, "She'd always try to cheer your dad up, make him feel like a kid and not the Chosen One. And, she was an amazing, fearless Auror. You know Alastor Moody?"
Al and Rose nodded, their wide eyes reflecting the light of his desk lamp.
"She was so good, that she was Alastor Moody's favourite."
"Wow!" Al and Rose said together in awe. Teddy laughed and carefully setting the card in his lap, put his arms around both the children.
"And she was always tripping on that troll leg umbrella stand at Uncle Harry's place."
Rose's face crumpled in disgust. A true daughter of Hermione Granger, her first question when she'd seen it was what had happened to the troll they took it from.
"And she was stubborn, too. She wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Even when my dad kept turning her away."
"Why'd he do that?" Al asked.
"Because he was a werewolf."
Rosie gasped.
"Only once a month." he said quickly.
"Oh..." she said, looking relieved.
"Does Gammy Andy ever talk about her?" Al asked, tugging at Teddy's sleeve.
"No, Al."
"Why not?" Rosie asked.
"It is very difficult to lose a child."
Teddy had wished for years that his grandmother would tell him more about his parents, especially about his mother, whose pictures he saw all around the house. And one day, when he was playing Hide and Go Seek with the Weasleys, he snuck into the kitchen to find his grandmother and Nana Molly, with their hands clasped in the middle of the table, eyes closed and heads bowed. They were so different- Gammy was so reserved, so "proper" while Nana was full of hugs and cheek pinches, but they were the same in this. They were united in the pain of losing their children. Teddy wondered which was worse, wondering what one's parents were like or living to outlive one's children.
Rosie sniffled beside him. "Poor Gammy Andy," she said, wiping her eyes on her pyjama sleeve.
Al poked his head out from under Teddy's arm. "We should bake her a cake tomorrow!" he said.
"That's wicked!" Rose said, the tears in her eyes already forgotten.
"Do you know how to make a cake?" Teddy asked, amused but full of sudden affection for his godfather's son and neice.
"How hard can it be? You just have to put the cake stuff in a bowl, mix them up and put it in the oven!" Rose replied. Teddy winced. That seemed like a good way to cause a minor explosion. And that would be before Nana Molly discovered the mess.
"How about I help you?" Teddy asked gently, already imagining the look of joy on his grandmother's face.
Al's and Rose's eyes met on either side of him and their faces lit up. He pulled them in for a hug and whispered, "But you know, baking a cake is a lot of hard work, you're going to need to be well-rested for it."
Al and Rose looked at each other again and began scrambling out of his bed.
"Goodnight, Teddy!" Rose called out before exiting the door.
"Sleep well, Teddy, we need you for the cake tomorrow! I know Rosie seemed like she knew what she was doing, but she really doesn't. Goodnight!" And with that, Al gently eased the door shut.
Teddy picked up the chocolate frog card and traced "Nymphadora Tonks" with the tip of his finger. He pulled himself out of bed and extracted a tin box from his trunk. Inside, he drew out a card that had Remus Lupin casting a Patronus. He tied the two cards together with a ribbon he'd nicked from Vic and returned to bed.
Teddy slipped the cards under his pillow and told himself to fall asleep. He had a cake to bake the next day.
A/N: A quick idea I decided to type up and post before it could retreat to some forgotten corner of my mind!
Let me know what you guys think of it :)