A New Friend

I don't own 'Harry Potter'

"Daddy! Look, I made a new friend!"

Harry looked up to see his current mini-me and a small girl with light brown hair and eyes, the girl looking up at him with poorly-disguised interest.

He resisted the urge to grin. His son's new friend looked like she was trying to be calm and polite without gawking at him, but she wasn't quite old enough to pull off casual disinterest. He wondered if Teddy had somehow managed to find a pure-blood child in a muggle park. It wouldn't be the first time the imp had stumbled into an unbelievable situation.

Harry had always wondered if it was possible for someone to die of a broken heart, but seeing Andromeda waste away just a few months after losing her husband, daughter and son-in-law was enough to prove that yes, it was possible.

He'd immediately adopted Teddy and ignored the Aurors, though Kingsley was more than understanding, and had helpfully given him information about laws concerning adoption and whatnot.

Everyone else had become more family-oriented since the war as well. Percy and Ron had somehow teamed up and decided to help George with the shop; Ron had finally put his strategic mind to good use with business plans, and Percy had decided to become some sort of accountant and financial advisor for the joke shop, and business had been booming ever since.

"Daddy, can I show Ria our garden?"

Harry smiled. "Teddy, did you ask Ria if she was allowed to come and see our garden?"

The sheepish pout on his godson-turned-son's face was too adorable and he grinned. He loved Teddy so much, and even Gin tried to squish his cheeks whenever she saw him. He spared a moment to wonder where his ex was now with Neville and Luna. He had a feeling the three of them had something going on together and was happy for them. And wishing Gin and Nev luck with reigning in Luna, of course.

He turned to the tiny brunette and smiled kindly at her. "Hello, Ria. My name's Harry and I'm Teddy's dad. Are you here with anyone?"

The girl's eyes widened and she blushed, lowering her eyes as she muttered too low for Harry to hear.

"What was that?"

"… I forgot to tell Daddy I was going to see Teddy's daddy."

Oh shit.

Before he could panic at having to look for the girl's father, he heard a panicked voice calling.

"Ria? Ria, where are you?"

Harry looked up to see another man emerge from behind the trees and spot their group of three, brown eyes looking shocked at seeing him. Not that he could blame the other man. Harry could feel his own eyes widen at seeing his old classmate.

"Nott?"

"Daddy!"

The small girl grinned brightly and ran over to Theodore Nott – her father – and start babbling about Teddy being her friend, and wanting to see their garden, and could they show Teddy the ice cream place?

Harry had to fight a grin at the adorable scene, and as soon as she saw the sheer love in Nott's eyes he knew his former classmate was a genuine father.

"I got married just before seventh year."

Harry turned sideways to see Theo – as he requested to be called – looking at his daughter with a soft look he never would have expected to see on the blank Slytherin. Theo had never been one of Malfoy's cronies, but he'd never hung around with anyone else either. Harry had never really had a problem with him specifically in school, but he couldn't say he'd ever expected to be sitting here chatting with him while their children chatted and ate ice cream.

"Really?"

Theo nodded. "My father made me. He was pretty pissed off that she didn't get pregnant right away, but she conceived over Christmas break. Pure-bloods don't really check gender until about six months, so he was dead by the time he would have found out about Soteria. He wouldn't have been happy.

"Then my wife died in childbirth, and there I was, a single father at eighteen. I'm sure you of all people know how panicked how I was."

Harry snorted. "I'm surprised Molly didn't get sick of me, floo calling every other hour 'cause I thought something was wrong with Teddy."

The other man laughed quietly and Harry was struck with how attractive it made him. He'd long since come to terms with not caring what genitalia someone had, but he found he was usually attracted to women more often than men.

Theodore Nott was someone that Harry had never really interacted with at school, so he didn't have any previous memories to colour their current conversations, and he was someone that had seen the worst of Harry's teenage years so didn't hold him on some ridiculous pedestal.

He wanted to get to know him.

"Theo?"

"Hm?"

"Did you and Ria want to come over for dinner this evening? That way she can finally see the garden that Teddy keeps telling her about, and we can bond over parenting stubborn toddlers."

The brunette looked at him with eyes that looked far too knowing, though the smile playing about his lips softened the calculating air.

"I suppose it would be very rude to turn down such a gracious request."

Harry tilted his head and laughed loudly, unheeding of the people around them frowning at him. He hadn't felt this free in a long time.

Fingers on the back of his neck caught his attention, and he looked over to see Theo playing with the ends of his hair before wickedly amused brown eyes locked onto his.

"You'd look very handsome with longer hair, Harry."

Harry could feel a blush work its way across his face, and he turned to the children ignoring the chuckling next to him.

What have I got myself into?

A/N: Hey guys!

This pairing was actually a request from a couple of people, so shoutout to misschief_managed and hellfaery on AO3 for requesting it.

I wanted to do something outside of school for once, and I thought it would be so cute having Teddy be an accidental match-maker. Usually people use Teddy for Drarry fics, and while I love them myself, I wanted to try things a little differently.

Also, I have a new job now. This means I have barely any time to respond to people, let alone write. In case you haven't noticed in the summary, I've stopped taking requests for now. I've still got about 12 requests to get through, not to mention my own ideas. If anyone requests anything from now on it won't be done for about 10 weeks or so. If you're happy with that then go ahead and leave a request, but I can guarantee I won't get to it for months. Sorry about that!

Anyway, let me know what you think!