Disclaimer: This is disclaimed.

Dora groaned when he suggested that they go to Diagon Alley and he almost wanted to shake her. Ted loved Diagon Alley. He still remembered how amazing it had been, walking through the wall behind the Leaky Cauldron into the midst of all the incredible wizarding shops, so many astounding things that Ted had never seen before. He was still fascinated with it, liking everything from the window displays to just people watching. Yet apparently his ten-year-old daughter was bored by the idea of it.

"Dora, I need to buy something for your mother for Christmas so unless you want to stay here on your own, you need to come with me."

"How come Mum isn't coming with us?" Dora asked, looking completely perplexed. She was sitting on the ground in front of the fireplace working on a puzzle of a dragon. The picture kept moving around, both the pieces she had together and the pieces scattered around the ground and still in the box. The movement provided a clue towards the direction of the piece but it also added a level of complication that Ted had been delighted to find after plain muggle puzzles.

"She's at work," Ted replied. Wasn't that obvious?

"Yes, I know but we never go to Diagon Alley without Mum. You and Mum always said that you shouldn't go out in public as the only adult."

"That was because of the war, Dora. It wasn't safe before to go out alone. Now it's alright."

"Oh," she answered, looking perplexed. "Really? I didn't know that." Ted stared at her incredulously. Of course habits he and Andromeda had developed over the years because of the war were hard to break but it often struck him just how much his daughter had internalized the rules without even thinking they were related to the war. After all, up until a little over a month ago, his daughter had never lived in a world where You-Know-Who didn't have power. He sometimes wondered if it wasn't as big of a difference as he had felt at eleven between the wizarding world and the muggle world. "I guess I'd prefer to go than stay here alone," Dora replied, beginning to put some of the spare pieces back in the box.

"If you guess," he said, rolling his eyes at her but smiling. She grinned back. "You can leave the pieces you have together out," he told her as she moved to start taking it apart. Dora stopped and he reached out his hands. She grabbed them and he yanked her up at the same time she bounced to her feet, getting a fairly good amount of air for a second. Still, it wasn't the same as when she had been small enough to lift above his head and play airplane.

"Does my hair look alright?" she asked him.

"Just fine Dora although no mentioning to your mother that I let you go out with your hair bright pink."

"She probably won't mind if I'm just with you not her," Dora replied steping to the fireplace and jumping up on the bricks in front of the fireplace to search for the jar with Floo Powder on the mantle. "She said she just doesn't like people judging her because it looks like she let her ten-year-old spell her hair pink. That's why she doesn't mind when I'm around home. Except when we lived near muggles and I had to be careful," she added. "But that's entirely different."

"Your mother worries too much about people judging her," Ted informed her. "Though I suppose part of that's my fault. Ready? I'm going to apparate. I'll meet you in the alley."

"You are?" she asked, sounding nervous. The jar was in her hands, though she hadn't taken any yet.

"What's wrong?" Ted asked, frowning worriedly as he looked at her. Her hair was dimming, and her eyes had lost part of their glitter.

"I've never gone through the Floo to Diagon Alley by myself before," she told him, looking down at the ground. "You and Mum always said it would be dangerous and something could happen to me if there was someone bad at the Leaky Cauldron and I got there before one of you did."

"Nothing's going to happen to you," Ted told her, walking up and brushing through her hair with his fingers. She looked up at him with wide, trusting eyes. "There's no one for you to be afraid of at the Leaky Cauldron anymore. The Death Eaters aren't all gone, but they're not going to waltz into public anymore. And most of them wouldn't care a bit about you except for the Lestranges and they're in Azkaban, alright?" Ted informed her.

"Alright."

"I can still go with you if you want," Ted suggested. He wouldn't mind, really. The less he had to let go of Dora being a baby, the better, although he supposed as a parent he ought to let her grow.

"No," she said, her voice quite determined as she set the jar on the bricks in front of the fireplace. "I can do it. I'll meet you there."

"Alright," Ted agreed before Dora grabbed a handful of the Floo powder and threw it into the flames.

"Diagon Alley!" she said clearly and then stepped into the flames. Ted disapparated the moment he saw her disappear from his sight. He arrived in the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron and he waited a moment feeling his stomach tighten when he didn't see Dora there immediately. He knew Floo was slower and that she had to walk from the pub to the alley but it was instinct. After all, Dora wasn't the only one their war rules had affected. It was only a moment more, however before Dora walked out the door and grinned at him. Her eyes were bright again. He reached out his hand for hers and then tapped his wand against the brick, letting the archway spread open.

"There's a lot of people here!" Dora told him.

"It's nearly Christmas," Ted replied.

"But there's never this many people here!" Dora replied.

"Yes there-" he started and then realized that Dora had never been to Diagon Alley at all before people hurried through their shopping and darted away for fear of being out in the wizarding public for very long. "It used to be normal. I remember I once came here over my Christmas Holiday from Hogwarts and it was so packed my sister and I went in a store just to get out of the crowd in the street."

"I thought your sister was a muggle," Dora said, frowning. Ted felt that tug of sadness he always did when he remembered the Dora had never met his family. She hadn't met Dromeda's either for that matter but Ted personally didn't consider that any loss. It would have put his family at risk to return too often, particularly if he had taken Dromeda with him. His parents hadn't seen Dora since she was less than a week old. They would see her again at Christmas though.

"She is," Ted replied, "but she's allowed to know about the wizarding world because of me. I brought her with me. Muggles are allowed to come to Diagon Alley in cases like that. How else would muggle-borns get their school supplies?" Ted asked her. "My mum and dad took me when younger. My sisters Lisa and Kitty came too."

"I've never seen any muggles here," Dora insisted.

"If they're here for any reason, I'm sure they've hurried through just as much as wizards," Ted replied. "What did you want to get your mother for Christmas?"

"I don't know," Dora confessed.

"Well we can look around," Ted told her. "I don't know what I'm getting her either."

"So we can go slow?" Dora asked him.

"Yes."

"And stop and look in the windows?" Ted nodded. "Do we have to hold hands still?" Dora asked him. Ted let go of her hand reluctantly. She was ten. She wasn't about to get lost and in trouble. But he still wanted to hold her hand.

"Then can we go look at the owls?" Dora asked him. "Just look, please? I've always wanted to go in there and you've always said we had to hurry up. Please, please?"

"Will go there last," he told her. "Let's start at the far end and walk back."

"Alright!" she agreed excitedly and started walking along beside him.

"The decorations are really pretty," she said, pointing at one of the passing windows. "Look, look! They've got mini-broomsticks flying around the window," she added as she pointed at another one.

"They're all trying to compete with each other for attention. I used to love all the windows when I first saw them at Christmas-time."

"You don't now?"

"Alright, I still love them," Ted agreed as Dora got a little bit ahead of him. Then he laughed. "Hold up, Dora," he added.

"Come on," she said, reaching out her hand and taking his. "They've got fireworks in the window over here!" she told him excitedly. Ted chuckled and went after her, glad to have her hand in his for just a little longer. You-Know-Who would hopefully never even know her name but he had stolen a lot from her. She had missed out on living in a house long enough to have good childhood friends. Since she was very small, she had learned to be frightened for her life. She'd missed out on experiences that had littered his childhood like being free to ride a bike around town or stay over at a friend house. And yet, she was still a bright, happy, loving little girl. She was his.

"Dora, look!" he said pointing at one of the window displays.

"Wicked!"