Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Title: The Poet's Wish
Author: ReadingRed
Beta: DukeBrymin
Chapter Nine: The Worries
The Potters left the bank a little richer and a lot happier. Harry, Ginny, and the boys walked the Alley, content to spend a few moments as a family. Harry knew that the peace would not last. There were things that they needed to change-deaths they wanted to prevent and lives they wanted to change for the better.
They took the boys to the Quidditch store and bought brooms for all of them and Holyhead Harpies jerseys for the boys. It had been Ginny's dream to play for the Harpies; the team had even extended an offer, but the war had gotten so bad that the Quidditch League was disbanded until it was safer for both the players and the spectators. It had been a hard blow at the time but she had quickly moved on. There were bigger things to worry about, like the safety of her husband and son.
Harry and Ginny had been training Teddy to use magic since before the boy could walk. They knew that as the son of Harry Potter, people would be after him every day of his life, and they wanted him to be prepared.
Most magical people were under the impression that a child could only begin to harness his or her magic when they were about eleven years old, but Harry theorized that if magic was something one was born with, then they should, with the correct training, be able to use it at a much younger age than traditionally accepted.
Harry and Ginny waited for Teddy to show the first signs of having magic to begin his training. They didn't have to wait long. Only six months after he came to live with them, when he was nine months old, Teddy's first act of magic occurred. He had been seated in the middle of the floor, and had summoned a plush toy from across the room.
After that Harry and Ginny would have him summon things to himself at any opportunity. They turned it into a game so Teddy would have fun, while still practicing and strengthening his magic. The game was simple; Harry would drop a toy when he was sure Teddy was watching and then wave his hand, silently summoning it.
After a few tries Teddy got the gist of the game. Harry had dropped a toy, a plush wolf, and this time before he could summon it, Teddy did. The toy zoomed across the room to where Teddy was sitting in his high chair. Harry laughed and picked Teddy up, tickling the baby's belly and praising him.
"Teddy, you did it! You summoned the toy!" The baby started to laugh.
Life with Teddy was perfect. The boy, even in the midst of war, seemed to make things better for Harry and Ginny. The months had passed quickly, and as Teddy advanced so did his training. He went from summoning toys at nine months, to turning his toys and clothes different colors at fifteen months. By two years he was able to summon nearly anything, regardless of its size, and he was starting to be able to transfigure nonliving objects into other nonliving objects. At three he had mastered most simple transfigurations and together Harry and Ginny decided that he was ready for a wand.
Instead of teaching normal first year spells, they decided to teach Teddy defense. After all, one of the major reasons they were teaching Teddy magic as early as they were was so he might have a chance at protecting himself when Death Eaters came after him, which they had already tried.
The first kidnapping attempt happened when Teddy was only fourteen months old. Harry suspected the only reason they waited that long to try to take him was that not many people knew that Harry had taken custody of the boy. The Death Eaters had planted a spy in Harry's resistance group. Harry had suspected that there was a spy, but he wasn't sure who it was. Unfortunately they only found out who it was when the spy, a man named Jonas Dekker, took Teddy.
They were having a meeting in the basement of a safe house and Teddy was sleeping in an upstairs room. Jonas left to go to the bathroom and Harry continued the meeting. About ten minutes after Jonas left, Ginny got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and left the room to check on Teddy. She raced upstairs and found the security charms on the door to Teddy's room deactivated and the door itself open. She ran inside, wand out and ready. Jonas was there in the room bending over Teddy's crib.
Teddy was sitting up in the crib crying, his tears running down his tiny face. Around Teddy was a glowing ball of light keeping Jonas away from him. Ginny was stunned; at first she had thought that the glowing sphere was a spell Jonas was casting on her son, but after looking at it, really looking at it, she saw that it was Teddy who was in control. The sphere was protecting him. Jonas had his wand out and was trying every spell he knew, it seemed, to break through. When Ginny saw him pointing his wand at her son it was as if something broke inside of her. She raised her wand and pointed it at his back. Saying the first spell that came to mind, she blew him across the room and he hit the wall with a resounding crash. Jonas Dekker was no more.
Ginny ran across the room and picked up the crying baby from his crib, cradling the toddler to her chest. She sent her Patronus off with a message to Harry, and then focused completely on her son, checking him for any sign that Jonas had hurt him. The baby was still crying when Harry reached them. He wrapped his arms around his wife and son, comforting them both before asking what had happened. Ginny explained and their resolve to, as soon as possible, teach magic to Teddy, and any other child they would eventually have, was strengthened. They knew that Teddy wouldn't be able to fight back at anyone wishing him harm anytime soon, but the sooner they started teaching him the small stuff, the sooner he would be able to do bigger, more powerful spells.
Remembering Teddy's training and knowing that Finley would need to start training too; Harry suggested that they go straight to the wandmaker's. The Watcher hadn't given them any warning when he had brought them back to the past, so Ginny and Harry were both without their wands. Harry felt unprotected without his wand even though he could use wandless magic; he knew Ginny felt the same. The sooner they all got their wands the happier they all would be.
"I get my wand back, Daddy? Teddy asked excitedly, tugging on Ginny's hand, pulling her towards Ollivander's shop. Ginny just looked at him and rolled her eyes.
"What, Gin? We need wands," Harry said playfully. He had known what reaction his suggestion would get from Teddy when he had said it; Ginny knew it too. She just shook her head and let Teddy pull her to Ollivander's. Harry started to follow them to the wand shop when he felt Finley let go of his hand. He stopped and turned back to look at the boy.
"Finley?" he asked, "what's wrong? Don't you want a wand?" Finley nodded but dropped his gaze, looking at his shoes instead of his father.
"I dunno any magic. What if I'm not good enough for a wand?" Finley mumbled, still looking at his shoes.
"Fin. . . Finley Potter, look at me." Harry waited for the boy to look up. When he did, Harry continued. "No worries. You hear me? You have magic, loads of it, even if I do say so myself. It was a gift your parents gave you, and one day you'll use it to defeat one of the greatest evils this world has ever seen. It's okay that you don't know any magic right now. That's why we're getting you a wand. Your mother and I are going to teach you and Teddy everything you need to know about magic, until you go to Hogwarts, that is. So what do you say we go get you a wand?"
Finley nodded, smiled hesitantly, and took Harry's hand once more.
"You ready to take the first step in becoming one of the best wizards ever?" Harry asked the boy.
"Yeah! Let's go!" Finley said excitedly, pulling Harry's hand much like Teddy had done to Ginny.
Harry let Finley pull him in the direction Ginny and Teddy had gone. He could do this. He and Ginny, together, could be the parents to little Finley—the parents that Harry had never had, growing up. They would make it work. They had to. The wizarding world depended on it.