Title: Fall- back
Chapter six: Muffin Methods
Rating: T
Summary: After the war Harry moves to Lima, Ohio to try and live a normal life as just another invisible teenager. You know what they say about best laid plans, though. KH/HP
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise…. Isn't mine. Though I probably wish it is. Now I'm sad.
AN: Hi all!
… I know. I suck. I'm sorry it took so long. The Christmas and New Year's weeks have been crazy. Family visits, birthdays, parties. It's safe to say I'm kinda sick of seeing my family by now. Of course, there was and awesome New Year's party at my best friend's place as well, so that rocked. I hope you all had a good Christmas and I wish you all a belated happy New Year!
But still; thanks again for all the reviews and alerts and favourits and such! I loved every single one of them; especially the one that explained how Harry and Teddy are related, that one made me grin all the way to work, so thanks!
Enjoy the chapter! More AN at the bottom.
It took Harry until halfway through his journey home (unaccompanied by Kurt, who had the Glee thing Artie had mentioned during his tour after school) to realise what he had done. He had invited Kurt over to his house. After school. Today. Which meant that Kurt would be standing on his front porch in about an hour and a half and he wasn't even close to ready for that. It wasn't that he was worried about the way he looked, or about how the house was decorated (okay, maybe he was a little worried about that, but that was only because Luna had helped pick out the furniture), or something inconsequential like that.
Harry was worried about what Kurt would see there. He stepped on the gas pedal a little more. The house was filled with magical things that Remus and he had refused to leave behind when they left Britain. The portrait above the fireplace moved, the rug had a tendency of lifting a few feet in the air every now and then and the dishwasher had been affected by the ambient magic swirling through the house and had started complaining whenever it didn't have anything to do. It was annoyingly chipper when doing its dishwashing duties, too. And- oh dear lord. Teddy.
Sweet little Teddy with his glorious chuckle. And his ever- changing hair and eye colours. Remus and he still hadn't found anything to cover up the continuous changes in the little boy. They really needed to think up something for that. Preferably in the next…. one hour and fifteen minutes. Crap. Harry drove just a little bit faster still, determined to hide all evidence of magic before Kurt got there.
When he reached the house, he sloppily parked his car in the driveway, hopped out of the terribly coloured mini Cooper and sprinted to the door. He fumbled with his keys for a second before nearly falling into the house when the door opened. He threw his backpack on the cabinet in the hallway and walked into the living room area, calling for Remus, who appeared after a few seconds, looking frazzled.
"What's going on?" he asked, shifting Teddy – who he had been carrying on his hip – a little higher.
"Kurt's coming over," Harry answered, hastily taking a vase with softly singing flowers from out the windowsill and looking around him for a place to hide them.
"Okay," Remus said, dragging the word out a bit. "Who is Kurt and why is he coming over?"
"We share a few classes," Harry explained while still trying to find a place to hide the flowers (who had started humming a rather morbid tune at this point), "He's coming over to help me with French and I'm teaching him how to make those chocolate muffins you like."
Remus' face changed instantly from confusion to giddy anticipation.
"Why didn't you just say so? Let's get this house Muggle- friendly, shall we?"
Harry fought hard to stop the eyeroll waiting to burst out. "Yes, Remus, that's pretty much what I'm attempting to do here. Have you found anything to fix Teddy's hair with yet?"
"Not quite," Remus admitted, glancing down at Teddy's lime green locks. "Though I have managed to figure out that the longer he stares at a colour, the more likely it is that that colour will be his next hair colour."
Harry bit his lip. " So what are you suggesting, that we make him look at a dark brown bedframe for the next hour?"
"It's worth a shot, I suppose," Remus answered, though he seemed to doubt it, "But I think it might only work with colours he really likes. I caught him staring at the bathroom sink yesterday, and his hair has yet to turn white."
A small groan escaped Harry's throat.
"Oh, that's just brilliant. Do you think you can figure something out quick, or else have Teddy upstairs when Kurt's here?"
Remus nodded, assuring Harry just the tiniest bit, and took the toddler upstairs with him. Harry, vowing to either write or floo Hermione that evening, set to work downstairs. He hid the flowers in the garden, picking a few daisies to put in a vase instead. He cast a charm on the painting above the fireplace to stop it from moving, after having asked for permission from the people that were depicted (there was nothing more annoying than a grumpy portrait making disapproving noises at you whenever you were near) and cancelled the levitation charm on the carpet, which floated down morosely.
After apologising to the carpet (and feeling like a ruddy fool for doing so), Harry made his way into the kitchen, knowing Kurt would be there in about fifteen minutes. He started getting out bowls and ingredients, figuring it would be way better to have chocolate muffins during their studying of French than to have to study French while wanting chocolate muffins, while trying to talk the dishwasher out of talking for the time Kurt would be there.
"- and I promise that when we're finished, I'll give you plenty of chocolate covered bowls and plates to clean, okay? But you need to promise to be silent when you clean them, okay?"
Thankfully, Harry was saved from questioning his sanity any further than he already was by the sound of the doorbell ringing. He glanced at the clock. Right on time, just like Harry had figured Kurt would be. He didn't seem like the kind of guy to be late for anything. He made his way to the front hall, immediately noticing Kurt behind the glass in the door.
"Kurt, hi!", he said after swinging the door open.
"Hi, Harry," the boy answered, smiling the same hesitant smile Harry had spotted on him in the locker room earlier that day. "I didn't realise you live so close to me."
Harry raised an eyebrow, gesturing at Kurt to step inside, which he did. "Oh? Where do you live then?"
"A block over," Kurt answered, shrugging out of his jacket (and wasn't he wearing something else entirely during school?) and handing it on the coat rack. Harry showed him into the house proper, studying Kurt's face as he took in the furniture and how it was decorated.
"Your house is lovely," Kurt eventually seemed to settle on saying, even though Harry was sure that probably wasn't his first choice of words. He laughed.
"It's alright, I know it's decorated horribly. We let a friend do the decorating, but we forgot how eccentric she could be," he said. Kurt deflated a little.
"I didn't want to say anything…." the chestnut- haired boy said a bit awkwardly.
"And that's very polite of you, but completely unnecessary," Harry told him with a smile. Kurt smiled back at him, relieved.
"Okay, good to know," he said, before showing Harry the bag he'd been carrying, most likely holding a pile of French books. "So, where are we starting, muffins or French?"
"Muffins, I thought," Harry answered, leading the way into the kitchen. "I figured that if I had to endure French, I might as well have sugar in me during."
This shocked a short laugh out of Kurt, bringing a small smile to his face. They entered the kitchen and Harry told Kurt to just leave his bag by the table somewhere. Kurt did as such and Harry handed him an apron when he turned back to face him. Kurt raised an eyebrow at him and Harry shrugged at him.
"Figured you wouldn't want to spill anything on those clothes. They look pretty expensive."
"They are," Kurt said, eyebrow dropping again and taking the apron. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," Harry replied before gesturing towards the kitchen counter, shooting a quick glance at the dishwasher, which was silent for the time being. "Shall we get to work then?"
Kurt grinned. "Let's."
They set to work after that, both mixing in their own bowls, so that there would be two batches of muffins. When Kurt asked about that, Harry sheepishly explained that he liked to keep a batch around the house for when his guardian got into a frenzy when his son did something new he hadn't seen yet again. He also explained that they'd probably be gone by the time he went to sleep that night.
They worked in a near silent state, but it wasn't award for some reason. Kurt offered the occasional snarky remark to the songs played on the radio (Harry was extremely glad to have remembered to switch it to a Muggle channel) and even hummed along to some. Harry gave quiet instructions as to which ingredient went in the batter when and how he should mix them. He was content to listen to Kurt hum along to the music for the rest of the time. After about twenty minutes of this, Kurt suddenly started talking to him.
"So, have you thought about any clubs you'd like to join yet?"
Harry looked at him, stifling a chuckle at a sweep of flour on the bridge of Kurt's nose. He shrugged.
"Not really," he answered. "I thought about joining a sport or something, but try-outs have long since gone by. There's no way I'll be able to join a team at this point in the semester."
Kurt glanced at him from the side, blanching a bit. "What kind of sport would you be interested in, then?"
"Not sure," Harry answered, shrugging one shoulder and causing a bit of batter to fly in the air and land on the countertop. "Probably track. I'm a pretty fast runner."
"So, not football then?" Kurt asked, seeming to reassure himself a little.
"No interest," Harry replied. "I don't know a thing about American football and the guys I've seen wearing a Letterman jacket so far seem a little too big for me to be able to tackle."
"I suppose that's true," Kurt said, and let the matter rest.
The quiet returned. They worked in silence until the muffins were ready to be put in the oven. If Kurt had noticed the way Harry checked on him to make sure he was doing things correctly a little too often, he didn't mention it. And if Harry noticed that Kurt blushed a little too red when Harry manually adjusted the grip he had on the spatula, he didn't mention it either.
They had been sitting at the kitchen table, idly chatting about school, when the little bundle of energy Harry called a godson barrelled into the kitchen and climbed into Harry's lap.
"Hiya Teddy," Harry said to his thankfully brown haired godson as the little boy stared at Kurt with wide, green eyes. Kurt stared right back, a little smile on his lips.
"Unca? Who 'is?" Teddy asked, showing he still had a little difficulty with the 'th' sound. Or, y'know, long words in general.
"This is Kurt," Harry answered while the boy in question waved a bit at Teddy. "He goes to school with me and he's come over to bake muffins and help me with French."
Teddy nodded as if all this made perfect sense. It did, of course, but Teddy didn't necessarily know that. "'kay," he declared, leaning over the table a bit to reach out one of his tiny, grabby hands to Kurt. Kurt shook it, amused.
"Nice to meet you, Teddy," he said, as if he was meeting someone important. Teddy gave him a big, single- toothed smile in return. Harry smiled as well, his smile growing when he heard the panicky footsteps he recognised to be Remus' on the stairs.
"Harry, have you seen- Oh, there you are, " he said, sounding a little out of breath. "Harry, it seems that Teddy has learned to climb down the stairs."
"It appears so," Harry answered, amused. He noticed Kurt watching the exchange. "Oh, Remus, this is Kurt."
Remus looked at him, as if only just noticing he was there.
"Oh, right, of course," he said. "How rude of me. Remus Lupin, nice to meet you."
They shook hands, Kurt repeating the pleasantries, before Remus plucked Teddy from Harry's lap.
"I'll just take him off your hands so you two can start on your French," he said, before exiting the room again with Teddy waving over his shoulder. Kurt waved back and they did set to work then, Harry not noticing the flush that had risen up to Kurt's cheeks at the word 'French'.
Remus, who had stopped in the hall for a little bit to look in on them – and okay, maybe to watch the muffins rise in the oven a bit as well- did notice and grinned down at the little boy in his arms.
"Looks like your unca is being slow again, Teddy. He won't know what hit him."
Teddy giggled.
So, what did you think? I had originally planned to introduce the person that knows who Harry is this chapter, but I liked this ending, so I didn't. They'll be introduced next chapter, so you still have time to guess if you want!
I'll give you a hint, since a lot have people have been guessing this: It's not Brittany or Kurt. It's not. I promise.
Till next time!
-Robin.