Here After

by Kiamii

Chapter Seven "Making Life"

Warning: Yet another time skip. Meh, whatcha gonna do about it? It's Winter Hols for them. I'm also too lazy to add a quote in right now.

Alex frowned lightly as he tried to work out the puzzling toy. It was annoying how this baby toy was actually harder than he thought. He chewed his dummy slowly as he tried to find the right way the shape went. Meanwhile, Teddy Lupin was grinning at the baby's frustration. The toy was actually sort of simple. The toy would form into a box with different shape, the holes changing and the blocks would match them. The child, or in this case the baby, had to fit all the blocks in the box from the right shape. Alex was doing alright until he got to the harder stages where the toy shapes were actually quite challenging. Finally Teddy intervened when Alex threw the blocks at the nearby chest next to him. He picked the baby up and bounced him up and down easily, having babysat for Harry's family loads of times.

"Shh, I'm sure you can figure it out easily," soothed Teddy with a grin as Alex sniffed, burrowing his face into Teddy's shoulder. The baby was definitely one of the most well behaved ones he had ever taken care of. He remembered how loud James was, how sneaky Albus had been, how sweet and temperamental Lily could be, and all the Weasley children were very much mischievous in some way. With Alex he had been in charge of the baby since Alex had woken up, Harry and Ginny having to go to work and Teddy on break considering James and the others were also coming home tonight. Alex had been quiet and quite frankly, adorable. He had cooed every now and then and only just now did he have a bit of a tantrum, which wasn't even much. Teddy just hoped Alex never got sick ever again. He had dealt with sick kids, but none that powerful. Ever.

Alex let Teddy take him to the kitchen where Teddy fixed him a bowl of oatmeal. After tying a bib around Alex, Teddy spooned some of the food up and raised it to Alex's mouth who took it willingly, though the toddler made a face at it. After the first few spoonfuls, Teddy handed the toddler his own spoon to use and let Alex try and feed himself the rest. Alex was now roughly 17 months in age and had advanced a lot more than expected. He was walking (though one would classify that as toddling) and could now say names with r's in them though he mostly used a w in place of the r. He was still in nappies but the whole toilet training business wouldn't really begin until he was 2 most likely.

After Alex happily said "All done", Teddy lifted him up after cleaning his mouth of any mess. Alex giggled, his now normal sort of thing, and let Teddy take him back to the living room. Setting the toddler down, Teddy sat on the sofa to watch the child once more. Alex looked at him curiously before toddling over to his stuffy who Alex had called Babs apparently and dragged the bunny to his toy chest, looking in it before taking out the toy telephone Harry had purchased just the other day and Alex had taken a liking to them. He was in the process of babbling nonsense on the phone when the floo dinged and out stepped Harry.

"Any trouble?" Harry asked as he looked at his godson with a grin. Teddy grinned back and shook his head. Harry looked over and smiled at the sweet baby boy playing, his stuffed rabbit next to him and his dummy a little ways from his spot.

"He's been quite busy entertaining himself and Babs," laughed Teddy, "so I don't think he cared for mischief. It's been a nice surprise."

"I'm about to go get Albus and James though Lily is spending the night at her friend Ashley's house. She said she'd see her brothers all winter hols." Harry chuckled. Teddy grinned, knowing Ashley was a witch as well though both girls probably didn't know that Ashley was. He had seen her, at age four, accidentally burst a glass cup in anger when Lily had been in another room and with a quick scan had discovered she was a muggleborn. Harry went over to his youngest and picked him up, ignoring Alex's indignant "Daddy" and kissing the boy on the forehead. Alex was becoming quite the adorable toddler now, though he was still drinking bottles at dinner time and at bed time and finds a lot of comfort from his dummy and Babs often. Harry had no desire to deprive the sweet little boy of such things until he was ready anyways. Ginny certainly doted on the boy and Lily was happy not to be the youngest anymore.

"Daddy down!" demanded the toddler and Harry laughed, putting Alex on the ground and watching the boy grab his stuffy and dummy before toddling over to Teddy, knowing the man would be leaving soon. Teddy picked the baby up, putting his dummy in his mouth, and smiled at the toddler as Alex put his head on the man's shoulder, clutching Babs to him. Alex was beginning to become quite attached to Teddy and the young man had no qualms with Alex clinging to him though it made leaving quite difficult. Teddy eventually managed to part ways with them, promising to be back for Christmas as he was taking Victoire out on a date tonight and needed to pick her up from the station.

"Okay Lex, what say we get you ready to go pick up your brothers," Harry said as he carried the toddler up to the nursery. Alex giggled happily and let Harry put his jumper on him, though he stubbornly demanded he try to tie his own shoe. Eventually Harry just swapped the sneakers for the velcro ones, not wanting to be late, and carried the baby to the car. He strapped the child into the car seat and got in. As he drove, he put in one of the tapes Hermione had given him last month, and dutifully listened to some muggle kids music for tots. Alex didn't seem to particularly enjoy it though he listened obediently, imitating a few noises here and there.

Harry found a parking space and pulled in, getting out and letting Alex walk in front of him, though he ended up holding the baby's hand when a crowd went by. As they went into the platform, Harry swung Alex up onto his hip and looked for his two sons. He finally spotted two black heads and grinned as they were surrounded by a massive group of redheads. Making his way over there, he could see they were mainly just the Hogwarts bunch.

"Uncle Harry!" called Dominique happily as she bounded over and was about to hug him when she took notice of the toddler on his hip. Harry chuckled and handed Alex to James who happily took him while Harry hugged Dominique and the others which took awhile. The Weasley bunch were all clamoring to ask Harry about their new baby cousin and Harry patiently told them about Alex being his son now. James ignored the talk, bouncing Alex around to his own enjoyment.

"Jay!" Alex cooed and James grinned, letting the baby call him a nickname he normally hated. The eldest peered at the happy toddler.

The baby gave him a toothy grin, showing the few more teeth he had gained since they last saw him.

"Abus!" giggled Alex though oddly enough Albus didn't say anything or even look at him in delight. James put Alex on his feet and had to ask his father where Lily and his Mum went. Unfortunately none of the family members seemed to be paying much attention to Alex who was toddling over to a familiar looking person. To his surprise, it turned out to be Draco Malfoy. He looked up with his wide green eyes at the blond man, wanting to scream, when Malfoy knelt down and Alex finally noticed he didn't exactly look like Malfoy, though he was a Malfoy for sure. For one thing he had darker blond hair.

"What are you doing over here kid?" asked the boy who looked like he was 11 maybe. Or any age really, being much taller than the shrunken 6th year. The boy made a move to pick Alex up but instantly Alex's mind went into baby mode like it normally did he started crying loudly, his fists next to his eyes in an attempt to stop as he bawled. This unfortunately attracted the attention of the boy's father who came over and stopped.

Draco could have sworn he was looking at yet another mini Potter but this one was only a baby and Potter hadn't spawned more kids, or else it would have been in the paper like always. The Daily Prophet never did tire of the Man-Who-Conquered and his personal life. Draco looked at Scorpius, his son, who looked vaguely bewildered. Being a father, he instinctively picked the baby up and bounced him lightly, trying to spot the baby's parents. It looked like a boy judging by the tuft of unruly black hair. Like Potter's hair...

"Malfoy! That's my nephew you have," George Weasley interrupted and Alex was calming down, spotting his Uncle now. Draco immediately handed the baby to George, relieved he had found a family member of the baby's.

"He was wondering around," defended Draco. George Weasley nodded after putting the dummy into the boy's mouth. He was thankful the dummy had been attached to the boy's jumper so he wouldn't lose it. Alex sucked on his dummy, quieting down fully and letting George hold him. He did look at Scorpius and Draco curiously, as if trying to compare them. Finally he reached a hand out for Draco who quirked an eyebrow but brought his own hand up to the baby's, letting the child grasp his smaller finger with his hand.

"That's his way of saying hello," George translated as Alex stopped and hid his face into George's shoulder. The man nodded and immediately left with his son who had been staring at the baby.

Author's Note: Wonder what's up with Albus? Lol I know but I won't tell. So review and I'll work on getting the next one. School is back in session tomorrow so no idea if I'll be able to continue to update weekly, considering I have work on top of school. Meh.