Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. No money is made from this.

Chapter 16 – Officially Ungrounded

As Harry had hoped results day really had brought a turnaround for the Potter family life, although this had probably more to do with their discussion after the letter than with the exam outcome per se. However the change did not go amiss by Ginny, who was about to question her husband on the change in behaviour from Teddy since the previous night. She had just tucked James into bed and Teddy was occupying himself in his room, so that only Harry was left in the living room where she now let herself fall next to him on the couch. She wanted to snuggle herself into him, but a stack of papers rested on his lap and he was once again reading something for work. A little annoyed she huffed and settled against the armrest on the other side of the couch to watch him.

With the work load he is doing, he might as well be head of the department already.

She thought not without bitterness although she knew it was not entirely fair to him. With both of them working, Harry often only went into the office four days out of five to accompany her needs and he rarely ever worked overtime unless on a mission.

However his commitment to be home each day for dinner meant that some of his work simply had to be brought home. After all she was shut in the study for hours on end before a deadline as well. Still after she had silently watched him for several minutes, she couldn't help, but interrupt.

"Something seems to have changed about Teddy. He's a lot happier and not just because of the results."

As she had caught his attention and his gaze wandered from the papers to her, she continued: "Doesn't ignore you anymore either."

Immediately as she had started speaking his focus had drifted from the work reports to her and now Harry neatly stacked and placed them on the table. Before answering, he lifted his left arm towards her in a welcoming way and familiar with the gesture Ginny happily scrambled over to him laying on her back, her head propped up on his lap. She closed her eyes taking in his scent as he spoke.

"We talked yesterday, after he got the results. We should be back to normal."

"So did you find out why exactly he gave you the cold shoulder for an entire week? It's rather unusual for him to hold a grudge this long." She said.

Taking a piece of her red hair, which had just fallen over her eyes, and twisting it with his fingers before gently tucking it behind her ears, he answered.

"Partly the bedtime like I suspected, but he also accused me of watching him all the time just like I expect him to mess up."

Here he hesitated.

"Do you think he's right?" Harry asked.

Opening her eyes, but not moving otherwise Ginny thought for a moment and then replied gently:

"I guess he does have a point. We've both been very keen to keep a close watch on him. What does he expect though? Last time we trusted him to do as he was told, he sneaked out, flew to London and ended up consuming alcohol."

Harry sighed. "Exactly what I tried to communicate to him."

"And?" Ginny asked him with a curious look on her face.

"While he agreed, he also pointed out that he can't regain our trust if we don't give him the opportunity to do so, which is a valiant point that he argued completely calm."

Surprise showed in Ginny's eyes. "He really is growing up, isn't he?"

Harry nodded: "He is, with some detours I would add and he is not as mature yet as he would like to make me believe, but yes he is right. We can't control his every move. We'll just have to trust that he learns from his mistakes. However therefore he will have to have the chance to make them first."

Now Ginny looked at him sceptical.

"I would think he had enough chances for mistakes and used too many of them." She pointed out in a sarcastic tone.

Harry laughed dearly at that, which caused Ginny to stir and sit upright next to her husband, still a scowl on her face. Stifling his laugh and returning to a serious expression Harry said:

"Maybe you're right, but I certainly hope the consequences we carried out recently will help him to avoid those in the future."

Still sceptical Ginny leaned on his shoulder asking: "I hope that isn't just wishful thinking."

Shrugging Harry replied: "I guess there's always Hogsmeade and Quidditch if worst comes to worst."

"You really think you could do that? I know how much you hated being banned from Quidditch and not being able to go to Hogsmeade trips."

"Yeah, and it was Remus, who gave me a good scolding for going anyway. He would have done something much sooner. I've been ignoring the problem for too long ... no I told him there would be no mucking about at Hogwarts or he'll face the consequences and that's exactly what's going to happen. At least academically I feel pretty optimistic after the resits and with the rest ... well you just wait until we start getting letters for James. This will seem like a walk in the park." Harry grinned and received a slap on the arm from the fiery red-head next to him.

"Which I will entirely blame on you, honestly I should have never allowed you to pick the names."

"Ah, but you picked Lily Luna." He teased.

Shooting him a glare Ginny said: "Well if she starts talking about Nargles I guess we're even. Until then I blame you for a son who channels two of the greatest pranksters Hogwarts has ever seen, which reminds me, he broke that vase we got from Astoria and I'm not repairing it. It's hideous and I believe it was fate Jamie kicked the football into it."

Hiding a smile Harry asked: "Why was he playing with the ball inside though?"

"He was on his way out." Was Ginny's only response, which would have been questioned by most, however Harry was way too used too his Oldest antics to question the logic behind Ginny's words.

Instead he pulled her closer, embracing her in a hug and whispering:

"Maybe if you stopped giving her gifts in golden and red, we wouldn't get endless pottery in silver and green.

Grinning at him she leaned closer, caressing his neck she mocked: "Now where would be the fun in that."

"You're evil." Harry moaned, but was quickly silenced by Ginny's kisses.

...

The next day was a Sunday and for reasons unknown to Harry, Teddy seemed awfully restless. At breakfast he had kept glancing out of the window, during lunch at the Burrow he'd been fidgeting most of the time and was the first by the floo when Ginny had announced that it was time to go home. Now the teenager sat on the couch, one leg wrapped under the other that was dangling of the couch. The TV was playing, but Harry was pretty sure the boy paid no attention to it since his eyes wandered between the large living room window and himself in the kitchen.

Ignoring Teddy's weird behaviour Harry focussed back on preparing dinner, while Ginny was busy with newspaper work in the study. She had actually missed the first part of Sunday lunch as she had been out to cover a game of her former team, the Holyhead Harpies, and now needed to finish the article for the Monday's paper deadline.

Therefore the arrival of an owl did not surprise him. The paper usually sent one out to collect urgent articles. But as the brown barn owl flew past the kitchen window to the study Teddy must have had another glance towards his godfather and noticed the owl too. Seconds later he burst into the kitchen.

"There was an owl." He stated the obvious and his urgent behaviour confused Harry even further.

"It's only the newspaper for Ginny." He replied and then watched as Teddy's shoulders slumped.

"Oh ... yeah right."

Teddy was about to turn and go back to the couch when Harry's words stopped him.

"What's going on, are you waiting for something? You're awfully anxious today."

Walking back into the kitchen he took a seat at the kitchen table to join his godfather, who was chopping salad.

"Well it's just that I owled Alex on Friday and he hasn't replied yet. Moony got back the same night, so he should have received it."

A small smile hushed over Harry's face at the mention of Teddy's owl. It had been a gift from him and Ginny, and Teddy had picked his father's old nickname for the brown owl that was specked with grey patches. Somehow the owl reminded him of Remus and Teddy had argued that owls were animals of the night thus the name would be fitting indeed.

Quickly though Harry focussed back on Teddy, who was just finishing by saying: "It's not like Alex at all, he always answers straight away. I really want to see him as soon as possible." He pouted playing with a tomato that had rolled towards him.

"Don't play with food please." Harry chastised and snatched the vegetable from a scowling Teddy. Chopping it into the bowl he continued: "Just wait some days and I'm sure he'll write."

"But I want to see him." Teddy whined.

"Impatient are we?" Harry mocked.

"Well I've been locked up here for over a month, what do you expect?" the teen growled, but one stern look from across the table had him mumble a sorry that his godfather acknowledged with a short nod before saying: "I tell you what Ted, I'll ask Mr. Clearwater tomorrow if Alex received the owl. What do you say?"

Teddy looked at his godfather and enthusiastically asked: "You'd do that?"

"Sure I'll just pop into his office at lunch time or something."

Alex father worked at the ministry, so it would be easy enough to talk the man, especially seeing how happy the small offer seemed to make his godson.

Clearing the table Harry addressed him once more: "In the meantime, go ahead and visit Victoire tomorrow, Bill said you can come by anytime."

Teddy nodded happily. "Thanks Harry."

"You're welcome. Now why don't you make yourself useful and set the table."

With those words he shoved the salad bowl into the boy's arms and left to get the rest of the family for dinner.

...

A little later that night Harry stood in front of Teddy's room about to enter, only waiting for a response to his knock. There was one thing he felt he really needed to get done before his godson's grounding would end the next morning. He only hoped they could have a calm talk rather than a heated argument, but either way, this was important enough to him to take the chance. Finding his 15-year old charge and his friends drinking had upset him for more than one reason. Harry was well aware of what alcohol could do to a person, in his earlier years as an Auror he had often worked night shifts on the weekends and incidents involving drunken behaviour were fairly common, especially in the first years after the war. Many had tried to drown their sorrow, but they all had to learn eventually that it would not make the pain or nightmares fade.

Although it had been mostly relatively harmless fights and the occasional duel they had to intervene at, cases of underage drinking had also been peaking as students had returned to a life at Hogwarts that would never be the same again for them. It had been around that time that the current rules and regulations for intoxicated behaviour and underage drinking had been put in place under the pressure of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Underage drinking was now punishable by up to a week's worth of arrest and more than once Harry and had arrested a bunch of drunken teens and had them sober up in a cell for 24hours. For most it was the only wake-up call they needed, however he never wanted to be in that situation with any one of his children, which was precisely why he was adamant to make sure Teddy would stay clear of alcohol until of age.

Hearing his godson call out an invitation to come in, he opened the door and found Teddy sitting on his bed with a mirror in hand. He seemed to be practising his morphing, his hair a fair shade of blonde, the nose smaller than usual and his eyes sea blue. Putting the mirror down he concentrated for a moment and then Harry, who had taken a seat on the desk chair opposite him, had the old Teddy back.

"Were you practising on someone particular?" he asked, but Teddy shook his head.

"No, just working on face features, colours come easily now, but changing my nose or the whole face is still a hard task. I like the feeling though, it tickles a bit, but it's like I can feel the magic in me."

"Practise makes perfect." Harry encouraged and then changed the topic to why he'd wanted to talk to Teddy in the first place.

"How is the essay going?" he asked in a plain tone.

Teddy frowned trying to think of what his godfather meant, but then suddenly the penny dropped and he scrambled up from the bed pointing to the desk.

"It's over there ... wait a second."

He looked through some books and papers on the desk before holding out a small set of neatly written papers. Harry started reading and Teddy positioned himself back on the bed, now watching the older man. It took Harry nearly fifteen minutes, which they sat in silence, to finish his reading. To say he was impressed and immensely relived would have been an understatement. Teddy had written nearly four pages of detailed information on the dangers of alcohol consumption as well as the consequences they could have faced and appropriate alternative actions. He glanced over to Teddy, who was sitting cross legged on his bed, his upper body slightly perched forward awaiting Harry's reaction. Yet this image didn't fool Harry, he knew his godson well enough to be able to tell that Teddy was relaxed and pretty confident that he had done a good job on the essay. The only question was, had the message actually sunk in.

Skimming through the text once more, a particular paragraph caught his eye and with a small cough he started saying: "Good work, that's quite a lot you wrote here."

The teenager shrugged nonchalantly.

"There was a lot of information in those pamphlets I guess."

A little worried about Teddy's all too unfazed attitude towards the issue, Harry pointed to the papers and sternly said:

"Well, there's one bit of information you wrote here that I'd like to go over."

Listening to his godfather's words Teddy had stood up and now looked at the paragraph Harry had referred to.

"All members of the law enforcement, including Aurors on and off duty, are to report any cases of dangerous public drinking (including underage drinking) they witness." He mumbled and then looked Harry in the eye with a sorrow expression.

"I ... I didn't know that before Harry, I swear I didn't. I didn't want to cause you trouble at work." He stumbled out an apology.

Harry gently grabbed the teenager's hands to stop him rambling and looking him square in the eyes assured: "There was no trouble, but Ted you have to understand, this happens again I have no choice but to report your friends or yourself for that matter."

"But wait, I thought you did ... the brochure says your honour-bound to report any cases. You'll get into trouble." Teddy exclaimed half in surprise, half in concern which caused Harry to smile at him fondly before he remembered to put on a serious tone once more.

"No I won't. Luckily you guys actually weren't drunk when we found you and you didn't fly drunk, so I could let you off with a warning. That's a one-time free pass though and I want you to promise me that you stay away from alcohol for now."

Harry said sternly accentuating his last words with a slight squeeze of his godson's hands while searching his eyes for an honest answer that the boy was quick to provide.

"No Harry, I understand. Thank you ... for letting us off I mean. I promise no alcohol before 17."

"Good, it's not only damaging to your health, but also I don't want to have to deal with any of you kids at work please." Harry exclaimed desperately.

Laughing at the man's distress Teddy teased: "Sure thing I stay clear of the Auror office until I have my entrance tests."

Mustering his godson Harry gave a forced smile. The idea of Teddy joining the Aurors was not one he was sold on yet, but this was not the time for this discussion and so he said goodnight and left the 15-year old with the good feeling that he would not have this conversation again.

AN: So here it goes, it's actually only part one of a chapter that is meant to be a lot longer but it will take me some days to type it all and since it was relatively easy to split I though you guys rather have an update now and one within the next week than waiting until I manage to post one really long chapter.