A/N: I know this was meant to be a one-shot, but the ides for this little exchange popped into my head shortly afterward. I thought I may as well add it on.

"Aunt Hermione?" Teddy's quavering voice filtered through from the front room, where Hermione's fireplace was. "Aunt Hermione, are you there?"

"Teddy?" Hermione hurried into the room and knelt on the hearth. Teddy's cheeks, illuminated by the green flames, were tear-stained. "What's the matter?"

"I – I –" Teddy stuttered. Fresh tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Teddy, step back. I'm coming through," Hermione said gently, but firmly. Teddy's head disappeared and the flames died down at once. After a quick shout to Ron to let him know where she was going, Hermione stepped into the fireplace and threw down some Floo powder, disappearing in a swirl of green and reappearing moments later in front of Teddy. She rushed from the fireplace and gathered him into her arms, then pulled back to look at his face properly. "What's wrong? Has something bad happened? Where's your Grandma?"

"G-Grandma's fine. She's s-s-sleeping." Teddy scrubbed his hands across his cheeks. "I just…just…What if no one likes me? Wh-what if no one wants to be my friend?" He looked up at her with such a forlorn expression it made Hermione's heart ache. "I'm scared, Aunt Hermione." Fresh tears dripped down his face.

Hermione hugged him tight against her. She hadn't seen Teddy cry openly like this in quite some time, and it made his seem much younger than his eleven years. Teddy hadn't had the easiest childhood. Orphaned before he could even remember, Teddy had been raised mostly by his grandmother Andromeda. Andromeda loved Teddy deeply, but she'd lost almost everyone in the War and often struggled with the grief. Her health had declined, and she felt physically much older than her years. As a result, Andromeda rarely entertained guests or took Teddy to social functions. With Teddy being a Metamorphmagus combined with the slight emotional changes he experienced linked to the lunar cycle, muggle primary school was out of the question, and a private tutor visited him at home. Although Hermione, Harry and the Weasleys involved Teddy as much as they could, their children were several years younger than Teddy and he'd known them since they were babies; accepting their sort-of cousin's colour-changing hair and morphing features as normal without batting an eyelid as only young children can. He hadn't had much experience in making friends his own age.

"Oh Teddy, don't worry. You don't need to be scared. You'll make friends, I know you will. You just need to give it time."

"It's just…Uncle Harry's always told us the stories about Hogwarts, and you and him and Uncle Ron, best friends right from the start until forever. What if everyone else makes friends on the train like you and then it's too late?"

Hermione couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "Well, that's not quite how it happened…Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron became friends on the train. They and I didn't become friends until Halloween."

"Halloween? When they fought the troll to save you?"

"Exactly. In fact, Uncle Ron and I didn't get on at all until then. Shall I tell you a secret? Until that Halloween, I'd never made a friend my own age. I only had one friend in the whole world."

Teddy's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Do you want to know who it was?"

"It's someone I know?"

"I should think so." Hermione smiled. "It was your dad."

"My dad? But…Uncle Ron always says you met him when he was your professor at Hogwarts?"

"Yes, well, that's when Uncle Ron met him. I met him a little earlier than that. I mostly grew up in Oxford, as you know, but my parents only moved there when I was four. Before that I lived in Surrey. Little Whinging."

"Little Whinging? Isn't that-"

"Where Uncle Harry grew up? Yes, although we never met there, to my knowledge. I started at the nursery school there, but I was having trouble fitting in. I always found it hard mixing with children my own age, and I was having bursts of accidental magic which were quite frightening, not knowing about magic yet. Anyway, I used to walk to school along the same road every morning, and most days there was a man sat at the bus stop that no one else but me could see. Looking back, it must have been some sort of Notice-Me-Not charm. We used to wave at each other as I went past. One day, one of the bigger children had chased me to the fence and I ended up apparating onto the street by accident. Your dad stopped me as I ran up the road. He gave me his handkerchief to dry my tears, talked to me and taught me a technique to control the accidental magic, not that I knew it at the time. Once I was calm, he took me back to school, but he told me to keep the handkerchief as a reminder that I had a friend. My mum and dad thought it best if I didn't go back to school after that; we were moving over the Christmas holidays anyway, so it was really only a few days I would miss. I didn't see him again until he started teaching at Hogwarts, but I never forgot his kindness. That handkerchief dried a lot of tears over the years."

Hermione paused, then continued. "You know, I very nearly owled my parents to withdraw me from Hogwarts, on my first Halloween. When the troll found me, I'd been in the girls' toilets, crying, because I felt terribly lonely. I even started to write a letter to them, right there in the cubicle. But once I'd dried my eyes on the handkerchief, and calmed down, I decided that, no, I would be fine, I would make friends eventually, because I'd already made one once before. Our lives could have been very different had your dad never offered me his handkerchief that day."

Teddy looked a bit dumbstruck. "My dad was really your first ever friend? His hanky really meant that much?"

Hermione smiled. "Yes, it did. As a matter of fact…" Hermione rummaged in her undetectably-expanded pocket, and pulled out a square of cotton, not quite white any more, but still clearly stamped with Remus' name. "It still means a great deal to me. It's almost become a bit of a talisman for me now." She held it out to Teddy. "Here…you should have it."

Teddy reached out and touched the edge of the handkerchief, running his finger across the name, but he didn't take it. "No, Aunt Hermione. I can't take it, he…he gave it to you."

"Oh Teddy, you are sweet, but I'll manage without it, honestly…"

"No. I want you to keep it."

"Yes, Hermione. You should keep it. I've something here that Teddy should have instead." Both Hermione and Teddy started and turned to the doorway, where Andromeda stood. She walked into the room and sank into a chair next to them. "I think this makes a lot more sense to me now." In her hands, she held another handkerchief, one that Hermione recognised even before she saw her own name on it.

"How did you…" she began.

"It was among the personal effects recovered from Remus and my Nymphadora after…well, he had this with him. I always wondered why. I admit, in my darker moments I considered the possibility that something…untoward…might have happened. Even in the haze of the aftermath, the…the f-funerals…I noticed you seemed more upset by his passing than you would expect for a mere ex-student. I must apologise for that."

"Aunt Hermione, is that yours?" Teddy goggled. "How did my Dad get it?"

"It was, once. When your dad was leaving Hogwarts, he seemed so down, I wanted to do for him what he did for me. A gesture to remind him that people cared, and to let him know how much it had meant to me. I didn't know if he remembered me, and I was all set to remind him, but he did. I didn't know he'd carried it around with him for all that time." Hermione's eyes shone with tears.

"Well, it clearly meant a great deal to Remus, just as it did to you. With your permission, Hermione, perhaps Teddy would like to take this handkerchief instead."

Teddy looked at Hermione. "Can I?"

Hermione squeezed his shoulders. "Of course you can."

"Teddy!"

Teddy turned towards the entrance to Platform Nine and Three Quarters to see his Aunt Hermione hurrying towards him, waving frantically. Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron followed at a more sedate pace, each carrying a small child, with Aunt Ginny behind them chivvying the other kids along. Hermione reached him and gave him a hug, which he returned for briefly before squirming away, slightly red-faced as any nearly-teenage boy would be at being hugged in public by his aunt.

"This is for you," she whispered, pressing a small package into his hand.

Teddy pulled his trunk along the corridor, peering into compartments as he looked for somewhere to sit. Towards the end of the third carriage, he found a compartment with only one person in it – a girl, first-year by the looks of her – with thick, heavy-framed glasses. She sat slightly hunched over, looking down at her lap.

Steeling himself, he tapped on the door before pulling it open and asking if he could sit with her. When she looked up, he noticed tears spilling down her cheeks. She scrubbed at her face with the cuffs of her jumper, seemingly embarrassed to have been caught crying by a stranger. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the gift Aunt Hermione had just given him and offered it to the girl. "Here. Take this." He sat down opposite her and gave her a shy smile as she took the handkerchief, stamped with his name, that he was holding out. "I'm Teddy Lupin. Would you like to be friends?"