Going back to Grimmauld Place again was a really weird experience, it was the house that Harry knew, but the change in it was so radical that at times he forgot where he was. Kreacher had completely cleaned the place out; the troll-foot coat stand in the hall was gone, so too were the shrunken elf heads on the stairs. In fact everything about the house that had even hinted at the dark arts was conspicuously absent. There wasn't a hint of dirt or grime anywhere and the curtains were thrown wide to let the daylight brighten up the dark rooms. To his immense relief Kreacher had even, somehow, managed to remove Sirius' mother's portrait and stash it in the attic, so they no longer had to put up with her demented wailing every time they walked along the hall.
After several days Harry and Ron decided that although everything was clean beyond all recognition the house would still benefit from a makeover, and half of the furniture was so old that it was falling to bits no matter what Kreacher did. The theory was to redecorate the entire house from top to bottom, however it was such a warren of locked doors and rooms with no obvious purpose that they had no idea where to start. To make the task more manageable they eventually chose to concentrate on the rooms they used the most and leave the rest for later.
Returning from a trip to a muggle London paint shop - an experience Ron had found fascinating - Harry found a letter addressed to him lying on the doorstep.
Harry
I was wondering if you could do me a favour. After everything that's happened this past year my health has suffered a bit and the Healers are advising me to go away for a bit to recuperate. Since you got on so well with him the other week, and you are his Godfather after all, I was wondering if you could look after Teddy for me for a few days? I hear from Molly that you and Ron have moved out of the Burrow, but I am sure she would be willing to help you out with any problems questions that you might have, and you'll have Ron there to help you. I was hoping to go away in a few days so can you please let me know as soon as possible if you can't manage. I'll take all the things he needs round to your house so you won't need to buy anything.
Sorry for the short notice
Andromeda Tonks
Harry just stared at the letter for a few moments, oblivious to Ron re-enlarging the paint pots which had been shrunk for the walk home. She wanted him to look after a baby! He didn't know anything about babies, he never been around one in his life. But then if she was going away in a few days then he could hardly say no. Why did he always get himself into these situations, couldn't she find someone with more experience in childcare? Then again he had agreed to being Teddy's godfather and all the responsibilities that went along with it. He couldn't really let Remus down, and he of all people knew what it was like to grow up without any sort of father figure.
"Wow Harry, come and look at this!" Ron had managed to open one of the paint pots and was levitating a large glob of coffee coloured paint above his head. "It's really weird stuff it's like -" Suddenly the spell ended and the paint cascaded down, covering Ron's head and shoulders as he spluttered in shock.
Harry couldn't help it, he just burst out laughing. What was he thinking that he wouldn't be able to look after a child? He already did.
Three days later Harry stood surveying his and Ron's handiwork with pride. Since they were expecting Teddy later that day they had decided to start with his room first so that they would have somewhere to put him away from all the work going on. The walls were painted an off white colour with overlapping squares of varying shades of cream and brown dotted around. They had left the floor boards exposed, but had varnished them and then bought a large woollen rug to set in the middle of the floor. All in all it looked quite good. Or he thought so anyway.
Suddenly the doorbell rang, breaking off his train of self-congratulation. By the time he got to the staircase Ron was letting Mrs Tonks in the door and taking a large holdall from her. She was staring around with an odd expression on her face, and it wasn't until that moment that Harry realised that she must have been to this house so many times as a child, probably, like Sirius, she had hoped never to set foot in it again. Spotting Harry though, she smiled. "Ah here he is, I'm really sorry Harry, but I can't stay. My train leaves at eleven and I want to get there in plenty of time. Sorry to just dump Teddy on you and run."
"That's fine Mrs Tonks, I don't mind, honestly." He reached out to ruffle Teddy's electric blue curls. "How is the little man today then?"
"Oh he's fine," Teddy's grandmother smiled and gave him a quick kiss as she handed him to Harry. "He was a bit grizzly yesterday, but he seems to be fine now." Glancing down at her watch she smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry but I really do have to go now. Take care of him, there's a list of everything you need to do in the bag so you should be fine. Bye now!"
And with that she was gone, leaving a stunned Harry and Ron standing in the hall. Eventually Harry spoke, "well… I suppose we better see what this list says and get you settled in then."
Several minutes later the three of them were upstairs in Teddy's room, with Harry reading Andromeda's instructions - or trying to as Teddy seemed to want to eat them - and Ron emptying the bag and setting up the cot which had been shrunk to fit inside.
"Ron are there some labelled jars in the bag, it's supposed to be his baby food? Ron? Ron! Stop mucking about with the cot, it's fine where it is."
Grumbling, his friend stopped trying to levitate it into the corner of the room and searched through the contents of the bag. "Yeah there's some here. Eugh! What is this stuff? It looks like s- Ugh Harry? The baby's eating the paper."
Looking down Harry saw that Teddy had finally managed to get a corner of the parchment into his mouth and was sucking on it greedily. Gingerly he tried to open his mouth and extract it, a process which ended with a giggling baby and his finger covered in drool. "Yuck, Teddy you are really gross, d'you know that?"
The infant merely chuckled again, displaying a tiny pearly white tooth, and turned his eyes orange in reply.
Teddy quickly settled in to life at Grimmauld Place, and after two days it felt like he had been there forever. Granted the two of them made lots of mistakes at first, but it had its good points and Teddy was unfailingly sweet, even for a baby. Harry didn't think he'd ever forget the look on Ron's face when Harry asked him to hold Teddy for a second whereupon the infant promptly vomited all over his friends shoulder. They took it in turns to look after him, with one playing with him in his room and the other getting on with the decorating - which had now progressed to the living room. And whilst he got on really well with both of them, it was obvious that Teddy was happiest when he was with Harry. For some reason the kid had really taken to him, although perhaps it was just that he liked trying to pull his glasses off whenever he thought that Harry wasn't paying enough attention to him. Harry had always heard that little babies were really light sleepers, but so far his godson seemed to sleep right the way through the night - or at least until six o'clock - a fact which he was profoundly grateful for. It still amazed him that anyone that small could move so fast. The minute Teddy was set down anywhere he would promptly crawl off in the other direction, leaving Harry or Ron to run after him before he hurt himself.
On the fourth day after Teddy's arrival, Harry was walking down the stairs having just gotten him to sleep when he heard a persistent banging coming from the living room. What was Ron doing? Cautiously sticking his head round the door he was greeted with the sight of Ron obviously attempting to levitate the paintbrush up the wall, but only succeeding in bouncing it around the room.
"I was fed up of trying to do this the muggle way, it takes too long." His friend complained. "I've seen Dad do some sort of charm that sets the brush off on its own and then you can just leave it to do all the work, but I - can't - seem - to - do it." He struggled to maintain control of the brush as it went whizzing across to the other side of the room, spraying paint in its wake.
Harry reached up to wipe the spots of green paint from his face as he went over to help his friend. "Have you never painted a wall before?" he asked curiously. It still amazed him how many things that he took for granted that Ron had never experienced. Still, what could it hurt to try and do it by magic?
Picking up another brush and dipping it in the tin of paint he concentrated on where he wanted it to go then swished and flicked as hard as he could. The brush wobbled unsteadily in the air for a second and then began to move towards the nearest wall. Harry grinned at his success as it started turning the wall pale green.
"Show off." Ron muttered, but began to laugh when Harry lowered his wand arm and the brush clattered to the floor.
"Hey!" Harry summoned the brush and used it to flick paint at the redhead. "Not so funny now is it?"
Of course the only thing that Ron could do was retaliate, leading to a rather large and fairly messy paint fight. Using the sheet-covered sofa as a defence, Harry ducked down waited till he heard Ron move out from behind the similarly shrouded bookcase. For once though Ron took him by surprise, moving noiselessly across the floor he leaned over the sofa and dealt Harry a none too gentle blow to the side of the head with the paintbrush. It was the most fun Harry had had in ages, and for once he felt like the teenager he really was. He was just in the process of lobbing the brush at his friend when an exasperated voice behind him spoke.
"Oh for goodness sake! I leave you two alone for a while and you're acting like five year olds. The paint's meant to go on the walls you know."
Harry froze as his mind registered two things simultaneously: he knew that voice, and it sure as hell wasn't Teddy. Turning, he looked at the figure standing in the doorway. Wrapped in a thick winter coat with decidedly pink cheeks and a large suitcase at her feet was -
"Hi Hermione," he said weakly.
A/N: Yay she's back! Sorry it took so long I was mentally chastising myself every time I finished a chapter and she was still in Australia. Sorry. As I was writing this chapter I suddenly realised how much of his time Harry spends reading/writing letters - or newspaper articles - it seems to be about the only thing he ever does. So I would also like to apologise to those who are fed up of Harry constantly reading, I promise he won't in the next chapter.
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