Title: Babies and Beginnings
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: DH compliant, but ignores the epilogue of crap.
Word Count: 958
Summary: Harry and Hermione care for baby Teddy Lupin and discuss their potential future as
parents.
A/N: Written for sweet_lemmon at
the sexy_brilliance LJ in 2007.
It had only been a few months since the tumultuous events of Voldemort's final demise. The surviving Weasley clan
had gathered at the Burrow along with Harry, Hermione, the Lovegoods, the Longbottoms, and Andromeda Tonks with baby
Teddy Lupin. It was the first time they'd all been together since after the funerals for Fred and the other heroes
who had fallen.
In an attempt to raise everyone's spirits, especially her own, Molly staged a big Halloween party. No one was feeling especially festive, but they were at least commiserating and enjoyed talking with people they hadn't seen in a while. As usual, there was enough food to feed everyone there as well as the rest of the village of Ottery St. Catchpole. After dinner, a torrential rainstorm began to thunder outside, forcing everyone to gather inside.
Harry and Hermione were slightly apart from the rest, fussing over Teddy. This gave his grandmother a rare opportunity to socialize with Molly, Mrs. Longbottom, and the others. Teddy wasn't old enough to talk or even crawl yet. He could roll over, though, and pay attention to 'Aunt' Hermione, who was reading to him from The Tales of Beedle the Bard,. Harry was listening and appreciated the fact that she avoided "The Tale of the Three Brothers"- he'd thought about that one enough for a lifetime. A feeling of warmth overtook Harry as he and Hermione cuddled with the tiny child. It was a strangely full happiness to know that he could do something positive for little Teddy, and he was even more pleased to know that he would grow up in a world with no shadow of Voldemort.
Half an hour later, as the party quieted down around him, Teddy fell asleep and Harry gently took him up the stairs to Percy's old room. He put him down on the bed softly, using pillows to surround him so the baby couldn't roll off the bed. He stood there for a few moments, watching Teddy sleep. He watched Teddy's peaceful sleep for a moment. He looked tiny, innocent, and vulnerable, and as he watched him, Harry felt his love and tenderness intensify.
A few moments later he realized that there was someone else in the room. He turned around and saw Hermione. "Hey," he said in an undertone.
"Hey," she replied, matching his soft voice. She looked from him to Teddy with a look he'd never quite seen in her eyes. "You're really amazing with him."
"Thanks," he replied. "You are too. You're a natural."
"You want kids, don't you?" It wasn't really a question.
He nodded, "I want to be able to give kids a great childhood -- Teddy first. Maybe I'll even adopt one of the other kids orphaned by the war. I just wish I'd had a better example of parenting growing up."
"That's a wonderful idea. I think you'll be a terrific father. You're already really good with Teddy." Hermione smiled at him.
"Thanks," he smiled back.
"Ginny will be a great mother," Hermione added neutrally.
"Who said anything about Ginny?" Harry said, his voice growing slightly husky.
"I just assumed…" she trailed off as he moved closer to her, capturing her eyes with his.
"No, I don't think so, not for my children anyway" he answered matter-of-factly, "You'll make a great mom, too. Ron's really lucky."
Her breath caught at the intensity in his eyes. "No, not Ron, I mean… I can't see us having children together. We fight too much and I wouldn't want to bring a baby into that environment."
"You're not together?" he said hopefully.
"No," she whispered, looking at her shoes, "We tried for a week or so after the battle, but it soon became clear that we weren't in love and we broke it off." She raised her eyes to meet his. "It just wasn't right, you know, it just…"
"I know", he whispered back, and he moved even closer,
"You do" she agreed quietly, her hand rising to caress his face.
"I do" he said, backing her against the door and cupping her hip with his hand gently.
"Then I could do this without anyone minding?" Harry kissed her suddenly, softly at first. She returned the kiss with a surprising amount of passion.
"Oh, Harry!" she whispered, winding her arms around his neck. "I never believed this would happen. I thought you just saw me as a sister."
"I never saw you as a sister, Hermione." Harry was suddenly dead serious.
"Then why did you tell Ron you did?" she asked in a small voice.
Harry sighed, "I guess I just wanted to avoid a fight. And I thought you wanted him, so keeping things to myself kept the peace." Then he grinned, "Did want that to happen?" His voice was definitely husky now, but the room was still quiet.
"So much it hurt sometimes," she admitted, pulling him close and nuzzling his neck.
"I'll never hurt you," he assured her, and went back to kissing her. She kissed him back ardently, her hands mussing his hair.
A few minutes later, Hermione broke away reluctantly. Her eyes looked starry. "Most of our friends are downstairs and Teddy's right over there," Hermione gasped.
"I don't care if you don't," Harry murmured. "Do you?"
"Barely," she whispered back, "I'm just afraid of scarring the baby."
"Let's go somewhere else, then," he replied. At her nod, he Apparated them both into the yard near the broom shed. "More private?"
"Yes, but wet," she grinned, as water ran down both of their faces. "Our clothes are getting soaked."
He tugged at her jumper slowly; "Maybe…" he said as he ran a hand over her bare back, "Maybe we should do something about that then"
~fin~
-->