#global warming is trying to destroy us so we deserve some fluff

[corinnesamuels]

Teddy Wants a Treehouse

(Or, the one where Harry has a minor bout of jealousy.)

When Andromeda Tonks asked Harry and Ginny Potter to watch 4-year-old Teddy for a week, the Potters accepted without hesitation. Andromeda had been playing a tug-of-war-like game with her last living sister, working to discover if Narcissa Malfoy still had traces of the person she had once known. It was decided—after a year of awkward silences, long-forgotten happy memories, and melancholy rememberings of what had been—that the two sisters would take a holiday. Maybe after being away from everything, they could find out one way or another.

At least, she hoped.

While she knew that her surrogate family would not become close friends of the Malfoys if she and Cissy were able to rebuild their relationship, they had respected her desire to try to work things out. It was decided that Ginny would watch Teddy during the days she wasn't in training, and on the days she had to travel to Holyhead, Harry would take Teddy to the childcare wing of the Ministry. Teddy had been before on just a handful of occasions but seemed to love it each time. 

Andromeda told Teddy of the arrangement a few days before she was due to leave for Italy, and he was ecstatic.

"I's gets to stay with Harry' n Ginny for a whole week?" He had asked excitedly in the middle of breakfast. Porridge smeared across his mouth, small clumps taking residence in between strands of shockingly turquoise hair.

He was as messy an eater as his mother had been clumsy. It brought a sad smile to Andromeda's face to think about it.

When Harry and Ginny came to pick Teddy up for the week, Andromeda couldn't tell whether godfather or godson was more excited.

Ginny had no trouble stating that it was Harry.

And as Harry looked up from blowing a raspberry on Teddy's stomach, the little boy still squealing with laughter, the look on the man's face proved that his wife was most definitely correct.

But neither Andromeda, Ginny, nor Harry expected Teddy to come down with dragon pox just two days into the week. Andromeda offered to come back early, but Harry promptly refused. He almost never took days off from work and had plenty of leave accrued to stay home with Teddy. Andromeda looked skeptical during their conversation over the Floo, but Harry assured her that if he could defeat dark wizards and live through three different killing curses, he could take care of his sick godson.

He'd call over to the Burrow and have Molly help, at the very least.

"Really, Andy, we'll be fine. Enjoy your time in Italy. Everything will be fine when you get back." Harry said. His knees were beginning to ache from having to crouch down by the fireplace. Reluctantly, and with many quickly given tips for treating dragon pox and reminders about what Teddy liked and disliked, Andromeda ended the connection. Harry stood up, rubbing his knees.

"Well, Ted, it isn't the week we had planned, but let's make the most of it, shall we?"

Teddy looked up from his place on the hearth rug and began to try scratching his irritated skin, foiled by the scratch-proof gloves he had been forced to wear.

"Itchy." Teddy said grumpily.

Harry managed to get an appointment at St. Mungo's that afternoon. Harry was happy to discover that while Teddy would be a little lethargic for the next couple of days, he would be back to his usual self and ready for all the things Harry had wanted to do before the week was up. The Healer gave Teddy a salve for the irritated skin, a potion to knock the dragon pox out altogether, and a lolly for his troubles. She also had the decency not to laugh when Harry took one as well.

Not an hour after Harry and Teddy returned to the house on the outskirts of Godric's Hollow, Molly Weasley arrived with an arsenal of sickness-beating supplies—enough soup to last a week, a salve she decided was much more effective than whatever rubbish they were passing out at St. Mungo's, and a fresh set of gloves for little hands that still tried to scratch at the pockmarks.

"Mrs. Weasley, I'm green! And itchy!" Teddy said as Molly bustled into the kitchen.        

"Well indeed, you are!" Molly replied as she poured bowls of soup for him and Harry. "But not to worry dear, we'll have you right as rain in no time. Eat up! You'll need your energy. You too, Harry, dear. You're looking quite thin. A good wind might blow you away."

Harry knew better than to waste his time protesting Molly taking care of the two of them, and after one sniff of the soup, he joined in with Teddy, eating hungrily.

"Thanks for bringing us soup, Molly. I really appreciate it. I was thinking that I'd have to order takeaway this evening."

Molly looked scandalized at the thought of a sick toddler eating takeaway. "Nonsense! I'll be sure to bring some more soup over tomorrow. It will make this little one start feeling a little more like himself." She gave Teddy a pat on the head and set the dishes to washing themselves with her wand.

Molly sat with Harry and Teddy at the dinner table for a while, going into exaggerated raptures as Teddy demonstrated his abilities to write his letters and numbers.

"How smart you are, Teddy! You'll be at Hogwarts before we know it."

Teddy looked at once proud and mildly embarrassed at the statement and looked to Harry for further approval. Harry smiled and ruffled Teddy's hair. After the dishes had been washed and dried, and the kitchen looked a bit cleaner than it had when Molly had arrived (though quickly she denied any additional spellwork and proceeded to change the subject), Molly stood to leave.

"Well, I must be off." She said as she double-checked her basket to make sure she had everything. "Arthur will be home soon, and I'll need to get dinner ready. Feel better, dear." Molly kissed Teddy on the top of his head and turned to hug Harry goodbye.

"I'll be around tomorrow to check on the both of you." She said as she grabbed a handful of Floo Powder.

"Thanks again for the soup, Molly. Teddy, what do you say?"

Teddy's little green face looked from Harry to Molly and then to the fireplace. "I want to go wif you to the Burrow! Can I?"

Neither Harry nor Molly had expected that response. A little surprised, Molly looked to Harry and saw him attempt to hide the slightly crestfallen look that passed over his face. Trying to avoid letting Harry know that she had seen it, she bent down to get a little closer to Teddy's eye level.

"You want to go to the Burrow with me?" Teddy nodded eagerly. "Well, Teddy, you know you're always welcome, but Victoire won't be there." She said, thinking that Teddy must have been missing his playmate. At this, Harry squatted down and placed a hand on Teddy's back.

"Is that why you want to go to the Burrow, Ted? You want to play with Vic?"

"I want to go see the treehouse. Harry doesn't have one." Teddy said matter of factly. Harry and Molly looked outside the sitting room window. There were several trees on the property, but as Teddy had mentioned, none of them held a treehouse.

"I don't, do I?" Harry rubbed Teddy's back, mulling things over in his head. "Molly, do you mind if Teddy and I come over and camp out in the treehouse today?"

Teddy gasped with excitement and threw his little arms around Harry's neck before looking back at Molly. "Please, Mrs. Weasley!"

Molly laughed. "Of course, you can. Arthur would love to see you both. How does treacle tart sound for pudding?"

"Excellent." Harry and Teddy replied. Molly chuckled to herself and straightened back up.

After Molly disappeared into the fireplace, Harry stood up and looked around. "Well, Ted, we'd better pack some things up for us to take to the Burrow. Go grab a few things, and I'll send a note to Ginny."

A few hours later, Harry and Teddy were sitting in the treehouse on a pallet of sleeping bags and pillows, reading the latest issue of Martin Migs the Mad Muggle. Teddy loved the silly stories and was sent into a giggling fit every couple of pages. He was right in the middle of one when they heard footsteps on the treehouse ladder.

"Looks like you two are having plenty of laughs without me. Did you save me any fun?"

"Ginny!" Teddy squealed as the redhead crawled over to them in the treehouse.

"Wotcher, Ted." She grinned before placing a kiss on his turquoise fringe. "Hello, love." She said as Harry leaned over to get a kiss of his own.

"How was training?" Harry asked, ignoring Teddy's groans of "yuck!" when the kiss lasted longer than Teddy preferred.

"It was good. Gwenog mostly had us go over some new approaches to next week's match. The Tornados' new beater is starting, and he's got a wicked aim."

"Can I go to the Quidditch match? I want to see the snitch!" Teddy asked as he crawled onto Ginny's lap. Harry beamed at Teddy's mention of the snitch and sent a smug look over to Ginny.

"We'll have to check with your Gran, Ted. But wouldn't you rather get more excited about the quaffle?" Ginny asked, glancing at Harry, whose mouth was now in a straight line.

"I like them both! But snitches are really fast and they get a bazillion points!"

"I suppose that to a four-year-old, 150 and a bazillion are quite close to the same thing." Harry said. "Nice try with the quaffle bit, though."

Ginny stuck out her tongue at him and then turned back to Teddy. "Is that your new issue of Martin Migs, Ted? Is it as funny as the last?"

After the rest of Martin Migs, a few dragon coloring pages, and one and a half rounds of Babbity Rabbity and the Cackling Stump, Teddy Lupin began to doze off. Ginny rubbed his back as Harry laid him down on the sleeping bag. "Poor kid. I remember when Ron and I had dragon pox. At least we had each other to play with."

"Yeah," Harry said as Ginny moved to sit on his lap. "When he mentioned that he wanted to come over, your mum thought that he wanted to play with Victoire."

"She also mentioned that you looked a little hurt when he said it."

Harry felt himself blushing subconsciously. "I had hoped that she didn't notice that . . ." He muttered under his breath. "I thought he was bored with me at first. Then he mentioned the treehouse, and I realized that it did seem a lot cooler than being cooped up in our sitting room all day."

"He adores you, Harry," Ginny said, pressing a kiss to his lips. "Believe it or not, even more than treehouses. And quaffles, apparently." She feigned a look of disbelief. 

Harry laughed. "Apparently."

Over the next few days, Teddy returned to his normal coloring and was ruled to be back in perfect health. Harry, still on cloud nine from spending the week with his godson, decided to stay home even on the days that Ginny didn't need to go to Holyhead and squeezed as many activities in as they could into their last two days together. They got ice cream at Florean Fortescue's, went to the joke shop to play with some of George's more toddler-friendly items, and went to the cinema in London. And then, almost too soon, Andromeda returned from Italy, and it was time for Teddy to go home.

The next weekend, Ginny awoke and instinctively backed closer to Harry, only to find that Harry wasn't there. She turned over and looked around where he should be lying and, confused, glanced around the room. She didn't hear any sounds of movement in the bath, and no sounds were coming from the kitchen. Getting out of bed, she pulled on her dressing gown and walked over to where they kept their calendar in the kitchen, but his work schedule showed that he didn't have to report to the Ministry today either.

Where had he gone off to?

She noticed a cereal bowl and a used coffee mug in the sink, the tea kettle on the stove, and smiled. She hadn't been able to pick up his coffee habit in the mornings and could only tolerate the stuff when she was in dire straits. But Harry had been there and grabbed a bite to eat before he went to wherever he had gone off to and had gotten the kettle ready so that she could have tea when she woke up.

Ginny pondered this as she poured a cuppa and heard a tapping noise. She walked over to the window and saw her husband standing on a ladder by one of the sturdier trees in their yard, hammering at a set of wooden planks. Wrapping her dressing gown more securely around her, she walked outside to the tree.

"I was wondering where you had gone off to."

Harry looked down at her and grinned. "I wanted to get an early start and didn't want to wake you."

"I noticed," she said, sipping her tea and smiling at him as he went back to working on the boards. This was one of the few moments outside of their time with their friends or family that he didn't look so burdened. "What is it that you are doing, exactly?"

"Teddy wants a treehouse." He replied simply. "Could you pass me that instructions page? The one by your foot?"

Ginny picked up the instructions page and handed it to Harry. She watched as he tapped it with his wand and caused it to hover in front of him. He squinted at it briefly and picked the hammer up again. There was a sudden intake of breath, and he stuck the pad of his thumb instinctually in his mouth before looking at it.

"Splinter." He said at her concerned look. Ginny examined his thumb as she pulled his wand off of the boards and tapped twice on the small sliver of wood lodged in his hand. The splinter shot out and into the air as the skin healed itself.

"I'm pretty sure you could have gotten one that was already made." Ginny said as she placed his wand back on the planks of wood that harry was assembling. "Or done it with magic."

He shook his head. "Some things are better done by hand."

"Your hands are quite capable, from my personal experience." She smirked before taking one last sip of her tea, noticing that Harry looked quite pleased with himself at the statement.

Read the rest on ao3.