apples and scented candles • h.potter ✓

• twenty nine •

Harry woke up very early one morning and hurriedly got dressed for work. Nothing particularly life changing has happened in a few days that would make him so eager to go to the Ministry - he was just going to take a little detour before heading to work. Deciding to have breakfast in his office, he left his apartment after swinging a cloak over himself.

One apparition later, he was standing in front of a pretty cottage surrounded by maple trees on three sides. As he stood unmoving, recovering from the nauseating experience, he had the urge to turn around and go back. He really didn't know why he had come here, that too, so early in the morning. But Andromeda had said how Teddy liked waking up early, so they were probably awake by now. Even then, Harry had to stand there for a few more minutes, weighing his options before he would decide whether to go in.

He had last seen Teddy a week before Christmas. An awfully long time has passed since then - he used to visit him nearly every week before - and he missed his godson. Really, there was no competition here. Seeing his godson, or heading to the Ministry for another day of stress and headache - the choice was pretty clear.

He walked up the path until he reached the red bricked cottage topped with a black roof. After only a moment's hesitation, he knocked on the door.

He was right. They were awake, for Andromeda opened the door before a minute was up. A surprised look crossed her face as she exclaimed, "Harry!" and pulled him into a hug rivalling that of Molly Weasley. He couldn't help the smile pulling at his lips as he hugged her back.

But her expression changed when she pulled away from him. He recognised a frown of concern, worry twisting her eyebrows, but before he could ask anything, she pressed the back of her hand over his forehead. "Harry, are you okay? You look ill."

"I'm - I'm fine," he assured her, although he wasn't so sure himself. "Why?"

"Why?" she repeated in disbelief. "Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? You look terrible! Nymphadora used to get like this when she was training, but she got better afterwards. You're not training anymore, so what's wrong?"

Harry laughed a little at her concern. "Nothing's wrong, Andromeda. Really. I just came to see Teddy. I was wondering if I could take him to the Ministry today. He's awake, isn't he?"

But Andromeda didn't remove the worried look from her face as she pulled Harry into the house and closed the door behind him. He looked around expectantly for an excited Teddy to come bounding down the stairs to reach him, but a feeling of disappointment fell on him as nothing of the sort happened. A moment later, however, he felt ashamed of how he was feeling. He seemed to be having a lot of negative thoughts lately.

Andromeda went to the stairs and yelled, "Teddy, look who's here!" Then she came back to Harry and led him into the living room, where he sat down awkwardly, feeling an interrogation coming on.

"Did you have breakfast?" she demanded.

"Um - no."

"Were you planning to have breakfast at all?" she asked in an accusatory tone.

"I was!" he said defensively. "At the Ministry. I'll get something from the cafeteria. Really, Andromeda, you don't need to worry about me."

"Well, the food at the Ministry isn't good," she said flatly. "Nymphadora always complained about it. I'm not letting you leave until you have breakfast."

His protests that he was going to be late fell on deaf ears. But then again, he wasn't actually putting up a very convincing argument - a part of him, indeed, was pleased at Andromeda's offer of breakfast. Before the other, larger part of him could change her mind, the sound of light but hurried footsteps reached his ears and Harry instantly forgot about Andromeda as he turned around to face the door, where appeared Teddy, grinning.