Teddy

Summary: For Harry's first birthday, Lily wants to get him his first teddy bear, but everyone, including James thinks it's not the best idea ever. However, that's for baby Harry to decide.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize it J.K. Rowling's because I'm not brilliant enough to come up with such work.

A/N: Well, my first story on this website, but not my first fan fic. I just thought it was a cute idea.

The bell of the little shop tinkled as two people entered through the doorway. One of the two had long, wavy, red hair with almond-shaped emerald green eyes. The other, presumably her husband judging by the rings on each of their left ring fingers, had untamable, messy black hair with hazel eyes hidden behind his round glasses. He wore an expression of regret while his wife looked excited to be in the shop. She looked around eagerly, and once something caught here eye, she rushed over to look closer.

"Lily," James complained, "why must we be in here? It's a muggle toy shop. Harry doesn't want these."

"I thought you were all for muggle rights?" Lily said defensively. "I'm a muggle, James. Need I remind you of that?"

"I was just saying," James muttered, turning away. After a second, he turned back to his wife. "It's Harry's first birthday, don't you think he would want something, I don't know, really, really cool?"

Lily ignored the comment and continued to search through the shop. Sure, not many muggle toys could compare to all of the wizarding toys out there, but if Harry was going to be raised right, he was going to have at least one muggle toy. He was half muggle himself, shouldn't he be fully introduced to that world instead of being constantly pushed into the wizarding world? Okay, so all the toddler toys in the wizarding world "did neat things," as James would say, such as fly around the room or come to life or change shape or all of that fancy stuff; but since Lily was, in fact, a muggle, those toys held a particular place in her heart. It was how she grew up, it was all she knew as a child. The toys she played with ran on batteries or electricity, not by magic, although when she was little, she couldn't tell the difference between the two.

Walking through the aisles, Lily searched for the perfect toy for Harry. She didn't care how much it cost, she wanted her only son's first birthday to be one of the best. As she looked, Lily couldn't help but lose hope that she was going to find anything that stood out. It was a small shop, yes, but it was the only one for a ways since they were in a small town. Just as she was about to give up, she glanced at the far corner of the store there it didn't look like the toys were really up to date. That's when she saw it.

"James!" she gasped, dragging him over to the corner. "I found the perfect gift for Harry!" On the bottom shelf she picked up a teddy. It was light brown, extremely fluffy, and had a red bow tie on it's neck, right where the head and torso of the bear met.

James sighed. "A teddy? That's it?" he said, plucking it from Lily's grip. He examined it closely, deciding if it was suitable or not for his son. "That has got to be the dullest thing I have ever seen. It can hardly be considered a toy."

"Why must you be so difficult? It's a great toy! It's every child's dream to have a teddy as nice as this one! Just look at it, it's so cute!" Lily cooed. Seeing the displeased look on her husband's face, she took the bear back from his hands. "I'm getting it for Harry whether you like it or not."

"Look Lily, it's fine, but wouldn't you rather get him a teddy from that toy shop in Diagon Alley? You know, the ones that walk around and talk to you. That would be a teddy worth having."

"No James, I think Harry needs this one."

"And why do you think that?"

"Because," she said as she got up to the cash register. After she set the toy on the counter, she took out some money from her purse in order to pay for the birthday present.

"Because why?" James persisted. Lily sighed. He was good at persisting at things. It was how he got her to go out with him in the first place, after all.

"Because, James, I grew up in a muggle environment. I think it's only fair that Harry get part of my past."

"Would you like me to wrap it for you, ma'am?" asked the old man behind the counter.

Lily smiled kindly. "Please," she answered.

There was pause in which the man behind the counter got out wrapping paper, tape, and scissors in order to wrap the teddy. The silence was broken, however, by James.

"What's so great about having a teddy that does nothing?"

Lily gave an exasperated sigh. "Didn't you ever get a teddy for Christmas or your birthday or anything, James?" she asked. "Was there ever a point in your childhood where you had a muggle toy like a teddy that someone gave to you?" James shook his head. "That is why you can't understand why this is so important to me that Harry gets this teddy for his birthday."

James shrugged. "Alright, Lily, whatever you say."

Neither of them spoke again as Harry's new present was being wrapped. Nothing was spoken as they exited the shop and walked to the outskirts of the small town so they could Apparate back to their home. No words were said until they walked into their living room where Sirius was babysitting little Harry for them while they had gone.

"Done shopping for Harry's birthday then?" Sirius asked as they walked into the room. He had Harry in his arms, gurgling and laughing at the sight of his parents. Lily smiled and cooed at him as she took him from Sirius' arms.

"Thanks for watching Harry, mate," James said, watching Lily and Harry.

"What are you thanking me for?" Sirius asked. "You know I love that kid. Couldn't pay me all the money in the world to stay away from him." He caught sight of the shopping bag in James' arm. "So what did you get him?"

James smirked. "Lily got him a teddy," he said, not wanting to take the blame for buying Harry such a dull gift.

Sirius snorted. "Lily, why would you get Harry such a thing? Teddy's don't do anything. If you ask me, you should have gotten him one of those magical ones down in Diagon Alley. You know, the ones that-"

"Save it, Sirius," Lily interrupted, sitting on the couch, "James already told me about them. I take it you never had a muggle teddy when you were younger?"

"Lily dearest, I never got so much as a sock when I was younger," Sirius said darkly.

"Of course," Lily replied, blushing. "I'm sorry, Sirius, I forgot. I didn't mean to bring it up."

Sirius held up a hand. "Quite alright, Lily, I know you didn't mean anything by it." He looked at the clock on the wall opposite him. "Well, better get going. I'll be back tomorrow around ten to help celebrate Harry's birthday."

"Don't forget about that," Lily replied, "I made a cake."

"All the more reason to come," Sirius said with a wink, and without another word, he was gone.

James looked down and noticed he was still holding the bag with the teddy in it. "Do you want me to put this with the other gifts?" he asked.

"Would you please?" Lily asked. "I need to give Harry his dinner."

James nodded and left the room. Meanwhile, Lily stood up from the couch and carried Harry into the kitchen and sat him in his chair. After getting him settled, she got out the ingredients for the dinner they were having that night. As she didn't feel much like cooking, she got out her wand from her pocket and magically cooked their meal.

"Mummy," said little Harry as he tugged on his mother's skirt. Lily turned and saw that he had gotten out of his chair.

"What is it, honey?" she inquired. Harry lifted his arms, indicating that he wanted her to hold him. She sighed. "Mummy can't hold you right now, sweetie, I have to make your dinner. Are you hungry, Harry?"

"Food!" Harry squealed. He began to dance around the kitchen, causing Lily to laugh. "Food, food, food!" he chanted. As he was just under a year old, his vocabulary was limited.

"Well, you have to wait for daddy to come down so you can get washed up," Lily explained, knowing full well that her son only understood about half of what she was saying. Harry continued to dance around until he fell to the ground after losing his balance. Instead of crying, however, he just laughed.

"Where's Harry?" James called playfully, walking into the kitchen. Spotting him, he said, "There he is!"

Harry laughed some more. "Daddy!" He lifted his arms again so James could pick him up. "Up! Up!"

Giving into his son's demands, James picked Harry up. "Is dinner almost ready?" he asked Lily.

"Just about," she replied. "Why don't you get Harry washed up. I don't know what him and Sirius were doing while we were gone, but he's all messy because of it." Lily then walked to one of the cabinets to get some dishes out to set on the table while James took Harry into the bathroom to wash his face and hands.

Around five minutes later, the three of them were sitting around the dining room table eating their dinner.

"Please, Harry, eat the peas," Lily begged. She still had to feed him most of the time, but she always had trouble getting him to eat his vegetables. No surprise there.

"Lily, just let him be," James advised, "he's too stubborn."

"I wonder where he got that from," Lily said, frustrated.

"I'm thinking he got it from you." James smirked at his comment.

"No, I was talking about you," Lily replied, looking over at him. While her attention was not on Harry for the time being, he took some more pasta from his plate and stuffed it in his mouth. In doing so, he accidentally knocked the spoonful of peas from Lily's hand, causing it to loudly drop to the floor.

James laughed. "I told you it was useless," he said, watching his wife clean up the mess. Harry clapped his hands.

"You try feeding him then," Lily said, standing up from where she was on the floor. She made her way into the kitchen to throw away the dirty food and to get a new spoon.

James moved over next to Harry and kneeled next to him. "Why don't you eat some vegetables, Harry," he said. Harry stared at him blankly. "You'll grow up to be big and strong like your daddy. Then at Hogwarts, you'll have the girls running after you. I bet if you eat these peas right now, you'll be so strong and good looking that by third year, you'll have the seventh year girls drooling at the sight of you. Much like you're doing now." He took a napkin and wiped Harry's face. "So what do you say, Harry, hmm?" James reached over for his spoon and took a few peas in it and held it in front of Harry.

Harry stared at him for a moment before opening his mouth. "Hogarts!" He yelled.

James laughed. "Yes, Harry, Hogwarts. You want to go to Hogwarts?"

Harry clapped his hands. "Hogarts, daddy!" He poked his dad's nose.

"You can go to Hogwarts if you eat these," James said, indicating the peas.

Harry took one from his dad's spoon and put it in his mouth. "Hogarts!" he said again, grinning.

"Right," James laughed again, "now you can go to Hogwarts, just don't talk with food in your mouth. The girls won't like that much. Trust me, I've already tried that."

Lily came back into the dining room. "Well, did you get him to eat?"

James stood up, smiling smugly. "Of course I did. Look at him."

They both looked at Harry, who was fingering more peas from his plate, murmuring "Hogarts" happily every few seconds.

"What did you do?" Lily asked, astonished.

"Told him that he could go to Hogwarts and be the most popular bloke there if he ate his vegetables."

Lily laughed. "I think it was because he just liked the word 'Hogwarts'."

"He'll like the word once he's the most popular guy there."

Lily chuckled. "Just go give Harry a bath, please. He needs to be clean before his big day tomorrow."

James picked Harry up and took him away from the remainder of his dinner and took him back into the bathroom to bathe him and have some more 'father/son' time.

After Harry had his bath, he was put in his crib, and being the good little boy that he was, Harry fell asleep right after he was tucked in under his blanket by both his parents. Lily and James watched their son sleep for a few moments before going back down to the living room. James went to sit on the couch while Lily made her way back into the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" James asked.

"The kitchen. I need to do the dishes," Lily stopped to answer.

"Are you going to do them by magic this time, or are you still going through that phase where you have to do everything the muggle way?"

"I'll do them by magic. Why, do you not like it when I do things the muggle way?"

"Oh I'm fine with it, I just want you to sit down here next to me." Lily blushed as James said this, and made her way into the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Lily came back and sat by James on the couch. James had lit a fire, and as they talked for hours into the night, they couldn't help but feel like they had taken a trip back to Hogwarts.

"Where's my godson?" Sirius yelled loudly as he entered the Potter's house. He was followed by Remus, who laughed quietly to himself.

"He's right here, no need to shout," Lily said, bringing Harry to where his godfather and 'Uncle Remus' were. Harry's eyes lit up as he saw them, and he began laughing happily.

"Happy birthday, Harry!" Sirius said joyfully, setting his gift to him on the table next to him so he could pick Harry up. He swung him around, making Harry shout with laughter.

"Hello Remus," Lily greeted, "how have you been doing?"

"Not so badly, Lily, how are you?" Remus answered, setting his gift on the same table Sirius had.

"As good as can be when you're in hiding," Lily sighed. "I swear, it's getting harder every day."

Remus smiled sympathetically. "At least it's worth it."

"Moony! Padfoot!" James said, entering the room.

"Prongs," Sirius and Remus greeted in unison.

"Where's Pete?" James asked, looking around.

Remus sighed. "I haven't seen him in awhile, but last time I did, I asked him about coming today. He said he had a meeting to go to."

"What meeting?" James asked.

Remus shrugged. "Wouldn't tell me anything else about it."

"I haven't seen him since the last Order meeting," Sirius spoke up, setting Harry down.

"Yeah, that was the last time I saw him too," James said.

There was an awkward silence among the three of them for a moment, the only sound in the room was Harry gurgling happily as he played with one of his toys. Lily picked him up and turned to the three Marauders.

"Well, let's not wonder where Peter is," she said to them, "we have a birthday to celebrate."

"That's right," Remus said, immediately lighting up, "Harry doesn't need to be surrounded by worried adults today. It's his day."

"Time to open presents!" Sirius said, running to the table with all of the gifts, but Lily stood in the way.

"No Sirius, Harry needs to eat first."

"But why?" Sirius whined. Clearly he was more excited about Harry's birthday than Harry was.

"Because it was a tradition in my house," Lily explained. She led them into the kitchen where there was lunch and Harry's birthday cake set on the kitchen table.

Eating lunch gave the four adults to catch up on what was going on in each other's lives while Harry fed himself finger food. This was a time Lily, James, Remus, and Sirius had learned to enjoy since they hadn't been able to see much of each other, what with Lily and James going into hiding, Order meetings, Remus trying to find a decent job to support him, and James and Sirius constantly going on Death Eater watches since they were Aurors. In their busy lives, they had forgotten what was most important to them, and they all had Harry to thank for bringing that to their attention and helping them to fix that. In a time of darkness, Harry was the only light, and that allowed the four adults to keep in mind just how important it was to make time for friends because no one knew who was going to be the next victim.

"Alright, Sirius, it is now time for Harry to open his presents," Lily said, cleaning the cake off of her son's face.

"Finally!" Sirius said before he got up and rushed into the other room. He came back a moment later, his face barely visible behind all of Harry's presents. "He opens mine first!"

Lily took the gift that was from Sirius and set it in front of Harry. Not knowing what to do, Harry looked up at his mum confusedly.

"It's a present, Harry," Lily explained to her son. "You open it, like this." She tore a bit of the paper off and handed it to him. He took it and examined it for a second.

"Pesant?" Harry asked, looking back up at Lily. She nodded. Harry put his hand on Sirius' gift and tried to open it. Little by little, Harry tore off the wrapping paper until it was fully unwrapped. Harry laughed and clapped his hands, proud of what he did.

"Sirius," Lily said calmly, trying to suppress her anger, "you got Harry... a broom?"

Sure enough, the box had a picture of a broom on it with the letters 'Actual Size!' printed above it. Sirius took it out of the box and let Lily look at it more closely.

"Yeah, Lils! Look at it! Isn't it neat?" Sirius said. "I figure if we want Harry to be a star Quidditch player, he needs to start out early. Look, it's even got a little seatbelt so he won't fall off. It only goes two feet in the air, Lils, it's not dangerous."

"The box says only children five and over can ride them, Sirius, didn't you read that part?" Lily said, irritated.

Sirius blew a raspberry. "Who reads those things anyway? Much less does what it says."

"I do," Lily said, her voice rising a little. She couldn't lose her temper, not in front of Harry.

"Lily, I'll watch him on it," James offered, not wanting a fight to break out. "I'll hold him up on it and I will make sure he doesn't fall off."

"Lily," Remus said, wanting to calm her down, yet finding the whole situation amusing, "James wouldn't let anything ever happen to Harry, you know that. Sirius wouldn't either. Harry means the world to them and me, it would be the very last thing on any of our minds."

Lily sighed heavily. "Alright. Fine. He can have the broom. But only if you watch him the whole time he's on it, James."

"Of course, love," James replied.

"Pesant!" Harry shouted happily from his chair.

"Can Harry fly now?" Sirius begged. "Please!"

"Alright, but only for a few minutes. Harry needs to open his other presents," Lily gave in.

"PESANT!" Harry shouted louder, making everyone in the room laugh. Harry, not knowing why they were laughing, decided to laugh with them.

Sirius picked him up and ran him out into the backyard with the broom. James followed closely behind, just in case Sirius spontaneously and accidentally did something stupid. He helped Sirius put Harry on the broom and buckle him in with the little seatbelt while Remus and Lily looked on from the porch.

"Right, Harry," James said when Harry was set to go, "are you ready to fly on your new broom?"

"Boom!" Harry laughed.

"That's right," Sirius said, "your first broom. Ready Prongs? On the count of three. One... two... THREE!" Both Sirius and James gave the broom a little push, and while James was holding on to Harry's middle, Harry flew slowly around the yard.

"Don't let him go!" Lily called worriedly.

"I've got him," James called back, grinning at the fact that his son was flying for the first time in his life.

"Boom!" Harry continued to say, loving every minute of flying.

"Want to go faster?" James asked.

"Fast!" Harry repeated. James grinned wider and pushed the broom a little faster. Harry gave a scream of delight.

"Not too fast, James!" Lily called again.

"Lily, I've got a hold of him!" James said. "You don't have to worry about him falling off!"

After a few minutes of Harry flying, Lily decided it was time for him to get back inside. As James took Harry off of his new broom, he began to cry, but when James mentioned more presents, Harry instantly cheered up and couldn't wait to get back inside and open the present Remus had gotten him.

"It's a baby radio," Remus explained once Harry opened it. "You turn it on when Harry is in his crib or whenever, and it plays kid-friendly songs. I think it has somewhere around two hundred songs, and it plays in a random order."

"That's so cute, Remus, thank you," Lily said kindly. "Can you say thank you to Remus, Harry?"

Harry looked up at 'Uncle Remus' and said, "Tank oo!"

Remus ruffled his hair. "You're welcome, Harry."

James pushed a present toward Harry. "Go on, Harry, open your dad's present."

Lily clucked her tongue. "Please, James, I had to help you pick it out."

"It's still from me!" James defended. "Open, it Harry, but remember, it's from your dad."

Harry went through the process of opening the present and found it to be a package of Quidditch players.

"Brilliant!" Sirius said. "He'll grow up to be an Arrows fan like you, Prongs!"

"That was the point," James replied as if it were so obvious. He took one of the Quidditch players out. "Look here, Harry, they can fly around your room and whatnot." He let the little figure go and it lifted into the air and flew around. "You can have a mini Quidditch game in your room if you like."

Harry grabbed the figure out of the air. "Quidish," he repeated, intrigued by the little figurine.

"Looks like you've got a seeker on your hands," Remus commented.

"I bet he makes the Quidditch team by first year," said James proudly.

"Don't get your hopes up," Lily told him, "there hasn't been a first year Quidditch player at Hogwarts in nearly a century. Anyway, Harry," she took the Quidditch player from Harry's chubby hand, "open mummy's present." She handed him the neatly wrapped teddy so he could open it.

It took Harry nearly five minutes, but once he caught sight of what it was, he screamed in delight and hugged it closely.

"It's a teddy," Lily explained to him.

"Teddy," he repeated.

"Look at that, James," Lily said smugly, standing up to face him, "he can pronounce that perfectly. I told you he would like it."

"I bet he doesn't like it as much as his broom," Sirius protested, still against the idea of Harry having a teddy as one of his toys.

"Harry," Lily kneeled to be level with him, "do you want to go on your broom again?"

"Teddy," Harry said, hugging the bear closer. Lily smirked at Sirius.

James kneeled next to Lily. "Do you want to watch a Quidditch game with your new set?"

"Teddy."

"Remus," Sirius complained, "try getting him away from that thing and make him play with your present."

Remus laughed and shook his head. "It's not possible. Every child loves their teddy more than anything."

As the party went on, Harry did everything with his new teddy. He wouldn't do anything without it. He insisted it ride on the broom with him, it sat next to him as he watched his miniature figurines play a Quidditch match, he even carried it with him as he danced to the songs on Remus' baby radio he had given Harry. Harry even went so far as to try and feed his teddy some of his dinner. Of course, this pleased Lily very much.

As Lily and James were putting Harry to bed, James tried to take the teddy away from Harry, but he cried loudly every time it left his grip.

"Lily, what charm did you use on this?" James asked incredulously as he gave the teddy back to Harry.

Lily smiled innocently. "Nothing. Nothing at all. I told you James, every kid wants to have a teddy."

James set Harry in his crib and put his blanket over him. Lily tucked the blanket around his middle and feet and turned on Remus' baby radio. She rubbed Harry's head until he fell asleep, his teddy still tightly in his arms.

"Goodnight, Harry," the two parents whispered as they left the room and turned off the light. James closed the door behind him and leaned on it.

"Lily," he started, "did you have a teddy when you were Harry's age?"

"Of course," she answered. "It was my best friend for the longest time when I wasn't at nursery school and wanted company."

James pushed away from the wall and wrapped his arm around Lily's waist. As they walked to their bedroom to get ready for bed, James said, "Lily, for my next birthday, I want you to get me a teddy."

A/N: Like it? Hate it? Thought it was okay, but could be better? Tell me why, please. :)