A New Kind of Love Monsterous thanks to KaraSays for beta reading this.

"Hello? Harry, are you here?" Hermione let herself in the front door. "Harry?"

"Back here," Harry called from the back of his little cottage. Hermione wandered towards the sound of high pitched squeals and low chuckles. She reached the open door to the bathroom. There, kneeling on the floor in front of the tub was a very wet Harry. He was chuckling while trying to hold onto an extremely soapy little Teddy. Hermione watched as Harry picked up a cup to rinse the shampoo from the boy's thick, dusty blonde hair. With a squeal, the toddler had covered his eyes and all of his hair sucked up into his skull, leaving him balder than a newborn baby and covered in suds. "Nice one, Teddy." Harry emptied the cup on the boy's head anyways, rinsing away all of the soap. "Hey, Hermione, could you hand me that towel?"

"Sure," she said, passing him a fluffy little hooded towel.

"Thanks," Harry said. He wrapped the towel around the little boy and lifted him out of the tub. "So, what brings you here?"

Hermione followed him to the front room. "Not much really. I was just bored. Thought I'd come spend some time with my favourite guy."

Harry threw her a huge smile over his shoulder. "I'm your favourite?"

"I was talking about Teddy," she said, smiling at Harry's eye roll. "But, you're a close second."

"Gee, thanks. Here," he said, "hold onto your number one for a sec."

"My-oh!" Teddy squealed, wrapping his arms around her neck. "Baff," he gurgled, curly brown hair sprouting from his scalp.

"How are you, my love?" Hermione asked him, fingers tickling his tummy.

"Dada baff." Two tiny hands squished her cheeks.

"Dada?" Her eye's widened. Strong hands reached out to take Teddy. Harry pulled the little boy to his now bare chest.

"He decided last night that I wasn't "Har' anymore," Harry said with the largest grin Hermione had seen him wear in years.

"Wow. And Ginny?"

"Still Nin," he said darkly.

"Oh. Is she terribly disappointed?"

"No."

"Oh!" Hermione frowned. Ginny had been upset when Harry had taken in Teddy. She had thought that Mrs. Tonks would raise him. But, Teddy's grandmum was still a wreck and Harry had insisted. They all thought that Ginny's resentment was only temporary. However, a year later, she still seemed to be waiting for Teddy to go live with his grandmother. "Are you alright?"

Her friend sighed, trying to pull the toddler's shirt over his suddenly enormous head. "Teddy," Harry warned. Teddy's head shrunk back to normal. "Thank you. There you go, little man." They both watched as Teddy launched himself across the room towards his toys. "I'm okay. It's not really a surprise, is it?"

"I guess not." She laid a hand on his shoulder. "Where is she?"

"No idea. She said she was going to the Burrow, but Mrs. Weasley hasn't seen her."

"What about her flat mates?" Ginny shared a small flat with two other girls she knew from her Hogwarts days.

"Nope." There was a long silence. "I ran into Dean and Parvati at the park this afternoon."

"I haven't seen them in ages. How are they?"

"Good. Their baby's really cute, getting big." Another pause. Hermione kept quiet, waiting for him to say whatever it was he was wrestling with. "Dean said Seamus were supposed to have dinner with them last night. He didn't show up though."

"No," she whispered.

"Yeah. And he wasn't at home this morning either."

"That doesn't mean-"

"Hermione, don't. We both know exactly what it means. And, again, not really a surprise. It was only a matter of time. Especially since they started working together. All those 'work dates' and pulling overnighters. I'm not an idiot. I just didn't want to ruin Teddy's chance at having a mother."

"Harry," she scolded, "if you want to give Teddy a mum, it has to be one that loves him. Otherwise she'll end up being his Aunt Petunia. And, personally, I think he'd be better off without. Besides, with or without Ginny, he still has his Grandmum and Grandpa Weasley."

"And his Aunt My-oh." Harry grinned weakly, bumping into her gently.

Hermione leaned against him, resting her head against his broad shoulder. "We really need to work on his pronunciation."

Harry snorted, wrapping an arm around her. "Thanks, Hermione." He kissed the top of her head lightly. "What would I do without you?"

"Mope with Ron?"

"Probably," he laughed. He released her and stood. "Alright, Teddy-oh, it's bedtime. Give My-oh a kiss."

Hermione smiled at the large sloppy kiss she received. "Goodnight sweet Teddy." She stayed on the couch, listening to her friend's soft voice as he read to his godson.

"Luff Dada," Teddy yelled after the lights were extinguished.

"Daddy loves Teddy, too. Now go to sleep."

"Luff My-oh," Teddy yelled again.

"My-oh loves you too, Teddy, sleep." Harry's soft chuckle was followed by quiet footfalls returning to the living room. Hermione watched him walk in and couldn't help wondering when he had grown into a man. He had acted the part for several years, but she couldn't recall when his body had become so…desirable. His chest and abs lean but muscular, his sculpted arms, the water still dripping from his hair down his neck down to that little path of hair disappearing below his waist band. She turned her face away when she felt her cheeks warming up. "Hot?" he asked dropping down beside her.

"Oh! Um, a little." Her cheeks darkened at the realization he caught her blushing. She heard him mumbling a cooling charm and fought to push the color out of her cheeks. "Better, thanks." Desperate to distract herself from the sudden uncomfortable thoughts, she brought up the old standby. "I saw Ron yesterday."

"Oh yeah? How is he? I haven't seen him in almost a week."

"He's alright; still moping about the latest girl. What was her name? Cammie? Pammy? Hmm, something like that anyway. George is trying to convince him to go on a blind date."

"He should do it. George knows some nice girls." Harry stretched out on the couch.

"Ron isn't looking for nice girls. That's what he needs but he's too preoccupied with other things he thinks he needs." Hermione smiled, leaning her head back on Harry's arm. "He told me I don't know anything about a man's needs. That they can't be ignored for so long."

"He wasn't trying to get you to, er," he said, shifting uncomfortably. "Fulfill those needs. Was he?"

Hermione choked on her laughter to keep from waking Teddy. "No. He was griping about it and I told him how long it had been for me and that's when I got the men's needs are more pressing then women's line."

Harry snickered beside her. "What a load of crap. It's been longer for me than it has for you and I'm not throwing myself at every bird that passes."

"Longer!?" She turned to see Harry's red face looking back. "But Ginny…"

"I told you it wasn't surprising." He sighed heavily and flicked his wand at the Wizard's Wireless. "Let's not talk about what a coward I am anymore, alright?" Hermione relaxed against his arm again and Harry slouched deeper into the couch.