Granddad

2032

Five year old Artie Boyd was mad at his mum. He wanted nothing more than to stay in the back garden playing with his Auror and dragon toys, especially as he had just created a mud fort. One of the Aurors was surrounded at the top of the fort by three dragons and the Aurors were just beginning their attack on the dragons when his mum came out, picked him up and told him that he had to take a bath because he was going to stay with Granddad and Grandmum Potter that night. He squirmed out of her arms and managed to pick up all his toys, bundling them together in his arms, and on the way back to the house he dropped the Peruvian Vipertooth, causing him to throw a slight fit until his mum relented and let him go get the toy dragon.

Once inside it was the bath, and not a quick one. His mum scrubbed around his ears, his nose and complained that he must have rolled around in the mud like a flobberworm. Only when Artie pretended to be a merrow and stayed under the water and splashed his mum was the bath any fun, the exact moment she pulled him out and dried him off. She made him put on the corduroy trousers, the ones that were scratchy, and tried making his curly red hair go flat which he hated more than anything. At least she'd let him wear his jumper with the Norwegian Ridgeback on the front. Finally, when she was done fussing over him she gave him his dragons and told him to play quietly for a while so she could get ready.

Artie looked down at his dragons and Aurors, and they weren't going to be enough to take to Granddad and Grandmum Potter's house; he needed more. He opened the top of his toy box and after moving things around finally found the robots that Granddad Hank had given him, real Muggle toys that did stuff when you turned the key on the back. He put the green one back in the toy box because that one didn't work anymore; he'd turned the key too much and it made a bad noise and wouldn't do anything after that. He couldn't wait to show Granddad Harry his new blue robot, though; it did all sorts of cool things when Granddad Hank gave it to him.

"Got all your toys?"

Artie looked up at his dad, the tallest person in the world. "Yeah, Dad. Can you help me?"

HR Boyd knelt down and pulled Artie's rucksack over towards them. "Put them in here. You'll be good for Granddad and Grandmum, right?"

Artie nodded rapidly. He knew better than to be naughty at Granddad and Grandmum Potter's house. "Um-hum, I'll be good."

His dad reached over and ruffled his hair, messing up everything his mum had tried to do earlier. "That's my boy. It's only for tonight and we'll pick you up in the morning, ok squirt?"

-ooo-

Harry Potter waved at his daughter Lily and her husband HR as they walked out the front gate of his house in Godric's Hollow and then looked down at his grandson with his little rucksack. "So, Artie, what'd you bring this time? Aurors?"

Artie nodded. "An' dragons an' robots!"

"Well done. Let's go show Grandmum.'

The two of them walked through the house until they reached the kitchen. Ginny was busy making supper, but once she heard the two of them enter she wiped her hands on her apron and picked up Artie.

"There's my boy!" She kissed him on the cheek, causing him to make a face that he would have called 'yucky.' "We're having beef stew tonight, how does that sound?"

"Ew!" Artie made a further variation of the 'yucky' face. "I want pizza!"

Harry shook his head. "No, Artie, we're having beef stew tonight."

"Don't want stew, want pizza!" Artie was adamant, shaking his head. "Granpa Hank makes pizza. I want pizza."

Harry and Ginny looked at each other and Harry noticed an irritated look come over his wife's face. He knew what that meant. "Hmm…pizza does sound good. I bet your Grandmum can make pizza just as good or better than Grandpa Hank." He winked at Ginny and she rolled her eyes. "I think we can do that. Artie, would you like to go to the shops with me? I don't think we have things for pizza."

"Can I get a treat?" Artie began squirming in Ginny's arms until she put him down. "I'll be good."

"Did you hear that, Ginny? He'll be good." Harry leaned forward and whispered into Ginny's ear. "He's five and I can eat your beef stew tomorrow."

Ginny kissed him on the cheek. "You spoil him rotten, you know."

Harry smiled at her, a smile that lit up his whole face. "Of course. I'm his Granddad."

Once they had said their goodbyes to Ginny, and created a list, the two of them made their way outside of the front gate. Harry looked down at Artie. "So what do you want for a treat? A Curly Wurly? Crunchie?"

Artie shook his head. "Bertie Botts' Ebery Flavor Beans."

Harry stopped walking and knelt down in front of Artie. "Are you sure? How about two Crunchies?"

"Bertie Botts!"

"Ok, then." Harry picked up Artie and began walking down the street. Even though he and Ginny had been in Godric's Hollow for a while, and the other residents had come to accept having them as a neighbors, the shop that he needed to go to was in a different part of town. He knew what that meant; stares, well-wishers and the occasional photographer from the newspapers and magazines that always managed to find him on his errands; the pictures constantly seemed to show up in the papers and magazines. After looking over at his grandson's face, though, he knew that it didn't really matter. "Bertie Botts it is."

-ooo-

Pickernick Market wasn't a large shop, as shops go, but it did hold all of the necessary items. Most importantly, for Artie, it sold Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans and displayed the packages in a display that was just slightly out of his reach. He'd just started to see if he could climb the shelves when he felt his Granddad's hand on his shoulder.

"You said you'd be good, Artie. We'll get those once we've done the shopping."

Artie looked up at him and sighed. Grownups always made you wait.

Harry took a small shopping trolley and, once Artie had decided that he needed to help push, slowly made his way through the shop, selecting things that were needed for pizza, like cheese and pepperoni, but also some things that weren't, like ice cream and some chocolate biscuits. It had been an uneventful shopping trip, and Harry hoped that his luck would hold, but once he'd made it around the end of an aisle there stood a woman with a notepad and a man with a camera.

"Mr. Potter, Evangeline Ffefferpot, Daily Prophet. Your son Albus is rumored to be marrying the Welsh witch, the mother of his daughter. Some commenters say that she entrapped him to marry into the Potter family, what do you make of that?"

Artie watched as flashbulbs went off, worse than when his Grandmum Melody took pictures. He pulled on Harry's shirt. "Granddad, why are they takin' pictures of you?"

The woman knelt down next to Artie. "Well hello there, young man. And what's your name?"

"Arthur Thomas Ollybander Boyd but eberybody calls me Artie. I'm five."

Evangeline Ffefferpot swallowed her laughter. "Why of course you are, but you're much too big for five. I thought you'd be seven at least. Do you know why we're talking to your Granddad?"

Artie shook his head. "We're getting' Bertie Botts' Beans! Um, and stuff for pizza. Am I gonna be in the paper?"

Evangeline took a quick look at Harry and then turned back to Artie. "Maybe. Artie, can you tell me what your Granddad does? What's his job?"

"He's an Auror. He catches bad guys and puts 'em in Azkabanner. My other Granddad works at Hogwarts."

"That's right. Professor Boyd, he teaches Muggle Studies." She nodded. "And what about your Grandmums? What do they do?'

"Well…" Artie ducked his head for a moment and looked at his shoes. "They write a lot and say 'pick that up' and 'put that back' and 'no' a lot. Grandmum Ginny cooks some but Grandmum Melody isn't very good at cooking." A worried look flashed across his face so he hurriedly added "but she makes good cookies!"

"Um…yes, ok." Evangeline looked up and saw Harry shaking his head negatively, so she decided to try something else. "Artie, do you know your Granddad is famous?"

"Huh?' Artie scratched his nose for a second. "Like Uncle Al? He's in the moovies."

"Sort of." She moved her hand across her lips for a moment to hide her smile. "Sort of like your Uncle Al. Do you know what your Granddad did when he was at Hogwarts?"

Harry took a step closer to his grandson and put his hand on Artie's shoulder. It was much too early for him to hear about what had happened.

"Whut happened?" Artie looked up to his granddad and then over to the lady. "Was it in the paper?"

Evangeline knew she was treading a fine line, but if she played it correctly she'd be well set up for the future. She looked over at Artie and saw the dragon on his jumper, so she tapped the Norwegian Ridgeback with the end of her quill. "He was in a tournament and he had to steal a dragon's egg."

"Whoa!" Artie's exclamation came out in a rush and he snapped his head up to his granddad. "A real dragon? Was it big? Was there fire? Didja get hurted? What'd Grandmum Ginny do?"

Harry chuckled as he picked up his grandson. "Yes, it was real, there was fire and I only got hurt a little bit. You can ask Grandmum about it when we get home." The photographer's flash went off again, causing Harry to blink. When he could see again the photographer was gone and Evangeline Ffefferpot was at his side, notepad and quill put away.

"Mr. Potter, I apologize for interrupting your shopping, but you know how editors are, your wife writing the Quidditch pieces and all that. I'll tell my editor that I've got a better story than what he sent me out on, a nice little human interest piece about shopping with your grandson. Is that ok with you?"

Harry smiled and looked at Artie. "Do you want to be in the paper?"

Artie looked over to Evangeline. "Do I get Bertie Botts' Beans?"

-ooo-

Ginny sat on the sofa in her pajamas and robe reading a book and drinking a cup of cocoa when Harry came downstairs; she patted the cushion next to her and smiled at her husband. "I think he's as dragon mad as Charlie was at that age, if mum's stories are any indication."

Harry sank into the sofa and put his feet up on the ottoman. "I think Lily and HR might have to start saving up for a trip to Romania to see Charlie. I ran out of dragons to talk about and had to improvise. If he asks you tomorrow there's a giant blue dragon that's usually invisible called the Enormous Everton Blue."

"You've been watching Muggle football with Hank again. I'm not surprised about Artie, though. After I showed him my scrapbook, and those pictures of you during the Tri-Wizard tournament with the dragon it was all he could talk about. It's sweet, actually, that he thinks that's the reason you're famous. My husband, the schoolboy dragon fighter." She put her head on his shoulder. "At least we can wait a little while until he has to hear everything. He will eventually, you know. You can't hide it."

Harry sighed and straightened his back. He flashed back to the three separate times that he had to tell his children what had happened. Their responses were quite different; James was interested in the fighting and the battles, Albus had been quite scared and had a series of nightmares for months after that, and Lily…Lily was the hardest. She wanted to know why all the people had to die, couldn't he stop it? After all, he was an Auror. It had been hard to explain to her that at the time he was just a schoolboy, not an Auror. Eventually, when they became older, he had another talk with them, a more detailed talk and had explained some things. There were parts of his story that he never told; only Ginny, Ron and Hermione knew everything.

"I know. I've never tried to hide it. If I can keep Artie thinking that I'm 'cool' because I stole a dragon's egg that's fine with me."

-ooo-

Artie sat at the kitchen table in his pajamas the next morning with several dragons surrounding his plate. He was on his third piece of toast when he stopped suddenly and looked over to Ginny. "Gran, can you make 'em look like Granddad?" He picked up one of his Auror toys and held it out to his Grandmum. "Please?"

Harry folded The Daily Prophet over and looked at his wife. Ginny gave Harry a sly look and then took out her wand; with a small flourish the Auror toy in Artie's hand sported messy black hair and a pair of round spectacles.

"Thanks! Now it looks like Granddad!" Artie sat the Auror figure next to the biggest dragon and returned to his plate with gusto.

Before anyone could comment the Floo roared to life, causing each occupant of the breakfast table to look over at the new arrival. Lily stepped out of the fireplace, siphoned off the excess Floo powder and joined them, kissing Artie on the top of his head before taking her seat. She ignored Artie's fervent rubbing of his head where she'd kissed him and smiled hopefully at her parents.

"Please tell me the little gnome was good for you." She accepted the cup of tea from her mum and looked over to her son. "Artie, were you good for Grandmum and Granddad?"

He nodded rapidly. "We had pizza! An' I gots to go with Granddad and I gots Bertie Botts' Ebery Flavor Beans!"

"Dad?" Lily looked over to Harry with a raised eyebrow. "We've talked about sweets..."

Artie bounced in his seat, knocked against the table slightly and caused everything to rattle slightly. "But I was good an' the lady took our picture and said Granddad stole a dragon's egg!"

Harry adjusted his glasses, folded over The Daily Prophet and handed it to Lily. "Somebody didn't want beef stew, so we improvised. It could have been much worse."

Lily scanned the article by Evangeline Ffefferpot. It was as she had promised, a small human-interest story about how the most famous wizard in the world is many things; The Boy-Who-Lived, vanquisher of Voldemort, Tri-Wizard Tournament Champion and Auror, but to his grandson it didn't matter. To his grandson, Harry was simply Granddad, supplier of Bertie Botts' Every Flavor Beans. Further down in the article she mentioned that Artie was very fond of dragons and was extremely excited to hear that his Granddad had to steal a dragon's egg during the Tri-Wizard tournament. Then the article took a turn towards the editorial, stating that for everything that Harry had done for the Wizarding world it was the least that everyone could do for him to allow him to simply live his life as anyone else, especially in regards to his grandson. Lily had to smile at the picture, as Artie was in her father's arms, smiling and waving at the camera. A smaller, separate picture showed Artie with his prized bag of Bertie Botts' Beans.

"Am I in th' paper?" Artie peeked over his mum's arm and tugged the paper towards him. "I am! I'm in the paper! I'm just like Granddad!" His face fell and he looked over to Harry. "Sorry."

Harry cocked his head at his grandson. "Why are you sorry, Artie?"

The little red-haired boy scowled in deep concentration. "Cuz I gots two pictures. Now I'm more famous than you."

Harry laughed and ruffled Artie's hair. "I can live with that."