Okay okay okay I was that anon from earlier and I can’t believe I finally have a reason to rant about Harry and Teddy because those two mean so much to me. Like my favourite relationship in HP is Harry & Ron and Harry & Teddy in joint first place because those two are the ones that bring so much feels like asdfghjkl
Also sorry for the length - I have so much to say and I'm not even covering half of it
Teddy saved Harry after the war - that is 100% canonical fact.
He’s also one of the only people Harry feels comfortable opening up to - Harry is so closed up and hates being vulnerable around anyone but with Teddy he feels safe and I headcanon that little Teddy has actually witnessed or heard his PTSD-induced behaviour (I know that the epilogue directly contradicts this but I hc that Andromeda dies when Teddy’s around one so he lives with Harry) and instead of feeling like closing up, Harry just lets Teddy hug him because his love for his godson is stronger than his own feelings.
When I think of Harry and Teddy, this is what comes to mind: https://www.tumblr.com/headcanonsandmore/175266513519/8th-year-harry-r-u-sure-u-dont-wanna-see-these-16
Harry loves showing off his godson so much. Everyone in the Ministry knows that the only way to get Auror Trainee (and then Auror and Head Auror) Potter to talk is to just barely hint at his godson and then you’ll be subject to a 10 hour lecture of a very enthusiastical and highly animated Harry showing off the new 1432956 photographs he had taken that week (yes he carries a photo album that is magically charmed to fit in his pocket that is filled to the brim with Teddy’s baby photos and yes he still carries it around even when Teddy is in his twenties)
Harry and Teddy shamelessly love each other and they both love the other more than anyone else and it’s so obvious to everyone around
One thing I love about those two is Teddy mirrors Harry so much that even their names are the same:
First name: Constant, vowel, double constant, y
Middle Name: Their father’s name
Fresh out of the war, 17 year old Harry the day after the Battle of Hogwarts: I’ve only known my godson, a ball of sunshine, actual angel who can do no wrong and my entire will to live, Teddy Lupin for one minute but if anything ever happens to him I will kill everyone in the Wizarding World and then myself
Harry Potter: *inner monologue* angst angst angst inner demons darkness death generic emo stuff
Baby Teddy Lupin: *smiles at him for one (1) second*
Harry Potter: 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️✨✨✨✨✨
No but the next day he brings home bags of parenting books because he’s so worried like inside his head is like ‘I can’t be as good of a godfather as Sirius I’m too messed up and broken and have too many horrible coping mechanisms the last thing I want is too end up like me’ and then Ron smacks him because Teddy has been clinging onto him for the past three hours and refuses to let go
The first time Harry smiled/laughed after the war was because of Teddy and I will die on this hill
As a diehard Hinny shipper one of my favourite parts of HP is when Harry turns into Shakespeare whenever he describes Ginny and I 100% believe that his inner poet comes out whenever Teddy is within ten feet of him
I can just imagine that during an Auror meeting, you have a war-hardened, no nonsense, ‘youngest head auror of all time’ Head Auror Potter having this aura of don’t mess with me as he almost coldly goes over the last raid, and all of the aurors (even the ones older than him) are just stuck in place, partly due to fear, partly due to respect and then Kingsley comes in with this tiny ball of sunshine that is Teddy and all of a sudden his face just lights up and calls for a break and everyone thinks that they’re dreaming when they see the formidable head auror happily nodding along as Teddy shows off his new pet rock
Teddy has never seen Harry’s auror persona - Harry knows that even Ron and Hermione get spooked when he’s in the zone (not to forget the Death Eaters that are absolutely terrified of his cold fury and ruthlessness during interrogations) so he makes sure that Teddy knows nothing about what he’s like when he’s at work. Teddy knows a lot about Harry’s school life and he knows how important he was to the war and Voldemort’s defeat but sometimes he can’t help but wonder why everyone is so scared of the man that cries with him whenever they watch The Lion King
Speaking of Disney, Bambi is James, Sirius and Harry’s favourite movie (RIP James and Sirius you would’ve loved Bambi II) - little Harry never knew why he liked the movie so much until Prisoner of Azkaban where he had that epiphany like ‘oh’
Also also speaking of Disney, ‘Baby Mine’ and ‘You’ll Be In My Heart’ are so Harry and Teddy coded I can’t even (around 6 years ago I made a HP playlist and I had those songs for Harry and Teddy because they just encapsulate those boys so well)
In one of my super old WIPs I wrote that Harry is more than just Teddy’s godfather, he’s his father, brother and best friend and I think that speaks for itself - like they have a band that no one can ever even comprehend because they understand each other so much on every level and I feel like Harry’s closer to Teddy than his own bio kids, not in the favouritism/love level but more of a ‘Harry can tell him things that he can’t tell his children because he’s just their dad but to Teddy he’s more than that’
I wrote a (completely horrible and I can’t believe I actually published that on the internet) fic where Harry was Teddy’s first word and then the next words were ‘luv u’ because Teddy aged 0 - 10 is head empty only immeasurable love for Harry (10+ is the same but he pretends that he’s more of a grown up)
Harry comes into Official Ministry/Hogwarts business with a beaming Teddy protectively held in his arms and when the stuffy Ministry Heads/Professors give him looks he’s like ‘he asked for uppies - what did you expect? For me to deny his uppies … like a monster’ and no one would say anything because 1) you would incur the wrath of Harry Potter and would be on his blacklist until his dying breath and 2) Edward Remus Lupin is the poster child for cuteness who has done no wrong ever and anyone who has something against him literally has no soul
You’d think that being raised with Dudley (and knowing Malfoy), Harry would be against needlessly spoiling a child but Harry ‘I wanted to buy a solid gold cauldron when I was 11’ Potter is the son of James ‘if I don’t get my newborn a dozen sets of £1000000 blankets, I would actually die’ and the godson of Sirius ‘I know I’m on the run and homeless and starving and currently in the middle of a revenge plot 12 years in the making with over a dozen dementors and highly trained aurors and wizards on my tail but my godson needs a broom and only the best of the best that has literally just come out a month ago will do’ Black so if he wants to spoil Teddy then he’s spoiling his kid dammit
Harry James ‘I’ve-been-wearing-the-same-shirt-for-seven-years’ Potter definitely buys enough shoes for a less than 15 month old Teddy that will make a Kardashian jealous
Ron, catching Harry brooding: what’s wrong, mate?
Harry: I only told Teddy that I love him twenty times today when it’s usually twenty-five. What if he thinks I hate him????
But Teddy never ends up spoiled. He’s just an adorable ball of sunshine that’s polite to everyone and has the sweetest smile and personality and everyone loves him (he also uses his cuteness by pretending to be sleepy to get Harry out of public appearances and social situations)
No no but like imagine the Gryffindor class of ‘91 meeting up at a pub for old times’ sake and everyone’s expecting the sassy little angst ball that was the Harry Potter they shared a dorm with/went to school with only to find him playing ‘here comes the train’ as he spoon feeds Teddy his lunch
I can’t think of a nickname Harry would call Teddy (like Sirius’ pup or prongslet) but I do think that he always refers to him as ‘my godson’ more than his actual name because he’s just so damn proud of having someone as perfect as him as his family
Okay okay so my favourite of all time fanfic trope is the next gen kids travelling back to OOTP and meeting their parents/those who died and I’ve only ever read one where it was just Harry and Teddy so I wrote a WIP of a non-shipping/genfic with Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys (w/ Fred because I refuse to let him die) and Neville (because I love him) with a six year old Teddy travelling back to OOTP and everyone from the Marauder’s Era and earlier are just blown away with Harry and Teddy’s relationship because he literally is as obsessed with his godson as much as Sirius is with his - and Teddy literally refuses to leave Harry’s side
And at one point Older!Harry and Sirius get into a half playful half serious fight over who’s godson is the best and it includes embarrassing baby stories, childhood anecdotes and Older!Harry’s ever present baby album whilst younger!Harry and Teddy are just red faced (and pink haired) over the entire thing and everyone else watches in amusement. Then Teddy’s all like ‘someone is disagreeing with Harry I must defend my godfather’s honour’ (the same mindset that results in Teddy arguing with Snape over how Harry’s the best godfather ever and the potion master's a meanie who doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as him as Sirius, Ron and Neville cheer him on in the sidelines (Teddy doesn't actually say that last part but he thinks it really hard so he hopes that it was conveyed)) so this tiny little sunshine theatre kid in all his itty bitty glory stands in front of Harry and reams into Sirius about how Harry’s his godfather and his godfather’s always right about everything and Sirius is just struggling to hold in his laughter which makes Teddy think it’s an attack on his height so he asks Harry to carry him so that he can continue his very important points
okay okay okay anon i’m just gonna say it: i am absolutely in love with your brain and this ask and just. i want all your ideas. please give me more i’m begging.
i’m posting this w/o much commentary bc i don’t want to run the risk of this languishing in my drafts bc i’m an idiot but just!!!’ yes!!!! to everything u said!!! teddy is absolutely harry’s salvation and he unapologetically loves and adores his godfather and they have the sweetest most envious relationship and it’s just. good.
