Note: Unlike most of my stories this one shot is NOT AU...shocking, I know!

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to anybody who is waiting for me to update Meet the Lupins and/or The Dark Creature's Child. Unfortunately upon my return from France I discovered that my grandfather had been rushed into hospital just after I left England. A lot of my time is currently filled with hospital visits and general fretting, which does not do much for my imagination to say the least. I hope you can make do with this little story for now, which managed to pop into my head this afternoon!

As for everybody else, I hope you too enjoy reading this story. Thank you in advance to anybody who is kind enough to review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing.

Daddy Will Fix It

"Teddy...?"

Despite having heard his name being called for the third time in under a minute, Teddy Lupin did not look up from staring miserably at his brightly coloured, mismatched socks. The six year old metamorphmagus only consented to dragging his gaze away from the lime green stripes and red spots when he felt something tap him sharply upon the head and his godfather asked:

"Hello? Is there anybody in there?"

Teddy looked up just in time to see Harry Potter set the rolled up copy of the Daily Prophet down upon the arm of the sofa. Harry offered the boy a questioning smile.

"Drifted off for a moment there, didn't you Ted? Is something wrong?"

At the alarmed expression that materialized upon Teddy's face, complete with eyes as wide as a couple of snitches, Harry could only suppose that yes, something was very wrong indeed. His suspicions were confirmed when his godson gave a sniff and informed him miserably:

"I can't find Trevor!"

Harry reached to pat the boy comfortingly upon the arm.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Teddy. You know Trevors always have a habit of turning up one way or another. The last one always did."

Teddy had been just four years old when his godfather had taken him on his first outing to a muggle zoo. Being a witch through and through, his grandmother Andromeda had not given such excursions much consideration, and she had often since wished that Harry had followed her lead. Not a weekend had passed since that fateful Saturday afternoon without Teddy asking his grandmother if they could go back to the zoo to see the animals and visit the gift shop. It had been in that very shop that Teddy had spied a display of stuffed animals, and he had made such a fuss about them that it had soon become apparent to his godfather that they would not be leaving without purchasing one. Teddy's toy of choice had been a large, bright green frog, which he had insisted was in fact a toad. On the way home Harry and Teddy had discussed the very serious and important issue of giving the uncharacteristically furry creature a name; Harry had recalled that the only pet toad that he had ever met had gone by the name of Trevor. After being assured that Trevor the Toad had been a very nice, friendly sort of animal, Teddy had decided to name his new best friend Trevor too. The two of them had been near on inseparable ever since.

Which meant, of course, that Teddy's mislaying of his precious stuffed toad was in actual fact a major tragedy. The young boy was frustrated, therefore, that his godfather was not nearly as traumatized by the news as he was. Teddy was about to draw in a deep breath and attempt to impress upon Harry the seriousness of the situation, when a loud crashing noise made both he and Harry jump.

Somewhere next door in the kitchen of The Burrow, a high pitched wail filled the air. Both Harry and Teddy jumped to their feet and made a run towards the sound of the noise.

Lying sprawled upon the kitchen tiles, surrounded by a mass of pots and pans, a guilty looking toy broomstick in two halves poking out from the debris, they discovered a blonde haired, pink faced Victoire Weasley, who seemed to be determined to scream the house down. The little girl's Uncle Harry was just preparing to fling the sitting room door open wide and dash to her rescue, when her father Bill came cluttering down the staircase and, within the blink of an eye, had picked his way through the mess and gathered his daughter up in his arms.

"It's alright Vic," Teddy heard the red haired man announce as he managed to extract his wand from the pocket of his robes, child clutched somewhat precariously to his chest with one arm. "It's alright look, Daddy'll fix it..."

As the pots and pans were sent back to stack themselves upon the kitchen counter top with a wide sweep of Bill's wand, Teddy pursed his lips together thoughtfully. Perhaps, he mused as, after offering the two Weasleys a raised eyebrow, Harry retreated back into the sitting room, that was the whole problem. Daddy will fix it, that's what everybody always said. Dads were a form of magic unto themselves, there was nothing they could not sort out, that was seemingly a fact of nature.

There were plenty of things that godfathers could do too, Teddy recalled as he shuffled back to his chair, expression still downcast. They were very good at knowing exactly what you wanted for Christmas, they had a never ending supply of loose change in their pockets with which to buy chocolate, and they never got bored of telling you your favorite bedtime story over and over again.

But, despite their talents, godfathers were not quite the same as dads.

Harry wasn't the same as Teddy's dad. Sometimes Teddy thought he came close, but now it seemed clear that "close" was as good as it was possible to get.

And it seemed to Teddy that something as serious as the loss of one's beloved cuddly toy was the sort of thing that needed a dad to sort it out.

When his grandmother arrived at the Burrow to take him home later that evening, Teddy made absolute sure that he had informed anybody who would listen that Trevor was missing.

"I'm sure he'll turn up, Sweetheart." his grandmother had told him as she led the dejected little boy by the hand towards the floo. "Don't you worry."

In truth, as sad as he was to go home without his dearest toad, Teddy was no longer worried. He didn't need to worry, he had decided, because he had a plan.

A plan which began as soon as he stumbled out of the fireplace and into his grandmother's living room.

"Tell you what, Teddy." Andromeda said as she reached to dust the soot from his hair, voice bright in an attempt to cheer him, "why don't you run up to your room and put your pajamas on, and I'll make you a nice mug of hot chocolate! How does that sound?"

Teddy had taken the stairs at a run and, upon entering his bedroom, shut the door firmly behind him. He changed into his pajamas with relative ease, only doing the buttons up wrong once before getting it right, and then he had set to work on his plan.

The first thing he had done was to go to the little chest of drawers in the corner of the room and find the big box of crayons that Ron and Hermione had bought him for his birthday. He'd selected a nice bright red one before fetching himself a piece of paper. In big, wobbly letters, the boy had written:

I want Trevor back.

He'd folded the paper somewhat haphazardly, before retrieving a second box from the bottom of his wardrobe. This second box was bigger than the first, made of solid, dark wood with a floral pattern engraved upon the lid. Despite being quite heavy, it was completely empty save for one single piece of paper, upon which was printed Teddy's most favorite photograph.

Teddy peered down into the box. Remus and Dora Lupin both smiled up at him, both offering their son a wave. Teddy waved back, before reaching for his note and putting it in the box.

He had considered simply telling his parents about his predicament, but he was not entirely sure that they could hear him. He was pretty sure, however, that they could see, they often waved at him when he opened the box after all, and so he had decided to write a note instead, if they could see him they could surely read too.

"I hope my writing is neat enough." the boy mumbled worriedly, reaching to scratch his head as the two figures shuffled to one side in an attempt to avoid the shadow of the new addition to their box. Teddy offered one last wave, smiling at their wave in return, before closing the box with a soft click. "There," he whispered, nodding to himself. "Daddy'll fix it."

And sure enough, when he was awoken that night by the sound of a door being closed, there was Trevor, tucked up in bed next to him, safe and sound.

As unbeknown to him his godfather crept along the landing and down the stairs, Teddy Lupin let out a small sigh of relief. Burying his face in the stuffed animal's belly, the boy's eyes drifted closed once again as he murmured:

"Thanks Daddy."

FINISH.