Of Revelations and Cinnamon Rolls
Teddy was comfortable. He couldn’t have been more comfortable; in fact he was certain that he had never been so comfortable in his life, and nor would he again.
Unfortunately, he was comfortable in exactly the place he shouldn’t be. He was curled up on the squishiest sofa in his common room, with his head in Trent’s lap.
Trent Bailey. The boy who looked more like Harry Potter than Harry Potter’s sons. The boy who all of Teddy’s sort-of cousins insisted they had to hate, because he’d obviously done something to make himself look like the Potters. Except Teddy didn’t think they were that similar, really…
Teddy had written to his godfather for advice. Harry had answered that Trent Bailey should be judged on his own merits, not on whether he looked like someone else, and also advised that Teddy’s own father would be most unimpressed to hear of the campaign of enmity his nieces and nephews had begun. After spending so much time being shut out of Wizarding society himself, he had more reason than most to fight for justice.
So Teddy had decided to befriend the boy. He thought that would be easy to do without anyone noticing, since they were both Hufflepuffs and none of his cousins were. His housemates were loyal; they wouldn’t tell anyone outside of the common room walls. Finally, he could do something that he was sure would make his parents proud.
But it wasn’t that easy, in the end.
Trent Bailey was the sweetest boy Teddy had ever known. He understood that they had to pretend not to like each other outside of the common room; he whispered that Teddy, like him, wasn’t technically part of the family, so he was always going to try harder to fit in, just like Trent always tried very hard at home to please his father. It wasn’t that Jimmy expected anything of him, or ever indicated that he wasn’t doing enough - he just felt he needed to make up for something, somehow.
Teddy, for the first time, felt understood. His family were wonderful, but he wasn’t born into it in the same way the others were; he didn’t share their blood, just as Trent didn’t share Jimmy’s.
Plus Trent was a cuddler. Teddy, an only child, orphaned, and older than all of his cousins, had never had the opportunity to just lounge around with someone before, and cuddle. Sure, there were whispers around the common room about what it meant, but it never went any further than that - house loyalty was paramount. And as far as Teddy was concerned, it meant nothing beyond that he and Trent understood each other in ways no one else ever could, or had ever tried to.
Someday soon, he’d tell his cousins about the real Trent Bailey, not the one they had all imagined into an enemy. He’d introduce them to this kind-hearted, soft-spoken boy who had the smarts of a Ravenclaw, the quiet steel of a Gryffindor, the ambition of a Slytherin, and more kindness and patience than any other Hufflepuff Teddy knew.
“Alright?” Trent asked softly, running his hand down Teddy’s arm.
“Mhm,” Teddy sighed. “More than. You?”
“Yeah. More than.”
“I need to introduce you to my cousins,” Teddy said quietly. “It’s time.”
Trent grinned broadly.