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Grant had never liked children. They were messy, and impatient, and dear lord were they loud.
And, no, he’d never really been around children outside of care homes and homeless shelters, but he knew he didn’t want any.
And then he met Harry. A toddler, barely two years old, who was messy, and impatient, and loud, and he fell in love. The second Remus turned around with the boy in his arms, Grant was obsessed.
And so he became Harry’s ‘Uncle Grant’. In other words? His babysitter. Not that either of them minded. Grant took Harry anywhere and everywhere, from the foster homes he frequented to the park right down the street from Remus’ and Sirius’ flat. That was a fun place to feed the ducks and read, while the young boy played on the swings and the slide, and all in all made for a very relaxing afternoon.
----
But of course that couldn’t last, and one day Grant looked up at the sound of Harry’s giggle a little too far away to be ignored. He saw the boy wandering dangerously close to the water. Of course, he wasn’t all that worried, since the numerous other times Harry fell into bodies of water he practically floated on the surface.
Grant looked back down at his book and glanced up again at the sound of twenty-or-so geese in a tizzy because a small boy had entered their midst. The small boy in question reached his hand out to try and pet one of them, accidentally reaching inside its large mouth, and it promptly closed its beak on his hand.
Grant heard a scream of pain and saw a dark-haired blur racing past him, followed by a block of geese, who clearly had the intent to maul whoever they caught first. He jumped out of his seat, grabbed his babysitting bag (dubbed his ‘Adventure Bag’ by Harry) and promptly tripped over a bush, spilling all of his supplies. Once he’d managed to throw everything back in the bag, he sprinted to the edge of the park, hiding in an alley next to a cheap-looking pizza place.
When he was sure the geese were gone, Grant left the alley and called for Harry.
“Harry, where are you hiding?” he whisper-shouted. No answer. “HARRY, WHERE ARE YOU? THE GEESE ARE GONE NOW!” he actually shouted this time.
Trying to push down the wave of fear that was threatening to overcome him, Grant walked around, still calling out Harry’s name. As each minute passed, he got even more worried, walking around for hours until it was nearly dark. He was terrified of what Remus and Sirius would say when he came back without the child. He was even more terrified of how Harry must be dealing with this, if he was crying and looking around for Grant just like Grant was for Harry.
When he still couldn’t find the boy, Grant started asking around. No one had seen Harry, and so Grant just left his name, phone number, and a message asking them to call him if they saw any tiny children with crazy black hair, bright green eyes, and a lightning scary on their forehead.
He thought about calling the police, but he figured he’d leave that until he got the change to talk to Remus and Sirius.
----
It was nearly nightfall, and so the man walked the four blocks back to the flat Remus, Sirius, and Harry lived in. He almost wanted to cry, because Remus had trusted him with the child that he had custody of, and Grant had lost him. He couldn’t believe he’d ever betrayed Remus’ faith like that.
Grant slowly, silently, trekked up the stairs. As the door to their flat got closer and closer, the pit in his stomach deepened as he thought about what he was going to say. He raised his hand to knock, before thinking better of it and just grabbing his keychain out of his pocket. The key clicked in the lock, and he opened the door so slowly that it was agonizing.
Stepping inside, his mouth dry, he nervously fiddled with his fingers.
“I can’t find Harry,” he started. “He-”
He looked up to find Harry, Sirius, and Remus at the table eating dinner, which, on second glance, appeared to be Indian takeaway. Remus paused, his fork of chicken tandoori halfway to his mouth.
“He what?
Grant started.
“Where the fu- sorry- heck were you?”
Harry looked at him innocently. He could only say a few words so far, and Grant doubted he’d use one of them here. But, he was wrong.
“Home.” the boy said, slowly, earnestly.
Grant shook his head.
“Yes, I know you’re home, Harry, but when did you get home?”
“A little after four, I think,” Remus interjected. “We were surprised when he didn’t come home with you.”
Grant was floored. God, he was stupid. He hadn’t even thought to look back at the flat, instead searching everywhere in the general vicinity of the park.
“I- I’ve been looking for him all evening,” he said.
Remus frowned.
“Why? What happened?” Sirius asked, seemingly reading his boyfriend’s mind.
“It’s- It’s a bit of a funny story, actually. We were at the park up the street, and Harry went up to a bunch of geese, and tried to pet one, but it bit him so he ran away, and they chased him all the way out of the park, and I just couldn’t find him,” Grant said, shrugging. “I guess he was here all along, I guess I just didn’t think he knew the way. He’s only two, after all.”
Sirius and Remus smiled. Together they said, “Never underestimate-”
Grant rolled his eyes. “Never underestimate Harry, yeah, yeah, I know.” He stepped back, saying, “Sorry I didn’t come sooner. I had no idea he was here.”
Remus offered him some of their food, but Grant knew funds were low at the moment and they would be needing the leftovers, and plus, he didn’t want to intrude on any special family bonding time.
----
So he left through the front door and walked down the hall, choosing to take the stairs instead of the rickety old lift. It would probably break down the second he stepped into it, and Grant did not want to spend the night in a tiny room with bad ventilation, wondering if anyone would notice that he was gone or that the lift wasn’t working.
So, he elected to take the stairs, mulling over every decision he’d ever made as he slowly descended. He wondered how stupid he must be to not even think of returning to the flat. He thought about how stupid he’d been to lose Remus in the first place.
Of course, now he had Remus back, but now Remus had a stupid boyfriend who he was stupidly in love with, and who was stupidly handsome, and how stupidly good they looked together. Grant knew he’d been Remus’ ‘gay awakening’, if you will, but even if it had started with just lazy makeout sessions and deep talks, once Remus left for school the other boy knew there was something more, at least on his end.
And sometimes, it seemed like Remus felt it too, but then they both remembered he was in a relationship with a man who he loved very much, and it crushed the other man. Grant had never felt like this before. He was happy for them, of course, but how he wished he had someone like that, or, dare he say, he wished he was there instead of Sirius.
Oh, how he hated the black-haired man, with his stupidly perfect hair, and his stupid grey eyes. Who even had eyes that silvery-grey? He wondered sometimes if they were contacts. He hated how good Sirius was with Harry, how much he loved the boy. He hated the fact that Sirius was the closest thing Harry had to a living relative, the closest thing to an uncle, or even a father. He hated the fact that James and Lily had died and left Harry with them, even though he knew that they were the best option, the closest to Harry, and the ones who would make the best parents.
Grant needed to move on, and he knew that, but it was incredibly hard, considering that he saw Remus every single day, and that wasn’t going to change any time soon. He couldn’t just leave Harry.
Grant really did love Harry. The boy was one of the few lights in his life, and one that never disappointed. He was sweet, playful, charismatic. He loved to play hide-n-seek, and often played with his friends from playgroup, where he seemed to be popular. Some parents were hesitant around him because of his scar, but once Grant assured them it was from a car crash that his parents had also been killed in, they tended to lay off.
It sounded a bit sad, but Harry really was Grant’s best friend, and he was just going to have to live with that, however long it lasted. So, he put on his usual brave face and happy, patient facade, and lived his life.