Author's Notes: I LOVED Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and have been wracking my brain trying to think of what my next story should be. I think the character of Teddy Lupin has the potential to be a great main character of a story, and he could probably end up being quite mischievous, as his father's school group was and as his mother's snarky nature reveals as well. Teddy should be a living reminder of his lost parents, I think, and I hope I can do his potential character justice.
Chapter 1 – Kids Say the Darnedest Things
Teddy Lupin was not your average wizard.
His mother's mother, Andromeda, had chosen to raise Teddy in the muggle neighbourhood where his mother had grown up as well. It was better, she thought, to not expose her son to magic so soon, and enjoy the few years they could have together, away from the trials and tribulations of the newly evil-free wizarding world.
However, that is not to say that he never encountered another witch or wizard in his few years of existence. On occasion, Teddy's godfather, the hero of the wizarding world, would come to visit, bringing with him presents and a beautiful redheaded witch who laughed a lot. He loved those visits and especially loved to sit on Harry's girlfriend's lap, playing with her fiery locks.
By the time Teddy reached the age of five, Harry and Ginny had married, and he had attended with his cousin Victoire who was two years younger. He had proudly watched over his three-year-old cousin as the hustle and bustle went on around them.
Though those visits were few and far between, Teddy cherished the moments he spent with Harry Potter and Ginevra Weasley, even though it was mostly for the presents they brought with them. To a child of such a young age, presents were everything. People were only secondary to the gifts they brought.
Growing up in Muggle London, raised by his grandmother, it was only a matter of time until he would be exposed to the not so kind attitudes of society's children.
Up until the tender age of five, he would play with the muggles down the street, often chasing each other in the nearby park. It was that fateful day in October when the eldest child would change Teddy's life forever.
The afternoon had started simply enough, with Teddy walking over to the park to meet his playmates. Four-year-old Jonathan, the youngest of the Spencer trio was playing on the swing set, pushed by his twin sister, Lizzie. Alex, the eldest at the age of seven, was nowhere in sight.
Teddy scampered over to the twins to inquire as to Alex's whereabouts, when suddenly a figure jumped out at him from behind the nearest bush. Startled, Teddy screamed a high pitched, seemingly female, howl and subconsciously changed his hair colour to a pure white.
The Spencer children were suspended in time as Johnny's swing continued swinging without being pushed, and Lizzie stood behind it not caring that she was being tapped by the wayward swing. Jonathan stood in front of Teddy and gaped with an open mouth.
"What did you just do?" Alex had asked. He stared at his playmate in wonder, and tried to hold back tears of confusion.
Teddy stared back, just as shocked as the boy in front of him. "I… I didn't mean to. I was just scared is all…"
By that time, Johnny had come down from his swing and was standing beside Lizzie whose lips were trembling in fright. Alex stood a couple steps ahead of them, in a protective position, though he was just as frightened as the younger Spencers.
The older boy spoke again. "Well, whatever that was that you just did, change it back. I want my Teddy back!"
"I… It was an accident, I swear! I don't know how to change it. Grandma hasn't gotten to that part yet." He tried to explain as best as his five-year-old mind would let him, but it was no use. The damage had been done.
The children had run home, informing their parents that they wished to stay away from that awful boy down the street. When asked why they had changed their minds about him so suddenly, they simply exclaimed that he was a freak and that they did not like freaks.
That night, the Spencers' mother came barging down to the Tonks residence to see what all the fuss was. Teddy had hidden in the hallway closet while his grandmother spoke with Mrs. Spencer. What he overheard was something that no five-year-old should have ever had to hear.
Mrs. Spencer's words would forever ring in his ears from that day on. "I don't want that freak anywhere near my children! He is not welcome here!"
It was then that Andromeda Tonks, née Black, decided that it was time to bring Teddy Remus Lupin back into the wizarding world. His godfather had always visited him on special occasions, but it was at that time that he would meet other special children his age.
On weekends Andromeda would send little Teddy over to her dear friend Mrs. Molly Weasley to play with her first grandchild, Victoire. Victoire was the daughter of her eldest son, Bill, and his wife Fleur, who was half Veela. Sundays were Bill and Fleur's day to spend together, as both were quite busy during the week. Molly would baby-sit the dear girl to relieve the couple for a few hours.
While the pair would amuse themselves chasing the garden gnomes, Molly and Andromeda would share a cup of tea, chatting away about the current events.
One sunny Sunday afternoon, when Teddy was eight years old, and Victoire was just recently turned six, running around with the garden gnomes had lost its original appeal. It was time for the pair to move on to bigger and better things.
"Let's go bother the ghoul!" Teddy cried, not thinking through the risks of the proposed plan. Teddy was the adventurous sort, always charging head on into situations that were too big for him. The unknown never stopped him, and he always had to finish what he started, no matter how crazy or risky it was.
Victoire was the more apprehensive of the two, though she could be right feisty at times.
"No way Teddy, Maman says the ghoul isn't nice and Papa says it throws things." She shook her head to make her point all the more clear.
"Merlin, Vicky, you're no fun." Teddy walked off slowly and headed straight for the backdoor of the Burrow.
Victoire thought for a moment, scrunching her nose as she came to her conclusion.
"Oh alright, but if we get into trouble, it is so your fault!" She ran after her friend, pushing him slightly as she caught up with him.
With a fit of giggles and shrieks of amusement, the children ran up the creaky stairs to the attic. Teddy stopped abruptly in front of its entrance, and Victoire all but ran right into him. They stood in front of the door listening to the rattling and banging coming from within its depths.
Teddy gulped and put a hand on the doorknob. Victoire shuddered in anticipation. With a jerk of his wrist, the door opened and the two peered inquisitively into the dark room. Suddenly, a slimy figure popped out at them, thrashing its arms about and grunting in the way ghouls often do.
"Well, alright then. We go in, yeah?" Teddy said shakily, to the hesitant girl standing beside him. The boy's hair changed to a deep blue as they walked into the attic, Victoire holding onto Teddy's shirt for dear life.
"Oi, ghouly, listen up," he started, "we're just here to look around, so, none of your funny business!"
Victoire's grip on his shirt weakened, and she walked behind him a little more confidently at his words.
The ghoul grunted some more, but turned back to its corner of the attic, where he had been eating his afternoon-tea snack of moths and spiders.
"Eww, that's gross," Victoire whispered to Teddy as she took notice of the ghoul's ghastly eating habits. She made a gagging motion with her finger and mouth to further prove her point.
Teddy sniggered and ruffled her hair, momentarily forgetting that nobody was aloud to touch her hair aside from her mother.
"Oh, don't you touch my hair you… you… boy!" Victoire shrieked at her companion, not caring that she may startle the ghoul, which she did end up doing.
As the six-year-old girl stomped her foot in disagreement, the disgruntled ghoul came charging at her and Teddy, banging the surrounding boxes for effect. It was a dreadful sight coming toward them, and both were a little uneasy at the resulting mess that was sure to follow. Teddy and Victoire were not known for their well-behaved play dates, nor were they favoured for their well tempered and brightly shining attitude to risky situations.
As the ghoul got closer to the now slightly shaking duo, it got louder and louder until the buck-toothed, ugly creature slammed its hands onto a nearby antique tea table, causing dust to float all around them and a loud noise to be heard even by the adults who were dining six landings below.
Victoire let out a cry and ran down the stairs to the Weasley twins' old room, which was then being used for storage. It was a fine place to hide from worried adults at times like these.
Teddy slammed the attic door behind them and ran after the frightened girl to the second landing of the Burrow. Once in Fred and George's old room, Teddy bent his knees and dropped his head in an attempt to catch his breath. Victoire sat on the floor in the far left corner of the room, her chin resting in her upturned palms, looking at Teddy with a murderous look in her eyes. "Told you so! Ghouls are scary; you never listen to me, but I'm always right!"
Teddy was about to send back a retort of his own, but Victoire cut him off before he could utter the words. "Teddy Remus Lupin you are such a meanie!" And, with that, she chucked a stray book at her friend's head.
"Oi, Vicky, what in Merlin's world was that for? We're safe aren't we?" Teddy bent down to look at his friend at her eye level. "You and me, we get out of messes. That's what we do…"
Victoire pouted and glared at Teddy, not bothering to grace him with a suitable answer. She grumbled under her breath, asking herself why she put up with boys, when it was so obvious that they were 'icky'.
As Victoire brushed off some dust from her skirt, the duo heard a knock at the door and yelped at the prospect of the ghoul somehow following them down five flights of stairs. It turned out to be their guardians, checking to see if they were still alive.
"Are you lot alright in there?" Andromeda Tonks inquired. Molly Weasley added her own inquiry, "Get out here this instant, children. Tell us what you have been up to that you're so excitable when holed up in a storage room."
The children opened the door and walked with the adults, down the stairs to the kitchen where they sat around the table for a story.
Teddy revealed the inner workings of his plan to abandon the garden gnomes for the better entertainment of the attic ghoul. He did not quite master the art of convincing his grandmother of the plan's flawless design, but he did manage to squeeze a laugh out of the woman. Molly, too, was slightly amused at his story, but was quite unpleased at the prospect of the two of them getting hurt while running around The Burrow, unsupervised.
It was times like those that Teddy and Victoire were so thankful to be friends. Sunday afternoons were never boring, and they both looked forward to the days they would receive their Hogwarts letters and move on into the world of magical education, where they could have all the more fun with new and better ways of causing mischief.