"I brought you some cake." he held out his hand to prove his offering to her, but the young Victoire just huffed and turned her head away from him, her hair falling into a curtain between them.

"It's chocolate," he added hopefully, "you're favourite." Her resolve broke just a little as she peeked from the corner of her eye. No nine year-old girl in the history of nine year-old girls had ever been as stubborn as Victoire Weasley could be. Two years ago Louis had snapped her levitating fairy wings and she had refused to leave her bedroom or eat until she had received a full written apology from him, and of course, new fairy wings. Louis was three at the time and couldn't yet write more than his own name, and even that was a stretch. After five hours her father had apparated to Andromeda Tonks' house to ask if he could borrow her grandson. This wasn't a rare occurrence and by the time Bill had finished explaining what was wrong this time, Teddy had his travelling cloak on and had his hand out ready. Almost as quickly, Teddy had convinced Victoire that levitating fairy wings weren't that great anyway, and building a fortress from her bed sheets and eating chicken sandwiches and cookies before reading The Tales of Beedle the Bard by candle light was much more fun in the long run. A lot of boys would have seen coaxing sulking girls into talking again as a near on impossible chore, but Teddy was secretly happy every time he heard the tell tale pop of Bill Weasley's arrival. He liked that he was the only one who could make Victoire anywhere near happy when she was really sad. And although he had tried his hardest, Bill had had to get used the fact that he wasn't the only man in his oldest daughter's life or necessarily even the main one, a lot sooner that most fathers did.

Currently both of the children were sitting under a big, old, hollow bush in Teddy's grandmother's garden - it was their very own, secret place. Teddy reached out and took the two periwinkle ribbons that had previously held Victoire's shiny hair in two long, neat plaits, which she was currently picking threads from the ends of, and replaced it with the napkin wrapped cake. Teddy took her letting him do this as a good sign. He leaned out and pulled back the curtain of golden hair between them, using one of the ribbons to tie it at the nape of Victoire's neck with the silky ribbon. He knew she liked it when he played with her hair, although he tried to refrain from such un-manly activities as much as possible. He was rewarded with this show of affection - Victoire unwrapped the yellow napkin and tore it down the fold, she then preceded to split her slice of cake in half as well and hand one half of it back to Teddy.

"What's wrong Vic?" she kept her eyes down and sucked some chocolate frosting from her finger, "Come on, tell me who's upset you and I'll beat them up for you." he nudged her with his elbow and received a small, sad smile in return.

"Why do you have to go?" Teddy lowered the cake that was already halfway to his mouth.

"Everyone goes to Hogwarts, Vic." for that he got a scowl.

"But why now? What am I -" she dropped her head down and he heard a distinctive sniff. Teddy gave her an awkward pat on the back.

"You're going to go and learn all the magic and have a wand and everything and you'll have loads of cool new friends and be all grown up and everything and you won't want to play with me anymore." she looked up at him for reassurance.

"Don't be silly Vic, you know that you'll always be my favourite girl in the whole entire world." he flicked at a loose strand of her hair. Most eleven year old boys would be mortified about saying the last sentence but Teddy had been saying it for as long as he could remember, and he meant it, and only Vic was here, so why should he be embarrassed?

"What am I supposed to do when you go?

"We can write - I'll write you every day if you want me to!" she raised a juvenile eyebrow in response.

"Every day?"

"Yep! I promise and I'll even send you a Gryffindor Quidditch team flag from the first match of the season!" Teddy nodded earnestly as Victoire looked as though she was attempting to work out a particularly hard sum, "And I mean, I know that I don't for sure that I'll be in Gryffindor but my dad was and so was Harry, and although my mum was in Hufflepuff, I think that I still want to be in Gryffindor. Don't you think that Gryffindor's the best Vic?" Victoire just continued to stare at him. Teddy prodded his previously forgotten cake, until it was almost squashed flat. "It will be alright, won't it, Vic?"

Victoire was nine years old and her best friend was going away from her for the first time, and she was worried and scared. Teddy was leaving his best friend and his family, and going away to school by himself, and he was also worried and scared. Victoire had thought that he would be having fun all the time and was just excited, but now she was staring to see that he was just as worried about leaving than she was about being left. She was thoughtful for a second or two, then very unceremoniously pushed her piece of un-squashed cake into Teddy's mouth, and threw her arms around his neck.

"Your going to be great, Teddy."

And that was exactly what worried her - Teddy was always great, anyone that couldn't see that was an idiot. Everyone would want to be Teddy's friend, and in two years time, when she would finally go to Hogwarts as well, he would have so many friends, that were older and cooler that her, he wouldn't want to spend time with her anymore.

At the tender age of nine that was the worst thought in the world.