"Rose! Albus! Stop that ruckus! Louis, stop putting gum in your sister's hair! James, stop teasing Lily and Hugo! You know they don't like that!" yelled Teddy Lupin hoarsely. Honestly, babysitting his little cousins wasn't how he had planned to spend a Saturday night. He had wanted to see Victorie; he hadn't seen her since the night she came back from France two weeks ago due to his busy schedule.
"But we're bored!" whined Rose, stomping her foot on the ground. She had gone through all of the library books she had borrowed a few hours ago and was begging Teddy to bring her back there. He had refused, so now she and Albus were tearing apart the house. Uncle Harry will be happy, thought Teddy sarcastically.
"Can't we go somewhere?" asked Dominique, trying to pull the gum out of her hair. Teddy sighed and cast a cleaning spell on her. She then looked at him with big puppy dog eyes. "Please, Teddy?"
"Fine, fine, FINE!" he said at last. It really wasn't fair, how much Dominique reminded him of her sister. He just had to relent… "We can go to the mall around the corner." The little kids grinned madly.
"The one with the really tall glass elevators?" asked Hugo excitedly. Teddy closed his eyes in silent prayer. Hey, God? If you're listening, please grant me mercy…
"OMG! THIS PLACE IS HUGE!" yelled Lily. Hugo looked as wild and as excited as she did. Teddy made them all hold hands, even though James, Rose, and Albus were probably responsible enough to not get lost. If any of them turned up missing, though, Grandma Andromeda was going to have a fit and all his aunt and uncles would have migraines and raised blood pressures. So, he was making sure that they were all here.
"If anyone feels that the person next to them lets go of their hand, please tell me immediately," Teddy warned.
"C'mon, Uncle Teddy," complained James. "Dominique, Al, Rosie, and I are too old for this."
"Then you can go home."
"And destroy the house ever more?" asked Rose brightly. Teddy let go of Hugo's hand for a moment to rub his temples. He soon felt a little tug on his shirt.
"What is it, Hugo?"
"You let go of my hand."
"Oh. Sorry." He held onto Hugo's hand again. "James, Dominique, Rose, and Albus, you can walk in front of me but if I lose sight of any of you, you're going to be holding hands again, got it?"
"Fine, Uncle Teddy," said Albus. "Can we go to that place that sells those ancient looking cups and bowls and stuff?"
"You mean Gothic Chalice?" asked Dominique.
"Yeah. What does 'chalice' mean anyways?"
"It refers to any metal goblet or drinking cup," said Rose quickly before Teddy could answer. "Right, Uncle Teddy." He nodded.
"Exactly." Gothic Chalice was pretty cool. At least, Teddy thought cheerfully, they didn't pick some girly store like Pink Poodle or something.
"Uncle Teddy!" shouted Louis, who had gone off with James. "Come here! What's this?" Teddy walked over to where Louis and James were.
"It's something called a 'shot cup'," he said.
"What's it for?"
"For…drinking with," he said smoothly. Technically speaking, he wasn't actually lying; one did use a shot cup to drink, just not in the way Hugo might have thought.
"But it's so tiny," said Hugo. "Why would anyone want to waste time pouring little amounts of water or juice in here just to refill it again really fast?"
"Uh…"
"Yeah, why's it so small?" asked James curiously.
"If it was smaller, then I could use it as a feeding tray for Pig," said Rose, referring to the little old Pygmy owl they had whose origins were unknown. Uncle Ron claimed he found the little rascal during a flight on a broomstick ad nearly crashed into him, he was so small. Teddy highly doubted it but never did much to prove his uncle wrong.
"So what are they for? And why are they called 'shot cups'?" asked Lily innocently.
"Ah…I'll show you when we get back home," Teddy improvised. Oh, I am screwed now.
After buying a shot cup for each of them and receiving a questioning look from the person behind the counter for doing so, Teddy arrived at the Potter house, with all the kids in once piece each. Now…about these shot cups…
"What are we going to do, Teddy?" asked Dominique enthusiastically.
"Yeah! What are we going to use them for?" asked Albus, he and Rose climbing onto tall chairs by the island in the kitchen.
"Uh…leave them in the kitchen and go do something else for now. I call you back in when I have everything ready." They all believed him and ran out, James calling dibs on going first in Spelling Charms. This left Teddy all alone in the kitchen to ponder. After five minutes of pondering, he called up Victorie.
"Victorie?"
"Yes, Teddy?"
"Um…I have a problem here."
"While babysitting the children?" she asked, laughing. "I'd be more surprised if you didn't. What did you do this time?"
"Uh…well, we went to Gothic Chalice and your little brother asked about shot cups, okay? So I'm trying to explain them and since I can't come up with anything at the moment, I buy one for each of them and bring them here and now I have no idea how to explain this to them."
"Well that's loads easier to explain than the time Lily and Rose saw the bright pink store that turned out to sell bras and lingerie!" she exclaimed. "Now, here's what you do…"
"Are you done yet?" asked Lily, poking her head in.
"Almost," said Teddy, thanking his lucky stars that he had someone like Victorie in his life. He added the finishing touches carefully to his masterpieces.
"You've been there for nearly half an hour!" exclaimed Hugo.
"Patience, grasshopper."
"Whoa! You saw that movie too?" asked James. "Wasn't that the best movie of all time?"
"Nuh uh!" argued Dominique. "French Swan was the best movie of all time!"
"Girly girl."
"Hey!"
"Stop arguing, you two," said Teddy. "Okay, you can come in now." They all rushed in, nearly colliding with Teddy. "Bon appétit!"
"These are so cute!" squealed Lily, bouncing up and down on the tall chair. "What are they?" Teddy grinned.
"Jell-o shots. Little cups of super fancy jell-o. Enjoy!" They dug in immediately, some of them throwing it down their throats, some of the slowly savoring it. After they finished, they went back to their game and Teddy breathed a sigh of relief. That was one problem solved. He washed all the little cups, made the brush their teeth and take baths and soon tucked them in to bed. He too fell asleep as the day's exhaustion set in. He woke the next morning to see Uncle Harry in a bath robe and reading the Daily Prophet.
"Hello, Teddy."
"Hi Uncle Harry. Is something wrong?"
"Could you explain to me why we have shot cups?"