Eleven year old Teddy Lupin was tossing and turning as he tried desperately to fall asleep, but he had no luck whatsoever. He could hear his grandmother snoring in the room beside his, and further down the hall, he heard the scratching of his godfather's quill against some parchment. Harry always worked late into the night whenever Teddy and his grandmother stayed over, which was quite frequently. Baby Lily, who was only just one, was snuffling oddly in her nursery, and he could hear Ginny bustling around downstairs helping Kreacher tidy up.

There were muted voices coming from the room that five year old James and three year old Albus shared, and Teddy grinned to himself at the thought of the two of them plotting. It was a nice, distracting sound, and he desperately needed to be distracted. He was nervous, more nervous than he had ever been before, because tomorrow was going to be his very first trip to Platform 9 ¾. Tomorrow, Teddy was going to Hogwarts.

And that meant he was growing up, which was really good, in his opinion, if a little bit scary. Harry had told him so many stories about Hogwarts, and all the mischief he got up to back in his days as a student. It sounded like one gigantic adventure, and Teddy was definitely the adventurous type.

The only problem with Hogwarts was that it would mean a whole three months before he saw Victoire again. Teddy loved new places, but he had never been anywhere new without Vicky at his side. And he was going to have to be at Hogwarts for a whole two years without her.

He sighed and rolled over in his bed once more.

"Teddy?"

A very quiet voice called Teddy's name from the doorway, and he pushed himself up onto his pillows to see a small girl with wide blue eyes and waist length strawberry blonde hair standing in her Minnie Mouse nightdress with one hand on his door handle.

"Hey, Victoire," Teddy whispered back. Victoire had asked Harry and Ginny if she could stay over during the night and travel to King's Cross with her best friend the next morning, in order to see him off properly.

"Teddy... I couldn't sleep." She looked at her friend mournfully.

"Me either," he sighed, patting the bed for Victoire to come and join him. She obliged, having to use his proffered hand to help haul herself up onto his high mattress. Teddy was quite tall for eleven years old, and he could manage the distance easily, but tiny little Victoire didn't even come up to his shoulder yet.

"I don't want you to go to Hogwarts tomorrow," Victoire told him with a note of accusation in her voice. Teddy watched as she pouted, her lower lip jutting out. She always pulled that expression when she couldn't get her own way, and Teddy privately thought it was adorable. She looked like a sad puppy, and she would always win a fight if she pulled that face.

Unfortunately, Teddy didn't get a say in the whole Hogwarts thing.

"I don't want to go without you," he confessed, as Victoire shuffled closer to him in order to rest her head on his shoulder.

"I'll have nobody to talk to," Victoire muttered. Teddy frowned into her huge sapphire eyes.

"No, you'll have Dominique, won't you?" he pointed out. Victoire grimaced.

"But she's only seven! She's two years younger than me!"

"You're two years younger than me, and you're my best friend," Teddy objected. Victoire narrowed her eyes.

"But that's different!" she declared in a whisper.

"How?" Teddy shot back.

"Because you're older than me! She's younger!"

Teddy could not formulate a response to this, so he just stuck out his tongue and rolled his brown eyes towards the ceiling. Victoire giggled, but the humour faded to a look of wistful sadness.

"I'm going to really really miss you, Teddy-bear."

"I'll miss you more, Vicky." Teddy tentatively held out his arms for a hug, and Victoire snuggled into his embrace gladly. She wouldn't get much more time with Teddy this year.

"Which house do you think you'll be in?" she asked, sounding suddenly sleepy. He pondered her question for a moment, tugging on a lock of his turquoise hair with the hand that wasn't tucked around Victoire.

"Um... I don't know, Vic."

Victoire let out a small sigh. "I think you'll be in Gryffindor."

"Why?" Teddy murmured, interested.

"Because..." She wriggled in his arms slightly to get comfier. "You're really brave. Much, much braver than me. You don't even mind spiders, and Uncle Ron is scared of them!"

Teddy blushed at the compliment, a smile creeping onto his face when he thought about Ron's scream of terror when he saw a spider in Hugo's cot two days ago. He sounded like a banshee.

"I bet I'm not brave enough for Gryffindor though," he said quietly. "You'll be in Ravenclaw when you go, Vicky. You're super clever."

"You are too brave enough! And I hope so. I like blue."

Teddy looked deep into her sparkling cobalt eyes. "I like blue, too," he decided.

"You don't like reading, so I don't think you'll be in Ravenclaw, even though you're smart. And you're not horrible, so you won't be in Slytherin. And I don't think you'll be in Hufflepuff, because you're a bit lazy."

Teddy opened his mouth to protest to the last part of her ramble, but Victoire continued to talk over him.

"And Gryffindors are strong and brave and what's that word that means nice to girls? Shiv... Shovel..."

"Chivalrous," mumbled Teddy, feeling the colour rising in his cheeks again.

"Yeah, that. And you're all those things, I think. You're nice to girls, obviously, because I'm a girl and you're nice to me."

Teddy's face was burning. He wasn't used to so many compliments from anyone, let alone Victoire. She usually teased him.

"I mean," she continued. "Even when I get cross and I punch you, you never ever hit me back, and I asked Daddy why and he told me it's because you're a gentleman. And that's what being shovelrous means."

"Chivalrous," Teddy corrected automatically.

"Whatever." Victoire shrugged in her usually careless way.

"Vicky... tomorrow..." Teddy bit his lip, considering what he was going to say very carefully. He didn't want to offend her.

"What?" she mumbled.

"Don't... don't cry, when I go away."

She angled her head up a little to glare at him fiercely.

"I won't cry. I'm not little anymore!" She made a disgusted noise. Teddy hid a grin.

"Okay, just as long as you don't," he continued, relieved that he had gotten his request out of the way.

"Why?"

"Hmm?"

"Why don't you want me to cry?" The question took Teddy aback so much that he couldn't think of an excuse in time. He accidentally blurted out the truth.

"Because if you cry, I'll cry. And I don't want to cry on my first day!"

Victoire looked up at him seriously, and then smile tiredly to herself about something. Teddy had no idea what she was thinking, but guessed it was probably something mocking about him.

"Okay, Teddy, I extra promise." She yawned widely. "I'm tired."

"Alright." Teddy began to release her from his hug slowly, but she clung on to his arms.

"Teddy..." Victoire gave her friend a coy smile. "Can I stay in here? When I go out into my room again, I won't be able to sleep without you there."

Teddy pretended to look a little miffed as he made a show of thinking it over. He couldn't say yes straight away, otherwise he would look really pathetic. And well, even though she was only Victoire, she was a girl.

"Sure, you can sleep in here with me." Teddy pretended to give in to her pleading expression, and she beamed in satisfaction, climbing under the covers beside her best friend in his Holyhead Harpies pyjamas.

Teddy lay back down on his pillow, and Victoire instantly wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her face to his shoulder.

"Night, Teddy," she whispered into the semi-darkness. Teddy stared up at the picture on the wall, as he always did whenever he slept in this room. It was his mother and father, she with bright pink hair, waving energetically out of the frame, and he grinning ruefully down at her, with one arm casually slung over her shoulders. He wondered briefly which house they would want him to be in. His dad was a Gryffindor, but his mum was a Hufflepuff. Would they be happy no matter what?

He really hoped he could make them proud. After all the nice things Vicky had said to him... he blushed again at the thought. Surely they were watching him now?

He wondered if they would mind that Victoire Weasley was his best friend. He didn't think so. His grandma loved Vicky almost as much as Teddy did.

Loved... he hadn't thought that before. He supposed he did love her really, as much as he loved Harry or his grandmother. Maybe even more.

"Night, Victoire... love you," he breathed into her ear, fluttering the strands of her reddish blonde hair.

She was already asleep.