QLFC submission
Season 6: Caerphilly Catapults
Round 6, Chaser 2: You must choose a character born in that month to write about from the list provided next to your team's chosen month. (April, Teddy Lupin)
Prompts: (dialogue) "Three, two, one. Ready or not, here I come!" , (Color) Cream, (Object) Banana.
Word Count: 1546
!-!
"My turn, Harry!" I throw my arms out and my godfather just barely catches me as I jump from the fifth stair. I knew Harry would never let me get hurt so I could jump around more with him there than when it was just me and grandmother.
"Hello to you too, love. Happy birthday!" Harry exclaims as he lifts me. Grandmother shakes her head at us and I grin. It was our usual greeting, and she never complained about it. I had seen Harry two days ago when he took me for ice cream at Fortescue's but I still missed him!
"Are you here for the party? Grandmother said she invited Victoire and Dominique and Fred and Molly and—"
"Breathe, Teddy. All your friends are coming?" Harry asks, and I nod vigorously.
"Is there going to be cake? I'm going to leave if there's not cake," Harry tells me seriously as he sets me back on the floor.
"We have cake! And ice cream, and cookies, and grandmother says we can have smores later!" I inform him happily, punching the air. Harry laughs at me and ruffles up my hair, causing the black strands to fly everywhere. Grandmother said I needed a haircut, but Fleur usually did it for me and she's too busy right now to. Her and Hermione were always running around getting ready for when their babies were going to be born.
"Sounds fantastic. Where are you putting presents?" Harry directs this question to grandmother, who motions to a long table she'd set up in the backyard.
"I figured we'd collect presents until everyone was here," she tells him. He sets four packages on the table and winks at me when he sees me looking at them once he unshrank them. They were all different sizes, and he had wrapped three of them in bright blue paper with white bows on top. The fourth one, the longest one, was wrapped in a cream-colored paper, with golden snitches flying everywhere. I was ready to burst because I knew exactly what was in that one. Harry had even let me pick it out!
"You're early, Harry. Will you eat lunch with us?" Grandmother asks, motioning us to the tables that she and Molly had set up the night before in our backyard.
"Sure! What are we having?" He sits next to me and I grin, happy he's chosen to.
"Sandwiches and fruit salad," Grandmother replies as she moves to go inside.
"I'll eat your strawberries if you eat my kiwi," Harry whispers to me when she disappears. I nod immediately. Harry always made funny faces when he had to eat kiwi, and I hated strawberries. We usually had this tradeoff when he ate with us and grandma made a fruit salad.
We ate quickly, Harry and I trading pieces of the fruit back and forth. We also made a pile of banana pieces on a napkin between the two of us, because neither of us liked bananas. He vanished it before grandmother could get onto us for making a mess. After that, Harry and I played a few games of catch the snitch with the one that he had given me last year, one that was programmed to stay around four feet off the ground and was slightly slower than the ones Harry has at his place. He let me catch it most times, and I knew it, but I didn't mind because he would chase me around and have fun with me while we played, to distract me from catching it too soon.
"Teddy!" I whirl at the sound of my name, seeing Victoire and her dad coming around the house. I abandon my game with Harry immediately and run over to her, hugging her tightly.
"Happy birthday!" she exclaims, bouncing excitedly. Victoire was always moving, either swaying on her feet, jumping around or dancing. She never stayed still.
"Thank you! Hello Bill!" I say, letting her go to hug her dad as well. He picks me up easily and moves around to the table where he places a present as he chats with me about what was going on today and who was coming.
Soon the backyard is full of my friends and family. I was back to playing catch with Harry, but now Victoire, Dominique, Fred, and Molly were chasing too. Ginny showed up with baby James soon after and Harry goes over to see them, which means the snitch goes with him because grandmother doesn't like us playing without adult supervision.
"Grandmother! Can we play hide and seek!?" I call out as Dominique pouts at Harry's retreating back.
"You stay in the backyard and no climbing things!" she says sternly.
"Yes, Ma'am!" I call back, spinning to grin at the girls and Fred.
"Who goes first?"
"Me!" Fred calls immediately. He and Molly were younger than Victoire by a year, and so they didn't always get to play the games that Victoire and I played with Harry and the adults. They were five now, Victoire turned seven next month, and I was eight today. It was the only reason they were allowed to play with the snitch, because Percy, George, and Bill didn't have one and Harry didn't come around to their place as often as he did mine.
"Okay, hold on." I run inside, going to the room Grandmother had set up for the toys I didn't often play with anymore but still had for when the younger kids come over to play. I pick up a small box off the floor and, jogging back down to Fred, I hand it over.
"It's set to 30, will that be enough?" I ask the girls, who nod immediately.
"Alright, let's have you face… that tree!" I point to the one nearest the adults, partially so they would get on to him if he was cheating and partially so that we had the whole area behind him to run around and hide. He runs over as the girls and I get ready to run in the opposite direction. As he's sitting, I get an idea and move to run in a different direction. I hear Fred start cranking the handle on the side of the box and the singsong voice inside of it starts up.
"It's time for hide and seek! I promise not to peek. I'll help you count down, so don't mess around. And when I say one, you'll know I'm done. So be quick on your feet, it's time for hide and seek!"
There's a pause as all of us kids hold our breath, waiting for it to start.
"30, 29…"
And we were off, the girls disappearing with a giggle into the small flower garden grandmother liked to keep. I dive for the table that Harry, baby James, Hermione, and Bill were at. I hear Harry laughing at me as I scramble to make room for myself around their feet and the legs of the chair. The cream-colored tablecloth hung over enough that you wouldn't be able to see me either.
"You okay Teddy?" Harry asks when I make a startled noise after bumping my head on the chair.
"Yeah, yeah! Shh!" I tell him frantically. He laughs again but leaves me alone.
"Three, two, one. Ready or not, here I come!" the box finishes and Fred drops it, springing to his feet. I can just barely see him as he sprints by from the gap between the tablecloth and the ground.
"Hey, Teddy," Bills voice says, barely a whisper. I glance over and he's got a plate with a few cookies on it under the table.
"Oh, sweet! Thanks, Bill!" I exclaim, taking the cookies. I have my own small picnic as I listen to the adults talking above me. It's quiet besides that until I hear one of the girls shrieking and Fred laughing.
"Victoire," Harry says when I ask which one it was that sat around the box.
It was another half hour before the other girls are found and Fred makes his way back over to the box. By then, Fleur had joined the group, and I had a bowl of ice cream and a glass of butterbeer underneath me from where the adults had slid them to me when no one was watching. I hear footsteps and glance at them to see Victoire and Fred approaching.
"Do you know where Teddy went?" Fred asks the group. My jaw drops. That's cheating!
"I can't tell you that, it's against the rules," Harry says, though he sounds amused that they would ask.
"Come on, please! We can't start another game until we find him!" Fred whines. Harry laughs again, telling them no. I hear Victoire leave but Fred stays, still trying to convince the adults to tell him.
"FRED I FOUND HIM!" Victoire's scream from next to me, under the table, has me jumping up and banging my head on the underside of it. Fred whips the tablecloth up from where he was standing next to it as I try and catch my breath. I hadn't heard her come up next to me!
"That's cheating!" I accuse, shooting Victoire a dirty look. She's grinning like she's proud of herself.
"Come on Teddy, you're it!"