"Grandma, I know I'll be fine!" sighed an exasperated Teddy.
"You probably will, but I just wish that some of your cousins were already there. It would be so much nicer if you knew someone." Andromeda looked worriedly around. "Victoire will be coming in a couple of years, at least," she said, more to herself.
Teddy, who had heard that last comment, snorted. "She'll have all the boys, even the older ones, at their knees. I'm not sure if that's a good thing." The image of his Uncle Ron looking enraptured at the sight of his Aunt Fleur, was one of his more humorous memories. Especially seeing Aunt Hermione's expression.
"Watch your hair, Teddy," Andromeda reminded him, sounding one hundred percent the doting but strict grandmother she was. "You don't want to shock everyone you meet. Metamorphagi are quite rare. And don't play too many pranks on your fellow students and teachers."
"I've got to go, Grandma," Teddy reminded her as the train whistle blew.
"Oh my, and here I was thinking we got here early. Well, have a safe trip, Teddy," she said, a bit flustered.
"Love you too, Grandma," Teddy replied as he hugged Andromeda. Quickly, he boarded the train and began his first walk down the aisle of the Hogwarts express.
Is it just me, or does the train seem slightly empty? Grandma always said that if you arrived late, you would definitely have to ask to share a compartment. So far I've seen several empty ones.
Indeed the train was emptier than his grandmother or father would have remembered. Walking up the aisle, he had already spotted six empty compartments. Although he considered taking an empty compartment, he decided to attempt to befriend some fellow first years. The only tricky part would be finding first years who looked approachable and friendly.
It wasn't long before Teddy found compartment with two boys and a girl already in it. He didn't think he recognized any of them, but opened the door with confidence. "Hello," he said. "Mind if I sit here?"
A boy with straight brown hair and brown eyes and tanned skin was the first to respond. "Of course we don't mind. You can sit here." He gestured down to the seat next to him.
"Thanks," Teddy said, dragging over his trunk and his tawny owl, Brownwing. The three were staring at him in silence, clearly taking everything in about him. His eyes, gray; his hair; dark brown, although he could change it at will if he wished, but they weren't to know that, not yet. His grandmother had said people might stare, and often times the last place you want to be in is in the spotlight.
He sat down, looking around at them. Finally he asked, "What are your names?"
"I'm Kristen," said the girl, a small looking girl with short black hair and red hair, dyed obviously, and a pale complexion, though not too white. 'This is my brother Felix," she said, gesturing to the boy beside her, who looked similar enough, although his hair was merely a dark brown. Both of them had the same strange eyes, blue-green, but almost with flecks of gold in them.
"And I'm Nikolas, but call me Niko. I don't like Nikolas." He answered with a calculating look in his eye, clearly taking in everything about him skeptically. The thought that this boy would be a Slytherin crossed Teddy's mind. "And you are?" Niko contined.
"I'm Teddy," he replied calmly, regarding him much the same way.
"You a muggleborn?" asked Niko.
His question startled Teddy. Very few people would dare to ask such a question now a days, after that tenuous period where being one was all but a death sentence. Still, he responded, "No, but why do you ask?"
"Cause most first years are this year. Not a whole lot of people were having families while the war was going one, if you know what I mean." Teddy nodded, but Niko clearly hadn't finished yet. "So who are your parents? Were they war heroes like half the people say their parents were?"
"Why do you care?" sniped Teddy, annoyed at Niko now.
"Well, just curious. Sorry if I offended you, mate. Just a harmless question."
"Well, I don't like to talk about my parents. I didn't really know them."
This Niko seemed to understand. He probably assumed that they had died, a small family with their only baby, murdered as a bystander by a death eater. He never would have suspected his true parentage so long as he kept his metamorphagi skills secret.
"Just excuse me for one second. I'll be right back," said Niko, rising to leave. Teddy moved his feet obligingly so as not to bar his exit, a very welcome exit at that. At last he turned to Kristen and her brother Felix, the twins. He still had yet to hear Felix say anything.
An awkward silence ensued. Teddy, feeling as if he should say something, asked, almost incoherently, "Well, what about you?"
"If you tell me the truth, I will tell you ours. You can expect a lie otherwise," Kristen replied coolly, her strange eyes boring into his.
"My parents were Remus Lupin the werewolf and Nymphadora Tonks, a metamorphagus. They were killed in the final battle at Hogwarts before I had turned one. I was raised by my grandmother, Andromeda Tonks, formerly Andromeda Black, and by my godfather, Harry Potter." Teddy caught his breath at the end, waiting for their reaction to all that information about his relation to such a well known group of people.
Surprisingly, Kristen seemed to not be phased by this statement. She regarded him calmly, saying, "Our mother is a muggle and she refuses to talk about our father who was a wizard. We don't know his name."
Suddenly, Teddy felt as though he was not as alone as he had always imagined himself to be.