The Potter family car is brand new, a huge BMW seven-seater which still smells like plastic and gives Teddy a headache. Harry steps out from the driver's seat and immediately enfolds Teddy in a hug. Teddy smiles, then winces; his godfather's crazy strong these days from all the Auror-ing, and his beard's scratchy against Teddy's cheek. Harry pulls back just before he cracks any of Teddy's ribs, looks him up and down.
"Head Boy," he smiles. "My godson Teddy, Head Boy."
Teddy shrugs. "I reckon it's nepotism."
A click from one of the car doors, and Albus is rushing out, all knees and elbows, to say hi. Teddy grins, high-fives him, hugs him.
"How're you doing, Albie? You excited?"
Albus screws up his face. "Stop calling me that!"
"When the sky falls in," Teddy insists. Behind him, Gran and Harry begin chatting about their relative pride over Head Boy-related topics. "Are you not excited?"
"What's there to be excited about?" Albus pouts. "I have to spend a whole year alone."
"But you're going to-"
Teddy stops himself. Right in his tracks. Looks down at Albus. Albie's barely eight years old. Teddy blinks. He could have sworn- he could have sworn it was Albus' first year today.
"Teddy!"
Ginny and James, walking over in unison. James is already wearing his robes, looks like he's slept in them. James is eleven. It is James' first year at Hogwarts. Teddy reckons he's mistaken the two or something. Somehow. James is grinning wide as anything, practically bouncing up the driveway.
"Hey!" Teddy says, smiling, trying to cover for his confusion. "Ready for Hogwarts?"
"You kidding? I packed my bags and everything!"
Ginny grimaces. "With enough of Uncle George's pranks to last a year."
Teddy taps one of the many badges on his jacket- the shining silver-and-yellow 'Head Boy' badge. "McG, McG, come in, we got a prankster."
James' eyes widen, until Teddy winks.
"Just keep them in the common room and we're fine."
"What if I'm in Hufflepuff?" James counters.
Teddy bends down and leans in, using all of his ten-inch height difference to get right in James' face.
"Then we feed you to the badgers."
"There's no badgers."
"Not that you know of."
James screws up his eyes and sticks out his tongue. Teddy pokes him on the nose.
"Boop."
Albus giggles.
James looks outraged at this booping, goes to tackle Teddy, who pushes him back a little with a grin, and Ginny takes over before it can become a fight.
"All of you, grab a bag!"
Harry and Ginny each take one side of Teddy's trunk and heft it into the boot while James and Albus busy themselves taking Teddy's guitar and backpack. Albus immediately unzips it to see what's inside.
"Woah, you have a DS?"
"Yeah! Had it since I was-"
"It's so old."
Teddy frowns down at Albus. "No it's not!"
"How old is it?"
"Uh... I got it when I was... nine..?"
"Old." Albus nods decisively. "Plus it's pink."
Teddy snatches up his backpack as he climbs into the back of the car, the cramped two seats that are half in the boot, half out. Albus follows him there.
"What's wrong with pink?" Teddy prompts as he puts on his seatbelt.
"It's a girl colour," Albus insists.
Teddy runs a hand back through his hair (freshly restyled, the sides shaved and the top long and voluminous) and effortlessly shifts it from a sandy brown to his favourite shade of pastel pink. Albus giggles.
"Now you're a girl."
Teddy pokes him in the stomach. "Watch it, littl'un. Pink's a cool colour."
"Says you."
"Says me and my ability to bring back Honeyduke's Honeysuckle Honeycomb."
Albus pauses. Teddy knows where his loyalties lie, and it's with the bi-monthly food packages Teddy sends back to the Potters.
"Pink...is cool," Albus announces, and Teddy nods enthusiastically.
"See how easy it is to be cool when you just do whatever I say?" He asks, smiling at Gran as she takes a seat next to James in front of them. James looks back at Teddy.
"Hey, Teddy?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you play Minecraft?"
As Ginny and Harry groan from the front of the car, Teddy steels himself for a very long drive.
"I'm good, Albie."
"But this one's really good! You play music!" Albus insists, jamming his tablet a little more under Teddy's nose. Teddy smiles, wan. After five different Minecraft parodies of popular music, he was just about ready to jump out of the car.
"I have- homework," he says, pulling a roll of parchment from his backpack.
"You completed your homework in July," Gran comments, because Gran enjoys her grandson's suffering, it seems. Teddy glares at her until she notices him in her periphery. She smiles.
"Turn off the Minecraft thing!" Ginny announces. "We're here."
Harry turns the car into a multi-storey park, and James' nervous leg bouncing turns up a notch. As they make their way to King's Cross, he seems to get more and more concerned.
"Do I have everything?"
"If my toothbrush breaks, do Hogsmeade have more?"
"What if I'm sorted into Slytherin?"
"What if I'm not sorted into any house at all?"
"You'll be fine, dear," Gran assures him. "And if you're sorted into Slytherin, that means you become my favourite Potter."
James looks up at Gran in surprise, almost bumping into some tourists (looking oddly at this gaggle of people in robes, pushing trunks and owls and cats). "Were you in Slytherin, Auntie Andy?"
"I was a Slytherin prefect," Gran replies.
"I don't think I'll want to be a prefect," James replies nervously.
"You sure?" Teddy replies. "Prefects get to tell off all the other kids."
"That sounds boring."
"Ah, it's not all boring." The group looks around. Victoire is standing there, all long blonde hair and sparkling blue-green eyes and sharp smile and beautiful. "I hear we get our own swimming pool." She smiles up at Teddy. "Hiya, Tedward."
Teddy grins and hugs Victoire, as behind him an incredulous Albus cries, "Tedward?"
"Now you've done it," Teddy says. "That's my name for the rest of time."
Victoire laughs. "Good. It suits you."
"It's dumb."
"Exactly."
Teddy smiles. It's good to see Victoire. He's missed her; Shell Cottage has no mobile service and she's been travelling all over the place with her family anyway. Teddy then notices they're being left behind by the group, and the two of them rush to catch up, Teddy pushing his trolley erratically across the concourse.
"Where's the others?" He asks. Victoire jerks a thumb backwards.
"Mum, Dad and Louis went off already, they're catching a Portkey to Svalbard."
"To what now?"
"It's a big island in the Arctic, it has polar bears."
Teddy blinks at her. "And they're taking Louis? He's small enough to be a polar bear snack."
Victoire narrows her eyes. "I can sense a short joke coming."
"Who, me? Never, miss."
Victoire swishes her robes from side to side as they walk on, and Teddy spots a yellow-and-black scarf sticking out of her pocket. "What's that?"
"What's wh- hey!"
Teddy snatches it, inhales the scent; his, for sure, not Dominique's. Victoire reaches out and snatches it back.
"Mine," she says.
"Last I looked, you weren't the Hufflepuff prefect. Congrats, by the way."
"Thanks. You too, Head Boy." Victoire winds the scarf round her neck. "I think the colour scheme is rather nice."
"It's also mine."
"I can tell, your gran put a nametag on it."
Teddy winces, and Victoire laughs.
"It's cool, it's kind of cute. Like your hair."
"Oh!" Teddy can feel his cheeks reddening, he had entirely forgotten. He brushes a hand backwards through his hair until it's back from pink to a sandy brown. He pulls a strand where he can see it just to check. Victoire laughs. She has a loud laugh, but it's kind, and she pulls him into a sideways hug as they start to catch up with the back of the Potter entourage. Teddy notices that Dominique is chatting excitedly to Ginny, her own long Hufflepuff scarf trailing behind her in the air. He smiles at the warmth of Victoire's hug, leans into it. He really has missed her.
By the time they've rejoined the group, they're all rushing at the barrier, and Victoire has an idea; she bundles herself on top of the trolley and points like she's commanding a battalion. Teddy laughs and takes the trolley a little faster than he usually would, rushing the two of them through so fast that he can feel the air whistling by his ears, has to jam his heels down on the other side to keep from hitting a tall man on the other side. The man turns and narrows his eyes.
"Watch it, mate."
"Sorry," Teddy says breathlessly, steering the trolley round. Victoire hops off and helps him unload his trunk, hand it to a porter. Victoire smiles at him.
"See you at the prefect car," she says, and leans in like she's about to tell him a secret, hides them with her long blonde hair— kisses his cheek and grins all sharp and rushes up to follow Dominique onto the train. Teddy stares after her as a porter takes the guitar case from his hands.
"Your hair's pink again."
Teddy looks down at Albus, who is half paying attention, half on his tablet. Teddy inspects a strand- it's almost salmon pink, and he has to concentrate harder than usual to change it at all. He frowns, settles on a turquoise blue.
"Gonna miss you," Teddy says, leaning against the wall with Albus. Albus sniffs.
"Yeah," he says. "Can't wait to go to Hogwarts too."
"It's not long now, it's just two years."
"It feels like forever." Albus sighs. "I'm really bored of primary school."
"Maths is important."
"It's boring. Lily likes it, though. I just want a wand."
"Yeah. Wanna come say bye to James?"
Albus sighs heavily.
"I guess so."
Over with Harry and Ginny, James is both bouncing up and down with excitement and panicking, and Harry looks close to tears with pride.
"You're going to love it, James," Ginny smiles. "And if you do use those pranks on anyone, tell them your Uncle George says they're half-off during term time."
James nods.
Harry points over to the side. "And if you're looking for someone to say hi to on the train, Dominique said she's going to be in the front carriage."
James' eyes widen. "I can't go talk to them, Dad! Dominique hangs out with all of her Quidditch friends, I'd look weird!"
"Well, then, go out there and make new friends." Harry hugs him tight, and so does Ginny, and Teddy notices James kind of wiping his eyes against Ginny's jumper. James pulls back, says his goodbyes to Albus, which involves a lot of high-fives and insistence that one send the other some sort of foodstuff, and then James is up and away. Teddy turns to Harry and Ginny.
"I'll see you guys for Christmas, yeah?"
"Absolutely, Ted. I think we're all off to the Burrow this year." Ginny says. Harry claps a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm proud of you, Teddy," Harry says. His eyes are shining. "Your parents would be proud."
Teddy blinks and uncomfortably starts a hug so he can take a moment to blink away any tears, and then awkwardly says he has to go talk to Gran, and makes his escape.
Gran doesn't like big crowds. She's standing in the shadowy bit of the concourse, watching the crowd intently. Teddy wonders what she's watching for, and then gets the feeling she's looking for her sister. Gran looks over at him, holds him at an arm's-length, stares at him funny.
"Your last year," she says. "Teddy Lupin, Head Boy."
He smiles. "That's me."
"Are you going to write?"
"As often as I can, every week at least."
"And you'll be home for Christmas?"
"Yeah, Gran, of course."
Gran hugs him, tighter than usual, and Teddy drops his head on her shoulder with a sigh. He thinks this isn't really about him leaving— more that after this year, he'll be going on to the world of adulthood. He thinks that scares her. She's raised two people to adulthood. Not much further. He buries his head a little more into her shoulder and closes his eyes—
Her shoulder is not there anymore.
He stumbles forward with her absence, his eyes open, and he is on King's Cross Station, but- not. It's empty. Cold. Dark.
He takes a confused step forward. He can see graffiti tags on the dilapidated brick walls, and it- it really is cold, he rubs his arms and he can feel frost forming against the denim of his jacket. He looks around.
The Hogwarts Express is there. It's not quite present. It's silent, but smoke is still billowing from it; it's solid, but if he views it just right it shimmers and warps, and it looks like it's in ten places at once. He reaches out to it, just as he hears a cry, like a baby, like an animal, and he turns—
"Teddy?"
He's hugging Gran too tight. He gasps, blinks up, can feel his eyes brimming with tears. Something is wrong. Something feels wrong. He's not sure what.
"Sorry, Gran. I'm fine."
Gran smiles.
"I miss them too, love. I miss them too."
Teddy feels nauseous, sick to his stomach. It doesn't feel like the grief he's gotten so used to, but- why not? Things surprise him sometimes.
He inhales. He's fine. All's well.
He hugs Gran again, says his goodbyes over and over as the train whistles, rushes up and into the train and gone, sweeping away in a crimson hulk of metal to Scotland as his family wave to him until they're dots in the distance.
He ignores the churning of his heartbeat, takes a deep breath, and walks to the Prefect's carriage.