Victoire couldn't sleep.

Tomorrow, she was going to Hogwarts for the first time, and she was terrified. Teddy often told her stories about the castle and the people within it. While she had found it exciting over the summer, she was really anxious now. In every story, the castle just sounded so big... there was always somewhere where Teddy hid or got lost, and he would grin and joke about it, but it was alright for him, he was in third year as off tomorrow...

She didn't want to tell Teddy that she was scared, or that she was considering hiding under a rock and not bothering to get onboard the Hogwarts Express at all tomorrow. He was so excited about her coming at last, about having his best friend to explore and get into trouble with. Victoire wished she could be as excited, but the worrying was eclipsing any good feelings she had. It had gotten to the point where she even considered crawling into one of the particularly small hiding places at Grimmauld Place and pretending she'd ran away.

The whole family was staying at The Burrow for the last day of summer, and Rosie and Al had just about talked Teddy's ears off about which house they wanted to be in, and why Teddy shouldn't have chosen Muggle Studies as one of his new subjects.

"You know all about muggles!" Rosie had squeaked in protest, and Al had nodded along to whatever she said, as was the norm.

"But I want to. Stop telling me what to do Rosie-Posie or I might have to tickle you," Teddy had said. She hadn't heeded his warning, so he had proceeded to tickle her until she cried with laughter. Everyone in Victoire's family adored Teddy, and it was easy to see why, what with his cheerful grin and perpetual good moods. Teddy was never concerned about anything.

That's why he was a Gryffindor, she supposed. He was a lot tougher than her.

But Victoire knew that if she told Teddy she was scared, he would worry about her, and she didn't want that. He was so chuffed; it seemed such a shame to spoil it.

She could talk to Dom, she supposed, but she was only nine, and she probably wouldn't be very helpful. Victoire hadn't been helpful when Teddy had been worrying about starting school.

"Vic, are you still awake?" Teddy's voice close by her ear made her jump. She hadn't realised he had snuck into her room. It was pitch-black, and she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face, so she had no idea how Teddy had managed to negotiate around the junk littering the floor of Victoire's room without making a noise.

"Teddy, is that you?" she checked, wondering if she was actually dreaming. Teddy cropped up in her dreams more and more these days.

"Yeah, course it's me! Scoot over," he instructed, and she felt the mattress dip where he threw himself onto it, pulling the covers up over his legs.

"What're you doing in here?" Victoire asked. She immediately felt better with Teddy nearby, as if he could somehow give her some of his courage.

"Can't sleep, I'm too excited! Can you believe you're coming to Hogwarts tomorrow! McGonagall's apparently got some singing troll choir in to welcome the first years, or that's what Benjy Wood told me, but I reckon he was probably having me on, because trolls don't really sing, do they? They sort of point and grunt, so I doubt we'd all want to listen to that! I can't wait to get back; it will be so much fun! Oh, Vic, you've got to come to Quidditch practice! Wait until you see how good the Gryffindor team is; Kevin promised that he wasn't even going to bother holding tryouts again this year, because he says we're way too good! And I will get you on a broom eventually, Vicky... oh, and tomorrow evening I'll show you the giant squid if you want... Vic, is something wrong?" Teddy stopped rambling when he saw the shocked expression on his friend's face.

"I... I... I don't want to go to Hogwarts anymore!" Victoire blurted. Teddy's face fell, and she instantly felt guilty for ruining his mood.

"Why not?" he asked in an injured tone.

"Because... because... I... I'm scared," she admitted.

"Vicky, I was scared when I went," Teddy consoled her, patting the top of her head – it was the first part of her he found in the dark. "You get over it pretty quickly."

"What if... what if I end up in Slytherin? Or what if the hat can't sort me at all? What if I sit there for hours and hours and McGonagall tells me to go home, because I'm not magic enough?" she fretted.

To Victoire's astonishment, Teddy laughed. "Vic, you've already got your letter to Hogwarts, so you know you're magic enough. And do you remember the hair fiasco? You were trying to turn your hair blue like mine, and you accidentally set the sofa on fire. As for being in Slytherin... are you serious? You don't have a mean bone in your body. There's no chance!"

He draped one arm around her shoulders and squeezed her reassuringly.

"And Hogwarts is really cool. Especially Defence Against The Dark Arts. Look what Harry taught me to do in one of his lectures."

Before Victoire could remind him about the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry, Teddy pulled out his wand.

"Lumos," he whispered, and his wand tip lit up.

"Wow!" Victoire whispered, so caught up in the display of Teddy's magic that she momentarily forgot about the law forbidding him to do it.

"And watch this... this is way cooler. I'll teach you soon, but it's apparently really advanced, and Harry had to spend aaages teaching us, and even then, I was the only one that managed it."

He looked determinedly into Victoire's face, and she felt herself blush under the intensity of his gaze.

"Expecto patronum!" he hissed, and something silver shot out of the end of Teddy's wand. Victoire watched, wide-eyed, as the silvery vapour twisted into the shape of a large hawk, which looked sternly at the pair before dissolving into nothingness.

"See?" Teddy asked gleefully, taking in Victoire's impressed look with a grin of satisfaction. "If you don't go to Hogwarts, you'll never be able to do that!"

"That was really cool," Victoire mumbled. "How did you do it?"

Teddy cocked his head to the side as he considered. "Well, you just sort of think of a really happy thing, and concentrate on it. Then you say expecto patronum, and voila! You get a patronus. Everyone's looks different, apparently. Harry did his in class, it's a stag. Ron helped out too; his was a terrier or something like that.

"What does it do?" Victoire asked interestedly.

"It wards off Dementors." Teddy shrugged. "And Lethifolds, according to Harry."

"I wonder what mine will be like..." Victoire mused, pursing her lips. Teddy watched her without comment, unthinkingly drinking in every part of her face. He'd been doing that for a while now.

"That was the first time I ever made it into an animal," Teddy admitted. "The last time, it was just silver smoke."

Victoire looked pleased that he had confessed this to her. She smiled widely at him, before asking another question.

"What memory did you think of in class?"

"Um... the first snitch I ever caught in a Quidditch match. Everyone was cheering..." Teddy trailed off in reminiscence, a triumphant grin on his face.

"But it wasn't strong enough?" Victoire prompted. His smile vanished.

"No."

"Then what did you think about just then?" she asked. Oddly, Teddy opened his mouth, turned bright pink and closed it again.

"Er..."

"Teddy...? What was it? I don't care if it's stupid..." she cajoled him eagerly. Teddy's blush deepened.

"I... um..." he stuttered.

"Oh, just tell me!" she sighed impatiently.

"Well... I just thought about you," he mumbled. Victoire frowned.

"What about me?" she asked.

"Noth-nothing in particular... just you." His face was now a boiling scarlet colour.

"I thought it had to be a memory." There was something almost accusatory about her tone.

"So did I," he confessed. "But then I thought about you, and... maybe it just has to be a happy thought..." he trailed off again, staring at his wand and determinedly avoiding any eye contact with Victoire. She had never seen Teddy blush so much in his life.

"I like being your happy thought," she decided, grinning at her friend. "I bet if I could do it, I'd think of the time when we went to Diagon Alley to get your wand, do you remember? And you tried nearly every single one in Mr Ollivander's shop! Your face was so funny..." She grinned at the memory.

"Yeah, I guess..." Teddy mumbled, his face slowly returning to normal colour.

"Teddy, won't you get into awful trouble for using magic outside of school?" Victoire asked.

Teddy grinned widely, exposing all of his teeth. "Nope!"

"Why?" she demanded, disgruntled that there seemed to be one rule for Teddy and another for the rest of the wizarding world.

"Because the Trace only shows you where magic is being used, not who by! Harry told me that at the same time as he gave me the Marauder's Map. He made me promise not to show that to James, actually, so can you please make sure that he doesn't find out?"

"It's like he's deliberately trying to get you into trouble!" Victoire snapped, narrowing her eyes.

"He is." Teddy shrugged indifferently. "But so what?"

Victoire couldn't think of a response, so she asked a different question.

"So does that mean when there are grown-up wizards around...?"

"Yup. If you do magic, the Ministry think it's them," Teddy declared.

"That's... wicked!" Victoire's grin was almost identical to Teddy's.

"Do you still not want to go to Hogwarts, Vic?" he asked her, concerned. Victoire considered. After what she had just heard, how could she not want to go?

"No, I don't want to go... I have to go!" she squealed excitedly, and Teddy laughed.

"Are you tired yet? Cause I am." She watched as Teddy stifled a yawn.

"A bit," Victoire muttered, her eyelids feeling heavier than they had before. "Want to stay here?" she asked hopefully. Teddy smiled.

"If you insist," he sighed, rolling his eyes. She wondered when he would stop pretending that the idea bothered him.

"I do," Victoire replied, snuggling down into her covers.

Teddy shuffled further down the bed so that his head was on her pillow, and flicked his wand.

"Nox," he whispered, and they were plunged into darkness.

"Cool!" Victoire said.

"Night, Vic."

Victoire lay awake for a few minutes, just thinking. Teddy's light snores were like a soothing rumble in her ear. She was so lucky to have him as her best friend. He always cheered her up... it was daft for her to not want to tell him she was upset.

And she was his thought when he made a patronus! She grinned to herself. She wasn't sure why, but this thought pleased her more than anything else had, even more than seeing Teddy's magic had done. Victoire thought about it, and realised that all of her own happy memories were somehow connected to Teddy.

Well, he was her best friend.

"Night night Teddy," she whispered. "I love you lots."

Teddy snored.