Disclaimer: See first chapter.

A/N: Guess what the weather's like.

4. Thunder

2006

Emma runs in without knocking and Teddy wakes with a gasp. In the darkness, she is a small figure against the door and he wonders if goblins have taken to house-breaking. The rain beats against his window, the wind hammering so hard that he's worried the pane might smash.

"Hel-hello?" he stammers.

"Teddy?"

Her voice is small and almost inaudible against the storm raging outside.

"What do you want, Pipsqueak? You just gave me the fright of my life!"

Emma pads across the room, her steps silent on the wooden floor in her yellow socks. They clash with the pink of her pyjamas. "There's thunder."

Teddy groans. "Go and wake Nana up."

Their parents are holidaying privately in Prague, leaving Andromeda in the role of live-in babysitter. Emma is both a little in awe of her and absolutely terrified of her. Her father is always understanding, having had the same fear as a child, but she knows her mother rolls her eyes and that Andromeda will probably think she's ridiculous and send her back to bed.

Emma frowns. "No. Can I sleep in your bed?"

"No."

Ignoring him, she climbs in, wrapping the duvet around her and nestling into his pillow. Teddy only gawps at her.

"Thank you, Ted."

"I said no. You can't just get into bed with people who say no. You get sent to prison."

Emma's frown lines deepen. "Well, you can't tell your little sister she can't get into bed with you when there's thunder outside or you'll be sent to prison."

Teddy raises his eyebrows. "Oh really?"

"Yes. It's the law."

Teddy sighs. "Do not wriggle. You wriggle and you're straight out of this bed."

Emma pulls the duvet up to her chin. "I don't wriggle."

"Em, you are a serial wriggler. Now lie still and shut up." He turns over in bed, remembering sharing his bed with a wriggler when he himself was Emma's age and scared of the dark. He wonders why his mother puts up with it.

Just as he's drifting off to sleep, thinking that his sister is unusually compliant with his wishes for a peaceful night and leg without bruises, she shrieks at the sound of the thunder clap and grips his arm with her short stubby fingers.

"Ouch! Emma, let go. Let go."

Emma does as she's told, whimpering next to him like he's kicked her. Teddy sighs and with a roll of his eyes, throws back the covers and kneels beside the bed, pulling out a cardboard box from underneath it. He rummages through it in the dark and laughs almost triumphantly as his fingers find the fabric spines.

"Here," he says, holding the powder blue plush dragon out to her. "This is Toby. He used to stop me being scared."

Emma giggles. "Toby the dragon?"

Teddy shoots her a look. "Yeah. Toby the dragon. Anyway, be nice to him. Don't jab your fingers in him or anything." He climbs into bed and shuffles as far away from her legs as he can. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she murmurs. "I love you, Ted."

Teddy doesn't answer her for a little while. He tells himself he doesn't like her every time she tattles on him or eats the biscuit kept back for him or every time she doesn't do as he says, but she climbs trees with him and follows him about the house like a short and girly shadow. Teddy beams up at the ceiling.

"I love you too, Pipsqueak."

But she's asleep. Teddy can't help but see this as the crowning achievement of his life thus far. His smile grows slowly broader until he feels the mattress shift beneath him, the pillow slide slowly out from under his head, the duvet roll over his body until it covers less than half of him.

"Are you wriggling?"

Emma says nothing, but the creak of the mattress as she tosses and turns in her sleep, answers for her.

"I knew you would."