Not my best, I know, but I got really blocked on this, and pretty much threw it together so I could update. I think I'm going to skip forward a couple of years for the next few chapters.
Chapter 7 – Home
"Harry...You know like I have a bedroom at Grandma's...But I have a bedroom here, too...and at Ron and Hermione's...and at Molly and Arthur's...and I stay in lots of people's houses...Well, which place is mine? My home?"
Harry Potter looked down at the boy. He was seven, with dark blue hair and amber eyes, today. And looking at Harry with the kind of trusting expression that scared him a little.
"Um...Well, Teddy...I guess your official home is with your Grandma. But, you know, there always a place for you here, or at Ron and Hermione's, or Molly or Arthur's. You've got lots of homes, I guess, Ted."
"You're only supposed to have one home, though." Teddy stated. Harry hesitated.
"Well...Ah..."
"You get extra homes, Teddy, because we all love you so much." Ginny put in, smiling at the boy. "If your Grandma wasn't nice enough to let us all have you for a little while, we'd all be fighting over you, Kiddo."
Teddy laughed, delighted, and the conversation turned to something else. But later, he found himself thinking that however loved he was, he was still supposed to have only one home.
"OW!" Jake cried loudly, flying sideways and nearly knocking Teddy over. "Watch it, will you?" He yelled after the person who'd bumped into him; but the person was long gone.
"Stupid people." Jake muttered. "You know what's wrong with the world, Teddy-boy?"
"No, what?" Teddy asked, though he had a pretty good idea of what his friend was going to say. He waved at Lainey, who was a few feet away, and began to fight her way across the entrance hall to reach them.
"The people in it. Think about it, Teddy. How great would the world be without any people?"
"People?" Lainey repeated, having just reached them and caught the end of Jake's statement. She narrowed her eyes, looking at him questioningly. "People as in all people, or people as in...muggles?"
Jake looked at her blankly, and nearly tripped over someone's trunk. "People as in them all – magic and muggle."
"Oh." Lainey relaxed, and shifted the owl cage in her hand. "OK, then."
This time, Jake's eyes narrowed. "What, you thought I meant muggles? So I'm a pure-blood muggle-hating maniac now?"
"No – I just -"
"You know Lainey, that's really insulting." Jake said, sounding annoyed. "I have no problem with muggles or muggle-borns – and I'm not even nearly pure-blood. My mum is a muggle, and my dad's dad is muggle-born. My dad's mum is a half-blood. I don't think there's been any "pure" blood in my family for about ten generations, OK?"
Lainey nodded. "OK. I'm sorry." She averted her eyes; and Teddy was thankful Jake chose not to bring up her own family roots. If anyone of them was going to be a muggle-hater, it would have be Lainey, and they all knew that.
"Good." They finally reached the front doors and emerged into sunlight. "Come on, let's find a carriage." Teddy shifted the owl cage he was holding, thinking it would have been easier if he'd just sent his owl ahead of them. The tawny that Hagrid had given him for his eleventh birthday was attempting to sleep, but seemed to be failing, possibly due to the noise around them.
It was beginning of the Eater holidays, and all around them students were dragging trunks and chasing cats, as they attempted to make it out of the castle and into a thestral-drawn carriage. Owls were squawking, people were shouting, and the teachers supervising had given up on trying to regain some kind of order.
"This one's empty." Teddy said, hurrying over to the nearest carriage. The three of them hauled their luggage inside, and clambered in; the carriage began to move.
"Looking forward to the holidays?" Lainey asked brightly as they careered down the slope.
"I guess." Jake shrugged. "My sister'll be doing my head in for the full two weeks, though. All she did over Christmas was ask about Hogwarts."
"See, he moans about her, but he loves her really." Teddy told Lainey, smirking as Jake punched him on the arm.
"What about you, Teddy?" Lainey asked.
"Yeah. It'll be nice to see everyone." Teddy said casually. In truth, he was missing the people he considered family greatly. He didn't remember a time when Victoire Weasley hadn't been by his side. He worried that his Grandma would be lonely without him. He wondered if James and Albus and Rose and the others missed him; he worried that Lily and Hugo would have forgotten him. He couldn't wait to get back and see them all.
"Who's meeting you at the station?" Jake asked. They were near Hogsmeade, now, Teddy noticed.
"Not sure. Could be anyone." Teddy said with a half-smile. He didn't care, really. It would just be nice to see a familiar face.
They pulled up in Hogsmeade station, and the three of them climbed out, dragging their luggage. They found a compartment; several minutes later the train had began to move.
They spent a large part of the journey attempting to come up with their marauder nicknames, without much success.
"I don't know how they did it, Ted." Jake sighed finally. "I don't even know where to start."
"Well, they were already animagi when they came up with the nicknames, weren't they? They just had to come up with names reflecting their animals."
"Maybe we could -" Jake began excitedly.
"No, Jake. No way." Lainey said flatly. "We don't even know how, and we're too young. The ministry wouldn't let us even try -"
"So we do it illegally, like -"
"Jake Cobalt!" Lainey said loudly, shocked. "We are not going to become illegal animagi! That's a serious offence – do you know how much trouble we'd get in?"
"Lainey, they don't throw eleven year olds in Azkaban." Jake said flatly.
"I'm twelve!" Lainey cried. Teddy couldn't take it any longer; he burst out laughing, soon to be joined by Jake, and then, although she tried not to, by Lainey.
"OK," Jake said finally. "No animagi. Fine." Then, smirking, he settled back against his seat. "I'm twelve." He muttered under his breath, shaking his head. "Great comeback."
They passed the rest of the journey practicing spells, playing exploding snap, and trying to plan a new marauder plan, that didn't involve fire in any shape or form.
And then, when the sky had begun to darken, and the three of them had grown tired, the train finally pulled into the station.
Yawning, Teddy pulled down his trunk, and hooked the handle of his owl's cage on his arm. Then he and the others climbed out of the train, and Teddy began to scan the crowd.
Before he'd located anyone familiar, someone small and redheaded collided solidly with him, almost knocking him over.
"Teddy!" Victoire Weasley squealed. Smiling, Teddy hugged her back, and looked over her head to locate the rest of the family. Sure enough, a few feet away, waving and smiling, were his Grandmother, Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Bill and Fleur. And a bunch of kids.
"Teddy? You know this lass, right?" Jake asked, half smiling as Victoire finally released him.
"Yeah, course." Teddy replied. "This is Victoire. Victoire, this is Jake – remember, I told you about him at Christmas – and Lainey."
Victoire smiled at Jake, then looked at Lainey uncertainly. "Um, hi." She said.
"Hi." Lainey said brightly. Victoire deliberately looked away from her. "Uh...That's my mum, over there, so I'll see you guys in a couple of weeks."
"OK – see you." Jake said.
"Bye." Teddy added, and Lainey crossed the station.
"Jake! Look, mum, he's there!" A voice yelled suddenly; looking towards the sound, Teddy saw a young girl waving brightly, holding the hand of a woman he assumed was her mother.
"And there's mine." Jake said, waving. "See you in while, then, Ted."
"'K. Bye, Jake."
And the two boys went their separate ways.
There was a lot of hugging when Teddy reached his lot, and he was forced to pick up little Lily Potter; at just two, she wasn't very heavy, and carrying her meant Harry grabbed his trunk and Ron took his owl.
He was surrounded by Victoire, Dominique, Louis, James, Albus and Rose, with little Hugo chattering loudly from his mother's arms. They were so loud and noisy that several people turned to look, but Teddy barely noticed. This was how he was supposed to be; part of big, noisy crowd.
"Grandma, can Victoire sleep over tonight?" Teddy asked, as they reached the car park.
"If her parents say yes." Andromeda replied lightly.
"Please dad?" Victoire asked instantly. Bill Weasley – who'd never mastered the art of saying "no" to any of his children, nodded. And so Victoire climbed into the back of Andromeda's car with Teddy; the others climbed into their own cars and departed.
"Teddy?" Victoire said, after a few minutes silence. "That girl at the station – Lainey – is she...your girlfriend?"
"What? No – no, she's not." Teddy said quickly. "She's just a friend. Who happens to be a girl. But she's not my girlfriend. Just my girl...uh...friend."
"Oh." Victoire visibly relaxed. "OK, then."
Teddy looked at her curiously, but didn't ask questions.
He was almost asleep when they finally got home; he changed quickly, and climbed straight into bed, falling asleep in seconds.
--
The next morning, Teddy found himself in the Burrow, surrounded by Weasley grandkids, all of who wanted to hear stories of Hogwarts.
"Tell us about the fire, Teddy!" Victoire said suddenly; Teddy fought a smirk when he saw his grandmother and Harry exchanging looking.
"Uh, Teddy, actually I need to talk to you." Harry interrupted. Teddy simply nodded and followed Teddy into the kitchen – he'd been wondering when he'd get this talk.
Sure enough, Teddy spent ten minutes listening as Harry explained that they knew Teddy didn't mean to do it, but fire was extremely dangerous, and someone would have been hurt. He told him that it was a very irresponsible thing to do, and made him promise he'd never play with fireworks, or fire in any form, ever again.
And then Teddy was let back into the living room, where he was once again surrounded by his surrogate family.
Finally, with James tugging his sleeve and talking, Victoire sat beside him, all the other kids around him, and the Weasley adults scattered around, along with his grandmother, Teddy felt like he was finally home.
The house didn't matter to him; it was these people that were important in him.
A home is defined by the people in it.
