I have finished writing Book 1.


Now that Halloween had passed, Christmas was just around the corner. Teddie was excited about the big holidays because she got to go home. A week before the end of term, Professor McGonagall came around with two lists: Going Home and Staying at Hogwarts. She found Teddie and friends down on the Quidditch pitch with Marcus and friends, testing out proper brooms in replacement of the school ones.

Daphne had opted out of the chance, preferring to keep her feet safely on the ground. Theo and Blaise, who had been on broomsticks since they were old enough, were naturals while Teddie was a little unsure. She'd never flown before, not even in an Aeroplane, so she was unsure of how to do so with a broom. Sure, Madam Hooch had shown her the basics, but Marcus' broom was a lot stronger and more powerful than the simple school broom.

Teddie squeaked as Marcus hovered a few feet off the ground. She was sitting in front of him, clutching the broom handle for grim death.

"Open your eyes, Teddie," Marcus chuckled. "You're okay."

"No, Marcus, I don't like it," Teddie said, shaking her head. "Please, take me back down."

"Okay," Marcus said. He dipped forward slightly and shot back towards the ground.

Teddie sighed in relief as she slid from the broom and landed on her feet beside Daphne. If they had done this before the troll had got into Hogwarts, and dropped her from twelve feet, then maybe her reaction would've been a little different. But there was something about crashing twelve feet to the floor that made her really nervous about being up high.

"There you are!" Professor McGonagall called, striding onto the pitch. "I've been looking for you four all over the castle."

"Sorry, Professor," Teddie apologised.

Professor McGonagall waved her off, and then pulled the two rolls of parchment from inside her robes along with a quill. "Now, who is staying for the holidays, and who is going home?" she asked.

"I'm going home," Teddie said. "I've already made plans with my brother over the holidays."

Professor McGonagall nodded and added Teddie's name to the Going Home parchment. She then turned to the rest of Teddie's friends. By the time she had received all their answers, her Going Home list was almost full.

"There'll be hardly anyone left in the castle," said Daphne, as Professor McGonagall left. "I manage to catch a glimpse of Potter and Weasley's name on the staying parchment, but Malfoy is going home."

"I'd say that is a good thing," Teddie said. "It means Potter will have a quiet holiday. I noticed that Malfoy likes to pick on him too."

Daphne nodded in agreement.

Teddie shivered and looked up at the sky. Theo and Blaise flew overhead and she smiled, but in the distance, she could see clouds rolling in. She pointed this out to Daphne and they both clambered to their feet, wandering over to Marcus.

"We should get inside," Teddie said, shivering. "Those clouds don't look friendly."

Marcus agreed and called the two first years and his friends back to the ground. He may not have been a Prefect but he was a Quidditch Captain, and that was similar status as a Prefect. The only difference being that he couldn't dock points from other students.

Upon reaching the Entrance Hall, the friends found their path blocked by a giant fir tree. Teddie reached forward and stuck her head through the branches. "Hi," she grinned, looking up at Harry and Ron as they stood on the other side.

Ron jumped and Harry chuckled.

Withdrawing, Teddie and friends eased their way around the fir tree and found that Harry and Ron weren't alone in the Entrance Hall. Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Crabbe, and Goyle were also present.

"Oh," Teddie moaned. "It's you lot."

Parkinson glared at Teddie. Choosing to ignore her, Teddie looked up at the giant fir tree and then across at Hagrid, the gamekeeper. "Do you need any help?" she asked.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks," said Hagrid.

"Is that going to be Hogwarts' Christmas tree?" Teddie asked.

"One of them, yes," Hagrid said.

Teddie's eyes widened. "One of them?" she asked. "How many do you have?"

"Why don't you come with me an' see?" Hagrid asked, smiling. He carried the tree into the Great Hall and looked back as Teddie followed. He stepped aside, revealing the room to her.

Teddie gasped as she surveyed the Hall. It looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all over the walls and new fewer than twelve Christmas trees stood around the room, some were already sparkling with tiny icicles, while others glittered with hundreds of candles.

"Pretty, eh?" Hagrid asked, beaming at the magical look on Teddie's face.

"It's beautiful," Teddie whispered. She spotted Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall waving their wands, and hang up several different decorations all over the hall.

"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree - put it in the far corner, would you?" Professor McGonagall said, waving her hand in the direction that she wanted the tree. Hagrid nodded and shuffled away.

Teddie watched as Professor Flitwick followed him, his wand ready. She run after him and stopped short so that she wouldn't crash into him. "Professor," she said. "Can I help?"

Professor Flitwick looked surprised. "Help?" he asked. "You wish to help, Miss Green?"

"My brother and I always decorate our tree at home," Teddie said. "It's not nearly as big as this one, but we have a lot of fun. Most of our decorations are handmade, so we have a lot of trips down memory lane when we're sorting through boxes."

Professor Flitwick smiled at the first year. He waved his wand and several boxes full of decorations appeared in front of the tree. "If you need help, you let me know, Miss Green," he said.

"Thank you, Professor," Teddie said. She dived into the nearest box and pulled out a stream of silver tinsel.

"Have fun," Flitwick laughed. He turned and toddled away to help Professor McGonagall on the other side of the hall.

Teddie's friends approached her.

"You're going to decorate the whole tree?" Blaise asked. "Without magic?"

"Yeah, why, don't you decorate the tree at home?" Teddie asked.

Blaise shook his head. "That's what the house elves are for," he said. "They do it with magic. It's faster."

"Also boring," Teddie said. "Come on," she threw a garland of holly at him and grinned. "I'm going to show you how fun it is to do things the Muggle way." She turned to Harry and Ron. "Do you want to help?" she asked them.

Harry looked guilty. "We'd love to, but we're on our way to the library," he said.

"The library?" Daphne asked. "School's over for the holidays. Why do you need to go to the library?"

Harry hesitated and glanced at Ron. He was shaking his head, furiously.

"You don't have to tell us," said Teddie. "But, if you tell us your secret, we'll tell you ours."

"What could you know that we'd be interested in?" Ron asked.

Theo glared at him. "We know plenty about this castle that you probably don't," he retorted.

"It's okay, Theo," said Teddie, putting her hand on his arm. She looked at Ron. "For your information, Ronald, we happen to know what's being hidden on the third floor."

Harry's eyes widened and he leaned in close. "You know about Fluffy?" he asked.

"Fluffy?" Daphne repeated. "You're telling me that dog has a name?"

"Yeah, he's Hagrid's," Harry said, nodding. "How did you find out about Fluffy?"

"Theo and I stumbled across him the day of our first flying lesson," Teddie said. "We had just come from visiting your friend Neville in the Hospital Wing, and the stairs moved, We got into the room after Filch chased us down a corridor. It happened to be the room that Cerberus was in."

"We think he's guarding something," Harry said. "We don't know what it is, but we think it has something to do with the break-in at Gringotts a few months ago."

Teddie and her friends exchanged looks. They remembered the article in the Daily Prophet, but they hadn't thought too much about it, and they hadn't connected it to the Cerberus upstairs, either.

"So, what, you're going to the library to try and figure out what it's guarding?" Theo asked. "How do you propose you're going to do that? It could be anything."

"We know it has something to do with Nicholas Flamel," said Harry. "Hagrid let that much slip after the Quidditch match last month. But neither we nor Hermione know of this Nicholas Flamel, I've heard his name somewhere before, but I can't think of where."

"I really want to decorate this tree," Teddie said. "But I'll see if I can find anything in my books over Christmas. My brother loves to read, if I tell him I'm looking for something and I need his help, he'll jump at the chance to get his hands on my school books."

Harry nodded. "Hermione's going home for Christmas, Ron and I are staying, we're going to keep looking over the holidays," he said.

"I can check my parent's library," said Daphne. "There should be something there. My father has books on just about everything magical."

Harry grinned.

"Great. Can we go now?" Ron asked Harry.

Harry nodded and waved his goodbyes to the Slytherins, and left the Hall.

Teddie turned back to the Christmas Tree and grinned. "How about a Slytherin themed Christmas Tree?" she asked her friends.

They grinned and got to work.

~X~

The night before they were set to return home, Teddie sat with Theo in front of the Slytherin common room fireplace, opposite them sat Marcus and Adrian. Marcus and Theo had been playing a game called Wizard Chess for the last half hour, while Teddie and Adrian watched. Marcus was really good at chess, but Theo was just that little bit better.

"Checkmate," Theo said, ending the game.

Marcus stared at the board and then looked up at Theo. He couldn't believe he had lost to the first year. "How did you do that?" he asked. "I was sure I had you four plays ago."

"My uncle taught me how to play chess," Theo said, leaning back in his seat. Teddie curled up beside him, her head resting on his shoulder. "He taught me to always think four plays ahead."

"You should play Mason," said Teddie. "He's really good at chess."

"You have chess in the Muggle world?" Adrian asked.

Teddie nodded. "Yeah, but you have to manually move the pieces yourself," she said.

"Do you know how to play?" Theo asked.

"I know the basics but I could never get through a full game," Teddie answered. "Mason never asks me to play him anymore, he knows that I get bored halfway through."

Adrian leaned forward and grabbed the goblet of pumpkin juice from the table between him and the first years. "So, what does the great Teddie Green get up too when she's bored?" he asked.

"What, aside from fighting?" Teddie teased. She grinned as Adrian shot her a look. "I'm just kidding. I like swimming, climbing trees, skateboarding, and playing football."

Marcus, Theo, and Adrian exchanged confused looks.

"What were those last two?" Marcus asked.

"Skateboarding and Football," Teddie repeated. "Football is kind of like Quidditch, except there is one goal and one ball. There are two teams of eleven players, and they have to kick a black and white ball between themselves, protect it from the other team, and then score in the opposing teams net."

"What about the bludgers?" Adrian asked.

Teddie shook her head. "No bludgers," she said. "You just have to make sure that the opposing team doesn't get the ball from you, and score in your net. That's the job of the goalie."

"And you're on a team?" Theo asked.

"Yeah, there are two teams in Spinner's End - my team is the Spinner's End Hydra's - are named after the Hydra monster in Greek Mythology. Despite having many heads, it worked as one body to defeat its enemies, and even though it was tricked by Hercules who eventually killed it, the heads still worked as one, and that's what a good team does," Teddie explained. "It's not about one individual player, it's about working together as a team."

"What's the other team's name?" Adrian asked, intrigued.

"The Spinner's End Chimeras," Teddie answered. "They're named after the Greek Mythical creature, the Chimera, again they work together as a team, just like the many body parts of the chimaera, but they're a group of older boys and they often play roughly. I hate playing against them. I'm the smallest on my team, and they try to intimidate me all the time."

"Does Mason play?"

Teddie nodded. "There's a junior team, too," she said. "They don't play with the bigger kids and are called the Spinner's Kittens. They're a group made up of six to nine-year-olds, and are a mix of both boys and girls'."

"What about the skateboarding?" Theo asked.

"That's all about balance," Teddie explained. "It's a board about yay-big," she gestured with her hands, "and it has four wheels on each side. Basically, you stand on the board and use your body as balance, and just move around the streets with it. If you feel comfortable, you can do tricks too. There's this kid, John, in my street, he taught me how to ride a skateboard. It's fun, and it hurts when you hit someone with it."

"Teddie!"

Teddie fell back into the leather sofa, giggling.

~X~

That night, Teddie found herself staring at the canopy of her bed. She could hear her roommates light breathing all around her and she smiled, in a few hours, she was going to be seeing her brother again. Throwing back her covers she slipped out of bed, into her slippers, and padded across the room to the door.

The common room was quiet, not that she expected any different at two in the morning, but she was surprised to find that it wasn't empty.

"Hey," Teddie said quietly.

Theo looked up from the fireplace and smiled as she sat beside him. "What are you doing awake?" he asked.

"Couldn't sleep," Teddie answered. "You?"

"Same."

"What's keeping you awake?"

"Just thinking about tomorrow," Theo said. "I can't wait to see my mum, but I don't really want to see my dad. Is that bad?"

Teddie cocked her head to the side. She remembered when Theo had told her that his father could be scary at times, she hadn't pressed him at the time but now she couldn't help but feel curious as to why Theo would fear his father so bad.

"He won't be happy that we're friends, you know," said Theo. "My father believes in all the Pureblood supremacy. He won't like that you're a Muggleborn, that you're in Slytherin, or that I chose you as my friend."

"It's not for your father to choose," Teddie said.

"I know, but he'd expect me to be friends with people like Malfoy," said Theo. "He'd expect me to hate you, and call you things like mud -" he cut himself off, unable to let the word pass his lips.

Teddie took his hand and turned him to face her. "What do you think?" she asked.

"You're my friend, Teddie," Theo said. "I don't want to lose you."

"Then you won't lose me," Teddie said. "Despite what your father thinks, I'm not going to let you be sucked into that pureblood supremacy crap. If you want to be my friend, then you be my friend. Not your dad, not Malfoy, you."

Theo smiled and lay back on the sofa. "I'm glad I met you on the platform, Teddie," he said, "and let you sit with me on the train. I know I wasn't very welcoming, but you didn't turn away from me."

"I have a knack of getting under people's skin," Teddie said. "In both good and bad ways."

Theo chuckled.

Teddie smiled. "There's that smile I love," she said.

"Thanks, Teddie."

Teddie lay her head against his shoulder. "No problem," she said.

"I'm guessing you're awake because you can't wait to see Mason, huh?"

"Yeah," Teddie grinned. "I've missed him so much these past few months. I love getting letters from him, but I can't wait to hug him."

Silence enveloped them, it was broken only by their light breathing and the crackling of the flames in the fireplace.

"I'm going to miss you over the Holidays," Theo said.

"Why don't you come visit?" Teddie asked. "My parents won't mind. I would offer to come to you, but if your father isn't going to approve of our friendship, I don't think he'd approve of me being in your house."

Theo shook his head. "Do you really think your parents wouldn't mind?" he asked.

"Of course not!" Teddie said. "They'll be excited to meet my new friends. They only met you briefly on the platform. Tell you what, why don't we ask Blaise and Daphne to come, too? That way we'll all be together."

"Sounds fun," Theo said.

Teddie grinned and hugged him. "We should try and get some sleep, though," she said. "We don't want to sleep in tomorrow and miss the train back home."

Theo chuckled and nodded in agreement. He stood from the sofa and pulled Teddie by the hand. The two headed back to their dormitories and separated ways at the bottom of the staircase.

"Goodnight, Teddie,"

"Goodnight."