Author's note: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Hogwarts: Assignment #7, Sociology, Task #4 Write about someone changing their clothes/appearance to fit in a group.

Warnings: NA

Chaos, Murder, Mayhem, and Christmas

Teddy had been to Weasley birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weddings, baby showers, Easter suppers, weekly Sunday night suppers, and a panoply of other functions that turned promotions, successful Quidditch seasons, good shop reviews in The Prophet, retirements, and graduations into full-flown banquets, feasts, and celebrations. Teddy figured that after going through what they'd all gone through during the war, the Weasleys all agreed that any reason to get together, catch up, celebrate, and spread around some joy was a good reason. Still: nothing had prepared him for a Weasley family Christmas.

Wrapping paper: everywhere.

Decorations: everywhere.

Food: everywhere.

Younger cousins and children: screaming.

Celestina Warbeck: the loudest Teddy had ever heard her.

Uncles George and Charlie: tipsy and singing along.

In the quickly written custody agreement that had been arranged for Teddy after the war, somehow it had been agreed that Gran would have him for Christmases and Harry would have him for Easters. This made little sense to Teddy since Christmas was a bit of a sore spot for Gran given her complicated family history and, at any rate, she had converted to Judaism after marrying his namesake. She always got him a Christmas present so he didn't feel left out, and she made cinnamon buns, but really a Tonks family Christmas wasn't quite relevant. This year, Gran had asked him if he'd be okay being shipped off to Harry's for the day. Shifts at St. Mungo's paid time-and-a-half on Christmas Day, after all, and Gran had been asked to come out of retirement and take a shift by a friend who really did have Christmas plans.

So, yeah. Teddy had had no way of anticipating that it would be like this. He had turned his hair a nice pine green colour to try and get into the season and Gran had sent him into the world with a plate of cookies because she didn't like him turning up empty-handed to places, but he was sure that his grandmother wouldn't have been able to imagine this either.

He was helping Victoire pick tinsel out of her hair after she'd been caught in some sort of a falling Christmas tree situation—probably brought to you by Jamie and Roxanne, a dangerous pair if there ever was one. In exchange, she was feeding him pieces of fudge.

"Is it always..?" Teddy hazarded

"Like this?" Victoire asked. "Well, Uncle George and Uncle Charlie started spiking coffee earlier than they usually do, but yes. Also, I think they got Uncle Harry to join in this year too. He's being far more chatty than he usually is."

Teddy tried scanning the room for his godfather and found him sitting by the fire with Ron and Hermione, Lily sitting on his knee and self-entertaining with a set of paper dolls she'd gotten. He was telling some story with uncharacteristically broad and sweeping hand gestures and a silly perma-grin on his face as he did.

"Wow," Teddy said, shaking his head.

"You haven't even seen Christmas dinner yet," Victoire said. "That's something."

"How on Earth do you handle this?" Teddy asked.

"Lots of nice walks outside in the snow," Victoire said. "There are snowshoes in the broom closet we can try out. We could bring some of the more relaxed cousins with us—maybe Lily and Molly?"

"This sounds good," Teddy said. He untangled the last piece of tinsel from Victoire's hair and handed it to her. In exchange, she threw back a piece of fudge that he somehow managed to catch in his mouth.

Victo laughed.

"I'll go find Molly," Victoire said. "She usually hides in the kitchen."

"Reasonable girl," Teddy said.

"Stay put," Victoire ordered before weaving her way across the chaotic living room and to the kitchen, as only the oldest cousin of this sprawling clan would be able to.

Teddy slumped over and leaned his chin on his hand as he watched the scene. There was so much to look at—cousins breaking out and playing with new toys, Grandpa Arthur playing with an electronics kit designed to teach Muggle children about science that Hermione had gotten him with Rose's help, Ginny bouncing baby Fred on her knee and trying to show him to babble along to Christmas carols, Bill playing checkers with Al on their new board, Hugo colouring the walls with his new markers which maybe Teddy should point out as a potential problem… as if there wasn't enough stimulus in the room, everyone was wearing a colourful woollen sweater, each in their own colour, with initials standing loud and proud against their chests. There were pine greens, mustard yellows, magentas, navy blues, hot pinks, Chudley Cannon oranges… Victoire, as she walked back to him, was pulling on her own sweater—a nice, saffron garment whose colour made the golden hues of her hair pop, with a royal blue fleur-de-lys pattern at the collar.

"Alright, operation escape is a go," she said. "Apparently Molly is upstairs, hanging out with Dominique in Aunt Ginny's old room, so I'm going to go find her. Don't move."

Teddy nodded along and, true to his word, didn't move. He just watched the scenery around him, which was made particularly more interesting when Charlie emerged from the kitchen with a plate of dainties that he immediately dropped. Teddy was watching intently as everyone with a wand both taunted the furiously blushing Charlie and helped him straighten up his mess. So intently that he missed Grandma Molly coming to sit next to him. The new shawl draped around her shoulders brought out the last few red hairs that remained in her silver chignon, and she looked over the mess before her with a kind of content look he had never seen her look at a mess with before.

"Hello dear," she said, reaching out and rubbing circles against his back.

"Hi Grandma Molly," he said. "Happy Christmas."

"And to you too, dear," she said. "That's actually what I came to sit with you to talk about. Close your eyes and hold out your hands."

Teddy hesitated but he did, and something soft with a nice, comforting weight to it was plopped down in his hands. He opened his eyes and smiled at the present she'd given him, wrapped in wrapping paper dotted with singing little angels.

"I only found out a few days ago that you'd be joining us, so I didn't have time to put together your present and send it over to Harry and Ginny's like I did with their own children's gifts," Grandma explained. "But I thought that that would be okay; I would just give it to you in person like I give my children theirs."

Teddy blushed.

"I didn't bring you anything," he explained awkwardly.

"Of course you did, you brought yourself," she said, pinching his cheek. "It's a treat to have you around for Christmas. Now open it up!"

Teddy did, and smiled at the deep, grape purple sweater that was on his lap. He picked it up and unfolded it, and smiled at the big 'T' in bright Hufflepuff yellow that had been worked onto the front of the sweater.

Grandma Molly was looking at him, beaming, and Teddy beamed back.

"I… I don't know what to say," Teddy said.

"Well, put it on and tell me how it fits," Grandma Molly said. "That way I know what to do differently next year. You're in my rotation, now."

Teddy grinned and slipped the sweater on over the Holyhead Harpies t-shirt he'd arrived in.

"It fits perfectly," he admitted.

Grandma Molly looked pleased with herself. She got up and started tugging the sweater this way and that so that it would rest properly against Teddy's spindly frame. He looked up so that she wouldn't see his silly little grin, and made eye contact with Harry across the room. Harry was smiling one of his rare, big smiles. He winked and mouthed 'Merry Christmas' to Teddy. Teddy winked back and then Grandma Molly straightened up, hands on her hips to assess her work.

"There you are," she said. "Now you'll fit in properly for a Weasley Christmas—and you'll have something to keep you warm when Victoire drags you out to snowshoe."

"Thank you," Teddy said, trying to think of how he could make the words as thankful as he was. Grandma Molly seemed to understand, probably because Teddy wasn't her first stray. She patted his cheek and turned back into the chaos of the living room, evaluating her options for a moment before she went to sit next to Arthur as he tinkered with a screwdriver and some wires.

Victoire re-emerged, bundled up to go outside. She handed Teddy his own winter coat.

"She got you too, huh?" Victoire grinned.

"Yeah," Teddy nodded. "Yeah, she really did."

Stacked with: Hogwarts; Shipping War; Spring Bingo; Link Maker; Chimera Creator

Word Count: 812

Spring Bingo

Space (Prompt): 1D (Purple)