AN: I'm hoping to add more Teddy-centric content soon. Thanks.

"I heard about what happened with the boy on the train. I couldn't see it in time, or else I would've intervened. I hope that this can be a lesson to teach you not to draw your wand out of emotion. Maybe keep it tucked in the bottom of your bag for the next couple of weeks.

Albus has been having some problems the last couple of months, mostly anxiety related to school. I'm starting to get seriously worried about Al. Could you drop by and have a word with him? I'm sure hearing some words of encouragement from his big sister would cheer him up. He's just as apprehensive about being in Slytherin as you were when you were eleven.

I hope you've opened my present by now. I'm sure you took one look at it and determined it was just a ratty old book, but I'll have you know that there's some good information on potions in there. I hope you can try and learn a lot from it. It's probably the only reason I passed my NEWTs.

Also, please don't pitch yourself off the Astronomy Tower. I don't want to have to be the one to come over there and scrape you off the ground."

Harry was considering erasing the last part. He ran his hand over his forehead absently. Sometime, he swore he had phantom pains in his scar. Ginny had reassured him time and time again that he was fine, perhaps nothing more than sinus pain was afflicting him. He visited the clinic at the aurors' office but even they cleared him and said he looked fine. Harry scoffed at the idea of wasting galleons just to be told that he had insomnia.

"Hey, are you three coming in or what?" Ginny called out into the yard. It was the Potters turn to house-sit the Burrow while Molly and Arthur were on their annual trip to Romania to see Charlie, though the Granger-Weasley gang had tagged along to keep them company. Ron was busy helping to set the table, though was more of a nuisance than anything.

"Did Uncle Harry ever tell you about when Lena broke my face? God, still haven't gotten back at her for that." Teddy mused, resting his borrowed broomstick inside the door of the Burrow. Lily Luna and Hugo were in his pursuit. "She's not going to live it down, though."

"I heard you fell thirty feet because of it." Hugo mentioned.

"Yeah, but I didn't hit the ground. I'm sure Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny have more interesting quidditch stories, though."

"I'm assuming you're all capable of making your own sandwiches, yes? We can have something more substantial for dinner." Hermione asked. She had tasked it upon herself to do the grocery shopping despite her busy work schedule and the offers of the others while the family was staying there. She had already made it clear that she was staking her claim as the leader of the house.

"Auror work?" Teddy asked curiously, looking over his godfather's shoulder.

Harry looked up at the boy. If he had taken his glasses off, he could've mistaken his for a younger Remus with black hair. He sounded too much like a younger version of his father that it was startling. "Yeah, you can thank your mum for that, by the way." Harry folded up the letter.

"When's her baby due again?" Lily Luna asked.

"I dunno. Just about any day now, I think." Teddy said, smoothing out the girl's hair. She was a ginger and a spitting image of Ginny herself, though a bit more girlish than Ginny had prepared herself for. She was less quidditch-ly inclined than her brothers, but she loved it nonetheless. Her broomstick was muchtaller than she was. Her parents let her graduate to a better model at her last birthday, though Ginny seemed more enthused than Harry was. At least she wasn't crashing into the sides of the house anymore.

"Are you and Tori gonna have babies one day?"

"Uh, no." Teddy shook his head. "Not in a million years."

"Lily, I told you that you need to put on sunscreen before you go outside." Harry sighed. "You're as fair skinned as your mother, it'll blister you out there."

His daughter's face was a flushed red. She gave him a big grin. "I'm okay! Oh, look, Teddy said my front tooth got loose when I fell down!" She gestured to her wiggling tooth with her tongue.

Harry nodded apprehensively. "You fell?"

"Off her feet, not her broomstick." Teddy added quickly. He knew how overprotective Harry could be with his kids, sometimes even going as far as to project it onto Teddy and Elena. "But it was pretty loose to begin with. Maybe Uncle Ron could pull it for you if you want."

Lily cringed, turning to her smiling uncle. "Ewww."

Harry chuckled, dropping his quill on the table. "Be careful out there, Lily, someone might mistake you and Teddy to be twins."

Lily thought for a second. "That'd be a lot of fun. I wish I could change my hair whenever I wanted. I'd make it pink like Auntie Dora's."

"Mum was talking the other day about some work she had in Diagon Alley. Apparently there was a string of burglaries in the past couple of weeks?" Teddy mentioned. "Or a string of reports anyways."

"Beginning of the school year, the streets are crowded. People get the idea that they can act however they want." Ron brought up.

Harry took a second look at Teddy. He was in bad need of a hair cut, and a few extra hours of sleep wouldn't have hurt him. "Did your lip hurt much?" Teddy touched his bottom lip. It was still a bit swollen from his new piercing. This now came to a grand total of three on each ear, plus the single one he got to match Victoire, the closed up one of his nose, the one in his eyebrow, and now one in his lip.

"Hugo, Lily, can you go wash your hands please?" Hermione asked. Hugo stalked off the the bathroom, but his counterpart stayed to listen.

"Don't tell me you did this one yourself, did you?" Harry coaxed.

"Okay, then I won't." Teddy said bluntly.

"Teddy-"

"They're expensive and I don't have money, but I have the needles so I did it myself, it wasn't that bad!"

"Can you pierce my ears?" Lily Luna wondered though she was ignored. Harry gave his godson a disapproving look.

"I clean almost it three times a day, it's not going to get infected." Teddy said frankly. "It's not like a gave myself a stick and poke."

There was a moment of silence.

"Teddy, did you give yourself a stick and p-"

"Even if I did-"

"Teddy!"

"What's a stick and poke?" Lily wondered. She looked to her father, but his head was in his hands.

"A tattoo." Harry mumbled. "And does your mum know about all of this?"

Teddy treading carefully around the topic. "Yes, she knows that I gave myself a tattoo and she said as long as it's not on my face, neck, or hands, it's okay."

Harry nodded. "And what did you give yourself?"

Teddy rolled up his sleeve so that he could both see. It was a short collection of symbols right below his elbow. "I got the design from Ancient Runes."

"You did translate it, right?" Harry wondered. "It is appropriate, right?"

"Yeah, I thought really long and hard about it and I knew the only thing I wanted was a tattoo that just says, 'fuck' but in a dead language—Harry, it's just the school motto."

"Hands, might want to go wash them." Ginny persuaded her daughter, who was giggling at her cousin's swearing. Lily finally agreed and trailed up the stairs. Ron was trying to hide his own smile at the boy's antics. Harry just looked increasingly worried by the second. "So, Teddy, Bill said you and Victoire have a date set for the wedding, yeah?"

"Yeah. The middle of next June." Teddy nodded. He dodged his aunt and made his way over to the counter to fix his lunch.

"Any ideas on what you're going to do?" Ginny wondered.

"Nah, I thought I'd leave it up to her to pick out all the big things. I'm not too picky." Teddy shrugged. "Fleur or Mum'll both want a say in it and I don't mind all that much."

"You say that now." Ginny rolled her eyes. "Our mum was nearly insufferable with all of our weddings."

Teddy nodded. "It's not that big of a deal for me. I just want Victoire to be happy. That'd be fine with me."

"Have you heard back from your job applications?" Hermione wondered.

"Yeah, a few of them got in touch with me. They're done with their summer internship program, but they're starting training for their curse breakers. I think my name was on the bottom of the list because I didn't spend the summer over there, but they owled me and said I got accepted. So thanks, everyone, for all your recommendations."

"So you're going to be a curse breaker now, huh?" Ron wondered.

"Maybe, I dunno." Teddy shrugged. "I'll figure it out eventually."

Hermione pursed her lips. "You don't have to do things just to make people happy-"

"'Mione-" Ron stopped her.

"No, it's okay." Teddy shook his head, having a seat at the table. "I know I don't. I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to figure out what I want to do. I'll either like it or I won't. I can always try again somewhere else at the D.M.L.E. My test scores were all pretty good."

"I know the Prophet is always looking for people in the mail room, should anything happen in the future." Hermione said thoughtfully. Ron gave her an annoyed glance. "But I think law enforcement is a good place for you to start. I've not seen you in combat, but not everythis is combat related over there. Memory erasure, improper use of magic, muggle artefacts... those sound like just as good fits as the auror program."

"Thanks." Teddy nodded awkwardly. It was hard to be an outlier in a family with so many successful people in it. The only people that hadn't made him feel so pressured about it were Ron and George, both informing him that they always needed extra hands at the joke shop during the holiday seasons. The conflicting messages were nearly driving him mad.

"You'll figure it out. Not everyone gets it right on the first try." Ron reminded the boy.

xxxxx

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Dominique crossed her arms.

Elena was sitting in front of the large mirror in the prefect's bathroom in a large t-shirt and her pajama pants. Since she was a child, she had always prided herself on taking care of her hair. Even when it was thin and brittle at times, even when she bleached the lower part of it, she tried her best to maintain what she could control, growing it down to the middle of her back. Now, she had it separated into two pigtails, a pair of scissors already primed to cut them at her neck. The scissor snapped closed around her hair. "Too late now." She didn't think about it as she went at it.

Dominique watched as she worked, long sections of hair falling into her lap. "So what's going on with you? Why are you acting so weird lately?"

"What?"

"You're acting weird!" Dominique said louder.

"No I'm not." Her friend mumbled.

"Yeah, you're right, you're having a complete come apart." Dominique stepped closer to her. Elena didn't look sad or worried, just very focused on her project. "So first you hexed a kid, you say you don't want to be quidditch captain, then you won't even talk to me when I say hello to you, and now you're chopping all your hair off. You've skipped, what, three Charms classes now and we're barely in the first month? What is going on? Is this about what Teddy said about putting you in the hospital-"

"I don't understand." Elena was finishing her second pigtail. "What's the big deal?"

"Elena, seriously, I know you. When have you ever been this impulsive before?"

"I'm not being impulsive." She combed her fingers through the front of her hair, making it hang in her eyes.

"Don't give yourself bangs. Lena-" The scissors were already chopping again.

"Besides, you said it yourself over the summer. We're done. You're mad at me and you don't want anything to do with me." Elena announced.

"I never said that!" Dominique said defensively. "I told you that I care about you! I said that you're sick. I think we all bloody know well and good that you're sick!"

Elena whipped her head around. "You've already yelled at me over this! Teddy and my mum, they've all yelled at me over this! I'm sorry, but maybe for five fucking minutes I want to be allowed to be sad about something without people jumping down my throat about it!"

"For crying out loud, is this the sort of tantrum you're going to throw anytime someone confronts you about your problems? Would you have been happier if we let you starve? Would that have made you happy? Would you feel better if we all just ignored you?"

"You're already ignoring me! Seems like everyone is!" Elena protested. Her eyes were furiously filling with tears. "Maybe if being sick wasn't the only thing to ever make people care about me, then yeah! Maybe I'll just keep doing it!"

"When have any of us ever ignored you, Lena?" Dominique demanded.

"I dunno, the second I move out and my mum's already trying to replace me with a new baby..." A lump was growing in her throat. "And everyone's making such a big deal out of Teddy and Victoire's wedding and it's not even Christmas yet-"

"Oh, not this again, Lena, their relationship was never about trying to hurt your feelings! Not everything has to be about you-"

"I know that, alright!" Elena snapped, jumping to her feet. "But maybe you could stop and think for a second about the fact that no one even blinked an eye when I became prefect! No one cared when I made the quidditch team, or when I made four O's on my OWLs. It's like... I could jump up and down in a crowd of people and no one would even notice me, would they? But oh no, if Teddy's hair looks a few shades off today it's like suddenly everyone flocks around him with advice on what to do, and how to feel better."

"None of that is true and you damn well know it." Dominique reached out her arm. "You know people care about you. I've wanted to help you, but not when you act like you don't want to be helped."

"Don't touch me. Please." Elena urged. A thought suddenly struck her and pain shot through her chest. "Who did you tell?"

"What?"

"A few weeks ago, I was talking to this girl in the hallway. She said that 'everyone knew I was...'" Her voice got stuck in her throat.

"Well, yeah, I guess people start talking when a girl on the quidditch team gets as skinny as you." Dominique said bluntly. "I guess it's better than speculating that you got bitten or something."

"No, I meant about us. And besides, can I at least get a little bit of credit here? I promised my mum I'd eat three meals a day, and look, I'm trying really hard to get over this!" Elena butted in. "I meant, with you and me, did you tell? We promised not to tell anyone. Teddy and Victoire were the only ones who knew."

"I didn't tell anyone." The other girl shrugged.

There was a growing sense of panic in Elena. She rubbed her hand nervously over her face. "Oh no, oh god, what are people saying about me? Are they talking bad about me?"

"Um... I seriously don't think anyone knows anything."

"But there was this girl in the hallway, what's her name... she's a seventh year? She got held back? She said everyone thinks I'm..." her voice dropped down to almost an incoherent mumble. "...gay."

Dominique's eyes shifted. "Uh, first off, I don't understand why that's the rumour that upsets you and not the one where you get sick and die, but that's your choice I suppose. And secondly, who even cares? You don't want to be prefect, you don't want to be quidditch captain, what reputation are you so scared of losing?" She shook her head. "And third of all, where would that even come up from? I got asked out by one of the guys in my study group, he clearly didn't know anything about you, so obviously not that many people are bringing it up."

"Did you tell him anything? Did you say we had-"

Dominique but her lip. "No, but I did let him take me out. But like... that doesn't cancel you out or whatever, so don't let it hurt your feelings. I just thought you made it abundantly clear that we're done and I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings, but I've got a life too, you know."

"No, I get it." Elena tried to soften her voice. "I just want to know why she would say something like that. I mean, yeah, it's one thing to call me a half-breed, like everyone already knows that, but it's another to start up something that's actually true, I mean that's just plain creepy."

"Look, if she was trying to bully you, she was going to call you names until one of them stuck. Don't let it get to you." Dominique said. "And please don't think I'm abandoning you, really, you're still my best friend. You've still been my best friend for years now, I don't care what kind of a history we had. And I'm not abandoning you, either. If I was abandoning you, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"I... think that it's great that you're getting out too." She sighed, unable to completely shrug off her doubts about everything. "It doesn't explain anything though. Then again, she was trying to sneak past the portrait. She was just... she was acting weird to begin with."

Dominique looked at the pile of hair on the floor. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Not really." Elena looked in the mirror. "But could you tell me if it looks uneven in the back?"

Dominique yanked the scissors out of her hand. "Sit back down. You're too tall for me."