A/N- Hey everybody. I'm sure most of you are wondering what the heck I'm doing on this document when I should be publishing more chapters for Time After Time. Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing to be honest. I will be returning to that story I promise, but right now I have some important stuff to tend to so it's currently slightly on hold. I'll get back to it I swear! I won't leave y'all hanging.Anyway.I was really bored and was reading through some Teddy fanfiction on this site and I came to the rather sad conclusion that there's not many TeddyOC pairings. Most of the stories seem to centre on Teddy Victoire. If you've read my other story, you would know that I absolutely DESPISE the Teddy/Victoire pairing. It makes me feel all weird and icky. Hence, I decided to write my own story with Teddy and an OC, Emily Wood. Warning in advance, this is going to be REALLY long.
So without further ado, let's begin!
Part I
September 2009,
Teddy Lupin pushed his trolley as he stared in wonder at Platform nine and three quarters. It wasn't the first time he'd been on this platform of course but it was the first time that he'd be on the train that left from it, on his way to his first year at Hogwarts.
He was extremely excited after hearing his entire family tell him stories about their school days and even more so because he had the Marauders Map. Harry had said that since he too was part Marauder, it seemed fitting to pass the map onto him.
Teddy looked at Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny standing and talking next to him, they'd come to see him off, and an odd pang of sadness hit him. It should've been his parents he thought, that would come see him off for his first year. Not his godparents. But as quickly as this random twinge had made its presence felt, it vanished even quicker because he remembered just how much he had to be grateful for.
"-say, Teddy?" Aunt Ginny was talking to him.
"What?" asked Teddy blankly.
"I was saying," said Ginny with an amused smile, "how are you feeling? Excited? Nervous?"
"Both. But overall I feel great!" Teddy grinned and as Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny laughed.
"What house do you reckon I'd be in?" asked Teddy, who had been torn between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff because of his parents. He wanted to please both of them...wherever they were.
"I have no idea Ted," said Harry, now helping him with his luggage. They'd reached the train and were loading his trunk on it. "I told you before, it doesn't matter to anyone what house you end up in. We'll love you the same no matter what."
"As long as you end up excelling in Quidditch!" laughed Aunt Ginny as she levitated his bags onto the train.
"Don't worry, Aunt Ginny," promised Teddy grinning impishly, "I'll make sure to be made Quidditch Captain in sixth year, and if I'm not, what's magic there for? I'll Confund somebody!" he said quite seriously as Harry and Ginny roared with laughter.
"Excuse me." said a little voice next to them, effectively cutting off their chortling. "Could you help me find my rat? He keeps getting away." They turned to find a tiny girl standing there nervously wringing her hands.
"Of course," said the kind hearted Harry, "what does he look like?"
"He's-oh there he is!" exclaimed the girl pointing at something behind them. Teddy turned to see that there in the hustle and bustle of the train station a ball of grey fur was quivering in the middle. She ran to it and began cooing to it.
"Thank you so much!" she said, coming back to them. She held out her hand to Teddy, smiling at him shyly. "I'm Emily. Emily Wood."
June 2011,
"I hate exams!" exclaimed a frustrated Teddy Lupin, laying on his back as he glared moodily at the Gryffindor common room ceiling. He loathed the month of June, for with it, came the beautiful sunny summer days but also the panic of not having studied the entire year and paying for it now.
His best friend, Emily sighed and put down her quil, closing her History of Magic textbook, "I don't understand why you're getting so grumpy about exams. You're top of the class!"
"So are you!"
It was true. They shared the position of being at the top so much that they had a friendly bet going on to see who'd get more marks in their essays and exams. So far, Emily was in the lead, having gotten an O in her Potions essay on the properties of moonstones.
"It's not the studying that I get grumpy about," said Teddy propping hinself on one elbow as he turned to look at her, " it's the staying inside on a summer day! Britain's got terrible, gloomy weather most of the time and a nice warm day is something that pretty much happens once every leap year! And today happens to be that day! And I'm stuck inside studying, when I could be up on my broom, gliding in the clouds, high up in the sky, completely-"
"All right Quidditch boy," said Emily smiling in a wry manner at his dazed expression. Teddy got like this when he talked about the love of his life- Quidditch. Having not forgotten his half-serious promise to his Aunt Ginny, he was well on his way to becoming Quidditch Captain by being the youngest person on the team since Uncle Harry.
"I get it," continued Emily, "but it's the last exam Ted, if tomorrow's a day like this, we could be sunbathing then!"
"But who knows if it would be!" whined Teddy, who was determined to be as grumpy as ever. He hated exams in June and it didn't help the exam in question(History of Magic) was the one subject that Teddy could not stand. He hated it with a burning passion.
"Let's go outside!" said Teddy, tugging at Emily's sleeve. "Please. I think I might die!" he feigned a heart attack.
Emily snorted. He was her best friend but Merlin could he be an idiot.
"All right fine." she conceded but hurriedly added as Teddy whooped for joy, "but no wasting time, we're going outside to study. Not abandoning it completely!"
They went outside and sat near the Great Lake. It seemed that almost everybody in their year had the same idea as they did because the shores of the Great Lake were peppered with second years basking in the warm sunlight as they sought to remember what Professor Binns had taught them.
Teddy and Emily found a quiet spot under a giant oak tree and set to work. Well, Emily did.
"Wingardium leviosa," whispered Teddy pointing his wand to the leaves gathered on the ground. The leaves responded and to him and by direction of his wand, began to create a funnel which then sped to Emily, buffeting her gently in the face. Emily shrieked as Teddy lost his concentration and the leaves got tangled up in her long dark curly hair.
"Theodore Remus Lupin!" she whisper-yelled as Teddy roared with laughter, clutching his side, "are you not supposed to be studying?" she continued trying (and failing) to let any mirth show on her face.
Teddy, who knew her well enough by now, was NOT phased with this and simply laughed harder.
"You look better this way," said Teddy, trying to keep a straight face.
"Oh yeah?" challenged Emily. "Well you look better like this," and with a flick of her wand and a whispered Augumenti, she produced water and drenched Teddy with it.
On and on they went, until they were covered with so much water, leaves, sand and other materials that it became physically impossible to differentiate one sand/water/any-other-substance-you-can-think-of blob from the other.
"Oh Merlin," said Emily, looking down at her robes, "we look a mess!"
"But at least we were practicing our spells for tomorrow," said Teddy very seriously, plucking stray leaves and other gunk out of his hair.
Emily raised an incredulous eyebrow at him. "Really? Professor Binns is going to ask us, 'describe how best you would dump mud on your opponent's hair?'"
Teddy laughed.
"We'd better get cleaned up." he said, standing up. He looked at her sideways, "Race you back to the castle?"
"Oh, you're so on!"
And together the two friends raced back to the castle, laughing and shoving each other along the way.
November 2011,
"I can't believe we're finally going to Hogsmeade!" said an excited Teddy Lupin, who had been talking of nothing else for the past two months.
His best friend Emily Wood, shared an exasperated smile with their friend Tracey Holmes. Tracey, just like Emily, had been subjected to a whole bunch of IcantbelieveImgoingtoZonkosandHoneydukes by Teddy, who was every bit the prankster as the Maruaders and a big foodie like his Uncle Ron.
"We know," said Emily, smiling at him, "You've been talking about it for ages now!"
Teddy appeared not to have heard her as he continued to talk to anybody who'd listen about the wonders of Hogsmeade.
Emily and Tracey tuned him out and continued their own conversation about whether or not Lucy Bastille, who was the latest talent according to Witch Weekly, would ever defeat Celestina Warbeck with the most 'Warbler of the Year' awards.
The line that were standing in moved along sluggishly until finally after having their permission slips checked by Professor Mcgonagall, they were well on their way to Hogsmeade.
"See you later," said Tracey, going to join a couple of other girls from their house.
Emily and Teddy waved as she jogged towards them.
"Do you want to join the others?" asked Emily, referring to their 'gang' which consisted of Pam Ellis, Tracey Holmes, Tara Singhaliya and Rory Flannigan.
"Nah," said Teddy, making a beeline towards Zonko's, "let's explore this place on our own for a while."
They visited the usual places, Zonko's,(which Teddy was highly disappointed in because it wasn't a patch on Weasley's Wizard Wheezes) Honeydukes,(where both of them freaked out over the chocolates, liqourice wands, sweets and other delectables) Three Broomsticks, Dervish and Bangs and the millions of cobbled paths leading and in and out of Hogsmeade.
"It's so quaint!" said Emily, as they walked along one of the paths leading to the Scottish countryside.
"Mhm," said Teddy kicking a random pebble out of the way. Emily glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He was acting weird. He'd been fine about two minutes ago, chattering about the practical aspects of the Sneakoscopes they'd seen in Dervish and Banges.
Emily looked at his hair, it had morphed into a dull, gloomy grey instead of his usual dark brown. Her favourite was when he tried to inpersonate her and change it to dark curls, but he hadn't really gotten the 'curl' part down. Something was bothering him but knowing Teddy and his stubborn nature, he wasn't going to tell until she coaxed it out of him.
"What's up?" she asked, nudging him.
"Huh? Oh, nothing." said Teddy as he gazed moodily off into the distance.
"Well," she said as she adjusted her scarf, "if it's nothing then are you going for the 'I'm-broody-and-mysterious' look?"
When Teddy looked at her quizzically, she pointed to his hair.
"Oh!" he said quickly and changed it back to dark brown, "yeah that happens sometimes when I'm-" he trailed off looking off into the distance.
Emily followed his gaze and immediately saw what the problem was.
He was looking at the Shrieking Shack.
Teddy had never really talked about his parents to Emily. Whenever he wanted to know something about them, or wanted to cry about them he went to Uncle Harry, who was pretty much his go-to person for everything. Talking to Emily about how he missed them everyday was a ridiculous thought, because she just wouldn't understand. She had both her parents and a little brother, to go home to every vacation. She hadn't spent hours tracing their photographs in a photo album. She hadn't wondered what it would feel like to be picked up by her parents instead of her godfather or grandmother. No, she just wouldn't get it. The only person who actually got it was Uncle Harry.
"You know something," Emily said conversationally, "I think your parents would've liked me."
"Really? Why is that?"
"Because I keep you grounded, out of trouble...except the times when I join you in your pranks" she continued, "But that's not why they would have liked me. They would have liked me for the one thing that I remind you of everyday, albeit not in a verbal manner."
"And what's that?"
"That even though your parents passed away during the Battle of Hogwarts, you have a family. And that family has never thought of you as an outsider." she finished, looking at him and smiling when she saw that his hair was a bright yellow and he was looking at her with a soft smile on his face.
"Thank you," he whisperered to her, still wearing that soft smile.
"No problem," smiled Emily, "you want to go back to the castle now?"
Teddy nodded and as he walked with her, he couldn't help but think, that Emily Wood definitely got it.
