The Letters From Him
Dear Mum and Dad,
I turned eleven last week. George and Ron got me some cool stuff from the joke shop. Granny got me new colouring pencils and some books that I wanted. Harry got me special crayons which you melt on the iron to make pictures. Uncle Bobby got me some games to play on the computer at his house. Aisling got me a guitar case which can go tiny so I can fit in it my trunk when I go to school, which is in September. I am nervous. I don't want people to stare at me. Granny says that that is not like Mum at all. Harry says that you get used to people staring but it's still annoying. Ginny said the staring is annoying if you're having a bad hair day. Then she said that she doesn't think I get bad hair days, but I do. Last week I tried to make my hair a new kind of purple, but it went white instead. I have turquoise hair a lot, but I think I am going to have brown hair at school because I don't want people to notice me. Granny says that that is not like Mum. Ginny says Hi by the way. I turned eleven last week and on Ginny's birthday she turned twenty-six, which is older than Mum ever was. I heard her telling Bill that. She told Bill it was weird and sad, but I don't think so, it's just an age and I don't think it is interesting. I won't show Ginny this letter because I don't want her to know that I heard her. I didn't show her last year's letter either because she said I didn't have to, even though she always helps me write to you. Next year I will be at school so maybe I won't write. I am nervous about starting school. I don't like getting lost and everyone says they always get lost at Hogwarts. Did you get lost, Dad?
I am finished now. I miss you.
Love from Teddy.
He read it through again, like Granny had taught him to when writing letters, folded up the paper (it was impossible to fold a piece of paper over eight times) and put it in the envelope. Teddy wrote MUM AND DAD on the front of the envelope. He didn't need to write an address. Then he stamped the back with the special TRL seal which the Macmillans bought him two Christmases ago. He liked looking at his initials in dripping green ink.
"All done?" asked Ginny, who'd been watching him from the sink where she'd been washing Lily's bottles.
"Yeah,"
"Well done. I'll call Poople then, shall I?" said Ginny. Poople was Harry and Ginny's owl (James and Al named her, mostly because it gives them an excuse to say "Poo").
She opened the kitchen window and whistled outside. After a few moments Poople swept in and landed on the kitchen counter. Teddy hopped off his chair and walked over, holding the envelope.
"I'll be at school for my next birthday," he told Ginny.
"I hadn't thought about that. You can do this on your own now, though," she answered.
"Hmm,"
"Or we could do it in the Easter holidays. Or you could stop, if you want. We could make this the last one,"
Teddy shrugged. "I don't mind,"
One of the things about having dead parents was that people liked to think that stuff that wasn't actually important was important, like Ginny being older than Mum was. Teddy didn't see how that mattered. As for the birthday letters to Mum and Dad, perhaps Teddy would do it next year or perhaps he wouldn't. Perhaps he'd have forgotten about it this year if Ginny hadn't mentioned it. It had been her idea in the first place, when Teddy was a toddler. She'd helped him write birthday letters to Mum and Dad before he learnt how to write properly, or if he got stuck about what to tell them.
Harry understood more about what it was like. He helped Teddy know when to say when people asked if he missed his parents (truthfully, the answer was that most of the time Teddy didn't miss Mum and Dad because he never knew them, and sometimes he missed them so much that he felt like he was being squashed. But Teddy didn't know how to say that when people asked, and he didn't want to either, so Harry helped him practise saying, "It's complicated. Do you want to play outside?" instead). Harry told Teddy that the way he felt about Mum and Dad would change, and that that was allowed. Teddy wasn't sure that the way he felt had changed yet. Harry also took Teddy to Neville's pub, and to the playground in Marlake Park, and to the cafe on Harrison Road. Teddy's favourite food there was fish and chips and with gravy. Harry thought chips with gravy was disgusting. He said Teddy liked it because it was a Northern thing.
Teddy liked going to have tea or stay over with Harry and Ginny because their house was noisy and busy, and James and Al and Lily were like his brothers and sister, almost. Lily was Teddy's favourite because she was a baby. He liked her lolling head and her chubby arms and how her body was small but her eyes were huge and goggly. He liked that she liked him. Teddy knew a lot of babies (almost all of them were Weasley babies) so he knew how to look after them and how they showed you that they liked you by smiling and waving and settling into your arms when you held them. But Teddy also liked that he lived with Granny, because Granny looked after him all the time. He liked that he and Granny were a team. It was very busy at Harry and Ginny and James and Al and Lily's house. Being home with Granny was quieter, and Teddy didn't have to share her or any of the presents he got for his birthday.
It'd all be different when Teddy went to school. None of his family would be there. Teddy knew a few people who went to Hogwarts, but they were all older than him. He wouldn't know anybody in his year. They wouldn't know him either and they would all stare at him. He was worried that they'd see that sometimes his hair changed colour in the night, and they'd think he was weird. He was cared that someone would find out about Dad being a werewolf, and then they'd be afraid of Teddy or they'd think he was disgusting. Hermione changed some laws, but it took more than a law to stop people thinking things and saying things. Teddy knew this from experience.
"You okay, baby?" said Ginny. Teddy leant into her side. She ran her hand all through Teddy's hair from the back of his neck up to his fringe, "What's up?"
"Nervous about school," he mumbled.
Ginny wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "How come?"
Teddy shook his head and pushed his face into her shirt. He didn't want to say it all out loud. Maybe he'd tell her later. Maybe he'd tell Harry or Granny. Vic understood some stuff, but Vic was too young for this.
"Everybody's nervous for school, Ted. Everyone you meet will be nervous," Ginny promised.
Nobody he met would be like him.
"And you're so brave and so clever," she said, snaking her hand round to tip his chin up so he was looking at her, "And funny. And handsome. And you can write to any of us, any time, you know that,"
"I know,"
"Don't tell her I said this, but if eleven-year-old Hermione can make friends, you can do it easily,"
Teddy giggled. Ron told funny stories about them himself and everyone when they were younger. When he did impressions of Hermione he made her sound really annoying. Ron said not to tell Hermione that he did impressions, otherwise she'd get cross with him. Ron and Hermione got cross with each other quite a lot, mostly as a joke but sometimes for real. Ginny said they liked it that way. Harry said he'd never understood it.
"Shall we send this letter?" Ginny whispered.
"Okay,"
Ginny waved her wand to make the scissors and string flew over to Teddy. He cut a length of string and Ginny held Poople still while Teddy tied the letter to the owl's leg.
"Granny said she's going to buy me an owl in the Summer holidays," Teddy announced.
"Cool. What type will you get?"
"Scops owl. They've got funny ears," Teddy smiled. Scops owls were cute and fat little owls. Teddy didn't want a big, imposing snowy or tawny.
"You've got funny ears," said Ginny, fondling one of them. Teddy screwed his face up and turned his ear into a long, pointy pixie ear. He didn't morph very often at the Potters', because he didn't like to use it as a party trick, and he didn't like it when James demanded that he do different colours or noses or faces. But it was fine in front of just Ginny.
Poople fidgeted and made a trilling noise in her throat.
"Alright, alright, hold on," Ginny hushed her.
"She hasn't sent a letter to Mum and Dad before," Teddy pointed out. Harry and Ginny had only got Poople a few months ago.
"This is a special letter," Ginny told the owl, "So give us a moment,"
Carefully, she handed the owl to Teddy. He leant as far as he can towards the window. He couldn't think of anything to say, so he didn't say anything. Teddy made a throwing motion with his arms and let Poople go. She flapped out across the garden. Ginny put her hand on Teddy's shoulder and together they watched as the owl, holding his letter, flew out over the garden fence, up, and into the sky.
