A Jungle

Teddy- 14 James- 7 Albus- 6 Lily- 4

"Are you ready?" Teddy asked his little siblings as he scooped Lily into his arms.

"Yay!" They exclaimed, and Teddy chuckled.

Today, he was 'taking' his little siblings on a jungle adventure. Really, they were going to be exploring the woods behind their house, and they were dressed in cool clothes. They had khaki shorts, green polo shirts, exploring hats, and binoculars. Teddy had been planning this for quite some time, and he was immensely excited. They knew the small forest was perfectly safe, and that made it even more perfect.

"What kinds of animals are we gonna see?" Albus asked as he clutched Teddy's hand in his. "Any big, scary ones?"

"Scary?" Lily asked, and her eyes got huge.

"No, no." Teddy assured them. "Nothing scary."

"I scared." Lily told Teddy, and he kissed her forehead.

"No you're not." Teddy told her. "You're excited, remember?" Lily nodded her head.

"Oh yeah!" She threw her arms up into the air. "I excited! I so excited!" Teddy chuckled.

"Good!"

They walked a little farther into the woods, before Teddy abruptly stopped.

"Did you hear that?" Teddy asked them.

"Hear what?" James asked in confusion.

"That!" Teddy exclaimed when he heard the sound again. "Did you hear it that time?"

"Yeah!" James looked worried. "What was it?"

"I don't know!" Teddy answered. "What do you think, Albie?"

"A big, scary bear!" Albus exclaimed, and Lily's eyes bulged again.

"A bear?" She asked.

"No, I don't think it's a bear." Teddy told them with a thoughtful look on his face. "It didn't sound like a bear to me."

"Me neither." James nodded his head, as if he had known all along, although his eyes betrayed that he had secretly been quite as scared as Albus and Lily.

"Do you think it's gonna eat us?" Lily asked worriedly, and Teddy shook his head and smiled at her.

"We're safe, Lily-bug." Teddy told her. "I don't think bears live in these woods. Maybe it was a frog or a toad or a cricket."

"It did have a ribbit sound." James said and he nodded his head, trying to look as if he knew it all.

"I wanna froggie!" Lily exclaimed. "Can we catch a froggie?"

"We'll have to see." Teddy told her. "I don't think Mummy will like it if you bring a froggie home."

"Yes she will." Lily smiled at him. "Silly Teddy!"

"We'll see." Teddy said again, and they were again on their way.

"Let's climb that tree and see what we can see!" James pointed to a big, tall tree, with many notches, and branches.

"Oh that's a good idea." Teddy smiled. "What do you think, Albie and Lils?"

"Yeah!" Albus exclaimed, and Lily nodded her head.

"Help me?" Lily asked, and Teddy nodded.

"Of course I'll help you, Lily-bug!" Teddy gave her a wet kiss on her cheek and she giggled.

"Here I go!" James exclaimed, and he reached up to the first branch, and erratically swung around, until he got one leg up on the branch. He then swung up the other. Hanging upside down, James chuckled. "This is fun!" He exclaimed.

"Jamie!" Lily exclaimed and she laughed. "I wanna be up by Jamie!" She told Teddy.

"Okay," Teddy agreed. "James, do you think you could hold onto Lily before I get up there?" Teddy asked him. "And not drop her."

"Of course I can." James nodded his head seriously. "I promise I won't drop her."

"Okay." Teddy nodded, seeing the honesty in his eyes. "Here she comes." Teddy lifted Lily up, and handed her to her brother.

"Look how high we are!" James told her, a high voice taking over. "We can see a lot!"

"We're tall like Daddy!" Lily exclaimed. "But I wanna go higher!"

"I wanna go up!" Albus exclaimed. "It's no fair!"

"Don't worry, Albie." Teddy reassured him. "You're going up next."

"Okay." Albus nodded his head, and Teddy scooped him up into his arms.

"Wow, you're getting to be a big boy, Albie." Teddy groaned, as he lifted Albus up to the branch. "Hold on tight, mate!" Teddy told him, before he quickly swung himself up.

"Let's go up there!" Lily pointed up to the top branches of the tree. "All the way to the top."

"I don't know." Teddy said. "It's kinda hard to get all the way up there."

"Just a few branches higher," Albus begged. "It'll be easy."

"Okay, but I'm telling you now that it's kinda hard, and it's kinda scary too." Teddy explained.

"I don't care!" Lily exclaimed. "It's fun!"

"That's true too." Teddy nodded. "We can go a little higher up."

"Yay!" They all exclaimed, and James carefully passed Lily to Teddy, and he climbed up to the next branch, and then helped hoist Albus up after him. Holding onto Lily tightly, Teddy climbed up to the next branch, Lily never leaving his tight grasp.

"See!" Lily exclaimed. "It's so high!"

"Yes it is!" Albus agreed. "I need my binoculars." All of their binoculars hung from a piece of leather around their necks. Albus quickly snatched his up, and peered around. "I see a bird in that tree!" Albus exclaimed.

"Where? What tree?" Lily exclaimed, her voice urgent.

"Yeah, show me too!" James exclaimed. They all grabbed their binoculars, and looked over to where Albus was pointing.

"They're so pretty!" Lily exclaimed. "They're blue!"

"They're probably blue jays." Teddy told them.

"Can we take one home?" Lily suddenly exclaimed. "I want a pet birdie!"

"I don't think so." Teddy told her. "This is their home. We can come and visit them though."

"Why not?" Lily pouted. "I'd be a good Mummy to my little birdie."

"I know you would, but he belongs in the trees." Teddy told her.

"Yeah, Lils." James said.

"We need to name him though!" Albus exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Lily exclaimed, her beautiful smile gracing her face again. "How about Chippie!"

"Chippie?" James asked in exasperation. "What kind of name is Chippie?"

"It's a good birdie name!" Lily defended. "I like it!"

"I think it should be something like Super Jay or The Blue Bandit!" James supplied.

"Those are stupid!" Lily exclaimed. "Chippies better! What do you think Albie?"

"I don't like either of them." Albus admitted. "I like Mitch."

"Mitch?" James looked stung that Albus hadn't chosen one of his names. "We may as well name him Chippie!"

"Well your names are stupider!" Albus shot back. "Those are super hero names, not bird names!"

"So?" James pressed. "Why can't he be a super bird?"

"Because-" Albus went to argue back, before Teddy cut in.

"How about that name!" Teddy exclaimed.

"What name?" James looked confused.

"Super Bird!" Teddy exclaimed. "It's perfect!"

"Really?" Lily looked surprised. "You don't like Chippie?"

"Oh I like Chippie," Teddy said, and both Albus and James scowled at him. "But, I like James and Albus' names too. That's why it should be Super Bird!"

"I like it!" Lily exclaimed. "He can be our Super Bird!"

"Well…" James still looked defiant, though Albus looked more lenient.

"I guess so." Albus agreed. "I like it better than The Blue Bandit." James harrumphed.

"Fine." James nodded. "I guess it's not so bad."

"See, it's easy to agree!" Teddy exclaimed, though he knew that it would never be easy for the Potter's to agree on anything, not even a simple birds name.

After a little while longer of bird watching, other animal watching, and a bit more climbing, the siblings decided to get down, and go look somewhere else.

As they walked through the woods, Teddy saw a tree root, and an idea quickly struck.

"I think I see a garden snake!" Teddy exclaimed, and all three little Potter's screamed.

"Where?" Albus asked as he quickly clung to Teddy, and Lily all but jumped into Teddy's arms. James too quickly came to Teddy's side.

"Right there!" Teddy pointed it out, and their heads all swerved over to where he pointed.

"That's not a snake!" James exclaimed.

"Yeah," Albus nodded. "It's a tree root!"

"Oh sorry." Teddy chuckled quietly to himself. "I must have mistaken it."

"Oh, okay." Albus said and James nodded.

"What else are we gonna do?" James asked after a moment of quiet walking.

"I was thinking that we could go up by the stream." Teddy said. "We could skip stones, and stuff."

"Okay!"

They walked for a little while longer, before they heard rushing water, and they soon approached the stream. Teddy had been carrying Lily, and he let her down, and she quickly ran over to the edge, and picked up a rock, before chucking it in.

"Let's see who can make the biggest splash!" James exclaimed, and he and Albus rushed over to the water, Teddy close on their heels. They all picked out nice rocks, before counting down.

"3… 2… 1…!" Teddy counted down, and they all chucked their little pond rocks in.

"Mine was highest!" James exclaimed, his competitive streak coming out.

"No it wasn't!" Albus protested.

"Yeah, mine was!" Lily yelled.

"I think it was a tie." Teddy said. "We all got pretty good shots!" Teddy watched as all of their expressions changed at his words. Being the oldest, Teddy had a big impact on his little siblings.

"I guess so." Albus nodded his head, and Lily and James shrugged.

"Let's just try again!" James exclaimed.

They spent the next half hour having rock throwing contests. They threw them, skipped them, sunk them and anything else they could think of, before that got too boring. As they thought of something to do, Albus' tummy growled loudly, cutting through all other noise. They all laughed.

"Maybe we should go back." Teddy suggested. "Are you guys getting hungry for lunch?"

"Yeah!" They all exclaimed, and Teddy smiled. He leaned down, scooped Lily into his arms and yelled, "Race ya!"

-finished-