Saturday December 5th
Hogwarts, Great Hall
9:06 am
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There are many things the students at Hogwarts know for certain, without anyone having to point them out. Everyone, regardless of whether or not they actually stayed for the holidays, knows that Hagrid always gets tipsy on the eggnog at the Christmas Feast. Everyone knows that if you happened to get caught by Peeves in the corridors during lessons, you were guaranteed to be at least five minutes late to your next lesson. Everyone knows that the staircase by the Entrance Hall doors squeak when you tried to sneak in after hours and everyone also knows that Teddy Lupin is an orphan.
Of course, what people don't know is that Teddy still has a family. For just because you have no parents doesn't necessarily mean you have no family.
And as Teddy sat in the Great Hall one cold December morning, he was reminded of that fact.
"Oi Teddy!"
Teddy looked up in the direction of the voice. His fellow Gryffindor teammates waved at him from across the room. "We're going to the Pitch to do a little warm up before practice," they shouted, "You in?"
Teddy nodded his head and held up his half eaten toast, indicating that he wasn't done eating just yet. "I'll be there in a minute," he shouted back. As his teammates headed out without him, he turned back to his morning post curious as to what the long, cylinder package that his owl, Bubbles, had just dropped in front of him contained. Opening it up slowly, he wasn't surprised when two slips of parchment fell out, each covered in childish handwriting.
Picking up the first one Teddy started reading. Teddy, it began. Teddy grinned as he recognized his god sister's handwriting, all messy with large parts of the parchment blotted out from mistakes. He continued reading, I miss you lots. I lost a toth. It was big. I drew a picure of it for you. James said the picure was stupid so I hit him. Are you coming home son? The letter was signed, Lily Luna Potter
Teddy laughed silently to himself, not surprised that Lily had written out her full name. She was very proud of herself for being able to write out her whole name. If Teddy remembered correctly, it had taken Ginny the better part of a month to teach Lily how to write that. Popping the rest of the toast in his mouth, he picked up the other parchment that had fallen out along with Lily's. Teddy, it began. This is Hugo. Not Lily. Lily is a girl. Teddy snorted and continued reading, I have a qestin. I dont no what my Dad want for Christmas. Do you no? Can you tell me? The letter was signed in such a scribble that Teddy couldn't make out the name, even though he knew there was at least an H and W in there.
Leaning back in his seat, Teddy smiled. As far as guys go, he wasn't a sentimental bloke. Not at all. He rarely cried or showed any sort of emotion, something he was often told angrily whenever a girl chucked him. According to them, he had no emotions. Teddy sometimes agreed with them. He just wasn't the sort of boy that was going to cry or wax some foolish form of poetry just because a girl had decided she didn't like him anymore. And, along the same lines of reasoning, he rarely kept anything that was old or broken purely for sentimental reasons. If it was broken it was broken. Why keep it? And if he happened to throw out a flower or another one of those pointless little gift girlfriends seemed so happy to give guys, he didn't understand why they then proceeded to always get so upset with him? It wasn't like it was important or anything. Teddy had long ago decided that sentiments were for girls. No rational, sane man acted like that. And at age seventeen and three quarters, Teddy was nothing if not a man.
But as he rose from the table, Teddy folded up the parchments and slipped them carefully in his robe pocket. And if he continued to carry them around with him for the rest of the day it wasn't because he was a sissy or anything of that sort. He just didn't want to forget to write Lily and Hugo back.
Nothing more.