Teddy Lupin was beginning to regret agreeing to retrieve Harry's cousin's daughter from the airport. His expertly creased khakis were stiff, his collared shirt was constricting, and his hair was a very normal, very dull ashy brown. His ear felt funny and for a minute he wondered why, until he realized that the slate dragon that normally occupied the gauged piercing was absent.
All in all, he looked like an utter twat.
Also, the girl was almost a quarter of an hour late. Or at least her flight landed a quarter of an hour ago. Teddy wasn't really sure how long it took a Muggle to get off a plane and make it to an exit. He didn't think it should take this long though.
Another surge of people exited the security doors all at once, indicating that yet another flight had landed and disembarked. Perhaps this was hers…? Teddy half-heartedly raised the sign that his youngest god-sister had labored over for hours the previous afternoon. He wasn't sure a new microphone was worth all of this effort and humiliation. Lily Luna, little darling that she was, had instantly identified a problem: Teddy couldn't identify Ramona and Ramona didn't know what Teddy looked like, and had come up with a solution: a sign that was so laden with flowers, butterflies and glitter that it would be hard to miss.
For all of that effort though, not much was coming of it. Several people smiled and pointed at him and his sign, but nobody approached. There was no sign of the girl, whoever she was.
(((RAMONAinBLUE)))
Half an hour out from his designated pickup time, Teddy amused himself by watching the people at baggage claim. There was an old lady who tottered over to her young greeting party and threw her thin arms around them all, showering the couple and their toddler with kisses. A mother waited for her bags and nodded absentmindedly as her ten-year-old son jabbered on and on about the pilots and the planes and the inflight movies. A father greeted his teenager with a slap on the back and a bracing hug.
Teddy searched the room for more colorful folk and his eyes landed on a couple of girls standing over by the only unoccupied benches in the great room. They were a mismatched pair: one tall and thin, the other short and round; one wearing slouching jeans and a tee-shirt, the other wearing a vibrant red skirt and a neatly tucked in button up. There was something about the dynamic between them that drew his gaze like a magnet. The little one smiled and tugged at the taller girl's hair. The tall one rolled her eyes and playfully shoved at her companion. They talked for a few more minutes and then embraced tightly.
It was during the embrace that Teddy Lupin made the most awkward eye contact of his life with the short girl. Immediately he slumped to duck behind his sign, praying that the girl hadn't actually just caught him staring directly at her.
Seconds later his deepest concerns were confirmed.
"HhHmm" Someone cleared their throat from the other side of his sign.
Teddy took a deep breath and lowered his colorful shield. "Hello," he attempted to sound nonchalant.
The taller of the two girls stood before him, eyebrow raised, arms crossed. Her smaller companion was nowhere to be seen. "Hello there, stranger whom I do not know but who obviously knows me. You must be Teddy Lupin." She smiled slightly and stuck out her right hand. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Ramona Dursley."
Teddy couldn't think of anything to say, and so instead he shook the girl's hand and attempted to manage his blush.
(((RAMONAinBLUE)))
The girl currently occupying the front passenger seat of Teddy's aged Yugo was nothing like what he expected.
For one thing, she looked nothing like the rest of her family, who had taken up residence in the Potter household two days ago. While the Dursley family came in all shapes and sizes (from the gigantic, muscular visage of Dudley to the slim figure of his wife to the three children) this girl wasn't quite like any of the others with her long limbs and thin face. Once more her hair was a tangle of dark, frizzy curls that gathered loosely at the nape of her pale neck. This was in sharp contrast to the uniform blondness of the sun-kissed Dursley clan.
The next thing that Teddy Lupin found odd about the girl was her silence. Had anyone asked him that morning to describe Ramona Dursley he would have used the words that her family had used to describe her, the few times she had come up in conversation. Chaotic. Loud. Slightly rude. Intelligent. Fast on the draw. Curious. Opinionated. Frankly, after observing the Dursley family interact with each other over the past few days, Teddy could understand why Ramona would be all of those things. One would have to be loud, fast on the draw, and opinionated to survive the dynamics of the Dursley family. The brothers bickered, the toddler screeched, and the parents treated it all like a regular occurrence. If he were being honest, Teddy could admit that the entire affair was much like any normal day in a Weasley household. Currently though he was bound and determined to dislike the muggle relatives on principle (one could not simply forget the abuse suffered by his Godfather for years at the hands of Dursleys) and so he found all of their family antics obnoxious.
So Teddy had expected his passenger to be just as loud and obtrusive as her father, mother, sister, and brothers. He was wrong. Ramona Dursley was the opposite of conversational. Were Teddy in a polite mood he would say that the girl was shy, or observant. Currently though he interpreted her lack of communication as a form of snootiness. This girl was obviously too stuck up to talk to the likes of him.
"So… are you excited to see your family again?" Teddy asked, attempting for the nth time to get a conversation started.
"Yes."
He huffed in frustration, and then decided to press on. "I was told you go to boarding school on the opposite side of the country from your family. That must be difficult."
"At first, yes."
Teddy was now white-knuckling his steering wheel. Having a conversation with this girl was like attempting to befriend a flobberworm. "And spending your Spring hols with some family you never even knew about, that must be pretty wild, right?"
"Oh, I've always known about Cousin Harry and his family." The girl replied lightly.
"Really?" Teddy glanced over in surprise. He'd been under the impression that Uncle Harry and his walrus of a cousin weren't in communication, not before the whole son-is-a-wizard thing anyway. "So have you always known about the family situation?" he asked, trying to phrase the question delicately.
The girl cocked an eyebrow. "What situation?"
Teddy felt his face flush. Was she intentionally trying to make this difficult? "You know… the family situation? The one that caused a bit of a rift? The whole mag—"
"Oh yes, that." She interrupted him hurriedly. "Let's not talk about that, shall we?"
Teddy gritted his teeth. "Wassa matter? Does our situation make you uncomfortable?"
Next to him the girl shifted in her seat, turning to face definitively out the window. "Why don't we talk about something more pleasant? The weather, perhaps."
Teddy pressed down on the accelerator ever so slightly. The sooner he made it home the better.
(((RAMONAinBLUE)))
When the Yugo and its occupants pulled up the drive to the Burrow a short while later there was already a welcoming party entirely consisting of children waiting. A dozen redheads and their three blonde companions were all jostling for the first glimpse of the by-now famed Ramona Dursley and the ever-popular Teddy Lupin.
A loud chorus of "Hiya Teddy,"s and "How's the drive?" greeted everyone's favorite metamorphagus.
"Wotcher everyone!" Teddy called out cheerfully, glad to finally be free of the confines of the car. "Look who I've brought along. For your delight at entertainment, a brand new cousin to play with!" he made a point of gesturing grandly toward the passenger side of the car where his silent traveling companion was just then emerging.
Ted had expected a rousing round of applause, or perhaps a cheer from the Weasley-Potter-Dursley clan before him. After all, Ramona was the long awaited sixth Dursley, the one who, legend had it, was a great source of chaos, fun, and practical jokes. Just because none of those things appeared to be true on the car ride over didn't mean that he couldn't let the kids think them for the time being. There was, however, no applause, no cheers, and no welcomes. Instead the crowd of children before him was silent.
"You're in deep shit." One of them, perhaps the younger, muttered. The other boy, definitely the elder of the two, elbowed his brother but smirked all the same. A rash of snickers broke out amongst the red heads.
Teddy felt the bottom of his stomach drop. "Waddaya mean…" his mouth felt dry.
"Well, that's not Ramona, see?" The older Dursley boy shrugged and gestured toward the girl that Ted had transported home from the airport. This assertion was met by actual guffaws from the children.
The world spun. Teddy Lupin felt as though he were on the verge of becoming violently ill. This was it. Teddy was doomed. There would be no way to make up for this mistake. He, Ted Remus Lupin, had managed to thoroughly mess up what could easily be described as the simplest task ever: pick up Ramona Dursley at the airport; bring her back to the Burrow. How hard could it be, after all, to pick up the right girl from the airport and take her back to her family without exposing everyone to the wrath of the International Statute of Secrecy? And yet here he was, standing in front of a wholly magical house, in possession of a muggle girl who was not his Godfather's cousin's daughter, but was in fact just some random girl who knew nothing about the magical world.
Teddy could see his future crumbling before his very eyes
"Yeah" chimed in the younger brother. "That's Katie. Heya Katie!" He waved wildly, "What's kicking? How come you're here instead of Ramona? Are you gonna stay with us for spring break? Does this mean that you know all about the—"
The girl called Katie cut him off before he could say the rest and seal Teddy's fate as an exposer of magic. "Hold up Wes. That's a secret, remember? Best that I don't know. I'm so very bad at keeping secrets, you see. And no, I can't stay with you for spring break. I've got to see my Dad and brothers." She smiled kindly, and for the first time since she'd confronted him for staring at her in the airport, Ted saw her eyes sparkle with mischief. Maybe there was a chance that this was all some big prank….
From somewhere close to the ground came a happy shriek."Hi hi hi! Hi hi hi, Kaytee, Hi!" From the corner of his horror frozen mind Teddy watched the littlest Dursley toddle over to Katie, reaching her arms up in a silent plea to be held.
And there it was, the final nail in the coffin of Ted Remus Lupin. There was no way that this was just a prank and that this tall, pale, dark haired girl actually did belong to the Dursley family. There was no way that this was just the Dursley siblings taking the mickey. Little Hilly's joyful greetings proved that.
Fuck. Shite. Merlin's saggy left—
"Hey, Ted, glad you made it before dinner!" From somewhere behind the noise of the children, which had risen exponentially in volume over the last few minutes, Ted heard the door to The Burrow swing open.
He had been wrong before. This was the end.
Uncle Ron strolled out of the kitchen and toward the commotion, munching on an apple. "Is this the missing Dursley then?"
Teddy couldn't bring himself to speak.
"Oh Teddy, dear, you've returned!" Grandma Molly bustled out of the kitchen, hurridly untying her apron strings so that she could hug her oldest (adopted) grandson. "And you've brought Ramona too! How lovely!"
"No, no," Teddy rasped, feeling the need to lean heavily on something solid.
"Sarah, dear, I believe your daughter has arrived!" Molly called back to her newest friend.
"Oh for Merlin's sake—" Teddy groaned.
Seconds later Sarah Dursley emerged from the same door, wiping her hands on her jeans and adjusting her ponytail. The moment she stepped on to the grass her eyes found the gaggle of children who were now surrounding what was supposed to be her daughter and she couldn't help but chuckle. When her eyes found the defeated form of Ted Lupin, the poor boy tasked with delivering the ever-full-of-surprises oldest Dursley child, Sarah failed to conceal her laughter. Ramona simply had this effect on people.