Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated in a millennia, but I've been away a bit over the summer, and I've just started my final year of high school so the workload is quite intense. Anyway, Harry Potter isn't mine, as usual, and I hope you enjoy Chapter 30.
Teddy dragged a reluctant Rose down the stairs towards the hubbub of greetings in the lounge. Molly and Arthur were wishing all the newly arrived a Merry Christmas, and exclaiming how much all the children had grown. Ron and Hermione had briefly seen Ginny and Harry at the station, and waved excitedly at the other pair like the children they were inside, but hadn't had a chance to talk properly yet so were now exchanging stories of their year so far over a glass of mulled wine each. Once escaping from their grandparents, James, Al, Hugo and Lily went off into a corner and continued their ongoing argument over who was best and Quidditch. (It was undoubtedly James, but the other three didn't seem to believe this).
Lily was the first to notice the blue-haired young man in the doorway. "Teddy!" She shrieked, causing a sudden silence in the room, before everyone burst into greetings again, this time towards Teddy. Lily was quickest: running over and hugging him fiercely. As soon as she had released the young man from her iron grip, Hugo and her brothers got him, slapping him on the back and pretending they couldn't hear his futile attempts to fend them off over the noise. Eventually Teddy escaped the cousins, and put on his most mature face as he headed over to the adults. He bent down to kiss Hermione on the cheek, and shaking Ron's hand as he said how nice it was to see them again. He kissed Ginny's cheek too, and went to shake his godfather's hand, but Harry pulled him into a hug.
Teddy looked surprised, but then relaxed. He thought that an almost-23-year-old was too old to be hugged like a child, but it was hard for Harry to see anything but Remus, Tonks and himself in his godson. Remus and Tonks he saw for obvious reasons: Teddy looked like them and had his mother's friendly personality, along with his father's seriousness and brains. There were times when Harry nearly called the young man 'Remus', and now fully understood why Sirius had often accidentally called Harry 'James' before the former's untimely death. But Harry saw himself in Teddy too. They had both lost their parents before they could remember them, and they had both felt that loss more than they liked to let on.
Although Teddy had grown up being well loved and cared for, where as Harry hadn't, Harry could see the pang of envy in the boy's face as he had watched Rose and Hugo perform a spell for Hermione, who would be over the moon at their latest achievement. Or when James had been made Quidditch captain, and Harry and Ginny had mortified the boy by hugging him senseless. Or whilst Fred and Roxanne reported the latest WWW sales to their father, whilst Angelina rolled her eyes good naturedly. Or Lucy showing her end-of-term grades to her parents. Or Dominique getting her NEWTs. Or Louis making the Quidditch team. The list was endless, and although Teddy was proud of his 'cousins', he was jealous too. Surrounded by their happy families, who were so proud of them. And no matter how much they had tried to recreate that for him, it just wasn't the same. He knew it, and they knew it. But other than Harry, they didn't know he knew it.
So Teddy and Harry identified on many levels, which was why Harry hugged his godson for a bit longer than necessary. "How's it going, Ted?" Harry asked when he released the boy.
"I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend." Teddy assured him.
"Good, good. Got that job yet?"
"I've told you that I'm working in Flourish and Blotts part-time, right?" Teddy asked with an element of surprise.
"Yes, yes, but I thought you wanted to work in Magical Law? Any closer to that?"
Teddy shook his head. "There aren't a lot of openings for young men like me. They have all the seasoned lawyers they need, but I'm not giving up, don't worry."
Harry smiled. "That's my boy. Now, what about a Quidditch match whilst the weather's not too cold?"
Teddy grinned. "Sounds great." He stood up on a chair, ignoring Molly's scoldings, and pulled out his wand. "Sonorous!" Instantly his voice was magnified over the hubbub of the room. "Harry and I are arranging a Quidditch match in the garden in, erm... half an hour?" Harry nodded. "In half an hour." Teddy confirmed, as the boys cheered. "I'm assuming everyone but Molly, Arthur and Hermione will want to play, please correct me if I'm wrong, so that leaves two teams of 4 and a referee. Any volunteers to ref?"
"I'll do it." Suggested Ginny. Ginny Potter was a good referee because she knew the rules of Quidditch inside out after her years with the Holyhead Harpies, and wasn't biased in any way.
"Ok, awesome." Teddy said normally, the Sonorous spell now having been cancelled since the noise level had dropped immensely. "Team Captains?" Instantly James, Al, Harry and Ron volunteered themselves, which disappointed Teddy as he had been hoping to be a Captain, but didn't want to seem pushy. "Sorry James, you're already Captain at school- you should practise being bottom of the pecking order again." Teddy told James good naturedly. James rolled his eyes and sighed, but wasn't really annoyed. "Al, James would never listen to you, so Harry and Ron can do it- is that ok with everyone?" There were communal nods, from all except Al who threw Teddy a dirty look. "Ok, well... Harry?"
Harry stepped forward. "Are you picking first, Ron, or shall we flip a Galleon?"
Ron pulled out a coin from his pocket. "Wizards or Dragons?"
"Wizards." Harry responded without thinking- he'd never really liked dragons. Ron grinned, already knowing that that would be his best friend's response. Harry hoped this wasn't an enchanted coin from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes because if it was he had already lost this one.
Ron flipped the coin, and then sighed. "You win."
The dark haired man gave his best friend a smug smile, whilst Ginny shook her head at her husband's childish behaviour. "Teddy." Harry chose.
"James." Said Ron.
Al or Rose? Harry wondered. "Al."
Ron hoped his daughter's Quidditch abilities had come on in the past year. "Rose."
He hated this part. Choosing which child would be left until last. It wasn't a question of who he wanted on the team anymore; it was who would take it worst. "Hugo." Harry said, looking at his daughter awkwardly.
Lily didn't seem to mind. As the youngest, she was used to this. "Sorry Uncle Ron, looks like you're stuck with me." She grinned.
"A pleasure, as always, Lils." He said, ruffling her hair.
The teams had gone and joined their captains. Harry stood on one side of the room with Teddy on his left and the boys on the right, calling mock insults at Ron's team. Ron had James on one side of him and the girls on the other, who were responding with equal ferocity.
Although there was a bit of tension between Rose and James, Ron was blatantly unaware of it, and Lily was determined not to let it bother them. "We are so going to win!" She exclaimed to Rose, ignoring Al who was screaming about how he was going to 'take them down'.
"Honestly Harry, if you're going to get them all this riled up, at least do it out of my house! Go on, be off, the lot of you, and work off some of that energy in the fresh air!" Mrs Weasley scolded, ushering the 8 players out of the house with her tea towel. Ginny followed them, smiling ruefully.
"Sorry, Mum. Anyway, don't worry, they'll be exhausted by the time they're finished, and ready to eat whatever delicious concoction you've created."
"They had better be! I don't want a drop to go to waste! Now go and sort that family of ours out." Mrs Weasley smiled warmly at her daughter as she joined the others in the garden.
It didn't take long for the game to be in full swing – the sky above garden full of figures whirling and spinning and diving and plunging and racing. Their shouts to each other (and very often to Ginny when she awarded the other team penalty) could probably have been heard all the way down in the nearest village, if Ginny hadn't hastily cast a 'Muffliato' a few minutes into the game.
The Weasley clan were playing a loose version of Quidditch, in which they had one Seeker on each team as usual, but only one Beater and the other two players doubling up as Chasers and Keepers. Naturally Harry was the Seeker on his team, with Al as the Beater and Teddy and Hugo both Keeping and Chasing. On Ron's team Rose was Seeker, James and Ron working together to both defend and score, and little Lily Beating.
When Al first saw who had been placed as his opposition, he looked at his Uncle with a smirk. "Are you sure, Uncle Ron? I mean Lily's got some speed on her, but not much strength. Wouldn't she be better as a Seeker? Or even a Chaser-slash-Keeper?"
Ron laughed. "Don't worry, Al. We know what we're doing."
And it turned out he did. Lily had taken everyone by surprise just a few minutes into the game when she sent a Bludger spinning towards her dad at top speed. It took no more than a few bristles off the end of Harry's broom, and no damage was done, but that didn't stop her team cheering her in admiration. Al tried to give as good as he got, but found himself fleeing from his little sister as she turned on him.
James was doing extremely well as a Chaser too. The supposed Keepers on the other team, Teddy and Hugo, were both spending their time Chasing, and therefore struggled to get back to defend the posts when James went in to score. And score he did. Several dozen times. Ron however, was staying in his 'comfort zone' – in front of the goal hoops. This tactic worked well when Teddy and Hugo launched an attack, but not so well when their defence was up and James need someone to pass the Quaffle to. Ron would be up in net, Lily chasing Harry, and Harry and Rose Seeking the Snitch.
There had been several close calls on that front. The first time Harry had, unsurprisingly, seen the Snitch first. Rose was good, but Harry was a Quidditch legend. He had dived for it, Rose a few seconds too slow and her uncle nearly won the game due to her daydreaming , but the amazing Lily Potter sent one of her famous Bludgers towards her Dad, forcing him to shoot upwards in order to avoid it. The downside was, so did Lily.
But, the Snitch was safe for then. As the scores mounted, it could have gone either way, no more than 40 points difference at any time, and the players were really getting into the game now.
Suddenly, Rose noticed a gleam out of the corner of her eye whilst she was circling the pitch. The problem was it was closer to Harry than, but behind him. He hadn't noticed it yet. It flitted and flicked, hovering in that area for a while, when Rose decided to make her move. She wouldn't get to it without her Uncle noticing, so on a whim she flew straight through the centre of the game to where Harry was flying away from the golden ball. He couldn't fail to miss the sudden movement from Rose, and jerked his broom around to see where the Golden Snitch was. Cursing, Rose tried to speed up because Harry had seen the winning ball now- it was within his grasp. But she knew her uncle would get there first; he was closer, faster, older, more experienced. But she carried on anyway feeling the wind whistling through her hair, biting her skin and numbing her face as she approached. She could see Harry reaching out to grab the Snitch when the whistle of something flying through the air at top speed interrupted the dramatic moment.
Lily had aimed another Bludger at Harry, clearly hoping to deter him from the Snitch, but had missed. The heavy, violent ball collided with the delicate gold one and knocked it to the ground, smashing the Golden Snitch to smithereens in the process. Rose and Harry watched, horrified, as the remaining pieces tumbled away from them, down to the ground, a mix of bent wings and golden scraps floating downwards; reflecting the light as they went.
Aside from the two Beaters and Seekers, the others didn't seem to realise what had happened. "Lily!"Al yelled, exasperated.
"Sorry." She mumbled. "I have more strength than aim."
"It's alright, Lils," Harry told his daughter as the four of them flew towards the Chasers, who had just stopped playing.
"What's up, guys?" Teddy called, as he flew over.
"We've lost the Snitch." Rose told them while they followed her to the ground.
"Well, go find it then." James suggested. "You are Seekers, right?" He added sarcastically.
Harry rolled his eyes. "What Rose means is an over-enthusiastic Beater may have accidentally hit it with a Bludger."
"Al!" Ginny, Ron and Teddy exclaimed at the same time as James and Hugo groaned. "Lily!"
Everyone but Al laughed. "It wasn't me!" he exclaimed, angrily.
"Sorry guys." Lily replied, as they landed and headed towards the Burrow.
"Hey, it doesn't matter, Lils." Rose reassured her.
"Yeah, we would have won anyway." Ron added, grinning at Harry.
"You wish!" His best friend laughed, pushing him. "I was seconds away from victory!"
"But I was ahead with goals," James pointed out. "160-130. And since there's no Snitch, surely that means we win."
"No way!" Teddy responded, faking astonishment. "We could have brought that one back, easily!"
"Ted's right, mate." Hugo told his cousin, grinning.
"Hugo Weasley, there is no way a team with you playing Chaser could ever beat me at Quidditch." James responded, pulling his cousin into a headlock, as the others laughed good naturedly.
"Boys!" Ginny exclaimed, futilely, as the 9 continued to bicker and laugh the whole way back to the house, where, as promised, Mrs Weasley as waiting for them with a huge casserole and plates of mashed potatoes. She sent them all to clean themselves up whilst she served dinner.
'Cleaning up' in the Weasley household didn't take more than 30 seconds, as within that time the 11 were all back downstairs and sat around the table and diving into the steaming plates of traditional, home cooked winter food, deliciously prepared and much anticipated.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, remember to favourite/follow me/the fic otherwise you won't get an update for the next chapter. I did intend to have Malfoy Manor in this chapter, but thought it would run over my 3,000 word guideline, so that will be the start of Chapter 31 instead. Please review if you can- it would make my day
Keep reading,
Lucy x