The Story of Teddy Lupin

Chapter 3: Family Holiday

This Christmas was like every other Christmas Teddy had had since he was a baby. On Christmas Eve he was with his Gran. Then when they got up on Christmas morning they opened their presents and went to Harry and Ginny's to open presents there with James, Al, and Lily as well. Harry and Ginny always got him just as much as they did the others even though his Gran got him presents too. Then from there they all went to the Burrow for lunch and a few more presents. Grandmum Molly knit everyone a sweater with the letter of their first name on the front of it. This year Teddy's sweater was yellow because he was in hufflepuff. After lunch all the kids would bundle up and go play outside, usually having a snowball fight. It was wonderful. Then that night he would go home with Harry and Ginny.

Since every holiday is the same every year Teddy was pretty used to the routine. But there was something slightly different this year. It wasn't how much Victoire followed him around (sometimes he found that rather annoying but he got over it), it wasn't James and Al begging to be on his team for the snowball fight, and it wasn't the amount of food grandmum Molly made either (always enough to feed an army). No, what was different was the fact that he awoke to two extra presents Christmas morning. He has sent Lee and Neil presents this year, but for some reason he hadn't expected them to send him anything. It made him very happy to get their presents. It confirmed for him that they were truly his friends.

With that Teddy had an enjoyable holiday as always. On the last night of the holiday Harry sat down with Teddy to see if he could get Teddy to tell him more about his time at Hogwarts so far. The chatted easily for a while and a few things, including how he made friends with Lee and Neil. Which led Teddy to ask Harry about Lee's mum and Neil's dad.

Harry was surprised to find out who the parents of Teddy's new friends were. He remembered Cho from during the battle. There was no way she was pregnant or had just had a baby. He would have to figure out how she managed to now have a son the same age as Teddy. But Harry talked about them both anyways.

"Well, Neil's dad Oliver was Quidditch captain when I was in school my first couple of years on the team. He played Keeper. He took the game very seriously. He's a coach now I believe."

"Wow that's so cool. Neil said he was a coach and that he played in school, but I didn't know you played with him."

"Yeah. It was great. And Lee's mum Cho was in my year. She was in Ravenclaw."

"She was in the D.A. right?"

Ginny came the rest of the way down the stairs then and said, in a laughing tone, "yeah, she was in the D.A. alright."

Teddy looked from Harry to Ginny then back to Harry. Ginny had a look on her face he had never seen her make before and Harry was blushing. He wasn't sure what to make of the situation. Harry rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat.

Teddy looked up at Ginny again, "why did you say it like that Ginny?"

"Why don't you ask Harry, he knows why."

Harry sighed and Teddy turned to look at him.

"Why did Ginny say it like that Harry?"

"Well, I sort of kissed Cho once in the Room of Requirement after a D.A. meeting", Harry mumbled.

"What?! You kissed Lee's mum? Where was Ginny during this?"

"Er."

"Yeah where was I Harry?"

"Well, you know Ginny and I didn't start dating until I was 16 and she was 15. So that was the next year. I kind of, sort of like Cho before I liked Ginny." He rushed that last bit out pretty quickly.

"Oh. That's weird. Yeah I'm not gonna tell Lee about that."

"Probably a good idea" Harry said.

Teddy got up to go to bed and stopped on the bottom step. He looked over his shoulder and said, "wait a second. You were 17 when I was born right? It was during you're 7th year?"

"That's right."

"Well if Lee's mum was in your year that would mean she was in her 7th year when I was born too right?"

"Yes she was. Why?"

"Well if Lee and I are in the same year, wouldn't she have had to have him during her 7th year?"

Harry hesitated, "yes, she would have had to have him then."

"So she had him during her 7th year then?"

Harry rubbed his neck again, "no. As far as I know she wasn't pregnant then."

"Then how did she have Lee early enough for him to be in my class?"

"I'm not sure buddy. Why don't you go on to bed now, tomorrow will be a busy day."

Teddy trudged up the stairs, exhausted as he always was after a crazy family holiday.

Ginny sat down on the coach next to Harry and snuggled into his side wrapping her arms around his waist. He put his arm around her shoulders and they sat in silence for a few moments. Ginny looked up at Harry, "what do you think, was Lee adopted? Or maybe he's her stepson?"

"He's probably adopted. I think he would have let on to Teddy if Cho were his stepmum."

"Yeah you're probably right. I wonder if Lee knows."

"I would hope so. I don't know why they wouldn't tell him. And I imagine he couldn't have been adopted until he was a toddler so Cho could have gotten married before adopting him."

"Good point. Come on, let's go to bed love."

Ginny stood up and pulled Harry to his feet before dragging him upstairs to their bedroom.

The next morning had Harry and Teddy making a mad dash out the door. Harry had been right, Teddy loved Hogwarts. All that meant now though was that Teddy was not waking up early because he was nervous. He had returned to being extremely difficult to get him out of bed in the morning, like trying to pry the gnomes out of the Weasley's garden. This of course caused them to be late leaving. Not that Harry could really blame Teddy, he and Ron had been the same way when they were in school, especially Ron.

When they finally made it to the train station Lee and Neil were already there with their parents. This gave Harry the perfect opportunity to talk to Cho and Oliver. Teddy ran ahead to meet Lee and Neil so they could look for a compartment. The three boys scrambled onto the train with Harry calling after them, "yeah okay see at the Easter hols Teddy!"

Teddy paused on the steps of the train, "oh right". He turned and ran back over to Harry and gave him a quick hug, "bye Harry see you at Easter". He went back to the train and found the compartment that Lee and Neil had gone into.

Seeing that Teddy was done with him having reunited with his friends Harry turned to Cho and Oliver. "So our kids are friends."

Oliver clapped Harry on the back, "looks that way doesn't Harry. Glad Neil has made some good friends."

Cho smiled, "me too. Lee was so worried he wouldn't have any friends at Hogwarts."

"So was Teddy."

"Well it's a good thing they found each other then. Sorry I can't stay to catch up longer Harry, but I've got to get back to work. See you all around." With that Oliver left.

Harry looked over at Cho, "do you have time for a quick coffee maybe?"

"Sure."

They walked out of the station and walked down the street a short ways and went into the nearest coffee shop. After getting their coffees and sitting down Cho cleared her throat, "so what did you want to talk about?"

"Am I that obvious?" Harry chuckled.

"You always have been Harry."

"Alright, I guess I'll just jump right in then. Is Lee adopted? I know its none of my business, but you would have had to have him our 7th year for him to be the same age as Teddy. And it doesn't matter if he is adopted. But Teddy was confused when he asked me about you and found out we were in the same year. So I just want to be prepared for any questions he may ask me and"

"Harry, take a breath."

"Sorry."

Cho took a drink of her coffee before saying, "yes, Lee is adopted. About a year after I got married we found out Lee was up for adoption. And since we hadn't gotten pregnant yet we decided to go on and adopt him. We had discussed adoption from the beginning. We both understood the benefits of it. So when we found out Lee's parents had been killed in an accident we decided to adopt him. He has been such a blessing to us. And we love him just as much as we do Mae. But he's not very open about his adoption. He got teased some about it when he was in primary school. So he decided he didn't want to tell people at Hogwarts."

"Why would kids tease him for being adopted?"

"Kids made fun of you for being orphaned didn't they?"

"Well yes. I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it now. It's crazy."

"It is. But unfortunately some kids can be cruel. So he doesn't tell anyone. I do hope you won't say anything to Teddy about it before Lee decides to tell him."

"Oh I won't. I promise. I just wanted to know in case Lee told him and Teddy asked me any questions. Thank you for telling me."

Cho smiled at Harry and nodded, "of course".

With that they left the coffee shop going their separate ways.

Meanwhile on the train Lee, Teddy, and Neil were talking about their Christmas. They told each other what some of the presents they got were and thanked each other for the gifts they sent. When they had exhausted this topic Teddy looked at Lee, "can I ask you a question?

"Sure."

"Are you adopted?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Because your mum was in the same year as Harry and he said he doesn't remember her being pregnant or having a baby then. So that would mean she's either your stepmum or your adopted right?"

"That's the only thing that would make sense to me", Neil added.

Lee sighed, "yeah I'm adopted".

"Cool", said Teddy.

"You think it's cool I'm adopted?"

"Yeah. If Harry could have been adopted instead of living with his aunt and uncle he may have had a better childhood. And even though I'm not legally adopted, I might as well be. I just don't call Harry and Ginny mum and dad. I used to want to. I even tried it a few times when I was little. But Harry explained to me one time why he wasn't my dad and it just sort of stuck. But they're still my parents."

"So you don't think its weird or unnatural? Or that my birth parents didn't want me or that my mum and dad must love my little sister more than me because mum gave birth to her or anything like that?"

"No way mate. Look your parents chose you. The way I see it that means they love you more than anyone could imagine. And if anyone wanted to say your parents loved one of you more than the other it would only make sense for it to be you. Because they picked you for themselves. It was just the luck of the draw that they had your sister. Though I think they love you evenly."

"Wow. I never thought about it that way before. Thanks."

Neil was silent during this whole conversation prompting Teddy to ask him if something was wrong.

"No, I'm fine. I didn't have anything as good as what you said to add so I just listened. I agree with what you said 100%."

With that their conversation turned to something lighter until they finally made it back to the castle. They couldn't wait to be back, even if they did hate doing homework.