Christmas at the Burrow
They proudly showed Fleur the color of the wool and Teddy said:
'It's yellow, but it looks almost like gold. Perfect, isn't it?'
'It's perfect,' Fleur answered. Teddy and Victoire beamed and Fleur took them to the Leaky Cauldron to drink hot chocolate. They entered and the first thing Teddy saw was Neville pouring in drinks behind the counter.
'Professor Longbottom!' Teddy shouted enthusiastically. It was very weird to see a professor outside school, though he had seen Neville before in Harry's house.
Neville looked up and waved at him. He hurried over to them and greeted Fleur and Victoire.
'You don't have to call me professor outside school,' he said, smiling fondly at Teddy. Every time he looked at Teddy he saw the shadow of his own favorite professor. Remus Lupin had taught him to stand up for himself and was his example for how he wanted to teach.
He didn't treat Teddy different than any other student, but he had a special place in his heart for the boy who had lived through so much already. He knew how it was like to lose both of your parents and he paid extra attention to this boy in class, making sure he was happy.
He guided the trio to the table in the corner and brought them their drinks. Victoire and Teddy were chatting happily and Fleur watched them talk and joke. They hadn't seen each other for almost half a year but she knew that Victoire regularly sent Teddy long letters, which he always replied.
Victoire had quite missed her best friend the past months. She had a lot of other people to play with, but it hadn't been the same as with Teddy. Those two were always on the same page, had always needed just one look to understand each other. She had only seen such a bond between Fred and George and between Harry, Hermione and Ron.
'Mum? Shall we go home again?' Victoire asked and Fleur nodded vaguely, still thinking about Victoire and Teddy. She had a lot to inform Bill on when she'd be home again.
Once they arrived at home it was madness. Bill was playing with Dominique and Louis, who were playing Quidditch inside the house. Teddy and Victoire laughed, but Fleur didn't find it funny and looked furiously at Bill, who seemed quite a bit afraid of his wife.
'Come on, Ted, we'll go to my room,' Victoire said and they walked upstairs with the bag with wool. Fleur followed them and summoned the knitting needles. She sat down on Victoire's bed and Teddy and Victoire sat on either side of her, looking at her with interest.
Fleur could knit with magic, which she did most of the time, but she wasn't going to teach Teddy the spell. This had to be done by hand and without magic.
'Ok, pay attention both of you. I'll demonstrate how to do it and then I'll let you finish it.' Fleur said and both Teddy and Victoire nodded.
Fleur patiently explained the best way to make stitches and she enjoyed the looks of admiration she got as she finished the first row.
'Now it's your turn.'
Teddy gave Victoire a look of terror so Victoire took over the needles first. It went wrong the first few times, but slowly she got the hang of it. After a while she switched with Teddy and although he couldn't do it fast, the jumper steadily grew.
Fleur left them alone after a while and when she returned again, the jumper was almost finished. She inspected it in detail and saw to her amusement that one sleeve was shorter than the other. She stayed silent about that, knowing that Molly wouldn't mind.
'It looks great! I'm so proud of you. I will put the finishing touch on it, so if you get the wrappings for it?'
Victoire and Teddy sprang up and ran down the stairs to the large cupboard in the living room. They took it out and Teddy even found a matching ribbon.
They returned in the bedroom, where the jumper was laying carefully folded on the bed. Fleur was nowhere to be seen.
'It's fantastic!' Teddy said enthusiastically and Victoire beamed at him.
'Let's wrap it,' she answered. They worked together and finished it soon after. They hid it in Victoire's wardrobe and walked downstairs, where they drank tea with the rest of Victoire's family.
At five o'clock Teddy left again to Godric's Hollow. James, Al and Lily were very happy to see him again, and they didn't let go of him for the rest of the evening.
Lily, who was only four left for bed first and Albus soon followed after her. So James was the only one left and he started to stalk Teddy with every question he could come up with about Hogwarts.
'Where do you sleep?' 'Who are your friends?' 'What magic can you do already?' 'Can you show me?' Teddy laughed at his eagerness to know everything and since James didn't take no for an answer, he spent the rest of the evening telling stories.
'He has missed you a lot, hasn't he?' Harry said to Teddy when he had finally succeeded in sending James to bed.
'Yes, but I've missed him too. I'm already sure that he's going to be one of the greatest pranksters Hogwarts has ever had.'
'I sincerely hope not,' Ginny answered but Harry grinned proudly.
'At least there will be lots to laugh about,' Harry commented dryly and that earned him a smack on his head with Ginny's book. Teddy laughed and yawned.
'Why don't you go to bed?' Ginny suggested and Teddy got up and left to his own room. The last thought he had was that is was a shame Victoire wasn't here for the talking, joking and laughing. Then he fell asleep.
On the morning of Christmas day Teddy woke up early, but this time it wasn't Victoire that woke him. Lily stood next to his bed, thumb in her mouth and she was holding on to a stuffed green dragon.
'Teddy,' she said: 'are we going to the Burrow now? Dad said we would do that in the morning when I woke up. I'm awake now, so can we go?' Teddy tried hard not to sigh.
'Is the rest still asleep, Lils?' She nodded. 'That was what I was afraid of,' he muttered softly. Then he said to Lily: 'Come in my bed, then we'll wait for the real morning to come. It's still too early.' She shuffled towards the bed and when she had the blankets over her, she nestled against Teddy and fell asleep soon after. Teddy smiled at her and then started to read a book. He couldn't go to sleep now anyway.
When the rest of the people in the house started to wake up as well, he woke Lily and took her downstairs with him, where Ginny was the only one there.
'Oh, no,' she said, 'what time did she wake you up?' Teddy yawned.
'Only at four. It was worse last year, then she didn't fell asleep again, so it wasn't that bad now.' Ginny smiled.
'Perhaps she doesn't even come to you the next.'
'One can always hope,' Teddy answered, but he didn't mind. Lily was as good as his sister anyway and he loved her very much. And although she could be very annoying sometimes, it was mostly not to him.
At four o'clock the family gathered around the fireplace to go to the burrow. Ginny went with Lily, Harry with Albus and Teddy with James. They landed on the rug in the Burrow and where welcomed by an ecstatic Molly and a lovely smell from the kitchen. Molly was clearly cooking.
He hugged his Grandmother and then went greet everyone else in the room. Percy and his wife were there already, as were George and Angelina and Ron and Hermione. He could also hear a shower running, so that would mean that Charlie was there already too.
Teddy had always been incredibly fond of Charlie. He had always had something mysterious because he didn't often talk, but when he did; the most beautiful tales about all sorts of dragons were told.
Teddy waited eagerly on the arrival of Victoire and when she did, they sneaked upstairs to think of a plan when to give it. Teddy wanted to give it now, but Victoire wanted to wait the rest was already settled around the Christmas tree.
Victoire won in the end, but she wanted Teddy to give the present; it was his idea after all.
As it was the habit every year, first there was the Christmas dinner and after that the whole family would gather around the tree and after all the children had hung something in the tree, Molly would start to hand out presents.
All the children (and there were a lot) couldn't wait for their presents, but two stood out. Teddy and Victoire couldn't stay still on their seats, kept whispering to each other and didn't participate in the other's games or paid attention to anyone else. Fleur wasn't the only one who noticed, but she was the only who knew why.
The rest found out soon after everyone sat down. The children all sat on cushions around the tree and the adults were sitting behind them on the couch and chairs.
Molly sat in the middle of the children and next to the pile of presents, which got bigger every year, just like their family got bigger every year. Molly cleared her throat and with just one wave of her wand, a pile of presents flew towards their new owner. When everyone had the same present on their laps, she beamed.
'Merry Christmas everyone!' she said, which was normally the cue for everyone to start opening their presents.
'Stop!' Victoire yelled, just like she had agreed to with Teddy. 'Don't open your presents yet,' she announced and threw a glaring look towards Louis and James, who where trying to look through the wrappings. Then she motioned for Teddy to get up.
'This year,' he started when he had everyone's attention; 'Victoire and I decided to do something different because we knew there was something missing.' Teddy nodded and out of the blue, a wrapped present also lay on the lap of grandma Molly.
'We thought it was time to do something for you, grandma,' Victoire said and Molly stared at them.
'Open it!' Teddy and Victoire exclaimed on exactly the same moment and She smiled, then, with almost trembling hands, she opened her present. The rest of her grandchildren had stood up to look, her children all moved closer to see what was in the present.
Molly carefully took the wrappings off and in her hands she clutched the golden jumper. The rest cheered and clapped, congratulated Victoire and Teddy on their fantastic plan, but they had only eyes for grandma Molly. She was unable to speak, but silent tears of appreciation fell on the red letter in the middle of all the gold.
W
Finally the last chapter. Sorry for the wait! Thank you very much to whoever took the time to review. It means a lot to me.