Trouble With Time

Eight

At around 8am, Teddy awoke to Lily pulling off his blanket and shouting at him.

"Teddy! Teddy! Lucy's crying and James just pulled the meanest most horriblist prank ever! He..." Teddy tuned Lily out as he yawned, stretched and stood up. He followed her to her shared room and found James and Fred standing sniggering guiltily in the corner whilst Molly sat with Lucy, who had her blanket wrapped tightly around her and had tear stains on her face. Roxanne was nowhere to be seen.

"Right, what did you do this time?" Teddy asked in exasperation. He had hoped that James and Fred would behave today, given what had occurred late last night.

It turned out that they had tried to apparate into the girls room. However, given that they hadn't had any lessons yet and were rather tired, they somehow managed to send a jug of water and several books to their room, leaving a wet and homesick Lucy and a very angry Lily, with a bumped head.

"Honestly! Cant you please just be good for one day?! One day is all I'm asking for, ok?" The boys nodded. It seemed that they realised what a serious situation they were in and that it required them to actually behave for once.

After dealing with Lucy and Lily, Teddy left to check James's phone, which he had left out of reach in his room over night. It was lucky that he chose then to check it as, no sooner had he picked the phone up did it start buzzing.

"Hello," Teddy said, shutting the door.

"Teddy, we've found a way to get you home!" It was Hermione.

"That's great!" He exclaimed. Truefully, he wasnt too sure how he felt about that.

"It may take us a few hours to sort things this end but all you need to do is, when we give you the signal, hold the broken timeturner tightly. Only one of you will need to do that though, the others just need to be in the vicinity. Just make sure that no one from the past is in the same room or touching any of you as they will be brought back to the future and that could be disastrous."

"Right," said Teddy. Hermione was speaking very fast and it was very hard to concentrate on everything she was saying. "So, when do you think it will be ready?"

"Oh, maybe a couple of hours. If we say, get ready at about 11 o'clock, would that be alright?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, good. Oh and Teddy?"

"Yes?"

"Make sure that Dumbledore or someone is ready to oblivarate everyone after you have left else... yes I dont want to think about it."

Teddy thought of everything they had told the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione Sirius and Remus last night and shuddered to think of what would happen if they remembered what they had already been told.

"Dumbledore's already said that he would do it."

"Good," she said. There seemed to be someone else talking to Hermione. "Yes... Yes Ginny I have... Yes... Sorry Teddy, Ginny wants a quick word."

Teddy grimaced in anticipation.

"Teddy, thank you so much for looking after them all. Thank you so much." He shook himself slightly at his usually strict aunt's words. She seemed almost emotional.

"Umm, that's alright Ginny. They haven't been much trouble, really."

"Still, thank you Teddy. Oh and one last thing," her voice turned to a whisper so as to stop other people with her from hearing. "Please give my love to Fred. We will see you later. Love you all."

"Bye," Teddy said before hanging up. The phone now had only 15% left, which shouldn't be too much of a problem if they were going home later that day.

After dressing in his clothes from yesterday, Teddy checked on everyone, telling them all to get changed and go downstairs. When he entered Fred and George's room, Mrs. Weasley was there, bustling around. She seemed to be trying to stay near Fred.

"Mum, leave us alone! I'm fine!"

Victoire was already in the kitchen, alone, when he arrived. He smiled then sat next to her.

"Hermione rang and said that they can get us home at around 11."

"Great!" Victoire exclaimed. She stared at Teddy suspiciously for a moment. "Teddy," she said very tentatively. "I know that it's nice for you to meet your parents and all, but we do have to go back. All of us."

"I know," Teddy sighed, putting away his fake smile that had been plastered to his face since the phone call.

Victoire grabbed his hands and opened her mouth to say something else when Tonks walked in.

"Wotcher," she said, then, realising who was there, stopped. "Umm, Teddy," she mumbled, her normal cheery self gone. "Could I have a word?"

Victoire gave Teddy's hands one last squeeze before standing, saying she was going to check on Lucy. She shut the door on her way out, for which he was grateful for.

"So, well, I know what happens. I mean about me and Remus dying," Tonks said, obviously uncomfortable. "And I just wanted to say that I'm so sorry Teddy, I truly am. It isn't fair that you had to grow up an orphan and... yeah."

Teddy looked at his mum: he was about 3 inches taller than her, despite not actually being very tall himself. She looked just as everyone had described her, except her hair had just turned a miserable black colour, to match her mood.

"Its fine mum," Teddy said, forcing a smile. "I didn't grow up alone at all, I had Grandma and Uncle Harry and Aunt Hermione and all the Weasleys. Before I went to Hogwarts, I went on a different sleepover every week and they all treated me as their own. I still had a very happy childhood, despite, you know..."

They just looked at each other again. Teddy had a strange sense of de-ja-vu from last night with his father. Then they were hugging.

The door banged open again and both Freds, James, Louis and George all walked in, discussing various pranks. Tonks and Teddy came apart, but she kept holding onto his arms.

Once everyone was there, Teddy told them what Hermione had told him. Then he checked the time: it was 9.30. That gave them 1 and a half hours to be ready.

After breakfast, Teddy went upstairs with Victoire and Dominique to vanish any evidence of their stay. They got rid of the extra mattresses and remade the spare beds. Once everything was in order, they went back downstairs.

In the large living room, James was standing with Sirius, having what looked like a rather serious conversation; Lily, Rose and Hugo were with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, apparently having a rather funny discussion about the future; Roxanne, Lucy and Molly were sat on some chairs, talking to Mrs Weasley; both Freds and George were laughing together; Remus and Tonks seemed to be having a very uncomfortable discussion as both were very flustered; Albus was sat in a corner, alone; Dominique and Victoire went to join their father and Louis in a corner. Teddy decided to check on Albus, despite wanting desperately to spend more time with his parents.

"What's up?" Teddy asked him. Albus jumped.

"'M fine," he mumbled, avoiding Teddy's gaze. However, after a moment he said, "it's just that my own parents don't want to talk to me, because I'm a Slytherin."

Teddy sighed, looking over at Harry and Ginny. They were standing much closer than 'friends' would.

"Look, they just don't understand. At this time, your dad's nemesis was Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin. Yes, I know that he is alright in our time but he wasn't-isn't now." Teddy looked at Albus. "Al, you know better than anyone that Slytherins get picked on for being the bad house." Albus made a noise in the back of his throat. "It's just a stereotype that needs to be broken. And it nearly has been in our time! How about you go over there and start a conversation about, I don't know, what everyone from our time is like or something?"

Albus sighed then reluctantly nodded. Teddy watched him walk over then turned to search for his own parents again. They were still standing together but were laughing now, the tension between them broken.

Walking over to them, Teddy tried to plan what to say but couldn't think of anything. They stopped talking when he got near.

"Umm, hi."