The One That Loved {Book Three in 'The One' Series}

Prologue

The One That Loved

Book Three in ‘The One Series’

Prologue

            A light rain fell from the woolly grey sky, beating against the thin roof of a small tree house. The structure was almost completely concealed by foliage, but if you climbed the ladder you would see a little girl snuggled up in the corner surrounded by books and old quills; she may even be sitting on a shifty stack of large volumes. The tree was a large willow that bowed over the river, the tree house safely stuck between the two largest branches. Up the sloping back you could just see a screened in sunroom, were a young woman stood with her arms crossed.

“Ada?” George said, entering the sunroom, a tiny swaddled baby in his arms “I’m about to feed Jacquie and Fred, but I’m not exactly equipped to feed Quinn.”

Putting her arms out, George put the infant in her arms “I’ll feed her out here; I’m keeping an eye on Syrie.”

“How’s she doing?” he asked as Adalyn sat on the love seat and lifted her shirt, putting Quinn’s lips to her breast.

“I’m worried about her,” sighed Adalyn, accepting a blanket to shield her baby daughter from the slight chill in the air “She won’t come down from the tree house.”

“I think she believes the owl from Hogwarts will come faster if she waits there.” George sat beside his wife and gave her a kiss “Teddy will be over soon, maybe he can convince her to come down.”

Adalyn was about to reply that Syrie was unfortunately as stubborn as her parents when two delighted cries of ‘Teddy!’ George and Adalyn turned to see a young boy stumble into the room, an auburn haired toddler clinging to each leg.

“She in the fort?” he asked, blowing strands of turquoise hair out of his blue eyes.

“Yup, most likely waiting for you.” George said, taking the twins by the hand “C’mon Jacquie, Freddie; let Teddy go see Syrie.”

“We wanna go to!” they cried in unison. “Please Daddy?” begged Jacquie, silvery grey eyes bright, her brothers the same.

“Yeah, we wanna play in the fort, too!” Fred chimed in as the two posed identically with their arms crossed.

Teddy ruffled their curls and turned towards the sun porch door “We’ll play later guys, okay?”

The twins automatically smiled and nodded, racing back into the kitchen, George not far behind. Adalyn smiled at Teddy and moved towards the doorway “See if you can get her to come inside, okay?”

“Okay Ada, I’ll do my best.” Flashing her a smile, Teddy bounded out the sun porch door and down the slope towards the weeping willow. Clambering up the ladder, Teddy poked his head through to see Syrie in the corner on a bean bag, arms crossed and staring out the window, books stacked in almost every corner. “Hey shortie,” he said, pulling himself and sitting cross legged two feet away.

“Hi Teddy.” She said glumly “Come to say bye?”

“Don’t be silly,” he chuckled “I’m not leaving for three months!”

“But you’re leaving.”

Scooting forward, Teddy changed his appearance so he had floppy light brown hair and blue eyes; something he only did in front of Harry and Syrie “Not for a while, and not without saying goodbye.”

“If you’re going so am I!” Syrie furrowed her brow in a way that made her look a lot like Harry “I’ll just sneak onto the train and live in the kitchens, nobody will know!”

Grinning, Teddy sat beside her “I want you to come Seer, but you cant yet. Next year though you and Vicky will come and we’ll wreck havoc! Okay?”

Glancing and him quickly out of the corner of her eye, Syrie looked sceptical “And you’ll write?”

“All the time.”

Turning towards him, Syrie bit her lip nervously “Promise?”

Teddy stuck out his pinkie and smiled at his best friend “Promise.”

A/N: So there it is folks, the prologue for 'The One That Loved'-and can you believe it? The third book in the 'The One' Series! I hope this lived up to expectations and that you'll enjoy and love TOTL3 (makes more sense than TOTL2, right?) as much as TOTGA and TOTL!

Question: What do you think from reading the blurb and the prologue? What do you think Syrie will be like?

Rose<3