93. Chicken

“BRAWWKKK BRAWWKKKK TEDDY’S CHICKEN CHICKEN!” They were taunting to the boy on the sidewalk who was clutching at his book.

“I’m a Wizard, I’m a Wizard,” Teddy said to himself, clinging to the knowledge he wouldn’t have to put up with these kids forever. He would be turning eleven in a few weeks, and he KNEW he’d get his letter.

“What’s that chicken boy? You’re a WIZARD!” they said, roaring with laughter.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Ava bellowed at them, deciding to take matters into her own hands as she marched up to the leader and punched him in the nose.

43. Headmaster

“The Headmistress left?” Sophia asked Zhenya, at a welcome home dinner following her graduation.
Zhenya nodded, stuffing more food into her mouth. “Well would you stick around after being taken hostage by the acromantulas? Even some of the students aren’t returning. But these two will be under the eye of Professor Botros. He was my ancient runes professor, but he’s a big softie.” Just like, she recalled, their Dedushka had been.
Sophia nodded.
“WHAT! Acromantulas at SCHOOL?” Teddy asked, excitedly.
The twins shared a sneaky grin with together. Oh yes, they were VERY much looking forward to starting at Hogwarts.

99. Trunk

“Teddy? Ava? Are your trunks packed?” their father asked, stopping in the corridor between their rooms.
“It won’t close, dad,” Teddy said, a hint of hysteria in his voice.
Alexander headed into his younger son’s room to investigate.

And immediately he knew why..

He sighed before kneeling down next to him “Teddy, you can’t take all of your books. They won’t fit. Besides, there’s a library at Hogwarts. Think of all the books you can read there!”

Teddy thought about it for a moment. He hated leaving his books though. With a sigh, he reluctantly started to unpack them all.

92. Chocolate

“What do you want for Christmas?” Lisabel asked her son, brushing his soft blonde hair with her fingers.

He contemplated that, a furrow in his brown. “I think I’d liiiiike,” he put his finger up to his chin, “More chocolate please mama.”

Lisabel laughed. “Chocolate? You just want some chocolate for Christmas?”

Teddy nodded. “Perhaps a book on chocolate, so I can learn how to make my own?” he suggested, his eyes lighting up at the thought. BOOKS and CHOCOLATE! Reading and eating chocolate was good but reading ABOUT chocolate!? How could Teddy refuse such an amazing combination of things.

100. Homework

“What are you doing Teddy? Come and practice Quidditch with me, just look how sunny it is outside,” Ava said, longingly gazing out the window at the sunny field behind their house.
“I’ll come out later, I’m just finishing some homework,” he said, not breaking his concentration from some complicated formula he was putting together.
Ava scoffed. “Homework? Teddy it’s the SUMMER HOLIDAY! We don’t have Homework!”
Teddy had just finished putting the final touches on the formula he was working on, giving him a moment to look up frowning.

“There’s always homework to do.”

Didn’t she have any homework?

59. Ignore

“Why aren’t you and Bert talking Theodore?” Lisabel asked.
Teddy looked at his mother sadly. “Well… I dobbed on him for trying to copy.”
Lisabel shook her head in disbelief. “I thought Bert was good at maths.”

“He is. He just forgot to revise before the test and he got stuck on an equation. He kept trying to look at my work and I… dobbed on him. He shouldn’t cheat, mum, cheaters are bad! Why do I have to work hard just so someone else can copy my work and get the same mark as I do? It’s not right!”

2. Muggle Studies

“Zhenny what are you doing?” Teddy and Ava giggled, watching their older sister try to make a hot chocolate. Even though it was absolutely disastrous, they couldn’t stop laughing.
“Er… I’m trying to boil some water,” she said, pointing her wand at the stove, starting a fire. She put the electrical kettle on the fire, but a moment later there were sparks, plastic melting and bubbling, and a toxic smell.

“UGH!” she yelled, stepping away from the blaze. “What did I do?” she asked, starting to freak out.
“It’s a… muggle kettle, Zhenny.”

Uhhohhhhh….

“We should call mum,” Teddy said.

10. Arithmancy

“Well… you have to add these numbers together, then add them together again, and again, until you have one single digit number. That’s reduction. I don’t know why you’re having so much trouble with it. It’s easy” Teddy was certainly puzzled.

Why was Keenan not understanding it? It was the easiest arithmancy equation he had ever worked out, and his nephew just wasn’t getting it.

Teddy was a little frustrated, really. Trying to educate someone who just didn’t care.

“It’s numbers! They’re so easy to deal with,” he muttered to the three year old boy who just wasn’t getting it.

94. Allergic

“Where have you and your freak sister been?” the girl down the road asked him.

Of course Teddy and Ava had been pulled out of their muggle primary school to attend Hogwarts, but their mother hadn’t told anyone.

“Is it some freak place for you both? Where you can both learn to be normal people? You’re both freaks! Is it a place for you to learn how to socialise with people properly, chicken boy?” she taunted. "Why are you ignoring my questions?”

Teddy turned around to look her in the eye. “Please stop talking to me. I’m allergic to idiots.”

13. Quidditch

“So, how was Quidditch camp, guys?” Uncle Archer asked the twins at Sunday lunch.
Teddy didn’t even have to speak, for Ava wouldn’t STOP talking about it. Not now, not EVER. Even the question re-sparked her excitement over meeting the professional players and flying. After what seemed like a year, she stopped for a breath and Archer turned to Teddy.
“So, Ted? Did you enjoy it too?”
“Yeah! It was a lot of fun,” he said. Was he being sarcastic? “It was! Learning to fly, practicing the moves and playing with the balls! I really enjoyed watching from the ground.”

91. Future

“So this is it, huh?” Ava asked her brother as they stood on the footpath in London, looking up at something.
“Yeah,” the 25 year old said proudly, his eyes glistening with a proud excitement. “This is it.”
“Burton’s Reading Nook,” Ava read from the large sign out the front. “I can’t believe you did it, Dora. You’ve been speaking about it for… 20 years! WOW! And look… your very own bookshop.”
Teddy couldn’t hide the proud smile. All the hard work in building the shop, sourcing the books and charming it so that muggles and witches alike could enjoy.

19. Wand

The man at Ollivanders said Teddy and his wand were a fine match! Teddy felt like a piece of his SOUL had been handed to him, in nothing more than a dented cardboard wand box. His own wand was beautiful. Teddy liked the symmetry; it was like an old, worn book with a beautiful story inside. And he would be SURE to make a beautiful life with his wand. Twelve inch; Applewood; jobberknoll feather core.

Teddy had researched basic Wandlore and wandcraft, and thought the properties of HIS wand were simply perfect. Plus, he got to keep the dented box!

95. Snowball

“TEDDY CATCH!” Ava yelled, throwing a snowball at him. It was the Christmas before they were starting Hogwarts. The snow was crunchy, white and cold.
He didn’t catch it with his hands, but rather his face. “OOF!” he grunted, falling backwards into the snow giggling.
He scrunched up a ball of snow and rounded it into a ball, and without calling her attention, he threw it to his sister. He hadn’t meant to get her in the face, too, but she bend down at the last minute and it collided with her mouth. Now both of their faces were numb.

27. Owl

“No, I don’t want an owl. Think about it mother,” Teddy said to Lisabel, trying to give her the FACTS so she would agree with his plan. “You and father have an owl here. They have PLENTY of owls at Hogwarts, so why do I need an owl? I don’t want an owl. I want a cat. You won’t let me take Ginger Ninja, and he’s getting old,” which Teddy wasn’t even going to talk about, “So I’ve decided a cat would be the best. It would be a companion for me at Hogwarts."

Lisabel couldn’t disagree with his argument.

1. Herbology

“Here’s a cup of peppermint tea.”
“Thanks Zhenya,” Teddy said, arm crossed over his cramping stomach.
“It’s fresh from the garden. I tried watering it with this anti-nausea elixir we’ve been working on, trying to get some more of the healing properties into the herbs.”
Teddy smiled up at his big sister. “You’re a great herbologist, you know?” he said, sipping at the pleasantly sweet peppermint tea. “Mmm was honey one of the ingredients?” he guessed, sipping at it again.
Zhenya smiled “It was! Manuka honey. There are antimicrobial properties in it. Nice, huh?”
Teddy nodded, finishing the tea off.

90. Present

“How’s the Ravenclaw common room? Enough books there for ya, Dora?” Ava asked.
Teddy hitched his bag further up his shoulder. It was heavy. “It’s great! Lots of books. Loads. More than I could even read in a year.” That was a LOT. “What about the Gryffindor common room?”
“It’s great! They have a games lounge, and a reading room. You’d love it, Teddy. You know, besides the lion reputation,” she laughed. Teddy, a Gryffindor? Yeah right. Even Teddy couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
They continued to walk to the great hall. “Come eat with me?” Ava asked.

26. Quill

It was the release of a limited edition of A Study in Scarlet. Teddy wanted to be at the bookshop YESTERDAY! Why was everyone still asleep? It was almost dawn! Teddy had already eaten breakfast, done his dishes, and dressed.

He grabbed his extra feathery quill and took it into his parents bedroom and reached out, moving it around on his mother’s face. He was trying not to giggle as she started swatting it and mumbling in her sleep.

As soon as she woke up GLARING at him, Teddy wondered whether he should have tried a more conventional wake up.

36. Muggle

“What’s a muggle?” asked the muggle.
Teddy would have laughed, only this was happening in real life, and he was shocked. How did the muggle even know what a muggle was?
“Uh… it’s… uhhhhh a,” he stuttered.
She raised her eyebrow at him, obviously waiting for an answer.
He faked a chuckle, “How did you know the term? It’s… oh it’s part of a book I’m writing.” He had never seen it written in muggle literature, so there was no point using that lie.
“Oh right,” she said. “You just kept muttering it under your breath yesterday at school, Teddy.”

18. Whomping Willow

Studying his Hogwarts map, trying to navigate himself around before he’d started at Hogwarts, his eyes passed something called The Whomping Willow. “Hmm that sounds ominous,” he said to himself.
“What’s that Tedd-o?” Archer asked, walking into the kitchen to get some water.
“What’s the Whomping Willow?” He asked his uncle. Surely he could tell him without having to look it up in his books.
“Uh it’s exactly that. A willow that… whomps people.”
Teddy stared at Archer for a moment. “Whomps people? As in… hits them? The TREE HAS A MIND OF ITS OWN?” Oh this was NOT right.

39. Duel

“TEDDY!”
Nose in book, Teddy was oblivious to someone yelling his name.
“TEEDDDDYYYYYY!!!!!”
He kept walking down the corridor, on his way to the library. He had 5 pages left. It would be 0 by the time he reached his destination.
“Owwhhhh,” Teddy growled, his book falling out of his hands as something hard collided with his head. Spinning around he saw Ava. “What was that for?” He was going to have a lump!
“I was yelling for aaaaages,” she replied, with an eye roll.
“What for?”
“I won my duel! I’m UNDEFEATED!”
Teddy smiled at Ava the Duelling Champion.

“Hi Whit,” Teddy said, walking in and putting A Game of Thrones down in front of her. “I finally finished it. Was good, thanks for lending it to me.”
Whit frowned… something about the cute little guy in Blue and Bronze, and that British accent. “Who are you?” she asked.
“It’s Teddy. You know, Teddy Burton. I’m a friend of Lux’s. How is she?”

Blink blink.

“Wh- How?” Blink blink… “How are you here?!”
“Sheldon Cooper and I developed a machine to break the fourth wall. So, I asked it to take me to Lux and it brought me here.”

76. Zap

Ava flopped next to Teddy, who was sitting on the couch watching a movie.
“I’m bored Teddy,” she said, sighing again.
“Do you want to watch Transformers with me? It’s a good one.”
“No. Do you want to come out and play Quidditch with me?”
Teddy cleared his throat. “No.” He certainly did not want to play Quidditch. “I have some chocolate frogs though,” he said, offering one to her.
Ava reached her hand into the bag, yanking it out a second later. “IT ZAPPED ME!” she said.
Teddy giggled, “Did I just prank the master? I think I did!”

75. Yodel

“OH TEDDY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” his mother screeched in Russian, hands covering her ears.
“Practicing,” he said, getting back to it. “YODELODELODELODELEYYYY”
“GOSH Teddy you’re going to wake the dead soon.”
“But I want to practice for the school talent contest. Nobody else is doing Yodeling, so I wanted to try it. See? YODELODELODELEYYY YODELEY YODEEELLLEYYY. I’m getting better.”

Better? That was better? Lisabel blinked and swallowed her words. “Teddy… don’t you think a dramatic reading from one of your books would be better?”
He looked up at her. “You don’t think my Yodeling is good enough, do you?”

97. Dictionary

“You’re so lame Theodora,” the mean girl taunted, standing in front of his desk.
Teddy did his best to ignore it, but sometimes… sometimes it just GOT to him. His fingers curled up into a fist as he tried to keep his eyes down on his work.
“You’re so stupid, you’ll probably get an F on your test.”

Wait… did she just call him stupid?
Teddy laughed, the soft laugh of a nine-year-old.
“Why are you laughing stupid?”
“You ought to look up stupid in the dictionary. I think you’ll find your own name written there.”

Oh, did he laugh.