Thanks Steph

Here's the next chapter, look out for a competition at the end

Four, Golden
“But why do I have to go? It’s going to be so boring. All he ever does is talk about his stupid plants.”

“Teddy Lupin, don’t be so rude!”

“It’s true! And it’s my birthday, I should get to choose!”

“You’re going to go to Neville’s young man, and that’s the end of it.”

Teddy didn’t understand why he had to go and see Neville. It felt very much like they were trying to keep him away from some big secret, and he wanted to be in the middle of the action for a change.

“Go get your things.” His Gran was wearing her don’t-bother-to-try-and-argue-with-me expression.

Teddy stomped off to his room, muttering rude things about his Gran and Neville under his breath. He picked up his bag, stuffed in some comics, some tatty Exploding Snap Cards and the Re-useable Hangman that George had given him for Christmas, grabbed his broom and stomped back downstairs. His Gran was standing by the fireplace holding the pot of Floo Powder. Teddy considered giving his Gran a nasty look, but since she was still frowning at him, he thought better of it. He threw a large pinch of powder into the fire, stepped in and shouted “Dale House”. He closed his eyes, feeling slightly hot and uncomfortable as he span his way through the Floo Network to Neville’s house. He stumbled out of the fire, almost tripping over his broom.

“Careful, you’ll get ash everywhere.”

“Sorry Neville.”

“Happy Birthday kiddo.”

Teddy looked round and was delighted to see Ron sitting on the sofa, drinking a cup of tea, with a large plate of what looked like Ginger Newt biscuits near him on the table. The room looked like a fussy old lady lived there, not Neville. Teddy had never understood that. Suddenly a girl with shiny blond hair burst into the room, distracting Teddy from the decoration.

“Uncle Ron! A gnome bit me!”

She stuck her leg out to show a shiny puncture wound on her calf.

“Were you chasing them again?”

Victoire nodded, grinning at Teddy. Ron took out his wand and healed her leg quickly. Sometimes Teddy didn’t know what to say to Victoire, it was almost as though she stole his voice when he looked at her.

“Is that your broom Teddy? D’you want to come and have a race?”

Teddy nodded shyly.

“Come on then.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the door.

“Be quiet on your way out, you’ll wake the babies!”

They closed the door quietly behind them and Victorie rolled her eyes at Teddy. “That’s the only thing they’ve said to me all day. ‘Don’t wake the babies’. Babies are no fun, I’m glad you’re here.”

Teddy felt hot. “So Fred, Rose, James and Albus are here too?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why though. I thought we were going to Grandma Weasley’s today, but we didn’t. Uncle Ron brought us here and then said you were coming.”

It was definitely as though the grown-ups were keeping them away from something, Teddy thought. Victoire went to retrieve her broom from where she had abandoned it to chase the gnomes.

“To Scotton Farm and back?”

Victorie nodded and they kicked off together, soaring over the copse at the back of Neville’s rather grand house. Below them they could see the little village of Upper Flagley and in the distance was Knaresborough Castle. Victorie swooped in front of him, forcing him to brake. Her flying had improved since the last time they had raced and Teddy wondered if her Uncle Charlie had been teaching her. He dived five feet below her and urged his broom on, trying to overtake her and hoping that she wouldn’t notice. The wind rushed in Teddy’s ears as he saw Victorie swerve over Scotten farm and shoot back past him. Angry that he was being beaten by a girl, he turned mid air and pursued her fiercely. As he finally overtook her, she shouted “Cheater!”

As they got closer to Dale House, Teddy noticed something in the field below them. It was a huge muggle vehicle, one that Teddy had never seen before. He dived down to get a better look. It looked a little bit like something called a tractor, Teddy had seen those before. This vehicle had a big scoop that seemed to be eating all the wheat in the field. Teddy flew around the machine and saw that the stalks were being thrown out of the vehicle, and that the spiky top bits were being caught in a big tank inside the vehicle. Muggles were very clever, Teddy thought, to find a way to make a vehicle to do all those things at once.

Victoire looked around for Teddy but she couldn’t see him. In the field was a big farm vehicle and she wondered if Teddy would have gone to look at it. Granddad Weasley would have, it was ginormous! She swooped down to look for him. She spotted him, his hair was a golden wheat colour, but he was getting really close to the vehicle. Victoire didn’t like that...

Teddy could hear the vehicle, whirring and swishing, it was an oddly comforting sound. Not really thinking that the muggle who was driving the vehicle might see him on his broom, he swooped down to look at the part that was eating the wheat. There were giant blades swishing around, cutting the wheat away from the ground. Teddy inched closer to them, to get a better look, hypnotised by the movement.

Fifteen feet above him, Victoire was screaming his name, trying to make him hear her, trying to get him to move away from the blades. Something kept her high above him; she couldn’t dive down, no matter how hard she tried. Something silvery blue, like a cloud, was holding her in the air. She watched helplessly as Teddy got closer and closer to the blades.

Teddy was so close to the blades that bits of stalk were hitting him in the face. Suddenly, a vivid pink light came up into the machine with the wheat. The light enveloped Teddy, and pushed him backwards, away from the blades, away from the vehicle. Teddy was still trying to fly towards the blades, but the light was stronger than him, more determined to push him upwards. Soon he was level with Victorie and he saw how scared she looked. The lights disappeared.

“We should go back to Dale House now!” She shouted, sounding very cross.
Together they landed in the neat vegetable garden behind Dale House.

Victoire dropped her broom and punched Teddy in nose. He barely had time to realise that she had hit him before she punched him again, hitting every part of him that she could reach as hard as she could, her sharp little fists connecting with his ribs, stomach arms and legs.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow stop it!”

“That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen you do!” Tears were streaming down her pretty face, making it red and blotchy. “That thing could have eaten you!”

“It was a vehicle not a monster! They don’t eat people!” Victoire was still punching him, although with slightly less venom. Teddy wanted to hit back, but Harry had always told him that hitting girls was wrong.

“It had big knife teeth; a car will eat you if it’s got big knife teeth.” Victorie scowled at him. Teddy was just glad she’d stopped punching.

Teddy realised that his nose was bleeding. “Do we have to tell Ron and Neville what happened?” He didn’t fancy being in trouble on his birthday.

“We should, you did nearly get eaten.” She saw his face contract with fear and disappointment. She relented.“We can tell them you fell off your broom if you like.” Even though she was angry with him, Victorie knew that Teddy would be in lots of trouble if she told, a black eye and a nose bleed were punishment enough really.

Ron, Neville cleaned them up, and together, they Flooed everyone to The Burrow. Teddy had to go last. Ron said it was because Teddy was old enough to stay on his own. As he finally climbed out of the fire at The Burrow, he saw all the Weasleys, even Charlie, the Potters, Neville and Hannah, Kingsley, Luna, Mundungus, Hagrid and his Gran all walking around in the Weasley’s garden. “I knew something was going on.” he muttered to himself dejectedly, “I never get to do anything fun.”

He walked out of the into the garden and everyone shouted “SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

On tables was a feast of all Teddy’s favourite foods. Sausages and colcannon, custard tarts, chips, beef casserole and dumplings, roast chicken, jelly and ice-cream, Yorkshire Puddings, roast potatoes and onion gravy. At the centre of the table was the biggest cake that Teddy had ever seen. It was decorated with Puddlemere United and Chudley Cannons players, all flying around the cake, moving in formation and scoring goals. A tiny version of Oliver Wood was making spectacular saves in front of the goal hoops.

“Happy eleventh birthday Teddy!” Ginny kissed him on the cheek. She showed him another table that was groaning with presents. “Is all that for me?” Teddy was embarrassed when he realised that he was crying. He pulled at wrapping paper tentatively, almost expecting the presents disappear as he unwrapped them. There was a broom servicing kit, a big box of Honeydukes sweets, a fanged Frisbee, a model of a Hungarian Horntail that walked up and down on his hand and snapped at his fingers, a box filled with all kinds of goodies from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, a new chess board, a set of Puddlemere Quidditch robes, a scarlet quill in a box with a variety of inks, a stack of comics, a wireless, a pack of deluxe exploding snap cards and a photograph of Teddy with his Mum and Dad in an ornate pewter frame.

“Thank you everyone, this is brilliant!”

“Well now, yer on’y turn eleven once yer know.”

Hagrid’s voice boomed over his shoulder. Teddy turned around and his jaw dropped. On his arm was the most beautiful barn owl that Teddy had ever seen. She had a white heart shaped face with honey and grey wing feathers.

She flew down to Teddy’s shoulder and nipped his ear affectionately.

“Sh-she’s mine? Oh thank you Hagrid!” Hagrid pulled him into a customary rib cracking hug.

Teddy thought that the party was the most fun that anyone had ever had. After they had eaten the delicious food, played party games and watched a firework display set up by George, which spelled out ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEDDY!” in blue and gold stars, it was time for to go home. Teddy couldn’t stop saying ‘thank you’ to everyone.

Lying in his bed, staring at his new owl who he had decided to call Moony, Teddy wondered if he ought to talk to Victoire about the lights. He had seen the pale silver blue light keeping her in the air while the pink light pushed him away from the blades of the vehicle. Had she seen them too? Surely she would have said something, wouldn’t she? Victoire was not the kind of girl would didn’t talk about things. It was something about her that was annoying, she was always talking. So maybe she couldn’t see them. He had wondered about the lights a lot, about who else might be able to see them, or if everyone had their own lights as a part of their magic. He drifted off into a happy sleep, deciding to keep his lights a secret and dreaming of flying surrounded by vivid pink and pale silver blue.



I decided to site Upper Flagley near Knaresbrough, which is in North Yorkshire on the edge of the Yorkshire dales, because of Mother Shipton. She was born in a cave near the River Nidd 1488. There is a 'petrifying well' near the cave where the waters turn things to stone. Mother Shipton (born Ursula Sontheil) was decried as a witch from being a tiny child. She made many prophecies, the most worrying of which is that the world will end when the bridge over the River Nidd has fallen down 3 times. So far it has fallen down twice.
Also, names ending in -bottom are quite common in that area, as well as in West Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Competition
Q: What is the name of the vehicle that Teddy almost flies into?
The first two people to PM me with the correct answer get to name a character in the next chapter.