Character Bios: Teddy
My grandmother told me once, "Teddy, today is history. Years from now your kids will ask you about this day. Today and everything you did today will be remembered."
Turns out that is the truth. Everything that happens comes back to haunt you. A day doesn't go by that someone doesn't mention my parents and how much I look like them or act like them. "As clumsy as your mother!" they say as they shake their heads and smile. Or they will watch me perform a spell and proclaim me "just as smart” as my father. When I'm not morphed, I have my father's eyes and my mother's nose and the Black family’s grin. Even Grandmeda tells me I have my Grandpa Ted's chin. Some days I feel like nothing I own belongs to me.
Harry is the only one who seems to realize I'm not my parents. He'll mention off-hand that my mum was more adventurous than I was and my father more cautious. He laughs at me when he sees me wearing bright orange hair, telling me neither of my parents ever tried that particular hair colour. Harry tells me stories about his life, but he doesn't try to emphasize my parents unless I ask him to. When I asked him why once, he said he knew how it felt to be held up to someone you never met. And he knew how it felt when you seemed to come out less than them. Never one to dumb down his explanations just because I am younger than he is, Harry told me things about my parents when I asked him to, both good and bad things, things that gave me real people to focus on instead of the almighty angels everyone else made them out to be. I love him for that.
The brother I will never have, Harry understands me. He understands when I come to him wondering why I can look like anyone I want and no one else can. When I ask him why I hate to look at the full moon and why my whole body aches some nights, he explains to me what it means to be the son of a lycanthrope. He tells me what happens when you grow up, how your body changes, and your mind changes, and you feel like no one else on Earth could ever understand how you feel. On the eve of my fourteenth birthday he listened when I talked about why I hate how being around Victoire because my tongue starts to trip over itself and my mind feels sluggish and stuck and how when she smiles at the other boys my chest hurts like there is a rabid dog tearing it up. And he understands.
I hate Hogwarts because none of the adults there are Harry. Professor Longbottom and Headmistress McGonagall look at me like I'm one of my parents who have come back from the dead. The other professors expect me to be smarter, more courageous, more like someone I'm not. My grades are far above average. I follow the rules and never get detention. I know I'm a good kid, but I'm never good enough for them.
The only thing I want in life is to be known for who I am. Since first year I have had the top grades in Gryffindor. This year I finished with the highest grades in the entire fourth year. I date girls like they are recyclable, except for the girls in the Weasley family because I know even Harry would have my head for that. I'm the champion chess player in Gryffindor, even better than the best seventh year. My morphing is top quality; I can impersonate everyone in the school. My acting is good too. I spent an entire weekend as Fred Weasley when he was sick in the hospital wing and no one even noticed I was him. I'm just about off the charts in almost anything you can think of. Still, people tell me I can do better, that I should do something else.
Grandmeda, my Grandma Andromeda, tells me that I need to do less, that I need to slow down before I burn myself out. When I slow down though, all I can think of is, look at what happened to my parents. They slowed down, they got clumsy, and they didn't see those Death Eaters sneak up behind them. Now they are gone and I'm alone. So I can't slow down, because I don't want to lose myself, lose who I am or who I will be. So I stay focused, work hard, and fight to be the best. Maybe then I will make my mark on the world and people will ask about this moment in time, the moment I aced a Potions test or won a Quidditch match. Then someone will tell them, "Teddy, not his mother or his father, did that." And I will finally have my own part in history.
Other Bios: Victoire - Fred - Dominique