Post by .THEODORE REMUS LUPIN ! on Jul 4, 2010 19:29:22 GMT -5
the song
* * *
* * *
"Teddy, lad, fetch me some Twinings from the storage room, then?"
"What kind?"
"Pekoe, if we've got it-" and then, in a softer voice, "or nip some regular and color the tag orange, eh? These types never know the difference then, do they?"
Teddy grinned widely at Mrs. Lewis, his fellow co-worker at the fancy tea shop in Hogsmeade, Madam Puddifoot's. "Right," he nodded, and headed back to the stores behind the counter to retrieve the fixings for the last few cups of tea for that day. It was his summer job, one he'd kept since the summer he went into his fifth year when Mrs. Lewis mentioned they were hiring. Cas, of course, was having none of that line of business, but to Teddy money was money. Not to mention he enjoyed the attention from those of the female persuasion.
The water was boiling now, and Teddy carefully added the teabags to the pot, wrapping the strings around the handle artfully before pouring the water from the kettle in. The tea (a mix of both regular and pekoe, actually) was ready then, and he walked it out to the table of starry-eyed third years who giggled embarrassingly at his checkerboard hair. He smiled at them and bid them enjoy their tea, and returned to the back room to gossip weirdly with Cas's mum.
"The girl population has about doubled since you started working here, lad," Mrs. Lewis laughed as she magicked dirty dishes into the sink. Teddy blushed, his awkwardly gangly fifteen-year-old body folding in on itself in embarrassment. One hand strayed to his hair as he asked "You reckon so?"
Cas's mum laughed again, wiping her hands on an apron. "And you know it, don't pretend!" Teddy grinned again. "But don't you go getting any ideas, young man," she stated suddenly, her face moving from sweet to parental in an instant. Teddy recognized that "mum" look he'd seen Cas get before, and he'd been on the receiving end of that look many a time before as well. Basically a surrogate mother to him, Teddy appreciated her concern, but something about the look in her eyes had him starting guiltily. They were precisely the same shade of brown his grandmother had, and Ginny and Hermione... So many parental figures trying to take care of him. Some how it set him on edge.
Mrs. Lewis must have noticed Teddy getting a bit standoffish, so she relaxed again and smiled. "I just worry about you, Teddy. You and Caspian are both so... excitable. I'd hate to see you ruin all that potential."
Nodding, Teddy faked a smile and quickly left to pick up the remaining tea cups from the main room.
* * *
"Nooo, Daddy, the cards have to match!"
Teddy looked up from placing a six of spades next to a seven of hearts, blinking at the expression on his daughter's face. "I thought you said they just had to go in order."
"Aaand they have to match!" Olivia's mouth was screwed up in a determined frown as she took Teddy's hand, card and all, and moved the six to the line of spades. Teddy made a small "oh" sound and Oli giggled when her turn came round, smacking a five next to his six.
"Alright, now in French, love," Victoire cooed over Olivia's shoulder, tapping the card she placed down with a slender finger. Teddy watched Olivia blink, thinking, before suddenly shouting "Cinq!" Teddy and Vic beamed.
* * *
"Honestly, Theodore, I don't even know where your head is anymore!"
Green eyes flashed dangerously at him from behind round spectacles, and Teddy's own yellow ones widened in nervousness. The ferocity in his godfather's voice was enough to make the hair on the back of Teddy's neck stand up, back to its normal brown; he didn't have the guts to even think about morphing right now. But then his yellow eyes shifted to a brilliant red as he worked himself into defense mode.
"What should you care? It's my life! I know what I'm doing!"
"No, you don't! You don't understand the consequences! Godric, Teddy, you're not even sixteen yet!"
"I'm almost! And that shouldn't matter, I love her!"
"You're a boy, Teddy! You're young! You don't even know what love is. That was not love, that was lust, and I won't stand for you potentially ruining your life!"
Harry paced in front of Teddy, his hands alternately gripped behind his back or flying in the air in exasperation. Teddy glared at the ground, his fingers curling over his knees in attempt to hold himself together. Was what he did really so wrong? He'd always had a crush on Annie, and as it turns out, she liked him right back. And maybe they started liking each other physically. Was that so wrong?
"I'm not ruining my life!" Teddy insisted, but quieter this time. Harry, however, did not seem to find this a proper answer; in fact, it set him off even further.
"You don't know! I always found you very responsible for your age, until now. That was a very stupid thing to do! And the way you treat it so lightly worries me!"
"For what?" Teddy spat, glaring at Harry now. "What does my personal life have to do with your worries?"
Harry raked his hands through his hair. "It was irresponsible! So much is expected of you, and to just... throw it all away-"
"Nothing happened! She's not pregnant, alright? And what... what expectations, what are you talking about?" His tone had dropped its razor edge, now a bit surprised, darkly curious. Harry sighed at the shift in his voice.
"I just worry about you, Teddy," Harry voiced quietly, echoing the words he'd heard only months before. Teddy's eyes grew wide at the recognition, and narrowed just as quickly into resentful slits.
"It's none of your business, Harry," Teddy said firmly, getting up suddenly and walking determinedly up the stairs. He didn't want his help. He didn't want anyone's help, or pity, or concern. So what if he was unruly, growing less tame by the week? So what if he was breaking rules and acting out? Harry had, once! Their parents, the Marauders, had! This was small potatoes compared to the stunts they'd pulled, and as Teddy sat heavily on his bed, mulling over Harry's words, he found they only added few to his raging inferno.
* * *
"It's pronounced like 'wheat,'" Victoire whispered in his ear as Teddy struggled to remember the French word for eight.
"I knew that," he lied, sliding an eight of diamonds into its' proper line. "Huit," he said carefully, and sighed inwardly in relief when Olivia didn't correct him. In fact, she didn't even look up from the multitude of cards she had in her hand, her gaze flicking from the four lines of cards on the table to the ones in her deck, trying to match and sequence at the same time. Her tongue poked between her teeth as she concentrated, and Vic flitted over to her side of the table again to seat her on her lap. Olivia automatically snuggled against her mother while Vic, in an equally inherent move, stroked her daughter's long hair.
Teddy peeked at the two of them from over the top of his own cards, his insides melting a bit at the look of them. Victoire's hair tumbled onto Olivia's shoulders, both equally bright blonde in color so that it was hard to tell where Vic's hair stopped and Oli's began. Their daughter looked at the table again with blue eyes dark and calculating, her irises still round with youth. A careful smile turned Vic's lips at the corners as she pointed to a card in Olivia's hand, who instantly brightened and slammed it on the table. "Neuf!" She cheered, doing a sort of dance that bounced them both. And Teddy couldn't help but laugh at that.
* * *
"She's going out with that Bobby bloke tonight, you know," Caspian said into the mirror and at Teddy's reflection. Teddy glanced briefly at his friend before returning to dismantling his dorm mate's alarm clock, his shoulders shrugging in what he imagined was a nonchalant way.
Caspian paused in messing up his hair just perfectly to turn around and face his mate. "D'you hear me? Bobby? Bobby McDonell? That smarmy git a year beneath us?"
"I heard you," Teddy shrugged again, now replacing a few of the inner workings with a fistful of fireworks. Caspian's brows lowered in confusion. "And you're not upset?"
"Should I be?"
"Well, you were all over her the other day, and you've been talking about her all the bloody time recently. I just figured."
"Who Victoire goes out with isn't any of my business, Cas," Teddy poked a few more fireworks into the crevices between cogs and wheels. "B'sides, I only fancied her then because she was so obviously using her Veela charm. You saw it, all the other blokes were daffy about her too, and the girls nearby were about ready to claw her eyes out."
"...Maybe," Cas agreed, leaning on one of the pillars of Teddy's four poster, watching him sabotage their mate's clock. "But she did pick you to fool around with, anyway. So maybe the feeling's mutual."
"Oh please," Teddy snickered, fitting the back of the clock back on and securing it with his wand. "Even if she did fancy me, I don't reckon I'd do anything about it. I mean, she's in her third year. It would be way bizarre."
Cas whistled lewdly. "But Godric, she does not look thirteen..."
Teddy snorted as Cas left, and replaced the clock on his dorm mate's bedside table, his trap set. Teddy followed Cas down the stairs and out of the common room, but as his friend turned to exit the castle on his way to Hogsmeade, Teddy turned in the opposite direction, full steam ahead and course set for the kitchens.
"Teddy."
He halted and spun on the spot, eyes searching the shadows of the alcoves he thought he heard his name voiced from. Victoire slid a hand from the shadows and waved him hurriedly over to her, and, curious, Teddy obliged. "Wotcher, Vic. I thought you were going to Hogsmeade with the rest-"
"I'm leaving in a minute." She cut him off with a surprising edge to her voice. "I just... wanted to see you before my... date."
Teddy's brow furrowed at that one. "See me before your date? That doesn't make any sen-"
Again, he was cut off, but this time by Vic pulling forcefully on his shirt and smashing their lips together. She was straining to reach him, standing on her tip toes, and as he sensed this, Teddy instantly bent lower to accommodate her. Her lips on his were warm, burning, actually, and at one point he had to pull away from her for biting his bottom lip too hard. It was over in a moment, but that moment left their breathing ragged and lips swollen.
"I'm not just a Veela, Teddy Lupin." Victoire concluded hastily, looking up at him with a face that, Cas was right, did not look thirteen. And just as swiftly and ambiguously as she came, Victoire hurried away from Teddy and down the steps out of the castle, fixing her hair as she went.
Teddy stood dumbstruck in the alcove, his bottom lip still throbbing from where he bet Vic could've drawn blood. He'd never truly considered her before, but maybe...? She wasn't just a Veela, after all...
* * *
"Ah, très bonne!" Victoire hugged Olivia around the middle as she put down the last card ("Une!"). Teddy grinned at their daughter and praised her for her good work - already she was learning to count in French and she was excellent at it. This card game happened to be one of her favorite ways to learn the numbers, one through thirteen, anyway.
Teddy glanced at the clock on the wall opposite him and nodded vaguely. "It's bed time, you," he said as he stood. Olivia appeared to take this surprisingly well, and squirmed off Vic's lap to take Teddy's hand. Victoire left to lay out Olivia's bed clothes as father and daughter walked to bathroom so Oli could get cleaned up.
She was an independent little thing, Teddy was beginning to notice more. Olivia was constantly wanting to do things herself, eager to learn and to do. Teddy stood in the doorway to watch as she pulled a stool from under the sink, stepped up and grabbed her toothbrush. The same intense look of concentration passed over her face as she worried for what to do next... Teddy smiled and walked over to her, bending until he was practically kneeling beside her. For once she let him help her fix her toothbrush with toothpaste and then washed her face for her, but she wouldn't stand to have anyone else comb her hair. That was Vic's job.
"Maman!" Olivia cried as she bolted from the bathroom, bright purple octopus-shaped comb in her hand. Vic smiled warmly and sat her on her bed, and Olivia sat up perfectly straight while Vic talked softly and combed the tangles out of her curly hair.
She changed her into her pajamas, and, ritual completed, tucked her into bed. "Story?" Olivia pleaded, but Teddy and Vic exchanged a look when they remembered the time. "Not tonight, sweetie. It's very late." Teddy said gently, expecting her normally devilish response. But again, Oli surprised him and nodded, accepting this, and yawned. Was she already growing up?
* * *
Teddy lay awake in the middle of a bed, one arm thrown behind his head to support his neck. High above him were dusty rafters of heavy wood, dark in the deepening twilight that seeped in the windows. He heard heavy breathing then, but really couldn't tell if it was his own... Or Victoire's.
It was the evening before his last day at Hogwarts, only hours away until the student body would pack onto the scarlet steam engine and head home for summer holidays, or, in Teddy's, case, the real world. He didn't know what to do once he left the castle... He'd never put in for his application for auror training, as a rift between him and Harry (though Harry was no doubt unaware) had driven Teddy to consider other careers. He thought of his father, and of teaching, but knew the only area where he truly excelled was transfiguration, and COMC to an extent. But no, he didn't want to teach. So until he made up his mind, he decided he'd settle for staying at Madam Puddifoot's. The pay was well enough from him to rent a tiny flat anyway, and that suited him brilliantly. He loved his Gran, but Teddy needed his freedom, desperately.
It was becoming more and more apparent, what Harry had said to him two years ago. About potential, and expectations. Harry treated him well enough as his son, and therefore heaved all the "first born expectations" on him as well. Teddy was supposed to be the good boy, with a well paying job and time-consuming hobbies, maybe later consider marrying, starting a family. But so much pressure (real or otherwise imagined) put resentment in Teddy's heart.
So now his moral compass pointed in nearly the opposite direction of that which Harry and the rest had come to hope. His grades were passing (nearly, anyway, save for his E's in transfig. and COMC), but there was a definite lack of enthusiasm for learning. He had a general disrespect for authority, would rather go out of his way to pull a prank, very thoroughly enjoyed a party atmosphere and never once regretted parting with his virginity via Annie Summitson. Adrenaline rushes were like a high to him, and he couldn't remember the last time he'd bothered to don his proper school uniform. He liked to think that these were his own choices and had nothing to do with his "family" or ... father issues. He liked to think he was just some punk kid doing whatever the hell appealed to him at the time. Damn the consequences.
But sometimes, it was hard to feel real.
Until now, anyway. This hadn't been their first hook up, but tonight's meeting with Victoire had been different somehow. He wasn't going to see her every day anymore and they knew it, and there was a desperation between the two of them that hadn't been there before. A deepening feeling. Teddy wondered every now and again if it was love.
Vic lay curled beside him, her head on his chest and her eyes shut tight as she caught her breath. After a moment or two her breathing deepened, and Teddy looked down to see she had fallen asleep. And the night grew deeper around them as Teddy debated going back to their respective common rooms, but decided that he no longer gave a fuck. It was hard to concentrate anyway, what with Victoire's skin radiating Veela pheromones in waves that drove him crazy even afterwards, and the words she spoke before falling asleep were still ringing in his ears.
"You can't leave me, you know. When you graduate."
Teddy was shocked a bit when she said that. He figured he was just some bestie with benefits to her. Her feelings had deepened... And so... So had his...?
"I won't." He had replied after a pause, looking up at her face as she leaned over him, hands on either side of his neck and hair falling like curtains around them.
"Promise me."
Victoire's voice shook as she said this, the light in her eyes dimming to a darkened intensity. He felt her grip the sheets on either side of him, her fingers curling tightly. Was her heart racing as fast as his?
"I promise."
* * *
