Teddy smiled weakly, his grin too forced and Victoire hit him upside the head, he looked hurt for a moment but then settled on looking at the floor and rubbing his thumbs together quietly.
"That was for trying to lie to me", she said scornfully, before embracing her best friend of… just about forever, in a tight hug. They looked so odd now, she was tiny; or petite as she preferred obviously stemming from her dwindling veela lineage and he was too tall like his Dad and wiry like his Mum and all the long limbs were a little hard to control for him. He sat on the countertop by the sink in the Kitchen of Shell Cottage, Victoire was currently hugging him round the middle and because he was even taller than usual it was a little- awkward- but Teddy's arms slowly came round to encircle her, his big hands resting somewhere near her shoulder blades.
"Jeez, Tor" he chuckled half-heartedly "I bet if I tried hard enough I could wrap my arms around you twice" she smiled sadly at him, appreciating his attempt at being cheerful and absentmindedly picking some lint off the shoulder of his new Weasley jumper. The corners of her mouth curled up a little as she recalled laughing at him as he stood with his arms hanging like he'd been put in stocks in her bedroom during the summer, last year's jumper restricting his movement, ridden halfway up his torso and the arms were inches too short- he'd laughed dryly saying something along the lines of "Haha, very funny" before she had replied "Oui,monpetitimbécile" and then Teddy had proceeded to tackle her onto the bed, digging into her ribs with his index and middle fingers till she was practically crying with laughter and begging for mercy. Then she buried her face into his shoulder once more.
"I hate seeing you like this" she murmured into the fabric she knew so well.
"Little Tor, always looking out for me", he said fondly, tucking a few stray strands of strawberry blond hair behind her ear. Teddy loved Tor's hair this time of year, her hair got a little darker with more of a red tint which made it almost pink instead of her dazzling perfect blonde hair, almost mirrored to her Mother's but thicker and more of a mane like her Father's. He recalled one summer when they were tiny, or Vic was tiny and Ted just thought he wasn't- being in the 'I'm a big boy' stage. Vic was sat on the lawn in front of him, her cheeks round, full and rosy with her hair in bunches on either side of her head, the left side was noticeably more droopy than the other "Mummy says you can do funny things with your hair!" she had squealed, looking up at him in fascination "You're a Meta-metamorphsomething!" She looked proud of herself for remembering, he had nodded and they sat there for a while. "Teddy please do it for me! Please, please, please, please!" she had cried at his apprehensive look. In the end he couldn't help but smile at her "Watch carefully now" he'd said, the look of wonder showing on the girl's face as he changed his hair from mousey brown to bright blonde like hers in a second, making it shorted and longer again, she had squealed again and clapped her hands, crowing "Bright blue! Try bright blue!"
"You still like my hair blue, Tor?" he mumbled soon after, running a hand back through his shaggy turquoise locks, she broke into a grin.
"Of course! It's always been my favourite, I'm pretty sure it always will be too" her enthusiasm made him attempt a small smile, the look of victory in her eyes was lovely, the thing with Tor was that you could always tell if you looked at her eyes right… Well, Teddy could anyway. Then she looked serious again "Please try to not be so down at Christmas Ted, you know we'll always be here. Even if we can't replace them" she said quietly waiting for his reaction.
"I'll try… Only for you mind though", this attempt of a smile was better than any previous. Victoire lent forward and kissed him on the cheek, leaning back grinning lopsidedly- grinning like a Weasley.
"Good! Besides, no one wants to snog a mopey git", she taunted and saw the strong arch of the eyebrow and the creeping smirk and screeched running back to hide behind the island In the middle of the kitchen. "Please! Please not the tickling!" she begged, clasping her hands together as he advanced, she attempted to make an escape but she skidded on her slippers with a little bark of "Crap!" which was cut off as her bum hit the floor, there was one small burst of laughter as she felt Teddy pull her up by her armpits.
"After all these years of poor Fleur trying to turn you into a proper lady" he tutted at her playfully and she brushed herself down "Then I guess you can't take the Weasley out of a woman", Tor mock gasped and swiped as Teddy dodged and laughed "Hey! Never said that was a bad thing!"
"You better hope so! You won't want Ginny or Grandma Molly hearing you say that" she pointed at him threateningly.
"The wrath of you Weasley women is feared by all… Your Aunt Ginny is famous for her bat-bogey hexes. You should have seen George at that wedding!" he shuddered, but chuckled as he did so.
"Stop giggling, Lupin. Girls don't like girly munters either" his hands came to her sides almost immediately and she screamed "Sorry! Sorry! Just please, not the tickling!" his hand came up to her hair a second later, his hand feeling weird against her scalp.
"Ah, sorry, you had some" he held out his hand "You had some tinsel in your hair" she clapped her hands together.
"Yes! Thanks for reminding me! Dom and Lou are making the garlands so you have to help me finish the tree, Mr I-can-do-magic-outside-school" she bumped their hips together as she towed him into the spacious living room of Shell Cotttage.
"I suppose I'm not getting a choice in this then", he asked, though he knew the answer already and anyway, if anyone would cheer him up it would be Tor. In fact she might have already succeeded.
"Of course not, mon beau petit imbécile" she sing-songed brightly, handing him various boxes of decorations to hold as she moved the little step ladder round the tree, chatting away about god knows what, Teddy nodded and smiled in all the right places occasionally levitating a piece up onto the rather grand looking tree and admired her coyly as she stepped back, squinting to admire her work so far. She fired out orders to which he quickly obliged, and after almost two hours they were finally done with the massive fir tree; there were little rocking horses that neighed occasionally, teeny candles giving out a warm glow, a big gold star on top, baubles in all colours, red and gold bows and little toy ornaments filling almost every gap. Victoire stood atop her step ladder.
"Teddyyyy" she said hopefully, batting her eyelashes, he grunted in reply "Can I have a piggy back?"
"No"
"Teddy! Come onnnn, I've been doing all the hard work here you're the tall one I have to use this thing and I think I hurt my back earlier"
"If I remember correctly you fell on your arse not your back, lazy" she folded her arms and looked at her work, then looking back down to see him standing in front of her his back turned and arms stretched back "Get on then" he said gruffly over his shoulder "Though I don't see why you want to the sofa's only over there-oof!" Tor was on and holding onto his neck a little too tightly.
"Sorry! Thank you Teddy~" she purred happily as she hooked her feet under his looped arms, he lifted her higher and she let out a little undignified squeak as she was thrown a few centimetres higher "Agh! Quick! Lou got that enchanted mistletoe from Uncle George's shop" Teddy swerved round it and into Victoire's room, throwing her off onto the bed into a heap, knocking the air out of her, she laughed.
"How the hell did you manage to carry me up the stairs?" she hadn't actually expected him to give her one at all.
"You're really light" was all his explanation and a shrug.
"Thank you, but seriously! You almost threw me off to get round that Mistletoe"
"Mhmm" he lounged back next to her "I mean… Yeah. I just" she loved it when he went all clammy like this, he hadn't done it properly since 2nd or 3rd year, he rolled over and she mirrored him, one eyebrow arched in a mocking way he looked a little less apprehensive "I wouldn't want something like Mistletoe to be the only stupid reason to kiss you" he smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear before climbing to his feet and leaving without another word.
"Teddy Lupin! Don't make me come after you!"
Merry Christmas! Read and Review, I'd love to hear what you think (: I know it's a little rough around the edges but it was rather rushed, I might come back to it later
-FTS
xx