A/N - Yep, it seems like I've been written by the writing bug again, and who am I to complain! I've got a multi-chapter Teddy/Lily fic I'm working on too that's a bit different to the stuff I usually write, but please read and review this one first! :)


It Started With A Kiss

The Burrow was full of people that Christmas, and twenty seven year old Teddy Lupin was one of them. He couldn't have predicted how things would turn out and he wouldn't have believed it even if he'd been told.

It all began with Lily Potter asking him if he wanted to go outside to escape the madness for a few minutes. They were just about to sneak out of the front door when one of the youngest members of the Weasley family caught them.

'Where are you going?' he asked mischievously.

'Outside,' replied Lily, 'so don't tell.'

He thought about it for a minute and then nodded. He was just about to walk away but then he pointed to the ceiling above her and Teddy. 'Mistletoe. Daddy says you have kiss when you're under it, at least that's what he tells Mummy.'

Teddy and Lily looked at each other. The little redheaded boy continued to stare back at them. Teddy leaned down and pecked Lily on the lips.

Satisfied, Arthur Jnr scurried away to join his siblings in the next room where they were playing with their presents.

Teddy and Lily remained where they were, staring at each other, the tension palatable between them. Without thinking about it, without planning it, Teddy leaned down and kissed Lily again, hard.

She responded with just as much fervour as he buried his hands in her hair, meeting his demands with ones of her own, igniting fires deep inside him. All too soon it ended.

'Lily,' breathed Teddy.

Lily opened her mouth to reply but Albus appeared in the doorway. 'Mum's looking for you, Lily.'

Lily jumped out of Teddy's embrace at the sight of her brother. 'All right, I'm coming now,' she said breathlessly, her cheeks burning as red as her hair.

She followed her brother into the kitchen, leaving a very confused Teddy rooted to the stop. He couldn't quite get his head round what had just happened. He'd just kissed iLily/i for Merlin's sake! She was ten years younger than him, and practically his sister. Ah, but she iwasn't/i though, he thought.

She was stunning, he acknowledged, but he'd never thought about her like that. So why had he gone and kissed her? Why hadn't he just left it at the quick peck to satisfy Arthur Jnr?

Teddy spent the rest of the day pondering over this. He didn't get the chance to be alone with Lily anymore, but he found himself watching her covertly throughout the rest of the day, unable to shake the feelings that had arisen during their kiss.

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Over the next few days Teddy kept trying to get a couple of minutes with Lily to speak to her, but it was as if everyone was trying their hardest to keep her away from him. Lily herself wasn't exactly making things any easier for him either, as she was all too happy to make a quick exit when she was in the same room as him.

Frustrated, he'd agreed to meet James in the Leaky Cauldron for a drink the day before New Years Eve, which was why he was moping over a Butterbeer while waiting for him to arrive. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about Lily since the day they'd kissed and it was making him irritable.

'Hey, Ted,' said James, sliding onto the chair opposite him. He nodded at his Butterbeer. 'What's it done to you?'

'What?' asked Teddy.

'Your drink; you're glaring at it as though it's personally insulted you or something.'

'Oh,' replied Teddy with a slight smile, 'nothing at all.'

James took a sip of his own drink and sighed. 'Don't give me that crap, Teddy, I know there's something bothering you, that's why I asked you here.'

'I kissed your sister,' he blurted out and immediately wondered if someone had put Firewhiskey in his drink instead. He waited for James to erupt.

James sat in stunned silence and then took a large swallow of his drink. He still didn't speak.

'Well?' asked Teddy.

'I should probably hex you right now, but…'

Teddy tensed. 'But…'

'I'm not going to.'

Teddy tapped his fingers on the scarred wooden table nervously. 'Why?'

James looked at him seriously. 'Because I figure that if Lily didn't want you to kiss her then she'd have already hexed you herself.'

'Oh.'

'When?' asked James.

'Christmas,' replied Teddy, still taking in what he'd just said.

James nodded. 'So that's why you've both been acting weird then.'

Teddy shrugged. 'I don't really know what to do about it.'

James looked at his watch and swore. 'I've got to go and help Al. I can't believe I'm saying this, but just think about what I said, and then you'll know.'

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Teddy woke the next morning after a restless night of thinking about what James had told him. iI figure that if Lily didn't want you to kiss her then she'd have already hexed you herself./i The words just kept spinning round and round in his head. Surely Lily couldn't think that? But she had kissed him back just as eagerly, hadn't she?

He finally determined to speak to Lily alone that night when they were all at the Burrow again, no matter what.

He was a nervous wreck by the time he arrived there in the evening. After making small talk with Harry about the latest cases he was working on in his job as an Auror, he made to find Lily, having already spotted her with Rose and Hugo.

'Lily, can I talk to you?' he asked, interrupting the three of them.

'Yeah, okay,' she replied, smiling an apology to her cousins.

'Can we go outside?'

Lily nodded and they grabbed their coats before making their way out into the cold. The snow was deep as they walked across the yard and headed towards the pond. The moon and stars lighting their way.

'You wanted to talk?' prompted Lily quietly.

Teddy stuck his hands in his pockets. 'Yeah, I did…I haven't been able to stop thinking about Christmas, when we kissed.'

'Me neither,' admitted Lily, biting her lip.

'I keep thinking that I should maybe apologise for the way I just…took you by surprise.'

'Don't do that,' replied Lily, 'because I'd wanted to for ages.'

Teddy looked at her with surprise and questions in his eyes. 'You have?'

Lily nodded. 'Yeah, but I thought you didn't…and then we kissed…and then I've been so nervous all week thinking that you must regret it. You do, don't you?'

'No, not at all.' Teddy pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms round her. 'I didn't exactly realise it until I did it, but did it because I wanted to.'

Lily looked up at him, her eyes bright and long red hair shimmering in the pale moonlight. 'Really?'

'Yes.' Gently, Teddy brushed a rogue strand of hair back from her face and leaned down to kiss her.