Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: This is dedicated to the lola, and was written for the HPFC Fic Exchange as well.
Teddy's annoyed. That he knows, but he's not sure who he's more annoyed at - Victoire or himself. Sure, she got a little too cozy with that bloke from work, but then, he was spending way too much time at the Auror Office. He can see where that would get a bit irritating, his never being home. But then, it also hurts in a way to know that four years of dating - neither of them are counting their disastrous attempt at a teenage romance - is gone now. Down the drain. No more.
It's been a couple weeks since the breakup; now his flat is completely free of her things. He didn't expect her to leave anything behind, as that last fight was pretty brutal. Things were said, things that he now regrets and he's sure Victoire does as well. He can't imagine what the Weasley-Potter family gatherings will be like. Sure, he's a part of the family, but will they automatically take her side just because she's actually blood-related? Because she has the last name 'Weasley', and he doesn't?
He thinks some of them might. Louis, for sure - he's extremely loyal to his sisters, and hates when people hurt either one of them. It's a very older-brother attitude to have, considering Dominique is five years older than him and Victoire seven, but in a way he tries to protect them. He won't be happy with Teddy - and, by extension, Lucy, Hugo, and Al won't be either, since the four of them are very tight-knit. Dominique probably will be pissed off at him as well, since she's Victoire's sister, and would take her sister's side.
Teddy considers who he'd be able to hang around with. Technically he's certainly old enough to be with the adults, since he's twenty-seven, but it's much more comfortable to hang around his generation, the people who are only a few years younger than him as opposed to nearly twenty years older. He's running through a list of them in his head when he realizes something - he'll certainly have Lily.
There's no way that Lily would choose Victoire over him. It's not an overconfident, cocky statement; it's the truth. Lily and Teddy were especially close during the time between his Hogwarts graduation and her first year - four years of friendship that can't really be forgotten. Not to mention she'd side with him just to go against half her family. She likes to go against what the others do. She has ever since she was placed in Slytherin; she's developed a rebellious side that's hung on all throughout her Hogwarts years and isn't going away, even though she's going into her last year.
He vaguely wonders for a moment what she's actually going to do after graduating. She'd make a wonderful Auror; he's seen her mock-duel the other of-age cousins this past summer. Of course, whether she'd actually bother to become an Auror when she enjoys breaking rules that much...that he's not sure on. Deciding to abandon that train of thought, he heads into the living room, picking up a book in hand, and gasping in shock when he sees that very person sitting on his couch.
"Lily." Teddy sets the book down. "Um, why are you here? No offense, but -"
"Would have thought an Auror would have placed protective charms on his flat." Her voice is lilting slightly. "Not very safe, you know."
"It's a Muggle flat, Lily, I can't exactly have protection all over the place." He's still wondering why she's here; she didn't answer his question. "Besides, most people are polite enough to knock." She stretches out on his couch, and he's momentarily distracted by how she's only wearing a tight spaghetti-strap top, and shorts that show off her legs. He hasn't realized that she's grown into a pretty young woman.
"I'm not most people," she answers, flashing a tight grin. "Besides, I had to get away. The family's screwed up right now, and I really don't want to be in that house."
"What happened?"
"James, Mr. I'm-A-Newbie-Auror-Let-Me-Rub-It-In-Your-Face, made a stupid mistake and nearly got three people killed, so Dad's pissed off at him. Meanwhile, James and Al aren't speaking because Al came out the other day and James reacted, ah, negatively. And Mum's mad at James for not speaking to Al. And Al's mad at Mum for treating him like a baby. James thinks that my friends are Death Eater wannabes, so I called him a prejudiced bigot, and now we're mad at each other. Uh..." She pauses, twirling her finger around her head in the universal sign for crazy. "I think that's all."
"Wow." Teddy hasn't stayed over at the Potters' in about six years, and whatever family dynamics they had then have rapidly changed, obviously. "Stay here if you need to." He throws himself down on the couch. "I could use some company, anyway. You know Victoire and I broke up?"
"Yeah. She told...she told Louis, who told Lucy, who told Al, who told me. Sorry to hear that, I guess." She opens her mouth to say something more, but closes it, looking away from Teddy.
"Thanks." He fidgets, unsure what to say now. "So, um...your last year at Hogwarts," he says lamely. "That's...cool..."
Lily shrugs, picking at a loose thread on his couch. "I guess. School is kind of boring. It's no fun, being shut up in classrooms for most of the day. Not to mention I have no idea what I want to do after I graduate." Teddy's tempted to bring up the possibility of her being an Auror, but decides against it; who knows if she's even taken the right classes? "I'm not like Molly or Rose or Dominique. I don't have my whole life planned out in front of me."
"I thought I did," he responds, his voice quiet. He doesn't need to elaborate. He had thought everything was planned out - he had wanted to be an Auror from a very young age, and then when he started dating Victoire he had imagined everything was perfect. Obviously, that sort of thing doesn't happen.
"Things change." Lily pushes herself up, placing her feet on the floor. "People change." She takes a deep breath, and stares down at the ground, avoiding Teddy's gaze. "I...I want to tell you something. That's part of why I came over here tonight - well, my family really is being crazy and I had to get away, but I thought now would be a good time to tell you." She pauses again, and he can tell she's trying to work up the nerve to tell him something.
"What is it?"
"Teddy, I fancy you." It comes out surprisingly coherent, although she's still refusing to look directly at him. He can tell that it's taken a lot of courage for her to admit that, but that doesn't mean he knows how to respond.
He fidgets, twisting his hands together. It actually does come as a shock to him; he's never pictured any of the other Weasley-Potters having a crush on him. They all grew up together, and he figures that they see him as an older brother or a cousin. Victoire didn't see him that way, obviously, but he always imagined her being the only one. Now...now Lily sees him as a love interest as well. He doesn't know what to think about that.
On one hand, there's no denying that Lily's pretty. She's not at Victoire's level - Victoire, after all, has Veela genes, diluted though they are - but she's still an attractive young woman. She's single, also, and she actually has been for most of her time at Hogwarts. She's got high standards, he knows, and the fact that she sees him this way is definitely a compliment. She's got an interesting, unique personality: she's rebellious, sarcastic, and wild at times. It's a combination that would scare many people off, but the idea of being with Lily is strangely thrilling.
The problem, though, is that he still harbors a hope that Victoire will return. He misses her - they were, after all, together for four years and best friends for many years before that. To think that now, they probably won't speak much at all...it's a painful thought. He knows he's done wrong, and she has also. Their last fight was explosive. But still...Victoire's safe and comfortable. He knows her well, much better than he does Lily.
Then there's the age situation, just another layer of problems. She's of age, having turned seventeen in November of her sixth year, but she's still young - hell, she's still a student. She's in Hogwarts, and he's twenty-seven. Of course, the other side of him says, Dad and Mum were twelve years apart. He sighs; it's true. He's definitely not the person to be thinking about age differences when his own parents had an age gap.
He dares to glance at Lily. She stands up. "I know. I'm too young, I'm too different, I'm not Victoire. I just thought I'd tell you. Thought I'd be honest for once. Look, I'll go -" Lily gestures awkwardly to the door, taking a couple small steps that show just how disappointed she is.
"Don't go," he says quietly, standing up as well and putting a hand on her arm before she can reach for the knob. "You can stay. And...and thanks for telling me. It means a lot to me, you know. It's just - it comes as a surprise. I had no idea."
"Typical bloke," she mutters, but doesn't move further. Louder, she says, "Sorry to spring it on you."
"It's all right. Maybe...look, you'll be going back to Hogwarts soon, and I'll be here doing Auror things." Her face falls, and he gently moves her so that they're looking at one another. "I didn't say that it was impossible, Lily. I meant it would be difficult."
"Do you think it would work?" She sounds so hesitant, so un-Lily-like, and he wants to comfort her and tell her everything would be all right. She looks younger for a moment, and he gets a flashback of when he picked up first year Lily at King's Cross for Christmas, and she was so hesitant about seeing her parents and relatives because she had been placed in Slytherin. She's grown from that child into a young woman, now, and he softly cups her face in his hands.
"I don't know, Lily. I don't really know about anything right now. But maybe...maybe it would. You never know until you try," he finishes, repeating a phrase he's heard so many times in his life. All those other times he's heard it, it seemed stupid. Now, it's the perfect thing to say.
Lily smiles, and he wonders. Wonders if there really could be a relationship between them, wonders if it could work. But maybe this is just what he needs to get over Victoire, and maybe this is just what he needs to make new memories of a happy relationship.
He glances down at her, murmuring, "Let's try."