Holy Matrimony
x
[A/N at the end]
Teddy was six when he got married. He didn't know what it meant to marry someone, but his Uncle Harry had married his Aunty Ginny and it seemed to him that being married meant spending a lot of time with the person that you liked. And he liked Victoire, he liked her a lot. She was fun and he liked playing games with her; Victoire was his best friend after all.
Toothless and hands covered in melted chocolate, they were hunting for Easter Eggs when she held his hand and led him through a thicket of bushes – away from the sounds of her mother calling for them to come back.
She had been wearing a gingham yellow sundress, hair in a long braid down her back, and a shiny pearl necklace strung around her neck. He hadn't known what the word beautiful meant, but he'd heard his Uncle Ron call his Aunty 'Mione that at lunch, so he figured that Victoire was too.
They'd found a creek nearby and dipped their feet in, watching as tiny little fish swam around their ankles. He had told her then, while she kicked her feet around and collected rocks from the creek bed. He told her simply that they were married now.
"What's that?" She had asked as she dropped her handful of rocks into the pockets of her dress.
"It means we can just play together all the time," he had replied while he unwrapped a chocolate Easter egg and popped it into his mouth.
"Okay, do I have to ask my mum and dad?"
"Nah…" He had given her two partially melted chocolate frogs to seal the deal, and there was nothing else to be said about it.
When Victoire's mum found them, clothes wet and hands dirty, she held their hands in hers and marched back to the Burrow, all the while muttering in a language that Teddy didn't understand. When he had told her that he and Victoire were married now, Aunt Fleur smiled, ruffled his hair, and told him that maybe one day they would be.
She didn't understand, apparently.
x
He was eleven when he kissed her for the first time. He was minutes away from leaving for Hogwarts and had kissed her on the forehead as he hugged her.
She had a few tears rolling down her face and the first thing he had thought was how beautiful she looked. He knew what that word meant now, and even that didn't do her justice. She was more than beautiful, but he didn't know if there was a word for that.
The scarlet train behind him whistled shrilly, and his stomach felt heavy. There was a rush of people clambering onto the train, and Teddy noticed that people were staring at his Uncle Harry. He was famous in their world, but to Teddy he was just his godfather.
"It's alright Vicky, I'll be back for Christmas," he had reassured her as he grabbed her hands and smiled at her. "I'll write to you everyday."
He pushed Victoire's hair back behind her ear and his throat clogged up when she looked up at him. Her eyes, the same shade as the ocean on a stormy day, were watery as she nodded. He didn't know why, but despite all his excitement at going to Hogwarts, he suddenly didn't see the appeal anymore.
"You promise you'll write to me?" The train whistled loudly again, and this time it was Teddy who became panicked as the conductors yelled for everyone to climb aboard.
"I promise," Teddy pulled her in for a final hug and sprinted aboard the Hogwarts Express.
Having already found an empty compartment earlier, he pushed the window down and stuck his head and arms out the window to the wave to the small army of Weasley's and Potter's - his family. Victoire was under her father's arm as everyone waved goodbye. Teddy's arm grew numb and he ignored the door to his compartment sliding open and shut as other people joined him.
The train gathered momentum as it slowly chugged out towards the end of the tunnel, all the while, Teddy watched as Victoire waved him off half-heartedly, her face full of grief.
As the train pushed him further away from her, he realised that perhaps he didn't love her like a brother loved a sister. He didn't love her the same way he loved Rose or Lily. He treated her the same way he did Lily or Rose, but maybe you were supposed to have different feelings for your best friends.
Maybe there was more than type of love that you could have for people. He made a note to ask his nan about it when he was in the castle; because it bothered him that he felt differently towards Victoire than he did his other friends.
I'll write to nan, and maybe Uncle Harry, he thought as the English countryside blurred outside the train windows.
x
He was sixteen when she kissed him for the first time. He had just an excellent birthday lunch with his family, and had played a magnificent round of backyard quidditch.
He was especially high on euphoria because he'd beat his Uncle Harry and secured a win for his team. What had made it sweeter was that he had never been much of a quidditch player - he was clumsy and uncoordinated in the air, and always managed to drop the quaffle on someone's head. But, despite his clumsiness, his team had won and he was going to lord it over his godfather for at least the next year.
His grandmother had baked a three tier cake with blue icing, with help from Mrs. Weasley senior, and they had enchanted it so the icing would change colour every thirty seconds. Like every other birthday, he had received a generous stack of gifts from his family and he wondered how it'd all fit in his room.
He and Victoire had been tasked with putting away the brooms and quidditch supplies into the senior Mr. Weasley's shed. It was a balmy day and his skin felt sticky with sweat as he shoved the broomsticks into their closet. A drop of sweat trickled onto the tip of his nose, and as he turned to make his way out of the closet he knocked his head against someone else's forehead.
"Shit!" a feminine voice swore as Teddy stumbled backwards into the brooms behind him. Victoire turned the light on and guilt bloomed in his chest as he noticed her cradling her nose.
"I'm sorry! That was my fault, does it hurt?" He carefully moved her hands away and inspected her nose as his hands caressed either side of her face, his thumbs rubbing against her cheeks. "It doesn't look broken, just a bit swollen. What were you trying to do anyway?!"
She groaned as she fingered her nose and giggled as she shook her head, "I was trying to be romantic!"
"What are you on about?"
"I was trying to kiss you, idiot!"
Whatever retort Teddy had prepared died on the tip of his tongue at her admission. She wanted to me kiss me?
"Why would you want to do that?" He asked shakily, trying to calm himself as his stomach raged. Her eyes were hooded as she looked at him, and an odd sort of sensation spread from his lower stomach into every appendage on his body. She had never looked at him the way she did now, and he tried to control the urges that were surfacing.
"Because I want to." Her hands rested on his chest and he was suddenly aware of just how close and alone they were. Victoire's hands snaked their way along his neck and into his hair, and without any preamble she pushed herself up on her toes and kissed him.
She was everywhere; the smell of her perfume, mingled with sweat, clouded his mind as he breathed her in, her skin electrified his fingertips as he caressed her neck, and her lips tasted like honey as their lips and tongues tangled together. He had kissed other people, more than he'd want to admit to her, but kissing Victoire was something else entirely. It was addictive, fervent, and sweet.
He didn't know how long they'd been snogging but as she pulled away from him, hair mussed, eyes bright, and lipstick smudged, she gave him the same sort of smile that she'd given him when he had told her that they were married when he was six.
"Be my girlfriend?"
"Yeah, alright," she smiled and Teddy grinned as she snogged him again. And again. And again.
x
"Why do I keep letting you talk me into these things?" Victoire hissed as Bill placed her hand in his and shot a final warning look at him. Teddy smiled nervously at her father and felt a little less nervous when he noticed Fleur smiling at him.
"It seemed like a good idea yesterday!" Teddy defended as he led her closer to Mr. Weasley. The senior Weasley had adamantly insisted on wearing traditional priest's robes and he looked a little ridiculous as he gestured for everyone to take their seats. "You ready for this, Vicky?"
"You bet," she winked.
Teddy was positive that whatever Mr. Weasley senior was saying was great, but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't bring himself to pay attention to a word he said. He was too busy ogling the beautiful woman next to him. He couldn't really see her face clearly behind her veil but he felt intoxicated with love and happiness.
Was this how his father had felt when he'd married his mother?
Victoire's hair was braided into some sort of updo, a few stray tendrils looping around her neck, with little golden flowers and stars dotted around her white blonde hair. Her neck was bare as two sapphire tear shaped diamonds hung from her ears. He didn't know if she knew that they were the same shade as her eyes, but he appreciated it nonetheless.
The dress she had chosen was simple and made of lace, Teddy noticed that there were little flowers and leaves embroidered into the material. Everything about what she wore was delicate and he committed the image of her into his mind, he had never seen anyone quite as beautiful as she was in her wedding dress.
In about three minutes, she would be his and he would be hers in perpetuity.
When he was six and he had told her that they were married, he had said it because it seemed like something you did if you wanted to spend more time with someone that you liked. He had told her because when he was six, he wanted nothing more than to spend every single day with her.
When he was eleven, he had fraught over why he felt differently for Victoire than he did Lily and Rose – but when you were eleven, love was a concept that was too difficult to really comprehend. And yet, without really knowing it, what he had felt for her was love, an innocent, childish sort of love that had stemmed from years of friendship. He had loved her and wrote her letters every single day until she joined him at Hogwarts two years later.
And at sixteen, when she had kissed him, he had understood that they were meant to be together. When he had asked him to be his girlfriend, it had been his uncertain way of saying that he loved her and always had; and luckily for him, she had said 'yes.'
And now, he was twenty-three and kissing his wife for the first time. Except it wasn't really the first time, because they'd been married since he was six, only now they had a piece of paper to show for it.
Author's Note
Thank you to AJ, Alixx, and 2D for beta-ing this piece! xoxo
Word Count: 1,996
Written for the Houses Competition
House: Ravenclaw
Category: Short
Prompt: [Romantic Pairing] Teddy/Victoire; [Speech] "It seemed like a good idea yesterday!"
I hope you all enjoyed this story x
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Until next time, Andy x