The fog was a little too thick and was settled on the ground very dramatically. Teddy constantly wiped his hands in his jacket because they were getting so sweaty. Damn this humidity! he cursed.
"Hey, Lupin, get over here," shouted Banks, the senior Auror.
"Yes, sir," called back Teddy.
"Go do a perimeter check. I don't want anyone hiding behind dumpsters to just come out and launch at us."
"Yes, sir," said Teddy dutifully.
The Maclaughlin Pub looked looming - it's dark, grimy windows had been boarded up, the door shut tight. This place, always bursting with activity from afternoon to late into the night, now looked nothing like the cheerful place Teddy went to, after work, for a drink with colleagues.
A group of criminals had broken into the Pub last night, driven out the customers and held the owner, his four-year-old son, two barmen and three waitresses hostage, demanding a million Galleons as ransom.
Teddy held his wand at the ready as he walked towards the back of the pub. The dumpster was giving off a stench that made his eyes water and he kept checking if he was stepping on some stray cat - he could hear a raspy meow somewhere.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a door swung open. Teddy jumped back, knocking over a pail of God knows what, and it made an awful lot of clanging sound.
"Who's there?" shouted a man, who had opened the door. Teddy knew it was no time to play hide-and-seek. It was a golden chance of breaking in - there had been a breach in their security.
He could see the bulky outline of the man, and he fired a quick disarm spell at his direction. However, the man was swift and ducked successfully.
Teddy heard a scuffle - was there anyone else?
"HELP!"
Teddy realized one of the hostages was with the man.
"Soncerium!" he shouted, blowing the fog away - it was becoming an inhibition. Immediately, Teddy saw a man, with a bleeding leg lying on the ground, propped on his elbow, and mouth bound tight with a dirty cloth.
The other man - the kidnapper stood right beside him. But before Teddy could fire a spell towards the kidnapper, he grabbed the injured man by the collar and hauled him up.
The hostage tottered painfully on one leg, while the kidnapper hid behind him, pointing his wand at his throat.
"Make a move and he's dead," he threatened in a thick accent, Teddy couldn't quite place.
He tried to think on his feet - they had been trained for this, but Lord help him, all Teddy could see was the excruciating pain etched on the wounded man's face. Maybe he was not cut out to be an Auror.
"Let me go inside," said the kidnapper, "and nobody gets hurt."
Except somebody did.
"You had said no injuries. That was the deal," said Teddy, trying to buy time, but he was not sure what he was going to do with it.
Then came a shout from inside the pub. "Roger, what's taking so long? Dump the guy and get in!"
So that was what he was trying to do - dump the injured man. Teddy wondered if the man would come out.
"Jack, we got a problem," shouted back Roger, still pointing his wand at the man. His voice was alarmed, and a bit scared, Teddy noted.
"What's wrong?"
Another man came out. "Oh shit!" he exclaimed, seeing Teddy, and before Teddy knew it, four more men came running out of the door.
"Don't move, don't move, don't move," they shouted, their wands pointing at Teddy. "Drop your wand, put your hands above your head," cried a man, with alarmed desperation.
Teddy knew better than to refute, and he did as he was told. He just hoped his seniors had got the wind of the commotion and were on their way - though he wasn't sure if that was a good idea - a bunch of Aurors and a group of kidnappers always meant a bloody confrontation.
But, as he had anticipated, a few red shocks of light whizzed past his head.
"Get back Lupin!" shouted Banks.
By this time, the kidnappers realized they were surrounded - and there was no way out. But they weren't going to go down without a fight - no one expected them to.
They started firing spells too, as Teddy ran back towards the dumpster. The Aurors huddled behind it and countered the curses, as jets of green, blue and red lights ricocheted off the walls.
Suddenly, after a few minutes or so, Teddy heard someone shout 'Crepitio!'
After that, the next thirty seconds seemed to pass in a surreal slow motion - Teddy saw the jet of brilliant white light hit the dumpster, blowing it to bits, he could almost see himself from outside his body, as he scrambled out of the way of the angry inferno that issued out of the residue of the tin a few feet away from, as he tried to drag Milliken's half-charred body away. The kidnappers sent another round of spells at the pub, setting it on fire. The disoriented Aurors, those of them who were still intact from the explosion, all clambered away from the thick cloud of smoke.
Everyone seemed to have forgotten the kidnappers in the moment of chaos, and they took advantage of the situation - but the explosion and the dead and almost dead Aurors were boggling their minds. Teddy felt nauseated as Milliken grabbed his hand and tried to mouth something. A few shrieks brought them back - the hostages stumbled out of the pub amidst the confusion, and they ran towards them in half horror and half relief. The pub was now burning ferociously, spewing black smoke skywards.
Banks got back his composure first. "Lupin, Reynolds - go take them back!"
Teddy and Dan Reynolds got up and edged past the still burning debris. The hostages were hysteric.
"What happened...?"
"They hit me with.."
"I thought I was going to die..."
Teddy and Dan, though both of them were feeling pretty shifty themselves, tried to calm them.
"We understand. You will be escorted to St. Mungo's for immediate medical attention," said Teddy, in his official voice - which shook a little.
"Please, come with us. We will get you through the Floo at Madam Malkin's," offered Dan.
With some difficulty, they guided the pack out of the vicinity of the burning building, when suddenly, a hand grabbed Teddy's jacket.
He spun around to see a man - the owner of the pub - looking around frantically, his eyes bulging out of his face. He looked very white.
"Where's Matt?" he said, in a terrified whisper.
The faces of the other hostages turned ashen, and they looked at each other.
"WHERE'S MATT?" the man shouted.
"Who's Matt?" asked Teddy, but he only needed confirmation - he knew who Matt was. No four-year-old boy had come out of the pub. The owner's son was trapped in the blazing pub. As if to accentuate all his fears, a part of the roof crumbled down, the shock reverberating through the air.
It was lucky Dan had faster reflex than Teddy, because he held back the man, as he tried to launch towards the burning building. Teddy could only see the man's face - panic and horror were playing a brutal game on his features. His cries of anguish shocked Teddy, reminding him of something very cruel and painful that he couldn't even comprehend. And he heard the other Auror's voices as they tried to hold him back, with words of sympathy. Only, somehow, Teddy knew, those words were like poison to the man.
The next thing Teddy knew, he was running towards the incinerating building. He could hear shouts of alarm behind him - Banks was yelling at him to come back. But Teddy did not even feel like himself. He felt strangely connected to the crying father.
He ran into the pub, through the open door. The situation was worse than he imagined, and he could literally hear the roof creaking, threatening to give in any moment.
"Matt!" he shouted, gulping in a mouthful of soot.
Coughing, he strained his ears to hear any sound of life.
"Help!" a cry came from the floor above.
The voice was too feeble, Teddy realized with alarm. But the smoke was too thick, so it was evident.
"Where are you, Matt?"
"Here!"
Though it was not much help, Teddy blindly made his way through the rubble, up the stairs, shouting 'Aguamenti' every other second, and leaping out of the flames way.
Finally, he reached a door leading at the end of the corridor, and heard stifled sobs coming through it.
"I'm coming, Matt," he shouted. He tried to kick the door down, not sure if it could take the force of magic.
With the third try, the door gave away. The fire hadn't burnt too much of the room, only one side was burning, and Matt, a small boy with a very pale face, was sitting huddled in the opposite corner, his hands pressed over his ears.
"Hey, come on, Matt, we have to get away," said Teddy, as gently as he could, trying not to scare the boy any more than he already was.
After collecting Matt in his arms, saying a few words of comfort, Teddy walked back towards the door. He hoped he could make out of the building before it all collapsed. He had just reached the door, when he felt a hot blast of air whirl past him.
Even as he ran towards the window, Teddy felt the ground below his feet breaking off and chunks of the floor, where his steps were a second before, hurtled down, into the fiery crevice.
Teddy could not imagine how, but he felt himself break though the glass plane of the window and jumping out, as a ball of fire came roaring towards him from behind.
As he went airborne, he could feel the flames had reached his jacket and were burning into his undershirt. The thunderous collapse of the pub behind him numbed his ears. Somehow in those few seconds he was airborne, Teddy, realizing he had a child in his arms, twisted himself back so that Matt would not impact with the ground.
As he hit the road, Teddy heard a sickening crunch, and for a second he felt like all the air had been sucked out of the world. Then a moment later, it all came back. The pain came back with such intensity that he felt the world around him go black. Only, he wasn't scared. He preferred oblivion to the agony he was in.
As he slipped away to a world of unknown, the last thing he remembered was Victoire - smiling at him. Perfect, like a photo.
~o0o~
"Why are you so stubbourn?" shouted Victoire, tears running down her cheeks - but she scared away the nurse who almost dropped the pain reliever potion.
"GET OUT!" bellowed Victoire, and Teddy feared she might collapse. No, not the nurse – Victoire. She was shaking like a leaf.
"Ella, can we talk in private for a moment?" Ella seemed more than happy to leave them, and when she did, Teddy looked at Victoire condescendingly.
"Vic, that's no way to talk to-"
"SHUT UP! Just keep your mouth shut, okay? You don't have the right to give me advice after you blow yourself up, trying to be a hero!"
Teddy realized it was no use trying to argue with Victoire. Generally, she needs about half an hour to just vent her anger out. Then she needs about fifteen more minutes to cry and curse everyone and everything that comes in her mind. And then, if you're lucky - you'd be able to knock some logic into her head. So, without any hurry, Teddy shifted painfully in his bed, to accommodate a little space for her.
Victoire had her fists curled - a bad sign - and staunchly stood away from the bed.
"Why?" she asked, her voice shaking a little.
"I'm an Auror, Vic."
"So are all of the lot down there. But you had to go into that building!"
"A wise woman had once told me, Risk nothing and you gain nothing."
The deja vu broke Victoire's resolve and dissolved her anger. She crossed the distance in three long steps and threw her arms around him, sobbing hard.
"How would I have known you'd be fool enough to risk your life," she cried into his chest. Though it did Teddy's two broken ribs no good, he felt vastly relieved - there had been no casualty, when there easily could have been one, he hadn't been irreparably wounded... and mostly because Victoire's anger had subsided.
He sat silently holding Victoire, as the cityscape changed its colour outside his window - from golden to a scarlet, until the the room went dark.
"Victoire, you should get going now. It's getting late," said Teddy softly.
"No," she replied simply, not raising her head from his chest.
Teddy was not unhappy, he and Victoire had been so busy with their jobs - he spent so much of his time in the Auror office, and Victoire at the Department of International Relations, they hardly ever had time for each other. Granted, he would have liked to spend time with her without the pain, but this was not bad either.
"You know, what was the last thing I thought about, before blacking out?"
"What?"
"You."
"You're just saying that."
"I swear."
Victoire sat up. Even though it relieved his protesting ribs, Teddy felt empty.
She wiped her eyes. "When I heard about this, and I came here, to see Mum and Dad and the others were here. Mum said that she understood how I felt. That she had felt the same way when... that werewolf attacked Dad. Hah! No one understands how it feels! They think they do, but they don't."
Then she smiled. "You're a good man, Teddy. Ugh! Why do I get stuck with the saint?"
Teddy chuckled. "Good to see your humor back! And hey, you haven't yet said how brave it was of your dear husband to run into the fire to save a child."
Victoire squinted, and then laughed. "How brave of you, dear husband!"
Teddy pretended to blush. "Aww, shucks! Enough with the flattery!"
Victoire brushed a stray hair back from his forehead. "I am so scared, Teddy," she said, so wistfully that Teddy suddenly felt guilty.
"You shouldn't be, Vic. It's just my job."
"Exactly. I am proud of you, don't get me wrong. But you're just too.. brave. You will never think of yourself, and I'm scared on one of these assignments you'll get..."
"I won't. Trust me, I won't. I am not a fool. No matter what assignment I am on, I want to return home and have one of our classic fights. I want to return home and see you again. And that will bring me back. Come on, you know that, don't you? You're brave, Vic."
"It's not brave if you're scared the whole time."
Teddy wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her in a tight hug.
"Let's take a break. Let's go away for the weekend, how about that?" he said gently.
Victoire smiled slightly. "Yes, I'd like that. I want to go to the beach."
"Okay, beach it is then."
"But you have to promise you won't spend the whole day flying kites."
"I promise I won't fly kites. Actually, after we check into the hotel, I am not leaving the bed for the whole weekend."
"Me neither. I have been living on coffee for the past three days, I have hours of sleep to catch on."
"Sleep? I was implying a whole other activity," said Teddy, with a wink.
Victoire swatted his good arm playfully. "You lech!"
"You prude, we're married!" huffed Teddy.
Teddy felt a familiar elation, as Victoire inched closer, heightening his senses. He smiled as she sent a storm of emotions churning through his body, undoing his last shreds of self-control.
A/N: Written for Hogwarts Online Monthly Collab Challenge