Drunk and In Love
"Are you ready for this?" Teddy asked, slipping his hand into hers so that their fingers were entwined like two perfect puzzle pieces. His finger absentmindedly stroked the new addition to her ring finger—the delicate silver ring, embedded with a diamond no less, that he had presented to her barely two weeks ago. Just as the rock jutted out from the ring, Teddy felt his chest swell with pride. Who knew happiness could be contained in such a small, simple object?
She gave a soft smile, emphasising two adorable dimples in her now slightly coloured cheeks. "I couldn't be more ready," she assured him.
Just the way she looked at him, glowing with love and adoration, with a soft twinkling in her brilliantly blue eyes, was enough to make Teddy's heart practically burst from his chest.
"After you, then," he said, indicating to the door that separated them from a garden full of their dearest friends and family. "Victoire Lupin," he added for good measure, unable to resist. Those two simple words gave him unending satisfaction, and just saying them aloud made it seem oh-so strikingly real.
"Victoire Weasley," she corrected him with a hint of teasing. "We're not married yet."
Teddy couldn't help but blush. "I was just trying it out," he explained.
"And how was it?"
"It was no less than perfect."
"I'm glad to hear it," Victoire said, somewhat coy. "I think I could get used to it." She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and allowed Teddy to open the door for her. Together they strode forth into brilliant sunlight, but before they had even made it outside, there was a thunderous applause, uproarious cheering from every side. The shy couple would have been embarrassed had they not been so delightfully overwhelmed by the special occasion.
Victoire's eyes had only just adjusted to the sudden dazzle of sunlight when she found herself engulfed by a swarm of cousins. Teddy's hand was wrenched from hers, temporarily panicking her, but when she saw him being embraced in a fatherly bear hug by her Uncle Harry, she relaxed and let the others drag her around.
"Vic, I want to be Maid of Honour, okay?" Lily innocently announced.
Victoire chuckled in response. "I would love you to be my Maid of Honour, Lils, but I already promised Dom that she could have that role. She is my sister, after all. You'll still be a bridesmaid, though, of course."
Lily pouted and then considered it for a while. "Just me?"
"Well, not just you. Roxy, Lucy, Molly, and Rose will be too."
At this comment, the other girls began to murmur in excitement before proceeding to flood Victoire with questions.
"Really, Vic?"
"What colour will our dresses be?"
"When is the wedding?"
"Do we get to walk down the aisle?"
"Who gets to stand right behind you?"
"Do we have to wear dresses?" Roxanne asked in disgust. Her nose was scrunched up as though there was a foul smell in the garden. "I'd much rather just wear my jeans and trainers."
"Roxanne Weasley, you are not walking down the aisle with me in those filthy jeans of yours!" Victoire exclaimed, horrified at the very notion.
Sixteen-year-old Roxanne was at that rebellious age where she refused to be anything resembling a 'girly girl', much to the femininely elegant Victoire's horror, dressing only in ripped jeans, tatty trainers, and anything and everything in black or dark shades. It suited her, though. With her dark skin and masses of curly black hair, Roxanne's tomboy style suited her far better than any frilly dress would.
But Victoire wouldn't let her cousin attend her funeral dressed like that, let alone her wedding. "It's going to be the most important day of my life, and you will wear a dress and act like a lady!"
Roxanne scowled in response, but the two knew they were only teasing each other to wind the other up. Roxanne wouldn't dream of spoiling her eldest cousin's wedding day, and Victoire certainly wasn't going to be a crazy bridezilla, (not like she'd heard her own mother had been).
"Whatever," Roxanne said with a shrug. "As long as it's tasteful and shows off my legs."
Victoire rolled her eyes. "I haven't thought about it too much yet—I haven't even chosen my own dress yet!—but I think pale pink would just look adorable," she gushed, getting caught up in dream-like visions of what her big day would look like.
"No!" Rose cried out, startling the other girls. "No, Victoire you can't!"
Victoire peered down at Rose's freckled face, now red with embarrassment. It was unlike her to protest and make a scene, especially with regards to fashion choices. Rose was kind and generous, constantly aiming to please. Roxy was the awkward one!
Victoire raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Oh, Victoire," Rose said dramatically, genuinely looking distraught over the colour choice. "You can't let me, Lily, Molly, and Lucy wear pink at the wedding. Our hair! Redheads simply can't wear pink. It would be the most atrocious combination—they clash too horribly!"
The others, who had been frozen in suspense over Rose's first outburst, now relaxed and broke into fits of laughter.
Rose went on. "It's fine for Roxanne and Dominique—or you! But we'd look awful. You can't. You just can't."
Rose was completely justified. Of the six Weasley girls (and one Potter girl), four still had the typical shockingly red hair that generations of Weasleys had had before them. Luckily Victoire and Dominique had been blessed with beautiful golden curls on behalf of Fleur's Veela genes, and Roxanne had inherited her mother's dark skin hair.
"Perhaps not, then," Victoire corrected, still laughing at Rose's overdramatic reaction. "Pale gold perhaps? Sky blue? Turquoise? Red? I'll think about it."
So caught up in the discussion of her bridesmaids' dresses was Victoire, that it took Teddy several shouts of her name before she even realised he was calling out to her. "Sorry, Teddy—we were discussing 'bridesmaids' things."
"Yeah," Lily announced, "but it's top secret and you're not allowed to know!"
"I'm not allowed to know what my bridesmaids are going to be getting up to?" he asked jokingly. "Not even at my own wedding?"
"The only thing you need to worry about, Teddy dearest, is getting yourself to the wedding on time. Leave the rest to me," Victoire said with a wink. After the girls had all offered their congratulations and demanded various requests about their involvement in the wedding, Teddy was able to pull Victoire away.
"Sorry about that," he murmured softly in her ear. "Guy stuff."
"Guy stuff?"
"Well, first it was just Harry telling me he was proud of me and he thought my parents would be too—which was nice—but then the boys came over and James told me I was making a horrible mistake in choosing to get married."
"How nice of him," Victoire laughed.
"And then Louis let me know he was going to kill me if I ever messed you around, so that was cheerful."
"Mhmm, I hope he stands by it!"
"As if I would ever do any such thing," Teddy said affectionately, breathing the words so close to Victoire that only she could hear.
Before she could even think about what she was doing, Victoire found her hand snaking around to the back of Teddy's head, stroking his soft, turquoise hair, caught up in the breathless romance of being so close to him. He was a fair bit taller than her, but with his forehead pressed to hers in the way that it currently was, their lips were just a few inches apart. All she had to do was pull his head towards hers and—
"Teddy, can I talk to you?"
Victoire was so shocked, she practically pushed Teddy away from her. She would recognise that voice anywhere, and regardless of the fact that they had been dating for five years and were now engaged, she did not want her father to witness them getting lost in a passionate kiss.
Teddy seemed more surprised by Victoire's sudden violence than he was by Bill's appearance. "Of course, Mr Weasley," he said politely. He briefly turned back to Victoire. "I'll be right back, sweetie," he told her gently.
Victoire said nothing but watched the two most important men in her life walk over to the drinks table. She only hoped Bill wasn't going to be giving Teddy a little talk to the same effect as Louis had...
It was silly of Victoire to get upset that she and Teddy were getting to spend so little time together. What had she honestly expected? In the two weeks they'd been engaged, Teddy and Victoire had heard no end of congratulations and blessings, but still they'd thought it would be nice to have a party and bring them all together. Well, it had actually been Molly Weasley, Victoire's grandmother's, suggestion, and that was precisely how they'd come to find themselves at an engagement party at the Burrow. And, of course, everybody wanted to know the details.
Yes, Victoire had been quite wrong to assume she and her fiancé would get to spend too much time together that day. But at least, she supposed with a happy smile, she would get to spend the rest of her life with Teddy. So really she could sacrifice just one afternoon.
Just as soon as the thought had crossed her mind, Victoire's mother was dragging her over to talk weddings with her aunts Ginny, Hermione, Angelina, Audrey, and Gabrielle, and, of course, her grandmothers too. As Ginny offered her a flute of champagne, that was perhaps the first time Victoire realised that she was now, in fact, considered a woman. Up until that moment she had been one of the kids, but now everything was changing. The thought both scared and thrilled her.
After what felt like endless hours of talking about the venue, dress, catering, seating arrangements, colour scheme, and all number of wedding-related topics, along with uncomfortable queries about where she and Teddy were going to live, when they were going to have their first child, and just how many children they planned on having, Victoire was finally able to drag herself away, with only one desire in her mind—her fiancé.
Teddy was her anchor in this crazy storm of adulthood. Though he was very mature and sensitive, Teddy was also very fun and light-hearted, with a sweet, playful disposition. Which, when Victoire found him, was shining through a little too much...
"Victoire!" he exclaimed enthusiastically when she made her way over to him some hours later, drink in hand. "I'm so happy to see you!"
"I—I'm glad to hear it," Victoire said, a little taken aback by the energy with which Teddy was speaking and the embarrassingly loud volume at which he was doing so. "I missed you."
"I missed you too, baby."
Victoire stopped. Teddy had never called her 'baby' before. He had always coined more affectionate terms of endearment such as 'sweetie' and 'honey', but never baby. Her mind going into overdrive as she assessed the situation—drink in hand, uncharacteristic enthusiasm, use of the word 'baby', and that subtle waft of alcohol—she could see only one suitable explanation. "Have you been drinking?" she shrieked a little too loudly.
Teddy looked at her with such seriousness that Victoire began to fear her accusation had been completely misjudged, but all of a sudden he had broken out into laughter, sloshing the contents of his glass around accidentally. "Oh, Victoire. Victoire, Victoire, Victoire... Vic, Vicky—"
"Teddy!"
"Mhmm?" he asked, raising the glass to his lips and draining the red liquid in one quick, fluid movement.
"Teddy, stop it," Victoire demanded, wrenching the glass from his lips and letting it drop onto the grass with a soft thud.
As soon as she'd taken the step towards him, it was as though she'd entered some kind of bubble surrounding him where the scent of the alcohol was so overpowering she was certain she could get intoxicated just by inhaling it. She took a hasty step back, confusing Teddy, who got over it quickly and began to laugh again for no apparent reason.
"I don't believe this," she hissed at him, not wanting to cause a scene in front of her family. "How much have you had to drink?"
Teddy stared up at the sky, lost in thought. "Just the… just the teeniest tiniest amount," he decided.
"Oh, really?"
He laughed again, but Victoire's expression was nothing but solemnity. She was not amused; she was angry. This wasn't like Teddy! This wasn't the man she'd decided to spend the rest of her life with and presented to her family as the man who would love and protect her until his dying breath.
Victoire had no objections against the consumption of alcohol of course, and she liked to indulge every now and again—she'd been drinking champagne that afternoon, after all—but how could Teddy possibly think it appropriate to get roaring drunk at their engagement party, in the middle of the afternoon and with their whole family there?
"Maybe a bit more..." Teddy said after thinking about it. "Your dad gave me some."
"My dad gave you some?" Victoire repeated, appalled. Bill had never let her drink with the adults, even at special occasions when she was perfectly old enough. He had been very strict and conservative over things like that. Her mother, on the other hand, was a bit more open, but then Victoire supposed that the French were...
"Well, just a glass, and then I—I had a bit more with Harry. And George. And Ron..."
"Teddy! What is wrong with you? I can't believe you got drunk at our engagement party!" Victoire was so close to tears by this point that she was considering running into the house and locking herself in the bathroom. But that would only lead to people coming after her and asking her what was wrong, and she didn't want to seem like she was overreacting.
"Exactly!"
"What, exactly?" she demanded, hands on hips.
"It's our engagement party. I'm celebrating! It's a party, and I'm happy!"
Victoire would have almost been swayed by Teddy's confession if it hadn't been for the fact that he was now physically swaying where he stood. "You can't find happiness at the bottom of a bottle."
"You can't?" Teddy asked, scratching his head in confusion.
"No."
"Vic," he said softly. She tried not to look him in the eye, fearing the tears would come any moment. "I love you..."
"Right."
"I do. I think I want to marry you."
"Great."
"Oh," he moaned, so loud that she was certain he had now drawn the attention of some of the guests.
"What?" Victoire hissed in a low voice.
"You don't love me anymore!" Teddy cried in a strangled wail.
"Teddy, don't be ridiculous—of course I do. I'm just not overly thrilled that you seem to find it acceptable to get roaring drunk in the middle of the afternoon with all our family here. Do you know how embarrassing this is?"
"I'm not embarrassed..."
"Of course you're not—you've had about a gallon of Firewhisky! But you're embarrassing me in front of my entire family. My parents are here, Teddy! I don't want them to see you like this! And what about James, and Rose, and Lily, and all that lot? They look up to you, Teddy—they respect you. You're their role model, for crying out loud, and your behaviour is completely inappropriate. I get that this is our engagement party and we're celebrating, and having a drink is fine, but it has to be in moderation. This is so utterly humiliating for me, and the worst thing is that you don't even care."
"Vic, I do—"
"No, you don't, Teddy! This is just a game for you, and you—you just don't get it, do you?"
Victoire closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She knew it wasn't right for her to get so worked up about it when there was nothing Teddy could do now, and she knew he would regret it as soon as he was sober, and would probably go to no end to try and make it up to her. But she was so overcome by anger at the situation, so infuriated by the very idea of him being drunk around her parents, that she couldn't think straight.
"Vic, I'm sorry," Teddy said sincerely.
Victoire gulped. "I know, and I am, too. But... maybe we should just go inside and sit down for a bit, yeah?" She could tell the others that he wasn't feeling too well and needed a lie-down, hoping he could act composed as she led him to the house. After taking another deep breath, and with a forced smile, she reached for his hand to guide him away.
"Wait," Teddy said suddenly, refusing to move.
Victoire turned back to look at him questioningly. "Teddy? What's—"
But Victoire couldn't even finish her sentence before Teddy was striding over to her, taking her into his arms, and kissing her with so much passion that he actually lifted her off her feet. It would have been a romantic gesture had his lips not tasted so strongly of Firewhisky; or if the smell had not been so overwhelming that she actually felt her eyes start to water; or for the fact that his hands were roving over parts of her body that were certainly not appropriate in front of her family.
"Teddy!" Victoire growled, pushing him away hard, so disgusted with his behaviour that she actually felt like punching him.
"Ah, come on, Vic!"
"Teddy, I'm only doing this for your sake."
"What are you talking about?"
"My love, you'll forgive me when you wake up."
"Wait, what?"
Poor Teddy Lupin didn't even see it coming when his bride-to-be whipped out her wand and sent him toppling to the ground with a Full Body-Bind Curse, the garden full of their closest friends and family watching, horror-struck, with gawping mouths…
Originally written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Season 2—Round 2
Team: Holyhead Harpies
Position: Captain
Task: Teddy Lupin, drinking