Summary: Teddy still remembered the day he met her, that strange, squirming bundle of pink. [TeddyxVictoire]
Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable content or characters. All belongs to its rightful owners.
And So It Goes
Our daddy's joked about the two of us
Growing up and falli' in love
And our mama's smiled, and rolled their eyes
And said "Oh, my, my, my"
~Mary's Song, Taylor Swift
It is strange, how things happen. How two people can grow up and grow together, even when that looks like the least likely outcome…
Edward "Teddy" Remus Lupin was excited. He wasn't sure why he was excited, but he was. All the adults in his life, and there were quite a few of them were a buzz with happy, joy filled chatter and seemed to be vibrating with anticipation. And so, Teddy was likewise excited.
Something big was going to happen. It had something to do with the Weasleys. That much Teddy knew for sure. While his grandmother, Andromeda Tonks, was happy and humming and in a state that Teddy had never seen her in, the Weasleys were on another level. Whenever Harry and Ginny took him to visit the Burrow, Teddy felt like he was going to be knocked over by the force and intensity of it.
Whatever it was, Teddy couldn't wait for it to happen.
It was a few weeks after his second birthday that it reached a fever pitch. All the adults had gathered at the Burrow for some sort of celebration and, at first, Teddy though that maybe this was the big event. But, as he raced around the legs of his grandmother, and Harry and Ginny, and the others, the strangely sombre mood that permeated the house made Teddy second guess himself.
Why would everyone be excited about something sad? It didn't make any sense.
And then, Bill Weasley burst into the kitchen, breathing heavily and made an announcement that changed the atmosphere of the room.
"Fleur had the baby!" the eldest Weasley proudly proclaimed, sending the inhabitants of the Burrow into a tizzy. They cheered, clapped, cried, and hugged each other. Ginny, with tears streaming down her face, scooped up the slightly confused, but still clapped toddler at her feet and spun him around. Teddy giggled and squealed in delight.
Teddy wasn't sure exactly what Bill Weasley's words meant, but he was now sure that this was what everyone had been excited about. It had finally happened!
Everyone celebrated for a few more minutes before they all moved to the Weasley's sitting room, gathering around the fireplace. Some time during the celebrating, Bull had disappeared. Now, with everyone gathered, Bill re-emerged from the fireplace, a squirming pink bundle held carefully and protectively in his arms.
The adults all jumped up, clambering to see whatever it was in Bill's arms and, upon catching a glimpse, began making strange sounds. Teddy was a little apprehensive about the adult's strange behaviour and so remained in his spot on the couch.
Finally, it seemed as if all the adults had been satiated in their strange desire to witness the pink bundle, and several of them turned to focus back on him.
"Come say hello to Victoire, Teddy," his grandmother called from her spot beside Bill. Teddy, a little reluctantly, got off the couch and toddled towards his grandmother. She carefully lifted him and positioned him so he could finally see what was in the bundle.
Teddy was a little disappointed. That was what everyone was so excited about?
It was a small person, even smaller than him. Its face was scrunched up and pink. Besides the occasional squirming motion, the bundle didn't even move all that much. In Teddy's estimation, it was much ado about nothing. Wondering if there was more to the bundle than the small person, he reached towards it and poked it.
Instantly, the bundle began to shriek and all the adults rushed up to it, forgetting Teddy. The toddler pouted. This was the worst big event ever.
In the months following the lackluster, in 2-year-old Teddy Lupin's opinion, arrival of Victoire, the first granddaughter of Arthur and Molly, the toddler's opinion of the girl did not change. She was still that unimpressive, annoying pink lump. Worst of all, that unimpressive lump was taking away all of the attention that, only months before, belonged solely to Teddy.
Before Victoire, Teddy had been the only baby, the only child. Everyone else in his life was an adult, so Teddy received special attention because of his rare status amongst the large Weasley clan. All the adults absolutely doted on him.
Then Victoire arrived on the scene and all that attention and dotting was transferred to the new, younger baby. Teddy didn't like it one bit. Especially since Victoire was receiving attention for things Teddy had already accomplished. How did that make sense?
On one late spring day, when everyone had gathered at the Burrow for one of the myriad celebrations that occurred in a large family, Teddy finally had enough of the attention-hogging lump. It was on that day that the tottering, shaky limp, pulled herself onto her unsteady legs and took a hesitant, jerky step forward. The adults in the room erupted into cheers and celebratory noises. Teddy, playing with a wooden toy train set across the room, angrily tossed down the locomotive in his hand.
Expertly, and without any hesitation, Teddy stood and confidently strode across the room. He came to a stop in front of the shaky baby. He reached out a hand and, gently tapped her. With only the smallest of hits, Victoire toppled backwards. She landed on her fleshy butt, sat stunned for a few seconds, and then burst out into tears and ear piercing shrieks.
The adults rushed over to Victoire, picking over her to make sure she was fine while Ginny pulled Teddy aside and angrily told him off for pushing Victoire. But Teddy didn't care. His small action, in his mind, had put that lump back in its proper place.
As Teddy and Victoire grew older, the adults of their life seemed to be forcing the duo together, despite their rocky beginning. Or maybe it was in spite of it. Maybe the adults thought that if they forced the two of them together, Teddy and Victoire would become friends. But Teddy wanted none of it.
He was seven-years-old. He had his own friends and played his own games that were too complicated for five-year-old Victoire. He didn't need a little girl tagging along after him. Victoire, apparently, thought that he did.
"Please can I play, Teddy?" Victoire sing-songed, trailing after the young blue-haired boy as he plodded though the grassy fields between the Burrow and the small town of Ottery St. Catchpole.
"No, Victoire! You shouldn't even be out here! You'll get me in trouble. Again!" Teddy rounded on the young girl, his fists clenched in annoyance and irritation. Victoire didn't back down.
"You aren't either! Now let me come with or I'll go and tell gran!" Victoire responded, her hands defiantly on her hips. Teddy weighed his options, not really like either.
"Fine!" he relented, "hut don't get in the way!" Victoire was sure annoying!
Most of Teddy's early childhood was peppered with incidents involving Victoire. It was like he couldn't get away from her. That was, until he turned eleven and headed off to Hogwarts. Finally, for the first time since he was two-years-old, Teddy was away from Victoire, as well as the rest of the expanding Weasley clan. And it felt absolutely amazing.
Of course, Teddy always knew that it was temporary. Eventually, Victoire and her cousins and siblings would turn eleven and be accepted to Hogwarts. Until that happened though, Teddy enjoyed the freedom and aloneness that he was finally able to experience.
Then, at the start of his third year, the event that Teddy had somewhat been dreading happened. Victoire turned eleven and boarded the Hogwarts Express on September 1st along with Teddy.
"Weasley, Victoire," Neville Longbottom, the deputy Headmaster called later that night. Teddy watched as the lithe, confident form of Victoire, the annoying girl from his past, made her way up to the Sorting Hat. As Teddy watched, he also noticed others watching, and whispering. He couldn't hear what they were saying, didn't know if it was good or bad, but he felt a strange protectiveness well up in him.
He'd watched Victoire grow up, and now he felt like he needed to keep her safe. It was as if he were involved inn her well being, as if he played some sort of role in ensuring it. The feeling worried Teddy a little, but he still shot the nearby whisperers looks that told them to cut it out.
"Gryffindor!" the Sorting Hat shouted, and Teddy watched, like a protective older brother, as the blonde made her way to the cheering table off to his right.
Teddy's opinion of Victoire changed again in the middle of his sixth year. Victoire went from an unimpressive lump, to an annoying attention hog, to a clingy tag along, and then to a young girl he needed to protect. Teddy was happy with that relationship; he could play the roll of protector very well. It was the roll he played with all the younger Weasleys and Potters. Then, only a few weeks before his seventeenth birthday, his opinion shifted again.
It started slowly. He noticed that her butt looked good in her uniform skirt. He noticed how her short hair made her look like a delicate, yet fierce pixie. He began to notice more and more about her until she was all he could think about.
It hit him like a bolt one day, while he sat in the library. His hours of work lay forgotten on the table in front of him and his focus was entirely rooted on Victoire. The blonde was seated a few tables away, laughing and working with her friends, and Teddy could not look away.
Then, he knew. He realised.
He fancied Victoire Weasley, the annoying, attention-hogging lump of his toddler years. What would he do now?
Teddy's seventh, and final, year at Hogwarts was absolute hell. Inn the middle of his sixth year, Teddy had found himself fancying the young Victoire Weasley. However, he hadn't acted, had kept his feelings to himself. There were too many things in the way. Too many things to work through if they were to be together. So Teddy kept quiet and chose to remain just an old friend.
That position was fine with Teddy for the rest of his sixth year. The two of them would smile at each other in the halls, chat amicably on breaks and during spare moments, and occasionally work beside each other in the library. And that was enough for Teddy.
But, when seventh-year started, Teddy found that apparently it wasn't enough for Victoire. Despite the fact that the pair spent nearly every moment of that summer together, a result of the fact that the extended Weasley family spent essentially all of the summer at the Burrow, Teddy was blindsided when he returned to Hogwarts. He was sure when it had happened, or how, but Victoire had somehow gone and gotten herself a boyfriend.
In Teddy's opinion, he was a boyfriend completely ill suited for the lovely, vivacious Victoire. He was dull and uninteresting, only caring about sports to the exclusion of all other things. Victoire read books on multiple topics, explored the world around her, spent hours enjoying nature, and could not care less about sports. On top of that, Teddy had caught the young lad staring and ogling other girls.
Despite what Teddy say, despite the glaring differences between them, Victoire and her no-good boyfriend stayed together for three agonizingly long months. Then, Victoire found her pig of a boyfriend snogging another girl, and Teddy could breath again.
When Victoire came to him looking for solace and comfort, it was just an added bonus. She rested her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her, and it all felt right.
"You stupid, slow, idiotic, git!" an extremely irate Victoire stormed into Teddy's dorm room about a week after her breakup. Teddy had been sitting at his desk in his head boy's dormitory and could only sit, stare, and occasionally blink. The seething blonde paced around the room, yelling and muttering insults at the slightly shell-shocked boy.
"I mean. It was so clear! It was just right there! But do you do anything about it? No! You just let it hang out there. Even though I made it so incredibly obvious!" Victoire was rambling, speaking quickly and sometimes lapsing into French. It all combined to make her words very hard to follow.
"I guess I was just being stupid. Je suis une idiote! I thought that maybe you liked me. Maybe even fancied me. But obviously not. I mean, I've been putting out all these signals, telling you that I'm open and available, and yet you haven't done a single thing about it. So, obviously I was mistaken about all of-"
Slowly, Victoire began to form more coherent thoughts and Teddy cottoned on to her anger. She had been overly affectionate and even slightly flirty with him since her break up; Teddy had just been too dense to really realise it. And now he had an angry, and possibly heartbroken, blonde storming around his room. So, without thinking, Teddy stood, crossed the room, and did the only thing he knew would reassure her.
Teddy gently wrapped his arms around the petite blonde, pulled her close, and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
…It is strange, how things happen. How two people can grow up and grow together, even when that looks like the least likely outcome.
The End