Teddy knew that it was coming. He knew it.
"Relax, mate," Albus said, sitting next to his adopted cousin at the Gryffindor table. "Your hair's going red." Teddy raised his hands to his hair and quickly turned it back to its customary inky blue – the same blue that had gotten him described as a "wild boy" in that satanic Skeeter woman's article. Teddy felt a blush creeping up his neck and back into his hair at the very thought of it. "Let it go, Teddy." Albus said between bites of steak-and-kidney pie.
"At least you got mentioned," James added from across the table. He'd been griping about it since the article came out almost a week ago.
"We got mentioned," Albus said without taking his eyes off of his food. For possibly the eighteenth time. That morning.
"We got mentioned." James insisted, stressing the first word. "We. 'The Potter boys,' that was our mention, Al. Teddy got more publicity that I did. How is that fair?"
"Are you still whining about that?" Rose asked, walking over from the Ravenclaw table with Victoire close behind. Teddy ducked his brightly-colored head, desperately avoiding eye-contact. "Let it go, cousin." James muttered something intelligible into his food, but Teddy would bet his wand that James would continue to harp on this.
"So, are you ever going to talk to me again?" Victoire said, leaning down to talk directly into his ear and Teddy was suddenly very aware of her long blonde hair tickling his neck. He looked up, feeling his eyes shifting from their natural brown to bright green, a customary reaction to seeing her. Teddy had always been embarrassed of that, but Victoire insisted that she liked the green better. Teddy opened his mouth to answer – say something clever, preferably – when something dropped onto his plate.
"Oh, shite," Teddy swore, hanging his head. He knew it.
"Pay up," Hugo said, piping in for the first time that morning, looking like Christmas had come early. "Come on, turn out your pockets, you know who you are."
"You were betting?" Victoire demanded, hands on her hips. "On whether or not he'd get a Howler?" Teddy barely paid attention as Hugo collected his winnings. Part of him wanted to just wait for the red envelope to explode, another wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
The latter won out. "EDWARD REMUS LUPIN." Teddy winced as his Nan's voice echoed through the Great Hall, as if magnified from a Sonorus spell.
"Here we go," James said, picking disinterestedly at his food.
"I SAW THE ARTICLE IN THE PAPER AND I AM GOING TO TELL YOU THAT I AM ABSOLUTELY APPALLED AT YOUR BEHAVIOR. 'WILD BOY' TEDDY LUPIN, IS THAT HOW YOU WANT THE WORLD TO THINK OF YOU, SNOGGING GIRLS IN DARK CORNERS WHERE EVERYONE CAN SEE."
"The point of dark corners is that no one can see," Teddy managed to grumble, his whole face going red. Undoubtedly his hair had changed too. It was his nervous tell, and nothing made him more nervous than his Nan. Andromeda Tonks was a fearsome witch when she was pleased with you…. And displeased, well…
"WHAT DO YOU THINK BILL AND FLEUR WILL THINK WHEN THEY READ ABOUT THIS? HAVE YOU NO RESPECT FOR THEIR LOVELY DAUGHTER? IF YOU THINK THAT I WILL STAND FOR THIS BEHAVIOR, YOUNG MAN, YOU ARE SADLY MISTAKEN. JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN STAND OUT IN A CROWD, DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU SHOULD. AND WHAT DID THAT SKEETER WOMAN MEAN, LANKY?" Teddy slunk lower in his seat, wishing that Metamorphmaguses could disappear entirely. "YOU ARE A PERFECTLY WELL-PROPORTIONED BOY, FOR YOUR AGE.
"YOUR UNCLE HARRY INSISTS THAT I'M BEING TOO TOUGH ON YOU, BUT I THINK NOT. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING, EDWARD. IF I HAVE TO READ ABOUT YOUR SHENNANIGANS IN THE PAPER AGAIN, YOU WILL COME STRAIGHT HOME." There was a long pause, and for a short, hopeful moment, Teddy thought the message was over. "AND ENOUGH WITH THE BLUE HAIR. I KNOW THAT YOU THINK IT'S 'TRENDY', BUT TEDDY, IT MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE AN ILL PUFFSKEIN HAS NESTED ATOP YOUR HEAD." Teddy buried his face in his hands as the red envelope erupted into flames and was – finally – silent.
"Well that could've gone better," James added helpfully. Teddy wanted to die. Or disappear. Or crawl into a hole and never emerge again. It was bad enough that that Skeeter woman had made his relationship with Victoire public knowledge, but a Howler from his Nan, scolding him in front of the whole school? That was the last straw. He sat in silence until the Great Hall started to empty, then made his escape, turning his hair the blandest color he could manage under the circumstances and making his way quickly though the halls. After a minute or two he realized that he was going the wrong way – he had Herbology first today – but Teddy couldn't bring himself to care; he was too humiliated.
"Teddy!" He ignored his name, and kept walking, until he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder. He should've known. She always could find him, even if he was disguised. "Or would you like me to call you Edward?" Victoire teased with a smile that had always driven him crazy. She tossed back her hair and put one hand on her hip, suddenly serious.
"Is it me?" she asked abruptly. Teddy met her eyes for the first time in what felt like forever and felt his disguise slipping away. "Are you embarrassed of me? Is that why you've been so distant?" Her? How could she think that it was her?
"No, Victoire – "
"Because I don't care what Rita Skeeter wrote in her trashy article," Victoire continued, cutting him off. "And I like your blue hair," she added as an afterthought, as if it settled the matter. "So what is it, Ted? Why have you been avoiding me?"
"Because it's you," Teddy groaned, throwing his hands up. How could he explain how much he didn't deserve her, and how he'd been waiting for her to wake up and realize how much better she could do since they started going out. "It's you, Victoire. You're…" Beautiful. Out of his league. Perfect. "French." Not what he had imagined saying, but Teddy couldn't stop there. "And I'm the blue-haired, half-werewolf tramp that somehow tricked you into seeing me and I – " This time Victoire interrupted him with a kiss. Teddy responded instantly, cupping her face with one hand, the other finding her waist and pulling her against him. Her lips were magic, he thought, half-deliriously. She was magic.
"I picked you," she said when they finally broke apart. Mostly for air than anything else. Despite anything that Rita Skeeter wrote, neither had managed to invent a way to breathe out their ears. "And you didn't trick me into anything, Teddy Lupin. I picked the half-werewolf tramp, andI'd do it again in a heartbeat." She kissed the hollow of his throat and leaned into his chest, and Teddy wrapped his arms around her, realizing how much he'd missed how perfectly she fit against him. "Now come on," she said, pulling away, her blue eyes sparkling. Victoire grabbed his hand, smiling like she meant trouble, and Teddy felt himself grinning. "You're skivving off Herbology. We've got a week of lost time to make up for."
As soon as the short story came out, I was desperate to write about these two. Maybe just a one-shot, but I might try to expand to a multi-chapter fic. What do you guys think? Tell me, and please review!
~Fae