Perhaps, Teddy thought in retrospect, I should have seen this coming.
It was a harmless enough idea in the beginning. It was Harry's idea, actually. That was the one leg he had left to stand on, he thought, as he tore apart the downstairs bathroom. It was Harry's idea that he baby sit Lily. This was Harry's fault, all Harry's fault-
"Teddy?" Victoire appeared in the doorway. She looked frantic. Frantic, but attractive, in her lace topped camisole and cut off jean shorts. He wondered briefly where her sweater had gone. They would have to find that, when they were done trying to find Lily...
"Teddy!"
He pulled his attention back to the present calamity. Victoire rapped her knuckles impatiently against his forehead. "Stay with me, Ted. Uncle Harry'll be home in an hour-"
"It's not Harry I'm worried about," he murmered. The thought of confronting Ginny with the news that they had lost her only daughter was the one that sent shivers down his spine. Telling Harry wasn't really something to look forward to either, but he knew that he could trust Harry to be logical about it. He would get the facts, calm the distressed, lead the team, save the world - and leave the anger and disappointment for later, when Teddy would have had enough time to Floo out of the country, or at least think up a plausible story. Ginny was the uncontrollable variable in his equation, the unaccounted for rogue. She was the "hex first, ask questions later" type. She was the one Teddy was not overeager to welcome home.
He watched as Victoire chewed her bottom lip nervously and left the bathroom. He listened as she ran back up the stairs, shouting for Lily. He sighed, arranged the soaps in the shower in the order they had been in before he had rampaged through it, and left. Lily was not in the bathroom. She wasn't in the kitchen or the parlor or the playroom. She wasn't in her bedroom or Albus' or James' or her parents or his own, and she wasn't in Harry's office, which he had thought for sure would be the place she would hide. She hid there every time they played...
He followed the sound of Victoire's stomping up the stairs and down the hallway to Harry's office. She was storming about, pulling books off of shelves and coats off of chairs. She looked positively furious, he thought. He crossed to her and took her in his arms. "Calm down, Vic, we'll find her-"
"Don't touch me!" She pushed away from him. "Not now, Ted- this is what got us into this spot in the first place." She shook her head, tucking a strand of beautilfuly thin blonde hair behind an ear. "Wait till later, all right?"
He thought of Ginny and Harry's iminent return and grimaced. "We might not have later," he told her, and she sighed.
"They're not going to kill us, Ted," she reassured him. "Ginny might throw a hex or two-"
"Or four or five or six-"
"But she's not going to permanently maim us or anything." She chuckled at the look on his face. "And we're going to find her before they get home, so it's not going to even come to that."
Teddy sighed again. Victoire turned away and looked over the office once more. "Lils?" She called hopefully, and when there was no answer, her shoulders slumped.
"Let's go back downstairs," Teddy suggested. "Just take a minute to re think this.." He took her hand and led her out of the office and down the stairs. In the kitchen, he poured them both glasses of butter beer and sat on the counter. Victoire took a seat at the table and fingered the mug nervously, but she didn't drink.
"Okay," Teddy said, "This really isn't that bad." He took a swig of the butter beer and tried to ignore the incredolous look Victoire was giving him. "She's only five, Vic. It's not like she's apparated out of here, or even jumped the Floo. Besides, we would have heard if she did either of those things-"
"I doubt we would have heard if she was setting off Filbuster's," Victoire remarked drily, and Teddy grinned despite himself. He remembered the way she had felt, only an hour ago, all soft and warm and his. He had barely been aware that he was breathing. Lily could have been doing anything and he would not have had any idea. He groaned.
"We're rubbish baby sitters," he proclaimed, and Victoire pushed the mug away from her with moan.
"We were rubbish baby sitters," she corrected. "I doubt we'll ever be called on to baby sit anyone, ever again."
"Not true," Teddy cut in with a little smile. "We're free, remember?"
"So is Dominique," Victoire pointed out, "And Molly and Lucy and Grans...and not only are they free, but they've yet to lose any Potter children."
"Yet," Teddy emphasized, lifting his butter beer to his lips. "Give them some time. Besides," he added when Victoire laid her head on the table top with a despairing cry, "It's not like you're going to be in trouble. Harry and Ginny don't even know you're here. Your parents think you're at Uncle Percy's- if you leave now, I'll just tell Harry it was my fault-"
"Don't be such a git, Ted." She stood, stretching. "I'm as much to blame as you are. It's too late to try to weasel my way out of this." She saw the look Teddy threw her and hurried on, "I wasn't going to try. Don't look at me like that!"
Teddy hopped down off the counter. He stole a glance at the clock and felt his heartrate spike. "We've only got another forty minutes, Vic. Where are we looking next?"
She groaned again. "I don't know- we've looked everywhere."
"The yard?" He suggested, and Victoire blew by him on her way out the door.
Lily was, as Teddy had suspected, not in the yard. They hunted through the bushes and the undergrowth surrounding the yard with electric torches, keeping one eye on the parlor window. They scoured the broomshed, only thinking at the last minute to count the brooms. Teddy had a wild image of Lily coursing dangerously through the air atop Harry's old Nimbus and felt as if he would faint. None were missing, however, and they took their search to the play house. It was empty. They were just making their way to the garage when a gentle roaring floated out of the opened kitchen door. Teddy saw, to his horror, the tell tale green flames licking the hearth through the parlor windows.
"Shit," he hissed, and grabbed Victoire's shoulder. "They're home early."
Victoire paled considerably, even in the dark, and they didn't so much as look at each other as they chased across the lawn and up the back stairs. They burst through the kitchen door, slamming it behind them. Teddy took a moment to grab Victoire by the shoulders and twirl her back towards the door. "Go," he gasped breathlessly, "Save yourself."
Victoire rolled her eyes and shook his hands off. "Cut the dramatics," she said, and led the way into the parlor, where Harry and Ginny were just stepping out of the fireplace, dressed impeccably in shining black shoes and dark robes. Harry was laughing as he brushed pieces of soot from Ginny's red hair, and Teddy thought, fleetingly, that if he started now, he would be able to make it to the broomshed and be on his way before they were even cleaned up-
But it was already too late. Harry looked at them, still laughing, and grinned broadly at Teddy. "Hey! How'd it go-"
"Vic," Ginny said with sudden force, "What are you doing here?"
In the moment of awkward silence that followed, Teddy had to grudgingly admit that for someone who had never had proper training, Ginny was remarkably quicker witted than her Head of Aurors husband. He watched as Harry's face went from jovial to serious in a matter of milliseconds. Teddy took a deep breath-
"Teddy invited me over," Victoire answered, tossing her head. "I was free and he was bored-"
"He wasn't bored, he was baby sitting," Ginny cut in fiercely, and Victoire quailed under her aunt's vicious glare. Ginny took a controlled breath, but Harry beat her to it.
"We have rules," he said slowly, fixing Teddy with a solemn face that was somehow so much worse than any other look could have ever been. "We have rules, and you both know this."
"Well," Teddy began feebly, "It's not like we were planning on you guys finding out-"
"Of course you weren't." Harry pursed his lips. "People rarely plan on being caught red handed when they do things they shouldn't-"
"Don't say it like that," Teddy interrupted with exasperation, and Harry raised his eyebrows. "It's not like you caught us rocking on the couch or anything-"
"Rocking on the couch?" Ginny screeched. Her wand was in her hand suddenly, and Teddy took a step backwards, bumping into the side table. "You were doing that with Lily in the house?"
Teddy looked pleadingly to Victoire, who ignored him pointedly. She took a deep breath. "Actually, Aunt Ginny, we weren't."
Ginny calmed visibly. She laid her wand on the mantle behind her but kept her eyes trained on the two. Harry watched her for a moment, poised to jump in should the situation become ugly, then turned slowly to Teddy. "You have some explaining to do," he said shortly. "But first, I think someone ought to take Vic home-"
"I can Floo by myself, Uncle Harry," she protested, and Harry turned to her with what looked like, for the first time since he had come home, anger.
"Do your parents know you're here?" He asked roughly, and she shook her head."I thought not." Harry turned his back on them and set about removing his robes. "Is Lily asleep, Ted?"
Teddy closed his eyes, sent a brief, desperate prayer upwards, and took a deep breath. "I don't know-"
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Ginny snapped. "It's eleven forty five, Teddy. She's five years old. She should have been in bed and asleep four hours ago-"
"We don't know where she is," Victoire cut in quickly, and Teddy felt, in the second of silence that followed her pronouncement, something akin to sheer terror rising in his chest-
"Excuse me?"
Teddy opened his eyes to find Harry slowly, stiffly, swiveling to face them. He was halfway through disrobing, with one arm stuck in the sleeve of his robe and the other falling to his side. He fixed Teddy with such a look of disbelief that Teddy openly trembled.
"We- we lost Lily," he whispered, and Ginny screamed.
"You lost Lily-"
"What," Harry interrupted, laying a hand on his wife's arm, which was reaching for her wand, "Do you mean, you lost Lily?"
"We were playing Hide and Seek," Teddy began falteringly," and Victoire and I were It, and she was hiding-"
"Don't play us for morons," Harry snapped. His cheeks were flushed with spots of color, and Teddy gulped. "What you mean to say is that you tricked Lily into playing Hide and Seek so she would go off somewhere and you two-" he jerked his chin towards his neice- "could get a few minutes alone, am I right?" Teddy nodded miserably, and Harry went on, "Because you know that Hide and Seek is her favorite game, and that she won't move from her hiding spot until someone finds her, right? So you could enjoy quite a while of interrupted bliss while she was off, patiently waiting under my desk for you, right?"
"Except she's not under your desk," Teddy informed him quickly. "We looked everywhere, Harry..." His voice trailed off and he looked away, at Victoire, who was looking at the floor.
Ginny sighed. "Well, it's not as if she's Apparated anywhere," she said heavily. "She's here somewhere...How long ago did you start the game?"
Teddy wished suddenly that he was seventeen, that he was able to throw a couple strong defensive wards between himself and his surrogate mother. "Around seven," he murmered, and winced when Ginny shrieked, "Seven o'clock?"
Teddy nodded miserably again, and Ginny stormed, "Four - almost five! Five hours ago, Teddy Lupin- she's been hiding- missing - for that long, and I'm only now finding out?"
"You were at dinner!" Teddy defended. "I didn't want to Floo the restauarant and ruin your night-"
"You may as well have!" Ginny snapped. "It's not as if it's not ruined now, isn't it?" She kicked her heels off, viciously, and snatched up her wand off the mantle piece. Teddy braced himself for the impact, but she waved it once and bellowed, "Accio Mr. Goggles!"
Teddy watched, open mouthed, as nothing happened. Victoire bore a similiar look of confusion, but only for a moment. There came a soft bumping at the window, and Teddy turned to see Lily's teddy bear, Mr. Goggles, banging pitifully against the glass, his red yarn lips smiling happily at them. Harry strode past them, his robe still half on, his wand in hand.
"She's outside," he declared, and Teddy shook his head as he followed his godfather.
"We already looked outside," he protested, but Harry was ignoring him. He crossed from the doorway to the window, where he took Mr. Goggles in one hand and looked briefly about the yard before flicking his own wand and declaring, "Accio Rupert the Dragon!" They waited a second, during which time Ginny, still barefoot, appeared in the doorway behind Teddy, and then the garage door creaked as a stuffed red dragon warbled out through it, suspended in mid air.
Teddy gave a short yelp of amazement and ran across the lawn. Harry reached the garage first and flipped the switch, showering the interior with harsh white light. Teddy thought to grab Rupert a moment before a small red head popped up in the front seat of Harry's barely used Ford, grinning broadly, pig tails askew.
"You found me!" She cried happily, and the vapid fear that had plagued Teddy for the last hour and a half gave away to weak kneed relief. He sank against the wall and watched as Harry pulled the car door open and collected his daughter into his arms. She giggled when she saw her father and kissed him. "You're not supposed to be playing," she told him seriously, and Harry smiled at her.
"Ted needed some help finding you," he replied and kicked the car door shut. Balancing Lily on his hip, he pulled from his pocket and presented it to her. "Mr. Goggles was a very big help," he added intently, and she giggled.
"Did Rupert help?" She asked, and Teddy tossed the stuffed dragon to her.
"Loads," he answered, and attempted a weak smile, but it was hard when his stomach was still in knots and Harry was looking at him like that. She frowned at him.
"You don't look very happy, Teddy," she observed, and Harry started for the door, brushing against Teddy on his way out.
"He's very tired, love," He told his daughter, "And it's late. Let's get you to bed, all right?" She sighed in protest and nestled contentedly in her father's shoulder. "Turn off the light and come inside, Ted," Harry called over his shoulder, and Teddy felt that twinge in his stomach again. He turned off the switch and trotted obediantly after Harry, arriving in the kitchen in time to see Ginny take Lily in her arms and kiss her. Lily endurded the affection for a moment before craning her head out of reach of her mother's lips and looking at Victoire quizzically.
"Vic," she asked, bewildered, "Where did your shirt go?"
Teddy closed his eyes and groaned at the same time Victoire slumped to the table and buried her face in her hands. Lily looked impatiently at Teddy. "Stop making that noise!" She demanded. "You sound like you're dying!"
"He may as well be," Ginny told her daughter, almost happily, and gave her another kiss before passing her to Harry. "Daddy's going to put you to bed, sweetheart, all right? It's very late."
"I'm not tired," Lily informed her mother, clinging to Harry's neck. "I napped in the car."
"That's why you didn't hear us!" Victoire shouted, and Teddy groaned again. Ginny gave him a hard look.
"Stop making that noise, Ted," she said sharply. "You've no need to - yet." She turned to Victoire. "Get your sweater," she snapped at her niece. "I'm sure Bill's not going to appreciate you coming home half dressed." Victoire got up from the table, a perfectly miserable look on her face.
"It's on the sofa," she said quietly, and Ginny started for the parlor.
"Great," she said in a tone of voice that made Teddy think that she did not think this was so great at all. "We'll just grab it on our way out, then." She whisked out the doorway, and Victoire reluctantly followed, throwing Teddy a hopeless look. He smiled at her, but it was far from reassuring.
He and Harry stood in silence a moment, listening as the can of Floo powder clinked against the mantle piece and Ginny called out, "Shell Cottage!" Then the Floo roared to life and Teddy imagined the green flames envoloping them as they stepped into the fire place, on their way to what was surely Victoire's execution. In the silence that followed their exit, Harry jostled Lily as he started for the hallway.
"Say good night to Teddy," he told her, and she grinned over Harry's shoulder at him.
"Good night, Teddy," she called with a giggle, and Teddy barely managed a smile back. He stood a moment, listening to Harry's footsteps on the stairs and Lily's muted whispers. He heard them go upstairs, into her bedroom, heard the dresser drawers crawl open and the bed creak-
He was dead. There was no other way to describe it, no other way he could see the night playing out. He was as dead as anyone before him had ever been. Harry was going to kill him, and if he failed to, Ginny certainly wasn't to let him live through to the next day. He lowered himself into a chair at the kitchen table with a groan, racking his brain for any route he could take that would make the situation better - or at least put it off until a later time. He thought about Flooing elsewhere, but he had no where to go, and besides that, Harry was Head of the Auror department. He would track him down faster than Teddy could even get away. He toyed with the idea of going up to bed, pretending to be asleep, but Harry would never fall for that. It hadn't worked when he was seven and there was no way it was going to work now.
There was nothing to do, he thought dismally, but sit here and wait it out. Which wasn't long, because at that precise moment, he heard Lily's bedroom door scrape shut and a moment later, Harry's footsteps were heavy as he made his way down the stairs. Teddy felt that sudden climb of panic in his stomach and he forced it down angrily. Where was that damned Gryffindor bravery now, just when he needed it the most?
Harry appeared in the doorway and Teddy only glanced briefly at him before looking away. Sometime between putting Lily to bed and now, he'd found the time to remove his tie and robe. He looked so much less intimidating in his untucked shirt and dress slacks, but Teddy knew how decieving appearances often were. There was a pregnant silence in which neither of them moved or said anything.
Then Harry crossed deliberatley to the refridgerator and pulled it open. He scrutinized the contents, a frown on his face. "So, Ted," he said in a distracted sort of way, "Care to explain?" He took a pint of orange juice from the shelf and Teddy coughed.
"Not really," he answered honestly, and knew instantly that that was the wrong thing to say, because Harry replaced the orange juice with more force than was neccessary and closed the refridgerator heavily.
"Unfortunately," he said as he turned to face his godson, "I don't particularly care whether or not you feel like telling me what happened tonight. That wasn't a suggestion, Teddy. I need an honest answer from you, however much you don't want to give one."
"That was an honest answer," Teddy shot off before he could stop himself, then kicked himself immediately afterward. "I mean-"
But the damage was done. Harry paled with anger, his fingers tightening on the handle of the refridgerator door as he said darkly, "If you're trying to be funny, Ted, let me just tell you that right now is not a good time for it."
"I'm not trying to be funny," Teddy said weakly. "I didn't mean to say that-"
"Like you didn't mean to lose Lily?" Harry released the door handle and stepped closer. "Like you didn't mean to break the house rules about Victoire over when Ginny and I aren't home? Like you didn't mean to ruin Ginny's night?"
He was only a mere foot away now, and Teddy dropped his head. "Her night wasn't ruined," he muttered obstinately, and Harry took a step back. "It would have been ruined if we hadn't found Lily, or if something had happened to her-"
"What ruined her night," Harry interrupted forcefully, "Wasn't that any of that happened. What ruined her night was that any number of things could have happened to her, Teddy, and you would have just let it-"
"I would not!" Teddy flared. He leaped to his feet. "Don't say that- like I don't care about what happens to her- she's my little sister, Harry, I wouldn't let anything harm her-"
"You would have tonight," Harry cut in brusquely. "You would have, because you didn't know where she was. If something had happened - if she had fallen and hurt herself out there, if someone had come along-"
"No one would have come," Teddy scoffed. "You have more wards around this place than Hogwarts."
"Wards can be broken," Harry said harshly. "Things can happen, Teddy, things that you would never think possible. You were lucky tonight that nothing did, and that's all it was. Pure, dumb luck." He shook his head. "Do you know what ruined my night, Ted?" Teddy didn't answer, and Harry went on, "What ruined my night was that I learned that even now, after twenty years, I still have that same appalling lack of judgement that I had as a boy." He sharpened his eyes to Teddy's. "I'm not going to tell you how upset I am, how disappointed, how angry, because I know that you already know all of that. I'm not going to waste my breath saying things that you're not really going to hear anyways. All I'm going to say is that I trusted you, Ted. I trusted you not just to look after my daughter and keep her safe, but to respect me enough to obey the rules and to follow them, even when there's no one here to make you."
"Harry," Teddy tried, biting his lip, "It's not like that, it's more like.." He ran his hand through his fringe of dark hair and gave a heavy sigh. Harry crossed his arms.
"It's not like what, Ted?"
"It's not like I was trying to break the rules, or get Lily lost. Honestly, I didn't think she was going to go outside. She always hides under your desk."
"I believe you when you say that you weren't trying to lose Lily. I don't believe you when you say that you weren't trying to break the rules, because otherwise you would have never asked Victoire to come over and you would have never tricked Lily into playing Hide and Seek with you. You knew exactly what you were doing the entire time you were doing it, so don't try to lie to me, please."
Teddy sighed again and looked away. "So what?" He asked. "Are you going to ground me or something now?" He waited for the answer, and was surprised when Harry laughed suddenly. He rolled his eyes at his godfather's sudden mirth and snapped, "What?"
"Grounding is a very light way to put it," Harry said with a smirk. He took his glasses off and polished the lenses in small circles against his shirtfront. "Besides, I don't even think that my punishment will be neccessary when Ginny gets through with her's." Teddy groaned again and Harry shook his head, a smile still tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Stop making that noise, Ted. You sound lawful." He sighed and replaced the glasses, fixing Teddy with a very serious look. "You should go to bed. You're going to need your strength to deal with Ginny in the morning."
"You're not going to make me wait up for her?" Teddy asked in surprise, and Harry chuckled again.
"I'm not that angry," he said, and Teddy felt a sudden flash of overwhelming gratitude for his godfather. He started for the stairs, but Harry put a hand out and stopped him.
"Teddy," he said seriously, and Teddy looked at him. "I am very unhappy, you know, despite my joking a moment ago."
"I know," Teddy said in a distressed voice, and Harry continued:
"I know you don't mean any harm, Ted, but you don't think things through quite enough. Tonight ended well enough, for what went on, but I don't ever want this happening again, all right?"
"Yeah," Teddy agreed, and Harry ruffled his hair before stepping to the side.
"Go to bed before Ginny gets back."
"I will." Teddy exited the kitchen and was halfway up the stairs when Harry's call halted him.
"And feel free to leave your broom in my office before turning in, all right? You're not going to need it for a few days." Teddy gritted his hands into fists and banged them on his thighs, but when he opened his mouth, it was only to sigh.
"Right," he answered, and continued on up the stairs. He was passing Lily's room when the door creaked open and Lily, her eyes big and held tightly at her chest, peeked out.
"Are you in trouble, Teddy?" She whispered, and he scooped her up. He didn't realize before how light she was, how tiny and warm and perfect.He tried not to think about what it had felt like, not knowing where she was, what it would feel like if she really had been gone. He thought about not being able to read stories to her at night, not having a partner to go puddle jumping with, not having someone to dance to the Higgley Puff Dragons with. He laid her in her bed and drew the blankets up around her chin.
"Go to sleep, Lils," he said emotionally, and she grabbed his hand.
"You're hair's not blue anymore," she observed innocently. "Are you in trouble? Mummy and Daddy didn't look very happy."
Teddy sighed. "They're not," he replied. "And yeah, I am."
"Is it my fault?" She asked, her face peaked, and he leaned down to kiss her forehead.
"No, it's all mine."
"And Vicki's?"
"No, just mine."
"Why wasn't she wearing a shirt?"
Teddy stifled a laugh. "She just...took it off," he finished lamely, and Lily frowned.
"Was she hot?"
Teddy snorted. "You could say that." He gave her forehead another kiss. "Go to sleep, kiddo."
"Okay," she agreed, and buried her face in 's stomach. Teddy watched her for a moment before going to the door. He was almost through it when Lily said, sleepily, "Teddy...you're not very good at Hide and Seek, you know."
Teddy smiled at her. "I know," he agreed, and closed the door.