Dimmer Love

A pot of water bubbling over on the stove; a box of noodles tipped and spilling its contents beside it, a man and women stood toe to toe screaming at one another with a pair of children caught in the thick of things. The woman, face ugly with vexation, gave the man a shove and her ultimatum.

"If you're just going to make a mess of things, get out!" Victoire screamed at him with Iven bawling on her hip and Nymphadora watching solemnly from behind her thigh.

The man looked to his daughter and felt his face tighten with disappointment. It seemed he couldn't even make dinner right for her and her brother - or at least he couldn't by Victoire's standards. Perfect, prim, picky Victoire! Feeling anger bubble up in his stomach, Ted yelled, "Fine! Fine I will you bitch!"

Seeing her eyes go wide, the man spun on his heels and disapparated from his family's kitchen to just outside a favorite pub of his. Looking at the blinking lights and smelling the scent of piss in the air, Ted could hear Vic's voice in his ear whispering, "It's a dive."

It hurt. Ted didn't think it was. Sure, it was a little dirty and a couple times more seedy, but it gave it character! It housed people that were real and raw without the drink on their breath, not like the places Victoire picked when they decided to go out to a pub together. Sucking in a breath of air, Ted walked in and was pleasantly surprised by the fair-haired head he spied at the bar.

A grin overtaking his features, he approached and took the seat beside the blond. The other turning their head, he laughed when Scorpius's slate eyes went twice their usual size.

"Surprised?" Ted teased.

Smirking, Scorpius laughed softly, "I wasn't expecting you, that's for sure, Edward!"

Patting his back, the man asked, "How does it go, cousin?"

"Ah," the younger murmured as he took a sip of his pint, "It's really not worth talking about."

His slate eyes appeared cracked. As if somebody had just smashed them with a hammer. Who'd done it, he wondered. Had it been his cousin's father? Maybe a publisher or a professor at the muggle uni he was attending.

Leaning in close, Ted disagreed, "Of course it is. So, tell me Scorpius, how's that poem you were working on last week going?"

Face flushed, the blond raised in hand up in the air. "Two ales please!" he shouted.

A moment later, they're laid before them and his cousin finally began to talk once Ted's downed half his drink.

"It's missin' something, y'see," his cousin slurred while he watched the two pink lips move in their entrapping way; talking about a kind of magic Ted had never really known how to work. Finished with his drink, Ted called for another and leaned in to listen to the lad ramble on.

It went on like that for almost three hours - at which point they were kicked out and Scorpius offered his sofa to Ted.

He accepted the sofa, but once they were at his cousin's flat, Ted realized for the second time in twenty-odd years that his cousin was stunning. A beauty of long lines and harsh angles. Incapable of stopping himself, Teddy pushed himself onto Scorpius and began to kiss him.

The blond made a noise and stilled, but soon, he was returning their kiss with double the force.

Seconds after, they were snogging on the same couch that had been offered to him for sleeping. Ted was undoing the buttons of Scorpius's shirt as the younger panted, "Edward, Edward..." into his neck.

What happened next was one of the best moments in Ted's life.

XxXxX

In the early day's faint light, Teddy crawled out of Scorpius's bed and found his pants and shirt from the night before and put them on. Too embarrassed to see if his cousin was awake, the man laced up his shoes and left without ever sending the other a glance. When he got home, he took a shower to clean away the sin of what he'd done. But just because he'd cleaned himself up didn't mean what he and Scorpius did hadn't happened. In fact, Victoire seemed to sense it, because even after she kissed him her apologies, the woman narrowed her eyes from time to time at him as he made faces at his children in an attempt to get them to laugh.

He should have felt more guilty, he knew, but he was just relieved she wasn't trying to pick a fight with him so early in the day.

It was a regular gray morning. The skies were smokey, the world dulled with a fine fog and even inside his home with the kitchen's overhead light on everything was dim. But that was England somedays and having spent almost all his life here, Ted expected it. Taking a big bite of her pancakes, Nymphadora got syrup all over her face and Ted gave a small chortle as he reached over to clean her up with a rag.

"Little bites, young lady," he chided.

The four year old gazed back with bored eyes and repeated her previous action. Shaking his head at her, Ted wondered why she never smiled. All the pictures he had seen growing up of his mother were of her smiling - even at her earliest ages. She smirked and beamed and laughed and twinkled like a star.

It always hurt, knowing just what kind of star she'd become. The short-lived kind, just like the blue giants he'd learned about in astronomy at Hogwarts. Leaning forward on his hand and elbow, he looked to Iven, the toddler was busy playing with his toy helicopter instead of eating. He was a good boy - quiet - but good. All his children were beautiful, just like their mother, but sometimes-

An owl landed outside the window.

Curious, Ted rose up and opened it. The bird dropped a letter in his hand. Opening it, Ted gasped.

Dear Edward,

Your cousin Scorpius is in the hospital and is asking for you quite insistently, please come.

our regards,

Draco and Astoria Malfoy

Looking up, he left the kitchen and called, "Victoire!"

No answer.

"Victoire!"

A moment later, his wife appeared from the nursery with Jean still latched on her breast. Face cross, she demanded, "What is it, Teddy?"

Teddy. He hated that name. It sounded so juvenile coming from her mouth, not like when Sc-

"Scorpius is in the hospital," he said to her.

Looking to their new son, Victoire carefully juggled him to just one arm before asking, "Why's that?"

"I don't know, but his parents are asking for me to come - and you know that's not like them," he explained to her.

She sighed. His wife didn't like his cousin, she never would either - but, she knew it'd be utterly ridiculous of her to tell him to forget Scorpius. "Be home by dinner?" Victoire begged instead.

He twisted the letter in his hands and replied, "I'll try," before disapparating to St. Mungo's.

Going to the receptionist counter, he asked for Scorpius's room and was directed to the third floor second hall on the right and four doors down to room three hundred and sixty-two. Walking there was the longest moment in Ted's life.

Knocking on the half-opened door, Astoria appeared with Draco right behind her.

"You came," she acknowledged with red rimmed eyes.

Ted only shrugged as he countered, "He's my cousin."

"Mum? Father?" a voice croaked from inside the room.

His own gray eyes a strong, iron gray, Draco ordered, "Go talk to him. Maybe you can-" his voice cracked and Astoria squeezed one of his hands.

"Maybe you can get him to tell you why he did it," Astoria finished hoarsely.

And the two departed, leaving Ted with no option but to go in and find out what had happened to his dear cousin.

"Hey," he greeted as he sat down beside the younger.

The blond reached out, his bandaged arm looking so very pale as he caressed Ted's face. "Edward," he whispered.

"What happened, lad?" the man asked.

Looking so very tired, Scorpius exhaled and let his hand fall away as he looked to the white wall opposite of them. "They wanted me to get married."

"Don't all parents want that?" Ted inquired not quite certain as he laced his fingers together with the blond's.

Slate eyes, very much shattered, stared up at him dully. "I wouldn't have loved whoever I married," he admitted.

"I don't love Victoire as I once did, but we still make it work," Teddy reminded Scorpius gently.

Gaze sharpening, his cousin disagreed, "What you to have is a truce, she doesn't call you out on what you do and you don't call her out on what she does. That's not making it work."

Ted found himself shrugging as he went on. "Okay, maybe it's a little more like a standoff between us, but I got you to make up for it, don't I?" he inquired.

"Yes you do," Scorpius murmured with a smile.

"I love you, you know?" Ted whispered.

Eyes gleaming, Scorpius strained himself upward and placed a delicate kiss to the other's chin. "I love you, too," he sighed.

Brushing a finger over the bandages, Ted begged, "Don't try this again, Scorpius."

"I'll try Edward, I'll try," the blond promised as he relaxed against the hospital bed with a fine smirk on his face.

Together, they sat in silence for a while. Teddy wondering if what they really had was love and Scorpius - Scorpius was dreaming up a love poem just for Edward.

After Scorpius left St. Mungos, Ted found himself spending most of his spare time with his cousin at his flat - occasionally even spending a weekend. Teddy feared so much for his cousin; he feared what the other would do if he left him alone too long and what could happen if he wasn't there to sooth one of Scorpius's bouts of fear and tragic feelings. And he knew it was not his job to take care of Scorpius, but Teddy loved him and that's what you do for people you love.

Or, at least, he thought it was.

However, as more time passed between St. Mungo's and the days (months, years,) he spent in his cousin's company Ted started to question himself; he was not very certain he knew what love was anymore. Ted also feared he never really knew it either. What he had with Victoire had been fun and beautiful in the beginning. He liked how she looked and how she talked, she liked how he made others laugh and how good he was at snogging.

It almost felt childish now, how they decided they were in love with one another.

With Scorpius...he adored his cousin. He was thoughtful and funny and self-deprecating and his beauty rivaled Victoire's. But was that love? Could you call those feelings love? Ted didn't know. Sometimes he thought he did, but, then, he'd feel guilty after letting Scorpius suck him off or after fucking his cousin. And if what you had was love, you wouldn't feel bad about it, would you?

He never felt bad eating Victoire out and it always felt good when she rode him through a climax.

Later, Teddy would muse on how much was society's conditioning and how much was the truth. But, right now, all that mattered was making sure Scorpius didn't do anything stupid between now and being better.

He ended up sacrificing so much that one Sunday, when he went home to get a change of clothes, Victoire confronted him.

"I know where you've been all weekend, Teddy," she hissed.

Silent, Ted just waited for her to finish.

When it became obvious he wasn't going to deny anything, that he wasn't going to try and sooth her hurt feelings of offer to fix things; Victoire growled, "If you love Scorpius so much, why don't you just go live with him!?"

"Okay," Ted agreed without an ounce of hesitation or fight in his voice.

Her eyes going wide with shock, the woman slapped him. "I can't believe you!" Victoire snarled, "You arse! You pig! I hate you! I hate you!" Spinning around after she finished screaming at him, she threw over her shoulder, "The children are at my parents'. I'm going to take all my things and move back in with them."

"Great," Teddy replied feeling numb, "I hope you're happy."

She stilled. But then with an angry noise, went on with her process of packing up everything that was hers.

Ted watched her take all her things and the kids things - slowly, their home became bare and lifeless. A mockery of what it'd been just a week before. The entire time, Teddy wanted to tell her to stop, but he didn't. Couldn't. Scorpius was waiting for him. His dear cousin was back at his flat undoubtedly wondering where Ted was as he chewed on his quill and wrote ballads and sonnets and haikus of love, life and tragedy for the world.

Turning back up at his cousin's flat a few hours later, Scorpius smiled and rose up to meet Ted at the door. "Hello, Edward," his cousin greeted as he put a kiss to his unamused lips.

"Vic left me," Ted whispered as he took hold of his cousin's hand and squeezed it to get back a sense of reality.

Scorpius's eyes sparked like flint and he leaned in and rested his head against Teddy's shoulder. For a moment, it felt like comfort, but then it all changed when the blond declared, "Good riddance, she was a bitch anyway."

Rage bursting inside of him, Ted had to stop himself from throttling his cousin and took a step back from Scorpius and shouted, "She was my wife!" Running a hand through his suddenly flame-orange hair, Ted howled, "Dammit, Scorpius! My wife! You think you can just call her a bitch!? You loser! You ass! You-"

Eyes narrowed, he got in the frightened young man's face and sneered at him.

"You're disgusting, you cock-sucking freak."

Too angry to stay, Ted stormed out of his cousin's flat.

That would be the last time Ted ever saw Scorpius alive.

He heard it second hand while at The Three Broomsticks the next day, two old wizards were talking at a table not too far from the bar where Ted was nursing a hangover.

"-can't believe it-"

"-lad wasn't even married-"

"-always thought he was a bit off kilter-"

"-wouldn't wish that on anybody not even the Malfoys-"

"-poor sods-"

"-yeah-"

Getting up, Ted approached with a dry mouth and fluttering stomach. "Who are you talking about?" he asked the two men.

One, a fellow with a rather large and bulbous red nose, replied, "The Malfoy brat! Scorpion or something! It's all over the papers!"

"Here ya go, fella," the other said as he handed up The Quibbler.

Taking it, Teddy read it and felt his hands begin to shake.

"...Malfoy heir found dead. Discovered hanging from a ceiling fixture in his flat by his mother..."

Handing it back quickly, he whispered, "Thanks, mate."

Eyes narrowed, the man with the nose asked "You alright lad? You look a bit peaky."

"I just - I knew him, is all," he replied as he went away.

The bartender yelled at him as was about to leave the shop, "Oi! Don't forget to pay, you moron!"

Going back, Teddy slapped down more knuts than he probably needed to before taking his leave and disapparating for the home he and Victoire once shared. He spent the rest of the day there crying and then the next morning, he was too numb to move from his wedding bed. For the next week, Teddy moved like a zombie throughout his family's home - eating canned beets and fried eggs when he got too hungry to bare.

No one ever came looking for him. Not Victoire, not Draco or Astoria, not even Lily - his most favorite of the Weasley related cousin. Ted had to wonder just how far he'd fallen in people's opinions since he'd broken things off with his wife.

A couple more days passed when an owl came. Taking it, he realized it was from the Malfoys. Opening it, he read all the fancy words and declarations and figured out he was now the sole heir to the Black and Malfoy fortune.

Huh. They must have liked him more than he thought.

It made Ted cry again, to realize these people weren't blaming him for their son's death.

After another day, he wrote Victoire about his newly found fortune and promised that the children would all get an equal share of it as he never wished to see them wanting for something.

She didn't reply, of course, but that was okay because at least the letter hadn't been returned to him.

Feeling just a step above zombie, Teddy came to the conclusion it was time to visit his cousin's grave.

XxXxX

Finding it was quite easy, Scorpius was buried in the Malfoy family plot - which really wasn't a surprise. That's where all dead Malfoys ended up and to look there had been the logical choice for Ted. Walking through the green knolls, he looked for Scorpius's grave among the hundred or so that rested here. First, he spotted one for a man name Armand - it was just shy of ancient and cracked in several places, but still beautiful with it's alabaster stone. He took note of some of the others too, like Abraxas, Lucius I, Lucius II, and then - he fell to his knees in the dirt.

Tracing the name of his cousin, tears came to Ted's eyes.

"Oh Scorpius..." he whimpered as he leaned his head against the cool gray marble. The poor man! He'd called him disgusting for loving Teddy and now he was dead. "I'm sorry," he apologized to his dead lover, "I was just so upset that I took it out on the one person I loved most..."

Tracing the name and date on the grave, he whispered, "I hope you can forgive me someday and that you're happier on the other side than you were here."

A zephyr passed through the hills and Teddy relaxed some. That was his Scorpius, soothing him with a gentle brush of air. It had to be. Smiling, Ted got up and left for his love's old flat.

Maybe his parents hadn't done a thorough job of cleaning it. Maybe Ted could find a little memento of Scorpius's to keep close to him forever.

Walking the mostly empty and thoroughly cleaned space, Ted wondered what he would do now without Scorpius by his side. Would he try and patch things up with Victoire? Would he go to his uncle Harry or Lily or someone and apologize for being a right arse and ask to be a part of their lives again?

No, Ted didn't think so.

He wasn't that sort of guy. Going to them would be like taking a step back and Teddy was about the future. Sticking around here would feel too much like Scorpius. And with a lump in his throat as he stepped into his lover's bedroom, he knew that wasn't what he wanted.

He didn't want a constant reminder of what had been and could have been.

What Ted wanted was to put this all behind him and just live a peaceable life. Maybe he could go to Spain or Italy and see if those locations were agreeable with him. Maybe Teddy could start a new life in one of those places and pretend Britain had never been.

Opening a closet door absently as he paced, Ted blinked at what he saw lying on the ground inside. It was a small box of papers. Picking it up, he began to sort through them and realized they were all the poems and stories Scorpius had been writing over the past few months. Digging a little, he found it curious when he found an envelope for him toward the bottom.

Why would Scorpius have put it there of all places, he wondered. Opening it, Ted read what was inside and began to weep.

"Scorpius, why do you always think everything's your fault?" he whispered to no one as he hugged the letter to his chest and made up his mind.

He'd do some traveling. See the world. Not just for himself, but for his lover too.

Teddy would live a beautiful life for the both of them and maybe, maybe if he was lucky he'd go to heaven and there he'd be able to share what he saw with his cousin so Scorpius could write the perfect epic he'd always dreamed of.

In a comfortably overstuffed bedroom, two children, a boy and a girl, scampered over and under everything shouting at the top of their small lungs as a woman attempted to fold laundry on the bed. First the boy, then the girl, hurled themselves up and over the bed - toppling the basket of clean clothes in their wake.

"Charlie! Maggie!" Nymphadora screamed at her twin four year olds as she picked up the laundry hamper of clean clothes they'd knocked from her bed while they ran around her room for a third time in as many minutes. "You little brats!" she yelled at them, but they were already three-quarters the way out of her room.

Probably off to cause disaster elsewhere in her home, she thought darkly.

Looking to the clock, she prayed that her husband, Michael, would be home soon. She needed a break after a day with them - she always did. These two were a true devils compared to their older sister, Melissa, who was already putting that ambition of hers to good use as a student of Slytherin at Hogwarts. Melissa might have been a bit impish as a little girl, but never had she caused near-apocalypses inside their home. Still thinking fondly of her eldest child, Nymphadora went to the kitchen to see if they'd gotten any letters from her today.

Picking up the mail from the counter, she made quick work of sorting the bills and her mama's letter when she was surprised to find one from the Ministry of Brazil at the bottom of the pile

Opening it, she read it over and felt her mouth drop open with a gasp, "Dad's...dead."

Nymphadora didn't know how to feel about it. She hadn't seen the man since she was six and even then he'd already paid her little mind most of the time. Sometimes, she felt that had to do with the fact she wasn't a metamorphmagus like her grandmother. Her mother had told her once that her father had shook his head at her and her siblings as babies when they had failed to turn any part of themselves different colors or shapes.

"He wanted a Metamorphmagus - someone to show all his tricks to," her mama would explain from time to time, "And when none of you turned out to be one, he just left you to me to raise! That's why he left, Nymphadora, Iven, Jean; we weren't what he wanted!"

This was also why none of them went to Hogwarts.

Her mama had wanted to spite their father in every way she could even though he'd never know. Dad hadn't written them letters after he left - he didn't even send presents for birthdays or Christmas. Essentially, Nymphadora's dad had disappeared.

While she understood where her mama was coming from...Nymphadora could recall her father. Yes, he'd been disappointed with them, but he loved her, Iven and Jean too. Why else did he always try so hard to get her and her brothers to laugh? A man who didn't want them wouldn't have done so, she knew that.

So, once again looking to the letter, she made up her mind. She'd go to Brazil and bring her father back for a proper burial. It was the least he deserved.

XxXxX

After making arrangements with the officials in Brazil, they gave her the key to the small flat her father had bought here. Curious, Nymphadora accepted it and went to her father's home. When she opened the door, she found it tidy and sparse. It seemed to her that her dad had few plans for staying long, but bought a place simply because he could.

Having more money than what you knew what to do with did that, Nymphadora had come to realize. On her eighteenth birthday, her mother had explained to her and her brothers as the last descendants of the Black family they would receive equal shares of the wealth.

Jean had gone crazy with it and was using his share up like muggles were using up fossil fuels.

Iven had strategically invested his share to make even more money and was one of the youngest and richest wizards in all of Britain.

Nymphadora on the other hand...she put it aside and kept it in her vault. Occasionally, like when she'd wanted a house for her and her husband, she'd used her money. Otherwise, she didn't like touching her Black fortune as it made her feel dirty. Who knew how those sick people had acquired it? The stories that went along with the House of Black's history were less than savory.

She figured it should only be used for good. When Nymphadora had married her lovely husband ten and a half years ago with Melissa already born, she'd felt spending her money on a house for her daughter and future children (the twins) to grow up in so they could someday make a better future for their world seemed like the best way to do this.

Finding few details of her father's life in his last days, Nymphadora was just about to give up and start for home when her foot hit something beneath her father's bed.

Crouching, she pulled out an ornate box and brought it up so it could rest in her lap while she sat on her father's bed. Opening the box, she was surprised by what was inside.

There were letters. Poems. Stories. All of them written by her father and a man named Scorpius. Spending the next several hours sorting them as the light outside dimmed into evening, Nymphadora learned the truth.

Her father had left her and her family because of this man.

Her dad, son of Remus Lupin and her namesake, had left her mama for his cousin. His cousin. That was - it was -

She cried.

When she finished weeping for the bitter truth, she began to fold the letters back up and put them away - wanting to be done with this rubbish and just leave. However, fate had different plans and one, written in mostly red ink caught her eye. Turning it over in her hand, she wondered how she missed it the first time. Looking closer, she realized it was a poem written to her father:

Side by side, I know what it is to love

Yet I feel the gulch that keeps us separate

If only, my dear love, we were two doves

Our love then endless, our link forever

Mayhap I should not wish us the white pair,

as those love birds can abscond from the fray

and I know you fear what flight would declare

and if I go stag, my world will be gray

Oh love, oh love, you are so divided

oh woe, my heart, oh woe, woe unto me,

You have loved twice and have not yet sided

How I fear for thee, how I fear for we

Will we live as our world dictates us to?

Or will we rise above our fates my beau?

Beneath the sonnet was a scribble of dismay and fear of it not being good enough for a magazine let alone an actual book, but in another's scrawl (dad's) , is the urging phrase her father once used on her to get her to join the little league quidditch team as a girl:

Go for it

Simple, straightforward and full of heart-felt meaning. Closing her eyes, Nymphadora could almost recall him telling her the same thing years and years ago. His voice had been soft and heavy with a thousand and one different feelings. It was a saying he liked to use to coax the best out of every soul he encountered. She wondered how often her father told Scorpius the same over the course of his troubled life. Oh how deeply her father must have been hurt by his cousin's death! Surely it broke him...but unlike in one of the letters where her father described Scorpius's eyes as slate being chipped away to nothing by the stresses of the world, her father had been a man torn in one go. Like a stick snapped over a knee.

Nymphadora felt a different emotion for the two then. She would not let this love go unrecognized. It deserved to have its' day in the light - even if it had only ever been real in the darkness when her father and Scorpius were in each other's arms.

Sorting through the letters, poems and stories she compiled two halves. One, the tale of Scorpius and the other the story of her father. She would take these home and have them published. Scorpius would be the famous writer he always dreamed of and her father would be shown for who he really was:

A man, human with all the faults and valor that came with it.

Standing up and stretching, Nymphadora went to the window in her father's room and looked to the yellow-lit streets of the Brazilian city. A story like her father's and Scorpius's would need a preface; but how to start it? She could almost picture the perfect quotation...but how did it go?

Ah yes, that was how... Leaning her face against the cool glass of the window, Nymphadora stared down on a couple beneath a street lamp, their fingers were intertwined as they kissed goodnight. Not far behind them was a boy - little older than her Melissa, watching from the shadows. She wondered if this was what Scorpius, the poet-hopeful, had once seen as a young man. His love kissing another.

Oh why hadn't he been a poet? What had stopped that poor soul from realizing his one dream? Who had frightened him away from his destiny?

She had her suspicions, but didn't want to think on it. She was going to lose her quotation if she kept thinking like this. Closing her eyes, Nymphadora took a breath and whispered the first line of her preface:

"Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, And we are for the Dark."

― William Shakespeare

And that is the end of this fic. How do you feel about Teddy and Scorpius's romance? What of the choices they made?

To reviewers, The Dark One Risng, Nymphxdora, HermyLuna2, dreamerwriter15, OnyxFeather, Lamia of the Dark, NovaAbella, NightmarePrince, and Fanfictionfan1990; thanks for your feedback guys!

Thank you for reading and please review!

P.S. Hence forth I'm going to refer to this pairing as Tedius thanks to NightmarePrince :)