"What flavor did you get?" asked Lily Potter as she sat across from Ted at an outside table in Diagon Alley, observing him as he spooned ice cream into his mouth.

"You were standing there when I ordered it," Ted said, holding his dish towards her so she could see inside of it.

"I forgot." She leaned forward to look. "It's chocolate?"

"Nope, vanilla comes in brown now."

She made a face.

Ted smiled. "Yes, it's chocolate."

Lily hummed, as if satisfied with that answer before returning to her own strawberry ice cream.

It was only a week into the month of September, but the feeling in the air already conveyed a definite change in season. A cool breeze was whipping its way through the streets of Diagon Alley, where Ted and Lily found themselves sitting at the ice cream parlor that was near his flat. Soon enough, the temperature would start dropping to the point where sitting and eating ice cream in the outdoors wasn't going to be a very welcomed idea, but for now the weather was agreeable enough. They might as well relish the opportunity while they had it.

Today was the first full day off with nothing to do that Ted had had since before Victoire had left, and he had decided to spend it with Lily. It had been an idea that had struck him after Harry had mentioned that Lily was acting awfully lethargic lately now that both James and Albus were away at school. She apparently spent most of her time away in her room, reading or drawing; only coming down for meals and chores, which—though Ted didn't mention this to Harry—was how Lily had always been. Both of her parents claimed that they weren't worried about her, per se, but they just didn't like that she seemed to enjoy cooping herself away on her own more often than not. Of course, after years of dealing with James and Albus and their gregarious natures, Ted had a feeling that Harry and Ginny were just unsure of what to do with themselves when left with only the mild mannered, quiet child. If someone wasn't running, yelling, jumping, and breaking things, then something was off in their household.

Hearing all of this had only made Ted feel a special sort of kinship with Lily, more than he did with James and Albus. James and Albus were outgoing kids with a sense of extreme purpose. They were bold, and people were always aware when either was in a room. Lily tended to blend, letting her brothers or her cousins garner all the attention while she observed from the sidelines. It reminded Ted of when he had been smaller and surrounded by bigger personalities. She actually very much reminded him of when he had been nine. He had enjoyed reading, and he hadn't ever really minded being on his own. He had been shy and sometimes a bit of an oddball—though, he had been more of one than Lily could ever claim to be. He had been a skinny, little, blue-haired metamorphmagus with no parents. She was a skinny, little, freckled, red-head with a very supportive family.

Still, spending the day with her was the least Ted could do. It had to be weird for her to be the only one her parents now doted on; especially after spending that last nine years of her life being the second act to James and Albus's antics. It's not as though it was intentional of course, but it seemed this was often the case with quiet younger siblings who were unintentionally overshadowed by their more attention seeking brothers or sisters.

"So," Lily said as she sat up straight and stared at Ted. She had strawberry ice cream on her upper lip. "Do you miss Victoire?"

He smirked at her as he stuck a mouthful of ice cream in his mouth. Ever since Lily had found out about him and Victoire, she'd been rather fixated by the idea of it all. She had endless questions—how it happened, when it happened, why it happened, where it happened—and had been more excited than anyone at the news. "Yep."

She smiled at his reaction, the ice cream still sitting on her lip unnoticed. "Are you going to marry her?"

He coughed once and went wide-eyed. "We haven't been together that long, Lil."

She stared at him as if that didn't answer her question.

"I have no idea," he said as he returned to digging around in his dish with his spoon. "How about you let us date for a bit before we start talking about…that?"

"Do you know," Lily added quickly, "that if you and Victoire get married, then we'll officially be related?"

"Oh, really?" Ted asked lazily, pretending not to be aware of this fact.

She nodded. "See, because she's my cousin…"

"Yeah?"

She made an obvious face. "You know she is."

He laughed.

"Anyway, since she's my cousin, that means if you married her, you'd be my…" She stopped and pulled her nearby sketch book towards her, which she used to draw and write down any interesting observations in. She carried it with her everywhere and was currently flipping through the pages looking for something specific. "I wrote it down." She landed on page and scanned it, trailing her finger down the length of spine as she did so. "Cousin-in-law! You'd be my cousin-in-law."

Ted stuck his spoon in his mouth to clean the ice cream off before pulling it out to absently exam it. "You seem to have this all figured out."

"It's not hard," she said. "Mum and Dad helped me figure out what you'd be called, though. I didn't know you'd be an in-law until they told me."

Ted looked away from his spoon. "Your parents have been talking about this?"

She nodded.

He pulled a quick, slightly off putting, face. He'd knew people would talk about him and Victoire after they'd found out, but like this? Talking about marriage? And Harry of all people? Harry was supposed to be on his side. Not on crazy side where people were talking about he and she getting married after—what they assumed—was just a week. That was just mental.

It had been a funny sort of fallout once the fact that he and Victoire were now together came out of the bag. After James had witnessed the two of them kissing at King's Cross, Ted had known it was only a matter of time before Harry and Ginny found out and his secret was no more. It being revealed like that hadn't been at all how he and Victoire had planned it to happen, but of course, things never seem to turn out as planned.

But it had been the day after Victoire had gone back to school that Ted—in an attempt to get his life back on a pre-Victoire schedule—had gone over to Harry's to clear the air. He had braced himself for the comments, but at the same time, he'd convinced himself there was a possibility that James may not have told anyone. Perhaps he'd been deterred by a friend after leaving Ted's sight and had never met up with his parents again? Maybe James just gotten straight on the train and the secret was still theirs for the telling. There was a chance…

"You were kissing Victoire?" Ginny had asked the second she had answered her front door to find Ted standing on her doorstep. "Victoire?!"

So much for secrets.

Ted sighed. "You talked to James…"

Ginny was smiling. "You and Victoire."

"Is that Teddy?" came the sound of Lily's voice, which was soon accompanied by the sight of her little red head poking itself outside behind her mother. "Teddy!" Her expression turned instantly curious. "Is it true!?"

"I'm well, thanks," said Ted airily. "Nice of you two to ask. My presentation with the Russian blokes went amazing by the way, which is fantastic…"

Ginny smiled at him as he spoke, but Lily continued to look up at him with big, expectant eyes. Apparently, neither of them were moving from the doorway until he answered their question.

"All right," he said, glancing quickly at the ground and then back up again, "so, me and Victoire…"

"It is true!" Lily yelled.

Ginny laughed and stepped to one side, patting Ted on the shoulder as he passed. "How in the world?" she asked. "I mean, Ted, where did this come from?"

He shrugged as he made his way to the sofa to sit. "I don't know. Somewhere along the way, it just sort of happened."

Lily bounced into the spot next to him. "How? When?"

He gave Lily a funny look before glancing at Ginny in the hopes she'd tell Lily that these sorts of details didn't matter. However, Ginny had already sat across from him on the opposite sofa and looked as if she, too, was waiting for an answer.

"How…" he mumbled. "I don't know. How does this stuff ever happen? One day I just felt different about her."

"When?" Lily asked as she sat up on her knees.

He'd been trying to sound vague on purpose, only because he wasn't entirely sure of what he was supposed to say. In the little over a day that he and Victoire had been apart, he'd already received a letter from her saying to try to give away as few details as possible. She claimed she wouldn't owl her parents until she knew what he was telling people, having assumed that everyone would obviously get to him first and that they should get their stories straight. It was a great idea in theory, except that it left him to do all the talking.

"Over the last month," he lied, picking his words carefully and trying to make things seem as though they really had just happened recently. "I started realizing how I felt. We just spent a lot of time together once she got back from France and things started changing."

"How long exactly have the both of you been…?" Ginny stopped. "A week? Two weeks? A month?"

Ted inhaled slowly. He was such a bad liar. "Um, I'm not really sure."

She stared at him curiously. He felt like she could read right through him.

"Are you two dating?" Lily asked.

"Uhhh…" he mumbled. "Yeah, you could call it that, I guess."

"You guess?" Ginny asked.

He felt like he was aboard a sinking ship. He needed to come up with something fast. Something believable; something that didn't make him look like he had no idea what he was talking about, when, in fact, he had no idea what he was talking about.

"I went to King's Cross yesterday to tell Vic how I felt," he said quickly, the words coming out before he really knew what he was saying. "Yeah, see, we'd spent a lot of time together lately, and we sort of had a few close calls here and there. I had wanted to tell her how I felt earlier, and I could tell she wanted to say something to me, but neither of us had done it."

Ginny nodded, though she still looked a little skeptical.

"I…" Ted continued, before he quickly swallowed. "I didn't want her to leave for school without knowing how I felt, so I turned up at the station to find her and finally tell her." He paused. "Which is what happened." He paused again. "Honestly."

"And she felt the same way!" Lily said with a bright smile.

"Yeah." Ted nodded. "Yeah. Then we ended up kissing. That's when James found us."

Ginny started to smile; the previous questions that had been evident in her eyes seemingly gone. "That's actually very sweet, Teddy."

She believed it. Ted wasn't sure how he'd come up with that story as quickly as he had, but she'd believed it. He had to admit that it was a pretty good story. Maybe he wasn't such bad liar after all. It's not like he wanted to lie to Ginny, but he just couldn't risk Victoire's parents finding out the truth through word of mouth.

"It's romantic," Lily said with a silly grin plastered across her face. She suddenly gave Ted a pat on the shoulder, as if she was proud of him.

"It is," Ginny agreed. "Leave it to James to interrupt, though."

Ted smiled a little.

"Well, I think it's fantastic," Ginny added. "You two have been friends for so long…" She trailed off. "I'm curious to see what Bill says."

Ted inhaled slowly. "I don't know if I am."

"Oh," Ginny said in a reassuring tone, "I'm sure he and Fleur will get a kick out of it." She shrugged. "I don't see why they wouldn't."

"I'm really excited," Lily said before the sound of a doorknob rattling caught the attention of the room. Both Ted and Ginny turned to see the front door open, where in walked Harry and Ron Weasley. They were both laughing about something as they entered, clearly looking as though they'd had a fairly good day at work. It took them both a moment to notice Ted sitting on the sofa, though once they did, their laughter tapered off to more amused looking smiles.

"Well, if it isn't the latest suitor," Ron joked.

Ted forced a smile. "I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

"This is what you get for keeping secrets," Harry said with a lazy shrug.

"And how long had this little romance been going on?" Ron asked as he took the seat next to Ginny.

"Not long, Uncle Ron," said Lily. "It was only just yesterday when Ted told Vicki how he felt. That's why they were kissing."

Ted pointed at Lily. She was more than welcome to answer all of these questions for him. "What she said."

Ron nodded a little. "So, how long have you had this figured out?"

"A few weeks," Ted said, glancing at Harry. He was giving him a skeptical look similar to the one Ginny had been giving him earlier, only his expression didn't seem to show any signs of disappearing. "It just sort of culminated yesterday when I went to King's Cross to tell her how I felt."

"Well," Ron said with an impressed nod, "it was certainly a bit of a shock. Even Harry was surprised, and he always seems to have a general idea of what's going on with you."

Ted looked at Harry, who had just shrugged at what Ron had said.

"Well, I, for one, think it's really great," Ginny said.

"I do too," added Lily.

"Who said it wasn't great?" Ron asked. "I think we all think it's great, we're just a little surprised."

"Ted," said Harry. "Can I talk to you for a second?" He started walking towards his den office. "In here?"

"Sure." He nodded slowly and stood to follow after him down the nearest hallway. Harry had left the door open behind him, and after Ted had entered, he shut the door behind him and gestured for Ted to have a seat. He did as he was asked, making his way over to the small sofa at the side of the room. It was the very same sofa he had sat on a hundred times in the past whenever Harry was busy doing something behind his desk. He'd even fallen asleep on the thing a few times as a kid when Harry had ended up getting busy while taking care of Auror business.

"What's up?" Ted asked, attempting to add a casual inflection to his tone even though he'd already been anticipating this conversation. He wasn't sure exactly what it was about, but he knew Harry probably had something to say considering the people involved, and the fact that Ted hadn't mentioned something about this sooner. He usually told Harry everything; him having feelings for his niece was probably one of those things he expected to hear about.

Harry seemed very business like as he sat down behind his desk and leaned his chair back. He stared at Ted with a funny sort of expression. "So, you've got a thing for Victoire?"

Ted nodded.

"And you just managed to tell her how you felt yesterday?" he asked. "You wanted to do it before she headed back to school, I'm assuming?"

He stared at him for a moment before nodding again.

Harry nodded at well, though his face was pensive. "Did you know how she'd react?"

"I had a feeling," he shrugged, "but you never know how things will turn out. I wasn't positive."

"Your feeling had to be pretty strong," Harry continued, "considering all those questions you had about making long distance relationships work the other night." He glanced at him. "It almost seemed like you were planning it before it happened."

Ted continued to stare at him. He'd forgotten that he'd asked him about that. Shit.

"How long have you two really been together?" Harry asked.

"Since the Quidditch World Cup," Ted said without hesitation. "For the last month."

Harry smiled a little and nodded. "A month, huh?"

"I wanted to say something, but—"

"You do know what you're doing, right?" Harry interrupted.

"With Victoire?"

He nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, yes."

"I just mean," Harry continued, "she's not any other girl, Ted. If things don't work out, she's not going anywhere."

Ted nodded. "I know."

"She's family, and as far as I'm concerned you are too. Though, for all intents and purposes concerning the two of you being together, you're obviously not."

He nodded again.

"I just want to make sure this is something you've really considered," he said seriously, leaning further back in his chair. "I know at your age, you two have feelings and you act on them, but—"

"Harry."

Harry looked at him.

"I'm in love with her."

Harry let his chair fall back forward. "Oh yeah?"

"And you don't need to tell me that 'we're young and you've only been together for a bit, so you don't know,'" he said quickly. "I've known her my entire life. I know her. I knew before I pursued this that this was something I really wanted to do, otherwise—"

"Ted."

Ted looked at him.

"I wasn't going lecture you," he said. "I was younger than you are now when I realized I was in love with Ginny. A girl I'd know since we were younger. You and Victoire are already world's closer than Ginny and I were when we got together, so don't think I'm going to sit here and tell you how you should feel."

Ted looked at the floor and nodded a little. "I appreciate that."

Harry sighed. "It's a little reassuring to hear that you're really serious about this. I take it she feels the same way?"

"That what she tells me," he said, laughing a little. "I sure hope so."

Harry hummed. "Why all the secrets, then? This story about confronting her at King's Cross. Why the hiding?"

"Honestly," Ted said, "we just wanted to be able to spend some time together without her family giving us a hard time. You know Bill and Fleur can be overprotective. I've always had a lot of freedom compared to most of the blokes that come around, so…" He shrugged.

Harry nodded. "Right. They won't think twice if Victoire misses curfew hanging with her friend Ted, but with her boyfriend…"

He grinned.

"And you don't want people finding out you've been sneaking around, so you've got this whole King's Cross story cooked up."

"I actually came up with that on the spot," Ted admitted.

"It's good," he said. "It's sweet. A little corny, mind you, but sweet."

Ted shrugged. "I do what I can."

Harry took a moment to laugh before he sighed loudly. "Remind me to start taking notes. Lily's getting older after all. I need to start keeping my eyes open for this sort of stuff."

Ted made a face. "Lily's never allowed to date."

Harry looked back at him, a very particular grin playing at his features. "We all used to say the same thing about Victoire…"

A huge weight had been lifted off of Ted's shoulders at being able to tell Harry the truth, though just being able to tell anyone about he and Victoire—no matter what the story was—had been a huge relief. Sure, Simon had known, and his various coworkers had been told her was seeing someone, but it was nice to be able to tell some of the other people that he cared about what was going on. It was nice to admit to a secret that he actually wanted to tell people, versus the ones he was always trying to keep covered up. Hell, now that it was out, he actually wanted to brag. As far as he was concerned, his girlfriend was amazing.

Still, as amazing as she was, this marriage talk that Lily was bringing up here over ice cream was a bit much. He'd been with Celia for ages, yet never once had anyone ever asked him if he wanted to marry her. He'd been with Victoire for a few weeks and suddenly it was a topic worth discussing? He was only nineteen after all. Victoire was only seventeen! Sure, everyone was referring to one day, but he just wanted to enjoy today first. Not that he could enjoy today considering she was miles and miles away at school, but that wasn't the point…

"Hey," said Lily, snapping Ted out of his thoughts and back to the scene in front of him. She was finishing her ice cream and wiping her face, which she finally seemed to realize had something on it. "What shall we do next?"

"Anything you want," Ted said. "We can go Flourish & Blotts and see if they have any cool new books. You mentioned earlier you were looking for something new to read."

Her face lit up and she nodded as if she thought that was a good idea.

Ted checked his watch. It was a little after noon, which was more than apparent given that the street was now filling up with people running errands on their lunch breaks. The bookshop may be a little crowded, but it wouldn't be too bad. He could actually use a few new books now that he had more free time.

"Teddy?" Lily said.

"Yeah?" he asked as he wiped his mouth on his napkin before pulling out his wand. With a quick sweeping gesture, he and Lily's trash went straight into a nearby rubbish bin.

"What did Uncle Bill think of you and Victoire being together?"

He laughed a little. "I'm not sure. I haven't heard anything from Victoire about it."

"Do you want to know?"

He considered this. Sure, he wanted to know, but it wasn't life or death. He wasn't in any rush. Well, then again, he wasn't unless her parents were mad for some reason. If that was the case, then he'd certainly like some notice. As it was, his last letter from Victoire had said that she was planning on writing her parents when she got the chance, but he hadn't heard from her about what their response had been. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"I suppose I do," he said as he stood up. "Why?"

Lily half-smiled and glanced at something just beyond him. "I was just curious." She suddenly forced a full smile. "Hi, Uncle Bill. Hi, Uncle George."

Ted grinned at her. "Funny, Lil."

"Hi, Teddy," said a sudden voice that sounded an awfully lot like George Weasley's. Ted felt a hand on his shoulder. "You'll never guess what we heard…"