I am so sorry this has taken so long! Between an extremely busy summer and rewriting this chapter four times, I had to wait until it was perfect..and now it is :) Promise the next one will be up much sooner. I LOVE your reviews, please keep them coming :) Also, next chapter will be in Teddy's point of view! Yay!
Glitch In The System
The following week went by fairly smoothly, for Hogwarts standards. Classes were the same, my friends were the same and even the weather stayed a consistent April cool. The only thing that didn't stay the same was my body's reaction to whenever I was in the presence of Teddy Lupin.
First, I'd feel blush creep up the back of my neck, though thankfully (my Delacour genes fighting off my Weasley ones) it did not rise to my face. My heartbeat would start to pick up and I felt a swooping sensation in the pit of my stomach. Luckily, it seemed that no one else had noticed this glitch in my reaction system. If I didn't know myself, I would say I was developing a crush. However there was no possible way I was beginning to fancy Teddy Lupin.
He's so annoying. He never misses an opportunity to make fun of me. He doesn't have to carry the Weasley name but he gets included in everything. He calls me Vicky. He steals my bows.
Maybe my brain was having some sort of fit and my emotions and signals and feelings were getting all mixed up. That had to have been it.
"Good work Victoire!" Professor Longbottom mouthed as I successfully extracted the pus from the Mandrake. Though we had potted mandrakes in second year, we never got to actually raise them from start to finish, as we did this year. Feeling proud, I repotted the screaming (though I could not hear it) Mandrake into the pot and took it into the back closet, which was charmed to be soundproof. After packing up my supplies, I hung around the greenhouse for a bit, waiting for the other students to clear out so I could talk to Professor Longbottom alone.
"Professor Longbottom?" He raised an eyebrow at me. "I mean, Neville?" I asked again with a smile. He had always told me that when we were outside of Hogwarts or not around other students I was more than welcome to call him Neville. After all, I was at his wedding. "I was wondering…what is the school doing for Memorial Day this year?" I tried to ask the question casually, but I could tell he saw right though me.
"Never too much of a fun birthday for you, is it?" He asked sympathetically. I gave a light shrug: after sixteen years I had long gotten used to the fact that my birthday was not a happy day, it was not one to be joyful and to be celebrated. My family tried to put on happy faces but they always had so much hurt behind the looks, there was a tension in the room that hurt too much. And, as much as they apologized, Uncle George and Uncle Harry never could stay in the same room as everyone else on that day.
"It's alright, Dom says I get enough attention the rest of the year to make up for it." I said with a grin and Neville laughed. He motioned out of the greenhouse and we walked up to the castle.
"Well you certainly don't seem to have an enemy in this school. And quite a few boys admire you." He said with a wink and I giggled.
"As long as you don't tell my father." I said. "I think he's struggling enough with the fact that I'll be seventeen in a bit over a week's time, he doesn't need more on his plate."
"Seventeen," Neville said and he gave a low whistle. "I remember meeting you when you were only a baby. You were the first baby I ever held." I turned my head to him in surprise.
"Really? Not even Teddy?" I asked the question simply enough, but for some inexplicable reason my entire body felt flushed and my heart started to race the moment I said his name. What the hell was going on?
"Nah, I was far too scared the first time I met him and by the time I saw him again, he was a one year old. But you? You were a little peanut who, even at a couple months old, had nicer clothes than anyone I knew." We both laughed, knowing my mum was to blame for that one and enjoyed a nice conversation as we headed back to the castle.
When a snowy owl dropped a letter in front of me at breakfast, I had to admit I was confused. I usually only got mail from my parents or grandparents, who was this from? I opened the letter and smiled, immediately recognizing the script.
Dear Victoire,
I hope your term is going well! James writes (barely) but he always mentions how much he enjoys having his cousins there to look out for him. I have a rather large favor to ask—Harry surprised me last night with a planned vacation to Greece! I am thrilled, but unfortunately it falls on the same week as your grandparents going to Romania to visit Charlie and I feel too bad sticking the kids with anyone else. I was wondering, since there are three of them and they are a bit of a handful, if you and Teddy could stay with them for the week and make sure the house doesn't blow up?
I realize that you and Teddy drive each other mad sometimes, but you are both responsible and the only ones of age so I'd really feel the most comfortable with the two of you. Please let me know and enjoy Hogsmeade this weekend! (And if James sneaks out and you catch him, feel free to hex him).
Love,
Aunt Ginny
Teddy and I. Babysitting the Potter kids. For a week. Together.
I looked down the table and caught Teddy's eye, he was holding a similar piece of paper in his hand. He gave me that crooked smile that lit up his face and a shrug of the shoulder, as if saying "why the hell not." I returned the smile and tucked the letter in my pocket. The upcoming summer just got a little more interesting.
The sun was shining on the April afternoon and I celebrated the warm weather by not even wearing a coat to Hogsmeade. I figured my pale blue sweater and jeans would be enough, plus my new bow that my mum sent me would match perfectly. Shannon had also decided against wearing a coat and we bounded down the dormitory stairs to meet up with the rest of the gang. I was excited to get a break from being in the castle, not to mention spending time with everyone. Everyone was waiting in the common room and Teddy leaned effortlessly against a wall. Our eyes made contact and we both smiled.
"Hey," he said, ever so casually. And my heart, against everything my brain was telling it, started to flutter at the simple word.
"Hey yourself," I said, surprised my voice sounded calm and cool. Two things that I was not exactly feeling at the moment.
"Let's go!" Adam said excitedly and we all made our way out of the castle and walked down the grounds. Julianne and I linked arms and I looked around, again realizing that some of the younger kids stared. Adam always jokingly called us 'Hogwarts Elite', but I had the feeling it really was how we were viewed. I mentioned it to Lyle once as we studied by the fire and he laughed, saying it was me who was the elite, not the rest of them. Lyle really was the sweetest.
"Honeydukes first?" Nathan asked when we started to approach the village.
"I'll catch up with you guys," Teddy said and he stepped back from the group. Again our eyes made contact and he slightly tilted his head to the side, looking at me. "You want to come?" He asked and my heart started to beat wildly in my chest. I nodded and followed him, knowing exactly where we were headed.
The walk to the Shrieking Shack was quiet, but pleasant, though the wind was starting to pick up and blow my hair around, not to mention send a chill down my spine. When we got to the gate, we both leaned against it and looked. Teddy heaved a sigh.
"I don't think I'm like my dad at all." He said. I stayed quiet, knowing that Teddy needed to speak, not be spoken to. "From what my gran and Harry and everyone tells me…he was more quiet, he loved to read, he thought with his head much more than his heart. He was never the ringleader, never the first to cause trouble, always the reasonable one. My mum though…" Teddy smiled a little and his hair changed pink for the slightest of seconds. "She was impulsive, she was adamant about marrying my father, she was clumsy around the house but a wicked good Auror." He stopped for a minute and looked at the ground. "Come to think of it, maybe I'm not like either of them."
"You really think that?" I asked and he looked up, confused. "Because, it sounds like you're a blend. Your dad loved to read, you love to write stories for the Potters and make up imaginative games. Adam is always the first to cause trouble, you and Nathan just happen to always be close behind. Your mom was stubborn about your dad…" I gave him a smile and rolled my eyes. "And you are certainly stubborn whenever you and I have a row. You're more like them than you think." He gave me a crooked smile and I bit my bottom lip.
"You know...you may look just like your mum, but you've got a kind Weasley heart that has your grandmum written all over it." I returned the warm smile he gave me and we both stared back at the shack, but the mood was lifted. "Though, your shenanigans at Nathan's birthday might make both women shocked. I wonder where your party side comes from," he said cheekily and I resisted the urge to stick my tongue at him.
"Speaking of, I hear there will be another party on Friday night and you boys are stocking up today."
"Planning on giving Daniella more material to hassle me about?" Teddy asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Definitely not," I shook my head in disgust. "I'll be sticking with elf wine and watching the rest of you lot go wild." He chuckled and took a deep breath, looked to the sky and smiled and then turned to go down the path. Another gust of wind blew and I instantly felt like I had been hit with a freezing charm.
"For Merlin's sake," Teddy said when he saw me shiver and he pulled off his gray wool cardigan and handed it to me.
"You only have a rugby jumper on, I can't-"
"Put the cardigan on, Victoire." He said, and though the tone was annoyed, I felt a sudden warmness at hearing him say my name. I did as I was told, the material instantly warming me and the familiar clean scent surrounding me. "So, you, me and the Potter kids for a week, huh?"
"Apparently so," I smiled. "I haven't minded them in a while, I think the last time was when Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny had a ministry function to go to. James was nine, Al was eight and Lily was six. James and Al started to wrestle, knocked into Lily and her tooth popped out." It had been an insane night and I was more exhausted after a couple hours with them than I was doing anything else.
"I remember that," Teddy smiled. "I went over the next day for dinner and Lily showed me her space in her mouth and the sickles that the Tooth Fairy had brought her. Then she dropped one of the sickles into the treacle tart and James ate it and nearly choked. Lily freaked out that her sickle was gone and James told her all she had to do was wait til he pooed and she would have her money back."
"Which of course sent Lily into hysterics," I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Well it'll certainly be an interesting week. Just like when we were little and you and I would play house." Teddy groaned as we approached the main street of the village.
"You always made me play that stupid game!" He said dramatically. "Why couldn't we have played exploding snap!"
"Because we were toddlers and house is a great game!" I defended. "It teaches life skills!"
"It teaches men they should stay bachelors." Teddy said matter of factly. "Charlie's got it made: no women, just dragons."
"So you think dragons are easier to deal with than a woman?" I asked and he turned his head.
"Easier than a Weasley woman." And then he winked and I felt that feeling inside, the feeling that had been recurring all day. The blush on my neck, the quickening of my heartbeat, the whooshing feeling in my stomach. And with that wink I knew, without a doubt, against everything I knew to be true, what that feeling meant.
It meant that I fancied Teddy Lupin. A lot.
Well…shit.
