A/N: anavihs: You're just always one step ahead of the game aren't you? No more waiting.
ellamriexx: Yes it was about the time for stubborn Victoire to make a return wasn't it.
Katriinaa: Glad to see you're still about and that I surprised you. I wrote it so that she wouldn't be suspected too much but that the clues were there. :D
"Vicky." Victoire looked up startled, though she would have known that voice anywhere. It was the where that she was startled about.
"Teddy," Victoire said surprised enough to stop crying, "What are you doing here?" It wasn't that she was surprised that he'd been able to find her, if anyone knew about the Shrieking Shack it was him. It was just surprising that he'd wanted to find her at all. His sixth sense with her couldn't possible reach that far, yet she doubted he'd have come all the way from London for just anything. Effortlessly he sank to the ground beside her Victoire's still over bright eyes following him dazedly.
"The Department got a call about a dying Augury in Hogsmeade. Apparently it's wailing was starting to alarm some residents," he teased her. Victoire looked at him blankly unable to summon any anger. Teddy sighed, "Your Aunt was worried about you. It's not like you to get blind stinking drunk Vic. What's wrong?" he said gently. So gently that Victoire could feel tears begin to prick her eyes again. She looked around the dusty, dilapidated room absently so that Teddy wouldn't notice the tear tracks that stained her cheeks. Chewing her bottom lip thoughtfully she answered him.
"I just found out…" she stopped and tried again, "I walked in on…Markel was…" Teddy was instantly on his feet again with a look of absolute contempt that shocked her.
"That bloody git again," he growled ferociously his stare bitter, "Vicky that guy doesn't care a wit about you. You should just dump him and get on with it." Victoire looked up at him in astonishment for a moment before his words caught up with her and she burst into tears again, because he was absolutely right. She buried her face against her knees dissolving into quiet sobs. Without a word Teddy sat back down and gathered her into his arms.
"I'm sorry Vic," he said remorsefully pulling her head down to the familiar pillow of his shoulder, she turned into him gratefully, "I seem to keep spitting out words I don't mean lately, it's just," he sighed sweeping the hair from her face, "I hate seeing you with someone who treats you like this when you deserve only the best." Victoire shook her head wanting to tell him that she was no longer with the prat but the tears choking her throat made it hard to talk.
"Shhh its okay," Teddy said soothingly as he stroked her hair, "We don't have to talk about it. You can date whoever you want." His arms loosened as she pushed away from his chest.
"No you great prat," she hiccupped swiping roughly at her eyes and staring up at him fiercely, "I'm trying to tell you that I dumped the bloody git." Teddy's grip on her shoulders tightened.
"Really?" he said disbelievingly. Victoire felt some of her old sarcasm come back.
"You know I'm not sure maybe I should go back and check," she said mocking tone marred by frequent sniffles; "Of course I dumped him. No-one cheats on a Weasley." Teddy pulled her back against his chest in a tight hug. She couldn't see his face but from the way his arms tightened around her she knew he was pleased.
"He was cheating on you? The bastard," he said but the usual growl was gone from his voice.
"Yeah he was a bastard," she agreed with a sniffle burying her face in his jacket. She inhaled his comforting scent something spicy yet fresh and inexorably Teddy.
"You want me to beat him up for you?" he offered jokingly. Victoire gave a strangled laugh wiping at her eyes again.
"I knew you'd say that," Victoire assured him, wrapping her arms around his middle. They sat in silence for a moment the only sounds the hoot of hunting owls and Victoire's occasional shuddering breaths.
"So what happened?" Teddy asked gently. Victoire pulled back the slightest amount and scrunched her nose. Sensing her reluctance Teddy disengaged his arms from around her small frame and brought them to her face.
"Victoire Weasley," he said using her full name to stress his seriousness, "You know you can tell me anything." Her cheeks flushed a deep pink, as she looked up at him trying to gauge if he was really that curious biting her lips thoughtfully. She wondered if there was a way to admit that Markel was only using her for her name without a big fat 'I told you so'.
"Vicky," Teddy prompted firmly. She squirmed uncomfortable under such an intense gaze. He didn't budge staring at her evenly and she soon gave in.
"Before Brian left Hogwarts we had a bit of a talk," Teddy motioned for her to elaborate, "just the usual pigswill mostly, rather of a lot of which I'm not repeating to you ever or you'd hurt him unnecessarily."
Teddy looked at her darkly, "I might anyway without knowing the details." Victoire rolled her eyes.
"It's all in the past, honestly. Remember the time you saved me from kissing him under the mistletoe?" Teddy's eyes brightened for a second and then darkened again. He really was in the most changeable mood today but Victoire was too distracted to ask about it.
"I should have known something had happened," Teddy grumbled, "you were unusually clingy."
Victoire looked at him appalled, "I was not clingy!" Teddy simply raised his eyebrows. Victoire puffed hair out of face huffily, "Was not," she muttered.
"Brian," Teddy reminded her.
"Hmmmph," Victoire said still unimpressed but continued, "Well at the time I put a lot of it down to jealousy, which I guess wasn't very fair of me, but your cryptic warnings at the start of term jogged my brain to some of the things he said then," she said, "turns out he knows far more than either of us ever gave him credit for. In fact he was as right as you were," she said bitterly.
"Vicky," Teddy said his voice so heavy with seriousness that it almost shook, "you have to know I didn't want to be right. Not because I'm so enthusiastic about you and Saunders but because I knew if I was right you'd get hurt. And Vicky that's the last thing I would ever want." Victoire gave him a suitably chastised grin.
"I do know Teddy, but it would be nice if just occasionally you were wrong so we could maintain that you're human."
"But I'm not human," Teddy joked his hair flashing through a vivid rainbow of colours eventually settling into turquoise, "and I'm often wrong when it comes to you."
"Point taken," Victoire said with a laugh, "Anyway since no-one else at the Hellebore Society would properly answer my questions about Hartwood and I already knew from that long ago talk, though I'm ashamed to say I never gave it the stock I should have then, that Brian had something damning on Markel I decided to sneak out last night," she felt Teddy stiffen but kept going, "and meet Brian at the Hog's Head…" Teddy jerked out of her hold then looking furious his hair instantly turning to scarlet.
"He did what?" he said. Victoire grabbed the tops of his arms with the intention of stopping him from doing something extreme, how she wasn't so sure.
"No, no Teddy it was my idea. In fact I wasn't even sure he was going to turn up," his glower darkened, "but he did," she said omitting the fact that it was after an hour of waiting.
"Victoire," he said as if she was particularly simple, "I don't care if it was your idea to secretly sneak into Malfoy manor and capture the last remaining death eaters Brian should have more sense then that. Imagine actually agreeing to meet an underage witch in a bar, let alone the Hog's Head of all places. I tell you if I ever get my hands on the boy…" he said trailing off with an angry growl.
"I didn't give him much of a choice," Victoire put in feebly, trying to defend Brian; after all he had been nice enough to meet her. Taking a deep no doubt steadying breath Teddy ran a rough hand through his current fringe leaving it sticking up in points.
"What happened next," he prompted voice noticeably strained. Victoire let her hands drop from Teddy's arms in case she gave in to the strange urge to reach up and flatten his hair.
"Well given our past relationship and his position on the Hellebore Society's council," Teddy glanced at her sharply again, "he seemed like the perfect person to get the information everyone else was denying me from."
Teddy rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "So Brian's a member of the Hellebore Society, and a high ranking one, that's interesting," Victoire could see that he was putting together puzzle pieces in his mind that she'd missed and probably had no hope of understanding. She hugged her knees to her chest watching him mentally calculating something till he nodded his head tersely, obviously a gesture to continue.
"You already know what he told me, so, after he confirmed my suspicions and your warnings he was obliging enough to, umm," she looked at her lap embarrassed, "help me back to Uncle George's since I was a, little, intoxicated," she said cheeks now a flaming red. Her behaviour last night had been embarrassing, and dangerous. Thank Merlin Brian was such a gentleman. She looked up and met Teddy's eyes. Disapproval mixed with a hint of resignation there.
"Yes well those shots will get you," he said mildly and she could tell the restraint it took for him not to chastise her for that as well. The effort was greatly appreciated so accordingly Victoire gave him a shaky smile.
"And I guess that was when Aunt Angelina decided to owl you," Victoire concluded with a shrug. Teddy drew a knee up leaving a long tract of clean floorboard and examined the hand now dangling from his knee.
"Well the news of Brian's jump through the ranks is interesting and I can't deny I'm glad you're finally out of the reach of that misguided society but," he seemed not to want to look at her, "I'll admit when I asked what happened I meant with Saunders. I hope he didn't break your heart too badly."
"Oh that," Victoire tried to say airily as if thinking about it didn't still make her want to weep, "well it's hardly an adventure. I planned to confront the bastard this morning about the Hellebore Society or," she glanced at Teddy nervously, "at least give him a chance to explain," she was right Teddy growled at that so she hurried on, "But he wasn't dressed." Teddy seemed to know where this was going because he placed comforting hands on her shoulders.
"You don't have to continue," he whispered compassionately. Victoire shook her head despite the burning feeling she was getting behind her eyes because she wanted to tell him everything.
"He also wasn't alone. I got sick of him trying to have a conversation in the doorway and forced my way in," Teddy looked tremendously proud, "and met his previous engagement..." her voice faltered. Swallowing the lump that was forming in her throat she continued, "...obviously not quite done since she was still putting her shirt back on." She looked down her fingers fiddled with the fabric of her skirt, Teddy didn't need to know just who Markel's overnight visitor was. Teddy as usual sensed she was keeping something from him. One of his hands closed over her fiddling fingers the other tilted her chin up.
"Who?" he said gently. She wasn't sure she should, or even wanted to, mention Stephanie's involvement but Teddy was looking at her so understandably that she knew he deserved the truth.
"Well," Victoire continued meeting Teddy's eyes reluctantly, "um...Stephanie." Immediately she found herself crushed to Teddy's chest, hard.
"Oh Vic I'm so sorry," he said voice gruff with understanding, "This is all my fault, I promised not to mess this up for you and I've done it without even trying. She's doing this to get back at me." Victoire shook her head trust Teddy to find a way to pin this disaster on himself.
"Nonsense Teddy," Victoire said her voice muffled by his jacket, "Why would she sleep with my boyfriend to get back at you?" He finally released her only to place a soft hand on her wet cheek angling it up to face his. Victoire blinked startled by the unexpected contact.
"Victoire even you cannot be that naïve," he said but only confusion registered on her delicate features, why was everyone suddenly calling her naive? She had talkative Uncles; she definitely wasn't that naive, "Everyone knows that I'd do anything to save you from any kind of pain. Stephanie couldn't have thought of a better way to hurt me, and I suspect she knew that. She' very good at manipulating such feelings," Teddy said seriously his eyes an intense stormy grey that she hadn't seen before. Victoire stared at him wordlessly because really, what could you say to something like that.
"Teddy this isn't your fault," she eventually whispered thinking about Stephanie's last words, she'd been pretty clear on Teddy not being a part of it, "And neither was the incident on the Hogwarts Express. I know she set you up there and I'm very sorry for jumping to such a horrendous conclusion." Teddy brushed her apology off.
"I'm not worried about that now. She can manipulate me all she likes but if she's messing with you to get back at me that's too far. And I know she'd doing this to get back at me," Teddy assured her a worried frown creasing his eyebrows.
"She's doing this to get back at us Teddy," Victoire said. For some strange reason this seemingly innocuous phrase made Teddy jerk like a puppet on a string, his expression changing to something she couldn't quite pinpoint.
"Teddy?" Victoire questioned but his mouth was clamped tightly into a very thin line, "What? What did I say?" But he remained stubbornly silent. She studied him, noting the subtle way the shadows kept his eyes hidden so that she couldn't see what he was thinking. Reaching out a tentative hand Victoire lightly trailed her fingertips over the skin above his eyebrow hoping to shed some light on his suddenly closed expression. Teddy pulled back sharply his expression even more guarded then before and Victoire was at a loss to explain it.
His normally caramel brown hair was sporting faint pink tips almost as if he was blushing and when she looked back into his face in surprise she noticed his eyes had acquired a dull pink ring around the irises. It was rather nice actually. She found herself staring at them intensely. How did they do that? The colour seemed to radiate outwards from the pupils, pulsating gently till it had filled his entire iris with incandescent colour. She'd never watched them so closely before. Teddy always seemed to change moods so rapidly that she'd only seen the affected change after the fact. But here he was staying as still as a statue showcasing the slow mesmerising transformation from pink ringed iris to inherited caramel brown eyes as if performing only for her. Victoire smiled in delight and leaned closer finding it fascinating, charismatic and hypnotically handsome.
Teddy, as if he could read the beautiful thoughts she was having about his eyes, blinked, a slow, languid thing that shuttered his beautiful eyes and closed his thoughts off from her completely returning Victoire to reality with a hard thump. Teddy turned his face towards a dark corner of the tiny room and some suspect rustling curiously, giving a thankful Victoire time to recover herself. Face burning she struggled to get her thoughts in some semblance of order or her mouth to close.
For years now Victoire had been hearing girls and guys alike comment on just how attractive Teddy Lupin was but when they'd asked her how she could possibly stay just friends with someone so dreamy Victoire had always said the same thing, "it's just Teddy." And indeed she had always viewed him as just Teddy. Just Teddy who helped to teach her to swim, just Teddy who had elicited her first big use of magic and laughed so heartily when that use had held up the departure of the Hogwart's Express (jealous of his imminent departure to Hogwarts she'd blown every screw out of the wheels of the Hogwarts Express). It made her wonder if she hadn't known him quite so well for quite so long would she have considered Teddy as much of catch as she had once considered Markel.
The surprising answer was yes. For all his faults and meddling behaviour it was impossible to pretend that she couldn't see where Teddy garnered his title of heartthrob. All those years she had been hearing people comment on just how handsome he was and she doubted she'd ever properly listened to them till now. Teddy was as handsome as the boy she'd only days ago professed to love, with shoulders as broad as Markel's and smile just as charming. In fact Victoire realised with a jolt Teddy must be considered doubly as attractive for he had something Markel never would intelligence.
Why had she never seen it before? Victoire wasn't sure but she wished she wasn't working it out now for if Teddy's uncanny ability to read her kicked in now she knew she'd be on the end of some pretty merciless teasing. It was too late to hide it though for Teddy had caught her staring; only, instead of teasing her as she'd suspected he was staring just as avidly back and as he did the pink ring gradually widened till it swallowed his entire pupil. Victoire didn't know what was going on but those pink eyes seemed to be pulling her in, closer and closer.
The wind howling against the rickety walls suddenly slammed a window open with sharp crack and a rodent of unusual size darted from the shadowy corner for the door causing Victoire to jump away from Teddy with a shriek of, "Bloody hell!"
Immediately she felt herself flush uncomfortably, no doubt her face a Weasley red to match. The added stress of finding Markel cheating and Hellebore Society's real objective must have seriously addled some brain cells because Victoire had an inkling that if the wailing wind hadn't interrupted she might have done something crazy, like let Teddy kiss her, or worse kissed him.
She'd only broken up with her boyfriend that morning, heck she was only out in this dingy shack so that she could cry about it in private and avoid the whispers and rumours that were no doubt just beginning to circulate and here she was thinking of kissing another guy. Not just any guy either, Teddy. Admittedly maybe not 'just' Teddy anymore but still Victoire was shocked at the scandalous turn of her thoughts. Obviously Markel had played with her psyche a bit more than she'd first suspected. She was glad she hadn't acted on her sudden need for physical comfort, though she knew kissing Teddy would be very pleasant it would also confuse rather a lot of their relationship.
Teddy sighed and climbed to his feet pulling her up after him. Was she just imagining the reluctance?
"Come on," he coaxed a still dazed Victoire along tugging her arm gently, "Let's go see if I can't put that crush McGonagall has on me to good use and convince the old bird to let me stay overnight. That way I keep you company on the train ride back tomorrow." That stopped Victoire mid-stride. Teddy stopped to look back at her innocently. She wasn't fooled. She could definitely see the flicker of determination in his odd coloured eyes.
"You're not coming on the train tomorrow," she said slowly. Teddy's face was a model of angelic innocence, literally; he'd changed it briefly to mimic a cherubs rosy naivety.
"You don't want me to keep you company on the train tomorrow," he said letting just a tad too much hurt colour his tone, "You don't want me to stay," he added with a rueful face that almost convinced her, almost. Too bad she knew him so well. Victoire pulled her hand from his and wagged a finger at him accusingly.
"Oh no," she said as he tried to snatch her hand back, "That won't work I know you too well. You don't want to stay to keep me company. You want to stay so you can beat Markel up." He succeeded in catching a hand and hung on grimly stopping her wild gesturing.
"Don't be absurd Vicky," he said with an exasperated shake of his head but she saw his dull pink eyes narrow as he thought about it, "it just soooo late at night it seems pointless to go home now."
"You want to hex him," she assured him poking him with her free hand, "Don't try to pretend otherwise."
"Well I won't promise that should I happen to run into Saunders on the Hogwart's Express I won't have a few words to say to him but I can hardly be at fault for that," he tone turned thoughtful, "and of course if he happened to throw a hex or punch at me I couldn't be faulted for defending myself."
"And you would make sure to say something to make him fire the first hex," Victoire said severely, "you can't pull the wool over my eyes Teddy I know how you work. You'll force him into a fight with you and then you'll be kicked off the train and unable to keep me company as you say you want to."
Seeing that she wasn't going to be swayed Teddy huffed grumpily, "Fine, I won't come on the train. Happy?" and gave a sharp tug on her arm no doubt intending to escort her all the way to McGonagall if necessary but Victoire held him back again, biting her lip with sudden worry that she'd upset him too much.
"You will be there on the station tomorrow though right?" she whispered. He took a big breath.
"Do you want me to be?" Victoire nodded her head wordlessly. He tugged her into a tight hug, "Then I'll be there. The head Auror's practically family you know," he joked, "I'm sure I can wheedle a few hours out of him," Victoire hugged him happily back no longer feeling quite so miserable, "Come on if you won't let me keep you company on the train at least let me keep you in one piece and allow me to escort you out past the Whomping Willow," and this time Victoire didn't dig in her heels letting him pull her gently down the cramped tunnel leading back to Hogwarts.
It wasn't till much, much later when Victoire was nursing a hot cup of cocoa by the Gryffindor fireplace and trying to ignore the gossip being whispered in her direction despite her sister's best intentions to get her involved that Victoire realised Teddy hadn't once said 'I told you so.'