We Are Family

-Victoire and James-

Candles

(*)(*)(*)

-May 2020

A lone duck quacked, floating across the pond as she sat upon its shores, tossing bits of bread into the water to feed the bird. She had been banished from the Burrow upon her arrival, forced to stay in the garden by her overzealous Nana Molly and her mother, both of whom insisted she not see the preparations for her birthday dinner that evening.

Frankly, she didn't agree with their views on the subject. She was twenty years old today, a woman grown, a healer at St. Mungo's and she was damn well old enough to look at her own birthday cake on the morning of her own birthday.

Not that they listened to her. Nana Molly had tutted a little in the way she always did before ushering her out the door and then slamming it in her face. She didn't see why there was such a need for secrecy – her birthday fell during the Hogwarts school year which meant her cousins and brother were still at Hogwarts. Of her sister, there had been no word for weeks, but then again it wasn't easy for Dominique to send letters home to them from her job in Romania, where she worked alongside their Uncle Charlie with his dragons.

Recently, Victoire had heard that her sister was filing for a transfer to work closer to home and she was shrewd enough to guess that this had something to do with the muggle boy who lived in the village near Shell Cottage. Not that it was any of her business – Domino had made it very clear to her that she was not to know about her sister's love life.

Turning her attention away from her wayward sister, she continued staring at the duck, dusting her hands against her jeans when she realised that she had already tossed the entire loaf at the bird, piece by piece, without noticing.

"When they told you to get lost, I don't think this is what they meant," said a mischievous voice from behind her and she turned, a faint smile spreading across her cheeks as her cousin sank to the ground beside her, his skin still slightly tinged with green from his recent bout of dragon-pox.

"Feeling alright, Jamie?" she asked, remembering the long nights she had spent tending to him in the hospital, during that brief period of time when his condition had worsened. Dragon-pox was usually harmless in children but there were still strains of the virus that were fatal in not handled properly and she had been tireless in her efforts to make sure that her cousin did not become another victim of the dread disease.

"Never better," he grinned at her, long limbs stretched out across the grass as he lay back with his hands folded behind his head, a makeshift pillow.

"Just wondering about all the homework I'm going to have to do when I get back to Hogwarts," he added with a sigh, his grin slipping back into place a second later, "and all the pranks I'll be able to pull on the first-years."

"The Weasley twin is strong in this Potter," she smirked, fighting the urge to laugh as his face lit up.

"Teddy took you to watch Star Wars," he beamed, "Didn't he?"

Just like that, her mood plummeted, the mention of his name enough to cause a stony look to fall across her face. She turned away from her cousin, glaring out across the rippling lake and noting a second duck swimming beside the first.

It wasn't that she and Teddy were having problems; it was just that she had seen twenty birthdays and he had never attended a single one of them. A part of her understood, her birthday was also the anniversary of the day he had become an orphan but the selfish part of her wished he would spend the day with her, at least once.

Was that truly too much to ask?

"I shouldn't have said anything," mumbled James, awkwardly running his fingers through his dishevelled mop of hair.

"It isn't your fault, James," she sighed, "I just wish he would, you know, be here for one of my birthdays." As the words left her mouth, she realised how petty she was being but she couldn't help wanting him at her side during the important moments of her life.

"You know," replied James thoughtfully, sitting up and looking over at her, "When I was a kid and dad used to play with me and Albus, Teddy never used to join us at first. He'd make an excuse and go off to his room, and you know my dad, he isn't really good at reading people. But one day, I followed him and there he is, sitting on his bed looking through that album Aunt Hermione had made for him with all the pictures she could collect with his parents in them."

"Thing is, Vic, Teddy's never had what we had. He's never had a birthday with his mum and dad there. He's never gotten the chance to sit under a Christmas tree and hand out the presents while his mum bakes cookies and his dad drinks all the egg-nog. They're in the afterlife. He hasn't had any of that but he's there for you whenever you really need him, at least, I know he's always there for me when I need my big brother. Is it that much to let him have this one day to himself?"

"Thanks, James," Victoire replied, looking at him as though he'd grown a new head out the back of his neck. She had never pictured James to be so . . . well so deep and tactful. He'd always been the family joker, rivalled only by Fred, but there was no denying that he had a lot of heart.

"Where're you going?" he asked in confusion as she turned towards the house, taking off at a brusque jog.

"Godric's Hollow," she yelled back, her breath carrying over the wind and she heard her cousin's laughter, already fading as she neared the house.

"Don't forget the candles," he called, and she smiled as she snuck in through the kitchen door, peering this way and that in search of the mysterious birthday cake. Finally she caught sight of it, her eyes widening at the delicious looking confection before grabbing the cake-box and dissaparating with a crack, the cries of her mother standing frozen in the doorway lost to the suffocating blackness.

She arrived in a graveyard, her smile falling off her face as her eyes found the turquoise-haired man kneeling beside two matching headstones. Walking quietly, she arrived beside him and joined him, dropping to her knees and linking her fingers with his.

He looked at her in surprise, not seeming to comprehend her being there until she had set the cake-box before them and opened it, sticking a few candles haphazardly into the lemon-flavoured cream. She flicked her wand to light them and wiped the tears from his eyes with her sleeve, placing her free hand on his knee.

"You should be spending your birthday with your family. Why come here?" he asked as she held him.

"Because I love you, Teddy Lupin, and when I'm with you, I am with family."

That was how her parents found them, when night had begun to thread itself across the sky, with his tear-stained eyes pressed into her shoulder and an empty cake box between them.

(*)(*)(*)

Prompt: Afterlife

-Also Written for the Fifty Characters, Fifty Prompts Competition: Victoire, Saint-

Saint has been used as a Theme Prompt for Victoire's personality.

I dedicate this one-shot to NymphxDora, who loves Teddy/Victoire as much, if not more, than I do.

Review, please