Teddy stared out of his bedroom window at the large hanging orb of the moon, thinking.
As a child, he had noticed his grandmother hardly slept on the night of a full moon. Habit, she had said. He hadn't realised until years later that the habit came from fear.
Ever since she had told him about his father, the full moon had filled him with concern. Originally it was a concern that he too would turn into a werewolf. As he grew older and became secure in the knowledge that that wouldn't happen, it became a reflective time, when he thought about the hardships his father had endured.
The nightmares he had suffered while he had been at Hogwarts had always been worse on the night of a full moon too. There had been a time when he obsessively followed the pattern of the moon, as he knew his father must have done. Since everything had come out into the open however, he found he slept much easier at night and could go months at a time without worrying about the lunar cycle.
It was only when he returned home and heard his grandmother shuffling about that he was reminded of its significance.
His mind drifted to Victoire. It seemed that Bill too was always restless on the night of the full moon, something which impacted on his whole family. Teddy found it unusual that in all their years of sharing secrets, this revelation had only come about in the last year. Victoire had confided that she regularly failed to sleep on such nights, something she tried to hide from her parents; what is the point in making a stressful time even worse, she had questioned.
He wondered what she was up to now. Knowing her, probably studying. Teddy glanced at the Transfiguration book lying at the side of his trunk. No, not tonight.
He listened carefully for any other sounds from the room next door. Maybe she had fallen back to sleep?
The thought of returning to bed seemed unappealing right now. Instead, he felt the need to get out of the house, to get some air, to experience freedom. Now he had come of age, freedom was something that was wonderfully open to him. Grabbing a piece of parchment, he scribbled a note, in case she woke before he returned. He didn't want her to worry. Then, he Disapparated with a pop.
...
The cool night air felt delightfully refreshing to Teddy as he watched the waves crash rhythmically onto the rocks below. Despite the obvious power of the ocean, he had always found this such a peaceful spot. When they were younger, Fleur had forbidden them from walking this close to the edge, terrified they might fall. He still remembered the angry stream of French she had uttered as Bill, Charlie and Ginny had swooped along the coastline on their broomsticks with Victoire, Dom and him clinging on behind them. Victoire had cried and begged her father to put her down and he had been secretly pleased when Ginny had done the same, but Dom had shrieked and squealed with delight as Charlie flirted with the waves and looped around the rocks.
He glanced towards the cottage a little way along the coast. As he had imagined, a soft light glowed in the upper, far right window. For now however, his attention was taken by the open space in between, where a figure darted and dived much as she had done that afternoon so many years ago.
He guessed she was plagued by the same tensions that affected her sister. The actions of Fenrir Greyback haunted them all.
He contemplated going to join her, but guessed she may be enjoying the solitude. Now that Victoire had deemed herself too old to spend time with the 'babies' and was using the excuse of her upcoming OWL year to get out of any babysitting duties, the responsibility seemed to have fallen to her sister. Teddy suspected that the early hours of the morning may be one of her few chances to fly uninterrupted. He knew she was desperate to make the Quidditch team this time and that her cousins weren't exactly proving themselves as helpful as they could be at helping her to practise. He began to walk over towards the house but she had already spotted him and swooped down in his path.
"Hop on. I'll take you up."
"Thanks."
He should have known not to trust her. After a few loops and an encounter or two with a wave, he found himself shaking slightly as he clambered in through Victoire's open window.
As he suspected, she was wide awake and reading, propped up on her bed with her long, brown legs stretched out in front of her.
She put the book down and motioned towards her parent's room next door. Teddy cast a silencing spell.
"I thought you might come."
He looked at her questioningly.
She shrugged. "Just a hunch."
Teddy glanced to her bedside table, to see what she had been reading. He was surprised to see their old notebooks there, the ones they had recorded all of their secrets in.
He laughed. "I'd forgotten these." He picked them up and began flicking through.
"I was clearing some things out, found them in the cupboard. Thought I might uncover deep, dark secret we had forgotten about. Can you believe the things we used to think were interesting back then?"
Teddy settled himself next to Victoire on her bed. He couldn't help but notice how warm she felt to snuggle up to and how nice she smelt. It suddenly occurred to him that Emily might not be too impressed that he was in Victoire's bedroom in the middle of the night. The two of them had never quite managed to get along. He pushed the thought away and began to read.
A lot of the notes seemed childlike now. Still, it was interesting to read what they had written. It was only when he got to the end that a thought struck Teddy. He was sure that he had written something about his grandmother's sister, Bellatrix. He flicked through again. There was no mention of her, but he did find something curious. A page seemed to have been ripped out just about where he thought the entry should have been.
He posed the question to Victoire.
"Really? I have no idea," she laughed, but the laugh wasn't completely natural.
"Well you're the only other one that used the notebooks. There was definitely something there about her."
"Are you sure Teddy? It was years ago, you must be remembering it wrong. Maybe you wrote it down somewhere else?"
"I'm telling you, it was there. It was on that page that's gone."
"And I'm telling you that I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe it's time you went home."
She stared at him, her eyes darkening.
Teddy stared back. She knew something, he could tell. That girl was so infuriating.
"Victoire, I haven't pulled a page out of these books and one is missing. What happened to it? No more secrets, remember."
She pulled her legs up to her chest defensively and sighed.
"Fine. It's my fault the page isn't there. You were right. You left the notebooks with me when you went to Hogwarts and Dom found them. We argued, I tried to snatch them back and a page ripped. I pulled it out properly and hoped you wouldn't notice. I'm sorry. I should have told you."
She pouted slightly and gave him an apologetic hug. Her body felt soft and comforting next to his own and he suddenly felt incredibly hot.
"It's fine." He hoped she hadn't noticed that his face was flushed. "Look, you're right, I should go. Everyone will be up soon."
He gave her an awkward wave and Disapparated, failing to notice the relief on her face.