Author's Note

Please forgive any spelling and/or grammar errors. I hope you enjoy it, please let me know what you think!

This chapter is told from Teddy's perspective.

Please don't get upset over Victorie's portrayal here. These are just a couple brief, yet ultimately pivotal moments of her life - not a full picture of who she is/was. She's only barely eighteen and has lived her whole life safe, sheltered, spoiled, loved, and famous. Those factors have meant that she's not been forced to grow up as fast as Harry's generation did, and she's a typical, romantic teenage girl. A bit rash, unused to the necessity of caution, and ready to go out on her own - away from a place where everyone has expectations for her based on her family.

PS I'm not JK Rowling, so I don't own anything :(

Chapter 8: The Big Bad Wolf

The Quibbler was due to be owled out that weekend, and Teddy was double checking the last minute revisions before it went to press that Thursday. When the owl came, he tossed the missive on a stack of unopened mail piling up and finished getting the magazine ready to go. It had become a familiar process over the years. Particularly the last three as Luna slowly transitioned him from writer to editor. Honestly, he preferred this job, as she'd known he would.

It was another six hours before he was able to sit down and sort through the work that had piled up for the next issue while he readied the latest. The machine kept chugging along, periodically releasing little groans and puffs of smoke as it clanged and sputtered out paper after paper. He'd take them to the post office in Hogsmeade first thing the next morning to get them sent out.

When he picked up the letter, a sense of foreboding came over him. Echoes whispered from long buried graves. A sudden chill that was out of place in the toasty room.

Carefully, he unrolled the parchment to stare at the scribbled lines of deep, brownish-burgundy. Crusted bits flaked off, dropping onto his desk like rust shavings.

Cub,

I thought you'd learned your lesson when I ate your grandmother and clawed up your last bitch. You don't get to be happy. You don't get to be safe. If I'm not, you're not. Your family destroyed my life, and have hunted me for years. Now it's my turn again - better look out for Little Red before I sink my teeth into her succulent body - if you can.

Looking forward to seeing you again and tasting her...

Happy Hunting,

The Big Bad Wolf

PS Better get home fast, you wouldn't want to be too late again, would you?

The letter fell from Teddy's boneless fingers. Memories of the past assailed him.

"I don't want to go back to Shell Cottage after school. You know they'll want me to get a job right away, and we'll never have any time together. Mum's even talking about putting in a word for me at Gringotts! Can you imagine?" Victorie groaned, throwing her head back dramatically. Her shining, silver hair swayed alluringly in the light breeze.

They were walking hand-in-hand through Hogsmeade during her winter visit to the town. They'd seen each other several times over Christmas Hols, but never alone. Now they had a chance at some privacy - finally - but Vickie was too worked up just then to take advantage of it.

"Not really. You'd hate being stuck in an office surrounded by ornery goblins all day," Teddy said knowingly. It was actually rather amusing to picture, the image so out-of-character for her.

Now Madam Malkin's, surrounded by fashion and robes, and gossiping with customers, that was a different story. Given her longtime obsession with clothes, he'd figured that was what she planned to pursue, but apparently not.

They'd never really discussed it before now. The topic of the future had seemed forever away when they were facing a year apart while she finished her schooling. But now that they were on the other side of Christmas, it seemed a lot closer, and significantly more pressing to get sorted.

"Exactly my point! You get me, so why don't they?" she continued, not detecting his underlying amusement given how wrapped up she was in her ranting.

"They just want to help you out," he tried, hoping to placate her a bit. She was easily riled. Always had been. Probably had a bit to do with why they'd never been close growing up. Teddy rarely got riled about anything, and Vickie had always thought him boring because of it.

"They want me to be as boring as they've become," she grumbled unhappily.

Teddy couldn't admit that he was jealous that she had parents willing to pull strings and help her. Not that Harry didn't try to do the same, but it was different somehow. And of course he had Ginny to thank for getting him on at the Prophet after he'd confessed to wanting to write, but Obituaries and the occasional fluff piece weren't what he'd had in mind. Maybe he could move up eventually. She seemed to think he was talented enough to, but it would take time.

"I want to see the world. Maybe try my hand at curse breaking the way my dad did," Vickie said suddenly, a feverish light coming over her face. The new ambition startled him. It was the first she'd ever mentioned desiring such a dangerous and occasionally brutal aspiration.

"Have you talked to Bill about this?" he asked tentatively.

"No. You know what he'd say - you'd hate the job, or that's not the right career for you," Vickie mimicked, adopting an amusing patronizing air as she did.

"He might have a point. He does know you, and he was a curse-breaker for years," Teddy said, reluctantly smiling over her impression. She was always so incredibly funny. Making others laugh came as naturally to her as altering his nose did to him.

"Pfft," she huffed dismissively, waving off his concerns. "They're so boring. I want to have fun, and they've forgotten what that even is. I want to get out of here. To do something daring and adventurous. It'll be brilliant!"

"But then you'd always be out of town, and we'd not see each other anyways," Teddy said, voicing the new problem he'd just detected.

"You could come with me. Oh! A foreign correspondent - you'd be smashing at that!" she insisted, spinning on the spot and laughing gayily, with her long curtain of glossy hair fanning out behind her.

"I don't know, Vickie. I don't really want to be away from everyone," Teddy admitted. The Potters and Weasleys were his family too and he loved getting to see them regularly.

"Please, Teddy, for me," Victorie begged, moving to stand directly before him and casting her big blue eyes up at him pleadingly.

He felt it. That desire to do anything for her, to demonstrate how he could be the one to give her what she wanted - thoroughly impress her with his dedication to her. It was subtle, but very real, and he didn't want to disappoint her.

"This will make you happy?" he asked quietly.

"So much," she gasped, seeming amazed that he was agreeing, "you don't even know. All I want is to be with you forever."

Her words struck a chord of longing in him. That's what he wanted too. Someone that was his. A family of his own. He just couldn't believe his luck that Victorie Weasley wanted him like that as well. He'd never have thought he had a chance with her, but now here they were. And he could make her dreams come true, fulfilling a few of his own in the process.

"I'll ask Gin if she can put in a word for me. Get me transferred if you get on somewhere," he capitulated.

"Merlin, Teddy, I love you!" she squealed, clapping delightedly and she bounced on the balls of her feet.

Her parents hadn't been happy when she'd sent in her applications. Her owls after that had been an endless stream of complaints about how they didn't know her and how wrong they were about her not liking the type of work that would be expected of her. Teddy couldn't really say he disagreed with them either though, so he'd settled for saying nothing at all.

Victorie was always a hundred percent put together. Being a curse-breaker would involve getting dirty and camping - two things Victorie abhorred. But she'd never admit it until she tried it for herself. That was how she'd always been.

When she'd been accepted, she'd written to tell him she had to leave at the end of the summer, and only spouses could go with. She'd not said anymore, but the silent request was there all the same, and he hadn't minded in the least.

It had seemed so romantic at the time, getting married because they couldn't bear to be parted again when she was finally out of Hogwarts. He'd gotten his mother's ring from Gran, though she'd shaken her head and told him he was as impulsive and doggedly persistent as his mother.

He'd proposed on Platform nine and three quarters, in full view of her entire family. She'd cried and lept on him, showering him with kisses. Maybe it had been insane, but she just had this way about her, much like her mum did, and he'd never been able to deny her anything. From that moment the summer before when she'd asked him to pluck an apple she couldn't reach at a Sunday brunch the day before her seventh year, he'd been a goner for her. Happily wrapped around her little finger.

It was so easy to look back now and see how right everyone had been about them. They were the closest in age, but they'd never spent much time together growing up even when they were in the same place. They just didn't have anything in common to allow a friendship to blossom between them.

Their entire relationship consisted of an afternoon at the Burrow before her seventh year, three Hogsmeade visits, two weeks at Christmas with all of her family about, then two months over the summer after she'd graduated when they'd been fighting and still constantly surrounded by her family. Oh, and letters.

Those last weeks together, that fateful summer, they'd spent nearly every minute planning their wedding, which was to take place the week before she reported for her new job in Egypt.

Then it had all gone to hell.

His gran was late meeting him for dinner. She was trying to be supportive, Teddy knew, but she didn't want to lose him too. Teddy was just starting to think she'd forgotten or was skipping dinner as a way of protesting his upcoming departure when Harry arrived.

His godfather walked right up and hugged him, clinging to him the way Teddy used to when he woke from nightmares as a child wanting his parents.

"Harry? What's happened?" Teddy gasped, startled by the display. Harry ordinarily had trouble being demonstrative in public, and there was definitely a crowd of onlookers watching them right then.

"It's Andie. Your gran, she -" Harry said raspily, breaking off suddenly.

"What? Where is she?" Teddy demanded, panic gripping him.

He didn't need to hear the words. Harry's reaction alone was enough, but Harry said it anyways, knowing it would help Teddy process it. "I'm so sorry, Teddy. She's gone."

"No. No, I…" he denied, shaking his head and fisting Harry's robes to keep himself upright.

He stared at Harry, willing him to explain how this happened. His godfather read the question on his face. Quietly, he said, "There was an attack -"

"Who?" Teddy demanded, not letting Harry finish.

"Greyback. He left a note," Harry explained.

"Where is it?" Harry shook his head, and Teddy assumed it was evidence. Either that or it was bad enough that Harry wished to spare him. "What did it say?"

"He threatened Victorie," Harry admitted, watching Teddy closely.

"Vickie?" Teddy gasped, not really processing the revelation.

"Don't worry. She's with Bill and Ron and several other Aurors," Harry promised, gripping Teddy's shoulders.

"I need to see her," Teddy whispered, silently pleading with Harry to take him to his fiancee. He couldn't believe she was all right until he saw it for himself.

"Come on," Harry said softly, guiding him outside to the nearest Apparation spot.

The rest of that night was a blur. He vaguely recalled Victorie holding him while he cried over the loss of his last living relative - at least the last close one. He was on speaking terms with Draco and Scorpius, but they'd never been close. Especially not after he'd left.

It was two days later before he had any more clear memories, and then it was of a fight he'd had with Victorie.

"Vickie, where are you going?" Teddy asked, confused. She was quietly headed for the door, slipping out before the sun had even fully risen.

He'd been staying on Bill and Fleur's sofa most of the summer. She had to move past him to reach the door. It was the only reason he even knew she was leaving. He must have fallen asleep at some point the night before, because there was a blanket draped over him now.

"Flower shop. I've an appointment first thing this morning that I didn't want to cancel," she said. Her eyes were swollen and lined in red from crying with him the night before.

"You can't be serious. Greyback threatened you," Teddy gasped, staring at her incredulously.

"Yes, well, I've a wedding and now a funeral to plan, and I won't let him ruin anything else for me," she said, eyes flashing with determination.

"That doesn't matter!" Teddy insisted, shocked that she'd intended to do something so reckless and needless. Particularly the fact that if he hadn't woken, Teddy wouldn't even have known where she'd gone!

"Of course it does," Vickie snapped, pursing her lips. "I won't let the twisted man that hurt my father and killed your gran keep me from living my life. I won't stay hold up here forever," she said flatly, anger radiating from every line of her body.

"No one is trying to do that, but it's not safe for you to go out right now," Teddy growled, angry himself. "Especially not alone."

What was she thinking? Why take the risk for some stupid, pointless flowers? He understood the desire not to be cowed, especially for her. Vickie always seemed to desperately crave freedom. But these were unusual circumstances. It was immature of her not to acknowledge them.

"Give Harry a chance to find Greyback before you get back to business as usual," he requested, keeping his voice carefully controlled so as not to make her think he was attempting to manage or control her. That was the fastest way to get her to do the opposite of what he wanted.

"Greyback has been on the loose for over nineteen years. He's had more than enough time to come after me if he really wanted to," she sniffed, rolling her eyes as though he were the one sounding irrational and overly paranoid.

"That was before he threatened you specifically," Teddy declared hotly, his temper cracking, near to breaking in the face of her ridiculous stubborn streak.

Her eyes flashed, and he knew at once he'd misstepped. "The flower shop is a public place, I'll be perfectly fine."

He had a meeting with his Gran's lawyer and was expected at the Ministry in an hour, but still he tried, "Will you wait until this afternoon so I can go with you?" He scanned the floor for his shoes. He could always reschedule his meeting if she refused. It was more important to him that she be safe.

"No. I won't rearrange my life because of him," Vickie snapped, her blue eyes crackling and sparking as she grabbed the door handle just as signs of stirring floated through the house. Teddy suddenly realized that was why she was leaving so early. To avoid her family insisting she be accompanied by multiple Aurors if she was set on going out.

"At least take Harry with you. Or your dad. Or any of your uncles," Teddy begged, slipping the first shoe on, and silently begging her to say she'd be fine with him going at the very least. The flowers were sort of for him anyways, not that he really cared or had had any say so far in picking them.

She'd not let him help with any of the wedding preparations, always insisting she knew exactly what she wanted her big day to look like, and he'd just be in the way if he tried to help. So he'd let her have her way. On everything. Ron suggested he get used to it, because it was the same in his household. Teddy thought that might have more to do with how Ron spoke without thinking more often than not, and had a tendency to be lazy. That didn't mean it wasn't sound advice for him to follow though. Vickie was a right bear when she didn't get her way.

"I don't need a babysitter!" she yelled, storming out of the house in a swirl of silvery hair.

Teddy jumped up, prepared to go after her, even though he was only wearing one shoe when Dom said, "Don't. You've got to let her go."

"The hell I do - she's in danger," Teddy declared fiercely.

"You'll lose her if you treat her like an invalid," Dom warned, though she too looked worried.

At least she'd be alive.

"I'll go after her," Fleur offered, brushing her hand over Dom's shoulder affectionately and nodding at Teddy before she followed after her wayward, headstrong daughter.

Everyday had been more of the same. Victorie being stubborn and refusing to listen to anyone. Sneaking out twice more. And Teddy arguing with her nonstop. About everything too. From the wedding to their plans for Egypt to her reckless insistence on not taking the threat of Greyback serious enough.

It had been miserable. So miserable, that he'd gotten fed up and decided to return to his gran's house after Victorie had been out all day doing any number of things that someone else could have seen to, or that could have waited until after Greyback was captured.

He'd just wanted a few days apart where they could calm down and clear their heads.

Teddy had barely made it two feet inside the door before the scent of rust hit him. Then he saw the blood. Long, arching sprays were everywhere. On every surface - even the ceiling.

When he fell beside her mangled body, still warm, he'd completely lost it. Greyback had completely savaged her. Torn Victorie into literal pieces until she was nearly unrecognizable.

A couple months passed, and when Greyback continued to evade capture, Teddy decided to take Luna up on the offer to work with her in South America. She'd written saying she could do with some help now that she was pregnant, and it'd be a chance for him to get away, see the world, start over fresh.

Teddy had felt he owed it to Victorie to see her dreams through now that she could no longer do it for herself.

But that had been years ago. There'd been not a single sign or sighting of Greyback since that day. Harry had looked. Always he had Aurors on the lookout. But there'd been nothing.

Until now.

Little Red. Lily. Greyback was going after Lily.

Here Teddy was, eleven years later, and he was right back where he started - with his very heart being threatened by the man that killed his father, Gran, and Victorie. He couldn't survive it happening again. He couldn't lose Lily.

PS Better get home fast, you wouldn't want to be too late again, would you?

Those words hit him like a sledgehammer. How long ago had the letter arrived before he'd read it? Was she even now lying dead in her flat? Or his? Had she too been brutalized because of him?