Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition forum
Wigtown Wanderers, Chaser 1
Main Prompt: Write about someone looking forward to the future.
Optional Prompts: (character) Harry Potter, (dialogue) "Everything in my life has led to this moment.", (word) unexpected
Sirius and Remus Lived!AU. Teddy is still Remus and Tonks's son, but she still died in the Battle of Hogwarts. Teddy is in his early twenties, and this is set after the war (quite a while after the war). Warning for swearing (a little bit).
Thanks to Liza and Dash for all of the help!
"We are gathered here today…"
Teddy, not for the first time, wonders how Uncle Harry could have memorized all of these words. He'd borne witness, though, to many occasions where Harry had paced the sitting room tearing his hair out, crumpling the parchment in his fist and chucking it in the general direction of the rubbish bin. (He always misses—there is a reason why he is not a Chaser.) But he stands here at the altar looking every bit the officiant he is supposed to be, and no one would ever know of those events.
His father is aglow with elation. He has filled out in the intervening years between the war and the present. Teddy had observed him from up close — from his lap as a child, during his annual Christmas visits home while at Hogwarts — and he'd never seen him happier.
Teddy likes to think he played a role in it.
"Dad," Teddy murmurs drowsily. The crackling sounds from the fire are lulling, and the warmth from both the flames and his father's shoulder adds to his lethargy. "Dad, what do you think of Sirius?"
Teddy doesn't even need to look at his father to tell that he's blushing, even if sleep is trying to drag him under. His father stiffens and laughs a little breathlessly. "Sirius? What about him? He's just…he's just a friend."
Teddy smirks — could he be any more obvious?
"Just a friend?" he questions, allowing his incredulity to seep into his voice. "Are you sure?"
"Teddy." There is a note of firmness in his father's voice. "No, nothing is going on between Sirius and — where did you get this idea?"
Nothing going on. Teddy almost snorts; Remus's oblivious insistence is almost enough to rouse him. His father is undeniably intelligent, a brilliant man when it comes to strategy and book smarts. But he is thick when it comes to Sirius Black.
For the love of Merlin, he can practically see the hearts in his father's eyes when he's looking at Sirius.
"Whatever you say, Dad," Teddy whispers, smiling knowingly.
"...Please face each other as you declare these vows to one another. Mr. Black, you may begin."
Sirius visibly gulps, his eyes slightly wide, his hands trembling as he takes a small sheet of parchment from a groomsman behind him — wedding jitters, undoubtedly, very much unlike the confident, self-assured man Teddy had known all his life — and he clears his throat, noticeably steeling himself.
"Everything…" he begins nervously, and then pauses, meeting Remus' eyes steadily as he seemingly draws courage from his soon-to-be husband. The effect is immediate; he stands taller, a familiar gleam in his eyes.
Teddy grins.
"Everything in my life has led to this moment," he declares, his voice ringing out across the pew, and Teddy feels a surge of pride. "Everything I am, who I've become, it has all helped me reach this moment in my life. And I am standing up here today, knowing that I have everything that I've ever needed. I have found love…"
His face softens. "Love for my friends." He glances out across the pew to the cheers of many.
"Love for my family." His eyes rest on Teddy, who can't fight back the swell of emotions in his chest, and he expresses them all in a broad grin. Then, his eyes travel back to Harry, who beams.
"Love for...you." There is a collective sigh from the guests as Sirius gazes lovingly at the man standing across from him.
"I love you, Remus Lupin. I've loved you since we were fifteen. I never knew I could feel like this for anyone, but you were different. You were unexpected, you were the one I never saw coming, even though you were right there all along, holding me together when I fell apart. You were there for me when I needed it most. My anchor. My best friend." His voice is more honest, rawer than Teddy had ever heard it, as he speaks his next words. "My everything."
Everyone is silent, more than likely stunned by this stirring admission. Processing the notion presented in front of their very eyes that Sirius Black is a sentimental man. That there is a layer beneath the easygoing, troublemaker personality.
Teddy knows better, though. He meets Harry's eyes — Harry, the only other person who is not as shocked.
"It's not exactly a secret," Teddy complains, eying the pair of them with exasperation. Sirius' hands are moving animatedly, sparkling eyes fixated on Teddy's father. Both of them look oddly flushed — or at least, Teddy's dad does. "They're so oblivious."
Harry looks torn. Clasping his hands together, he whispers to Teddy, "Believe me, I know. Do you know how many times I've tried to set them up?"
Teddy snorts. "With those two?" His father is leaning in, smiling with his eyes locked on Sirius' face. For Merlin's sake, could those two be any more enamored with each other? "I'm not surprised."
His godfather sighs. "There's no reasoning with them," he says regretfully. "Both of them are too bloody stubborn."
"We need to get them together," Teddy says, his determination renewed. "I'm tired of them constantly dancing around each other. We need to make them stop and see what's been there all along."
"Did you not hear me when I said I'd already tried?" Harry asks, sounding irritated — but not at Teddy. "They're not going to —"
"Forget them," Teddy interrupts, smiling mischievously. "I have an idea."
"I suppose it's my turn now."
Teddy's father looks slightly more nervous, but he too draws strength from his soon-to-be husband's eyes, and his voice is loud and clear. "I wanted to make this as succinct as possible, but when I put quill to parchment and started writing about you, I found that I couldn't stop. There is so much I want to say."
Teddy had helped him with his vows, so he knows almost all of the words by heart, and he focuses on Sirius's face instead. He watches as it transforms before his eyes.
"I love you, Sirius Black." His words ring true, confident. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to declare that to the world. But I am now because there are no more obstacles in our path. It's just us, and our future stretching out before us. The future we will face together, united.
"You are my everything." Sirius' smile broadens at the inadvertent nod to his vows. "You are the sun that lights my days, the treasure of my heart — no, you are my heart, as cheesy as it sounds. You're so maddeningly childish, so infuriatingly stubborn, but you are my other half and I couldn't live without you. You make me a better person. And I couldn't ask for anything more."
The adoration on Sirius' face is as plain as day. There is a collective awww from the guests, and Teddy nudges Victoire, who is seated to his left. "I helped him write that."
"Didn't know you were such a sentimental bloke, Teddy," Victoire teases, returning the nudge.
"Oh, believe me, you haven't seen anything yet."
Teddy grins as Harry steps back, both of them satisfied, but Harry looks a little apprehensive.
"Are you sure this will work? It seems a little...juvenile."
"Oh please, it's the oldest trick in the book," Teddy says dismissively. "It's how Victoire and I got together. Our classmates — well, family — were fed up and did this to us, and look at us now." Fondness warms his chest, and he smiles softly.
"Fair enough," says Harry, his eyes fixed on the pair slumbering peacefully on the couch. Sirius's head rests on Teddy's father's shoulder, the worry lines absent from their faces.
A thin, gold, shimmering chain of magic joins Sirius' left wrist to Remus' right.
"Do you, Sirius Black, take Remus Lupin to be your lawfully wedded partner, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, for richer or poorer, committing yourself unto them for as long as you both shall live?" Harry is solemn, but Teddy's close enough to see the corners of his lips twitching — he's fighting back a grin.
"I do." Sirius slides the wedding ring onto his partner's finger, looking as though he is suppressing an overwhelming load of emotion and is barely restraining himself from releasing it right here and now.
"Do you, Remus Lupin, take Sirius Black to be your lawfully wedded partner, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, for richer or poorer, committing yourself unto them for as long as you both shall live?"
"I do." Teddy's father, on the other hand, has collected himself and calmly slides the ring onto Sirius's finger. Teddy vibrates with anticipation.
"Now that you, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, have promised to give yourselves to one another, to love each other through your sacred vows, and through the giving and receiving of these rings, I have the great honor and pleasure to now pronounce you married!"
Teddy holds his breath.
"You may now seal this ceremony with a kiss."
Harry looks slightly relieved — if Teddy recalls correctly, this had been the hardest part of the reading to memorize — and cheers as the newly-married couple — his father and his now-stepfather — kiss chastely, though when Sirius withdraws, he looks as though he wants to do more.
"Edward Lupin," his father growls, lifting his wrist. "What did you do?"
Beside him, Sirius looks more amused than annoyed — "Moony, remember, isn't this how we got Lily and James together?" — which is distinctly unhelpful and in truth, negates Teddy's father's anger.
"What did I do?" Teddy asks innocently. "I was at Victoire's all evening."
His father looks conflicted and Sirius lets out a bark of laughter. "Come off it, Remus," he says, "he has Marauder blood in him. And don't forget his mother. You gotta admit, he's good at old-school pranks."
"Fine." His father's face settles a little. "As long as he can free us." He turns his eyes on Teddy. "Well?"
"Oh, but this can't be undone," Teddy says cheerfully. "This isn't my doing, and besides, it has a special requirement. You have to kiss."
Horror overcomes his father's face, while Sirius purses his lips.
"...I take back what I said about old-school pranks," he says after a moment, wrinkling his nose. "This is not the same one we pulled on Lily and James. We just handcuffed them together, didn't we?"
Teddy's dad looks furious.
"Morning!" Sirius declares to the room as he enters, hair mussed and clothes rumpled, and his eyes find his husband's first.
"Morning!" Teddy pipes up around a mouthful of pancakes. A steaming stack of them is in front of him. Across the table, Harry looks up, raising his eyebrows as he observes Teddy's ravenousness.
"Leave some for us, yeah?"
Teddy unapologetically shovels more onto his plate — they don't understand his cravings.
"How do you have a girlfriend, again?" says Harry cheekily, playfully prodding Teddy's leg with his foot under the table. Teddy pauses briefly to glare at him, unable to speak around the pancake mush in his mouth.
"Leave him alone, Harry, there's no stopping him," says Teddy's father jovially, back to them as he pours pancake batter on the stove. While magic had its uses, his dad much preferred the Muggle method of pancake-making — to him, there's something inherently simple, something so very...non-magical, in a world full of magic.
Of course, it's not the pancakes that he's making, but it's the "Kiss the Chef" apron he's wearing that piques Sirius' interest. He crosses the room and loops an arm around his husband's waist, murmuring, "Stealing my aprons, babe?"
Teddy coughs. His father flushes. Sirius grins. And Harry...Harry just sighs and takes another pancake.
"You'll get used to it," he says to the room.
Teddy stands up as his father and Sirius emerge from the bedroom — after trying every method they could think of to remove the handcuffs, they had requested privacy (or at least his father had) — and both of them are flushed. Sirius looks pleased, a smile on his face, and Teddy's father…well, he has a shy smile on his face. It's adorable.
"Damn, didn't know you still had it in you," Teddy says teasingly, smirking, and his father's blush darkens.
Sirius' grin broadens. "Hey, we may be old, but we're certainly not inexperienced."
"Padfoot!" Teddy's father squeaks, elbowing Sirius, who guffaws. Teddy chuckles, eying their wrists. If he needed any more confirmation, their handcuffs are gone. As he observes the pair interact — Sirius' goofy grin, Remus trying to hide his amusement — something warms inside of him.
At last, his father and Sirius had found each other, and now they could finally look forward to the future — hand-in-hand, conquering any obstacles before them.
They can be happy.
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