The Dreaded Letter
"Victoire Celine Weasley is doing what?!" Fleur stomped through the kitchen of her home.
Teddy was looking after Louis for the day while his parents had some alone time with each other and staying for dinner seemed like a great idea, until Fleur started reading a new letter from Dominique. He had kept to his side of the bargain by keeping her secrets as his secrets, but obviously her sister had decided not to do the same. Standing against the kitchen sink, Fleur covered half of her face with her hand with the other gripping the half-read letter, while Bill, Teddy and Louis remained sat at the dinner table not knowing whether to speak or merely watch.
"'I know Victoire doesn't want you to know, but I feel you should know that she has entered her name into the Triwizard Tournament'. Without letting us know or anything?! She knows how I feel about the bloody thing!" Fleur's voice began to get higher.
As the frustration increased, so did the speed and howling of the wind that pushed the crashing waves harder against the shore and the furiously clanging chimes were the only things that dared to make noise as Fleur breathed heavily. Bravely, Bill got out of his chair and trod carefully towards his wife with his arms beginning to open for her to fall into them. Instead of accepting his embrace, she placed her hands on either arm as if to beg him not to even think of holding her until all her rage was out.
"I…I…I told her stories of that haunting challenge over and over and how could they bring such a thing back?" she looked up to Bill,
"They must've put in new regulations to keep it safe. But you're thinking of back then; this is now," Bill's voice was calming, but most likely not calming enough,
"Now, our daughter might as well be risking her life just for a trophy. Why wouldn't she tell us or at least me?! We talk about everything, but she can't talk about this? Do you know if anyone else knew?"
Bill shook his head. Teddy wanted to say something to give Fleur some piece of mind, but how could he when he promised his girlfriend he wouldn't? No, he wasn't going to say anything unless he was asked, but little did he know that by lowering his head, biting his lip and shaking his leg, he might as well had shouted the answer to Fleur's question. He heard her delicate footsteps creep towards him and once he saw her feet, he looked up at her hoping she wouldn't ask anything of him.
"But she tells you more than she tells me," her tone may have been hushed, but there was still heated anger burning in it.
He couldn't tell her.
"She told you," Fleur walked away from him furiously, "of course she told him and with him being such a good petit Hufflepuff garçon, he didn't tell us."
Bill gestured for Teddy and Louis to evacuate into the front room, hopefully sparing them from any more fire that Fleur could send flying their way. It was a relief to not have to witness the full extent of Fleur's outrage; the guilt blocked his throat, making breathing more of a task and he wanted to change into a wolf so he could run out into the woods and hide from the uncomfortable situation. The pride he thought he should've felt for keeping his girlfriend's secret had been buried before its blossoming and he needed a very contrasting distraction from the on-edge feeling taking over him. As he turned to look down at Louis, he found bright blue eyes staring back up at him, with an evenly glowing smile and his small delicate hands wrapped around a pack of cards. Teddy took the cards from the gold curly haired angelic boy and smiled at him as he shuffled, doing occasional tricks that made Louis's eyes widen in astonishment. Still eagerly blowing, the wind's whistles could still be heard through the windows and paired with the chimes, it was something calming to focus on so Fleur's fury could be drowned out.
"Mama, will be okay," Louis assured as he sorted out his cards,
"I hope so; I don't like people being anything other than happy," Teddy replied as he placed a card down between them,
"I know. Mama says that's the most annoying thing about you."
Chuckling felt good but was short lived as soon as Fleur entered the room with the letter still clenched in her hand and her face as red as the seal for it. Louis tapped on Teddy's knee as he put down a card and forced his head down as if he was studying each card with the upmost concentration. Luckily, Teddy had his back to Fleur and merely willed himself to not turn around. Anyone would think that the pair were fearful of Fleur and anyone who thought that, was correct. However, the fear was never a 24/7 thing, it would only occur when Fleur had reached boiling point and all sensibility and control had evaporated.
"Snap!" Louis slammed his hand over the cards on the sofa and grinned as he watched Teddy add them to his growing pack.
Roughly, Fleur seized Teddy's shoulder, forcing him to turn to face her and drop some of his cards on the floor. Her eyes were violently fixed on him and glistened with tears of anger that her body pushed forward but her mind pulled back. He was in trouble. For what, he didn't know, and he was dreading finding out. Forcing himself to stay calm, he picked up the fallen cards and gradually, he began to feel less, and less light hit him as if something or someone was blocking it as they got closer to him.
"If you had told me earlier, this wouldn't be happening," Fleur's voice was sinisterly quiet as Teddy looked up to have her face inches away from his,
"It's not his fault, Victoire is an independent girl," Bill placed his hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off,
"But maybe if we had known and we had tried, our precious daughter wouldn't be part of the second most horrible thing I have ever experienced in my life!"
A force as rigid and damaging as a brick struck Teddy's chest as he realized what Fleur was talking about. Being part of the Triwizard Tournament meant someone he cherished and kept so close to his heart was going to be maybe as equally close to death. He had heard the stories from Uncle Harry and even had nightmares about them at a young age, but someone as precious as Victoire did not belong in such nightmares.
"Does this mean Vivi is a Triwizard Champion? That's so cool! We can make banners and t-shirts," the excitement in Louis's voice rammed the tension and negativity into a corner,
"That sounds like something we should get the family to help us with," Bill smiled at his innocent son.
There was no point looking at the uncertain bad side of things when the definite good to come out of this was that his girlfriend had achieved one of her goals that she had set her heart on. The brick that hit him crumbled and he began to feel proud as a small smile grew on his face. Louis nudged him to place down a card and when he did, the two slammed their hands over the cards and ended up fighting over who the winner was.
"Personne ne s'en soucie! Comment pouvez-vous ne pas vous en soucier?" it was obvious that this hit a sensitive point in Fleur that no one else had, "none of you have experienced how deadly those challenges are and we won't be able to protect her, we won't be doing one of our only jobs as parents! How can you just…not care?"
The hurt and terror covered Fleur's face and was seeping from her voice. Teddy turned back to her and stood up, looking down at her and wearing a look of sympathy and understanding.
"We do care. You're angry because you fear that she'll endure the consequences of history repeating itself and I understand that. But if we're not positive, we won't be able to support her the way she needs us to. I care about your daughter deeply and knowing she'll be in danger hurts, but the thought of her going through that danger without my support hurts even more," Teddy had never spoken so truthfully to Fleur.
He hoped that his words would calm her down as he watched her breath heavily and look down while fiddling with the letter. Cautiously, Bill came behind Fleur and wrapped his arms around her, reminding her that she wasn't alone in any of this. Instead of pushing him away, Fleur turned around and hugged him as she let go of all her worries. Looking at them and their height difference, reminded Teddy of how much he missed his precious blonde tulip and his arms began to feel cold with having her to hold.
As he sat back on the sofa to continue his game, Fleur gently kissed the top of his head, "Thank you, Teddy, you really do have your mother's kindness."
Hearing about his mother always made Teddy's heart soft and he shared a warm smile with Fleur as she sat with him, took the cards and prepared for the next game.