A/N- This is the last part for this series. I hope you enjoyed it and please do leave a review if you did!
Cheers!
December 2013,
Emily tugged self consciously at her dress, which was a beautiful midnight blue, and much more revealing than anything she'd ever worn in her entire life. It had a slit and was completely backless. Tara and Tracey had transfigured the dress for her for the Lunar Ball and had hence managed to cajole her into wearing something that she definitely wouldn't normally wear. But then again, she thought wryly, I am two months away from turning sixteen, if I don't do something reckless now when am I supposed to do it?
She glanced at the clock on the wall in the Gryffindor common room, it was ten past eight, Teddy was supposed to meet her in the common ten minutes ago. It was just like him to be late.
They'd decided to go to the ball together as friends, since neither one of them really had anybody that they really wanted to go with.
She sighed and tapped her foot impatiently, she was wearing silver stilletos and bloody hell did they hurt! Thank Merlin for Tracey who'd quietly slipped her a Pain-Relief balm to rub on her feet because she was about ready to-
"Waiting for someone, my lady?"
Emily jumped and turned to see Teddy standing there smirking at her, dressed in his best suit and looking extremely pleased with himself even though he was a full(she glanced at the clock) fifteen minutes late.
"You're late," she said glaring at him.
Teddy winced. "I was hoping you'd gloss over that bit."
She pushed past him and headed to the portrait hole.
"Have I told you," he said jogging after her, "how absolutely stunning you look Em?"
They'd reached the portrait hole by then.
"Flattery is going to get you nowhere." she said climbing out and continuing down the hallway.
"Okay. What about a dance?" he said grabbing her arm and pulling her to a stop.
Emily looked into his eyes(which were a startling blue that day) and felt a weird swooping sensation in her stomach. The idea of dancing with Teddy, being in close proximity to him was making her feel extremely giddy and light-headed, which was ridiculous because she'd been in close proximity to him multiple times.
"Em?" Teddy asked her, looking concerned.
"Are you okay? You've gone all flushed."
"Yes," said Emily, what was wrong with her? It was just Teddy! "I'm fine."
"So what about that dance?" said Teddy walking with her.
"No."
"Oh come on, just one dance?"
"Ask me again when the slow songs start." said Emily, smirking at him when she caught his eye.
"My lady," said Teddy, bowing to her dramatically and offering her his arm, "would you care to make our grand entrance inside?"
"Why of course, kind sir," said Emily with a faux curtsey, "I'd be honoured."
And together arm in arm, with big smiles on their faces they entered the Great Hall.
A/N- Before we start on this part of the story, I just want to say that the illness mentioned here tepiphemia, does not exist. It is an illness I made up to suit my needs for this story. Now that that disclaimer is out of the way let us get on with the story.
March 2015,
Teddy Lupin laid his head down on the table in the library, he was exhausted. He had a ton of homework due tomorrow (being in sixth year was a right pain in the arse), he was captaining the Gryffindor Quidditch team and was preparing them for the upcoming match against Hufflepuff(who were extremely strong that year) and of course dealing with the general trials and tribulations of a teenage boy.
But the above mentioned reasons were not why he was exhausted.
He was exhausted because he'd spent all his energy that day in trying to find one Emily Wood.
Emily had gotten a letter at breakfast which had made her turn as white as the ghostly form of Nearly Headless Nick, and before Teddy could ask her what that was about she'd bolted from the Great Hall.
That was the last anyone had seen of her.
She hadn't shown up to class or lunch or even at his and Emily's special meeting spot in the Astronomy Tower where they liked to discuss everything from the delights of shepherd's pie to the comparative analysis between the legendary duels of Grindelwald and Dumbledore and Harry Potter and Voldemort.
She had simply vanished off the face of the Earth.
Teddy put his face into his hands and groaned softly. Where could she be? He'd looked everywhere! This was trying him stark-raving mad. He was worried about her. Couldn't she see that? Why hadn't she come and found him yet? They were supposed to be best friends. Though lately, he did admit that the dynamic between them had changed...almost as if his feelings toward her had changed. That was ridiculous. She was his best friend and- he was getting off track!
Where was he?
Yes, why hadn't she-
"Hello, Teddy."
Teddy bolted upright on his chair and turned to see Emily sliding into a chair next to him. Teddy squinted at her, a very red and swollen eyed Emily.
"You look like shite." he told her conversationally.
"Thank you Teddy."
"Where have you been?" said Teddy, scooting closer to her, "You haven't attended class, the last time I saw you were running out of the Great Hall with that letter." At the mention of the letter, Emily's eyes filled with tears. "What happened, Em?" he asked in a much softer tone, putting his hand over hers.
"I-the letter-" Emily couldn't seem to go on and she started to cry softly.
Teddy quickly wrapped his arms around her and let her cry. For all the years they'd been best friends, Teddy had never seen Emily cry .
The opposite was not true. Emily had held him, much as he was holding her now, when he was looking at a picture of his parents holding him in a photo album that Uncle Harry had given him. He'd bawled like a baby on her shoulder and she'd let him. And when he'd been too embarrassed to look at her after his little crying fest, she'd told him to never be ashamed of his tears because that didn't make him any less of a man.
It made him more of one because tears were not gender-specific.
He was thinking of that moment, while holding Emily, rocking her back and forth as she continued to sob and rubbing her back whenever new bouts of sobbing started.
Finally, when her sobs were reduced to hiccups, she pulled away from him and wiped her eyes.
"Thank you," she said taking a deep shuddering breath.
"No problem," he said, looking at her intently. He would not push her. He would wait for her to tell him on her own. In the meantime, he'd provide as much support as he possibly could.
"My mother's been diagnosed with tepiphemia."
Teddy sucked in a breath. He knew what tepiphemia was, Aunt Audrey's(Uncle Percy's wife) mother had died from it a year or two ago. It had broken Aunt Audrey and she wasn't herself for some time. Tepiphemia was an extremely rare and incredibly fatal disease for witches. What made it so deadly was the fact that no amount of magical remedies had found a cure for it yet, even with the best Healers in charge of the proceedings.
"Em," he breathed reaching over to her face as she began to tear up again, "I'm so sorry."
He put his hands on her cheeks and she leaned her forehead against his.
Her tears were dripping down on his hands but he did not care. All he cared about was somehow making the pain that was wrecking Emily apart to go away. He didn't even mind sharing the pain with her as long as she didn't have to continue to go through it.
They continued to stay like this, over the course of time Teddy had pulled her into a hug, with his chin resting atop her head and her face pressed against his chest, wishing he could do something -anything!- to help his best friend.
July 2016,
"We made it Em," said Teddy smiling down at her softly, her heart did a little backflip as she looked at him. He'd changed his hair to a bright blue in honour of graduation day and was wearing that signature troublemaker grin that she'd come to love.
Love. It seemed foreign in her head, but she knew that's what it was. She, Emily Wood, was completely and utterly, irrevocably in love with her best friend, Teddy Lupin.
She smiled softly, the feelings had just built up over the last two years ever since that funny sensation at the Lunar Ball. The very brief dance that they'd shared that night had been enough to convince her of the fact that she definitely didn't have just friendly feelings for him.
Did he feel the same way? Well, that was the million dollar question. She didn't think so. He'd been perfectly normal, she was the one who had her heart race faster than the superfast Supersonic 101 broomstick Teddy was obsessed with.
"Yes, we really did." she said in response to Teddy. "I can't believe it."
"You should be able to," said Teddy matter-of factly, " considering you graduated as Head Girl. Miss Prim and Proper, Miss Perfect, Miss-"
"Shut up," said Emily, punching his arm playfully.
"You would've been Head Boy if you hadn't pulled that water prank on Professor Hildegard last year."
"Oh yes," said Teddy fondly, "my greatest ever. Got me detention for about four weeks but it was so worth it."
Emily shook her head in amusement as they continued to walk towards the castle, where the congratulatory feast was being held.
"So uh what-what happens next?" said Teddy in a too-casual voice.
"Well," she said slowly, "I go off to Healer training, you go off to Auror training, we write letters to one another, complaining about the workload, threatening to drop out but neither of us will because we're doing things that we are passionate about."
"And what if," Teddy kicked a stone, "what if I wanted the letters to contain more than just that?"
Emily sucked in a breath, she didn't trust what her ears were telling her.
"What do you mean?" she asked. She needed to be sure.
"I mean," said Teddy, gazing off into the distance, "What if I wanted the letters to include how crazy I am about you"(her heart was beating like crazy) "how I've been in love with you for a really long time but it took me about five years to realize it because I'm a right idiot." He was looking at her, his eyes searching her face, trying to gauge her reaction.
Emily couldn't bear it anymore, she stepped forward and pressed her lips to his, kissing him the way she'd always wanted to.
He was caught by surprise, she could tell, but it didn't take him that long to recover and soon he responded to her kisses with equal fervour.
Finally they broke apart for breath, looking at each other as if for the very first time.
"What if I told you," Emily said gasping for air, "that I wanted the exact same thing?"
Teddy grinned widely at her and said-"What my lady wants, she gets."
Emily grinned and kissed him.
All was right with the world.
--FINISH--
A/N- And that's a wrap people! I hope you enjoyed this story and if you did please do leave and share it with all your friends who you think would be interested in something like this.I will not be writing any more Teddy/Emily stories, that's it for their story but I have another story up called Time After Time so please do check it out!Stay safe!Peace!
