"In the days that follow, I discover that anger is easier to handle than grief."

On Christmas morning Teddie awoke in her bed at Flint Manor. She sighed and rolled over, kicking her legs out from under the comforter and stretching. Her head felt fuzzy and her body numb, while she had slept the previous evening, it still felt like she was half asleep. For two month's her dreams had been plagued with nightmares, but for the last few nights there had been nothing.

Her mind had all-but deserted her, leaving her to run over the last week's events without interruption. Her parents were dead - her loving and innocent muggle parents, who had done nothing in this world but raise two children to the best of their abilities were now gone - taken by the very people that had tortured Teddie at the beginning of the Summer holidays.

Aside from being numb, Teddie was angry. Every fiber in her body was telling her to hunt down those responsible and make them pay for what they had done, but there was one thing stopping her - Mason.

Mason had already lost his parents. Parents that had birthed him and given him a life that, in their minds, he didn't deserve. To Robert and Rose Green both Teddie and Mason deserved a life that they couldn't provide, but yet they did their absolute best to make sure that their children had everything that they wanted, and now, because of reasons beyond their control they were dead.

Ursula and Mo had been amazing to Teddie and Mason since they became orphans. While they had already invited them into their home and their lives, given them a place to stay and treated them like their own family, they also didn't push or force the siblings to face the consequences of their parents deaths. They had just left them to grieve in their own way.

After Dumbledore had revealed the horrifying truth, he had Flooed them straight to Flint Manor, as stated Ursula was waiting for them and immediately, she pulled Mason into a bone-crushing hug, holding him as he started to sob again. Teddie, however, was still numb from the reveal and merely stepped out of the fireplace, she accepted the hug from Ursula, but she didn't feel anything other than numbness.

The same numbness she felt now.

In the following hours, Theo arrived with Mo. He found Teddie in her room and was stunned by her attitude towards the truth. He was stunned to find that she hadn't cried yet, in fact, she hadn't spoken at all. It was like she was still processing what had happened and didn't believe what she had been told.

Teddie pushed herself off the side of her bed and padded across the cold wooden floor to her door. She opened it and stepped out, listening to the silence that filled the manor - it was still early, according to her watch, but she couldn't sleep anymore. She was more awake now that she had ever been.

Creeping down the stairs, Teddie entered the living room and found a great Christmas tree decked out in baubles and lights, all of them still twinkling from the night before, and beneath them a horde of presents with different names on the tags.

Teddie knew better than to start opening Christmas presents with her brother, and so settled into a corner of the large couch and waited for the rest of the house to wake up. She rested her head on a pillow, and allowed her mind to wander, although she refused to think about her parents, not wanting her emotions to cloud her judgement and force her to confront the reality that had befallen her.

She wasn't ready to face her parents death and would do anything to put it off for as long as possible.

~X~

The date of the funeral was set for the New Year - three days after Mason's birthday, to be exact.

If Teddie thought Christmas was hard that year, she hadn't been ready for Mason's birthday. Despite the Flint's going all out to celebrate his fourteenth including a grand party, including a cake and tons of presents, Mason still hid himself away in their library and sobbed into his books.

Once or twice Teddie joined him, holding him in her arms as he cried into her chest. But, even with her brother crying, she refused. She had to be strong. Mason was a mess, and she couldn't let him see her upset because she knew he needed her now more than ever. She had to be strong for him, even if that meant putting her own feelings and her own grieving on hold.

The night before the funeral, Daphne and Blaise arrived in Flint Manor. Darla, David, and Astoria accompanied Daphne and while Teddie was happy to see her friends, she couldn't cope with all the condolences and apologies that came with them. After dinner, she excused herself from the table and returned to her bedroom, locking herself away from the outside world. The only person that she permitted entry was Mason.

The day of the funeral, Teddie dressed in a simple black dress and, clutching Mason's hand, allowed Cerberus Langarm to Apparated her to the cemetery outside of Spinner's End. The whole street had turned up in attendance, including Caroline Kyle and even Professor Snape.

Teddie avoided Caroline like her life depended on it. She didn't necessarily hate the woman, but after learning the truth about what she and Snape had done to Robert and Rose, Teddie wasn't sure that she would be able to control her actions. While she knew that Caroline was not at fault for Robert and Rose' death, in Teddie's mind she was just as liable. If Caroline hadn't have brought Teddie to Snape, then Snape would not have suggested the Green's as adoptive parents, which, in turn, would not have led to them being targets of Voldemort or Avery.

If it hadn't had been for Caroline, then Mason's parents - her parents - would still be alive.

When the ceremony was over, Teddie returned to number 15, Spinner's End to collect the last of hers and Mason's things, before leaving her home behind for what would be the last time.

~X~

The evening before she was due to return to school, Teddie stood beside Priscilla's tank when there came a knock on her bedroom door. "It's open," she called, replacing the lid and turning to see Marcus standing on the threshold.

"I wanted to make sure you had everything ready for tomorrow," Marcus said, striding in. He joined Teddie at the snake tank and observed the ball python calmly. This was the first time he had ever met Teddie's larger snake and was stunned that she was a lot bigger than Teddie had described.

"Mason has already gone through my trunk," said Teddie. "He's confirmed it's all ready to go."

"Do you want me to get one of the House Elves to take it downstairs?"

Teddie shook her head. "No. I can do it tomorrow," she said, covering the tank with a cloth and walking over to a smaller one that housed Merlin and Morgana.

"Are you sure?"

Teddie nodded.

Marcus took a deep breath as he watched Teddie feed the two corn snakes. He hadn't really come to see if she was ready to return to school the next day, he wanted to see her because she had been pretty much avoiding everyone since finding out about her parents, and while he could understand she needed time to grieve, she didn't seem to be doing so.

"Ted –" Marcus started.

"I'm not going to do anything stupid," Teddie interrupted. "Trust me, I want to, but Mason needs me now more than ever. Sure, I raised him while our parents were at work, but they were still a constant in our lives, and I knew they were the responsible adults. But they aren't here anymore, and I am all Mason has. I'm not going to do something stupid that will take him away from me."

Marcus crossed the room and sat on the edge of Teddie's bed. "Okay. But how are you doing?" he asked. "And don't tell me you're fine because I know you're not."

"Then what do you want me to say?"

"The truth would be nice."

"The truth?" Teddie repeated. "The truth, Marcus, is that I want to do something stupid. I want to find them. I want to find Avery and Voldemort, hunt them down and make them hurt for killing my parents." She balled her hands into fists. "I want to see them beg for my mercy as I come for them like they came for my parents."

Marcus sucked in a breath as he watched Teddie shake in anger, her eyes filled with tears which spilled down her cheeks, curled at her chin and dripped down onto her pajamas. There was a shimmer around her whole body, and for a split-second Marcus was sure he was seeing Faye Sutherland for the first time, and not the fiery redhead that he had come to love.

Slowly, and carefully, he reached out. His hand wrapping around Teddie's wrist and causing her to look directly at him. Her usual green eyes were dark brown and hard, the tears that once filled them were completely gone and an anger and fire burned within them instead.

"Teddie," Marcus said, softly. He stood and pulled her too him, encircling her body with his arms and squeezing her to his chest. She was rigid for a moment before collapsing against him and sobbing. From the corner of his eye, he watched as the darkness that had come over her subsided and she returned to the broken sixteen-year-old that he knew her to be.

They stood in silence for a moment, Marcus merely holding Teddie as she cried. This was the first time she had shed a tear in four months, having been to afraid to do so in case she wouldn't be able to stop. The last time Teddie had cried over something she had been afraid of was when she had found out she was attacking students in her second year of school. Everything that had happened since last year, she had let pile up, preferring to try and ignore it than face the consequences of it.

"It's okay," Marcus soothed, running his fingers through her hair and rocking her silently. "You're okay. You're safe."

But Teddie pulled away and looked up into his face. "I may be safe," she said, sniffling. "But those I love aren't." She shook her head. "My parents were just the tip of the iceberg, Marcus. A way for Avery to tell me that no one can protect me, and if anyone tries, they'll die to."

Marcus watched as Teddie stepped away from him, reaching up to dry her eyes and wipe away the tears. He watched as she crossed the room and picked up her wand from the chest of drawers beside the door.

"This is only the beginning," said Teddie, twirling the wand between her fingers. "Avery's not finished. But then," she turned and met his gaze from across the room, a look of promised determination settling on her face, "neither am I."