Hello again! I had a hard time deciding whether to post this chapter here or as a seperate story, but in the end I thought it was more fitting in this particular fic.
This chapter is based on Teddy Lupin, as requested by Hawkstrike. Some Teddy x Victoire. Honestly, I see a lot of Teddy x Lily fics, and it baffles me. He's nineteen by the end of DH and she's ten. Ah well, each there own and so forth.
Enjoy!
He hates it when people tell him he looks like his parents.
It's meant as a compliment. But to him it feels like a dig, sharp as a needle being jabbed into his skin. But he smiles all the same, and usually they'll change the subject or let it pass without further comment.
Teddy Lupin, the prankster, the maverick, doesn't have scars. And he likes to keep it that way.
Truthfully, his metamorphmagus powers are both a blessing and a curse. It's easy to see why they're a blessing- after all, who wouldn't want to be able to change how they looked every now and then? Teddy changes his appearance so often that sometimes it's like there are ten different versions of him. He can be anybody he wants.
But sometimes, he's so busy wearing somebody else's face, shocking those around him with an outlandish new hair colour, that sometimes he forgets what he looks like underneath it all.
He tells himself he doesn't care.
But when he's alone, he lets himself just befor a while. He doesn't like to say "be himself", because even at the age of nineteen, he still doesn't really know himself.
He gets a shock when he looks in the mirror sometimes and sees a dark-haired young man with teeth that are a little too pointed and silver-grey eyes that, if you look closely, are flecked with yellow. Even when he changes his eye-colour, he swears that he can still see the minute slivers of gold.
He is a little mysterious, even to his closest friends. He lets people see what he wants them to see, not what's really there. Most people fall for it.
She doesn't.
Teddy doesn't know if it's because of her Veela heritage, whether it's taught her something about appearances only being skin-deep, because Victoire is so pretty that it makes his chest ache to look at her. He wonders if it's hard for her, being noticed only for her looks and having a name like that, Victory, like a living testament to the past.
As a practiced mask-wearer himself, he notices little things about Victoire Weasley, things that not everybody else notices. Her mouth always tightens slightly, her eyes become a little glassy when she is speaking to people she doesn't like. How when she talks, her face lights up and her eyes shine brightly. She's very quiet- although it's not a demure, shrinking-violet shyness. It's this watchfulness, like she's waiting for something, and she has a way of looking at Teddy and he knows exactly what she means, without having to say a word.
I can see right through you, Teddy Lupin.
And that's what he's afraid of.
Sometimes, he feels guilty.
Teddy visits Harry's house so many times, and he often thinks of Grandmother sitting alone in their small house, trying not to think of the memories that hover in every dark corner, like shadows. But when he asks her if she wants to come, she usually declines and should he offer to stay, she shakes her head and gives him that bittersweet smile and tells him, No, you go. Have a good time. Give my best to them.
Teddy likes the bright, constant energy of his godfather's house. James, Al and Lily all cluster around him, squealing his name over and over again; TeddyTeddyTeddyTeddy! He feels comfortable in crowded places, and he likes to sit and let the noise and chaos of everything wash over him, living each moment as it comes along.
But even though he loves being a small part of their family, he's jealous. He's so jealous that it makes him feel sick. Why was it his parents and grandfather who had to die, leaving him and grandmother all alone? Why does he always feel like an outsider, like a flashy entertainer? He's a liar, he's a fake, he's pretending, but really he doesn't know what he is, who he is- so he puts on a smile and lets everybody think he's just Teddy Lupin, trickster, somebody who doesn't have a care in the world. Somebody who isn't in pain.
But then, isn't that what he wants everyone to believe?
An angstier chapter then the last one, but I think Teddy's overall character has reason to be, to be honest.
Once again, reviews are love. :)