Chapter 65: The Merry She-Wolf and the Pup
The youth rolled over on the couch with a groan as sunlight suddenly flooded the sitting room of his tiny little flat.
"Get up." The hard edge in his godfather's voice left no room for argument.
Teddy just lifted his head from the pillows melodramatically, blinking and squinting into the light. "The world is cruel and wicked," he moaned.
Harry Potter let out a sardonic chuckle. "Aye, that it can be, Romeo. But if a pissing contest is your aim, I'd say I still have you beat. 'Abusive childhood' and 'being hunted by a Dark wizard' are still far worse than 'getting dumped by your girlfriend.'
Teddy grunted and hauled himself off the couch, stumbling. "What do you want, Harry?"
"I want you to get a grip, and get over yourself. It's not the end of the world if you find yourself getting tossed out of a relationship. My first girlfriend broke up with me, back when I was at Hogwarts, and the sun still rose the next morning! You need to be willing to move on from Victoire too…."
"How?" Teddy moaned, rubbing at his eyes.
"By committing yourself to a schedule. Come on, get washed and dressed – I'm taking you into work with me!"
Teddy obeyed his godfather grudgingly, and the two men Side-Along Apparated together to the Ministry of Magic.
Teddy's anguish over losing Victoire was now shifting into bemusement as his godfather led him through the many divisions of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The pair finally stopped in front of a small office that was only about the size of a large broom cupboard, marked 'Lycanthrope Division.' Harry knocked on the door, and a female's voice replied, "Enter."
Harry poked his head in. "Wotcher, Lavender."
Lavender Brown glanced up from her desk and papers. "Hi, Harry. What can I do for you?"
Harry grinned. "You can do me a favor and hire an assistant." He threw the door open wide and before Teddy could protest, was shoving the boy inside. "Congratulations – here you are! The lad's green, to be sure, but he does have enough personal experience that he should work hard. Won't you, lad?" Harry grinned down at Teddy.
"Er….. I…."
"Brilliant! Thanks, Lav! Cheerio!" And Harry slammed the door shut.
Teddy and Lavender glanced at each other, then just as quickly looked away. Teddy awkwardly cleared his throat. He couldn't help but peer at her. She was older, probably about his godmother Hermione's age and decently pretty. Pretty enough that she was able to make the scars on the one side of her face and running down her neck work, if scars could be employed as a kind of fashion statement the way that Muggles sometimes used tattoos.
Teddy peered at her. "You fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, didn't you?"
Lavender nodded, her lips pursed. She was still staring down at her desk. Teddy drifted closer, nosily studying the piles of papers she was sorting, all scattered about a standard Muggle computer operating system.
"What are you working on?"
Lavender finally glanced up at him, and Teddy was struck by her eyes. They were azure, and sharp. "How about you dive in, and I'll tell you on the way?"
"OK," Teddy nodded.
Lavender's main project was to compile something called a Lycanthrope Registry, by which the Minister for Magic and her advisers could track all of the verified lycanthropes currently alive throughout the wizarding world. The databases main function was to know which lycanthropes would need financial assistance and legal protection from the federal government. Lycanthrope reform had not been easy to pass, yet Hermione Granger had nonetheless managed to pass a decent reform bill through the Merlinment in her first year as Minister.
"This Registry isn't like the one we have for Animagi," Lavender explained. "That one is so that the government can keep track who is registered as an Animagus and also watch for people who might attempt the potion and transformation illegally."
Teddy nodded absently, seated next to his…. well, he wasn't sure if Lavender counted as his boss. Certainly as a colleague. "Why isn't my Uncle Bill on here?"
Lavender smiled. "To be considered a lycanthrope, you have to be considered as one who was bitten, and one who undergoes a complete transformation at the full moon. As I understand it, Bill was only slashed, and he doesn't become a true wolf during the lunar cycle."
"Thank heavens…." Teddy breathed. He stole an awkward look at Lavender, and coughed. "I beg your pardon."
"It's all right." And she actually laughed. "I've heard far worse than that, and believe me, I don't blame you in the least for being glad your uncle doesn't have it worse…"
Teddy tried not to stare at the scars that ran down the one side of this woman's face and into the soft and creamy curve of her neck. They were faded to a baby pink; he wondered if Lavender had needed any kind of reconstructive surgery to repair them.
"Were….. were you bitten?"
Lavender nodded, her lips pursed. "Yup. By Greyback, during the Battle of Hogwarts." She pointed to the monster's name in the database, which thankfully showed the brute as deceased. Teddy followed the name further down the column until he came to another name that jumped out at him. He swallowed.
"Remus John Lupin…." He murmured. He bowed his head, letting out a shuddering breath as he thought of the father he'd never known.
He glanced up when he could feel Lavender looking at him, with a soft, sympathetic smile. "I knew your dad," she told him quietly. "He was a good man. A kind man."
"Yeah?" Teddy brightened. "And my mum?"
"Oh, she was a beautiful woman. Vivacious, and full of life."
"So, like you, then?" Teddy didn't know where this flirting was coming from, and decided he would back off if Lavender called him out on it.
She didn't, though she did blush, blinking. "Hardly. Tonks – that's what we called your mummy – was far more beautiful than I ever could be, even before I was bitten."
Lavender had a self-deprecating sort of humor naturally, and Teddy found that he liked that. He cleared his throat. "So….. if this registry database thing is so that Auntie and her team can track who needs federal benefits, why are we entering names like Greyback and my dad?"
Lavender smirked. "It never hurts to go above and beyond on a task, Teddy. When doing a compilation, why not account for the full history?"
Teddy nodded in agreement.
Teddy wasn't sure whether to feel saddened or heartened.
There were – had been – more lycanthropes than he thought, throughout history. Lavender explained that while most werewolf bite victims died from their wounds ("the lucky ones", she had called them), a vast majority of those who survived had been bitten during the Second War, so there was a sharp influx from that time period, around the turn of the millennium.
In most personal interactions, Lavender could be shy, yet sweet. Teddy found he liked asking her questions about what it had been like, during the war before and just after he was born. She had known his parents, spoke very highly of both of them. At the same time, there were things that Teddy would have preferred not knowing, such as this little nugget Lavender had blurted out one day during work: "I dated your uncle once. Briefly, during my sixth year."
"Which one?" Teddy had winced. Funnily enough, his first guess had been Uncle Bill. "I have an embarrassment of uncles, on the Weasley side of my family."
Lavender had turned pink. "Your…. well, your Uncle Ron, actually." She grimaced. "Not my proudest moment, to be sure." When Teddy would confront his aunt and uncle about this story later, Ron had turned a mortified shade of red in what could only be confirmation. Aunt Hermione, the Minister for Magic, on the other hand, had merely laughed it off.
"It was a long time ago, Ted," she told her godson. "We were…. young!" Teddy held onto that assurance, as he jolly well couldn't imagine his Uncle Ron with anyone other than his godmummy.
Teddy found that he liked working with Lavender every day. Gradually, she opened up to him – but only to a certain point. She was reticent to talk about her experience being mauled by Greyback; Teddy himself wasn't sure why he pushed on such a subject – perhaps it came from the compassion he had always felt towards people who were like his father. Sometimes, the woman's self-deprecating humor reached a point where it seemed like she was putting herself down.
"You don't have to be so condescending to yourself, you know," Teddy told her late one afternoon, while the pair were huddled together in Lavender's broom cupboard office.
Lavender shrugged. "It's not condescending; it's humility. Godric knows it's something I would have liked to have when I was younger." She smiled at him bittersweetly. "I could be very vain at times, when I was a girl, Ted. And selfish. I nearly destroyed your aunt and uncle's friendship when I was going out with him; I'm pretty sure the entire Gryffindor Common Room wanted to kill me!"
"Well, Gryffindors can run very righteous under the collar." At the bemused look she gave him, Teddy shrugged. "I'm a Hufflepuff; I can make that kind of joke. Especially when all of my cousins save for one are in Gryffindor!"
She chuckled. Teddy studied her.
"You know….. it's OK to take pride of yourself, you know."
"Oh, you sweet, naïve little boy…." Lavender laughed, shaking her head. "I lost pride in myself a while ago. I'm thankful enough your godmummy gave me this job, representing my kind…."
"Why?" Teddy asked.
"Well, your Aunt Hermione is one of the most forgiving people I've ever known…."
"No, no – not that. Why should you have lost pride in yourself? You're a survivor, aren't you? And from a pretty gruesome mauling, I'll be bound!"
"It's hard to be proud of something like that when you look in the mirror every day and see what that mauling took from you!" Teddy's heart twinged as Lavender wiped at her eyes. "I lost any chance at having a family…."
"My dad was bitten, and he still had a family," Teddy pointed out. "My Gran used to say that he was terrified he'd pass his condition onto me, even though my mummy always told him: lycanthropes are made, not born."
Lavender sniffled. "You know your history."
"I'm also jolly good at knowing people, Lavender. And I'm…. well, I just think, you just gotta let some of those things go! I mean – who wouldn't want you?" He gestured at her pretty face, pretty even despite her scars.
Lavender was peering at him oddly. "Really….?"
"Are you kidding? You're probably one of the prettiest birds who works in this building…"
"Oh, sod it….!" She threw herself at him – abruptly and quite unexpectedly. And when she kissed him, Teddy was surprised, but recovered enough that he was only too eager to snog her back.
They broke apart sharply, panting. Lavender looked thunderstruck, scandalized.
"Oh, Godric and Merlin, what have I done?..."
"Made out with me?" Teddy shrugged, answering the question literally.
"Godric, I am such a….." Lavender buried her face in her hands.
"Don't you dare belittle yourself!" Teddy warned her sharply.
"Why not? It's true! It isn't as though I'll ever learn! At least I wasn't acting like a cougar while going around with your uncle….."
Teddy just growled and pulled Lavender into his lap, and he kissed her hard. She whimpered and squeaked into his lips, but these sounds soon turned into plaintive moans as Lavender decided to follow her first instinct and kiss him back.
Teddy's lips were blazing a trail along her scars and down into the soft, sweaty curve of her neck. "Where else do you want me to kiss you?"
"Open… open my shirt," Lavender panted, already beginning to rock and bounce in his lips.
He did, and her blouse parted for him like curtains, revealing the round breasts of a mature woman under bra cups and Teddy nearly groaned in amazement.
"What else?"
She wrenched her bra cup free, to reveal strained, aching nipples. "Your mouth. Put your mouth on…. Ooohhh…." She lolled her head back to the sky as Teddy took her boob in his mouth, suckling on her nipple. They were rocking against each other faster now, building up friction between their centers, which were still maddeningly clothed.
Teddy and Lavender were quick to remedy this, however.
Hiking her skirts up over her hips, Lavender's hands trembled as she worked on Teddy's trousers to free him. He choked as she took his member in her fist and guided him to her wet and warm heat, which he could see was not covered by panties.
Like wolves in heat, the couple mated.
"Sa-Salvio Hexia….. Collo…..Colloportus….. Oh, yes, right there…." Lavender moaned melodiously, as she rode Teddy even while waving her wand and performing lock and ward charms on the door to their little office. Her sighs and grunts grew louder and more desperate in pitch, the faster they shagged.
At last, with a roar, Teddy ejaculated hard inside of her. Lavender came all around him seconds later, with a cry of ecstasy.
She collapsed atop her new lover, and for a time, they held each other, panting.
"Can…. Can I…..?" Teddy gasped.
"Oh, goodness, yes! Of course…. Of course…." And Lavender rose languidly off of him, so he could pull out like a gentleman. Tucking himself back in, Teddy stood, pulled her close and kissed her.
Victoire? Who was Victoire? He had all but forgotten that name.
Lavender drew away from the kiss, fear and sadness in her eyes. "This was a one time thing," she told Teddy, though she seemed to be trying to convince herself more than him.
"Bollocks." Teddy snorted.
Lavender gazed at him. "Yeah, you're right…." she breathed. "Bollocks…."
Within seconds, they were kissing hungrily again, and Teddy bent Lavender backwards over her desk before he mounted her, intent on ravishing her again.
"We really shouldn't be doing this…." Lavender moaned, even as she shucked her blouse up and over her head.
Teddy nodded in absent agreement. "It would be a terrible idea…."
They shagged once more.