Teddy and the Marauders

twenty-six

Chapter 26

Victoire Weasley

Unfortunately for the three in their group with werewolf blood, it soon came time for the monthly full moon. Again, it had landed in the middle of another school break. The night of the full moon, the three with werewolf blood, and the rest of the Marauders, stayed up to deal with this 'Furry little problem'.

Unbeknownst to them, the girls were staying awake too. You would have to think them pretty clueless to not know Remus' secret after almost seven years, and now even more since Vic was sharing a dorm with them. It also helped that Victoire had admit to Lily that first day back after winter break.

Remus had gone to the Hospital Wing about an hour before, but now, James led the way with the Marauders Map in hand. They had given up on trying to hide themselves under the Cloak of Invisibility. Three people was hard enough to cover with their growing size, but add Victoire and Teddy and the cause was hopeless. They just vowed to duck into classrooms should anyone be coming in their direction as told to them by the Map.

Victoire walked slowly. She thought back to about three months before. Her first full moon. It had been quite a crazy and exhausting night for her. She replayed the events in her head.

She was scared. That's the emotion she had felt most. She didn't even have the comfort of wolfsbane under her belt. She might have been able to make it had she had the recipe, but alas this being the past, no such luck. She knew that Teddy, James, Sirius, and Peter would be there, but so would Remus. Not Remus, but Moony.

She and Remus were walking down from the tower about an hour after dinner. They were mostly silent. Both felt tense and nervous. Victoire was biting back tears. When they arrived at the Hospital Wing, they were met by Madam Pomfrey's pitied eyes. She led them to the Whomping Willow whispering quiet word of encouragement.

"You can do this." she had whispered. Something about the Healer's words comforted Victoire.

Victoire followed half a step behind to the Whomping Willow. Her heart was in her throat. She felt like she was going to throw up.  Once in the shrieking shack, Remus sighed at the familiar room. He moved over to the bed and sat down. He looked awful. He was pale, and his eyes were amber, his hair was messy and was soon going to get messier. It couldn't have been more than five minutes before James, Sirius, Peter, and Teddy showed up.

"You guys might want to change soon." Remus advised the boys "The moon is going to be out soon."

"You ready Vicki?" Teddy asked Victoire.

"No." she admit "I'm terrified."

"We'll get you through this Vic. Don't you worry." the boys reassured her.

"Ok. Just, change now, i don't want you getting hurt."

Soon the room was filled with a stag, a dog, a rat, and a bear. The little Teddy bear walked up to Vic and nudged himself into her. Vic wrapped her arms around him.

"One minutes Victoire." Remus warned.

Remus' face started to contort in pain. He cried out. His limbs started to grow and shift. His scream changed to more of a howl. Soon, no longer was a man standing in front of Victoire, but a wolf. Prongs and Padfoot moved to take a protective stance in between Moony and Victoire, who oddly hadn't changed.

"Teddy!" She cried out hysterically. Her breath had quickened considerably and she was right on the verge of hyperventilating. She was trying to scramble away from the howling werewolf, but she was delirious from fear and not having much luck. "Teddy! What the fuck am I supposed to do?! I'm not changing!"

The bear that was Teddy bit into the sleeve of Victoire's robes and dragged her towards the door, while Prongs and Padfoot kept Moony at bay after he had noticed the presence of a human close by. He was frantically trying to get past the stag and the dog, but the two were well rehearsed and kept him back.

In the tunnel, the bear pushed the door firmly shut and shifted back to Teddy.

"Vicki, I need you to calm down." he gripped her shoulders and looked into her eyes. She gave a weak nod before Teddy pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her. He whispered "It's okay" over and over again into her ear, hopeful it would drown out the noise of scratching and howling from inside the shack.

Once Vic had finally calmed down, it was clear she wasn't going to change. Teddy took her hand and led her out of the tunnel and toward the Forbidden Forest. Together they started running. Mid-run, they both shifted. For the rest of the night, the horse and the bear ran throughout the forest like it was any other full moon when Teddy had needed to run around.

When dawn had hit the horizon, the two headed back. When they reached the edge of the forest they shifted back to their human forms. Hand in hand they made their way to the already frozen Whomping Willow. James, Sirius and Peter were climbing out of the tunnel after another full moon.

"How is he?" Victoire asked just as James asked "How are you?" After a quick laugh, James repeated his question.

"I didn't change." Vic stated "like, at all."

"Why?' Peter asked

"I don't know."

"How's Remus?" Teddy asked

"Tonight started out hard for him, but it wasn't so bad after Vic and you left." Sirius explained to them.

"That's good."

Victoire was thinking back to that night from the 'present day'. Though it was her happiest memory, she still thought back to it fondly. It could have gone so many worse ways. She was so grateful it didn't.

After that night, the whole squad had gone into research mode. Everyone had been so curious. There was a one hundred percent change rate among bitten werewolves. They only really had a solid theory after they called Madam Pomfrey into the search. She had taken a blood sample from Vic and ran some tests on it. The sample showed werewolf genes were, indeed, inside her, however, it wasn't enough. It wasn't quite... right. It was a mutated werewolf gene. It had seemed that the werewolf in her blood from birth -courteous of her father- had fought the slew of new wolf genes, and they had both lost, or won. Either way they had wiped out most of each other and those that remained had fused together.

Either way, Victoire wasn't a werewolf.

(A/N: Heloo! Little twist for y'all. Hope you like. I am sooo happy right now because i only have to use one crutch now. My sister's even luckier because she doesn't have to use any anymore. She can walk all on her own. I'm also happy because my mom said I can delay my second procedure if I want to so I can enjoy my summer more. The answer is wholeheartedly yes to that. Anyways.... I'm going to stop myself before I start ranting about why crutches are the ABSOLUTE worst. Bye! -JUL)