Teddy and the Marauders

thirty-one

Chapter 31

Victoire Weasley and Teddy Lupin

Victoire quickly found herself in the forbidden forest. She shifted into her horse form, and started running. She was quite sure where exactly Teddy would be, so she had to search. The light was quickly fading. The dusk light casted an eerie shadow in the limited places light was able to pierce through the limited canopy.

Alas, she came upon a clearing,deep in the forest. A boy with deep green hair, almost the colour of the leaves, was sitting on a log. His head was buried in his hands and there were tears streaks down his hands. Teddy really looked awful.

Slowly and carefully, Horse-Victoire approached him entering the clearing that was lit by the tip of Teddy's propped up wand. One carefully placed hoof at a time, she moved closer. She tried not to be entirely silent, not wanting to scare him but not wanting to disturb him. Teddy didn't raise his head at all though, when Vic stepped on twig and  it broke rather loudly under her. She let out a sigh that translated into more of a snort through her horse body.

Teddy looked up. He stood too. He turned his head to the side, looking at her. He thought he recognized the horse but wasn't quite sure if it was who he was thinking of. He slowly reached out and took a few steps toward the mare. Naturally, since vic wasn't intimidated by Teddy, she didn't run. She let the boy place a hand on her snout. Teddy reached his other hand to move some of her hairs away from her left ear. He uncovered five small pale brown line markings that looked like a star. Victoire's special marking imitating the same birthmark she had in her human form hidden in her hairline.

"I'm so glad you found me." Teddy breathed. Victoire changed back into her human form after Teddy removed his hands. As soon as her body had normalized,teddy wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her into his chest. "I love you Victoire. I really, really love you but I've been to scared to admit it." He was saying this all really quietly into Victoire's hair, not quite sure if she could hear him. He wasn't sure if he cared either. "I was given the perfect opportunity to tell you but I blew it and caused a fight between us and our friends."

Victoire's hands fell to her side. No longer loosely wrapped around Teddy's back. Teddy let go soon after, realising Victoire's sudden movement. He looked at her face. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly agape. She looked rather, stunned.

"Vic?" Teddy asked carefully

"You- you love me?" she stuttered. She leaned forward as if the answer she was about to get would be in a whisper. Her answer was in fact, not a whisper. Teddy had summoned his last little bit of courage and pressed his lips to hers. It was a quick kiss, but it was enough for Victoire to know he was serious. "I love you too." she whispered. They both started to laugh. With an awkward silence that followed them, neither knew what to do, so they laughed.

After they had sobered up slightly, they sat on the log to talk.

"You know, we are going to get the biggest 'I told you so' ever from Lily and James." Victoire said

"If they say anything to me after what I said to them." Teddy mumbled to them

"Nah," Vic shook her head "I'm like 80% sure they feel just as bad as you do for the fight."

"How could you know that?"

"Teddy Lupin! How dare you question my intelligence? I am a Ravenclaw, goddammit!" Vic smirked at the end, unable to keep up the sarcastic charade. This brought a small smile to Teddy's face.

"I'm not questioning your intelligence, I'm just questioning your facts."

"My correct facts are my pride! Now you question my pride? I am a Gryffindor, goddammit!" They laughed again.

"But for your point about Lily and James, just pretend like all this never happened." Teddy said

"That's not going to happen, little bear. You can't resist me."

"Hey, i did for seventeen years, what like a week or two? And little bear? Really?"

"What? It could be your Marauder name."

"No way. Marauder names are clever and don't outright reveal the animagus. Little bear is just a cartoon character from when we were growing up."

"Whatever." Vic mocked disgust "You just can't see the creative genius."

"I'm serious."

"No, Sirius is a dog. You're a bear."

"I can't even with you."

"Yes you can. You love me."

"That I do." he pecked Victoire on the cheek.

"Are we really going to hide this?" Victoire's face went serious

"It's either that or face our friends."

"That give us no choice, then."

"What's our story?" Teddy asked her

"What if we got into another fight?" she suggested

"Is that believable?"

"No, we can't possibly be having a fight over nothing. Yes it believable! We fought over nothing for an entire term over nothing we were just too proud to apologize. It took me being bitten by a bloody werewolf to bring us back together!"

"Right." Teddy gave a halfhearted smile "Let's never do that again."

"Agreed" They were silent for another moment "Teddy?" she asked

"Yeah, love." Teddy didn't admit it out loud, but it made him feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside by just saying that. Victoire didn't say it either,but it made her feel the same way.

"I apologize in advance for the insults i'm going to throw at you. This isn't going to be a passive fight. We are going to have screaming matches."

"Then I apologize too."

When the two finally made their way back to the common room, it was dead silent. Everyone, it seemed had gone to bed. At the bottom of the stairs, Teddy and Victoire shared another kiss.

"Goodnight, you bloody bastard." She smiled at him

"Goodnight, you scheming witch."

They both snuck into bed and mentally tried to prepare themselves for the days to come.

(A/N: I'm too tired to write a proper A/N. Goodnight. <3 -Jul)