Teddy and the Marauders

thirty-nine

Chapter 39

One final day of exams. One final night at the castle. One final day in the four posters. One final breakfast in the Great Hall. One final speech from the headmaster. One final trip to Hogsmeade. One final ride on the Hogwarts Express.

They had passed their exams, made sketchy plans for the near future, and graduated the beloved school. Our Gryffindors deboarded from the train and onto Platform 9 ¾ after their last school year.

Each felt empty, of course. They all had varying degrees of things missing. The most obvious, and the thing connecting them, was Dorcas. No word of her had shown up and no one knew what to do.

Victoire and Teddy shared their further loss. They had lost their entire world for something of a vague replica made of stories they had been told. They had each other but missed their family dearly.

Lily and Sirius had a similar, but lesser, loss to Victoire and Teddy. They had each lost family. Lily lost her sister to petty jealousy and wrong thinking; Sirius had lost his entire family to poisoned mindsets and standing up to what he believed right.

Marlene had also lost her family. She had almost lost her life and she was so great full  to be alive but she felt gaps in her heart that were taken to her by death.

Alice and James felt like they had lost their way. They didn't know what to do with themselves. Sure they had studied to become Aurors, but it almost didn't seem worthwhile anymore. There was a war coming and going to work for a corrupted system seemed like a poor choice.

Peter had definitely lost his way. He knew he had failed some of those exams and he knew his job options were limited. He didn't have rich parents lime James, his mum was quite poor, he couldn't rely on her alone to support himself. He had felt a pull from the wrong side. He felt it his only option but he resisted. He didn't know how much longer he could or how desperate he might get.

*******

There were familiar faces on the platform. James and Lily's parents were both there, along with Remus' father and Peter's mother. Marlene's aunt was off to the side, not speaking to anyone and Sirius' parents stood far from the others and avoided the gaze of onlookers save to glare at them once or twice. Victoire ' heart pulled in her chest when she saw Molly and Arthur Weasley along with little Charlie Weasley, all waving to Bill. Dorcas' mum was there. Her eyes looked hopeful but her face looked grim. She must have been told about her daughter's disappearance but had still shown because she hoped the headmaster had been wrong. Frank Longbottom was there to meet his girlfriend for the first time since they met in Hogsmeade that year.

*******

When they stepped onto the platform, some of the group broke off immediately muttering only a quick goodbye to each and a promis to write, such as Marlene and Peter.  Others lingered for a longer goodbye, such as Alice and Remus. Remus even went so far as to promise James and Sirius that he would see them Tuesday night for drink at the Leaky Cauldron.

Lily bid them each farewell with a hug, James got a kiss too, and left to find her family.

Teddy was quickly visited by Tonks, who told him goodbye and that she would miss him in their weekly lessons with the transfiguration teacher.

Bill visited Victoire who dragged her over to his mum for a quick visit. Before she left, she made the remaining three promise not to leave before she got back.

"Mum!" Bill called out to Molly. "This is who I told you about. The girl who help me with charms all this year."

"Oh, hello dear." Molly smiled warmly at Vic. Arthur gave her a friendly smile but was quite preoccupied with a squirming Charlie. "I have to say we owe you quite a bit of gratitude, Victoire. Bill has told us he's gotten quite good at charms by now. I hope you can agree."

"Of course!" Victoire told the woman who viewed her as a stranger "I'd be very surprised if Bill didn't ace his exams. He should do well in the years to come too."

"I'm so glad." Molly turned to her son "Bill, it's time to say goodbye. Charlie here is getting restless, and I left your brothers with Aunt Marge, so they won't be too happy waiting."

"Bye Vic!" Bill flung himself into Vic and wrapped his arms tightly around her. "Will I ever see you again?" His voice was almost a whisper.

"I'm sure you will." Victoire said before pausing. "Maybe not for quite a while but you will."

Victoire made her way back over to where she had left the others. True to their word, Sirius, James, and if course Teddy were all waiting for her.

"Well I suppose you two will be heading out then?" She said

"Yeah, in time." James shrugged. Teddy looked at him with an odd expression.

"James here likes to wait until all our friends are off the platform before he leaves himself. Make sure no one gets left behind." Sirius explained

"Oh, well that nice and all of you, but Vic and I don't really know where we're headed. We haven't really talked about it I'm much detail." Teddy tole them "You don't need to wait for us."

"Nonsense." James scoffed. He grabbed the two time travelers by their free arms, the ones not attached to their trunks, and dragged them over to his parents. Sirius followed behind dragging both his and James' trunks. "Mum!" James explained in a much similar fashion to how Bill had said it earlier. "This is Vic and Teddy."

"Nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Potter." Vic said politely to the couple.

"Please, call me Dorea. And this is my husband Fleamont." James' mother smiled.

"Hey, mum, dad." Sirius hugged each of his surrogate parents.

"Sirius, m'boy." Fleamont boomed "Did'ya do well on your exams?"

"I did fine I think." Sirius shrugged, uncharacteristically modest.

"Fine?" Fleamont repeated "Watch the owls come in, full marks for both my sons." James rolled his eyes at his dad.

"James, do your friends want to come over?"

"Could they, mum? They don't have anywhere to go."

"Why of course!" Dorea put her arm around Teddy. "You two can stay as long as you like. We've got plenty of room, plenty of food, and lots of old movies to watch late at night. I know Sirius and James do that a bit too often. The only thing is, you'll have to deal with Fleamont's bad jokes. He thinks they're funny but they're sadly not."

"Nonsense!" Fleamont protested. "You like my jokes, don't you Sirius?"

"Yes, of course." Sirius pipped up immediately.

"You only said that because he's your father." Dorea laughed. "Now, let's get home, shall we?"

(A/N: Well, I deleted the A/N chapter so this officially means I'm home from vacation! On my last day of travels we had an eight hour drive and I took it upon myself to write for you. I have four unpublished chapters including this one so you'll have regular updates from me daily. They were all written on my phone so I'm sorry for any typos. -Jul)