Teddy and the Marauders

sixty-one

Victoire fled from the Hospital Wing. She hardly knew what she was thinking. Bill hadn't given her any reason to think she wasn't too late... had he? No he hadn't. So then why was she still running?

She had hope. What a dangerous thing to have. Hope.

What was she hoping for? For life? For time not to play out as it was originally intended? Foolish. She's foolish. She knew it too. She shouldn't be running. She should be at Teddy's bedside. She should be waiting for Teddy to get better. Waiting to know he's ok. So why?

She had hope. What a dangerous thing. Hope.

So what's next. She made a left, then a right. She sprinted up the stairs. She heard yelling and screaming. Maniacal laughing. Pleading, begging. Vic slowed. She crept up the rest of the stairs. She peered around the corner. Four figures facing away. One more facing towards. But... wait. His hand. It wasn't black, or grey, or dying. It was a healthy flesh. Her and Ted had talked to him about that hand. It had worked. He wasn't dying.

She had hope. What a dangerous thing. Hope.

He wasn't dying. But he was still going to die. Only one person had survived the Killing Curse. He wasn't going to survive the next ten minutes. A spell is going to kill him. And Vic couldn't do anything to save him. Not without killing herself in the process. Those are dangerous people in there. No... she had to try. There was something she could do.

She had hope. What a dangerous thing. Hope.

She crept out a little further. She looked from person to person. Finally she made eye contact with Dumbledore. The not dying man who's going to die. He made a slight face at her. Before he spoke the words, "Please, Severus." The flash of green flooded the room. Vic had to hold her mouth to stop her from screaming. She backed out of the room silently.

She didn't have hope. What an awful, dangerous, soul-crushing thing. Hope.

He was dead. Dead, dead, dead. Dead to the bone. And she was about to be if she didn't move. Those four dangerous people? Well they were about to walk right by her. She didn't have a doubt they wouldn't have a problem making her dead too.

So she ran. Running isn't awful. Hope is.

How could such a little amount of renewed hope crush her so bad. It destroyed her. Hope for a man she barely knew. Life is awful. Death is awful. Hope is awful.

Death claimed two tonight. Dumbledore and Hope. Hope.

She fled back to the Hospital Wing. She had thought that she would be able to fix things, but no. She let the rest of the night play out as it did. She went back to Teddy. She didn't say anything. She just sat by his bed and held his hand as he slept.

No hope. None at all. Hope.

She started crying. Teddy slowly woke up and he laid there groggily. Molly came over and gave her another hug. Bill gave Fred a message to give her another hug for him. Everyone thought she was crying over Teddy. She wasn't. But she couldn't tell them that. They spent more time comforting her than they spent with either Teddy or Bill combined. She couldn't tell them why she was crying. They didn't know yet.

They had hope. What a dangerous thing. Hope.

Eventually, Vic broke down. She stopped crying. She leaned over and rested her head on Teddy's bed. She hiccuped every now and then but she wasn't crying. Soon, someone came in. They broke the news. Everyone looked at her differently. They knew she knew.

They didn't have hope. What a dangerous thing. Hope.

No one spoke anymore. Not until Fleur returned. She had left for a bit after talking to Madam Pomfrey about who knows what for a long time. Molly started muttering about how the wedding will be canceled. Fleur threw up a big stink about that. Harry popped in halfway through that conversation, but no one payed him much attention.

He didn't have hope. He never did. Hope.

Remus came in. Tonks followed soon after. She was making a fuss about Remus. Everyone was pushing him but he didn't want to hear it. Eventually they got him to say yes. Teddy let out an obnoxiously loud and everyone looked to him. The few that knew, smiled. The others wrote it off as being apart of his feverish stupor.

(A/N: Ok... by my guess (I totally don't know) we only have about 10 or less chapters together here. I really want to know what people think about a sequel/companion book. It won't be a direct continuation of this book, but it will touch on other things going on. I can't say much more than that without spoiling what I have planned for the rest of this book. It won't be anywhere near as long as this book, but I think It would be really good. I already wrote the first chapter and I love it so far. Anyways, just PLEASE let me know. -Jul)