The Magic of Time (A Harry Potter fanfiction)

Advice for Adventures

Teddy Lupin had been one year old when he first met his best friend. Granted, at the time, he sincerely disliked her for three reasons that he had considered extremely serious. His first reason being that it was because of her that, instead of staying the night with his godfather, Harry Potter, like it had been planned, he had to sleep in a very uncomfortable car seat while Harry drove them to the hospital. His second reason was that all of the people who had been like family to Teddy were completely ignoring him, which was unacceptable to him to say the very least. Finally, the third reason, and possibly the most important one, was the mere fact that when he met her for the first time, she highly resembled the look of an oversized, squishy, bald rat wrapped tightly in a bundle of pink cloth. Everyone else, however, did not seem to share his opinion.

"She's beautiful!" squealed Ginny, who had a few tears running down her face as she clutched Harry's hand tightly in her own.

Teddy's gaze shifted to his Grandma Weasley, who also was staring down at the ugly thing in the blankets with tears shining on her cheeks. Teddy still couldn't understand what was so special about this uninvited baby. She had made Fleur complain about being fat for a very long time and also snap at anyone who tried to comfort her, making her very unpleasant company.

Teddy squinted hard at the baby, trying to see what everyone else saw. Finally he gave up and looked at Harry.

“Is she going to get pwettier?” he asked, still unable to pronounce his r's correctly. George Weasley, who was standing close beside Teddy, nearly doubled over with laughter. Harry joined in and ruffled Teddy's hair.

“Don't you worry, Teddy. She'll be beautiful when she grows up. She might even steal your heart,” Harry teased. Teddy made a face in disgust and shook his head. He could hardly see this rat-looking little baby growing to look remotely pretty. Harry chuckled again and lifted Teddy into his arms.

“What's hew name?”

"Victoire," said Bill, absolutely beaming, "Victoire Weasley."

"V-Vic-Victow-" Teddy tried to say, but failed to pronounce.

"Why don't you just call her Vic, Teddy?" Harry offered, smiling at his godson. Teddy nodded and looked back over at Victoire who was now cooing in Grandma Weasley's arms.

"I hope suwe she gets pwettier," said Teddy. The whole room roared with laughter, and Teddy, though he couldn't see much humor in this situation, laughed with them.

Over the years, much to Teddy's great relief, Victoire began to resemble a girl more and more. Soon after her birth, silvery-blonde hair had begun to sprout in wisps from her head and by the time she was two, it had grown down to her chin. She kept the look of delicacy and squishiness until she was about five, in which, she had grown very much from the size she was originally.

After Teddy established that Victoire was not going to grow up to be a giant rat after all, he and she became practically joined at the hip as they both grew from tiny little toddlers to rambunctious children, not even letting Victoire's own younger siblings, Domonique and Louis, come between them.

By the time that they were both in Hogwarts, Victoire was nursing a small crush for Teddy, while he only saw her as his best friend. Determined not to ruin their friendship, she kept it to herself, though, by her third year (Teddy was in his fourth), it was obvious to everyone but Teddy himself.

During Christmas break of the very year that her crush on Teddy became so obvious, Victoire was spending most of it in the Potter's house, watching Harry and Ginny's three kids, James, Albus, and Lily. She was braiding Lily's hair one afternoon while Harry and Ginny were working when Lily said out of the blue, “Do you really love Teddy, Vicky?”