The Birds and the Bears - Harry Potter Fanfic.

Chapter Sixteen. Breaths of Fire.

Chapter Sixteen. Breaths of Fire.

Victoire's P.O.V.

It is hearing that returns to me first. There are hurried footsteps, shouting, and screams nearby. I try to open my eyes, to move, to twitch a finger, anything to show that I am cognizant, but my body is resolutely unresponsive. A sick feeling of deja vu sweeps over me as I remember the last occasion I felt this way. The next sense to come within my grasp is touch. My nerve endings seem to tingle as they become active and I realize that there are two strong arms wrapped firmly around my middle. Teddy's arms. I listen to his frighteningly shallow breaths, and fast fluttering heart beat. The heat coming off of him is shocking and I know even without seeing him that he's got a raging fever. 

Again I try to shift my body and this time I am met with success. My impossibly heavy eyelids pry open. As the world around me wobbles into focus several things come to my attention. The ceiling above me is a familiar pattern of cracked swirling plasterwork design that alerts me to the fact that we are currently sequestered in the hospital wing. I can't seem to move my head, but even still I can see that Teddy and I lie together on one pristine cot. I wonder how in Merlin's name we got passed Madame Aeolus this way. With a wrenching pain I move my head and look to the bed on my right. 

Manfred Bletchly lies with his arms and chest wrapped heavily in bandages. He is an individual for whom I hold no love, not even the most fleeting affection really, but I am grateful to him. I know he flew with Teddy and the Griffindor boys to save me, and is prone beside me because of it. Manny may not have an abundance of respect for women, but he is the redeemable sort. 

"Victoire! Can you hear me? Make a sound if you can hear me." Dom's voice flits towards me and I exhale a tiny groan to respond to her. The bed dips beside her small hand and me grasps mine tightly. "Oh you stupid, silly, brave duck, Victoire! Why on earth would you do something like fighting that enormous archaic beast? I thought you were going to die! Oh Merlin, Maman and Papa are going to kill you!" Her voice gets shriller and more rapid as she progresses.  

"McGonnagal says that no one has seen, let alone fought, a leviathan in over three hundred years. She told the school that the beasts can lay dormant for centuries without food, but when they do rise from the depths they are always really angry. I swear I almost told her to sod off, angry my arse. That thing was down right murderous. Speaking of 'mer' it was the Merpeople who saved you and Teddy. You both would have snuffed it it they hadn't dragged you up to the surface. Blimey I am glad you didn't croak."

She pauses for breath and I interject a gravely "What happened to it?" Dom doesn't need any clarification on my pronoun use and revs up her talking motor again. "You killed that thing, Victoire. Apparently Veela hair has these magical properties to it that desolve the 'un-pure' whatever that means. It like turns the guts of the leviathan into mist and liquid or something. I watched from the window in Griffindor Tower, Merlin's eyebrow that was a huge creature. I still can't believe my shy older sister served it breakfast. Wow."

"Teddy?" My voice is so hoarse is stings, but not as much as my heart does when Dom's expression falls into a solemn mask. Her slews of words seem to dry up and another voice fills in the gap. "Mr. Lupin does not have the astonishing recuperative powers that you seem to benefit from. The leviathan venom has permeated his skin and his body needs to burn it off before it reaches his heart." Madame Aeolus informs me. An unwilling squeak slips out of me and I press myself closer to Teddy's large frame. He seems so solid, so strong, so here. "What happens if the venom -" My voice peters off as I contemplate the horrifying and very real prospect that lies in Madame Aeolus's answer. Before she even speaks I know, it is written all over her grimly sympathetic face, and the fact that she let Teddy and me lie in each other's arms. "There is a chance that Mr. Lupin could die."

Teddy's P.O.V.

It burns like nothing I have ever experienced. I just want it to stop. The fire of it threatens to ignite me like an old photograph tossed into the heart. Please let it stop! If I could just concentrate on something else... Vic. She is here with me, her heart beating against mine, her sweet smell filling my nostrils. I am so grateful. I don't want to let her go, not ever.

Victiore's P.O.V.

Within the next few hours there are many visitors that come through. They are people that I love, Maman, Papa, Louis, Teddy's grandmother Andromeda, but they don't seem to make an impact on the haze of my fear and worry. A few of the things that they say stick with me as I grip my Teddy with all that I am worth. "You bose 'ave been tellment courageoux, Cherri. 'eadmistress McGonnagal is awarding you bose a special award for dee 'services' to dee école." My mother told me tearfully. Andromeda added "My grandson is a strong fighter, just like his mother. It would take a Death Eater to kill him." Her morbid comment strangely assured me. No wee little leviathan was going to end Teddy's life. We had just found out the depth of our love, hadn't even really had an opportunity to explore it, death was not going to rob us of our chance. 

After several hours of silence, I whispered into Teddy's ear "You are not allowed to die, Theodore Lupin. I love you too much to let you die. My Teddy... you have got to fight your hardest." To my extreme surprise Teddy's arms grip me tighter to him. In whatever dream realm he is caught in I am suddenly sure Teddy can hear me. Despite my aching throat and sluggish exhaustion I start to mummer encouragement to him. I tell him over and over about how much I love him; how I have and will always do so. "You are my heart's beat, Teddy. Be strong so we can be strong together." There is no one in the world but us two as I speak to him this way. Throughout my life I have never spoken so many of my feelings out loud. Strangely it doesn't matter one knut now. I wouldn't care it the entire castle could hear my words, just so long as I could say them to Teddy. 

I don't feel the astonished eyes of my family, but I do hear my Papa say softly "We should leave them be." There is a quite absence of people, following a gentle scraping of chairs and muffled footsteps. Madame Aeolus comes by and informs me that she will "... just close these curtains, dear." I pay her no heed and only grip Teddy to me as tightly as possible as I hear the rasp of the hospital drapes being drawn shut.

Time seems to have become a viscous fluid. In one moment it might appear to halt entirely, and in the next it can spill away. I cling to each second, trying to hold onto Teddy. I do not know how many hours have passed, truly it could have been anywhere from one to days. Beside me Teddy inhales and exhales quickly, his heart beats a frantic tattoo, sounding to me like a pixy trapped in his chest cavity.

Gradually the rapid beat of his heart slows, matching itself to mine. I can hardly believe it. His lungs rise and fall at a more normal pace, and I become aware that the heat that has been pouring off of him in waves has lessened. A soft sigh escapes his dry lips and together we slip into a true healing sleep.