Work Text:
July 2017
She was down in the water. He could see her from where he sat on the sand. The hem of her dress was getting washed by the waves of the sea as it floated around her. She was the definition of beautiful. There was no denying it as he sat there watching her. Beautiful, and for once she looked calm. Not the same wild child that all the stories at school revolved around. Out here, she was just Victoire.
Teddy got to his feet slowly and made his way down the beach to wrap his arms around her gently. She leaned back against him. He knew that he was probably the only one who was allowed to see this side of her. At school, she had had her friends who were all loud and popular, and she just had to fit in. And at home, she was the strong, talkative one. She had to be. Dominique wasn’t well and Louis was practically mute.
Teddy couldn’t help but be somewhat proud of the fact that he was the one that she chose to be herself around, even if it did mean that he had to admit to himself that he wasn’t a part of all her worlds. He was there for her at home, at least as much as he could be. He had to split his time between Shell Cottage, his gran’s, and the Potters, which wasn’t easy. Shell Cottage was chaotic with Dominique needing constant care, his gran was all on her own and needed him around, and the Potters were...the Potters. He adored those kids.
It didn’t help that he was now two years into his auror training either. To say he was under a lot of pressure was probably an understatement. The problem was that he wasn’t just Teddy - he was Teddy Lupin . He had a lot to live up to. His mum was an auror; his dad was a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher; and his godfather was the Chosen One. He didn’t have the luxury of being just plain Teddy.
He pressed a soft kiss to the side of Victoire’s neck. He didn’t want this moment to end. He didn’t want for them to have to think about the present or the future or anything like that. He didn’t want for them to have to go back to reality.
But he also knew that they couldn’t stay here forever.
Victoire seemed to know that too as she turned around to face him and kissed him gently. When she pulled back, he was able to study her face for a moment. There was something there behind her eyes that he just couldn’t seem to place, but he didn’t question it. She would open up to him if and when she could.
They stood there like that for a while, her head now on his shoulder and his arms wrapped around her slender frame as he held her close. They needed each other, even if it had taken them both a long while to actually admit that they did. They were together now.
March 2018
Teddy sat on the end of the bed, his head in his hands. He felt like an old man and Merlin knew he looked like one. At times like this, he couldn’t control his appearance. Everything was falling apart and he had no way of stopping it.
Victoire was pacing back and forth in front of him. He couldn’t even stop her from doing that. She was lost to him now, he just knew it. Even though she was right there before him, she was definitely lost.
He swallowed hard and slowly looked up, making himself look at her no matter how much it hurt him. He had to put his own pride aside and accept that although she had hurt him, betrayed him, she needed him more than ever. He couldn’t just turn his back on her. And if there was even the smallest possibility that he could bring her back to him then he would definitely take it.
“Vicky…?” He whispered, his voice shaking more than he would have liked it to, but there wasn’t much that he could do about that at this present moment in time.
“I’m thinking.” She muttered, still pacing. Her face was a ghostly white and it made Teddy feel sick to his stomach. He wanted more than anything to make her feel like she was safe again.
“Just… Vic…” He trailed off, unsure what he was actually going to say. She had told him outright that the child wasn’t his - just moments after telling him that his suspicions were right and that she was in fact pregnant. She’d cheated on him. What did she have to think about? He closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath.
The bed shifted slightly after a moment or two and he opened his eyes again to look round at his fiancee. He didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t say anything anyway. There was nothing that he could do or say to make this better. She was the one that had hurt him and although his brain was busy making all of the excuses that it possibly could for her (she’s just left school, her sister’s dying, her brother’s getting worse), he had to accept that she had to be the one to try to fix this.
“I’m keeping it.” She said quietly, her tone matter-of-fact.
Teddy closed his eyes again. Before when it was just a suspicion, when he had thought that maybe the baby was his, he was sort of excited. A family of his own wasn’t something that Teddy had ever had. As much as his gran treated him like he was her son, he knew that he couldn’t replace the daughter that she had lost and he knew that she couldn’t replace his mother. The Potters treated him like he was one of their children, but at the end of the day he knew he wasn’t.
A baby of his own would have been something different.
But this wasn’t his baby. And even if he did stay with Victoire - which he probably would because that was who he was - he would just continue to be a weird piece of furniture in her and her child’s life.
“Who’s the guy?” He asked after a moment or two as he forced his eyes to open again. He couldn’t make himself look at her however. At least not properly, it was far too painful.
“He’s not in the picture.” She told him, and he took this to mean that she didn’t actually know who the father of her child was.
They were silent for a long while before Teddy forced himself to speak. “I’ll be here for you.” He said quietly. “But I need… I’m gonna go over to Harry’s. It’s pizza night and I need… I’ll be home tomorrow, okay?”
He saw Victoire nod out of the corner of his eye. He saw her eyes fill with tears and he tried desperately to ignore the pang of guilt that hit him. She’d hurt him in more ways than he could even begin to explain to her. He deserved a night off.
“Sure.” She whispered.
He knew that as soon as he left she would head on over to Shell Cottage, where she wouldn’t get the rest that she so clearly needed but would instead busy herself with looking after her sister, running errands for her mother, or distracting her brother. But he couldn’t let himself get too upset over that, over not being able to be there for her that night.
“I love you.” He told her as he stood up, the words practically slipping out before he even realised what he was saying. But... it didn’t matter that he was mad at her, that she had hurt him, he did still love her.
May 2018
The air was chilly but it was welcome after the hot day that they had all endured there at the beach. Dominique was wrapped up in a blanket next to the bonfire. Her pale skin was almost translucent and the more Teddy looked at her the more he knew that the slightly blue hue was not from the ocean but her veins. She smiled at him regardless, though part of Teddy wished that she wouldn’t. The more the blonde smiled, the more she looked like a skeleton.
Subconsciously his arm tightened around Victoire who was sat beside him, laughing away with her mother and showing off her engagement ring to her cousins - though honestly, Teddy didn’t think that it was much to look at. He wasn’t receiving a proper salary yet so a modest band with a tiny diamond was all that he had managed to get her. She seemed happy with it, however, so he just left her to it.
It had been an adjustment, coming to terms with the fact that Victoire was having a baby that wasn’t his, but he had asked her to marry him anyway. It had been decided - and he wasn’t all that sure who by - that he would raise the child as his own. It was a complicated situation to be in, that was for sure, but he was going to go along with it purely because he loved her.
That was why he was letting her have today. A party at their favourite beach with their favourite people to celebrate the news of their engagement. They had no date for the wedding yet, though Teddy suspected that she would want it to be soon, not because of the baby but because of Dominique. The healers wouldn’t tell them how long the younger girl had left, but it didn’t look like she had long. Today was actually the longest that she had managed to stay awake for in a long time, and it was clear just how much that had tired her out.
Teddy leaned his head on Victoire’s shoulder, his eyes fixed on the girl who he had considered his best friend for the longest time. He wanted to confide in Dominique, to tell her all that was troubling him, but it seemed to be important for her to believe that everything was perfect, at least according to Victoire. He couldn’t even tell her the whole truth. Perhaps it was best that way, best that she knew her sister was at least happy and cared for before she passed. Teddy just wished it was the truth. He wished that Victoire was happy and not just putting on a show for her family.
August 2018
Teddy stood there in the kitchen, wishing he could put his hands over his ears and blot out the screams of the newborn Elodie who didn’t seem to understand the difference between night and day yet. He was living in a constant bubble of guilt because of this. He seemed to lack any sort of sympathy or compassion when the baby cried and he hated himself for it. It wasn’t her fault and he knew that.
He could hear Victoire singing to the baby through her own tears - he didn’t think that she had stopped crying herself for the last month. He knew she needed help, both physically and mentally, but he had all but been pushed out. He was at the point of counting himself lucky that she even still lived with him.
He got it. He really did. She had been through hell in the last few months, what with having the baby and losing her sister in the space of three days, but the whole point of them being married was that they were a team, in this together. That wasn’t the way that it had worked out though.
It was now Victoire and Elodie, and then him. He didn’t feel welcome in his own bed just now, let alone his own flat, but he didn’t dare leave Victoire alone here.
He had suggested once or twice that she go on back to Shell Cottage, that maybe she would feel better with her mother around but she was refusing to go back there. Teddy was at his wits’ end. All he could do was coexist.
He leaned his hands on the kitchen counter as the cries from the bedroom slowly started to die down. His eyes fell on a framed picture of them from their wedding day. He could honestly say that the girl in the photo who was waving at him and grinning away was not the same person as the one who lived here in these walls. He lay the photo flat after a moment or two, unable to look at it anymore, unable to see the pair of them so happy when happiness was now so far away from their grasp.
December 2021
Elodie was sitting on his lap, facing him and giggling each time he made his hair change colours. It kept her amused at any rate and helped him feel like less of a failure to see her so happy. At least someone appreciated him anyway.
“Are you sure about this?” Victoire asked him for what had to be the six hundredth time that afternoon.
Teddy couldn’t help but let out a sigh. That was definitely a kick in the teeth that he did not need. He’d helped to raise Elodie for the last three years. “I’ve been looking after kids since you were in nappies, Vic.” He pointed out before he stuck his tongue out at the little girl.
“I know, but…” Victoire was chewing on her lip as he looked up at her. It hurt that she no longer seemed to trust him despite everything he had done for her.
“We’ll be fine. If I need help, I’ll head to Harry’s.” He promised her, hoping that would at least put her mind at ease.
Victoire nodded slightly and reached out to Elodie. “Come say goodbye to Mummy, Ellie.”
Teddy watched as the small child showered Victoire with kisses and tried his best to ignore the feeling that he was surplus to their little family. Things had gone south and fast, but somehow they were all still there together.
“See you when I get back,” Victoire said to him as she handed Elodie back over. He’d gotten to the point where he no longer even expected a peck on the cheek.
“See you,” he said quietly as he held Elodie close. Biologically or not, she was his princess and definitely gave him a reason not to just up and leave, despite the temptation to do so.
He watched as Victoire left, the heavy door slamming behind her and another sigh escaped him. He’d made her take the night off from being Mum and was surprised when she had actually made arrangements to go out with her friends. This of course made him feel guilty all over again because he wondered if he should be giving her this opportunity more often or if he had forced it upon her when he should have taken a step back.
“Right Princess.” He said as he stood up, the little girl resting on his hip. “Let’s go make dinner.” He then made his way into the kitchen and set her down on the counter. They made dinner together, because there was very little that you could do without Elodie’s help nowadays. She had to be involved in absolutely anything that Teddy or Victoire happened to be doing at any given time. It was nice though, spending time with the little girl like this. It allowed him to pretend that he hadn’t a care in the world.
June 2025
It was wrong. He'd known that on Lily's seventeenth birthday when he had kissed her. It no longer felt like she was his sister from that moment on but that didn't stop this from being utterly and completely wrong.
He couldn't help himself though. He couldn't help following her off into the night air when she came home from Hogwarts after a sit down meal with her parents. It had been the most awkward meal of his life as it was. There was something going on with Harry and Ginny, but he knew that it was far from his place to pry. It certainly didn't help matters that Albus hadn't come home from Hogwarts either.
It did mean that he was able to spend time alone with the youngest Potter though and he wasn't going to complain. She headed down a path towards the boundaries of the garden and he could only follow. He could taste his heartbeat but he chose to ignore the voice in his head that was screaming for him to turn back.
He had to see this through. He had to know the answer to the question that had plagued him for the last month or so. He had to know if she had felt it too.
"Lillipad?" He asked quietly when she finally stopped walking and he noted that they were no longer in view of the house, not that he thought that either of her parents had any inclination of watching them.
"Sarah thinks I'm crazy but I'm not. I know I'm not." She was looking straight at him, her grey-blue eyes meeting his and holding his gaze. "And the fact that you came here with me, proves that. But this… Merlin..."
Teddy let himself take a step towards her, closing the gap ever-so-slightly. Her serious expression and the way that she seemed to be talking in riddles reminded him that she really was no longer a child. He allowed himself to reach for her hand and tried not to get too excited about the way that her hand seemed to fit perfectly inside his.
"You're married to my cousin." Lily's voice dipped but she didn't pull away from him or drop his gaze.
"I might be married to her but it's you I want to kiss." He told her, deciding that he had to come clean there and then.
A small smile flickered across Lily's lips at that, one that made Teddy's heart soar. Was this what it was meant to feel like? He'd never even felt like this with Victoire, not even when they had been in love.
"You want to kiss me?" The girl asked and in that moment Teddy was able to forget just how wrong all of this was.
"Yes. I want to do more than kiss you, actually." He told her as he took another step towards her, letting go of her other hand to wrap his arms around her and pull her close. "But kissing you is a good place to start." He whispered before he leaned in and pressed a soft, sweet kiss to her lips.
Everything else seemed to melt away. Nothing else mattered except for him and Lily, and while he knew that it couldn't last, he still felt a sort of happiness welling in his chest that he had never felt before, a happiness that was all thanks to little Lily Luna Potter.