Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ His Greatest Fear ❯ Chapter 5

Chapter Five

 

Teddy sat sulking in the Gryffindor common room all alone. It was nearly four in the morning and he had not gotten a wink of sleep. He had attempted to go to sleep after his fight with Victoire, but it had been hopeless. Around midnight, after all of his roommates had gone to sleep, he had walked down to the common room. It was so dark that Teddy could barely see his own hand in front of his face. He had stumbled over to an armchair and fallen into it. Thoughts kept swirling around in his head. He couldn't believe what he had done. He had lost the best thing that ever happened to him, and he didn't know what to do, for once. He was usually the first to have ideas on how to fix things between him and a girl, but for the first time in his life, he was unsure where to even begin.

As he had been sitting in the dark for nearly four hours, his eyes had adjusted to the darkness. He got up and began to pace back and forth in front of the dim fire grate. A slight sliver of moonlight shone through the window briefly when the clouds moved aside. Suddenly, frightening Teddy, the portrait hole opened unexpectedly. A wand was lit brightly and was approaching him rapidly. He grimaced before Professor McGonagall even got to him. He knew that she frowned upon students not being in their beds at night, even if they weren't sleeping. But as the wand's light got closer, he noticed that there was no body. There was only a floating wand in a hand. Someone was wearing his invisibility cloak. Then he remembered. Victoire had last had it. He frowned as his heart began beating in double-time. He heard her sniffle under the cloak, and he turned his back so that she couldn't see his tears. He hated to cry, or show any kind of emotion whatsoever, especially in front of the girl he had just pretty much broken up with.

“Teddy,” he heard her say stiffly as a rustling noise told him she was taking off the cloak. “I believe this is yours. Nox.” She extinguished her wand. He turned around, because in the darkness, she couldn't see the hurt in his eyes. She was standing closer than he had thought she was, and her presence was intoxicating. He reached out to take the cloak and his fingers grazed hers and covered them. He didn't let go. She didn't either. For a moment, he felt hope leaping in his chest. His heart was beating even faster than it had before. Then he just couldn't help himself. He pulled her to him in a crushing embrace, and kissed her deeply.

When he pulled away, he could feel the tension between them growing like the shadow of a tree grew in the late afternoon sun. “You can't just fix things with a kiss, Teddy,” she said quietly, her voice filled with emotion. “I mean, I love you. I do. But first, I think we need to get the basics of a relationship down. I mean, you have to learn to talk to me without getting mad or whatever when I ask what's wrong. I can tell when something is wrong, too, Teddy. I'm not blind. That's why I think we need a break. We need time to rethink everything. And kissing just takes away all rational thought. That's not what we need right now.”

“I know you're right,” he said on a sigh. She turned to go. “Victoire,” he whispered every emotion he was feeling in that one word. She turned back, realizing he still held her hand in his. She pulled him into an embrace.

“I'll be here when you're ready,” she whispered in his ear before turning away again. This time he let her go. He was learning a hard lesson. He realized at that moment that sometimes you have to let go of the things you love most. If they come back, then they're yours.

 

The days following their break-up dragged on. Teddy was listless and barely listened in class. His homework was getting worse, and thus were his grades. Nearly four weeks had passed, and he was still feeling awful. Every time he saw Victoire, she nodded politely, but their times of hanging out and spending any kind of quality time were over. Ross and Teddy hung out and Rose stayed with Victoire like a constant shadow. And a new person was accompanying Rose a lot more than usual. Scorpius Malfoy had taken to spending more and more time with Rose. Ross just shrugged whenever it was mentioned. He told Teddy that he would rather her be happy with Scorpius than be unhappy with him.

It was dinner time in the Great Hall, and Teddy and Ross were sitting together eating silently. They had just had a tense conversation about Victoire. Teddy had not wanted to talk about it, but Ross had insisted that it would be good for him. The conversation had been short, but had left Teddy feeling more down in the dumps than he had before. He was just finishing his treacle tart when he looked down toward the end of the table. Victoire sat with Rose and Scorpius and another Gryffindor sixth year boy that he didn't know. She was laughing at something the boy had said, and had her hand on his arm. He frowned.

“What is it?” Ross asked through a mouthful of pudding, seeing the look on Teddy's face. Teddy jerked his head toward Victoire's laughing face. “Oh, that's just Ian Paxton,” Ross said. “He has a twin sister, but she's in Ravenclaw. Her name is Anne. From what I hear, she's really pretty.” Teddy took a long look at Ian. He had shaggy dark hair and bright hazel eyes. Suddenly, a girl came over and sat beside him. The resemblance was striking. Her long, dark hair fell over her shoulder, her hazel eyes sparkling. He knew that had to be Anne. “That's her,” Ross said around more pudding, confirming Teddy's thoughts.

“She is pretty,” Teddy said. “She isn't anything compared to Victoire, but if I have to do it to get her back, I will.”

“Uh, Teddy, what in the world are you talking about, man?” Ross asked, this time around a mouthful of treacle tart and ice cream.

“You'll see,” Teddy muttered as he got up and made his way toward the laughing group. He forced a smile to his face so that his newly realized plan would work correctly. He pretended to be making his way out of the Great Hall. Since Anne was now standing behind Ian, it was going to be easier than he thought at first. Right before he got to Anne, he prepared to trip and fall. He fell with a loud “oof” right behind her feet.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “I am so sorry! Can I help you up?” He rolled toward her and looked up gratefully at her outstretched hand. The fall hadn't felt as good as he was expecting. “Did you trip over my foot?” she asked with a concerned look furrowing her brow.

“Yeah,” he said, “but it's all right.” He smiled at her while looking into those sparkling hazel eyes. He wished he could see Victoire's reaction, but if he looked, she would know it was a ploy. Ross would have to tell him about it later. “So, I don't think we've met before, have we?” he asked easily. This was a lot less difficult than he thought it would be.

“No, I don't believe we have,” she replied, down casting her eyes, a pink tinge of blush creeping up her cheeks.

“Well, I'm Teddy Lupin. Half-werewolf, but don't let that scare you away. Don't worry, because I don't actually turn into a wolf. I just get really antsy around the full moon. What might your name be?” He smiled at her reassuringly.

“I'm Anne Paxton. Oh, and this is my brother Ian. We're twins you know.” Teddy nodded as if this was common knowledge.

“What a pretty name for a pretty girl. Might I escort you to your common room? Or were you leaving yet? I wouldn't want to be rude.”

“Oh, yes, I would like that. I was just reminding Ian about some Potions homework. We have to write a parchment by Friday on how the making of Potions has affected life as we know it today. It's pretty open-ended, but I was hoping we could corroborate on some ideas later.”

“Not smart,” Teddy replied. “Professor Wicket will know, trust me. Ross and I tried to do that last year, and he burned our parchments in front of us and told us that we had to write twice as much with no help. And we had to do it in detention with him. But if you want, I can help you come up with some ideas for it.”

“Oh that would be wonderful! Let's walk to my common room and we can talk about it. Ian, I'm sorry. I guess you'll have to find you a seventh year to help you,” she said with a smile.

“It's all right. I'm used you always getting the good stuff.” Ian turned back to the group as Teddy and Anne walked off, heads together.

 

Victoire saw Teddy from the moment he walked into the Great Hall. She watched as he and Ross had a seemingly heated discussion. Then Ian had come to sit with her and made her momentarily forget her problems with Teddy Lupin. He had told a great joke and she had finally laughed for the first time in days. When she saw Teddy get up and come toward the group, her heart had leapt in her chest with hope that he was ready to reconcile things with her. She was only waiting on him to say the word, and she would take him back in a heartbeat. She seriously regretted telling him that she wanted to take a break. She hadn't thought that it would go on for this long. She really had thought that Teddy would have begged her to take him back by now. And she would have said that she needed some time. And she would have seen him that next day and told him she was ready. But things had not worked out the way she had wanted them to. Anne, Ian's sister, had come over to ask him about Potions homework. But Teddy stood and drew her attention away from anything Ian and Anne were saying. She had thought that this was the moment, but instead he fell. She was almost tempted to laugh, but she decided she should wait and see if he was all right before she did so. She was on the verge of jumping out of her seat to see if he was all right when Anne stepped to him and offered him her hand. As they began talking about the Potions homework, she felt a feeling rising in her chest that she had never felt before. She was seeing red and her blood was boiling by the time he offered to escort her back to her common room.

As soon as Teddy and Anne exited the Great Hall, she jumped up muttering that she had to go do homework. Rose stood too, but the look Victoire shot her made Rose sit right back down. This was a time that Victoire wanted to be alone. But Victoire wasn't going to do homework. She had other plans. She ran up to the Gryffindor common room as quickly as she could. She had to get into Teddy's room, steal the invisibility cloak, get back to where Teddy and Anne were, listen in until Teddy dropped her off, and get the cloak back before Teddy got back. She didn't think that anyone would be in Teddy's room. But Ross was.

“Hey, Ross,” she said breathlessly, opening Teddy's trunk.

“Whoa, now, wait a minute. What are you doing?”

“Borrowing Teddy's cloak to spy on him,” she replied, sticking her wand in her back pocket, so she would have both hands to dig.

“Uh, I can't let you do that. I'm really sorry.” Ross grabbed her arm trying to pull her away. But she gripped the side of the trunk with all her might. Finally she let go, causing him to fall hard to the side. She jumped back up and retrieved the cloak from the trunk. She shut it and made for the door, but Ross caught her foot. She fell and hit her chin on the floor.

“Ouch!” she squealed. She stood and turned toward Ross. Not even thinking about her ability to use magic, she pulled her fist back as far as it would go and gave him a hard upper right cut to the jaw. He fell backwards, leaving her free to throw the cloak over herself and run down the stairs. “Sorry!” she called as she sprinted away.

She only had to go to the third floor stairs to see them. She listened to their talk, but they were talking too quietly. She decided she was going to have to get a little closer. She got right up behind them.

“…so all you have to do is say that you think that Potion making is the most important art and make up some reasons why and how it has affected you personally and he will love it. He just wants to think that his class is the best.”

“Wow, Teddy, you really know your stuff. So I heard some stuff about you and Victoire. What's going on there?” Anne asked. Victoire's heart seemed to stop for a moment, and when it resumed, she could swear that the whole school could hear it. “I don't mean to pry,” Anne continued. Victoire almost said “Oh yes you do!” but managed to hold her tongue. Suddenly, a big group of Ravenclaw first years came running up the stairs causing Victoire to have to back up for five minutes. She missed the rest of the conversation.

 

“Well…uh…we sort of broke up,” Teddy said awkwardly.

“Oh, I'm so sorry! What happened?” Anne asked, her brow furrowing together just like it had when Teddy had fallen in the Great Hall.

“I was having a hard time in my life…you know, a rough spot.”

“Oh yes, we all have those!” Anne said, nodding.

“Yeah well, I told her I didn't want to be with her, but I didn't mean it. But she decided I was right. She said we should take a break. I can't get her off my mind, but she hasn't said anything to me since it all happened. I don't know what to do.” He frowned as they came to the top of the fifth floor staircase.

“Oh, I can make you forget her,” Anne said. She pushed Teddy up against the wall and pressed her lips to his.

 

Victoire finally was able to make her way up the fourth floor staircase. Anne and Teddy were out of sight. She had to run and caught up with them just in time to see Anne plant one big one on Teddy. That was all she could take. She yanked the cloak off, her face redder than a tomato.

“TEDDY LUPIN! HOW COULD YOU?!”