Teddy and the Marauders

twelve

Chapter 12
Victoire Weasley

It was the start of winter break. Most of the younger students were running about the dorms and common room trying to pick up all their last minute things to bring with them home. The older students weren't running around as much but they were just as frantic. The only difference is most of the older students were able to perform the accio charms so they we standing in front of their trunks up in the dorms, going through all their possessions; whenever something was missing, they would just call out for it and it would fly out of whatever nook or cranny it was hiding in, and land right into the student's' hands.

Up in Gryffindor tower, in the seventh year, girls' dorm, it was mostly quiet. The only two there at the moment were Victoire and Alice, but even when the four girls were there, no one spoke. They all missed Marlene. Even though the girl was quiet and didn't always offer her own opinion to the conversation, her presence was always noted, and she was someone who you could talk to about anything.

After news of the attack on her family, she had been rushed home to meet her aunt and grandfather to prepare for the service and go over their wills and all the other legal business. Safe to say, they didn't know when -or if- the poor girl was coming back to school.

Victoire was mimicking packing. She had told the other girls, so that they wouldn't feel obliged to do the same, that she was going home to france. She had said her mum was apparating to Hogwarts to take her over the country line.

She rifled through a couple papers. Most of them were old assignments or odd notes that she had written, then discarded. One was the letter she had received from Teddy the first day of school, asking her to meet him in the Room of Requirement. She crumpled it up in her hand and threw it in the fire.

She pulled out a book that was half under her four-poster. It was her ancient runes textbook. There was a loose piece of paper tucked messily into the old book. She opened to the page. Specifically- hieroglyphics in the ancient pyramids of Giza and those that pointed to some of them being drawn and used by early wizards. The unit that they had just finished the previous day. The paper was from another book. Which one, she wasn't sure. It had a lot of pictures and diagrams with a bit of words in between. The paragraphs read-

Those who practiced magic in the Rocky Mountains of modern-day Canada-United States were not fond of the North American No-Maj (A slang word for muggle as in Non-Magic) especially during the Salem Witch Trials that none are so fond of. During such times, several wizards banded together to form what was nicknamed 'The Tempus Impetus Group' which roughly translates to 'time attack'. This group chose to create a spell that would punish the No-Maj for attempting to harm them and their related. This spell has never been confirmed to have ever existed in a stable or successful form, though it has been told through legend as shown in Figures 5-9.)

The excerpt was from a book that Vic had been reading when she and Bill had been rushed out of the library.It must have ripped and somehow slotted itself in her textbook during her frantic rush to get out of the library when it was closed due to the attack on Marlene's family.

The numerous diagrams and figures showed one or more people gathered in circles with captions stating they were chanting a certain latin spell. She could use this to get herself home. And Teddy. If he wanted to go.

She would test it today. She would go down to Hogsmeade with all her things and test it out. And hopefully, it would take her home. To Dominique and Louis, and Maman and Dad. She would be home in time for supper.

She had a couple of preparations to do first.

*******

Teddy Lupin

Teddy felt a little sad. Every winter break before this one, he had always gone home to see Harry and Ginny and all his adopted cousins. This time, he wasn't packing any of his things. He wasn't going to Hogsmeade with most of the others. Instead, he was sitting in the Great Hall, slowly eating a bowl of oatmeal.

The other boys in his dorm came in too. They were slightly loud but they seemed very happy all the same. They fell mostly silent when they saw Ted's sullen expression, but when he looked up at them and smiled, they went back to talking about what pranks they would plan over the break for the new year.

"Why aren't you all up in the dorm packing to go?" Teddy asked them "You don't seem like the type who had finished it already."

"Ah, but alas, we aren't leaving the castle." Sirius said in fake sadness "We decided to spend our last Christmas at the castle."

Teddy nodded. He knew that wasn't the full story. There was a full moon on Christmas night, so they were, most likely, staying to help their werewolf friend out. In 2015 the lunar cycle landed on the same day. He hated the timing, but he had learned to accept it over the years.

"What about you?" REmus asked breaking his train of thought. "Are you going home?"

"No, I wanted to see the castle over the holidays." Teddy lied easily. He had come up with the lie a while back.

"It's pretty beautiful." Peter said with a memorial sigh

"Speaking of 'pretty beautiful'." Sirius smirked. He nodded towards the door to the Great Hall.

Victoire walked into the Hall. Her expression was worried but at the same time giddy. She looked like she didn't know if she should smile or cry. She walked straight up to the group of five and slammed a thick envelope down on the table. She stared at Teddy across the table and looked quite proud.

"I found a way." She said.

"What?" Teddy was confused. Victoire's eye slid towards the other boys.

"Maybe I should talk to you over there." She jerked her head to the end of the long table. Reluctantly, Teddy nodded and followed her.

"Could you explain please?" He asked her. He could still feel a bit of tensions between the two, and as much as he wanted to reconcile with Vic, he wanted more to be out of there.

"I found a way home." She burst out.

Teddy's eyes widened. He had expected more time with his mum and dad. He had hoped that he would be able to stay for the remainder of the school year, at the very least. He didn't want to say no to leaving, he missed everyone back home quite a bit, but he didn't want to go home just yet, he would never see his parents ever again.

"H- how?" He stuttered

"I was searching through the library and I came upon this, well mostly by dumb luck." She explained, she was talking quite rapidly.

"Nothing about you is dumb." Ted said softly. He watched as Vic flushed bright pink. She looked down and bits of her pale blonde hair fell over her face. She shook her head slightly and looked back up at him, adjusting her hair in the process.

"I don't expect you to come with me." She whispered "You can stay as long as you like, and when, if, you decided to come home, I wrote everything down for you." She handed the envelope to a speechless Ted. "I hope if you come home, we'll be on better terms." She said, barely audible.

Ted stood, his mouth agape. Victoire avoided his eyes as she ran from the Hall.

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Hi, new A/N style for three quick announcements. PLEASE READ!

1. Thank you so much for 1.2k+ reads! It means so so much to me. I'm glad people are enjoying my story.

2. Thank you to the amazing KasleyCooper for the wonderful new cover. I love it so much and I hope you do too.

3. I've decided to put my other story, The Fifteen Year Curse, on hold for a while. Instead, I'm going to start the re-write of Cowardice, my other unfinished story. I might change the name, though. I really hope you'll consider reading it!

-Jul<3