Teddy and the Marauders

twenty-eight

Chapter 28

Lily Evans

"Morning, love." James sat down beside Lily at the Gryffindor dining table in the Great Hall. "Did the others take to our little plan?"

"More than you know. They jump on it and started coming up with their own ideas to go with it." Lily chuckled a little to herself. She grabbed herself a roll from the bread basket in front of her. She also passed one to James.

"Any major changes I should be aware of?" James asked

"Yes actually." Lily smiled "Alice, the cheeky bastard, came up with the idea of one of us feigning ill to stay behind and do a quick search through a couple of Teddy and Victoire's belongings."

"Isn't that dangerous? I mean we don't want to find out anything about the future."

"That's why someone competent had to stay behind."

"I know that's an insult, I just can't figure out who it's directed to." James furrowed his brow.

"You just answered your own unasked question." Lily playfully pinched his cheek. "Allow me to rephrase in a not-so-mean way. Someone with self control. Out of your band of Merry Men, I was thinking Remus. He's got an easy excuse anyway."

"What about you?" James asked

"Marlene volunteered. She said she wasn't feeling up to an outing anyways so it's not a complete lie."'

"You need to watch yourself Evans." James reached for the raspberry jam a few feet down the table. "You're almost turning into a scheming genius."

"Almost? I was hoping I was already there."

"Just keep hanging around me and you'll be good."

The two kept up their playful banter until the others came down from the dorms. Marlene was noticeably absent from the bunch. Alice was also talking to Remus. His face was serious but he was nodding every so often. The bunch gathered around the table, each grabbing whatever quick thing they wanted for breakfast. Remus refused food whenever it was offered to him. When Lily asked if he was feeling alright, he muttered a lame excuse but added a quick wink that everyone but her was oblivious to. Lily suppressed a smile and wished him speedy recovery.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll be fine by tomorrow." Remus was smiling by now. It came off more as a hopeful smile but James and LIly both knew it was, in reality, a grin.

When 10 o'clock rolled around, the boys and girls split ways to head to Hogsmeade. The girls opted to walk down while the guys chose to go through the tunnels.

The girls got there first, but Lily had a sneaking suspicion that it was because the boys had made a detour to do some pranking. Either way, she had a plan to execute along with Alice and Dorcas. The three of them, along with Victoire, found a table in the Three Broomsticks and each ordered a butterbeer.

"So," Dorcas started "Victoire, I must know, were there any guys into you back home?"

"I did have a boyfriend for a while." the girls leaned in ever so slightly "His name was Anderson Wood, a Gryffindor. We dated for a while, near the start of fifth year to the end of our sixth year." the other three started spouting off questions.

"How did you get together?"

"Why did you break up?"

"Who broke it off?"

"Did Teddy like him?"

"What was he  like?"

"Um," Vic stuttered, a little overwhelmed "We got together after my sister, Dominique, blackmailed me into asking him on a date. I ended up having a lot of fun, so we went on another one. Soon enough we were dating."

"What did your sister have over you?" Dorcas asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She caught me skipping Herbology and threatened to owl mamman and tell her. Really I wasn't doing anything wrong. I had permission from Professor Longbottom since I was so far ahead in the class anyway."

"Longbottom?" Alice asked "Like Frank Longbottom?"

"Like Neville Longbottom." Victoire smirked at her "His son." Alice flushed a deeper red than Lily's hair.

"Frank was a seventh year last year. He and Alice started dating in our fifth year year whenever someone mentions him, Alice acts like it's just a schoolgirl crush." Dorcas rolled her eyes.

"Well I'm sure you've never had a crush, Cas." Lily rolled her eyes at her friend. Quite surprisingly, she blushed. "Oooh! Who?" Lily begged

"I- I don't know what you're talking about." she blushed harder. Victoire bit her lip, remembering a photo from her album.

"Victoire knows something." Alice pointed out. Victoire opened her mouth to deny it, but she was cut off by Dorcas.

"She knows nothing because there is nothing to know." she narrowed her eyes.

"Precisely." Victoire bit her lip again, biting back a smile.

"I still want to know about Anderson Wood." Dorcas nudged Victoire gently in the ribs with her elbow.

"Merlin is he gorgeous." Victoire muttered starily "He was also amazing at quidditch. His dad, Oliver Wood, played professionally for Puddlemere United. His mom also played during her time at Hogwarts. He was sweet and nice and all, amazing kisser if you ask me, but he was always caught up in his quidditch. It was honestly exhausting after so long. I love quidditch as much as the next player-"

"You play quidditch?1" Dorcas almost screamed

"Y- yes...?" Victoire stutted a meek answer. It almost sounded like a question.

"Don't mind her." Alice waved her hand "She's just a little obsessed with quidditch."

"It's a good game." Victoire smiled weakly.

"Continue." Alice ordered, despite her usual timid demeanor.

"There's not much more to tell, honestly." Vic shrugged "I broke up with him because he cared more about his quidditch and keeping score than he cared about me."

Lily glanced at Alice who returned the look with a shrug of her own. It seemed all they knew was that they knew hardly anything about Victoire they-didn't-even-know-her-middle-name Weasley.

"Hey Vic?"

"Yeah, Lils?"

"What's your middle name? Just out of curiosity."

"Apoline."

They knew hardly anything about Victoire Apolline Weasley.

Unfortunately, the boys came up with nothing much more with Teddy. His dating history hadn't been quite as interesting as Victoire's. He had had a girlfriend for about a second but when she got back together with her ex-boyfriend, she had dropped Teddy like a hot potato. They knew less about Teddy than Victoire, when they thought about it. They didn't even know his last name!

(A/N: Hello. An update for you. Not much to say here. Goodnight. -Jul)