MISSED CALLS ➡︎ TEDDY LUPIN [2] ✓

xxv. THE WEASLEY HOUSE

The Weasley children, Beth, and Teddy sat on the living room couch, changed out of their formal attire and into their pajamas, and each of them stared at nothing, silently thinking.

"I made you lot some cocoa," Bellamy Bishop-Weasley walked into the room with a silver tray laden with six coffee mugs in her hands, giving the children before her a warm smile. "I figured you might need a little bit of help to warm up from shock."

Avalon reluctantly took the mug from her aunt, wrapping her cold hands around the warm drink.

"Is this what it was like during the war?" Arthur spoke so quietly that his words were barely audible. "Were you and Mum always this... scared?"

All of Amelia Weasley's children were blessed enough to be born after the war had already ended. The only information they knew about the war was what they learned at Hogwarts, and what their father had told them in the form of bedtime stories, for their mother refused to speak about the trauma she had undergone.

Teddy, however, had lost both of his parents in the war, on the same night that Amelia had almost died. He knew of the horrors of the war because his grandmother had told him everything from the moment he was old enough to understand what his parents had died for.

Bellamy faltered. "Well, um, your mum and I were never really on the front lines up until the final battle... but yes. It was all terrifying."

She heard footsteps coming down the stairs then, and when she saw her sister standing at the foot of the staircase with her arms crossed angrily, she stopped talking.

Amelia was also dressed in her pajamas—a white tank top, a pair of Fred's sweatpants, and a cardigan knitted by Molly Weasley some years ago—and she looked cross.

"Bellamy, can I have a word with you?"

Avalon looked at her twin brother with a worried expression as her mother and aunt left the living room and went into the kitchen, shutting the door behind them.

Despite the closed door, the six of them could still hear Amelia shouting at her twin sister.

"I made the decision to not tell them about what we went through, what I went through. It's bad enough that Freddie told them so much when they were little, but I don't need you telling them about how close I came to losing everything. They still hear me wake up at all hours with nightmares, screaming at the top of my lungs. I can't look at Arthur sometimes without seeing P-Percy. I don't want them to have to know what happened that night, or any of the nights. Please. Stop."

The Bishop twins came out a few minutes later, and both of them looked like they'd been crying, or at the very least, tearing up.

"Alright!" Amelia forced a smile. "Darlings, Aunt Bellamy's going home for the night, so say goodbye. I'm going to bed as well—goodnight."

—

One by one, the Weasleys went to bed. First was Arthur, who yawned sleepily around ten thirty and ascended the stairs to his bedroom. Next were Oliver and Isabel; the eldest saw how tired his sister was becoming, and he led her up to her room.

Beth said goodnight soon after, excusing herself to go up and sleep in Avalon's room.

Eventually it was just Avalon and Teddy, and they sat on opposite ends of the small couch, the awkward silence weighing heavily on them.

"Hey, er, thanks for talking some sense into me today." She said quietly, not looking at him as she spoke.

She heard him laugh. "I've known you for nine years and I've never once been able to talk sense into you, Ava."

His smirk was almost audible, and she could see the corners of his mouth quirk up as his dimples popped out without even glancing in his direction.

Avalon found herself staring at the clock mounted above the fireplace, watching as the hands ticked closer and closer to midnight.

Three minutes to midnight... on New Year's Eve...

She felt her heartbeat quicken as silence fell upon them again. Of course she had to get a stupid idea, possibly the stupidest idea she'd ever had; even her stunt at the first Gryffindor-Hufflepuff game paled in comparison to this. Because jumping off a broom at an altitude of a hundred feet could break a few bones. But this—this could break her heart.

So as another minute passed, and as her palms grew sweaty, she weighed the pros and cons in her head.

Another minute. Sixty seconds to midnight.

Fifty nine.

Fourty two.

Thirty.

Eighteen.

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

She took a leap of faith.

As the clock chimed twelve times, Avalon Weasley leaned across the couch and kissed Teddy Lupin right on the lips.

For a moment of pure, awful agony, he didn't kiss her back. But then, maybe as he realized what was happening, one hand came up to cup her cheek and the other held the back of her neck, anchoring her to him, and his lips began to move against hers.

Her heart felt like it was cracking open out of happiness and excitement.

She had forgotten how to breathe, it seemed, so when she pulled back to inhale, she saw him smiling softly, dark eyes still closed.

"Goodnight, Teddy. Happy New Year."

BIIIIIITCH