Seven Looks at Luck, Life & Love by thirty2flavors

Seven Looks at Luck, Life & Love

I.

Everyone says his parents were heroes, like heroics can read you bedtime stories or see you off to Hogwarts or send you Howlers for getting detentions.

(Of course, Gran does that, and Harry does that, and sometimes the Weasleys - but it's not the same. Of course it's not the same.)

He supposes they think that makes it better. It doesn't, really. It makes him proud, maybe, but names on an obelisk don't make up for missed father-son talks or first-hand Metamorphosing tips.

(Harry should understand that, he should, but he still says, "they were heroes," and Teddy thinks, "so are you, but you're still alive.")

He doesn't sleep on full moons. He could, but he chooses not to. The teachers never say anything when he's groggy the next morning.

II.

When Victoire is eight, Teddy is ten and omniscient. When the adults aren't looking, Teddy does impressions of them all, one by one, changing his features and mimicking their voices, and Victoire laughs so hard she says she's going to explode.

Teddy decides he likes Victoire, even if her name is French and her skin is so pale she glows.

III.

Sometimes he thinks Professor Longbottom gets it better than anybody else does.

Harry's supposed to be the one to understand, the one to say when I was your age and I know how you feel. Sometimes he does - only sometimes Teddy thinks he doesn't, because Harry was the Chosen One and Teddy isn't even the Boy Who Didn't Die. No one was after Teddy; he was just a baby. He hasn't got a scar on his forehead and when he gets near Dementors he doesn't hear his parents dying.

(He doesn't hear his parents ever.)

But Professor Longbottom understands, maybe. He grew up with his Gran, too. His parents were heroes, too, but they don't have a statue in Godric's Hollow, either.

And Teddy thinks he's luckier than Professor Longbottom, which means something. There aren't many people Teddy thinks he's luckier than.

(Not Harry - especially not Harry - who could be more lucky than the Boy Who Lived Twice?)

IV.

When he was five Teddy found a box of photographs under his Gran's bed while he was crawling under it to find his Pygmy Puff. The photos were very old, and Teddy didn't recognize anyone. There was a girl who reminded him of Victoire, with long blonde hair and a pretty face and pale skin. There were two girls who looked like Gran, one with brown hair and Gran's smile, one with black hair and cold eyes. There were people he didn't know, men and women, and two little boys who looked almost-maybe-sort-of familiar.

Gran yelled when she found him and put the box high up in her closet and then sent him to his room. Half an hour later she came in with red eyes, a glass of milk and some Honeydukes chocolate and apologized, kissing his head and pulling him tight to her body.

Three weeks later he showed the box to Harry when Gran was out. Harry said they were Gran's family when she was a girl, and that the boys with dark hair were called Sirius and Regulus, and that Sirius had been his godfather.

It would take another six years before anyone would explain the girl who looked like Gran and the girl who reminded him of Victoire.

V.

When he's thirteen a Slytherin boy sneers, "aren't you a little old for that name, Teddy Bear?" and Teddy notices for the first time that his name is Ted, not Teddy. He tries out the name in his head: Ted Lupin. It's short, simple, like Harry's.

He passes Victoire in the halls on the way to class that day. She says, "hi, Teddy," and when he says, "just call me Ted," she wrinkles her nose.

"Ted's too grown-up," she explains.

It irritates him. He's grown-up, more than she is, anyway, with her Veela mum and laughing dad.

He asks Harry about it in a letter that week, and Harry writes, I've always called you Teddy because that's what your parents called you; I'll call you Ted if you want.

He decides Teddy is grown-up enough, and hexes the Slytherin's mouth shut when he brings it up again.

VI.

Every time Ginny has a baby, Teddy isn't sure if he's happy or not.

He's happy because Harry is happy, because he's practically giddy with excitement and Harry's happiness is contagious.

He's not happy because it's another person to share his godfather with. James was fine, and Albus was okay, but by the time it's Lily that's three, three other people Harry will always love more than he loves Teddy.

When he meets Harry in the waiting room Harry's grinning maniacally again, and he wraps an arm around Teddy's shoulders and says "come, come meet your sister."

"S'not my sister," Teddy mumbles. He wonders if that makes him a bad godson.

Harry doesn't hear him. Teddy wonders if that makes him a bad godfather.

VII.

He kisses Victoire for the first time on Harry's birthday, out in the Potters' backyard, under a full moon. Everyone else is still by the patio, laughing and talking and bickering and somehow it's the two of them who slip away from it all, out onto the moonlit grass.

They lie down on the grass because it's a clear night, for once, and George is going to set off fireworks in a little bit, and they've got the best spot in the whole yard, well and away from all the little kids.

Today, Teddy looks like his father. He does this every full moon; a lock of gray instead of a lock of colour, thinner features, light brown eyes rather than dark or green or gray.

She says, "It must be nice, being able to change your appearance."

He shrugs. "I don't see why you'd want to."

She smiles at him, her sweet little (intoxicating oh my God) smile and he smiles back.

"See?" he says. "Case in point."

"It's not that great," she says, and shrugs. "I'm not even much Veela. I can't dance." She gives a wry grin. "I can't throw balls of fire."

He frowns. "Well, that is a pity." He's looking straight up at the moon but something tells him she's not, she's looking right at him.

"You know," she says, "you've always been my favourite cousin."

He doesn't move his eyes from the moon. He stares at it, huge and round and pale (like her hair, like her skin) and wonders how she got so close without him noticing. When she speaks her voice is at his ear, right there, like she's whispering some sort of elusive secret.

He stares straight up at the moon and wonders if she'd say that if he'd taken after his father, not his mother.

"I'm not really your cousin," he says, because there's nothing else to say and he doesn't care if she's only one millionth Veela, she's irresistible and she probably doesn't even know it, just like Fleur doesn't, doesn't even know what she's doing, what he's feeling. She's Harry's niece and she's two years younger and -

"I know," she says lightly. "I think I'm glad of that, though."

He looks at her then because how can he not, she's right there like some sort of second moon, full and shining, and all at once he's kissing her without a second thought.

(And he must be luckier than the Boy Who Lived Twice because she's kissing him, too.)