Work Text:
Edward Remus Lupin had always felt different. He didn’t know when it started.
Maybe it started when he was playing Quidditch with his cousins (okay, they weren’t technically his cousins, but they were definitely family). Maybe it even started earlier.
Teddy was ten, counting down the days until he got to go to Hogwarts. There were six of them in the backyard of the Burrow. Teddy, James, Albus, Rose, Victoire, and Dominique.
“We should do boys v.s girls!” James Potter had said, knees already skinned from falling off a broom, even though he was only four.
Victoire nodded, luscious blond hair swishing. She was so beautiful, even as a kid.
“Wait, where do I go?” Teddy had asked.
His cousins had looked at him like he was stupid.
“You’re a boy, duh,” James said.
Still, that felt wrong. Teddy was a boy. But sometimes . . . sometimes he felt different. It was hard to explain.
Teddy ended up on the boys team. It still felt wrong.
Teddy had always been able to change his appearance. After all, he was a metamorphmagus, like his mom.
He loved it. He could change his mouth into a raptor’s beak or his arms to owl wings. Teddy could change his hair to whatever color he wanted. It was almost always bright.
One time he changed his hair to bubblegum pink, because it was pretty. Grandma had smiled (she liked pink, she told him), but people in town had given him weird looks. He hadn’t understood why.
Most of the time, his hair was blue. That was his favorite color.
What Teddy liked the most about it was how he could look like however he felt like. He never looked wrong.
The next year, Teddy got sent off to Hogwarts. He got sorted into Hufflepuff, immediately turning his hair into the colors of his house.
Teddy could swear he heard Headmistress McGonagoll groan as he strolled to his table.
“Just like your mother,” Grandma had written to him. There were tear stains on the paper. “I’m so proud of you.”
He fit right into Hufflepuff and Hogwarts, making easy friends. Teachers smiled at his last name and students were attracted to his charm and humor and bright hair and how he could change his nose into a pig’s snout.
Teddy enjoyed the classes and teachers. He aced his tests, snuck his favorite punk albums into his dorms, listened to the Weird Sisters, and snuck into the kitchens and played pranks that the Weasley twins would approve of. The professors could never tell it was him, after all.
He was told he should’ve been a Gryffindor multiple times.
Teddy went home at Christmas, celebrating with his grandma and the Potters and the Weasleys. All of the kids gathered around him to ask him what school was like. He regaled them with tales of pranks and magic as they all drank eggnog.
Teddy had friends and family and letters and great marks and good days at the castle, laughing and dancing with his friends. Life was good.
He still felt wrong sometimes. No, he felt wrong more often.
He felt wrong walking up the stairs to the Hufflepuff boys dormitory, on some days. Some days it felt right. Some days his stomach dropped and his throat went dry.
The only other time he felt wrong at Hogwarts was on May 2nd. Teddy wondered about it all day, if he was standing in the same spot his parents died in.
The professors all gave him sad looks that day. They didn’t even say anything when he skipped class to go to Hagrid’s.
He wrote Victoire a happy birthday letter anyway.
Two years later, Victoire Weasley showed up at Hogwarts. She was beautiful, even when she was eleven. Teddy thought that was unfair. No one should be that pretty at eleven.
All eyes were on her as she sat down on the stool and put the Sorting Hat on her head.
And they waited.
Finally, the hat shouted, “Ravenclaw!” across the Great Hall. Teddy clapped and cheered for her, and she smiled at him.
His face turned red, and not on purpose. It took hours for him to realize his hair had turned platinum blonde, just like hers.
Victoire quickly became an even closer friend, fitting right in with all his Hufflepuff friends. She was smart and gorgeous and loved Disney movies and spoke fluent French. She helped him on some pranks, whispering French spells her mom had taught her. She told him, studying in the library, that she wanted to be a dancer.
She was the most beautiful girl Teddy had ever seen.
Teddy still felt different, even with Victoire and all of his friends. On some days, his chest went tight when he walked into the boys bathroom and the boys dorm. It didn’t feel right when McGonagoll called him “sir” on those days.
I am not a sir, he wanted to scream on those days. That’s not who I am.
But then who was he? Was there something wrong with him?
Teddy looked it up, months later, walking to a library near his house when his grandma was out. Barely anyone was there, due to the bright summer sun outside.
I am not a boy sometimes, he typed.
Teddy took a deep breath and hit the enter key.
And things popped up (websites, they were called websites). He clicked on one called Quora, the title in small pixels at the top.
“Is there a name for when you are sometimes a boy, sometimes a girl, sometimes neither, and sometimes both?”
He read the first few answers. And then read them again.
“Gender-fluid,” he breathed.
Then he pulled up another tab.
Thirty minutes of research later, and he finally had something that felt right. Like jeans that fit perfectly around his waist.
He was gender-fluid.
Teddy wanted to scream it from the rooftops, spell it out with glowing letters in the sky. He wanted the whole world to know.
Until he basically floated through the door and saw Grandma Andromeda, smiling at him and asking him why he was so happy.
He could barely choke out a bad explanation before shutting himself in his bedroom.
Fuck. How was he going to explain this? Did the Wizarding World have stuff like this? Were they okay with this kind of stuff?
How was he going to live with this secret trapped in his chest?
Teddy got ear piercings the next week.
The summer was bright and sunny, for Britain. He hung out with the Potters and the Weasleys. Teddy wrote letters to Victoire, who was spending the summer in France.
It hurt when someone misgendered him, on days he felt more like a them than a him (he learned that he didn’t feel feminine very often). It felt like when he fell off of his broom during flying lessons, knocking the air from his chest.
But whenever Teddy went to tell someone, he just couldn’t. He could play pranks and flirt with girls and make friends wherever he went, but he couldn’t say three words. His stomach dropped to his combat boots and he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
He had read the horror stories. If that happened to him . . .
Teddy couldn’t lose his family twice.
But he needed to tell someone. At least before he went off to Hogwarts. Teddy couldn’t stand a whole school year of he and him and sir.
So that was what led them to be standing in front of the kitchen, weeks later, where their grandma was making dinner.
Teddy had to tell her first.
They stepped out into the kitchen, hands shaking. They were confident in every other aspect of his life, why couldn’t they be confident in this?
She glanced over at them and smiled. “Oh, Teddy, do you want meat sauce on your pasta or-”
“I’m gender-fluid!” they blurted out. That was one way to tell her.
Her eyebrows scrunched together, which was what she did when she was confused. “What?”
After a lot of questions, answers, and a pot of abandoned pasta, Grandma was nodding.
“Okay, I think I sort of get it,” she said. “So on some days you want to be called ‘they,’ right? Like today?”
They nodded, mouth still dry.
“Is there something you could do to show me what you want to be called?”
Teddy nodded again. They had planned this part out. “I could get uh, pronoun pins? So you could see what I want to be called?”
Their grandma smiled at them. “That sounds good. I love you, and I’m really glad you told me, Teddy. Do you want to order some Chinese take-out?”
“Yeah, that’d be great,” they said. There was another question rattling around in their chest, a question they needed to ask.
She stood up to get the telephone.
“Wait.”
Grandma turned around. “What?”
“Do, do you think the Potters will be okay with this? And the Weasleys?” Teddy asked.
She was silent for a few precious seconds.
“They’ll be fine with it,” she finally said. “They love you, Teddy. Nothing will stop them from loving you.”
They sniffed. “Okay. Thanks.”
“Of course,” Grandma said. “Oh, and one more thing.”
Their head snapped up.
She smiled at them, so tender their chest burned. “Your parents would be so proud.”
Teddy wasn’t expecting to burst into tears that night, but life was unexpected.
Coming out was hard, but it got a little bit easier with everyone he told. If they could accept him, so could whoever he still needed to tell. If he could tell all these other people, he could tell one more person.
Teddy wrote most of his Hogwarts friends about it, with all confused but positive responses. He had gotten a lot of hugs from Harry when he told him, an actual book about gender identity from Aunt Hermione (who had already known what gender-fluid meant, somehow), and candy from Uncle Ron. He told his parents when he visited their graves. Soon enough, he had told the entire Potter-Weasley clan.
Well, almost the entire clan.
Victoire still didn’t know. Teddy wanted to tell her in person, but she had been away the entire summer.
But she came back yesterday.
And they were meeting today, to shop in Diagon Alley.
And Victoire came walking down the street, grinning wide and waving and looking so beautiful.
“I missed you so much!” she said, pulling him into a hug. “I brought you back a present!”
She handed him a black beret. Teddy fixed it onto his head. It fit perfectly.
“Do you like it?” Victoire asked.
He thought his heart would burst. “I love it.”
Arm in arm, they strolled down the road, piling their cauldrons with books and new robes. She told him about France and Paris and the bakeries (which were apparently sinfully good) and the new spells her cousins had taught her. In turn, Teddy told her about family parties and pranks that made her double over in laughter.
“Did anything else happen over the summer?” she asked, over Florian’s ice cream.
She basically handed the opportunity to him.
“Yeah,” he said. His hand was trembling. Why was this still so scary?
“Ooooh, what?”
Teddy cleared his throat. “I um, figured something out about myself. Something big.”
Now she was looking at him. “. . . okay? What is it? Are you okay?”
He couldn’t chicken out now. “I’m fine.
“I’m gender-fluid,” Teddy said.
Both of them were silent. That wasn’t helping.
“What’s that mean?” Victoire asked, still licking her ice cream like he hadn’t just come out to her. It was rattling. It was . . . kind of nice. She didn’t seem to hate him, for starters.
“It means that my gender kind of varies? Like some days I’m a boy but sometimes I’m nonbinary,” Teddy explained. “That means I’m not a boy or a girl. Oh, and sometimes I’m a girl. But those days are rare.”
Victoire was nodding. “Oh, okay. That makes sense. So today you’re a boy?”
“Yeah. I’ll normally wear p-pronoun pins so you’ll know what to call me.”
“Okay. That’s cool!”
They continued to eat their ice cream.
“So . . . you don’t hate me, right?” Teddy asked warily. He didn’t know what he would do if she did.
She looked up from her ice cream, and smiled. “Teddy, I could never hate you.”
He had to catch himself from changing his hair to platinum blonde.
Fourth year passed in a blur. A mostly good blur, of Hogsmeade trips and studying in the common room and tea with Hagrid and flirting by the lake.
Of course, there were the bad parts. Some students were transphobic, he learned, sneering at the pronoun pins on his robes. Teddy learned it hurt much more to be misgendered when there was malicious intent behind it, instead of just confusion.
Victoire hexed one of them once. He could’ve sworn McGonagoll had seen, but she had said nothing to them.
Teddy was starting to learn that he had a crush on Victoire. No, that wasn’t the right way to put it. He had always knew, the secret deep in the back of his brain. Now, it was front and center, impossible to ignore.
She was smart and kind and funny and an amazing witch and just so beautiful. Her beauty was almost like the moon. Constant, breath-taking, and just out of reach.
The summer after fourth year, they spent a lot of time together. Every hug made his face pink, every time her hand brushed his, a breath caught in his throat.
Teddy got an undercut and a lip ring. Well, not really. He gave himself them.
Once, they were out shopping in muggle London. Victoire had a bag slung over her shoulder and a sun hat sitting on her head. Teddy was looking at a black jean jacket.
“Are you gonna wear that when you listen to Fall Out Boy?” Victoire asked with a mischievous grin.
They rolled their eyes and pulled it off the rack. It was so annoying because it was probably true. “Very funny.”
They glued fake rhinestones and ironed patches they got from the internet on it. It became their favorite jacket.
Once, Victoire stole it. It really was unfair how she could look good in anything.
Later Teddy pinned their new Prefect badge on it.
Fifth year came with a whole new load of responsibilities. Teddy was a prefect, and there were OWLs at the end of the year. While he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do after Hogwarts, he was thinking about becoming a healer.
He needed good scores to become a healer. Good scores mean studying, and studying meant less time with Victoire and his friends.
Still, Hogwarts was fun. He enjoyed being a prefect. He got to hang out with the first years and show them around. They were annoying but adorable, always fascinated by his shape-shifting. He taught them to respect people’s pronouns.
One of those first-years was Dominique Weasley.
She was sorted into Gryffindor, so she wasn’t one of his, but he saw her often. She was a red-head, unlike her siblings, and already a little rebellious. She gave him the nickname “hufflepunk” after seeing him in his jean jacket and piercings. It stuck quite well.
Teddy was starting to feel a little bad for the Hogwarts professors. They had enough problems with two Weasleys and a Lupin. The Potters hadn’t even showed up yet.
Speaking of the Weasleys.
Victoire was growing. It was like whenever he saw her she got taller, her eyes bluer, her hair longer, her face more radiant. Her smile, wide and full of joy, made his heart skip a beat.
But she was only a third year. He’d wait a few more years to ask her out. If he’d ever work up the courage, and if she was still single. Which didn’t seem very likely.
Boys (and some girls) liked her. Teddy wasn’t blind, they saw the way they looked at her in the halls. They’d be way more jealous if they didn’t understand. They flirted with her. Victoire flirted back.
So they flirted with girls (and boys) too. Teddy figured if they weren't going to ask out Victoire anytime soon, they might as well have some fun while waiting. If she was out there flirting, why couldn’t they?
Teddy learned the dark corners of the castle, learned how to snog girls and boys like a champ. Their relationships were short and sometimes secret, due to fear and closet doors.
There were a lot more closeted teens at Hogwarts then they thought.
They got an idea.
A couple weeks later, he was walking up the steps to Headmistress McGonagoll’s office. She was sitting at her desk, smiling at him in a way that was slightly frightening.
“You wanted to meet with me, Mr. Lupin?” she asked.
He nodded, pulling out parchment from his robes. “Yes, Headmistress. About an idea for a club.”
McGonagoll nodded. “Go on.”
“Well, as you know, I identify as gender-fluid and a part of the LGBTQ+ community,” Teddy started. “And while Hogwarts definitely isn’t against my community in any way, it doesn’t outrightly support it. I want to change that.
“I want to create a GSA for Hogwarts. Gender-sexuality alliance. Probably next year, because of how late it is in the year. To spread awareness and to show queer kids at this school that they matter and that there’s nothing wrong with them. We’d meet once a week, either during lunch or after classes, and do fun activities.”
That was it. He wondered if he should’ve added more information, because McGonagall didn’t look that impressed. Then again, she didn’t look impressed that often.
“It’d be educational too,” Teddy added.
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” she said. “Do you have a classroom to meet in yet? Or ideas for advertising?”
“Not the classroom bit, but I had advertising ideas,” he said, sliding the papers over her desk.
She picked them up and scrutinized them with sharp eyes. “Cheesy, but effective. Feel free to make your GSA.”
McGonagall approved it. She approved it.
Teddy smiled, wider then he smiled in a while. “Thank, thank you so much. I’ll totally find a classroom to meet in right away.”
The Headmistress just shrugged. “There’s no need for that. You can just use mine.”
He had to keep himself from skipping out of her office.
Summer after fifth year was awesome. Teddy got her OWLs scores back, and they were good. Good enough to take the classes required to be a healer.
She hung out at Shell Cottage and the Burrow and Grimmauld Place. She and Victoire and Dominique went swimming and had picnics. They ran through fields at night, laughing and shouting. Sometimes they brought James Potter along. Teddy looked forward to when he showed up at Hogwarts.
Teddy got another piercing, in her nose. This time, Grandma just sighed.
The summer’s end came quickly, and before he knew it, he was back on the train to Hogwarts, sitting next to Victoire. He knew this year would be good.
He had free periods (he knew that his classes would be more stressful, but he wasn’t worrying about it too much) and he was going to be starting the GSA. Hogwarts would become a more accepting place.
“Can I join?” Victoire asked, a few days into the school year. They were studying in the library together, sneaking bites of baked goods they got from the kitchens.
“Yeah, of course,” Teddy said. “We’d be lucky to have you.”
“Even though I’m straight? And . . . the other thing.”
“Cisgender?”
“Yeah. I just don’t want to take anyone’s spot.”
“You won’t be taking anyone’s spot. There’s not a number of spots anyway. Please come. Allies are always welcome.”
Victoire nodded, then smiled. “Okay. I’ll go.”
“Awesome.”
She reached over to organize her parchment, and then her eyes caught on something. She lifted a fair hand and waved.
Teddy looked up. A boy was passing, broad-shouldered and tall, in gold and red. He smiled flirtatiously at Victoire. She smiled back.
“Who’s that?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Some Gryffindor guy in my year. Daniel Smith, or something.”
“Oh, cool,” Teddy said. “He seems nice.”
Smith was out of his mind a few days later, the day of the first Hogwarts GSA meeting. They and Victoire were sitting at the head of McGonagall’s classroom, and Teddy was thrilled.
Hogwarts’ first GSA meeting. Not to brag, but they were making history.
A few people were already there. Saorise Thomas, the fourth-year. Arjun Kapadia, a sixth-year Gryffindor that Teddy was friends with. A Ravenclaw boy that Teddy didn’t know, and a Hufflepuff girl named Corinne.
Then Dominique Weasley walked in, standing a little more slumped than usual, and sat down. Teddy saw Victoire’s eyes flick over to her, and then away.
Huh. They hadn’t even guessed. Their gaydar must’ve been way off.
“Sup nerds,” they said, hopping off McGonagall’s desk. “Let's get started!”
The first meeting flew by in a whirl of introductions, a brief history lesson, and games. The next meeting was just as fun, and the next. The GSA was growing. They still didn’t have many members, but the ones they had were loyal.
Dominique came out to them and Victoire as a lesbian after their third meeting. Teddy had never seen Victoire hug someone so fiercely before.
The only bad part of sixth-year (besides an insane amount of homework) was Daniel Smith. Not him exactly, but his relationship with Victoire.
It was stupid. The two were just friends. Besides, Victoire had other friends, and Teddy didn’t have any problems with them.
It was just the way he looked at her. No respect, no kindness. Like he wanted her, a primal desire to own all of her, like she was a prize.
And the way Smith looked at them. Like Teddy was nothing but dirt under his shoes.
Still, he and Victoire were friends. They didn’t want to get in between that. They didn’t control Victoire or her decisions.
They did notice when her smiles got a little less bright, when she laughed a little less often. After a week, they couldn’t ignore it anymore.
“What’s up with you?” he asked. The two were lounging in the Hufflepuff common room, on a bright Saturday afternoon. The sun made her blonde hair almost blinding.
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “You’ve been acting weird lately. I was worried. Is anything wrong?”
Victoire was silent for a little too long. Teddy looked up. She looked troubled, undecided, a frown pulling her lips down.
Something was definitely wrong.
“Remember Daniel Smith?” she finally said.
“Yeah, the Gryffindor,” Teddy replied, like he hadn’t been running through his mind every few days.
“He asked me out about a week ago.”
This time, Teddy sat up. “He did?”
Victoire nodded. “It’s not like I haven’t been asked out before, or dated anyone before. But I said no, because I wasn’t interested in him. He didn’t take it well. He and his friends have been . . . harassing me.”
He knew it. He knew something was off with Smith. Teddy was going to kill him, him and his friends.
“Oh,” was all he said. “You should tell McGonagall.”
She laughed, a little sadly. “I’m not a snitch. Besides, that won’t make him stop. He said he’ll only stop if I go out with him.”
Sometimes Teddy really hated men. “Can I do anything?”
She shook her head. “No. I can deal with this on my own.”
He knew that. She was an amazing witch, excelling in her classes. Victoire was independent. She could take care of herself.
That didn’t stop him from worrying about her.
He tried to push the situation from his mind. It worked, for the most part. For three weeks.
Teddy was walking with Victoire and Dominique through the corridors of the castle. That was when he spotted Smith and his little gang.
Victoire tensed up. Teddy secretly slipped his wand from his robe, just in case.
It was like time slowed down.
The two groups were passing each other.
Smith leaned down to Victoire’s ear and whispered something.
A look of pure disgust and hurt and rage passed over her face. Teddy had seen her angry before, but never this angry.
In a flash, almost too quick to see, she pulled out her wand and flung a Bat-Bogey Hex at him, straight in the face. Smith didn’t even have time to dodge.
“What the fuck!?” he screamed. It was a little muffled, due to the bats flying out of his nose. Teddy didn’t even try to conceal his laugh.
“Don’t say anything like that to me again, or I’ll do worse than a hex,” Victoire threatened. She looked angry, but also savagely happy and a little bit scary. More than a little bit scary.
“So you’d rather hang around your tranny faggot leader boyfriend and your dyke sister then date me? Fine. You’re a lot less hot now, you psycho bitch.”
Teddy almost dropped his wand. It felt like he was hit with a stun spell right in the chest.
He knew about that word. No one had ever called him that before.
Dominique looked stunned too. Stunned and hurt.
Now, Victoire looked beyond angry. If she murdered him then and there, he wouldn’t be surprised. He wouldn’t be that upset either.
She dropped her wand and threw herself at him. Smith raised his wand.
Victoire never told him he couldn’t intervene. Underneath his robes, he raised his wand and silently cast a disarming spell. Smith’s wand went flying out of his hand and into the crowd.
Harry would be proud, he found himself thinking.
She shoved him against the wall and slapped him in the face.
By this time, the professors were showing up. The crowds were dispersing, and Victoire let go of Smith. They were glaring at each other.
Hagrid brought Victoire to McGonagall’s office and Smith to the hospital wing. Since Teddy didn’t technically “do anything,” he brought Dominique back to the Gryffindor dorms. Right after, he rushed back to McGonagall’s office.
He stood outside for a long time. Victoire did hex and slap Smith, but he was harassing her for weeks. And insulted all three of them. They couldn’t punish her too badly, right?
After what felt like too long, Victoire walked out. She looked like she calmed down.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I got detention,” she said. “For like, a month. So does Smith. Luckily, she’s separating us. I don’t want to ever see him again.”
“Me neither,” Teddy agreed. “You okay?”
Victoire nodded. They had started walking. He didn’t know where they were going. “Just angry. What about you? I heard what he called you and Dominique. Merlin, what happened to Dominique?”
“I brought her back to her dorms. And she seemed like she was doing fine. So am I.”
She smiled at him, a little wearily. “Thanks. I’m sorry I brought you into this.”
“What? It wasn’t your fault Smith was a dick.”
“That’s true,” she said, frowning. Not sad frowning, but thinking frowning. He could tell the difference. “There was one weird thing though.”
“What?”
“I was gonna hit him, and Smith raised his wand. And then he just dropped it. More like flung it, actually.”
“Oh. That was me,” Teddy admitted.
Her head snapped to him. “What?”
He scratched the back of his head, grinning sheepishly. “We learned how to cast spells without speaking a while ago. I disarmed him.”
Victoire’s mouth was wide open. “But if you were found out, they could take away your prefect badge!”
“I know. I just didn’t want you to get hurt.”
She was silent for a single moment.
Then Victoire Weasley grabbed the front of his robes and kissed him.
It was everything and nothing he had imagined.
The kiss was warm and fierce and passionate. It was almost a little violent. She kissed him like it was their last day on Earth, their last moment together.
Teddy kissed her back, winding his arms around her waist to pull her in. It was the best kiss he’d ever had, because it was from someone he truly loved, and someone who truly loved him.
It felt like an eternity before they broke apart.
“Whoa,” Victoire whispered.
“Yeah.”
The only thing Teddy could hear was their breathing. Her face was still so close.
“Wanna try again?” he asked, pulling her a little closer. “I know a great dark corner to snog in.”
She nodded eagerly. “Yes. Yes, let's go do that.”
This time, Teddy let his hair stay blonde.
It was a sunny day. That wasn’t very fitting. Teddy thought that when you visited a graveyard, it should be rainy. Or at least cloudy. That was the weather in Britain most of the year anyway.
This wasn’t their first time visiting their parents’ grave, but it was the first visiting them on the anniversary of their death. Before, they had just skipped classes. This year, grandma took them. She already had her moment at their graves.
It felt a lot different on the anniversary.
“Hey mom,” they said. “Hey dad.”
They laid their bouquets on their gravestones, a splash of color against gray.
“I’m seventeen now. I’m doing well in my classes,” Teddy said. “In case you wanted to know. The Weird Sisters put out a new album. Grandma told me you liked them, mom.
“Um, I have a girlfriend now. A serious one. Victoire Weasley. She’s Bill Weasley and Fluer Weasley’s daughter. I think you’d really like her. She’s fierce and kind and honestly one of the best people I know. I really like her. It’s her birthday today, actually. I feel kind of bad that I’m missing it.”
They laughed sadly. “I actually got my first tattoo today. I know I could have just given myself one, but I wanted something more . . . permanent. Grandma’s gonna flip.”
Teddy rolled up their sleeves. On their left wrist, “Remus Lupin” was written. On their right wrist, it was “Nymphadora Tonks.”
“They’re your names,” they explained. “Dad’s on my left, and mom’s on my right. They’re magical, so mom’s color will change with my mood, and dad’s tattoo is linked to the moon. So when the full moon comes out in the sky, it also shows up on my wrist. I think at least mom would like it.”
They could feel themself getting emotional. There was an ache in their chest, one that only came out on this day. Missing and fierce longing, for what could’ve been.
“I miss you guys. Every day. I wish I could remember you. I know that I’m so lucky and so loved. I have such a big family and have so many people that love me, but I wish that you were still, still here. I know so much about you two, but it’s not the same-”
Teddy’s voice broke, and they took a few deep breaths. “You’re happy, wherever you are. I know that. I know that you’re watching over me, but I wish I could’ve known you. I miss you guys, and I barely even knew you, how does that-”
At this point they stopped, wiping tears from their face. If they continued at this rate they were pretty sure they would start sobbing.
They felt someone’s arms wrap around them. Their grandma’s.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Teddy just shrugged in response. “I miss them.”
“So do I.”
They stood there in silence for a while.
“Do you want to hear a story about your mother?” Grandma asked. “You know, she was a lot like you growing up.”
Teddy raised their eyebrows, but nodded. They had grown up on stories about their parents, but not that many from their grandma. It was emotional for her to talk about her daughter.
“I’d love too,” they said quietly.
The two, grandma and grandchild, with loss weighing down their bones, sat down and told stories late into the afternoon. And if you concentrated really hard, you could almost see two more people. A man with patches in his robes, and a woman with bright pink hair.
They were smiling.
Teddy remembered seeing the towers of Hogwarts for the first time. A first-year on a rickety boat, it had seemed that there was nothing grander. That there would be nothing more magical than the castle.
It had been six years, and his opinion hadn’t changed much. There was still something about them that took his breath away. Except now he was a seventh year, and in a carriage instead of a boat.
How far he had come, had changed, over six years.
It was strange, and a little bit sad, to walk into the Great Hall knowing this was the beginning of the end. His seventh year. His last year at Hogwarts, his second home.
Some of his best memories had been made here.
Teddy sat down at the Hufflepuff table and watched Victoire chat with her Ravenclaw friends. He couldn’t sit with her on the train, because of a meeting. He was Head Boy now (she had charmed the badge into saying Head Ted instead, a charm he still couldn’t figure out).
She caught his eye and smiled, small and almost mysterious, like she was sharing a secret with him.
She was still the most beautiful person he’d ever seen. He had always known that.
All of a sudden, she glanced away from him. The first-years were walking in, wonder in their eyes and a spring in their step.
It wasn’t hard to spot James Potter, in the middle of the crowd, practically bouncing across the hall. Teddy could spot a few other people staring at James, the son of two war heroes.
He hoped he got into Hufflepuff, but he knew that wasn’t likely.
It wasn’t long before McGonagall shouted out his little brother’s name (because it didn’t matter if they weren’t blood, James was his brother). The hall fell silent as James bounded up the stairs.
As the hat was being lowered onto his head, Teddy caught James’ eye. He gave him a thumbs up. The Potter rolled his eyes, but smiled.
The Sorting Hat spent about five seconds on his head before shouting out his house.
“GRYFFINDOR!!”
Teddy sighed as the hall exploded into cheers. No surprise there. James strolled down to his table, a mischievous smile on his face. Yeah, he was definitely going to terrorize the professors for the next seven years.
He was sad that he would miss it.
He leaned forward on the table, watching the rest of the Sorting. He would miss Hogwarts. Miss the endless feasts and the magic thick in the air, the pranks and his friends, the Hufflepuff common room and the Great Lake.
Teddy grew up in these corridors. He figured that he was gender-fluid. He came out. He got two tattoos and a lot of piercings. He learned and made friends and started to fall in love.
He still had a lot more growing to do.
As they were walking out of the hall to their dorms, Teddy wrapped his arm around Victoire’s waist and kissed her on the cheek. She laughed, loud and joyful.
He couldn’t wait to see what the future held.