Chapter 23

Teddy Lupin and Victoire Weasley

"James' son? As in James Potter? As in James Charlus Potter sometimes known as prongs?"

"One in the same." Vic nodded

"James Potter as in son of Charlus and Dorea Potter?"

"James Potter sometimes known as arrogant toerag by Lily?"

"James Potter as in seventh year Gryffindor at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry?"

"James Potter as in friends with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew?"

"Yes!" Victoire cried over everyone adding their definition of 'James Potter' "The James you all know! I'm not talking about James Sirius Potter, First year as of 2015." When she saw everyone's blank faces she added "Never mind."

"James Potter as in me?" James was sitting on the stairs that led up to the boys dormitories. "I don't live past my twenties." It wasn't a question. Not really. His face was grim, no joking smile that he usually wore.

"I'm sorry James." Teddy said "If it makes you feel better, you died for love. For your son and your wife."

"Who is this mysterious wife we keep hearing about?" Sirius asked teasingly. It was obvious he was trying to lighten up the mood.

"Yeah," Remus added "If James dies young, that means he gets married young, which means that statistically speaking, we, or he at the very least, already know this mystery woman." Teddy noticed a couple people's eyes (mainly Sirius and Remus) slid toward Lily.

Teddy and Victoire looked at each other. They almost communicated wordlessly. They needed to talk privately.

"Can you give me and Ted a minute please? We just need to talk about a couple things privately." Without waiting for a response, Victoire and Teddy ran from the common room and didn't stop running until they hit the seventh floor. They made a beeline for the Room of Requirement, and went inside and talked things over for a good 20 plus minutes.

They didn't leave until they had come up with every pro and con for every decision they could make about the future and their predicament in the past. Unfortunately, that took them quite a while and by the time they were done, most of the other students had returned from their holidays. By now it was supper time, so Teddy and Victoire discreetly made their way into the flowing mass of students headed for the Great Hall.

The two kept their heads down and avoided the anxious looks they were getting from the Marauders and Lily. They didn't speak except between themselves (and only then it was small talk) and avoided the other 5 on their way back to the common room.

"Victoire Wilson!" Lily yelled at vic before she could go up to bed. "Talk to me, godammit!"

Victoire bit her lip. She shook her head slightly, and ran up the stairs. Lily turned to see Teddy also disappearing to the dorms (the boys dormitories though). She looked to the Marauders.

"What does this mean?" she begged them, but quietly. The other Gryffindors were still watching her after her seemingly spontaneous freak out.

"I think we should give them time." Remus said "They obviously are trying to figure something out. We should let them come to us."

"You're saying we should just act normal?" Peter clarified "Act like nothing happened?" Remus nodded

"Well that's going to be hard, considering they told us something pretty bloody major."

"Sirius," James calmed his best mate with a slight warning tone.

"We might have to wait a while." Lily realised. Remus nodded a little somberly but said nothing.

"Remus is right." James said definitely "We've seen how long Vic and Ted can hold a grudge, and we don't even know what that fight was about. It's better to act normal than to lose them both. No matter how long it takes." The others agreed

*******

It turned out, they didn't have to wait long. Each of them went up to their dorms to see Victoire and Teddy both seemingly fast asleep and a note hidden under their pillows. It gave them strict instructions for approximately the next 2 and a half hours. Each person decided for themselves they would follow the instructions to the letter. First thing was for them to act normal. For them to get ready for bed and 'sleep'.

Two hours later, as the clock was only ten minutes away from midnight, both Teddy and Victoire slipped out of bed and met up in the common room. Without exchanging words, they slipped out of Gryffindor (they were lucky not to wake the Fat Lady). For secrecy's sake, they both changed into their respective animagus forms -an yellow, almost white, horse for Victoire, and a smallish brown bear for Teddy- and made their way, careful to avoid Filch and the other teachers, to the seventh floor.

Ten minutes from when Teddy and Victoire got up, as the clock struck twelve, Lily, James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter all got up out of bed. Lily had to be careful not to wake Alice or Dorcas, but Marlene hadn't shown up from the holidays yet. The boys were able to be a little louder since they filled out their dorms.

Lily stood in the common room, tapping her foot, waiting for the boys. When they finally came down, they were five minutes late, Lily dragged them all by the ear up the the seventh floor. Together, the five of them entered the room of requirement.

Inside, Teddy and Vic were waiting for them. The room looked identical to the gryffindor common room.

"Hi." Victoire said meekly.

"Hello." Lily said a little breathless.

"I know you have questions," Teddy began as the other sat down on the various couches and chairs. "But you have to trust us."

"We want to tell you everything, but we can't. For two reasons. One, we simply haven't the time, and two, it's dangerous. As much as Teddy and I have decided to change things, we don't want things to be so utterly different."

"Change things?" Sirius looked more scared than anyone of them had ever seen "Does that mean that things are bad in the future?"

"Well," Teddy sighed "Not when we grew up, but the years before that."

"What does that mean for us?" Peter asked quietly.

"It's time for us to come clean, but we've never met any of you in the future, despite close family ties to all of you, you all died." Victoire could see couple tears in his eyes as he turned to Remus "Remus, you were the last to die and, well you died when I was two weeks old on the day Victoire was born." Remus paled considerably. His mouth hung agape and horror echoed over his whole body. "I'm sorry," Teddy whispered.

"T-two weeks old?" James stuttered slightly. "Wasn't that when your parents died?"

"There was a battle." Victoire explained for Teddy "A lot of people died. I was named Victoire, the french word for victory, when I was born the same day."

"Oh," James said dumbly

"If we're being 100% honest, none of the seventh years survived. Without giving away too much, Marlene is in danger."

"We have to help her!" Lily had countless tears dripping down her cheeks.

"Teddy and I already took care of it." Victoire assured her. "We sent a letter to Dumbledore saying that he had to get her back to Hogwarts immediately. Also said that her aunt has to go into hiding too."

"So she'll be okay?" Lily tried to force a hopeful smile

"I think so." Teddy wrapped an arm around her "And if we can help it, you all will be too."

"Your kids too." Victoire directed that at mainly Remus and James.

"Kids?" Remus cried "But- I- no- I- what-"

"For another day, I promise." Victoire smirked at Teddy who returned it with a playful grin while trying to mask the not-so-slight fear he felt.

"I think it's bed time." Teddy announced. "We have school tomorrow."

(A/N: Well hello there. I feel like every chapter I'm thanking you guys for insane amounts or reads (for me at least, I never expect my stories to be popular as much as I love it.) but holy cow 7.9K?! and we were at like 6K last chapter I uploaded (maybe that's a sign you should upload more, julia. Whatever julia, you can't tell me what to do.) But thank you thank you thank you. This officially means this is my most popular story, with it previously being Thrown Through Time. (I personally like this story better too.)

Just a few notes before I go, I have finished Exams and school for my 2015/2016 year, and I am officially on summer break! Unfortunately for me (but good for you) I had to get some stuff done on my feet so I am on crutches. If you have never had to use crutches, I'll let you know they are exhausting to use. That means I am spending more and more time on my laptop so that means (hopefully) more updates! Woo!

Long A/N for a long chapter. Bye everyone! -Jul)