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Never Let Go by majestic_ginny

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Chapter Notes: As promised, here's the newest chapter! And I'm already 2000 words into the next one, so hopefully that's gonna be here soon enough, too. :3

Disclaimer: Not JKR, nowhere near her.

WARNING: mentions of suicide included here.



As the green flames around him died down, Teddy saw the Shell Cottage living room come into view. He realised that he had landed on his feet and wasn't sprawled over the landing rug, for which he was grateful. He didn't need to make a fool out of himself in front of his girlfriend's parents. Rubbing soot off of himself and clearing his throat, he quickly checked if the flowers had survived their trip through the fireplace; once he was sure they were not bent and were basically unharmed, he hid them behind him. He stood with his hands hidden from view, his fingers clasped around the stems behind his back.

The living room was warm and cozy, with the predominant colour being blue. The curtains and rugs were a light powdery blue, and the walls were painted a sweet periwinkle. The sofas and armchairs were gray and silver, however, and Teddy thought it accented the blue quite well. There were lots of moving pictures on the wall, most of them of Victoire and her siblings, but there a few of Bill and Fleur together and a couple of them had the entire Potter-Weasley clan moving around in them.

"Maman, I think I heard the Floo bells chime! I'll be back in a mo'. Teddy, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me!" Teddy called back, craning his neck to catch a glimpse of Victoire through the arch that separated the living and dining room. Victoire appeared in a second and Teddy felt a grin spread across his face. She was wearing a pink apron over a light purple dress, her hair tied in a messy bun and her hands coated with flour. She's beautiful, he thought giddily.

"Hey, you," she said, coming closer to him, her arms lifted upwards and bent at the elbows as she kissed him on the cheeks to avoid getting her flour-coated hands on him. "You're a bit early. Maman and I were helping Orange with the pie."

"Is zat Teddy I hear?" Fleur called as she walked into the room, wiping her hands on a wad of tissue. "Teddy," she said fondly when she spotted him, coming over to give him a hug, which Teddy returned warmly. "I 'aven't seen you in a while. 'Ow have you been?"

"Slightly overwhelmed with work," Teddy admitted, before pulling out the flowers from behind him. "These are for you," he said, his cheeks tingeing slightly, as he held them towards Fleur.

"These are absolutely lovely, Teddy, merci," Fleur said happily, accepting the flowers with a smile. "I have the perfect vase for zem zat will go well with ze colours." She turned around, heading for the door. "I'll put zem in the water and get back to ze kitchen. Victoire, mon cheri, I trust you can look after 'im for a while?"

"Yes, Maman," Victoire said, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

"Don't roll your eyes at your mother, sweetheart," came Bill's voice. A second later, the man himself walked into the room, kissing his wife on the cheek as she walked out, shaking her head at her daughter. "Teddy, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Sir," Teddy said, standing up and offering his hand, which Bill shook.

"Victoire, dear, why don't you go and help your Maman out?" Bill asked.

Teddy bit his lower lip. He didn't really want Victoire to go. It was not that he didn't like Bill. He liked him a lot. He just didn't trust himself to not make a fool out of himself in front of the man.

Victoire seemed to sense Teddy's apprehension too, for she answered, "It's okay, Daddy, Maman and Orange can handle themselves in there."

Bill chuckled, and the light threw into relief his scars as they stretched with his facial movements. "I'm not going to torture him, in case you're worried," he assured.

Victoire's cheeks reddened, as did Teddy's. "Teddy, I'll be right back, yeah?"

Teddy nodded mutely, watching as Victoire pranced away, her loose curls bouncing.

Teddy turned to look at Bill, who was looking at him expectantly. Teddy felt slightly nervous. He really didn't know what was wrong with him -- he never felt awkward around Bill before he started dating Victoire. Bill was always Uncle Bill, part of his family, one of his father figures and occasional Quidditch teammate. It was after he started dating Victoire that he started to feel a bit anxious around him. He had a feeling it was because of that very reason -- boys always tended to be nervous around their girlfriends' fathers.

Teddy realised he should really say something to dispel the awkward silence. "Er, how's your work at Gringotts going, Sir?"

Bill must have noticed Teddy's nervousness, for he gave a reassuring smile. "The goblins have been a bit restless the past few days. They've recently recovered one of their older vaults that was on long term lease, but the owners seem to have placed a bunch of curses without anyone noticing."

"How come they didn't know about it?" Teddy frowned. The goblins were the authority on wizards' vaults. Anything that happened to the vaults happened by their word, only.

"It was on lease to a powerful family that demanded full secrecy," Bill said. "My team and I have been working on it for days. They'd been adding reinforcements on it since before the First War."

Teddy raised his eyebrows. "Must have been a powerful family."

"Oh, they were," Bill agreed. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much more, though. Why don't you tell me about you instead? How's work?"

"Things have been quiet. Nothing much has happened over the days." Teddy answered. He was a bit more comfortable talking about work instead of personal things. "We're trying to trace down a new lead, but we haven't had much to go on. We've got teams out on a manhunt for the suspect, but it doesn't look promising."

Bill's lips thinned. "I talked to Percy last night, and he doesn't seem to have his hopes high. He told me about Auror Williamson. I wouldn't have trusted that man with anything of mine, to be honest. He and his mates had always made things difficult for us back in the old days."

"Williamson lied about his son breaking out of Azkaban," Teddy said. "We think he's the one who who planned the whole thing, like an extended plot to overthrow Percy as Minister with Lu as collateral damage. Seems like it all simmered down to politics."

Bill nodded. "Frankly I think Percy's doing all he can to not appear vulnerable. He has to be strong, and being fake is hurting him. He can't not express his feelings. He was always an open book. Audrey, on the other hand..."

"James and I met Aunt Audrey that day by the grave," Teddy said. "She didn't seem normal at all. She was..." Teddy had a hard time describing how Audrey had looked that day. "She was talking like Lu was still alive in her grave. Like she could still talk and feel and understand everything that was happening."

"Fleur and Hermione go over to their house every two or three days," Bill said. "Ginny and Angie join them if they can get away from their work, and they try to help keep things running smoothly. Molly isn't home anymore, and when Percy's at work, there's no one takes care of Audrey. She doesn't go into the Ministry anymore."

"Does it help if they go over?"

"Fleur thinks there's a little improvement now, so I guess it does help a bit." Bill shrugged. "She doesn't seem to be in denial anymore, at least, but it will take her a while to get life back on track."

Teddy nodded. Silence took over them once again, and slowly it was turning awkward. Teddy didn't know what to say anymore. The neutral topics were quite over and done with.

The moment Teddy decided to bring up Quidditch, however, Bill spoke up.

"Teddy, how long have you known me?"

Teddy started, not expecting the question. "Ever since I remember, Sir," he replied.

"Then why do I feel that you're worried I'm gonna take a bite out of you any moment?" Bill asked, the corner of his lips pulled up slightly.

Teddy flushed. He had hoped it was not that obvious. "It's... kind of the principle of it, Sir. I'm dating your daughter --"

"And I trust that you won't do anything that might jeopardise her honour. You don't have any such plans, do you?" he added as an afterthought, one eyebrow raised.

"No," Teddy said quickly. "I really respect Victoire, I would never --"

"Relax," Bill chuckled. "I'm pulling your leg. You're a nice kid, Teddy. I've known you for years, and frankly, Teddy, I'm glad Victoire chose you over any of the other dunderheads that graduated out of Hogwarts with her."

Teddy blushed. He'd hoped he'd hear Bill say that someday, and actually hearing it put his nerves at ease. "Thank you, Sir."

At that moment, Victoire popped her head into the living room. "Dinner's ready," she announced. "Anyone up for some shepherd's pie?"



When dinner was over, Victoire decided it would be nice for Teddy and her to go for a walk on the beach. Making sure that Fleur and Bill had no objections, the two of them left Orange to do the dishes, who was more than eager to do it by herself. ("Missy and Master Teddy need not to worry about little Orange! Orange can take care of the dishes herself!") As the pebbles crunched beneath their feet, the sound of waves crashing into the rocks could be heard over the whistling of the air. The two walked on, hand in hand. They talked about their day, Victoire's face glowing in the light of the moon as she recounted her experience in the Emergency ward that morning.

As Victoire finished her tale, Teddy looked up at the sky. The moon was not completely full yet, but it was nearing. He felt weak; he usually did around those times.

"I spoke to your dad today," Teddy spoke up after a while.

"What did he say?" Victoire asked, kicking a stray pebble, which landed a few feet away with a soft clatter.

"That he approves of me," Teddy said, a smile appearing on his face.

Victoire giggled, squeezing his hand. "Obviously he does, silly. Do you think I'd be here otherwise?"

"I was always worried, you know?" Teddy revealed. "That your dad wouldn't like me."

"Teddy, he's known you forever. He likes you. Why wouldn't he like you?"

"I don't know," he said quietly. "I've just... you know I get a bit insecure about --"

Victoire stopped and looked at him a bit incredulously. "Insecure? Teddy, you are naturally good looking even without you morphing, you had top grades in your O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, you were Hufflepuff prefect and Head Boy, and you even scored top in your Auror entrance exams! You could even put Aunt Hermione to shame! What possibly do you have to be insecure about?"

Teddy sighed. "It's not about my qualifications, Vic. You know how I worry about people's perception of me. Some people either like me because my parents were war heroes and they treat me as my parents' son. I'm always Remus and Nymphadora Lupin's son. The reason I've always tried to be top at anything was so that I'd make an impression on people by my own merits. As much as I like being compared to Mum and Dad... I really wished people liked me as Edward Lupin, as my own person."

Victoire linked her arm through Teddy's and leaned her head against his shoulders. "People do like you for who you are, Teddy Bear."

Teddy turned his head towards her and kissed the top of her head. "I know, love. It's just... that's why I'm so worried about what your parents think. Cause I'm already so conscious about people liking me for who I am, that it makes me nervous about what your parents, whose opinions actually matter, would think."

Victoire smiled, shaking her head at her boyfriend. "They like you, Teddy. I'd go as far as to say they love you. Anyway," she said. "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Ask away, love."

Looking back to make sure that they were far enough from the cottage to not be overheard, but not too far away to not be seen, Victoire sat down on a large boulder, scooting to the side to make room for Teddy. Teddy followed her lead, and soon the two of them were sitting side by side, their bodies very close together so as not to fall off the sides. "How are you, Teddy?" she asked suddenly, her voice rather wistful.

"Er, I'm good, I guess. Happy to be with you," Teddy replied, not sure what she was getting at.

"No, I mean... how are you in general? With the case, everything?"

Teddy let out a deep breath, contemplating on his thoughts before replying, choosing his words carefully. "I'm... tired. Worried, too. We're following our best lead, but something doesn't feel right. I'm sorry I can't tell you the details of it --"

"No pressure," Victoire assured.

"Thanks. I can't tell you the details," he continued, "but it feels like the maths of it is just wrong. Nothing is adding up. That, and I'm worried about James and Audrey. James might have gone back to Hogwarts, but I'm worried he's gonna try something stupid. He broke down at Lu's grave, and I don't think he's ever going to return to normal. Neither will Audrey. Lucy was her oldest daughter; how can she ever get over her murder?"

Victoire didn't say anything, but her face grew more sombre by the minute.

"What about Percy?" Teddy continued. "Not only is he distraught over losing his daughter, he's still not over the fact that she died while they were still cross at each other. And people have started to talk, Vic. They are saying that he's traumatised. That he's not fit for office any longer. I'm worried that he'll be off the job if he can't pull himself together. He's doing a wonderful job trying to act like he's in control --nthat's in his nature -- but I'm worried that deep down, he really is not. Even your dad agrees he's not."

Victoire took his hand in hers. "You know, Dad often talks about Uncle Fred's death," she told him, giving his hand a squeeze. "About how the entire family fell apart. How Uncle George sank into depression, how he tried to off himself twice, and nearly succeeded the second time."

"He -- what?" Teddy exclaimed, looking bewildered. "He really tried to --?"

Victoire nodded. "He tried jumping off the Burrow roof the first time, but he couldn't. The Burrow has always had these enchantments that prevented anyone from falling or jumping off. The second time, he slit his throat, cause he thought that way, he couldn't possibly back out when he was nearing death. If Uncle Ron hadn't found him that day... I think that's one of the reasons he quit as an Auror and joined the shop. To look after Uncle George. And Grandmum went ballistic when she found out, about how she was nearly about to lose another son. Cried enough to fill an ocean. I think that's when Uncle George finally started to see reason.

"See Teddy," Victoire said after a pause, "my point is that, I think that's when Uncle George realised that a death in the family might be a deep blow to the morale of everyone in the family, especially to the people close to the one who died, but the important thing to realise is that there are still many people alive who care for you. Who you need to be alive for. Yes, it hurts. It kills you, knowing you can never see them again. But you have to live on, for everyone else around you. To love them and to be loved in return. That's how people cope with grief, and I'm sure as time passes, the wounds will heal. The scars may remain, but all of us will come back stronger than before."

Teddy looked at Victoire, marvelling over how easily she had put those feelings into words. Concepts that took him so long to understand, Victoire had so easily explained them to him. His Victoire was an amazing, amazing woman.

"Thank you," Teddy said, taking lifting her hand that was still clutched in his and kissing where their fingers intertwined. "I needed to hear that. You always know what to say when I'm down."

Victoire leaned into him and placed her head in the crook of his neck. "I love you."

Teddy smiled, shifting his head so their faces were inches apart. He reached forward and kissed her lip softly, savouring the feeling of his lips on hers. "And I you."

They stayed a while longer in comfortable silence, revelling in each other's closeness and reassurance, until they heard Fleur's voice calling out to them. Teddy looked up to see Fleur waving to them from the kitchen's door.

"Dessert eez ready!" she said loudly. "Come in, you two!"

Victoire stood up, stretching her arms above her head. "I don't know about you," she said, "but I'm in the mood for dessert. All that sad stuff makes me want to eat some chocolate. And Maman's Mocha Pots de Crème is exactly the thing I need. Come on!"

Teddy grinned. Fleur's dessert was exactly the thing he needed at that moment, too.



The first thing that Teddy saw when he stepped into Harry's office next morning was a large tower of parchments on Harry's desk. The man himself was nowhere to be seen, but Teddy was sure he'd heard Harry saying "Enter" when he had knocked.

"Harry?" Teddy called out.

Harry poked his head out from behind the stack. "Ah, there you are. What took you so long?"

"Sorry," Teddy muttered, taking a seat in one of the comfy chairs in front of Harry's desk. "Auror Boot asked me to file --"

"It's okay, no harm done," Harry interrupted, waving away his apology. "Have you got any idea what this is?" he asked, motioning to all the papers between them. "You get three guesses."

Teddy raised an eyebrow. "Not your electricity bills, surely."

The sides of Harry's lips curled up slightly. "Nope. Try again."

"Something to do with Zachary, I'm assuming."

Harry nodded, handing Teddy the parchment he had been holding, which Teddy started to flip through. "Yeah. Michael sent me his log files from Azkaban. I've been going through them for a while, and guess what? I've got absolutely nothing suspicious."

Teddy frowned, looking down at the parchment. All of the letters and visits were from Williamson Senior. Surely, that couldn't be right? He must have had some help in escaping. The help I had was rather smart... He had help in escaping.

"These are the logs for the past six months, though," Harry admitted. "I'm sure we'll find something when we see the latest logs."

"But why hasn't he sent the latest logs yet?" Teddy questioned. Surely, they were more valuable.

Harry took off his glasses and rubbed them. "They're sending them in batches. Earlier first. Williamson has been in to see his son a lot, sometimes twice, even. There's a lot more files compared to other prisoners." That much was obvious from the sheer amount of papers on Harry's desk.

"Let's divide the pile and get to work," Teddy suggested. Harry nodded, letting Teddy separate the papers into two smaller piles before picking one up and getting to work.

Around ten minutes in, Teddy voiced out, "Harry, I was wondering something."

Not looking up from his list, Harry replied, "What is it, Teddy?"

"Remember the girl who would have had to help put the poison into Lucy's vial? The one who'd actually have to go into her dormitory to change the potion?

Harry nodded, asking him to go on.

"And Zachary saying 'The help I had was rather smart'. Harry, what if they are the same person? What if that Gryffindor girl was the one who helped Zach out?"

"That's a brilliant idea, Teddy," Harry applauded, giving Teddy a quick look of admiration before ruffling through the papers again. "We need a girl. Any girl who might be mentioned in his logs. Read them thoroughly, any mention of a girl --"

There was a loud rap on the door. "Not now, I'm busy!" Harry shouted.

"Auror Potter, this is urgent," a voice called back fervently. "You need to hear this!"

"This better be good," Harry muttered, before dropping the papers and pointing his wand at the door to fling it open. "What?" he growled.

One of the Aurors, Dawson his name was, Teddy remembered, stepped in hesitantly. Slightly ashen faced. "We found him, Sir. We found Zachary Williamson."

Sweet Merlin, Teddy thought, his heart beating wildly as a grin fought its way across his face. It was over. They had found Lucy's killer. They could --

Harry shot up, already making his way towards the door. "Where is he? I want him in Interrogation Three right now. Get him in there."

The Auror shook his head, trying to stop Harry from walking out of his office, but shrank back as he sent him a withering look. "Sir, wait! I'm afraid it's not what you think."

Harry stopped and glared at the junior Auror. "I'm giving you thirty seconds to explain why you are trying to impede my investigation."

The Auror took a deep breath. "Sir, we found Zachary Williamson in a cottage off the southern coast, a few miles from Plymouth. Sir," he paused, his voice slightly shaky, "we found his body. He's been dead for more than two months."

And just like that, everything came crumbling apart.



Chapter Endnotes: Hope you don't wanna kill me now. Reviews? Cookies? Rotten tomatoes? I love getting feedback! --Nadia