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Never Let Go by majestic_ginny

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Chapter Notes:
Just a quick word -- This story contains cousin pairings. It's not incest, but I'm sorry if that puts you off reading :(.

Oh, and I'm going abroad for a month, so I don't think I'll update in that time. I'm sorry! But when I'm back, I promise I'll have updates :D I'll use my free time to write more chapters so that I don't lag behind! :)



"Harry," Ginny whispered, raising her hand up to her mouth, her eyes wide. "What are you saying?"

But that couldn't be right, Teddy thought, opening his mouth to protest. Lucy didn't have any boyfriend, and she simply wasn't the type to have a one-night stand. As a cool sort of older brother, he knew about the relationships of every one of the Weasley children - even if they weren't able to tell their own parents. Teddy even knew about Rose, who was currently in a secret relationship with none other than Scorpius Malfoy.

So unless there was something else in play, Lucy couldn't have been pregnant.

But before any words could come out of his mouth, someone interrupted him.

"Dad?"

The voice sounded so feeble and so desperate that for an instant Teddy couldn't recognize it.

Turning around, he found himself looking into James' ashen face. He looked like he'd been through hell and back. His hair was tousled up, and he was as white as sheet. His eyes were bloodshot - he had been crying. Teddy remembered that Victoire had said he'd ran out of the house on seeing Lucy, and he wondered where James had gone, and when he'd come back. Judging by his looks, Teddy had a feeling he'd gone to a pub to wash off his sorrows.

"Dad is it… is it true?" he managed to gasp, looking at Harry longingly, as if begging him to deny it.

Harry nodded. "Yes. She was pregnant."

James took a deep breath and blinked several times. Ginny went over to her son and hugged him. Everyone knew that Lucy and James had been very close ever since they were very little; the news would be very tough for James in particular.

He staggered in Ginny's arm. Taken by surprise, Ginny couldn't support him. He fell to the floor, all crumpled up.

"James!"

Teddy's eyes widened as he rushed forwards to help his god-brother, and though he knew James was bound to be upset, he couldn't fathom why James looked like he had just lost everything.

"Lucy was… she never told me… I thought… b-but I - we were so…"

He couldn't make head or tails of what James was going on about. Teddy looked on as James blabbered away, staring into nothingness, not acknowledging their presence at all anymore.

"James, what are you saying?" Harry demanded, crouching down in front of him, and judging by his looks, he had no more idea about what was bothering James that Teddy had. He glanced at Ginny, who looked as lost as him as she held James' hand. "What are you talking about?"

James looked at him in the eyes and whispered, "Dad, I was… the child - the child was mine, Dad."

Harry froze.

James looked a little scared. He took another deep breath and steadied himself. "Never mind. I-I guess... you continue with your investigation, Dad, I'll just..."

Biting his lip, he stood up and stumbled out of the room.

Ginny pulled herself up. Squeezing Harry's shoulder, she murmured, "I'll go talk to him," before following after her son, calling his name.

It took Teddy a while for the whole thing to register in his head. Normally he would have felt indignant, but that feeling never came. In the light of the present situation, it seemed very insignificant.

Suddenly he understood why the two of them had always looked so radiant around each other. He had never missed the stolen glances during family dinners, neither had he failed to notice that James would always protect Lucy during snowball fights and Quidditch matches. What he had always interpreted as brotherly affection had actually been much, much more.

And he knew why James had been so tortured.

He looked at Harry, who was staring hard at the door of the room James had disappeared into.

"Harry?" he said. "You okay?"

Harry jerked his head. Slowly, he looked at Teddy. His eyes looked like they'd suddenly aged a hundred years. "Yeah, I… yeah."

"This changes things," Teddy sighed. "It really does."



It was a while until Teddy finally got home for the night. Since the Medi-witch had announced that it had indeed been a murder, Harry had taken charge of the case, and surprisingly he had asked Teddy to assist him. Bewildered, Teddy had tried to refuse, saying that he was too unqualified for such a high profile job.

"Percy trusts you," Harry had said. "In fact, we're the only two he trusts on this. You're in."

And so they had officially started the investigation.

With a flick of his wand, Teddy switched on the lights in his house. It was the same one his parents had lived in, and though he could have easily managed to rent a new apartment, he preferred this house much more. It was full of his parents' memories - the parents he'd never known. If he closed his eyes he could imagine his father walking down the stairs, wearing the same threadbare robes he'd seen in their photographs, or else he could feel his mum making breakfast in the kitchen, knocking over pots and pans in the process. In this house he could feel truly close to them, to their memories, and he knew he couldn't have done it elsewhere.

He threw the files he was carrying onto the coffee table and unfastened his cloak, throwing it casually onto the armchair beside him. Stretching, he sat down on the sofa and began to pore over the notes he had made so far.

Victim had no apparent enmity with anyone.

High profile parents. May or may not have had enemies.

That was an understatement. There were many people out there who hated Percy, including other candidates for the top seat. Teddy knew them personally, though, and none of them seemed like to kill an innocent child for revenge. His training had taught him, however, not to trust people by their looks. They could not disregard anyone.

Death occurred in the early hours of morning.

No one could have got into their house with all the wards cast by the Aurors and old Order members alike. That suggested long term untraceable methods, including slow poisons or weakening hexes.

Middle of vacation.

Could it have been anyone inside Hogwarts? Lucy would know not to eat anything given by people she didn't know. That put her friends, classmates and teachers at the top of the list. And it would be something that she had to be constantly consuming in the case of poisons, such as chocolates or medicines. He'd have to ask Percy if she had been taking in any of them.

The fireplace burst into swirling green flames. Jerking, Teddy looked around to see who had been calling so late at night.

He was mildly surprised to see Victoire.

"Hey," he said, getting up and hugging her. Gingerly, he kissed the top of her head, catching a whiff of his favourite shampoo.

"Hi," she breathed against him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Are you busy?"

"Nope," he said, pulling away from her. "You all right?"

Victoire nodded as she took a seat on the sofa. Her eyes were still puffy, though, and her lips slightly swollen. "Better than before. Dad, Mum and Dom are all spending the night at Uncle Percy's. I doubt any of them would get any sleep, though. Uncle Percy was still pretty shaken up after everyone left. He kept on going on about how he never got to say sorry to Lucy. I couldn't bear to see it."

"Why, though?" Teddy voiced the thoughts that had been nagging him all day. He started to pace the room. "Who would have killed Lucy?"

"I wish I knew," Victoire sighed, her eyes following him. "She was just a kid... barely of age. She had her whole life ahead of her."

Teddy hesitated for a second before asking, "Do you think that anyone inside Hogwarts would...?"

"No," Victoire replied at once. "From what I've seen, she was a very quiet girl who only mingled with either the family or a couple of her good friends. She wasn't the type to mix with the wrong crowd. No drugs, no bitchy girlfriends."

"Did anyone have a grudge against her about anything at all?" he asked. "From the evidence, it strongly suggests she was under some long term administration. And that's only possible if the killer's from inside Hogwarts."

The though sent a chill down his spine. All of a sudden, Hogwarts wasn't safe anymore.

Victoire shook her head. "Not that I'm aware of. But whoever it was, you'll find them, won't you?" she asked softly.

Teddy stopped pacing and shuffled over to the sofa. Taking a seat beside Victoire, he took her hand and slowly stroked it. "Yes. We will."

Victoire rested her head on his shoulders. "James is shaken up badly. He won't talk to anyone."

"Do you know anything about them?" Teddy asked.

Victoire hesitated slightly before answering, "Yes. They were... they were together."

"He told me today," Teddy said quietly. "Harry and Ginny, too. He said that the... child Lucy was carrying was his."

Victoire nodded. "I knew about it."

Teddy was surprised. "You never told me."

"They made me swear not to tell anyone," Victoire replied, biting her lip and looking at Teddy apologetically. "I wasn't supposed to know either, really. I found out by accident. It was a few months ago, when we were at Grandpa Weasley's place. Everyone was outside. I needed to go to the loo, so I was inside the house, going up to Dad's old room when I suddenly heard... voices."

Teddy raised his eyebrows. "And let me guess..."

Victoire smiled slightly. "And they were making smooching noises and everything. For a second I thought maybe Rose had somehow snuck Scorpius in, so I pushed the door open, hoping to tell them off."

Teddy knew what was coming next.

"Imagine my surprise when I found James and Lucy inside. I was a bit grossed out, to tell you the truth," she admitted, not looking at him. "I mean, they are cousins and everything."

"That's about how I felt when I found out," Teddy agreed.

"I threatened to tell Uncle Percy about it, but they begged me not to. They didn't want anyone else in the family knowing about it, either; I think they were afraid of how Uncle Percy would react if he ever found out."

"How long have they been together?" Teddy asked, genuinely curious.

"Lucy later told me that they got together in their fifth year."

"Two years now," Teddy calculated.

Victoire nodded. Teddy kissed her cheeks softly as she nuzzled into his neck, sighing dejectedly. "They loved each other a lot," she mumbled, twirling the hem of his robes in her finger carelessly. "He spoke so endearingly about her, you know? It was obvious. And then she... she told me that she was pregnant and she was worried what James would say about it. I told her not to worry, I told her to go tell him, that they'd work it out together..."

Victoire was close to crying again, Teddy could feel that. He brought her closer to him. "Did she tell him?"

"I don't know. She didn't tell me."

"Victoire," he said, frowning. "Was she acting oddly recently? Do you know anything about her behaviour, or..."

"Well, other than the bouts of morning sickness and the itchiness, no. She was perfectly happy. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Morning sickness and itchiness, together with pregnancy and the possibility of being poisoned... There was something that seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"She was throwing up?"

Victoire nodded. "She was throwing up a lot, yes. And Dom even told me that Molly said Lucy was having gastric problems. Her throat and her stomach burned and her face and limbs itched a lot. That's common in pregnancies, though. It happens to everyone." she paused for a while, frowning. "The itchiness isn't supposed to come until later, though, not until the baby bump starts to show and the skin stretches. That's what we read in Healer training. It wasn't supposed to happen now."

His Auror training kicked in. "Is that all? Just vomiting and itchiness and stomach aches?"

Victoire nodded. "Well, she did mention something about bloody diarrhoea, too, but -"

Teddy paled.

"Teddy what's wrong?"

"I - I think I..." he couldn't bring himself to speak. The symptoms... memories from his potions course came flooding into his brain.

Victoire looked panicky. "Teddy, do you know anything -?"

And for the second time that night, the fireplace burst into green flames. "Teddy," said Harry's voice. "Come to my office right now."

He had to tell Harry what was going on.

"Go home now," he told Victoire. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Victoire looked bewildered. "No, Teddy, I -"

"Trust me," he told her, kissing the top of her forehead. "I'll tell you everything later. I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered. She stepped into the fireplace, and in a swirl of green flames, she was gone.

A minute later, Teddy found himself rushing down the hallway to Harry's office. The Auror office was empty except for a couple of senior Aurors hunched over their desks, working on Merlin knew what. Teddy skidded to a halt in front of Harry's office door, and without knocking, he let himself in.

"Teddy, there you are," Harry said, standing up. His face was grim. In his hands was a thin roll of parchment.

"Bad news?" Teddy asked, fearing the answer.

"I've just come from supervising the post-mortem," Harry replied. Aside from the coroner and the Medi-wizard, Harry was there as the duty-Auror. Harry had seen many post-mortems in his life, but Lucy's had so far been the most daunting, and he prayed to Merlin that he never had to face that again."Guess what they found." Harry handed Teddy the post-mortem and toxicology reports.

Teddy unfurled it and skimmed through the details, which mainly stated about her skin rashes and corroding intestines. He closed his eyes briefly, knowing how badly she must have suffered.

He finally stopped when he found the line he was looking for.

His eyes widened. He was right.

6. High level of toxalbumin found in blood.

Toxalbumin.

His legs weakened. Clutching for the chair, he sat down.

She had been poisoned.



Chapter Endnotes:
Review, please?They make me a very happy person. When I come back, I promise I'll respond.