Chapter 1

Scarlet Trains and Photographs

Hey readers. This is my first fanfiction and i worked verrryyy hard on it. Teddy and Victoire are my favorite couple. Even though there is not a lot of TeddyVictoire in this chapter, i promise there will be more in future chapters. Thats right. This is not a oneshot. Anyway, onto the story.

Disclaimer: Alas, I am not J.K. Rowling, nor will I ever be. I'm not even British, though I would like to be. GO BRITS!

Ah, the Hogwarts Express. The scarlet train felt like a gift to me, getting everyone excited for the new term back at school. I looked out the window to wave goodbye to my parents one last time before finding a seat. The chattering of "How was your summer?" and "I missed you so much!" surrounded me. Most of the first years were still crowding the aisle, waving goodbye to their families. If only I could find an empty compartment…

Then I spotted a flash of red hair in the sea of students. "Lucy!" I called.

She turned around when I called her. "Victoire! Oh thank goodness," she exclaimed. Lucy Weasley ran towards me and embraced me in a hug. My cousin was ever the enthusiast. "I have been searching for someone for ages. I can't find any open compartments." She scanned the aisle for open doors.

"Me neither," I replied. "Let's see if we can find someone to sit with." And with no further invitation, Lucy maneuvered her way through the crowd. I followed her the best I could without getting run over.

Then I heard Lucy yell, "James! Hey, wait up!" James was sliding open a compartment door when she called him. He turned our way and raised his hand in greeting.

Once we reached him, I asked, "Can we sit in there with you? We're kind of desperate."

He frowned. "Why can't you go sit with Teddy or something?"

"We didn't see him. He's probably in a different car."

"I have friends sitting in here!" he said exasperatedly.

Lucy, being the clever girl she is, said in a low voice, "You know, James, I don't think your friends would mind if you brought two older girls." This was true. James was a third year while Lucy and I were sixth years. I was only a couple months older.

"Oh, Merlin," I muttered. Meanwhile, James was scratching his head, deep in thought.

"Interesting…" he said. "Alright, fine! Just don't go inviting anyone else in." So he opened the door, revealing two boys sitting by the windows. Lucy and I sat down right by the doors when James went to his friends. They started a conversation instantly.

"So Vic, are you excited for the new term?" Lucy asked me, putting her feet up on the seat next to me.

"I guess so… I mean, I'm not expecting anything exciting to happen," I replied dryly. "Nothing exciting ever happens anymore. Then again, I suppose that's a good thing right?"

But before Lucy could answer, the compartment door opened slightly. Teddy Lupin peered his head inside, sporting a smile and his signature turquoise hair. "Can I sit in here? I can't find a bloody compartment." My heart fluttered a bit, like it always does when Teddy's around. But he just has that affect on people.

"Vicky!" James exclaimed. At first I thought I had said that out loud but then I remembered the promise Lucy and I had made to James.

"What? How could I have invited him if I was in here the whole time?" I argued.

He grunted in response and Teddy came in. He plopped down next to Lucy and ran a hand through his brightly colored hair. "I swear it's like he doesn't want me here," he said sarcastically.

"No its not you he doesn't want here. It's us," Lucy answered. "I practically had to bribe him to let us in here."

"Yeah, it's a good thing Luce is so clever," I told Teddy. He put on a mockingly surprised expression.

"Lucy? Clever? No," he said. We all laughed, even Lucy. Ted is a year above us, in his seventh year. He was always dubbed a popular guy, but he was great because he was friends with everyone. And I mean everyone, the girls especially. But he is just an all around good guy. There isn't a single person who doesn't like him. Except for maybe the entire Slytherine house but that's just because they're Slytherines and we're Gryffindors. But what can you do?

"So where's Wood?" I asked. Calum Wood was Teddy's best friend since first year.

"He's-" Teddy started, but Lucy interrupted him.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you," she said somberly. "I made quidditch captain."

"Lucy, that's brilliant!" I exclaimed. Lucy had made the quidditch team in second year and had been our strongest Chaser since. She'd only convinced me in our fourth year to try out and I made the team as a Keeper. Wood was a Beater and Teddy was the Seeker, too. Lucy had been praying for captain since she joined.

"Why do you sound so sad about it?" Teddy asked. "It's great."

Lucy started playing with her hands in her lap. "I know it's just… do you reckon Wood will be angry?

"So that's what this is about," I said. Wood had also been hoping for captain. "Luce, Wood's too good of a guy to care."

"Yeah, you're right. Where is he anyway?" she asked Teddy.

"I dunno," he replied, "but we'll see him back at school."

We sat in comfortable silence for a while, all thinking about separate things. I was just glad I was with my friends again and was on my way to Hogwarts. I was thinking about my parents and how I would miss home when I looked up and caught Teddy staring at me. I thought I'd been hallucinating but I was proved wrong when Teddy's hair turned pink. He looked down and I felt my cheeks heating up. Teddy's hair always gave him away.

Desperate to forget the awkwardness, I started up a conversation. "So Teddy, are you thrilled to take your Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests?" I mocked him. Lucy and I had frequently made sure to annoy Ted about his tests over the summer holiday.

His hair turned back to normal and he scoffed. "N.E.W.T.s… Whoever came up with that name had a nasty sense of humor." (A/N: This is so true. I'm glad J.K. Rowling doesn't name my school tests…)

"Still," Lucy put in, "I'm glad that I don't have to take them."

"Yeah, we get free periods to relax instead," I said while I laughed.

"Bite me," Teddy said. "Oh no wait- you already have!" He was pointing a finger at me.

"Rubbish," I argued back. "I was four and you cut my hair with garden shears!"

"I don't regret it," he said. But we were all laughing, even James and his friends.

Eventually, we changed into our school robes and were just waiting to arrive. We were still picking on the treacle tarts we had bought from the trolley when the trains whistle blew, signaling our arrival.

"Oh well, I should be going," Lucy said, standing up. "I have prefect duty."

"Wow," James replied, "a prefect and quidditch captain. Uncle Percy must be proud."

"Yeah he was a little less than ecstatic. Anyway, I'm off. I'll see you two," she gestured to Teddy and me, "at the feast. Save me the best seat in the house."

"Which translates to the seat in front of the roast chicken platter," I muttered under my breath. Teddy chuckled.

"You know me so well," she responded cheerfully, and left.

Teddy turned to the three third years behind us. "Alright boys, time to go," he said.

"And why should you tell us what to do, Teddy?" James asked, trying to be cool for his friends. This of course was lost on Teddy.

He leaned down to James's height and said, "Because I can kick your scrawny little arse."

"Oh, yeah?" James challenged, but he was smiling.

"Yeah!" And then, Teddy ran out of the compartment with James close on his tail. James's friends followed them too, joining in on their tag game. I laughed out loud, though I was the only one left in the compartment. There went Teddy being Teddy.

I was about to leave and join my fellow sixth years when I saw something on the seat where Teddy had been sitting. I sat down across from it and picked it up. It was a photograph. In the picture was a kind-looking man with brown hair and scars on his face. He was dancing with a very beautiful woman with pinkish-purple hair and a huge smile. The thing that struck me the most was that they looked so happy.

I had seen enough pictures and heard enough stories from my parents, aunts, and uncles to know that these were Teddy's parents, Remus and Tonks.

"Vic?"

I looked up to see Teddy in the doorway of the compartment. He was looking at me with a sort of sadness in his eyes. He had seen me looking at the picture. I stood up quickly.

"I came back here when I didn't see you come off the train…" he explained.

"Thanks," I said. I realized I was still holding onto the photograph. "Oh. Erm… I think you dropped this." I handed him the picture. When he took it from me, he wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Thanks," he told me. "It means a lot." And I knew he meant it.

"We should probably get going," I said softly. I realized that we had been whispering. Teddy had been my best friend since before I could remember, but we never talked about his parents. Even when Remus or Tonks came up in conversations at family dinners, Teddy never had much to say.

"Yeah." When he turned around into the hallway, I knew I had to say something.

"Hey, Teddy?" I stepped out into the hallway. He turned to face me.

"Yeah?" he whispered. He was looking down at his trainers.

"You look just like him." And it was true. Then Teddy met my eyes. They looked happier than before, and Teddy was Teddy again.

"Except for the hair," he added with a small smile.

I grinned. "Yeah. Except for the hair."

He gestured forward so I started walking towards the exit. As I was climbing off the train, he put his hand on the small of my back, helping me down. I felt my face heat up, but it was night so he thankfully couldn't see it.

Before Teddy and I parted to find our friends, he gave my hand a quick squeeze and left. I watched him walk towards a carriage and wave to Wood. Something special with Teddy had happened back there, but I didn't know what.

"Hey, where have you been? I thought you ditched me." I turned around and saw Lucy walking towards me. She had her hands up in defeat. "The carriages are about to leave and Diane Bones is going to tell a ghost story about why she can see thestrals. But I think it's a bunch of rubbish and she's lying. You coming or what?"

"Yes, I'm coming." So I followed her into our carriage where a bunch of my friends were talking about their holidays. But I wasn't paying attention, even when Diane started her thestral story, because I could still feel the spot where Teddy had put his hand on my back.

AHHH! How was it? Was it okay? Like I said, my first fanfic. Please be super nice and click that button down there.

Oh and please check out randomrayyxx3's Maximum Ride Fanfiction. It's called "A Break" and it's pretty fantastic.

Reviewers get chocolate frogs!