A Sneaky Shock (Teddy)

[Lily Potter]

Lily walked down a side street in Hogsmeade. So she wasn't supposed to be here but when did that stop her? She had used her dad's invisibility cloak to get though. Today all Hogwarts students were allowed a Hogsmeade visit. Gabriella and Hugo hadn't wanted to come with her this time because of a pile of History of Magic homework that Lily had managed to finish, somehow, the night before. She rubbed her eyes tiredly. She had been forced to wake late hours to accomplish it though. Lily passed a small thatched house and turned into another street where a bar she had heard of loomed into sight. Making sure no one was there she pulled off her cloak and stuffed it into her pocket.

As she reached the bar she peered through the windows that seemed to have developed a slimy layer on them from lack of cleaning. There was no way she was going in there. Everyone looked scary and almost all had her hood up. At least thats what she thought until she spotted her "brother" Teddy. He wasn't blood related to her but her dad was his Godfather and he had always been rather like an elder brother to her, despite her already having two. From the shock of such an unexpected sight she felt as if icy cold water was spreading throughout her. She almost didn't recognise him.

She opened the door and the bright light shining in showed that she entered as it lit up the place. Well it wasn't bright but inside the pub was dark. A bit of chilly wind followed her until she closed the door. The ground beneath her feet felt as if it had a good few inches of dirt so that if it weren't for the fact it was inside she would have thought it was not a stone floor.

[Teddy Lupin]

For the past week and a few days, Teddy was going all sorts of miserable. The guilt of what he did to Victoire, how he almost killed her, was really getting to him. Not to mention how he missed her. But the only good thing he could do was break up with her. It was the first time he felt like everyone else was right, that he was just some creature and Victoire had been a whole lot better off without him. And it wasn't doing much for him. He even packed up and left from his grams' house to a not so big place he got for himself.

Not to mention even his work was not the same, he felt like something was missing. Like maybe his optimism. So he did one thing that he felt he was enabled to. Search for other monsters like himself. Which wasn't that hard, he wasn't the only werewolf out there. He just didn't know of any that would be born with it. But he had found a small...pack, one could say, and really tried to fit in. Though some of these guys were a little disturbing, they all knew what he was going through every month. They knew like nobody else, not even his grams.

Sometimes he wished his father didn't die, then maybe he'd be able to cope with this. But as almost always, that was just a wish. The only really good thing he ever got that he wanted was her. And now she was gone. Not really liking these thoughts, he took another gulp of his fire whiskey. Today he came with a few of his new pals for a drink, but had really already overdone it. This was actually the first period of his life he wanted to get drunk. It made thinking harder. That was why he didn't notice the new arrival much, as he exchanged some comments with his new 'friends'.

[Lily Potter]

Lily felt a few tears in her eyes at seeing Teddy like this. Even worse, there were a few other people around him that didn't look too pleasant. Some of them jeered at her. Another licked his lips. She suppressed a shiver as she watched them exchange comments. She realised something...he was drunk. Lily, being only twelve, had never been confronted with something like this before. When such new things came upon her it was then that the fact she wasn't even a teenager yet showed.

The Bar Tender had his gaze on her and she probably looked familiar to him, as her mom had been in here before. It was like Ginny's past self walking in. She took a slow step forward, afraid to really go near Teddy's friends but as he took another long drink from the firewhiskey in her hand she barged into the group of people with a bravery she felt that on the inside was not showing itself, despite how she appeared to look on the outside. "Ted-Teddy?" she asked her voice cracking slightly. She didn't know how he would react...would he even recognise her?

[Teddy Lupin]

Once again, he took a large gulp of the fire whiskey, since at the moment it was the only thing he could feel. Feel going down that was. And it did pretty nice with helping his constant thinking about what he did to her problem. However, he was starting to find it difficult to see clearly. Things were starting to get slightly blurry. Not that he was in any condition to contemplate how he'd leave this place. As far as he was concerned right now, it didn't matter.

And then someone walked over and said his name. All the conversation at the table fell silent. Though it still took him a moment to realize he was Teddy. Looking over at the new person, he could make out the red hair and the fact she was short. But it took a few blinks to completely recognize Lily standing there. "Uh...'ily? What you doing here?" He asked, not really concerned about his own state. The fact was, he was in a better state even after a full moon than this. And the alcohol kept him from really noticing how few of his companions were staring at the girl.

[Lily Potter]

Lily noticed the way it took him a while to respond but at least he recognised her. She had been afraid he wouldn't. "No, what are you doing here?" she asked firmly redirecting the question to him, causing a few more mutterings. Again she didn't feel as confident as she sounded. She wished she did, it would've made things easier on her. As she was on the receiving end of a hungry look she a horrible thought occurred to her. Maybe these men were more than just drunk and were staring at her hungrily for a different reason than she thought. Maybe they were...werewolves.

She tried to shake the idea from the head but the fact that Teddy was here, and drinking firewhiskey made it stick there. Why would Teddy do that though? She hadn't heard of anything out of the ordinary but then she knew for sure this was not normal. The person in front of her was not the Teddy her dad loved like a son, and that she loved like a brother either. And this crowd of people around him scared her, alot. "Who are these people?" she asked another question. She doubted he was in a state to answer them properly though.

[Teddy Lupin]

It seemed Lily wasn't going to make this easy for him, she turned his question completely around. Who was under age here anyway? Glancing around the faces around, he for the first time noticed the stares. But wasn't completely in a state to determine she looked like a nice tasty snack to them. Among other things. Looking back at his 'little sister' he thought of what to say. And in his state, that was quite hard. Also he wasn't sure if he really had to give his reasons. He was 19. "Drinking." He simply stated in the end, finding it that one word answers were mostly easy.

Though even in his state, Teddy could somehow tell her expression wasn't like really did enjoy being here. Which brought him to the conclusion that she needed to leave. And then she asked another question. What was she, training to be a detective? Frowning slightly he glanced at his company and at her again. "Friends. Go away.." He got out of himself, turning away and finishing his fire whiskey in a long gulp.

[Lily Potter]

Lily immediately got annoyed at that answer but her concern for him and feat easily over rid that. "Well...why?" she asked but his next words stung her like he had never done to her before. He told her to go away. It was probably mild considering he was drunk but who could blame Lily for being hurt? She was twelve. "No..." she said simply. What kind of person would she be to leave him in such a state alone? It was probably the better thing to do but this was Lily. She always made the wrong decisions.

She looked at the empty bottle in his hand before suddenly, without even thinking grabbing it and smashing it onto the ground. She didn't know what made her do it- didn't change the fact he had drank the whole thing and possibly others but it made her feel better. "What happened? What would Victoire say if she saw you?" demanded Lily. The anger she showed was nothing that she felt- she more felt like crying but shouting was a way to cover it up and hopefully make it go away.

[Teddy Lupin]

There she went again with questions, Teddy by now felt the urge to slam his head against the table. Lily wasn't making this easy. "Because..." That was it, all he could get out of himself on the subject at the moment. The reason he was here was to forget why he was here. As confusing as that sounded. But for that he really needed to be left alone. Everyone around him was at a risk of eventual harm coming to them. Hell, he should have been locked up by now. He was a werewolf that attacked a human, that was worth of a trial.

He almost didn't catch her no, but when she snatched the empty bottle from his hand and smashed it, it proved to get his attention and 'wake him up' a little. Part of him never thought that Lily could do something like this. To top off the situation one of his 'friends' started to stand up but Teddy shot him a glance not to. But before he could muster up a reply, she crossed the current invisible line. She brought up Victoire. In a matter of seconds the barely able to respond Teddy was gone. He had a darker expression about his face and his eyes turned quite into the likes he had as a werewolf.

Standing up so suddenly his chair fell with a thud to the ground, he grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her away into the farthest corner, then looking at her as if it wasn't even himself. "Keep Victoire out of this. The two of us are over, and you can just be glad you won't have to go to her funeral. And you know, you should stay far away from me too before something happens to you because of me." He said in a low, and for a twelve year old probably scary voice before letting go of her arm.

[Lily Potter]

Lily was aware she had gotten his attention by smashing the bottle. Fear flickered through her sapphire eyes when one of Teddy's... friends started to get up but thankfully despite not being in his senses Teddy shot him a look that Lily supposed said not to. The next thing his did caused her to take a step back instinctively though and she had to swerve to avoid colliding with someone else who was taking a drink of fire whiskey. She barely had time to notice the dark expression she feared before he grabbed her and dragged her to the farthest corner.

His tone of voice as he began to speak scared her greatly and it showed on her face but what he said caused it to be covered up by shock, and then understanding. As her three emotions went one by one of her face she struggled to find her voice. When he said to stay away from her she knew it had something to do with him being a werewolf...something had happened. "Well I'm not going to her f-funeral and there's no way in hell I'm going to stay far from you," she said her voice shaking slightly.

[Teddy Lupin]

Had Teddy been more in his senses, he would have caught on to the fact that he was scaring his 'little sister'. Not to mention how his new friends did. To a kid they would probably seem less than just disturbing looking. Most of them didn't really mind the whole being werewolf part, like he once used to. Until he hurt Victoire. That really changed his life opinions. He had hurt the one person he only wanted to ever protect. That hurt. He had to let her be free of him. There was nothing he could really give her but a life of danger. She deserved better.

Barely he could see that he was scaring her, but he couldn't help it. He was way too drunk. Watching how her expressions changed he knew he'd get some sort of reaction, hopefully one with her leaving. But no, this was Lily. Little brave Lily. What she said next only proved that. Frowning again, he drifted even further away. He needed to get her away from him. "It's luck you don't have to go to a funeral. And yes you are going to stay away from me. I'm a monster. Everyone else saw, everyone else who wasn't blinded by caring, they said it. I didn't listen. I was stupid, I almost ended up killing her! I hurt her! I ripped apart the neighbors bloody dog!" He said through gritted teeth, his fists clenching at the memories. "Now you get out of here, you have no business with me."

[Lily Potter]

Lily wondered if he was going to regret all of this later and scolded herself inwardly for even having to think about it. Of course he would. He was still Teddy, no matter who he his new mates were. When he said what happened between him and Victoire Lily felt a need to see her cousin...to see how Victoire was doing. Was she at school or was she somewhere in Hogsmeade wandering around just as depressed as Teddy? "Well," she said trying to find something to respond.

She couldn't stop thinking about what things would've been like if that had happened to Victoire...Victoire who was nice to everyone and who Lily loved like an older sister. It wasn't Teddy's fault though. It was the werewolf inside him. "Yes I have business with you, you're my brother," she said trying to stop the shaking in her voice. So he wasn't related to her but he was her dad's Godson and had been around for a great deal of her life, had been the first to tell her about Hogwarts...that was good enough for her.

[Teddy Lupin]

Part of him wondered what Victoire was doing with all her new free time. Free from the monster. She would no doubt eventually get someone...better and be happy. Though just the thought of that hurt quite a lot. The idea of her with anyone else, even though she'd probably be better off. But he couldn't help it, he still loved her a lot. Although he tried to go on like she never knew him. Only thing it got him was to feel incomplete, however. And generally depressed.

It wasn't really a big surprise she didn't know what to say to that. There were no right words to reply with to what he said. Well, maybe Harry would have some, but Harry wasn't here. And Teddy doubted he could make this better. Lily's next words brought him slightly down though. Saying that he was her brother hit home, he couldn't do this anymore. Leaning against the wall he slide down do a sitting position and he looked up at the girl who was so brave to be here. His current look was like that of a hurt puppy, a hurt homeless puppy. "Just...just go away...please..."

[Lily Potter]

Lily, who was a Legimens heard all his thoughts and through all her other emotions felt sad for them both, and what Teddy was going through and how badly Victoire was probably coping at the moment. He looked like a hurt puppy. The seriousness of it all struck her at that moment and she forgot about all of Teddy's werewolf friends. "You'll just get yourself killed if you hang out with them..." she said sadly.

"You're training to be an Auror. There are potions to help you now. One bad incident happened, and because of that you're willing to cancel out all the good you could do for this world?" Aurors were those that stood up and fought against dark wizards...they did do alot of good. As she looked down at him she realised she had just asked another question. It probably wasn't making it any easier for him.

[Teddy Lupin]

Lily's statement made him look away and try to block her out as best as he could manage in this state. She didn't know, couldn't know. None of his close ones would ever know what was it like to be a werewolf. He had to live with it for the rest of his life. She didn't. But for the past few days he saw another world, a world where he'd fit in with the rest. Although slightly disturbing, generally they were like him. Beasts. That was where he belonged, no matter what Andromeda said to him since childhood.

"I'll take my chances with them...you don't get it...you never will...not unless you become one...and trust me..it's no walk in the park..." He got out of himself before standing up again. At her next question he glanced back at her. "All the good I could do? Like what...hurt people?" He asked slowly, trying hard to finish up whole sentences. Considering what he drank tonight, he was doing quite well though. With that he began to walk back to the table.

[Lily Potter]

Lily could intrude Teddy's memories, and see if it was possible to see them from the werewolf's point of view...but she would never do that. It would betray him, and she feared what she would see if she did. Because of this she didn't know what she could possibly say to make things seem better. "No...help them," she said weakly. She wasn't good at this sort of thing. Gabriella was. But Gabriella wasn't here. She followed him as he began walking back to the table. "So you're just going to walk away from everyone that loves you too much to even put into to words? From me, from my dad...from Victoire?"