***A/N*** Hey guys! This was supposed to go up last night but I got distracted by The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Whoops! Anyways here's a cute little Theo POV and I should have a Freddie one up later today, maybe a Theseus one too if I manage my time properly. Okay, see you soon! xx
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"Freddie! You've been in the shower for an hour! I need to pee!" I scream as I bang my fist on the door.
"Ten more minutes! Christ!" He calls back.
I bang my fist on the door again, "That's what you said twenty minutes ago! Come on!" I jiggle the door handle as if it miraculously unlocked itself since I tried last, "Freddie! Christ man!"
Freddie mumbles something that I can't make out then Evie laughs...
Evie laughs... from inside the bathroom.
"Oh, gross guys! Ugh..." I look away from the door, "Gross!"
I huff and puff the entire way down the stairs and into the living room. Pops is teaching some muggle card magic to Ophelia while Theseus and Cass read together in one of the huge chairs that is by the fireplace. Cassie in Theseus' lap, reading the words out loud softly as Theseus plays with her hair and clearly is slowly falling asleep.
I step over Dom and Kate who are lying on their backs in the middle of the hallway and go into the kitchen. Annie is sitting on the table, back from the Longbottoms, and Victoire is painting Annie's toes nails.
"Where did Mum and Dad go?" I ask coming into the kitchen and getting myself some water.
"They took Dora to the park along with Uncle Fred and Auntie Em so Edward and I could have a break," Victoire says.
"Edward? What's with the formality all of a sudden?"
Victoire waves her hand in the air haphazardly, "Edward, Teddy, all names for the same person."
"Yeah but..."
Victoire looks up from Annie's toes and stares at me. I decided it would be best to drop the subject. I love Vic but we've never been close enough to listen to each others problems and things. And it's not like I'll be able to understand her marriage problems as a fourteen, nearly fifteen year old human being.
"Tomorrow's the big day... darlings what are you doing on the floor?" Nan says coming into the kitchen, "Tomorrows the big dinner so I need as much help as I can get please and thank you!"
Nan comes into the kitchen and squeezes my cheek, "Do you want something to eat Theo? You're looking a bit frail."
"I'm good Nan," I say.
"I could go for a cookie though, if you're offering," Annie says. She bends her head all the way back so that she's looking at Nan upside down.
"Cookies sound pretty good," Victoire adds, "Only if you have some lying around of course."
Nan smiles, 'You're never too old for Nans cookies. Theo love I have a whole tin in the pantry if you don't mind."
I nod and walk down the little hallway between the kitchen and the stairs, but just as I go to open the pantry door, the door bursts open, hitting me right in the nose.
"Godric's tit!" I swear, clutching my nose.
Bridget and Molly look at me with wide eyes, "Theo!" Molly says like she didn't just kick a door into my face.
"Am I bleeding?" I ask, my voice is nasally cause I'm pinching onto my nose.
"Well if you would move your hand I might be able to tell," Molly says trying to get a good look at my face.
"If you weren't auditioning for the next James Bond movie then this wouldn't be happening," I grumble back to her. I carefully move my hand away and both Bridget and Molly make a 'oooh' noise.
"Yeah that's pretty bad," Bridget says, "Here let's go back over to Nan."
"Cookies."
Moll scoffs, "Cookies? Really? Who are you, Uncle Ron?"
"No you bloody idiot, I came down here to get Nan her tin of cookies."
"Ah, okay I'll find them."
Bridget and I walk into the kitchen just as Mum, Dad, Uncle Fred, Auntie Em, and Dora come back home from the park.
"What the fuck did we miss?" Dad says dropping the bag of toys and coming over to me.
"George Fabian Weasley you will do right and not use that language in this house!" Nan shouts from the kitchen making Victoire and Annie burst into laughter.
"Mum, you broke my kid! Sorry if I'm a little shocked!" Dad guides me by my shoulder over Kate and Dom who still haven't moved from the floor and brings me into the kitchen.
"Broke your kid? George, they're all fine. I haven't seen Freddie in a while but he's probably just asleep. What on gods green earth are you..." Nan turns from the sink and drops the plate that was in her hands.
Dad gestures to my face, "This one. You broke them."
Mum comes into the kitchen carrying Dora in her arms. She hands the little girl off to Victoire and comes right over to me. She grabs my chin in her hand and turns my face to hers.
"Ouch Mummy," I groan. My voice is thick, it's getting harder to breathe out of my nose.
"What the bloody hell happened to you? My sweet Theo! Come, come sit. Molly love do you still have some of that numbing cream?" Mum goes into full doctor mode as soon as I sit down.
Molly comes into the kitchen holding the tin of cookies above her head. She adjusts her glasses as she says, "Got them!" but no one seems very impressed.
"What happened darling?" Mum says in a hushed tone as she pulls up a chair in front of me. Nan hands her the numbing cream and she starts to slather it all over my broken nose.
"Ow, godric this smells. It was nothing Mum honest." I don't really want to say that I caught Molly and Bridget in the pantry and they kicked the door open and into my face. One just cause it's their business and I don't think they would like it if everyone knew. But also I don't want Mum to get upset with Molly, even if it was an accident.
"Let's go upstairs Dora, Daddy's having a kip, we can join him," Victoire says picking Dora up and heading upstairs.
"Daddy! Look at my toes!" Annie says to Dad wiggling her toes in the air.
Dad laughs, "Want to do mine?"
"Really?"
Dad and Annie gather all the varnish out of the kitchen and move into the living room so that Mum has some room to fix me.
"Theo your nose is broke, it's not nothing." Mum says, she takes her wand out and smiles sadly at me, "This may hurt, but I'm hoping that that cream might help a bit alright?"
I nod and Mum points her wand at my face, "Episkey!"
My nose cracks five different times and sharp pain explodes across my face, "FUCK!" I shout before immediately covering my mouth with both my hands.
Mum and Nan look at me with wide eyes, Dominique and Kate laugh from the hallway.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean – sorry Mummy, sorry Nan." I stumble over my words.
Mum laughs, "I'll let this one slide, but just this once yeah?"
"Yeah."
Nan hands me a cookie, "Go change your shirt darling, looks like you've just killed a man. I'll fix you a sandwich," She winks and nods towards the stairs.
I hop off my chair and head up the stairs to do what Nan asked me to do. The bathroom door is finally open but Freddie and Evie are in their towels snogging by the sink so I don't bother trying to get in there to go to the washroom quite yet.
I change my shirt for a yellow Hawaiian top with flamingo's on it and finish my cookie before trying to get into the bathroom again.
As I wash my hands I stare at myself in the mirror. My whole face is bruised, like I've just been in a huge fight with someone.
"Oi, get out of the washroom," Ophelia says from beside me. She pushes into the small room and stares at me through the mirror, "What the fuck happened to your face?"
"I was being dumb."
"Figured, but like what kind of dumb?"
"Uh, ran into a wall."
Ophelia laughs, "Yeah, that sounds like a pretty dumb thing to do. Get out I need to piss."
I roll my eyes, which hurts by the way, and walk out of the bathroom. For a house this big you would think that there would be a second bathroom. Same with our flat. One bathroom for seven, soon to be eight people? Should be illegal.
As soon as I get back into the kitchen Nan hands me a plate with a cheese toastie on it. That's her thing, if someone is hurt, or sad, or happy, or anything really, she feeds us and hopes that fixes or helps whatever it is that the person is feeling.
Victoire comes bounding downstairs and looks around frantically, "Has anyone seen Teddy?"
"Thought you said he was upstairs having a kip?" Nan says.
Victoire pulls on her hair, "Cause that's where I thought he was! But he's not up there! He just... left."
Mum, Auntie Em, and Nan all share a look that I can't dissect.
"He's probably just gone to Harry and Ginny's. Or to Aunt Andromeda's, dinner is tomorrow so he might have just wanted to make sure that..." Mum says.
"I don't care where he went! It's the fact that he left his daughter alone." Victoire comes into the kitchen and sits beside Mum. "It's been rocky between us since we left Hogwarts. I wanted to travel the world, he wanted a family. And when we broke up, I figured, 'nows my chance, I can go do what I want and he can stay in London. He's family so I'm going to see him again,' but then I – well you know and I came home looking for support and I found Teddy again and I think... I think I just fell back into what I knew was safe. I got hurt following my dreams and Teddy never hurt me. Teddy was safe."
I feel like I shouldn't be listening to this conversation. Victoire is telling Mum and Auntie Em and Nan all of her problems, not me.
"I did what Mamon et Papa, well what Mamon wanted me to do. Get married to a perfect man and have a perfect family. But I can't... I can't get myself to love him the way I did when we were in Hogwarts. I love Dora, I love her with my entire heart and soul but every time I look into her eyes, I see all the things I wish I was doing instead." Victoire continues. She looks at Mum, "I don't know what to do."
Mum looks at Auntie Em, I pretend that I'm eating my cheese toastie.
"I was in a situation like yours," Auntie Em says, "I was in love with someone else but I couldn't have them. I did what I thought I was supposed to do, what my parents wanted me to do. I got married, I had my son. But I decided that I needed to be happy in order for my son to be happy."
Victoire sniffs and looks at Auntie Em. I take another bite of my cheese toastie, keeping my head down and pretending like nothing is happening.
"But did you have a sister who turns everything into a competition? That when you confide in her she turns it against you because she has to be better than you in every aspect of your life no matter what?" Victoire takes a deep breath, "I'm sure it's all my fault though. The way that Mamon thinks that I can do no wrong but no matter what Dominique does it's not good enough."
"None of this is your fault darling. Sometimes things just don't work out." Nan says reassuringly.
"Mamon et Papa don't get that though. They think now that I'm married with a daughter that everything is great! That me spending two months living with them instead of Teddy was for Teddy's work and not because we couldn't even look at each other. Dominique has Kate, Louis has Amar now, I have a broken marriage and a two year old. I'm the oldest, I should be the perfect example."
"No one's perfect my darling," Mum says, she pushes some of Victoire's hair out of her face, "It's alright to admit that you've might have made a mistake. Have a conversation with Fleur and Bill, be honest with them and they'll help you." Mum looks at me and I quickly become very interested in a crack in the table.
"I just, I'm lost." Victoire mumbles, "No one has ever told me what to do if I got myself into a situation like this."
Auntie Em takes Mum's place beside Victoire and Mum comes over to me, "Come on love, let's give her some space eh?"
I nod and shove the rest of my toastie in my mouth, wanting desperately to get out of this awkwardness.
Mum takes me outside cause the living room is pretty crowded with Weasleys. "Have I ever made you feel like that?" Mum asks, "Like one of you can do no wrong?"
I shrug, "Sort of. I don't think it's your fault, but I think there is a constant need to try and be better than Freddie maybe?"
Mum cups my face in her hands carefully as to not press too hard on the bruises and crouches just a bit so that we are at eye level, "You, my darling Theo, are perfect in every way of the word. I am so very proud of everything you have ever done, who you're becoming. All of it. I love you so very much, and I need you to know that whatever you do, whoever you end up becoming in later life, I will love and support you unconditionally."
I nod and smile, "Thank you, Mumma. I love you too." I say back to her.
She smiles, tears well up in her eyes as she kisses my forehead as carefully as she can, "I never want you to ever believe that you are anything less than perfect."
"Trust me, Mum, I know I'm great. But thanks for confirming."
Mum ruffles my hair and pulls me in for a hug, "Help your Nan by getting a centrepiece for the table done eh? I'm going to have a chat with your siblings."
"Can I go to Missus Longbottoms?"
"Use that little head of yours to use the stuff in the yard to make one instead. If any of us can do it it's you."
"Mumma?"
"Yes, darling?"
"You might want to start with Ophelia. She's got some stuff she should probably talk to you and Dad about."
Mum nods, "She said she wanted to speak with us some time today. I'll check if now's a good time."
"Oh and Annie. She's been off recently but she won't tell me about any of it."
Mum smiles and hugs me again, "What would I do without you?"
"Probably go a bit mad."