The Magic of Time

It was a few days later when Teddy and Victoire received a reply from James. Again, when Kiwi came back with the letter, the two were in the common room working on homework when they heard the soft taps from Kiwi's beak against the glass of the window. Victoire nudged Teddy's leg and nodded toward it. Teddy walked over to the window, discretely opened it, and took the letter from the owl. As he sat down again, Victoire set aside her half-finished Potions essay and read with him silently.

Vic and Teddy,
Of course I know where the timeturner is (“Told you,” said Teddy, smirking). Even little Lily could have figured out its hiding place. Dad likes to think he's good at hiding things, but he's no better than Albus hiding his crush on Mom's friend Luna.
Anyway, let me know when you guys need it. I'd be glad to show you where it's hidden. Just make sure that, whatever you're doing with it, you get it back before Dad needs it for work. I'd say you'd have a few good months to do whatever you need to do with it, but don't take my word for it. Mom says that the Ministry is still very unstable, so they could decide they need it sooner. Either way, you didn't get this information from me.
See you both next break – James

They folded the letter carefully and Teddy slipped it into his pocket. He turned to Victoire and said quietly, “Never underestimate the sneakiness of your cousins.”
“I don't know what I was thinking,” Victoire replied sarcastically. “Underestimating an eleven year old.”
He chuckled and ruffled her hair playfully as he got up. Victoire pushed his hand away and made a face.
“Just think,” he whispered as he walked her to the girls' staircase. “This time next year, I'll have my parents back.”
For the most part, Teddy and Victoire both believed his statement to be true. How could there be any other turnout than that? But still, even after they returned home for summer break, they waited until the fast-approaching end of it to finally take James up on his offer.
The night prior to this occasion, Victoire had spent the whole of it on the phone (Fleur had wanted to make the house more “Muggle friendly,” as she put it) with Teddy and went to bed well past when everyone else was asleep. It only took her the short time that she curled up under her soft comforter to doze off, but it was easily disturbed by her sister, Dominique, shaking her.
“Wake up, Vicky,” she said in a falsely cheery voice. Victoire threw a pillow at her sister's head and covered her face with the comforter.
Since they were children, Victoire and Dominique were always the worst at getting along. They were different from each other and it was obvious to anyone who so much as looked at them. Victoire had round, blue eyes with long blonde eyelashes and Dominique had bright brown eyes with red eyelashes. Victoire had pale blonde hair and clear, creamy skin and Dominique had vibrant red hair and freckles as far as the eye could see. Victoire was vintage fashion and Dominique was all about her funky wardrobe. Victoire was a Delacour and Dominique was a Weasley, and because of that Victoire had always been madly jealous of her younger sister.
It was one thing to be known for her Veela charms and beauty, but it was being known for bravery and daring nerves, like all Weasleys were, that Victoire really craved. But, in all of her sixteen years, it had been neglected from her and given instead to her incredibly chaotic, irrational sister. Perhaps proving that she, too, had the personality of a Weasley was another reason why she was so willing to take Teddy up on his challenge.
Dominique rolled her eyes at Victoire's antics and tore the blanket off of her. When Victoire groaned again, she said, “Mum said that you have to get up now. We're visiting the Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny in a few hours.”
“Mmm,” Victoire mumbled into her pillow.
Dominique rolled her eyes at her sister and turned to exit the room. Just before she reached the door, though, she smirked over her shoulder and said, “Teddy's coming over soon to visit with us.”
It was amazing the effect that that simple sentence had on Victoire. Instantly, her eyes opened wide and she leaped out of bed. Dominique chuckled and left her sister's room, shutting the door behind her. With astounding speed, Victoire stripped off her pajamas, tossed on her robe, and scurried into the bathroom, just barely beating her brother to it. She ignored Louis as he pounded on the door and took a very quick shower. Afterward, she slipped back on the formerly discarded robe, brushed her teeth, and ran a brush through her soaked blonde locks. Louis was still slamming his fist on the door when Victoire finally emerged.
“Well it took ya long enough!” Louis huffed, moving into the bathroom. Victoire stuck her tongue out at her younger brother.
Louis Weasley also had all of the qualities of a Weasley, including the violently red hair and freckly skin. The only signs of any Delacour blood was his eyes, the exact same color and shape as Victoire's and their mother's.
Quietly, Victoire walked back into her room and nearly shrieked when she saw Teddy sitting on her bed, blushing beat red because of Victoire's attire, or lack thereof.
“S-sorry, I came a little earlier than expected and Dom told me to wait in here,” he began to stutter.
Victoire held the robe tight to her chest and mumbled, “It's, uh, it's fine.” She smiled awkwardly at him and he chuckled slightly, making it an effort to look at the ground now.
“Why don't I, um, go and let you get ready? Just call me in when you're dressed and what-not.”
Victoire giggled and nodded. “Will do.”
Teddy sidled out of the room quickly, giving Victoire a quick grin before he shut the door. Victoire covered her red face with her hands as soon as he left, feeling nothing but mortification. She could have strangled Dominique for what she'd done. Instead of pursuing this lovely fantasy, though, Victoire simply rummaged through her closet and quickly put on a pair of black shorts and a turquoise tanktop. She beckoned Teddy back into the room after she tossed her robe into her hamper.
“Sorry about that,” he apologized sheepishly.
Victoire mumbled back unconvincingly, “It's no big deal.”
“Gonna kill Dom for it later?”
“Most definitely.”
Teddy chuckled and ran a hand through his currently violet head of hair. Victoire rolled her eyes playfully and pushed him gently, not as though it would have done anything to him if she had used all her force. If there was one thing that Victoire absolutely lacked, it was physical strength. Teddy, nonetheless, acted as though it deeply hurt him and put a hand over the spot she pushed. Victoire laughed and took her seat in front of her vanity.
“No need for the abuse, Vic. I didn't tell anyone to go into your room while you were indecent,” he reminded her playfully, ruffling her damp hair. She made a face at him and brushed out the knots with her fingers.
“But you listened.” Victoire started on her hair and had it tucked into a neat bun by the time she began to rant about her sister. “I don't know why she does this to me. I mean, what have I done to her?”
Teddy sunk onto the floor next to her and shrugged. “Maybe she's jealous?”
Victoire scoffed and turned to Teddy. “What is there possibly to be jealous of?”
“I don't know,” Teddy teased, “I guess you're kind of cute, you know, if you're into perfect Veelas.”
Quickly, Victoire looked at the ground, hiding the pink creeping back onto her cheeks. “Dom's part Veela, too, Teddy.” She sighed and admitted, “And she's got everything a Weasley should have. I'm the one jealous of her.”
Teddy lifted her chin with his finger and let his chocolatey brown eyes bore into her sea of blue. “So what that you don't have the Weasley red hair or every one of the family's freckles? It's not how you look that makes you a Weasley, it's what's inside.”
She smiled coyly. “So I do have a Weasley's heart, then?”
“I was talking about the DNA, but, yeah, heart works, too,” he grinned. Victoire hit him on the arm, laughing.
“You are so not funny.”
“I don't know,” he teased. “I think I'm pretty hilarious.” He leaned back against the wall and put his hands behind his head.
“Too bad no one else does,” she said innocently.
Teddy lifted his eyebrows in mock surprise. “Oh really?” Victoire nodded and smirked.
Unexpectedly, Teddy shot up from his spot and grabbed Victoire from her seat. Victoire shrieked at the abruptness of this, but began to laugh moments later as Teddy began to tickle her sides.
“Admit I'm hilarious!” he demanded.
“Never!” Victoire shouted back, barely breathing from the stitch in her side.
“Say it!”
“No!”
Over the laughter between the two of them, they heard Victoire's mother, Fleur, call, “Keeds, time to leave!”
Teddy gave a huff and said, helping Victoire up, “You've gotten lucky this time, Vic.”
Victoire grinned and slipped on her sandals before the two walked out of her bedroom to join the family in the sitting room. Her parents were standing on either side of the fireplace with Louis and Dominique occupying the cushions of the loveseat. Victoire paid no attention to her sister's slight smirk.
“Alright, guys. Let's get going. Aunt Ginny said that she'll have lunch ready for us around noon and it's five past,” Bill informed them.
“Come on,” Fleur said, ushering her kids and Teddy toward the fireplace. “Teddy, seence you are ze guest, you should go first.”
Teddy nodded, smiling. “Thanks, Fleur.”
Fleur nodded and held out the family's container of Floo Powder. Teddy grabbed a handful and threw it into the fire. He stepped into it seeing the emerald flames and said, very clearly, “The Potter home.”
In a rush of blinding flames, Teddy was gone and Fleur was pushing her eldest child forward.
“You're next, Victoire,” she said. Victoire followed Teddy's actions and found herself falling out of the fireplace at the Potter residence in mere minutes. Teddy was there to help her back to her feet.
“My knees will never not have bruises if I keep this up,” Victoire said, rubbing her kneecaps. Teddy rolled his eyes, smiling, and escorted her to the nearest chair while the Potter children entered the room.
All three immediately threw themselves at Teddy, clearly being their favorite of the two because of all the time he spent there with his godfather. Teddy laughed and hugged all three of the kids at once. By the time they moved onto Victoire, the rest of her family had shown up. Ginny and Harry rushed into the room at the sound of the commotion.
After the rest of the hugs, kisses, and greetings given out to each guest, Ginny announced, “Sorry that lunch is running a bit late. Harry thought he'd try and make everything himself and, well, let's just say that we're all lucky to have not burned to death.”
Harry rolled his eyes. “You're exaggerating, Gin. It wasn't nearly that bad.”
“Stick to beating up bad guys, Daddy,” Lily giggled. Harry lifted his daughter into his arms and kissed her forehead.
“Thank you for the input, Lily Luna.”
She grinned toothily and Ginny said, “Come on, Lily. You can help me in the kitchen. Maybe you can give your father a few cooking lessons after we're done with lunch.”
Harry smirked and passed Lily over to Ginny's arms. Ginny carried her out of to the kitchen, only to be followed moments later by Fleur who insisted on helping, dragging Dominique along. Harry enlisted the help of Bill and Louis in setting the table after another few minutes, leaving only Albus, James, Victoire, and Teddy left. Teddy caught Victoire's eye and nodded.
“James,” he started slowly. “Would you mind showing Vic and I that thing we talked about?”
It took James a minute to realize what he was talking about, but when he caught on, he nodded vigorously and began to show them out of the room until Albus stopped them.
“What thing?” he asked curiously, following his brother.
“Nothing, Al. Go and hang out with Dad or something,” said James nonchalantly, waving his hand as if he was shooing away a pestering bug.
“But I want to come, too!”
“No way! You can't keep a secret to save your life!”
“But James...!”
“No!” James said firmly. Albus, tears filling his green eyes, ran away from them. Victoire looked after him sadly.
“You could have let him come along, James,” Victoire said. “I'm sure he wouldn't have told.”
James laughed. “You don't know Albus too well, then.”
Not willing to risk James not showing them where the timeturner was, Victoire kept her mouth shut. When they reached the end of the hallway and stood in front of Harry's office door, James looked up at Victoire.
“Do you have a hairpin?” he asked, holding out his hand. Victoire took one out of her hair and gave it to him. James had the door open within seconds and tossed it back to her.
“Uncle George taught me that one. He told me that it really came in handy when he was underage,” he informed them. Victoire grinned, imagining just how many times that her Uncle George had used that trick with his twin brother, Fred, before his untimely death.
They entered the room quietly and Teddy closed the door behind him. He remembered being in this room all the time when he was a kid, but didn't remember any place to hide something well. James apparently knew what he was doing, though, because he went straight for the bookshelf and pulled out a copy of Hogwarts, A History. Teddy and Victoire were hovering over him, giving each other quizzical looks. James opened the book and, much to their surprise, there was a huge chunk of pages taken directly from the inside of the book going nearly all the way to the back cover. Inside of the missing chunk just so happened to be the timeturner. James looked up at both of them, smirking.
“See? Dad's awful at hiding things.”
Teddy nodded approvingly. “Good thing for us, then,” he noted, nudging Victoire's arm. Victoire silently agreed.
“I'm sure Aunt Hermione had a proper fit about his degrading of the book,” Victoire smirked. Teddy and James both laughed.
“Oh, she did. But Uncle Ron and Dad calmed her down,” James grinned. “Do you think you can get it back by Christmas break?” He picked up the timeturner by its chain and dangled it in front of Teddy's face.
Taking the timeturner and stuffing it in his pocket, he replied, “Yeah, I think we can do that.”
“Good,” said James. “Now, let's get out of here before Dad catches us.”
James led the way out of the room, locking the door behind all of them. Victoire and Teddy exchanged looks full of both excitement and nervousness.
Even though having the timeturner meant that Teddy would get to see his family again and possibly save their lives, it went without saying that if they were caught with this, the consequences would surely be worse than they could imagine.