Real Magic

By Blue Eyes At Night aka Bean aka Cara

Authors Note: Ok…so my Lupin/Tonks happened, flourished, was tainted, resurrected…and then was decimated my Rowling. This is for Teddy. Teddy deserves more then the casual brush off that JKR gave him! That POOR thing!

He'd been performing magic since he was born. His hair changed colors no less then a dozen times before he was a day old. He could shift his appearance into anything he wanted… but Teddy Lupin needed a magic stronger, deeper then the magic in his veins.

In his veins lay, perhaps, part of the problem. The blood in his veins, given to him by the two people he couldn't remember, except by old photographs. His mother and father, the soldiers who had died in the last war against Voldemort. The war was a story that Teddy had heard since before he could remember, and in the world he lived in there was scars from it everywhere. Hogwarts had been repaired, even added to, since that last battle but those that went before him said it was never quite the same.

Teddy supposed a lot of things were never quite the same. The Lupin household was one of them. His grandmother, Andromeda, had moved back into that house with baby Teddy after the news of her daughter and son-in-law's death reached her. She'd moved in like an infestation that preserved everything. Andromeda was terrified that something of them would be lost and Teddy would never ever know it. He was raised in the house that his parents intended him to be raised in… but it wasn't the same. He knew that much.

Flicking his wand as he walked through the old garden, he watched as flowers blossomed at his charms. He'd just turned 17. There had been a huge party, his grandmother had organized it in this very garden just a few days ago. Harry and Ginny brought James, Albus and Lily. Ron and Hermione brought Rose and Hugo, Hermione was even sporting a little bump that Ron affectionately called Fred. The whole Weasley clan was there, they found the endearment on Hermione's stomach extremely touching. Apparently it was yet another name from a family member dead during the war, this one a twin of Holey Uncle George. Watching Hermione's belly, Teddy thought maybe there were twins in there. Victoire had come with her parents, batting her eyelashes at Teddy and wishing him a happy birthday, her veela-blonde hair hypnotizing him a little.

Teddy could Apparate, Disapparate, and use his wand as he pleased… but the magic had never impressed him. He had effortlessly taken top marks in all his classes…he was first in his class, prefect, Head Boy…

His hair was typically turquoise but today it rippled red with a wave of frustration. No matter where he looked, what he did, there was something about magic that never struck awe in him. First year was clear as a bell to him, he remembered the look of awe, even in pureblood wizards had a look of pure wonder on their faces as they cast their first spells. Teddy just sort of did it.

Real magic just seemed so hard to come by.

The world was just a little short on the all-mystifying.

Teddy had seen a lot of pictures of himself as a baby…it was the only time he'd had with his parents and so it was the pictures he saw most often as they were in them, and he could see that chubby little baby hadn't been born cynical. But something happened, and that's how he turned out. Blame growing up with a grief stricken grandmother in a house that was the ghastly museum of his dead parents. Blame being five when it struck him that he would never have a mommy or daddy like the other kids did. He'd had them once, and they were dead. And that's life.

Well…that's war.

He was turning his wand in his fingers, his hair turning all the colors of the rainbow as he thought about what to do.

I want to feel…magic. I want to feel alive.

He thought about his happiest memory, the day that McGonagall had witness him tripping over his own robes in the midst of performing the most difficult spell in the class… and had said he reminded her precisely of both his parents.

"Expecto Patronum." He said and out of his wand a large, lumbering wolf-like creature with a mohawk emerged. He supposed this was something of what he could've looked like, a werewolf with some flair, but he'd barely gotten any of his father's lycanthropy. Teddy directed the patronus around the garden, letting it run about and circle him.

"Teddy?" A small voice seemed loathe to speak. When he turned he was surprised at who he saw.

"Victoire? What are you doing out here?"

Victoire…Victory. None of them remembered the victory, the end, but they were all connected to it. Teddy was named for his murdered grandfather…so was James. Albus was named after…well that was an obvious one. Lily was Harry's mother… Victoire was the first-born after the fight. Teddy was the only one born during the war…

She looked like victory, like that was the feeling a man got when she was near him, like he'd won a prize. Teddy's hair settled on turquoise and seemed to glow a bit as he gave her a smile, feeling a bit of his previous despondency slipping.

"Well, mum and dad want to get back to Shell Cottage soon…I think dad's just cooing because of the baby."

"I almost forgot about that…" The Weasley's had their fourth baby girl recently, although the middle two were visiting their grandparents in France. Victoire was supposed to be there as well but she refused to miss Teddy's birthday.

"Did you have a good birthday?" She asked, swinging that gorgeous mane of hair behind her. Pink shown in her hair and Teddy goggled for a minute…

"What…was that?...Don't mind me a minute, Vic." Teddy took a long section of Victoire's hair and looked at it closely…

"It's pink!"

Victoire blushed, "Well…the veela blood is thinning out…and the Weasley red was knocking…"

Teddy smiled, "I like it…not one for traditional shades myself."

He rolled his eyes to emphasize his bright blue hair. For a moment he forgot he was holding her hair and he let it go, "Sorry, I've never seen someone with pink hair…."

"But you have." She said, "Your mother did."

Teddy shrugged, "That was just magic."

He let his fingers glide through Victoire's hair, its shell-pink sheen more obvious to him now that he'd noticed it, and he felt a small, content smile, "This is real."

Victoire put her hand on Teddy's and he felt the pleasant warmth. If he'd expected her to move his hand away from her hair he was wrong, she nuzzled her cheek into it instead.

"Teddy…who's to say this isn't magic too?" And she leaned forward, shyly, and gave him a small kiss. His lips tingled.

He was mystified…he was in awe at the pleasant tingling in his heart and on his lips…

"It's real magic." Teddy leaned down to kiss Victoire again.

At long last…Teddy Lupin found the wonder he thought he had lost with his parents.

Fin.

A/N- I love teddy lupin. End of story…..victoire is interesting to play with, a veela-weasley? Come on! It screams play!

R/R!!!