pamwhodeathforgot | (no subject)

La la la, classes start tomorrow and I actually haven't had time for this kind of writing for the past week but I finished this just before leaving! How exciting. Teddy and James are adorable.

Title: Anyone At All
Rating: PG
Pairing: Teddy/James! So, of course, lots of mentions of OBHWF, too.
Summary: James makes Teddy happy.
Word count: 5163
Warnings: There's a seven-year difference between Teddy and James, but James is not underage.
Notes: It's a tiny bit of a stretch, but this is for this quarter's challenge at

fraternizing. My prompt was
My senses have been so cold
Didn't know how to feel or hold
For a second I felt something in you
- Feel, The Verve
I tried! Also, lots of thanks to

greensweaterlj, who, as always, is incredible and awesome and makes me feel totally unworthy of knowing her. In a good way. ♥

"For happiness is anyone and anything at all
That's loved by you."
- You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Clark Gesner

"Do the pig nose," said James.

Teddy frowned up at him, a hand over his eyes to keep out the sun. "I hate the pig nose. Pick something else."

After having successfully escaped all ninety million members of the Weasley-Potter clan, the two boys--if Teddy could really be considered a "boy" any longer--were lying in the itchy grass at the top of a hill in Ottery St. Catchpole.

The sky overhead was bluer than Victoire Weasley's eyes and the sun shone brighter than her strawberry-blonde hair. September, and James's final year at Hogwarts, was just around the corner, and the summer was ending with a suggestion that the heat would soon be over. All in all, it was a lovely day.

Teddy reached up a hand and traced a lone puffy white cloud with his index finger.

"Change your hair, then, you look stupid with green."

Teddy would have rolled his eyes if he hadn't immediately screwed them up tight as he concentrated on turning his hair a bright, lurid red--not at all the Weasleys' signature ginger, but rather a rich Gryffindor scarlet. He'd always been fond of Gryffindor's house colors, although Teddy himself had always been a Hufflepuff. Just like his mother, his Head of House had told him on his first day there.

Victoire had hated his hair green. Every day she'd seen him in the past month, she had commented on the way it made him look washed-out and hippie-ish.

"That's a good color. You really like her, don't you," said James eagerly. "Victoire, I mean. I mean, you'd have to; it's been, what, three years? You gonna marry her or something?"

He'd been saying that for the past year, and it was not the first time it had annoyed Teddy.

James was only sixteen years old (nearly seventeen, as he never tired of saying), but he knew Teddy better than almost any other person in the world. The only exceptions were Teddy's grandparents and his best friend, Rufus Edgecombe. James had an eerie way of knowing exactly what was on Teddy's mind, and an annoying way of voicing that knowledge, unnecessarily loudly, to the rest of the world.

"I… Well. We're good friends. She's a very lovely person. And--um. Well, she's rather pretty, isn't she?"

James lay down next to Teddy. "I don't know. Is she?"

"She's your cousin."

"Yeah. Exactly." In the corner of his eye, Teddy saw James making a V with his fingers, cutting across the sky with imaginary scissors.

"People used to marry their first cousins."

"Like the Malfoys? Have you seen Scorpius Malfoy? The cousin thing didn't really work out too well."

"Hey! Hey, Teddy! Hey, James! Heeey! Where are you guys?" called someone, most likely Lily. Teddy rolled his eyes.

He loved the Potters and the Weasleys, he really did. Individually, every single one of them had a special place in his heart.

As a whole, however, they were generally irritating. Even James, with his arrogance and occasional bout of obnoxiousness, had the capability to tread on Teddy's last nerve. Victoire was--in her own way--the calmest person in the family.

Someone was walking towards them up the hill. Teddy sat up to see Lily approaching.

"Oi, guys! Didn't you hear me calling you?"

Before Teddy could reply, James deadpanned, "Nope. There've been a few Wrackspurts flying around here. I think a couple got us."

Lily frowned. "I don't see any."

"That's because they're invisible. Liam Thomas told us that, don't you remember?"

The two Thomas boys lived not too far away, and they had regaled Lily and the rest of the Potter-Weasley kids with stories of Nargles and Wrackspurts ever since they could talk. Almost everyone dismissed the Thomases as practically insane, but Lily had hung onto every word. Not a single creature existed in the Thomas minds but Lily was afraid of it.

"I think you're just trying to trick me." She crossed her arms, but glanced at Teddy, confident that he--being the oldest and thus the most responsible--would tell her the truth.

"Well, you can take the chance, Lils, but I'm not so sure you should be up here," he said, trying not to grin.

Lily dropped her arms. "Fine. I just wanted to tell you, Teddy, that Uncle Bill, Aunt Fleur, and Victoire just got here. Oh, and James, Mum wants you to do the gnomes for Gran." She grinned somewhat maliciously, turned, and skipped away.

"I just did the gnomes!" exclaimed James after his sister's retreating figure.

"You did them two months ago," corrected Teddy. "Which isn't exactly the same thing."

James clearly begged to differ, but before he could state his opinion, Teddy was on his own feet and offering to help him up. "Come on, your grandmother'll be angry if she doesn't get a chance to overfeed us."

James got to his feet without Teddy's help. "She's yours, too," he said as they headed for the Burrow, where the rest of the Weasleys and Potters were gathered, celebrating (or dreading) the end of summer. "Or, she isn't, but you can call her 'Gran.'"

"I've got my own grandmother. Thanks for the thought, though," replied Teddy, feeling that odd mixture of sad and empty that always came knocking when he remembered that he was actually neither a Potter nor a Weasley. It was a feeling that still came over him, even at the age of twenty-two.

James put a hand on Teddy's arm, stopping him and then using him for balance as he pulled off his shoes and socks. He stuffed the latter into his pockets and carried his sneakers by the shoelaces. "Race you back to the Burrow."

"You're on," said Teddy, reaching down to remove his own shoes, but James had already taken off. Laughing, Teddy ran after him.

They were both panting when they reached the Burrow. James dropped his shoes into the pile of Wellingtons next to the door, which had gone a bit tricky with age. Teddy shouldered it and pulled up the doorknob at the same time, and nearly fell through when it opened with a creak.

"I totally beat you," teased James as they made for the kitchen. "You owe me… hm, three Galleons."

"Two things," smirked Teddy, "one, money was never involved, two, you cheated."

James had been about to reply, but the mood in the kitchen was so tense the smiles fell off both their faces as soon as they stepped inside. Victoire was indeed there, sitting at the long table and petting Crookshanks, but there were raccoon circles around her eyes from crying through a rather heavy layer of mascara. Bill and Fleur were in a corner, their heads bent together, whispering furiously.

"What's wrong, Gran?" James asked of the woman who was at the sink scrubbing potatoes as if she was deeply offended by their brown, dirt-splattered skins.

"I don't know if I should tell you. I might just be overreacting." Here, she glared pointedly at Bill and Fleur.

James looked between his grandmother, his cousin, and his aunt and uncle, raised his eyebrows, and retreated immediately towards the room he shared with Hugo, the one that had once belonged to Ginny. Teddy was left standing there, alone and awkward, witnessing another family argument belonging to a family that was not truly his.

"Mum, you know that's not how it is at all," protested Bill, interrupting his own conversation.

"Isn't it? Victoire is too young for you to allow her to go off for a year. God knows I had a hard enough time when you left for Egypt, and you were Teddy's age by then!"

Teddy felt a little uncomfortable, at both the fact that he had been dragged into the argument, however indirectly, and also at how Victoire was currently gazing at him, willing him to go and comfort her. He was okay at snogging and, er, other things, but comfort was just not his thing.

Reluctantly, he took a place next to her at the long bench. "Are you all right?" he asked quietly. "What's going on?"

"Gran doesn't want me to go to France," replied Victoire, her voice not much more than a whisper. She sniffled. "But I've got this amazing offer to be a teacher's assistant at Beauxbatons--it's a really great job, I'd do Charms research on the side, but Gran doesn't think I'm old enough. I don't think she thinks I'm talented enough, either, but--I got the offer, didn't I?"

"Of course you're talented enough, Victoire dear," said Molly. "You're a perfectly brilliant witch, in fact. It's just--well, it's a completely different country! You'll be in a place where they don't even speak your language."

"Je sais français, actually," said Victoire.

"'Je sais parler français,'" corrected her mother. Teddy struggled to rein in a chuckle.

Victoire glared at her before turning back to Molly. "What I'm saying is that I'm of age, and have been for two years already, in possession of just enough knowledge of the French language to get by, and, well, Teddy'll be there with me."

Teddy blinked. This was news to him.

"I will?"

"Yeah, I've arranged it so that you can live with me--"

"Victoire. I think we--er--need to have a bit of a chat."

He took her hand and helped her up and then led her up the stairs to the bedroom that Lily and Rose shared sometimes. Closing the door behind him, he said quietly, "What's this about going to France with you?"

Victoire rubbed her palm against her right eye. "Well, you've always said you wanted to go--"

"Yeah, but like--as--well, you know what else I want to do, in a passing mention sort of way? I want to go down the Niagra Falls in a barrel. That doesn't fucking mean I'm going to do it!"

"My parents won't let me go unless I take someone with me--"

"You said it yourself, Victoire, you're of age now. There's not much they can and can't let you do."

"You don't understand, I mean, my dad's said that he'll cut off my income."

"So? You're going out there to get a job; it's not as if you won't be making money."

"Teddy, I just," Victoire warbled. Her eyes were welling with still more tears. "I don't know how I'm going to function without you."

"Victoire, I hate to break it to you," he said calmly, "but you're going to have to learn. I can't go to France with you. Okay? I have a job here. I have friends and stuff. I--you're my girlfriend, but, you know, there is more to my life than you."

A prickling, expectant silence wherein Teddy felt quite deeply that perhaps that last comment should never have passed his lips filled the room immediately.

"I didn't mean that," he tried. "I only meant--"

But Victoire was having none of it. Her lower lip shook and she clenched her fists. Her hair was getting a bit windy. Sometimes it was a little scary having a girlfriend who was a quarter Veela. "Well," she sniffed, her voice at its highest pitch. "Well. If you can't put me at the top of your list of priorities, I guess, I guess I'm not that important, am I? Just some girl you like to keep around to snog? Is that it, Theodore?"

"No, that's not it at all," Teddy said, though maybe that was a little it.

"I suppose--I suppose that this is over, then! If you can't--"

"Victoire, come on, this is stupid--"

Victoire stood up straight, crossing her arms. There was a frightening glint in her eyes. "This is over, Teddy."

Teddy stood there blinking as she marched past him and slammed the door shut after her.

"Smooth, Mr. Lupin," he said to the room.

"I've seen worse," replied a mirror hanging from the wall. "Weasleys, remember?"

~*~

Teddy stayed upstairs. A few minutes later, he heard a quiet knock on the door. Sighing, he opened it.

James was standing there, looking a little cowed. "Hi?"

Teddy smiled, more than a little relieved that it hadn't been Victoire at the door with a plan to apologize and reclaim his undying love or something. "Hi. Um, come in. What's up?"

He received a shrug in return. James climbed up onto the bed, folding a leg beneath himself. "I heard Victoire shouting."

"Ah." Teddy sat next to him. "I think we broke up."

"Oh," said James. His face was closed and Teddy couldn't be sure how his friend felt about this new development. "So you're not going to marry her, then."

"I suppose not."

"Right. Okay." James looked down, picking the thread of the duvet cover.

There was a pause, more awkward than either were used to having in the other's company. "James--?"

"I have something to tell you."

James always had something to tell him. Teddy smiled. "Oh?"

"You won't--like-- laugh or tell me I'm a horrible person or something?" The other boy looked up at him again, anxiousness coloring his face. "Because it's really important and you'll be the only person who knows."

"Just tell me, James."

"I, um. I like boys."

"As in--"

"As in, the way you and Victoire were boyfriend and girlfriend? I want that, too. Except. It would be boyfriend and boyfriend. Even though that sounds really, really stupid."

Teddy frowned, thinking. This was certainly… interesting. "At any rate, it's okay, you know."

There was a sharp intake of breath from James. "You think so?"

Teddy smiled and reached up to ruffle James's hair. "It's fine, you tosser."

James grinned. "See--I knew you'd be all right with it--I--just--thanks, Teddy. You're the best friend I ever had."

"When did you, er, figure it out?"

At this, James inexplicably turned pink and looked away. He hesitated quite a bit before answering, "I guess I've just sort of always known it." Breathing deeply as if preparing himself for another big secret, he continued, "I've always had a bit of a crush on you, you know."

Teddy raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah, but," James spoke quickly, "it was just this stupid thing. I'm attracted to bright colors." He indicated Teddy's hair. Teddy screwed up his face and turned it turquoise, and James laughed. "See?"

"It's a good thing you're underage anyway," replied Teddy, smiling.

"I won't be next month," said James, suddenly sounding serious. "I'll be seventeen then."

"I know," said Teddy. "And I've got the best gift ever for you, too." He'd bought it two weeks ago and had hid it in the most remote location his flat could offer--since James was over far too often and would have easily found it otherwise.

James's face brightened at that. "Have you really? What is it? Are you going to tell me? Where did you get it? What is it?"

"As if I'd tell you, twerp," said Teddy, sliding off the bed and making his way towards the door. "I'm hungry, how about you?"

James continued annoying him with questions about his birthday present until they reached the kitchen which was now thankfully Victoire-free. Seeing Teddy and what must have been the exultant expression of relief written all over his face, Molly told him that they had gone home for the night, since Victoire was expected to leave tomorrow.

"She's going to France then?" he asked.

"I suppose she is," replied Molly, sounding only a little icy. "Though I'm sure she'll be fine."

"Who's going where?" asked James, on his way to steal a roll from the table.

"Put that back, James. Victoire's off to France."

"Ooh. I should tell her to give those frogs hell for me."

Teddy laughed. "Because Victoire Weasley is in the habit of giving people hell."

James smirked knowingly, but didn't reply. "Is dinner almost ready, Gran?"

"It should be, soon. Actually, why don't you and Teddy call everybody in?"

Grinning, James ran past Teddy and out the back door. "HEY EVERYONE!" he shouted. "DINNER'S READY!" He looked back at his grandmother. "That good?"

"I doubt it'll be very effective," said Teddy.

As he was beginning to realize the things he said and thought often were, this was wrong.

Presently, Albus and Rose entered the kitchen, barefoot, discussing rather heatedly the benefits of Stupefy versus Petrificus totalus, and Hugo followed thereafter, attempting to hide a toad underneath his t-shirt. His mother caught him as she waddled into the kitchen from the living room, her seven-months-pregnant stomach preceding and her husband succeeding her. Harry and Ginny wandered in a few minutes later, having just ended a discussion concerning Lily and her rather scary obsession of late with one Seamus Finnegan and his rock-and-roll ways. George and his girlfriend-of-the-month sauntered to the table, giggling secretively, from the front door. Percy and Penelope were late, and probably had been spending the last hour cooing at their newborn son, Petrarch Weasley. Charlie was absent, which Teddy was a bit disappointed over, given that his stories of dragons in Romania and beyond had been Teddy's favorites since he was small.

Teddy smiled contentedly. For all he complained about how annoying they were, he sort of liked the chaos of his pseudo-family. It contrasted easily with the gentle tranquility of the home he'd grown up in with his grandmother and the sometimes frustrating quiet of his lonely flat.

When they had all settled and been served, and when the noise had simmered down to something resembling, if vaguely, a dull roar, Ron clapped him on the back and said, "Now you'll be able to properly live the life of a bachelor!"

Feeling heat spread throughout his face, Teddy gave a small smile and said, "I guess so."

"What do you mean, Ron?" asked Hermione. "Did you break things off with Victoire, Teddy?"

Teddy shrugged. "Well--she sort of broke it off with me, but yeah."

Ginny tutted from her seat across the table. "I always thought you two made such an adorable couple. Didn't you, Harry?"

Harry shrugged absently. "Yeah, I guess so. But it's really about whether you were happy or not. Were you happy with her, Teddy?"

"Happy?" repeated a suddenly very flustered Teddy.

"Yeah. Were you?"

"I," but Teddy couldn't answer. He actually… wasn't sure. Of course, Victoire had been absolutely gorgeous and it wasn't like he'd never been able to get it up for her, but past the sex thing, he really was not sure whether or not he'd been happy with her. He didn't have any particularly awe-inspiring memories of her that didn't involve one or both of them and at least partial nudity thereof.

"I think," he said slowly, feeling rather claustrophobic as his adopted aunts and uncles peered at him expectantly, "that it wasn't really working out?"

"Ah, the old 'it's not working out,'" said George, smirking. "Always a good excuse, that." His latest flame--who may or may not have been of age--giggled.

Teddy blushed even harder and clinked his spoon against his bowl loudly. He looked up to see James watching him with an odd expression on his face.

"Right, so," he said, smiling at those around him and feeling slightly hysterical, "I think I'm going to turn in now. It's been a long day." And one of the most uncomfortable he'd had since that time he'd gotten an erection in Herbology class. With Professor Neville Longbottom.

"Night, Teddy," said Hugo. "Um, I think that there might be a gnome in your bedroom that you might not want to disturb."

An uproar rose from the parents at this, and Teddy sneaked away with no further incident.

The rest of the night, he spent trying to work out how he had spent nearly four years with the same girl and, yet, never realized that he was unhappy.

~*~

Three weeks after this stressful monthly gathering, Teddy was being forced into "something at least a quarters decent, even" to wear to a club to which Rufus and his girlfriend Jane Macmillan were dragging him. Jane, the one who had begged for a quarters decent ensemble, was dressing him.

Rufus lay stomach-down on Teddy's bed and watched his girlfriend fuss over his best friend of eleven years. Teddy grimaced at him in the mirror and Rufus beamed. "Almost done, Jane?"

Jane sighed, blowing upwards to lift her fringe briefly away from her face. "I suppose. Teddy, I'm really disappointed in you."

"Yeah?" said Teddy, putting all the sarcasm he can muster into his words. He didn't actually want to go anywhere tonight--he really did have work to do, all those textbooks weren't going to translate themselves--and he was feeling a bit put out with his friends. "Sorry my wardrobe isn't exactly the same as a model's from Vogue."

"I'm surprised you even know whatVogue is," said Jane, actually sounding surprised.

"I know things, sometimes. It isn't supposed to be all that shocking."

Jane rolled her eyes and forced Teddy to turn around. "Okay, Rufus. What do you think?"

"Perfectly poufy and pomp," avowed Rufus, hardly glancing up. "Just the way I like 'em."

"Good to know that's what you think of me. All right, let's go, boys."

Teddy had never been into the club scene. It made him feel too normal, somehow, going out to a club with his friends on a Saturday night. Truth be told, he found his job far more satisfying in its oddness. He was one of the youngest speakers of Mermish in the history of the wizarding world, and pulling a random girl in a place like the one Rufus and Jane had dragged him to sort of paled in comparison.

It was dark, inside, as expected, and the music was just on the nearly deafening side of too loud. Teddy itched to find the volume control.

This thought made him realize that he was getting a bit boring in his old age. Twenty-two was nearly a quarter of a century, after all.

Much to his own chagrin, Jane pulled him out to the dance floor before he could even protest. "You'll love it!" she declared, her voice almost lost in the beats of the music.

He didn't love it. What he loved were things like long walks on beaches and lying in the grass with James and playing Quidditch with Rufus while pretending not to utterly fail. This, though? This, he did not love.

It was twenty minutes before Jane allowed him to escape. He made a beeline for the bar, chose one of the stools, and vowed not to move again until it was time to leave.

He was downing a mug of mead when he heard a familiar voice to his left and swiveled his head to see one James Sirius Potter ordering a firewhisky.

"James!" he said, shocked, though a happy warmth was blossoming somewhere between his chest and his stomach. "What the hell are you doing here?"

James had the intelligence to look a little intimidated. "I'm--er--celebrating my birthday," he said.

"Your birthday isn't for another week."

"So I'm celebrating it early," was the reply. James climbed up onto the stool next to him. "What are you doing here?"

"My friends brought me."

"Are you having fun?"

Teddy looked at him.

James grinned. "Forgot who I was asking that question, for a minute." He reached for the firewhisky which had just been set down before him and took a deep gulp. He twisted his face and coughed.

"You've never tried it before," guessed Teddy.

"Not--recently--" wheezed James.

Teddy chuckled. "Who are you here with?"

"A few friends." James didn't meet his eyes. "I bet Rufus is around here, isn't he? Good, I want to talk to him about how the Harpies are doing--"

"He's dancing with Jane, somewhere." Teddy took another drink of his mead and looked at the brown liquid inside the mug, feeling awkward. "Hey, James. Why are you really here?"

The boy sitting next to him coughed and scratched his forearm. "Well--I--sort of--you know, like, how, like, at school there's hardly any privacy, at all?"

Teddy nodded, frowning. "Yeah?"

"Well, it's just, you know, I've never really had a chance, to, you know, do the things that, like, need a certain bit of privacy… you know?"

"I suppose…" Teddy really had no idea what--he glanced at James, who looked as red as the neon lights on the wall over the hall that led to the loo. Suddenly it clicked. "James, are you trying to say you're a virgin?"

"Shhh," said James, looking around quickly to make sure nobody had heard this most ridiculous and slanderous of accusations. "I, just, I'd sort of always wanted to lose it before I, like, turned seventeen. You know?"

"So, you came to this club because you thought you could just pick up some random bloke?"

"Well, no. Not here, exactly. I've sort of been going to a different place every few nights. I haven't been able to find the gay ones yet. I don't have the right kinds of connections, I guess."

"I'll say. Look, James, I don't know how you got in here--"

"I've got a fake ID. Want to see it?" He was already pulling it out and shoving it into Teddy's face. It was a pretty good fake ID, actually. Perfectly normal and believable in every way. Teddy would have pegged James for the sort to request something like "Wizard of Love" to be printed as his name.

"Right, okay. In any case, your parents would throw a fit if they knew you were here."

James paled. "You won't tell them or anything, will you?"

Teddy smiled a little. "No, what do you take me for? Just--I don't know. What if your parents find out that you were here and that I knew you were here and I did nothing about it? They'll think I'm irresponsible. Or a rapist. Or something. Not the sort of opinion I want Harry and Ginny to have of me."

James raised an eyebrow. "Rapist?"

"Or something," Teddy said.

"Right. So. I guess I should--"

"Well, I can tell you where a gay club is."

"Really?" James sat forward in his stool. "Where? How?"

"Rufus stumbled into one a few months ago," Teddy explained, pulling a napkin towards himself and scribbling directions onto it with a pen he hadn't been aware he'd been carrying. "He thought it was hilarious. He stayed all night and probably would have brought some bloke home if Jane wouldn't have poured something hot into his pants when she saw him again." He gave the napkin to James.

Beaming, James said, "Thanks! I'll see you later, okay?"

Teddy nodded. "Have fun. Be safe, and all that."

He wasn't sure if James, already making his way towards the exit, had heard his advice. The point was that he'd meant it--Teddy knew that if James got hurt, he'd be cleaning up the mess. Not that he minded, it was just that he preferred an emotionally-functioning James over the one he'd taken care of the first time a girl had ever dumped him.

Watching James's dark head bobbing as he spoke to some woman, Teddy felt a little cold. He wasn't sure why.

Later, when Teddy managed to escape his well-meaning friends and had gone back to his perfectly quiet flat, he lay back on the sofa in the "living room" (which was really just a length of carpet between the kitchen and the teeny hall that led to the bedroom and loo).

Suddenly, green light flared up in his fireplace and he knew it could only be one of three people: Victoire, Harry, or James. He sat up.

James was standing there, sweeping soot from his knees and looking sheepish.

"Um. Sorry," said James.

"What are you doing here?" asked Teddy, surprised. "I thought you were out--"

"Well, yeah, I had a bloke, but I didn't want to do it." James didn't meet his eye. "It didn't feel right."

James had always been the kind of person who would come right out and say something. Evasion was not like him. Teddy frowned. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," James said, crossing over to sit next to Teddy. "Yeah. I think so."

Teddy got up and silently retrieved two glasses of water. Giving one to James, he said, "All right. So what happened?"

"It was like--I didn't even know his name, right? And he didn't know mine. And it was sort of awkward and I couldn't really tell him that it was my first, and it was just--I got scared." James turned his head and held Teddy's eyes very solemnly. "I don't get scared easily."

"It's okay, you know," tried Teddy.

James went on as if he hadn't even heard--and, really, it was possible he hadn't. "I just kept thinking, this is not the person I want to lose it to. I mean, oh fuck, I actually don't care about losing it, actually, I just, you know that crush, Teddy? That crush I said I'd had on you? I've had it for years, you know, and it hasn't gotten any better, it's just gotten bigger, and I know that you've just broken up with Victoire, but, Teddy, this is important--and. And I want to kiss you. Is that insane? Can I?"

Slowly, numbly, not knowing what made him do it, Teddy nodded.

James was clearly surprised. He searched Teddy's face for something, Teddy didn't know what, and must have found it because he leaned forward and carefully pressed his lips to Teddy's. Like going too fast would break it. Like he was approaching something particularly timid that he didn't want to scare.

Teddy wasn't sure why, but he was kissing back. It felt good, it felt warm, and he remembered the time Victoire had gone skiing and gotten really badly chapped lips and she'd come back and then tried to get him to kiss her a bit but Teddy hadn't liked the feeling. James's lips were chapped, too, just a little bit, but they were warm and Teddy could feel a tiny smile against his mouth.

He pulled back. "But--"

James looked at him seriously. "Teddy, answer me something?" Teddy nodded. "Could I make you happy?"

Teddy thought about that. He thought about the almost seventeen years of his life that he had known James, the drippy baby all the way to the unpredictable boy sitting next to him. And there was a sort of content deep in his belly that was just as good as--maybe better than--happiness. He looked at James and his innocent brown eyes and his irrevocably messy hair and he thought about kissing him and loving him, and he felt happy just imagining it.

"James," he said. "You already do."