#teddyprompts

PROMPT: Ted Leaves Andromeda || I don’t think this is what you meant, anon, but hopefully it satisfies you regardless. This has been in my inbox for a while now, and I just now got the muse to write it.

DATE: Spring 1981

"Don’t go," she said simply, glaring at him with eyes lit up with the fire brewing within her. His wife was unhappy and her unhappiness cut at him like a knife. He hated doing this, causing her unhappiness. Andromeda had had plenty of that in her life before him, and he’d sworn to never intentionally be the cause of her unhappiness as long as he lived. A promise he was breaking at this very moment.

"I have to, Dromeda. Alastor wouldn’t have sent that patronus otherwise." He reasoned, hating himself more and more for both delaying his departure and arguing with his wife. If there was ever a rock and a hard place to be stuck in, this would be it. "The twins are out there, Drom. Sirius, Marlene, Kingsley, Doc, the Longbottoms, Benjy, countless others… This could be it, Dromeda," he said, his voice aching with need for that to be true. "This could be it and they’re losing, Andromeda. I’ll be damned if I just sit here and ignore Moody’s message. The man never calls for help; I have to go.” Ted tried to go to her, but she jearked away from his grasp.

A pregnant pause, then, “So help me, Edward Tonks, so help me, if you don’t get your arse back here in one piece I’ll make you wish were never born! Do you understand me?” Her tone was fierce, but he saw the tears threatening to spill from her eyes and the way her chin wobbled.

He took the necessary steps to get to her, quickly gathering her in a strong embrace. He nearly lost his resolve when a choked sob shook from her body. Ted grit his teeth and closed his eyes, giving himself one last moment to hold his wife. He’d wasted too much time already, lingered for too long. In battle, seconds could mean life or death, winning or losing. He had to go, now.

He pulled her in for a hard kiss, forcing himself to let her go long before he wanted. Two seconds, three, then he was letting go and grabbing his coat and wand. “Give Dora my love when she wakes,” Ted requested, both of them knowing full well waking their daughter would be a bad idea.

"I love you," he told her as he turned back to look at her one last time, the open door letting in a chilly breeze.

"I love you, you damn hero." Ted smiled at her words, turning away from her with a small, slightly nervous laugh. Maybe he was going to be a hero tonight. He didn’t look back when he shut the door, went down the steps, or as he walked the ten steps needed to reach their apparition point. He didn’t want to see what he was leaving behind, what he might be leaving behind forever.

8. Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging.

Sweets, certainly. Ice cream from Florean Fortescue’s, to be more specific. Sleeping in late, curled up around his wife, the blankets warm and their breath tickling one another’s skin, ignoring the need to get up and go back to being a responsible adult.

21. Turn-ons? Turn-offs?

Ted isn’t particularly concerned about those anymore, since he’s happily married to a wonderful woman who is absolutely perfect in every way and has no bad qualities at all. Nothing she does turns him off, because she’s perfect. And he’d never even think about another woman doing something that turned him on or off, because he doesn’t think about other women in that way, anymore.*

*the correct answer for every male wishing to not sleep on the couch that night, or week, depending on how badly they stick their foot in it.

31. Most prized possession?

Yes, and no. Ted’s not actually afraid of dying; he’s very practical minded in the sense he knows death is just a part of life. He is, however, afraid of dying too soon, of dying and leaving Andromeda without a husband and Nymphadora without a father.