December.

Every time he saw her, every single time, no matter when, no matter where, she completely and utterly took his breath away. It was so cliché, but it was true. Teddy was hopelessly in love and even though it wasn't returned, he wouldn't have it any other way.

They had known each other their whole lives, through having interlaced families, but they were nothing but best friends, the year age gap meaning nothing (despite various objections from friends over the years). To Teddy, she was beauty, she was intelligence, and she was inspiration. But most of all, she was so incredibly kind. Kind to everybody and anybody. There was not an unfriendly bone in her body. Victoire had always been like this. It wasn't the Veela blood, it was just her. Just Victoire.

Consequently, each time somebody had the sheer audacity to hurt her, the one person Victoire Weasley could always rely on to protect her; to make her smile, to make her laugh, was Teddy. This was why it was no surprise to see her sobbing into his shoulder in the great hall, just before breakfast on a chilly December morning. The seventh year Slytherin who she had been most recently infatuated with, who she had dated since the start of this year and for the last two months (who Teddy had never been keen on anyway), had been seen with another girl, surprisingly of his own academic year, snogging in the library. It was no surprise - Teddy had predicted a similar outcome along with a vast amount of their friends – because Victoire always seemed to pick boys with severe attitudinal problems, lack of emotional capacities and general senses of disrespect. This one, in Teddy's mind, was no different from any of the others. But he still comforted her, there was no hesitation or intolerance about that.

"Why did he have to ruin it Ted? Why wasn't I good enough?". Victoire projected this self-doubt into the chest she was leaning against, the only thing shielding her from the stares that had followed the delivery of last night's news.

"Shh now. It isn't you Vic, it's never you. I promise, as soon as I get my hands on this one I swear to merlin -"

Victoire's head jolted up, cutting him off, "Please don't. Not again. Remember the trouble from last time" she pleaded. Teddy didn't press the issue, not with her in such a delicate state anyway, and showed his acceptance of defeat by subtly leading her back to the Gryffindor common room. Lessons could wait he supposed- but what else was expected? It wasn't like he could drop her off at the Hospital Wing like most people did with crying girls (who in his experience thus far at Hogwarts weren't exactly uncommon). Not that he wanted to.

Once settled onto the worn sofa in front of the fireplace, which was always crackling when it was this cold, Victoire seemed to have stopped sobbing. Teddy noticed her puffy eyes had not returned to their normal state yet and her face was still red and blotchy, but they had made progress. She was still so striking to him, but how could she not be. He wondered how anybody could hurt such a delicate girl, how anybody could just cast her aside.

It was strange, to be curled up in the common room so early in the day, however so peaceful at the same time. Everybody else, funnily enough, were in lessons so they had the room to themselves.

"Which class are you missing right now?" asked Teddy, both because he wanted to distract her and because he genuinely wanted to know, as it would provide future catch up time spent with him, being older and therefore having already studied her current courses. He knew it was selfish to be thinking of ways to benefit himself at times like this, but he couldn't help it. Teddy had to take every opportunity he could to spend time with her.

"Bloody transfiguration" came the aggravated reply. It had seemed that Victoire's mood had evolved from sadness to anger. "McGonagall will have my head. How is she even still teaching? She must be practically ancient at this stage.". The comment had produced a chuckle from Teddy, subsequently making Victoire smirk.

"Oh do stop complaining. It's not like fifth year is even difficult anyway. All you have to do is OWLs! I've started the NEWTs courses and let me tell you Victoire Weasley, you are not going to enjoy your studies next year." Teddy knew the superiority would vex her, so he decided it was the best thing to do right now, to take her mind of things and to see her argue back.

"Come off it! Who was the one who did nothing but complain all of last year? I wasn't mocking you about OWLs then! I was actually helping you study! Maybe you should try returning the favour." The smirk returned to Victoire's face. She knew Teddy had already made sure she was prepared for the year and had consistently aided her studies, often prioritising them over his own, but that was why the friendship worked so well- they were able to tease each other mercilessly.

This was followed by more back and forth remarks, and when they had worn the topic out, a comfortable silence ensued. As Victoire stroked the soft tousled turquoise hair from the head currently resting in her lap, she couldn't help but wish it was Teddy that would ask her out.

Even know she had always known how amazing Teddy's personality was, and was always fine around him before, Victoire recollected that she had started to have a crush on him in her third year, when she started noticing him bulking up from constant quidditch practices, when he grew into his face. She had also observed, while swimming at the lake with all her cousins in the warm summer that followed, that Teddy Lupin had the most wonderful back she had ever seen. She didn't know how someone could be attracted to a back, but she was nevertheless. The muscles just looked so perfectly shaped, rippling in all the right places. She could definitely understand why he was always surrounded by hordes of girls at school. It had always made her feel inexplicably jealous, which felt like such an ugly feeling, but was how she felt all the same.

Victoire had never voiced these feelings, for fear of losing their friendship. Little did she knew that Teddy shared the exact same opinion about wanting to end the platonic attitudes.

Within an hour, just being in the presence of Teddy had soothed her, and Victoire was feeling back to normal, albeit with a new and justified abhorrence for the Slytherin boy. Teddy sensed her positivity and was pleased for her, and pleased about being able to attend second period on time. Just an added bonus, but a bonus all the same. They had promised to talk at lunch, not that they needed to promise.

The rest of the Christmas term went quickly for most students, but even quicker for fifth and seventh years, as the prospect of exams was ever looming. Victoire and Teddy saw each other as frequently as ever, however with little time for any romance to blossom as they were both working hard (Victoire distinctly harder than Teddy, mainly because he didn't really need to, being a sixth year). Probably for the best, Vic's love life was uneventful for the rest of the month and she barely even saw the boy that had previously hurt her. Suddenly it was the Christmas holidays, which was a much needed break for everybody. The duo were ecstatic to see the rest of the family who were not currently at Hogwarts, and were further delighted when they reached the realisation that they would be spending the holiday together at the Burrow, like every other year so far.