Author's Note: Hello! Welcome to Shades of Blue, or as I'm hoping it will be, a tale of love, laughter, tomfoolery and boys with blue hair. This has been burning a hole in my documents folder for over a year and the publication of this first chapter by no means says that Unbreakable is to remain unfinished. I really feel like giving Teddy and Victoire a shot and I hope you're all ready to ride along with me through what is sure to be a fun journey. Please leave a review if you're so inclined! ~yours in eternity, Amy xx
"Blue is the only color which maintains its own character in all its tones… it will always stay blue; whereas yellow is blackened in its shades, and fades away when lightened; red when darkened becomes brown, and diluted with white is no longer red, but another color— pink."
~Raoul Dufy
Chapter One
When It Rains, It Pours
Victoire really hated running. The action in itself was all too physically taxing and left her chest bursting. Though she had fairly long legs for her fairly average height, and her dad had always said she had just the right "sporty build" to be a Chaser, Victoire didn't care much for anything whose only purpose was to exhaust you. Life wasn't supposed to be miserable after all.
With this firm belief, Victoire very rarely indulged in anything that didn't delight her. This was made possible because of her determination to see the bright side of reasonably every situation. Still, Victoire found herself running down the fifth floor corridor at eight fifty two in the morning on a Tuesday morning and this, though not altogether unfamiliar, was a scene with very little redeeming light.
She knew, heaving for breath as she hooked a sharp left around the commemorative statue of Egbert the Egregious, that all the running she had somehow found herself familiar with over her six years at Hogwarts came down to the night she had been sorted. She fondly remembered the wide brim of the hat sinking well over her bright blue eyes and hiding the rest of her classmates and the larger-than-life Great Hall from view. In a way, this had made her less nervous. She was assured by both her parents of course that it didn't matter what house she ended up in. But Victoire was inquisitive (or what her younger cousin James called "nosy") and after careful digging, she knew her father had been a Gryffindor. Wouldn't he want her to be one too?
It had felt like several days had passed while the musty old hat sat on her head and spoke in her mind like those weird plastic white things attached to wires her Aunt Hermione had shown her and explained, though Victoire couldn't fathom the appeal, Muggles used them to listen to music privately. She wondered if the hat was laughing at her while she thought about the— ear-heads were they called? No that wasn't right. Headphones.— but in the end, the hat didn't say much of consequence. She admittedly didn't remember much of her Sorting. All she could strongly recall was the cry from the ripped mouth above her that announced to the whole hall "Ravenclaw!" And soon Vic was steered toward a table filled with unfamiliar faces wearing blue and bronze and beating their fists against the table for the new arrival.
Victoire loved being a Ravenclaw. Everyone was just as inquisitive as she was and there were no secrets that soon weren't discovered in the airy Ravenclaw tower. Vic fell in love with her roommates and her classes and the feeling of being part of something really special. She loved it. Just not right now.
It was common knowledge to every Ravenclaw student that it was a necessity to check your bag at least three times before leaving every morning. The reason took shape in the form of the sadistic doorknocker that took delight in making students late by holding them up with its more ridiculous riddles when it knew you were in a hurry. And in a hurry Victoire Weasley was. She had realized her fatal mistake the minute she had left the Great Hall with Cora and Lucy on their way to NEWT level Transfiguration. Her beautifully written report that took up two entire rolls of parchment, along with a solid evening that could have been spent beating Cora in Gobstones, was not safely in her bag but sitting vulnerably on a homework table in the Common Room. Victoire had wasted no time in dashing off to the marble staircase while her friends simply laughed and called after her to meet them in the classroom.
And thus, the running was inevitable. At least six or seven mornings a month would find Victoire Weasley sprinting down corridors and toppling down groups of first years like dominos in her haste to get back to the tower. It was almost a routine after all this time and some of the other Hogwarts residents had begun to appreciate its usability as a timekeeping strategy.
"Did Victoire Weasley run by yet?"
"Haven't seen her."
"Perfect. Let's start a game of Exploding Snap before class!"
At eight fifty four in the morning Victoire emerged from the top step of the winding staircase that led up to Ravenclaw tower panting. The door was only a merciful few feet away. She leaned against the nearest wall to catch up to her breath, which was far ahead of her, and jumped when someone tapped on her shoulder.
"Forget something again?" She whipped around, already knowing who she would see, and aimed a punch that didn't carry much force in it to the shoulder of Teddy Lupin. He didn't flinch when her fist found its target and she huffed impatiently.
"Tell me something, Edward. Do you think it's a good idea to scare the living daylights out of someone when they're standing on the edge of a staircase?" Teddy smirked.
"Come on, Vic. You know I'd just levitate you back upstairs if you fell. And don't call me Edward, it sounds stuffy."
"What are you doing here?" Vic asked, pushing off from the wall and away from the unsafe edge of the stairs. Teddy followed her to the door.
"Waiting for Reese. He's late, as usual."
Reese was a nickname for Richard Quick and he was in Ravenclaw with Victoire (a fact that neither of the two had ever really enjoyed). Due to this and the fact that you could depend upon Reese to be late to anything and everything, Teddy was often found hanging around that very spot. Vic didn't know why she had even questioned the situation.
"Bad luck, Ted. You're going to be late too. I saw him asleep on a couch half an hour ago." Vic said. Teddy groaned in frustration.
"You're going to be late." He remarked, eyeing her with an amused look. She let out an impatient sigh and marched up to the door, hand raised to grasp the knocker. But then the door was miraculously thrown open from inside. Vic was ready to drop to her knees and kiss the feet of whoever had just saved her a few more precious minutes— until Reese's face was in front of her.
"Ted!" He exclaimed upon seeing Teddy, who shot him a grin. Reese's tall and gangly frame was blocking Vic's way through the door and she tried to push past him. He glanced down at her as if she were some gnat buzzing around him he hadn't noticed until now.
"Vic! Good to see you! Aren't you running a bit late to be up here?"
"Aren't you awake a bit early?" She snapped. "Let me through! My paper is in there!"
If Reese cared at all that her Transfiguration grade was on the line, he didn't show it. His smile grew wider.
"See, Vic, I can't let you do that. You didn't answer a riddle to the door and therefore, you may not be a Ravenclaw."
Victoire stared at him in mild shock while Teddy stifled his laughter behind her.
"You know very well I've been a Ravenclaw for six years, but this will remind you in case you've forgotten!" She swung her bag at Reese and with Ravenclaw House Seeker reflexes, he caught it by the straps and handed it back to her.
"You could be a Slytherin in disguise. Ever heard of Polyjuice Potion? Besides, I'm going to be fair. If you can answer my riddle, you can get through." Reese looked much too pleased with himself. Vic bit the soft inside of her cheek to keep from shouting at him again and smoothed down her hair.
Reese cleared his throat and spoke in his most Professor-like voice, must to her displeasure. "A warlock rode his pet hippogriff to town on Friday, stayed for three days, and then returned to his home on Friday. How is this possible?"
Vic rolled her eyes. Reese's riddle wasn't even original. And it was easy. A first year could have answered it with ease.
"The hippogriff's name was Friday." She said. Before Reese had time to step aside, she barreled past him and into the common room. There was the essay, lying untouched on the homework table nearest her favorite window that overlooked the mountains to the west. She snatched it off the table, scattered a trio of second year girls as they came through the Girl's Dormitories, and was taking the spiral staircase two steps at a time down to the Transfiguration classroom in record time.
Not for the first time, Vic wondered if she should have argued with the Sorting Hat's decision and made herself a Gryffindor. Not because she thought her dad would have liked to have a daughter in Gryffindor (there was Dominique for that) but she probably would have saved herself a world of trouble, not to mention a good chunk of the mornings.
There was applause when Victoire entered the Transfiguration classroom at last, wheezing for much needed air and calves cramping but all the same, punctual. In all actuality, the applause was a bit less grand than it sounded to Victoire. Cora and Lucy's polite clapping was accompanied by the sounds of rumbling thunder outside and they chuckled as Vic sidled over to her desk behind theirs. The rest of the class, quite used to her dramatic entrances, didn't appear to have noticed or cared.
"What was my time?" She wasted no breath before seeking out the answer to her question from Cora, the resident human oracle and Ravenclaw genius. Said genius smirked, the dimple in her cheek that Victoire was very jealous of standing out against her olive skin.
"About seven minutes. That's your fastest yet."
Victoire patted herself lightly on the back in celebration of her newfound lightness of foot.
"Forget your homework again?" Wesley Bibbitt laughed. Her table partner's parchment was strewn across the desk, his essay visibly unfinished. There were several splotchy ink marks spattered across his work as if he had written it blindfolded and riding on Hagrid's shoulders piggy-back style through the forest. The sentence he was currently working on was so illegible Vic found it hard to believe Wesley was versed in Common English at all.
She pushed aside Wesley's papers to make room for herself and sat down, pulling out quills and her gloriously retrieved essay. Was it just her happiness at its return or was there a slight glow pulsating around the edges of her paper? Could her paper be the messiah of all papers, come to rescue the masses from McGonagall's harsh grading quill? Did papers have messiahs? Perhaps McGonagall would boost her grade.
"Wes, ask a stupid question—"
"Get a Slytherin to answer, I know." He grunted in reply, hastily scribbling what he probably considered the words of a genius across the last few inches of his parchment. Victoire couldn't pretend not to be disappointed when McGonagall had first assigned the seats in their sixth year Transfiguration class. Cora and Lucy, luckiest of their infamous trio completed by Vic, had ended up together as they almost always had. But Victoire was perpetually positive and refused to mope. Realistically, Wesley and she made a brilliant match. She was always almost late and he was almost always procrastinating. Two wrongs made a right, or at least they would if Vic had anything to say about it.
McGonagall, unfazed by the stormy weather outside and the atmosphere that came with it during a double block period, entered from her office and class promptly began. This was one of the classes Vic had deduced from six careful years of observation in which communication between pupils was a non-negotiable no. This was another good reason Vic was paired with Wesley. Neither of them really had many important things to say to one another and so far this year, Vic hadn't gotten into trouble for being too "chatty".
Still, where there was a wand there was a way. Vic wasn't surprised when a lavender paper folded into a swan landed neatly on her desk from a cleverly hidden levitating charm. McGonagall, caught in the throes of telling off a student for "accidentally transfiguring their homework into their dinner napkin and then using it", didn't notice when she picked up the paper swan and held it in her lap. It seemed a crime to ruin what was such beautiful work but Vic unfolded the note quickly and pretended to be fiddling with a pleat in her skirt while she skimmed the curly writing that undoubtedly belonged to Lucy.
I have news for you and you won't like it.
Vic frowned. Lucy was known for being practical. She was a natural born mum and often took to treating Cora and Vic (but mostly Vic) as her children. She didn't typically tolerate note passing in class and this told Vic the news was grave indeed. Had Amelia Coates found out Vic was the one who accidentally charmed all of her white tights pink? Or maybe sleazy Garrett Fairchild was going to make a pass at her again, although how Lucy could have known this Vic wasn't sure. She glanced up at the back of Lucy's honey blonde hair, but Lucy didn't turn around. Vic would have to wait until the end of class to hear what she had to say.
"What's that?" Wesley whispered, jutting his chin in the direction of the note in her lap.
"A howler." She whispered back. He rolled his eyes.
"No it's not. Can I read it?"
"In a word Wes: no."
"Why?"
"It's private."
"I'm your table partner."
"So?"
"Why was it a swan?"
The whispered exchange continued on for several minutes until McGonagall had properly banished the poor student to the land of humiliation and all attention was back on her.
The next hour was a silent affair accompanied only by the scratching of the quills and McGonagall's voice. The little note in Vic's lap seemed to weigh heavier every time she thought about it and outside, the storm had broken. Thunder clapped and lightning flashed. Wesley doodled a little Quidditch player on the right corner of his parchment and a bludger in the left. With a smart little charm concealed by a fake coughing fit of Vic's, the bludger on the paper came to life and flew through the inky words, ricocheting off the curling edges of the parchment and doing its best to unseat the player in the corner.
Class was business as usual until something wonderful happened. The door creaked open and McGonagall looked up, her no-nonsense lips often found in a tight line pursed into a surprised "oh". And there in the doorway stood an angel.
Victoire had never really seen an angel. And to be frank, she wasn't sure she believed in them anyway. But every time Emmett Carmichael passed her in the hallway, her faith grew just a bit more. If Vic could draw him, she would put little fluffy wings on his back and a softly glowing halo hovering just above his slightly curled brown locks. Merlin, he was gorgeous. A top notch stud.
"Professor Dearborn asked me to drop this off for you." He said. His bag was falling off his shoulder ever so slightly and Vic almost wished it would. She would get up, float across the floor, pick up his books and see the title of one she had found in the Ravenclaw personal library. They would start a conversation. Who else knew what could ensue from such an encounter?
"Are you okay? You're drooling." Wesley commented. Vic brought her sleeve up to her mouth and shot a glare at Wesley that sent his amused smile away. McGonagall crossed the room and took a simple letter from Emmett, not bothering to read it in a hurry.
"Thank you Mister Carmichael. I trust I don't have to remind you to get back to class in a hurry."
"Not at all, Professor." He smiled and his dimples— he had dimples for the love of Merlin!— imprinted themselves in his perfect face. McGonagall had a soft spot for all the Gryffindors and she sent a rare smile Emmett's way while he turned and left as quickly as he had come. Victoire had always hated goodbyes.
The class stretched itself out for another thirty minutes and when the bell rang, Vic felt the note in her lap's presence more heavily than ever. She stuffed her things unceremoniously into her bag and waited for Cora to carefully fold away her notes. She decided to wait until they were out in the corridor, away from Wesley's curious ears, to put Lucy on trial.
"Well, what's this bad news?" She pressed, her voice dropping slightly. Cora didn't react which meant she already knew about it.
Lucy smiled her practical smile, no teeth. They had a free period next, thanks to their otherwise grueling NEWTs schedules, and they were headed for a favorite quiet place at the entrance to the covered bridge. It was maddening waiting for Lucy to answer her but Vic knew as they pushed their way through the crowds of students making their way to classes that it would be impossible to hear her over the chatter. She passed Teddy with Reese who flashed a grin at her that she promptly ignored. Lucy beamed at Reese which made him stumble into Teddy and caused the girls to go into fits of giggles.
"Alright you lot." Lucy announced, perched on the ledge of the bridge and leaned against the castle wall next to it. This would have been dangerous if there wasn't a protective force field around the bridge (and Vic didn't want to know which unfortunate student had made that precaution a reality). From her position on the floor, Vic saw Lucy as a much older and wiser figure with news that would seal her fate. And partially, that was true. Lucy was a Prefect.
"We had our Prefect's meeting in the carriage on the train, you remember?" Lucy started. Vic nodded.
"Cora and I couldn't find a compartment for an hour until you cleared out of there! It was miserable."
"Sorry!" Cora moaned. "Colby wouldn't leave me alone. He almost made us late." Colby was Cora's recently dubbed ex-boyfriend. He was taking the breakup well— or that is, he refused to acknowledge it.
"Anyway, Head Boy Ted… Head Ted. I like that." Lucy chuckled to herself. "He was telling us about the meetings we're going to have this term and the rotation schedules for watch and he scheduled your lover boy Carmichael for evenings until nine on Wednesday and Thursday."
Victoire pondered this. "Are you telling me this so I can stalk him? Because I hadn't thought of that until now. You're sick."
Lucy waved her hand impatiently. Cora had re-enchanted the note still in Victoire's lap and it had folded itself back into a swan, fluttering its wings and taking flight.
"I'm getting you ready for the actual news. Your excitable little heart may not be able to take it." Lucy spoke in her voice that reminded Vic of her mum. "He told Head Ted that he can't do Wednesday evenings because…"
"Because what?" Vic pushed, her heart beating a little faster than usual. The swan made a graceful swoop around her knee and soared toward Lucy's dangling left foot. Lucy bit her lip.
"He's going to be tutoring his girlfriend those nights and there's no way he can let her down."
The rain stopped very suddenly. Or at least, it did for Victoire. In fact the whole world had gone sort of quiet and still. The swan flew in slow motion, Lucy's foot swung back and forth like a pendulum through molasses. Emmett had a girlfriend.
Okay. That was okay. He wasn't really Victoire's. She just liked to look at him. It's not like they had ever really even spoken to each other. It was just fine. Wasn't it?
"I don't know why you thought you needed to tell me that." Vic finally said. The storm came back in, winds whipping the rain into their sheltered cover. Lucy pulled her cloak more tightly around herself and wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion.
"You're not upset?"
"Why would I be upset?" Vic tried her best to sound offhand. Cora was looking at her as though she had just been told about a beloved family member's death. "I fancy him, that's all. I don't really know him. I'm actually pleased."
"Pleased?" Cora repeated in disbelief.
"Now that Emmett has a girlfriend, I have to get over him. It's what sensible witches do." Cora snorted. Vic ignored this. "I can do more important things now. Like Arithmancy. Or start collecting something like… fancy buttons."
Lucy looked skeptical but Vic kept up a very convincing front. If she hadn't felt the pangs of violent heartbreak deep in her chest, she might even believe she didn't care that Emmett had a girlfriend.
"If that's how you really feel, then I'm proud of you. But please don't go and start collecting fancy buttons. Wherever would you keep them?"
Vic laughed at Lucy and the three of them watched the swan make a brave dive out from under the cover of the bridge and immediately, it was caught up in the wind of the storm. Sadly, it was battered down by the rain until it was out of sight.
"It was too beautiful to live." Cora decided mournfully. They packed up their things in an unspoken agreement that it was time to leave. And Vic didn't even suggest that they take the long way to Divination because she knew they would see Emmett on his way to Charms that way and now, that Victoire was in the past.
Because Victoire Weasley was a positive witch if she was nothing else. No dark spot ruined her day if she could let it and this was just another example of that. But there was that itching, gnawing cry in her heart that said it was the end of an era. Vic had practically loved Emmett since the first day she had seen him on the train her first year.
If she didn't love Emmett, what was she? The thought was distressing. Even that was a riddle the doorknocker couldn't answer and Vic silently vowed to herself she would never have to know the answer.