December 24th, 2016

"What are your NEWT subjects this year, Victoire? I'm very curious to see if they have changed from when I was in school," asked Uncle Percy.

This was the first sign of the evening that she was absolutely doomed. If there was anyone up there, they sure had it in for her. She knew it.

She almost split her lip from trying to hold a smile as she recited the subjects she was taking. Teddy briefly walked by, towards the stairs, tossing her a wink as he passed. She could feel heat in her cheeks as she tried to pay attention to the dull drone of Uncle Percy's lecture.

"I wish you the best of luck, Victoire. That's quite impressive. Sixth year is extremely crucial to your post-Hogwarts success. If you ever need any help on any of those, as I myself have NEWTs in all of those subjects with the exception of Alchemy - of course, that's only because there wasn't sufficient interest, surely if there was I would have had it…"

And so it began.

Christmas at the Burrow was bound to be interesting every year - Victoire always waited for the awkward silence that following after Uncle George would tell an inappropriate joke at the Christmas Eve dinner table in front of the whole entire family, how many seconds later Aunt Angelina would glare and slap his arm from her seat to the left of him, and what instrument of choice Grandma Molly would assault him with after he "corrupted the children."

This year, she was betting on the spatula.

The second reason she was doomed was because of the seven-year-old twins with weird names that a family friend had brought over for a few hours - that blonde one who was a naturalist. Luna Lovegood.

They looked utterly adorable, but they were also trouble.

"Vic, can you go get my mop from Grandpa Arthur's shed? I'm a bit busy right now, otherwise I would summon it," Grandma Molly asked from the kitchen.

That was no problem.

"Mum? Mum, can we go too? I want to see the shed! I'm bored."

That was a problem.

Upon opening the door, Victoire was a little bit shocked at the sight that greeted her eyes. That had to be at least a foot and a half of snow! It had snowed a lot since midday.

"Are you two still okay?" she asked, silently praying they would say no and go back in.

"We love the snow!" piped one. They were dressed in matching snowsuits - all for a trip that took two minutes to the shed.

It seems that they had plans. Halfway to the shed, one pushed the other into a snowdrift - and completely disappeared into it, as the snow concaved on top of him like a mini-avalanche and buried him.

Victoire said a terrible, bitter word.

"I lost Lorcan! I lost Lorcan!" said the other twin, digging helplessly through his thick, natural-wool mittens. Victoire, who hadn't worn mittens, sprung into action, shoveling the snow out of the way and trying to help a dazed and freezing child out of the snow.

Just as she was trying to pull him up, Lorcan pulled down, trying to pull himself up, which caused Victoire to lose her balance and fall forward.

On top of the child.

As snow fell down her coat and into her shirt, she thought this surely couldn't get worse whatsoever.

Victoire would later realize that, unfortunately and even though she wanted to be, she wasn't always right.

As she was struggled to gain her balance and help Lorcan up, she heard the distinctive, loud squeal of the third-story window overlooking the shed opening.

The loud laughing of one Teddy Lupin and one Fred Weasley II met her ears.

"Nice one, Vic," Freddie called out.

Teddy, the (cute) idiot, damn it, wolf-whistled at her.

As soon as she got the child out of the snow bank and brushed off the snow, making sure he wasn't seriously injured or anything bad like that, she quickly fetched the mop from the shed, not letting the twins linger long, and waded very, very carefully back through the snow, wishing dearly for her seventeenth birthday to arrive so she would be able to magic the mop instead of fetching it. Couldn't have Grandma asked one of her many other family members to summon it?

The third reason she was doomed went by the name of Edward Remus Lupin.

After returning from her adventure with the Scamander kids, and returning them hastily to their mother, she waved off her Dad and went upstairs, mainly to avoid all of her other family members. Something else was bound to happen, and better if she wasn't there to see Roxanne blow up the potatoes or Rose smash the nice lamp in the sitting room again.

It was without thought that she entered her father's old third-story room, completely blind to everything but herself as she huffed and sat down. Her mood had went from annoyed, to briefly happy, straight back to annoyed and frustrated.

"Tough day?"

Victoire jumped out of her skin, shrieking and putting her hand over her chest to calm her racing heart. "Teddy," she said. "I... ah, didn't know you were here."

"That's a first," he laughed. "The great, magnificent Victoire Weasley doesn't know something. Owl the Prophet."

"Stuff it, Teddy."

"Lorcan was giving you a hard time, wasn't he?"

"I said stuff it, Teddy." She was trying to simply just will away the blush she could feel coming, turning away from him on purpose.

He was silent for a moment. She noticed that he had his overnight bag on the bed, and was digging through it, eventually finding a thin, rectangular object. She recognized it as a chocolate advent calender - her father had been endlessly amused by those and bought them every year for her, Dom, and Louis. Victoire noticed all of the spaces were empty, excluding one - Christmas Day.

Teddy gestured for her to hold her hand out, and she did. He opened the last space, and dropped the chocolate in her hand.

"I never got to say Happy Christmas, actually, so here it is."

Victoire didn't know what to say to that, so she ate it instead. Awkward silence hung in the air heavily, making the mood tense and uncomfortable.

Eventually, Teddy broke the silence. "This must be obvious to you, Vic. We have something. Please stop ignoring me - there's only so many times I can wink at you and smile and whatever else without trying to convince myself that we don't have something, 'cause we do, and the longer I talk and you look at me like I came from Mars just means this is gonna get more awkward - not that it can, because I am balls at stuff like feelings, honestly, I don't even know what they are - and actually, maybe I should just get to the point, I think what I've been trying to say all Christmas vacation long is that I like you. I really, really am in like with you."

Silence. More silence.

"And I know you keep denying it because we're 'family friends' but I know you see me too, and I've just been trying to get your attention so you can realize that you aren't right this time, and maybe it's the only time you ever won't be, and I can tell you being a genius means that when something surprises you, it'll crush you utterly because you thought you knew everything there was to know - because you keep denying something you know is true, Vic."

Victoire was frozen to her seat on the edge of the bed, unable to think or to move. She wasn't fully comprehending what he was saying, not quite getting it...

"You... actually like me, Teddy? This isn't some joke you and Freddie thought up, is it, 'cause if it was that would be really mean -"

He crossed the room in three simple steps, standing right in front of her. She knew what was coming and she could have stopped it, but his lips on hers was the sweetest thing she'd ever had, and when he pulled away and winked at her, she blushed. There was a lot of talking to come and a lot of figuring out to do, but she was certain that just maybe this could work.

Teddy caught her eye, and they both grinned. They could get used to this.

a/n - For QL Finals, Puddlemere United Chaser uno, using the dialogue "Being a genius means that when something surprises you, it'll crush you utterly because you thought you knew everything there was to know.", and the word prompts snow and advent. Review, please! I'd love some thoughts on this. :)