A/N: Written for Drishti3693's February 2nd song prompt on the NextGen Fanatics forum.
Victoire graduated Hogwarts at eighteen with her elaborately dreamed plans and her heart guiding her. Her dreams-Victoire was in the process of convincing herself that these dreams, these elaborate plans of hers would soon be a reality-primarily focused on writing a sweeping epic of a novel starring a girl named Valerie St. Claire, a girl with a big heart and big dreams of being a famous actress in the Wizarding world. Ever since Victoire could remember, writing had been a passion of hers. She would always create short stories in her head, then write them down as quickly as possible on whatever paper was available. Her parents would always get so angry at her when she was little, scribbling gibberish all over the walls when she was just a ball of anxious energy at the tender age of four.
Whenever Victoire wrote, it was inevitable that she would hit writer's block. If she locked herself in her room to get thinking, she became reflective. In itself, creatively thinking was what made her such a talented writing, but in Victoire's case, thinking brought out the panic that flowed through her heart. What if she wasn't good enough to finish writing Valerie's story? What if getting blocked was a punishment? What if-
She snapped herself of the spiraling path she would walk herself down if she kept asking herself such depressing questions. Because of her tendency to have a meltdown over such petty matters as not writing for a few hours, she made it a habit to stop herself from feeling a dreary sense of obsession over quelling her writer's block once and for all. Her favorite distraction was going to the beach and relaxing. Even just stripping down to a bathing suit and laying in the warm summer's sun was enough to make her feel instantly calmer.
Excerpt from Victoire Weasley's debut novel, Why Don't You Come On Over?, page 10
Valerie St. Claire stared out the window of her parent's house which looked towards a field of wheat which they grew. She dreamily stared outside whenever she thought about what troubled her and at eighteen years old, enough things crossed her mind that inevitably ended in trouble. The scenery outside her window never changed: fields of golden wheat spread across her line of sight which made a beautiful contrast to the bluest sky she had seen in a while, peppered with fluffy white clouds that floated across the exquisite blue sky. She sighed and flicked a strand of her long, black as coal strand of hair from her. Recently what had troubled her was the problems of money. Money was a cruel demon, always looming over her head to taunt her, to remind her of the things she couldn't do, like support her ailing family from going into poverty because they couldn't sell enough to keep food on the table.
Being the oldest daughter of farmers could really hold a girl back. She knew it was a hurdle to overcome but she knew deep in her heart that she could rise above the obstacles that were thrown at her.
Victoire found herself going to the beach more and more often, letting the salty waves of the ocean wash away all of her troubles. She walked out of the water refreshed and feeing like a calmer, more efficient version of herself. The beach became her home away from home, a welcome comfort from her anxiety and her own worst faults looming over her head. When she was drying herself off, she heard a familiar male voice call her name.
"Victoire!" The voice called joyfully. Victoire smiled brightly when she recognized the voice as Teddy's. He walked closer and, upon her inspection of Teddy, clad only in a pair of swim trunks in an explosion of absurdly bright colors, he hadn't changed at all.
"Teddy!" She gasped, and ran to give Teddy a tight hug, "I haven't seen you since I graduated Hogwarts." Teddy looked shocked.
"Has it been that long?" Teddy asked and Victoire nodded solemnly in response.
"I personally think we should catch up on what glorious adventures we've missed out in each other's lives," Teddy said, gladly grabbing Victoire's hand.
"Of course," Victoire replied with a grin, also grabbing Teddy's hand.
Excerpt from Victoire Weasley's debut novel, Why Don't You Come On Over?, page 160
Valerie, stuck in the big city all alone, never felt more lost in her entire life. She had finally was on her path to achieve her dream of becoming a famous actress and her first audition was coming up. She couldn't contain her excitement and decided to heartily celebrate by buying herself a feast of a lunch at an elegant restaurant. Valerie was so blinded by her excitement to attend her first audition that she stopped paying attention to her usually extremely useful and well worn traveling map. Tears were threatening to fall down her blushed cheeks like a waterfall. She hated the feeling of being lost and alone in a place she didn't even recognize. Blinded by the fat teardrops clouding her vision, she managed to bump into an unfamiliar man's broad chest.
"E-excuse me sir," Valerie mumbled pathetically, wiping her wet eyes.
"Are you lost, ma'am?" The man's deep, reassuring voice asked. She suddenly and inexplicably felt calmer, as if soothed by a lullaby.
"Yes. Would you be willing to help me?" Valerie asked hopefully, rubbing her fingers against her lucky necklace, which was the most valuable thing she owned at the moment.
"I gladly would. My name is Charles Johnston," the man who had introduced himself as Charles said.
"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Johnston. My name is Valerie St. Claire." What Valerie didn't know was how important Charles would be later in her life.
Writing lengthy letters to Teddy felt natural, as if she had been doing it her whole life and through out the gap of time they didn't ever talk. These letters became second nature, just like her visits to the beach. Her favorite letter from Teddy came during her birthday, when he wished her a happy birthday in the best, most Teddy-like way possible. Instead of writing a long but cliché letter on how much she meant to him, he simply wrote 'Happy Birthday' and sent her a necklace made of the prettiest gleaming seashells he found.
She smiled and wore it always around her neck to think of him.
A/N: I had a blast writing this. Hilariously enough, I initially planned this to be extremely angsty. Weird how things turn out. Review please!