Ted wouldn't tell Victoire where they were going. She simply had to take curious stabs in the dark about various places, only for him to shrug as if he wasn't going to say anything anyway. As they left Diagon Alley for the Muggle streets of London, she eventually gave up and just decided to follow him. Apparently, being elusive and secretive was something Ted was quite good at, though she didn't know whether that should worry her or not. He was a poor liar, this much she knew and had become accustomed to over the years. However, when he wasn't saying anything one way or the other, he was next to impossible to figure out.

"How about a hint?" she asked once they reached a busy, car filled traffic junction.

"We're almost there," he said, reaching out to take her hand in his. "You've got three minutes until you'll see for yourself. Be patient."

She threw him a funny smile, but decided to just go with it. Ted clearly liked his surprises, which was something new that she'd discovered now that she was with him. "Ted the friend" had always fairly straight forward; "Ted the boyfriend" liked surprises.

Not that Victoire minded since she liked surprises too, but unfortunately, being patient in surprise situations had never been something she'd quite worked out. She was always the one who had found the Christmas presents in the crawl space before either of her siblings had; the one who was always trying to figure out a mystery before anyone else could solve it. People who managed to truly surprise her were hard to find. Though, she had to admit, Ted had come the closest out of anyone lately. Even from the moment of their first kiss at the Quidditch World Cup, he'd managed to keep her on her toes.

"And here we are," he said suddenly, stopping outside of a shabby looking fish and chip shop.

She stared at it for a moment, just as Ted made motion to open the door and gesture for her to enter. She threw him a curious expression before stepping forward, but quickly noticed that the shabbiness was not only limited to the exterior. A few cheap looking tables and chairs were scattered across a linoleum floor in a neon-lit room. A man in a greasy apron was standing behind a counter, doting over some sort of device that seemed to be frying something. Somewhere, a Muggle radio was blasting some sort of rock song. It seemed like any other dingy, run-of-the-mill sort of grease hole, but when Victoire glanced back at Ted, he was beaming.

"You like fish and chips, right?" he asked. "I mean, who doesn't?"

She nodded and absently started gazing around the place. "Yeah, but," she lowered her voice, "we could have gotten these back in Diagon Alley. Why come all the way out here?"

"The ones in Diagon Alley aren't as good as they are here," he said with playful sort of enthusiasm in his tone. He walked over and stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her and just managing to lay the bottom his chin on the top of her head. "So, what do you want?"

She shrugged. "If you say they're so good, I guess I'll have fish and chips. Is that what you're getting?"

"Yep."

"Okay, then," she said, watching as he pulled away and began making his way towards the counter. "Just get me what you're getting."

He smiled. "How many orders do you want?"

She stared at him. "Just the one— wait, why? How many are you getting?"

He didn't answer her, but instead laughed at something before he turned and started talking to the Muggle man behind the counter.

Victoire looked around and assumed she should probably sit, though she might drown in a puddle of grease if she picked the wrong spot. She took her time to search for table, choosing one against the wall, where she immediately pulled out a few napkins from the portable napkin dispenser that sat on the inside of the table. With little effort, she began wiping the tabletop to eliminate the layer of grease film that had accumulated there; when she picked up the napkin and examined it, the paper was translucent.

She made a slightly disgusted face, but Ted had chosen that moment to return with their food. She quickly forced a smile, realizing that he obviously liked this place for some reason and she could at least make the effort to enjoy herself. She discarded the napkin and glanced to the tray he had brought back with him, but her mouth quickly dropped. He had at least five orders of fish on the tray; enough food to feed at least three people.

"You're not going eat all that," she said.

He smiled as he sat and handed her one of the orders. "Oh, the things you still have to learn about me."

"You're honestly…" she pointed at the food in front of him, which he was now organizing, "going to eat all of that?"

"I haven't eaten all day. I'm hungry."

"I've never seen you eat that much, ever."

"There's a reason for that."

She laughed a little. "Oh, what's that?"

He tucked into his food and seemed to be trying to formulate a proper response to her question. Once he swallowed, he cleared his throat. "Okay, here's the thing. I told you this place was special, right?"

She nodded and she began using her plastic utensils to cut her fish into even rows of bites.

"Simon and I," he began, "have been coming here for months now, since last summer. We will literally fast ourselves all day beforehand. Anyway, he and I sort of made a tradition out of it. When it's just the two of us, we'll make plans to come here and eat a ridiculous amount of food. It's almost embarrassing."

Victoire smiled as she glanced at the food in front of him. "I can see that."

"Anyway, we've both said," he continued, his tone growing less playful and more serious, "that we can't bring just anyone here."

She popped a piece of fish into her mouth and started at him as she chewed.

"Particularly girls," he added. "We both decided that you can't just bring any random girl here. I mean, I could, but honestly most of them would probably think less of me for eating like this. It's got to be someone special who's not going to judge me, which means it's got to be a certain kind of girl." He smiled and looked away. "I always said the day I found a girl that I could bring here, that would be the day I knew I was in love."

Victoire stared at him a little blankly. She didn't even know what to say to that. A minute earlier, she had been thinking this place was just a dumpy hole-in-the-wall and wondering what the charm was that would get the grease stain out of her shorts. Now, after that little declaration, it was quite possibly the most romantic place she'd ever been.

"So, yeah," he said as he dug back into his food. "That's why it's special." He smiled at her. "This is sort of a big deal for me."

She continued to stare at him.

"You think I'm mental, don't you?"

She shook her head. "No, I was just thinking about how I think this is my new favorite restaurant, ever."

He laughed. "Which is why I knew I could bring you here."

"You haven't ever thought of bringing anyone else here?"

He shook his head. "Well, I don't count Simon."

"Not even Cel—"

"Nope," he said quickly, purposely cutting her off. "She probably would have bitched had I brought her through the front door." He made a face. "That really should have told me something early on."

Victoire smirked as she picked up and chip and chewed on the corner of it. "But wait. Didn't you tell me once…?" She trailed off and bit off the end, all the while wondering whether she should bridge this subject. She felt like she could talk to Ted about anything, and hoped he felt the same, but the area of exes—and particularly Celia—was probably weird. Given the history of everyone involved, it was probably better to simply avoid bringing that topic up as much as possible. Still, not talking about it just because it may be weird seemed like she was intentionally holding back. She didn't want to hold back.

"Didn't I tell you what?" he asked.

"Way back when you and Celia were still together," she said, "you said you thought you were in love with her."

Ted laughed a little and his eyes went wide for a brief second. He poked around in his dinner. "I said that?"

She nodded. "Yeah, you were over at my house, and I asked you if you were in love with her and you said that you thought—"

"I think that answers your question," he said bluntly.

She looked confused. "I didn't ask a question."

"I'm going to guess where this was going," he said as he leaned back in his chair and looked at her. "I thought I was. I was wrong. I didn't have a clue, I just…" he shrugged, "I thought I was. It's one of those situations where you're with someone for so long that you assume you are because—why wouldn't you be?"

She nodded slowly, but continued to run the issue around in her head. She believed what he was telling her, that wasn't the issue, but something was still playing at the back of her mind; she wasn't even sure what it was. Even if he had actually been in love with Celia, that really wouldn't have bothered her…well, okay, it would a little because of how much she couldn't stand Celia, but she couldn't change his past and everything that had happened before they were together. She certainly couldn't hold it against him if it truly was in the past. She didn't want him thinking that she was somehow bothered by this—

"I know this time," he added, cutting into her thoughts. "If that's what you're thinking."

"What am I thinking?"

"You're thinking," he began, "that if I only ever thought I was with Celia, what's to make you believe that I'm not just thinking I'm in love with you." He set his elbows down on the table. "But it's a hundred times different this time. I wish I could explain how different it is, but, I mean, it's got to say something when I was with her for almost two years and I only ever thought I might be in love with her, versus a few weeks," he paused, "or months—but anyway, to know that even after just a little bit of time that I..." He stopped and shrugged. "I love you."

Something inside of her clicked as he said that. It was as if suddenly everything was a little clearer; a little less fuzzy. Whatever little reservations had been nagging at her seconds before had disappeared with those words.

She smiled at him. "I love you, too."

He grinned and went back to eating.

Victoire took her fork and poked into a piece of fish before quickly popping it in her mouth. As she chewed, she suddenly realized why everything had suddenly clicked just like that.

"That's the first time we've said that," she said

Ted looked up from his dinner.

"I love you, I mean. It's the first time we've ever said that."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"No, it's not."

"Yes. It is."

"I've said 'I love you' before," he said.

"You've told me that you're in love with me before," she said with a small smile. "You've never— and I've never actually said those three words."

He stared at her. "You're serious?"

"I'm positive. I'd remember something like that."

"I would think I would, too," he said as he now seemed to consider this revelation. "You're positive?"

She nodded. "I'm positive that's the first time we've ever had that exchange."

Ted made a face and began looking around the greasy restaurant, settling his sights on the man behind the counter. Victoire followed his gaze, and they both witnessed the man suddenly snort up something nasty and phlegmy sounding into his throat.

Victoire immediately looked away, her stomach turning.

"And this is where we decided to do it?" Ted asked.

"There is a certain charm," Victoire joked.

"Oh, no," he said quickly. "I want a redo."

She laughed. "You don't get a redo. But, the good thing is, you're not limited to just one attempt. You're more than welcome to say it allllll the time." She smiled. I won't stop you—"

She was cut off by the man behind the counter suddenly sounding as if he was hacking up a lung.

Ted laughed and wiped his hands on his napkin before throwing it on the table. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm full."

"More than full," she said, dropping her fork onto the table. She cast the man behind the counter one last glimpse and watched as he squashed a bug against the wall with his bare hand. She looked away, trying not to cringe. As sweet as Ted's gesture was, they were definitely going to have to branch out a bit when it came to finding places to eat.

After they cleaned up after themselves and exited back into the warm summer evening, Victoire realized that, technically, this was her and Ted's first date. She knew it wasn't really, since how can you have a first date with someone you've know forever, but she was never one for technicalities. Even with what that restaurant had lacked in cleanliness and décor, it had made up for with Ted's genuinely sweet intentions in taking her there. She glanced up at him sideways, almost surprised that he was full of so many unexpected, yet adorably romantic gestures. She really did have a few things left to learn about him.

"So, you've got me out," Ted said as he grabbed her hand. "What else do you want to do?"

She shrugged as she glanced up at the sky. It was purple and blue as dusk slowly began to creep over the city. She could just make out the moon appearing behind the clouds. "It's such a nice night."

"Yeah, it is," he said before he stopped and let his hand drag. It made Victoire stop as she felt the tug. He was staring across the street. "Come on, let's cross the street. We'll go for a walk."

She followed his gaze to a large city park that was just beyond the busy traffic junction they were currently standing at. They would have to cross the street. Ted tugged on her hand when the street lights tuned red, which caused the cars to stop, but having grown up not accustomed to the way Muggle street laws worked, Victoire was always second guessing herself when forced to cross a busy street. Cars were large and it would probably hurt a great deal to be hit by one. The idea that she might accidentally find herself crossing at the wrong moment was always at the back of her mind.

Upon reaching the other side, she let out a relieved sigh once they were safely on the pavement; even going so far as to glance back at the pelican crossing triumphantly. It was always after the fact that she realized how stupid it was for her to worry about walking into traffic. She had eyes after all. All she had to do was not walk when the cars were moving.

"You okay?" Ted asked.

She turned back to him. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"You just grabbed my hand really tightly a second ago."

"Oh," she said, faking obliviousness. "Did I? Weird."

"Let's go check out that fountain," Ted said, pointing up ahead to a very large fountain. It was currently shooting water up straight into the air from not only an ornate looking object in the center, but also from various other sources around its perimeter. It was large enough that Victoire realized it would probably take a good ten minutes to walk around the entirety of it once. Joggers, tourists, and lollygaggers alike were congregating around the fountain's edge, while several onlookers were taking pictures of it and lounging lazily around its concrete boundary.

"You know, when I was in Paris," Victoire said, looking the fountain up and down as they approached it, "there are fountains everywhere. Just these beautiful works of art that seem to pepper the city." She smiled. "I love fountains."

"Yeah?" Ted asked.

She nodded as they reached the concrete edge and stared into the swirling pool of water that was just within reach. She sat on the edge and put her hand in the water before looking back at Ted. "The sound of moving water is just really calming to me. I'm sure it has something to do with growing up on the sea, but it's an instant stress reliever."

Ted sat down next to her and stared into the water. "I never knew that."

She shrugged and smiled. "Oh, the things you still have to learn about me."

He laughed as she cast a glance around at a group of nearby people who were removing their shoes and socks and sticking their feet into the water. Just beyond them on a grassy field, a large group of Muggles men were playing football and kicking a ball from person to person in an attempt to run it down the field. Everyone looked to be enjoying a lovely summer night. And why wouldn't they be?

From beside her, she suddenly felt Ted stand and jump up on the fountain's edge. She looked up at him.

"Looks pretty refreshing," he said absently. "It's so hot out lately."

She laughed a little. "So, go for a swim."

He threw her a doubtful smile. "I'm not one for making a spectacle of myself by swimming in public fountains."

"I dare you."

"Right," he said sarcastically, "because that'll make me do it." He took a few steps along the ledge. "Maybe when I was ten…"

"You wouldn't even do it when you were ten," she said as she stood up and took a few steps back to observe him. "You would chicken out. Remember? There was that one time I dared you to kiss me—"

"One time," he said as he turned to face her. "One time, I chicken out and you—"

She laughed and cut him off. "It was the only time you had the chance to chicken out because you refused to ever play that game with me again!"

"That's because I didn't want to risk having to be dared to kiss you again," he said, watching his own feet as he continued to trail along the edge of the fountain. "But hey, dare me to kiss you now. I'll be more than happy to make up for lost time." He hopped off the ledge. "And with interest."

"With interest?" she asked with an intrigued smile. "And what does that mean?"

He walked straight over to her, getting so close that he was now only about a centimeter away from her face. With a particular look—a look she happened to find quite sexy—he said, "Dare me and you'll find out."

"Oh, really?"

He glanced around. "Well, not here, but later when it's just the two of us."

She bit her lip and looked back at the fountain. "Well, later does me no good. We're here now, so," she reached up and quickly tugged on the front of his shirt before letting go and walking back to the fountain, "I stand by my original dare."

"Tell you what," she heard him say before she turned her back on the fountain and refaced him. He was walking towards her. "I'll go in, if you go in."

"That's not how this game is played," she said with a quick smile. "You know the rules."

"Screw the rules," he said as he wrapped his arms around her mid-section and pulled her towards the fountain. "I could toss you in. You weigh about a stone."

"I would kill you!" she shouted, laughing as she let her body go dead weight. Ted was easily bigger than she was—and would have no problem tossing her in if he really wanted to—though, she didn't think he really would. Not that she wanted to risk the chance that he was feeling the need to be especially funny today.

Just in case, she made a point of pushing them both back away from the ledge. Ted hadn't let go of her yet, but he wasn't trying nearly as hard to push back against her struggles.

"Do you really think I'm going to toss you in a fountain?" he asked.

She looked up at him curiously, a smile playing on her lips. "I'm not sure, actually. You have been full of surprises lately."

He shook his head. "Well, as sexy as it would be to see you all wet, I'm not about to throw you in a fountain."

She laughed, though as she did, someone abruptly tapped Ted on the shoulder. He let go of her and turned around to find a man in a Panama hat standing before them with a polite smile. He was accompanied by a woman, who looked to be the similar age as he was, and a boy, who looked to be a young teenager.

"Excuse me," said the man in what sounded like a heavy Irish accent. "I am sorry to bother you, but could you take our picture?" He pointed to the fountain.

Ted glanced from the man to the fountain. "In front of that?"

He nodded and gestured to his family.

"Oh, yeah, sure." He gave Victoire a quick look. "No problem."

The man smiled broadly as he pulled out a camera and handed it to Ted. "Just push the button," he said before ushering his family towards the fountain.

"Which one?" Ted mumbled to Victoire as they both looked down at the camera that couldn't have been bigger than the palm of her hand. It had all sort of notches and buttons on it and wasn't like any of the cameras they were used to in the wizarding world. There wasn't even a viewfinder to look through and line up the picture.

"I can't even tell," Victoire said as she glanced back at the family. "Excuse me. Which button is it?"

"Oh, Bradley, go and show them," said the woman to the boy, who shuffled over to them and took the camera back. He pushed a few quick buttons and handed it back to Ted. On a small screen on the camera's back, suddenly everything Ted pointed towards showed up in full view.

"Wow…" Victoire said impressively. Muggles were always coming up with such creative ways to do things.

Ted pointed the camera back at the family and started counting back from three before a bright flash went off. Instantly, the picture he'd just taken appeared on the screen.

"Look at that," he said to Victoire. "Except they don't move. It's always so odd to see stationary photographs."

"I know, it's weird," Victoire said as the family reappeared to collect their camera.

"Top of the line," said the man as Ted handed him it back. "It's got thirteen mega pixels!"

Both Ted and Victoire smiled as if they knew what that meant.

"Just captures the picture in fantastic quality!" the man added. "Like magic!"

"Like magic…" Victoire repeated, throwing Ted a smile. He handed the camera back to the man, who thanked them both and turned to his usher his family away. The younger boy hesitated.

"Cool hair," the boy called out to Ted before quickly turning to hustle after his parents. "Hey Mum, can I dye my hair blue?"

Victoire looked at Ted. "You're so cool," she teased.

"I know that," he joked, just as she wrapped her arms around him and gazed up at his face. He also looked up, but he was searching the sky. "It's getting starting to get really dark."

"You want to go?"

He shrugged and looked back down at her. "It's sort of romantic. In fact, let's try this again." He got a look of determination on his face. "Vic, I love you."

Victoire broke into a stupid grin and opened her mouth to speak, but just then, a light from somewhere within the fountain suddenly clicked on, as if on some sort of timer. The fountain was suddenly brightly illuminated in an extraordinary and showy sort of way; the glow from within now lighting up everything within the vicinity. A group of nearby people suddenly "ooohed."

Victoire eyes went wide. She turned back to Ted, who also looked a little awe-struck by the timing of it all.

"I wish I could say I did that on purpose," he said slowly.

"Wow…" Victoire muttered. "You know, I'm going to give you credit for that anyway. That was pretty impressive timing."

He gaped a little. "That was perfect. And I'm the idiot who had to go and say it in a stupid fish and chip shop." He shook his head. "If anyone ever asks, tell this instead of what really happened."

She laughed. "Let's get out of here."

"Hey, if we stick around, I may be able to make some equally as cool things happen."

"Or," she said thoughtfully, walking a few steps ahead of him, "we could go back to your flat and I could dare you to kiss me."

He stared at her for a second, but quickly pointed in the opposite direction. "I know shortcut if we go this way."