As if someone had slowed time down, the news sunk in at a painful pace. Victoire could hear applause and congratulations being offered, see James' shy smile, his face flushed with embarrassment. She, however, was frozen in shock. James? James was the new head of department? Surely this was a mistake, he had only been there for two years; half the time she had.

"Vic? Are you alright?" Andreas' voice pulled Victoire out of her thoughts.
"Hmm?"

"I said, are you alright? You've been frozen to the spot for ages, we thought you'd been petrified!"

"Oh, yes. Yes I'm fine. Just felt a little dizzy for a second." Victoire stammered. "All better now. Congratulations James, I'm thrilled for you." she tried to inject happiness into her voice and place a smile on her face, despite the furious thoughts racing through her brain.

"Thanks Vic, I think I'm still in shock. Couldn't believe it when Giles told me earlier. It's been so hard keeping it a secret, especially from you."

Realisation dawned: that's why James had been so quiet all day. He had already been offered the job. He had sat and listened to Lucinda telling Victoire that she would be the one getting the promotion, all the while knowing that he would be her boss in a matter of days.

Family obviously meant very little to James Potter. Ironically, family was probably the only reason he got the job in the first place. Of course Harry Potter's son would get the job, how could Victoire have thought otherwise? It paid to be a Potter in the Wizarding world; Albus was set to become captain of the Montrose Magpies, Ginny had been captain of the Holyhead Harpies before retiring from playing and becoming their coach and Harry himself was the most notorious head of the Auror department the Ministry had ever seen. It was only a matter of time before Lily became the youngest ever Misiter for Magic, probably.

After the announcement, Giles took the team out to celebrate his retirement and James' promotion. Though Victoire was hardly in the mood to celebrate anything, her desire for a strong alcoholic drink outweighed her displeasure and so she found herself in the Leaky Cauldron, a large glass of amber firewhisky sat on the table before her. Much to her annoyance, it was a typical busy Friday and the only available table had been a small booth, so she was squashed between an ecstatic James and a tipsy Giles, whose face grew redder with each drink he consumed. As it turned out, Giles was quite the touchy-feely drunk and Victoire had to remove his hand from her knee or her waist more times than she cared to count. Eventually her over-friendly boss and his calloused hands that he couldn't keep to himself caused Victoire to drain drink number five, (or was it six?) make her excuses and leave the pub.

Not wanting to go home and face Teddy, Victoire left the Leaky Cauldron via the back exit and into the walled courtyard that would lead her to Diagon Alley. The fresh air hit her as soon as she stepped outside and Victoire began to feel the effects of the firewhisky. It took several attempts to tap the right brick on the wall that would make the archway appear.

As she walked down the street, occasionally stopping to regain her balance or to try and settle the lightheadedness she was feeling, Victoire's thoughts were once more on the job she hasn't been offered, suddenly feeling a great deal of anger towards Giles. He had certainly shown his true colours tonight; he was nothing more than a pig. A sexist, perverted pig. She was half his age and yet he felt it was appropriate to have his hands all over her! Maybe that was why he had given the job to James, because he was male; a fellow chauvinist. He probably thought that Victoire wouldn't have been able to handle the responsibility and hard-work that came with running a department. He and James had probably smoked cigars whilst laughing at Victoire's deluded thoughts of being promoted. She would show them, she would show perfect Potter that the job should have been hers. He would pay for stealing her promotion. She took a seat outside a small cafe and ordered an Irish coffee, pulled out a price of parchment and quill from her handbag and began plotting furiously.

Three coffees later, Victoire decided it was time to return home and face the music. Against her better judgement, she apparated home. Her destination clear but her determination focused elsewhere and her deliberation hindered slightly by alcohol, she didn't apparate as gracefully as usual, causing her to fall on her backside on her own doorstep, her head banging on the front door of the cottage. The door opened suddenly and Victoire fell backwards into her own hallway, Teddy's slightly blurred face above her.

"Victoire? What on earth are you doing?"

"Hello, handsome." she grinned at him.

"Have you been drinking?" he asked whilst picking her up off the floor and closing the door behind them.

"Just one or a few...give me a kiss Teddy bear." she leaned in with puckered lips, missed his mouth and planted a wet kiss on his ear.

"Vic!" Teddy exclaimed, "what has gotten into you?"

As if suddenly remembering that something was indeed wrong, Victoire straightened herself up and jabbed her finger into Teddy's chest.

"I'll tell you 'what's up' Teddy Lupin. James Potter. That's what. That goody two-shoes has stolen my promotion. Yep, old Gilesy has gone and made him head of department over me. It's because I'm female. Beaten to the post because I've got breasts!" she pointed at them as if to emphasise her point.

"James got the job?" Teddy replied, perplexed.

"Yep. My job. James stinking Potter got my job, just because his Dad's famous."

"Come on, Vic, that's a bit harsh. Just last week you were telling me how great James is considering he's only been there a few years. You said he was as good as you." Teddy knew as soon as the words were out of his mouth that he'd made a grave mistake. Victoire glared at him furiously.

"Oh!" She threw her arms up in the air dramatically, "Oh! So that's how it is. You're taking his side? He deserved the job, is that what you're saying?"

"No, I-"

"He's better than me, is that it?"

"No, not-"

"Don't even speak to me Teddy. Just don't even speak. You've been unsupportive of me since day one, I don't know why I'd expect any more support from you now. I deserve better than this."

Teddy's hair turned a bright shade of red, as it always did when he was angry, but before he could retaliate, Victoire had stormed up the stairs to their bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

Teddy waited in the hallway for a few minutes before moving. He took several deep breaths in, in an attempt to calm down. He knew that Victoire hadn't meant what she had said but that didn't make him any less angry at her words. He had always been supportive of her, each time someone else had been given a job she had applied for, he had taken her out to her favourite restaurant to cheer her up, joined in with her stream of insults towards people he had never met. This was different though, this was James. James who had been like a brother to Teddy his whole life. He couldn't sand by and listen to Victoire insult him. Plus, she was drunk. In the morning she would no doubt feel awful for what she had said about James, and to Teddy. For now though, Teddy was angry and it wasn't going away. He followed in Victoire's footsteps up the stairs and to their room. She was passed out, fully clothed, on top of their bed covers, gentle snores were coming from her mouth, which was wide open. Teddy shook his head, grabbed his pillow and returned back downstairs to sleep on the sofa.

The following morning Victoire was awoken, earlier than she would have liked, by sunlight streaming into the bedroom. She was confused as to why the curtains were opened as Teddy always closed them before going to bed. She rolled over to demand an explanation and found his side of the bed empty, even his pillow was missing. Oh dear. This was not good. The last time Victoire had woken to an empty bed was when Teddy's favourite quidditch team had lost an important game and she had laughed and teased him about it. What had she done? She searched her brain for an explanation but the only thing she got was a blinding, throbbing pain that could only be the result of too much firewhisky. Thinking of the drink brought back a flood of memories from the night before; the Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley, falling on her doorstep. Wait-had that last one been real? She ran her hand down the back of her head and felt a large bump. Yes, that had been real.

Was that what had made Teddy angry? Had he put her to bed and not wanted to sleep with her because she was drunk? No, that couldn't be it, he hadn't minded last Christmas. Then what?

It was no use, Victoire simply couldn't work out what she had done to make him so angry. She got up out of bed and changed into a pair of loose fitting jogging pants and one of Teddy's old t-shirts and slowly descended the stairs. She followed the smell of coffee and, with a sheepish expression on her face, she entered the kitchen to find Teddy sitting at the table, a mug between his hands. He didn't look up.

"Hello..." she mumbled.

"Morning." he replied curtly.

"I'm, um, I'm really sorry about last night. I don't remember what I did, I had too much to drink and I know that's no excuse but it's the best I've got. I promise I'm never drinking firewhisky again."

"So, you don't remember getting home? Our fight?" Teddy finally looked up at her.

"Um, no." she looked at the floor avoiding his gaze

.
"Would you like me to fill you in?"

"Probably not but I guess you should so I can start apologising profusely."

Teddy told Victoire everything, from her landing on their doorstop to her storming off to bed.

"Oh, Merlin. Ted, I'm so, so sorry. I know you support me, trust me, I wouldn't be where I am without you. I didn't mean any of it at all." the last part wasn't strictly true, Victoire did think that James only got the job because of his dad, but Teddy and James were good friends so Victoire decided to leave that part out.

"It's fine. Let's just forget about it, yeah?" Teddy stood up and walked to Victoire so that he could hug her. He could tell she was being sincere, he knew last night that she hasn't meant it and it was the alcohol talking, he had just wanted an apology.

"Now, go take a shower whilst I make you some breakfast. No offence, love, but you stink."

Victoire hit him playfully and went back upstairs. After showering and dressing she began to feel much better. All that was left to do was to dry her hair, after she had found her handbag which contained her hairbrush. She spotted it in the corner of the room, she must have tossed it there in her drunken state the night before, and began searching for her brush when she noticed a piece of parchment. Pulling it out, she recognised her own curly, albeit slightly messier than usual, handwriting. A title at the top of the page read; 'The Plot: how to steal James Potter's job.', followed by a list.

As Victoire read, she couldn't help but applaud her drunk alter-ego: the girl may have been useless at relationships but this was pure genius. A plan began to form in her head. It looked like she would be getting that job after all.