Hazel had never been more nervous in her entire life. Teddy Lupin was coming to her flat. That evening. To take her on a date. She'd never been on a date in her life. Not unless she counted that time Myron Snell had held her hand at a party in the Hufflepuff common room for about five minutes, left to go get her some punch, and then never came back. Which she didn't. And now she was having her first date with Teddy Lupin! It was unbelievable.

There was a knock on her door. Her heart began to race. She smoothed her hair, glancing anxiously in the mirror, and then hurried to open it.

"Hey, Hazel," Teddy said, smiling at her.

He was as handsome as ever, clutching a bouquet of flowers. He handed them to her.

"You look beautiful," he told her.

"Thanks," she replied, feeling her face heat up. "So do you."

He chuckled.

"I mean," she said hurriedly, "you look handsome."

Stupid, stupid, she thought. Why was she suddenly unable to behave like a normal human being? There was nothing to be nervous about. It was only Teddy. They'd had plenty of conversations before during which she managed not to make a complete fool out of herself.

"Thanks," he said, holding out his hand. "Shall we?"

"Erm, yeah," she said. "Let me just go put these flowers in a vase."

She hurried into her kitchen, tripping over her own feet in the process, but catching herself before she landed right on her bum.

"You alright?" Teddy called from the doorway.

"Fine, fine," she called back.

Please, she thought, if there is a higher power out there, please help me get through this date in one piece.

Victoire just wanted to get through the rest of the evening in one piece. The catering company she worked for, though a Wizarding company, sometimes still catered muggle events (though of course they had to do everything without any magic). Tonight, they happened to be catering a birthday party thrown by some extremely rich couple for their son's twenty-first birthday. The son, whose name was Carter Remington III, went to Harvard (a fact that seemed to be brought by his parents on every occasion possible). The party was filled with his snobby, frat boy friends who seemed to have no qualms with openly staring at Victoire's breasts, and even on occasion groping her "on accident."

She quickly darted through the crowd, holding a tray of hors d'oeuvres. She had explicit instructions to serve the guests in the library. Of course, as luck would have it, she slammed right into someone who had stepped in front of her at the last minute. The person's drink spilled all over her, soaking through her uniform.

"Shit," a male voice said. "I'm sorry."

She glanced up. The guy standing in front of her was none other than the birthday boy himself, Carter Remington III. She sighed, bracing herself for the inevitable grope. It had already happened several times that night with his drunken friends as the perpetrators. One of them would "accidently" spill their drink down her front and then "clean it up" by rubbing his hands all over her chest.

"I'm so sorry," he said again. "I'll go find you a towel. Or some napkins." He looked around frantically, his hands –to her surprise- staying at his side.

"It's fine," she said. "There are towels in the kitchen."

"Let me go get one for you," he said.

"That's really not necessary."

"Yes it is," he insisted. "I bumped in to you. My mom always tells me that I need to learn to look where I'm going. Maybe I should start listening to her."

"Here," he said, taking the ruined tray of appetizers from her. "I'll take this back for you. You just find a seat, okay?"

She sat down hesitatingly, sure that her boss would appear at any moment and fire her for not doing her job.

A few minutes later, Carter Remington III reappeared, carrying a towel and a tray filled with fresh appetizers.

"Here," he said, handing her the towel and setting the tray down on a table.

She accepted it. "Thanks."

Carter Remington III sat down next to her as she cleaned herself up.

"So," he said, "what's your name?"

"Victoire," she replied.

"Ah," he said. "A French name."

"Yes, my mum's French."

"But you're English," he said. "So what brings you to New York?"

She shrugged. "I've just always wanted to live here." She stood up, picking up the tray. "I've got to get back to work," she said.

"I'm Carter, by the way," he told her.

"I know," she said.

He grinned at her. He had perfect teeth, that was the first thing she noticed. Maybe even more perfect than Teddy's teeth, if that was possible.

"Do you want to go out with me sometime, Victoire?" he asked.

"Oh," she said, surprised. "Erm…"

Say yes, a voice inside her head implored. Look at how handsome he is!

It was true. He was very handsome. With chocolate brown eyes that twinkled when she smiled and crinkled at the corners. And that hair, it was so wavy and shiny. She wanted to run her hands through it.

And he's nice, the voice added. He's not the preppy snob you pegged him as.

She smiled at him. "I'd love to."

Dear Teddy,

Remember that time we got really, really drunk? It was the summer before my seventh year and we took all those bottles of firewhiskey down to the beach with us. We drank way too much and we built really bad sandcastles and we ran around in the ocean and we snogged all night. I don't know what made me think of that. But it was really fun. I remember being sure that I would love you forever. I thought that if we could have that much fun all the time, then there was no way that we wouldn't be happy together forever. Of course, that was the problem wasn't it? We didn't always have that much fun…

Anyway, I'm going on a date. My first date with someone that isn't you. I probably shouldn't tell you that, but it's not like I'm ever going to send this letter anyway. I hope we have fun, as much fun as you and I used to have. I hope I don't think too much about you. I hope I fall in love. I hope I forget about you. I hope you forget about me.

Love, Victoire

Lawson Mills approached Victoire Weasley after the party was over. She was standing outside the ritzy apartment building where the Remington's lived.

"Hey," he said. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for a cab," she replied stiffly, not looking at him.

"Why don't you just take the subway?"

"I don't like riding it alone at night," she said, still staring straight ahead.

"So you're wasting all this money on a cab every night? That's ridiculous."

Finally she turned, shooting him an icy glare. "It's not really you're concern."

"I could ride with you," he offered. "It would save you a lot of money."

He saw her bite her lip, and he knew she was considering it. "Fine," she said. "Let's go."

He grinned. "Great."

Hazel lay in bed that night, feeling quite pleased with herself. Her date with Teddy had been a complete success. She had not made a complete fool of herself and alienated him forever. In fact, he had asked her on another date! And kissed her outside the door of her flat. And told her again that she looked beautiful.

She smiled giddily and closed her eyes. She dreamt that it was her wedding day. She looked beautiful in her wedding dress and Teddy looked handsome in his tuxedo. Victoire Weasley showed up and begged him to take her back, but he just laughed and said that he was in love with Hazel Denholm. Then Victoire cried and Hazel didn't even notice; she was too busy snogging Teddy. It was a wonderful dream.

"So, I saw you talking to Carter," Lawson said.

Victoire sneered at him. "You're on a first name basis with him, are you?"

"As a matter of fact, I am," he said. "I've known him since I was a little kid. My mom used to work for his family. We played together all the time."

"Well, I'm going on a date with him," she said, staring out the window of subway.

"Mmm," Lawson murmured.

She turned to look at him. "I suppose you're going to tell me that's a bad idea, right? Carter's actually a stuck-up arse and I can do better, right?"

Lawson smirked. "Actually, no. Carter's a great guy. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone nicer than him."

"Oh," she said, feeling relieved. That meant that Carter hadn't just been putting on an act with her. He really was a nice bloke.

"So your mum worked for his famliy?" she said. "Is she a muggle?"

Lawson looked at her, a strange expression on his face. As if he was surprised that she making conversation with him. Then again, that was pretty surprising.

"Yeah," he said. "She is. My dad was a wizard though. Not that I actually remember him. The piece shit left when I was about two. Told my mom he was gonna go rent a tux so they could finally get married and then never came back."

"That's horrible."

He shrugged. "Whatever, we're better off without him."

"I suppose so."

"Since my mom had to raise me by herself, I was home alone a lot. She had two jobs. That's why I got so good at picking locks. I was always losing my house key, leaving it at school or on the subway or something."

So he isn't actually a thief, Victoire thought to herself.

Teddy smiled at Hazel as he got on to the lift Monday morning.

"Good morning, Hazel" he said.

"Good morning, Teddy," she replied.

It felt a little strange, dating someone who wasn't Vic. But Vic was gone. And Hazel was here. And he couldn't spend his life moping around. So why not give this relationship a shot?

This chapter's not very good, sorry about that.