YAY! I got another chapter up before school!

Teehee.

Another chapter might not be for a while, so I really hope you enjoy this chapter! It's dedicated to all the Vic/Ted shippers out there.

Happy reading.

Chapter 5: Damn Me And Damn The Damned Hormones

Teddy sulked through most of the party. He felt badly about dragging down the party at first, but after a bit he realized that everyone was pretty much doing their own thing: all the adults—Molly, Arthur, Gram, Bill, Fleur, Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, George and Alicia—were sitting around the kitchen table chatting and, as the party progressed, began getting a bit tipsy and rowdy, as Lily and Hugo were off playing in the garden while James erroneously explained the inner workings of Hogwarts—having just completed his first year—to Albus and Rose as the three sat on the steps to the kitchen. Everyone seemed to be all settled by themselves, so Teddy had stolen away to the roof to watch the sun set.

He loved coming up here. The air was cool but not freezing, all was quiet but for the sound of laughter from the garden where Lily and Hugo were playing tag, and the sky was an explosion of color, blues and pinks and oranges and purples and reds swirling around a orb of blazing white. He liked being able to get away, where it was only him, his thoughts and the great view. Everything was perfect.

Only it wasn't.

Sure, Teddy sometimes came up here to think, but the vast majority of the times he'd been up here, it had been with Cass. From here, he could even see her house—a big old Victorian two story number that was visible over rolling green hills and treetops. It seemed impossible to escape thinking about her. No matter what he was doing, looking at or thinking about, it always led to Cass.

As he gazed at her house on the horizon, he wondered what Cass was doing. Perhaps E.B. and Josie (Cass's aunt) had organized a surprise party, and they were all sitting around, giving her presents and eating cake. Yellow cake, smothered in chocolate frosting. That was Cass's favorite.

"Hey Teddy."

Teddy whirled around, hoping it was Cass.

It wasn't.

"Vic?" Teddy said, surprised. From the list of people that he would have expected after Cass, she was definitely at the bottom. "Thought you were at Jade's graduation party."

"It ended early," she said softly, closing the trapdoor to the roof behind her. "She had to pack."

"Where's she going?" he asked as Victoire came and sat next to him, both of their backs up against the chimney.

"Spain with Greyson," she explained, readjusting the hem of her shirt. "Jade says it's to practice her Spanish, but I'm pretty sure Greyson sees it as the prefect opportunity to pop the question."

"They're pretty young," Teddy commented.

"Eh." Victoire shrugged. "They make each other happy. Disgustingly happy. If someone made me as disgustingly happy as they make each other, I'd marry him in a heartbeat."

"Can't argue with that logic," he laughed good naturedly. "Are you gonna miss her?"

"Sure," she responded emphatically, widening her dazzling blue eyes. "She's my best friend and she graduated a year before me. But she's only gone for the summer and she's coming back to Hogwarts so she can prep to take over for Flitwick."

"That's brilliant," he said sincerely.

"Yeah," Victoire added with a gentle smile. "She always got top marks in Charms."

For a moment they sat in silence, and Teddy's eyes strayed from Victoire's impeccable features to the Victorian house on the horizon.

"The view is amazing up here," she remarked, drinking in the scenery. "Whose house is that?"

"Cass's," Teddy mumbled, his head resting against the chimney and his eyes fixed on the house in the distance.

"Ah," she replied, realizing that she had hit a sore spot.

A few more moments of silence.

"Listen, Teddy," she said, sounding apologetic. "I don't know what happened between you and Cass during Spin the Bottle, but I like you. I guess I've kind of always have a bit."

Teddy felt his head go fuzzy and his stomach twist into a knot, and he turned to look at her. She was so beautiful… her unblemished, porcelain skin and her wide, unbelievably blue eyes… her sleek, silver blonde hair was fluttering in the light breeze…. her lips were so close to his…

"Vic, I can't…" Teddy muttered agonizingly, pulling away from her and shaking his head. "You're beautiful and I want to… but I can't. Everything's so fucked up right now, and nothing makes any bloody sense… and I just can't."

"It's okay," Victoire whispered breathlessly, tucking a tendril of hair behind her ear. She cleared her throat. "I… I should go."

"Vic…" he groaned as she went to the trapdoor.

"Teddy, seriously," she said, only her torso visible as she was already on the ladder. "Take your time. I'm not going anywhere."

She offered a little smile before descending the rest of ladder.

Teddy sighed. And it wasn't one of those sweet sighs either, it was painful and tortuous. What was he supposed to do? Cass was his best friend, and while he wasn't quite sure if she was more than that, he knew that kissing her was better than anything he'd experienced. Ever. And then there was Victoire, who really needed no introduction, but was beautiful and smart and made his heart race and his stomach turn over.

What the bloody hell what he supposed to do?

---

"Ted?"

Teddy looked up from his desk—where he was looking over the syllabus for the Healing program at St. Mungo's which he'd be starting in a week—to find Ginny standing in the doorway.

"Hey Gin," Teddy sighed, meticulously gathering up his papers into a pile. "What's up?"

"I just realized that this wasn't much of a graduation party for you," Ginny sighed. "I'm sorry, we all just got to talking—"

"It really wasn't that big a deal," Teddy assured her. "I wasn't really in much of a mood for a party."

"Weren't you?" she asked curiously, closing the door behind her and leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. "Any reason why?"

"I don't really want to talk about it," he replied. Ginny grinned, and he immediately knew what was coming next.

"You've known me all your life, Ted," she said. "When has that ever worked?"

"Never," he half laughed, half sighed.

"That's right," she laughed, pulling up a chair and sitting opposite to Teddy across his desk. "Now tell me what's wrong."

"What's wrong…" Teddy repeated, as though he was trying to figure it out himself. "Ah, I know!" he continued brightly, sarcasm dripping off every syllable. "I'm a sex-crazed idiot who can't keep his hands off anything in a skirt!"

"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked incredulously.

"Oh you're gonna love this," he said sardonically. "Wednesday Cyrus had the brilliant idea to play Spin the Bottle, and—ironically—the only reason Cass and I went to play at all was so I could have one pitiful chance to make out in a dark broom closet with Victoire—"

"Our Victoire?"

"How many Victoires do we know?"

"Point taken."

"Anyway, I'm sitting there, hoping like the miserable sod I am that the wand lands on Victoire, when the damn wand lands on Cass! Wade and Cyrus cram us into this puny broom closet and after about two minutes of awkwardness, we actually snogged and then there was more snogging and more snogging and just an unbelievable amount of snogging. Then Cass freaked out and took off and we didn't talk all day, until of course, I went and found her on the bridge and we snogged again! And now she thinks it's all her fault that everything so bloody screwed up. Then on the roof just now, Vic comes up and she looks like a bloody angel all the time and and said she liked me too and I nearly snogged her too—"

All of that was said in the span of about fourty five seconds.

"Oh, I can guess what's next!" Ginny announced, mock excited. "Then Isabella burst out from under the trap door and pounced on you!"

"Gin!"

"Sorry, serious now," she said, dropping the excited tone and donning a face of utmost seriousness.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" he asked her. "I don't even know if I have feelings for Cass and I'm already going after Vic?"

"Oh Ted, cut yourself some slack," Ginny said sympathetically. "You're a bloke and you're seventeen. You want to shag anything that moves at this point, it's all the hormones."

"Damn me and damn the damned hormones," Teddy grumbled. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Talk to Cass!" Ginny responded as though it were the simplest answer in the entire world. "I mean, give it a couple days, but then go talk to her without your lips being sucked together."

"Easier said than done."

I hope you all liked it!

Wish me luck on the first day in my junior year...

mmb