Ted clicked his bedroom door shut behind him and gripped his wand in his hand. The only thought running through his head at the moment was how this had better be Merlin himself standing behind his front door; even then, he still might try to curse him. He would very well hope that Merlin had the omniscient power to know when he was interrupting a very, very, very good thing.

Whoever it was who was now pounding on the front door pounded once again, just as Ted reached out to grab the doorknob. With his wand raised at attention—in more ways than one—he pulled open the front door to find Simon standing there, his fist raised as though he was ready to pound once more.

"I knew you were home," Simon said. "You said earlier you'd be home."

"Yeah," he said, sounding more irritable than he'd anticipated he would. "I also said the reason I'd be home because I was spending the night with Victoire. Why are you pounding on my door?"

"You didn't answer when I knocked."

"You think that maybe there's a reason for that?" Ted asked with an obvious look.

"I need to talk to you," Simon said with a strange anxiousness in his tone.

"I really can't talk right now," Ted said as he grabbed the side of the door and started to shut it. "We'll talk later."

Simon caught it and held it open. "No. Seriously."

"No. Seriously," Ted said as he made a head gesture towards his bedroom. "Vic goes back to school tomorrow and I've got less than an hour left with her before she's got to go back home. I don't get to see her until Christmas time, so no offense, mate, but you've really got to piss off. Hell, come back after ten and I'm all ears. We can talk for hours, but just give me this hour."

Simon stared at him, his face ashen and his brow looking sweaty. He sighed heavily. "Susan's pregnant."

Ted face went blank, having not entirely processed what Simon had just said. "Sorry?"

"She's pregnant," he repeated as he averted his eyes to the ground. "I just found out about an hour ago."

Ted's grip on the door slacked. He stared at Simon before an obvious question came to mind. "Is it yours?"

He glared at him.

"I…" Ted stammered, "I just wanted to check."

"It's mine," Simon said slowly, looking as if just speaking the words hit him like a pile of bricks; a world of change already completely evident across his face. He looked clueless, he looked scared, but mostly, he looked shocked.

Ted heaved a heavy breath. "Shit, man. You weren't planning this—"

"I think that's obvious," Simon said.

"But how did it…?" Ted began, stepping aside so Simon could enter. "How did it happen?"

"Again," Simon mumbled as he walked inside, "that should be obvious."

"You knew what I meant."

Simon plopped down onto Ted's sofa and let his head lazily drop in his hand. "Something went wrong. A spell didn't work or one of us miscast…"

Ted screwed his face up as he found himself absently staring at spot on the coffee table. "Wait, how is there a chance the spell won't work?"

"If you do it right it will," Simon said, "but there are all sorts of factors that come into play, especially in the heat of the moment. Mispronounce one thing and the next thing you know…" He trailed off. "I've heard rumors that if you use someone else's wand to cast the protective spells, they may not be as effective, which may have been what happened. I can't even tell you how many times I've just randomly grabbed at Susan's wand instead of mind when it's dark."

"That's just an old witches' tale," Ted said.

"It's a fact that your magic is more powerful with your own wand rather than when you use someone else's," Simon said distantly.

"But it's not completely ineffective to use someone else's wand," Ted said as he, too, sat down on the sofa. "I doubt that's what happened to you."

"I almost hope that's what happened," Simon said. "Then I'd at least know." He stared ahead into blank space, a million and one thoughts obviously running through his mind. Ted couldn't even imagine to pin point what he was thinking, let alone what it would feel like to be in his position right now. Having sudden life changing news thrust upon you in at a moment's notice, the thought of having a kid…it at all seemed surreal.

"I have no idea what I'm going to do," Simon finally said.

Ted shook his head, right as the sound of his bedroom door opening creaked behind him. He turned and saw Victoire emerging, fully clothed with her hair tied back and his t-shirt in her hand. He threw her an apologetic look, and she lobbed his shirt at him. Her expression seemed curious as to why Simon and he were chatting in the living room at the moment, but she returned Ted's look with a lazy smile and a shrug.

"Hey, Vicki," Simon said absently, but without looking at her.

"Hi, Simon," she said, her face growing concerned once she noticed his demeanor. She glanced at Ted, as if to silently ask what was wrong, but he simply shook his head. She rounded back on Simon. "Is everything okay?"

Simon heaved a heavy breath as he finally looked at her. He forced a stressed smile onto his face. "Susan's pregnant."

Her eyes went wide as she glanced at Ted, who was looking back her as though he was lost on what to say. Now looking slightly dazed, she plopped down next to him on the sofa. "How pregnant?"

"I don't know," Simon said. "Very?"

"I meant how far along?"

"Oh. Well, the Healer said about a month, which, when I tired to trace that back, made me think it happened at the World Cup." He glanced at them both and smiled weakly. "Looks like you two weren't the only ones busy that night."

Victoire smiled sympathetically. "Is Susan okay?"

Ted glanced at Simon, who was now cracking his knuckles over and over again. "She cried a bit. I could tell when she got back from the Healer she'd been crying a complete mixture of surprised and 'what the hell are we going to do' tears. She seems better now, just confused." He looked up. "She's afraid to tell her folks."

"I would be, too," Victoire said.

"Hell," Simon said, "I'm terrified to tell my mum. She's going to beat the living shit out of me for getting someone pregnant."

"She'll only beat you if you do something stupid," Ted said. "Like, if you run off or something."

"I'm not going to run off," Simon mumbled. "I don't have a fucking clue what I'm going to do, but I'm not going to run off."

Victoire stood from beside Ted and walked over to where Simon was sitting. She sat down beside him and started rubbing his back in a reassuring manner. "It'll be okay, Simon."

Simon didn't say anything; he just stared to rub at the temples of his head. Victoire caught Ted's eye and gave him blank look. It was a look that he similarly shared with her. He would have been more prepared to have a hippogriff come storming through his living room versus the news he was currently hearing. The idea of Simon with a kid, a real life baby…he didn't even know what to think. Just yesterday, they were eleven and at school and now, he was gearing up to have his own kid? How on earth did this work out?

Not to mention that the idea of protective spells failing certainly put a damp spin on things. He'd been convinced they were fool proof, but now—or at least for the time being—he'd be second guessing himself when ever he tried to cast one. That thought alone was nerve racking. Ted had always been more apt to make mistakes when he wasn't confident in what he was doing.

"I mean," Simon said suddenly, causing both Ted and Victoire to sit up at attention, "it's not like I think this is some world ending mistake. I really love Susan, so one day I would have liked to…" he shook his head. "One day. Just not today."

Both Ted and Victoire nodded, though only Ted spoke. "You're handling this pretty well. Better than I think I would."

"You really are, Simon," Victoire agreed. "Honestly, I don't even know what I would do if I were in Susan's position. I'd probably be dead once my parents found out."

"I'd be deader," Ted said. "I can promise you that they'd find me first and kill me."

"Yeah, well, they wouldn't know it was you, now would they?"

He considered this. "Good point."

Simon made a face. "What if her family wants to kill me?"

"They won't," Victoire said quickly. "We were only kidding, Simon."

"Yeah," Ted agreed. "Plus, they live over the America. You'd have a small head start, at the very least."

Victoire rolled her eyes at him, though Simon seemed to find it a little funny. He smiled weakly. "Yeah, they'd have to schedule a Portkey through our office, so I'd be able to keep tabs on them."

"Exactly," said Ted. "You'd know when they were coming and just how long you had to run."

"They're not going to kill you," Victoire said.

"You know what else?" Simon asked. "It'll be due in May. By next May, I'll have a kid." He glanced at Victoire. "By the time you've graduated school, I'll have a kid."

That comment made everything seem very real, and both Victoire and Ted's faces seemed to realize that. The two of them had spent the last month talking about how the year while Victoire was away wasn't really that long, but when put into the perspective of Simon soon having a child, it suddenly seemed quite a bit longer.

"Why does it smell like smoke in here?" Simon asked.

"Long story," Ted said as he glanced at the clock.

Simon followed his gaze. "Shit. I should go. I told Susan I was going for a walk to think, but she's got to be wondering where I went." He glanced from Victoire to Ted. "And, you two probably want to be alone…"

"It's okay, Simon," Victoire said.

"It's not a big deal," Ted added.

"No, you should be," Simon said as he stood up, right before the Ted and Victoire followed. He turned first towards Victoire. "Have a great term. I'm sure I'll see you at Christmas time."

"Absolutely," she said as she leaned in and gave him a particularly tight looking hug. "Send Susan my best. And tell her I said congratulations."

He half smiled before glancing at Ted. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah, we can talk later," Ted said. "I'm off Friday night if you need to…whatever."

Simon nodded. "Yeah, we'll see." He gave a quick wave before he walked towards the door and pulled it open. "Enjoy what's left of your night. Don't do anything I wouldn't do—" He paused and turned back towards the pair of them. "On second thought, it'd probably be wise to do exactly what I wouldn't do," he lowered his voice to a mumble, "like cast a proper protective spell."

Both Ted and Victoire smiled, watching as Simon disappeared behind the sound of a door clicking shut. The second he was gone, they turned to each other.

"Oh, Merlin's beard…" Victoire mumbled, letting her forehead fall lazily onto Ted chest.

He wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her down on the sofa with him as he sat. "I cannot believe that that just happened."

Victoire rested her head on his shoulder before picking up her feet and curling them underneath her. "Can you imagine a little Simon running around?"

Ted made a wide eyed face. "No."

She looked up at him. "Looks like you're going to have to."

"He's not even twenty yet," he muttered. "We're still kids. I still see myself as a kid sometimes. I know he's got to."

"It's going to definitely change things," she said, taking Ted's hand in hers. They both found themselves sitting in silence for a long moment; both staring straight ahead at nothing until Victoire made a movement to look at the clock. "It's twenty to ten."

Ted looked too. "Shit. Hey, I'm sorry about that."

"Why?" she asked. "I know he's your best friend, but Simon's my friend, too. I care if something happens to him."

"I know, but still…" He grew quiet as the realization that in twenty minutes time, he'd have to say goodbye to her suddenly hit him. He'd been dreading it all evening, but now that it was staring him in the face, he knew he had to come to terms with it. "I wish you didn't have to go tomorrow."

"I wish I didn't have to either," she said quietly as her grip on his hand suddenly became a little tighter. He could feel her drawing small circles with her thumb on the top of his hand and began watching her do it.

"You're going to be so busy this year," Ted said as he leaned his head back against the couch and stared at her. "Seventh year is a trip."

She smiled a little. "Just earlier today I was wondering what I was going to do with myself given all the free time I'd have. With no real drama waiting for me, I figured that it was bound to open up half my days."

"You won't have any free time," he said. "At least I rarely did. And you're taking as many classes as I did."

"We'll see…" she said lazily. "I just need to pass my exams so I don't end up working somewhere dreadful."

Ted pulled his hand out of hers in order to put his arm around her. She dutifully followed through and fell into the motions of leaning against him. "Do you even know what you want to do when you graduate?"

She shrugged.

"Not even an idea?"

"Potions and Runes are my best subjects," she said. "Charms and Herbology I'm strong in, and Transfiguration I'm okay, though I hate it." She sighed. "I'd preferably like to play to my strengths."

"You're really good at Runes," Ted mumbled. "Potions too, of course, but it's rare to find someone who's really good at Runes."

"I'm better at Potions."

"Yeah, but think of it this way, the amount of people who come out of school even able to understand basic Runes are few and far between. You can actually decipher a lot of them on site."

She glanced up at him. "What are you trying to say?"

He shrugged. "I just think maybe you should consider the possibility of, maybe, doing something in the same field as your dad. When he was younger, I mean."

She sat up straight and turned to him. "You think I should go into curse breaking?"

"Only if you want to," he said. "I'm always reading in the Prophet about how they need people to read and figure out ancient symbols."

Victoire actually laughed. "My dad went into curse breaking because he was smart and adventurous. He was looking for the challenge. He was looking for the madness. He was looking to travel." She made a face. "I'd have to travel the world."

"What's wrong with that?"

"My life is here," she said. "I like to travel, but I don't crave it like my dad did—does. I'm more like my mum. I like the idea of having stability, not running around the world getting into all sorts of mad situations—half of which my dad won't even tell us about because they're that insane."

"I just think you'd be good at it," he said.

"And we all thought you'd be a good Auror," she countered once she turned back around and leaned back into him, "but look how that turned out."

"Touché."

She shook her head. "Nice to know that you're encouraging me to go halfway around the world to live in Egypt or the likes."

He squeezed her affectionately. "I'm encouraging you to do something I know you'd be good at. It doesn't have to be that, but I'm just trying to give you ideas. And hey, who's to say I wouldn't come with you if you did?"

She looked back up at him. "Would you?"

He shrugged. "I might. It's not exactly a decision I have to make, so I don't know what I would do."

Victoire seemed to consider this. "It's not as if there aren't other options I can explore here at home."

"There are."

"Like," she sat up again and stared at him again, "I've sort of been thinking about healing."

Ted cocked his eyebrow curiously at her. "Really?" This was the first he'd heard about this, which was surprising considering the field.

"It's just something I've been thinking about," she said. "I think I'd be good at it."

"I think you definitely could be, yeah," he said.

"And, it's something that could be a real challenge."

"Definitely would be."

"But," she said heavily, "I don't know. You're always talking about difficult it is and how hard of a time the Healers you know have. The training is years long…"

Ted smiled a little. "Well, to be fair, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it."

She twisted her face into a pensive expression. "You just make it sound like they're always miserable."

"They're not always miserable," he said quickly, wondering if he really did sound like that all time. He didn't necessarily mean to make things appear that way, and wouldn't have had he known Victoire even had the slightest interest in pursuing healing, but it was a rough and arduous job. He didn't want to give her the wrong idea. "I think the training is pretty rough, but it has to be because you're dealing with people's lives. There are good days and bad, like all jobs, but most of the time, the people there really seem to love what they do."

She shrugged and leaned back into him. "I don't know. It's just something I've been thinking about lately."

He smiled. "I think it'd be kind of cool if you became a Healer," he said. "We'd probably get to see each other all the time…" He trailed off as a thought occurred to him that made him stop and reconsider what she was saying. "Wait, that's not why you want to do it, is it?"

She looked up at him. "Huh?"

"Healing," he said, watching her face. "You don't want to go into it because of me, right? You've got your own reasons?"

She stared at him for a long moment. "No, not because of you. I mean, it's an incentive, sure, especially since I'm on the fence about so many things right now. But if I do it, it'll be because I want to. Being able to see you would just be one of the pros on my long list of pros and cons."

He nodded his head a little. "I was just checking."

She laughed and poked him in the side. "My, don't you think highly of yourself. Thinking I would base my entire career choice around you."

"You never know," he said as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down onto the sofa so that he was on top of her, "But to be honest, I'm glad that's not the case. It would be a little weird."

"Just a little," she said as she kissed him quickly.

He pulled himself back up into a sitting position while she remained lying down and draped her legs across his lap. "Plus, half the reason I love you is because you're independent minded. I don't even like making my own decisions, let alone yours."

She laughed. "Oh, don't worry. That will never be a problem."

He smiled and glanced up at the clock, his face falling. It was ten to ten. They had ten more minutes, and Victoire—after following his gaze—seemed to realize where his mind was going.

"Christmas time," she said heavily. "It's not that far off."

"It's not that close, either," he mumbled.

"Don't say it like that," she said as she started to frown. She pulled her legs towards her, her knees now bent in front of Ted's face.

"Sorry," he said as he let his forehead fall forward to rest on her closest knee. He smiled lazily at her. "It's really not that far off."

She forced a weak smile as they both continued to stare at each other for a long moment. Neither of them seemed to want to say anything more, least of all their goodbyes. They simply sat there in silence, both mustering half hearted smiles and wishing these last few minutes somehow found a way to elongate themselves.

"This sucks," Victoire finally said. She looked away and suddenly sniffled.

Ted pulled his head off her knee and focused more intently on her. Was she crying? She was purposely looking away from him now, so he couldn't catch her eye.

"Vic."

"What?" she asked, still looking off to the far side of the room, though her voice sounded choked up.

"Look at me."

She closed her eyes and turned her head back in his direction. Through squinted eyes, she looked up at him.

"Are you crying?" he asked.

She reached her arms over her face to shield herself. "No," she mumbled, her voice muffled against her arm.

"Vic…" he said with a smile as he reached out to pull her arm away. He couldn't help but feel extremely touched at the fact that she was letting her emotions about not being able to see him surface like this. At the same time, he didn't want to see her get upset. "Hey, it's really not that long."

Her arms didn't budge, though she sniffled again.

He couldn't stop smiling at her. He moved and positioned himself so that he was on top of her and had the use of both arms to pry hers away from her face. He didn't pull hard, but this time she gave way far easier than she had before. He held her arms and met her face to face, where her eyes were shiny and filled with tears. She begrudgingly looked at him.

He let go of her arms and smiled.

"Don't laugh at me," she said as a tear plopped down her face.

"I wasn't going to."

"I can't believe I'm crying," she said as she reached up and started using her sleeve to dab her eyes.

He continued to smile at her.

"I just really don't feel like saying goodbye yet, but I know I have to."

He looked up at the clock. Their time was all but up, but he quickly realized that it didn't necessarily have to be. Not yet, at least. What was stopping him from going to King's Cross tomorrow and seeing her before she left? Well, besides the fact that he had a presentation to make at two o'clock and had been planning on spending the morning to prepare, but he could spare a couple of minutes, right?

He mulled on whether or not this was feasible as he stared back down at her. She had sniffled in an attempt to regain her composure and looked as if she was thinking about what she wanted to say. Between her looking so beautiful and sad, and the fact that he didn't want to say goodbye yet either, he decided that getting the chance to push off goodbye and see her tomorrow was worth the risk.

"Don't say it," he said finally. "This isn't goodbye yet."

She stared at him. "What?"

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said with a shrug. "So, we can save our goodbyes until then."

Her expression turned doubtful. "When will I see you tomorrow?"

He pulled himself off the couch and stood up. "I'll come see you off at the train station before you go."

Her mouth gaped slightly. "But you've got your presentation tomorrow."

"Let me worry about that," he said as he held out his hand to help her off the couch. "I'll figure something out."

"Ted, your presentation is huge. You don't have to come—"

"I know I don't. But like I said, I'll figure something out."

"What if you can't?"

He bit his lip. There was a chance that he wouldn't be able to peel himself away from work; they both knew that. He didn't want to believe that was an option, though.

"I will."

"But how do you know?"

"Because I know." He smiled. "I'm not letting you say goodbye tonight. It's stupid, because I will see you tomorrow."

Victoire didn't seem to know what to say to this, but Ted—realizing they only had minutes left—didn't want to bother wasting another second of what little time they did have left of that night. He pulled her closer and kissed her, making sure that kiss in particular counted.

It seemed Victoire felt the same, because this certainly wasn't their usual end of the evening sort of kiss. He knew they were both making sure that, on the chance—the slim chance, as far as Ted kept telling himself—that he couldn't make it tomorrow, that this was a lasting note. This would last them four months if it had to.

After a solid two minutes without interruption, Victoire pulled away, though Ted pulled her back for another second or two before they finally did break apart. She stared at him curiously, the desire to say goodbye clearly playing at her expression.

"Don't say it," he said.

"I don't know what to say."

"How about, 'see you tomorrow'?" he suggested.

"If I say it, will it actually happen?"

"It can't hurt."

She leaned in and quickly kissed him again. "Then, I'll see you tomorrow." She looked at the ground. "But, just in case—"

"Don't say it."

She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. Can I at least say I love you?"

He smiled at her. "Now that you can say all you want."