Important Conversations
.
.
Teddy was walking quickly toward the Hufflepuff common room, insults pulsing through his head and his anger toward Nathan burning in his veins. He had left Victoire before saying something he would have regretted. It was easier to be angry with Nathan than her. Their discussion had gone as good as he could have hoped, both of them oscillating between angry shouting and silent cries all the time. When they had kissed, Teddy had felt so utterly happy and complete that he still didn't know why they'd stopped. If he had just kept on kissing Victoire, he would never have learned about her and Nathan, and he wouldn't be running through the corridor wanting to kill his best mate.
Teddy finally reached the kitchen corridor where the entrance to Hufflepuff's common room was concealed. He hurriedly tapped on the magic barrel and the lid swung open to let him in. Once in the common room, Teddy scanned his surroundings, looking for his prey. The circular room was almost empty of students, which wasn't surprising considering how late it was. Teddy had been gone for nearly 2 hours.
He finally found Nathan and Jason sitting in front of the fireplace chatting quietly together. Teddy marched over to them promptly, stopping right in front of Nathan. And without saying anything, he swung his fist at him, punching his friend in the face as hard as he could.
Jason immediately jumped to his feet and pulled Teddy away from a recovering Nathan, who was holding a hand to his jaw.
"You fucking bastard," Teddy roared, trying to get past Jason.
"Teddy, calm down mate! What's wrong with you!" Jason exclaimed, still wrestling to keep Teddy away.
The other students present in the common room had gathered closer, wanting to see what was going on with the "3 Musketeers".
"She told you," Nathan said.
"Fuck yeah, she told me," Teddy growled, his face distorted with fury.
How could Nathan be so calm about it? He was keeping a blank expression and stayed poised as he stood up from the sofa.
"Is that what you've been doing with her every two days this past week? You've been shagging her all around the castle, haven't you?" Teddy continued.
That finally got a reaction from him, his brow furrowing.
"Of course not, it only happened once, Teddy," Nathan said. His relaxed tone and posture only making Teddy angrier.
"Oh, so you only fucked her once, while she was drunk," he spat.
Jason seemed very confused, not understanding what his friends were fighting about.
"Yes," Nathan replied.
"You sick son of a bitch," Teddy tried to lung at Nathan once more.
"Teddy stop! What the hell is going on?" Jason asked, still holding his friend firmly.
"He slept with Victoire," Teddy shouted.
Because his eyes were still fixed on Nathan, he noticed the latter glancing at their public.
Teddy swore under his breath.
"Smooth Lupin," Nathan commented before turning his gaze back to Teddy. "Anyway, I don't see how that's any of your concern,"
"She's my best friend!" he shouted again.
He wanted to say more but looked at the other students surrounding them.
"Let's go somewhere else," he said, "Jason, let go of me,"
Jason did so reluctantly, only after Nathan nodded. Teddy stormed out of the room, toward their dormitory, Nathan and Jason following him silently. Thankfully, the two other boys who shared their dormitory weren't there, one of them probably with his girlfriend, the other one in the common room, having witnessed their fight and knowing better than to come after them. Teddy cast the muffliato spell before facing Nathan again. Jason had placed himself as to stand between his two friends, in case one of them decided to get violent again.
" Congrats Teddy, I'm pretty sure you just started some nasty rumors about Victoire," Nathan said, crossing his arms on his chest.
Teddy realized that and didn't need Nathan to tell him he fucked up. Again.
"Don't try to make this about me, Knight," he retorted "You're the one who took advantage of a drunk virgin,"
"What's it to you, Teddy? I asked you how you felt about her, remember? You said you didn't see her like that. So stop reacting like a jealous and overprotective boyfriend! Because she's not your girlfriend, that's Alice," his voice starting to get loud.
"She's still my friend, you had no rights to sleep with her!"
"I had every right! She's my friend too," Nathan continued "We were both drunk, she was sad, because of you, may I add, and I was there to take care of her. If you wanted her, you should have been there for her. She's so in love with you, it was very obvious it was you she wanted to sleep with,"
Teddy didn't say anything. He was still fuming but had to see Nathan's point. He passed his hand through his messy hair, uncomfortable.
"Victoire and I have talked things through and we're just friends. So if you can't accept that, it's not my damn problem," Nathan concluded before leaving the dormitory. Jason stayed in the room with Teddy, not saying anything but massaging his forehead. Teddy didn't know where Nathan had run off to, but he had the sickening feeling he had gone to see Victoire. He went to bed, his thoughts full of Victoire, wondering why he kept screwing things over.
.
.
Victoire walked through the Great Hall toward the Ravenclaw table, feeling people staring at her. Thanks to Nathan's visit around midnight the previous night, Victoire knew the stares were not due to her Veela allure for once, but to the fight that had occurred in the Hufflepuff common room. Nathan had told her how Teddy had outed their secret in front of a couple Hufflepuffs, making her the new center of attention.
She was joined by Freya the moment she sat down at the Ravenclaw table.
"I've been hearing naughty things about you this morning, Weasley," Freya said jokingly while grabbing a toast and buttering it.
"I wonder what you might be referring to," Victoire retorted sarcastically. Freya throaty laugh brought a smile on Victoire's face. The two of them started talking normally about casual subjects, Freya not once asking if the rumors about her and Nathan were true.
They were interrupted by the arrival of Alice, who was followed by a few girls from Ravenclaw that used to be friends with Victoire.
"Is it true?" she asked a smug smile on her face, "Did you really sleep with Nathan?"
"Is that what the rumors say? I thought it was something about me having a threesome with Teddy and Nathan," Victoire said, feigning surprise.
Alice's face reddened.
"I heard something about Jason being there too," Freya added, enthusiastically. "My, Victoire, they must have been a hand full."
Alice stared at Freya and back at Victoire.
"You found yourself a guard dog, Vic? Well, if the rumors about you and Nathan are true, it's only fitting you'd want to hang with that slut," she said slanderously.
"Birds of a feather stick together," one of the girls behind Alice said, giggling.
"Why don't you and your minions go eat a snitch or something?" Victoire offered, casting them a dazzling smile.
Surprisingly enough, they left, not without throwing a few more degrading comments, but Victoire couldn't care less about their opinion of her. She was happy to see that Freya stayed with her, distracting her from the constant ogling.
While they were walking toward the Alchemy dungeon, Victoire decided to take a leap of faith.
"I slept with Nathan," she said.
"I didn't ask," Freya replied, surprised.
"I'm still telling you," Victoire continued, "What could you possibly do with the information?" she asked, rhetorically.
"Fair point," Freya laughed, "Anyway, I would have much preferred the threesome story to be true,"
"Sorry to disappoint," Victoire retorted playfully.
"We can still make it happen, I'm not losing hope,"
"Yeah, you wish!"
"Oh, I'm sure that if I asked Lucas or Perseus they'd say yes," Freya teased
"Har har, very funny," Victoire said wryly, "So what's the story with you and them anyway?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, is one of them your special friend?" Victoire wiggled her eyebrows meaningfully.
"Oh no, not at all!" Freya exclaimed "I did date Perseus for like a week in 3rd year, but that hardly counts,"
Her comment brought a nostalgic smile on Victoire's lips.
"I miss 3rd year dating, the sweet hand-holding and the occasional peck on the mouth,"
"That was such a sweet and innocent period," Freya sighed, walking through the entrance of the alchemy dungeon.
.
.
At the start of October, Victoire was surprised to find Teddy waiting outside of her charms' class. She immediately assumed he was here for Alice, funnily enough, their couple had grown stronger after the whole Nathan incident. But when he saw her, Teddy stepped away from the wall against which he was leaning and walked toward her, calling her name softly.
"Victoire, can we talk?" he asked her.
Victoire looked around her, searching for Alice. She was only just exiting the classroom and only cast a brief glance in Teddy's direction before hurrying away, her head held high.
"You're sure your girlfriend doesn't mind?" she wondered sarcastically.
"She knows I need to talk to you," he simply said.
Victoire nodded and followed him outside in one of the courtyards. Teddy led them toward a bench under a willow tree and gestured for her to sit down. He then took a seat next to her.
"So what news since the last time we spoke," Victoire asked him nonchalantly.
It had nearly been 2 weeks after all.
"I was trying to give you some space, Vic" and calm down he added mentally.
"Because of the kiss?"
Teddy felt a blush creep on his cheeks and felt stupid for it. But this kiss had been stalking him in his dreams for the past two weeks, making him want more.
"In a way, but also because I thought you'd be mad at me for confronting Nathan in front of everyone. I guess I'm responsible for all those rumors about you," he confessed pitifully.
"I was mad at you," she sighed heavily "I just feel like I've been mad at you constantly since the start of summer," she laughed sourly.
"And I feel like I deserve it," he replied, using the same bleak tone.
"What happened to us, Teddy" Victoire whispered, more a statement than a question. "We used to spend every hour of the day together, have slumber parties every night and talk about everything. What happened, Teddy?" she asked again.
"We grew up," he answered gloomily.
Both of them were staring at the floor unhappily. After the intensity of their last meeting, this felt very calm and normal.
"So how are you and Alice doing?" Victoire asked, without conviction. She tried her best to keep her jealousy at bay.
"We sorted things out. I explained that dating me meant accepting my friendship with you," Teddy responded.
Victoire felt a warm feeling spreading inside her, where the broken pieces of her heart were still floating. He still cared about her, even if it was just as friends. The past two weeks had allowed her to grow closer to Freya and the Quidditch guys, but even with her new friends and their many activities (Victoire didn't know you could break that many Hogwarts' rules in just 2 weeks) she still missed Teddy every day.
"How did she take it?" she asked rhetorically, making Teddy laugh.
"As well as you can expect, I mean, I still don't understand why I had to explain this to her, she should have known it from the start,"
"She's jealous. She's your girlfriend and wants to be your first priority," Victoire explained "It's quite normal, really,"
"You're my first priority," Teddy said. He was so sweet that Victoire couldn't help but smile at his comment.
"And you're mine,"
"Let's stop fighting, Vic," Teddy proposed wearily "I'm sorry I … broke your heart …"
"It doesn't matter anymore," she interrupted him.
"What do you mean?" he threw her a questioning look.
"I need to move forward and so far, staying away from you hasn't worked. So maybe going back to being friends, true friends, might help," she said, hope strong in her voice.
Teddy flashed her a giant smile, the one he reserved only for her.
"Just as long as I don't have to spend time with Alice," she warned, her brows furrowing.
"That might be complicated,"
"We could meet when she goes to her fashion club meetings," Victoire snorted.
Alice, strong from her new popularity, had started a fashion club, where she and her friends discussed wizard's and muggle's latest fashion. Freya and Victoire had laughed so hard when they first heard about it.
Teddy nodded, with a happy smile.
"I can't wait to spend some time with Jason, I've really missed him too," Victoire said eagerly.
Teddy felt a little disappointed that she didn't want to spend that time just with him but he understood her feelings. She and Jason had been close before, as close as she had been with Nathan, at least before summer…
Thinking about Nathan still made Teddy angry, even though the two friends had been forgiven by the other. Nathan for sleeping with Victoire and Teddy for punching Nathan.
"I know he misses you too," Teddy told her "Lately he just keep talking about that big Halloween ball McGonagall decided to organize. He wants to have an after party in the common rooms,"
"That sounds amazing!" Victoire whooped, sounding thrilled. "Hopefully you'll have enough space for everyone,"
"We were thinking about dividing everyone between two common rooms, 4th and 5th year in Gryffindor and 6th and 7th year in Hufflepuff,"
Like the famous Yule ball from the Triwizard Tournament, this Halloween dance was reserved for 4th-year students and above.
"That's a good idea, but why not in Ravenclaw?" she asked.
"We just figured, they'll be the one most likely to refuse breaking the rules,"
"Fair enough," Victoire admitted with a smile.
"Do you already have plans for the Halloween dance?" Teddy inquired matter-of-factly.
He actually wanted to know if she was going with someone but didn't think asking her directly was such a good idea. Victoire smiled, reading his thoughts.
"Freya and I have planned to go together actually,"
"Together together?" Teddy asked, bewildered.
Victoire's laugh resonated in the whole courtyard. It was a enchanting sound and a fuzzy feeling settled in Teddy's stomach.
"Wouldn't you just love that," Victoire teased, not really answering.
