A/N: Hey everyone, look at me! I'm updating earlier than I expected because I really didn't want to make you guys all wait a month and a half for a new chapter.
So, before you read I'll just warn you guys that while this chapter doesn't move very forward in the terms of immediate plot or satisfaction, it is an important chapter because it sets up some future chapters, so yeah.
Warning: Victoire says a swear word in here. She's totally justified in her use of language, and it's so minuscule that you guys might not even pick up on it, but I just thought I'd cover my bases :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
First Day
Friday, January 21st 2022
6:22 a.m.
A loud series of knocks woke Xavier Wood up. He almost fell out of bed as he rolled over to his side to peek at his alarm clock; he wanted to see what time it was. He then grumbled under his breath as the knocking noise became louder and more insistent, but got up since he reasoned that his alarm was to go off in eight minutes anyway. He struggled into a pair of track pants that were lying on a chair close to his bedroom door and jogged out of his room, down the hall, and to the entranceway where the knocking sound was still issuing from the front door.
He glanced through the peephole, frowned to himself, and then opened the door and started to lecture the person for coming to his apartment so early and for waking him up before his alarm, causing him to miss eight –well-deserved– minutes of sleep.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's rude to-"
He didn't have time to finish his sermon before his visitor shoved him aside and ran into his flat and down the hall to the half-bathroom.
Xavier stood at his, still open, front door gaping after his visitor before the sound of retching coming from the bathroom caught his attention. He slammed the door shut, ran towards the bathroom, and saw her kneeling on the floor in front of his toilet vomiting. He kneeled behind her and gathered up as much of her loose long blonde hair as he could in his hands so that it wouldn't get in her way. When she stopped and moved away from the toilet, he dropped her hair and stood up to grab a wet washcloth and a glass of water. Once she had cleaned up, her eyes travelled up Xavier's form, and stopped for a moment on his worried-looking face.
She sighed, closed her eyes, and tried to break the awkward silence that was in the room, "Wood, would you mind putting a shirt on? It's a little too early in the morning for partial nudity."
Xavier rolled his eyes but figured that her comment was a way of asking for a few minutes to compose herself, so he left and went to his room to grab an undershirt. When he was no longer in danger of damaging her modest morals, he walked out of his room and to the kitchen where Victoire was already sitting on a barstool at the island playing with the cap of a water bottle she'd grabbed from the fridge. He spent his first few moments in the kitchen filling the kettle and then setting it on top of the oven, while surreptitiously watching Victoire and trying to figure out how to start.
He pulled out two mugs and turned to her, "So . . . are you okay?"
Victoire wouldn't meet his eyes, "Yeah I'm fine. The nausea passed as quick as it came."
Xavier waited to see if she would say more, and ended up staying silent until the kettle started to whistle. He prepared the two mugs before sitting down next to her on a barstool and handing her one of the cups of tea. He took a sip of his but noticed that she didn't copy his action; she used the cup to warm her hands instead.
"So what's up with the vomiting? Flu? Food poisoning? Something else?" Xavier asked trying to pry without sounding like he was.
Victoire sighed and took a sip of tea before answering, "Nerves. Which is also why I'm here so early. Sorry about that by the way."
He shrugged off her words, "It's okay, I was going to be up soon anyway. What are you nervous about?"
Victoire looked at him incredulously, "Today is my first day of my placement."
"Yeah."
"Meaning in an hour I'm going to be working as part of the Puddlemere United staff."
"Yeah, I know that," Xavier reminded her calmly.
"Merlin Xavier! Don't think I don't remember how nervous you were on the morning of your first professional Quidditch game," Victoire replied.
Xavier placed a hand on top of hers, "You'll be fine today. You met Claudia and Steven and I can promise you that they are as fantastic as they seemed at first, and you've also got Mum there and for some reason you think she's amazing so trust me when I saw that you've got plenty of people looking after you."
Victoire cracked a smile for the first time that morning, "Thanks, but I don't think I'll actually be calm until today's over."
"What are you most worried about?"
Victoire started to tap her foot nervously, "Probably something to do with me making a fool of myself the first time I get to use some of my healing mojo."
Xavier breathed a sigh of relief, something Victoire caught on to, "Why? What did you think I was so worried about?"
"Honestly? I thought you we worried again about Chris being there."
"I'm just going to pretend that he doesn't exist and hope that I have minimal chances to heal him," Victoire replied.
Xavier nodded, "That's how I play it on a daily basis."
Once the two finished their tea, Xavier told Victoire that she could hang around in his living room while he got ready. She had come to him so that she could talk to him before they both had to be at the Puddlemere pitch and training facility. Since they only had about forty-five minutes before they had to be at work, she figured that she'd stay and they could leave together as Xavier's flat was only a short distance away from the pitch.
When Xavier walked out of his room, more properly dressed this time in a pair of Puddlemere track pants and a matching long-sleeve shirt, he took a moment to survey Victoire. She was sitting on his couch apprehensively thumbing through an old Quidditch magazine that had been on his coffee table. She was usually so calm and collected, so he found it interesting that she was so anxious. He was also very glad that she came to him to help calm her down before work started, instead of bottling up all her worries, he knew that with Teddy gone on his mission, he had to step up and make sure that Victoire was being taken care of.
"Ready to go?" Xavier asked. They still had about twenty-minutes before they had to leave but he thought maybe the more time she had to get accustomed to the training centre, the calmer she would be.
Victoire took a few more seconds than needed to place the magazine back on the coffee table, but when she was finished she stood up and looked Xavier in the eyes, "Yeah, I think so."
The two had just made it to the entranceway of Xavier's flat, and they were getting ready to leave, when Victoire suddenly did an about-face and dashed back to the closest bathroom. Xavier followed her and stood helplessly in the doorway as he watched her vomiting over the toilet again. She had tied her hair back since the last time she'd gotten sick, so he couldn't hold her hair back for her and he wasn't sure what else he could do.
"Do you need me to get you anything?"
In between her heaving, Victoire took a deep breath and spluttered out, "Just go away Xavier."
"Okie-dokie," Xavier replied before leaving the bathroom and walking back to his foyer where he decided to start pacing.
A few minutes later, his pacing ended because Victoire finally walked back into the foyer. She was smoothing down some of the fly-aways from her hair, but besides that, she looked composed. Way too composed for Xavier's liking since he was currently incredibly worried.
"Do you still want to go or . . ."
Victoire understood where the question was going without Xavier having to finish it, "I am going to work today."
"No one would blame you if you didn't come in; I mean you've gotten sick twice in the last like forty minutes."
"I'm not calling in sick Xavier," Victoire told him sternly as she slid her right arm into the sleeve of her winter coat.
Xavier sighed as he knotted his scarf around his neck, "Will you at least promise to visit a healer if you're still feeling sick when they day's over?"
"I'll be fine when the day is over Xavier, I was only sick this morning because of the stress of this being my first day," she explained as she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder.
Xavier gestured for her to go through the door first so he could lock it behind them, "If you're sure that it is just stress-"
Xavier didn't get a chance to finish before Victoire whirled around to face him again. She gave him a dark glare, "I am one-hundred percent sure that it is just stress."
"Then," Xavier said a little louder so he could finish his previous statement, "you should have no objection to promising to see a healer if you're still feeling nauseous after work. Since you say that it should disappear during the day anyway the argument would be a moot point."
Victoire clenched her teeth in irritation, "Fine, I'll see a bloody healer if I still feel nauseous after work is finished."
"Excellent," Xavier said just before offering her his arm so they could apparate together to the stadium.
Victoire and Xavier had arrived to the stadium about a half hour earlier than they really needed to because the latter had figured that it might calm the former down if she had a chance to better familiarize herself with the place. When they got there, Xavier briefly showed Victoire the more specialized training rooms, before rounding off the impromptu tour with his father's office. Just as Xavier had expected, the door to his father's office was ajar and there was light shining from the opening.
Xavier knocked briefly on the door, but didn't wait for an answer before walking in; Victoire followed him dutifully.
"Good morning Xavier, Victoire," Oliver Wood said pleasantly as he lifted his eyes up from the sheet of parchment he had been reading while sitting behind his desk.
"'Morning," the two of them mumbled in response.
"When did you two get here?" Katie Wood asked intently, she was sitting on the edge of Oliver's desk with her own piece of paper in her hands.
"Just now," Xavier replied as he moved closer to his mother so he could kiss her cheek.
"Did you guys apparate here at the same time?" Oliver asked.
"No, I stopped by Xavier's flat this morning and then we apparated here together," Victoire replied.
Oliver nodded his head and went back to looking at his piece of parchment, while Katie set hers back down on the desk. She stood up and walked out in front of the desk so she could get a better view of Victoire's face. She frowned when she did.
"Are you alright Vic?" Katie asked worriedly.
Victoire nodded her head, "I'm fine, just a little nervous."
"A little? Half an hour ago you were-" Xavier wasn't able to inform his mother what Victoire was for his voice had suddenly disappeared.
When he realized he couldn't sleep, he turned and glared at Victoire. He glanced at her left hand –expecting to see he wand out- but it was empty. He crossed his arms with a huff as he realized that the silencing charm she had sent at him was not only silent, but also wandless.
"Half an hour ago I was very nervous, but I'm starting to calm down a bit," Victoire answered. She gave Xavier a look that said 'I'm-only'going-to-take-the-spell-off-if-you-promise-not-to-say-another-word-on-the-subject', and while his frown deepened in response, he nodded.
Victoire took the charm off him and then turned to Katie to give her a bright smile. Katie, who hadn't be oblivious to what had just transpired between Victoire and Xavier, stepped forward, and placed a hand on Victoire's arm, "Alright, well since you're here early I'll take you down to the medi-witches'/wizards' office and start to get you set up."
Victoire nodded and followed Katie out of Oliver's office. As she closed the door behind her, she could hear Xavier use his newly replaced voice to ask his father about some new formation they were supposed to practice later in the day.
Despite the fact that the Puddlemere United stadium and complex was extremely large, it was, thankfully, very easy to get around. Victoire followed Katie to the medi-witches'/wizards' office, but was certain that she would have been able to find her way there even if she didn't have Katie's help.
When they got into the office, Katie began explaining how the schedule for the day would be for both the reserves and the starters. Near the end of Katie's description, a very tall and skinny thirty-something year-old man walked in, whom Victoire recognized as the medi-wizard Steven, who she'd been introduced to earlier in the week.
"'Lo Katie," the man said with a smile as he walked in. He looked at Victoire and gave her a smaller smile than he did Katie, but Victoire felt that he was only doing so, as not to scare her, "It's Victoire, right?"
Victoire nodded. She was rather impressed that the man not only remembered her name, but pronounced it properly too, "You're Steven right?"
He nodded, but then added with a grin, "I will also respond to The Most Eminent Grad Master of all things Medicinal."
A blonde brow rose on Victoire's forehead, "How many interns have you actually convinced to call you that?"
"Seven of ten, eight of eleven if you pick it up," He replied with a grin.
Victoire laughed and shook her head, "I don't think so."
"Damn. Katie," Steven turned slightly away from Victoire so he could address Katie, "How dare you pick an intern who isn't nervously susceptible to gullibility?"
Katie chuckled, "Victoire has dealt with many a comedian before. You're going to have to try better than that if you were planning on taking advantage of our new naïve healing intern Steven."
"Excellent, I love a challenge. Well Victoire, while I try to figure out a different way to haze you, how about I show you where we keep some of the more popular healing items?" Steven asked her.
Victoire smiled and followed him over to a set of cupboards near the back of the room; Steven started to explain that they held the more general healing potions and draughts.
By the time Steven finished showing her the bookcase that held a series of healing instruction books, the other medi-witch who would be supervising Victoire, Claudia, walked in. She greeted Victoire with less wit than Steven did, but with what seemed like three times as much cheer. Within minutes of meeting Claudia, Victoire realized that she didn't greet her with so much warmth because she was extremely excited to work with her, but that Claudia greeted her so brightly because that was just how she was. Victoire even made a mental note to ask Katie later whether Claudia had a habit of taking jolly potions.
Katie saw that Victoire was in good hands and left the three so she could go to the training room with the starter team. She had explained to Victoire earlier that both teams' schedules were to start with general strength and cardio training that morning, and then progress to drills and strategy in the afternoon. Katie had to go be with the players during the morning exercises, while Victoire would stay with Steven in Claudia in the healing room in case someone were to become injured during training. When the teams move on to drills in the afternoon, the medi-witches/wizards will be on the field with the players to handle any immediate damages.
Victoire spent the first half an hour with Claudia and Steven in the office, they were explaining to her the procedures and processes of how they were to handle some of the more common injuries they were likely to see. Claudia had just finished explaining to Victoire that they had to fill out some sort of paperwork for any injury to a player that they have healed, and for any potion that they give out to a player, when Katie walked in with a tall dark haired woman whom she was in the middle of a deep discussion with.
The dark haired woman was almost a whole foot taller than Katie's smaller 5'3 stature, and about ten years younger than her too. She was clad in a pair of tight black spandex shorts and a tight navy-blue tank top that read Puddlemere United across the middle, her hair was rather short –only reaching her chin at the front and shorter in the back- so she held it back from her was with a yellow sports headband.
"Victoire come here, I'd like to introduce you to Nadia Cassano," Katie called to Victoire when they walked into the room.
Victoire walked over and introduced herself to the dark haired women. Nadia didn't introduce herself back, though Victoire wasn't sure though if it was because Katie had just introduced her and she thought that repeating it would be worthless, or because she just didn't want to talk to the younger girl. However, she didn't really think it mattered either way; Victoire knew exactly who she was. Nadia Cassano was Puddlemere's left wing starting chaser, and she was one of the top ten chasers in the entire league (counting both males and females). She was also the one player Victoire hadn't met when she was there earlier in the week, from what Victoire could remember Katie had said that she had been absent because she had to attend a funeral.
Nadia titled her head to the side to survey Victoire, although when she spoke she addressed her words to Katie, "So this is the new healing intern?"
"Yes," Katie said lightly, "She's going to be a great asset for our organization."
Nadia nodded thoughtfully and addressed Victoire this time, "I've heard a lot about you actually, despite the fact that you're just starting today. I'm not sure whether the information is biased though."
"Everything you've heard is probably true, unless of course it came from Xavier, in which case it's probably a bunch of sordid lies," Victoire replied easily.
"He said that you're one of his best friends," Nadia told her with a raised brow.
"Damn it, I told him that I didn't want to be personally affiliated with him," Victoire replied with a straight face.
A smile cracked across Nadia's lips, but it disappeared as soon as it came, "So Victoire, I need a potion to deal with these absolutely vexing cramps I'm having, what would you recommend?"
Victoire shot a look behind her to Steven and Claudia. They both gave her an encouraging smile so she walked over to the potions cupboard that Steven had shown her earlier, and took a minute to scan through the titles on the bottles. She finally pulled out two medium-sized bottles; one was a cotton-candy pink, and the other a lilac purple.
Victoire held out the pink bottle first, "Two-hundred millilitres of this drank with lots of water for the first four hours, it won't make the cramps disappear completely, but it will mask some of the pain."
Victoire indicated the purple bottle after, "Seventy-four point three millilitres of this next, to be taken with food. It will make the cramps disappear completely, but only for about three hours."
Nadia looked that purple bottle, "If that will take the cramps away for good, why don't I just take more does of that, just at closer intervals?"
Victoire absentmindedly spun the long neck of the purple bottle around the fingers of her left hand, "This one's really strong, nobody in your height/weight category should go over seventy-five millilitres of it in a single day. The pink one in comparison is much less harmless, but also less strong because of it. I figured you'd prefer to have the cramps be gone completely during drills instead of the weight room. I know from experience that trying to fly on a broom with cramps can be a bitch."
Nadia titled her head thoughtfully again, but this time when she assessed Victoire it seemed to be at a deeper level than the previous one that had just evaluated her person, "Sounds good to me."
Victoire started to measure out the right amount of pink liquid into a cup, along with filling another one up with water to wash it down. Nadia downed both glasses of liquid, said 'thank-you' to Victoire, and walked back out of the room with Katie following behind her. Before Katie left the room fully though, she stopped to give Victoire an encouraging wink.
Victoire exhaled deeply before she felt a smile turn up the corners of her lips. It was something small, but she felt unreasonably good about handling that so well. It was her first practical healing task as an intern and it went off flawlessly. Steven called her over to the desk near the back of the room soon after to show her how to fill out the proper report for the potion she just given out. Each healing spell or use of potion had to be written down and properly filed in each player's health profile.
The morning went by quickly, and besides Nadia coming back in around lunchtime to take seventy-four point three millilitres of the purple potion, only two other players came to the office to be healed. They were both players on the reserve team –thankfully not Chris because even though Victoire said that she would be fine with seeing him, she was dreading their first face-to-face meeting– and neither injury was drastic. The reserve keeper came in with a pulled supraspinatus muscle in her rotator cuff. Victoire healed it with a simple spell, but when she went to fill out the report Claudia said that she would do it because she wasn't entirely sure that the keeper had gotten the injury while trying to exercise her deltoid like she'd claimed to, and Claudia didn't want Victoire to have to deal with the paperwork. The other injury was to one of the reserve team beaters who had somehow scrapped off the first two layers of skin on the palm of his right hand. A series of four spells in three minutes were all it took to heal that injury and send the beater off back to the training room.
Katie came back into the room just after noon and walked with Victoire, Claudia, and Steven to the Quidditch pitch where both squads would be training. Katie explained that the reserve squad would start with strategy and simple drills on the ground while the starter team would begin in the air doing drills with the hoops, only for the teams to switch halfway through so that the reserve team could practice on the pitch. Victoire knew that there was another Quidditch pitch in the complex that the reserve team would use most days to do their own flying drills, but that because the next game for Puddlemere would be Sunday night –an away game– that for the few days leading up to the game the two teams would practice on the same pitch. She knew that it was a tradition that Puddlemere had done for years, but she still wasn't entirely sure why exactly they did it.
Victoire sat on a bench off to the side of the pitch with Claudia and Steven while the two squads filed in from different entrances. The reserve team ended up across the stadium from where Victoire was sitting, while the starter team took up a spot of grass closer. They didn't stand around for long. Oliver and two other of the coaches called out a few instructions and soon the entire team took to the air with their brooms. Oliver and another coach followed them up, along with Katie and another trainer, on the ground watching the players were another coach and two other trainers.
It took about ten minutes for Victoire's eyes to get used to the quick flying movements of the players before she was able to really concentrate on their actions. The first injury of the practice didn't occur until the team was roughly an hour into their drills. Victoire had been watching Nadia and another chaser named Holden Young doing a passing drill before her eyes shifted and she glanced at the two beaters who were smashing a bludger between them. She had switched her attention just in time to see the bat slam into the bludger, but sadly clipping the side of it instead of directly in the middle. Victoire inhaled quickly as she watched the bludger shoot towards the second beater, the movement much shakier than it should have been to be in complete control.
"That's not going to be good."
"What?" Claudia asked Victoire curiously before the bludger slammed into the right arm of the second beater with a worrying crack.
"That," Victoire replied needlessly, she stood up and followed Steven and Claudia over to where both the beaters were just touching down on the grass, right next to one of the coaches and trainers.
When they got there, the trainer –who had time to already assess the injury- told them what Victoire already guessed, that the radius had broken, since it took the brunt of the blow.
Steven moved forward to look at the beater's broken arm himself. He studied it for a moment before looking at Victoire, "It should be just a few simple spells. Want to try it?"
Victoire nodded enthusiastically, accidently allowing a smile to slip.
"Alright then."
Victoire traded places with Steven and, even though she could perform the spells she needed without a wand, she pulled her wand out of her pocket and held it in her left hand as she held up the beater's arm with her right.
"Just say what you're doing as you go," Claudia told her.
Victoire nodded and cast her first spell, "Pain numbing charm."
"Bone realignment."
"Healing the break."
"And a charm to reduce swelling," Victoire said waving her wand for the last time before putting it away so she could test how the bone had mended. She wandlessly took the numbing charm off the arm, and pressed her fingers into four strategic points of the bone. The beater didn't seem to complain about any pain, so Victoire figured that everything had healed as it should have.
"All done."
"Good job," Steven told her, Claudia nodded along with a smile on her face.
The beater looked down at his arm and flexed and clenched his fingers to see how it would feel, when he was finished he looked back up at Victoire, "Did you do all of that wordlessly?"
Victoire nodded, "They're some of the more simple spells, I probably could have done it without a wand too."
The beater's mouth opened in awe, "You do wandless magic too? The only person lately I've seen do even moderately complex magic without a wand is Xavier."
"I'm actually better at wandless magic than him," Victoire replied with a smirk.
"Excellent," The beater said flexing his hand once more before holding it out to Victoire, "We need someone around here to remind Xav that he's not all that. We met earlier in the week but you had a lot of names and faces to remember that day, I'm Clark Westin."
"I've known Xavier for years but I honestly cannot imagine him referring to himself as 'all that'," Victoire said accepting the hand, he winked at her and she ended up flushing, "And I know who you are."
Clark let go of her hand and gave her a libidinous grin, "Xavier might not refer to himself as that but he can come off, unintentionally I assume, like an affected git. And really? Well what do you think you know about me then, Victoire?"
"Ah, well Xavier is a git, so it makes sense that he comes off like that sometimes," Victoire replied fondly, "As for you, I know that you made it onto the main team at the age of twenty after only one year on the reserve team. You prefer for the media to paint you like the clown and prankster of the team, yet within two months of joining the starting team you convinced the coaching staff to use six new beating plays, two of which you created yourself. And, despite the fact that beaters are usually the players on the team that earns the least amount of money, you are in the top fifteen percent of players in the entire league who earn the most money."
Clark put away his flirting smile and a much more genuine one took its place, "Has Xavier been going around spreading horrible truths about my personality to his friends?"
Victoire laughed, "No, he hardly ever talks about his teammates actually, but that's more because when he gets into his 'Quidditch zone' there's no getting him off of analyzing plays and such. I just know this stuff because Puddlemere is one of my favourite teams."
"One of, oh dear me who rivals us in your Quidditch affection then?" Clark asked as he put a faux-outraged expression on his face.
Victoire rolled her eyes, "I like the Harpies too."
"Ah, it's a chick thing then? Liking the Harpies 'cause they're an all-girl team?"
"No," Victoire replied. She would have been offended by the 'chick' comment if she hadn't somewhat expected it of the big and burly beater, "It's a nepotism thing because my Aunt Ginny used to play for them."
Clark's eyebrows lowered over his eyes and he gave Victoire a blank look.
"Weasley, remember?" Victoire said pointing to herself.
Comprehension dawned on his face, "Oh yeah, I knew that. I think it's the lack of red hair that had me confused."
Before Victoire could decide if that was some sort of dig, compliment, a mix of both, or neither, the other beater, who Victoire remembered was named Mark, came over to Clark and handed him his bat.
"We gotta go get back in the air Prat, so stop flirting with the intern, and let's go," Mark said facing Clark. He turned slightly so he could look at Victoire and gave her a wink from the side of his face that Mark couldn't see.
"You just want me to leave so you can flirt with her," Clark turned to Victoire also, "Watch this one Dearie, he has no morals when it comes to young, good-looking, innocent witches."
"Because you're one to talk?" Mark queried back, not looking the least bit phased or ashamed by what Clark said about him.
"Why don't you both get back on your brooms and get back in their air? That should end this debate," Victoire suggested.
Clark and Mark both tilted their heads so they could look up at the sky.
"Nah."
"It's about time we take a break to re-hydrate anyway."
Victoire looked up at the sky too, and saw that all the other players were on their way back to the ground. She picked out Xavier, and as soon as his feet touched the grass, he walked over to where she was standing with the beaters. He gave both Clark and Mark worried looks as he came closer.
"You two haven't started harassing her already, have you? It's her first day for Pete's sake."
Clark shook his head and shared a devilish look with Mark, "We're not harassing her, in fact, she was just telling us about some nice blackmail she has on you being sloshed at someone's seventeenth birthday party . . ."
Xavier's face went red and he spluttered unappealingly, "Wah, but-"
"Clark's just yanking your wand Xavier," Mark said watching the younger man's shocked face with interest, "Wait, does this reaction mean that she actually does have some sort of blackmail on you when you were acting sloshed?"
Mark and Clark both looked to Victoire for an answer. She just shrugged, "I've got blackmail on pretty much everyone I know."
"Really?" Clark asked with an impressive look on his face that immediately started to worry Xavier.
"Yup."
"Were you by any chance sorted into Slytherin at Hogwarts?" Mark asked conversationally.
"Nope, Gryffindor all the way," Victoire replied cheerily.
Xavier rolled his eyes, "I bet you were actually this," he held his index finger about an inch away from his thumb, "Close to being sorted into Slytherin."
Victoire moved her hand to Xavier's and closed the distance between his finger and his thumb until they were so close to touching, "More like that close."
"Explains why you get along so well with Knott, you're so bloody similar to him," Xavier muttered.
Victoire gave him a lethal glare, "I do not get along well with Knott, and I am nothing like him."
"Whatever you say Vic," Xavier responded faux-consolingly.
Thankfully for Xavier, who was probably about ten seconds away from being hexed from the blonde witch, the Puddlemere coaches started calling to all of the players that the water break was over and that it was time to get back into the air.
Victoire had left work at five-thirty, and after declining Xavier's offer to stop by his flat to talk about how her first day went, she apparated straight home. She removed the security wards, un-locked her door, and flicked her hand to turn her lights on when she entered the flat. The front door had just slammed shut behind her when she realized that the lights in her flat had been on before she'd attempted to do it herself. She kicked off her shoes, shrugged out of her jacket, and walked into the kitchen where she found a content looking Sandra Collins sitting on a barstool at her counter, eating ice cream straight from the container with a bottle of unopened wine in front of her.
"Red wine and French vanilla," Sandra told Victoire in lieu of a greeting.
"I'm more of a Firewhisky and chocolate kind of gal but I'll take just about anything right now," Victoire said summoning a spoon and going over to Sandra. She stopped when she looked down at the tub of ice cream, "Wait, that's chocolate ice cream. That's my chocolate ice cream from the fridge. Sandy, I'm fine with you breaking and entering and all that, but you could have at least waited to start in the ice cream when I got back."
Sandra handed the whole carton over to Victoire and sighed, "I wasn't talking about the ice cream."
"Then what were you talking about?" Victoire asked, or Sandra assumed that was what she had asked, she wasn't entirely sure seeing as Victoire's mouth had been full of ice cream at the time.
"Red wine and French vanilla, those are going to be the colours for my wedding."
Victoire swallowed her mouthful quickly, taking a chance on whether the move would earn her an ice cream headache or not, "I thought the colour scheme was going to be silver and that atrocious puke green that yours and Kyle's mums liked so much."
"That's what is was going to be, but today I decided that I liked these other two colours better," Sandra explained.
Victoire tilted her head to the side in a considering motion, "Well you know me, anything reminiscent of food and booze, and I'll probably agree with it, but are you sure? I mean this would be the fourth time that you've changed the colour scheme after all."
If Victoire thought that Sandra was picky about setting a date for the wedding (which she had spent three years doing since the engagement) than it was nothing compared to how picky she was being about certain details of the wedding. She didn't bat an eye at the ever-expanding guest list, but she'd been going in circles for the past four months over colour charts. In the end, Kyle and Sandra's mother had convinced her to go with a scheme that they liked best, and Sandra had agreed just out of convenience. Victoire did suggest though, that they get the invitations printed in basic white and black just in case Sandra decided to change the colours again. Victoire gave herself an imaginary pat-on-the-back for thinking ahead and avoiding a 'crisis' that this new change in colour scheme could have created.
"I am positive that this is the last time I'll change the colours. In fact, the reason that I'm here -and eating your ice cream incidentally, sorry about that- is because I wanted to know when you'd be available within the next two weekends to go shopping for bridesmaid dresses," Sandra clarified.
An eyebrow rose on Victoire's forehead as she heard this. Along with some other details of the wedding, Sandra had been putting off going bridesmaid dress shopping. Victoire assumed it was because she still wasn't gung-ho on the colour scheme for the wedding, it seemed now she was entirely serious about this being the last colour change.
"Good to hear. But do we have to go this soon? It will only take like a week for all the adjustments to be made for all three of the dresses, we could do this a little closer to the date to make sure that if someone changes in weight that the dress would fit," Victoire reasoned. She was thinking mainly of herself, and how she'd lost ten pounds since Christmas from stress. She hoped that by the time the wedding actually comes along that she would be back to her pre-Teddy's-mission size and would, hopefully, not be stressing about where Teddy was because he would be back with her.
"I would, and between you and me it makes the most sense to do so, but I've been over-ruled on the topic of bridesmaid dresses. According to Jenny she's not going to wear some sort of frumpy robes to my wedding."
Victoire snorted, Sandra's younger sister Jenny really didn't realize that female wizarding dress robes were almost exactly the same as muggle dresses, only they could be created and charmed not to stain within a week of needing to wear them.
"Mmmhuh, so we're going dress hunting so early because it will take months for the dresses to be ready from a muggle manufacturer?" Victoire asked.
"Yup, so when are you free?" Sandra asked again.
Victoire took a minute to think, "We wouldn't be dress hunting early morning right? Because next Friday night Spencer and some friends of ours from Healing school want to go out as a sort of 'hooray-everyone's-survived-their-first-week-of-placement' celebration, and he's such a bad influence that I'm probably going to get totally sloshed and not be able to do anything until well into the day on Saturday."
"I don't think Saturday will work anyway, Xavier's cousin Malcolm wanted to have a birthday party for him at his house Saturday night, remember?" Sandra asked.
Victoire rubbed her fingers on her temples, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Sunday would be fine with me, but that's Xavier's actual birthday and I don't know if he'd want us to spend some special time with him or not."
"As far as I know, he doesn't have any plans for his birthday at all, which is why Malcolm decided to hold a surprise party for him on Saturday in the first place," Sandra said.
Victoire nodded, "Everyone has Sunday off, and Xavier's next game won't be until the Tuesday after his birthday so maybe Xav will actually enjoy the party."
"Maybe . . ." Sandra repeated. The conversation hit a pause before Sandra began again, "Do you know if Ally's going to decide to go to the party or not?"
Victoire shook her head and sighed, "No. I know Malcolm invited her of course, but I doubt she'll go. I was actually planning on inviting her to come out with Spencer and me the night before so she doesn't feel left out or like I'm picking sides or anything."
Sandra placed her hand on top of Victoire's on the counter, "I don't think she would ever suggest that you're picking sides in her and Xavier's break-up."
Victoire smiled at her best mate and Sandra gave her a cheeky smile back, "She already knows whose side you're on."
Victoire removed her hand and hit Sandra's arm, "That's no way to talk to your maid of honour. Keep talking about me like that and I'll tell Jenny that I'm too busy to help with the wedding and let her take over as maid of honour. Can you just imagine how helpful she'd be in assisting you and Kyle when you're picking out wizarding music for the reception?"
Sandra pouted, "That's just an evil suggestion. Are you sure you weren't sorted into Slytherin at Hogwarts?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that today?"
A/N: So, short story about the beginning of this chapter. When I was about twelve I started to have this problem where I would get sick most mornings and my doctor couldn't really figure out why (we made a lot of changes to my diet and after trying different things for about 4 years the sickness just kinda faded away . . .). So I use to get sick when I woke up, but it would be done and over with in a few minutes and I'd be back to normal. Well, one time when I was sixteen I got sick, but not as early in the morning as I usually did (my brother was usually almost always asleep when I'd get sick). So I got sick a little later in the morning and my brother (who was also sixteen) heard me and he stood in the bathroom doorway like Xav did the second time in this chapter and asked me if there was anything he could do for me (he did ask if he needed to hold my hair, but I already had it put up) and I ended up just having to send him away because I could handle it, but he was still kinda worried. So, Xav's brother-like responses to Vic earlier in the chapter are modeled after that, which are very real reactions.
Next Update: My exams start on the 7th and my last one is the 24th, so if I have time to write in between I will, if not there should be an update by the ending of April/beginning of May. Sorry in advance if it takes that long.
Next Chapter: When I get around to writing it it will be another 'throwback' in time, and we'll get to see so much Victoire/Teddy adorableness that it will make you sick.
Thanks again to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed! And, please keep the reviews coming, along with any questions you may have about the story :) And thanks to everyone who answer my question last chapter about whether they felt that Vic was justified or not, it made for some very interesting reading :)
If you don't want to miss out on an update don't forget to follow me on Twitter, just search 'Try and Tri Again' and you should be able to find me. I post there whenever I update in case you check your twitter more often than your e-mail.
An espeically BIG thanks to:
Michaelarules2013, Encypher, dragolove, MuggleCreator, The Regal Warrior, changewing, givemepotter, reheni, pryce123, Break This Spell666, ChrisfromSK, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, Priyanka Mishra, elusivemelodies, zvc56, jeremiah123, Seher Syed, brilliant incandescence, loveislife94, Last Ride Of The Valkyries, Oddliver, Imightjustwishiwasaweasley, PixieDance350, barefoot and buckwild, WizardDemonHunter, frankieu, and musingmarauder.
Michaelarules2013: Thanks :). I'm not sure if Teddy will be back in time for the wedding but Victoire and Kyle seem hopeful.
Encypher: How did you like her day with Puddlemere? (I know it was short but we'll have plenty of chapters ahead of us to talk Quidditch so I didn't want it to be too boring)
The Regal Warrior: We may or may not see Konstantin and Noëlle. I honestly haven't decided whether I'm going to add them in later or not.
givemepotter: Aww, thanks.
ChrisfromSK: I'm glad you recognized my effort, although to be fair I only had just the start of the dialogue for the conversation planned, and when I went to write it it just came out as it was.
Priyanka Mishra: Your guess about Ally is still as good as Vic's as far as I'm concerned.
elusivemelodies: There will definitely be an action part of the story, but we'll probably stumble upon the 'drama' part(s) of it first. So hopefully those can tide you over until we get to the near-death experiences. (I'm kidding . . . or am I?)
zvc56: I am proudly Canadian and I live in Ontario.
brilliant incandescence: You should know by now that I can't tell you things like that. You have free reign to daydream about it however ;)
Oddliver: Exactly, that's the spirit!
PixieDance350: We will have Teddy in the next chapter, which is still set in the past, but a past Teddy being present, is still better than an absent Teddy in the present, right?
frankieu: Aww, well thank you for reading them, and welcome to this story :)
So, thanks again for reading, I hope you enjoyed it,
Please don't forget to drop me a review filled with all of your fantastic thoughts,
And until next time, DFTBA!
