A/N: Hey everyone this is the next chapter! It's a nice long one for you, and also, I know I said in the last chapter that it would be really fluffy, and there is some fluff, but it also transformed into something a little more, so I'm not entirely sure how well it is going to be received.

Also, I'm sorry that the update took so long but my exams are done, and the marks I have back are very satisfying. I was hoping to update earlier, but I had some bad writer's block with this chapter and I ended up writing it in chunks, deleting parts, and then having to re-write others. I actually just finished this chapter last night at like 9:00 o'clock p.m. on the car ride back home to Ontario from Nova Scotia, where we had drove to earlier in the week because we were moving my brother out of his University rez and into his new apartment.

Anyway, this is the next chapter and by the end it turned into something I didn't really expect, but I think it's good because it ends up showing character growth from Try and Tri Again, so yeah. Also, this chapter is a flashback so don't forget to look at the date.

Disclaimer: Everything Harry Potter belongs to the fabulous JKR.

Changes

Saturday, July 21st 2018

"Why are we waiting in line again?"

"We're not."

". . . I'm pretty sure I'm standing in the ticket line."

"Well you don't need to be, we already have tickets."

"I know. That's why I was confused."

"Well get out of the line then!"

"Okay, okay. . . If we already have tickets, then why are we still waiting outside the stadium?"

"Merlin Kyle, how much have you had to drink already today?"

"This many," Kyle said in a cheery voice to Victoire as he held up four fingers, "Five."

Victoire rolled her eyes and cast Sandra a glance that said 'if-your-boyfriend-gets-any-drunker-he's-going-to-be-your-concern-for-the-day-not-ours'. Sandra just laughed and wrapped her arm around Kyle's waist and asked, "Why are we waiting outside the stadium again? We all already have our tickets."

"We have to wait for Louis and Cecilia to get here," Victoire answered as she cast a glance down at the watch on her wrist. She'd promised to wait for the two fourteen-year-olds to get there before they all made their way to their seats, but she wasn't going to be very happy about keeping that promise if said fourteen-year-olds ended up arriving late.

"Where are Louis and Cecilia anyway?" Ally asked curiously. She'd only arrived at the stadium fifteen minutes ago, and had spent the first ten of those minutes trying to find the spot near the ticket line where her friends had said that they would wait for her.

"They planned to go out for lunch together before the game," Victoire replied.

"Like just the two of them on a date? Aw, that's so cute," Sandra said.

Teddy, who was on Victoire's right, snorted, "Yeah, so cute. Only Louis didn't realize that it was supposed to be a date until about twenty minutes before he was supposed to meet her."

"But . . . how did he not realize earlier. He does realize that they're dating, right?" Sandra asked confusedly.

"Yeah well they're fourteen-years-old, they haven't fully grasped the concept of dating yet. Or at least Louis hasn't fully. And you," Victoire said turning towards Teddy and removing her hand from his so that she could slap his arm, "You have no right to make fun of Louis. You didn't even know that our first date was exactly that until I kissed you."

Teddy rolled his eyes before grabbing Victoire around the waist and pulling her into him, "We always use to hang out just the two of us, how was I supposed to know it was a date?"

"Because I referred to it as a date at least a dozen times leading up to and during the date," Victoire told him.

"I'm a guy Vic, I don't pick up on little subtleties like that," Teddy told her with a handsome smirk.

"I also wore a sundress with a very short hemline during said date."

Teddy's eyes squinted as he tried to remember the day –almost a year ago- she was referring to, "Oh yeah, I remember having a hard time trying not to stare at your legs that night."

"And you still didn't realize it was a date?" Kyle asked.

Teddy shook his head, causing the turquoise blue fringe of his hair to slip into his eyes, "No, I didn't; although now that I think about it, I really should have picked up on that clue."

"I would have," Kyle muttered at a tone that wasn't loud enough to carry to where Victoire was standing. However, it was loud enough for Sandra to hear, proven by the fact that she slapped Kyle's arm.

"I'm just saying," Kyle responded in his defence.

Ally spoke up before Kyle could get himself into trouble, "So what happened with Louis though? You said he did realize before he met Cecilia that is was supposed to be a date?"

Victoire nodded, "I ended up telling him just before he went to meet her. The only reason we were able to even pick up on his ignorance about their date was because Dom had made some passing comment about his attire not being appropriate for a lunch date and he had replied back that he didn't need to wear anything fancy because it wasn't a date."

"He actually said that?" Sandra asked.

"Yup. We explained to him right after that that he was in fact going out on a date, and that his attire was perfectly fine for it since they're going to the Quidditch game afterwards," Teddy explained.

"So what was the expression on his face when you-" Ally's question was interrupted by Victoire.

"Shh! I can see them over there and they're walking directly towards us."

The group of adults slipped into a somewhat awkward silence and stayed that way until Louis and Cecilia reached them.

"Why're you guys so quiet?" Louis asked as they joined them.

"No reason."

"We're not quiet."

"My shoe laces are undone!"

The last exclamation came from Kyle and he teetered unsteadily as he bent down to rectify the problem. Louis shrugged their rather stroppy welcome off and started to ask Ally a question. Cecilia on the other hand shot Victoire a suspicious look that asked 'you-were-just-talking-about-us-and-stopped-before-we-got-here-weren't-you-?'. Victoire just gave Cecilia a bright smile and a tight hug.

"We can go into the stadium now right? We're not waiting for anyone else?" Sandra asked Victoire.

"Yeah we can go in now, no one else is coming."

"I thought Dom was going to come?" Cecilia asked conversationally as the group turned towards the closest entrance of the gigantic Quidditch stadium, which they had been standing in the shadow of while they waited for Louis and Cecilia to arrive.

"She decided against it. She didn't fancy being the 'odd one out' as she put it," Victoire explained.

"Why would she be the odd one out? We're an odd number as it is," Louis said.

"Yes well the fact that Ally is the one who makes us an odd number is a little different. Plus I think she was thinking more in the terms of not having someone her age with her," Victoire told her brother.

The conversation hit a lull as they reached the entrance where there was a set of wizards taking everyone's tickets. Once everyone got their ticket stub back –except for Cecilia who had a season pass hanging from a lanyard around her neck- the group looked up at the signs to figure out which direction they needed to head to find their seats.

"This way right?" Victoire asked Cecilia. It had been about a year since she'd been in the stadium to see a Puddlemere United game, but she knew out of the group that Cecilia would be the one to know where to go.

Cecilia took a minute to get her bearings before nodding, "Yes, to the right. I think we pass the first four openings and then take the steps up to the middle."

They followed her directions and tried to stick close together as they manoeuvered through the excited crowds, passing stalls selling drinks, food, and almost every type of Puddlemere United paraphernalia possible. Kyle wanted to stop to get another drink, but Sandra explained to him that they were going to get their seats first and them a few of them could leave to get food or drink. She had explained it very politely, but Victoire could tell that Sandra was hoping that by the time they got to their seats that he would forget about it.

When they did get to their seats, they had to do a minute of shuffling for everyone to get a seat beside whom they wanted to, and Victoire ended up bookended by Teddy and Ally. Kyle didn't forget about wanting to get another drink, but he promised Sandra that it would be his last and she just responded with an indulgent eye-roll. As they went to leave, they asked if anybody else was going to come or if they'd like anything. The answers to those questions seemed to be a resounding 'no thank-you', so the couple left promising to be back in time for the beginning of the game which would start in about twenty minutes. Just after they left, players from both Quidditch teams came out onto the field and started to do some flying warm-ups.

Victoire leaned forward to see if she could spot Xavier, and once she did, she relaxed back into her seat. Teddy tossed his arm over her shoulder as she did so, and pulled her into him. She snuggled into his side and rested her head on his shoulder as she looked at her neighbours. To her left Ally was almost bouncing up and down in her seat with excitement as she watched Xavier fly around the pitch on his broom, and to her right she could hear Cecilia and Louis having a conversation about Puddlemere and the Kenmare Kestrels, the team they would be playing that afternoon. Well, Cecilia was having an intelligent conversation about both Puddlemere and the Kestrels playing statistics. Louis was more or less just staring at Cecilia with an ill-concealed look of awe. Victoire hoped that the look stemmed from some part of Louis's mind that realizes how amazing Cecilia is, and not because he'd gotten lost in between the statistics about which chaser scored the most points in the last game.

True to their word Kyle and Sandra got back to their seats just before the game was officially about to start.

"This is so exciting! Isn't it Ally?" Sandra asked.

"Huh?" Ally asked. She hadn't been paying to attention to what Sandra asked her because she was too busy trying to find Xavier in the line-up of players who were standing on the pitch waiting for their captains to shake-hands before the game started. When she did find him, she pulled out her muggle camera and started taking a few pictures.

"Aww, look at that Ally brought a camera. Is that so you can take pictures of Xavier, get them developed, and then place them in a scrapbook entitled 'Xavier's First Quidditch Game'?" Kyle asked.

Victoire, Cecilia, and Louis all snorted with laughter at Kyle's comment before they realized that he was actually asking a serious question.

While Ally's face reddened at Kyle's question, Teddy looked to Sandra, "You are going to help him apparate home, right? I think if he tired on his own he'd probably splinch himself."

Sandra nodded, "I will most definitely be helping him home."

Ally ended up 'shshing' everyone just then as the players had just taken to the air. There was a second of silence before the head referee's whistle blew, and then the game begun.

Victoire had attended her fair share of professional Quidditch games over the years –including ones with the Harpies and the Canons, not just Puddlemere-, and the difference in quality of the game compared to what was usually played at Hogwarts never ceased to amaze her. At Hogwarts there was usually very little back-and-forth between the chasers, and the beaters' only roles were that of hitting the bludger to try to injure the other team's players. In professional Quidditch games the chasers had a lot more intricate plays, and many of them were perfected by an advantage given to them by one of the beater's who aimed a bludger to further the play and not just to break an opposing player's nose.

It was about fifteen minutes into the games before the Kestrels' even had a chance to try to score on Xavier. He easily stopped it from going into the centre hoop and quickly handed the quaffle off to one of his team's chasers.

The guys all cheered loudly with the crowd while the announcer broadcasted Xavier's first save of the game, and of his professional Quidditch career, while Victoire and Cecilia let out a collective breath of air that they hadn't realized they were holding in. Next to Victoire, Ally let out an almost giddy squeal and looked back at her camera to see if she'd gotten a shot of Xavier saving the goal. By the size of the triumphant smile on her face, Victoire assumed that she had.

About an hour into the game –while the Kestrels were on a time out so that a medi-witch could heal one of the player's injuries- Louis asked Ally to take a picture of him and Cecilia. Just before the flash, Cecilia changed her head's position from smiling next to Louis so that she could place a kiss on his check instead. Ally's timing in taking the picture had been perfect and she'd even caught the slightly shocked look on Louis' face at the change, as he had not been expecting it.

"That's cute," Victoire replied looking at the picture on the camera and then handing it to Sandra so she could see, "If not a little nauseatingly pre-teen that is."

"C'mon Vic, let me take a picture of you and Teddy," Ally said fiddling with her camera.

"Fine," Victoire said as she and Teddy moved a bit so that they were facing Ally. Just before the flash was about to go off, Victoire turned her head and planted a kiss on Teddy's lips. Teddy hadn't been expecting the kiss, but he used the opportunity to kiss Victoire back. The quick kiss was turning into a dragged out snog when Kyle started to complain very loudly.

"We're trying to watch a Quidditch game here! If you two are going to keep that up, think of taking it to a less public place."

Victoire, who was mostly concentrating on the feel of Teddy's lips on hers, heard enough of Kyle's protest and removed her left hand from where it had been on Teddy's head, grabbing his hair, and sent Kyle a rude hand gesture.

Despite the fact that Victoire had no plans on ending the kiss despite Kyle's grumbles, Teddy began to pull away from the kiss. By the time he had grabbed her hand, which had been giving Kyle the hand gesture until he stopped it, he had ended the kiss and moved his face just enough away from Victoire's so he could look into her eyes.

Victoire looked up into Teddy's sapphire blue eyes and grinned brightly at him. He rolled his eyes at her impish smirk and leaned forward just enough to give her temple a light kiss. Before pulling way he said a quiet 'I love you', which Victoire duplicated in her reply.

"I actually think that might have been more disgusting to watch than when they were actually swapping spit," Kyle commented lightly.

Louis spoke next, his voice sounding exasperated as he did so, "They've been like that all the time ever since they got back from France earlier in the week."

Back in March, for Teddy's twentieth birthday present, Victoire had arranged for the two of them to go on a two-week vacation to her family's beach home in France. They had left the last day of June, which was also the day Victoire had graduated from Hogwarts, and had spent two weeks there only to come back on the last Monday passed. As Victoire and Teddy had hoped, their trip had been very calm and relaxing. However, now that they were back home, the both of them were either having a hard time remembering that it wasn't just the two of them alone anymore and as a result were much more free with their displays of affection, or they had just gotten to the point where they didn't care if other people were around them.

Louis, who still wasn't very comfortable with walking into his home and seeing a bloke snog his oldest sister –even if said bloke was Teddy- was getting tired of what seemed like their constant snogging and would be glad when Victoire started healing school classes and would be using her time for something other than kissing Teddy.

Victoire didn't bother to comment on what Louis had said because she knew that it would just be a matter of a few years before he would become the most hormonal teenager in their immediate family. And would most likely surpass both her and Dom in instances of inappropriate displays of affection.

"Look Cassano's on a break-away with the quaffle and there's only the keeper in her way!" Cecilia chirped excitedly while pointing towards the Kestrels' end of the pitch. Nadia Cassano was a new chaser to Puddlemere, the team had acquired her about two months ago, and she had only been playing a starting position on a professional Quidditch team for about a year, so today was both her and Xavier's debut game for Puddlemere United.

Cassano ended up scoring Puddlemere's first goal of the game –her first on the team- through the left hoop, and the score was now 10-0 for Puddlemere.

Cassano's goal seemed to open the game up and the next half hour of the game was an intense back-and-forth mostly between both teams' keepers and chasers as they tried to score more goals. Puddlemere still had the lead by the end of the hour, but with a score of 120-40 any hope Puddlemere fans had of a shut-out for Xavier Wood's first professional Quidditch game were gone. When Xavier did let in his first goal Victoire's section of seats were silent, all of them had their eyes glued to Xavier, even though he had already tossed the quaffle off to one of the chasers, and were waiting to see how he would handle the first one he missed. Victoire had to grab her ommnoculars so that she could study Xavier's facial expressions. From what she saw he froze for a second once the quaffle was through the hoop, but before she could even finish her count of 'one' he was flying into action with a determined expression on her face to get the quaffle back into his team's possession. Once the quaffle was down at the Kestrel's end of the pitch, Victoire heard her friends next to her starting up a conversation about how well Xavier had handled the goal. She didn't pay much attention to what they were saying because she was still looking at Xavier. She knew from experience that his reaction to letting in the goal could end up being delayed by the adrenalin he was feeling from the exercise and she was trying to watch his face for any signs of immediate self-disappointment.

It wasn't until she felt Teddy grab her clenched left hand and smooth her fingers out that Victoire realized that her finger nails had been digging into the palm of her hand hard enough to break the first layer or two of skin. She looked at her palms uncomprehendingly for a few moments before Teddy told her quietly, "Blood."

Her blue eyes widened comically when she realized that she had ended up drawing a bit of blood on her palms. She touched the fingers of her right hand to the broken skin on her left palm and wordlessly cast the spell that would knit the skin back together. She moved right hand up a bit, so that she could flick her wrist properly to take care of the blood, but Teddy beat her to it. He pulled out a tissue from what seemed like thin air and gently dabbed at the few drops of blood on her palm.

Victoire knew that he could have easily used magic to clean up her blood (the spell was so easy that she knew that he could even perform it wandlessly) but the fact that he was taking the few seconds more to gently dab her skin with the tissue instead made her stomach flutter. She wasn't entirely sure why she was having such a reaction to him -they'd had many more intimate interactions in the past even when they weren't dating- but something about the way he looked at her, with such tenderness and care, made her feel as though what he was doing was something that was too private to be doing in a stadium full of people. It was a hypocritical feeling since earlier they had been snogging in their seats and she didn't care at all who would have been able to see, but she couldn't shake the feeling.

When Teddy finished cleaning up the blood he brought Victoire's left palm up to his face and he kissed the area where the blood and broken skin had been. Victoire felt her stomach tighten again and her breathing constrict and she realized why his innocent actions felt like they should be much more private. It was because he was taking care of her physically and that was something that she didn't usually allow people to do. Ever since her fifth year when she decided for sure that she wanted to be a healer she had been the one that her friends and younger family members would come to to be healed. She was the one who always took care of their injuries and made sure that they would take their potions if they got sick. She was so used to taking care of everyone else that she thought nothing of taking care of her own injuries too.

The injuries she had sustained at Hogwarts during the last year had been very difficult for her because they had all been of a rather serious nature and she had to rely on other people healing her and not herself. It wasn't that she didn't trust Madam Pomfrey or her Aunt Angelina to heal her, she just didn't like not being able to do it herself, she didn't like having to rely on someone else. Even though she knew it was an irrational feeling, she didn't like relying on someone else because it made her feel weak.

Teddy still had a hold of Victoire's left hand so he turned it over to give the back of her hand a kiss before giving her a bright smile. She didn't smile back, but he continued with his movements and placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her as close to him as their separate seats would allow. Victoire didn't realize it until he had guided her head down a bit to lean on his shoulder that she had actually just allowed Teddy to take care of her without her objecting. Sure, she'd already healed the break in her skin, but she'd allowed him to clean up the blood, and to take his time with it too since he didn't use a spell.

She looked up at him with a somewhat wondering expression on her face, and he gave her a softer knowing smile back before he pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. Victoire was still for the kiss, but by the time, his lips left her skin she had thawed out and was able to give him a big loving smile.

As the game progressed, Victoire found that she spent more of her time studying her friends around her than she did paying attention to the game in front of her. To her left Ally was lost to the game and her boyfriend. Every time Xavier saved a goal, she would jump up (along with Kyle and Cecilia) and cheer as loud as she could. One instance of this happened when Victoire was watching her, and for some reason Victoire became fixated with the way Ally's ponytail would shake as she jumped up and down. Victoire shook her head when she realized exactly what she had been staring at. Ally's long hair moved with every turn of her head, and Victoire was watching it flash back and forth as it covered and then revealed the name sew into the top back part of her Puddlemere United fan jersey. Victoire knew that Ally owned a PU jersey, but from what she remembered the name written on the back of Ally's jersey was Bell. The one Ally was wearing right now had X. Wood written on the back. Victoire smiled to herself at seeing this while simultaneously berating herself on the inside for not recognizing that sooner. Even though she was smiling, something about seeing Ally in a jersey with Xavier's name on it made her feel strange.

She couldn't put her finger on why exactly it made her feel strange though, so she turned her attention towards Sandra and Kyle instead. At first glance, she wanted to make some sort of obnoxious comment about how revoltingly adorable they looked sitting in their seats together, but she held her tongue when she looked at their clasped hands. Kyle was holding Sandra's left hand with his right and every so often, he would run his thumb across one of her fingers. Sandra was speaking to Teddy, who was on her right, about something they had both read in the paper that morning, so Kyle's gentle caresses did not seem intentional or meant to get her attention since Kyle's own attention seemed riveted on the progress of the game in front of him. Victoire felt a strange emotion come across her as she looked at Kyle and Sandra's entwined hands. It was the same feeling she felt when looking at Ally a few moments ago, but she was no closer to putting a name to the emotion.

Like with Ally, it was a small movement that caught Victoire's eyes, and the movement itself seemed absentminded and unimportant yet she couldn't get it out of her thoughts. Kyle was gently stroking his thumb across the back of Sandra's hand, and every once and a while he would stroke it across the ring finger of her hand. It was the only finger he touched, and it brought out that odd emotion that Victoire couldn't explain.

Beside Kyle, Sandra was still conversing with Teddy and when she went to gesture about something with her right hand Victoire saw a pearl bracelet slide out from under the sleeve of her shirt and dangle around her wrist. Victoire's eyebrows pulled together because she recognized the bracelet and she looked up and saw that Sandra was wearing the matching pearl earrings with them. Sandra's choice of jewelry was very confusing for Victoire. Sandra was the closest thing to a 'tomboy' her group of friends had and the only reason she had an expensive set of matching pearl jewelry was because Kyle had bought it and given her each piece separately at different Christmases during the past few years. Usually Sandra abstained from wearing most types of jewelry on regular days, so the fact that she was wearing some to a Quidditch game struck Victoire as odd. She knew plenty of women who wore pearls every day, but most of them were of a 'higher class' in society and felt as though they always had to dress to impress. They were pretty much the exact opposite of Sandra. Victoire felt the odd nameless emotion again as she watched the afternoon sun glint off of Sandra's earrings and by now she was getting angry that she couldn't put a name to it.

When she changed her gaze to look at Cecilia and Louis instead, she felt the emotion again, the two fourteen-year-olds were sitting next to each other and looked like they were intently watching the Quidditch game. 'Looked like' being the key words because while they were both facing the direction of the pitch the two seemed to be taking turns looking at the other out of the corner of their eyes. One moment Cecilia would look at Louis, and when she turned her head back to the game Louis would take a turn to look at Cecilia's hand that was resting lightly on the armrest between them.

Victoire watched with a little amusement as Louis's hand slowly moved towards Cecilia's, only to retract it when he came close to touching hers. By this point Cecilia had caught on to Louis's actions also, but instead of taking the lead and grabbing his hand herself like Victoire totally expected she would, Cecilia kept her gaze on the Quidditch pitch and pretended that she couldn't see what Louis was doing. A few moments later, Louis seemed to have gathered enough courage and he steadily reached out and grabbed Cecilia's hand securely with his.

Cecilia finally turned to face Louis, and when she did she had a bright smile on her face. Next, in a very Teddy-esque move Victoire thought, Louis leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to Cecilia's temple. He also flashed her a cheeky smirk when she looked at him with surprise. Her face reddened and she turned back to watch the game, her hand still being held by his, without saying anything to him.

Victoire's first feeling at seeing that scene was of astonishment, because she really didn't think that Louis had anything close to game and he had just proven her wrong. Her second feeling, was that nameless emotion again and she quickly turned her own gaze back to the Quidditch pitch to try to occupy her thoughts with something else.

The game ended about half an hour later with Puddlemere's seeker catching the snitch and Victoire and her friends all stood up to cheer because the last play meant that Puddlemere had won 290-80. The group stayed at their seats and chatted about the game for at least fifteen minutes after the game ended as they waited for the stadium to empty. Most of the fans had left by then, so Victoire and her friends followed Cecilia back into the stadium and through a series of tunnels and staircases because she was taking them towards the Wood family's Quidditch box that was higher up in the stadium. It was where they were going to wait to see Xavier. Since it was Xavier's first professional Quidditch game, Victoire knew that Cecilia's family's box was going to be full to the brim with Bells and Woods that wouldn't usually come to watch a game. So, she and her friends had decided earlier in the week to sit elsewhere so that they wouldn't be crammed in a very loud and small-ish room for the entire duration of the game.

When they reached the Woods' box, Victoire wasn't surprised to see that it was packed full of people. They decided to stand in a cluster near the door while Cecilia went off to find her mother. She came back much quicker than they had anticipated, and had Katie Bell-Wood and Brogan right behind her.

Katie went up to Victoire first and unceremoniously dropped two-and-a-half month old Brogan Wood into her arms before turning away from Victoire to greet everyone else in the group. Victoire didn't mind at all that she'd been given charge of the Wood's youngest child and she began to cuddle and coo to him right away.

"Hey there Baby Boy, how do you think your big brother did today?" Victoire asked the infant in her arms. Brogan looked up at Victoire and blinked before his mouth broke out into a toothless smile. Victoire smiled back and bent her head down so that she could kiss the baby's forehead.

"I don't think you're ever going to get your baby back now Aunt Katie," a deep Scottish voice said in a smooth tone from behind Victoire.

Victoire turned around and rolled her eyes when she saw the tall light-brown haired man standing next to her, "You don't actually think I'd steal a baby do you?"

The man's hazel eyes sparkled with poorly concealed mirth, "I've learned to never underestimate you Freckles."

Victoire frowned and her, what was sure to have been witty, reply to the man was interrupted by Teddy walking up to them.

"Wood!"

"Lupin!"

Teddy and the light-brown haired man did one of those man-handshake-turned-into-a-half-hug things while exchanging pleasantries.

"So what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be in Kenya for at least the next two weeks," Teddy asked the other man.

"You know how dates and deadlines can change Teddy. Besides what kind of cousin would I be if I missed ickle Xavier's first professional Quidditch game," the other man answered.

"Probably his favourite since he gets so nervous having his family and friends watch him play," Victoire replied snarkily.

The man gave Victoire a wicked smirk, "I don't need any brownie points with Xavier Freckles, I'm already his favourite cousin."

"No, I think he told me that Duncan was his favourite cousin," Victoire replied talking about the man's older brother.

"Teddy are you listening to these atrocious lies that your girlfriend is spreading?" the man asked airily as he turned back to the metamorphmagus.

Teddy rolled his eyes at the both of them, but addressed the man, "Malcolm, Victoire's hands may be full right now but when she gives Brogan up to someone else you are going to be in for a world of hurt."

Malcolm Wood put on a faux-hurt expression, "Teddy! Just because you're snogging her now doesn't mean that you always have to take her side."

Victoire rolled her eyes and started to rock her arms back and forth because Brogan had just begun making some quiet fussing noises, "He's been taking my side since before we started snogging."

"Which isn't fair!"

Victoire shrugged, "He's known me longer."

"So? We lived together for seven years," Malcolm reminded her.

Malcolm Wood and Teddy were the same age, and had both been sorted into Gryffindor during their Hogwarts years. Because of this, they lived in the same dorm room for their years at Hogwarts, and consequently struck up a close friendship in their youth. Their friendship had only waned because after their graduation Malcolm took up a job writing freelance articles on magical creatures and his writing meant that he spent a lot of time going from place to place to study the creatures. Teddy and Malcolm still had as close of a friendship as they could through letters though, although now that Teddy knew that Malcolm was back in England at least for a little while, they would be able to talk face-to-face.

Malcolm was one of many who carried the Wood last name, and was a first cousin of Xavier, Cecilia, and Brogan's. Malcolm's father was an older brother to Oliver Wood, who had a total of four older brothers, and one sister.

"He's been my best friend since I was born," Victoire countered.

"I know secrets of his that he'll never tell you," Malcolm replied.

Victoire snorted, "Yeah right. Teddy will tell me anything I ask him to."

Malcolm shot her an evil smirk, "Has he told you why I call you Freckles?"

Victoire froze. Malcolm had started referring to her with the nickname 'Freckles' since the fall of her fourth, their sixth, year of Hogwarts and no matter how many times she asked either of them –mostly Teddy- to tell her why he just decided to call her that, neither of them would tell her.

She looked over to Teddy who seemed to be intently studying his shoes. Malcolm noticed how Teddy was avoiding her gaze, "I didn't think so."

Victoire took a deep breath before responding, "We're all adults now, why don't you just tell me and get it over with."

Malcolm shared a look with Teddy –who's eyes widened worriedly- and answered, "Nah, it's kinda fun to watch you sweat it out."

"Please," Victoire asked as she fluttered her eyelashes, "It's been three years."

"Nope," Malcolm responded giving her a handsome smile that she wanted to smack off his face, "I think we're going to keep this secret for a little longer."

Victoire opened her mouth to say something rude to him when Katie and Ally walked over.

"What's going on over here?" Katie asked conversationally.

"Malcolm's torturing me," Victoire replied.

Malcolm gasped, "I am not. Aunt Katie you just can't believe a word she says."

Katie rolled her eyes and looked towards Teddy, "What are they fighting about now?"

"I think they were fighting over me," Teddy answered with a smirk.

Before Katie could respond Oliver came into the room with Xavier close behind him and the room broke out into cheers, claps, and whistles. Xavier made his way through the door and over to the group Victoire was standing with. When he reached them, Ally flung herself into his arms and he laughed as he spun her around before setting her onto her feet and giving her a quick kiss. Katie attacked Xavier with a hug next, followed by Cecilia and Kyle, who ended up hugging him together. Next, Xavier gave greetings and accepted congratulations on a game well played from Sandra, Louis, and some of his cousins and aunts and uncles. They were all standing around in a loose circle, so he just followed the line. When he reached his cousin Malcolm, Xavier had a surprised but pleased look on his face.

"I thought you weren't coming? You told me you yesterday that you were still in Kenya!" Xavier said as he and his cousin exchanged a handshake.

"I lied. I didn't want to miss your first pro game, but I didn't want to stress you out ahead of time by letting you know that I and the rest of the family were coming either," Malcolm explained.

Xavier smiled, "Thanks, that was probably a good idea."

Teddy was next to Malcolm, and Xavier and he embraced next with another one of those handshake-turned-manly-hug things. Xavier then to Victoire and gave her a smile. Victoire probably could have picked out the relief in his eyes from a few metres away. Brogan, whom Victoire was still holding started to make cooing noises and began making reaching, gestures towards Xavier.

Victoire chuckled and handed him off to his big brother, "It looks like your littlest fan wants to congratulate you."

Xavier smiled and expertly shifted Brogan so that he could hold him with one arm and give Victoire a hug with the other. When he pulled away, he was giving her a serious look.

"How'd I do Captain?"

Victoire's lips turned up into a smile, "You were brilliant Wood."

"Really?"

"Of course! You stopped so many shots!"

Xavier smiled, "I did, didn't I?"

Victoire would have laughed if she hadn't been so shocked, "Um, isn't this the part where you berate yourself for letting in the goals that you did and ignoring everyone who tells you how well you did?"

Xavier shook his head, "No. I've been practicing on handling it better when people score on me. It's going to happen, and sometimes we're going to lose some games. The only thing I can do is do my best."

"Wow," Victoire replied. She was sure that Xavier still had more work to do on accepting his loses and that in an hour or two he'd probably be back to worrying about how he played today. However, for now it seemed that he was trying really hard to go easier on himself.

He's growing up, Victoire thought to herself.

She froze.

She suddenly felt the same emotion that she had during the game with Ally, Kyle, Sandra, and Louis and Cecilia, but this time she had finally had a name for what she was feeling.

Wistfulness.

They were all growing up and she was just being struck with it now. She had first noticed the emotion with herself when Teddy was cleaning up her blood for her. She had allowed him to take care of her, even though even a month ago should would have at least let out a few complaints about it before caving to his imploring gaze. She barely thought anything of it this time until she realized exactly what he was doing after he'd done it. She was changing and growing up and when she had looked at her friends, she saw the same signs in all of them.

She noticed it about Ally when she saw that she was wearing Xavier's name on her jersey, but she could see even more now as she stood beside Xavier, holding his hand and talking respectfully to Oliver's exasperating mother. Something Victoire was sure her cousin would have shied away from a few months ago whether she was dating Xavier or not. Victoire realized that the biggest change she was seeing in Ally was confidence. She was a lot bolder than she had been when they had stepped onto the Hogwarts' Express last September, and Victoire knew that Xavier was only part of the equation. She had grown to feel more confident and outgoing, and while Victoire wasn't sure exactly what her turning point was, she was happy to see it.

For Kyle, Victoire noticed the change when he was sitting next to Sandra and holding her hand. He had seemed calm and mellow, and she was fairly certain that the alcohol he had imbibed in had nothing to do with it. Kyle had always been the hyperactive one of the group. Both Victoire and Xavier liked to be active, but they had Quidditch as an outlet. Kyle didn't, and spending time with him showed that. He always needed to be doing something or going somewhere, and while Sandra could usually temper his energy, today had been different. Sandra hadn't spoken one word to Kyle about keeping his voice down or about acting more reticent. All she did was hold his hand; it was Kyle who had toned himself down. Kyle was changing and settling down, and he was acting a lot more like the mature adult he'd have to be in a few years' time to run his family's company.

Sandra was also growing up in a way that would help her in years to come. Her wearing the jewelry Kyle gave her seemed like a little thing, but Victoire could tell the symbolism of it. While Sandra always tried to look nice, she was never the type who would try to dress-to-impress. However, if she was hoping to have a job in the corporate world someday (or even if she was just planning on marrying Kyle for that matter) she would need to learn how to better present herself. Victoire knew that Sandra was still going to run into people who were going to judge her more harshly because she was a muggleborn, she didn't need people judging her unfairly because of her appearance too. It seemed that Sandra was learning how to better present herself though, or maybe she was doing it unconsciously, either way, if Victoire put her best mate from a year ago next to her best mate at this moment, the most recent Sandra would definitely look more mature. It wasn't just what she wore, but also how she wore it. She was standing up tall, and her shoulders were straight and even though she was now the recipient of Oliver's mother's harassment instead of Ally, she wasn't letting her annoyance show.

Victoire looked over to where Louis and Cecilia were talking to Cecilia's cousin Duncan and she smiled. She was thinking back to their handholding during the game and was again struck with how the two of them had grown even in the past year. Six months ago, Louis was oblivious to the fact that Cecilia even fancied him and now he making the first move and being all-sweet and smooth (sometimes). And Cecilia, well a few months ago she was always making the first move, but now it seemed she was allowing Louis to help pick the pace. The both of them had matured and were learning; Louis was take a few chances and to step out of his comfort zone a little, and Cecilia was learning to allow some give and take and to encourage Louis to lead every once in a while.

Victoire looked at her friends around her and was trying to take in everything she'd just discovered. It was difficult because as the year had progressed they'd all been changing little by little and she had just realized it now. It wasn't even their culminating point. They all still had much more growing, maturing, and changing left to do.

She was starting to feel overwhelmed by a new feeling now. Not the old emotion she had just finally named, but a new one: anticipation. There was so much left to happen, and so much time left for it to happen in that she was starting to feel very unprepared and ill equipped for her future. She didn't want to think about the vast unknown of the future at the moment, so she turned her immediate attention to her right where Teddy was having a conversation with Malcolm.

Teddy had always been a constant in her life; he had always been her rock. She was the oldest of all of her cousins, but Teddy was older than her. And he always would be. She always saw him as the more mature one. The more grown-up one. And he was, in both the literal and figurative sense of the word. Because of this, he seemed unchanging to her. He always knew what to say to her when something happens because chances are he's already gone through it, and he always seemed to be one-step ahead of her. He was her perpetual, unceasing, and solid rock.

She walked over to him, hoping that whatever conversation the two were having would distract her from her thoughts. When she got there Teddy gave her a smile, wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her to his side, kissed the top of her head, and then continued whatever sentence he had meant to say to Malcolm. Victoire looked up at Malcolm, to see the expression on his face because this was the first time that he had seen them stand physically close together since she and Teddy started dating, and smiled she when she saw him wink at her, almost as though it was his sign of approval. The conversation the two men were having was about how Teddy and the rest of his fellow second-level aurors were a week away from graduating and becoming fully qualified aurors.

Listening to him talk, was when Victoire realized that she was wrong about him. Teddy wasn't an unchangeable rock. He still had growing and changing left to do too.

He wasn't unchangeable, but he didn't have to be, Victoire realized. Nothing was going to change, he would still be there for her, the only difference was that know she knew that they could do their changing and growing up together.

A/N: Alright, I hope that you found the chapter at least acceptable. Again, I know that in my last chapter I said there'd be more fluff, but when I was writing it just turned into this instead *shrugs*. As for the introduction to Malcolm Wood, you will be seeing him in a few chapters so I hope you liked what you saw.

So, if there's any comments, questions, or concerns about this chapter or anything else form the rest of the story please feel free to leave it in a review or PM, I promise to respond :)

Next Update: I don't have the chapter written so I will try my best to get it done, and I will update as soon as I have it. I can promise you that!

Next Chapter: As mentioned above, it is not written, but it will be back in present time and will be Vic's second day at Puddlemere United, and full of lots of quidditch related run!

I want to thank everyone who waited so nicely for this next chapter, as well as thanking everyone who reviewed last chapter, and everyone who has followed and favourited!

An especially big thanks to:

lilylunaluver, MaddieMonkey, brilliant incandescence, Break This Spell666, jeremiah123, no cure for crazy, MuggleCreator, Oddliver, NicoleTheSmith, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, chocolatelover33, zvc56, ChrisfromSK, Seher Syed, WizardDemonHunter, Encypher, Priyanka Mishra, owlcity2013, LilyHL1, and Balmya.

lilylunaluver: OH MY GOD I CAN'T TELL YOU ANYTHING.

Oddliver: I haven't told you guys yet actually what Teddy is doing on his mission, we will find out in time though.

chocolatelover33: Thanks, my twitter is TryandTriAgain, if you want to find it.

owlcity2013: Spencer mentioned it briefly in chapter five I think. But they just haven't spoken about it much because everyone around Victoire knows what happened and they also know that it wasn't that good of a Tournament. It will be mentioned more later on when introducing characters who don't know Victoire as well.

So, thanks to everyone for reading,

I hoped that you liked this chapter,

Don't forget to leave me a review, if you'd like

And until my next update, DFTBA!