A/N: Happy St. Paddy's day everyone! Here's the next chapter! It's lots of fun, and we start off with the waaay too over-protective Oliver.

Warning: Just to remind everyone, I know that I'm horrible at writing accents, so I apologize for what you're about to read.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Career Opportunities

Monday, August 29th 2022

8:05 PM

" . . . Cee-Cee?"

"Cee-Cee?"

"Cecilia?"

"Cecilia Kathryn!"

The eighteen-year-old in question snapped her head around and looked away from where she had been staring at the doorway, and towards her mother who had called her name.

"Hmm?"

Katie Bell-Wood gave her daughter a smile that was both sympathetic and patronizing at the same time, "Darling, I know this party isn't exactly as fun as a young adult like you would want it to be, but you could at least pretend to be interested in it instead of staring longingly at the exit."

They were at a hotel, not the one they were staying at but a different one, that held the post-game cocktail party for members of both teams and VIPs, and the room was already filled with roughly sixty people.

"I wasn't-"

"I know," Her mother replied, not even needing to hear the rest of the sentence. Katie gave Cecilia a softer smile and ran a hand through her daughter's straight long hair, "You weren't planning on leaving. You're just waiting for him. I do feel as though I need to remind you however, that it's only been about three hours since you last saw him."

Cecilia sighed heavily and looked worriedly at her mother, "Am I pathetic?"

"No! Of course not Cee-Cee. You're not pathetic, you're in love," Katie replied gently.

The younger girl looked down at her peep-toe flats for a minute and then back up at her mother, "So when you were young and realized that you were in love with dad, you were a little pathetic too?"

Katie paused for a little too long, "I think everyone can be a little pathetic when they're in love."

"That didn't answer my question Mum," Cecilia told her quietly.

Her mother sighed and reached forward to run her fingers through her daughter's hair again, "You need to remember Cee-Cee, that when I first realized that I was in love with your father, I still wanted to strangle him five times out of ten. We had a very . . . quick and heavy start, and that's how it was from the first time I kissed him straight through to the day we found out I was pregnant with Xavier. Things changed after that, they had to because I had to stop actively playing Quidditch, and we had to grow up pretty quickly with a baby on the way. What I'm getting at Honey, is that everybody's relationship is different, and you can't judge your own in comparison with other people's relationships."

She nodded her head, "I know you're right."

"However, I will admit that when I was no longer practicing Quidditch with your father every day, I did start to miss him," Katie told her with a bright smile. Cecilia smiled back, and then her mother continued, "That was until I hit my third trimester and what felt like every part of my body started to swell. When that happened, the strangle ratio rose from fifty-fifty to eighty-twenty, I didn't even want to see your father unless he had an apology on his lips and a chocolate milkshake in his hand."

The story made Cecilia laugh, but Katie on the other hand looked very pensive as she thought over her own words.

"That is some advice that you should take into consideration though."

"Huh?" Cecilia asked in confusion.

Katie patted Cecilia's hand, "You do not want to get pregnant at nineteen, because if you're anything like me, your feet will swell up two shoe sizes and you'll never be able to fit into your favourite pretty shoes again. So please Cee-Cee, always use protection."

Cecilia's brown eyes went wide, her face went bright red, and at that moment she would have liked nothing more than to melt into the floor and disappear forever instead of finishing the awkward conversation that she mother had just started. She didn't have the chance to dissolve away into nothingness however, because barely a moment had passed before her father called for her and her mother to come over and join him. He was standing a little ways away –thankfully far enough that he hadn't heard their conversation– with a distinguished looking man that looked to be around the same age as him.

"Katie Love, you remember Eli Martell don't you?" Oliver asked his wife enthusiastically as he wrapped an arm around her waist and gestured to the blonde man he was standing with.

"I would hope she would Oliver," The other man replied with an amiable laugh, "We did play on the same team for more than a year after all." He moved forward and leaned in to kiss Katie on the cheek.

She pecked his cheek as he kissed hers, and then leaned into her husband's side as a small smile came across her face, "Of course I remember, hello Eli, how are you?"

"I'm well," He replied with a smile, his green eyes drifted to Cecilia's quiet presence next and he smiled widely, "And this must be your lovely daughter."

"This is Cecilia," Oliver announced, the pride in his voice evident.

Eli reached out to shake Cecilia's hand, and when she stretched hers out to him, he placed a kiss on the back of it, "A beautiful name for a very beautiful young woman."

"It's nice to meet you," Cecilia responded as she slowly pulled her hand back.

She recognized him after her father said his name. Elijah Martell, right wing chaser for the Appleby Arrows, and one of the players in the league with the longest running Quidditch career. From what the man himself had said, and from what she could recall, he had been on Puddlemere United for three years before he made the switch to the Arrows, and that he had at some point during those three years played with both of her parents.

He smiled brightly at her, his eyes pretty much examining her from her head down to her toes, "I'm sure that you get this a lot, but you look just like your mother did at your age." Eli moved his glance from Cecilia over to Katie and Oliver, "It's amazing really, she's like a mini you."

Katie nodded her head, they did both get that observation a lot, "In more ways than just her looks."

"She's a lucky girl then if she didn't inherit anything from Oliver," Eli said in a teasing tone as he smirked at the other man.

Oliver rolled his eyes good-naturedly, "Then I hope for your sake that all of your children are clones of Candace because Merlin knows we don't need any mini Eli's running around."

"Touché," Eli said with a chuckle.

"Where is your wife anyway? Is Candace around here somewhere?" Katie asked her old teammate as she looked around the room a little.

Eli shook his head, "Sadly she couldn't make it on this visit. She's just started her third month of pregnancy and her morning sickness is horrible. She decided to stay home with the children instead."

Oliver nodded understandingly, "Candace is pregnant again? What number is that?"

"This will be number five," Eli said proudly.

Katie's eyes widened, "Merlin bless her. I would have killed Oliver if he got me pregnant five times."

"That's only because you get surprisingly violent when you enter your third trimesters," Oliver told her as he laughingly brushed off her declaration.

"So Cecilia, your father tells me that you just graduated from Hogwarts?"

Cecilia, whose gaze had drifted towards the entrance of the room while her parents were bantering with their old teammate, whipped her head back when she heard Eli Martell directly address her.

"Pardon?"

The Arrow's chaser gave her a curious look, "Are you looking for someone?"

Her cheeks went red and she glanced at her dad out of the corner of her eye so that she could see his expression. His lips were pressed into a firm line, "I'm just looking to see who's arriving." She was rather proud of her answer, it sounded pretty diplomatic, but it seemed that her father didn't exactly agree with her assessment.

"She's waiting for someone to arrive," Oliver corrected a little tersely.

Katie sent her husband a stern look that said 'Oliver-we-talked-about-this', and put a bright smile on her face as she told Eli, "As you can see, Ollie is well fitted to the role of over-protective father. Cecilia's rather patiently waiting for her boyfriend and his family to show up."

Eli nodded understandingly and chuckled, "That doesn't surprise me one bit. So you must at least like the boyfriend and the family if you got them invites to the party."

"They actually got invites on their own, but yes his parents are very good friends of ours. His eldest sister is the same age as Xavier and they've been friends since they could toddle," Katie explained with a smile and another specific look in Oliver's direction as if to remind him that he always had liked the Weasleys.

Oliver nodded his head at Katie's words, but he didn't need to add more to the conversation because Xavier and Ally had just wandered over to them and stopped by to say hello.

"Martell, good to see you again," Xavier said reaching out to the chaser and shaking his hand. Because Eli was still playing professionally, the Puddlemere keeper had played against him several times before.

Eli grinned, "It's nice to see you too, especially since this is one of the rare opportunities that we're not meeting in front of some hoops."

"Yes, it's nice that you're not glaring at me like you usually do, since when we meet I'm usually stopping all of your goals," Xavier replied with a laugh.

The other man shook his head in amusement and then glanced briefly at Ally, who was wearing a very pretty dark blue cocktail dress, and asked Xavier, "And who is your lovely companion?"

Xavier wrapped his hand around Ally's waist and smiled brightly, "This is my girlfriend Ally Weasley."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Ally," Eli told her genially as he reached out and shook her hand.

"It's nice to meet you too."

"Since you're with this one," Eli said jerking his thumb in Xavier's direction, "I take it that you're a Puddlemere fan?"

Ally chuckled, "Both my parents played Quidditch with Katie and Oliver at Hogwarts, so it goes with the territory. I'm pretty sure that I received my first Puddlemere jersey before I was two."

Everyone laughed a little and then Ally glanced towards the entrance to the room and said, "If everyone will excuse me, I need to go speak with one of my cousins."

Cecilia's head twisted around to look at the door so quickly that she was pretty sure she heard something crack, but she didn't really care since standing in the doorway she saw Bill, Fleur, Dom, Victoire, Teddy, and of course, Louis. She was so busy staring at the tall blonde, who had just said something to make his red-headed sister laugh, that she almost missed hearing Ally ask her if she was going to join her.

Almost.

The younger girl quickly made her excuses to her parents and their friend, doing her best to ignore the exasperated look her father was giving her, and followed her brother's girlfriend over to the group of younger Weaselys. Fleur and Bill having already broken away to find Harry and Ginny.

"Hi!" Ally announced excitedly as she grabbed Victoire around the neck and squeezed her into a tight hug.

The force of the hug was enough to cause the blonde half of the cousins to teeter unsteadily on the surprisingly sturdy high-heeled shoes she was wearing, and she was automatically on guard as she replied, "Hello . . . ?"

"So how have you been?" Ally asked her, still using her enthusiastic tone.

Victoire watched her raven-haired cousin carefully. Ally fidgeted with the thick strap on her right shoulder that helped to hold her blue dress up, as the other girl cautiously questioned, "Just as well as I was the last time I saw you, which was only a few hours ago. Why?"

"Just wondering if you had any new news to share," The brunette replied, tone finally falling down to a level that was more appropriate for a calm conversation.

"Almost everyone we know is in France right now, what news could I have to share?" Victoire question.

Ally was a little too late and a little too nonchalant in her reply, "I don't know. Hey, I love your dress, you look fantastic!"

Victoire reflexively glanced down at the plum-coloured strapless lace dress she was wearing before crossing her arms over her chest and giving her favourite cousin a suspicious look, "And you look both very lovely and very keen. The latter making me question whether or not you're a little tipsy."

"I haven't had anything alcoholic to drink tonight," Ally argued quickly, "I'm just in a good mood. Xavier won today!"

"Yes, I was there," The other cousin replied with a laugh.

While the two cousins chatted, Dom and Teddy slowly joining in themselves, Cecilia and Louis stood a little ways away from them, trying to act as conservatively as they could in the very public place.

"You look stunning," Louis told his girlfriend with a besotted smile as he gave her a thorough gaze.

Cecilia was wearing a very simple yet feminine sleeveless dove grey shift dress that cinched at the waist with a belt made out of a shiny crimson material. The peep-toed flats she was wearing were the same colour as the belt, and even though wearing a shoe with at least a bit of a heel would have been smarter because it would have lessened the height difference between her and her boyfriend, she had forgone doing so to make the evening of being on her feet more bearable.

"Thank you, you look rather handsome yourself," She responded as she reached out and grabbed his hands to give them a squeeze.

Louis smiled brightly at her, "I wish I could kiss you."

"Why don't you?"

He smiled at the petulant tone in her voice, sent a glance over her shoulder, and then spoke quietly, "Because your father is staring at us from halfway across the room and he doesn't look very happy to see me."

Cecilia frowned, "That's not true. He just-" She stopped herself from finishing her reply as her mind flashed back to the memory of the conversation she had with her father just before they left for the end-of-the-tournament party.

"He made me promise that I would spend my time at this party making connections to help further my writing career instead of spending all of my time with you."

"That's fair enough, he just wants you to be successful in your work. That's what I want too," Louis told her sweetly as he squeezed her hand.

She pouted again and he lifted one of her hands up to his lips so that he could kiss her palm, "Why don't we compromise? You do your best to mingle and make small talk, and I'll stand quietly by your side and be your arm candy?"

His girlfriend laughed and then let out a slight sigh, "I guess that would work. Although I would prefer for it to just be me and you for the rest of the evening."

"Cheer up," Louis told her as he kissed her hand again, this time her wrist, "If you do a good enough job of ignoring me for the majority of the night, perhaps your father will feel more positively towards me and I'll be able to spirit you away tomorrow for my plan."

Cecilia shot her boyfriend a very curious look, "What plan would this be exactly?"

"I can't tell you, it's a secret."

"Louis-"

"Nope, I'm not going to tell."

"But-"

"Hello Cecilia, Louis."

The pair turned slightly and saw Valentin Krum coming towards them.

Cecilia smiled brightly at the Quidditch player, "Hello Valentin, decided to crash the Britain/Italy party I see."

"Vat I did," Valentin replied with a bright smile as he reached forward to shake Cecilia's hand. She was pleasantly surprised that he gave her a firm shake like he would with a male colleague he was trying to impress instead of a kiss on the back of her hand, "Ve party ve had ve day avter our game vas much less fun. Ve Spanish team vere poor losers."

"Well I can assure you that if Britain had actually lost the game, this party would not have the same atmosphere. And I would also be avoiding my brother and my father at all costs," Cecilia told him with a laugh.

Valentin chuckled with her, "Not ve best losers are vey?"

"Not at all," She responded her face still filled with laughter.

Louis loved the way his girlfriend's face lit up with amusement, but suddenly frowned when he realized that he wasn't the only one who noticed how her brown eyes brightened when she laughed. He eyed Valentin speculatively and then stuck his hand out, deciding to make his presence a little more noticeable, "And how have you been Valentin?"

"I've been vell," Valentin told Louis politely as they shook hands. He had barely replied before turning his gaze back to Cecilia, "How is your article comving?"

Cecilia smiled back, not even noticing the slight tension that was rolling off her boyfriend, "It's going very well, although I can't take all of the credit for it, you did give me a lot to work with."

Valentin smiled brightly back, making only Louis uncomfortable, and the latter then wrapped his arm around Cecilia's waist and pulled her to his side. "So Valentin, you didn't come to this party alone did you?"

"No, actuvally my brother insisted vat I get him into vis party."

Louis tilted his head in confusion, "Konstantin? Why? He doesn't really strike me as the type who would enjoy spending the night in a room full of boasting Quidditch players."

"I am not sure myselv, vat I do know is vat he vas very resolute about vanting to find your sister vhen ve got here," Valentin told him.

"He was looking for Dom?" Louis asked incredulously.

It was Valentin's turn to look confused, "No, he vas looking for Veektoire. Vhy vould he be looking for Dominique?"

"Uh, I don't know," Louis replied hurriedly, "That's why I was asking. It was confusing to me too."

"Should we go see if we can find Malcolm and Nadia then?" Victoire asked Teddy just after Ally and Dom left the pair to themselves. Ally went off to be at her boyfriend's side again, Dom on the other hand deserting them because she had just spotted Colton and Anastasia and had plans to join her boss in schmoozing some potential new clients.

Teddy put his hand on the small of her back and shrugged, "Why not? We did promise to see them."

They had every intention of keeping that promise too, until a familiar face stepped out of the crowd and planted himself right in front of them, an unfamiliar face at his side.

"Vic! Ted!" Konstantin announced jovially as he leaned forward to press a kiss to the former's cheek and to shake hands with the latter.

Victoire and Teddy were both surprised with the Bulgarian's presence, even though Louis had informed them in passing that he had seen him when he met with Cecilia after her interview. They only got past the very bare minimum of pleasantries before Konstantin decided to address the less than obvious looks Victoire and Teddy (mostly Victoire) were sending his companion.

Konstantin placed his hand delicately on the back on the slim woman standing at his side and smiled, "Vic, Ted, vis is my partner Nikolina Krastev."

"Partner?" Victoire questioned him astutely with a raise of her eyebrow.

The woman next to him was very slim, on the shorter side, and extremely elegant looking. She wore a very stylish black suit jacket that had a rather deep v-neck, no shirt underneath, and nicely tailored and tight black trousers that ended at her ankle. On her feet were a pair of peep-toe black ankle boots made out of firm lace, and a killer heel that Victoire was sure Dom would drool over. The only jewelry she wore was a simple silver necklace that circled closely around her throat before dropping into a thin piece of silver that rested all the way down her sternum. Nikolina, as Konstantin had introduced her, had dark eyes, seemingly darker because of the perfect smoky eye make-up she was wearing, a blood red lipstick staining her lips, high cheekbones, and long dark brown curls that had streaks of bright red and purple throughout.

"We work together at our ministry, and please, call me Niko," The woman told them in perfect English.

Teddy began nodding in understanding, he had read many of Konstantin's reports for the case they were jointly working on, and had noticed that they were also signed by an N. Krastev. He had figured that it was probably a co-worker or partner of Konstantin's of sorts, although he was a little ashamed to admit that he had automatically assumed that it was a male. As he finally put the dots together, it seemed that Victoire had decided to introduce herself.

"Victoire Weasley," She told the other woman holding out her hand. Nikolina shook her hand and Victoire continued, "And this is my fiancé Ted Lupin."

Nikolina nodded at him and smirked a little, "Ah, T. Lupin, so you're the one with the legible hand writing?"

Teddy chuckled, "Yes, my partner Hayden Summers's writing can be rather abysmal sometimes."

"As bad as mine?" Victoire asked him curiously.

"Fortunately no," He replied, wrapping his arm a little more tightly around her waist even though he knew that she was pouting at him.

Victoire waited for a moment of silence to pass before asking, "So Konstantin, is there a reason why you and your partner are here at the Britain/Italy after party?"

"Vere is actuvally, we need to talk to Ted," Konstantin said, the smile on his face not fitting the tense tone of his voice.

Teddy automatically frowned, "About what?"

"About ve case."

Victoire could feel her fiancé tense up beside her and she took a small step away from the group, "I should go then and leave you to talk by yourselves."

"No," Konstantin said hurriedly, "You need to stay Vic."

"But I'm not authorized-"

Konstantin still had a bright smile on his face as he spoke firmly through his teeth, "I know but you need to stay Vic, or else vis vill look very suspicious."

"I don't understand, is there something serious going on?" Teddy asked. He reached out to pull Victoire back to his side, and his fingers clamped tightly onto her hip.

Nikolina put a bright smile onto her own face and sent a narrowed expression to Konstantin before saying to the couple, "Konstantin told me that we can trust you two, so first off you're going to have to plaster smiles onto your faces and pretend like we're just enjoying some easy conversation between friends, okay?"

They did as instructed but Teddy said, "I'm definitely worried now, I take it this charade means that we're being watched by someone very suspect?"

"I am not entirely sure on vat score, but I vink it is best to be cautious," Konstantin explained as his hand slide from its rather platonic position on Nikolina's back to a more intimate spot on her lower back.

His partner smiled brightly at him, but her eyes were hard as she warned him, "Just for the record Konstantin, if you move your hand any further down, I will remember and I will hurt you when we get back to Vratsa, okay?"

Konstantin sent his partner a frustrated look and reminded her, "Niko, ve are supposed to be pretending vat you are my date who I am introducing to my friends."

"Well it's no wonder that you don't have a real girlfriend with the way you think it's appropriate to paw at your dates in public," Nikolina fired back as she wrapped her arm around his waist in return and pinched his far side.

Victoire threw her head back and let out a particularly convincing fake laugh, "I thought you wanted to tell Teddy something serious Konstantin."

That seemed to stop the pair's squabbling.

"First, ve need to know vether or not your department has heard anyving new about Danchev's role in ve case," Konstantin said to Teddy.

Teddy loosened his hand on Victoire's hip and started to rub his hand gently up and down her side, "No, I haven't been in the office since Wednesday, but we haven't heard anything more about Danchev's connection to the case besides that he was part of selling the artifacts from Peru."

The auror mission Teddy and Hayden Summers had been on since the previous November was still technically ongoing, and it had only become more complicated as time had shown that it also connected to a case of Jilly Donaldson and Kurt Williamson's (which involved illegally smuggled Peruvian antiquities that seemed to be connected to a Bulgarian dealer), and to a completely separate case that they had stumbled upon that included a hidden underground village of aboriginal Peruvians. All aspects of the case were found out to be connected to the Holmwood organized crime family, and even though they had enough evidence to go towards convicting the major players involved, they didn't have enough to even touch the inner sanctum of the Holmwood family.

"So you haven't heard anything else?" Nikolina asked, her interested tone coming out rather peppy as she tried to play her part.

Konstantin had been working on the Bulgarian end of the antiques smuggling, and had been the first to find the Holmwood connection back in February.

"What else would I have heard?"

Konstantin leaned towards the dark haired woman at his side and pressed a sly kiss to the side of her head before saying to Teddy, "Last veek Niko and I found a report vat a junior colleague of ours wrote to summarize all of ve recent invormation vat our department had vound vat relates to our joint investigation. Ve plan vas for it to be sent out in time vor everyone to get onto the same page bevore ve trial starts in September."

Teddy nodded, Hayden had called him on Friday to inform him that the trial for the investigation had been pushed back almost a week.

"We noticed that there was a part of the report that we didn't recall finding ourselves, or being briefed on before. It was small, easy to miss, but it stood out because it was another possible Holmwood connection that we don't remember bringing in for questioning," Nikolina explained.

Konstantin let out a low faux chuckle and continued the explanation, "Ve vere about to mention it to our supervisors vhen vere vas a little shake up. Somevun from our foreign relations office came in and comvinced vun ov our supervisors vat he needed to be given joint control over our end ov ve investigation."

"They allowed him to do so," Nikolina added as she pretended to snuggle into Konstantin's side, "And then the day that we were going to talk to our supervisor about the report we found out that the writer of the report had been fired and was now being investigated for disseminating classified information to people he shouldn't have."

"Ve knew right avay vat vat vas just a lie, the man in qvestion vould never do such a ving. It vas not until a few days later however, vat ve realized vat vey fired him and took away all of ve copies ov ve report he wrote to cover somevun's tracks. I have been trying to contact you and your partner vrough ve proper channels Ted, but my superiors kept shutting me down and said vat vey vould deal vith handing over ve information."

Nikolina nodded, "One of our supervisors has been controlling the flow of information and they've hidden that one Holmwood angle from coming out in any subsequent reports. Konstantin and I ended up with the original report before anyone else, so we think we're the only ones who saw the original copy before everything became censored. Konstantin told me a few days ago that it felt like he was being followed and watched in his down time, but I thought he was just being paranoid. That was until I found some following me also."

Victoire blinked and looked at Teddy with an unbelievable expression.

"Ve vink vat one ov our supervisors is a mole vor ve Holmvoods and vat vey are vollowing us, me in particular to make sure vat ve do not tell your side our suspicions."

Teddy took a deep breath, pressed a kiss to Victoire's temple, and then asked, "Is this why you've crashed this party and made your partner pretend to be your date? To find me and tell me all of this?"

Nikolina did allow herself an eye roll at that point, "Yes, Genius over here thought that even if he was being followed that we could get away with passing along the information to you here because they wouldn't expect us to be talking about such a sensitive topic at a party when anybody could walk back and listen in."

"Or that you would tell Teddy with me here," Victoire added.

"Exactly."

Teddy squeezed his fiancée tighter to his side, just the mention of the Holmwood family made him want to hold onto her securely and never let her go, "So what was it in the report that your supervisors didn't want you to shar-"

"Vic!"

Teddy's question was cut off by the arrival of a tall redheaded stylish whirlwind who threw her arm around her older sister's shoulder, on the side opposite of Teddy.

"Dom," Victoire retorted in a tone that had a lot less enthusiasm than her sister's had. She opened her mouth to ask her sister what exactly she was doing, but didn't have the chance to before said little sister became distracted by the other people around her.

"Oh, hello Konstantin," Dom greeted the dark haired man saucily. She looked at them like she knew a secret about him that nobody else knew, and Victoire didn't even want to think about what it was that made her smile and look at him like she did.

Konstantin spent a minute too long looking at the statuesque redhead before replying, "Hello Dom."

Beside him Nikolina glanced at her seemingly mesmerized partner and rolled her eyes. She held her hand out sweetly towards Dom, "Hi I'm Nikolina, but please call me Niko. I work with Konstantin."

"You work together? How nice. I'm Dominique, but call me Dom," Dom commented as her blue eyes zeroed in on where Konstantin's hand was resting on the other woman's back.

Konstantin had been staring at Dom, so he noticed where her gaze went and he slowly moved his hand off Nikolina's back and stuffed them uncomfortably into his pockets instead.

"So Dom, you and Victoire are . . . sisters?" Nikolina questioned after her dark eyes narrowed in on the physical similarities of the two women's faces.

Dom chuckled and stuck her head right next to Victoire's, "That we are. I'm her younger, and much more beautiful sister. Right Konstantin?"

The redhead and the brunette turned to look at the man in question and waited for a reply. Once again, he was a few seconds too late.

"Pardon?" He had been too caught up on staring at Dom, who was wearing a long-sleeve black dress that went down to her ankles, to answer. The sleeves and the length were the most modest part of the dress however, as both the back and the front had very deep plunging necklines, with the skirt of the dress having a slit on either side that was thigh-high. She had a stylish pair of stiletto high heels as always, and her long red hair was loosely braided off the side. Her make-up was, naturally, impeccable and the pair of dangly gold earrings she was wearing made her neck look very long and graceful.

Dom giggled, very happy with the attention Konstantin was showing her, and glanced back at Nikolina, "Merlin I love your boots, those are fierce."

"Thanks, they're Csonka's," Nikolina replied with a sincere smile.

"I love that brand, I only wish that they were wizard made instead of muggle because then they would have comfort charms on them," Dom said casually.

Nikolina smirked, "These ones do have comfort charms, and Csonka is actually a wizard, a muggleborn, she just thought it would be easier to break out in the muggle fashion world, less constraints I guess. She's slowly starting to add comfort and stabilizing spells as she gets clearance to do so."

"No way," Dom almost squealed as she put her hands on her hips, "I can't believe that I didn't know that."

Victoire figured that the two had had enough time to gossip about shoes, "As interesting as this conversation is, why don't you tell me why you're here Dom?"

"Oh, I'm supposed to warn you that Christopher Mullin and his prissy girlfriend are here."

The blonde sister sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Fantastic."

Dom rolled her eyes, "I know, they walked over to where I was with Stasia and Colton because the cow wanted to gossip with Stasia about something. Colton then forcefully suggested that I leave before I had the chance to tell Mullin to bugger off and die."

"Well that's too bad," Teddy muttered under his breath.

"Great, thanks for the heads up, but you need to leave now," Victoire told her younger sister sternly.

Dom automatically became suspicious, "Why?"

"Because I'm your older sister and I said so."

The younger sister snorted, "Victoire, that didn't work when you were eight, so it's definitely not going to work now."

"Dom, this is one of those situations where you've just got to listen to me."

Dom shrugged, "Whatever, I'm going to go find Ally and Xavier." She smiled at Nikolina and told her that it was nice to meet her, and then she glanced at Konstantin and gave him a sultry smile and a wink, "See you later Konstantin."

Victoire waited until her sister was far enough away before saying, "Does anyone remember where we were in our conversation before hurricane Dom made her entrance?"

Nikolina looked at her partner, noticed that he was still staring in the direction in which Dom had made her exit, and covertly pinched his side, causing him to jump, "Do you remember where we were Darling?"

Konstantin frowned at her and slowly put his hand on his partner's hip again, "Ted vas just asking about ve information vat ve are not supposed to know about or share."

"You said it was a connection to the Holmwood side?" Teddy enquired.

"Yes, we're not allowed to follow it as you can imagine, so we'll hand it off to you," Nikolina told him.

Teddy nodded, "What's the name?"

Konstantin let out a laugh and reached forward to high-five Teddy. The metamorphmagus slapped his hand against Konstantin's and then surreptitiously moved the small piece of paper the other man had handed off to him into the pocket of his trousers.

"I'll look into that then."

Nikolina nodded, "That's a load off of our minds then. We're going to keep trying to figure out who the mole is on our end, so this is probably the last time we'll be able to speak openly until the trial begins."

Teddy nodded again, while Victoire sent Nikolina a bright smile, "It was very nice to meet you Niko, and I must say that your English is fantastic, have you been bilingual since birth?"

"My aunt is from England and while my mother was pregnant with me she convinced my parents that they needed to teach me English from very early on to give me a competitive edge when I got older," Nikolina explained.

"Yes, because vat's exactly vat you need, to be more competitive," Konstantin told her sarcastically.

Nikolina sent him a look with a raised eyebrow, "You're calling me competitive Konstantin, really?"

Her partner rolled her eyes and then smiled at Victoire and Teddy, "Ve should probably go, it vill look suspicious if ve spend too much time together."

Victoire nodded and then the four said their goodbyes before Konstantin and Nikolina wandered off in the direction of where there could find some drinks. When they were alone again Victoire said to Teddy, "Wow. That was a little intense for a few moments there."

"Yeah," Teddy agreed, his voice and his facial expression seeming very tired, "It was."

His fiancée frowned, wrapped her arms around him, and gave him a squeeze, "I know that you'd rather that I was exposed to as little of this case with the Holmwoods as possible. So if you want, you can obliviate that last conversation from my memory."

He smiled slightly at her and pressed a kiss to her forehead, "I appreciate it, but I'm not going to obliviate you Love."

"Oh thank goodness," She said with a heavy sigh, "Because even though the sentiment was there, I didn't actually mean it."

"I know," Teddy replied with another smile.

Victoire looked up at him, "You know me so well."

"That I do."

They stayed in their comfortable embrace for a few more moments before a slightly obnoxious voice said both loudly and closely.

"I told you that it'd be easy to find them. Just look for the couple who look like they're off in their own little world in this room full of people."

The pair turned their heads and Teddy felt that he had to smile at his best mate, "We've been found."

They broke apart and then engaged in a flurry of greetings with Malcolm, a beautifully dressed Nadia, Nadia's friend Dante that they had met earlier in the day, and a tall woman with light brown hair and a rather large baby bump that was on Dante's arm.

Nadia worked on introductions, "Annalisa this is Ted Lupin and Victoire Weasley." The two in question gave a little wave.

"Ted, Vic, this is Annalisa, she's Dante's wife," Nadia said as she gestured to the pregnant woman who was wearing a maternity cocktail dress that was obviously designer.

"It's nice to meet you," Victoire said to the woman. She sent Annalisa and Dante a small smile, "Is this your first child?"

Dante laughed, "Oh no, this one with be our fourth."

"Your fourth? Wow, how long have you been together?" Teddy asked them conversationally.

"We've been married for four years, but I haven't actually been pregnant four times. Our first was triplets, and they're almost three years old right now," Annalisa explained.

Victoire thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head, "Triplets! And you're having another one? You my dear are a saint."

Annalisa laughed and then Victoire turned to Teddy, "I think I'd kill you if you got me pregnant with triplets."

"You do realize that I don't have control over whether we have multiples or not, right?" Teddy asked her with a roll of his eyes.

She didn't bother to reply to him, "So what are the gender of the kids?"

"Two girls and a boy, the girls are identical, and this next one is going to be a boy too," Dante told them.

Annalisa hit her husband's arm, "For the last time, you can't go around telling everyone what the gender of the baby is going to be, when we don't know what it is."

"But I have a feeling that it's going to be a boy," Dante argued.

"That's what you said about all three of the triplets."

Dante did his best to wrap an arm around his wife's large stomach, "We did get a boy. I was right for one out of three."

"If your keeper's save percentage was one out of three you wouldn't consider that good," Annalisa pointed out to her husband.

Nadia laughed and looked at Malcolm, Victoire, and Teddy, "One of the only reasons why Dante proposed was because she can relate pretty much anything to Quidditch."

"There's worse reasons to propose," Malcolm mused.

"Like because you're sloshed at a party and a pretty girl took pity on you and conjured you up a bucket before you had the chance to vomit all over your own clothes?" Teddy asked his friend with an evil smirk on his face.

Victoire started to giggle and literally slapped her leg, "Merlin I remember that! You guys were what, seventh-year?"

Despite the fact that Malcolm was making hand motions that screamed 'stop-talking-right-now', Teddy replied to his fiancée's question, "Yes, it was after Gryffindor beat Hufflepuff in the first Quidditch game of the year in October."

"If I remember correctly, the girl he proposed to was a sixth-year Gryffindor, right?" Victoire asked.

Teddy smirked at the irritated pout that was on Malcolm's face, "Yes, it was Sierra Simmons." He glanced at a curious Nadia next, "He spent the rest of the year avoiding her because he was so embarrassed."

Nadia glanced at her boyfriend with a raised eyebrow, "If that's all it takes to get a proposal out of you I'm surprised that it only happened once."

"I learned my lesson quickly, if I had said it to the girl standing next to Sierra Simmons instead of her, I probably would been obligated to date her for at least the next month," Malcolm said with a sigh.

Victoire titled her head to the side, "Why? Who was next to Simmons?"

"She was in your year, Pamela Mace."

The blonde made a gagging sound, "Uh, don't worry I would have killed you before I let that happen. Ugh."

"You know," Dante began with a frown on his face, "Hearing that you have a habit of flirting with random women while drunk doesn't really tip the scales in your favour, in my opinion."

Annalisa and Nadia shared a look. The former rolled her eyes while the latter put her hands on her hips, "Dante, have you forgotten when we sere sixteen and after the end of summer party, you found yourself almost unconscious in Vatican City with Claretta Rossi?"

Dante narrowed his eyes at his friend while his wife laughed at him, "Are you sure that you want to start referencing incidents from our pasts?"

Annalisa glanced apologetically at Victoire and Teddy while Nadia and Dante continued to argue, "I apologize for their behaviour, when they get together they act like they're ten again."

"Don't worry about it, personally, I like a bit of blackmail myself," Victoire told the woman with a laugh.

Nadia and Dante's small argument soon ended and the group of six went back on to conversing about a range of topics. For being part of the losing team, Dante was a surprisingly gracious loser, and only harassed Malcolm for being a cousin of the keeper on the winning team a few times. By the end of their conversation, Victoire found that she really liked Nadia's friends Dante and Annalisa, and that she could see why she was such good friends with them. And despite the fact that Dante was being hard on Malcolm and acting like an over-protective brother, Victoire could tell that he liked Malcolm, even if it was grudgingly.

Victoire and Teddy left the four together after their conversation, wandered away to another part of the room, and were immediately set upon by Clark and Mark.

"Why don't you two look spiffy?" She called to them as she took in both of their rather handsome figures.

Mark smiled at her while Clark just frowned.

"What's wrong with him?" Victoire questioned the happier looking of the beaters.

"He spotted Dom flirting with one of the players from the British team," Mark explained.

Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation while Clark pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, "I'd understand it if it was a player from the Italian team, but what does that British player have that I don't have? We have the same accent and everything!"

"Don't take it personally," Victoire told Clark consolingly, "She flirts with everyone. Ev-ery-one."

"It's true, she was flirting with Konstantin Krum earlier and he's not even a Quidditch player," Teddy added.

It was Victoire's turn to make a face, "Please don't remind me."

Clark looked a little more mollified, "Alright."

Victoire decided to change the topic slightly, she smirked at Mark, "And I was very serious about you. You look dashing, did you dress up for anyone in particular?"

"No," Mark replied smoothly while Clark decided to take it to another level, "Who would he be trying to look good for? He hasn't had a girlfriend let alone a date in like two years."

Mark glared at his friend, "You're exaggerating."

"Yet I don't think I am," Clark argued.

Teddy rolled his eyes at them, "Perhaps we should discuss something else?"

"Like the rumour we just heard about our main seeker looking into other teams?" Mark suggested with a bit of a frown.

Victoire pursed her lips in curiosity, "That's something new, but trades and changes do occur."

"Yes, but if we lose this seeker that means that the coaches are going to have to give our reserve seeker a chance to try out for the main team," Clark reminded.

Teddy could see where he was going, "Your back up seeker being Chris Mullin of course."

Mark nodded, "I don't really know the bloke all that well besides the fact that Xavier doesn't like him, but I do know that if he gets a starting spot that means that his girlfriend Miss Richie-Rich is going to be sticking her nose into the team's business even more than she already does."

"On the plus side, that means that Nadia and Giavanna will probably end up having a smack down at some point though, which will be very fun to watch," Clark said with a smile.

"There is that."

Tuesday, August 30th 2022

8:32 AM

Ally woke up the morning after the Italy/Britain game to the feeling of light kisses being trailed across the bare skin of her shoulders and back. Her eyes fluttered open as one warm hand slid onto her hip, another moving her dark hair off her back to uncover more skin to touch.

When she felt the hand on her hip slowly start to slide down her thigh and grab the hemline of the thin material of her nightie. She smirked, rolled over, and found herself face-to-face with a hazel eyed Quidditch keeper.

"I was trying to sleep," She said in a husky voice and with a sideways glace to him.

Xavier grinned brightly at her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her towards him, "Sleep's over rated."

"Is it now?" Ally asked with a small smile as he leaned forward and started pressing kisses to her neck.

"Mmhmm," He mumbled into her skin, using his nose push away thin strap of her nightie off her shoulder.

She bit her lip to hold in what would have been an embarrassingly loud sigh, and then mused, "What the Hell, I'm already awake."

He smiled into her skin before moving his lips to hers and kissing her hard. She smirked against his lips and knotted her fingers into his dirty-blonde hair. They kissed languidly, not in a rush, and just enjoyed being physically close to each other.

Xavier had just started to slide the hem of her nightie up her thighs again, when a very sharp ringing sound started to fill the room. Ally pulled away from him in response, and started to move towards the nightstand, where her mobile phone was ringing.

"Don't answer that," Xavier pouted as he tried to pull his girlfriend back to him.

Ally sighed and patted his head with one hand, the other still stretched out towards the nightstand, "That's Vic's ringtone and you know that she's not going to stop until she gets an answer."

He sighed again as she continued, "If I don't answer, she's going to ring your phone, and then when you don't answer, she's going to send and owl. And, if we decide to ignore the bloody owl, I wouldn't put it past her to send a patronus-"

"I get the idea," Xavier told her as he loosened his grip on her waist so that she could reach for the phone.

She sent him an apologetic look before clicking the 'talk' button, "Someone better be either dead, giving birth, or both."

Xavier snickered, smothering his laughter into her shoulder, and she flicked his ear to tell him to be quieter. As she listened to her favourite cousin on the phone, Ally's face brightened.

"Oh Vic, that's fantastic! I'm so happy for you."

There was a pause as Victoire spoke on the other end of the phone.

"Yes, I definitely will. Listen I have to go, but congratulations, I'll talk to you later today, alright?"

"Bye."

The words were barely out of Ally's mouth before Xavier had grabbed the phone out of her hand and tossed it back onto the nightstand.

"I take it Vic finally got her residency offer from St. Mungo's?" He asked Ally as she cuddled back into the bed.

She gave him a soft smile, "She did. Thank goodness. Because I think if she had to go one more day without it, that she would finally have driven Teddy round the bend."

Xavier smiled, "Good, and as happy for her as I am, can we please stop talking about her and get back to what we were doing?"

She smirked before suddenly pouncing at him and rolling them over so that he was lying on his back with her sitting on top of his thighs.

"Oh I am way ahead of you on that score."

A/N: Really, who doesn't love Katie and Dom? Or a slightly jealous Louis. And look here, we've finally got a bit more info about the Holmwoods! So how did we like this chap? What were your favourite parts? Also, feel free to leave me any questions or comments, and please review because we're very close to 300!

Next Update: Hey guys, I'm really sorry but I've got a lot of papers and exams to do for the next month and a half (as it's my last month and a half of university!) so I'm not sure when I'll next be able to update, I'm hoping that I won't keep you waiting longer than two weeks, but I might. So, sorry in advance, I'll update when I can!

Next Chapter: I do have it written though, which is good, and it involves Victoire's reaction of getting her residency offer, Vic and Fleur having a mother-daughter chat that everyone was too scared to stay and listen to, Xavier and a certain someone (guess who) end up in the paper, we hear a little about Eliza, Louis and Cecilia go on their surprise date, and Vic finally meets Clark's sister.

Teaser for Next Chapter:

""Well Victoire, now zat you 'ave got zat all sorted out, per'aps you and Teddy can actually start zinkeeng about your weddeeng and finally set a date," Fleur commented firmly. Her tone was almost offhand, but the look in her eyes said that she was not to be trifled with.

There was a full minute of awkward silence before everyone jumped into action."

Yup, there's some drama coming to us.

Thanks as always to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed!

Biggest thanks to:

Jilly98, zvc56, Rensk3, B. arendes, Seher Syed, silverlover02, NicoleTheSmith, Guest(1), encypher, no cure for crazy, jml2002, Ann, rosesnlilies, unofficial potterhead, rumbadumba, Rosie Loves Pi, Devi2509, Jennifer Jules, Buckbeak90, Hp Queen, Daria, and GryffindorsRock!

Jilly98: I'm glad you liked the pick-me-up, your review definitely helped me feel better!

Rensk3: No prob, I'll take any reviews that I can and when I can. How'd you like the over-protective Oliver in this chap? And look at that, both Vic's results and Teddy's case right here in this chap! I'm glad you like my writing so much.

jml2002: I've heard some reviewers call Teddy and Vic Tedtoire before, but that's the only one I'm aware of.

Ann: I don't know Italian so I was probably wrong, thanks for letting me know.

unofficial potterhead: Oliver was teasing about Brogan, but serious about Cecilia.

Jennifer Jules: Good counting! When Teddy gets back to England we'll have a little summary of what happened with the Holmwood case and the people from Peru so that everyone can get caught up.

Buckbeak90: I have absolutely nothing against rambling reviews, I don't discriminate. It's nice to hear from everyone, especially new readers, I'm glad you liked the previous two stories. So, welcome to my wizarding world, and I hope that you enjoy the ride!

Hp Queen: I could write the one-shot, but there isn't actually much that I could think to write about it from Xavier's POV, sorry.

GryffindorsRock: Yes, Teddy did hex Vic's boyfriend and blame Kyle. Can't say anything about Xav/Ally, Louis and Cecilia are adorable as always, we'll find out gradually why Mark likes Clark's sister, and yes she will meet Vic. The reunion is not the next chapter, but the one after that. I think I covered all of the questions!

Daria: Hi, no, I don't personally know anyone named Daria, but I have heard the name in passing before. I picked it because I was looking on a website for names that are used in Romania (as that's where Charlie is) and it popped up. I had remembered hearing it once before and I thought it was good as a name as any, according to the website I used the name is ranked around #10 as most popular in Romania. It's also pronounced differently. In English we would pronounce it DAHR-ee-a (or that's how I'm assuming you pronounce yours), but in Romania it's pronounced DAHR-yah. I didn't point it out before because how the readers pronounce it in their heads doesn't really matter to me, but it's similar to the Nad-ee-a, or Nad-yah distinction of the name Nadia. Also, it's always cool to hear of my fellow Canadian readers, especially since we're in the same province.

I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter,

PLEASE leave me a review!

Again, Happy St. Paddy's Day,

I'm sorry that you're going to have to wait so long for the next update,

So, until next time, DFTBA!