Closer to You

December 12, 2015

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Teddy's concentration was absolute. His hands and eyes belonged to the obscure words of the book he was reading. He wouldn't have noticed when Victoire occupied the empty chair next to him, if it weren't for the scent she involuntarily spread through the air every time she was an inch away from him. The library had been quiet and almost deserted until now, just perfect for the mood he was in. But from the corner of his right eye he studied her as she took her heavy black coat off and hung it on the back of her chair, a second later she had freed her long neck from the gripe of her blue scarf. She was settling beside him, she was definitely settling.

"What are you reading?" she asked, sitting quite closely. Teddy lifted the cover of his book so she could read the title.

The werewolf of Paris

by Guy Endore.

She raised her eyebrow. "Is that muggle fiction?" He nodded gently and drove his eyes back to the book, not that he could keep his concentration any longer. "You got it from aunt Hermione's library," she said, not as a question, more like pointing out the obvious.

"I don't think she even knew she had it," he said deeply, eyes carefully still on the pages.

"You really shouldn't read that. It puts...stuff in your head."

"Stuff's already in my head," he said, twisting the corner of his mouth into a crooked smile. Victorie smiled as she shook her head in disapproval. "Besides," he continued. "Muggles have a different approach on things like these, sometimes they see what we take for granted."

"Muggles don't even believe in werewolves Teddy, they don't believe in anything they can't explain."

Teddy turned his book around and examined the cover. "Maybe this Guy Endore did. Maybe he was one," he shrugged.

Victoire chuckled softly. "You get weirder every year," she smiled her tempting smile, Teddy sometimes wondered if she did it on purpose, to make him unsteady. But he always answered himself the same thing: No, because to tempt a man on purpose she'd first have to acknowledge that she fancied him, or at least she'd have to know the effect she had on him. So, the answer was always no.

"Anyway, I brought something." Victoire searched in the pocket of her coat and pulled out a small brown box. Teddy recognized where the box came from. It was the same kind his Grandmother sent him every other month, always filled with chocolates. "To share, that is," she clarified. Victoire looked at him intently for a moment. Teddy knew that look well: eyes firm, suddenly dark blue, penetrating sight. There was something on her mind.

He lifted his eyebrows, and set his book down gently. "What are you trying to get me to do?" he asked right away, the suspicious tone couldn't have been clearer.

"What? Nothing!" she exclaimed, astonished of having her motives questioned, and before he asked anything again, she pushed the box closer to him. "Your Grand sent them to me, and thought I could share them with you. I'm betting you already ate your share." Teddy shrugged; he in fact had eaten his provisions a few weeks ago.

But Teddy didn't take a piece of the tempting sweets. Instead he recovered his book and opened it to the last page he read. Today was the last trip to Hogsmade of the year, and Victoire was sitting there, offering him chocolates instead of rushing herself to her boyfriend. That certainly meant she had a motive.

"What's really going on?" he asked, looking at her from over the pages.

"I told you! Nothing...I'm keeping you company," she said in an over reacted innocent voice. She really was a horrible liar.

He finally grabbed the first he found, light brown, sweet and creamy, not his favourite but it was still a little piece of heaven. Victorie followed his moves and a second later they were both concentrating in tasting the chocolate.

"So...where's the bodyguard?" he asked, trying to sound as mocking as possible, rather than sounding bitter. The question had a reason, wherever she went lately her boyfriend followed, which gave Teddy very few opportunities to gain time alone with Victorie. And he could swear he was improving with her. He'd seen more smiles, more laughs, more everything from her behalf, but it might have been a figment of his imagination. One thing was certain: the sight of that couple was unbearable to look at, for him at least.

"Warren?" she asked, giving him an annoyed look. "I'll meet him at Hogsmade later." Teddy simply nodded, pretending to concentrate carefully on his piece of chocolate. "I know what you're thinking," she said, after a few seconds.

"Is that so?" he didn't look up.

"Yes. You think I've turned into one of those girls we often laugh at."

"What girls?" he played innocent, frowning slightly.

"You think I'm like those shallow girls," she said. "You think I'm a shallow blond."

"You're not blond..." he pointed out, smirking, and Victorie clinched her eyes into a very unfriendly shape.

"Fine. You think I'm a shallow person with unidentified hair colour." Teddy laughed out loud, but Victoire's face didn't relax. "You think I'm shallow because I'm going out with the pretty Quidditch Captain." Teddy chuckled again, put his book down, and took the darkest piece of chocolate from the bunch, although it still wasn't the kind he was looking for.

"That's not even close to what I was thinking," he grinned softly and savoured the slightly bitter piece.

"You know... Warren's a nice guy, you just have to get to know him."

Teddy stared at her intently, wondering if she was trying to convince him or herself. He wasn't going to allow her to convince him, because if she did then he'd be forced to like the bloke, and he wasn't going to try to like him, because that meant he'd feel worse about trying to steal her away. Warren Lander couldn't be a nice guy, he had to be superficial, and uninteresting to talk to, because otherwise Teddy would feel forced to withdraw.

"I never said he wasn't," he replied, his voice hard. Victoire nodded and a sigh escaped her lips. She looked at him for a couple of seconds, she bit her lower lip delicately, a scene Teddy couldn't stop admiring.

"You've changed lately," she suddenly said. "Or something's up with you."

Teddy grabbed another piece from the box, his moves cool and steady. That's what she wanted, that's why she was there. She'd seen something different. Victorie was very perceptive when it came to translating his moods and attitudes. She knew that beyond his regular good disposition and calmed exterior Teddy could break down easily with certain things.

Victorie had a theory, she claimed that he went through "phases" and that it had something to do with certain lunar activity. She once developed a detailed explanation of how the moon's position affected Teddy's behaviour at least once a year. He, of course, laughed until his lungs hurt, and didn't buy her story, but she was positive she was right, and she claimed that those days he would wonder around with complicated existential issues.

She was sure that during those "phases" he obsessed easily, especially if those things were related to his parents or any of their history. What was more peculiar was that years ago she had assumed the role of taking care of him during those sporadic times, hence the reason why she was probably sitting there at that very moment.

If only. If only she could be as perceptive as to notice the little signs he had been throwing her the last weeks. Sure, she could catch his deepest family frustrations in a second, but she missed easily the glances, the caring smiles, or even the words he had so carefully been placing on his mouth. He had concluded he needed a more drastic approach, and then again...there was the boyfriend.

"People change," said Teddy in response, he maintained his sight firm on her.

"Have I changed?" She asked, tilting her head to one side. He smiled again, there were so many ways to answer that question, but he kept his prudent discretion. He simply nodded.

"You've changed quite a bit," he finally said. Victoire lifted the right corner of her lip, a fainted smile. She reached for the chocolate box and searched deeply between the sweets, she thrust aside the ones filled with cream, hazelnut, rum, and finally grabbed what she had been looking for.

She pulled out the darkest chocolate of the bunch and Teddy's eyes shifted to Victorie's hand.

"No, you don't," he said and reached to take the chocolate away from her. Victorie outsmarted him and moved her hand quickly away from him.

"No! I found it! It's the last one!" she complained seriously, but laughing at the same time. Miss Stanley, the short, chubby librarian walked by and threw her a hard face for laughing so carelessly. Victoire bit her lip and focused on the wrestle again. Teddy moved his arm sharply and reached to touch her hand, she locked the sweet safely inside her fist, but trapped the tip of Teddy's fingers in as well.

"I thought you were sharing them…"

"Not the dark ones," she said tightening her grip for the sake of her chocolate. Almost unconsciously, Teddy wrapped the rest of his hand around hers, over her unexplainably warm skin. He wondered if the temperature of her body wouldn't melt the chocolate in a couple of seconds, but then again, maybe only he could sense that amount of heat.

"Of all kinds, this one had to be your favourite as well," he frowned, teasingly. She shrugged.

"Let go," she ordered.

"You let go," he said back, grinning elegantly. You couldn't really tell who was locking who. She gave him her hardest glare, but it didn't intimidate him one bit, if anything he was holding her tighter. After a minute or two she raised her eyebrow, impatiently.

"You could stay like this all night, couldn't you?" she asked edgily.

Actually...yes, he could.

He smiled lightly, and Victorie interpreted it as mere stubbornness for not letting the last piece of dark chocolate to her sake.

"Fine..." she said rolling her eyes, and she finally let her fist open softly. He knew she was letting go to please him, because she was always a lot more firm and stubborn than him. But he smirked in success and took the piece, brushing his thumb against her palm as he did so. Once he had it in his hand he broke the small chocolate in half and handed her one part. Victoire smiled before taking it to her lips.

"Is it about your father?" she asked out of the cold. Teddy looked at her, she was determined to know the reason for his weird behaviour, and she wasn't going to let it rest. "You said only a couple of months ago that you found letters they wrote to each other. Maybe that's—"

"—Vic...I'm fine..." he said softly, but very serious. Victorie didn't answer him, instead she took the book that was resting on the table and read the synopsis on the back of the cover. A second later she was lifting her eyes up to catch his, in an almost accusing way.

"A horror novel? You're reading a horror novel about werewolves?" she asked, a bit loud, because Miss Stanley shushed her immediately. "Let me guess..." she lowered her voice. "The guy kills himself in the end. Honestly Teddy..." she pushed the box closer to him. If it would have been Claire or Bob or even Jack he would have gotten up by now and would have left with his book to read somewhere else. But even before his unpredictable crush, Teddy and Victoire had a way with understanding each other. If she wanted to try effortlessly to lift his mood, he'd let her, at least for a while. "Teddy, why don't you talk to Uncle Harry instead?"

"He won't tell me everything..." retorted Teddy, his throat rough. "He never does..."

"And I suppose this will?" she asked holding the book up. "Talk to him Teddy, you trust him enough."

Teddy smiled faintly. "I will."

A pleased smile played on her lips as she grabbed the last piece of chocolate from the box and handed it to him. "Here, you need it more than I do."

He received the piece, and again their skins touched to a point where he couldn't help pressing his fingers against her warm hand. Victoire stared at him and he looked back as intently as her. Their reasons for staring into each other might have been different, but that didn't stop their gaze from freezing for a prolonged minute.

"What?" she asked frowning. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Teddy snapped from his previous trance. "Didn't you have a date or something?" he asked evasively, regretting at that very second the reminder.

"What—oh! Yeah, I do!" she stood up quite fast, a bit unsteady. "I'll see you around, Teddy," she picked her coat and scarf and ran out of the place to get lost in the snow flakes that were falling outside the castle.

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A/N: Patience...we're getting somewhere. Please, review!!!

Brandi Carlile is the artist of the song I chose for this title.