Shades of Denial

14 | In Which the L-Word is Spoken

August 29, 2017

"Ha! I win again!" Bill declared triumphantly.

Victoire glared at him and threw down the rest of her cards. He'd beaten her five times in a row at Exploding Snap. Fleur looked up at them in amusement from where she sat on the windowsill with a sketchbook and pencil in her lap. Dominique was curled up on the couch reading. Only Louis was absent, upstairs in his room.

For the past couple weeks Victoire had been more present. She'd worked things out with Ginger and Harriet and spent more time with her family. And it was nice. She was happy, they were happy. She just felt sort of…empty. Unfulfilled. Lacking.

And she missed Teddy like crazy.

But she wasn't going to dwell on him. She pushed all thoughts of him to the edge of her mind, where they stayed, forbidden to come forward. She refused to let him be front and center in all her thoughts like he used to be. She had to focus on her family and on herself. And besides, she was going to start her seventh year at Hogwarts in two days; she couldn't afford to lose track of her goals.

She still felt a little sad, though. He had been one of her best friends, after all. He hadn't been trying to send her any letters recently and she didn't run into him when her family went into Diagon Alley to buy school supplies. She wondered if he was avoiding her.

Ding-dong!

Fleur's eyebrows pushed together in confusion as she set aside her things and got up to answer the door. Bill started dealing the cards again, even though Victoire didn't really want to play another game.

"Oh, Teddy! What a nice surprise!" Fleur exclaimed.

Victoire's heart skipped a beat as she sucked in a shocked breath. Dom looked over at her with a concerned expression.

"Hello, Aunt Fleur, 'scuse me," Teddy said, stepping past her and into the house. His expression was frantic and his hair was dark brown: restless.

"Ees something ze matter?" she asked she closed the door.

"I need to talk to you," he said in a low voice to Victoire. "In private."

"I don't think that's a good idea," she replied, trying to keep her voice even as she avoided his eye contact.

"Fine," he said, pursing his lips and nodding. "Fine. Then I'll say it here."

He turned to Fleur, then Bill.

"Victoire and I were secretly dating," he declared.

Bill's jaw dropped and Fleur's eyes widened. Dom rolled her eyes, since she'd already guessed.

"What are you doing?!" she hissed.

"Yeah, we got together at Louis' birthday party," he told them. "We wanted to keep it a secret because we knew everybody would be all over us. We wanted to figure us out before we revealed us to the world.

"We wrote letters to each other all the time and tried to meet up in Diagon Alley every now and then. Most of the time we were only able to see each other at family events," he continued. "So we would steal away for a while. But because of that, we missed things."

He looked apologetically at Dom, who nodded understandingly.

"We unintentionally pulled away from the family because we were juggling two different lives," he told them. "Toire realized this and told me it had to change. We were going to go public, but then she decided to break it off."

Victoire stared down at her lap, her cheeks flaming, as her parents' gaze switched to her. His hair turned blue and sad.

"I was really upset at first, still am a bit, but I understand now why she did it. Family comes first. It always has," he said. "So I've been giving her space."

He wrung his hands together, obviously nervous.

"But these past weeks have been miserable for me," he confessed, looking directly at Victoire now. "And I know they haven't been all that peachy for you, either. Don't you feel something missing? Something lacking?" He sighed and chewed his lip. "Without you, Toire, my life just has this huge, gaping hole in it. And I don't want to live that way. I can't live that way."

He set his jaw and stood up a little straighter, looking Bill directly in the eyes.

"Which is why I'm asking your permission, Uncle Bill, to date Victoire publically so we can share our relationship with everyone, and so we can spend our time with family and with each other. Because it shouldn't be one or the other," he declared, puffing his chest out. He then looked at Victorie and his expression softened. "And…and because I'm in love with her."

Fleur squeaked. Bill's poker face was replaced by one of shock. Dom's book fell out of her lap as her hands flew to her face. Louis, who had been walking down the stairs to investigate the commotion, tripped as he walked.

But Victoire noticed none of this. She was transfixed by Teddy, and the revelation of his confession. His hair had turned an embarrassed peachy color, but the expression was true and sincere. The air had all been sucked out of her lungs and tears of happiness sprang into her eyes. Her heart swelled at hearing the words she'd waited so long to hear.

"I, um…well perhaps – er – " Bill stuttered, attracting their attention.

"Of course!" Fleur exclaimed. "Of course you 'ave our permeesion!"

"I-If she – if she will…er, have you," Bill said finally.

Teddy turned to Victoire, a shy smile on his face.

She nodded tearfully, too happy to be embarrassed of how girly she was acting.

"Yes," she breathed. "Yes, of course, Teddy, I – "

He pulled her up and kissed her hard. She kissed him back for a moment, then remembered her family was watching. She broke apart and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his chest. He wrapped his arms around her securely, resting his chin on her head.

"Um, we should give them a moment," Dominique whispered, getting up from the couch.

"Oh! Oui!" Fleur said, then began shoving Bill and Louis up the stairs. Dominique followed them, meeting Victoire's eyes over her shoulder and smiling.

Once they were upstairs – but undoubtedly listening in – Victoire pulled away and smiled up at him.

"So," she said with a smile. "We're doing this again."

"We're doing this the right way," he corrected. "No secrets, no sneaking. Just us."

"That sounds wonderful," she replied, getting up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

He obliged and leaned down to meet her lips. He sighed into the kiss and pressed his hands against her back. When they pulled away, she noticed his hair was a deep violet color.

She made a confused face. "I've never seen your hair that color before," she said.

He pulled a lock of his hair around to look at it. He laughed and kissed her forehead.

"That's because I've never felt this way before," he replied, smiling widely at her. "I love you, Toire."

She smiled and put a hand on his cheek. "Teddy, I've always loved you."

His eyes crinkled with happiness. "Sorry it took me so long to catch up."

They could hear Fleur and Dominique's coos of "Aww!" as they leaned in to kiss each other again.