J.K. Rowling owns.

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Victoire

Victoire spent that night curled up on her bed crying. She felt absolutely pathetic, but knew that if she let out her anger and frustration and disappointment and confusion and all the other horrible emotions she was experiencing that night, she would find it easier to seem strong in the morning. She would be less likely to break at an inopportune moment, such as whilst speaking to Teddy.

And so Victoire cried that night, and slept late the next morning. She examined her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were only a little red, otherwise there was no evidence of her late-night tears.

She couldn't help feeling angry that she cared so much. It shouldn't matter to her. As she had said to Teddy the night before, her hear sinking as she did so, they weren't dating. They weren't related. He was just a friend, albeit a friend who was like a brother to her. But still. He was just a friend. So why did it bother her so much?

There was only one conclusion that made sense. Her childish crush had returned.

Damn.

Victoire convinced herself that it was nothing she couldn't deal with however. She would wait, avoid Teddy as much as possible, until it died down, as she was sure it would. It was just a crush.

She had missed breakfast, and had to wait until lunch to be able to eat something, meaning that she was starving. She was sat in the common room, waiting for lunch, when Jenny came over to where she was sitting.

"So what happened yesterday?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Victoire replied, in a measured casual tone.

"Really?" Jenny said, raising an eyebrow. "We're really going to play this game?"

Victoire sighed. She really didn't want to talk about it. The walls she had built up last night were still weak, and could come crashing down. She needed to stay strong, so that Teddy wouldn't see how much she was hurting.

"I'm fine, Jenny. Absolutely fine," Victoire said.

"Right," Jenny said, her eyebrows almost disappearing into her forehead. "Fine. If you ever do want to talk about it, you know where I am. I'll be waiting patiently." She began to walk away before turning around again. "I just thought you'd like to know that Felicity seems a bit upset as well this morning, and judging by the way she was wrapped around Jeff Longhurst last night, I'd say that something didn't go entirely as planned wouldn't you?"

And with that she walked away, leaving Victoire to her very confused thoughts.

At lunch, she sat with Jenny and Felicity and the other girls from her dormitory. She couldn't help noticing that the group seemed unusually quiet, and this was because Felicity wasn't saying anything. She did look upset, Victoire thought. There was only so much that could be hidden by make-up and an air of disdain. Felicity looked around at everyone, as though they were beneath her. But Victoire had a feeling that she was trying to hide something.

Back in the common room, Victoire couldn't concentrate. Her thoughts were rambling, taking bizarre and unknown paths. She needed to clear her head, and she felt that she knew the one room that would allow her to do that.

She made her way to the seventh floor, and the blank stretch of wall. For the second time in as many days she walked up and down, three times, thinking with all her heart, I need a place to be alone. The door materialised, and Victoire walked through it.

"What are you doing here?"

The brown-haired figure stood by the fireplace jumped and spun around.

"I could ask you the same thing," Teddy replied.

Victoire didn't answer.

"Seeing as how we've both found the same room, I assume we are here for the same reason," Teddy said.

"Sorry," Victoire mumbled, backing out. "If you want I'll-"

"Don't go!" Teddy said. "I want to talk to you! You have to let me explain!"

Victoire paused for a moment. She really should hear his side of the story. After all, what did she know? That Teddy and Felicity had kissed. And the fact that Felicity hadn't been bragging about it at Lunch, had seemed a little upset, had ended the evening in a corner with another boy, had to mean… something. She hardly dared hope what.

"All right." She sat down on the sofa where she had poured out her heart yesterday. "Explain."

Teddy looked relieved that she had given him a chance. "She attacked me Vic! She waited until all you guys had gone and then she kept talking about how good a Captain I was, doing that stupid eyelash thing, then the next thing I know she's practically on top of me! I managed to get her off, but you must have come in at the wrong moment! I can see that it must have looked awful, but you have to understand, it wasn't like that at all!"

Victoire looked at him. It made more sense, she had to admit. "So what did you do then?" she asked.

"I told her to stop, but she'd got it into her head that I'd encouraged her somehow. You know I would never do that! Then she got all offended and told me not to tell anyone, then spent the rest of the night with Longhurst! Please Vic, you have to believe me! You know I'd never be interested in someone like her!"

Victoire could see in his eyes that he was telling the truth. His eyes were pleading, desperate. Besides, she knew that most of the time, Teddy was a fairly truthful person. He wouldn't lie about something like this.

"I… I believe you," she said.

Teddy looked relieved, and his hair flickered back to blue. "Thanks. I can't believe that she thought I fancied her!"

"She does get some things into her head sometimes. Like she was convinced that Professor Rowlands was trying to make a pass at her."

"Really?" Teddy snorted. "Are you actually kidding me?"

"Not at all," Victoire said. "Jenny and I managed to convince her otherwise before she did something really stupid, like go to McGonagall about it. But she can be like that sometimes. Convinced that everyone fancies her."

Teddy laughed. "I just hope she doesn't quit the team because of this. She's the only other half-decent chaser we've got."

"Yeah," said Victoire, secretly thinking that she'd rather lose a few matches than have to put up with Felicity on the team for a year. "I'm sure she won't. It's the perfect opportunity to pretend that she doesn't like you at all, whilst secretly watching you the whole time, and trying to get you to notice her, so that she can turn you down."

Teddy laughed. "Girls really do that?"

"Sometimes," Victoire said, grinning. "Never underestimate girl logic."

"You are a strange bunch," he said.

"Ha! No stranger than boys when they're pretending to be all macho and cool in front of their friends!" Victoire protested. "If I had a knut for every boy who's tried to ask me out because they're trying to look big in front of their friends…"

Teddy laughed. "I bet you shot them down straight away."

"Hell yes! The creeps. Who do they think they are?"

"Well, it's your own fault. You really are too pretty for your own good," Teddy grinned.

Victoire blushed a little. She was glad things were all right between them. She desperately didn't want to lose his friendship.

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I suppose I could have drawn the misunderstanding out longer... but that's unlikely to happen. They'd get through it pretty qickly, seeing as it wasnt really Teddy's fault. So yeah, hope you enjoyed it!