"Simon's getting married?" Dominique asked, her tone surprised as she lounged lazily across from Victoire in an armchair in the Gryffindor common room. "Seriously married? Like, walking down the aisle, bonded for life, eating hot hors d'oeuvres while you watch your relatives dance terribly, married?"

"That's what Ted says," said Victoire as she reread the last part of the letter he had sent her that morning. "He proposed to Susan and she said yes. They're getting married some time before the baby's due."

"Are they getting married because he knocked her up?"

Victoire rolled her eyes.

"It's a valid question."

Victoire pulled Ted's letter up in front of her face and scanned it again. "Ted says Simon has other reasons. He seems to think Simon was going to do it anyway."

"Because of the baby?"

"I don't know," Victoire said obviously. "You'd have to ask Simon that."

"Because it's not as if you have to get married just because someone is pregnant," Dominique added. "Babies don't automatically equal love. They just mean sex."

"Yes, Nicki, I get that," murmured Victoire. "But maybe this is something he wanted to do anyway? Maybe they both wanted to get married, but the baby is just making them decide to do it sooner?"

"Or maybe he's just doing what's expected of him," Dominique countered. "You know, doing what's—" she made air quote with her fingers, "right."

"Why does it always have to be something like that with you?" Victoire asked. "Why can't it be romantic and sweet? Why does it have to always be something dramatic?"

"Life is dramatic."

Victoire arched her eyebrow. "Because you would know? You've lived such a hard life."

"I don't have to live one to know it exists," she said, standing abruptly from her chair. Without another word, she turned and walked straight towards the girls' dormitory. Their conversation was apparently over.

Victoire sighed and looked back down at Ted's letter, reading it once again. It was a cloudy Halloween afternoon at the end of October, and she had found herself sitting in the common room amidst a random sampling of pumpkins that someone had placed in various spots. No one was really sure who or why someone did it, but every Halloween for the last three years, someone had gone about the Gryffindor common room leaving mysterious pumpkins on various tables, chairs, and shelves. These days they were all but ignored, but it served as a helpful reminder of the day. If anything, it helped Victoire to remember not to eat too much at lunch given that the evening's feast was just hours away.

She looked back up and glanced around the room in a bored stupor. With her schedule what it was, her Thursday afternoons usually found her with lots of empty free time. Almost everyone she knew—with the exception of her sister—was still off in class until the end of the afternoon. She and Dominique typically kept each other company when they weren't napping or studying, but like most instances where the two found themselves spending excessive amounts of time together, they generally found themselves butting heads over something.

However, when her sister wasn't around, Victoire rather enjoyed the calm, quiet of these afternoons. They generally gave her ample time to think or catch up on the schoolwork she had to finish; whether she actually did any of her work was another question entirely. She did manage a lot of napping and daydreaming, which often turned into recurring bouts of fantasizing about Ted. Those thoughts alone, while amazing at the start, always led to exact same feelings of frustration once she was reminded that December still seemed eons away.

It had been two months since she'd last seen him, though he'd written her nine times thus far—a new record. Most of the letters were the same sort of friendly hellos and I-miss-yous, but things were getting a bit more interesting thanks to her decision to spice things up in her last letter; something that had been brought on purely because she had been feeling bored and playful. She immediately smiled as she thought of the last one she'd written him. She had wanted to get a reaction out of him, so she had written a very detailed letter about one of the more interesting daydreams she had about the two of them recently. It was the sort of letter that had her blushing after she'd read it back to herself; the kind that she hoped no one else other than him would see.

She almost hadn't sent it, figuring it was a little unusual for her to be sending sexy letters off in the post. She had actually stood in the owlery for fifteen minutes contemplating whether or not she should do it. In the end, she had decided against it at the last moment, though when she went to retrieve the letter back from her owl, Henley, a group of Slytherin girls had walked in and startled her into spooking him away. Henley had flown away after that; thus making the decision for her.

That had been two days ago, and in the day that had passed, she'd found herself strangely nervous upon awaiting Ted's response. She wasn't even sure why, but when she received his letter that morning, she slowly found herself smiling at his reaction of:

Your last letter…Wow, Vic. Can I just say that I really shouldn't have read that before work? I burned my hand when I stopped paying attention to what I'd been pouring because I was too busy remembering some of the finer points of what you'd written. Also, just so you know, I think we need to try that. All of that. Multiple times. You really need to come home already...

Picturing Ted's face, while he read her letter—and him burning his hand thinking about her letter—had given her endless amounts of amusement in the dull moments of the day...which there were a lot of. She knew she should have been happy to have everything as quiet as it was lately; especially compared to noise that surrounded her last year, but there was no denying that the quiet was usually accompanied by the boring—lots of homework, lots of class work, lots of long hours of the same old, same old. She really wasn't quite sure which was worse—the boring or the drama.

At the same moment Victoire rested on that thought, Dominique reappeared from the dormitory with her Quidditch bag slung over her shoulder. She placed it down in a chair next to Victoire and proceeded to fiddle with her shoelaces.

"Do you have practice?" Victoire asked.

She shook her head. "Jack decided against it for some reason. I just figured I'd go get some air and work on my flying technique."

"It looks like rain," Victoire said, nodding towards the storm clouds outside of the window.

Dominique shrugged as if she didn't care. She picked up her bag and turned towards the portrait hole.

Victoire watched her go, but quickly turned away to shake her head. Leave it to Nicki to want to play in the rain, she thought, stretching out in her chair as she began to contemplate what kind of letter she could write to Ted this time. If he'd gotten a kick out of the last one, she had to be able to do better than that this go around. She laughed to herself the more she thought about being sandwiched between a soft surface and Ted at this very moment. There were so many possibilities that could come out of being in that position; each sounding as inviting as the last.

Unfortunately, just as she'd closed her eyes to properly set herself up to enjoy her daydream, her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of people now pouring back into the common room after their afternoon lessons. Somewhere along the way, she'd lost track of time. Everyone's day was over now.

She sat up and immediately scanned the crowd for Whit, but she was nowhere to be found. Jack was there, animatedly talking with Kenley Mortimer and Martha Ayers—two of the three girls on the Quidditch team—but Whit wasn't with him. She watched as more and more people piled in, but even once the majority of the room had filled, there was still no sign of Whit.

Victoire sighed and looked back towards the window. She couldn't see much from where she was sitting on this side of the room, but a flock of birds was flying in a V shape off in the distance. They stood out against a sky of dark grays and coal colors, looking as if they were heading south for the winter.

The longer she stared, the more she realized that this was an ugly, ugly Halloween. How very appropriate.

"Hey, Vicki," said a voice she recognized, which snapped her back to her surroundings. When she turned, she saw Jack staring back at her.

"Hi, Jack."

"You haven't seen Jane around, have you?"

She shook her head and absently scanned the room once more for Whit. "I thought you'd know where she was."

He shrugged. "I haven't seen her all afternoon." He made a hesitant face. "I told her we'd hang out this afternoon, but some of the team thinks we should try to get a bit of a practice in."

"What is with all of you wanting to fly around when the sky looks like that?" She pointed towards the window.

"It's just a little rain," he said. "These are the best sorts of conditions to practice in."

"You're the Quidditch nut," she said, sounding bored. "Nicki said she was going down to the pitch to fly around, so you'll probably find her down there."

"Yeah, I'm sure I'll run into her," he said, sounding preoccupied. "But, will you do me a favor and tell Jane that's where I went?"

"Sure thing," she said with a quick nod.

He smiled as if he appreciated that before turning to walk back across the room to where Kenley and Martha seemed to be waiting for his response. Victoire could actually pinpoint the moment they must have heard it because they both quickly beamed and immediately darted in the direction of the dorms.

"I'm telling you, Jack," Kenley all but yelled across the room as she strolled by Victoire. "This is a good thing. It's the perfect time to practice."

Victoire watched Kenley pass before she begrudgingly stood up from her chair. She wasn't sure what she was going to do, but it was still a few hours until the feast tonight and she probably had something more productive she could be doing other than daydreaming…as boring as that sounded.

With a lame sigh and a reluctant drag in her step, she made her way up the stairs to her dormitory to see if, perhaps, there was something up there she could be doing. She narrowly avoid Kenley and Martha on the stairs as they talked whispers and practically raced to get back to the common room with their Quidditch supplies, but upon reaching her room, she plopped down on her bed in a huff.

"There's got to be something to do," she mumbled out loud, though no one was there to hear it. "Something besides school work."

The sound of rain drops beating heavily against a nearby window made her briefly look up before she let her head fall lazily back onto her pillow. She closed her eyes and wondered who on earth would willingly want to run around and play Quidditch in this weather. You had to be at least a little mad to find that normal. Actually, not even a little. You had to be a lot mad to find that…

A door slamming made her eyes flutter open. She blinked a few times, feeling oddly groggy and startled. When she pulled herself up and looked to her left, Whit was entering and throwing some of her things down onto her own bed. The room was darker than it had been moments before, though Victoire wasn't entirely sure why.

"I didn't mean to wake you," Whit said quietly.

"I didn't know I'd fallen asleep," Victoire mumbled, rubbing her eyes as if to double check that they'd been closed. "What time is it?"

"A little before six."

"I was out for almost an hour," she said, surprised. "I hadn't meant to sleep."

"Well, are you awake now? Because I have something to tell you and you have to be awake for it."

Victoire squinted at her curiously.

Whit jumped onto her bed—the bed across from Victoire's—and plopped down with a dull thud. Taking a deep breath, as if preparing herself to make some huge declaration, she said, "Okay, so I stayed after in Defense Against the Dark Arts to help Professor Marks clean up after today's assignment. Well, once I had finished, I took the longer of the two short cuts to Gryffindor Tower back. You know the one that tends to be more deserted?"

Victoire nodded.

"I'm crossing across the seventh floor and I'm about to turn the first corner over by the portrait of Artemis the Arduous, right? Well, I hear voices— actually, more like laughter. At first I just think it's the ghosts, or maybe Peeves. Either way, I didn't think much of it. Still, for some weird reason, I decided to look before I turned." Her eyes went wide. "You'll never in a million years guess what I saw."

Victoire sat up straighter. "What?"

"Your brother, looking very involved while snogging—" She stopped for dramatic effect.

"Who!?"

"Sarah Kirke."

Victoire's jaw dropped. "No..."

"That's what I saw."

"But they're just friends."

"They're apparently very friendly friends."

She stared at her. "Are you positive?"

Whit nodded eagerly. "I swear to you that I saw it. When I turned away, I even checked back just to make sure. I also even went and took the long way all the way back up here just so that I could tell you without them seeing me."

"I don't believe it…" Victoire said in a slightly awed tone, though as she spoke something suddenly dawned on her. "Wait. They have been hanging out a lot lately. Like, they've always been friendly, but that's because of Nicki, you know? If Nicki was around, they hung out. But lately, even I've noticed that he seems to be spending more and more time with her. I would have never thought it was because of…" She trailed off.

Whit shrugged. "They both seemed to be enjoying it from where I was standing."

"Oh, jeez," Victoire said with a quick laugh. "She's his sister's best friend. What is he thinking?"

"Not to mention Sarah really close with his ex."

Victoire nodded as that thought resonated with her. Sarah was very close with Louis's ex, Natalie. She had been one of the few people to stick by Natalie last year after a whole mess of trouble had been started when Colleen Lynch blackmailed her into breaking up with Louis. It was that little detail that had always made Victoire suspect that Natalie had never quite gotten over her brother. She could be wrong, of course, but it was just something she sensed. Not that it mattered because Louis appeared to have completely moved on from her given that the drama filled girls never tended to be the ones he found himself dealing with for very long. He couldn't be bothered.

"She and Natalie are friends," Victoire said slowly, shaking her head. "And I can definitely see both Natalie and Nicki taking issue with this."

"You think Nicki will?"

"Oh," Victoire said matter-of-factly, "of course she will. She'll be mad that Louis, who can all but get any girl he wants, is now going after her best friend."

"From what I saw, he wasn't going after anything," Whit said bluntly. "He already had."

"I didn't even think Sarah was his type," Victoire said once she thought about it more. "I mean, she's sweet and bubbly and has actual common sense. He's usually with—" she pulled a doubtful face, "girls that don't have any of those things."

"I don't know about that," said Whit. "Most of the girls I've seen him with have been sweet and bubbly." Her expression turned thoughtful. "Though, the common sense thing is debatable."

"Dominique's going to kiiiiiiiiiill him…" Victoire said in a sing-song tone. "I don't even want to be there when she finds out. What is he thinking? Does he even know what he's about to start?"

"Aren't you curious as to why they were snogging in a rarely used corridor instead of doing it out in the open?" Whit asked. "I think they're both well aware of what could happen if they're making it a point to hide."

"You think they're keeping it a secret on purpose?"

"That does seem to be the Weasley way."

Victoire laughed. "It is, isn't it?" She laughed again. "You know, after he found out about Ted and me, he kept asking how we managed to keep it a secret. He always seemed way too interested in that part, whereas everyone else was more interested in us actually being together."

"You think it's been going on that long?"

Victoire shrugged. "They were hanging out a lot over the summer. I'm almost starting to think that Sarah wasn't accidentally turning up early when she knew Nicki wouldn't be around."

"How sneaky," Whit said with a funny little smile. "You and your brother are more alike than you know."

"Seems that way," Victoire said, casting a furtive look towards the door. So Louis was keeping secrets, too. It looked like she wasn't the only Weasley kid with the capabilities to keep things from people, though, it seemed, Louis wasn't nearly as good at not getting caught as she was. She should probably have a little talk with him about that…

"That look is never good," Whit said slowly.

Victoire turned to see Whit studying her face, seemingly trying to figure out what she was thinking. "I'm just curious what exactly the story is."

"I can ask Jack what he knows," Whit offered. "I wanted to earlier, but I couldn't find him. I have no idea where he is."

"Oh!" Victoire said, suddenly remembering, "Quidditch practice. He wanted me to tell you that. He called a random, emergency Quidditch practice in the rain or something stupid like that."

Whit's face fell. "Again?"

"What's wrong with that?"

She shook her head as if to say nothing, but still looked annoyed by news. "It's just, that's all Jack does these days—school, practice Quidditch, and eat." She frowned. "Well, that is unless he skips meal time for more practice."

"Their first match isn't too far off," Victoire said. "I'm sure he's just worried about the team making a good show."

"Yeah, maybe," Whit said, not sounding at all like she believed that. "I don't know."

"Plus, you said this was a good thing, remember? With you being busy with N.E.W.T. stuff. At least he's keeping himself busy."

"He's keeping himself non-existent," Whit muttered before casting an anxious look down at the floor. "I hate Quidditch."

"Well, if you're looking for something to keep yourself busy in the mean time," she suddenly smiled, "I have an idea…"

Whit stared at her.

Victoire immediately hopped off the bed with an especially excited energy about her. "Let's go bother Louis!"

"Are you really going to say something to him?"

"Of course I'm going to say something," she said obviously. "I'd be a bad sister if I didn't!"

"Don't say it was me who saw them, though," Whit added quickly. "Just say you heard it from someone else."

"Who?"

"Anyone. Just not me."

Victoire stared at her for a moment before waving her hand dismissively. "Fine. Whatever." She turned towards the door. "Let's go have some fun with this!"

Whit begrudged a small groan, but still stood up and followed as they both took to the stairs that led down to the common room. With a spring in her step, Victoire couldn't help but find that she was in a surprisingly giggly mood all of the sudden. Perhaps it was because she finally had something to do, or perhaps it was because she could go and make her brother cringe for a bit. She wasn't sure, but it was the cure for her boredom that she had been looking for.

"Now where is he?" Victoire said as they reached the bottom of the stairs and she scanned the room. All around them, most of Gryffindor's students were busy doing their homework or socializing with each other about the Halloween feast that evening.

"There," Whit said, pointing towards the window.

It only took Victoire a second to see where she was indicating. Louis was sitting at a table by the far right window with Flynn and Sarah. Had she not heard what she'd just heard from Whit, she would have never even suspected anything was different. Even now, the two were positioned catty-corner from each other at the table; not next to each other or across from each other; they were barely even paying attention to each other. Flynn was the one sitting there doing all the talking.

Then again, maybe that was the sign…

"Don't say it was me," Whit reminded her.

Victoire threw her a look that said, "I know..." before she made a beeline towards their table. She immediately pulled out the empty chair that resided next to her brother and plopped down into it. She was going to have some fun with this.

"Hey, Lou."

"Hey," he said lazily and without looking up from what he was writing. He looked to be busy transferring notes from his book to piece of parchment.

She looked directly across the table at Sarah. She, too, was taking notes, her quill hastily scribbling over a piece of half filled parchment. "Hi, Sarah."

Sarah looked up and smiled at her. "Hi, Vicki."

She turned back to her brother, trying with difficulty to hide her smile. "Louis," she said, a definite playfulness in her tone, "trick or treat?"

He looked up at her. "Sorry?"

"Trick of treat?" she repeated. "It is Halloween after all."

He continued to stare at her, his eyebrow slowly starting to rise. "What are you playing at?"

"Why do I have to be playing at anything?" she asked, attempting to sound innocuous. "I'm just trying to figure something out."

"And that is?"

"I'm just curious if what you were doing in the seventh-floor corridor about twenty minutes ago was more of a trick or a treat for you?" She grinned. "My guess is treat."

Louis continued to stare at her, looking as if he had to think about that for a second. It hadn't dawned on him right away, though when it did, the recognition was more than apparent on his face. His eyes grew wider and his mouth curled into a slight frown.

"What were you doing twenty minutes ago?" asked Flynn.

Victoire continued to smile at her bother, as if still she was anticipating an answer from him. She watched as his eyes darted to Sarah for a half a second before he took a deep breath and pushed his chair away from the table. He stood and, without a word, gestured across the room towards the portrait hole.

Victoire bounced out of her seat, but before she went after him, she chanced a glance at Sarah. Suddenly, she was exceptionally interested in keeping her eyes glued down on the work in front of her. So much so, that she seemed to be ignoring the giant ink splotch that was accumulating beneath her quill tip from not moving it.

Victoire quickly followed after Louis, just managing to catch up to his quick strides as they reached the portrait hole.

"Louis William Weasley. You're asking for it."

Louis didn't even look at her until they were well on the other side of the portrait hole. The second he set foot onto the main corridor, he turned and shrugged at her. "What do you want me to say?"

"What are you doing?"

"Right now? In the future? In fifteen minutes?"

"With Sarah."

His face immediately said he didn't want to talk about this, but his shoulders shrugged.

"You don't know?"

He shrugged again.

"Are you trying to start trouble?" she asked. "Because Nicki will probably go mental when she hears this. Natalie probably won't be too happy either."

"I don't care what Natalie thinks."

"What about Nicki?"

He shrugged again

She mocked his shrug. "That's all you've got to say for yourself?"

He shrugged.

Victoire rolled her eyes. "So what? Are you just going to make your way through Nicki's dorm room until everyone's been ticked off your list?"

He shook his head and smiled a little. "I don't have a list, Vic. Give me some credit."

She looked away from him. It was hard to get mad at Louis—or rather, it was hard to stay mad at him. There was always such a playful, laid back nature in the way he approached things that it always seemed like she was the one who was overreacting to whatever the current issue at hand was. Even the way he stood there smiling made her suddenly wonder why exactly she was giving him a hard time.

"Louis, Louis, Louis…" she sighed.

He laughed. "What?"

"You're asking for it."

"Asking for what?" he asked coolly. "Nicki to bitch at me? Even if this never happened, she'd still do that. At least I'm giving her a halfway decent reason this go around." He paused for a long moment. "Are you going to tell her?"

"Am I not supposed to?"

He shrugged for probably the tenth time. "I don't care one way or the other."

She scrunched her face up in confusion. "If you don't care, then why is this a secret?"

"I never said it was," he said. "It's more that it's new. I was waiting to see where it went before I started telling people. All we've done is kiss a few times, so it's hardly like I've gone and proposed."

She stared at him.

"Also, I find it funny that you're asking why anyone would want to keep a relationship a secret."

"I had a reason."

"Which was what?"

"Because Ted and I wanted to spend some time together before everyone decided to throw their opinions on us," she said. "Before Mum and Dad went mental."

He nodded as if he agreed with that.

"Mum and Dad aren't going to go mental if they hear you're with Sarah," she added. "There's a difference."

"They won't, but Nicki probably will. And I'd rather avoid that while it's still so new. It's why I haven't said anything."

Victoire sighed and looked away. "Why Sarah?"

"Why Ted?" he countered.

She made a face. "Are you just going to turn everything I ask back around on me?"

He smiled. "I just want you to be able to listen to yourself before you give me shit."

"My situation is a lot different."

"Why? Because you two have been best buddies for so long?" he asked, almost patronizingly. "I know Sarah and I were never the best of friends, but we've been friends for years now. Things have changed, which I assume is the same sort of deal you and Ted had happen. One day you can just sort of realize you feel different about someone. You, of all people, should know that."

She rolled her eyes. Yes, she of all people should know that, but it still didn't convince her that her brother was going through anything similar to what she and Ted had gone through.

"You say this is new?" Victoire asked, crossing her arms across her chest. "How new are we talking? Days? A month?"

"About three days, maybe" he said, smiling a little. "Seriously, it just started happening. I'm sort of shocked it got out so fast. How did you find out?"

"I have sources," she said hastily before returning to her original question. "And only three days? I was convinced you were going to tell me that it's been happening since this summer."

He shook his head. "I started fancying her over the summer, but nothing happened."

"So, all those times Sarah randomly turned up when Nicki wasn't around, but you just so happened to be—?"

Louis started to laugh. "What, you think I planned it out for her to get there early so she and I could be alone before Nic got home?"

"Yes, I actually did."

He shook his head, still smiling. "If only I had been clever enough to think of that then, but she was telling the truth when she came over looking for Nic. It was all just a coincidence." He smiled. "A very convenient coincidence, but still a coincidence."

Victoire studied his face. He looked as if he was being serious, and she realized that he really had no reason to lie. After all, what was the point? The secret was out.

She sighed and glanced back towards the portrait hole. "But you actually fancy her, right? Not just quick sort of thing. You've got actual feelings?"

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not talking about this with you."

"Why not?" she asked, looking putout.

"Because you're my sister," he said before he took a step around her and back towards the portrait hole.

"Louis, I really like Sarah," Victoire said, watching as the portrait hole swung open. "She's a nice girl. If you do something stupid, Nicki's not the only one who will probably kick your arse."

"Well, I like her too," he said over his shoulder, just as he stepped through the hole. "So, how about I don't go doing something stupid?"

She didn't hesitate for even a moment to follow after him back into the common room. "Wait, so am I not supposed to say anything, or am I allowed to say something?"

"Do me a favor," Louis said, stopping to face her. "Just keep it quiet until I can work out how to tell Nic without her wanting to curse me. Okay?"

Victoire shrugged as if she could agree with that. She supposed avoiding as much bloodshed as possible was always the best route to go. Not to mention, who was she to go around telling other people's secrets? That would be rather hypocritical.

Louis said nothing further, but turned on the spot and walked straight back over to where he had been sitting earlier. Victoire watched as Sarah immediately looked up and asked him something, and continued to watch as Louis nodded yes to whatever it was she had asked. Seconds later, Sarah glanced over at Victoire in a seemingly startled manner, but quickly mustered a weak smile when she saw she was being watched. Victoire returned the smile brightly.

"So?" asked Whit, who appeared just at that moment. "What happened?"

"I guess something's going on," Victoire said, turning her attention onto to her, "but it's new so they don't know quite what yet. He hasn't told Nicki and I'm not supposed to talk about things until he does, I guess."

Whit shook her head. "You Weasleys sure love making things difficult on yourselves, don't you?"

A/N: Yes, yes, many of you saw Louis and Sarah coming; most were just waiting for it to surface. :) I've actually had a few requests for companion stories from this series. People asking for certain scenes or stories that Ted and Victorie's POV wouldn't necessarily have access to. I've only entertained the idea a little, but I'll admit that some of you have got me thinking...and the last time you got me thinking, "The Start", "The Spark", and this story here were born...

While I have plans to certainly expand my next-gen universe, I hadn't thought about expanding it in the Ted/Vic period (I'd thought about going to the younger set of cousins). But now I'm curious about expanding it where it already lays in addition to all of that. I will say that if I do any other story from this specific set of characters, Louis and Sarah would be one of them (not a series, mind you, just a small story). They've actually got (what I think) is an interesting little story, and most of it you don't even get to see since Victoire can only be privy to so much of it as a sister. (And yes, I sometimes DO think I'm crazy for actually planning out these B-character story lines to the extent I do--knowing they won't really see the light of day since they don't fully concern the main characters--but I can't help it, lol).

I don't know, it's just something I'm thinking about...