A/N: This chapter has been edited since it was first posted. If you're reading it a second time and it seems a bit different to how you remember you're not going crazy.
"It's awfully quiet in there," Roger yelled through the doorway jokingly. Victoire jumped and hastily tried to mop up the damage that half an hour of crying had done to her appearance, "Are you two decent? Can I look now?" The lack of panicked exclamations or expletives seemed to indicate to him that the coast was clear because he opened the door making a show of dropping the hand covering his eyes. Almost immediately his face dropped too. She met his eyes briefly with her own bloodshot ones.
"That boy..." he looked heavenward and beyond frustrated, "what more do you want me to do," he muttered towards the ceiling, addressing who knew what, "give him all the right ingredients and he still manages to screw it up." He dumped his belongings on the counter with a huff and turned to stare at her. A frown burrowed between his eyebrows as he regarded her, "What am I meant to do with you two?" Victoire didn't have an answer for him, in fact she wasn't even sure she understood the question, so she just shrugged uncomfortably.
Roger sank into the couch beside her with a world weary sigh, "I hope he wasn't too beastly to you at least. I have told him before he needs to be less Neolithic in his treatment of fair maidens." An involuntary laugh startled out of her, along with some unshed tears. This seemed to alarm Roger more than anything.
"Now there, there don't cry," he said producing a monogrammed handkerchief from a back pocket. Victoire raised an eyebrow, "Teddy may think he's something special but he's nothing to go ruining such pretty makeup for." By his tone she didn't think he truly meant what he was saying.
"Sorry," she sniffled trying to repair the damage done to Dom's carefully applied makeup.
"Oh don't be sorry sweetheart that boy regularly makes me want to cry," he joked. "Mostly because he's a stubborn arse," the fact that he muttered that bit made Victoire think she wasn't meant to hear it. She attempted a shaky smile.
"He is a stubborn arse," Victoire sighed, "but he's usually a right arse too." She'd been dwelling on what he'd said about her and Markel and she didn't like some of the conclusions she'd been drawing.
"Doesn't it make him the most infuriating person ever?"
"The absolute worst," she agreed though her heart wasn't in it.
"And he just left you out here to find your own way home," Roger regarded her levelly, the closest she supposed he would get to grim, "That's not like him." Victoire gave a lopsided shrug.
"He doesn't care," she sniffled.
"Honey I don't think that's the problem at all," Roger said with a wry smile, "Well we're not connected to the flu network yet but I can offer you one of two very fine owls that live here to deliver a message to your parents regarding your current predicament," Roger offered.
"And let my family know that Teddy and I are fighting again? No thank you," Victoire replied with another sniffle.
"I'm sensing you and Theodore have a somewhat more tumultuous relationship then he let on?"
"Something like that," Victoire replied shifting uneasily. Sensing the topic made her uncomfortable Roger took pity on her and changed the subject, "Perhaps that's a discussion for another night. Let's get back to how we're going to get your dazzling self home. I'm not putting you on the Knight Bus dressed like that," he said bouncing around the living room, briefly glancing at her outfit.
"If you can lend me a spare broom I'll take that home," Victoire suggested, "I'd send it back as soon as I got there." He spared her the merest glance of amusement.
"And risk death by Teddy Lupin. My dear I may not have known Teddy as long as you have but even I know that sending you out into the night, alone, would be suicide."
"I think Teddy has forgone his right to dictate my movements today," she replied mulishly.
Roger regarded her slightly longer this time no doubt noting the tone of discontent, "Be that is as it may I will not risk putting myself on the wrong end of our Theodore's very extensive repertoire of curses for throwing you out there alone."
"So come with me," she suggested.
He narrowed his eyes at her, which confused her till he said, "You're not trying that Veela thing on me are you?"
Victoire briefly considered fluttering her eyelashes and giving it a shot but she couldn't seem to summon up the necessary enthusiasm. "No," she sighed, "I'm not even sure it would work considering…" she stalled realizing her rudeness, "I just," she looked up at him and found she could at least summon her best puppy dog eyes, "really don't want to stay here."
He sighed gustily but reached for his coat anyway, "Okay," he relented with a jerk of his head, "I'll take you home but we're not taking a broom; I just got my hair the way I like it." Her laugh came out more as a hiccup then a giggle. Roger's expression softened. "Come on sweetheart," he said helping her into her coat, courteously ignoring her sniffles but Victoire couldn't help her eyes straying to Teddy's door. Roger must have caught Victoire's dejected expression because he frowned towards his flatmate's room, "Or you're welcome to stay and try to sort it out now."
"He won't talk to me," Victoire said looking up at him miserably as he ushered her to the door.
"Then go home, get some sleep and send him an owl in the morning," Roger said gently.
"He probably wouldn't read it."
"Then send him ten thousand owls till he listens long enough for you to tell him what you need to. Trust me if it's what I think you want to tell him he'll listen."
"You think?" Vic asked hating the desperate wheedling tone in her voice but somehow unable to stop it.
"Don't worry I'll definitely be having words with our Theodore tonight. He'll heed them if I have anything to say about it. I'll make sure he comes round," he shucked her chin just the way Teddy sometimes did and ushered her through the door. "Any man who can stay mad at you gorgeous is a stubborn man indeed."
Victoire went back to school and about her classes in a distracted haze of gloom that no amount of cajoling or bullying on her family's part could shift. They only knew that she and Teddy had had another fight. Occasionally they would try to convince her that Teddy was just busy with his new job, but as days passed and Teddy still ignored her letters their defense of Teddy's absence became less and less, losing any conviction it might have once had.
So when the next Hogsmeade trip arrived Victoire was less than inclined to go. She didn't particularly relish being the third wheel with a blissful Elyse and Thomas but they were so hopeful that a change of scenery would alleviate some of her misery that Victoire couldn't refuse.
All right she only went because she was hoping Teddy would change his mind and come meet her as she'd begged. But when they reached the gate to Hogsmeade it wasn't Teddy that was waiting companionably alongside Thomas.
Roger cut a very stylish figure in his long navy trench coat and grey wool scarf. Victoire definitely saw more than a few people eyeing him appreciatively. He struck her as the type of Wizard who meticulously kept track of wizard and Muggle fashion. He unfolded himself from the gate with admirable grace and stepped towards her.
"You know my dear on anyone else that sweater would look disastrous but you manage to make it look farm fresh charming," he said eying her up and down with a wistful sigh. Victoire looked down at herself, she hadn't really been paying attention when she'd dressed that morning, and found that she'd somehow ended up in one of Grandma's Weasley sweaters. A dark green one this time that she was fairly certain wasn't one of hers, which hopefully explained the bagginess. From this angle the shaky W looked like an M.
She scowled, if Teddy had been here she certainly wouldn't have made the knock out impression she'd been dreaming of, "No really," Roger said obviously taking her scowl as skepticism, "with the shorts and boots it rather endearing."
"Roger," she said trying a smile out on him, it faltered as the whispers of fellow students reached them, "What are you doing here?"
The gossiping quickly dimmed Victoire's pleasure but Roger would not be swayed. He tweaked her no doubt red nose, "Well unlike some gentlemen who shall remain nameless I would never waste the company of such a beautiful lady." Victoire rolled her eyes; she'd realized in the brief time she'd known him that at least part of the charm Roger exuded was sheer bedazzlement. He blinded you with his ineffable personality till you simply forgot you were strangers. He gave her a beatific smile, "I thought that I might be suitable entertainment for the day considering your other plans fell through."
"I think you really came to scope out cute boys," Victoire accused him with a smile.
"For shame would I do something so nefarious when a young girl's happiness is at stake?" he said putting a wounded hand to his heart. Not able to help it Victoire giggled.
"Probably," she laughed nodding at Elyse and Thomas as they moved off, suddenly feeling much better about today.
"Now if school uniforms were involved that would be another story entirely," Roger lamented with a sigh. Victoire poked him in the ribs to get him moving.
"They're underage," she admonished him, realising with a start that she sounded exactly like Teddy.
"Not all of them," he replied tucking her hand into the crook of his arm as if he was a proper gentleman and she a proper lady, "besides I don't have quite as much of a problem with an age gap as some people," he said winking at, of all people, Lysander Scamander as he scurried past blushing furiously. Victoire decided to ignore the pointed reference.
"You know," she said, "he has an identical twin." She waggled her eyebrows at him and he laughed.
"Ahh finally the good girl reputation starts to tarnish," Roger teased.
"Please it was never that polished," Victoire quipped back, "but…let's not tell Teddy that."
"Doll I don't think there's anything about you that he doesn't already know," Roger said.
"Oh I can think of some things," mumbled Victoire.
Roger said with a salacious grin, "Oh really. Like the fact that twins are what those pretty blue peepers pin themselves on huh?"
Victoire bumped his shoulder companionably but she couldn't help her smile from falling just a little, "Hardly."
"Well that's a relief it would make my plans for today rather awkward if you did," he said steering her away from the throngs of school students heading for Honeydukes and Zonkos and down a side street. Victoire dug her feet in, skidding slightly on the fresh snow, and looked at him suspiciously.
"You're not setting me up on a blind date are you?" Victoire squeaked. She could not explain the sheer panic that overwhelmed her at the thought, she hated blind dates. The distaste on Roger's face kind of answered that one.
"If I was setting you up on a blind date honey I'd tell you."
"Okay," She felt stupid even voicing her next question, "You were here to scope out cute boys right?" Roger turned back to look at her incredulously and summarily burst out laughing, Victoire blushed to her hairline.
"Sweetheart I thought you were brighter than that," he chuckled, "though that was possibly one of the nicer ways I've been asked if I was gay. And no I'm not taking you on a sneaky date either if that's what you're getting at." Victoire eyed him doubtfully but his amusement didn't appear fake so she let him pull her along again, leading her gently down the backstreets of Hogsmeade, towards the Hog's Head.
"Then where are we going?"
"Curious little thing aren't you?" Roger laughed, "you're about to find out." Just as she thought he was going to drag her into the dingy pub she'd so disastrously visited with Roger, he ducked under the awning of a small forgotten bookstore pulling her with him. Victoire coughed as she waited for her eyes to adjust. Dust motes, that their entry had no doubt stirred up, danced in the shallow stream of light from the shop front window. She could see why it was a forgotten bookstore; the titles on the shelf archaic and dusty, the only sign of life an unattended quill bobbing along, for all appearances cataloguing the collection on its accompanying parchment. That, and her sister sitting at the lone table her elbows resting gingerly on the barest edge and her hands steepled together thoughtfully suggested a desire for secrecy that did not bode well for herself. Dominique's pretty face suffused with an alarming mixture of satisfaction and determination as she watched Victoire's stalled approach. Victoire had stopped the moment she saw her loving sister.
Instantly apprehensive Victoire asked, "What's going on?"
"This is an intervention," Dominique said with all seriousness.
"You have got to be kidding me," Victoire said turning around to make her escape only to find Roger reclined across the doorway. One eyebrow rose languidly in silent question to her stare, "And you seemed so nice," she accused him. His smile quirked up on one side to match his eyebrow but he didn't move.
"I am nice, in fact I'm delightful but I can't guarantee that I will remain so if this current situation continues." Victoire frowned at him suspicion creeping in over her annoyance. She liked Roger, she really did but she also hadn't been naïve enough to think that being Teddy's flatmate wouldn't cause problems. She just hadn't thought it would be so soon.
"I wasn't aware you two knew each other," Vic said.
"A strange guy dropped you home after a party you ran away from and you didn't think I'd find a way to introduce myself?" Dominque said in a tone that said she knew Victoire was stalling. Roger smiled wolfishly and pulled out a chair at the small table for her like he was an attending gentleman and not a willing accomplice. Victoire crossed her arms and glared at him.
"Upon acquaintance we came to discover that we had more in common than dashing good looks," he said with a crooked grin.
"And impeccable fashion taste," Dominique added.
"And exquisite taste," Roger conceded, "Partnering with your charmingly devious sister seemed like the most likely way to solve our shared predicament."
"Always happy to assist debonair, scheming gentleman," Dom preened. Victoire looked between them uneasily.
"Okay, okay, I concede," she said halting the litany of accolades by sliding into the creaky seat Roger had pulled out for her, "the thought of you two knowing each other worries me enough. Any longer listening to you two compliment each other and I may actually start to fear for society," Roger's eyes twinkled at her, "What is this problem you think I can help you with?"
Lips twitching in amusement Roger turned to her, "I think you misunderstand honey. You're not the solution. You're the problem."
"I'm the problem?" Victoire said incredulously, looking between their two resolute faces, "How am I a prob_" she stopped her eyes narrowing . The scheming look in her sisters' eyes confirmed her misgivings rather than dissuaded them. Victoire groaned loudly, "Not this again Dom. Please tell me this is not about me and Teddy?" Dominique far from denying it crossed her arms echoing her own pose and stared unflinchingly back.
She sent a beseeching look towards Roger, still standing in the doorway, as the potentially more sympathetic party but he only gave an unrepentant shrug in response, "Don't look at me. I figured out a long time ago that if I wanted to rescue my flat from becoming a shrine to your beauty I'd have to get Theodore the real thing to play with." Victoire flushed and fine-tuned her look to a glare, but Roger immune to her Veela charms seemed equally as immune to her Veela temper. He didn't seem to be aware of the innuendo in his statement either and Victoire wasn't inclined to point it out to him with Dominique in the room. "Oh don't get me wrong," he said misinterpreting her glower, "You make a lovely decoration, just not one I want plastered all over my apartment."
Victoire pressed the heels of her hands against her eyeballs seething; somehow she knew there was no point correcting Roger on the ridiculousness of his statement. They'd said intervention but they were conducting this more in the style of an interrogation. Dominique sitting directly across from her was tapping her long fingernails impatiently on the table and Roger stood just in her line of sight subtly blocking the door in case she decided to run. Victoire would have found it amusing if she hadn't been considering doing just that.
This was not an argument she wanted to have with her sister again, especially not now when she felt fragile and vulnerable and not at all sure of her own feelings on the matter. Particularly with Roger, who already knew more of her feelings than she was comfortable with, in the same room.
Feeling defensive she traded a scowl between them, "I fail to see how what happens between me and Teddy is any of your business, let alone your problem."
"You know usually I would agree with you. It's no skin of my pretty powdered nose if the both of you want to live in denial for the rest of yours lives," Dom said with an offhanded wave.
"I'm not in denial," Victoire snarled.
Dom continued as she hadn't spoken, "But when you start biting off the heads of those around you it becomes a problem."
"Theodores's not much better," Roger agreed, "He's been moping around the apartment since school started alternating breaking my expensive crockery and listening to truly morose warbling by that band he likes the…" he fished around for the name, "…Mellifluous Mopers."
Victoire snorted despite herself, "It's the Mellifluous Moaners Roger. And I don't see how you can blame Teddy's horrible taste in music on me too." Dominique made a harangued gesture that Victoire roughly translated to 'you see what I have to deal with.'
Roger gave an exasperated sigh, "I can see Teddy wasn't exaggerating your stubbornness either. Look the crux of the matter is that you're wallowing, Teddy's moping and those of us who call ourselves your friends are trapped in the miserable tempest between you two."
"Teddy doesn't mope," Victoire said latching onto what she thought was the safest part of that sentence. She found it hard to imagine unshakable Teddy doing something as incongruous as moping.
"Oh Teddy mopes alright," Roger confirmed, "He's a moper. He's worse than a puppy when you've taken away its favourite bone," Victoire hoped the implication there wasn't that she was the bone, because that would be a horrible entendre, "I should know I've witnessed it enough. Every single time you guys have a fight I fear for my sanity and my crockery all over again."
"Come on fess up, you two have been acting weird ever since Carnie Wilson's party. Did you have another lover's quarrel or something?" Dom asked jokingly. That hit a little bit too close to home and Victoire could not stop the uncomfortable flush creeping up her neck.
She shrugged, "We had a fight. So what? As Roger's already pointed out that's hardly unusual."
"No something is definitely different this time," Dominique asserted gently, as if she really did care, "What happened after you broke Saunder's nose?"
"Nothing happened!" Victoire said defensively.
"You've been acting weird even for you."
"No I haven't!"
The caring light vanished. Dominique's blue eyes, so like Vic's own, glaring at her across the table turned flinty. "Then you won't mind my reading this then," from inside her coat she produced a letter the only thing clearly visible from this distance Victoire's name on the addressee line. Teddy! She lunged across the table snatching it out of her sister's manicured hand. It wasn't till she'd torn into the thick parchment and seen with sinking heart the one stilted word that she realised the trap her sister had laid for her.
Pasted haphazardly across the top of an article from the quibbler was the word 'BEWHERE', the letters picked out and cobbled together from what looked like various publications. A tiny ink figure on a broom flew around the errant 'H' clearly cut from a Quidditch expose, whilst the extra 'E' flashed between a garish orange and a startling shade of aquamarine. Victoire picked up the remnants of the envelope she'd torn through and flipped it back over. The fact that she'd, however briefly, thought the precise if non-descript lettering on the front was anything close to Teddy's messy scrawl was embarrassing and just the tiniest bit telling as to how tightly wound she currently was. Which she guessed had been Dominique's point.
"Yeah you're right this is completely normal for you," Dominique said smugly. Victoire balled her hands into fists, fingernails digging into skin and scrunched parchment, so she wasn't tempted to try diving across the table again. This time for her sister's throat.
"And intercepting your sibling's mail is?" Victoire pointed out barely managing to keep her tone flat. Annoyed at her own gullibility Victoire flicked the offending letter, now a crumpled up ball, down the table where Roger quickly scooped it up. From the curiosity on his face she guessed this was a part of the plan Dominique hadn't clued him in on.
Roger's brow crinkled with concern as he perused the message in his turn, "Are we not going to address the contents of this letter? I really feel like we should be addressing this."
"Oh please I filched that from the return to owlery pile at home where we keep the crazy letters," Dom said dismissively, though it was unclear whether it was in response to her's or Roger's query.
"And that makes it irrelevant?" Roger said incredulously, "the article mentions a murder; that your Uncle is investigating." Dominique frowned at him, clearly annoyed he wasn't following the script.
"The only thing that needs addressing in that letter is the writer's horrible grasp of English," Dominique said.
"And the invasion of privacy inherent in sending such a threatening letter to my personal address. Oh wait I forgot privacy isn't a big thing in this family," Victoire said snarkily.
Dominique sighed gustily "Roger I promise it's not unusual for our family to get letters like those, there's a bunch of similar ones at home," her eyes zeroed in on Victoire, "And I didn't waylay any precious letters from Teddy if that's what you're getting at."
"That was personal," Victoire said her ire swinging towards Roger too. There must have been more hurt in her eyes than she'd intended because Roger sighed and finally relented the mystery of the letter and his position as sentinel pulling out his own chair and settling in beside her.
"I'm sorry love I didn't know what else to do."
"About what," Victoire challenged him, her eyes daring him to go on. He didn't take the dare. Dom had no such qualms.
"Basically we're not letting you out of here until you admit that you're in denial of your true feelings for Teddy Lupin," Dom said with a dangerously glittering smile. She couldn't have been too concerned by Victoire's supposedly volatile state if she was so willing to continue to poke the sleeping dragon that was her temper.
"I'm not in denial!" Victoire growled at her sister her hands twitching warningly.
"No, no," Roger said firmly, placating hands held up in silent plea for the two sisters to stay calm and in their seats, "What we mean is that its obvious to everyone how you two feel about each other and we think you'd both be happier if you would admit it."
"Continually denying your feelings cannot be healthy for either of you," Dominique added, "or for those around you."
"I. Am. Not. In. Denial," Victoire gritted out. Some of her own frustration at the situation must have seeped into her words for Dominique's head snapped up like she was on the scent of some particularly good gossip.
"Wait what did you say? Say it again?" she demanded whilst Roger looked at her curiously.
"The same thing I've said three times already. I'm not in denial," Victoire said. Roger's gaze held the burgeoning glint of a smile as he too caught something in her tone.
"Because..." he probed. There seemed to be nothing for it.
"I'm not in denial because I…" Victoire hesitated with a barely perceptible wince, "I may have had something… along the lines of stirrings," she looked away from Dom's perceptive gaze rubbing her neck nervously, "that is to say...," she continued eyes darting around the dusty bookshop warily, but she found no help or escape. She sighed gustily, "Bugger it all! I like Teddy okay." By finally saying it out loud the full weight of the realization came crashing down on her. She liked her best friend, maybe even more than that. She was so screwed.
She instantly regretted confiding the sentiment.
"I thought so," Roger said quietly.
Dominique's response wasn't nearly as calm. A slow Cheshire cat grin spread across her sister's face before she shrieked at the top of her lungs, "I KNEW IT!" There was an even louder crash, Victoire's chair toppling over, as she scrambled to shut her sister up. She hadn't been aware that humans were capable of that decibel. She slapped a hand over Dominique's mouth but that only muffled the excited chatter spewing forth.
"Do you want the whole world to know?" Victoire cautioned her which made Roger laugh.
"Truthfully?" he snorted; "I think she'd like nothing more," but he cast a hasty silencing charm on the door anyway.
Far from disagreeing Dominique mumbled away giddily what sounded like, "No just the family and my friends and your friends," she paused, licked Victoire's palm, and continued unimpeded as Victoire wiped a hand on her sister's jacket in disgust, "select news outlets and Teddy!"
"Don't you dare!" Victoire exclaimed unsure whether she was more terrified of the threat of her telling Teddy or the tabloids. How mortifying would it be if this made it to the gossip papers before she'd even come to terms with it herself?
She was saved from further threatening her sister by a sudden scuffle of movement as a truly tiny old witch popped up from behind the counter as if Dom's explosion had rattled her loose from her own shelf. Victoire regarded her with alarm wondering how much she'd heard. But if she'd heard anything she didn't seem to care, blinking at them from bespectacled eyes with her own alarm.
"Oh dear me," she said peering at them with large and bug like eyes, "how long have you children been there?" None of them had a ready answer having entirely forgotten where they were, "Can I help you find anything?" Victoire fished around for an excuse but came up short, "I have some truly beautiful specimens of illuminated manuscripts."
"No thank you," Roger said holding up tome that had been sitting at his left elbow, dislodging a fine sheen of grit in the process. Victoire almost fancied that it twisted into symbols as it fell. "We were just discussing the merits of," he glanced at the title, "Asiatic Anti-Venoms." It was the most outrageous lie Victoire had heard him tell but his debonair smile sold it thoroughly enough that Victoire almost wondered if he too had a drop of Veela heritage.
He lowered his voice as the shopkeeper wandered off again, "Well this is the opposite of a problem then," he said, "You don't need an intervention. You need _"
"A miracle," Victoire hissed, "I know." His exasperation manifested again.
"You're trying to tell us you don't know exactly how he feels about you," Roger said skeptically as he ushered them from their seats.
"Oh I know how he feels about me," Victoire assured him, "he made that perfectly clear the last time we, for lack of a better word, talked."
"Vicky you do not deserve your Veela heritage if you don't know how to make a guy forget he's mad at you." Dom said her smile as wicked as her voice. Roger looked like he was considering whether involving siblings had been his best idea.
"Okay, okay," Roger said playing mediator, "Perhaps we can continue this conversation outside," he suggested with a significant look at the shopkeeper who was indeed peering around a precarious shelf of books at Dom and Vic with a hint of recognition.
Victoire waited until they were outside in the light snow fall before rounding on her sister again, "Promise you won't tell anyone!"
"Promise you'll do something about it," Dom retorted.
"I agreed to nothing including this little pow-wow," Vic reminded them, "What I do or don't tell Teddy is my choice not yours."
Dominique shrugged apparently bored of her little intervention party now she wasn't getting her way, "Well I can see I'm not going to a get a thank you for this. If you want to continue to wallow in denial that's your problem but at least sort out this sexual tension before one of you spontaneously combusts and takes the rest of us with them," she snarked and with a flick of her silver hair her gracefully exiting the conversation.
Victoire had a number of venomous retorts on the tip of her tongue but she settled on telling Roger, "I'm going to kill her."
Roger held her back from following through with it, laughing. "Let it go sweetheart," he advised.
"I can't believe you," Victoire said still inwardly seething as she shook him off.
"I apologize my dear but your sister is as hard to refuse as you are."
"It was still a lousy thing to do."
"I know and I'm sorry, desperation for one's crockery makes a man do stupid things," Roger replied, "I hope you'll forgive me. I find I quite like your company and would hate to do without it."
But Victoire had already forgiven him and he seemed to know it too, steering them towards the centre of Hogsmeade in companionable silence, happy to let her mull over what had occurred. He even bought them hot cups of cocoa, with bobbing marshmallow snowmen, without saying a word. Eventually he bumped her shoulder companionably, "Penny for your thoughts Princess."
Victoire, chewing her lip, glanced up at him thoughtfully, "I just don't see how Teddy could feel the same way about me as I do about him and I wouldn't know. He's never said anything."
Roger paused and looked down at her, eyebrows lowered with some gravity, "You know for two people who claim to know each other so well you are both utterly oblivious. He doesn't have to say anything. It doesn't take an enchanted eye to see that he adores you?"
"Really?" Victoire asked hating the pleading note in her voice but unable to control it. She didn't know what was wrong with her, she'd never been this unsure of herself with Markel. But thinking about Teddy and even the slim possibility that he'd reject her made her come over all wretched and pathetic. It turned her into a coward.
Roger looked at her with exasperation but also, Victoire was gratified to see, no little amount of affection, "Yes really my clueless kitten. If it's worrying you that much then I'll talk to Teddy, tonight. I swear on my love of school uniforms and the boys that inhabit them," Victoire giggled, "that before my head hits the pillow tonight Teddy Lupin will respond to your letters."
"You'd do that for me," Victoire brightened, allowing a tiny bit of wickedness into her smile, "Risk Teddy's wrath and everything." His answering smile was gleaming, as he gallantly helped her over a dangerous patch of ice.
"What are friends for," he said and Victoire cheered instantly. He was right. Even after his trick today they were friends and Victoire was glad of it. She kept his hand even after they'd passed the treacherous patch.
"Bother, I'd hoped to avoid this sort of nonsense today," Roger said abruptly. Victoire looked up to see what he was talking about and recoiled. They were one building down from a familiar grand stone meeting hall, just now divulging its disgruntled members onto the street. None of them appeared any more pleased to see her than she was to see them. In fact some were looking downright livid. She guessed they'd gotten the news then.
Somehow Victoire felt she should have known. That the Hellebore Society would hold a meeting today, just seemed obvious considering her luck of late. Roger's scowl was far more eloquent than hers could ever be, "I'm afraid some people aren't quite as accepting as you and your family my dear," he grinned at her again, "But we won't let them dictate our movements today," he said notching his head a minute bit higher and tightening his hand on hers. Bless his heart Roger thought that they had a problem with him, or more succinctly his sexual orientation; though Victoire would bet a Knut that they wouldn't be ecstatic about that either if they knew.
Victoire didn't budge when he continued to walk proudly towards the society. He looked back at her an eyebrow raised in query, "I think it'd be best if we just avoided them," she said in what she hoped was an offhanded she looked around for an escape route. She did not have the energy for another confrontation today.
"Come on," she said tugging Roger into a brisk walk in the other direction.
A lanky figure detached itself from the group and ran towards them with a shout, "Vicky!" She groaned internally. Of course he had to be there.
"Jilted lover?" Roger joked though he was clearly tense, as if he had an inkling of just what might actually be going on.
"He wishes," Victoire said flatly skirting a large group of students laughing at something they had in a brightly coloured flashing box, "I'd rather not have another incident with him right now though," she tossed back at him then muttered, "or ever."
"Someone who's undoubtedly been subjected to Teddy's wrath then," Roger asserted.
"Vicky!" Brian yelled in the near distance. Victoire dodged down another side alley dragging an increasingly bewildered Roger behind her.
"And then some," Victoire agreed trying to keep her tone light, "Come on."
Skidding on a patch of ice she swung them inside the tiny Hogsmeade post office startling a screech owl perched on the bell above the door. Roger flinched as it went winging past his ear. There was a moment of silence as they both waited to see what Brian would do before Roger whispered, "Unless the guy we're hiding from formed a band of Victoire Weasley's jilted lovers I'm thinking they weren't all amorous suitors."
"They may as well be," Victoire said, turning her head aside as Brian's figure passed by the window, "They certainly seem to take rejection just as well," she said thinking about the vengeful glares the society had been giving her. She hadn't entirely forgotten her last meeting with Brian and the warning he'd given her either. Those glowering faces made her think that she may have been a bit too hasty in dismissing his portents of doom.
When Victoire didn't offer any further explanation Roger sighed, "So I'm putting two and two together here and guessing that was the Hellebore Society." She looked up at him in surprise; arms pressed against the front of his wool jacket in their squished hiding place, and found him already staring down at her. There was something on his face that Victoire never thought she'd see there. Charming, frivolous and ceaselessly merry Roger was looking at her with a seriousness to rival Teddy's grimmest expression. It turned him into a different person, "Yes I know about them," he said in a tone of deep concern. Of course Teddy had told him. She should have known even when he wouldn't see her; he was still looking out for her, "Theodore seems to believe they're dangerous. Is he right? Are they?"
"Not to me," Victoire answered, though she didn't sound sure even to herself, "At least I don't think so."
Roger squinted at her, "Then why are we hiding in this filthy shop?" The man behind the counter shot him a look as filthy as their surroundings, and Vicky shot him an appeasing smile, hoping the disgust she felt at the overwhelming stench in the air didn't show in it. The worker looked like he was still considering throwing them out but went back to tying pre-rolled notes to his owls' legs anyway.
"Because understandably I didn't feel quite up to a spot of chit-chat," Victoire muttered harshly, tweaking aside a curtain dotted with feathers to see if Brian would double back.
"Well be that as it may I'm inclined to escort you straight back to school. I don't like the idea of you wandering around with them swarming the place. And I don't think Theodore would either."
Victoire almost growled, "As of today I think you've both lost your right to dictate my decisions. I'm not ready to leave Hogsmeade and short of forcibly apparating me away, which would get me expelled by the way, I don't see how you plan to make me." She could see him calculating whether expulsion or betraying Teddy's trust would be the greater evil and decided it would be best for her not to find out."Okay, okay. What about this? What if there was somewhere in Hogsmeade that I could guarantee we wouldn't run into any Hellebore people or anybody else for that matter. Would you consider letting me stay a bit longer?"
Roger regarded her doubtfully but acquiesced by inclining his head.
A few minutes later after a couple of narrow misses they stood on a snow covered rise looking down at the dilapidated silhouette of the Shrieking Shack. Victoire watched Roger out of the corner of her eye. The look of disgust he'd had on his face in the muck covered post office was nothing compared to the sheer repulsion he had on his face now. If she'd been in a better mood she would have found it funny.
"Honey you do realize that is the Shrieking Shack?" he asked weakly. The was a thud somewhere behind them and he jumped, spinning around to scan the frozen path behind them. It was empty and Victoire suppressed a giggle, she'd never seen him so unsettled.
"Would you believe me if I said it wasn't haunted?" she responded.
"There's a lot of documentation that states otherwise?" Roger disagreed practically walking backwards in his desire not to get any closer to the ramshackle hut.
"Come on," Victoire said tugging him hard enough that graceful Roger stumbled. She grinned mischievously, "If you come inside I'll tell you exactly how I know that in its entire existence it has never been haunted," she took two steps forward ducking under the low lying fence intended to warn people away, "It's a really juicy piece of information about Teddy's Daaadddd," she sing-songed dangling the gossip in front of him.
"I think I'm beginning to see why you drive Teddy so nuts," Roger grumbled. She wasn't sure if he meant that as compliment or insult and she decided not to ask all that mattered was that he uncurled himself and followed her reluctantly towards their afternoon's abode.
A pillow hit her in the face and Victoire sat up from sleep with a bolt. She glanced around the gloom to find Rebecca's finger pointing accusingly at the window.
"Yours I presume," she mumbled. Victoire peered through the glass to the darkened world outside and saw a small spot of grey fluttering madly about the frame, an owl. Her body jolted again though this time not from sleep. Perhaps it was from Teddy. Roger had said he'd talk Teddy round by tonight but she hadn't believed him. Wide awake now Victoire lunged for the window in two bounding strides. The owl flapped about her head indignantly, hooting at her as if berating her for leaving it out in the cold for so long.
"Okay, okay," Victoire said trying to hush the beast as its conjuration was met by a chorus of complaints. It perched just out off of reach on the open door of a wardrobe and shook its ruffled feathers. She scrounged around in a pair of discarded jeans for change to pay it with and came up lucky.
"Would you shut that bloody thing up," one of her dorm-mates grumbled as the barn owl continued to hoot at her balefully. It eyed her reproachfully as she offered the meagre amount of coins but eventually deigned to come close enough for her to untangle the scroll tied to its leg. Concluded its business the owl wasted no time in flying back out the open window and Victoire wasted no time in closing it behind the spiteful creature.
She brightened the instant she skimmed the letter. Elyse in the bed next to her rolled onto to her side and scowled blearily as Victoire scrambled for the sweater she'd crawled out of hours before.
"What in Merlin's name are doing?" she asked drowsily watching Victoire stumble around blindly in the dark searching for the rest of her clothes.
"I'm meeting someone," Vic explained losing her balance and landing on her bed as she tugged a pair of shorts on over tights. Elyse glared at her, then at the ridiculous Muggle alarm clock she insisted on keeping by her bed and then back at Victoire. She paused for a moment as if working up the energy for a lecture before clearly changing her mind. Or maybe she was just waiting till she was conscious enough to lecture effectively.
She rolled over putting her back to Victoire, "Just try not to get yourself expelled Vic, okay?" In moments she had rejoined the rest of their dorm mates in blissful slumber. Victoire wouldn't have been able to go back to sleep even if she'd wanted to. She was too keyed up now. It hadn't been a letter from Teddy, it had been something even better. Roger miracle worker that he was had somehow convinced Teddy to meet her. Tonight. And all Victoire had to do was get herself there.
The journey through the darkened hallways of Hogwarts was a brief but nerve racking excursion, and not entirely from the fear of discovery. Butterflies, or possibly something larger like dragons, fluttered ferociously in her stomach so that be the time she reached the Shrieking Shack Victoire wasn't sure whether she was excited or nauseous. They felt remarkably similar. In comparison to the storm inside of her the Shrieking Shack was eerily quiet when Victoire arrived; but then again it was always quiet. She had always considered the Shack's steadfast emptiness to show a rather telling lack of curiosity from the inhabitants of Hogsmeade. Nevertheless she wasn't one to ruin a good thing.
It was an unwritten rule in her family that any of them to visit must spend at least five minutes making unreasonably loud and blood curdling noises before leaving to encourage the local residents to continue this staunch ignorance. Molly was convinced that Freddie and James made trips to the ramshackle hut for this purpose alone. As it was recent reports of a moaning call from a dying Augrey on the premises had insured the buildings ongoing seclusion and Victoire felt it unnecessary to interrupt the heavy silence.
She dumped her bag on the concaving bed. Roger's letter had been incredibly vague on how he'd miraculously convinced Teddy to let her apologise or just what he'd promised on her behalf for it. Profuse apologies and gratuitous begging she was sure would be the least of it. But she sincerely hoped that Roger hadn't told Teddy something she'd regret.
Walking across the tiny entrance room Victoire dragged out the least dusty chair she could find and after testing it for ricketiness, and the creative adjustments of Freddie & James, she settled down to wait for Roger and hopefully Teddy. She still wasn't entirely convinced that Roger had achieved, what he called, the impossible. She checked her watch. They weren't quite so late yet but it sure was getting by. Elyse would cover for her but she wasn't sure even she could get away with sneaking out so far out of curfew more than once. If she had a particular map, maybe, but Freddie and James had stolen that particular bequeathment.
She resisted the urge to throw something just to break the silence and instead settled for muttering, "Come on Roger. Where are you?" But the only sound that answered her was that of the wind rushing through the broken and boarded panes of the windows. It was an impressive imitation of a low moaning that made Victoire shiver and reach for her coat.
It was as she was bending down that she heard it a sudden scuffling followed by a quickly muffled whisper. Feeling like her heart was suddenly in her mouth Victoire called out, "Teddy?" there was no reply, "Roger?" The shuffling sound came again only louder.
Victoire didn't call out a second time. She had the sudden unnerving fear that the trap she'd walked into might not have been set for Teddy after all. Sliding her feet through the thick layer of dust, careful not to catch her shoes on loose floorboards, Victoire crept to the doorway.
The first curse caught her by surprise; a seething mass of ropes that snagged at her ankles and tripped her up. She took the fall heavily on her elbows but miraculously managed to keep her wand in hand. Victoire fired blindly backwards gratified when one of her assailants went down harder than she had, victim of her hastily cast leg locker curse. There was a hand on her ankle and panicked she kicked backward, snapping one of the restraints and connecting with something squishy in the process.
As the second curse sent her plummeting into darkness, undoubtedly from the effects of a stupefy spell, Victoire spitefully hoped it was someone's eye socket.