A/N: Here's the next update, it's a nice long one for you :) I hope you enjoy, there will be a longer A/N at the end to cover some questions I got last week.

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Nose Bleeds, and Practicing Dummies

Teddy was the first one to break away, (Victoire had actually been the first one to hear it but she had been content to continue snogging Teddy even though the person's cough had obviously been meant to stop them). They looked away from each other's blushing faces, (okay, Teddy was blushing and Victoire was grinning impishly) and toward the source of their interruption.

Xavier Wood stood with his back pressed against the door of the room; bracing himself for an explosion. It wasn't Teddy he was scared of, even though the two boys were around the same height; Xavier's lanky build was solid, but not as muscular as Teddy's. It was Victoire's reaction he was afraid of. If she blew up at him, it could end in one of two ways: 1.) scorching fire from her Veela temper. Or 2.) Painful hexes from her Weasley temper. After thirteen years of knowing her, Xavier still wasn't sure which one was worse.

Keeping wary of all of the possibilities he may be struck with, Xavier spoke again, "I'm sorry to interrupt but Vic, we need to get to the hallway near the kitchens fast."

Victoire looked at Xavier in surprise but stood up anyway, "Why?"

"I came was patrolling and I heard Professor Linkwell talking with somebody. He said something about reading the patrolling schedule and saw that the both of us are on tonight. He said that if we've been following proper patrolling procedure, we'd be by the kitchens now. I've no doubt that he's heading his way there now so that he can catch us doing something wrong, which we are 'cause we're here, and not there."

Victoire rolled her eyes; Xavier only starts rambling when he's really nervous, "Calm down Xavier. Let's just go."

"We won't be able to get there in time, he has a head start on us and he'll see us if we start running."

"At Hogwarts, help is always there when you ask," Victoire smirked. As if on cue a large square of the wall on the right side of the room opened; showing them a glimpse of a dark tunnel.

Xavier shook his head, "Wow. This room really is unbelievable."

"Yeah, we know."

Victoire quickly kissed Teddy goodbye and pushed Xavier into the dark tunnel. They lit their wands and walked down the dark, dirt passageway. Xavier stumbled a bit but continued walking down the path. They'd walked a little distance before he spoke again.

"I'm sorry about interrupting."

Victoire rolled her eyes, "Sure. Just remember this little incident for later."

Xavier smiled but it was short. "We'll never get there in time. We still need to go down like three floors."

Victoire just looked ahead into the passageway and smiled, "Oh, I think we'll get there in plenty of time."

"Pardon?" Xavier asked, looking very worried, which wasn't too odd considering the look Victoire was giving him.

"Just close your eyes and it will all be over before you know it," Victoire said as she hooked her arm with Xavier's and ran a few metres ahead into the dark tunnel.

Xavier didn't have a chance to argue, or even question Victoire's action before he felt the floor disappear from under him. He yelled as he landed; face first, on some sort of chute/slide thing. It was pitch-black and he could feel the air zooming past his face, giving him an idea of how fast he was moving. His only moment of reassurance as he slid downward and twisted around corners was that, from behind him, he could hear Victoire's exuberant laugh. A few seconds later Xavier fell with a thud and a loud groan of pain onto the stone floor. Before he was able to get up, Victoire came sliding out of the chute. She saw Xavier on the ground, and before she was able to fall on top him, she waved her hand and shot out farther above him before landing lithely on her feet. She turned to face him and extended her hand to help him up.

Xavier sighed and accepted. One hand in hers the other rubbing his stomach where he'd taken the brunt of the fall, "How did you do that?"

"Wandless magic," Victoire answered dropping his hand.

Xavier nodded, "Oh yeah . . . do you hear something?"

Victoire kept silent as she strained her ears to catch what Xavier was talking about. She heard it. The crisp sound of footsteps on the stone floor. Victoire guessed that there were about two people, and that they must have been at least two minutes away. She could hear Professor Linkwell's voice talking to someone, "They must be down here. I heard a loud sound. Leave it to those two Gryffindors to be doing something inappropriate when they should be patrolling. They better have a good excuse when we find them." The other person answered with a tired sounding sigh.

Xavier looked at Victoire panicked, "What are we going to do? He heard my fall and we can't very well tell him the truth."

"I think I've got a plan," Victoire whispered.

"Godric that never bodes well," Xavier murmured to the sky above him.

Victoire ignored him and arched an eyebrow, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Xavier looked sacred, "Dear Merlin I hope not."

She ignored the jibe again and whispered her plan in his ear.

Xavier groaned, "Why did I have to be right?"

Victoire scowled at him and whispered harshly, "Well, yes or no?"

"Fine, but this doesn't leave the two of us. And Ally will never find out. Is that clear?"

Victoire nodded before putting their little plan into action.

"I'm telling you Professor Cooke, those two aren't fit to be Heads," Professor Linkwell said as they walked down the hall to the kitchens.

Professor Cooke nodded his head quietly but was rolling his eyes on the inside. It had been six years since he was last at Hogwarts as a student and Linkwell was still as angry and annoying as he was when he'd been a student. Professor Cooke knew that, as the Head of House for Slytherin, Linkwell absolutely hated all Gryffindors, no matter how good of students they were. At Hogwarts Professor Cooke had been a Ravenclaw, so he'd never felt Linkwell's unnecessary hate because of his house, but he was certainly sure that he'd see it tonight when they finally found Miss Weasley and Mr Wood.

Linkwell continued to mutter about the students as they came closer to the last corner. A bright light, a sharp bang, and a pained cry of 'OW!' interrupted Linkwell's complaining, and caused the two Professors to speed up and turn the corner. Professor Cooke's face immediately took on a look of confusion, and even Professor Linkwell's face -which was set into his customary scowl-, had shown a quick look of surprise and puzzlement before sliding back into a disappointed look as they studied the scene in front of them.

Xavier Wood was next to Victoire Weasley; her hands covering her mouth, which, along with the rest of her face, was screwed up into a shocked and contrite expression. Professor Cooke's eyes went from Victoire to Xavier. He was doubled over with one knee on the floor. He had his hands up covering his nose, which seemed to be bleeding profusely, and he was grumbling a string of pained expletives.

Professor Linkwell spoke first, "What in the world is going on here?"

Victoire looked up at Linkwell with a distressed face, her voice seemed close to tears, "I heard a noise and went to use a detection spell but it bounced off of the wall and hit Xavier in the face."

Linkwell grumbled at Victoire while moving closer to inspect Xavier's face, none-too-gently. Professor Cooke stayed where he was and looked at Victoire. Her face said that she was worried and ashamed of herself, but he could see something in her eyes; almost as if they were grinning. Professor Cooke's gaze shifted from Victoire to inspect Xavier. He looked at him closely for the first time, his nose was running with a crimson colour liquid, but the area around his face was still perfectly matched to his skin colour. If his nose was really bleeding that much, there was a lot of blood on his face and on his shirt where it had dripped, his face should be looking whiter from the blood loss. Cooke put this together with Victoire's not so authentic facial expressions and came up with a conclusion that made him smirk.

Victoire saw the comprehension come into Professor Cooke's face and quickly turned away from him, she and Xavier needed to get out of there now, before he voiced his suspicions to Linkwell. Although she doubted that Professor Cooke would tell on them, she knew they still had to leave before Linkwell finally put two-and-two together.

"Professor Linkwell, I think I should take Xavier to the Hospital Wing to get him healed."

Professor Linkwell sneered at Victoire, "I thought you were proficient at healing spells Miss Weasley. I at least thought that you liked to show off your skills."

Victoire tried not to glare at Linkwell, she knew that he was trying to antagonize her, "Yes, well I think I've done enough damage to Xavier today. So . . . goodbye Professor Linkwell, Professor Cooke . . ."

Victoire grabbed Xavier's arm and dragged him a good five hallways away and up two floors before stopping. She took a purple coloured sweet out of her pocket and tossed it to him. While Xavier chewed, his nose stopped bleeding.

Victoire quietly casted a cleaning spell on his clothes to vanish the blood.

Xavier's hand moved up to his nose and he gingerly felt it while speaking, "I swear if I have to hear even one snide comment about Gryffindor boys being weaker than girls, in Transfiguration on Tuesday I'm going to hex you Vic."

Victoire smiled brightly, "But you know it's true. In a fight, I could totally beat you. Besides, you won't hex me, because if you did, then I'm sure somehow, Ally will find out about this whole incident."

Xavier rolled his eyes and they began walking, "Where did you get the Nose-bleed Nougat anyway? Does George make you all carry around a little tester bag of all of his products?"

Victoire laughed, "No. Actually, they appeared in the Room of Requirement while Teddy and I were in there . . . we didn't understand why they appeared, but I pocketed them anyway. I guess the Room just knew that I was going to need it."

Xavier nodded, "I don't see why I needed to look like I had a nosebleed though. And even if we did, why couldn't you have been the one sporting it?"

Victoire rolled her eyes, "First, we needed some sort of excuse to get out of Linkwell's way or we probably would still be there listening to some kind of irate lecture from him which we don't deserve. Second, even though I know that I look great in red, I couldn't be the one sporting the nosebleed because then you would seem violent and like an abusive boyfriend."

Xavier scowled, "I'm not your boyfriend."

"Yes, but Linkwell doesn't know that."

"He should."

"Let me re-phrase that, Linkwell doesn't care."

Xavier nodded his head in concurrence and stopped. They had made it to the portrait hole. Victoire whispered the password, and once they were inside, her and Xavier said a quick goodnight and left to their respective dorm rooms, and to their respective beds. As Victoire lay down to go to sleep, her conversations with Teddy replayed in her mind. The two conclusions they'd reached replayed over and over in her head as she drifted off to sleep.

One; they were going to work just the two of them on the mysterious notes.

Two; they were going to have to keep their relationship a secret for a little while longer.

The next few days passed by normally for Victoire, well, as normal as life was going to be for her from now on. There were large articles about each of the new Champions in the news every morning. By Tuesday, Victoire had learned to cringe at the sight of the small brown barn owl that delivered Sandra's Daily Prophet. As a whole, the articles didn't seem too bad or reputation damaging, but they did deliver very snide and hidden comments meant to undermine the Champions, Victoire in particular. In fact, Victoire hadn't read one mean or hurtful article about the Beauxbatons Champion yet. All editorials on Noëlle Varens were sweet and informative. It was obvious to see that Rita Skeeter was playing favourites. Likewise, Konstantin Krum's articles weren't bad either. They did have more hidden jibes and insults than Noëlle's, but the whole of the articles painted him in a favourable light to an unbiased and open-minded reader. Victoire on the other hand, was slammed and criticized every time her name was mentioned, even in passing. It got to the point that Victoire had to tear up the newspaper anytime she was mentioned to relieve her frustrations (after Sandra had read all the news she needed to of course). Harry and Fleur tried to cheer her up by sending her articles written about them while they had been Champions, (all also written by Rita Skeeter and many of them just as nasty, or some in Harry's case nastier than the ones now being written about her). She knew that her Mamma and Uncle were trying to help by showing that it doesn't matter what was being written about her. (Truthfully, the ones about the alleged romance between her Uncle Harry and her Aunt Hermione did bring a smile onto her face and remind her of the ones being written about her and Xavier.) But sometimes the articles broke through her carefully constructed walls built to block out criticism. And when they did, they hurt. She was worried and stressed out enough with this being her last-year at Hogwarts; studying to get all the N.E.W.T.S. she'd need to become a Healer. Finding the time to practice and to try to be the Quidditch Captain she needed to be, to bring the House-Cup back to Gryffindor, to keep up with her duties as Head Girl. And now she had to take all of these extra defence classes just to prove to Kingsley and her parents that she was able to compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, let along trying to win it. Along with all of these responsibilities, the mysterious notes she had shown Teddy kept popping up into her mind. Sometimes she would try to concentrate on them so hard that she'd get a painful headache.

It was the Tuesday of the dreaded Transfiguration class that Xavier had mentioned. Surprisingly, Professor Linkwell didn't make any snide comments about Victoire being stronger than Xavier, or Victoire 'wearing the trousers' in their 'relationship'. Instead, he had them come up to the front of the class, and had them attempt to transfigure each other's looks. It wouldn't have been so bad if Professor Linkwell hadn't insisted that they do spells that made hair grow on odd places on their faces, or make things like warts, bumps, and pimples grow. Xavier definitely got the brunt of the cleverly disguised embarrassment ploy; Victoire was very adept in her Transfiguration spells and did everything Professor Linkwell asked perfectly. Victoire on the other hand, got slight satisfaction in the fact that Linkwell's plan was less than pleasing to him when it came to Xavier's turn to transfigure her. Being part Veela, certain spells and charms that change appearances don't work on her. Glamour charms, hair colour changing potions, even Muggle hair dye wouldn't work (if she ever wanted to try it, which she thankfully never did). Likewise, human Transfiguration didn't work well on her. Xavier was able to alter her appearance but only slightly. Linkwell had told him to change her hair to forest green, it ended up a pale pastel green. And if the spell did work, (Linkwell had told Xavier to give Victoire a uni-brow) it would only last for a few seconds before disappearing.

Victoire was still apologizing to Xavier for his getting the brunt of the Linkwell's punishment, as they walked into a History of Magic, their last class of the day. She probably would have continued a running string of quiet apologizes as they worked through their class if Xavier hadn't, none-too-politely, told her to shut up because her insistent apologies were giving him a headache. Xavier had looked annoyed when he said it, but she knew that he was being sincere and that he didn't actually blame her.

"What was the maximum sentencing for captured Death Eaters in the first war?" Professor Cooke asked as they neared the end of class.

Victoire, who was spending more time paying attention to the hands ticking along on her watch, stretched her arm out because it had fallen asleep as she listened to Professor Cooke's lecture that day. It wasn't that it wasn't interesting or anything, Professor Cooke was an amazing teacher with the ability to make history really come alive, she was just still stiff from the late night Quidditch practice they'd had last night.

Professor Cooke saw Victoire's hand go up and though that she was going to answer the question, "Yes Miss Weasley?"

Victoire looked up from her desk in surprise before noticing that her hand was up. Oops. What was the question again . . . oh yeah . . .

"Um, depending on what their crimes were, and depending on whether or not the Death Eater in question took a cooperation bargain with the Ministry to divulge information, the maximum sentence could be life in solitary confinement in Azkaban."

Professor Cooke nodded, "Very good, and thank-you for mentioning the bargains, it's a perfect introduction for our next lesson . . ."

The majority of the class groaned audibly, Professor Cooke smiled brightly, "Which we will be working on tomorrow, for the rest of the afternoon, you can work quietly on your homework."

The class chattered as they went about their work. Victoire turned to Xavier beside her and opened her mouth to apologize one last time.

Xavier saw her intentions and spoke first, "I don't want to hear it Vic."

"Hear what?" Kyle asked as he turned around in his seat in front of Xavier.

"Nothing!" Xavier said too quickly.

Victoire scoffed, "Real subtle Xavier, real subtle. Now we're definitely going to have to tell them."

"Nuh ugh. You promised we'd never speak of that again."

Kyle turned to Sandra beside him and raised an eyebrow. Silently asking her if she knew what was going on. She shrugged and mouthed quietly with a wicked smile, "Lover's spat."

Victoire and Xavier stopped their argument and glared at their two best friends as said best friends broke out into unrestrained giggles. Victoire jumped up as the last bell rang, and practically ran to the Gryffindor dormitory to change her clothes. Sandra walked in as she was finishing tying her shoes and gave Victoire a puzzled look.

"Training session in ten minutes," Victoire answered as she double knotted her trainers and stood up.

Sandra nodded and shed her robes, leaving them on the floor, "Have fun!" She called as Victoire walked out of the room.

Victoire stopped outside of the first door that led into the Aurors break room (the Champions were to practice in Kingsley's office for every session). She waited there for a minute as she debated whether to knock on the door, or just going barging in. She decided on the later. She opened the door and was pleased to see that it was considerably less populated than the time she had to visit it to give Kingsley the note from McGonagall. There were about half a dozen Aurors in the room, most of them looked up when she walked in, but after getting a good look at her, they looked away and went back to their work. Only a handful of eyes were still on her (all younger Aurors-in-training) as she crossed the room and went towards the second office door.

Teddy had been sitting down at a table with Kurt Williamson when he saw Victoire walk in. Like the majority of the Aurors, he found his eyes drift to her figure as she practically strutted across the room to Kingsley's office door. He knew that she had her first one-on-one defensive training lesson today; in fact, he had been waiting for her to come in because Kingsley had assigned him, because he was the only Auror-in-training whom Victoire hadn't bested in that first practice session, to be one of the Aurors helping Victoire with her defensive magic.

Before Teddy could stand up and go over to her, Kurt spoke, "Wow. Is it just me, or does she just keep getting hotter and hotter every time we see her?"

Teddy felt anger bubble up inside him. He couldn't yell at Kurt for his brashness because he wouldn't be able to explain why he was angry with him because nobody was supposed to know about him dating Victoire. So, Teddy channelled his anger by unconsciously morphing his hair a bright red. Teddy stood up without answering Kurt and walked over to Victoire.

"I'll take that as a 'no' then?" Kurt called to Teddy as he walked away. He really didn't know how to be subtle.

Victoire smirked as she saw Teddy walk over to her. He stopped an appropriately platonic distance away from her, but she could tell by the look in his eyes that if they were alone he would have pulled her to him already and they would be in the middle of a rather passionate kiss . . .

Teddy raised an eyebrow at the dazed look on Victoire's face, "Victoire . . .?"

Victoire shook her head, her thoughts had been going down a very dangerous path as she contemplated how Teddy's lips would feel against hers' and then how they would feel as the traveled down her neck, she could practically feel the cold stone of the wall he would have pushed her against for support and leverage. No, stop thinking about that . . . and if you must think about it, wait until there isn't a room full of strangers staring at you . . .

"Yeah?"

"Is there something wrong?" Teddy asked; her eyes were still slightly unfocused.

Victoire shook her head, "Nope, nothing's wrong."

"Okay . . . how was class today?"

Victoire shrugged, "Linkwell tried to harass Xavier and I and it ended up backfiring because feature Transfiguration doesn't work very well on me. I ended up apologizing all day to Xavier until he yelled at me to shut up in the middle of the corridor, Molly borrowed my favourite quill during breakfast and still hasn't given it back, I'm incredibly stiff from late night Quidditch practice last night, and now I have to spend two hours doing defensive training which I don't need with a bunch of 'meat-headed Aurors'."

The last was said quietly, so that none of the other Aurors could hear but Teddy. He smiled before putting on an affronted air, "Are you saying that you don't want to spend time with me?"

Victoire giggled, "No, I'm saying I don't want to waste my limited amount of time with you, in stupid defensive classes that are going to contain me hexing you for a good two hours straight."

Teddy grinned, "In your dreams Weasley, you can't beat me."

Victoire fluttered her eyelashes flirtatiously and took a step closer to him. When she spoke, her voice was low and breathy, "Yes Teddy, you are in my dreams. But in my dreams, we're doing something very different then sending spells at each other." Victoire looked around to make sure that the Aurors had stopped staring at her (surprisingly they had) and went up on her tip-toes so she could whisper in Teddy's ear, "Of course, sometimes after I kiss you just the right way, you do look like you've been hit with a stunning spell."

Victoire smiled naughtily at Teddy as he tried to control his blush by morphing it away. She turned her back to him and opened the door to Kingsley's office. As soon as she got the door open, a silver rabbit shot out the door and hopped swiftly around the room twice before going back in the office. Victoire walked into the room, Teddy followed her, and she immediately apologized for interrupting.

In the room stood Noëlle Varens, Professor La Croix, Auror McKenny, Auror-in-training Jilly Donaldson, and a few other others who must have been helping Noëlle practice.

Noëlle rolled her eyes at Victoire but Auror McKenny answered politely, "It's no problem Miss Weasley. Actually, I think we're intruding on your time. I'm sorry but I just needed Miss Varens to perform her Patronus charm for me so that I could write down what it was." He waved the clipboard in his hand.

"For safety reasons the Minister has asked that all of the Champions Patronuses be tested and copied down for official records. I was just writing it down." McKenny mumbled the word 'rabbit' as he copied down the information.

"May I go now?" Noëlle asked as she stashed her wand in her robes. Auror McKenny nodded and both she and Professor La Croix whisked out of the room.

Auror McKenny turned to Victoire, "As you wait for Harry and Ron, how about you show me your patronus so that I can write it down?"

Victoire sighed, "Can't I just tell you what it is?"

He shook his head, "I need to see how strong it is."

Victoire was about to argue when her Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron ran in, "Sorry we're late had to take a call from Kingsley . . ."

McKenny waved off their apology, "No problem I just need to write down what Miss Weasley's Patronus is and then I'll get out of your hair." He nodded to her to continue.

Ron broke in, "No offense, but we're late as it is, and we accidently scheduled Konstantin in for this afternoon too. We know what Victoire's Patronus is so we'll just write it down and get to work."

McKenny nodded.

"It's an eagle," Harry said as he waved his wand and extended the room a little bit more.

"How corporeal is it?" McKenny asked as he read the clipboard.

"Well . . . she's been able to perform the spell for about four years now, so it's rather strong," Harry said as he waved his wand one last time to set up the room.

McKenny looked up in surprise, "Four years . . . she would have had to have been thirteen when she learned it."

Ron laughed, "Yeah she was. The only reason she learned it was because we were teaching Ted, the summer before his fifth-year, and she got jealous when we told her that she wasn't old enough to learn. So she went and complained to Hermione and Ginny and they ended up teaching her."

Harry smirked remembering his astonishment when they'd first seen the humongous, silver eagle fly into the backyard where he and Ron were teaching Teddy how to produce a Patronus.

Teddy was also remembering that day, "You just couldn't let me be ahead of you, could you. You had to learn the spell to keep up with me."

Victoire placed her hand over her heart and put on a fake-affronted expression, "How dare you accuse me of trying to steal your spotlight . . . I was just trying to share it with you."

Teddy shook his head.

McKenny left the room as Kurt Williamson walked in.

"What are you doing here Kurt?" Teddy asked. He may have gotten a little angry at his friend earlier, but he knew that listening to guys ogle and hit on Victoire was something he was going to have to get used to if he was dating her. He appreciated how good-looking his girlfriend was, but he didn't think that he should have to sit there and listen to guys go on and on about how attractive she was.

Harry answered for him, "I asked Auror Williamson to help with Victoire's training since she would need more than one Auror to practice with." Harry gave his godson a look that said 'be-nice-and-share'.

"Yup, man this will be fun!" Kurt exclaimed as he walked over to Teddy and clapped his friend on the back. Victoire had eyed him curiously, which had earned her a wink from him.

She rolled her eyes and turned her back to him as she turned to Ron, "Can we start now. I've got a lot of homework to work on later."

Ron nodded, "We just have to wait for your Professor to get here before starting."

Victoire smiled at Ron excitedly, "Is it going to be Neville?"

Ron laughed at the enthusiasm in her voice, "First of all, during school you need to call him Professor Longbottom. But no it's someone else."

Victoire's face fell and she groaned, "No! Good Godric I hope it's not Linkwell. Why couldn't it be Professor Longbottom?"

"Thank you Miss Weasley, that really makes me feel good."

Victoire turned around and saw Professor Cooke standing at the door with Harry.

"P-Professor Cooke . . . you're the teacher in charge of watching me?"

Professor Cooke smiled, "Yes. Professor Longbottom was busy, and Professor Linkwell had already announced that he would never again be stuck wasting his valuable time with something like this. So Professor McGonagall asked the rest of the staff room who wanted to watch you."

Victoire smiled brightly, "And there was a mad surge of people wanting to help me and you won?"

"No. I wasn't paying attention to what she said and when I did look up the entire staff was gone and I was the only one left, so McGonagall gave the job to me."

Victoire frowned.

Professor Cooke grinned and went over to introduce himself to Harry and Ron, "Professor Caleb Cooke, History of Magic."

Harry shook his hand and then Ron, "Yes, our kids have mentioned you. It seems as though you've actually made it possible for them to pay attention during class."

Professor Cooke blushed a little, "I can't really take all the credit. These students are very intelligent. They just needed to be taught in a different style to release their potential."

Harry smiled and gestured toward Teddy and Kurt, "This is Auror Lupin and Auror Williamson. They're second-level-Aurors-in-training."

"Yeah," Ron added, "they're Victoire's practicing dummies."

Everybody but Victoire and Teddy laughed. Teddy eyed Victoire up cautiously, knowing that she could be quiet the opponent when pushed. Victoire for her part was looking at Kurt speculatively, assessing the situation. Kurt, who had been laughed rather loudly, saw Victoire looking at him and felt very nervous all of a sudden.

"Alright, enough talk. Show us what you've got Vic."

"Merlin! That one hurt!" Kurt accused Victoire as he rubbed the shoulder he ended up falling on from Victoire's stunning spell. He hadn't realized how correct Ron had been in his statement that he would be a practice dummy. Anytime he had a chance to shoot a spell back at her, she dodged it. She was really good.

She shrugged her shoulders and raised her wand, ready for another go.

Kurt stepped away from her, "Nuh ugh, I've got enough bruises. Use Ted this time."

Ted, who had been standing off to the side talking to Harry about Victoire's progress, looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She grinned impishly back and nodded her head slightly. Teddy grinned and handed Harry his wand before taking Kurt's spot across from Victoire.

"Oh, are we going wandless now?"

Teddy smirked, "It's a good thing to work on. What happens if you lose your wand when you're faced with an opponent?"

Victoire shrugged, "I flutter my eyelashes and ask him to pretty please give me my wand back." She finished with an example of how she'd go about it.

Teddy wanted to laugh. Not from the preposterousness of her statement but from the factuality of it. He could easily imagine her going about that course if she ever got disarmed, and oddly enough, he knew that she'd have a very good chance of getting her wand back if her opponent was male.

"That might work, but you still need to practice."

Victoire smiled brightly. "Fine." She sent her wand away and it landed in Harry's hand.

"Bring it on."

Teddy grinned again. He sent a silent stunning spell at her; she saw it coming and cast a quick, yet effective, protego spell. They continued to throw spells at each other, neither of them able to take the lead.

Harry walked over to where Ron was talking with Professor Cooke and Kurt Williamson. He kept an eye on Victoire and Teddy's work, but there wasn't much to watch. They were rather evenly matched. He didn't even have to correct Victoire on her wand movements or her technique because they were doing it wandless.

"She's doing very well," Professor Cooke said as Harry approached.

Harry smiled, "She's always gotten top marks in Defence Against the Dark Arts."

Professor Cooke nodded, "It kind of comes with the territory of being a Weasley, doesn't it?"

Ron chuckled while Harry answered, "I guess so. I think it has more to do with the fact that Kingsley Shacklebolt's her godfather."

"Over protective?"

Ron snorted, "That's an understatement. I swear when she came of age last summer he practically put her through an entire two years of Auror training in the span of two weeks."

Professor Cooke laughed but what Ron said caught Kurt's attention. "Wait! So that's why her moves look so familiar she's using some of the Auror training techniques?"

Ron smirked, "Yeah probably. We've always taught her how to analyse a situation before proceeding into a fight. Her mind is very well trained for that and her reflexes follow."

Professor Cooke nodded, "She would make a very good Auror."

Harry laughed, "Yes, she would. And she definitely has the grades for it, but she wants to be a Healer. And to be fair, she's very good at that too."

"EEK!"

Everyone turned their attention back to the pair who were duelling. Teddy was standing in the middle of the room with a very self-satisfied smirk on his face as he watched Victoire who was hanging upside down in the air by her ankle. Harry and Ron laughed a little as they recognized the Levicorpus jinx.

Victoire's pale face was turning red from the flow of the blood in her body collecting in her head.

"TEDDY! I SAID WE WERE AT A DRAW!"

Teddy chuckled deeply, ignoring the strange looks he was getting from Kurt and Professor Cooke, "You can't just let your guard down like that Vic."

"I WAS COMING OVER TO FIX YOUR BRUISE!"

Harry looked at Teddy and saw a large purple bruise staring on his arm, (he had been hit by a stray object that had gone flying from a wayward blocked spell).

Teddy made a tsking sound, "You need to stop yelling Vic, or you'll get light-headed. Most of your blood has fled there anyway."

Victoire glared at him. A bright flash of light filled the room and then Teddy was hanging upside down in the air next to Victoire.

"Touché, Vic, touché," Teddy said appreciatively.

Harry rolled his eyes at his niece's and his godson's antics and raised his wand and said the counter spell, "Liberacorpus."

Victoire and Teddy both fell onto their derrières on the floor.

"Ouch." Victoire said glaring at Harry.

Harry shrugged, tossed Victoire and Teddy their wands back and went back to talking to Professor Cooke and Ron.

Victoire rolled her eyes and waved her wand across Teddy's bruise.

"Thanks," he said as it disappeared.

Victoire smiled sweetly, "No problem."

They sat there looking at each other for a few silent minutes before Ron interrupted.

"Are you two going to join us here? Or are you just going to lie on the floor of Kingsley's office for the rest of the night?"

Victoire and Teddy hurriedly stood up and walked over to the others. Harry spent the next five minutes praising Victoire on her work. She listened passively, but spoke once he was finished, "Since I did so well, how about you tell Kingsley that I can take care of myself and that I don't need these practice sessions?"

Harry sighed, "Nice try Victoire, but you have to go through these sessions, so you better get used to it."

Victoire just sighed, and nodded. She was actually too tired to argue.

Hey, well I hope you liked the latest chapter. And I want to say a huge THANKYOU to everyone who has reviewed, subscribed, or even just read my story, it means a lot :)

I tried specifically to put in some Vic/Teddy alone, and in public moments in this, some might not have been nescessarily romantic, but I think it's nice to show the friendly part of their relationship, and it shows how they've grown from friends into more.

Next chapter . . . Well . . . there's some heartwarming family moments, some laughs between friends, and Chris just might be scarred for life from something he sees in the library :) Please leave a review if you like or if you have any questions or comments, I love hearing from you :)

A/N: Part 2: Okay, so some of you had mentioned in your reviews that you were wondering how someone could get into the Room of Requirement while someone else was in there. Well, some of you would have read this, realized 'Oh, it's Xavier. Okay now it makes sense', and leave it at that. But for those of you who are still a little confused, I will attemtp to explain that there is a method to my madness.

Other people can acess the Room of Requirement when there are people using it (The DA members all came seperatly to the room in OotP, the Inquisitorial Squad were able to get in while the DA was going on also in OotP, all of the members of the DA and other refugees were able to get in with Neville when they were escaping the Carrows tirany in DH, and Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were able to get in in the Battle of Hogwarts while Harry, Ron and Hermione were looking for the lost Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw in DH). The reason why all these people were able to get in, but not Harry when he was trying to figure out what Malfoy was up to in HBP, was because they knew what the room had transformed to for the user already in it. Xavier knew where Victorie was going, he knew who she was meeting, and to an extent, he knew what Victoire and Teddy were doing in the room (although he definitely didn't expect what he'd just walked in on). Because he knew all this, the room opened up to him, and showed him what he wanted to see. If Harry had known more in HBP and knew what Malfoy was actually doing in the room, then he would have been able to get in. Or at least this is my reasoning. I hope it made sense and that it clears up some people's confusion, and if it doens't, well it doesn't really matter much to the plot of the story why Xavier could get in.