A wild update appears! It's a nice long one this time!

As usual, J.K. Rowling owns. But hey, you know how this goes.

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Chapter 33 - Victoire

It was like realising that there was still an adult world out there. In the safety of the castle walls, school felt like a little haven away from the stress and the seriousness of adult life, a little world where all that mattered was studying for exams, trying to avoid bitchy comments and getting a boyfriend.

But reality… reality was big, and scary, and it was waiting. The Quidditch practise, the argument with Felicity, it all seemed a hundred miles away, trivial and petty in comparison.

Victoire had collapsed into a chair when she heard the news. The shock was too much to take in. how could this have happened? This wasn't the nineties, there were hardly any actual Death Eaters left these days. Why hadn't uncle Harry protected him? He was under the supervision of one of the most famous Aurors of all time? How could he have gotten into trouble, with that kind of protection?

She felt an arm around her. Molly was embracing her, comforting her. Victoire remembered that she wasn't alone, she was in a room full of her peers, and the majority of her family.

She tuned back in to what her cousins were saying. Fred was asking rapid questions, to which Dominique and Molly had no concrete answers. All they knew, from the rushed letter that uncle Percy had sent to Molly, was that something had gone wrong in the department, and Teddy had been hurt as a result, they didn't really know how. The whole time, Molly had her arm around her cousin, who was shaking slightly.

"When can we go see him?" it was the first time she had spoken since the news had been revealed, and her voice made the others go silent.

"I… I don't know Vic," Molly said, her voice shaking. "We might be able to request permission to go at the weekend… I mean, Professor Longbottom knows that Teddy's practically family to us. But we probably won't be allowed to leave the school until Saturday. We can't miss lessons after all… and besides… he might not be… awake then."

Victoire nodded her understanding, not wanting to speak any more. She wanted, more than anything, to know what was happening. It was frustrating, only having the sparse details from Molly's letter. She wanted to write to her parents, to Andromeda, to uncle Harry. But at the same time…

She didn't know why she was suddenly wary to reveal that she was dating Teddy. She knew she loved him, but at the same time, she knew that her parents would try to tell her that she was too young.

The thing was, she could see that they were probably right. This accident, it outlined to her the distance between herself and her boyfriend. He was of age, an adult. He was about to go out into the scary, real adult world, and leave her all behind in the stupid safety and protection of a further two years of study.

All her life, she thought to herself, he had been moving on and she had been trying to catch up with him. She remembered when Teddy had gone to Hogwarts. Until then they had been fine. Andromeda or Fleur or sometimes Aunt Hermione had home-schooled them when they had time, and most of their lessons had been together. Teddy hadn't been able to concentrate unless Victoire was there, and Victoire had thrown a tantrum when told that she couldn't be with her best friend. This had made Victoire quite an advanced reader for her age, and she had always been able to keep up with Teddy, intellectually.

But when he had gone to Hogwarts, that had all changed. Suddenly he had a wand, he knew things she didn't, and although he had never consciously made her feel that way, she had always worried that his friends would think her a baby, part of the reason why she and Teddy had never been that close in school before that year.

Victoire could suddenly see it all happening again. He would go off into the adult world and learn important things like managing money and living by himself and paying rent, and who would she be? A silly little schoolgirl who knew nothing, absolutely nothing at all about being a grown-up.

The Weasleys sat together for the rest of the night. Even when they had run out of things to discuss, there was a comfort in sitting together, knowing that they were not alone in their worry over their honorary cousin. They rarely all sat together as a group, but they all felt that the occasion called for it.

Finally, Victoire couldn't stand it anymore, and went up to bed. Despite the worries and anxieties that were taking over her mind, she found that Quidditch practise had taken it out of her, and she fell asleep quickly, to dreams of flying, and then falling.

"Victoire, can I see you for a moment please?"

It was last lesson on Friday, Herbology, and Victoire was aching to get back to her room and change. Hopefully there would be a letter from her parents or one of her aunts or uncles, or someone with news of Teddy. Breakfast had yielded no such news for any of the Weasley clan.

"Yes professor?" She walked up to the front of the class, her schoolbag trailing behind her.

Professor Longbottom gave her a sympathetic look. "How're you holding up?"

"What do you mean sir?"

"The school was informed, probably before you were of Mr Lupin's condition. I was just wondering if you were ok?"

There was such sympathy in his voice that Victoire almost cried, something she surprisingly hadn't done since the news.

"It's just hard… not knowing what's going on."

"I know. That's why I've arranged for you to go home tonight, so that you can visit him on Saturday, and be back in the evening. It was the best I could do under the circumstances."

"Oh, thank you!" If she hadn't been in school, she would have hugged him. (he was a family friend after all) "I really appreciate it Professor Longbottom."

"The Floo connection will take you back to your house at half past six, so make sure you're in my office by then." Professor Longbottom smiled at her gratitude.

"I will be. Thank you so much sir!" Victoire yanked her bag over her shoulder and ran back to her common room. It was half past four now. She emptied her bag of its schoolbooks, parchment, quills and ink, and hastily packed some clothes. At five o'clock she went down to the common room, where Molly was sat with Jenny and some other fourth years.

Victoire explained to them both what was happening, then worked on her Transfiguration homework until dinner. She took her bag with her, then, after a quick plateful of lamb stew and mashed potatoes, she went up to Professor Longbottom's office and knocked on the door.

"Ah, Victoire, you're early, good. Come in." She entered the office. They waited until the Floo connection was ready, chatting about how her studies were going. When it was time, he handed her an envelope.

"Can you leave him this? Just a card from the staff. Saves the owl, you know." Victoire nodded. "Enjoy your trip," Professor Longbottom said. "I hope he feels better!"

"Thanks sir," Victoire said. She threw a handful of powder into the fireplace, stepped into the green flickering flames and said, clearly, "Shell Cottage." The familiar spinning sensation took over as the magical network carried her home.

At ten o'clock the next morning, Victoire stepped back into the green flames at Shell Cottage, where she had arrived last night. It had been nice to see her parents, who still appeared none the wiser as to her and Teddy's relationship. She felt guilty, but still wasn't ready to tell them yet, and with Teddy lying in hospital, now didn't really seem like the best time.

Once in the hospital, she saw Harry sitting in the waiting room. It was cliché, but he seemed to have aged ten years since she had last seen him. He got up when he saw her, and gave her a massive hug.

"Is he awake yet?" she asked.

"No, although the Healers think it will be soon."

"What happened?"

Harry exhaled. He looked tired. Victoire wondered if he had slept at all since the accident.

"We were ambushed, by a group of… Death Eater sympathisers. I was trying to get Teddy out of there but they cast an anti-apparition spell. I told him to run for the exit but… there was a fight, and he just couldn't stay out of it."

"That… that sounds like him."

"Anyway, it wasn't a Death Eater that injured him. He… cast a spell at the ceiling and it caved down on him. He hit his head."

"Did you catch them?"

"Amazingly… yes. Teddy's spell caught them off-guard and those who weren't injured by the blast were distracted enough for us to subdue them. He… Teddy actually helped us catch about ten potential threats."

Victoire felt a mixture of fear and pride. Teddy had been nervous about his work experience. "Can I see him?"

"Of course. I'll take you up."

They walked up to the first floor in silence. He showed Victoire into the ward, then said, "I'll give you some privacy."

"Thanks."

"I'll be outside if you need me."

"Ok."

Harry closed the door, and Victoire walked to the end of the ward. She reached Teddy, and was a little shocked. His hair wasn't it's usual shade of turquoise, it was a sort of mousy brown, and he looked pale. He looked so… young. Vulnerable. It was strange, seeing him like this.

After standing staring at him for god knows how long, Victoire was startled by a voice.

"Are you a friend of Mr Lupin?"

A young Healer had joined her. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to make you jump. It's just I cant let you stay here otherwise."

"Yeah, I'm a… friend."

The Healer smiled and nodded, her eyes encouraging. "I see."

"How is he?"

"Well, everything looks ok, the only issue is that he's not waking up. We could try to use magic to resuscitate him, but we feel that in this case it's probably better to let him wake up naturally. We're hoping that it'll be soon."

Victoire nodded.

"I'll leave you two alone for a bit."

"Thank you."

As she was about to leave, she turned back to Victoire. "You know, in the muggle world, there are studies that say that patients in similar conditions can hear. Actually, some think it helps to talk to them. It might help him wake up." With that, she left the room.

Victoire sat down on the visitor's chair. She gently reached out to pus his hair back from his eyes. They were her favourite feature of his, she thought. Sometimes they changed colour, but mostly they were blue. Not the kind that changed colour with the light (he could literally change their colour if he wanted to). They were her favourite shade of blue. Like the sky in summer.

There were no marks on his head, despite the injury. Magic had taken care of that. Just that deathly pale skin. Victoire bent down to kiss him lightly on the lips. "Hi Teddy." She found his hand and held on to it tightly. "I'm here." She couldn't think of what to say. Normally they had so much to talk about, there had been so many things that she had been bursting to tell him on Thursday morning.

She blurted out, "can you imagine, I actually had a rational conversation with Felicity!" She couldn't imagine that eh would be interested, but it was better than the silence. "She's not nearly as witchy and vindictive as she seems… well, maybe she is. But I actually talked to her… she's just scared and hurting… It's strange isn't it? We put people into these little boxes, and sometimes we're so fixated on it that we don't let them out… I don't think we'll ever be best friends, but… there's more to her than I ever imagined, you know? It was a lesson for me, I guess." There was a short silence. "Quidditch went well, the team were brilliant. We'll… we'll thrash Hufflepuff… if we can just get you back on the team."

And for the first time since the news, Victoire cried. All the angst and fear she'd been bottling up for the past two days came leaking out in an ugly, snotty fit of crying.

"I hate begging," she sobbed. "You know I do. But I'm begging you now, please wake up. You big idiot, we need you on our team. I… I need you. Come on, Ted, wake up. I love you. Please."

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What's this? An update? In less than four months! It must be Christmas! (Technically, as December has started, I am officially allowed to feel festive!)

Sorry this got a little deep and dark in places. As you can imagine, I'm going through a lot of choices right now, and the "adult world" that I go on about is starting to feel pretty real to me right now! (GAH) I've been having a lot of mock interviews, one actual interview and even a university offer! So forgive the probable future lack of updates. I'm very busy. The next few chapters should be a bit easier to write though. But I won't make any promises.

Thanks for your amazing, supportive reviews, and to everyone who is following this story. You're all AWESOME.

DFTBA and have a wonderful holiday season!