A/N: Hello everyone, I'm so sorry that this chapter is a week late, but I was very sick the past two weekends so I didn't have the chance to work on this. The good news is that I'm feeling much better now, and this chapter is finished so you can have it now.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Ally has been involved in organizing a charity event for Puddlemere United (along with several other wives or fiancees) and she's recruited several of her friends and family members to come and help. Nadia mentioned that her friends Dante and Annalisa and their children were going to come to the event. Victoire and Teddy skipped Chris and Giavanna's wedding.
Puddlemere's Charity Event
Saturday, October 29th 2022
Even though Victoire had never actually been to a children's Hallowe'en charity event hosted by a professional quidditch team, she had to admit that when she showed up at Puddlemere United's stadium on Saturday morning, the quidditch pitch looked exactly like what she imagined it would. It was sort of as if her Uncle George's Hallowe'en theme at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shop had migrated to Puddlemere's stadium. It was rather obvious that Ally had at least helped out with the decorations for the event if not more. Since it was a children's charity event, the theme was more along the lines of cute and just a little creepy, instead of petrifyingly frightening.
In all honesty, Victoire considered the scariest thing she had seen so far to be the ghastly coloured bright orange t-shirts that all of the volunteers and Puddlemere players were wearing. Ally had dropped off a pair of the t-shirts at Victoire and Teddy's flat a few nights ago so that they could wear them to the event. While she was there, the brunette had very specifically explained to her cousin that she had no say in designing that year's t-shirt, and that if Victoire wanted to complain to someone she was to take it up with Giavanna, as the t-shirt design had been originally been hers.
The bright colour of the t-shirts was useful in one respect, it made it easier for Victoire to pick out the people she was looking for in a crowd. She had come to the event an hour and a half before it was supposed to open to the public, so the only people who were at the stadium were the players, their families, and other people and volunteers who were going to be involved in the organization of the event.
Victoire found Ally and Xavier standing near a carnival style game, they were in a loose group with Katie, Oliver, Nadia, Malcolm, and Dom. It took a few minutes to get the greeting and the hello hugs over with because it had actually been a while since Victoire had seen several of them. She might have also hugged Oliver a little longer than was strictly necessary, but she told herself that she only did it because she knew it would annoy Xavier. Whether or not she was being truthful with herself wasn't an issue for long, because Xavier quickly asked in a pointed tone where Teddy was.
"He got called in to work unexpectedly this morning," Victoire explained before turning to Ally and saying in an apologetic tone, "He did say that he'll get here as soon as he can, and that he'll make up for his absence by bringing reinforcements, whatever that means."
Ally shrugged, "It's no problem, and we've got lots of volunteers today so everything should still go smoothly."
"And that's all thanks to you," Katie told Ally encouragingly, "You've done so much for the event today. I know that everyone involved with its planning were really glad that you joined the committee."
Ally blushed a little and Xavier wrapped his arm around her waist, the expression on his face distinctly proud.
Before Katie, and Oliver, could undulate Ally with even more praise, the husband and wife were called away by one of Puddlemere's other coaches. Just after they left, Sandra and Kyle, and Anastasia and Colton showed up, all four of them wearing their bright orange t-shirts that Ally had supplied them with. A whirlwind of greetings, hugs, and a slightly awkward friendly slap on the back by Victoire to Colton, then ensued, and the salutations were barely over before Sandra started to complain about the colour of the t-shirts.
"I understand that it's Hallowe'en themed and all, but I would have thought that Giavanna could have done better than this. She is the one who likes to claim that she knows so much about, and has so many friends in the fashion world after all," Sandra said while sneering down at the shirt she was wearing.
Ally just shrugged her shoulders in defeat, "Since Giavanna's engagement and marriage to Chris came on so . . . quickly, the committee decided to give her something simple to be in charge of when she insisted that she wanted to get involved in the event."
"And apparently she couldn't even do that right," Nadia grumbled, she was always up for insulting Giavanna.
"I don't know," Dom mused, "I think she may just be an evil genius. She hates it when people look prettier than her, so she must have known that no one would look good in this colour and picked it because of that."
Anastasia didn't even seem to have it in her to defend her acquaintance, "It does sound like something Gia would do."
"It's just too bad that it backfired on her, personally I think that I'm rocking it," Dom said, her voice filled with a healthy dose of self-confidence.
Victoire looked at her sister and had to admit that Dom did look nice that day with her orange t-shirt tied with a knot just below her bellybutton and in a pair of tight dark-blue skinny jeans. She might have thought her younger sister a little ridiculous for wearing a pair of high-heeled black ankle boots with the outfit, but Victoire was honestly just glad that the heel on her boots was thicker and not of the stiletto variety.
For her part, Victoire had paired her orange t-shirt with a pair of black yoga pants and some comfortable running shoes.
"I don't know, I think it may clash with your hair," Malcolm considered in a serious tone.
Dom just rolled her eyes at him and sent him a rude hand gesture.
Victoire glanced at Malcolm a little confusedly as she had belatedly remembered something that he had told Teddy earlier in the week, "What are you doing here? I thought you were going on a work trip to Germany this weekend?"
Malcolm and Nadia shared a glance before he explained, "It's been pushed back to next weekend. Nadia and I had a meeting with Puddlemere's publicists a few days ago and they strongly suggested that we needed to get some good publicity in to counter-act the media's present view of our relationship."
"So they're hoping that some photos of you volunteering at an event for child will cover-up last Monday's photos of you and Nadia playing tonsil quidditch at the wedding?" Dom asked brazenly.
"Basically."
Victoire bit her lip and glanced from Nadia to Xavier, both had been very upset with the coverage of them in the Prophet on Monday, but they seemed to be taking it better now. Victoire and Teddy had ended up being sounding boards for both couples during the week as Ally had come to Victoire to vent, and Malcolm had gone to Teddy. Nadia and Malcolm's new publicity wasn't too bad once one got passed the fact that the newspaper was implying that Nadia was a slag, they hadn't mentioned Malcolm by name in the article, so they weren't getting any particular heat directed at them and their relationship.
Ally and Xavier on the other hand, were in a very different predicament. They had been hoping that they could announce their engagement on their own terms, and The Daily Prophet had taken a lot of their thunder. In the end they decided to go along with their original plan, and the next Monday issues of Quidditch Weekly and Up in the Air magazines were going to contain press releases and photos explicitly announcing Ally and Xavier's engagement. The couple had decided that they wanted to give Cecilia's magazine the scoop, but at the same time they also wanted to deal with Quidditch Weekly since that magazine had been very respectful of their privacy, and since the father of Ally's friend from Hogwarts was the editor of it. Therefore, Quidditch Weekly was to get the full press release about the engagement and an interview with Xavier and Ally to be set at a later date, while Up in the Air were to get a shorter version of the same press release, in addition to some posed photos of Xavier and Ally that had never been published before. Both magazines were happy with the settlement, Qudditch Weekly preferring to print a longer article with substance while Up in the Air was happy to print a shorter article with more pictures.
"So how much trouble did you get in as a team for your behaviour at the wedding?" Victoire asked Xavier and Nadia delicately.
"Well I didn't exactly do anything wrong, I just got caught dancing with my fiancée," Xavier explained slowly as his eyes unintentionally drifted towards Nadia.
His teammate huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, "I didn't do anything wrong."
"You did drink a wee bit too much," Malcolm reminded his girlfriend.
"Well if I stayed sober I probably would have said something horrible to the bride, so really this was probably the best outcome," Nadia defended with a pout.
Xavier went on to explain to Victoire that the other chaser who had a photo of him and his wife having an argument printed was false to begin with so he didn't need to meet with the team's publicists, and that that only left Clark, and that considering that it wasn't the first time that a photo of him drinking alcohol with a pretty woman had been printed in the newspaper, the coaches weren't actually all that concerned about it. Xavier's explanation only made Nadia complain more about the double-standards between men and woman and that if Clark had been photographed snogging a girl, he wouldn't have had to see a publicist about his image.
Before Nadia could really get into a good rant about the gender inequality between men and women in both the media and professional quidditch, Ally decided to hand out jobs for everyone to do. Nadia and Xavier had their own specific itinerary for the day like all of the other Puddlemere players, and Malcolm's task for the day was essentially to stay near Nadia and help her with whatever she was doing so that they could get photographed together by the members of the media who would be allowed into the event once it finally opened to the public. That left Ally in charge of Colton, Anastasia, Sandra, Kyle, Dom and Victoire, and she quickly assigned them different tasks to do.
Since they were still setting so activities up, Ally introduced Colton and Kyle to another member who was on Puddlemere's charity committee and told her to put the two men to work. Ally then instructed Sandra and Anastasia to go around to the carnival style games booths and asked them to unpack the boxes at each booth that held the prizes for those games. And finally, Dom and Victoire were instructed to make sure that all of the supplies for the more active events that were scheduled for later were in the open spot of grass at the edge of the pitch. Ally gave Victoire a list to double-check that they had enough items for the Hallowe'en themed obstacle courses, the quaffle toss, sack race, snitch on a spoon race etc., and then sent the two sisters off in the right direction.
There were large containers sitting on the edge of the field where the games were going to be hosted, and Victoire and Dom created a simple system to inventory everything from Ally's list. Dom would call out the name of the item needed for the activities and the number of that item needed, and Victoire would look through the bins to make sure that it was all there. Their system was both efficient and convenient, and Victoire was just searching through a bin for the last few items on the list when she heard her sister suddenly swear.
"Damnit," Dom muttered.
Victoire lifted her head up, but before she had the chance to voice an inquiry to her sister she saw the probable reason for Dom's previous language.
Walking towards the pair, most liking having just exited from one of the field level entrances from that side of the pitch, was Chris Mullin and Giavanna Tracey. Or was it Giavanna Mullin? Victoire wasn't entirely sure if the socialite had taken her new husband's last name or not.
While both Victoire and Dom would have preferred for the couple to walk right past them and further onto the pitch, the newly married couple seemed to have another idea.
"Hello there," Giavanna announced cheerily as she and Chris came within hearing range of the sisters.
Dom folded her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at the couple, so Victoire figured that it was up to her to be the polite one.
"Hello Giavanna, Chris. Congratulations on the wedding, I heard it was beautiful," Victoire told the pair civilly. She had also heard a lot more than that about it, from multiple sources, but she didn't add that part. Neither Nadia nor Sandra had been exactly full of praise for the wedding, or the couple either for that matter.
Giavanna ran a hand through her loose hair and smiled brightly, "It was, it's too bad that you and your boyfriend couldn't make it."
Victoire saw her sister's mouth open from the corner of her eye and she decided to pre-empt Dom before her little sister could rudely remind Giavanna that Teddy was Victoire's fiancé, not just her boyfriend.
"Yes, we felt awful about having to miss it, but unfortunately work got in the way," Victoire explained.
Giavanna nodded her head understandingly, but the small smirk that was on Giavanna's lips told Victoire that the other woman was probably very glad that she and Teddy didn't end up attending the wedding.
Dom put her hands on her hips, "I'm surprised to see you both here so soon after the wedding, aren't most couples still on their honeymoons at this time?"
The new Mrs. Mullin –or Mrs. Tracey-Mullin because Victoire wasn't sure which last name Giavanna went by anymore– put her arm through her husband's and lent her head against his arm, "Normally we would be, but we couldn't take the time to do it right after the wedding since Chris is now Puddlemere's starting seeker. We're just going to postpone a longer honeymoon until after the season is over."
"Oh yes, I heard about your promotion Chris, congratulations," Victoire told him sincerely.
With Dom playing the role of the bitchy mean girl, it fell to Victoire to practice being civil to the couple, and she was doing a rather good job at it too, which was a good thing because Dom's claws were definitely out.
"Of course your honeymoon will also have to wait until after you have the baby," Dom said with a faux-concerned look, "When are you due again Giavanna? March or February?"
The redhead ended her question with a critical examination of Giavanna's midsection, suggesting that her guess of the due date was because of how big she looked.
Giavanna's lips turned down into a frown, "It's still the same date that I told you earlier, April."
Victoire's eyes quickly gazed around the large pitch in an attempt to come up with something else to talk about, and even though what she did come up with was decidedly thin, she went with it anyway. She quickly wanted to get Dom away from Giavanna, and she wanted to get herself away from Chris; something about him still gave her the creeps. Which is why she hastily excused Dom and herself from Chris and Giavanna's company by saying that Ally was probably expecting them, and then almost dragged her sister away from the married couple.
The lie about needing to see Ally was feeble, so when the sisters spotted Cecilia on their trek across the pitch they stopped to chat with their little brother's girlfriend.
"I didn't think the press was going to be allowed in until the event officially started," Dom teased Cecilia after the sisters had the chance to greet her.
Cecilia just rolled her eyes and pointed to the ghastly coloured orange volunteer t-shirt she was wearing, "I'm not the press today, just a member of Puddlemere's extended family. Two other people from my magazine will be here later to cover the event."
"Well if you're not working I'm surprised that Louis isn't here hanging off of you," Dom remarked carelessly.
"He's got training today," Cecilia explained with a pout, "Or else Ally would have forced him to be here with the rest of you."
Victoire smiled indulgently at the thought of her favourite cousin, "Ally's not forcing any of us to be here. We're all happy to help her out today."
"Well I was definitely forced to be here. All of Ally and Stasia's combined nagging about it was tantamount to coercion," Dom griped.
Ally had firmly encouraged Dom to come out to help at the event, because she had a hidden agenda about it. Ally was not so subtly trying to convince Dom to be in the same place as Clark, and Victoire was surprised that Ally's intentions were not as plain to her sister as they were to her.
"I think you're just trying to hide the fact that you didn't have a better offer than this," Victoire pointed out to her sister, "Which is odd. Usually you spend your weekends trying to go on dates with as many different men as possible."
Dom rolled her eyes at her elder sister, "I don't purposely go from man to man. I just get bored easily."
"Yeah, we should look into getting you examined for an attention-deficit disorder," Victoire muttered.
"I mean," Dom continued speaking mostly to Cecilia, "Why should I commit myself to one person when there are dozens of people out there begging for the chance to adore me?"
Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose, "We should get you checked for either a narcissistic or borderline personality disorder as well it seems."
Cecilia giggled and then spotted someone across the pitch, "I've got to go and talk to some people. Today's a good opportunity to work on expanding the project Eli Martell and I are creating."
Dom and Victoire nodded at Cecilia and then watched as she strolled away from them. Victoire glanced down at her watch next and reminded Dom that they should probably find Ally and ask her what she wanted them to do next as the event was soon going to start.
It didn't take them long to find Ally, and an even shorter time for Ally to inform them of where they were going to be stationed for their first volunteer shift. She had placed both Sandra and Anastasia at the face-painting area, but since neither Victoire nor Dom had one ounce of artistic talent, she had to come up with something else for the sisters. Ally did a poor job at hiding her gleeful expression when she told Dom that she was going to handle ticket sales to the event with Clark, but Dom just shrugged nonchalantly and strutted off towards the front gates where she was told she was expected. Victoire on the other hand was given the less glamourous job of being stationed at the drink half of the refreshment tables where she was going to hand out water for free but other beverages for a donation price. While the position was a simple one, Victoire was content with making sure that the people attending the event wouldn't suffer from dehydration.
The first hour and a half that the event was open went by quickly, and Victoire's face was starting to hurt from smiling at every person she served. She didn't begrudge the smiles she handed out to the children and their parents, but that didn't stop the simple fact that the muscles in her cheeks were starting to get sore from overuse. Several people she recognized stopped by her drink station from people that she recognized as acquaintances of her parents or extended family members, to Puddlemere's onsite medi-witch and wizard Claudia and Steven (who had had a short but nice catch up with Victoire), to Malcolm's older Duncan and his son, to Clark's sister and nephew.
"Hello Tabitha, hi there Zach!" Victoire told the two cheerily when they came up to her and ordered two pumpkin juices.
Tabitha smiled brightly at Victoire, and glanced down at Zach who she was holding tightly by the hand, "Honey, do you remember Uncle Clark's friend Victoire?"
Zach stared at Victoire and pursed his lips, "You're a healer?"
Victoire nodded her head as she handed the two their drinks, "I am. How are the both of you?"
"We're good, prepared for a long day today," Tabitha explained with a smile that was both sweet and slightly harried.
"Are you going to stay for the entire thing today?" Victoire asked curiously.
Tabitha gestured for Zach to pick up his bottle of pumpkin juice and then answered Victoire, "Well Clark showed Zach a list of all of the events and activities today and my little man here decided that he needed to try absolutely everything."
Victoire smiled indulgently at Zach but before she could respond to Tabitha, the little man in question looked up at his mother with a pouty expression on his six-year-old face, "Mum I want to use both of my hands for my drink."
Tabitha bit her lip worriedly, but she calmly told her son, "Alright, but you have to stay right here next to me. No running off, got it?"
Zach nodded, his blonde hair flying crazily around his head, and then sighed with relief when his mother relinquished his hand. Tabitha glanced back up and saw Victoire looking at her with an inquisitive expression on her face.
"You probably think that I'm some sort of helicopter mom right now-"
Victoire interrupted her, "No, no, of course not. I've been out with Brogan in a less crowded place than this before and I insisted that he hold my hand as well. I totally understand."
It seemed that her words took some of the stress out of Tabitha's shoulders, "It's not even like he's always running off or something like that. He's just gets tunnel vision sometimes. Especially if he spots Clark or Mark, I don't want him running after one of them and getting lost in the crowd."
"I get it, when I have kids they're not going to be allowed to leave my sight unless they have extra-strength tracking and locating charms on them," Victoire proclaimed.
"Don't you need special permission from the Wizengamot to use spells like that on people?" Tabitha asked.
Victoire shrugged, "Wouldn't be the first time I've done something not completely legal."
Instead of looking appalled by Victoire's words Tabitha just chuckled warmly.
"Mark!" Zach suddenly yelled in an excited tone.
Both Tabitha and Victoire's heads moved around and they found Mark Doyle quickly making his way over to them, a bright smile on his face. Victoire's expression automatically turned into a smile as Mark got closer, while Tabitha's cheeks reddened.
Zach seemed to know that his mother would be very displeased with him if he ran off –even the short distance– to Mark, so instead he chose to bounce up and down on the balls of his feet as he not-so patiently waited for his uncle's fellow beater to come up to them.
"Hi Mark!" Zach exclaimed excitedly, taking a two steps away from his mother so that he could give Mark a high-five.
Mark greeted Zach with a grin almost as bright as the one on the six-year-old's face, and then he looked up and saw Tabitha.
"Hey Tab."
"Hi Mark."
"Hello Victoire," Victoire interjected, greeting herself after a few moments of silence because the beater had been too busy staring deeply into Tabitha's eyes to greet her.
Tabitha, who had also seemed to momentarily forget Victoire's presence, blushed redder and looked down at her hands.
Mark's gaze shifted once Victoire had broken the spell, and he gave the blonde a look as well as a raised eyebrow, "Good to see you too Vic."
Victoire nodded at him and squinted her eyes as she looked closely at his face, "Nice to see you too Mark . . . would it be rude of me to ask you why you have Xavier's jersey number painted on your cheek?"
On Mark's right cheek was a neatly painted beater's bat and bludger, while his left held a largely drawn replica of Xavier's quidditch number.
"I just came from the face-painting station, Ally was there giving the other people at it a hand and she offered to paint my face," Mark explained.
Victoire and Tabitha both chuckled before the former asked, "What did you actually ask her to paint on your face?"
"It was my fault, I told her to do whatever she fancied."
"It definitely is your fault then, you should know that pretty much the only thing Ally fancies is Xavier," Victoire told him.
Mark shrugged, "I'm just going to own it now."
"Well it does make you look adorable," Victoire reasoned.
Zach then spoke up and announced that he wanted to get his face painted too. Before Tabitha could reply, Mark offered to take him and Zach promised his mother that he wouldn't let go of Mark's hand. Tabitha had no choice but to cave to the adorable persuasion and insistence of both males and within a few minutes they were off and Victoire and Tabitha were left alone together.
The two women continued to chat and get to know each other, and Tabitha offered to help Victoire out at the beverage station until Mark and Zach came back. It only took about ten minutes for Zach to come running back to his mother –still holding Mark's hand like he had promised– his face newly decorated with Mark's quidditch number on one cheek and Xavier's on the other. He was very happy to show his mother his new body artwork, and Mark mischievously suggested that they find 'Uncle Clark' and show him Zach's face paint. Tabitha smirked –she and Mark both knew that Clark would be annoyed that his nephew decided to wear Mark and Xavier's quidditch number instead of his own– but agreed that they should find Clark as they hadn't seen him since they first got to the event.
They three of them left together soon after, and Victoire served drinks to a few more families before another familiar face came up to her station.
"Vic!"
She turned her head towards the voice just in time to see a cheery Brogan Wood run up to her with his arms held open wide. Victoire knelt down and Brogan abruptly stopped in front of her and gave her a big hug. She hugged him tightly back and then lifted him up with her as she straightened out and rested him on her hip. Grumbling a little under her breath about how she'd have to cast a feather-light charm on him the next time she held him if he was going to keep getting bigger. Once she was standing again she glanced towards the adult who had accompanied Brogan.
"I thought you were supposed to be Nadia's shadow today?"
Malcolm shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest, "I was, but it's her turn to sit down and sign autographs and I didn't need to be there for that. I traded places with Katie and said I'd watch Brogan for a while."
Victoire poured Brogan a cup of water and gave Malcolm a much needed butterbeer. By the time the two were finished drinking them, a new volunteer had come by the beverage station and said that it was his turn to hold down the fort for a while. Being dismissed, Victoire walked away from the station, still carrying Brogan, and with Malcolm beside her. Miraculously she found Ally, and was instructed to go relieve Kyle who was at a carnival-type game station.
Ally had intended to change everyone's position up every few hours to give them the chance to help out in different areas to stave off potential boredom, so it was now Victoire's turn to hand out prizes at the bludger batting stand. Kyle was very happy to no longer be in charge of making sure that no stray bludger became loose and wreaked havoc on the event's large crowd, and after explaining to Victoire what the job entailed he left to go join his wife at the stands that were serving food for the picnic lunch.
Brogan had a few tries at the game that Victoire was in-charge of, and once he had finally won a prize he turned to Malcolm and announced that he was hungry. Malcolm then inquired of his youngest cousin why he didn't ask for food when they were closer to the food station, to which Brogan simply replied that he hadn't been hungry at that point. The elder Wood refrained from rolling his eyes at the younger, snatched up the boy's hand to hold, and then muttered something about going to find Duncan, Sile, and Callum and have lunch with them. The first two were Malcolm's oldest brother and his wife, while the second was said couple's three-year-old son who always got along rather well with Brogan.
Victoire was a little busier at the bludger batting station than she had been at the beverage stand, but she enjoyed it all the same and finally began to understand why Ally, Freddie, Clark, and Mark would enjoy playing the position of beater. There was something very cathartic about being able to smack something really hard. Not an hour after Malcolm and Brogan left, there was a bit of a lull at her station as most people had left to have lunch, so Victoire entertained herself with sorting through the prizes again and arranging them from smallest to largest. As she did so someone came up to her stand when she had her back turned.
"I'd like a turn Miss."
She spun around in a hurried circle –almost toppling over even though she was wearing flat trainers– in her haste to see the newcomer. She knew that voice.
Standing in front of her game stand and wearing his own garish orange volunteer t-shirt was Teddy. Victoire smiled at him and immediately leaned forward across the small counter at the front of the stand so she could give him a kiss. He bent his head down and met her halfway when he realized what she was trying to do, and they shared a quick but enthusiastic kiss. When their embrace was finished Victoire took a step back and looked around Teddy.
"So what exactly did you mean by bringing reinforcements?" She asked him perplexedly.
"This is what I meant," Teddy explained as he pointed behind him just as two familiar people squeezed out of the crowd behind him.
Victoire's face took on an expression of surprise and she lifted her hand and waved to Louis Weasley and Jilly Donaldson. The former had an orange volunteer shirt on while the latter just had a white long-sleeved shirt. Victoire sent Teddy a raised eyebrow and asked him how he was able to bring Louis with him when her younger brother was supposed to be completing an MLE training session that day.
Teddy looked at his feet and admitted that he was able to spring Louis from training and drag him along.
"And you really need to stop doing that," Louis told Teddy with a roll of his brown eyes, "Part of the reason why I joined the department of MLE instead of the Auror Department is because I didn't want this kind of special treatment."
Teddy just shrugged his shoulders, "You'll get over it. Whatever flack you get from your fellow trainees over this will be much less than the flack you would have gotten from Oliver for not helping out today."
"Fair point," Louis admitted with a nod. The mention of Oliver Wood prompted Louis's desire to find Cecilia, so swiftly he left before he could complain again about Teddy getting him out of training.
"He's not going to get in trouble for whatever you did to get him out of training, is he?" Victoire asked Teddy worriedly as she watched her younger brother walk away.
Her fiancé shook his head, "Nah, I was just speaking to a few of the MLE agents who were in charge of the training session today and I offered to run a concealment and disguise training module with their trainees –which is the session they were going to do today – but told them that I'd only be available to do so on Monday."
Victoire nodded her head, "Ah, that's sneaky." Then she turned to Jilly, "So how'd you end up tagging along today?"
"Teddy heard me bemoaning the fact that I have absolutely no plans for this weekend and then begged me to come and help," Jilly explained.
"I did not beg."
Jilly ignored him and shared a look with Victoire, "He was totally begging."
Teddy grumbled at the two women, but he put a smile on his face a few minutes later when some customers came up to the game stand. Jilly and Teddy stayed at the stand to help Victoire for about another half hour before Ally found them. She excitedly thanked Teddy for finally showing up and bringing some extra help, and then she informed Victoire that she could have a lunch break and that someone else would take over for her at the game stand.
The group wandered over to the food stands and picnic area, which was less crowded than it had been for the past few hours as most of the people at the event had taken the chance to eat already, and they bought some food and looked around for a place to sit. Not far away from the food stands, and seeming as though they were already half-way through their lunches, were Sandra, Kyle, Anastasia, and Colton –the latter of which didn't seem very happy to be sitting on a blanket on the ground. Victoire, Teddy, Ally, and Jilly sat down around the others and quickly ate while discussing how the event was going so far.
Near the end of their meal Xavier found them, his hands filled with two plates of food. Close behind him were Malcolm and Brogan (who apparently had gotten distracted by another game and didn't end up eating earlier like they said they would), and the littlest Wood was very excited to see Teddy, although the Wood who was most excited to see the metamorphmagus turned out to be Malcolm.
"So is Nadia still signing autographs?" Victoire asked Malcolm just before shoving half a buttered bread roll into her mouth.
Malcolm ignored Victoire's horrible eating habits –although the look on Xavier's face said that he didn't– and helped Brogan spear a difficult pickle slice onto the end of his plastic fork as he explained, "No, it's Uncle Oliver's turn to do that. Nadia was going to meet Dante, Annalisa and their kids at the front gate, they're supposed to show up here any minute."
"Or any second," Xavier remarked, putting down his fork so that he could point out the forms of Nadia and her friends quickly coming up to them.
There was a flurry of activity as Nadia introduced everyone to her friends who hadn't met them before, and re-introduced the ones who had. Dante and Annalisa smiled brightly at everyone and somehow they were able to politely and graciously handle the introductions of a half a dozen new people while simultaneously wrangling four young children. Eliana, Teresa, and Arturo were the couple's triplets who were a month and a half away from turning three-years old, and baby Valentina was three weeks old and so adorable that Victoire let out a very girlish giggle when Annalisa introduced her to her.
Malcolm, who was still trying to win over Dante, immediately began trying to get on the good side of the triplets by asking the children questions and feeding them bits of fruit that he had on his plate. Annalisa asked Victoire if she wanted to hold the baby, and Victoire tried not to look too excited as she received the infant from its mother.
"Be warned, I don't think Victoire's going to give you your baby back," Teddy told Annalisa.
Nadia's friend chuckled, "That's fine. Once you're on your fourth kid you're not too worried about losing one of them. Dante and I know that they'll always come back, mostly because no one would want to keep them."
"You're Madre's not being very nice to you," Victoire told baby Valentina in infant-directed speech, "You seem like a perfect little baby."
Annalisa sent her baby an indulgent smile, "I will admit that she's a much better baby then her older siblings were . . . but that may just be because one baby's easier to take care of at once than three are."
"Probably," Nadia agreed with a nod before leaning towards Teresa and tickling her side to make her giggle.
"She's a very cute little thing," Kyle commented in a soft tone as he sat up on his knees to get a better look at the baby Victoire had in her arms. He did try very hard to keep his eyes on the baby, but he couldn't stop his gaze from drifting out of the corner of his eye towards his wife.
Sandra spared only a slightly tender glance at Baby Valentina before replying, "Babies are always cute when you only see them for a little while at a time. It's completely different if you're responsible for its development and wellbeing for a whole eighteen years."
Victoire didn't have to ask to know that Sandra and Kyle seemed to be continuing a previous private conversation via their thinly-veiled comments. But thankfully someone else took the responsibility of furthering the conversation out of Victoire's hands.
"Raising children is very different, and very difficult. Having a child is not something that you want to go into lightly, and especially not if you do not think you are ready," Annalisa remarked, "I mean, I don't think that anybody is ever completely ready to have children, even the ones who say they are, but you definitely don't want to begin the process if you don't think that you're at least somewhat prepared for it."
Kyle and Sandra shared a look that Victoire couldn't exactly decipher, but she did notice them reaching for each other's hand and giving each other a small smile.
Baby Valentina made a few fussing sounds, but before Annalisa could offer to take the baby back Victoire started to gently bounce the baby up and down in her arms. The action almost immediately settled the infant.
"You're pretty good with babies," Jilly complimented the blonde with an admiring nod.
"I've had a lot of practice with newborns over the last few months," She explained, thinking of all of the time she had spent with Rowan.
Teddy smiled down at the baby in his fiancée's arms before glancing enquiringly at Jilly, "Have you ever thought about having one of these?"
Jilly scoffed and rolled her eyes, "In like ten years. Maybe."
Victoire ended up holding Baby Valentina until everyone finished their lunches, when she had to reluctantly hand the infant back over to its mother. The triplets jumped up soon after, and each of them separately reminded their parents that the three-legged race was about to start soon and that they wanted to join. To Dante's chagrin both Eliana and Teresa began to argue over who would have Malcolm as a partner in the race. Eliana, who was the more dramatic of the two, ended up receiving the chance to have Malcolm as a partner when Nadia sweetly offered to partner with the more easy-going Teresa. Arturo had already decided that he was going to be partners with his father because the little boy was determined to win the race, and everyone else stood up to go over and watch the event.
As they approached the event's starting line Brogan excitedly bounced on his toes and sweetly asked Victoire to be his partner in the race, and Xavier –who didn't seem too put out that his little brother had chosen Victoire over him– just explained that he had already promised Malcolm's nephew Callum that he'd be his partner. While the adults and children were getting prepared for the race, which included using a spell to stick the sides of their legs together from heel to the child's hip, Victoire noted Mark, Clark, Tabitha, and Zach coming towards the area –most likely so that Zach could join the race.
Zach had decided that his Uncle Clark was going to be his partner, and even though the uncle and nephew had to pass by Dom to get to the starting line, Clark only acknowledged her presence with a slight wink thrown in her direction. Clark and Zach's migration to the starting line left Tabitha and Mark alone together on the sidelines, and Victoire saw that Ally was slyly trying to inch closer to the pair so that she could eavesdrop on their conversation.
From the obnoxiously huge smile that graced Ally's face after listening in on the pair's conversation for a few minutes, it seemed that whatever Mark and Tabitha were talking about was helping what Ally liked to refer to as 'the couple's progress in their relationship'.
Once Victoire and Brogan were spelled together, they settled onto the starting line in between Malcolm and Eliana, and Xavier and his second-cousin Callum. By the time Oliver blew the starting whistle to signal that the race was to start, there were three dozen or so pairs lined up to go. They all took off on a run, and after several short minutes of stumbling and more than half of the pairs tripping and falling, Xavier and Callum sprinted across the finish line first with Victoire and Brogan coming in a very close second, and Dante and Arturo claiming third.
Both Callum and Xavier got palm sized medals that simply read first-place on them for winning and, even though he didn't get anything for coming in second, Brogan was still very happy to have done as well as he did in the race. Victoire chuckled at his enthusiasm –which was very refreshing and reassuring as she had been worried that Brogan might have taken not coming in first hard– and watched as Brogan went over to high-five his cousin Callum, as well the each of Dante and Annalisa's triplets, and Zach.
Victoire was standing next to Brogan –who had been in the middle of high-fiving Zach– when she heard an exchange between Clark and Dom, who were standing closely together a little ways away from everyone else.
"I see that you didn't follow Mark's lead and get your face painted," Dom told Clark with a small smirk.
Clark smiled back, just slightly, "He went without me. I'm not opposed to getting some body art, but I think I'd like someone to go with me to help me pick out what to get."
"And to tell you whether or not the artist wrote her boyfriend's number on your cheek instead of something else?" Dom asked.
"Exactly," Clark agreed with a nod, "Although, since Mark's got Xavier's number I should probably get it as well to make sure that we match."
"You could always get Xavier's number on one side and Mark's on the other, that way you'd match your nephew," Dom suggested.
Clark nodded seriously, "Good idea, I'm sure Zach will insist on it anyway."
The six-year-old must have heard his name because he took that moment to run to his uncle, hug his legs, thank him for being his partner in the race, and then proclaimed in a voice that carried that he was the best uncle ever. Zach then ran back over to his mother's side as if the entire thirty-second interlude never happened, and as Dom watched the little boy's retreating figure while Clark coughed awkwardly.
"I swear I didn't coach him to say that."
To his surprise Dom laughed loudly, if a little indelicately, "Oh I can tell that. He was very sincere."
"It's good to get feedback every once in a while," Clark continued in a self-deprecating tone, "A few nights ago he called me a mean-y-bo-beany because I told him that I agreed with his mother about him eating his broccoli; so it's nice to see that my rating as an uncle had gone up a little at least."
Dom folded her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at him, "As opposed to your standing in the league as one of the top five beaters?"
"I thought you weren't a fan of quidditch?" Clark asked her as he tried his best not to let his sudden inner smugness leak into his voice.
If Dom had been anyone else she probably would have blushed, as it was she did look shyly –or as close to shyly as Dom could ever look– down at her feet, "I'm not, but with a cousin who's so invested in Puddlemere's standings like Ally, it's impossible not to glean a bit of information about the team every now and then."
"Okay then." Clark's first impulse was to push her harder and tease her a bit more, but since his talk with Victoire at the café, he decided to do something different instead. He gave her a sweet smile and then turned as if to leave.
Dom called out to him before he could, "If you ever need someone to go with you and give you their opinion on your new body art, I'd probably be available."
Clark turned his head so that he could look at her again but he kept walking away from her, "I'll keep that in mind."
The rest of the afternoon's events went by very smoothly and without any type of problem, and even though Victoire spent time volunteering at several more stations, she still had time to do a couple more activities with Brogan.
Teddy had been Brogan's partner for the quaffle toss because Katie was helping judge the event, and Cecilia was busy helping Eli Martell (who had shown up to the Puddlemere event with his eldest child) schmooze people and convince them to join the new charity they were trying to set up, and by the end of the event both males seemed as though they had a fantastic time.
Both Victoire and Colton had ended up helping Brogan with the activities that involved practicing with a golden snitch, and they ended up being some of Brogan's favourite events of the day. Oliver had found the pair of seekers helping his youngest son at one point, and when he caught Victoire's gaze he sent her an eye roll and muttered something about her still trying to turn his son into a seeker.
The last activity of that day's charity event was the silent auction, and since the event was something aimed more for the adults in the crowd, many of the people in attendance who had young children went home before it started. There wasn't much left for the volunteers to do during the silent auction, so Victoire found herself at a table with some of her friends while they waited for people to finish putting down their final bids for the auction to begin.
It was during this time that Ally turned to Victoire and innocently asked, "Oh. I've been meaning to ask you, what are you going to wear to the ball on Monday?"
Victoire's face scrunched up in confusion as her mind processed her cousin's question, "What ball?"
"The Ministry's Hallowe'en ball on Monday night," Ally clarified as if it was self-explanatory.
"Oh . . . I didn't realize they were hosting a ball this year . . . but why would you think I'd be going to it?" Victoire inquired perplexedly.
Ally looked just as puzzled at her cousin's confusion as Victoire seemed from said confusion, "Well Xav and I only got invited because he's a professional quidditch player and the Ministry likes to invite lots of celebrities and upper class types, but I assumed that you and Teddy would be going because he is a Ministry employee."
Victoire's head turned to her left where Teddy was sitting beside her and speaking to Colton, "Did we get invited to a ball at the Ministry on Monday?"
Teddy swallowed thickly and looked decidedly ashamed as he answered her inquiry.
"Umm . . . yeah, we might have been."
His fiancée put her hands on her hips, "Then why am I only hearing about this now? Those invitations must have gone out at least a week ago."
"Two weeks ago actually," Teddy admitted guiltily, "I was just waiting to tell you about it until you knew if you'd be working or not."
"Or were you hoping that Victoire would be working because that way you wouldn't have to go?" Colton chimed in playing devil's advocate.
Teddy attempted to send Victoire a charming smile, it failed, "Perhaps . . ."
Victoire sighed, "Well as much as I hate those sort of things, we'll have to go now. Not only do I have Monday night off, but I go in late on Tuesday so there's no verifiable reason for us to miss it."
"You'll get over it I'm sure, it's important for Teddy to go to these events at the Ministry. Connections and networking are very important," Dom added, deciding to join in on the conversation as well.
"He's already got Uncle Harry and Kingsley, what other connections in the Auror Department could he need?" Ally asked Dom.
The redhead rolled her blue eyes at her cousin, "You people do realize that there's more to the Ministry than just the Auror Department right?"
"Of course I know that," Teddy replied seriously before suddenly grinning wickedly, "There's also the department of Magical Law Enforcement, or as we like to call it, the department-of-everyone-who-failed-to-get-into-auror-training."
His jibe was intended for Louis, but the younger man –who was on the other side of the table– didn't seem to hear him as he was too busy staring at Cecilia who was several metres away from them and talking to Eli Martell.
Victoire flicked a wadded up ball of paper at her little brother, and he finally turned his face towards them after the ball bounced off his head.
"Oi, what was that for?"
His elder sister ignored him, "Are you going to the Ministry's Hallowe'en ball?"
"Yeah, Cecilia and I are going."
Victoire nodded and then turned to give Teddy a look, "See? Even he told his girlfriend about the upcoming Ministry ball."
"You don't like balls or other fancy events," Teddy reminded Victoire in an achingly patient voice.
"No I don't, but this is a function for your work. Of course I'll go if it's best for you in the long run," She told him stubbornly.
He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple, "Thank you. Are you very angry at me for not giving you enough warning?"
"Nah, I would have just spent the last two weeks stressing out about it."
"I should have given you more notice though, you'll need to find something to wear."
Victoire shrugged, "I've got stuff in the closet that I bought because it was on sale but haven't worn yet, it should be perfectly fine to wear. Besides, if I'm ever in a pinch I could always raid Dom's closet."
"You probably should anyway, whatever I've got will be loads better than what you have," Dom commented.
Victoire rolled her eyes, but refrained from telling her sister that there was a difference between dressing for a work event and dressing for a night out at a club, and that even though she couldn't understand the difference, that didn't mean that Victoire couldn't.
A/N: I hope that you liked this chapter even though it was late. I apologize again for not updating last week like I was supposed to. Please let me know what your thoughts, comments, or questions for this chapter are though, so I can know what you think about this story's progress.
Next Update: I promise it will be in two weeks.
Next Chapter: We get to see some of the characters at the Ministry's Hallowe'en ball.
Teaser for Next Chap:
"It's not going to work," the third man whom they were standing with informed them in with a derisive tone.
Matt pursed his lips and glanced innocently at his friend, "What's not going to work?"
"This isn't going to work," Louis reiterated as he swept his hand out to gesture to where Matt and Anish were standing, still gawking at his girlfriend from a distance.
Thanks again to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed this story :)
BIG thank yous to:
Padfoot1999, HappyHour, Guest(1), HPsea, silverlover02, macs14, Seher Syed, sepoetry, GinevraFangirl, zvc56, AngelTwins527, rosesnlilies, Rainbow Lava Ninjas, no cure for crazy, luminere100, kawaiiotaku0405, Paddfoot12, Jennifer Jules, KrystynaK, KiMaYa, jeremiah123, ntlpurpolia, Aeistrya, Cjaben1, and Guest(2).
Padfoot1999: Katie probably will find out at some point, but from what I can recall she doesn't know yet.
HappyHour: I doubt that there will be more rumours about Vic and Xavier dating. Especially now that it's public that Xavier and Ally are engaged.
silverlover02: I'm glad that you still like the Hogwarts kids, and that you liked the Puddlemere gone wild part.
macs14: I'm sorry FOR MAKING YOU CONFUSED.
sepoetry: I don't think it's bad that you like Selene, I tried to make her a likeable character. And no, not an obscure 90s reference, I'm a child of the 90s as well.
GinevraFangirl: I like your summary of the Hogwarts characters, and I find it interesting that you think Al and Alice are secretly dating.
rosesnlilies: I'm glad that you like Selene, I meant to make her interesting so I'm glad that she's coming across that way.
Cjaben1: Well I'm sorry that I made you check everyday for nothing, but I hope that persistence pays off today.
zvc56: Happy belated birthday, it's funny that you mentioned that because April 3rd is one of my cousins' birthday.
AngelTwins527: There was nothing else really specific that happened in New York that pertains to the story, which is why I didn't mention it. However, because I left it blank there's always that chance that I could write a one-shot about it later on at some point.
luminere100: I'm glad that you found this story and that you like it so much. Thank you for your comments, and I'm happy that you like the Teddy/Victoire pairing, they are the central pairing and the main reason why I started writing these stories.
KiMaYa: James and Selene do see t have a lot of chemistry, but of course I'd never tell you anything else than that. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter,
Please leave me your questions or comments in a review!
I will definitely update in two weeks,
Until next time, DFTBA!