A/N: Hey everyone, well I officially only have one exam left to go before being done for the holidays! (It's on a Sunday of all things though, yuck.) Which means that you can have this chapter right on time! I hope you like this one because I spent a lot of time working on it to get the mood just right ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series, I will however take full responsibility for Hayden, Xavier, and Malcolm :)
An Inadvertent Meeting
Friday, March 4th 2022
Teddy pointed out a specific line of runes to O. A. R. number one, and while she titled her head to the side –a sign that she was paying a lot of attention to the markings- he scooted his chair a few inches away from hers. They had actually been working rather well together, side-by-side, during the past fifteen minutes, but he had recently realized that she was nudging her chair closer to his as they worked out of the same runes textbook. Instead of voicing his thoughts on the situation though, he thought it would be better just to maintain the space between them that she was trying to minimize.
"These four here have the same basic format, with additional lines and curves added, almost on top," Teddy said as his finger tapped the closest rune to him. He'd hopped that starting a conversation might distract her from the fact that he had been successful in inching his chair even further away from her. He officially had his own personal bubble of space back.
"Yes, and with any other language we would assume that this means that they have either similar meanings, or similar sounds," O. A. R number one informed him.
"But we can't assume that here," Teddy re-joined.
"Exactly," O. A. R. number one said, a real and sincere smile blooming across her face for the first time in a while. Usually the smiles she gave him were coy and flirty; this one seemed more genuine. She was glad that we were working so well together, "We don't know how this language would sound when spoken, and we don't even know if it's even still around as a spoken language, it could have died out hundreds of years ago."
"How is it that we've gone through dozens of texts and still haven't been able to come up with what language this is?" Teddy asked, scratching his head as he stared at the rather crude series of lines.
"I don't know, it would be so much easier if we found this language's version of the Rosetta stone," O. A. R. number one mused.
Teddy was still for a moment before his brain kicked itself into high gear, "How would we know if we did?"
"Huh?"
Teddy reached for a bundle of parchment paper that was on the far side of the table. It had a copy of almost every single rune that they'd found in all of the sites, written on it, "If there were two types of runes written on the walls, this one we can't decipher, and one that has been translated, how would we be able to tell? What would be the major tell-tale signs of a difference between the two written languages?"
O. A. R. number one spent a few minutes considering Teddy's words before answering. "If there was a series of this unknown language written right above or below a series of one that is translated, the first thing we would need to do would be to distinguish which ones belong to which language, and which language it is that is translated. If there were runes like that out there, I think we would have figured it out by now though. We've cross-referenced pretty much every rune we've found with all of these texts and haven't been able to decode one yet."
"What if we started with a language from a different civilization, one that this civilization could have come into contact with, a language that is already translated?" Teddy questioned.
"We've already cross-referenced the runes on the walls of the sites with texts written about translated languages from geographically close civilizations," O. A. R. number one reminded him.
"But have you cross referenced runes on the artifacts that we found at these sites? Some of the relics could have been made from a different civilization, which these people ended up with."
O. A. R. number one's eyes widened, "We haven't done that yet. That's a brilliant idea Teddy!"
Teddy shrugged and attempted a polite smile, "I wouldn't have thought of it if you hadn't mentioned the Rosetta stone."
"I'm actually a little surprised you knew what the Rosetta stone was," O. A. R. number one said endeavouring to try a teasing tone.
"I think I sat through enough lectures on the brilliance that was the discovery of the Rosetta stone, to make sure that I'd never forget about it," Teddy replied with a raised eyebrow.
"I wouldn't have had to lecture you so many times on it, if you had paid attention the first three times that I tried to explain it to you," O. A. R. number one responded, crossing her arms over her chest.
Teddy chuckled, "It's not my fault Malcolm kept distracting me."
"My question is why you even wanted to learn about the Rosetta stone in the first place, if Malcolm Wood's antics were enough to distract you – Eeek!"
Teddy jumped in his seat when he heard O. A. R. number one scream. It took him a few seconds to realize what was going one, but then he noticed that her head and face were dripping wet from water. He looked around and noticed Hayden standing right behind O. A. R. number one's chair, a smirk on his face and a –now empty- canteen in his hands.
"What the Hades was that for?" O. A. R. number one yelled angrily as she glared at Hayden.
"I was trying to protect Teddy from your demonic ways. Rumour has it that dousing a demon with holy water will destroy them," Hayden said brightly.
"Where did you get holy water?" Teddy asked, not even blinking an eye at the fact that Hayden had insinuated that O. A. R. number was a cohort of Satan.
"Well, there's no priest here to bless it, so I borrowed Nathan's crucifix necklace and kept it in the water for about a half hour, I figured it'd do the trick," Hayden explained.
"Did you seriously douse me with water so that you could make a childish joke like that?" O. A. R. number one asked in an outraged tone.
"Don't underestimate the lengths Hayden will go to, to make a childish joke," Teddy cautioned.
O. A. R. number one gave Teddy a look that said 'are-you-kidding-me-?-You're-really-siding-with-him-on-this-?', before standing up and pacing out of the room. Teddy assumed that she was leaving to go change into dry clothes because the water Hayden had doused her with was starting to get onto her t-shirt.
When she was gone, Teddy asked, "Why did you decide to douse her with water anyway?"
"I thought that she had you under some hypnotic spell and I need to break her concentration," Hayden replied readily.
Teddy sighed, "And why did you assume that she had me under some hypnotic spell?"
"Because you two were sitting close together-"
"We were working on translating these runes!"
"And you were having a respectful conversation-"
"About translating the runes!"
"And you were laughing with her and letting her tease you!" Hayden finished, giving Teddy a specific look.
Teddy pinched the bridge of his nose, "We were having one of the first civil conversations we've had since I got here."
"Then I interrupted just in time," Hayden replied, holding his stance firmly.
Teddy opened his mouth to argue, but then thought better of it, "It was probably for the best anyway, the conversation we were having was going to end up circling back to Vic, and that would have just pissed her off again."
Hayden frowned, "Maybe I should have waited. Then she'd be mad at you instead of me."
"And miss out on dousing her with water and calling her a demon?" Teddy teased.
"Fair point," Hayden conceded.
The two men then went about tidying up the papers and texts that Teddy and O. A. R. number one had been using, and they were almost finished when another auror came into the room and handed Teddy a note. He read the note through quickly, and then turned to Hayden, "Our meeting in the city has been moved up from nine a.m. to seven-thirty a.m."
Hayden looked down at his watch, and gave its face a confused look, "But it's seven-fifteen a.m. right now."
"Exactly."
"Bollocks, we're never going to make it to the city on time, not with the alibi we have to give Sir," Hayden commented.
"Then it seems we're going to have to give Sir a different alibi, and apparate back and forth. Let's hope this meeting is quick," Teddy reasoned.
Hayden nodded and then followed Teddy out of the room. They checked a few places until they found Sir in the dining area. Teddy quickly explained to him that he and Ayden were going to go to one of the sites they planned to visit the next day, so that they could check it out before hand, and then left in one of the team's jeeps. When they were out of sight of everyone else, they parked the jeep, hid it behind an outcropping of rocks, and then apparated to the city, just outside of the same muggle conference centre they visited a few weeks ago to meet with Jilly and Kurt. Teddy morphed his facial features again, and gave the woman at the front desk the same name of 'Filipek'. The woman led them to a conference room with proper audiovisual equipment, and then Teddy asked Hayden how they were doing for time.
"We've got three minutes until we go live."
Teddy nodded and let out a sigh of relief as he morphed his features back to normal. He really thought when he read that note this morning that they were going to be so late to this meeting. He didn't know whom they were arranged to meet, but he didn't want to risk it being someone higher up in the Auror Department than Jilly and Kurt, especially if they ended up coming in late.
Two minutes later the large computer screen that was mounted on the wall lit up and the incoming video feed started.
"Hey 007, how's it hanging – Ow! Jilly!"
Under normal circumstances, Teddy would have laughed at how Jilly had smacked Kurt across the back of his head for his unprofessional greeting, however, since Jilly and Kurt weren't the only aurors he and Hayden could see on the screen, he abstained.
Hayden, not so much, "Where's my greeting Williamson?"
"Well if I'm greeting you Summers, then I think I'll have to change 007 to Sherlock, and then I can call you Watson!"
"Kurt, talking about fictional storybook characters is not why we're risking Ted and Summers's covers to meet with them," Jilly chastised.
"Yes, can we please get to the point now?" Auror Burton asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave Kurt a look that said that she wasn't entirely sure how he had managed to pass auror training and still be as unprofessional as he was.
"Of course Auror Burton, so what is the reason for this meeting?" Teddy asked, hoping to get them back on track.
"Donaldson and Williamson have had a few more breaks on the case, so we figured it would be a good time to go over everything we have, and make sure that everyone was on the same page," a deep voice that Teddy instantly recognized said in a smooth and commanding tone.
The source of the voice came into view as he spoke, and his sudden manifestation caused a contrite look to come across both Hayden and Kurt's faces.
"Auror Shacklebolt," both Teddy and Hayden said at the same time, with an incline of their heads.
The head of the Auror Department nodded back at them and then waved his hand in Jilly and Kurt's direction, to signal them to start their report.
"Well, we've come into possession of an artifact, from a third-party source, which is from the civilization you're looking into. The pot matches the shard that was found on the person of the unknown patient at St. Mungo's too," Kurt said.
"So you found the matching artifact to the sliver?" Hayden repeated.
"Yes."
"Well that's fantastic, are you tracing down who had the artifact?" Teddy asked.
Jilly and Kurt shared a look, "We're working on it."
"Our contacts at St. Mungo's have also made some headway with the unnamed patient," Jilly explained, "They were finally able to diagnose the bacteria that the man is suffering from, and now they're working on a course of treatment. We don't know how much longer the recovery will take, but it's a step in the right direction."
"Diagnosing the bacteria also helped us confirm that the man had to have been down where you are to have caught it," Kurt enlightened.
"How so?" Hayden asked.
Jilly quickly went about reading from a medical report that Spencer had written out the specifics of the bacteria and what they knew about the disease, and when she was finished, Kingsley asked Teddy and Hayden to explain what they'd been up to. Teddy and Hayden quickly went about summarizing the work they'd done at each site.
"As for decoding this language, it's very slow goings," Hayden finished.
"I think we're on the cusp of making some progress though," Teddy argued, "Just this morning one of the cursebreakers and I came up with a new idea on how to tackle the translation. She said that they haven't spent much time looking at the runes on the artifacts, just the ones on the walls of the sites because they assumed that they're all the same. I brought it up though, so I think that that's our next avenue."
"So should we send you some pictures of this antique that we just got? So you can cross-reference it with all of the other ones you've found at the sites?" Jilly asked.
"It couldn't hurt," Teddy replied.
"What about the progress on the missing children case?" Auror Burton asked in her always-straightforward tone.
Hayden sent a sideways look at Teddy –he knew that it was still a hard topic for Teddy – and began to describe how they'd gotten pretty much nowhere, when a commotion began on the screen. Auror McKenny barged into the room where Jilly, Kurt, Kingsley, and Auror Burton were, and whispered something into Kingsley's ear. Kingsley nodded, said that he needed to leave for a few moments, and then requested that Jilly and Kurt accompany him.
When they left, Auror Burton insisted on Teddy and Hayden finishing the report on the missing children, so Hayden went ahead to explain in rather fancy terms that they hadn't discovered any new leads, and let Teddy sit out that round. Several minutes later, Jilly and Kurt came back, but this time they had very worried expressions on their faces. Teddy noticed them right away, and was concerned. Usually Jilly was good at hiding her facial expressions.
"Where's Shacklebolt?" Hayden asked after noticing that he hadn't accompanied them back into the room.
"He's . . . discussing a lead with someone . . .," Kurt answered slowly.
Teddy knew that there was something going on, "What are you trying to hide?"
"Well," Jilly deliberated, sharing a look with Kurt before continuing, "We've found out some new information concerning the case."
"What is it?" Hayden asked, wanting them to stop beating around the bush.
"We got the antique we'd mentioned earlier from a law firm. A client, named Emil Minkov, of the firm wanted them to broker a deal to sell the antique, but when they did the normal spells to see if it was a stolen artifact, they found out that it had been flagged by our contacts in MLE. The law firm gave us Minkov's file, which held the name of the person he said sold the antique to him, an Anton Danchev. Further digging into the background of Danchev, shows that he's a Bulgarian national from Vratsa and has ties with the Holmwood crime family," Kurt explained.
Teddy was stunned for a moment, "Are you telling me that the Holmwoods are somehow connected to this?"
"Sadly yes," Jilly replied in a tone that said she was also not happy about the new case development, "I have a feeling that the unknown man lying in St. Mungo's is also connected to the Holmwoods. It would make sense considering that a shard from the stolen pot was found in his pocket and that he won't say who he is."
"So how'd you find out about this?" Hayden asked interestedly.
Jilly and Kurt shared another guarded look.
"From a . . . reliable source."
Teddy noticed their minor hesitation, "And who exactly is this reliable source?"
"Well," Kurt began, "A certain person is with Kingsley right now, after having brought this new information to his attention. This certain person got pulled into this mess because she has a certain younger sister, who works for a certain high class law firm, who just so happened to be the certain intern who dropped off the stolen antique to mine and Jilly's office. This certain law intern then contacted her big sister, and asked for help to get Monkov's file –which held Danchev's name- from her boss's office and to locate any more information that they could about Danchev. And since this certain big sister happens to be close friends with a certain Bulgarian citizen who works for their Ministry of Magic's trading and export division out of Vratsa-"
Teddy's face went white and he started to pull at his hair, "You have got to be kidding me."
Hayden looked at him questioningly, "What is it?"
Teddy didn't answer, he just continued listening to the rest of Kurt's narrative, "This certain person was able to get some information on Danchev faster, and more efficiently, than Jilly and I were. When this certain person got a letter back from her Bulgarian contact and noticed that he was theorizing that the Holmwoods were involved, she came right to the Ministry to tell Shacklebolt everything that she'd learned."
Teddy sighed, "Please tell me that all she knows about this investigation is what she found out from Dom and what she found out from Konstantin."
"I honestly think that that is all that she knows Ted, I don't think she even knows that Spencer Green's patient is connected to this case," Jilly said.
"Wait, who is this 'she'?" Hayden asked puzzled. He didn't appreciate that Teddy, Jilly, and Kurt all seemed to be a page ahead of him.
Teddy pinched the bridge of his nose, and then looked at his partner, "Victoire."
"Victoire? As in Victoire Weasley? Your girlfriend?" Hayden asked Teddy.
"Yes," Kurt responded.
"How in the world did she get mixed up in this situation?" Hayden questioned.
"Because we didn't realize that her younger sister would be just as nosey as Victoire is," Jilly replied as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Well that was your first mistake, their last name is Weasley after all," Teddy muttered.
"How did she end up gathering the information about Danchev being connected to the Holmwoods, before Donaldson and Williamson were able to?" Hayden asked.
Teddy crossed his arms over his chest, "Because she still keeps in touch with Konstantin Krum and he works in Vratsa, in their Ministry's trading office, plus he owes her a favour."
Kurt nodded, "That's pretty much what she told us, yeah."
"Wait," Hayden began slowly, "If she just told you guys and Kingsley, does that mean that she's still in the Auror Office, right this minute?"
Jilly and Kurt shared a look, again.
"Kingsley's talking to her right now."
Hayden turned and looked at Teddy. Teddy felt like everything was happening in slow motion, especially his beating heart. He was sure that it would have started beating faster at the mention that Victoire was seemingly so close.
"This is not good," Teddy mumbled, his hair unintentionally going from the brown colour he had previously been wearing to a pale yellow-green.
"So she knows a little more information than she should," Hayden shrugged, "That can't be that bad."
Jilly snorted and Kurt laughed humourlessly, "Yeah right. Victoire may not be aware that the information she found is connected to yours and Ted's case, but that's not going to stop her from sticking her nose any deeper into it. Hopefully, Kingsley will be able to convince her not to worry about it, and that she's got too much on her hands working at Hogwarts as it is."
"Yeah well usually when someone tells her not to look into something, it's the first thing she does," Teddy grumbled. He was starting to get really worried about Victoire getting any deeper involved in Jilly and Kurt's case than she was already.
"The woman's working practically 24-7 at Hogwarts and helping her best friend plan a wedding, I doubt she'll have time to get caught up even further in this case," Kurt argued.
"Yes, and in her seventh-year she was Head Girl, Quidditch Captain, studying for her final N. E. W. T.s, a Tri-Wizard Champion, and yet she still found the time to try to solve her own attempted kidnapping case," Jilly replied flatly.
"And I think we remember how well that turned out," Teddy added, "She practically thrives off of trying to spread herself too thin."
"Well if she's so good at getting information, maybe we should allow her to help," Hayden suggested.
Jilly and Kurt gave him dirty looks, but Teddy's glare was by far the most scorching, "She's probably already on the Holmwoods hit-list because of how she screwed up their plans for the Tri-Wizard Tournament. There's no way Kingsley's going to let her try to worm her way even further into this case, especially not now that we know that they're somehow involved in this."
Auror McKenny came into the room at that point, and said that Aurors Burton, Donaldson, and Williamson were needed elsewhere. Teddy heard this and announced that he and Hayden would sign off on their end, but McKenny told him to stay because Shacklebolt was going to come in to speak with him. It was about three minutes after everyone had left the room, when Teddy and Hayden first heard the door open again. It was followed by the sound of footsteps. No one was directly in the line of sight of the webcam that was recording, but the microphone still picked up the voices that had started talking.
"Kingsley I already promised to leave this case alone and not to touch it again, so why did you bring me to this conference room?"
Teddy froze. He hadn't heard that voice in months, but he recognized it right away. Hayden on the other hand, had never heard the female voice before. Nevertheless, that didn't stop him from realizing the significance of Teddy's sudden immobilization.
"I'm going to go wait in the hall," Hayden said for Teddy's benefit, even though he didn't think that his partner was actually listening to him.
It only took a few seconds for Hayden to leave, and then Teddy was all alone in the conference room, staring intensely at the screen mounted on the wall in front of him.
Hayden's words registered more with the two people who were in the other conference room than they did with Teddy.
"What was that?" Teddy heard her voice ask again. Soon after her form also came into view, as she got into the range of the webcam. It was easy for him to pick out the moment when she noticed him too, because she gasped loudly and her hands flew up to cover her mouth, which had popped open wide with shock.
Thankfully, the connection between them was clear enough that Teddy was able to see the moment that her eyes started to water, and when her legs began to shake. That was when Kingsley first came into the frame. He had reached out and grabbed Victoire's arm to steady her, and slowly directed her to the chair closest to the webcam. She almost collapsed into the seat and Teddy felt a lump in his throat as he watched her. Her eyes seemed bluer, and her hair softer looking then he remembered. Even the freckles across her nose seemed different; he could almost swear that there were more of them now. Altogether, she seemed more beautiful then he last recalled. Looking at her again, after so many weeks, took his breath away, and made his heart ache.
"Teddy."
She hadn't even realized that she'd said his name until she saw his eyes brighten with recognition when he registered the sound of it. She couldn't believe that it was him. She hadn't seen him in over three months and looking at him made her hurt. The way the fluorescent lights on the room bounced off his presently light blue hair, the way his sapphire blue eyes lit up when he gazed at her, even the way his eyebrows were set over his eyes in bewilderment at her sudden appearance made her ache. Her stomach was clenched, her muscles were rigid, her chest and breathing felt constricted and even her heart felt like there was some sort of vice wrapped around it, squeezing it tightly.
The Teddy on the screen hadn't spoken yet, so she felt that she needed to fill up the charged silence.
"Anxiety."
"What?" Teddy asked, his expression still one of confusion.
"Anxiety, it manifests itself in symptoms such as difficulty concentrating and muscle tension, and other somatic symptoms such as sweating and nausea," she rattled off, needing to finish her train of thought.
"Vic-"
"There's also autonomic hyper-arousal symptoms though, like accelerated heart rate, shortness of breath, and dizziness, but those are actually more reminiscent of a panic attack, so maybe that would be a more appropriate diagnosis-"
"Vic Sweetheart, what are you doing?" Teddy asked, finally able to break through her concentration.
She pulled at a piece of hair from the end of her ponytail and started to twirl it around her finger, "I'm trying to figure out if I'm having anxiety or a panic attack."
"Does the distinction really matter?" Teddy asked her, he was trying to calm her down.
She pulled a little harder on her hair, "No, I guess not."
Victoire noticed him move forward with his hand out stretched, but then he seemed to stop when he remembered that they weren't actually in the same room.
Kingsley must have been on the same page as Teddy though, because he reached out and grabbed Victoire's hand, and stopped her from pulling at her hair.
"We wouldn't want you to pull it right out, now would we?" Kingsley asked when she shot him a questioning look.
"Trichotillomania," she replied readily.
"Pardon?" Kingsley inquired.
"Trichotillomania is an obsessive compulsive disorder when you excessively pull out your own hair."
"Vic," Teddy said, pulling her attention back to him, "You're trying to avoid something by rambling on about something you're familiar with."
Victoire sighed, Teddy knew her so well that he could tell what she was doing before she even realized it herself.
"I just can't believe that I'm really seeing you," she said a few moments later.
Teddy's face softened, "Me either. Merlin I miss you."
"I miss you too," she replied, tears that she thought she'd gotten rid of before, now trickling down her cheeks.
"I need to go back to my office to check my messages," Kingsley told Victoire suddenly, "I'll be back in several minutes."
Victoire nodded, and once he was gone, the two were alone together.
"I love you."
"I love you too Teddy," Victoire replied, the tears still falling down her cheeks. She knew that she needed to be patient and not rush him, but finally being able to see his face made her act against her better judgement, "When am I going to see you again?"
The look on Teddy's face told her that she wasn't going to like the answer he was going to give her.
"The earliest I can see myself coming back would be the end of May, and that's if the work on our case starts picking up," Teddy told her slowly.
Victoire nodded her head and attempted to put a lighthearted smile on her face, "And there isn't anything I could do to speed up your case process, is there?"
She meant it as a joke, but when Teddy's eyes widened fearfully she realized that he didn't see it that way.
"No, and I hear that you're busy enough trying to get your nose into other aurors' cases," Teddy said, also attempting a light tone, but not quite achieving it.
"Good news travels fast I see," She replied.
"Do I need to start in on how I don't want you to be involved in this anymore than you need to be?" Teddy asked her.
"No, Kingsley already read me the riot act. He stopped just short of forcing me to make an unbreakable vow."
Teddy didn't laugh at her joke, she could still read the underlying agitation in his face, "Teddy I promise you that I won't get involved in Jilly and Kurt's case anymore than I am."
"But how did you get roped into it anyway? I hear that Dom has something to do with it," he said.
"She had a feeling that the Minkov file was important and she was willing to go to great lengths to get it. I figured as her older sister if I couldn't discourage her from her scheme, that it was my duty to help her. And now I know that her gut feeling was right because the file led us right to the Holmwoods," Victoire explained.
"Vic-" Teddy began, but she interrupted him.
"I know Teddy. I know that you're worried about me getting involved in this case, I know that you're worried about the Holmwoods, and I know that the fact that you're not here right now adds even more worry on top of it. But I promise you that I won't get involved. I don't fancy getting into extra trouble."
The corners of Teddy's lips turned up, "Since when do you try to stay away from trouble?"
"I always do, it just seems to follow me," Victoire defended.
"Hopefully at Hogwarts you'll be safe from any extra trouble. How is it going there by the way?" Teddy asked, partially interestedly and partially because he wanted to change the subject.
"I miss being at Puddlemere, but I like seeing all the kids and meeting the other students. I know that I'm doing a lot of good where I am now," Victoire said, she couldn't keep the enthusiasm out of her voice, and she could tell that Teddy heard it too.
"That's fantastic," Teddy replied a bright smile on his face.
The two stared at each other, through their separate screens, for a few moments before both of their faces began to fall.
"I wish I could be with you, right now," Teddy told her sincerely, the brightness that was in his eyes before, now starting to fade.
"I do too, but I feel like it's selfish of me to miss you as much as I do, especially knowing that you're needed where you are," Victoire confided, her voice starting to break a little.
Teddy's eyes softened, "Sweetheart I don't ever want you to feel selfish or guilty for missing me. I miss you too, so much; sometimes I just wish that this mission was all over and that I could come home to you."
Victoire felt her eyes starting to tear up again, "I feel so-so empty without you. No. That's not the right word; there is a feeling like emptiness there, but it's more like-"
"Like you feel as though you aren't able to do your best when there's so much space between us?" Teddy finished.
The tears were still sliding down Victoire's cheeks, but she was relieved that he knew what she was trying to explain, "You always bring out the best in me Teddy, and I feel like without you, I'll turn into some horrible person because you're not around to challenge me to do better."
"That will never happen Vic, you've always been a good person, I don't have anything to do with that," Teddy argued.
Victoire was already shaking her head, the tears still streaming down her face, "That's not true Teddy. You complement me. You challenge me to be a better person because you expect so much from me. You make me want to be a better person. Without you here it's hard to keep it up though."
"Sweetheart, you're not alone in that thinking. You make me a better person too, and I find myself at a loss sometimes with you not around," Teddy told her softly.
Victoire felt her heart start to beat quicker, "So I'm not crazy for feeling this way?"
"Now I didn't say that," Teddy replied, "All I said was that you're not alone in the crazy."
She smiled, but she couldn't stop the tears fully, "Godric I love you."
"I love you too, I just wish I was able to show you how much," Teddy lamented.
"I wish you could too."
That made Teddy chuckle, "It'll just be a couple more months."
"At the earliest," Victoire repeated his words from before.
His expression turned somber again too, "At the earliest."
Before Victoire could say anything else, the door to the conference room she was in started to open, and two of the last people she ever thought she'd see in the Auror Department, walked in.
"Xavier, Malcolm? What are you doing here?"
Xavier ran right over to where Victoire was sitting once he saw the tears on her face, while Malcolm's movements seemed more like a mosey as he walked into the frame of the webcam.
"Hey there Ted, how're you doin'?" Malcolm asked as he sat down on the chair to the right of Victoire, because Xavier had already sat down to Victoire's left.
"I'm fine, what I want to know is what you're doing at the Auror Office. Have you done something illegal?" Teddy asked.
Malcolm gasped, "How dare you think that the only reason I'm here is because I did something illegal! When have I ever done something illegal?"
Xavier looked at Malcolm, "Is that rhetorical?"
Malcolm flipped Xavier off without looking at him, and it caused Victoire to giggle.
"What are you guys doing here anyway?" Victoire asked the two Woods.
"Kingsley contacted us, he said that he was worried that you were going through some emotional problems, and that he thought having us here might help you," Xavier described,
"Which explains why he contacted Xavier. I was still at a loss for why he brought me in, but now that I see that Teddy's here, it makes more sense," Malcolm said.
Teddy opened his mouth to say something, but then a voice on his end of the video feed interrupted.
"Ted, we've got to go before Sir starts to realize that we're gone."
Teddy's head had turned in the direction of the voice, and he replied that he would finish up. When he looked back towards Victoire, she felt her eyes start to water again.
"Victoire Sweetheart . . ."
"I heard," she responded, her voice cracking near the end of her reply.
He looked torn, "I love you."
"I love you too," Victoire replied before Xavier threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her towards him, "And I miss you."
"I miss you too; take care of yourself, okay?"
Victoire nodded, and then Teddy turned his gaze from Xavier and then to Malcolm, "Take care of her until I get back?"
"Always," Xavier and Malcolm answered at the same time.
Teddy nodded and then the feed went black. Now that she could no longer see him, Victoire felt even more tears stream down her face. She thought that she had already cried a lot, by it was nothing compared to what was gushing from her eyes right now.
Xavier hugged her tighter to him, and Malcolm grabbed one of her hands to give it a squeeze before saying, "I think we all need to get a drink."
A/N: *Looks around nervously* So, hi, I know a lot of you were hoping that Teddy would be 'back' in this chapter (although a few of you did guess correctly what would happen), but they still have to spend a little time apart before they can be together again. Don't worry though, they will be together again very soon.
So, besides that let down, what did we think about this chapter?
Next Update: Next Week! :)
Next Chapter: The next chapter has even more drama in it. We finally get to find out about what the status of All/Xav's relationship is, we get to see a little bit of Malcolm's vulnerable side, Vic has an interesting conversation with a surprising and rather drunk companion, and Eliza and Victoire have another interesting convo about the baby.
Teaser for Next Chap:
"Xavier nodded, but then he looked at Malcolm, "And you Mr. High and Mighty, you're the last person who should be acting like he doesn't have relationship problems."
"Well I don't," Malcolm said picking up his glass and taking a sip. Just because Xavier and Victoire hadn't touched their drinks doesn't mean that he shouldn't touch his.
"That's not what I heard from Nadia.""
Thanks again to everyone who has followed, favourited, read and reviewed!
An Especially BIG Thank-You to:
Milinette, jeremiah123, bmg20, carbo21, Guest(1), SilverLining1294, no cure for crazy, bridget237, FrothyCoffeeQueen26, RoLouG, Brook-Lucas-Fan-23, Manydifferentfandoms, Princess Cruella, Ethereal Rebel, Encypher, NicoleTheSmith, Break This Spell626, MuggleCreator, nickybby, cmorehart, cmorehart, zvc56, snowyowl123, and ChrisfromSK.
Milinette: Hey, thanks for all the extra updates last week! I just like to get a sense of how many people are reading the updates when they come out, because it lets me know that everyone's got it and has a chance to read it before the next one came out.
jeremiah123: Not home, but they did get to see each other. Did you like it anyway?
bmg20: Thanks!
carbo21: Ha, yeah that was one of my better lines :) And thanks, I'm glad that they seem believable.
SilverLining1294: It wasn't a flashback, but they weren't in the same room.
FrothyCoffeeQueen26: Yeah, the whole month of December is pretty much 'finals season' here, each university and college's exams start and stop at different times.
RoLouG: Thanks, although did you really doubt that it would?
Manydifferentfandoms: She doesn't know where he is yet, but she will soon!
Princess Cruella: Ally and Xavier and Eliza and Benjamin will all be in (or be mentioned in) next chapter!
Ethereal Rebel: They saw each other in this one! And how'd you like it?
Encypher: Aww, thanks. I just like to get an idea of how many people read it when it comes out because I'd hate to update too much and then have people having a lot of backlogged chapters and not bothering to read them.
Break This Spell626: It's okay, I just like to know that people are reading it and enjoying it :) SORRY THEY DIDN'T GET REUNITED BUT THEY DID SEE EACH OTHER AND THEY WILL BE TOGETHER AGAIN SOON.
MuggleCreator: Keep that last part of your review in mind for later ;)
nickybby: Well there was some fluff, but he's not back for good. Yet.
cmorehart: Kingsley has a good poker face, but don't worry I think Teddy freaked out enough in this chapter for everyone.
zvc56: Yes I like biology, I like most sciences, except for physics.
snowyowl123: The page count changes often. I usually try to keep it more to a specific word count, because depending on dialogue or paragraphs filled with long descriptions they can be different sizes (a lot of dialogue would take up more page space because you have to go to a new paragraph each time someone speaks.) For this story I try not to post a chapter under 4000 words, and try not to go over 8000, however there are exceptions because sometimes I just know to end a chapter at a certain part, and when I do that I don't really care about the word count or page length.
ChrisfromSK: Hey you're back! I want to thank you again fr the pic for the story! And you get a gold star for being right about the video feed. Don't worry they two of them will be together again soon. And as for the proposal, it's a bit of a spoiler but I'll tell you anyway because it's not a major part yet, no, Teddy doesn't know that Vic knows yet. Which is even more awkward because Vic does know, and he doesn't know that.
Thanks again to everyone for reading,
I hope you enjoyed it,
Please drop me a review if you have any comments or questions,
Until next time, DFTBA!