A/N: Hello everyone, I'm feeling much better now, I'm still running on the high from the Ottawa Senator's OT win yesterday afternoon. Here's the next chapter about the Ministry's Hallowe'en ball.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
A Night of Surprises
Monday, October 31st 2022
7:03 PM
Cecilia very carefully trod the staircase at her home to avoid stepping on the bottom of her long dress, while holding in her hands the only pair of high-heeled shoes that she owned.
"MUM!" She yelled as she jumped from step to step, "Do you know a spell that gets rid of scuff marks?"
After she traversed the bottom step off the staircase, she turned towards the living room and found both her father and Brogan, but not her mother.
Oliver looked up from the puzzle he was helping Brogan complete, and his eyebrows shot up on his forehead when he saw his daughter, "Are you sure that you want to wear that to cover the Caerphilly versus Chudley game tonight?"
Cecilia ignored her father's expression. She continued to gaze around the room as if her mother would suddenly pop out of a corner, and she replied, "I'm not covering the Caerphilly-Chudley game tonight."
"Oh, I though your work schedule said that you were," Oliver remarked casually as he handed Brogan another puzzle piece.
"I was supposed to, but I asked Charley to cover for me so that I could go to the Ministry ball with Louis tonight," She explained.
Her father frowned and seemed to stop paying attention to his and Brogan's puzzle altogether, "You made your co-worker cover for you at work so you can go to some dance with your boyfriend?"
As if Katie had an internal radar that could detect whenever Oliver and Cecilia were about to get into an argument, she suddenly appeared from around the corner and instantly read the tension in the room via the expressions on her husband and daughter's faces.
"Did I hear you calling for me Cee-Cee?" Katie asked loudly as she tried to nonchalantly put herself between the two physically.
Cecilia's hurt gaze moved from her father and to her mother, "I have a scuff on my shoes and I wanted to know if you could fix it."
Her voice was pleading and dejected and Katie instantly took the shoes from her daughter, pulled out her wand, and cast a spell on the black heels to make the scuff marks on the toe disappear.
"There you go Sweetheart," She said handing the shoes back to Cecilia, "And may I say that you look absolutely beautiful tonight? Doesn't she Oliver?"
Oliver crossed his arms over his chest, "She's always pretty, she doesn't need some tight dress or all of that make-up to do that."
While Cecilia appreciated the intent behind her father's words, she still wanted to be petulant because her dress wasn't that tight and she didn't have that much make-up on.
"As much as I'd hate to sound as though I'm playing into media-popularized stereotypes about unattainable female standards of beauty, I would say that a ball at the Ministry requires a little more effort than any other day of the week," Katie countered.
Oliver pouted when he realized that he was outnumbered on the topic and he grumpily went back to helping Brogan with the puzzle, "I still don't see why Cecilia needs to go to the ball in the first place."
"Oliver Ruairdh Wood," Katie chastised her husband firmly, "Cecilia is going to the ball with Louis because it is important for people in relationships to support each other. He came to the Puddlemere event on Saturday to help on her behalf, and now she's going to this Ministry event to support him as a new Ministry employee."
Cecilia wanted to add that she was also going because she sincerely wanted to spend time with her boyfriend, but she knew that that would only get her another eye roll from her father. She decided to go a different route instead.
"Going to the Ministry ball will also help me, Dad. Xavier wasn't the only quidditch player invited to the ball tonight, there will be lots of people within the industry there that I can make connections with. It could benefit not only my career, but also the project I'm helping Eli Martell with."
Her father's face soured a little at hearing the logic in her words and he finally looked away from her and gave his full attention back to his youngest child.
Katie sighed at Oliver's less than encouraging actions and tried to make up for her husband's lack of enthusiasm by cheerily complimenting every part of Cecilia's appearance. She helped Cecilia into the uncharacteristically high-heeled shoes she had picked, aided her with slipping on her travelling cloak, and then whispered to her daughter that she'd make sure that Oliver didn't stay up and wait for her to come back home after the ball. They still needed to take Brogan out trick-or-treating, so Katie assured Cecilia that she would tire the both of them out before the night was done.
7:42 PM
Victoire stared exasperatedly at the reflection of her blonde hair in the bathroom mirror and wondered whether or not it would be considered too extreme for her to just shave it all off whenever she was having a bad hair day.
Like that day.
She sighed at her image again and picked her wand up from the vanity. She closed her eyes, held her wand up to the level of her head and then cast a few spells that she had read about in an abandoned copy of one of Molly's women's magazines the night before.
When she opened her eyes she pursed her lips and inspected her hair. The mix of different spells didn't actually look too bad. There was a thickly braided section of her blonde hair wrapped around her head almost like a headband, while the rest was curled loosely and left down and hanging just below her shoulder blades.
Victoire shrugged in acceptance with the hairdo and then quickly swiped some make-up across her face before heading back into her bedroom to grab some jewelry.
In their room, Teddy was double-checking that his bow-tie was tied correctly. When he spotted his fiancée in the reflection of the mirror he asked her, "Does my hair clash with my bow-tie?"
The theme of the Ministry's Hallowe'en ball that year was orange and black, and as pedestrian as Victoire thought the theme was, it was better than some other lame theme like a masquerade.
Teddy's dress robes were a traditional black style with a little white and his hair was his normal turquoise colour; his bowtie was the only part of his outfit that was orange.
"Very fantastically," Victoire told him seriously as she slipped behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
His hands moved to rest on hers which she had gently placed on his stomach, "Should I change it to black then?"
"Do whatever you want Teddy, but I for one really like the blue," She said with a wicked smirk.
He raised an eyebrow at her via the mirror they were still in front of, "Is that your way of telling me that you only fancy me if it's blue?"
"The black just makes you look a little too much like Uncle Harry sometimes," Victoire replied honestly.
"And that would be a bad thing because . . . ?"
Instead of verbally responding to his faux-serious question she just rolled her eyes at him.
Teddy grinned, spun around, and slid his arms around her waist, crushing her to him.
"I like your dress, but I'm now wondering what you're going to do for orange," He said as his eyes appreciatively took in the low cut criss-cross neckline of her black dress. For something that bared such a large amount of skin, he was pleasantly surprised with how classy the dress still looked.
Victoire's hands moved to smooth out the fabric of the all-black dress that fit tightly across her stomach and hips as she explained, "I've got orange shoes to wear."
She then moved her hand to wandlessly summon said shoes from her closet and held up the bright orange satin covered stiletto pumps for him to see, "What do you think?"
"I'd say that I'd be worried that no one would see them, but from what I recall that dress has a wicked slit up the one side," Teddy mused.
One of his hands continued to cradle her lower back while the other slid down her right thigh until he felt the place, rather high up, where the fabric of the dress parted to reveal her smooth skin.
"And from what I recall," Victoire whispered, her voice suddenly husky as her hand moved up to rest on his chest, "You thought that particular feature of my dress rather convenient the last time I wore it."
He smiled wolfishly at her, the expression on his face very clearly implying that he remembered the last time she wore that particular dress, "That is one of my favourite pieces of clothing that you own."
"And you're wearing my favourite shade of hair colour," She countered.
"Then I don't see how we're going to be able to keep our hands off of each other for the rest of the night."
"Who says that we have to?"
The raised-eyebrow expression that was on Victoire's face was met by yet another one of Teddy's smirks before they closed the distances between their faces and shared what had started out as a very ardent kiss, before slowly ending it.
Teddy pulled back first.
"Sweetheart . . . not that that wasn't nice and all, but I don't think you were completely into that kiss. I could pretty much hear the cogs whirling around in your head during it."
Victoire stepped out of his embrace and sighed heavily as she sat down on the bed, "There's just something that's been on my mind recently."
"What is it?" He asked softly, sitting down next to her on the bed.
She bit her lip and looked down at her hands, ". . . I think I want a baby."
"I know," He told her, giving her a kiss on the top of her head, "After we get married, in two years."
Victoire turned to him, put her hands on his shoulders, and looked him straight in the eye, "No . . . I want one now."
He froze and she quietly waited for him to contemplate her words. She knew that she was dropping something really big on him and that he would probably need a lot of time to process it.
So she was rather surprised when he responded after only reaching forty-eight in her count.
"Like right now right now, or like sometime this week?"
Victoire frowned at him, "I'm serious Teddy. I don't think I want to wait two years to start trying."
Teddy raised his hand up to her face and he cupped her cheek, "Are you sure about this?"
"I think this is the part of the conversation where you're supposed to tell me whether or not you want to have a baby," She said, a frown still on her face.
He sent her a look with a raised eyebrow, "Did you not see how I monopolized Rowan yesterday when we visited her and Eliza? I think it's safe to say that I'd like a baby too."
"So are we agreeing that we're going to try to have a baby sometime soon?" Victoire questioned him, rather surprised that the conversation only took a relatively short amount of time to come to this resolution.
"I think that we probably have a little bit more considering and discussing to do on the topic before deciding what our next step will be," Teddy said tenderly, "But I'm glad that we're talking about this. Especially since it's about something that it seems we've both been thinking about recently."
Victoire nodded her head solemnly, and smiled at him, "I agree."
They gazed deeply at each other and their faces slowly began to inch closer together. Just as their lips were about to meet they were rudely interrupted.
"Alright, we've got to stop this dawdling!"
Victoire and Teddy hastily pulled away from each other and turned to stare wide-eyed at the redhead standing in the doorway of their bedroom, who had just interrupted them.
"Lucy? What are you doing here?" Victoire asked her cousin with a confused frown.
"I figured you two would be dragging your heels tonight and I didn't want you to end up coming to the Ministry's ball late," Lucy explained nonchalantly as she summoned Victoire and Teddy's travelling cloaks and sent them to the pair.
Teddy raised an eyebrow at his fiancée's cousin, "And it's important for us to arrive on time because . . . ?"
Lucy put her hands on her hips and her family resemblance to Dom was suddenly striking, "Because everyone knows that Victoire is my cousin and her behaviour –and by extension yours Teddy– reflects directly on me."
Victoire opened her mouth to argue, but Teddy quickly shook his head at her and firmly suggested that all three of them should get moving if they wanted to get to the event on time. Both women nodded in agreement, and Victoire only had the time to ask Lucy if she was going to meet Austin before the ball or at it, before the metamorphamgus ushered them out the flat's front door.
Once they got to the Ministry's ball Lucy skipped off to meet Austin, and Victoire informed Teddy that she needed a glass of wine before starting their mingling with his colleagues. Victoire had met several of Teddy's colleagues and supervisors before (including ones that weren't her uncles, her godfather, or Hayden, Jilly, or Kurt) so she pretty much just smiled politely and nodded her head every once in a while during Teddy's benign conversations with those people.
Luckily for Victoire, she realized that she wasn't the only person acting as arm-candy that night when she and Teddy stumbled upon Teddy's partners. Both Hayden and Kurt were going stag that night, but Jilly had brought her boyfriend Caleb Cooke with her, and it turned out that the History of Magic professor cleaned up very well. While Teddy spoke with his auror colleagues, Victoire had a rather in-depth discussion with Caleb on the research project she was doing with Healer McDavid. Caleb wasn't as well versed on the healing magic aspects as Victoire was, but he could easily grasp the historical aspect of her research, as well as her theorizing about magical intent affecting healing spells.
After about a half hour of conversation, the four aurors broke apart because they knew that they should mingle more with the other ministry employees. Teddy and Victoire, who did not really have much of a specific agenda for the evening, pretty much decided on where in the ballroom they would wander to by figuring out which side of the room Lucy and Austin were not presently inhabiting. In doing so, Victoire and Teddy finally ended up running into Ally and Xavier for the first time that night.
"Oh you look so pretty," Victoire complimented Ally as the two cousins shared a tight hug.
Ally was wearing a figure-flattering mostly all-black floor-length dress with an off-the-shoulder neckline, and her attempt at orange was a thin orange sash tied around her waist along with an orange ribbon braided into her black hair, which was secured into a French-twist. She did have some simple jewelry on, but the most noticeable piece was still the ginormous engagement ring on Ally's left hand.
"You look better, I love your hair," Ally gushed back at Victoire.
"Thank you, just don't ask me how I did it because I really don't know," Victoire replied.
Ally laughed and then launched into a complaint about how everyone she and Xavier had talked to had felt that it was their duty to comment on their engagement. She wouldn't have minded so much if the people were just congratulating them on their engagement, but it was the other comments on their relationship, the size of Ally's ring, and prying about the date of the wedding that bothered Ally so much.
"Have you had any fun tonight?" Victoire asked her cousin concernedly.
"Hanging out with Clark and Mark and their dates tonight was fun," Ally mused.
Victoire's eyebrows rose up in surprise, "They brought dates? Those two never bring dates to anything."
"It's partially the fault of our publicists," Xavier added in explanation.
"Partially?"
Xavier smirked, "The other part is Ally's fault."
Ally lightly smacked her fiancé's arm, "It's not my fault, I just convinced him that Dom would be a good date for tonight-"
"Whoa," Victoire interrupted holding her hands up in a 'stop' gesture, "Back up. Dom's here? As someone's date? She didn't tell me she was coming tonight. Whose date is she? Clark's?"
"To answer your first question: yes Dom is here. Your second: yes, she's someone's date. Third: She didn't know she was coming tonight until around noon when I asked her if she would come as a favour to me. Four: She's Mark's date. And no," Ally rattled off surprisingly precisely.
Victoire pursed her lips, "Dom is Mark's date tonight? But I thought you were trying to get Clark and Dom together?"
"I am," Ally reaffirmed, "But you see, the Puddlemere's publicists are so worried about Clark's reputation as a ladies man that they heavily suggested to Clark that he bring a date with him who would be above reproach if pictures of them were posted in the paper."
"Which is why Dom's not his date tonight."
Ally nodded, "Yes, but it is why Tabitha is his date."
"So Clark's date for tonight is his sister?"
"Clark's escort for tonight is his sister," Ally reiterated, "And since Tabitha is Clark's date, I convinced Mark to bring Dom as his."
Victoire smiled understandingly, "And because Clark and Mark will most likely spend most of the night together, that means that Clark and Tabitha and Mark and Dom will be spending most of the night together."
"It's like a double-date, but opposite because Clark should actually be on a date with Dom, and Mark should be on a date with Tabitha," Ally expounded.
Victoire almost rolled her eyes, "So you're trying to further along both of your ships tonight then?"
Xavier threw his arm over Ally's shoulders, "She's been bouncing on her toes all evening so far. I've had to keep her away from Clark and Mark and their respective dates so that she doesn't interfere anymore."
"I'm not that bad," Ally defended herself as she pouted at her fiancé.
"Yes you are, you're almost as bad as Victoire was when she was trying to get us together during my seventh-year," Xavier countered.
Victoire groaned at the memory, "Godric, the number of times I wanted to bang my head against the wall in frustration that year. I thought everything was over with after Ally's seventeenth birthday party, but then Ally had to go and forget that you'd kissed each other and Xavier wouldn't tell her the truth –and I'm getting worked up right now just remembering it."
"Oh, trust me, Xavier and I could not have been as oblivious about it as Mark and Tabitha are," Ally argued.
"I'll believe it when I see Mark and Tabitha make out and then go on with their lives pretending like it never happened," Victoire countered.
Xavier glanced at Ally, "Victoire has a point."
Ally rolled her eyes, "Whatever, I'm going to accidentally wander back over there and see how they're doing."
Xavier chuckled at her but when she wiggled out of his grip and marched away he stopped laughing and realized that she wasn't joking. He then had to offer up a quick goodbye to Victoire and Teddy so that he could try to catch up to Ally and stop her from meddling in the private lives of his teammates and her cousin.
"Did I act like that when I was trying to get Ally and Xavier together?" Victoire asked Teddy interestedly once the other couple was gone.
Teddy shook his head, "Nah, you weren't that bad. I mean, you probably could have been, but you were so busy with quidditch, being Head Girl, studying for N. E. W. T.s, and of course the Tri-Wizard Tournament, that you didn't end up coming across quite as interfering as Ally is right now."
Victoire pursed her lips and then nodded her head thoughtfully. She would have then asked Teddy if she had come across as annoying all those years ago as Ally was right now, if she hadn't just spotted her Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny coming towards them. She and Teddy spent a few minutes trading pleasantries with her aunt and uncle before Victoire sweetly asked her aunt why she wasn't wearing any orange.
Ginny raised an eyebrow at her niece, "I don't do the colour orange."
"Is that why you decided to play for the Harpies over the Cannons?" Teddy teased her.
Ginny nodded her head sombrely, "That's exactly why I chose the Harpies instead."
Harry rolled his eyes at her dramatic tone and then grinned, "Actually Teddy, when you were three years old Ginny held up both a Harpies and a Cannons jersey in front of you and told you to pick which team she should play for."
"And I picked the Harpies jersey instead of the Cannons jersey?" Teddy asked.
"Well you weren't really paying attention to what Ginny was saying to you because you were trying to build a tower out of blocks, but you morphed your hair green and gold and she took that as a sign," Harry explained with a chuckle.
Ginny added, "Plus I really didn't want to have to wear orange every day."
"I don't blame you, Molly and Lucy both hate wearing orange as well," Victoire said.
"Yeah the only redhead I've seen pull orange off both unaffectedly and flawlessly is Dom," Ginny mused.
Victoire nodded her head, "She's got this aura about her that would make it impossible for someone to think she looks awful in something, if she ever does look awful in anything that is."
The conversation then drifted into a discussion about Auror Department and Ministry politics that pretty much only Teddy and Harry were involved in. Harry did mention however that he had spoken to someone, not long apparently after they had spoken to Teddy, and Harry explained that said person had told Harry that he had found Teddy a very informed conversationalist and that his fiancée was charming.
"Yeah," Victoire interjected with a roll of her eyes, "Apparently all I need to do to be charming is to not say a word and smile when it seems appropriate."
"Well I like you Vic, and I'm one of Teddy's direct supervisors so that should be all that matters," Harry told her.
Victoire pursed her lips, "But do you think I'm charming?"
"You are a lot of things Honey, but I'm not entirely sure if charming is an adjective I'd use to describe you . . . you're more of an acquired taste."
"Thanks Uncle Harry."
The sarcasm in her tone was obvious but not completely biting, so her uncle responded in kind.
"You're very welcome."
Just as Victoire was about to offer up another sarcastic retort, that probably would have led to a lengthy satirical conversation that would have been interesting to listen to but devoid of any real substance, an old acquaintance of her Uncle Harry's waddled by and stopped to greet him once he recognized him.
"Harry my boy! Is that you?"
Harry jolted in surprise at being accosted by the rather old and round-looking man, while Ginny sighed heavily.
"Horace," Harry greeted the white haired man in a tone that did a rather good job of hiding his disbelief at encountering the other man, "What a . . . pleasant surprise."
The older man smiled brightly at him and then seemed to notice that Harry's wife was standing next to him, "And hello Ginevra."
Only the most miniscule of muscles on Ginny's face twitched upon hearing herself referred to by her full first name, "Good evening Professor Slughorn."
The plump older man, who was almost completely bald, waved off Ginny's greeting, "Please Ginevra, call me Horace, it's been quite a while since you were my student."
If the pinched look on Ginny face said anything, it was that she probably wasn't about to take the man up on his offer.
Harry hurriedly turned to Victoire and Teddy (who had been about to slowly back away from him and Ginny) and quickly introduced them to the elderly man in an attempt to interrupt Slughorn before he could start speaking.
"Horace, may I introduce you to my niece Victoire Weasley and her fiancé Ted Lupin?"
Within an instant Horace Slughorn had gone for staring intently at Harry, to giving Victoire and Teddy his undivided attention.
"Oh of course! I've heard quite a lot about you Miss Weasley, I've been eager to meet you since you competed in the last Tri-Wizard Tournament," Horace Slughorn told her as he held his hand out for Victoire to shake.
Victoire smiled charmingly at the pudgy man, "It's nice to meet you too Professor Slughorn, I've heard so much about you from my family members."
Slughorn blinked at her in a way that made Victoire think that she may have used a little too much charm, but he quickly recovered and then turned to Teddy and shook his hand heartily.
"It's a pleasure to meet you as well Mr. Lupin, did you know that I taught your father while he was at school? He wasn't exactly the best Potions student I ever had, but he was quite a talented and gifted wizard. Your mother as well was a great witch, as was your grandmother. Even though it's not strictly proper to have favourite students, especially those of your own house, Andromeda was one of mine . . ." Slughorn continued in that vein a little longer, and went on to pretty much compliment every witch or wizard that had had some part in helping raise Teddy, ending with his famous godfather of course.
Harry and Ginny had silently listened to Slughorn as they patiently waited for an opportunity during which they could make their escape, but once Slughorn had circled back to bragging about Harry (in particular his potions prowess which he must have inherited from his lovely mother) The Chosen One decided that he needed to make Victoire and Teddy the centre of the conversation once more if he and Ginny were ever going to hi-tail it out of there.
"It's a pity that you retired from education before you could have had the chance to teach Victoire or Ted, I think you would have been very impressed with their Potions' ability," Harry explained with a large smile that seemed more smug about making the conversation drift away from himself than gratified because he was actually proud of his godson and niece's accomplishments.
Slughorn glanced interestedly at the pair, "So you're both potions' prodigies then?"
Teddy smiled self-deprecatingly, "I wouldn't say that we're prodigies, but we did both scrape an O on our Potions O. W. L.s and N. E. W. T.s."
"And do you often use your potions knowledge in your daily occupations?" Slughorn asked them rivetedly.
"I'm an auror so I'd say that knowing about potions is particularly important for my chosen career path. Isn't that right Uncle Harry?"
Teddy was trying to bring his godfather back into the conversation, because it seemed obvious that Harry and Ginny were trying to creep away, and it worked. Slughorn shifted his gaze from the younger couple back to Harry.
"Yes, well obviously having an extensive knowledge of Potions is important for anybody," He then glanced around the room and made a big show out of recognizing someone a good several metres away.
Harry apologized to 'Horace' on his Ginny's behalf because he was 'terribly sorry' but that there was someone that he 'just had to speak with', but if 'Horace' would excuse them they 'needed to depart' from the 'always pleasant' conversation. And, to help clear his guilty conscious about leaving his old Potions' professor so impolitely, he ensured that the conversation between Slughorn and Victoire and Teddy would continue by informing Slughorn that Victoire was a resident healer at St. Mungo's.
Slughorn didn't seem to care one whit about Harry and Ginny's departure after learning about Victoire's job. The elder man immediately began asking Victoire questions about what she did, as well as informing her about all of the connections he had to the world of magical healing. He jabbered on about brilliant former students of his before mentioning that he had taught the Healer McDavid and that he was actually the person that gave the healer the idea to create the Dark Arts Reversal ward at St. Mungo's after the last war.
At that point Victoire was finally able to add her own voice to the conversation –which had up to then had pretty much just been a soliloquy performed by the old Potions' professor– and she mentioned that she was currently studying under Healer McDavid and doing research with him. This lead to an explanation from Victoire about the research she was doing with Healer McDavid (or Shawn as Slughorn insisted on calling him). It didn't take long for Victoire to direct the conversation into a depth of healing lingo that became too difficult for Slughorn to follow, and at that point the retired professor drifted back to asking Teddy about his job with the Auror Department.
Teddy explained that he was technically a Jr. investigative auror in the department –which he clarified was above both levels of aurors-in-training as well as the probationary auror level– and that he did a lot of undercover work.
"An auror and a Dark Arts healer," Slughorn mused a little while later once Teddy had pretty much exhausted the talking points about his job that he was allowed to say to someone without any level of security clearance, "You too are quite the power couple then."
Victoire tried to smile at the man's well-intended words that she knew he meant as a compliment, but her smile fell flat. It wasn't the first time someone had referred to her and Teddy as a power couple –Spencer did it all the time and even called them the wizarding world's version of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, whatever that meant– but there was still something about the term 'power couple' that turned her off of it for whatever reason.
Thankfully, Slughorn chose to extend the topic of conversation to other famous or highly talented people he knew that were power couples, and he barely needed a response from either Victoire or Teddy to keep going.
Just when Victoire thought she'd rather be having a conversation with anyone else (including Austin Pennington or Pamela Mace) she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Ally and Xavier wandering no more than five feet away from them. She immediately and enthusiastically called out to her cousin and friend, and the couple wandered over before they realized who she and Teddy were speaking to.
"Professor Slughorn," Victoire began, hoping that using the most exalted prefix he had would flatter him enough to get him to stop talking for five minutes so that she could complete the introductions, "This is my cousin Alexandra Weasley and her fiancé Xavier Wood."
The large older gentleman didn't need much more encouragement than that, and he quickly introduced himself to Ally and Xavier. He only spent a few seconds needlessly informing Ally that he knew her parents, before he singled out Xavier.
"And of course I'm very familiar with you Mr. Wood. I'm been first and foremost a Caerphilly Catapults fan since early childhood, but even I have kept up with your brilliant career. You're quite the player," Slughorn told Xavier as if he was the first person who had ever told him that he was a good athlete.
Xavier was only able to half-enunciate his thank-you response before Slughorn continued and reminded Xavier that he had taught his mother for a year (before she was almost killed by a cursed necklace and spent several months in St. Mungo's of course) and that she had been a rather good student.
"I'm sure that you still have quite the career ahead of you, you play very much like Gwenog did –Gwenog Jones that is, you know of course that she was one of the Harpies' most celebrated players ever, but she was also a dear student of mine– and I'm sure that you'll have a career as illustrious as hers."
Xavier nodded his head, but when Slughorn turned his face slightly the professional keeper glared at Victoire with a look that said 'I'm-not-going-to-forgive-you-for-calling-us-over-here'.
It had been Victoire's intent to pawn Slughorn off on her cousin and friend, so she barely felt any remorse upon seeing Xavier's irritation. In fact, there was one more thing she intended to tell the elderly man before quickly excusing herself and Teddy.
"Professor Slughorn, did you know that Ally here is a potioneer at St. Mungo's?"
Her innocent sounding question was all she needed to say to cement the fact that Slughorn was going to spend the next half hour talking about potions' making in-depth with Ally. Before Slughorn could get too far into a conversation with her potion-making cousin however, Victoire apologetically took leave of him on both her and her fiancé's behalf.
Both Ally and Xavier sent Victoire and Teddy a nasty glare –when Slughorn wasn't looking at them– as the latter couple scurried away from the old potions' professor.
9:47 PM
"I can't believe that I'm saying this, but damn does Cecilia Wood clean up good," Anish Sharma said in between sips from a tumbler filled with firewhisky.
Matthew Everheart rolled his eyes at first, but then joined in on his friend's ogling, "I always knew that she was a girl –or I guess a woman as would be most appropriate term right now– but dang, I didn't realize that she had so many curves."
"All in the right places too," Anish added, tilting his head a little to the side so that he could see a different angle of the woman they were discussing.
"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.
Anish smirked, "What do you think 'this' is exactly?"
"You're trying to bait me."
"By complimenting your girlfriend?"
"Is it really a compliment when you preface it with 'I can't believe that I'm saying this'?"
"Yes."
Louis looked seriously at his friend, "That's probably why you're still single."
Matt snorted in amusement, and Anish glared at him, "Don't you be so smug Mister. In case you've forgotten, I'm your plus one for tonight."
"That's only because I needed a wingman," Matt brushed him off.
Louis turned to his friend interestedly, "Why do you feel as though you need a wingman?"
"Isn't it apparent? He plans to chat up some bird from his department," Anish answered as if it should be obvious.
Matt blushed a little but muttered, "Actually, she's from the Department of International Magical Cooperation."
"That means that she works for my uncle then, what's her name?" Louis asked curiously.
Matt's eyes narrowed, "I don't think I'm going to tell you."
"Why not?"
"Because you're probably going to do a comprehensive background check on her now."
Louis tried to look sincere, "I just want to look out for you."
"Whoa," Anish exclaimed when he realized that the conversation was turning sappy, "How did we go from objectifying Cecilia to this soppy bromance thing?"
Both Louis and Matt rolled their eyes, but Anish had moved on to a new question.
"Speaking of your girlfriend, I can't believe that you're seriously allowing her to spend all night chatting with good-looking professional quidditch players. Are you batty?"
Louis automatically glanced towards the area of the room where Cecilia was speaking to a circle of male professional quidditch players, one of which was Elijah Martell.
"First, I'm not allowing her to do anything. I don't have any say in what she does or doesn't do. Second, she hasn't spent all night chatting with quidditch players, that's a hyperbole. Third, she's doing this because she's trying to make connections and further the charity work she's helping Martell with, so no, I'm not batty."
Matt came to Louis's defence, somewhat, "Besides, Louis doesn't have anything to worry about. Some of those quidditch players may be fitter than he is, but he's part-veela so he's definitely better looking than all of them."
Louis rolled his eyes, "Thanks Mate."
"Well it's true, and the quidditch player's attractiveness was the only thing Anish commented on. If he had emphasized that Cecilia is surrounded by quidditch players and that she's in love with quidditch on the other hand, I'm not sure what I would have been able to say in your defense," Matt continued.
"Just because she loves quidditch doesn't mean that she'd leave me for a quidditch player," Louis reiterated even though he really didn't want to keep the hypothetical conversation going.
Matt folded his arms over his chest, "Well I'm not suggesting that she'd do that-"
"I am," Anish interrupted.
Louis raised an eyebrow at his friend, "I trust Cecilia and I trust what we have together. I can't believe that I'm defending myself to my friends, but there it is. If she wanted to date someone who plays quidditch, she's had ample opportunity over the past four and a half years to chuck me and choose someone else."
"Well the past four years your relationship lived in the bubble that was the Hogwarts school community. It's different now that it's out in the 'real' and 'adult' world. Also, her father didn't start hating you until now," Anish pointed out.
"Oliver doesn't hate me," Louis argued.
Anish sent his friend a raised eyebrow, "Well from what you've told us it certainly sounds like he hates you-"
"It's just a rough patch that's cropped up all of a sudden. It'll be over just as quickly as it came up," Louis insisted.
Anish shrugged, "Whatever, I for one wouldn't want to upset Oliver Wood though, especially if I was dating his only daughter."
Matt sent a look at Anish that said 'you're-not-helping', and then he tried his best to change the topic of conversation away from Cecilia in general and towards something hopefully more benign. He had succeeded and the three were just in the midst of a conversation about new cauldron regulations when Anish noticed a familiar woman slowly inching her way towards where they were standing. She would take a step closer to them, pause, and then pretend to look around at the crowd of people near her, before taking another close step towards them in repetition of the cycle.
"Don't look now, but we have an eavesdropper at seven o'clock," Anish whispered to his friends, keeping an ordinary smile on his face as he said it.
Matt and Louis took turns moving slightly so that they could see whom Anish was talking about, and Louis's only response was, "That's four o'clock, not seven o'clock Anish."
Anish glared exasperatedly at Louis, "I tell you that Gloria Dustin is practically stalking you right now and your only reaction is to tell me that my direction was off?"
Louis shrugged his shoulders and glanced at Gloria again, this time making the mistake of making eye-contact with the Ravenclaw alumnus. Gloria practically jolted when she realized that Louis was looking at her, and she smiled nervously at him before closing the relatively short distance between them.
"Bollocks," Anish muttered under his breath just before their old fellow Hogwarts student joined them.
"Good evening boys."
Matt and Anish mumbled out a pair of gruff hellos while Louis tried to make up for their lack of politeness in his return of her greeting. However, he was a little worried that instead of just coming across as respectful, that his greeting might come across as a little too encouraging.
"So," Gloria began, pulling her shoulders back a little to give Louis a better view of the not-very-low-at-all neckline of her dress, "Are all three of you flying solo tonight?"
Anish spoke first, "Matt and I are, but Louis brought Cecilia with him of course."
Gloria tilted her head to the side and obviously eyed the thin air beside Louis, "Is she wearing an invisibility cloak tonight?"
"No, she's presently speaking to some acquaintances," Louis explained, hoping that the bare minimum would be enough.
Gloria gave him a look filled with faux-concern, "And she left you here all by yourself?"
"What are we? Chopped liver?" Anish muttered to Matt sarcastically in a not completely quiet tone of voice.
Matt shushed him and Gloria continued.
"I mean, if I had a boyfriend who was as charming and handsome as you are, I'd never let you out of my sight."
Anish, who had just taken a sip of his firewhisky, choked on the burning liquid and coughed so much that Matt had to thump him on the back to help clear his windpipe.
"Godric that doesn't sound creepy at all," Anish finally muttered out, his voice rough from having choked on his drink.
Louis pretended not to hear his friend, "Well luckily for us, Cecilia and I have a lot of trust in our relationship."
"Everybody says that before their relationship implodes," Gloria told Louis with a sage nod of her head, "There's statistics on it."
Louis's eyes were wide, "Um . . . I'm sure there is-"
"But it's great that you trust your girlfriend so much, I know I'd have a difficult time if my boyfriend spent all of his time surrounded by fit female athletes for his job," Gloria continued.
Anish rolled his eyes, "What boyfriend?"
Once again he was ignored by Louis and Gloria.
"Well it's not like she spends all of her time interviewing quidditch athletes-"
"Of course not, just the good-looking ones like Valentin Krum and Eli Martell," Gloria pointed out.
Louis wanted to remark that he was surprised to hear that she had obviously read Cecilia's articles, but before he could defend his girlfriend and their relationship, Matt interrupted.
"But luckily for Louis and Cecilia, Valentin Krum's a friend of Louis's and Martell's old enough to be Cecilia's father," Matt defended his friends in a tone that was more than a little forceful.
Anish started to slow clap and Louis looked like he wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration.
Adding to the slight mayhem of the situation was the sudden appearance of Cecilia just behind Gloria.
"Gloria, how nice to see you again," Cecilia greeted as she announced her presence to the group.
Gloria spun around and put her hands on her hips as she looked at Cecilia, "Wood."
The two girls sized each other up and Cecilia was the first to speak, "I like the orange sequins on your dress."
She meant the comment sincerely, but it came across catty.
"I'd compliment you on your outfit, but I see that you opted not to follow the theme for the evening," Gloria said as she critically eyed the entirety of Cecilia's clothing.
Cecilia took a few steps so that she was closer to Louis and she wrapped an arm through his, "I do have something orange on tonight actually."
She held her other arm out so that Gloria could see the silver bracelet on her wrist that was inlaid with orange gemstones, "Louis gave me this bracelet tonight. It has orange moonstones in it."
Gloria's jaw clenched, and even though Cecilia wasn't one who liked to brag about stuff her boyfriend bought her, she did feel really good that she had made the other girl visibly jealous.
"I do believe that you owe me a dance Cee-Cee," Louis said suddenly when he heard a new song start up and couples on the nearby dance floor starting to slow dance.
Before anyone else, including Cecilia, could respond, Louis had swept his girlfriend away to the dance floor and pulled her into a tight embrace before beginning to slowly spin her around.
Even though his friends had previously been teasing him when they spoke about how great Cecilia looked that night, Louis had to admit that what they said wasn't incorrect.
Cecilia's black dress was more daring in the neckline, and with the multi-length hem, than he'd ever seen her wear before. Her dress accentuated the curves that he knew she had, and the high-heeled shoes she was wearing made her legs look much longer. He respected that she didn't like wearing heels too often, but he couldn't say that he minded it when she did wear them. The fact that the added height of the heels made the height difference between them a little less didn't hurt either.
Louis pressed a kiss to Cecilia's temple, "So, I saw you speaking with Martell and some other quidditch players. Were you able to convince more of them to get involved with the charity?"
"Yes," Cecilia responded happily, "And I've done one better. It turns out that in two weeks I'm going to get the opportunity to write a piece for the magazine about whatever topic I choose."
"That's fantastic!"
Cecilia nodded excitedly, "And I'm going to write about the charity project that Eli and I are starting."
"That's brilliant! I'm sure it'll be a fantastic article," Louis told her optimistically.
She smiled and set her head on his shoulder, "I'm excited to get started on it. I told Eli about it a few moments ago and he said he's going to check his work schedule so that he can find a time when we can sit down and finally have a few hours to go through all of the particulars of what we've accomplished so far."
"It'll definitely take a few hours too, because you have accomplished quite a lot in such a short amount of time," He told her sweetly.
Cecilia giggled, "You don't have to lay it on so thick Louis, it's pretty much a given that I'm going home with you tonight."
"That's not why I said it."
"It's still gonna happen though."
"You're telling me that you father's not going to be waiting up for you to get home tonight?" He asked her with a sardonic raise of his blonde eyebrow.
She smirked roguishly at him, "Mum said that she'd cover for me."
"Wicked."
Louis leaned forward with the intention to give Cecilia a somewhat chaste kiss on the lips, but they were interrupted before their lips could meet.
"Have you seen your sister?" Ally accosted him as she suddenly popped up beside him and Cecilia on the dance floor, her fiancé in tow.
He didn't take his eyes off of Cecilia but he did respond to his cousin, "Which sister? The one who's probably off sucking face with a professional quidditch player, or the one who's probably off sucking face with her auror fiancé?"
"The malicious witch who left Xav and I on our own to fend off Horace Slughorn."
Louis finally looked away from his girlfriend to raise an eyebrow questioningly at his cousin.
"The older one," Ally eventually clarified.
"I saw her and Teddy talking to Lucy and Austin Pennington like ten minutes ago," Louis told her.
Ally frowned, "Damn. I guess I'll have to wait a little longer to yell at her for what she did then."
"Seems like it."
Before Louis could decide whether he wanted to ask Ally and Xavier to leave him and Cecilia alone or not, Xavier had somehow convinced Ally that they should go and meddle with Mark and Tabitha's 'relationship', and leave him and Cecilia's alone.
The interfering couple left soon after and Louis and Cecilia shared a relieved look.
"The only thing I would change about tonight would be the fact that so many of my family members are here and have the potential to embarrass me so much," Louis told her.
Cecilia smirked, "I'm just glad that Mum and Dad opted to take Brogan trick-or-treating this evening instead of coming tonight."
"Me too."
"I thought you weren't afraid of my dad?"
"I'm not . . . I just don't think he'd enjoy watching how I'm looking at you in that dress right now."
Cecilia blushed and bit her lip suggestively, "How much longer do you we have to stay here tonight?"
Louis smirked at her, "We can leave after the next time Teddy or Uncle Harry brings around a bigwig from the Auror Office over to me to try to convince me to switch out of M. L. E."
"So like another twenty minutes then?" Cecilia asked her boyfriend cheekily.
He grinned back, "Oh, more like fifteen minutes tops."
Victoire discovered that she needed to be careful with the resting expressions she put on her face as she pretended to listen to the conversations Teddy was having with his ministry colleagues. Normally she would have actually been paying attention to the conversations going on, but since Teddy was only talking to people who were above him in the Ministry's chain of command, the discussions were almost exclusively about boring Ministry and Auror Department politics. She pretty much just stood by his side and pretended to listen to the conversation, while she tried really hard not to allow her eyes to glaze over. She was pretty sure that she had a good idea now about how Teddy felt whenever he was stuck by her side when she and Spencer were in the middle of a discussion on healing related magic.
The latest conversation Victoire found herself listening to involved two men who worked closely with the Minister for Magic, and they were asking Teddy his opinion on all of the new legislation that had recently been passed about the new ways to fill out forms and paperwork for certain Auror Department requests. Even though Victoire didn't feel as though there was anything she could add to the discussion, Teddy would covertly squeeze her side whenever he needed to signal to her that she needed to respond –even if it was just via a nod of her head.
The present dialogue had drifted to Teddy explaining that the new protocol of filling out requests for all extra supplies that they need for a case –even if it was just more ink for an inkpot– was starting to hinder the department's efficiency instead of helping it. Interestingly enough, both men were nodding in understanding with his words and then they asked Teddy how he thought the situation could be fixed.
Victoire had just started to let her mind wander off once more –this time into a daydream about what she was going to do once her and Teddy finally got back to their flat that night– when she felt Teddy pinch her side and jolt her out of her speculation.
"Victoire Sweetheart," Teddy addressed her a little louder than necessary, "Why don't you answer Mr. Wiest's question about your occupation?"
She ran a hand through her hair and faced the man that she was only seventy-percent sure had introduced himself as Mr. Wiest, "I'm presently a resident healer at St. Mungo's."
Mr. Wiest, and the other man whose name Victoire couldn't remember, nodded intently, "That's quite the accomplishment Miss Weasley, which ward do you work in? Obstetrics? Artifact Accidents?"
"Dark Arts Reversal ward," Victoire clarified as she tried her best not to sound insulted by the suggestions he had thrown out. She was hoping that they were honest suggestions instead of gender-bias based ones.
Thankfully, Mr. Wiest didn't look shocked by her admission, "You must have worked really hard to get that position. I understand that that particular healing specialty is very difficult. I think I've heard that there are only half a score of healers in all of the Western Wizarding world that have the qualifications to become a fully qualified healer in Dark Arts Reversal."
Victoire tried to keep her eyes from going wide in surprise, "That's correct, it is a very quickly growing field though, and relatively new when you consider that some of the other healing specialties are centuries or even millennia old."
The other man with Mr. Wiest seemed as though he was about to add something to the conversation, but before he could Victoire's Uncle Harry slipped into the group and said that he needed to speak to Teddy immediately.
Mr. Wiest and the other man seemed to respect, if not understand, Harry's urgency and they quickly departed, leaving Harry alone with Teddy and Victoire. Victoire wasn't entirely sure if she was also supposed to leave the two men alone or not, but before she could try to leave –or insist that she should stay– Harry began to speak.
Apparently, the Auror Department had just gotten word of an incident involving a dozen people in a bog and some rather nasty dark magic, and Harry needed to send in extra aurors right away to help deal with it. Harry explained that Teddy's partner Hayden Summers as well as Jilly Donaldson and Kurt Williamson had already been recruited from the ball and sent off to the incident site not five minutes ago, and that Teddy needed to get there as soon as possible to give assistance and support.
"Casualties and injuries?" Teddy asked Harry, his eyes already looking as though his mind was running a mile a minute as he tried to form a plan.
Harry glanced at Victoire for a second before gazing back at Teddy, "No confirmed casualties as of yet, but several moderate to serious injuries."
The words were barely out of his mouth before Victoire realized why her uncle hadn't asked her to leave before telling Teddy about his new assignment. Harry must have figured that she would hear about it sooner or later considering that she was a healer in the Dark Arts Reversal ward after all.
Teddy looked at down at Victoire who was still standing right up against his side, "I have to go."
She nodded her head understandingly, "I should go too. To St. Mungo's. They'll probably try to call me in anyway if the volume of patients gets too heavy."
"I'll see you later then?" He asked her.
She stood up onto her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips, "See you later."
They were purposely being ambiguous about the place and time at which they would later see each other, because they really didn't know when they'd next meet. It would most likely be when they both ended up stumbling into bed in the early, or rather late, hours of the next morning.
"Be careful," Victoire whispered to him as they both started to move towards the portion of the room that held the exit.
Teddy pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "You too."
A/N: Well . . . a lot happened in this chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it :) Also, how'd you like Slughorn's little cameo? And how adorable are Cecilia and Louis?
Hmmm . . . it seems like there's something else I should probably address . . . Oh yeah, Vic's bombshell in the beginning about wanting a baby. We'll hear more about that very shortly as the story progresses. I promise I won't leave you hanging on it for very long.
Next Update: In two weeks.
Next Chapter: We get to see Vic do some serious healing, and Teddy do some auror-ing. It'll be lots of fun.
Teaser for Next Chap:
""Uh . . . Healer Weasley . . . how is this potion going to be effective if half of the patient's stomach is missing?"
Victoire didn't miss a beat as she continued to repair the injuries to the visible portions of the intestines, "You'll have to switch it over so that it can be given intravenously to the patient.""
Thanks again to everyone who had followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed this story!
BIG thank-yous to:
Random Viewer, TIGERSAGE, Guest (1), B. arendes, Guest (2), silverlover02, rosesnlilies, AngelTwins527, Break This Spell626, Seher Syed, TheSlytherinQueenbee, GinevraFangirl, Jacquie Lily Black, Guest (3), kawaiiotaku0405, ntlpurpolia, Jennifer Jules, Venz, Jily71102, The Awesome One, Sharon, liverpoolss, and lumiere100.
Random Viewer: It's the end of October in the story, so the next time all the Hogwarts kids will be home will be Christmas. We will definitely get to see a big family dinner chapter with them when that comes up. It might be a while before we get there, but it will be lots of fun when we do, because we'll be meeting Charlie's girlfriend at the same time. However, we will be seeing the kids at Hogwarts in a few chapters time, and there will be a little bit of interaction between them and their family members.
TIGERSAGE: I haven't read 'The Cursed Child' (I'm assuming that that is what you mean when you say 'in the books') so anything from that play will not be purposely used in this story. Since 'The Cursed Child' and all the extra info from Pottermore came out after I started writing my next-gen series, I know that there are things that I wrote that may not be considered 'cannon' now. However, since my first story was cannon when I started writing it, I don't exactly consider my series non-cannon. If I've already written something that ends up being different from something that J. K. R. eventually puts out, I am not going to go back and change what I've already written. I'm just going to go forward based on the foundation I've already laid.
Guest (1): I am feeling better, thank-you. I really don't know when I'll be able to update weekly like I used to. When I was doing that I was in university and I had more time to get chapters written. When I have enough chapters written ahead of time I'll be able to post once a week, but as it is that will be a while away. I'm having a hard enough time right now posting every two weeks, because that seems to be how long it takes me now to write a chapter. If I get on a writing kick and I'm able to get some chapters written up ahead of time I will get back to posting once a week, but for that to happen you'll have to be patient with me. :)
Jennifer Jules: I'm glad that you like the group events, because there's so many characters in this story that the only way to see most of them is to do group events every once in a while.
Venz: We don't really celebrate the 1st of May as anything special where I'm from, but I do think it might be celebrated in some other provinces or maybe larger cities. We don't have a national or provincial holiday or anything for it though. We do have a long weekend later on in May that we call the Victoria Day long-weekend that celebrates Queen Victoria's birthday, so that's pretty much the only holiday we have in the month of May. I try to use names that belong to different ethnicities or cultures when I write these stories because the world is becoming such a globalized place. I didn't specifically pick Professor Nurmi's name because it was Finnish or create some extensive background story for her, I just wanted something that wasn't English and when I was doing a search of random last names Nurmi was one of the first ones to come up. I do put some though into some of my other characters names, but unfortunately Nurmi was just luck of the draw.
Jily71102: I've addressed this a few times over the years, but even though Victoire may seem perfect, she's not. Yes she's pretty, smart, athletic, and magically powerful, but she's also rash, impulsive, holds grudges longer than she needs to, too nosey, very outspoken, sometimes thoughtless, has a wicked temper, and had no artistic abilities whatsoever. Her faults don't seem as big because I usually focus on her good qualities, but if you read what I've written and think back on my stories her flaws are there in the stories, they're just ones that most of her friends and families forgive. Which is what you want from your friends and family anyway, for them to accept your faults.
The Awesome One: I'm glad that you're caught up now.
Sharon: Hayden, Jilly, and Kurt are all a little older than Teddy (I'd imagine in ranges from one year to five, the three of them sitting somewhere in between those numbers). I've never addressed specifically if the other three aurors went to Hogwarts or what house they were in, because in all honesty I didn't want to have to create too many complicated back stories and figure out whether they knew each other in school or if they didn't, or if they had friends who hated each other, etc. I purposely avoided adding that info because I felt that leaving it ambiguous added less constraints to the story, so if it's okay with you I'm going to leave that information ambiguous, and you can imagine it how you'd like :)
lumiere100: Well I've stated that Tabitha is Clark's younger sister, and she said she was four years older than Vic, and two years older than Teddy. Therefore Tabitha is 26. Both Clark and Mark are around the same age (one may be a year or two older than the other), so I imagine them both to be between 27-31.
I hope that everyone liked this chapter!
Please, please, please leave me some reviews, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them,
Until next time, DFTBA!