Year 5: Head Over Heels
Chapter 42: October 2015
Throughout the remainder of September, Victoire grew into her new role as a prefect. She patrolled with a variety of her peers and became familiar with all three patrol routes. While she preferred patrolling with Teddy, he insisted that if she couldn't keep their patrols professional, he was going to make sure they weren't paired together anymore.
Meanwhile, classes had become very demanding, leaving Victoire with little leisure time. If she'd thought Teddy was exaggerating about the amount of work when he'd been in his fifth year, then she'd been mistaken. And since Teddy was now in his final year, his workload seemed to have practically tripled overnight. Between classes, homework, and patrols, Victoire and Teddy barely had time for anything else.
"Come on Victoire," Kara pleaded one night. "Just one game of exploding snap."
"I've already told you both, I have rounds to do," Victoire reminded her friends.
"You always have rounds," Brianna sniffed. "It's like you don't have time for us anymore."
"Look," Victoire sighed. "It's not that I don't want to play exploding snap. It's that patrols have to take priority."
"Well what about after your patrols?" Kara wondered. "We could have a game before bed."
Victoire shook her head. "I have to finish my muggle studies assignment," she said. "It's due tomorrow and I'm only halfway through."
"Well why didn't you just do it when we did?" Brianna demanded.
Victoire closed her eyes and shook her head in frustration. "Because I was at a prefect's meeting then," she replied. "Look, I've got to go. I'll see you later."
Victoire got up and left the common room, taking her bag with her. Maybe if she got lucky, her partner would let her read up on muggles and climate change while they rounded.
She descended to the fourth floor and hurried into the prefect's lounge, knowing she was tardy and apologizing to her partner profusely.
"Don't worry about it," sixth year female Ravenclaw prefect, Alexis King, reassured her. "I got us middle rounds tonight, and those tend to be the easiest anyway, in my opinion." Middle rounds referred to the patrol route consisting of the second, third, and fourth floors. Bottom rounds were the route through the dungeons, basement, and first floor, and top rounds were the route through the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors.
"Great," Victoire smiled, following her partner back out into the corridor.
"So why were you late, anyway?" Alexis wondered as they begun to make their way towards the hospital wing – the first stop on their list.
"Oh, it was just my friends," Victoire muttered with a shrug. "They wanted me to play exploding snap, and no matter how many times I explained I had rounds, they didn't understand."
"Oh, I get it," Alexis nodded. "My friends had trouble with it when I first became a prefect. All the extra responsibilities can be time consuming. Especially in fifth year."
"Tell me about it," Victoire nodded. "It's not enough that I have meetings and rounds all the time, but I have twice the amount of work to do in all my classes and OWLs to worry about."
"You'll figure it out," Alexis assured her. "It takes some adjustment, but eventually you'll figure out how to balance everything."
Victoire smiled. "Thanks."
They reached the hospital wing and quietly slipped inside, scanning the room for any stragglers. Not that there ever were any. Madam Eldridge was very good about kicking everyone out prior to curfew.
Madam Eldridge was in the process of administering a potion to one of her patients, so the two prefects waited until she was done, and then walked over and had her sign their sheet, listing the students that were in the hospital wing and assuring that they were all officially under her care for the night.
Back in the hallway, the girls started down the next hallway, checking some empty, unused classrooms, and then moving to the arithmancy wing. It wasn't long before they'd finished rounding on the fourth floor, and not much longer before they'd finished their rounds in full.
"Well that went smoothly," Alexis said once they had returned to the prefect's lounge to drop off their notes. "It was nice working with you."
"Same," Victoire nodded.
"And don't forget what I said," Alexis said before they parted. "You'll figure everything out. Just be patient."
VvVvVvVvVvV
The next day after classes, Victoire found herself in the library with Kara and Brianna. While her friends worked on their most recent herbology assignment, Victoire was scrambling to finish a potions assignment that should have been finished days ago.
"So I suppose you have to patrol again tonight?" Brianna asked suddenly, her voice sharp and unfriendly.
"No," Victoire frowned, not sure why Brianna suddenly seemed so cold. "You know Teddy and Marina don't schedule us on back-to-back days. They like to give us a break between patrols."
"Right," Brianna nodded. "But you won't have time for exploding snap, I'm sure."
"Well I do have a lot of work to catch up on…" Victoire hesitated, choosing to answer honestly.
"See?" Brianna muttered to Kara. "I was right. She doesn't have time for us."
"If she's behind on her schoolwork, maybe we should let her catch up," Kara said diplomatically.
Brianna sniffed. "If Victoire's so behind on her schoolwork, then maybe she should have been working on it at lunch instead of sneaking off with Teddy."
"If you resent that I'm trying to spend some time with my boyfriend, just come out and say it," Victoire insisted. "Don't beat around the bush."
"Alright, I'll say it," Brianna cried. "You claim to have such little free time, and that's why you can never play exploding snap, or just hang out with us without doing homework. But then when you do have some free time, you spend it all with Teddy! Do we not matter anymore?"
Victoire spluttered. "Of course you matter!" she managed to say. "You're my best friends."
"So then explain why we never see you anymore," Brianna demanded.
"You see me plenty," Victoire insisted. "You see me in the dorm, at meals, in class… we do our homework together in the library. I see you way more than I see Teddy."
"Well it doesn't really count if it's in class or while we're sleeping," Brianna said. "You know what? Whatever. If you don't see the problem here, then there's nothing I can do about that."
Feeling angry at Brianna and not being in the mood to continue sitting with her, Victoire stood up and scooped her things into her bag.
"Victoire, where are you going?" Kara asked, her voice clearly showing that she wished her friends would stop fighting.
"To find Teddy no doubt," Brianna muttered.
"Yes, I'm going to find Teddy," Victoire agreed. "But only because you're acting like a complete bitch."
Victoire regretted the word as soon as it came out of her mouth. But it was out, and she couldn't take it back. She avoided looking at Kara or Brianna as she threw the rest of her things into her bag and stalked out of the library, heading for the fourth floor, hoping Teddy would still be in the prefect's lounge, going over patrol schedules with Marina.
"Teddy?" Victoire called out as she reached the prefect's lounge. "Teddy?"
"Victoire, is something wrong?" Teddy asked, immediately sensing that Victoire was distressed. "What is it?"
"Where's Marina?" Victoire asked, always conscious of whether she and Teddy had an audience.
"She just left," Teddy replied. "Had a meeting with Professor Scalar to discuss her term project for arithmancy."
Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Victoire had launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around and squeezing him tight as tears began to fall from her eyes.
"Alright, come on, sit down," Teddy said, pulling her over to the nearest couch and allowing her to curl up next to him as she cried. "Tell me what happened."
"It's Brianna," Victoire managed to get out between sobs. "She – she – "
"What did she do this time?" Teddy demanded, his voice instantly hard as stone. "If she said something to you – "
"No, it wasn't Brianna's fault," Victoire shook her head. "It was all my fault. I called her a – I called her a bitch."
Teddy was silent for a moment, and Victoire feared that he too thought she was a monster. When he finally spoke, Victoire was relieved he didn't hate her.
"Well I'm sure she deserved it," he said. Though she was glad to have Teddy on her side, Victoire still felt miserable about the whole situation. "What led you to call her a – well a you-know-what?" Teddy asked.
"She was accusing me of spending too much time with you and not enough with her and Kara," Victoire replied.
Teddy considered this for a moment. "Are you?" he wondered.
Victoire shrugged. "Well I do try to spend the free time I can with you," she replied. "But I'm with them most of the day already."
"Well, you know," Teddy said. "Classes don't really count."
"Yeah," Victoire sighed sadly. "That's what Brianna said."
"Look, I don't want to be the one getting between you and your friends," Teddy said. "Maybe we shouldn't spend so much time together. Or maybe I should hang out with you all more often, like we used to last year."
"It's not fair for Brianna to tell me I can't spend time with my boyfriend," Victoire said. "If she had a boyfriend, I'm sure she'd want to spend time with him too."
"I think the point is that she misses you," Teddy said. "She's not trying to pull you away from me, she's trying to pull you towards herself."
"I guess that makes sense," Victoire nodded. "But then why'd she have to be all mean and snippy about it? Why couldn't she just say so?"
"Because she's Brianna," Teddy laughed, causing Victoire to laugh as well, her tears long forgotten.
VvVvVvVvVvV
Soon, the Halloween dance was approaching and all of Hogwarts was eagerly preparing. Kara and Brianna had purchased supplies for their costumes when they were last in Hogsmeade and were very excited to show them off at the party.
"But it's just the same boring party every year," Victoire complained one evening as she and Teddy patrolled through the dungeons. "I'd much rather stay back in the common room with you. It'll be empty, since everyone will be down at the party. And neither of us is scheduled to supervise anyway."
"I just think it would be beneficial to your friendship with Kara and Brianna if you went with them," Teddy said. "And it's not like I wouldn't be there too. We could dance… drink some butterbeer… it'll be fun."
"If we stayed behind in the common room, we could do more than dance," Victoire said suggestively, waggling her eyebrows.
Teddy let out a chuckle. "Come on Vic, you know I'm right. Go to the party, spend some time with your friends. We can find another time to make out in the common room."
"Alright," Victoire agreed. "And I suppose dancing with you won't be too much of a hardship."
VvVvVvVvVvV
The night of the Halloween party came faster than Victoire expected. Before she knew it, she was in the bathroom with her friends, fixing her makeup in preparation for the evening's festivities.
"I'm glad you decided to come," Kara said, acting as a kind of buffer between Victoire and Brianna. Though Victoire and Brianna had both apologized to one another, there was still some tension in the air. Victoire hoped it would dissipate in the course of the evening, or else she didn't know what else she could do to get her friend back.
"Of course," Victoire said, deciding not to mention that Teddy had had to convince her. "I wouldn't miss it."
"You're sure you don't have patrols to do, or assignments to write?" Brianna asked stiffly.
"Nope," Victoire shook her head. "I'm not scheduled for patrols until tomorrow night, and my assignments can wait for tomorrow as well."
"I suppose Teddy will be at the party though?" Brianna asked. "Can we expect to see you at all?"
"Teddy's going to be late to the party," Victoire replied. "But he'll probably show up towards the end."
This was a decision that Victoire and Teddy had come to together. It had occurred to Victoire that if she and Teddy went to the party together, it would be the same as not going at all – she'd be on a date with her boyfriend instead of spending quality time with her friends. So Teddy had good-naturedly agreed to arrive at the party two hours late. Victoire felt bad for making him spend his last Halloween at Hogwarts hiding in his dorm translating his ancient runes assignment, but Teddy assured her that he didn't care about a silly Halloween party, and that his runes needed translating either way.
"Oh," Brianna nodded, sounding like she was a tad bit surprised. "Well alright then."
Their makeup finished, the three girls took a look at themselves in the full-length mirror. Kara was dressed as a muggle superhero called wonder woman – apparently she'd had to dress up as wonder woman during superhero week at the muggle camp she'd worked at over the summer and had liked the costume. Brianna was dressed as a cowgirl, complete with a pink cowboy hat and boots that reached her knee. Having had little time to prepare a costume, Victoire had donned her pyjamas and done her hair up in two high ponytails on either side of her head.
"I can't believe you're going to the party as a baby," Brianna groaned as Victoire fixed her hair a final time. "You're wearing your pyjamas for goodness' sake!"
"It's not like I need to impress anyone," Victoire pointed out. "I already have a boyfriend."
"Whatever," Brianna muttered. "If Kara and I meet any guys, then you are on your own."
"Fine by me," Victoire agreed. If Kara and Brianna ended up with a couple of guys, then Victoire would have the perfect opportunity to slip away and find Teddy. It would be a win-win situation.
"Let's go then," Kara declared when her friends continued to just stand there. "The party's already started, so we should be appropriately tardy."
The three girls descended to the main floor, and even though Victoire hadn't necessarily been enthusiastic about going to the Halloween party, she found herself feeling excited as they approached the doors.
"Here we go," Kara announced, pulling one of the doors open and letting her two friends inside before slipping in after them.
The party was just as it was every year. Fantastic decorations had been made and were displayed expertly around the room. The four long house tables had been cleared to the sides, making room for a dance floor in the center of the room, which was already filled with dancing students. As for the tables themselves, they were laden with a never-ending supply of food and drink, making Victoire's mouth water at the thought.
"Let's get something to eat," Victoire suggested, leading her friends over to the food. She hadn't realized it until now, but Victoire was starving.
"If we eat we'll be too full to dance," Brianna shook her head at the pastry that Victoire tried to hand her.
Victoire shrugged. "Well I'm starving," she declared, eating the pastry herself. She indulged in a second one and then cut herself off, knowing the food would still be thee later on.
"Come on, we should dance!" Kara suggested then, urging her friends to come out on the dance floor.
Victoire followed, getting into the rhythm of the music and starting to bounce up and down in time with her friends. Soon they were laughing and smiling, all animosity between Victoire and Brianna gone.
"Excuse me?" Lucas Fraser, a fifth year Hufflepuff tapped on Brianna's shoulder. "Would you like to dance with me?"
Victoire and Kara exchanged a look while Brianna considered the boy. "Alright," she agreed. "One dance."
As Brianna walked off with Lucas to dance with him away from her friends, Kara and Victoire started to giggle.
"That poor boy," Kara said.
"He won't know what hit him," Victoire agreed.
From what they knew of Lucas, he was a sweet boy. They'd been in classes with him since first year, so they knew him pretty well. And knowing Brianna, she was going to swallow him up and spit him back out into the sea of students by the time this song was over.
Victoire and Kara continued to dance, and after a few songs, Victoire began to wonder where Brianna was.
"You don't think she's still dancing with Lucas?" she asked Kara.
Kara shook her head and then pointed through the crowd. "Nope," she shook her head. "She's moved on."
Victoire followed Kara's gaze to her other friend, who was now dancing with Stanley Towler, a Ravenclaw in their year.
"At least she's having fun," Victoire muttered, shaking her head. She almost felt mad at Brianna for making her miss out on spending time with Teddy, just so she could watch her dance with a bunch of guys. Except she didn't, because she knew if she wasn't here, Kara would have nobody to dance with, and would have ended up standing by the side of the room, waiting for Brianna to make her way through all the guys in their year.
"She does seem to be enjoying herself," Kara noted as Brianna begun to dance in a very promiscuous fashion.
"Oh, I do not need to be watching this," Victoire shook her head, turning away and focusing on dancing with Kara.
Suddenly, a couple of Hufflepuffs approached, causing both Victoire and Kara to stop dancing. It was William Shimpling and Joe Sanders, certainly two of the last people Victoire would have expected to come over.
"Hi," William said to Kara. "Er – I just – was wondering – erm – "
"Would you ladies like to dance?" Joe stepped in for his friend.
Victoire shared a look with Kara. After everything that had happened between Kara, Brianna, and William Shimpling in second year, Victoire was nervous how Kara would respond. Of course, William knew nothing about any of what had gone on, so he wouldn't know what his request could mean.
"We'd love to," Kara finally answered for both herself and Victoire. She took William's hand and moved a short distance away to dance while Victoire found herself dancing with Joe, one of her fellow prefects.
"Hey, so just to be clear," Joe said, clearing his throat. "I'm only doing this to help out my friend over there. He was too nervous to come over alone."
"Of course," Victoire nodded. "I have a boyfriend anyway."
"You do?" Joe asked, sounding surprised. "I didn't know."
"Yup," Victoire nodded, sensing that Joe might be lying about his intentions and wanting to make sure she was clear about hers.
"And why aren't you dancing with him?" Joe wondered.
"He's not here yet," Victoire replied. "He's coming down soon though."
"I see," Joe nodded.
The song changed to a slow one and Victoire felt uncomfortable as Joe's hands wrapped around her and started swaying her back and forth. She'd have preferred to be slow-dancing with Teddy, but she stayed with Joe, knowing that Kara would be more comfortable knowing they were both dancing with the Hufflepuffs.
"So William really wanted to dance with Kara then?" Victoire asked.
Joe nodded. "He's pretty in to her. Has been for years."
"Really?" Victoire asked in surprise. "Are you saying he's liked her since that time they danced in second year?"
"Yeah," Joe nodded. "Didn't go very well that time though. Brianna somehow convinced herself she was dating Will for some reason."
"And now he's trying again," Victoire smiled in their direction. "That's really sweet."
"Do you think Kara might… you know, like him back?" Joe wondered. "Because I honestly don't think I can take another three years of him complaining about how badly things go if she turns him down."
"I honestly couldn't say," Victoire shrugged. There were too many factors to consider for her to predict her friend's feelings. "She seems to be enjoying herself though."
Just then, someone cleared their throat behind Victoire and she craned her head around to find Teddy patiently standing next to her, staring daggers at Joe Sanders.
"May I cut in?" he asked.
Victoire gave Joe an apologetic look.
"I see," Joe said, stepping back with an air of disappointment. "I'll leave you be. It was lovely dancing with you Victoire."
"You as well Joe," Victoire smiled. "I'll see you at the next prefect's meeting."
Joe walked away and Teddy took his place, his arms wrapping around Victoire and holding her close.
"What were you doing dancing with Sanders?" Teddy frowned.
Victoire laughed at Teddy's unnecessary jealousy. "It was nothing," she replied. "He was doing his friend a favor. William wanted to dance with Kara and needed someone to dance with me."
"I didn't look like it was nothing to him," Teddy said. "He looked like he was enjoying himself."
"Well can you blame him?" Victoire smiled. "I am a wonderful dancer, am I not?"
"That you are," Teddy agreed, twirling Victoire in his arms.
"I'm glad you're here," Victoire said, resting her head on Teddy's shoulder and closing her eyes as she enjoyed the feel of being in his arms. "Dancing with Joe was nothing like dancing with you."
"No more patrolling with him either, I think," Teddy declared.
"Well I don't think that's necessary!" Victoire cried, pulling away. "We danced for less than ten minutes."
"You don't like for me to patrol with Beverly," Teddy pointed out. "What's the difference?"
"The difference is I wasn't making out with Joe in the middle of the dance floor," Victoire replied. "We did nothing I wouldn't have been comfortable doing with my kid brother."
Teddy sighed and reached to pull Victoire back in. "I guess I just don't like guys thinking that you're available," he said. "I want people to know we're together."
"I told Joe I have a boyfriend," Victoire said. "And I think now he has a pretty good idea who that is."
"I don't just mean Joe," Teddy shook his head. "It's all the guys at this school."
"We've talked about this," Victoire sighed. "We're not a secret, but we're not proclaiming our relationship either. I'm not ready for Louis to find out we're dating from his potions partner. And the second word gets out, our entire family will know about it."
"I don't care," Teddy said, leaning down and pulling Victoire into a kiss. "I love you and I don't care who knows it."
Victoire sighed kissing Teddy a few times more before leaning against him and swaying with the music. "Let's just dance," she said, letting herself be carried away by the music. Right now, like this, wrapped in the warmth of Teddy's arms, the rest of the world didn't matter.