Year 5: Head Over Heels
Chapter 45: January 2016
After the longest Christmas holidays of her life, Victoire was relieved to finally be returning to Hogwarts, where she could see Teddy and not have to rely only on letters and her imagination. Though she'd enjoyed seeing her grandmother and her aunt, and meeting her aunt's new boyfriend was certainly interesting, ten whole days in France had been much too long – especially when her mother took her and her siblings to ruelle des lumières and all Victoire could do was wish she was visiting the Parisian version of Diagon Alley with Teddy and not her family.
"So who am I rounding with tonight?" Victoire wondered aloud as she and Teddy headed for the prefect's carriage to receive the patrol schedule for the upcoming weeks. Of course, Teddy already knew the schedule, but he refused to reveal any of it to Victoire early.
"Who says you're even patrolling tonight?" Teddy asked. "You could be scheduled for tomorrow, or even the next day."
"I guess I'm just hoping I get scheduled to round tonight," Victoire said. "After all, I know you are, because you already told me you were. And I just thought it would be nice if the two of us could spent our first evening back at Hogwarts together instead of me waiting for you to finish your rounds."
Teddy smiled. "It would be nice," he agreed, pausing for a long time before his next statement. "Which is why I asked Marina to pair you with me tonight."
A huge smile spread across Victoire's face and she reached up to kiss Teddy on the cheek gratefully. "Good," she said, satisfied. "Because I definitely don't want you off patrolling with some other girl when you could be with me."
The two entered the prefect's compartment then, to find Marina impatiently waiting for Teddy, hands on her hips.
"I thought you were going to meet me here at ten forty-five!" she cried. "It's practically eleven o'clock!"
"Sorry," Teddy apologized. "But what's the big deal? All we're doing is handing out patrol schedules."
"Still, it would have been nice not to be dealing with Professor Longbottom all on my own," Marina huffed. "He made some changes to the schedule, I hope it won't be too inconvenient for you."
"Why, what'd he change?" Teddy asked with a frown. Victoire also was confused. Since when did Professor Longbottom get involved with prefect patrol schedules? Sure, he was technically the Professor 'in charge' of the prefects, but it was the Head Boy and Girl that took care of details like that.
"See for yourself," Marina said, handing him a sheet of parchment with the assignments on it. Teddy quickly scanned the document and then groaned, dropping his hands to his sides.
"What is it?" Victoire wondered, grabbing the sheet from his hands and glancing over it herself. It had to affect the two of them, or else Teddy wouldn't be reacting like this, so Victoire immediately located that evening's patrols and read the pairs that were scheduled.
Colin Townsend and Connor Hall
Joe Sanders and Beverly Longman Victoire Weasley
Teddy Lupin and Victoire Weasley Beverly Longman
"Why would he do this?" Teddy demanded. "What possibly reason could Professor Longbottom have for making this change."
Marina shrugged. "He said he got a request from a parent," she said.
Now it was Victoire's turn to groan. "This is all my fault," she said.
"How is this your fault?" Teddy frowned.
"It's my father," she replied. "It must be. He's the parent that wrote to Professor Longbottom. He doesn't want us patrolling together."
"Why not?" Teddy asked. "I thought our conversation at Christmas went over well, death threats aside."
"He thinks I need to live a full life outside of you or something," Victoire shrugged. "Something about how if I spend too much time with you, I could become overly dependent or and incapable of doing anything on my own."
Teddy sighed. "Well I can see his point," he allowed.
"I can't!" Victoire cried. "He doesn't understand. He's being completely unreasonable. You know what? I'm going to write him right now. Can I borrow Moony?"
"No," Teddy shook his head. "Don't write him. It won't change anything. If this is his decision, then his mind is made up."
"But you're scheduled to patrol with Beverly Longman," Victoire said, pointing to the girl's name on the paper.
"I know," Teddy replied with a sigh. "And I know you don't like it, and I'm not such a fan of good ol' Joe there that you've been partnered with. But it looks like we're just going to have to make the best of it."
"Can't we trade?" Victoire wondered. "You take Joe and I take Beverly?"
"You want to round with Beverly Longman?" Teddy frowned.
Victoire considered this and then amended her statement. "Or we could split up Connor and Colin so that Beverly and Joe have to round together," she suggested.
But Marina was already shaking her head. "All amendments to the schedule by Professor Longbottom are absolute," she said. "You can't change them now."
"But who would know?" Victoire crossed her arms. "Nobody has to tell him."
"Sorry Victoire, but Marina's right," Teddy apologized. "As Head Boy, I can't go against Professor Longbottom."
At that moment, the compartment door slid open and Derek Nelson and Barbara Mitchell, a couple of Ravenclaw prefects, entered, temporarily ending Victoire and Teddy's conversation. As Marina began to pass out schedules, Victoire simply sat staring at her own copy and that last line under that evening's patrols.
Teddy Lupin and Victoire Weasley Beverly Longman
VvVvVvVvVvV
"Teddy Bear!"
Victoire cringed at the sound of Beverly Longman's voice as the girl bounced into the prefect's lounge that evening for patrols.
Teddy could feel Victoire tense next to him and he laid a hand on her shoulder to reassure her.
"You have nothing to worry about," Teddy told her. "Beverly Longman means nothing to me."
"Yeah," Victoire nodded. She knew that. Teddy loved her – it had been a long time since he and Beverly had broken up. But still, Victoire just couldn't get past her hatred of his ex-girlfriend.
"Hey Victoire," Joe Sanders said then, arriving in the lounge and approaching. "Looks like we're going to be working together tonight."
When Teddy instinctively took a possessive step closer to Victoire, she laughed, leaning up to whisper in his ear.
"We danced together once," she murmured. "It's no big deal."
"I know," Teddy agreed. "That doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Listen, as soon as rounds are over, then it can be just you and me, right?" Victoire pointed out.
Teddy smiled. "Right. Let's just get through rounds."
Breaking apart, Victoire moved to stand with Joe and grab a checklist from the stack. They chose middle rounds – Victoire's preferred of the three.
Meanwhile, Teddy grabbed the checklist for bottom rounds while trying to maintain a safe distance between him and Beverly – a task that proved difficult given Beverly's apparent enthusiasm to get into his personal space. Victoire clenched her teeth at the sight but kept herself out of it. She trusted Teddy and she was just going to have to deal with their current situation.
"Ready to go?" Joe asked.
"Yeah," Victoire nodded, taking one last look at Teddy over her shoulder as they exited out into the corridor.
They started their rounds along the fourth floor, hitting all the important stops – hospital wing, arithmancy classroom, a few club rooms. Down on the third floor, they visited the history of magic and muggle studies classrooms, as well as the inter-house lounge, where they actually found some fourth years and had to remind them that they were back at school and that curfew was in place. The students cleared out pretty quickly and Victoire and Joe agreed that there was no need to accompany them back to their houses.
Before Victoire knew it, they were at their last stop of rounds – the library on the second floor.
"No one in the east wing," Joe confirmed, meeting Victoire back at the entrance of the library.
"No one in the west wing," Victoire added, making a note on their checklist.
"Looks like we're done then," Joe nodded, pushing the door open and then holding it while Victoire passed through.
As they made their way back up to the prefect's lounge began to make small talk.
"So Will and Kara are still seeing each other," Joe said casually.
"Yeah," Victoire nodded. After the Hogsmeade weekend in November, Kara had met up with William a few times to study in the library, and they had gone on a proper date during the December Hogsmeade trip, after which Kara had been deliriously happy for days. Brianna still didn't know though, and Victoire was worried about how she would react when she inevitably did find out.
"William is certainly a lot happier these days," Joe noted.
"Kara too," Victoire agreed.
"What about you?" Joe wondered.
Victoire frowned in confusion. "What about me? Am I happy?"
"Well I noticed that you were originally scheduled to patrol with your boyfriend, but it got changed at the last minute. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe you broke up?" he asked. Victoire sensed a hint of hopefulness in his voice and wondered if Teddy had been right all along. Was Joe interested in her?
"Oh, no," Victoire shook her head, wanting to make sure to be clear, so as not to give Joe the wrong impression. "We're very happy. It's just my father being overprotective as usual. He doesn't want us patrolling together."
"So your father doesn't approve of Teddy?" Joe wondered.
"No, he loves Teddy," Victoire said. "I think he's just worried that we're going too fast or something. Which we aren't."
"I can understand why he might be worried," Joe said. "I mean, you are dating a seventh year."
"Why does everyone think that means anything?" Victoire demanded, suddenly feeling very defensive. "My age, his age… it doesn't matter."
"Of course not," Joe immediately agreed. "Only, from an outside perspective, it would be reasonable to think that maybe, you know, he could be pressuring you to move faster than you're comfortable."
Victoire felt herself turning red as she recalled Christmas Eve.
"Well that's simply not the case," she said stiffly, indicating clearly that the conversation was over.
The two prefects were silent as they climbed the last stairs to the fourth floor and made their way back to the prefect's lounge to drop off their checklist.
"Look, Victoire – " Joe said before they parted. "I'm sorry if you felt I was accusing either you or Teddy of anything. It wasn't my intention."
"It's fine," Victoire said.
"And if you ever need anything – if something were to happen or you just wanted to talk – "
"Thanks," Victoire said, forcing a smile onto her face to show Joe that she wasn't angry with him.
"Alright," Joe nodded. "Well, goodnight."
VvVvVvVvVvV
After a few weeks, Victoire and Teddy realized that Professor Longbottom was never going to let them patrol together again. After he came to Marina a second time to make adjustments to the patrol schedule, the couple knew without a doubt that the request was from Bill and they resolved that they would simply have to live with it.
Thankfully, knowing this made it easier for Teddy to also ensure to keep Beverly Longman and Joe Sanders patrolling with different people, or even better on completely different nights than they. If they couldn't patrol together, they didn't need to be patrolling with the two people that posed threats to their relationship. And after patrolling with Joe that one time, Victoire could tell that he was just waiting for her and Teddy to break up so that he could swoop in – something she had no intention of giving him the opportunity to do.
One afternoon found Teddy and Victoire in the common room working on their homework. Kara was off with William somewhere, Billy and Kayla were studying in the library, and to her dismay, Brianna was in the after-hours potions lab doing some remedial work. After failing the first term of potions, Professor Abbott-Longbottom was giving her a chance to redeem herself in preparation for the O.W.L.s.
"Ugh!" Victoire groaned, throwing her wand on the ground in frustration. She's been at it for almost an hour and still she couldn't manage to cast the silencing spell on Teddy – no matter how annoying was to have him reading his transfiguration textbook out loud.
"Still no luck?" Teddy asked.
"No," Victoire sighed. "It's useless. I'm useless at Charms."
"You're not useless," Teddy disagreed. "You're just having difficulty. Maybe you need to take a break."
"What I need is for O.W.L. year to be over so that I never have to take charms again," Victoire muttered.
"Really?" Teddy asked in mock surprise. "I thought for sure you were going to continue with charms in sixth year."
A smile made its way onto Victoire's face and she rolled her eyes in an attempt to maintain her frustrated mood.
"I'll make you a deal," Teddy declared. "I have to practice these transfiguration spells, so how about you let me practice on you for a bit, which will give you a break, and then after I'll help you with your volume spells."
"You want to practice human transfiguration on me?" Victoire asked skeptically. "What if you do it wrong?"
"I've already mastered the reversal," Teddy assured her. "So even if I can't get the spells to work perfectly, I can get you back to yourself easily enough."
Victoire wasn't so sure about the idea, but she did want the break, and the help with charms.
"Alright, fine," she agreed, turning her chair so that she could properly face Teddy. "Do your best."
Victoire closed her eyes then, not liking the image of Teddy pointing his wand so close to her face. The spells he was currently studying were for nose elongation and modification of facial bone structure.
It was a while before Victoire felt anything, and she wondered if Teddy was going to have as much trouble with human transfiguration as she did with volume spells. If that had been the case, she wouldn't have been much help in aiding him, unfortunately. But then she felt it – starting as the slightest tingling in her facial muscles, and then the tightening and relaxing of her skin as her skull slowly changed shape.
"You did it!" Victoire smiled, opening her eyes. "Do I look okay?"
"Don't worry, I didn't ruin your face," Teddy assured her. "You look fine."
"Just fine?" Victoire pouted. Normally Teddy told her she was beautiful.
"It was only my first try!" Teddy defended himself. "You can't expect it to be perfect!"
Victoire leaned forward to kiss Teddy. Of course, when he said she looked fine it had nothing to do with her own looks. He was referring to his own magical handiwork. As her lips neared Teddy's, he reached out a hand and pushed her back, making Victoire frown.
"Sorry," Teddy said. "But I'd rather put your face right again before we do that."
Victoire laughed. "Right, okay go ahead."
After fixing her face and then practicing the nose elongation a few times, Teddy declared that it was Victoire's turn to practice.
"What's the use?" Victoire groaned. "I'm never going to get it anyway."
"Show me your wand movement," Teddy demanded, picking Victoire's wand up from the ground and placing it in her hand. "Go on."
Victoire obliged him, raising her wand in a vertical line and then swooping around.
When Teddy made no comment, Victoire blew out an annoyed breath.
"See?" she cried. "It was exactly right, wasn't it?"
"It was," Teddy nodded. "But that doesn't mean there's not something else you might be doing wrong. How are you pronouncing the spell?"
"Silencio?" she said, saying it like a question.
"No, say it like you mean it," Teddy said. "I have to hear your enunciation."
"Silencio," Victoire said in a serious voice, furrowing her brow as she did so.
"Really?" Teddy shook his head. "That's not how it sounded before. Here, try to cast the spell on me now and I'll listen that way."
"But you're not talking," Victoire pointed out. "How will I know if the spell works if you're already not talking?"
"If I talk, I won't be able to hear you," Teddy pointed out. "Besides, this isn't about getting the spell to work, it's about figuring out why it isn't working."
"Well if it doesn't work, then it could be just as much because there's nobody to silence as some other reason," Victoire said.
"The spell can work regardless of whether I'm talking when it's cast," Teddy informed her. "If it works, then when I try to talk after, I won't be able to."
"Oh," Victoire frowned. "I don't think Professor Flitwick told us that."
"I'm sure he did," Teddy said. "You just weren't paying attention."
"I'm going to cast the spell now," Victoire announced, holding her wand out and pointing it at Teddy. "Pay attention."
"Okay, I'm listening," Teddy nodded.
Victoire cast the spell and waited hopefully to see if Teddy had any useful criticisms.
"Can you still speak?" she wondered.
"I can," Teddy said aloud. "So the spell didn't work."
Victoire groaned. "It's never going to work!" she cried.
"Hey, calm down," Teddy said. "That was only one try, and it was only for me to ascertain what might be worth modifying."
"And what did you ascertain?" Victoire asked with a smirk, mocking Teddy's word choice.
"Nothing yet, but I have an idea," Teddy said. "Hey Raina!" he called across the room to Victoire's room mate. "Can you come over here for a second?"
"What are you doing?" Victoire hissed. "What does Raina have to do with anything?"
"Just trust me," Teddy said as Raina came closer.
"Hi Raina," Teddy said.
"Hey," Victoire added with an awkward wave.
"Did you need something?" Raina wondered.
"Would you mind if Victoire practiced the silencing spell on you?" Teddy asked. "Just one time?"
"Why?" Raina wondered. "Can't she just practice on you?"
"It's just a theory I want to test," Teddy said. "Tell us about your newest fertilizer."
"Oh, well that's actually super interesting," Raina said excitedly, taking a seat between Teddy and Victoire. "So I've been looking into herbs that I could add to reduce the smell but maintain the potency," she explained. "Because so many people complain about the smell, but it works to well. Professor Longbottom says that if I can make it more appealing, then I have a real chance of selling it some day."
As Raina talked, Teddy nodded to Victoire, indicating that she should try casting the spell.
"So what I started with was adding herbs that smelled good – but those only got lost in the smell of the fertilizer. So then I realized – "
Suddenly, though her mouth was still moving, Raina's voice fell silent.
"You did it!" Teddy exclaimed proudly.
"I did?" Victoire gasped in surprise. "I did! How did I do that! Why did it work on Raina and not on you? How did you know it would work on Raina?"
"Well it occurred to me," Teddy said, "that maybe you weren't able to silence me because you didn't want me to be silenced."
"That's absurd," Victoire said.
"No, it's not," Teddy shook his head. "Most of magic is about intentions, not actions. That's why non-verbal and wandless magic are possible."
"Except you were being annoying before, reading your textbook out loud like that. I'd have been able to concentrate much better if you'd been silent, so your theory doesn't work," Victoire said.
"Or maybe you secretly like listening to me read transfiguration out," Teddy smiled.
"Now why would I enjoy that?" Victoire disagreed.
Teddy shrugged. "That's for you to determine," he said. "But my theory holds. When Raina was talking about her fertilizer, you most definitely wanted her to stop talking, and that's why it worked on her and not on me."
Realizing that Raina was still there, now sitting with her arms crossed and daggers shooting from her eyes, Victoire asked Teddy to reverse the spell so that the girl could go.
"If you don't want to hear me talk about fertilizer, then don't ask," Raina said as soon as the spell was lifted.
"My apologies," Teddy said. "Please, go back to whatever you were doing." Raina left, and then Teddy turned his attention back to Victoire. "And as for you, I think I deserve a 'thank you'."
"Thank you," Victoire said patronizingly.
"And hey, at least we learned something today," Teddy added.
"What's that?" Victoire wondered.
"As long as you can't cast the silencing spell on me, you still love me," Teddy smiled.
Victoire chuckled. "Or it means I'm just terrible at charms," she said.
Teddy shook his head. "I like the first option better."
"Yeah," Victoire agreed, leaning forward for a kiss. "Me too."