Year 7: Meant to Be

Chapter 62: October 2017

"Any plans for tonight?" Kara asked Victoire and Brianna one afternoon as they finished up some homework in the library.

"I'm meeting Joe in the prefect's lounge," Victoire replied. "Now that we've been back at school for over a month, we have to submit performance reviews on all the fifth-year prefects to Headmaster Slinkhard. We've got until the end of the week."

"And I've got plans with Stanley Towler," Brianna added.

"Again?" Victoire commented. "You've had plans with him quite a lot recently. I thought you were playing the field."

Brianna shrugged. "I am," she replied. "He just happens to have really great abs."

Kara sighed. "Jonathan has rounds tonight," she said. "Which means I'm going to be on my own."

"You can always come hang with me and Joe in the prefect's lounge if you want," Victoire suggested. "We won't be very entertaining though."

"You definitely can't hang out with me and Stanley," Brianna declared.

Kara shook her head. "No, it's fine, I'll just hang out in the common room and work on my assignment for Muggle Studies."

"If you're sure," Victoire allowed. She felt bad for ditching her friend for her boyfriend. But technically, she was ditching her friend for her Head Girl duties, which was an entirely different story. Victoire couldn't slack on her responsibilities. It was just a nice perk that she got to work with Joe.

VvVvVvVvVvV

"Brooke Hill." It was later that evening and Victoire and Joe were working on their prefect's evaluations. They'd gotten through almost all of them and were pretty close to calling it a night.

"She's good," Victoire nodded. "Takes the job seriously, hasn't been late for rounds yet, no reports of abuse of power, and seems to have doled out punishments pretty evenly between the houses, so no prejudice."

"I have noticed that she seems to have some kind of issue going on with the female Slytherin prefect… Summer Snow," Joe commented. "Any thoughts?"

"I'm not sure if I should comment on that," Victoire admitted. "Summer Snow made my sister's life miserable last year. I might be a bit prejudiced in this particular circumstance."

Joe nodded. "Well I think for now we should make sure to keep them on separate rotations. We don't need to cause any problems by forcing them to round together. That would just be asking for trouble."

Victoire agreed. It just made good sense to keep the two girls apart. And there were plenty of prefects to go around. It shouldn't be too difficult.

"Should we keep going, or do you want to stop?" Joe asked, putting Brooke's evaluation in the finished pile.

"I'm getting tired," Victoire admitted. "Let's put the last couple off until tomorrow or the next day."

"Okay," Joe agreed. He began to pack up the evaluations. They couldn't just leave them in the lounge, lest the prefects find them and read them. The evaluations weren't public knowledge; the prefects didn't know that they were even a thing. Victoire hadn't known they were something that happened regularly until Headmaster Slinkhard had approached her and Joe with them. "We have the meeting with the Heads of House tomorrow, so let's say we finish up right after that?"

"Sounds good," Victoire approved. She yawned and stretched, suddenly realizing how tired and achy she was. "I think I might take a bath before I head up to bed."

"You know it's almost curfew," Joe joked. "You wouldn't want to get caught outside after hours."

The two shared an amused look and Victoire half-rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Are you joining me or not?" she demanded.

"Oh I'll join you," Joe replied. "You don't need to ask me twice."

While the prefect's bathroom was on the fourth floor just next to the prefect's lounge, there was another exclusive bathroom located on the fifth floor that was reserved only for the Head Boy and Girl's private use. Of course, typically it didn't involve them using it at the same time, but Victoire was sure she and Joe weren't the first Head Boy/Girl couple Hogwarts had even seen.

When they arrived, Victoire immediately headed for the massive bathtub and started to fill it, choosing a nice vanilla scent for the bubbles. The Head Boy and Girl's private bathroom was much the same design as the prefect's bathroom, albeit a tiny bit bigger, and significantly more exclusive, as they were the only two in the whole school with access. There was no need to put a locking spell on the door, as nobody else knew the password to get in.

Victoire stripped down and stepped into the bathtub, motioning for Joe to join her. When he did, he leaned back against the edge of the tub, and Victoire settled herself in front of him, leaning her head back against his chest and closing her eyes, enjoying the relaxation.

"So what are your friends up to tonight?" Joe wondered.

"Mmm," Victoire mumbled, pulling her thoughts together. "Kara's doing homework while Jonathan rounds. Brianna's with Stanley."

"Stanley again?" Joe asked, surprised. "She's been seeing a lot of him recently."

Victoire nodded. "She says he has nice abs."

Joe paused before answering. "Well I wouldn't know," he muttered. "But it seems like more than that."

"Does it?" Victoire wondered.

She felt Joe nod behind her. "Yeah, I mean, she says she's playing the field, doesn't want to settle down with any one guy. But by my count, she's spent as much time, maybe even more time, with Stanley than any other guy so far this year."

"Hmm," Victoire mused, thinking it over. Joe did have a point. Brianna was spending a lot of time with Stanley. "You think she has real feelings for him?" she wondered.

Joe shrugged. "Maybe," he said. "You should ask her."

"This is Brianna we're talking about," Victoire pointed out. "She doesn't talk about feelings, she talks about conquests."

"Talk to her, don't talk to her, I don't really care either way," Joe murmured, lowering his mouth to Victoire's ear, tickling it a bit. "I'm tired of talking about your friends now."

Victoire turned her torso around so that her face was in front of Joe's and leaned in for a kiss. In moments, all thoughts of Brianna and Stanley flew from her mind, and Joe became the only thing in her awareness.

VvVvVvVvVvV

Over the next week, Victoire silently kept track of the guys that Brianna spent her time with, and by the end of the week, one thing was clear. Brianna definitely had some kind of feelings for Stanley. Not only was he the only guy she'd seen more than once that week, she'd also seen him three days out of the five she had dates.

Victoire wondered whether she should broach the subject with Brianna, and decided to bring it up to Kara first.

"Have you noticed anything odd about Brianna's behavior recently?" Victoire asked.

"Well she's sure been getting around," Kara replied bluntly.

"Well sure, but I mean about who she's been getting around with," Victoire clarified.

Kara shrugged. "Well she's seen Stanley Towler a few times. And then there was that guy from Slytherin. And didn't she go up to the boys' dorm the other night with Nathaniel?"

"I thought it was Joseph," Victoire frowned. She brushed it off. "Whatever, that doesn't matter. Have you noticed that Stanley's the only person she's been seeing on a regular basis? If it weren't for all the other guys, I'd say they were dating."

"You're right," Kara said. "That's a good point. What do you think it means?"

"Well I was going to ask you that question," Victoire said. "But I wondered if maybe she has deeper feelings for him than she's letting on."

"It's possible," Kara nodded. "Do you think we should bring it up?"

"I don't know," Victoire replied, torn. Brianna was a very difficult person when it came to this sort of thing. She could be simultaneously delicate as a flower petal and hard as a rock in matters of the heart. "It's probably best we don't say anything," she decided in the end. "We don't want to mess anything up."

Kara agreed. If they were the reason things didn't work out between Brianna and Stanley, because they tried to interfere, they would never forgive themselves.

VvVvVvVvVvV

It was about a week before Halloween. Kara, Jonathan, and Victoire were playing a game of exploding snap in the common room when Brianna barged in, clearly very upset.

"Jonathan, go do something else," Brianna ordered.

For a moment, Kara and Jonathan both looked like they were going to protest, but then, sensing that the situation was extenuating, Jonathan excused himself, saying he wanted to take a shower before rounds.

Brianna threw herself into the chair Jonathan had just vacated and groaned loudly.

"What's wrong?" Victoire asked, since Brianna was clearly looking for someone to prompt her.

"I just had a huge argument with Stanley," Brianna declared.

Victoire and Kara shared a look. "Oh?" Victoire asked, her interest peaked. "What happened?"

"Apparently, he's no longer okay with the fact that I've been sleeping with a bunch of different guys. He says I've been cheating on him, which I haven't, because for one thing, we were never dating, and for another, I never hid the fact that I had other guys in my life. He has no reason to be upset."

"Hold on," Kara said, holding up a hand. "Back up, rewind. So you're saying Stanley asked you for commitment?"

Brianna made a face. "Yeah, I guess so," she said. "He got all lame and gooey and romantic about it. It was so gross."

"You said no?" Victoire asked in surprise. She'd been so sure about Brianna's feelings for Stanley. But if Brianna had rejected him…

"Of course I said no," Brianna declared. "He knows I'm not interested in settling down. I don't want to be stuck with one guy. Monogamy is so not my thing. I thought he understood that. But now apparently that means we can't hang out together any more at all."

"And that's a problem?" Victoire asked suspiciously. "What does it bother you? Couldn't you just find some other guy to sleep with?"

Brianna flushed and glanced away for a moment before answering. "It's not a problem," she muttered unconvincingly. "It's just inconvenient, that's all."

"Inconvenient?" Kara asked, not sounding impressed at all. "Really?"

"Sure," Brianna shrugged. "Stanley and I already had a rapport going. We got each other. It's not like that with everyone."

Victoire and Kara exchanged a look. It was clear that Brianna had feelings for Stanley that she didn't want to admit, but if only she would, she could be happy. Victoire raised her eyebrows, gesturing with her head in Brianna's direction, silently asking Kara if they should say anything. Kara hesitated, but then nodded in acquiescence.

"Brianna," Victoire said gently. "Do you think there could be anything else going on? Some other reason you're so upset?"

"Like what?" Brianna demanded. "Besides his abs, which I'm really going to miss, by the way."

"But aren't you going to miss him?" Kara insisted. "Aren't you going to miss Stanley?"

"Why would I miss Stanley?" Brianna frowned. "It's not like he's going anywhere."

Victoire groaned at the magnitude of Brianna's ignorance. "Because you like him!" she exclaimed, fed up with beating around the bush. "Because you like him, and you want to be with him, but you're too stubborn to admit it."

Brianna huffed. "I do not like Stanley Towler," she declared. "I like his abs. I like the easiness of our interactions. I like the fact that we've slept together enough that he knows what I like. But I do not like him."

"But you do though," Victoire insisted. "You have feelings for him, maybe you're even in love with him. And he clearly has feelings for you, if he was looking for commitment, and you should have gone for it, because now you'll never be happy!"

"Excuse me!" Brianna cried, jumping up in outrage. "Who are you to tell me what happiness looks like? Who's to say that my way of doing things isn't just as good as the way you do things? Why do I have to be in a committed relationship to have happiness?"

"I'm not saying everyone needs a committed relationship to be happy," Victoire clarified. "I'm saying that you do. Specifically, with Stanley. Because I can see that you have feelings for him, and if you stay apart, it's only going to make you miserable."

But Brianna didn't want to hear it. She spouted off a few insults and stormed away, up the stairs to their shared dorm, calling out after them not to follow her, and that she wanted to be on her own.

"Well that was a bust," Kara muttered once it was just the two of them again.

Victoire sighed. "We just have to keep on trying," she declared. "Eventually we'll get through."

VvVvVvVvVvV

Halloween came, and with it, the Halloween dance. Brianna had continued to give Victoire and Kara the cold shoulder throughout the week, which put a bit of a damper on the holiday. But Victoire wasn't letting it get her down. She and Joe were going to the dance together, and Kara would be attending with Jonathan. Neither had any idea who Brianna was going with, though they knew who she surely wanted to be going with.

For her final Hogwarts Halloween, Victoire dressed up as a unicorn. She wore all white clothes, covered her face in glitter, and wore a headband around her head with a horn coming out the top.

In Kara's grand tradition of the past two years dressing up as muggle superheroes, she went as something called Catwoman. As for Brianna, she didn't appear to be dressed as anything, but rather had just chosen to wear as few clothes as humanly possible. Perhaps she was going as skin, Victoire mused.

The party was in full swing by the time Victoire and Joe entered. They started off grabbing a few snacks and before long ended up on the dance floor, jumping and dancing and swaying in time with the music. Victoire was having a blast, and so was Joe, and she could see Kara and Jonathan having a similarly good time not far away.

The only downer was Brianna. It seemed that she'd elected to go to the dance unescorted, and was now standing along the side of the room, watching everyone else dance and have fun, looking sad and bored. Victoire immediately felt bad. Back when they were underclassmen, it was fine to come to the Halloween dance alone, or with a group of friends. Most of the rest of your year would do the same, and eventually a guy would come along and ask you to dance. But as a seventh year, coming to the dance alone was like suicide. Everyone else was already partnered up, or else not in attendance. There were no guys to spare to ask Brianna to dance.

Almost automatically, Victoire began to scan the crowd for Stanley Towler. She located him a little ways away, dancing with May Enlow, also from Ravenclaw. Victoire vaguely wondered if there was something she could do to improve Brianna's night, and at that exact moment, May excused herself from Stanley and the dance floor and headed for the doors, most likely heading to the bathroom.

"Joe, can you give me a minute?" Victoire asked, already pulling away from her boyfriend. She was staring at Stanley and wanted to swoop in before May got back, or some other girl pulled him into a dance.

"Victoire, you really shouldn't interfere," Joe said, already knowing what Victoire was going to do.

"She's my best friend," Victoire insisted. "I have to."

She pushed her way through the crowd until she reached Stanley, and immediately planted herself in front of her.

"Dance with me," she ordered, grabbing him and starting them in a slow rotation. It was a slow song, which was good for talking, but also awkward to dance with the guy your friend likes. Victoire kept Stanley a good distance away as they moved with the rest of the crowd.

"You know I have a date – "

"I know, I saw," Victoire nodded. "You're here with May."

Stanley nodded. "So I really shouldn't be dancing with you," he added.

"Shut up and listen to me," Victoire rolled her eyes, not having time to wait for Stanley to give her the 'I'm just not that into you' speech. "You have feelings for Brianna."

Stanley immediately started to protest, but Victoire stopped him.

"Don't deny it, I know you do. She told me you asked her for a commitment."

"So then I guess you also know that she said no to me," Stanley said bitterly.

Victoire nodded. "But I also know she didn't really mean no," she said. "She wanted to say yes. She didn't say no to you, she said no to commitment. She's scared of letting herself have feelings for just one guy. Because emotionally, it's easier to be with a bunch of guys. You don't have to let yourself be vulnerable if you're a stone wall. In a relationship, you have to let the other person in. Vulnerability is not Brianna's strong suit."

"Well what do you want me to do about it?' Stanley demanded. "She rejected me. It's over. Time to move on."

"I think you need to give it another shot," Victoire said. She pointed to Brianna, standing by herself. "Ask her to dance. Make her feel special. And don't try to pressure her."

Stanley sighed. "You really think it's worth another go?" he asked.

Victoire nodded. "I do," she said. "She likes you. She just has to be convinced to let herself feel that. And I think you can do that."

"Alright," Stanley agreed. "I'll give it a shot."

When the song was over, Victoire headed back to Joe while Stanley went to find May to tell her their night was over.

"So?" Joe asked, as Victoire wound her arms around his neck, and pulled his body close to hers. "How did it go?"

"I convinced him to try again. Hopefully Brianna's not so closed off this time. I think if he goes for it soon, he has a decent chance. Look at how miserable she is. An offer like that will just brighten the whole night."

They glanced over just in time to see Stanley approaching Brianna, and then leading her out onto the dance floor.

"Aww, look at that," Victoire smiled happily.

"It doesn't necessarily mean anything," Joe pointed out. "Just because they're dancing doesn't mean she's committed to anything."

"No," Victoire agreed. "But it's a start."