Year 7: Meant to Be

Chapter 64: December 2017

When the Christmas holidays finally arrived, Victoire was relieved. Things had been so weird between her and Joe ever since the subject of deepening their relationship had come up. Even though Joe had said that he would leave it up to Victoire to make the decision when she was ready, she felt the pressure every time they were together. So Victoire was looking forward to a couple of weeks where she didn't have to worry about Joe. She hoped that maybe she'd be able to sort out her feelings with a little bit of alone time.

"Is everything alright?" Fleur asked, coming up to Victoire's room on her first night back. "You do not seem yourself."

"I'm fine," Victoire assured her mother. She didn't really want to talk about this with her mother. While technically Victoire was seventeen, and an adult, she wasn't sure she wanted to talk about sex with her mother. Sure, she'd gotten the talk back when she was fourteen, but that had been different. It had been theoretical then. Now it was real.

"You know this might be my last time staying in this room?" Victoire mused, looking around at the soft purple walls of her room, the seashells lining her windowsill, the pictures hanging on the walls of her, her family, Kara, and Brianna laughing and smiling.

"Mais non," Fleur shook her head. "This will always be your room."

"But I probably won't be home for the Easter holidays, what with N.E.W.T.s and all, and then after I've graduated, I could end up anywhere!" Victoire replied.

Fleur sighed and sat down on the edge of Victoire's bed. "No matter where you end up, you'll always have a home here, you know that, right?"

"I know, maman," Victoire replied with a warm smile. "I love you."

VvVvVvVvVvV

Christmas Eve arrived, and Victoire and as soon as they'd eaten their lunch, Victoire and the rest of the family flooed over to the Burrow for their annual Weasley family Christmas. As usual, the younger kids headed straight upstairs for hide-and-seek. Meanwhile, Victoire wandered into the kitchen to see if she could help Grandmother Weasley with dinner.

"You can start setting the table if you'd like," Grandmother Weasley informed her.

"You're sure you don't need any help with the food?" Victoire offered.

Grandmother Weasley shook her head. "I've got a system. Wouldn't want to rock the boat now."

Victoire nodded and started levitating dishes out of cupboards and towards the tables. She had to admit, being able to do magic whenever she wanted was quite nice, especially when it came to menial household chores.

She began to set the places, setting one extra place at the adult's table and one less at the kids' table, now that she was seventeen. It would be her first year eating with the adults. Victoire was feeling quite important.

As she set the table, Victoire noticed Teddy arrive through the floo. She watched as he gave Grandfather Weasley a hug and then sat down with him and the other men and munched on some afternoon Christmas snacks. She wondered if he would seek her out again today. Their last interaction had been pretty intense. Victoire felt bad for how harshly she'd spoken to him and wanted to clear the air.

Victoire finished setting the table and wandered outside, where her Aunt Hermione and Aunt Ginny were sitting on the porch.

"Hey Victoire, how's it going?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, I'm alright," Victoire replied. "What're you up to?"

"We were just discussing the annual family Quidditch game," Hermione replied.

"Yeah, now that James is on the Quidditch team, things should be pretty interesting," Ginny agreed.

"Oh yeah, hey congratulations Aunt Ginny," Victoire said with a smile. "I guess you're pretty excited to have a kid playing Quidditch." Ginny had played for the Holyhead Harpies before settling down and becoming a sportswriter.

"Harry and I are so proud," Ginny said, a big smile on her face. "And a chaser, just like me."

"Well, I'll just leave you to your predictions," Victoire said, not wanting to intrude on the conversation.

"Oh no, stay," Hermione insisted, scotching over on the bench to make room for her to sit. "Tell us about you. How's seventh year treating you?"

"Pretty good," Victoire replied. "And stressful. Suddenly I have to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life."

"Oh, don't worry, you have plenty of time to sort all of that out," Hermione assured me.

"Yeah," Ginny agreed. "I mean, I played Quidditch right out of school, but now I'm a writer. You can change careers as many times as you want. Just do what makes you happy."

"Well I definitely want to work with plants," I declared. "What I'd really like to do is herbological research. You know about the internship I did over the summer?"

Victoire launched into a detailed explanation of the internship and how much fun she'd had working with the plants. The work had been so much more interesting than anything she'd done in the greenhouses at Hogwarts. Some of it had even been experimental. They'd been experimenting with crossbreeding and had discovered some interesting new information.

"Sounds like you really enjoyed yourself," Ginny smiled. "I'm so glad. I wish Teddy were enjoying his work that much."

"Teddy's not enjoying his work?" I asked as innocently as I could.

Though I wasn't dating Teddy anymore, it didn't mean I'd stopped caring about him. I'd assumed he was doing alright. At least, that had been the whole point of breaking up with me in the first place – needing to focus on his work. But now that Aunt Ginny had brought it up, Victoire couldn't help but pry.

"No," Ginny shook her head. "He's been miserable for months. I don't know what happened, he was doing so well down at the Ministry. But according to Percy, ever since last spring, his productivity's been down, the quality of his work's been declining, and he comes in later and later every day. In fact, Percy says if he doesn't pick himself up soon, he's not going to be able to protect him from getting fired anymore."

"Teddy's at risk of being fired?" I gasped, shocked. I'd known Teddy was upset, after our talk on the platform in September, but I hadn't known it was that bad.

Ginny nodded. "And whenever he comes by the house, he's just so down and gloomy. Even Lily's noticed that something's up, and she's only nine."

"What ever happened between the two of you?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, well we uh… I don't really want to talk about it," I said, standing up. "I'm sorry, I'm just going to go."

"Oh, don't go!" Hermione called out. "We didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"No, it's not that, it's just – I need to talk to Teddy," Victoire admitted. "I'll talk to you both later."

Her two aunts nodded and Victoire headed inside to see if she could find Teddy. He wasn't in the living room with the men anymore, and he wasn't in the kitchen either. She ran up to the second floor and asked Albus if he'd seen him anywhere, but Albus just shook his head and shushed her, insisting that if she wasn't going to play, she couldn't be upstairs, and to go away before she gave away his hiding place. It wasn't a very good hiding place. He was hiding under the bed in Ginny's old room. Again.

Victoire searched the whole house, but she couldn't find Teddy anywhere. Just when she was going to give up, assuming that he'd flooed away before dinner, she saw him wandering around outside. He looked sad, but Victoire wondered if she only thought that because of what Aunt Ginny had said. She had to go find out.

"Hey, Teddy?" Victoire called out, walking down off the porch and towards him. "Teddy, can we talk?"

"Talk about what?" Teddy muttered; his tone harder than Victoire was used to. "I don't think there's rally anything left to say."

Victoire sighed. Clearly Teddy was still upset about the things she'd said in September.

"Look, I'm sorry I was so harsh with you before," Victoire said. "But you were pretty harsh with me when we broke up last year."

"You're right," Teddy nodded. "I guess I deserved it."

"You didn't deserve it," Victoire shook her head. "Just like I didn't deserve it. Nobody deserves to be spoken to like that. Which is why I'm sorry."

Teddy looked up and forced a smile onto his face. "Thanks," he said. He held the smile for a moment longer, but then it dropped, and his face returned to its sad state.

"Look Teddy, you can't be moping around like this," Victoire insisted. "Everyone's worried about you. Aunt Ginny, Percy… me."

"I'm not moping around," Teddy protested. "I'm fine."

"You're clearly not," Victoire said, gesturing to him. His shoulders were sagged, his face had fallen into a permanent frown and the bags under his eyes indicated that he wasn't sleeping well. "Look, you need to pick yourself up and start living again. You told me once that I needed to figure out who I was outside of you. Well you need to do the same. We're not together anymore, and you need to find a way to go on living. You can't be falling apart like this."

"But I made the biggest mistake of my life, breaking up with you," Teddy insisted. "I'm not sure I'll ever recover from that."

"Well you have to," Victoire declared.

Teddy sighed. "So I guess you're still with that John fellow."

"Joe," Victoire corrected him. "Joe Sanders."

"I never liked him," Teddy grimaced. "He always had a thing for you, even when we were dating."

"Yeah, back when we were dating in secret and he thought I was single," Victoire pointed out. "You can't really blame him for that."

"Does he make you happy?" Teddy asked.

Victoire thought about it. If he'd asked her back in September, her immediate answer would have been yes. But now she wasn't so sure. Things were getting so weird between them, and so far, the time apart hadn't cleared anything up for Victoire. If anything, she was even more confused than ever.

"Sometimes he does," Victoire finally answered. "Sometimes… I don't know."

"Well figure it out," Teddy said. "And if it's not right, find someone else who does. You deserve to be happy. Even if it's not with me."

"Thanks," Victoire smiled. For the first time in over a month, she felt light as a feather. The weights that had been weighing her down didn't seem to matter any more. Sure, she had things to figure out, but she'd sort things out and everything would be just fine. Somehow, Teddy still had the amazing ability to say exactly the right thing.

The annual family Quidditch game was one of the most exciting ones they'd had yet. Just as Ginny had predicted, James' new position on the Quidditch team made him a much tougher opponent. Victoire even found herself getting into the game as she watched her aunts, uncles, and cousins fly around on their brooms in competition.

Dinner followed the Quidditch game, and Victoire took a seat at the adults' table next to Teddy. Now that they'd made their peace, conversation between the two flowed easily, and Victoire and Teddy found themselves reminiscing about the good times they'd had together at Hogwarts.

"Remember the time I pushed you in the lake?" Teddy asked, taking a bite of his roll.

"Oh yeah, back in first year," Victoire recalled. "I was so mad at you. Why'd you do it anyway?"

"I don't even know," Teddy laughed, shaking his head. "I think I made something up about testing the shallowness of the lake. Really I think I had a crush on you and didn't even know it."

"So, when you have a crush on a girl, you push them in the lake?" Victoire asked mockingly.

Teddy shook his head. "Just you, apparently," he replied. "But I was so confused back then. I was thirteen, you were eleven. I didn't realize I liked you like that, and I didn't even think I was allowed to."

"Remember the time we skipped the Halloween dance and hung out in the common room all night, back in my fourth year?" Victoire reminisced.

"Oh yeah, you were going to skip the dance by yourself, and I couldn't go knowing you would be up in the common room sad and alone," Teddy said.

"The funny thing is, I was only skipping that dance because I was in love with you and couldn't bear to see you dance with other girls. And then you didn't go to the dance anyway," Victoire laughed.

"So what you're saying, is that it was a win-win situation," Teddy smirked.

"I guess so," Victoire agreed.

After dinner, it was time to open presents. Victoire had received her cousin Molly's name that year and had gotten her a book on the history of wandmaking. Hugo had gotten Victoire's name and had very generously spent his parents' money to get her a red and green Christmas scarf.

Eventually, the night came to a close, and everyone said their goodbyes. Victoire and her family flooed home, and after a round of hot chocolates to close off the night, they all retired to their respective bedrooms.

Victoire washed the makeup off her face and brushed out her hair before pulling on her pyjamas and curling up in her bed with L'Ourson. It had been so nice, talking with Teddy again, and laughing with him. She'd missed that over the past year.

Looking down at L'Ourson, she remembered the time that Ricky had chewed her stuffed bear up and Teddy had mended him for her. She'd been so upset, but Teddy had spent hours in the library looking for a spell that would fix him, and in the end L'Ourson had been as good as new.

Teddy had always been so thoughtful and caring. He'd always put Victoire first, always did everything in his power to make her happy, always knew what she was thinking and feeling without her having to tell him.

It was different with Joe. Joe was nice, but he just didn't know Victoire the way Teddy did. He didn't understand her the same way. Joe didn't even know about L'Ourson. Victoire wasn't sure she would ever be ready to admit to Joe that she was a seventeen-year-old that still sometimes slept with a stuffed animal.

Suddenly, memories of Teddy started to bombard Victoire's mind. She remembered their first kiss, up in the attic of the Burrow when they'd been playing hide-and-seek. They'd been dancing around each other for months, and finally Victoire had worked up the courage to dare Teddy to kiss her. And he had. And it had been perfect.

She remembered how jealous she'd been of Beverly Longman, and how jealous Teddy had been in turn about Joe hitting on her. They'd been so foolish back then, feeling threatened by other people, when really all they'd had to worry about was each other.

Victoire remembered their first official date. They'd gone to Hogsmeade together, and then Teddy had arranged for a picnic under the stars up on the West Tower. It had been so romantic and so perfect, Victoire didn't think she could imagine a more perfect date. Joe had never arranged a date like that. With Joe, it was always study dates in the library, or hang out dates in the sixth-year lounge. He'd never gone out of his way to set up anything extra special.

Victoire remembered the first time she and Teddy had said I love you. It had been on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. Victoire had gotten mad that students used it as an excuse to skip class, enraged that they were taking advantage of the sad day and being disrespectful to the people that were actually grieving. Teddy had been so touched by her outburst in Herbology class that day, and they'd ended up saying the three little words while sitting on the edge of the lake.

Victoire and Teddy had had some really great times together over the years. They understood each other in a way that Victoire wasn't sure she'd ever experience with anyone else ever again. Sure, part of it was that they'd grown up together. But another part of Victoire wondered if it was because she and Teddy were simply destined for each other.

After everything that had happened over the past year, Victoire wasn't sure how she felt about Teddy anymore. After today, it was clear that there were still some unresolved feelings she needed to deal with. But were they feelings she needed to wrap up and put away on a shelf somewhere deep inside her heart? Or were they feelings that she needed to bring back up to the surface?

And what about Joe? Victoire still cared about Joe, very much. But if she were being honest with herself, they didn't come close to the feelings she had for Teddy. Was it fair to keep on dating Joe when she knew that it wasn't meant to be?

With a sigh, Victoire pushed all thoughts of boys from her mind. She had time to sort everything out, and right now, she was exhausted. She pulled the covers up to her neck and squeezed L'Ourson tight, closing her eyes and letting her mind drift off. She'd figure things out, and when she did, everything would make sense again.