A/N: Hello everyone! Here's the second chapter. It occurs directly after the last chapter.
Quick Age Recap:
-Malcolm is 26 and Teddy turns 26 in a few days
-Xavier is 24 and Victoire turns 24 in May
-Ally is 23
-Dom & Lucy are 22 or they are turning 22 before September (I don't have specific birth dates set for them)
-Molly is 21 or turning 21 before September
-Louis, Cecilia, & Baxter are 20 or turning 20 before September
-James & Freddie are 19
-Rose and Al are 18 and in their seventh year
-Hugo & Lily are 15/16 and in their fifth year
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Not So Surprising News
Tuesday, April 16th 2024
7:38 PM
Even though Victoire and Teddy hadn't originally set out to be late to Ally and Xavier's for their 'get-together', their detour to meddle in Jilly and Caleb's personal lives pretty much ensured that they would be the last ones to arrive.
Victoire self-consciously knocked on the front door of Ally and Xavier's house (she thought that the term 'mansion' was more appropriate to the size of the house but Ally scowled anytime she used the word in reference to their home), and waited expectantly for Ally to open the door and taunt her for being late.
Fortunately for Victoire, her cousin Ally's fiancé Xavier Wood opened the door instead of said cousin. The tall dirty-blonde haired professional quidditch player offered them a quick smile in greeting, and he forewent teasing the couple on his doorstep for being late in favour of asking a more pressing question.
"Why'd you bring take-away? Were you worried that we wouldn't feed you?" Xavier smirked at the pair in general but at Victoire in particular.
Victoire and Xavier were the same age and had been in the same year and house at Hogwarts: Gryffindor. They'd known each other since they were children as their parents were friends, and they were very good friends themselves. They spent a lot of their time at Hogwarts together, they both played for Gryffindor's quidditch team; and they quickly fell into a long-lasting habit where they would annoy the snot out of each other on a daily basis. They were pretty much like siblings, but somehow still different because Victoire didn't even tease and try to annoy her real siblings as much as she did Xavier Wood.
"It's a long story," Victoire said with a sigh as she stepped past Xavier and into the house. She gave him a brief hug in an attempt at a more proper greeting, and then she stepped away so that Teddy and Xavier could do one of those manly hand-shake turned-hug greetings.
"That's never stopped you for taking two hours and twelve different tangents to tell me before," Xavier replied cheekily.
Victoire chose to ignore the jibe and wave her hand in dismissal, "There was a covert mission and some healer-patient confidentiality things."
Xavier glanced from Victoire to Teddy, "A covert mission?"
"If you consider bribing a host to get seated quickly at a table and using an extendable ear to eavesdrop on a couple at a restaurant as a covert mission," He explained with a sigh as he ran his free hand through the bright turquoise blue fringe of his hair.
As a metamorphmagus Teddy could change his appearance at will, he usually stuck with the same overall look though, choosing only to change his hair colour up from time to time. Turquoise blue was a favourite of his; which meant that it was a favourite of Victoire's as well.
"And you had to order a meal to stay in character?" Xavier queried with an amused snort as he closed the front door behind his guests and led them further into the house.
Teddy shrugged, "I was just there to make sure that she didn't set anything on fire."
Xavier snickered and Victoire shot her fiancé an unamused look over her shoulder. As a part veela –and one who had surprisingly and annoyingly strong veela powers compared to her siblings and cousins who were also one eighth veela– Victoire had a long history of accidentally conjuring fire and flames to her hands when she got particularly angry. Her family and friends enjoyed teasing her about her many past incidences where she accidently (and a few times that might have been on purpose) set things on fire or threw balls of fire around. As she got older she got much better at managing her temper –and her fire– but there were still a few things that were almost guaranteed to get her riled up enough to spark some flames.
Xavier walked the couple towards the dining room of his home, when they entered there was a flurry of activity as greetings, hugs, and cheek kisses were traded between Victoire and Teddy and the other occupants of the room.
Ally smirked knowingly at her cousin when she pulled her into a hug, but she refrained from teasing her for being late. Victoire gave a tight hug to her best mate from Hogwarts Sandra Line, and then she swiftly dodged a kiss on the lips from Sandra's husband Kyle Line who liked to tease Victoire almost as much as Xavier did. The blonde healer punched her best mate's husband in the arm, and then she moved on to give an air kiss on either cheek to another one of her friends: Anastasia Knott. Anastasia gave Victoire a bright smile before passing her off to her husband Colton Knott.
Colton Knott and Victoire Weasley did not have the same old and harmonious friendship that she had with Ally and Xavier or Sandra and Kyle. In fact, while at Hogwarts together Colton Knott had been her arch nemesis within the halls and on the quidditch pitch as he played the same position that she did (seeker) for his house quidditch team of Slytherin. Post-Hogwarts Colton and Victoire had been unexpectedly thrown together a few times during different demanding circumstances, and they ended up doing each other favours and giving each other begrudgingly good advice until their respective partners (Anastasia and Teddy were both the optimists in their respective relationships) decided a few years ago that they were suddenly the best of friends. Colton and Anastasia fit rather seamlessly into Victoire's group of close friends, and despite her continuous derisive statements to the contrary, it was likely that things were going to stay that way for quite a while.
The last member of the already assembled group to give her a hug 'hello' was Victoire's younger sister Dominique Weasley. The redheaded firecracker that was Dom (only her parents were able to get away with calling her Dominique) Weasley was two years younger than her elder sister and was inch shorter even though she usually wore high-heeled shoes tall enough to make her clear six feet.
That evening Dom was wearing a beautiful pair of dark blue suede ankle boots with a thick black heel, and Victoire recognized them right away.
"I don't remember letting you borrow those," Victoire said as she and everyone else settled into chairs around the large wooden dining room table
"You didn't," Dom replied with a careless shrug of her shoulders, "I took them the other night when I borrowed that plum coloured blazer."
Victoire rolled her eyes at her sister's predictable response, "You could have asked me to lend them to you instead of stealing them."
"You were still grounding me from borrowing your non-work related clothing ever since I got a stain on that skirt you leant me that I wore to a club two weeks ago-"
"You spilt what looked like an entire pitcher of sangria on a white skirt!" Victoire retorted disbelievingly.
Dom scoffed, "I've done much worse to other things you've lent me and you hadn't put a moratorium on my borrowing before."
"That's not the best defense there Counselor," Kyle piped up with a smirk in the redhead's direction. Dom was a Jr. associate lawyer at a prestigious law firm that Colton Knott was a Sr. associate at.
"Can we please get back to addressing these invitations," Xavier asked as he picked up an empty envelope and waved it around to emphasize his point, "This stack is going to take long enough as it is."
There were less than three months to go until Victoire and Teddy's wedding at the end of June, and just over four months until Ally and Xavier's wedding in the middle of August. The past year had been a whirlwind of planning for the two close together weddings, and both couples found it much easier to plan and get things checked off their 'Wedding To-Do' lists when they did them as a group and killed two snidgets with one stone. That night's activities included addressing wedding invitation envelopes in accordance with the guest list for Ally and Xavier's wedding, and organizing received wedding R. S. V. P.s for Victoire and Teddy's wedding; they'd sent out their invitations two months prior.
Colton sighed as he picked back up his previous occupation of stuffing wedding invitations into unaddressed envelopes, "Why didn't we fill these out months ago when we helped Ted and Victoire with theirs?"
"Because our guest list still needed one more finalization," Ally explained calmly as she dipped a quill in her inkpot.
"And because we all had hand cramps after addressing six hundred invitations for their wedding," Xavier added with a bit of a grumble.
Victoire crumpled a blank piece of parchment paper and tossed it at Xavier's head. Him being a professional first-string keeper for Puddlemere United's quidditch team meant that he easily caught it and lightly tossed it back at her.
She dodged it, "You have quite the number of invitations to address too."
"You had to invite all of your mother's family from France as well as half the Auror Department and half of St. Mungo's," Xavier reminded her with a grin.
Victoire snorted at him, "And you have to invite the entire Wood family because of your dad as well as everyone on the Puddlemere United quidditch team and half the other quidditch players in the league."
"Girls you're both pretty and you both have way too many connections," Sandra interrupted the pairs' squabbling before they got stuck in a loop that would last for hours.
"Hey!" Victoire and Xavier protested at the same time. The former continued, "I still haven't forgotten the carpal tunnel healing spell I had to cast on myself after I filled out nearly five hundred invitations for your lavish wedding two years ago."
Sandra shrugged while her husband reminded Victoire that she only filled out about a sixth of five hundred invitations. Victoire promptly stuck her tongue out at him for it.
"You see, I understand why all of you are stuck here filling out invitations," Colton said as he paused his envelope filling to gesture to Victoire, Teddy, Ally, Xavier, Sandra, and Kyle, "But I don't know why I'm here."
Anastasia rolled her eyes at her husband's disdain, "It's because they're our friends."
"Not all of them," Colton muttered in complaint as he sent Victoire a look.
Victoire rolled her eyes at, "Feel free not to attend my wedding Colton. I'm sure Stasia will have a fantastic time at it without you."
Colton ignored her and continued, "And I'm not even a member of the wedding party," he nodded in Dom's direction, "So where are all the other bridesmaids and groomsmen tonight?"
"Louis has a shift tonight," Victoire said of her four-years younger brother who was an agent for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and who was to be one of Teddy's groomsmen.
"Malcolm just got back from a week-long work trip to the Philippines so he's spending some time with Nadia," Teddy explained of his best mate Malcolm Wood who had been given the important position of best man.
"Cecilia has a deadline tomorrow," Xavier piped up to explain the absence of his younger sister who worked as a writer for 'Up in the Air' quidditch magazine and who was one of Ally's bridesmaids.
"And Grace had a prior family obligation that she couldn't get out of," Ally concluded as she explained why her last bridesmaid Grace Monahan, who had been a close friend of hers at Hogwarts as they had been in the same year and the same house, was unable to join them that evening.
Anastasia nodded at all of this, "But what about Freddie? Isn't he one of Xavier's groomsmen as well?"
"I didn't bother to invite him," Ally admitted honestly as she clarified why her younger brother wasn't there, "I figured I'd rather that my invitations not be magiked to do something ridiculous like insult the person opening it or explode in a person's hands."
Freddie Weasley was four years younger than his older sister and he had a penchant for mischief and pranks. He took after his father and his namesake in that way, and since his graduation from Hogwarts the year before he had been working at his father's joke shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. He was part of Ally and Xavier's wedding party because he was Ally's little brother and she loved him, but she didn't exactly trust him with important aspects of her wedding planning. Thankfully, Freddie wasn't the type to be offended at being left out of wedding planning.
"Good call," Victoire approved with a nod of her head.
The group got down to business at that point, although they did spend some time chatting about each other's days and any news they had missed since the last time they were all together.
"Do you want me to write the addresses on all of the invitations to your immediate family members, or just their names?" Anastasia asked Ally once she got to a section of her portion of the guest list that contained the names of most of the Weasleys and Potters.
"Don't bother with full addresses if they're for my Dad's siblings and children because we'll just hand them out this Sunday at our family dinner, but please write the addresses listed for Xavier's family because the next time we see all of them won't be until Brogan's birthday in May," Ally told Anastasia.
The other woman nodded her head and then began addressing envelopes, asking Colton to put them into separate piles, one to be mailed out, and another to be handed out in person.
Dom felt that the relatively companionable silence was a good opportunity to launch into a tale of debauchery about her Saturday night out at a club. Victoire and Ally had only just missed out on hearing about it at their past Sunday night family dinner because they had just recently been able to convince Dom that such stories were not proper family dinner conversation topics.
Halfway through her story Ally gently chided her, "Are you sure you want to continue this . . . interesting anecdote with your boss sitting two feet away from you?"
Colton glanced at Dom –everyone knew that she was his favourite Jr. associate lawyer at the firm because she was sharp, bold, and took no prisoners– and he rolled his eyes in affectionate exasperation, "Ally if you find a way to stop her from oversharing even a fraction of the details of her personal life I normally hear, I will buy you something very sparkly and expensive."
"There's nothing wrong with my anecdotes!" Dom defended herself.
"Speaking as your soon-to-be brother-in-law who loves you and would never judge you," Teddy began with a smirk, "I have definitely learned much more about you than I have ever wanted to know."
Dom winked at him, "You could know much more about me if Vic didn't have such old-fashioned views about polygyny."
"How many times does a person have to tell their younger sister that she can't marry her big sister's fiancé, before it sticks?" Victoire asked the table rhetorically.
Teddy patted Victoire's leg comfortingly from his seat beside her, "Yours and Dom's record is around ten already I'd reckon."
Dom shrugged, "No offense Teddy, but I'd probably get tired of you after a few weeks."
"Yeah, it's too bad that that is absolutely the only thing standing between us being together," Teddy replied sarcastically.
"You could do better than me," Dom mused with a bit of a smile, "I doubt you could find someone more fun than me, but you could do better."
Ally frowned at the conversation, "Don't sell yourself short Dom, you're a lovely person and anyone would be lucky to have you."
Victoire raised a blonde brow in Ally's direction and made an obnoxious coughing sound.
"Not counting Teddy of course, because he's marrying your sister."
Victoire threw her hands up in exasperation, "Thank you."
"So which pile should James Potter Plus One go into?" Anastasia asked as she went to hand the envelope to Colton, "Weasley family pile or the pile for Xavier's colleagues?"
"Toss it in with the rest of my teammates, I'll give it to him tomorrow before morning practice," Xavier directed her.
James Potter was cousin to both Victoire and Ally, as their Aunt Ginny was married to his father, the famous Harry Potter. James had been recruited to Puddlemere United's second-string reserve quidditch team since he had graduated from Hogwarts the year before. He played the position of right wing chaser, and even though Xavier was on the first-string team and James was only a reserve chaser, Xavier would still make the time to go to the second-string locker room to give James the invitation.
"Beside the words 'Plus One' could you please add in brackets: 'But no fangirl harlots'," Ally asked Anastasia sweetly.
Dom and Victoire both snorted a little with laughter, but Teddy came to his god-brother's defense, "Hey, James isn't that bad-"
"You're only saying that because you didn't walk in on him and one of those quaffle-bunnies two weeks ago," Victoire loudly disputed her fiancé's claim.
"To be fair Victoire, you also need to learn how to better respect people's privacy and that you can't just walk into someone's flat without knocking first when it's bloody seven o'clock in the morning!" Xavier added.
Victoire shrugged unrepentantly, "He knew that I was going to stop by that morning."
"And Victoire's poor ability to respect other people's privacy notwithstanding, I still don't want James bringing some quaffle-bunny fangirl-slag to my wedding," Ally defended her statement.
Teddy still wanted to defend his god-brother, "He's a grownup who can do what he wants . . . besides James is not as bad as you think he is. The only way you even knew that he had a one-night-stand was because Victoire barged in before a walk of shame could be completed. I highly doubt that it's happening that often."
"He did have a bit of hard time after his break-up with Mélanie," Victoire said, reminding Ally about the circumstances surrounding James's break-up with his last and only serious girlfriend.
Ally frowned, "They broke up a year ago, I'd say by now he's moved on from her."
"Those quaffle-bunnies and one-night-stands probably did help him move on from Mel," Dom supplemented with a devilish grin as she stirred things up even further.
Ally opened her mouth to complain once more but Xavier stopped her, "If I could assure you that Victoire walking in on James was enough to turn him off of one-night-stands for quite a while would you guys let this go?"
Teddy and Ally both grumbled a little but dropped the topic of James's love life.
"What we should be discussing is the propriety of adding in passive-aggressive subscripts to wedding invites," Kyle said with a smirk as he changed the topic slightly.
"Victoire did it," Ally replied with a shrug.
Teddy frowned and glanced at his fiancée, "Really?"
"It was just one," Victoire replied with a roll of her eyes.
Her fiancé sighed and ran a hand stressfully through his blue hair, "Whose invitation was it?"
"It was Konstantin's," Victoire explained without shame, "I wrote 'Konstantin Krum Plus One', and in brackets beside it I wrote 'If you don't bring a bloody date I won't let you anywhere near my sister'."
Teddy controlled the urge to face-palm his forehead when he heard this. Konstantin Krum was mainly Victoire's friend and acquaintance, so he begrudgingly admitted that it was up to her to write what she wanted in the invitation. He also knew better than to get in between the dramatic saga that was Konstantin Krum and Dom's relationship.
Dom obviously didn't feel that same way at hearing how Victoire took it in her own hands to add specific instructions to Konstantin's invite.
"You told him what!?" Dom yelled at her sister, "What if I wanted to-"
"It's my wedding and you are my maid of honour and I am not going to let you have another one-night-stand with my friend when everyone knows that it's not a healthy relationship for either of you to have," Victoire told her younger sister firmly.
Dom had a history with Konstantin. It wasn't a very long history, but it was rather . . . involved at times. When Victoire first found out about her sister hooking up with a friend of hers it registered as a small annoyance. After a while though it became clear to Victoire that Dom was using her whatever relationship with Konstantin to keep her from developing deeper feelings for others. Fortunately with Dom stationed in England and Konstantin living and working in Vratsa Bulgaria they didn't have many opportunities to indulge in their bad habit.
"Fine I'll go home with someone else that night," Dom replied petulantly as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I think you're missing the point Dear," Ally told Dom with a sigh.
Victoire let out a loud exhale and then decided to be the bigger person since she was the older sister, "I don't want you to change Dom, but I am going to try to stop you from falling into patterns that you know are bad for you."
"Fine," Dom repeated with less venom this time because her sister was being so sweet and sincere, "But the sex with Konstantin is so-"
Everyone at the table dropped what they were doing and slapped their hands over their ears, "We're done with this conversation now!"
Dom rolled her eyes at them and muttered something about them being prudes, but she didn't press the topic.
"I know that we just established that writing passive aggressive instructions on wedding invitations is gauche," Sandra said as she picked her quill up again, "But for Lucy's invitation here I am very much tempted to add that she is under no circumstances allowed to bring Austin Pennington as her date to the wedding."
"Do it," Both Victoire and Ally said at the same time.
Victoire's cousin Lucy Weasley was the eldest child of her Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey. Lucy was the same age as Dom and her ex-boyfriend Austin Pennington was a git and a pompous prat that Victoire had disliked since their years together at Hogwarts. Lucy's relationship with Austin started to wane a while ago, and it fell apart a little over a year ago. Her ex-boyfriend tried to convince her to get back together with him every few months, and Lucy had taken him back three times in the past year only for the relationship to crash and burn before they reached the four week mark. They had been in an off-again phase since the beginning of the New Year and neither Victoire nor Ally wanted them to get back together in time for their weddings.
"How are all the other Weasleys and Potters doing on finding wedding dates?" Anastasia asked Victoire and Ally curiously.
"James's potential promiscuity, Dom's hopelessness, and Lucy's weak resolve aside, there are only two of them that are actually in relationships that we are aware of," Victoire described, "Louis is bringing Cecilia of course, and Rose is bringing Scorpius."
Victoire's younger brother Louis Weasley had been dating Xavier's younger sister Cecilia Wood since they were thirteen. Their relationship was as firm as ever so of course they were going to attend both weddings as each other's dates. Rose Weasley was the eldest child of Victoire's Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron, and the red-haired seventh-year had been dating her boyfriend Scorpius Malfoy for over a year and the pair were still absolutely smitten with each other. They pair of seventh-years were so cute that they were often the butt of several jokes about getting toothaches from their sweetness or fake gagging when they showed even the slightest bit of physical affection.
"All of the others get plus ones because they're all single," Ally added.
"Baxter and Molly might get significant others by then," Dom suggested brightly.
"The younger ones won't," Victoire said in reference to the youngest cousins of the Weasley-Potter clan.
Hugo Weasley and Lily Potter were in their fifth year at Hogwarts and even though they were both truly in the midst of puberty at that point neither teen seemed to have taken a particular interest in the opposite sex (or the same sex) as of yet.
"What about Freddie?" Kyle asked curiously.
Ally sighed, "Who knows what's up with him."
Victoire glanced down at her portion of the guest list and noted that she was now addressing envelopes to the members of Xavier's team.
"Do you guys remember how exactly both Clark and Mark suckered me into inviting them to my wedding?" Victoire asked the table at large with a laugh as she thought about the two Puddlemere United starting beaters who were like giant teddy bears.
Xavier chuckled, "It's your fault for doing an internship with Puddlemere's medi-witch and wizard during healing school. When Clark and Mark get attached to new people they don't usually let go without a fight."
"They also get an invite because Tabitha's making our wedding cake," Teddy reminded Victoire with a smile.
"True."
Victoire finished addressing invitations to Ally and Xavier's wedding for Clark Westin and Mark Doyle, and then she frowned at the next name on her list, "Xavier, would you get in trouble for not inviting a member of Puddlemere to your wedding?"
Xavier's eyebrows narrowed over his eyes but when he realized what she was talking about, he scowled, "I don't even know how his name got on that list."
"I'd rather not have him there either," Ally said as she tapped a finger agitatedly on her dining room table, "But we do need to discuss the ramifications of not inviting your team's seeker, who also happens to be the son-in-law of the team's owner, to our wedding. We could get away with it easily if it was going to be a small wedding, but we're inviting members of the reserve team too-"
"Because I like some of them much more than him-"
"Which I understand, we just need to talk about what might happen to your career if we don't invite him, and make sure that we are prepared to accept the consequences," Ally told her fiancé softly.
Victoire reached out across the long table and gave Xavier a grateful pat on the hand, "All joking aside, I don't care if you have to invite him. I honestly don't even hate him anymore. I'm apathetic to him and if he needs to get an invite to your wedding so that there can be an outward semblance of unity on your team, so be it."
"That's very mature," Colton acknowledged with a nod.
"Thank you."
"Are you feeling alright?"
She answered his question via a rude hand gesture.
When they finally finished addressing Ally and Xavier's invitations, the group moved on to sorting through R. S. V. P.s for Victoire and Teddy's wedding. Victoire had sent a box of answered R. S. V. P.s that she had received over the past few weeks over to Ally and Xavier's house the evening before so that she wouldn't have to bring them to work with her before joining the group at Ally and Xavier's later that night.
The first R. S. V. P. Ally pulled out of the box made her smirk, "Don't fear Vic, Great-Great Auntie Muriel has condescended to let us know that she will be attending your wedding."
"Ugh," Victoire said with a face, "I didn't think she'd accept the invite. I had to invite her of course but I figured she'd be too old to want to travel here for that."
Dom snickered, "Great-Great Auntie Muriel will have a blast at your wedding, I think she'd especially enjoy spending time with Arrière grand-mère Séraphine."
The mere thought of those two women being in the same place caused Victoire's face to go stark white.
"Did you invite your great-grandmother to the wedding?" Anastasia asked Victoire conversationally. She could tell from the French that the great-grandmother they were referring to still lived in France.
Victoire and Teddy both made revolted faces, "Merlin no. Séraphine is not getting anywhere near my wedding."
"Good call," Dom said with an approving nod of her head. They both greatly disliked their great-grandmother, and they both had very good reason to.
"Then let's move on to happier topics," Sandra suggested with a smile, "Are we still on for house hunting on Sunday?"
Since Victoire and Teddy were getting married in a few months and were planning to start a family as soon as possible, they had decided that they also probably need to move out of their flat and get a house. As a healer and an auror both Victoire and Teddy were both making good money. They had more than enough to buy pretty much any house they wanted, and that didn't even take into consideration the large amount of money they each had in high-interest savings accounts (Victoire's contained the prize money she received when she won the Tri-Wizard Tournament back in her seventh-year, where Teddy's contained the large fortunes he had ended up inheriting from the Black and Lestrange families). Money wasn't a limit for them, so they were confident that they would be able to find a place they liked within the next few months.
Victoire and Teddy had planned to go house hunting next Sunday since they were both scheduled to be off that day. They had invited their friends to come along as they all owned houses already and they figured that they could give them some tips, and Sandra and Ally were especially interested in the outing as they both wanted to convince Victoire and Teddy to buy a house closer to their own respective homes than somewhere else.
"Yes, we are still on for house hunting," Victoire replied with a smile.
"Just to be clear," Kyle began with a smirk, "Are you looking for a house or a mansion?"
Victoire rolled her eyes at him, "Like you'd know the difference Mr.-only-heir-to-his-parent's-entire-company-and-fortune."
"Just keep in mind that however many bedrooms there are, Victoire and Teddy are going to have that many kids," Dom said with a smirk.
Victoire threw an empty envelope at her sister, "I am not going to give birth to that many children."
"Yeah, just eight," Dom retorted.
Her elder sister threw another piece of paper at her, "I am not having eight children."
"Yes you are," Dom said in a sing-song voice, "Because Ally's going to have seven children since Xavier will want enough for an entire quidditch team, and Vic you're going to want to one-up him as usual and have eight."
Ally threw a piece of paper at Dom this time, "I am not going to give birth to seven children."
"Grandma Molly did it," Dom replied with a shrug.
"Well I for one am nowhere near as stalwart as Grandma Molly is. If I found out that my fourth child was actually twins I would have been done right there," Victoire said.
Dom smirked, "Careful what you say, fraternal twins run in Maman's family, you know that."
"Don't even joke about it," Victoire warned her sister.
"Speaking of babies," Anastasia said, capturing the attention of the entire table with those three words, "Colton and I have some exciting news."
Sandra and Ally both let out noises that sounded very similar to 'eep', and they clasped their hands together in anticipation while everybody else tried to keep relatively neutral expressions on their faces. Colton and Anastasia had had a very hard time trying to get pregnant and bring a baby to term in the past. Before Victoire had reconciled with Colton, Anastasia had endured three miscarriages.
In fact, Victoire and Colton's new friendship had started when Victoire found Colton one night, drowning his sorrows in a pub after Anastasia lost a pregnancy that was four months along. Since that event, Colton and Anastasia had decided to take some time out from trying to have a baby and to take more time for their own relationship and other issues that they needed to deal with. They had been back to trying to conceive for a little over a year and Anastasia had had one more miscarriage in that time. The pregnancy had only reached nine weeks and their group of friends had only heard about the last pregnancy and miscarriage a few weeks after the fact. Colton and Anastasia were understandably circumspect when it came to telling people about her pregnancies before much time had passed, and their friends were usually careful about mentioning the couple's attempts to conceive.
Anastasia glanced at her husband and gave him a loving smile as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a cautious nod in return.
"We're pregnant!"
Knowing how hard it probably was for Colton and Anastasia to admit this to everyone made the announcement that much more special. Sandra and Ally squealed in excitement and immediately pulled Anastasia into a hug. Dom smiled brightly and hugged her boss first before she went to congratulate his wife. Kyle also let out a sound of excitement that sounded similar to a squeal and pulled Colton into a tight and not at all manly hug, while Xavier and Teddy squeezed into the close group to offer hugs of congratulations as well.
Ally and Sandra released Anastasia for a moment, but then they started to pepper her with questions.
"How far along are you?"
"When's your due date?"
"Are you going to-"
Xavier placed a hand on either of their shoulders, "Allow them to breathe for a minute."
"I'm just over four months," Anastasia told them brightly.
"That's wonderful and-" Sandra stopped mid-sentence as she noted Victoire standing a little ways away from their group. She was smiling happily, but she wasn't vibrating with excitement and surprise like everyone else was, "Why don't you look more surprised with this news Vic?"
Victoire opened her mouth to say something, but Dom interrupted her before she could.
"You already knew this didn't you?" Dom accused her sister with a raised eyebrow.
Surprisingly, it was Colton who came to Victoire's defense, "When Stasia suspected that she was pregnant we went to Victoire this time to confirm it. Considering our history we didn't want to get everyone's hopes up before Stasia was at least into her second trimester."
"Last time we used Colton's family's personal healer and he went straight to his parents and mine to tell them our news. They were especially disappointed when I–when I last miscarried so we thought we'd keep this information about my pregnancy between us, Victoire, and the obstetric healer she recommended us to after she confirmed my pregnancy," Anastasia explained with a grateful smile in Victoire's direction.
Sandra didn't look too impressed with Victoire's self-control, "Stupid healer-patient confidentiality."
Victoire chuckled and threw an arm around her best mate's shoulder, "I apologize for keeping it a secret, but it wasn't mine to tell."
"Yeah, yeah," Sandra replied with an easy shrug, "Well now all of us are in the loop."
"Yes, and if it makes you feel better Sandra, Stasia and I decided to tell you lot about this before we told our parents," Colton explained with a smile.
It wasn't an attempt to damper everyone's excitement about the announcement, but Ally did have a question that she wanted to ask the couple, "And since you've decided to tell everyone about it now, I'm assuming that the pregnancy is going well?"
"Between Victoire and Healer Jarvis I have had every detection spell and test known to magic and muggles alike run on me," Anastasia explained with a small smile to let Ally know that her question didn't offend her.
"Donnie and I agree that even with her history Anastasia and the baby are healthy enough that only monthly healer appointments should be necessary," Victoire explained brightly, "Of course, if anything in the slightest changes or if Anastasia feels even the least bit unwell she is to come to St. Mungo's or contact myself or Healer Jarvis immediately."
Dom clapped her hands together and brought the group back to focus on happier topics, "So when's your due date? If you're over four months it's sometime in September?"
"Our due date is September 15th," Colton said excitedly.
"Although it's common for many first-borns to be a little late," Anastasia reminded her husband with a soft smile.
Everybody slowly moved back to their seats at the table and Dom asked, "So do you have a baby bump starting? I sort of noticed that you started wearing looser clothing, but I didn't want to say anything about it."
"I do have the beginnings of a baby bump!" Anastasia announced happily, "It took a little while to develop but I've been assured that it's normal for it to take a little longer to show when it's your first."
"You're probably going to really pop in the next few days," Victoire told the expecting mother with a smile.
Colton laughed, "And she is so excited for it to become more obvious."
"Have you gone shopping for maternity robes yet?" Dom asked Anastasia with enthusiasm, Dom loved any excuse to go shopping.
Anastasia laughed and patted the younger redhead on the hand, "Like I'd ever go shopping for a whole new wardrobe without you Dominique."
"Good answer," Dom replied with a smirk and a nod.
"Vic," Kyle piped up as he picked up a returned R. S. V. P. and opened it up, "This one has a paragraph of French writing attached to it."
"Who is it from?" Victoire asked as she got up to reached across the table for the paper.
Kyle looked back at the name before handing it over to her, "It's from your cousin Alexandrie."
Victoire let out a sigh as she skimmed the words written by her favourite distant cousin on her mother's side.
"What's she say?" Teddy asked curiously when Victoire rolled her eyes after she finished reading the missive.
"Apparently she's insulted that I even bothered to send her an invitation and ask her to R. S. V. P. since she is so obviously going to be at the wedding since she's going to be our photographer," His fiancée explained sardonically.
Teddy snickered, Alexandrie was just as much as a firecracker as Victoire and Dom were, and he was pretty sure that their shared veela blood had something to do with it, "No mention about how she was coming because she loves us and wants to spend the most important day of our lives with us?"
"Alexandrie doesn't talk about her feelings unless they're figuratively beaten out of her," Victoire explained as she flipped over the piece of parchment she had read, "She has also written on the back of her R. S. V. P. that she's offering to take pictures for Ally and Xavier's wedding in August as well."
Xavier and Ally looked surprised, "I take it that this is a type of offer that it actually impossible to refuse?"
"She's a professional photographer that's worked for several magazines and modelling agencies before, you'd be stupid not to take her up on her offer," Victoire reminded him.
Ally chuckled, "I also highly doubt that Alexandrie would listen to us if we refused her."
"She also probably won't accept payment for her services either. She got the closest I've ever seen her get to conjuring up a ball of veela fire when Teddy and I offered to compensate her for the work for our wedding," Victoire added.
Xavier glanced at Ally, "I guess we have a photographer for our wedding now."
9:38 PM
"Godric Gryffindor it's been a busy day," Victoire complained as she and Teddy walked into their flat after leaving Ally and Xavier's house.
"And tomorrow will be even busier," Teddy reminded her as they dropped off the box with the returned R. S. V. P.s on the living room coffee table before making a direct line for their bedroom.
Victoire stepped towards their closet and started pulling her clothes off, "I know. Sixteen hour shift starting at seven AM tomorrow, but at least this week's schedule means that I'm free for Puddlemere's game against the Tornadoes on Thursday, and I get Saturday evening and all of Sunday off."
"Jilly's going to have to inform our supervisors tomorrow that she's pregnant and they'll have to put her on desk duty," Teddy shared as he also started to strip off the clothes he'd been wearing all day, "Which means that until they find someone who will willingly pair with Kurt, Hayden and I will be helping him out on his assignments."
Victoire slipped on a pair of soft pyjama pants and a cotton tank top, "Do they have a lot of active assignments right now?"
"Nothing that will be too difficult to finish up, Jilly can still consult and interview, she just can't go out and do field work," Teddy explained as he also pulled on a pair of pyjama pants, although he forewent a shirt much to Victoire's pleasure.
Once she had her sleeping clothes on she padded over to their ensuite bathroom and turned the tap on so that she could wash her face, "Do you think the guys will rib her much for getting pregnant?"
"Kurt will do more than Hayden, but I don't think they'll be too bad. If anything they'll rib her harder about not realizing that she was already three months pregnant," He mused as he followed her into the bathroom so he could brush his teeth.
Victoire grabbed a towel to pat dry her face, "It's not out of the ordinary for women to not realize that they are pregnant during the first few weeks. Especially if they're not suffering from many of the early symptoms."
"So besides Jilly's surprise appointment with you, how was the rest of your day?" Teddy asked after he had spit out a mouthful of toothpaste.
On the days where their schedules lined up so that they were both home at the same time in the evening, they usually tried their best to talk to each other about their days even though they both had to be light on the details because of confidentiality issues.
"Well for starters I had a row with Fabius over something," Victoire said. She frowned at the memory of the encounter with her colleague as she started to brush her own teeth.
Teddy put his toothbrush down, "Was it over something he thought you did wrong or something you thought he did wrong?"
"Something he definitely did wrong," She clarified as she finished brushing her own teeth and followed him out of the bathroom and into their bedroom.
"Ahh," Her fiancé mused as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
"So aside from that and some healing, I worked on a lot of paperwork, and then as a break I went down to the potions' lab and signed more paperwork," Victoire sighed. She plopped down on the bed as well and laid diagonal across the top of the bedspread.
Teddy chuckled and reached out to lightly massage her shoulder that was closest to him, "I completed a lot of paperwork as well today."
"And people think that being healers and aurors are glamorous jobs," She snorted with a roll of her eyes.
He shifted slightly on the bed so that he could reach her other shoulder and he began to massage both her shoulders with a little more intent when he realized how tight her muscles actually were. She was always a little high strung; her chosen career path and her own type A personality making it difficult for her to not obsess over details and burry herself under piles and piles of work. He could feel all of the tension in her shoulders and back where she was carrying all of the stress from the past few months that came with her job, her research with Healer McDavid, and planning their wedding.
"Mmmm, that feels wonderful," Victoire moaned while Teddy continued to knead her muscles. He was making slow progress with the knots, and each time one came undone she could feel a portion of her physical stress just melt away.
He pushed the pad of his thumb into a particularly tight spot just below a scar she had on her right shoulder blade from an incident with a kelpie during the Tri-Wizard Tournament that took place during her seventh year of school at Hogwarts, and she let out another satisfied moan that surprised him in its volume and intensity.
"Maybe, since we're so close to the wedding, you could lighten up just a little on all of the extra things you usually put on your plate . . . just until all of the wedding stress is over," He suggested as he found another tight knot close to her spine.
Victoire opened her eyes and levelled a look at him, "Are you actually asking me to take it easy?"
"I'm asking you not to go looking for eight extra pet-projects that need to be started and completed before the wedding."
"But-"
"You're a full time healer with the Dark Arts Reversal ward, your spell with Healer McDavid is going through the last few stages before it becomes certified for use, we're planning a wedding, and we are looking for a house that we can move into either just before or just after the wedding," Teddy reminded her softly but with a bit of sternness in his tone, "And after the wedding-"
She smiled tenderly, "Hopefully a baby."
"Hopefully a baby," He repeated with an identical tender smile, "Which means that you do not need to come up with anymore pet projects while you still have so much to worry about."
"Fine," Victoire said with a bit of a pout, "You have a good point."
He leaned down and pressed a light kiss to her lips, "Once you get a few things checked off your list then you can think about adding more."
"Oh, is that how it's supposed to work?" She asked sarcastically.
Teddy rolled his eyes at her, "Smart arse."
"You love my smart arse," She countered with an arched eyebrow.
He chuckled and moved one of his hands so that he could pinch her arse, "That I do."
There was a pause of silence as they stared into each other's eyes and shared a loving smile.
"So . . ." Victoire started quietly after a comfortable moment, "Colton and Anastasia are going to have a baby in September, and Jilly and Caleb are going to have a baby in October . . ."
Teddy grinned, "Which means that their kids will be going to Hogwarts together."
"Yes . . . and since we're getting married at the end of June and planning on getting pregnant . . ."
"If you get pregnant by November at the latest the baby will be born in time to go to Hogwarts with Colton and Anastasia and Jilly and Caleb's kids," He finished for her as he realized where her train of thought was going.
She bit her bottom lip, "That would be fun . . . wouldn't it?"
"Why do I feel like Kyle and Sandra are having this exact conversation right now, but with Kyle doing the convincing?" He asked with a smirk.
Victoire laughed, "Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to have a baby in the next year or so either."
"What about Ally?"
"She's harder to try to pin down," The blonde admitted as she thought about her cousin who was getting married in August, "I don't know if she and Xavier are as eager to have a baby as we are. I know that they want children eventually, but I can see them wanting a bit of time to enjoy married life with just the two of them before they start trying."
Teddy ran a hand through his turquoise hair, "And it's not like Ally and Xavier's parents are as eager to be grandparents as your mother is."
"Merlin no," Victoire agreed with a nod, "No one in more excited about becoming a future grandmother than Fleur Weasley. Aunt Angelina and Uncle George are pretty chill when the subject comes up, and Katie and Oliver aren't exactly pushing for it just yet."
"That's also because Brogan will just be turning six this year," Teddy reminded her.
Brogan Wood was Xavier Wood's little brother; his parents –Oliver Wood and Katie Bell-Wood– had discovered that they were expecting their youngest child halfway through Xavier and Victoire's seventh year of schooling. Xavier was eighteen when his youngest sibling was born, and his younger sister Cecilia was fourteen. With one child still so young, Katie and Oliver weren't going to be harassing Ally and Xavier for grandchildren anytime soon.
Fleur Delacour Weasley on the other hand had three children who were all grown up and she was more than ready for one of them to give her grandchildren. Victoire was the oldest and had been in a committed relationship with the same person for the longest –although in that respect she was only beating out her brother Louis's relationship with his girlfriend by a few months– and Fleur enjoyed pointing out that Victoire was about to turn a year older than Fleur was when she gave birth to her eldest. Bill Weasley was less insistent than his wife was about getting grandchildren so soon, but he was six years older than his wife, so he wouldn't mind a grandchild sooner rather than later either.
Fortunately for Fleur, Victoire actually agreed with her mother in this instance. She and Teddy both wanted children very badly and right away. They had waited two years since they got engaged to plan their wedding so that Victoire would be finished with her healing residency and have the chance to get settled in her job. She'd given herself and Teddy the slightly arbitrary time limit because she knew that the both of them were more than ready to get started on building a family together, and she knew that if she didn't force herself to wait until after she'd finished her residency and acquired a position at the hospital that she'd get impatient and try to get a jumpstart on everything else before she got all of her owls in a row.
Victoire shrugged out of Teddy's reach and slowly sat up on the bed, noting that her back and shoulders were much less sore after several minutes of Teddy rubbing them than they had been earlier. She crawled over top of Teddy, his body shifting to lay flat on the bed on his back as she settled herself on top of him and placed one of her hands on the bed on either side of his head.
He smirked at her as she slowly lowered her face towards his until their lips were just barely touching, "Wanna get some practice in?"
Teddy lifted his head just enough to press their lips together and capture her mouth in a kiss. His mouth was suddenly working with hers in a very familiar rhythm that made a delicious shiver run down Victoire's spine and into the pit of her stomach where it started to clench in anticipation.
While she focused on slipping her tongue into his mouth and tangling it with his, he wrapped his arms around her back and waist and slowly rolled them over so that his body was on top of hers; the warm weight of his body pressed hers into the bedspread. Victoire's hands, which were no longer occupied with keeping herself pushed up, moved to slide down the hard planes of his bare chest in their quest to touch every inch of his skin that she could find.
Teddy slowed their kiss a little and nipped at her bottom lip as he pulled his mouth away from hers, "Practice does make perfect after all."
She made a 'hmm'ing sound of agreement while her mouth started pressing hurried kisses across his jaw and down his throat. He chuckled faintly at the fact that she was so distracted and barely paying attention to his words, and his hands on his fiancée's back started to slide up her spine, collecting the fabric of her tank top as his rough hands travelled up the soft skin of her back.
Victoire had to remove her mouth from his body for a few seconds so that he could finish pulling her shirt off of her and then throw it away somewhere in the corner of their room. Before she could go back to kissing across his chest, he captured her mouth in another passionate kiss that made her blood boil and her heartbeat race. She moaned in pleasure as they kissed, and his hands started to explore the newly uncovered skin he had exposed. She moaned again, and as the second one was longer and louder than the first, he moved his mouth from hers and started to copy her actions from earlier and began kissing and nipping at her jaw and neck.
"I love you Teddy," Victoire mumbled out a little desperately when she'd caught her breath after moaning.
Teddy smirked against her collar bone where he'd just finished sucking on a patch of skin that would more than likely turn into a bruise by morning, "I love you too Vic."
A/N: I know this chapter wasn't full of action, but I thought you guys would like to see a bit of a catch up on the status of a lot of our characters and this was a good way to do it. But super exciting COLTON and ANASTASIA ARE HAVING A BABY!
Next Update: I'm starting a six week placement for my school course this week so I am going to be very busy in the immediate future. I am hoping to update once a month until it's over, so I'll update again near the beginning of June, and then hopefully by the end of June when my placement ends.
Next Chapter: A check-in with Teddy at the Auror Department, we get to see Xavier and James in action at Puddlemere, and we get to see what Louis, Cecilia, and Baxter are all up to.
I want to heartily thank everyone who has decided to stick with me and follow and favourite this new story:
IRunWithWolves18, tictalk, MissApollonia, shelaxer8, purplegirly1, NormalIsBoring, MyraTS, Dance4life14, Kdrum1330, Jilly98, Staros, Toadetterocks15, soxmanyxfandoms, Kirenea, tulip 13, radiant garden, Gnool, TeeChamblissful, Lostinwords23, IsolatedForm, finersstainerwithink, Jilly98, 07RCA, Gboudy, amywelsher, Inkling63, KittyKate2203, SunshineGirl1995, Beckster384, WordsMeanEverything, Marianne 16, elizjordan07, Sasha8812, B. arendes, E. M. Pride, NimGrey, mainframe98, mischeifmanaged1509, iloveGGandHP, Loza-Pop, Encypher, WeasleyCousin, Girl From Another World, Shannononom, Lilting Glamour, Jawaswag Jenkins, rockchick94, Ahunt02, AnnabethWeasley22, MrBiliusweasley, OhTeaPea, marauders1096, Judexx, As the Robin Flies, The Black Family rules ALL, Sdaze12, dreamerqueen94, zoefan16, kristjans, shortstuff2127, vritig, CrackHeadBlonde, blah345, booklover5298, Jomateix, ASJames, sharon3666, Megan. R. Corey, Lockheart96, Venls, TheAmazingElle, GinnyHermione1234, Anrheithwyr,Hanalei, Effy1990, Lily Joselynn Black, Owlbuddie212, Fanficnaomi, lynnanthony2015, AngelTwins527, alicenotinwonderland, MrsLutz5, MuggleCreator, Obliviated Bliss, paintedreverie, SnowMoneky583, emzy93, Shinethedown, TheProphetBVB, wanlet, GabrielleEB, lovelife10, AClosedDoor, Lizzyholi, carbo21, whynotong, Butterbeer1, PDnotTiger, shraddhap, Cantodeembalar, Isakindofnormal, MissingSnuffles1740, readerfaye, benjaswim, KrystynaK, wweharry pottertwilight fan, SparksDream, Sulamithe, Almach, aishagi97, AllisonReader, bpearl789, and Carley Pie,.
I especially want to thank everyone who took the time out to review the first chapter of this story because I really, really, appreciate it.
Big BIG thank yous to:
elizjordan07, ILoveIceCream97, bookstar97, Rfelicis, xXSlytherinQueenXx, Guest (1) Izzy, lumiere100, n. l. 3., ntlpurpolia, NicoleTheSmith, kit94, Dthea33, Saagarika, Guest (2) no cure for crazy, Guest (3) cjaben1, fangirl5300, Guest (4), zvc56, rosesnlilies, kawaiiotaku0405, Dakota1, ChrisfromSK, Rosie00xx, nunachild98, petitecanard, Jily71102, PhoenixHorcrux, Guest (5), kill3rdarren and Britt.
Izzy: Have you been reading my mind? It seems like all of your reviews hit on things I've already planned to write about ;)
lumiere100: I'm not sure if it will be quite as long as the others, but because these stories have a life of their own it may just end up being that long.
ntlpurpolia: The 'stats' I used for the conraception potion were the same as for most hormonal birth control pills because I figure that pill form or portion form, hormonal birth control probably works the same. Vic and her siblings are more extroverted, Ally, Molly, Rose, and Al are all more introverted.
Dthea33: Teddy's birthday in this series is April 20th, so yes we will see it, and since Vic's is May 2nd we will also see that according to the timeline we are don't worry we will see lots of wedding related stuff for this story. We'll find out about James's lovelife a little bit more as this story goes, but in this chapter we found out that James and Mel broke up a year ago and that James hasn't been in a relationship since. Also Xavier is pretty much the definition of an overprotective big brother so I'm sure we'll see more of him being overprotective of Cecilia at some point even though she's an adult.
Saagarika: Thanks for joining us again for this new ride!
Guest (3): Thank you for the lovely review, and I'm impressed to hear that you have a flag for Jilly and Caleb ;)
cjaben1: You had some good questions, but you'll have to wait a few chapters to find out about them. I picture Jilly as at least two or three years older than Teddy, with Caleb maybe four to five years older. So Jilly and Caleb are between 28 and 32.
zvc56: There will of course be reference to things that happened during the time skip if the information is pertinent to the character or the continued growth of the story. We'll find out more about James in future chapters.
rosesnilies: Don't worry we will be seeing more of Vic's cousins throughout this story including the newly graduated Freddie and James. The other four who are still at Hogwarts will be seen when it comes to family events of course, and there will be a lot of those with two weddings coming, as well as the summer to spend some time with the kids still in school. We'll also see Rowan and Eliza in a little bit.
Dakota1:In case this chapter wasn't clear, Dom is not in a relationship with anyone right now. Colton is blonde, Anastasia has light-brown hair and I think that's all I've ever written about their physical description. Fill in the other details as you'd like. Anastasia does not have a job, as a pureblood woman with a husband who's rich it's common in her social circle for women of her status not to have an occupation.
ChrisfromSK: Hello it's so nice to see that you're back! I'm so happy to hear that you're still reading and enjoying this story.
nunachild98: I'm glad that you're excited for Jilly and Caleb, I think they'll have a bit of fun with it too. And don't worry, we'll have some mystery in this story too.
Jily71102: We saw Sandra and Kyle here, so you've seen a little now of what's up with them.
PhoenixHorcrux: I'm honoured that your first review is on my story! I'm glad that you like my writing so much and I hope that you enjoy where this story goes.
kill3rdarren: I don't think I've ever had a review from you before, so it's really nice to hear from you, and to hear that you've been following the story. I'm glad that you like it so much.
I hope everyone enjoyed this second chapter,
Please remember to leave me your comments or questions in a review or a PM,
Until next month, DFTBA!