A/N: Here's the next update everyone, think of it as a Thanksgiving treat! I updated about two weeks ago, so if you haven't read that least chapter please make sure you do.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Warning: Vic gets a little angry and Dom's got no shame.
And Yes, I know that Fleur's got an accent but fricatives are hard for many people whose first language isn't English.
Properties and Pique
Sunday, April 21st 2024
10:35 AM
"Well now I know what purgatory looks like," Victoire muttered under her breath as she rubbed her hands on her jeans to wipe off some imaginary dust that she assumed she collected during their tour of the practically primeval mansion their harried real estate agent had brought them to.
Teddy wrapped his right arm around his fiancée's waist and pulled her towards his chest, "You mean spending hours looking at expensive mansion after expensive mansion that we'd never in a million years consider purchasing, with half of your family trailing behind us and touching everything that looks even remotely breakable, isn't your idea of a good time?"
The blonde glared up at the metamorphmagus and scowled at him, "Ally and Xavier didn't tell us how infuriating this process could be."
"Ally and Xavier didn't invite their family to go house hunting with them until they had a few candidates of houses that they were actually considering purchasing," Teddy reminded her.
Victoire crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, "I didn't invite half of our family to come with us. I only invited Ally and Xavier and Sandra and Kyle."
Teddy snorted in amusement, "It's cute that you actually believed that we could get away with all of this without your mother and your sister tagging along."
Victoire groaned and pushed her palms into her eyes, "I just can't believe that she had a real estate agent ready to show us properties at a moment's notice."
Before Teddy and Victoire were able to leave their flat that morning to get started on their house hunting adventure, Fleur and Dominique Weasley pushed their way through the couple's front door and started talking at Victoire in rapid French. Teddy did his best to ignore it and slowly finished his cup of tea as he watched his fiancée's expression go from one of surprise to confusion, and then settle into a deep irritation at whatever her mother and sister were announcing to her. Victoire also slipped into French as she began to argue back with her mother and sister, and Teddy watched the clock on the wall until ten minutes of their bickering had passed without any of them either bothering to switch back to English so that he could understand what they were saying.
He interrupted them at that point and politely asked for some Cole's notes in English. Victoire was quick to provide him with a summary: Fleur had arranged for a real estate agent to take them that morning to tour a few properties that the agent had already lined up for them within their budget and to their specifications. When Teddy asked how this real estate agent knew what their budget and their specifications were Victoire threw her hands up in the air, pointedly stared at her mother as she said 'that's exactly the point', and then slipped back into French to argue once more with her mother and sister. Another five minutes passed in that fashion before Teddy was able to break through to her again, and by that point Victoire's emotional climate had settled on displeased resignation with whatever scheme her mother had concocted. On their way out of their flat to meet up with Ally, Xavier, Sandra, and Kyle at their pre-determined meeting point for the morning, Victoire quickly appraised Teddy of the situation and told him that no amount of arguing was going to convince Fleur to drop the topic, so it was easiest if they just went along with it for the morning and planned another more secret house hunting excursion at a later date when Victoire could assure that her mother would be too busy to attend.
Even with the sudden addition of her mother and sister, Victoire tried to be optimistic that a party of eight people wouldn't be too much of a burden when looking at houses. Unfortunately, when they arrived at their pre-arranged meeting place not only were Ally and Xavier and Sandra and Kyle already there, but so were –to both Victoire and Teddy's great surprise– her Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron, Aunt Audrey, and her cousins James, Freddie, and Molly.
Instead of trying to wrap her head around why this odd assortment of her family members had decided to tag along on this milestone in her and Teddy's life, she just sighed in resignation and told everyone that the rules for their excursion that morning were simple: stay quiet (she glared at James and a somewhat hung-over looking Freddie), keep your hands to yourselves (again, she punctuated this statement by looking at the two youngest members of the group), and to keep up (this time her look was directed at Ron and Harry who she knew could become easily distracted when their current task wasn't a life or death situation).
It didn't surprise Victoire in the least that some of her family members couldn't follow these rules. Fleur, Dom, and even kind Ally couldn't keep their mouths shut as they peppered the real estate agent with question after question; Freddie, James, and –most annoyingly– Kyle couldn't keep their hands off of everything they were expressly forbade not to touch; and everyone seemed to be breaking the rule about keeping up as Victoire and Teddy had already quickly vacated the latest mansion the real estate agent had dragged them to despite the fact that everyone else seemed to be taking their sweet time to evacuate the building.
"What in the world is taking them so long?" Victoire grumbled as she turned back to glare at the decrepit mansion she and Teddy had quickly vacated upon giving only the barest of glances to about half of the rooms.
The mansion behind them was dark, dusty, and dank, and even though most of those issues were things that they could change –as her mother, Uncle Harry, and Aunt Audrey kindly kept reminding her– the building itself just didn't feel quite right, and she was glad that with one glance at Teddy's face she could tell that he also wasn't feeling the property. They eased out of the mansion hastily, and without the apparent knowledge of their real estate agent, but it seemed that the rest of their family and friends were still stuck inside asking useless questions and touching things and dusty surfaces that very well could contain a virus or two.
"Between the group of them, they're probably trying to commit everything about each of these places to memory so that they can give everyone else a full report later tonight at dinner," Teddy suggested with a heavy sigh as he leaned down to rest his chin on the top of Victoire's blonde head.
Victoire groaned and turned to press her face into Teddy's chest, "Ugh."
"So . . . not the one then?" Xavier's voice resonated around the couple as he, Ally, Sandra, and Kyle walked out of the mansion and towards the pair standing on the front lawn.
By the time their friends came to a stop around them, Victoire could see the rest of her family members slowly –but finally– trickling out of the mansion.
Teddy glanced up at Xavier to answer his question softly, "Not the one."
"I doubt any of these are going to be the one," Victoire grumbled, "If the past four properties this real estate agent has shown us this morning are any indication, I doubt anything she suggests with be even slightly agreeable."
Sandra slipped her hands into the pockets of her sweater, "Have you guys considered building a house instead? That way you can get everything you want."
"Oh!" Ally exclaimed excitedly, "That's a wonderful idea. In fact there's several empty lots around our house and I'm sure that-"
"No," Teddy interrupted Ally's suggestion in a tone of voice that was polite but also very firm. His eyes were wide and the tips of his hair had even changed to an uneasy yellow colour as he considered living in such close proximity to Ally and Xavier. Xavier's face had also gone white with dread during Ally's proposal but he didn't have the backbone to say right out to his fiancée that it was a bad idea.
Ally pouted at Teddy while Victoire glanced at her presently blue-and-yellow haired fiancé with a raised eyebrow. Her expression upon hearing Ally's half-finished proposition to build a house right next door to hers and Xavier's was guarded and Teddy couldn't get a good read on it. Not that it mattered at the moment.
"While that's a lovely suggestion Ally, I don't think building a house next to yours and Xavier's would be a good idea," Teddy explained curtly.
Ally put her hands on her hips, "Why not?"
"Because most times the entire expanse of Hogwarts grounds wasn't even enough for Victoire and Xavier when they got into one of their spats," Teddy reminded her.
The dark haired woman waved off the metamorphmagus's concern, "That was back when they were younger-"
"They were seventeen," Kyle muttered and then fake coughed to try to hide his words.
Ally ignored Kyle and continued, "And I think they've both matured and would be able to handle it now."
"I'd rather not build a new house just to have Victoire burn it down a week later once she and Xavier have an overdue argument about something seemingly innocuous," Teddy argued.
Victoire glared at her fiancée, "Xavier and I do not dangerously escalate arguments about innocuous things!"
"But you do," Sandra interrupted with an apologetic look sent in her best friend's direction, "Because all you and Xavier get enraged about are harmless disagreements. When it comes to serious topics you're both scarily on the same side of each debate."
Xavier cleared his throat, "As much as I'd love to have Victoire no more than half a mile from me and my home for the rest of my life until I die . . . perhaps a little distance might be best."
Ally threw her hands up in exasperation, "Fine! Forget I suggested it. I was just trying to help."
"I know Love," Xavier told his fiancée as he tossed his arm over her shoulder, "And building is a good suggestion . . . just maybe not so close to us."
Kyle stuck his hand up, "But they could-"
"No!" Teddy, Sandra, and Victoire all interrupted him at the same time, guessing what Kyle was about to propose.
Kyle sighed but didn't try to suggest it again.
"So what did you think of this property?" Their middle-aged real estate agent addressed Victoire and Teddy as she walked up to them, Fleur and Audrey only a few steps behind her.
"It's a little . . ." Teddy trailed off trying to think of a way to say something negative politely.
"Big," Victoire offered in as civil a tone she could muster.
The real estate agent's excited face fell a little in confusion, "Everyone likes to have a roomy house, and everyone who uses me to sell their homes with the intent of purchasing new ones are always looking for more space and more rooms you see-"
"It just didn't feel right," Victoire interrupted the other woman, "I couldn't see myself living there."
"Really?" The real estate agent asked with a frown, "You can't see yourself inviting your friends over for a nice little luncheon, or hosting a dinner party to impress your husband's colleagues?"
Victoire's eyes narrowed with annoyance while she could hear Xavier and Sandra both mutter 'uh-oh' under their breaths, "Nope. It's not going to happen. Not here."
She muttered 'not anywhere' under her breath and Teddy's hand found her arm and gave if a comforting squeeze.
"Maybe somewhere that already has a bit more of a homey feel?" Teddy suggested to the real estate agent before Victoire could stew more about the sexist statement their real estate agent just spewed.
The real estate agent nodded her head hurriedly, "Yes, of course yes. So we're looking for homey, but still with enough room for a potentially growing family?"
Victoire took a deep breath to calm herself, "Yes."
The real estate agent nodded her head, "Will you require extra room for live-in help?"
"No," Victoire stated firmly through gritted teeth while she heard Teddy exhale loudly from beside her.
The middle-aged woman just continued to nod her head as if she was taking mental notes, "Ah, good choice. There's nothing wrong with the wo-" She stopped her, sent a glance to Victoire who looked like she was getting ready to snap again, and re-worded what she was about to say, "With the partner who makes the least amount of money staying home with the children when the times comes. There's actually something very heroic in being a stay at home mo–parent."
Teddy pinched the bridge of his nose and quickly tightened his grip on Victoire's arm. The real estate agent didn't save that discussion quite as well as she thought she had.
Victoire let out a laugh that was biting and slightly hysterical, shook her arm out of Teddy's grip, and stomped away from the real estate agent. As she did so she called out to Harry, "Hey Uncle Harry! Did you hear that? Apparently Teddy's going to quit working when we have kids!"
Harry and Ron sent Victoire a confused glance, but they didn't seem too surprised to hear her yelling such a weird non-sequitur at them. Teddy sighed heavily, barely excused himself from the real estate agent, and hastily paced after Victoire. When he caught up to her, he grabbed her hand and interlaced their fingers. She stopped once he touched her and turned to face him. Teddy brought their interlaced hands up to his face and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
"I'm sorry about that."
The blonde let out a slightly choppy sigh, indicating to Teddy that she was trying to control her temper, "It's not your fault that even in this day and age most of society assumes that the male is the one who brings home the most money."
Teddy dropped their hands from his face and slowly placed a kiss to Victoire's temple to try calm her down a bit more, "I know, but I'm still sorry."
"It's not just because people assume that men make more money," Dom's voice joined the conversation as she suddenly popped up behind her big sister, "But it's also because a lot of men do make more money compared to women with the same education, experience, and position. That gender pay gap is a real bitch."
Teddy could feel Victoire's hand start to warm, and he knew that it wasn't brought on naturally. Dom's words were riling her up again even though he was doing his best to calm her down.
"Thank you Dom," Teddy told his future sister-in-law dismissively, "But I don't think that's something we need to discuss right this moment."
"Because putting off discussions about social injustices until everyone feels ready to listen to it is a great idea, it's not like people will still be taken advantaged of while we wait," Dom complained as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Dom-"
"And people don't care about it until it hits home for them. I mean, how can we even be sure that Victoire's getting paid the same amount as her colleagues at St. Mungo's? How do we know that right now Healer Fabius isn't getting paid more than Vic even though they began in the same positon at the exact same time?" Dom asked with a raised eyebrow.
Victoire's hand was really getting hot in Teddy's grasp, and he idly wondered if he would end up with a first degree burn from her palm.
"In fact-"
"Dominique Gabrielle, I t'ink t'ats enough for now," Fleur stated decisively as she walked over to the group.
Dom rolled her eyes and then flounced away as if stirring up trouble and her older sister's anger was just a fun hobby for her. Teddy knew that it was, but he figured she could have picked a better time for it.
"Don't blame Dom for something that your stupid real estate agent started," Victoire whirled on her mother. She finally dropped Teddy's hand, and he did his best not to make it seem as though he was grateful to be saved from the heat of her hand.
Fleur was much calmer than her daughter, "I know t'at she might 'ave said some t'ings t'at rubbed you t'e wrong way Victoire, but-"
"Oh, I don't care that she said rude things to me," Victoire told her mother as she ignored the sudden scoffing noises Teddy's was trying to hide under his breath, "I could ignore that –and end up with an ache in my jaw from grinding my teeth– but I could ignore it if she was actually good at her job. But she's not."
"Victoire-"
"I mean the houses –no the mansions she keeps showing us keep getting increasingly ridiculous! Teddy and I didn't even want to use a real estate agent in the first place!"
"I know t'at Chère, but just because you deed not want one does not mean t'at you do not need one," Fleur disputed.
Victoire put her hands on her hips, "Because you don't believe that Teddy and I can handle this by ourselves?"
"Because I do not want you to end up wit anot'er ulcer, or worse!" Fleur argued in a gentle tone. She reached forward and placed her hands on her eldest daughter's cheeks.
"Maman I won't-"
Fleur ignored her, "But you might. You are planning a wedding, you are a 'ealer 'oo works almost eighty 'ours a week, you are working on legalizing a medical spell with 'Ealer McDavid, and you 'ave now decided t'at you want to find a 'ouse. You 'ave developed ulcers before with less t'an 'alf of t'is amount on your plate."
Victoire tried to keep her frown firm but the heartfelt concern in her mother's voice was doing a real number on what she though was her justifiable anger.
"Maman I can handle all of this-"
Teddy nudged her in the side gently before wrapping an arm around her waist, "Maman we can handle all of this. Besides, it's not like we have a specific deadline for buying a house. We have lots of time."
Fleur let out a small chuckle and patted Victoire's cheek, "We 'ave 'ad t'is conversation before mon Chère. You are eempatient and you do not like to wait. You and Teddy are going to start your family as soon as you get married and t'en you will 'ave one more t'ing to worry about w'ile also trying to find a 'ouse before t'e baby comes."
"That's-"
"Not necessarily incorrect," Teddy interrupted what he was sure was going to be Victoire's quick denial. He stared at her eyes and she frowned. She disliked it when her fiancé and her mother were both right.
Victoire pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "Fine. But you have to admit that that real estate agent is awful. Did you not meet her before today Maman?"
"Yes, I know she is a little . . . much . . . but she came 'ighly recommended and after reading your portfolio and specifications she seemed excited to start working wit you," Fleur explained.
Just saying the words specifications raised Victoire's hackles, Teddy could almost physically feel it, "That's another thing. How could she know what our specifications are if we haven't spoken about them yet? Obviously you told her what we could afford."
Fleur rolled her eyes, "You and Teddy detest talking about your finances. I t'ought we would avoid all of t'at uncomfortableness and I could just inform your real estate agent of your budget."
"And you didn't think that that would come across as even the slightest bit controlling?" Victoire questioned her mother in a clearly sarcastic tone.
"You might not believe me, but guaranteeing to a real estate agent t'at a client can afford to purchase a 'ome, pay insurance, as well as all of t'e ot'er added 'idden costs t'at come wit buying a 'ouse are part of a financial advisor's job," Fleur explained.
Victoire pouted but her body relaxed a bit into Teddy's side, "And do all financial advisors do this for their clients?"
"I cannot speak for all financial advisors, but as a financial advisor I would do t'at for all of my clients . . . alt'ough I might not physically go wit t'em to vist t'e properties," Fleur said softly, a bit of a smile curling her lips at the end of her statement.
Teddy smiled gently at Fleur, "Fair enough. Right Victoire?"
Victoire was still pouting; she hadn't expected her mother to have such a solid defense for when she accused her of being too overbearing in her life in this situation. As much as she loved to argue with her mother, she couldn't argue with the fact that Fleur's responses were valid.
"I will apologize 'owever, for all of t'ese awful mansions t'is real estate agent keeps bringing us to. I told 'er t'at you two are more on t'e simple and unassuming side, but apparently all she saw was your potential budget and t'ought t'at she could come out of t'is wit a good commission."
Victoire sighed and reached forward to give her mother a hug, "Well now there's nothing left for me to be angry about."
Fleur laughed and hugged her daughter back. A second later Teddy's arms snaked out from behind Victoire and he pulled both blondes into a hug. Fleur laughed louder this time and patted the part of Teddy's arm that was closest to her reach.
The hug broke up before it could feel awkward, and Teddy walked away from them shortly after when he heard Ron calling his name.
Once Teddy was out of hearing range Victoire raised an eyebrow at her mother, "Not that I don't love Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron, and not that Teddy isn't happy that Uncle Harry at least is here for this . . . but is there a specific reason why you invited them to join this circus?"
"I was trying to be optimistic and I t'ought t'at if you and Teddy found a property t'at you liked t'at we would need 'Arry and Ron around to check for stress lines," Fleur said as if the answer was obvious.
Victoire's eyebrows narrowed over her blue eyes, "Pardon? What are stress lines?"
"Magical stress lines . . . or per'aps t'e correct Eenglish translation is fault line? You know, areas of magical pressure 'idden in t'e natural environment," Fleur tried to explain although she didn't seem to be confident in her own words.
"Magical fault lines?" Victoire repeated in confusion.
"Yes, t'ey are imperative to take into consideration w'en placing protective and defensive spells on dwellings and properties."
Victoire's face was still one of confusion.
"T'e basic principles of ecological enchantments and t'e study of geological conjuring?" Fleur added as if that would make more sense to Victoire.
"I have no idea what you're talking about Maman."
Fleur sighed and then muttered something under her breath about 'the atrocious gaps in Hogwarts' education system'.
"Just trust t'at t'ey are 'ere for a reason ot'er t'an to irritate you."
Victoire took a deep breath and exhaled slowly through her nose, "Alright."
Sandra and Ally came upon the mother-daughter pair soon after and shyly told Victoire that the real estate agent was excited to move onto the next home.
Fleur placed her arm around her daughter's shoulders, "Come on Chère, 'oo knows? T'is next one may be t'e one."
"Yeah," Sandra added with a bright smile, "Maybe this next house is within quick apparation distance to our place!"
Victoire turned her head to look at Kyle a few metres away where he was talking to Xavier and James, and then she looked back at Sandra and raised an eyebrow at her, "Was that supposed to sound encouraging or like a threat?"
Sandra shrugged and then grabbed Victoire's hand and began to pull her towards the real estate agent, "Whichever gets you moving faster."
5:41 PM
"So how did house hunting go?" Louis Weasley asked his oldest sister as they each grabbed a basket filled with bread and walked it from the Burrow's kitchen into the dining room.
Victoire eyed her brother, "I'm sorry, were you not there in the crowd with us? I could have sworn that the entire family tagged along."
Louis snorted at her whinging and set his basket of bread down at the end of the table where the 'older adults' would sit for Sunday night dinner, "Be careful what you complain about ma chère sœur, because if you want the entire family to go with you the next time you and Teddy look at houses, we can be there."
"No thank you," Victoire answered hastily. She knew that Louis was only teasing, but just the thought of the actual entirety of her family tagging along the next time she and Teddy went out looking for a house made her skin crawl.
Not that the excursion that morning had been that bad . . . or more appropriately, it wasn't as if the supreme failure that was house hunting that morning was even her family's fault. She was quite happy to leave the blame with the annoying real estate agent, and hope for a better turn out next time. Although Teddy and Victoire had decided that less was definitely more when it came to their entourage for house hunting; or at least in the beginning stages.
Louis reached out his hand to squeeze Victoire's arm, stopping her from walking back into the kitchen, "Hey, all teasing aside I really do hope that you and Teddy find what you're looking for soon. Did seeing those houses today at least help you narrow down some ideas of what you do and don't want?"
"In a way. We know that we definitely don't want anything even close to what we saw today. All of the places she took us to were humongous mansions with large tacky grounds, some of them didn't even look like they'd been lived in for about twenty or thirty years," Victoire expounded.
Her brother sent her an apologetic look, "Maybe the next ones will be more to your taste?"
"That's the hope," She said with a mocking twirl of her finger, "Although our real estate agent eventually did apologize for showing us the properties that she did. Apparently she read our current real estate portfolio and assumed that we would be looking to buy a property similar to the ones in that one."
A blonde brow rose over Louis's eye, "You already have a real estate portfolio?"
"Teddy already has a real estate portfolio," Victoire clarified as she ran a hand through her loose blonde hair, "So in that sense the real estate agent was correct I guess; large properties that belonged to high society purebloods that looked like they haven't been properly lived in for years was sort of within theme."
Louis nodded his head, "Ahh, so his entire real estate portfolio is made up of the places he inherited form the Blacks and the Lestranges?"
"Yes, which really annoyed him. Although he was rather grateful that he didn't actually have to explain any of it to the agent in person and that Maman did that already for us; which only served to annoy me," Victoire said, her words sounding a smidge like a rant.
Her brother smirked, "Because she's maddeningly meddling in your life but in a way that can be perfectly explained so as not to make her seem as though she's a helicopter parent?"
"Exactly!"
Louis snickered.
"Don't laugh," Victoire demanded even though her own lips were starting to turn up at the edges, "Wait until she starts doing it more to you. My wedding planning has been giving you a reprieve for two years, but once I say 'I do' she's going to put all of that energy into your life and most likely your relationship with Cecilia. I wouldn't be surprised if Maman already has some lovely options for engagement rings picked out for you."
His face went white, "Or she can keep that energy focused on you because it'll only be a short matter of time before you become impregnated with her first grandchild."
"But," She countered as she placed her hands on her hips, "Once I get a wedding ring on my finger and a bun in the oven she will be pushing you even more for at least one of those things."
Louis made a face, "Maybe together we can convince Maman that Dom is a lost soul who needs her loving guidance? I'm sure she could waste a lot of energy on trying to get Dom to agree to a relationship that lasts longer than six weeks."
Victoire pursed her lips as she considered the suggestion, "No chance. Dom's done an excellent job of driving Mum up the wall these past several years. Now Dom could happily enter into a simple monogamous relationship and Mum would be happy enough to leave her alone for at least another three to five years."
"So you're saying our mistake was falling in love too early?"
"Yeah, seems like it."
Victoire nudged her brother with her shoulder, "But seriously, how are things with you and Cecilia?"
Louis eyed his sister warily, "They're great, and normal . . . why?"
"Just checking in," She assured him, "And all teasing from me aside, don't let Mum or anyone try to pressure you into something you're not ready for."
He smiled at her.
"Except for Cecilia, I think history has shown that when it comes to her she knows just when to push you."
Louis rolled his eyes, "Because she kissed me first when we were thirteen while I was still in denial about my feelings for her?"
"Exactly."
Before Louis could figure out if there was even the slightest bit of insult in his sister's advice, the door of the dining room pushed open and Ally and Cecilia walked in, them both of them carrying large bowls of salad.
"What are you two talking about in here?" Ally asked curiously.
"Nothing!" Victoire replied in a sunny tone as she took the salad bowl from Ally's hands, handed it over to Louis, and then pushed Ally back out the door and into the kitchen, Victoire following behind her, and effectively leaving Louis and Cecilia alone in the dining room.
Ally raised an eyebrow at her favourite cousin, "What was that about?"
Victoire shrugged but didn't reply. Instead she walked out of the kitchen and towards the living room leaving Ally no choice but to follow as there was no other task for her to complete to prepare for dinner.
In the living room both women wandered over to the corner near the fireplace where the rest of their cousins were congregated. Teddy, Xavier, and Baxter were chatting about something they'd all read in The Daily Prophet that morning, while Molly and Dom were giggling over something on an open page of a Witch Weekly magazine that they were splitting between them. Lucy sat a few feet away from them and was swirling wine around a stemless wineglass, and Freddie and James sat on the same sofa and looked close to falling asleep.
"I take it you lot had a late night last night?" Lucy asked the two drowsy troublemakers idly.
Freddie groaned in response while James shrugged, "I only had a few drinks so I didn't feel too bad waking up this morning."
"I felt great," Baxter added with a smile.
Victoire shot him a thumbs up and then she and Ally settled onto the floor next to the unlit fireplace.
"Well I feel like I definitely had more fun than the both of you put together . . . so there," Freddie announced with a smirk.
Lucy rolled her eyes, "What's the point of a having a good time if you don't remember it?"
Freddie frowned at her.
"It was just you lot and Cecilia and Louis that went last night, yeah?" Molly asked, taking her eyes off of the magazine and looking at the youngest of their group.
James nodded his head.
"You didn't invite any of your other friends out? I'd assume that Nolan Finnegan would always be up for loud music, alcohol, and scantily clad people the same age as him," Dom piped up; also disregarding the magazine for the moment.
"Nolan Finnegan was not there," Freddie confirmed, "Although we did run into his ex-girlfriend."
"Who would that be?" Molly queried.
"Teagan Childs, she was in Gryffindor with us, mine and James's year though," Freddie explained.
Lucy swirled her wine around her glace once more, "Run into anyone else you recognized there?"
"Yeah, Teagan was there with some of her mates who were also in Gryffindor. There was Jordan-" Freddie paused in his explanation and sent James a look that said that he had no idea what Jordan's last name was.
James rolled his eyes, "Jordan Simpson. She was in the same classes with you for seven years Mate."
Freddie shrugged, "So Teagan and Miss Simpson were there with Selene Spiros last night."
James was grateful that he was the only one who noticed Teddy shooting him a sideways look at the mention of Selene's name.
"Selene Spiros . . . is she not the one who played quidditch with you at Hogwarts? She's on a professional reserve team now, isn't she?" Molly questioned straightforwardly.
"She's a centre chaser for the Harpies's reserve team," James supplied in a purposely even tone that was devoid of any specific type of emotion.
Molly snapped her fingers, "Yes, now I remember."
"According to Teagan, she and Jordan had to practically drag Selene out of her flat last night. I guess all she really does is go to quidditch practice, work out, go home and eat something, and then sleep," Freddie added conversationally.
Xavier smirked, "That sounds about right considering she's in her first year of being on a reserve squad for a professional league."
"I'm sure that James does the same thing most nights," Ally added with a fond smile in James direction.
The eldest Potter child nodded his head indiscriminately, and then he was relatively silent as Freddie kept talking about the night before and answering Molly and Dom's questions about the club. By the time Freddie got to the portion of the night that was blurry in his memory, Lucy was openly scoffing at him.
"I'm amazed that you even made it out of bed before noon today."
Dom rolled her eyes at Lucy's tone, "And what were you so busy with this morning that you couldn't join us in house hunting-"
Victoire leaned over and patted Lucy's leg and told her sincerely, "Thank you for not showing up by the way. I very much appreciated it."
"So what were you up to?" Dom finished as if Victoire hadn't interrupted her.
Lucy was suddenly very interested in her glass of wine.
"Oh, oh oh," Dom exclaimed in glee, "There must be a story or you wouldn't be sitting here all quiet. Now what is it? Was there a bloke involved? There must have been a bloke involved."
Lucy's cheeks went red, "Okay, so I might have had a coffee date this morning . . . but it was no big deal."
"C'mon Lucy don't sell yourself short," Ally told her younger cousin sweetly.
"Yeah, give us all of the details! What does he look like? What does he do? What's his name?" Dom started peppering Lucy with questions.
Lucy hesitated in answering and she swallowed thickly. At first glance her reluctance seemed like shyness, but when Victoire looked at her longer she noted that the younger redhead seemed more worried than anything else.
"Lucy . . ." Victoire said her name like a question.
Lucy automatically looked up and made eye contact with Victoire. She immediately regretted it.
"Lucy," Victoire said her cousin's name much more firmly that time, "Who were you having coffee with this morning?"
Ally was taken aback by Victoire's suddenly severe tone, Dom seemed more surprised by it than startled, and Molly's eyes narrowed into slits as she inspected her older sister.
"No," Molly said in a gasp as she read her sister's face, "Tell me it's not true."
Ally was still perplexed, "What's not true?"
Dom groaned and face-palmed her forehead when she caught on to what Victoire and Molly had already deduced, "Not Austin bloody Pennington?"
Lucy looked down at her wineglass, but she did nod her head ever so slightly.
"Really Lucy?" Molly asked her sister with a sad shake of her head.
Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation, "Lucy, I thought you were finally done with all of this back and forth a month ago when you finally decided that you were better off with the 'off' part of your on-again off-again relationship."
"It was just coffee guys. Nothing actually happened this morning," Lucy told her cousins with an eye roll.
"Thank Merlin," Victoire muttered as she looked up at the roof.
Dom had another opinion, "No. That's actually worse. 'Nothing happened' means that you actually sat there and talked to the prat. At least if something happened then we could explain away your terrible momentary lapse in judgement as you just being swayed by an urge for good sex."
Everyone around them made a face while Victoire looked like she was actually going to vomit at the mention of Austin Pennington and the word sex in the same sentence.
Dom soldiered on, "That I would understand at least. I mean who among us haven't gone back to and ex that maybe wasn't the best for us, just because the sex was good?
Ally and Victoire both gave Dom very specific looks at that statement, and Dom rolled her eyes at them, "Well besides these two of course, who've been with the same bloke since they were seventeen."
"Could we just please circle this discussion back to the fact that Lucy went back to that arsehole-" Molly began only for Lucy to angrily cut her off.
"This is my life Molly and I can do what I want, when I want-"
"And whoever you want," Dom muttered not-so-quietly with a wicked smirk.
Victoire slapped her hand on her leg, "Expect for Austin because we've already established that he's not worthy of your time or effort, or-"
As the girls continued to argue with each other, James felt a tap on his shoulder. He glanced up and saw Teddy withdrawing his hand and nodding his head in the direction of the foyer. James slowly stood up to follow Teddy out of the living room, and noted that the girls (and Baxter and Freddie who had also decided that they wanted to join the 'bash on Austin fest') were all making so much noise that nobody really noticed Teddy and James's movement or absence.
Once in the foyer Teddy sat himself down on a step of the staircase that led upstairs, "So are you okay?"
"Despite how uncomfortable that was, I do believe I've heard worse come out of Dom's mouth before," James told his god brother in a –somewhat forced– amused tone of voice.
Teddy let out a small sigh, "You know that's not what I'm talking about."
James copied his exhale and then sat down on the step just one below Teddy's, "I know."
"I'm not looking for a complete emotional confession, I'd just like to know that you're okay," Teddy said as he placed his hand comfortingly on James's shoulder.
The eldest Potter child ran a hand through his black hair distractedly, "I'm fine."
"Did you have a chance to talk to her last night?"
James's heart skipped a beat and he instinctively knew that Teddy wasn't talking about Cecilia, Teagan, Jordan, or any other nameless girl from the club.
"Yeah, we spoke to each other."
Teddy's hand squeezed a little tighter on James's shoulder, "Was that the first time you've spoken to her since . . . since graduation?"
James nodded his head. His dark hair was getting a little long, so the motion made the fringe at the front flop into his eyes, "I've seen her a handful of times in the last year, but we never really moved past normal pleasantries before one of us made an excuse to leave. So . . . yeah, that was the first time we've actually spoken since . . . graduation."
"What did you talk about?"
A spontaneous smile slipped onto the younger man's face, "Quidditch."
"Of course you did," Teddy replied with a hint of exasperated fondness in his voice, "But what specifically?"
James felt his cheeks heat up, "I told her that she slipped into her old habit of over-extending her elbow the last time she played on the starting team and that it cost her three goals."
"Excellent, because girls love it when their faults are pointed out to them in detail," Teddy told James sarcastically.
The words did nothing to stop the increased beating of James's heart as he thought back to his conversation with Selene, "I was just giving her advice. She started it actually, because she told me that I did a good job covering for Nadia, but that if I'm going to play centre chaser again I'll need to work on catching cross my midline because I was close to fumbling the quaffle seven times."
"Well if she started it," The older man replied in a teasing tone.
James pulled at his hair again, "Not that her advice matters too much. It's not like I'm going to cover for Nadia again anytime soon."
Teddy stayed silent at that point and redirected the conversation just slightly, "Did you enjoy talking to her?"
A warm smile slipped onto his face, "Yes, she . . . she just gets it. Quidditch and training and all of that stuff."
"I'm sure she does," Teddy replied calmly.
There was a companionable beat of silence between them, during which time James's mind was not thinking about sitting on a staircase next to his god-brother.
"Does thinking about it still make you feel guilty?" Teddy asked gently.
James groaned and pulled at his hair again, "A little bit. Sometimes. I tell myself that I didn't actually do anything wrong –which I didn't. But sometimes I wish that I could have convinced Mélanie of that, even after our break-up. Or at least convince her that the rumours weren't true and that Selene didn't actually play a part in it."
"Have you been in contact with Mélanie since graduation?"
He sighed, "Forget graduation, she stopped talking to me right after the break up."
Teddy nodded his head.
"Nowadays it's not so much guilt as it is worry. Especially after seeing Selene last night and talking about our careers. If even a bit of the gossip about how mine and Mélanie's relationship ended got leaked in the news it could be detrimental to our images," James explained sadly.
Teddy didn't have to ask to know whose professional image James was most worried about. He clapped James on the shoulder again, but before he could offer any other brotherly-type advice, Victoire's head popped around the corner of the foyer and told them that Grandma Molly was calling them to dinner.
The promise of food ensured that everyone would get settled at the table quickly, and whatever argument had been going on between Lucy and the rest of her cousins and sister was put on hold while everyone filled their glasses with drink and plates and bowls with food.
"So how did house hunting go today?" Aunt Angelina asked cheerily from a few people away from Victoire. She had been at the hospital that afternoon so she hadn't arrived until just before dinner, and she had yet to ask about that morning's family excursion.
Victoire groaned and stared at the large soup bowl full of pea soup sitting in front of her, "Grandma Molly, do you think this bowl holds enough liquid for me to drown myself in?"
"I don't doubt that there's enough there Victoire, but my larger concern would be that when you got to the after-world my grandmother would be quite bothered that you chose her favourite soup recipe to suffocate yourself in," The matriarch of the Weasley family told her eldest grandchild with a calm shrug of her shoulders.
Victoire glowered at the savoury smelling fluid in her bowl, "I think I'll take that chance."
She then leaned forward quickly, aiming her face for the open surface of the bowl, only to be stopped by Teddy throwing his hand out over her bowl from his seat next to her, and effectively halting her head's journey. Her forehead landed in the palm of his hand with a quiet smacking sound.
"Hey!" Victoire complained as she exhaled in annoyance.
Teddy lifted her head back up and away from her bowl, and then placed his arm over her shoulder to pull her into a side hug, "I think you're being just a tad dramatic Love. There's no use ruining everyone else's dinner just because you detest our real estate agent."
"Says the man that didn't have to listen to said real estate agent explain that the rationale for the secret passageway in the master bedroom of the last mansion we visited was historically for the masters of the mansion to sneak their mistresses in late at night, but that I didn't need to worry about that because the door can be magically sealed, and because I'm rather pretty anyway," Victoire complained; she didn't even bother to hide the disdain in her voice.
Her fiancé bit his cheek to hide a snicker and he pressed a kiss to her loose blonde hair, "Well it was nice of her to call you pretty."
"Got it," George piped in with a wicked smirk, "No talk about Victoire and Teddy buying a house. Shall I ask about wedding preparations, or is that a taboo topic as well?"
Fleur clapped her hands in excitement at the mention of the word 'wedding', while Victoire sighed tiredly. The soonest bride-to-be tried a spoonful of the pea soup in front of her, muttered that it would have been a shame to waste it like she had planned, and then glanced up at her cousins at the table.
"Actually, we should talk about the wedding because there are a few things I want to make sure that I say aloud so that no one can claim that they didn't know about it," Victoire took another sip of her soup.
"So, first thing's first," She glanced at Lucy, "No Austin at my wedding."
She looked at Dom next, "You are not to touch any part of Konstantin Krum's body."
Dom pouted and ripped a chunk of bread off of her bun.
Victoire pointed at Xavier next, "And you-"
"I don't care what you say, I'm bringing Ally as my date," Xavier interrupted her with a cheeky grin.
Victoire rolled her eyes, "Whatever. What I was going to tell you is that you're responsible for keeping Eilionoir Wood in line during the reception."
"My grandmother? Why is my grandmother invited to yours and Teddy's wedding?" Xavier asked perplexedly.
"Because she's a friend of my Grandmum's," Teddy explained with a shrug.
Victoire moved her pointer finger to James and Freddie, "And you two are to bring dates. Appropriate dates that will not make a scene, and that will hopefully stop you lot from tipsily hitting on other wedding guests."
James nodded understandingly while Freddie made a show of rolling his eyes at his eldest cousin's words. The blonde bride ignored the pair and turned to Baxter.
"You on the other hand, I encourage you to invite someone that you generally think you might fancy as your wedding date. It might be a bold move to invite her to a large family function so soon in a relationship, but most of our family will probably be too distracted to properly take the piss out of you that day, so it might be a good idea anyway," She told Baxter in a more reasonable tone than the one she gave James and Freddie.
Cecilia was the last person Victoire rounded on, "And you-"
"Watch the champagne consumption?" Cecilia suggested with a cheeky grin scarily similar to her older brother's.
"No. Well, yes, that's a good recommendation for everyone though. Your main job however, is to pre-vet their choices in dates before the day of. You get veto power and then that's one less thing for me to worry about."
Cecilia shrugged her shoulders, "Alright, I can do that."
Baxter, James, and Freddie looked a little put out that their dates would have to be vetted by Cecilia beforehand, but all three of them were smart enough not to verbalize their annoyance with Victoire's directive.
"Any rules for the wedding for me?" Molly asked curiously as she served herself more salad from the large salad bowl.
Victoire thought about it for a minute and then shook her head, "No Mols, I trust you not to do anything that will give me a stress migraine."
Molly pouted, "Well now I just sound boring."
Dom patted her on the hand and winked at her, "I'll make sure you have the opportunity to make some questionable choices during the reception when Victoire and Teddy are too busy to notice."
Victoire sent her sister a glare, but Molly seemed relieved that the reception wasn't guaranteed to be a bore.
A few moments later Ally held her hand up to get the attention of her brother and cousins, "By the way, despite the abrasiveness of Victoire's commands, all of her rules are ditto for our wedding."
Dom's smirked wickedly, "So you're inviting Konstantin Krum to your wedding too?"
Ally and Victoire gave Dom a look, and it was severe enough to warrant Molly whispering to Dom that she should stop before she gave either or both brides an apoplexy.
There was a pause in conversation as everybody had a chance to eat a bit more food, and as Freddie helped himself to a second glass of wine he glanced in Victoire's direction with a wicked smirk on his face.
"So Vic . . . what exactly would you describe as an appropriate wedding date?"
Victoire grabbed a piece of bread and began buttering it, "Well if you happen upon someone you think is attractive and start to chat them up and ask them out on a date, and they say 'yes' right away, that is someone who's probably not appropriate."
"Why?" Freddie asked with more than a little confusion.
"Because anybody who's appropriate would probably shoot you down the first or even the second and third time before agreeing to go out with you," Victoire replied matter-of-factly.
Freddie frowned at her, "And why do you think this?"
Victoire shrugged, "Because the only girls who you'd attract at first glance are probably a little trashy."
"And that's bad because . . . ?" Freddie trailed off with a grin instead of feeling criticized.
"Because I don't want trashy at my wedding!"
Freddie pursed his lips and took a long sip of wine from his glass, "I'm still not convinced."
Victoire practically growled at him and then she threw her newly buttered bun at her cousin's red head. The force with which she threw the bun at his head caused the projectile to actually hurt a little, especially since it hit Freddie right in the left eye.
"Ouch!" Freddie explained reflexively as he reached up to put pressure on his now injured eye.
Victoire didn't apologize, and she even went so far as to cross her arms over her chest and mutter loudly, "You're lucky that I didn't throw the butter knife at you instead."
"Merlin you've been quick to anger today Victoire," Molly stated as she pulled some ice-cubes out of her water glass, wrapped it in a linen napkin, and then offered it to Freddie for his eye.
Dom lifted her glass of wine to her lips and looked contemplatively at her sister, "Yeah, you've had some major mood swings lately."
"Well it is that time of the month," Louis muttered into the rim of his glass of water.
Victoire sent a heated glare to her little brother.
"I meant because the full moon's on Wednesday," Louis reminded her as he set his glass down on the table.
"But you don't see anybody else at this table going from zero to bitchy in ten seconds flat because of it," Dom argued with the intention of annoying her sister even more.
Teddy moved his hand to cover Victoire's on the table, mostly to stop her from following through with her threat of chucking her butter knife at someone, and cleared his throat, "Perhaps a different topic might be more conducive to a calmer conversation?"
"Sure," Ally piped up quickly, she was always ready to keep a family argument from escalating more than it already had, "Baxter, have you been working on any interesting projects at work lately?"
Baxter didn't really have anything of interest or importance to reply with, but he did his best to relay a banal story that wouldn't be able to anger anyone at the table. Victoire spent the rest of dinner time slowly eating her food so that her mouth would be occupied and unable to get into an argument with anyone else.
A/N: So house hunting didn't go quite as expected, and Victoire's a little put out that her mother had such good reasoning for interfering. (Although she doesn't see the irony in her dictating to James and Freddie that they needed Cecilia approved dates for the wedding.)
But what did we think of this chapter? We got a bit more background on some of the characters, and we're slowly moving forward in other ways.
Next Update: Not quite sure when but I do have the next chapter half-finished, so I will post it once it's finished.
Next Chapter: We get a peek a how Teddy and Jilly plan to train the younger aurors, and Nadia and Malcolm speak with Puddlemere publicists about their pregnancy.
Thank you again to everyone for following, favouriting, reading, and especially reviewing!
BIG thank yous as always to:
zvc56, blah345, kit94, Guest (1), Guest (2), Katia0203, Gnool, cjaben1, Break This Spell626, Guest (3), audrey3horses, Saagarika, CrackHeadBlonde, Guest (4), Rensk3N, NicoleTheSmith, rosesnlilies, and bookstar97.
blah345: It's nice to hear that you've been with me for so long and that you're still hanging on!
kit94: That probably wouldn't be a good behaviour to model for your students ;) And I'm glad to hear that you still like re-reading the series. Sometimes re-reading Try Tri Again makes me cringe because it's nowhere near the level I'm at now, but everyone gets better at things the more they practice.
Guest (1): There was a smidgeon more about the 'incident' here, and it seems that Teddy knows all about it.
Gnool: Well I'd hate to unintentionally bring on a meltdown . . . ;)
Break This Spell626: Baxter is a sweetheart, hopefully other people start to realize it soon too.
audrey3horses: I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother, but I'm glad that this story at least offers you some comfort and escape even for a little while.
CrackHeadBlonde: I'm glad that all of the characters and storylines don't seem too overwhelming. I never start a story with intention of absolutely all of the storylines that go into them, but somehow there always ends up being lots.
NicoleTheSmith: Thank you for always sticking with me.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter,
Please let me know what you thought of it in a Review,
If you have any questions or concerns you can drop them in a review or a PM,
I hope all of my fellow Canadians have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
And DFTBA!