A/N: Hi everyone, I really should stop giving you an estimate of when I'm going to update because obviously I can't stick to it. Sorry. Anyhoo, here's the next chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Last chapter Vic had a run-in with a crazy ex of hers. The Holmwoods are back in the game somehow. Vic's trying to figure out if she can find the spell that was used against Monsieur Leclair. Nobody likes Austin (I know that's not exactly new, just thought I'd remind you guys). And James is officially playing on Puddlemere's starting team in Nadia's place.
Distractions and Interventions
Wednesday, May 1st 2024
7:12 AM
Victoire moaned embarrassingly loudly as Teddy's mouth left a trail of open-mouthed kisses down her collarbone and towards the round collar of her blouse. Her own fingers were working frantically at the buttons of his shirt and she attached her mouth back to his just as her fingers finished with their task. Her palms immediately began smoothing themselves across the hard planes of his chest as she slipped her tongue into his mouth. He tasted of sweet jam and breakfast tea and she moaned again as his hands settled themselves on her hips and began to knead the muscles there.
Her knees went weak and a streak of fire shot towards her stomach from every point of contact she could feel from his body. Her heartbeat was racing and she was lightheaded as her hands trailed down his chest. Her fingers came to rest on the top button of his trousers.
Teddy, who had previously been squeezing the curves around her hips, suddenly pulled his hands and his mouth away from hers.
"Love I've got to be at work in forty-five minutes," Teddy told her apologetically as he stepped back to put some space between them.
Victoire didn't let him retreat and she followed his movements so that she was still close to him, "Well since I've just come off a night shift that went on an hour too long, I think that's plenty of time for the amount of energy I have left."
She pressed another kiss to his mouth and he kissed her back for several more minutes before he remembered he wanted to pull away, "I think there's a few things we need to talk about before we move on here."
"Let me guess? Adam?"
Since Victoire had been scheduled to work another night shift the day before, and since Teddy's training with his auror trainees went a little long, they had about twenty minutes to see each other the night before, before Victoire had to leave for her shift.
"Yes, although that wasn't what I was thinking about discussing this morning," Teddy told her as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"The Holmwoods?"
"Again yes, but still not what I was thinking about this moment."
Victoire pursed her lips, she was puzzled, "Our appointment to meet with the real estate agent again this weekend?"
"No – but yeah I guess we should talk about that before the actual appointment," He said as he grabbed the ends on his dress shirt as if he was going to button it back up.
"Then did you want to talk about how my appointment went with the lady from the Lycanthropy Support Office?" She asked him as she continued to guess what he was thinking about since all of her other guesses didn't seem to be panning out.
He sighed, "Did we not talk about that yet? Godric our schedules are crazy this week. Well let's add that to the list then for when we have more time."
"Did you want to say something else about me and Cassidy coming into the Auror Department on Friday to instruct your trainees on basic healing magic?"
"No," Teddy replied with a small sigh of relief, "That we had time to discuss and there's no changes so far."
Victoire frowned in confusion, "Then what do you want to discuss?"
"Tomorrow."
She frowned, the next day was Remembrance Day. One of her hands slowly travelled back to rest on his chest while the other moved to run through the presently light yellow hair on his head, "How about we have fun now and leave all that annoying grown up talking stuff for later?"
He leaned forward so that his forehead was pressing against hers, "I thought we agreed that we'd stop seducing each other when trying to avoid difficult conversations?"
"I thought that was only when you were trying to avoid discussing things," Victoire said in a tone that was filled with faux-innocence.
One of Teddy's eyebrows raised on his forehead.
"Look Babe, I've got about a half hour of over-tired energy left before I crash for half the day. Do you think our discussion about tomorrow will fit in that time constraint?" Victoire asked him in a no-nonsense tone.
He sighed. He knew that what they needed to talk about would definitely take longer than a half hour.
"I can't be late for work," Teddy told her seriously before leaning forward to press his mouth to hers in a hungry kiss.
Victoire melted against him immediately and welcomed the relief that came with her mind finally being completely distracted for at least the next half hour.
12:10 AM
After capturing four hours of the ever increasingly elusive sleep that she'd been deprived of for the last few days, Victoire forced herself out of bed and got ready as quickly as she could so she could make it to Diagon Alley in good time.
Ever since she found out from Colton that she wouldn't be getting reprimanded for using her spell to heal Monsieur Leclair, she had been curious as to what kind of spell could have caused such an awful series of symptoms. She had dedicated a lot of time the day before to searching through all of her Dark Arts Reversal textbooks to see if there were any spells that closely resembled the situation she'd encountered, when she suddenly remembered about the medieval healing book that Teddy had confiscated from her a few years previously. She had originally taken the tome from Grimmauld Place because it had a spell in it that could irreversibly and painfully castrate a man, and she had offered to Cecilia that she would cast it on Elijah Martell after she found out that he had tried to assault her.
Cecilia hadn't been able to take Victoire up on the offer because Teddy had quickly confiscated the book from her because he 'was an auror for Merlin's sake' and he couldn't just let her do something like that. After getting the book back from the Auror Department she had searched it front to back for a similar spell. Unfortunately there was only the one spell on castration and from the information written on the page the symptoms of the spell were very different.
She had decided that she needed to find a few more sources to search, so she made the decision to check out a couple book stores to see if she could find anything else pertaining to the spell. She doubted she'd find a book with the actual spell in it as those were definitely restricted, but she thought she might be able to find reference to it in a different book.
Researching spells meant visiting Obscurus Books where Molly Weasley worked. Visiting her younger cousin also usually meant that Victoire was able to embarrass her in some way, which was always fun.
As if she was a skilled legilimens, Molly groaned loudly when she saw her eldest cousin enter the shop she worked in. She tried to look extremely busy as she fiddled with a stack of books she had been curating for an elderly client who had owled in an order, and Victoire smirked in the redhead's direction before stepping up to the front counter where one of Molly's not-as-busy coworkers was standing.
"Could you give me a hand?" She asked the male employee in a polite voice.
The employee, who had met her before, blinked at her blankly and replied, "Are you looking for something in particular?"
"Any book that mentions a spell that liquefies a man's internal reproductive system causing excruciating pain and most likely sterility."
As she expected, the male employee flinched and took an automatic step back away from her.
"Uh–I don't–I'm not sure if–"
"I'll handle it Mike," Molly came to her co-worker's rescue as she rolled her eyes at Victoire's blasé response.
Mike nodded thankfully and high-tailed it out of hearing distance while Molly gave Victoire a long look.
"So who pissed you off this week?"
"Both Fabius and Adam Westcott. But they actually don't have anything to do with my research," Victoire explained.
Molly smirked, "Off course it doesn't. So do you have any starting ideas of what kind of book this elusive spell of yours might be in?"
"Well it's not in any of the Dark Arts Reversal spell books or Defense Against the Dark Arts texts that I have, so I'd say maybe some older texts that contain bizarre unsolved injuries?" Victoire suggested.
Molly nodded and then she started to collect a large amount of books and texts that she thought might be helpful. Victoire started skimming and speed reading through each book as Molly set them down. They spent a relatively quiet and fruitless half hour at the endeavour before Molly made another suggestion.
"Is it possible that this spell isn't intended to be dark per say, but instead it was meant as a useful spell to sterilize someone with the side effect of it being incredibly painful?"
Victoire thought on the suggestion for a few moments, "That's possible. Especially if it was a very old spell . . . maybe we should be looking into books about ancient fertility magic."
"You always bring me the most interesting research requests," Molly mused as she turned to go back into the very back of the book store, "Keep it up and you'll either get me promoted or fired."
Victoire snickered, "I'll do my best to avoid causing the latter."
"I'd appreciate it."
The two women were much slower as they searched through the old fertility texts as Victoire wanted to make sure that she didn't miss anything that could be considered a clue that could lead to the spell's whereabouts.
"Ancient Greek women use to mix what with water and drink it?" Molly asked appalled as she stopped reading the tome she was flipping through to start obnoxiously gagging.
Victoire glanced over at what Molly was reading and shrugged her shoulders, "Many societies used to do something similar thinking it would increase the women's fertility."
"Merlin that's gross I can't-"
"Really say anything considering the kinds of things that go into many everyday potions we still make," Victoire added with a bit of a smirk.
Molly's eyes went wide, "Are you telling me that Ally uses stuff like . . . that when she makes potions for the hospital?"
"No. Usually blood, saliva, and bile are the extent to animal bodily fluids that are used in healing potions, but that doesn't mean that other fluids aren't used in other potions," Victoire reasoned.
"Thanks, now I'm going to have to call Ally and ask her to tell me every ingredient of every potion I'll ever take from now on," Molly complained.
Victoire chuckled, "That sounds like and you and Ally problem now."
Molly enthusiastically closed the tome she was looking through just as another person entered the book shop. Victoire glanced up automatically when she heard the store's door closing and she smiled tiredly upon seeing Baxter Weasley.
"Hey Bax!"
Baxter smiled cautiously at his cousin, he could tell by the look on her face that she hadn't gotten much sleep after her night shift, and he slowly walked up to where she and Molly were around the far counter.
"Hey Vic, what's going on around here?" Baxter asked curiously as he opened one of the closed books on the counter to a random page.
Baxter's ears and face immediately went red as the page he'd opened to revealed a hand drawn picture of an ancient Sumerian intercourse technique that was supposed to increase the chance of conception.
"Gah!"
"I'm doing research," Victoire explained with a roll of her eyes as she closed the tome as not to further damage Baxter's sensitive sensibilities.
Baxter's face was still red, "On what? I thought you already gave your sex ed lecture at Hogwarts."
"I did. This is for something else," She explained as she swept away the tome he'd opened. They had already discarded it as an option because it didn't have any helpful information in it. Or at least nothing particularly helpful when it came to castration spells.
"She's researching for her honeymoon," Molly told her brother with as serious of an expression as she could muster.
Baxter looked like he was going to faint upon hearing this added information, and Victoire swatted Molly's arm before quickly correcting her, "No I'm not. It's healing related."
"Are you so bored with everything going on that you need to start a new research project to keep you busy?" Baxter asked sarcastically.
Victoire shook her head, "No, it's relevant to stuff that's already on my plate. What are you doing here? Obviously you didn't come here to see if you could give me a hand."
"Molly and I have a lunch date," Baxter explained.
The blonde cousin smirked, "That's adorable."
"Not exactly, Molly wants my help in planning an intervention for Lucy."
Molly nodded enthusiastically, "Yup, you in Victoire?"
"Are you seriously asking me to help you with an intervention for Lucy before even telling me what it's about?" Victoire asked Molly.
"Yes. You're always up for an intervention, I thought the reason why wouldn't matter too much," Molly reasoned.
Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose, Molly was right in that respect, "I'm sorry but I just don't have the time to help. I'm so busy with everything that's going on right now-"
"Godric Bloody Gryffindor, just ask me what the intervention's about Vic."
"Fine, what's the intervention about?"
Molly opened her mouth but Baxter beat her to the punch, "Lucy's secretly seeing Austin again. We found out that it's being going on longer than just that one time Dom found out about."
"Merde," Victoire swore in French, "Bloody Austin Pennington. Molly add him to the list."
Molly raised an eyebrow at her, "What list?"
"That earlier list about who's pissed me off this week even though it's not connected to my research into that spell that causes a painful liquefaction of the male internal reproductive system."
Baxter's head snapped towards Victoire and he swallowed thickly, "A spell that does what now?"
"Bax if you can't handle that diagram you saw in that ancient Sumerian book, you can't handle the rest of it, just pretend you never heard it," Molly suggested.
Baxter pointed his finger at her, "Will do."
"So," Molly began turning to Victoire again, "Back to Lucy. She's been secretly seeing Pennington again for like the past two weeks and Baxter and I think that we need to talk some sense into her."
"By 'talk some sense into her' do you actually mean doing something to her with the aid of a coercive spell?" Victoire asked succinctly.
Molly crossed her arms over her chest, "Are you asking this because you would disagree with that course of action or because you're offering to help me with it?"
Victoire glanced around herself to make sure that there was no one else within hearing distance and she whispered to her cousins, "You should know better than to tempt me like this!"
"So you're in?"
Victoire slapped a hand over her face, "Ugh. No. I'm not. That was Slytherin Victoire talking. She thinks blood's thicker than anything, especially Pennington's spine. She slips out really easily when I haven't gotten enough sleep after a night shift."
"Oh, can I talk to her for a few more minutes then? If she's not going to physically participate in the intervention I'm going to need some tips on how to do it without her," Molly said.
The eldest cousin let out a long sigh, "No. I can't. I'm marrying an auror for Merlin's sake."
"Teddy doesn't like Austin either," Baxter added helpfully.
Victoire glared at him that's not the point, "The point is that I'm trying to be a better person and ambushing Lucy to tell her for the fiftieth time my entire ninety-nine thesis on why Austin Pennington is an arsehole doesn't seem to fit that theme."
"Don't you even want to know why Lucy's been lying to all of us about her dating him again?" Molly asked.
Victoire snorted, "No. It's obvious she didn't tell us because she knows how much we all dislike him and that we'd give her and him an awful time about it."
"We wouldn't have to give her a hard time about it if she just realized that she deserves better than him and that we want her to be happy. He doesn't make her happy!" Molly exclaimed passionately.
Baxter sighed, "If you beat her over the head with it she's going to stop listening to you altogether."
"I think you'll be able to plan this intervention without my help. A Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor should be able to balance each other out when arranging an intervention for a Ravenclaw," Victoire reasoned.
Molly smirked, "This is why we need a Slytherin."
Victoire grabbed two of the books from the stack Molly had found for her and began to make her way to the cash register, "Find another one then! I've got research and a power-nap to get to."
4:46 PM
Baxter smiled sweetly at the toddler in front of him who was playing with a medium-sized muggle pop-up toy. Each time Rowan pressed or twisted one of the buttons or knobs a different animal popped-up and she would start back in surprise and then giggle and clap her hands. Baxter would point to the animal, say its name, and then wait for Rowan to try to repeat it.
"Hey Eliza, you were a Ravenclaw . . ." Baxter began as he glanced up from the toddler and looked in the direction of the kitchen area of Eliza's flat where the tall brunette was prepping dinner.
If Eliza turned her head just slightly she could see Baxter sitting on the floor of the living room next to her toddler, "How astute of you to remember Baxter."
Baxter ignored her sarcasm and continued, "And as a Ravenclaw if I wanted to try to convince you that the bloke you're dating is a complete prat and that you deserve way better than him, what would be the best way to go about that?"
"Are you trying to tell me that you want me to dump Benjamin, again?" Eliza asked as she set down her knife and looked directly at the redhead.
Baxter's eyes widened and he hastily started to explain, "No, no, no this has nothing to do with you! It's about Lucy."
"She's not dating Austin Pennington again is she?" Eliza asked. She picked her knife back up and went back to chopping the vegetables now that she was sure that Baxter wasn't trying to not-so-slyly tell her that she needed to chuck Benjamin.
"Unfortunately."
Eliza made a tsking sound, "Victoire's not going to like that . . . and neither is Cee-Cee."
"Nobody's going to like it. Not even Dad can find something redeeming in the prat anymore, and that's saying something considering that the last time they got back together after the last break-up, Dad pointed out that at least he's a reliable employee," Baxter repeated.
"Well at least he's never cheated on her or anything like that," Eliza remarked.
Baxter slowly pressed one of the buttons on Rowan's toy, making her giggle again. "Is it bad for me to wish that he did cheat on her? I think she'd finally kick him to the curb if he did."
Eliza set her knife down and then picked up her wand to magically peel some of the potatoes, "It could be worse, he could have impregnated her while he was engaged to another woman."
"In all honesty Eliza, I like Benjamin more than Austin Pennington by now," Baxter admitted.
"Wow. That took a lot for you to say."
Baxter chuckled, "It did. So how should we go about trying to help Lucy make the choices that will make her happy in the long run?"
"Try to appeal to Lucy's common sense. We Ravenclaws love to think that we're so intelligent and clever but even we make mistakes where our feelings or passion is involved. Remind her that it's okay for experiments to fail, and that even though you put a lot of work and effort into the experiment sometimes they just reach an end that's unsatisfactory," Eliza reasoned as she summoned some herbs to her to chop.
The redhead pursed his lips as he considered her words, "You think that will work?"
"It can't hurt," She replied.
"Well I guess telling Lucy that before Molly tries her hand at casting a coercion spell on her is worth a shot," Baxter pondered.
Eliza, who normally would be surprised at hearing someone admitting to knowing that someone had a plan to cast an illegal spell on someone else, took it all in stride since this was a rather normal conversation when dealing with the Weasley family, "Did Victoire give her that suggestion?"
"Actually, Vic told her that she couldn't be party to that because she's too busy and she's trying to be a better person," He enlightened.
She set her wand and knife down again and glanced at Baxter worriedly, "Is she feeling alright?"
"Honestly I think she's got so much on her plate right now that she's gonna end up with another ulcer, but I wouldn't dare tell her what to do," He added.
Eliza wiped her hands on her apron and walked back into the living room with a half-drunk mug of tea in her hands, "And what about you?"
"Well I've never had an ulcer but-"
"Stop," Eliza interrupted his attempted joke with a roll of her eyes, "I meant what about your love life?"
Baxter glanced back down at Rowan, "It's non-existent."
"Well you better find one soon or Cecilia will have to find you a date for Victoire's wedding."
His head snapped up, "How do you know about that?"
"Cecilia, duh," Eliza replied, "So stop playing shy and let me help you figure out who you should ask before it's all up to Cecilia and whatever amount of mercy she had left for you."
Baxter let out a heavy exhale, "I don't really have any idea who to ask. I don't spend a lot of time with women who I'm not related to, or are not you."
"Fair enough . . . but let's try to rack our brains, okay?"
"I'm thinking, but there's no one!"
Eliza rolled her eyes, "You went to that club with Freddie and James last week right? Didn't you meet anyone there?"
"Selene Spiros, Teagan Childs, and Jordan Simpson."
"Well there's three very nice women right there," Eliza pointed out.
Baxter snorted, "Teagan's way too intimidating, Jordan's never said more than five words to me, and Selene's-"
"Selene's a very nice and very pretty woman," Eliza reminded him needlessly.
He sighed again, "Selene's off limits."
"Why?"
"Can't tell you."
Eliza shook her head, "Whatever. What about someone from work?"
"I only work with Blair Ollivander, the only women I come across there are patrons looking for wands," Baxter reminded her.
"Does Cecilia have any female friends?"
"You."
"Besides me."
"Then no, you know she's not the type who easily develops close female friendships."
Eliza nodded, "True. Hmmm . . . do you remember my friend Gemma?"
"No thank you."
"What's wrong with Gemma?"
"Did you talk to her about me when we were dating two years ago?"
"Yes . . ."
"Then no thank you."
There was a pause of silence in the room where the only noise was of Rowan playing with her toy.
Eliza finally let out a long sigh, "Well since you've shot down all of my other ideas you know what I'm going to suggest now."
"What?"
His dark-haired friend smirked at him and folded her arms across her chest, "Lia."
Baxter replied immediately, "No."
She expected his denial, "C'mon, bakery girl consistently hits on you every time you're in the store and she's being doing so for almost two years."
"She's just trying to sell more sweets," Baxter argued.
Eliza raised an eyebrow at him, "By sticking her tongue in your mouth?"
"That was an unavoidable magical Christmas mistletoe incident," He told her.
She smirked, "That happened two years in a row?"
"I'll just go to the wedding stag," Baxter said changing the topic away from the bakery girl.
Eliza shook her head at him, "You're impossible."
"It's a Weasley trait."
He knew he shouldn't have been proud about what he said, but he sort of was, and he couldn't stop his smile when he thought about it. Eliza shook her head at him again and said something to Rowan in a high-pitched tone about Uncle Baxter being crazy. Rowan giggled and Baxter picked her up and tickled her for laughing at him. As he readjusted his grip on the laughing toddler he asked Eliza if she needed help with dinner. She replied in the negative and then went back into the kitchen.
The front door of the flat opened a few moments later and Benjamin Dickinson walked in wearing a set of smart dress robes. His gaze quickly swept across the open-concept room and he noted Eliza cooking in the kitchen and Baxter in the living room with Rowan.
"Good evening everyone. Baxter, have I mentioned how lovely it is to get home after a long day of work to find another man holding my daughter and entertaining my girlfriend?" Benjamin said sardonically as he took off his travelling cloak and placed it on the rack near the front door.
Baxter rolled his eyes and slowly set Rowan down on the ground so that she could run to her father, "Aw Benjamin, you don't have to thank me for spending an hour with your daughter so that your girlfriend could finish her last translation and get a few things done around the flat while you were busy rubbing elbows with people who gossip about her and call her names behind her back."
Rowan had reached Benjamin yelling 'Daddy' by the time Baxter had finished his comment, so instead of replying he had to focus on picking Rowan up and forcing a smile onto his face as he looked at her. Eliza came around the corner out from the kitchen at the same time.
"Put the claws away please ladies," Eliza said patting Baxter on the arm before she walked over to Benjamin and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.
Benjamin gave Eliza a look before glancing back at Baxter, "Thank you for giving Eliza some help. She has a lot on her plate between taking care of Rowan and freelance translating runes and I can't always help out as much as I'd like during the day because I'm low in seniority at work and I get the worst hours."
"I don't apologize for pointing out how poorly your associates treat Eliza, but I know it's not fair of me to insinuate that there's much you can do about it when they control so much of your future," Baxter said in his own version of an apology.
"Thank you."
"Or at least that's what Eliza says."
"Baxter," Eliza said in a warning tone.
"All I'm saying is that if my boss was such a dick to my family members that I'd find another job," Baxter muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Benjamin scowled at the redhead, "If I quit this job they'll blacklist me and I won't be able to join any of the top established law firms in England for years."
Eliza sighed and glanced at both men, "This isn't something that we need to discuss right no-"
"So what you're saying is that there's no respectable law firm in the entirety of the British wizarding world that isn't under the influence of your present bosses?" Baxter asked with more than a hint of sarcasm.
Benjamin readjusted his grip on Rowan, "All of the law firms around are like an old pureblood boys' club. Between my boss and my father they'd do an excellent job at making it impossible for me to find another position in a different firm."
"Dinner's almost ready!" Eliza announced loudly, but less with excitement and more with force because she wanted to end the present discussion. She glanced at Baxter, "You're welcome to join us, but only if you promise to talk about anything else."
Baxter sent Eliza a bit of an apologetic shrug and then shook his head, "I appreciate the offer but I've got to go back to my flat and get ready for the quidditch game tonight."
"Puddlemere playing?" Eliza asked curiously as she grasped tightly onto the new change in conversation topic.
"Yeah," Baxter said with a nod, "It's James's first game in Nadia's position now that everybody knows that he's taking over for her during her pregnancy.
Benjamin handed Rowan over to Baxter so that he could give the adorable toddler a hug and kiss goodbye and told him to wish James good luck from them. After giving Rowan her goodbye he handed the dark haired toddler off to her father again and reached forward to give Eliza a hug. Benjamin said goodnight to Baxter as he started to walk towards the kitchen with Rowan in tow. Eliza thanked Baxter for watching Rowan for a bit that afternoon so she could get a bit of work done around the house as she walked him to the front door of the flat.
Once Baxter had left, Eliza found that Benjamin had strapped Rowan into her highchair in the kitchen and was presently wrestling her into a full-torso covering bib. Eliza got their plates ready and set them on the table just as Benjamin was resorting to casting a sticking charm onto the bib to make it adhere to Rowan's jumper so that she wouldn't be able to pull it off herself anymore.
Eliza snorted in amusement at his action but didn't comment as she knew that Rowan was going through a phase where she didn't want to wear bibs mostly for the sake of annoying her parents. Benjamin sighed in relief once he was able to distract Rowan with the mashed potatoes that were on her child-proof dinner plate and collapsed into the chair across the small table from Eliza.
"Thanks for making dinner again," Benjamin told Eliza before he shovelled a forkful of roasted vegetables in his mouth.
Eliza ate with more delicacy as she used her knife to slice into her chicken, "Well I really appreciated the fact that you made breakfast this morning."
"All I did was make tea, toast, and some scrambled eggs," Benjamin disputed before shoving another forkful of food into his mouth.
"Yes, but it tasted good and you making breakfast and minding Rowan allowed me the opportunity to have a shower that lasted more than six minutes," She reminded him.
He smirked, "Ah yes, I forgot that you enjoy the little things."
She rolled her eyes at him and then glanced at Rowan who was trying to eat only the inside part of her green peas.
"Did you get all the translating done that you had scheduled for today?" Benjamin asked Eliza as they ate dinner.
"I was on schedule but then Rowan decided that she only wanted to nap fifteen minutes at a time today so I was behind by the time Baxter stopped in," She explained.
He picked up his knife to cut off a piece of chicken, "So it really was helpful that Baxter stopped by to mind Rowan for a bit?"
"If he hadn't I probably would have been pulling my hair out and had burnt half of dinner by the time you came home," She admitted.
Benjamin lightly tapped his fork against his plate, "Are you feeling alright?"
"It's just normal stress. I just wish that . . ." She trailed off because she didn't really know what she wanted to say.
"There were more hours in the day?" He suggested.
She nodded at his words. It was a better answer than her saying that she wished that he was home more often to help her.
The three of them ate for a few more minutes before Eliza put down her knife and fork and took a deep bracing breath.
"You've been in your position at this law firm for almost a year now, right?" Eliza asked Benjamin even though she already knew the answer.
He nodded and then went back to eating, not realizing where she was going with her train of thought.
"Do you believe that other law firms would consider that enough experience?"
Benjamin looked up from his potatoes, "You mean if I were to apply for a job at a different firm?"
"Yes."
He sighed heavily and set down his own utensils, "Didn't you just ask Baxter to drop this thread of conversation like half an hour ago?"
"Well I've had half an hour for my mind to focus on only thinking about this so if we don't talk about it I might end up passive-aggressively acting out for the next few days," Eliza muttered.
Benjamin nodded and then took a few minutes to collect his thoughts before restarting the conversation, "In all honesty Eliza, there really isn't anywhere for me to go if I don't end with my present firm on good terms."
"You did an excellent job during your internship with Cunningham and Knott, I'm sure they would-"
He interrupted her, "They didn't offer me a job when my internship was over, so I doubt they'd do it now-"
"The only reason they didn't offer you a position when you finished was because Creighton Knott knew from your father that you were already offered a position from your present firm so he didn't offer a counter-one out of curtesy," Eliza reminded him.
"You know that both my boss and Creighton are old friends with my dad. If I cross any of them I'm screwed with the others. My dad will know if I even so much as casually ask Creighton if he has any openings in his office," Benjamin told her even though the has also discussed this before.
Eliza ran a hand stressfully through her hair, "Why would your father care if you want to work at Cunningham and Knott instead of where you are?"
"Well ever since Colton Knott personally decided to take my side back when dad was throwing out the idea of making you sign away all your parental rights to Rowan if she'd been born a boy, Dad's been hesitant about whether he'll encourage my ridiculous obsession with you and Rowan. I think that's one of the reasons why Dad encouraged my current boss to offer me a position before Colton had the chance to. He didn't want me getting closer to Colton than was necessary."
Eliza's eyes sparked at Benjamin's explanation and she pounced on the information that she read between the lines of his words, "Do you think Colton Knott would offer you a position if you were looking for one?"
Benjamin sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I don't know . . . I don't think Creighton would allow him to if my Dad found out."
"But do you think Creighton would be able to stop Colton completely? I mean I doubt Creighton ever wanted Dominique Weasley to work there either but she's one of their firm's top associates," Eliza added.
"I honestly don't know Eliza, this is a lot of conjecture," Benjamin said with another sigh, "Can we just, for now, try to talk about something else?"
Eliza was unhappy with ending their conversation without reaching some sort of resolution for their problem, but she was beginning to learn that not all problems could be solved or answered the minute they popped up. She didn't like it, but it was a fact of life she had to get used to.
Trying to do as he asked, she changed the topic of conversation away from his job, "So the weather is supposed to be really nice on Sunday so I thought it would be fun to take Rowan to that muggle park a few streets over that has the brand new play structure-"
"Bugger!" Benjamin interjected as he face-palmed his forehead.
Eliza raised an eyebrow at him after sending a quick glance towards Rowan to make sure that she wasn't about to parrot back her father's language as she was wont to do recently (as Cecilia learned the hard way a few days previously when she swore in Gaelic in front of the toddler).
"Got something against playgrounds?"
"No," Benjamin replied, ignoring her sarcasm, "I just remembered that my mother owled me earlier today and was grumbling about how she hasn't seen Rowan in a while and that she'd like to see us this weekend. She mentioned something about a small Sunday brunch party."
Eliza scoffed and summoned a washcloth to her. She tapped the end of her wand to the fabric and wet it before dabbing it against her daughter's face to clean her up as the almost two-year-old finally seemed finished with her dinner, "Small? So what, only like fifty people?"
"She is trying to be a good grandmother for once," Benjamin defended his mother.
"You know I'm not actually going to say 'no' to our daughter spending time with your parents when they're trying to be actual grandparents, so just let me complain a little about them being fickle," Eliza shot back before picking Rowan up from her highchair and giving her an unintentionally very tight hug.
Benjamin pulled out his wand and sent all of the dinner dishes to the sink, "Fair enough. So are we going?"
"Of course you can go, but I'll need to know exactly how fancy this brunch party of your mother's is going to be so I can pick out an outfit to dress Rowan in for it," Eliza glanced at the dark haired little girl currently in her arms and noted the smears of food from her dinner that she somehow stained her clothes with despite the fact that she had worn a bib complete with full sleeves, "Or two, one for her to wear and one to pack for you to put on her after she eats."
Benjamin stopped his process of filling the kitchen sink with soap and water and turned to glance at her, "I think you misunderstood me Eliza . . . all three of us are invited to and expected to attend brunch on Sunday."
Eliza tore her eyes away from Rowan's face, as she had been closely examining her daughter to inspect her for signs of tiredness, and scowled in Benjamin's direction, "I have to go too?"
"Well . . . yeah," Benjamin replied as he self-consciously avoided eye-contact with Eliza and looked down at the floor, "I made it clear to my mother the last time we were over that the three of us are a family unit and that I would not be accepting invites on mine and Rowan's behalf anymore if she purposely leaves you out of them."
"Why would you do that?" Eliza hissed at him, "The last time your mother did include me in an invite she made sure to introduce you to three different single heiresses while I was standing right next to you."
Benjamin made eye contact with her again and threw his hands up in the air, "And I told her when she did that that I didn't appreciate it! But she's never going to accept you as a part of my life if you keep avoiding them. They've finally mostly come around to Rowan, so now you have to be around them long enough for you to grow on them."
"It's hard to put down roots when you get removed before you can even start to germinate," Eliza argued.
At this point Rowan started to wiggle because she'd been held in one place for so long, and Eliza knelt to the floor so she could set her daughter down. The minute Rowan was free she ran into the living room to play with the discarded toy Baxter had been entertaining her with earlier.
"Germi–what?" Benjamin asked confusedly.
"Geminate: when a seed beings to grow or spout. I forgot that you didn't take Herbology."
Benjamin nodded, "Ah."
"Are you sure that you mother will stop introducing you to single women in front of my face?" Eliza asked in a calmer tone of voice as she walked towards where he stood at the sink.
He smirked a little at her, "I'll make sure that she only does it behind your back."
She rolled her eyes at him but allowed him to wrap his arm around her waist and pull her towards him in a loose hug.
"I guess that's all I can expect right now, isn't it?" She said with a similar sarcasm as she allowed his hug.
Benjamin pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "She's going to dislike you until I marry you and impregnate you with a male heir."
Eliza stiffened in his arms and pushed away so that she could make severe eye contact with him, "Which is not going to happen, if it ever does, for like ten more years."
He studied her expression for a moment before nodding his head solemnly, "Of course . . . I know that . . ."
She sighed and rubbed her palms on her eyes, "Please tell me that we don't need to discuss that now on top of everything else."
"No, I think we can table it for a while," He replied quietly.
"Good, because-"
Eliza's words were cut off by the sudden sound of Rowan crying in the living room. Despite the fact that their living room and kitchen had an open-concept style, the further into the kitchen they were the harder it was to see their two-foot tall toddler. The pair of them sprinted into the living room until they could spot Rowan. She was sitting in front of the pop-up toy and crying in what they soon realized was frustration. It seemed that she was able to make each door but one open, and she was crying in frustration because she didn't have the dexterity to open the last one.
The young parents shared a quick look that said that they both knew that when Rowan started to get easily frustrated it meant that she was getting very tired, and Benjamin offered to finish the dishes while Eliza started Rowan a bath; the first step of her bedtime routine.
10:12 PM
It was almost a quarter after ten by the time Teddy got away from the celebrating crowd at the Puddlemere United stadium. The Puddlemere versus Magpies game had finished almost an hour ago, but everyone was so hyped up with energy after Puddlemere won the game that it took Teddy a while to file out of the box in the stadium he'd be sitting in with the family and friends of several of the players. Ally specifically was overly excited about Xavier's great performance, and since Nadia had been grounded because of her pregnancy, she now had a very willing partner to discuss in detail every play that happened the second after it was completed.
Victoire was unable to attend the home game that evening because she was working another night shift in the D. A. R. ward, but several of their other family members were able to make James's first official game where everyone knew that he was going to be playing Nadia's position for the duration of her pregnancy. There was a lot of pressure placed on James for that evening's game, but even Nadia –who's pregnancy-induced mood swings had made her very abrupt and severe with her critiques – had spent most of her time (whenever she wasn't suddenly crying over how cute Brogan was in his personalized mini-Puddlemere jersey) complementing many if not most of James's plays.
The only reason why Teddy had stuck around the stadium for so long after the game was finished was because he wanted a chance to talk to James once he was finished getting changed out of his gear. Katie had taken Ginny and Harry down to the team's changing room once the game was finished; smirking as she went as she imagined how embarrassed James was going to be when he was suddenly confronted with his overly-enthusiastic and proud mother. Ginny and Harry had just came back to the rest of their extended family who were still at the stadium and informed everyone who was waiting to see James that while he appreciated their support, he was exhausted from the game and had already gone back to his flat to get some rest. The rest of James's family didn't seem too concerned with James's sneaky escape as they'd be able to give him their praise on his playing at some point over the next few days, but Teddy made sure to have a quick whispered conversation with Harry over whether he thought James would be amenable to a quick visit from one person at his flat.
After getting a nod of approval from Harry, Teddy slipped out of the stadium and immediately apparated to the apartment complex that was designated specifically for members of Puddlemere United's quidditch teams. He was already on James's list of pre-approved visitors, so he slipped right past the security guard on duty and into the lift. The doors opened to the floor that held James's flat and Teddy walked out and down the familiar hallway. He knocked twice on the front door of James's flat, and only had to wait a few moments before the younger dark haired man opened the door.
James didn't seem too surprised to see Teddy standing on his doorstep, and he had either just showered at his flat or before he left the stadium because his hair was still damp. He gestured for Teddy to come into his flat, and James glanced around at the empty space behind Teddy in the hallway before closing his front door.
"No Victoire?"
Teddy shook his head, "No, she's working a night shift tonight. If it counts for anything she was really mad that she couldn't make it."
James gestured for Teddy to walk further into his flat towards the living room, "She's going to work all night and then turn around and sit through the Remembrance Day Ceremony at Hogwarts tomorrow?"
"That's her plan."
"Well, more power to her," James said with a look that said that he didn't believe that Victoire would be able to handle a Remembrance Day without any sleep, but he didn't argue about it.
Teddy pulled James into a tight hug after that and patted him on the back, "You were wonderful tonight."
"Really?" James asked as he pulled away a little and looked Teddy in the eye.
"Of course," Teddy replied, "Even Nadia said you were doing wonderful. She might not say it to your face directly because her mood swings have been potentially lethal lately, but she was impressed."
James actually blushed a little, "Well thanks for being the messenger then." He gestured to the sofa and arrangement of chairs in his living room and told Teddy to sit.
Teddy avoided the armchair that had a half-drunk glass of liquid next to it, he assumed that that had been the spot James had vacated to open the door for him, and sat down on the sofa right next to the chair. James sat down in his own chair, noticed his own drink, and then belatedly asked his god-brother if he could get him anything.
"Well what are you drinking?" Teddy asked as he eyed the dark green liquid in James's transparent glass.
James made a bit of a face, "Actually it's that replenishing health drink Vic used to make us drink after a hard practice or game at school."
"That one that tastes like over-boiled broccoli but is good for your electrolytes?" Teddy asked with a bit of a smirk.
"Did she make you drink it too?" James asked curiously.
Teddy chuckled, "She started insisting everyone on the team drink it during my last year as captain. I didn't have the energy to argue with her when she started showing me pages of data on how drinks like those helped decrease instances of mineral dehydration or whatever the hell it was she was saying."
"Yeah," James said fondly as he looked back at his drink, "So do you want one of these, or a butterbeer?"
"Butterbeer please," Teddy responded with a laugh.
James got to his feet to get the drink out of the fridge even though he could have easily summoned it with magic –mostly because his mother had told him that doing so to any guests he may have was rude– but he did toss the bottle to Teddy when he got back into the living room.
Teddy caught it easily and unscrewed the top, "I know that you're probably tired, but I wanted to come over in case you felt like you needed to verbally decompress on someone."
"I feel both exhausted and oddly jittery at the same time," James admitted in a rush before taking another sip of the post-game concoction Victoire had recommended for him.
His god-brother smiled indulgently, "I thought that might be the case."
"But I don't understand why I feel like this when it's not my first time playing for Nadia in a game," James confessed.
Teddy sipped his butterbeer, "May I throw out a suggestion?"
James waved his hand as if to say 'go for it'.
"I think you may feel this way because you know people were judging you much more this time. Before when you filled in for Nadia, people didn't find out until just before the game. Now people know that you're going to be playing that position for the next nine months and they're going to expect more out of you than just someone who's filling in at the last minute. They were all scrutinizing you tonight and imagining that this is what they're going to see from now on. It's a lot of pressure."
James put his drink down and made eye-contact with Teddy, "I'd accuse you of using Legillimency on me but I don't even think that I'm thinking those thoughts anywhere near as coherently right now as you just said them."
"Telling you not to worry isn't going to help you, so I'm just going to tell you that you should remember how much effort you've put into this and how much practicing you've done. You've done the work and put in the time, trust in that and in your skills," Teddy told James encouragingly.
James smiled in appreciation, but before their conversation could get mushy he decided to crack a joke, "So I don't need any more extra practice playing with my opposite arm or across my midline?"
Teddy snorted, "Now I didn't say that. You still relied way too heavily on your left side for a centre chaser."
"I guess I shouldn't quite cancel those extra practices with Selene just yet then," James bantered back.
His god-brother smiled just a little bit and took another sip from his bottle of butterbeer, "Do you feel that your practice with her on Sunday helped a lot?"
"Definitely," James replied with an enthusiastic nod, "She gave me a lot of helpful advice and she wasn't shy about correcting my form as we practiced throwing and catching with my non-dominant side."
Teddy smiled bigger, "That doesn't surprise me."
Both men were quite for a few moments as they sipped their beverages. Once James had swallowed the last of his electrolyte replenishing drink Teddy set his almost finished bottle of butterbeer down on the coffee table in front of him.
"So do you have another date set up with Selene for this weekend?"
James's eyes went wide and he began to splutter, "Wha–but–it's not–"
"A date? I know. You're just practicing together," Teddy assured him with a smile that was a little hard to decipher.
The younger man's shoulders relaxed a little.
"So how are things going with Selene?"
James looked like he was about to blush, but at the same time an adorably exasperated expression came across his face, "She's a wonderful coach and very supportive. She's a brilliant centre chaser to start with but she's also really good at explaining how to play the position and all of the intricacies involved. To be honest if Neville had known how good of a coach she is, he very well might have picked her as Gryffindor quidditch Captain instead of me."
"It seems like Selene Spiros has an endless amount of good qualities."
"Teddy," James groaned in warning.
The metamorphmagus ignored his tone. The last time he had discussed this with James he had been a gentle presence who had been there to listen. He didn't ask any questions or do any pushing. This time however, he felt that James might be in the need of a little bit more of a push.
"So how are things going with Selene?"
"You just asked me that," James retorted avoiding eye-contact with his god-brother. He knew exactly what he was referring to, but he wanted to play dumb.
"The first time I asked, quidditch practice was the implied theme. This time I'm asking about everything non-quidditch related," Teddy explained needlessly.
James's fingers started tapping anxiously on the arm of his chair, "There isn't anything non-quidditch related going on between me and Selene."
"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Teddy asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Whatever there might have been, at one time, is all behind me now Teddy," James insisted somewhat cryptically. It was a slightly different tone than what he said a little more than a week ago when they'd last, somewhat cryptically, discussed the same topic.
Teddy quirked another eyebrow, "You spent the last year avoiding pretty much all purposeful contact with Selene Spiros because you have absolutely no feelings for her?"
James started picking at his nail beds, "I don't know what you want from me right now Teddy."
"All I want to know is if you know what you want from your relationship with Selene."
The younger man let out a long sigh, "We're friends. She's a great friend. There's no need to push for anything else between us."
"What if there's something there without you even needing to push?" Teddy asked sagely.
James kept picking at his nail beds even though there were no hangnails left to pluck, "There isn't anything more there."
"I've spoken to a few reliable sources that report the opposite."
The younger man didn't even bother to ask who these reliable sources could be. Weasleys (and Cecilia for that matter) were damn nosey beings.
"There can't be anything more there," He maintained forcefully.
Teddy waited a few moments so that James was forced to make eye-contact with him, "Why can't there be?"
"We've discussed this already! With what happened last year and how everything went down with me and her and Mélanie, if the media were to find out it could be horrible for our careers and-"
Teddy interrupted James's spiralling, "And that excuse worked when you'd been avoiding significant contact with her for a year, but now that you've renewed your friendship people are going to start to speculate even if you're actually not more than just friends. It might all still come out in the media even if you aren't anything more with Selene than just a friend."
James stopped picking at his nailbeds and grabbed a handful of his hair; perfectly exhibiting the most obvious sign of stress there was for any male Potter.
"But you shouldn't waste all of this time and effort worrying about what the media is going to say about you. They're going to say a lot about you during your career and most of it's going to be completely fake. Are you really going to let the fear of what the media might say about you, affect who you chose to spend your time with?" Teddy asked him in a gentle tone.
James grabbed another handful of hair and as he pulled on his short dark locks he looked like he was still battling internally with something else that he hadn't quite voiced yet.
"I can't help worrying about it, if they find out-"
"About a rumour that's completely untrue? All that should matter is that-" Teddy stopped himself this time. As he was speaking he was closely watching James's face and he noted when his god-brother's skin went almost greenish grey. Instead of his words calming James down, they seemed to be riling him up even more.
"What's wrong James?"
He almost pulled out a few strands of hair, "But what will the media do when they find out there's truth to the rumour?"
"Well most rumours are based in some sort of truth but-"
James interrupted him and sighed heavily, "You just – you don't get it."
Teddy frowned, "What is there not to get? You told me what happened last year and how Selene unintentionally got involved in your break-up with Mélanie . . . unless there was more to the story that you didn't tell me?"
The younger man ground his teeth together, "You know how I told you that Will bloody Dyson started that rubbish rumour last year that I was cheating on Mélanie with Selene?"
Teddy nodded. That was definitely the main part of the story that he had heard from James, even though he had done his best to keep that information from his parents and the rest of his family when explaining about his and Mélanie's break-up.
"And how I told you that even though I did my best to quash the rumour, Mélanie still got really jealous about it and it led to our break-up?"
His god-brother nodded again, remembering how James had shed a few tears of frustration when telling him about how his first real relationship had ended so horridly.
"I lied to you."
Teddy frowned again, this time in confusion, "About what?"
"I did cheat on Mélanie."
It took a few moments for Teddy to register the ashamed whisper of James's words into an actual sentence in his mind.
"With who?" He asked, both stunned and still rather confused.
James almost rolled his eyes at the ridiculous question, "With Selene."
Teddy's turquoise eyebrows narrowed over his dark blue eyes, "Are you sure?"
It was a bit of a ridiculous question to ask someone, but the fact that James would cheat on Mélanie was a ridiculous concept in the first place. The fact that he would actually cheat on Mélanie with someone as morally upstanding as Selene Spiros was even more ludicrous, their previous history notwithstanding.
"Yes. I kissed Selene while I was still dating Mélanie."
Teddy's confusion started to abate a little with this clarification, "You're not talking about that mistake you made under the mistletoe are you? You accidentally kissing Selene on the lips when she was stuck under the mistletoe instead of on the cheek is understandable. Especially after Freddie had spelled it so that one sprig would follow her around half the day-"
"That's not what I'm talking about," James interrupted stressfully.
At this point James stood up from his chair and started pacing around his living room, still pulling at his hair.
Teddy next words were slow and measured, "What are you talking about then?"
"I kissed Selene while I was still dating Mélanie, and it wasn't because of mistletoe. It happened just before Mel and I broke up before graduation."
Teddy was silent for several moments as he tried to digest this information. He studied James's face closely, and even though he wanted so many more details about what exactly happened between him, Selene, and Mélanie, there was something more important for him to talk to James about.
"And you feel extremely guilty about it?" Teddy summarized.
"Of course I feel guilty about it!" James exclaimed suddenly with a level of passion that surprised Teddy at first, "I cheated on my girlfriend, making a fake rumour that was already going around about my cheating on my girlfriend become real. It doesn't matter if Mélanie and I were already practically over by the time the whole thing went down, I still betrayed her and her trust. And not only that but I also treated Selene terribly by making her the other woman when there was already a rumour going on about her being the other woman that we were working hard to quash, so if people were to find out that the rumour actually ended up being real-"
Teddy reached to James and placed what he hoped was a comforting hand on James's shoulder, "Whoa, whoa, take a deep breath mate."
He actually waited until James took a few deep breaths before speaking again, "You threw out a lot of information there and it was a little hard to follow along. Do you want to go back to the beginning and tell me the whole story a little more slowly? I'd like to know what did happen between you and Selene, because apparently there's a lot more than I previously thought."
Teddy almost felt bad about bringing up the topic of Selene now that he was seeing how difficult it was for James, but another part of him felt that after hearing more from James it was now even more obvious that there was a lot that James needed to get off his chest in concern to his relationship with Selene.
James ran both of his hands distractedly through his hair three times before he let out a long exhale and started his explanation from the beginning.
A/N: Dun, dun, dun! I guess there's more to James and Selene's relationship than meets the eye. I also squeezed some Eliza and Benjamin in there because I know you lot were missing them. Also, poor Baxter, he really walked in on Victoire and Molly at the wrong time.
Fun: Earlier in the week one of my readers, Beckster384 (thanks again!), messaged me to let me know that Oprah magazine online had published an article on May 13th about the '51 of the Best Harry Potter Fan Fiction Stories on the Internet' and they listed about 5 stories from different categories of HP fanfictions. The first story in this series, Try and Tri Again, was mentioned as one of the best in the Next Gen section, which is really cool! You can easily google Oprah magazine and the title of the article and find the article if you'd like suggestions of other good fanfic stories to read as well.
Next Update: I won't lie to you. I have no idea when it's goign to happen. Here in Ontario we're still mostly shut down and we're having trouble lowering our curve enough to get to the next stage of opening, so my life is still up in the air right now, as I'm sure most people's are in this day and age.
Next Chapter: Remembrance Day at Hogwarts complete with ceremony, Hogwarts kiddos, and drama.
I want to thank everybody who had followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed this story!
BIGGEST thank-yous as always to:
Saagarika, Emely, clessard, M, MuggleCreator, Guest (1), frozen-in-change, audrey3horses, NicoleTheSmith, Izzy, ASlytherinGal, no cure for crazy, loveislife94, rosesnlilies, Break This Spell626, Egret27, zvc56, Jily71102, and Fangirl.
Saagarika: Don't worry, it won't be the last time we see Mr. Westcott.
Emely: Greetings back from Canada.
clessard: Cringey enough?
frozen-in-change: Orrel is a new character, you didn't read it wrong. And thank you for your happy thoughts.
NicoleTheSmith: I don't think Spencer could handle France, especially since he doesn't speak the language.
Izzy: As always, wonderful questions and summations :)
no cure for crazy: We're doing a lot of yard work here as well, we've planted a vegetable garden this year and I keep sending my brother snapchats of it's daily growth. Thank you for the good wishes for my family, luckily we're all doing well.
loveislife94: I'm glad you enjoy the series so much, the main reason why I started writing the first story all those years ago is because I couldn't find any Teddy/Vic fanfics that I felt encompassed how I thought the characters would be, so I wrote my own. Thanks for the suggestion, I have read a lot of Marauder stuff but I don't know if I've read that one.
I hope everyone enjoyed this story,
I hope that everyone is presently as well as they can be,
Please leave me a comment, question, or review to let me know what you thought of this story,
Until next time stay safe, listen to your local public health authorities, and DFTBA!