A/N: Hello everyone, as you can see by the size of this update it is a brand new chapter. I know that I have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do, but I will leave that to the end A/N and just let you get on with this chap as I have been so rude as to keep all of you waiting as long as I have.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Ally, Dom, and Victoire's friends discovered that Vic has been lying to them about the date of her birthday for decades. Vic's developed another ulcer that just seems to be getting worse as her stress and anxiety get the better of her. Teddy has asked Vic to arrange a first-aid course for his and Jilly's auror trainees as they've found their magical first aid skills lacking.
*I would really recommend re-reading the last chapter over again, but if you don't want to I would suggest at least reading near the middle to the end of the chapter where Victoire has a confrontation with her ex-boyfriend as it's a good refresher.
Auror Department Lessons
Friday, May 3rd 2024
11:01 AM
". . . I know it feels like I betrayed you and I am so sorry that I've had to keep this a secret from you for so long, but I am sorry that I caused you pain and I . . . I just don't know what else to say beside the fact that I'm so damn sorry Ally," Victoire pleaded into her mobile phone as she nervously twisted a quill around the fingers on her free hand.
She debated repeating her apology once more but then there was a sharp beep on the other end of the phone line that indicated that Victoire had run out of the allotted time allowed for a phone message. Victoire ended the call, not that she had any other option, and her thumb hovered over the icon on her own mobile phone for the text message application. She really wanted to send Ally another text, but then she worried that sending her cousin her thirtieth apology text message of the morning might seem just a little bit desperate.
Victoire had started trying to contact Ally (along with Sandra and her siblings) since the evening before to apologize for lying to them about her birthday. She'd woken up from a four hour nap the night before, swallowed the proper dosage of ulcer-curing potion that Teddy had gotten her from the apothecary, and then tried to contact everyone who seemed angry with her for lying about her birthday. Ally had been the first person she called, but after reaching her answering machine service four times she went on to call the others. It didn't take too long for Sandra to accept her apologies (originally, she'd been more surprised than angry about it) although she did expect to be teased about the whole event by Kyle for the next several years at least.
Louis had been the first of her siblings that she called, and even though he hadn't been there in person when the bombshell was dropped, she was sure that he'd heard about it from their middle sibling. Thankfully, Louis wasn't the type to hold a grudge and he easily accepted her apology for never telling him the truth about her birthday. Dom on the other hand, was much more difficult to deal with. Unlike Ally, she answered her mobile phone on the first ring, however like Ally, it seemed that she wasn't going to forgive and forget anytime soon.
After apologizing -and then arguing- with Dom for almost an hour Teddy made her end the call and then take a half dose of the already minimally prescribed sleeping potion so that she could get some more rest. She groggily recalled waking up again a few hours later, scarfing down a plate full of leftovers that Teddy had made and left under a warming charm for her, trying to contact Ally twice more, and then falling back asleep for the rest of the night.
Upon waking up that morning and taking her next dose of ulcer-curing potion, Victoire started on two of her tasks for that day. The first was to keep looking through the stack of books Molly had helped curate for her earlier that week for anything resembling the spell she had encountered in France, the second was to continuously bombard Ally's mobile with apology calls and text messages until she got some sort of response. In comparison, she had only sent one text message that morning to Dom containing her apology and she didn't expect a reply for a while since she knew her sister would need time to cool off.
At the moment Victoire had taken a break from her research to call her cousin one last time when she knew that Ally would be able to pick-up her mobile since it was her lunch break. With no expected reply imminent from her cousin, Victoire decided that she finally needed to push her problem with Ally out of her mind so that she could focus on her upcoming third task of the day.
The third task on her list for that day was the most important: she and Cassidy were expected at the Auror Department that afternoon so that they could teach Teddy and Jilly's trainee aurors basic magical first aid. Knowing that she needed to be on her game when she was at the Auror Department, Victoire made sure that she ate a good meal and was up to scratch on her ulcer medication. She'd felt a little nauseous when she woke up that morning, but she hadn't actually vomited yet that day, so she figured that the medication had started working.
After finishing lunch Cassidy arrived at Victoire's flat. The two healers had previously planned to meet at Victoire's before going to the Auror Department so that they could finalize their outline of the magical first aid training session they'd developed over the past week whenever they could find more than ten minutes to discuss it. It took a minimal amount of time to confirm their planned outline and they felt very confident that they'd be able to deliver an educational teaching session to the trainees. Whether the trainees would absorb any of the information was another story.
Victoire ended up side-along apparating Cassidy to the Ministry with her, and after getting their visitors badges from the man at the welcome desk they strolled towards the lift. Upon stepping off the lift and onto the floor of the Auror Department, Victoire wasn't surprised to see that Jilly was waiting for them so she could escort them to the room they had booked for training.
"You guys said a duelling room would be more suitable for your lesson plan than a classroom, right?" Jilly asked as she led the two Dark Arts Reversal healers through the halls.
Cassidy nodded her head, "Yes, it's better for the trainees to have room so that they can physically role play medical magic."
"Well, you guys will certainly have your work cut-out for you. It seems like it takes three times as long for these trainees to get any lesson through their heads," Jilly replied with an exasperated roll of her eyes.
"Are they really that bad?"
Jilly sighed, "No, they're not all that bad. A few of them are even kinda okay, and O'Toole's even good."
"O'Toole?" Victoire asked confusedly.
"He's the slightly younger brother to the very spastic Auror O'Toole that you're familiar with. Younger O'Toole is already a much better auror than older O'Toole. In fact, Kurt has a theory that the only reason why older O'Toole is so dim is because younger O'Toole has enough brains for both of them and took all of them," Jilly explained just before coming to a stop at a closed door and reaching for the door knob.
The auror gestured for both healers to go first and Victoire and Cassidy walked into the room. The room was a relatively large space that definitely had one if not two extra extension charms on it, and it was filled with about a dozen people who looked so young that Victoire wasn't sure if they were all even of age yet. The trainees in the room had been quietly whispering amongst themselves, but all of their speech ended the minute Victoire and Cassidy stepped into the room.
Jilly shut the door behind them and Victoire and Cassidy walked to the front of the room where Teddy stood. He nodded at the both of them in greeting before directly addressing the first-year auror trainees.
"As Auror Donaldson and I told you earlier, today's lesson will focus on bringing your magical first aid skills up to scratch. We've brought in Healer Weasley and Healer Hopewell from St. Mungo's Dark Arts Reversal ward to administer this lesson and we expect you to pay attention and be respectful," Teddy lectured the younger aurors with a warning glance at a few trainees in particular.
When he was finished, he gestured to Victoire and Cassidy as if to say 'the floor is yours' and the pair shared a nod before they launched into their prearranged speech.
"Healer Hopewell and I," Victoire began with a gesture to Cassidy, "Know that you all are very skilled in Defense Against the Dark Arts and that you're all very capable with counter-spells and charms. You wouldn't be here if you weren't. However, even knowing every single counter-spell to every offensive and dark spell out there will not be able to protect you from every potential situation you may come across."
Cassidy continued, "Obviously we don't expect you to be able to heal every injury that might occur. Nevertheless, having a solid foundation of how to heal several different types of common injuries will be an incredible asset when you're in the field."
Victoire placed her hands on her hips and eyed the trainee aurors shrewdly, "Let's start with the basics. Who can cast an effective Episkey?"
An impressive amount of people raised their arms up in the air, which Victoire immediately found perplexing as Teddy had explained that most of the trainees had claimed to be unfamiliar with most healing magic.
"Alright then," Cassidy said as she shared a look with Victoire, it seemed that she didn't quite believe the trainees either, "One by one we'll call you up and you can show us what you can do."
This seemed to startle the group of trainees and they shared surprised looks between them all before one brave soul stepped forward. Cassidy gestured for him to walk towards them and he did so, only stopping about three feet from where the two healers stood. Both women nodded their heads at the trainee and he pulled out his wand and cast a verbal Episkey on the thin air in front of him.
Victoire and Cassidy nodded at him.
"Very good. Who's next?"
The trainee auror stepped back to where his colleagues stood, but no one else moved forward to take his place.
"Is someone else going to volunteer or will we have to conscript one?" Victoire asked the rest of the group.
One auror raised their hand unsteadily but didn't step forward, "Um, I have a question."
"Yes?" Victoire inquired.
"How can you tell if the spell we cast is effective without us testing it out on an injury?" The trainee asked perplexed.
Victoire held in an eye-roll, "Healer Hopewell and I are easily able to discern properly cast healing spells from ineffective ones based solely on your execution of the spell."
"So, who's next?" Cassidy asked the group.
Yet again the trainees were slow to volunteer, so Victoire and Cassidy began pointing to them at random and requesting they step forward. After they got through all of the trainees who had raised their hands at the beginning to indicate that they were able to cast an Episkey, Victoire and Cassidy had a very quick and quiet conversation amongst themselves.
"There's barely a handful of them who can heal something more complicated than a transverse fracture," Victoire muttered to Cassidy.
"I know, it seems like they think that all an Episkey is good for is healing broken knuckles and noses from fist fights," Cassidy replied with a suppressed sigh.
Victoire tapped her hand against her leg, "I think we're going to have to go farther back and give them a crash course in basic healing magic theory. They'll need it before we show them how to heal anything more than an Episkey."
Cassidy nodded and she and Victoire began a crash course in healing magic theory.
"Casting healing magic requires a very careful balance of power," Cassidy began explaining to the trainees, "Too little power and the healing magic will be too weak. Too much power and it will be too strong."
One of the auror trainees raised their hands, "How can healing magic be too strong?"
His tone was a scoff of disbelief and Cassidy shared a look with Victoire.
"A perfectly cast bone-mending spell will heal a fracture in the bone of an arm. A bone-mending spell that is cast with too much strength will not only heal the fracture in the arm, but it will also knit the sliding bones in the wrist together with each other, along with bones of the lower arm causing the entire lower arm from elbow to phalanges to be fused together," Victoire explained.
Her words had their desired effect and several of the trainee aurors looked horrified at the idea of a healing spell going so awry that half of their arm got fused. Cassidy held in a satisfied smirk and continued their lecture, "Healing magic takes an immense amount of concentration and magical prowess. You need to be able to focus closely on not just the spell that you are casting in that minute, but also all of the potential spells that will need to be cast directly after it."
"Now," Victoire began with a smile at the trainees, "Since all of you have elected to become aurors as your occupation of choice we will assume that you're all able to concentrate on something important while also thinking at least five steps ahead."
Victoire and Cassidy continued with a few more statements about healing magical theory as well as some tips on casting spells that are from similar magical families. They then went almost directly into introducing new spells to the trainees as only two people bothered to ask them questions about their magical theory spiel (one of them being O'Toole). After almost an hour of teaching the trainees how to properly cast basic healing spells, Victoire and Cassidy noted that near the end of their instruction many of the faces seemed weary and overwhelmed with the information. When they finished Cassidy asked the group if they had any questions.
O'Toole asked once more about how to properly cast a third level cardiac stasis spell, a trainee by the name of Yuan asked to see the wand movements for a specific infection detecting spell again, and a few others requested to hear some pronunciations of spells once more. There were still several trainees however that looked completely swamped with the information the two healers had just imparted on them, and one of them raised their hand in their air as Cassidy called on them.
"Healer Hopewell do you really expect all of us to remember all of these healing spells on top of all of the defensive magic we need to know? I mean the chances of us using half of these are-"
"Very likely, and even likelier if you hope to be chosen to go on long-term undercover missions in other countries," Jilly interrupted the trainee auror as a bit of irritation leaked into her tone, "Not every mission will allow you to be close to a hospital or even a medic that you're allowed to access, so it's very important that you learn most of this."
The trainee seemed only slightly chastised and he continued to argue his point with a bit of a petulant voice, "There's no way that we could remember all of that new healing stuff you're just listed off for us along with all of the defensive magic we have to memorize. It's impossible."
"It's very possible actually," Jilly pointed out, "As Dark Arts Reversal healers both Healer Hopewell and Healer Weasley have memorized both all of this healing stuff, as you so eloquently put it, as well as a wide range of defensive magic."
"Yeah, they know counter-curses and things, but they don't have defensive magic memorized to the point of being able to actually duel a dark wizard or anything like that," The seemingly daft auror trainee continued to argue.
At this proclamation both Victoire and Cassidy's eyebrows raised on their foreheads and they shared a look of silent disbelief. Jilly was a little more vocal in her incredulity and she actually let out a sharp gasp before turning to give Teddy a look that said 'I'm done with this barmy git, you take over'. Teddy nodded his head minutely at Jilly and stepped forward to take over the spirited debate Jilly had been having with the trainee. Unlike his partner, Teddy had a very good poker-face and his expression was unreadable as he faced the younger man.
Before he could open his mouth to reiterate that it is indeed possible for someone to memorize healing magic as well as defensive magic at the same time, the door of the conference room opened and two familiar aurors poked their heads into the room.
"You ready for us to help with dueling practice yet?" Hayden Summers asked as he glanced passed Victoire and Cassidy to look at Teddy and Jilly.
A smile crept up on Teddy's mouth, "Yes, you've got perfect timing actually."
Hayden and Kurt Williamson continued into the room and shut the door behind them as Teddy addressed all of the trainees, "Auror Summers and Auror Williamson are here to help us with the next component of our course today, uneven dueling practice. However, we clearly have a few more things to finish up with Healer Cassidy and Healer Weasley first."
He glanced directly at the trainee auror who's been arguing with Jilly before turning to look over at Hayden and Kurt, "One of you needs to help us with a bit of a demonstration. Which one of you wants to duel Healer Weasley?"
It took both newly arrived aurors a few seconds to comprehend exactly what Teddy had asked them, but once they did their faces shifted into fear and they immediately tried to back out of it.
"Not-"
"Not it!"
"Damnit," Kurt swore under his breath when Hayden beat him to it. The losing auror glanced at Victoire and continued to mutter something under his breath about how he 'always bloody gets stuck doing this'.
Teddy gave both Hayden and Kurt a quick summary of the debate between Jilly and one of the trainees pertaining to how impossible it is to memorize all of the healing magic the healers were asking them to practice as well as remember all of the defensive magic they'd already learned. As he explained Jilly and Hayden instructed the other trainees to shift their tables and chairs to the sides of the room so that they could create room for the duel. Cassidy waved her wand and magicked the written incantations of some of the healing spells they'd been instructing the trainees, onto the whiteboard at the front of the room, and then stepped to the side of the room where Jilly, Hayden, and Teddy were congregating.
Victoire pulled her wand out of her pocket and twirled it around her fingers as she took a stance several metres away from where Kurt stood.
Kurt gripped his own wand tightly and eyed Victoire's outfit carefully. She was wearing a dress shirt, trousers, and a shoe with a bit of heal on it.
"Do you want to transfigure your clothes to give you more room to maneuver? Or at least your shoes?"
She glanced down at her black ankle boots and pursed her lips before glancing back at Kurt, "Nah, I'm good. Ready to duel?"
Kurt muttered something else under his breath that sounded as though he was complaining once more about being stuck dueling her, but he instinctually shifted himself into a starting dueling position and waited for one of his no-good partners to tell them to start.
Jilly got the honours, and the words were barely out of her mouth before Kurt had thrown out the first offensive spell. While Kurt's mumbled complaining was exasperating, it was also accurate. Victoire had dueled Kurt on various occasions before, and she knew that he'd take the offensive first. She was counting on it.
He threw out an offensive spell that was too quick for her to identify right away, but she was able to side-step the flash of magic and shoot off her own offensive spell that just missed his left shoulder as he rolled it out of the way. He smirked at her before throwing a stunning spell at her, and she returned the smile when she threw out a shield charm as well as a jelly-legs jinx in quick succession. The shield charm stopped his stunning spell, but he threw his own shield charm out to stop her jelly-legs jinx.
The pair continued to duel each other, and the speed of their flying spells increased as time went on. With the speed of their magic increasing, they had less time to use shield charms so the pair had resorted to mostly dodging each other's spells instead of wasting time with shield magic. As a result, their movements around each other became more hectic and many of the spells that they dodged bounced off the walls and around the room.
The trainee aurors realized quickly that they needed to have their wands out and ready in the case of a wayward spell soaring towards them, and Teddy reasoned that if they learned nothing else today, that they would learn the importance of keeping track of their spells while dueling and how easy it could be for a miscellaneous spell to break-free and damage an onlooker or passer-by.
As Victoire and Kurt continued to dodge each other's spells, Cassidy watched on with interest, "I know this was all brought about to make a point to a really mouthy trainee, but to play devil's advocate, I don't know if all Dark Arts Reversal healers would be able to hold their own like Vic can against an experienced auror."
"Maybe, but I still think you'd be able to hold your own as well if it was you Cassidy," Teddy told her honestly.
Cassidy smiled, "Thanks Ted, but I was actually thinking of Fabius."
"Yeah, well there's a reason why Victoire asked you to help instead of him," Teddy replied with a bit of a smirk.
Hayden titled his head to the side as he watched the pair who were still dueling, "Either Vic's rusty or Kurt's gotten better. This duel's gone on longer than they usually do."
"His pride's probably helping him through it. Doesn't want to lose to Victoire in front of all of these trainees," Jilly suggested.
Kurt and Victoire did seem rather well matched in their duel, but as their spells continued to fly Kurt's aim was getting a little sloppy while Victoire's was starting to speed up. Kurt dodged a hex Victoire sent at him, but his reactionary movement made him a little unsteady on his feet and after he sent a full-body bind spell at her he dropped his wand arm just a fraction of an inch lower than it should have been. However, his little mistake was enough for Victoire to take the advantage. Since Kurt's full-body bind spell had been expertly aimed at the middle of her body (widest and easiest target when a spell only needs to clip just the smallest portion of an intended target's body) she dropped and somersaulted out of the spell's way before coming up to her right knee and firing a full-body bind curse of her own right at Kurt. His body went to move out of the way, but since his wand arm was a fraction lower than it should have been, he unexpectedly wobbled to the side just long enough to get hit with Victoire's full-body bind spell.
The second Victoire's spell made contact, Kurt dropped like a sack of potatoes. From the side of the room Hayden looked ready to flinch a second before Kurt's head was set to make sharp contact with the marble floor, but the cracking sound of Kurt's skull smacking against the hard floor never came. Instead, a small decorative pillow appeared underneath Kurt's head just before it touched the ground and stopped any potential damage to his skull. All of the trainees watching the duel seemed shocked that Victoire had beaten an auror in a duel, but she largely ignored their looks as she walked towards Kurt, her heels clicking on the marble as she went. She knelt down next to Kurt and glanced over him for a few seconds before waving her hand over Kurt's prone form and casting the counter-curse to release him from the spell.
"Are you injured anywhere else?" Victoire asked Kurt as he came out of the spell.
"No," The auror replied petulantly as he quickly moved into a standing position. He dusted nonexistent dirt off his clothing and then stomped over to where his colleagues stood, the three of them trying their best to hide their smirks.
"Can we get on with dueling the trainees now?" Kurt asked grumpily with as much bravado as he could muster.
Hayden smirked at his partner, "You think beating up the trainee aurors will make you feel better now that you've lost to Victoire?"
Kurt pouted at him, "You didn't want to duel her either."
Teddy ignored the bickering pair and walked to the front of the room to address the trainees.
"Anybody still have doubts that it's possible to memorize a lot of defensive magic and healing magic at the same time?"
Half the trainees stayed silent while the other half shook their heads.
"Good."
Jilly and Teddy had a quick discussion with Victoire and Cassidy where they decided that some uneven dueling practice would also be the perfect chance to see if their lessons on magical first aid stuck with anyone.
This time Victoire and Cassidy took a background seat as they watched the experience aurors duel the trainees, and they only interfered every once in a while, to oversee the trainees when they got the chance to practice their healing magic. After an hour or two of dueling Teddy and Jilly dismissed the trainees and began to put the conference room back into order.
"Do you think any of them actually learned anything today?" Jilly asked.
Hayden smirked, "You mean besides that fact that they don't want to get stuck dueling Victoire?"
Jilly chuckled, "Yeah, besides that."
Victoire actually looked a little embarrassed, "It's not like that was my idea."
Teddy knew that the emphasis on the word 'my' was meant for him, "It seemed easier than allowing Jilly to continue to argue with the trainee. He's the type that doesn't give up easily."
"Well I had a lot of fun today," Cassidy announced with a bright smile, "Sure beats rounds with Fabius."
Victoire glanced at Cassidy in surprise, "I thought you said you were off today?"
"I was . . . after I asked Wesley if he'd cover for me," Cassidy explained.
"You asked him to cover for you last Sunday," Victoire reminded her colleague.
Cassidy shrugged, "All I had to do was tell him I was helping you with an educational experience and he agreed."
Victoire raised an eyebrow.
"Well, that and tell him that Sarah was working the same hours as he would be if he took my shift and that their lunch breaks would probably coincide," Cassidy added.
"He fancies her that much?"
"You should have seen his eyes light up when I mentioned her name."
While Victoire and Cassidy were gossiping about their colleagues a pair of other aurors came to the door and had a quick conversation with Teddy and Jilly, they left and came back a minute later carrying a large trunk between them. After depositing it on the floor of the conference room the pair of aurors left and Hayden and Kurt began quizzing Jilly and Teddy about what was in the trunk.
"You lot order something?" Kurt asked his partners.
"It's just a tool for one of our lessons next week," Teddy explained.
Kurt continued to poke and stare at the trunk while Hayden asked, "What's the lesson about?"
"Facing their biggest fears."
Kurt's hand stilled on the trunk mid-poke, "So there's a boggart in here?"
"Yes," Jilly said with a nod.
Kurt's face went white and he slowly backed away from the trunk, "I hated that lesson as a trainee."
"I think everyone did," Jilly said with a bit of frown as she thought back to her own last interaction with a boggart.
Teddy nodded in agreement, "I'm just glad that Auror Burton and Auror McKenny allowed us to each do the lesson by ourselves. It would have been awful to have to go up one-by-one and beat a boggart in front of our entire class of trainees."
"Imagine the damage Lassoder could have done with that information," Hayden agreed solemnly.
Kurt's eyes widened, "I'd rather not."
"No, you really don't want to know what he would have done with that information," Jilly agreed darkly.
"Speaking of our training days," Hayden said as he turned to glance at Teddy, "You had the fastest time when it came to completing the boggart lesson and I always wanted to know, did you have more practice with a boggart before that lesson than probably everyone else had?"
Teddy pursed his lips, "I don't know what you mean by practice-"
"Yes," Victoire interrupted as she entered the conversation, "He definitely did."
Teddy frowned at her, "I didn't practice with a boggart beforehand."
"No, but most trainees experiences with boggarts would be maybe a handful of times during DADA at school. You were definitely exposed to boggarts outside of school," Victoire reminded him.
He rolled his eyes, "It wasn't like it was for fun. Not to mention that several of those times happened accidently."
"How do you accidently come across a boggart?" Kurt questioned.
Teddy let out a long sigh, "Family camping trips were rife with accidental run-ins with many different creatures."
"But a boggart?"
"Boggarts, griffins, black fire-breathing Arabian pegasus, acroman-"
"They get the idea Vic," Teddy interrupted his fiancée with a pinch to the bridge of his nose as he remembered all of the incidents they had during camping trips over the years.
Cassidy snickered as she idly glanced at the trunk, "Remind me never to go camping with you two. Scratch that, with any Weasley."
"Good decision," Victoire said with a smirk.
Kurt had gone back to eyeing up the trunk, "Are you sure there's a boggart in there?"
"Yes," Jilly replied dismissively.
"But it's not moving," Kurt pointed out as he looked at the oddly still and silent trunk.
Teddy shrugged, "There's lots of reasons why a boggart might be still in its containment unit."
"Oh, please do enlighten us Professor Lupin," Hayden remarked with a wicked grin.
Teddy glanced at his partner, "You're not funny."
Kurt pulled out his wand and poked the trunk with its tip, "Is one of those reasons that it's dead?"
"It's not dead," Teddy maintained.
"Did you put it in the trunk yourself?" Kurt asked.
"No-"
"Then it might be dead . . . or whatever happens to a boggart when it is no longer a living creature," Kurt said as he went back to poking the trunk with his wand.
Jilly rolled her eyes at Kurt, "Leave it alone Kurt."
"Maybe we should just take a peek to make sure it's still kicking," Kurt repeated as the tip of his wand followed the seam of the trunk lid.
"Or you could leave it alone," Hayden reiterated.
"But-"
Whatever Kurt was about to argue was lost as his wand tapped the seam of the trunk lid a little too hard and caused a loud creaking sound to occur. Victoire happened to be standing closest to Kurt and she realized what was about to happen about two seconds before it occurred. She grabbed Kurt by the arm and pulled him backwards away from the trunk just as the lid flew open with a bang and a burst of dark light emitted from the trunk towards where Kurt had been standing moments ago.
A dark shapeless mass emerged from the trunk and landed on the ground just a few feet from where Victoire had pushed Kurt towards. The dark mass started to take shape into the form of the biggest fear of the closest person to it.
Before Victoire had pulled Kurt out of the way it would have been him. Now however, the shape of the boggart that was starting to amass in clear view of everyone was settled directly in front of her.
Despite her quick movement to push Kurt away, Victoire was slow and in shock as the boggart quickly took shape into her greatest fear. The boggart split into two distinctive shapes and quickly took very recognizable from before Victoire was able to kick herself into gear, rip her wand out of her pocket, and cast the Riddikulus spell before the boggart could open their human-shaped mouth.
She didn't verbally recite the spell, but the sharp crack of her magic echoed louder throughout the silent conference room than her own words would have. Once her spell hit the boggart it shattered back into a dark mass.
Victoire instinctively sent the boggart back into the trunk and magicked the lid closed and locked. The entire incident lasted only about sixty seconds, but it was long enough for everyone else in the room to see it; especially Teddy.
"Wha-" Kurt started to ask before being interrupted.
"We'll escort you out to the lifts Healer Hopewell," Jilly said loudly as she started shooing Cassidy, Kurt, and Hayden out of the room. The former two left quietly while Jilly grabbed Kurt's arm and dragged him out of the room with her.
It wasn't until the door was firmly closed behind them that Teddy finally looked Victoire in the eyes, "Why was your boggart my dead parents?"
Victoire swallowed thickly, broke eye-contact, and looked down at the toe of her boot. In an attempt to keep the anxiety she felt bubbling up inside of her from breaking free into a full-blown panic attack, she focused on a scuff mark on the toe of her boot that she must have gotten when she somersaulted away from one of Kurt's spells.
"Vic?"
Her stomach clenched; Dom would be pissed at her for scuffing the boots. They were hers, not Dom's, but Dom loved to borrow them and she'd still be mad about it any way.
"Are you going to answer me Victoire?"
She was starting to hyperventilate.
Although what did it matter if Dom was angry at her over a scuff on her shoes? She was already majorly pissed with her over the birthday thing, so what was one more thing really.
"Victoire why the Hell did my parents materialize in the place of your greatest fear?"
She looked up towards him but she couldn't meet his gaze. Instead, she settled for glancing at his throat and crossing her arms over her chest in a subconsciously defensive position. She tried to speak through her hyperventilation, but it came out in stops and starts.
"Because – they – are."
She didn't look up at Teddy's face until several minutes of silence had passed. Her breathing was still erratic and her stomach was clenching with anxiety as her gaze slowly drifted up from his throat to what should have been sapphire blue eyes. Instead, they were pitch black and full of tears on the brink of being shed.
Victoire wanted to go to him, she wanted to wrap him in her arms and make his tears disappear before they even had the chance to start, but she couldn't. Her fear and her panic had immobilized her and all she could do was squeeze her fingers into her arms, the biting still of her nails jolting her out of her anxiety just enough to speak again.
"I – don't know – what – to say," Victoire told him breathlessly as she stared at his face.
She noted that her head was starting to spin a bit, and despite the lack of oxygen in her body from her hyperventilation she was still cognizant enough to realize that passing out from low oxygen would definitely not help her present situation.
He ground his teeth together and the muscles on the side of his neck flexed, "How about an actual explanation about how your greatest fear could possibly be two dead people you've never met before?"
Her stomach churned and she swallowed back the acid that was trying to climb up her throat. She moved her hands from her arms to her head where she tugged at the roots of her hair.
"It's – It's not – your parents aren't my boggart–"
"You just said that they are!" He argued, his hair starting to turn an unpleasant shade of puce.
Her fingers gave up their work on her hair and started to dig at the skin of her scalp instead, "That's not – well it was what I said . . . but not what I meant." She spat out in between trying to calm her breathing down with deep breaths.
"Is that really the explanation you want to go with?" Teddy asked her impatiently.
His attitude was starting to make her angry, but she found that the anger was better than the anxiety. She was able to breathe better at least, "Your parents themselves aren't my boggart. The idea of meeting them is my fear."
Her words came out more articulate, but them being tossed out more coherently didn't help her in her defense as Teddy was actually able to hear the words she said.
"Oh, okay I got it. It's not my dead parents you fear, but the impossible likelihood of ever becoming acquainted with them . . . or as I like to call it, the thing I would like most in the world."
His words had a hard edge to them and were bitingly sarcastic, and Victoire was never reminded more than in that moment that he was raised by a member of the infamous Black family, even if it was one of the nicer members.
Victoire felt whatever anxiety she had left turn into anger, and if she wasn't so wrapped up in the topic at hand a part of her would have been professionally worried about the huge swing in her mood.
"You don't get it! I'm an awful person and they'd hate me! Of course, my greatest fear would be to meet them!"
"Are you mad? What in the world would make you think that they'd hate you?" He asked perplexed but still very irritated.
Victoire threw her hands up in the air, "Well I think my track record with parents of the blokes I've dated is sufficient enough evidence. I haven't exactly run the statistics on it but I'm rather certain that the end number would be statistically significant anyway. The conclusion is that nobody alive has ever wanted their son to be with me, so why wouldn't I assume that that theory holds true for deceased people too?"
"You're being ridiculous!" Teddy told her with an eyeroll at her dramatics, "Did it ever occur to you Victoire that maybe if you were ever actually to meet my parents that it wouldn't be about you, but that it would be about me?"
Victoire moved to put her hands on her hips, but held off on making contact when she realized that they were starting to glow blue with small tongues of veela flame.
"While you make an excellent point Theodore, did it occur to you that since we are discussing my boggart and my biggest fear that this whole thing actually is about me?"
"You're not even attempting to talk about this seriously. How do you expect to get over it-"
"Get over it? Why do I need to get over it? I'm allowed to be afraid of whatever I want!"
He only just held in another eyeroll, "You've almost been killed how many times in your life and you're theoretically worried that my dead parents won't like you? Be reasonable Vict-"
"I don't need to be reasonable! Fears aren't reasonable!"
"You're not even trying-"
Whatever Teddy was about to say to her in a very accusatory tone was interrupted by the door of the room slowly opening.
"So, I lost the game of paper, rock, scissors with Harry and am now the person that is supposed to interrupt whatever is going on in here . . ." Ron Weasley announced unexpectedly as he poked his head into the doorway with a hand covering his eyes.
If Victoire wasn't so angry she probably would have found his expression funny. As it was she was just irritated and exhausted.
"What is it Uncle Ron?"
Her redhaired uncle took his hand off of his face and used the other to hold out a piece of parchment paper that was still rolled up and tied with a bright lime green ribbon.
"Owl message from St. Mungo's kiddo. Must be urgent since it's your day off and all. Don't know how in the world the little bugger knew you were here though . . ."
Victoire took the message from him as Ron mused about the amazing accuracy of owl mail. Her eyes scanned it quickly and then she pocketed the paper.
"Duty calls," She announced dryly as she faced Teddy.
Ron's interruption seemed to have cooled some of the heat radiating off of Teddy, but Victoire knew their argument was far from over. She strode out of the room, threw a half-hearted wave goodbye over her shoulder to her angry fiancé and contemplative uncle, and stalked off towards the bank of lifts.
Once she was in the lift she looked down at her watch and noted the time. They'd been in that room for at least an hour after Teddy's shift had ended. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her mobile phone. She sent a short text message off to Malcolm Wood, and then pocketed her mobile phone once more. St. Mungo's was a short apparition away after leaving the Ministry, and it took her no time to get up to the Dark Arts Reversal Floor. She had intended to slip into her office first to grab a clean spare pair of healing robes that she always kept there, but she spotted her fellow healer Wesley Hall first and made a short detour.
"So, what's this about Mr. Monroe coming back with abdominal pain and scabbing?" Victoire addressed him without a proper greeting.
Wesley glanced up at her in surprise, he had been reading a patient's file and had obviously been so engrossed in it that he hadn't heard her sidle up to him, "Uh, he's in room two but I think his digestive system is just slow from the painkilling potion he was prescribed when we discharged him. Aren't you supposed to be off today?"
"We prescribed him a nutrition potion to help counter-act the digestive side-effects of the painkilling potion. He shouldn't be having digestive pains if he's been taking that as prescribed. Maybe his injury from last week wasn't fully healed? Also, I was supposed to be off, but when you owl me telling me that one of our discharged patients has come back in and that I needed to help you consult I'm going to come in," She replied, the last part of her statement coming out in an obvious tone.
Her colleague still looked confused by her presence, "Well it sounds to me that even though Mr. Monroe has claimed that he took his nutrition potion as prescribed, I'm not quite convinced. I ran some vitamin and nutrition labs along with the standard bloodwork when he was readmitted here, the results should be in in about a half hour and then we'll know whether he's been taking the prescription as prescribed, or if the pain is coming from an unhealed injury. Although, I was so confident that his pain is just a side effect of not taking his potions dosages properly, that when I dictated that note to be sent to you I made sure to reiterate that your presence was not required and that I was just sending you a note to keep you informed about the state of our shared patient."
Victoire pulled the note she had received out of her pocket and read it over again, "Nope, nothing here about you just keeping me informed. Who did you dictate the note to?"
Wesley sighed, "The only person around at the moment I wanted to send it was Fabius. He happily offered to jot down the note for me. In hindsight, I should have been suspicious when he used the term happily."
Victoire rolled her eyes, of course Fabius left out the part about Victoire's presence not being urgent at St. Mungo's.
"So, I do have this covered if you want to go back to enjoying your day off," Wesley finished with a bit of an apologetic smile.
'Enjoying her day off' wasn't quite the correct inference about the past few hours she'd endured, but there was no need to discuss all of it with Wesley.
"I might as well stay until the labs are ready to be on the safe side. I'll go check in on Mr. Monroe and then I'll be in my office. I'm sure there's some paperwork there to keep me busy for the next twenty-five minutes," Victoire told Wesley with an unconcerned shrug.
The half-hour passed very quickly. She spent ten minutes with Mr. Monroe, and then another twenty on the promised paperwork. At exactly a half-hour since her last conversation with Wesley, Victoire set down her quill and glanced at the clock on her office wall. As she watched the minute hand slowly move over one notch, she felt her stomach start to churn and bubble. She looked more closely at the clock and groaned. She had been paying too much attention to where the minute hand was that she didn't even notice what hour of the evening it was. It was later than she thought and as such she had missed a dose of her ulcer-curing potion.
She took several deep breaths in through her nose and out through her mouth to try to settle her stomach, but it didn't help. The acid clawed its way up her throat and she flung herself out of her chair and started gagging into the small rubbish bin at the side of her desk. It was mostly coughing and gagging before a bit of bile finally came up her throat and out into the bin.
"Um . . . would you like me to come back later?" Wesley's worried voice asked from behind her.
Victoire shook her head and then took a minute to compose herself before she wandlessly vanished the sick from her rubbish bin. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve and then looked at Wesley, "Did you get Mr. Monroe's labs?"
Wesley nodded, "Just as I suspected, his bloodwork's perfect but his nutritional labs are nowhere near what they should be if he's taking that potion as we originally prescribed."
"Good, I was worried that we missed something the first time," Victoire said with an approving nod.
"And now you can leave and . . . uh . . . work on feeling better?" Wesley told her as he awkwardly gestured to where she had been throwing up not two minutes before.
Victoire waved off his concern, "I'm fine. I just wasn't paying attention to the time and I missed my latest dose of ulcer-curing potion."
"Oh," Wesley replied, his tone still sounded concerned, but he looked a little more comfortable than he did earlier, "Well that's easily fixed. If you leave soon you can get home before too much time has lapsed."
She let out a sigh at the mention of the word 'home' and started to tidy up her desk, "Well that might not exactly work out . . ."
"Why?" Wesley asked, curious now.
"I'm unable to go back to my flat right away for . . . reasons. So I'm just going to have to down a double dose when I can later tonight," Victoire told him even though she wasn't entirely sure why she was sharing all of this with Wesley. They had a cordial working relationship but she wouldn't consider him a friend like she would Cassidy or Spencer.
Wesley nodded his head, "Cool . . . but if you want to, you can just go down to the hospital apothecary now and get an individual dose of stomach-ulcer curing potion." He pulled out his wand, waved it, and a blank piece of parchment paper flew from Victoire's desk to his hand. He summoned a quill as well and scratched out a few words onto the paper before handing it over to her.
"Here you go."
Victoire accepted it from her colleague and glanced at it; he'd wrote her a prescription for one single dose of stomach-ulcer curing potion.
"Thank you."
He smiled at her and turned to leave her office.
"Wesley, Sarah really likes Indian food."
Her colleague stopped at the threshold and slowly turned to face her again.
"And you're telling me this because . . . ?"
Victoire smirked. It was cute that he thought that they didn't all notice that he fancied Sarah, "Because one good turn deserves another."
She wiggled the prescription in her hand to reinforce her statement.
Wesley smiled in thanks at her and finished exiting her office.
When he was gone, Victoire rubbed her face tiredly and considered the prescription in her hand. She really didn't fancy her ulcer getting any worse so she knew that she needed to take a dose of the potion and soon. However, going to St. Mungo's apothecary and getting the prescription filled would most likely involve contact with Ally, who had been ignoring her all day.
Victoire continued to stare at the prescription in her hand as she weighed her options. Seeing Ally would be uncomfortable, and she didn't want to make Ally anymore annoyed with her than she already was, but after having had such a big argument with Teddy she didn't have any energy left to worry about how Ally might react to her. In the end, her bubbling stomach reminded her of how quickly she needed that potion.
St. Mungo's potions lab was surprisingly busy for a Friday night. There were at least six different potioneers that Victoire was able to count without taking more than two steps into the large room, and near the middle of the room she noted the specific tall dark-haired one that she both wanted to see and avoid at the same time. Wanting just a few more seconds before she had to face her cousin, Victoire turned to the first person that walked by her.
"Hey Kelly, could you fill this for me?" Victoire asked as she handed the prescription Wesley had written for her to the younger woman.
Kelly Green's eyes lit up in recognition upon seeing Victoire and smile brightened her pretty face, "Victoire, hello! Of course, just let me see what's here . . ."
Even though Kelly Green had only been a potioneering intern at St. Mungo's apothecary since January, she was a quick study and it took her barely even a minute to comprehend the words written on the piece of parchment that Victoire had handed to her.
"Am I reading this correctly? It seems that this prescription is only for one dose of this potion?" Kelly asked.
Victoire nodded, "That's correct. I've only missed one dose, so I only need one dose right now. The rest is back at my flat."
Kelly's face betrayed some shock at hearing that the potion was for Victoire, but she professionally skipped by it and told Victoire she'd have it ready in a jiffy as all she needed to do was measure out the amount and then seal the bottle. Victoire nodded and watched Kelly as she went over to a nearby empty cauldron station and pulled out a small bottle along with a stopper. Kelly summoned a larger bottle of what Victoire assumed was an ulcer-curing potion to her, and began portioning the liquid out into the smaller bottle. When it was filled with the exact right amount, Kelly put a stopper in the bottle and then put the bottle in the cauldron of water she had started boiling once she got to the station.
Even though sealing a basic potion usually only took a few minutes, Victoire noted that Kelly kept glancing impatiently down at her watch. Victoire glanced at her own and noted that it was ten after five. Kelly's shift had probably ended several minutes ago.
"Do you need to be somewhere Kelly? I'm sure there's another potioneer who could-"
"Oh no it's fine Victoire I-"
"Kelly what are you still doing here didn't you say that you have a date tonight?"
Victoire's stomach churned at hearing the new voice. It was Ally
Weasley.
Kelly turned to respond to Ally and to say that she had plenty of time before she needed to go, but when she did so it made Victoire's position much more visible than it had been before.
Ally nodded absently as she partially listened to Kelly's explanation, while the rest of her was more focused at staring disdainfully at her eldest cousin.
"Do you need something Victoire?"
Victoire swallowed thickly upon hearing the irritation in her favourite cousin's voice. Yep, Ally was definitely still upset with her.
"Kelly's just filling a simple prescription for me. It should almost be done-"
"Yes! Just a few more minutes and I'll have it ready-"
"I'll do it."
The three women's words seemed to converge over-top of each other's as they spoke, and then they were all silent.
Ally glanced down at the potion in the boiling cauldron and pursed her lips, "I'll finish up the sealing process Kelly. You go ahead and clock out."
The young intern looked unsure, "I really don't mind staying . . ."
"No," Ally reiterated, "You go ahead and go get ready for your date. I'll hand this over to Victoire once it's ready."
Kelly thanked Ally profusely and then quickly vacated the room, leaving Victoire and Ally to quietly and awkwardly stare at each other.
Ally broke their staring contest first and glanced down at the paper with the prescription on it that Kelly had set down at the potion station. Her brown gaze shifted across the words quickly and then her brow knitted in confusion. She looked at the potion and then back up at her cousin making eye-contact again.
Instead of the hostility that had been in her gaze the first time, there was concern in her eyes now, "A stomach-ulcer curing potion?"
"Three guesses who this is for," Victoire replied slightly sarcastically.
Ally's eyes softened even more, "Again?"
"It's been a stressful few weeks," Victoire explained almost a little embarrassed. It was like admitting to a weakness and that she couldn't handle even the most simplest of life's tasks, and she hated admitting to weaknesses.
Ally's lips pursed as Victoire's words inadvertently reminded her of that fact that she was still angry with her eldest cousin for lying to her, but she ignored it for the moment so they wouldn't get off track.
"Xavier and I are having Malcolm and Nadia over for dinner tonight after they get done with practice. I'm still mad at you, but Xavier's not and I think I could be persuaded to forget some of my anger if you and Teddy come too and you remind me how endearingly witty and charming you can be. Maybe we just both need to take our minds off of our stressors."
As much as Victoire wanted to accept Ally' olive-branch – so, so much – she needed to impart a bit of news to Ally which might alter their dinner plans.
"I would love nothing more than to join you for dinner Ally . . . but I might have unwittingly meddled in those plans as well. I sent Malcom to see Teddy a little while ago and they're probably both at our flat right now. They'll be busy for quite a while . . ."
Ally easily read the undercurrent to Victoire's words, "What happened?"
Victoire felt a headache starting and she began to rub her temple, "Well I obviously wasn't pleased with just you and Dom hating me, so I thought I'd throw Teddy in there and make it a trifecta."
The bottle was finally done sealing and Ally picked it out of the cauldron and handed it to Victoire. She didn't say anything but her expression clearly said that she expected Victoire to explain more about the Teddy situation than what she'd already offered up.
She accepted the potion from her cousin and then sighed, "He discovered this afternoon that my boggart, my greatest fear, is meeting his parents."
A few different emotions flashed across Ally's face as she listened to Victoire's words. Shock, bewilderment, surprise, and lastly, concern.
"And he didn't take this information well?"
Victoire shook her head, "I believe his response was something along the lines of my fears and feelings being ridiculous and that I just need to get over it."
"I'm sorry that he said that to you. Everyone's fears are valid Vic . . . although am I having a bit of a hard time fully comprehending yours. You're afraid of the impossible situation in which you'd ever have to meet Teddy's parents, is that right?"
The blonde woman felt her throat start to thicken and her eyes water slightly but she tried to answer as best as she could, "It's not the hypothetical of meeting them that's the problem . . . the problem is that I know that they'd disapprove of me. That they'd hate me."
Once the words came out her eyes started to water and everything in her field of view became blurry. Her watery eyes turned into falling tears as a blurry form in a potioneering lab coat came closer to her and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Oh Vic, they wouldn't hate you. Teddy loves you so they would love you."
Victoire knew that Ally meant well with her words, but in her present heightened state of stress and anxiety even her cousin's good-natured reassurances sounded dismissive to her ears.
"I appreciate what you're trying to do Ally," She began, choosing her words and her tone carefully as she really didn't want to start another fight with Ally when they were just getting along again, "But I don't think you can fully understand my situation when you're not living it. I mean you've got it so easy with Xavier's parents."
Ally pulled back a little so that she could see Victoire's face, "Vic, two years ago I broke Xavier's heart into tiny little pieces and kept the truth about why I broke up with him a secret for months. Katie and Oliver would be well within their rights to never speak to me again, even after we got back together. You're right that it's not the same situation, but I do have a certain type of empathy for you."
Victoire's tears started to trail down her cheeks more quickly, "You're easy to love though Ally. Whereas I'm loud, brash, pushy, vindictive, and I do stupid things like lie for two decades to the people I love about completely insignificant things like-"
Ally's arms squeezed her tighter, stopping her words that were spiraling out of control, "C'mon, we've still got some time before Xavier's practice will be done. Let's go to my place and we can talk more privately."
A/N: I know this chapter doesn't have a to of fun or fluff in it, but I didn't intend to go on hiatus for six months and then come back to a drag of a chapter like this. In fact, I just finished this chapter an hour ago and posted it as soon as I could, so I'm sorry if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes that were missed. I will also tell you that once I post this I will get right to work on the next chap, because I am not going to abandon this story.
So, life's been rough the past year. My past six months weren't particularly awful, and I appreciate all of the kind messages and reviews I received form all of you wishing me well and encouraging me. There was a bit of a glitch with my email account that is hooked up to this account, and I wasn't receiving FFN related emails for several months, but I've got them again.
I apologize so much for how long I made all of you wait for me to update. It wasn't my intention to go on hiatus like I did, but I do want to assure you all that nothing horrible happened to make it start. If anything my writing halted because I've just been busy and physically, emotionally, and creatively exhausted which I am sure many of you can relate to. I've had to make some big decisions over the past few months, as I've applied to go back to school next year. If I get accepted it will be a big life change, but I hope to continue this story to the best of my ability anyway so you lot won't be rid of me yet.
Again, I appreciated it so much that you guys kept reviewing, messaging me, and re-reading my stories while I was away. I know that I don't deserve all of the devotion and time that most of you have given me, but I appreciate it anyway and I dearly hope that you will accept this very sincere apology: I'm sorry.
Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me, and to everyone who will continue to join me on this journey. I hope to be more reliable in the future.
As always,
If you have the time please let me know what you thought of this chapter,
If you have any questions or concerns (even ones you've asked before that I didn't have the chance to answer) please don't hesitate to ask,
I hope that all of you are doing as well as you can,
I wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year,
and until next time DFTBA!