At Christmas dinner, I made sure to sit on the opposite side of the table from Teddy. This ended up placing me in between Charlie and Ginny. Teddy sat between Dominique and Harry. He kept trying to catch my eye, but I avoided his gaze. I asked Charlie about the dragons and he gave me a detailed report about each dragon's life. I enjoyed listening to him even if I had no idea about dragons.
"You know he never talks about anything but you?" Charlie whispered in my ear when everyone else was deep in conversation.
"Who?" I asked. I knew who he meant but I wanted some more details.
"You know who, Vicky. He really missed you. And he likes you. A lot. Don't let him go. You two are something special." I looked at my plate of vegetables. I knew that Charlie was probably right and I knew I would forgive Teddy eventually but right now, I needed to leave him hanging for a bit.
"I'll let him off the hook tomorrow. But he deserves some hurting." Charlie snickered.
"I told him to call you, you know."
"Doesn't seem to have worked."
"He was convinced you were already in love with some Gryffindor."
I scoffed. Teddy really had no idea how much he meant to me.
"Not very likely. Anyway, how's your love life, Charlie?" Charlie was my only uncle who was not married.
"My heart belongs to my dragons," he confessed. I knew that was true.
Charlie continued talking about his dragons.
When we were eating desert, Ginny nudged me.
"You know, I heard you in the garden earlier." Trust Ginny to bring up something everyone else would have pretended to not be aware of.
"And you're absolutely right. He's a bit of an ass, but he's got a good heart. And I know for sure that he really, really loves you. So give him hell, but not for too long," she continued.
I smiled. My family was apparently rooting for us. I looked up at Teddy. He was talking to Harry and Dominique and all of them kept glancing at me every now and again. He was probably having similar conversations.
After dinner, my cousins played board games, my uncle George and his wife Angelina were doing the dishes, Ron and Hermione were slow-dancing to Christmas carols and my other uncles and aunts were sat on the sofas discussing wizard politics. Teddy was sitting with Harry and Ginny, catching up, probably. I checked my phone and saw that Jade had sent me multiple messages asking for updates, so I decided to go outside to call her.
I stood in the garden with my phone in my hand.
"You mean the world to me, you know that, right?"
I turned around. Teddy stood in the doorway. I rolled my eyes and turned around again. I was determined to keep ignoring him.
"Victoire, I am so sorry for not calling you. It's the stupidest mistake I've ever made. And you've read my history of magic papers, I make a lot of mistakes." I could hear that he was walking towards me. I put my phone away so he couldn't see that I was talking to Jade about him.
He was standing right behind me now.
"You are the most amazing, breathtaking, incredible person I know. And I miss you every day when you're not with me. Please, Victoire."
I walked back inside.