That was a quicker update than I thought from my technical update malfunction this morning! Really sorry for my atrocious time-gaps between chapters x

Victoire's hands shook as she lifted them up to gently rinse the shampoo from her hair. What the heck happened back there?! We're lucky Sirius came into the common room when he did… whatever Teddy is thinking it is most definitely not the same as what's running through my head. FOR MERLIN'S SAKE TORIE, HE'S EMOTIONALLY VULNERABLE RIGHT NOW! She went to grab the shampoo again but reached with such force the bottle ricocheted off the wall and fell to the shower floor with a thud. Leaning down to pick it back up Torie let her legs lower fully until she was sitting on her knees, head resting against the wall under the cascading water. We're alone in another timeline with his dead father, dead family, and dead friends; of course he is going to reach for any human contact. He's already kissed so many people anyway, I mean look at Chloe, just the latest girl in his chain, it probably wouldn't even mean anything to him. Victoire lifted herself off the floor with a sigh and switched off the water, her dripping hair the only noise in their bathroom. Stepping out onto the dark stone floor – always weirdly warm from whatever magic the house elves weaved – Torie wringed out her hair and wrapped a towel around herself before stepping back into the dormitory.

A snort escaped her lips when her eyes rolled over Lily, her red hair strewn across her pillow, mouth open, blankets half off the bed along with one of her legs. How anyone could sleep that long and that deeply Torie didn't know. Walking gently across the wooden floors Victoire leant down and shook her shoulder "Lily." No response. "Lily, it's almost lunch time," she shook a little harder until a groan escaped her friend's lips.

"Not now Mary… a little bit longer" Lily pushed an arm out beneath the covers

"It's not Mary, it's Victoire" she laughed

Lily begrudgingly opened the eye that was not pushed into the pillow "oh sorry Torie," she smiled "I lost all sense of the past few days" she closed her eye again before muttering "a couple more minutes"

Victoire chuckled as she undid her towel to wrap it around her head before sliding on her underwear. Just as she was clasping her bra and loud crack sounded behind her. Turning around violently, Torie screamed and rushed to grab her bed sheet. Lily jolted up in bed her hand searching to find a weapon before Torie gasped "sorry, sorry, it's alright." Hand on her chest, Victoire sunk into her mattress, a frown upon her face. In front of her on the rug beneath the small fireplace was a house elf, with wrinkled, saggy skin, and drooping grey ears. The creature's eyes narrowed in disgust and it muttered beneath its breath "why master would beseech me here in front of human scum Kreacher will never know."

"Excuse me!" Lily slammed her feet to the ground and stood up straight. If it weren't for the fire in her eyes Victoire would have thought her to look hilarious, standing for battle in her nightie.

The house elf remained unfazed and continued, "Master says that your Marlene is in hospital"

Lily's face went pale and her posture both relaxed and tensed again "what?"

"Mudblood has problem hearing poor old Kreacher, why has Master sent me to be punished" he hissed, and Victoire interrupted before Lily could retort back.

"Thank you for relaying the message," she stared hard "you can go now."

The house elf's mouth slid into a sneer "girl who doesn't belong here thinks she can order Kreacher around" he harrumphed "perhaps Kreacher should tell Master who she is"

Victoire clenched her jaw, glancing to Lily before forcing herself to relax and chucking Lily her dressing gown "we should go". They both ran out the room just as another loud crack reverberated behind them.

.

An hour later Victoire threw her body against the doors to the Great Hall and marched over to where she spotted the group sitting at the middle-left table. Sirius was slumped over, his head resting on a hand, James kept chucking a snitch up and down, and Peter sat with a content smile upon his face watching Teddy and Mary play chess. As Victoire took a place beside Teddy she placed her little finger on top of his on the bench – a signal they'd come up with as little kids to show that they were okay with each other and there were no hard-feelings. He hooked his pinky around hers in acknowledgement whilst keeping his eyes on the board.

"Marlene's in the hospital wing" she announced. Mary dropped the piece she had been about to place, just as the snitch James had been playing with careened into the board sending the figures flying. "She's okay" Victoire said hastening to add, her hands lifting as if to ward off questions "Lily and I just went to see her and apparently some girl called Vanity pushed her off the staircase" James slammed his fist on the table "… she has a bruised tail bone and a fractured knee, but she's lucky it wasn't worse according to Madame Pomfrey."

"I'm gonna kill that Slytherin" James spat, his glare going to Sirius who apart from raising his gaze, had not moved the entire conversation

"Mate," James kicked him under the table "why aren't you as enraged as I am?"

Sirius licked his lips and bit his cheek "believe me, I am seething, but Mckinnon has made it emphatically clear that she does not wish to be on the receiving end of any help from me"

James smirked "since when has what any woman said, stopped you from doing something?" Sirius scowled. "I mean it mate, so what if she says she doesn't want your help, she's hardly in a position to stop you." James then turned back to Victoire "how did you find out she'd been hurt?"

Victoire straightened, "it was really weird, Lily and I were in the dormitory when suddenly this rotten house elf appeared and said she was in the hospital wing. Said some horrible things too… muttering under its breath… kept calling itself Kreacher."

Throughout her recount Sirius had gradually become more and more animated until at her last word he shoved his hands against the table and pushed himself to stand on top and over the bench and stormed out of the Great Hall.

"I'll go after him" James sighed "he shouldn't see Marlene this angry."

The group watched in silence as James jogged out of the hall and Victoire started collecting the chess pieces, and placed the still fluttering snitch in her pocket to keep safe.

Mary breathed out slowly before making an obvious attempt to change the conversation "so Torie, Teddy was just telling us about all the adventures you've had! Apparently you two are known to get into quite a bit of mischief!"

Victoire laughed and shoved Teddy "well I don't know what he's been telling you but I have always been a responsible young woman, it's Teddy who has been a trouble-maker since he was a toddler!" she stuck her tongue out at him as he went to make a rude hand gesture. They were too busy laughing to realise Mary's brow crinkle

"I thought you two only met in secondary school?"

The two froze for a moment before Torie breathed a nervous laugh "oh, we did. I just talked to his grandparents quite a bit before we came to Hogwarts and they told me lots of stories Teddy had kept secret."

Mary made an acceptable remark and the two visibly lost a bit of tension.

"Anyway…" Teddy looked pointedly to Victoire "eat this sandwich I saved from lunch, we better get going, James said before you arrived, quidditch trials are-," he looked at his watch "in an hour."

.

As Teddy and Victoire descended the hills towards the quidditch pitch they sensed a commotion in the changing room. Rushing the last few metres they burst through the door to see Marlene and Sirius shouting across the room at one another, with James, Lily and another boy from last year's quidditch team sat squashed into the corner.

"I don't know why I even bother with you!" Sirius exclaimed, his hands flying up "you obviously don't give a cauldron's handle about the consequences of your actions!"

Marlene's face, already a pale rouge, pigmented further "oh! I don't think about the consequences of my own actions do I? That's rich coming from a boy who not seven hours ago shoved his own brother against the wall for trying to help me stand up!"

Sirius took three steps forward until he was a metre away from her a said in a much quieter tone "don't talk about things you don't understand." Marlene kept eye contact and swallowed, refusing to back down but realising she'd crossed a line. "You want to put yourself in more harm's way" he spat out, nudging her bandaged leg with the toe of his trainers "fine, but you better hope my darling brother will be there to help you when you fall." With the last word he leant forward reaching behind Marlene to grab his bat off the wall and strode out the door without a glance back.

Marlene stared out the door long after Sirius had passed through it, an undecipherable look in her eyes. Lily nudged James in the ribs and he stood up

"right you two" he said strongly "get your gear on and meet us outside." With that he pushed the other boy forward urging him to go out the door, before stopping next to Marlene and gently put his hand on the small of her back which brought her out of the trance. She snatched her bat from the bench and limped out to the field, followed closely by James.

Victoire rose her eyebrows at Lily, who shook her head in astonishment. "You reckon they're gonna be alright?" she asked.

Lily gave a small laugh "I hope so, or else someone is going to get seriously hurt, and I don't mean a fractured knee"

"Hey!" Teddy said, putting his arm out in front of Lily, stopping her in her tracks "I didn't know you play quidditch."

This earnt him a full blown laugh, "Me! No I don't play; I'm here to keep an eye on Marlene as she was so adamant to come." She excited still laughing, and Teddy and Victoire hurried to get their brooms.

.

The quidditch trials went well, both Victoire and Teddy gained the two free chaser positions and the rest of the team remained the same with Marlene and Sirius as beaters, James the other chaser, the boy they saw in the changing room was Dirk Creswell who played keeper, and a girl called Florence, whom neither Teddy nor Victoire had heard of before, was seeker.

After try-outs the group minus Florence and Dirk, were lounging on the settees in the common room waiting for dinner when Remus, Mary, and Peter walked through the portrait hole.

"Don't you lot look comfy" Remus laughed before his eyes fell upon Sirius and Marlene who were on opposite armchairs next to the roaring fireplace, both stubbornly avoiding looking at the other. He gave a quizzical look to James and Lily before sitting on the arm of Sirius' seat "we've just been studying in the library."

"Aw man," James teased "Mary I can understand 'cause she's a workaholic like you, but why do you subject poor Peter to your ridiculous study regime?" Mary hit him on the head, knocking off his glasses as she walked around the back of the settee to mimic Remus' position except next to Marlene. Peter took a cushion by the log basket.

"Peter wanted to get a head start on his work, didn't you?" Remus turned his gaze to Peter who turned a pale shade of pink

James extended a hand at Peter "case in point. No one except you two likes studying this early"

"Actually, had I not been supporting you lot at quidditch trials today I would have been with them" Lily raised an eyebrow towards James

James righted his glasses before flinging an arm around Lily "Evans, why must you always disagree with me?"

Lily smirked and threw his arm back so it rested on the settee instead of on her shoulders "maybe you and I are just really different people, Potter"

"Opposites attract"

Lily rolled her eyes with a grin, not giving him the satisfaction of a retort

Talk of quidditch made something in Victoire's mind tingle and she realised she still had a lump in her pocket. Sliding her hand into her cardigan her fingers clasped around the snitch and pulled it out into the open air. "Oi James, you left this at lunch," she chucked the ball into his lap

"Thanks Victoire," he grinned throwing it into the air and catching it. When he threw it up again Lily snatched it

"Let's not play this again Potter; you have no idea how annoying it is when you keep fiddling with that snitch"

Sirius snorted, the first indication he was paying attention to conversation. Marlene made a disgruntled sound and announced she was going to bed; grabbed the back of the chair and lifted herself up, limping to the dormitory stairs. Victoire watched as Sirius' eyes followed her until she was out of sight, whereupon they rested on her own before quickly looking away. The spitting of the fireplace was the only sound in the room as James and Lily were teasing with their eyes whilst fighting over the snitch in Lily's hands. Mary slid into the seat Marlene vacated and pulled a blanket from the back, over her curled up body, embracing the heat from the fire; bathed in a warm glow. Teddy watched Remus carefully as he looked at Mary, trying to decipher what was going through his father's mind. He wasn't stupid, he knew Remus would have liked women before his mum, but whether Mary was one of them he couldn't yet decide.

"I'm going up too," Sirius said quietly, chucking the pillow on his lap to Peter who quickly jumped up and took the empty chair.

"I'll follow you," Remus said slowly, still looking at the girl under the blanket

"Well ladies, looks like we have you to ourselves" James grinned stealing the snitch from Lily's unsuspecting grasp. Teddy chucked and Peter chucked a cushion at James' face.

"In your dreams Potter," Lily said "if Remus has gone up then I think I will go up too."

James' grin slid off his face into a scowl and looked quizzically at Teddy, as if to see if she really meant it. Teddy smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

As Lily stood up so did Victoire and they both receded to the stairs without another word, a tired, Mary behind them.

"Man, looks like I'm not the only one in the dog house" James stated shaking his head, as Teddy closed his mouth slowly, his 'goodnight' still on his tongue, aimed towards Victoire's slumped back.

"Nah," Teddy said, rubbing the frown lines on his forehead "we aren't a couple"

"Yeah mate," James laughed tossing the cushion back across the room at him, "neither are Lily and I. That's the problem."

.

Trudging up the stairs almost at their door, Mary suddenly burst "do you really mean that about Remus, Lil?"

Lily gave a small smile, stepped down a step and swung her arm around Mary's waist "of course not Mary, we're just friends"

"I mean, I don't have any objection to it of course, I-,"

"No matter. I don't have any romantic feelings towards Remus, he's like a brother to me"

Victoire laughed silently at their conversation as she opened the door to the dormitory before spotting Marlene bundled under the covers of her bed. Her eyes were closed, yet her breathing was irregular. Victoire didn't say anything, letting her pretend she was asleep for whatever reasons, and climbed carefully into her own bed, whispering goodnight to the other girls. Lily laughed a goodnight as Mary's quiet snores filled the room, falling asleep as soon as she'd hit the pillow.

Victoire turned onto her back and took a deep, calming breath. There had been too much conflict today. Hopefully the night would erase the memory of her and Teddy's near kiss, and the rising sun would bring a more optimistic attitude.