"You are annoying."

"Are you jealous?" Victoire asked her sister, Disapperating with a small pop once more before reappearing in the same room once again seconds later. It was the fifth time she had done it in the last several minutes; she'd been doing it since she had got home from passing her Apparation test.

"No," Dominique said as she flipped a page in the Quidditch magazine she was attempting to read. "Not jealous. Just annoyed."

"Someone's techy," Victoire muttered.

"Someone's annoying," she reiterated, looking up from the magazine with a rather sharp glance.

Victoire rolled her eyes. She couldn't help it if she was excited. She was seventeen today. Her party was only an hour away; her friends would all be here soon. She could Apparate now. Life was grand.

She could even do magic legally and outside of school, which she was regularly showing off now as she pulled her wand out then and proceeded to levitate a nearby book that was resting on a table beside her sister. Without even looking up, Dominique reached out and pushed the book back down.

"I'm so happy you can only turn seventeen once."

"You need to get into a better mood already because the party's in an hour and no one's interested in your black cloud energy," said Victoire, throwing her sister a reproachful look. She didn't stick around for a response—which she was sure would be snarky and acid-tongued—and instead Disapperated out of the room then.

She reappeared downstairs in the kitchen moments later, just as her mother and father were arriving home from some last minute errands.

"Apparating all over the place, then?" asked her father, who was unloading several parcels onto the kitchen table.

"It's a pretty great feeling," Victoire said cheerfully, venturing over to poke around some of the bags and boxes they'd brought home with them.

Her mother lightly smacked her hand. "Do not be nosy."

"Are you hiding something?"

"You never know," her father teased, pulling out his wand and pointing it towards the kitchen door. It opened with a click. "Have you checked out the tent outside yet, Vic?"

"Are they finished?" she asked, rushing to grab her cloak off of the hanger by the door and following her father outside. On the side of the house was a smaller party tent that had been put up earlier that day. She had thought the tent was a bit much since they really did have a lovely garden with great views of the sea, but it was also the dead of winter and she couldn't ask her friends to stand around in the freezing cold all night.

"I've got to secure a Heating Charm for it," her father said as they both walked toward it. "Otherwise, you'll all be frozen solid by nine o'clock."

Her father pulled back the entrance drape and gestured for her to step inside. It was festively decorated for her birthday; several tables and chairs were set up, as was a large area for people to dance. Other, smaller, tables were lining the sides of the tent for snacks to be placed.

It was exactly as Victoire had requested, since she had explicitly told her mother that she didn't want things too over-the-top. She wanted it to be more of a relaxed and enjoyable get-together, rather than a big to-do. She couldn't help but feel that if it wasn't so cold out, this would be far easier to achieve. But she took what she could get.

She smiled. "Perfect."

"I think your mother's a bit disappointed there aren't ice sculptures," her father said with a glance at his daughter.

"The last thing I wanted were ice sculptures," she said, checking her watch. "Oh, I should probably go and get ready."

Her father checked his own watch. "You've got an hour."

"I need an hour," she said obviously, smiling before she turned on the spot and trekked back toward the exit.

On her jog back towards the house, the sky was becoming cloudier and she couldn't help but suddenly notice the choppiness of the sea. She walked over the nearby cliff's edge, glancing down to see the waves were reaching irregularly high heights as they crashed up against the rocks. It was especially blustery already and the winds felt strong enough to pull her right over the edge and into the sea if she let them.

She stopped moving any closer. It wasn't worth the risk. Not today. She turned and jogged the rest of the way to the house; eagerly throwing open the front door. She only narrowly missed her mother as she came down the stairs.

As she climbed them up to her room, she was in such a giddy, energetic mood that she decided to take the stairs two at a time until she reached the landing at the top. There was so much to do to get ready, but what to do first…?

An hour later, Victoire was pulling her wand out of her hair and letting a curl bounce to her shoulder as she examined herself in the mirror. She'd curled all the ends of her hair so that they looked perfect; she'd done her makeup a bit heavier and more dramatic than she was used to, seeing as it was a special occasion; and she'd put on a lovely pale blue dress that really did make her eyes stand out. As she looked in the mirror, everything seemed to have come together perfectly. She'd been about to stand and check herself out fully when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

It was Louis; he'd barely poked his head in. "Mum wants to know if you're almost ready."

"I think I'm good." She gestured to herself. "How do I look?"

"Nice," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Are you wearing makeup?"

"I wear makeup all of the time."

"Do you?"

"I don't always wear this much. But I figured I could play it up a bit, seeing as it is my birthday."

He'd been about to say something in response, but their mother had then called up the stairs to him—to inform him that his best friend had arrived and was currently downstairs—clearly stole his attention away from anything having to do with her or her makeup.

"Excellent," he said, turning away then. "Jack's here."

"How are your friends getting here before mine?" she called after him, following after him to venture downstairs.

"Oh, sweetheart!" said her mother as she caught sight of her coming down the stairs. "You look wonderful!"

Victoire smiled warmly, scanning the room and finding a stocky, muscular looking boy sitting on the sofa and talking to Dominique. It was Louis's best friend, Jack Ians, who was a quiet boy with a polite and shy nature about him. He was a Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, a Muggleborn, and probably as different from her brother as one could get—given Louis's outgoing nature—yet they'd been the best of friends since their first year.

"Happy birthday," Jack said to her, smiling politely as Louis suddenly entered the room with two butterbeers in his hands. He threw one to Jack, who caught it easily.

"Thank you," she said, taking the time to cast a quick glance at her sister. That quick glance, however, turned rather rapidly into a shocked stare. Dominique's hair was down and brushed out—which is when it looked its absolute best—and she was wearing a pair of Victoire's old dress robes. She looked amazing. If it weren't for her hunching her shoulders and her awful posture, she'd have been a complete vision.

"Mum made me," Dominique muttered in a defeated sort of way, as if reading Victoire's thoughts.

Louis was smirking into his butterbeer bottle. "She looks terrible, doesn't she?"

Victoire smiled at him, nodding in agreement. It was an in-joke she and her siblings had that went back ages. Whenever Dominique dressed up, she would get angry with anyone who dared to tell her how lovely she looked. She absolutely detested being complimented on her looks, so in turn—when she did look nice—Victoire and Louis would instead tell her she looked terrible. Oddly enough, that always seemed to calm her.

"This is stupid," Dominique muttered, standing then to sulk out of the room.

"It's insane how well she cleans up when she wants to," Victoire said to Louis, who nodded his head as if he didn't need to be told twice. "What I wouldn't give for my hair to look like that..."

The kitchen door opened from the other room, causing her to check to see who had entered and finding her father shaking off the cold a bit. When he saw her face, he immediately told her not to worry; that the tent was perfectly warm and comfortable inside.

"Everything is good to go," he said. "You look beautiful, Vic.""

Victoire smiled, though she didn't get to answer seeing as her mother bustled into the room and was already firing off questions at her husband.

"Is all of the food outside already?"

"It is," he said. "So are a few guests."

"Who's out there?" Victoire asked eagerly.

"George and Angelina," he said, reaching out to grab the door so that Louis and Jack, who were passing through, could exit. "They left the kids with her mum tonight. Then some kids I don't know." He gestured for Victoire to follow the others out the door. "Go have a look."

"I can't go out there yet," she said. "I've got to wait for more people to arrive."

He stared at her. "Why?"

"Because it'll look stupid if nobody's there and I'm standing around by myself," she said, as if it was the most obvious reasoning in the world.

"Alright..." he said in a manner that seemed to say he wasn't sure he wanted a further explanation. "But I think you're overthinking that."

He looked at his wife to agree with him, back him up even, but he had to realize that he was looking in the wrong place because her mother was already shaking her head. Who did he think taught her these rules?

"She cannot be standing by herself out there," she said matter-of-factly. "That is simply common sense, Bill."

Victoire nodded, happy to see someone knew the rules.

"Is it?" her father asked, clearly not jumping aboard this train of thought. However, he knew better than to debate the pair of them on the social rules of teenage girls and instead offered, "Well, we'll be outside, Vic. Celebrating your party without you until you decide to come out."

"Let me know where there's at least twenty people there," she called after her father.

Her father never did report back to her as to when more people arrived, but after their Floo began to get busier and busier with people arriving, Victoire knew it was safe to venture outside now and greet her guests.

There was laughter and music pouring out from the tent; immediately she felt her heartbeat get faster the closer she approached. She could see several people queuing up outside and walking inside in groups, so she decided to make her way to the other side of the tent, where she knew another entrance was located.

She'd barely taken two steps inside, barely begun to smile as she caught sight of her friends jubilantly wandering around, before she was immediately inundated by the first of many guests she would have to speak to that evening.

"Victoire!" said Sarah Kirke, a fifth-year girl and close friend of Dominique and Louis'. "Have you been here the entire time?"

"Just got here," she said, hugging Sarah hello. "Trying to make a sneaky entrance."

"Well, happy birthday!" she said, right as several other faces appeared from all directions to barrage her with birthday greetings and compliments.

Vicotire immediately started making the rounds, talking and talking to so many faces and people, all of whom were already enjoying the music and the night's activities. So far, everything seemed to be going as well as she could hope for. People were having fun; they were all complimenting her and wishing her a happy birthday. They all wanted a bit of her attention.

"I can believe my niece is seventeen," her Uncle George said as he greeted her later on with his wife, her Aunt Angelina. "You all grow up fast. I'm going to turn around tomorrow and see that Freddie and Roxie have turned forty."

"They're not even ten yet," Angelina said, shaking her head. "Let's not rush them any faster than we have to." She turned to Victoire. "Happy birthday, darling."

She'd thanked them both, though found herself distracted by a friendly face that had come hustling through the crowd toward her then. It was Whit, who was nearly an hour late.

"Happy birthday!" she said, racing up to hug her. "I'm so sorry I'm late. I had a wardrobe malfunction and I've never been good with a sewing spell." She frowned, gesturing down to the sensible, but not particularly showy dress she was wearing. "Then I couldn't get my hair right, so I settled on this."

She looked lovely, but Victoire could already see that she was a bit of a wreck from all the preparation. Truth be told, knowing Whit as she did, it had probably taken her an hour to work up the courage to turn up to something like this. The crowds, the people...this was not her scene at all. Not that she would ever admit that.

"You look great," Victoire reassured her. "I'm glad you made it.

Whit nodded with all the antsy energy of someone who was trying to catch their breath. "I look fine. You look fantastic!"

Victoire smiled.

"Seems like everyone is here," Whit said as she scanned the faces in the room. "You sure can draw a crowd."

"I don't know about that," she said before she, too, started looking around the room.

There was no sign of Colleen Lynch or any of her cronies yet. Was it too much to ask that they would find better things to do tonight? If they didn't turn up, that would honestly be the best birthday present that Victoire could ask for.

"Here, let's get you something to drink," Victoire offered, noticing that Whit could use the distraction to further calm herself down. She grabbed her by the arm and led the way toward the snack table, where she found her brother and his little crew already picking their way through any of the worthy snacks.

"Here's the girl of the hour!" Natalie Young, her brother's current girlfriend, called out. She was a skinny girl in every sense of the word; every part of her lean. Even her eyes looked skinny. Victoire had a sudden urge to warn her brother to keep her away from the cliffs outside since she was afraid of what one swift gust of wind could do to her.

"Thank you," she said as she helped herself to some punch, turning to offer the cup to Whit. "I'm glad you all could come."

"I'm trying to convince your brother to dance," Natalie said in a blatant attempt to make conversation with her, going so far as to step directly in between her and Whit to do so. It caused Whit to blink, startled.

This was how things were with Natalie. She always wanted people to think that they were closer than they actually were.

"Good luck with that," Victoire said, now helping herself to punch and throwing Louis a funny look. "Louis is not a dancer."

"I told you," he said, as if that should stand as proof for something.

"I could have told you he was miserable," said Dominique, who appeared out of nowhere, but looked sweaty and out of breath from having been jumping around the dance floor herself. She too began helping herself punch before adding, "He's absolute rubbish."

"Yeah, he's really bad," Jack quipped, laughing as he turned himself to face Louis. In his haste, he accidentally elbowed Whit in the arm, causing her to spill her punch all down the front of her dress. She was covered.

Jack stepped back and immediately grabbed at several napkins. "I'm so sorry."

"It's OK," she said quickly, though she'd barely moved at first. It took Jack practically thrusting the napkins upon her for her to finally take them.

"Here, wait, I can fix it!" Victoire offered, pulling out her wand and casting an easy cleaning spell upon Whit. The stain lifted quickly; Whit smiled meekly at the several people who had turned to watch the display.

"Next show is in twenty minutes, everyone," she said, still attempting to grin. "For my next trick, I think I'll slop butterbeer down my front before moving on to solid food."

A few people offered weak smiles, though Jack actually laughed. That action alone was enough to make Whit blush. No matter how polite and meaningless it was, she tended to freeze up whenever a member of the opposite sex paid any particular attention to her.

"Sorry," Jack said again, "I really am a muppet."

"Oh, it happens," she said, still looking rather embarrassed, but forced a brave smile. "You know, I had set out tonight to get a room full of people's attention, so 'mission accomplished.'" She smiled awkwardly. "Granted, I was hoping it was for something a bit more interesting and elegant, but having punch spilled down my front works too."

"Were you really?" asked Natalie, having clearly missed Whit's sarcasm.

Whit's face turned even pinker as she glanced around the faces slowly. "I was joking. Poorly, it seems…"

"I got it," Victoire said with a reassuring smile.

"I got it, too," Jack said. He was smiling as well.

"I still don't get it?" Natalie asked as she looked up at Louis. He shrugged as if to say he didn't either, but Victoire had a sneaking suspicion that he just didn't feel like explaining it to her.

"Sorry," Jack said. "I don't know your name?"

"I'm Jane," she said as she stuck out her hand in an awkward formal motion. Given the expression on her face, she looked as if she regretted doing it the second she had.

He grinned and shook it back. "I'm Jack. You should at least be able to properly identify the eejit who spilled the punch all over you."

"Call her Whit," Victoire said. "Everyone else does."

"Why's that?" he asked.

"My last name's Whitters," she said, still looking fairly uncomfortable. "It's just caught on lately."

"Cool," he said with a small smile. "What house are you in?"

"Gryffindor," Victoire said, obviously. "She's in my year, Jack. You've had to have seen her around hundreds of times."

If Whit hadn't been embarrassed enough before, she was now mortified. She stared down at the ground and looked as if she was ready to melt into it. However, given the expression on Jack's face, he now shared in her embarrassment for having not recognized someone who he'd most likely sat right next to on one occasion or another.

"My, my," Dominique said as she smirked at Jack. "Aren't we perceptive?"

"I'm sor—" he began, before several random boys appeared and started loudly greeting their group and helping themselves to snacks. Several noticed Victoire and started loudly singing happy birthday to her while taking turns hugging and twirling her around.

"I'm going to go and sit," Whit yelled over the commotion.

"Wait, I'll come," said Victoire as she managed to slip away from the boys, who had already focused their attention on another group of giggly girls to entertain.

"You don't have to," Whit said as she walked to a nearby table. "This is your party. You should be out having fun."

"So, should you," Victoire said. "I know you're not keen on this sort of thing or most of these people, but you still sucked it up and came for me."

"It's not just that," she said. "I mean, it's not that I don't like these people. It's that I barely know them." She sighed. "You saw your friend back there. I'm invisible to most of these people and I practically blend into the wall. It makes me wonder what I've been doing for the last six years at school."

"You're not blending," Victoire said. "You're just not running around trying to draw attention to yourself like so many of the people we go to school with do. That's a good thing."

"I think that depends on what side of it you're on," she muttered as several fourth-year girls came over to wish Victoire a happy birthday. She smiled and waved politely, but didn't turn away from Whit.

"Don't worry about all of that rubbish," Victoire said, now thinking about her own previous six years at school and the person people thought she was. "You make sure that what you are is what you want to be. Because one day you'll wake up and realize that everything you thought you wanted isn't as fun as people make it out to be."

Whit cocked her eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Never mind." She waved her hand. "We've got an entire night to show people just how great you are. I'll introduce you to everyone here and—" She stopped speaking once noticed Whit's eyes suddenly grew wide with recognition of something presumably over her shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Behind you," she whispered, trying to point inconspicuously.

Victoire swung around to see what was there; she turned so quickly that she startled the person standing there, who had his hand raised as if he was just about to tap her on the shoulder. He actually left it there and blinked several times in surprise.

"Hi," said Stuart Reynold with a surprised, but pleasant smile. He had the deepest blue eyes that Victoire had ever had the pleasure of looking into. She could easily fall into them and hope never to be rescued. Now that would be a birthday present…

"Hi Stuart," she said, feeling herself get smiley. "Hi, how are you?"

"Good," he said as his smile grew more sincere. "Happy birthday."

"Oh," she said with a casual wave of her hand. "Thank you."

"I was actually looking all over for you," he said as he gestured around the room. "You're a hard woman to get a hold of."

"Well, that really all depends on who's looking," she said, smiling very deliberately. She suddenly heard Whit attempt to turn a laugh into a cough from behind her.

"You look fantastic," he said, looking her up and down. "Really fantastic."

She blushed, but continued to smile confidently. This was all definitely a good sign. "Thank you. Are you having a good time?"

"Yeah," he said with a quick nod, "I only just got here, so I've mostly been looking for people." He grinned. "I was looking around for you, but it seems like a great time. Are you having fun?"

"Oh, sure," she said, still smiling. "But I could always have more. It all depends on the company I choose to keep, I suppose."

Stuart returned the smile. Victoire noticed Whit watching her with great amusement. Seeing her doing so reminded her of her promise to introduce Whit to everyone they came across. "Oh, Stuart. This is my friend, Jane Whitters."

"Hello," he said, turning that perfect, charming smile on her.

The amused grin on Whit's face slipped away and was replaced with something that looked far more surprised. She seemed to have been taken completely off-guard by the introduction.

"Um, hi."

"You two are in Gryffindor together, right?" he asked.

Whit nodded slowly, looking a little thunderstruck. There was a definite sort of magnetism about Stuart that just pulled people in.

"I thought so," he said as he turned back toward Victoire. "Well, I'm going to go and grab something to eat, but maybe later if you could fit me in, I could get a dance? I know the birthday girl's time is valuable—"

"I think we can work something out," she said as she tried to hide the eagerness in her voice.

"Great," he said, a funny sort of knowingness in his smile that time. He even dawdled for an extra few seconds before he turned away in the direction of the food.

"Don't forget to breathe," Whit joked.

Victoire waited until he was well out of earshot before she even moved a muscle. She turned and smiled at Whit; it was a smile that grew wider and wider by the second. That exchange could not have been anymore perfect, short of him dropping down to one knee and proposing on the spot.

"Well, there's no denying he's handsome," Whit said as Victoire slowly sat down beside her and closed her eyes in an attempt to savor the moment. She now only had one goal for the night, and that was to get as close to Stuart as possible.

"Seems like your night," Whit added. "And it should be, since it's your birthday and all."

Victoire continued to smile as she glanced around the room. So far, this had been a wonderful evening and it had practically just started. There was so much potential for the rest of the night; so much fun to be had, so many things to do. She could barely contain her excitement and wondered just how many minutes she should give Stuart before she struck up another conversation with him—when her eyes fell upon the entrance of the tent.

Her stomach lurched and she immediately stopped smiling. At that very moment, in walked Colleen Lynch, Aspeth Pucey, and Penelope Shears.

"Oh, bloody hell..." she mumbled.

"What's wrong?" Whit asked.

"You'll see in a second," she said as she forced a very fake smile onto her face. A second earlier, Aspeth had pointed in her direction; all three girls were now making their way toward her.

Happy birthday!" Penelope said, reaching her first and hugging her. "You look lovely!"

"Happy birthday!" Aspeth said as well. "You really do look incredible!"

"Thanks," Victoire said, attempting to return the enthusiasm. "Your hair looks really...nice."

"Do you like it?" asked Aspeth as she ran a hand through her short dark hair. "I was so afraid that chopping off so much would make it look terrible."

The truth was that her new, shorter hair did make her face look far rounder than it had been before, but Victoire would have never said that in good conscience. Aspeth was a pretty girl, but she was fighting a constant battle with her weight; even though she was, in any normal person's definition, perfectly fine. Then again, Colleen Lynch wasn't any normal person…

"I told her I think it makes her look squat," Colleen said as she breezed her way past Aspeth toward Victoire. "Longer hair suits her much better, but obviously, what do I know?" She smiled at Victoire. "You look lovely though, darling. Happy birthday." She leaned forward and greeted her with an air kiss.

"You're too sweet," said Victoire, her tone laced with cracks of insincerity. "You look fantastic, as usual."

Colleen smiled smugly as she threw her dark hair over her shoulder. Not a single curl fell out of place as she did it. "As usual."

Victoire kept smiling and hoped she was doing a convincing enough job of it.

"Seems like everyone's here," Colleen continued.

"Yeah," Victoire said, looking around. "I wasn't sure if you all were coming actually—"

"Why wouldn't we come to one of our closest friend's birthday parties?"

Victoire blinked a few times. "Well, for starters, it started over an hour ago, and as my closest friends I would have thought—"

"We weren't going to be the first people here," Colleen said with a short laugh. "That would just be pathetic. No offense. We planned on being a little late, of course. First rule of thumb, you know that."

"Right…" Victoire said, watching as Penelope and Aspeth nodded in agreement.

Colleen turned around then and stared at the table where Whit was sitting and quietly watching them. She made a point of averting her eyes when Colleen focused on her.

"Are you saving these seats for anyone?" Colleen asked.

"Me?" Whit asked, pretending that she hadn't been listening to everything going on.

"Who else would I be talking to?"

She grimaced. "No, I'm not."

"Of course you're not," Colleen said as she pulled out a chair and took a seat. Penelope and Aspeth followed suit. Whit made a movement to stand up when Colleen caught her eye.

"Oh, you don't have to leave," she said. "At least, not until anyone else who we'd prefer to have sitting there comes along."

"Well, in that case, I'd rather not—" Whit began, but Victoire held up a hand to stop her.

"No. Stay." She dropped her fake smile. "You were there first."

Colleen glanced up at Victoire with a smile, as if she thought this was all part of some hilarious joke. When she saw Victoire's face was stone serious, she began to frown.

"Oh, I forgot," she drawled. "You and—" She stopped and glanced at Whit. "Who are you again?"

"Her name is Jane," Victoire said, knowing full well that Colleen knew who she was.

"I forgot you and Jane are friends now," she said patronizingly. "I mean, I know we've been a bit busy with school, Vicki, but for you to drop so far—"

"Oh, give it a rest," Victoire snapped. "Drop so far? Because I've decided to make new friends?"

"Because of the friends you've chosen to make," she said. "I suppose it's only natural for you. Do you remember the people you used to hang out with before we took you in?"

"Took me in?"

"Boring and dull," she added matter-of-factly. "Apparently, without our supervision, you fall right back into those old habits."

"Um, I can hear you," Whit said. "I'm sitting right here."

"Which means you're unfortunately still here," Colleen said. Penelope giggled.

"You're unbelievable," said Victoire. She glanced at Whit apologetically.

"I'm aware of that," Colleen said as she stood up and stared Victoire directly in the eye. She suddenly flashed a patronizingly sweet smile. "But none of this tonight, Vicki. It's your birthday, after all. I'd hate to spoil it for you."

Victoire half smirked, but didn't break eye contact. "You flatter yourself. But then again, someone has to, I suppose."

Colleen's face grew hard and looked as if she was ready to exchange a few choice words. However, at that moment, Stuart had reappeared as if he had been summoned by a charm. Colleen's eyes narrowed on him instantly; she immediately stepped back from Victoire and smiled sweetly. As if on cue, Penelope and Aspeth both smiled as well.

"Oh, Stu!" Colleen said as her mood changed in an instant to something more flirtatious and pleasant. "I had no idea you were here!"

"Yeah." He smiled. "I've been here for a bit."

"Had I known that, I would have arrived earlier!" she said as she glanced at the full table. "If only we had somewhere for you to sit…"

"By all means," Whit said. She practically threw back her chair in order to stand. She'd clearly had her fill of this circus.

"Oh, you don't have to," Colleen said with all the fake sincerity in the world. "I'd hate to be a bother."

Whit stared at her as if she had three heads, but didn't even bother trying not to laugh as she walked off towards the other side of the tent.

"Oh, it's okay," Stuart said, glancing at the seat. "I was actually making my way around and seeing who was here. Durrin and some of my other mates should be—"

"That sounds like fun too," Colleen said. "I'd love to join you. I've been meaning to talk to—"

"Actually," Victoire interrupted as she glanced at Stuart, "Stuart, I was wondering if I could collect on that dance you had promised me earlier."

"Right now?" he asked, sounding a bit surprised by the suddenness, but not uninterested.

Victoire nodded, which prompted Stuart to say, "You're the birthday girl." He threw Colleen a look that seemed to assume that she would understand this reasoning, but the look on her face said that she clearly didn't.

He gestured for Victoire to lead the way toward the dance floor, and it took everything Victoire had in her not to turn to see the look on Colleen's face as they walked away. She wanted to concentrate on the positive of this moment instead of the negative. As far as she was concerned, Colleen wasn't even here.