After what seemed to be the longest week in the history of school, the Friday before the Hogsmeade trip finally seemed to be the last stop in between what Victoire had started calling, "pre and post-Stuart Victoire."

"I'm more concerned that you're referring to yourself in the third person," Whit joked as the pair sat in the library that afternoon trying to finish up as much work as possible before the weekend. It seemed they weren't the only ones who thought that was a good idea seeing that the library was almost completely full.

Victoire smiled. She was in such a good mood that she found even the silliest things funny and charming. She'd even managed to muster a genuine smile towards Colleen and Penelope when they had entered the library and greeted her. She wished she could have done the same to Natalie, who without Louis as a distraction had become even more attached to those girls' sides; however, rather than give her a dirty look, she merely ignored her instead.

Even Whit seemed to be in fantastic spirits, which only increased Victoire's mood. She and Jack had made solid plans for tomorrow –ones that mirrored the plans that Victoire had made with Stuart—and she had managed to have the entire conversation with him without blushing or stammering. In fact, over the last few days, Victoire had even sworn she caught Whit flirting with him. Something she currently seemed to be doing...

"Would you use Rennervate for question four?" Victoire asked as she stared at her Charms work. "For some reason I think it's a trick question and that's the wrong spell."

"Sorry? What?" Whit asked as she finished scribbling something down on a piece of parchment and then proceeded to start folding it up. "What question?"

Victoire glanced to her left where two tables over, Louis, Jack, Flynn, Dominique, and Sarah were all sitting and working. Jack and Whit had been sending a note back and forth to each other now for the last hour.

"Four," Victoire said as Whit began searching her book while also levitating the note and shooting it across the room. It zoomed past several people's heads, causing them to look up to take notice. It actually came within inches of nailing Colleen in the side of the head, which caused her to glare rather irritatingly at Whit.

"Yeah, it's Rennervate," Whit agreed as she put her wand down on the table and picked up her quill to write the answer down herself. "Question five."

"We already did question five," Victoire said as a piece of parchment suddenly landed on top of her book. She glanced at Jack, who mouthed, "Sorry" for his poor aim. She picked it up and handed it to Whit. "This is yours."

"Sorry," she offered as she took it. "How many more questions do we have left?"

"The last three."

"Alright, I won't even read this until we're done," she said with a determined nod. "Question eight. What charm will help create heat without causing a fire or burning…?"

The questions took far longer than either of them anticipated. It took forty-five minutes to complete what they thought would take fifteen and by the time they were done, Whit was yawning and mumbling something about being exhausted.

"We've been here for three hours," Victoire said wearily. "Let's go."

"Sounds good to me," she said as Jack suddenly walked by and poked her in the back. When she looked up, he seemed to be wondering if she had read what he had written last.

"Sorry, I had to finish," Whit whispered, gesturing to her work before she picked up the note.

"Yeah, I figured that when I didn't get a response," he said with a small smile.

"Where are you going?" she whispered.

"Toilet," he whispered back as he noticed Madam Pince eyeing them skeptically. To her, if you weren't sitting at a table working, you had no reason to be there. As she often said, the library was not a social place.

"I'm going back to the common room, I think," she said. "I'm really tired."

He frowned. Victoire couldn't help but think that it was a very sweet reaction.

"Alright then," he whispered as he smiled again and took several steps towards the exit. He waved a little before he almost ran smack into Madam Pince, who didn't look very pleased with the close call. Whit and Victoire giggled a bit.

"Let's go," Victoire said as she stood and pulled her bag over her shoulder. She glanced around the room and immediately let her bag drop off a bit when she saw that Penelope Shears was now sitting in Jack's vacant seat and chatting with Louis. She noticed Dominique seemed just as startled by Penelope's sudden presence and noticeably glared at her. She made a rather obvious gesture to throw her quill down and groan before walking away from the table.

"You go ahead," Victoire added as she set her bag down and watched her sister disappear into the shelves of books. "I've got to talk to Louis."

She could feel Whit watching as she made her way toward the strange pair. The closer she drew, the more she noticed Penelope was smiling at him in a way that made her stomach turn.

"Hi," Victoire said deliberately to her brother as she knelt down beside him and tried to avoid Madam Pince's roaming eye. She glanced at Penelope. "Penelope."

"Hi," Penelope said pleasantly as she stretched her arms over Jack's work and towards Louis. In making the motion, she accidentally knocked some of Jack's papers off of the table, which made her exclaim, "Oops." She quickly reached down and gathered them.

"What's up?" Louis asked his sister without looking at her. He'd put his quill in his mouth and was absently turning pages in his book.

"Uh," Victoire said, realizing she really had nothing to say. She'd merely wanted to break up this little party. "I'm sending mum and dad some post and I wanted to tell you that if you wanted to send something that you should let me know."

He looked at her strangely. Even she had to admit that it was a pretty dumb reason for her to have come all the way over here to talk to him. He was perfectly capable of sending his own post. "Alright…?"

"Just letting you know," she said, giving Penelope another sweeping look as she stood back up. "Are you going to Hogsmeade tomorrow,?"

"I haven't decided yet," he said as he turned back to his work. "I don't have a real reason to."

"Oh, you should!" Penelope said in a way that made both Flynn and Sarah look up somewhat startled from what they were doing. "I know you feel like there's nothing to do, but trust me there's loads."

"Yeah, maybe," he said with a small laugh, sounding half bored and half polite. It was still too friendly for Victoire's tastes. Louis was always too nice.

"Shhh!" hissed Madam Pince at the crowd of them. "If you're not working, I'm going to have to ask you to leave so as to not disturb other students."

"Sorry," Victoire said, though Penelope stood.

"Just think about coming," Penelope said to Louis as she smiled and walked back to where she had been sitting with her friends.

Victoire attempted to throw her brother a certain 'what the fuck' look, but he'd already gone back to his work and wasn't paying attention.

She shook her head and walked off. Knowing how keen Penelope was on her brother, she hadn't liked the looks of that conversation one bit.

"She's a notorious flirt," Whit said the next day after Victoire brought it up to her—yet again. She was pulling a jumper over her head while they got ready for Hogsmeade. "She flirts with everything that breathes."

"You had to see the way she was looking at him," Victoire said as she sat on the edge of the bed and thumbed her wand absently.

"I'd hope your brother had more sense than that."

"Perhaps to not date her," she said. "But he's on the rebound and people don't always make the best choices when they're coming off a breakup."

Whit frowned. "He's got to have more sense than that."

"He might be up here," she said as she pointed to her head. "But down there—" She gestured between her legs before shaking her head.

"It's a little weird that she's all friendly with Natalie now, yet she's going after her ex just days after they split up."

"There's no period of waiting for them," Victoire said.

"I'm sure it'll work itself out," Whit said as she glanced at herself in the mirror.

"That's what I'm afraid of," she muttered as she shook her hair out and started brushing through it. Seconds later, as if she had cast a spell on it, it was all neatly in place.

"How do you do that?" Whit asked, watching her through the mirror.

"Do what?"

"With your hair?"

She shrugged. "It just sort of happens."

Whit examined her own hair in the mirror as it lay dully on her shoulders. She picked up the ends and started examining them.

"Here," she said as she took her brush and handed it to Whit. "I've got some of this hair potion that will make your hair shiny." She went to her trunk and pulled a large bottle out.

Fifteen minutes later, Whit's hair looked similar to what it always looked like, just healthier and more lifelike. Victoire flicked her wands through it once more and stood back to admire her work.

Whit was observing herself and seemingly happy with the results. "It looks good."

"I do good work." She smiled at her. "Are you nervous?"

"About my hair?"

Victoire gave her a little swat on the shoulder. That had obviously not been what she'd meant.

"Maybe a little," Whit said, standing up. "I mean not of Jack, but of what could happen."

"Like a rock falling on him and crushing him?" Victoire joked.

"No," she said with a nervous laugh. "More...what if he tries to kiss me?"

She shrugged. "Kiss him back if you want. Don't do it if you don't."

"I've just never done it. It's nerve wracking."

"If can be," Victoire offered as she sat on the edge of her bed. "But if it's with someone you fancy, it's fantastic. It's next level. I've heard for some people, it's practically transcendent. I can't say I've experienced that level yet, but all of mine have been nice."

"How was your first?" she asked, sitting across from her. "Did you make the first move?"

"Me?" She laughed. "No, no, no. That was all Malcolm Abernathy. Remember him? He was two years above us. I was a fourth-year. It was outside on the grounds and it was a terribly windy day. I remember standing there with him and wanting to do it, though I didn't know how it would work since he was rather tall. I thought it would be awkward."

Whit laughed. "Was it?"

She shook her head. "He did it so smoothly that it took me completely by surprise and didn't really have a chance to get nervous. It was lovely."

"That sounds sweet."

"It was," she said with a shrug. 'Though now that I think about it, it wasn't my first kiss." She laughed a little. "I kissed Ted once when we were smaller. I'd nearly forgotten about that. And I did make the first move...if you want to call it a move, which I wouldn't."

Whit stared at her, clearly not following.

"It wasn't a real thing," she said with a dismissive wave. "I had such a crush on him when I was little because he was soooo much older than me—" She made a funny face. "Two whole years, which seems like nothing now. The only boys I've ever dated are two years older than me, so I've clearly got a thing for boys that age. But when you're small, that gap may as well have been grown."

She smiled and looked away. "Anyway, I dared him to do it one day because I was a very curious child and wanted to know what it felt like. He refused and somehow later—during some game of tag or something—we were running around and I ended up pinning him down on the ground. How I did that I don't know because he was bigger than me, but I did."

She looked back over at Whit. "I kissed him for probably one second before I hopped up and ran away, rather mortified." She laughed to herself as the details did suddenly start to come flooding back. "He was so angry. Wouldn't speak to me for the rest of the day. I remember feeling bad about it because he was upset and it wasn't even worth it."

"He clearly forgave you," Whit said.

"Yeah, he forgave me. I don't even think he remembers it now, but I'm sure if I brought it up, he'd give me shit for it." She checked the clock. "We should go."

"Oh," Whit said sitting up straighter and running an anxious hand through her hair. "Right."

"Don't be nervous," Victoire said. "It's just Jack."

"To you it's just Jack," Whit muttered as the pair of them proceeded out of the dormitory and into the common room. Several people were piling out of the portrait hole in small groups and excitedly talking about their plans for the day. One sweep of the room showed that Jack was nowhere to be seen.

"Are you meeting him here?" Victoire asked. "Or downstairs?"

"I…" she said as she glanced around, seemingly confused. "I guess downstairs."

"We'll need to get a move on then." Victoire tugged on her sleeve and led her all the way to the bottom of the castle, where students were gathering in the Entrance Hall waiting to be allowed outside. The elderly caretaker, Argus Filch, stood checking each student's name off of a list as they passed one by one out into the bitterly cold morning.

"I don't see him anywhere," Whit said as they got nearer to the front door.

"He's probably outside if anything," Victoire said. "He wouldn't want to wait around in this mess."

They proceeded past Filch's checkpoint and out into the open air of the courtyard. Several people were mulling around looking for their friends; Victoire noticed Stuart standing several yards ahead and talking with Devon Whimbley and Durrin Adams.

"There's Stuart," Victoire said, pointing and immediately making her way toward him. "He's standing over by the small wall. You'll have a better vantage point to look for Jack from over there."

If Whit had responded, Victoire didn't know. She was already smiling brightly once Stuart had turned and noticed her approaching. The second he smiled at her, there was suddenly no one else in the world but the two of them.

"You look great," he said to her once she met him.

"We'll see you later, mate," Devon said to him, just as Durrin added, "We'll be at the Broomsticks if you two feel like stopping by." He pointed at them and playfully said, "You two behave now."

"Yeah, alright," Stuart said, nodding in their direction as they took off down the path. He turned all of his attention onto Victoire. "You ready?"

"Oh," she said as she glanced quickly at Whit. "Actually, can we wait until she finds who she's looking for?"

"Yeah sure," he said as he glanced over the crowd. "Who is it? I'll help you look."

"Jack Ians," she said. "You know him?"

"I'm shit with names and faces," he said as he hopped up onto the wall in the courtyard and started scanning the crowd. "What's he look like?"

"Blondish hair, but it's darker," Victoire explained. "He's burly and about your height, I'd guess. You'd know him from Quidditch. He's a Beater for Gryffindor."

"Oh, I know who…" Stuart said before trailing off, though he now seemed to be looking through the faces a bit more carefully.

"It's weird he's not here yet," Whit said after a few minutes had passed. They'd been watching the crowd's numbers start to dwindle down as fewer and fewer people trickled out of the school.

"Did you tell him you'd perhaps meet him there?" Stuart asked, hopping off the wall.

Victoire glanced at Whit. She seemed to be racking her brain and trying to remember exactly what they had planned.

"We just sort of made plans to go to that tea shop you told me about," she said to Victoire. "We never really talked about meeting beforehand. I think we both assumed we'd run into each other before that."

"He might be down in the village already then," Stuart suggested.

Victoire furrowed her brow. For as long as she'd known Jack, he was nothing if not polite. He was the type of guy who would walk a girl he was taking out into town—not head off without her and without leaving word.

"There's Nic," Victoire said as she noticed Dominique and Sarah straggling out of the castle toward the village. "They may know where he is. Hey Nic!"

Dominique stopped and looked around for the source of her name. Victoire waved to her; she waved back, but it was a funny sort of wave—almost as if she were mocking her for doing it in the first place.

Victoire rolled her eyes and told Whit and Stuart to hold on while she went to speak to her. She hadn't even gotten within ten yards of her before calling out, "You haven't seen Jack this morning, have you?"

She shook her head. "No. But we got to breakfast late and nearly everyone had already left."

"Last I saw him," Sarah offered, "was when he left the library last night in a mood."

"A mood?" Victoire asked.

"Yeah," she said with a shrug. "One minute he was fine and the next he was all techy. I asked him what was wrong, but he just brushed me off. He packed up his things and left. All he said was that he was going to bed."

"Why do you care where Jack is?" Dominique asked.

Victoire gestured over her shoulder, where Whit was clearly visible. "I don't, but she does. They have a date. Did you forget?"

Sarah's eyes went wide with recognition as they both craned their necks to check for Whit, though Dominique let her face remain blank. "I did forget. Jack's love life isn't something I give much thought to. Whit's either." She looked at Victoire. "Don't you have a date you should be getting to?"

"Yes and I'd like to do that, but I need Jack to turn up. I can't leave Whit just standing here."

"Maybe he already went into the village with Louis and Flynn?" Dominique suggested.

"When he had a date?" Sarah asked. "Doesn't sound like him."

"Alright, well, thanks," Victoire said, leaving them to their own plans and turning back toward hers. Whit was looking at her expectantly, apparently looking for an answer.

"They didn't know. He must have gone ahead."

"Perhaps he had something to do early and got caught up," Stuart offered. "You mentioned the tea shop, so perhaps he's waiting for you there?"

"It's probably just a miscommunication," Victoire offered. "I'm sure he's there now. We can all walk down that way."

Whit didn't seem convinced, but she relented and followed the pair of them down the path toward Hogsmeade. Victoire noticed she looked more apprehensive now than she had at any point that morning, so she attempted to keep the conversation light

"Right…" Whit said as the three of them started walking towards town. Victoire sensed Whit's apprehension so she tried to make the conversation as light as possible. She and Stuart chose to discuss some of the more popular current events they'd been reading about in the paper, though Whit didn't utter a single word over the course of the entire walk.

"Are we swinging by the tea room first?" Stuart asked once they arrived into the village, gesturing to Whit. Already the streets and shops were overrun with Hogwarts' students, but not a single one was Jack.

Victoire nodded, throwing Whit an encouraging smile that wasn't returned. She was starting to get a little worried that Jack wasn't going to be at the shop and then Whit would have reached a dead end. If Jack wasn't at the shop, there were no more excuses. Even Stuart looked doubtful that this trip to the tea room was going to give them what they wanted.

As they walked, Stuart asked Victoire, "Have you ever been to Puddifoot's before?" referring to the tea shop.

"Yeah, once. Last year."

She stopped short of telling him it was with Dave Thorpe, who she knew he was friends with. It made her suddenly wonder how this would play out, considering he and Dave had always been close at school and she and Dave had dated. He had since finished and wasn't around anymore, but they were probably still friends? Weren't they?

"It's nice. I've been a few times," he said. She knew it was his turn to think of his ex now. He and Elizabeth probably came here loads of times over the course of the years they had been together; she felt the sudden urge to change the subject as fast as possible.

"I'm starving," she said once they reached the shop and Stuart held the door open for everyone to enter.

"I am too," he said. "I always skip breakfast on Hogsmeade days because I know I end up going out and eating all day."

"I do as well," she agreed, smiling at him as she looked around the small shop. There were a handful of other couples sitting at the small tables that were stationed all over the place, but Jack was nowhere to be seen. Shit...

She cast a concerned look in Whit's direction; she could feel Stuart next to her do the same.

"I should go," Whit said.

"No," Victoire said. "He's probably running late."

"There are only so many more things he can still be," she said, right as Madam Puddifoot appeared to greet the group of them.

"Three?" she asked as she cast a look around the shop, presumably wondering where she could put them.

"Just two," Whit said. "I'm leaving."

"What if he is just running late?" Victoire asked, though she was growing more and more doubtful by the minute. "It's not an impossible idea."

She looked at Stuart—who she assumed had already written Jack off as having ditched—and silently urged him to at least attempt to corroborate her claim.

He cleared his throat and, rather unconvincingly, said, "Yeah, give him a few minutes."

"It's a few more minutes," Victoire reiterated.

Whit begrudgingly agreed as Madam Puddifoot—upon finally getting a proper answer out of them—led them over to two separate tables that were stationed close together. Victoire and Stuart sat at one; Whit slumped into the table next to them.

"What can I get you?" Puddifoot asked.

"I'm fine for the moment," Whit said. "I'm…waiting for someone."

"We'll take the house special," Stuart said with a confirming glance at Victoire. She smiled in agreement.

"Great," Puddifoot said before she walked off and left them alone. Victoire noticed that Whit was staring up at small cherubs that were flying around the ceiling sprinkling confetti and stars on top of them. She wondered if she could ask them to stop.

"They're always here around Valentine's day," said Stuart as he noticed Victoire watching them.

"They're cute," she said as one circled Whit's head with its ready made smile plastered across its face. Whit immediately looked away and over at a couple that was sitting next to the window.

"So," Stuart said as he started to absently play with the sugar dispenser on the table. "What sort of music do you like?"

"Um, all sorts. I'm really keen on—"

Whit suddenly stood up. "I'm going to go."

"Whit…" Victoire said, standing with her.

"I'm fine, you two have fun." She grabbed her bag and squeezed her way out between the tables, heaving straight for the exit.

Victoire turned back towards Stuart. "I'll be right back," she said before she chased after Whit into the street. "Whit! Please stop!"

She stopped, but didn't turn around. Victoire had to jog to catch up with her.

"I'm so sorry," Victoire said. "Do you want me to go back with you?"

"No," she said. "You've been waiting for this date forever. I'm not ruining it."

"It's fine," she said. "I don't mind."

"But I do," she said. "Look, I'm only going to swing by a store or two and go back to the castle. I'm going to be no fun and you're going to miss out on one of the few chances you can get for some alone time with Stuart. Go."

Victoire stared at her. She wasn't wrong, but she felt bad going off to have fun while she was clearly miserable.

"I'll be fine," she said with an unconvincing smile. "I want you to have a full report to tell me when you get back. You have to promise me that."

Victoire continued to stare at her. She knew she was obviously upset, but that she didn't want it to show. That fact that she was staring at Whit with pitiful eyes probably wasn't helping matters. She forced her gaze down to the ground.

"Go!" Whit demanded.

"If I see Jack, I'm going to curse him," Victoire said as she hugged her. "I swear."

She smiled a little, but said nothing. She adjusted her scarf and then turned and walked away down the street on her own. Victoire watched her go, feeling absolutely horrible. She had been so excited about this.

"You better have one hell of an excuse, Ians," she mumbled to herself.