Victoire adjusted her cloak from underneath her as she situated herself on a large boulder by the lake. The weather had warmed significantly lately and besides the icy breeze that was kicking up off the water, it was almost nice. She could move to a spot that was less drafty, she knew that. However, this spot provided so much to see. It had a perfect view of the lake, the mountains, and the forest. Suffering through a little cold wind was worth it just for the view.

She glanced down at the letter in her hand. It was from her parents telling her how much they missed her and asking about how school was going. Apparently, her father had got a promotion at the bank and that meant he wouldn't have to work as much, but would have to travel more. She could tell by the way her father wrote that he was excited at the chance to travel again. It was something he had all but given up when she and her siblings had come along; something he had only started to get back into once they were all off at school. Her mum seemed excited for the extra income that his promotion would bring, but Victoire could tell that she wasn't as excited about the traveling as he was. The extra money was enough that her mum could quit her job if she wanted and travel with him, but Victoire wasn't sure she'd ever do that.

She sighed as she folded up the letter. She was feeling homesick today. The last few days had been low for her and she couldn't exactly explain why. Things weren't bad: Her marks were high, she was getting along with everyone, and things with Stuart were...fine. More of the same as they'd always been. That wasn't particularly great, but she more or less didn't care.

She honestly felt rather despondent. She felt as though something was missing. She felt like hugging her mother.

She had Whit to talk to, but since she and Jack had officially become a couple she had been splitting her time between everyone and school. It wasn't something that really bothered Victoire. She knew Whit was excited about her new—her first—relationship and that she deserved to enjoy herself; at the same time. it was a little lonely on this end. Watching Whit and Jack together tended to remind her of her own current dating situation—or rather, lack thereof. That was a mess of confusion and questions.

Wasn't the whole point of dating to have fun with someone you fancied? Where was the fun part?

She sighed as the wind blew her hair back and picked up the other letter she had received that day. She knew from the messy script on the outside of the envelope that it was from Ted. She smiled as she unfolded it and started to read.

Hey Vic,

I think we should call a truce. I won't give you a hard time for taking forever to answer me if you do the same. I know you're probably thinking this benefits me more than you—and you're right. So, a truce it is? If you're going to call one with Colleen Lynch, you might as well call one with me.

Speaking of which, don't trust her. I don't buy her act for a second. Truce, my arse. She's probably thinking of other ways to screw with you. You say Louis' girl split up with him after she became friendly with her? Well, there may have been some bigger problems there that I don't know about, but I also wouldn't be surprised if Colleen talked her into it. Sort of like a twisted game for her. Instead of screwing with you, she'll screw with the people you care about. It's her style—and you're asking for it for fancying the same bloke she does (I see I was right by the way. Stuart Reynolds spelled backwards is wanker).

You probably think I'm being mental, but you know she's not calling any sort of truce. I just don't want to see you hurt. Just watch out.

Grams is good. She says hello. Easter is fine and my schedule should be mostly clear. We'll hang out. Sorry this isn't longer, but work calls and I just wanted to write so you didn't think I was ignoring you (which I wouldn't do).

Miss you,

Edward Remus Lupin

She laughed once she noticed he had signed his entire name, just as she had done on her last letter. She could always count on Ted to appreciate her silly jokes and play along with the silly things she did, even if he was hours away. With him off in London now, she couldn't help but regret having spent his last year of school not speaking to him. Not that they would have spoken much with Celia trying her best to keep them apart, but it still felt like a missed opportunity.

She frowned as she re-lived their infamous argument over again in her head. It had been the only time they had ever really fought and it had resulted in them almost throwing away fifteen and a half years of friendship. If she thought she felt low now, nothing had compared to the feeling she had experienced then.

A ray of sun bounced off the lake and hit her in the eyes, causing her to squint. She looked down to read the note once more and her eyes drifted to the line about Colleen going after the people she cared about to get at her; how maybe she'd played a part in Louis's breakup. Had Colleen been the one who convinced Natalie to break up with Louis? The timing was almost too perfect, but at the same time—besides feeling sorry for her brother—it hadn't really affected her that much. Plus, Penelope fancied Louis. If Colleen broke them up, it was most likely for more selfish reasons rather than vengeful ones.

"There you are," said a voice from nearby. It was Whit.

"Hey," Victoire said. "How'd you find me?"

"You weren't in any of the usual places." She began climbing up the boulder to get to her. "So, your sister told me to check out here."

Victoire grinned and moved over to make room for her to sit, which she did directly beside her.

"What are you doing?" Whit asked, taking notice of the small pile of letters and discarded envelopes.

"Just reading my post," she said. "And thinking."

Whit nodded and stared out over the lake. "This seems like a good spot to think."

Victoire nodded as well, but said nothing.

"Any good news?" Whit asked, gesturing towards the letters.

"My dad got a promotion," she said, "which is good. Ted is Ted. As usual." She paused. "He thinks Colleen's not to be trusted and that she's the one who broke up Louis and Natalie."

"She's definitely not to be trusted, but why does he think that other part?"

"Because he knows she loves to cause problems. He seems to think that she's hurting the people around me to indirectly get to me."

"So, she tried to hurt Louis to get to you?"

"Apparently."

"If that's the case, she didn't plan that one out very well, did she?" she asked. "If anything, I would think if she had a hand in breaking them up, it was because Penelope seems to fancy him and with Natalie out of the way, he's free game."

Victoire smiled. "I thought the same thing. That's far more likely than her trying to hurt me through Louis."

"Unless she was trying to kill two birds with one stone," Whit joked.

"I think you're giving her too much credit," she said. "She's not some sort of mastermind. If she was, she'd be diabolically planning to give me spattergroit or something."

Whit laughed. "That's one way to make it so you never see Stuart."

"She almost doesn't even have to worry about that anymore," Victoire said with a lazy sigh. "I see him once every other day with how different our schedules are. She's got at least three classes with him and she gets loads of chances to see him. When I do actually get a chance to spend some time with him, like in Hogsmeade, something comes up and I can't even do that."

Whit turned and looked at her. "What came up in Hogsmeade?"

"You and Jack," she said. "I left to help you two sort all that out."

Whit's expression turned rather curious. "You didn't tell me that."

"I was too busy trying to help you work out that note," she said, stretching her arms behind her and leaning back. "It slipped my mind."

Whit continued to look as if she was suddenly deep in thought; her head cocked to the side and her lips pursed. "You left your date with Stuart early?"

"I just said that."

"And what did Stuart end up doing after you left?"

She shrugged. "We were at the Three Broomsticks, so I'm assuming he stayed."

"Who else was there?"

"Everyone," she said. "Why?"

"Was Colleen there?"

"Yes…" she said, watching Whit's face suddenly light up with some sort of reaction. What she was playing at?

"There's no way she…" Whit stammered. "She couldn't have…?"

"She couldn't have what?" Victoire asked, sitting up straighter.

Whit started shaking her head in disbelief; her jaw slowly dropped. "Could she…?"

"What?" Victoire asked impatiently. "What's wrong?"

"Penelope was the one who gave Jack that note," Whit said all of the sudden, as if she'd never been more sure of anything in her life. "The one claiming to be me. I don't know if she wrote it, but she's the one who gave it to him. We saw her sitting in his seat that night in the library."

"How do you—?"

"She had been sitting right there talking to Louis from Jack's seat. She would have had the perfect opportunity. But why? How did no one notice?"

Victoire's mind was reeling now that she began playing back the events of that evening. She'd walked over, she'd knelt down, she'd talked to Louis, Penelope was there, she'd knocked over some papers onto the ground...

"Wait!" Victoire shouted, suddenly realizing. "She knocked over some of Jack's stuff! I remember she did it! She probably slipped it in when she put it all back. But why would she have done it? What does she have against you two?"

"I'd wager it wasn't just her," Whit said, growing more and more excited as she spoke. "It was probably all of them. They wanted this to happen."

"Wanted what?"

Whit ignored her, clearly busy playing detective in her mind. "They had to have seen Jack and me passing notes. I think I almost accidentally hit one of them in the head while I was sending them across the room." She paused to formulate her thoughts. "They worked it out so that he would have assumed it was another note from me."

Victoire stared at her.

"He would get upset and not show up to meet me," she continued. "Then I'd get upset and tell you, and you'd—"

"Try to comfort you," Victoire mumbled as it all started to become clear to her.

"And you'd end up leaving your date," Whit said in conclusion. "You'd end up leaving Stuart in Hogsmeade, where Colleen, with you out of the way could—"

Victoire gasped; everything hit her like a Bludger to the head.

"That has to be it!" Whit yelled, feeding off Victoire's energy. "And one way or another, she got what she wanted because you did end up leaving early. You ended up coming back to the castle—"

"THAT BITCH!" she yelled. She was loud enough that several nearby birds flew out of nearby trees.

"It's pretty ingenious," Whit mused. "In an evil mastermind way."

"And she messed with you and Jack to get to me," Victoire said, still unable to really believe the information she was hearing. "To get between me and Stuart. Ted was right."

"I can't believe we figured that out," Whit said with a smile.

"I can't believe she would do that!" Victoire said, her face now getting red. "And you know, I bet anything that after I left, she cozied right up to him."

"I wouldn't doubt it," Whit said. "The more she can get you out of the picture, the better her chances are."

"And the Louis and Natalie thing?" she asked. "Does that connect somehow?"

Whit bit her bottom lip. "I can't think of anything. I really think that they wanted them apart so that Penelope could have a chance. Valentine's Day, the Hogsmeade visit...with all of that coming up, there were all sorts of opportunities. Plus, if she did manage to snag Louis, how much would you hate that? Can you picture Penelope coming to your house for family dinners?"

Victoire suddenly shuddered and it had nothing to do with the cold. She couldn't believe the lengths that these girls went through to get what they wanted. They didn't care who they hurt as long as in the end they had their prize.

"What are you going to do?" Whit asked as she watched Victoire cautiously.

"Hex her," she said through gritted teeth. "Curse her. Do something particularly nasty."

"Let's not be extreme."

"Why aren't you angrier?" she asked. "Colleen used you and Jack as pawns in her sick little game!"

"I am angry," Whit said, "but things worked out. Just as they will with Stuart if they're meant to work out. You winning this little battle is the best revenge."

"Oh, I don't know," she mumbled. "Giving her spattergroit sounds pretty good right now."

"Let's not get you expelled. Honestly, the worst thing you could do to her is win Stuart. To prove to her that no matter what she pulls, she can't control the universe with her dirty tricks."

Victoire shook her head, her heart beating as fast as if she'd just run a mile. "How am I supposed to walk back into that school and not go straight after her?"

"Because if you put it out into the open, she's just going to start spreading rumors about you again. She's going to get a lot more underhanded," Whit said. "She thrives when she feels threatened. You're the one who told me that."

"So, if I keep chasing Stuart," she said, "she's going to keep doing this?"

Whit shrugged. "If she thinks you're winning she's going to keep doing this. If she thinks you're on equal footing, well..." She shrugged again.

Victoire was silent for a long moment; her eyes fixed on a mountain straight across the lake. When she did finally speak, her voice was low. "I really think hexing her with some horrific boils would be faster and easier."

Whit smiled. "She'd probably just make them fashionable and worth having."

The last month leading up to Easter holidays ticked by suspiciously slow. Victoire almost wondered whether or not she was being told the wrong date on purpose because sometimes, she could have sworn that the day it currently was had already happened.

No one seemed to share this sentiment more than the fifth and seventh-years. It was a rare occurrence to not see one with their face tucked away in a book or awake until who knew what time in the common room. With their exams around the corner, they all seemed to be on edge.

"I wish I could just take the bloody exam now," Louis said one afternoon as he dropped his head down onto his book in frustration. "I know all of this already."

"Speak for yourself," Jack said as he and Dominique tried desperately to look up facts on werewolves for an essay they were trying to finish before that afternoon.

"What year was Wolfsbane discovered?" Dominique asked in a panicky sort of way.

"I don't know," Jack said, flipping through his book. "Why are you asking me?"

She glared at him. "Because I just asked you to look it up." She looked over at Louis. "Can I just see your essay, Louis? Please?"

"Ah, memories," Victoire said as she observed them; her and Whit exchanging nostalgic smiles for the year prior when they'd been similarly stressed out.

As it were, neither Victoire nor Whit had bothered to tell Jack about the source of the mysterious note. It was probably better this way, what with his stress level already raised due to school and Quidditch. Not to mention, he seemed to have forgotten all about it.

Their main reason for not telling him however, was because they knew he would tell Louis and Dominique; those two, especially Dominique, couldn't be trusted to keep their mouths shut. Victoire knew all too well that Dominique would go straight to Colleen and Penelope and have a few choice words with them. She'd probably try and curse them.

Matters with Stuart were still the same. There were several nights where he came and sat with Victoire in the library, or they would run into each other in the corridors and have a nice chat. These moments were always nice and would often get Victoire excited, but then something with Colleen would happen hours later—Victoire witnessing them sitting in the library together, or seeing them laughing after class—and bring her right back to square one. She had even seen them sitting next to each other in Charms one day when asked to bring Professor Flitwick a message from McGonagall. It was a vision that had made her cringe.

Whit kept at her though, reminding her that the best plan of attack was to keep after Stuart in an effort to not let Colleen win. The problem was that as the weeks drew on, Victoire was starting to wonder if Stuart was really worth fighting for. When it was just she and him, she felt as if this was the easiest choice in the world. He was so cute, so charming, so perfect. When she saw him with Colleen, he was suddenly so fickle, so aggravating, so not worth the shit she was putting up with.

"So, you're over him, then?" Whit asked as they packed their trunks the day before Easter holidays.

Victoire threw several of her school robes onto her bed in an attempt to make more room in her trunk. "If Stuart came up to me right now and confessed his undying love for me—or hell, just that he fancies me enough to want to be together—then I'd absolutely run with it. I just can't take this 'will he, won't he' rubbish anymore. Every time I think he's really interested in me, I see him acting the same way with Colleen."

"I still say that he fancies you."

"Well, perhaps he fancies more than one person," she countered. "And sorry, but I'm a one man kind of girl."

Whit laughed and shook her head as she tossed books out of her trunk.

"I really thought," Victoire continued as she started folding jumpers, "on my birthday, you know? I thought that was the beginning. The way he acted around me and the fact that he seemed so annoyed by Colleen. I remember thinking that it was only a matter of time before we'd start dating. Then he asked me to Hogsmeade and I thought, 'Well, that settles it, it's only a matter of days…' " She dropped a pair of shoes into her trunk and looked up at Whit. "It's been four months since my birthday, Whit."

"I know." She slammed her own trunk shut. "Trust me, I know."

"Then the other part of me thinks, ' Come on Vic, you can do better than this. No boy is worth this much of a struggle. Just let Colleen have him. '"

Whit made a face.

Victoire nodded. "Exactly. Why give anything to Colleen that easily when she doesn't deserve it?"

"But if you don't like him—"

"But I do like him," she said into one of her jumpers. "I just don't like this!"

She could hear Whit clicking her tongue from the bed beside her. "You know there are plenty of drama free boys out there."

"Liar." She looked up from her jumper. "Honestly, how hard is it to find someone who likes me for me? One who cares about the things I have to say and shares the same interests. One who makes me laugh; one that I can talk to without feeling like I'm being judged for my opinions?" She sighed loudly. "Just one who makes me feel special for being me."

"Anything else?" Whit asked.

"Well, if you're asking..." She smiled. "It'd be nice if he was attractive. Tall, too."

"That's quite the list," Whit said. "And while it might be hard right now, you shouldn't settle for anything less. I mean, Vic, you literally could have anyone. Most of the school would queue up tomorrow if you asked—"

"Bah," Victoire mumbled as she started pulling out her bundles of letters and piling them on the floor to make more room in her trunk. "I don't want most of the school. What I want...well, I'm not sure he exists."

Whit reached down and suddenly picked up one of the bundles of letters and began examining it. "You sure about that?

"Yes," Victoire muttered. "If he did, I'd be all over him."

"Or maybe..." Whit took the band off some of the letters and started flipping through them. "Someone who likes you for you. Someone who doesn't judge you for your opinions or for your friends for that matter—even though he's let it be known that he can't stand them. Someone you can talk to and who shares the same interests with you…"

"You sound as if you know someone?" she said with a laugh before he glanced over at her. "Have you been hiding someone…?"

She stopped laughing when she saw that Whit was holding Ted's letters up and staring at her rather obviously.

"Oh, don't even start…"

"Well, it fits, doesn't it?" she asked, flipping through them again.

"It fits because he's my best friend," she said. "You fit all of those things too, but I don't want to date you."

"I'm also not very tall," she said as she came across one letter in particular and looked it over. "I'm only saying…"

"Saying what?"

"You two are close is all." She banded the letters back up. "And you always get really excited when he writes to you; you always talk about him fondly. You two obviously care about each other—"

"He's my best friend," she repeated.

"I know, but sometimes we don't see the things that are right in front of us." She handed Victoire back her letters. "I'm merely making a suggestion."

"You say that because you don't know me and Ted together." She snatched the letters back. "On paper it may seem…" She paused and struggled to find the right words. "It may seem like it would work, but trust me. Spend ten minutes in a room with us and you'll see why it wouldn't."

"You're probably right." Whit shrugged. "Obviously you'd know better than I would."

"I do," she said as she stood up and threw the letters back into her trunk before slamming it shut. "Once you spend some time with the both of us, you'll realize how ridiculous even the thought of that is."