"It's this way," Victoire said as she pointed down toward the north end of Diagon Alley, where the Dragon's Breath Pub was situated on a corner. "It's just by my uncle's store."

Whit, who'd been trekking behind her, nodded as she followed. She was barely able to keep up. It was almost as if Victoire had a spring in her step that was causing her to walk much faster than usual. She continuously found herself having to stop and wait for Whit to catch up on more than one occasion.

"Who else is going to be there?" Whit called after her.

"Probably loads of people," Victoire said, still pushing the pace. "Stuart didn't say. But you'll finally get to meet Ted and my friend, Simon. He said they'd stop by later." She stopped suddenly and rounded on Whit. "How do I look?"

"Perfect as usual."

"Honestly?" she asked as she started anxiously messing with her hair.

"Yes," Whit said with an annoyed sounding sigh. This wasn't the first time since they had arrived in Diagon Alley that Victoire had asked her how she looked. She couldn't help it though, she was nervous and terribly excited. She also didn't want to look like a school girl walking into this pub for her first time, even though that's exactly what she was.

As they reached the pub, she opened the door and was immediately hit by the smell of pipe tobacco and stale alcohol, as well as an elaborate mixture of noises. She could hear everything from coughing to laughter to yelling; even some crying. There were crowds of people, young and old alike, standing everywhere. The pub was already quite dark, so it was hard to make out faces.

"It's quaint," Whit said as a man who was missing an eye winked rather suggestively at the pair of them.

"Let's check over here," Victoire quickly said as she grabbed Whit's arm and started pulling her through the pub.

"Is that Tom Haines?" Whit asked as she pointed straight ahead.

"It is!" she said, now calling out his name to get his attention. He turned to look to see who was yelling his name and smiled when he recognized the pair of them. He immediately greeted Victoire with a hug and asked, "What's up? Didn't expect to see you."

Victoire shrugged. "Surprise. Are you here with Stuart?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said as he nearly slopped half of his beer down the front of him. "Over here, follow me."

He led them through the crowd and over towards a cluster of back tables where at least ten people Victoire recognized from school were laughing and yelling cheerfully. At the end, Stuart was sitting, drinking a pint, and laughing loudly at something Durrin Adams was saying. She could hear his laugh all the way from where she was standing.

"Uh-oh," Whit said into Victoire's ear. "Look who's here."

Victoire didn't have to look very far. She had already noticed Colleen sitting in the center of the group and chatting with several people. Colleen seemed to also be the first to notice the new arrivals as they approached the table.

"Victoire," Colleen said as she sat up straight and smiled at her. "What a lovely surprise."

"Colleen," she said with a forced smile.

"I had completely forgotten that you were even old enough to come in here," she said as several of the others turned around and smiled at Victoire. "It's almost as if you'll always be that perpetual thirteen-year-old to me."

She smirked. "Well, thankfully I'm not."

"Victoire!" Stuart's voice said as she turned as she saw him. "You came!"

"Of course," she said, turning her full attention onto him as he hugged her. "I wouldn't miss it."

He smiled as he turned to Whit. "Hey, Whit. I'm glad you both came." He smiled at Victoire with a rather sloppy sort of grin. It seemed as if he'd already had a few drinks in him. "You look fantastic!" He turned and pointed towards the bar. "You two want something to drink?"

"Oh, no," Whit said immediately, glancing at Victoire. "Right?"

Victoire didn't say anything straight away. Not drinking in a pub would make them stick out like sore thumbs. Plus, Colleen would probably relish in the fact that she wasn't having a drink and use it as fuel to make her seem even younger.

"One pint wouldn't hurt," she said to Whit. "I mean, we are perfectly legal."

Whit didn't seem sure about that, which probably stemmed from the fact that she'd never had a sip of alcohol in her life and most likely hadn't planned on this being the first place she tried it.

Stuart, however, was smiling and already offering to go and fetch something for them. He gestured around for them to have a seat and make themselves comfortable.

"Good, we need more girls," said Devon Whimbley once they both sat. "It's been maybe five girls and eight blokes most of the night. It was really starting to turn into a bit of a sausage fest."

"There are some really fit girls sitting on the other side over there," Tom said as he pointed. "We could go and chat them up if you'd like. I'm game."

"Let's go," Devon said as he and Tom both stood up. Not before Colleen suddenly started laughing at them.

"Those girls don't want anything to do with you two," she said. "There are plenty of acceptable non-school aged men here. What would they want with you?"

"Youthful vitality," Tom said with a goofy smile.

"If they're also looking for a poor lay," she continued. "I'm sure you're both right up their alley."

He threw her a dirty look. "Why are you always such a bitch?"

With that, he turned and walked off with Devon in tow. Victoire grinned, but forced herself to look away so Colleen wouldn't notice.

"What was that about?" Stuart asked as he returned and placed two drinks down in front of Victoire and Whit. He slid down the table to get closer to the conversation, but with Tom and Devon now gone, Stuart found himself directly next to Colleen.

"They're being stupid," Colleen said, smiling at him. "What else is new?"

Stuart shrugged, turning his attention then to Whit. "I heard you and your missing friend from Hogsmeade worked things out," he said, making polite conversation. "Good for you. Glad that turned around.

"Yeah, we did," Whit said as she sat up straighter and cast a glance in Colleen's direction. "Turns out that whole Hogsmeade incident was a huge misunderstanding. Now things are better than ever."

"How sweet," Colleen muttered. "Where is he tonight?'

"Home," Whit offered. "Easter's a big deal in his family, so he's with them."

"He couldn't get away for the night?"

Whit looked a bit flustered, but only for a moment. "He's only sixteen. He's not old enough to…"

"Ohhh, right," Colleen said quickly—and if Victoire had to guess, deliberately. "I forget you're all that much younger." She eyed Whit carefully. "Are you even old enough to Apparate yet?"

"Yes, I'm seven—" Whit began to say though Victoire cut her off.

"Don't answer that. She knows you can."

As per the usual, Colleen just stared at her while she stared back. This was becoming rather routine for them. Lots of glaring and staring; loads of passive aggressive back and forth. And all of it was usually done directly in front of Stuart. Perhaps it was time to start being a bit more blunt and a bit less passive aggressive.

"We never did find out who sent that note," Victoire began, throwing all caution to the wind and continuing to stare at Colleen. "The one that tried to mess up Whit's date. It's sad that some people are so bored that they attempt to get in the way of other people's happiness. I almost wonder if their lives are so awful that they have to make everyone else miserable so they're not the only ones. Do you know what I mean, Colleen?"

Colleen stared back at her, looking slightly challenged. Her expression seemed to be questioning whether or not she had just been accused of something, but before she had a chance to speak, Victoire shrugged and smiled. "But I suppose we'll never know who was really behind it all."

"Oh, I've already forgotten all about it," Whit said with a smile that matched Victoire.

"Well, I'm glad things worked out," Stuart said, oblivious to everything. "I don't know your guy personally, but he's one hell of a Beater. He's got me a few times and it wasn't pretty."

Whit grinned as they carried on talking about Jack's Beating abilities for a little longer. Victoire was actually impressed by Whit's ability to keep up with the Quidditch terminology that Stuart kept bringing up. It almost seemed like she'd been studying.

Colleen had grown bored of their conversation quickly and had already moved on to talking to Edward Long and Marcus Billingsly, who were sitting on her other side. Victoire couldn't help but notice that she kept touching Edward flirtatiously on the arm. She hoped Stuart was noticing, too.

Over the course of the next hour, Victoire felt enthralled by everything that was going on. Whenever Stuart smiled, she found herself smiling. Even when Colleen had rejoined their conversation, she and Stuart didn't seem like anything more than old friends. Perhaps Whit had been right all along; that she was making more out of this than it was. She wouldn't put it past herself. She did tend to overthink things.

She was enjoying herself tremendously. It wasn't until Stuart asked her if she wanted another drink that she even noticed that she had finished her first. She barely remembered even drinking it.

"Oh," she said, glancing at Whit's glass, which was still barely touched.

"Is that still your first?" Colleen asked with a slight slur. She was well past her first and the effects were starting to show.

"I don't really want another," Whit said. "My mum will kill me if I turn up back home drunk."

Victoire's parents would be none too thrilled either if she turned up having been drinking, but she figured one more wouldn't be that bad. She felt fine after the first. How bad could one more be?

She turned back to an expectant and let him know she'd love another. When he'd returned with one and handed it to her, Whit was looking at her rather tentatively Stuart. She waved her off as if any and all expressions of judgement were unnecessary. She was having a good time and she was in a great mood. Whit didn't have to have another drink if she didn't want to, but Victoire did. She could handle herself.

"Just don't—"

"I'm fine," Victoire told her, stopping herself from telling her that she was acting like her mother. As much as she loved Whit, there was certainly a difference in these sorts of situations when Whit was your friend versus her old crew. One look at Colleen and Penelope at the moment showed they had no qualms with drinking and living up the evening. They were having a grand old time.

"I need the toilet," Whit said, nudging Victoire. "Will you come with me?"

She nodded and told everyone around her that she'd be right back; paying special attention to Stuart and making sure he was informed. Whit had practically dragged Victorie along to the facilities in the corner of the pub; they found themselves waiting in a short line to enter.

"I think things are going well," Victoire said as she bounced with excitement.

"I think everyone's getting pretty drunk," Whit muttered. "Present company included."

"Did you see the way he was acting around me earlier?" Victoire asked, ignoring her. "You know, I think you were right. I really think he and Colleen may just be friends because he's not acting very into her."

"He does seem especially keen on you," Whit said, moving aside so that a small witch could exit the toilet and allow them to enter. "But again Vic, remember he's been drinking."

"Do you really think he's keen?" she asked.

"Yes, but…" Whit sighed heavily. She said nothing more and instead went about using the toilet.

"You know," Victoire said as she checked herself out in the mirror. "I'm going to say something to him. Tonight."

"Are you?" Whit asked as she finished up and washed her hands. She didn't sound entirely excited about the idea of that.

Victoire nodded. She wasn't sure if this was a factor of the alcohol, but it just felt right to do. She wanted to tell Stuart all about how she felt and how long she'd felt this way; about how she thought that they would be good together and how much she fancied him.

"I'm feeling bold," she said.

"You're feeling alcohol," Whit reminded her again as they stepped out of the loo. "As is Stuart. Take that into account."

"Oh, he's not that drunk," she said with a wave of her hand that barely missed the head of an older woman who was walking by. That woman didn't seem very amused and Victoire had been about to offer her a half-hearted apology before someone grabbed her arm and tugged it.

Her natural reaction had been to pull herself away forcefully, though she relented once she saw who the culprit was. Sitting there at a nearby table, smiling back at her, was a familiar blond, round-faced boy who she hadn't seen since last summer.

"Are you even old enough to be here?" Simon joked.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" she asked, though it was only partly annoyed and mostly good natured. She smiled at him before offering him an eager hug. "It's good to see you!"

"Good to see you," he said, gesturing to a dark-haired girl sitting next to him. She was smiling and glancing between the pair of them, as if anticipating an introduction. "This is my girlfriend, Susan."

"It's so nice to meet you," Victoire said, giving Simon a bit of a playful nudge then as if to say 'well done.'

"I've heard quite a bit about you from Simon and Ted," Susan offered, shouting a bit to be heard over the noise of the pub. "Nice to finally put a face to your name."

Victoire grinned, though at the mention of Ted's name, she immediately looked around. "Speaking of Ted, where is he?"

"He went up to the bar. He'll be right back."

Victoire turned and smiled at Whit, who she'd almost forgotten was standing there. She was smiling at both Simon and Susan before waving awkwardly. "Hi, I'm Jane."

"Oh shit, where are my manners!?" Victoire said, suddenly realizing. "I'm so sorry. Simon, Susan, this is my friend Jane, or Whit as I call her."

"Whit?" Susan asked.

"My last name is Whitters," she said with a shrug. "Victoire came up with it."

"You were in Gobstones Club, weren't you?" Simon asked.

She laughed a little and blushed. "Yeah, for a bit."

"Yeah, I remember you," he said, nodding before smiling at Susan. "All the cool kids did it."

"No, they didn't," Victoire said, feeling particularly blunt at the moment. She pressed on though and took the seat opposite of Simon. "How long have you all been here?"

"Not long," he said. "We walked in and found this table, so we grabbed it. We were going to find you."

She nodded before glancing immediately to her right and seeing that Ted was making his way through the crowd. He was sporting his short brown hair, which she assumed meant that he'd just got off work. She smiled immediately.

"This is why I never come here," he said as he squeezed up to the table and placed several drinks down. "You can never get a drink in under ten minutes."

"And that's on a good night," Simon quipped.

Ted smiled at Victoire—that playful, familiar, silly smile of his. "And you picked this place…"

"Oh, shut up," she said, taking that moment to run around the table and throw her arms around his neck to hug him. "Teddy!"

"How are you?" he said once he pulled away and looked her up and down. "You look nice."

"You do too," she said happily as she hugged him again. "I've missed you. It's been too long."

"Yeah," he said as he leaned against the table and continued to smile at her. If she didn't know any better, he was inspecting her for some reason. She suddenly wondered if it was noticeable that she'd been drinking.

"Aren't they sweet?" Victoire heard Simon telling Susan. "In a wee little 'friends forever' sort of way."

"Aww, I've never seen Ted be sweet," Susan joked. "I didn't know he had it in him."

Victoire took notice then of Whit standing on the opposite side of the table where she'd left her and exclaimed, "Oh!" once she realized she'd done it again. She really needed to get better at introducing people.

She went round and grabbed Whit in order to drag her around to Ted. "Ted, this is Whit. Whit, this is Ted."

Ted smiled politely and offered a hello, adding, "I've heard a lot about you."

She returned his smile. "Probably not as much as I've heard about you."

He looked over at Victoire at that, quipping, "Hopefully good stuff," which made Victoire wonder what he thought she told people about him. Of course it was good stuff! Ted was great. The best, really. Why would he think otherwise?

"Is there any other kind?" she asked, smiling at him.

He was now watching her carefully—almost suspiciously. "Have you been drinking?"

So what if she was? "I'm old enough."

"That's not what I asked."

"Maybe a little," she said with a shrug.

"Maybe two pints," Whit added, nodding towards a nearly empty pint glass on the table.

Ted glanced at the glass before turning back towards Victoire. "Oh, really? Planning on getting smashed then?"

"No." She shook her head. "No more after this one."

"Yeah..." he said, not sounding the least bit convinced. She wasn't sure she appreciated his tone. What was with all the judgement from everyone? She was seventeen and perfectly allowed to drink. They could all piss right off—

"Why the change of plans to come here?" Ted suddenly asked.

Victoire found herself glancing over her shoulder in the direction of Stuart. She knew Ted would have opinions on this—on everything, apparently—because he didn't like Stuart. But she really wasn't in the mood to hear it right now and instead attempted to downplay things.

"It's a friend's birthday."

"Which friend?" he asked as he swigged from his beer.

She looked away and crossed her arms. "Just a friend."

"Oh, this should be good." He turned towards Whit then and asked, "Who is it?"

"Stuart Reynolds."

Victoire shot her a look, which she immediately shrugged off in a very, "What? Is it," sort of way. The sound of Ted groaning his disapproval was already imminent.

"You're still…? That wanker?"

She gaped. "He's not...Why do you say he's a wanker?"

He rolled his eyes and turned straight toward Simon. "Hey Simon, guess who Victoire fancies?"

"Who?"

"Stuart Reynolds."

Simon immediately made a face and started to laugh. Why was this all so funny to them?

"And how's your love life, Ted?" she asked after a lengthy eye roll; feeling the need to turn the tables on him.

"Pathetic," he said without missing a beat. He didn't seemed fazed much by the question, and even added rather self-deprecatingly, "I work too much and I've pretty much forgotten what girls look like."

"Did you ever really know?" she asked before muttering rather quietly under her breath. "I mean, we all met Celia."

Simon chuckled, though Ted barely flinched. He did crack the smallest smile before saying, "I see how it is. I come for your boy and you take the piss at me. I can handle it."

"You were being mean," she said as she poked him playfully in his side. "All's fair in love and war."

He looked at her funny, as if he hadn't quite understood what she was referring to. Truth be told, she hadn't been entirely sure herself. It had just sounded like the right thing to say at the moment.

"Well, perhaps I should attempt to turn my pathetic love life around," he finally said as he turned and glanced towards the bar. "There's a really cute girl up at the bar I was thinking about talking to."

Good. He should go talk to her. Especially if he was just going to stand here being all judgy with her and her choices. She didn't need to deal with that; she decided to even encourage him.

"You should. You'll never know if you don't try," she said in a sing-song tone, smiling at him.

He stared at her for a long moment, which was apparently becoming the thing to do tonight. Ted kept staring at her; Whit kept staring at her...Why couldn't Stuart be staring at her as much as they were?

She must have done something funny in the moment because Ted suddenly started to laugh at her.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"You," he said, shaking his head. "Drunk. You're funny."

Now he was on her nerves. She screwed up her face in annoyance, though it only made Ted laugh harder.

"Aww, in a cute way," he said. "Particularly that face you're making. Keep that up. I'm sure Reynolds will love it."

"You're not funny, Ted," she said, though Whit had laughed as she spoke. She turned and gave her a sharp look. "Don't encourage him."

"No, please do," he said, smiling as he suddenly reached over and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, giving her a small squeeze. "Teasing her like this is one of the few reasons worth knowing her."

"The sad part is you probably mean that," she said, looking straight up at him, though not bothering to wiggle him off of her. She actually liked when he was sweet and affectionate, but she could do without the attitude.

"Of course I do," he joked, finally letting go of her. He turned toward the bar then as if he were planning to head that way.

"Where are you going?" Simon asked.

"To get another," he said, gesturing to his half empty glass. "By the time I get served again, I'll be done."

"Make sure you talk to the cute girl," Victoire said, now hoping that might put him in a better, less judgmental mood. "Perhaps she can keep you out of my hair for a bit." She raised her voice. "That'd be nice!"

"You probably mean that," he called back.

"Of course I do," she said, mimicking the exact way he had just said it to her.

Victoire caught him smiling as he walked away, but turned to off Whit a grin and a shrug. "And that's Ted. As you can see, we have a relationship based on ridiculing and judging each other at any given opportunity."

Whit smiled a little. "You two are something else."

"And what did I tell you," Victoire added, dropping the volume of her voice since Simon was sitting a small ways away. "All those daft ideas you'd had of us being a match. We're hopeless, right?"

Whit merely continued to smile before shrugging and looked away. "I guess so."

"So Vicki," Simon said, tapping her to get her attention. "What do you think of Ted with his short hair? I almost didn't recognize him when I first saw him like that. He told you why he did it, right?"

"Because he went and caught his hair on fire," she said, laughing.

"Yeah, he singed it," he said. "Claimed to have a big old burn."

"I'm surprised he doesn't do it more often," Susan offered. "He said he's constantly dealing with highly flammable ingredients in his lab. He's lucky it was only once."

"Ted's clever like that," Simon said. "Learns from his mistakes, you know?" He looked back at Victoire. "Though, I swear he walks around smelling of new substances every time I see him."

"We play the 'name that potion' game when he comes over," Susan said. "We try to guess what he's been working on that day just by giving his work robes a sniff. I've never been right."

"I haven't either," Simon offered, turning back to Victoire. "Funny story that you'll appreciate. I made him change his hair bright red the other day and grow it out past his shoulders. Just for a laugh, like the old days. It was strange to see him like that since it'd been so long. He'll mess with the color still, but I keep telling him he needs to go back to switching it all up from time to time."

Victoire glanced in the direction that Ted had walked off in. "I sometimes miss the old goofy haircuts and wilder colors that he used to surprise me with, but this way isn't so bad since it's only for work." She smiled. "It makes him look older, you know? Different, I guess."

Simon had started nodding and had begun to tell Susan an old story about when Ted insisted on a new color and style of his hair every day during fourth year—how he'd made it nearly a month without having to repeat—but Victoire had only half heard him. Something across the room had caught her attention and made her feel as if she were completely frozen to the spot. She suddenly felt rather hot and shaky; she felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach.

There, standing in the corner of the room with not one person standing in the way to block her view—as if she was meant to see it clear as day—were Stuart and Colleen wrapped up in each other's arms, snogging rather aggressively.

She exhaled involuntarily. She could practically feel her heart beating in ears...or at least the a piece of it because she was now entirely convinced that her heart had been ripped in half.