One month later

As Victoire's feet hit the mossy grass, the tin can Portkey she, her siblings, and Jack had just traveled by fell to the ground with a thud. She looked around the large campgrounds and found herself completely in awe of the amount of people that were there. She'd never seen so many witches and wizards gathered in one spot before. Her father had mentioned that some people would come out days and days in advance to get good spots, and this was especially evident staring out at the masses and masses of tents that lined up as far as the eye could see. All of this was for Quidditch?

"Wow," said Louis from beside her. "Look at them all."

"I wish we could have come earlier," Dominique said grumpily as she adjusted her backpack over her shoulder. "I would have had so much fun shittalking Quidditch."

Jack laughed a little. "Yeah, I'd take a holiday in the sun over shittalking a bunch of Quidditch fans, but maybe I'm weird."

"You said it, not me," Dominique said with a shrug, stepping forward to lead the way.

Victoire sighed and followed after the group. She, like Jack, would have still chosen her holiday in the sun and the last month abroad over Quidditch, and she didn't consider it odd at all.

She had enjoyed herself tremendously once the stress of school, family, and friends seemed to disappear the second they had reached her aunt's home. She had wasted little time upon arriving to start enjoying the sea and everything else Marseilles had to offer. Even a mildly sunburnt back—which she received on her first day—couldn't keep her from getting every second of enjoyment out of her holiday. She was determined to escape everything and to not think about anything that was awaiting her back at home. Her seventh year, her impending N.E.W.T.s…

Ted.

Just a few days upon arriving, her Aunt Gabrielle had taken them and her daughters to Paris for four days. Her daughters, being only three and four, loved having their older cousins around; Victoire took extreme enjoyment in watching them react to big city life and its culture.

She herself would be lying if she said she hadn't loved the experience. It was amazing how different Paris looked now that she was older. She understood so much more and appreciated things she'd barely noticed when she was a child. She had a glass of wine at a street side café and toured museums and shops with a new found enthusiasm. These were things she knew she could easily do at home, but for some reason being off in another country and feeling as if she was on her own made it that much more exciting. It made her feel as if she was living someone else's life.

Standing in front of the Eiffel Tower on their last day in Paris, Victoire had managed to wander off on her own. As she stood looking up at the iconic monument, a man less than ten feet away suddenly dropped to his knee and proposed to the woman he was with.

She watched with an amused curiosity as the woman started crying and exclaiming that she would marry him before jumping into his arms and kissing him. Several people that were milling around began clapping and cheering as Victoire smiled at the display. What a charming novelty it was to actually witness two people confess their love for one another in such a public way.

She turned to let the couple have their moment and stared back up at the tower. She thought about Ted for the first real time in a week and her stomach began to lurch. She had been trying not to think about him because of the sweeping feeling of embarrassment that came over her each time he crept into her thoughts. It was a lost cause, however; as much as she tried to push him out she couldn't help but find him on her mind...

"Vic?"

Victoire snapped out of her thoughts and turned to see Louis, Jack, and Dominique all starting at her.

"Are you alright? You're completely lost in thought."

"Fine, yeah," she said quickly as she looked out upon the grounds. "Where are we going?"

"That's what we just asked you," Louis said. "You've got the site number and the map."

"Oh, right." She fumbled into her bag for the information in question and handed it all to Louis so that he could figure it out. He began investigating the map.

"It's this way," he said, pointing to his left. "Come on."

Louis and Jack headed off toward the grounds and began talking excitedly about the following day's match. Dominique, however, who would usually be the first person to take part in any Quidditch conversation, hung back and continued staring at her sister.

Victoire stared back for a brief second, but said nothing before she began following the boys. She had a feeling she knew what was on Dominique's mind, and she had no interest in pushing the subject.

"You're nervous, aren't you?" Dominique asked as she caught up to her. "To see him."

"Obviously a little."

"Just a little?" she asked. "I would think it'd be more than just a little—"

She shot her an obvious look.

"What are you going to say to him?"

"I don't know."

"Don't act like you haven't thought about this moment for the last month."

"I haven't really," she half lied. She hadn't thought about this specific moment for the last month. She had only been thinking about it over the course of the last two weeks. She had spent the majority of the first half of the month trying to force Ted out of her thoughts and reliving the letter incident with extreme embarrassment.

"You're a poor liar."

"I don't know what's going to happen," she said, attempting to brush her off. "For all I know, he thinks I'm a complete idiot, so I may not have to say much." She kicked a small rock out of frustration and watched it bounce up the path. "Well, nothing other than telling him I've moved on since then so he doesn't have to worry."

Dominique pulled a face. "You haven't moved on though. Have you?"

The answer to that was absolutely not. When she wasn't mortified by the events replaying in her head, she was actually thinking about how much she wished that night back at her house could have gone differently. She'd created scenarios where if only she'd said something, or stayed behind to talk to him, that things had worked themselves out. That he'd confess he felt the same way. That she'd have kissed him where he stood and that they'd be reuniting today after a month in France instead of her nervously checking every face she passed for him in the event he randomly turned up.

She definitely had not moved on.

"If he tells me how uninterested he is in me," Victoire answered. "I will make myself move on."

Louis suddenly called back at them to keep up, which prompted both of them to quicken their pace through the campsite.

The big match between Argentina and Italy was taking place the following day, and the fans and supporters were out in droves. People were sitting outside of their tents in their various team colors, waving flags, chanting and singing with fervor. Victoire watched a group of older Italian wizards sing merrily as she passed their tent; one man in particular wolf whistled at her and sister. Dominique flipped them off.

"Well, if things go to shit between you and Teddy," Dominique said suddenly as both she and Victoire watched a group of Argentine witches start a large fire in front of their tent. "I'm around if you need to...cry or whatever."

She smiled a little. "Well, I appreciate that."

"As long as it doesn't interfere with that match," she added quickly.

"Obviously," Victoire said with a nod of her head.

Dominique nodded too. "Yeah, if you two could just pause your drama during the match, that'd be great. But after, you know? I'll be around to help you kick Ted's arse or whatever."

"I'm not going to kick his arse," Victoire said. "Even if things don't work out, that's extreme."

Dominique shrugged. "Whatever. Just know that I owe you one after you defended my hair to mum once she went mental." She absently reached up and ran a hand through her now very short hair.

It was while they were in France that Dominique had decided to chop off almost all of her hair into a stylish pixie cut that she had seen being sported by women all over Paris. She had commented several times how much she liked the cut, but it wasn't until she was encouraged by a guy—their aunt and uncle's nineteen-year old-boat handler, who Victoire had been surprised to see Dominique had taken a very small shine to—that she actually cut it all off. Between the hair and the fact that Dominique actually seemed keen on a boy for the first time ever, she'd had her own fair share of changes that summer.

Once their mother had joined them for their last week in France, however, she hadn't been as excited as Dominique was about the change. Horrified that Dominique would cut off all of her hair, their mother and Gabrielle had actually gotten into quite the argument once their mother accused Gabrielle of letting Dominique run wild.

Gabrielle then claimed that Dominique was sixteen and she could do what she wanted to with her own hair, to which Victoire agreed. She had sided with her aunt and stood up for her sister not only because the look suited her, but because of how confident it had made Dominique feel. Victoire had never seen her sister happier about the way she looked. It was a good change.

"I told you mum would come around, though," Victoire said as she thought about her mother finally apologizing for overreacting. "It looks good on you."

Dominique shrugged as they caught up to Louis and Jack. They had stopped to look around and were now referring to the map to get their bearings.

"They should be around here given what they sent you," Jack said, his eyes traveling from tent to tent. "Which site is 457?"

"Wait, there they are," Louis said, pointing further up ahead where two tents stood. As soon as he said it, their grandfather and Aunt Hermione became instantly recognizable as they stood in front of the larger of the two tents attempting to light a fire. At that very same moment, several of their cousins burst out of the tent in a fit of giggles and began running off into various different directions. Hermione called after them to stay put, just as Lily noticed the new arrivals and began running towards them.

"Look who's here!" she yelled as everyone turned to watch where she was headed. She ran straight to Victoire and wrapped her arms around her waist before glancing up at her and smiling. "You're so tan!"

"The sun does that," Louis joked before they were now joined by an out of breath Albus and Hugo.

"How did you get so tan?" Hugo asked.

"They went on holiday," Hermione said, catching up to the kids and tousling her son's hair affectionately. "You do look very healthy and brown, don't you? Was it a good trip?"

They all quickly offered up their pleasant, thirty-second run downs of their trip and how much fun they'd had, all while Louis introduced Jack to Hermione. He had attempted to start introducing him to the cousins, but gave up after two and muttered, "You'll never remember half of the names, so why bother?"

"Just point at them and say, 'hey you," Dominique offered.

"Is that Nicki?" Victoire could hear Albus whisper to his sister, who was also staring at Dominique with a surprised expression. All of them in fact, including Hermione were now taking her in with extreme interest.

"Nicki, I didn't even recognize you," Hermione said as she practically gawked. "Look at you!"

"I was feeling bold," Dominique said.

It certainly was bold, that was definitely the consensus from everyone. Hermione had urged everyone to let them all get settled, though Victoire could already hear Albus trekking after Dominique to ask her where her hair had gone and why she'd cut it all off.

Victoire decided to catch up to her aunt.

"How long have you all been here?" she asked her.

"Just a few hours ago," Hermione said. "We got an early Portkey. Harry and Ginny have been here since yesterday because she's got interviews and pre-match coverage to do for the Prophet. It's more work than a holiday for her."

"I can imagine," Victoire said before they were greeted by her grandfather. They stumbled upon him standing in front of the tents, next to a collection of sticks and rocks. If Victoire had to guess, it looked as though he was trying to teach James and Rose how to start a fire the Muggle way.

"These things are called matches, you see?" He held up a matchbook. "You take this end here and strike it against this part and—" He attempted to light a match unsuccessfully. "Oh, wait, that's not right."

"Here Grandpa," Rose said, reaching out and offering to help.

"How do you know how to…?" he asked as he watched his eleven-year-old granddaughter strike the match and drop it into the kindling. James laughed.

"Rosie, I don't like the idea of you playing with matches," Hermione said.

"I've seen granddad and grandma do it before at their house," she said, looking at her mother before turning back towards her grandfather. "My grandma and granddad Granger, that is."

"Observant this one," her grandfather said fondly before turning to James. "Here, now you try, James. Be careful, though."

"As for you four," Hermione said once Victoire turned her attention back toward her, "we've got two tents and we should have plenty of room. This one here," she pointed to the larger of the two, "has four bedrooms. Harry and Ginny, Arthur, George and Angelina all have a room and then boys can split themselves up between the last room and the living room."

She pointed to the smaller tent. "This one has three bedrooms. Ron and I, Charlie, and the girls will stay here. Charlie's already offered to take the sofa, but we'll work that out."

"Where is everyone?" Victoire asked with a quick look around. It wasn't that she was so concerned with where everyone was, just with where someone in particular was.

"Let's see," Hermione said. "Ginny's down working at the arena as I said, then Ron and Harry are off helping with security and making sure people are settling properly. Charlie went with them. George and Angelina and the kids won't be here until this afternoon and…that's everyone, right?"

Victoire hesitated asking, but her curiosity got the better of her. "Is Ted coming?"

"Oh, Teddy, right," she said once she realized. "He's here somewhere, I think. Harry said so, at least."

"He's camping with his friends," Albus said as he was now learning how to light matches under the watchful eye of his grandfather.

"But he came by here for dinner last night," James added. "He might come by tonight too, but I don't know."

"There you have it," Hermione said with a smile that Victoire quickly returned before she noticed Dominique watching her. She avoided her eyes and instead preoccupied herself with pretending to look for something inside of her knapsack.

Ted had decided to camp with his friends, then. Was that because of her? She couldn't think of any reason why he wouldn't choose to spend the extra time with Harry and his family, yet here he was spending it elsewhere. The only explanation that made sense was that he knew she would be here and was avoiding her.

"Who's everyone rooting for tomorrow?" Jack asked no one in particular.

"Italy!" said Albus with a wide smile. "They've got Sabatino and he's incredible!"

"Sabatino can fly," Dominique said, "but he's pretty much it on the entire team. They're all show and no substance. Argentina's Chasers work so well together it's as if they have one brain."

Jack shrugged. "I like Italy. They made it this far. They've got to be doing something right."

"Yeah, they recruited the best Seeker in the world," Dominique said obviously. "That's it."

"I think they're going to win," Albus said, stepping up to Dominique as if he were much bigger and far more full of himself than he was.

Dominique looked him square in the eyes and said, "Well, you're wrong."

"Are you seriously going to fight with an eleven-year-old about this?" Victoire asked.

"If he's wrong, I am."

This was how most of the morning went. As the day drew on, Victoire felt she had to escape the incessant Quidditch talk at the hands of her sister, her cousins, Jack—and to a lesser degree—Louis. She couldn't understand how some people had been doing this for days already, but some people truly loved it.

She chose to explore the grounds on her own, having run into several of her friends from school—including Stuart, who she couldn't help but notice was sans Colleen. She'd had several groups of random witches and wizards explain to her why she should cheer for their team—most of them seemed as if they'd already been heavily partying—but most amusingly was the attire she had seen on so many of the people walking about.

She had grown up in a wizarding family, yet she's always known how to dress properly as a Muggle when necessary. Some wizards it seemed were never taught these little details. It was never more apparent than when an elderly witch walked by their camp in a tuxedo jacket with tails and a plaid skirt that fell to her ankles.

"Someone got dressed in the dark," Dominique muttered as they sat on a nearby log, people watching while dinner was being prepared.

"Something tells me she could have dressed in the light and it wouldn't have mattered," Ron said as he and Harry began setting up for dinner.

"I wonder where George is," Ginny said as she emerged from the tent having just got back from the arena. "He said they'd be here around five."

"You know how George is," Ron said. "He'll take his time and once he does get here, he'll probably run into a hundred people he knows and we won't see him until eight or so."

"He's got the kids with him, though," Charlie added as he started opening cans of beans. "He wouldn't drag them about—"

"Is that what we're eating?" Albus asked suddenly, having run up and peered into the cauldron after returning with the other kids from throwing the Quaffle around in a nearby clearing. "It looks gross."

Ginny sighed. "Al, you love beans. You've decided today that you don't like them?"

"Maybe," he said with a perplexed expression. "I think I don't."

"Just like last weekend when you decided you didn't like eggs," Harry asked.

"And then you decided the other day that you do like eggs again?" Ginny added and she and Harry exchanged the same amused expressions.

Albus looked up at his mother and father and seemed to be searching for something to answer with. He was quickly saved from answering due to the sudden arrival of George and his family, who had approached with Angelina's apologies and George's excuses for their tardiness.

"Just in time for dinner, then?" George asked with a smile as he helped Roxanne take her knapsack off and place it on the ground. "Good thing, I'm famished."

"Sorry we're late," Angelina said. "We just made the Portkey and then of course we must have run into everyone we knew."

Ron smiled in a 'told you so' manner as everyone greeted each other and tried to get all the kids situated and ready to eat. Victoire offered to help, but the adult kept claiming they had everything under control.

"I can't even remember the last time I camped," Angelina said as she joined Victoire by the fire. "Probably the last time the World Cup came to England."

"I remember the last time I went camping," Ron mumbled as he made a face. Hermione looked up at him and smiled a little before turning towards Harry who was sharing an expression similar to Ron's.

"Yeah," Harry muttered. "If I never had to camp again I'd be fine with that."

"And yet here we are." Ron said.

"I find myself camping all the time," Charlie said as he started throwing bits of meat into the large cauldron. "This is just another day for me."

"If Mum were here," George began, "she'd say that was the reason you still haven't given her any grandchildren." He screwed up his face and in a passable impression of his mother said, " How are you supposed to meet anyone out in the forest looking for dragons!"

"I think mum's got her fill of grandkids as it is," Charlie said. "She doesn't need me adding to it."

"Oh, we can never have enough," came her grandfather's voice. "We welcome them all."

"I'd like to see you say that on the day we all turn up at the house with all the kids and ask you and Mum to sit for us," George said, which prompted a laugh from the group.

As the food finished cooking and began to be served, the idle conversation continued to grow. George recalled several stories about some particularly obnoxious customers that he'd dealt with the previous day, while Ginny delighted everyone with amusing tales of some of the madder things she'd been seeing since she arrived.

By mid meal, the conversation quickly turned back to Quidditch, and the children begged Ginny to see if she could arrange a meeting between any of the players and themselves. Victoire couldn't help but laugh when Dominique and Jack joined in.

"How is your aunt?" George asked Victoire once dusk slipped into evening and the sky suddenly grew dark. "I haven't seen her since," he paused thoughtfully, "I don't even remember."

"I saw her about three years ago," Ginny said as a sleepy looking Lily rested her head against her shoulder. "Right after her youngest was born."

"Little Gabrielle Delacour has a daughter?"

Ginny laughed. "She has two. And she's not exactly little anymore. She's what…?" She looked at Victoire. "In her early thirties?"

"She and my mum are nine years apart," Victoire said. "So, yes, about thirty or thirty-one."

"You know I obviously knew that," George said, "but I can't picture her being any older than Rosie there—"

He stopped abruptly at the sudden sound of a large fireworks display that was taking place overhead. Someone, somewhere, was setting off a very impressive show, which Victoie didn't know was planned or spontaneous. If she had to guess, she was going to go with the latter.

"Wow!" said Freddie as he and Hugo went around the backside of the tent to get a closer look.

"Oh, wonderful," Harry mumbled, throwing Ron a weary look. "We should probably go and have a look."

"Aren't you technically off duty?" asked Ron.

"I'm never off duty,"

"Daddy those look like yours!" Roxanne said as she smiled up at her father.

"That's because they are," he said. "The ultimate display set. Someone really went all out for this. Those things are set to go off for at least another ten minutes."

"Thanks, George," Ron said as before he rolled his eyes and followed Harry off into the darkness.

"It's pretty cool," someone said as they all watched the colorful array of explosions light up the night sky.

"Think of what it's going to be like tomorrow," Dominique said with a glance at Victoire. "After someone's actually won this whole thing. Can you imagine?"

She nodded slowly as fireworks reflected off of the eyes of everyone around her. She thought of tomorrow and of the inevitable celebration and disappoint of so many people that was bound to occur. She took a deep breath as the crowd around her "oohed" and "ahhed" at a larger firework that had just exploded loudly overhead.

In a day's time things would be very different; Victoire knew that. She couldn't avoid the inevitable and only wondered whether she'd be the one celebrating or disappointed tomorrow. Though, her concerns had nothing to do with Quidditch.