DISCLAIMER: Teddy Lupin, Victoire Weasley and all the other Harry Potter characters are property of JK Rowling, not me; no copyright infringement is intended.

The Art of Being Subtle

Chapter Two – Molly II

Hogwarts' Library – 9th July – 17:44 pm

"Come on," Teddy whispered. Now that the exams were over, and it was nearly the summer holidays, there were barely any students in the library, so any noise travelled clearly, and Madame Pince (the ancient librarian, who had been there since their parents had been at school, for Merlin's sake!) seemed to revel in throwing students out of her domain for such crimes as breathing too loudly. "You've finished all that Charms now, we'll do Transfiguration tomorrow. Let's go and have dinner – I'm starving!"

"OK," Victoire whispered back. "Just let me finish this question – it's the last bit, and then I can tick off another subject."

"What've we done already?" asked Ted.

"Um, Ancient Runes, Charms and Potions," she replied. "And that leaves Transfiguration, which we can do tomorrow; History of Magic – but I do half an hour or so of that every night before I go to bed, and I reckon I'll have that finished within the next two or three days and Herbology, but I might leave that one, 'cause it's fairly straightforward and I doubt one set of homework'll impinge too much on my summer holiday."

"I guess," Ted said. "But we should try and get it done if possible. After all, the less time you have to spend doing your holiday homework, the more time you can spend with me, which was the whole point of spending the nicest days of the year inside this stuffy old dump."

"Of course it was, and I love you for it," Victoire said, pecking her boyfriend on the lips. It wasn't cheating to get Ted's help on her holiday homework (not that she couldn't have done it herself. It was just quicker to get someone else to do it with her – with her, not for her – it was nothing to do with making it easier). Really, it wasn't cheating. And anyway it was all for a good cause in the end – she needed to spend the summer earning money to help pay for medical school, where she would be spending the seven years of her life after graduating from Hogwarts, and if she got all her homework out of the way before the holidays began, she'd have more time to spend working and earning money.

And, you know, more time to spend with her boyfriend.

But that was more of an extra, added bonus. It wasn't her main reason for doing it.

Much.

"Yeah, well, you'd better repay me," Teddy teased, pretending to threaten her.

"Oh, I'm sure I—"

"Out! Now! The both of you!" Madame Pince shrieked at the pair of them, and they both jumped guiltily. "This is a library, not a Common Room, and you've both spent the last hour nattering away to each other! I'm sick of it! Both of you out, now!"

They made a hasty exit, Victoire frantically stuffing papers and books into her satchel. "Phew, we escaped alive," she joked, as the door swung shut behind them.

"It was touch-and-go there for a moment," Teddy said seriously. "I wonder what got her knickers in such a twist all of a sudden?" he mused.

"I reckon she heard you insulting her precious library – I believe words you used were 'old' 'dump and 'stuffy'," Victoire replied. "Rearrange as you will."

"Mmm, that might have had something to do with it," he agreed. His stomach growled loudly and they both laughed.

"Dinner time!" exclaimed Victoire.

"Most definitely," Teddy nodded. "I'll go on down to the hall, and you come down once you've dumped your stuff in your Dorm." She pouted. "No suspicion," he reminded her. "If we want this to remain unnoticed by everyone, we've got to act completely normally, which doesn't involve walking into the Great Hall holding hands."

She sighed. "You're right . . ."

"Of course I am," he said. He kissed her lightly on the mouth, and set off down the corridor, in the direction of the Hall. She went off in the opposite direction, twirling down the corridor, smiling and dancing and praying that no one saw her. She couldn't remember being this happy. Going out with Ted made her so . . . joyful. And the whole secretive element made it extra special – their own little secret that no one else knew about. And soon, she'd have a whole summer with him. Just the two of them . . .

"Here comes summer . . . school is out, oh happy day . . . here comes summer . . . gonna grab my guy and run away . . ." she sang.

"Victoire Weasley?"

She jumped slightly guility, and saw her younger-by-one-year cousin, Molly, gawping at her. "Hey, Mol," she grinned. "How're you?"

"I'm . . . good," she replied, raising her eyebrows at her . . . giggly cousin? How had that happened? "How are you?"

"I'm great, thanks!" Victoire beamed.

"Are you high, or something?" Molly asked, and Victoire laughed.

"No, silly! What gave you that idea?" she asked.

"Um . . . the fact that you're practically bouncing off the walls. And the fact that you were singing – I thought we'd banned you from doing that last time you ended up breaking the windows?"

"Ha ha," she said. "Can't a girl be happy that the exams are over and it's nearly the summer holidays and all that? And anyway, I'm not normally a manic depressive, am I?"

"You're not . . ." Molly agreed. "But this is like you've been sniffing something, or something. "What've you done with the real Vic?"

"Stupefyed and locked in the wardrobe," she joked.

"Fair enough," Molly responded, contenting herself with just shaking her head in wonder at her cousin's antics. "By the way - I saw you in the library with Ted. What were you up to?"

"Oh . . . er . . . just my holiday homework! I want to get it done already, so I can have a free summer. Anyway, I have to go, Mol. Speak to you soon, yeah?" Before Molly could even respond, Victoire had rushed off down the corridor, humming tunelessly to herself again.

Molly blinked after her. "What was that?" she mused to herself.

"What?" a voice asked in her ear. "What was what?"

"Ah!" she jumped in surprise, before recognising her boyfriend, Evan Wood. "Oh, it's you," she stuck her lounge out at him. "Hello. The weirdest thing just happened. I was with Victoire, and she was being all giggly and girly and hyper, and then I asked her about what she and Ted were up to and she just gabbled something incomprehensible at me and . . . walked . . . off . . ." She trailed off on the last few words, stopping where she was, a look of dawning recognition spreading slowly across her face.

"What is it?" Evan asked.

"Oh . . . my . . . God," Molly crowed. "She's in love with Teddy! They must be dating or something . . . but they're pretending that they're not . . . or something. Aw! How sweet!"

"Ted and Vic, huh?" Evan asked.

"Oh, please, don't act like you hadn't noticed. Everyone's seen that one coming for years," Molly scoffed.

"I guess so," he responded. "Hah – we can tease them so much about this one!"

"Oh, no," said Molly. "They're obviously pretending that nothing's going on, so we should to. After all, Victoire didn't say anything to anyone about us at first, when she walked in on us in that classroom last year. So we'll keep her secret, too."

"I suppose . . ." Evan said, sounding vaguely disappointed.

"Mind you . . . in our family, it's not like it's going to remain secret for long," Molly said.

A/N: The song Vic sings is "Here Comes Summer" – an oldie by Jerry Keller (came out in Oct '59, so it's 50 this year, which I think qualifies it as old!) and obviously doesn't belong to me either. Review, please :)