"Merlin, Victoire! Can you just GO AWAY!"

Victoire's lip trembled, but she turned and ran back to the house, no doubt to tell on Teddy. Again.

The summer before Victoire's second year was...different. Things had already started changing during the school year, finding her and Teddy bickering more often than not. And then, he'd gone ahead and invited friends to stay at the Burrow with the rest of the family leaving Vic—for the first time in a long time—pushed aside by her best friend. Her parents kept telling her to give Teddy space, saying he was getting older and needed time to bond with his friends. Apparently this meant not being included in pick-up games of Quidditch or sleeping over in Teddy's room, or anything at all, really. Was this how the rest of the summer and the school year was going to be?

Dinnertime, and everyone gathers at the long tables set up in the Burrow's backyard. Cousins and siblings emerge from the brambles and the shed and the living room. Teddy, Ryan, and Nolan return from the clearing with sweaty faces and beaten up broomsticks over their shoulders. Victoire ends up with Dom sitting on one side and Roxanne on the other—and Teddy across from her. Teddy is 15, which means he's grown up now and has other 15 year-old best friends that aren't Victoire. She isn't even a teenager yet and now, more than ever, she feels so immensely younger. But she doesn't want to be younger. There's something about him that makes her want to grow up, so then maybe she could be his friend again. Can't you see, Teddy? she wants to yell, I'm not a baby anymore! But she doesn't yell, and he doesn't see. He just passes her the potatoes and the salt and a condescending look. Victoire feels a twinge in her gut. She's starting to realize that she wants Teddy to see something more.

Near the end of the summer, the Hogwarts letters are delivered, and the three boys—Teddy, Ryan, and Nolan—plan a trip to Diagon Alley by themselves. Victoire eats her scrambled eggs at the kitchen table and tries not to be jealous as she watches them count out galleons and put on their shoes.

She tries not to be jealous but, oh, she wants to go so badly. After all, she needs school supplies too. She'll ask them nicely—and if they say no, she'll be mature. She promises herself that she'll be dignified the way a 15 year-old would be.

"Can I go?" she asks, and the boys turn.

"No," Teddy says, and turns toward the floo again.

"Ah, come on, mate. Just let her tag along."

Teddy shakes his head firmly.

Ryan shrugs. "It won't be so bad," he says complaisant.

"She'll be a bother the entire time! 'Teddy this, Teddy that.' Besides, she doesn't even have the same supply list as us. And we'll have to watch out for her the whole time! I swear, she's gonna get lost and it'll be my fault."

Be mature, be mature, Victoire thinks, but she is angry. "I'm not a baby!" she yells, stomping her foot the way she did when she was five. "I can take care of myself! You're so mean, Teddy! I hate you!" (But she doesn't. Not really. Because, truth is, she can't hate Teddy even if she wants to. And she can't stop herself from being hurt by him).

Teddy rolls his eyes at his friends, like 'I told you so.'

This makes Victoire angrier. "I'm telling. I'm telling!" she sobs.

"Victoire," comes the stern voice of her mother from the doorway. Fleur, who had heard her daughter crying, stands with her arms crossed.

"Mummy!" whines Victoire, "Teddy won't let me go with him to Diagon Alley."

Her mother sighs, exasperated. "'Oney, we 'ave talked about zis. Teddy 'as 'is own friends and you need to geeve 'im space."

"But what about me? I'm his friend too!"

Teddy is huffing at the fireplace, angry for being held up. "You're such a pest, Victoire. We were supposed to leave ten minutes ago." He ushers his friends through the floo, and grabs a handful of gritty powder. "And I'd check that beak if I were you." Then, with a burst of green flames and a glare, he's gone.

Victoire flings her arms around her mother's waist because, oh, how could Teddy be so mean, and after all these years of being his best friend, that's it? All of a sudden she's just his annoying little cousin again?

But Fleur is distracted by something else. She tilts up Victoire's chin and coos, excited. "Vic, 'oney, look! You're beaking!"

Victoire clutches the new appendage on her face, cursing her Veela genes. She's seen beaks form on her mother's face when she's angry, although it's never happened to her before. "I don't understand what's so exciting about that," she grumbles. Just another thing to worry about, she thinks, wiping the tears from her face.

"Eet means you are growing up!" Fleur exclaims. "Your body eez starting to grow, and all ze chemical changes cause beaks to develop eef you are particularly emotional." She pats her daughter's porcelain face affectionately. "My little girl," she sighs, "eez not so little anymore."

If that was true, reflected Victoire later, then why can't Teddy see it? Why does he still treat me like a little kid?

She's on her bed, enjoying the hilly summer view outside her window. To her, Teddy has always been complicated. For as long as she can remember, she's looked up to him, wanting to do what he does. Wanting to prove herself to him. After they'd become friends, she hadn't felt it as much but now she was recognizing the return of an old feeling of always having to work for Teddy's approval. And something else that she couldn't explain. Something new, a feeling where she was always aware of him. Just, knowing where he was in the room even if she wasn't looking at him. Picking his voice out above everyone else's. And sometimes when he turned and looked at her she felt this tingling sort of sensation down the back of her neck.

She figures all of this is because things between her and Teddy are changing. He's growing up and finding new friends and leaving her behind.

(It is true. Things between her and Teddy are changing, but not in the way Victoire expects.)

A/N: Yay, romance is brewing! I can't believe I haven't updated in more than a year, and it's been more than TWO YEARS since I started posting on this site. I'm so sorry about such a long delay between the chapters, but I hope you enjoy this one. I am not sure I did Fleur's accent very convincingly XD. I must go back and reread the series. Again.