A few months later, on my day off from Flourish and Blotts, I was sitting in the living room floor, reading to Jackie when I heard someone pounding on the door. I stood up and set Jackie down in her playpen.

"Coming!" I shouted, hurrying to door, as the frantic pounding continued.

I pulled open the door and found myself face to face with a disheveled-looking Grace. Her hair was pulled back into a sloppy ponytail, she was wearing no makeup, and she looked like she'd been crying.

"Grace, what's wrong?" I asked, stepping aside and letting her through the door.

"Aidan dumped me," she whimpered.

Aidan dumped her? That didn't seem right. The other way around might have been a possibility. But the Aidan I knew would never break up with Grace.

I led her into the living room and sat her down on the couch. "What do you mean Aidan dumped you?"

She took a few breaths, trying to calm down, before finally speaking. "He said that he didn't think that I was committed enough to our relationship and… and that he sometimes felt like I didn't love him anymore." She paused, pulling a tissue from her pocket and blowing her nose loudly. "But, that's not true!" she exclaimed, tossing it aside. I wrinkled my nose as nearly hit my leg. "You know I love him, right?"

"Right," I said, "of course I know that."

She buried her face in her hands. "It's just that recently he keeps talking about marriage and kids and our future together and it was kind of freaking me out, you know? I'm only nineteen. I don't want to get married yet. I want to focus on my career for a few years, and then get married when I'm twenty-five or so." She looked up at me. "But I guess he took my reluctance at the idea of marriage as a sign that I didn't want to be with him at all. So he broke up with me."

I patted her arm sympathetically. "It'll be alright, Grace. I'm sure he'll come running back to you as soon as he cools down a little bit and realizes that he can't stand to be away from you for more than two minutes at a time."

"Well, I thought the same thing you did, which is why I didn't tell you about this sooner. It actually happened two days ago. I figured he'd come back. But he hasn't."

At that moment, there was another knock on the door.

I stood up and headed to the door. I opened it and found Rox standing there.

Rox had recently graduated from Hogwarts. She had gotten a job at the Ministry and she and her boyfriend Jack were still going strong.

"Hey, Rox," I said. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to tell you something. It's really important." She looked extremely nervous and was fidgeting around with the bracelet on her wrist.

"Oh my god," I whispered. "Are you pregnant?"

"What? No, of course not!"

"Oh, okay. Good," I said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"It's about Grace," she whispered.

"You mean about Aidan dumping her?"

"No," she said. "I mean, it relates to that. But I figured you already knew about the actual break-up."

"I just found out," I said, my voice low. "Grace is actually in the living room right now."

Rox's eyes widened. "Well, she can't hear this."

I bit my lip. "Hey, Grace," I called loudly. "I'll be there in a minute; I just need to check on something outside really quick."

"Alright," she called back.

I grabbed Rox and pulled her outside.

"Well?" I asked.

She hesitated for a moment. "I was just in Diagon Alley," she began. "And guess who I saw sitting outside the ice cream parlor with his tongue shoved down Bridget McCutcheon's throat?"

I gasped. "Aidan was snogging Bridget?"

She nodded.

"Merlin's beard!" I exclaimed. "I really was expecting him to come running back to Grace at any moment now. I didn't think he was actually going to move on to someone else. And especially not to Bridget."

"What are we going to tell Grace?" asked Rox. "Should we tell her at all?"

"I wouldn't worry too much about that," came a voice from the doorway.

We both spun around. Grace was standing inside the doorway, arms folded. "I heard everything."

"Oh, Grace," I whispered. "I'm so sorry."

Her face crumpled and she let out a strangled sob. Rox and I both looked at each other helplessly. Then we walked over to her and wrapped our arms around her. We stood like that for at least five minutes. Until I pulled back and said, "Come on, let's go inside and get some ice cream."

The Grace and Aidan thing kept plaguing me throughout the week. On Saturday evening I was Teddy's flat. We were on his bed and he was doing incredible things to my neck with his mouth, but for some reason I couldn't concentrate. All I wanted to do was find Aidan and slap some sense into him.

I pulled away from Teddy and sat up, tugging my shirt down and fixing my hair.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

I looked at him. "What do you think?" I asked.

"Are you still worrying about Grace and Aidan?" he asked.

"Yes! Aidan is making such a stupid mistake! Those two are made for each other."

"You know what other two people are made for each other? Us. So how about you just forget about Grace and Aidan and let them sort out their own relationship problems, so that you can focus on your relationship." He leaned over and kissed me. "Please?"

"Teddy, stop," I whined. "This is serious."

He sighed. "Vic, it's 9 o'clock on a Saturday night. There's nothing you can do to help them tonight. So at least just wait until tomorrow, okay?"

I sighed. "Fine," I grumbled.

He grinned, leaning into kiss me again. I slowly leaned backwards, until I was lying down. He hovered over me, supporting his weight with his arms. "I promise I'll make your stay worthwhile," he whispered.

I smiled up at him. "You better."

When I awoke the next morning, I poked Teddy in the shoulder. "Teddy," I hissed.

"What?" he mumbled.

"I'm going to leave now. I'm going to Aidan's."

He rolled over and stared at me. "Vic, it's 8 o'clock in the morning."

"I don't care," I replied, standing up and pulling off my nightgown. "I've sat by and watched Grace being miserable for a week and I can't stand not doing anything about it."

"But, can't you wait until a bit later in the day?"

"Nope," I said, pulling my shirt cover my head.

He sighed. "Of course not."

I tugged on my pants, skipped over to the bed, and planted a kiss on Teddy's cheek. "Bye."

I hurried into the other room and pulled Jackie out of the crib that Teddy had gotten for her for occasions such as these.

"Mama!" she exclaimed, smiling up at me.

Jackie had finally gotten around to saying my name of a couple months ago. I had been pretty excited.

I Apparated to Rox's house first and convinced her to look after Jackie for me, and then I Apparated to Diagon Alley, landing right in front of the store that Aidan's flat was located above.

I knocked on his door, knowing that I was probably waking him up, but not really caring.

What I didn't expect, but looking back on it, probably should have, was for Bridget to answer the door. She stood there in the doorway, her hair a mess, wearing only Aidan's button-up shirt.

"Er, hello," I said awkwardly. "Could you go get Aidan for me? I need to speak to him."

"Yeah, sure," she replied, tossing her hair over her shoulder and turning around.

"Bridget, wait," I said.

She turned back around. "What?"

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "You know he doesn't love you, right?"

"Yeah, so?" she replied, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I just don't get why you never seem to have any self-respect. Or even seem to try to have any."

She shrugged. "Why would I? Look at me. Nobody respects me, so why should respect myself?"

"Well, that's your problem right there," I replied. "You have to respect yourself before anybody else respects you."

She looked at me for a minute. "Maybe," she said, "I just don't care." Then she turned and disappeared into another room.

I stepped into the flat and walked over to a couch, sitting down. A moment later, Aidan appeared.

"Hey, Vic," he said, sitting down beside me. "Erm, so, why are you here?"

"Why do you think?" I asked.

"Grace," he said simply.

"Yes, of course," I replied. "What the hell were you thinking? Why in the world would you dump her? I know how much you love her! How much you've always loved her!"

"Yeah, well, that was the problem, you know. Here I am, desperately in love with her, while she practically seems indifferent. Every time I'd mention the marriage or our future in any way, she'd just change the subject. It's not easy being with someone who doesn't love you as much as you love them. It hurts too much. I didn't want to stay with her, if she was just constantly going to push me away. If there's no future for us, then I'm not going to stick around and risk getting hurt even more."

"But she does love you," I replied. "She said that she does want to marry you, but she just wants to wait a few years."

"Well, she never bothered to tell me that," he said. "So why should I believe it?"

I stared at him. "So you're really just going to let her go? You're not going to fight for her?"

"I've tried, Vic. But it's hard to fight for someone who doesn't want you to win."

"Well, why are you with Bridget?" I asked. "If you thought Grace didn't love you, then you surely can't be delusional enough to think that she does?"

"No, I know she doesn't. Neither of us expect anything from the other, so there's no way either of us can get hurt."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," I said. "Bridget is already more hurt than you know. She deserves a guy who loves her for her."

"Yeah, well, it's not my fault that she doesn't have any interest in finding a guy like that."

"You're right, I don't," said Bridget, appearing in the doorway. "Because a guy like that doesn't exist."

She was dressed now, and I watched as she pulled out a cigarette from her bag. I wrinkled my nose as she lit it.

"What?" she asked. "You have a problem with me smoking?"

"Yes, I do," I replied. "It's disgusting and so… muggle."

She laughed. "I'm gonna go, Aidan."

"Alright," he replied.

She turned to me and her face softened a bit. "You know," she said. "I haven't forgotten how you helped me out after I got pregnant. And I really do appreciate your concern; I just think I'm a loss cause."

I shook my head. "No, you're not." I looked over at Aidan, wondering where the boy who had held her in that dark, empty classroom after she had found out she was pregnant and comforted her had gone. He seemed so indifferent to her pain now.

Aidan bit his lip. "She's right, you know. You're not a lost cause. I'm sure there's a guy out there who would love to be with you."

Maybe that boy was still there after all.

She shook her head. "You're both crazy," she said, heading for the door. "Completely crazy."

After she had left, I stood up. "So there's no chance of me convincing you to take Grace back?"

He shook his head. "Not today."

"Tomorrow?"

He laughed. "I doubt it."

I nodded. "Fine, but she does love you. And you're breaking her heart."

"She broke mine first."

I sighed. "Well, if you won't get back with Grace, will you at least do something else for me?"

"What?"

"Help Bridget. She needs to understand that she's not worthless. Please, try to get her to realize that."

He nodded. "Alright. I'll try."

I smiled a little. "Good."

As I stepped outside into the warm, summer sun, I decided not to head immediately home. Instead I walked out into the streets of muggle London. I did this often. At least once a week, after I finished working. I would wander around aimlessly for hours.

I knew it was stupid, but in the back of my head I knew I was doing it in the hopes of seeing Colin. London was huge. Millions of people lived there and I knew that there was almost no chance that I would even catch a glimpse of him. Especially not that morning. Because the chances of him being awake before noon on a Sunday morning were practically zero. But I couldn't help myself.

I didn't know what I would do if I were ever to spot him. I would probably just hurry away in the other direction. There was no way I'd actually talk to him. Or even let him see me.

I sighed, standing there on an unfamiliar street corner in the midst of a crowd of muggles, and realized how stupid I was being. This needed to stop. Colin was gone. I had Teddy. I had Jackie. I had my family and my friends. I didn't need him anymore.

And so I Apparated home.

So Teddy and Victoire are together and happy now... but Aidan and Grace have broken up. Sorry about that.

I think that there are probably three chapters including an epilogue left.

Please review!