Teddy marched through the common room and headed towards his dormitory. He had just returned from the Hufflepuff - Gryffindor Quidditch match, which had lasted nearly four hours and wasn't nearly as pleasant as it could have been, with the bitter wind and rain and then Hufflepuff losing. He was cold and wet and to make matters worse, had ended up returning to the changing rooms with Josh, who, as Quidditch Captain, hadn't taken the loss well. Teddy was just about to enter his dormitory when he heard voices coming from further down the corridor. He spotted two boys from the year below him and tucked himself in the doorway, where they wouldn't notice him.

"Lewis did have a point though. Would she have got onto the team if her name wasn't Weasley?"

"I dunno. She's a pretty good Quidditch player."

"That's not what Lewis said; he reckons Priya only put her on there because she wants to get herself a trial with the Harpies. Her aunt used to play for them, the one that's married to Harry Potter."

"Still, Lewis didn't have to go mouthing off about it."

"He was just sore he didn't get the snitch, that's all. Don't think he'd have said it if he realised her sister was in earshot though."

Teddy realised he was holding his breath. The conversation about Dominque and Victoire had certainly peaked his interest. What had Victoire gone and done now?

"That girl's a maniac! I swear she's channelling dark magic. I'm glad it wasn't me at the end of her wand. Lewis is lucky he's still got all of his parts intact."

Teddy felt a swell of pride for his friend. Victoire had certainly built herself a reputation at Hogwarts, partially for her temper but mostly for her skilled wand work. He had it on Neville's authority that the whole of the teaching staff thought she was something special. If anyone could defend themselves against arrogant, self righteous bigots it was her.

"I don't know, I think he'd quite like Victoire Weasley near some of his parts!"

"Who wouldn't?"

The boys chuckled.

Teddy's pride turned into something else. How dare they talk about Victorie like that? Aiming to stop their conversation before it got any further, he stepped back out into the path of the boys.

They both turned red, realising he had heard everything.

"Oh, sorry Ted, she's your cousin or something isn't she?"

"It doesn't bother you, does it? You have to admit, she is pretty hot."

Teddy walked back into the dormitory, disgusted.

He wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but actually yes, it did bother him. It wasn't the first time it had happened either. Obviously he wasn't going around listening to other people's conversations, but Victoire's name seemed to come up an awful lot, considering she wasn't in his year or in his house. And it had far more to do with her looks than anything else.

Charming, clever and always smiling, Victoire was adored wherever she went. She looked almost angelic as she pranced around the castle, laughing and teasing with her many friends. Even when her temper raised its head, as it was often wont to do, her outbursts always had cause and she was never reprimanded too harshly. She never argued for pure arguments sake, but instead took on the role of defender of the meek, the sidelined or the defenceless. Victoire was proud of who she was and had been raised to fear nothing and no one. She wouldn't think twice about standing up to someone two or three years older than her, if she believed her cause to be just, or even arguing against a teacher if she believed it right. Teddy was used to the adoration that surrounded her now and had learnt to take it all in his stride. What he was finding troublesome however, was that the talk that surrounded her had gone from Victoire Weasley, Hogwarts' Heroine to Victoire Weasley, Hogwarts' Hottie.

That wasn't to say that he didn't appreciate the changes that had happened to Victoire over the last few years. He distinctly recalled a moment at The Burrow last summer, when he had found her sunbathing by the pond. Her bikini left little to the imagination and he found it took a good few weeks to get the image out of his head. The way some of the boys at Hogwarts spoke about her though, you'd think she was pure Veela. Maybe it was a good job she was so good at defending herself. In fact, she was perfectly capable of looking after herself, her sister and her cousins without so much as putting a hair out of place.

The mood in the common room was rather sombre after the Quidditch defeat. Deciding he wasn't really in the right frame of mind for picking apart the faults of the game with Josh, or listening to the bad mouthing of Dom, he slunk off to the library to make a start on an essay. He had written about four lines when he felt something bounce off his head.

"Oi, Teddy."

He glanced around, already knowing who the whisper belonged to.

"I thought you'd be busy celebrating your sister's success?"

Victoire slid into the chair beside him. "Nah, there will be plenty more of those, I'm sure. I'm hiding from Tommy."

Teddy raised his eyebrows quizzically. He'd heard a rumour that Tommy Prichard had asked Victoire out, but hadn't managed to catch her alone since to question her about it.

"Hiding from him?"

Victoire blushed. "He's a bit...intense...and won't leave me alone...it's getting awfully boring. All he wants to do is walk everywhere holding my hand and tell me how wonderful I am."

"How tragic." Teddy rolled his eyes. He very much doubted that was all Tommy wanted to do. In all honesty he thought the guy was a bit of a creep. Incredibly good looking, but not an ideal choice of boyfriend. If it was anyone other than Victoire he'd have told them to be careful, but he knew she would have cursed Tommy's hand off had it gone anywhere she didn't want it to.

Victoire giggled. "How's Meera?"

Ah, Meera. After he had broken up with Emily at the start of the year, for reasons that had far more to do with Victoire than he would care to let on, Meera had become his sort of girlfriend. They had been to Hogsmeade together and hung out by the lake a few times but that was it; it wasn't really the dashing romance Teddy had hoped for. She was a year younger than him year, in Ravenclaw, so they didn't have any classes together and the recent cold, miserable weather had put stop to the strolls they had previously enjoyed. He thought that the few kisses they had shared would be the start of a passionate love affair but it seemed it wasn't to be. He hadn't even seen her at the Quidditch match earlier. He vaguely wondered whether she had gone with someone else and found he didn't really care.

"That good, eh?" Victoire interrupted Teddy's thoughts.

"So what are you going to do about Tommy?" Teddy turned the attention back to her.

"Oh, he'll get bored soon enough. When he realises he's not going to get what he wants. Then he'll break up with me and move onto someone else."

Teddy failed to understand her logic. Tommy was the third boy she'd entered this pattern with. She never seemed to take much enjoyment from spending time with them, yet always waited for them to end it with her.

"Why do you do it? Why do you date them in the first place?"

Victorie giggled again. "It's hard work being a strong, independent woman Teddy...I'm not stupid, I know what they all say about me...I know how they look at me. I just...it would just be nice if one of them wanted me for who I was, not what I looked like. I keep hoping that one of them will be that guy, the one that cares about the inside of me as much as the outside."

Victoire sighed. Teddy sensed this had been on her mind for a while. "I know that Maman and Dad gave up so much for us, so that we could have a future where we could do whatever we wanted. And that Uncle Fred died and your parents..." she eyed him warily. "And I do want to do something with my life. I want to be able to make a difference, just like they all have. But at the same time, is it so wrong to want someone to love me whilst I'm doing it? Do I always have to be Victoire, the one who comes to the rescue? Can't I ever have someone who looks out for me?"

Teddy was unsure of what to say. It was rare to see Victorie so vulnerable. Even when she was at home or at The Burrow, she played the role of the strong, older sister, eldest cousin of the Weasley clan, determined to protect the honour of the rest of them.

Feeling uncomfortable, he decided humour was the only option. "I wouldn't worry yet. You know what your Dad says; you're much too young to have a boyfriend. I've been scared to talk to him for the last year, in case I let something slip and you hex me into oblivion."

Her blue eyes bore deep into his own. She smiled then, as if none of it really mattered, as if it had been such a trivial thing.

"Ah yes, and I certainly would if it came to it...but you, Teddy Lupin, you're not so young. You need to start making some decisions soon, yes? What do you want from life, Teddy Lupin?"

Teddy knew she wasn't after an honest answer, but after her speech he too found himself thinking more deeply. What did he want from life? He had never been able to imagine his life being much different to what it was now. Obviously he would be leaving Hogwarts at the end of the year and would have to get a job, but deep down he knew he didn't want too much in his life to change. He was happiest when he was hanging out with his friends, or at Harry's or at The Burrow, surrounded by everyone he knew.

He swallowed hard. "I guess what I really want is a family. I mean, my grandmother has always been great. She couldn't have raised me better, but it's not the same is it, as having your own parents? As having brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins...I guess I want my own family..." As he was saying it, a sudden, bizarre tingling feeling grew inside him and a thought he had long been suppressing seemed to suddenly overtake his brain. He bit the inside of his lip hard to stop himself from saying more, as he realised that completing that perfect image, of him and his children chasing around The Burrow, was the girl sat right in front of him.

A/N: I am really sorry for disappearing for so long, real life just got really big on me. I'll try and be better over the next few months.

Also I know that this chapter completely fails to address the 'Victoire's secret' issue I left hanging at the end of the last chapter, but it will all come together in the next chapter, when I get round to writing on it. Don't give up on me, I'm getting there!