Chapter 7 - Bed trapped


James had waited for Fred and Ted to go to bed before going at Victoire. He knocked loudly at the door of her room. From the outside, the tent was a shell of turquoise fabric but inside, it was soft carpets, hard walls and wooden doors. He waited in front of her closed door before knocking again. No chance that she was already asleep; he could hear her insulting him in French behind the door. "Putain de—"

Yet Victoire was clearly ignoring his knock so he drew out his wand and whispered the Unlocking Spell. He then proceeded into the room with one hand covering his eyes, the other protecting his private parts, just in case.

"For Merlin's sakes, James, I'm not naked!" She outburst, her voice weirdly muffled up. "Saloperie de—"

James regained sight one finger at the time and found his cousin, struck inside the bed, folded in two. Correction: she was wrestling with the folding bed. The furniture was jumping on its metal legs, fighting her efforts to get out of its claws. She was digging her way out by pulling springs out, which didn't ease the bed's anger.

"Did you insult him?" James asked, retaining a laugh.

"I only spoke the truth! IT is not very confortable!"

"Well, HE is very susceptible. Right, Ben?"

The bed limped toward James and scratched affectionately its frame against his leg to get a cuddle. Victoire managed then to grab James' leg in an attempt to escape the trap. He almost got himself sucked in as well when he pronounced the magic words: "Be blessed, Ben, the best bouncy bed!"

The bed frame opened up and Victoire climbed down quickly to straighten her pyjamas in the corner of the room, keeping an eye on the furniture. James stayed on it, patting it vigorously and it purred back under his touch.

"Ridicule." Victoire murmured and the bed jumped slightly in her direction.

"You want to sleep in the couch?" James asked.

"I'm gonna drag IT out and sleep on floor. The room is mine, remember?"

James rolled his eyes, then remembering the motif of his visit, he jumped on his feet and bumped Vic' shoulder. "What the hell, Vic?!"

"What the hell?!" His cousin shouted back, massaging her shoulder. "You, what the hell?!"

"I thought you didn't want anyone to know you were here?"

She rushed to close the door behind him and casted the Muffliato Charm so they wouldn't wake up the others. Good thing, because James was in the mood for yelling.

"Well, I changed my mind." She simply said.

James laughed in irony. Typical Victoire! She always did what she wanted and never bothered to think about what it could mean for others.

"That's too easy, Vic! You could at least have let me know in advance, or waited for another moment to show up!"

"I'm sorry, James, okay? I didn't plan to stay, or to come out. I just wanted to talk to Teddy and..."

"And why didn't you just do that and leave?"

Victoire's brows softened and James wondered if he got to far and hurt his cousin by clearly stating that he didn't want her here. But then she moved from one foot to the other, unease. "Because I almost didn't get the chance." She whispered. "He was leaving first."

"What?" James' anger dissipated instantly. He dropped his ass back onto Ben, the bouncy bed, which squeaked in rebellion.

Victoire sat on top of the oak dresser, facing James. "I followed him with your dad's cloak, tonight. I wanted to find a good moment so we could speak, but he was never really alone."

James acknowledged the fact that Teddy had stepped foot into the blue tent all day. Though he was not responsible, James bitted his tongue for wanting to prevent the talk from happening. Maybe all of this would not have happened then.

"You were too busy to notice," Victoire continued. "but Ted wasn't feeling good here. I saw him grab his bag and head to the dune. He told me afterwards he had a Portkey leaving soon."

"So he never planned to stay?" James asked, a lump in his throat.

She shrugged. "He planned a way out just in case."

A silence settled between them. James was trying to understand what happened with his mate; in vain. "What is going on, Vic?"

His cousin took a deep breath "I came to tell Ted something, and I know it gonna hurt him but I have to… But when I saw how sad he was I… I just couldn't."

"But why is he that sad?" James now felt guilty for noticing his friend struggles and ignoring them to prioritize his damn tournament.

"He doesn't fell a part of the family any more…"

James jumped back to his feet. "That's ridiculous!"

Victoire hushed him down, checking that the door was closed and the Charm still effective. "With now being in New York and not being able to visit us as much he wants, he feels like he's drifting away."

"And you two breaking up…" James added.

"It has nothing to do with that!" Victoire argued. "I kept in touch with him. We exchange owls on a regular basis—"

"And yet you haven't told him your big secret?" James raised an eyebrow at her. "What is it, Vic? What are you so afraid of telling him?"

She turned her head to the window, avoiding his gaze. "I'm sorry. I have to tell Teddy first."

"Are you pregnant?" James insisted

"No! For Merlin's sakes!" She jumped off the dresser to cross the room, keeping a safe distance between her and the bed.

"Did you meet someone new? No offense, Vic, but I think you overestimate his reaction. I don't know who broke up with the other but he seemed at peace when telling me."

She was still pacing the room, trying to escape the situation. "It's complicated, James."

"No! It's not!" James knew he was close to getting the truth out of her, but it didn't matter. He was not the one who needed to know. "You tell him, rip the bandage off, maybe he cries, though I highly doubt it, we all move on and you move out!"

"You don't know what you're talking about! You are so stubborn and narrow-minded, James! You've been so focused on your stupid tournament all day long that you haven't even realized you're been hurting him too!"

Now she was acting crazy. James was shaking his head. "No, no, no—"

"How many words did you exchange with him today?" She looked at him square in the eyes, and to that he was speechless. "This is a family reunion, James. And the purpose of it is to be together and you avoided him all day."

That stunk, only because she was right. He had been avoiding him, for reasons he wasn't ready to reveal because he, himself, couldn't grasp them yet.

"Did he tell you that?" James asked in a low voice.

"No. I saw it myself. I've been using the Cloak all day actually." Victoire's voice softened when she realized the concern in James' reaction. "He needs us. You weren't there for him but I wasn't either…"

James recalled the moments when Ted tried to start a conversation and James ran away, unease. He really was a selfish prick!

"Shit!" James muttered. "What do we do now?"

"Don't tell him I told you about him trying to leave, okay? He's already embarrassed enough I saw him. But we have to team up, James."

The boy grinned.

"In an ideal world, I would have it otherwise too," Vic replied "but if you care about him as much as I do, you'll make an effort." She paused to let him decide before holding a hand in front of her. "To cheer him up." She added to convince him.

"To cheer him up." James repeated, shacking Victoire's hand with a pout on his face.

Was his show tonight just a hypocrite smoke screen? Did the Weasleys' love could fail them? This was their legacy, this strong and powerful love, that ran in their veins and reached farther than the blood. Could they loose one of their links?

James hoped the show reassured Teddy of his place among them but he knew words might not be enough. James had to show him that they meant it. Was it not the other side of the Potters' motto: Achievements over knowledge? Actions over words?

"So how do we do that?" The Delacour asked.

"I have an idea." Victoire rolled her eyes. Her cousin always had ideas, but not always good, though his show tonight was good, very good even. "We start tomorrow. I have to tweak a few things, and to give you a heads-up, you won't be happy!"

"Coming from you, I didn't expect it otherwise."

Right when her cousin was about to leave the room, she stood up and cleared her throat. What she was about to say was apparently costing her a great deal.

"Your show tonight, it was really good." She admitted. "The tournament, I know you're not just doing it for the internship. Your heart is in the right place but sometimes people don't need grand gestures, they just need a presence."

Did she develop Legilimens abilities while working at the Ministry and spied on his reflections? Anyway, James was touched by the compliment and knew that the critic attached to it was well intended and awfully accurate. "Noted." He said.

As he was leaving, she stopped him again. "About your internship, that sucks." She said. "I think people don't understand how hard it is to grow up and be ourselves in a family so historically charged as ours. It's easy to get confused."

Why Vic started to tear up was a mystery but James understood the struggle she was talking about.

"We all deserve a chance," she added. "Despite of who our parents are."

James nodded slowly. Was he finally agreeing in something with his nemesis cousin? They both looked at each other with a new found respect and when James turned heels to finally exit the room, she called him back once more: "Can you get HIM out of here, please?"

She gestured to Ben, the bouncy bed, and James was relieved. At least, the status quo of their conflicting relationship was restored.

Laying flat on his stomach on the sofa of the blue tent, James adjusted his plan, jotting down notes into his notebook. The first game was tomorrow - De-gnoming the garden - and teams had to be switched up as Molly had to pass to second round and Vic had to be included. Not forgetting that in order to keep a pair amount of contestants, he had to be one himself.

He also decided to change the format of the tournament. Instead of a direct elimination tournament with longer, heavier games, it was going to be a system with group stages and shorter more dynamic games during which ones others family members would be more incline to stay and watch and cheer. James was also thinking of adding music interludes to keep the energy flowing in between games.

He wrote the pools on a fresh roll of parchment, grabbed his wand and left the tent.

"Lumos!" he whispered once he was out in the dark.

The Shell Cottage and its surroundings were calm and peaceful, compared to the animation of the banquet that happened out here hours before. The sound of the waves crashing down on the beach was breaking the silence as he proceeded to the main building of the property, barefoot sinking into the sand. James walked past the quiet tents and pined the parchment onto the wooden front door of the cottage. Chimes made of soaked wood and seashells accompanied his yawn as the night breeze ran under the porch.

At least the day was over, James thought. It seemed to him that he left his house in Godric's Hollow days ago instead of this morning. He stretched this sore back when...

"You're still up?"

James jumped to find Teddy behind him, wrapped up in a very American-style windshield jacket.

"Are you leaving—" James stopped himself before adding 'again' and breaking the promise he made to Vic about not mentioning Ted's previous intent of evasion.

"Just went for a walk."

"I thought you were sleeping." James really thought he was. Did he hear him and Vic talking? Vic didn't seem confident about her Muffliato Charm…

"Jet lagged." Teddy explained.

The two boys moved away from the house, toward the rocks, on top of which they sat facing the ocean. The moonlight was enlightening the soft swell and making Teddy's indigo hair fluorescent. James looked away, remembering his conversation with Vic and fighting the uncomfortable feeling that was telling him to run far away from Teddy.

The boy didn't seem to notice James' unease, as a silence settled between them. Gnomes's noises were ruining the picture-perfect scene with their high-pitched cries and vulgar vocabulary.

"Do you remember how we would make them fly like Quaffle? You were a decent thrower for a kid?" Ted laughed, yanking his shoulder into James, who laughed at the memory. James, laying on the ground, patiently waiting just outside a gnome hole to then grab the beast and swing it round and round again to gain speed and then, dropping it at the perfect moment for it to go toward Ted who was in position, his Beater's bat in hand, ready to strike… They must have done it thousand of times in their life, and even if James tried to recreate the game with Albus when Teddy wasn't here, it had never been quite the same.

"I saw this afternoon that you didn't get better at striking!" James teased. "Are your years as a Beater for Hufflepuff that far away?"

Ted fainted being hurt right at his heart. "I have an excellent pitch."

"We will see that tomorrow. The sneaky beasts will get what they deserve." James said before changing the subject: "How are you, mate? How is New York?"

Ted's gaze got lost in the horizon above the water. "Far." He said dryly.

"It's only a Floo away, you know." James said trying to uplift him even though he knew that the International Travel Regulation Office was known to be the worst office to deal with at the British Ministry of Magic. To avoid paperwork, most wizards were opting to travel the Muggle way, to which they were able to forge themselves valid passports whereas in the Wizarding world, identity papers had to pass numerous counter-alteration Charms and Probity Probes were waved at all the travellers.

"Yeah, I know." Teddy said. "I miss Hogwarts."

James nodded. "I'm sure I will miss it too. Right now I'm glad I'm done with the N.E.W.T.s and I can't wait to start working. Are you not happy at the International Association of Quidditch?" It was a job James hoped he could land after a first experience at the Ministry.

"It's a desk job, James. It's not that cool."

James' shoulders dropped. How did Ted become so negative when it came to Quidditch? That was a passion they both shared and though James could have learn how to fly from his dad or his mom (a professional player, by the way), he preferred to wait for the summers so that Teddy could teach him how to ride a broom. It was gut wrenching to see Teddy so down when James knew it was Lupin's dream job too.

"Okay, listen mate. When I get my internship and then a permanent position, I take you as my assistant in London and I will make you work your butt off on the field that you will beg for getting your ass five minute into a chair!"

James managed to get a laugh out of him. "Deal." Teddy said.

"Sushhh, you gonna wake them up…"

The boys turned to witness Rose sneaking out in the dark with Malfoy, hand in hand. They stopped under the canopy of a tree to snog like the teenagers that they are. Both of the boys watched with a little smile. Even though they were disgusting, teenage love was undeniably cute.

"Your cousin is a nice kid." James said, talking about Scorpius. "I think he makes her happy."

"Good." Ted said. He was about to add something but it started to get handier and a lot of tongue was showing.

"But there are things we don't need to see." James said quickly. "Go to bed!" He yelled at them and they split, startled, before running away laughing.

"Separate beds!" James yelled as they entered the green tent.

James and Teddy chortled too but James' laugh ended in a yawn.

"By the way, why is yours the sofa?"

"Ah! A mishap in planning." James said unconvincingly.

"I answered on a too short notice, is that it?" An honest look of concern appeared on Teddy's face.

"No, not at all. It's actually Victoire. She said she couldn't come and then came… Classical Victoire…" Ted knew about the battle that James and Vic were sustaining for many years now.

"We can share my room." Ted proposed.

James wanted to refuse but thought about what Vic said and how he avoided him all day. He couldn't refuse, yet he couldn't share a bed either.

"It's a double bed. Not sure we can split it into twins but…"

Why didn't he think about this earlier? Fred's room had twin beds put together! He would have shared Fred's room like they did at Hogwarts! He was so sure Victoire wasn't here to stay, he thought he would get his room back in a matter of a day or two, but she was now clearly here to stay. Teddy was looking at him expectantly so he was trapped. James thought about Ben, the susceptible bed, now all alone in the living room of the blue tent…

"Can't wait to meet Ben!" Teddy laughed when James told him about the neglected bed.

"Yeah, you're sure?" James asked. "Not afraid my snoring might wake you up?"

"Nah, we will be fine! Can't be worst than Victoire: she talks when she sleeps."

James was very interested. Bribery material: "What is she saying?"

"No idea, some shits in French."

And just like that , Ted hopped off the rock to regain the blue tent, with lighter, airier steps, whereas in James's stomach, a knot was starting to form.

They spaced up the beds as much as they could, which meant only three feet away due to the narrowness of the room.

James slipped under the sheets of his own bed, making sure to keep his clothes on despite the warmth of the room. But when Ted took off his shirt, James got scared that Ted might be weird out by something else than sleep talking or snoring. Just to be sure, he laid flat on the stomach, head turned toward his neighbour who was on his back, muscular arms underneath his head. Teddy was looking at the ceiling, on which the moonlight casted shadows of the moving tree branches above the tent.

"I'm glad you came." James said, though what he really wanted to say was: "Please don't leave."

"Yeah." He answered vaguely.

"It's gonna be a summer to remember. Good night, Ted."

"Good night, James."

Despite the mixed and opposed sensations he had, both comfortable and uncomfortable, of being bed trapped next to Teddy, James drifted into deep sleep within minutes and didn't see his friend longing at him for another hour before falling asleep as well.