Victoire felt the keys she'd been holding slip between her fingers and clatter to the ground, her heart swelling so much in her chest she felt as though she couldn't breathe.

Teddy was engaged. He'd moved on. He didn't love her anymore.

She fought the overwhelming urge she had to burst into tears, which was made even harder by Teddy suddenly leaning in and kissing the girl – Vanessa – on the lips.

James, completely oblivious to Victoire's emotional turmoil, continued cheerfully, "She's really nice, actually – he met her when he was in Japan; he was struggling to explain to this Japanese dude what he wanted and she helped him out. Love at first sight, apparently."

Victoire couldn't help a small gasp escaping her.

James looked round at her, finally noticing something was wrong.

"Hey, what's up with you? Are you crying?!"

Before she had time to a. compose herself and b. flat-out deny this accusation, Teddy glanced absentmindedly over to where she and James were standing and then did a double-take when he recognised her.

Oh, shit, she thought desperately, at a complete loss as to how to disguise her obvious devastation at his new-found bride.

Knowing there wasn't much she could do, she bent down and picked up her keys.

She would just have to act brave until she could get some time on her own; then she would cry.

She settled for plastering a great big smile on her face and walking as confidently (and sexily) as she could over to where Teddy and Vanessa were standing, leaving James to stare after her in bewilderment.

As she got closer to the pair of them, she realised Dominique had been right – Teddy did look amazing. The only problem was, so did Vanessa. She had beautiful brunnette hair that fell gracefully around her face, highlighting her baby blue eyes which were full of admiration as she looked up at Teddy, a smile showing off her perfectly straight teeth.

Feeling the ugliest she had ever felt in her entire life, she decided she might as well accept she was going to be nursing her already fractured heart back into shape for the rest of her life. How could Teddy have fallen in love with someone else?! Hadn't everyone always said that the two of them would make the perfect couple when they grew up?! They'd been inseparable as children, and now? What was she supposed to do without him?

Pushing these heart-rending thoughts from her mind, she focused her attention on Teddy who, much to her relief, was grinning, looking absolutely delighted to see her.

"Vicky!" he cried, his eyes firmly fixed on hers, seeming to draw her into his gaze.

She grinned, her expression no longer fake. Screw Vanessa, she thought. Teddy was the one she cared about, not his Japanese-speaking fiancé.

"Ted!" she laughed, rushing forward at the same time as he did and embracing him in such an intensely relieved hug she couldn't believe quite how much she'd missed him.

"God, I've missed you," he growled, hugging her even tighter and causing her heart to leap excitedly in her chest.

"Me, too," she breathed, his cologne filling her nostrils, causing unbidden memories to creep to the surface of her consciousness.

*Flash* Teddy kissing her for the first time *Flash* The two of them dancing at George and Angelina's wedding, showing off the Salsa skills they'd learnt when they'd visited Spain together *Flash* The first time they'd agreed to… and then gotten caught by Bill before things went too far…

"You look… amazing!" said Teddy, pulling Victoire out of her reverie as he let go of her and took a step back to take a good look at her. "I guess two years really changes a person!"

He grinned, teasing her.

Victoire was about to start teasing him back, just like she would have in the old days, but a slight movement out of the corner of her eye distracted her attention.

Vanessa was shifting slightly nervously, from one foot to the other, feeling awkward at having not been introduced to this girl Teddy so obviously had a lot of affection for.

Perceiving this, Victoire stopped herself from answering Teddy back and said, in as friendly a voice as she could muster for what she was about to do, knowing how much pain she was about to inflict on herself, "Ha ha. But why haven't you introduced me to your friend."

She felt stupid even uttering the word, but she didn't want him to know that she already knew all about his engagement – she wanted to hear it, in all its gory detail; she needed to make the pain worse before she could make it feel better. Or at least pretend she could, anyway.

Teddy looked behind him, as if uncertain as to whom Victoire was referring to, then laughed at his own stupidity.

"Victoire," he said proudly, ushering Vanessa forward and putting an arm around her shoulders, "I'd like you to meet my fiancée, Vanessa."

Victoire felt a huge stabbing pain in her stomach as he said the word, even though she knew that he would. It just seemed more real when he told her than when James did. James was hardly the most trustworthy of individuals, after all. Victoire cursed silently at her bad luck that, just this once, he'd actually been telling the truth. Life was so unfair.

"Hey," she said with more warmth than she felt, holding out a hand for Vanessa to shake. "I'm Victoire. Teddy and I have been friends since we were babies."

She thought she'd add that bit in there, mark her territory slightly.

She half wanted Vanessa to refuse to shake her hand, to show herself up in front of Teddy and make him realise that she wasn't all that nice and that he'd be far better off with Victoire.

Of course, that didn't happen.

Vanessa was the perfect lady, much to Victoire's chagrin.

"Wow, it's so nice to meet you, Victoire," she gushed, reaching out to take Victoire's hand, looking as though something had just clicked into place. "Teddy's told me so much about you!"

This revelation caught Victoire off-guard.

She felt all of her hard-fought composure shatter as she looked round at Teddy in surprise.

So he hadn't forgotten about her after all. She wondered what he'd said.

For the first time, Teddy looked slightly nervous.

"Er, yeah, Vanessa, why don't you grab your bag from the car and then we'll go and look at the accommodation – apparently it's quite nice."

"It's not," said Victoire bluntly, feeling suddenly childish. Was Teddy trying to hide something from her? He'd very swiftly changed the subject when Vanessa had said he'd talked about her. Why had he done that? The pessimist in her said it was because he had said something mean and he didn't want her to find out what it was.

The first stabs of anger towards Teddy were finally beginning to form in Victoire's stomach. She was surprised they hadn't started earlier, but she supposed all the shock at seeing him and all the revelations that had followed had made her forget all resentment she still felt towards him: here Teddy was, trying to act like nothing had ever happened between them, flaunting his new fiancé in her face, seemingly oblivious to how that would make her feel.

Some of her thoughts seemed to have shown on her face as Teddy said quietly to her whilst Vanessa retrieved her bag from the car, "We'll talk later, Vic – just… go with it. Please? I promise I'll explain everything later, when everyone else has gone."

"You better," she muttered, looking away from him as Vanessa came to join them.

"You ready to go?" she asked sweetly, looking from Victoire to Teddy.

"Absolutely," replied Victoire, through gritted teeth. "Teddy?"

"Sure, let's go," he said, looking like he wished with all his heart that he hadn't awakened the beast that was Victoire when she was angry. "I've got a letter telling me what flat and room I'm in."

As he said this, he searched through his jacket pockets and pulled out an envelope with the words Mr T Lupin printed on the front of it.

He tore it open and took out the paper inside it.

Unfolding it, he read allowed, "'You have been assigned Flat 15, Flamel House. You will find a Welcome Pack inside, containing all of the essentials, including a duvet, pillows and towels.' That doesn't sound too bad, Vic."

But Victoire wasn't listening.

She'd stopped listening when he'd got to what flat and room he'd been given.

Victoire had been assigned Flat 18, Flamel House.

"Vic?" Teddy was still talking. "Are you alright?"

"You don't look very well," added Vanessa, looking concerned.

She didn't feel it.

"Do you need to go and lie down?" continued Vanessa, touching Victoire's arm lightly.

Her touch made Victoire want to slap her, but she fought this impulse and instead settled for choking out, "No, I'm fine. But erm, guess what?"

"What?" asked Vanessa and Teddy simultaneously, Teddy looking as though he might already know what the answer was going to be.

"I'm in the same flat! Isn't that great?!"

Teddy certainly didn't appear to think so, if the sinking feeling he looked to be experiencing was any indication.

To his credit, he covered it well. At least, it seemed that way to Vanessa, who hadn't notice his serious discomfort but was instead squealing about how 'cool' that was. Victoire, on the other hand, knew that he was far from pleased at this turn of events.

"Oh, that's really good, isn't it Ted!" Vanessa gasped, her eyes shining happily as she took his arm and gave it a squeeze. "At least if you've got any problems, Victoire's only three doors away!"

Yeah, great, now I can hear stories from our other flatmates about how they heard the two of you having sex, thought Victoire moodily, as they continued towards the flats, Vanessa still holding onto Teddy's arm as she chattered animatedly about how good a time the two of them were going to have.

Just as Vanessa was about to ask Victoire her opinion on the University so far Victoire's mobile rang.

Smiling apologetically whilst inwardly feeling greatly relieved that she had an excuse not to answer another of Vanessa's incessant questions, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and flipped it open.

"Hello?" she said, turning away from Teddy and Vanessa and taking a few steps away from them so as to create an illusion of privacy.

"Hey, it's Harry. Are you with Teddy and Vanessa?"

Victoire felt her heart squeeze.

'Teddy and Vanessa'. She already hated the sound of it.

"Yeah, I am. Did you want to speak to them?" she asked, not particularly caring about the answer.

"No, it's alright. I tried Teddy's mobile but he wasn't answering but if he's with you then it doesn't matter. I was just calling to tell you that we're all in the University's canteen. It's just by where you had to collect your accommodation keys. Come over when you want."

"Ok," said Victoire, looking round to tell Teddy and Vanessa the message and instantly regretting it when she saw that they were kissing. "I'll tell them."

"Thanks," said Harry brightly. "See you in a bit!"

Victoire flipped her phone closed and walked back over to the canoodling couple and, pretending that she wasn't bothered at all by the PDA, said coolly, "That was Harry. Everyone's in the canteen. He said we should come over when we're ready."

"Ooh, great, I'm starving!" exclaimed Vanessa, pulling away from Teddy excitedly. "Can we go now?"

She looked at Teddy, who looked at Victoire.

"Sure," she shrugged. If truth be told, she'd lost her appetite the second she'd seen Teddy with Vanessa but she needed an excuse to get away from them and this seemed valid enough.

"I guess I'll just look at the accommodation later," agreed Teddy, taking Vanessa's hand in his and leading the way to the canteen. "It's not like it's going to go anywhere."

When they reached the canteen, Victoire made a bee-line for the buffet, next to which was Dom, who was piling what was to be her third helping of lasagne onto her plate.

"Wow, you look like crap," said Dom, when Victoire leant across her to reach for a plate. "Did you eat one of those cakes Hagrid gave you as a leaving gift?"

Victoire ignored her and began filling her plate with food, spreading it around so it would look as though she was eating a lot.

As they made their way back to the table, Victoire noticed Teddy and Vanessa had taken seats between Harry and James, the latter of whom was trying to sneak pieces of chocolate cake out of his younger brother's bowl.

Dom, noticing her gaze, looked at what she was staring at and then exclaimed, "Who is that?!"

Realising she meant Vanessa, Victoire sighed, "That's Vanessa, Teddy's fiancée."

"WHAT?!"

"Shhh! Dom!"

"Teddy's fiancée!" she whispered hoarsely, staring at the couple in horror. "Since when?!"

"I don't know," admitted Victoire grudgingly, prodding her sister into a vacant chair and taking the facing chair. "I just found out."

"Ohhh," said Dom, pulling her attention away from Vanessa and looking at Victoire. "So that's why you looked so awful. What are you gonna do?"

"What do you mean, what am I gonna do?" asked Victoire, feeling suddenly hopeful, as though her fourteen year old sister was going to have a solution to make the situation more Victoire-friendly, i.e. A way to make Teddy dump Vanessa and fall back in love with her.

"Well, he's gonna want you at the wedding, isn't he? How're you gonna pretend you're happy for him when we all know that, actually, you just want to rip Vanessa's eyes out and curse her into oblivion?"

Victoire's heart sank.

She hadn't thought of that.

They lapsed into silence as Dominique ploughed her way through her lasagne and Victoire watched as Harry scolded James for stick a breadstick up Albus' nose, trying valiantly to ignore Vanessa and Teddy feeding each other strawberry cheesecake and laughing at Ron's crap jokes.

Just as she was about to get up and fetch herself a drink, Dominique caught her arm and said, "Hey, Vic, I've just realised something."

Victoire sat back down and said, "What?"

"Well, when they get married, Vanessa will have the initials VL."

"So?"

"They're the same as yours would have been if you'd married Ted instead."

Thank you all very much for your reviews – I hope you enjoyed chapter 2