Author: Auditory Eden

Rating: K

Warnings: None, again!

Disclaimer: All belongs to Jo except Alan, Jean-Paul, and Emmaline.

Notes: Yes, well, it's fairly fluffy, I didn't really want to do something deep and angsty for these two right away…or at all…I mean, that's why we have Remus/Nymphadora, right?

Language Lessons

"Who ees zat girl?" asked Jean-Paul, the Beauxbatons exchange student.

"That one," Alan delicately explained, "Is Emmaline Davis, and she's good-looking, but a ditz, so all she's good for is a bit of snogging—or something."

Ted looked up at the French boy, who was sucking up girl advice and English like a sponge.

"Snoggeeng?"

"Kissing?" Teddy supplied. "Usually with hands, tongue, that kind of thing. L'amour."

"Classy," grinned Alan. "French goes well with the blonde look, Ted." A hand flew to Teddy's hair, which was long, straight and platinum blonde. He knew if he looked in a mirror his eyes would probably be blue.

"Sorry. Happens whenever I imitate someone." He screwed up his face to return to normal, which meant brown eyes and obnoxiously blue hair.

"So, who were you…?" Then Alan grinned viciously. "Wait, don't tell me. La belle Victoire, hmmm?"

Ted protested, "I can't exactly help that she's been trying to teach me French practically since she was born!"

"Tu parles français?" Jean-Paul asked in French.

"Non, mon français est très terrible. Je ne suis pas un bon élève de les langues," Teddy responded.

"You people better not do that the whole time you're here," Alan added cheerfully.

Ted grinned. "But really," he added, to Jean-Paul, "my French is terrible. I learned that phrase pretty much so I could explain my inability to speak the language in France two summers ago."

"You were een France two summerz ago? Where in the ze country?"

"Marseilles," Teddy responded, turning back to his drawing and taking up a red colored pencil.

Jean-Paul looked over to see what he was drawing. "And who ees zat girl? She iz very beautiful."

"She's spoken for," Alan put in.

The exchange student laughed. "I would expect zat she would be, what eez it you say here? Dating?" At a nod from Alan he continued, "Zat she would be dating someone."

"She's not dating anyone," Ted put in. He put down the red and reached for a blue.

"Ah…I am afraid I do not understand. She iz…betrothed?"

Teddy snorted as he shaded her eyes. He said, "Nope," at the same time Alan said, "Practically."

"What?"

"Well, she'd not betrothed per say, but everyone knows who she's going to end up marrying," Alan explained to the bewildered Jean.

"Ignore him," Teddy advised. "I do it all the time."

"Ah…" Jean fell silent for a moment before asking, "Do you often draw her?" Alan snorted. Jean again became confuse. "Je regre—I mean, I'm sorry? Deed I say something amusing?"

"Well, it's just," Alan smirked before grabbing Ted's sketchbook. His protest of, "Hey!" was ignored as the book was passed to the exchange student.

"Oh…I zee." Ted grimaced as Jean flipped through a sketchbook filled with drawings, the vast majority of which depicted the same girl in various poses and attitudes.

"Y'know, Ted, if I didn't know Vic posed for half of these, I'd say it was kind of stalkerish," Alan remarked cheerfully.

"Well, she eez very beautiful. I can see why you might weesh to draw her so much," Jean commented. He closed the book and handed it back to Ted.

"She's still spoken for, so good luck, mate," Alan pointed out to him. Jean-Paul got an interesting look on his face then.

"Ah, when you said she eez spoken for but not involved with anyone…Did you perhaps mean zat she is spoken for by Ted?" The look on Alan's face after hearing this supposition was jubilant, while Ted flushed.

"Yes, you're a sharp one, aren't you? That's exactly what I meant." He looked fondly at Teddy and commented, "Those two have been attached at the brain since, when Ted?"

"Pretty much since she was born," he answered tiredly.

"Comment s'appelle t'elle?" Jean asked in French.

Teddy sighed and tried to formulate a coherent response. "Euh…Elle s'appelle Victoire…Victoire Weasley, mais sa mère etait une Delacour."

"Delacour? En realite?"

"Oui. Fleur Delacour."

"Teddy, ton français est bon, mais, tu ne parles pas souvent! Jean-Paul, c'est très amusant ca vous parlez avec Teddy. Merci."

"Victoire!" Teddy spun around to face her as she cut in. "I, uh, didn't see you!"

"French, silly, in French, or you'll never learn," she responded. "Oh, and your hair is pink. Thought you ought to know."

"Zis iz ze girl in your drawings, Teddy," Jean observed. "Ze one who eez—"

"Um, yeah! This is Victoire," he interrupted before Jean-Paul could finish saying that she was the one who was spoken for by Teddy.

"Enchanté," she smiled at him, before turning back to Teddy. "I was wondering about the Yule Ball. You haven't asked anyone, have you?"

"Oh, yeah. She's quite a looker," Teddy grinned at her, and his hair flashed a number of colors, including platinum blonde, before settling back at electric blue. When she frowned at him, he replied, "C'mon, you know I'm pulling your leg. Of course I haven't. We always do this stuff together. It's traditional."

At this her face cleared a bit before becoming dark once again. "You mean you only go with me to stuff because it's traditional? I know we were always each others' dates to family weddings and stuff, but we were about five then! I thought at least you might say, 'Because we're friends,' or, 'because we have fun,' or something!"

Teddy immediately began to look nervous, and Alan grinned as he watched Victoire wrap Ted firmly around her little finger once more. He was certain he spotted the enjoyment in her weirdly blue eyes, which, oddly enough, matched his hair.

"No, really, that's not what I—!"

"She's yanking your wand, mate," Alan observed, before turning to the silent exchange student. "You see what I meant about them getting married? Anyone can tell it's only a matter of time."

"Yes, well, be that as it may, Teddy, we are going to the ball together, right?" Victoire responded.

Teddy grinned and winked at her. "Well, yeah. I mean, who else will I go with if not you?"

"Why do zey ask each ozzer ze same question over and over again?" Jean asked Alan.

"Well, it's this thing we Brits do called flirting. Chatting up a bird and so on," he replied, watching Victoire and Teddy continue their banter.

"I do not understand. Chatting up a bird? What bird?"

"Bird means girl."

"Oh. I do not—"

"Well, I guess you'll have to come with me to find my dress, Teddy. The next Hogsmede weekend is soon. You don't have plans, right?"

"No, that works. I guess…"

The two continued talking as Ted gathered up his supplies and they left the common room.

"Zoze two seem very much in love," commented Jean-Paul.

"Yes, well, good luck getting them to see it!"

xXx

Parting Comments: Well, a HP fic! Who'd have thought it! And right into my favorite pairing, Teddy and Vic. I thought I'd give him more of an artsy spin than I usually see, and I hope to write more Alan in the future. He seems like fun.

I wish they did the Yule ball yearly, because I think Hogwarts has too few events. And Vic and Ted would go together. Oh, and if you need translations of the French, just use babel fish or something. I'm not going to do that translaty thing where the author puts a line-by-line translation at the bottom. It ticks me off. My French really isn't much better than Teddy's so my grammar might be off, to any fluent people out there. Correct me if anything is bad enough to make your head ache, or just if it gives the impression of me being totally illiterate. I did the best I could!

Hugs and Kisses

Eden