Chapter One
Silk and Ribbons

It was raining outside.

It had been raining for almost two days. Reflecting Victoire's mood, as she gazed at herself for a final check. Silk and Ribbons. The color of doves. You will make a beautiful bride her mother had always said. But it didn't matter anymore.

Her eyes raked her face. Looking for answers, but finding none. Why had it come to this? Why hadn't she backed out sooner? Because Roger made her feel safe, and wanted. And that was all she had really needed in the end. She hadn't needed soft words, or pretty presents. She hadn't needed a shoulder to cry on, or even a hand to help her up when she went down. In the end she hadn't even needed love.

Where had it all gone wrong? What could she have changed?

Dominique had thought her a fool. To marry a man after only a month. But Dominique had always been a purporter of True Love, and Victoire had not had the heart to strip that away from her just yet.

But Dominique had thought her weak. You have to fight for what you want, Dominique had said, because she was a fighter. She couldn't understand that Victoire had tired of fighting, of begging, and pleading.

She was tired of crying.

So she vowed not too. And refused her tears their wish to fall.

And for two long days the sky had cried with her heart. Pitter-patter. Rhythms of sorrow, dancing her tune on rooftops. Lamenting.

It didn't matter. Her father's words came back to her. It doesn't matter what you do Victoire. There are some people you will always belong with.

So she had accepted that. And stored that moment away inside of her to look upon when days got rainy. But it seemed, on the eve of her marriage, that that day had come.

She would join herself to Roger, in every way.

Five minutes.

In five minutes her father would come to escort her down that aisle. To hand her off to the next man in her life.

So it didn't matter what she saw. It didn't matter that next to her reflection she saw a different man. With laughing, melting eyes, and a crooked smile. It didn't matter that her fingers ached to smooth down his wind-ruffled turquoise hair.

Three minutes

It didn't matter that Teddy Lupin stood in the mirror before her.

Or that the mirror's name was Erised.

Or that he had broken her heart.

She had tried to let him go. Tried so hard. See where she was. Getting married without him.

One minute

Later he had come back, sorry he said. I was only protecting you, he said. I'm an Auror, I get hurt, and they can hurt me by hurting you.

I'm sorry.
I love you.

But it had been too late; Roger had closed her heart, and her wound inside it. She had gone, refusing to see into Teddy's eyes, to see his pain. And returned the favor by not showing him hers.

" Victoire,"

~

Bill came in and watched as his oldest daughter turned away from her mirror. In a fit of anxiety he and Fleur had contacted Harry begging him find the Mirror of Erised.

In the end, Harry had agreed, just as Bill knew he would. He knew Harry couldn't bear what Victoire was doing, just as he couldn't. They hoped with the mirror she would see sense-that she would realize she was selling herself to the wrong buyer.

How had it come to this?

His little girl. His butterfly. He was handing her away today-but not to a man who deserved her. Not to Teddy.
He didn't blame Teddy, though he knew as a father he should.
Bill didn't hesitate to admit that-if he hadn't been so afraid of Fleur's temper- he would have probably done the same until the War with Voldemort was resolved.

He just hoped Teddy would get here in time-in time to save Victoire. Because if he didn't Bill didn't know what he'd do.

So Bill grasped his daughter's arm and gently led her to the closed doors.
Bill reached the church doors and stood there. For a second he stood, not wanting to let go, a fierce aching longing for times past deep within his chest, where his heart beat like a frightened bird.

Though nothing in his life had ever prepared him for this, and no battle with Death Eaters had ever made him this nervous, Bill gently pushed the wide oak doors open and looked out-to the end of a long red carpet to where his daughter's husband stood.

~

There is dull weight where my heart should be. Victoire clenched her sweating palms.
Tears that could not fall blurred her vision. Veiled by the thin brocade that sheltered her eyes.
She did not care. Love makes you blind, people had said. And now she was blind, by the very tears of her love.
She wanted to run, far far away from all this. Away from heartbreak and Teddy Lupin, and love. And hide. Until she knew the extent to which she had let things slip. Until she learnt better.
Until Teddy found her again.

And oh how she wished to be found. How she yearned to escape into the knowledge that you were Here, and Here was where you belonged. Because she did not belong here. Not now, on this red carpet walking towards her future, planned and mapped every step of the way with Roger.

Teddy, she looked a little to her left and saw his seat. Empty seat. No Teddy.
And she knew that if it hadn't been he who she desired, but someone else, he would have sat there still, his heart breaking with her every step, but cheering her on. He would wink at her and smile his crooked smile and the world would spin a little faster for a moment.
But he wasn't there. And he did not smile.
Why hadn't he come?

Her father's hand on her arm felt worlds away.
Finally she reached Roger and he took her arm away from her father.

Gone. It was too late to turn back now. And the one man every girl grew up knowing they could depend on had finally released his hold on her.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to join Roger and Victoire in holy matrimony."

Roger reached out and took her hand. The touch of his skin sent cold thrills up her spine.

It's almost done. I'm almost done.

She stared into his eyes, searching them for a spark of warmth, but there was nothing except the glittering ice.

This, then, was her destiny.

"If there is anyone here who knows of any reason why these two should not be joined, speak now or forever hold your peace."

Victoire closed her eyes, ready, willing to say her vows and be finished.

"We object."

She spun around and stared, first at the wide wooden doors which were still open. But that had not been Teddy's voice. And there was no Teddy silhoueted by the solid beams.

Her eyes wandered too where half the Wealsey clan was standing. All her cousins. Together.

There was little Lily Potter with her brothers James and Albus. The boys' messy hair sticking up as usual. And Fred Weasley with his sister Roxanne. Her own sister and brother, Dominique and Louis were at the front. Dominique's beautiful face was twisted as she glared at Roger and Victoire noticed the lock of hair that always fell into Louis eyes when he was too angry to push it away. Behind them was her cousins from her mother's side, little Marie and Jacques. Then there was Lucy and Molly and Hugo and Rose who all stood next to each other, arm in arm.

They all glared. Roger shrank behind Victoire.

Suddenly the sound of pounding feet came from the open doors.

Victoire swayed and Dominique came and supported her as a lean figure skidded to a stop on the marble floor.

"You buggered it up, Ted." James cried to his foster brother as Teddy stood in a daze, " Dom had to say it because you were late."

Victoire noticed all this without hearing anything.
Her ears filled with everything, but heard nothing at all. And all her senses were attuned to this man standing before her.

"Dela."
Teddy's voice cracked. His arms had flown open. Palms out. Vulnerable.

Like two people on the brink of a cliff they stood. Together. But he had gone, had free fallen. And now he was calling to her. As if he had just realized that she, no one else but she, was the one with the parachute. And without her he would crack.

This was her choice, she saw. Behind her was Roger. Before her was Teddy. And she had to make her choice. Not later, but now, with everyone watching. This is what marriage is, she realized, letting everyone into your heart for one moment, for one blissful moment.

And there her heart was. Finally open to the world, her world in this small chapel. The inner circle only big enough to encompass her and two men. And she proudly bore it. Showing her wounds, those not yet healed. And they would not heal, for all the Healers in St. Mungos could not accomplish the task of one man. But which one?

And so she made her choice. For with her heart finally open, what was there left to do except to restore it? So she took that chance, and with the tears she had held back for so long she turned her back on one man, one path she could have taken, and Victoire chose her future.
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