On Grieving About Nonsense
Victoire Weasley most certainly did not consider herself to be a grieving-by-the-windowsill-eating-chocolate-becaus e-she-is-upset-about-a-boy-kind-of-girl (and she had thought it through). She was Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team (where she played Seeker), Head Girl, practically top of her class, and she had the famous Weasley temper on top of that.
But here she was, at the windowsill, eating chocolate, upset about a boy.
"Figures," she said out loud, chuckling to herself.
"What figures?" Her younger sister Dominique (but she preferred Dom, and everyone called her that, unless they wanted to get punched in the face. Even James and Fred, the twins that were notoriously known for not listening and playing pranks on you had come to respect the whole Dom not Dominique thing). Her sister took one look at Victoire, sitting there with her eyeliner smudged, and swore.
"LOUIS GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!" she called, and ran over to her sister, "What's wrong?" she asked. Victoire hesitated, "Tell me. I can handle it. I'm fifteen years old, I'm not a child anymore. Is it Maman or Dad? Did something happen to them? It is Molly? Oh Godric, it's Molly isn't it?" She spoke so quickly Victoire could barely follow what she was saying.
"For the love of Merlin, Dom, shut up," Victoire grumbled, "You're giving me a headache."
"What is it Dom?" Louis asked, from the door, obviously annoyed.
"Hello?" Dom said, gesturing to Victoire.
"What?" Louis asked, "I don't get it."
"Are all boys this blind?" Dom asked, exasperated, "Never mind Louis, go away." Victoire laughed a little.
"Yes Dom, they are," she said with a little smile, and Dom narrowed her eyes.
"You call me here, only to make me go away, and insult my gender?" Louis asked, "Well thanks for wasting five minutes of my life." He walked away, still grumbling.
"Well someone's just feeling peachy," Dom said sarcastically.
"That makes two of us," Victoire laughed.
"What's wrong?" Dom asked.
"Teddy," Victoire answered. Dom swore again, "You should really stop doing that unless you want to face the wrath of Mamen, Dom."
"I should've known," Dom said, "What did that stupid tosser do now?"
"First of all," Victoire said severely, "Teddy is not a tosser."
"Poser, prat, tosser, take your pick," Dom said, and then added with a sly grin, "I could think of some worse names to call him."
"No Dom!" Victoire said.
"So you aren't mad at him," Dom mused, as if she were alone.
"How d'you figure that?" she asked.
"You defended him," Dom said, as though it were obvious.
"Natural instinct," Victoire said, "He was my best friend for seventeen years."
"Was?" Dom asked, "Gotcha. So you're in a fight with Ted. Spill."
"Not exactly a fight per say," Victoire laughed.
"What then?" Dom asked. Victoire hesitated. She hadn't told anyone about the kiss that she and Teddy had shared on the first day of term and it was Christmas Break! It wasn't like she hadn't meant to, she had just decided to tell everyone when she had thought about it and knew what she was going to do. She just never knew what to do, so she had never mentioned it to anyone.
"He kissed me," Victoire said, and then cringed as Dom jumped up.
"Son of a-" Dom started.
"Dom!" Victoire said severely.
"Blasted-end skewart," Dom said, "That's what I was going to say, I swear."
"You need to stop taking Care of Magical Creatures," Victoire muttered, "I swear, you just take that class so you can have substitutes for words you don't want to get in trouble saying."
"I learn all the best ones from Hagrid," Dom said with a smirk.
"I'm almost afraid to ask whether you mean animals, or words," Victoire groaned.
"Hagrid's an excellent teacher," Dom said.
"Hang on, Hagrid doesn't even teach Care of Magical Creatures!" Victoire said, looking at Dom, who had an innocent expression on her face.
"I never said he was my school teacher," Dom said, "Wait a minute! You're changing the subject! I forget how good you are at that!"
"I'm not changing the subject," Victoire said innocently. Dom rolled her eyes.
"Sure you aren't," Dom said, "And Mamen's cake turn out wonderfully, just like Hagrid's."
"Dom don't insult Mamen's cooking! Do you have a death wish?" Victoire groaned.
"So the guy kissed you? What's the big deal? It's not like you didn't see it coming!" Dom said.
"I didn't!" Victoire said, shocked, "You did?"
"Sure, everyone did," Dom said, "James and Fred had a betting pool, which I think I won, by the way."
"Dom!" Victoire said with wide eyes, "How could you not tell me about this?"
"Everyone said you two had to figure it out on your own," Dom said, shrugging, "I wasn't supposed to tell you."
"Great," Victoire groaned, "Everyone saw this coming but me, apparently."
"Don't be too hard on yourself," Dom said, "Everyone says love is blonde."
"It's blind, Dom," Victoire laughed.
"That does make more sense," Dom said, "But looking at you, I'm pretty sure blonde works too." Victoire rolled her eyes.
"Funny," she replied.
"Let's go then," Dom said, standing up.
"Where are we going?" Victoire asked, alarmed.
"We're going to cook, of course," Dom said, staring at her as if she was stupid.
"Cook?" Victoire asked.
"It always makes Molly feel better!" Dom protested.
"Fine, let's go cook," Victoire said, shaking her head, "What do you want to make, exactly?"
"Something blue," Dom said.
"Why something blue?" Victoire asked.
"Because you're feeling blue!" Dom laughed, then saw the look on Victoire face, "Or something chocolate. Chocolate makes people feel better. Especially when they're grieving about nonsense."
"Grieving about nonsense!" Victoire looked offended, "I am not!"
"Um…yeah you are," Dom said, "You're sitting at the window, just staring out at nothing, all depressed-like because you're too scared to go out and tell Teddy you're in love with him."
"I never said I was in love with him," Victoire replied. Dom snorted.
"Please," she said sarcastically, "I can tell. You're my sister."
"Not a very supportive one, I'll tell you that," Victoire grumbled.
"What do you want me to do? Sit there and lie to you? 'Oh it'll be alright Victoire, definitely'?" she asked.
"I guess not," Victoire frowned, "But a little support would be nice."
"Okay," Dom rolled her eyes, "So I've been avoiding this because you're obviously upset about it, but do you want to tell me the whole story?"
"It was the first day of term," Victoire recalled, "I was just about to get on the train. He and I were saying goodbye like we did last year, and he just all of a sudden kissed me right in the middle of King's Cross."
"And then James came and saw you," Dom supplied.
"Yes…but wait? How do you know that? He swore he didn't tell anyone!" Victoire groaned.
"And you believed him?" Dom said, shocked.
"Fair point," Victoire laughed.
"So he kissed you…what did you do?" Dom asked.
"I…er…sort of ran away?" she replied. Dom sighed in exasperation.
"You ran away?" Dom asked, "No wonder you're so upset about it."
"Thanks Dom," Victoire said.
"So what are you going to do now?" Dom asked.
"I don't know," Victoire said, "That was the whole point of this conversation."
"Well, I think you should talk to him," Dom said.
"I don't know Dom…" Victoire started.
"Nonsense," Dom replied, "You're going to talk to him. But you know what you should do first?"
"What?" Victoire asked.
"Eat this chocolate cake I just made," Dom said matter-of-factly.
"Alright then," Victoire said, smiling.
"Victoire?" Dom said, licking the chocolate off her fingers.
"Uh-huh?" Victoire asked, with a full mouth.
"You really should talk to Ted, you know," Dom said, "I'm not just saying that because I'm your sister. You always say that communication is key, but yet you're too scared to go talk to Ted?"
"You're Dom," Victoire sighed, "When did you get to be so wise?"
"I was always wise, you just didn't notice," Dom said matter-of-factly.
"And modest too," Victoire muttered under her breath.
"Oi! I heard that!" Dom said angrily. Victoire laughed.
"You were meant to," she said.
-x-
The snow was falling. It was late at night, and Victoire Weasley was standing in front of Teddy's house, her finger centimeters away from the doorbell.
I'm not scared, she reassured herself. I'm just going over to Teddy's which I do all the time.
Except you don't go over there to tell Teddy you like him all the time…a little voice said in her head. Taking a deep breath, she rang the doorbell before she could chicken out. Teddy opened it momentarily.
"Hey Vic," he said, leaning against, the doorway, "What's up?"
"I have to talk to you about something," she said. He raised an eyebrow.
"Alright then," he said, "C'mon in." She followed him in. Teddy was a slob, a huge one, as boys often tend to be. Everything was everywhere and there seemed to be no space left uncovered in his small apartment.
"How do you keep track of everything?" Victoire asked, aghast, distracted from her mission by the mess.
"Oh not you too," Teddy groaned, "You're as bad as Grandma whenever she comes over. I swear, she's going to show up here with a plastic garbage bag one day and just start throwing out everything I own."
"Within good reason," Victoire said, picking up something green, "How long has this been in here?"
"A couple of months, I reckon," Teddy shrugged.
"Theodore Lupin," Victoire said, "You are a slob. I'm going to have to get you an intervention!"
"Merlin no Vic, please. That's the last thing I need right now," Teddy groaned. Victoire sighed.
"You're just lucky that I'm not in an intervening kind of mood today," she huffed.
"Thanks, Vic," he grinned, "Want a butterbeer and you can tell me what you need to tell me?"
"I'd love one," she answered. He grabbed two out of the fridge, and passed it over to her.
"So, what's up?" he asked, sitting right next to her. She choked on her butterbeer, "Whoa, are you alright Vic?"
"Fine," she coughed, "Just went down the wrong way."
"Okay," Teddy said, "So are you going to tell me why you came here to talk to me, or am I just going to have to guess?" Victoire blushed.
"Well," she said, "I have been having…problems…with someone," Teddy raised an eyebrow, "And I was talking to Dominique, trying to get her to help me figure out the solution. But then, I realized that the I already knew the solution, but I was just too scared to solve the problem myself."
"Does this person know about this…problem?" Teddy asked, in an odd voice.
"No…maybe…yes…I don't know," Victoire laughed, "He doesn't seem to."
"Ah! So it's a he," Teddy said, "Boy troubles then?"
"A very weird kind of boy trouble," Victoire said, "He doesn't know that I have them."
"So you're having problems with a boy, and he doesn't know it," Teddy confirmed, "Essentially."
"Yes, essentially," Victoire sighed.
"Victoire, is this about King's Cross?" Teddy asked her, and Victoire gulped.
"Yes," she whispered.
"So we're having problems then?" Teddy teased.
"I don't know…are we?" Victoire asked.
"You never wrote," Teddy said, hurt evident in his voice.
"Neither did you," Victoire replied.
"Victoire," Teddy cleared his throat, "I was too scared to write."
"Scared!" Victoire cried jumping up, "Scared of what?"
"Well, you at the moment," Teddy mumbled, "Because the truth is Victoire, I love you. I have for years."
"Teddy-" Victoire started.
"No Vic," he said, "Let me finish. Victoire Weasley, I have been in love with for…I don't even know how long, probably my whole life, and I know that you don't feel the same way, but I can't, I just can't do it anymore, and I just have to let you know how I feel and-"
"Teddy!" Victoire said, "Would you let me talk?"
"Yes," Teddy said.
"You, Theodore Remus Lupin, are a huge idiot," Victoire said, and closed the space in between them.
Dom had been right. She really had been grieving about nonsense.
A/N-This is for Fanfiction School: Math Assessment One with chocolate, friendship, Rubeus Hagrid, cooking, windowsill, blue and for Camp Potter with Archery. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!