“Darling, I disagree with you.”
“See, Daddy?” Victoire held her arms out wide. “Mama thinks it’s just fine.”
Daddy folded his arms and gave Victoire a stern look. She turned to look at herself in the mirror again. “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s not too low-cut, high-cut, tight, or transparent.”
“One could argue that it was all of those things,” Daddy said, but Mama laid her hand on his arm.
“Dearest, now you are being silly. When we bought it for her last Christmas you thought it was just fine.”
“She wasn’t wearing it then.”
“We’re going to be late,” Victoire reminded her parents. “To the family party, I might add.”
“Yes, it is only going to be family there!” Mama said, flashing a grateful look at her daughter. “Why are you so worried?”
Daddy appeared to be defeated, but then came up with one last protest. “Well, Teddy is going to be there.”
For once Victoire was glad that she had her usual retort to that. “Daddy. We’ve been nothing but best friends since I was born. We practically are family. You’ve got nothing to worry about where Teddy’s concerned.” That much was true, at least.
“All right, then!” Mama said, ushering Daddy out the door. “Now let’s go before we’re too late!”
“There’s no such thing as too late,” Daddy said, holding his hand out for Victoire to take. “We’ll get there before Ron, at least.”
When they whisked through the Fireplace to the Potters’, Uncle Harry was there to greet them and take their soot-proof cloaks.
“How are you doing, Bill?” he asked, shaking Daddy’s hand.
“Quite well, thank you,” Daddy replied. “Yourself?”
“A bit harried,” Uncle Harry admitted with a grin. Victoire laughed out loud.
“Victoire!” he said, looking at her properly for the first time. “You look more like your beautiful mother every day.”
“Oh, Harry,” Mama said, kissing him on the cheek before sweeping away with Daddy to greet everyone else.
“Thanks, Uncle Harry,” Victoire said, kissing him as well. “Where’s the kids?”
“Downstairs, out of the way,” he told her. “It’s an absolute madhouse; they’re so excited for Christmas.”
“Can you blame them?” Victoire said, grinning.
“Don’t stay down there all night,” Uncle Harry said. “Your other aunts and uncles will want to spend time with you as much as their kids do.”
“Okay.” Victoire headed on downstairs.
“Yay, she’s here!” Rose ran up and grabbed her hand. Lily raced over to grab her other hand.
“Hello, girls.” Victoire beamed at her little cousins. “What’s going on?”
“We were waiting for you to arrive,” Lily told her matter-of-factly. “Before you got here we made ornaments and gingerbread houses “ ”
“Can you enchant them, Victoire? Please?”
“Sure,” Victoire said, tweaking Rose’s nose “ she seemed to have picked up bad habits from Teddy.
“ “ and,” Lily said, looking cross at the interruption, “we kidnapped Teddy.”
“Oh yeah. That’ll be the best part of the party!” Rose and Lily giggled together.
“What?” Victoire asked, completely confused. They’d kidnapped Teddy? For what purpose?
“Go tell the boys to bring him in,” Rose said in that superior, “I’m older than you so you must do what I say” sort of voice.
“Okay.” Lily went over to the outside door and hollered, “James! Hugo! Albus! Bring him in!”
“Coming!” came a chorus of young voices.
Teddy didn’t bear any of the characteristics of a normal kidnapped person that Victoire could see. In fact, he was the one carrying Hugo in, plopping him in front of the fire before tousling the hair of the Potter boys.
“Hey there, Victoire,” he said, grinning in that irresistible way. “You look nice.”
“Thanks. You look cold,” she observed.
“We’ll warm up quick, won’t we, boys?”
“But first!” Rose clapped her hands authoritatively. “Remember?”
“Oh yeah.” James and Albus looked distinctly disappointed at whatever it was, but Hugo beamed.
“Teddy, you need to come stand here,” Lily said, pulling him over to her desired spot.
“Victoire, go stand by him,” Rose prompted.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Teddy asked her as she approached.
“Maybe they’ve put on a show for us,” Victoire replied, shrugging. “Sort of like last Christmas.”
“But last Christmas they did it for everyone.”
“Be quiet!” Lily said, and Victoire and Teddy turned toward her.
“No, don’t look at us!” Hugo said, brimming over with glee. “Look up!”
“Hugo!” said Rose and Lily, irritated.
Victoire looked up and her heart stopped. There was no mistaking the signature white berries. She glanced at Teddy, who looked as stricken as she felt.
“Guess we’re providing the show tonight,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.
“I hope they take the disappointment well,” he replied.
“Oh, you’re not going to kiss me?” Victoire asked, allowing some of her real distress come through her face and voice. “That is disappointing. They went to all that effort to kidnap you and you won’t even kiss me.”
“Kidnap me? They didn’t kidnap me.”
Victoire looked askance at Rose and Lily, who looked guilty and also rather sad.
“Aw, Teddy, look,” Victoire said, beginning to feel worse for the girls than she did for herself. “They really are disappointed.”
Teddy watched the children for a minute, his eyes softening in sympathy. “I suppose they did sort of force me to go play in the snow with the boys,” he conceded. “That sort of counts as kidnapping.”
“But you won’t kiss me anyway,” Victoire responded, not sure why she hadn’t reached up and fulfilled the purpose of mistletoe by now. Before this year, it would have been just a joke to both of them and they’d have gotten it over with by this point. Now, though, everything was strange and wrong.
“I never said that,” Teddy said, looking from the kids to her face. “It’s just, well...”
Victoire raised her eyebrows expectantly, beginning to feel a little better.
“They seem to be expecting something wonderful and magical to happen, and, well, it won’t,” Teddy finished, his brow furrowed apologetically.
“Ah, I see.” Victoire half smiled.
“Just kiss!” Rose burst out before turning red and hiding her face behind her hands.
They laughed; Teddy leaned closer to her and Victoire’s eyes fluttered shut. This was it. Of course, she’d preferred not to have argued about whether or not he was actually going to kiss her, and the whole thing still had an air of coercion about it, but she tried not to let that matter. The important thing was, she told herself, was that she was getting kissed by Teddy.
Only, he wasn’t kissing her. He was whispering to her instead. “You won’t...you won’t take this to mean anything it doesn’t, will you?”
Victoire was about to ask what on earth he meant when his mouth covered hers, just for a fraction of a second. Teddy stood away from her then, his face going ever so slightly red. Both of them turned toward the kids.
Lily and Rose were smiling to themselves, James and Albus were looking determinedly elsewhere, and Hugo was staring in disbelief.
“Why aren’t you toads?” he demanded, shaking his little fist. “When you kiss under the missle-toad that’s what’s supposed to happen!”
“Who told you that?” Victoire asked, shocked.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Hugo said. “The word ‘toad’ is in the name of the plant!”
The entire room exploded in laughter and Rose took her little brother aside to explain how spelling made a big difference in what words meant.
“I guess our show was a bit of a let down after all,” Victoire said, forcing herself to look at Teddy and grin.
“We could fix that,” Teddy said. “You’d make a right pretty toad.” He waved his wand at her.
“Don’t you point that thing at me,” Victoire said, putting up her hand as if it would ward a Transfiguration spell. “Besides, toads aren’t pretty.”
“You’d make a pretty cockroach, Vic,” Teddy informed her.
“Ew,” Rose said matter-of-factly. “Don’t turn her into a cockroach, Teddy.”
“Yeah, because cockroaches can’t play Exploding Snap, and Victoire’s going to play with us, right, Victoire?” James said, digging in the game cupboard.
Before Victoire could respond, a voice floated down from upstairs. “Victoire! Teddy! Come on up, please!”
“Sorry, kids,” Teddy said, bowing for Victoire to head up the stairs before him. “Maybe after the grownups are done being all grown-up we can come back down, okay?”
“Okay.”
Victoire almost turned around to watch Teddy as they ascended together, but changed her mind at the last minute and had to pretend she was tossing her hair to account for her sudden head movement. She was still really confused about what he’d said under the mistletoe. Well, really! He appeared to have made it quite clear that he only kissed her because he’d been under compulsion. What else would Victoire even think it meant?
She was determined not to count that forced kiss. Obviously it was nothing to Teddy, so she should just shut her dreams up and work on making him want to give her a kiss that meant something.
“There you are!” Daddy was waiting on the landing. “Sorry to steal you away so soon, but we were all talking about you and thought you ought to at least be there to defend yourselves.”
“Thank you, Bill,” Teddy said. “I hope to clear my reputation admirably.”
“You mustn’t forget that we all have to stare at you and talk about how much like your parents you look,” Victoire reminded him, smiling slightly.
“We might have gotten over that, after all these years,” Daddy began, but then they walked into the parlor where the adults were sitting.
The first thing Aunt Hermione said was, “All right, Teddy, stand where we can all see you.”
Victoire smirked at Daddy. “Guess not,” she whispered.
“Don’t sit down, Victoire, you’re next,” Aunt Ginny called. “We already trotted out all the little kiddies like prize calves.”
“He looks more like his father every time I see him,” Hermione mused, following tradition almost to the letter. “Look at his eyes, and his stature.”
“Yes, but there’s his mother in him too,” Ron added, just as he always did.
The room was silent for a minute. Teddy turned to look at Victoire, and soon everyone else did as well.
“Oh, were you waiting for me to say something?” she asked innocently. “Just like I say every single year?”
“Wouldst thou leave me undefended?” Teddy responded, putting his hand to his heart and crumpling his face.
“I think he looks like himself,” Victoire said in a rush. “More like himself every single day. Every time I see him, I think, oh look, there’s Teddy Lupin, he looks so much like himself I can hardly believe it.”
As she was speaking, Teddy was morphing into someone else. This was the one part of the (rather silly, Victoire thought) tradition that came under any variation. Nobody ever knew who he would change into, though they tended to place bets all the same.
Uncle Ron whooped; standing in the center of the room was a very near replica of Victoire Weasley. ‘She’ smiled sweetly at the assembled audience. “I suppose you guessed right this year?” ‘she’ asked Ron in a surprisingly deep voice.
“Oh, look, I get out of my yearly inspection,” Victoire said elatedly. “Carry on with it, then. Ask that Victoire how she’s doing in school, her prospects, et cetera. I’m very interested in the answers myself.” She took a seat, raising her eyebrows at the person in the center of the room.
“Very well,” said Harry pleasantly, the corners of his mouth twitching. “How are N.E.W.T. classes treating you, er, Victoire?”
“I’m still getting used to the immense workload,” the deep-voiced Victoire said, clasping ‘her’ hands like a damsel in distress. “If it weren’t for Teddy, I would never be passing Transfiguration. Oh, he’s my hero.” ‘She’ sighed gustily and swooned.
“Teddy certainly does have a handle on Transfiguration,” Ginny remarked casually. Everyone laughed and Teddy returned to his normal self.
“Your characterization was spot on,” Victoire told him as he came and sat next to her. “The only suggestion I would make is “ ”
“More gushing about Teddy, am I right?” he interrupted, grinning at her. “Thought as much.”
“Your vanity knows no bounds,” she informed him. “And you neglected to mention that, despite my being a year younger than you, I can still tutor you in Charms.”
“So...your prospects, Victoire!” Mama said. “How are they?” She was leaning forward in her seat and Victoire could tell that she was looking forward to whatever the answer was.
“Sorry, Mama,” Victoire said sadly. “I just wanted to see what Teddy would’ve said to that. I don’t really have anything to tell any of you.”
“Not even Teddy?” Ron mocked astonishment.
Victoire looked at her neighbor, which was a mistake “ she immediately thought of what had happened downstairs “ and blushed. “Haven’t you lot given up on that yet?” she exclaimed. “Just about everyone else has.” Except me, she added silently.
“We know; that’s why it’s funny to keep teasing you,” Daddy said.
“Ah yes, Victoire and I are just rolling around laughing over here,” Teddy remarked sardonically. “Actually, I’ll have you know “ and Victoire can attest to this “ I’ve recently been seen around with a certain Irish beauty, with hair as fair as corn silk.”
“Corn silk?” Victoire whispered, unable to keep a straight face.
“Hush,” Teddy told her, then raised his voice again to be heard by the group at large. “At any rate, perhaps it would behoove us to change the subject.”
“It’s about time for Christmas toasts, anyway,” Uncle Harry said. “I’ll call up the littles “ brace yourselves.”
“You said you had no interest in Erin!” Victoire hissed accusingly under cover of the tramp of several children coming into the room. “It had better have been some sort of ruse, because otherwise I have got to have a talk with you about dating girls of a certain caliber.”
“Calm down, silly. I just said it so you’d stop looking so uncomfortable. Though you should probably find some guy to start dating so they stop teasing us. As long as I approve of him, of course.”
“Well, thank you. I do appreciate it. And I’ll think about it “ the dating someone thing, I mean. Because ten years of teasing is really wearing on me.” Victoire pulled a face.
“Just make sure he’s a good one,” Teddy said, tweaking her nose.
He is, Victoire thought sadly. She only smiled, though, and accepted Rose into her lap.
“May I have everyone’s attention?” Harry said, clanging his glass. “Ginny’s handing around your butterbeers for the toast now. I’ve thought about it and everyone tell me if they disagree with this year’s toast: ‘To Family, Friends, and Love.’”
“You always make good toasts, Harry, no one’s about to disagree,” Ron said.
Victoire thought it was great. With her cousin Rose on her lap and her best friend Teddy by her side, she couldn’t have thought of a better one. And the smile that Teddy gave her as he raised his glass and chorused with the rest “ “To Family, Friends, and Love” “ well! It was really a pity there wasn’t more mistletoe around, because Victoire would have been very happy to utilize it.
Gratification and Justification by Cinderella Angelina
Chapter Notes: Having once been a small cousin myself, I rather enjoyed writing the hi-jinks that occur in this chapter.
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