A Year in the Life

6 months later

December 2016

"It looks positively frigid outside," Victoire said as she sat on her bed and stared out of her bedroom window. Even though it was early afternoon, the tree outside of her window looked as if it was collecting frost along its branches.

"Because it is!" said a girl from across the room. She pulled a pair of wool socks out of a duffle bag and pulled them onto her feet.

Victoire smirked. "It's not that cold in here, Whit."

"I'm pretty chilly," she said as she stood and started trying her long mousy brown hair up into a messy ponytail.

It was two days after Christmas, and Victoire was sitting at home in her room going through several of her new presents with her friend Jane Whitters, or Whit as Victoire preferred to call her. She had known Whit since their very first day at Hogwarts--when they were both sorted into Gryffindor five and a half years ago--but they had spent those five and a half years without much to do with one another. They had shared a bedroom and a class schedule, and while they were always cordial to each other, they had run in different circles and had only recently started to become friends.

It had all been part of Victoire's plan to distance herself from her former friends and to find new ones. She had always found Whit to be a sweet, funny girl with a love for music and animals, but the more she had gotten to know her, the more she realized how personable she really was. She had an exceptionally quick wit--which Victoire had deemed the real reason for her nickname--and a well placed tenacious nature. It was nice to have a friend who told jokes to her instead of about her.

That wasn't to say that Victoire's other friends were completely out of the picture. She knew it would never be that easy. The first four months of school found the seventh-years busier than ever, as they were now bogged down with assignments and essays, most of them preparing the students for their N.E.W.T. exams. Colleen Lynch, who was actually a fairly decent student, found herself being nastier than ever as she snapped at people for breathing too loudly near her when she was trying to concentrate. She would then laugh at the person's frightened reaction with whoever was within earshot, even if this person didn't find it particularly funny. She claimed she found yelling at younger students cathartic, but Victoire found it rather obnoxious. This was just one of the hundreds of reasons she no longer wanted anything to do with these girls.

She had actually found it rather easy to distance herself from those girls by merely studying in the library or in her own room. In fact, mealtimes were the only time she couldn't avoid them completely. It had been these escapes to the library that had brought her and Whit closer together, taking only a week of small talk for Victoire to realize how much she and Whit really had in common. It had also made her realize how much she never knew about someone who'd been sleeping in the bed next to her since they were eleven.

"You sure did get a lot of photo frames for Christmas," Whit said as she started sorting through several of the gift boxes.

"I like photos," she said, gesturing around her room to the framed photographs that covered the walls.

"I can see that," Whit said as she began staring at several of them. "Is this you in Paris in this one?"

Victoire turned to look at the photo in question. It was, in fact her, her mother, Dominique, Louis, and her Aunt Gabrielle standing in front of the Eiffel Tower several years previously.

"Yep," she said hopping up to get a better look at it. "Look how long my hair used to be."

"I remember in first and second-year when you had your hair down past your back. It was so long."

"I know," she said with a nostalgic smile. "I had to cut it the summer after second year because my Cousin Freddie didn't know any better and stuck this huge wad of gum in it when I wasn't looking." She laughed. "My mother was so upset."

Whit laughed. "Do you have a picture of that anywhere?"

"Hmm, I probably do." She went to her closet and opened it. She started pulling out several shoe boxes until she found the one in particular that she had been looking for. She plopped herself down on the floor and started searching through it photo by photo. "It's got to be in here."

Whit sat down next to her and grabbed at another one of the boxes. "May I?"

"Sure," she said, not looking up from the photos in her hand. Whit followed suit and began pulling out several handfuls of photographs.

"Look at how cute you were," Whit said after several minutes as she held up a photo of Victoire and her father in Egypt. She couldn't have been older than five or six and was waving happily at the camera from atop her father's shoulders.

She smiled. "I still remember that trip to Egypt. It was so hot out."

"You've been everywhere," Whit said as she continued looking through photos.

"Not really. I mean my mum's from France and her family's there so we visit a lot. Then my dad had spent a lot of time in Egypt as a curse breaker so he likes to go back and visit sometimes. That was actually the only time I got to go."

"Is that Harry Potter?" Whit asked as she held up another photo. "I mean this had to be ages ago."

Victoire took it from her. It was, in fact, a much younger version of her uncle as he sat smiling next to her Aunt Ginny as she held a newborn Victoire in her arms. Both of them still looked like teenagers.

"That was ages ago," she said handing the photo back. "But yeah, that's him and me and Aunt Ginny. I can't be more than a couple of months old in that."

"I think it's really interesting that he's your uncle," Whit said as she continued through the photos. "And the same thing with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. I mean, I was just eating Chocolate Frogs the other day on Christmas I must have gotten each one of their cards."

"My Uncle Ron has his framed on his mantle."

"Does he really?"

Victoire nodded. "If you knew him, you'd know that that was just part of his personality. He's really funny."

"Your family is so fascinating," she said. "I mean, we learn about these people in History of Magic and you can just pop into their houses whenever you feel like it."

Victoire shrugged. "They've been a part of my life since before I knew they were anything special." She paused and looked up. "Although it was quite a trip to realize all the things Harry had done, and then a day later have him sitting across from me at dinner talking about treacle tart and nappies."

"I can imagine," Whit said with a jealous sort of sigh.

"I'll introduce you someday," she said as they continued through the boxes of photos.

"Aw, your brother was a cute kid," Whit said after awhile as she smiled down at a photo of Louis with a bowl on his head.

"That was before he knew it," she said as she shook her head. "Now he's aware how cute he is, and it gets annoying."

"Is he still dating Natalie?"

"I have no idea," Victoire said as she rolled her eyes. "I can't even keep up with the girls he's dating anymore. All I know is that I rarely like any of them."

Whit grinned.

"He dated that one girl earlier this year," she said, putting the photos down as she pursed her lips in thought. "She was younger than him and really cute. Susan, I think her name was? Either way, she was a very sweet girl. I really liked her, but of course that didn't last," she sighed. "He's so clever and he knows he can have whatever girl he wants. I just wish he'd stop picking the annoying ones."

Whit laughed as Victoire stretched her arms.

"You should date him," Victoire said with a mischievous smile.

Whit's eyes went wide and she quickly shook her head. "No thanks."

"Why not!? You know, I should take a more proactive role in who my brother dates. At least with you I'd know he'd be getting a good girl."

"You know," she began, "your brother is actually not a bad guy, I'll give him that. But he's really not my type."

Victoire laughed. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's just not my type," she repeated. "I don't know. He's almost too good-looking. I like my boys to be a little more--"

"Ugly?" Victoire asked, still laughing.

"Not ugly," she said, "but rather just...not pretty."

"Don't think I won't tell Louis that you called him pretty," she teased.

"I mean someone like--" she hesitated. "You know Alex Wood?"

"Of course I do," she said as she thought of Alex. He was a rugged sort with eyebrows that were a bit too bushy for her tastes. He wasn't ugly though.

"Someone like him," she said. "Not specifically him, but just that sort of look."

"I see," said Victoire in an amused way. "So if not him specifically, then who?"

"No one, really," she said as she started to refocus on the photos in her hand. "I like older boys and most of the ones I've ever found attractive have graduated."

"We'll work on that come the New Year," she said matter-of-factly. "A suitable boy for Whitters."

Whit rolled her eyes as she started flipping through photos faster and faster. She stopped and glanced down at one before she held it up. "Perhaps I should just get in line for a crack at Stuart Reynolds then?"

"Where did that come from?" Victoire asked as she grabbed it from her and started to examine it. The photo looked only a year or two old, and in it, Colleen Lynch, Elizabeth Cole, and Stuart were all sitting in the Three Broomsticks pub smiling back at the camera and laughing. "I never knew I had this picture! Look how cute he looks."

Whit furrowed her brow. "Stuart is definitely not my type."

"That's a good thing," Victoire said with a wide smile as she reached over and grabbed a pair of scissors before proceeding to cut Stuart out of the photo.

"Still after him, then?"

"Still?" she asked. "I never got a proper chance before," she paused and stared at the bit of photo she had just cut, "since he and Elizabeth ended up getting back together. At least I didn't go putting myself out there like Colleen did, only for him to tell her he was going back to his ex."

"Thrilling," said Whit sarcastically.

"You could let me get a little excited over this," she said as she placed the photo down. "They just split up again not long ago, and I know Colleen's going to try again, even though he humiliated her when he picked Elizabeth over her." She sighed, "Colleen's not a quitter though. She's just biding her time in order to avoid the same thing happening again."

"But you're not going to let that happen."

"Not if I can help it," she said brightly. "At least I've got a blank slate. Unlike her."

"Are you trying to turn this into a competition?"

"Everything with Colleen is a competition. And if this is last battle I have to have with her, all the better."

"There are so many other boys though," Whit said as she leaned back against the wall. "Why bother fighting over this boy when you could have so many others?"

Victoire smiled a little. "Why bother letting Colleen have the one I want just because there are others available?"

"I guess," she said as she grabbed another box full of photos. Victoire grinned as she continued searching through her own box wondering if there were any other pictures of Stuart that she was unaware of.

"Who's this?" Whit asked minutes later as she stuck a photo in front of Victoire's face. It was of Victoire and Ted in the back garden of her grandparents' house as they helped de-gnome the garden. She looked to be about seven. He looked about nine.

"That's Ted Lupin and me," she said as she leaned back to view the picture.

"Is it really?" Whit asked, flipping the photo back around towards her. "It looks nothing like him."

"It doesn't?" she asked as she took the photo back. "Oh, that's because he's given himself a gnome nose to be funny. His nose doesn't really look like that. "

"This box is full of photos of you and him," she said as she kept flipping through it. "I never knew you two knew each other so well."

"I've known him since the day I was born." She stood up from the floor and sat down on her bed. "He's my best friend."

"He is?" she asked. "You never talk about him."

"We haven't really talked much lately what with me being at school and him having left." She shrugged. "He's swamped at work from what I hear. Plus, we got in this huge row about a year and a half ago where were didn't talk for something like a year, and we only just made up before he graduated." She shrugged again. "We don't see each other much, but we're still friends."

"I never knew," Whit said as she continued looking at photos of him. "I mean, you two seem so different."

"Surprisingly," Victoire said as she scratched her nose, "we're a lot more similar than you'd think. I didn't know you knew Ted."

"I was in Gobstones Club with him."

"Gobstones Club?" Victoire asked with a short laugh. "You were in Gobstones Club?"

"For a few months," she said defensively. "It was fun for a bit. I don't know."

She laughed again.

"Oh, come on," Whit said, throwing a nearby pillow at her. "And if you're going to tease me, you might want to tease your best friend here. He was far more interested in it than I ever was."

"Oh, believe me, I have," she said still laughing. "Ted's been a Gobstones freak for as long as I can remember and I've been giving him a hard time about it ever since," she giggled. "I'm only kidding though...mostly."

"I actually..." Whit began as she started to blush a little. "I used to think he was a little cute."

Victoire's jaw dropped. "Did you really?"

"Just a little. He was just older and I just told you how I liked older boys. Anyway, he was always so nice, and I thought it was so cool how he'd constantly change his hair color and stuff. I mean, we barely even spoke, it was so small and insignificant."

"That is amazing," Victoire said sounding thoroughly amused.

"You don't meet too many people who are Metamorphmagi. He just always seemed so interesting." She stopped blushing and sighed. "What does he do for a living now?"

"He's in antidote research over at St. Mungo's. He's working out new cures and whatnot for various ailments and diseases."

"Wow."

"Yeah," Victoire said as she glanced out the window to the frosty tree once more. "His main goal is to find a cure for the werewolf gene."

Whit stared up at her. "That's a big goal."

She smiled. "He's wanted to figure that out since we were kids. We both used to talk about doing it one day."

"Do you two have a fascination with werewolves or something?"

Victoire bit her lip, wondering if she should really go into this. "We both have had werewolf attacks in the family, so it was just a common goal for us to make it so that other people would never have to deal with the same thing."

Whit stared up at her. "Your dad...?"

"Was attacked," she finished slowly. "Yes. Thankfully he wasn't infected, just mauled."

"I wanted to ask," she said. "When I met him earlier today, I figured it had something to do with the war, since you said your parents were both active in fighting. I just thought it was the result of a hex gone wrong."

Victoire smiled sadly. "I'm just thankful he was never infected. Ted's dad wasn't so lucky."

"His dad was a werewolf?"

She nodded. "I'm telling you this in confidence, by the way."

"I won't tell anyone."

"He never knew his parents," she continued. "They were both killed in the war. But he heard about the poor treatment his dad went through because he had the unfortunate experience of being bit as a boy. To this day, Ted's set his heart on making sure other people don't have to go through the same thing." She looked out the window again. "The laws have gotten better for werewolves, but it's still a long road to fix the physical harm that the Wolfbane Potion can do only so much to prevent."

"I would have never..." Whit said in almost a whisper. "But wait, if his dad was bitten as a boy, how did he not contract the gene?"

"He got lucky," she said. "We think the Metamorphmagus gene overpowered the werewolf one, but we don't know." [Author ID1: at Mon Jul 14 11:22:00 2008 ]

Whit sat there in complete shock as a sudden knock at the bedroom door broke the silence. It opened just a crack to reveal Victoire's father standing there.

"Hey," Bill said with a smile. "Just wanted to remind you that you promised Harry and Ginny you'd watch the kids tonight."

"That's tonight?" she asked as she sat up straight.

He nodded. "You'll have to leave soon. It's nearly six."

"I'd forgotten all about that."

"I'd better go then," Whit said, throwing the remaining photos she was holding into their box. "But I'll see you for your birthday on Saturday."

"The big one-seven," Bill said as he stood aside for Whit and Victoire to walk downstairs.

"I'll finally be legal!" she said. "I'll finally be able to Apparate!" She grinned. "I can even actually have a drink."

"Don't remind me," Bill mumbled.