this theory has been disproven

by Nanaho-Hime

Disclaimer: I own nothing

For the Hogwarts Online prompt of the day

prompt: boats

pairing: VictoireTerry (Boot)

:-:

She breaks up with Teddy because she knows that he's never really been that into her. They've always been friends, really good friends, close to best friends, but lovers they are not.

She sees it in the way that he kisses her vaguely (like he's not really there), in the way that he breaks dates in order to keep promises to Lily, to make sure Lily is never lonely without her brothers. And he doesn't even see it yet, but it's so obvious that he's found, as clichéd as it sounds, his soulmate, that person who he's meant to be with for the rest of his life. Victoire Weasley is a romantic at heart, and she loves her baby cousin and she loves Ted, and she doesn't have the heart to break up true love.

(it doesn't stop her heart from breaking, her love from breaking)

Ted is relieved when she breaks up with him, she sees it in his eyes, and she puts up a brave smile, they share a hug, promise to remain good friends. She wants to scream at him and she hates him for leading her on. She hates him for being so sweet, so eager to please her, so worried that he'd hurt her.

(she takes that responsibility off his hands)

Her favorite first year, a Slytherin by the name of Scorpius Malfoy, is absolutely outraged for her sake, and she's touched by his concern.

"Are you alright, Vic?" he finds her when the news spreads (because at Hogwarts, she's a princess in her own right).

She smiles down at him. He's a small, skinny thing, who looks as though he'd snap in half if it was too breezy outside.

"Is he stupid?" Scorpius rages, "You're beautiful, and sweet and smart and perfect."

Vicky smiles, because he's so cute, because she knows exactly why he's so furious.

"Scorpius, sweetheart, I broke up with him."

Scorpius frowns as though it is a minor detail, "I hate that guy."

Victoire ruffles his hair, "Scorpius, Rose will grow out of her crush, I promise."

He splutters, denies, flushes a brilliant red, and hurriedly excuses himself. She sees a promising friendship with this reserved boy, and the heartache eases a little.

:-:

When Professor Wood is on maternity leave, Professor Terry Boot takes time off from being a healer to teach Charms. He is a quiet man, mind bogglingly brilliant and extremely reserved. The students like him well enough, and he's a good teacher, but he doesn't really stand out. Victoire never really notices him at first. She knows the basic information, he fought during the War, he was a famous healer and he was single. He'd lost his best friends and his family and he'd never been the same.

It's right after she's broken up with Teddy, and she's crying in the empty Charms room. Professor Boot walks in with his books, and a sandwich and the poor man looks absolutely horrified.

"Oh, Miss Weasley, I'm so sorry, " he's fumbling with his words, and his discomfort makes her laugh. For a brilliant, world-renowned Healer, he sure is awkward.

"It's fine Professor, I've just broken up with my boyfriend and I'm just a little sad."

Professor Boot hesitates at the door, as though torn between sitting down and speaking with her or fleeing the scene. He is a brave man after all, because he chooses to sit next to her, his hands folded on the desk in front of him.

"Ted Lupin?"

She offers a watery smile, but she doesn't meet his blue eyes, "Yeah, I asked him to meet me at Hogsmeade today, and I broke up with him because I know he's in love with another girl."

Professor Boot nods at his intertwined fingers, "Ahh, I see."

They are silent, Mr. Boot nods some more, as though answering a question hanging in the silence.

"Well, Miss Weasley, I'm not very good at words of comfort, but I can listen and promise not to say a word," he turns to her and she's a little dazzled by his vague smile, "as you can tell, I'm not exactly a social butterfly."

He seems like the dependable sort so she tells him everything, about Ted and Lily, and being the oldest and being isolated and everyone thinking she's perfect when she's really not and how she hates it when people call her beautiful.

He turns to smile at her, "You'll find your Ted, Miss Weasley, I promise."

It's strange, but she feels as though she's speaking with a friend. She doesn't even think that she may be overstepping personal boundaries.

"Do you have a Lily, Professor?"

He doesn't look startled; perhaps he's unaware of the boldness of her query.

"No, I'm fairly certain that I'm predestined to be an old bachelor."

He smiles, this vague, lovely smile, and she feels something foreign stirring in her chest.

:-:

She goes to work on a magical creatures' reserve after graduation, but she never quite forgets Professor Terry Boot. Sometimes she wistfully wishes that she could see him again, talk to him again, because he was nice, in a vague, brilliant way.

She remembers all of these small traits, insignificant but when she's working with baby unicorns, or trying to save blast ended skrewts from each other, she think of Mr. Boot's sad, blue eyes, and his habit of talking into his hands when he has something very important to say.

She wants to talk to him again, but he's a very busy Healer, constantly traveling Europe for special, intensive treatments. He's written books and he's saved so many lives and why on earth would he want to sit and have a coffee, with a girl he'd only known for a few short months?

The urge to see him again becomes strong enough for her to seek help from her Uncle Harry. He'd known Terry Boot as an ally in the war, and she was sure that he'd be able to at least get her contact information.

Her Uncle Harry is surprised by the request and a little concerned.

"Don't fall in love with him, Vic," he warns her bluntly, handing her the slip of paper with Terry Boot's home address written on it, "he'll break your heart."

She flushes and protests claiming that he's old enough to be her father, and Uncle Harry's green eyes pierce. He sees through her and he gives her a warning.

"He's a good man, Terry Boot, but he 's not one for love Vic, he's lost so much and it's numbed him a bit."

Victoire nods and gives her uncle a quick peck on the cheek before rushing to her flat to owl him. She's a little breathless when a response comes a mere four days later. His letter is warm and it gives her hope. He offers to meet her for coffee the next day, and a little bit of her thaws that he'd make time to see her.

This unrequited love is destined to be a tragedy but, really, heartbreak is relative.

:-:

He meets her at a small coffee shop in Wizarding London. He looks exactly as she remembered him, with perpetually messy, blonde hair, and vague, distracted, blue eyes. He's very very tall, even taller than Teddy and frighteningly skinny. She imagines that he doesn't eat a lot (and maybe this is something akin to adoration).

"Miss Weasley," he smiles at her and, goodness, why is that so heart stopping?

"Please, , call me Victoire."

"Victoire," her name sounds lovely when he says it, and she's becoming more and more enamored, "well, then, please call me Terry, I'm not your Professor anymore."

She smiles and nods and they share a coffee and a conversation and it's all very wonderful. He tells her about his patients and his research, and he asks her about the reserve and it's the happiest she's been in a long time.

It all ends far too quickly and she wants to cry, because all of a sudden, she feels so lonely.

"So have you found a Ted yet?" He's finishing the last of his coffee, checking his wrist watch.

She looks at him, and she knows that she's doomed, "I think I have, but he doesn't really know I exist."

He smiles at her, "Victoire, you're a beautiful, sweet woman, and any man would be lucky to have you, you should tell him."

This is something else she remembers about him. He doesn't have a filter; he says exactly what he's thinking exactly when he thinks it. Maybe it's a sign of genius. She feels herself tear up, because, goodness, no one has ever called her beautiful in that way, in that way that she's beautiful in an insideoutside way.

"Have I said something wrong?" he's leaning closer to her, concern in his eyes, "I didn't mean to overstep my boundaries."

Victoire shakes her head, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, "No, no, thank you Terry, I'm just… happy, no one's ever said that to me before."

He flushes a little, and smiles, "Goodness, I haven't spoken this much to anyone in a very long time, it was wonderful speaking with you Victoire."

She feels a warmth spreading to her fingertips, her toes. She's never had this feeling before and its wonderful and beautiful and new and all because he's happy to speak with her.

"Terry," he's rising to leave, and she needs to ask, "Have you found, your Lily yet?"

His smile is sad, "Not yet, Victoire, bachelorhood seems to be my future."

(the life of a spinster seems to be hers; she can't even stand the irony)

"Please keep in touch."

She winces at the desperation in her voice, but his smile is kind.

"Of course."

She's so far gone, and so this is love. (Her knight in shining armor is a scatterbrained Healer 18 years her senior and, hey, it's all relative anyway)

:-:

He does keep in touch. He writes her every week, and, even though he doesn't say it often, she guesses he likes her enough, considers her a friend. She rarely sees him because he's always traveling, always researching and she misses him like crazy. She aches a little, because maybe a man like Terry Boot is destined for bachelorhood. He is engrossed in his work, more so than he'll ever be in her (but, goodness, she loves him so much).

:-:

Scorpius is visiting her at the reserve, he's fifteen and impetuous, but he's become one of her best friends and she desperately needs his advice.

"I love him so much, Scorpius."

He's only fifteen, but he's very wise, "So tell him." Scorpius rolls his eyes, "But why do you have to fall in love with such strange guys, Vic?"

Victoire shrugs, smiling. She ruffles his hair affectionately, and he shrugs her off with another roll of his eyes.

"Scorp, if this works out, and if I ever get married, I want you to be my maid of honor."

"Yeah, yeah ok."

:-:

It's her birthday, and he's supposed to be in Sweden but he's at the door to her flat, smelling of firewhiskey and she's never seen him such a mess. His dress shirt is unbuttoned toward the top, and his tie isn't even tied, and she's never seen him in this state of breakdown.

"Happy Birthday, Tori," he slurs, stumbling into her arms, there is an empty bottle in his hands and he refuses to let go of it.

She can immediately sense that something is wrong with him; she leads him to her couch.

"Terry, what's wrong?" It pains her to see him like this, like he just gives up; like he's trying to run away and he can't.

He's looking at his hands, in that way he does when he's making a confession, "I'm sorry, Vic. I never wanted anyone to see me looking like this, but, you know, you're the only person I've got right now. "

It's a mixed feeling, one of euphoria and sadness for him.

He's not looking at her, "I've always been a loner at heart, but I had people who I really cared about and who cared about me. There was Padma Patil, she was a good friend, married a muggle a few years after the war, you must have been five. All of the DA, they were a family I never thought I could have, I was so lucky," his voice breaks and it kills her, "Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner were my best friends, my…my brothers."

Terry's hands are shaking, "They both died today, they found out that Mike was killed by Greyback, I couldn't recognize his face, and they dragged Anthony's body in, he'd been hit by a hex, and that was it…so many of them died that day, Vic, and I was alone."

He buries his face in his hands and Victoire puts a hand on his knee, her chest tight, "You know, I started healing back in that seventh year. I just had a knack for it, you know? And with all of the torturing that was going on, I got a lot of experience."

His voice just won't stop shaking, "You know I can save millions of lives, but it doesn't matter, because when it came to the people that mattered, I couldn't do anything for them, I couldn't save them."

Terry sits there, his face in his hands, and Victoire can do nothing, but hold him.

"Vic," Terry mumbles into her shoulder, but she's hyperaware of every word he says, every move he makes, "Vic, I'm sorry, but believe me when I say, you really are a lovely person."

"Shh, it's ok, Terry, it doesn't matter."

He looks up and, goodness, his eyes are blue.

"But it does, matter, it does."

(He's even lovelier with the broken pieces)

:-:

He avoids her for weeks after his heart-wrenching confession, and she knows that he's embarrassed. He can't avoid her forever though, and when she finds out he's back in London, she waits outside his flat, until he comes back.

"Oh, Vic, I'm sorry."

He offers her his arm, and leads her inside.

"I owe you an apology," he speaks softly to her as they sit on his couch, "I lost my composure, and probably ruined your birthday in the process, I hope you can forgive me, and I hope that I haven't lost your friendship."

He looks anguished, as though that had been his biggest fear, and she finally finds the words to say what she's been thinking for the last six years.

"I love you."

Terry's jaw has gone slack, and he's staring at her wide eyed, but she can't read acceptance or rejection from his response.

He pauses and looks up to meet her eye. The bizarre, electric shock that passes between them in undeniable.

"Vic," his voice is hoarse, pained, "Vic, I can't."

Her heart plummets to her navel, but, hey, this tragedy was predicted.

"Vic," he repeats, and for once his eloquence has failed him, "Vic, I'm so old and screwed up and you're so young and beautiful and you have a life ahead of you, and I-I'm stuck in this past, in this war, and you have a family and friends that love you, and, Vic, I don't."

She stares at him, and she feels strong and weak and elated and miserable, "Terry, I love you, I need you, you are the most important person in my life. I'm ready to marry you, I've known you long enough, I've loved you long enough."

He says nothing, she waits till she walks out of his door to let herself cry at his doorstep.

(she's found her teddy, but she's starting to think she's not his lily)

:-:

Their relationship is like a small boat, on the very impetuous sea, rocking back and forth. Water's coming on to the boat, and it sinks into the water, but someone ends up saving it before it sinks. It rocks back and forth, in between success and failure. She has no idea if their little love boat will make it across the big, bad ocean.

:-:

She gets hurt, badly burned on the left side of her arm, her back, working with dragons on a neighboring reserve. It hurts like hell and she's in and out of consciousness. Every time she wakes he's there, holding her hand, and murmuring to her, and she thinks she's died and gone to heaven. His eyes are tender and they aren't sad anymore and it's wonderful.

She finally wakes up for more than a few minutes, and he's holding her hand.

"Terry…"

His smile is strained, "How are you feeling , Vic?"

Her smile is radiant, "Fantastic."

The Healer looks like he hasn't slept in days. He shakes his head, "Crazy kid."

They are silent as he absentmindedly strokes her hair with his free hand.

"Terry?"

"Mm?"

"I love you."

His grip on her hand tightens slightly, "I wanted to perform the surgery, but they wouldn't let me, because," he hesitates and he looks at her and that electric spark happens again, "because they said I was too emotionally attached."

She feels warm, wonderful, vibrant. He leans toward her closer and closer, and he stops just before that climactic part.

"Are you sure you want a dinosaur like me?"

Wordlessly, she pulls him toward her. He cups her cheek and kisses her softly, tenderly and she's so irrevocably, desperately, insanely in love.

(and love, age, it's all relative, really)

A/N: Don't favorite without reviewing :) THE FIRST EVER VICTOIRETERRY this is one of my otps ;)

Much Love,

Nanaho-Hime