Victoria 'Toff' Plunkett-Calthorpe is the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat. She wouldn't dream of staying in the Leaky Cauldron, she can trace her family tree back to the beginning of time and the only Muggle in her entire family graduated from Oxford University with the highest pass mark available. Though she is friendly, her aristocratic manners and snobbish accent make her stand out from the Hogwarts crowd – and not in a good way.
Fred Weasley is one of the most well-known students at Hogwarts. Always up for a laugh and a prank, he comes from a humble background; he can only dream of the wealth that Toff possesses. Her mannerisms and reputation as a toff don't put him off, and he is keen to become involved in her life. Can two such different people make a friendship (and possibly more) work?
This character was inspired by the accent of Georgia Toffolo (my fellow Brits may know who that is) but the character is not based on her!
"Thank you ever so much, Smithers," Tori said to the butler of the Plunkett-Calthorpe family as he set down her trunk, ignoring the sniggers of the students around her. Her posh accent always attracted laughter; it looked as though her Seventh Year would be no different to prior years.
"Not at all, Miss Plunkett-Calthorpe," the elderly butler said with a slight bow.
"Oh Smithers," Tori said with a little laugh. "How many times must I remind you? You may call me Tori, like everyone else does."
This wasn't strictly true. She was known as something entirely different at Hogwarts, but she never let on to her parents or the staff.
"Victoria, darling." Smithers stepped back respectfully as Tori's ultra glamorous mother stepped forward to embrace her daughter. Cassandra Plunkett-Calthorpe, a socialite, was always dressed immaculately with no creases in her clothes and certainly no stains or marks. Tori was careful as she hugged her mother; only she knew how much her coat had cost (the two had concealed the price from her father).
"I'm going to miss you, Mummy." She said this quite quietly; no-one else needed to know that she still called her parents 'Mummy' and 'Daddy.'
"You must make good use of that writing box you inherited from Great-Aunt Josephine," Cassandra reminded her. Tori nodded solemnly.
"Of course, Mummy." There were fewer people around now, so she felt freer to be herself. "Daddy." She allowed herself to be hugged by her father, the only man in England wealthier than Lucius Malfoy. Fenston Plunkett-Calthorpe was a tall, charismatic businessman who chose to work and bring in even more money than they'd already inherited.
"Work hard and make us proud, Tori."
Tori nodded, tears welling up in her eyes.
He would be the last person in a while to use her preferred name of Tori.
~~~(O.O)~~~
"Oi, Toff! Is it true that you have caviar served at every meal?"
Tori resisted the urge to roll her eyes (Cassandra hated that habit) and attempted a smile. She tried not to mind. She was very used to the insults. However, she did mind. Rather a lot actually.
"Not quite, Warrington, but it is one of my favourites," she replied sweetly, turning her back on the Slytherin boys in her year as they roared with laughter. It was always best not to show any signs of despondency, even if the comments were beginning to get to her.
She opened the door to an empty compartment and heaved her luggage in. She owned so much that it was almost criminal. And it made her bag dreadfully heavy. Tori attempted to pick it up and put it above her head on the rack, but she wasn't strong enough.
"That's what happens when you spend a whole summer being waited on hand and foot."
Tori scowled, turning towards the door. There stood Fred Weasley, one eyebrow raised and smirking.
"Come to insult me as well, have you?" Tori said as haughtily as she could.
"Nope, just wanted to locate the source of the very unladylike grunting," Fred remarked casually. She could feel her cheeks reddening.
"Was I really grunting?" Tori asked in a small voice, and he roared with laughter like the Slytherins had.
"I was joking, Toff. Now do you want some help or not?"
"Yes please," Tori said; she was never going to manage it alone. She stepped back as the tall ginger boy entered the compartment, picked up her trunk and with difficulty pushed it onto the rack.
"Bloody hell, Toff, do you have a lifetime supply of caviar and expensive wine in there or something?"
"Enough with the caviar jokes!" Tori snapped, finally having had enough. The grin faded from his face and he held up his hands as if to surrender.
"Whoa, I'm sorry. I'll leave you to it now." He raised his eyebrows again.
"Thanks awfully for your help by the way." Tori could have sworn she saw a smirk in the windows reflection as he sauntered out.
"Not at all, Toff."
Tori sat down with a sigh. It would be the Christmas holidays before she heard the name 'Tori' from anyone's mouth again.
~~~(O.O)~~~
"Shelley, how wonderful to see you again!"
There were more giggles from some of the younger students in the Great Hall, but Tori didn't hear – she had just spotted one of her friends from her house. Shelley Daniels was a warm, studious Ravenclaw and never judged Tori for her aristocratic background. However, she did call her Toff like everyone else did.
"Thanks Toff, you too! Sit down, Emily and Polly will be here soon, they're just trying to find James." Shelly giggled; James was Emily's boyfriend.
"Oh. How delightful," Tori said, sitting down elegantly and tucking her skirt and robes neatly beneath her. "I do hope the food is good tonight, but it does tend to be on the first evening, doesn't it?"
Shelley was one of the only people who didn't snigger at Tori's accent and manner of speaking. "You're right, it does," she agreed, looking out for their other friends. They arrived soon enough, with James in tow.
"Hello Posh Toff," James said with a grin.
"James. It is a pleasure," Tori said, with an icy cold gaze. She particularly disliked James, who was constantly making fun of her and a few other students who he deemed 'funny.'
"Did you hear that, Em? She's more pleased to see me than you were." He nudged Emily and she forced a smile, then glanced at Tori. The two girls had always been 'frenemies', but there was definite dislike in her eyes now. Was it the way she had spoken to James?
Tori was saved from acting further; Dumbledore stood up to announce the feast and by the time she had carefully selected the best food, she had forgotten the other girl's cold look. The feast was followed by Dumbledore being interrupted by the new teacher. Tori frowned, disapproving of the new professor's manners.
After dinner, when Tori was walking out with Shelley and Polly, Fred Weasley ran to catch her up. He was followed by his twin, who was grinning.
"Hey, you know that new teacher who was waffling on just a little too long?" Fred asked the girls, throwing his arms around Shelley and Tori.
"Yes?" Tori said, eyeing him suspiciously. They'd barely ever spoken until today, and now he was intentionally seeking her out, which was somewhat suspicious.
"She reminds me of you a bit, Toff. You know, using all those big fancy words that us lower mortals can't understand?"
Beside him, George laughed and Fred, looking self-satisfied, walked away quickly with his twin.
Tori stared after him. So he was planning to be rude to her all this year?
'Bring it on, Fred,' thought Tori, clenching her fists.
~~~(O.O)~~~
It seemed that it wasn't only Fred who had it in for her this year. Tori was delighted to be back in the common room, with the blue and bronze silks and the midnight blue carpet. She flung herself onto a sofa and stretched out, pretending she was a model.
"Oh, it's so good to be back!" she exclaimed, as Shelley sat in the chair next to her and Polly, looking bemused, sat down with them too. Emily however, folded her arms. Behind her, James hovered slightly awkwardly.
"Oh Toff, dahling, I'm so surprised you said that. I'd have thought that compared to your mansion in London, Hogwarts is positively shabby." And Emily flounced off up to the dormitories, with James shrugging and following her.
"What have I done wrong?" Tori asked, sitting up and looking at her friends, bewildered.
"Nothing, as far as I know," Shelley said with a frown. She looked just as confused as Tori did. Polly however folded her arms.
"No offence or anything Toff, but I think it was the way you spoke to James earlier. Saying 'it's a pleasure' and all that – don't you think it comes across as a bit flirty?"
Tori was quite shocked now. She was used to Emily being a bit of a cow at times, especially if she didn't get her own way, and she was also used to James poking fun at her. But Polly had always stayed neutral, even though she was much closer to Emily than she was to Tori and Shelley.
"Um, excuse me," Tori said, trying to stay calm. "That's how we talk back at home, and I think you'll find that's how everyone talks in polite society, dahling." She added the last part as a bit of a joke, but Polly clearly did not see it that way. She got up, rolling her eyes.
"You know, I'm starting to wonder if everyone's right about you Toff. You are pretty stuck up. Maybe one day soon you'll come back down to Earth with a crash." She too went upstairs, leaving Shelley and Tori to think about what had just been said.
"Tori..." Shelley began.
"It's fine," Tori said, whilst blinking away tears. This wasn't how she imagined her first day to be at all. It was bad enough not being able to find her friends on the train in time; once Shelley had tracked her down, she was trapped in a compartment with some over-excited First Year girls. Now Fred, Emily and Polly really seemed to have it in for her this year.
"I'm sure they're just jealous," Shelley said. Tori knew this was true to an extent, but she'd been the 'posh toff' ever since she'd started; Emily had had six years to get over the fact that Tori's dad was a very hard worker and therefore they had a lot of money.
Tori just nodded at this and ran her fingers through her light blonde hair. She didn't really want to go up to the dorm, but unless she chose to sleep on the sofa she didn't have much of a choice.
"Come on," said Shelley, getting up. "Suzy and Charlotte are up there too, you won't even have to talk to the other two."
Tori sighed softly and followed her best friend up to the dorms.
In the spacious, blue-themed dormitory, the four other Ravenclaw girls were unpacking, laughing and having a good time. As soon as Shelley and Tori walked in, that stopped.
"Hello Suzy, Charlotte," Tori said, deciding to ignore the silence. "Had a good holiday?"
"Yes thank you," Charlotte said stiffly. Beside her, Suzy just nodded, not even looking up properly.
"Good," Tori said awkwardly. Judging by Charlotte and Suzy's behaviour, Emily had already been gossiping behind her back. 'Great,' Tori thought. 'Just what I need. Awkwardness with nearly all my roommates."
Tori went over to her trunk, which was next to the bed she had slept in since First Year, and stood with her back to everyone, so they couldn't see just how much stuff she had. She shifted through fur coats (faux fur, of course), furry Russian hats, designer handbags (for Hogsmeade)... Finally, she found her pyjamas.
"Of course she brought all her furs and finery with her," Emily muttered behind her.
"Spying, are we Emily?" Tori said serenely. "Jealousy's a very ugly trait." She looked at Emily steadily in the eye as she said this. Emily was the first to look away, with an angry expression on her face. A few minutes later, she beckoned to Polly and they went out to go into the shared bathroom.
"I don't know what Emily's been telling you two," Tori said, addressing Charlotte and Suzy, "but whatever it is, it's not true. If it's about James then surely you two must remember that I despise him?"
Suzy shrugged. From across the room, Shelley mouthed, 'Just leave it.'
Nodding at her friend, Tori sighed and accepted defeat. Hopefully the first day of lessons would go much more smoothly.
~~~(O.O)~~~
The next day at breakfast, Tori kept her head down and ignored everyone but Shelley. She helped herself to kippers, much to the amusement of Emily, Polly and James. Tori didn't rise to the bait though. She just chattered away to Shelley until Professor Flitwick came round to hand out the timetables.
"Thank you, Professor Flitwick," Tori said with a smile when she received her timetable. It was almost a full timetable, much like last year's was. It was Tori's dearest ambition to become a Curse-Breaker, as she was rather adventurous and loved the idea of going out to Egypt or somewhere else in the sun to break curses. Therefore for her NEWTs she was taking Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. While Tori was by no means the top student in Ravenclaw, she did have quite an impressive academic record that would help her achieve her ambitions.
She looked at her timetable for Monday and saw she had Charms first. When she looked at Shelley's, she saw that she had Divination, and felt disappointed. Now Tori had no-one to sit with in Charms, since Emily and Polly were not talking to her.
Getting up and saying goodbye to Shelley, Tori walked out of the huge doors of the Great Hall. For the first time at Hogwarts, she had no friends in her class. Still clutching her timetable, she ran up the stairs to get ahead of Emily, Polly and James.
"Running away from us?"
Fred Weasley, with his long legs, had managed to catch up with her. George popped up too on her other side. He grabbed the parchment with her timetable on and peered at it.
"Excellent, Charms. That's what Fred and I have now too."
"This is your lucky day, Toff," Fred said, throwing an arm around her. "There are many ladies that would love to be in your position right now," he added jokingly. Tori tried to edge away without being rude, but George was too close to her on the other side so she gave up.
Fred only let go of her once they reached the Charms classroom but that was not the end of the Tori-twins interaction. Everyone scrambled to get seats – everyone apart from Toff, who tried to stand confidently as she looked around for an empty seat. And she saw it – surprise, surprise, next to Fred.
"I saved it for you," Fred beamed. Tori tried to smile, but it was extremely forced now as she wedged herself in and sat as far away as possible from him. His timetable lay on the table and she scanned it quickly. Her heart sank as she saw that he took Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts too.
It was going to be one long year.