title: come with me, and we'll create magic together

summary: Victoria hated Rachel Amber, and everything about her, so why is this girl saving her from the boggart in the wardrobe? (amberchase — hogwarts!au)

notes: fun fact, I've been planning a hogwarts!au for a while and it had different pairings but I got bored and scrapped it in favor for some amberchase. gotta say, I find myself more proud of this than the other one.

everyone's in their sixth year because i felt like writing that ig (except for a select few)

Victoria disliked Defense Against the Dark Arts.

For one, she shares it with the boisterous Gryffindors, also known as the most annoying house in the entire school. Second, Professor Green fucking sucked donkey balls and Victoria wondered how in the hell he received his fucking license in magic school teaching, if that were a thing. Third, and one in particular, they were learning about boggarts and the Riddikulus Charm this week and she did not want to reveal things about her to people she hated.

The boggart rattles the inside of a funky wardrobe. "Boggarts are beasts without a form, however get close to them and they will transform to your most secret and dearest fear. In order to defeat a boggart, you flick your wand and say Riddikulus while thinking of something silly. Say it with me."

"Riddikulus," the class choruses.

"This class is ridiculous," Victoria mutters.

Professor Green looks at Victoria, with a look that says that she may be first if she keeps talking out of pocket. "What was that, Miss Chase?"

"Nothing," Victoria replies.

"Hm, are you sure, because it didn't sound like nothing."

Victoria rolls her eyes and leans against her seat. "I was just saying riddikulus like the rest of the class," she lies.

"I don't think you were, and for that, you're first. Come on Miss Chase." Victoria growls under her breath and steps up without argument, facing Professor Green and the closed wardrobe. "You have a fear?"

"No I don't. Can I go back to my seat now?"

"Boo you whore." Victoria clenches the wand in her hand, feeling the urge to hex Chloe Price in her ugly ass face. "Just open the door teach! We'll find out soon enough."

Victoria turns around and is seconds away from muttering the clear incantation of the pimple jinx when she feels a warning hand on her shoulder. Before she turns back around, she catches another student smacking Chloe on the arm, then giving Chloe a particularly fiery stare. "Seriously can I go back to my seat?"

"No," Professor Green says. "Is your fear embarrassing? Is that it?"

"No but I'm not gonna entertain this fucking class with my goddamn fears."

"One, language. And two, I picked you so you're gonna go through with it." Victoria gulps when she sees the teacher grab the handle to the wardrobe. Dammit. She isn't ready for that. What if people tease her about it? Worse; what if Chloe teases her about it? That salty, blue haired bitch has been waiting for an opportunity to get back at Victoria for years after Victoria was mean to her on their first day meeting.

Fuck, but here it goes. The door opens and Victoria draws her wand up. There's a deafening silence as she sees a particularly younger man approach her with a wicked, twisted smirk. She recognizes this man — Mark Jefferson. Two years ago, Victoria had him for a class and one day she can barely remember anything but what happened is that she was under the Imperius Curse and Mark used her for the entire day inside an unused classroom. He's in Azkaban now but Victoria had dreams for weeks until she ordered her parents to make her forget using an obliviation spell. It didn't work.

...No. not that. Anything but that.

Her chest begins to constrict as she is instantly remembering the bits and pieces of a day she will never forget, even if she doesn't remember. She can feel the room getting smaller, Mark Jefferson towering over her and taking all of the oxygen in existence, making it so damn hard to breathe. Tears stream down her face as she looks at her former abuser in the face, and she instantly hates everything about her teacher. She would never reveal her fear, but she can surely reveal someone who has instilled fear into her for two years.

"Riddikulus!" A sudden strong voice brings her back to reality, then the class is laughing, and the boggart disappears inside the wardrobe. The person approaches the shaking Victoria. "Victoria? Are you ok?"

"I...no…"

"Look at me," the person says softly. Victoria doesn't budge, but she does hear the voice again. "Stand back! She needs room! Victoria, look at me. Come on."

Victoria turns her head, trying to relax when she sees the hazel eyes and feather earring, features belonging to Rachel Amber, a Gryffindor student in her grade. "...Rachel?"

"In through your nose, out through your mouth," Rachel orders. Victoria does what she's told, until the thumping in her heart slows down to a dull thumping. Rachel conjures a piece of a cloth, mutters an Aguamenti and places it on Victoria's forehead. "You gave us a hella great scare, Victoria."

Victoria doesn't reply because darkness takes over the next second.

The next minute Victoria wakes up, the sky is darkening and the lights inside the infirmary are on. Damn, did she really have that bad of a panic attack to sleep the entire day? She breathes out and lifts her torso up. "Hey hey hey, slowly." A hand guides her to sit up, and when she's settled, a tablet of chocolate appears right in front of her. "It'll make you feel better."

Victoria turns her head, and stares at Rachel. "Why the hell are you helping me?"

"You just had a panic attack so severe that you were unconscious for four hours. Why wouldn't I be helping you?"

"You hate me?"

Rachel scoffs. "No. You hate me. I don't know why, but you do." There's an awkward silence as Victoria takes the chocolate and eats it slowly. "I had to reveal to the entire class that I'm scared of vampire bats to save you from that panic attack. Honestly, no one was expecting you to be scared of Jefferson."

"He...I don't know what he did to me, Rachel. None of the tests the Healers did reveal anything, but he just took photos. Sickening photos. He used an Unforgivable which made him suspect but...that? Of course I'm scared of him. I'm scared that he might do something worse, without using the Imperius Curse."

"None of us knew that because we were mostly weirded out that he got arrested in the first place."

Victoria scoffs. "Yeah because my parents and I didn't want my information disclosed for when he stood before Wizengamot. It was to protect the Chase legacy but also to protect me in a way...I told that damn teacher I didn't want to do the Riddikulus exercise but he keeps pushing me and the only thing I can do is face a fear that I will never get over. With a little of classical conditioning, your fear of bats may subside but me? I hate men. I hate Jefferson. I can barely look at my dad the same way...despite being the only man I love."

"That's deep…"

"Yep." The only person who knows of these things are her parents. That's the only people that deserve to know, because everyone else would not understand Victoria and her hatred of men and trust issues. Her parents try to get her to talk to a specialized mediwizard but to no avail because most of them are men and Victoria couldn't trust people very easily. "So, I assume everyone's wondering what the hell is happening, or they're probably laughing at me…"

"No one's laughing at you. Mostly, people are confused and your friends were really concerned, especially Taylor."

Victoria should definitely talk to Taylor before she has a panic attack. "I'll talk to her once I'm out of this stupid hospital."

"Well, Poppy did say she'll release you once you wake up so…" Rachel gets up and heads to the office, leaving Victoria for a few minutes by herself. What the fuck was Rachel's deal? She never liked the Gryffindor in the first place. In retrospect, she never liked anyone other than her parents and her best friends Taylor and Courtney. Rachel is one of the school's most popular and elite who knows how to talk her way out of sticky situations and cares for other students no matter which house they're in. There's already talk about Rachel becoming head girl next year, despite being a sixth year and the year starting a few months ago.

Rachel was also, arguably, one of the school's out and proud students in the entire school, which intimidated Victoria at one point. She dated Chloe for over a year until they broke up during the summer over something that neither girl disclosed to anyone, but it probably had to do with Chloe being a huge bitch who not only sucks the positive energy from people like a Dementor, but loves to rain on other people's parades all the time with her daddy issues and questionable mental health. Victoria wondered why people like Rachel or even that quiet, mousy, fake quirky Hufflepuff Max Caulfield see in her to be her girlfriend, or her friend in Max's case. Sure, she hated bullies but everyone does. Doesn't make anyone special.

Rachel comes back with the nurse, who checks Victoria's vitals and clears her to be discharged, and just in time for dinner. Rachel walks her out of the infirmary, much to Victoria's slight annoyance. "You don't have to walk me out, you know."

"But, I want to," Rachel remarks, a slight smile creeping up on her lips. "You had a panic attack and fainted in class, Victoria. I'm just looking out for you because I want to, not because I think it's the right thing to do."

Victoria sighs. "You're not gonna quit, huh?"

"We'll go our separate ways when we go to dinner," Rachel promises.

"Ok, fine, but this happens once. You hear me?"

Victoria's empty threat falls on deaf ears, and she knows it. "Ok. Whatever you say, Chase." Then Rachel smiles again, making Victoria growl under her breath as she walks downstairs to the Great Hall.

"What was Rachel even doing there?" Courtney Wagner inquires, breaking apart the Yorkshire pudding in her plate with her fork and knife. "Does she even know that you hate her?"

"Hell if I know, Court," Victoria answers vaguely. She isn't even hungry now that she's looking at what's on the menu. Everything around her looks unappealing. Maybe it's the panic attack she had earlier that made her lose her appetite for the day, or maybe the House elves were particularly lazy for the entire Slytherin table as usual. "I woke up and she was just there."

"I think the real question that's on everyone's minds is the boggart in the damn wardrobe," Nathan says nonchalantly. "Out of all the fears in the world, an older man is your fear? One that used to teach here nonetheless?"

"Nathan, shut the fuck up," Taylor growls. "She doesn't have to explain shit to you."

"It was kinda funny when Rachel transformed her vampire bats to tone deaf canaries," Courtney giggles.

Victoria rubs her temples. She could feel a headache coming in soon and it's probably because she's skipping dinner. "Vic, you gotta eat something," Taylor whispers. She pushes a plate of food in front of her. "I know you and your ability to skip meals."

"I'm fine, Taylor," she lies swiftly. "I just...feel overstimulated."

"Mmm, love your ability to lie to me. Now eat."

Victoria growls. "Stop forcing me to eat this slop."

"I have some Every Flavor Beans if you want," Courtney offers, pulling out a sack of jellybeans she received in her last visit to Hogsmeade. "I know how much you love those."

"She needs to eat real food, Courtney," Taylor frowns.

Victoria grabs the sack of jellybeans and starts eating them. "This is real food, Christensen. It has baked bean flavor and chicken flavor."

"I hate baked beans," Courtney gags, then helps herself to a second helping of mashed potatoes. "How do people eat that? Why do they eat it? Who ever said that beans needed to be sweet and put over a slice of toast?"

Victoria starts laughing. "Fucking Brits and their obsession with combining carbohydrates."

"You fucking said it," Courtney agrees, drowning her mashed potatoes with gravy.

"Says the girl eating jellybeans and the other girl drowning her potatoes in gravy," Taylor points out, with an unsatisfied look on her face. "Seriously, Victoria, what's with you lately? Are you still shaken from your boggart?"

"Hardly," Victoria lies, dropping several jellybeans in her mouth. Huge mistake when she tastes soap mixed in with passionfruit and butterbeer, and she's regurgitating it on a piece of paper. "Fuck, that was nasty. Never again."

Taylor rolls her eyes and pushes a cup of pumpkin juice in front of her. Victoria eagerly takes it and drinks the entire thing. "This is what I mean when I say you gotta eat something other than Bertie Bott's Every Nasty Flavor Beans!"

"You take that back," Courtney hisses.

"I sure as hell won't take shit back, Wagner," Taylor argues back.

"Ok, ok, I'll eat something if that means I don't have to hear you two argue about some goddamn Honeydukes candy!" Victoria eyes the plate Taylor fixed for her and starts to eat. There's zero flavor and she feels like throwing it back up, but she swallows through the pain. "Happy?"

"Sure," Taylor smiles.

When dinner finishes, Victoria goes straight to the dungeons and takes off her uniform, then heads to the Slytherin Common Room. "Hey Taylor, did you get my homework since I basically slept the entire day in Poppy's infirmary?"

"Yeah, I did," Taylor answers, giving Victoria a slip of paper detailing all of her homework assignments for her NEWT level classes. "I couldn't get Astronomy since that's at night but…"

"It's tonight. I'll be able to go to class," Victoria replies.

"You share the class with Amber, right?"

Victoria vaguely remembers seeing Rachel in her astronomy class, mostly because she's trying to avoid the girl, but now that she's thinking about it… "Motherfuck! Just when I wanted to avoid the lesbian…"

Taylor's eyebrows furrow. "She did kind of save you, Vic."

Victoria shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "What, does that mean I have to befriend Rachel Amber now? Taylor, I don't trust anyone other than you, Courtney, and my doting parents. Sometimes I can't even trust my dad completely but I don't try to let it show. You think I would accept Rachel as my equal?"

"Maybe you should," Taylor shrugs.

"You don't like her."

"I never said that," Taylor blinks. "I just entertained your intense dislike of her because it made you happy, but if we're being honest, if I hate anyone in this school, it would be Nathan...and Chloe."

"See, that's why you're my bestie!" Victoria smiles. "We both hate Kari Price."

Taylor shakes her head in amusement. "I love you, Victoria. Now, can we start on homework before your astronomy class tonight?"

"Problems in Transfiguration, huh?"

Taylor pouts a little. "Hashtag Transfiguration probs."

Astronomy class is one class Victoria didn't entirely hate taking. She started taking it during her fourth year and already, she enjoys it. Most of the time they're learning about the stars and planets, but now that she's in NEWT level astronomy, they're learning things like constellations. The stars are especially bright on Wednesday nights, which is why it's set up once a week, in the middle of the week, with only a handful of students. It's the smallest class this semester.

Victoria finds herself alone in this class because her friends are asleep or studying, and the only other students she recognize other than Rachel is Max Caulfield, and that other student Kate Marsh, a Ravenclaw. She hasn't even paid much attention until now.

"We're going to be identifying constellations through our telescopes, so find yourself a partner—" Victoria suppresses a low growl, wishing that one of her friends did take the class after all. That way, she could avoid Rachel. But that doesn't seem to be the case because students are getting paired off, and Max paired herself with Kate, leaving Rachel to pair with Victoria.

"We meet again," Rachel jokes.

Victoria rolls her eyes. "You again? Are you stalking me?"

"No!" Rachel chuckles. "I don't know anyone else in this class other than you so…"

Victoria's eyes narrow in suspicion. "I doubt you never heard of either Maxine or Katelyn."

"No, I heard of them. They're kinda dating so separating them would be a crime."

"For fuck's sake, is everyone not straight in this school?" Victoria groans. Everyone seems to be entering themselves in same sex relationships, even Taylor who expressed her obvious, transparent crush on Dana Ward, the Hufflepuff who's dating a fellow Slytherin named Trevor.

"Afraid not, Victoria," Rachel giggles. "Hogwarts is a gays only school. Other schools don't compare."

"Whatthefuckever," Victoria sighs. "What are we identifying? Constellations?"

Rachel moves the telescope towards the sky. "Indeed we are. We should start on Leo."

"Funny, the Gryffindor wants to start on the same constellation as her mascot," she says sarcastically.

"I'm also a Leo. Roar," Rachel smirks.

"Figures," Victoria snorts.

Rachel widens her eyes. "Did the great almighty Victoria Chase just snort? Interesting."

"For fucks sake, do you Gryffindors think I'm a robot?"

"It was mostly Chloe who drilled it in my head—"

"Of course it was!"

Rachel couldn't stop laughing. Victoria is slowly realizing how weirdly refreshing it is to talk to Rachel, without the shackling thought of their one sided beef or what she revealed hours ago. She probably should've known that earlier but who cares. "Can you blame her, Vicky? You're kinda stuck up."

"I am not! I just...keep a small circle. Plus Kari Price looks like she can dampen your mood with just one look. People get bad vibes from me but I get bad vibes from her!"

Rachel frowns a little, then shrugs. "I surprisingly don't get bad vibes from you."

"Good to know, Amber." Victoria identifies the first constellation as Orion. Most of the constellations are part of the astrological zodiac, but Victoria thinks that's more on divination than it is for astronomy. Not everyone believes in astrology, not like Rachel or Victoria to an extent.

When class ends, Victoria has a long way to go since they're in the astronomy tower and the dungeons are on the last official floor of the castle. She could probably follow Max since the Hufflepuff Basement isn't too far from the dungeons, plus she's getting a small growling sensation in her stomach. She know she should've eaten more than a couple bites of Yorkshire pudding.

After tickling the pear, she steps inside and grabs a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before heading to the dungeons. The common room only has a few students, a couple first years. "Get to bed, now," she orders, making the Slytherin first years scatter to their rooms.

"Eating late again?" Taylor yawns, stretching her body to release a silent crack.

"The Yorkshire pudding was gross today," Victoria replies, handing Taylor a nicely wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "This right here, is a perfect staple."

"True," Taylor agrees, ripping into her sandwich. "How was class today?"

"Professor Sinistra made us pair up so I was paired up with Rachel since the only other two students in class are dating and no one informed to tell me…"

"I don't like Max. You know that," Taylor says.

"Maxine just looks boring but I bet she's more interesting than Kari Price," Victoria defends. She never really hated Max or anyone else other than Nathan, Chloe, Brooke, Juliet, Dana, and Rachel. "Anyway…uh, I hate to say this but she isn't that bad, in a weird, Gryffindor way."

Taylor chuckles. "So you like her."

"No, no I don't like her." Victoria says back. She isn't sure if she even hates Rachel anymore but she doesn't like her either.

"Seems like she likes you," Taylor shrugs.

"Don't be ridiculous, Christensen. She just feels sorry for me because Jeffershitstain came out of the boggart and I had a panic attack."

"The entire class was worried, Chase. Even Chloe was concerned. Her hair turned a different color." Taylor fixes her shirt a little and crumples the parchment paper up. "From what the school found out, he was arrested but no one really has the details on what he did. And you're scared of him so he must've done something to you."

"Taylor…"

"What did he do?" Taylor asks, through gritted teeth.

"He used me," Victoria answers.

Taylor raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean he used you?"

"It means he was using me for some torture child porn," Victoria replies. She almost hears the crack in her voice...almost. "I was under the Imperius Curse, and he basically just took disturbing photos of me the whole day. I can't remember shit but I can remember feeling weird right after, the covert trials that didn't reveal me as one of his victims, and the dreams I used to have so...finding out that he's my greatest fear put me in a state of shock and panic. I...I couldn't breathe and…"

"Vic," Taylor whispers softly.

"If I hadn't trusted him I wouldn't be this fucking messed up, enough to have a human as my greatest fear! Or even, men in general. This is why my relationship with my dad has declined, because I can't trust them and I know it hurts him because I'm his little girl but—" Victoria breaks down in sobs as Taylor pulls her in a comforting embrace. She lets Victoria ruin her dress robes for a few minutes until she stops.

Overwhelmed with stress, Victoria lulls herself to sleep on Taylor.