A/N: Hope you enjoy! And I hope you like my new headmaster OC!
A flash of lightning sent a wave of light across the grounds, highlighting the treetops and sending electrifying light out onto the lake. Two students, a boy and girl of around the same young age, were crouched beside a window, watching the storm rage on. They clutched each other's hands tightly and sent reassuring glances to one another, as their blue and green ties and badges shone in the moonlight.
From somewhere around the corner, a pair of shoes clip-clopped along the polished floor. Another strike of lightning lit up the sky as a wave of silvery blonde hair swept around the corner, revealing an older girl with a startlingly beautiful face.
"Albus! Rose!" her harsh whispers shredded through the silence. "What are you doing here at this hour? Get to your common rooms, this instant!"
"Victoire?" Rose stood up to stand beside the older girl, her forehead wrinkled and her brows furrowed. The new comer had a blue and bronze tie and badge, much like Rose, but she had an extra badge. The words 'Ravenclaw Prefect' were etched onto the blue base in bronze, cursive lettering. "Oh, but the storm - it's dreadful, and you know that Albus has nobody in his house common room to go back to so-"
"Rose, listen," she knelt down a little, becoming face to face with the younger girl. She held her curly tangle of bright red hair and smiled. "This storm will pass, and you'll see Albus tomorrow. I'm sure he'll make plenty of friends in Slytherin if he just goes down there and introduces himself."
"Easy for you to say," the boy, his pitch black hair mirroring the night sky, stood to join them. "You make friends like the Weasley family makes babies."
Rose smirked and surpressed a giggle, but Victoire sent him a stern look. "That family you're talking about happens to be your own, and I find your words personally disrespectful and ignorant. Now get off to your common room and finish your homework."
For a moment, Albus hesitated. His green eyes shimmered in the ghostly light of a new bout of lightning, cutting off the words hanging in his mouth as an angry thunder roared. The three of them gasped and jumped, clutching each other. They sighed as the thunder ceased, giving them a pause to drift away and put more space between each other.
"That's it..." Victoire muttered, her eyes scanning the halls.
"What's it?" Rose inquired, frowning. The cogs began to spin and whirl in her mind, everything beginning to click and connect together. "Why are you wandering around? You never have prefect duties on a Friday, because Friday is your homework night. What are you up to?"
Still muttering and seeming to no longer be entirely focused on their encounter, Victoire sighed. "Looking after you."
Something suspicious lingered in the air as she turned to continue walking down the corridor, all thoughts of getting the two first years to bed flying out of her head. There was a new mission to accomplish, something she must've thought far more important than that of her cousin's rule breaking as she sped off, pace quicking with every step she took.
"Where d'you reckon she's going?" Albus thought aloud, raising one eyebrow and turning back to his cousin and best friend, Rose. She merely shrugged, an air of hiding something becoming apparent to Albus, and turned away again. "Bit fishy."
Victoire weaved around corners and hurried up flights of stairs, her destination clear in her head. At one point, she passed a group of four Gryffindors bothering a poster and struggled to surpress the overwhelming urge to stop and issue them a lecture.
She was there. She'd reached it. Straightening out her hair with her fingers, Victoire cleared her throat and made sure her words were articulate and precise. "Angora." Her bright blue eyes watched in amazement as stairs twisted and turned beside her, but she did not wait to marvel at the site before heading straight up to the door.
Once at the door, of course, she also didn't hesitate. The room she barged into was homely and warm, the desk piled with neatly stacked books and papers, a roll of parchment and an open ink well waiting in the center. From behind the desk hopped an extremely wooly white rabbit, its eyes clouded by fur and its feet not even visible.
What she was really looking for was the man, hunched over a book in the far corner of the room, rummaging through the bookshelves as he did so. Upon the arrival of Victoire, he calmly slid the book back into place and turned to face her, a puzzled expression plastered over his face.
"Ah. Victoire," his voice was kind but rough, a tone of curiosity lining it. He stepped out of the shadows and advanced towards her, now fully revealed under the light of several floating candles. He had a young face and neatly slicked back light brown hair, his dark blue eyes shimmering.
"I do hope you'll forgive my impolite entrance, Headmaster Lapin." Already, she was scolding herself for entering a room in such a way, practically panting and not even knocking. Impoliteness was something she never tolerated from anyone, never mind herself. "But it's important."
"I was sort of expecting that," he knelt down and picked up the enormously wooly and fluffy rabbit, ruffling its fur and muttering something unaudible into what was probably its ears. "You'd never enter my office in such a manner if it was of no importance, I know you well enough to know that."
"I like your rabbit," she managed feebly, attempting to recover her politeness. "English Angora, am I correct? She's beautiful."
"She is a boy, and his name is Agoran," he corrected defensively, before a wide grin spread across his face and he slid into the large, heavily cushioned chair behind his desk. He nodded toward the seat in front of him. "Take a seat, Victoire, and do explain."
A little too eagerly, perhaps, Victoire slipped into the seat and rested her hands on her lap, sitting so straight that an invisible ruler might be holding her up. "These storms are continuing to worsen," she began, and the headmaster leaned forward in his chair, hanging onto her every word. "And I know, headmaster, of your recent plan of action."
"Yes?" he raised a single eyebrow at her, stroking the rabbit in a continuous fashion.
"Of... keeping us here during the holidays," she continued. "I'm not a fool, professor, and I know that this can't just be any storm if you're willing to keep us all here during non term time. Making it a mandatory action... there's something else to it, I know it. So please, professor..."
Something new was glinting in Lapin's eyes, like a new found interest or respect. "Go on," he encouraged.
"We've got family. We all have. Younger than us. Siblings, cousins," she took a deep breath in, pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Friends. If you want to keep us safe for the sake of our youth, then surely you can't leave such young children out there. Besides, the castle is massive. There's plenty of room to invite at least the younger siblings of students here. Personally, I come from a very large family and... well, especially with Christmas drawing near, I couldn't go a day knowing that I am perfectly safe whilst they are not."
"As I know it, Miss Weasley," a smile of approval tugged at the professor's lips. "You come from a very large, very powerful family. Nobody will be able to get within miles of them, with your parents, aunts and uncles around-"
"Forgive me for interrupting, sir, but it's not just my family," Victoire retaliated, becoming somewhat frustrated. "And, as you said, my family is very powerful and strong. Whatever this new dark threat amongst the storm is, I know that my family will be the first to respond. So who will that leave to look after my cousins then? My elderly grandparents? Whilst they too are very strong, I do not believe they could defend an entire family by themselves."
Silence. Neither one said a word. Victoire allowed a grin of satisfaction to appear on her face at the look of consideration on her professor's. He was thinking about it - mulling it over, considering actually going along with it.
"Okay, Victoire," he said simply. "I appreciate your passionate approach to this, and your point is valid. I will be contacting your parents and the teachers, who will assist me in the contacting of other student's parents and guardians. You may leave and return to your common room now, Victoire, and I trust you will find news of our current standing on the Ravenclaw bulletin board come morning."
Nodding enthusiastically, Victoire fought the grin that was pushing its way through to her face and the constant, violent beating of her heart against her chest. "Thank you, professor." Thank you so much, she thought, attempting to steady and calm herself as she reached for the handle of the office door.
"You're an incredibly intelligent girl, Victoire," Lapin added, before she could leave. "I can see that you care for your peers a great deal. Hang on to that, Victoire, and remember how much you cared for them in this time of need. You'll need that memory."
Ultimately baffled by this response, Victoire merely nodded and promised to herself that she'd decipher his words later, in her own time. "Thank you," she finished, leaving the room and continuing her journey.