Author's Note: All characters and settings belong to Ms. J.K. Rowling.

I

Victoire

Platform 9 ¾ bustled with the unmistakable feeling of new beginnings. The scarlet train pumped out smoke and blew its horn, warning Hogwarts students that the train was soon to depart. Students, old and new, packed their belongings onto the Hogwarts Express, and Victoire finished pushing her trunk in her usual train compartment. She jumped onto the platform, wiping her palms on the muggle sweater that she wore. The distinct scent of fresh ink and new robes suddenly hit her, and she closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the last time she would ever be here. Behind her, students yelled and shouted, so she jumped off the train to rejoin her family.

"Vicky!" Teddy Lupin appeared in the crowd, his distinctive azure hair sticking up all over the place. He was wearing a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt with the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes logo on the front. He planted a quick kiss on Victoire's lips, which only made her worry even more about their separation. His particularly dangerous career as an Auror came to mind, but she tried her hardest to discard those feelings. "Ready?"

"I suppose." The Potter family came, Harry and Ginny pushing their three kids forward. The whole family had worn muggle clothes for the occasion. James, Albus, and Lily were pulling their trunks and animals along, staring up at the smoke rising from the red train as they whispered excitedly to each other.

Victoire kissed Ginny on the cheek and gave Harry a hug. Despite the age difference of her father and her aunt, she has always been very close to the Potters. Ginny often came around Shell Cottage to have tea with Mum and Dad, and Victoire had attended dinner with Teddy and the Potters on several occasions. "Lily, are you ready for your first year?" Teddy ruffled her bright red hair as she looked up and grins.

"Yup." She replied in a falsely confident voice, looking up at her mother, who placed a calming hand on her shoulder. Victoire noticed that James had started wearing glasses like his father, and his hair had become even messier than Teddy's, which was a feat all on its own.

"How've you been, Victoire?" Ginny asked kindly. "I heard you made Head Girl!"

"Yes, that's me." She pulled the badge out of her pocket, not yet ready to put it on and acknowledge the responsibility. "I didn't think it would be me, honestly. I swear I've broken more school rules than I care to count." She sneaked a look at Teddy, who she knew was remembering a particularly fateful evening when the two of them had snuck out to meet up near Hagrid's hut, and he had caught the two of them wandering about the grounds at two in the morning.

"Well, at least you're not like Percy was." Ginny said, looking at Harry, who stifled a laugh. "He was positively irritating that summer, don't you remember, Harry?"

"Oh, I remember." The two of them shook with laughter at the thought of Uncle Percy, who, conveniently, wasn't here. Victoire grabbed Teddy's hand, squeezing it too hard.

"I've got to go. Come on, Albus!" James saw one of his friends, then pulled his brother along with him. They melted into the crowd of students, who milled around as they waited for the train to leave. Some were playing with items from the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes back-to-school collection, while parents were trying to avoid getting hit in the face by a particularly vicious Fanged Frisbee. Victoire checked the time, stunned that only ten minutes remain until the train leaves. Only ten more minutes with Teddy until Christmas Break. Stars, it's going to be rough.

"Teddy, I notice you haven't been 'round for tea lately!" Harry replied, clasping his shoulder. "You should come, I could help you get through Auror training. Invite your dearest grandmother too, I'm sure she'll want to visit."

"Cheers, Harry, I'll do that. Though, if we're discussing Auror business, it better be out of her earshot. She gets worried about my training, you know?" He replied, grinning from ear to ear.

"Ma chère." Fleur glided into the conversation, accompanied by Bill, Dominique, and Louis Weasley, kissing Ginny and Harry on their cheeks. "It eez so wonderful to be back here, and for Victoire's last year, too!"

"Thanks, Mum." Victoire muttered, as her mother gave Teddy a kiss on the cheek and a light hug.

"Teddy." Bill clapped him on the back, as Dominique and Louis disappeared in the crowd to put their trunks on the train. "How's Auror training?"

"It's going well." Teddy affirmed, nodding to the group. Eight minutes. "Very challenging, but my mother did pass along a little gift to help get me through the 'Concealment and Disguise' portion of the upcoming examination." Victoire watched the adults look at the ground, remembering Teddy's mother in a way she never could. Though, from all the stories Ginny had told her, she suddenly felt a strange sense of sorrow that she never got to meet the woman, who had, apparently, passed on her best characteristics to her only son. Victoire squeezed Teddy's hand, and he leaned over to whisper, "I've got something for you."

"What is it?" She whispered back, but the adults had finished their silent mourning session, which left Teddy with no way to respond discreetly.

Another horn loudly announced that the train was very nearly ready to depart, and parents hurried to put their kids on the train. "You'd better put your stuff in a carriage." Ginny said to her children. "Or you'll have to sit with some idiot."

"Ginny, you mustn't say such things. That's exactly how I met Harry." Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger joined the crowd, their two kids in tow. The four of them look hassled, as though they had been through a terrible ordeal. Rose and Hugo look exhausted, their pale cheeks flushed the color of their bright hair. Out of all the Weasleys, Rose and Hugo look the most alike. As usual, little Rosie already had her robes on, and she was carrying several books in her hand. She flashed Victoire a bright smile, as does Hugo, though he had a terrified look on his face.

"You're an idiot, Ronald." Ginny replied coolly, which gets Hermione, Harry, Fleur, and Bill to snort.

"Let's get the kids on the train, shall we?" Bill intervened, stopping a row between the two siblings. "Vic, if you would?" Victoire reluctantly let go of Teddy's hand and took Lily's trunk instead. She carried it onto the Hogwarts Express and put it in an empty compartment.

"What if nobody will sit with me?" The girl wondered as she peers into the rather old compartment. A strange stain covered one of the seats, and someone had left a worn photograph of two girls laughing as they had sat in the Three Broomsticks. Victoire snuck a look at Lily's scared and pale face. The Potters' only daughter had inherited the flaming hair that her mother and the original Lily Potters had both possessed. In the eleven years that Victoire had known the girl, she had always had a certain fascination for practical jokes and pranks, which had made Uncle George endlessly overjoyed. However, in all the eleven years that she had known Lily Luna Potter, she had never seen her looking as terrified as she does right now. "What if I'm all alone? No, what if I don't get sorted into Gryffindor?"

"Then, you don't get sorted into Gryffindor." Victoire explained, pushing the girl's trunk up to the rack. "Lily, you're just worrying. Teddy's not in Gryffindor, and we love him all the same. Your brother had the same fears last year. Don't worry about it."

"Easy for you to say. You're in Gryffindor." Lily replied in a low voice, which was so different that her usually bright tone. "Lily." Victoire says, facing the girl. "Nobody in this family is going to love you any less if you're not in Gryffindor. Hogwarts isn't about what house you're going to be in. It's about learning to appreciate different qualities in every individual and learning to respect them." Those sentences may have come right out of her Head Girl introduction letter, but it certainly placated the girl.

"Alright." The girl straightened out the her olive-colored jumper and followed her cousin off the train. She ruffled Lily's bright red hair as they both rejoined the group.

"Listen, Lily, if you ever need any help, any at all, come find me, alright?" Lily smiled up at her cousin, then rejoined her brothers, who had also put their trunks in their compartments. Ginny and Harry hugged each of their children. Victoire said au revoir to her own mother and father, then walked over to Teddy, who took both of her hands.

"Vic, promise me you'll write back." He said to her in a low voice, his eyes flashing to the clock on the wall.

Two minutes.

"You know me, Teddy. I'll write to you, even more than last year, I promise." Victoire hated this feeling. It was like water slipping through her fingers. Teddy was always going to be there, she knew that, but there was a little part of her that felt like Teddy slipped away each time she left. "I promise."

"Here." His voice cracked as he pulled out a messily wrapped gift in the shape of a small book. "You're a genius, Vic, so I thought you would like this. Read carefully."

One minute.

"Victoire!" A couple of her friends called to her from the train, but she did not acknowledge them at first.

"Go, Victoire. I'll see you soon!" He kissed her, then gently pushed her towards the train. Victoire jumped on, joining her friends, but turned back to her boyfriend. He waved at her from where the rest of her family was standing. He became smaller and smaller, until all she could see was a blue dot in the distance. Tears threatened to run down her face, but Victoire used sheer willpower to prevent them. The last thing anybody wanted to see was the Head Girl bawling her eyes out.

"Vic, come on!" Siobhan Mór called to her as she leaned out of her compartment into the corridor, where students were milling about. Her messy black hair swung past the shoulders of her pale pink t-shirt. Siobhan had always been fascinated by muggles, and she tended to take on muggle clothes, unless they were in school robes. Victoire saw Lily talking to a couple of other first years in her compartment, and the Head Girl's heart warmed a little. "You can do your Head Girl duties later."

"You're a bad influence, S." Victoire replieed, pulling her blonde hair into a ponytail. "I"ll come by in a bit." She walked into another corridor, where the other Head Boys and Head Girls were talking to each other. Markus Palomer, the Gryffindor Head Boy, walked towards her. He had these horn-rimmed glasses that he had worn since first year and jet black hair that always managed to stay in its place. His nose sloped down, making it easy for his glasses to slide down his sharp, angled face. Markus was tall and lean, and he was always moving and fidgeting. His badge was already fastened onto the front of his jumper.

"Markus, hello, how are you?" Victoire asked out of a need to be polite and an interest in keeping on good terms with the other Head of her house.

"I'm quite good, how was your summer?" Markus pushed his glasses up his nose and bounced on the balls of his trainers.

"Nice. I went to France. You?" She looked around at the corridor and found herself faced with hundreds of students wandering through the corridors.

"I stayed with my muggle aunt in America for a bit. She was nice, if not a bit ignorant about the Wizarding World." Markus replied, running his fingers against each other. "Did you know they call American muggles no-majs?"

"I did not." Victoire replied. She placed her hand in her pocket and fished for her badge. Might as well put it on. "That's intriguing."

"I did learn loads about North American wizardry. Did you know. . ." He trailed off into a series of muttered phrases that Victoire had trouble understanding. She saw one of the Slytherin heads wandering down the corridor, and she decided that she could probably sit down with her friends for a bit.

"You know, Markus, I'm just going to go down there, okay?" He nodded, obviously lost in thought, and Victoire headed down to her friends' carriage. They'd had the same one for several years now, the compartment that hid itself near the exit of the train. The inside was just like all the other compartments on the train, but somehow, it felt a lot like going home. The mysterious stain on the floor and the dents in the wall seemed like just another dusty corridor of Hogwarts by now.

"Hello!" Victoire stuck her head into the compartment, where Siobhan and Eli were waiting. The former was fiddling with a deck of Exploding Snap, while the latter was stacking up a set of brand new schoolbooks on the seat next to him.

"Vicky." Eli said, as a means of greeting as he opened up a book. His glasses were similar to Markus's, and his dark, curly hair flopped over his cocoa-colored skin. In all the time Victoire had known him, he was always calm and collected, his emotions always in check. He had never been one for loud gestures, but Siobhan very much was. She bursted out of her seat, apparently knocking over the wrong card in her deck, and a loud explosion ensued. "S?"

"Fine." She replied weakly, shielding herself from the blast. Her t-shirt and black hair were still smoking, but other than that, the three of them were unhurt. "Just fine." She cleaned up the deck, being very careful this time. A couple of Slytherins who passed by them snickered in response, and she made a rude gesture with her hand.

"S, please don't get into fights before we reach school grounds." Eli barely moved from his seat as he scolded her, and Victoire wondered if he would have made a better Head of House as she looked at him flip through one of their school books. He was still wearing his muggle clothes, a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. His muggle parents owned a bookshop in London, which Siobhan often said was to blame for his obsession with books ("Eli! How can you spend so much time in the library at school, then go home and live in a bookstore?). "Victoire, what's that?" He pointed to the poorly wrapped bundle in her hands.

"Teddy gave it to me."

"Mate, why can't we meet Teddy?" Siobhan whined as she gingerly puts the Exploding Snap cards in her bag. "You've been dating him for two years, and I've seen him once." Victoire flashed her a mysterious smile, and opened up the package. As per usual, Teddy hadn't paid much attention to detail, and the package basically unwrapped itself. She brushed aside the paper to reveal a small, brown book with gold embossed words covering the front and a letter closed with a wax seal. The book looked old but well-preserved, and it lookde right up Eli's alley.

"Magic in North America?" She read, running her fingers over the cover.

"No way." Eli leaned over and flipped up the front cover. Victoire grabbed the letter, ripping open the seal. Curved, messy handwriting covered the page, and little drawings cover the spaces that were not covered with words. Teddy's handwriting.

My darling Victoire,

So, I was at Harry's this past weekend because he wanted to show me some pictures of his parents and my parents, and I stumbled across this in his bookshelf. He didn't seem to want it, so I just grabbed it. It looks silly and like a schoolbook, I know, but I thought you would appreciate it, since you're always reading.

If I'm being honest, that isn't the only reason that I wanted you to have this. I have this wizarding penpal in America that I have (for some strange reason) and Rhys's always droning on about the history of magic there. I thought you might want to read up. I've heard loads about American wizarding sites.

With love,

Teddy

On one side of the letter, he had drawn two figures, Victoire and himself, pointing their wands at a giant squid that looked remarkably like the one in the lake at Hogwarts.

"Your boyfriend is amazing, Vic." Eli leaned over to look at the book, his face in awe. Victoire's thoughts echoed the same sentiments. She ran through the pages, letting her hands stop on a painting of what appeared to be three ships sailing through the ocean. The following page tracked a ship from Europe to America, and the latter was titled The New World. Other paintings included a family of a woman, a man, and two boys with several goblin-like creatures in the background and a castle with a great black gate around it. Victoire looked closer at the castle and realized that it was actually a wizarding school.

"'Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded in the seventeenth century, and it is located on the highest peak of Mount Greylock.' Eli, did you know about this?" The three of them leaned over the tiny book, their eyes following the minuscule words on the page.

"I knew there were wizarding schools all across the world. Obviously, there's Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, but there are others. You know, the ones in Japan and Uganda, but they're fairly small and unheard of to the European Wizarding World." Eli explained. "But, it shouldn't be surprising that there is an American school. After all, where else would they learn?"