December 25, 2009

Victoire was ecstatic, she hadn't seen Teddy in four long, painful months. He was supposed to come with his grandmother for the annual Christmas lunch that was held by Grandmum Weasley. Presents were always opened with your immediate family, then everybody congregated for lunch. There were snowball fights, and more presents, and just general holiday cheer. The Longbottom and Scamander families often joined them.

Victoire was dressed in her Weasley sweater an hour before they were set to leave. Her parents laughed at her, she was bouncing off walls they said. They watched in amusement for several minutes before leaving her alone to get ready themselves. When her dad reemerged he had traded his customary t-shirt for a dress shirt.

"Can we go now?"

Her dad chuckled. "No. Your mum still has to get ready."

Victoire frowned. Her mother was taking her time, and an hour later Victorie was growing even more impatient.

When Victoire and her family finally did leave she couldn't contain her excitement. She stepped out of the fireplace and immediately asked about Teddy.

"Victoire!" her mother scolded. "Greet your Uncle Percy!"

Victoire smiled, slightly embarrassed about being reprimanded by her mother. "Sorry Uncle Percy, Happy Christmas." Then she began to search the crowd of relatives to find a particular Hogwarts first year.

"Teddy!" she called when she saw him. She reached to embrace him, but he twisted away, out of her grasp. He had a mirror in his hands, but it wasn't reflecting the face of the boy she had grown up with. It was reflecting the face of a different boy. "What's that?" she gestured to the glass in his hand.

"Harry gave it to me as an early Christmas present. Told me to give it to somebody I wanted to keep in contact with. I gave it to my new friend, Evan."

Victoire's face changed dramatically with these words. "I knew you were going to replace me." She turned away from her old friend before he could see her cry.

Teddy tried to call to the retreating girl's figure, but gave up after a few tries. He shrugged and turned back to the looking glass.

She spent the rest of that Christmas heartbroken.

The New Year came and went, and with it the letters Victoire and Teddy had exchanged since the beginning of September came to a stop. Victoire held a strong grudge, though being only nine she was able to push it to the back of her mind. She did have other cousins after all, Molly was only a year younger than herself. The two formed a quick friendship and came to become the new leaders of the Weasley clan. It had previously been Teddy, but with him gone the role was theirs.

When Teddy came home, she didn't bother trying to piece together their broken friendship. Victoire was a very stubborn girl after all. The younger children had tons of questions about Hogwarts. She would have also, but she'd chosen to instead, ignore him.

When Teddy left for his second year she didn't feel the dread she had before. Now she had Molly. Over the year that Victoire had really considered her a friend, a best friend, they had become almost as close as she had been with Teddy pre-Hogwarts. Of course, just a short two years later their friendship was under the same strain Victoire's old friendship had been, but this time Molly was the one dreading the year without her friend.

August 31, 2011

"I promise I'll write every week." She held her best friend away from her so she could see her face. "I could never replace you Molls. I'm not Teddy. If I don't write back you write me every day until I do. Okay?"

"Okay." A tearful Molly pulled Victorie back to her. "I'll miss you Vic."

"I'll miss you too Molly, but just think. In twelve months we'll be conquering Hogwarts together!"

"Promise Vic. Promise we will conquer Hogwarts. Together."

"Oh Molly, I triple swear on my own heart." She held her pinky out and Molly linked it in her own. "I have to go now. Maman and Daddy hate waiting for me. I'll see you at Christmas." At this point Victorie was crying also. She clung to Molly in one last hug.

"Tori." Her father placed a hand on her shoulder. "We have to go now." He said gently "Molly will see you over Christmas holidays." His daughter gave a tearful nod in response.

"Write me." She detached herself from her cousin's embrace.

After a round of goodbyes and well-wishes from the rest of her family, Victorie stepped back into the fireplace. "Shell Cottage!" and she was gone.

September 1, 2011

Platform 9 ¾ was swamped with families on the rainy fall day that Victoire was to depart to Hogwarts on.

"Harry! Ginny! Bonjour!" her mother kissed both the Potter's on the cheek." Victoire watched this exchange before turning to observe the platform.

There were a lot of people. Too many for Victoire's taste. She watched an older group of girls greet each other with hugs and squeals. She watched the closely. They must have been sixth years. A guy detached from a different group and joined the girls. He pulled one off to the side and began snogging her. Victorie looked away.

"Pretty great, isn't it?" she looked up to her dad's face. "My years at Hogwarts were some of the best of my life. Enjoy them while they last Tori." He then hugged her. "I'll miss my baby girl."

Her mother and siblings then gave their own goodbyes, as well as the five Potters.

Victoire turned to the train, preparing to attack the situation alone.

"Vic! Wait for me!" Teddy dragged his trunk over to her. "Ginny said to help you onto the train."

Victoire gave him an emotionless look. "You don't have to do that." She said coldly. He ignored her and went to grab her trunk. "Don't! I can do it myself Teddy." His hand recoiled in slight shock with the tone she had used with him. With a look from Ginny he grabbed it anyways.

"Jeeze Vic, what do you have in here?" his arm was shaking with the weight of her trunk.

"Fine, if you're too weak to take it, I will." She stole the trunk from his grasp and boarded the train. Teddy trailed behind her. "Go away Teddy! I can handle myself."

"Fine." He turned and went the opposite way, towards the compartment his friends had chosen. Victoire wandered the train until a girl invited her into a compartment.

"Are you a first year?" she asked. "My names Eve. I'm a third year, Ravenclaw. That's Chloe," She pointed to another girl. "and they're Gabrielle and Evelyn. They're both firsties also. You're welcome to join us. What's your name?"

"Victoire, but everybody calls me Vic." She gave a shy smile.

"Welcome to our humble train carriage Vic." They quickly tucked away her trunk and moved around to make space for the newcomer to sit comfortably.

As she chatted with the other four girls she began forming opinions. Chloe was a Ravenclaw as well, she had a big ego, but a kind heart. Eve was just an open armed person. She didn't have anything bad to say about anybody. She could have been in Hufflepuff if she hadn't had such a thirst for knowledge. Victoire knew this because Chloe had been teasing her friend about it. Evelyn and Gabrielle were the younger siblings of the two third years. While Victorie got along well with Evelyn, Gabrielle was even worse than her sister. Victoire found herself hoping she wouldn't be in the same house as Gabrielle.

Her mind drifted away from the conversation taking place, wondering what house she would be in. She knew everybody was expecting Gryffindor, but she wasn't sure she wanted that. Teddy was in Gryffindor. She wasn't nice enough to be a Hufflepuff. She would be disowned if she was in Slytherin. Ravenclaw would be okay, but she just didn't think she belonged in the house of the eagle. Victorie let out a sigh.

"Okay Vic?" Eve asked her.

"Hmmm. Oh! Sorry. Just lost in thought. I was thinking about where the Sorting Hat might put me."

Eve gave the eleven year old a warm smile. "Well, I suppose we'll find out soon."

The train began to slow as it came into the station.