A/N: This chapter contains minor dark themes within the first scene and swearing.
"Lil have you seen my glasses?"
Victoire woke with a start as Marlene's voice spoke loudly in the room
"Marny, shh!" Through blurry lids Victoire saw Lily rush to the dormitory door where Marlene was standing.
"Oh, crap!" Marlene's eyes went wide "Sorry Victoire, I always forget not everyone gets up at the crack of dawn like I do"
"That's okay" rubbing the sleep from her eyes Victoire yawned and adjusted her pyjamas before getting out of bed "I really need to get a good amount of time to get ready if I'm going to be awake for classes today" she laughed
"Still, I'll be more aware in future" Marlene smiled "so, anyone seen my glasses?"
"You only got the prescription a few days ago Marny, how'd you lose them so fast" Lily joked
Marlene wiped her arm over her forehead fixing her hair "I don't know" she groaned. It was then that Victoire noticed her attire
"Do you go running in the mornings?"
Marlene glanced down at her clothes, "oh yes! I like to do a couple laps around the school each morning to wake me up, and to keep fit for quidditch."
"Oh, you play quidditch?"
"I do play the beautiful game, I'm a beater" she jokingly put her arms up in a weight lifters pose as she walked over to her bed and began to pull out her school blouse and skirt. As she started to get changed, Victoire turned to Lily
"Do you know where I would be able to find out what my timetable is?"
Lily gasped "Yes! Sorry, with all the excitement last night I totally forgot to give it to you, Dumbledore sent it over yesterday" She walked over to the bedside draw that was next to Victoire's bed and pulled out a piece of paper
"Here you go, sorry about that." Lily grabbed a hair tie and put her scarlet hair up into a ponytail "I think we are in the same classes, all except for charms which you have 5th period today, so I can take you round to each of those"
"Thank you! That would be great" Even though she wasn't new to the school, the students were new to her, so it would be nice to have a friend
"I can take you to charms" Marlene said whilst putting on her jumper "my class is quite nearby, so it will be no bother"
"Thanks Marlene" Victoire smiled, however she dropped it when she spotted Marlene looking behind her
"Morning Mary" she said whilst going to sit on her friend's bed
"Morning Marny" Mary offered a small smile before tucking her hair behind her ear and looking down
"Everything okay?" Lily asked "You looked a bit upset last night"
"Oh yeah… that" Mary slipped her feet out of the bed and walked to her chest of clothes, pulling out her uniform and a cardigan "That was nothing, I was just a bit tired"
Marlene and Lily shared a worried glance
"Mary, I know you said you were fine last night, but you know you can tell us anything right?" she reached forward rubbing a thumb over her friends arm
"Yeah… I know I…" Mary glanced around and her eyes landed on Victorie "oh hello" she grimaced, Victorie guessed it was her attempt at a smile "who are you?"
Victoire stepped forward offering a small smile "Hi, I'm Victorie. My friend Teddy and I arrived here from Beauxbatons yesterday." She blurted everything out, a bit nervously "My mum is from France and my dad is from England, and Teddy was living with his grandparents until he decided he wanted to come to France to experience a new culture and try out his French, and that's when he met me" Victoire blushed "anyway, long story short he lived with my family and when my parents wanted to come back and live in England again, Teddy was more than happy. To see his grandparents, that is, not to escape my family, we aren't weird or anything. Anyway, here I am, at Hogwarts." She glanced up looking at Mary's slightly astonished face "sorry, that came out really fast" oh crap she thought was that the story we told James? I really hope it was. Making sure her expression showed none of her worry, Victoire sat down on the edge of her bed.
"Well, it's nice to meet you Victoire" Mary said softly before sitting on her bed too "I guess we had better go down to breakfast" she wiped her hands on her skirt and bit her lip
"Mary" Lily pushed "tell us what's wrong"
Mary tucked the hair that had fallen in front of her face behind her ear again "I told you" she said slowly and carefully, though her eyes looked suspiciously sparkly "n-nothing's wrong. I'm f-fine" On the last word her voice cracked and she started sobbing.
"Mary!" Marlene rushed to her friend's side and pulled her into a hug
"That's it" Lily knelt at the girls feet "you're going to tell us what's happened"
"Has someone done something?" Victoire asked softly, not sure if it was her place to get involved or offer advice
Mary nodded "yesterday afternoon…" Mary wiped the tears from her cheeks and sniffed
Victoire searched the room for some tissues, and rushed to give her some
"I was in the second floor corridor, about to go to the staircase and back up to our common room after Transfiguration" she stopped for a second but after some encouragement, continued "and Mulciber stepped out from behind one of the statues"
"That bastard" Marlene spit out "what the hell has he done?"
Lily cast a calming hand on her friend before telling Mary to continue
Mary fiddles with the ends of her cardigan, not looking up "he came up to me and backed me up into the wall" she started breathing faster and silent tears poured down her cheeks "I tried to escape, but he took out his wand and pointed it against my neck." She stood up suddenly and started pacing around the room "I tried to scream but he cast a silencing charm"
"Mary" Marlene gasped
"He cast a spell, I don't remember the incantation, but I was thrown upside-down. My skirt fell towards my chest and… he roamed his filthy eyes over me. I could do nothing." Mary's fists formed tight balls "I was beginning to see red, and all the blood had gone to my head before he heard footsteps and released the curse… My legs were so shaky I couldn't do anything as he forced me behind a statue until the person had walked past, and then said 'I'll see you soon, Pet'" She spat out "I felt so helpless and violated"
"He's evil" Lily said and walked over to her friend before pulling her into a hug, tears in her eyes
"And he's not going to get away with this" Marlene growled, fire in her eyes
"You're right" Victoire said "but what exactly are we going to do?"
Marlene stood abruptly "first off, we are going to show him that he has no power" She grabbed Mary's shoulders lightly, in a softer voice she added "we need to show him that you are not affected by his stunt". "Do you think you can continue to be the strong confident woman I know you are?"
Mary's face hardened, and she nodded
"Good. Then we can make him wish he never crossed our, or anyone else's paths"
.
Teddy started to get anxious when Victoire and the girls still hadn't come down to the great hall, and the boys were almost finished breakfast.
"Hey" Sirius nudged James, knocking the sausage off his fork before it made its way to James' mouth.
James shoved Sirius' arm, "you know, I always thought you liked breakfast. Yet here you deprive me off this delicious meat cooked by the lovely house elves who are certain to make it just the right way, so we, the handsome charmers of the Gryffindor table can make sure we win the Quidditch cup. Maybe you don't want Gryffindor to win" James said with mock outrage
"You are full of a load of rubbish" Remus choked on his toast
"Mate, please. All I was going to ask you was did you manage to catch up with Evans last night?"
"Oh" a dreamy look fell over James face "nah, I didn't. She managed to dodge me and made it to the girls' staircase before I could catch her"
Peter excitedly said "that won't be a problem much longer though will it"
Teddy suddenly straightened "what?"
"Quite right Peter old pal, it shan't." James turned to Teddy "Sirius and I managed to create a spell to make our clothes confuse the system. All we need is a few more tweaks and we will be able to go up the girls' staircase"
"But you won't do anything to bother them too much, and if they want to you go then you will, won't you" Remus admonished
"No Moony, we won't bother them, too much" he winked at Sirius "I call it evening the playing field a bit. After all, they can walk up to our dormitory without a problem. But yes, of course if we are requested to leave and we can't persuade them otherwise then we will gracefully leave"
"Hey, speaking of the girls" Teddy spoke "is it normal for them to be this late for breakfast?"
Remus looked around them "actually, you're right. They are usually here by now"
"Ah, not to worry" James responded "here they come"
Teddy stood up as Victoire walked towards him, her face lighting up as they made eye contact.
"Morning" she said softly as they sat down and he passed her some orange juice
"Why so late?" Sirius asked grinning
"What's it to you black?" Marlene responded a smirk emerging on her face "trying to convert one of us to your fan group?"
"Oh, I dunno. Maybe I just missed your scowling face" Sirius retorted "dammit man" he hit James on the shoulder "she sees right through me"
James barked out a laugh then glanced across the table at Lily, "Evans", he smirked
"Potter" she nodded, before continuing to butter her toast
Remus looked up at Mary who was staring into a goblet of pumpkin juice "good morning Mary" he whispered smiling
Mary came out of her daze to find the source of the voice "oh" she smiled "good morning Remus"
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just a crazy morning"
"It's only just started" his brows furrowed in a frown
"I'm okay, really. Don't worry"
"I'm your friend; of course I'm going to worry"
"Well, you shouldn't. The girls have already talked to me, and I'm better now"
"Well" Remus leaned forward "If you ever need someone else to talk to, I'm always here"
"Thanks Remy" she reached over and placed her hand over his for a second
"In the meantime…" Remus furrowed around in his school bag before exclaiming "aha. Found it" He placed a small bar of chocolate in front of her "your favourite"
Her eyes stared at it with hunger
"I want you to eat it before lunch time" he smiled
"That won't be a problem" she laughed
"I'm guessing you've met Victoire then" Remus stated
"Yes, I have" Mary whispered "she seems very nice"
They both glanced over to the pair sitting next to Marlene, laughing and talking together
"That's Teddy right?"
"Yeah"
"And he's nice?"
"Yeah, he's friendly. A bit quiet with us, but that's to be expected." He scratched his neck "there's something about him though, something at the back of my mind that I can't quite put my finger on"
Mary frowned "something bad?"
"No, not bad" he shook his head "just a familiarity of some sorts. I don't know, I'm sure it's nothing"
"Okay, well, be sure to-," she cut off, her body freezing
"Mary?" Remus questioned
"Mary, do you want a piece of toast?" Marlene leaned of Sirius who was frowning over at the Slytherin table who had just erupted in laughter. She then added in a whisper "remember what we talked about this morning"
Mary nodded whilst straightening her posture "I would love a piece of toast thank you Marlene" she said loudly.
As breakfast progressed and Sirius kept a wary eye on the laughter of the Slytherins, the girls left to go to class.
As Victoire and Lily walked down the corridor with Teddy, they were interrupted by the sound of running feet. They turned to see James, glasses askew stop in front of them. Victorie gently tugged Teddy to keep walking to the end of the corridor giving the pair a bit of space.
"Hey" James breathed
"Hey" Lily replied "you okay?"
"Yeah, um…" James ran a hand through his hair "I just... noticed that you girls were a bit different this morning and I was wondering if everything was okay?"
"Yeah, we're alright." Lily nodded
"Good!" James raised his eyebrows and his neck became a slight shade redder "well… I guess that was all"
"Okay, well, I guess I better get back to class then" Lily gestured behind her
"Yes! Yes, well-," James smirked and lowered his voice "we wouldn't want Hogwart's head girl to be late then would we"
Lily shook her head and scowled "James, you're head boy, that doesn't even make sense"
"Maybe when I'm around you I just lose my sense" he stuffed his hands in his robe pockets
"James" Lily groaned
"Yes my rose-petal?"
"Oh!" Lily fumed "you make me so infuriated sometimes!"
"Good. Then my work is done for the day" he winked
Lily huffed and walked briskly in the other direction to meet Victoire and Teddy
"Everything alright?" Victoire asked
"That James Potter" Lily whispered vehemently "is going to drive me mad"
"What's he done?" Teddy asked
Lily groaned "oh, I'm so confused. One minute I actually think he cares and the next he taunts me and only pretends to care"
"I don't think it's a pretence that he cares" Teddy said "I have noticed, in the short time I have been here that is, that James always has one eye on you, when you're in the room."
"Well then why does he try to annoy me so much?"
"It's a guy thing. He knows he'll get a reaction"
"That's stupid"
"That's men" Victoire said
"Hey!" Teddy protested
Victoire thought back to Chloe and the kiss at the train station, "well it's true"
"You wound me Torie"
"Yeah yeah" she replied, wrapping her arm around his back as they followed a very much in thought Lily, to Transfiguration.
.
"Victoire!"
A shout rose from the throng of students in the corridor and Victoire spied Marlene leaning against a wall, beckoning her with a hand.
"Hey Marlene"
"Hey! You ready to go to charms?"
"You betcha!" she laughed. After managing to squeeze through all the students dashing to their classes Victoire said goodbye to Marlene and entered the classroom. She handed the note Professor Dumbledore had written and enclosed on the timetable, to the teacher, Professor Flitwick, then walked to an empty desk he pointed to. He looked relatively younger, Victoire noticed as she took her seat, compared to the current time back home.
"Today class, we shall be revising our non-verbal charms and defensive spells. In your desk group partners find a space in the classroom to practice non-verbally casting and shielding spells."
Victoire looked to her left, noticing someone else was now sitting at her table. She froze when she recognised the black haired butch man beside her. Mulciber.
He stood up, walked to a corner of the room and raised an eyebrow at her. Taking a deep breath she rose, and slowly made her way over to him. Pulling her wand out of her pocket she stepped into the fighting stance she'd learnt a few years ago from her parents.
"Well, aren't you going to bow, newbie?" his voice threatened
"I don't see why I should" there was a pause "I- I mean, you haven't even told me your name" she laughed, remembering she wasn't supposed to know anything about his character
The man smirked "I go by Mulciber"
"Victoire" she quietly said in return
He laughed under his breath "that's a bit ironic"
"Excuse me?"
"Well, you're not going to have much of that today" he narrowed his eyes
"Yeah, well, we'll see about that" Victoire rose her wand and cast a stunning charm, which he easily deflected
"Come on, that all you've got?"
"We aren't supposed to practice violent spells, just shielding and non-verbal"
"That's hardly fun is it?" He cast a spell and suddenly the area around them shimmered
"What are you doing?"
"Oh, it's nothing" his mouth twitched "let's just say, now nobody can see us breaking the rules"
"I don't want to break the rules" Victoire quickly said, and regretted. There's nothing like defiance to make someone want to do something even more. Idiot.
Mulciber flourished his wand and Victoire's stance was broken as an invisible rope tied her ankles together and he stepped forward
Victoire quickly broke the spell, remembering her dad's lessons in curse breaking after the war
"Well, well. What do we have here?" Mulciber looked at her appreciatively
"I'm not sure I know what you mean"
"Well" Mulciber stepped forward "I know for a fact that that particular spell can only be broken by an equally powerful counter-curse, which only one other person apart from me knows. That is, as I was the one who created this spell. Except it appears you, know of it also." He reached forward and grabbed her wand wrist "now what I would like to know, is how you came by this particular curse"
"I have no clue what curse you used" Victoire shook her wrist, unsuccessfully trying to release her arm, "I simply used a breaking spell, now let me go"
"Breaking spells, do. Not. Work." He tugged her arm bringing her closer to him, so close she could feel his breath on her cheek.
"It was an advanced one." Victoire tried to ignore him towering above her, and think of a story.
"A classmate in France, once played a practical joke on me and my friend, and we were tied to a pillar in the dungeons for hours" Victoire took a breath, and had no problem in trying to make it come out shaky "once a teacher finally found us, they did a variety of spells to try and break the spell. Only one worked, and I made them teach it to me. I swore I would never be in a situation like that ever again" she looked up into his eyes, with a look she hoped looked innocent. His soulless eyes felt like they could see right through her as he pulled her closer for a second and then with a laugh, released her.
"Well, aren't you lucky you knew a spell to help you"
"It would appear so"
He cast another curse, so fast she barely had any time to deflect it. Quickly she returned another not so nice spell until they were in a full out silent duel.
The only sounds passing between the two was wand waving and increasing takes of breath, until Mulciber cast a particularly nasty spell that would have put a massive gash in Victoire's arm had she not reflected it onto him.
"You bitch" he spat out as a red line slowly seeped into his white school shirt.
Victoire wiped hair out of her eyes "you cast the spell" then muttered as she straightened her clothes "you deserve a whole lot worse"
"What did you say?" Mulciber strode forward, forcing her against the wall, trapped her legs with his and struck his wand under her chin
Victoire laughed despite her anxiousness, "yeah, you like doing this to girls don't you Mulciber". She cast a spell that propelled him back wards two feet. "Well let me let you in on a little secret" she whispered loudly "you're not going to get away with it ever again".
"You don't know anything little girl"
"Well, in the short time I've been here I know you break the rules, intimidate, and try to molest girls." She took a breath "and if you continue to do so, you're going to get in a whole lot of trouble"
"Why would I? Nobody will ever catch me" he walked back to stand against her again
"Well" Victoire shook her head to the left and flourished her wand "your about to reveal yourself, I just broke your little sight barrier charm"
Mulciber stopped in his tracks as Professor Flitwick ordered everyone back to their desks
Victoire hurried back to her seat and pulled it as far to the edge of the table as possible as the Professor recited the homework for that evening. When they were dismissed she rushed out of the door and along a less occupied corridor to walk back to the common room in order to escape without anyone seeing her distress.
.
As afternoon turned into evening and Gryffindor tower quietened, the nine gathered in front of the fireplace, chatting calmly, enjoying the rare occurrence of an almost vacant common room. That was until a raven squawked at the window impatiently.
James jumped up to open the window and took the letter before the bird flew away. James frowned at its reluctance to stay. "Victoire, this is addressed to you"
Victoire's eyebrows rose in confusion and she looked to Teddy, who shrugged his shoulders. She took the piece of paper from James' outstretched hand and read
If I were you, I wouldn't walk around empty corridors too often from now on.
Victoire paled and Teddy snatched the paper away from her
"Torie, what the hell is this?"
"What's it say?" Sirius asked
Teddy read the sentence aloud.
"Who on earth would send you something like that?" Lily asked
"Mulciber" Victoire replied quietly
"WHAT!" Teddy shouted, before realising what an overreaction that would seem for him to have, to the current group in front of him, and leant back into the settee. Luckily the rest of the group had a similar reaction, due to Mulciber's nasty tendencies at school and Teddy remained seemingly unnoticed, though Sirius did give him a second glance.
"How does Mulciber even know you?" Mary asked
"I was partnered with him in charms today… he may have tried something, and I might have let slip I knew how he treated girls…" Victoire looked down before looking back to Mary "I didn't say anything though, don't worry" Mary nodded, looking a little calmer, however glanced at the rest of the boys when she remembered they didn't know anything about Mary. Remus looked like he was about to shoot daggers
"What's this?" he asked quietly
"Nothing Remy" Mary whispered "nothing happened"
"Well obviously something happened, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation" Remus stood up
"Look, he tried to corner me, but someone interrupted him" Marlene flicked her eyes to Mary at her huge omission.
"Right, well, you aren't going to walk alone in the corridors any more then"
"Remus" Mary sighed with exhaustion
"I don't want to hear anything against it Mary. That creep is not going to go anywhere near you"
"I think that's a good idea, I don't think the rest of you girls should be alone either" James said
"Woah! Hang on a minute" Marlene held her hand up "we are not helpless. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself thanks"
"Same here" Lily agreed
Sirius growled "I don't think you understand how menacing a character Mulciber is" his fists hitting the couch pillow, and he shot Marlene a glare
"We know a lot more than you give us credit for" Marlene replied angrily, "we do not need to be body guarded. Come on you lot, I think it's time we left the boys down here. The testosterone level is getting a bit suffocating.
Lily stood up with Marlene and glanced at Mary as if to ask if she was coming. Mary looked at Remus' serious face and quickly stood up also.
"I think that's a good idea. A bit of sleep and we'll all feel a lot better"
Victoire stood up too, "I think you boys should probably get some rest too, it's quite late, and we're all tired" She squeezed Teddy's arm lightly to say goodnight, and rushed to catch up to the other girls who were already halfway up the staircase.
Hopefully a bit of sleep would do them all some good, she thought as Marlene's grumbling reached her ears from the top of the staircase. Or else we're all going to be involved in a huge discussion tomorrow.
.
Really sorry I haven't updated in about 4 months. I feel absolutely awful, however unexpected occurrences got in the way. But now I am back, my exams are finished and I have 8 weeks of writing bliss. Thank you to JenUpsideDown, nifflerstorm17008, and karpowics for your lovely comments, and to everyone who has favourited or followed; I really hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
