September 1, 2012
"Victoire! Your Uncle will be here to pick you up soon! Iz your trunk packed?" Fleur Weasley called to her daughter from the lower level of Shell Cottage.
Victoire was preparing to start her second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After a first year filled with teasing, and cruelty towards her, she looked to the new school year with hopes of a brighter outcome. This year she would be going to school with her best friend, Molly Weasley. The two girls had spent all summer preparing themselves. Their parents had arranged for Victorie to go to Platform 9 ¾ with her cousin's family. In just a few minutes her Uncle Percy would be there to pick her up.
"I think I'm set!" Victoire called back to her mother.
"Good!" there was a knock at the door. "Zey are here Victoire!"
Victoire took one last glance around her room to make sure she hadn't forgotten something, grabbed her trunk, and rushed down the stairs to greet her extended family members.
Her mother had already engaged herself in a conversation with her uncle, so Victoire turned to the young girl accompanying him.
"Molly!" she embraced the girl in a hug.
"Hello Vic."
"All set for your first year!"
Molly nodded "I think so. I can't believe I'm actually going!"
"I can't wait to introduce you to my friends! You'll love Evelyn! Zach and Connor…well they take some getting used to." She said, referring to the three Gryffindors she had been going on about all summer.
Her uncle interrupted the conversation they had been carrying on. "We should get going, there isn't much time to spare if we want to get there as the Platform opens." Victoire watched Molly roll her eyes at her father's obsessive tendency to organize things.
"Dominique! Louis! Your sister iz a-bout to leave!" at her mother's call two pairs of footsteps went pounding across the ceiling and down the stairs. Two heads of Weasley red hair appeared.
"Bye Tori." The older of the two children launched herself into her sister's arms. She held on for a few seconds until Louis began complaining that she was his sister too. Victoire detached her sister from her arms, turning towards the eight year old boy. She kissed the top of his head before releasing her grip.
"Bye guys. I'll see you for Christmas. Give Daddy my love when he gets back."
She gave her mother one last hug. "Your fazer wanted me to tell you sorry zat he couldn't be here."
"It's okay Maman. It wasn't his fault Egypt needed him."
"He wanted me to give you zis." Her mother went into the closet that held their winter coats, she pulled out a long package. Victoire tore the paper off the box, to find something she had been begging her parents for since she got home that summer.
"Oh! Maman! It's perfect!" she held in her hands the latest model of the Nimbus, the Nimbus 3000.2. She had been practicing on an old broom of her father's all summer so she would be ready to try out for the Quidditch team come fall. "Tell Daddy I love it. Thank you so much." She held her mother in one last hug.
"Goodbye Victoire. I will see you at Christmas." She was then ushered out the door to join Molly, and Uncle Percy.
The two girls kept up constant chatter on their way to Platform 9 ¾, where they were met by Molly's mum and sister. The poor girl looked so anxious.
"Molly." Victoire said gently. "If you want to say bye to your parents, I still have to find Evelyn, Connor, and Zach. You can find me on the train. You're welcome to sit with us." At the girl's nod Victoire began to push through the crowds of people trying to find her friends.
Victoire had just spotted Evelyn when two pairs of fingers began to tickle her sides causing her to let out a yelp.
"Guess who?" a voice questioned her.
"Hmmmm…Evelyn?" her voice oozed with sarcasm as her eyes sought to recapture the girl she had been looking at just moments ago.
"No! It's me silly!"
Victoire slapped his arm. "Hi Zach."
The boy stuck out his lower lip pretending to look hurt. "Two months and I don't even get a hug."
"That's for tickling me you jerk! Now let's go find the others. I saw Evelyn before you assaulted me!" Victoire began combing the crowd for the person who she had seen mere seconds earlier.
"So Vic, tell me. Where is the famed Molly?"
"Saying good bye to her parents. She'll meet us on the train."
"Oh, Okay." They fell into silence a few minutes. "There's Connor!"
"Zach! Vic!" the light brown haired boy waved them over.
"Hey Connor." Zach greeted his friend.
Victoire gave him a smile and a wave. "Have you seen Evelyn anywhere?"
"Yeah. She's already on the train. Told me to wait for you two slowpokes."
"Us two slowpokes? We've been searching for the both of you!" Victoire exclaimed in indignation.
Connor just gave a shrug. "Come on Vic. Let's just get on the train."
Victoire nodded, grabbing her trunk. The three began to wander the train looking for Evelyn. Victoire heard laughter coming from one of the compartments as an odd sensation came over her. She felt her mouth. Both of her front teeth were growing.
"Vic?" in her panic she wasn't sure if that was Zach or Connor. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but the two teeth blocked the motion. Her eyes began to water. She slid the compartment containing several boys open, and marched over to the turquoise haired metamorphmagus.
"Aww," he cooed "Is baby Tori going to cry?" he laughed a truly evil laugh.
Rather than allowing the tears to spill over, Victoire raised her palm. A resounding crack as her hand met flesh shut the entire compartment up. She heard whispers from behind her as she exited the compartment and rejoined her friends. Victoire's teeth were now nearly touching the floor. Zach and Connor exchanged looks.
"I'll go find Eve. You stay here with Vic." Connor left the two of them in search of their friend's sister.
It seemed to take forever for Connor to finally come back with the fourth year Ravenclaw. She took one look at Vic and immediately set out to try and help the poor girl.
"I'm not sure if I'm qualified to do this. Maybe get the head boy or girl?"
"Who took the positions this year?" Zach asked.
"I'm not sure, but they'll probably be in the Head's Carriage. I'll go find them." The fourteen year old set off to find more help.
While she was gone Victoire's friends began to grow angry and impatient.
"I can't believe he would do that! Teddy Lupin can be cruel, but that's crossing the line! I mean, look at Vic!"
Zach said nothing in response. He had a frightening look in his eyes. As they sat waiting his expression grew more and more aggressive until he finally couldn't hold it in anymore. He went back into the compartment Victoire had exited several minutes ago. Connor tried to grab his arm, holding him back, but Gryffindors had always been known to be stubborn and impulsive. Zach's fist swung up and collided with Teddy's face. Victoire heard him let out a scream of pain, but he did nothing in response to Zach's rash actions. It was at that moment Eve chose to reappear, the new head girl by her side.
Victoire was fortunate, the head girl had been studying all summer so she could be ahead for her healing test. She performed a charm and quickly set Victoire's teeth right. She took one look at Teddy and set the purple bruise forming where Zach's fist had hit him right, though she left the bright red mark Victoire's own hand had caused.
Teddy awkwardly looked down at the ground as the seventh year left. He had been told to go see his head of house after the feast. "Sorry Vic…." His face had guilty screaming all over it.
Victoire gave him a hard stare. "No you're not. If you were sorry you wouldn't have laughed. Let's go guys." She did her classic spin on her heel, long hair billowing out behind her. The two boys scampered after her and Teddy was left alone to head back into his compartment.
Evelyn looked disgusted as Victoire, Zach, and Connor recounted the story.
"He did what?" her tone was sharp. She moved to get up, but Victoire pulled her down.
"Don't, Vic and Zach already got him. There's a nasty hand print on his face now."
Evelyn nodded and topics switched. "Vic, where's Molly?"
Victoire frowned, the train had started moving about ten minutes ago. 'She said she would meet us on the train. I better go find her. She's probably wandering around looking for us." Victoire got up. She began searching the train for the second time today in search of one of her friends.
She looked inside the compartments in the hopes her cousin had given up on finding them and had chosen a different seat. What she found didn't please her.
"Molly? What are you doing?"
"Relax Vicky." A nasally voice answered. "Poor little Molly here couldn't find her dear bestie so we thought we would invite her in. It's not her fault she has an idiot for a cousin."
"Look who's talking Gabrielle. If I'm the idiot what does that make you? There's only so dumb a person can be. Come on Molly, I'll take you to my compartment." Molly followed her out, Gabrielle cackling behind them.
"Won't even let her chose her own friends Vicky?"
"I let her choose her friends, and two years ago she chose me, so why don't you shut your mouth?" The two then began firing insults back and forth at each other.
"Vic!" Molly interrupted quite suddenly. "Relax! Just ignore her." Victoire felt a hand grasp her arm and tug her away.
"Sorry Molly. I've had a really bad day." And then she broke down in the tears that Molly had rarely witnessed, that Victoire let very few people see. And Molly held her cousin as the poor girl sobbed her heart out.