Chapter Seven: Strange Things Are Happening To Me…

"I flung Blaise across the corridor?!"

Victoria was sitting in Dumbledore's office, listening as Harry retold what had happened.

He nodded.

"I don't know what happened before that, but when he tried to stand up, he just suddenly lifted into the air and flew sideways into a statue."

Dumbledore frowned slightly.

"We may need some more information before we can declare what took place this morning. Perhaps another witness."

He clapped his hands and a shrunken wizard in green robes appeared in the portrait two frames to the right of where Harry was sitting.

"Alabastor, go fetch the Slytherin boy with blond hair that follows the young redhead Blaise Zabini around."

The portrait nodded, and disappeared, leaving only a rich purple curtain with golden tassels in the frame.

Dumbledore smiled kindly at Victoria, and offered her a lemon drop. She shook her head as her stomach was all knotted up, for she knew she was just waiting to be expelled. 'Anyone who gives a fellow student a concussion can't be trusted to continue study in the school, in case they beat someone else up.'

She was startled to feel a hand on hers, and looked up to see Harry smiling encouragingly.

'Well, at least it isn't Harry being expelled.'

Blinking away the hot itchy feeling of building tears, she stared at the floor, trying not to think of all the magic he would enjoy while she was trapped in the Dursleys house, doomed to scrub floors and prune the rosebushes until she was dragged off to Malfoy Manor, where she'd probably wander the cold corridors for eternity, cut off from all warmth and happiness.

A rogue tear broke free of her eyelids and ran down her cheek.

Hurriedly she wiped it off before her brother could see, in case he did something sickly sentimental, like hug her.

A flashback of Draco holding her kicked its way to the front of her mind, but she crushed it instantly.

'I don't want ANYBODY with their arms around me, least of all Draco Mal-fait."

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the office door opening. Looking up, she saw the blond Slytherin who had blocked her that morning walk in.

Dumbledore looked up and smiled.

"Ah, Thomas, come in, have a seat. Now, you were present when Mr Zabini was injured, were you not?"

Thomas looked uncomfortable, but he nodded.

"Good!" Dumblodore beamed. "Please, have a seat, and be so kind as to tell us your side of the story."

Thomas quickly sat down on a chair furthest from Victoria, who was staring steadily at him.

He looked at everything but her while he told his side of the story, which held little insight, and was exceptionally biased. Obviously he held Blaise in the highest respects, which really didn't help Victoria at all.

"…Blaise didn't have a chance, Prof., she must have used the Dark Arts on him, he's never been beaten by anything else! Blaise is lying in hospital while she sits here, not a scratch on her, but you're gunna accuse him of something anyway, I bet! He never touched her, it was all her fault, he didn't deserve to be hit like that–"

"Did you actually see her hit him?" Dumbledore interrupted the ranting boy gently.

Thomas looked confused for a moment, before replying, "No, but that must have been it, right, I mean, she didn't draw her wand, so she musta whacked him. Strewth, she's a quick mover though, I'll give her that! Knocked him halfway across the corridor! "

Dumbledore took off his half-moon glasses, inspecting them, "But you didn't actually see her hit him, did you?"

Thomas looked crestfallen. "Well, no, but-"

"Thank-you Thomas, you have been most helpful."

Harry gave him a look of disbelief.

Dumbledore ignored it, and continued, "It would be best if you kept your opinions to yourself, though, and didn't tell anyone else about this… incident."

He replaced the spectacles in the bridge of his wonky nose, and smiled at the boy.

"You may return to class now."

Thomas nodded and made to rise from his chair, only to have it swing up and back, dumping him on his head.

He sat up, rubbing head, to see Victoria still staring intently at him.

Eyes wide, he stumbled over the chair and out the door, slamming it behind him.

Dumbledore fiddled with the bridge of his nose, gazing into the distance, as if nothing had happened.

"Well, you two had better be off to class as well. You won't learn much watching me think." He smiled at the twins, but his eyes were missing their usual twinkle.

Glancing at one another, the pair rose and left the office.

As Victoria was about to close the door, Dumbledore called out to her, "Please try to keep a rein on that temper of yours, Miss Potter."

In reply, she slammed the door.

As the instruments around him rattled, he placed his hands on his temples, and said to himself, "I was afraid of that. Oh dear, why did it have to happen to such a hot-tempered child?" He sighed. "Hogwarts lessons are going to be disrupted more than usual this year."

#### ####

Harry and Victoria parted at the Great Hall, and she walked along the staircases to Divination.

She took special care to miss the staircase that swung routinely towards the tower, providing the most direct route to the class.

Sitting herself on the ledge that occasionally connected to that staircase, she opened her Divination book "Unfogging the Future" and began to read and memorise the chapter on lesser-known psychics.

'"Wilhelmina Groogensnorf was adept at foreseeing the future, but unfortunately could never predict when the vision would arrive." Wil couldn't predict predictions time.

"Dora Desperado fell asleep in a carriage… only to see her own gruesome death, which involved a carriage going off a cliff and into a river below. Horrified, she awoke and cried out for the driver to stop just as it was going around an unstable corner, and the carriage skidded over the cliff and into the river below." D.D caused her own car accident.

"Millicent Calasta received visions at 1:00pm every day, on the hour, but they consisted of images of pasta boiling, a beetle falling off a leaf, and other insignificant moments." Punctual Milly saw silly… things.'

Sighing, she shut the book and stood up, watching the staircase swing back to her. 'How is memorising other peoples failures going to help me foresee/diven/predict? Like I'm going to walk into the exam and stare at the ball, and declare, "I don't see at this time, but these sort of things can't be forced, right? I mean, look at Wil." She'd just nod her head and "Quite right dear! We can't force these things! I'll just fail you." Absolutely pointless...'

Absently she walked up the stairs into the tower, snapping out of her daydream when the crazed knight Sir Caddogan yelled at her to "Beware the dragon at the top of the tower, m'lady, lest she take you prisoner!".

Victoria smiled sweetly and replied, "Oh, but I have you to rescue me, brave sir knight!" and left him stroking his mustache proudly.

Shaking her head at the obvious size of his ego, not to mention his extensive imagination, she rounded the last bend and climbed the stepladder that led to the cramped classroom that was filled with suffocating mystic smoke.

Professor Trelawny looked up briefly when she entered, nodded her head and said in her clichéd mystical voice, "I knew you would be joining us later than usual…" before returning to lecture a brunette Slytherin on how the Inner Eye could not be bought.

Victoria took a seat near the back, and tried not to cough too loudly. She had forgotten how thick the smoke could get, and the lack of air was already making her dizzy.

Looking at the girl a seat away, she opened her book to the same page as her, and stared at the page. The words jumped in and out of focus, and the letters began to dance on the page.

Moving her face closer to the book, she tried to make the letters run back to their original position, but they escaped her mental discipline and played like carefree children.

Eyes half-lidded, she gazed at the page, wishing she knew how to deal with children, when the ink letters moved to form a circle, outlining the page.

Two capital letters danced into the centre, an M and a D, and as they entwined, they began to spin, until they were a single black hole, growing larger and larger, stretching out until it met with the letter frame.

In the black hole, figures moved, shifting and changing, slowly defining, until they were the picture of a happy family. Two large figures for the parents, and a smaller one for the child. The child was laughing as it sat on the mothers lap, the father tickling it.

The image morphed and changed, to one of a banquet. The child was bigger, and standing still in a corner while the parents laughed and moved about with guests.

The image changed again, the child taller, and sitting at the far end of a long table, the parents at the other, laughing with each other.

The image pulsed to switch to a platform, the child by itself. The parents weren't anywhere to be seen.

The black hole convulsed, and the face of the child slowly emerged. Light dropped onto it, giving it colours, and dimensions.

Victoria jerked back and fell off her chair, landing with a thump on her back.

"Are you alright, child?" Professor Trelawny's whisper brought her back to reality.

Sitting up, she blinked a couple of times, and nodded her head. Trelawny gave her an appraising look, and returned to the front of the class.

Trembling slightly, Victoria sat back on her chair, and examined the page. All that was there were perfectly normal letters, words and paragraphs. The M and the D stood out slightly darker than rest though.

'M and D…

M-any D-ays…

M-anificent D-ancers

M-alicious D-iners

M-alfoy, D-raco…'

The face, the life she had seen… was his!

Burying her head in her arms, Victoria tried to stop herself from screaming out the question which burned in her mind with such ferocity it physically hurt.

'WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME????????'