"So, Why were you invited again?"
Valerie sighed at Ginny's question, as her twin had asked her the same question at least every night since she'd found out Valerie would be going to a sleepover in the Durmstrang ship. "For the last time, Ginny, I've befriended one of the Durmstrang students, and she invited me. It's not that difficult to understand."
She could hear Ginny walking out of their dormitories, and, when the door was slammed, Valerie went back to packing her bags. She had already gotten permission from Professor McGonagall to stay with the Durmstrang students, which had been easier than she'd expected. Apparently McGonagall was happy that Valerie was making friends with people from the other schools.
Apart from that permission slip, she only needed toiletries, and her pajamas or a nightgown, clean clothes and underwear. Well, that's the basic supplies...
As her thoughts went there, she carefully put a small box in her bag as well. She couldn't have it lying in here, where Ginny and her other roommate Lucy could snoop through her stuff. She had a secure area under her bed, where her Morning Star, her books, money and potion ingredients were, but opening and closing the area took a lot of time and energy, besides, Valerie, for some reason, just couldn't put away the potion she'd made almost a week ago, so she'd take it with her inside the box.
It wás the saving grace Tom was in need of... but to give him a place inside of herself, in her own head, or wherever he'd be, was a little... scary.
Shaking her head, she went to her trunk, and grabbed some clothes for the next day, when she saw the nightgown she'd worn when she was at the house of Walden's friend. When she had found it in her trunk a few days ago, the redhead had, for a moment, been very apprehensive about it, since she had been sure she'd left it at that friend's house, next to a thank you-note.
She was now grabbing it out of her trunk, to take it with her to the sleepover. She would mix in well with any elegant students of Beauxbatons that were invited as well. The few Hogwarts students that were invited would most likely be weirded out, with a Weasley in such an elegant and most likely expensive nightgown, and, with that thought in her mind, Valerie smirked.
When she finished up her packing, she set out for the Great Hall, where everyone would be meeting up before everyone would head for the Durmstrang ship.
Walking into the Great Hall, she quickly spotted Zora's dark brown hair, and Valerie, with a smile on her face, walked over and sat down next to her. "Hi Zora!"
Zora looked at Valerie and a smile started forming on her face. "Valerie, hello!"
A few girls around them looked at the redhead with a confused expression. Well, of course, Valerie was going to be the youngest out of the whole group, she was only in third y...
Right at that moment, someone from the same year as her sat down across from her, a neutral expression on her face. She had beautiful dark skin, long dark hair, and she was in Ravenclaw.
"Caterina, it is good that you could come! I thought you vanted to study?" the blond-haired Durmstrang student asked from next to her.
The Ravenclaw girl, Caterina, nodded. "I did want to study, although it's good for me to take a break once in a while."
The blond girl nodded happily, and took Caterina's plate to fill it with all kinds of dishes, and, while the girl was busy, the Ravenclaw looked at Valerie. "Who invited you?"
Valerie stared at the girl before answering: "Zora did." After giving that short answer, Valerie put a big piece of meat on her plate and started eating, aware that the girl called Caterina was still staring at her.
Once they were all done eating, they set off to the Durmstrang ship, Valerie walking next to Zora in the back of the group.
"Are you excited?," Zora asked, looking at our redhead, smiling.
Valerie smiled back at her. "I am. It's going to be fun."
The dark-haired girl next to her nodded, and, as they arrived at the ship and entered it, Valerie realized it was bigger inside than it looked from the outside. Wandering through an Entrance Hall, and going down some stairs, they arrived in a hall with a couple of doors, but everyone went through the first door on the left, ending up in a big bedroom with 2 bunk-beds, making it so there was space for four people to sleep. Apart from the beds, there were two closets, and four temporary beds were set up in the middle of the room, all of them layered with thick sheets and a fluffy pillow.
Caterina was the first one to walk over to one of the temporary beds, throwing her stuff on it and claiming it as her own. An older girl from Slytherin was the second one, and Valerie and the Beauxbatons student walked over to the two other beds, putting down their stuff and looking up to the Durmstrang students, who all climbed into their respective bed.
One of the Durmstrang students, who was sitting on one of the top beds and who was wearing glasses, opened her mouth: "Hello, everyone. I know not everyone knows each other here, so let's introduce ourselves. I am Tanya Bacheva."
Zora, who was sitting underneath Tanya, followed. "I am Zora Savova." Then the blond girl smiled and began:
"I am Milena Nankova, and the girl above me," she said as she pointed at a girl with her hair in a messy ponytail. "is Nadaya Paskaleva, but we just call her Nada."
The older Slytherin girl took over, looking around and throwing a disgusted look at Valerie. "I am Ruby Parkinson, Slytherin, seventh year. Pure-blood."
Valerie took over, giving Ruby a challenging look. "I'm Valerie Weasley, Gryffindor, third year. Pure-blood as well."
As she looked around to see Caterina introduce herself, she saw the annoyance in Ruby's eyes. "Caterina Parish, Ravenclaw, and I'm in third year and a pure-blood as well."
The Beauxbatons girl, who had extremely red hair, spoke: "I am Aurelia Beauvais, and I am from Beauxbatons, seventh year, and also a pure-blood."
The blond Durmstrang student, Milena, clapped her hands together. "Let's do something fun now!"
Almost three hours later, they were all sitting in a circle in their nightgowns, a magical and facial mask on their faces, while Milena, the blonde, was doing Caterina's nails. They had agreed on playing the magical equivalent to the Muggle 'truth or dare'. They used the same rules, but they did take a drop of Veritaserum each. It was currently the turn of the Beauxbatons student, Aurelia, whom they had started calling Aura.
The literal redhead looked around the room, when her eyes landed on Ruby. "Ruby, truth or dare?"
The girl, who was checking her nails, looked up slowly, then replied: "Truth."
Aura, who seemed excited, had apparently already thought of a question. "What is your biggest physical flaw?"
Ruby stared wide-eyed at the French girl, before answering: "The birthmark on my left shoulder."
Apparently Ruby was waiting for this moment. "Weasley, truth or dare?," she said with a smirk on her face.
Valerie stared at her. "Truth."
Ruby's smirk grew. "Are you really on Dumbledore's side in the upcoming war?"
Valerie's mind went completely blank, and she could see on the other's faces that they hadn't expected such a question either. Was she really on Dumbledore's side? She's been thinking about joining the dark side, but she hadn't even thought about being on Dumbledore's side or not. She could be on neither's side, it could be possible...
Valerie sighed. "I'm not completely on his side, no. If you don't mind me asking, why were you unsure? Normally people just assume I'm on his side because of my family."
Ruby looked very thoughtful. "I don't know. I felt like it."
Valerie, realizing she wouldn't be able to get more out of the girl apart from such a vague answer, went on with the game. "Zora! Truth or dare?"
"Dare!"
"Go into the hallway and sing a verse of one of the Weird Sisters songs!"
Almost everyone was asleep, except for Valerie. No, Valerie was still contemplating her earlier thoughts, as well as what Ruby had told her. What was she supposed to do... She didn't really feel comfortable thinking of Dumbledore as some kind of boss to her, but then again, the old geezer would probably be better than some kind of maniac that kills and tortures everything he sees... except for snakes.
Snakes? Valerie was kind of a snake, you could argue that, right? Could there be a possibility that she wouldn't be tortured or killed if she told him that her soul was apparently represented by a snake? Would it make a difference that she was able to listen to them? Or become one? Would You-Know-Who even care?
Can he even care?
She didn't know why, but Tom's diary, which she had underneath her nightgown, was burning with warmth, almost as if telling her something, but she couldn't look into the diary, since there was no light, and she would wake someone up with a Lumos. She just hoped that what he was trying to tell her wasn't bad.
She put a hand on the diary, letting the warmth it emitted course through her body, and fell asleep with a smile on her face.