A/N: I've gone back and done some minor editing to chapters 1-5. I'm uploading all of the chapters that I had been keeping in stock so you're getting three chapters at once. After this, all chapters will be uploaded as I'm writing them.
Chapter Six: Preparing
They spent a few more minutes talking about the sorts of fiction books they liked (Harry admitted to liking crime and fantasy) before Victoria asked if Harry had read any of his school books. He admitted to only really reading the History of Magic book all the way through. The others he had only read the first five chapters of and he didn't really remember much from them, so they got his trunk down and placed it on one of the seats while she joined him on the other one.
"We probably have enough time to go through the first three chapters of potions, charms and transfiguration. Those are the most important ones to start with. You should also make sure too read the relevant chapter before each lesson because it will make the practical's easier." Victoria told Harry, grabbing some parchment from her own trunk and setting it up next to Harry on the table that she pulled from the wall.
"How do you know which one is the relevant chapter?" Harry questioned.
"Well for charms and transfiguration it's the next chapter in the books, although the first three are basic theory behind the subject. Chapter four of each of them is the history and theory behind the first spell we'll learn, and then each subsequent chapter is for each spell. The teachers either formed their lessons around the chosen books, or had a hand in writing the books." Victoria demonstrated by opening the two relevant texts and showing him the spells. "For potions, it's not as easy. Professor Snape has to teach a certain number of potions each year, and he doesn't have time in lesson to cover things like safety, why we cut plants in a certain way and so forth. Which is why the book he recommended has five chapters on such information, having subsequent chapters on the potions we'll be brewing – except for two of them. If you don't read the book, you're not going to pass potions. Professor Snape will tell us the name of the potion we'll be brewing at the end of each lesson, but we start of by brewing the Cure Boil potion so you should also take the time to read up on that and apply the information you learnt from the first few chapters of the book."
"So which one should we start with?" Harry questioned, worrying his lip between his teeth.
"I think charms or transfiguration would be best since they will take about an hour each, while potions will take more time." Victoria answered with a thoughtful frown.
"Okay," Harry grabbed the charms book first. At the top of his parchment, he wrote 'Charms: Chapters 1-3' and the date.
"Did no one show you how to hold a quill? I thought that muggle borns and muggle raised were given a book which took them through how to write with the thing before they made it to Hogwarts?" Victoria frowned at the messy chicken scratch that had resulted from Harry's awkward holding of the quill.
"Um… Hagrid didn't mention any book that could teach me how to write." Harry admitted with a blush.
"Well, we can take this opportunity for you to practise your penmanship at the same time as learning." Victoria said decisively. "You need to hold the quill about two inches away from the tip, with your thumb and left index finger while resting it against the side of your middle fingers." She demonstrated with her own quill and Harry copied her. "Then you dip it a couple of centre metres into the ink and press lightly while writing."
Victoria wrote her name in the top left of the parchment and Harry copied her with his own name. It wasn't as neat as her own writing, and was also larger, but it was readable.
"Good. You don't need a lot of ink, only a quick dip into the pot. If the ink is dripping, there's too much and you should gently tap the quill against the side of the pot in order to remove the excess ink. This prevents ink drops on your work. Only refill the ink on the quill when needed. I'll teach you how to keep the quill nib sharp when we get to Hogwarts, since you should sharpen your quill every one to two weeks depending on how much you write. When you're not writing, place the quill in the indent of the ink pot lid, this prevents ink getting everywhere."
Harry nodded his understanding, and they both turned their attentions to the first few chapters of the charms book. As they worked, Victoria pointed out the best way to take notes so that Harry wasn't writing things on his parchment that he didn't need to know or was just superfluous information. After an hour and a half worth of work (it took longer than she had anticipated because they stopped so that Harry could ask a couple of questions clarifying something, and he was writing slower than normal to ensure that he's writing was legible), they had summarised the basic theory of charms that they needed to know.
The general term of 'Charms' refers to a spell that affects and alters the properties of something – be it animate or inanimate. There are four categories of spells that full under this definition: charm, jinx, hex and curse.
A charm is a spell that is typically used against inanimate objects and doesn't cause any kind of harm. Examples of spells that would full into this category include the unlocking charm (alohomora), and it's counterpart the locking charm (colloportus).
A Jinx can be classified as a spell that prevents a person from performing a task. For example, the jelly leg hex and the tickling hex. There are a couple of spells which can be classified as a jinx or a charm. For example, tarantallegra (which causes the victim to dance uncontrollably) can be classified as a jinx when cased in its basic format. However, a directed tarantallegra (which will be explained in third year) can be classified as a charm because the dancing becomes predictive (such as the waltz). Despite this, Tarantallegra (in all its forms) is a jinx, the reason for this definition is based on the arithmetic base of the spell.
A hex is a spell that only has a short-term effect and doesn't cause harm to the victim. For example, the stunning spell (stupefy) and the body-binding spell (petrificus totalus). Although these examples prevent a person from doing something, they are classified as hexs due to the more maleficent nature of the spells and the fact that they can only effect animate objects, whereas most jinxs can also affect inanimate objects.
Finally, a curse is a spell that typically can causes harm to another being. Within the subject of charms, the majority of curses that will be taught are elemental in nature such as the bluebell flame (frio queimado).
When casting any spell, it is important to perform the correct wand movement and incantation. Spells are created using arithmetic sequences and runes, which are both 'languages' which easily channel magic. The wand movement is based off of the rune (or rune combination) which describes the spell. It is not necessary to know the runes in order to cast the spell, it simply helps to direct the magic properly when casting. The incantation helps to focus the casters will and further direct the magic, and is typically based of the numeric base to each spell.
Sometimes a spell does not full into the expected category based on its description. This happens due to a difference in the base arithmetic sequence that forms the spell. For example, the silencing spell (Silencio) would by description be classed as a jinx because it prevents an individual from speaking. However, because of it's Arithmancy space it is in fact a charm.
"I don't really understand the whole arithmetic and rune base, thing." Harry admitted as he read over his own notes, while Victoria sprinkled some drying powder over her parchment. She was hopping, by the end of her first year, to learn the spell which would dry her ink so she didn't have to waist money buying the powder.
"It's not really that important unless you take Arithmancy or ancient runes next year, or you wish to go into a career such as warding, curse breaking, enchanting or spell crafting. But essentially, in order to help us focus our magic to get the desired results we use runes – which is an ancient language which channels magic well, although there isn't a concrete theory as to why – in order to shape the wand movements. For example, in Elder Futhark fire is a left facing arrow (similar to the less than symbol ), while power is a straight line. The wand movements for the bluebell flame is a left facing arrow, going from the top to the bottom, and then a jab in the direction of casting." While Victoria was talking Harry was adding notes to the bottom of his parchment, although Victoria drew the runes for him to ensure that they were right.
"And the incantation?" Harry questioned thoughtfully. "Because this will apply to transfiguration as well, won't it?"
"Yes, but you really don't need to know it in depth, just the fact that the wand movement and incantation help you focus your magic." Victoria reassured him. Most first years didn't even know this much about the use of runes and incantations in spell casting, outside of the fact that it helps you focus. "It's harder to explain the theory behind incantations because it's based on a lot of theory that you need to understand first. Basically, symbols and numbers were used long before written or spoken language. Because of this they hold a certain amount of power. All the spells have a literal meaning in their translation, like petrificus totalus literally means totally petrified. When you use a number chart to break down the spells you end up with the number sequence behind the spell, if the numbers don't line up right or if there is a series of cancelations numbers together or a disadvantageous combination, the spell wouldn't work. This is why you will find most spells are cast in the ancient or old languages since they correspond to the number charts and are therefore more closely linked to our magic. I can't really explain it better unless you study Arithmancy."
"That's fine, I think I understand it a bit better now. Will I have to learn the runes that make up the wand movements?" Harry asked curiously.
"No. In fact most people don't take Arithmancy or Ancient Runes and so don't understand the in-depth theory behind spell casting. They don't need to know it in order to cast the spell. And even the ones who do take one, or both, of those electives don't apply that knowledge in charms and transfiguration exams." Victoria answered with a frown. "Which doesn't make sense to me, since it would make casting the spell easier for those of us who don't learn practically, and it would likely increase the number of people either making new spells, adapting old spells and going into careers that require this knowledge."
"How come you know so much about these things then?" Harry asked, as they both put their charms notes away, and Harry grabbed his transfiguration text.
"Multiple reasons. I find it fascinating and it helps me learn spells if I can understand it. My brother Bill is a curse breaker and he needed to know this sort of thing and it came up a lot in our letters and conversations." Victoria answered, blushing slightly. She knew very well that there were not a lot of people who actually found the stems of spells fascinating, plenty of people found it useful though.
"Would you be willing to help me learn?" Harry asked hesitantly. "I want to understand why the magic works." He admitted.
"Sure, I don't mind teaching you. My brother didn't want to learn, but it will be useful for me to teach it too you since it shows I understand the material if I can teach you it. It will also give you a head start if you decide to take Ancient Runes or Arithmancy. And if you don't, it means you can still take the exam."
"You can take exams without going to the lessons?" Harry asked in shock. "You can't really do that in the muggle world."
"Yeah, it's pretty normal. Bill took the muggle studies exams and care of magical creatures without going to the lessons. Percy's planning on doing the same, plus Divination. They did sneak into a couple of lessons when they could, and seek out the teachers during their open hours if they had questions. I'm not sure yet which ones I'm 'officially' going to take, but I'm taking everything at OWL level, and then dropping only Divination at NEWT level." Victoria explained.
"Shall we go through the Transfiguration text, before taking a lunch break?" Harry questioned, looking to his watch and seeing that it was just gone twelve.
"Sure, did you bring your own lunch, or are you getting something off the trolley?" Victoria queried.
"I have money to buy something." Harry answered.
"Percy said the trolley comes around at one thirty." Victoria informed him while setting up a fresh sheet of parchment.
They repeated the same process they had done with charms, with the transfiguration text. This time Harry didn't need advice when it came to writing his notes, and he had less questions about the information they were reading. It seemed he understood transfiguration easier than he understood charms.
Transfiguration is a branch of magic, classified by the spells ability to affect the essence of a given object or being. The most common way of viewing this is by picturing an object being turned into another. However, this branch also includes conjuration which is the ability to make something from nothing.
There are several levels of transfiguration:
Inanimate to inanimate: this is the easiest branch of transfiguration where one object is turned into another. The object must be of similar shape and size to the object you wish to turn it into, otherwise the magic applied will be in excess to compensate and therefore destabilising the spell.
Inanimate to animate: the next level of transfiguration is turning objects into something living. This is normally started with animals which have a very basic biology such as mice and small birds. The use of standardised spells mean that you do not need to understand the biology of these animals, but it is good practise to start with small and less complex animals especially if they are to have some semblance of life once transfigured.
Animate to inanimate: this level is split into two sections. The easiest is the reversal spells for inanimate to animate. Next is turning an animal into an object, which is a difficult piece of magic if attempted on anything with intelligence because the being will fight back against the magic on an instinctive level and you will have to counter this in order to successfully cast the magic.
Animate to animate: this includes turning one animal into another, as well as self-transfiguration. This is the second most difficult branch of transfiguration because you are turning one self-aware animal into another, or attempting to change something on your own body. Unlike all previous transfiguration, this level does require at least basic understanding of how the body part/being you are transfiguration moves, as well as basic atomy.
Finally, there is conjuration. This is the final level of transfiguration that requires more magical power, concentration and experience compared to other types of transfiguration which already has an object to base the magic off. When conjuring, you are turning your magic itself into the object which is why only Masters of the art can do more than basic objects.
In order to do transfiguration, will, focus, imagination and accuracy is very important. You must be able to imagine the end product, focus on that image and will that new object/animal into being instead of what you started with. The accuracy comes into effect with the image and with the channelling of magic. If even one of these steps is not completed, then either the transfiguration will fail or not be completed leaving aspects of the original behind.
They were just packing away their transfiguration notes and used books when there was a knock at the door.
"Anything from the trolley dears?" the old women who slid open the door asked with a smile.
Um… yeah." Harry got up so he could look to see what the women had while Victoria grabbed the sandwich and salad she had made that morning.
Harry came back with a selection of sweats, a box of pumpkin pasties, a sandwich, a bottle of pumpkin juice and a bottle of water. Since they had cleared the table of their work (temporarily placing their parchments, inks, quills and the potion book on the open seat), they both set up their food on it.
Harry finished his sandwich before deciding to brave the pumpkin juice. He looked a little confused at first, taking another sip to decide whether he liked it.
"It's sweat, and rather thick. Like a smoothie." He decided after a moment.
"Do you like it?" Victoria questioned with a smile as she tucked into her salad. She had found herself avoiding sweat things in this life, preferring sour to sweat, which meant she didn't like the pumpkin juice that was so common in the wizarding world. She would stick with tea (which her mother only let her start drinking that year), water and milk.
"Yeah, but I don't think I would be able to drink it often. It's a bit too sweat for a regular drink." Harry decided, turning to the other sweats he had brought. "Which one should I have? I can store the rest for later, or we can snack on them during the rest of the journey."
"The Bertie Botts every flavour beans is a good one with a group of friends. You could probably open them with your dorm mates, help you break the ice and get to know them." Victoria suggested. "The Jelly slugs, Sugar Quills, skeletal sweets and Nougat Chunks are good ones to snack on while working since they don't create a mess and you only need the one hand to open them." Victoria pointed to the appropriate sweets. "The Chocolate Frogs need you to concentrate since the chocolate is spelled to have one jump when you open the package, they also have Wizarding info cards. The Cauldron Cakes are just little muffin cake things with different flavoured jams in the middle, and the Pumpkin Pasties are savoury pastries."
"Okay," Harry placed the pumpkin pasties to one side while placing the rest inside his trunk. "Would you like one?" he offered her the pack off four.
"I'm okay for now, but thank you." Victoria denied as she placed her metal box which she had placed the salad into back in her own trunk.
"Well, if you change your mind," Harry placed the packet on the seat before setting up the potion books and his writing materials.
"So, you said this was important because we need to know the information but the professor doesn't have time to cover it?" Harry questioned.
"Yeah, the government and Board of Governors overruled the Professor about six years ago. That was when he changed the book he was using to this one, instead of the one he was using before. He explained it to his class, and made them write an essay about how the dangers of these new rules could impact the students and the potion dependent community as a whole." Victoria explained, an amused smile making its way on her face. Both Bill and Charlie had to write that essay and they weren't happy.
"Why do we have Magical Drafts and Potions, as well as One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?" Harry questioned as Victoria opened the Magical Drafts book to the first chapter.
"Well Magical Drafts contains the information about how to brew a potion, the recipes and the whys. While One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi is a book used in both potions and Herbology, which tells us where we can get plant-based potion ingredients, how to care for them, how to cut potion useable material from them and the type of effects or abilities the plants have. It also gives examples of the most common potions the plant is used in." Victoria explained. "For now, we only really need to focus on Magical Drafts, although if you have the time before potions class or Herbology, you should definitely go through the first few pages of Magical Herbs and Fungi."
In order to make a potion, one must have the right equipment. As beginner brewers, a standard size Pewter Cauldron is recommended. This cauldron can withstand a large amount of use, and a vast variety of potions – it can even withstand explosions better than other cauldrons! Since a Pewter Cauldron is fairly resistant to heat, the brewer doesn't have to keep such a close eye on the temperature since spell casting is not recommended around cauldrons until at least five years of experience has been gained.
Other important equipment needed for brewing are phials of varying sizes (crystal or glass doesn't have an impact on either the stored potion or the ingredients), brass scales, a silver knife (a crystal or diamond knife can also be used, since these materials are all magic resistant and won't taint the ingredients) and a marble mortar and pestle. These are all things which should be included in a standard potions kit.
Before a student can even begin to brew a potion, they must ensure that their work station, chopping board, cauldron and equipment are all clean. Any residue could impact the potion and lead to disaster. Since magic has been known to interfere with the effects of potions, all cleaning must be done by hand.
When brewing a potion there are several different instructions for the preparation of ingredients that they may be given, including grinding, cutting, slicing or dicing. These instructions must be followed because they allow the ingredients to release their properties into the potion in different ways.
The Juliene cut creates thin long strips which will dissolve into the mix quickly, which is important when looking to neutralise two dangerous ingredients.
A diced ingredient releases its properties slower, and the larger the cut the longer it takes to dissolve into the potion. So pay attention to the instructions. If it says Large, you are looking at around 2inch or 5.08 centimetres for your cube. For Medium, you are looking at around 1 to 1.5 inch cube or 3.81 to 2.54 centimetre cube. Small is around 0.5 of an inch or 1.27 centimetres.
The Brunoise dice is the smallest dice you can get. It releases the most amount of property in comparison to the other dicing techniques, and does it faster. This dice is achieved by completing the julienne method, before bunching the strips together and cutting them horizontally…
While they were writing their potion notes, Harry took the opportunity to teach Victoria something. Although Victoria knew how to make enough meals to survive, she had never held herself to a strict standard when it came to preparing ingredients or mixing things as long as it tasted alright at the end. Apparently, all the potion techniques that the book mention had a corresponding cooking technique, with similar explanations as too why.
They had finished writing their potions notes, and put everything away, and they were both eating one of the pastries. For the first time someone knocked at their compartment door.
"Hay, Victoria do you mind if I join you?" Ron asked, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.
"Sure, I said you could join me. Harry, this is my twin Ronald Weasley. Ron this is my friend, Harry." Victoria introduced the two of them.
"Hi," Harry greeted with an awkward smile.
"Hay." Ron returned the greeting.
Victoria rolled her eyes at the awkwardness of the boys and decided to start the conversation for them, one which they would probably be able to carry.
"So, I've explained to you about Hogwarts but I left something out. Hogwarts has a sport called Quidditch, which I figured you should be aware off since it's so popular in the wizarding world." Victoria broke the awkward silence that had settled.
"Quidditch?" Harry repeated.
"You don't know about Quidditch?" Ron questioned, his eyes wide in astonishment. "It's only the best sport ever…"
Ron was in his element as he explained the sport to Harry, Victoria interrupting him every now and then to clarify a rule, play or team that Ron had mentioned. Harry himself was mostly silent, enraptured by the game that Ron was describing but he also asked a few questions.
They were interrupted again nearly an hour later by another knock at the door. Since the door wasn't opened by the knocker, Victoria got up to let the person in.
"Hi, sorry to interrupt." The boy on the other side of the door was a first year, and was stood nervously with his head bowed shyly. The kid was a little bit round at the face, but that could be attributed to baby fat that he hadn't shed yet. "But have you found a toad? I've lost one."
Ah, Neville. He was more timid than she had expected, but also thinner. But then again, if he spent a lot of time toiling around the greenhouse, he would have built up some muscle.
"I've not seen one. Ron, Harry have you spotted a toad?" Victoria turned to her brother and friend.
"No," Harry shook his head.
"Nah." Ron denied. "I didn't see one."
"Sorry," Victoria apologised to the kid.
"That's okay," he sighed, his shoulders slumping.
"I'm sure you'll find him." Harry tried to comfort him.
"Yeah, thanks." The kid left and Victoria retook her seat.
"I don't know why he's so upset, it's just a toad." Ron shrugged.
"It's still his pet. He has every right to be upset at losing him." Victoria scolded him.
"I suppose. I would be upset if I lost Scabbers." Ron agreed after a moment of thinking that through.
"Scabbers?" Harry questioned.
"Oh, my pet rat. He used to belong to Percy, but he was gifted an owl this year, so I got the rat." Ron answered. "He's in Fred and George's compartment since Victoria doesn't really like him."
Victoria went digging into her trunk and grabbed the game box she had packed and drew her wand to un-shrink it. It was then that there was another knock at the door and it slid open.
"Hi, sorry to interrupt but have you seen a toad, Neville's lost one?" the bushy haired girl questioned. Hermione Granger was already wearing her school uniform unlike Neville who was wearing a set of brown robes which weren't cheap nor were they extremely expensive.
"We've already told – Neville was it? – that we hadn't seen a toad. Sorry." Victoria apologised.
"Oh, that's okay." Hermione's eyes travelled to Victoria's wand. "Oh are you doing magic. Can I see?" Hermione set herself down next to Ron who looked quite surprised.
"Okay," Victoria blinked for a moment before casting the spell. "Agrandar." The matchstick size box grew in size until it was about 30cmX20cmX20cm.
"I thought that the size increase charm was engorgio?" Hermione questioned.
"It is. I technically wasn't making something bigger; I was restoring its original size." Victoria explained the spell difference.
"That makes sense. I didn't realise there were different spells for something so similar. I've tried a few simple spells, just for practise, you know. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard – I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" Hermione said all this very fast.
Victoria blinked in surprise, how many times had she said 'of course'. Did Hermione expect everyone to have the same or similar opinion as her? Ron looked stunned and a little horrified that someone had learnt all their books by heart.
"I'm Victoria Weasley," Victoria introduced herself which prompted the boys into action.
"Ron Weasley."
"Harry Potter."
"Are you really?" Hermione said excitedly. "I know all about you, of course – got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the twentieth Century."
"Am I?" Harry asked shocked.
"Those are just the start. You're in all the history books that mention the last war." Victoria informed him.
"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do any of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You three had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon." And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.
Victoria blinked at the whirl wind that had been Hermione Granger. Had she actually taken a breath at any point during that speech?
"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.
"That's uncalled for, she could just be nervous." Victoria pointed out while she opened her game boxes. "Now, since we're still two hours from Hogsmeade, do either of you want to play a card game?"
"Exploding Snap?" Ron questioned.
"I don't have the deck, you do. I've only got a set of normal cards. Do you know any games Harry?"
"I'm know snap, go fish and 21," Harry admitted.
"I know all of those. Which ones do you remember the rules of, Ron?" Victoria quarried while shuffling the deck. After meeting and speaking with several kids in the library, Victoria had 'learnt' the muggle card games and had then gone and taught her brothers how to play.
"Um… all of them." he admitted after a long moment of thought.
"Kay, so we can rotate through them? Starting with 21 since it's the only one that won't put the hand in some kind of order. Then Snap, before go fish." Victoria decided and the boys nodded their agreement.
Before she could dish out the first hand, the door was opened without anyone knocking first.
Three boys entered the compartment without asking for permission which was worse than just opening the door without knocking or otherwise announcing your presence. The boy at the front of the pack was pale with platinum blond hair. He had grey eyes which were narrowed on the three of them in thought.
The two boys behind him were taller, and were trying to make their height and weight intimidating. Victoria had never considered how much like bodyguards Crabbe and Goyal came across as, but in person it is quite obvious that they were indeed acting as bodyguards to Malfoy.
"Is it true?" Malfoy demanded without prompting. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
"Yes," Harry confirmed. He was keeping his eyes on the two boys behind Malfoy instead of looking at the boy who had spoken.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyal," Malfoy introduced carelessly when he noticed where Harry's attention was. Victoria nearly pouted when she realised Malfoy hadn't pointed to the boy when introducing them, so she didn't know which one was which. She would have to wait until the sorting until she would be able to name them. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Ron gave a slight cough to hide his snicker while Victoria shot him a glare. Out of all the children Ron had picked up the most on dad's hatred of the Malfoys while the rest of them were simply warry of them until proven that they needed to actually be 'offended by their existence' as Charlie had put it.
Malfoy turned his attention from Harry to Ron who he had previously dismissed as unimportant. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." Malfoy went to hold out his hand, but Victoria spoke causing him to withdraw his hand and turn to her.
"You know, I thought you Malfoys were meant to have better breading then us Weasleys? You've just insinuated that your family is better than mine, and yet you entered our compartment without invitation and insulted someone who Harry has – as far as you know – spent the last six hours with. You haven't shown any qualities or reasons that Harry should be your friend, especially over those he has been in conversation with for several hours." Victoria pointed out calmly.
"I'm not opposed to getting to know you, but I won't be dropping the friends I've already made." Harry offered Malfoy his hand this time.
Malfoy hesitated for a long moment before taking Harry's hand.
"Would you like to join us, we were about to play a couple of card games?" Harry questioned.
"As your friend pointed out, we weren't invited. We shall leave you to your journey. But you may want to get into your school robes." And with this piece of advice Malfoy led his friends from the compartment.
"I don't know why you gave him the chance to be your friend." Ron sulked.
"He's a kid, who wanted to impress me. Besides, I don't really want to be making enemies this early into the school year." Harry pointed out as Victoria dished out their cards.
"I don't trust him. I've heard lots about his family." Ron scrawled darkly down at his hand. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark side."
"Dad was actually talking about Malfoy's grandfather, he only had an unpleasant encounter with Malfoy's father four years ago." Victoria reminded him. "Besides, you can't judge someone on their parents. Mrs Malfoy never had anything disparaging said about her. Hit me." Victoria drew a card.
"I'm going to give him a chance to prove himself. Besides, we could end up in the same house. Hold." Harry told them.
"I doubt it, he's probably going to be in Slytherin." Ron muttered. "Hold."
"Who says Harry won't be in Slytherin? That I won't be in Slytherin?" Victoria countered. "Hold."
"Hold. I'm not sure what house I'll be in." Harry added on the end. "But I don't really mind which one."
"You're Harry Potter, of course you're going to be in Gryffindor. And what do you mean, you might be in Slytherin? Weasley's have always been in Gryffindor. Hold."
"20." Victoria showed her hand. "I don't exactly embody the traits of Gryffindor. I have more Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin in me then I do Gryffindor. Besides, there's nothing wrong with Slytherin. Just because Voldemort and the majority of his Death Eaters were Slytherin, doesn't make the whole house bad. There are plenty of people from Slytherin who went on to do great things. And then you've got the members of the other houses who went on to do horrible things." Victoria had been trying to mitigate Ron's hatred towards the Slytherin house, but she hadn't really succeeded. But she was hopeful that she could prevent Harry from wrongly judging the whole house.
"18." Harry played his own hand. "I've only heard bad things about Slytherin." Harry admitted. "Who is good from that house?"
"18." Ron played his own hand, "I can't think of any good people from Slytherin." He muttered
Victoria took the cards that had been played and placed them on her part of the table. "Dad's friend Alastor Moody, who has the highest Death Eater capture count, was from Slytherin. Then you have Merlin, Phineas Black a previous Headmaster, Nicolas Flamel a famous Alchemist, Ulick Gamp the first Minister for Magic, Hesphaestus Gore who held the Minister position for 18 years, Grogan Stump, Josephina Flint, Radolphus Lestrange, Hortensia Milliphutt, Priscilla Dupont, Venusia Crickerly and Millicent Bagnold were all Ministers for magic. Five different Slytherins have ascended to Headmaster of Hogwarts. And then you've got those who are responsible for creations such as the Apollo's healing cream, the Nimbus Company and so on. Closer to home, Harry's grandmother Dora Potter was in Slytherin."
She dished out the next hand to the boys as she was talking. "I've written an entire essay for each of the houses. Hit me."
"That's extremely impressive." Harry commented. "Hit me. How do you know my grandmother was a Slytheirn?"
"If you say so. I still think they're all rotten." Ron muttered, but he knew better than to continue arguing at this point because she would out fact him. "Hit me."
"Hold. I've looked into several different family genealogies with Percy; Dora Potter was the only daughter of house Black to marry into a light family and not be disinherited in the last ninety years. Once we finish this game we should get changed." Victoria reminded the boys of Malfoy's advice.
"Yeah, and we can probably move onto the next game. This one isn't really as fun without the risk element." Harry agreed. "Hold."
"Hold. Fine." Ron agreed.
"21." Victoria announced happily.
"20." Harry pouted slightly when he showed his hand.
"Bust." Ron admitted.
Once they had all gotten changed into their robes (Victoria going to one of the toilets to get changed, while Ron had to go back to the twin's compartment since they had his trunk), they continued playing card games and talking until the five-minute arrival warning sounded.