A/N: This is the last chapter for a while. I've delayed finishing chapter nine, which I have half written, because of conflict with my Conjunctionem story.
Chapter eight: Lessons and Labs
Falling into bed that night, Victoria fell straight asleep with a smile on her face. Being in the Slytherin dorms, meant that she slept in a room on her own as opposed to in a room with other girls like it would have been in the Gryffindor dorms. The rooms weren't large, there was only enough space for a four-poster bed, dresser, wardrobe and space at the bottom of the bed for the trunk. They also had an individual bathroom, which had a shower, toilet and sink. It wasn't very elaborate, but it was more than enough.
Victoria's bed back home was a collapsible camp bed which they had salvaged from an old tent which meant she wasn't used to sleeping on such a large open space which also didn't have any resistance to her weight. When she'd gotten on the bed, the night before she had sunk into the quilts and pillows and it had taken a lot of rolling and wiggling in order to get on properly. Even once she was on the bed, she struggled to fall asleep because the bed was so different to what she was used to.
The late night, and lack of crowing Cockrill's, meant that she woke up an hour later than she was used to. This was something that Victoria wasn't going to allow to happen again, she needed the extra time in the morning to begin some of her productions. Fortunately, she hadn't set up her classroom yet, since she needed to speak with Professor Snape about getting a classroom sealed off from the rest of the student body without her permission – a safety requirement that she had insisted on due to the nature of her work.
Since she didn't have anywhere to be, Victoria spent longer than she normally would showering and getting ready for the day. She even used one of the spells that her mother had taught her to lightly curl her hair. She carried two hair ties around on her wrist, plus a piece of cloth, for potions and her own work since it messed with her recipes if her hair fell in. On a typical day, she had her hair up all the time but she'd decided to have her hair up half the time and down the other half while she was at school. Timing it so she worked on her products on the same days as she had potions as often as she could. Of course, knowing her luck she would end up having potions on her first day – which was why she was carrying the hair ties around.
Although it was still early, Victoria didn't wait around in her room or the common room. Instead, she packed what she needed for school, including her books, and headed out to find the Great Hall. She took a couple of wrong turns, but it didn't take her long to follow the path she'd taken the night before. Although the dungeons corridors all looked the same, she remembered the turns she took the night before and so she just backtracked. The issue was that at one point she took a left-hand corner a little early and had to double back to her original path. Once she'd walked the path a few times, she would be able to determine how far away each of the turns where.
"Victoria!" Fred and George's echoed voice greeted her when she stepped into the Entrance Hall.
A bright smile immediately split her face and she ran the few steps separating her from her brothers in order to catch them in a hug. The twins were used to her flying tackle hugs, so they each wrapped an arm around her, and put an arm around each other's waist so they were stabilised and stood close enough together that she didn't just fly between them.
"Hay, do you like the Snake Pit?" George asked, settling her down on the floor.
"It's nice, the bed's really comfy." Victoria smiled reassuringly. She kept hold of each of the twin's arms, unwilling to let either of them go until she'd checked on Percy and Ron. Although they were in the same location, there was quite a distance between them because the Gryffindor tower was not only on the other side of the school, but also at the very top where she is two floors into the dungeons.
"And the people?" Fred prompted.
"They seem okay for now. I think I've got enough of the important movers in my year to stop and think, that they are going to give me time before making a decision." Victoria told them reassuringly. She knew that she needed to keep working on the neutrality of her house, and her actions were going to be under constant supervision, but that was something she was aware of before entering into Slytherin.
"Well, if they do something you don't like." George began.
"You just let us know." Fred picked up.
"I know that even Percy will help you out." George concluded.
"You know, just the threat of being targeted by you has been enough to give them pause." Victoria reassured them. "By the time you leave, I'll have reached a point in the house where they respect me." Victoria hugged them again to show her thanks.
"You're up early." Percy drew their attention as he stepped off the staircase.
"PERCY." Victoria said excitedly, spinning around and jumping on the prefect.
"We're just checking in," Fred began with a smile as Percy had to take a stumbling step back at the force of Victoria's impact.
"Making sure little Vicky is okay." George picked up.
"No mischief making," they promised solemnly.
"Good, because I'd hate to take points so early in the year." Percy shook his head, settling Victoria into his side, where she quiet happily lent against him while latching onto Fred's hand. She would have also grabbed Fred's hand, but she had an arm wrapped around Percy in a side hug.
"Did you make sure Ron was up?" Fred questioned. Of all their siblings, Ron was the only one who didn't get up early on his own. Once he was awake, he was awake, but it took a few minutes. Normally, this was a duty that fell to Percy or Victoria unless the twins decided to test a new prank.
"Didn't have to. It's seems Harry is an early riser and woke Ron up for me. They were getting ready when I left. I offered to escort them, but they decided to try and find their own way." Percy explained.
"If they don't make in the next five minutes…" Victoria started, looking to the twins.
"We'll go get them." they promised together.
"Your ability to find anyone, anywhere in the school, will come in quite handy for the first few weeks. Once Ron maps out a location, he'll be fine, but in the meantime." Percy shrugged. Ron's sense of direction was something they had all figured out when he was sent to collect Victoria and Percy from the village several years back and had gotten lost.
"We'll keep on eye on him." George nodded solemnly.
"Maybe he'll find a friend who has a better sense of direction." Victoria pointed out hopefully. She knew that Harry and Ron got on well, but she wasn't sure if that was because of her presence. She was hopeful that because they had shared a dorm last night that they managed to form a relationship without her. Then there was Neville, who lived in Longbottom Hall and so was likely used to navigating a large area with lots of corridors, so hopefully he would find it easier to learn about the school.
"We can hope." Fred agreed.
"You looking forward to your first day of lessons?" Percy looked down at Victoria who was still tucked into his side and holding onto Fred's hand. George had moved so his arm was brushing against Victoria's shoulder in order to give her some contact. They knew how difficult it was for her to be away from them for an extended period of time, especially since she was now in a different dorm, and they had collectively decided to help her as best they could by giving her physical contact and trying to meet up at least once a day for the first few months and then perhaps, scaling back to every other day or alternating which sibling she was with.
"I think so. I'm not sure how I'm going to do with the practical's, but mostly I'm just looking forward to seeing where I am, academically. That way I can determine at what pace I can work on my extra-curricular projects." Victoria admitted.
"I'm pretty sure you know more than we do." George snorted.
"You did read our school books before we finished them." Fred agreed.
"Are you looking forward to your first lessons in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy?" Victoria turned the conversation towards the twins chosen subjects. She knew they had also taken Care, but Ancient Runes and Arithmancy was something they needed for their future due to the process of spell development and change that their prank projects focus on. Of course, they also needed to know a lot about potions, charms and transfiguration, but having a greater understanding of Runes and Arithmancy would give them a new base to work off. Working alongside Victoria, Percy and Bill they already new quite a bit for Ancient Runes, but the lessons would help them look at it from a different perspective.
"We're pretty sure the first year of Ancient Rune's is going to be boring," George began,
"But the Arithmancy lessons is mostly new, so we should be okay there." Fred finished.
"If you get bord in Ancient Runes, I would recommend coming up with your own mnemonic in order to remember the Elder, Germanic, Younger and Ancient Futhark which will come in very useful all the way up till your NEWT levels. I've already got Elder, Young and Ancient down since its necessary for my OWL levels, and I've mostly got Germanic down for my NEWT levels." Percy suggested.
In the last two years Percy had got a greater understanding of the fact that the twins did care about their lessons, but they found the way it was taught to be boring and when they were board, they had started focusing more on their prank planning in lessons. So, during the summer of the twins first year, he and Victoria had raided the non-magical library looking for anything that might help and this was one of the suggestions they had ended up compiling. And it seemed to work, the twins still pulled at least one major prank a month, but the teachers stopped complaining about the lack of focus during lessons.
"We can do that." Fred agreed after exchanging a look with George. They had started learning how to draw the symbols, but hadn't memorised the names and effects and instead worked off their notes.
"We made it." Ron's relieved voice drew their attention.
Victoria span and practically jumped over to her twin before dragging him back over to their brothers, while also waving at Harry and Neville to follow. Once she was back with the others, she looped her arm through Ron's. She didn't reach out to grab the others, content now that they were all stood together.
"Did you three have a good night?" Victoria asked, making sure that Neville and Harry knew they were also free to answer that question and not just Ron.
"Yeah," Ron admitted, "I went straight to sleep after the feast."
"Our whole dorm did." Harry added softly. "Did you know your brother snores?"
"All my brother's snore." Victoria laughed softly. "You're not used to it?"
"My uncle and cousin also snore, but we're normally separated by a different room." Harry admitted with a smile.
"You'll get used to it." Percy promised. "Or, if you're having trouble sleeping with the snoring, I can teach you a spell to silence your curtains."
"Really?" Neville perked up slightly. "I know I also snore, and I don't want to disturb the rest of the dorm."
"I could barely hear your snoring." Harry reassured him. "And Seamus and Dean didn't even notice."
"Are Seamus and Dean your other dorm mates?" Victoria questioned.
"Yeah, it's the five of us. Who are you sharing a dorm with?" Ron questioned.
"No one. The Slytherin dorms are separated so we all have a small room to sleep in. You have just enough room for the bed and a dresser. I think they do it to stop any issues arising due to family feuds and rivalries." Victoria explained, hopping not to trigger a bout of jealousy from Ron, who was the only one who had their own room back home. Something she was willing to remind him of if he made a big deal out of it.
"But that will make it harder to make friends with those in your year." Ron frowned after making a conscious effort to squish his initial response. He'd been trying to do better with their family's financial situation since Bill had sat them all down and explained the truth two years ago.
"I'm a Slytherin, friendships work differently within the house." Victoria laughed lightly.
"Come on little firsties," Fred interrupted their conversation about dorms.
"You need to eat breakfast and get your time tables." George finished.
"Are you joining us at the Gryffindor table, Victoria?" Percy asked.
"Um…" Victoria hesitated. "I'll join you for lunch. But I think I need to eat Breakfast and Dinner with the Slytherins for the first few weeks."
"Alright, we'll see you at lunch." Victoria hugged George, Fred and Percy before turning to Ron.
"We'll probably have lessons together." Ron smiled slightly allowing Victoria to hug him quickly. "If you want to sit by me."
"I'll see you all later." Victoria waved to the small group which moved to the Gryffindor table while she moved to the Slytherin table which had some older students. There weren't any first years there yet, nor where the fifth-year prefects.
Not long after she'd taken a seat and filled her plate, the other Slytherin first years were escorted into the Great Hall. Draco took the seat opposite her, while Daphne and Pansy set next to Victoria. The other first years settled around them, so that Draco and therefore Victoria, were in the middle and therefore could be heard by all the first years. Victoria raised an eyebrow very slightly at Draco, wondering why he had decided to sit opposite her and therefore giving her a position of importance in the group.
"The Prefects thought you'd slept in," Draco informed her.
"I don't sleep in. I met with my brother's this morning." Victoria explained.
"You remembered the way back to the Great Hall?" Daphne asked, shocked.
"I have a very good memory for directions." Victoria shrugged lightly.
"Your timetables" Professor Snape's voice spoke from behind Victoria, causing her to twist half way in her seat so she wasn't presenting the man her back while he talked. "You will be escorted to lessons by a prefect for the first week. Learn your way quickly, I do not tolerate tardiness."
He placed the timetables in the middle of the group, which was between Victoria and Draco, before sweeping up to the next group of students. They each picked up one of the timetables and looked over it.
Their day was split into four sessions: 9:00 till 10:30, then 11:00 till 12:30, then it was lunch for an hour. Session three started at 13:30 till 15:00. Their final lesson was from 15:15 till 16:00. When they had double lessons, they didn't get the break that was scheduled. Percy had mentioned that they might get a few minutes break during transfiguration or charms, but they definitely wouldn't during the practical lessons of potions and herbology.
Monday was double charms, defence and then transfiguration. Tuesday was herbology, history, a free and then potions. Wednesday was very full, with double transfiguration, defence, history and then astronomy in the evening. Because they had astronomy on the Wednesday, they had a free on Thursday morning before defence and double herbology. Finally, Friday was charms, history and then double potions. All their transfiguration, charms, defence and potion lessons were with the Gryffindors, while history and astronomy were with all four lessons. This meant that she only had to deal with herbology without her brother.
"We don't have potions for another two days." Draco frowned in disappointment.
"We also have Astronomy on our first night." Victoria pointed out. Since their sorting had been on the Tuesday, they were starting lessons in the middle of the week.
"Why are most our lessons with the Gryffindor?" Pansy grumbled.
"That's the way it always is." Victoria shrugged. "All three of my older brothers shared most of their lessons with Slytherin until NEWT level. Once you get to NEWT, you share lessons with all houses."
"Oh yeah, how many older brothers do you have? I know there are three of them here." Tracy Davis, who had taken the seat next to Daphne, questioned.
"Four brothers here." Victoria corrected. "Two more that have since graduated, and I have a sister who will be here next year."
"Eight children? I knew you Weasley always have many of them, but eight…" Pansy sneered.
"Both the Prewitt family and the Weasley's have been known to have high fertility rates. I think it combined within both of my families to allow my mum to have so many children." Victoria shrugged lightly.
She knew that a lot of the older families were jealous of the Weasleys because of this fact. The Blacks used to be able to have three children per generation, but even they in their most recent of generations were lucky to get two children. The three sisters, Andromeda Tonks, Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix were expected to bear two or three children like their parents, but Andromeda only had the one, as did Narcissa while Bellatrix never bore a child. Of the sons of that generation, one had died before he'd married and another had been sent to prison before he could prove that he could bare children. The other old families have only been having one or two children for the last hundred and fifty years, which was why the Weasleys had been so blacklisted when they fell. If the high society could get over her family history, Victoria new very well that she would be a very acceptable bride despite her name because of her potential ability to carry more than one child and therefore repopulate a family name. Despite this fact, she wasn't going to marry for anything other than love. If she fell for an old family name, she was not afraid to use her family's fertility history to get in good with the parents.
"That, and my mother loves the noise in the house. I feel bad for Ginny, she has to deal with that on her own. At least over the last two years, me and Ron were there to help." Victoria smirked.
"I know what you mean. My younger sister is stuck at home without me. I'm expecting a letter over the next day or so, asking for me to tell mum to back off." Daphne admitted.
"Since I'm outside of your social circle, I only know the answer to this question in regards to Malfoy," she nodded to the blond. "But I was wondering how many of you have siblings?"
"I've got two older brothers, one in seventh year and the other graduated." Pansy admitted after a glance at Draco to make sure he approved this line of conversation.
"I've got a younger brother." Tracy was next. "He'll be with us in two years."
"Anyone else?" Victoria glanced around, but they all shook their heads.
"Blimey, I knew that having single children has become more common in the last thirty years, but of sixteen Slytherin first year children only four of them have siblings. That's…" Victoria shook her head. "That's ridiculous. Is it the same in the other houses and years?" This time, Victoria looked directly to Draco since the boy would likely have a good study of various old families.
"Very normal for our generation." Draco admitted. "In each year, for the purebloods and some notable half-bloods at least, it's around 5% have siblings. I can give you better states with a little bit of work."
"No, it's fine. I just hadn't realised how few people were having multiple siblings. I thought it was around 25% among purebloods and first-generation half-bloods. Not as low as five. In a recent study, which looked at 14,211 non-magical children 3,513 where only children, 6,626 had one sibling, while 4,072 had two or more siblings. Since that sample was representative of all family groups in the non-magical world, that means that on average around 47% of non-magical families have one sibling, with 75% having one or more siblings. Which also means, among the muggle-born population who join our world, it's quite possible that anywhere from 25% to 75% of them have siblings depending on how representative they are of their non-magical counterpart. And you've got to consider that this has been a percentage that has been going up for the past thirty years." Victoria explained why she had been so shocked.
"Where do you get those numbers?" Blaise Zabinni asked.
"Since my family don't have a library, I had to go to the local library which was split half and half with a non-magical library. I ventured into that side a time or two, and discovered that the non-magical world keeps demographic statistics that are taken every year. Relating to the number of people in their population as well as house hold states like marriages, co-habitation, divorces and children. It intrigued me." Victoria shrugged lightly.
When she found the records, which she could remember existing in her previous life, she had been overjoyed since it was something that she wanted to be able to bring to the wizarding world. She needed the stats in order to help prove that inter-marrying was a very bad idea – which she was hopeful genetics would help. She'd approached Percy with the information, and the both of them were planning on how they could go about applying something similar in the wizarding world – especially with the higher number of home-births.
"First years, follow me. We're heading to lessons." The fifth-year prefect, Mark McClivert came over. "Ah, Weasley glad you could make it."
"I made it here before you did, McClivert. Would you like me to inform an older student when I leave before the other first years this week?" Victoria asked, keeping her sarcasm hidden and trying to project sincerity.
"No. It's your own responsibility if you go wondering the corridor and get lost." McClivert snorted.
"If I get lost, it won't be for long." Victoria snorted.
"Why?" Tracy attempted to get an explanation for that statement, but Victoria was done explaining things to her fellow first years for now. She might decide to give them a little more to work with later, but she had to explain things in a slow way since a lot of what she knew had the potential to change belief systems.
*^*^*^*^Day 1*^*^*^*First Transfiguration lesson*^*^*^*^*
Professor McGonagall started her lesson with a very strict explanation about the dangers of her subject. Particularly the dangers of doing something that they weren't yet ready for. She moved on from there, to explaining what Transfiguration was and how it was accomplished.
"Transfiguration is the art of using one's imagination in order to enforce our will onto our environment." Professor McGonagall began sternly.
The entire class was set up taking notes, just as they had been for the last fifteen minutes. Victoria really hoped that they would do some practical at some point, since this was a double period and writing notes would be extremely boring for their first ever lesson for a class which was meant to be practical. She could already tell several of the non-magical raised students were struggling with the quill writing, since the grip was very different on a quill compared to a pen. Especially since they had History later, which would be a complete notes-only lesson.
"I will be teaching you how to look at an object and change it's shape, starting first with inanimate to inanimate and as we work through the years, we will end up transfiguring animate to animate and conjuring inanimate items." Professor McGonagall demonstrated by transfiguring a goblet into a paper weight, the paper weight into a parrot and then the parrot into a cat. "When casting a spell in transfiguration, will and belief is very important. If you don't believe you can change the object, then you won't change the object. The next important thing, is imagination. If the accuracy of the image in your mind isn't right, then the object you transfigure will reflect that. Which could lead to objects which are not completely transfigured, or brittle and easily broken."
"The first object you will be learning to transfigure is a matchstick into a needle. Because these objects are very similar in shape it is easier to transfigure. You will only be focusing on changing the material and density of the object, adding detail at the tip and eye and of course the colour. Read chapters 1 through 3 of the textbook; taking notes and once you have done that let me know and I will give you a matchstick. The spell is 'Flintifors', and the wand movement is a 280-degree rotation of the wand, followed by a flick and downward point over the object you are changing."
*^*^*^Day 1*^*^*^*^*First Defence lesson*^*^*^*^*^*
Defence with Professor Quirrell was… difficult. Discounting her prior knowledge of what this man was carrying around on the back of his head, which she made a valiant effort to not think about. The issue was his talking – he stuttered on every word making it extremely difficult to work out what the hell he was talking about. And once she had worked out what was being said, she realised that the lesson was going to be useless.
The man spent the entire time talking about pointless things. He spent the first half of the lesson discussing how 'Fredric the Impossible' had used the blasting curse in order to carve a home from a mountain, and how the curse was then adapted to be used in battle by 'Fleamont Potter' who used it to trip up the enemy by making the ground unstable. At no point during his narration did he mention the spells name, incantation, the wand movement or anything relevant to the actual casting of the spell.
The second half of the lesson was spent with Quirrell talking about his encounter with vampires. Most of them seemed made up and ended in him running away without a single mention of how one can fight or evade them. Even when he discussed running away, he just said that he got out of the area, but not the way in which it was done – no mention of Apparating or an emergency portkey.
Within the first twenty minutes of the lesson starting, Victoria had made the determination that she needed to contact her brothers and get a copy of their lesson notes and the name of their defence books from first year. Then it was a matter of hitting the library, and hoping that the combined knowledge of first year lesson notes from four different points of time would give her a good idea of what she actually needed to know for the end of the year. Once she had her own guide and notes written, she would ensure Ron had a copy because she didn't want his grade to suffer just because they didn't have an effective teacher.
*^*^*Day 1^*^*^*^*First History Lesson*^*^*^*^*^*
Victoria was relieved to discover that History wasn't the write off she was fearful that it was going to be. Just as she'd heard from her older brothers, Binns was as boring as sin with his droning voice and inability to focus on the class. However, the things he was talking about weren't boring at all. In the first class, he dived right in and was discussing the first time the wizarding interacted with the goblin nation that was in our records and the treaty that resulted. Victoria made a conscious effort to keep her attention focused on every word that the ghost was saying. By the end of the lesson, she was able to phase out how droning his tone was.
Very interestingly, she noted that Binns seemed to answer questions that no one in the class had actually asked. She assumed that these answers where to the most frequently asked questions from back when he was alive. Most of the time she could make an educated guess on what the question had been, and trying to work this out helped keep her entertained and focused when the monotonous quality of the lesson got to her.
*^*^*^*^*^*Setting up her lab*^*^*^*^*
Victoria went from her history lesson to Professor Snape's office. Fred was the one to meet her outside of the classroom so she didn't get lost since she hadn't been to the man's office yet.
"Where's George?" Victoria asked leaning into Fred's side.
"Elsewhere. You good?" Fred smiled, allowing the movement since he had gotten used to walking with Victoria clinging to his side. Normally this physical contact only happened on specials days, when they returned or left from Hogwarts and on days when Victoria was upset.
"I thought it would be easier being in the same school as you, but this is day one and seeing you this morning and at lunch just wasn't enough." Victoria admitted. She'd been ignoring the pull inside her as best she could, so she could focus on her lessons, and had made an effort to sit as close to Ron as possible but being in different houses meant that there wasn't always a seat available next to him. Although she had sat in between Ron and Harry in history.
"You're clingier than normal." Fred agreed. "You want me to stay with you until dinner?"
"I…" Victoria heisted, conflicted. She couldn't really have Fred there while she was setting up her lab because of the identification and safety runes she needed to set up. It was bad enough that she needed to work around Professor Snape and give him as much authority of the lab as she was giving herself, but she couldn't work around Fred. If Bill was there, he would be able to manage it, but she didn't have that skill or the magical power to support it. She could ask him to stay for the first part, while she talked specifics about her business with Professor Snape and how she was going to manage that alongside her school work. "I'll be okay. But um… can I eat dinner with all of you?"
"Of course." Fred agreed, wrapping his arm around her shoulders instead of holding her arm. This ended with them walking while being in a side hug. "You finished your letter home yet?"
"I finished it between lesson three and four with Ron. You want to add a post note or are you sending your own letter with my own?" Victoria questioned, grateful that Fred was letting her be cuddly. Her entire family was good at contact with her, and with each other, even Ron who would reach out to take her hand or brush his arm against one of their brothers.
"Percy has his own letter which he will want to attach to yours, and we're going to add a post script to your letter. We'll send a full letter at the end of the week. Percy's going to start sending his on Monday, if you and Ron take Wednesday and we take Friday…"
"That means mom and dad get a letter three times a week. And we can add post scripts, if necessary, to each other's letters." Victoria agreed, grateful that they were continuing the rotating letters that they had used with her. Just because their mum and dad didn't have the physical connection she did, didn't mean they didn't worry about them.
"You going to speak with Bill tonight?" Fred questioned.
"Tomorrow. And I've got Charlie on the mirror for Saturday. I'll see if we can arrange a different time at some point so we can all talk. At the minute Charlie and Bill only have time after curfew and because I'm in a different dorm…" Victoria sighed.
"As much as Slytherin suits you, it's throwing up a lot of problems." Fred laughed lightly.
"I thought I'd be able to cope," Victoria sighed. She'd considered a lot of possibilities and scenarios about being in Slytherin or Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor, but it seemed she might have over estimating her progress when it comes handling this connection with her direct family members.
"Give it a few weeks," Fred sighed, coming to stop outside of a door, which Victoria assumed was Professor Snape's. "You'll settle in. And if not, we'll just have to come and camp in your common room a few nights a week."
"What… what if I'm getting worse?" Victoria rested her head against Fred's chest. "It was so much easier last year, but this year… I can feel Bill and Charlie and they're so far away. And mum, she's stressed and worried, and that's making dad anxious. Ginny's upset that we're gone. I can feel it, Fred. Ron he's emotion's keep going from happy to worried because he's not sure if he can do well with his school work. I can feel it so strongly. If I focus, I know that Percy's in the Gryffindor Common room and Ron's outside. I didn't use to be able to do that." Victoria took deep breathes, trying not to cry. She didn't want to break down right now about something she thought she'd had a handle on for years.
"Where's George?" Fred questioned, trying to keep the normal cheer in his voice instead of allowing his fear to be heard in his voice. Victoria normally only got emotions when one of them was experiencing a really strong emotion – like when Bill graduated, he had been so happy that Victoria had known the results before he got home.
"He's on the third floor. I assume he's presently trying to see why the corridor is out of bounds." Victoria explained, trying to calm herself down. She couldn't talk to Professor Snape in this state.
"And everyone's okay at the minute? If not happy, content?" Fred prompted.
"Yeah, mum and Ginny are together. I think they're baking. And dad's at work, I think he's got an interesting case because he's bouncing between happy and excited." Victoria smiled slightly, feeling herself calm and settle slightly. "Bill's sleeping and I think Charlie is doing manual labour 'cause it feels like he's sulking."
"Of courses he's sulking, he's not with his babies." Fred snorted. "He's got a dangerous obsession with anything scaly, large and fire-breathing."
"And you have a dangerous obsession with pranks and experimenting." Victoria snorted, slowly pulling away from Fred so her arms were around his back but she wasn't leaning against him anymore.
"You going to be okay talking with Professor Snape? I can get George down here and we can sandwich you in our awesome." Fred smirked, pleased that Victoria had calmed down. George was normally the one better at handling emotions then him, but they weren't always together and he'd decided to be the one to escort Victoria to Professor Snape because he was the one who did better in potions and therefore, the one the Professor tolerated more.
"Miss Weasley, if you want your brother present, I will accept only one into my office." Professor Snape's voice brought their attention to the man who was stood, arm's crossed, not far from them.
"How long you been there?" Fred demanded.
"I arrived just after you did." Professor Snape answered curtly.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Fred questioned.
"It's clear you needed to have a moment. And I don't know enough about Miss Weasley's situation in order to say something which might have helped." Professor Snape answered curtly. "Is this meeting taking place with two Weasleys?"
"No, just the one." Victoria decided. "Fred, could you let the other's know about dinner?"
"Of course. If you need me, or any of the others, send word. And we'll be a herd of red heads through these corridors." Fred joked.
"Thank you. Go, get George out of trouble." Victoria stepped away from her brother. Feeling stable once more.
"Right then, Miss Weasley. We need to get this sorted before dinner. Otherwise, the meeting will continue into our meeting later in the month." Professor Snape stepped around them and opened the door to his office.
"See you in a bit," Fred promised.
"Miss Weasley, I'm aware that we are here to discuss your business and lab, but I would first like to discuss this connection you have with your family. The Headmaster briefed me when I became your head of house, but he wasn't able to give me details. From your conversation with Mr Weasley, your connection is a lot stronger that what was suggested by the headmaster." Professor Snape sat behind his desk, while Victoria took the seat opposite him.
"I figured you'd want to discuss it. It will only take me thirty minutes to set up the primary safety and identification precautions. So as long as we leave that time, we can discuss this. As you are my head of house, you need to understand how this affects me. We can discuss the particulars of my business and lab set up at a different time if necessary. As it is, I won't work until we have had that discussion. I made enough back stock that I'll be okay for the next month unless I get a custom order through." Victoria explained.
"Fortunately, my start of term load is light enough that, if necessary, we can set up another appointment for Friday at the same time. Which, I'm going to recommend doing anyway outside of whatever outcome we reach for this meeting. Normally I wait until October before conducing the first meeting with my first years but in your case, I believe it would be best to check in every two weeks starting from Friday. This meeting will be in order to establish a base knowledge." Professor Snape explained, pulling a note book out. "I'll be taking notes that I will charm so only I can see."
"That's fine." Victoria agreed. "Do you understand the basics of what my familia connection means?"
"You have a connection to your close family relations which allows you to know when they are in danger or feeling strong emotions. When you're going to be separated from them for an extended period of time, you seek physical contact in order to reduce your anxiety." Professor Snape rattled off. "That's what I knew before I caught you outside my door. Talking about feeling your family's emotions even though they weren't extreme, and knowing their location. Something which has never been reported by those with familia copulare."
"I know. I looked it up when I realised it was getting stronger. Bill's been sending me diaries of others who have been in my position." Victoria glance down at her hand. She hadn't told her family that no one had presented with as strong a connection as her, but she had asked her brothers to be on the lookout because she wanted to know about the other's that were like her.
"Have you been overwhelmed like that before?" Professor Snape questioned.
"No, but this situation is very different. I'm not sleeping in the same room as my sister anymore. I don't have a brother within ten metres of my position the majority of the time. The distance between the dungeons and the Gryffindor common room is nearly 500times that." Victoria took a deep breath. "I'm struggling to cope with the change. When I moved away from Ron to come and see you, I needed Fred to help calm me down."
"And physical contact helps?" Professor Snape questioned.
"It does, yes. Even if it's just the one brother, being able to hold them helps. If I'm more distressed, I need more brothers to hold onto. I… two years ago Ron fell from his broom. Broke his arm, hit his head. I was down in the village with Percy when it happened. I felt his injuries, the split second of fear before the pain and him passing out. I remember screaming his name. Percy had to carry me back to the house because I was practically catatonic. They put me in the bed next to Ron, and then Fred and George climbed in with us and Percy had a hand on my foot. I didn't come out of it until Ron woke up and was talking to me." Victoria explained, trying to explain the seriousness of her reaction.
"You have a brother at a dragon reserve and another digging in warded tombs in Egypt. They are guaranteed to get injured." Professor Snape sighed.
"I know. At the minute, Charlies got a few burns but nothing series and Bill has avoided all but a few cuts and bruises. I wake up every day, dreading the time when I feel something worse. But I know that they love their work, they are so happy where they are, and I trust them to look out for themselves." Victoria shrugged.
"And if something happens to them, when you aren't in the presence of your brothers? What do you need?" Professor Snape questioned.
"Get me to them, or them to me. I'll likely go catatonic, which means I should be easy to move around if you need to. They'll know what to do." Victoria took a deep breath. "There isn't anything I can suggest, not till I get a better hold on how this is developing."
"How is it developing? What can you get at the minute? I can help you track it as an outside observer." Professor Snape questioned.
"I can get their general location in regards to me. Those which are so far away, I can only get the direction and maybe, a general estimation of distance. I get their emotional state, no matter how muted it is. I know if they're awake or sleep, or if they're hungry." Victoria took a deep breath. "My uncles, I know if they're seriously injured and if I focus, I can get their location but it's not as strong as it is with my close family. The rest of my blood family, like Aunt Mariel, I know they're alive. I've lost a grandparent in the last two years and I felt the lose of connection, but it wasn't harmful." Victoria finished her explanation as best she could.
"How far away is the blood relation connection you can feel? First, second generation?" Professor Snape frowned.
"If you consider my parents and siblings, first generation, my uncles and grandparents would then be second generation. Then, aunt Muriel, is a third-generation connection. The other connections, four generation, I don't have through blood only marriage and I can't feel their children, who would be fifth generation." Victoria frowned, trying to plot out the family tree in her head. "So that puts my limit at third-generation, but I don't have a lot of interaction with those who are my fourth or fifth generation family. And I know the difference between my uncles and grandparents is because I spend more time with my uncles."
"So, you could develop connections with further generations, if you spent more time with them?" Professor Snape frowned. "What about friends?"
"I've never had a close friend. I was worried about if I would develop a connection to them, indicating that this isn't just linked to blood but rather anyone I develop feelings for enough that I would consider them family." Victoria admitted. "But that's just something I'm going to have to monitor. I believe I'll notice if a new emotional connection forms that I don't recognise as one of my families.
"Alright, so it's a matter of monitoring the strength of your connections and reaching out to your siblings if necessary," Professor Snape tapped his notes. "Does that seem right to you?"
"I don't think there's anything else we can do. I've been looking into meditation techniques in order to help get a hold on the connections and cope with the changes." Victoria admitted. "It was the only thing I could thing of that might help."
"Have you considered Occlumency?" Professor Snape frowned.
"I've not been able to find any reading material on it, and none of my family learnt Occlumency. Not even Gideon and Fabien know anything about it, since they're Aurors, not wit-wizards." Victoria explained. The library near her family didn't have such complex subjects in their books, and unlike the non-magical world, there wasn't the option to order in books.
"I can lend you several books to see if it will help, alongside your meditation." Professor Snape moved over to his shelf. "These books are on lone. I expect them back by May in exactly the same condition that you took them in."
"I'll take very good care of the books, Professor. Thank you." Victoria slid the books into her bag before glancing at the clock. "Professor, we've got forty-five minutes until dinner."
"We should move onto discussing your business. There isn't anything else we can really discuss in regards to your familia copulare right now." Professor Snape agreed.
"My business is candles and make-up, made and sauced from natural products. My sister is saucing the products for me following my directions and will be sending them using a specially designed storage device. The lists for orders will also be going to my sister for organising and prioritizing so as to not impact on my work load to the point of stress while I adapt to school work. By next year, I'll have a better handle of when I can assign time to that paperwork, and I'm also working on supply storage for when I can't harvest during the school year. Unless I get a sudden increase in custom orders beyond my normal, I should only have to spend up to five hours a week in my lab. I was planning on being in the lab after potions on the Friday and Tuesday. With your by-weekly meetings I'm going to have to do those lost hours on the Saturday."
"Would it be easier to have those by-weakly meetings in your lab? Or would our conversation distract you?" Professor Snape frowned. "Saturday and Sunday are going to be hardest for you since you won't be with your brother for the majority of the day."
"Normally, I would hesitate about someone being in the lab while I'm working but you're a potions master. Therefore, you know the contamination protocols." Victoria hummed thoughtfully. "And I'm confident in my multi-tasking abilities. There is a stage, in the candle curing process which requires the use of a face mask due to the toxic fumes that can be produced. I assume, you have an alternative to assure you're breathing and lungs aren't endangered?"
"I do, indeed, have measures I can put in place when working in the presence of toxic fumes." Professor Snape nodded his head. "What will you do if you can't cope with your work load? Either this year, or the next when your sister joins us here."
"I'm working on scaling up my batches, which means I'll be able to produce more products of my non-custom makes. And even my custom makes start from the same base, which I then separate in order to add the additional substances or colours." Victoria shrugged. "I'm close to working out the appropriate ratios and balances to scale up like that. Once I've got that done, I believe I'll be able to handle the changed and additional workload going into my second and even OWL and NEWT years."
"I'll be monitoring your grades, Miss Weasley. If your grades begin to fail, I'm obliged to stop you running your business or otherwise interfere as I see necessary until you get your grades back up." Professor Snape began sternly, but Victoria cut him off.
"Professor, my brother Percy is the only one truly aware of the extent of this, with Bill and Charlie at least having an understanding, but theoretically speaking I am at the end of third, moving into fourth year. I don't have the practical knowledge yet, but because I have the theoretical, I can spend time working on practical which will allow me to progress quicker than most students will. Since I can use my previous research, and knowledge of the books where that knowledge is, I'll get through homework quicker. If my grades start to fail, I'm going to admit myself for medical evaluation." Victoria smiled bitterly at the end. She knew that strong theory didn't always mean good practical, but she was confident since she was already channelling magic for her runes.
"I'll hold you to that, Miss Weasley." Professor Snape warned. "Now, we'd best go and set up your lab before we run out of time."