Victoire's POV
Why did it have to rain so much in Scotland?
Getting off the train into the pouring rain was not a welcome experience, even if there were charms to keep you dry. So far, this was my seventh out of seven years that it was raining before the opening feast. The charms helped keep you dry, but you still felt the rain fall on your skin. It was a really weird experience.
As Head Girl, I had to stand on the platform and make sure that everybody got off the train and either into carriages or going with Hagrid to the boats. Looking around the platform, I saw that I was the only one still there, meaning that my counterpart, Jordan, was gone. I was sure that he would get removed from his position sooner or later.
Getting into the last carriage that was waiting for me, I headed up to the school. I was angry at Jordan for not helping me, both on the train and on the platform. I was also looking forward to seeing two of my cousins get sorted. Rose seemed like a shoe-in for Ravenclaw, which made me happy, but as I thought about it, she might actually go to Gryffindor.
Al was a whole different story. He could go into any of the houses. He had the smarts for Ravenclaw, as he used to sit with me when I studied when he was smaller, and he had asked some questions that wouldn't have come out of a normal 8 year old. For Gryffindor, while he wasn't the most outspoken person, he had some inner fire and would stand up for causes that he really believed in. I sort of thought that he was like how Uncle Neville was portrayed in the books. Slytherin might fit Al the best. Living in the shadow of his father and brother gave Al a sneaky side that some Slytherins would kill for. Just at the beginning of this past summer, I caught Al at midnight in my house trying to steal some of my mum's homemade pastries from the fridge. He had apparently flooed to our house without anyone knowing on both ends and taken some sweets from our fridge. I had only caught him because I was still awake. And last was Hufflepuff. Al was one of the nicest people out there. He would be one of the first people to give you a hug, and he always made sure everyone was being included in situations like quidditch.
As the carriage got to the castle, I went into the main door, and into the Entrance Hall. Before I could enter the Great Hall, a house elf popped up.
"Headmistress be's asking Pip to give yous these notes," the elf said and handed me two notes.
"Thank you Pip," I said as the elf popped away.
Walking into the great hall, I saw that the Hall looked as glorious as it had ever been, with the ceiling looking like the night sky and the candles floating up above. The sorting hat was sitting on a three-legged stool in front of the head table.
I went to the end of the Ravenclaw table nearest to the Head Table and I took a seat across from Leo.
"About time you got here," he said. "Why did you come in alone, wasn't Jordan supposed to be with you?"
"He was supposed to, but I found myself alone on the platform, and then an elf stopped me and gave me these two notes." I showed him the 2 notes.
"Is that the new boy, Michael?" Leo asked, pointing at the Head Table next to Uncle Harry.
"Yes it is. I wonder why he's sitting there, and not with us like he said?"
"Wow, with a capital W. Are you sure that he doesn't have a twin or something? I'd settle for a cousin if he looked close to that," Leo said, my blush increasing as he said it.
"Anyways," I said, needing to change the topic, "Let's read these two notes."
As Leo gestured for me to go on, I opened the first note.
Miss. Weasley,
As Head Girl you will be given your own suite with a common room and rooms for you and Mr. Wilkes. I would appreciate it if you would stay in the Hall after the feast so I can show you to the rooms. You can also give me a report on how the train ride went, as well as handing me a copy of the prefects' patrol schedule.
Headmistress McGonagall
I showed the note to Leo as I didn't want to read it outloud. I opened the other note.
Vic,
I'm sorry that I have to break my promise of sitting with you for dinner. I was told by Harry just a little while ago that I have to sit at the Head Table for major feasts. If what I've been told is actually correct, I should be able to sit with you tomorrow for meals.
Sorry once again,
Michael.
I showed this letter to Leo as well, as the first years were led up the center aisle and the sorting ceremony began.
I wasn't paying much attention to names, but I was welcoming new Ravenclaws as they got sorted. The first kid that I really paid attention to was Scorpius Malfoy.
So far, he took the longest of any of the kids to be sorted. The Hat eventually yelled out "Hufflepuff!" Scorpius actually looked kind of happy as he got off the stool and walked to the Hufflepuff table. Some more kids later, I heard the name Albus Potter.
Al went up to the hat, and he seemed to sit there for a minute, and the Hat called out "Hufflepuff!" Al took off the hat, and looked back at Uncle Harry, who had one of the biggest grins that I've ever seen. Seeing that, Al perked up as he walked to the Hufflepuff table and sat next to Scorpius Malfoy.
The last family member I had to wait for was Rose. With a 'W' last name, she was the last one sorted. I was really hoping that she would go to Ravenclaw. After a couple minutes, the Hat called out "Gryffindor," and Rose sat down at the table next to Roxie.
The sorting ended and McGonagall got up to give her speech.
"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Before the feast, I just have one announcement. This year, Professor Potter has taken on a new apprentice, Michael Davis." At this, she pointed to where Michael was sitting and he stood up, and looked around the hall. His eyes made contact with mine, and he smiled. He sat down and Professor McGonagall continued. "He will be a part of this castle throughout the year, but he will not be sorted or be a part of the house system since he is not a student. I hope you will show him a nice Hogwarts welcome. And with that, let's eat." and with a clap of her hands, the tables filled up with food.
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As dinner was finishing, I told Leo that I would meet him for breakfast in the morning. It was really weird staying in the hall when everyone left. When it was just me, Jordan, and the Headmistress, she spoke up.
"I assume everything from the train ride to the carriages went smoothly."
With this, Jordan looked down at the floor ashamed, although I didn't know how sincere he actually was.
"Actually Professor, everything did go fine, I drew up the prefects patrol schedules and explained to the new ones the expectations on the train ride, and I had a carriage all to myself after making sure that everyone got off the train"
"And why was it that Mr. Wilkes was not in that carriage with you?"
"I have no idea, why don't we ask him?"
We both looked at Jordan, who seemed really interested in the sconces on the walls.
"Mr. Wilkes, anytime."
"I went with my friends."
"Professor Longbottom did recommend you for this position, although I was skeptical. I need you to know that this is a privilege and not anything else. It can be taken away, although Hogwarts hasn't had a head student forced to step down since 1871.
"Ok" he mumbled.
"I will now take you to your rooms. They are on the 3rd floor, close to the Charms classroom.
As we walked up the stairs, I made sure that the headmistress was between me and Jordan. I really didn't need him trying to hold my hand or anything else.
We arrived on the third floor in front of the portrait of a lovely witch about 3 suits of armor down from the charms classroom.
"Lady Anna, these are the new Head students, Victoire Weasley and Jordan Wilkes."
"Weasley, like William and Percy? I haven't seen them in years."
"My Father and Uncle," I told her.
"The password is Leadership. Although if you plan on having friends over, you will have to bring them yourselves and make sure I know who they are." Lady Anna said.
As we entered the common room, I noticed that it was very cozy. There were two doors, one on the left with my name on it, and one to the right with Jordan's. There were also couches and tables where I could see me and Leo hanging out and doing homework. On the back wall there was a fireplace and above it hung all four house banners. To the left of the fireplace were four hourglasses with rubies, diamonds, sapphires and emeralds. It was a miniature version of what was in the Great Hall.
Jordan went straight into his room, apparently tired from doing no work. I had my own wards to set up on my door. I asked the headmistress to wait until I needed her to put in place the portkey as a part of my third layer of wards. I would have liked to have it in my top layer, but Professor McGonagall made me put it in the third because she reasoned that if it was in the top layer of wards, it could be activated by accident and by putting it in the third layer, it could only be activated by someone actively trying to break the wards.
Starting on the front, I started carving small runes along the edge of the door with a minor cutting curse. These top patterns were basic wards that needed to be laid down before any of the really nasty stuff could be laid down.
I had started at the point on the door that when I got to the doorknob, the next wards to put down were the Portkey wards. I carved the rune for travel onto the doorknob, and connected it to the beginning of the third layer runes, asking Professor McGonagall to power the rune and to make the doorknob into a portkey. She did so, and then took her leave. I carved a rune that linked the portkey on the doorknob to the rune sequence including the travel rune, and then I carved a sealing rune to be extra careful that I would never accidentally activate the portkey when I tried to enter my room.
After an hour and a half, I finally finished my seventh layer of wards. In all honesty, I knew that I didn't need to put up all of the wards that I did. Most teachers in Hogwarts wouldn't be able to get into my room now without my permission, and Jordan might be able to get through to the portkey on the doorknob, but only because he took Ancient Runes as an elective. Even then it would take him a while to unravel the wards up until then, and if he did get caught, he would definitely lose his badge not to mention the possibility of getting expelled.
The final layer had ward schemes that were borderline dark. One reason that I had decided to go through all of the troubles of putting all the wards up was because I was eager to use a lot of the runes that my dad had shown me this summer. While it did take an hour and a half to set it all up after a long train ride and dinner, it was an evil smirk kind of fun setting up these kinds of wards that I might never get another chance to use. I powered each layer of runes starting with the seventh and going backwards.
The last thing I did was link the rune of acceptance in the 5th layer to a piece of parchment that I had stuck to the back of my door with a sticking charm. I then wrote on that piece of parchment:
Victoire Weasley
Leo Abernathy
The parchment glowed white, and then I closed the door from the outside, and when I tried the doorknob and didn't feel my hand burning, I knew that it had worked. I closed my door and found a private bathroom attached to my room. I took a nice hot shower before magically drying myself and my hair before jumping into bed.