Year 2: Triple the Trouble
Chapter 15: January 2013
All too soon, the Christmas holidays were over and was heading back to Hogwarts.
"This is the last time you'll get on the train without me!" Dominique noted at King's Cross station as Victoire dragged her trunk up the stairs of the train.
"Yeah," Victoire said, envisioning what it would be like next year with her sister at Hogwarts. Though she loved Dominique, she had to say that she was looking forward to the next six months without her. "Well, I'll see you in June!" she said.
"You mean you're not coming home for Easter again?" Louis whined.
"Probably not," Victoire apologized to her brother. "It's right at the end of term when they assign us tons of homework."
"I never used to go home for the Easter hols," their father commented. "I remember Professor McGonagall used to love assigning lots of work over Easter to keep us nice and busy."
"Yeah, Professor Tonks does that too," Victoire said. "Not to mention, Professor Binns keeps hinting that he's going to assign another term paper for the second term. It sounds like it's going to be even more involved than the last one."
"Well good luck chèrie," Victoire's mother said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Have a good term."
The train began to move and Victoire went in search of her friends.
VvVvVvVvVvV
"What is that?" Brianna cried when they returned to their dorm later that night. There was a creature sitting in the middle of her bed licking itself.
"Oh, that's just Ricky," Raina replied. "My parents gave him to me for Christmas. He's a kneazle."
Ricky reminded Victoire a lot of her Aunt Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, except that while Crookshanks had golden fur, Ricky was all black.
"Well what's he doing on my bed?" Brianna demanded.
"I think he likes your scent," Raina said. "Come on Ricky, time to leave Brianna alone," she called. "Come on Ricky, come here."
Ricky completed ignored Raina.
"Okay, seriously, if that thing is still on my bed in one minute – "
"He's not a thing, he's a kneazle," Raina corrected, walking over and picking Ricky up. "Come on Ricky, you can lie on my bed," she said, putting him down on her pillow as she finished her unpacking.
"You better keep him over there," Brianna muttered. "I don't want car hair all over my stuff."
"He's a kneazle," Raina stressed. "Kneazle."
"Whatever," Brianna shrugged. "He's a hairball that needs to learn to stay in your part of the room."
Over the next few days, tension between Brianna and Raina only escalated. It turned out that one of Ricky's favorite hobbies was taking pieces of clothing and making little nests out of them. For some reason, he'd taken a particular liking to Brianna, and so every day while they were in class, he would sneak over to her trunk and find a sweater or nice top to curl up in and rip to shreds.
"I can't take it anymore," Brianna exploded one afternoon. "If you can't control him, then you need to get rid of him."
"Why can't you just lock your trunk?" Raina demanded. "Then he wouldn't be able to get inside."
"I shouldn't have to lock my trunk in my own room," Brianna threw back.
"By leaving it lying open the way you do, you're only enticing him to take your clothes," Raina insisted.
"Caitlin leaves her clothes all over the place and I don't see Ricky tearing up any of them. He has something against me, I can see it in his eyes. He has got to go!" Brianna screamed.
"No way, I know my rights," Raina said. "According to the Hogwarts rules, students are each allowed to have one owl and one other pet from the list of approved animals. I've done nothing wrong."
"What you've done is let Ricky think that it's okay to destroy other people's private property," Brianna said. "If you'd reprimanded him from the beginning, maybe he would have learned by now, but at this point he's just going to keep tearing things up."
"Maybe if you kept him in a cage during the day – "
"Oh no!" Raina cried, interrupting Victoire mid-sentence. "Ricky's not some uncontrollable beast who needs to be locked up. Kneazles need to be able to roam free, not be cooped up day and night in some horrid cage."
"I was just trying to help – "
"Well don't," Raina cried. "I've followed all the rules this time. This isn't like with the Shrivelfig and the illegal fertilizer. Ricky is allowed to be here and I intend on keeping him.
The next day, Brianna visited Madam Eldridge in the hospital wing, claiming that she was having an allergic reaction to Raina's new pet kneazle. She'd hoped that it would result in Raina having to give up the pet, but instead, Madam Eldridge gave her an allergy potion to take twice a day.
"I'm sick of this," Brianna grumbled later that night in the common room. "Look at him over there, destroying my lavender sweater." Victoire looked where Brianna was pointing and just like she'd said, he was dragging the now tattered sweater behind him as he followed Raina back up to the dorm.
"You know, maybe you should just lock your trunk," Victoire suggested.
"I can't do that!" Brianna exclaimed.
"Why not?" Kara asked. "If it would stop him from taking your clothes – "
"It's the principle of the matter!" Brianna cried. "I have to stand up for myself."
"But at this rate, you're not going to have any clothes left," Victoire pointed out.
"Don't worry about that," Brianna assured her friends. "I'm keeping track of everything that cat has ripped up. Once I get rid of Ricky, I'm going to be giving Raina a nice list of everything she has to reimburse me for."
Meanwhile, things weren't going so well for Victoire in school. She was doing fine in most of her classes, but recently, her grades in Charms had been slipping. It had started before the Christmas holidays, but she'd figured it was just a lack of enthusiasm due to the upcoming holidays. Now though, it was becoming clear that she was facing a serious problem. Professor Flitwick had suggested she ask her friend for some help, but she was too proud to admit to Kara or Brianna that she was failing.
"Whatcha workin' on there?" Teddy asked one day while Victoire was studying in the library. Kara and Brianna were back in the common room.
"Nothing," Victoire said hurriedly, shutting her Charms book with her assignment inside to hide it from him.
"Oh, hiding something are you?" Teddy smiled. "Come on, tell me. Is it a love letter? Do you have a secret boyfriend you haven't told me about?"
"No," Victoire said. "It's nothing like that."
"Then why won't you let me see?" Teddy demanded.
"It's just homework," Victoire said. "No big deal."
"No big deal? We'll see about that." Teddy grabbed the book out from in front of Victoire, causing her to shriek and chase after him through the shelves.
"No running in the library!" Madam Maxwell hissed at them. "And be quiet or I'll have to ask you to leave."
"Sorry," Victoire and Teddy replied.
As soon as she'd left, Teddy started to run again, this time sure to keep quiet so the librarian wouldn't catch him. Victoire tried to run after him, but she was too slow and when she caught up to him, he had opened her book.
"It's just a charms assignment," Teddy said, disappointed.
"I told you it was just homework," Victoire insisted, snatching it back from him. "Will you leave me alone now?" She stalked back to her table and plopped down in her chair.
"Why were you hiding your charms assignment?" Teddy asked.
"No reason," Victoire sniffed, trying to pretend she was all superior.
"Come on Victoire, you can tell me," Teddy insisted.
Victoire sighed. "Fine," she said finally. "But you can't tell anyone, especially not Kara or Brianna." She took a deep breath. "I'm failing Charms. This is some remedial work Professor Flitwick assigned me to help me catch up."
"Oh," Teddy said. "Well that's not so bad. It's just one subject and you're only in second year."
"Yeah, but if I don't catch up, I'm only going to fall farther and farther behind," Victoire said. "First I fail a few assignments, next I'm failing my end-of-year exam. Then I'm failing summer school and next thing I know, I'm the only third year still taking second year Charms."
"That is not going to happen," Teddy promised. "You're smart, you can figure this out. What's holding you back?"
"It started back in December when we started to learn the engorgement charm," Victoire said. "I could never get the spell right. Actually, I still can't."
"Have you covered the shrinking charm yet?" Teddy wondered.
"We just started last week," Victoire said. "And I can't seem to get that either. Nothing works for me. I do the wand motion, and I cast the spell, and nothing happens."
"I think I know what's wrong," Teddy said. "Size charms have a slightly complicated wand motion. You're probably just doing it wrong."
"Professor Flitwick says I don't understand the theory of the size spells," Victoire disagreed. "He says I need to have the theory completely grasped before I should try casting them again."
"Do you completely understand the theory of the severing charm?" Teddy asked.
"No," Victoire admitted.
"But I've seen you cast it," Teddy said.
"So what?" Victoire asked.
"So, I think Professor Flitwick is getting a little old and senile. Trust me, it's your hand motion. Just show me what you're doing and let me try to correct it."
"Alright," Victoire said hesitantly, pulling out her wand.
"No magic in the library!" Madam Maxwell snapped, appearing from behind a stack of books as if she was waiting for Victoire to do something wrong.
"Sorry!" Victoire apologized, shoving her wand back in her bag.
"Come on," Teddy suggested. "The Charms classroom is just down the hall. Professor Flitwick always leaves it open, we can practice in there."
Victoire gathered up her things and followed Teddy out of the library to the Charms classroom. When they got there, she dropped her bag by the door and held her wand in her hand.
"Alright, now what?" she asked.
"Try using the engorgement charm on that pot of ink," Teddy suggested, gesturing to some ink that was left behind on a nearby desk.
Victoire pointed her wand at the inkwell and focused all her energy on it. "Engorgio," she said, flicking her wand up in a diagonal fashion and the looping it around. She waited, but nothing happened.
"I was right," Teddy said. "You need to work on your wand motion, watch me."
Teddy pulled his wand from his pocket and swished it in the air, saying the incantation. In seconds, the inkwell had grown to twice it's size.
"I don't see a difference," Victoire complained. "You did the same thing I did."
"Watch again," Teddy said. "See how when I loop around, it's a smooth motion? When you do it, you make a sharp dip before looping back up."
Teddy did the spell again, this time shrinking the inkwell back to it's normal size.
"Okay, let me try again," Victoire said, thinking she saw the problem. "Engorgio," she said, whipping her wand around. Once again, nothing happened.
"You're still doing it," Teddy said. "You're going too far down and it's messing you up. Here, feel the motion." Teddy reached over and wrapped his hand around Victoire's, guiding her wand through the correct motion.
"Okay, I think I get it now," Victoire said. "Let me try again." She cast the spell a third time, again to no avail. "Hang on, I made the same mistake. Give me a second." She flicked her wand a few times to loosen up her wrist until she felt confident enough to try the spell again for real. "Okay, here I go," she said. She flicked her wand upward and looped it around, chanting the incantation and just as it was meant to, the inkwell began to grow. "I did it!" she cried in excitement.
"See?" Teddy asked. "I told you it was just a simple hand motion problem."
"Wait, let me try something," Victoire said, pointing her wand at the inkwell again. She concentrated and cast the shrinking charm, making sure to keep her wand motion fluid. As expected, the inkwell shrunk back to its original size. "This is amazing!" Victoire cried. "I can't believe it was such a simple problem!"
"It usually is," Teddy smiled.
"Thanks, by the way," Victoire said. "You saved me. I never would have fixed that on my own."
"It was no big deal," Teddy shrugged. "It was a simple fix."
"Yeah, but now I can show Professor Flitwick and I can stop having to do all this remedial work. You're the best," Victoire said, giving Teddy a hug before heading off to the common room.
VvVvVvVvVvV
"Okay Raina," Brianna said the next evening up in the dorm. "I've been doing some research and I have in my hand, a list of the approved Hogwarts pets that are allowed to be kept by students in their dorms. Let me read it out to you: cats, rats, toads, puffskeins, crups, and owls. Not kneazles."
"Did you happen to notice what year that list came out in?" Raina asked. "Because kneazles were added to the list in 1986 after it was discovered that they could be domesticated."
Brianna huffed.
"What year is this list from?" Victoire wondered.
"The 1950s I think," Brianna responded under her breath. "It was the only one I could find."
VvVvVvVvVvV
"Truth or dare?" Kara asked Victoire Saturday night as the girls took a break from their homework for the evening.
"Truth," Victoire decided.
"Who do you like better, me or Brianna?" Kara asked.
"What kind of question is that?" Victoire asked in indignation.
"The kind of question you have to answer," Kara said.
"I can't answer a question like that," Victoire protested. "It's totally unfair."
"No question is off-limits in truth or dare," Brianna said.
"Fine, then I guess Kara," Victoire admitted. "Sorry Bri, but I'm still a little upset about the whole Halloween/William Shimpling thing."
"I guess I deserve that," Brianna sighed.
"Truth or dare?" Victoire asked Brianna.
"Truth," Brianna said.
"Who do you like better, me or Kara?" Victoire asked.
"Right now, Kara," Brianna admitted. "Because you just picked her over me."
Victoire made a face. "Whatever," she said.
"Kara, truth or dare?" Brianna asked.
"Dare," Kara said immediately. "I'm not answering that question."
"I dare you to throw Ricky out the window," Brianna declared.
"Whoa! Hold on," Victoire said. "You can't dare her to do that!"
"Why not?" Brianna asked. "This is truth or dare. Anything goes."
"Because it's animal cruelty and definitely against the rules and it'll probably kill Ricky – "
"All the more reason – "
"And Raina would be devastated, and we would get in a ton of trouble – "
"A dare is a dare – "
"I'm sorry Brianna, but I'm veto-ing your dare," Victoire declared.
"Just give me the truth," Kara rolled her eyes.
"Fine, who do you like better, me or Victoire?" Brianna asked.
"Victoire," Kara declared.
"I thought we put November behind us," Brianna said.
"We did," Kara said. "But you just asked me to throw a kneazle out the window."
"Fair enough," Brianna shrugged.
VvVvVvVvVvV
"I'm sorry Brianna," Professor Longbottom said on Monday when Brianna confronted him about Ricky. "Raina is perfectly within her rights as a student to have a pet kneazle in the dorm."
"But he keeps getting into my stuff!" Brianna insisted.
"Perhaps you should consider keeping your trunk locked during the day?" Professor Longbottom suggested.
"Ugh!" Brianna threw her hands up into the air. "What is wrong with the world?"
VvVvVvVvVvV
"Victoire, good job," Professor Flitwick congratulated her in their next Charms class. "You've really mastered these spells. I bet it was all that research I had you do. Do you feel like you understand the spells better now?"
"Absolutely," Victoire lied. "I really think all that extra work helped."
"Well good," Professor Flitwick patted her on the arm. "Keep it up."
VvVvVvVvVvV
"Brianna's doing what?" Teddy asked the next evening as he, Victoire, and Kara played a game of exploding snap in the common room.
"She's researching spells for de-clawing a kneazle," Kara repeated. "She seems to think it'll solve all of her problems."
"You know spells like that are definitely above her skill level," Teddy pointed out. "How does she expect to pull it off."
"I don't know," Victoire shrugged. "Maybe she'll ask you to do it."
"I'm not going to go around secretly de-clawing other people's pets," Teddy said. "You can tell her no way."
"She has gone a little insane," Victoire agreed.
"Why can't she just keep her trunk closed?" Teddy asked.
"Apparently, it's the principle of the matter," Kara quoted.
"That's ridiculous. She's basically inviting Ricky to take her clothes," Teddy said.
"Don't let Brianna hear you say that," Victoire warned. "Raina told her the same thing and she flipped out."
"Noted," Teddy said, dealing a new hand. "Hey, what if one of you just locked her trunk in the morning after she left for class?"
"Tried that," Kara sighed.
"It didn't work?" Teddy asked.
"Brianna refused to talk to us for the rest of the day when she found out," Victoire rolled her eyes. "Said we were siding with Raina and that if we were true friends, we'd let her do things her way."
"That's ridiculous," Teddy said.
"That's Bri for you," Kara muttered.
Just then, Brianna entered the common room and screamed.
"What's wrong Bri?" Victoire asked, running to her friend's aide.
"That – that monster," she cried, pointing at Ricky curled up in a ball in the corner of the room.
"What's wrong?" Victoire asked.
"That is my favorite sweater," Brianna said. "It's the one with the little design on the bottom, remember?"
Victoire did remember. It was a really nice sweater.
"Raina!" Brianna cried, storming up to the dorms, Kara and Victoire right behind her. "Have you seen Ricky today?"
"Yeah, he's down in the common room with some old sweater," Raina said. "If you want him to stay out of your stuff, just close your trunk. You don't even have to lock it; I don't think he's strong enough to open it if it's shut."
"That's not just some sweater," Brianna screamed. "That's my favorite sweater. I looked amazing in that sweater and now he's ruined it."
"I don't understand why you're so surprised," Raina said. "He's been stealing your sweaters for weeks now, it's nothing new."
"You were supposed to train him to stop," Brianna cried.
"I've been trying, but he seems really set in his ways," Raina shrugged. "I keep my trunk closed and he doesn't rip up any of my clothes."
"I – you – I – Ugh!" Brianna screamed, storming into the bathroom and slamming the door behind her.
"Should we – " Kara looked questioningly from the bathroom door to Victoire.
"Let's give her some time to cool down," Victoire suggested, returning to the common room to continue their game of exploding snap.
"Where's Brianna?" Teddy asked when they sat back down.
"Probably trying to drown herself in the sink," Kara muttered.
"She's kidding," Victoire assured Teddy when he gave them an alarmed look. "She's just blowing off some steam.
In the end, Brianna caved and started keeping her trunk closed. It worked excellently. Ricky stopped stealing her clothes and it actually caused Caitlin to start keeping her stuff a little neater when Ricky started going after her things. Though Brianna and Raina still couldn't stand to be alone in the dorm at the same time, things in the second-year girls' dorms were on their way back to normal.