Vicki winced as the carriage came to a halt, a few steps away from the castle. It wasn't the rain or getting soaked that worried her. The cobblestoned path that led to the entrance was uneven and dangerous even in perfect weather. In the wet it became a serious hazard. Vicki was afraid of falling over in front of the whole school.
George noticed Vicki looking out the window in a worried manner, and he nudged his twin and pointed to his twin's crush. Even Lee, who had been oblivious to Fred's feelings for Vicki picked up on this and raised his eyebrows to the two twins, indicating he would be asking about this action later.
George disembarked from the carriage first and Lee hesitantly followed after, wanting to see what was going to happen between Vicki and Fred. As they were both being pelted with rain they quickly changed their minds on hanging around to watch Fred and made a beeline for the school entrance, leaving Fred and Vicki alone.
"I'll help you out. I can help you out of the carriage." Fred offered to Vicki.
Vicki looked out of the carriage and saw the uneven pavement below. She then looked back at Fred and nodded, not thinking twice.
Fred got out of the carriage, jumping out as he grinned towards the now sole occupant. Vicki took no hesitation in appearing out of the door. She knew she probably shouldn't be trusting Fred due to his prank-filled nature and this was a perfect opportunity for some mischief, but she put her trust into him and it paid off. In one quick motion he grabbed Vicki by the waist and swiftly placed her onto the ground, no effort involved.
To Vicki it was just the act of a friend helping her out but to Fred it was so much more. He was afraid he was making his feelings too obvious, especially as Vicki was still unavailable, he knew he would need to tone it down.
"Sorry love but I need to go. So many first years to prank, so little time." Fred smirked, barely leaving enough time for Vicki to respond as he ran off into the school entrance.
Vicki thought absolutely nothing of Fred's sudden departure as it was actually very in-character for him to do so, and she headed into the castle herself. As she was delayed at the train platform with her prefects duties and then as it took her a few minutes to get out of the carriage, the Entrance Hall was deserted, even Fred had manage to run into the Great Hall by the time Vicki arrived. All of the students were now in the Great Hall.
There was one person waiting for her. Stephanie Fawcett.
"You hate me for leaving you for Stebbins on the train!" Stephanie whined loudly.
Vicki looked at her friend and giggled when she saw that Stephanie was being completely serious. Her friend had purposely waited around for Vicki as she was paranoid Vicki was mad about earlier. Vicki thought it was sweet, but also amusing.
"I don't hate you for that. I will however hate you if you don't help me make myself more decent before going into the Great Hall in front of the whole school. I don't want to appear in front of everyone as a drowned rat. I know a great drying spell for our clothes and we can do something with our hair, but I'm hoping you have some make-up on you, mine is in my suitcase." Vicki responded.
Stephanie didn't say a word but held up a pink bulging bag smirking.
Inside the Great Hall Fred had taken a seat next to his twin George. Lee had scooted across (to the dismay of Angelina Johnson, who thought this was one of Lee's tricks to flirt with her as he entered her personal space to make room) and Fred sat in between the two.
"What on earth is going on with you and Vicki Hartwell?" Lee hissed towards Fred quietly.
"Nothing. That's the problem." George joked.
"It's not a problem. She's taken and I would never go after another man's woman. But it can't hurt to get to know her in case they were to ever break up." Fred winked towards Lee.
Lee began to laugh heartily, but then grew silent as a serious look dawned over him.
"You've put me into quite the predicament. You two are my best friends but Roger and Vicki are good friends too. If they were to break up and if you got Vicki, it could get very awkward between Roger and me." Lee explained.
George said something in defence but Fred didn't hear him. It was at that moment that Stephanie Fawcett and Victoria Hartwell burst into the Great Hall. Both of them were glowing, they were the only students not drenched as they had somehow dried themselves off, and both held total confidence as they glided towards their spot at the Ravenclaw table. Fred watched as Vicki sat next to Roger and gave him a passionate kiss.
"Cheer up mate. It's just a crush. Plenty of fish in the sea." Lee said to his best mate as he pat him on the shoulder, but George stayed silent as he watched his brother grimly.
"Oh look, here come the first years!" a second year from the Ravenclaw table piped up. Vicki withdrew from her affections with her boyfriend as she saw Professor McGonagall lead the first years to the head of the Great Hall for sorting.
Vicki stayed quiet as she watched the first years look around amazed. Stephanie was picking apart their appearances but Vicki was drowning her out. She would always remember the wonder and innocence when she first stepped into the Great Hall to be sorted herself. Her nerves of sorting slipped away when she looked at the wonders. The night filled sky in lieu of a roof (which she now knew was just an enchantment), the handsome goblets and cutlery and hundreds of students of people like her, witches and wizards who had their eyes on her. Even though she wasn't muggle born, she almost felt like one on her first day at Hogwarts, as she hadn't seen much of wizard culture in living in London.
It was something she would never be able to experience again, not for the first time anyway. She and Stephanie liked to sometimes bring attention to themselves but it would never bring back the feelings of stepping into the school for the very first time and having everyone's eyes on her.
During the hat's song, Vicki swelled with pride at every mention of Ravenclaw. She was very house proud and loyal. She had begged to be in Ravenclaw when the hat was sorting her six years ago. "Really? You have Ravenclaw traits yes, but the house I would like to sort you into would suit you better" the hat stated. Vicki spent half a minute arguing with the hat about why she would do best in Ravenclaw.
"Oh very well then, you clearly are a Ravenclaw." The hat had announced at the time.
That was now six years ago, but sometimes it still makes her shiver how close she had gotten to being part of a different house.
Vicki watched intently as the first of the first years (Stewart Ackerley) stepped forward and sat upon the three legged stool. She couldn't see his reaction as the hat covered his entire face but she saw the hat moving which meant the kid must have been shaking.
"RAVENCLAW!" the hat shouted eagerly.
Stephanie and Vicki looked at each other and nodded. Stephanie was nearly as house proud as Vicki and loved making a big scene. This was a perfect way to combine the two.
"Num-ber one! Num-ber one!" Stephanie yelled out eagerly.
"We got the first one! Lucky first. Go Ravenclaw!" Vicki yelled loudly, clapping and whistling as Stewart made his way to the table, still nervous but now about the attention he was receiving.
Vicki noticed Fred smirking at her from the Gryffindor table and he shot her a proud thumbs up. She returned it as she settled down for the next student to be sorted.
Gryffindor didn't receive a new student until the fifth student sat on the seat to be sorted. Vicki watched Fred carefully as the hat shouted Gryffindor, and he grinned at her mischievously as he jumped up with George and they shouted in unison.
"First the worst, fifth the best!" for the entire hall to hear.
Vicki just poked her tongue out at the twins in protest.
The rest of the sorting happened in a similar fashion. Stephanie and Vicki began competing with the twins whenever a first year was sorted into their house. Each time their respective house gained a new member, they all got louder and louder. By the end Vicki and Stephanie got up and stamped their feet chanting a song, and the twins jumped up onto their seats screaming.
It had gained attention from most other people in the hall who watched eagerly and laughed at the antics. A few teachers seemed unimpressed, but one time when Professor Dumbledore caught her eye Vicki noticed his twinkling eyes scrunched up into a smile.
"Not trying to steal Vicki from Roger you say? What would you call that?" Lee asked Fred as the sorting hat was taken away by Professor McGonagall.
"Fun. I'd call that fun." Fred grinned.
At the Ravenclaw table Vicki could tell Roger was moody and she guessed it was due to her behaviour, especially as Roger appeared to now hold some grudge against the twins. Vicki chose to not even acknowledge his bad mood and instead put her attention onto Dumbledore who had now stood up.
"I have only two words to say to you all. Tuck in." Dumbledore boomed throughout all of the Great Hall, a smile in his words.
As always, the magnificent golden plates around appeared with food around. A lot of the students began to dig into the dishes. Vicki stayed back and was planning to wait until all of the other students were eating before she would take any food to prevent having to fight her way through the food.
Vicki took a sidewards glance at her boyfriend who also wasn't touching any food either, just staring aimlessly at the table. She sighed. She hated it when Roger was in a mood and although she felt she hadn't done anything wrong, she was willing to try and work it out anyway to snap him out of it so they could both be normal again.
Vicki put an arm around Roger to test the waters. When he didn't react negatively (or at all) she knew it was safe to continue.
"Look, I'm sorry I embarrassed you. I got caught up in the moment, if I planned to do something I should have at least given you a warning." Vicki softly said to Roger, as she was patting his shoulders.
His reaction caught her off guard. During any tiffs they ever had it usually resulted in neither of them admitting fault but then they'd move over it swiftly. Not this time. Roger was about to do something unprecedented and accept blame.
"It's fine, babe. It was actually pretty funny." Roger smirked at Vicki, leaning over and giving her heated kiss whilst everyone around stuffed their faces with food.
Once they were done Vicki went straight to filling her plate with as much food as she could pile on. Roger on the other hand cast a look towards the Gryffindor table. Roger noticed that one of the twins was busy laughing and joking with everyone within earshot but the other one, was looking straight at them. Roger wasn't sure which twin was the one staring at him but he made sure to stare back. This was war.
The couple spent the entirety of dinner conversing with their house. Vicki decided to welcome the new first years and spent some time giving them hints and tips about Hogwarts. Roger on the other hand went to sit with the rest of his Quiddich team so they could speak about the upcoming season. All was fine between him and his girlfriend, Vicki barely noticed he was gone as she chattered away with her friends.
A while later when all of the students could not eat another bite and all forks were down, the plates cleared just as magically as they did when the food first appeared. Professor Dumbledore got up from his seat and all students fell quiet.
Dumbledore began to speak about the usual start of term announcements. Even though Vicki was a prefect and knew she should be paying attention, they always bored her and she always found herself zoning in and out, daydreaming during them.
However she started paying attention again for a moment, and it was an announcement which would stop her from zoning out for the rest of the night.
"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quiddich Cup will not take place this year." Dumbledore announced.
Vicki whipped her head around to Roger. Amusement went through her head for a split second as she knew he had lost his bargaining chip for getting out of both school tasks and some of his prefect duties. But then as she saw the look of anguish on his face as he silently gaped at Dumbledore, his friends surrounding him doing the same, she felt awful. Roger had worked incredibly hard over summer to perfect a plan for Ravenclaw to win the cup, and now in a matter of seconds it was revealed his hard work was nothing.
Vicki's eyes shot to the other tables. At the Hufflepuff table she saw Cedric look confused. At the Gryffindor table she watched as the Weasley twins gape at Dumbledore angrily. She even cast her eyes towards the Slytherin table where one of the boys in her year level who she was friendly with, Graham Montague the Slytherin Chaser, was looking annoyed at the revelation.
She then bought her eyes to the front of the room to hear the reason why Quiddich had been cancelled that year.
"…I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-" Dumbledore began but then a loud crack of thunder filled the room as the doors to the Great Hall were cast wide open.
The man who slowly limped down towards the teacher's table reminded Vicki of someone out of a muggle horror movie. His face had more scar tissue than face with a big chunk out of his nose missing, with grisly grey hair cascading down his face. He had a wooden leg but that was nothing compared to his eyes – one was small dark and beady, and Vicki could see in one glance that his eye had seen a lot of disturbing things throughout the years. The oddest thing was his other eye – it was some kind of mechanical thing strapped his head, electric blue coloured and rolling around all over. It made Vicki shiver, his appearance was scary.
She noticed Roger was scared too, as he quickly grabbed her hand to squeeze it, Vicki wasn't sure whether he was trying to reassure her, or if he was the one that needed to be comforted.
It took until Dumbledore to announce that this man was the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for Vicki to realise something. This was the first time in her history at Hogwarts she realised there was total silence from both the students and the staff. Even during announcements there was always a few game students who would chatter to their friends, but right now there was total silence – not a whisper to be heard.
The new professor (whose name was Professor Moody) took a seat and Dumbledore began to speak again. In the midst of Moody's appearance she had momentarily forgotten that Quiddich had been cancelled and Dumbledore was telling all of the students why.
"It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year." Dumbledore boomed throughout the hall.
Vicki didn't even have a chance to process this information as a familiar voice yelled out.
"You're JOKING!" Fred Weasley yelled towards Dumbledore.
Vicki was the first to giggle at Fred's outburst but a few moments later the whole hall was laughing at what Fred had said, Vicki could even hear Roger behind her laughing.
Even though he had made the entire school laugh, Fred looked over at the Ravenclaw table and shot Vicki a wink to which she returned before she gave her full attention back to Dumbledore.
Fred listened intently and held on to every word Dumbledore was saying as he explained the tournament in greater detail.
"I'm going for it!" Fred hissed at everyone within ear shot. For the first time since his crush on Victoria Hartwell turned into an obsession, he wasn't using a major scheme as a plan to impress her. He wanted to enter for the sake of entering – facing real danger sounded like a challenge to him and he wanted to cause a ruckus not only just in front of his own school, but two others as well.
But for a brief second his eyes slipped over to the Ravenclaw table where he saw Vicki quietly speaking to Davies and Fawcett. It certainly would be an added bonus to be the school champion and the glory that came with it could be used to make Vicki think more favourable of him.
Dumbledore had trouble speaking up over the excited chatter of all the students, but could finally finish his announcement and say that only students of legal age could enter. This caused even more noises from the students as many protests were heard loudly.
"And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!" Dumbledore finished and with a clap of his hands he dismissed all of the students and ended the festivities.
Vicki jumped to her feet suddenly. Usually it was the fifth year prefects who had to show the first years to the common room and their dormitories because it was such a gruelling task straight after the start of term feast as most people either wanted to go to sleep, or spend the whole night speaking with their friends about their summers.
Vicki on the other hand saw an opportunity. Half an hour's work, forty five tops seemed easy to her, so she switched her entire week of patrol shifts with the fifth year prefects and aside from tonight had her entire first week free to do as she pleased
"First years! Come on, Ravenclaw first years, come be initiated!" Vicki yelled loudly over the sounds of all the students getting up to leave the Great Hall, and the other prefects calling for their own houses' first years.
As some of the other students started disappearing it became easier for Vicki to round up her own students, and before long she had all of them around her.
"Welcome to Hogwarts, I promise to not take up too much of your time, so you can either go to sleep or gossip with each other." Vicki winked towards the first years.
As Vicki expected, some of them reacted positively but others rolled their eyes, thinking Vicki was trying too hard.
"Oh, you poor things, having to deal with Victoria Hartwell. She's really mean, she'll eat you all alive. Get out while you can." Fred Weasley announced himself to the first year Ravenclaws, appearing out of nowhere and putting an arm around Vicki. Vicki noted this was one of the very rare times he was without his twin, George.
"First years, may I first announce you to one half of Hogwarts' infamous trouble making twins, Fred Weasley. I suggest you stay away from them for a while or they'll turn your hair blue, like they did to me in my first few weeks here." Vicki announced, pretending to sound frustrated but shot Fred a sly smile.
Not a single first year spoke up. A few gave some small weak smiles, whilst the rest did look genuinely terrified. One girl at the front scoffed and rolled her eyes, and then decided to say something.
"Can you two please stop flirting so we can go to our dormitories?" The girl shot at Vicki and Fred in a high pitched whiny voice.
Fred narrowed his eyes at the girl. Not only would this mean he would have to move along due to the words of a pathetic first year student, it almost blew his cover and might make Vicki question his future interactions with her. He was not a happy camper.
Fred backed off playfully, moving two fingers between his eyes to the girl in the 'I'm watching you' hand gesture as he disappeared into the sea of students silently.
"Better watch it, you'll be one of his first targets of the year now." Vicki giggled, as she began leading the first years out of the Great Hall, towards Ravenclaw Tower.
