Sorry this story is pretty slow moving but I'm trying to make all interactions and feelings develop as organically as possible. When I was younger and wrote fanfiction I used to make characters get together in the first or second chapter and urgh, it wasn't pretty.
Shoutout to I Am Saiko for their lovely review!
Even though Roger had apologised to Vicki the night before, he didn't take her up on her offer to apologise to her in front of everyone the next morning at breakfast. In fact, he wasn't at breakfast at all. Vicki did not even realise this, as she sat with her dorm mates and ate porridge at the Ravenclaw table. They had all stayed up late to hear Vicki's story about how Roger and Phillip coming to the library to apologise, and they were dying to know how the story would end.
As she scraped the last of the porridge from her bowl and drank the last of a coffee she had cleverly turned from water (as Hogwarts did not serve coffee) she felt two hands on her shoulder. She turned around expecting to see Roger standing behind her but instead she saw a smiling Graham Montague instead.
"Oh, hey there. What's up?" Vicki asked him, trying to not show how disappointed it wasn't who she hoped it would be.
Her best friend Stephanie also turned around, but instead of being disappointed she was the opposite, quite excited.
"When did you get hot, Montague?" Stephanie gushed, her eyes opening in shock.
Vicki looked between Steph and Graham and raised her eyebrows. Did they have some kind of thing going on? What about Stebbins?
Graham on the other hand felt uncomfortable, and showed it by awkwardly scratching his arm. He cast a sultry look to the girl he had been trying to impress, Vicki, and she sent him an innocent smile back.
"It's too bad I'm with Kyle Stebbins though. Actually, I promised him a quick snog before class so I'll see you both later." Stephanie winked in an excited manner, before she jumped up from her seat and stalked over to the Hufflepuff table.
Vicki used the few silent moments to look at Graham to see what Steph had seen. She cocked her head and Graham watched her staring at him, making him smile. She took in his appearance. Vicki knew he had lost a lot of weight over the past couple of years after he had joined the Slytherin Quiddich Team but she had never considered exactly how much – she thought he just looked slimmer, but today she noticed how broad his shoulders were and how bulky his arms were in his uniform with his sleeves rolled up. She also noticed how the fat from his face had disappeared and instead remained quite a firm jaw.
"Fawcett is right, you've come quite a long way since the fumbling boy I used to work with in potions." Vicki smiled, deciding to pay Graham a compliment for his hard work.
"I would say the same about you Miss Hartwell, but you already know how gorgeous you are." Graham stated, a sly smile on his face as he squatted down to lightly brush Vicki's arm.
Vicki bit her lip and smiled, not being able to hold it back. She immediately knew what her and Graham Montague were doing, they were flirting. Vicki had little experience in flirting. She and her muggle friend Sarah had flirted with some muggle boys not last summer but the one before to get them to buy alcohol just before Vicki had gotten with Roger. However once Vicki was with Roger that was it, she had never even looked at a different boy. Until now.
She was enjoying the attention from Graham immensely. She enjoyed his deep brown eyes burrowing into hers, his charming smile fixated on her, his bulging arm touching hers. For the first time in a long time Roger was not on her thoughts. One simple comment from Stephanie and it was like a whole new world had just been unlocked. She had been so transfixed on Roger for so long that it hadn't occurred to her there was a whole world full of other boys. Maybe later she would speak with Roger and tell him he need not apologise, but they need not continue their relationship. Maybe everything had happened for a reason.
As Vicki's thoughts were racing through her head she was quiet for a while. In her silence, Graham spoke up.
"You don't happen to have Charms now do you? Perhaps we could have a chat…" Graham propositioned, raising his eyebrows towards Vicki.
"Sorry, Transfiguration." Vicki shrugged, but sent a smile towards him so it didn't seem too harsh.
"Who are you going to be sitting next to in that class? Not Davies I hope, or any other boy that might steal your heart." Graham asked her curiously, tightening his grip on her arm sub consciously.
Vicki's smile faltered a little. She didn't like Graham's attitude or protectiveness of her over a few flirtatious words exchanged. Roger was still her boyfriend, they had not yet broken up. She therefore had every right to sit next to him, or anyone she wanted to, even if they happened to be male.
These thoughts snapped her out of her brief trance. In an instant, she went back to her old self. She couldn't believe she was sitting there flirting with Montague. She had a perfectly good boyfriend ready to work things out with her, one she loved very much. She suddenly had a huge craving for Roger. They were the Hogwarts dream couple after all.
"Roger's in a different Transfiguration class. I'm going to sit next to Fred Weasley. Just the two of us." Vicki smiled, being annoyed with Montague made her slip out exactly what she knew he didn't want to hear, but it was the truth, she wanted to sit next to Fred.
Fred's head snapped up as he heard his name across the hall. He had not stared at Vicki once since he swore off his obsession but even with the Hufflepuff table separating the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw table he heard Vicki speak his name. He noticed she was staring directly at him and she gave him a small wave, one which he returned. He also noticed a scowl on Montague's face and it made Fred grin as he nudged both his twin and Lee and nodded his head towards the two.
"Man, I hate Slytherins." Lee Jordan whined out loud, making a few of his fellow Gryffindors around laugh at his outburst.
"You know what I love though? The fact a Slytherin is flirting with Vicki but she mentions my name, making the Slytherin send me dirty looks." Fred stated proudly, as he decided to keep paying attention to what was going on two tables down.
Vicki noticed Graham shoot filthy looks to the Gryffindor table and then turn back to her, clearly in a bad mood. Vicki crossed her arms defensively. She didn't appreciate his attitude, and wanted to end the conversation. She knew he might be having a bad day and didn't want to start drama with one of her oldest friends, but she wanted to leave him be.
"Since when were you good friends with those annoying Weasley twins? I've never even seen you mutter a word to them." Graham asked her curiously.
It was after he started paying attention when Fred realised what was happening. He saw Vicki had her arms crossed and had slid across her seat to distance herself from Montague. Her body language showed she wasn't too happy with him.
Montague's body language showed he wasn't happy with her either. He was towering over her with a scowl. He could see Montague was most likely being unreasonable in what conversation they were having and without even thinking about it he picked up his books and went over to the Ravenclaw table, not even bothering to say goodbye to George and Lee who were left gaping behind him.
"Hi Vicki, shall we head off to Transfiguration?" Fred asked, cutting off Montague with whatever he had to say.
"Yes!" Vicki squealed loudly as she quickly stood up, grabbing her book bag and stepped over the bench seat so she was standing next to Fred.
If looks could kill Fred would be six feet under, twice. Fred had never had any kind of good relationship with Montague, however Montague was sending him a scowl he had never seen before. He loved bouncing off the hate Slytherins held for Gryffindors so not only was Fred not too worried about this, it made him happy he had so effortlessly ruined the Slytherin's day.
"Come talk to me when you're not being so weird." Vicki stated towards Montague, sending him a weird look as she took Fred's outstretched arm and they left the Great Hall together.
They were so wrapped up in laughing at Montague's confusion they didn't notice that they directly passed Roger, who was arriving at breakfast late. He had not witnessed any of Montague and Vicki's flirting but he had seen what had gone down between Montague and Weasley.
Overcome with jealousy as he realised for the first time that he risked losing her to another suitable male, he quickly sought out every well known student who was susceptible to gossip and quickly informed them all he had delivered a heart felt apology to Vicki, and he was so sorry for his behaviour towards her.
He still didn't feel great as he sat down and ate the breakfast leftovers, but he knew it would get back to Vicki quickly enough and their relationship would live to see another day.
As Fred and Vicki had left breakfast fairly early, they had about fifteen minutes or so until Transfiguration would begin. Not wanting to get to class too early, Fred led her into a disused classroom.
"This classroom hasn't been used for decades. Not sure why, I think apparently the classroom itself rejects a lot of teachers from teaching within it. That's the rumour anyway." Fred explained, as he got his wand out and used it to blow dust off the desk as he took a seat on the desk.
"What do you mean rejects teachers from teaching in it?" Vicki asked curiously as she took a seat next to Fred on the desk, placing her feet on the chair below.
"Think if Peeves were a classroom." Fred explained.
Vicki shook her head and laughed. She felt she need not bother with a response as her actions indicated all she had to say.
There was a very brief silence between the two. Fred was almost in a panic. He wasn't sure whether he should bring up what just happened at breakfast and whether he owed her an apology or not for stepping in. As he couldn't decide what to do, he decided on something else. He had come up with a plan with his twin and best friend the previous night on how he could cheer up Vicki. Now was time to execute this plan.
"George and I developed sweets that change the colour of your tongue. Want to try one?" Fred asked as he pulled out some individually wrapped sweets from his pocket.
Vicki however didn't look too impressed at his invention as she shot him a sceptical look and asked "oh, like the muggle ones?"
"Yes we draw inspiration from those muggle ones to which we give credit. But these ones have magic involved which automatically make them better, watch." Fred proudly announced as he wasn't fazed by Vicki's comments one bit, as he unwrapped one of the sweets and put it into his mouth.
They sat in more silence but this time it wasn't an uncomfortable one. Even though Vicki hadn't seen the results she had changed her tune and instead was smiling in anticipation of Fred's invention. As Fred was sucking on the sweet he watched as Vicki studied him. He enjoyed it, he liked having an excuse to look at her pretty face. He may have let go of his obsession but admiring her pretty face when she was staring at him up close hardly counted.
"You ready?" Fred asked her, struggling to get the words out as he was concealing his tongue in his mouth.
Vicki nodded eagerly, she had gone from a sceptic to actually being excited for him to reveal the product.
Fred stuck his tongue out and Vicki leaned in to inspect it. Moments later she jumped back in surprise as sparks flew up, almost like miniature fireworks.
"Should have warned you about that part, sorry. That part is a work in progress, it's meant to resemble sparkling and fireworks, just to add a little surprise to it all." Fred explained sheepishly.
"Shut up and show me your tongue." Vicki laughed.
Fred chuckled and complied as he once again stuck out his tongue. Those were words he never thought he would hear from Victoria Hartwell.
Vicki then inspected his tongue. Unlike the muggle sweets which temporarily stain the top of the tongue a vague colour of the sweet, his whole tongue was a vivid bright red, as evidenced when he showed her the bottom as well.
"Do you want one? I've got a blue one for Ravenclaw." Fred offered her.
"I'll take it, but I'm not game enough to use it right before McGonagall's class. Good luck explaining that one to her." Vicki stated, taking the offered sweet and putting it into her skirt pocket.
They spent a few more minutes in the abandoned classroom before it was time for them to go to Transfiguration. Fred helped Vicki hop off the desk and they walked in together, finding a seat in one of the middle rows. Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow at the two but didn't say anything as the last of the students came in and she began her lesson.
She started with a few house keeping things, congratulated them all on achieving adequate O.W.L.S to keep taking her class but then immediately launched into a big lecture on how the "easy days were behind them" and how they had to start preparing straight away for N.E.W.T.S that would take place the next year.
She then demonstrated on the day's lesson: turning a broken lamp into a smooth ball. It was a rather pointless exercise Vicki thought – why a broken lamp and when would you need a smooth ball? But McGonagall explained transfigurating anything broken and mangled was a difficult task, making it into something so sleek was even harder. It was a hard task designed to help them with advanced Transfiguration.
"Yeah, I give up." Fred said to Vicki as he threw his wand down on the table angrily after a few failed attempts.
"At least you still have a broken lamp to turn into a ball. I now have a fixed lamp," Vicki responded giggling "Probably more useful than a ball at least."
"Oh look, it turns on and all." Fred said as he was amazed, switching the bright lamp on with a touch of his wand.
This bought the attention of Professor McGonagall, who made her way over to where Vicki and Fred were seated.
"Mr Weasley and Miss Hartwell. I'm not sure whether I should be pleased that Miss Hartwell's good influence may rub off onto you Mr Weasley, or whether I should be fearful your bad influence will tempt her." McGonagall stated, and Vicki wasn't sure where she was going with that statement but moments later Vicki could tell McGonagall wanted to smile, it was definitely an almost smile.
"Maybe we'll cancel each other out and be the most boring two students you'll ever meet." Fred joked loudly.
"One can hope, Mr Weasley. Miss Hartwell, can I see you after class?" Professor McGonagall asked Vicki before offering a few words of encouragement "The lamp is supposed to fix itself before it can be turned into a ball. You're on the right track."
Vicki furrowed her eyebrows as Fred turned to her expectedly. She had no idea why McGonagall had wanted to see her after class. It became a lot harder for Vicki to concentrate for the rest of the class but after many failed attempts she managed to complete the task, her lamp was no longer a lamp but a sphere that was smooth to touch when placed in her hand.
The bell rang and all of the students began to pack up. Vicki went a bit slower as she wanted to wait until the rest of the class had filed out before she went to see McGonagall.
"I have a spare next class, do you want me to hang around?" Fred asked.
Vicki was about to politely decline but she stopped herself. If he had a spare period it wasn't too rude for her to ask him to, as she had no idea what McGonagall wanted she realised it would be nice if she had someone to talk about it with.
"If you can walk and talk, as it looks like I'll already be late for Arithmancy. I'll meet you outside." Vicki responded.
Fred was about to make a snappy comment about how boring Arithmancy sounded but he decided against it, wanting to get out of Vicki's way so she could have her chat with the professor. He left the classroom and Vicki grabbed her book bag and stood in front of McGonagall.
"You wanted to see me, professor?" Vicki asked curiously.
"Yes. At breakfast today as I passed the Ravenclaw table, did I see you turn your water into coffee?" Professor McGonagall asked her.
"Y-yes." Vicki responded, stuttering in confusion. Turning water into other substances was something they learned in first year. Why was she asking about this?
"Then that's a fine piece of magic. It's easy to turn water into other forms of liquid, yes. But if it's something you can stand to consume, it must have been great spell work." McGonagall complimented, as if she were reading Vicki's mind.
"Thank you, professor. I started drinking coffee over the summer and I've become quite addicted to it. I can't function without it." Vicki responded cheerfully, mostly because she didn't know what else to say. Why did this warrant an after class meeting?
"I understand Miss Hartwell. Unfortunately though, coffee is a banned substance for students on school grounds. This is a rule Argus Filth very strongly petitioned Dumbledore for." McGonagall informed Vicki, and Vicki could see regret etched on McGonagall's face.
Vicki stuttered in confusion. Why was coffee not okay, but Butterbeer (with some alcoholic content although very small) was served to students as young as eleven at feasts? Vicki was also confused. She had never once been in trouble at this school, was she now in trouble for breaking a school rule? Was she about to get a detention?
"I-uh... sorry. I didn't know. So if coffee is banned on school premises that means I can't turn water into coffee into my dormitory or common room can I?" Vicki asked curiously.
"Unfortunately not, Miss Hartwell." McGonagall sadly responded.
"What about at Hogsmeade? Roger takes me to that awful, awful Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, can I drink coffee there?" Vicki went on to ask.
"Yes, that would be permitted. That is off school grounds. If you have any further questions about acceptable and non acceptable behaviour on school grounds I must direct you to ask Mr Filch, as I have a class of first years waiting outside that seem to be petrified by what Mr Weasley is telling them." McGonagall said.
Vicki turned around and saw Fred speaking to a group of first years and whatever they were hearing was scaring them, they had looks of terror on their faces.
"Right. Well, no more coffee. Got it. If that's all, I'll be leaving." Vicki mentioned as she jabbed her thumb into the direction of the door and took a few steps backwards. When McGonagall did not respond Vicki assumed it was safe to leave and she turned around and headed out the door.
Before Fred could get a word in, she decided to get in first.
"Avoided a detention. Thank god. I don't fancy going into the forest late at night and slaying a dragon." Vicki loudly said to Fred in perfect earshot of the first years.
"They make you do that?" a first year Hufflepuff gasped in terror.
"Sure do. They make you do things they deem useful at Hogwarts for detention no matter how dangerous, I would know, I've had more detentions than hot dinners." Fred responded and Vicki could tell he was withholding laughter.
No more words needed to be exchanged as all the students were terrified and went quiet. Fred was incapable of speech himself as he had to control himself to not burst out laughing and instead pulled Vicki away by the arm. It was only when they were a safe distance away he let it all out and burst into laughter.
"Didn't think you had it in you to play a joke on first years." Fred laughed.
"I consider what I just did a Prefect's duty. They're now going to be so scared they will treat their teachers with respect and will behave. I just did a service to the school." Vicki proudly boasted, standing up higher for a mock effect.
"That's not why you did it though, was it?" Fred coyly asked, taking a side look towards Vicki.
"No, I must admit that wasn't my intention." Vicki giggled.
There was a very short silence between them as Vicki tried to recognise her surroundings so she could work out the best way to get to Arithmancy. It took her a few moments to work out the best route to take. When she calculated one she took off, with Fred following her.
Fred was hoping she would bring up what McGonagall had wanted to speak to her about as he was dying to know but didn't want to seem too nosey. Vicki knew he was curious and smirked to herself as she decided to purposely not say anything.
Finally when he realised Vicki would not tell him he decided to ask, as he couldn't take the curiousity anymore.
"So um, back in Transfiguration. What did Professor McGonagall want to talk to you about?" Fred asked her impatiently.
Vicki smiled as she stopped walking for a moment to face him. She knew she could have continued her little prank and either refused to tell him, or tell him something ridiculous and exaggerated. However she was already very late for class and didn't have the time or patience to pull something on Fred. She decided to tell the truth.
"Over summer I developed a coffee addiction. As they don't serve it to students I've been making it myself by turning my cup of water to coffee. Apparently that stupid Filch petitioned the school to not let students drink coffee, so she told me I'm not allowed to do it anymore." Vicki sulked as she began stamping her feet as she walked in annoyance.
Fred was about to tell her about the kitchens but stopped in his tracks for a moment as a perfect idea hit him. He'd have to speak to George about it first, but he had found a perfect opportunity. Perhaps he could help Vicki with her dilemma if Vicki was able to help with his current one.
"What's wrong? Are you coming, or should I say bye to you here?" Vicki asked as she turned around and saw Fred had gone still.
"Coming!" he called out, running to catch up with her.
