I was going to get this out on Saturday to celebrate Fred and George's birthday but stuff came up - sorry! :(
In response to the reviews:
Guest - As always - thank you so much for your reviews! Bagman is definitely different in this story as he is in the books - in the books he's just an overgrown child who's made some pretty bad decisions (gambling debts) in life. In this fanfic he's a creepy perv capitalising on his past glories trying to take advantage of young women - luckily he's the one getting taken advantage of ;) Thanks for saying such lovely things - I'm interested in your opinion on the deep and meaningful Vicki and Fred had in this chapter vs the one Tom and Tori had in the other story - this one seems a lot more natural and innocent right?
Raven Woods 2003 - thanks for jumping on board :) not gonna lie, I'm hell keen for Vicki and Fred's relationship to grow as well. It's slow moving, but it's eventually getting there!
The four of them (Vicki, Lee and the now-bearded twins) all laughed heartily as they made their way up to the hospital wing. They all burst through the doors and Madam Pomfrey turned to look at them with a very unamused look on her face, hands on her hips.
"I was wondering when I would see you twins coming through these doors. I knew you would make an appearance as soon as Dumbledore warned me what would happen should someone attempt to get over that Age Line who shouldn't." She sternly stated, very unhappy with both the twins.
Madam Pomfrey was usually a very kind woman, but sometimes came across as stern as she was always very strict with her patients and their care. Vicki hadn't spent any extended amounts of time in the hospital wing for medical care (aside from the occasional pepper-up potion when she was feeling a little under the weather, and the one time she had a mishap with a dangerous plant in third year, she was always terrible at Herbology) but she still knew Madam Pomfrey well.
Vicki aspired to be a healer when she finished up at Hogwarts next year. In her earlier years she drove Madam Poppy Pomfrey mad as the inexperienced younger girl would loudly boast she could cure very minor ailments which prevented students seeking medical help and going to the inexperienced young girl instead. Madam Pomfrey then invited the girl to spend some of her free time in the hospital wing to watch her treat some fellow students to give Vicki some exposure to the healing profession. She would never let an underage student perform any magic on another student on her watch but Vicki was allowed to assist in other ways such as grabbing tools and assisting with brewing simple potions.
Madam Pomfrey now had a very deep respect for the girl and could see immerse amounts of talent in her. She knew the girl would go on to do marvellous things for the profession and would certainly be writing her many letters of recommendations with the highest praise after she left Hogwarts – something she had never done for a student before.
"Alright you two, find a bed, take a seat. I'll be back with a de-stimulating potion for hair in no time," Madam Pomfrey snapped at the twins before she turned to Lee "You, out."
"But you usually let six visitors at a time per person. Vicki and I only make two, we're ten short before you can kick us out." Lee loudly whined in protest as the twins scampered off to find two beds next to each other.
"I don't care, I won't be glorifying this behaviour. Dumbledore should not have allowed this tournament to go ahead, it's far too dangerous. Underage students should know better than to try and flout the rules and enter unprepared." Madam Pomfrey loudly exclaimed.
Vicki could tell that Madam Pomfrey felt so strongly about the tournament as it was rare for the woman to probe so much into the illnesses. Madam Pomfrey had once told her she tried to turn a blind eye to the reasons why students were admitted. If it wasn't knowledge she required in order to treat her patients, she didn't need to know. When she was younger she didn't understand why an adult at school wouldn't try and use this information as a gold mine to find rule breakers. But as she got older she understood better. If students knew they were going to get into trouble for seeking medical help they would avoid it, which would be a dangerous predicament. So for Madam Pomfrey to be ranting and raving about why the twins were admitted, it was definitely a sign she clearly was not happy.
Lee grumbled as he couldn't think of a compelling argument on why he should be allowed to stay and began to trudge out. Vicki turned to follow him but Madam Pomfrey called after her.
"You can stay Victoria. One of your friends is here and refuses to let me finish off treatment, maybe she'll let you in." Madam Pomfrey muttered, nodding her head towards the only bed with closed curtains.
Vicki saw Lee gape at how unfairly he thought he was being treated but she only sent him a shrug. She had momentarily forgotten Stephanie was in the hospital wing for attempting to get over the Age Line herself – something she had not mentioned to Vicki she was going to do. Vicki therefore was very desperate to go see her friend and poke fun at the outcome.
"I'll be with you lads soon." Vicki stated towards the twins. Madam Pomfrey sent Vicki a disapproving look as she wasn't happy Vicki was glorifying rule breaking and dangerous behaviour but Vicki chose to ignore this as she found herself in front of the bed with the curtains drawn.
"Oh Stephanie darling, it's Vicki. I've come to pay you a visit." Vicki grinned as she yelled out to Stephanie from outside the curtain.
"Yeah, yeah. Shut up and get in here." Steph muttered.
Vicki was confused, she thought her best friend would be horrified at her presence and would try her hardest to avoid letting Vicki see her. Deciding not to question it Vicki ducked through the curtains to find her friend looking glum.
"You look like a sixteen year old boy bragging to the girl he likes that he's manly because of his pitiful and patchy chin fluff." Vicki laughed in a hearty manner.
Stephanie just sent a murderous glare towards Vicki. Vicki didn't know how bad Steph's beard was when it first appeared – Dumbledore even admitted it wasn't 'as fine' as the ones Fred and George grew. However a small amount remained. Small uneven sections of stubble remained and Vicki thought it looked amusing against the rest of Steph's feminine features.
"Shut up, can you fix me? Madam Pomfrey gave me some potion to get rid of it, but it's slow working and refuses to let me know the secret on how to get it to work faster. You're a Healing nerd, you tell me what to do." Stephanie pleaded with Vicki.
Feeling she had joked enough about it, Vicki decided to help Stephanie. She placed her book bag on the bed and dug through until she found her bottle of perfume she carried around with her. Vicki sprayed it onto Stephanie and almost instantly the hair retracted into her face until she was completely hairless and smooth again.
"How the hell did you know how to do that? That's incredible!" Stephanie said in disbelief as she felt her bare face with her hands.
"Considering it was a spell that only stimulated facial hair growth it had to be a potion that had high levels of testosterone – it clearly wasn't a normal hair growth potion. This perfume is feminine – the femineity of the perfume fought the testosterone of the facial hair potion and won." Vicki explained.
Steph blinked and didn't respond to Vicki's query. As she grew up in the wizarding world she had not taken sex education and had no knowledge of what testosterone was and thus had no clue what Vicki was saying. Steph also decided she did not care – she was now beardless and that's all that mattered.
Steph gathered all of her things and dramatically opened the curtains. She scanned the room and saw Fred and George being treated by Madam Pomfrey as they drank the potion given to her. Grinning wickedly Steph approached them.
"Ooooh! You two look dreadful. It feels so good being beard free!" Steph teased, touching her bare face and flipped her hair as she laughed and exited the Hospital Wing.
Vicki did not follow Steph and instead sank into the chair that was next to Fred's bed.
"Which one of you walked through the Age Line first?" Madam Pomfrey asked the twins. Fred reluctantly put his hand up whilst George pointed to his twin.
"Unfortunately for you, you would have been hit with most of the magic so it'll take some time for the potion to work," Madam Pomfrey stated to Fred and then turned to George "As for you, you would have only received bits and pieces of the magic so within the next minutes you should be beardless and free to go."
"That's alright. If Vicki could get Fawcett from hiding behind a curtain to going around insulting others in the space of minutes she can heal me." Fred grinned.
"Sorry, no can do buck-a-roo. I only knew how to cure Steph as she's not the gender that usually has a beard. I'm no way near advanced to heal you faster than this potion." Vicki smiled sadly towards Fred.
George snorted and loudly mimicked Vicki to taunt Fred, using the word 'buck-a-roo' twenty times in the space of two minutes.
Madam Pomfrey abandoned the trio to tend to a bunch of second years that had injured themselves walking into a wall trying to spy on Krum. Vicki could see the truth in Madam Pomfrey's words. George's marvellous beard was now just chin stubble whilst Fred's beard hadn't moved at all. A few minutes later George was as bare as Stephanie was when she exited the hospital wing.
"I'd love to stay and chat, but I don't want to. I want to see if any other suckers try to cross the line and end up here, I also want to gawk at who enters." George said in a cocky manner as he got up from his bed.
"Wait! Can you do me a favour please?" Vicki asked sweetly as she handed George a note she had just scribbled.
"I'm not delivering love notes to Davies, no way. I'll never forget the Quiddich final of 1992 when that schmuck helped Ravenclaw win. You only won because Harry was in here, otherwise we would have wiped the floor." George argued loudly.
Fred tensed up at Vicki's request, Vicki assuming he was still sore about Gryffindor's defeat when they were in third year. However his mind was about to be put at ease.
"It's a faux love note actually and it's certainly not for Roger. Go to the owlery and send this to Bagman. I was meant to be meeting up with him today, remember? That certainly isn't going ahead anymore." Vicki responded.
George then had no hesitations and snatched the letter saying he would go send it on his way back to Gryffindor tower. He left the hospital wing and only Fred and Vicki were left.
"You don't need to stick around. I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself." Fred spoke up, not wanting Vicki to resent him for taking up her Saturday.
"I could make a quip along the lines of that being false as you're sitting in bed after being spoonfed potion by a matron. But I'll refrain. Besides, I like your company. You're one of my closest friends, I'm not going to leave you here alone." Vicki giggled.
Fred had never felt a more appropriate time to use the word "bittersweet" to describe his feelings. A year ago Vicki Hartwell was a girl in his year he'd sometimes spy on from across the room, a girl he'd secretly yearn for but never speak to. Now she considered him one of her closest friends. It was certainly a step up from not being on speaking terms, but the word 'friend' haunted him- even though he knew it shouldn't as she still had a boyfriend.
In Fred's silence Vicki continued on.
"You're going to think I'm such a weirdo for what I'm about to confess." Vicki nervously stated, trying to giggle to cover up how awkward she felt.
"Go on." Fred smiled, uncharacteristically welcoming what she was about to say warmly instead of making a sarcastic remark or poking fun.
"I used to sometimes watch the antics you and George got up to and really wished I could be friends with you both. I've always thought you were both really funny and wanted to know you better," Vicki stated as she went bright red in embarrassment "It seems weird now that we are actually friends, but yeah, back in the day I was always too shy to speak to you to become your friend."
Fred's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at Vicki's words as he didn't know how to respond. It was comforting for him to know at one point in time Vicki did similar things to what he did – watch her from afar wishing they were closer. It was however also a little disappointing to him – if she had plucked up the courage to speak to him a lot earlier would they have ended up together instead of her and Davies?
He considered also confessing what he had done in the previous year and how he used to wish they were also friends, but he did not feel confident in doing so and did not speak up.
"You shouldn't have been, even when you were still shy and relatively unknown by everyone else I still thought you were cool from the cauldron incident in first year. I would have been your friend." Fred shrugged.
The two of them then spent the rest of the afternoon conversing. Vicki shared some more information about her upbringing – how tough it was growing up as a witch in a muggle community and how the other kids were hard on her for being different. Rather than having a pity party Vicki looked at it positively – she could do magic and they couldn't, so she was the clear winner. She also mentioned the times she was unable to control her magic (as little kids can't) and her tormentors would find their pants splitting in half in public areas, or their favourite belongings appearing up a tree. It made Fred roar with laughter but he felt sympathy for Vicki – he had always grown up in the village. Whilst there were muggles closer to the village the Weasley had kept their distance and only conversed with the numerous wizarding families scattered around.
The topic then shifted to their houses at school. Fred and Vicki were sorted the same year, Vicki before Fred. Vicki shared the story of her sorting.
"I was a hatstall. My mother was a Hufflepuff but my father's side are a long line of Gryffindors. The hat said I suited Gryffindor but could see a tiny spark of Ravenclaw in me," Vicki explained and Fred snapped his head towards her at this revelation "Before the hat could make me an official Gryffindor I started arguing with it in my head. I'd always wanted to be in Ravenclaw so I grabbed onto the comment the hat said about the small spark and I fought valiantly."
"Clearly you got your way, that's the most rubbish story ever as the ending is ruined." Fred weakly smiled.
"Yep. After a few minutes the hat gave up and said that clearly I was a Ravenclaw." Vicki grinned.
They then began to describe each of their common rooms, perhaps in too much detail. Fred described Gryffindor tower – how the Fat Lady's portrait was at the end of a corridor and a password was entered to require. He explained the layout of the common room – and how everyone wanted the squishy couches next to the fire. He explained the dormitories – girls to the staircase on the left and boys to the right.
Vicki then began to describe the other house located in a tower. Ravenclaw tower had its entrance at the top of a spiral staircase after correctly answering a riddle. The common room was very light and airy, with many alcoves with books for students to sit and read in. The best part perhaps was the view – Ravenclaw tower was higher than its Gryffindor counterpart and faced more interesting views, overlooking the rest of the castle as well as the Quiddich pitch. Vicki explained all of this to Fred and he was in awe.
"Sorry Victoria, I'm going to have to now ask you to leave. Mr Weasley's face is now almost bare I just need to perform a quick spell to seal the magic. Besides, the feast will be starting soon."
Vicki jumped up and bid Fred farewell, wanting to get ready and head down to the Halloween feast as soon as possible. She had missed out on the good foods the previous night after having to greet Bagman and Crouch and was stuck with the leftovers, so tonight she planned to eat like a queen.
Half an hour later after quickly refreshing herself, Vicki sat at the Ravenclaw table with Stephanie, Roger, Phillip and a few of their other Ravenclaw friends. Vicki noticed two fifth year girls bravely sit in front of them. Vicki knew one of them loosely – Cho Chang was chosen by Roger the previous year to be the Ravenclaw seeker. She had always been pleasant in passing conversations so Vicki began to chat with Cho and was introduced to her friend Marietta. This suited Roger and Phillip as they were free to chat about things they couldn't talk about with the girls, mostly about some of the attractive girls from Beauxbatons.
After some of the other students arrived the feast began. Most students weren't as excited as usual for the Halloween feast as it was the second concurrent feast for the previous two nights but this just made Vicki happier as she had free reign over most of the food.
Eventually after all of the students had finished eating the plates were cleared. Most of Vicki's peers were fidgeting anxiously as they wanted to know who would be picked for champion and they were waiting impatiently. After she finished eating this excitement was now building for her too – she had her fingers crossed for Cedric, or if not her dear friend at least someone from Ravenclaw. She would never admit this to Lee or the twins but she was starting to grow a little tired of Gryffindor's constant glory.
Bagman kept trying to catch her eye and when he did he sent a wink her way. Vicki put on a very fake flirtatious smile and winked back, before quickly turning her back and coming up with the first topic she could think of with Stephanie, Cho and Marietta.
Dumbledore announced the cup was about to make its decision as he dimmed all of the torches bringing the Great Hall into darkness - but all this did was cause the students to become more impatient and anxious. The tension was so thick in the air it felt it could be sliced with a knife.
Vicki was uninterested when the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons champions were chosen. She feigned interest to be polite (rolling her eyes at the predictability of Krum being chosen for Durmstrang but giving a small cheer when Fleur was chosen – she had spoken with Fleur a couple of times since the Beauxbatons arrived and liked her enough) but finally it appeared the Hogwarts champion would be chosen.
The last of the pieces of parchments flew out of the cup and Dumbledore grabbed it eagerly. Vicki expected a dramatic pause but Dumbledore revealed the name pretty quickly.
"The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Cedric Diggory!"
A happy riot broke out from the Hufflepuff table, the cheers deafening everybody sitting in the Great Hall. However one of the loudest cheers (although not audible over the collective yells) was coming from the Ravenclaw table. Vicki Hartwell was over the moon for her dear friend for being chosen as Hogwarts champion.
