The rest of the week was tough for Vicki, but it did begin to get a little easier as the days went by. She had quickly learned the best way to keep the peace was to avoid her friendship circle. This is what she did and the mean comments disappeared.
Instead she spent her free time with Fred and his Gryffindor friends. Whilst she knew Lee and George fairly well, she didn't know the Quidditch team girls well. Over the week she became better acquainted with them.
Whilst in the past she had felt intimidated by Angelina, it turned out the two girls got along very nicely. Angelina had aspirations on becoming Gryffindor Quidditch captain when Quidditch resumed the next school year. The Hartwells came from a long line of Gryffindor Quidditch captains. Although Vicki hadn't inherited the family Quidditch talent, or become a Gryffindor herself, she still had things in common with Angelina through the Hartwell family.
Alicia had also dropped any ill feelings towards Vicki and was quite pleasant to her. The two still struggled to connect and had yet to have any one-on-one conversations, but Alicia had welcomed Vicki into their group with welcome arms and it was very much appreciated.
The last of the group that Vicki got to know was Katie Bell. Vicki thought Katie was a total sweetheart who had been going out of her way to cheer up Vicki each day.
Vicki was grateful for her boyfriend and her new friends. It was early days and she still felt a little awkward intruding on her boyfriend's friendship circle so she didn't feel close to them as of yet. But it had made losing all of her own friends a lot easier.
The only thing Vicki struggled with was what happened after curfew at nine o'clock at night – the return to the Ravenclaw common room. Some of the nights she had prefect patrols which for once she didn't mind as it got her out of the common room. Other nights, like tonight, she miserably sat alone at a table and did homework to keep her distance from Stephanie, Roger and Phillip.
"Hey. Mind if I join you?" Vicki heard. She looked up and was surprised to see Cho standing over her with her books.
"No. Go for it." Vicki weakly smiled.
Cho had not spoken to Vicki since the day of the second task. To Cho's credit she hadn't participated in any negativity towards Vicki, but it was apparent to Vicki that Cho was certainly avoiding her. Until right now.
Cho nervously took a seat at Vicki's table. Both girls could feel all eyes in the common room on them, anxiously awaiting to see the exchange between the two.
Vicki decided she would allow Cho to speak first. This didn't immediately happen as Cho did begin to flip her textbook pages silently. But after a few minutes she sighed and turned to Vicki.
"No matter what rumours are going around, just so you know, I'm not mad at you or anything…" Cho spoke up.
Vicki winced as she felt increasingly uncomfortable. Truth be told she didn't know how to approach the conversation with Cho. She didn't know how she felt herself. On one hand she could understand if Cho felt negative feelings. As Vicki had previously discussed with Cedric she would feel weird if Fred was in Cedric's position and had a female friend taken as a hostage in her place.
But on the other hand Vicki felt frustrated at her treatment. Cho had the power to lessen the public backlash that had grown against Vicki. Instead Cho had remained silent and allowed everything to build against her.
"I'm glad you're not. I understand it's a bit of a weird situation to be in." Vicki truthfully responded, however she held herself back a little and didn't elaborate.
"It really is. I've been struggling with facing people, as everybody is expecting me to be weird about it. I've kind of been avoiding most people and spending time alone with Cedric where possible." Cho admitted to Vicki with a guilty smile on her face.
Vicki was silent for a few moments as she processed the information Cho was giving her. Vicki had been so focused on the backlash against her, she hadn't noticed what had been happening with Cedric and Cho. She assumed they were quite mad at her but instead they were dealing with their own problems.
Vicki suddenly felt very selfish and guilty so she sent a sheepish smile towards Cho.
"Cedric is still quite worried about you though. In fact, we both are. I'm glad it's starting to die down a little. Just one more major scandal needs to hit the school and everyone will move on to the newest drama." Cho said to Vicki.
"Well here's hoping for Hogwarts' newest drama." Vicki weakly smiled towards Cho.
Both of them took the social cue that it was time to move the conversation along to try and repair any awkward feelings between the two. It was strained to begin with, but the two found common ground in their affections towards Cedric and by the end of their study session they were both giggling about gossip they were happy to share about Cedric.
"When he first started going after you, it was amusing. Cute, but amusing. He was so nervous one time he walked straight into a column after losing the nerve to talk to you. He er, made me swear to never tell you. But I thought you should know." Vicki confessed to Cho after Cho shared an anecdote about her and Cedric's first date.
Cho was about to share an amused response but a boy boldly sat down at their table. The two girls gave him a surprised look as it was unexpected. Cho sent him a small smile to try and get him to speak up, but Vicki looked at him warily. She was still on edge as she felt like public enemy number one right now, and didn't trust a random boy sitting next to her.
"Corner, do you need me as your Ravenclaw prefect or are you occupying that seat for another reason?" Vicki asked him stiffly. She had never spoken to Michael Corner before, but knew who he was through prefect duties.
"You were both sharing stories about Cho and Cedric's courtship stage. I have one for you about Fred Weasley." Michael Corner grinned weakly.
"I think you should definitely share it. Vicki, what do you think?" Cho coyly spoke up.
Vicki continued to stare down the younger boy as she didn't trust him, or his timing.
"When on earth have you ever interacted with Fred?" Vicki asked cautiously.
"Oh, I haven't. Fred and George Weasley scare me immensely and I really don't ever want to become a target for one of their pranks. However I've been talking to their younger sister Ginny a lot since the Yule Ball. She shared it with me." Michael Corner admitted.
"Alright then. Let's hear it." Vicki spoke up. She was still fairly guarded and kept her back straight to keep herself on edge. But she was genuinely curious in what the boy had to say.
The boy held a small smirk on his face and basked in the attention from Cho and Vicki before he continued.
"It was before the Yule Ball. Ginny told me all about how Fred Weasley had been obsessed with you for a while, and how he had asked Johnson in a haste as he didn't realise you'd ask him to go. Apparently he was proper devastated." Michael Corner began to explain.
Vicki winced upon these words. Although Fred was now the love of her life, and although she now had no ill feelings towards Angelina, it was still a sore spot to her that Fred had wound up going with Angelina to the Yule Ball. The ball was first time that Fred and Vicki had kissed, but that was the only memory she chose to remember from that ball.
Therefore she knew this conversation was potentially going into territory she did not wish to enter.
"Apparently he didn't want to go at all after he had to turn down your invite, especially after it became public knowledge you were going with that Slytherin beefcake. Ginny once overheard Fred begging George to pretend to be him and go with Angelina instead. This was so he could skip the ball and pretend to be sick, as his twin and not himself." Michael said to Vicki.
Vicki held an odd smile on her face. She knew it was terrible to feel good about what she had just been told, but she loved hearing it. It boosted her ego to know that Fred was of the opinion that if he couldn't go with Vicki, he didn't want to go at all.
It also now put a happy spin on the Yule Ball. It was no longer just the event where Fred had let his insecurities prevent the two from going together or the night that Montague had betrayed her. Another happy anecdote meant that Vicki could appreciate it more as the night that had started things between her and Fred.
"Okay. I made you smile. Can you now put in a good word for me with Ginny Weasley? I really like her. She really seems to look up to you, and I think your opinion would go a long way." Michael asked Vicki, wincing due to his nerves from his bold proposition.
"Awww, Vicki. You have to!" Cho said with a large smile on her face as she leaned out to squeeze Vicki's arm in an attempt to convince her.
Vicki stared at Michael's face as he bore his eyes into hers. She then broke out into a huge grin.
"Okay. I'll do it. Not because you bribed me with knowledge. But because I think you're a good match for Ginny. You're a year older than her, and older guys are cool. But you're not creepy." Vicki stated matter-of-factly.
"I know I should be offended that you think my only offering to her is that I'm older. But you've made my day, Victoria Hartwell," Michael said cheerily as he got up from his seat in a haste "I'm going to go back to my friends. I hope you two have a good night."
Cho and Vicki watched as he left their table and went to a corner of the common room with the other fourth years. Once he was out of earshot they both broke out in a fit of giggles after feeling giddy due to the topic of their conversations this evening.
It didn't take too long for Cho's prediction to come true. The very next day a nasty article appeared in Witch Weekly about Hermione Granger.
Rita Skeeter wrote an article that alleged that Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Viktor Krum were in a complicated love triangle. It painted Hermione in a horrible light – telling lies that she had a thing for famous wizards and was playing them both for personal gain.
It was completely fabricated. Those who knew Harry and Hermione knew she harboured no feelings whatsoever towards Harry. Those who knew Harry very well knew that the only girl he had a crush on was Cho Chang.
It took a day for the news to hit the entire school as a very small minority of students read Witch Weekly – a trashy gossip magazine for middle aged witches. But eventually those students in the articles passed the magazine around, and then those people continued to share the article.
Twenty-four hours later, on the day of the next Hogsmeade visit, the entire school knew about the horrible rumours.
"Hey Vicki, you're friends with that Granger girl aren't you? Is that Skeeter article true?" Phillip Bridge asked boldly as he sat down in front of Vicki at the breakfast table on Saturday morning.
Vicki blinked in confusion. Whilst her old circle of friends had stopped being outwardly rude to her, they still hadn't addressed her directly since she attempted to sit at their table in Charms class a week ago. Roger had sent her a few smiles and had even cornered her when the coast was clear to ask how she was going. But publicly no one had spoken to her in a week and she wasn't expecting Phillip to be the first one to approach her.
She knew if she was a stronger person she'd tell Phillip to 'go shove it' for speaking to her for the first time purely to obtain gossip. But deep down she was excited for the attention again. She also knew this was the best opportunity to clear Hermione's name. Hermione may not enjoy the same popularity that Vicki had up until a week ago, but Vicki certainly didn't want Hermione to go through exactly what she just had gone through.
"Yes, I am. And no, it's not. You know what that Skeeter woman is like. She spins lies to sell magazines," Vicki began sharply, but quickly softened her tone and start to lie to try and get her point across "Which is her job so quite honestly you can't blame the woman. But no, it's a complete lie. Pass it on."
"Are you sure there's nothing going on, though? For all you know it could be going on in secret?" Steph piped up from a few seats down from Phillip.
This angered Vicki. Stephanie was supposed to be her best friend but hadn't been there during her week of hell. But now that it was blowing over, and now there was information for obtain, Stephanie suddenly wanted to speak to her again.
Vicki was angry. But she didn't have the strength to put Stephanie in her place.
"According to Fred, most Gryffindors hang out in the common room each night. It's not like us Ravenclaws where some of us retreat to our dorms early to read in bed. They all just do their own thing in the common room in their groups-" Vicki began to explain, but was cut off by her friends speaking up in amazement.
"Wow, that's so weird. I love you guys, but I couldn't spend every waking moment with you. Going to bed to read or doing my homework alone is like, an escape to my private sanctuary." Stephanie interrupted.
"Or in your case Vicki, when you and Roger were together you'd constantly sneak into our dorm and you two would do your thing. If I had a sickle for every time you woke up in our dormitory last school year, or even at the start of this school year…" Phillip smirked.
"…then you'd now be a poor man as your income stream would now be cut off." Vicki snapped.
"Nice one, Vicki." Roger smiled, earning a dirty look from his best friend Phillip.
"Anyway," Vicki began to shift the topic back to Hermione's defence "Fred is in the same room as Harry and Hermione every night. Hermione is always in there, either with Harry and Ron, or sometimes spending time with Ginny Weasley. She's never off with Harry."
"Interesting." Phillip nodded.
"You'll have to tell us more about it later. I need to go meet up with Kyle, we're going to Madam Puddifoot's today for a good snog fest." Stephanie winked as she got up from the table.
Phillip mentioned he too was off to make the trek to Hogsmeade and he followed Stephanie. This left Roger and Vicki alone.
"Welcome back, Queen Victoria." Roger grinned towards her.
"No thanks. Queen Victoria was England's queen over a hundred years ago who married her cousin. My father absolutely despises the muggle royal family, he thinks they're leeches on muggle taxpayer's money. So it feels weird being called the same name as one of them." Vicki responded to Roger.
Roger didn't know how to respond but just smiled and shrugged as he quickly ran after Phillip.
Vicki quickly ate her breakfast so she could meet up with Fred as fast as possible. Their plan for today was to spend some time alone, as Vicki didn't want to front the public after what has been happening to her. But after that interaction she wasn't sure what was happening and wanted Fred's input.
"How's this spot? Is it secluded enough?" Fred asked Vicki.
Fred and Vicki had walked down to Hogsmeade with the rest of the Gryffindor circle of friends – George, Lee, Angelina, Alicia and Katie. They all split up after they arrived. George and Lee wanted to go to Zonko's pronto, whilst the girls wanted to buy some sweets from Honeydukes.
This gave Fred and Vicki the alone time they wanted. They joked about potentially going to the Hogs Head to drink alcohol because they knew they'd get away with it. But the two didn't want to go back to the castle drunk. They didn't want to draw any more attention to themselves after the recent backlash, and Vicki was also in a battle to be chosen as Head Girl the next year. She wasn't on best behaviour per say, but she couldn't be flaunt breaking the school rules the same way the Weasley twins liked to.
Instead they went into the Three Broomsticks and convinced Madam Rosmerta to let them take two bottles of Butterbeer outside as long as they promised to bring back the empty bottles. They found a private space out the back of the Three Broomsticks as there was a bench connected to the wall in the untamed back garden.
As it was March the weather was still a bit cold as it was only the beginning of Spring, but nowhere near the unbearable chilly weather they experienced during their last visit in January. Therefore wearing warmer clothing and drinking warm butterbeer heated their bellies. But Fred still found himself wrapping an arm around Vicki's shoulders and rubbed her back tenderly and even joked it was to warm her up.
"So Stephanie, Roger and Phillip actually spoke to me at the breakfast table today…" Vicki began to explain to Fred.
"Let me guess, they're now speaking to you because the new gossip is that bull about Hermione leading on both Harry and Krum?" Fred asked Vicki sarcastically.
"Got it in one." Vicki weakly smiled.
"So…what's going to happen now?" Fred asked. In all honesty he wanted to tell Vicki to do exactly what she wished she had the strength to do earlier and advise her to tell her so-called 'friends' many swear words. But he knew Vicki wouldn't take too kindly to him telling her what to do. It was also a very sensitive situation.
Vicki sighed as she shot Fred a guilty look. She felt he wouldn't like the answer she was about to give.
"Each day they're going to become more and more comfortable with me to the point where I'm included in their circle again. They won't even bother to apologise for treating me horribly, it'll just happen. But I'll do it. I'll spend time with them to keep the peace." Vicki began to explain.
She cringed as she waited for Fred to angrily interject. But he stayed silent in order to let her continue.
"But things will never go back to how they were. I'll never forget how they treated me. There's only a year and a bit of school left for us and now I doubt I'll ever speak to them after school ends. But for the rest of school I'll stay in their tribe. But I'd still like to spend as much time as possible with your crew, if I'm still welcome?" Vicki asked nervously.
"Of course you are." Fred responded as he quickly leaned over to kiss his girlfriend on the side of the head.
"Good. Because on the same token, I'll never forget what your friends did as well. They welcomed me in with wide arms when those I was close to turned me away. Those are the types of people I'd rather get to know." Vicki stated to Fred.
Fred segued the topic away after this statement from Vicki as they both began taking swigs from their warm butterbeers. From there the two began to talk about anything and everything that entered their minds.
Periodically the two would take breaks from talking and would suck each other's faces off. Eventually the talking became rare and the snogging became the norm activity of the afternoon.
It was only as nightfall began to fall over them when the two stopped and decided it was time to head back to the castle. Vicki had wrapped her arms around Fred's neck and her legs around his waist as she straddled him for a deeper snogging session, so she unravelled herself just as Fred made comments that this was the first Hogsmeade visit he hadn't visited Zonko's 'but was certainly the best one of his life'.
Madam Rosmerta gave the two a sly smile and wink when they returned the empty bottles, as she had noticed their messy hair and dishevelled robes. She said nothing and let them depart as she had seen much worse from other students in her time as a publican.
All in all it had been a nice Hogsmeade visit for both Vicki and Fred.
"So if I promise to give you a big kiss like that on your birthday, do you promise to kiss me like that on mine?" Fred asked his girlfriend with a big grin as they began to wander back up to the castle.
The two had previously spoken about their birthdays and had found out how close the two dates were. Vicki it turns out was just one day older than Fred and George – her birthday was on March 31st, whilst the twins were born on April 1st.
"Well that depends." Vicki responded with a flirty smile.
"On what?" Fred asked with the same wicked smile on his face.
Vicki's face fell as something dawned upon her. She had meant to be sultry in her reaction to Fred but she quickly realised something. It literally did depend on something.
"On whether you're staying at school over the Easter holidays or whether you're going home for them…" Vicki trailed off.
Fred felt himself grow a little nervous. Easter holidays were only a couple of weeks away yet he and Vicki had yet to discuss what their plans were. Not many people ever bothered to leave for the Easter holidays as they were a week shorter than the Christmas ones – it felt like a lot of effort to get the train to and from London, as well as the travel involved getting to and from King's Cross station. Therefore he had just assumed that Vicki would be staying over the Easter break.
But as most students had stayed over Christmas due to the Yule Ball, quite a few people had planned to make the trek home for the Easter holidays. Fred felt silly that he hadn't even asked Vicki if she was going to be one of the students going home for Easter.
"I'm staying here. Each year my parents alternate on which of my eldest two siblings they visit. One year they'll visit Bill in Egypt, and the other year they visit Charlie in Romania. This year it's Charlie's turn for a visit, so they're going over Easter." Fred began to explain.
He watched Vicki's face intensely. At first she cringed and then her face fell and she looked sad. She didn't need to speak up. Fred knew exactly what her answer was about to be.
"I'm going home. My parents aren't even going to be there for the majority of it – Mum is going on a cruise with her partner and my dad's going to Australia to see our Uncle William. But I've already made the plans to go home, and also to see my muggle friends." Vicki sadly stated.
Fred sighed and hung his head. She'd only be gone for one measly week. But he knew he'd miss her a lot for that week she would be away. He tried to remember how it was just a few months ago when she wasn't his girlfriend. In those times he spent lots of time away from her and he dealt with it (mostly) just fine.
But now she was his girlfriend, and the girl he loved. Fred now had the luxury of seeing Vicki every day, and most days they spent considerable amounts of time together. He had no idea how he was going to survive without her for an entire week.
