Lestrange.
The name itself was a curse.
It was one of the things that solidified her decision to move to France, away from her Aunt and Uncle. She had lived in Reims as a child before the arrest of her parents, her father took pride in telling her that one day she would attend Beauxbaton, the french wizarding school, despite her mother's protest it was a family tradition to attend Hogwarts. After their arrest she was shipped off to Wiltshire to live with her Aunt and Uncle and it seemed almost certain she would follow the Black tradition and attend Hogwarts once she turned 17. That was until she was 12 and found out that Beauxbaton had announced it would be allowing international enrollment. So freshly 17 Vesta Lestrange packed her things and spent her first two school years abroad at Beauxbaton Academy.
Sirius Black.
God damned Sirius Black.
Vesta had never heard his name before that summer. Her Aunt proceeded to inform her that he's their cousin the night the ministry announced his escape. Due to Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban travel has been restricted in the Wizarding World. Meaning Vesta Lestrange would not be returning to Beauxbaton Academy come fall. Meaning Vesta Lestrange would officially have to attend school with her cousin, Draco, the golden child of the family for the first time since they were children.
Meaning Vesta Lestrange would now be attending school in the country where nearly every member of the wizarding world knew the name Lestrange. The gritty details of what her parents had done had never become public knowledge, but the image of her mother behind bars in Azkaban quickly became a public service announcement of sorts. "Follow the Dark Lord and even high society can't save you from Azkaban." They made sure her face was plastered everywhere at the height of the hunt for death eaters. Bellatrix Lestrange once the prized daughter of the house of Black, no more than a common criminal. Vesta wanted nothing more than to escape something so simple as her last name. If only it were so simple, Vesta also bore the curse of wearing her mother's face, though with minor differences, and people were already starting to take notice.
September 1st, the day of the year that every young wizard looked forward to, filled Vesta's stomach with dread as she trailed behind her Aunt and Uncle along with her cousins. Draco had been sorted into Slytherin during his first year at Hogwarts and was top of his class in potions. Adalinda was Draco's little sister, and his polar opposite in every way, she was named after their paternal grandmother, but that didn't stop her from being fiery and impulsive, but alas, they wouldn't find out where she would be sorted until the next year, as she is only 16.
Vesta kept her head down doing her best to stay unnoticed, not that it worked, people noticed her and nearly immediately stepped out of her way, she made an attempt to pull her hood down further in front of her face despite the fact that it was now obstructing her vision. She left her things with the family's house elves, whom were instructed to load her and Draco's luggage onto the train. She grabbed only the cage of her owl, Azure, a birthday gift from her Aunt the year before she started school, and broke off away from her family hoping to discreetly make it onto the train.
Vesta and Draco were the same age, however due to her time at Beauxbaton, her third year of schooling would be her first year at Hogwarts School, meaning, tonight she would be sorted. Vesta had given this a lot of thought, nearly all of her family had been sorted into Slytherin, she knew of a few cousins that had been sorted into Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, but she wasn't even sure she knew their names.
From what Draco says Slytherin was where children of high society belonged, blue bloods, pure bloods, you won't have to look far for either in Slytherin. Ambition is Slytherin's driving factor, meaning a Slytherin will stop at nearly nothing to get what they want. Of course this also meant Slytherin had a reputation of being bullies and are statistically more likely to dabble in the dark arts. Which, considering the direction her parents went, Vesta hoped more than anything that she wasn't placed in Slytherin.
From her research Vesta found that ravenclaw were often considered to be the smartest of each of the houses. Ravenclaw house valued intelligence and wit, Vesta's uncle often referred to them as a bunch of know-it-all prudes. Vesta also often heard that Ravenclaws could be mistrusting. But even though Vesta could be a tad bookish at times, she wasn't sure that was where she belonged either.
The final two houses were Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, Draco often voiced his dislike for them, he thought hufflepuffs were too soft and gryffindors were too loud. Draco had specifically voiced his dislike rather prominently for the pride of Gryffindor house, Harry potter himself. Outside of what Draco had told her however, she didn't know much about Gryffindor or Hufflepuff house.
Vesta silently found an empty compartment to sit in on the train, hoping that she would be left to be by herself. She watched as slowly more and more students made their way onto the train, and for the most part the other students seemed to leave her alone, in fact they entirely did leave her alone, that is until nearly everyone had already made it onto the train, that is, everyone aside from a tall boy with long black hair, and a shorter, yet still rather tall, boy with bright blue hair trailing not far behind him, they both happened to be sprinting to make it onto the train on time seeming to have arrived somewhat last minute.
Vesta didn't pay much mind to it, pulling the book she had been reading in the car out of her messenger bag, waiting patiently for everyone to take their seats and for the train to leave, however nearly halfway down the second page she was startled out of focus by the sound of the compartment door opening.
"We'd be able to sit with them if we had gotten here on time."
"Yeah Yeah, blame the person who literally had to spend the whole night having their energy drained by- things- Woah.. no way." The two boys Vesta had seen sprinting to reach the train were now standing in front of her, seemingly they hadn't expected anyone to be sitting alone in this compartment because the smaller of the two was now gawking at her. "George said there was a stranger with Malfoy that was too old to be a first year. Kinda expected you to be sitting with him though."
Shit maybe if I pretend I don't speak much English they'll leave me alone.
"Désolé je ne parle pas anglais."
"Yeah… I read minds you're not getting away with it that easily."
"You're a Legilimens?"
"Yeah that word that I totally know how to say AND spell. Mais même si je ne pouvais pas lire dans vos pensées, je parle aussi français. C'est un anglais simple avec lequel j'ai un problème."
"Why would I sit with Draco when silence is a much better sound than his insufferable bragging." Vesta sighed, sticking her nose back into her book hoping that would be the end of the conversation.
"Ha! I like you. We're friends now. My name is Ace and this is my brother Asher." Vesta peered over to the other boy who, without a doubt, looked nothing like his more talkative brother, clearly Vesta's confusion showed on her face. "He IS my brother, it's just through adoption. I'm not lying to you, I promise."
"I didn't think you were lying, I just thought each of your parents had equally strong genes." Vesta lied through her teeth but she didn't want to make them feel bad.
"Yeah sure, what're you reading?"
"I don't know if you'd know it… unless you're caught up on your French literature as well, though you do certainly seem to be full of surprises." Vesta smiled.
"Try me."
"L'Hôtel du libre échange"
"You would be correct, I don't know it."
"I do," the taller of the brothers, Asher, finally spoke up, "At least I think I've watched the muggle movie, it's about two people who wish to engage in an extramarital affair. They check into a discreet Parisian hotel where they wish to spend the night, but things happen and the couple never manage to exchange as much as a kiss, isn't it?"
"Yeah.. We were meant to be studying it this semester at Beauxbaton."
"Really?"
"Indeed, the class was about magical properties and how they can be imbedded into pieces of artwork, Among the other works we were meant to be studying were William Shakespear's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Edgar Allen Poe's Annabelle Lee."
"Ravenclaw I think, no one other than a Ravenclaw can say a sentence like that and still sound interested." The taller one smiled at her. "Keep your head down for a few weeks, integrate into the crowd slowly, you'll do nicely."
Vesta smiled to herself. Nuzzling herself into her book as the boys put their stuff into the overhead rack. Ravenclaw didn't seem so bad after all. Soon enough the train made a lurch forward, Vesta Lestrange was officially on her way to Hogwarts.