Ch.3; Hands Clean - Part 2
Half the year had passed, and Victoria, had remarkably managed to go back to concentrating fully on her studies, receiving great scores, and preparing for NEWTS coming at the end of the year. She received a few owls from Mrs.Tilizano, and her old divination teacher, (she wasn't much fond of Madame Trelawney, but then again, who was?) It reminded her of how she was before she came to Hogwarts...a care-free, happy yet unhappy girl. She was actually quite fine and glad with the way she was now, she had definetly emotionally matured, grown into a woman, rather than the young lady she ued to be, she spoke her mind now, and didn't bow down to the people who didn't deserve it. She was living, quite okay.
"Garnet, a letter?" Victoria said walking to her window. It was almost midnight, and she still hadn't changed out of her school robes. "I've got 50 pages of the Potion's textbook to read tonight, I really don't have time for another letter!" She said letting the cockatoo in. Garnet dropped the parchment into Vicky's hands and she opened it up.
Vicky, big favor, can you please please please go down to the kitchens and tell the house elves to deliver food up to my dorm? I'm starving, and locked up in here because of Madame Hooch! She says if I am to be a swifter flyer, I need to diet! Ugh! Sorry for the inconvienence, but I'm going to die!
-Cedric
"Well, what is it? It can't lower my average anymore than it could Hermione Granger's." Vicky said. She let Garnet back out and then slipped into her shoes and grabbed her wand and walked out. She happened to be good at sneaking around, she didn't need an invisibility cloak. Vicky came to the portrait of the fruits and tickled the pear. After seeing that food would be sent to the right location, which the house elves had no problem with, Vicky started heading on her way back. She thought she heard someone else in the deserted halls...Filch. Dammit! Vicky quickened up her pace and broken into a soft run through the corridor when she turned a corner and collided with someone- they both fell down to the floor.
"Vicky!" The voice was all to familiar.
"Oh- Oliver?" Vicky said rubbing her head. He came over and helped her up, she faced him and looked into his deep brown eyes. "W-what are you doing here?"
"I was going to get my transfiguration book I left in the classroom."
"Oh."
"It's um, not there...so I was actually heading back...towards my...tower."
"Oh. I see." Victoria said, still looking at him, finally she managed to pull herself away and there was an odd silence that hung in the air, like musky perfume blended with the right amount of inner personal angst.
"Vicky..." Oliver said. He missed the sound of her name, he missed saying it. She looked up at him.
"Ya?"
"You've changed." Was all he could muster out.
"I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult? Are you saying I've changed from the 'coniving cheater' you once called me, into something else?"
"No, Vicky no. I mean...it's a compliment. You seem so much more, sure of your self and it just makes me fal-" Oh no. He was babbling again. "It's what made me fall down." He corrected.
"Oh. I can't say the same for you. I really don't know if you've changed or not." Vicky chuckled. There was another long silent moment.
"Would you like to find out?" Oliver spat out. Vicky turned and looked at him strangely.
"What!?"
"Um..." Oliver took her hand pulled him closer to her and kissed her sweetly. Victoria practically melted and pulled away from him looking heavily into his eyes and he stared back at her. "Unfortunately...I had a feeling that was going to be unavoidable." Oliver muttered. Vicky didn't respond she just brought his lips back to hers and they played a silly game, that was so romantic. "I love you." Oliver whispered. One thing led to another, and morning came...
"Oh. My. God!" Vicky said upon waking up in a bed that wasn't blue, it was marroon! "Oh my god, Oh my god!" She turned seeing Oliver lightly breathing in his sleep. She looked at the clock next to his bead, it was 3 am. She could make it out of the Gryffindor Tower safely. Vicky hastily grabbed her clothes and put them back on. Hastily running her fingers through her hair she exitted the Gryffindor common room.
It wasn't a very far walk to the Ravenclaw Tower, but Victoria had to be sure that no one would see her, this being Mrs.Norris's favourite time of night- or so she heard from the Weasley twins, and they knew, from experience. Vicky turned a hallway feeling her way against the wall in the deserted towers. Finally she reached the portrait of Athena and sighed in releif. She made it. Then out of nowhere a hand came out and grabbed her, another hand was placed over her mouth, muffling her screams. Vicky didn't know what happened next...she tried to fight the captor but it was no use and everything went black.
Oliver woke up, as the sun peaked through the window. He grinned, and turned to the side when he saw Vicky's wand in his bed. The events of last came night came back to him. Oh man. Did they really go that far? Where was Vicky now? She probably let herself out. He wondered what she thought. "Does she regret it? Does she still hate me? Because I find it impossible to hate her now." Oliver sighed, flipping onto his back.
Victoria opened her eyes she felt herself in an uncomfortable position, lifting her head she found herself chained to a wall in a dungeon. Was she still at Hogwarts? She didn't know. She saw a shadow of someone, a very round shadow. Vicky looked up at her wrists which were chained and bleeding slightly, and her robes were partially ripped. She must've put up quite a struggle. The shadow disappeared a man came into veiw. He was round, with blonde hair, and seemed almost frightened of somethnig, because he kept looking back to where he was standing. There was a soft glow coming from the place he once stood, Vicky couldn't see what was causing it, but it felt creepy. Like she was being watched. Well, technically, she was. Vicky glared up at the fat man.
"Who are you!?" She demanded.
"My associates and enemies call me Wormtail." The guy shivered, still glancing back at the glow.
"That's nice, why am I here."
"My master knows you and your family heritage. You are one of the gifted ones. The seers of the future." Wormtail said. Victoria bit her lip.
"No I'm not." She lied. There was a voice from the glow, but she could not see what produced it.
She lies. The voice flew around the room.
"I don't think you know everything about your heritage, young lady." Wormtail said. Vicky rolled her eyes, like now was the time for a history lesson. "There are only a few family lines gifte with this uh...gift. And yours is only one out of two that we know of. The other is a family line called the Tilizano's,"
"My old headmistress." Victoria cut in.
"Right, that's nice, anyway, did you know how the gift of 'seeing' is passed on through a whole family, not just through children, but to outsiders whom the family marries?"
"Not really, never wondered that myself actually." Vicky said, rolling her eyes.
"It's because of intimacy. The first person a 'seer' makes love to shares their gift, and if the case is, so would their child."
"Wow, that's really interesting, can I GO now?"
"No. You see, you are the only one left in your family, and the Tilizano's because they have no children, but, you are the only one left in your family, who hasn't shared your power yet. And my master sees this power as something very valuable and needed, so I'm afraid we're going to have to-"
"No!" Vicky yelled, shifting her position away from him as far as the chains would let her. When he neared she tried to kick at him, if only she had her wand...where was her wand? Wormtail grabbed her shoulder, but then the voice from earlier interrupted them.
Stop, Wormtail. The voice sent shivers down Vicky's spine...she could literally feel the cold air on her back. She's not pure.
"What? Master? But she has to be!"
She isn't. It seems we've come a night too late. Then the only thing left to do with her now...is kill her. We'll find another way to get the powers of sight.
"Kill her? Yessir."
Oliver couldn't get back to sleep and it was still early. He turned on his side and pickd up Victoria's wand, the minute he did however- the pictures flooded into his mind. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he found himself in a room, a dungeon. He turned and saw Victoria chained up to the wall, and this incredibly ugly fat guy pointing his wand toward her, 'Avada Kedavra', the words spilled out of his mouth. No. no. Oliver snapped out of it. He wasn't sure what he just saw, all he knew was that he had to get down there, to the dungeons. He grabbed his own broom and through a robe on before running out of his dorm and the Gryffindor tower. Half way towards the dungeons, he realized how slow he was going.
"I need my broom." Oliver said. He took out his wand and summoned his broom, instantly it was there. He hopped on and sped down the many twists and turns of Hogwarts, happily avoiding the changing staircases until he got to the dungeons. It couldn't be Snape's, it couldn't be Professor Lupin's, it- there was a strong glow from a dungeon at the very end of the hall. Oliver jumped off his broom and ran towards it locked. No problem. "Alohamora!" Oliver whispered and the lock clicked. He stumbled into the room.
"Oliver!" Vicky smiled with releif. Oliver drew out his wand and pointed it at Wormtail.
"Furnunculus!" Oliver said quickly, saying the first curse that could come to his mind. Wormtail grabbed his face, ugly boils started to pop out on him. Vicky gave Wormtail a disgusted look, not that the boils made him look anymore dispicable. Oliver ran over to Vicky and whispered. "Alohamora," unlocking her chains. Oliver quickly summoned his broom to them. "Come on." Oliver said, helping her up onto his broom. Vicky got on and wrapped her arms around his waist and they flew out of the door. Only seocnds after that Remus Lupin ran in to see what the commotion was.
Vicky sighed and laid her head on Oliver's back as they flew through the Hogwarts halls. Then she realized they weren't headed for her tower, or his. Oliver flew through a window, taking them out to the quidditch field. Oliver did the same thing as the first time they were here together, he swung his leg over facing her. He took one of her hands in his, wiping away the blood from her wrists. Vicky pulled her hand back.
"I'll be fine." She smiled. Oliver smiled. Vicky bit her lip. "Um...Oliver how did you know to come..."
"That's the most amazing part, Vicky, I just touched your wand and then it was like I was seeing the future or something and-" Oliver cut himself off. This explained alot. "That's how you knew...about the quidditch game, the curse that hit Snape...this is how you knew isn't it? You saw..."
"Listen, Oliver, Wormtail-" Oliver gave her a strange look. "The blonde round man back there, and there was someone else but I didn't see them, they told me, something." Vicky paused. "Oliver, my family comes from a long line of seers. You know, like Divination, except real, no frauds. We, sometimes, get interupted by these flashes of the future. They told me...how the curse, the gift, the ability, whatever you want to call it, gets passed on... from generation to generation in a family." Oliver stared intently at her. "There's more than a connection when a seer makes love to someone for the first time. The partner gets that ability, and any children the two ever have together...same thing." Vicky looked up. Oliver was at a loss for words.
"Wow." He smirked.
"Wow? Is that all you can say, because I want you to know, if I had known I was going to give you some insane ability I would've been smarter, I-"
"I don't regret anything last night." Oliver said, brushing a few strands of hair behind her ear. "Do you?"
"No, of course I don't Oliver...I love you."
"I love you too." Oliver smiled, he leaned down and kissed her softly.
"You understand...that this might interupt your life...it could be considered a curse, sometimes it might even hurt."
"Vicky, I don't care. I feel blessed because it's me you gave this gift to. Whether you knew it or not. It doesn't change my feelings at all. And...I'm sorry, for, the hurt that I've put your through in the past year."
"Oh, you didn't know, I mean, I should've told you-"
"Vicky, I understand why you didn't tell me, because if word got out, you might be hurt again, like you just were."
"But luckily you came in time." Vicky smiled.
"I can't beleive I thought you...I can't beleive I beleived Cho. I just want you to know, that every day we were apart, I thought about you." Oliver smiled. Victoria felt her eyes water. "I never want to spend another day without you again. I think I knew you were the one, from the moment I saw you, and it was stupid of me, to try to turn our lives into some really bad soap opera." Oliver chuckled. He reached up and wiped away a tear with his thumb. "Hold on, one moment." Oliver said, he turned around on the broom and flew them over to the quidditch goal posts. He jumped onto one, and helped her onto it to, and called his broom back over to the ring, placed one foot on it, and one of the ring.
"Oliver, what are you doing?" Vicky asked.
"I don't have...a ring with me right now. If I did, I'd hold it in my hand and offer it to you with all my heart, but this is the closest I can get." Oliver grinned. Victoria's mouth opened slightly in shock. Oliver bent down on one knee and took her hand in his. "Victoria Crescent, will you marry me?" Victoria couldn't beleive her ears...she felt her eyes water and thought she might fall if Oliver wasn't holding onto her hand.
"Yes. Yes, Oliver Wood." Victoria smiled, tears flowing down her cheeks. Oliver stood back up and pulled her back to him, giving her a long heart searing kiss.