Even though Teddy's suggestion seemed to the untrained eye insignificant, a seed had been planted. At first the seed didn't seem to be evolving much. But during one particular day Victorie kept finding herself in situations that rocked the seed alive and caused it to launch into a heavy growth spurt all at once.
The first event that set it off happened in the early hours of the morning…
Victorie had just been eating her breakfast in the Great Hall, still groggy from being asleep for however long.
The lack of sunlight this time of year wasn't helping. She sat there staring at the darkness outside the windows. The power of mid-October gusts and showers pushing against them as if trying to break in. All the while trying her best to keep her eyes open long enough for her spoon of cereal to locate her mouth.
A ghost wearing pyjamas passed by her eye-line, shielding her sight of the stained glass.
Why are ghosts always in the way? She thought grouchily. It took her a second, but her common sense eventually caught up with her and she realised that ghosts are never in the way — they're translucent. So why was this one?
She looked down the Gryffindor table where the ghost had headed, but saw only to her horror a sleepy looking Teddy wearing only his pyjamas, his Hogwarts robe and a pair of slippers. He moved slowly, like he was almost hovering on the spot. He ignored the amused stares he was getting. Perhaps he didn't notice them, or perhaps he just couldn't distinguish them from the usual attention.
Anyhow, he soldiered on with his head held… low.
Was he sleepwalking, or was he just really tired? Had he forgotten to change in his tired state?
His hair was poofy on one side and flat on the other. He made an attempt to flatten the other side with his hand, but only managed to care about it for a moment before giving up and sitting down next to Jamie, who upon turning around and seeing him instantly broke into a fit of laughter along with some other onlookers.
Victorie's stomach lurched at the sight of it. She couldn't watch him make a fool of himself like this. She turned her head toward the glass windows once again, thinking that he probably wouldn't want her, or anyone for that matter, to see him like this. She didn't want to contribute to his embarrassment. It was too painful. So she wasn't going to take her eyes off the window, she firmly decided.
But the laughter continued without her. She had to know what was happening. The next time she looked his way however, she found him smiling.
A few people had now gathered around him, like usual. He was reaching across the table and grabbing the butter for his toast.
"Is it not allowed or something?" He asked with a shrug, but he honestly seemed more interested in buttering his toast than the answer to that question.
It didn't stop everyone around him from giggling however. Victorie caught sight of two girls at the Hufflepuff table whispering in each other's ears and shooting him some more than appreciative looks. Teddy smiled to himself and took a bite of his bread.
Victorie didn't think to feel relieved at the lack of bloodbath she'd imagined. Instead she was shocked. Suddenly she didn't need to focus to keep her eyes open.
Didn't he know that entering the Great Hall in his pyjamas would result in total humiliation? Or did he just not care? Evidently when Teddy did it, it only earned him enamoured looks.
What's the secret to all of this? She wondered to herself. Was there some miracle potion that she didn't know about? Or had he at some point stumbled upon a book with extensive detailing on the art of becoming a social butterfly?
A stifled gasp escaped her at the thought. That must have been what he was referring to in divination when he'd offered his help.
Could there be a section in the Hogwarts library on this? Could something like that have even slipped her notice during her seven years at the school?
She decided that she would have to take a trip to the library later that day for some exploring. There had to be some ancient knowledge somewhere. The thought alone excited her.
According to all seventh-year students, Friday was the best school day. It was the day when they had music class. Hogwarts was a very strict school, and this particular class was one of the few opportunities when they were allowed to be a little less academic, and a little more freethinking and creative. It was a class when one could find oneself suddenly inspired, or at least Victorie did, for the second time that day.
But that hadn't been her initial opinion. Initially when she'd entered the class, she was in the mind-set that it was just another hurdle she had to leap past before she could get to the library.
She didn't care about music, at least not the theoretical aspect of it. She never had. It wasn't a subject which she excelled in, so she wasn't looking forward to it as much as the other students (who realistically just saw it as an excuse to mess about for an hour before school finished for the weekend).
Victorie gazed at the door like it was the finish line in a race. The plan was to head straight to the library, not stopping once on the way, where she fantasized she would spend the whole rest of her night enlivening what she had probably been missing her whole life — the academics of social interaction. It was going to be her awakening.
Everything had been fine before because she'd had Jamie. When she suddenly had to fend for herself though, she realised that, between being kicked out of McGonagall's classes more than once, and sparse conversations with her own dorm mates — making friends was another subject which she did not excel in.
But with access to informative text, or potentially a step-by-step guide to navigating the world, or more importantly, the people who inhabited it, she could have a real chance of making do with her remaining time at this school, not to mention her life to come.
But before the rest of her life could unfold, she had to get through this begrudged class.
It started out as nothing special at first. The professor gave them a lecture on how to read music sheets, but it felt like they might as well be sitting in on one of Professor Binns' classes.
Then the practical portion of the class began. The teacher gave them guitars and told them to practise a simple chord progression as indicated on the board.
It seemed a simple enough task, but even the simplest tasks can be cryptic when the student in question has been watching a door instead of focusing on what the professor said when he had gone through the correct hand movements.
She looked at the other students, but most of them were only messing around.
Usually in situations when her classmates were messing around she could focus on her work and get by without looking like an idiot loner. But when unable to do the work and unwilling to mess about, she had to settle for the latter.
This didn't appease her. So she had to look to others for help, something that rarely befell her.
She readjusted the guitar in her lap self consciously, and scanned the frenzy of students around her. But finding someone who was actually doing the assignment wasn't the easiest task.
Jamie had completely abandoned his guitar, and was instead reciting Shakespeare to some onlookers. The professor didn't seem to mind. Perhaps he was a fan. Victorie wasn't feeling anything at the sight of it though, but she had already heard him recite lyricism more times than she could count, so it didn't have the same effect.
Eventually she found Maya, who was utterly engulfed in the music. Unfortunately for Victorie, Maya was perhaps a little too focused, and trying to make sense of what she was doing with her hands proved to be something far beyond her own skill level.
But then, like a warlock's blessing, her eyes fell on Teddy. He was sitting opposite her a few meters away. Like Maya, he was completely focused on the task, while everyone around him messed about. Head down and watching his own hands, he slowly moved in three positions...
Paused
And began again, over and over.
She wondered if the first movement was C major, like the professor had written on the board. She tried to replicate it herself, and to her relief Teddy paused with his fingers in the position.
He then switched to what she assumed was a G and Victorie switched along with him, then to a D, and to an E lastly. Her lips twitched for a moment, before she began repeating the chord progression once more. She went through it a few more times, only screwing up here and there and using Teddy as her guide.
Then, out of nowhere, Teddy looked up from his guitar and straight at her. He gave her a smile, but kept repeating the same three chords without once breaking eye contact.
Was he… helping her?
She wasn't sure. Normally she would have probably resented the fact someone was trying to help her (if that was what he was doing), but had it not been for him she would have been utterly lost and alone, so she accepted it.
She didn't smile back, but upheld the eye contact. She tried her best to do the chords along with him, admittedly having to check her movements frequently.
It made her feel reassured, having him acknowledge her at the other end of the room. He was like a steady rock, one part of his body focused on playing, the other focused on her. For once he seemed captivated, like nothing could make him mess up those chords.
He then readjusted the guitar on his lap and gave her a big grin. With eyes never leaving her, he began to pluck the strings softly with his fingertips, opening up a whole other dimension to it.
At first she thought it typical of him to want to show off. But she watched him repeat the same chord progression as before, just with the added sound of the strings, and she noticed the air change in the room.
The students fell silent at the sound of actual music being made. For the first time that Friday her classmates seemed focused.
When she looked back, Teddy was no longer watching only her, but addressing the whole room with his playing. He had moved on to other chords, playing something she had never heard before. It was slower than his usual music, that much she knew. They all sat and listened to his methodic tunes like he was the glimmer on a still lake. Centre stage.
For once she let herself join her classmates and she admired Teddy along with them. His effortless demeanour put everyone at ease.
Something stirred inside Victorie. She felt a sense of wonder at his ability to capture a room with nothing more than the faintest tone. It made her realise how silly she'd been this morning. This was not something that could be studied in a book or taught by a professor.
When Teddy's music ended, she felt defeated, and scratched her plans to visit the library.
She faced the fact that she wasn't about to have an awakening of any sort. She was destined to remain who she was — apart from everyone else. Someone for whom everyday was like entering the Great Hall in your pyjamas. But in contrast to Teddy, she was on the other end of the spectrum, where the people around her didn't find it simply a charming faux pas.
The smell of fresh apples engulfed Victorie as she flung a heavy sack of them rhythmically up each step leading to her dorm.
Thud
Thud
Thud
But the idyllic notion of the scent had no impact whatsoever on Victorie. In fact she resented it. Striving for anything remotely sweet and picturesque, she'd just learned the hard way, was just a fool's journey toward disappointment and more trouble than it's worth.
Instead of attending dinner in the Great Hall she'd been reading peacefully under a tree in the fresh autumn weather when the idea had struck her to pick some apples and bring them up to the dorm.
But as she was currently struggling up the last few steps of her journey, having travelled all the way from the school grounds to the Gryffindor Tower, the idea didn't seem so sweet any longer.
Everything had been fine as long as she'd had her levitation charm, but it had all gone awry the moment she'd spotted Jamie emerging out of the portrait of Timothy the Timid on the fifth floor. She'd lost control of the charm and the apples had dropped to the floor in a thunder around her.
Jumping back to the present, Victorie instead patiently flung the sack up the last step, priding herself on at least not being foolish enough to make the same mistake twice.
Refraining from greeting Delilah or Maya on her way in, she left the sack at her bedside and collapsed heavily on her bed.
She closed her eyes for a moment and pressed her cold hands onto her hot cheeks, thinking that she regretted not letting Nick help her with her load when he'd seen her struggling and offered his help. Being a ghost, she wasn't sure what exactly he could have done to help her, but who knew what tricks he had up his sleeve.
Her face tingled pleasantly against her hands and she decided that she would remain in that position for the foreseeable future. Not even the broccoli quiche leftover from dinner on her nightstand could make her move.
But it seemed Victorie had not unfogged her future this time, for she was interrupted almost immediately.
"Oh! Apples! Did you pick these yourself?" Maya asked enthusiastically from Delilah's bed. They were both snuggled up together, reading a magazine.
Victorie thought perhaps if she just ignored them, they would defer. A silence ensued, but it wasn't one she was willing to place any bets on.
"Can we have some?" Maya pressed, this time with a hint of defiance in her tone.
"They're mine." Victorie said and climbed across her bed and into her nightstand with her hand.
She retrieved her copy of Unfogging the Future as Delilah and Maya dismissed Victorie and turned back toward each other and the magazine in tense unison.
With tumultuous movements and a large bite of one of the apples she'd fished up from her bedside, Victorie turned the pages until she found the all too familiar chapter on palmistry.
She'd yet to fully let go of her recent desire for self-improvement. When her plans to visit the library had been cancelled, she'd made plans to sit under a tree instead to get some fresh air and clear her head.
Well under the tree she'd thought back to what Teddy had said during divination about her emotional life being guarded. Despite previous restraint inflicted by Teddy himself, she finally decided that she ought to find out if that was what the book actually said, despite what he thought about it.
But this time when she looked at the pages, they appeared unfamiliar. The letters on the page wouldn't stop moving around. She blinked a few times and attempted to hold the book more firmly in her hand, but it was definitely not something on Victorie's part that sent the letters soaring.
She flicked the pages in despair, and noticed that once she reached the next chapter in the book, all of the letters were suddenly normal.
This book has been bewitched, she thought to herself.
She shut the book, lay down on her bed and took a pondering bite of the apple once more. She admired its shiny shell and smiled to herself.
Despite expecting herself to feel upset at the notion that Teddy had not only charmed her book, but found a way to charm her book without her knowledge, she only found herself admiring the skill and recklessness it would have taken to accomplish such a task.
That was, until she began to imagine Teddy rummaging around her dorm.
She sat up quicker than a blink.
Her eyes landed on Maya and Delilah, who she realised only then were sitting quietly and eyeing the divination book now resting on the bed by her side.
Their guilt became clear to Victorie and at once she let her bare feet fall to the icy cold wooden floors and stood up, an act which she only considered at the most desperate of times.
She pointed at the both of them with her apple and spoke thus:
"I demand that you recant the measures taken for our male mutual to successfully bewitch the contents of my possession! And the details of how you assisted him in his pursuit."
Delilah audaciously placed not one, but two feet on the cold wooden floor and exclaimed, "Only if we get apples!"
Victorie thought the trade fair, and with her wand she levitated an apple onto each of their nightstands individually. She crossed her arms.
There was a moment of locked eyes and hard stares, before Delilah eventually shrugged and explained plainly, "Teddy asked if I could give him your copy, and that he would return it to me later that day. I snuck it from your nightstand one time when you were away on one of those mysterious trips you take sometimes."
She ended on a bitter note with eyes squinting at Victorie. But Victorie didn't care about Delilah's bitterness. Frankly she felt slightly disappointed.
"Wow, my apples are juicier than that heist. Doesn't really seem like a fair trade anymore does it?" Victorie swayed back to her bed nonchalantly. Tension was high in the room.
"It's apples, not gold." Maya muttered in the background.
"Well, in that case I can help you get the book back to normal?" Delilah suggested.
But instead of replying, Victorie was rummaging around her nightstand, retrieving a chunky book called The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4.
She dropped it flamboyantly on top of her bed and shot them a glare to the sound effect of the big poof made by the landing.
The thought occurred to her that she might be acting a little too aggressive, but her dorm mate had after all stolen a book of hers, enabling its enchantment.
So Delilah crept back into her bed and raised the magazine again into a reading position.
The room fell silent as Victorie flicked the pages of the book, landing on a page that said 'Counter-spells'. She let her index finger trace the page until she found ones that looked fitting, attempting every spell that seemed even remotely useful to her.
"Finite illegibilus… Reverte… Surgito…" She pointed her wand at the problem page in her book repeatedly and whispered the incantations with a growing impatience. "C'mon…"
After going about her strategy for a while, she eventually found herself staring blankly at the book before her in a deep state of hopelessness.
Having tried every possible spell in the book that she could think useful in this situation (except for a few she didn't dare try given how they were above her skill level and she wasn't sure of what the exact results of them were), she was at a loss for what to do next.
There was the potentiality of taking Delilah up on her offer, but Victorie wasn't akin to asking her classmates for help. Ever.
She also wasn't entirely sure if the offer was on the table still, given how rudely she'd dismissed Delilah earlier. Also, what if she took her cry for help as a sign of an outstretched hand of sorts, an attempt at bonding? What would the repercussions of such an affair entail?
An imagined horror scenario entered Victorie's mind, where she no longer had any apples left — sworn off at the hands of Delilah and Maya's illusory kinship with her.
She shook her head to herself. It was decided. She was not going to ask for their help.
Instead she heaved the book onto her nightstand, thinking that she might go to the library after all tomorrow and see if she could find some answers there.
But the thought still plagued her — she needed to know if what Teddy had said about her was true. She was defiant however, and tried her best to put the issue out of her mind for now. She laid down to rest.
For about ten seconds before sitting straight up again.
"What did he do with the book?" Victorie demanded, but not without a hint of desperation in her voice.
They both looked at each other and started giggling, but Victorie didn't understand why it was funny. She looked at them, unsure if the proper response was to laugh along, or to ask why they were giggling. It was an unpleasant feeling.
"Guess you'll never find out." Delilah said.
"But you offered to help!"
There was a pause where Delilah was silent. She flipped the pages of their silly magazine nonchalantly, while Maya looked amused by her side.
The girl stopped on one page and her eyes scanned the contents of it. Victorie began to lose hope that she was going to acknowledge her ever again.
But then Delilah's eyes fell on one particular spot on the page and her eyes lit up. She whispered something to Maya who let out another giggle and gave her a nod of approval.
"The offer is off the table." Delilah declared.
But before Victorie could make any plans to jinx her toothbrush or set off a firecracker in her shoe, she added:
"Unless." Albeit with a sadistic smirk that told Victorie that even though it was likely a bone about to be thrown her way, she should know better than to feel hopeful.
The firecracker plan was still very much so afoot.
Much to her suspicions Delilah held up the magazine like it was the terms of agreement. She wondered what ridiculous conditions were about to be proposed, but took a deep breath and promised herself that for once she was going to be as agreeable as she could.
"If you want us to help you –and believe me, you do– you have to do this quiz with us." She propelled the magazine like a frisbee over to Victorie's bed, who caught it clumsily and peered at the page before her.
Largely in a hot pink didot font, the letters read: "Which member of Dark Potions is your soulmate?" Victorie read it aloud, not even trying to robe her voice with the disdain that spewed from it. "Why?"
"For fun!" She replied with a whiff of urgency.
Victorie got a sense that she was being handled like a charity case; like Delilah's explanation was more like a private lecture on how to have a good time.
Right now however it didn't matter if she was being condescended to, or how this conflicted with the image she had constructed for herself. She had a higher purpose, and a silly quiz designed to give impressionable teens a false sense of validation was just a small hoop she had to jump through to get there.
"Okay." Victorie agreed simply. "I will do this."
She had after all made a promise to herself. So she was going to get schooled by Delilah, and she was going to let it happen. Besides, it wasn't like she had more exciting plans scheduled for her Friday night.
Delilah gestured for Victorie to make her way over to them, and that was when she realised the extent of what she had agreed to.
She gazed at the floor that stretched between her bed and theirs. Admittedly it wasn't a long way between them, but she knew very well how cold the floors were, and oddly, the idea of walking them made her nervous just now.
Evidently it wasn't just doing a quiz and walking the cold floors she had agreed to — it was hanging out with them, like she was part of the unit. It was an expectation she knew she couldn't live up to.
Despite feeling like she was being set up for failure, she stood up. Her bare feet on the floors were like a splash of cold water, but she wasn't about to put her socks on. She was brave.
When she walked it was like she no longer knew how to manoeuvre her body, but she somehow made her way over to them and sat down cross-legged at the foot of the bed, opposite the unit.
She looked around the dorm. It looked different from this perspective. With the exception of the band posters on the wall between their beds, it wasn't that bad of a view actually.
"Do you want us to quiz you too, Maya?" Delilah asked with a glimmer of hope.
The girl in question shook her head vehemently. Currently she seemed far more interested in shooting a stream of bubbles from her wand and intermittently popping them using the tip of it.
"Why?" Victorie caught herself asking.
Maya didn't think for very long before she settled on, "It's stupid." for an explanation. But it didn't quite satisfy Victorie, who couldn't imagine a world in which they both agreed on something.
"Why is it stupid?" She pushed.
"Uuh." Maya looked as confused as Victorie felt at having to back up her argument. "I like their music, but I guess I don't really care which random band member is my true love, or whatever."
That was when Victorie stopped to realise that she was now finding herself in a situation where Maya was explaining to her why a so-called 'lifestyle' magazine's quiz was a waste of time.
Not to mention the fact that Maya's sentiment (while a little less eloquent than her own), at its essence, was the same. But to her own discontent she had, in her surprise at Maya's opinion, made herself come across as though she was suddenly aligned with Delilah on the matter. She felt like she had to defend herself.
"I mean, of course it's totally …dumb!" Her brain tripped her up, and she scrambled for something more profound she could use to properly cement her stance. However, the well-formed thoughts she'd had on the matter were completely lost now. "I mean…"
But before she could attempt to redeem herself, Delilah interrupted. "Yeah, yeah. Good for you guys, you've successfully managed to both single yourselves out as uniquely better than my silly questionnaires and me. I applaud you. Now, if we can move past that… let's have some fun and not think so much. Okay?"
Tension successfully broken, Maya and Victorie both fell silent. Their eyes met and they both broke into a smile, Maya's out of amusement, Victorie's without being able to help herself.
"What's your favourite food?" Delilah asked Victorie.
"Why?" She asked back.
"It's the quiz you dumbo." Delilah held up the very wrinkled magazine in an indicatory way.
"Dumbo?" Maya questioned. Victorie and Maya's eyes found each other again and they both broke into a giggle.
Delilah slapped Victorie with the mag in a playful manner. "Is someone having fun?"
The definitely-not-entertained girl shrugged and said, "Pasta."
But a finger was held up to her in a stop signal. "The options are:
a) cake
b) pumpkin juice
c) pizza
or d) anything."
"Some of those are not even foods!"
"Just go with it!" Delilah whined, no longer able to believably portray a proper approval of the quiz herself.
"Pumpkin juice, then." She felt that it didn't matter what she replied, as the integrity of the quiz had already been compromised.
The quizmaster quickly jotted something down and continued. The next question was: "What's your favourite song by the band?"
"Hmm…" She feigned a train of thought. "What are the options?" She asked, successfully hiding the fact that despite knowing what sort of music they played, she truthfully couldn't name a song of theirs.
Delilah smiled as she read them out, invested yet again.
"a) Hyperboles and Understatements
b) Question for the Kids
c) Sudden Whale Death
or d) Short Poem Boy?" She gave Maya a nod when she finished reading and they both smiled.
Victorie stared at the two of them, feeling so displaced from the world in which they lived where these ridiculous song names actually meant something. It was a familiar feeling, and she was reminded that she didn't like it very much.
Before the titles left her head completely, she blurted, "Short Poem Boy."
"Really?" They said simultaneously.
"Thought for sure you'd be more into Sudden Whale Death…" Maya pondered.
What are these titles?! She thought to herself, but hid her attitude behind a well constructed but casual shrug for like the fifteenth time that night.
The questions went on like that. Each one baffled Victorie with the same lack of poignancy, but she simultaneously felt a growing understanding for how oddly delightful that was.
"Last question! This is a big one…" Delilah said dramatically and Victorie sat up straighter. "What's your ideal date?"
Letting out a big breath of air she mumbled, "Go on."
"Is it:
a) a candlelit dinner
b) a walk in the park
c) a concert
or d) a game night?"
"A walk in the park." She concluded with a sense of accomplishment. A calm silence fell between the three of them and Delilah let the magazine fall to rest in her lap.
"I'm glad you joined us, Victorie." She said. "You seem lonely sometimes, I thought you might need this."
Perhaps it was the change of perspective from Delilah's bed, but this time she didn't feel condescended to. Some miniscule part of her felt a little reassured by what she was conveying, while another even smaller part felt an ounce of admiration at her ability to show compassion, despite their strained relationship.
"But wait… what's my score?" Victorie urged, forgetting for a brief moment that this quiz wasn't an academic achievement. "...I mean who did I get?"
"Oh." Delilah said, suddenly reminded of the quiz. "You got Jacob." She studied the page before her intently for a moment. "…You're deep and twisted, but with a rebellious side." She read. "People don't mess with you, but ultimately, you're a kind spirit. Jacob helps ground your immaturity, while you add an extra spice to his life. Your life together is an adventure with many obstacles, but you both crave a challenge and at the end of the day no one else makes you happier."
"Awww…" Delilah sounded out after finishing. She was so devoted to her own sincerity, but Victorie couldn't help but sense that she was not entirely authentic. It was almost as if she was merely entertaining herself.
"That's so sweet." Maya said, but not without a high dosage of (in contrast to Delilah) very obvious sarcasm.
Victorie blinked, feeling nothing but emptiness at the big ramble of words that had just been presented to her, and which essentially meant nothing to her.
Who the hell is Jacob? She wanted to ask, but instead settled on, "Great."
Anticlimactically Delilah rolled up the magazine and placed it in the drawer of her nightstand. She exchanged it for her wand and with her left hand she retrieved one other thing from the drawer. She then held it behind her back, out of Victorie's sight, and shut the drawer with the help of her elbow.
"Accio!" She said and pointed with her wand at the book of the hour.
It flew from its place on the bed and into her grasp. The whole time she beheld Victorie with a weary expression, until she spoke, "You were looking in the wrong place is the thing."
The book weighed in her hand expectantly as she explained herself. "You don't need to find a counter spell, as the book has not been hexed."
She presented her left hand and what had been hidden behind her back. It was a small vial, which she unscrewed the lid off from.
Once Victorie had taken the book and found the afflicted pages Delilah let a thin string of liquid drip on top of the pages sparingly. "It's really quite clever..."
"The idea came from you, didn't it?" Victorie asked.
"I will neither confirm nor deny any such statement." Delilah said, with Maya nodding vigorously in reply from behind her shoulder.
When Victorie looked back onto the pages of her book, she saw to her delight that the text was swiftly going back to normal, and she rejoiced as she was now able to effortlessly read the text.
She quickly forgot about her companions, who were still by her side, and got lost in the book. She wondered if it was about to confirm what she suspected of herself.
Her eyes scanned the pages in an ample demonstration of her aptness at reading. The girls sat quietly beside her, cheering her on imperceptibly.
But in line with Victorie's suspicions, she reached the end of the chapter none the wiser.
In the aftermath of all the turmoil this day had brought with it, she wasn't sure if she felt relieved or disappointed, and came to the conclusion that she probably felt neither. She shut the book in her lap.
"So? What did you find out?"
"Nothing." Victorie said hollowly and stood up.
She walked bravely over the cold floors to her bed and hastily shut the curtains one by one. Her bravery was short lived, and she curled up into a ball under her covers, feeling unsure of what to believe of herself.
She liked the way she was, but in practice it often turned into a tough hill to climb.
Completely still she lay listening to Maya and Delilah's muffled whispers to each other, until they faded as it got later. She lay there thinking of what Teddy had said to her.
You obviously have difficulties connecting with people.
A nice way of saying: she managed to repel pretty much every person at this school with whom she interacted on a regular basis. Evidently the ghost of her past hadn't needed long with her in the present to take notice of it.
A small tear fell vertically down her face to where her cheek was pressed against the sheets.
Teddy couldn't repel people if he tried, she thought, thinking back to breakfast in the Great Hall. There had to be some logic behind it.
She studied the heart line on her hand. Was there a way that he could help her with her emotional life after all? He had seemed confident about his proposal, after all.
There was a ruffle of the curtain at the end of her bed and Walpurgis the cat climbed under it and up into her bed. He lay down next to her at her side.
Victorie made plans to locate Teddy the next morning and coordinate something. She didn't want to feel this way any longer, and perhaps he was the key.
It had been fine before, when she'd had at least one person. Now, it seemed like all she had was ghosts and a cat.
The seed was finally sprouting.
Published: 24 February 2022