The next week seemed to go very slowly. On Saturday the biggest Quiddich game of the year would take place – Gryffindor vs Slytherin. The Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry was the strongest in the school, and the Quiddich games were always very intense.
Unfortunately for me I didn't care too much for Quiddich. I could respect my peer's passions for the sport and appreciate the school spirit that was involved, but I had not been to a game since my third year at school.
I wasn't planning on ending my attendance drought. However this was all about to change.
It was on Friday when I left the lunch table early. I was seated with Beatrice and another boarder im my dorm – Cordula. Drucilla had chosen to not sit with us and instead was seated on the other end of the table with Rangvald Lestrange. That pair had been spending a lot of time together and I had guessed they were bonding over their mutual hatred of me.
I hadn't spoken to Tom since the weekend when I said I had no plans to wait for him. I had no idea whether he was still telling fellow Slytherins to leave me alone or not, however Drucilla and Lestrange had yet to bother me.
Beatrice was still obsessed with helping me win back Tom, and she had even recruited Cordula to continually discuss this with me. By lunch on Friday I was tired of it and so I informed them I was going to make myself more decent and then excused myself from the table to get some peace and quiet.
As I exited the Great Hall, I was stopped by Mary Figglestill in the Entrance Hall.
"Tori! How are you?" Mary asked as she kissed my cheek to greet me.
"Hi Mary." I said with a weak smile, not wanting to be rude.
"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about you and Riddle not working out. I thought you two looked so good together." Mary gushed suddenly.
It was hard to keep myself composed. I was getting rather tired of being told I should be upset about my very short-lived relationship with Tom fizzling out. The constant negativity was beginning to wreak havoc on my mind and I was starting to feel anxious, but could never pinpoint why.
"Well, we'll see what happens." I nervously grinned.
Mary seemed to get the hint that the topic of Tom Riddle made me feel uncomfortable as she quickly unravelled something I didn't realise she was holding.
"My sister just sent me this. I feel bad but it's sometimes frustrating being the only witch in a family of muggles, not having an owl and all. It takes so long for the mail to get here. Being in the middle of a war doesn't help either..." Mary gushed to me.
I was intrigued by her words and the poster in front of me. I had not been exposed to any forms of muggle culture. I had no idea how the muggle postal service worked nor who the handsome man was that was grinning in the poster she was showing me. My parents had sheltered me away from the muggle way of life. As if a switch went off in my mind, I suddenly yearned to hear more.
"Gorgeous, isn't he? He may be a womanizer but I'll always have a place in my heart for him." Mary swooned as she admired the poster in her hands.
I was silent for a moment as I didn't know whether I should play along and agree that the muggle man was good looking or come clean and admit I had no clue who this person was. My mind was made up for me when someone came to join us.
"Mary, honey. As bitter as I may be that you now have a poster of Errol Flynn, I take comfort in knowing that Tori has no idea who he is," Andrew Hartwell grinned as he kissed the top of his girlfriend's head before turning to me "Hello Tori, are you going along okay?"
"Fine thanks. Ready for the big game tomorrow?" I grinned, happy that Andrew was the first person to not mention the break-up between Tom and I.
"Not to sound cocky, but yes. I'm ready." Andrew smartly responded.
Mary clicked her fingers suddenly and looked at both Andrew and I, looking excited.
"Say, Tori. You should sit with me tomorrow! The Head Boy and Head Girl get special seats with the teachers and they're usually allowed to bring a guest. As Andrew will be playing, I would love to invite you to be seated with me." Mary proposed to me.
"Oh! Well, you see-"I began as I was about to politely decline her kind invitation, but she cut me off in a panic.
"Uh oh! I've just realised the time. My professor for Arithmancy has been a little under the weather lately so she's agreed that I can teach the class this week. I need to go prepare. I'll catch up with you later Tori, we'll work everything out." Mary suddenly said.
She gave me a kiss on the cheek to say farewell and gave Andrew a peck on the lips. He cheekily tried to go for a deeper kiss but she shot him a dirty look and stalked off, clearly unimpressed with Andrew trying to take the opportunity to get more intimate.
"That'll be interesting. Instead of being the guest of the Head Boy, you'll be the guest of the Head Girl. I wonder if Riddle will get jealous you're escorting my lovely girlfriend." Andrew grinned mischievously as we began to walk down to our next class which was double Care of the Magical Creatures.
"I wouldn't be bothered in the slightest if he was." I shrugged.
I found myself quite shocked at my cool words. Tom's fierce passion and protective nature of me used to bring out intense feelings deep inside of me. I was surprised that I told Andrew I no longer cared how Tom felt towards me. I was even more stunned when I realised that I meant it.
The next day I found myself seated within the Quiddich pitch. Mary had ambushed me at breakfast and as I didn't have the bravery to turn down her kind offer, I met her fifteen minutes later outside the castle with my Slytherin scarf wrapped tightly around my neck.
We walked down just the two of us as we spoke about our predictions of how the game would go. We both knew we'd probably be completely wrong – I wasn't a Quiddich fan and thus didn't have the knowledge and as a muggle-born Mary knew even less than I did.
Once we got to the pitch we diverted from the crowd as we made our way up the staff stand. The first thing I noticed was that the area was much smaller than each of the students stands. There were already quite a few staff members present who all looked on curiously when Mary and I had entered.
"Here she is, one of the brightest witches to have ever graced Hogwarts. Miss Figglestill, it's always a pleasure to be in your company," Professor Dippet beamed towards Mary as he shook her hand "and is this your guest of honour for today?"
Headmaster Dippet was rarely seen by the student body. He did work hard but usually in the confides of his office. He would liaise with the two student leaders as well as the school staff on a regular basis but it was rare for him to interact with normal students.
"Yes, she sure is. This is Victoria Black." Mary introduced. It was strange being introduced to a staff member at a school I had attended for nearly seven years but I genuinely knew he had no idea who I was.
His reaction was not one I was expecting. I expected him to be polite but disinterested before moving along swiftly to someone more interesting. Instead he looked gobsmacked but his shock was quickly replaced with a bright smile on his face.
"Black you say? You must be one of Phineas' girls." Headmaster Dippet asked me.
"He's my great grandfather. I never met him, he passed away a year before I was born." I responded.
"Horace, come over here. Have you taught Miss Black here? She's another one of Phineas' descendants." Headmaster Dippet gushed as he beckoned over Slughorn.
"Ah yes, of course I have. Potions wasn't her calling so unfortunately I no longer have the pleasure of teaching Miss Black, but I hear she's quite the expert in Herbology and Care of the Magical Creatures." Slughorn stated to Dippet.
I knew I should have been angry about the fact that Slughorn was being nice to me for the first time in my life, only after some kind words from the headmaster. However I had been seeking approval from the likes of Slughorn for such a long time it was nice that it had finally happened. It was making me happy.
"Two very noble subjects to be proficient in. Everybody wants to excel in the traditional academic subjects, sometimes Herbology and Care of the Magical Creatures can be overlooked and thus there's less people in those fields. Miss Black here should have a very bright future ahead of her." Headmaster Dippet stated with a wide smile on his face.
"Very true, very true. I have never really thought about that before." Slughorn mused.
After a little more small talk Headmaster Dippet excused himself to speak with a few of the other teachers. Slughorn stayed a little longer and spoke with Mary and I before he left – as Tom Riddle had just climbed the stairs he wanted to speak with Tom.
My eyes widened as I grabbed Mary by the arm and lead her quickly to the opposite site of the stand where we took our seats.
"Why is he here? He never comes to Quiddich matches." I hissed loudly in anger.
"Well my guess is that he knew you were coming. It's the only logical thing, the only difference between this match and others before it is the fact you're here in the teacher's stand." Mary shrugged.
I tried to not make it look obvious that I was watching Tom, but I kept watching him from the corner of my eye. I saw many teachers speak to him and fawn over him and I'm fairly sure he had many offers for seating throughout the game.
Unfortunately to my horror he had chosen to sit directly next to me.
"It's lovely to see you Tori. It's great to see you really get into the Slytherin spirit." Tom stated to me.
"Yes, hello Tom. You too." I responded in an attempt to be polite but I could see Tom almost wince at my less than cheery tone.
"Actually Tom, it's great that you made it today. I needed to run something past you – it's Head Boy and Head Girl related actually." Mary piped up suddenly.
"Is now really the time and place? It's not the most appropriate place to have a conversation as we can't give it our full attention. I could have a discussion with you after the match though." Tom responded.
"Oh it'll just be a quick minute, we have time before the match begins," Mary stated with a wave of her hand before she turned to me with a sly wink "Tori if you wouldn't mind swapping places so I can chat with Tom."
It was then made obvious to me what Mary was doing – she was using her Ravenclaw intelligence to get me away from Tom as she must have sensed my discomfort. I gladly swapped seats with her and just as I turned around I saw a grinning face come up the stands. He stood out like a sore thumb as he was the only one not wearing either Gryffindor or Slytherin colours, in fact he had a Hufflepuff scarf tied around his neck. He made a beeline for the unoccupied seat next to me.
"Lovely surprise, I wasn't expecting the pleasure of having the opportunity to sit next to my favourite student for this game." Newt beamed towards me but then I saw his face fell as his eyes looked past me and landed onto Tom.
I looked behind me and noticed Tom seemed disinterested in whatever Mary was saying to him and instead he was intensely watching the interaction between Newt and I.
My eyes snapped back towards Newt and I leaned in so I could speak to him quietly.
"Trust me, I'm very displeased with Riddle sitting near us. I sat away from the other staff in hopes he would leave me alone. But no – he came to sit with us." I frowned.
Newt's face lit up once again and he didn't speak for quite a while as a smile slowly appeared over his face.
"You care about what I think." Newt smiled brightly.
I blinked in confusion – what was Newt getting at?
"O-of course I do. Probably more so than anyone else in this school." I honestly stuttered out.
"Well I must say I'm quite honoured," Newt stated as he put a hand over his chest before leaning in further and quietly finishing the rest "I value your opinions and thoughts over everybody else in this school."
I went to respond to him but I felt increasingly uncomfortable as I could feel someone watching from behind. I turned around and saw Tom watching us with a very serious look on his face. I expected him to drop it once I caught him. However he kept on staring, refusing to break eye contact.
My heart filled with glee as I saw Tom's reaction. The fact I was interacting with Newt bothered him, and it made me happy. I no longer yearned for his touch, nor did I miss his intense kisses. I didn't want to be with Tom. But I sure was still angry at how he had strung me along and had expected me to wait for him like a good girl. Therefore I was feeding on his jealousy.
"Oh my goodness! What's that?" Mary shrieked as she stood up and pointed to a near-by stand full of students.
I snapped out of my trance with Tom and my eyes trailed to where Mary was pointing.
As the stand was fairly far away I couldn't see what was happening in detail. All I could see was that one girl was hunched over with her head in her hands, letting out a blood curling scream as if she was in extreme pain. Most students had cleared the stand to distance themselves from the screaming student – all except one. A friend of this girl remained next to her, patting her back and trying to console her. The one screaming either didn't register her friend's presence or didn't care as she kept yelling without acknowledging her friend.
Her behaviour began to attract the attention of the entire pitch as slowly the crowds became quiet and began to point towards this girl.
"If I'm not mistaken, those are symptoms of an after effect of hazing." Newt frowned.
I gasped at what Newt was saying. He was correct – this is exactly what my parents warned me about growing up. Losing all recollection of one's current whereabouts, non-stop screaming, evidence of re-living trauma amongst her other actions. Newt was right – this had to be due to hazing.
"What on earth is hazing?" Mary asked us, and Tom looked just as clueless at Newt's statement.
My eyes darted between Mary and Tom. It was an odd feeling that I was more knowledgeable about a subject than the two brightest students in the school. But Mary was a muggle born and Tom had grown up in a muggle orphanage. They both hadn't grown up with parents drilling into their heads the dangers of hazing.
"I better go assist. I can see Dumbledore and Slughorn are getting up to go see what's going on. You stay here Mary, you need to cheer on your boyfriend once this match continues on." Tom stated to Mary as he got up.
She remained silent as her eyes fixated on the screaming girl. I was more interested in Tom who shot me one last look I couldn't read as he ran after Professor Dumbledore and Professor Slughorn.
"Tell me what hazing is!" Mary impatiently probed.
"I-well. I don't know why this young lady is experiencing after effects. Strong education programs have been put in place, and it's now illegal to produce wands that have the ability to conjure hazing potions and has been since the thirties. It doesn't make sense." Newt babbled on, not being aware that he had not really answered Mary's question. I decided to speak up.
"It's a very cheap way of trying to predict the future. You don't need divination skills just a few household items for a potion and an old wand made before the ministry passed a law forcing wand makers to block hazing spells from being cast." I began to explain.
"But why is it bad? Divination is completely legal, and it doesn't hurt anybody." Mary quickly asked.
"As I said, hazing is a cheap way of trying to predict the future. The potion drinker will begin to be able to see what they believe is the future for a small period of time. Usually it's nothing more than a false dream with no merit. But the chemicals within the potion can react badly with the brain, or something. That's what I read in the Daily Prophet." I responded.
Mary remained silent and put her hands to her mouth in shock.
"Correct. The hazing potion quite literally burns up the mind. As the potion stays in the bloodstream for very long periods of time, sometimes even years, people can experience after effects a long time after consuming the potion." Newt added on.
"It sounds very similar to opiate abuse in the muggle world." Mary stated.
The three of us were silent as we saw that Dumbledore, Slughorn and Tom had reached the girl in the other stand. Tom and Slughorn rushed over to her immediately whilst Dumbledore stood back and watched. Tom seemed to be checking her vitals and saying something to Slughorn who was quickly brewing up a potion with ingredients he had grabbed from pockets inside his coat. He must carry around common ingredients and portable equipment at all times and it certainly had been useful today.
"Wow, this is really intense. She's now gone completely limp." Mary said out loud as her eyes didn't leave the scene in front of us.
I had no words to say as I looked up at Newt for guidance, who seemed to be watching me in a worried way. I knew basic facts about hazing but had no idea of how to stop the after effects from killing someone and genuinely did not know if this student would be fine or not.
"Most likely she will pull through. Slughorn and Riddle have frozen the after effects. I suspect Dumbledore will get involved and organise for her to be sent to St Mungo's for proper care and treatment." Newt said to me.
I gave him a half-smile. I was still concerned for the student but started to feel a little more at ease now that Newt said she should be okay. I was also in awe at how intelligent Newt was. He was a world renowned Magizoologist – but I had never really thought about other areas Newt would have been knowledgeable about. In order to study creatures to the full extent he would have to know many forms of magic.
Newt must have mistaken my lack of a response for nerves or anxiety as he grabbed my hand that was positioned under the seat. It wasn't just a quick squeeze – he kept his firm grip even after Dumbledore grabbed the girl and apparated to an unknown destination. He was still holding on twenty minutes later when the postponed Quiddich match finally began with both teams kicking off the ground.
So 'hazing' is my invention of wizard drugs. They make the potion, use their wands to stir it with a spell and then drink it. Rather than doing it to get high and feel good they do it to see what "flashbacks" (or flash forwards really) they see. I guess the closest thing to real drugs would be someone on an acid trip.
In response to the reviews...
AnadoraBlack - I'm glad you knew all along that Newt wasn't emotionally cheating on Tina. I honestly love Tina, perhaps even more than Newt. Riddle is a dick so unfortunately it will come back and haunt more than just Tori but that's all in good time.
ForeverTeamEdward13 - Thanks for your support on this story as well! Really appreciate it :)