"Eez zees ze train?" Fleur asks as the family steps onto the platform. "Are you sure eets safe?"
Bill laughs and kisses his wife on the forehead. "Of course it's safe. The kids have been taking it every year for centuries." They step forward toward the Hogwarts Express, Victoire half hidden by Teddy.
"Come on, Vic," Teddy urges, pulling her forward, "you've been looking forward to this for months. Get on. You'll be fine."
"What if that Parkinson boy you're always complaining about is there?" She peaks her head through the space between Teddy's arm and stomach. "What if he throws a spell at me?"
"If Vic doesn't want to go," Dominique interrupts the conversation, cheerily, "I'll go, instead!"
"Victoire's going." Bill warns, looking to his oldest daughter, who just slides in further behind her currently blue-haired friend.
Teddy looks at the eleven year old seriously, disregarding the side chatter from her family members. "He is only sixteen. He can't do magic on the train yet. Besides," he turns briskly to face the girl and shrinks down to her height, "it's my father he has the problem with, not yours."
Rolling her eyes to show Teddy he had not made a very convincing argument and pushing her strawberry blond hair out of her face, Victoire moves on to her next concern. "What if I'm not in Gryffindor? My father and all my aunts and uncles, and even all of their parents were all Gryffindors! What if I'm in Hufflepuff? What if--"
"There's nothing wrong with Hufflepuff." He only looks slightly aggravated, and she can't even tell if it's from the statement or from her complaints in general. Nonetheless, she regrets her words immediately.
"Oh, no. I know your mum was in Hufflepuff. And she's amazing. But I just mean-- my entire family-- I don't want to--"
"And there's nothing wrong with Ravenclaw, either." He's rolling his eyes wildly. So maybe he is just fed up with her constant worries. "Harry and Ginny's friend Luna was in Ravenclaw, and she's still one of their best friends."
"I just meant-- what if I'm in Slytherin?"
"Trust me. You don't have a chance of being in Slytherin." He pushes her playfully before nodding a farewell to his grandmother and running off toward the train without explaining how he can be so sure she won't end up in the one house that has had a record of dark wizards behind it for centuries.
Victoire watches Teddy jump onto the train before taking a deep breath and turning to her family to give her farewells. Bill kisses her forehead and sends her towards her mother, who does the same. "You veel be amazing, jus' like your fazzer." Victoire simply smiles and nods at her family, before turning and timidly approaching the large Hogwarts Express.
Once she steps onto the train, Victoire takes a step into the long aisle. Kids are walking swiftly through come compartment to compartment looking for their rightful places. She can't help wondering where Teddy ran off to and if she should try to find him or just find some other first year students.
"Took you long enough." Teddy pops out from behind a wall next to Victoire, making her jump backwards. He grabs her wrist and pulls her up before she gets a chance to tumble down the stairs she had just climbed up. "Come on." He takes off down one of the aisles, the hair he had turned brown to fit in to the crowd while he was hiding now transforming to a loud, almost glowing, red.
He finally reaches his compartment and opens the door, revealing two of his fellow third years—Randy, who came home with Teddy last Christmas, and a black-haired boy Victoire could only assume to be Corvus. Randy smiles when Teddy walks in, standing to slap hand with him. "Gryffindor red. Nice choice."
Teddy nods and laughs. "You caught me." He looks over and sees Victoire standing outside the door, and motions for her to step inside. She obeys, shyly. "You've met Randy. And Corvus, this is—"
"Duh," the tall boy stands and takes Victoire's hand into his as she blushes, "Victoire Weasley."
He must have said it a little too loudly, because the entire train seems to go silent and turn to stare. Victoire, who is still standing in the doorway to Teddy's compartment and is, therefore, visible to a large amount of the other compartments, turns pink as she glances around at all the faces. The other kids begin whispering amongst themselves. What is going on?
It seems to continue like this for a long while until a familiar figure makes its way toward Victoire. "Word around the express is that I'm finally going to have a another Weasley in my house." Neville smiles down at the girl. "It's about time, too." The little girl smiles back up at him, silently screaming in embarrassment. Why does everybody know her? Neville sees the three boys sitting there, and brightens even more than normal. "I've been made head of Gryffindor house." All three faces brighten at the words. "But that doesn't mean you lot get any special privileges." He turns to walk away. "Well, not too many, at least," he jokes with a wink and struts off.
Victoire automatically turns to Teddy, fear in her eyes. "See? I have to be in Gryffindor!" Teddy snorts and his friends laugh. He must have warned them she would be like this. "Neville even assumes I will be. If I'm not—"
"If you're not," Teddy finishes for her, "then absolutely nothing happens. You're just not stuck with me for the next five years."
"So it's true, then." A voice comes from the hallway before Victoire gets a chance to even start to answer Teddy. The group turns to find an older boy standing in front of them, staring down at the little strawberry blonde. "There's finally another Weasley in the Hogwarts student body."
Teddy rolls his eyes as he looks up at him. "What do you want, Parkinson?" Victoire immediately turns to Teddy, scared. He avoids eye contact with her, knowing her gaze would only make him weaker.
"Oh," the older boy begins, sarcastically, "I just wanted to come see one of the notorious Weasley clan for myself. I figured she'd be with you. After all," his eyes are dancing with the remark he has floating around his mind, "you werewolf kids have to stick together." Laughing, he turns and starts to walk away as Victoire's eyes tear and Teddy's hand moves into a fist.
"You bloody coward!" Teddy calls after him. He stops walking, still facing away. "Say something like that, and walk away. Just throw a bloody curse at me. I know you want to." The boy doesn't turn around, and Teddy forces out a chuckle. "I didn't think so. No wonder you're not a Gryffindor."
In an instant, he is turned around and face to face with Teddy, who doesn't even flinch as the older charges his way. "Why would I want to be in a house filled with part-bloods and blood traitors?"
"Oh, come on, not even one third of Slytherin is pure blood, anymore."
"No werewolves in there."
"Better werewolves than death eaters." Even Victoire's surprised to hear the words come out of her own mouth. The three Gryffindor boys are gaping at her, and the Slytherin's eyes narrow.
With a simple mutter of "Weasleys." The Slytherin boy turns and walks away without looking back.
Victoire instinctively grabs Teddy's hand for support, and he squeezes her hand, letting her know he is proud of her. The pair sits down, and Randy smiles brightly at Victoire. "Looks like there might be a bit of Gryffindor in you, after all." The little girl stays quiet, but, from that moment, has a smile on for the rest of the ride.
* * * * *
"Ravenclaw!" the hat calls out to the crowd. The Ravenclaw table breaks out into cheers as the brunette rises from her chair and makes her way to her rightful table.
"Weasley, Vicoire." And the room is silent once again. It takes Victoire a few seconds to realize it was, indeed, her name that was called. Glancing at the professors' table, she sees Neville and Hagrid both sit up a little in their seats as she approaches the chair with the singing hat that he had always heard so much about.
It's talking to her the moment it touches her head, as he had been told it would. "Hah." She jumps at the sound. Is it mocking her? "I wondered when I'd be seeing another Weasley. Twenty-five years without sorting one of you, but I have not forgotten…" And then, louder, it shouts, "GRYFFINDOR!"
The cheers break out. Neville even claps a little louder than he had for the other first years that joined his house. Victoire even thinks she hears Teddy whistle as she glides down the steps, smiling, and runs over to the Gryffindor table.
Teddy moves over, giving her room to sit beside him. "Told you not to worry about it." She can't seem to wipe the smile off her face. All the fear, and she was put in the house she had been hoping for all along.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she says, still beaming, and she looks up to watch the end of the sorting ceremony.