Brace Yourself
The Fourth Installment
In two years time, Victoria's unnamed condition worsened. It was not always the forefront of my mind but it was a worry.
I still didn't believe she would die, even though she herself seemed to hint at it. She now had a walking aide and could not move far without them, two braces, one for each of her claves, made of some kind of metal which were both strapped to her legs, they helped her stand. She said to me she was uncomfortable without them on, her legs were not strong enough to bare her weight. I hated the things, they were so obvious, evidence of her weakness and she was teased all the more for them when she first got them she refused to come out of her room, her dorm mates, Amy and Emily laughed at her for them and told all of the other children that she was a freak. She would not put them on, and couldn't walk without them.
Mrs Cole asked me to speak to her, we were going on a trip to the seaside - the first and possibly only time any of us would get the chance to see the sea - and Mrs Cole didn't want Victoria to miss out.
I agreed. Though felt very out of place in the girls room. Victoria had to share her bedroom with Amy Benson and Emily Ghreer, the two older girls were horribly messy, their things took up most of the space in the room and were strewn across the floor. Victoria was laying in bed silent.
"Victoria?" I asked, my voice was not one the girl expected to hear and she startled. The metal braces were besides her bed.
"You're not allowed in here." She whimpered, I offered her my hand and helped her to sit.
"I've come to take you to the sea." I told her, pulling each of the braces towards me, It was a simple thing to help her to put them on, but the sight of them filled me with fear. "Stay with me," I said, "I'll hurt anyone who laughs at you."
Amy Benson was the worst, pointing outright and laughing as I helped the slight girl down the stairs, Dennis Bishop made a joke, and the other children started on her. I glared at them, I made them all stop laughing, their eyes went wide as their mouths snapped shut.
Mrs Cole distracted us all then, coming into the room to tell us the bus was here - I'd never been on a bus or any sort of motorcar before, and even Victoria looked excited at the idea of going for a ride on the hulking metal machine. It took us to the coast, where I challeneged Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop to go into a very dark, deep cave with me. I made them hurt, I made them scream and I told them if I ever heard another word come from their mouths I would hang them from the rafters like Billy's rabbit.
Neither of them spoke again.
That incident saw me where I am now, in the girls bedroom - now tidy, another story - some time later. Helping Victoria into her braces again.
"Thank you Tom." She told me, "And happy birthday." Victoria held out a small, shiny pebble. It wasn't much, it was pretty - and the journey she had to take to go outside was a long one which she didn't like to take, no matter how much help she had. I was eleven today, on the last day of the year. That was the day I met Albus Dumbeldore.
I didn't like the man much, or really the news he brought me - that I was not special but one of many - I'd tried to convince him that I was different but he wan't impressed. The oppertunity to escape the orphanage for most of the year was an exciting prospect though, so I returned the stolen items.
I told Victoria the lie the others heard - she'd seen my powers, if fleetingly - and I didn't believe she needed to know the full extent of them at Hogwarts I flourished, I did not expect to enjoy the school as much as I did though, like at the orphanage I grew to dispise my peers, they thought I was weak. A poorly orphan mudblood they called me.
I could make them hurt too, becasue I was special still, more powerful than them all, I could talk to snakes and do spells without my wand - but I knew the value of that secret and made sure I was never caught.
Everything hinged on the one word that would haunt me, Mudblood. I asked my potions professor its meaning and he was offended that I'd even said it out loud - dirty blood - someone who was muggle born, like I thought I was, my mother, according to the orphanage was from the circus, my father - they thought he was still alive - had never come to get me, despite my wearing his filthy, common muggle name.
"I like my name." Victoria told me, the first summer I got back, she was now 10, and while she hadn't gotten better she also seemed to have not gotten any worse, but would avoid the stairs if you let her, so we were both sitting on her bed. "You should like yours, it was apart of your family." She told me. "Even if they're gone."
"The children at my school tease me becasue of my name." I tell her. "My heritage."
Then she'd given me the idea to look for my family. "You told me before you were named for your father and grandfather, and Marvolo is not a common name." She pointed out. "Its not much, but its somehting."
"Do you remember your family?" I'd asked her. It was something we never spoke about - I was born in the orphanage and that was my whole past, she wasn't. She was four when she got here and I remember the day. Victoria Smith was not her real name.
"I do," She told me, sadly. "They were... a very different sort of people. And I didn't really belong."
I wondered at this. I'd always thought her parents had known she was sick, but Miss Murdock had let slip that Victoria's symptoms were progressive, not relapsing which meant they couldn't have known becasue she had no symptoms before she was five. "What was your real name?" I asked her then, wondering if she'd remember. She seemed to weigh the question in her mind.
"I don't remember." She said, but I knew she was lying to me. I didn't want to fight with her, so I let her lie to me.