𝓥𝓲𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓲𝓻𝓮 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂 ⋆ 𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝐹𝒾𝓋𝑒

[scorpio]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ☆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝓥𝓲𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓲𝓻𝓮 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂
𝒪𝒸𝓉𝑜𝒷𝑒𝓇 𝐹𝒾𝒻𝓉𝒽

𝓘𝓷𝓬𝓵𝓾𝓭𝓮𝓭
ᴊᴀᴄǫᴜᴇʟɪɴᴇ, ᴠᴇʀᴏɴɪᴄᴀ, ʙᴀsʜ, ғᴀʀʜɪʏᴀ, ɢᴏᴅʀɪᴄ, sᴇᴘᴛɪᴍᴜs, ᴀɴᴅ ʟᴇᴏ
𝓜𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓭
ᴇᴅᴡᴀʀᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ʟᴜᴄʏ
𝓢𝓮𝓽 ⋆ 𝓟𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓸𝓾𝓼 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 ⋆ 𝓝𝓮𝔁𝓽 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Edward Lupin is supposed to be the fun professor, isn't he? So what on earth is the deal with the 15,000-word essay over "what you believe the most invaluable spell is" that he has assigned to everyone in his classes? It's out of nowhere! It's not like he cares for all the rumors that have been abounding lately on 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻. Those ridiculous love letters that it has been churning out have been making everyone laugh. There are even polls online to guess who wrote them and who they're meant to be about. It's all in good fun. So why would any professor go out of their way to ruin it all with an egregious amount of homework? It's all unrelated, of course . . . Just to prepare everyone for the exams, naturally . . .

---

[scorpio]

---

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

---

@𝑱𝑨𝑪𝑲𝑰𝑬𝑭𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑻: 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 ℎ𝑜𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑤𝑎𝑦?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Victoire has the notifications for Instagram muted. It takes three hours for her to log in and see the comment, gracing itself beneath her already passive-aggressive photo in all its embarrassing and inappropriate glory.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The whole point of the post is to get Teddy’s attention, but this is the last thing she wants him to be thinking of. He should definitely not know that most of her friends — and the students at large — fancy him. Will he think that she posted it because 𝓼𝓱𝓮 fancies him? As if her past mistakes haven’t damaged enough between them.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ What if he has seen it already? What if he asks about it?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Her fingers twist furiously across the screen.

⠀⠀⠀( 𝐽𝐴𝐶𝐾𝐼𝐸!!! 𝐼 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑚𝑒!! ⥼

⥽ 𝑌𝑒𝑎ℎ, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑒'𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑜 )
⥽ 𝐿𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑢𝑝!! )

⠀⠀⠀( 𝐷𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑒 ⥼

⥽ 𝐻𝑖𝑠𝑠, ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑠. 𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑥, 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑎 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛 )
⥽ 𝐵𝑒𝑡 ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒. 𝐻𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑤𝑎𝑦 )

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The realization that someone else has noticed just how little Victoire means to Teddy stings more than she could ever put into words. She leaves her friend on read and continues focusing on the cold, beaten path to Hogsmeade. Though her beloved muggle AirPods fill her head with happy love songs, her mind keeps tripping over the mistakes she’s made on her own path to romance. 𝓦𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓭𝓸𝓮𝓼 𝓛𝓾𝓬𝔂 𝓰𝓮𝓽 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓹𝓪𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷? she wonders. It all feels so pointless.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀By the time her journey reaches its end, Victoire is overcome with hopelessness. 𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓼 𝓲𝓽’𝓼 𝓵𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓮𝓷𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱 𝓽𝓸 𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓪 𝓭𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓴 . . . Bad habits always seem to be well-indulged inside June’s Berry. As Vic gingerly steps inside, the air of the bar is not the only warmth to greet her. “Red!!” The full force of Veronica’s love and attention wraps her in a hug.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Hey, Nic,” she hums into the small of her neck. Victoire has been reluctant to embrace anyone for so long. It feels like suffocating. But inside the arms of one of her oldest friends, she only feels safe. “Oh, Merlin. I can’t call you that anymore!” Nic pouts, twirling Victoire’s still-somewhat-new blonde locks through her fingers. “You can call me whatever you want, even when I look like an evil Veela,” she assures.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Nic dismisses her nonsense. “You could never be evil. You’re practically a Disney princess. Ah! There it is. Welcome to my humble pub, princess.” She even bows for dramatic effect, and the room fills with both girls’ laughter.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I’m sorry I missed your call,” Vic says as she collects herself. “I was in class. Figured I’d just pop down to see you instead of calling back?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The owner slash bartender slash oh-yeah-she-does-everything-around-here lights up with a contagious smile. “Yes, yes, you’re always welcome babe. I just wanted to invite you to my birthday party tomorrow! A small, kinda last-minute, low-key thing. You know me,” she sings. Victoire’s raises both eyebrows in protest. 𝓚𝓷𝓸𝔀𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓝𝓲𝓬 means knowing lowkey is 𝓷𝓸𝓽 normally how she parties.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Are you getting too old to run with the cubs, Mama?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Nic rolls her eyes and dismisses such nonsense with a half-offended click of her tongue. “Just trying to celebrate with the people I love and actually 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 to share a conversation with this year.” Victoire cannot contain her chuckles.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I’m trying to think of a single birthday of yours where you’ve managed to carry any conversation past midnight. Was it . . . four years ago? Maybe five? Don’t think you made it past nine that time, even.” The weight of that drunken-chunder night makes the air thick as they both stroll down memory lane. “I’m a mature lady now, I’ll have you know!” Nic teases. Victoire only kisses her cheek. “I know you are, babe. And don’t worry. Bash already told me about the party last week.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She politely ignores the ashamed blush flushing the other girl’s cheeks. “Vic, I didn’t — It’s not like —” But now it is the Gryffindor full of regret. “No, Veronica!” she interrupts. “That’s not how I meant it at all! I was just saying that I’d heard of it. It didn’t mean anything.” They both shuffle awkwardly, not entirely sure of how to proceed.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I always wanted to invite you, babe. I did!” She reaches out to clasp Vic’s hand for some kind of reassurance.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Not to worry, I get it. It’s . . .” she struggles to find the words, knowing all too well there is only one that can really explain it. With a soft sigh of defeat, Victoire lets it out. If anyone understands, it’s Veronica. “It’s complicated. Things with Teddy. I know.” She gives her hand a little squeeze back to try and convey how much she doesn't mind the conditional invitation. 𝓢𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓼 𝓣𝓮𝓭𝓭𝔂 𝓲𝓼 𝓸𝓴𝓪𝔂 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓰?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Nic’s pained look says it all. She doesn’t want to choose between two people that she loves in such similar yet different ways. But when she does have to, of course it’s Lupin. Her fellow Hufflepuff. One of her oldest and closest friends. Victoire knows a million reasons why he is worth picking. 𝓘𝓼𝓷’𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓱𝔂 𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓹𝓲𝓬𝓴 𝓱𝓲𝓶, 𝓽𝓸𝓸, 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓷 𝓪𝓯𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝔂’𝓿𝓮 𝓫𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I just wanted to make sure he was stable and okay,” Nic sighs. “I want you all to be okay.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Babe, it’s your birthday. You just worry about you and what makes you happy!” Vic hopes it’s not obvious how pained she is on the inside.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Princess, you make me happy! And that’s why I want you to come! Eight o’clock? Right here?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Vic allows her full Veela charm to light up. She is not 𝓡𝓮𝓭 anymore for a reason. Shouldn’t she own the truth of who she is?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Eight sharp,” she agrees, with a smile that could melt a thousand hearts. { 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴. } “If you need help with the decorations, just holler. I’ll be holed up in Madam Puddifoot's, writing an essay until my hand falls off.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Oh don’t worry about that. Bash said he’d have my head if I let anyone but him be in charge.” Each girl sighs knowingly. “Of course he did. I’ll be sure to arrive early tomorrow since he will definitely need all the help he can get.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Nic wraps Victoire up in one more hug. “Ladies and gents, a princess of the people! Love you, baby girl. I’m really glad you’re coming.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The Weasley not-so-bravely wiggles her way out and to the door. She’s not sure how much longer she can hold her facade. “Love you too, Nic.” But the October chill seems more inviting than one she just received.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⠀⠀⠀( 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑’𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑚𝑒 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑤!! ⥼

⥽ 𝑑𝑛𝑡 𝑏 𝑐𝑟𝑧𝑦. 𝑜𝑓𝑐 𝑢 𝑟. 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑦𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒! )

⠀⠀⠀( 𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑡𝑓 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡? ⥼

⥽ 𝑙𝑚𝑙 )

⠀⠀⠀( ???? ⥼

⥽ 𝐿𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒!! )

⠀⠀⠀( . . . 𝐵𝑎𝑠ℎ, 𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 ⥼

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Why? So I’m posh enough to be your date for the party?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Victoire jumps in the small bedazzled chair and pins the sudden-intruder against the hot pink wall. Her senses are whirling. It’s instinct. 𝓗𝓞𝓦 𝓒𝓞𝓤𝓛𝓓 𝓗𝓔 𝓢𝓝𝓔𝓐𝓚 𝓤𝓟 𝓞𝓝 𝓜𝓔 𝓐𝓖𝓐𝓘𝓝?! Victoire’s lips and hands are twisting into 𝐿𝑜𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑜𝓉𝑜𝓇 𝑀𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒾𝓈, but before she can complete the leg-locking spell, she realizes whose eyes — very human, innocent eyes — she’s looking into. Her attack stops in its tracks, and Bash slowly takes his hands off her. “Merlin, Vic. Just saw you in the window and thought I’d harass you in person. Didn’t think you’d go all crazy lady on me!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀He doesn’t know how not funny that is.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Sorry,” she mumbles, hiding her shaking fingers in her coat pockets. But there is nothing that can quiet the thunder of her heart. At least Bash has never been known for his observation skills.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The intruder lithely brushes the confrontation away. If he notices the true panic he induced, he doesn’t address it. It’s like it never happened. He playfully slips into a pink bedazzled chair at Victoire’s table. The other patrons at Puddifoot’s force their attention away from 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓾𝓷𝓻𝓪𝓿𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂. If they don’t pay attention to her, maybe she won’t unleash her crazy on them too. “Fuck,” she whispers under her breath. Yeah of working on her perfect reputation gone in an instant. 𝓦𝓮𝓵𝓵, 𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝓽𝔀𝓸 𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮𝓼.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Oh relax!” Bash hears her but doesn’t get why she cursed. “Who told you you’re not invited? Nic loves you!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“That’s not the point, Bash.” Realizing she has recovered her faculties, Vic dismisses him with a wave of her hand. He still doesn’t take the hint.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“It's a rager! A Gatsby-worthy production! We will be dressed to the nines. Anyone can come. In fact, everyone 𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 come.” His hands are telling an elaborate story as he talks. It’s like he embodies the word chaos. “Bring whoever you want, Vic. Hell, even bring a date!” A pregnant pause swallows his next question. 𝓓𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝓼 𝓪 𝓭𝓪𝓽𝓮?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Really, Bash? A rager? That’s not what Nic seemed to want earlier.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Bash seems uncharacteristically contemplative. As he looks around the gaudy little cafe, he picks up the papers in front of Vic. His reflexes are too quick for her to keep it from him. “You leave knowing what Nic wants to the pros and just come looking your best. Not that you ever disappoint.” It’s a rare Bash compliment. How strange. She opens her mouth to address it, but he beats her to it. “Why are you writing something so dull on so many pages anyway?” Her jaw locks as those hypnotic eyes skim the paragraph she’s working on.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Why don’t you ask your best friend?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Bash roars in laughter. “This dumb assignment is from Teddy?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Victoire huffs and crosses her arms. “Yeah. When no student shows up at Nic’s party, you can blame him.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀His continued chuckle receives a very disapproving look from the hostess. Bash is not exactly the kind of crowd that Madam Puddifoot enjoys having inside. His presence practically shakes with the promise of cracking every delicate teacup and plate in sight.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Maybe I’ll go give my boy Professor Hunk a stern talking to.” The chair egregiously squeaks across the wooden floor. Victoire tries to hold in her glare. “You read that stupid site too?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀He dramatically gasps. “Of course I do! I'm not gonna fall behind on the hot go’s!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Please just try to walk out of here without breaking anything.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀But he only flashes his signature wink. “Anything for you, love.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀He is gone as quickly as arrived. By the skin of its teeth, the cafe survives Hurricane Bash.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝓗𝓮𝓵𝓵, 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓷 𝓫𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪 𝓭𝓪𝓽𝓮!

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Victoire can’t remember the last time she showed up somewhere with arm candy in tow. Sure, she had been on a few private dates with some people over the summer, but all of those men had been wonky at best. She is certainly not enough of a nutter to bring one of them along. But she hates the nagging part of her that wants to rub her own date in Teddy’s face. 𝓕𝓾𝓬𝓴. She does not use the term often, but today is just that kind of messy that deserves it. Over and over. He will be the one rubbing a date in her face, most likely. Brown-haired-Instagram-girl is more than likely going to be in attendance. But why not bring a beautiful girl of her own? Two can play that game.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Fancy going to a birthday party, Farie?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Her roommate has been silently on her phone for nearly an hour, only giving Victoire’s questions about outfits half-hearted glances and huffs. Enthusiasm is clearly her biggest attribute, and of course, she isn’t procrastinating her magical theory assignment. At the direct mention, she rolls over slightly to face Vic. The curtains of her bed half-hide the eye roll. “Are we children, Victoire? Who even has birthday parties anymore?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Um, you did? Last year?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Farhiya drapes her arms dramatically into the air. “Exactly! Sooo last year.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Crossing her own arms, Victoire drops the clothes she has been toying with. She has no idea what to wear to this damned event, and now she is at a loss as to who she will walk in with too. “You’re really going to turn down an excuse to get drunk?” The other girl remains quiet. A bit too quiet. “What’s going on?” Victoire insists, but the mystery continues.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Just let me have my own plans, Vic,” Farie snaps and goes back to lying on her other side. Despite the literal cold shoulder, the blonde is not so apt to give in. “But Jackie is away visiting family! And I know you don’t have a boyfriend right now either!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Vic barely ducks in time as the assailant pillow crashes into the wall behind her head.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Maybe I do, huh?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Her roommate’s stubbornness continues as she does not move her attention away from the screen. “What’s so interesting anyway?” Vic hisses. “Another stupid letter?” Farhiya only half turns in order to stick her tongue out. “They’re not stupid, Vic! They’re romantic! If you had any heart in there, you’d appreciate them too.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Farie, why are you being so defensive? I was just trying to have a good time with you. Please come to the party with me. I’ll buy the drinks!” Apparently, wanting quality time with one of her best friends is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. In a flash, Farhiya grabs her wand and shoes. She is out the door without so much a word.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“For Merlin’s fucking sake,” Vic scowls. The Muggle f-word is snaking past her lips again before she can help herself. “I can’t get it right with anyone today.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Her hand twitches to her phone in temptation. Maybe she should read the next letter if everyone is going to talk all about it again. 𝓝𝓸, 𝓭𝓸𝓷’𝓽. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻 𝓭𝓸𝓮𝓼𝓷’𝓽 𝓭𝓮𝓼𝓮𝓻𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓭 𝓸𝓯 𝓹𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻. Plus, she knows in her heart that reading another confessional will just fuel her jealousy that no one feels that way about her.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀So if she knows better, why is her screen lit up already? Why is she scrolling through the notifications to find that special one that will torture her in all the worst ways?

𝓓𝓮𝓪𝓻 𝓧,
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝐼 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝓇𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒 . . .

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Farhiiiiyyyyyaaaa?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Victoire’s soft call slinks down the hallway. She can’t seem to track where her roommate has run off to. After a summer of finding some of the most obscure creatures, a witch is evading her? Talk about things she can’t put on her resume anymore.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀All of her roommates’ favorite haunts are empty, but Vic doesn’t want to go back to their room either. It feels too empty without her in it. There’s a suffocating loneliness she wants to avoid as long as she can.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀A shuffle of feet snaps her into focus. “Farie!” she cries, rounding the corner. But the curly hair belongs to someone else desperately avoiding Victoire.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Godric Corner. The boy she nearly attacked at James’ party.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Oh, sorry,” she mumbles. “I was hoping you’d be —”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Yeah, Farhiya. Haven’t seen her.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Right, well, I made her pretty miffed. Unsurprisingly.” A dark chuckle escapes Vic as she uncharacteristically belittles herself. She has been equally avoiding Godric for this very reason. How should she act around him after what happened?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Vic, I—”
⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Godric, we—”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀They both close their mouths again. One could practically cut the awkwardness with a knife.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“You first,” Vic strains a half-smile she hopes is encouraging. She hardly knows him, but she has heard nice enough things about him before. Jackie always found him positively dreamy. What is new there? She finds almost every boy dreamy.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Uh, just, uh.” He seems to have lost his footing. “Are you doing alright?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Her blood runs cold. How long has it been since someone has asked that? How sad is it that the person who does is a stranger from another house that probably doesn’t know anything about her, or even care?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Oh, yeah. I’m fine. That night,” Victoire is fishing for an explanation. How can she summarize one of her darkest moments, one not a single soul knows, into a simple sentence that doesn’t make her seem as crazy as 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻 wants everyone to believe? “You know how it is. I had too much to drink. Working with all those dragons, just, uh, means I have my guard up a lot. Guess I’m no good with surprises.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀His eyes soften a little. Apparently her stupid story seems believable enough. “Don’t worry, I get it.” He even laughs slightly. “Well, not literally. My whole summer was spent in an office. But it’s alright. No harm done.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She lets go of the breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Actually, Godric, what if I . . . could I maybe make it up to you? There’s this birthday party tomorrow at June’s. Cheap drinks. Nice music. Would you want to come with me?” His walls are back up in an instant. Panic settles across his face.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Victoire, I just don’t think a loud party is the best place for you and me to be together in again, don’t you think?” She backs away slowly. Vic can only hold her perfect ruined image together so much longer.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Oh, you’re right. Totally right. And, y’know, I really have to keep looking for Farhiya. My friend. You know. That girl. Who is my priority. Yes. Great. I’ll be seeing you.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She dips around the corner, bright red from head to toe, before he has a chance to reply. Aren’t Veelas supposed to be impossible to resist?

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽’𝓼 𝓱𝓸𝔀 𝓫𝓪𝓭𝓵𝔂 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓯𝓾𝓬𝓴𝓮𝓭 𝓾𝓹 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓾𝓹, 𝓥𝓲𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓲𝓻𝓮.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She doesn’t have to read the new rumor. She can feel it in the gaze of the students she passes in the hallway. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻’s vindictive presence wastes no time in churning out a new embarrassing post.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Vic clearly lacks self-control today, and it is not like these words will ruin a great day. Things are already miserable. She might as well torture herself; there’s nothing below rock bottom.

𝓟𝓲𝓽𝔂 𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓽𝔂 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓞𝓷𝓮

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝒱𝒾𝒸𝓉𝑜𝒾𝓇𝑒 𝒲𝑒𝒶𝓈𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓌𝓇𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇; 𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓁, 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉'𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀. 𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇, 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝒱𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒶 𝓅𝑜𝓌𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓃'𝓉 𝒶𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓊𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒. 𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓃'𝓉 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉𝓎 { 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓈𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 }.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀A knife to the gut.

𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓂𝑒𝓇 𝓆𝓊𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝓇𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝑜𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝒸𝓇𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝑜𝑒𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝑒𝓍𝒾𝓈𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒. 𝑀𝒶𝓎𝒷𝑒 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝒻𝒾𝓉𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝒽𝑒'𝓈 𝒷𝓁𝑜𝓃𝒹𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓌: 𝓈𝒽𝑒'𝓈 𝒶 𝒷𝑜𝓂𝒷𝓈𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝓌𝒶𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝓁𝑜𝒹𝑒.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀A twist in deeper.

𝒜𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓁𝓁, 𝓃𝑜 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒'𝓈 𝓈𝓁𝑜𝓅𝓅𝓎 𝓈𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓃𝒹𝓈.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀A hollow, unspeakable emptiness.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ .:・° ☆ °・:. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Sep! Sep! I think she’s waking up!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The squeaky voice brings Victoire further back into reality. Cinnamon and bonfire blend in the air for the perfect harmony to put her at ease. She’s somehow been brought to the Gryffindor Common Room, like she’s a lower level all over again. Just a few of the many pillows cradle her gently.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Oh, thank heaven. Any longer and I’d’ve brought her to Pomfrey.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀A welcoming cool hand graces her forehead.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Victoire? Can you hear us?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She stirs and fights against the weights holding her eyes shut. Her slow blinking reveals two blurry figures. When they come into focus, she only knows one of them. Septimus, a fellow housemate in her year, looks worriedly over the shoulder of a young Gryffindor. The boy can’t be older than twelve.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀As enough of her senses come back, the anxiety revs her to life. Merlin, this is a new low. “I’m so sorry to have troubled you,” she huffs. “I have no idea what happened. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She presses herself onto her elbows, but the quick motion makes the whole world spin again. “Leo, fetch some water!” the older boy commands. He’s always been known to be a bit aggressive, and the younger one snaps to follow his lead.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀𝓛𝓮𝓸. Victoire remembers it now. She heard his name get called just last month. A little baby first year. She loved how fitting it was that a boy with a lion’s name would find his way with the crimson and gold.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“It’s okay,” Vic assures. “It was just a small fainting spell.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Septimus’ hand brushes an errant hair from her forehead. She’s never seen him be so tender before. In lower levels, they hated each other. She beat him out for the Quidditch position he thought he deserved. Their rivalry in the classroom was known to be quite ferocious. And he even spread a rumor about her back in fifth year. Something to do with why she got “kicked out” of Beauxbatons. Well, he did not seem to hate her very much now.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“H-here,” the first-year returns, two hands shaking slightly as he hands the quite-intimidating girl a glass filled to the brim. Some splashes onto her robes, but she couldn’t care less. Victoire tries to give him her brightest smile as thanks.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Will you be alright?” he frets. “My mom is a doctor. I know a few things . . . and I can run real fast to Madam Pomfrey! I know the way now!” His enthusiasm warms her chest. “Thank you so much, Leo, but you have already done enough. I’m really fine.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I can take it from here, sprog. You get back to your friends.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Leo manages one more shy look over Sep’s shoulder before disappearing up the tower staircase.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“You know, you’ve given him quite the story to tell his friends over the next few days. Famous upper-levels Weasley found by him! On the hallway floor! Just passed out in the middle!” Septimus shakes his head. “Bit too knackered by carrying your crown, eh?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀Victoire takes another sip of the water to wiggle out of replying. Old habits don’t die hard; it seems that they’re back to how it’s always been. Banter and competition. But his hand falls thoughtlessly on her knee, thumb drawing small circles on the outside. That feels very unlike the Septimus she knows. And she hates how hypnotized she is by it.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“In all serious, Victoire, that post was out of hand. I mean, they all are,” he sighs. The look they share says all they have to about the other times 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓫𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓻 has hurt either of them. “But this one more than usual. I can understand why, well,” he gestures to her sitting in this silly old room that holds their childhood memories, “how all of this happens.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I don’t remember even feeling faint,” she admits, a tinge of worry peaking through.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Shit, do you think you hit your head? We can get you in the infirmary.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“No, no,” Vic quickly reassures him. “My head doesn’t hurt. I know I’m fine.” A deep sigh escapes her. “I think I’m just overwhelmed. I didn’t expect it to hurt as much as it did. I really thought I could handle it. But — no, sorry. It’s not like you care. I’ll stop. Really, you can go now.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀But Septimus only smiles wider and cozies into a pillow beside her.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Honestly, I wasn’t up to much. And we’re not stupid fifteen-year-olds anymore.” He flashes her a coy smile. “Plus I heard there’s this pretty girl out there desperate for a date.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Oh, let me know if you find her!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀The pair bursts into laughter, and the silence that descends after is calm and peaceful.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Are you ever going to let me off of here?” Vic teases. “I promise I can walk.” Sudden mischief lights up his eyes. “Only if you let me take you on a date.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀She meets him right back with the deviltry. All those arguments and one-liners they always seem to have . . . maybe it doesn’t have to be make them enemies. Maybe it’s always been another type of connection.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Is this kidnapping? Classic Septimus Wood. I knew you could never be trusted.”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Are you challenging me to sweep you off your feet, Weasley?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Oh, like how I swept you off your broom back in Quidditch tryouts?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀There they are again: laughing without a care in the world.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Why did we hate each other, Victoire? You’re only half bad,” he ventures. She rests her head on his shoulder. “Well, considering you saved my life, I guess you’re only half bad too,” she sighs.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Tsk, tsk. Don’t forget about the real hero, Leo Reaves.” His playful chide is joined by a nudging elbow. Victoire likes that he doesn’t move it away after.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“You’re right, you’re right. I’ll never forget about Little Leo,” Vic promises. She takes a long, deep breath to muster all the courage her house can give her. Maybe it’s the nostalgia of being back in her old common room. Maybe it’s the vulnerability after passing out. But the little Gryffindor roar keeps charging inside her.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“So, I’ve got this party tomorrow night. And, honestly, I don’t want to show up with a date anymore. But, you know, maybe next week . . . ” A finger falls in her lips, stopping her from continuing.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“I’m already planning our very elaborate evening,” he winks. “Pick you up Saturday at six?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“Is it really considered picking me up when we live in the same tower?”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀“So sounds like you’re saying yes!”

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀But she doesn’t have to. Her wide smile says it for her.