Over the Christmas vacation their traditional family get together had another visitor, Tabitha’s mother had been pregnant and a few days into the holiday Harry got a letter from her dad, Oliver Wood his former Quidditch captain, that she had had a son. So Tabitha and the rest of her family came to one of their evenings of reminiscing where those who had been on that Gryffindor Quidditch team teased him about his long-winded pre-game speeches. Apparently he wasn’t much better on Puddlemere United where he had gone to play after he graduated from Hogwarts.

Ella also stopped by once during the Holidays at Victoire’s house. They decided that since their parents had anticipated it and decided they could, they would stay at Hogwarts next Christmas. Ella said she’d tell Teddy and Fred, apparently she was stopping by all three places. Ben’s parents were Muggles so they would have to tell him by Owl, but from what they’d heard they didn’t think they’d mind all that much.

Soon the Christmas break was over and they were heading back to school. With the threat of the exams in a few months Victoire knew she would enjoy being back home when the school year was over, but during the middle of the year she was all ready to just stay at Hogwarts.

At the next Quidditch match it was snowing hard and extremely cold. Victoire and Fred felt very bad for the Quidditch teams while they were playing, the practice had been bad enough from what they had heard. Teddy and Tabitha didn’t complain that much but Ben grumbled quite a bit and Ella ranted for quite a while wondering why their Quidditch robes were so thin. Someone suggested she look up a warming charm of some kind and she searched for a while before she realized they might have been trying to keep her quiet.

It was somewhat easier this time to get her to eat before the game and she looked somewhat calmer on the field. After she had scored three times in the second game she had calmed down a bit, but the stress still got to her more than the rest of them.

The game started with the largest Slytherin grabbing the ball and heading straight for the Gryffindor goal posts. A nice interception from Tabitha and a pass to Teddy got the game going very well for Gryffindor. However after 7 goals Slytherin began creeping up behind them in points. Ben was doing all he could as a keeper but somehow they managed to get past him every time. After getting it all the way to the other end of the field and nearly scoring Ella lost the ball to another Slytherin chaser. He scored, again, and Slytherin was now ahead by twenty.

All of a sudden several things seemed to happen at once, Tabitha had the ball and was speeding towards the Slytherin goal, Chris was suddenly diving for something on the other half of the field and something happened with a bludger in the middle of the field, no one was quite sure yet. They were waiting to see if one of the players was going to ask their captain for a time out. Tabitha scored, but apparently the snitch disappeared before either Seeker could catch it. Victoire hadn’t been sure which part of the field to watch but she was pretty sure she had seen what happened with the bludger.

“Fred, the game’s pretty much over, there, Chris is going for the snitch again, we’re getting down there, I’m pretty sure I know who was hit by that bludger. He’s just too nice to point it out to Chris because he knows Chris is about to catch the snitch and shouldn’t be distracted.”

“Ah, I get it, competitiveness combined with niceness.”

“Pretty much.”

Fred and Victoire left the stands and got down to the ground as sure enough, Chris caught the snitch. Professor Bell’s whistle sounded and both the teams headed towards the ground. As soon as they were all on the ground Victoire and Fred ran out there. They got out to the teams just shortly before the rest of the crowd who swept them along towards the castle. Victoire worked her way through the crowd to where Teddy and Ella were.

“Ok, that bludger hit one of you, and I have a highly educated guess who it was, are either of you going to admit to it?” Victoire asked them

“If he didn’t I would have told you myself, seriously, who gets hit straight on by a bludger like that and doesn’t call for a time out?” Ella was as effervescent as she usually was after the games.

“Well, Tabitha’s dad… and Harry. But they don’t count, they’re just nuts.”

“Thanks Victoire, I think I’ll take that as a compliment. I’m apparently nuts.” Teddy grinned at her.

“So that bludger hit you?” he nodded “Not just, brushed you or something?” he nodded “Anything broken?”

“It’s a possibility.”

Victoire really was starting to think the rest of them had gone mad.

Me luffs it!

Over the Easter Holidays Ella and Victoire were given a list of subjects they could begin to take during the next year. All of the reports Victoire had heard about Divination were steering her away from choosing that. She thought Muggle studies would be somewhat more interesting than it used to be, and for some reason was attracted to Arithmancy.

Ella thought Care of Magical Creatures would be interesting. She wanted more than anything to drop potions, but Victoire pointed out that it was one of the required classes.

Ben sat making comments about their choices, good or bad, and whether they would regret taking it years and years from now. Several other people stopped by and were giving second years who were looking at lists suggestions, whether they asked for suggestions or not.

Finally they each decided on what subjects they would take. Victoire chose Muggle Studies, Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes. Ella, after much grumbling to herself, decided on Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes, but only the last one because Victoire promised her it would be interesting, and if it wasn’t they would find a way to make it interesting.

It was exam time, yet again. Once again Victoire was feeling the need for one of them to have a work ethic.

“You know, we’d be in good shape, if just one of us made the rest of us study.”

“But of course, none of us feel like it really…” Fred was playing with several textbooks, seeing how many he could stack up before they fell over on him or someone else.

“Or maybe, if one of us started studying the rest of us would catch on.”

“And none of us have a work ethic…” the stack of books had toppled over narrowly missing him.

“Well, I have a work ethic; it’s just usually overtaken by the rest of you being lazy.”

“Well, Tabitha has a work ethic, when it comes to Quidditch. And to be fair Teddy has a work ethic of some sort, but as you say, our laziness makes short work of that.” Ben grabbed a book from the very bottom of Fred’s second stack.

“Of some sort? Teddy’s the only one who actually studies…” Fred dodged the pile of books causing it to fall on Ella.

“Well, Ella tries, but she’s generally interrupted before she can get very far. And of course you don’t need to study at all Victoire because we all know you’re brilliant.” The first pile of books fell and Teddy who had been reading on the floor below it rolled out of the way.

“If I’m a genius why is Transfiguration so impossible this year?” she muttered to herself. “You know, I think I’ll move before the common room collapses on me. Anyone else care to head for shelter?” Ella did an army crawl through the storm of falling books and jumped up to follow Victoire up into their dormitory.

It was the ending feast again and Gryffindor had won the house cup. Meaning the Gryffindor table was just as loud as ever. They had won the Quidditch cup as well, however they were wondering how they were going to do next year, as quite a lot of their team had graduated. Also it brought up speculating about who would be the next Quidditch captain. It was fairly unanimous on the team that it should be Tabitha.

After the feast they went up to the Gryffindor common room. Victoire joined the few students who had already completely packed. The rest were looking for things they had lost. Ella claimed there was a book she hadn’t seen since the beginning of the school year. Though she usually exaggerated a bit she actually had lost this one the day they came. Someone finally found it under a chair, the person who found it was actually looking for a scarf they had lost. Finally pretty much everyone was all packed and ready to go to bed, leaving a first year, two third years and a fifth year to finish their searching in peace.

The next morning they got up early so they wouldn’t be trying to get their stuff out of the common room in the middle of a “stampede” as Fred referred to it. They took their trunks and a few owl cages down and went into the Great Hall for breakfast. They took their time as more and more people trickled in, after a while it became more like floods of people but when they saw that it was getting a bit too crowded they took their stuff out to the grounds.

As they sat there waiting until it was time to go down to the train Chris came up. He’d been very busy since the last Quidditch match with his N.E.W.T.s so they hadn’t seen much of him. Now he came up to them as they were sitting under a tree by the lake, pretending he was giving his before game talk.

“Well team, I am very sorry to say that I will be leaving you, as will David and William. I trust you to find sufficient replacements, and I have made my recommendations as far as Quidditch captain. All I have to say now is; carry on the Gryffindor tradition of an unbeatable tradition.”

“Aye aye Captain.” Said Tabitha, “And we’ll miss you guys.”

“Well you guys made our last year an enjoyable one. Just make sure you’re never beat by the Slytherins if you have to lose.” He winked.

They had similar encounters with David and William. Then finally it was time to load their luggage onto the train and as they pulled into Platform 9¾ make their usual promises of writing and visiting.

They had become very good at not mentioning the fact that they were still planning on Victoire being on the team next year. In fact, she was sure they had forgotten about it. But far from forgetting it, they had it all worked out. First running the plan by Victoire’s dad, who was all for it; they got to their positions. Ella and Tabitha had arranged with Victoire to stop by for a visit sometime during the summer. Meanwhile Ben went over to visit Fred and the two of them dropped by to pick up Teddy, all on their way to Victores house. And all at once Victoires mother found herself the host to half a Quidditch league since several other Weasley and Potter relatives had decided to join in the fun.

Victoire didn’t really have a choice now. Fred helped Tabitha work out even teams and ended up with these teams:

Team 1
Victoire - C
Teddy - C
Ben - B
Ginny - S
Hermione - C
Ron - K
Bill - B

Team 2
Fred - C
Tabitha - K
Ella - C
Neville - C
Charlie - B
George - B

After an afternoon full of Quidditch only interrupted by lunch Team 1 ended up on top, much to Harry’s surprise. As they sat on the cliff after the last game Tabitha came over and sat down by Victoire.

“So, any change of mind yet, or do we have to make this a weekly thing?”

The rest of the “conspirators” had gathered around as well.

“Well admittedly, it would be fun to make this a weekly thing. But I give in; I’ll try out this year.”

“Try out!? The Quidditch Captain’s got to be one of us who were on the team last year!” Said Fred indignantly.

“And every one of us would let you on,” Ben added.

“Not if there was someone who you knew was better you wouldn’t. Believe me I’d quit if you did that.”

“Agreed, we will not put you on the team if there’s anyone better.” Teddy added quickly, then grinned “Which we know there won’t be.”

Victoire left her compartment on the train accompanied by Ella to look for Tabitha. They’d all compared and none of them had become Quidditch captain so directly after they received their Hogwarts letters they’d sent a letter to Tabitha to confirm that she had been made captain. Now Ella and Victoire were going to go see her and hear what plans she had made already, she claimed she was too long winded in letters so they would have to wait until they saw her.

They found her in a compartment with several other Third years including Hazel. Victoire hadn’t exactly avoided Hazel, but she hadn’t tried to start any conversations with her, still baffled by what Hazel could be holding against her. She paused for a moment outside the door when she saw Hazel but covered it up by allowing Ella to go in first.

“So there’s the lucky Quidditch captain! How goes the play-making job?”

“Fine, my Dad’s been helping a lot. He’s ecstatic as you can imagine.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure he dug up all his old diagrams?”

“Yup.”

“And old notes on things to watch out for in other teams?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“Ben told me about how his dad acted when he was put on a soccer team. And Ben was only 7 at the time.”

“Well he did rather try to take over, but I have a lot of new ideas of my own. And I have a pretty good idea of who’s trying out this year. But someone might surprise me, I’ll have to be prepared to not just pick my friends.”

“Of course, we’d all understand if you picked someone else” said Victoire.

“I know, but I really hope I don’t have to make a decision like that.”

“We all do, loyalty is a killer…”

The day of the Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs were much anticipated this year, at least among the Gryffindor House. The stadium started out fairly full even though the try-outs started in the morning. Victoire was feeling some of the nervousness Ella always showed. Fred had decided to try out for seeker as he had said last year. Ben has switched to beater so Tabitha could be keeper. And, surprising everyone, Ella had decided she wanted to join him as a beater. It wasn’t very common that a girl was a beater.

Tabitha said she had the order all worked out, and Victoire hoped the try outs would be in an order that wouldn’t put Ella in the spotlight at the time when she was most nervous. The seeker try outs came first, Fred looked very small next to most of the other candidates, but he was still unphased by the pressure and was bouncing up and down in excitement. After watching the performance of most of the seeker hopefuls weren’t that good except Fred and one rather large sixth year. Tabitha took a minute to consult the clipboard she had with her, she appeared to be doing some hard thinking. After a few quiet moments (except for the people in the stands who had decided this was a break for them to talk,) during which Victoire saw some of the nervousness she was feeling in Fred’s face, Tabitha announced Fred would be the new seeker. Victoire was very much relieved, except for the fact that the chaser try outs were next.

Tabitha had them going in order of where they had signed up on the sign up sheet, it seemed the best order apart from randomly pulling names from a hat. This meant that Victoire would be right after Teddy. As she watched the few people before them either score (what seemed to her) very complicated goals or not score any goals at all she became more and more nervous. What had started at the beginning of the day as a slight flutter in her stomach at the thought of being in front of everyone was now becoming a positively sickening sensation. She knew that even if she tried to think about something else that feeling wouldn’t go away. As she tried to think of anything calming to prevent her from backing out just as she was about to try out Teddy came back from his point where he had been watching those trying out. He seemed to notice something of what Victoire had just been feeling and came over by her. He sat there for a moment quietly then said, “None of us would blame you if you didn’t want to do it.”

She rounded on him about to say that even if she was rethinking she wouldn’t back out but he smiled and interrupted her.

“I knew you wouldn’t even if you wanted to, that’s why I said it. You needed incentive to go out there and do it.”

She leaned back, still silent. She knew that she would have regretted it if she’d given up before she even tried, she just needed reminding. “Thanks…” she said quietly.

Victoire grabbed Ella as she slipped on the muddy walk to the Quidditch field. They were on their way to the first Quidditch practice of the season, Victoire’s first practice ever. They were arriving fashionably late as was their custom for such things; Ella had left her broom back in the common room. They arrived to Ben complaining about how early they’d had to get up for practice, Tabitha firmly stopped his complaining by pointing out that her dad would have had them up before the sun. She turned to find Ella and Tabitha coming in laughing and somewhat splattered with mud.

“All right, now that our last two –very late- teammates are here we may begin.”

“I thought we started a while ago!” Ben was always fairly grumpy in the mornings, but he always became more cheerful later on.

“No, I started lecturing the rest of you on promptness, Ella and Victoire will get it later.”

“Can’t wait!” said Victoire cheerfully, knowing full well that a morning person is always more annoying in the morning.

“Well, let’s start with just passing the quaffle around so you get used to your new team.” She grabbed the box with the Quidditch balls and walked out onto the field. “All right, up in the air everyone!” Victoire pushed off into the air and hovered slightly below and to the left of where Teddy was. Tabitha threw the Quaffle into the air and Hazel dove to catch it. She turned and threw it to Fred who dropped it to Victoire. She spun to see who was near and threw it to Tabitha who had let the bludgers and snitch out and was now hovering above them. Tabitha dove and threw it back to Ella who tossed it to Ben who was right beside her and who threw it across their circle to Teddy. This went on for several minutes before Tabitha stopped and had them hover about 10 feet off the ground.

“All right, time to practice your separate positions. Chasers work on working together and trying to get past me, hence I’ll practice trying to block you. Fred, just try to catch the snitch as many times as is humanly possible for you in this amount of time. And Ben and Ella, I suppose you just get used to hitting that ball as hard as you can, but preferable not at us. Try to find yourselves another target.”

Ella saluted and flew off after one of the bludgers. Ben hesitated for a moment then went in search of the other one, followed by Fred. Tabitha tossed Teddy the Quaffle and headed off to the goal posts. Victoire stared at the Quaffle in her hands for a few moments then suddenly tossed it over to Hazel who caught it and headed down the field with it.

Victoire came down the steps to the entrance hall from Arithmancy and ran to the doors to wait for Ella. It was pouring down rain outside and she could see the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws running up from Hagrid’s hut through the sheets of rain. She watched as the Ravenclaws ran over to Herbology and the Gryffindors piled into the Entrance Hall. Ella handed her bag to Victoire for a moment and dug through it for a towel she had put there in the morning.

“Thanks Victoire. I hope this rain doesn’t keep up until Saturday.”

A notice had appeared the day after the first Quidditch match saying the first Hogsmeade weekend would be in two weeks. Ella and Victoire were excited for the trip, however they were wondering what Fred would be doing while they were gone. They knew he could find entertainment for himself, considering how many secret passages he knew by now, but they still planned on getting back fairly early, especially if it was still raining. They discussed what they were going to do at Hogsmeade on their way to Charms.

“Well I think we should probably go to Honedukes first,” Ella said. “Everyone says it’s the best.”

“Of course, then after that we should go to either Zonkos or The Three Broomsticks. Preferably Zonkos.” Victoire had been thinking it through as she was on her way to wait for Ella.

“Yeah, we should wait to go to The Three Broomsticks until the end, especially if it’s raining. Maybe after Zonkos we should go to the Shrieking Shack. And then the post office.”

“I was actually thinking of going to the Post Office first, but I suppose the Shrieking Shack works as well. Now we’ll just have to see if we can actually work off a schedule.”

“Well we do it for classes.” Ella said as they broke into a run to get to Charms on time.

The rain had let up only slightly by Saturday and it was now a freezing cold drizzle. Ella and Victoire prepared themselves for the rain as they waited in line in the entrance hall. Fred walked along side them thinking of things he was low on and needed from Zonkos. Victoire didn’t think she’d need that much from Zonkos so she volunteered to buy whatever Fred needed. This turned out to be a much longer list than she’d expected but then, he was his father’s son.

They ran for the closest shelter when they finally got outside. This turned out to be the gates, which didn’t actually provide much shelter. They saw that the road to Hogsmeade was practically unsheltered all the way. Almost as if they hadn’t planned for days like this, as Ben commented. He had joined them shortly after they got to the gates. After attempting to prepare themselves and waving goodbye to Fred, who appeared to be suppressing laughter at their situation, they ran for it.

After about half a mile they realized this was pointless, unless they were going to run the entire way there they weren’t going to get out of a complete soaking. And even if they did run all the way, they would probably get just as soaked and feel like they couldn’t move for the next few days. They slowed to a walk and took advantage of the very rainy view.

One rainy walk and several puddle splashings later they arrived in Hogsmeade. They were glad to be in warm Honeydukes, though it was very crowded, and not very much less wet, with everyone drying off. They did their Honeydukes shopping and dodged under the roofs of other buildings all down the street to get to Zonkos. Victoire bought what Fred had asked her to buy and couldn’t resist buying a few things for herself. After they’d finished shopping they met by the door to discuss whether they should go out to the Shrieking Shack or not, the rain was even worse than it had been when they’d started out. For Teddy’s sake Victoire wanted to go out, but she hadn’t seen Teddy at all yet. As she was thinking this she saw someone running towards Zonkos. As the shape drew nearer she realized it was Teddy, he came over under the roof and listened to the end of Ben and Ella’s conversation before they greeted him.

“I’ve just been out to the Shrieking Shack” he said, “You really don’t want to go out today, it’s too muddy to get much of anywhere.”

“Well I suppose that settles it,” Ella said. “Why don’t we just go to The Three Broomsticks then go back. We can go to the Post Office and the Shrieking Shack next time.”

They picked up their bags and ran along under the roofs of the shops to get to The Three Broomsticks. After staying there long enough to have actually seen a few people they decided it was too crowded and wet and started back to the castle.

After the Halloween feast Victoire went to bed earlier than usual after a feast. She was very tired, as she always was after a rainy day. After she’d been asleep for a while she woke up to thunder outside. She’d been hearing it all night so she wondered why it would wake her up this time, and then she looked at the door to their dormitory. The familiar flashing light from Fred trying to get her attention. Why now Fred? She wasn’t going to go by herself this time; she threw her pillow on Ella, hoping she wouldn’t wake up too noisily. Thankfully Ella was already awake and had apparently been staring at the flashing for a while. Victoire got up out of bed and motioned Ella towards the door.

They emerged from their stairs after Victoire forced Ella not to bring her large Runes book to defend herself. Victoire was not at all surprised to see Fred waiting for her down there, though she was surprised to see Teddy in one of the chairs apparently having been brought down there by Fred as well.

“So, what is it this time Fred?” She asked.

“Well, for starters, I wanted to know how serious you were when you said ‘just this once’ last year…” he started

“I was serious. Go on.”

“Well, I will have my pretend oblivious moment and assume you meant just once for last year.” He grinned at her and continued before she could interrupt, “As you can probably guess I’ve discovered a lot of hidden things in the castle since that last passageway, and I kept them to myself because I knew you like your peace and quiet. But this time I’ve found something I think you’ll find interesting. Though Teddy says he already knew about it.” Victoire thought she knew what was coming. “I always knew there was a passageway under the Whomping Willow, and I figured it had been put there for a reason. But I also guessed that there had to be a way to get to that passageway without being maimed by the Willow. Well, I have found that way, and I thought you’d like to come along.”

Victoire had expected that. She’d always known there was a passageway to the Whomping Willow, and she’d always known where it led and why it was there in the first place. Fred however hadn’t spent quite as much time with Teddy, who was the one who had told Victoire. Victoire thought it would be quite interesting to go have a look at the passage, but it seemed insane to be outside the common room at all at night, let alone outside the castle.

“I admit Fred; I am somewhat interested in this tunnel. But how in the world would we get outside without being caught? And what would we do once we got out there, we’d have to continue to be out of sight and avoid drowning in this rain at the same time!”

“But it’s easier to be outside without being spotted on a night like this. The teachers aren’t really expecting us to be out tonight, we’re all stuffed and tired and so are they. What about you Ella, are you interested?” He turned to Ella for help because he knew she would be interested.

“Well I’m in, even if Victoire isn’t. Did you ask Ben if he wanted to come?”

“I asked. But he’s up there working on some overdue homework under his covers. He’s more worried than usual about it than usual because his O.W.L.s are coming up.”

Victoire was thinking. She did want to go, but it still seemed insane. She hadn’t heard if Teddy was going or not. Admittedly he was somewhat more prone to mischief than she was, but sometimes that was a good thing. If he thought it was an acceptable idea she might feel better about going. She looked over at him; apparently he had been watching to see what she decided. He was as hard to fathom as ever, but she thought he seemed somewhat hopeful and amused at the same time. He looked back for a few moments, then he gave a slight shrug as if to say “it’s up to you.” She sighed; she knew very well that she would regret it later. Fred and Ella had turned to look at her. She nodded.

Victoire and Ella ran up to their dormitory to find coats and boots as quietly as possible. After pulling Ella’s left boot out from under someone’s school bag they ran back downstairs to join Teddy and Fred. They pushed open the portrait and started their ‘stealthy’ trip down to the entrance hall. With all the noise they made Victoire kept expecting someone to come around the corner and see them. Needless to say her heart was beating much faster by the time they made it to the entrance hall. As they peered down the steps they saw Professor Macmillan and Professor Townnsend talking by the doors to the Great Hall. They couldn’t hear what the Professors were saying so they had to judge from what they could hear whether they might be winding up. After what seemed like a long time Professor Macmillan opened the doors of the Great Hall and went in. Professor Townnsend turned and went down the stairs to the dungeons. At the top of the steps they glanced around at each other. If they went down now either of the teachers might come back and they would be caught. But if they didn’t’ go now they might not get another chance.

Fred crept over to the steps and, ducking below the level of the railing, crawled down to the bottom of the steps. Once he got there he looked up to see if they were following. Ella looked at Victoire, raised her eyebrows, and followed him down. Victoire let her get down a few steps then began crawling after her. Once they were all down at the bottom Fred stopped to listen for a few moments. He got up and was about to make a break for it when the Great Hall doors opened again. Professor Macmillan was halfway to the stairs when he seemed to change his mind and turned to go to down one of the other hallways leading off the Entrance Hall. They waited until his footsteps were too faint to hear. Then they all ran for it.

They ran to the nearest tree which proved to be not as near as they thought it was. It was pitch black on the grounds, the only light coming from lightning and the few lights in the castle. They could just faintly see the outline of the Whomping Willow during the lighting strikes that gave them light as they waited under the tree. Victoire admitted to herself that no one would be able to see them; Fred had been right about that. The made their way across the grounds hiding under the trees along the way and running in the stretches where there were no trees. Often they would slip as they tried to run across the muddy patches in the ground. This usually meant Victoire grabbing onto Ella and Teddy who were next to her.

Finally the reached the Willow, automatically stopping just out of reach of the branches. Steadying himself on the muddy ground Fred grabbed a large branch and reached with it toward the trunk of the Willow. After poking several different knots he pushed one and it went in. The branches of the willow stopped in mid-swing. Fred walked confidently through its branches to the trunk and bent down to find a tunnel hidden in the roots. He again looked up at them to see if they were following. As she crossed the muddy ground to get to the trunk Victoire thought to herself that at least they would be away from the rain in the tunnel.

As they walked along the tunnel Victoire thought something seemed odd. The tunnel shouldn’t have been used since the night of the Hogwarts Battle, but there seemed to be recent footprints. Very recent, in fact, muddy footprints from someone who had recently been out in this rain? Victoire looked around at the others to see if they’d noticed this. Fred and Ella were eagerly looking around the tunnel, oblivious to anything a bit off. Teddy however was looking over at Victoire; he fell back behind the other two to talk to her. Victoire could tell in their wandlight that he was looking rather pale.

“I would have just assumed it was someone, one of the teachers maybe, checking to see everything was as it should be in the house. But not this recently, there wouldn’t be a reason for one of them to check on a night like this.” He didn’t sound at all scared but she could tell he was at least worried.

“I’d try to think of another sensible, safe reason for someone to come out here but I can’t think of one. If it was someone needing shelter they would have gone up the castle unless they knew they wouldn’t be wanted up at the castle.” Victoire hoped she didn’t sound as scared as she felt. “I suppose we should tell Fred and Ella and we should go back. He nodded and they turned to tell the others, but they had just heard what they were hoping desperately they wouldn’t hear. The rain had slowed and they could hear very clearly from far along the passage the howling of a wolf.

Victoire grabbed Fred, Teddy grabbed Ella and they ran as fast as they could in the low tunnel. Bumping into the walls and tripping over roots Victoire tried to calm herself. Apparently they had gone farther than they’d thought and were right below the Shrieking Shack. That was why it sounded so close. She looked back for a moment and tripped over a large root. Teddy and Ella in front of them slowed to a halt and came back to get her. Teddy pulled her up and sent her on ahead of him. Victoire could tell he was just as stunned as she was, if not more so. Thinking back she knew that was probably what she should have been expecting to find in the Shack. But the thought had never occurred to her that the Shrieking Shack would be used again for the reason it had been built.

They came to the opening onto the grounds and crawled through one by one. Once they were all up they ran back up the lawn to the doors not even trying to stay dry. They pulled open the doors just enough to fit in and closed them as soon as they were in. Incredibly thankful that there was no one in the Entrance Hall they pelted up steps and through secret passageways until they reached the portrait hole.

“Geoluhread” Fred gasped to the Fat Lady. She muttered something under her breath in her sleep and the portrait swung open to let them in. Fred turned and looked at Victoire and Teddy. “Were either of you expecting that? Am I missing something?” Victoire couldn’t think of anything to say and didn’t think she could talk even if she did think of something. Teddy had collapsed into one of the chairs on the other side of the common room. Not from exhaustion Victoire could tell, but she didn’t think he would be answering Fred anytime soon either. When neither of them answered him Fred went on “Ok, obviously you weren’t expecting that either. But from what you were saying before that you expected something as well.” Well apparently he had been listening to what they were saying. Victoire supposed she’d have to answer.

“We probably should have at least thought of that possibility. Yes, we did know where the tunnel leads, and why it was put there. But I wasn’t at all expecting there to be an actual werewolf there…”

“You know where the tunnel…?”

“Yes Fred, I know quite a lot about that tunnel. I’m not entirely sure how you’ve missed at least hearing something about that tunnel. How many of Uncle Harry’s adventures happened there? That tunnel and the Shrieking Shack at the end of it have been used by a lot of people. Teddy and I thought it would be all right to go because we didn’t think it would have been used for a while.”

Fred was quiet for a minute when Victoire finished and Ella took advantage of that. “Even if Fred’s a little more caught up now I’m still lost. Apparently the tunnel leads to the Shrieking Shack. And apparently you two know something about the Shrieking Shack that the rest of us don’t. That’s as much as I can get out of this.” Victoire had no answer for this, her head was hurting and she was exhausted. She sat down on the couch she’d been standing behind. It was dawning on her that the teachers probably knew the werewolf was there. It might even be one of the teachers. They’d done somewhat the same thing Snape had done when they’d found the werewolf, but without knowing it. Teddy saved her from trying to put into words what she was thinking.

“We’re not dodging your questions, but I think we should go to bed and discuss this tomorrow. We don’t have classes tomorrow you can bombard us with as many questions as you want. We will try to answer all of them. Not to mention I’m sure Ben wants to know what has happened as well.”

Fred definitely did not look like he wanted to go to bed, he looked rather defiant then rethought what he was going to say. He turned and went to his dormitory. Ella paused for a moment looking thoughtful, then headed to their dormitory, she got to the door and looked back at Victoire to see if she was coming. Victoire shook herself and followed, glancing back into the common room as she was going up the stairs. Teddy was still sitting in the common room.

Aww! Teddy rocks! Fred takes after Fred so much... it saddens me

Victoire woke up the next morning and stared out the window beside her bed. The rain had finally stopped, replaced by a thick fog that obscured everything past the greenhouses. She didn’t really want to get up. She was still fairly tired from last night and thought she was getting a cold from being out in the rain outside. On top of all that she didn’t want to continue the conversation they’d started. It wasn’t that it was so bad, Fred and Ella would be understanding, but she tried to avoid at all emotional conversations. She just wasn’t good at being sympathetic really.

After a while she realized she’d have to get out sometime before lunch, and that Ella wasn’t in her bed. That meant they were probably waiting for her to continue explaining. She got up and dressed and went down to the common room. She found Ben down there reading some book or other. This was very odd behaviour for Ben but she ignored this.

“Have you seen everyone else yet this morning?”

“Well that’s being specific.” He said, turning a page “I could have seen everyone else as in, all the people who were born in the month of July. All the people who are under the age of 13. Everyone whose name starts with a Q. Any specific ‘everyone else’ you’re looking for?”

She sighed, he had taken to doing this during Quidditch practices because she often was very unspecific in what she asked about figuring he’d know what she was talking about. “Everyone else meaning the following; Fred Carson Weasley, Ted Remus Lupin and Ella Jean Knight. Any chance you’ve seen any or all of them?”

“Why yes, I’ve seen a lot of them. We had a long drawn out conversation about your excursion last night. Ella said you wouldn’t mind at all if you slept through it.”

Victoire was a bit surprised, but relieved. She very much appreciated her friends now. She looked back at Ben who had gone back to reading. “So what are you studying now?”

“Divination. Though I’m not sure what this book has to do with anything. I’m skimming and hoping she quizzes us on the parts I read.”

“Oh good, I was getting worried. You can’t get too good at this studying Ben. Who can I bug at the end of the year unless you slack off a bit?”

“Oh I’m sure Ella would oblige. Fred too probably. But I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to slack for you this year Victoire,” he pretended to be concerned “I’m just getting too much of a work ethic, I can’t seem to be as lazy as I used to be.”

“I’d recommend a good snowball fight whenever it snows. That usually helps.”

“I’ll remember that. You’d better be available for one.”

“I’ll make room in my schedule.”

Aww! I need to know what happened in the tunnel!

that's what happened in the tunnel. except for who the werewolf is..... *halo*


The next Hogsmeade weekend was the day before Christmas break so the students who were staying had more time to linger around Hogwarts while the rest got ready to go home the next day. Victoire, Fred, Ella, Teddy, and Ben all met in the entrance hall this time to go down to the village. Tabitha was going home to be with her family this Christmas otherwise, she said, she definitely would have been with them. Tabitha had been hanging out with them more and more, she said they provided wonderful entertainment.

They started down the wonderfully clear path, even though it had snowed the night before, for Hogsmeade. It was about as cold as it had been the last time but not as uncomfortable since it wasn’t quite as wet. As they walked they discussed what they would be doing the rest of the Christmas break. Fred and Ben had plenty of ideas. Ben because he was so thankful for not as much homework and Fred just because he was Fred.

“Well first of all, at least one of you has promised me a snowball fight, and when one of us gets involved th