Will do. I'll just keep checking to see if you posted and congratultions.

When the Christmas break was over they were all sharply brought back to reality by the teachers constantly reminding them of upcoming exams and, in the stricter cases, reminding the fourth years of their O.W.L.s to be taken the next year. Ella did not take very well to this reminder and ignored the rest of the lesson.

However they weren't the only ones with these problems, compared to what the fifth years were going through the fourth years were practically on vacation. With the O.W.L.s about to happen for them the teachers barely said anything that didn’t have something to do with the tests. Teddy took this as calmly as he took everything else, but Tabitha and Hazel were a bit disturbed by it, especially since their Quidditch practices were becoming more frequent as well.

Their team was doing better than ever and everyone admitted they were sure to be in the final match. But this also meant that Tabitha had them out on the field practicing every spare moment of the day, O.W.L.s or no O.W.L.s. When not all the team could get out she would work with individuals or specific groups. As the match drew nearer though Tabitha realized that she did need to stop to study every now and then and gave up on the individuals, but when she told the rest of the team this she told them it was because she knew they didn’t need the individual practice anymore.

In the week leading up to the match there was the usual rivalry between the two competing teams, Slytherin and Gryffindor. Although it was nothing compared to the rivalry in the days of Victoire’s aunts and uncles there was still quite a bit of tension between the two houses. Tabitha had always jokingly considered “hiring bodyguards” for any such times but they were never even close necessary.

While they were in the great hall before the match (as usual trying to convince certain team mates to eat) Kyle came up and said he had convinced some of the Ravenclaws to cheer for Gryffindor, but most of them wanted Slytherin to win.

"Why is public opinion so much geared toward us losing?" asked Ben.

"It's because Gryffindor recently had a ten year winning streak" Teddy answered. "Even though Slytherin had an even longer one before that everyone remembers that Gryffindor dominated for years and now, even if they lose a couple years in between, people automatically want whoever they think the 'underdog' is to win."

"Then we're NOT the underdog? That's news to me."

"Ben! We've won every match so far, there's not reason to be pessimistic." Tabitha flatly refused to let anyone say they were sure to win because that had always turned out badly in her experience, but she wouldn't let anyone run their team down either even if it was a member of their team. "Why don't we head down to the Quidditch pitch? I'm sure Ella's eaten something by now, besides, I'm beginning to think she works better on an empty stomach."

"All right, bye Kyle, thank you for getting us some support." Victoire got up from her seat, hoping Tabitha wouldn't notice that she hadn't eaten much either.

"Oh you'll have more than just us, the Hufflepuffs are usually on your side as well."

"I wouldn't count on that," said Ben gloomily, glancing toward the Hufflepuff table.




I went out and wrote something entirely unrelated to get myself back into the mood. It took me a while but I finally got another entry finished

Its lovely my dear. Can't wait till your next post. PAMS!

Despite Ben’s gloomy predictions there was a fairly even scattering of both Gryffindor and Slytherin fans among the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, as well as a whole section of people who didn’t really care. This particular section was placed between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff sections and was filled with people who intended to talk through the entire game.

As the teams came out on to the field Victoire noticed some foreboding looking clouds that hadn’t been there when they’d come out of the Great Hall. As Professor Bell came out with the box of balls Victoire hoped the game would be over before the storm came.

Her hopes were in vain though, and not long after they had started the black clouds covered almost all the sky and heavy rain was starting to fall. Gryffindor had scored twice before the rain and Victoire was thankful for that, the visibility with the rain made everything seem much harder than it should be.

She was hovering not far from the Slytherin goal post, hoping to figure out where any of the chasers were, she had lost them and it was impossible to identify who anyone was in the rain. She glanced up and saw Fred flying by, apparently looking for the snitch. He saw her and pointed toward the other side of the pitch, apparently he’d seen the other chasers.

He flew off in a different direction, it looked like he was circling the field, and Victoire went looking for the other chasers. Halfway across the field she nearly ran into Ella, followed closely by Hazel who threw the ball to her before flying off, leading the Slytherin chasers in a different direction. Victoire had a new appreciation for the rain now; she sped toward the goal posts, hoping to catch the keeper by surprise. She narrowly missed being hit by a bludger and dimly saw Ben pursuing it. Sooner than she’d expected she saw the goal posts and the keeper squinting through the rain in the other direction. She threw the quaffle as hard as she could, hoping the rain wouldn’t affect how it flew. After a few seconds she heard the satisfying sound of the ball going through the hoop, and saw the astonished look on the keeper’s face as he dove for the ball. He threw it to one of the Slytherin chasers who had finally figured out what had happened and Victoire flew off after her.

Victoire couldn’t exactly hear someone flying up behind her but she knew someone was back there, she glanced back and saw Teddy, where he had come from she didn’t know but it was nice to know someone else knew where the quaffle was. However soon after that the other two Slytherin chasers showed up, Victoire had been hoping they would take longer to find them.

Hoping Teddy was paying attention Victoire shot forward suddenly as the Slytherin chaser passed the Quaffle and grabbed it in midair. A bit surprised because that move had never really worked during practice she dropped it to where she knew Teddy was. She was relieved that she had managed to pull that off and even more relieved when she saw Hazel coming from the other end of the field, apparently she had got lost as well. Teddy passed the ball back up to Victoire who threw it to Hazel. She flew straight for the goal and Victoire kept moving in that general direction, knowing that if the Slytherin chasers showed up it would be better to draw them away from Hazel. She needn’t have bothered because not long after this she heard not only the quaffle going in the hoop but also the cheer of the crowd that could only mean one thing; someone had caught the snitch, she looked around to see who it was. But before she could find anyone she could tell from the crowd who had won, she turned in the other direction to see Tabitha flying toward her, screaming her lungs out and dragging Fred behind her. She grabbed Victoire as well and pulled her into a hug. Victoire grinned through Tabitha’s choking hug; she knew how happy Tabitha’s dad would be. She started directing Tabitha back towards the ground as Hazel and Teddy joined them, Ella and Ben had been following Fred and Tabitha. Once down they were surrounded by the crowd, who had moved down from the stands. There in the midst of the crowd they somehow ended up with the Quidditch cup, Victoire never was sure just how. And over the heads of the crowd she could see a large group of parents, including her own, who had come to watch the game.

Yay u posted. OMG I was late reading it! *slaps self...HARD* wonderful job m'dear. Loved it.

*huggles*
Michelle

I went back and edited post #90, I realized that unless Kyle was the same year as Victoire one of my plot points wouldn't exactly work.... *leaves off and lets her readers wonder what she's rambling about*

For the rest of the year Victoire was thankful that the Quidditch season was over, partly because that meant she wouldn’t be at Quidditch practice every day, but also because the excitement brought on by winning the cup carried them all through stressful examinations. She was certainly happy Tabitha had that to keep her spirits up, O.W.L.s brought out the stress in most people.

One late afternoon Victoire, Ella, Fred, Kyle and Ben were out by the lake waiting for the transfiguration O.W.L. to finish. They were discussing what they wanted to be once they were out of Hogwarts, mainly because of another class full of teachers who were warning the fourth years about their fifth year. Fred didn’t have to experience this yet being a Third Year but he was just as ambitious as the rest of them as to what he wanted to be after leaving Hogwarts.

“I’ll probably start out in Dad’s joke shop at first but from there I’d like to go up,” Fred was saying, “something along the lines of Auror. I realize everyone wants to go on to being an auror, but there are still plenty of dark wizards left out there for me.”

“Not everyone wants to be an Auror Fred,” Ben pointed out “I’m thinking something more along the lines of professional Quidditch. Of course this is mainly dreaming, but why not dream big?”

“Actually,” Ella admitted, “I was ‘dreaming’ something along the same lines. But I don’t see why we wouldn’t actually be able to play for a season or two; someone from every year at Hogwarts usually ends up on a professional Quidditch team for at least a year. I’d be satisfied with that year and then I could move on to something else.”

“Yes, don’t be so gloomy Ben. And here I thought you were only pessimistic when it came to grades and our chances at Quidditch.” Fred threw his newly shredded History of Magic notes at him. “Now, what about you Kyle, what large plans do you have for the rest of your life?”

“I don’t know, I don’t think I’ve thought about it that much.” Kyle had been lying down on the bank listening to them but he sat up now, “maybe I’d like to be a teacher. That seems to be what I’d most likely be good at.”

“Hmm, good answer for not having thought about it Kyle,” Fred pondered for a moment. “Yes I can see you as a teacher.” He leaned back against a tree, “yes, you can come take Professor Baynes’s job; transfiguration could use to be more interesting. Now Victoire, you’re the only one who hasn’t spoken up yet, what do you want to do? Anything along the lines of Minister of Magic?”

“No, I was thinking about something more sensible, I don’t want to take Kingsley’s job. I probably could work in the bank with Dad, but I think I’d rather be…” she paused for a moment to think. “Maybe a healer, I think I have all the classes necessary.”

“Well I always knew you’d be something useful that would top all of us.” Fred said, “There is no way you’re getting out of a job where you can make a difference.” He muttered something under his breath about her not being a prefect.

“Well if I got married I wouldn’t be working,” Victoire said.

“Very true, very true. But as I said, you’d still be doing something that made a difference.”

Amazing post dear. Can't wait till your next post. Oh and I had a question...is there going to be romance in this FF also? PAMS!
~Michelle~

now, if I told you something like that would I be giving something away?

Yes I would

why do you think it was in the Romance section before it was moved?

Just checking. I wanted to make sure. You could have changed your mind. But yea that was a dumb question. lol, PAMS!

Finally all the tests were over and everyone was getting ready to leave Hogwarts for the summer. Tabitha said she had never known a year of Hogwarts to seem to last so long, but with or without the O.W.L.s she was just as sorry the year was over as ever. This gave some hope of recovery from O.W.L.s to those who hadn’t taken them yet.

The train ride home was, as usual, full of the most interesting collection of conversations you could imagine. Tabitha ranted for a while about something she had heard from her brother Luke about the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. As with most first years he hadn’t expected to get on the team in his first year and Tabitha wasn’t too upset about his not getting on the team until she heard that the Hufflepuff team was very strict about taking anyone third year and below and barely ever did it any more.

“It doesn’t even make sense!” She would say, “if they don’t take younger players their players won’t be as good when they get ‘old enough’ to be on their team. They won’t have enough experience!”

Luke said aside to Victoire during one of Tabitha’s rants, which would come up randomly during the middle of a different conversation, that he didn’t really mind it that much except for the fact that both his dad and Tabitha now would be training him all summer so that he would get on the team whether the captain wanted him to be or not.

Also during an exploding snap game Fred pointed out to Victoire that he hadn’t brought her along on their traditional wander through the castle at night this year, so she owed him two rule breaking excursions the next year. Victoire denied, any such rule, but she knew she’d be going on at least two exploration missions with Fred the next year, and she feared she would begin to like them and go on more.

Finally during a discussion about how long or short socks should be they pulled in to Kings Cross station. They got off the train saying goodbye and found their respective escorts. They didn’t need to be reminded ‘under pain of attack owl’ to write, even if they didn’t write they’d still probably see quite a lot of each other during the summer.

Victoire was greeted by her mom who was standing with Victoire’s aunt Ginny. Ginny had brought her son James, he was going to Hogwarts next year and he was already ecstatic about it. All the way back to Ginny’s house where they would meet up with Victoire’s dad James asked Victoire and Teddy about what it was like at Hogwarts with Ginny and Victoire’s mom adding questions of their own every now and then.

When Victoire was finally back in her own home that evening she only felt a twinge of regret not being at Hogwarts, with her large extended family dropping by practically every day she was never lonely and she didn’t have that at Hogwarts.

Amazing post dear. I luffed it. PAMS, PAMS, PAMS! lol, you really are a amazing write.
~Michelle~

Victoire spent most of her first few weeks of vacation at her house, or, at least near her house. There was a little wood behind her house where she had spent a lot of her time when she was little. After performing tasks for her mother in the morning, (she realized that she didn’t really mind chores that much after being at Hogwarts for a while,) she would take a book out to the woods and find somewhere to read it. Sometimes it would simply be a clearing and sometimes as far up in a tree as she could comfortably go and still read a book.

Sometimes she would be joined by visitors in one of her hide-outs. Fred or Teddy could usually find her without trouble, they had spent quite a while in the forest as well before Hogwarts days, but whenever Ella happened to stop by it took her a while to find Victoire, especially when it came to tree climbing. Eventually Ella would just give up and yell for Victoire until she realized she was there.

Once Hazel sent a letter to Victoire asking if she could stop by one day, this confirmed to Victoire that she and Ella must have imagined her disliking them. Victoire enjoyed that afternoon with Hazel more than any of the days she had spent that summer with anyone else, just because now that she was convinced Hazel didn’t hate her she really enjoyed learning more about her than she’d ever thought to ask before.

After a few weeks though she was out visiting family all the time, her first visit to Harry’s house he and Ginny had her relive the final Quidditch game for them, and Harry probably would have had her relive the whole season had time allowed. Ginny told Victoire that he had asked all of the team members who had stopped by his house to tell him about it, apparently to get an idea of the team. Victoire had a feeling he could be rather like Wood if James got on the team.

And speaking of that particular relative of Victoire’s, not only was James asking her all about Hogwarts his friend Hannah Longbottom asked her most of the same questions he did whenever she was around. For their sake Victoire was looking forward to the new year very much, as bright and excitable as they were their first year at Hogwarts, and all their years at Hogwarts would be very memorable, both for them and for Hogwarts.

YAY u posted! And weird, the whole reading thing sort of reminds me of myelf. I do that like ALL the time. Anyway wonderful post and PAMS!!!

Michelle

I'm leaving on a vacation until around friday, so even though I tried to finish my entry it will be put off for a while longer. sorry

After many set backs I have my new entry ready

About the time they usually got their school book lists Fred had arranged for Teddy to come to Diagon Alley, specifically to Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes. Fred had planned this in order to intercept any O.W.L. results that may have been coming, knowing Teddy’s tendency to drag out the telling of such things. However shortly after he arrived there was a disturbance that distracted Fred from his plan until much later.

George looked up from a faulty trick Sneakascope, a sound rather like thunder had issued from somewhere down the street. He ran to the door and looked out, and really hoped that noise wasn’t what he thought it was. He ran back to the back room where Ron had been cleaning up a spilled box of Fever Fudge and Fred, walking past the back room, caught some of their conversation. Shortly afterward both Ron and George came out of the back room, and Fred could tell they were feigning calmness. George said they were going out for a minute and that Fred was to stay in the store until they came back then they were gone. There were a few moments of silence in the shop before Fred turned to Teddy.

“If you can tell what I’m thinking right now you’ve been spending too much time around me.”

“Then I’ve obviously been spending too much time with you, Fred.”

“Well he didn’t tell you to stay, he only told me to stay.”

“It scares me that that thought crossed my mind as well.”

“Please Teddy?”

“I’ve never known you to be so unwilling to break rules Fred.”

“Yes, I know, but there are certain times when I think I would end up experiencing something worse than grounding. Just this once, I won’t make you do anything like this instead of me ever again. I just want to know what’s going on out there, and I bet you do too.”

Teddy couldn’t deny that, and despite his seeming to take it lightly he had never seen Fred so serious about anything. He could tell that behind his curiosity just to see what was going on Fred was worried that it was something dangerous and wanted to know if his Dad was all right.

“All right, I’ll find out what’s going on.”

“Thank you so much Teddy, I really won’t ask you to do it again.” Fred looked relieved, he had let his guard down and it really was easy to tell how worried he was.

“Then I’m coming back, if it’s anything dangerous we are contacting someone.”

“Right, right, just move along now Teddy.”

Teddy went out the door where they had been standing, looking out and Fred was left alone in the shop. He sat by the window and watched as Teddy ran down the street and out of sight, then he was left to watch for anyone coming down the street. He didn’t have wrong to wait, and what he saw was more than he had bargained for. He watched as a man, probably an auror he thought to himself, dueling with someone in a swirling dark green cape and plain black robes who was slowly backing him down the street and, much to Fred’s dismay now that it was happening, towards the joke shop. As he was finally backed against the wall he glanced back and saw Fred, though the Death Eater (as Fred assumed) hadn’t noticed him. He started looking around the street and Fred realized that he was looking for someone else, not wanting Fred to get involved. Fred realized that he needed to get away from what was happening outside, even though he wanted to see what was going on. He got up and ran toward the back room, glancing back as he did and was terrified to see the Death Eater cast a spell at the man, he missed by a mile, but the spell hit above the shop door and Fred could see the wall visibly cracking. He stood, transfixed or frozen with fear, as the entire wall crumbled in, crushing displays and shelves as it did.


yes I did just do that because I'm beginning to love cliffies

Teddy did not like the idea of leaving Fred in the shop alone, if there was danger anywhere in the alley the shop would be in danger as well. It only took him five minutes down Diagon Alley before he decided to go back and see what was happening back at the shop, partly because he had found the cause of the disturbance.

From where he stood by a small used book shop he could see a fairly serious battle unfolding in front of Ollivanders between many hooded people in dark colored cloaks, (no black, just dark colors) and a random selection of wizards and witches who had obviously been shopping around Diagon Alley. George’s red hair was quite prominent among the crowd against the black robes worn by most of the shoppers; he had just stunned one of the dark cloaked wizards and was hurrying some of the shoppers who looked like they didn’t know what was going on into a nearby store.

It took him very little time to take this in and he turned around to head back to the shop in time to see two wizards dueling and working their way in the same direction. Teddy needed no more persuasion that it had been a bad idea to leave Fred in the shop. Staying close to the shops and away from the street he sprinted back toward the shop but the dueling wizards had a good head start. By the time he got there the dark cloaked wizard had the other wizard backed against the outside of the store.

Teddy knew there wasn’t much he could do until they moved away from the store but he started edging toward them anyway. Then he stopped, not sure what to do. The man in the dark cloak had practically demolished the front half of the shop with one spell. Both of the men dodged out from under the falling debris and the other man, whom Teddy now saw was much younger than the dark cloaked wizard, took advantage of the distraction to begin forcing his opponent back up the street.

By now there was a crowd of shoppers who apparently hadn’t heard the first noise gathering to see what was going on. Although he had been paying attention to the rest of the street before the dueling wizard was now oblivious to everything else, focusing on getting his opponent back to the main part of the battle. Teddy saw the danger of this situation as spell after spell missed its target and hit buildings, stands out on the streets and came dangerously close to hitting the shoppers. He knew they needed to realize their danger before they learned the hard way and was thinking up a hurried plan to get everyone back in the stores when one of the renegade spells hit right above him, crumbling the entry to the building behind him.




weeellll I got you out of the other cliffie temporarily to bring you another one. These entries are giving me a lot of trouble, this cliffie really isn't my fault

oh yeah, just so you know I did have a wizarding fairy tale submitted in the contest but I didn't make it to this poll

Teddy reacted without really thinking about it, in such situations it seems automatic to get out of the way, and grabbed the only other person standing under the overhang and pulled her out of the way. He glanced back to see if she was all right, she was a small girl who looked to be about Fred’s age with long black hair. She looked absolutely terrified but she also had some sense, after looking around the street, apparently looking for someone, she dodged into a store.

Teddy was already back by the store, wondering how he was going to get back in. Unlike most of the other buildings on the street that had merely lost pieces of the door or the roof, the entire front of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes had collapsed. He scanned the front of what used to be one of the most successful businesses on Diagon Alley, looking for any way back inside. On the left side of the building the windows had been entirely demolished except for a few pieces of glass hanging from the sides and the top and that seemed like the most sensible way in. He found a way over the debris with much less trouble than he’d expected and climbed in through the smashed window. Inside the store everything seemed ridiculously untouched except for the front half of the store. Teddy was very thankful for this because sitting there on the counter, apparently at a loss as to what to do, was Fred.

He looked incredibly relieved at the site of Teddy and was about to say something, then stopped. He seemed to rethink what he was going to say and after a silence said “I’m sorry.” Teddy nodded; Fred had realized pretty quickly what had gone wrong in their plan.

“Now the question is what do we do next?” Teddy got up on the counter next to Fred, “It doesn’t seem to likely that we’re going to be able to fix up any of this without magic.”

“At any other time I’d suggest going to find my dad or Uncle Ron, but after what just happened I won’t feel like going outside for a while.”

“Actually with buildings collapsing I think I’d feel safer outside, but I agree with you that it would be better if we just stay here and don’t even think about going outside.” Teddy was still keeping an eye out the window, the two wizards they had seen were gone but they had no way of knowing if any more would come. “I guess there really is nothing to do but wait here, it’s what I thought but I was hoping we could find something to do besides wait.”

But wait they did, and sooner even than Fred would have hoped they saw George’s face, white with worry, outside the smashed window. His face broke into a smile of relief when he saw both of them there, Teddy had got down from the counter and had been waiting by the window and watching for anyone he knew. He now pointed out the best way up into the store through the window and George came inside. He barely noticed the damage to the store, making sure that both of them were ok. He asked what had happened and heard a brief overview before leaving, he said all the dark cloaked wizards were gone, most of them had been detained but a few had apparated away before they could be caught. Now the area in front of Ollivanders had to be cleaned up and a few people had been hurt, but for the most part the attack hadn’t been damaging to the shoppers. George promised he would tell them more about it later, and Fred knew that he would. After Harry, Ron and Hermione had formed their habit of investigating when they weren’t told something most of his aunts and uncles made sure to tell them as much as seemed sensible when any problems came up.



you would not believe how difficult this entry was to write. My writers block was worse than ever, also I never seemed to have the time to write for as long as I wanted, but finally I have finished it.

Writers Block: Can I stop by for a visit?

Me: I’d rather you didn’t

Writers Block: Oh please, your mind looks so inviting

Me: No! No! Get away!

Writers Block: *Brings in luggage





Fred and Teddy waited at the store until it was almost dark before Ron finally came back, the clean up was taking longer than they’d expected. He had only come back to tell them to use the fireplace in the shop to go to Harry’s by floo powder and he only waited around long enough for both of them to have gone.

Their time at Harry’s wasn’t much better than it had been at Diagon Alley. At Diagon Alley they had been waiting in the store without much of an idea of what was going on, now the only improvement was that they weren’t waiting alone. For an hour more they waited before they heard the familiar sound of someone coming out of the fireplace in the kitchen. Fred jumped out of his chair and ran from the living room as the sound of a second person coming in was heard. Ron was coming out of the fireplace, dusting ashes off of his robes as Harry and Teddy followed Fred into the kitchen. He said he had only stopped by to check in on all of them and headed out the door, his house wasn’t far from the Potters’ and he was more than certain that Hermione would be worried about him, even if she pretended she wasn’t.

“Well,” said George, glancing around the kitchen, “I suppose I should just tell you everything now, or I’ll be badgered about it for days. Not to mention I doubt Fred would get any sleep tonight if I didn’t tell him, plotting some way to make me tell him.”

“You got that right,” said Fred happily. He been looking a bit strained ever since his dad and Ron had left the first time and only now did he look calm.

“Well to start out, it looks like that opposition we’ve been expecting from Death Eater supporters has finally come, Harry. There may have been small uprisings before now but this one looks more organized.” George looked rather like he was getting the worst news over with first, he moved on before Harry could make any comment on this sensational statement. “It seems that this little incident had been planned for a while, but not all that well planned. Once these rebels had done their originally planned vandalism they didn’t seem to know where to go from there.”

“What exactly did they do?” asked Harry.

“Well they pretty much demolished the front half of Ollivanders. That was what they had planned to do, and everything after that; the shop fronts of a lot of other places, not to mention most of the booths that had been set up outside; were just what came when they came close to being caught.”

“How in the world did any of them manage to get all the way down to your shop if they started by Ollivanders? That’s quite a ways down Diagon Alley.” As Harry asked this question Fred glanced up at Teddy who remained inscrutable. They hadn’t told either Harry or George that they hadn’t stayed in the store the whole time.

“Actually that’s one of the most interesting parts of this story,” said George. Fred looked back at his father, here was something else new. “Almost all the people who attempted to duel these rebels were either aurors off duty or wizards otherwise experienced with dueling. There was only one exception to that, one young man who had absolutely no dealings with any dark wizards before took up the challenge and started dueling one of the rebels. He started out well but eventually he started slowing down and was forced to back down the street. He said he didn’t realize how far he’d gone until one of the curses fired by the other wizard missed him and hit a building behind him. It apparently nearly fell on two people standing under it.”

Fred did notice a reaction from Teddy this time, but Harry and George didn’t and George went on with his story. “Then he saw how dangerous it was for them to be this far away from the main battle because the shoppers there didn’t know what was going on.”

“And he managed to get his opponent back up the street?” Harry looked surprised, “I am very impressed, and here I thought the wizarding community was letting down their guard.”

George didn’t answer this but Fred saw something in his father’s face that looked like he wanted to answer. Instead he said “All right Fred, I’ve told you everything now, and we need to be getting home, if Hermione’s going to be worried it’s going to be nothing compared to what your mother is going to be.” He got up from where he’d been sitting at the table and headed for the fireplace, but before he left Teddy knew he saw some significant look exchanged between George and Harry.



*Writers block flies out the window*

The parking lot outside King’s Cross Station was sunny and strangely warm for early September. Victoire and her Dad hurried into the station, they weren’t nearly as late as they could have been without their magical car but they were still pushing being late and she knew Harry and Ginny would be wondering where they were.

They came as close to running through the station without actually attracting too much attention and walked confidently through the wall between platforms nine and ten without even pausing to think. Victoire was yet again thankful for the vibrant red hair most of her relatives had as she stood on tip toes to look for them.

“There they are,” Bill pointed toward a spot on a part of the platform near the back of the train. Victoire could see Harry waving to them and beside him she could see her Aunt Ginny’s red hair. They pushed Victoire’s trunk over to the train without bumping into too many people and she saw that Mrs. Longbottom and her children were there as well as Teddy and James. As Victoire was getting ready to put her trunk on the train Ella stuck her head out the door to say she had two compartments ready for them, two because there were already people in almost all the compartments and there were so many people they wanted in their compartment this year. She went with Victoire to put her trunk away and then came back out to say goodbye to the people waiting.

Ella stood in the door of the train as Victoire hugged her dad and her Aunt Ginny and then she made room for her to come up and stand in the door as well while James said goodbye to his parents. Victoire helped him up onto the train and they stood their waving while the train pulled away. Finally they turned the corner and passed out of the train station.

Victoire led the way to the first of the compartments where they found Hannah, Tabitha, Hazel and a few people they didn’t know. James filled up the last empty seat in that compartment and Victoire and Ella went over to the next compartment where Fred, Kyle, Ben, and Teddy (Who had gone back to the compartment while Victoire was saying goodbye) not to mention a few first years who had all followed each other into the compartment.

As usual they had an amusing time all the way there, Victoire spent her time trying to make the first years feel less nervous (while Fred and Ben were plagued with the temptation to mess with the first years’ minds.) After a while the food trolley came by and they started discussing Quidditch and Ben and Fred were of course very interested in that and they all got along again while Victoire explained what Quidditch was to a two of the first years who didn’t know.

As it got steadily darker outside Victoire decided to see how Hannah and James were and switched places with Tabitha who wanted to discuss Quidditch with the rest of them. Hannah and James had both reacted differently as they got closer to Hogwarts, Hannah got quieter as she worried about what house she would be in and James got louder as he tried to hide how worried he was.

Finally the train slowed to a halt in the Hogsmeade station and Victoire went over to the other compartment to get her trunk. In the hallway she met Ella who was pulling her trunk behind her; she said that they had got Victoire’s trunk down for her so it was all ready. She went in and got her trunk before pulling it out onto the platform where she saw Hannah and James heading off for the boats before she found Ella’s carriage. There she finally settled herself down as they bumped along up the road to the Hogwarts gates.