The Savior

9. Victoria and Projects

Not only was fifth year the year of O.W.L.s and Soulmates but it was also the year of class projects. Victoria liked projects they were fun ways to get hands on with the lesson, but these projects were partner projects and it seemed that the assigned seating had royally screwed her. 

Slughorn had assigned a project. It was more like a competition in her opinion, each pair was meant to brew a difficult potion. They had to present the history, ingredients, and show its effectiveness. This project would last until the holidays.

"Now remember you will have to work on this with your partner outside of class. Today is the only day I'm giving you to work on it in class. By the end of the period, you should have your potion chosen and submitted to me." Slughorn said with a cheery smile as he looked around the room. 

"I think we should either make either Wolfsbane or Veritaserum. We could even do the Animagus potion. All three of them take a lunar phase to complete and they're all pretty tedious potions; bound to get on Slughorn's good side if we impress him." Victoria said with little emotion in her voice as she spoke to Remus. 

"Uh yea. Yea sounds good. We could do veritaserum. It would also be the easiest to test for effectiveness." Remus spoke grabbing the girl's attention. Victoria quietly replied 'okay' before writing on a slip of parchment to turn in to professor Slughorn. 

"We can meet up any day just let me know. I know next week is no good. With the full moon on Thursday, you'll need your rest so we can start meeting the week after." Victoria said as she sat back down opening her book to the chapter about their chosen potion. 

"O-okay." Remus replied looking at the girl slightly surprised. He was shocked she still kept up with the moon cycles and deep down he hoped it was because she still thought about him. He tried to read the chapter about veritaserum and take notes but all he could think about was the girl next to him. 

As the class ended Victoria slid her notes over to Remus before packing her bag and leaving the room to meet up with Alex and May in the hall. Remus starred at the page in front of him. She knew he was distracted she simply assumed the full moon was affecting him. It was less than a week away after all. She didn't mind letting him borrow her notes, after all, her grade depended on it. 

 "Merlin did you see the heart eyes on Lupin." Alex said giving Victoria a 'what did you do' look. 

"What are you two on about?" Victoria said giving them a tired and annoyed look. 

"Come on you can't tell me you didn't notice, the boy had hearts in his eyes!" May exclaimed. 

"Quite literally." Alex chuckled. Victoria shook her head at her friend's corny joke with a small smile. 

"You two don't know what you're talking about." Victoria sighed as the three of them made their way to the Ravenclaw common room. They continued to talk about classes, soulmate letters, and theories. They also discussed the likelihood of Peter and Renee being soulmates. The two were practically inseparable. This was of course the topic of discussion because yet again Renee was off doing merlin knows what with the boy. 

They also talked about potions and their projects. 

"So what potion are you and Loverboy doing?" Alex asked wiggling his eyebrows. 

"Veritaserum and what is with the nickname Alex?" Victoria said with a scowl.

"Because he's totally in love with you but besides that why truth serum? That's pretty impossible to make." May said give the girl a concerned look. Victoria shrugged. 

"Honestly I wanted to do Wolfsbane since that potion came out last year or the Animagus potion but that's the one he wanted."

"So, you two are purposefully trying to make impossible potions when you both are terrible at potions?" Alex asked raising a questioning brow at the girl. Victoria rolled her eyes.

"Lupin literally blew up a cauldron last year. Don't you think you should change your project?" May asked worried. 

"How do you know that was his fault? Maybe Peter caused that!" Victoria said in an attempt to defend the lanky boy. "Also, I'm not great at it but I'm decent at potions. I can do this!" 

Alex and May shared a look before turning back to the girl. Victoria honestly thought the two of them were soulmates with how they could practically read the others mind honestly. Well maybe platonically. She had never seen the two act romantically interested in the other but then again neither of them had shown interest in really anyone. 

Instead of dwelling on her friends she decided to do some work on her new project. Since potions was her last class of the day, she quickly said goodbye to her friends going to her dorm to change into more casual clothes. Then headed to the library to read about veritaserum.  

Unfortunately, Victoria couldn't focus on the truth serum. It was impossibly boring to read about. The name was very forward about its purpose. This left Victoria to daydream and hum quietly to herself as she strolled out of the library and to the seventh-floor corridor. 

Strolling around the empty hall a door quickly appeared. A room filled with a few instruments, a small recording booth, and a desk gave her a sense a comfort as she shut the door behind her. That day she wrote another song. Probably one that would only ever be heard by herself, but it was something to take her mind off of things. Between falling for Lily Evans, getting her soulmate letter, and the now regularly occurring interactions with the marauders the girl was emotionally and mentally exhausted. 

As her fingers strummed the cords of a guitar, she sang random words that came to mind. It was basically her talking out her feelings with background noise. It made her feel better though and that's all she really needed. It had been ages since her mentor John said he would try to get her song on the radio and the girl had lost hope. 

She couldn't help but think that maybe she needed a genre change or maybe she needed to open herself to a range of genres. What if she had wasted all these years on music for it to go nowhere? upset with herself and the instruments that seemed to drain her of all inspiration Victoria left for dinner.

Of course, on her way James Potter could be spotted making his way up to the astronomy tower with a small frown.