Sugar : Fred Weasley

50: A 'Haunted' Ring

July 7th, 1996

[victoria's pov]

It had been a few weeks of summer break, and I had fallen into a state of homesickness already. I missed Hogwarts, the Burrow, and hearing Hermione talk about SPEW. I even missed running away from Filch and that cat of his.

What I missed most was Dumbledore's Army—the exhilaration of knowing there was a little replica of the Order of the Phoenix back at Hogwarts.

Sometimes, I'd dream memories of myself back there, but I'd wake up; disappointment drowning me.

At least Fred had kept his promise and wrote to me everyday. George once sent me a Howler with Mrs. Weasley cursing at the Garden Gnomes. Some of the words I noted into a book. Ginny tried to write as often as she could, but she was busy. And I've been too.

That was until I was finally allowed to move in with Fred and George a month ago. It took a lot of arguing and tears for me to convince my parents to let me move out. Their flat was large enough for the three of us, mostly because I was at the Ministry for training and they were downstairs a lot.

My Auror training was going better than I thought. Everyday, I had to go to my classes at the Ministry. Tonks helped me out a lot since she had a lot of experiences with deflecting spells and how to avoid getting cursed.

"When I was your age," Tonks had told me. "A boy, Scamander, and I were lurking around--nothing naughty, Victoria! Stop giggling.--and he broke the House Points Hourglass. There was a big racket, of course, and we heard Miss McGonagall strolling down the corridor. 'What the devil was that racket?! Peeves!' we heard her shout." Tonks made a significantly similar impression as McGonagall.

"Luckily, with my big brain," Tonks winked and I laughed. "I managed to conjure a quick jinx to repair the points before anyone came in. Scamander, being the genius he is--but not as genius as yours truly--gave Hufflepuff a little extra points."

"Which house won the house cup that year?" I asked, curious to know if their gesture had worked.

Tonks frowned and said, "Ravenclaw. They beat us by ten points, Hufflepuff by five."

Mad-Eye Moody's training lessons could be boring. But he always had surprises: bad or good. He'd taught me how to sniff out poison, which was an interesting lesson, and how to find any creature's weakest point.

"Every creature has a weakness," he said. "Dementors: light, nifflers: gold, werewolves, the moon, and me-" I listened eagerly. "-I can't stand it when people sit sloping like a squashed banana. Fix your posture, Riverwood!"

He was a really great mentor, a lot better than Barty Crouch Jr. from when Cedric was around for the Triwizard Tournament.

Things at the Ministry weren't as organised as it had been before Voldemort had officially returned. Minister Fudge was on his toes even more than when Sirius had escaped Azkaban.

Sometimes, people would stare at me oddly during lessons because they had seen a glimpse of me in the papers (which was an embarrassing picture of me blacked out). But thankfully, that was dying down with new reports of Death Eater encounters. Rita Skeeter was definitely having a field day. I couldn't imagine how Harry felt. He still had another year at Hogwarts and he'd lost his only father figure left: Sirius.

But Dumbledore was still around, which made things feel easier for the entire Order and Hogwarts.

With everything going on–death eater attacks and people going missing, I've only seen three places. The Ministry, the twins and my flat above the shop, and the Burrow. I never really saw home with mum and dad. Or Magnus, as he travelled back and forth to Romania a lot.