Wisdom and Victory {Fred Weasley}

Chapter 2

And a peppering of backstory... :)

It was a glorious spring afternoon, although the temperature was quite high. A faint breeze drifted through the rolling Staffordshire hills. All was quiet, save for the rustling leaves of a nearby oak tree. And then there was a high laugh, coming from a few hundred metres away. It was a joyous sound, the kind you make when you have no care in the world.

Two children, a girl and a boy of about ten, were zooming along on their broomsticks, passing a quaffle between them. The girl had dark brown hair in a shiny, long plait down her back, and the boy's was an ashy brown mop. They flew high in the sky for  few more minutes before coming to a landing near the oak tree. "My mother will kill me if we were seen by any muggles," said the girl, gently laying her broom on the ground.

"Don't be silly," said the boy, "There aren't any muggles that live near here." He sat down under the tree, running a hand through his hair. The girl bit her lip, her brows furrowed for a moment, before grinning and climbing onto one of the lower branches of the tree and letting her legs swing back and forth. She was watching the boy pick at the grass around the tree trunk, and all was quiet for a few seconds longer.

"Thanks for teaching me Quidditch, Cedric," the girl said sincerely. "My mother said that she couldn't, but apparently she used to play."

"It's no problem," said Cedric, looking up at the girl and grinning. "Can't have you going off to Hogwarts without knowing how to play."

"I'm not going until next year!" whined the girl, sliding off her branch and slumping down next to Cedric. "And you get to go in September." She stuck her bottom lip out.

"Are you going to miss me, Vic?" asked Cedric, a small smile dancing on his face.

"No!" protested Vic, but she couldn't hide her own smile. "Maybe a bit. Who will I practise Quidditch with?"

"You could always practice beating on your own," suggested Cedric as he climbed to his feet.

Vic followed suit, grabbing her broom. "Race you!" she said, climbing on and launching into the air, her plait flying out behind her.

"No fair!" called Cedric after her, climbing on his own broom and following her up and into the air.

But then Cedric fell, down to the ground. His body seemed to elongate as he did until he landed with a thud in the long grass. The body of a seventeen year old boy, a pair of lifeless grey eyes staring up into the blue spring sky.

Victoria felt her breath catch in her throat, a lump form in her chest as she landed and rushed forward. And then a pair of hands had grabbed her ankles in the grass, and she was seventeen too. Standing frozen in time, tears pouring down her face, staring at Cedric Diggory's dead body, a crowd cheering at the sudden return of the Hogwarts champions. The hands were pulling her down into the earth until she was waist deep.

"Cedric!" sobbed Victoria, half crying for his help, half just wanting him to be OK. "CEDRIC!"

And now she was neck deep, and she couldn't breathe, let alone scream, and everything went dark, the image of his handsome, empty face obscuring her vision.

Victoria gasped and her eyes flicked open. There was the faintest shaft of light coming through the curtains around her bed. The Gryffindor dormitory was cold, or perhaps it was the thick layer of sweat she was coated in. Either way she was awake now. She'd escaped. And she wouldn't go back to sleep.

Victoria showered and dressed quickly and quietly, careful not to wake any of her dorm mates. She scraped her hair back into a ponytail, stored her wand in her hair (ash wood, dragon heartstring, eleven and a half inches) and grabbed her bookbag, heading down to the common room. Already there were excited first years gathered around, and Victoria smiled faintly at them as she passed.

She didn't go to the Great Hall, because she didn't eat breakfast. Instead she went up to the library to sit and read for half an hour. She found a lovely book on defensive technique that she promptly checked out before heading down to collect her timetable. Her mind was almost away from the reoccurring nightmare.

Victoria was, first and foremost, an academic. She loved reading and writing and learning. Her favourite subject was Defence Against the Dark Arts. That was, when they had a competent teacher. She'd got an O for their OWL when they had Lupin, so she'd taken it for NEWT level. She also took a few others: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Herbology and Arithmancy. Potions being her least favourite, but it hardly showed. She always got As on her essays, which in Snape's terms was an O.

Victoria had been good at Quidditch once too. A decent keeper and beater. She'd been Oliver Wood's running substitute for everything except seeker for the last five years. And she'd always practiced over the holidays with Cedric in all weather conditions. They hadn't really spoken at school though. How she regretted that now...

*****

The Hogwarts halls were quiet with the still of the night, only two sets of footsteps could be heard, echoing off the portrait lined walls. "How was your first week back?" Minerva McGonagall asked her daughter, who she was patrolling with.

"Fine," Victoria shrugged, "Professor Flitwick set us a really interesting article to read. But Professor Snape is-"

"The usual," said her mother, the corners of her mouth twitching. "He came straight to me after your first lesson to complain. I meant about Professor Umbridge."

Victoria frowned. "I know you did." She paused. "I don't want to be unprofessional, but she's a bit...useless." Victoria glanced at her mother and they stopped walking. "Are you sure she's qualified for the position?"

"Being qualified has never been necessary for that particular post," said her mother, looking rather stiff and avoiding the question.

"She won't let us use magic though," said Victoria, "Perhaps you could put a word in-"

"Did you not listen to her last week, Victoria?" her mother cut across. Victoria sighed; she knew it would come to this.

"Of course I did, Mother," she hissed as they resumed their walk. "The Ministry don't trust Professor Dumbledore. I just thought-"

"Well, you thought wrong," said Minerva McGonagall.

"I just thought," Victoria pushed, "It was his school." There was silence in the corridor once more, save for the footsteps of the two women.

"Harry Potter," Victoria's mother finally said.

"Yes?" asked Victoria.

"Keep an eye out for him please," she said. "He's been through quite the ordeal." Victoria bit back a tough remark. Her mother didn't know quite how difficult these last few months had been for her. Victoria certainly hadn't let on. But it had also been the first holidays without Cedric. And she knew they weren't really arguing. This was just their rather aggressive way of an open discussion.

"Of course, I will," said Victoria. She had every intention of speaking to him anyway. "Goodnight. I love you."

"I love you too," said her mother. They embraced tightly, before departing their separate ways.