✓ Heavenly

006. Eye To Eye

"No, no. I know this one," Constance said shushing him with the flick of her finger. Ron stood obediently quiet. "Raymond!"

Venus watched Ron's face glumly light up, "Good enough for me!"

"Okay, bye Raymond! Let's go, Venus."

"Wait, I need to—"

But Constance was already dragging Venus through the portrait hole. She didn't let go until they'd reached the foot of the marble staircase. Venus wanted to see Cordelia before her first official day of School. They followed a group of Ravenclaws into the Great Hall, each of them greeting Constance individually. Venus didn't even know who they were, or how Constance knew everyone she came in contact with. They took a seat on an empty bench at the Gryffindor table.

With a whoosh and a clatter, hundreds of owls came soaring in through the upper windows. They descended all over the Hall, bringing letters and packages to their owners and showering the breakfasters with droplets of water; it was clearly raining hard outside. Andormeda's owl soared down toward Venus and vanished back out the windows. Venus untied the damp enveloped and read:

Good Morning my dear Venus,
I hope you're enjoying the first day of your fifth year. I can't believe you're so grown up already. I remember the day the heavens gave you to me, you were the tiniest, chunkiest baby ever. Your uncle says hi, and he put some pocket money for Hogsmeade with your parcel. Nymphadora couldn't write today, she had something urgent at work but write me back as soon as possible and let me know how your first day was.

With all the love in the universe, Auntie.

Venus opened the parcel and a bunch of sickles, galleons and knuts spilled over the table. She quickly scraped them up and poured the rest into her bag. Lavender watched her enviously, stabbing at her waffle. Ron dropped in the seat next to Venus so hard, she flew up and back down with a jolt. Hermione and Harry occupying the seats across from them.

"Figured Prefects should stick together," Ron said looking over Venus' shoulder to watch Constance.

"Whatever, Ron." she said acidily. Ron didn't react nor care for her tone, he was too entranced watching Constance apply her lipstick again.

"Have you spoken to Fred and George?"

Ron wasn't paying attention.

"No, he hasn't," Hermione added, "I've been telling him to but he's too chicken to confront them."

That made Ron listen. "Am not!" He frowned eyeing Constance to make sure she didn't hear anything, "They're just hard to. . . deal with."

Professor McGonagall was now moving along the table handing out our schedules. "Look at today!" groaned Ron. "History of Magic, double Potions, Divination, and double Defense Against the Dark Arts . . . Binns, Snape, Trelawney, and that Umbridge woman all in one day! I wish Fred and George'd hurry up and get those Skiving Snackboxes sorted. . . ."

"Do my ears deceive me?" said Fred, arriving with George and squeezing onto the bench beside Harry. "Hogwarts prefects surely don't wish to skive off lessons?" Venus rolled her eyes as she scooped decent amounts of fruit salad into her bowl.

"Look what we've got today," said Ron grumpily, shoving his schedule under Fred's nose. "That's the worst Monday I've ever seen."