how it feels to be alive {tom riddle}

thirty-five: victoire

"Hi, I'm not sure if we've spoken before, but I'm Lucia." She introduced herself, not recalling a time where there paths had crossed significantly before.

"I'm Victoire, I didn't realise we were getting a new teacher again. What is with this school and DADA teachers not sticking around?" She responded charmingly. "Shall we get started?"

"Let's." Lucia smiled, happy to not be getting dirty looks from her like some of the girls at the school, for some reason particularly those in her own house and year.

They both drew their wands at the ready, pointing at each other with extremely focused expressions. Victoire had the kind of eyes that you could easily get lost in, and Lucia recalled her mother, Fleur Delacour's Veela ancestry which explained a lot about her daughter.

Lucia kept her concentration fixed on the blonde, and in her head focused on accentuating the words 'petrificus totalus' robustly in her mind.

It only took a couple of seconds before Victoire's body went stiff and her eyes fixed, falling to the ground and signalling the spell had worked.

"Well done Miss..." Professor Bones spoke approvingly.

"Cohen." Lucia smiled awkwardly at the praise, before turning to Victoire to mutter the counter curse.

"Sorry about that." Lucia said apologetically as Victoire brushed off her robes and stood up.

"Don't worry about it." Victoire chuckled lightly, "Again?"

The two witches resumed their previous position, looking concentratedly at each other again.

Lucia's eyes flickered to behind Victoire, where Tom had used incarcerous on his opponent who was now lying on the ground bound with ropes. Tom had made no move to remove the spell.

It only took this distraction for Victoire to hit Lucia with a non-verbal jelly legs curse. She fell to the stone floor, laughing at how stupid she must have looked.

"Sorry." Victoire giggled.

"All good." Lucia assured her, leaning against the nearest desk, "I think I just need to sit for a few minutes while it wears off."

Lucia attempted to move one of her legs, but with no luck. Her legs truly did feel like jelly, no stability whatsoever.

Victoire came to sit next to her on the floor to keep her company, fiddling with her wand between her fingers.

"So, where is your boyfriend from? I haven't seen him around before." Victoire struck up a conversation, considering they'd have to sit and wait for Lucia's legs to work properly again.

"Oh, Tom? He's from France, kind of... He's moved around a lot." Lucia explained, "And he's not technically... my boyfriend. We haven't really talked about it."

"Yeah, my boyfriend Teddy and I took a while to make it official. I suppose there really isn't any rush." Victoire responded assuringly.

"Teddy Lupin?" Lucia queried, "He graduated a couple of years ago, right?"

"Yes, that's him." Victoire blushed lightly, diverting her eyes to Tom and the Hufflepuff boy, who was on the ground again from yet another curse Tom had hit him with. "Tom seems rather talented, does he have much duelling experience?"

Tom didn't even look like he was trying, and it was apparent that the Hufflepuff boy was getting quite frustrated that he couldn't curse Tom even once.

"Yeah, he's had a fair bit out practice." Lucia replied awkwardly, diverting her gaze, "Ah finally, I feel like I can control my legs again." She announced soon after, sounding rather pleased as she stretched them in front of her back and forth.

"Back to your seats everyone, I need to explain this week's essay." Professor Bones spoke over the chatter of the classroom.

Some students were still recovering from curses that had been aimed at them, none painful of course, but many took a while to wear off.

Lucia stood up on still slightly shaky legs and took her seat back at the desk beside Tom's.

"You could have given the kid a bit of a break." Lucia talked quietly to Tom, stifling a laugh at the boy's shaken and rather green appearance as he sat back down next to Tom.

"Trust me, I was trying to be easy on him." Tom scoffed.

Professor Bones stood at the front of the classroom now, and had written an essay prompt on the board. "I want 15 inches of parchment on the advantages and disadvantages of non-verbal spells on my desk by next week. They are a useful tool in duelling, and an important component in a lot of the more advanced defensive magic we'll be studying for your N.E.W.T.s this year."

Some of the class groaned at homework being given on the first lesson of the first day, but it was to be expected at N.E.W.T. level classes.

Lucia was already feeling how this year would be, a lot of time spent in the library just to achieve an Acceptable grade. Lucia had always done well at academics when she put her mind to it, but the last couple of years she'd put hardly any effort into her schoolwork. She supposed she should be grateful her natural intelligence had got her so far.

Tom had written the prompt down on a piece of parchment, and Lucia had to force herself not to roll her eyes. She knew Tom would be an overachiever, but seeing it in the flesh was rather amusing. Despite it being a different century, some things wouldn't change.

"See you at lunch?" Lucia said as Tom and her walked out of the classroom. He nodded in response.

As Lucia made her way to Care of Magical Creatures, she saw Victoire tailing not far behind her, so she paused and waited for her to catch up.

"Are you in Care of Magical Creatures now too?" Lucia asked with a smile, adjusting her grip on her book.

"I am." She responded with a smile, and they continued walking together down the grassy hill towards Hagrid's hut.

author's note

I hope you guys are enjoying the hogwarts chapters so far, we're only just getting started here of course!

feel free to leave any requests for upcoming chapters here, as much as I make my own decisions with the story I also want to include things you guys really want to read.

have a lovely sunday <3