❝ He failed charms that year. ❞
── •✧• ──
Vienna would never admit it, but she will forever remember her brother's proud expression as she got sorted into Gryffindor, the house of lions and bravery. She also wouldn't admit the confusion followed by guilt she felt as she wondered why she got into the house of courage. She had never been courageous, that had always been Cardan. Defying the rules and doing whatever he wanted without fear of consequences. Vienna was the total opposite.
When Cardan had explained the houses during his first year of Hogwarts, when Vienna was eight, she had always suspected she would be Hufflepuff. It seemed so much like her, honesty, kindness. But now? Vienna wasn't sure.
The day of the sorting she had went to bed under a dark red blanket, with dark red pyjamas, staring at the dark red drapes around her bed. She woke up a few hours later, too nervous to sleep in preparation for her first official school day at the place she had been dreaming of her entire life.
She had gotten dressed and packed her books two hours before breakfast would start. With time to spare, she went down to the common room, marvelling at the decorations. It was all so surreal. She would definitely send a letter to her parents today, detailing her sorting, the train ride and everything in between. She couldn't wait to get her words of excitement out on paper since she was yet to talk to someone of her own age.
"You're up early." Said a voice.
Vienna spun around, heart racing in her chest. Why? She wasn't sure. It's not like she was caught doing something she wasn't. She merely wasn't expecting a single soul other than herself to be down here.
"I'm Lorelei."
Lorelei had silky dark hair which fell down in soft waves, dark mahogany eyes which contrasted against her tan skin. She must've been a few years older than Vienna, maybe a fourth or fifth year?
"Hi." Vienna said quietly, entranced by the girls beauty. "Sorry.... I didn't know anyone else was up yet... I can go if you want–"
"Nonsense!" Lorelei exclaimed. She gestured to the spot on the sofa next to her. "Come, sit!"
Vienna reluctantly moved to the sofa, sitting down on the soft cushion. Her eyes travelled to the dying embers of the fire before moving to Lorelei who observed her with a smile.
"How are you finding Hogwarts?" She asked, bringing her knees up to her chest and placing her chin on them. It made Vienna feel like she was an animal at the zoo, being stared at by people who didn't actually care about anything other than their own entertainment.
"It's good. It's nice." Vienna answered, pursing her lips. She shifted awkwardly on the cushion, playing with a loose threat in the end of her sleeve.
Lorelei chuckled. "Just good? Just nice? Come on, tell me what you really think. Also, I didn't catch your name."
I didn't throw it. Vienna thought sarcastically. "Vienna." She answered. "My brother's Cardan, if you know him."
"Cardan Bennet?" She asked and Vienna nodded.
"Him and the Weasley twins have a solid reputation around here."
"So I've heard." Vienna replied, a smile tugging at her lips. She was about to ask Lorelei about the infamous ghost tale of the first years, when someone else descended into the common room, yawning.
It was Hermione Granger, a girl in her year. She wasn't completely sure if they were in the same dorm since Vienna didn't bother asking around for names yesterday, being too emotionally exhausted after an exhilarating day. "Oh, hello." She said, noticing Vienna and Lorelei on the sofas. She walked up to them, a bruhh smile on her face. "You're Vienna, right? In my year?"
Vienna nodded, jumping slightly when she felt Lorelei's foot nudge her.
"Do you want to get breakfast together? I think I could use a friend."
"Of course!" Beamed Hermione, grabbing Vienna's arm and linking it with hers.
Together, they made their way down to breakfast, where a few dozen students had already descended from their common rooms, sitting around the tables and pouring milk into their cereal or eating toast.
"So," started Hermione, pouring a cup of pumpkin juice for herself and Vienna, who smiled in appreciation. "Have you heard about the ghost stories?"
"Yeah." Said Vienna. "I'm half convinced my brother is the one who keeps fuelling them. I don't think any first year has disappeared in like– the last three years."
"Wrong." Said a Gryffindor close to them. "One last year. Clara Cooper."
Vienna sighed, keeping her eyes down. "I guess you have your answer, Hermione."
"Doesn't it bother you?" The girl questioned, lost in thought. "Hogwarts is supposed to be a safe place, but dozens of first years have disappeared over the last ten years. If I were Dumbledore, I would definitely do something about it."
Vienna smiled into her cup. "I don't doubt that. But yeah, it's totally ridiculous. My brother always told me he was close to being snatched, but his amazing charms abilities created a distaste for him by his attacker."
Hermione snorted. "So what, he's like a charms prodigy?"
"He failed charms that year." Vienna told her bluntly, causing the messy haired girl to snicker.
"Who failed charms?" Asked a voice and Vienna had no time to react before the hairband in her carefully crafted ponytail was pulled out.
"Hey!" She exclaimed, swatting her hands at the person behind her. "Cardan!"
"Whoops." He grinned, "Sorry, Vee, my hand slipped."
Vienna groaned and rolled her eyes, muttering about her dickhead brother as she returned to eating breakfast. Cardan sat down to eat with the Weasley twins out of range of Vienna's arm length in case she were to retaliate. She had to admit, she was thinking about it, but she didn't want to rope Hermione into her brothers wrath.
Speaking of the girl, she turned to her. "Hey, Hermione, I'm gonna go up to the dorm to fix my hair and grab my bag, I'll see you at first lesson?"
"See you, Vienna." Hermione chirped back enthusiastically.
Vienna made her way back up to the Gryffindor common room and spoke the password to the fat lady, before running up to her dorm.
She sighed, looking in the mirror. Cardan was a bloody twat and she would have to find a way to get him back.
── •✧• ──
As it turned out, Vienna didn't have Hermione in her first lesson. Her friend was in potions whilst she was stuck in charms with Flitwick. Don't get her wrong, she doesn't mind the subject, but sitting in the corner on your own isn't exactly what she had planned for the day. When her and Hermione became friends over breakfast, she thought she wouldn't have to face this alone, but as it seems the universe always has different ideas for her.
"Students, today we will be doing an overview of what you'll be learning for the next term. Open your books to page three please!"
Everyone groaned, including Vienna. What was she expecting? Already doing magic on their first day? Oh, how stupid she was. The lesson dragged on and on, Professor Flitwick explaining the course for the year and what they would learn. As expected, it was boring charms like the unlocking charm, and levitating objects. She sighed, wondering why ten year old her had believed Cardan when he said she would be learning the fire-making charm.
Next on her timetable was Potions. For an entire hour, she suffered through Snape droning on about different safety precautions, although she highly doubted he cared about them. From his looks alone, he looked like he would enjoy blowing some silly first years up. And with his attitude, she knew that her opinion of him was locked in.
Within the first fifteen minutes of class, he had already made fun of a Hufflepuff girl sitting near Vienna for answering a question wrong. Her fists clenched as she stared at the man, wondering what were to happen if she were to just swing...... she would definitely face expulsion. And during her first week? Her parents would absolutely kill her.
After class, Vienna pushed through the crowd of students and followed after the girl, until she finally caught up with her.
"Hey! I'm sorry about the things Snape said. That was way out of line."
"It's fine." Sniffled the girl, leaning against the wall and sliding down if. Vienna followed her actions, sliding down next to her. The two sat in silence before the girl turned to face her.
"I'm Allie."
"Vienna."
The two shook hands as a greeting, smiles brightening both their faces. They stared at each other for a second before they broke out into laughter.
"Was it just me, or does Snape look like he torments children in his dungeon?" Vienna giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. Her comment caused Allie to laugh even more.
The hallways cleared out for the next lesson, and Vienna knew she had to move before she got a detention for tardiness during the first week of school.
"I have a flying lesson now, you?"
Allie checked her timetable before frowning. "Uh, definitely not flying. I have charms. I'll see you around?"
Vienna nodded, "Yep!" before speeding off to her next lesson.
Before she managed to arrive to Madame Hooch's lesson, her body was snatched. A hand was placed over her mouth to muffle any sounds she were to make, and two other pairs of hands grabbed her arms.
"Surprise!" Yelled three voices. The hand let go of her face.
"Cardan, Fred, George?! What the fuck?!"
"Ah ah." Said Cardan pointing a finger at his little sister. "Language, Vee."
Vienna rolled her eyes. "I need to get to lesson. I'll be late–"
"Madame Hooch never takes attendance anyway." Fred piped up.
"She's cool like that." Added George.
"Right." Vienna muttered, narrowing her eyes at her brother, noticing his troublemaker expression. She sucked in a sharp breath. "What?"
"What what?" Cardan asked, feigning an innocent expression.
"You three are planning something. So spit it out."
Cardan twirled his way into between Fred and George, placing his arms over the Weasley twins shoulders. The three shared a mischievous look. "Little sister.... We are officially giving you the triple threat welcome."
"Excuse me?"
"You're excused." Retorted Cardan. "Anyway, basically, we're giving you the best first day of school ever. One for the books. Right, Gred and Feorge?"
"Couldn't have said it better myself." The twins said in unison.
"So what?" Vienna asked. "You're just going to kidnap me from going to my lesson?"
"That–" Cardan clicked his tongue. "Is exactly what we're doing, dear Vee."
── •✧• ──
"Cardan, I'm going to kill you!" Vienna screamed at her brother, rubbing her sleeve over her eyes to see clearly. "You two, as well, you weasels."
She could hear laughter echoing from somewhere, but due to the sheer amount of soap water in her ears, everything was muffled.
A hand was placed on her shoulder and she spun around. It was Cardan, his face red from laughing. She should've known that he would do something like this to her. All that nonsense about 'a great welcome' was all shit talk. She hated herself for believing it. Cardan must've noticed the look on her face. His laughter died down, his face showing genuine concern.
"Hey, Vee, you know it was a joke–"
"Save it for later." Vienna seethed, shrugging his hand off her shoulder and shoving past him. Because of him she would have to go back up to the common room, wash off the soap, get changed and dry her hair. Which would basically mean she'd miss lunch.
As predicted, when she'd finished drying her hair, lunch was over. Her stomach was rumbling, but she would have to do without. She had endured worse things. Like the food shortage at the Bennet house of summer '97 when Cardan and his friends had ate everything. Everything. Down to the very last snack.
Vienna ventured down to the library during her free period with the aims to educate herself on some of the subjects she would cover this year. On the way there, she bumped into someone. More like totally crashed.
Her body flew backwards, her backpack splitting open, books falling all over the place. The woman she had bumped into had long blonde hair, and a determined look in her eye.
"Oh my!" Vienna exclaimed. "I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going–"
"It's fine." The woman replied. "Be more careful next time." And with that, she left.
Vienna sighed as she packed her books into her bag. She continued her journey to the library, wondering why nothing was going to her plan today. It's like the universe was conspiring against her, trying to ruin her spirits. With a scoff, she decided it wouldn't. Nothing would ruin her mood this week. Nothing. Nada.
"Vienna!" She heard someone whisper-yell. She turned around, noticing Lorelei sat at a table in one of the corners of the library. Lorelei was motioning for her to come closer, and she did. "Vienna! How's your first day going?"
Not the best. Absolutely shit. Shockingly. Boring. Those were all answers Vienna could give, but the universe would want her to answer like that. No more ruining spirits. "It's going good." She said. "Although the lessons could be more lively."
Lorelei groaned lightly, before breaking into a small laugh. "Tell me about it. I think I fell asleep in Snape's lecture today."
"And he didn't give you detention?"
"I don't think he enjoys my company anymore." Lorelei frowned, before leaning forward and studying the book Vienna had in her hands. "Ooh, The Iliad? I remember reading this book in muggle school."
"It's good, isn't it?" Vienna said. "It used to be a thing between me and my brother, before he turned into Mr. Rebel and decided he was too grown up for me."
Lorelei's expression fell, and morphed into one of pity. She didn't say anything, but placed her hand on Vienna's arm as comfort.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"It's fine." Vienna shook her head, a thought striking her head. "Why do you want to hang out with me? Isn't it like total social suicide to hang out with a first year?"
Lorelei rolled her eyes, rocking back in her chair. "That's stupid. I say I can be friends with whoever I want."
"We're friends?" Vienna asked lightly, careful not to strike a wrong nerve.
"Of course, silly! Otherwise I wouldn't have dragged you to sit here. Now tell me about your book."
As Vienna told Lorelei about the Iliad and the whole story condensed into as little detail as possible to not bore her, her stomach wouldn't stop rumbling. Lorelei took notice of this.
"Get up." She said. "And pack your things up."
"What?" Vienna asked, dumbfounded.
"We're going to the kitchens."
"The kitchens?"
"Where else would the food get made?"
Vienna still didn't move. "It's fine, I can wait till dinner and–"
Lorelei didn't give her much decision, since the girl dragged her down to the dungeons, where she walked up to a fruit bowl painting. She tickled the pair, and a door swung open. Vienna gaped at the place as she walked in. House elves everywhere, wearing dirty rags and carrying plates of food.
"Dolly?" Lorelei questioned loudly, grinning wildly at Vienna as a small elf appeared.
"It's so nice to see you Ms Mahomes!" The elf exclaimed. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Me and Vienna will have a waffle with chocolate syrup. Thanks, Dolly!" The elf disappeared with the request.
Vienna moved to place her heavy bag on the table in the corner of the room, and sat down, watching the elves work in fascination. Lorelei sat down next to her, a smile on her face.
"It's great, isn't it?"
Vienna nodded instead of saying anything, unsure about the words she should choose to describe this place. So far, in her first day at Hogwarts, she has learned that things are so much better then how Cardan had described them. Her brother didn't contain any bone of creativity in his body.
Her and Lorelei fell into conversation, and it didn't take long until two thick waffles drizzled in chocolate syrup appeared on plates in front of them. Vienna's jaw fell open, and a laugh escaped her throat.
"It's..... magical."
"Welcome to Hogwarts." Grinned Lorelei, stuffing a piece of waffle into her mouth.
"Welcome to Hogwarts, Vee." Vienna repeated to herself in a whisper, her face muscles hurting from the smile she was wearing.
── •✧• ──