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Chapter Text

On a cold, rainy night in the now quiet city of London, an eleven-year-old girl tossed and turned in her sleep, trying to find her way out of a nightmare. Vittoria Caelum was desperately seeking a way out of her own mind, forehead furrowed, and eyes closed tightly as her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. Her long, dark brown hair was spread across her thin pillow like golden alyssum in a field, while her small body, covered by a thin blanket, twitched in a clear sign of distress.

Suddenly, a bang snapped Vittoria out of her nightmare; the tossing and turning stopped instantly, and the frown on her forehead disappeared as her dark brown eyes snapped open; she woke up at last, gasping for air. Rain was pouring down outside, and putting the pieces together, Vittoria realised that the bang had been a thunderclap. Taking a long, shaky breath to calm her pounding heart, Vittoria looked up at the ceiling, at the skylight just above her head, and observed the dark night sky, full of dark clouds, which were occasionally illuminated by a flash of lightning. Unfortunately, these lightnings reminded her still dreamy and drowsy mind of the terrible scar she carried on her left cheek. Vittoria touched it with her hand and shivered as the pads of her fingers brushed against the mark embedded in her skin.

Some days, Vittoria found herself trying not to think about certain details of her existence, just so she could feel as ordinary as the other kids her age. Sometimes she allowed herself to forget the horrible scar on her face, she tried to pretend that she was not related to her aunt, and in those moments she would contemplate the houses near her school that appeared so homely, and she would imagine that she lived there with her parents... Vittoria succeeded in forgetting her reality for a few moments, but when her mind brought her back to the real world, the devastation of having lost everything that had never been hers left her even more shattered than she already was.

Even if Vittoria could manipulate her daydreams and turn the possibility of living happily with her parents in a cosy home into reality, she would still be far from ordinary, how could she be with the scars she bears on her cheek and chest? Who else in the world has scars like hers? Nobody, nobody at all, and Vittoria knew it, she could feel in her bones that she was the only one who carried such marks! Her scars weren't usual, they weren't the result of an intervention or an injury, it looked like someone had drawn them into her skin with a very thin brush made of steel and cast an evil curse to make it paler than her skin already was, making it practically glow silver, which obviously drew everyone's attention to it.

For as long as Vittoria could remember, these scars had been carved into her body, and she had no idea what had caused them. They were the most unusual scars she had ever seen, but she had to admit, if she didn't hate them so much, she might even admit that they had a certain beauty in the horror that had probably caused them — Vittoria was no fool, she knew that something major had happened for them to have been carved into her.

A circle was cut across her lower left ribs; it had a peculiar shape, as if someone had drawn it there with a brush. The beginning of the scar was well-marked, but as it moved towards the middle it began to lose intensity, and at its end it simply disappeared completely, leaving the whole circle incomplete. Her second scar, however, was very detailed, as if it had been drawn with a fine-tipped pen to capture every possible nuance: A lightning, identical to those that slash through the sky in storms, sliced across her left cheek from the beginning of her jaw to her nose and left eye, branching out across her entire cheek and almost touching the corner of her lips, running past her left eye and almost cutting through her eyebrow, almost reaching her forehead.

Vittoria hated her lightning scar more than the circle scar for the simple reason that there was no way to hide it, and it was so terrible to have it displayed for everyone to see, especially at school; kids are cruel, and having a silver lightning scar on your cheek was reason enough to be bullied. But Vittoria hated her scars for another reason, too: They reminded her of a past she had lived but couldn't quite remember. It hurt terribly because her parents were in this past and she couldn't remember anything about them, no matter how hard she tried, she was far too young then to make any memories. Her parents were all she wanted to remember — their faces, their smiles, their voices — but when she forced herself to remember, all she could think of were flashes, like blue eyes and blonde hair, and that could be about anyone!

Vittoria had already lost count of how many blonde and blue-eyed people she had met in her life — come on, she lived in London, there were a lot of people with that description living there, so yes, these flashes could be about anyone. It could be about the eyes of her aunt Adeline Black, which were pale blue like the winter sky, or the hair of her nanny Juliette Darnell, which was golden like the burning sun, or even about Juliette's husband, Scout Darnell, who had both, very blue eyes and very blond hair. The point was, Vittoria couldn't remember anything before her aunt's house, and how she craved, longed to remember Aurelie and Daniel Caelum.

When she was younger, Vittoria wondered what could have caused her scars, but no matter how bright she was, she couldn't think of anything that could cut such shapes into someone's skin. Deep, deep down, she felt that there was something inexplicable about how she'd got those marks on her skin, something so insane that not even her aunt — who seemed to be afraid of nothing and sometimes defied all the laws of common sense — could verbalise out loud, because Vittoria knew that Adeline knew, she could see by the way the woman behaved when she was asked about it that she knew exactly what had happened.

The first and only time Vittoria asked her aunt what had happened to give her that scar on her face, her aunt went on for minutes about how it was all because her lousy parents didn't know what was best for them, that Aurelie and Daniel died in the end because all the shit they'd done in their lives finally blew them up. "All the shit" Adeline was talking about, apparently, was keeping Vittoria hidden from something, something Vittoria had no idea what it was because her aunt never told her. All of this made even less sense to her than the rest of the story, because why were her parents hiding her in the first place? And why did it kill them? Why was that a bad decision and lack of common sense? And most importantly, how did it leave her with a scar?

Vittoria really hated her aunt for keeping her history a secret, but also for many other things, and yes, she knew that hate was a very strong thing to feel towards someone, so she always did her best not to hate or dislike anyone, but Adeline Black was such a horrible woman! Vittoria always tried to see the good in everyone she met, always tried to see their side of the story, their past and what could have happened to make them the way they were, but with Adeline it was different, she tried very hard to see the good in her aunt, but she never succeeded. Vittoria doubted that there was a more horrible and repulsive being in the world than Adeline Black...

Come to think of it, her aunt's friends were very good competition, for they were very horrible people — very mean, scary, and had maniacal laughs and smiles (if you could call that a smile — it felt more like a snarl). There were three of them, two men and a woman, Caden Macnair, Aaron Carrow and Emory Lestrange, and with Adeline they formed what Vittoria began to call the "Horror Quad". They terrified Vittoria! They looked at her with such hatred, greed and interest that Vittoria always avoided them like the plague, although for some reason her aunt never let them stay near her or in the house for more than five minutes.

They always came to pick up Adeline to go off to God knows where all night, and when she was younger, Vittoria would already be at Juliette's house — since she was a baby, Juliette had taken care of her, during the day and some nights too, but when she turned six, Vittoria only went to her house at night (when Adeline was away) because she had started school and would be there all day. When she was seven, however, Adeline no longer felt the need to send Vittoria to the nanny's when she was out at night, so Vittoria was left alone. But now that she had to spend the night in the house, Vittoria was always close by when Adeline's friends arrived, and in those brief moments when their paths crossed for a few minutes, her blood always ran cold. Vittoria felt in her bones that they wanted to do something to her, that they wanted to hurt her, she just didn't understand why. Did she do something to them? She had first met them when she was a little girl, and since that day she couldn't remember doing anything wrong!

But on the other hand, what had Vittoria done to Adeline that made her hate her so much? Perhaps breath.

Adeline and her friends were always whispering to each other when they met, and from the way they always argued about similar things, Vittoria decided that the subject was always the same. They wanted to solve something, and with each passing year they seemed to get more and more anxious and tense about it; ever since Vittoria began to understand what the four of them were up to, they would go on these crazy journeys in search of a solution, the most important ones seemed to happen once a year, while the more amateurish ones happened every month. Vittoria was curious to know what they were trying to solve, but she wasn't crazy enough to ask her aunt what the problem was.

"This one has the answer, I know it!" Carrow had said confidently in 1987, but this problem was not solved as they spent almost another whole year looking for another specialist to solve their problem. "This time it will work! This warlock is one of the best at it!" Macnair said in 1988, but nothing was solved, and they searched for another person for two whole years this time. "If this old hag doesn't know how to reverse it, no one else does!" Lestrange said in 1990 with a maniacal tone in her voice. Apparently, the "old hag" couldn't solve anything, because Vittoria's aunt came back the next day snorting with rage and with a huge purple bruise on her neck.

Vittoria always found the way the four of them talked strange, there were always the words "warlock" and "hag" and "potion" and "hex" in their sentences, and she didn't want to accept it, but Vittoria firmly believed that the four of them were into some branch of black magic.

Today, the 31st of August 1991, the four of them had gone out together again, and they had probably said something about it before they left, but Vittoria was already in her bedroom, not the least bit inclined to see those three again, not when she was still very much shaken when they arrived, to be able to deal with all the bad feelings she felt when she met them. A few minutes earlier, her aunt had thrown her entire dinner away (at Vittoria, to be precise, who only escaped being hit because she got out of the way in time), because Vittoria had wrinkled her nose at the cold tinned soup she would have to eat for dinner. After Vittoria had cleaned up all the mess on the kitchen floor, Adeline had very aggressively dragged her upstairs to her bedroom and thrown her in there, screaming at the top of her lungs that she was "an ungrateful little bitch" and many other horrible things that made Vittoria's eyes burn with angry tears; she hated being yelled at.

Adeline was, Vittoria could see, more and more on edge with this problem of hers, and she knew that with each passing year, the more irritable Adeline was, so much so that just a slight wrinkle of a nose caused an explosive reaction from the woman, and no, it wasn't like she didn't react violently before, it's just that now, the smallest of things already triggered it...

Adeline Black was a bitter woman and the reason for virtually all of Vittoria's suffering and traumas; there was never even an ounce of kindness in those eyes, Vittoria knew that for a fact because Adeline has been an evil woman for as long as she could remember. Her eyes had always been cold and insane, Vittoria remembered avoiding looking into them when she was younger, something she never quite stopped doing. Adeline always reacted explosively when she didn't like something Vittoria did, she was always yelling, cursing and using hurtful words and physical violence against her niece to punish her for anything that had happened, from a badly washed plate to something that didn't go the way she wanted on her own day and that had nothing to do with Vittoria.

Vittoria fell into Adeline's clutches after her parents died, when she was only one year and nine months old, and since that day, the only thing she had contact with was anger, hatred, and bitterness, and as much as Juliette and Scout were good people and cared for her in the years they took care of her, they were paid to do so; their affection for her was nothing more than common sense — good people didn't treat children badly. Vittoria never knew the love that usually all children experience in their homes, she never found refuge in her aunt's house on Baildon Drive, that place was never her home...

Just as she had that feeling about her scars, Vittoria felt in her bones that she didn't belong there, and if her scars and inexplicable things she could do were a hint, she was right to feel that way. Besides, she was always very good at forecasting, she even dreamed of things that would happen days or weeks from now, so she simply trusted that one day she would belong, she didn't know when or where or with whom, but she trusted her feelings... One day she would belong.

Vittoria sucked air deep into her lungs as another lightning sliced through the dark sky, illuminating the raindrops hitting her skylight and the window on the opposite wall from her bed, and pulled her blanket around her shoulders, bringing her knees to her chest. She liked rainy nights, but not when she was alone in the house, and the fact that she'd just woken up from a nightmare only made the feeling of panic grow in her chest and chill the back of her neck. Vittoria knew whether having or not her aunt at the house wouldn't change a thing, the woman would never protect her (God, Adeline would probably kill her if she could), but Vittoria hated being alone, so even the presence of her aunt, from whom she wanted to keep her distance on a daily basis, was welcome at that moment. But the thing was, her aunt wasn't there and wouldn't be back until at least the next morning, so it was a given that Vittoria would have to deal with her fear alone, like always.

Her dream was still playing in her mind repeatedly, and Vittoria couldn't shake the feeling that it had really happened at some point and wasn't just a figment of her imagination; it was so real, so palpable, that it even seemed to be a distant memory... Or was it something that would happen in a few days or weeks with someone she knew? Vittoria started to realize that her dreams weren't normal when she learned that someone only dreamed about things they've lived directly or indirectly, so when she noticed her dreams were practically never about things she's lived, she started to attribute this ability to a "sixth sense"; it was easier to blame it on something scientifically proven than accepting that her aunt might be right about her being schizophrenic.

Vittoria never shared these dreams with anyone, not even her aunt, because the only time she told Adeline about her ability to do things with her hands, the woman grabbed her by the arms, looked her straight in the eyes, and yelled her to shut up and never, ever bring it up again because people would think she was insane and would put her in a mental asylum. Vittoria was only three back then, and Adeline's long black nails had dug into her skin so hard it drew blood and made deep bruises appear, and because her skin was always so easy to bruise, it was purple and aching for days on end before it started to heal. Vittoria was afraid of what Adeline would say or do to her if she told her about her dreams, so in the same way that she hid her unique abilities from her aunt and everyone else, she hid her dreams too, it was better to do that than being diagnosed as mad or schizophrenic and be hospitalized... Did they still do lobotomy on their patients? Or is it already outdated? Vittoria believed there were still secluded places where the practice still took place, and she was sure Adeline would put her specifically in some of those places.

These weird dreams, unlike the things Vittoria has been doing with her hands since ever, only started when she turned five, a few days after her birthday on January 15th. Back then, she dreamed of trivial things, like a very large black dog running around or a very big bird flying in the blue sky, but Vittoria, however, was never able to see any scenes clearly, she never saw more than flashes of moments. That partially changed tonight, as the dream that had made her wake up in a panic state and had started to haunt her a few days ago actually showed her something.

At first it was just darkness, she couldn't see anything, it was pitch black, but as the days went by it began to change, to transform, and in tonight's dream it had already turned into a nursery, with a baby sleeping in a crib, a little girl who must have been one or two years old at the most — Vittoria wouldn't know for sure because she'd never lived with a baby before. But the dream wasn't just about a sleeping baby: Two adults entered the bedroom, probably the baby's parents, and they were distraught! Vittoria couldn't see their faces because, like the scenes in her previous dreams, it was blurred, but she could see their movements; the man had run to the crib while the woman quickly closed the door, and he took the baby in his arms, turning to his wife, who had come towards him. They shared a moment of silence before the woman took the little girl in her shaking arms and held her tightly to her chest, kissing the top of her head as the man wrapped his arms around them in a tight embrace; the baby was blinking herself awake.

There was a crash from somewhere in the house and the woman sobbed as she rested her forehead on her baby's head for just a moment longer, her lips moving briefly and murmuring the words "I love you so much, my little one, forgive me for not being able to take care of you", which echoed through Vittoria's mind like screams in an empty room, making her heart ache strongly with sorrow. The woman then moved, and Vittoria realized that she was placing her daughter in her husband's arms, who was already watching his wife as he held their little girl protectively against his chest, one hand cupping her tiny head while the other covered her back. Both looked at each other for a long moment, tears running down their faces and dripping from their chins towards the floor; they said something, but Vittoria couldn't hear what as a humming noise took place just then, and when it finally went away, the woman and the man were kissing for what felt like the last time.

When Vittoria realised, the kiss was over and the woman was already walking away from her family, seeming full of a purpose that wasn't there before, the sound of her firm footsteps disappearing outside the door. Vittoria wanted to go after her, hold her there, protect that family from whatever was going to happen, but she couldn't, it was just a dream, she didn't even exist in that reality. So, turning her attention to the other two people in the room, Vittoria saw that the man had turned to the crib, tears still streaming down his face as he pressed his daughter to his chest, lowering his lips to his baby's head. He started whispering in a broken, pain-filled voice that echoed in Vittoria's mind just as the woman's voice did, and that made her heart break.

"In vita ti amo profondamente, nella morte ti amerò ancora... Nel mio cuore occupi un posto che nessuno potrà mai riempire." ("In life I love you dearly, in death I will love you still... In my heart you hold a place no one will ever fill.") Vittoria couldn't understand a word he was saying, since it sounded like Italian, but it looked like he was feeling the worst pain in the world as he said those words, his breathing was heavy, his eyes squeezed shut. "Mi si spezza il cuore a lasciarvi qui, ma non sarete soli, perché una parte di me resterà con voi da oggi in poi, il giorno in cui Apolline mi riporterà a casa..." ("It breaks my heart to leave you here, but you will not be alone, for part of me will stay with you from today on, the day Apolline will take me home...") For a moment, a soft, soothing sound sounded around them; Vittoria wasn't sure where this was coming from, but she didn't sink too deeply into it, as it ended as quickly as it appeared. "Papà and mamma will never stop loving you, our sweet Firebirdie, never..." There was a loud bang somewhere in the house, something that sounded awful lot like a gunshot, and the man holding the baby sobbed painfully. "We will see each other again, baby girl, if not in this life, then in another." The man whispered, his voice waving between hope and grief, as he bent down to put his daughter in the crib again.

The little girl, however, seemed to have clung to something on the man, which turned out to be a necklace; it was a gold necklace with a small, irregular oval pendant with an engraving on it. It looked a lot like an old locket. "Papà..." The little girl murmured, eyes suddenly filling with tears as if she could feel that something very horrible had happened to her mother and was going to happen to her father soon. "Papà!" She cried louder but still in a small, delicate voice, almost choked from crying.

Vittoria saw the man break down at once, his body slumping forward and curling in on itself as he brought his daughter to his chest again. "Va tutto bene, amore mio..." ("It's okay, my love...") The man whispered in Italian again, taking off his necklace with one of his hands while his other arm held his baby; he placed it around his daughter's neck with a broken sob. "As long as you have it, you'll never be alone. Papà and mamma will always be with you, and if you ever think I'm gone, hold it tight against your heart, my baby girl, and you'll have me with you..." The little girl seemed to understand his words, because even though she now had a quivering pout and her eyes were full of tears, she wasn't whimpering anymore. The man took a deep breath and looked at his daughter with a tearful smile, as if he wanted to memorize every part of her small face, stroking her hair gently before giving her a kiss on the forehead and putting her in her crib for good. "Ti amo per sempre, mia preziosa bambina." ("I love you forever, my precious little girl.")

Suddenly, when he had just placed his daughter completely in her crib, a loud bang sounded just outside the bedroom; the door burst open, slamming into the wall, scaring the little girl, who looked at her father with wide eyes, tears streaming down her face more violently, even though no sound came out of her lips. The last thing Vittoria saw from the dream before the thunder rumbled and she woke up, was the man giving his baby one last smile before turning around; he was now holding himself high, his shoulders rigid, as if all the anger and hate in the world had fallen over his back.

Behind him, the little girl was still crying, still clinging to her father's necklace, but no longer silent, she whispered something... She spoke to her father one last time. "Ti amo, papà."

Vittoria wiped her eyes on her blanket and taking in steady breaths, tried to calm her heartbeat. It was really hard for her to calm down in moments like these, perhaps because she never had anyone to teach her how to calm down, to assure her that everything would be okay... Vittoria missed what she never had, a cuddle, a snuggle, just like that little girl in her dream received, even though it seemed like her parents and maybe even her herself hadn't gotten out of that mess... Vittoria just wanted to feel loved, to receive words of comfort, a kiss, a hug, an understanding look, but she doesn't even remember when was the last time she was hugged...

Sometimes, Vittoria didn't like to dream. It was rare when a nightmare took over her mind, but when they did, they were always so horrible, they made her feel so sad and sick that not even the fact that they were rare events soothed her heart. She's had few bad dreams to date, three not counting today's dream, and all of them were about the same thing: A very bright green light being followed by a very loud scream of pain, an eerily birdlike whistle and then the sound of something collapsing. Vittoria saw nothing but green light, but even so, the feeling of loneliness and pain that came when she woke up was enough for it to be classified as a nightmare; she always felt the feeling of abandonment — of being alone in the world — much stronger after a nightmare, it made her choke on the air keeping her alive!

Swallowing the lump in her throat and ignoring how wobbly her legs were, Vittoria rose from her bed, letting her blanket drop back onto the mattress, and walked the distance from it to the trapdoor, deciding to go get a glass of water to calm down. Her bedroom was in the attic of her aunt's exquisite house, it had sloped triangular walls (which were the house roof) and a rectangular floor; the walls and floor were all of varnished slatted wood. It wasn't a very low room, as her aunt was able to stand there without problems, and she was 5'7 tall. Even though it wasn't the most spacious room in the house, it was still big enough to fit a double mattress — and only that, she didn't have the structure of the bed, a medium wardrobe, a writing table, and a grey rug. However, with all her furniture there, there was very little room left for Vittoria to walk around.

Most of her furniture was old and of much lower quality compared to new ones; her mattress was her aunt's old one, her writing table was very old and a bit wobbly, so much so that Vittoria had to put on a folded paper under one of the feet to be able to use it, and it had several writings over it that seemed to have been carved into it with a knife, saying "Toujours Pur", "The Dark Lord will reign supreme over us!", "fiendfyre" and many other things that Vittoria had no idea what they meant but that sent a shiver up her spine; the whole table was carved with words, it was difficult to find an empty spot on the wooden surface.

Her wardrobe, too, was second-hand. It was missing one of the doors and some drawer handles, and like her writing table, it had words carved into the wood, but this one was only on one of the doors, just a sentence; this one didn't send shivers down Vittoria's spine: "You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own and you know what you know. You are the only one who'll decide where to go." It was a nice, motivational phrase, and one that Vittoria found herself reading and re-reading several times growing up, thinking on the time she would finally have the courage to use her feet and take herself away from Baildon Drive.

Vittoria realized, after she learned how to write, that the handwriting of the person who wrote the phrase was strangely like her own, they had the same round, elegant handwriting, and they made the same little loops in certain letters... Vittoria didn't know if she unconsciously copied that person's handwriting because it was really pretty, or if it was just a coincidence... Or perhaps that type of handwriting was common since her aunt had the same handwriting. Vittoria had already seen Adeline writing and even though the woman was a demon incarnate, her handwriting looked like an angel's if angels wrote notes...

Well, Lucifer was an angel once, wasn't he?

In addition to her second-hand furniture, the skylight in Vittoria's bedroom no longer opened, it was stuck, and the window, that was all glass, was cracked in one of the corners and, in addition to it, Adeline never bought her a curtain, so Vittoria always woke up very early with the sun burning her face. The trapdoor was pretty heavy — it also creaked very loudly when opened. However, one of the positive points about her trapdoor was that it only opened inwards, so when Vittoria didn't want her aunt to go into her bedroom, she would simply push her mattress on top of it and have moments of peace, making up the excuse that the trapdoor was stuck when questioned about why it wasn't opening.

Besides all that, her rug, which she knew was once very much fluffy, was now pretty frayed, and her pillow was old and thin; her blanket was older than her pillow and very worn, and her clothes and shoes were basically all second-hand too. Vittoria only owned two new pair of shoes — oxford shoes, both black, which, like her few new clothes, she only wore to go to school. Her aunt cherished the status she had of being a good aunt, so she couldn't let Vittoria go all shabby to school, where gossiping mothers spoke very badly about the parents that let their children go to school all dishevelled and dirty. Because of it, Adeline had already bought Vittoria new clothes and new school supplies as the new term would start in a couple of days, and Vittoria was very grateful that her aunt cared so much for her status because it felt so good to study with new, unused things... Having new things to use at school was the only good thing Adeline ever provided her.

With all the cons aside and with all the pros being taken into account, Vittoria still quite of liked her bedroom. It was the only place in the whole house that she didn't have to worry about her aunt's attacks coming out of the blue, besides, it was so high up that she could see the whole street from above! Vittoria loved heights, seeing everything from above was something that always gave her a certain peace, as well as stargazing: Vittoria was completely in love with the stars, for her, there was nothing more beautiful and melancholier than them. When her heart was tormented and her mind full, she would spend hours looking at the stars — her favourite was Sirius, it was the brightest one in the sky, and even though it took her some time to find it, now she always looked for it and watched it for hours. Its glow soothed her on lonely nights.

Reaching the trapdoor and doing one of the unique things she had always known how to do, Vittoria raised her index finger and, with just a lazy flick of it in the air, she brought the trapdoor up; the creak of it opening echoed through the empty house even with the sound of the rain outside, and no doubt it would wake her aunt up if she were there. Vittoria knew she shouldn't leave her bedroom after eight, her aunt had proclaimed this curfew years ago, saying that she wanted to enjoy her time alone, but Vittoria felt so claustrophobic after a bad dream that she had to get out of her bedroom, even if it was just to sit on the wooden steps just below her trapdoor. She always felt as if the walls were closing in on her at the same time the air became thinner and thinner, making her feel suffocated; her episodes of claustrophobia had improved over the years, but she still hated small, closed, stuffy places, she hated feeling trapped! When she was younger, it was quite difficult to sleep in her bedroom, she always had to open the window to not feel suffocated, but in the winter and rainy nights she couldn't do it, so she had to learn how to deal with this phobia.

It didn't matter that she was leaving her bedroom anyway, her aunt wasn't there, so it was okay, Adeline wouldn't find out that Vittoria had left her bedroom for five minutes or so.

Hearing the old wooden steps creak as she descended the stairs towards the third-floor hallway, Vittoria held back a shiver from running down her spine. She always felt like she wasn't truly alone in that house, it was like there was someone else there, watching her, and as much as she preferred to think it was all in her head, that living with Adeline for so long made her paranoid, she couldn't deny that she had heard footsteps walking around the house and voices talking when her aunt wasn't around. Vittoria always pushed her mattress over the trapdoor when she heard anything strange going on in the house, hiding was the only defence she had after all.

Adeline Black's house was, as Vittoria could only describe it, dark and macabre; inside and out it showed the coldness and extravagance that lived inside the woman's heart. Its exterior was made of grey stone bricks and grey roof, both of which were already quite dirty with the effect of the weather on them; the few white details that were present on the façade and that should bring a little of light to that construction, were already so dirty with the day-to-day pollution of central London, that it could already be defined as grey. There was a shed in the well-tended backyard, both of which Vittoria had been forbidden to explore since arriving at Baildon Drive; high iron railings circled the yard and one side of the house while a thick stone pillar connected to a stone wall circled the other part of the house. Everyone who passed Adeline Black's house on Baildon Drive stared at the building with a mixture of fear and curiosity, because even though it looked like a house straight out of a horror movie, it was still something very unique and antique — Vittoria was pretty sure her aunt's house was a couple of centuries old!

While the exterior was completely made of stone, on the inside, the house was purely dark wood, except the walls, which had a rather macabre wallpaper covering them; the patterned designs appeared to be black serpents snaking around each other, but Vittoria couldn't say for sure as it was so worn out that the design was already quite faded. As her aunt once boasted, that house had belonged to her parents and previously to her grandparents and so on, and now it belonged to her; she inherited it as she was the last living member of the family, her other two sisters – one of them being Vittoria's mother — were dead.

"Good riddance!" Adeline added with a somewhat psychopathic laugh, looking deep into Vittoria's eyes as if daring her to disagree. "Mother and father never overcame that out of three daughters, only one came out right, they didn't know where they went wrong in raising them until their dying days! Mother and father died disgusted with our family's situation, cursing my sisters to the last living generation they had, meaning cursing you too... Not that you don't deserve it, huh, mudblood? You're nothing but a bug on my family line!"

Vittoria had never quite understood where her aunt got that name from, she had never heard anyone call anyone mudblood, but she knew what it meant, it was literally "dirty blood", as if, in some way, she was inferior to Adeline and the whole Black family... Could it be that her mother's family did not approve of Aurelie's marriage to Daniel? Could it be that they didn't like the Caelums?

Vittoria knew that the house had been modified in some way though, she knew that several paintings had been taken down from the walls and several cupboards around the house had been moved or locked, as she could see the dirt mark on the walls and wooden floor, something that only happens when something is moved after a long time. In addition to the macabre wallpaper and dark wood with carved details, there were many Victorian sconces and chandeliers throughout the house, all with candles instead of bulbs.

Vittoria had already noticed that those candles never seemed to burn out, and they were always lit religiously from three in the afternoon and extinguished as soon as the sun rose, even though Adeline never moved a muscle to light, blow or change the candles... Vittoria, however, never let herself think about it too much; just like when she heard the footsteps and voices around the house, it was better to pretend that nothing was happening, it was better for her. It was safer.

Vittoria also knew there was a library where the basement should be, but like all rooms in that house, she was forbidden to enter there too, in fact, she could only use one of the bathrooms, the one on the third floor, the closest to the stairs that led to her bedroom, the drawing room and the kitchen, the kitchen only because she was obliged to cook for her aunt, and the drawing room because she had to go through it to get to the kitchen. Adeline was always very strict about where Vittoria was allowed to go, it even looked like she was hiding something... Vittoria felt that she indeed was, and not just one but several things.

Pretending not to feel watched, Vittoria walked silently down the dimly lit hall until she reached the long staircase that would take her to the first floor. She descended the steps carefully, glancing briefly at the square and rectangular markings on the walls, wondering what once had hung there... Had it been works of art? Family photographs? Vittoria had always been curious about it, were there pictures of her mother in there somewhere? Pictures of her deceased aunt? She's never seen any pictures of them anywhere, and she figured parents usually have pictures of their kids, right? Well, maybe not her grandparents, as they died feeling bitter with two of their three daughters.

Vittoria reached the drawing room in few seconds and looked around the room, the flames of the candles crackling and casting an eerie glow over everything there. Her eyes passed by the, in the very centre, dark Victorian camelback sofa and the two dark Victorian camelback armchairs, the coffee table with a vase of white roses on top, the fireplace that was never lit, not even in the severest winters, the piano in the corner that her aunt sometimes played, and the large rug full of details that looked like it was handmade, until her eyes finally found the grandfather clock in the far corner; there was no television in the house or anything electronic, at least not in Vittoria's view.

It was nearly ten o'clock, which meant it was well under three hours before the beginning of September, which would bring with it the beginning of the school year. She sighed. Vittoria didn't know how she felt about it. Sure, she would have the chance to learn something new this year, but that may not even happen because she spent so much time in the school library in the past years, reading textbooks that were supposed to be for older students, that she learned things she wasn't supposed to learn until she was in her last year of school, or even in college. But, at the end of the day, that was it, there was nothing else that could happen at that school that would make much difference in Vittoria's life. The teachers were unpleasant and bullied the students who got low grades, saying that they lacked study and needed to be handled with a firm grip to learn discipline, and the students were ignorant and so empty of intelligence that Vittoria wanted to pierce her own eyes so she wouldn't have to deal with them anymore.

The school she attended was terrible when it came to having good people there, but it had a good education system, even if many students were dumber than a door. How can these contrasts even be explained? Vittoria was still trying to understand how the teachers themselves were the big bullies in the playground, and how stupid people like her classmates managed to graduate last term... She supposed it was because it was an expensive private school, so if you paid a little extra, anything was possible.

Vittoria never wanted to make friends with the kids in her class or school, and it wasn't because she was a difficult person to be friends with, it was because no one there was worth the effort of trying to start having something. Most were bullies and those who weren't, faithfully believed in what the bullies said, and because Vittoria was labelled "the weird", "the freak", "alien" and "witch", all because she was quiet, knew things even before the teachers taught them, had such good memory that she remembered something she read five years ago and had that awful scar in her face, no one wanted to be friends with her. Everyone laughed, pointed, yelled and feared her as if she were a clown or a convicted murderer, so, because of it, Vittoria was always in the library, where she would eat her lunch with the librarian, who was a very nice lady, and then would use the rest of her free time to read. She loved it, it was better than interacting with those so-called "human beings" attending her school.

However, deep down, Vittoria missed having friends, even though she'd never had one in the first place to know what it felt like. She didn't know if it was because of the way she grew up and that made her withdrawn and wary, or if it was just a thing of her own, but she was extremely suspicious of everyone. Vittoria was very good at reading people, one look at them and she could tell if they were good or not, and to this day, she has met very few good people, two of them being her former nanny and her husband, the old librarian at her school and a former teacher, who was the person who told Vittoria she had photographic memory, a gift that many would kill to have. However, other than them, no one ever sharpened her outgoing side to the point where she would want to talk to them as if they'd known each other for ages, so she was always alone. Vittoria wanted to make friends, but she'd never met anyone her heart genuinely accepted as a good soul, so she'd rather be alone than get involved with someone who could become another Adeline in her life.

Besides, she doubted anyone would even want to get close to her when she had that ugly scar covering nearly half her face... When she got older and could work, she would definitely buy makeup to cover it up.

Sighing deeply, Vittoria walked towards the kitchen, where another chandelier and several sconces provided light. The kitchen was clearly still living in the last century, as it didn't have a stove or a microwave, one of the reasons Vittoria always had to eat most of her canned food at room temperature or cold. There was a fridge there, but Vittoria didn't know how it even worked since besides being very old, it wasn't connected to any power plug! How did the food not go bad? There was a woodstove there, with an endless supply of firewood (Vittoria thought the shed in the backyard was full of firewood and because she was forbidden to go there, her aunt was the one to restock the wood, that was the only explanation), and iron pots — there were so many! Several had been hanging there for years because Vittoria couldn't even get them off the rack because they were so heavy! Adeline had to buy regular pots for Vittoria to be able to cook anything as she couldn't even support the weight of the iron pots to carry them to the woodstove.

There were many wooden cupboards that Vittoria, in more than half of them, didn't even know what they contained, for she could not reach the ones that were hanging on the wall, and couldn't open the many other locked ones; there was also a strange cabinet right next to the woodstove that even though it didn't have a locket, Vittoria was never able to open... Sometimes she heard sounds coming from inside, thin sounds that she thought were rats. There was a large heavy wooden table in the very centre of the kitchen, where ten people could sit comfortably, and all the plates were of the finest porcelain according to Adeline, and all the cutlery and goblets were made of the purest silver, all bearing the Black family crest. Vittoria thought it so futile, who still marked things with a family crest? Who, besides the royal family, had a coat of arms for their family? And who still used goblets instead of glasses for God's sake?

Vittoria had always thought that the Blacks were a little too extravagant, and the style of the house they used to live in was just proof of that. It was all so very old, and looking like it came out of a period movie or fairy tales! Even her aunt acted weirdly, wearing clothes that didn't make the least sense, long dresses that if she went out on the street, people would think she was part of the royal family from a century ago! Vittoria was always a bit lost about everything that happened in that house, and with each passing day, she was closer to believing that it was haunted, and her aunt was the ghost. Could it be that Adeline's friends were trying to bring her back to life again? Is this what they've been trying to solve for years?

Shaking her head and berating herself for thinking such nonsense — of course her aunt was alive, very much alive by the way — Vittoria opened the cupboard where all the plates, cutlery and goblets were kept and took out a shiny silver goblet. She thought about making some tea, as she knew how to cook since she was very little, but her aunt had so many strange herbs with different shapes and colours and smells that she didn't want to risk poisoning herself by infusing too many leaves when one was enough. Besides, Adeline hated that Vittoria touched her things, she just didn't complain about Vittoria using her food because it was the girl who basically cooked the day's meals.

Adeline had this shelf full of old cookbooks, weird jars with herbs and liquids and bits of stuff that Vittoria was forbidden to touch, but once, out of curiosity, she grabbed one of the jars in her hand, one with a dark-red viscous liquid inside and nearly dropped it on the floor when she read the tag: "Bat blood". Vittoria didn't know if this was just a way her aunt found to keep her away — which she really hoped it was — but it worked anyway because she never touched any of those jars again.

Adeline didn't work, she lived off the fortune she inherited from her parents, but Vittoria didn't know how that money never ran out; her aunt lived such a luxurious life, always wearing nice clothes and the latest shoes (because as much as she wore old-fashioned dresses inside her house, outside she was always in designer clothes), that it was impossible that her money wasn't running low! Besides, Vittoria studied at an expensive school (Adeline always said that since she had to have a niece, at least she should be smart so that she would be of some use in the future), and their house was in a good location in London, close to the city centre where everything was, and living there wasn't cheap! And even though Adeline owned the house they live in, which freed them from rent, she had to pay the bills to maintain a house like that, and, furthermore, Vittoria's aunt only went to the best markets, restaurants and shops, so Adeline's money multiplying the more she spent instead of running out was a piece of a puzzle that Vittoria hadn't quite found the place to fit yet.

Filling her goblet with water, Vittoria hauled herself up and sat on the counter, close to the window, from where she watched the street; the rain was lessening now, and with the lack of thick raindrops falling and making it difficult to see in the distance, she saw an bird perched on the mailbox of the house just across the street, the Darnell's house. It was an Osprey, a beautiful large bird with white and cream feathers, not normally found here in London, which made this bird quite famous in their neighbourhood. Osprey birds usually live near the sea, where they can hunt their food, but there it was, an Osprey that had lived there for almost five years. Vittoria knew there were fish in the river Thames, so that had to be where this bird hunted, because other than that, there wasn't anywhere else around with live fish.

That bird wasn't always around, it only appeared at night to sleep (probably because it used the day to hunt), and Vittoria knew it was the same bird because there weren't any other Ospreys around. The neighbours became so familiar with the bird that they started leaving some fruits available in their mailboxes for it, but Vittoria knew it wouldn't eat it, after all it was a predatory bird, but none of the neighbours would leave fish in front of their houses to please an animal. Besides, Vittoria doubted that this bird would eat a fish that was not hunted by itself.

Vittoria set her now empty goblet by her side and pulled her legs to her chest, resting her chin on her knee; the rain was now just a light drizzle, but the chill it had brought was still there, and it was still possible to hear, far away in the dark sky, loud thunders predicting that the rain would come back soon. Without thinking too much about what she was doing, and as a way of distracting herself from the dream that was still playing in her mind, Vittoria raised her index finger in the air and making light circular motions, she made some flowers appear right in front of her. With a small smile, she saw that she had managed to create a variety of flowers from the thin air, such as red roses, white tulips, sunflowers, bluebells and lilies, all now resting on the counter in front of her feet, filling the kitchen with perfume... The last time she tried it, she had only created sunflowers, not knowing if she could actually create more than that because creating flowers out of nothing was unique enough, but there she was, looking at several colourful flowers that brought a bit of colour to her life.

Vittoria didn't know where all these abilities she had come from, she didn't know if this was something unique about her or if more people possessed it, but she knew she was good at it, and she did it very easily. She could use her hands, or fingers and sometimes just her thoughts to light and extinguish candles, lock doors, briefly bring objects to life, make things appear out of thin air, fix things (she just didn't fix her wardrobe and writing table because her aunt would notice), make books appear in her hand at will, create illusions, make projections of the galaxy right in front of her eyes... All this was a part of what she could do, and Vittoria felt she could do more, she felt that if she tried, anything was possible! Less making food; food always spoiled fast and the only time she ate a blueberry muffin that she popped up out of the air, she threw up and was shocked to see that the muffin had turned into a blue dust inside her stomach! It was the strangest thing that ever happened in her life, puking powder, and it taught her never to try to create food with her ability again.

Suddenly, making Vittoria jump and look back at the window, she heard a loud crack just outside her house, being followed by the lights of all the streetlights going out one by one, and then another loud crack; did the power went off? Could that noise be a short circuit somewhere nearby? Perhaps frightened by that same noise, the Osprey made a noise and flew away, leaving Vittoria following it with her eyes as far as the moonlight could illuminate it, a small smile appearing on her lips even though her heart was still racing for the recent scare; how nice it would be to fly, it must be so peaceful to be up there...

However, Vittoria's smile faded when she saw a shadow crossing the street and a shape approaching her house; feeling her blood run cold in her veins, she closed one of her hands, disappearing with the flowers at once. Her aunt couldn't have come back already, it's too early, normally these meetings with her friends went on all night long! Descending from the counter quickly and putting the goblet in its place, Vittoria ran to the drawing room quickly; God, she's going to be in so much trouble if Adeline sees her out of her bedroom!

Vittoria was almost halfway up the stairs towards the second floor when a very loud knock on the door caught her attention and made her stop; Adeline wouldn't knock on her own door, she had the keys! Turning slowly in her spot, holding firmly to the railing so as not to fall, Vittoria looked at the front door, which led directly into the drawing room, and swallowed thickly; could it be thieves? But thieves don't knock before they break in... So who could it be at this time of night? A neighbour? But whoever it was would have called, it's very late at night, so for someone to go there it's for something important, and when you need something urgent, you don't knock and wait.

Another loud knock on the door and Vittoria felt her legs shake. She wasn't going to open the door, she wasn't even going to get close to the door, whoever it was would get tired and leave! It was ten at night, nobody goes to someone's house at this time, no one came to her aunt's house even at normal hours! Another loud knock followed the second one and under the candlelight coming from the sconces and chandelier, Vittoria saw the door waver, which made her feel her breath catch in her throat and her stomach freeze immediately. That door couldn't take any more hits like those!

"Move!" Vittoria whispered to herself, trying to get her legs to move. "Come on, walk, come on!"

However, when Vittoria finally started to move, another loud knock came and she saw the exact moment the door gave way and fell right in front of her eyes just a few feet away from her; the hinges were still in the frame, swaying. Leaning against the wall reflexively, her eyes wide and with her legs starting to shake even harder, Vittoria saw a gigantic man on the other side; she didn't know if she'd rather see Adeline on the other side of the door or that gigantic unknown man... That man, at least, might not kill her if she begged for her life, right? The man entered the house bending down because he was unable to enter in his full height (he was so tall, if Vittoria were to point out what a giant would look like, that man would be the example), and picked up the door — or what used to be one — off the floor and set it back where it belonged as if what he did was the most normal thing in the world, like sitting down to have tea with an acquaintance.

Vittoria, breathing hard and with panic rising in her chest again for the third time that night, started to move to get away from there without the man seeing her, but she forgot there were steps right in her way. She turned, ready to run, when her foot didn't lift enough to clear the step and she found herself stumbling and falling to her knees on the stairs, letting go of the banister to cushion the blow with her hands. A yelp escaped Vittoria's lips from the shock of nearly rolling halfway down the stairs and she felt her body freeze at once when she realized she had made enough noise to draw the man's attention to her.

Breathing hard, she closed her eyes hard as she carefully got up and turned slowly towards the man; when she finally opened her eyes, she saw that yes, he was indeed looking at her from afar, the candlelight casting an eerie glow over him. The man watched her for a moment longer until he lifted one of his arms and Vittoria felt that this was it, this was the moment he was going to pull out a gun and shoot her... But no, he waved something in the air and intensified the brightness of the candle flames with a whoosh sound, which lit up the entire drawing room for the first time ever; he didn't have a gun in his hand, but a pink umbrella, and Vittoria found herself even more paralyzed. Did that man just intensify the candle flames with a pink umbrella? Could he do the things she did too?

With the light now brighter, Vittoria could see the man clearly now, noticing that he sure did reach eleven feet tall easily; how was that even possible? He was human! ... Or was he, in fact, a giant? But this would be absurd, giants don't exist! The man had very shaggy hair and a wild, tangled beard, which mixed together like a mane; he was wearing a large moleskin coat that Vittoria could have sworn stirred before an owl hoot sounded, as if there was indeed an owl in there. Even from afar, the man continued to look at Vittoria as if he knew all her secrets, his small beetle-black eyes watching her intently, making her feel very exposed and unprotected.

Feeling her heart nearly leap into her mouth, Vittoria felt her hands clammy at the same time as her throat went dry; she was going to die, she was definitely going to die because that man looked like he could kill her with just a snap of his fingers! But, against what she thought, the man just walked over to Adeline's dark Victorian camelback, sat down (a loud cracking noise informed that the furniture was giving way under his weight, it was quite old after all) and pointed a huge finger towards Vittoria, his small black eyes beneath his thick brows crinkling into a smile as he began to speak.

"Don' be afraid Vittoria! I won' d'you any harm, I know yeh even before yeh were born!" He said, his voice sounding so very friendly, the kind of voice only people you can trust with your eyes closed have, and that Vittoria really didn't expect to come from a person that looked so wild and dangerous. Vittoria investigated his fierce, wild face again, and something inside her contradicted itself; how could she feel that this man was trustworthy if he didn't seem the least bit trustworthy? And most important of all, how did he know her? "The las' time I saw yeh, yeh could fit in me hand!" He went on, showing her a gigantic hand, and Vittoria felt that he could definitely still hold her with just one hand if he wanted to. "Yeh know Vittoria, yeh really look like yer mum, but yeh have yer dad's eyes... Yeah, Daniel's eyes."

Vittoria snapped out of her trance at the mention of her parents and closed her mouth, which she didn't even know was open, blinking her eyes a few times before forcing her legs to walk towards the man; has he met her parents in the past? Probably yes, he gave her more information about them in one minute than her aunt did in ten years! Vittoria descended the steps she had climbed previously and walked over to the large man but stopped few feet away from him though; she could give him a chance and talk to him, but if he tried something, she would have space to run away, the door was still loose in the frame after all.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Vittoria asked, crossing her arms in front of her body out of sheer nervousness and not because she was trying to intimidate the man in front of her. One thing she was glad of was the fact that her voice never wavered in situations like this, living with Adeline was a lesson of how to react to dangerous situations on a daily basis, and even though she still had moments she would freeze in fear, Vittoria knew that she acted faster when in dangerous situations than anyone else. "And why did you break into my house?"

"Oh yeah, sorry abou' tha'!" The man said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. "It wasn' me intention, but the door kind o' gave way... Besides, I have a shor' deadline an' it seemed ter me tha' no one was comin' ter open the door..."

"Yeah, well, it's ten o'clock..." Vittoria said, feeling a little guilty now for not opening the door; if she had, now she wouldn't have a broken door to explain to her aunt in the morning... Would Adeline believe her if she told her she didn't know anything about it? "And nobody goes to other people's houses this late... And you can't blame me for not opening the door, I'm alone, it's not safe."

"Alone?" The man asked, looking very shocked. "Wha' d'yeh mean yeh're alone? Where's Adeline?"

"You know my aunt too?" Vittoria asked, her eyes widening. "Is it because of her that you're here? Did she send you here?" She went on, her heart starting to beat very hard again; could it be that her aunt hired a hit man and that's why he knew her family? Because Adeline gave him enough information for Vittoria to trust him and make his job easier?

"Yes an' no." The man said, shaking his head and grimacing as if Vittoria had said something that displeased him. "I know yer aunt from the past, but's not because o' her tha' I'm here, I'm here because o' yeh! I'm Rubeus Hagrid, keeper o' keys an' grounds at Hogwarts, an' I'm here ter collect yeh!" Rubeus said energetically, and Vittoria felt her heart begin to pound in her ears now; his explanation didn't calm her one bit.

"Collect me?" Vittoria gasped while taking a step away from him. "Did my aunt send you here, Rubeus? Was it because I made a face at the cold canned soup earlier today? Is it a punishment?" Rubeus looked at her strangely, frowning. "Because I know she hates it when I complain about things, and I didn't even say anything, I promise you I just made a tiny grimace and—!"

"Wait! Firs' o' all, call me Hagrid, will yeh? An' it wasn' yer aunt who sent me here, it was Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts headmaster." Hagrid said and Vittoria let a shaky breath come out her mouth, but she didn't dare to move from the spot she was now. "An' wha's this abou' eatin' cold canned soup fer dinner? Adeline don' make yeh eat jus' tha' every day, does she?" He asked, seeming angry now.

Vittoria cleared her throat and shook her head slightly; she tended to chatter at times, that was her flaw; when she opened her mouth to talk to someone who actually wanted to listen to her, she was like a looping record, she wouldn't stop talking until someone stopped her. "Hogwarts? What is Hogwarts?" Vittoria asked, changing the subject. Hagrid, instead of angry, now looked shocked.

"Yeh don' know abou' Hogwarts?" He gasped. "Yer aunt clearly told yeh abou' it, didn' she? She wouldn' hide it from yeh!" Hagrid said, looking firmly at her; Vittoria's lips formed a thin line, and she shook her head again. "I know she's a horrible woman an' has done horrible things in the past, but after wha' happened... After her talk with Dumbledore—! She couldn'—! Shouldn' hide anythin' from yeh! She promised Dumbledore tha' she would tell yeh everythin'!"

"She never really said anything to me..." Vittoria said, shaking her head again. "Whenever I asked her about my past, about my parents, about what caused my scars, she would get all mad, so I gave up asking her anything, especially because she hurts me when—" Vittoria cut herself off before saying too much, but that was to no avail as Hagrid's eyes clouded with anger at the little she had said.

"She hit yeh?" Hagrid asked, seeming to be trying to control his anger, looking at Vittoria's body as if searching for something, and then looking her in the eyes again. "Does she even feed yeh enough food, Vittoria?"

"Well..." Vittoria said, feeling suddenly cornered; she didn't like people finding out about her secrets, it made her feel very exposed. "She was never a good aunt..."

"I KNEW IT!" Hagrid thundered, the sofa groaning under his weight; Vittoria knew it would not last long. "I always knew tha' were rare the Blacks tha' were good people! Yeh could count on a hand all the ones tha' ended up bein' good!" Vittoria took a few more steps back when Hagrid leapt to his feet and looked around him, to the fancy drawing room; it could be missing several paintings on the walls, but Adeline always tried to find a way to fill in the empty spaces. "I bet she lives a good life, don' she? This house is an example o' the futility tha' all Blacks used to live in, preoccupied with lineage, with social status! Fer 'em, havin' a big house full o' decorations was worth more 'n family!" Hagrid turned to Vittoria again, who was looking at him with wide eyes. "Yer mother was one o' the few Blacks who ended up bein' good, Vittoria! One o' the very few Blacks who weren' terrible human beings!" Vittoria could only stare at him, not knowing what to say; it was rare when words failed her, but sometimes they did, like now. "Her other sister, yer aunt, was a good woman too, an' she was the reason Adeline los' her magic, a genius spell, I'll tell yeh tha'! She removed a despicable human bein' from the wizardin' world before she died! Unfortunately, yeh ended under tha' woman's care anyway... I said ter Dumbledore, so did Professor McGonagall, tha' leavin' yeh here was a terrible idea, but did he listen ter us? No! O' course, I never judge his choices, Dumbledore knows wha' he's doin', but—!"

Vittoria's attention completely left what Hagrid was still saying when her mind computed the words "magic", "spell" and "wizarding world". She went on to stare at Hagrid in a complete state of shock now because he couldn't have said that, she could only have heard it wrong! She had always believed that Adeline and her friends had a hand in black magic, but not that her aunt was in fact a witch! It was more about spirit, about doing evil and believing in evil, not that there was actually magic in the world! Vittoria always felt bad when the girls at her school called her a witch because, in her mind, witches were nothing more than bad people who did evil, not real witches, who did magic and spells!

"Hagrid, what are you talking about?" Vittoria asked cautiously, and the man who was still going on about how this Dumbledore man knew everything about everything but had, really, made a mistake in leaving her, Vittoria, in Adeline's care, even though he backtracked all the time as if he didn't mean to say that Dumbledore made a mistake, looked at her, and his eyes lost all the anger in them. Now there was a lot of pain and sadness in them. Vittoria felt strangely alarmed and shaken by this.

"Vittoria..." Hagrid said more calmly, lowering himself to Vittoria's level, even though he still had to lower his head and she had to raise hers so they could look each other in the eyes. "Vittoria, yeh didn' deserve ter go through any o' this... Yeh were a little girl so full o' light when I las' saw yeh, brigh' eyes, round an' flushed cheeks... From all o' tha', I can on'y see the glow in your eyes, but tha's sometimes hidden by summat dark, fearful..." Vittoria bit her cheeks and shrugged, looking down at her bare feet; she felt an overwhelming urge to cry with all the affection and compassion that oozed through Hagrid's words, it had been so long since anyone had truly cared for her. "Yeh deserve ter live a good life!"

"I don't even know what it's like to live a good life, I've never known any other reality than this one..." Vittoria said quietly, turning her gaze to Hagrid again, her eyes slightly red from the tears she was holding back. "In fact, I don't even know what it's like to live a decent life."

Hagrid burst into tears at it; tears were rolling down his eyes and seeping into his beard, but before Vittoria could say anything, tell him he didn't need to cry, that it was all right, that she was alive and okay, he pulled her into a hug that completely engulfed her. It was a truly surreal feeling to be held by someone as big as Hagrid, his arms could hide one from the world and from inside there, Vittoria felt safe for the first time in years, even though she had just met the man. Hagrid was a barrier and she felt he could keep her safe from whatever harm that wanted to get her, keep her safe from Adeline and her psychopathic friends... Hagrid was, how could Vittoria put it into words?, warm and safe, he smelled of forest, smoke, dog, earth and something that looked like beer but not really, and for some mysterious reason, all these smells went together uniquely — they were Hagrid.

Hagrid was hugging Vittoria affectionately, tightly, as if he cared for her deeply, and even though Vittoria could barely breathe from her spot pressed against his chest, she felt really special to have this hug as her first in... In forever. Hagrid seemed like a very special person, and Vittoria found herself already trusting him, something she hadn't done for a long time, and which, incredible as it may seem, did not alarm her... From her tight spot inside Hagrid's arms, Vittoria reached out and gently patted his back, resting her face on his chest.

"I'm so sorry yeh lived this life, Vittoria!" Hagrid said, his voice cracking. "But I promise yeh will never go through summat like this again, I won' let tha' happen!" He was sobbing now, as if a weight he had been carrying for years had finally been lifted off his shoulders.

"It's okay, Hagrid, I'm fine..." Vittoria said, trying to reassure him, her voice coming out muffled and quite low, so much so that she wondered if Hagrid had actually heard her. "There were a few bumps along the way, but I learned how to overcome them... I'm fine, really!"

"I always knew yeh were strong, tha' yeh would know how ter handle yerself well..." Hagrid said, releasing her and allowing Vittoria to breathe again. "But tha' didn' mean yeh needed ter." He pulled a rather dirty handkerchief from a pocket of his coat and wiped his tear-streaked face. "Yeh're the bes' o' us, yeh came from one o' the bes'... Yeh didn' deserve ter have lived like this!"

"I don't think I'm one of the best, Hagrid." Vittoria said, smiling small at the man, trying to lighten his mood. She didn't like to see people cry, even if no one minded when she did.

"Not one o' the bes', huh? Are yeh sure abou' this?" Hagrid asked, and Vittoria only realized that he was smiling as he got up and walked over to the sofa because his eyes crinkled at the corners. "Yer parents were one o' the bes', so how could yeh not be?"

"My parents were the best at what?" Vittoria asked, frowning slightly as she approached Hagrid, who had sat down on the sofa, which made another broken creak.

"Yer aunt never really said anythin' abou' anythin', did she?" Hagrid asked and Vittoria nodded.

"I don't know anything about my parents." Vittoria said, a feeling of anxiety mixed with excitement at being about to discover more about herself. "My aunt never told me anything about them, but I know she hates them. Said they were horrible people, that the world is better off without them... She also said that they only died because they hide me from something, but she didn't tell me what, and that I was the reason I had this scar." She added, pointing to the scar on her cheek. Hagrid's face turned very red, and Vittoria could swear she saw smoke coming out of his ears. "But I never believed her!" She added quickly, trying to stop Hagrid from exploding again like before.

"Of course yeh didn' believe her, yeh're not stupid!" Hagrid said, his voice rising in volume but nowhere near what it had been before. "The on'y horrible person here is her! Daniel an' Aurelie horrible people? Never! They were one o' the most amazin' people I've ever met!" He growled. "Adeline is terrible, Vittoria, she has prevented us from contactin' yeh! Yeh were supposed ter have received yer letter months ago! She did summat tha' blocked the owls from reachin' yeh, tha' stopped 'em from trackin' yeh, an' I should have realized tha' sooner, I should have realized tha' if she stopped the owls from findin' yeh, it was because she didn' wan' yeh ter find out abou' our world!"

"Letters?" Vittoria asked, her mind working really fast to keep up with all the information Hagrid was dumping on her.

Hagrid, however, looked at her as if imploring her to start laughing and yell "gotcha" at his face and tell him that she knew about everything. Vittoria, however, continued to stare at him looking completely lost. "Yer aunt really didn' tell yeh anythin'?" Hagrid said, still seeming to wait for a reaction, but Vittoria pursed her lips.

"About what exactly?" She asked. "If it's about me being ungrateful for not appreciating all the efforts she put into raising me, which is none, yes, every day. But if it's about my past, no."

Hagrid stared at her as if he was controlling himself very hard not to lose his temper again. "Abou' magic, Vittoria." Hagrid said calmly and Vittoria made a face and shook her head again; now there was no way she could pretend she'd heard wrong, he did say the word magic now. "Abou' magic, the wizardin' world, 'bout yer family bein' famous ter this day even though they are all dead! Abou' yeh bein' famous in our world fer Merlin's beard! It scares me tha' yeh o' all people don' know anythin' 'bout all this!" Hagrid said, looking horrified at Vittoria, who was looking at him with very round eyes. "Yeh're a bloody Caelum! How can yeh go ter the wizardin' world without knowin' anythin'? They'll eat yeh alive!"

"Famous? Why would I be famous?" Vittoria asked in a thin voice. "And what's so important about me being a Caelum? It's just a last name, isn't it? And magic?" She added. "Not being rude, but magic doesn't exist, Hagrid! This only exists in fairy tales!"

"Okay, firs' things firs'!" Hagrid said, holding up his hands as if asking Vittoria for patience. She just nodded, her head starting to ache with all she was learning about herself. "Yes, yeh an' the Caelums are famous in our world, but tha's a subject fer later, because it's too complex ter explain ter yeh quickly." Hagrid said and Vittoria nodded once. "So, let's move on ter the second thin', magic! Yes, it exists. Wha' d'yeh think the inexplicable things yeh do are exactly?" Hagrid pointed and Vittoria's mouth dropped open in shock, her voice dying for a moment in her throat.

"How... How do you know about the things I can do?" Vittoria asked. "I never told anyone about it!"

"I know yeh since yeh were in yeh mum's belly, Vittoria! Yeh've bin doin' magic since yeh were a baby!" Hagrid said and Vittoria gaped at him. "Blimey, yeh're jus' five-month-old an' yeh already could ligh' an' blow ou' all the candles with a simple wave o' yer hand! No baby can do magic like yeh could, it on'y happens around the age o' six an' up! But yer magic was too strong even back then, I mean, with a father like yers, how could yer magic be anythin' but strong? Yeh're a Caelum, how could a Caelum be anythin' but powerful?"

Vittoria was still gaping at Hagrid; her heart was pounding so hard in her ribs she could have sworn Hagrid could hear it. She really didn't understand anything that was going on, for her, being a Caelum meant nothing other than having an odd last name! "I... Er..." Vittoria cleared her throat. "Could you tell me about Hogwarts then, Hagrid? What is it?" Hagrid nodded, almost as if he understood that this was too much information to take in and she needed a way out.

"Well, yeh really don' know anythin' 'bout our world, righ'?" Hagrid asked and Vittoria shrugged, sitting down at the coffee table in front of him.

"Well, only what I studied in school, that it's very polluted and that global warming will indeed kill us—!"

"No! No! Merlin! These muggles are mental!" Hagrid exclaimed, shaking his head. "Abou' the wizardin' world!"

"Muggles?" Vittoria asked, frowning. "And no, I really don't know anything about the wizarding world, Hagrid." Hagrid rubbed his face.

"I'm glad Harry is goin' ter know everythin'... I don' know if I could explain it all twice." Vittoria frowned; who's Harry? Hagrid seemed to add something new to her with every five words he spoke! "Ter begin with! Yeh're a witch, Vittoria."

Vittoria gaped at Hagrid, and with every passing second, every time the girls in her class called her a witch came back to her mind, making her feel a bad taste in her mouth. "A witch?" She said weakly. "I really am a witch? And it's a good thing?"

"Of course it's a good thing! Why wouldn' it be?" Hagrid asked with a husky laugh.

"Because the girls in my class call me witch because of my scar..." Vittoria explained quietly. "And that was never meant to be a good thing... They said if they got too close to me, I would kill them."

"This is nonsense!" Hagrid said at once, looking like he was getting angry again. "Muggles are idiots, Vittoria, an' I guarantee to yeh these girls are the dumbest o' their age! Bein' a witch is not a bad thin', 's amazin'! Yeh're goin' ter love learnin' how ter be a witch at Hogwarts!" He added with a smile, and Vittoria felt like smiling too; so being a witch was a good thing, it wasn't something terrible like the fairy tale books made them look. "An' a very powerful one, mind yeh, doin' magic at jus' a few months old!"

"And what is this letter you talked about? And Hogwarts?" Vittoria immediately asked, wanting to know everything she could before Hagrid changed the subject.

"Hogwarts is a school fer witches and wizards aged eleven ter eighteen." Hagrid explained. "There yeh'll learn everythin' 'bout the wizardin' world, how ter do spells, brew potions an' take care o' magical creatures! 'S the bes' school in the world, yeh'll love it!" Hagrid finished excitedly, which made Vittoria feel excited too. "An' 'bout the letters... All witches an' wizards get a letter informin' 'em o' the start o' the school year, as well as the things yeh need ter buy ter go ter school. Yeh should have gotten one, but yer aunt somehow threw yeh off the owls' track, an' they couldn' deliver it ter yeh, so they always came back ter Hogwarts with yer letter still tucked in their beaks."

"Wow..." Vittoria breathed. "It's the owls that deliver the letters in the wizarding world?" Hagrid nodded.

"Not jus' letters but packages an' anythin' else we need ter send."

"So cool!" Vittoria breathed with wide eyes and Hagrid grinned at her, clapping his hands on his coat and then pulling two letters out of one of his pockets; he read something in them and tucked one back into his coat.

"Well, it's time ter read yer letter then!"

"Hagrid, wait!" Vittoria exclaimed. "Do you know why my aunt never told me all this?" She asked as she took the letter from Hagrid's hand.

Hagrid sighed heavily, nodding; he leaned against the sofa that made a last uproar and broke for good; its wooden feet flew across the drawing room. Adeline will be furious when she sees everything that's been broken. "I have an idea..." Hagrid sighed, nodding. "Where's Adeline by the way?"

"Out." Vittoria said. "With some friends."

"Wha' friends?" Hagrid asked, frowning.

"I don't know them very well, my aunt keeps us apart for some reason, but I'm very grateful for that, mind you." Vittoria said. "I feel strangely in danger around them... Anyway, my aunt doesn't call them by their first names, just their last names, but I heard their names once: Caden Macnair, Aaron Carrow and Emory Lestrange."

"Dumbledore told her ter cut ties with 'em while yeh were here!" Hagrid growled, closing his hands into fists. "I can' believe she kept havin' contact with 'em!"

"They're trying to solve something!" Vittoria said promptly, excited to know something Hagrid didn't. "They've been trying to fix something or reverse something for years now! But I don't know what, and I don't feel like asking."

"An' yeh're righ' not ter bring this up with Adeline!" Hagrid said at once, nodding. "Because tha's why she isn' livin' in the wizardin' world today like these other three are!"

"Really?" Vittoria asked, eyes wide.

"Remember I told yeh 'bout your oldest aunt?" Hagrid asked and Vittoria nodded immediately. "Well, I don' really know if the story is correct, but tha's the version tha' got around in the wizardin' world. Her name was Antoinette Black. Antoinette was the oldest o' the three, Adeline the middle child an' yer mother the youngest. Antoinette died because she performed a spell tha' was impossible ter do, a spell tha' until today no one else has managed ter perform, either because o' fear o' dyin' or because's too hard! She sacrificed her magic to end Adeline's, so because o' Antoinette, Adeline is now forced ter live as a squib. Tha's why I think she didn' tell yeh anythin', an' because... Well, I'll explain the other reason later, deal?" Vittoria could only nod, too shocked by what she'd heard. So Adeline is indeed a witch, but a witch with no powers! "The thing she's bin tryin' ter reverse fer years is this spell, I'm sure. She wants ter bring her magic back."

"Oh... What is a squib?" Vittoria asked, knowing that it was something Hagrid could explain to her now. "And a muggle?"

"Squib is wha' we call the children o' magical parents who are born without magic." Hagrid said. "An' Adeline kind o' became one, yeh know? An' muggles are the people without magic, the ones yeh've lived with until today."

"Oh..." Vittoria said, nodding. "Hagrid, may I ask you another question?" Hagrid nodded. "Wasn't there anyone else who could take care of me? I mean, if everyone knew that my aunt was an evil woman, why did they still hand me over to her?" Hagrid sighed heavily.

"When Professor Dumbledore brough' yeh ter be under her care, other teachers an' me meself were really unhappy, but there was not much we could do, there was no one else alive who was yer relative an'... An' yer godfathers—" Hagrid cut himself short, which made Vittoria frown. "Well, yer godfather, a very good man tha' loved yeh very much, couldn' take care o' yeh." He finished quickly.

"Why?" Vittoria asked, confused.

"For personal reasons... At least tha's wha' Dumbledore told me when I asked." Hagrid said, shaking his head and taking a deep breath.

"And do you know where he is now?" Vittoria asked. "Do you know if he is okay?" Hagrid cleared his throat with a ringing sound and shook his head.

"I dunno where he is, Vittoria... Nobody knows." He said heavily. "After yer parents, er, died... Well... Er... Other things happened after tha' too, horrible things, it was a very big blow fer him... I think he was too broken by all tha' had happened... I mean, practically everythin' he knew was taken from him an'... Yeah, nobody knows where he is now, I don' know even if he is still alive... Sorry."

"Oh... That's... That's okay." Vittoria said, nodding weakly at Hagrid, now letting her eyes fall on the letter in her hands; she didn't even know who this man was, her godfather, but the knowledge that he could be dead now made her sad.

Vittoria turned the letter over and saw something written on the back in green ink that made her eyes go wide: "Miss V. Caelum, Attic, 236, Baildon Drive, London, England". The letter was addressed to her, but not just to her house, to her bedroom! And how did they know it was an attic? Magic? She broke the letter's seal, taking out a neatly folded paper.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Ms. Caelum,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1st September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July!

Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
D eputy Headmistress.

Vittoria read her letter one, two, three— five times!, unable to believe what she was reading. She really was a witch and was accepted into Hogwarts, the best school in the world! How insane was that? What was the probability that she was still dreaming? Pinching her arm discreetly and feeling it hurt, she told herself that it was real, very real.

Vittoria looked at Hagrid and blinked a few times. "I'm really a witch..." She mumbled weakly, smiling small.

"Of course yeh are!" Hagrid said, grinning. "I don' know all yeh went through with Adeline fer ten years o' yer life, Vittoria, but everythin' she taught yeh ter be a lie is true an' everythin' she taught yeh ter be true is a lie! Now yeh can go an' pack yer things, I will wait!" He said clapping his hands over his stomach, leaning back on the sofa.

Vittoria stared at him. "Pack? Why?"

"Why, yeh're goin' to Hogwarts! Or d'yeh wan' stay here with yer aunt?" Hagrid asked amusedly and Vittoria quickly shook her head, standing up immediately.

"No, no!" She exclaimed, still shaking her head. "Just give me a moment!"

Hearing Hagrid's husky, loud laughter, Vittoria ran upstairs, reaching the third floor and then climbing the wooden stairs that took her to her bedroom. The trapdoor was still open, so Vittoria hurried into her room, already changing out of her pyjamas and into her best clothes, which she was only supposed to wear at school in a couple of days, but since she wouldn't even go to that school anymore, what does it matter if she wore the clothes now or tomorrow? After pulling on her white Converse — which wasn't new but was very comfortable, and after deciding to save her new shoes for when she got to Hogwarts, Vittoria grabbed her new black schoolbag and, still with her red pencil case and two new black notebooks inside that Adeline had bought for the start of the school year, she grabbed only her clothes in best condition and tucked them inside her bag, carefully so as not to crumple them. Vittoria left behind all her oldest clothes, as well as her oldest shoes; the only shoe she decided to take too, besides her new ones, of course, was her slippers, which were still good to use.

Vittoria then combed her hair, letting it down, and then stuffed her toothbrush and hairbrush into her bag's front pocket. Finally, she grabbed her grey jacket and put it on, as well as her wool cap, and, clad in dark trousers, a dark sweater, and her white Converse, with her schoolbag on her back containing all her belongings and her Hogwarts letter, Vittoria gave one last look at her bedroom and went down the stairs towards Hagrid, not bothering to close the trapdoor or sort out the mess she made. She didn't even know when she would see Adeline again, so she wouldn't worry about what her aunt would think in the morning, when she would get home and discover that Vittoria had left the house in the middle of the night, leaving everything in disarray behind.

Vittoria still couldn't believe in everything that had happened! She was going to this place called Hogwarts with a complete stranger who was the kindest person she had ever met (and which she was pretty sure was a giant but she would never talk about it, at least not with him), that what she could do since ever was real magic, that she was really a witch, which, apparently, was a great thing, and most amazing of all, she was being pulled out of her aunt Adeline's deadly claws! It all was very surreal and very amazing at the same time! It even seemed like a dream, but she wasn't dreaming this time!

"Ready?" Hagrid asked, grinning, when Vittoria stopped in front of him, practically bouncing on her feet, looking very eager to go. She nodded excitedly. "So let's go, we still have ter collect Harry from a place far away from here!"

Vittoria nodded, still curious about who this Harry was, and started to follow Hagrid, who started to walk towards the door; he looked very out of place inside her aunt's house, but so did Vittoria, they didn't belong there, and that was just fine, wonderful actually. However, as Vittoria and Hagrid got closer and closer to the broken door, her logical side took over and even though she wanted to forget about her aunt, her cold blue eyes pierced her mind; she couldn't go, she was a minor and her aunt wasn't even in the house to allow her to go! Her excitement disappeared as if a bucket of cold water had fallen on her head.

"Hagrid, my aunt... I can't go without her permission!" Vittoria said sadly. "She is my guardian and—!"

"Ah, don' worry 'bout it!" Hagrid said, waving his huge hand in the air, not even looking at her as he pulled the door out of its frame; it had begun to drizzle again.

"But I can't leave in the middle of the night, Hagrid!" Vittoria said, pointing at herself. "What if she puts the police after me? Tell them I ran away from home or was kidnapped?"

"As if muggles could interfere in the wizardin' world!" Hagrid said amusedly, but Vittoria didn't laugh, her stomach was cold and churning. "Don' worry, Adeline knows where yeh went, she knows how the wizardin' world works an' she won' put... Police did yeh say? The police after yeh! Vittoria, yeh've had a vacancy at Hogwarts since yeh were born, an' Adeline can' stop yeh from goin', she has no righ' ter take tha' away from yeh! Now let's go!"

Vittoria nodded, a small smile playing on her lips as she left the house, the cool air hitting her face as if telling her she was finally free. Vittoria closed her eyes for a second and enjoyed the unique sensation of freedom; it was so good, not even the tiny raindrops hitting her body bothered her. Opening her eyes and looking around, she saw that the lights in Darnell's house were on, which was odd, it was already quite late at night, but that wasn't what caught Vittoria's attention, it was the fact that she could see the shadows of people just behind the closed white curtain; it wasn't just Juliette and Scout, there were four other people in there and... And a bird on one of the men's shoulders? Vittoria frowned slightly, trying to understand what it could be, and finally, deciding that it was none of her business, she decided to believe that they were probably friends, or even relatives. They had families after all, not everyone was down on their luck like Vittoria.

"Hagrid..." Vittoria called when Hagrid left the house too and turned to fit the door into the frame again, turning her attention away from the Darnell's house. "Who is this Harry by the way?" Hagrid grinned, he seemed to vibrate with excitement at the question. Vittoria almost giggled at it.

"Harry is a boy who is goin' ter go with yeh ter Hogwarts, an' I know yeh two are goin' ter get alon' pretty well!" He said as they started to walk side by side on the pavement; Vittoria noticed that as soon as they walked more than ten paces away from Adeline's house, the lights around them came back on. "Friends, I know yeh will be great friends!" Still grinning, Hagrid opened the little pink umbrella over their heads as soon as they entered under a large tree, whose shade hid them from anything that might be watching them, and Vittoria saw the exact moment that the object practically quadrupled its size, covering them both perfectly; she stared at it with her mouth hanging open. Magic was so awesome! "I can' wait fer yeh guys ter get ter know each other!"

Vittoria looked up at Hagrid's happy face and felt her face contort into an uncertain expression at what he said; she never had a friend before, and she doubted that this boy Harry would want anything to do with her, not when she had that huge scar on her face that always scared the kids and even adults away. "How do you know that Hagrid?" Vittoria asked in a small voice. "How do you know he's going to want to be my friend?"

"Ah, jus' a guess..." Hagrid said, shrugging, looking down at her, the grin never leaving his face. "Anyone would wan' ter be yer friend!"

Vittoria ended up smiling small at that. "Do you really think so?" She asked and Hagrid nodded.

"It's one o' the few things I'm sure o' in me life!" He said, resting one of his big hands gently on Vittoria's back, who couldn't wipe the smile off her face; Hagrid was incredible indeed, she had been right to feel that way about him minutes before.

They continued walking in comfortable silence, occasionally broken by a question from one of them, Vittoria about the wizarding world and Hagrid about the muggle world, and she couldn't be feeling better about the situation even if she tried; she was happy, truly happy, and she didn't know when was the last time this had happened. She was walking alongside with one of the kindest men ever, in the middle of the night, with a magical pink umbrella over their heads, and with a letter inside her schoolbag stating that she was a witch — and she was happy about it!

Vittoria always felt in her bones that she had never belonged there, in Baildon Drive, living with her evil aunt, and she actually never really belonged there! Her world, her place, was another one... She would finally belong!

Chapter Text

Vittoria and Hagrid had been walking through the wet and puddled streets of London for almost an hour now, and Vittoria, who was never a paragon in physical conditioning, was already tired and out of breath; the only reason she wasn't sweaty and had already gotten rid of her jacket was because the cold was still there and kept her temperature stable.

As she had predicted earlier, the thunders still rumbling through the dark sky was indeed an indication that the rain would return, as the rain started to fall again just as hard as before just a few minutes after that drizzle had started. However, not a single drop had reached Vittoria or Hagrid, no matter how hard the wind blew the rain towards them; it seemed like the pink umbrella had cast a repelling barrier around them, and Vittoria was very grateful for that.

For several minutes, the only sound that competed for space with the rain falling around them was the sound of Vittoria and Hagrid's footsteps, who were, in comfortable silence, walking towards what Vittoria discovered to be the London Bridge Station. This wasn't the closest station to Vittoria's house, but it was the only one, according to Hagrid, that had a train at that time of the night available to take them to Southampton, place where this Harry boy was. As much as they have to walk forty minutes to get there, Vittoria wasn't too disheartened since to get to the station, they would have to cross London Bridge, consequently being able to see the Tower Bridge, the Great Clock of Westminster (aka Big Ben) and the London Eye, and she had always wanted to see it from up close, especially at night; she heard people saying it was very beautiful at night for its lights. Even though she had lived in London all her life, Vittoria had never visited anything around London City, it was always from her house to school and from school to her house, the only thing she could see in the distance when she walked to school was the London Eye, and she already thought it was incredible during the day and from afar! Her dream was to ride it one day, it must be a wonderful feeling...

The streets they were walking through now, however, weren't as busy or lit as those around London Bridge and other tourist spots, where hundreds of tourists visited at any time of day, actually, the streets were rather dark and silent, and Vittoria, even though she had Hagrid right there beside her, now and then placing one of his hands on her back to guide her through a path clear of large puddles, still felt a certain dread within her. What if her aunt found her? Adeline seemed to live in the dark, in the penumbra, always appearing when Vittoria least expected, and at that instant they were amid darkness... What if her aunt was nearby and saw them passing by and was now following them?

Since leaving Baildon Drive, Vittoria had turned and looked over her shoulder at the dark, deserted street behind her several times, almost as if expecting to see her aunt coming after her. She knew that was impossible, Adeline shouldn't even know she was gone yet, but still, Vittoria feared that everything would go wrong... As much as she was happy to be finally free of Adeline, she had never gone against her aunt's rules before, breaking the rules always meant punishment, and she didn't even want to think about how she would be punished if Adeline found her before she left for Hogwarts...

"Hagrid, you're sure my aunt won't find me, right?" Vittoria asked anxiously, again looking over her shoulder. They were getting close to London Bridge, she could hear the waters of the river Thames already, no doubt agitated by the rain, and the lights that glittered somehow in the cloudy sky; it looked like magic.

"Deadly sure!" Hagrid promptly said, nodding. "An' even if she finds yeh, I won' allow her ter take yeh back!" He added, looking at Vittoria seriously, as if wanting to reassure her with his words.

Vittoria smiled gratefully at him, nodding. "Thank you."

"Any time!" Hagrid said, grinning, patting the top of Vittoria's head, which was covered by her wool cap. "Yeh don' have ter worry abou' Adeline, she won' interfere in yer life anymore!"

"My aunt is a terrible person, Hagrid, so I doubt she'll leave me alone, especially now that I kind of ran away from her." Vittoria mumbled, looking down at her hands. "And as much as I'm happy to be going to Hogwarts, I'm afraid that she'll end up meddling in my life again... She always found a way to make me miserable."

"She won' be doin' tha' again!" Hagrid said firmly as they stopped abruptly in the middle of the pavement, still quite away from the street; the rain had been falling mercilessly in that part of the city, and the street that separated them from reaching London Bridge was completely flooded. The water had got to the pavement, making it impossible for them to continue. "Dumbledore sure as hell won' let yeh go back ter her after yeh get ter Hogwarts!"

"I hope so..." Vittoria said more to herself than to Hagrid.

"Well, we have ter get through this." Hagrid said, looking thoughtfully from the flood to Vittoria, who looked at him with mild concern; how was she going to cross all that water? While the flood wouldn't do much damage to Hagrid, it would definitely soak her to the bones, maybe even drag her away because the water was strong and was flowing pretty fast. "An' fer tha', we'll have ter do this one thin'... If yeh allow me, Vittoria..." And Hagrid simply bent down just enough and put one of his arms around Vittoria's chest and lifted her easily in the air; now they could cross the street.

"A practical solution." Vittoria said, looking up and nodding at Hagrid with a grin; he grinned back at her.

It had never rained so hard in London, the water was running hard down the road, making a loud rushing noise and splashing everywhere when it hit an obstacle and really, only Hagrid with his size could get through it without any problems; if any average sized person ended up falling into that torrent, they would surely drown as they wouldn't have the strength to fight it... Vittoria would definitely drown, she didn't have that much strength and didn't even know how to swim.

From above, clutching Hagrid's arm tightly to keep from falling even though he was holding her securely, Vittoria watched all that water with wide eyes for a moment before turning her attention to the Tower Bridge and everything around it, which immediately hypnotized her. Tower Bridge, the Big Ben and the London Eye were lit up, and just like everyone said, that was indeed beautiful! All the yellow, white and blue lights being beamed onto the tower, bridge and the giant wheel, in that order, made everything seem so very magical, so very unique, so very memorable...

Vittoria didn't want to forget, even with all that rain, how those constructions were flawless; now she understood why so many people visited it every day... There was no one around tonight though, as no one was crazy enough to go sightseeing around London in such bad weather, but Vittoria, however, liked the exclusivity she was getting thanks to the rain; she didn't like crowded places very much, they made her feel suffocated, but now, now the whole place was just hers and Hagrid's and it was so peaceful...

"Thank you, Hagrid!" Vittoria said as Hagrid set her back on the pavement across the street, right at the bridge entrance. "I've never seen so much water before!"

"Typical summer rains..." Hagrid said shaking his head. "At Hogwarts we have rains like this sometimes, it rains so much tha' the lake fills up ter the shore an' floods the grounds!"

"There is a lake at Hogwarts?" Vittoria gasped as they began their journey across the bridge, her eyes wide.

"An' a forest!" Hagrid said with a grin and laughed when Vittoria's eyes widened even more in surprise.

"No way!"

They walked across the bridge with Vittoria saying how "bloody cool" it was for a school to have a lake and a forest, and as much as Hagrid seemed to be hiding something about the forest, always changing the subject when she asked what kinds of animals lived there, Vittoria was too busy thinking about how big Hogwarts really must be for it to have a forest and a lake inside its grounds!

They arrived at London Bridge Station without further ado a few minutes later and were soon heading down the escalator towards the ticket sale cabins; Hagrid closed his pink umbrella, which returned to its normal size, while commenting on how smart the muggles were for having managed to invent stairs that moved without magic. When they had finished descending the long escalator, Hagrid looked at the train schedules and handed a certain amount of crumpled money — which he called "muggle money" — to Vittoria for her to buy their tickets to Southampton. There was no queue, which was a relief as there was only one cabin working at that time of night, in fact, there was no one in that station apart from Vittoria, Hagrid and the staff; the rain indeed intimidated everyone back home. Vittoria bought their tickets without any problems and soon, they both boarded the eleven-thirty train, where Vittoria watched in amazement when Hagrid took up two seats only for himself; there was no one on the train with them, so no one noticed how big Hagrid really was.

During their train ride, Hagrid and Vittoria talked about whatever popped into their minds while Hagrid knitted something that looked a lot like a yellow blanket, but Vittoria had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't one. They talked about their favourite foods — as Hagrid said he loved all the dishes served at Hogwarts so he couldn't choose between so many, Vittoria couldn't choose one because she never ate anything that was good enough to be classified as her favourite food, talked about their favourite colour —red for Vittoria and orange for Hagrid, about their favourite animals —dog, for both of them (even though they both loved any kind of animal, they had that in common), and anything else that came up, anything really, except serious stuff that could ruin the moment between them.

When both realized it, an hour and half had already passed and they had finally arrived at their destination, Southampton, and now they were finishing their journey from Southampton Central Train Station to the Port of Southampton on foot; Vittoria wasn't quite understanding why they were heading towards the port and not towards the houses, but she didn't say anything about it, Hagrid must know what he was doing. Just like in London, the streets of Southampton were quiet and wet, which informed them that it had rained there too. It felt like Southampton had gone into hibernation too, not a car had been seen since they left the underground station, as well as people, there was no one walking around, even the pubs were empty... Well, maybe there wasn't anyone around because it was almost one in the morning.

"Hagrid, can we talk now about what you told me back at my aunt's?" Vittoria asked after yawning deeply, feeling sleep finally trying to overtake her; she couldn't feel sleepy now, it wasn't appropriate.

"Yeah, I think we have got enough time fer tha'..." Hagrid said thoughtfully, nodding. "What d'yeh wanna know?"

"Well, you said I'm famous, right?" Vittoria asked and Hagrid nodded. "Why?"

"Look, I'm not the bes' person ter tell yeh this, Vittoria." Hagrid promptly said. "There are other people who would know how ter answer this better 'n me, like Professor Dumbledore fer instance, but yeh're goin' ter Hogwarts in a few hours an' yeh can' go there not knowin' abou' it!" Vittoria nodded and Hagrid took a deep breath before start speaking. "Righ', I'll tell yeh wha' I know, but don' be mad at me if yeh find out in the future tha' wha' I told yeh was wrong, 's still a mystery wha' happened tha' night."

"I won't, I swear!" Vittoria said quickly, eager to find out everything she could.

"Okay, where do I start then?" Hagrid said, running his fingers through his beard. "Twenty years ago, a war had broken in the wizardin' world, an' yer family, both the Caelums and the Blacks, were a big part in it, unfortunately not fer the same reason."

"What do you mean?" Vittoria asked, eyeing him curiously.

"Caelums an' Blacks were on different sides in this war." Hagrid said and Vittoria exhaled a soft 'Oh'. "The Caelums were an essential part o' our fight against the other side, the evil side, they fought alongside many other powerful witches an' wizards, an' as much as they always won their fights, they came out full o' losses from it. They were the main targets, ev'ryone wanted ter take 'em down because... Because they were the on'y ones able ter easily an' immediately put an end ter wha' was happenin', because no one was more powerful 'n the Caelums."

"And that means...?" Vittoria asked quietly, even though she already knew.

"Tha' even though they were extremely powerful, the bad side o' the war took advantage o' their good hearts an'... An' killed ev'ryone in yer family in the period tha' the war lasted." Hagrid said heavily and Vittoria took a shaky breath, swallowing hard. "The Caelums were feared by the bad side, an' a subject o' curiosity among ev'ryone ter this day, even if o' an entire family, on'y one member is still alive." Vittoria didn't let it show on her face, but it hurt her; it was very painful to know that she was completely alone in the world... How could an entire family be so easily wiped from reality? "The Caelums were great people, Vittoria, very kind. They tried ter protect their own as much as they could, there was nothin' more important ter 'em 'n family an' friends, an' the other side used tha' against 'em, cornering 'em in ambushes, emotionally manipulating 'em with illusions... It was terrible ter see groups o' five ter ten Caelums go out ter fight an' on'y see two or three return... It was painful ter see a family like yers bein' diminished an' killed more an' more each day, an' even though they beat triple the number they had los', it didn' felt like a victory, not when good people were bein' lost..."

"Why are people curious about my family?" Vittoria asked in a tight voice, feeling physical pain at knowing how her family had been killed.

Hagrid looked down at her, at her frowned brow, and knew at once that she didn't want to hear any more about her family's deaths or reports about them, he knew it was too much to take in, but he needed her to know that most of the war was won by her family, everyone knew after all, and she had to know that too. "'Cause nobody knows anythin' 'bout 'em." Hagrid said easily. "Nothin' at all, not even where they used to live. The Caelums are a mystery, they were born hundreds and hundreds o' years ago an' no one has ever known who the firs' Caelum was! All we know is tha' yeh are powerful, powerful beyond comprehension, but we don' even know wha' yeh are capable o' doin' on a full scale! I know more abou' yeh 'n most because I was a close friend o' yer family, but tha' on'y allowed me ter know fer sure tha' yeh can do wandless magic, summat tha' the wizardin' world still discusses whether 's true or jus theory."

"Wow..." Vittoria said, her eyes wide with shock; the pain in her heart still lingered. "So nobody knows that... That I can-?"

"No, an' don' go tellin' it around!" Hagrid said promptly, his face suddenly becoming strangely serious. "Especially fer figures o' power in our world! An' also fer certain teachers at Hogwarts... 'S not tha' I don' trust ev'ryone there, 's jus tha' yer family struggled ter maintain their discretion, and even though they didn' have ter use wands, they used 'em jus ter keep attention away from 'em, they knew tha' some people would on'y get close ter 'em fer interest, so very few people knew abou' their abilities. Me meself on'y know abou' this one, which may even be the greatest, but 's not the on'y one!"

"Oh... Okay, yeah..." Vittoria said, having been taken completely by surprise with this information; so her family, and consequently her as well, were a topic of curiosity for witches and wizards? Nobody knew what they were capable of? God, how was she supposed to know what she was capable of then? She didn't have her family to guide her through it like the other Caelums did! She was so screwed, why couldn't someone just jump in front of her and tell her everything she was capable of? There had to be someone alive who knew everything, right? Anyone!

"Tha's one o' the reasons yeh're famous, Vittoria, because yeh're a Caelum." Hagrid said quietly. "People worship yer family fer everythin' they did ter end this war. As much as we had several other witches an' wizards fightin' too, amazin' people who los' their lives fightin', practically our entire group was made up o' Caelums... People were afraid, yeh know? They were terrified abou' wha' would happen ter their families if they joined our group too, they saw wha' was happenin' ter the Caelums, an' if people as powerful as 'em were dyin', wha' would happen ter 'em? No one else wanted ter fight alongside us, on'y the Caelums jumped righ' in without hesitation an' tha' is a reason fer pride an' veneration ter this day, an' I know it always will be!"

"Holy shit..." Vittoria breathed, her eyes burning with tears and her throat aching with emotion, just to realize what she'd said. "Sorry!" She added quickly, eyes widening, which made Hagrid chuckle sadly.

"I have no problem with yeh expressin' yerself, Vittoria, feel free ter do so!" He said, making her smile small. "Well, so yes, the Caelums were an essential part o' our fight. They were the ones who stopped the greatest number o' death eaters an'-!"

"What is a death eater?" Vittoria asked, interrupting him.

"They were the followers o' the bad part o' the war."

"My other family?" Vittoria gasped. "The Blacks? Were the Blacks the ones who killed my other part of the family?" She added with wide eyes; God this was all so messed up!

"No an' kind o'..." Hagrid said, sighing heavily. "The Blacks were only part o' the death eaters, but some o' 'em were the ones who most murdered members o' the Caelum family, just like some members o' the Lestrange, Avery, Macnair, Selwyn, Nott, Carrow an' Rosier families... They were brutal killers." Vittoria stared at Hagrid with her mouth open in shock; that's why she always felt in danger in the presence of her aunt's friends and her aunt herself, because they really were dangerous!

"So my aunt and... And her friends...?"

"All death eaters who aren' locked up in Azkaban today jus' because they didn' get caught!" Hagrid growled and Vittoria felt as if her blood pressure had dropped. "Yer aunt an' her friends killed a lot, Vittoria, an' I'm afraid ter say it wasn' jus muggles they killed... I think they killed few Caelums too an' other wizards an' witches."

"Oh God..." Vittoria said, taking a deep breath. She stopped walking, which made Hagrid stop too and turn to her. "I was living with a murderess? And worse, the murderer who killed members of my family? Why the hell did this Dumbledore let me live with her, Hagrid? She could have killed me!" She cried, eyes going wide.

Hagrid looked at her a little lost, seeming to be fighting an internal battle. "Dumbledore knew wha' he was doin', Vittoria..."

"Did he? Really? He threw me in the house of the woman who killed my family, Hagrid!" Vittoria exclaimed, eyes wide and chest rising and falling in rapid breaths. "Left me living there even though she hated my family and hated me! She was a death eater, Hagrid, how could he possibly know what he was doing?" She added, eyes filling with tears.

"I shouldn' tell yeh this, but Dumbledore visited yeh..." Hagrid said and Vittoria stared at him speechlessly. "He went ter yer aunt's house every end o' the month ter check tha' yeh were alive."

"Being alive didn't mean I was being treated decently!" Vittoria pointed out, her brow furrowed in disbelief. "How could he even know if I was okay if I never saw him? How could he be sure I was really okay if we never talked? How could he know if I was eating properly, making progress in my studies, sleeping on a decent bedroom and being treated well?"

Hagrid looked like he didn't know what to say for several long seconds, because he could only stare at Vittoria like he was thinking hard about what to answer. "You're righ', Vittoria, o' course yeh are..." He finally said, sighing deeply. "An' I agree with yeh... I trust Dumbledore with me life, he helped me a lot, he's a great man, but he was wron' ter give yeh ter Adeline... An' I think he knew it wasn' the righ' choice 'cause he made yer aunt change many things in the house yeh lived in ter make it as safe as possible, he even made Adeline promise tha' she would not allow Lestrange, Carrow an' Macnair near yeh, he tried very hard ter protect yeh Vittoria."

"Yeah, it didn't work out very well!" Vittoria cried, taking a deep breath to calm her ponding heart; she hated losing her temper, people weren't obligated to deal with it — with her.

Vittoria was so unhappy with this whole situation; if they had just put her in an orphanage, she might have done a thousand times better! God, why didn't they help her godfather to take care of her? If they had given him some support for a while, he would have had time to heal from emotional wounds and she could have had a good life... It was so easy now to tell they wanted the best for her, wanted to protect her, when they'd been living well all these years while she'd been living hell! But in the end, it wasn't Hagrid's fault, no one was actually to blame, they all did the best they could, and if Adeline didn't go along with Dumbledore's plan, it wasn't their fault, it was Adeline's, and Vittoria could blame her for that, she already blamed her for so much...

"Yeh are righ' ter be upset Vittoria, I understand yeh perfectly..." Hagrid said quietly as the girl's breathing steadied. Vittoria looked at him with wet eyes and lips pressed together as if she was controlling her emotions, and it broke Hagrid inside; how many times did she have to control what she was feeling because of Adeline? No child should control their emotions, it wasn't healthy.

"It's okay... Who did they follow?" Vittoria asked quietly, wanting to move on from that subject, starting to walk again. Hagrid looked at her in confusion. "Who was the leader of the war, I mean."

"Oh..." Hagrid was strangely uneasy now, almost as if he was afraid to say something. "A wizard, he was terrible, he was."

"Who was he?" Vittoria asked. "What was his name?"

"We don' say his name." Hagrid said, shaking his head. "We refer to 'im as You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"Because people are still afraid of him?" Vittoria asked understandingly and Hagrid nodded, seeming relieved

"Exactly!" He said, nodding. "You-Know-Who was very dangerous, he stood up for terrible ideals, an' the Blacks chose ter follow 'im because they believed the same things he preached. It was dark times, we couldn' trust anyone one hundred percent, we had ter watch friends bein' killed an' so many other terrible things happenin' as we tried at all costs ter fight the evil... Until one day... Until one day You-Know-Who met his downfall."

"Really?" Vittoria asked, crossing her arms after an icy breeze hit her; it seemed to be the sea breeze, which meant that they were close to the port. "Who stopped him?"

"Yeh." Hagrid said and Vittoria stared at him, mouth agape.

"Me?" Vittoria gasped.

"Yes." Hagrid sighed, nodding. "I honestly don' know a third o' wha' happened tha' night, everythin' tha' revolves around wha' happened ter yeh is a huge mystery... I know more 'n the others because I was the one who pulled yeh an' Harry out o' yer houses, but the others on'y know wha' was told ter 'em."

"Wait, stop!" Vittoria said, stopping in her tracks again, which forced Hagrid to stop as well. "Harry?"

"He was yer neighbor an'..." Hagrid took a deep breath. "What happened ter yer parents happened ter his firs'... Minutes before."

Vittoria stared at him for a few seconds with her mouth open, her mind putting together the pieces of what she was being told. "Hagrid, does it mean... Does it mean that it was You-Know-Who who killed my parents?" Hagrid nodded sadly. Vittoria felt her throat close into a knot at this information; strangely, knowing, finally, what got her parents killed, made everything so more painful. "And You-Know-Who killed Harry's parents too?" Vittoria asked in a low voice and Hagrid nodded weakly. "Why?"

"I think it's because he didn' want them ter interfere when he was going ter kill yers." Hagrid said and Vittoria felt like she had been punched in the stomach; it was too much, simply too much to digest.

"Jesus... What was told?" Vittoria asked quietly after a whole minute in silence, swallowing down the lump in her throat. "What was told to the other people?"

"The bare minimum really, jus' ter explain how You-Know-Who was defeated." Hagrid said, crossing his arms and shrugging sadly; against the light coming from the nearest lamppost, Vittoria saw that his eyes were full of tears. "It was Professor Dumbledore who broke the news to ev'ryone. He said tha' You-Know-Who went ter the village where yeh lived with yer parents, the same place Harry lived with his, an' after he killed Harry's parents ter clear the path, he went ter yer house, where he killed yer parents an' tried ter kill yeh fer some reason. He failed however, an' met his downfall in yeh. Dumbledore then added tha' yeh truly defeated him because yeh had the mark ter prove it."

"Mark?" Vittoria asked quietly, too stunned to say anything else.

"The lightnin' scar." Hagrid said, looking briefly at the scar on Vittoria's left cheek. "Tha' is wha' marks the skin o' the ones who are hit by the killin' curse, a terrible curse tha' on'y the evillest cast, an' tha' there is no way ter fight against. There is nothin' tha' can stop this curse." Hagrid stared at Vittoria for a moment, who was looking at him without knowing what to say. "Tha' makes yeh even more famous, yeh survived the curse an' yeh destroyed the evil tha' was killin' our world an' have the mark ter prove it... Tha' makes yeh even more famous, Vittoria, 'cause yeh are a Caelum, survived You-Know-Who an' stopped 'im! 'S an impressive combination!" Vittoria could only stare at Hagrid in astonishment, the scar on her cheek suddenly weighing more than it already did... And even worse, she realized that her aunt must hate her very, very much since she killed her leader. God, how had she not been killed in these ten years of living with Adeline? "But Dumbledore didn' tell 'em everythin'..." Hagrid added in an afterthought.

"What?" Vittoria breathed, blinking a few times. "Is there more?"

"Unfortunately." Hagrid sighed. "Dumbledore didn' tell ev'ryone how yer house was, he didn' tell them how yer survival was summat even more mysterious than the fact tha' yeh stopped You-know-who. Merlin, yer house was completely on the ground, Vittoria! There was no brick over brick or tile stuck ter the ground! Everythin' was ruined an' yeh were there, in yer crib, with no injuries other 'n yer scar." Hagrid's voice shook and he retrieved the handkerchief from earlier to wipe his face. He sighed heavily and sniffled, looking sadly at the horizon; Vittoria swallowed the lump in her throat and wiped her eyes, which she didn't even realize were wet with tears again. "Yeh did summat ter put an end ter 'im, an' still survived the curse an' a house fallin' over yeh... There's summat abou' yeh, Vittoria, there's summat great abou' yeh..." Vittoria stared at her feet, feeling suffocated; there really was something great about her? In her, someone that wasn't great at all? "But other 'n knowing tha' it was yeh who las' faced You-Know-Who, the wizardin' world don' knows anythin' else because Dumbledore didn' tell 'em... I think it was a thoughtful move by him, ter not draw even more attention ter yeh, which is great, I know yeh wouldn' like ter get more attention 'n yeh already will get."

Vittoria didn't know what to say, but she knew what she was feeling, and it was a strong urge to throw up. She destroyed the wizard who killed hers and this boy Harry's parents! She, Vittoria Caelum, and when she was just a baby... What the hell did she do to pull off such a feat? What had she done to survive that curse? She killed a man before she even knew how to think for herself... Was she a murderer? But he had killed several people, he killed her parents, so it was justifiable... Right? God, could she be arrested for this? Could it be that the wizarding world police were just waiting for her to be old enough to send her to prison? Azkaban was the name of the prison, wasn't it? Hagrid said that at least... God, even the name of their prison sounds awful... And Dumbledore not telling that her house fell on her wasn't such a magnificent move, man, he told the world that she stopped You-Know-Who! What was a house falling on her? Nothing!

"There wasn't anyone else in the village besides my and Harry's parents?" Vittoria asked quietly after a moment. "I mean, to call for help? To help them?"

"There was. " Hagrid said heavily.

"So why didn't this person do nothing?" Vittoria asked, feeling a sudden revolt.

"They did." Hagrid sighed. "They called for help. But help came too late... When You-Know-Who chose his victim, Vittoria, nothin' could save them... It was a death certificate, summat yeh tore up an' threw in his face."

"God..." Vittoria mumbled, taking a deep breath, still digesting everything she'd been told; in less than two hours she went from an unknown and insignificant girl to someone who saved the wizarding world, a heroine. It was all too insane. "So You-Know-Who really died? For good? Was he buried and all that?"

"Well..." Hagrid mumbled, which made Vittoria look at him with wide eyes, dreading what he was going to say.

"What?"

"After tha' night, You-Know-Who disappeared, his body was never found." Hagrid said and Vittoria felt a huge sense of loss; so it was all for nothing? Could he still be alive and plotting revenge? "Ev'ryone believes tha' he died, long gone, but I doubt if there was enough human in 'im ter die... No, I think he's out there, too weak ter return."

"Great..." Vittoria muttered, rubbing her eyes; she already had an enemy in the wizarding world and she had never even set foot in it after growing up! Wasn't her aunt enough? Why did fate have to put another maniac in her path to kill her? "Hagrid, why was You-Know-Who even after us? What did we have to do with him?"

"Nobody knows why Vittoria..." Hagrid said quietly and Vittoria looked ahead into the dark street, nodding vaguely at what he said; if not even the person who knew the most about the subject didn't know how to answer her question, who would? "But I think it was because yer mother never accepted ter go ter his side, an' yeh know she was a Black, she was expected ter, as well as yer other aunt, but as Antoinette was already dead by tha' time, yeh know, after wha' she did ter Adeline, You-Know-Who went after Aurelie ter teach her a lesson abou' where her loyalties should lie."

"And the fact that my mum married my father didn't help, did it?" Vittoria asked in a strangled voice and Hagrid shook his head. Vittoria sighed deeply and rubbed her eyes. "I think we need to keep going, right?" She said after a moment of silence, wanting to put an end to that depressing talk, and Hagrid nodded, smiling small at her.

"I know 's a lot ter take in, Vittoria, especially when havin' it all dumped on yeh all at once, but I wan' yeh ter know tha' this don' have ter change anythin' in yer life." Hagrid said, placing his hands on Vittoria's shoulders and looking at her in the eyes. "Don' let this change yeh or interfere with the way yeh live or act. Yeh're still the same Vittoria as always, even though yeh've done everythin' yeh've done. Yeh don' have ter be someone else jus ter please others. Be yeh. Yes, yeh'll have ter decide who on'y approached yeh out o' interest an' who really approached yeh because they liked yeh fer yeh, tha's summat tha' comes with fame, an' yer family has dealt with it fer generations, so yeh'll have ter deal with too, havin' stopped You-Know-Who or not. But I know tha' when yeh meet the righ' people, yeh'll find a family, an' tha's yer greatest triumph, Vittoria. Not the fact tha' yeh stopped You-Know-Who, but the fact tha' yeh know how ter love. Yeh are still yeh no matter wha' yeh did, an' the on'y person yeh have ter please is yerself, don' forget tha'."

Vittoria smiled, eyes burning with tears, feeling her heart suddenly light, free of something she didn't even know was troubling her. "Thank you, Hagrid, really." She said with a chocked voice and Hagrid smiled, rubbing his thumbs over her shoulder for a moment before they again started to walk in an easy, comfortable silence after so many heavy words.

The rest of the walk towards the Port of Southampton was made in silence, Vittoria busy digesting and assimilating everything she learned about her family and her very existence in this world, while Hagrid respected the alone moment he knew Vittoria needed; it was too much to understand right away and Vittoria needed a few minutes to come to terms with everything she had discovered. You-Know-Who, whatever his name was, led a war that caused the death of her entire paternal family, where several died at the hands of some members of her maternal family! It was too grotesque to imagine that she had the blood of both, the victim and the murderer, running through her veins at the same time, it was disturbing to remember that she lived for ten years with the probable killer of some members of her family, that she lived with the woman who blindly followed the man Vittoria had somehow killed...

Vittoria still couldn't believe that she had done something that likely put an end to You-Know-Who, nor that she lived with a woman who just didn't kill her because there were people watching her... She couldn't believe that her whole family, several and several lives, died in the space of 20 years and that she, who was just a baby, was the one who put an end to a bloody war.

It was insanity.

Five minutes walking and suddenly, Vittoria realised she was facing the sea, and how vast it was! She had never seen the sea before, and she did want to see it one day, just not so late in the night. It was much colder in here than it had been in the city, and it was windy too, which Vittoria just knew was an indication that another storm was approaching again. Vittoria crossed her arms to keep the warmth inside her jacket and looked confusedly at Hagrid, seeing that he was walking towards a small wooden boat moored to the pier; weren't they going to get Harry? Why did they need a boat for that? Where did Harry live anyway?

"Hagrid, why do we need a boat?" Vittoria asked, frowning, as she walked towards him, who was doing a real juggling act to get into the boat.

"Well, we have ter go get Harry, don' we?" Hagrid said, finally getting safely into the boat and then helping Vittoria to do the same; she was still looking at him confusedly as she sat across from him, in a position that allowed her schoolbag to stay on her back.

"Yeah, I just don't understand why we need a boat for this!" Vittoria said, shaking her head. "Where does Harry even live anyway?" She added as she watched Hagrid release the boat from the pier and look around before turning to her again.

"Yeh don' mind if I speed things up a bit, d'yeh?" He asked, pointing to his pink umbrella, and Vittoria shook her head immediately, eager to see some more magic. Hagrid grinned and tapped the boat twice with it; the boat began to sail very quickly through the sea waters, as if it knew where it needed to go.

"This is so cool!" Vittoria said, beaming. Hagrid was still grinning.

"If yeh think this is cool, wait until yeh see the spells yeh will learn at Hogwarts!" Hagrid said and Vittoria looked up at him excitedly at the prospect. "Anyway, Harry lives a lot closer ter yeh, in Surrey, but in the las' few days his location has bin changin' an' if it weren' fer tha', we would have reached 'im long ago! Now he's on the Isle o' Wight, an' I really hope his uncle, aunt an' cousin are with 'im, because if he's alone there, I'll have a talk with the Dursleys meself!" Hagrid snarled.

"Why wouldn't he be with his family?" Vittoria asked, frowning. "And why is he on an isle?"

"His family is weird, Vittoria." Hagrid said, shaking his head. "They're not wizards or anythin', they're muggles, an' I must admit ter yeh tha' I don' like 'em one bit! See, Harry's aunt is his mother's sister, an' they never got along as far as I know. Harry's aunt dislikes us, hates our kind, but I really hope tha' 'cause Harry is her nephew, she has gotten over tha' prejudice..." Hagrid took a deep breath. "Dumbledore wrote 'em a letter, yeh see, instructing 'em ter tell Harry everythin' an' I think tha' at least it they did. Adeline should have told yeh everythin' too, but I don' know why I believed tha', she would never tell yeh the truth, not when yeh were on different sides o' the story... I should be glad she didn' try ter corrupt yeh, tha' is."

Vittoria gave Hagrid a smile. "I would never go to the bad side, Hagrid."

"I know, but she could try, righ'?" He said, smiling back, and Vittoria nodded; yeah, Adeline could try, but she thought her aunt would rather kill her than have her by her side.

The air was bitterly cold, thunders were again echoing across the dark sky, and the ocean waters were so choppy that Vittoria was sure the only reason their boat hadn't turned was because of magic; she was grateful for that because she really didn't want to drown, it must be a horrible way to die. They sailed for only thirty minutes and soon they stopped on a wood dock by the shore of the rocky isle, which had a few wood huts on the top (Vittoria knew they got there so quickly because of magic, under normal conditions it would take them over an hour to arrive) and soon they got out of the boat, both of them taking great care not to slip on the wet, muddy rocks.

"Harry is in tha' hut over there, see tha' boat?" Hagrid said, pointing to the side, where a boat like theirs was moored, as he secured their own boat to the dock. "I think his uncle rented this ter come over early yesterday." Vittoria nodded in agreement.

The two of them climbed the dirty steps that led to the wooden huts and headed for the closest one, the one that was visibly the worst in condition; Vittoria thought Harry's uncle had rented this at the last minute, only taking this one because it was the only option. The wind was very strong up there and was blowing Vittoria and Hagrid's hair violently away from their faces; Vittoria dug her feet into the ground as she walked to keep her balance. Hagrid walked over to the hut door as Vittoria stood beside him, and knocked three times on it, but no one came, and Vittoria knew there was no way Harry's family hadn't heard the knocking, it sounded like a thunder!

Hagrid looked at Vittoria for a moment and then shrugged, placing one of his hands on the decaying door and then pushed it until it fell to the floor; it didn't take long for it to happen or even looked like Hagrid had tried very hard, it looked like that door was about to fall down on its own. Vittoria would have laughed at the scene, Hagrid looked so done of having to break down into places, but the screams coming from inside the hut took her by surprise, and she remembered that there were people inside, people who probably almost died of fright, it was nearly two in the morning after all. Hagrid entered the hut without caring about the screams though, and Vittoria followed right away, walking close behind him, placing herself in the corner of the hut as Hagrid picked the door up off the floor and put it back where it should be.

"Couldn' make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? 'S bin an arduous journey, lots o' rain, wind, an' 's really cold outside!" Hagrid asked as he walked over to the old sofa in the middle of what must be the hut's living room, where a very fat blond boy sat frozen in fear; that wasn't Harry, Vittoria decided, something told her that. "Budge up, yeh great lump!" Hagrid growled and Vittoria had her certainties confirmed, he wouldn't talk to Harry like that.

The blond boy squeaked when Hagrid talked to him and ran right away to hide behind a tall woman with long neck, who was crouching, terrified, behind a fat man who appeared to have no neck and who was holding a shotgun. Vittoria was startled to see the gun in the man's hand, mainly because she hadn't even noticed them there until that moment; did he grab the gun when he heard Hagrid knock on the door? And why did he have a gun there? Was he already expecting something to happen? Looking searchingly at the three of them, Vittoria imagined what Harry must look like; if he was blood related to the woman, could it be that just like her, he looked like his aunt too, because Vittoria looked like her aunt, whether she liked it or not. Was Harry blonde like his aunt? Could it be that, like his aunt, he also had pale blue eyes? This woman's eyes were as light as her aunt Adeline's, but they weren't cold like hers, Vittoria thought that only bad people like her aunt were capable of having such cold eyes, and she doubted anyone else could measure up to Adeline Black.

However, as she tried to imagine what Harry must look like, Vittoria realized that he should be there with them, shouldn't he? All of his family were there, so where's Harry? Frowning slightly, she looked around the living room and nearly gasped when her eyes locked with the green ones of a boy that had just emerged from his hiding spot on the lateral of the unlit fireplace. He had to be Harry, and God, how wrong Vittoria was to believe he looked like his aunt. Harry was nothing like her, in any way! He had very black and messy hair, and his skin was more tanned than his aunt's, which was quite pale. Harry, just like Vittoria, was somewhat thin, which made the girl wonder if like her, he was not fed properly too, but he seemed to be a bit taller than her, maybe by an inch or so. Harry also wore glasses, a round black frame that was almost on the tip of his nose.

Vittoria realized that, if when she found him their eyes locked at once, it was because Harry must have already been looking at her, and indeed he was, he was studying her just as she was doing with him, and like everyone else, he also got a bit lost in her scar; Vittoria felt her stomach drop immediately. They didn't even get a chance to talk, and maybe they wouldn't even talk because when people looked at her for her scar, no one ever stayed for her.

But Harry seemed, somehow, to feel that something in the atmosphere had changed because he looked away from Vittoria's scar at the same moment that thought cut through her mind, and looked her straight in the eyes; it was as if an uncontrollable feeling came over them, something like recognition and "Oh, there you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!"... It was an overwhelming feeling, as if for the first time in their lives, they had found the person they had always been looking for; their hearts were pounding in their chests.

"Ah, an' here's Harry!" Hagrid said loudly, causing Vittoria and Harry to startle and quickly look away from each other; for the briefest of seconds, they forgot there were other people around them. "Las' time I saw yeh, yeh were jus' a baby! Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh have got yer mum's eyes... Yeah, Lily's eyes." Vittoria noticed there was as much emotion in Hagrid's words now as there had been in his voice when he first spoke to her too; Hagrid really must like them a lot, just as he must have liked their parents too.

The fat man with no neck made a funny rasping noise from behind Hagrid, his moustache quivering like the one of an angry walrus. "I demand that you leave at once!" He bellowed as his face turned red, waving his gun in the air. "You invaded private property!"

"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune!" Hagrid said dismissively as he reached over the back of the sofa, losing all the smile he had on his face, and jerked the shotgun out of the man's hands. Hagrid bent the gun into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber and threw it into a corner of the living room; as both Vittoria and Harry stared from Hagrid to the gun with mouths open in surprise, the fat man made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on. "Anyway, Harry-!"

"Who are you?" Harry asked promptly, making Hagrid chuckle.

"Yeah, made the same mistake with Vittoria an' almost scared her ter death! I should always start with the introductions, don' yeh think?" Hagrid said, turning and smiling at Vittoria, who couldn't hide the amused smile that played on her lips; she nodded and as Hagrid turned to Harry again, she saw that Harry was again looking at her, seeming to be checking if the name 'Vittoria' matched her face. Vittoria decided that 'Harry' suited him. "I'm Rubeus Hagrid, keeper o' keys an' grounds at Hogwarts!" Hagrid said proudly as he extended a huge hand towards Harry; when they shook hands, Hagrid shook Harry's entire arm. "Wha' 'bout tha' tea then, huh?" Hagrid said, rubbing his hands together as his eyes fell on the fireplace, at the empty grate with shrivelled chip bags in it; he snorted.

Bending over the fireplace with his pink umbrella in hand, Hagrid did something that, when he stepped back a second later, had caused a crackling fire to appear where there had been only cobwebs and dust; the fire filled the whole damp, cold hut with flickering light and Vittoria felt her body being enveloped by the welcome heat of the fire. Leaning against the wall behind her, her eyes sought out Harry and she saw how surprised he looked, and that made her smile small; this must have been the first time Harry had seen magic, and she felt almost flattered that she had witnessed it. No one had ever seen her face when she saw magic for the first time, because when she performed and consequently saw magic for the first time, she was, probably, alone. She was very small and probably didn't think much about it, she must have just thought it was really cool to be able to make things float around her...

Hagrid sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and started to take all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: A copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon, the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausages, and Vittoria felt her stomach growl with hunger; only now did she realize how hungry she was, just as she noticed that, while no one had said a thing while Hagrid was working, when he slid the eight fat, juicy and slightly burnt sausages from the poker into two plates, the blond boy fidgeted a little, and that made the man with the walrus moustache react.

"Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley!" The fat man, Dursley was his name probably, said sharply, and Hagrid laughed humourlessly, shaking his head.

"Yer great puddin' o' a son don' needs ter put on more weight, Dursley, don' worry!" Hagrid said and turned to Harry, the one closest to him at the moment, and passed him a plate with four sausages on. Hagrid then turned to Vittoria, who was still in the same spot, near the door. "Come here, Vittoria! Sit an' eat! Yeh must be hungry, we've walked quite a bit today." Vittoria was never shy, she never had a problem talking to people when necessary, but right now, with everyone in that hut looking at her as she pushed herself away from the wall and walked towards Hagrid, she felt very self-conscious. It took everything in her not to bring her hands into her hair to fix something she knew was a mess; her hair should be looking like a bird's nest under her wool cap!

"What? We didn't even walk that much!" Vittoria said amusedly to Hagrid as she took the plate from his hand. "Thank you." She added with a smile and Hagrid winked at her in amusement.

Turning and sitting quietly by the fire, Vittoria ignored everyone's stares as she took the first bite of her sausage, almost humming as its flavour flooded her mouth; her eyes almost watered to be tasting something so good. Her aunt had never let her eat anything other than canned food or foods that weren't considered tasty, she said that good food was only for those who deserved it, and not for vermins like her. Vittoria was eleven years old and had never tasted chocolate, or had soda, or tried popcorn... Now, after everything Hagrid told her, she realized that she never really lived, she just survived.

Harry blinked as he watched Vittoria eat in silence, and he had to force himself to turn to the huge man sitting directly across from him. It was bewildering how he felt drawn to this girl he had never seen until minutes ago, he wanted to talk to her more than he wanted to talk to the person he knew he was supposed to talk to. The man, he had to talk to the huge man! But she looked so much more approachable than him, especially when she smiles because she has two very deep dimples in her cheeks...

"I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are." Harry said after a moment in silence, turning once more to Hagrid, who was putting away the things he had used to cook.

"Call me Hagrid, yeah?" Hagrid said, leaning against the sofa. "Ev'ryone does. An' I told yeh, I'm keeper o' keys at Hogwarts, an' yeh know all abou' Hogwarts, o' course!"

"Er... Huh?" Harry said, frowning, glancing briefly at Vittoria, who had just looked up at him, eyes full of surprise; could it be that she thought he was an idiot for not knowing what Hogwarts was? Was he supposed to know what that was in the first place? From the way she was looking at him, yes, he should. "Sorry!" Harry said quickly, turning to Hagrid once more and seeing that he was looking at him incredulously.

"Sorry?" Barked Hagrid, turning to look at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's 'em who should be sorry! I knew yeh weren' gettin' yer letters too, but I never thought yeh wouldn' even know abou' Hogwarts! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"

"All what?" asked Harry, frowning again.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered and Harry took a few steps back, stopping at the same line Vittoria was, just a little further away from her; Hagrid had started to argue with his relatives now, and he didn't look any closer to stopping.

Harry looked at Vittoria again and noticed she was still looking at him, eyes glistening with curiosity now. He wanted so badly to ask her what Hogwarts was... She seemed to know things, seemed to be smart... Vittoria looked like the girls in his class, the very smart ones, but she didn't look like them at all at the same time since she still hadn't laughed at him or called him names.

"It's okay..." Harry suddenly heard Vittoria whisper softly as Hagrid started to yell at his uncle and aunt; she was smiling small at him, and Harry had to focus hard to understand that she had actually spoken to him. "You don't need to know what Hogwarts is, I didn't know until hours ago either." She spoke very quickly, almost as if her mind was working so fast that she had to speak quickly to keep up with it, but her voice was soft and warm... How could a voice be warm?

"Yeah?" Harry asked hopefully and Vittoria nodded, patting the space beside her, inviting him to sit with her on the floor. He did it without hesitation, something he normally wouldn't do, and the moment he positioned himself right next to her, he felt something different, not weird just different, something that made the skin of his body tingle slightly; maybe it was because he was quite cold, and he was right next to the fireplace now... It didn't matter either way, the feeling passed as quickly as it came.

"I guess I was surprised when you said you didn't know what Hogwarts was because Hagrid faithfully believed that you would know everything about everything, unlike me. I didn't know anything about anything!" Vittoria explained in her quick but soft, warm voice, and Harry found himself only knowing how to nod; she had this aura of friendliness, and he already found himself very inclined to trust her blindly. Was this how friendships started? "Hogwarts is a school... For witches and wizards." She added the last part in a whisper and Harry stared at her with his eyes open wide; could it be that she was messing with him? It couldn't be true, she looked so nice...

"Wizards?" He gasped weakly. "And witches? What?"

"Yeah, I also thought it was insanity at first!" Vittoria said softly, looking at him in such peaceful way that it made him calm down, even though Harry knew he should be freaking out. "You are a wizard, Harry, and I'm a witch. Your parents were wizards as were mine. Hagrid is also a wizard. You are just like them, just like me."

"A wizard?" Harry found himself saying shakily. "This is insane!" Vittoria nodded and he was relieved that she agreed with him.

"Yeah, I've known this for... What? Four hours? And I still wonder if I'm not just hallucinating this whole thing!" Vittoria said and gave a low chuckle, which shook her body slightly. Despite everything going on around him and to himself, Harry found himself smiling. "I thought Hagrid was lying to me when he told me I was a witch."

"But I can't..." Harry shrugged, looking somewhat desperately at Vittoria. "You know, be a wizard!"

"And why not?" She asked, but she seemed to know what he was thinking, actually, she seemed to understand him more than Harry was understanding himself right now.

"Because wizards and witches don't exist!" He said as if it were obvious. "Right? You know this is stuff from fairy tales!" Vittoria smiled.

"So you're implying that I don't exist then?" She asked and Harry gaped at her, at loss of words to work with to answer her. "Tell me Harry, haven't you ever done anything no one else can?"

Suddenly, Harry felt as if Vittoria had opened up a whole new world to him, and he saw in his mind's eye every time he did something without explanation and that he had made himself believe it was just luck...

God, he really was a wizard!

"These things always happen when I get upset or angry..." Harry admitted and Vittoria just nodded, giving him freedom to speak; he felt something flood his chest, something good, with Vittoria allowing him to speak, no one had ever allowed him to it before. "My cousin, that one over there, is a real git, he's been picking on me since forever, and he made his friends hate me too! One day I was being chased by them at school and somehow, I managed to unlock a door and hide from them." Vittoria continued to just let him talk, nodding now and then to show she understood something, but Harry noticed how her brow furrowed as if she was bothered by something... Maybe he said something wrong? Oh no, she didn't liked Dudley, that frown appeared when he mentioned him! Harry felt good that Vittoria didn't like his cousin, it was the first time anyone had liked him and not Dudley. "And one day my aunt got so annoyed at my hair, which is perpetually messy, and cut it really short and left lots of gaps, but somehow, I managed to grow it back in one night... And the last time Dudley hit me, we were at the zoo watching the reptiles, I made the protective glass of a boa constrictor disappear and he, because he was trying to annoy the snake, practically glued to the glass, fell to the ground right next to the snake... He pissed his pants!" He added the last part with a grin and felt pleased when Vittoria covered her mouth and giggled, her eyes closing slightly.

"See? How could you not be a wizard if you did all this?" Vittoria said and Harry smiled happily at her, something he hadn't thought he would be doing two minutes ago. "By the way, I'm really sorry your cousin treated you this way, Harry, I know how you feel." She added quietly, squeezing Harry's shoulder quickly in sympathy, and Harry wondered, while appreciating her words, how she could know how being bullied felt like, he doubted anyone could hate her as Dudley hated him, Vittoria probably had lots of friends!

"How could you?" He asked honestly before he could stop himself and saw Vittoria's brow furrow slightly.

"What?" She asked confusedly, letting go of his shoulder; he felt the place of her touch cool immediately, as if Vittoria had taken the heat from it with her.

"How do you know how I feel... I mean, you've probably never been bullied!" Harry explained himself and watched Vittoria give him a rueful smile.

"Do you happen to see the scar on my face?" She asked and Harry nodded, his stomach suddenly going cold; he was already so involved with her that he simply didn't even see her scar anymore, and something inside him feared what she suffered with people who didn't see her but her scar. "I can't cover it up. It's always in plain sight and I must tell you that neither adults nor children treated me well after they saw it on my cheek... The kids always called me names, said I was a freak and that I would kill them if they got too close to me, hummed mean things to me... And the adults never did anything to stop it, no, they kept staring at me as if trying to understand what had happened to me."

"I'm sorry, Vittoria." Harry said, feeling awful for making such a crude assumption before, but feeling even worse that she had to suffer this. "Really!" And he wanted her to believe him because he didn't want her to decide that he wasn't good enough to be her friend... Friend, did she even want to be his friend? He knew he wanted to be hers, this was the first time he felt like it could happen.

"It's okay, you didn't know!" Vittoria said, shrugging and smiling again; Harry noticed that she did that a lot. "I'm just so very glad to know I won't have to go back to my school again... It's like I'm breathing for the first time in so long!"

"Oh? Why?" Harry asked, frowning.

"Why, because we're going to Hogwarts!" Vittoria said, grinning. "We're going to finish our studies there, that's why we came, to pick you up!"

"You came just to get me? Really?" Harry asked with wide eyes and Vittoria nodded excitedly. "Wow!" He breathed, feeling a wave of happiness run through his body; he wouldn't go to Stonewall High anymore, and if the schoolbag on Vittoria's back was any indication, he wouldn't even have to go back to his uncle's house again!

"Why don't you eat your sausages, I think they'll take a while there." Vittoria said lightly, nodding towards Hagrid and Harry's aunt and uncle, who were still arguing after all this time. Harry noticed that his cousin was looking at Vittoria and him suspiciously from behind his mother, and Harry really wanted to give him the finger, he doubted his uncle would even see it as he was nearly purple from screaming so much. "This is so good, right? I've never eaten this before." Vittoria said suddenly, almost as if wanting to distract herself from the screams around them, and Harry looked at her, watching her chew her sausage; the thought of giving his cousin the finger faded from his mind.

"Never?" Harry asked in surprise and Vittoria shook her head.

"You should know that my parents died when I was just a baby and I've lived with my aunt ever since, and she is an awful person. Like, really terrible, nobody compares to her!" Vittoria said quietly and Harry felt his chest constrict; so Vittoria was an orphan too? What were the odds of the two of them being orphans, live with their aunts, which were both terrible, and still end up finding each other? It even seemed like a play of fate. "She never let me, you know..." Vittoria shrugged as if it was no big deal, but Harry felt like it was, and a huge one. "I've never eaten anything that's considered tasty, that's it. She never allowed me." She explained at last, cheeks flushing deeply as if she'd made a very private confession.

While he felt special that Vittoria had told him this, Harry felt a wave of sadness wash over him too; the Dursleys were horrible people, yes, but he always ate everything they ate too, only in small portions. Vittoria never even ate. However, when Harry was about to say something about it, the screams stopped and Hagrid turned to them, not looking the least bit surprised that Harry had sat himself next to Vittoria on the floor; come on, couldn't they keep arguing for just one more minute?, Harry thought with a grimace.

"Now wait jus' a second!" Hagrid said looking at him; he had leapt to his feet and in his anger, he seemed to fill the whole hut; Harry noticed that the Dursleys were cowering against the wall now. "Harry, yeh really don' know anythin' abou' our world? Like, at all?"

"Well, Vittoria just told me I'm a wizard." Harry said. "Like her, my parents and you... And she told me that we are going to this school, Hogwarts... To be honest, I'm still trying to get used to it."

"DURSLEY!" Hagrid exploded, losing all his cool again, and Harry watched as his uncle immediately blanched. Hagrid, however, paid him no attention, just turned around again and looked at Harry like he was about to cry. "How could yeh not know anythin'? For Merlin's beard, Dumbledore wrote yeh a letter explainin' everythin' yeh had ter tell him!"

"STOP!" Harry's uncle commanded; he was shaking from head to toe. "Stop right there! I forbid you to say anything else to the boy! That girl over there has done enough damage!"

"Don' yeh dare say a word 'bout Vittoria Caelum, Dursley!" Hagrid growled, suddenly furious again. "Yeh don' deserve ter even say her name! She did wha' yeh should have done long ago! Yeh never told 'im! Never told 'im wha' was in the letter Dumbledore left fer 'im! I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! Yeh've kept it from 'im all these years!"

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" Harry's uncle yelled in panic; Harry's aunt gave a gasp of horror.

"Ah, go boil yer heads, both o' yeh!" Hagrid snarled, turning back to Harry. "Vittoria is righ', Harry, yeh are indeed a wizard, an' it's time fer yeh ter finally read yer letter." He added as he took something out of his coat, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower. Harry stretched out his hand eagerly to take the yellowish envelope, an envelope he had been dying to open for weeks already; the reason they were in that hut today was to escape the letters that kept arriving at his house and that he was forbidden to open. It seemed that now Harry could finally read what was in it.

The hut was in silence now, only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard; Vittoria finished eating her sausages while Harry read his letter over and over again, and she felt that while her heart was pounding wildly at having talked to Harry, she was feeling very calm too, and she had no idea this was something that went together. She felt she could trust the boy with emerald green eyes, and she really threw herself headlong into that feeling as she told him more about herself than she had ever mentioned to anyone but Hagrid, who didn't even count much in that as he knew more about her history than she did. Harry was like her, they were the same version of a story, they had the same pains, they suffered almost the same things and from a whole world, they only needed one thing, a friend, and she felt that they could be it.

"What does it mean, they wait my owl?" Harry asked as soon as he finished reading his letter, looking at Hagrid with confusion.

"Gallopin' Gorgons, tha' reminds me!" Hagrid said with wide eyes, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse. "I had ter send a letter as soon as I got yeh two!" From yet another pocket inside his coat, Hagrid pulled an owl, a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl (Vittoria was right to think there really was an owl there!), a long quill and a roll of parchment. Hagrid finished writing his message ("Dear Professor Dumbledore, I found and am with Vittoria and Harry. Will take them to buy their things first thing tomorrow and then I will send them by Hogwarts Express. Weather is horrible. Hope you're well. Hagrid.") and rolled up the note, giving it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak right away. Hagrid then went to the door, opened it and threw the owl out into the storm, then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone. Vittoria and Harry had their mouths open in surprise until now. "Where was I? Oh yes, Hogwarts! Yeh will love it!" Hagrid said grinning, but at that moment, Dursley, still ashen faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.

"He's not going!" He said furiously, pointing a finger at Harry. "We won't allow it!"

"I'd like ter see a great muggle like yeh stop 'im!" Hagrid grunted.

"A what?" asked Harry, frowning.

"A muggle is wha' we call non-magic folks like 'em." Hagrid explained, nodding towards Harry's family. "An' 's a bad luck yeh grew up in a family o' the biggest muggles I ever laid eyes on!"

"We swore when we took him in, we'd put a stop to that rubbish!" Harry's uncle yelled and Harry looked at him, eyes wide as he furrowed his brows.

"Did you know?" He asked, feeling extremely betrayed for having this hidden from him. "Did you know I'm a wizard?"

"Know!" Shrieked his aunt suddenly. "Know! Of course we knew! How could you not be with my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-! To that school and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog spawn and turning teacups into rats! I was the only one who saw her for what she was, a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that! They were so proud of having a witch in the family!" She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on, it seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.

Vittoria felt awful about it all even though it had nothing to do with her; Harry's aunt hated her sister the same way her aunt Adeline hated her mother Aurelie, and she called her a freak, the same way Vittoria's classmates called her, and she knew how that hurt, but she couldn't imagine how much more it must hurt when the name calling was coming from someone as close as a sister...

"And then it wasn't just Lily in our house anymore, she had to bring another freak to live with us, her best friend she said, because, apparently, not even that girl's parents could stand her! And then, if things couldn't get worse already, Lily met that Potter at school too and they left and got married and had you, and of course Lily's friend was going to have a baby at the same time as her, of course, they couldn't do anything without each other! And of course that baby was going to come back to haunt me, of course Aurelie Black's child was going to find its way to Lily's child, just like their mothers always found each other no matter what!" Vittoria felt her face go pale as Harry's aunt shouted that, looking at her with such hatred that Vittoria even thought about rethinking if that woman wasn't really like Adeline. "Same face, same pale skin, same dark hair, the only difference are the eyes and the smile! I look at you and I see the two people my sister was most attached to, and it's like Aurelie and Potter are here to laugh in my face, reminding me that no matter how much I pray, there will always be a freak around me! You are like my sister, just as strange, just as... As... As abnormal!" Harry's aunt yelled at Harry now. "And then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"

"Blown up?" Harry asked weakly, having gone very pale; it was a lot to understand in a short amount of time, a lot of information that was still being analysed by his brain and that he still couldn't fully comprehend. "You told me my parents died in a car crash!"

"CAR CRASH!" Roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter?"

"What happened?" Harry asked urgently, looking from his aunt to Hagrid and even to Vittoria, who was very pale; it was only then, seeing her shocked face, that Harry comprehended what his aunt had said, and he felt slightly dizzy. Their mothers were friends in the past and somehow, fate had brought them together even after so long apart. If nothing had happened to their parents, would they have been friends from a very young age?

The anger faded from Hagrid's face; he looked suddenly anxious. "I never expected this..." He said in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea tha' when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold o' yeh two, how much both o' yeh wouldn' know..." Hagrid took a deep breath, shaking his head. "The night everythin' happened, Harry, 's a great mystery... Especially the parts tha' revolves around Vittoria." Hagrid sat down again, stared into the fire for a few seconds and then started. "It begins with... With this wizard..." Hagrid stopped, sighing deeply.

"Who?" Harry asked.

"Well, I don' like sayin' his name if I can help it." Hagrid said, shaking his head. "No one does."

"Why not?" Harry asked.

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared! Blimey, this is difficult... See, there was this wizard who went... Bad, as bad as yeh could go. Worse. Worse 'n worse! His name was..." Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.

Vittoria almost told Harry to drop it, that the name didn't matter, but he spoke first. "Could you write it down?" Harry suggested, curious to know as much as he could of everything.

"Nah, can' spell it... All righ, Voldemort! Now, don' make me say it again!" Hagrid said and shuddered. Vittoria wrinkled her nose when she heard the name, frowning: Voldemort? She thought it was something worse. "Anyway, this... This wizard, twenty years ago, started lookin' fer followers an' he got 'em. Some were scared, some jus' wanted a bit o' power 'cause he was gettin' himself power all righ', others were jus' as insane as he was..." Hagrid gave Vittoria a brief glance, and she knew he was talking about her family, the Blacks. She didn't say anything, but she noticed that Harry was looking at her curiously. "These were dark days, we didn' know who ter trust, we didn' dare make friends with unknown witches or wizards... Terrible things happened. He was takin' over everythin'! O' course, some stood up ter 'im an' he killed 'em. Horribly... One o' the on'y safe places left was Hogwarts, I think Dumbledore was one of the few people You-Know-Who was afraid o', didn' dare try to take over the school..."

"Anyway..." Hagrid went on. "Yer parents were great wizards, Harry, jus' as not on'y Vittoria's parents, but like the entire Caelum family. The Caelums had done a lot ter end tha' war, an' yer parents, Lily an' James, had fought side by side with Aurelie an' Daniel Caelum, Vittoria's parents, an' it was no mystery tha' You-Know-Who wanted 'em on his side, but he knew they were very close ter Dumbledore an' would never wan' anythin' ter do with the dark side, even if it meant havin' more power." Harry cast a quick glance at Vittoria at the mention of her parents and family, and he felt in his bones that there would be more about her past than there would be to his. "So, in the night it all happened, I think You-Know-Who jus' wanted to get yer parents out o' the way an' show Vittoria's mother tha' she had chosen the wrong side... Aurelie was a Black, an' Blacks were You-Know-Who's greatest followers, an' she married a Caelum, his greatest enemies... All anyone knows is tha' You-Know-Who appeared in the village where yeh all lived on Halloween ten years ago. He went to yer home firs' Harry an'... An'..." Hagrid suddenly pulled a very dirty, stained and damp handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose with a loud sound.

"Sorry..." Hagrid said, sniffling. "But 's so sad, I knew yer parents, the four of them were the nicest people yeh could ever meet... Anyway, You-Know-Who killed 'em because Lily an' James Potter were Aurelie an' Daniel Caelum's best friends, an' they would certainly fight ter defend their friends... Sad deaths, died because they were too loyal... An' then he went ter Vittoria's house... He killed her parents an' tha' 's where the biggest mystery lies, instead of going away and leaving Vittoria alone like he did with you, he tried to kill her, but he couldn', an' then summat happened, summat so big tha' it not on'y destroyed Vittoria's entire house, but it destroyed You-Know-Who too. Vittoria survived the killing curse an' did summat tha' put an end ter 'im, summat tha' nobody knows wha' it was till today... See tha' mark on her cheek? Tha' scar is not common, tha' 's wha' yeh get when a powerful an' evil curse like the killin' curse touches yeh... It's proof that she did something incredible!" Hagrid looked at Vittoria and Harry followed suit, but while the former was thoughtful, Harry was gaping at her.

Harry was right in thinking there was more about Vittoria, because there was, she put an end to Voldemort! She survived the killing curse and defeated the bad guy! She was incredible! Vittoria, meanwhile, was felling very self-conscious with the two of them looking at her, but she was more embarrassed by the look Harry was giving her than Hagrid's. Why was he looking at her as if she had discovered the recipe for world peace? She hadn't done anything so great, she doubted she could have done anything against Voldemort when she was not even two years old... It was all pure luck!

"Tha' sets her apart from the rest, see, she survived a curse tha' killed several powerful wizards, an' tha' 's why she is famous, Harry, 'cause nobody ever lived after You-Know-Who decided to kill 'em, nobody except her, an' he killed some o' the bes' witches an' wizards o' the age, the Caelums, the Potters, the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts... An' Merlin, Vittoria managed to stop 'im somehow! Tha' 's reason enough fer her ter be so well known in the wizardin' world!" Hagrid's eyes then became sad as he looked deeply at Vittoria and Harry, both still sitting side by side on the floor. "Yeah, well, tha's all I know abou' tha' night... I was the one who got yeh two out o' yer houses, on Dumbledore's orders, after yer parents... After they died, an' I was the one who brought yeh ter tha' lot, Harry... Neither o' yeh ended up well unfortunately, blood really don' always mean love."

There was a brief silence after Hagrid finished speaking, where Harry took the opportunity to let all this information sink into his mind. Vittoria had probably already had this conversation with Hagrid before, so she didn't seem as overwhelmed as he did, but Harry could see that this topic hurt her as much as it hurt him. He was feeling a sharpy pain in his chest that was a mixture of grief and sadness and anger... Grief for the death of his parents, sadness with everything that happened because his parents only wanted to protect those they loved, and anger at Voldemort but at his aunt and uncle too, for having hidden the truth from him for so long! It was his right to know, and they hid it from him and certainly would have continued to if Hagrid hadn't found them.

"Load of old tosh!" said Dursley suddenly, making Vittoria and Harry jump; they had almost forgotten that they were there. Harry's uncle certainly seemed to have got back his courage, as he was glaring at Hagrid, his fists clenched. "Now, you listen here, boy!" He snarled at Harry. "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured! And as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it! The world's best off without them in my opinion, asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types like this girl's parents, so much so that they died because of them! Just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end-!"

Hagrid suddenly leapt from the sofa and drew his pink umbrella from inside his coat, pointing it at Harry's uncle like a sword. "I'm warnin' yeh, Dursley! I'm warnin' yeh! One more word-!" In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Dursley courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent. "Tha's better!" said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.

"But what happened to Vol-!" Harry started to ask but Hagrid made a disapproving sound with his throat, which made him change what he was going to say. "Sorry! I mean, You-Know-Who? Did Vittoria really kill him?"

"Dunno... He disappeared, vanished." Hagrid said, shaking his head. "Tha' makes Vittoria even more famous, 'cause wha' did she do ter stop 'im? See, he was gettin' more an' more powerful so wha' happened? Ev'ryone believes tha' he died, yes, but I don', as if he had enough human left in 'im ter die... I think he's still out there, biding his time 'cause he los' his powers an' is too weak ter carry on, cause summat 'bout Vittoria finished 'im... There was summat goin' on tha' night he hadn' counted on... I dunno wha' it was, no one knows." Hagrid then looked at them and smiled. "Vittoria Caelum an' Harry Potter together again after so long... Yeh wait, yeh will be so happy at Hogwarts!"

But Harry's uncle wasn't going to give in without a fight. "Haven't I told you he's not going?" He hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High, and he'll be grateful for it! I've read those letters, and he needs all sorts of rubbish! Spell books and wands and-!"

"If he wants ter go, a great muggle like yeh won' stop 'im!" growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily and James Potter's son going ter Hogwarts! Yeh're mad! His name's bin down ever since he was born! He's off ter the finest school o' witchcraft an' wizardry in the world! Seven years there an' he won' know himself! He'll be with children o' his own sort fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled-!"

"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" Dursley yelled and Vittoria and Harry saw Hagrid's face contort with rage; he seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head.

"I think your uncle has said too much now." Vittoria whispered to Harry, who looked at her while nodding.

"NEVER-!" Hagrid thundered. "INSULT ALBUS DUMBLEDORE IN FRONT O' ME!" He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air and pointed at Dudley, Harry's cousin; there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, they saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers; Vittoria and Harry stifled their sudden laughter by covering their mouths with their hands. Harry's uncle roared as his wife cried, and pulling his wife and son into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them. Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard while turning to Vittoria and Harry. "Shouldn' lost me temper..." he said ruefully. "But it didn' work anyway, meant ter turn 'im into a pig, but I suppose he was too much like one already..." He cast a sideway look at Vittoria and Harry under his bushy eyebrows and took in their amused faces. "I will be grateful if yeh don' mention it at Hogwarts... I, well, I shouldn' do magic strictly speakin'... I was allowed ter do a little ter get yeh on'y."

"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" Vittoria found herself asking.

"Oh, well... I was at Hogwarts meself, but I... Er... Got kicked out ter tell yeh the truth." Hagrid said, sighing. "In me third year, they snapped me wand in half an' everythin'... But Dumbledore lemme stay as a gamekeeper. Great man Dumbledore!" Oh, now Vittoria understood why Hagrid defended this Dumbledore man so much.

"Why were you expelled?" Harry asked, but Hagrid didn't seem interested to answer it, however.

"It's really late an' we have a lot ter do in few hours!" said Hagrid loudly. "We have ter go ter London firs' thing in the mornin', get all yer books and stuff!" He grabbed the blanket that was resting on the back of the sofa and handed it to Vittoria, then took off his thick coat and tossed it to Harry. "Yeh can sleep under it, Harry." He said. "Don' mind if it squirms around a bit, I think I still have a pair o' dormouse in a pocket."

. . .

Vittoria wasn't sure how much time had passed since they had lain down, whether it had been just a few minutes or hours, just that Hagrid's snoring started as soon as he lay down on the sofa, but she was still awake. She and Harry were lying side by side on the floor, with their feet to the fireplace, and now she was enjoying the silence that had fallen around her; she still heard the cries of the blond boy and the complaints coming from the woman and the man in the next room for a while, but that soon stopped too. Vittoria had a lot on her mind to be able to sleep; how she wanted to feel the sleep she'd felt hours ago, the one that followed the question that was keeping her awake now.

"Can't you sleep too?" Harry's low voice reached her ears, and she turned her head, seeing that he was looking at her.

"No." Vittoria said quietly with a simple smile, shaking her head. "Neither do you apparently."

"Nope." Harry said, smiling awkwardly. "Vittoria, I... Well, I'm sorry your aunt treated you so badly... What you said earlier... It was terrible." He said almost immediately, almost as if he was just waiting for the opportunity to do so.

Vittoria felt a warm feeling in her chest for someone finally feel bad about something that had happened to her, no one had ever cared enough about her to feel bad about something that she had lived through, and here was Hagrid and Harry, two people she barely knew and that already made her feel more good feelings than she felt in a lifetime. "Well, that's not even close to being the most horrible thing to find out about my aunt." Vittoria said, sighing. "If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell anyone?" She asked sitting up and arranging the blanket over her legs. Harry sat up immediately too, nodding.

"Sure, I promise!"

"My aunt Adeline was a faithful follower of Voldemort, as well as practically all of the Black family, my mum's side of the family." Vittoria said in a quiet voice, feeling an awful displeasure at having discovered this; no one would ever think their own family would be rotten, they would always hope their family was good. Even knowing that it was difficult to have a good family when she had a terrible aunt and grandparents, Vittoria still hoped it was just them and not everyone else. It pained her to know that the Blacks that came out good were considered rare. "She killed several members of my dad's family and many others, and I'm sure she just didn't kill me in these ten years living together because this Dumbledore man checked if I was alive every end of the month."

"I'm sorry, but what?" Harry gasped, wide-eyed. Vittoria gave a humourless laugh and nodded. "Why did they even let you live with her in the first place? She's a murderer!" He whispered, looking horrified.

"For the same reason you ended up with your aunt: She was my only living blood relative. Apart from her, I don't have anyone else." Vittoria said and saw Harry's shoulders slump slightly as he accepted the explanation.

"But still! My aunt and uncle are horrible, yes, but not murderers!" Harry whispered. "You could have died! Your aunt is a murderer, she followed Voldemort! How could they let her go free?"

"Well, she was never caught." Vittoria said, shrugging helplessly. "And if you have no proofs about something, that means it never happened."

"This is so messed up!" Harry said empathetically and Vittoria smiled small, nodding.

"But you know something cool? My aunt doesn't have magic anymore, my other aunt did a spell that, while it ended up killing her, took away her magic!" Vittoria said and saw Harry's face twist even more into a look of horror and disbelief; God, was her life that crazy? "Hagrid told me about it. That's why we lived in the muggle world, because she didn't have magic anymore to live in the wizarding world."

"Bloody hell..." Harry breathed. "Being you is not boring at any time apparently!"

"And it doesn't end there!" Vittoria said, chuckling.

"I'm sorry to say it, but your life gets worse by the second!" Harry said truthfully and that drew an honest laugh from Vittoria, who had to cover her mouth to stifle it. Harry ended up laughing too, even though he was worried about the girl he just met and who had enough reasons to be dead and still never said hello to lady Death.

"Harry, I have to say something to you." Vittoria said when her laugh ended, and Harry saw how her face took a serious continence.

"What is it?"

"I'm truly sorry." Vittoria said, eyes full of something Harry thought was guilty, but why was she feeling guilty? Why was she apologizing?

"I don't think I follow you..." Harry said, frowning slightly.

"For your parents." Vittoria said and Harry opened his mouth to say he was sorry for hers too, now understanding what she was trying to say, but Vittoria didn't stop there. "They wouldn't have died if it weren't for my parents, Voldemort only killed them because he wanted, for some reason, to kill my family and... God, Harry, I'm sorry he killed your parents, it's all my fault."

"Vittoria, I'm sorry, but I really don't understand how this could be your fault." Harry said, looking at her seriously; yes, right, his parents did die because Voldemort didn't want anyone in the way when he went to kill the Caelums, but it wasn't like Vittoria's parents had forced his parents to die for them, Lily and James weren't even in the same house than Vittoria's parents, the only one to blame there was Voldemort.

"Voldemort-" Vittoria started to say, but...

"Exactly." Harry cut her off and Vittoria looked at him with exasperation. He smiled at her. "He is to blame for everything, not you or your parents. If we are orphans today it is because of him, so stop apologizing for his mistake... Besides, you already avenged our parents when you finished him off." Vittoria smiled small at Harry, and he smiled back.

And that's how Vittoria and Harry spent most of their night talking in low voices so as not to wake Hagrid. Vittoria told him everything Hagrid had told her about her family, the Blacks, and almost everything about the Caelums, and then, when Harry had gotten over some of the shock of knowing the tiniest bit about the Caelums (Vittoria didn't tell him about being able to do wandless magic), and the whole truth about the Blacks, they began to discuss other random things. They talked about their past, about stories and experiences they had living with their relatives.

Their hearts were, for the first time ever, light to have someone to share their pains, fears and thoughts. It was a silent partnership, neither of them expressed it in words, but they knew they had become inseparable friends there, in that hut in the middle of nowhere; there was no need to say aloud something that both Vittoria and Harry felt in their hearts when their eyes met. There was something there, an instantaneous connection, a bond that told them they were made for this, to find each other even after so long...

It was in sync that sleep engulfed them both hours later and they fell asleep practically at the same time, both facing each other because they were talking until seconds before, lulled by the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks below and the crackle of the dying fire in the fireplace, both with a warm sense of belonging that neither of them had ever felt before, embracing their hearts. It was really nice to finally have a friend.

Chapter Text

Vittoria woke up in the morning to the sunlight hitting her face in a much stronger way than it normally does in the mornings, and the first thing she did was groan and pull the blanket over her face, wanting just to go back to sleep, but the light was even passing through the blanket; why was the sun so strong all of a sudden? She was feeling her head so heavy and spinning, she didn't even want to move; Vittoria hated how her aunt would be home soon and that she would force her out of her bedroom to do things all day... God, she was so, but so tired, that she wasn't even recognizing herself... It even looked like she'd been up all night!

Vittoria's eyes snapped open as she sat up quickly, memories flooding her mind. Her first reaction was to look around her, searching for any indication that she hadn't just dreamed everything she remembered, and the relief she felt when she found Harry sleeping right next to her under Hagrid's coat was so great that she even lay down again. She dreamed nothing, she really lived it all! Now Vittoria understood why she was so tired, Harry and she spent so much time talking that she doubted she had slept even two hours this night, but she wouldn't change a thing! It was great talking to him, Harry understood her, and she understood him, the conversation between them was natural. Their friendship was natural, simple even.

Sighing tiredly, Vittoria put her hand to her hair when she felt a weight there and realized that her wool cap was almost falling off her head, which made her nose wrinkle slightly; she had a lot of hair, but it was thin and always tangled so easily, it must be chaos right now! Taking off her wool cap and stuffing it inside her schoolbag, she did her best to arrange her hair; the strands weren't knotted as she'd imagined, but they were very messy. When she decided she had arranged her hair enough to be presentable, Vittoria felt a yawn break through her lips, and that made her decide that she could get some more sleep; the sun was still rising which meant it was quite early, and she believed that Hagrid would still take a while to wake up.

So, lying down again and pulling the blue blanket back over her, she closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but a loud and insistent tapping on the window made her open her eyes again. Vittoria sighed and sat down again, rubbing her eyes as the blue blanket fell from her body. She looked around, searching where the noise was coming from, and she finally found the reason of it: There was an owl tapping its claws on the window! A wave of excitement at the sight of the owl with what looked like a rolled-up newspaper between its beak filled Vittoria's body, disappearing with all her sleep at once. She was already getting up, about to go towards it, when she heard Harry mutter something. Vittoria stopped abruptly, standing on her knees, and turned to him, seeing that he had his eyes closed tightly, almost as if refusing to wake up.

Vittoria was extremely good at reading people's emotions just as she was good at judging their character, it was easier to deal with people when you knew what they were feeling, and she could read in Harry's features that he was fearful. She bit the inside of her cheeks, feeling the need to wake Harry up to the real world, for him to see that he hadn't dreamed everything that had happened, because she knew he thought so; they had similar lives, so it was obvious that he would never immediately believe that something good had really happened to him, it was obvious that he would think it was all just a crazy dream, just as she did... But should she wake him up? They had known each other for a very short time, she didn't know even if he remembered her name, she didn't know even if he would want to be friends with her, maybe Harry would like to keep their relationship as acquaintances rather than friends...

... But they talked all night, they told each other things that they would never tell anyone else, so that could only mean that just like her, he also wanted to be her friend! But Vittoria was so afraid she was reading the signs wrongly and that she would end up all alone... Throwing caution to the wind, Vittoria shook her head and placed her hand on Harry's shoulder; no more being afraid of things, it was time to start living! She wanted to be friends with him, Harry was a nice boy and even if he forgot about her when they got to Hogwarts because he met cooler people, well, at least she tried, didn't she? At least she didn't let fear control her.

"Good morning, Harry..." Vittoria said softly, sitting on her legs now, as she shook Harry's shoulder, who snapped his eyes open, turning his head towards her quickly and watching her with eyes so wide they were in danger of falling off his skull. Vittoria smiled at him, two rows of white teeth showing as two dimples pierced her cheeks, while watching him put his glasses quickly, sitting up and continuing to stare at her with his mouth now slightly open.

"You are here!" Harry gasped and Vittoria nodded, her smile still on her lips.

"I'm."

"I thought you were just a dream!" Harry said, his cheeks flushing.

"I'm afraid to say that I do really exist." Vittoria said, flashing him an amused smile now, and Harry grinned at her, sighing in relief.

"That's good 'cause it would be really weird if I'd created you with my mind!" Harry said, earning a giggle from Vittoria.

"You're funny, Harry." Vittoria said and Harry looked at her slightly surprised.

"Really?" He asked and Vittoria nodded. "Nobody has ever told me that."

"Well, so I'm the first!" Vittoria said, grinning. "And believe me when I tell you this because I don't compliment people easily, especially boys." She added sincerely. "So, yeah... You're funny, and cool!"

"I think you're cool too, and funny!" Harry said, blushing, and Vittoria smiled at him. However, when she was about to open her mouth to say something, the tapping noise in the window caught her attention again, and this time Harry had heard it too. "Look, there's an owl!"

"Yeah, I was about to go over there!" Vittoria said, grinning. So, beaming, Vittoria rose from the floor, reaching out to help Harry to his feet, and together they ran to the window with huge smiles on their faces. Vittoria jerked the window open, and the owl swooped in at once, dropping the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up, and then fluttered onto the floor, where it began to attack Hagrid's coat. "Hey, don't do that!" Vittoria said and walked over to the bird, trying to wave the owl away. "Shoo! Shoo!" But the owl just ignored her and carried on savaging Hagrid's coat.

"Hagrid!" Harry called loudly. "There's an owl attacking your coat!"

"Pay 'im..." Hagrid grunted from the sofa.

"What?" Vittoria and Harry asked at the same time, frowning in confusion; they have to pay a bird?

"He wants ter be paid fer deliverin' the paper... Look in the pockets." Hagrid grunted again. Harry knelt beside Vittoria on the floor and they both began to search the coat pockets. Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets; there was bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags... Finally, Vittoria pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins and they both looked at it with confusion. "Give 'im five knuts." Hagrid said sleepily.

"Knuts?" Vittoria and Harry asked together, looking at each other completely lost.

"The little bronze ones." Hagrid mumbled. Harry counted out five little bronze coins in Vittoria's hands and the owl held out its leg so he could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it, then it flew off through the open window. Vittoria was returning the remaining coins into the pocket she found it, finding it very cute how the owl stretched out its leg for them, when Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up and stretched. He gave one good look around and nodded. "Best be off, kids, lots ter do today till eleven... We have ter go ter London ter buy yer stuff!"

Vittoria suddenly felt her throat tighten as Hagrid mentioned buying them supplies. "Hagrid?" She called anxiously.

"Mmm?" He said, pulling on his huge boots.

"I haven't got any money." Vittoria said, rising from the floor.

"Me neither!" Harry said, sadness engulfing his body. "And you heard uncle Vernon last night, he won't pay for me to go and learn magic!"

"His name is Vernon?" Vittoria whispered and Harry nodded. "More like venom!" She mumbled, which made Harry snort a laugh despite everything.

"Don' worry 'bout tha' yeh two!" said Hagrid, standing up and rubbing his face; apparently, he hadn't heard what Vittoria said. "Do yeh think yer parents left yeh nothin'?"

"They did?" Vittoria and Harry gasped in surprise. "Where?"

"Why, at Gringotts Bank!" Hagrid said, grabbing his coat from the floor.

"Wizards have banks?" Vittoria gasped, picking up her schoolbag from the floor; Harry got his too. He had told her that he had been away from home for a while now because his uncle didn't want any letters to reach his hands, and after so many things he had done to stop the letters from arriving had failed, his uncle had decided that packing and leaving for that island was the best, since there was no way for the mail to deliver letters on an island!

"Jus' this one, Gringotts. Run by goblins." Hagrid explained. Vittoria and Harry looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Goblins?" They gasped at the same time. "They really exist?"

"Yeah... Never mess with 'em, yeh have ter be mad ter steal summat from goblins!" Hagrid said, shaking his head. "Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anythin' yeh wan' ter keep safe, except maybe Hogwarts... I have ter visit Gringotts anyway, fer Dumbledore, Hogwarts business!" He added proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer 'im. Collectin' yeh two, takin' things from Gringotts, he can trust me! Got everythin'?" Vittoria and Harry nodded. "Come on then!"

They followed Hagrid out of the hut, Harry not even thinking about saying goodbye to his relatives — he wanted distance from them, and onto the land; the sky was clear, and the sea gleamed in the sunlight, it didn't even look like a storm had broken out hours ago.

"How did you get here?" Harry asked Vittoria as they walked side by side right behind Hagrid.

"That boat over there!" Vittoria said, pointing at a wooden boat not far from where they were.

"You came by boat even with yesterday's weather?" Harry asked in surprise. "The sea was very rough because of the wind! It was dangerous!"

"I know! I think we just didn't drown because Hagrid did magic on the boat." Vittoria whispered and Harry stared at her open-mouthed.

"Really?" He asked and Vittoria nodded excitedly.

"Magic is so cool, Harry!" She said, her eyes sparkling. "Hagrid said there are a lot of cool spells and we're going to learn them all at Hogwarts!"

"Oh, I can't wait to do magic!" Harry said anxiously.

"Oh, me too!"

"Hey, yeh two, let's go!" Hagrid called from inside the boat, smiling at the fact that Vittoria and Harry were already talking naturally as if they'd known each other for ages! He knew they would get along well, there was no way they wouldn't! Vittoria and Harry hurried down the slippery steps and settled into the boat with Hagrid, sitting together opposite to him, who still had the newspaper in one hand and his pink umbrella in the other. "I'm goin' ter speed things up again or we won' have time ter do everythin'! Yeh don' mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts too, righ'?" Hagrid asked, looking at them with his eyes sparkling with amusement, because he knew they were both dying to see magic again; Vittoria and Harry nodded and watched attentively as Hagrid tapped the pink umbrella on their boat. Soon, they were sailing really fast, even faster than they sailed hours ago — Vittoria noticed, and almost immediately, Harry was nudging Vittoria, looking at her with wide eyes in excitement; she nodded, mouthing a "Told you, didn't I?"

"Hagrid, why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked after a moment.

"Spells, enchantments..." said Hagrid, reading his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults." Vittoria and Harry turned to each other with wide eyes and mouthed "Dragons!" at the same time, both very stunned. "An' then yeh gotta find yer way out... Gringotts is hundreds o' miles under London, see, deep under the underground... Yeh would die o' hunger tryin' ter get out even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."

"Well, I'm deadly sure I will never try to steal anything from them!" Vittoria said, recovering from the shock of learning that dragons exist. Harry nodded.

"Me neither!"

"Tha's good, stay away from the criminal life!" Hagrid said without looking at them, nodding. "Merlin, Ministry of Magic messin' things up as usual..." He muttered turning the page.

"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Vittoria asked, her curiosity taking the best of her.

"O' course!" said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer minister, but he would never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. He pelts Dumbledore with owls every mornin', always askin' fer advice."

"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?" Vittoria asked.

"Well, their main job is ter keep from the muggles tha' there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country." Hagrid explained.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Why?" Hagrid said astonished. "Blimey, ev'ryone'd be wantin' magic solutions ter their problems! Nah, we're bes' left alone!"

At this moment, the boat bumped gently into the wooden pier; Hagrid folded up his paper and they clambered up the pier and then onto the street. Passers-by stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through Southampton to the train station, some even bumped into things because they weren't paying attention to their surroundings. Vittoria couldn't blame them, it was very difficult to see someone like Hagrid and not stop to look, it was impolite, but it was an understandable action, besides, he was always pointing to common things like fire hydrants and asking loudly what it was for.

"Hagrid?" Harry called out as he and Vittoria trotted to keep up with the man. "Did you say there are dragons in Gringotts?"

"Well, so they say." said Hagrid, nodding. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon..."

"You'd like one?" Vittoria asked, her breathing already getting out of step with the speed she was walking; she really wasn't into physical exertion.

"Wanted one ever since I was a kid... Here we go!" They had reached the underground station at last; they went down the escalator quickly and saw written on the panel that there was a train to London in five minutes. Hagrid gave another amount of muggle money to Vittoria for her to repeat the ticket-buying process for them, this time with the addition of Harry's ticket, and then they headed for the train that would take them back to London. People stared more than ever inside the train as Hagrid took up two seats yet again only for him, and yet again, sat knitting his yellow something. "Still got yer letters, Vittoria? Harry?" He asked as he counted stitches; Vittoria and Harry had sat together, facing him, and Harry wasted no time in grabbing the envelope from his pocket. "Good!" said Hagrid nodding. "There's a list o' everythin' yeh will need in there too."

Harry unfolded a second piece of paper that neither he nor Vittoria had seen before, and Vittoria got closer to him to read as well:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

UNIFORM:
First-year students will require:

1. Five sets of standard robes according to the dress code;
2. Three sets of standard winter robes according to the dress code;
3. One plain pointed hat (black) for especial occasions;
4. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar);
5. One standard winter cloak (black).

COURSE BOOKS:
All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1), by Miranda Goshawk;
A History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot;
Magical Theory, by Adalbert Waffling;
A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, by Emeric Switch;
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, by Phyllida Spore;
Magical Drafts and Potions, by Arsenius Jigger;
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, by Newt Scamander;
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, by Quentin Trimble.

OTHER EQUIPMENT:
1 wand;
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2);
1 set glass or crystal phials;
1 telescope;
1 set brass scales.

Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl or a cat or a toad.

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK!

"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.

"If yeh know where ter go." Hagrid said with a grin.

"Cool!" Vittoria and Harry said, grinning too.

Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in the muggle way; he got stuck in the ticket barrier when leaving the underground station, something he didn't have to deal with last night because London Bridge Station didn't have tickets barriers like St Pancras International Station, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow. "I don' know how the muggles manage ter do things without magic!" He said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops, some passers-by looking at them strangely upon hearing this; Vittoria and Harry both smiled awkwardly at the people, shaking their heads as if to say it was a joke.

They were right in the heart of London, and God, how this city had people living in it! It wasn't even seven in the morning and the streets were like anthills! Vittoria had lived in London for ten years, but she would never get used to the hundreds of people who were always around; only a storm to get all that people off the streets. Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily, all Vittoria and Harry had to do was keep close behind him, which was easy to do. They passed by bookshops and music stores, restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand; this was central London after all, and there was no way there could be something magical there without anyone ever noticing, it was impossible!

But apparently, magic and the impossible go hand in hand.

"This is it!" said Hagrid at last, coming to a halt so suddenly that Vittoria and Harry ran into him. "The Leaky Cauldron! It's a famous place!"

The Leaky Cauldron was right in the centre of London, next to one of the largest and oldest bookshops in the city, where famous writers always had an autograph session, and a record store that several famous singers and bands have frequented and made an afternoon with fans to sign CDs and, in the past, records. This pub was right in the middle of everything, in plain sight, and as much as it was a tiny, grubby-looking pub that if Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, neither Vittoria nor Harry would have noticed it was there, an observant muggle would definitely see! However, paying close attention to her surroundings, Vittoria realized that the people hurrying by didn't glance at it, their eyes slid from the big bookshop to the record store as if they couldn't see the pub at all! Vittoria began to suspect that only she, Hagrid and Harry could see the building; was there magic to disguise things, to fool the muggles?

Hagrid led them inside, where the state of the pub was not so different from what they had seen outside; it was very dark and shabby, even though everything looked pretty clean. A few old women were sitting in the corner, all drinking tiny glasses of sherry — one of them smoking a long pipe, and a little man in a top hat was talking to an old bartender who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut.

The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in, everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"

"Can', Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business!" said Hagrid, clapping his big hands on Vittoria and Harry's shoulders, causing them to step forward because of the force of the impact.

"Good Lord!" Gasped the bartender, peering at them, his eyes growing wider by the second. "Is she-? Can she be-?" The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent. "Bless my soul!" whispered the old man. "Vittoria Caelum in my pub! What an honour!" He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards Vittoria and seized her hand, tears filling his eyes. "Welcome back, Miss Caelum! Welcome back!"

Everyone was looking at Vittoria now, the old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realising it had gone out, and then, quite suddenly, there was a great scraping of chairs and seconds later, Vittoria was shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron, Harry quickly slipping to Hagrid's side; he could see that Vittoria seemed uncomfortable with all that, and he felt bad for her. Vittoria didn't have much of a reaction other than to shake all the hands that got in her way, in fact, she was in shock with everyone's reactions; Hagrid said that she was famous in the wizarding world, she just didn't imagine it would be to the point that people literally wanted to shake her hand, or started to cry because they were meeting her!

Vittoria shook hands again and again with Doris Crockford, an old lady who kept coming back for more, and Dedalus Diggle, a young man with long black hair wearing a purple top hat, kept introducing himself to her, as if he didn't want her to forget him. She was sure she had shaken hands with everyone there at least three times already when a pale young man made his way forward and Hagrid finally said something after minutes of silence; the man looked very nervous, one of his eyes was twitching.

"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid loudly. "Vittoria an' Harry, this is Professor Quirrell, he will be one of yer teachers at Hogwarts!"

"V-Vittoria and H-Harry!" Stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Vittoria and Harry's hands. "I-I'm p-pleased to meet you!"

"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?" Harry asked curiously.

"D-Defence Against the D-D-Dark Arts!" Muttered Professor Quirrell as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-Not that you n-need it, eh?" He added, looking at Vittoria and he laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your things, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires m-myself..." He looked terrified at the very thought.

"Vampires?" Vittoria gasped and amidst all the babble around them, only Harry heard her; both exchanged shocked looks.

It took Vittoria almost ten minutes to get away from all the people that gathered around her, but at last Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the voices. "Must get on, lots ter buy till eleven! Come on, kids! Let's go!" Doris Crockford shook Vittoria's hand one last time, and then, Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds. Vittoria was finally able to breathe normally again, it had been difficult to stay calm inside the pub with so many people around her, but she was happy that she managed to last as long as she did. Hagrid grinned down at her when he closed the door, leaving all the noise inside the pub. "Told yeh, didn' I? Told yeh were famous! Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh! Mind yeh, he's usually always tremblin'..." Hagrid added, shaking his head.

"He is always that nervous?" Vittoria asked, fixing her schoolbag strap on her shoulder.

"Oh yeah..." Hagrid said, nodding. "Poor bloke, brilliant mind! He was fine while he was studyin' his books, but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, an' there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag... Never bin the same since! Scared o' the students, scared o' his own subject... Now, where's me umbrella?"

Hagrid was counting bricks in the wall above the dustbin when Vittoria turned to Harry. "What other creatures besides goblins, dragons and vampires are there?" Vittoria whispered wide-eyed at Harry, who looked as impressed as she was. "Werewolves?"

"I thought this was only a fairy tale thing!" Harry whispered back and Vittoria nodded frantically.

"When we least expect it, Hogwarts will end up being a castle!" She whispered and Harry grinned.

"This one would be brilliant!" He said and Vittoria chuckled, nodding.

"Three up... Two across..." Hagrid muttered and they looked back at him. "Righ', stand back!" He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella and the brick he had touched quivered, wriggled in the middle, and a small hole appeared; it grew wider and wider, and a second later, they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway that opened onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. "Welcome ter Diagon Alley! Good thing they open on Sundays!" Hagrid said, grinning.

Vittoria and Harry, utterly dumbfounded, walked through the archway towards that wonderfully exotic place, looking around with their mouths open in awe. The sun was shining brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop, the sign hanging over them said: "Cauldrons all sizes: Copper, brass, pewter, silver, self-stirring, collapsible", and there was quite a large group made up of children, teenagers and even adults with their noses stuck to the window of a store called Quality Quidditch Supplies, looking at a broom on display; so witches and wizards really use broomsticks to get around, Vittoria thought, her eyes sparkling with excitement. It was indeed a beautiful broom, it was rotating on its axis, showing all its parts, the name "Nimbus 2000" was highlighted in large golden letters above it.

They could see, too, children entering a bookstore called Flourish and Blotts, others leaving Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions; others were eating ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, others were just walking around... But everyone seemed to be sharing the same rush, as no one there was walking around calmly. Parents seemed to be at the peak of impatience, yelling at their children to hurry, but their children didn't seem to care, they were agitated, running around, stopping all the time to look at the stores...

As Vittoria and Harry walked up the street behind Hagrid, they could see a lot of different things: Windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes (now that jar Vittoria found at her aunt's house containing bat blood made sense), tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, miniatures of planets... A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium, and there was a plump woman outside an Apothecary who was shaking her head as they passed; "Dragon liver, seventeen sickles an ounce!" She was saying incredulously. "They're mad!"

"Gringotts!" said Hagrid when they reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops; standing beside its burnished bronze doors and wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was a short creature. "Yeah, tha' 's a goblin..." He added quietly as they walked up the white stone steps towards him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Vittoria, had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and very long fingers and feet.

The goblin bowed as they walked inside and Vittoria gave him a small smile when he got back up; he looked at her for a brief moment, seeming distrustful of something, just to nod at her, his eyes no doubt finding her scar. Vittoria could have sworn that his lips quirked up very slightly and very briefly into a smile; she didn't think goblins smiled much, or received smiles, since, if they really were how they were portrayed in fairy tale books, goblins were mischievous creatures who distrusted everyone and everything. So, receiving a tiny, almost non-existent smile from a goblin, was a big deal.

"He nodded at you?" Harry whispered in surprise in Vittoria's ear, who nodded, still a bit stunned.

"I think he even smiled!"

"No way!"

As soon as they entered the building, they ran into a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

"Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So, if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there."

"Like I said, yeh have ter be mad ter try ter rob somethin' from here!" said Hagrid, shaking his head as he stared at the words. A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors, and they walked in a vast marble hall; about a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales and examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid, Vittoria and Harry made for the counter. "Mornin'!" said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some gold out of Miss Vittoria Caelum's and Mr. Harry Potter's vaults!"

"Do you have their keys, sir?" The goblin asked, openly looking at the scar on Vittoria's face, who felt very uncomfortable; she hated it when people stared so blatantly at her scar.

"Got 'em here somewhere..." said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers; the goblin wrinkled his face, finally pulling his attention away from Vittoria, who sighed in relief.

Harry, who noticed, of course, how the goblin was staring at Vittoria, looked at her from the corner of his eye and felt bad about the way people treated her; either they mistreated her, or they just saw her as a famous scar. Honestly, couldn't people have more empathy and instead of just looking at the scar, look at her? At the girl behind it? Vittoria was so cool... Trying to find something to talk to Vittoria and distract her a little, Harry looked around while Hagrid searched for their keys and saw a goblin on his right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals, so he nudged Vittoria, who was as stunned as he was to see it.

"My God, I've never seen anything like it..." Vittoria whispered in awe and Harry nodded.

"I didn't even know they could exist this size!"

"Right?"

"Got it!" said Hagrid at last, holding up two golden keys; one was tiny while the other was slightly larger with a small red stone, maybe a ruby, on the top tip. Hagrid handed it to the goblin, who looked at the two keys closely.

"That seems to be in order." The goblin said at last, bending over the counter and handing one key to Vittoria, the one with the ruby on the tip, and the other to Harry; they held it firmly inside their hands, looking at it with interest.

"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore!" said Hagrid importantly, puffing out his chest. "It's 'bout the you-know-what in vault 713."

The goblin read the letter carefully. "Very well." He said, handing it back to Hagrid. "I will have someone to take you down to the three vaults... Griphook!" Griphook was yet another goblin, and once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, Vittoria, Harry and he followed him towards one of the doors leading off the hall.

"What's the you-know-what in vault 713?" Harry asked, but Vittoria wasn't very interested in that; if it was any of their business, Hagrid would have probably already spoken about it with them. Her aunt had always told her to stay out of other people's business, that no one liked a meddlesome, and Vittoria had always done that, never questioning it, perhaps because she really wasn't interested in gossip, or perhaps because the people around her were always talking about her and her scar.

"Can' tell yeh tha'." said Hagrid mysteriously to Harry. "It's a secret, Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me!"

Griphook held the door open for them and they walked into a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches; it sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the ground. Griphook whistled and soon a cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them, where they climbed in, Hagrid with some difficulty, and then the cart started to move again. At first, they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages, but suddenly, the cart started to pick up speed and Vittoria was now holding on for dear life; it was like a roller coaster, terrible fast and lethal because it didn't have a seat belt or a lock. Did wizards even know what a seat belt was? With every turn the cart took, Vittoria could see her body falling in an endless fall; she couldn't see any of her surroundings because everything seemed blurred by the speed the cart was moving.

The cart had made already many turns and descended even more deep in the ground in a vast and complex series of interconnected tracks when someone spoke for the first time; it was Harry. "Hagrid?" He called over the noise. "What's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?" Yes, there were several around them, Vittoria noticed before the cart began to move dangerously under London.

"Stalagmites got an 'm' in it!" said Hagrid quickly. "An' don' ask me questions now, I think I'm goin' ter be sick!" Hagrid really was looking quite green.

When the cart finally stopped in front a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out really fast and leaned against the wall to stop his knees from trembling. Vittoria, meanwhile, slipped a little on her seat when the cart stopped, almost falling forward, but she held on; Harry just looked around curiously, not appearing the least bit disturbed by the cart ride like Vittoria, or feeling sick like Hagrid.

"Vault 687, Potter's safe!" Griphook said and Harry stepped out of the cart at once, now looking very excited and curious at the same time.

Vittoria watched around with curiosity as she hadn't been able to see anything around her previously because of the speed the cart was going and saw that there were other doors on that "floor" of the underground, all of which, although appeared to be made of wood, seemed to be well fortified. Harry's vault door was oval and large, but it had a tiny keyhole that matched the size of his key. Vittoria watched it all unfold until Harry unlocked his door, but then she kept her attention anywhere but the vault because it was a private moment for him.

A few minutes later, maybe ten or fifteen, Vittoria didn't bother to count, Hagrid, Harry and Griphook were back inside the cart, Harry with a bag of coins in his hands now. "There are three types of coins!" Harry whispered to Vittoria, who looked at him curiously. "You'll see, Hagrid will explain everything to you!" She nodded, eager to see wizarding money; did they have banknotes like the muggles, or was it just coins? So far, all she knew about was the knuts, which were small bronze coins with a goat embossed on the front and an inscription on the edge that Vittoria thought was the coin serial number, and she knew there was more, she found other two types in Hagrid's coat earlier today, but back then, she didn't pay too much attention to it.

"Please, can we go slower?" Hagrid asked before the cart started moving again; he seemed to be almost begging.

"One speed only!" said Griphook, shaking his head, and they could hear Hagrid sigh heavily, and mind you, Vittoria almost sighed in disappointment too; she really didn't think that cart trip was the safest. The cart started moving again further down London, and it jerked to a stop once again seconds later; Griphook got out of the cart at once. "Vault 713!" He said importantly. The vault 713 had no keyhole, but when the goblin stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers, it simply melted away. "If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there." Explained Griphook.

"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Vittoria asked, brow furrowed in concern.

"About once every ten years." said Griphook with a rather nasty grin; Vittoria and Harry exchanged horrified looks at that. Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Vittoria was sure. Hagrid went inside the vault with the goblin, and Harry leaned forward eagerly to see something inside it, but Hagrid's back managed to cover the whole space and didn't let him see anything.

"Harry?" Vittoria called.

"Yeah?" Harry said, looking back at her.

"Do you still want to know the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?" She asked and Harry nodded, his cheeks flushing; he hadn't thought that she had heard his question earlier. "Stalactites and stalagmites, explaining in simple terms, are structures of sedimentary rocks formed inside caves. Stalactites grow from the ceiling towards the ground, while stalagmites grow from the ground towards the ceiling. They are formed by the precipitation of compounds dissolved in water. A stalagmite is formed when the water reaches the bottom of the cave and evaporates, leaving a sediment. When a stalactite meets a stalagmite, it forms a column." Vittoria explained, moving her hands to simulate how stalagmites and stalactites were formed, and then blushed when she realized that Harry had really paid attention to her; no one ever paid so much attention to her when she spoke before.

"How do you know all this by heart?" Harry gasped; it was like she was reading it from a book!

Vittoria blushed harder. "I have photographic memory." She explained sheepishly, shrugging. "I only need to read, hear or see something once to remember it. An old teacher of mine explained to me about this rare cognitive ability that I have, and although she said that these memories last for a certain period of time, something like few months, I remember things from years ago."

"Perhaps you are an exception." Harry said thoughtfully and Vittoria shrugged.

"Perhaps..."

"God, you are so lucky!" Harry added right after, looking at her with round eyes.

Vittoria had seen it happen before, when other kids discovered this ability of hers (it didn't last long as they soon started calling her alien), but there was no envy in Harry's eyes like there were in the other kids' eyes, it was something different, it seemed like joy for her, like he was glad she had it even though he didn't... And Harry was really happy for her, that was a pretty amazing ability. Vittoria was his friend, the first he'd ever had, and she seemed to be everything good that anyone could be, calm, friendly, smart, kind, funny, cool, observant... He still didn't understand how he had pulled out that friendship.

Hagrid came back to the cart at that precise moment with a small, tightly wrapped package in his hands, which put an end to that matter. "Alrigh', Vittoria's vault now!" He said and it sounded like he was trying really hard not to throw up. "An' then we will be off in the sun again!"

They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck; Vittoria giggled at that, but her laugh was short-lived because, seconds later, they passed under a waterfall that, however cold it was, did not wet them. Vittoria turned slightly in her seat and observed for the briefest of seconds that it wasn't water, it was something glittering silver.

"What was that?" Vittoria asked aloud over all the noise, turning back to Griphook, who was sitting across from her, steering the cart.

"It's the Thief's Downfall." Griphook explained. "It's a charmed waterfall that we must pass through when going to certain vaults. It cancels all enchantments and magical concealments. If a cart was enchanted by thieves, it will throw the cart off its tracks."

"Wow..." Vittoria and Harry said in awe.

A few moments later, after having descended much deeper under London, they stopped again, and this time, it was the last stop, not just because it was the last vault they needed to go to, but because there were no more tracks beyond that, the tracks ended there. Unlike the other vaults they visited today, there was a goblin standing there, a goblin that didn't look as old as the goblins they met today, Vittoria could even venture to say that he was a young goblin, since he didn't have grey or white hair, but black, and there were no wrinkles on his face. He was dressed in a burgundy red uniform and was sitting on a chair with a newspaper in hand, looking very uninterested about his surroundings, until he noticed the cart. He leapt up from his chair, threw his newspaper in the corner and promptly walked over to them, bowing.

"Last vault, Caelum's safe!" Griphook said almost breathless, turning to Vittoria. "This is Hagglepot, and he-!" Griphook added in a louder voice when he noticed Hagrid getting to his feet. "It's the one that will help Miss Caelum with her vault."

"Why can't Hagrid help me?" Vittoria asked, looking confusedly at Hagrid, who looked at her just as confused, sitting back down.

"It's part of your vault security, Miss." Griphook said very vaguely, and Vittoria looked at him feeling even more confused.

"Follow me Miss Caelum, I will help you with whatever you need!" Hagglepot said smoothly and Vittoria turned to him, giving him a small nod before getting up and out of the cart with Hagrid's help.

From the way the things down there looked almost abandoned, with many corners full of cobwebs (Vittoria didn't even know spiders existed so deep down), and with none, and Vittoria was surprised to notice this, no other door or plaque other than her vault plaque with its number, she was pretty sure no one had been there in years besides Hagglepot! Vittoria walked over to the goblin, who was standing by the wall waiting for her, and noticed that her vault had no door, much less a keyhole, in fact, it didn't even look like there was a vault there, there was nothing but the wall, a sconce and the gold plaque containing the name "Caelum"; there were no numbers like on the others, just her surname.

Frowning, she turned to ask Hagglepot where her vault was, but something behind him, just above his pointed ears but way behind, caught her eye; there was a shadow at the far end, it looked like a gigantic grey silhouette, moving farther away from them, deeper into the darkness. Vittoria heard the noise of chains being dragged on the ground, but soon that sound was drowned out by Hagglepot's voice and a kind of buzzing sound that appeared around them from the thin air; she turned her attention to the goblin, the shadow already forgotten. It was probably nothing, maybe it was just a play of light from the crackling flame of the sconce on the wall.

"I am Hagglepot, Miss Caelum, and my family has guarded your vault for hundreds of years already." Hagglepot said and he seemed to be saying something confidential as he had his back to Harry, Hagrid and Griphook now, so that no one could read his lips; that buzzing, Vittoria noticed, was so that no one could hear what he was saying. "I've only been here a year, but I assure you that I was well trained and am capable of guarding your vault from any danger!" He went on, and Vittoria could only nod because she didn't even know what to say; what was so precious about her vault that she needed an exclusive goblin to protect it? "My father worked here before me, but he was moved to another sector because he was too old to keep his quick reflexes, he's the goblin standing at the entrance of Gringotts, just before the silver doors."

"Oh, I'm so-!" Vittoria started to say, eyes wide in shock, remembering the goblin who seemed to have smiled at her.

"Don't be, it's the rules, it was all written by my family, that way we don't fail to guard your vault." Hagglepot said matter-of-factly, not seeming the least bit perturbed by this. "I'm the goblin you should go to if you have any issues with your vault, Miss Caelum, no one else, do you understand me? It's important that you don't forget that! When I'm replaced by a younger one because I'm no longer viable for the job, you must look for them, no exceptions! My family are the only ones that know about all the protections and rules of your vault, we are the only ones able to help you with whatever you need. In anything you need!" Hagglepot said the last part with a firmness in his voice that made Vittoria look at him with more seriousness than shock, realizing that maybe he wanted her to understand that his help wouldn't just be with her vault. "Your family helped mine in many ways, Miss Caelum, and we are grateful to those who help us." He added.

"Me too." Vittoria said seriously, nodding, she too wanting him to understand that she had the same belief in gratitude to those who helped her. Hagglepot nodded back, looking satisfied that she understood what he meant and shared the same feeling as him and his family.

"Your vault is protected by genetic magic, Miss Caelum, therefore, only the heir of the former owners of this vault, Daniel and Aurelie Caelum, can open it. That is, you." Hagglepot began to explain about her vault, and Vittoria nodded, realizing that this was something more legal than just any explanation, because she was the last one of a whole family; did Griphook explained something to Harry about his vault too? She thought so. "When you pass away, Miss Caelum, only your partner or heir can open this vault, or someone you have chosen and included in your will, failing both, your vault will be sealed forever. I can also open it, but I will only do that with signed permission from you, and do not worry, I know how to detect fake documents."

"Wow..." Vittoria breathed, nodding. "But what is the reason for so much protection for a single vault?" She asked genuinely curious. "Harry Potter's vault only needed his key to open."

"Because this vault belongs to a Caelum and not to a Potter." Hagglepot said simply. "And no, it's not because of everything that's happened to you, Miss Caelum, but because your family has always been important. You have no idea how many have tried to steal from your family, you have no idea how many my family have pulled out from under here, the luckiest only pinned to the wall, others, well, not so lucky." Vittoria stared at Hagglepot in bewilderment, unable to imagine what could have inside her vault that so many wanted to steal.

"Oh..." Vittoria said, not even knowing what to say to that. "Why is my vault located so much lower than the others?"

"The deeper a vault is located, the more valuable it is." Hagglepot explained and Vittoria gaped at him; but there were no more tracks beyond there, which meant there was nowhere else to go, which meant... Her vault couldn't be the last, the deepest! It couldn't! "Besides, your vault was the first to be built here, Miss Caelum, that's why there's no number on it. It was Grizel and Otto Caelum who invested the money for Gringotts to be built in the first place, so the very first vault belongs to you. Being the most important was just a detail."

"What?" Vittoria gasped, eyes wide, mouth open in shock. "It was my family who invested in the construction of Gringotts?"

"Yes, back in the year 1472." Hagglepot began to explain as if he had been waiting for this all his life. "In 1474 the bank was founded and the goblin whose Grizel and Otto gave their money to, combined their names and created the name Gringotts. It has been working since that year, and always evolving." He finished with a proud smile while Vittoria could only stare at him, stunned by it all. "Now, Miss Caelum, all you need to do to open your vault is place your hand on the wall and as soon as it recognizes your magic, a keyhole will appear. Then you will open it with your key."

"Oh... Okay..." Vittoria said, blinking couple of times, and turned to the wall. She placed her hand in the wall and felt her hand tingle slightly as a faint golden glow appeared from underneath it; a keyhole appeared right next to where her hand was placed in the next second. Taking a deep breath, Vittoria inserted her key into it and didn't even need to turn it as the wall began to melt with a golden glow before her eyes, opening an entrance for her; in the next second, she was face to face with a large dark void, which began to light up as the golden sconces on the wall light up with living flames of the most orange fire she had ever seen.

It took a few seconds for all the golden smoke that was everywhere to clear, but when it did, Vittoria's eyes widened even more: Her vault was a huge, very deep space filled with large piles of gold coins that rose from floor to the ceiling, and other artifacts like statues, armours, spears, swords, mirrors, paintings, jewellery and other things, some covered by clothes — some not, that she had no idea what they were. She couldn't see the end of her vault because the light didn't reach everything, it began to thin from some point and soon darkness began to envelop the gold after it. Vittoria couldn't believe that right under her feet, during all that time, there was a fortune named after her... She was rich! How can she be so rich? Now she understood why so many wanted to steal her vault, look how much there was! From gold coins to jewellery to paintings to sculptures! What even was all that?

Hagglepot stopped right behind her, and Vittoria immediately turned to him, realizing that the hole in the wall had closed behind them again. "Hagglepot, this is a lot!" Vittoria whispered and the goblin nodded.

"That's all the Caelum fortune, at least the amount you inherited, Miss Caelum, as there are other vaults that belonged to other family members of yours who unfortunately died during the war." Hagglepot explained and Vittoria could only nod; that entire fortune was hers alone, and there was even more in other vaults! What did her family even do to be that rich? She couldn't think of anything that could make that much money... "You kept the original vault because this vault is passed from firstborn to firstborn, while the other children receive another vault, which will then be passed on to their heirs. You should know that your fortune is protected by enchantments, Miss Caelum, it will detect a thief as soon as they enter here, if they succeed, of course, none ever did, so it is important that anyone who is not a Caelum is here accompanied by you or with a permit." Vittoria nodded, trying not to show how that stunned her; it was too much to learn about, she only found out she was a witch yesterday! "Now, tell me Miss Caelum, for what do you need money today?"

"Oh, I need enough to buy my things for Hogwarts." Vittoria said promptly, jumping at the opportunity for a normal conversation. "And a little bit for an emergency... And you should know that I don't know anything about wizarding money, so if you could explain to me how it works, I'd be grateful."

"No problem, Miss Caelum, that's what I'm here for! Here-!" Hagglepot said, taking three different types of coins from different piles and turning to Vittoria. "There are three types of coins: Galleon, sickle, and knut. They are gold, silver, and bronze. There are 17 sickles in a galleon, and 29 knuts in a sickle, meaning there are 493 knuts to a galleon. Understood?" Vittoria nodded at once; it was simple math and she liked math. "Very well, here's a coin bag for you. Let's fill it up!" Hagglepot said jovially and Vittoria couldn't help a giggle from escaping her lips; he looked nice, not stern at all and grumpy like the goblins upstairs... Perhaps because there were no dangers around them now.

With Hagglepot's help, Vittoria filled the bag he handed her, taking enough money to buy all the things she needed and an amount for her to take along to Hogwarts. In those few minutes of taking money, Vittoria discovered that Hagglepot was indeed young, he was twenty years old and that only last year was he able to complete his training to become guard of the Caelums' vault. He also said that his partner was pregnant and that, most likely, his child would be his successor. Vittoria also found herself asking if he knew how the Caelums had made so much money and he, amazingly, knew how to answer her.

"Your family, Miss Caelum, arose hundreds of years ago in Italy, before any other powerful family around here could even dream of existing, and because they appeared before many civilizations had got their hands on power, they owned entire lands, vast lands that would become the countries we know today, such as Italy, of course, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco and Vatican, and some islands around."

"No way they owned all these places..." Vittoria said in a low voice and Hagglepot smiled knowingly at her.

"They kept their lands protected from invaders by magic until great non-magical civilizations began to rise, and when these civilizations started to want make deals to use their lands, they made sales deals. These lands were sold to muggle nobility first, and then to muggle churches, all for massive amounts of gold. But your family didn't sell all their lands, just as they didn't just stay in that region, they bought lands here in Great Britain, lands they used to live in, and which are still in your name and protected by spells to this day. The purchasing and sales documents from more recent lands are here somewhere, and one day, when you're interested in them, I'll help you look for it."

"So all this fortune came from selling lands?" Vittoria said, looking around her, observing all the gold that shone, but also all the paintings and statues...

"Oh no, apart from selling lands, they also helped muggles, but not for money most of the time. They charged only those who could afford it, and helped for free those who could not. They did everything, from fixing objects to curing diseases." Hagglepot said at once. "But Miss Caelum, what made the Caelums' fortunes grow the most was the Italian Renaissance. During this time, many great artists made their names, and some of them were your relatives. While some Caelums went on trips to buy more land, like Grizel and Otto, who came here to buy land and make investments, others continued in Italy and other countries until everything was consolidated here. They made a lot of money with their artwork, as patrons wanted beautiful art and the Caelums were the best at it."

"Now you're messing with me." Vittoria said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I've read about the Renaissance period, and I've never seen the name Caelum anywhere!"

"Well, they didn't use their real names." Hagglepot said as if it was obvious. "The Caelums never liked to draw attention to their name, so if they were going to be famous, it would be with a pseudonym."

"And who... Who were they?" Vittoria said, fearing the answer at the same time as she was very curious to find out.

"Well, to begin with we have Leonardo da Vinci, several of his original works are here, notebooks and paintings, like Mona Lisa, or do you think the original is the one in the Louvre Museum? Never." Hagglepot said with a laugh as Vittoria could only stare at him in shock. "Then we have, of course, Michelangelo. The Pietà and David are deeper in this vault, while Bacchus was donated centuries ago."

"No..." Vittoria said in disbelief, looking into the still visible distance of the vault and indeed seeing a massive marble sculpture in the dim light that went from floor to ceiling. "My God..."

"And we still have, of course, as important as Leonardo and Michelangelo, Donatello, Giotto, Masaccio and Botticelli. Most of their works are here, including 'The Birth of Venus'."

"That's crazy..." Vittoria said softly and Hagglepot smiled. "Insanity!"

"Haven't you ever noticed the similarity between them?" Hagglepot asked and Vittoria just stared at him. "They had the same nose, Miss Caelum, and the same eyes. In addition to having an unusual intelligence. All of this is typical of Caelums, the intelligence and the shape and colour of the eyes mainly. They were all related."

"My god..." Vittoria said, recalling the paintings of these artists faces and realizing that Hagglepot was right. "My God." Hagglepot laughed. Vittoria had never been more shocked to find out anything in her life, and she was grateful that she'd asked that when there were still quite a few gold coins left to collect because she had enough time to shake off the look of shock from her face so as not to meet the others looking like she discovered she had a serious illness. "How do you know all this, Hagglepot?" She asked before opening her vault again.

"The first Caelum to obtain a vault here, Grizel Caelum, told the first goblin in my family to guard your vault, Slaatiag." Hagglepot said. "It's part of our training to know as much as possible about where everything of value in your family came from, so we can always help those who come after." Vittoria could only nod; she was related to Leonardo da Vinci, she was still very numb about it.

As soon as they left Vittoria's vault, the hole in the wall immediately closed behind them. With a wave, Vittoria and Hagglepot broke apart, Hagglepot returning to read his newspaper and she going to the cart where the other three were waiting — Harry looking very curious, Hagrid seeming to have recovered a little from his sickness and Griphook with a neutral face.

"Come on now, let's go..." Hagrid said in a pained voice when Vittoria entered the cart again. "An' don' talk ter me on the way back, 's bes' if I keep me mouth shut." Vittoria and Harry nodded knowingly at him.

"Vittoria, do you have as much money in yours as I have in mine?" Harry asked Vittoria quietly as they made their way back up to the top; the sound of the air being cut around them drowned out their voices so that only the two of them could hear each other. "Because I have more money than I ever dreamed of having!"

"You have got no idea..." Vittoria whispered, feeling like she was about to puke; only Mona Lisa cost over a billion, and there was also The Pietà, which also cost more than a billion, and David, which could reach seven hundred million, all this money only in painting and sculptures, and there was still so much valuable things inside her vault, apart from the money itself... "I can live hundreds of lives and I don't think I'll ever spend half all I have in there..."

"Me either!" Harry nodded, his eyes widening, clearly not understanding the depth of what Vittoria was talking. "I've never seen so much money in my life!"

"Me too... I think the most I've ever held in my hand was the money Hagrid gave me to buy our train tickets earlier today!" Vittoria said and Harry chuckled.

"It's so weird to have that much money..." Harry said. "I don't feel like I need all that!"

"Yeah, I feel that way too." Vittoria agreed. "But it's a family fortune, there's nothing we can do about it, we just inherit this crazy amount and that's it."

"Yeah..." Harry said, nodding.

Vittoria was very relieved that Harry didn't ask anything about Hagglepot or what he had told her, because she didn't want to lie to him, but she also didn't want to say things that were confidential to her family, like the fact that some of the biggest artists in the world were Caelums. Hagrid told her how the Caelums were discreet about their lives, and she wanted to keep it that way, it was like keeping hundreds of years tradition of Caelums alive even though it only existed one of them now.

One wild cart ride later, they stood blinking under the sun outside Gringotts, and now, looking at him in the sunlight, Hagrid looked very green; it seemed that even the slightest movement would make him throw up. "Might as well get yer school robes..." Hagrid said, nodding towards 'Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions'. "Listen, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate the Gringotts carts!" Vittoria and Harry nodded at once, knowing that it really would be for the best if Hagrid recovered now to help them through the rest of the morning because they literally didn't know what to do after there, and if Hagrid started to feel even sicker, they wouldn't even make it to King's Cross station! "Grea', stay here till I get back, I don' wan' ter risk losin' yeh around here!" Hagrid said and soon Vittoria and Harry were watching him walk down the street, making his way through the many people hurrying past him.

At last, Vittoria and Harry turned around and made their way to Madam Malkin's shop. They were both a bit nervous about doing this alone because, as much as Vittoria had no problem interacting with strangers, after all she practically grew up on her own, and Harry never had anyone to lean on when faced with something he had never done before, it was all new to them! It wasn't just any clothing store, it was a clothing store in the wizarding world, and the wizarding world was extremely new to them, and new things were quite intimidating.

Harry looked nervously at Vittoria as they reached the shop. "What do we do now?" He asked and Vittoria took a look at the shop and then turned to him again.

"Now we enter the shop." Vittoria said nervously. "I mean... It's only a clothing shop, what bad can happen?"

"Yeah, you're right..." Harry said, nodding. "Besides, we have each other! If anything happens, we just kick everything around us and run!" He added with a grin and Vittoria giggled, nodding.

"And if you need to punch someone, always go for the nose, people lose their senses when you punch it." She added and Harry looked at her in surprise, even though he still had a smile on his lips.

"How do you even know that?"

"I read." Vittoria shrugged. "Some fantasy books are pretty descriptive." Harry snorted.

So, side by side, Vittoria and Harry entered the shop at last, and when the bell over the door rang, announcing their arrival, the shop owner immediately came to greet them; they didn't even get a chance to look around first. Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve, with very white hair and very blue eyes, it was even disconcerting how blue it was...

"Hogwarts, dears?" She said before any of them could say something, her eyes instantly falling to Vittoria's left cheek, and widening as she realized what the mark was, but soon she pretended that she hadn't done anything by going back to acting normally. Vittoria cursed Voldemort for hitting her square in the cheek with his curse; why didn't he hit her in the chest, or anywhere else she could hide? "Of course it's Hogwarts, what was I thinking? Got the lot here, come on, come with me! I have a young man adjusting his cloak just now, he's going to Hogwarts too, but don't worry, there's enough room for the three of you there! He got here all pompous, thinking he was in charge of something..." She went on, shaking her head. "But what else could I expect from him? Being who he is..." Vittoria and Harry exchanged looks at that but said nothing.

As soon as they reached the back of the shop, they saw the boy Madam Malkin was talking about; he had a pale, pointed face and was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black cloak. Madam Malkin guided Harry towards a footstool next to this boy, and Vittoria in another one, next to Harry, and then, she started taking their measurements. Vittoria was grateful for where Madam Malkin had positioned her, that way her scar wasn't visible to the boy or the other witch, as her left cheek was turned to the window and not to the inside of the store.

"Hello." The boy said looking at them with his pale blue eyes, which immediately reminded Vittoria of her aunt's eyes, it was even disconcerting how those eyes resembled Adeline's, and not just in colour, but in shape... God, her aunt! She had completely forgotten about her! "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes." Vittoria and Harry said at the same time, nodding.

"I'm making last minute adjustments on my cloak. They made it too long." The boy said with a hint of disdain in his voice. "I say it was lack of attention from these employees..." He added and the woman who was working on his cloak rolled her eyes discreetly, so much so that apparently only Vittoria saw it; the witch seemed to be exercising a lot of her self-control not to stab him with the pin. "My father's next door buying the latest from my books and mother's is with him." The boy went on; he had a drawling voice, and his eyes gave him an appearance of always being bored. Even that looked like Adeline, who, when she wasn't mad, looked like she was having the most boring day of her life. "When I finally get out of here, I'm going to drag them off to look at the racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own, I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow!" Harry was strongly reminded of his cousin Dudley, and that already made him not like that boy at all; no one who reminded him of Dudley could be a good person. He turned his face discreetly to Vittoria and saw that her face was contorted into a grimace of distaste that she didn't even seem bothered to try to hide, in fact, he thought she didn't even realize she was doing it; Harry had to hide the smile that nearly curved his lips. "Have you got your own brooms?" The boy asked.

"No." Vittoria and Harry said together.

"Play quidditch at all?" The boy went on.

"No." Vittoria and Harry said together yet again, wondering what on earth quidditch could be.

"I do. Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house next year, and I must say I agree." The boy said haughtily, and Vittoria rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to Madam Malkin, praying she would finish the measurements quickly so she and Harry could leave. "Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No." They said together once again.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all my family have been! Imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" Vittoria and Harry didn't answer him this time, not knowing what these houses were, but knowing that if that boy was going to Slytherin, they would want to go to any other house, it didn't matter which. "My-! Look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, pointing towards the window beside Vittoria; Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Vittoria and Harry, pointing at two large ice creams to show why he couldn't come in. Vittoria and Harry grinned at him.

"That's Hagrid!" said Vittoria happily. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh..." said the boy, wrinkling his nose. "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"

"He's the gamekeeper." Harry said rather coldly.

"Yes, exactly!" The boy said, waving a hand in the air as if saying it was the same thing. "I heard he's a sort of savage, lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed!"

"Well, I think he's brilliant!" said Vittoria curtly, looking hard at the boy, who looked back at her with a frown.

"Do you?" said the boy with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents anyway?"

"They're dead." said Vittoria shortly.

"Oh, sorry." said the boy, not sounding sorry at all. Vittoria rolled her eyes at him, wanting to give him another curt answer, but choosing to be quiet; this was the first time she had stood up for herself and it felt really good, but she knew that boy wasn't worth the energy of arguing. "But they were our kind, weren't they?" The boy spoke again, and Vittoria wondered if he even knew how to keep his mouth shut.

"Yes, they were wizards if that's what you're asking." Vittoria said shortly, not even looking at him this time.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you?" The boy said, still staring at Vittoria, appearing to be trying to remember something. "They simply aren't the same as us, they weren't brought up in our ways! Some of them never even heard of Hogwarts until they received their letter, imagine! I think they should keep everything just within the old wizarding families, don't you?" Vittoria wondered if he paid attention to the nonsense that came out of his mouth or just blurted out everything that came into his head like a torrent because there was no containment door, in his case, his containment door was common sense. He lacked it.

"No, I don't think so." Vittoria said, looking back at him. "If they were accepted at Hogwarts, it's because they are as capable as those who were born in old wizarding families. Besides, how do you expect them to know about Hogwarts if the wizarding world is omitted from the muggles? And as far as I know, muggle-borns live in the muggle world, don't they? It seems to me that you lack a bit of knowledge about things, so I'll give you some advice, learn more about a subject before you go around talking nonsense." The boy looked at Vittoria with a sour expression, his cheeks blushing slightly, appearing not to be used to being answered back or contradicted, but Vittoria couldn't care less about him. Harry couldn't help the laugh that came out of his mouth and looked like Madam Malkin and the other witch working on the boy's cloak were holding back smiles.

"What's your name?" The boy asked, still frowning, but before Vittoria could answer, Madam Malkin interrupted her.

"That's you done, my dears!" She said to Vittoria and Harry, who weren't at all sorry for an excuse to stop talking to that boy. They hopped down from their footstool and started to walk away.

"Well, I'll see you two at Hogwarts then!" said the boy loudly but he didn't hear if they answered anything as Vittoria and Harry were almost out of the room.

"Unfortunately, we will." Vittoria said quietly while they walked back to the front of the shop, just for Harry to hear; Harry laughed at that, making her laugh too.

"He acts just like Dudley!" Harry whispered and Vittoria grimaced.

"And he's super prejudiced!" Vittoria said, snorting. "I hate this kind of people."

"And who doesn't?" Harry said.

The conversation was cut short at that point as Madam Malkin had caught up with them and was now sorting everything they would need into two piles, one for Vittoria and other for Harry. They watched with rapt attention as she waved her wand over their school robes, noticing with surprise how the sleeves of Vittoria's new white button-down shirts were shortened and Harry's were lengthened, how Harry's trousers lengthened to match the size of his legs and how Vittoria's skirts were adjusted around the waist and in length as well; magic was incredible and the two of them couldn't wait to learn how to do it all!

When five white button-down shirts for each, five black trousers for Harry, five black skirts for Vittoria, three grey sweaters each, a black tie for each, a black pointed hat for each, three thick black pantyhose for Vittoria, two black shoes for Harry and two black flats for Vittoria, and a black cloak for each were folded and stacked in the two piles, Madam Malkin placed each pile in two different trunks (which she also sold in her shop), each with their initials. With everything ready and organized, Vittoria and Harry paid for their new things and before leaving the store dragging their trunks (which had wheels, much to their relief), they deposited their schoolbags inside their trunks, relieving their backs of its weight.

They met Hagrid right outside the shop, who handed them an ice cream each (which surprisingly hasn't melted yet) and picked up their trunks, carrying it easily along the way. Neither Vittoria nor Harry broached the subject they had with the pale boy with him, they didn't think it was worth even mentioning so much nonsense.

Vittoria couldn't describe the sensation she felt eating ice cream, it was as if an explosion of flavours and sensations had happened on her tongue and even in her brain; if Hagrid asked her again what her favourite food was, she would definitely say salted caramel ice cream — that was amazing and she knew she would never get tired of it! Harry stole a few glances at Vittoria as they ate their ice creams because he remembered that if she had never had sausages, it was very likely that she had never tried ice cream either, and as much as he himself had never tasted anything as good as that ice cream before, he was more interested in his friend's reaction than his own. When he saw Vittoria's eyes start to sparkle when the sweet touched her tongue, he couldn't help but smile; it was amazing to see her trying new things, and even cooler to see her reactions. Vittoria was very expressive, and it was funny and entertaining to see the faces she made.

"You know, I don't understand why girls are required to wear skirts at Hogwarts." Vittoria said as Harry, Hagrid and she walked towards the next shop. "Why can't we wear trousers too? I could wear trousers at my old school and the institution was very old."

"It's an old dress code." Hagrid explained, looking with amusement at the indignation on Vittoria's face. "It has bin around fer centuries an' no one has ever complained."

"No one ever complained out loud, you mean!" Vittoria said, looking at Hagrid with narrowed eyes. "Because I can't believe that in centuries, with so many students passing Hogwarts, there wasn't a single girl that hated to wear skirts!"

"Well, I never knew o' one." Hagrid said and Vittoria grimaced.

"Well, now you do!" She said. "I hate skirts, they're good for nothing but getting in the way of basic activities!" Harry and Hagrid laughed at this, but Vittoria continued to frown; skirts and dresses were just meant to be blown up in the wind and slow you down on a task because you had to watch your movements so as not to show too much! Skirts weren't comfortable and practical, at least not for her, Vittoria hated them! It would be pretty annoying to have to wear skirts five days a week for seven years.

After Vittoria and Harry had finished eating their ice cream, they stopped to buy parchments, ink and quills at Scribbulus Writing Implements. This shop was right next Quality Quidditch Supplies, but Hagrid didn't let them stop to explore or see the new broom like everyone else as they didn't have got time for it. Vittoria and Harry bought several parchments, several quills and several pots of black ink, but just because they really didn't want to run out of it during the school term. Vittoria didn't understand why wizards didn't use pencils or pens, it was so much simpler!

After that, they went to a shop called Flourish and Blotts, where they bought Vittoria and Harry's schoolbooks. This store was a paradise for book lovers like Vittoria, as everywhere you looked, there were books of all kinds; the shelves were stacked up to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather, books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk, books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all! Hagrid had to drag Vittoria and Harry away from the section "Curses and Counter Curses", where the two of them stood with their heads together reading a book way too dangerous for two eleven-year-olds.

"We were trying to find out a way for me to curse my cousin Dudley on the holidays!" Harry explained.

"He deserves it, Hagrid, he's a bully!" Vittoria said, frowning.

"I'm not sayin' tha's not a good idea, but yeh can' use magic in the muggle world except in very special circumstances!" said Hagrid, shaking his head. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any o' these curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter tha' level." He added, giving Vittoria a discreet look; he knew she could do anything if she put her mind to it, but he wasn't going to tell her that, better keep her out of trouble.

They then went to buy their cauldrons at Potage's Cauldron Shop, and Harry wanted to buy a solid gold cauldron, but Hagrid didn't let him, much to Vittoria's relief; she realized that the boy had no control over how he spent his money, none at all! They got each a nice set of scales for weighing potions ingredients, and a collapsible brass telescope, and then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages; it made their eyes and noses burn! Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. It was such a wide variety of things that Vittoria and Harry didn't know where to look first.

While Hagrid went to ask the man behind the counter for some basic potions' ingredients Vittoria and Harry would need for their potion classes, both stopped to look at silver unicorns' horns (twenty-one galleons each), and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five knuts a scoop).

"Harry, unicorns exist too!" Vittoria whispered excitedly, grabbing his arm and rocking it back and forth; he looked at her nodding, a look of awe in his eyes. "I wish I could see one... Do you think there's any at Hogwarts?"

"Dunno..." Harry said thoughtful. "But I would like to see one too!" He added and Vittoria nodded, carefully touching a unicorn horn; it seemed to glow silver!

Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked their list again. "Jus' yer wands left, an' we still have an hour ter go ter the station, great!" He said, grinning. "I'll leave yeh two alone again 'cause I wan' ter go buy yeh a gift, as I know that neither o' yeh has ever received a proper one before!" Vittoria and Harry both turned really red at this.

"You don't have to-!" They started to say, just to be cut off by Hagrid.

"I know I don' have to, but I wan' to!" Hagrid said, still grinning. "I will buy a pet fer each one o' yeh, not toads, toads went out o' style years ago, the kids would laugh at yeh, an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze! I'll get yeh owls, all children wan' owls, they are very helpful, carry yer correspondence an' everythin'! Go ter Ollivanders now an' I'll meet yeh there later!" Vittoria and Harry both nodded, knowing there was no use arguing with Hagrid, and by themselves once again, they grabbed their trunks (that Hagrid gave back to them to be able to bring the cages of their future owls) and set off to buy the last thing on their list: Their wands; they were really excited for this one.

The shop they would buy their wands was narrow and shabby, and the peeling gold letters over the door read "Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands Since 382 B.C."; a single wand was laying on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window, and a tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as Vittoria and Harry stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair in the corner, a counter and for the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling in several piles. Vittoria and Harry looked at each other, not quite sure what to do, and deposited their trunks by the wall before looking around as they waited for someone to show up; even the dust and silence in that shop seemed to tingle with some secret magic, it made them feel strangely nervous.

"Good morning..." said a soft voice, making Vittoria and Harry jump; an old man was standing before them, his wide, pale grey eyes were shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello..." Vittoria and Harry said awkwardly, looking at the man with wide eyes and slightly flushed cheeks from having been startled by a simple greeting.

"Ah yes..." said the man they assumed was Mr. Ollivander. "Yes, yes... I thought I'd be seeing you two soon. Vittoria Caelum and Harry Potter... It seems only yesterday that I sold your parents their first wands." Mr. Ollivander moved closer to them; his silver eyes were now so close to their faces that they could see purple dots in his irises. "I'm glad you two finally found each other after so long... Your parents would be happy with your friendship, and how could they not be if they themselves were best friends? Oh, I lost count of how many times I saw Aurelie and Lily walking these streets together, and Daniel and James running up and down around, laughing out loud and buying things that would make poor Minerva McGonagall's hair turn grey!" Mr. Ollivander told them, looking at Vittoria and Harry with a vacant look as if he had gone back in time. "They were always together, your parents, never apart..." Mr. Ollivander straightened up suddenly and took a long measuring tape with silver markings out of his pocket, startling Vittoria and Harry, who were inert listening to him tell things about their parents; it was nice to hear about them, especially when they were things that had nothing to do with wars. "Miss Caelum, let's find you a wand, not that you need one, huh? Which is your wand arm?"

"Oh, I'm ambidextrous..." Vittoria said awkwardly, seeing Harry frown in confusion at her. She was taken aback by what Mr. Ollivander said to her for two reasons, one was for how he knew about it (was he a friend of her family like Hagrid?), and the second was because she didn't want Harry to find out about it! She hadn't told him that she was capable of wandless magic, just that her family was known to be powerful, simply because she didn't want to draw attention to herself; she didn't want Harry to think she was bragging. Vittoria already felt that it sounded like she was flattering herself by telling him about the fame of the Caelums, so she decided to keep it quiet. If Harry was going to find this out, let him figure it out for himself, without her telling him, she didn't want to lose her first and only friend because he thought she was a stuck-up snob.

"Ambidextrous, huh? It's been a while since I last met one... Hold out your right arm first- That's it!" Mr. Ollivander said while he measured Vittoria from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round her head; Vittoria really wanted to see if Harry was still confused about what Mr. Ollivander had said, or if he had already let it go, but he had moved to the chair in the corner and she couldn't see him from her current position. Was he angry at her? Vittoria hoped not. "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, kids... We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons..." Mr. Ollivander began to explain. "No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are quite the same... And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand!"

"Yeah?" Vittoria asked quietly.

"Oh yes, a wand connects with its master's magic, so it doesn't matter if you're able to use someone else's wand, the results will never be the same as the ones you would get using your own. Some wands are so loyal to their master that they do not accept to be used by any others."

"Wow..." Vittoria breathed. Mr. Ollivander smiled small at her.

When all measurements have been taken on Vittoria's both the right and left sides, Mr. Ollivander, without saying a thing, went to the back of the store and came back not a minute later with only two long, dusty velvet boxes in his hands, one black and one dark brown. He placed the dark brown box behind his counter and blew away the dust before opening the black one; his eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement.

"Miss Caelum, I could bring dozens of wands for you to test, but we would only be wasting our time. I feel like this one right here has been waiting for you for ages, my child..." Mr. Ollivander said as he looked deeply into Vittoria's eyes, who felt very exposed for some reason. "I feel like it knew you would come one day... 10¾ long, made of the combination of ebony and elder wood, phoenix feather core, rigid and solid... A perfect match, but extremely rare."

"Wow..." Vittoria stared at Mr. Ollivander in bewilderment as he showed her the wand; her mind went blank. That was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and she wouldn't be exaggerating if she said she could feel a vibration on her skin coming from the wand. The wand wasn't extremely straight, it was a bit crooked, the handle was of a very dark wood (ebony) and the tip was red like fire (elder wood — which had red marks in its core).

"This wand right here is the most powerful wand I have in my shop, Miss Caelum." Mr. Ollivander went on. "It was made centuries ago by my great-great-grandfather, and it never choose anyone to be its master, perhaps because it never found a decent magic for its magical capacity, but I believe it was waiting for someone specific... You." Vittoria didn't know what to say, words were failing her yet again: Mr. Ollivander believed she was destined for the most powerful wand in his shop! Vittoria didn't know how to politely tell him that she wasn't that powerful, she was just an ordinary girl who never did anything great, God, she didn't even know how to make friends, how could she be that powerful? "Go, give it a wave!"

Vittoria, however, looked from Mr. Ollivander to the wand and back to him again, closing her hands into fists beside her body, hesitating; she wasn't powerful enough for a wand as amazing as that, she wasn't the perfect match he thought she was. Maybe her father could have been, he was a Caelum who helped in the war after all, he was powerful and knew how to do things, Vittoria never did anything, she was alive today by sheer luck! She didn't know how to do anything magnificent, be able to create flowers from thin air wasn't that amazing, she knew other people were capable of it too! If she taught Harry, he would be able to do it too, she knew that, because everyone could do wandless magic, it wasn't something rare that only she knew how to do, it was just something that needed a bit of training.

Vittoria's heart was beating faster and faster with each passing second, she could feel it pulsing in her neck. She couldn't do it, she could only stare at the man in front of her, who seemed to have been expecting this reaction because he didn't force or rush her, it seemed like he was waiting for her to decide what to do on her own.

But then... "Vittoria, you can do this!" Came Harry's voice from behind her, and Vittoria startled, turning to look at him. Harry had got up from the chair he was in and had walked a few steps towards her; he gave her a smile when their eyes met. "You can do it, you don't have to be afraid. If it doesn't work, you can try another one. It's okay." He said calmly, still giving her a smile, and Vittoria nodded weakly, feeling her muscles relax greatly under her skin; she could try another one if this one didn't work, she wouldn't be punished, she could fail... It was okay to fail.

"Okay..." Vittoria said, taking a deep shaky breath before turning to Mr. Ollivander, who looked very pleased with something.

"There you go, my child..." Mr. Ollivander said calmly, pushing the wand closer to Vittoria, who reached for the wand with her right hand, grabbing it from the box with trembling fingers.

When the wood and her skin finally touched after she closed her hand around the wand, Vittoria felt the wand burning inside her fist like it was on fire, but she didn't feel the need to drop it, because it wasn't hurting her, in fact, it felt like her skin was adapting to the heat. Soon, she wasn't just feeling the heat, but also a tingling that went from her fingertips up her arm to her shoulder and spread across her chest, making her feel capable of anything! Feeling the need to wave the wand in the air, Vittoria made a spiralling motion above her head, and nothing could have prepared her for the golden sparks that explode from the tip of the wand and circled her body for the briefest of seconds, like a shield.

Vittoria was so engrossed in the sensations she was feeling, that she barely noticed that Harry and Mr. Ollivander were cheering, Harry shouting excitedly while the man clapped his hands. Vittoria's eyes were wet with tears when she looked back at Mr. Ollivander, who was beaming down at her, looking both proud and ecstatic. "Splendid, Miss Caelum! Oh, so splendid! What would my great-great-grandfather have given to see this wand finally choose a master?" Ms. Ollivander said, holding the black box out to Vittoria so that she could place her wand inside it again. "Not only my great-great-grandfather, but my great-grandfather, my grandfather and my father, they all dreamed of finally seeing this wand leave our shop, and me too, I must tell you... I can't believe it finally chose someone, it was so pickiest, maybe because the phoenix who gave the feather for its core is a very ancient and powerful creature... Its feather was the only one it gave." Ollivander was still beaming when he looked deep into Vittoria's eyes; she felt the back of her neck prickle. "Miss Caelum, this wand is capable of stupendous magic range, and I know you will do, for sure, great things... You're more powerful than you think, my child."

"Is that so?" Vittoria said under her breath; she could feel how her heart was pounding in her chest; was she really everything he was claiming her to be?

"Now, let's find you a wand Mr. Potter!" Mr. Ollivander said suddenly, having not heard Vittoria, closing the black box in his hands and depositing it on the counter. Harry looked at him anxiously and walked over to where Vittoria was; he gave her a happy smile which she returned before leaning against the counter, still staying close to her friend but giving him room to test his wands. "Which is your wand arm, my boy?"

"Er... I'm right-handed." said Harry anxiously, glancing quickly at Vittoria; she gave him an encouraging smile, which seemed to calm him down a bit.

And so Mr. Ollivander began taking Harry's measurements in the same way he had taken Vittoria's, and, when he was finished, he turned around, gave a few steps ahead, and stopped; he hesitated for a moment, turned to them again and walked to his counter, retrieving the dark brown velvet box from behind it. He looked at Harry and shrugged. "Why not try this one too? We might be on a historic day for my family after all!" Vittoria and Harry exchanged a confused look. "Mr. Potter, this wand, like Miss Caelum's, was made by my great-great-grandfather centuries ago, on the same day he made hers... It's a pickiest wand as well, very demanding... I feel that just like Miss Caelum's, it's also waiting for a competent master... The core of this wand is phoenix tail feather too, it came from a very loyal phoenix I must say." Mr. Ollivander stared at Harry, and Vittoria felt like he was pondering whether or not he should say something more. In the end, he chose not to. "So, let's try this one?"

"But..." Harry said, his eyes wide. "But I'm not-!"

"As powerful as Miss Caelum to be able to hold such a wand?" Mr. Ollivander said and Harry nodded weakly, swallowing thickly; Vittoria felt herself feeling awful inside — that wasn't a nice thing to say. "Yes, you really aren't, but no one else is, Mr. Potter, there's no shame in that! There is no wizard alive more powerful than those who come from the Caelum family. But you, my boy, is very powerful too, more powerful than most of us! Your magic is potent enough for this wand to choose you, I know it is."

Harry didn't know what else to say, he knew the Caelums were powerful, Vittoria had told him so, and so had Hagrid, so he knew she would be chosen by her wand, but him? He was the opposite, he was ordinary, just another wizard in the world! He didn't think he would be a match for a wand like that... He wanted, very, very much to be, but he was realistic, he knew the size of his power. He wasn't a Caelum, he wasn't made for that, he knew better.

"Harry, just try it..." Vittoria said, walking towards him with a reassuring smile; she touched his shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "If it's not a match, that's fine, you have thousands of other wands to test! But... Don't let your fear stop you, I almost let mine." She whispered the last part, and Harry felt a surge of confidence run through him; he could try, no strings attached, just try and get over with it. Yeah, he could do it.

"Okay, I... I can try." Harry said at last, and Vittoria grinned at him, nodding and returning to her spot by the counter as Mr. Ollivander opened the brown box in his hand, a smile on his lips.

"11 inches long, made of yew wood, phoenix feather core, hard and solid. A rare combination and I must say, a dangerous one." Mr. Ollivander said, but Harry could only stare at the wand inside the box; it was incredible and imposing! The wand was, like Vittoria's, crooked, but this one had some grooves and details that Vittoria's didn't have; the wood was lighter at the handle and darker at the tip. "Go on, Mr. Potter, give it a go." Mr. Ollivander encouraged.

Harry gave Vittoria one last look before finding himself reaching for the wand bluntly, just wanting to get over with this. However, when he was ready to drop it back into the box and call the day, he felt a very strong sensation of heat as he closed his fingers around the handle, a heat so strong that his skin felt feverish; he eyed the wand suspiciously and, raising it above his head, sent it swinging down through the dusty air: A stream of red sparks shot from its tip like fireworks, throwing dancing points of light onto the walls. Vittoria squealed and clapped excitedly as Mr. Ollivander praised him, but Harry could only stare at the wand in his hand in wonder; it chose him, it really chose him!

"Bravo, Mr. Potter! Bravo!" Mr. Ollivander cried, smiling down at Harry as he placed his now wand back into its box. "Today truly was a historic day for my family, the two oldest wands in the shop choosing a master, this is a one-time event!" Mr. Ollivander said excitedly, now wrapping the two velvet boxes each in brown paper and handing them over to their respective owners. "I told you, didn't I, Mr. Potter? You have potent magic in you, and this wand choosing you confirms it!" Mr. Ollivander said and Harry smiled a bit sheepishly at him as he took the box of his newest wand in hand. "But I must tell you something, my boy... Be careful with the spells you cast, for that wand is capable of much, of casting spells as powerful as the one that gave Vittoria her scar... Yes, the wood of your wand, Mr. Potter, is the same as the wand of the wizard who tried to kill your friend. Such a powerful wood but so cursed too." Vittoria and Harry stared at Mr. Ollivander in shock, all the excitement at having found their wands draining from their bodies as they received this information. "And the coincidences don't stop there, both wands have phoenix core as well, not from the same phoenix, but it does make your wands more similar than you can imagine, Mr. Potter... Think very carefully before you do something, and if it's worth it, do it, but keep in mind that your actions will have consequences."

After they paid seven galleons each for their wands, Vittoria and Harry left Ollivander's shop in absolute silence, just giving each other a knowing look before going to meet Hagrid, who was walking towards them with two large cages, one in each hand. They were both wondering why Mr. Ollivander thought that saying that Harry's wand was the same in many ways as Voldemort's was a good idea. Like, Voldemort killed their parents, and tried to kill Vittoria, Harry's friend! What did he even mean by all this? Harry wouldn't try to kill anyone, ever! He wasn't like Voldemort; he wouldn't turn into him!

Hagrid beamed down at them as soon as they met and pointed at the owls excitedly. "I bought 'em with yeh two in mind! This one is fer yeh Harry, a Snowy owl!" Hagrid handed an extremely white owl with yellow eyes to Harry, who grinned, all the wand tale forgotten, looking in wonder at his newest and first owl. "And this one is fer yeh, Vittoria, 's a Ural owl." He said smiling, handing an owl with white and light grey feathers and with extremely dark eyes that looked like the night sky to Vittoria, who beamed, simply in love with her owl, also forgetting about Mr. Ollivander and all the wand theory; it was just a fun fact that wasn't fun at all. "They are abou' the same age, no more 'n a year old, an' are both females, so name 'em accordingly, please!" Vittoria and Harry chuckled.

"Thanks, Hagrid!" Harry said, still looking at his owl in awe. "She is amazing!"

"Thank you very much, Hagrid!" Vittoria said too, stroking her owl's feathers through the cage bars, receiving a tender peck on her fingers in appreciation.

Harry gave the name "Hedwig" to his owl, a name he read in a book they bought to take to Hogwarts and that he quite liked, and Vittoria gave the name "Golden" to hers; it was a simple and beautiful name for an owl, besides, it was the meaning of her mother's name and the colour of the sparkles her wand had produced, the first magic it ever made.

At half past ten in the morning, Vittoria, Harry and Hagrid went back to the brick wall and left Diagon Alley, ready for an extremely fast and urgent walk to the last stop on their list, the King's Cross Station. The three of them walked quickly all the way to the station, so worried about whether they would make it in time or not that they didn't even bother to notice the looks they were getting from the people around them. When they arrived at the station with twenty minutes to eleven, Vittoria and Harry gasping for air, Hagrid helped them to put their trunks and owl cages in a cart each before giving them one last piece of advice.

"Yeh two, 's all on yer tickets!" Hagrid said hastily. "Go ter the platform an' board the Express ter Hogwarts! I will see yeh again at Hogsmeade station in a few hours, so don' worry! Good luck, kids!" That said, Hagrid simply turned around and left.

Harry looked at Vittoria at once, and she immediately fished out her letter, which was in her pocket after having to keep checking it all the time to buy the right things of her list. She took out her ticket from inside it and read the contents quickly, feeling her heart start to beat really fast. She looked at Harry with round eyes. "Harry, I don't know about you, but even with my lack of experience in taking trains..." She said, looking at him anxiously. "I never heard about the existence of such platform as 9¾..." Harry looked at the ticket in her hands and then looked at her just as nervously, anxiety starting to consume their nerves.

What were they supposed to do now? 

Chapter Text

Vittoria and Harry were starting to attract a lot of attention of passers-by, mostly because of Golden and Hedwig, but also because they had been standing in the same spot for nearly ten minutes not knowing what to do, and usually, nobody stands in the middle of a train station doing nothing...

Fine, they had stopped a guard who passed by and asked if he knew about the eleven o'clock train going to Hogwarts, but as expected, the guard had never heard of this place. He also said that there was no train scheduled for that time in question, and just to make matters worse, when he asked where Hogwarts was located, neither Vittoria nor Harry knew how to answer — Hagrid hadn't said much about it. The guard got angry and accused them of wasting his time with nonsense while he was supposed to be helping those who really needed his help; he left threatening them with expulsion if they made him waste any more time.

"Vittoria, I think we will not be able to find this platform in time!" Harry said anxiously, turning to look at his friend.

Vittoria looked back at him and took a deep breath as she looked around them again. "We will find it, Harry, we just... Just give me a minute." Vittoria said, trying to find someone who was like them, witch or wizard, avoiding looking at the clock hanging over their heads which showed it was only ten minutes to eleven now. "Hagrid probably forgot that we are new to this whole thing of magic, he should have explained how we get to this platform... Come on, let's go to platform nine."

"How come you're not panicking?" Harry asked as they started to walk towards the platforms, pushing their carts with their trunks and owl cages.

"I don't panic easily." Vittoria said, shrugging; she lived with Adeline, her whole life was made up of stressful moments that tested her composure. "Besides, you're already panicking, if I panic too, we'll never get anywhere!" Harry had to agree with her.

"Do you think we should tap our wands on the bricks like Hagrid did to get in Diagon Alley?" Harry asked when they arrived on platform nine, looking around thoughtfully.

"No! Hagrid said muggles cannot know about magic, remember?" Vittoria said at once, shaking her head. "People are already giving us dirty looks because we have got owls, if we start hitting the wall with a stick, they'll take us to the mental hospital! Besides, we're only eleven, we shouldn't even be alone in the first place! If anyone comes to question us about our guardians, we're screwed!"

Harry stared at Vittoria open-mouthed for a few seconds until he nodded. "Yeah, it makes sense..." He said. "You're right, Vittoria."

Suddenly, there was a commotion behind them; Vittoria and Harry looked around and saw a group of six redheads walking hurriedly towards them... Not them, towards platform nine. "Now, where is that platform? I swear, these muggles are always changing its location! Last year it was on the other side of the station!" Said the oldest of the group, a plump woman probably in her forties; she must be the mother of the other five redheads. What she said caught Vittoria and Harry's attention.

"Mum, can't I go?" Begged a small girl, the only one on the group apart from the older woman; she was holding her mother's hand.

"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet!" The woman said as they approached the platform nine. "All right, here it is! Percy, you go first!" Vittoria and Harry attentively watched what looked like the oldest boy in the group marching towards platforms nine and ten, but just as he reached the dividing barrier between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of them and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished. Vittoria and Harry looked at each other with wide eyes, but soon turned their attention to the family in front of them again. "Fred, you next!" The woman said to another boy — he was twin with another one — patting him on the shoulder.

"I'm not Fred, I'm George!" Said the boy looking exasperated. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"

"Sorry, George, dear-!"

"Only joking, I'm Fred!" Said the boy with a grin, and off he went; as he ran, he called his twin to hurry up, and he did so because a second later, like his brother, he was gone too.

Vittoria and Harry's mouths dropped open in shock the moment the twins passed right through the wall; they turned to each other again, blinking in surprise. "Should we ask her what to do?" Harry whispered so that only Vittoria could hear, but the family of redheads were so in their own affairs and kind of far away from them that Vittoria doubted they would hear them.

"I think we just need to run into the wall..." Vittoria said, not seeing the need to ask anyone for instructions, but Harry looked so worried and anxious, that Vittoria ended up sighing and shrugging. "Well, if you want to, I suppose we can ask her." She relented and Harry smiled in relief, nodding, and already starting to push his cart towards the family; Vittoria followed, making sure to stop in a position that none of them could see her scar, she didn't want any commotion because of her.

"Excuse me..." Harry said as he stopped by the woman with Vittoria by his side.

"Hello dears!" The woman said smiling, turning to them at once; she had a friendly face, her eyes were welcoming. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new too!" She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons; he was tall, thin and gangling, his face was full of freckles, he had big hands and feet, and a long nose. Vittoria and Harry looked at the boy and he looked back at them, but none of them said anything, just stared at each other for a few seconds.

"Yes..." said Harry to the woman, nodding. "But we don't know how to-!"

"How to get onto the platform?" She said kindly and Harry nodded. "Not to worry! All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten! Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important! Best do it with a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron, both of you!"

"You can go first, Harry." Vittoria said as Harry turned to her, but she soon realized how nervous and tense he looked. "Or I can go first, it's not a problem!" She added. Vittoria was just as nervous as he was, but she knew that sometimes it was better to hide your own feelings in order to help others, and Harry was her friend, so she could do it for him.

"No, it's fine, I'll go first!" Harry said, his voice slightly anxious. "But you're going to come right after me, right?" He added quietly and Vittoria smiled, nodding.

"Of course!" She said and Harry nodded.

"Okay then..." He said and pushed his cart between the two platforms.

Harry started to walk faster, then he leaned forward on his cart, broke into a heavy run and went through the barrier at last. Vittoria grinned, happy that Harry had made it through, but then she felt a hand gently squeezing her shoulder and she jumped, turning around with her eyes wide; it was the red-haired woman who had touched her, and Vittoria blushed at her own reaction. It had been a long time since someone had touched her out of the blue, she usually knew when it was going to happen, so when it happened suddenly, she always startled.

"Now you dear!" The woman said smiling, not seeming to have noticed her reaction. Vittoria nodded, making the same route that Harry had done, very relieved that her scar was facing the left side and not the right, which was the side the redhead family was on... How she wanted to be able to hide it.

"Good luck!" The small girl said, smiling.

Vittoria smiled small at her. "Thank you." She said with a nod and taking a deep breath, she ran towards the barrier; even though she knew it wouldn't happen, she thought she wouldn't be able to get through, so she squeezed the cart handle tighter and closed her eyes, waiting for the impact...

... But the crash never came.

What came was a strong aroma of coal and oil, and noises of owls hooting and cats meowing. Vittoria opened her eyes again and saw a scarlet steam engine waiting next to a platform packed with people, with a sign overhead that said "HOGWARTS EXPRESS, eleven o'clock". It was magical, there was no other word to describe the view, it didn't even seem to be real! Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd while cats of every colour strolled here and there between their legs; owls were hooting to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks. Golden, who was in her cage on top of Vittoria's trunk, let out a hoot too.

Vittoria was still looking around, a small smile on her lips, when she felt someone tap her shoulder, making her turn around with a start, finding Harry right behind her; he was beaming. "We did it!" He said excitedly and Vittoria nodded, beaming at him.

"We sure did! This is so cool!" Vittoria said, looking behind Harry and seeing a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, saying "PLATFORM 9¾"; her heart leapt with happiness. "We should get on board, Harry! The train will be leaving soon."

"Yeah, you're right!" Harry said, nodding.

So, taking hold of their carts again, Vittoria and Harry started walking towards the train. The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats, so Vittoria and Harry pushed their carts off down the platform in search of an empty compartment. On the way, they passed a round-faced boy who was saying to an old lady he had lost his toad again, and there was a boy with dreadlocks who was surrounded by a small crowd showing something that was inside of a box in his arms; it looked like something with hairy legs — Vittoria suspected it was a spider, but didn't stick around to find out.

After they pressed on through the crowd, they finally found an empty compartment near the end of the train. Relieved to have found a place to sit, Vittoria and Harry put their owls' cages inside the compartment first and then Harry started helping Vittoria to put her trunk inside so they could put his next; they tried to lift it up the steps, but they could hardly raise it, it was too heavy!

"Want a hand?" A boy asked, stopping beside Vittoria. It was one of the red-haired boys they had followed through the barrier, one of the twins. Automatically, Vittoria brought her hand to her cheek, and she almost sighed in relief as she felt her scar was on the cheek opposite to the boy.

"Yes, please!" Vittoria panted, acting normally, as if she was merely scratching her cheek. Harry nodded. "It's way too heavy for us to lift it!"

"Okie dokie!" The boy said with a grin before turning around. "Oi, Fred! Come here and help!" Oh, so that was George, Vittoria thought, looking at the boy's face and then at his brother, Fred, who was approaching them; they were extremely alike, she couldn't find anything that set them apart. She decided it didn't matter anyway, it wasn't like she needed to know who was who, they weren't even going to be friends anyway, these boys were older, and older kids were never friends with younger ones.

With the twins' help, both trunks were at last tucked away in their compartment, each on a shelf above the seats. "Thank you!" Vittoria said with a smile and the twins waved their hands in the air in sync, showing that wasn't trouble at all, only to stop frozen, staring at her.

"What's that?" Said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at her left cheek; Vittoria felt her body instantly freeze.

"Blimey..." said the other twin, his eyes widening just like his brother's as he looked at Vittoria's cheek, who didn't even try to hide it, there was no point anymore. "Are you...?"

"She is!" Said the first twin. "Of course she bloody is!"

"What?" said Harry, looking at the three of them with his brow furrowed in confusion; he hadn't realized that the boys had seen Vittoria's scar.

"Vittoria Caelum!" Chorused the twins, staring at Vittoria, who blushed.

"I am..." Vittoria said, smiling small without showing her teeth. The twins stared at her for several seconds, mouths agape.

"Blimey, I'm Fred Weasley!"

"And I'm George Weasley!"

"Nice to meet you..." Vittoria said, still smiling. "This is Harry Potter!" She added, waving at Harry, who nodded at them.

"Nice to met you two..." The twins said together, but after that, they didn't say anything else, they just stood there, gaping at Vittoria, which made her turn red.

Then, much to her relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door. "Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, mum!" With a last look at Vittoria, the twins hopped off the train.

Vittoria and Harry looked at each other and exchanged relieved looks before going to sit by the window, facing each other. As soon as they had settled down, both placing Golden and Hedwig's cages on the top of the retractable table fixed on the train wall just below the window, they began to hear several voices near their compartment; it was the redhead family, and they were talking about Vittoria, of course they were. The dark red curtain that covered the window in case the sun was too strong during the journey was open, and its position was hiding Vittoria and Harry from the sight of people outside, allowing the two of them to observe without being seen.

"Hey, mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?" One of the twins had said. "You know that girl and boy who were near us in the station? Know who the girl is?"

"Who?" The woman asked.

"Vittoria Caelum!"

"Oh, mum, can I go on the train and see her, mum, please!" The small girl pleaded.

"You've already seen her, Ginny, and the poor girl isn't something you goggle at in a zoo!" The woman said sternly. "Is she really, Fred? How do you know?"

"We saw her scar of course, it's really there, like a real lightning!" One of the twins said.

"Poor girl... No wonder she was alone."

"Never mind that, do you think she remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"

Their mother suddenly became very stern. "I forbid you to ask her, Fred! No, don't you dare! As though she needs reminding of that on her first day at school!"

Vittoria turned away from the window and looked at her hands over her lap with a heavy sigh; it was very strange to hear people talking about her life, and it was extremely uncomfortable knowing that everyone knew about what had happened to her when she had no idea about it until a few hours ago.

"It's weird to be known, isn't it?" Harry said quietly and Vittoria looked up at him, seeing that he was staring at her with a gentle smile.

"Yeah..." Vittoria said weakly, nodding. "Everyone we're going to study with grew up hearing about me and... It will be so awful if they react like those boys."

"I'm sorry." Harry said, and Vittoria smiled small.

"Thank you..." A whistle sounded over them at that moment, and Vittoria and Harry looked at each other, a smile growing in their lips, sadness from moments ago being replaced by excitement. "I can't believe we're really going to Hogwarts!" Vittoria said and Harry grinned at her, nodding.

"Me neither!"

The train started off immediately after the whistle, and picked up speed as it followed the track out of the station, and when it did, daylight soaked their compartment with warmth and life. As their train passed through the railway line inside the city, they saw houses of the most varied colours, but soon even that was left behind, giving way to natural landscapes, such as fields and trees of the most varied sizes.

"It feels like a dream..." Vittoria said softly, looking out the window with round eyes.

"It really does..." Harry nodded. He too was looking out the window, both with their foreheads against the glass.

The door to their compartment suddenly slid open, causing Vittoria and Harry to jerk around, eyes wide. The youngest red-haired boy of that family was standing by the door; he looked rather awkward. "Anyone sitting there?" He asked, pointing at the empty seats. "Everywhere else is full..."

"No, you can sit." Vittoria and Harry said at the same time, nodding at him.

The boy gave them a small, awkward smile and sat down on the same bench that Vittoria occupied; he glanced at her for a moment and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked at her. Vittoria and Harry glanced at each other quickly at this, both with knowing looks, and looked out the window too; the fields were so green under the sunlight that it was even a sin not to observe that landscape.

"Are you really Vittoria Caelum?" The boy blurted out no even a minute later and Vittoria turned to him again, nodding. "Oh! Well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes... I'm Ron Weasley by the way!"

"Nice to meet you." Vittoria said, smiling, and Ron smiled back, looking much more relaxed now.

"And you are-?" Ron asked, turning to Harry.

"Harry Potter."

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

Ron smiled at them and then turned to Vittoria, looking a little shy suddenly. "Have you really got... You know..." He pointed at his own cheek; Vittoria's scar was facing the window, which is why he asked it. Vittoria turned her face fully towards him, showing her scar. Ron stared, mouth dropping open. "So that's where You-Know-Who...?"

"Yeah, but I can't remember it." Vittoria said; Harry was paying attention to the conversation too, because even though he spent the whole morning with Vittoria, they didn't talk about it at any point, and he was kind of curious about it too.

"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.

"Well... I do remember a lot of green light, but nothing else." Vittoria said, shrugging. She believed that this was due to the trauma, she probably saw everything happen and her mind simply erased that night from her memories, as well as all the others she lived with her family, to protect her from suffering... Or she was just too young to remember something.

"Wow..." said Ron, gaping at Vittoria for a moment. "I heard you went to live in the muggle world! What are they like?"

"Horrible!" Harry said at once and Ron turned to him at once. "Well, not all of them, my relatives are."

"Yeah... Some are really awful." Vittoria said, nodding. "I lived with my aunt, and as much as she is not a muggle, she is pretty terrible too."

"Your aunt?" Ron asked and Vittoria saw his eyes widen. "The one... The one that...?"

"Yes, the one that lost her magic." Vittoria nodded and Ron watched her with his mouth open.

"So it's true that... That her older sister took her magic?" Ron asked in a thin voice and Vittoria nodded.

"Yes, she died doing it though." Vittoria explained. "But at least she rid the wizarding world of an evil person like my aunt."

"Yeah, it's hard for a Black to turn out good..." Ron said nodding, only for his eyes to widen and his cheeks to flush violently. "But your mum was good, you know, and your other aunt! It's just that most aren't, you know? Terrible!"

"I know, don't worry." Vittoria said, smiling small. "I was told that it was rare the ones that turned out good."

"Yeah..." Ron nodded, still looking a little embarrassed.

"I told her they shouldn't have let her live with her aunt." Harry said and Ron turned to him nodding his head ever so slightly as if he was still processing what he'd discovered.

"Well, she's my last living blood relative, so..." Vittoria said.

"But she is a danger to you!" Harry pointed and Vittoria shrugged.

"Hey, did you guys know each other before here?" Ron asked, eyeing them curiously. "Live close by?"

"Oh no!" Vittoria said, shaking her head. "I lived in London while Harry lived in..."

"Surrey." Harry said helpfully.

"We met just few hours ago." Vittoria went on.

"But you guys seem to be such good friends!" Ron pointed, eyeing them curiously.

Vittoria and Harry looked at each other grinning. "Circumstances helped." Harry said and Vittoria nodded. "We have a lot in common."

"A lot!" Vittoria agreed, and then she found herself saying something else. "It's nice, though, to have made another friend." She added and she watched as Ron's eyes lit up and he looked from her to Harry and back again with a smile appearing on his lips.

"Cool!" Ron said, grinning at them, looking happy with what she had said; by the way Harry smiled at her too, Vittoria knew he agreed with her.

Ron, after a few minutes and with Vittoria and Harry's offer of friendship, was finally looking at Vittoria without staring at her, which meant that he was no longer seeing "The Vittoria Caelum", but Vittoria, just other kid who would start Hogwarts with him, and that was such a good sign in Vittoria's eyes. Perhaps this was the beginning of yet another friendship, perhaps Ron was, like Harry, the good person who would come into her life as Hagrid had told her, and she found herself wishing he were.

"Your family is quite big, isn't it?" Vittoria said and Ron nodded, his eyes widening slightly as if saying "Tell me about it!"

Ron told them everything about his family after that, not at all worried about hiding any details, he even seemed happy to have found someone who didn't know anything about his family, because now he could finally tell his story to someone who met him first and not his brothers. The Weasleys, he said, were a pure-blood and overwhelmingly red-haired family. He then said he had five brothers and a sister, and that the two oldest had already graduated from Hogwarts. Bill, the eldest, worked for the Gringotts bank and was in Africa at the time, and the other, Charlie, worked with Dragons in Romania. Then, Ron showed his pet rat, Scabbers, telling them that it had been Percy's first, his third older brother, but when he became a prefect, he had got an owl. Ron then added in an afterthought, blushing hard, that his family wasn't rich, so he always kept the remains of his older brothers, so Harry told him all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents, and Vittoria also found herself telling him how her clothes and shoes were practically all second-hand, that she only got new things to wear to school because her aunt preyed on her status, and that she never got any presents at all from her aunt. This seemed to cheer Ron up.

While they were talking, the train had carried them out of London, so now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep, and around half past twelve, there was a great clattering outside in the corridor; a smiling, dimpled old lady slid their door open. "Anything from the trolley, dears?" She asked.

Ron mumbled something about having sandwiches as Vittoria and Harry got to their feet and walked towards the trolley, but Vittoria saw through it; Ron said his family wasn't rich so she believed he didn't have any money to buy what the trolley witch was selling, but she could see he wanted it. He had the same look she knew she had when eyeing something she wanted to eat but was forbidden to. Vittoria decided that she wasn't going to let Ron go without eating whatever it was that was being sold.

Feeling her stomach growling, finally realizing how hungry she was, Vittoria observed all the sweets the woman was selling and realised she had never heard of any of them, not that she knew a lot of sweets as she had never eaten any. There were Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, chocolate frogs, pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, liquorice wands, and a number of other strange things. In the end, Vittoria decided to buy few chocolate frogs, couple of boxes of Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and some liquorice wands. Then, after paying, she went back inside her compartment and let Harry to buy his sweets.

"Hey, I bought this for you." Vittoria said, handing Ron two boxes of chocolate frogs, a box of Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and some liquorice wands; Ron's ears went scarlet. "I hope you like these because I don't really know what those are, I've never seen it before."

"You didn't need to, Vittoria! I have-!" Ron said, pointing to his slightly smashed sandwiches.

"I know, but that doesn't stop you from eating other things, does it?" Vittoria said, grinning. "Go on, take it Ron! Don't make me eat all this alone!" Ron watched, unsure what to do, but ended up giving her a small smile and taking the sweets she was handing him.

Deep down, Ron still thought that Vittoria was just putting up with him, that she was just too polite to send him away, but seeing Vittoria buying him sweets she didn't need to, and speaking to him in a way that made her eyes gleam with evident truth, he accepted the fact that he, Ron Weasley, had indeed made friends all by himself, and that one of them was none other than Vittoria Caelum, the most famous person in the wizarding world. However, he found himself caring little that she was who she was, she was just Vittoria to him, just a kid like him, who was eager and excited to go to Hogwarts, who knew what it was like to live without luxury and who didn't judge him for being poor. She was much more than what people said about her, she was a normal person, not a celebrity, she was just a girl... And a very nice one by the way!

"Thanks, Vittoria." Ron said, earning a wide dimpled smile from the girl.

"You're welcome." Vittoria said, sitting down beside him again, looking curiously at the chocolate frog box in her hand.

"These are really good!" Ron said brightly, pointing at the chocolate when Vittoria looked at him with interest, feeling even more comfortable in her presence. "It's not real frogs by the way, it's just enchanted to look like it. It moves until you bite it... And they come with collectible cards of famous witches and wizards! See which one you got, I'm missing Agrippa!"

"Who is Agrippa?" Vittoria asked curiously, opening her chocolate frog box.

"Oh, he was a very famous author back in the 1500's!" Ron began to explain, feeling important because he was answering things Vittoria asked; it was cool to be the one talking and not the one who only listened, he always listened back at home, with so many older brothers that knew more than him. "He wrote about our kind, but his books ended up falling into the wrong hands and he was imprisoned by muggles that said his works were evil!" Ron said easily and Vittoria looked at him in horror. "But don't worry, he got away!" Ron added, noticing his friend's gaze.

"Oh, that's good!"

Harry, unlike Vittoria, didn't buy just a few sweets, he bought the whole trolley, literally the whole trolley! Vittoria and Ron watched him in astonishment as he walked in with his arms full of sweets, their mouths open in shock; Vittoria was now certain that Harry literally didn't know how to manage his money, if he had it, he was definitely going to spend it. If he continued at this rate, he would wipe out his fortune quicker than the blink of an eye.

Harry placed the sweets in the empty space in his bench and sat down, grinning at his friends. "Hungry, are you?" Ron said, biting his chocolate frog.

"Starving!" Harry said, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty. Vittoria laughed, biting her chocolate frog too as Ron shook his head, grinning.

"Oh my God..." Vittoria found herself gasping, making the two boys beside her look at her with wide eyes; she, however, was not looking at them but at the chocolate in her hand. "This is... It's incredible!" Ron grinned, clearly not understanding the meaning behind it all, but Harry did, and he smiled at his friend, seeing how her eyes were shining brighter than ever; clearly Vittoria became a chocolate lover right then and there. She deserved to be one and eat as many chocolates as possible, she deserved it.

Harry ended up making Vittoria and Ron take several of the sweets he had bought because there were too many and he wouldn't be able to eat them all — Vittoria had the slightest suspicion that he bought it all on the pretence of being starving but he really just wanted to share it all with them, and so, for almost an hour, they went through all the pasties, cakes, and sweets, Ron's sandwiches long forgotten. It was a nice feeling, Vittoria decided, sitting there with Ron and Harry, sharing food and laughter, it was something she could get used to, having friends.

"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a box of chocolate frog. "They're not really frogs, are they?"

"No!" said Ron chuckling, shaking his head. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."

"What?" Harry asked.

"Chocolate frogs have cards inside them to collect, you know, of famous witches and wizards." Ron said. "I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."

"Who is Ptolemy?" Vittoria asked curiously, already turning to Ron; he was basically her source of information about the wizarding world. And he was loving it.

"Oh, he was a very famous wizard!" Ron explained as Harry opened his chocolate frog. "He was very good at arithmancy, and he was a very good astronomer and astrologer! He lived in Egypt."

"Oh, the muggles had a Ptolemy too, he was an astrologer and astronomer too, a great geographer and an amazing mathematician!" Vittoria said and Ron nodded as he paid attention to her. "What is arithmancy?"

"A science with numbers, it's very difficult!" Ron said promptly and Vittoria stared at him for a few seconds, her face blank.

"Your Ptolemy is my Ptolemy!" Vittoria exclaimed in surprise, eyes widening. "Mathematics is a science of numbers!"

"No way!" Ron gasped, looking at her with wide eyes. "He had a double life!" Vittoria and Ron stared at each other in pure shock and only Harry's laughter snapped them out of it.

"You guys look like the same person, you have got the same reactions!" He said and they both laughed, looking at each other with flushed cheeks in amusement. "I got Dumbledore." Harry added, showing them his card.

"You got Dumbledore?" Vittoria said. "May I see it? I got Godric Gryffindor."

"Really? Let me see it too?" Harry asked.

Both exchanged their cards and looked at the image and what was written on it. 

' GODRIC GRYFFINDOR was the founder of Gryffindor house at Hogwarts and the first owner of the celebrated Sorting Hat. He was the most accomplished dueller of his time and an enlightened fighter against muggle discrimination.'

' ALBUS DUMBLEDORE, currently headmaster of Hogwarts. Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and ten-pin bowling.'

Vittoria turned Dumbledore's card back over to see his photo again and saw, to her astonishment, that Dumbledore had disappeared. "He's gone!" She gasped.

"Really?" Harry asked and Vittoria nodded, showing him the empty space on the card.

"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day!" said Ron, shaking his head. "He'll be back soon... I've got Rowena Ravenclaw again and I've got two of her! Do you want it?" He said, handing it to Vittoria. "You can start collecting!" Vittoria smiled, taking the card after she handed Harry's card back to him again and he gave hers back too.

Vittoria looked curiously at Rowena's card, and her eyes filled with the beauty of the witch staring back at her; she had extremely blue eyes and very black hair, wore a navy-blue dress and a diadem in the shape of an eagle with a blue stone hanging that was simply the most beautiful thing. Vittoria smiled down at the card in her hand and turned it over to read who the witch had been: 'ROWENA RAVENCLAW was one of the four founders of Hogwarts and founder of Ravenclaw house. She was the most brilliant witch of her time, both in knowledge and magical ability. Her ability to cast a Patronus showed her superior magical abilities.' Vittoria turned the card over in her hand again and watched the witch, wishing in her heart that she too was good at magic and as smart as Rowena once she made it to the wizarding world; she wanted knowledge, for Vittoria, being smart was much better than being rich...

. . .

After a couple of hours, the neat fields were gone; the countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder, there were now woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills decorating the landscape. There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Vittoria and Harry had passed on the platform came in, he looked tearful.

"S-Sorry, but have you se-seen a toad at a-all?" He asked. Vittoria, Harry and Ron shook their heads; the boy wailed. "I've lost h-him! He keeps getting away from m-me!"

"He'll turn up!" said Vittoria, smiling sympathetically at the boy. "Pets always come back to their owners when they're well cared for!"

"Yeah, I t-take good care of T-Trevor..." said the boy tearfully, looking at Vittoria. "If you s-see him, t-tell me, al-alright?"

"Of course!" Vittoria said, smiling. "I promise." The boy nodded at her and left at once.

"Don't know why he's so bothered." said Ron, shaking his head. "If I'd brought a toad, I'd lose it as quick as I could! Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk." Ron's rat was still snoozing on his lap. "He might have died, and you wouldn't know the difference!" He went on in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look!" He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand; it was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end. "Unicorn hair's nearly poking out... Anyway!" He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again; the round-faced boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one!" She said with a very determined voice.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it!" said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it then!" She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

"Er... All right." He cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow!" He waved his wand in the air, but nothing happened, Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" Said the girl with a certain mistrust in her voice. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me! Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard! I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough... I'm Hermione Granger by the way, who are you?" Vittoria was surprised at how much she could talk before feeling the need to breathe, and by the looks the boys were making, so were they.

"Harry Potter." Harry said, nodding at her.

"Vittoria Caelum." Vittoria said and she saw the moment that Hermione's eyes widened.

"Oh my God! Are you really?" Hermione gasped. "Of course it's you, look at your scar! I read all about you, you are in Modern Magical History, Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, Powerful Witches of the Twentieth Century, Most Powerful Witches and Wizards in Existence, Notable Magical Names of Our Time, Magical Mysteries of the Twentieth Century, Curiosities About Magical Families and Powerful and Important Families of the Wizarding World, even though these last two books didn't have much about you, there was practically nothing to say about your family!"

"Wow, I never thought there would be books about me!" Vittoria said rather sheepishly; Hermione beamed at her.

"Do you know what House you'll be in?" Hermione asked, completely changing the subject; she clearly didn't care much about the fact that she was a Caelum, she actually seemed very interested in talking about anything, maybe because she was muggle-born and they didn't grow up listening about her. "I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best! I heard Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad..."

"Ravenclaw looks like a great House!" Vittoria said and Hermione looked at her as if she had just said the most amazing thing in the universe. "Have you read about Rowena Ravenclaw? She seemed like an amazing witch, I would like to be in her House if possible, knowledge is never too much!"

"Yes, I believe that too! And yes, I read everything about her!" Hermione nodded brightly, practically glowing with the fact that someone was talking to her about something she wanted to talk about so badly. "She was the most intelligent witch of her time, and she was very good at charms and at creating things! Did you see the diadem on her head? She made it herself!"

"Really?" Vittoria asked, eyes widening slightly at her new discovery; Hermione nodded, smiling excitedly at Vittoria.

"They say the diadem grants the wearer wisdom, but no one has ever actually proven this theory, and even if we tried to prove it, the diadem has been lost for centuries!" Hermione said and was very pleased with Vittoria's surprised face; she enjoyed sharing knowledge, especially if the other person had never heard about it, it made her proud of herself.

"Wow!"

Harry and Ron, while the girls were talking, were looking at them as if they had grown two more heads; they were trying to keep up with their matters, but the words were even a bit blurred because of how fast they talked! Neville, meanwhile, standing by the door, was looking at Vittoria as if he was still digesting the fact that the nice girl who had spoken to him was Vittoria Caelum, like, "The Vittoria Caelum"!

"Now, I suppose going to Ravenclaw wouldn't be bad!" Hermione said and Vittoria nodded excitedly.

"Imagine how awesome it must be to be in the House of the smartest founder?" Vittoria said and Hermione smiled dreamily, looking at Vittoria with her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"I have to go and look for Neville's toad, but we can talk more when we arrive at Hogwarts, right?" Hermione said, getting to her feet and Vittoria nodded.

"Of course, I'll look forward to it!" She said and saw Hermione's cheeks puff up slightly with pride.

"I advise you to change, I expect we'll be arriving soon!" She said excitedly to all of them even though she was only looking at Vittoria, who nodded at her, looking grateful for the tip. "See you later!" Hermione added with a wave and when Vittoria waved back, dimpled smile piercing her cheeks, Hermione left the compartment, taking Neville with her.

"Whatever House I'm in, I hope she's not in it!" said Ron at once, rolling his eyes as he threw his wand back into his trunk. Vittoria and Harry exchanged a look at it. "Stupid spell... George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud!"

"What House are your brothers in?" asked Harry.

"Gryffindor." said Ron, his face falling suddenly; gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mum and dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad too, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin?"

"That's the House You-Know-Who was in, right?" Vittoria asked and Ron nodded.

"Yeah..." said Ron as he flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.

"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter!" said Vittoria, trying to take Ron's mind off the Houses.

"Yeah, and the tip of his tail too!" Harry added, picking up on what Vittoria was trying to do.

Ron smiled at them. 

. . .

Vittoria, Harry and Ron were talking about random things when their compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville or Hermione Granger this time, but three boys. They entered their compartment and Vittoria and Harry recognised the middle one at once: It was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop that Vittoria snapped at; he was looking at her with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley hours ago.

"Is it true?" He said. "They are saying all down the train that Vittoria Caelum is in this compartment... So, it's you, isn't it?"

"Yes." Vittoria said shortly.

"This is Crabbe, and this is Goyle." said the pale boy carelessly. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Ron gave a slight cough which might have been to disguise a laugh. Draco Malfoy looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are, my father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford!" He spat and turned his attention to Vittoria again, not waiting for a reaction from Ron; Vittoria and Harry didn't like the way Malfoy spoke to Ron at all. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Caelum. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there, and I think you'll want to accept my offer, seeing as we're cousins. Our mothers were cousins, your maternal grandmother was my maternal grandmother's sister." Malfoy said looking straight at Vittoria, holding out his hand so she could shake it.

Vittoria, however, looked up at him and her stomach dropped as realization filled her mind; that's why his eyes were so similar to Adeline's, they were related! "I think I can tell who the wrong sort is for myself, thank you." Vittoria said coolly, frowning at him, remembering how prejudiced he'd been hours ago and how he'd disrespected Ron just now.

Draco Malfoy didn't go red like hours ago in Diagon alley, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks. "I'd be careful if I were you, Caelum..." He said slowly, lowering his hand. "Unless you're a bit politer, you will go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, and if you keep hanging around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, it'll rub off on you!"

Vittoria, Harry and Ron stood up at once, even though only Vittoria took the lead and walked closer to Malfoy, who took a slight step back. "Say that again!" Vittoria said, keeping her voice low, even though her face was showing how angry she was.

"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered, smirking at her.

"Unless you get out now!" said Harry angrily from behind Vittoria.

"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food, and you still seem to have some!" Malfoy said and as if on cue, Goyle reached towards the chocolate frogs on the seat but before he could take anything, Vittoria raised her left hand and threw the three boys out of her compartment; they fell on the floor with a thud. Groaning, Malfoy looked at Vittoria with wide eyes, seeming horrified as well as shocked. "How did you do that?" He gasped, his voice slightly squeaky.

"How did I do what?" Vittoria asked, walking to the door. "I didn't do anything, are you seeing things?" And then she pulled the door closed, smiling innocently at Malfoy through the glass; the boy's eyes narrowed at her, but Vittoria paid him no more attention, just turned around to Harry and Ron again, and saw that Harry was staring at her with his mouth hanging open while Ron's eyes were almost popping out from his skull. Oh, she did wandless magic in front of them, great way to keep it a secret...

"You can do non-verbal and wandless magic when you just discover about the wizarding world?" Ron asked in a yelp.

"Anyone knows how to do that!" Vittoria said with a shrug. "I mean, it's not hard."

"No, not really!" Ron said, his eyes still wide. "Nobody can, Vittoria, like, nobody! It's hard enough to do non-verbal spells, but wandless? It's impossible! There were only rumours about the Caelums knowing how to do it and..." Ron stared at her in silence for a few seconds. "Oh, you are a Caelum!" He said as if he had just realized something. Vittoria forced a weak smile at him and glanced at Harry, who was still staring at her in silence.

"Is that why Ollivander said that about you not needing a wand?" Harry asked and Vittoria nodded slightly.

"I didn't want you to think I was bragging, that's why I didn't tell you about it before..." She said dully, feeling guilty. "Sorry..."

"No, no need to apologize!" Harry said right away, shaking his head. "This is so awesome, Vittoria! Like, really cool!"

"Yeah?" Vittoria said, smiling at him.

"Yeah!" Ron said, grinning at her. "Bloody hell, wait until everyone knows you-!"

"NO!" Vittoria exclaimed, the smile fading as her eyes widened. "You can't tell anyone about it!"

"What?" The two boys asked, looking at her in confusion. "Why not?"

"Because!" Vittoria said, shaking her head. The boys looked at her with confusion still shining in their eyes, which made her sigh and frown slightly. "We're friends, right?" She asked softly.

"Of course!" Harry said at once as Ron nodded firmly.

"Well, then I think I can tell you why..." Vittoria said. "But you have to promise me not to tell anyone about this!" The boys nodded again. "Promise me!" She pressed.

"I promise!" Harry and Ron said seriously, both showing her their open hands.

"Okay... Well, Hagrid told me that my family hid their abilities from everyone because they knew that some people would only approach them out of interest, which I understand, I don't want people to be my friend because I'm a Caelum, I want them to be my friend for who I am." Vittoria said and the boys nodded in agreement with her. "But there's one more thing... Hagrid also told me not to tell people of power in the wizarding world about my abilities. Guess I could get in trouble for that."

"Makes sense..." Ron said quietly to Vittoria.

Harry, however, said "What? Why?"

"Dad used to say that some people were afraid of the Caelums." Ron started to explain. "Afraid that they could, in the future, take over the Ministry of Magic, and then nobody would be able to stop them as nobody really knows what they were capable of..." He paused, frowned slightly and looked at Vittoria. "Now I understand what dad meant about you being on thin ice from the moment you enter the wizarding world again, because... Because..."

"Because the Ministry of Magic would have eyes on me again, and full access to what I can do because I don't have anyone else who could tell me to be careful..." Vittoria said weakly, feeling her heart speed up inside her chest with this sudden realization; why Hagrid hadn't told her this? It would have made her think twice before attacking Malfoy! "What if Malfoy tells anyone about this? About me attacking him? God, I'm going to be in so much trouble!" Vittoria said quickly, looking wide-eyed at Ron and Harry.

"He will not!" Ron said promptly and Harry nodded, both of them looking very keen in calming Vittoria down. "He's stupid, I guarantee he'll never connect things and think you know wandless magic, he'll never think you're better than him at something!"

"Exactly! If he's really like Dudley at all, he'll always think of an alternative that puts you below him!" Harry promptly said and Ron nodded, trying to remember who the hell Dudley was.

"Okay..." Vittoria said, deciding to trust the boys. Her breathing was still a bit laboured though. "Yeah... Other than that, it was quick, right? One of you could have had your wand and done that, he didn't even pay attention to you at all!" She said and the boys nodded again.

"Yes, definitely!" They said together.

Vittoria nodded, taking her left hand inside her right and bringing it to her chest. "I just have to be careful about what I do around people now." She said, looking vacantly at the boys in front of her, her mind racing. "Only you know about it, and I'll keep it that way."

"And we will help you!" Harry said firmly and Vittoria looked at them truly now, smiling small at them.

"Everything will be fine, no one will ever suspect anything!" Ron said, grinning at her. "As far as anyone knows, you don't have anything extraordinary about you! Your family did a great job of keeping a low profile!"

"They really did, right?" Vittoria said, smiling. The boys nodded, feeling rather good about making Vittoria calm down, and Vittoria feeling happy that they had made her feel better. This whole friendship thing was crazy, they barely knew each other and were already doing things for each other. It was nice. "Thank you, boys, really."

"Any time!" Harry said, smiling.

"Yeah! Besides, I never liked the Minister of Magic anyway, but not only him, the people who works there too! Most ignore my dad and think he's stupid because he likes muggle stuff." Ron said, making a face. "My dad just finds it interesting how muggle things work, that's all! But don't tell my mum I said that, she might think I'm rioting against the Ministry!" He added, his eyes widening comically, making Vittoria and Harry laugh.

"Who is rioting against the Ministry?" A girl's voice called from the doorway and the three of them turned to her at once, eyes wide; it was Hermione Granger.

"Nobody!" Ron promptly said, rolling his eyes, and Hermione looked at him with a suspicious face.

"Anyway! What has been going on?" She asked. "There's a blond boy saying loudly down the hall that he was attacked by you lot! Who is he?"

"Apparently, my cousin." Vittoria said with disgust. "Draco Malfoy."

"He is your cousin, his mother was a Black before becoming a Malfoy. His family sucks!" said Ron darkly, looking at Vittoria. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared, said they'd been bewitched! My dad doesn't believe it, he says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the dark side." He turned to Hermione and made a face. "Can we help you with something?"

"Humpf! You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor and he said we're nearly there!" Hermione said, frowning. "You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get at Hogwarts!"

"Those boys were fighting, not us!" said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"

"All right, I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridor!" said Hermione in as niffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose by the way, did you know?" She added, looking at Ron, who glared at her. Vittoria and Harry kept their faces straight even though they wanted to laugh; Ron is a great friend, he was covering for Vittoria, and they really appreciated that. "And you really have similarities to Draco Malfoy, you know? Same nose, thin face, and paleness." Hermione added before leaving and closing the door.

Vittoria made a face. "Worst news I've ever received!" Vittoria mumbled. "Finding out I'm related to Malfoy... Ew!"

"Yeah, ew!" Ron nodded. "At least you just met him, imagine if you had grown up with him since you were little? I think I would have killed myself, threw myself out of the cradle or whatever!" Vittoria couldn't contain her laughter, even though she knew growing up with Adeline was just as bad as growing up with Malfoy would have been.

"You know, Hermione is right, we need to change into our robes!" Vittoria said after taking a look out the window; it was getting dark, the mountains and forest were now under the yellow-orange sky with purple and pink sprinkled between these colours. It was a beautiful view. Vittoria also noticed the train did seem to be slowing down, so she hurried to look inside her trunk for her robes. She grabbed her uniform and turned to the boys, who were taking their robes from their trunks as well. "I'm going to the loo to change." Vittoria told Harry and Ron, who nodded.

"We'll change here then." Harry said and Vittoria nodded, leaving the compartment.

Vittoria walked to the end of the carriage and found the loo empty, much to her relief. She went in and closed the door, locking it. Quickly, she put on her uniform, her black pleated skirt that reached just above her knees, the thick black pantyhose she was only supposed to wear in the winter and today because it was a special occasion, her white button-up blouse, the grey sweater — because it was cold outside, the wind coming through the windows in the corridor said so, her black tie that she, thank goodness, knew how to tie even if a little poorly but it was better than nothing, and her black cloak, which she would only put on later.

Vittoria then replaced her old Converse for her new black oxford, and before going back to her compartment, she used the toilet because only now did she notice how badly she needed to pee, and then, after washing her hands, she fixed her hair in the mirror (she still let it down but less messy), and finally put on her black cloak. After ten minutes or so, Vittoria opened the door with her previous shoes and clothes folded in her arms, and walked back to her compartment, finding the boys already changed; they were dressed just like her, apart from the fact that they were wearing trousers and no skirts. She put her things back in her trunk and sat down again beside Ron.

A voice echoed through the train not five minutes later, when the three of them were having a competition of who stayed the longest without blinking. Vittoria won: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please, leave your luggage and pets on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Vittoria felt her hands became shaky as the train started to slow down; Harry looked like he would be sick, and Ron looked pale under his freckles. The boys crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets Harry purchased, and Harry forced Vittoria to accept two chocolate frogs, the last of the pile he had bought, which made her shove the sweet inside her trunk quickly before the three of them, together, joined the crowd thronging the corridor.

When the train finally stopped, people pushed their way towards the door and out on a tiny, dark platform, the Hogsmeade Station. Vittoria felt her stomach churn and her heart speed up with the realisation that she was a long way from the broken house she grew up in, but very close to where her parents called home for seven years, and no longer alone, but with two friends by her side. She couldn't be happier! 

In less than a minute, Vittoria, Harry and Ron were in the middle of a sea of students, none of them knowing what to do; students from all years were huddled in groups, talking loudly and laughing, starting to walk to the opposite direction of the train. The station was really dark, with only a few sconces lighting up the place, and still very poorly; the walls were of big grey stones and the floor was of dark brown bricks, and even if Vittoria couldn't see clearly because of the darkness, it was possible to distinguish the forms of trees and shrubs all around the place.

"Hey, look at that!" Harry pointed.

Far away from them, a light was coming their way, floating amidst the darkness; it was just after a few seconds that they noticed the person behind it. A familiar voice echoed through the place, drawing everyone's attention to them. "Firs' years! Firs' years with me!" Hagrid's big hairy face found them over the sea of heads and beamed. "How are yeh, Vittoria an' Harry?" Vittoria and Harry waved, beaming, as they ran towards him dodging all the other students; Ron followed, stunned by Hagrid's size. "Any more firs' years? No? So follow me, come on! Watch yer step now!" Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid's thick voice, all forming a single line behind the man, who started down what appeared to be a narrow, steep path, which was very dark; Vittoria was very careful not to trip over her own feet or whoever was the student walking in front of her. Nobody spokes much while walking, Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice. "Yeh will all have yer firs' vision o' Hogwarts in a second!" Hagrid called over his shoulder. "Righ' around this turn righ' here!"

As promised, the narrow path suddenly opened onto the edge of an immense lake and perched atop in a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling into the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. Vittoria's mouth dropped open in shock, amazed and shocked by the beauty of the place, which seemed to have come out of a storybook. If she wasn't seeing it all with her own eyes, she would never have believed that such a splendid place existed.

"Look at that!" Vittoria whispered to Harry and Ron, who were now on either side of her. "It's a castle! It really is a castle!" She said, beaming. While Ron could only nod, his mouth open in wonder, Harry grinned at her, remembering what she had said hours ago, his eyes wide in surprise.

"No more 'n four per boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry, Vittoria and Ron were followed into their boat by Hermione, who sat next to Vittoria in the front row; Ron scowled at that. "Ev'ryone in?" Shouted Hagrid, who had a boat only to himself.

"YES!" they all answered.

"Righ' then! FORWARD!"

The fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass; Vittoria was looking at it and remembering what Hagrid and she had discussed hours and hours ago, and even looking at it, she could hardly believe that there was actually a lake there, a lake they were sailing across! Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead, Vittoria still amazed by the sight of it; never in her greatest dreams she would dream that one day she would be experiencing this, and she had very crazy dreams! The castle towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood and Vittoria had already pinched herself three times to get to believe that she was really living it, that it was real.

"Hard to believe, isn't it?" Hermione whispered to Vittoria, who glanced at her nodding, seeing that she was looking at her with a genuine smile and sincere eyes. "You know, I never imagined that I would be experiencing something so great!" She added, seeming to try to be very open with Vittoria, and Vittoria completely softened to that; Hermione seemed really nice and as much as she had that strong, determined voice, almost bossy, and talked nonstop about things she knew, Vittoria understood her side, Hermione, like her, didn't know how to make friends, and just as she was until a few hours ago, Hermione was alone and Vittoria knew how hard it was to be alone.

"I never thought I'd be living this too..." Vittoria whispered and Hermione looked at her curiously. "I didn't know about this world until yesterday, I've lived in the muggle world as a muggle all my life."

"Oh!" Hermione breathed, eyes slightly wide, and then smiled. "Well, may we be welcome!" She said and Vittoria smiled, two dimples piercing her cheeks, which made Hermione smile even wider.

"May we be very welcome!"

"Heads down!" Hagrid yelled as the first boats reached the cliff, making Vittoria and Hermione jump slightly, as they were very absorbed in their talk; they chuckled at each other and lowered their heads.

Everyone else lowered their heads too and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel that seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. Vittoria, Hermione and Harry left the boat, but Ron, when he was at it, grabbed Vittoria's arm as soon as he put his foot out of the boat to regain the balance he lost, but he pulled her along with him and they almost fell together on the ground; Harry laughed at them and received a disapproving look from both, which made him laugh harder.

"Oi, yeh lot! Does this toad belong ter any o' yeh?" Hagrid called while checking the boats as people climbed out of them, turning around to look at the group of students.

"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands.

"How did it end up here?" Vittoria asked, tilting her head to the side, confused. Harry and Ron shrugged.

They clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle, then, they walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Ev'ryone here? Yeh there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid called and Neville nodded, holding Trevor, the toad, tightly inside his hands. Hagrid raised his gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door, that swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there; she had a very stern face. "The firs' years, Professor McGonagall!"

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She said and pulled the door wide.

Vittoria felt as if her legs were stuck to the ground, everything was so real now! It took Harry to nudge her in the ribs to get her back to reality and start walking. The entrance hall was enormous, the stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts and the ceiling was too high to make out; a magnificent marble staircase beside them led to the upper floors. They followed Professor McGonagall in silence across the flagged stone floor to a door that led them into a small chamber where they crowded in, standing a lot closer than they normally would, looking around nervously. Harry was beside Ron just in front of Vittoria, who was behind them with Hermione by her side, who was beaming about everything.

"Welcome to Hogwarts!" Professor McGonagall said in a firm voice once they were settled. "The start-of-term feast will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts." Vittoria felt her stomach drop at it; what if she was placed in a different House than Harry or Ron? What if she is placed in a House that rivalled theirs? Worse, what if she is placed in the same House as Malfoy? She couldn't bear to live with the boy, not when she just got rid of Adeline! "You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room." Professor McGonagall went on. "The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history, and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule breaking will lose your House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour! I hope each of you will be a credit to which ever House becomes yours! The sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school, so I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly!" That said, she left the chamber.

Vittoria looked around and saw all the other kids doing what they could to fix their hair or smooth out their robes, but quickly looked away from them, putting her eyes on her feet, when they all started to look around too; it was well lit in that chamber and everyone could now see her scar clearly, and even if it was a momentary thing, she could use her hair as a hiding place for a few more minutes. Vittoria checked her robes as well, just in case, and glanced up briefly, seeing Harry trying to fix his messy hair and Ron wiping the sleeve of his cloak hard across his nose, where Hermione said was dirty.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Harry asked Ron quietly.

"Some sort of test, I think." Ron whispered at once. "Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

Vittoria felt her heart practically stop just to take a terrible turn. A test? In front of the whole school? But she knew nothing about anything! Looking around again, she saw that all the other students looked as terrified as she was; she tried not to overhear Hermione listing all the spells she had learned over the summer because it would only make her even more nervous.

Suddenly, Hermione jumped on Vittoria's side, hitting her arm in the process, while Harry and Ron almost fell on her when they jumped backwards; other people were screaming. Looking up quickly, Vittoria saw the reason for the commotion: About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Vittoria gasped: Ghosts, there were ghosts too! Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years; they seemed to be arguing.

"Forgive and forget I say, we ought to give him a second chance-!" Said the one who looked like a fat little monk.

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost-! I say, what are you all doing here?" A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years; the silence was general.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar smiling around at them. "About to be sorted, I suppose? Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house, you know..."

"Move along now!" Professor McGonagall entered the chamber again and said with her sharp voice. "The sorting ceremony's about to start!" One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall, getting back to talking to each other again. "Now, form a line and follow me!"

Vittoria felt a mix of emotions sending a wave of nervousness through her body; anxiety, fear, despair... Her legs were trembling as she walked to the line that was forming. She positioned herself behind Ron, who was behind Harry, who was behind a sandy-haired boy; Hermione stood behind her. Together in a line full of terrified first years, they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Vittoria had never even imagined such a splendid place existed; it was lit by thousands and thousands of candles which were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting, and these tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the Hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led them up the top of the Hall so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students and with the teachers behind them; dotted here and there among the students, were the ghosts, which shone misty silver.

"I think I going to be sick." Ron mumbled and Vittoria nodded in agreement.

"Me too..." She whispered. She looked up at the ceiling to not make herself even more nervous with the stares from all the other students, and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars; her eyes widened, and she gaped at that in surprise.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside." Hermione whispered beside her, drawing her attention. "I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."

"Really?" Vittoria whispered; it was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the sky.

"Yes... Beautiful, isn't it?" Hermione said, nodding.

"Very..." Vittoria said, looking at the Great Hall ceiling again. "I love the stars, I wish I had a ceiling like this one in my bedroom..." She added in a whisper.

"Me too..." Hermione whispered back.

Vittoria looked down only when Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years; on top of the stool, she put a pointed wizard's hat — it was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Vittoria wondered what that was, until she remembered the card she got of Godric Gryffindor: He had been the first owner of a Sorting Hat, it could only be that one!

For a few seconds there was complete silence, then the hat twitched, a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and it began to sing. Vittoria looked at it in amazement.

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patients Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

The whole Hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song; Vittoria applauded too, still with her mouth hanging open. The hat bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

"We just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry and Vittoria. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll!" Vittoria chuckled, but Harry only nodded, he looked rather nervous even with the fact that they only have to try on the hat. Vittoria, however, was much more relieved now that she knew she would only have to try on the hat rather than have to do a test, and even though everyone was going to watch her do it, she didn't care much about these people, she didn't know them and she doubted they would remember her sorting by the end of the night.

"Can you imagine us fighting a troll?" Vittoria said quietly to Ron even though she didn't even know what a troll was, but by the way Ron said it, it had to be bad. He snorted.

"Never!" He said, shaking his head with a grin. "It could kill us with just a blow!"

Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will come here, I'll put the hat on your head, and you will sit on the stool to be sorted." She said and all the first years, without exception, nodded. "ABBOTT, HANNAH!" A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, walked towards Professor McGonagall who put the hat on her head, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down on the stool.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" Shouted the hat after a few seconds; the table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table, the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"BONES, SUSAN!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" Shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"BOOT, TERRY!"

"RAVENCLAW!" The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them; would Vittoria be joining them soon? She liked Ravenclaw a lot by their description, maybe that would be her future House.

"BROCKLEHURST, MANDY!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"BROWN, LAVENDER!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" Lavender was the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers.

"BULSTRODE, MILLICENT!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Suddenly, Vittoria froze with the realisation that she was...

"CAELUM, VITTORIA!"

... The next one.

The Great Hall erupted in whispers all at once after Vittoria's name was called, and as she started to walk towards Professor McGonagall, she felt her entire body tense; she didn't think she would be nervous about the sorting but all that attention was making her very uneasy, she forgot for a moment that people knew her, and she really hated that. It wouldn't be easy not to care about all the people present there after feeling everyone's eyes on her, how stupid she was to think that no one would care about her! Many students watched her without blinking, and others whispered nonstop, from those already seated at the long tables to those in line to be sorted.

"There's no way she's Vittoria Caelum!"

"Look at the scar on her face, idiot! Of course it's her!"

"It's really her!"

"I can't believe it's her!"

"Wow, there's a Caelum among us now!"

"I'm going to school at the same time as a Caelum! Insane!"

All the whispers were forgotten however, when Vittoria faced Professor McGonagall. The woman put the hat on her head and it fell over her eyes as she sat down carefully on the stool, her heart beating so hard she could have sworn that the entire Great Hall could hear, and by the silence they were making now, she was sure they were. Everything was silent for a few seconds until a voice filled her mind, making Vittoria startle and take a moment to realize that it was the hat talking to her.

"Ah, a Caelum, I remember your family very well, how could I not? ...Mmm, you have a very bright mind, a lot of knowledge saved for such a young age, but many traumas and fears fight for space too... A heart lit with an extremely strong flame, an indescribable courage, a rational mind that keeps you on the ground... You want to find your place, to discover who you are, to unravel the mysteries of your history, all the unknown answers for your questions..." Vittoria swallowed thickly, asking herself how that hat knew all this. "So much talent and power... So much power indeed, goodness, I've never seen anyone like you! So much strength and so many abilities... Mmm, how difficult, so very difficult!"

The hat fell in total silence suddenly and Vittoria felt her mouth go very dry when she started to hear whispers from the other students again. It was so fast with the others first years, why was it taking so long with her? What if she couldn't be sorted because there was no House that she fit in? Vittoria bit her cheeks in a clear sign of panic and pressed her hands together over her lap. Suddenly, the voice came back, and she almost let a squeak come out of her lips.

"You would do very well in Ravenclaw, Miss Caelum, there you will meet people who would help you use and develop your mind very well, just as you would do well in Hufflepuff, where your pure and loyal heart would find a home... But you would also do very well in Slytherin, where you would find people who would put you on the path to greatness, help you to prosper! But there's a lot of impulsiveness in your heart, a flame that does not match their ambition... It would always get in your way... Ah, you are too brave for your own good, very audacious and... Yes, your heart speaks louder than your mind! I have my decision and do not worry, you will do great things Miss Caelum! Better be... GRYFFINDOR!"

Vittoria let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding and heard a roar of screams. As soon as the hat was removed from her eyes by Professor McGonagall, Vittoria saw all the Gryffindors standing, most clapping, but some were slapping their hands on the table, all cheering; taking a quick look at her friends', she saw Ron and Harry grinning at her. Vittoria smiled at them and walked quickly to her table, but before she could even sit down, she was caught within a wave of hands to shake, just like in the Leaky Cauldron, the first one in the line being the oldest Weasley, Percy, who was beaming down at her. She shook hands with many students while the Weasleys twins were yelling: "We got Caelum! We got bloody Caelum!" at the top of their lungs. Vittoria could only smile because even though she was almost being suffocated by her fellow Housemates, she was immensely happy she was sorted.

... And so relieved she wasn't in Slytherin. So relived!

When Vittoria was finally able to sit down, her eyes fell on the teachers at the long table above; most of them had happy faces, Professor Dumbledore had an evident smile on his lips, but others didn't show much animation, like a man with greasy black hair and a hook-shaped nose, who had his face in a grimace. The man Vittoria remembered to be Professor Quirrell, however, was looking very nervous about something; he wasn't looking up but staring unblinking at the golden plate in front of him.

"FINCH-FLETCHLEY, JUSTIN!" Professor McGonagall called, and only now did Vittoria notice that several names had already been called; none was sorted to Gryffindor.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"FINNIGAN, SEAMUS!" The sandy-haired boy that was in front of Harry in the line sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.

"GRANGER, HERMIONE!" Hermione almost ran to the stool, waiting eagerly to Professor McGonagall to put the hat on her head.

The hat also took some time to sort Hermione out, but it finally shouted: "GRYFFINDOR!"

Hermione came skipping to the table and sat down next to Vittoria, who was smiling and clapping along the other students. "We are in the same house! Isn't it incredible?" Hermione said briskly. "We will have the same classes, we will be able to study together, we will have-!" And Hermione started talking non-stop. Vittoria chuckled at her enthusiasm and realised that she only stopped talking when Neville was called.

Neville fell over on his way to the stool and Vittoria felt truly sorry for him, but it seemed that only she and Hermione looked worried about the boy, as all the rest of the students laughed. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville too, and when it finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" Neville ran off still wearing the hat and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it back to Professor McGonagall.

"Goodness, Neville!" Hermione whispered, shaking her head, and Vittoria had to agree.

"MALFOY, DRACO!" Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once, the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!" Vittoria made a grimaced while Malfoy went to join his friends, Crabbe and Goyle at the Slytherin table, looking pleased with himself; she still couldn't believe they were related, it repulsed her to know that she had some of his blood running through her veins.

"I'm sorry I said you looked like him..." Hermione whispered and Vittoria looked at her confused by the approach. "You have similarities, but only physically! He seems like a mean person, he yelled at me and Neville when we went looking for Trevor in his compartment."

"He is terrible, very prejudiced!" Vittoria nodded, frowning. "And it's okay, we don't choose the family we're born into, do we?"

"No, but we choose the one we want to live with." Hermione said and Vittoria smiled at her, nodding.

"That we do."

Other students were called after Malfoy, like "MOON!", "NOTT!", "PARKINSON!", and then a pair of twin girls, "PATIL!" and "PATIL!", one to Ravenclaw and the other to Gryffindor. Then "PERKS, SALLY-ANNE!" and then...

"POTTER, HARRY!" Vittoria looked around, stopping talking to Hermione to pay attention to her friend's sorting.

Harry walked over to Professor McGonagall and the last thing he saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the students looking at him; he was so relieved to be a nobody and not have all the fervent attention Vittoria received. He knew Vittoria hated it, she said so, and he felt sorry for her, but he couldn't help but feel relieved that he wasn't famous like her. In the next second, Harry was looking at the black inside of the hat, waiting; his heart was beating very fast. "Hmm..." said a small voice in his ear, making him almost jump. "Let me see... Plenty of courage, not a bad mind, either... There's talent, oh my goodness, yes, and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?" Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin"... "Not Slytherin, eh?" said the hat in his mind. "It's okay, I didn't think about putting you there, you wouldn't fit in... But maybe Hufflepuff? Your loyalty is immeasurable, I've never seen such great fervour in caring for the one you love... But then again, this is seen in Gryffindor too and you have too much boldness for Hufflepuff... Well, I made my decision. Better be GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table erupted in cheers and Harry walked shakily towards them, relief written all over his face. Vittoria was clapping with all the other Gryffindors and Harry promptly sat down in front of her, beaming, receiving a smile and two thumbs up from her, which made him laugh.

"You're looking like a ghost." Vittoria teased and Harry rolled his eyes, scoffing.

"It's really nerve wracking!" He said at once and Vittoria chuckled.

"Do tell me! I have never been so nervous before!" Vittoria said, her eyes widening slightly as she shook her head, making Harry smile. "The hat was silent for so long!"

"Oh, was it silent with you?" Hermione said the moment Harry opened his mouth to say something to Vittoria; he scowled at Hermione. She had this habit of intruding on other people's conversations and Harry didn't like that at all. "I think it wanted to be silent with me too, but I couldn't stop talking to it, only in my mind, of course!"

"Oh, Hermione!" Vittoria giggled, shaking her head, and Hermione giggled too.

"It has a lot of opinions." Harry said, removing the frown from his face, because he realised that Vittoria seemed to like Hermione and he didn't want to pick a fight with a possible friend of Vittoria. He liked Vittoria a lot and didn't want to lose her friendship to Hermione, he would be very angry if that happened.

The girls nodded. "It seemed to know me more than I do!" Vittoria said, tilting her head to the side.

"Isn't that terrible?" Harry said, looking at Vittoria. "How can a hat know all that?"

"I think it reads minds." Hermione butted in and while Vittoria turned to her, Harry sighed.

"You know what?" Vittoria said, looking at Hermione. "I think it does!"

"Right?"

The twins Evrin and Zion Selwyn were made Slytherins shortly after Harry made his way to the Gryffindor table, then a black boy as tall as Ron, Dean Thomas was his name, had joined Vittoria, Hermione and Harry at the Gryffindor table while they were talking. After Dean, Lisa Turpin became a Ravenclaw, and then, at last, it was Ron's turn; he was pale green by now. Vittoria bit her cheeks nervously, praying for Ron to be sorted in Gryffindor too, and not even a second later the hat was placed on his head, it had shouted: "GRYFFINDOR!" Vittoria and Harry clapped loudly with the rest students as Ron ran really fast to their table, collapsing into the spot next to Harry.

"Well done, Ron, excellent!" said Percy Weasley pompously.

"We are all together!" Ron exclaimed to Vittoria and Harry after giving his brother a quick nod. "Isn't that brilliant?!" Vittoria and Harry nodded, beaming.

After Blaise Zabini, the last one, was made a Slytherin, Professor McGonagall rolled up the scroll and took the Sorting Hat away, and just then did Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster, got to his feet, beaming at the students, his arms opened wide as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there. "Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words, and here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" He sat back down, and everybody clapped and cheered. Vittoria looked at Ron and Harry, trying to not laugh, and saw the boys doing the same.

"Is he- A bit mad?" Harry asked to no one in special, uncertainly.

"Mad?" said Percy Weasley, widening his eyes as he shook his head. "He's a genius!"

Vittoria looked down when an amazing smell hit her nose, looking away from Percy, and saw a lot of food in front of her eyes, which made her gasp; she had never seen so many things in just one table, and it all smelled so good that her stomach growled! Now she understood why Hagrid couldn't choose his favourite food between all the food served at Hogwarts, they all look so delicious! There was roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs!

Vittoria started to help herself with food just like all the other students, just now realizing how hungry she was; she just had sweets the whole day and she really needed a meal right now, mainly because she hadn't eaten a meal since yesterday's lunch, which wasn't even that good, a can of pasta that was colder than her aunt's soul. She put on her plate a little of everything that caught her eye, like roast chicken and roast beef, some roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, a bit of gravy, some carrots and when she was satisfied with her plate, she started to eat, dying to finally try all that. Ron was already devouring some roast chicken when she started, and Hermione was looking at him with a disgusted face; Harry had picked up a little bit of everything too and was eating happily. Vittoria hummed in pleasure as she bit into her chicken, she couldn't believe she had lived so long without it.

"That does look good..." The ghost in the ruff said sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak.

"Can't you-?" Harry asked.

"I haven't eaten for nearly four hundred years." Said the ghost politely. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it... I don't think I've introduced myself. Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower, at your service!" He said, bowing.

"I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you! You're Nearly Headless Nick!"

"I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-!" The ghost began stiffly, but Seamus Finnigan interrupted.

"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?" He asked. Vittoria, who was curious about that too, had her mutely question answered right after.

Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed. "Like this!" he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled; his whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge; someone had obviously tried to behead him but not done it properly. Vittoria felt her face squirm in disgust as Ron stopped the chicken leg a few inches away from his mouth, an expression of utter disgust on his face; Harry and Seamus looked like they were going to be sick. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said: "So, new Gryffindors, I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Slytherin have got the cup last year because we did really badly in the Quidditch tournament after our best seeker and chaser in years left to focus on their studies, and winning the quidditch cup really helps you win the house cup! The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable with all the insinuations that they will win again this year! He's the Slytherin ghost..." He added quietly.

They all looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face and robes stained with silver blood; he was sat right next to Malfoy who didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements. That made Vittoria, Ron and Harry smirk.

"How did he get covered in blood?" Vittoria found herself asking with great interest.

"I've never asked." said Nearly Headless Nick politely, smiling at her. "Miss Caelum, I must tell you that I was a great friend of one of your relatives, Frederick Caelum! We used to do everything together... I have been very fond of your family since ever, and I am pleased to finally meet you."

Vittoria smiled at the ghost. "I'm also happy to meet you." She said, not even knowing what to say in a situation like this; she sighed in relief when Nearly Headless Nick bowed contentedly at her.

"Does your scar hurt?" Seamus Finnigan blurted out suddenly, looking at Vittoria with wide eyes, and she looked at him in surprise. "My mum has a scar on her leg, and she says it hurts when the seasons change."

"No, mine never did." Vittoria said, shaking her head.

Seamus looked at her seeming to be mesmerized. "I'm Seamus!" He said after a few seconds, grinning at Vittoria. "And this one right here is Dean!" He added, clapping Dean on the back harder than he should have, which made the boy jump forward a bit. Vittoria smiled at both boys; Dean smiled at her, and Vittoria would have liked to point out that he had a very nice smile. He had dimples just like her.

"Pleasure to meet you." Vittoria said, nodding at them.

"Likewise!" Dean said promptly, still smiling.

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, Vittoria feeling like she would explode, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before, but that was not the end as just a moment later the desserts appeared: Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding... So many unknown sweets to Vittoria that she wanted to eat all of them, but she was so full she could only eat one, and with a lot of persistence. She was taking a chocolate eclair from the tray when she heard Seamus saying something that caught her attention.

"I'm half-and-half, my dad's a muggle. Mum didn't tell him she was a witch until after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him!" Vittoria laughed along with the other first years listening to him speak.

"What about you, Neville?" said Ron.

"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch, but the family thought I was all muggle for ages! My great-uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me. He pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned, but nothing happened until I was eight. Great-uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my great-auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go! But I bounced all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, gran was crying, she was so happy! And you should have seen their faces when I got in here, they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great-uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad!"

Vittoria started to lose interest in the conversation when it turned to Quidditch teams, which she had no idea what it was, so as she tucked into her dessert, she began to scan the Hall, seeing several people still stealing glances at her, noting that Malfoy still wore a scowl, and when she went to observe her teachers, she wished she hadn't. Just as she was looking away from Professor Quirrell — who was wearing a turban on his head today, the hook-nosed professor and Quirrell, for a split of second, looked straight at Vittoria too; a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on her cheek at once, which made her see stars for such pain. Vittoria groaned as she placed her hand over her scar, pressing it hard.

"What is it?" Harry and Ron asked looking at her with confusion, but she just shook her head.

"Nothing." Vittoria said. "Stomach ache, I ate too much." Harry and Ron seemed to buy the excuse, but once the boys turned their attention to their desserts, Vittoria looked down at her own half-finished chocolate tart and swallowed hard; why did her scar hurt? It had never happened before; she was telling Seamus the truth! The pain, however, had gone as quickly as it had come, but harder to shake off was the feeling Vittoria had gotten from the hook-nosed teacher's look, a feeling that he didn't like her at all. "Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" Vittoria asked Percy Weasley, wanting to hear anything that could explain her feeling.

"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you?" Percy said promptly, beaming down at her. "No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape! He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to. Everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape." Vittoria swallowed nervously and watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at her direction again, neither did Quirrell.

After a few minutes, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet yet again; the hall suddenly fell silent. "Ahern, just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered! I have a few start-of-term notices to give you: First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils, and a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well..." Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins. Vittoria was curious about this rule, and she couldn't help but suspect that this was why Hagrid hadn't told her anything about the forest. "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term, so anyone from second to seventh year interested in playing for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Harry and Ron laughed, but they were two of the few who did; Vittoria didn't. "He's not serious, right?" Vittoria whispered to Percy, whom she thought was the most knowledgeable person there to inform her about the rules.

"Must be..." said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere, like the forest, it is full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that! I do think he might have told us prefects the reason for it at least." Vittoria stared at Percy with her mouth slightly open; beasts? Beasts near a school? How could that be safe?

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. He gave his wand a little flick, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words. "Everyone picks their favourite tune and off we go!"

The school bellowed: 

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald,
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling,
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot."

Everybody finished the song at different times; Vittoria was one of the first to finish. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march; Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest. "Ah, music..." he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now bedtime! Off you trot!"

Vittoria got up with the other students and all the first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase. During her walk out of the Great Hall, Vittoria noticed that several people turned to stare at her again, some looked curious, some still looked surprised, but there was a small percentage of students there who were looking at her angrily, while others looked almost fearful... Most of those students were Slytherins, Vittoria realized, but there was at least one in every House except Gryffindor that was looking at her with slightly wide eyes or with furrowed brows and twisted mouths. That made her heart sink and her entire conversation with Ron from earlier came back to her; she couldn't give any indication that she knew how to do things that nobody else did, not if she didn't want to get in trouble.

People are afraid and angry of the unknown, and she was one of the greatest unknowns in existence.

Vittoria stopped thinking about these students, however, as she started up the marble staircase; there were portraits on the walls, and she was surprised when the people in them whispered and pointed as they passed. Vittoria, however, forced herself to pay attention to where Percy was guiding them because she would have to make the same path tomorrow to go to her classes and to get back, and she really didn't want to get lost on her first day of school. They walked through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries, and climbed even more staircases. Vittoria was wondering how much longer they would walk when they came to a sudden halt and she ran into Dean Thomas, who was right in front of her.

"I'm so sorry, Dean!" Vittoria said quickly, blushing.

"No problem!" Dean said, turning around to look at her, giving her a smile.

As Dean turned around again, Vittoria looked ahead to see why they had stopped so abruptly, and she found out why pretty quickly: A bundle of walking sticks was floating in mid-air ahead of them, and as Percy took a step towards them, they started throwing themselves at him.

"Peeves..." Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice. "Peeves, show yourself!" A loud, rude sound like the air being let out of a balloon, answered. "Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?" There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared floating cross-legged in the air, clutching a walking stick.

"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle firsties! What fun!" He swooped suddenly at them, and they all ducked.

"Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" Barked Percy. Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking stick he was holding on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed. "You want to watch out for Peeves." said Percy as they set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects! Well, here we are!"

At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress. "Password?" She asked when they stopped in front of her portrait.

"Caput Draconis." said Percy promptly, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall.

They all scrambled through it, Neville needing a leg up, and they found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cosy, round room full of squashy armchairs, tables, sofas and a notice board where school notices could be hung. It was decorated in several shades of red, and there were many windows that looked out onto the grounds; a large fireplace dominated one wall. The mantle of the fireplace was adorned with a portrait of a lion. The walls were decorated with scarlet tapestries that depicted witches and wizards, but also various animals. There were also bookcases located around the room, filled with many books.

After Percy explained to them some things like the routine they would have to develop from now on, with order and discipline, and having told them that they would receive their schedules tomorrow at breakfast, and that they must always know the House password or they were not going to be able to enter their common room, he guided the girls and boys to two openings in the wall, where two hidden stairs led up to the dorms; the one on the right side was for the girls' dorms and the one on the left for the boys'.

Vittoria waved good night to Harry and Ron, who did the same, and with Hermione Granger, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, she climbed the long spiral staircase to her newest room; they were, obviously, in one of the castle towers. After they climbed several steps, past six doors with plaques that showed the occupants' names and their year, they arrived at the dormitory that would be theirs for the next seven years (their names were engraved on the plaque attached to the door, their year right below).

They opened the door to find four four-poster beds covered in red blankets and with a red curtain that could be pulled around the bed, a nightstand and their school trunks at the foot of their beds (Golden was there too, over Vittoria's trunk); a wooden chair and a dresser were near each bed, a lamp was placed on their nightstand; the bedroom walls were stone and the floor wooden, the windows had heavy blood-red curtains covering them. Vittoria's bed was right next to Hermione's, both against the wall opposite to the entrance door and facing Parvati and Lavender's bed (Vittoria's bed was facing Parvati's and Hermione's facing Lavender's). The bathroom door was closest to Vittoria's bed and was made of the same reddish wood as the dorm door.

They all were too tired, but because of Lavender, they chatted a little bit. They introduced themselves to each other, all but Vittoria, who was bombarded by questions asked by Lavender and Parvati, who were bragging about them being in the same House as Vittoria Caelum. Vittoria excused herself when she noticed that they weren't going to talk of nothing else but her life, and without Vittoria there, they all decided to call the night. They put on their pyjamas, brushed their teeth and Vittoria opened the door of Golden's cage, who flew happily out of the window next to her bed, a window that she closed shortly afterwards. All the girls lay down, said good night and closed the curtains around their beds.

Vittoria's new mattress and pillow hugged her body like a cloud, they were so much better than the old ones she had at Adeline's house. For the first time ever, she was happy to go to sleep; she didn't need to worry about anything that might happen to her overnight or about how the next day would be, she was away from Adeline, and nothing could take away the relief she was feeling.

She was finally safe.

Chapter Text

Vittoria woke up on Monday morning with Hermione getting ready for the day; she was mumbling to herself and as Vittoria was a very light sleeper, just the sound of the girl softly speaking a mantra of "Keep calm, they'll like you!" was enough to wake her up. Vittoria sat on her bed and rubbed her sleep-heavy eyes and opened the curtain just enough to see the clock right over the dorm's door; it was still six in the morning and the classes would start just at nine. Vittoria yawned and ignoring the idea of getting up to keep Hermione company, she closed the curtain again and lay down, going back to sleep shortly after. For the first time in forever she could sleep a little longer after six and she really wanted to sleep.

Two hours and thirty minutes later, Vittoria woke up to a yell, and by the girl's voice, it was Lavender. She sat up in her bed with her head heavy with sleep and didn't even had time to wake up gradually because her curtain was yanked open by Parvati, who was wide-eyed and looking frantic. "Vittoria, we're late! We are so late! The first lesson starts in half an hour!"

Vittoria woke up instantly as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown over her head, and in the next few minutes, she was already on her feet, with her trunk open and pulling on the clothes she was going to wear today — they were the same as the night before, she wouldn't lie, the clothes were clean and she wouldn't get other clothes dirty for nothing. Of the whole set, Vittoria just didn't wear her thick black pantyhose and sweater; the weather was nice today, just the cloak was enough.

Vittoria has never dressed so fast in her life, but it took her forever to tie her tie; really, why did they need a tie? Even with all the work to get it knotted, Vittoria was the first to finish of the girls and even while brushing her hair, she spent almost a whole minute looking at her books not knowing what she should do with them; what books should she take? Blinking her eyes a few times, Vittoria remembered that Percy had said they would get their schedule in the morning over breakfast, which she missed. Throwing her hairbrush on her bed, Vittoria turned and walked quickly out of her dorm and then ran down the stairs to try to find someone and ask for help; she ended up running into Percy, like literally, she crashed into his chest. Percy seemed ready to yell something when Vittoria hit him.

"So sorry, Percy!" Vittoria gasped, smiling awkwardly at him as Percy held her by the shoulders to steady her, all while looking at her suspiciously.

"Vittoria, I really hope you haven't just woken up!" Percy said firmly as he let go of her and Vittoria snorted, trying to hide the fact that her face was swollen from sleeping so much.

Vittoria shook her head, waving her hand. "What? Me? Not at all! I just-"

"Need your schedule?" Percy asked and Vittoria nodded frankly, looking at him as if he were the saviour, all pretence of excuse forgotten.

"Yes, exactly!"

Percy nodded and handed her a piece of parchment. "Professor McGonagall probably didn't saw you at the Great Hall and was unable to deliver you personally, so here it is!" He said and Vittoria nodded, going along with his story. "Can you deliver the other girls' schedules to me? Thank you. And if I were you, I would hurry up, classes start in ten minutes, and you can't be late on the first day of-!"

"I know, thank you!" Vittoria called, already turning around to run up to her dormitory again; why did their dorm have to be at the top of the tower?

Vittoria handed over the other girls' schedules as soon as she walked into her dorm and immediately started stuffing the books she would need for the day into her backpack. When Vittoria finally came downstairs again, her heart racing, she almost didn't see Harry and Ron coming down the stairs too; Ron was scowling.

"My stupid brother woke us up!" Ron said bitterly to Vittoria, who giggled. "And he gave us a huge scolding about oversleeping and almost missing the first class on our first day of school!"

"Technically, you actually almost missed our first class." Vittoria said, nodding. Ron scowled at her, and Harry chuckled.

"You almost missed class too!" Ron pointed as the three of them left the common room together.

"No, I've been awake for hours!" Vittoria pointed out, waving her schedule in front of Ron's face, who grabbed it to compare with his.

"Percy handed you this!" Ron said, rolling his eyes.

"How do you know that?" Vittoria asked, taking her schedule from Ron's hand with a grimace.

"I didn't, just gave it a shot!" Ron said, shrugging. "We have the same classes, the three of us I mean. The first is Charms and I have no idea where the classroom is."

"They should give us a map of the castle." Harry said and the other two nodded.

"Has anyone ever thought of doing one?" Ron said, yawning widely.

"I think we should make one!" Vittoria said, she and the boys hurrying to get the staircase before it moved; moving stairs was a thing there, something very crazy that could kill someone. Vittoria had been questioning the security of this castle since last night. "And put all the shortcuts and hallways and classrooms!"

"It would take us forever!" Harry complained.

"But we could sell this in the future!" Ron pointed out, eyes gleaming with the possibility. "Imagine how much money we would make selling maps to students as lost as we are right now? It's a failsafe business!"

"You just forgot that we are the lost students! We would probably get lost trying to make the map!" Harry pointed and Vittoria and Ron scowled at him.

"Party pooper!" They said together, making Harry grin.

"Anyway, it wasn't going to work anyway." Ron said grimly. "You know the caretaker? Filch? He's a pain in the arse, Fred and George told me he knows about everyone who steps out of line! He'd find us in a no-go spot in seconds!"

"Yeah, we would get ourselves in a lot of trouble!" Vittoria said, nodding. "Maybe someone will make a map of Hogwarts one day." The boys nodded.

"Oh, but we would make so much money!" Ron whined. Vittoria and Harry laughed, shaking their heads. 

. . .

"There, look!"

"Where?"

"Next to the tall red-haired kid!"

"Wow, look at her scar!"

Whispers followed Vittoria from the moment she left her dormitory on that hurried Monday morning and for the whole week that went on. Everyone seemed to be looking in surprise and admiration at her even after days around her, students lined up outside classrooms, stood on tiptoe to get a better look at her, or doubled back to pass them in the corridors again and again, always staring. Vittoria was feeling horrible with all this attention, she felt like an animal in a cage at the zoo! She just wanted to find her classrooms in time for class and as much as Vittoria had a great memory, the corridors always seemed different each morning, and the stairs never led to the same place as the previous day, so having several students getting in her way didn't help!

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts, wide, sweeping ones, narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on Fridays, some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump... Then, there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending! The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, which always left Vittoria's mind confused, and she was sure the armours could walk! The ghosts didn't help at all, too: Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves, the Poltergeist, locked doors and would trick a staircase if you met him when you were late for class.

But even worse than Peeves, was the caretaker Argus Filch; Fred and George Weasley were right about him, he really was terrible! Vittoria, Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning at Hogwarts, not even five minutes after the redhead had warned them about the man. As they ran through the halls in their remaining five minutes to find the Charms classroom, they ran into a door which didn't open at nothing they did, and just as Vittoria was about to do her door-unlocking trick by waving a finger in the air, Filch found them: They discovered they were trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. Filch wouldn't believe they were lost, he was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing by. Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-coloured creature with bulging, lamp-like eyes just like Filch's; she patrolled the corridors alone, break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.

And then, once you had managed to find the classrooms, there were the classes: There were many more branches of magic than just waving your wand and saying a few words. They had Astronomy, in which they had to study the night sky through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets — it was nice enough, the only problem of this class was the many steps they had to go up and down every time because the classroom was in the tallest tower of Hogwarts (150 feet tall at least), and the fact that the class ended at half past one in the morning. Vittoria loved Astronomy however, even with these cons; there was nothing more beautiful and wonderful for her than seeing the starry sky, so studying that was not a problem.

They had Herbology in a greenhouse behind the castle three times a week. In these classes, they would learn how to take care of very strange plants and fungi, as well as find out what they were used for — it was cool, they never had a boring class. The most boring class was, without a doubt, History of Magic, which was taught by a ghost. According to Percy, Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him.

Charms classes was a class that Vittoria loved; she had ease with charms as well as with transfiguration. Professor Flitwick, the teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk; he was very kind and had a lot of patience to teach — not even Seamus, who managed to cause an explosion even without having something flammable around him, made Professor Flitwick lose his temper, the man even laughed at the student's ability.

Transfiguration was a complicated and very challenging class that Vittoria particularly loved, the teacher, however, was somewhat severe: Professor McGonagall was a teacher to not cross paths, she was very strict and clever and was the first one to give them a talk to the moment they sat down in her first class... "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts! Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned!" Then she literally transfigured her desk into a pig and then back again.

They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon they realised they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Vittoria and Hermione had transformed their match in a needle, Vittoria right on her first try, which drew surprised looks from everyone, even their teacher. Professor McGonagall gave her a rare smile after her surprise wore off.

One of the classes everyone was most looking forward was Defence Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke, much to the disappointment of all students. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. They also noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed of garlic as well so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.

When Vittoria, Harry and Ron realised it, it was already Friday morning and they finally made it to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost not even once; Harry and Ron followed Vittoria, who finally had the path by heart, all possible variations of it, and soon arrived without a problem like Filch or Peeves getting on their way.

"What have we got today?" Harry asked as he poured sugar (a lot of sugar, Vittoria noticed) on his porridge.

"Double potions with the Slytherins." Vittoria replied, taking her eyes away from the mountain of sugar Harry had put on his food, and looking at his face. "How can you eat porridge with that much sugar?" She asked and Harry shrugged.

"How do you eat porridge with just a spoonful of sugar?"

"Touché!" Vittoria said, looking back at her potions book; Harry grinned as he turned his attention back to his porridge. Vittoria found the subject of potions quite interesting; while reading the book, she saw that there were many kinds of potions, and also a lot of new information that she wanted to know before her first class with Professor Snape — he didn't seem to be a nice teacher and she didn't want to create problems in her very first class with him.

"Snape's Head of Slytherin House." Ron said, shoving a whole egg into his mouth. "They say he always favours them." He added with his mouth full of food.

"Well, today we'll be able to see if it's true." Vittoria said, closing her book; she had read all of it during the week, there was nothing new to learn there.

"Wish McGonagall favoured us..." said Harry with a grimace, which made Ron and Vittoria nod. Professor McGonagall was Head of Gryffindor House, but it didn't stop her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.

Just then, when Vittoria was biting her toast with marmalade, Ron shoving a sausage in his mouth and Harry taking a spoonful of porridge, the mail arrived; it was quite shocking the first time they saw it, but after a few days, they got used to it. About a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps. Golden and Hedwig hadn't brought Vittoria and Harry anything, which was no surprise, after all, who was going to send them anything?

This morning, however, Golden fluttered down and dropped a note onto Vittoria's plate, landing right on her shoulder, wanting the toast that was in her hand. Harry and Ron looked quickly at the envelope and anxiously watched Vittoria open it. It was written in a very messy scrawl: "Dear Vittoria and Harry, I know you two get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week! Send me an answer back with Golden. Hagrid."

"We are going, right?" Harry asked after he read the note too, and Vittoria nodded.

"Of course." She said, taking her quill and writing a positive reply behind the parchment used by Hagrid; she handed it to Golden, that after eating her toast, flew out of the Great Hall.

Shortly after breakfast, Vittoria found that potion's theory was much more interesting than the practical classes, not that brewing potions was boring, it wasn't, Vittoria loved it, what ruined it was the professor himself and some of her classmates. Potions lesson turned out to be a really stressful and annoying class for Vittoria because of Professor Snape, as the man didn't seem to like her or Harry very much, and because they would share this class with the Slytherins until their fifth year! Besides, the classroom was down in the dungeons, it was colder there than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

Once the trio arrived in the classroom, Vittoria looked around and saw Hermione sitting alone at one of the double tables, so she decided to sit with her while Harry and Ron sat down together at the double table next to them. Hermione smiled at Vittoria and they both chatted for a while before class started; Vittoria liked Hermione, yes, she was very bossy and made a point of showing that she knew things to everyone, but she was very kind and the only girl in the whole school that didn't treat her differently just because she was "The Vittoria Caelum". Besides, Vittoria knew that Hermione's way of being was a way of imposing herself, she didn't know what Hermione went through before Hogwarts, so she couldn't and wouldn't judge her.

Professor Snape arrived a few minutes later, his cloak fluttering when he entered the classroom and by his face, he was very unhappy to be there. Snape started the class by taking the roll call, and as soon as he finished calling the names, he turned his eyes to Vittoria and Harry, and his gaze hardened as if he was seeing his greatest enemy before him. He glared at them for a moment but didn't say anything, just turned his back on the class after a second or so and walked to the front of the classroom. Vittoria and Harry exchanged confused looks, neither of them understanding what just happened there.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making..." Snape spoke in barely more than a whisper, but everyone could hear him. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind and ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death, if you aren't a bunch of dunderheads I usually have to teach." Silence followed this speech. "Potter!" said Snape suddenly, making Harry jump. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

As Vittoria turned to Harry praying that he had read the introductory chapter of the potions book before class, Hermione's hand shot into the air. Vittoria, however, knew he hadn't read anything the moment he glanced at her briefly with a desperate look. "I don't know, sir." said Harry at last. Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut... Caelum, let's see if you know the answer." Snape asked, turning to Vittoria, who looked at him in surprise; why was he asking them things and not the rest of the classroom? Hermione had her hand in the air, by God!

"You'd brew a sleeping potion so powerful it's known as the Draft of Living Death, sir." Vittoria answered promptly; she had pretty much the entire potions book memorized already.

Snape's face contorted in disgust at her correct answer, and he turned his eyes back to Harry. "Potter, as your friend answered right, I will give you another chance... Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione raised her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat; Harry, however, looked like he didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. "I don't know, sir." Harry said in a low voice, and that made Vittoria very angry with Professor Snape; why was he humiliating Harry in front of the whole class? It was obvious that he wouldn't know those answers, he wasn't obliged to read the book, this was their first class after all!

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Snape said, and ignoring Hermione's outstretched hand again, he turned to Vittoria. "Caelum, I suppose you know the answer?"

"A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons." Vittoria replied, her voice taking on a harsher tone.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Snape turned to Harry yet again. At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling, but Vittoria was more concerned with being angry with their teacher for what he was doing to her friend, than with Hermione trying at all costs to be chosen to answer the question.

"I don't know." said Harry quietly. "I think Vittoria does, though, why don't you try her?" Harry looked at Vittoria apologetically soon after he said that; he didn't know if she knew the answer to that, he just wanted to Snape stop asking him questions. To his relief, Vittoria gave him a slight nod. Snape, however, was not pleased.

"Sit down!" he snapped at Hermione. "Caelum, will you honour my class with your answer?" He asked with clear irony in his voice.

"They are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite."

"Correct again..." Snape said, his voice cold, and looked around the classroom; everyone was looking at him. "Well? Why aren't you all copying down her answers?" There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said: "A point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter..." He turned to Vittoria and spoke again, even though it looked like he was working hard to say that. "And three points are going to be given to Gryffindor House for your correct answers, Caelum."

After that, things didn't improve anymore for the Gryffindors as potion lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. Vittoria was paired with Harry by Snape, and Ron was with Dean; Hermione was with Parvati, Lavender with a Slytherin girl, and Neville with Seamus. Snape swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticising almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like.

Snape was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs, even though Vittoria was making the potion steps even better than the boy, when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes; Vittoria and Harry, who were closer to the boys' table, lifted their feet a second before the mixture reached their shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose. "Take him up to the hospital wing!" Snape spat at Seamus, then he rounded on Vittoria, the person closest to Neville. "You Caelum, why didn't you told him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's a point you've lost for Gryffindor!"

This was so unfair that Vittoria opened her mouth to argue, and Harry, sensing it, nudged her behind their cauldron, but he wasn't able to stop her. "This is unfair! It's not my obligation to teach another student to do something, it's yours! You're the teacher, not me!"

The entire classroom went quiet at it, and the Gryffindors, even though agreeing with her, were afraid of losing more points; Harry was looking anxiously between Vittoria and Snape while Ron, across the classroom, was watching the scene unfold with wide eyes, as was Hermione, who looked horrified that Vittoria had answered back a teacher. Snape, however, looked at Vittoria for a moment, and for a second, Vittoria thought she was going to lose fifty more points to Gryffindor, but instead, Snape's features changed to one almost as if he had remembered something, but then it changed again. He turned around and ignored her for the rest of the class; Vittoria couldn't believe her luck.

"Are you mad?" Harry whispered to Vittoria, putting his face close to hers so that no one could hear them. "You could have gotten yourself in real trouble!"

"He tried to humiliate you earlier today and wanted to blame me on something I'm not to blame!" Vittoria whispered back, her brow furrowed. "It's unfair!" Harry sighed, clearly quite annoyed, but he didn't say anything, just turned his attention back to his cauldron; he understood what Vittoria was feeling, but she could have gotten in serious trouble, and he didn't want her to be expelled from Hogwarts.

As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Vittoria and Harry's faces were contorted into horrible frowns. "Cheer up, you two! Snape's always taking points off Fred and George!"

"It's not just about the points, Ron, Snape clearly hates both of us!" Vittoria said, annoyed. "Didn't you see the way he treated us from the first minute of class?"

"And why would he hate us?" Harry asked. "I mean, we didn't even know about all this until last Sunday! What could we possibly have done?" Ron seemed to be thinking for a moment, but in the end, he had nothing to say.

"Can I come and meet Hagrid with you two?" Ron asked when they finally reached the entrance hall and could feel the warmth of the sun again.

"You were already going to come with us anyway." Vittoria said and Harry nodded. "Do you think we would leave you behind?" Ron grinned at them.

. . .

The rest of the morning was monotone and without any interesting events. Lunch was normal and when they realised, it was time for them to visit Hagrid for tea. At five to three, the trio left the castle and crossed the grounds, running as fast as they could to find out who was the fastest of them; Ron only won because he clearly had longer legs than Vittoria and Harry, and Harry clearly only lost because he was a gentleman and wanted to let Vittoria win.

"Yeah, obviously!" Ron scoffed when Harry told them his lame excuse.

Vittoria laughed at Harry's flushed cheeks and patted him on the shoulder. "Ignore him, he's not a gentleman like you." Vittoria said, looking pointedly at Ron.

"I really am not!" Ron said, shrugging. "You're stronger than me! You know how to handle yourself!"

"You are discourteous, that's what!" Vittoria said, pushing him out of her way to knock on Hagrid's door. Ron pushed her back and the two of them stayed at it until Hagrid opened his door.

The friendship Vittoria found herself having with Ron was different from the one she had with Harry. Somehow, she and Ron found themselves being those goofy friends, who bump and push and make fun of each other all the time, while she and Harry had a soft, tender friendship, which one was always willing to help or encourage the other, and as much as she and Ron would always help each other too, one would always laugh at the other before helping if one of them fell, which was not the case with her friendship with Harry, where he would definitely help Vittoria right away and vice versa. She couldn't explain it, but it was a dynamic she liked.

Hagrid lived in a small wooden hut on the edge of the forbidden forest; there was a crossbow and a pair of galoshes outside the front door. When Vittoria knocked, they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. "Back, Fang, back!" Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open. "Hang on-! Back, Fang!" He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound. There was only one room inside the hut, hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it. "Make yerselves at home!" said Hagrid grinning, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.

"This is Ron Weasley, Hagrid, our friend!" Vittoria told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot. "We met on the Hogwarts Express!"

"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's hair. "I spent half o' me life chasin' Fred an' George away from the forest! An' mind yeh, yer brother Charlie too... I don' know wha' yeh lot have with this forest!"

"Maybe it's the fact that it's forbidden." Vittoria said, grinning, and Hagrid shook his head at her.

"Yeah, of course..."

While they were telling Hagrid about their experiences at the castle, he served them an odd type of cake and a very strong tea; the cake was called rock cakes and were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but the trio pretended to be enjoying them. They told Hagrid about every time they got lost in the castle, Vittoria told him about the classes she liked most, and Ron commented on the ones he hated the most, which were almost the majority. Harry, meanwhile, told him about the difficulties he was having in classes. During their talk, Fang rested his head on Vittoria's knee; he seemed to like her, and Vittoria liked him too, she dreamed of one day having a dog, she loved dogs.

The trio was delighted to hear Hagrid too didn't like Filch or his cat. "Tha' old git! An' as for tha' cat, Mrs. Norris, I would like ter introduce her ter Fang someday! Yeh know, every time I go up ter school, she follows me everywhere! I can' get rid o' her, I know Filch puts her up ter it!"

Then, Vittoria and Harry started to tell Hagrid about Snape's lesson and how much he seemed to hate them both. Hagrid, like Ron, told Vittoria and Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students. "But he seemed to really hate us!" Vittoria pointed out.

"Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why would he?" Vittoria noticed that Hagrid didn't quite meet her eyes when he said that. "How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron, changing the subject. "Adelaide an' he are still together? I liked them a lot!"

While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons in Romania, and that this Adelaide was studying to be a healer, helping Charlie on her free time, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy. Vittoria, who was petting Fang, noticed it and started reading it with him; it was a cutting from the Daily Prophet.

"BREAK-IN AT GRINGOTTS: Gringotts's security breached... Believed to be the work of unknown Dark Wizards or Witches, Gringotts goblins, while acknowledging the breach, insist nothing was taken. The vault in question had, in fact, been emptied the very same day. "But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you!", said a Gringotts spokes goblin this afternoon. Gringotts now need to readdress their security system. Goblin security specialists are combing the land for a better breed of security dragon to replace the now deemed useless existing ones, they are even going as far as examining muggle security systems. Gringotts need to get another security system in place before any more breaches occur. Wizards and witches all over the country are scratching their heads wondering how safe their money is in the so-called safest wizard bank. Head Goblins are urging the wizarding community for calm."

"Hagrid!" said Harry suddenly, startling Vittoria. "That Gringotts break-in happened on the day we were at Diagon Alley! It might've been happening while we were there!"

This time, Vittoria had no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet their eyes this time. Hagrid grunted and offered them another rock cake; Vittoria frowned and stared at Hagrid, trying to understand why he didn't want to comment on that. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day and Hagrid had emptied the vault 713, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package... Had that been what the thieves were looking for? But why? It didn't seem that precious...

As Vittoria, Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighing down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Vittoria thought that nothing in her life (besides her past and the Caelums), so far had given her as much to think about as the tea with Hagrid. Harry seemed to be thinking along the same lines as her. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And what was that? 

. . .

Vittoria never believed she would meet someone she would come to hate, not to the same degree she hated her aunt, of course, but that was before she met Draco Malfoy; he was getting on her nerves in a way no one was capable of! Harry told her one night, right after Malfoy almost got them in trouble with Snape when they were walking to the Great Hall — because, even though they only had Potions with the Slytherins, Malfoy made it a daily goal to piss them off whenever he got the chance — that he was just like his cousin, Dudley. Vittoria was sorry that Harry had a cousin like Dudley, and she still was, but fate seemed to hate her so much, that it gave her a cousin like Dudley too; she would never accept that Draco Malfoy was her cousin, never! Wasn't it enough to have an aunt like Adeline? Why did fate have to put a mini devil in her way too?

But fate had other plans besides giving her Malfoy as a cousin, it was also wanting them to have far more interactions than Vittoria ever wanted. It was on Tuesday afternoon that Vittoria's good mood changed from peaceful to annoyance, since, pinned to the notice board in the Gryffindor common room, was a notice saying that flying lessons would start on Thursday, and that Gryffindor and Slytherin would be having it together. Vittoria groaned in disapproval along with Harry and Seamus, who were on either side of her.

"Typical!" said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted, to make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy!"

"You don't know if you'll make a fool of yourself." Vittoria said, looking at him with a small frow.

"Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch!" Harry pointed.

"I bet that's all talk!" Ron said from beside Harry and Vittoria nodded.

Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years not being able to join the Quidditch teams, and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping muggles in helicopters. Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly, Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas about football; he couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Harry told Vittoria that he had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham football team, trying to make the players move; this caused a good laugh for them both.

"He just likes to piss us off Harry, that's Malfoy's mission apparently." Vittoria said, throwing herself into an armchair.

"Yeah, maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that we don't know anything about flying broomsticks!" Harry said, throwing himself into the same armchair as Vittoria and forcing her to scoot over to the side so they could sit more comfortably; Ron sat on the other side of Vittoria, on the armchair arm.

"But we are not the only ones!" Vittoria said, looking around the common room. "Hermione, Neville and Dean have never flown on a broomstick either!" Neville, like Vittoria and Harry, had never been on a broomstick in his life; his grandmother had never let him near one, and particularly, Vittoria felt she'd had good reason for it because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground. And Dean and Hermione were muggle-borns, so it was obvious they never flew!

"Fine, but Malfoy doesn't care about them!" Harry grumbled. Vittoria had to admit he had a point; Malfoy was sure to tease them for eternity if they did anything wrong Tuesday.

Hermione, as soon as Tuesday dawned, was already reading books about flying. She was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was, and even though Vittoria tried to tell her that it wasn't something she could learn from a book, she kept reading. At breakfast, Hermione gave them tips of flying of an old book she'd gotten out of a library called "Quidditch Through the Ages", and Neville paid attention to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later that day.

However, Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail. Neither Vittoria nor Harry hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice; he always made sure to bring it up whenever he could. A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother; he opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"It's a Remembrall!" Neville explained to Vittoria and Harry. "Gran knows I forget things, and this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do! Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red-! Oh..." His face fell; the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet. "I've forgotten something!"

"What?" Ron asked and Neville shrugged.

"I have no idea..." He said flatly.

While Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten, Draco Malfoy, who was passing by the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand. Harry and Ron jumped to their feet and Vittoria was quick to get her wand out of her pocket; they were hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, and Vittoria really wanted to practice a spell she read in an old book in the library, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash; Vittoria quickly slipped her wand into her pocket again.

"What's going on?" She asked in her usual firm voice, eyeing, suspiciously, the three boys standing.

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor!" Neville told her at once, frowning.

Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on Neville's hand. "I was just looking!" Malfoy said, and he quickly slipped away. Professor McGonagall watched him go for a moment and then turned away, heading back to the staff table.

"I hate him." Ron snorted as he and Harry sat down again. "I know he's your cousin, but-!"

"Oh, please don't keep reminding me of that!" Vittoria whined, which made the boys smile sympathetically at her. "And don't worry, I hate him too, maybe even more than you do!"

. . .

At three-thirty that afternoon, all the Gryffindor's first years hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns towards a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance. The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived soon after; she had greying hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk; Vittoria was amazed by her eye colour, she had never seen anything like it.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" Madam Hooch barked. "Everyone stands by a broomstick! Come on, hurry up!" Vittoria hurried to one of the broomsticks, standing between Harry and Hermione, Ron was right beside Harry. "Stick out your right hand over your broom and say "UP"!"

"UP!" everyone shouted. Vittoria and Harry's broomsticks jumped into their hands at once, but they were one of the few who did that; Hermione's broom had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all! Ron's broom flew at him on the third try, but much to the amusement of his friends, the broom hit him straight on the nose.

"Oh, shut up!" Ron snapped angrily to Vittoria and Harry, who were laughing, but it was possible to see a small smile curling his lips.

Madam Hooch showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and when everyone manged to get their broomstick to move, she walked up and down the rows correcting their grips; Vittoria, Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground hard! Keep your broomstick steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly! On my whistle, three, two-!" But Neville, nervous as he was, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips. "Come back, boy!" She shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle.

Twelve feet, twenty feet... They saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and- BOOM! A thud and a nasty crack later, Neville could be found face down on the grass in a heap; his broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily towards the Forbidden Forest and out of sight. Vittoria's mouth was open in shock and her eyes were wide; the other Gryffindors were like her too, but the Slytherins were sniggering.

Madam Hooch was bending over Neville in a second, her face as white as his. "Broken wrist... Come on, boy... It's all right, up you get!" She turned to the rest of the class. "None of you are to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are, or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say "Quidditch"! Come on now, dear..." Neville, face tear-streaked and clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around his shoulders.

"Poor Neville!" Vittoria murmured. "Everything always happens to him..." Hermione nodded, agreeing with her.

Shortly after Neville and Madam Hooch were no longer in sight of the students, Malfoy started laughing out loud. "Did you see his face, the great lump?" The other Slytherins joined in.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" snapped Parvati.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought you'd like fat little cry-babies, Parvati!"

"Oh, shut up, Parkinson, nobody asked for your opinion!" Vittoria said, rolling her eyes.

"Do you want to fight, Caelum?" snarled Pansy Parkinson.

"With you? It would be so easy that it's not even worth my time!" Vittoria retorted and all the Gryffindors laughed at Parkinson's face. Ron gave Vittoria a high five and Harry patted her on the shoulder; Hermione, however, said something about "Stay out of trouble", but soon everyone's attention turned to Draco, who shouted while walking across the field.

"Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him!" The Remembrall glittered white in the sun as he held it up.

"Give that here, Malfoy!" Vittoria said, walking towards him, anger starting to rise in her blood. Malfoy smiled nastily at her.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find... How about... Up a tree?"

"She said to give it back, Malfoy!" Harry said, appearing behind Vittoria's shoulder, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off; he hadn't been lying, he could fly well.

"Come and get it if you dare!" Malfoy called.

Vittoria and Harry looked at each other and in an unspoken agreement, they mounted their broomsticks, kicked hard against the ground and took flight; both were surprised by the ease they had on doing it. The moment the air hit their faces, blowing their hair and cloaks away, they felt a sense of freedom and a joy so great in their chests that they could have laughed! It was so natural, as if they had flown many times before, like it was in their blood! Vittoria couldn't believe she was flying like the birds, like that Osprey that always visited her street in London... She was flying, really flying, and the feeling was incredible! Vittoria and Harry pulled their broomsticks up to take it even higher and heard screams and gasps on the ground; Malfoy on the other hand, looked stunned that they were actually there with him.

"Give it to us!" Harry called.

"Or I'll knock you off that broom!" Vittoria completed.

"Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer but he seemed worried. "I don't think you would do that to your dear cousin! We are family!"

"Blood doesn't determine family at all, Malfoy!" Vittoria barked, her face hardening. "Harry, keep alert!" She whispered just before boosting in Malfoy's direction, who widened his eyes and managed to get out of the way just in time, but Vittoria saw that his grip on the broom weakened; she heard cheering from below.

"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy!" Vittoria called, and the same thought seemed to have struck him.

"It's two against one, accept you're defeated, Malfoy!" Harry called.

"Catch it if you can, then!" Malfoy shouted, and went flying through the air

Vittoria started to chase him and faster than Malfoy imagined, she came right next to him and knocked against his broom; in order of not fall off his broomstick, he let go of the Remembrall, that started to fall through the air. Harry saw, as if in slow motion, the small ball falling towards him, so he leaned forward and pointed the broomstick down. He picked up speed with every second and suddenly, he closed his hand on the crystal ball dangerously close to the ground, so, afraid he would break it, he threw the ball back at Vittoria just in time, as in the next second, he hit the ground, landing on his ass.

Vittoria saw the ball fly through the air, and she took off towards it, in a higher speed than before, and in the next second, doing a manoeuvre in the air to reach the ball that earned her several cheers from her classmates, she had the Remembrall held securely inside her left hand at least. Grinning, Vittoria landed right next to Harry, who was on his feet now, also grinning; they gave a cheerful high five while all the Gryffindors cheered and the Slytherins scowled because they had managed to perform something on the broomsticks better than Malfoy.

"VITTORIA CAELUM AND HARRY POTTER!" Suddenly, a voice impossible to not recognise shouted from behind Vittoria and Harry, which made their blood freeze. They turned slowly on their heels and saw Professor McGonagall running towards them. "Never, in all my time at Hogwarts-!" She was almost speechless with shock; her eyes were flashing furiously through her glasses.

"It wasn't their fault, Professor-!"

"Be quiet, Miss Patil!"

"But Malfoy-!"

"That's enough, Mr. Weasley! Caelum, Potter, follow me! Now!"

Vittoria and Harry let go of their broomsticks and caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces as they left, walking numbly right behind Minerva McGonagall; Vittoria tucked Neville's Remembrall into her pocket to return to him later. Vittoria and Harry knew at once what their fate would be: They were going to be expelled! They didn't even have something to say in their defence, they were caught in the act, and nothing would save them, not even the fact that they did it to help a friend. Vittoria looked at Harry and they both knew that they had done it, they hadn't lasted even two full weeks at Hogwarts!

Professor McGonagall was sweeping along the corridors without even looking at them, they had to jog to keep up! She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Vittoria and Harry walking quietly behind her. Suddenly, she stopped outside a classroom, the Charms classroom; she opened the door and poked her head inside. "Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?" Vittoria and Harry looked at each other confusedly; wood? Was wood a cane she was going to use on them? But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth-year boy who came out of Flitwick class looking confused. "Follow me now you three!" said Professor McGonagall curtly, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Vittoria and Harry. "In here!" Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard. "Out, Peeves!" She barked. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and swooped out, cursing. Professor McGonagall slammed the door shut and turned to face the three students. "Caelum and Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood, what are the positions on the team that you need to fill?"

"Chaser and seeker." Wood said with a confused expression. "Since Atlas and Charlie left the team last year to focus on their N.E.W.T.s, no one decent has applied for the vacancies. Why?"

"Great! I found you a chaser and a seeker!" McGonagall said. Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight.

"Are you serious, Professor?"

"Absolutely!" said Professor McGonagall crisply. "They are both natural! Potter caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive, Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it! And Caelum caught the thing Potter threw at her with ease, a seventh-year student wouldn't be able to do it with so much naturalness, in addition to flying extremely fast on a broom like those they had in flying lessons! I never saw two students who just learned how to fly doing something like that! It was your first time on a broomstick, right?" Vittoria and Harry nodded silently; they didn't have a clue what was going on, but it didn't look like they would be expelled, so it was okay.

Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once. "Have you seen a quidditch match?" he asked excitedly. Vittoria and Harry shook their heads.

"Wood's captain of the Gryffindor team." Professor McGonagall explained.

"They have the stature for chaser and seeker..." said Wood, now walking around Vittoria and Harry, staring at them, not looking the least bit interested in the scar on her face, as he hasn't looked at it once; Vittoria already liked him because of it. "Light, speedy... They will fly very quickly and easily between opposing players! They will need good brooms, Professor McGonagall, Nimbus Two Thousand or Cleansweep Seven, I'd say!"

"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule." Professor McGonagall said at once. "Heaven knows we need a better team than last year! Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks!" Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Vittoria and Harry. "I want to hear that you two are training hard, Caelum and Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you two!" Then she suddenly smiled. "Your parents would be proud of you, they were excellent quidditch players."

When Wood and Professor McGonagall let them go, Vittoria and Harry had shaking legs and shocked faces. "Are we really on the team?" Harry asked weakly as they walked through the castle.

"I can't believe it!" Vittoria said, her eyes wide open. "I thought we were going to be expelled!"

"Me too! That was such a close call!" Harry said, nodding his head fervently.

"Yeah, it was..." Vittoria said, nodding. "Hey, do you want to go to the trophy room? Hermione said there's one here!"

"Why?" Harry asked, frowning.

"There must be something of our parents there that tells us what positions they played in." Vittoria said. "If they were that good, they probably won something!" Harry nodded at once, his face brightening.

"Good idea!"

They ran through the corridors and reached the trophy room after a few minutes, out of breath. They looked for trophies from their parents' days while they caught their breath and finally found one that announced the victory of the Gryffindor team: "Daniel Caelum, Chaser", "James Potter, Chaser", "Aurelie Black, Beater".

"Oh my God! My mum played too!" Vittoria exclaimed and Harry beamed at her. "And our dads were both Chasers!"

"They must have been good players!" Harry said.

"Yeah, I wish we could have had a chance to see them play..." Vittoria said sadly, looking at the trophy with longing.

"Or of them being here with us, watching us play..." Harry said quietly, nodding.

"Yes, that would have been nice..." Vittoria said and they smiled sadly at each other.

. . .

"You're joking!" Ron gasped, his eyes wide. They had just finished telling Ron what had happened when they left the grounds with Professor McGonagall, and now he had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, having completely forgotten about it. "Chaser and seeker?" Ron cried in a whisper. "But first years never-! You two must be-!"

"The youngest players in a century!" Vittoria said, nodding.

"Wood told us!" Harry added, shovelling kidney pie into his mouth. Ron was so amazed, so impressed, he just sat there, gaping at them.

"We will start training next week." Vittoria said. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret." Ron promptly nodded.

After a few minutes, the three of them having almost finished their dinner, Fred and George Weasley entered the Great Hall, looked around, saw Vittoria and Harry and grinning, ran towards them. "Well done!" said George in a low voice. "Wood told us, we're on the team too! Beaters!"

"I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch Cup for sure this year!" said Fred, grinning down at Vittoria and Harry. "We haven't won since Charlie and Atlas left the team after they decided to prioritize their future, very rude of them if you ask me, but this year's team is going to be brilliant! You two must be good, Wood was almost skipping when he told us!"

"Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school!" George said, which made Vittoria smile; since she arrived, she learned that the twins were very mischievous and declared Filch's number one enemies. They were really cool.

"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week back..." Fred said thoughtfully. "See you!"

"Bye!" Vittoria, Harry and Ron said, and as they watched them go, someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Having a last meal, Caelum and Potter?" Malfoy asked maliciously. "When are you getting the train back to the muggles? Tonight? Tomorrow morning?"

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and have got your little friends with you, huh?" said Harry coolly; there was, of course, nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, but they couldn't do anything with the teachers just a few feet away from them.

"And we are not going to leave Hogwarts, Malfoy!" Vittoria said, smirking. "Your plan didn't work, we weren't expelled." Malfoy scowled.

"I'd take you on anytime on my own, both of you!" Malfoy said, sneering. "You and Potter are as strong as a wall made of straw, one blow and all gone!"

"I think you're referring to yourself, aren't you?" Vittoria said, and as Malfoy huffed, she smirked at him; Harry and Ron sniggered.

"Tonight, if you want to see what a powerful wizard really looks like, you'll come to the trophy room!" Malfoy said. "A duel. Wands only, no contact! Let's see if you two are so good! What's the matter? Never heard of a duel before, I suppose? Not so smart, huh Caelum?" Vittoria was the one who made a scowl this time.

"Of course she had!" said Ron promptly. "Who's your second?" Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up; Vittoria and Harry were really confused at this point.

"Crabbe." he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet in the trophy room, that's always unlocked."

When Malfoy was gone, Vittoria and Harry looked at each other and then turned to Ron. "What do you mean by second?" asked Vittoria.

"Well, a second's there to take over if you die." said Ron casually, helping himself to more pie. Catching the look on his friends faces, he added quickly. "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards! The most you two and Malfoy will be able to do is send sparks at each other! Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage."

Vittoria took her goblet of juice in her hand. "Speak for yourself Ron, but I have some good spells that I'm dying to cast at Malfoy." Ron grinned and Harry shook his head.

"Good, you can start then, I will be your second!" Harry said and Vittoria shrugged, drinking her juice.

"Vittoria is really good at doing spells, but if something happens to her, juts throw your wand away and punch him on the nose, Harry!" Ron suggested. "Wand or not, a punch is always worth it!" Vittoria laughed as Harry seemed to ponder that idea.

"Excuse me!" A voice said suddenly behind Ron and the trio looked up. It was Hermione.

"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" said Ron with his mouth full of pie, huffing.

Hermione ignored him and spoke to Vittoria and Harry directly. "I couldn't help overhearing what you two and Malfoy were talking-!"

"Bet you could..." Ron muttered.

"And you two mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be!" Hermione went on, frowning. "It's really very selfish of you two!" Vittoria was used to Hermione's bossy manner, but today she was clearly mad at them; she probably was still angry at them for disobeying Madam Hooch orders.

"And it's really none of your business!" Snapped Harry.

Vittoria looked at Hermione with an apologetic face; she knew Hermione was right, that they could be caught, but they couldn't just ignore Malfoy! "Sorry Hermione, but Malfoy is a git, we can't let he think we are scared!" Vittoria said with a shrug. "We have to go."

"But-!"

"Goodbye!" said Ron, waving her away.

. . .

Leaving the dorm was very complicated for Vittoria because Hermione, who always slept long before midnight, was still awake. When Vittoria closed the book she was reading, stood up without even looking at Hermione so as not to start an argument, and started walking towards the door, Hermione's whispered voice reached her ears, and she looked very angry.

"Are you really going to do this, Vittoria?" Hermione said, walking towards her with her arms crossed and with an angry face.

"I have to do this, Hermione!" Vittoria whispered without even looking at her, opening the door to leave the dorm. Hermione didn't look happy with her answer and went after her.

"This could be another plan to expel Harry and you!" Hermione hissed, walking close behind her. "You were lucky that Professor McGonagall didn't do anything to you!" Oh yes, Vittoria remembered, Hermione didn't know about Harry and her joining the Gryffindor quidditch team.

"Well, then we have to see to be sure, don't we?" Vittoria said. Hermione made an angry noise with her throat and together, they arrived in the common room, finding Harry and Ron already waiting.

"Oh, c'mon, why is she here?" Ron cried.

"There is a very good chance you all were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris!" Hermione said angrily at them. "And you two will be breaking another school rule today!" She added to Vittoria and Harry.

"You-!" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"

"I almost told your brother!" Hermione snapped. "Percy, he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this!" Vittoria looked at Hermione with her mouth open in shock, shocked by the girl's audacity; the matter wasn't even about her!

"This matter doesn't even concern you, why are you so worried about it?" Ron snapped.

"Come on!" Harry said to Vittoria and Ron, grabbing their arms and dragging them to the exit. He pulled open the portrait of the Fat Lady and they climbed through the hole.

Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily however; she followed them through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose. "You don't care about Gryffindor, you only care about yourselves!" Hermione hissed. "I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells!"

"I also got points when I managed to do all the transfigurations on my first try, and many more points than you by the way!" Vittoria snapped, frowning. "So, if we lose any points, we will be losing mine!"

"See?" Ron said, waving Hermione away. "Now go!"

"All right, but I warned you! You just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so-!" But what they were, they didn't find out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting; Fat Lady had gone on a night-time visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower. "Now what am I going to do?" She asked in panicked tone.

"That's your problem, we didn't ask you to come!" said Ron, rolling his eyes. "We've got to go, or we are going to be late!" He added to Vittoria and Harry, who nodded.

They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them. "I'm coming with you!"

"You are not!" Ron snapped, turning at her with narrowed eyes.

"Do you think I'm going to stay out here and wait for Filch to found me?" Hermione said. "If he finds all four of us, I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up!"

"As if he would believe that, he doesn't care about students' explanations!" Vittoria said, remembering their first day of school, when Filch found them trying to open that door on the forbidden floor.

"He will believe me!" Hermione said promptly. "I'm a model student!"

"You've got some nerve!" said Ron loudly. "Vittoria is a better model student than you, she has earned many more points than you did!"

"Ron..." Vittoria said warningly, shaking her head.

"What, it's the truth!" Ron cried.

"Vittoria may have earned more points, but she breaks more rules than I will ever break!" Hermione snapped, frowning at Ron.

"Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. "I heard something!" It was a sort of snuffling. Everyone went quiet at once.

"Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark. It wasn't Mrs. Norris, it was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.

"Thank goodness you found me!" Neville cried. "I've been out here for hours! I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed!"

"Keep your voice down, Neville!" Vittoria said almost in a whisper. "The password's "Pig snout" but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."

"How's your arm?" asked Harry.

"Fine." said Neville, showing them his wrist. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute!"

"That is great, Neville!" Vittoria said, nodding.

"Well, look Neville, we've got to be somewhere." Ron said. "We'll see you later-!"

"Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet. "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron passed here twice already!" Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.

"If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, only to use it on you!" Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Harry hissed at her to be quiet.

Vittoria and Harry walked side by side, Ron right behind them, and Hermione and Neville right behind Ron. They flitted long corridors illuminated by the moonlight entering through the large windows, and at every turn, they expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky, they didn't find anyone. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed towards the trophy room; Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them, cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness...

Vittoria began to feel her heart sink in foreboding when Malfoy and Crabbe started to run really late; that wasn't a good sign, Malfoy was punctual for everything, he was always one of the first to arrive at potions class. "Maybe he's chickened out!" Ron whispered when Vittoria verbalized her feeling, but a noise in the next room made them go really quiet; they heard someone speaking, and it wasn't Malfoy.

"Sniff around my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner..." It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris, Filch! Horror-struck, Harry promptly grabbed Vittoria's hand and ran away, pulling her with him, waving at the others; Ron ran right behind them, his eyes wide, and the other two, seeing Harry waving madly at them, start to follow them as quickly as possible. They scurried silently towards the door, away from Filch's voice; Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room. "They're in here somewhere..." They heard Filch mutter. "Probably hiding..."

"This way!" Harry mouthed to the others, and petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armour; Harry was holding Vittoria's hand very tightly, and she was holding his just as tight.

They could hear Filch getting nearer, and Neville, much to their horror, suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run; he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist and they both fell right into a suit of armour. The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.

"RUN!" Vittoria yelled as Harry pulled her with him, both running down the corridor, while Hermione pulled Neville up with Ron's help.

The five of them sprinted down the corridor, not looking back to see whether Filch was following. They swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor, then another... Vittoria and Harry were in the lead without any idea where they were or where they were going; they ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway. They hurtled along it and came out near the Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.

"I think... We've lost him!" Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and finally letting go of Vittoria's hand, wiping his forehead. Vittoria, who was by his side, bent down, placing her hands on her knees, pulling as much air as she could into her lungs, trying to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat; Neville was by her side, wheezing and spluttering.

"I... Told... You!" Hermione gasped, clutching a stitch in her chest. "I... Told... You!"

"We've got to... Get back to Gryffindor tower!" said Ron ignoring Hermione. "As quickly as possible!"

"Malfoy tricked you two!" Hermione said to Vittoria and Harry. "You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you! Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off!"

"Yes, Hermione, we have noticed!" Vittoria said, still trying to catch her breath. "It's pretty obvious actually!"

"Let's go!" Ron said as he passed Hermione, rolling his eyes and shaking his head at her.

It wasn't going to be that simple, however. They hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled, and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them. It was Peeves. "Oh no..." Vittoria breathed; Neville hid behind her at once. The poltergeist caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves please!" Hermione pleaded. "You'll get us thrown out!"

Peeves cackled. "Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty!"

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please!" Vittoria pleaded.

"Should tell Filch, I should..." said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know..."

"Oh, get out of the way!" snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves; this was a big mistake.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door; it was locked.

"This is it!" Ron groaned as he pushed helplessly at the door. "We're done for! This is the end!" They could hear footsteps, Filch was running as fast as he could towards Peeves's shouts.

"Oh, move over!" Vittoria said, pushing Ron out of the way. She looked at the lock and raised her index finger, not believing she was going to do that in front of Hermione and Neville. The five of them heard the door unlock and then swing open. Everyone looked at Vittoria in shock, even Harry and Ron who knew about her ability, but they wasted no time on it, they piled through it, shut the door quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.

"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me!"

"Say please!"

"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please..." said Peeves in his annoying sing song voice.

"All right! Please!"

"NOTHING! Haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha, ha! Haaaaaa!" And they heard Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"He thinks this door is locked..." Harry whispered.

"That was so impressive, Vittoria!" Hermione said, looking astonished. "Wandless magic! This is so rare! There's no record of anyone who knows how to do this other than-!""

"You can't tell anyone, okay?" Vittoria said, cutting her off, looking from Hermione to Neville seriously. "Really, you can't tell anyone, like, anyone! Please, don't tell!" Hermione and Neville seemed to sense the urgency in her voice and nodded without argument. "Thank you." Vittoria said, sighing and leaning her forehead against the door; her heart was beating very fast. "Do you think Filch is gone already?" she asked, lifting her forehead from the door.

"I think we could stay another minute or- Get off, Neville!" Harry hissed at Neville, who was tugging on the sleeve of his pyjama shirt and pulling it down. "What?" He asked and Neville, who had turned around, pointed; they all turned around and saw, quite clearly, what.

They were sure they'd walked into a nightmare. They weren't in a classroom like they assumed, they were in a corridor, the forbidden corridor on the third floor, and now they knew why it was forbidden. They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor; it had three heads, three pairs of rolling, mad eyes, three noses twitching and quivering in their direction, and three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs. The dog was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and they knew that the only reason the five of them weren't already dead was because their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but the dog was quickly getting over that; there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.

The five of them were in complete silence for a few seconds until the full severity of the situation sank into their minds and then all five gave a terrified cry and Vittoria turned on her heels, opening the door right away. They all fell backward and when they were all out, Vittoria slammed the door shut again, locking it with a wave of her finger, and then they ran, no, they almost flew back down the corridor! Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared, all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that huge monster-dog.

They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor. "Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their flushed, sweaty faces and to their horrified features.

"Never mind that! Pig snout, pig snout!" Cried Ron, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into the armchairs; Vittoria and Harry collapsed, exhausted, on the same sofa in front of the fireplace. It was a while before any of them said anything, Neville, indeed, looked as if he would never speak again. "What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally, his eyes still very wide.

Hermione had got both, her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" She snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested.

"I wasn't looking at their feet, I was too busy with their heads!" Ron cried.

"No, not the floor..." Vittoria said for the first time, drawing everyone's attention to her. "The dog was standing on a trapdoor! It's obviously guarding something." Hermione nodded and stood up, glaring at them.

"I hope you're pleased with yourselves! We could all have been killed, or worse, expelled!" Hermione snapped. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed!" Ron stared at her, his mouth open in shock.

"No, we don't mind!" He snapped. Hermione huffed and turned her back on them, climbing the stairs to her dorm.

"You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?" Ron snorted.

"I will... I..." Neville motioned to the stairs with his hand and went upstairs almost immediately after Hermione, still shaking, leaving Vittoria, Ron and Harry by themselves in the common room.

"The dog was guarding something..." Vittoria said when she heard Neville closing the door to the boys' dormitory. She stood up and crossed her arms. Harry and Ron looked at her. "Remember what had Hagrid said, Harry? That Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide, except perhaps Hogwarts?" Harry nodded. "Looks like we found where the grubby little package from vault 713 is hidden, boys..."