Concentration is Key

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire was pretty psyched to be back at school, her brother Louis was showing signs of magic and this pleased her greatly. She was the only one of her family to have noticed it, but she was happy as anything. Her little brother, Tholomyès was the youngest of her family and she couldn't wait to be able to show him Hogwarts. It would be another two years before he would join her at Hogwarts, but she was still really looking forward to showing her brother the ropes and all that. It would just be good fun she was thinking. Victoire was pretty happy though. She loved learning and spent a lot of her time reading away in little areas of the school. Her accent was less clear than it had been, and she was adjusting well to both magic and New Zealand. After all this was her fourth year, and as well as growth in her ability within magic and New Zealand, Victoire was growing up. She was just as always in the first day of the term incredibly bored with everything. Nothing seemed to grab her attention. So instead of being able to focus on any one thing, she was dancing between different things and trying to just make herself busy to pass the time. It was hard going, but Victoire was just keeping at it.

In the end the Gryffindor girl ended up a little outside the girl's club, Heta Omega. She was sitting on the ground, staring sort of up at the ceiling of the hallway. She was smiling to herself content in what she was doing. Happy with it all. Knowing that this would all be alright really. She was happy, though her brain was racing in multiple directions. The girl was just finding her time doing things that she enjoy however briefly she ended up doing it. It was just easier for her to do such things. Happily the teen glanced back down at the ground around her and picked up the small book she had. It was an old book from back home written in Flemish. She didn't have much time to practice that language so she was always glad to have a little bit of practice of it. She muttered some of the words under her breath. It was sort of a little bit funny to her how hard it was for her to remember how to pronounce certain bits. She remembered French far more, but Victoire guess this was mostly to do with the fact she'd always spoke more French. Sitting out in the hallway as uncomfortable as it was felt better. She felt calmer. Maybe now she'd be able to focus for more than five minutes.
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This is admittedly pretty awful.

 

[Jean Snow]

The semester had only just gotten underway, and Jean was looking forward to getting involved with things again. He didn't love classes, mostly because he didn't think he was very good at any subject but some of his professors did try their best to make things interesting. He appreciated that and hoped that he could begin to enjoy his lessons more this year. Jean had the idea that maybe actually doing readings about things he enjoyed hearing from class might help him enjoy classes more as a whole, so he had committed to at least giving that idea a try. So, he was walking back to Gryffindor with two books - one on runes and one on crazy transfigurations that came with pictures. Jean was rather pleased with himself.

Arm swinging by his side, he slowed as he noticed that the person sitting on the ground was Victoire, a fellow Gryffindor fourth year. She was also one of the few people he knew besides his family who also knew French. "Victoire, why are you on the ground? Are you hurt?" he stated in perfect French as he came to a stop in front of her. She didn't seem terribly bothered or put out at being on the ground, so Jean was beginning to think that she had chosen this spot to settle down with a book. It was an odd spot to settle down, but he'd seen odder things around the castle. Not far from her was a painting on the wall of a bunch of animals jumping rope. Surely, that had to be more weird.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

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<SIZE size="50">Victoire had found sitting out there in the corridor was actually a good way of getting her mind to focus, she was finally able to read without being distracted. There was no real reason that she could find as to why her mind had decided that today of all days to just be so busy and unable to focus but it was, and so she was dealing with it as best she could in any manner she could. Happily so, really. The teen was happy to read and happy her concentration was much better than it had been meaning she could actually read through an entire page without it taking a half hour. It was not particularly comfortable the teen could admit that but her mind was focusing and that was what she had wanted. Lost in her own little world. She didn't think about how her position on the floor may look to anyone who could see her. Obviously in her mind it made perfect sense why she was there but to those around her who neither knew that her mind had been unable to concentrate or that she'd sat in every other place before picking this spot would not see it as making any sense. Victoire didn't really mind however, with her brain focusing it didn't factor any of this in. That was until she heard the sound of someone saying her name and then talking to her in French, not in the usual English. She glanced at the person who had stopped just in front of her and grinned happily upon realising that it was Jean. He was her friend, one of few that she had and also one of the only people she knew that also had French as a first language.

The first question he asked her made sense, but the second confused the girl slightly. She knew that she wasn't hurt, she didn't feel hurt at all but she glanced down at herself anyway in case he was seeing something she wasn't. Looking back up she smiled happily at him and nodded, "I'm fine, not hurt at all" she replied in her native language of French, with a tone of reassurance to show that she was completely fine. "I just couldn't concentrate any where I went not in the library, not in the common room, not even in the Heta Omega room but here I found that I can in fact concentrate" she told him, switching from the French to the english, since they were supposed to be speaking in english. Though her English was still pretty heavily french accented. She held out what she'd been reading to him, which was a Flemish magazine talking about the history of the Belgian monarchy, "I was brushing up on my Flemish, I don't get many opportunities to do so" she explained to him as if it gave a little more indication as to why she was sitting randomly in the middle of the corridor rather than somewhere else. "What books do you have?" she asked motioning to the ones he was carrying, she liked reading and was always curious about the different books people had.​

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[Jean Snow]

Jean remained in his standing position until Victoire had reassured him that she was fine. It wasn’t difficult to do. She looked alright and didn’t seem to be wincing in pain or anything. The young Gryffindor boy smiled, glad that he had come across Victoire. It was a happy coincidence that his one friend also spoke French, the language that Jean was most comfortable in. As she switched to English, the language commonly spoken around the school, Jean glanced around, only becoming comfortable when he realized that there was no one around. He slid down the wall until he was sitting beside Victoire, giving a glance to the magazine that she held out. Jean couldn’t figure out a comfortable way to sit, but he settled to just leaving his legs in front of him, crossed at the ankles, after a moment. The boy had grown a few inches over the break and he was still trying to figure out what to do with the extra height. He was glad that she told him what language the magazine was in because he didn’t want to sound stupid by admitting that he didn’t know. Jean smiled politely at Victoire, having learned something new about her. She enjoyed learning, something that Jean was trying to come to enjoy as well. Perhaps she would be a good person to let in on his secret so that she could help him stay motivated.

For now, Jean contented himself with showing her the books that he had taken out from the library. She had asked after all. The books rested on his lap and it was easy to see the title of the first one once he’d moved his hand off of it. Now that someone was asking about it, Jean felt a bit embarrassed. They weren’t even taking Ancient Runes this semester, so there was really no reason for him to have this book out. “This is supposed to help with doing better rune readings. I know we haven’t started doing readings yet, but…they seem kind of interesting” the young boy admitted with a shrug. The boy spoke in a low voice, his accented English a source of anxiety for him. He quickly pulled the other book out from under the first and placed it on top. It was easier to be excited about this book. “And this one shows transfigurations gone wrong…not like the really gross kind where people are disfigured. The funny kind” he added, not wanting her to think that he was some sort of person who enjoyed seeing people in pain. There were certainly people like that in his family, but Jean wasn’t one of them.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire's english was not great, even with the fact that she had been working really hard on improving it. She made more of a point of trying to get better for her classes and for the fact that despite her best wishes, she was thinking about just how she'd likely end up living in New Zealand for the rest of her life. It therefore made sense for her to practice a lot more in the language she'd have to use likely for the rest of her life: despite how much she loved speaking in French and being back home in Belgium. As much as it brought her joy to speak in her native language, she had to adapt really. She missed it a lot while in New Zealand and seeing as Jean was the only one she could speak to in French, it was a little frustrating to her that her mind was telling her to keep with the english. She watched him with a friendly smile on her face as he took a seat next to her on the ground. Brushing stray strands of her loosely tied back blond hair out of her eyes, her hair had changed slightly as she'd grown away from the curls to more wavy. Watching him sit down made Victoire feel bad, it wasn't particularly fair of her, making Jean sit next to her on the stone ground when the Gryffindor common room was perhaps twenty steps away. She could tell as he sat that he struggled to find a comfortable position and that he seemed to have grown over the holiday, both things Victoire didn't have to worry about so much. The uncomfortable floor didn't bother her so much and she'd not grown that much. She had grown slightly, though it was barely noticeable. Victoire had noticed different changes about herself but they too were too much in the early stages for most to notice. The gryffindor watched him look at the magazine and smiled slightly. Not many either knew it or were able to distinguish it from German or dutch. When he handed the magazine back to her, she just grinned slightly look down at it in her hands before lifting her gaze to him, "Flemish is very like Dutch"

As she asked him about the books he had, Victoire watched as he placed them on his lap and in doing that she was able to see what the top book he had was. She read the title and realised that it was a book about ancient runes which she found odd because she was sure they didn't have that class until the next semester. Though in saying that Victoire had herself once taken out books that technically she hadn't needed, so there was no way that Victoire could judge Jean for having this book. "Rune readings are pretty interesting, I can't wait till we start doing our own" She told him brightly speaking louder than he was, though that wasn't hard. Her english just as accented, though she didn't mind. She didn't feel anxious about it or embarrassed though she did appear to have a very stereotypical thick French accent. The next book that he had interested her a lot more just for fun value than the first. As much as the girl enjoyed runes and such, she couldn't help but be very curious about a book with interesting and perhaps a little strange images. It would be scary their spells could backfire in such a way but it really didn't take away the fun of seeing images like that. "That seems really interesting" she told him honestly, kind of hoping to see what the book defined as transfigurations gone wrong. "Open it up, let's see how wrong they went." she switched easily back to French as she spoke, having grown a little tired of speaking english to the one person in Hogwarts she could speak in french with. "I think if I showed this to my parents they would have a huge freak out about all this magic stuff, they are still not used to it. My father would say that all his worst fears of this place had been realised" Victoire continued in French with a light laugh thinking of what her parents might say about it, putting on a slight voice when speaking of her father. Victoire's parents were muggles and they did spend some of their time worrying about what the dangers of the magical world were what dangers Victoire faced. The gryffindor teen was not embarrassed by her magical heritage, or lack there of, she was just proud to be a witch and proud to admit her muggle heritage.
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[Jean Snow]

Jean was pleased when Victoire didn’t tease him for getting a book out for a class they wouldn’t be having right now. She’d never teased him before, but Jean was just used to his siblings teasing him about this or that. It was just the sort of relationship that they had. Her interest in the transfiguration book pleased him even more as did the fact that she’d just switched back to French. Jean would never express weakness. It wasn’t what the Snows or the Zhefaroviches did, but speaking in English all of the time was difficult for him. It had become easier, of course, but at times like this, when he had just spent much of the vacation not speaking English, the transition was difficult. “Ok” he agreed, flipping the book open to a random page. The image within looked like someone had been attempting to transfigure a desk into a bird or a bird into a desk, he wasn’t sure. The end result was not pretty. The face and wings of the bird were still there as was the fact that the desk was in mid-air. Jean smirked, wondering how many people had been hit on the head by the desk’s legs.

As Victoire spoke about how her parents would feel about this, Jean was lost for a moment. Surely, her parents have seen bad transfigurations , Jean thought to himself. His mother had once told him that she had seen everything, and he was inclined to believe her. It was a part of their wizarding education that they’d massively screw up some spells as they worked to become better wizards and witches. Just as he was about to open his mouth to say that, Jean paused, the information clicking into his head as if he’d had an enhanced memory spell placed on him. Because of how his families were, Jean made an extreme effort to not speak about blood. It was all important to his family, and Jean rebelled by pretending that it held absolutely no importance. “Oh. Right. I forgot that you were…” Jean shifted in his seat, clearing his throat, before continuing, “…I mean are a…mu, from a muggle family.” He said the last few words in the same low voice he’d been using when he’d been speaking in English. In Jean’s house, the word that might have been used to describe Victoire was not anything he had planned on saying to her. He’d used the word around his siblings without even thinking about it or stopping to consider what Victoire would think of him if she knew. Now, that it had almost slipped, Jean was ashamed. He hoped that she hadn’t noticed. “What are his worst fears of this place?” Jean asked as he kept his gaze down, turning to another random page. Jean had known nothing other than magic, so the idea that some people feared it, while not entirely unknown to him, was difficult to comprehend.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

As Jean opened the book, Victoire couldn't help but look on with clear curiosity. She had always heard about transfigurations going wrong but this was a first really seeing any of it. The first picture she couldn't help but laugh a little. It was not good to laugh at the misfortune of others she thought but this was pretty funny. Victoire didn't ever want that to be her, in that position having cast a spell that just went so wrong. It hadn't occurred to Victoire that Jean might not know about her muggle parents. She had never been closed off about it, she enjoyed her roots even in this world but it might be that she had never actually told him plainly what she was. As soon as she'd spoken, she wondered if it had been the right to do so. Then mentally in her head she decided that it was. After all they were friends and surely blood type wouldn't actually mater. Victoire had found people had been accommodating and openly kind to her upon finding out, so she questioned why this needed to be be any different. She looked up from the page to the boy as he spoke quietly. Saying that she was from a muggle family. Victoire just nodded with a smile. That was what she was, there was no way of changing that fact. Which she wouldn't change anyway even if she could. Learning magic had been a little tricky in first year but she loved it and she loved the muggle world too.

At the question, Victoire paused for a moment, she knew that her father feared a lot of things about this place. Just like most would who neither understood nor had ever experience of magic. Victoire glanced down at the random page, "His worst fears are that this magic harms me or kills me in some way and he then can't do anything about it," she told Jean honestly, knowing that while her and her father's relationship had never been great, he still cared for her and was not happy when she got hurt. The thought that magic could kill was as real as the thought that anything could kill her, but the fact that in most other situations her father may be able to try to do something about it. "I also think that he also fears that I'll be more powerful than him." Victoire wondered if she should tell Jean that her father could be a little sexist and thought more of his sons than of Victoire because of her gender which was why she believed he feared her becoming more powerful, which she knew she was. "Come on, turn the page!" Victoire said excited, wanting to return the fun of the book.
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This is not great.

 

[Jean Snow]

Victoire’s friendly face made it easy for Jean to believe that his family was wrong about muggles and muggle-borns. She was a really nice girl, and she was a witch. It was true that she hadn’t grown up in a home that didn’t know about magic and spells and potions, but it wasn’t like she’d asked to be brought up that way anymore than he’d asked to be brought up a wizard. His smile was tentative though it grew in size as he turned his attention back to the book. It was a good thing too because as Victoire voiced her father’s concerns, the smile slowly fell off of his face. Of course, she was more powerful than he was. Even as a young witch, she knew things that her father and other family members would never, ever even dream of. They had good reason to be afraid of her, especially if they treated her poorly. Jean shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the negative thoughts. Thankfully, Victoire changed the subject quickly enough by asking him to turn the page. His fingers moved to slide the page over, taking several pages with it. The image on this page was a bit more disturbing than the previous one had been, though still fairly funny. “He’s not wrong to think that magic is dangerous” Jean stated with a dark laugh. “Look at this picture” he declared, pointing out the man who appeared to be trying to shut off multiple faucets to no avail.

He pointed at another picture, this one bringing a more genuine, light-hearted chuckle across his lips. “But it can also be hilarious” he stated as he looked back down at the polka-dotted house on the corner of the page. Surely, that hadn’t been done on purpose. “I think I’d like to see this house in person” he added as he gave Victoire a quick glance to see what she thought.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire discarded all thoughts about her family and the problems she had with them because she was a witch and focused with ease on the book she and Jean had in front of them. She had always kind of wondered about what happened when transfigurations went wrong, because of course occasionally they had to go wrong, as much as magic was amazing it was not immune from mistakes. While children at a school followed stricter guidelines when it came to spell casting the adults in the magical world were much more able to experiment with certain things and therefore be able to far more easily get things wrong or accidentally allow things to go wrong. Victoire smiled at his words glancing down at the picture in front of them and laughing lightly. It was pretty funny really and knowing that while it was funny it was also not that bad overall she didn't feel bad about laughing at it, in terms of spells having outcome on the page though hilarious was not terrible. She wondered how badly a spell, a transfiguration could go without it bringing harm to a person, the caster or someone else. Staring at pictures which were pretty funny but harmless, made her think of the cases that had been harmful. It was, however, a nice way to spend an afternoon with someone whom she had missed during the holidays and really counted as one of her only friends here at Hogwarts, staring at pictures and laughing at the hilarity of certain situations.

Victoire watched with a small smile as Jean turned the page, she couldn't help but laugh along with him at the house that had polka-dots all over it. It was just pretty hilarious, she could only just imagine her house if it looked like that, She could imagine what her father might say, what her mother might scream if she accidentally caused their home to look like that, "Me too" she told him excitedly, the excitement clear in french she spoke. The house looked pretty funny and Victoire couldn't help but wonder what spell they had actually intended to do with the house for it to have turned out like it had. What spell they had cast which had ended with that being the outcome, how did they change it back, or could they even? Victoire smiled brightly, "I wonder what they had intended for the house to look like," Victoire reached over as she spoke and then turned the next page, and stifled a laugh again, staring down at the strange but funny image in front of them. She couldn't believe how these things happened to people: the gryffindor couldn't help but find it funny. She couldn't help herself from laughing at them not once meaning it maliciously, "The misfortune," the girl said continuing to speak in french as she laughed, only with Jean would she ever stick almost completely with her native tongue, "I wonder if they managed to ever change them back, I can't imagine having to deal with that all of the time,"
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[Jean Snow]

“I hope that they never could” Jean replied back in French, wanting to believe that somewhere in the world this house still existed. Jean wondered if there was something identifying the location of this house, but there didn’t seem to be anything. Even the caption and the small blurb about the house and the spell that had gone wrong didn’t include a location. Perhaps the spell-caster had been too embarrassed to have anyone know exactly where they could see his mistake. It was too bad, really.

Jean and Victoire spent the next little while looking through other pages in the book. The Gryffindor boy would have been content to sit there the entire afternoon, but his stomach eventually won over. With a quick glance at his timepiece, Jean wondered why he was so hungry. There were still a couple of hours left before supper would be served. But, his stomach would not wait. It grumbled loudly, and Jean clapped a hand to his stomach, his face reddening slightly. “I think I’m going to head to the kitchens and see if I can get the house elves to give me something to tide me over until meal time” he stated in heavily accented English. The boy stood up and offered his hand to Victoire. “Do you want to come too?” he asked, hoping that she would. They hadn’t seen each other for a long while because of the vacation and he was enjoying catching up with her.

Out of Character:

I hope the time jump is ok.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire laughed lightly at his comment, agreeing to a whole hearted degree that she would much rather the house still existed than anything else, even if it did look ridiculous. She knew if ever she found out that it did still exist, Jean would be the first person that she would talk to about such matters, even, she would suggest that he join her in visiting the house if ever she managed to find it, who else to share such an interesting experience with than him. The pages of the book in front of them brought a smile to her face, it was good fun to look at all of the images, a reminded of the reality and difficulties in magic. She was so engrossed in what she was looking at that she didn't realise the time flying by, she was only brought out of the interest of the book when Jean checked his watch and then she heard his stomach rumbling. The red on his cheeks made Victoire laugh lightly in a friendly manner. She just smiled and nodded at him, watched as he stood up, surprised when it was offered to her to join him. She smiled and nodded, taking his hand to help herself up. She made sure she had everything she had brought with her and motioned in the direction of where the stairs down to the kitchen were, "Lead the way Jean," Victoire added with a smile, her too switching back to the more difficult english, smiling happily at him as she waited for him to lead the way, walking next to him as they left the seventh floor and headed to get some food.
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Out of Character:

Time jump is cool! Figure we can end the topic here with this reply!