This time I'm coming with you

[Victoria de Lacey]

Out of Character:

Set during the break before school starts in September

She had no idea what she was supposed to pack for school.

Unlike Rory who'd had years of this, everything was so new for Victoria. Packing her own trunk for school, making sure she brought everything with her. She knew her mother would make sure she had everything she needed, but that didn't mean she didn't want to feel like a big girl all on her own. Rory would be leaving again, and this time she would get to go with him and whilst that was terribly exciting - it was also massively terrifying and she felt like she was going to throw up her lunch, only she didn't because she really didn't want to have to clean it up. But it's probably the only thing that was helping her to keep it down. Well, that and the fact that she was also terribly exciting that she'd actually get to see what he brother did all day up in that castle, apart from sit on his broom.

There's a thought! She can go to a Quidditch game and watch him play! He's a great chaser, she knows because she's watched him practice out the back before. He's so much like his dad even more every day, whenever she visits her dad, Lanithro is always there - almost like a shadow. She likes him, even if he's really overprotective sometimes, which doesn't make a lot of sense to her, but she tries not to think about it too much. They're both Quidditch players. She asked Rory once if he wanted to pursue that as a career, but she didn't think he really knew the answer the that question. She didn't think she would know the answer to that question if someone asked her either.

"Rory! Help me pack! I don't know what to take with me! What if I forget something really important and then I have to come back for it?" That wasn't likely to happen of course, because her mother would make sure she packed everything but she wanted to do this on her own. Rory doesn't count because he's her big brother not her mother and when he helps it's in solidarity of the bond of siblings. Or whatever, she'd read it in a book somewhere and that was the excuse she was sticking with. "Do you think I can take all of my stuffed animals if I take the books out? Do I need those?"​

 

[Rory Styx]

Packing for a new school year had become second nature for Rory that it was almost hard to believe he was doing it for the final time. He wouldn’t know what to do with himself next August when he didn’t have a new school year to look forward to. He had some ideas on what he would do with himself when he left school but there was nothing concrete plan in place, not that many students his age had concrete plans as most would have to wait for the results of their N.E.W.Ts to find out what they would be doing.

It might have been his final year of school but there was something different about Rory’s seventh year, Victoria would be joining him for the first time. His younger sister had been itching to go to Hogwarts for years and always seemed sad when he left for school and left her behind. It would only be for one year but Rory was looking forward to being at school with her and getting to spend time with her during the school year.

“I don’t think you should take any of your stuffed animals but maybe thats just me,” It felt like an eternity since he had packed for the first time and it had very much felt like he had to take everything, because what he had forgotten something he needed later. “You don’t need to pack your whole life you know, you’re not leaving this house for good,”

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

"Yeah but! I can't just leave to come and get Peaches if I need her to sleep!" she cried, holding out the dinosaur she'd had since she could barely remember. It had certainly seen better days, but she couldn't bare to give her up. Why was it named Peaches? She couldn't say, she didn't name it, her step? sister Fayre did. Well, apparently. That's what she was told anyway. She also had a rabbit she's had for years that her Mother got her, but she doesn't want to leave him behind either. He had a much more sensible name - Robert. Or Bobby if she's being specific. "It wouldn't be fair to mum to ask her to send it me, and the poor Owls already have so much to carry when we send out all the letter's we're going to write. Dad asked me to write him and Uncle Lani since I won't see them this Summer."

She's a little nervous about that if she's honest, since she can't remember the last time she didn't spend Summer with them. Or at least part of her Summer. She's never spent more than a couple of weeks at a time away from her mum, which is another thing she's nervous about if she's honest. What's her mum going to do all day without her being there to be told what to do? It's been her and her mum for a while now, since she was only little, with Rory heading of to school for the year and all. They had a lot of getting to know you and me times together, and now she wouldn't be able to go out for those weekly ice creams they used to do together - she's going to be way too preoccupied with school work.

Which is super exciting, of course, but also really, really scary. "Do you think Mum's gonna be okay here all by herself. It's been me and her for aaaaaages. When we're both gone, what do you think she's gonna do all day? There's only so many times she can visit with friends and you know how she feels about the magical world." Whilst her mother had never specifically said anything about it, she's not silly enough to believe her mother has ever been truly comfortable. It might just be a feeling, but kids know their parents better than that think sometimes. Also she still insisted on making tea like a muggle. Suppose that was because she was a muggle born, but Victoria couldn't say for sure. Her dad was a muggle born too and he seemed to fully embrace it. She remembered Uncle Lani scoffing at her when she'd made them tea once because she'd done it the muggle way.

@Rory Styx ​

 

[Rory Styx]

Rory felt like he was staring down his little sister as he considered her words and looked from her to her stuffed velociraptor. “Fine take Peaches, but just Peaches,” He didn’t want his sister picked on for taking a collection of stuffed animals to Hogwarts, but it would be amusing to see young wizards and witches try to make sense of a dinosaur. It was so long ago that Rory couldn’t remember if he had forgotten anything the first time he went to school but he had in some of the years since, the shame of writing home that first night never went away no matter how old you got. “Just take what you need, and maybe a few little extras, mum isn’t itching to get rid of your stuff you know,”

“I think mum will be okay, she had me quite young so she’s been a mum for most of her adult life, as much as she loves us she’s probably looking forward to being able to have a life for a few months until we’re back for christmas,” Their mum would never admit it, and he was sure she would initially feel sad that both her children were now out of the house but he hoped she would embrace the opportunity that came with them both being away at school.

 

[Zennon Baros]

She held Peaches close to her chest with a grin and shoved the Dino in her pack. She would sleep on her bed, that's where Peaches had always slept and she wasn't about to start changing things now, that would be silly. She had been such a big part of Tori's life for a long time, it felt important that she continue to be there, especially since she was going to lose her mum and her brother soon after. Maybe she was being dramatic, but she felt like she was entitled to be dramatic since she was going away to school for the first time. She did feel comforted by knowing that she could just look out the window of the tallest tower and probably see Obsidian from there, and she could pretend her mum was looking up at her the same way. Maybe it wouldn't be true but it would be a nice thing to pretend anyway, and she was going to write her every day, even if she couldn't, wouldn't, send every single letter, because she was only going to tell her mum she was having a good time. It was important to her that her mum not regret the decision to let her kids go to Hogwarts. Besides, Rory seemed to be having a good time so surely that was a good thing, right? "Peaches will stay on my bed," she nodded, leaning against the wall as she listened to Rory tell her their mother would be okay without them (and wasn't about to throw out all her stuff). "Yeah, but I don't want her to stop being my mum." she frowned, unsure where he was going with this. She'd been mum all of Tori's life! She had a life, the life where she was Tori and Rory's mum.​

im not even gonna bother, you know who this is supposed to be -_-

 

[Rory Styx]

Rory couldn’t remember the finer details of how he had felt the first time he had been packing to go to Hogwarts. The old saying went that you remembered the major moments in your life like they were yesterday, but Rory couldn’t. The day he left home for the first time to start school felt like a lifetime ago, he was a completely different person, he had seen and experienced all the things Hogwarts had to offer and now Tori was doing the same. He was glad he would get to see her at the beginning of her journey, but she would go through so much without him and as much as that made him sad, he was excited to see the woman she became at the other side of it all.

“Mum will always be mum, I’m in my last year now and she’s still mum, she’ll keep being mum when I go pro and get my own place, that will never change,” Rory wasn’t sure where she had got that idea from, did she think because her youngest was heading off to school that their mother getting a life outside them would mean she’d no longer be there for them? He knew that would never be the case and eventually she would too.