Vincent entered the giant dining room of Durmstrang the next morning. As he entered, he felt every eye on him. He knew telling Terry to keep his uncle’s memory loss a secret was just a waste of time. Terry did not tell anyone, but all thanks to the Daily Prophet, he was ruined.
He sighed as people got up to exit the room, some shoving into him purposely. Girls who used to be desperately in love with him turned away and whispered something to the person next to him. Vincent sat down at the table with his best friend, Terry Downsel. All the other guys at the table got up and left.
“Don’t think on it, mate,” Terry implied, passing a plate of toast over to Vincent, “You know how teenagers are. They’ll forget about all of this tomorrow and you will be Mr. Popular again. How does that sound?”
Vincent starred down at the plate of toast and groaned, “I think it will take more than twenty-four hours for these people to get over it. The students here looked up to my uncle. They even wrote fan fiction about him! Look, even the headmaster won’t look at me.”
Terry turned to the table sat at the front of the room, where all the teachers dined. Karkaroff usually always had a proud eye on either Krum or Vincent. Today, he seemed very interested in what the charms professor was talking about.
“I’ll say it again,” Terry said in a type of fatherly tone, “Don’t think on it.”
Vincent shrugged and pushed the plate of toast away from. He got up from his seat and grabbed his bag full of class supplies, “I’m going to be late for Care of Magical Creatures. I’ll see you at lunch.”
Terry nodded and watched his friend leave. It was a shame they were a year a part. He knew Vincent’s day was going to be hell, but he couldn’t be there by his side the whole time.
~*~
“Lockhart!” the voice of an angry girl cried. Vincent’s head shot up. He saw a taller girl stomping towards him. Her rather long dark-blonde curls bounced every time her foot hit the floor. Her fists seemed to be locked to her sides, but she clutched them rather tightly. Her lips were tightly closed together and she was starring at Vincent as if looks could kill.
Vincent’s eyes widened as he took a step back from this girl. She stepped up to him and stopped when their faces were mere centimeters apart.
“What is this I hear about your uncle being a fraud?!” the girl questioned.
Vincent looked from side to side to see if anyone would come to his aid. But people just watched them from the sidelines. Vincent looked back at the girl and shook his head, “What do you mean? My uncle isn’t a fraud.”
“Don’t give me that, Lockhart! You promised me you would take me to see your uncle in the summer! Was that a lie too?” asked the girl.
Vincent sighed and looked away from her, “Angel, I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was going to happen.”
Angel smirked, “Don’t give me that puppy-face, Vince. You’re not going to get out of this so easy. Whatever you don’t tell me, I’ll ask Terry. I do have potions with him first hour.”
“Go ahead.” Vincent muttered, “As if the Daily Prophet doesn’t tell you enough.”
“Is that anyway to talk to your girlfriend?!” Angel cried, shoving Vincent against a wall, “I came up to you to see if you were okay.”
Vincent blinked and starred at his aggressive girlfriend, “You still want to be with me?” he asked, “But I thought you hated me because of my uncle now.”
Angel laughed and let Vincent go, “I’m not going to let a little thing like that ruin our relationship.” Angel looked from side to side then brought her lips to Vincent’s right ear, “Meet me in my room tonight.”
Angel kissed Vincent on the cheek then strode off down the hall. Vincent watched her leave with a surprised look. Angel L’Amour always had a problem with changing her moods. Still, he expected her to tell him to meet her in her room tonight. She told him to on occasions all the time. And the midnight meetings were starting to kill him.
Vincent ignored the curious glances from all over the hall. He moved his stride faster to get to his class. After turning down the last hall, someone grabbed Vincent by the arm and pulled him into an empty classroom.
Vincent stumbled inside and looked around the dark room. He was too shocked to speak. The lights finally flicked on, causing Vincent to quickly turn to the door. His captor turned out to be his own best mate, Terry.
“Did I scare you, mate?” Terry laughed.
Vincent sighed and sat down at an empty desk, “What are you doing here, Terry? I am already late for Care of Magical Creatures.”
“You thought breakfast was bad, you just wait until you get to class. Students will be asking question after question, and you will be getting so many howlers by the time lunch arrives.” Terry explained thoughtfully, “So, I decided that we are going to play hooky in Hogsmeade. What do you say?”
“I say you’re crazy,” answered Vincent as he got up from his seat, “I’m going to have to face the crowd sooner or later.”
Terry blocked the door and stared at Vincent, “You’re not ready to face the crowd. You’re going with me to Hogsmeade.”
Vincent blinked, Terry has never spoken to him so coldly before. “Okay mate, I’ll go to Hogsmeade with you.”
Terry smiled; his cold expression had completely disappeared, “Good. We’ll travel by floo powder. And look, there is a fireplace right behind you! How ironic.” He pointed to a fireplace at the end of the room.
Vincent shook his head and sat his school supplies under the desk. Terry approached the chimney and picked up a pot of floo powder.
“Did you know this is also a very good way to get high?” asked Terry as he sniffed the floo powder lightly. He smirked and held the pot towards Vincent.
Vincent shook his head and laughed, “No thanks mate. There are much more fun ways to get high. I can’t believe you would try that. You never cease to amaze me. You know that?”
Terry grinned and grabbed a handful of floo powder. He shrugged his shoulders, “There is a first time for everything. It’s not like I sniffed it on purpose. You can’t tell me you don’t get that buzz feeling when you travel by floo.”
“I’ve been traveling by floo since I was two, Terry. I can’t really tell you that I get that buzz feeling,” Vincent explained.
Terry nodded, “Oh yeah, I forgot. It takes a lot to get you high.”
“Will you just go to Hogsmeade already?!”
“Yeah I suppose I will,” Terry said. He walked into the chimney, set the pot down outside of the fireplace, and held the floo powder out before him. “Three Broomsticks!” he called out.
In a flash of green smoke, Terry had disappeared. Vincent stood still for a moment, wondering if he should just leave Terry there and go to class. It’s not like Terry hadn’t done it to him before.
Before he could turn to the door, he heard an angry voice yell out his name. Vincent slowly turned to the fireplace and saw his best friend’s face in it. Vincent jumped at the look his friend had on his face. He actually looked really evil with all those flames surrounding his head.
“Don’t even think about ditching me!” Terry scolded. Then his face disappeared from the fireplace. Vincent sighed and stepped into the fireplace with a handful of floo powder. “Three Broomsticks.” He called out with not much effort, and then he tossed the floo powder to the fireplace floor. In a flash of green smoke, he had disappeared as well.
Vincent soon appeared inside the busy bar. He didn’t expect the room to be so full of students. But none of these students were from his school. They all looked at the fireplace to see who entered. Since these students weren’t from his school, not many knew he was Gilderoy’s nephew. They just shrugged and went back to their drinks.
Vincent scanned the room for Terry. He spotted his friend sitting at an empty table, he was already giving his order to the waitress. Vincent let out a deep sigh and made his way to the table. As he was almost there, he bumped shoulders with one of the students from the other school.
The guy he bumped into turned around, “Oh, sorry.”
“Yeah,” Vincent said coldly, “Next time, why don’t you watch where you are going?”
“Hey man, I said I was sorry!” the student spat back.
“Your point is?” Vincent grinned.
A small blonde girl that was with the student pushed him out of the way and approached Vincent, “Hey! You’re that kid who is related to Gilderoy!”
The student who bumped into Vincent formed a very devious smirk on his face, “Oh? You’re the spawn of the fraud?”
Vincent growled. The girl student continued, “He’s not the actual spawn. He’s Gilderoy’s nephew I believe. I saw your picture in the Daily Prophet a few weeks ago. That was a wicked crowd you brought with you to the Quidditch game!”
“Yeah, did you have to obliterate those people to come watch you?” asked the male student.
“Watch it,” Vincent warned, his eyes narrowed at the smirking boy.
“Vincent!” Terry ran up to the small crowd, “What’s going on?”
The girl began to look real nervous as she saw the older boy come up to them. “N-nothing is going on. We just wanted an autograph!”
“Hannah!” The male student exclaimed, “Don’t be scared of him.”
“Come on Justin, we’re done with our butter beer, let’s go!” Hannah took Justin by the arm and fled out of The Three Broomsticks.
Vincent shook his head and turned back to Terry, “What school were those kids from?”
“From the patch on their robes, I would say Hogwarts. I guess so many of them are here because school has already let out for them.” Terry explained, “By the way, what was all that about?”
“That kid just decided he could bump into me and get away with it,” Vincent answered.
Terry rolled his eyes, “Come on, Vince. I ordered us something.”
Vincent nodded and sat at the table Terry had sat at earlier. Their butter beer came quickly and they did what mainly everyone was doing in there. Drinking and chatting.
“So I was thinking, since Krum will be graduating in two years,” Terry explained, “That we’re going to need a new seeker and team captain. Who do you think will be good for the job?”
“I don’t know,” Vincent answered, truthfully, “Angel wanted the seeker position, but she’ll be at her final year by the time try-outs come around. And there is no question about who the captain should be. The one and only, Terry Downsel.”
Terry laughed, almost choking on his butter beer, “Awe, thanks mate. But, just like Angel, by the time Krum is gone, it will be my final year. I think you could be captain material.”
“No,” Vincent answered shortly, “Too much responsibility.”
Terry laughed again and got up from his seat, “Come on, Vince. We still have a few more hours. Let’s check out something else.”
Vincent nodded and finished his drink. Him and Terry left The Three Broomsticks and started looking around Hogsmeade.
“Let’s go to Zonko’s.” Terry suggested. Before Vincent could respond, Terry was already inside the shop.
Inside were more students, of course. There were two red-headed twins talking to the manager. Some blonde kid with two big guys was also in there. He was opening up some of the items in the store and hiding them in his robes. Vincent shook his head, he really despised thieves.
On another side of the store stood a few giggling girls. Some of them were starring at Vincent. Particularly, the one in the middle of the group. She had long black hair that almost blended in with her robes. She had the same patch on her robes as the other students except hers was blue with a raven on it.
Vincent shook his head, if only these girls knew who he actually was. Vincent followed Terry down one of the aisles full of pointless joke items. Terry would always buy the most useless things just to make other’s laugh.
The door to the shop opened. Vincent turned his attention to the people entering the store. He sighed; it was that Justin and Hannah kid. They had three other people with them. Hannah spotted Vincent and grabbed onto the arm of the other girl. She pointed to Vincent excitedly. The other girl looked at Vincent and giggled.
Vincent looked away and realized that Terry was gone. He groaned and turned back to the group that had just entered. He and Justin had met eyes. They both threw each other a cold stare before Vincent turned on down the aisle, searching for Terry.
He finally found Terry hiding behind a shelf, “What are you doing?” Vincent asked.
“Ssh!” Terry responded, and then he whispered, “Listen! They’re talking about you!”
Vincent rolled his eyes and approached the shelf. On the other side, he over-heard a girl’s voice.
“Did you see that guy?” she asked, “That’s him! Gilderoy’s nephew!”
“He doesn’t really look like him though,” another girl answered.
“I know, but it’s him. I saw him in the Daily Prophet.” The first girl explained, “What do you think is going to become of him, Marietta?”
The other girl was quiet for a moment. She finally coughed then answered, “I don’t know, Cho. I kind of feel sorry for the guy. I bet he was popular at his school.”
“I’ve heard enough,” Vincent spat, walking away from the shelf.
Terry groaned and walked away from the shelf. He followed Vincent out of the shop and back into The Three Broomsticks. They grabbed some floo powder and went back to school.
~*~
Later that night, Vincent slowly arose from his bed. He scanned the room to make sure all of his roommates were asleep. He slowly got off his bed and grabbed his robe. He wrapped the robe around him as he was leaving the room.
Durmstrang wasn’t like Hogwarts when it came to room arrangements. There was just one side of the school with nothing but dorms. Vincent crept down the dark hall for a few minutes until he came across a room with its door slightly open. Vincent slowly opened the door, not making a sound. He stepped inside and closed the door.
Vincent turned around to his girlfriend, sitting on the edge of her bed. Her roommates were also sound asleep.
“Hey there,” she greeted in a low tone, “Did you have fun today?”
“I see Terry informed you of my day,” Vincent answered with a smirk, “How was your day?”
“Lonely,” Angel answered in a self-pity tone.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Vincent responded as he approached her. He sat next to Angel and smiled mischievously.
Angel returned the smiled and entangled her finger in his blonde hair. She leaned closer to her boyfriend and yet again, brought her lips to his ear, “Just how sorry are you?”
Vincent shivered. Angel’s other hand was now on his, and it was as cold as ice. Even though Angel was his girlfriend, he hated these midnight meetings.
“You know what to do,” Angel said in a low voice. Vincent nodded and removed his robe; he pulled his hair out off his neck and tied it back. Angel pulled him closer to her and gripped his hand.
She slowly moved her lips down to his neck and kissed it lightly. Vincent shivered again as Angel parted her lips. She smirked and opened her mouth a bit wider and pressed into Vincent’s neck.
Vincent gripped the bed sheets and waited for her to do it. She left him waiting for a second until she finally did. Vincent gritted his teeth.
The first time she had done this, he had screamed…
And deeply regretted it…