There Ain't No Moonlight, After Midnight

Vicki was quiet as she ate dinner that night. It was a Friday night, usually on Friday nights her mother's partner, Alfred came over for dinner and stayed over.

Alfred was a muggle who was also one of Vicki's primary school teachers. This is how he met Vicki's mother, Maureen. Vicki was one of his students a few years ago. He had asked Maureen for a parent-teacher interview as Vicki would sometimes behave strangely. Only later would Alfred learn it was due to Vicki's magical status that made her do strange things in childhood.

Due to laws passed a few centuries ago, wizards must keep their powers in secret from muggles. It is only lawful for witches and wizards to reveal their powers after marriage. Even then sometimes things can get messy and memory charms from ministry wizards can happen. It wasn't unusual for magic and muggle marriages to fall apart within the first year, it was a difficult thing to manage. Divorce between a witch and a wizard was uncommon, but not if a muggle was involved.

Maureen and Alfred weren't married but Alfred still knew about the wizarding world. Maureen had no other plans to marry after her marriage to Max Hartwell fell through. In the event of no planned marriage, a witch or wizard could apply to the ministry to obtain approval to let their partner know. Maureen did just this, and a year after Alfred was let in on the best kept secret in the world: magic exists.

It was a few days since the Quiddich World Cup and Vicki was still in shock. Now she had a few days to think and process what happened (and that her feud with Roger was well and truly over) it made her shiver how close she came to danger. But no one was injured – even the muggle family the attackers had toyed with had made a full recovery according to the Daily Prophet. So she was doing her best to keep her spirits up. She was returning to school the next week and was trying to spend time focusing on that.

Dinner was interrupted suddenly when there was a sharp rap on the door. Alfred and Vicki looked at Maureen, waiting to see if she was expecting someone.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake I don't know who that could be. Fancy coming here right on dinner time." Maureen ranted loudly as she got up from her chair.

"I will never get used to your lot saying "Merlin" instead of God or Heaven." Alfred grinned towards Vicki.

Vicki gave him a soft smile. It had only really dawned on her that the Wizard Community said this. She was about to further contemplate this but moments later she noticed her father being led to the dinner table.

"Victoria Alice Hartwell. You'll never believe who came to my office today." Max loudly stated towards his daughter, it was evident he was quite annoyed about something.

Vicki just gave a blank look towards her father in return. There were a million different people who could have stepped foot into his office today, why did he need to interrupt her Friday night dinner to tell her?

"Arthur Weasley. He had to send me some documents relating to the World Cup fiasco. He told me he decided to personally deliver them to me rather than send a memo, as he wanted to thank me." Max sternly stated.

"Why did he want to thank you?" Maureen asked her ex-husband as her interest grew.

"He wanted to thank Vicki mostly. He complimented me on my parenting and said I must have raised a good one. Apparently Vicki was with the Weasleys during the attack and pulled some of the younger ones to safety." Max replied in a cool tone.

Maureen gaped as she was silent for a few moments. As far as Vicki's parents knew, Vicki was with Roger the whole night. This was the first Maureen was hearing of the two being separated. She then swiftly turned to Vicki.

"Well? Are you going to explain yourself?" Maureen barked at her daughter.

"There is a perfect explanation to this. Why don't we all sit in the lounge and I'll quickly refresh myself and we shall go from there?" Vicki sweetly responded.

Max was about to speak up and decline Vicki's proposal but it was Alfred who spoke up and politely offered to leave. It was as Maureen was reassuring Alfred that he could stay that Vicki slipped up the stairs of the townhouse they lived in.

She whistled for her owl who hooted happily at Vicki's attention as he swooped onto her arm for a scratch in his favourite spot.

"Hiya Fez. I need you to deliver something but it needs to be quick, so I'm going to send you through the Floo Network." Vicki said to the owl.

The owl only tweeted in response. Vicki did this commonly if she needed a quick response, or didn't want the owl to have to travel too far. She would just get the Floo Powder ready and send the owl straight through for an instant delivery. It was the next best thing to a phone call.

Vicki grabbed a pen and paper from her desk as she didn't have any time for formal quill and parchment business.

HELP! Come over ASAP. Family is interrogating me over our separation at the WC. Need your help convincing them all is OK.

-Vicki x

Vicki quickly sent the owl through the guest fire place after using some Floo Powder and sending the owl to the correct address. She paced around awkwardly as she didn't know what to expect. In her fast paced move she didn't really give instructions to Roger on how to come over or how to respond.

"Vicki! You come down here right now and explain to me what's going on." Maureen yelled up the stairs to her daughter.

Vicki bit her lip and shouted she would be right down. Just as she was about to trot down the stairs she heard a loud sound from the guest room where the fireplace was connected to the floo network. Moments later Roger emerged wiping the soot off his clothes, the owl hooting happily behind him.

Vicki smiled in appreciation. He could have easily ignored her letter and avoided facing the difficult situation: facing the parents of the girl he left alone at a large sporting match. But instead he rushed over to make things right. That meant a lot to Vicki, especially after what happened.

"So, what's the plan?" Roger asked her, grinning as he gave his girlfriend a quick peck on the lips.

"You're going to tell my parents we got split up at the cup because you went to the toilet and couldn't find your seat after. We spent the whole match trying to find each other in what would be a comical situation under different circumstances." Vicki began.

"Yes and then you stumbled across the Weasleys and decided it was safer than being alone. I mean, that's basically what happened right?" Roger stated.

Vicki smiled and nodded. She knew that it was not right she had to come up with a cover story to save her parents being mad at Roger, and that is not "basically what happened". She however decided to just go downstairs and action their plan. She was over the silly fight they had and wanted to start the new school year on a fresh, happy start.

***

"...so that's my plan this year for our way to gain advantage on all three other house teams. The Quiddich Cup will certainly be Ravenclaw's this year." Roger finished, loudly telling his plan to everyone present.

Max Hartwell was impressed. He was a Gryffindor when he was at Hogwarts and had no ties to Ravenclaw other than his daughter but he was also on the Gryffindor team so he appreciated Quiddich talk. Maureen was listening intently, proud of her daughter for choosing such an ambitious young man to be her boyfriend. Even Alfred the Muggle was interested, as Roger was delivering his plan in layman's terms so everyone would be able to follow what he was saying. Roger had everyone at the table impressed as he kept his charms going even after he won them all over when everyone lapped up the World Cup story.

The telephone began to ring loudly. Roger looked around confused as he didn't understand what a telephone was.

"Maureen, I made sure my new place didn't have a telephone when I moved out. They're more of a nuisance than a convenience. You must be the only non-Muggle born with a damn telephone." Max laughed towards his ex-wife.

Maureen didn't see the joke and began to bicker with Max about the importance of embracing Muggle culture as they all lived in a Muggle world. As no one made an effort to answer the phone, Vicki heaved herself off her chair and answered it.

"Hello?" she asked into the phone.

"Vicki! It's Sarah. Are you doing anything tonight?" one of Vicki's friends cheerily asked.

Vicki looked back at the table. Max and Maureen were still squabbling whilst Alfred and Roger looked highly uncomfortable to be in the presence of the animosity. The sooner Vicki could get both Roger and herself out, the better.

"No. I don't. What do you have planned?" Vicki responded.

"Bring some drinks. Let's go to the park and have a few. This will be our last chance before you go to boarding school. Let's go to the one we always go to." Sarah suggested.

Vicki grinned. She always knew it was naughty lying to her parents that she was seeing one of her muggle friends to do something innocent when in fact they were underage drinking in a park. It was just part of being a Britain teenager. She didn't know how common it was in the magic world as no one talked about it at school, but it was very common in the muggle community. The way Vicki saw it, it was her parent's fault for insisting Vicki belong to both worlds, even though technically no muggle blood ran through her.

"Okay I'll get the bus. Be there in about forty five. Oh and I'm bringing Roger." Vicki stated before hanging up and going back to her squabbling parents.

***

The alcohol was beginning to affect Vicki. She wasn't completely gone but was a happy tipsy feeling. As her friend Sarah was a muggle, the cover story was that Vicki went to a posh boarding school in Scotland and not a magic one. Sarah knew that she and Roger had met at school and so she believed Roger also went to the posh school.

As Vicki was starting school the next week and would only be able to correspond through letters, Sarah kept forcing alcohol down Vicki's throat, so at this point Vicki had a lot to drink.

"My parents think we're at a restaurant. Almost true, they serve alcohol at restaurants." Sarah giggled loudly as she took a chug out of the cheap wine they had.

"Mine think I'm at a movie with you guys. If we're trying to justify why we're lying than I guess we're watching people and thus not lying." Vicki also giggled.

Roger just sat in silence. Vicki always knew he never really got along with her muggle friends. He was never outwardly rude and chose to stay silent. She guessed that he had trouble connecting with them because he knew so little about their culture. Vicki was ignoring his silence tonight as she didn't want it to get her down.

"Let's go to the toilet. I need to go." Sarah laughed, as she helped Vicki up and they set on their quest.

Clutching their wine they headed off to a public toilet block that was sitting next to a skate park within their main park. They went to head in but saw a mother leading out her two children who looked like they were in their very early teens.

One look at the two intoxicated teenagers grasping alcohol bottles sent the woman into a panic. She began to scream loudly at the two, using the words "my children!" and "trashy" a lot. Vicki could only laugh as she had a lot of run-ins with housewives lately who had a low opinion of her.

A group of boys from the skate park had seen the commotion and were heading over. Vicki wasn't sure whether they were coming to her aide or coming closer to watch the action but she decided to ignore them as she came within earshot.

"Whoa, calm down lady. You look like you need a drink. We have plenty." Vicki joked as she held out her bottle.

Laughter roared out from the skaters and Vicki looked over to see her adoring crowd. Her eyes widened as one of her school friends was present, to which he also had the same reaction.

"Why if it isn't Victoria Hartwell, the prefect. Don't think Professor Flitwick would be too proud of you right now." Lee Jordan joked loudly towards his school mate.

"Yes, tell me your school so I can call them." The woman smirked.

Vicki who had now lost interest with her conflict as she was keen to speak with her friend, muttered the name of a public school near her house and finally the woman left her alone after loudly exclaiming she would call Vicki's school and have her removed as prefect.

"Hey Lee, Roger is around. Let's go find him and catch up." Vicki stated.

Lee said goodbye to one of the boys he was with and then began to follow Vicki, and Sarah who was now quiet as she let Vicki speak with her friend.

Vicki and Lee were loose friends. They weren't considered close friends who ever spent one on one time together, but they were friends who would stop in the corridors on a regular basis to have a catch up and make each other laugh.

They had befriended each other through Roger. Lee Jordan was the Quiddich commentator for the school, which bought Lee and Roger together. Lee mostly said nice things about Roger during his matches and they both had outgoing personalities. When Roger and Vicki started going out she then began to speak to Lee and they found they got along really well. The previous year it was a ritual for the two to catch up between Vicki's Charms and Arithmancy classes and Lee's Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures classes, as it was one of the only times that Lee was without the Weasley twins and Vicki was without Roger. They also had Defence Against the Dark Arts together, but Lee always sat with the twins and Vicki with Roger.

As the trio walked to where Roger was waiting for the two girls, Vicki decided it was a good time to introduce Sarah to Lee, as Vicki could see Sarah was feeling left out. It was also needed for Vicki to strongly drop hints that Sarah was a muggle so Lee didn't let slip anything he shouldn't.

"Lee, this is Sarah. Sarah, Lee." Vicki introduced as they were all walking, lazily waving her hand between them.

"How do you two lovely ladies know each other?" Lee asked the two girls, to which Sarah responded with a high pitched giggle.

Vicki stopped in her tracks and narrowed her eyes at the two. They were flirting. She had no qualms about the two hooking up and in fact it was almost making her smirk. She had been Sarah's matchmaker for a few years now, and thought it would be cute to see Lee with someone. She just knew she had to make it clear to Lee that any discussion of anything magic-related was off the table.

"Public school. We went to the public primary school together." Vicki responded.

"What's a public school?" Lee asked loudly.

Luckily at Lee's question Sarah let out a loud laugh and touched his arm. Unlike public school, Lee seemed to understand this action and he grinned at her. Vicki bit her lip as she watched the two. Even with a only a little exchange they seemed to really be hitting it off. She had to quickly let Lee know, or else he could get in trouble for revealing too much to someone with no magic running through their veins.

"She's a muggle. Sarah is a muggle." Vicki blurted suddenly.

Lee nodded slowly as he understood what Vicki was saying crystal clear. He appreciated her warning and although he was still interested in getting to know this Sarah girl, he knew he would have to zip it about any magic talk. Sarah on the other hand had no idea what a 'muggle' was but scoffed at her friend, as it sounded like an insult.

"Muggle is a code word for really cool people at our school. We had to make up code words as a lot of losers were getting offended. She was calling you cool." Lee quickly responded, picking up on Sarah's discomfort and blurting out a clever cover story.

Sarah's frown turned into a smile as she seemed to accept Lee's explanation. Vicki nearly made a joke to Lee by saying 'Ten points to Gryffindor' for his quick thinking, but she knew it wasn't a good idea. She didn't want to alienate Sarah too much by using in-joke references to their school.

They were now back to where Roger was waiting for the girls, and upon sight of Lee he broke out into a grin. He approached his friend and gave him a fist bump, before breaking out into conversation.

Whilst Roger and Lee chatted happily, Sarah pulled Vicki aside and confirmed exactly what Vicki had thought: Sarah was keen on Lee and wanted Vicki's help. Vicki gave her friend a small pep talk before feeding her more alcohol and then forcing the two girls back into the conversation.

"Who were you here with tonight? I didn't know you skated." Vicki asked suddenly, breaking up the conversation the two boys were having.

"I don't. I was with my cousin who's a muggle born, he loves to skate. I was meant to hopefully see Fred and George tonight but I think their parents are too scared to let them out of their sight due to what happened at the World Cup." Lee explained.

Vicki was about to tell Lee that she was present at the cup and was about to explain how she was with the Weasleys when it all happened but then took a side glance at Sarah. She knew now wasn't the time. She also didn't want to ruin the mood. It was a happy coincidence they had run into Lee, and she wanted to have fun that night.

Vicki looked over to see Roger's reaction and couldn't help to notice that he had balled his hands into a fist and seemed to be distancing himself from the conversation as soon as the twins were mentioned. When Roger noticed that his girlfriend had noticed he dropped his attitude and seemed to smile at her, before addressing the whole group.

"Well. We're all about to go back to school, Sarah included. Let's all drink to the new school year." Roger stated, grabbing one of their bottles in a toast-like-fashion.

Vicki smiled at Roger's inclusion of Sarah as she raised her glass. She was really glad she was with Roger. He was more to her than just the popular handsome Ravenclaw Quiddich captain.

***

Sorry. Can't make it to pick up your friend this morning. Parents want to go out for lunch as it's our last chance before school starts. They invited you but I said you're busy. I'll owl you later xx

Vicki thought nothing of the note the Davies family owl had delivered to her the next morning. It waited around for a response but Vicki didn't have time to respond as she jumped out of bed.

Vicki knew her mother would be furious if she got home late last night and her "movie theatre" lie would not hold up if she got home too long after midnight. Sarah on the other hand planned ahead and told her parents she was spending the night at Vicki's so she had breathing room.

As both Sarah and Lee were wanting to kick on and both ended up having a form of attraction to each other, it was decided that Sarah would party on with Lee at his parent's place. At the time Vicki snickered and made comments that they would have to be quiet but Lee then informed her that his parents were away, hence why he was with his cousin earlier that night, as he was bored.

Vicki promised Sarah that she would go see her in the morning. It was dangerous territory for Lee to be taking a muggle back to a wizard household, so Vicki knew it was important to be there in the morning to smooth things over if need be. Roger said the previous night that he would go with Vicki if he was available, but it turned out he wasn't.

After a quick shower and putting on clothes and make-up, Vicki sat down at the kitchen table and took a slice of toast from her mother's plate.

"Is it okay if I see Sarah again today? She's freaking out about the fact we won't see each other until Christmas." Vicki asked her mother.

"Oh," her mother smirked and Vicki winced as she had an inkling she was busted but her mother continued "Of course. It's highly unlikely you'll see her at Christmas but you'll find out why in a few days."

Vicki wanted to press her mother on the weird thing she had slipped out, but also didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. She had gotten away with what she had actually done the previous night and that's all she cared about.

She bid her mother farewell as she made her way into the guest bedroom, where the floo network was connected to the fireplace. Grabbing some powder she addressed the address that Lee had given her the precious night and upon hoping Sarah was not where she'd come shooting out, she jumped in.

Moments later she found herself on the floor of an unfamiliar room. She looked around at the surroundings and saw a photo on the wall of Lee with two adults – his parents. She sighed a breath of relief, she was clearly in the right place.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here George?" a very familiar voice spoke up.

"I think we've caught ourselves a Victoria Hartwell, Fred." The other twin responded.

"Sneaking into the Jordan household. Clearly you're up to no good." George 'tsked' towards Vicki.

"I actually have a reason to be here. Do you?" Vicki defensively asked, as she crossed her arms against her chest.

"We're here to see our dear old friend. Do we need any other reason?" Fred grinned.

On the inside, aside from confused as to why she was actually there, Fred was ecstatic. He didn't think he would see Vicki again before school started but here she was in the flesh. He had been contemplating writing to her since the world cup but even sometimes he grew scared of some things, and writing to Victoria Hartwell was one of them.

"Well, my friend Sarah stayed the night. She's a muggle, so I'm basically here to escort her off the property and make sure she doesn't question stuff like why the photos are moving and all the other weird stuff." Vicki explained.

She watched as two grins spread across the twin's faces. Vicki smiled softly but rolled her eyes. She had made a huge mistake telling the twins that their best friend had a girl over. This was not going to end well.

Without warning Vicki ran off down the hallway in search of the room that was Lee's. It wasn't too hard to find as it was the only door closed, and it had also a huge Gryffindor lion across the front. Vicki's problem was that the twins had sprinted off behind her, not wanting Vicki to spoil their fun.

"Oi Sarah, Lee, you two better make yourselves modest." Vicki yelled through the door, rapping on it loudly.

Fred had caught up to her and laughed as he came from behind and held her in an embrace. He placed his hand on her mouth to stop her talking as he motioned for George to take control.

George grinned as he dug into his pocket and pulled out something that Vicki noticed had the Zonkos logo brightly displayed. He opened the door and threw the product in and shut the door quickly before taking a step back to be in line with Fred and Vicki.

"It's muggle safe, don't worry. It's inspired by some muggle party device, so your friend won't think twice." George explained to Vicki as if he were reading her mind.

Vicki only nodded. She couldn't respond as Fred had her trapped in his embrace still, holding her mouth shut. As Lee and Sarah were yelling loudly now it was still important for the twins to ensure Vicki would not ruin the fun.

Fred also knew he was getting too much enjoyment from the contact he was having with Vicki. He was trying to not read too much into it because he knew the moment was no way near as intimate to her as it was to him. But he enjoyed the embrace nonetheless. It gave him the opportunity to softly caress her skin and hair without her being any the wiser.

His eyes widened at his thoughts as the door flung open and there stood an angry Lee. Lee's reaction should have amused him but instead he was the one gaping. Fred realised at that exact moment that he no longer just had a small innocent crush on Vicki. After getting to know her, he was now deeply obsessed.

"Well if it isn't the Weasley twins. Why am I not surprised. You also seem to have Vicki held hostage?" Lee firmly stated, crossing his arms in passive anger.

Vicki watched Lee intently. He was covered in silly string and she came to the conclusion that George's prank device must have exploded the room with silly string. She attempted to giggle but it was muffled by Fred's hand. Fred however felt the vibration and he smiled at Vicki's amusement.

Fred decided to inch in and see the damage. Keeping his firm grasp on Vicki accidentally, he slowly waltzed into the room to see colourful bursts all over.

"Roger, what on earth are you doing to your poor girlfriend?" Sarah laughed, but then went silent when she realised it was a stranger who was holding her friend.

"Roger?" George asked loudly.

"Boyfriend?" Fred added on, as he quickly let go of Vicki in shock.

Vicki awkwardly shifted her weight as she shot the two twins a guilty look. She had almost forgotten that the last time she saw them just a few days ago, she was still in the middle of a disagreement with Roger. She hadn't had the chance to tell them he had apologised, and that he swore nothing had happened. Therefore she knew she presently looked like a fool for taking him back.

"Omigosh! Sorry! The way you were holding her, it looked like a boyfriend hold so I assumed you were Roger. Makes sense why Lee said the hostage thing, I guess they're both similar." Sarah giggled.

Fred tried his hardest not to flush red. He was never embarrassed and he wasn't willing to start now.

"Anyway. I'd help clean up but I gotta go, my brother is playing football today and I said I'd watch. Thanks for the truly unforgettable night. I had a lot of fun." Sarah purred towards Lee, putting a hand on his chest as she gave a wink seductively before she began to head out.

Lee quickly followed her and Vicki assumed it was to make sure she didn't stumble across any magic objects on her way out. He did however have time to quickly turn to Fred and George and make a hand gesture indicating what sexual encounter happened the night previously.

There was silence between Fred, George and Vicki for a few moments before the twins spoke up.

"So..." George began.

"You forgave Roger?" Fred blurted out.

Vicki didn't know how to respond. Part of her felt ashamed she was about to break the news that she loved Roger too much to let him go, but she also felt a surge of anger. What was it to them? She barely even knew the twins. But then she realised even though she barely knew them, they cared enough about her to be unhappy about how Roger treated her.

As Vicki didn't speak up, it was George who did.

"Fred and I came here to take Lee to Diagon Alley, it's the first mum has let us out all summer, aside from the cup." George began to explain.

"She's unhappy that we only got three O.W.L.S each." Fred interjected.

Vicki's eyes went wide but she remained silent to be polite. She got very good grades on every subject she took, she couldn't imagine only passing three. Vicki understood why Mrs Weasley was angry, but she wasn't about to tell the twins this.

"So why don't you come along and tell us all about it? You said it at the World Cup, we're friends now." George smiled towards Vicki.