??????? ??????, ????????? ???

Chapter 42

Emerson tossed her head back, "Right."

*** 

Waking up was a lot tougher than most days, but she made sure she was up before daylight to find something ideal to wear. Though nothing really made her feel delighted with herself. After a few looks here and there she set herself with a long corset fit black dress. It wasn't anything special but her uncle Alphard had gifted to her year back, before he passed. 

She brushed through her tangled wavy black hair with a comb that was fairly past its days, and added some rose clips into her hair. Her face was pale and her eyebags were a lot more prominent than usually. For shoes she wore a pair a black short heeled shoes with a velcro tie to them. When she finally looked at herself through the full length mirror she bit her thumbs fingernails not liking what she saw but decided to deal with it. 

"Good enough." she said walking out of her room. She skipped down the staircase of stairs and made her way to where her mother told her and Regulus to wait at. But on her way there she stopped to see the door to her ancestry room cracked open. In there she saw her mother looking at the picture burnt out with horrid eyes, Emerson knew exactly who the burnt image was. 

The next few moments flew past her and without even realizing it she was in front of Voldemort pinching her skin. Regulus was besides her staring daggers into the floor. 

Voldemort looked at Regulus first, he gave him a silent nod and with a raise of a palm Regulus put up his forearm. The sound of Regulus's scream paralyzed Emerson, especially because she was next. 

"Leave." Voldemort ordered Regulus, and while Regulus would've preferred to stay he had no choice but to leave. But before doing so he gave Emerson a light kiss at the top of her head. 

Repeating the same action as before, though this time he took a bit longer making the wait suspenseful, "This will leave a mark," he said with a stone cold glare. 

In Emerson's mind the animals in the forest probably stopped for a minute, because her scream was ear piercing to the level only dogs could hear. 

*** 

"Alright, so a girl has as many brothers as sisters, but each brother has only half as many brothers as sisters. How many brothers and sisters are there in the family?"

Marco and Victoria strolled through around the school after classes, so they decided to spend their time asking and doing whatever came to mind. 

"Well, there's counting them all together there should be four sisters and three brothers because we have to count them in their own terms of siblings, so yeah that's my answer." 

Marco rolled his eyes at her once more, "Yeah you're right." 

"I always am Markie." 

The rest of their walk was fairly silent, and they continued to walk like so. That was until they reached the Quidditch field. It was empty aside from a few people practicing, but on the stands there is nobody. 

Victoria stopped walking and took her hands out of her pockets, "Can I tell you something?" Her eyes were tired but awake at the same time. Her breath was shaky but full. 
Marco turned around to look at her. He replied with, "Yeah of course."

She moved closer to him looking away, she began to play with her hands - cracking her knuckles with anxiousness pilling up in her. "Well, I actually have been thinking about a few things." Marco nodded along listening to her very closely. 

"I don't know what's going on but I haven't been feeling myself lately. But damn this sounds stupid."

In all seriousness Marco placed his right arm around her shoulders and whispered in her ears, "You're just stupid that's why." 

Victoria shoved him off jokingly and smiled at him, "Yeah sure that's why I solved all your riddles and you couldn't solve mine."

"Sure, but what's your confession?" 

Her smiled dropped slowly before responding, "The real reason I broke up with Luke was because I have been thinking, maybe I'd like to be a boy."

Marco's eyebrows raised in delight surprise, he offered her a tight hug right after. "But I also like being a girl, and I understand that he wasn't fully comfortable being with me anymore." 

Marco didn't respond he just hugged her tighter for a few seconds. Tears began to escape from her eyes and she returned back the hug. "I'm so proud of you V." 

They ended up hugging for a while longer before letting go. "Is there anything you'd prefer to go by or?" 

"I haven't really thought about it but I think for now I'd like to go by gender neutral pronouns and cut my hair." 

"My nana is a pretty good hairstylist." 

They both continued their walk and continued to share their cringiest jokes and most uncalled for comments. It was the most comfort they had felt in a long while. 

"Do you think I should join the Quidditch team?" 

"Do you even know how to ride a broom?"

A/N: 

Should Victoria join the Quidditch team?

Also I've been thinking about new Faceclaims for Victoria since I think that Lily Collins doesn't really match them they way I had originally imagined. If you have any in mind please lmk!