— And what are we doing in this dump? — Adele grimaced, looking around in disgust. This wasn't the first time she had passed through the Leaky Cauldron, but she had never previously considered that the place served as a hotel of sorts.
Victor merely shrugged indifferently:
— Beats me. Hermione said she'd be waiting for us right here.
Adele narrowed her eyes suspiciously, studying her brother:
— Don't you pay her at all?
Victor rolled his eyes with mild irony:
— She's already richer than most standard pureblood families in England!
— Then why is she staying in a dump like this?!
— She's not living here, she's just waiting for us, — Victor replied, his eyes lingering on the wanted poster of Sirius Black plastered nearby.
— Oh, there they are! — Adele pointed toward the trio tucking into breakfast at a large table alongside the Weasley family.
They strolled over to the noisy group.
— Morning, everyone! — Victor greeted loudly.
— Victor! — Hermione exclaimed happily. Leaping up from her seat, she wrapped her arms around his neck in a sudden hug.
— Hello, my sweet princess, — the young man replied with a warm smile, pressing her close.
Hermione instantly flushed deep red right to the tips of her ears. Victor had only recently started using that affectionate name for her — after they danced together at Perenelle's birthday party.
— Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, pleasure to meet you in person, — Victor addressed the adults politely. — My name is Victor Moss, and this is my sister, Adele.
— As if they don't know you inside out already! Ha-ha-ha!
— Yeah, you're the biggest star in all of England now! Well, second only to Sirius Black! — the Weasley twins laughed in unison, exchanging eager glances.
— Don't mind them, we're very glad to meet you too! Sit down and join us for breakfast, — Molly offered warmly.
Victor nodded and sat beside Harry, while Adele summoned a chair with a quick flick of her wand and sat beside her brother, clearly having no intention of touching any of the food.
— Harry, every single year starts with a grand entrance from you: a flying car last year, and now inflating some aunt! I'm almost terrified to imagine what stunt you'll pull next year, — Victor grinned.
— I didn't do it on purpose, it's all because of those Dursleys, — Harry said, looking aggrieved.
— Speaking of which, Victor, what did you think of my flying car? — Ron's father asked.
— I was genuinely impressed, and I really liked the concept. By the way, did you know Muggles believe that all cars will fly in the future?
— Really? — Arthur Weasley looked surprised, then nodded with an appreciative smile. — Mind you, I wouldn't be surprised if it comes to pass. Muggles are remarkably inventive; even without magic, they create such incredible technology!
— That's enough talk about that, — Ron's mother nudged Arthur sharply with her elbow. — Have you forgotten how much trouble your Muggle obsession brought us? Adele, why aren't you eating?
— Everything is fine, I had breakfast at home, — Adele declined politely with a soft smile.
— Here, take these, — Hermione placed a stack of papers in front of Victor.
Victor raised an eyebrow, flipping through the pages:
— What's this?
— Reports, applications, and a few matters that need resolving. Maeve handed them to me yesterday.
Grimacing, Victor pushed the stack back toward Hermione:
— No thanks, I trust you completely — handle it yourself.
Hermione merely smiled back:
— Have you forgotten? You gave Daphne and me a month off at the start of the term, so these are your responsibilities now. By the way, Daphne's stack is even larger! Anyway, we need to catch the train soon, so I'm going to get ready. — She planted a quick kiss on his cheek and darted off.
Victor remained seated, staring after her in complete stun.
— Adele, don't you want to help your favorite brother?
Adele looked at him, then shifted her gaze to Ginny:
— Want some help packing your things?
— Yeah, let's go, — Ginny nodded. Toward the end of the previous school year, she, Adele, and Luna had become close friends.
With his sister abandoning him as well, Victor's shoulders slumped entirely as he stared down at the mountain of paperwork.
Molly and Arthur shared an amused smile; they never would have guessed that Victor Moss, whom their son Ron had described as a ruthless madman, was actually like this.
Harry patted Victor on the shoulder:
— My condolences.
Victor looked up at him:
— That's not going to help me much. But thanks anyway.
With slightly disheveled hair and a look of absolute doom, Victor sat in a compartment alongside Daphne, Luna, and Adele. The younger girls were deep into a card game, and judging by Luna's enigmatic smile, she held a winning hand. Daphne was calmly immersed in a book, while Victor, buried behind two towering stacks of documents, picked up each sheet one by one, skimmed it, signed his name, or jotted down brief notes.
Suddenly, the train screeched to a harsh, violent halt. The sudden jolt sent every neatly arranged paper flying off the table, scattering chaotically across the floor.
A twitch caught Victor's eye, and the quill clamped in his fist snapped in half with a sharp crack.
Rising from his seat, he took swift strides toward the door and ripped it open with a slam. A frightened first-year stood frozen in the corridor right outside. Catching Victor's deadly, fury-filled gaze, the boy turned pale as a ghost.
— Sorry! — the kid squeaked without a moment's hesitation, turning on his heel and sprinting back to his compartment.
Victor leaned out into the hallway and roared down the carriage:
— HEY! WHAT KIND OF CLUMSY IDIOTS ARE DRIVING THIS TRAIN?!
Hearing his enraged shout, every student who had been preparing to step out and check the reason for the stop immediately reconsidered and ducked back inside.
An instant later, Victor felt an unnatural, biting coldness in the air. Glancing down the corridor, he spotted the dim, dark silhouette of a Dementor gliding between the carriages in the distance.
— Ah... right. Third year, — he muttered under his breath.
— Victor, what happened? — George poked his head cautiously out of the adjacent compartment.
— It's fine. Border control. Stay in your compartments, — Victor tossed over his shoulder before stepping back inside and slamming the door shut.
George returned to his friends in confusion:
— What border control?.. Wait... Control?! — His eyes widened in sheer panic. — Guys, hide the alcohol! Quick!
— What's going on? — Daphne asked, eyeing Victor with anxious curiosity.
Victor simply flicked his hand dismissively — and all the sheets strewn across the floor instantly shot into the air, swooping back to the table in neat bundles and settling into immaculate stacks. Even his broken quill mended itself.
— Everything's fine. They're searching for Sirius Black; Dementors are inspecting the train, — he replied casually, returning to his seat.
— What?! Dementors?! — Daphne's eyebrows shot up in astonishment. — Has the Ministry completely lost its mind?!
Victor merely shrugged with indifference and returned to his paperwork.
Suddenly, a flash of brilliant light illuminated the corridor outside the glass door. A fleeing Dementor began thrashing frantically against the carriage walls in panic, causing the train to shudder violently once more, sending all the gathered sheets scattering back onto the floor.
Snap! — Victor broke another quill clean in half.
— Are Hermione and Harry in the next carriage? — he asked calmly.
Daphne nodded, glancing anxiously at the door.
— PROFESSOR LUPIN, COULD YOU BE A LITTLE MORE CAREFUL?! SOME OF US ARE ACTUALLY TRYING TO WORK HERE! — Victor shouted, using magic to collect the papers once again.
— VICTOR, A DEMENTOR ATTACKED HARRY! — an alarmed Hermione yelled back.
Victor merely rolled his eyes. However, upon hearing the second voice that followed, his expression turned ice-cold.
— VICTOR! SOB... WA-A-AH...
It was Astrid's terrified, sobbing voice. In that instant, Victor remembered she had been with Hermione!
Without a second thought, he stepped into the corridor and burst through the open door of the neighboring compartment. A frightened Astrid immediately threw herself crying into his arms — the poor girl had been scared half to death by the Dementor.
— Shh, it's alright, don't cry, I'm right here... Shh... — Victor stroked her back gently to soothe her. Deep down, however, he was fuming. This day was supposed to be the happiest day of any first-year's life, but now Astrid would remember it as the day a Dementor nearly killed another student. — Let's go to my compartment; sit in there with Adele and Luna.
After ushering the girl inside, Victor Apparated directly from the corridor onto the roof of the train. The entire locomotive was heavily encircled by Dementors swooping through the air.
— Filthy scum... How dare you frighten little Astrid?! — Victor hissed with chilling fury, drawing his wand and thrusting it toward the night sky. — Expecto Patronum, you bastards!
From the tip of his wand erupted a blinding, intolerably brilliant silver-white light that instantaneously wove itself into a colossal serpent, easily surpassing even an ancient Basilisk in size! The gigantic spectral snake hovered smoothly above the train, coiling slowly and gracefully through the dark sky.
The Dementors shrank back in fear, eyeing the living radiance with wary trepidation.
Suddenly, the serpent snapped its eyes open. They blazed with an illumination so unbearable and blinding that it looked as if two massive searchlights had been ignited simultaneously above the train roof. Looking directly at them was physically impossible! Every Dementor in the vicinity recoiled, writhing in excruciating, agony-inducing pain. They began scattering erratically in all directions, while those caught in the serpent's dead-white gaze exploded into shredded tatters. This struck such sheer terror into the remaining Dementors that they fled in a wild panic, dissolving into the night.
Once the sky was entirely clear, the massive serpent slowly closed its eyes and vanished silently into thin air.
Victor gave a contemptuous scoff and spoke in a frozen tone:
— MOVE IT.
Even though he spoke barely above a whisper, his voice resonated with such tremendous force that the entire train trembled visibly. Jolted into gear, the conductors and engineer in the front cab restarted the engine without delay.
Apparating once more, Victor reappeared straight inside Hermione's compartment.
— How's Harry? — he asked curtly.
— He'll come around soon, — Remus Lupin replied, staring at him with unblinking, utterly stunned eyes.
The Professor opened his mouth as if to question Victor, but the young man had already turned on his heel and walked out, heading back to his own compartment.
— So that's Victor Moss?.. — Lupin murmured under his breath, tracking his departure.
Ron, sitting beside the still-unconscious Harry, offered a silent nod.
Returning to his compartment, Victor noticed that alongside the sniffling Astrid, a new passenger had arrived — Astoria. She sat timidly on the bench beside Daphne.
Victor approached Astrid, who was now nestled in Luna's arms, and stroked her back until she had completely calmed down:
— It's alright now, I chased them off.
His gaze then landed on the table covered in documents, and the young man let out a heavy sigh. Honestly, right now he would far rather decimate another swarm of Dementors than deal with this mountain of red tape!
— Why do we even have so many assistants if we still end up doing all the work ourselves? — he grumbled.
Daphne looked at him with a amused smile:
— It's just reviewing monthly reports! If we hand every single decision over to them, then what are we even needed for?
At that very moment, in a separate compartment, a very small first-year girl was gazing out the window.
— Who was that just now?! — she asked quietly.
— That's Victor Moss. He's sort of the unofficial king of Slytherin, — an older student answered her.
— So his name is Victor... — the girl whispered, a mysterious smile touching her reflection in the glass.