"Can I call you Tori? You know Tori, I'm a great friend."
"I don't get it, why are you being nice to me?"
"Maybe I don't want to see you friendless."
When Victoria Silvers, who comes from a long line of Slytherins, is sorted into Gryffindor her life...
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Harry and Tori had a fantastic couple of days. They started each morning eating breakfast in The Leaky Cauldron and then would rush out to Diagon Alley.
The Wizarding shops lined up and down the street. Bright and colorful umbrellas in front of most cafes. Harry and Tori spent most of the time in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, where the owner, Florean, would give them free sundaes every half hour.
The two were seated under a vibrant pink umbrella as the sun shined down brightly. Tori read through The Daily Prophet's new article about Sirius Black. "What's all the fuss about him?" Harry asked her, glancing up from his new book.
"You don't know? He's the first prisoner ever to escape from Azkaban. The Wizard prison." She noted Harry's confused look. "People escape from prison all the time in the Muggle world."
"Which is horrible. But Azkaban... is different. It's dark, and miserable. Most people go mad there." She took another scoop of her mint chocolate chip ice cream. It was nothing like a talk about a terrible prison that ice cream couldn't somewhat fix.
"You seem to know a lot about it," Harry replied, going back to his book. Tori bit her cheek, looking up at him cautiously.
"Can you keep a secret?" Tori whispered, glancing around as someone could hear them. Harry nodded, leaning closer to hear her. She fiddled with her charm bracelet nervously. "Very few people know about this. My family paid loads of money to keep this quiet. And I mean loads. Okay? This stays between you and me. My grandfather, on my father's side... he's in Azkaban."
Harry's eyes widened in surprise as Tori shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "He was a big You-Know-Who supporter, murdered many innocent people. Once You-Know-Who was defeated, my grandfather and a ton of other Death Eaters got hauled into Azkaban. It nearly tore my family apart. My relatives went insane. They knew that if it got out, it could ruin everything they had built. Listen, Harry, you can't tell anyone. No one knows about this, not even Fred and George."
"Hasn't it been years since then?"
"Yes, but you've seen how I'm treated at school. People turn on me whenever they get the chance, take last year for example. But not only can this affect me, but my siblings, my whole family. It could destroy everything, Harry."
The boy nodded and the two ended that conversation there, acting as if it didn't happen in the first place. Once they finished their ice cream they went over to Quality Quidditch Supplies, gazing up at the new broom. A firebolt.
"This state-of-the-art racing broom sports a streamlined superfine handle of ash, treated with a diamond-hard polish and hand-numbered with its own registration number. Each individually selected birch twig in the broom tail has been honed to aerodynamic perfection, giving the Firebolt unsurpassable balance and pinpoint precision. The firebolt has an acceleration of one hundred fifty miles an hour in ten seconds and incorporates an unbreakable Braking Charm. Price on request."
