Lights, camera, action!

Pink wasn't entirely Victoire's preferred colour to wear when going anywhere, really, but for some odd reason her mother had insisted on her wearing a pink top. It wasn't like she was going to be somewhere really important to their family anyway. It wasn't a social event or anywhere people could see her and judge her and make comments about her clothes. Not that she believed her family was important enough for anyone to pay attention to when it came to clothes but apparently her mother thought differently. She was used to it though and that's why she had finally given into her mother's wishes to look her very best before going to visit one of her better friends. Even if she didn't feel the need to dress so formal around Ryo.

Now why she wasn't going by apparating was a mystery to anyone but Victoire just preferred going by the muggle way, namely driving. This did mean one of her parents actually had to drop her off but usually they didn't matter too much and now they hadn't either. So after thanking them and getting out of the car she walked up to the front door and knocked on it a couple of times before stepping back and waiting. The waiting was always the worst to her for you never could really know how fast one would open the door. In the meantime, she would just pick at her fingernails which she always did, pretty much.

Since summer was here, and the school had been closed, it was time for Ryo to go back to his uncle's, Haru's, manor with Sayuri. That would be a pain, she would always be complaining about something stupid. But that was how she was and it was just best to ignore her. Now that he was seventeen, Haru had given him the part of the manor that he insisted was his. Ryo wasn't so sure though, he thought his uncle was just giving to him to be nice, like the man usually was. He was fine with it, but it made him wonder why he always did things like that; just give his things away like that.

There was a knock at the door and Ryo peeked out the door of his room as one of his uncle's house elves went to answer it. The door opened and he saw his friend, Victoire there, he immediately ducked back into the room as he noticed that he didn't have a shirt on just yet. He was still getting ready, and he hadn't even finished moving everything from this side of the manor to his side. He rummaged through one of the bins that held his clothes and pulled out a clean shirt, and he quickly threw it on. Arrika, the house elf that had answered the door, knocked on his door and entered. "You're friend is here Master Ryo." Arrika said. "Um ... tell her to wait a little longer and I'll be right out." he said and Arrika nodded before disappearing from the door. "Master Ryo will be right out Miss." Arrika said before disappearing into a different room.

After he was fully clothed, Ryo took out his wand and waved it, the way he'd been told to call some of the House elves. "Mind taking this to the side house of the manor?" he asked them. They all nodded and disappeared with his things. He finally came out of his room and he walked over to Victoire. "Hey Victoire. Sorry for making you wait. You're a bit early." he chuckled, and smiled sheepishly. "Let's go down to the side of the manor my uncle gave me. Mind if I apparate us over there?" he asked her. Haru's manor was a big place, and it took a while to get from one place to another, so apparating was the fastest way to get somewhere.

It wasn't that Victoire wasn't used to house elves being around, because she was. They had one themselves but still whenever someone was at the door, it would be them who opened it. She was aware that a lot of people did have them function as what most people would call a butler. So when the house elf opened the door for her she wasn't very surprised.

When the house elf came back to tell her that her friend would be there soon she nodded and waited a bit longer. It wasn't long until Ryo appeared in the doorway and apologised for making her wait. "That's alright. Dad drives a bit too fast sometimes so we always get at our destination a bit too early." she said with a slight chuckle and a shrug.. So this was his house, huh. It was pretty massive. Her own house was big but it wasn't nearly as huge as this one, she was sure of it. At least it didn't take apparating to get to the other side of the house although she could do it if she wanted to. Especially since she was now seventeen and was allowed to apparate.

"Oh yeah of course." she said with a smile. His uncle had given him a part of the manor? That was pretty impressive. "So he gave you a part of the manor? That is so cool. The only part of my house that's all mine is my own room" She said and laughed softly before holding her hand out so he could apparate them. "Well let's see your part of this huge place then." Victoire said with a slight nod. She couldn't help but be excited about seeing his part of the house. She was excited about a lot lately though, with her seventh year coming up and all.

"Well it's better to be early than to be late." Ryo laughed softly. He didn't mind it when people were early, it just made him a little embarrassed that when they got there, he still wasn't completely ready so he had to make them wait while finished. And usually because of that he hurried more than usual and he ended up doing something wrong. Although this time he was sure nothing was wrong with him. Except if anyone looked at him, as in his hair, they would think he just fell out of bed. But that was hoe his hair was naturally, messy and all over the place.

Ryo laughed softly at her comment about her room being the only thing she owns in her house. "Yeah, I guess he thought that I needed a place of my own. But he didn't want that to be too far away from him, since he is my guardian and all that." he explained. He was actually very grateful to his uncle, especially since now that he had his own part of the manor, it meant that he didn't have to constantly see the person who probably despised him the most in the world, his sister. You'd think that she would be the one that supported him the most, but with all they've been through, he would find that completely out of character for her.

He nodded and took her hand gently, before both of them disappeared with a small popping noise. They appeared in front of a house that was surrounded by trees and if you looked behind it you would see a vast forest there. "My uncle purposely gave me this part of the house because he knows how much I like to secluded myself and because of the sun. That's basically the entire reason he chose this place for the manor." he explained to her. "So shall we go in?" he asked her, putting his hand on the doorknob to open it.

If there was one thing Victoire liked to avoid it was being late so when Ryo agreed that being early was better, she nodded to show that she thought of it the same way. At least when you were early you could wait outside a bit, or wait inside if people got that opportunity. Being late was just rude and she avoided it at all costs. Her mother hated it when her father was late, which happened when he wasn't by car. With car they were always early.

A guardian that allowed you to have your very own place sounded pretty cool to Victoire. She wished her parents would be that easy sometimes. Sure, they never actually came into her room and so if she wanted to keep it messy or something she would be able to as far as the house elves let it. She could leave her dirty laundry on the floor and her house elves would pick it up every morning when she left her house for doing things. At least that was how it worked during the summer. During Hogwarts she'd learnt to keep it a bit neater all the time otherwise their dorm would become a giant mess. Not that it wasn't usually just that.

For some reason Victoire tended to forget about the whole vampire thing. It just really wasn't a big deal to her and she couldn't see how it could be a big deal to anyone. But apparently there were some people that had problems with it. Well Victoire didn't want to be friends with those people. Ryo wasn't any different in what he liked to do and what he liked to talk about than human boys of his age with similar interests. Just because she was an eighth Veela didn't mean people treated her any differently either, right? So why should being a vampire matter?

"Yeah let's go in." She said with a smile.

Being a Vampire could have perk's, like being stronger than most people or faster than them. But that was what made the others so afraid of him. They were scared of his strength and speed, and when he was younger in the muggle world, it was even harder for him to fit in. Muggles wouldn't know what was going on if they found out what he was, whether it ese that he was a wizard or a vampire. They would just get scared and run away, leaving him alone to wallow in the sadness. That's why he never participated in any activity the others did, but his family used the excuse that he had been born fragile and he couldn't participate. But that made things worse for him.

Because of that lie, it gave people the chance to believe that he was a weakling and they started to pick on him. He always felt like an outsider no matter wist happened. So be aide they thought he was weak and they picked on him, he had to defend himself some way and the only way was too fight back. But that would get him into a lot of trouble, especially because no one was supposed to know what he was. He always found himself in a tough spot so one day he just exploded and he fought them. Using his vampire abilities and everything. His fangs were revealed and his eyes changed color, the whole nine yards ... whenever he lost control he would usually have to move away, but this time after that happened. His patents had just thought it best to home school him until he was supposed to go to Hogwarts. Which was what they did.

When he finally left for Hogwarts, it all started again. The being picked on, poked and prided until he finally snapped again. Except the wizarding world knew of vampires so no one was that much surprised. But there was another advantage to being in the wizarding world; magic. He was able to use magic and that was another way he could fight back without revealing his being a vampire. And he used that a lot whenever he was being threatened. He'd never been so grateful for being a wizard in his life. As he opened the door, Ryo saw that the house elves had basically finished setting everything up for him, even though he hadn't told them too. They had all gone back to the main house and he was very grateful to them for doing that for him. "Ladies first." Ryo smiled at Victoire as he gestured for her to walk in before him.

The only lie Victoire had ever had to tell in her life was the fact that she was a witch. Even though they were a pureblood family, she had mingled with non magical folks before and that included their children. Even if her two best friends had both been magical, she had some non magical friends and none of them could know what she was. But never had she had to pretend to be weaker or stronger than she was. The only time it had almost gone wrong was when she'd lost her temper as a little child -- and mind you, Victoire rarely lost her temper -- and she'd made a window explode. Of course that was easily blamed on incorrect pressure, making it rather easy for her parents to cover it up.

At Hogwarts, she couldn't remember ever being teased. She could vaguely remember Ryo being teased and back then she was afraid to stand up for him. Even then she would show her support by being nice to him and hanging out with him. It was probably only because her name was well known that no one teased her as well. And she felt good knowing that she was there for someone who at that time probably needed a good friend badly. And friends, just friends, was something that she knew she always wanted to be.

When Ryo told her ladies first, she snorted. She was hardly a lady if you asked her. Sure, she could look like a lady but she never was truly one. "You know I'm not exactly the most lady-like girl you could come across." Victoire said but entered before him anyway. As she walked in she couldn't stop looking at everything. "Wow.. This place is absolutely brilliant." She said and raised both her eyebrows as she looked around some more. "Man you have to be so thrilled to have this for just you. I sure wish I could get a place to live like this." she said and turned back to him with a huge grin.