Eden beamed down at the rat on her desk—an odd reaction, yes, unless you're planning to turn said rat into a water goblet. And Eden was planning on doing it tremendously.

She eyed her Transfiguration professor from across the room. But Headmistress McGonagall was too busy observing other students to notice the sixth-year Ravenclaw. Oh well. When she made her rounds she'd notice Eden's improvement, alright—sure as owls delivered letters in the morning. Because Eden wasimproving, really she was! She'd even managed to turn her friend's toad back when she'd finished practicing on it.

But her problem wasn't toads; her problem was tails. No matter how hard she tried, she could never seem to make a tailless goblet. Embarrassing, she thought, considering she was supposed to be in the 'smart' Hogwarts house.

But she going to give it a try, that much she'd decided. So, with hands that only shook ever-so-slightly, she pulled back her dirty blonde hair into a pony tail and lifted her wand, her back as straight as a Nimbus 2000. She took a deep breath.

"Flintifors," someone whispered—someone definitely not Eden. To her horror, her rat gave a shrill squeak and morphed not into a water goblet, but into a tiny, perfect matchbox.

Eden whirled around in her seat. "Hey, what—?" But as far as she could tell, every student within wandshot was totally preoccupied with his or her own rat. No one stood out as the culprit.

Then she noticed them, two red-headed Gryffindors with identical faces: the Hitachiin twins. By their expressions alone she might not have suspected them; they certainly looked genuinely bored out of their skulls. But their reputation for mischief and mayhem preceded them—not to mention they each had a matchbox sitting in front of them.

She glowered.

A good minute passed before they finally acknowledged her. She maintained her trademark death-stare, which she'd been told on multiple occasions was utterly terrifying. But when the twins didn't react, except to blink at her innocently, she leaned slightly to the left, revealing the matchbox on her desk.

Turn it back, she mouthed at them.

They shrugged, exchanged a look. Whatever is she talking about?their expressions seemed to say.

"Turn it back!" she hissed, aloud this time, and the Hufflepuff boy next her began to scoot away slowly.

She glowered at him too. He whimpered.

But the brothers' matching faces just went from puzzled to amused—well, 'interested,' anyway; it took more than a death-stare to amuse the Hitachiin twins. Still, they smiled Cheshire Cat smiles as they leaned towards each other. "Do you know how to turn a matchbox back into a rat, Kaoru?" said the twin on the left.

"Why no, I don't, Hikaru," replied twin-on-the-right. "But I can definitely turn it into a box of catnip."

"Say! That's useful!" said Hikaru. "I'm sure McGonagall would prefer catnip, anyway!"

They snickered.

Eden's fingers tightened around her wand. She raised it, knuckles white as she waved it at the twins. "You two," she growled, "are going be catnip yourselves by the time class is over!" But she dropped her hand immediately at the sound of McGonagall's voice—now much closer than it had been a few minutes ago. Oh no. No, no, no, no! She'd started making her rounds! Eden tried to calm herself as she turned back to the twins, and she attempted a different approach.

"Okay, cards on the table. I've kind of been practicing this spell for weeks now, and by some miracle, I think I may have actually mastered it. So if you could please, please do something to fix this before McGonagall comes over, I'd really, really appreciate it."

But the twins just shrugged in unison. "We seriously don't know how," they said.

"And if we did—"

"—we wouldn't tell you."

"It's far too much fun watching Ravenclaws fail at stuff."

Eden's heart sank. Headmistress McGonagall was just three students away, and now Eden had nothing to show for her efforts. A lump the size of the Quidditch pitch formed in her throat. Why did these guys have to be so mean? What had she ever done to them? As her disappointment boiled into anger, she made a cutthroat gesture with her wand and gave the twins one last hate-stare before gazing hopelessly down at her matchbox.

To her astonishment, however, her matchbox had vanished, and in its place now stood a goblet—a perfect, crystal, taillessgasped aloud.

What in Merlin's name … ?

"You shouldn't look so surprised, Miss Wheelock," said Headmistress McGonagall—who had appeared at Eden's desk from what seemed like thin air. "From what I've heard," she continued, "you've been working quite hard to master this spell."

Eden gaped wordlessly at her professor for a moment. Then she closed her mouth with an audible click. "Well, um, I havebeen practicing, but—"

"Well then," said McGonagall with a hint of a smile, "keep up the good work." She moved on.

Eden made a slow 180 in her seat. Whether she was going to thank or obliterate the Hitachiins, she hadn't quite decided yet. But apparently that didn't matter now. They'd already found a new victim to torment: a Gryffindor named Tamaki, who'd fallen out of his chair in attempts to escape the half-rat, half-spider thing that was currently crawling across his desk. So much for 'bravery,' thought Eden.

Then, "You're welcome," said a voice, cold and smooth, like a snake. Eden started. Distracted by the twins, she'd hadn't even noticed the boy sitting just behind her. He was a Slytherin, tall—even sitting down—with black hair and sharp eyes framed by a pair of pristine glasses. They glistened as he slid them up the bridge of his nose.

Eden gawked at him wordlessly for two seconds too long. "Um, did you just … ?" She pointed awkwardly at the goblet on her desk.

The boy said nothing. Just smiled.

So, yes? Eden wiped imaginary sweat from her brow. "Thank you. I mean, I definitely wish I'd been the one to cast that spell, but still. That could have been awkward."

"Indeed." The boy beamed amiably. He had a pleasant smile, handsome as all get out. But there was something slightly off about it, too, something … Eden couldn't quite put her finger on it. She gazed at him, pondering.

But the boy popped her thought bubble with an outstretched hand. "Kyoya," he said, and his eyes vanished in the wideness of his grin.

"Eden."

But Kyoya kept on staring at her long after their handshake dropped. Have we met before? Eden wondered, and in a panic, she thought back on the last six years. They weren't in the same house, so that was out. And while he may have been in her year, she didn't recognize him from any of her other classes. Unless this is what a Boggart actually looks like, she joked to herself. Then she snorted—aloud.

For an impressively brief moment, Kyoya's brow folded into a frown. But this hint of displeasure vanished as he recovered his charming exterior.

"Perhaps you don't remember me. We—"

Then, suddenly, Eden did remember. "Oh, hold on a minute. Of course! You're an Ootori! Your family owns the Daily Prophet, and Flourish and Blotts, and Wynch and Tugg Movers—which I always thought was strange, because you'd kind of assumethat someone actually named 'Wynch' and 'Tugg' would—" She stopped herself. "Um, don't our fathers … ?"

"Do business together? Yes. Often." And he smiled again—that pleasant, handsome, almost-believable smile. "I believe you're Eden Wheelock of the esteemed Wheelocks of Wheelock Publishers Incorporated."

Eden's eyes narrowed. "Um," she said.

But before she could find out how Kyoya knew all this, Headmistress McGonagall was calling for attention at the front of the classroom. "Well done, students," she said with a smile. "I'm delighted to see that some of you, at least, have been practicing the spell." She eyed Eden proudly, who shrank back, feeling guilty. "Until next time. Class dismissed."

As the bustle of departing students erupted around her, Eden turned back to thank her new acquaintance again. But he had already packed up and was heading out the door, unaccompanied.

Unaccompanied, that is, until Tamaki Suoh joined him—and, to Eden's surprise, the Hitachi brothers as well.

Eden frowned.