TESS

"Hey," Tess greeted one Monday morning, her mouth full of food as her friend Lilix sat down next to her. "What's up?"

"Let me just tell you," Lilix said, "I hate that Malfoy character." She looked across the Great Hall at the pale-skinned Slytherin, who was laughing with an evil expression on his face. "He hates me even though I'm a pure-blood."

"If he hates you," Tess said darkly, "he must triple-hate me. If possible." She deftly speared a bite of scrambled eggs and added idly, "The slimy git."

As she glared at him, Malfoy looked across at her and mouthed Mudblood.

Lilix saw it, for she leapt up with an angry expression. "That evil—"

Tess pulled her back down into her seat. "Drop it, Lil. I didn't even know what Mudblood meant until a few days ago; it's not all that insulting."

"It is to me," Lilix hissed.

Tess laughed. "I can mutilate him easily in any duel, Lils. If he ever actually tries to pull his wand on me, I'll be ready."

They high-fived, and Tess felt glad she was in Ravenclaw. Anywhere but Slytherin.

But her feeling of happiness vanished as soon as she pulled out her sixth year school schedule. "I've got Herbology, Potions, and Defense Against the Dark Arts with him!"

Lilix, who was in her seventh year, grimaced. "Thank God I'm always pared with Hufflepuffs of my year."

"You're so lucky," Tess groaned. She stood, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you later, I suppose."

And she filed out of the Great Hall with all the other sixth year Ravenclaws, down to the dungeons for Potions class.

She was packing up when she heard his sneering voice, but it wasn't aimed at her. She shoved her last quill into her bag and glanced towards the front of the classroom. Professor Snape had disappeared. Tess pulled her wand out of her robes but hid it behind her as she headed for the door.

Malfoy was holding Lucy Patrick's bag above her head, his eyes glinting maliciously. "Come on, Mudblood. Get it."

Lucy jumped, but Malfoy lifted the bag as she did so, and she didn't reach it.

Tess walked up to him. "Hey, Malfoy, could you move? You're blocking the door."

All heads in the classroom whipped towards them, watching eagerly for the brawl that was sure to happen.

"Not until this thing gets her bag." Malfoy smirked as the small girl tried again.

Tess pointed her wand at him. "Put it down, Malfoy."

He looked a little nervous, but didn't lower the bag.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Tess bellowed. Her Patronus, a snow leopard, sprang from her wand. Malfoy screamed, dropped the bag, and ran down the hall, wailing, "Professor Snape!"

"What is going on?" Snape's voice drawled from behind Tess. "Malfoy, come back here."

"I thought I saw a dementor behind him, sir," Tess said, stowing her wand in her robes. She glanced at the Potions master apologetically. "My mistake."

Malfoy slunk up behind her and shoved her out of the way. "Professor, Sir," he gasped. "This Mudblood tried to curse me!"

Even Snape couldn't favor Malfoy this time. He looked down his beaked nose at his pupil, his eyes narrowing to black slits. "That was a Patronus Charm, used for defending against dementors and Lethifolds and sometimes carrying messages. Now, out of my way, I have an hour of break away from you nasty children and I want to spend as much time alone as I possibly can."

With that, he swept off down the hall, muttering curses under his foul breath.

As soon as the teacher was gone Malfoy shoved Tess up against the wall and glowered at her. "You will pay, Mudblood," he snarled.

Then he strode after Snape, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, his cronies, trotting in his footsteps.

Lucy shot Tess a grateful glance and hurried away. Tess sighed, dusted off her robes, and checked her schedule. Next up was, thank goodness, Care of Magical Creatures, with Hufflepuff.

Rubeus Hagrid normally taught, but for some reason he was absent and a different teacher, Professor Grubbly-Plank, was there instead. Tess didn't complain; Hagrid's classes normally involved dangerous creatures. Today it was unicorns, giving her time to think as she stroked the beautiful creature's nose (which would only accept a woman's touch, said Professor Grubbly-Plank).

After the lesson she approached the new teacher. "Excuse me?"

"Yes?" Professor Grubbly-Plank said.

Tess cleared her throat. "I was wondering if we're going to learn about thestrals, Professor." She held her breath.

"Thestrals?" Professor Grubbly-Plank exclaimed. "Thestrals. No, I'm afraid not, Miss . . ."

"Wilford," Tess supplied.

"Ah, yes. Thank you. I have to say, we will not be learning about thestrals when I am teaching, but if you'd like I will recommend them to Professor Hagrid when he returns. Now," she added, raising her voice for the whole class to hear, "homework! Read up on unicorns and their restorative healing powers, what happens when one drinks their blood, and how they got their horns. Class dismissed."

Tess followed her year up to the greenhouses for Herbology, dreading seeing Malfoy again. Class passed relatively well, for she was on one end of the greenhouse and he was on the other; but just to spite him she sent the Muffliato spell in his direction, so when he messed up, no one could hear him scream. Then she bent back over her Venomous Chomping Willow sapling and tried not to let it bite off her fingers.

Tess groaned, her head narrowly missing her mashed potatoes, as Lilix sat down beside her. Instantly her friend was on alert. "What's wrong?"

Tess recounted her encounters with Malfoy, finishing off with a despairing, "He knows it was me, I'm going to die sometime in the next week."

Lilix grinned. "Not Friday; that's the day we get to go home for summer break. What do you suppose your parents will get you as their welcome-home present?"

Tess lifted her head and fought off a smile. "I hope they get me a Firebolt," she said fervently. "Then I can try out for Ravenclaw seeker, because Cho Chang won't be playing next year."

Lilix shook her head. "What is with you and Quidditch?"

"It's my favorite sport," Tess protested. "I used to like American football better, I was an astounding quarterback, and baseball too, but—"

Lilix held up her hand. "Then you got the Hogwarts acceptance letter and your American football days were over, blah blah blah. I've heard the story sixteen million times."

Tess plucked an orange from the bowl of fruit in front of her and tossed it into the air. "I could hit Malfoy with this." She felt a wicked expression creep across her face, mirrored in Lilix's. "Should I?"

Lilix glanced at the dais where the long table for the professors, but it was empty; no teachers sat there. "I don't know . . . you could get detention for it. . . ."

"Do it," someone hissed in Tess's ear. She looked around and saw one of the Weasley children—Ron, was it?—leaning across the gap between their two tables. "Do it, I'll take the blame; the git gets what he deserves."

Lilix gasped, but her eyes were bright.

Ron got to his feet, ignoring Hermione Granger and Harry Potter, who were asking what he was doing. "I'll even pose—"

"No, I'll take the blame," Tess agreed. "But when he stands up. Knocking him out would be overkill."

"If you insist," Ron muttered, glaring dourly at the Slytherin table.

Tess gripped the orange. "Should I use a starfruit?"

"Sounds dangerous, whatever it is," Ron said, leaning over her shoulder to look in the fruit bowl. "So definitely."

She exchanged the fruits. Malfoy stood.

Tess rose also, aimed, and threw. It soared over the Hufflepuff table, causing heads to follow its trajectory, then curved as it reached the Slytherin table, and hit Malfoy right in the stomach. He doubled over. Tess dropped into her seat and shoved mashed potatoes into her mouth, assuming a shocked, puzzled look. Inwardly she cheered. Her American football/baseball skills were still in tune. She swallowed and took a sip of pumpkin juice in satisfaction.

Then Malfoy straightened, glowering in her direction. He did nothing, aside from mouth: What did I tell you after Potions, Mudblood? Now you've got to pay double. Triple for casting the Muffliato spell on me in Herbology. Try anything in Defense Against the Dark Arts and you're dead.

Tess smiled. I'd like to see you try to kill me, scumbag.

It was after dinner, and Tess had not done anything having to do with Malfoy since lunch, but she still felt like she was going to be hit when she least expected it. She looked around as she was climbing the stairs to the top of Ravenclaw tower. Nothing. She tried to shake off the uneasy feeling.

She walked up to the entrance to the eagle knocker and it said, "What am I?"

Tess was about to answer when a sickeningly familiar voice shouted, "A Mudblood!" Someone slammed into Tess, effectively tackling her. She flung an arm up to protect her head, as was important when playing American football and being sacked by an offensive lineman who managed to get through the defensive line.

"What'd I tell you, Mudblood?" Malfoy hissed, his rageful face inches from Tess's. "You'll pay."

Tess bunched up her legs underneath his chest and pushed him off, rolled backwards to her feet, and barely managed to block the hex Malfoy sent at her with a Shield Charm.

"Stupefy," she shouted.

"Protego," Malfoy bellowed. Her spell glanced off his shield and hit the eagle knocker.

"Densuageo," Tess yelled.

"Tallantallegra!" Malfoy roared.

The spells clashed between the two of them and bounced off in all directions.

"Lacarnum Inflamarae!" Fire burst from Tess's wand right after she shot Densuageo at Malfoy, and he wasn't prepared. His robes caught fire. "Aguamenti," he spluttered. Water shot from his wand and doused the flames.

Crabbe's voice behind Tess screeched the Leg-Locker curse, but she spun and dispersed it with a Shield Charm before shooting a spell back at Malfoy. If all of her opponents were in one direction or the other, she would have a much better chance—

She deflected Malfoy's spell, cast Rictusempra at Crabbe, making him drop to the floor laughing, for Rictusempra was a tickling jinx, and spun back to Malfoy, who had been joined by Goyle. Tess tried out a wordless spell. It worked.

And then she was battling two people at once, and Goyle was edging around to Crabbe, and he somehow figured out how to lift her hex, and then she was fighting three people, just barely managing it, and her wrist was starting to hurt from all the complex movements of the complex spells and hexes she was using.

"Petrificus Totalus," she hollered, casting her wand at Goyle, and simultaneously thinking Expelliarmus! at Crabbe. Crabbe's wand flew out of his hand and hit the stiff-as-a-board Goyle in the eye, then somehow got beneath Goyle as he fell. Crabbe's wand broke. Crabbe let out a wail.

"Silencio," Tess yelped, and Crabbe continued to wail, but no sound was made.

Suddenly ropes lashed themselves tightly around Tess. She recognized the spell as Incarcerous instantly, even though Malfoy had said nothing. He was a better pupil than she thought. She pointed her wand at him with difficulty and blurted the first spell that came to mind: "Locomotor Mortis!"

His legs snapped together and he fell over. He pointed his wand at her. "Serpensortia!"

A snake burst from his wand with a bang and slithered towards her. Tess wracked her brain for the spell that made it disappear. She'd heard Professor Snape use it—she'd looked it up in case this moment ever came—but what was it—

The snake reached her and reared.

"Vipera Evanesca," Tess cried desperately. The snake vanished. She let out a sigh of relief. No snake bites today.

Suddenly she was lifted into the air by an invisible force, her head narrowly missing the floor. She still managed to get Malfoy back with the same spell, Levicorpus. He shot into the air also.

She pulled herself up with her stomach muscles. She knew Malfoy wouldn't be able to do that, and he'd let her down and expect her to let him down.

"Liberacorpus," Malfoy gasped a minute and a half later. Tess's muscles had been trembling from holding herself up for so long. She landed on the floor so hard she felt her skull would split in two. But, try as she might, she couldn't get her wand pointed at Malfoy.

"You need to untie me," she told him, trying not to laugh at the sight of his purple face. He choked out the countercurse. "Liberacorpus," Tess declared. She climbed to her feet and held out her wand, ready to block any spell he shot at her. But Malfoy merely cast a disgusted look at her and slipped down the staircase.

Panting, Tess went to the eagle knocker.

"What has a foot but no leg?" the eagle asked.

"A ruler," Tess answered quickly, glancing behind her. Malfoy was standing on the steps just out of sight from where she'd been, his gray eyes watching her with a calculating look. Tess's heart lurched; her stomach shot into her throat. She leveled her wand at him.

But all Malfoy did was watch her, even when the door opened and offered the Ravenclaw common room to him. She stepped inside and shoved the door closed, then turned and sank against it, her arms splayed as if to stop anyone from entering, breathing hard.

I'm probably not going to do any homework tonight, Tess thought. She trudged towards one of the dark blue armchairs beside the fire and sank into it.

The door creaked. Tess leapt up, whipping out her wand, but it was only Lilix. She looked astonished. "Did you see what happened out there? Looks like a battle happened less than five minutes ago."

It did, Tess thought. She kept this information reserved, though. "I didn't notice. Listen, I think I'm going to retire early. . . ."

Lilix looked at her with a concerned expression. "You didn't fight Malfoy out there, did you? I passed him on the way down and gave him a hard time about being up here . . . I didn't know Slytherins knew where our tower was . . . what would he be doing up here anyway? Can't be lost, this place isn't on the way to anywhere."

Tess sighed. "Yes, I fought him. No, neither of us won," she added before Lilix could say anything. "Crabbe and Goyle are terrible fighters, they barely can perform a Shield Charm."

Lilix's eyes widened. "You didn't fight all three at once?"

Tess shrugged.

"You should tell Professor Flitwick," Lilix squeaked. "He'd give them a detention they'd never forget—"

"And that would prolong the conflict between me and the git," Tess interrupted, "and though fighting one person is fun, fighting three to ten people can't be. Even fighting Malfoy and two stupid gits like Crabbe and Goyle—that was hard. So no, I'm not dying to go to Professor Flitwick. Sorry."

She stormed past the fireplace, past the enormous curving bookshelf, and behind the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, then up the stairs to the dormitory she shared with a few other girls. One of them, Jenn, who was a sort-of friend, noticed her sulky expression and said: "Are you okay? What happened to your arms?"

Tess realized that her sleeves had been shoved up her arms and were showing burns from the ropes Malfoy had set on her. She yanked her sleeves down. "Just a tussle with the Venomous Chomping Willow saplings today."

Jenn probably knew that there had been no tussle with the Venomous Chomping Willow saplings in Herbology, but she said nothing about it, just slid into bed. Tess did the same after changing into her pajamas. She pulled the hangings around her bed closed and slept.