King Of Sting productions presents.
The Eagles: Breaking the Curse.
For Jonathan Clement finding out he was a wizard hadn't been a big surprise. His family could trace their roots back past the 18th century. Though not prejudice by any means the Clement men had always just found wives that also happened to be witches. It had something to do with spending seven years with someone His Dad had said while looking at his Mother with the pale green eyes that Jonathan him self had inherited. He was if anything a hybrid of his parents. Like nature had intended. From his mothers side he gained his hair colure, a strawberry blonde that fell just above his eyes. He wasn't a tall boy, yet nether was he short. Average was a extremely good word to describe Jonathan. Many people commented on how if they didn't bump into him, they would never even know he was there. They would laugh smile and shuffle on to his Elder brother and ask if they had a chance of winning the House Cup this year. Jonathan would smile recede into his room and pick up a book about a distant place. He was a quite child to be sure a strange one also, caring more about what was underneath the underneath, the just on the surface. When you are the son of an Auror and an Unspeakable, you learn how to read people well. Being a wizard wasn't a surprise. Even ending up in Ravenclaw wasn't a surprise. It was his year mates that finally did it to Jonathan. They seemed to be all over the place. Walking up to the dorm room had been an interesting process all in it's self.
The two girls that had been sorted into the House of Eagles this year seemed to be interesting. One whose name he thought to be Stephanie looked like she had never seen anything so wondrous in her life. He had first thought she was a muggle born but then she started on about how her family had gone on a unicorn spotting trip the summer before and he had instantly known he was wrong. Wearing her chestnut hair in a pony tail that seemed to make her hair seem a little bit greasy. She was pretty but not astounding so, some baby fat had yet to go away in her face which seemed to have a few blemish's on it. Eyes of brown seemed to be constantly wiping around as if trying to memorize every sight. The other girl whose name escaped him was almost the exact opposite of Stephanie. She seemed relaxed, almost bored. While he him self hadn't been all interested In the sites, he had still gasped when he had seen the great hall. She seemed not to have noticed or not to have cared at all. Her black hair seemed to hang off of her perfectly, amplifying her exotic features were her deep brown eyes. They looked like little black holes. Her eyes seemed sharp almost penetrating when they landed on you. He had seen that look before, His parents had that look. She was sizing you up.
The boys were another matter all together. Sean Mc'Killin a boy that his Father would call "free spirited" As if it was a bad word. He had his hair dyed black with blonde streaks in it. His eyes where blue with a hint of green In them as if they were fighting to for dominance. He had met Sean before. At one of his Fathers dinner parties. Sean had been dragged along by his parents and had looked like he would want to be anywhere but there. Gabriel Link was a boy he had heard from just by reputation. Jonathan's Father had had dealings with the Links before. It was never pretty. Gabriel's Father seemed to be a crook and a con artist. While Jonathan Senior had said he wasn't a bad man persay. He was still breaking the law and had to be brought to justice. He was breaking the Law after all. If you were breaking the Law you had to be brought to justice. Those were the rules in the Keegan House. "Lex est Lex." "The Law is the Law." Rules inscribed into Jonathan and on the Keegan family crest.
The Prefect that had been leading them suddenly stopped and looked at a statue. He then turned back towards the group of first years.
"This is the common room. This is where you will eat, sleep, and live for the next seven years. Well as soon as you prove you belong in Ravenclaw." The First years looked at him with a strange look. "I'm guessing you guys thought that getting a hat to sort you proved that you deserved to be in Ravenclaw?" No one in the group had the nerve to answer him though the other girl did look like she was biting her lip to stop from saying something. "Everytime you come here you will have to answer a question, it may be hard, it may be easy. It may be magically it may be mundane. It could be anything. If you deserve to go into the common room then you will know the answer. It's as simple as that." Said the prefect who Jonathan thought got a little too much happiness out of this. "You will not tell anyone the answer if you figure it out, you will say it to the statue and then you will go on. Statue what's the question?"
The statue seemed to snap to life as it opened it's white eyes. It was eerie to be sure. "What is the Centre of Gravity." The Statue said in a creaky voice. The prefect smiled walked up to it and whispered in it's ear. The statue moved aside and there was a hole behind it. The prefect climbed through the hole took one last look behind. He smiled an arrogant smile and climbed all the way through. The Statue then snapped over the hole and turned his eyes on the first years. It was unsettling the way that the eyes never blinked almost hypnotic. Jonathan tore his eyes away and looked at the other first years. Stephanie seemed deep in thought. Gabriel and Sean seemed bored by this exercise. The other girl looked outraged at this though.
"This is outrageous." Said the girl, she had a shrill voice, but that may just be because she is arrantly outraged thought Jonathan. "They expect us to know what the centre of Gravity is? What kind of school is this?" Sean looked at her with one eye brown up but said nothing.
"We were sorted into Ravenclaw. We are the smartest in the school." Said Stephanie. Her voice could pass for British but if you were listening closely, which Jonathan was you could tell there was some Russian in there. "If you can't figure it out then you don't deserve to be In the house." Stephanie said in a voice that seemed to get on Jonathans nerves more and more.
"Well excuse me if I don't spend every day huddled up in a book. I actually have something called friends, I know that may not be a concept for you to understand." Said the other girl in a edge. There was a predatory gleam in her eye. She seemed to take delight in Stephanie's reaction, the red face, the eyes glaring, and a huff she let out after. While it wasn't totally noticeable, she did seem to gain some pleasure from it. "So does anyone know the answer?"
"We're supposed to answer it on our own." Jonathan said. "The prefect said we weren't allowed to tell each other the answer."
"So? I for one refuse to stand out here for the duration of the night. I plan on going in there and giving that prefect a piece of my mind." The other girl said in a tone that left little doubt.
"He never said we couldn't help each other." Said Sean. The looks on the first years face was priceless when Sean had said that. Jonathan noticed that Gabriel seemed to have a smile on his face and that Stephanie seemed to be frowning.
"Perfect. Now what is the centre of Gravity?" Asked the Girl with no name.
"That's just it, Gravity doesn't have a centre it's the pull of one object to another." Explained Stephanie, her voice was level and not shrill like it had been before. Jonathan found that he enjoyed it this way instead.
"It's a con." Said Gabriel with a smile on his face. He seemed to be enjoying this little game that the Prefect had put them through. "Their putting us through the ringer with an answer that can't be found. Get you looking one way when the answer is the other. Bloody amazing that is."
"So what's the answer?" Asked the other girl with a sigh. She looked tired Jonathan thought. Bags under her eyes, she probably hadn't been sleeping a lot.
"I got it." Exclaimed Gabriel. "Think word, not attraction." With a wink he went and whispered the answer In the statues ear and with a snap the statue moved aside to revel the hole once again. Gabriel climbed through the hole and disappeared like the prefect. The statue repeated the motion in reverse and they were back looking at the white eyes.
"What does that mean; think the word, not the attraction. That has to be the stupidest clue in the world." Said the other girl.
"Actually it was brilliant." Said Sean in his soothing voice. "You give a group of first years and someone in charge. Then you get the person in charge telling them what to do, were used to taking everything at face level. It's a trick." And with that Sean stepped forward whispered In the ear of the statue and the process repeated it's self. It repeated it's self two more times until only Jonathan was left outside. What's wrong with me thought Jonathan; I guess I'm not really Ravenclaw materiel. I can't even get into the Common room. Why can't I figure this out. If a degenerate like Link could…. That it.
He had to think like Gabriel. Rules were the problem in this, trusting in the way things work. Gabriel said it was a con, so what would a con of Ravenclaw be. For the smart, for the creative. What is a con? What is the centre of Gravity? Pondered Jonathan. He would figure this out. Gravity. And with a jolt it came to him. Walking right up to the statue and looking it straight in the eyes. Jonathan said
"The Centre of Gravity is V." With a snap he had heard four times before but had always had a sense of disappointment. He smiled as he went through the hole into the common room.
The first thing that Jonathan noticed about the common is how Blue and Bronze seemed to be the theme. With a giant shelf filled to the brim with books on one side of the room. There seemed to be doors leading to other rooms. What really caught Jonathan's eye was the giant Bronze eagle on top of the fire place. It looked astounding. He saw the other four resting far away from the fire. He wondered why as there were clearly chairs open closer. Jonathan went over to the diverse group of people that he had just met and sat down in a seat next to Sean who gave him a nod as he did. No one else seemed to pay him any attention.
"So finally figure it out did you?" Said Gabriel with a smirk on his face. His eyes were flashing as if he was trying to challenge him.
"Wouldn't be here if I hadn't." Answered Jonathan with a smirk of his own. If the degenerate was going to challenge him, then he could at least be courteous enough to answer it.
"That's true." Said the still smirking Gabriel. Stephanie muttered something that sounded suspiciously like men and Sean just rolled his eyes. The Other girl didn't seem interested in their conversation and was glaring daggers at the prefect. He was talking to some girl with blonde hair. Gabriel seemed to notice this as he got a wicked smile on his face. "You know if he's to busy chatting up a girl to notice us, maybe we take a "stroll."
"And where would we stroll you nit wit." Said Stephanie. "We're locked in a room. It's pretty much after hours and it's the first day."
"First of all did you really call me a nit wit? That phrase is something my gram don't even use. Secondly, I have a few ummm how do I put this. Dungbumbs, that I'd kind of like to set off on that bloody prat about now." Explained Gabriel with a wicked smile on his face.