chimerical \ky-MER-ih-kuhl; -MIR-; kih-\, adjective: 1. Merely imaginary; produced by or as if by a wildly fanciful imagination; fantastic; improbable or unrealistic. 2. Given to or indulging in unrealistic fantasies or fantastic schemes.
"What
is that?" Morag inquired curiously as she jammed her delicate
fingers through her dark, red-tinged hair. "It looks
completely bizarre."
The
true-to-form redhead jumped and looked up, causing the
imaginary…something…to disappear. Susan blushed deeply and
looked away, a nervous giggle escaping from her lips. "It
was my old stuffie, from my childhood."
"It certainly looks like a mutant type of critter,"
the taller girl pointed out as she threw herself down onto the bench
of the dining room. "What was it?"
"At one point it was an elephant," Susan explained
meekly. "My aunt gave it to me when I was really young.
She said she thought it was 'reasonably cute' but looking back
on it, I think it was one of her ways of telling me to keep my mind
open and receptive."
Morag nodded,
enjoying the moment of contemplative conversation. She had been
learning more and more that Hufflepuffs—or at least Susan—were
not just a bundle of down-to-earth bones, but could actually use the
head on her shoulders for something other than memorizing herbology
facts. Even that was a rather impressive feat, however… It
was one the Ravenclaw girl never could get down.
"Bring it up again?"
Susan
looked remotely surprised for all of a few seconds before smiling in
a way that Morag thought appeared suspiciously like a knowing smile.
The Hufflepuff swished and flicked her wand, mumbling
a
four-syllable spell. A dancing purple elephant that was pretty
badly mutilated—a missing eye, rugged snout, and ripped thighs—came
into existence above the tape. Morag laughed out loud as it
began to tap dance.
"Where did you
learn to do something like that?" she asked through her laughs.
It certainly wasn't something taught at Hogwarts, save for
maybe during the holiday times when the teachers took up a few
glasses of wine to loosen up and enjoy the season. It had been
during one of those times that Professor Flitwick had taught her to
charm her textbooks into singing holiday songs upon being opened.
The Ravenclaw had then gone on to charm Professor McGonagall's
book to do just that, and the woman had been much more amused than
Morag had expected.
Her attention was
brought back to Susan when she spoke.
"Erm…Professor Sprout taught me to do it when I was
having a very…blue…day and accidentally flooded greenhouse two."
Her cheeks were redder still.
"So
I'm not the only one to create complete catastrophes in the
greenhouses sometimes?" Morag remarked dryly.
A spark flew to Susan's eyes as an uncharacteristic shrewd
smirk overtook her pink lips. "Yes, but yours isn't
'sometimes'. 'Sometimes' is only surprising when you're not a
complete disaster in herbology."
The
Ravenclaw laughed and nodded, watching the dancing elephant with
amused eyes. It was almost as chimerical as her desires to be
with Susan on anything more than a friendship level.
Susan was, after all, a Hufflepuff. And every
Ravenclaw knew about
Hufflepuffs.
