Everything at his school was completely illogical, Spencer quickly discovered. Who designed a school with staircases that moved? And what possible reason was there for the way wizards still wrote with quills? (Spencer stubbornly refused to take notes with a quill; muggle writing instruments were quicker, easier, and neater. He only used quills on his assignments.) And did these people even bother interviewing candidates for open teaching positions before hiring someone? Because Spencer might be new to the wizarding world, but even he knew that Gilderoy Lockhart was a fraud; his lies could be read in his body language even if one were gullible enough to consider believing a word out of the man's mouth in the first place.

After a little over a month at Hogwarts, Spencer was torn between loving and hating the school; it was fascinating, getting to learn actual magic and having access to a thousand years' worth of information in the library, but he was annoyed by how backwards certain aspects of this world were.

And he absolutely hated most of his fellow Ravenclaws. Well, no, that's not quite right. He hated the ones who treated Luna like a freak and he hated the Ravenclaws who used a jinx he hadn't quite figured out how to break (it stuck his tongue to the roof of his mouth, and he couldn't find mention of it in any books anywhere) to silence him whenever he started rambling instead of just telling him to bugger off like the more reasonable of his housemates would do.

One day (October 11th, to be precise) he just didn't have the patience for it anymore. His short fuse that day was probably (definitely) caused by his mother's apparent forgetting of his existence. He'd written her every day, without fail, since he arrived at Hogwarts, and every morning he would try not to get his hopes up that this would be the day he got a response. When his birthday passed with no word, he thought maybe, just maybe, she'd written and her letter had been delayed. But by two days later he was sure he'd been forgotten; either that or his mother had proven unable to take care of herself and would be either missing or dead when he finally got a chance to go home in the winter.

He took a breath, trying not to think that way, trying not to panic while sitting in his last class of the day.

'She's fine,' he told himself. 'She's an adult, she doesn't need a kid to take care of her. She probably just hasn't had a chance to respond to my letters.'

All day long he'd been having these thoughts, his impressive mind refusing to let him forget his worries. And all day long he'd been snapping at people, barely stopping himself from hexing someone just to make himself feel better.

But as the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor first years shuffled out of Charms, one of the Gryffindor boys tripped Luna, causing both her and her books to fall to the unyielding stone floor.

It was the sound of her saying, airy and whimsical as ever, "Oh, those pesky nargles are always underfoot. I'll have to watch them closer in the future," that finally sent him over the edge.

The anger, confusion, and worry he'd been feeling bubbled out of the young wizard in a burst of violence that he'd never really considered himself capable of, and would later find hard to accept had truly come from him.

Before anyone had a chance to react, the Gryffindor boy had become the test subject Spencer hadn't been able to find for all of the minor hexes and jinxes he'd been practicing since arriving at Hogwarts. The dazed boy looked like a disaster, and not one of the natural variety. Bat bogeys flapped around his head, his legs collapsed beneath him from a well-aimed jelly-legs, and he'd broken out into boils from a quick "Furnunculus!" that Spencer honestly hadn't been sure he could cast successfully.

"Mr. Reid! That is quite enough! Go to my office immediately." Spencer hadn't known Professor Flitwick could sound quite that angry, had never imagined the diminutive man had it in him. When the boy hesitated before moving away from the scene, the Charms professor snapped out a harsh "Now, Mr. Reid!" before continuing his quick pace toward the Gryffindor boy. As Spencer finally started to back away from the chaos he had caused, he heard Flitwick casting a series of counter-curses and dealing with the mess of a Gryffindor.

Seeing Luna looking at him with wide, curious eyes, as if she couldn't believe he'd done all of that because the idiot boy had tripped her, brought him out of his hazy state, made him really think about what had just occurred. He turned around and fled the scene, quickly making his way to stand outside of Flitwick's office.

Just as what he'd done was truly beginning to sink in and Spencer started to worry about consequences, the Charms professor arrived. When Spencer opened his mouth to speak, to explain (though he had no idea how he would explain what just happened), he was cut off by a harsh "I don't want to hear any excuses. Just tell me what happened, and maybe help me to understand why I shouldn't have you expelled and on your way home immediately." All of this was said as the professor waved his wand, unlocking the door, and ushered Spencer into the office. "Sit, Mr. Reid, and start explaining."

Spencer sat. But explaining? He had no idea where to start. He had no idea how to justify what he'd done, and the guilt was starting to eat him alive.

"Will he be okay?" The newly-twelve year old boy couldn't even look at his professor.

"Now you're worried about the safety of your classmates? Well, better late than never I suppose. Yes, Mr. Johnson will be fine. Thankfully, all of your spells appear to have been accurately cast, so there will be no unanticipated effects from the assault he experienced." Spencer winced at the word 'assault,' but he knew it was accurate. "Are you going to explain yourself or should I just go ahead and start the expulsion process?"

"I'm still trying to understand it myself, professor. He just- he tripped Luna, and I- I lost it. Some things have been-" Tough? Impossible? Confusing? "bothering me lately, and I haven't been in much control of myself." Spencer still couldn't look at his professor for longer than a brief glance every so often. "I'll understand completely if you expel me. In fact, it might be better. I- I'm needed at home. And I could go to Uni in London and be home every night."

Before Spencer could completely talk his way into believing the expulsion he might be facing would be the best thing to ever happen to him, his Head of House stopped him. "Wait a moment, Mr. Reid. Start from the beginning, what's bothering you? And, just so you know, I've never expelled a first year for a first offense; I was trying to scare you into giving me a truthful answer, and apparently I did so too effectively. So, just calm down, and start from the beginning. What caused this to happen today? And not just the immediate cause; I need to know what is affecting one of my students so strongly, preferably before things like this happen in the future."

Looking at the man, finally, Spencer could detect no hint of a lie in his body language, and he let out a sigh of relief; as much as he would understand if he was expelled, and would be able to turn the situation to his advantage by going home and to University, he liked the idea of not being expelled a lot more.

"My- my mother is sick. She's got schizophrenia, it's a mental disorder- I don't know if witches and wizards get it but basically what it means is that she has trouble with a lot of the things we wouldn't think twice about; her thoughts aren't as clear as they could be, she hallucinates sometimes, and she's not always so in touch with reality. There's a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea. And it's just the two of us, we haven't seen my father in four years and two days. And I take care of her, but I can't do that from here. I thought it would be okay, that I'd write her and check up on her, but I've written every day, honestly every single day since I got here, and she hasn't written me back once. She didn't even write on my birthday on Wednesday.

"So I'm worried, you see? My mother's the only family I've got and if she's gone, I won't have anyone. Except maybe Luna, because she might be my cousin because my mum' s maiden name is Lovegood, but mum isn't replying to my letters so I don't know if she's related to Luna's dad, but anyway Luna might be my cousin and I'm so worried about my mum and when that guy hurt Luna I just reacted. Because she might be family, and I don't have enough of that to be okay with her getting hurt. I can't even say it's a blur because I've got an eidetic memory, but even though I can remember it all happening it doesn't feel like it really happened, like I did that to that kid."

When he ran out of words to say (and he was amazed that Flitwick let that bit of rambling go on for as long as it did) Spencer looked at his professor again, which he hadn't done since he'd started talking. The professor's face held a thoughtful look.

"Usually, when something like your assault on Mr. Johnson occurs, I would assign a lot of detentions, and I will be assigning you detentions, have no doubt about that, Mr. Reid, and I would usually write your mother explaining the situation. But, I feel that under these circumstances, and given the severity of what occurred, we might need to go explain what happened in person, don't you agree, Spencer? And, under the circumstances, I think I could lessen your amount of detentions if you'll agree to a two day suspension, beginning this afternoon and ending Sunday evening."

Spencer was confused. Was his professor trying to offer to take him home to check on his mother, and disguising it as a punishment? That's certainly what it sounded like.

"Umm- That sounds like a really fair punishment, sir, considering- considering the damage I caused. And, just to clarify, Professor, my suspension would be spent at home, right?" Spender had never been good at talking to people, and trying to covertly make sure he was on the same page as his professor was a lot more difficult than Spencer expected.

"Exactly, Mr. Reid. And, just so you know, there's a store in Diagon Alley that can sell you a set of mirrors that could help with your particular… family communication issues. I'll write down the name of the store for you while you go get anything you'll need during your suspension. Meet me back here in twenty minutes, Mr. Reid, and we'll floo to London. I'll have to tell the headmaster about this, of course, but I'll do that while you pack."

"…Thank you, sir."

To say Diana Reid was shocked to see her son and his tiny professor on her doorstep would be an understatement. She almost didn't believe they were real. Hearing from the professor that Spencer had assaulted another student and was being suspended for two days did not help her to believe they were actually there; in no way did what she was hearing fit with the image she had of her son. He was usually the one who got beat up and picked on by other students, never was he the aggressor in any situation.

But she invited them in and listened as the small man who introduced himself as Spencer's Head of House told her what had happened and then excused himself, saying he would be back for Spencer on Sunday.

After a couple hours of his quiet presence keeping her company, reading in front of the fire while she prepared for upcoming lecture, Diana had decided that, real or not, she was glad to have her son home for a while.

At least, Spencer's presence was quiet and comforting until he went into the kitchen to prepare a pot of tea and noticed a pile of unread letters sitting on their table.

"Mum!" he called, gathering up the pile and stomping back into their sitting room. "Did you even open one letter I sent you since I left?"

"Of course I did, Spencer. I read the one you sent telling me you were sorted into Ravenclaw. But I thought it would be much more interesting to let you tell me all about your adventures at school when I saw you in person, so I didn't touch the others. But you're home early, so tell me about school! How is it? Are you making friends this time?"

Spencer wasn't happy with his mother's plan. She let me worry for over a month. I got so worried that I lost control and attacked someone. Merlin, what a mess. He put his hand in his pocket, feeling the note Flitwick had given him explaining about magical mirrors that could be used for communication and where to find them to purchase a set.

"Mum…," he pushed down the hurt caused by her actions, trying to understand her reasoning, and willed himself not to let her know that it was his worry for her that had caused him to lose control today. "Hogwarts is fine. I'll- I'll be back in a little while, mum, I'm going to go out for a bit."

He didn't really give her much of a chance to stop him, just went to his bag and grabbed the coin purse containing what spending money he had, and left the flat. As much as he'd needed to be home, he needed to get out for a while. Now.

The trip to Diagon Alley was short and he was familiar with the route, having taken it many times over the years since he'd first visited. He'd never noticed the shop that the note in his pocket directed him to, but he knew it wouldn't be too difficult to find.

If his mother wanted to listen to him telling her about his day, and see his face as he did so, instead of read about it in letters, these mirrors might be just what they needed.

While walking through the bustling streets of London, Spencer made a mental note to thank his professor for everything he'd done when Flitwick came to pick him up in a couple of days.