Meet me in the library before supper, the note said.
When Maggie arrived, Madeleine was waiting for her at a corner table, away from the other students.
"What are we doing?" whispered Maggie.
Madeleine thumped a pile of dusty books down in front of her. "Research."
Maggie sneezed. "How do we know what we're looking for?"
"We don't," replied Madeleine. "So we'll start by brainstorming, just like we do when we're writing."(1)
"All right." Maggie took out a blank piece of parchment, and wrote, Marvola across the top. "What was her full name, again?"
Madeleine groaned. "Marvola Arwen Raevyn Yvette Salazara Umekiko Elfynchyld. She tells it to everyone she meets."
Maggie wrote down, M.A.R.Y.S.U.E. "What do we know about her?"
Given the new girl's habit of explaining her life-story to everyone she met in somewhat alarming detail, Maggie and Madeleine knew quite a lot about her background. How much of it would be useful in dealing with her was yet to be discovered.(2)
"We know she's You-Know-Who's daughter," said Madeleine. "At least, she says she is. She never pronounces his name right, though."
Maggie nodded and carefully wrote, Father: LV? on the parchment. She shivered, as she always did when she thought about the powerful Dark wizard. "So that must mean she's pure-blood, right? At least on her father's side."
"I guess so," replied Madeleine. "But what about her mother's side? Half veela and half elf, she says, but I never saw a house-elf that looked anything like her."(3)
Maggie giggled at that, writing down, Mother: Veela/Elf. "Maybe you should use that pairing for your next love scene."
Madeleine made a face. "There's no way to make those ugly little beasts sexy."
"Maybe there are other kinds of elves in America." Maggie wrote down, elf breeds? and as an afterthought, she added, raised in America.
"We also know her mother is dead," pointed out Madeleine, showing more delight than Maggie thought decent. "So she's not immortal."
"You didn't really mean what you said before, did you?" Maggie's voice dropped to a whisper. "About killing her, I mean?"
"I only meant I'd do whatever it took to deal with her," said Madeleine, not meeting Maggie's eyes. "Whatever is necessary."
"OK," said Maggie doubtfully. She turned back to the parchment. "We know she has a special power that makes people act strange when they're around her."(4)
"But only when she knows they're there," Madeleine pointed out.
Maggie nodded and wrote, projects unconscious(?) magical field.
"I wonder what her range is?" Madeleine pondered, running her finger down the spine of an age-darkened book.
"It can't be far. You recovered as soon as she left the train compartment."
"Hmmm ... yes. But maybe that was because she was distracted by those boys. She wasn't focussed on me anymore, so her power didn't hold."
"The first thing we need to figure out," said Maggie, "is how to avoid falling under her spell. It's not a problem for me, so far, but if we're going to do anything about her, you need to be able to get close without being affected by her."
"All right," replied Madeleine. "Protection spells and Shield charms all around."
Maggie tapped the books thoughtfully. "It shouldn't be too hard to find an all-purpose protective charm." She wrote, SHIELD CHARM in capital letters, then set the parchment aside and reached for a book.
They were able to test their idea the following afternoon. It was warm for September, and many of the students were down by the lake, enjoying the pleasant weather.
"There she is," murmured Maggie, spotting their quarry surrounded by sixth year Gryffindors. "Let's do this."
She raised her wand and pointed it at Madeleine. "Protegissimo."(5)
"OK," said Madeleine. "Let's find out how long that lasts."
The two girls strolled as casually as they could manage past the place where Marvola sat entwined with a baffled-looking Remus. Maggie bit her lip and stopped to retie her trainers, while Madeleine stared innocently up at the sky, as if looking for a change in the weather. They waited for the Gryffindors to notice them.
Peter saw them first. "Hey, Maddy," he called, smiling uncertainly. He looked utterly dejected and forlorn, sitting a few feet away from his friends, all of whom had their backs to him.
Madeleine gave him a nod. "Hullo, Peter."
Marvola turned at the sound of her voice. Here it comes, thought Maggie.
"omg MadZ!" she said, jumping up. "come sit with us! u no the marauderz?!"
"Slightly," Madeleine admitted, and Maggie let out a sigh of relief. The charm was working.
Gryffindors were not fond of Slytherins as a rule, Peter notwithstanding. Madeleine hesitated before taking a seat near the group. Maggie joined her.
"OMG!" cried Sirius. "She cant sit with us! She is a SlYtHeRiN! i hate those guys!"
"OMG!" Marvola replied. "u hate her?! but she is my bff besides Lilz! U and her should totally get 2gether! u r both really HAWT! (lol no homo or n-e-thing MadZ is just totes SEXXXY!) u would have aMaZiNg HAWT SEXXX!"(6)
"U really think so?!" asked Lily Evans, a pretty red-haired girl, who was currently wrapped around James Potter.
Marvola nodded. "Totally! Siri doesnt have a gf or n-e-thing does he?! ive got my Remi, and ur with James! Siri needs 2 b with sum1!"(7)
"I'm sort of seeing someone," mumbled Madeleine. She glanced at Peter, and quickly looked away. An evil grin blossomed on her face. "Maybe you could set Black up with Maggie, here."
"Who?!" said Marvola, looking around. Her eyes briefly lit on Maggie. "O... whatev ..." She quickly turned back to Madeleine. "ur seeing sum1?! If hes not as HAWT as Siri, u should totes dump his ass!"
Madeleine was quickly losing patience. "Have you ever thought that maybe there's more to consider than whether or not someone is hot?" she asked tartly.
"lol sure!" Marvola laughed. "They could b in a band or sumthing! OMFG!" She turned back to the three Marauders she could see. "U 3 should totes start a band! u could call urselves the Marauderz! Lilz n madz n me could b idk the Maraudettes! That would b TEH ROXXXOR!"
"ToTaLlY!" said Lily and Madeleine in unison.
Maggie's head snapped towards her friend and she noted that Madeleine's eyes had slipped out of focus. Now we know how long the Shield charm lasts. She leapt to her feet, smiling as politely as she could manage and grabbing Madeleine by the arm. "We have to go." She glanced regretfully at Remus before turning away.
Maggie manhandled Madeleine back towards the castle. Fifteen paces from the Gryffindors, Madeleine stopped struggling and slumped against her.
"Are you all right?" asked Maggie.
"I think so. How long did it last? Were you paying attention?"
Maggie nodded. "About five minutes, I think."
Madeleine pursed her lips. "That's not going to be nearly long enough. And I bet if you use the Shield charm all the time, you start becoming resistant to it, just like anything else."
"Too bad exposure to her doesn't seem to have the same effect," Maggie said bitterly. "Do you think they've had sex yet?"
"I don't know," snapped Madeleine. "Probably. She doesn't look like the sort who could keep her kit on for more than five minutes, if she was alone with someone she fancied."(8) When she caught sight of her friend's crestfallen expression, she relented. "Don't worry about it. It's not as if he can only do it the one time. Once we get rid of her, you'll still have a chance."
"As much chance as I ever did," Maggie muttered.
Madeleine set down the book she had been reading with a thud and an exasperated sigh. "None of this stuff is any bloody use!" she declared. "You know what we need? They sell Protection amulets in Knockturn Alley. I think they're made out of -"
"You've actually been there?!" Maggie looked horrified. "But that place is so dodgy. I heard that everything they sell is to do with Dark magic."
"Stories!" Madeleine rolled her eyes in disgust. "They sell all kinds of useful things. Like Protection amulets. You could give one to Lupin."
Maggie hesitated. "Maybe. If we can't find anything else that works."
"We haven't yet," said Madeleine. "We've been at it all afternoon, and what have we learned?"
"More than we knew when we started," Maggie said defensively.
Madeleine rolled her eyes again. "None of it any bloody use."
"Let's go over it again anyway," Maggie suggested. "Maybe it will help us think of something."
Madeleine picked up their notes and began to read over them. "We know that veela have a powerful magical influence over people who are attracted to their gender, often causing them to act in ways they never normally would."
Maggie nodded. "And there was the bit about the elves. What kind of elf did we decide she was, again?"
"Tolkienian," Madeleine said. "They're supposed to be really good-looking, and live a really long time, as well as being attuned to the earth." She sighed. "The veela part could maybe explain her powers, but the book didn't say anything about their influence making people talk funny."
"Maybe it's like potions," Maggie suggested. "Two ingredients might be harmless on their own, but volatile when they're combined." She jumped up and ducked around the shelves. Madeleine could hear her voice, slightly muffled, saying, "I thought I saw it over here the other day -"
She reappeared moments later, dusty but triumphant, with a large tome clasped to her chest. She dropped it in front of Madeleine with a thud.
"Mixed Blood: A Guide to Magical Crossbreeds," Madeleine read from the cover. Raising her eyebrows, she opened the book and quickly found the Beings section.
"I think they're listed alphabetically," said Maggie. "Veela would be near the end."
The chapter on veela was long, and the print was small. The author had painstakingly listed the appearance and magical traits of every kind of being when crossed with a veela.
"Oh, here we are!" cried Madeleine. "'When crossed with the Tolkienian elf, the veela's powers are enhanced, creating a powerful glamour field, and even the normally diluting influence of human blood cannot change this outcome. The veela-elf crossbreed is therefore considered to be highly dangerous to humans, Muggle and Wizard alike. The influence of such a creature can cause aberrations in behaviour patterns, including modes of speech. Such beings should be avoided whenever possible, since there is no known protection against them.'"
"Does that mean complete isolation is the only solution?" asked Maggie despairingly. "How do we manage that?"
"We can't." Madeleine's smile sent a shiver up Maggie's spine. "There's no choice. It's self-defence. We have to kill her."
FOOTNOTES:
1. Brainstorming is a great way to come up with ideas and make connections between them, and not only for fanfic, as Madeleine points out. Brainstorming with a writing buddy can be a lot of fun, and often spawns additional plot bunnies. Carrying a notebook to jot down ideas as they occur to you can also be helpful.
2. Revealing facts about a character's background, personality, and appearance is called "exposition", and there are good and bad ways of doing it. Good exposition tends to involve mentioning these things gradually, when they become relevant to the story, or finding a way to bring them up naturally in the dialogue. These facts should not be presented in a lump the first time one meets the character, just as one does not learn everything about a person the first time one meets them.
3. The only elves in the Harry Potter canon are house-elves. If you describe your character as "part elf", your readers are going to have a good giggle over an imagined resemblance to Dobby, when maybe you had someone more like Lee Pace or Evangeline Lilly in mind.
4. Making characters act in a way they do not act in the books is referred to as "out of character" (OOC). Readers don't tend to like it when this happens. We love the Potterverse characters for a reason, so it's a good idea to at least try to have them think and act similarly to the way they do in canon.
5. Making up spells is a tricky business. J. K. Rowling writes her spells in a sort of pseudo-Latin, and it can be a good idea to keep this in mind when writing your own. Most people don't know much Latin, but you can get a good idea of how it ought to sound by looking at the spells in the books. There may already be a spell for what you want to do, so be sure to check the Harry Potter Lexicon or Wiki first.
6. Physical attraction is not the only or best basis for a romantic relationship, nor does dislike tend to turn into hot sex, followed by true love, in real life. Writing steamy sex scenes can take some skill, but writing a believable love story between characters who have good chemistry is harder than one might think. True love takes hard work and compromise, even after the hot, steamy sex.
7. Not every character in a story needs to be paired off. A character can have other goals and interests apart from romance. Some characters may not be interested in sex (asexual) or romance (aromantic) at all.
8. Being judgmental of a girl or woman for being (or even seeming to be) sexually active is called slut-shaming. It is always sexist and it is never a good thing to do. There is nothing wrong with someone dating or kissing more than one person, even over a short time. A person's body and what they choose to do with it is no one's business but their own. Try to avoid slut-shaming in real life and in your stories. It does not make you look morally superior; just judgmental.