Chapter 4: Wisdom Over Ambition

AN: A long chapter, sorry. I'm a bit of a nerd so I couldn't help but go into spell dynamics and some side conversations explaining my take on Wizarding life.

"Beth! Elisa!" cried a voice from the direction of the Great Hall's entrance. Sitting across from Will Chambers and next to Zoe Carmicheal, Elisabeth Ollivander was focused completely on the ceiling to the point where she had yet to notice that her oatmeal was dripping onto Carmichael's lap. Carmichael and Will had both been attempting to point this out for the past several minutes with no luck; instead Carmichael had scooted further away, wiping at her skirt.

Thunk.

"There you two are!" cried Vivyan exasperatedly, dropping her school bag on the bench and plopping down next to it. "Oh, hi Will. Can you believe that these two left me with that harpy, Greengrass? Her snores finally woke me up. Oy, Ellie-day-dreamer there! Hello?"

"We've tried getting Ollivander's attention already," Carmichael grumbled as Vivyan waved her hand between Elisabeth and the oatmeal. Elisabeth didn't acknowledge her presence any more than she had the others, only batting the hand out of her view of a particular section of the ceiling.

Will chuckled. "She had been staring at the ceiling since we entered the Great Hall. I'm not sure what fascination she has with it, but she hasn't gotten a bite of food in her mouth yet."

The normally good-natured Carmichael shot a glare at the oblivious girl. "Yeah, instead she dumped them all in my lap. I'm headed back up to change before classes. Hopefully I won't get lost; the three of us followed a set of sixth years to get down here." She began to get up, but stumbled over the bench. A large hand caught her shoulder.

With a chuckle, Florean Fortescue righted the first year. "Careful there. Almost as clumsy as this one here." He gestured at Elisabeth. He tapped her shoulder gently. "Elisabeth? Alright there?"

Will grimaced. "We tried that-"

"Florean! Have you seen the ceiling?" Elisabeth responded excitedly, glancing right into Florean's face before shifting herself to follow a cloud scurrying across the room. He grabbed his second toppling first year of the day and pushed her back onto the bench as she continued mumbling about the ceiling.

Will muttered something about "Ollivanders and mumbling about random things under their breath just like Zach O'Toole had said... Thought he said she wasn't that batty yet…"

"Careful there, Elisabeth. Yes, I've seen it every day I've been here for the past six years." he smiled at the small girl.

Carmichael looked at the older boy in awe. "You have got to tell me how you did that," she said with a grateful smile. "She has been dumping oatmeal over me for the past ten minutes."

He chortled and waved his wand at her. "Scourgify. She's like that. She's been on the Alley three months now and I have yet to get her to focus on more than one thing at a time. If she is staring at the ceiling," he pointed at Elisabeth, who still seemed to be muttering comments under her breath to a nonexistent audience. "Then she won't be doing anything but staring at the ceiling. You should see her attempt to walk and read at the same time."

He pantomimed a person walking a step or two, stopping, flipping pages in a pretend book, and taking another two steps. The three first year Eagles giggled at the sixth year. Another giggling voice joined in. "What are you doing there, Florean?"

"Copying you and your book reading, Miss Elisabeth," he responded flippantly. At her raised eyebrow, he shrugged, grinned, and changed the topic. "But I originally came over here to save your dorm mate from your oatmeal flinging-"

"Who was flinging oatmeal?" she interrupted, digging her spoon into the offending dish.

Carmichael eyed her warily as the spoon rose to her mouth. "You were."

"Me? I'm sorry. Why didn't you say anything?" Blithely ignoring Will and Vivyan's chuckles and Carmichael's steadily reddening face, she stirred the oatmeal with one hand as the other attempted to tame her unruly long hair. "What else were you doing over here, Florean?"

"Just checking up on you." He muttered the Scouring Spell at the space between Zoe and Elisabeth before settling into it. "How is Ravenclaw? Do you like your dorm? Your dorm mates? Are they high up? I know you love heights."

"What he is really asking, Elisabeth, is where is the entrance to the Ravenclaw dorms. It's the only common room that he has yet to enter," Arista Golken called to the pair as she walked down the aisle from the direction of the Gryffindor table.

"Would I do that, Arista? Ask a little first year Ravenclaw to spill the secrets of her fellow Eagles?" Florean grinned impishly.

"Yes," chorused several voices, both from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables next to each other. A passing second year Slytherin glared at him and commented under his breath to his yearmate that Fortesque was trickier than half the Slytherins*, to which his fellow Slytherin raised a mocking, disbelieving brow. Eric-the-prefect grinned at Florean's obvious lack of shame. "Get out of here," he said good-naturedly. "The professors are handing out schedules. You too Arista, though it is lovely to see you. How was your summer?"

"Fine. Met little Elisabeth here; she's new on the Alley. Take care of her, will you? We'll catch up later." she responded with a smile, tugging Florean away from the giggling first years.

A grandiose sweep of his arm and his assurances that he would, Eric waved as two interlopers walked off to their appropriate tables. The prefect motioned the other first years who had wandered down from the dorms over to the small group already sitting. "Professor Flitwick will be handing out the schedules to the first years first, then go from seventh on down. That way you all can have more time to get lost and then found before your first class and the older years can grab their supplies for that day's NEWT lessons."

They nodded, seeing the tiny professor stepping down from his seat at the front of the room. The heavy boy nudged Vivyan from across the table and they both looked at Elisabeth who was paying them no attention at all. A developing storm had begun in the southwest corner of the ceiling and she was raptly staring at it, muttering all the while. "Oy, Ollivander," he called out to her. "Ollivander."

Again the two looked at each other. Will shrugged, giving a tired smile to Professor Flitwick as he approached and handed him his schedule. He smiled hello as he called out names. The professor went down the list until: "Greengrass, Melina?"

Vivyan looked around. "I think she is still asleep in the dorms. She was sleeping away there not twenty minutes ago. Snores like a dragon keeper, that one…"

Selina Nott glared at the other girl on her ally's behalf, but both Septimus Zabini and Nikodemus Greengrass snickered a bit. Vivyan winked at them as they sat down next to the quartet, waiting for their schedules. Will whispered quietly to Vivyan as Flitwick looked up and down the table for the missing girl. "Those two are surprisingly decent. They are both in my dorm, along with Entwhistle and Whitby. You know, the Muggleborn? I mean, they weren't chummy, but they didn't treat him like he was a piece of dirt. Just mutual distance from both sides."

Vivyan was a bit surprised at that. "Huh. With families like theirs… I expected differently."

"Me too," he nodded, then gave her a meaningful glance. "Elisabeth is next."

"Ollivander, Elisabeth?" called out the professor just then. The girl in question looked down from the ceiling towards the person who called her name.

As the professor gave her her schedule, Vivyan gaped at the tiny man, then turned to Will. "He… How did he..? Wait, what?!"

Zoe Carmicheal snapped her fingers as he called out the next name on the list. "That's it!" She turned to the dark haired girl. "Elisabeth?"

The littler girl looked up from her schedule. "Yes?"

She was ignored by the other three. Vivyan demanded, "How did you do it?"

"Do what?" asked the confused Elisabeth.

"She only responds to her name!" Carmichael said excitedly.

"Who, me?" Elisabeth tried again, attempting to understand the other first years and their excitement.

"But we tried that," protested Will. "We called out Ollivander-"

"No, Elisabeth!"

"What?" she asked, staring at the others with the most perplexed look on her face.

"Oh! That makes sense." Will nodded his head.

"What makes sense?" asked Vivyan, still not tracking.

"She only responds to her first name, right Elisabeth?" Carmichael and Will looked at her eagerly, wanting a conformation to their hypothesis. Vivyan looked like she had finally attained understanding.

She eyed them a bit warily. "Yes? I'm not sure what else I would respond to. It is my given name…"

"Yes," said a voice, surprising them all. Nikodemus Greengrass leaned across the table, snagging a kipper from a platter, as he continued. "But we all answer to other things. Like Zabini here; his sisters and mum call him Timmy, a shortened version of Septimus. But I wouldn't call him that or even Septimus because I just met him and he hasn't given me permission to call him by his first or familiar names-"

"You will never get permission to call me Timmy," muttered the scowling boy, glaring at four girls who sat at the Slytherin table. Elisabeth guessed they were likely the sisters mentioned.

"So I call out to him as Zabini, his family name." Greengrass continued as though he hadn't been interrupted. "Like I'm guessing Chambers here did to you when he was trying to get your attention." Will nodded an affirmation. "You, on the other hand, only answer to Elisabeth."

"Yeah," added in Vivyan. "I called you Ellie, Beth, and…"

"Elisa," helped out Will.

"Yup, Elisa too, but you never answered to any of them." Now Zabini, the male Greengrass, Will, Vivyan, and Carmichael all looked at her expectantly.

She quirked a brow at them and shrugged. "I'm… sorry? My parents-" her mouth tightened and she changed her mind about what she was about to say. A fake smile plastered on her face, she continued, "Master Gerrick isn't big on names. He introduces me to most wizards as 'Baltic Sea Pine wand that was particularly bendy with a Dragon Heartstring core from Austria', or some variation thereof. Call me Elisabeth."

Will and Zabini both grinned, while Greengrass, Vivyan, and Carmichael all chuckled, not taking notice of her slip. The muggle-raised Carmichael turned to Will. "So assume that everyone is referred to by their last name not their first? I should call you Chambers, and, Vivyan, you Scrimegeor?"

Vivyan laughed as Will wrinkled his nose. "No," he said. "There are almost twenty of my relatives at this school since the Chambers family is so large; go ahead and call me by my given name." Gesturing towards the whole group, he added, "You all too. Propriety has never been a big thing for me."

"Me either." Vivyan smiled at Carmichael. "Scrimegeor sounds like a disease, don't you think? Besides, Rufus, my brother, is Scrimegeor. I don't want to be his little sister; I'd rather just be me."

"Then I'm Zoe. Raised in the muggle world, I don't have any idea on most wizarding manners anyways." Zoe Carmichael nodded at them.

Selina Nott, bored of the topic and of being ignored, butted into the conversation. "Zabini, Greengrass, did you two see our schedules? Double Potions this morning, which is fine, but then Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Hufflepuffs after lunch and Charms after that with the Gryffindors? Ugh."

The two boys exchanged glances. Zabini shrugged. "Could be worse." Glancing down at his schedule, he cringed. "It is worse. Double History on Tuesdays, so tomorrow afternoon." He groaned and looked over at the other four. "My mom told me all about Binns, the teacher. Apparently, he has been here longer than Professor Dumbledore. The most boring ghost you will ever meet, he is. And apparently, he has an obsession with the Goblin Rebellions. All twenty two of them."

"Because that's so useful to know." Vivyan rolled her eyes. Will, Zoe, and Selina Nott all nodded along with her.

"It is actually," piped up Elisabeth. Everyone but Nikodemus Greengrass looked at her like she had several heads. "But it is!" she cocked her head at them, curious why they didn't see the obvious connection. "They run our monetary system. So understanding why the galleon to knut ratio is always 1 to 492, verses why a Muggle exchange for a galleon** is 2.75 pounds sterling, but fluctuates pretty regularly is very important. It's all based on the six hundred and seventy four treaties the British Ministry has signed with them over the course of the twenty two wars and one thousand forty six scuffles and minor territory concessions."

At this point, most of them were just looking at her confusedly. The male Greengrass nodded however. "I think it's one thousand four hundred and six actually. But she's right; each time another agreement is signed, a different twist to the exchange rate or modification to vault security is renegotiated due to the particular nature of each argument. For merchants like the Ollivander's-"

"Artisans," she interrupted, professional pride in her family business insulted. "Ollivanders' shape the most powerful magical companion any witch or wizard ever uses. We don't sell them like dried toadstools; we match wands to their perfect mate."

He accepted her correction graciously (or rather, with his tongue stuck out in her general direction), and continued "-Or businessmen like the Greengrasses, the conversion rates from British Muggle to Wizarding money is crucial. They actually don't teach enough foreign history here with the goblins, so during my summers, and I'll bet Ollivander-err, Elisabeth-and Marissa Malkin or Lucius Malfoy too, we all study the different financial dealings between the goblins and every other Wizarding and Muggle nation. Did you know that the Italian Ministry has better conversion rates with the goblins than we do? My family does a lot of business down there and just pays the extra shipping costs to bring items here."

"We do the same with the sorcerers of the 19 Bantu nations in South Africa," added Elisabeth. Nikodemus raised his eyebrow. She shrugged. "They have Baobab branches and Marula twigs for wand materials. Master Gerrick likes to test different woods from around the world to make sure we still sell the best quality wands." Nonchalantly, she continued thoughtfully as she skimmed her schedule. "Current events would be a useful class to have too; the Sherpa of the Himalayas are slaughtering ice dragons due to Muggle encroachment on dragon reserves and the ICW Statute of Secrecy restrictions force them to cull part of their weyr. Master Gerrick has been making a killing on dragon heartstrings for the past month and a half because he noticed the violation before any other wand makers and offered to buy the materials from the keepers. Even got in good with Zacharias O'Toole's dad at the Apothecary for the heads up."

Greengrass looked interested and thoughtful at the tip, obvious thinking of the letter he would have to send to his father the moment he got a chance. "Anyways," he continued after a moment. "It's always changing, so we never really get to ignore international wars or anything since they all affect conversion rates and trade in the region, which eventually cause a ripple here in England."

"Yeah, ok. So who else didn't really understand a word they said? I mean, we're only eleven." grumbled Vivyan. Will and Zoe both nodded while Selina Nott lifted her nose and sniffed- nevermind that she herself hadn't comprehended anything either. Zabini was looking at his hands. Vivyan poked him. "What's going on with you?"

He groaned aloud. "I don't know how I'm ever going to learn how to do all that! My family is one of the main British, Scottish, Irish, and Scandinavian potion ingredients suppliers, but my mum and the trust manager has handled it since my father died when I was a year old. She will until I am of age and she isn't the brightest spark of the wand, if you know what I mean. Who is going to teach me all of that? I didn't even know I needed to know all of that!"

He thumped his head down on the table, disturbing Elisabeth's precariously placed oatmeal. Zoe glared at it as the others chuckled at Zabini's despair, moving the offending food item into the center of the table where it wouldn't hurt anything, especially her newly cleaned robes.

Taking note of the drabbles of upper years leaving the table to return to the Nest for their textbooks, the six of them stood. They left behind Selina Nott and Melina Greengrass, who Flitwick was just handing a schedule to with a warning not to be so late to breakfast again. Following four fifth years Eagles, Vivyan looked over her shoulder to the male Greengrass. "What business is your family in? You didn't mention, just that they are businessmen."

He smirked, blond hair and blue eyes not at all angelic. "We acquire hard to find objects and help dispose of others."

"The Greengrasses like to say they can buy or sell anything- for a price," added Zabini, eying the other boy.

Elisabeth tripped on a stair and Vivyan hauled her up before she bounced to the floor. The spritely girl snapped her fingers as they mounted the third to fourth floor steps, rotating from the south wall to the north one. "I remember! My parents are both Aurors and Mum mentioned a raid on the Greengrass suppliers in Normandy to Dad as the reason she would be out of town for a week."

"Did they?" Nikodemus asked placidly. "I didn't think my parents were using ports that way."

Vivyan gave him an exasperated look, noticing he was coping up to no information. "It was more than two years ago anyways and it's not like I'm going to squeal on you to my parents."

He smiled, angelic looks used to their full extent. "Well, if you happen to overhear anymore of these plans of your parents' trips to other continents, I would love to... Discuss it with you."

Huffing and puffing at the top of the fifth floor stairs, she rolled her eyes. "Uh-huh."

"As you know, the Greengrasses don't have any ties to illegal imports into or exports out of England. We are very respectable citizens." He grinned at the group as he shoved his silky shoulder length hair from his face.

As they continued to walk down the fifth floor corridor, Vivyan leaned over to Elisabeth. She whispered into the littler girl's ear with a grin. "My parents say that the Greengrasses won't do any illegal work in England since that is their primary residence. Instead, they grease up politicians around here so that if-that is, when- they get caught abroad, they seem to be such upstanding citizens to the English Ministry flunkies that can extradite them that they won't even consider handing them over to a foreign Ministry."

She grinned brightly before Elisabeth pointed out something Vivyan hadn't thought about. "No wonder the Greengrasses have been Slytherins and Ravenclaws for generations. The ambition to feed the need for the plan, the creativity and brains to make it, and the cunning to actually take it from theory to reality without it blowing up. Makes sense really."

Vivyan eyed the blond boy as they began the ascent up the spiral staircase to the Ravenclaw Tower, lagging behind the others. "Makes you wonder though, doesn't it? The Hat saw his cleverness over his cunning, but really, what is the difference between the two?"

"Think about it another way, perhaps. It saw his creativity and curiosity over his ambition; not something you can say for most Slytherins with a dark wizard promising riches and power for loyalty in Britain."

B1C4-B1C4-B1C4

The Potions classroom was hard to find. It wasn't until three prefects, six paintings, and a particularly lewd knight in armor, who turned out to be Peeves, had 'helped' them out that the six soaking wet Eagles found the dungeon room. By that time, Elisabeth's clumsiness has resulted in four almost falls and two actual ones, one causing a domino effect as the six had tumbled rather than walked down the steps from the common room. She and Will, her unfortunate landing pillow, both sported spectacular scrapes on their knees. His abnormally long nose also sported a few scratched on it from a meeting with the castle's flagstones.

"Merlin's beard!" exclaimed Will to Vivyan and Elisabeth as the three plopped down at a table together. Zoe sat on Will's other side. "Glad we left early. I don't think we could have gotten more lost if we had tried."

"Bloody pillocks put the common room at the top of the bloody castle. Going to have to buggering get up early to get to this class. What poncing tosser decided that was a good idea to put the bloody thing up there?" grumbled Vivyan as she wrung her hair out onto the floor. Elisabeth copied her friend, her tangled mass producing far more water than Vivyan's tawny hair. She sighed at her friend's naturally tan skin; she was sure that her own pale face was flushed to a tomato red.

Will, Elisabeth, and Zoe all grinned at each other over her head as Greengrass and Zabini sat a row ahead, wringing out their dripping robes. The two boys nodded politely at the two Slytherins sharing their bench. One acknowledged the greeting with only a nod of his own, but the other leaned in. "Wasn't surprised to hear that you were a Ravenclaw, Greengrass. Always smarter than the rest."

Greengrass smirked at the other boy. Gesturing at the others, he introduced them all. "You might recognize Septimus Zabini and Vivyan Scrimegeor from the Greengrass Balls, but I don't think you know Zoe Carmichael, Elisabeth Ollivander, or William Chambers. Elisabeth is Ollivander's apprentice and Chambers is from a minor family of the Chambers. Everyone, this is Dmetri Avery. Our parents often pushed us together when we were in groups. You know how it works," he said with a shrug at the group of Eagles as the rest of the seats in the class filled.

Avery nodded politely to the group, eyeing Zoe whose family hadn't been mentioned before turning back to his partner. Elisabeth could tell that Vivyan was about to ask Greengrass a few more questions, but just then a rotund man entered the room with a chortle.

"Look at you all! So many new faces. Perhaps a few that look familiar- you there, was your sister Macaroy Aimes, the newest face of the Arrows Quidditch team? No? I must have been mistaken. I am Professor Slughorn, Potions Master of Hogwarts, and you must be the first year Ravenclaws and Slytherins. Let's see who all we have here," he said as he pulled a piece of parchment from the desk at the front of the room. It was covered messily in papers, a distinct difference from the meticulously organized storage cabinets around the room or neat brewing area just behind the desk. Elisabeth practically itched to see what bubbled in each cauldron.

"Abbott, Matthias!"

He ran through the class list quickly. "Well, I'm glad to see such a collection of bright scholars here to learn the arts of potion making. Not all of you will be good at it, of course, but over the next five years, we are going to try to help you learn how to make basic potions and how different ingredients react with each other so that my friends Melinda Banckshot, head of the Obliviators, or Glen Cory, another student of mine and an Auror, don't need to come after you for accidentally blowing up a neighborhood. Just to gage where you all are at- Ah, don't look worried there Mr Whitby, I don't expect you to know anything. Just looking for those few who might have had prior training. People like-"

Will leaned over to Vivyan and Elisabeth as the professor continued. "My mum says that Slughorn is a great teacher to anyone, but those he takes special interest in can go really far."

"What do you mean?" whispered back Vivyan from Elisabeth's other side.

"I mean, the man has a lot of connections and can get people to very good positions even if they are Muggleborns."

Elisabeth raised her eyebrows. "Impressive."

"Ehh, I don't believe that. He's a Slytherin," Vivyan said as she rolled her eyes.

"I don't know. That's just what I was told." Will responded neutrally. He paused for a moment then added softly, "Even given the current political climate, I'm sure that not all Slytherins dislike Muggleborns."

Vivyan snorted in disbelief before shrugging and eying the man curiously. "I guess we will find out."

"Ms. Rosier," Professor Slughorn repeated with some force, jerking the three from their conversation into the class lecture. "Would you like to give us your answer?"

The Slytherin girl, who must have been daydreaming, looked up. With a blank face, she apologized. "I'm sorry, Professor, I did not catch the question."

Slughorn made a disappointed noise and turned to the class. Another Slytherin raised his hand to answer the question the three Eagles hadn't even heard. "Yes, Mr. Snape."

"If you combine powered root of asphodel with infusion of wormwood, then you would have a powerful sleeping potion called the Draught of the Living Dead."

"Very good, Mr. Snape. That is a very difficult potion however, so instead we will try our hands with an easier one." Slughorn waved his wand and an instruction set appeared on the board. "This potion will cure boils and is rather simple; few possible explosions and so lets me see how well you can follow instructions. Also, much more fun that spending your first Hogwarts class going over boring rules!" He winked at the class. "We'll get to those for homework and normal lab safety in next class since this one has few truly dangerous parts. Turn to page 12 of your books. Directions are also on the board. Follow the instructions very closely and it should be done within the hour. Good luck."

All the students hurried to pull their texts, ingredients, and cauldrons from their bags. "I'm going to be horrible at this," moaned Vivyan. "Precise direction following not my strong suit."

"Not as bad as I will," muttered Will.

Elisabeth looked at page 12, glanced at her ingredients, then stared at the cauldron. "If I explode something on you two, will you hate me forever?"

They looked at each other, then her. "There is no way you are that bad," Will reasoned. "We've only just begun brewing."

Pressing her lips together, she looked at the ground. "Master Gerrick and I… We discovered that it was best to just ask Mr O'Toole from the Apothecary for help after we exploded the back room. For the sixth time. In four weeks. Mr O'Toole thinks its just an Ollivander thing, because Master Gerrick blows them up more often than I do apparently." Seeing the two look warily at her, she tried to defend her family's pride. "There are certain potions needed in wand crafting that we thought might react better to my magic than his. We were only trying to see if I could get them to work!"

Again, the two exchanged glances. Slowly edging away towards the aisle, Vivyan responded eloquently, "Oh… Well… I mean, I'll still be your friend."

"Me too. That said, I think I may sit a bit more over this way…" Will added as he too moved in the opposite direction toward Zoe, who was leafing through the textbook and ignoring the others.

Left with a large personal bubble and plenty of workspace, Elisabeth began. Even after Professor Slughorn's raised eyebrows and the female Greengrass's snickers at her mixture, she couldn't help but be proud of it. Leaving the dungeons at the end of class, she practically danced around Will, Vivyan, and Zoe who tagged along with them.

"What are you so happy about?" demanded a scowling Vivyan. She had been vehemently upset when Avery had bumped into their table, knocking off all of her ingredients. She had had to prepare them again from scratch and hadn't completed her potion when Slughorn had declared the class over and given them all a foot and a half long essay to write on how they could have brewed their potions better. "Your potion was worse than mine and I didn't even finish it."

"She's right," added Will with a slight frown as they ascended the stairs to the Great Hall and lunch. "Your potion was orange."

"Wasn't the Cure for Boils supposed to be a deep blue in the end?" asked Zoe, who hadn't gotten a look at Elisabeth's cauldron.

"Yes and yes." Still Elisabeth grinned up at them as she stumbled over the foot of a set of armor. "BUT I DIDN'T BLOW ANYTHING UP!"

"What is this? Do my ears deceive me?" asked Florean as he came up alongside them in the Entry Hall. They all stopped just outside of the Great Hall. "An Ollivander not explode a potion? Is this even possible?"

"YES!" Elisabeth couldn't help the huge grin on her face.

"She made an orange Cure for Boils potion." Will added with a raised eyebrow.

Florean stopped grinning at Elisabeth's antics and instead raised his eyebrows bemusedly at the boy then at the girl next to him. "Orange? How in the world did she manage that?"

"I'm really not sure, and we shared a table." Vivyan shrugged. "Professor Slughorn looked surprised too. It didn't melt the pot like the Cure does occasionally if you brew it wrong."

"Yeah, he said he wanted to look at it after class," added Elisabeth. "He put some in in a vial and sent it to his desk."

Florean laughed. "I think he might be reverse engineering it to see what you created, Miss Elisabeth."

"Huh. I wonder what I made then. Think he'll tell me what it does if I ask him next class? Ooh!" She squealed, distracted by her nose but still giddy from her earlier success. Following it into the larger hall, she smiled hopefully at them. "Food time?"

B1C4-B1C4-B1C4

A short introductory lesson in Defense Against the Dark Arts followed Lunch. Professor Edmund Marbury was an Auror on leave who was regrowing his left leg under Madame Pomfrey's care. He made it clear that he was a veteran Auror and that teaching children was beneath him but he was bullied into it by his boss and the headmaster. Most of the lesson was spent listening to him gripe about how he didn't know what to do with snot-nosed kids and thus wouldn't coddle them. Anytime a person had a question or whispered to another, they got yelled at until he found a new topic.

"Well, that class will be interesting. My mum told me the original DADA syllabus says first years classes are on hiding from Muggle detection, but I'm not sure I learned anything except that that man is a sullen old codger." muttered Zabini as they exited. Marbury had spent a significant part of the class eyeing him, Nott, and both Greengrasses. "You know, if we had had this class with the Slytherins rather than those Hufflepuffs, I bet he wouldn't have glared at us all class long."

"Hissing hippogriffs, I know!" Nikodemus Greengrass glared back at the classroom. "I understand Nott, but really, Zabini, your family and mine have been neutrals for ages. Bloody prejudiced Auror." All of the first year Ravenclaws turned the corner, walking down the hall to where a painting had told them the Charms classroom would be as he continued, "Bet the Gryffs are going to have a field day when they have him and the Slytherins all in one room in their Defense lesson later this week."

His mutterings continued in the same vein as they plopped their supplies on the desks, himself, Zabini, and Will in the row behind Vivyan, Elisabeth, and Zoe. The six had placed themselves in the middle of the class, while the other boys and girls in Ravenclaw sat loosely around them. Melina Greengrass and Selina Nott had placed themselves in the center of the front row. Vivyan pointed at them. "Think they are trying to suck up to Flitwick?"

"I would." Elisabeth nodded in their direction, continuing, "Melina was late to breakfast, making a bad first impression on the professor on their first meeting. Seems reasonable she would aim to fix that now."

As Zoe struck up a conversation with Alexis Selwyn, Greengrass spared a second to glare at his cousin and her friend, before looking at the empty classroom. "We have this class with the Gryffindors, right? Where are they, do you think?"

Will shrugged, leaning back onto Johnathon Whitby's desk. "We got here fast since the DADA room is so close. Well, today at least; I hear that the charms room switches places every Wednesday for the first two months before settling down. Anyways, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Gryffindors had to come here all the way from the Herbology greenhouses. I doubt we will have to ever worry about finding the best seats in this class."

The others nodded as the first of the Lions came through the door. Vivyan glanced at her for a moment. "She's the one-"

"Yeah," nodded Will. "The one who got slimed our first night here by her housemates. Evitts?"

"Evans," corrected the male Greengrass absentmindedly. They watched the red-head march up to the front of the room and set her stuff right next to Selina Nott. Giving her a huge grin, they heard her ask politely, "Mind if I sit here?"

The five Ravenclaws raised their eyebrows at the Muggleborn's question.

Just as Nott's sneering mouth began to form a few words, a boy's sneering voice rang out from the door. "Of course she doesn't mind, because who wouldn't want to sit next to the pretty, perfect, eventual prefect Lily Evans."

"Shut up, Black," the girl was quick to respond, tossing a glare in his direction. It was clear that her boiling point with him had been reached prior to him even entering the classroom; she exploded at him as the rest of the class filed in. "It's not my fault you got yourself detention right away." Propping her hands on her hips, she turned to face him and the Potter heir who had walked in next to him. Something about the girl rubbed Elisabeth the wrong way; her know-it-all attitude? No, that wasn't it…

"If you hadn't been so mean to Severus, who you don't even know I'd like to point out, then you wouldn't-"

"He's a bloody Slytherin! That makes him- well, a slimy sneaky snake!" sputtered Potter as he and his friend dumped their stuff in the very back row.

Greengrass, Zabini, and Will all rolled their eyes. Under his breath, Greengrass muttered sarcastically, "Bloody creative, Gryffindor. Snakes aren't even slimy."

"He's not like that; Severus is my friend!"

"Good afternoon, class!" came Professor Flitwick's cheery voice as he popped out of a door on the other end of the class. "I heard some noises from my office. Is everything going alright?"

"Fine Professor," responded Evans as she plopped herself next to the two glaring girls in the front row.

"Well then. If you are all here, why don't you take a seat and we can begin the class a few minutes early?" He grinned at the class as he watched the Gryffindors scurry to seats before climbing the pile of books atop his chair to see them over his desk. "My name is Professor Flitwick, as many of you know. I'm the head of Ravenclaw House and the Master of Charms here at Hogwarts. If you ever have any questions, I am free just before and just after each of our classes.

"Now then, here in the Charms class, you will learn what Muggleborns often call 'real' magic. How to make thing float, how to cheer another up temporarily, and how to heat or cool things are some of the many uses for Charms that you will learn this year.

"Now understand, charms will be one of the subjects that you will learn as life goes on; your knowledge will expand every day even after you leave these halls. Unlike Potions, transfiguration, or even Herbology, you will use charms everyday of your life hereafter. Doing the dishes, sending a memo to a coworker, and changing the dial on the Wireless are actions that will become habitual to do with your magic."

Elisabeth noticed Evans feverishly writing everything the professor had said. Silly. After all, none of that is material that we will be tested on nor is it new knowledge that isn't just plain common sense. Something about that girl bothered Elisabeth. Perhaps the almost desperate way she seems to absorb his words? Like they will be snatched from her in a moment. Yes, that's it. She is too… too… Eager, if there is such a thing.

"Excellent!" squeaked the professor, shifting on his tower of books; they seemed to defy gravity by not toppling over. "Now that we know what we use charms for and why you should learn them, I'll teach you your first Charm. Next class I'll teach you about the different categories of charms and we will go over what the plan is to learn this year, but I'd be willing to bet you've had lectures in your earlier classes today and are eager to learn a few spells. So! Let's begin.

"Colovaria***." Suddenly, his blackboard was no longer the dull black most were, but an eye-watering bright green. Another point of his wand, and the chalk changed to black and began to write as he spoke. "Quills and parchment out, if you please, to copy the board. The charm I have just performed is the Colour-Changing Charm. It is used on inanimate objects or animals to change their color. This particular spell doesn't react well when cast on any creature with innate magic, like a witch, wizard, dragon, or veela.

"A feather for each of you." A swish and flick later, the box that had been sitting on Professor Flitwick's desk produced a flurry of feathers. He continued with the lecture as they traversed the classroom, zipping over to each student's desk. "The more control-not more power forced into the spell, but control- that you have over the magic, the more ease you will have when changing the color. The spell also gives a good sense of how your magic travels from your core, down your wand arm, and then is funneled from your wand, though I don't expect any of you to be able to pinpoint the sensation yet; recognition of the connection between you, your magic, and your wand takes practice, though there are occasional people who have that knack. Our goal today is to get everyone to have the ability to change their feathers into two different colors and feel what magic spells feel like. Note, if you can, the amount of tiredness that you feel; it comes from your magical system after casting the spell. We will practice the movement first, so wands out." A clutter of quills falling over & student scrambling for wands greeted this.

"Simply point your wand at your feather," he demonstrated, waiting for the class to follow his instruction. "Then say the spell. I know it seems silly to practice pointing a wand, but if you please, humor me; we are going to practice our wand grips. Wands up! Now, point. Mister Pettigrew, try not to clutch your wand so hard; it's not going to run off." The professor walked the room, correcting grips.

Elisabeth warily looked about at her classmates, keeping an eye out for Vivyan's enthusiastic thrusting of her wand. It was far too energetic and wild for the tiny girl to disregard it and both she and Zoe paused their own pointing to watch the entertaining sight the auburn haired girl made.

Four dodges and one icy glare at a wand that almost poked her in the eye later, Elisabeth was relieved that the professor returned to the front of the classroom and told them the spell itself, slowly pronouncing it and making them all chant it aloud before setting them free to practice spellcasting for the rest of class.

Elisabeth first watched her classmates for a moment. It was clear who had attempted the spell before, as their attempts had their feather fluctuating colors. Other seemed to try to stare the feathers into submission without success. Sighing at those people, she turned to her own feather after shifting as far from Vivyan as she could.

Elizabeth glanced at her feather for only a moment before looking at her wand. It was Master Gerrick's creation, one he made especially for her upon the arrival of her Hogwarts letter just before her birthday in mid-July. The hornbeam wood was a pale tan, unyielding and solid at exactly 8 and 1/2 inches, which was a rather small wand for any of wizarding kind. The magical component of her wand was a secret to her; Master Gerrick had said that she would have to figure it out herself over time as she became more in tune with her magical companion.

Running small spidery hands over the finish, Elisabeth focused on the inner workings of the wand, remembering from her lessons with Master Gerrick that it was only a focus for her own magic and not an amplifier. She closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat, blocking out the sounds around her to "see" the connection between herself and the almost sentient object in her hands. It delighted at her magic tugging at it, eager to work and happy with her presence.

In her head, she heard Master Garrick speaking the lecture he had given her a few weeks ago. Few wizards understand that the wand chooses the wizard in actuality; it is looking for a partner. Well matched second wands are rare to have due to one fact that you have to match primary wand to secondary wand to wizard, with the primary accepting the existence of a secondary and a secondary understanding that frequent use of the primary is its right as first-bonded to the wizard. Silly wand wavers, who think that it is just so easy to get a second after losing or breaking their primary; they will never understand why the second wand will never have as strong a bond to the wizard as the first did. After all, how can you replace a soul mate?

Now, where is that potion O'Toole made us for the alder wood? I'm sure I left it here somewhere… her master had said as he lost focus.

Elisabeth shook her head and focused herself on the task at hand. Finding the path her wand encouraged her magic to go through, she shifted her grip to just one hand and practiced one movement, once, twice, then a third time, gently pointing in the direction of the feather, still with her eyes closed. In the background, she heard Professor Flitwick congratulate a Miss Evans on being the first to change the colour of her feather and giving five points to Gryffindor.

One more practice movement, then Elisabeth said the spell while directing the wood at her feather, delighting in the current of magic connecting witch, wand, and feather. She heard Vivyan gasp, but ignored her, eyes still shut as she focused on that magnificent feeling of complete communication with her wand. Both she and the inanimate object worked seamlessly together and as one bond between the pair shifted and settled, she could feel the draw on her magic lessen as her wand tuned to her specifically, pulling less power to produce the same output.

Remember, Master Gerrick had told her. Hornbeam wands select life mates and are notorious for only ever working with that one person. With, not for, Miss Elisabeth; they are partners, not tools. I could hear this wand reach for you the moment you stumbled into my shop with that Fortescue boy. It always knew you were the right one. It is on you to actualize that connection. After all, hornbeam adapt more quickly than any other wood to their partner's style of magic and the personalization helps shape the particular sentience that this wand type is known for. Did you know, it makes your code of honor its own? My wand too is hornbeam and won't, for the life of your mother, perform a single cleaning spell, not even for me! I have this thing, you may have noticed, about leaving the poor spiders alone unless I must move them; what right to I have to end their useful lives? I particularly like the one that lives near the cedars. Named him Paul, I did. Turns out he's a she so perhaps Kia-al-Riandi may have been a better name…

"Er, Elisabeth-" She could hear Vivyan speaking to her and tugging on her robes, but she smiled into the memory. Eyes still closed, Elisabeth continued to ignore the other girl as she shifted thought processes, trying to fine tune that process of magic streaming from her to the wand to the shaped form it exited the wand in. She ignored the feeling of the magic working on the item in front of her in favor of the link from her wandpoint that she could feel; the magic was, after all, still hers even after it had been sent from her core and so she didn't need eyes to see where it went. She could feel a slight nudge from the wand as it seemed to encourage letting the magic flow a certain way.

"Oh my," said a squeaky voice near her shoulder, but Elisabeth was so fascinated she barely heard the words. Twisting the magic a bit and turning the wand a half twist clockwise, she explored how the movement shifted how the shaped magic left the tip. That's why the wand motion matters; it shifts how the magic is shaped as it exits the wand, Elisabeth thought excitedly.

She bounced the wand a time or two just to see what that did, noting how the alternate movement of her arm had lessened the output of power, then slashed the hornbeam wood down and right, only to hear a shriek.

Concentration broken, she felt the magic stop flowing through her system as she opened her eyes. Surprised, Elisabeth saw not only a navy blue coloured feather, but her desk now silver. Looking up slowly, she noted that the robes and chair of Gryffindor Andrew Hooper directly in front of her were respectively orange and aquamarine. She followed the line of where her wand had slashed down and right only a moment ago, seeing bags dyed pink, desks turned electric blue, and a variety of robes, hair, and chairs in any number of other colors.

"Very good, Miss Elisabeth!" cried her Head of House; she noted the use of her first name approvingly. Perhaps Will or Viviyan told him? She thought as he continued. "Quite impressive!"

She looked the teacher to confirm her guess. Quietly she looked at the mess of colors. Under her breath she muttered, slightly pleased, to herself. "I did that, didn't I?"

The professor, Zoe, and Vivyan all grinned. Before any could speak though, a slightly cross but mostly curious voice came from green haired Evans in rusted orange robes. "You magicked the whole room rather than the feather."

"Yes, I can see that," Irritated for some reason at the normally red-headed girl, Elisabeth wondered why the girl felt the need to say the obvious after it had already been stated by both herself and the professor. Perhaps the same reason Evans had earlier seen fit to take notes on information that needn't be written to be remembered?

"It seems that you, Miss Elisabeth, have some incredible power control!" remarked the professor with enthusiasm. "Five points to Ravenclaw! You must have been practicing at home. "

She shook her head. "Master Ollivander says the shop is enough mess without another silly wand waver waving her wand about."

"Well done then! Do you know why you continued to color everything in the path of your wand tip?" he asked. She shook her head in the negative, interested in a reason for the spell's outcome. Her stunt having caught the attention of most of the class, he only had to call Potter and Black to attention before he continued. "Miss Elisabeth here has shown what I wasn't expecting to get to today in class. Can you describe the magic flow you felt?"

She nodded, explaining that she could feel the flow from core to arm to wand.

Flitwick practically bounced as he walked to the front of the room. Tapping the chalk again, it started to sprint, leaving words in its wake. "Note that she unintentionally continued to let the power flow from core to wand continually, whereas most of us simply feel the magic spring up during the spell construction and direct it with wand movements in a short burst of power. That is why myself or Miss Evans colour the feather singularly and not everything we point our wands at. It is normal for most wizards to work magic this way."

"Does that mean that Ollivander is abnormal then, sir? A weirdo?" came a teasing voice from the back. Potter made a funny face at Elisabeth as she turned on her seat. Vivyan and Will both frowned at the boy that none of the three knew very well, certainly not well enough to make a joke like that with.

Zabini leaned back in his chair, banging into the desk behind him. The motion seemed to accidentally upset the precariously balanced inkwell in front of Potter, quickly soaking the boy's notes as he cried out. Flitwick frowned at the two boys as Zabini shrugged. "Oops."

"You conniving sister of a snake!" growled Potter as he started to raise his wand. Zabini only raised an eyebrow.

"Really Mr Potter," sighed the professor. "It was merely an accident. Two points from Gryffindor for drawing your wand at another student. To address your previous comment, Miss Elisabeth is not abnormal, just different. I'm guessing that as an Ollivander, she has a slightly higher sensitivity to magical pathways and so didn't see the overall picture of the spell as we did, but rather focused on the minutiae of the magic's path instead."

Evans's hand shot up from the front row. Without waiting to be called on, she blurted out. "Sir, why does her family matter?"

"Different families have tendencies towards particular magical fields, cultivated by family spells and certain attitudes they are brought up with." He waved her again raised hand down, telling her that if she had more questions on that matter he could see her after class, and set the rest of the class to work again, heading over to help Frank Longbottom with his spell.

"That was awesome, Elisabeth!" said Will from the row behind her. She and Vivyan turned around to face the three boys.

"Yeah," Greengrass grinned at her. "But next time, aim. On a totally unrelated note, my absolutely lovely cousin, sitting right next to that red-head, hates the color puce. You know, in case your aim is ever off again."

They all eyed him with a question that Septimus Zabini verbalized for them. "Isn't she, you know, family? And you want Elisabeth to aim for her? I mean, mis-aim for her?"

"I'm not so much a fan of bigots," the other boy responded, his tone flippant. Then he scowled. "And I really, really don't like her. I'm not saying cast a curse at her, but pulling her down a few rungs to the level of us other mortals won't do her any harm."

They all gave him another strange look as Flitwick bustled over to the group, breaking up their chat. He watched each of the boys practice the spell before asking Elisabeth to cast again. "But this time, see if you can't sever the connection right away, rather than letting it go on."

Possessively, she clutched her wand. "I'm not cutting the connection between it and I! We only just bonded as primaries!"

Both he and her friends blinked at her a moment. Vivyan asked, "Primaries?"

"The connection from a first wand to its first witch. It's like a claim from me to it and it to I." Looking at the professor, she held her wand more protectively as an unreasoning fear welled up in her, just like the moment her brother had pushed her into the fireplace to the Leaky Cauldron, that look on his face, that look and she knew she'd never see him again- No, not this, not now, not the same at all. She hunched down a bit more anyways as she muttered to the teacher quietly. "Besides, it's hornbeam. It's notorious for adapting to its owner's style of magic and person. Most never allow a second wand to lay claim to their wizard and none has ever accept a second wizard after they are forced to leave their first. It won't like you. You can't have it."

"Ah!" The professor smiled at her reassuringly now that he understood the issue. "Not to worry, Miss Elisabeth. I should have clarified that I want you to sever the bond of the magic leaving your core from your core itself, just as you did unconsciously when you lost your concentration the last time. I won't take your wand from you; no teacher is allowed to take a wand from a student unless the charges are very severe, so you needn't be concerned over that."

"They only take wands from criminals. Even though they take your wand when you enter the Ministry, they never hold onto it for more than the time it takes to weigh and record it," Vivyan comforted the other littler girl who still seemed inordinately concerned over the potential loss of her wand.

With another nod from the teacher, Elisabeth performed the spell, this time keeping her eyes open and wand aimed at the appropriate target. A quick burst of magic later and her feather had changed from navy to bronze.

"Well done, well done indeed!" squealed Flitwick, winking at her as he noticed the Ravenclaw theme of her feather. As he began to wander off towards Selina Nott, whose feather was inexplicably burning, he added, "I get the feeling that under your tutelage, Miss Elisabeth, I'm going to learn more about wands than I had previously known. I look forward to it!"

Class ended not long after. As the group packed up quills, inkpots, and notes, Elisabeth watched her unfortunate classmates be returned to their original color from misaimed spells, her own and others. In particular, the four Gryffindor boys in the rear of the room were particularly colourful. Professor Flitwick shouted out to the students as they walked off that he wanted a half foot of parchment on why hair could be changed by the spell when skin was only barely tinted.

Together the five walked out, leaving Zoe to chat with Alexis Selwyn, the Ravenclaw who was a distant cousin of the Gryffindor first year Alice Selwyn, and followed Black and Potter out the door.

They hadn't gotten far before a yell stopped them. "Elisabeth, Nikodemus, wait!"

It was Evans.

"I guess no one has yet taught her anything about wizard manners," grumbled Greengrass, who seemed to have taken a dislike to this particular girl already, just as Elisabeth herself had. Will elbowed him as she got closer. Greengrass, who rarely showed bad manners, kept in form, smiling thinly at the Gryffindor as she drew closer.

"Yes?" asked Vivyan. Energy pent up from sitting in classes all day, she was dancing from foot to foot.

"Professor Flitwick was busy with changing students into their proper colors, so he couldn't talk to me after class. I have a question." She paused only briefly, then words tumbled out, directed at Elisabeth. "Earlier Flitwick mentioned that you have family magic that is taught from one generation to the other and I just wanted to know how that works."

"It's a secret, Evans," drawled Greengrass, a smile of polite disinterest and boredom still painted on his angelic face. "That's why it is family magic. Why would Elisabeth tell you?"

"Stop being such a tosser, Greengrass." Black thrust himself into the conversation unexpectedly. Looking at Greengrass, he motioned Evans away. "Careful of that one. His family isn't so friendly."

"Isn't your family known for their particularly violent brand of offensive spells? Dark, heavy, and shooting fast from wand to target I think are the particulars of most Black spells." Greengrass raised his brow.

Black sputtered that he wasn't like them and Evans ignored the Greengrass as she turned on Black. "Isn't that awfully unfair though?" She demanded. "Spells should be open for all so that muggleborns like me can have access too."

The five Eagles and two Lions both looked at her in astonishment.

"Really, it is! Just because you all have magical parents means that you don't even realize how much ahead of people like me you are. You just take it for granted! Well, I'm going to change that someday and make it so that all people can do all spells."

The others others gaped at her, though the now still Vivyan was able to speak up a bit. "But... Not everyone can do every spell…"

"Yes, I know, because not every spell is taught to every person. Everyone can cast a spell if they were just taught how!" Evans's eyes seemed to be lit with an inner fire. "Magical blood doesn't determine what magic a person can do because all magic is the same and so every person is only then limited by the amount they have access to. So maybe not every person can do the spells needing a lot of power, but they should still be able to know what they are. Don't you think, William?"

Will just blinked blankly at the red-head who casually used his given name, still trying to compute her words and make sense of them.

"No," spoke up Elisabeth with a confused frown. She rather bluntly continued, a bit peeved that this know-nothing girl was demanding access to family grimoires. "Only an Ollivander, Gregorvitch, and three or four other families can make wands. It's not just a matter of knowing the process, it's how your magic reacts to the materials."

"I don't believe you," Evans glared at the shorter girl. "If your taught people, maybe another could learn how to… to make their magic react the right way."

"Truth doesn't care if you believe me. It's not a matter of fairness about muggleborns not knowing spells." Frustrated the other girl wasn't understanding anything, Elisabeth spoke without thinking, repeating an oft heard saying from her parents. "They tend to mess up bloodlines anyways."

Now Evans turned redder and redder. "I thought that a smart Ravenclaw wouldn't be so stupid!" she huffed before turning and beginning to walk away. "I am going to prove you wrong, everyone of you. And you, Elisabeth Ollivander, I'm going to beat you in every class until graduation to prove that I, with my non-magical background, am a better witch than you! Mess up bloodlines, will I?! I'm going to make any family want me over you!"

The group watched her stomp off, all a little shocked. Elisabeth contemplated banging her head against the wall, but her shyer nature wouldn't let her make such a spectacle of herself in front of the others.

"Well," mumbled Vivyan. "That could have gone better."

Zabini nodded even as Greengrass pursed his lips at the disappearing red-head, but Will spoke up as he gave Elisabeth a reproving look. "Saying they tend to mess up bloodlines is pretty harsh though."

"I dunno. It's accurate." Surprisingly, it was Potter who spoke. He reddened under the astonished look Black gave him. "Not that us Potters care at all; we've got several of us married to Muggleborn. But Muggleborn don't have refined cores, they're wild magic in a person. Like, I don't know, the Winters? They have a tendency to plant related spells and professions. Part of that is just how they are brought up, with so many green things growing around home, always comparing things to plants, and most people encouraging them to learn in that direction, but a small bit of that is that their actual core is shaped over generations to respond in certain ways to certain plants; did you know that their magic protects them from infant Mandrake cries? I've seen it. Anyways, when Maryanne Winters married a Muggleborn a few years before my parents were married, their son was born without any of the markers that the Winter kids are known for and didn't have the tendencies the rest had. Instead, he was like his dad and could choose where he wanted to specialize. Freeing in some ways I guess, but all those family spells that he never had as high a proficiency for were a struggle for him."

"Mmmm, that's what happened when Hendrick Gregorvitch married one; the kid had to find a new profession because he couldn't touch a wand that shared either his core or wood without it trying him for compatibility and partnership and ended up contaminating a whole store's worth of wands." Elisabeth nodded in agreement with the Potter boy.

"I didn't know that," Will told the group, eyebrow furrowed. "I mean, it makes sense in hindsight since every Chambers I've met is pretty good as Shielding, but… Doesn't that make her right? It is rather unfair for the muggleborns."

Elisabeth and Potter both shrugged. "I don't think so," Elisabeth responded quietly. "I mean, I was chosen at age five to learn the art of wand-crafting. Most people in my family are pretty good with items that channel magic and so are drawn to it as a career. Muggleborns get to choose whatever to focus on, no push to follow a certain path. Don't get me wrong, I know an Ollivander in Dragon Keeping, but it's not as easy for him as it could be since his core doesn't naturally push magic the way it needs to for that job. A muggleborn could be anything. No magic formation issues…"

"No family pressures to any particular type of magic," added Black with a scowl.

"I would say they are pretty lucky really," added Potter. "I'd love to get to choose to be anything rather than knowing that my core itself will force me to work to change how I process magic if I wanted to do something like Healing."

"That said," As Zabini spoke for the first time in the group, Elisabeth couldn't help noticing that he seemed shyer in front of the non-Eagles. "There are certain spells that families keep close that anyone could do. They are kept secret so that enemies can't use them against you."

"Yeah," sighed Greengrass windily. He was done with the conversation and ready for dinner. "But for every one of those spells my family might have, we have a few others that take a non-Greengrass more power, or at least cause some amount of extra difficulty, to perform. That is, if they work at all. When you think about it, we are literally conditioned from the time we are born to perform those particular spells, even if we don't actually start performing them until we are older. Just like you have to want to cause pain to cast the Cruciatus Curse and your magic responds in the appropriate path to do so, family spells take a particular thought process to come out right. I've never seen anyone spit out a Bone Splitting Curse like Acturus Black did in the dueling finals last year, because it began as a Black spell even though everyone knows the incantation and movements now."

"It might have begun a security thing, I suppose," Potter continued soberly. "It isn't really anymore. I guess I understand why…" her trailed off with a frown. Elisabeth guessed the boy was connecting dots about the Death Eaters and their mission and not liking that he understood why they did what they did, attacking Muggleborns as they did.

Black, who had stood bored among them since he had determined his new friend wasn't a blood purist, heard his stomach begin to grumble for food. Unashamed of the noises, he grinned and poked Potter. "Dinner?"

"Dinner. Oh, and Zabini?" The painfully quiet dark skinned boy looked at the bespectacled one, eyebrow raised in askance. "This is for completely ruining my notes in class. Colovaria!"

The two Gryffindors ran down the hallway as Zabini's hair turned Gryffindor red, laughing as they made their getaway. Poor Zabini grimaced as he realized he hadn't a clue how to remove the spell and was stuck with it until it wore off or an upper year took pity on him and removed it. He glared at their disappearing figures.

"Well then," grinned Will suddenly. "It seems that Elisabeth unintentionally got herself a sworn enemy and that Potter and Black just found themselves an entire group of Ravenclaws who now have motivation to research prank spells."

Zabini smiled gratefully at the pudgy boy as the others giggled. "Well in that case, since you volunteered to help research my revenge," The boy extended his hand to Will. "I think I'd be pleased to call you all my friends. Call me Septimus."

The two shook hands while Greengrass shrugged and addressed the group as well. "I'm Nikodemus then, I suppose."

"Brilliant," yelled Vivyan happily. "That'll make it much less confusing when I complain about your cousin's horrific snoring habits in our dorm."

The five grinned at each other, pleased to have earned a few more friends on only their first full day together. And the added benefit of prank study partners as well!

As they tromped down the stairs behind the Terrible Two, Will hung back next to Elisabeth. "Sorry."

She glanced up into his pale green eyes, confused.

"I'm the oldest of five, so when you said that back there, about them messing up bloodlines, my older brother took over. I didn't really have any place to reprimand you." He smiled apologetically at her.

She stared at the ground, attempting not to trip into him again as she thought about her response. She shrugged mutely, mentions of siblings making her bad memories resurface.

"My mom left us, you know," he added abruptly they turned after the others into another hall. She looked up as he grinned sheepishly. "I just wanted to explain. My dad works over in the Department of Mysteries so I take care of all of them along with a rotation of older cousins; Dad conscripts whoever is free. So I play parent to them and the 'no, don't do/say/eat that' instinct is pretty strong in me."

"Ah," she said woodenly. The talk about family, it hurt. After almost five months, shouldn't it at least hurt less?

When Vivyan called back to the two, urging them impatiently to "Keep up! And for Merlin's sake, please explain to these two Niffler brains why the Monrose Magpies are nothing next to the Harpies?!" Elisabeth hurriedly stumbled ahead of the longer legged Will, thankful for the distraction.

"I will have you know that I am a firm supporter of the Magpies because-" Nikodemus began and Will and Elisabeth raced to catch up.

"I don't care that Blagherty, their seeker, is the best in the league; their tactics could be improved upon by giants-" Vivyan started in on him only momentarily as Will grinned and interrupted.

"We all know the Chudley Cannons-"

"Not the Cannons-"

"I thought you were just joking about then in the main hall! I didn't realize that you were serious-"

"I never joke about the Cannons." Will frowned, actually offended at the questioning of his Quidditch beliefs. "I'll have you know that their beaters-"

The conversation quickly devolved into a flurry of terms that Elisabeth had no interest of attempting to decipher. As the argument got more heated, she found herself at leading the group with Septimus. As he asked a portrait of some obscure world leader directions to the Great Hall, she eyed him curiously. "You barely spoke before, with Potter and Black."

He flushed under dark skin, not speaking. She bumped into him as a protruding flagstone tripped her up and the other boy jumped out of her way, checking himself where they had made contact. He was now white under his dark features. He offered her a courteous hand up, dropping it as soon as was polite.

Roughly, he walked on, leaving her with the Quidditch arguing trio. Now that's a boy, she thought as she walked on. One who clearly has something bad in his past just like I do. I wonder what…

A/N: No, there will not be a prank war between them and the early Marauders; I'm trying to stick to cannon and so I'm not setting up a prank competition. The library study in pranks will lead to something else I have planned later.

*Yes, Florean did trick that poor second year into leading him to the Slytherin Common Room. That poor boy has yet to recover from the inevitable teasing that a "great galumphing Hufflepuff" was smarter than he. The other Slytherins, though surprised, know that Florean wouldn't tell a soul as to its location, but that didn't stop a few from cornering him and making clear that certain results would come out of any situation where he did. Florean grinned at them, turned two people's hair blue and another one's shoes into Muggle clown shoes, twinkled his fingers at them and exited into the Potions classroom where Slughorn gave detention to those who entered the class with their wands raised. They didn't notice until later that their ties had been polka dotted black and yellow until dinner that evening. But that's a story for another time.

** The price of gold in 1971 was 40.62 USD, while in 1991 it's 362.91 USD. For bronze/copper, the 1971 cost was .52 USD and in 1991 it cost 1.25 USD. Accounting for the fact that gold and copper prices are based on the amount available, and that hpwiki said 1991-1998 conversion was 1 galleon to 24.60 pounds (48.22 USD), the conversion for a galleon in 1971 would be 5.40 USD or 2.75 pounds (or 18.15 USD and 10.58 pounds in 1991). So really, as time goes on, the Muggles are getting cheated because their system isn't gold-based whereas the Wizarding one is.

*** The color changing spell is canon, first mentioned in OOTP during the OWLS by Harry. Since the OWLS tests the cumulative knowledge from all five years prior and this seemed like a simple spell, I am making it the first spell this group really learns.