October 1942
With the exception of the knife-sharp glares that were often exchanged between the Gryffindor and Slytherin first-years, any further conflict with between the two Houses was somehow avoided. Minerva was glad of this, and the fact that the rescheduled time of their flying lessons hadn't yet been announced, as she was in no hurry to repeat her fall anytime soon. She hadn't lied when she'd said she wasn't hurt, but the ache in her ribcage that she'd woken up with the next morning had stayed for a good few days before eventually subsiding.
As Halloween approached, most of the school were too preoccupied with being excited for the feast to pay much attention to their schoolwork. This hadn't bothered Professor Binns, as per usual, but many of the other Professors had been forced to hand out more punishments than usual in an attempt to restore order. Ro had been given her first detention by Professor Slughorn when she'd spent the whole of a lesson excitedly telling Poppy about Halloween traditions in the wizarding world, but others such as Professors Dumbledore and Merrythought responded to the excitement by changing the topic of the lessons to reflect the mood. In Transfiguration they'd been given the challenge of Transfiguring various objects into pumpkins, which were later used to decorate the Great Hall, and DADA lessons had been filled with blue flares as the first-years tried out the Knockback Jinx. The thrill of learning their first defensive spell had briefly overridden the Halloween-related anticipation, but by the time October 31st rolled around there was talk of little else.
Even the Slytherins had ceased in the consistent teasing, which, Minerva realised later, they should have been a lot more suspicious about. She had often seen Abraxas sneaking back and forth from the library in the days leading up to Halloween accompanied by one or more of his little gang, and the reason behind this only became apparent on the night itself.
Lessons had finished a little early to give the staff enough time to add the final preparations to the Halloween feast, so Minerva was relaxing in the Gryffindor Common Room with Ro and Lyall. Poppy had left a short while ago to visit the Owlery so she could post a package full of Halloween treats to her family back in London. She had been gone for an unusually long time, and Minerva was about to voice her concern to Ro and Lyall when portrait hole was opened by a very poorly Poppy. Her nose was very red and her eyes slightly puffy, and when she looked at Minerva she promptly let out an enormous sneeze.
"My word, what's happened to you?" Minerva gasped as she dropped the book she'd been reading and sprinted to Poppy's side, catching her as she stumbled through the portrait hole. As Poppy groaned quietly Minerva felt her forehead, and was shocked by the immense amount of heat radiating from her. Wrapping one arm around Poppy's shoulders and holding her shaking hands with her other hand, Minerva slowly guided her over to the seating area where she slumped into a chair by the fire. "You were just fine less than an hour ago!"
Poppy nodded as she sniffed deeply; Minerva thought she looked and sounded absolutely miserable. "Found the Slytherins jus' ou'side th' Ow'ery," she said, her voice muffled as she tried to speak through her stuffy nose, "Used the Curse o' the Bogies on me." She broke off with a hoarse cough, and Minerva instantly felt her concern turn into blood-boiling anger.
"So that's what they've been plotting!" Ro almost snarled, the fury in her tone matching the livid look in her eyes. "I thought something was wrong when they quietened down! I'd like to give them a taste of their own medicine!"
"Agreed," Minerva said grimly as she sat down beside Poppy and rubbed her back soothingly, taking the handkerchief that Lyall handed her and passing it to Poppy. "But first we need to find a counter-curse for this." She gestured Poppy's trembling form as just as sneezed into Lyall's handkerchief. "I'm sure there'll be a book in the library that has the information we need in it."
When Lyall and Ro nodded in approval to her plan, Minerva eased an arm underneath Poppy's shoulder to help her to her feet. She was alarmed by the extent Poppy was leaning into her side, swaying with every step she took, and was very grateful when Ro appeared on the other side to share Poppy's weight with her.
Lyall pushed the portrait hole open and they slowly made their way through the corridors and down the stairs to the library. When they finally reached the library, their plans were dashed upon seeing the large 'CLOSED' sign on the door.
Ro groaned loudly before complaining "I'll bet it's because of the Halloween feast. Now what're we going to go, Pops can't stay like this!"
Minerva went to reply, but fell silent upon hearing noises from the corridor behind them. It sounded to her like something heavy being dragged over carpet, and the regular, heavy breaths that accompanied it made it seem more likely that that was the case. Keeping a tight hold on Poppy, Minerva turned around and had to bite back a surprised laugh at what she saw.
Millicent Bagnold, a Ravenclaw first-year, was indeed dragging something in their direction. But when she turned around to look at the Gryffindors, Minerva saw that it wasn't a thing but instead a person. Septima Vector, another Ravenclaw first-year, was sat in a rather undignified heap on the floor with her legs stretched out in front of her and a look in her eyes that suggested she was ready to commit murder.
"What happened to her?" Lyall asked, pointing to Septima.
"I could ask you the same question." Septima said in retalliation, jerking her head in Poppy's direction.
"The Slytherins happened, that's what," Ro grumbled, "Caught Poppy by herself and put the Curse of the Bogies on her." As if to prove a point, Poppy sneezed twice before doubling over in a coughing fit. "We were trying to get into the library to find the counter-curse, but it's closed so we don't-"
"The library's closed?" Millicent groaned, exchanging a horrified look with Septima.
Minerva nodded grimly. "Why did you need to get in there?"
Millicent sighed and bent down to pull Septima to her feet, but the moment she removed her hands from under Septima's arms her knees buckled and she slammed face-first into the floor with a muffled grunt of pain. "Jelly legs curse, the Slytherin's doing. I can only guess that they think this is some sort of hilarious Halloween prank. Our plan was to find a counter-curse that would get Septima walking again, then go and try out the Knockback Jinx on them."
A devilish grin had appeared on Ro's face as Millicent spoke. "Now that sounds to me like a good plan!" she declared.
"But what do we do about Poppy and Septima?" Lyall asked, a worried look on his face. "We can't find a counter-curse without the library, and they can't go down to the feast like this."
"We are right here you know, don't talk about us as if we're somewhere else!" Septima snapped.
There was silence for a moment as everyone thought about the best way to go about tackling the Slytherin problem, and eventually Minerva came up with another plan. "Let's take them with us," she said, gesturing with her free arm to both Poppy and Septima which earned her a fierce glare from the latter, "if we're lucky, they'll still have the book with all these curses in and we can find the counter-curse from that. It's not like we can leave them here."
Millicent and Septima both nodded. Lyall stepped forward beside Septima, and together with Millicent they locked their hands to create a seat for her to sit on. Minerva was just beginning to wonder how they would find the Slytherins at the snail-like pace they were travelling at, when an alarmed shout and gloating laugher echoed just ahead of them.
"Quick, don't lose them!" Minerva said urgently, and they ran as fast as they could manage towards the source of the sound. As they rounded the corner Minerva saw that her suspicions had been proven correct - the Slytherins had struck again, and they hadn't yet had time to leave the crimescene.
Millicent and Lyall gently placed Septima down on the floor, and all three drew their wands just as Minerva and Ro did the same. Poppy wriggled out of their arms and Minerva turned her head sharply to watch as she sat heavily down on the floor and out of the way, her nose buried in Lyall's handkerchief.
"Flippendo!" The combined shouts of Millicent, Septima, Lyall, Minerva and Ro rang through the corridor, and the Slytherins turned around just in time to see the blue lights of the Knockback Jinx being shot in their direction. There were angry shouts as Druella, Apollyon and Owle were sent sprawling to the floor, leaving only Abraxas Malfoy still standing.
"Do you think this is some kind of joke!" Ro shouted as she took a menacing step towards Abraxas. She pointed towards a fifth figure standing a few metres behind Abraxas; Minerva recognised him as first-year Huflepuff Alfred Diggory, and by the way he was hopping around awkwardly she guessed that he had been subjected to the Leg-Locker Curse.
"What's the matter, Hooch?" Abraxas asked with a sly smile that made Minerva want to give him a good punch in the face. "Not getting into the spirit of Halloween I see, this is only a bit of harmless fun!"
Ro let out a sound of pure frustration as she brandished her wand again, waving it around and around as she glared at Abraxas. The usual blue tinge that characterised the Knockback Jinx had turned to a strange purple-red colour and then a dark, menacing red by the time Ro screeched out the incantation, and then it was too late for Minerva to warn ger that something had gone wrong. The crimson light travelled backwards down her wand and into her arm; she glowed a faint crimson for a moment before flying backwards and slamming into the floor as if she had hit an invisible force field.
Minerva turned around to go to Ro's aid, but as she did so she saw that there was already a figure by her side. Even with her back to Minerva, she instantly recognised the figure as Professor Merrythought, and as she gently helped a badly winded Ro to her feet there was an uncharacteristic look of anger in her eyes.
"Abraxas Malfoy, what do you think you were playing at?" she shouted angrily, striding past Minerva to look straight into Abraxas' face. "These curses are all far too advanced for a novice like yourself to attempt, you could easily have caused someone serious harm. Slytherin has lost 50 points from your actions, and you and your friends will not be attending the feast tonight! I expect to see you all in my office at 9 o'clock sharp tomorrow morning where we will be discussing your outrageous behaviour, and I can assure you that there will be plenty of detentions to follow! Now get back to your common room before I have to take away even more points!"
There was not a single look exchanged between the Slytherin students and the combined party of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws as Abraxas turned around and strode in the directions of the Slytherin dungeons with Druella, Owle and Apollyon following more slowly.
Professor Merrythought spent a few moments simply glaring at their retreating forms, before she lifted her wand at Alfred Diggory. He sighed in relief as his legs sprang apart, calling out "Thanks Professor!" before running down a different corridor that Minerva assumed led to the Hufflepuff's Common Room.
With Alfred gone, Professor Merrythought at turned her attention to the rest of the students in the corridor. The fury had vanished from her eyes to be replaced with concern as she swept her gaze over Septima and Poppy still sitting on the floor. "Might I ask what curses they used?" she asked somewhat wearily to no-one in particular.
"The Jelly-Legs Curse." Millicent said as she pointed down at Septima, and Professor Merrythought muttered something under her breath as she waved her wand.
"Give that a try my dear, you should be just fine now."
Septima got to her feet slowly, a look of surprise on her face when she remained standing for more than a few seconds. "Thank you Professor," she smiled at her Head of House.
"Now what can I do about you Penelope?" Professor Merrythought asked, and as always it took Minerva a couple of seconds to worked out that she was referring to Poppy.
"It... was the... Bo... Bogies Curse." Ro gasped out, hunched over with her hands on her knees to keep herself steady.
Professor Merrythought nodded and waved her wand again. "That should do the trick, but it might take a few minutes for you to feel the effects. A nasty curse, that one is."
Poppy just nodded blearily as Minerva helped her to her feet. Minerva felt her forehead again, and to her relief the fever had vanished.
"Professor Merrythought," Minerva said, "why did Ro's spell backfire on her like that? It never happened when we learned it in your lesson last week."
Professor Merrythought laughed briefly before she replied. "Rolanda here has just demonstrated something that we won't even be attempting until the second year. By waving her wand more than she needed to she charged the spell, and if used properly it would have hit Mister Malfoy with much more power than normal. But she overcharged it just a little, striking her instead of her target." She turned to look at Ro as she continued. "You might have a tight chest for a little while due to the effect of the spell, but there won't be any lasting side effects."
"Good... t'know." Ro wheezed, giving Professor Merrythought a slightly sarcastic smile.
Professor Merrythought returned Ro's smile before looking around at the students, and Minerva could see the pride clearly in her eyes. "I'm very glad to see you've all been taking your practising seriously; that was some very good wandwork you all demonstrated there. 10 points will be awarded to each of you in a reward for your efforts."
Smiled appeared on everyone's faces when Professor Merrythought spoke, and even Poppy managed to look happy despite the miserable time she'd just endured. "Now, I suggest we all get down to the feast unless we want to miss the beginning!" Professor Merrythought gave them all one last proud look before sweeping down the corridor towards the Great Hall.
As Minerva and the other students followed her, Ro and Poppy fell in step beside her as had become custom in the almost-two months they had been at Hogwarts. Despite the satisfaction that Professor Merrythought's praise had given her, Minerva forced a note of seriousness into her voice as she quietly said "There's one thing I think we can be certain of now. "
"That's twice we've got Abraxas and his cronies into trouble now," Ro continued for her, clearly guessing what she'd been planning on saying, "we need to keep our guard up if we want to make it to Christmas without being hexed into oblivion."
Minerva nodded. "They'll want revenge, and I daresay they'll make sure they get it sooner rather than later."
Author's Note:
Looking up all those curses was fun xD
Septima and Millicent are going to remain quite central characters, along with Lyall and someone else introduced next chapter they'll have the same sort of role that Neville, Ginny and Luna had in the books. The main focus is on Poppy, Minerva and Ro, but these four are right behind them all the way.
And as always, they're all perfectly canon. Go raid the HP wiki if you're curious.