Chapter 9

In the Great Hall the next morning, Elsa had to pinch herself several times over to prevent her face from falling into her oatmeal. She had gotten so few hours of sleep the night before. Her mind had been completely consumed by her usual collection of fears and worries. Worse yet, there was now a new problem weighing upon her mind. Professor Mode, who had overcome much when she'd been Head Girl, was expecting her, Elsa, to do the same. Anyone else would have been positively motivated by Mode's accomplishments. But Elsa was not anyone else. She was a glaciatous. And if her fellow students were to find out, she would be rejected even more than she was now.

She was close to falling asleep in her seat for the fifth time in a row when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Do try to refrain from falling asleep, dear," Belle said kindly. "The first day of classes requires being punctual and prepared."

"Yeah, wouldn't wanna ruin your perfect record by falling asleep in class, would you?" Rapunzel teased.

Elsa was not in the mood for joking. She groggily asked, "What do we have today?"

Belle pulled out her timetable and examined it. "Our first class is Herbology."

"Yes!" proclaimed Rapunzel, whose favorite class was Herbology even if she was not the best student in the class.

Belle resumed reading the schedule. "And then Transfiguration, Charms, Divination, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and then we wrap it all up with Potions."

Elsa shuddered at the word potions. "Just what I need. Ending the day with Weselton breathing down my neck like some kind of vulture."

"ELSA!"

The sound of Anna's distant voice calling her name made Elsa wince. "Speaking of vultures," she said quietly.

Moments later, Anna was by her side. "Hi, Elsa."

Elsa managed a weak smile. "Hi," she said in what she took to be a casual voice.

"Oh, and hello to you too… Elsa's bookish friend and Elsa's artsy friend," Anna said to Belle and Rapunzel.

"It's Rapunzel," Rapunzel corrected in a flat voice.

"And my name's Belle."

Anna ignored them and returned her attention to her sister. "So Elsa, did you sleep well?"

"Honsetly, I've slept better," Elsa replied curtly.

"I bet," said Anna, who seemed as energetic as ever despite Elsa's indifference. "The whole Head Girl thing must've had you so excited you couldn't get a wink of sleep."

Elsa looked at her younger sister through half-open eyes. "You could say that."

"Listen Anna, I don't think this is a good time," said Belle politely.

Elsa felt relieved to have a friend as loyal and defensive as Belle. But alas, Anna did not seem to have heard her.

"Anyway, which class are you looking forward to the most?" asked Anna.

Elsa sighed. "I couldn't tell you," she replied.

"Oh, tell me about it," said Anna. "There's so much to look forward to in every class. What with learning to fight off evil in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and turning things into… you know, other things in Transfiguration, and working with live plants in Herbology. It's enough to keep anyone on their toes. Though, I can't really vouch for Potions. Weselton is such a nosy creep, and I'm not just saying that because of his huge pointy nose. I mean am I right?"

Even though Anna was expecting response only from Elsa, all three of the Ravenclaw girls stared back at her speechlessly.

Elsa, who was now more eager than ever to get away from Anna, quickly came up with an excuse to do so. "Right you are, Anna," she said with a slight chuckle. "There's so much to look forward to in everything. In fact, I don't think we can take the suspense any longer." She arose from her seat without even finishing her oatmeal. "Come on, girls. Let's go see what fun-filled activity Professor Pacha has planned for us for today."

Belle and Rapunzel, getting the idea, also got up from their seats and threw their schoolbags over their shoulders.

"Right you are, Elsa," said Belle. "I heard today we're working with the Fire Seed Bush."

"Fire Seed Bush? I've been waiting three years to work with that," said Rapunzel earnestly.

"We'd better be on out way then," said Elsa. "Good to see you, Anna."

"But…" Anna began.

It was too late. The three Ravenclaws ran off towards the Great Hall's entrance so quickly, one would have thought they'd disapparated. They then ran out the school doors and towards the Herbology greenhouses. When they finally reached them, they realized they were too early for class. They sat down and tried to catch their breath as they waited for the other students to arrive.

"Elsa," Rapunzel panted. "I know your sister means well, but I don't see how it's possible that you two are related."

"Frankly, I concur," said Belle. "And if you'll forgive me for saying so, she was rather impertinent ignoring almost everything we said."

Elsa nodded. "Thank you both for your concern. And I'm sorry for her… overly social approach. I'll try to speak to her about it."

She knew Rapunzel was right, of course. Anna did mean well, but sometimes she had very little respect for peoples' personal space. She had not been quite as nosy as Tiana had been in Diagon Alley, but Elsa was not in the best of moods this morning. She was grateful to have gotten away from Anna before she'd let her anger get the better of her. It would have been horrible to repeat the error of hurting Anna with her powers, let alone in front of the entire school. Elsa shook these feelings off when the rest of the class began to arrive.

Minutes later, the whole class assembled in Greenhouse 6, where Professor Pacha was waiting. Professor Pacha was the Head of Hufflepuff. He was a large man with tan skin, dark hair, and a heart as big as his stomach.

"Good morning, class, and welcome to Greenhouse 6," Pacha greeted them merrily. "Now I've got a great lesson for you all today, but also a rather dangerous one. So I must ask that you listen well before we begin working."

"Eh, no sweat, Professor," said Kuzco Emper. "I'm hangin' on your every word."

Pacha raised an eyebrow. "I'll be the judge of that, Mister Emper. Now then, today we'll be gathering seeds from the Fire Seed Bush. Who here can tell me the values of fire seeds?"

Pocahontas Powhatan, who was thought by many to be the best Herbology student in the seventh year, raised her hand almost instantly.

"Miss Powhatan?"

"Fire seeds are used as ingredients in many potions, most notably the Antidote to Uncommon Poisons," Pocahontas explained. "But gathering them can be both risky and dangerous. As the name suggests, the Fire Seed Bush must always be on fire to live."

"Well explained, Miss Powhatan," said Professor Pacha. "Ten points to Gryffindor. Now as you've just heard, the Fire Seed Bush is a dangerous plant that must always burn in order to stay alive." He moved a bit to his left to reveal a long wooden table. On which stood a long line of unusual potted bushes. The branches bore no leaves, but round, fist-sized seeds that were burning with fire but were not destroyed by the flames.

The class eyed the burning bushes with both fascination and fear.

Flynn Ryder raised a hand. "Um Professor?"

"Yes, Mister Ryder?" Professor Pacha asked.

"Please tell me we're gonna be using, like, fireproof gloves or something along those lines."

Pacha shook his head. "Sorry, Mister Ryder. But there's only one way to gather fire seeds, and that's with the freezing charm."

Elsa suddenly found herself paying closer attention. Professor Pacha withdrew his wand from his cloak pocket and pointed it at a seed on the nearest plant. "Like so," he demonstrated. "Glacius." An icy breeze blew from the tip of his wand and put the fire igniting the seed out. He then plucked the no longer burning seed from its branch with ease.

The rest of the class applauded, but the Slytherins were hardly impressed.

"You mean it is as simple as that?" asked Naveen Maldonia. "I fail to see how this task is remotely dangerous. I could do that in my sleep."

Professor Pacha smiled. "So sure of yourself, are you Mister Maldonia? Then perhaps you'd like to show us how easily you can do it. Come on up."

Naveen grinned and joined Pacha at the front of the class.

"Go on ahead, then," said Pacha.

"Yeah, show us how it's done, Maldonia," said Tiana Jackson, who was smiling slyly at Naveen.

Naveen confidently pulled out his wand and pointed it at a burning seed. "Glacius," he said. A slightly stronger blast of ice blew from Naveen's wand and instantly put out the seed's fire.

"Ha! You see? I knew told you I could…"

Naveen's confidence vanished when he noticed that the icy blast from his wand was starting to blow stronger. "Wh – What is happening?" he asked.

The entire class watched as the ice from Naveen's wand began to spread across the entire bush.

"Don't just stand there! Wave your wand! Make it stop!" Professor Pacha shouted in a panicked state.

Naveen tried to do as Pacha had instructed, but in his attempt to stop the spell by shaking his wand, he accidentally pointed the tip at the rest of the Fire Seed Bushes.

"MALDONIA!" Pacha yelled as the plants began to freeze.

"I can't stop it!" Naveen shouted. He shook his wand harder and harder until it the icy blast finally stopped. "Thank goodness," he sighed.

"Thank no such thing!" Pacha shouted. "The plants could be dying!"

"Oops."

"Leave it to me, Professor!" Hans South shouted.

The entire class watch as Hans pulled out his wand and pointed it at the dying bushes.

"INCENDIO!"

A shower of sparks and flames erupted from Hans' wand and ignited the Fire Seed Bushes. Within moments, the bushes were aflame once again. The other Slytherins applauded and Professor Pacha shook Hans' hand tightly.

"Good thinking, Mister South."

"Hey, I'm Head Boy," Hans said proudly. "It's my job to think fast."

Pacha turned to Naveen. "Mister Maldonia, how do you explain what just happened?"

Naveen was silent. It was hard to tell if he was too ashamed to admit that he was wrong in saying he could perform the task with ease scared that he almost killed a bunch of bushes. He looked down at his shoes miserably. Elsa noticed his face and, for the first time in living memory, she actually felt sorry for a Slytherin.

"Well," Pacha continued. "You're lucky I'm only docking Slytherin five points. And you're even more lucky I'm awarding Mister South ten."

Hans smiled a smile that reflected more arrogance than valor. "Thank you, Professor."

Even though Elsa had not been involved in this incident, she felt as though it was tied to her in some way. Naveen had lost control of a freezing spell and had thus almost caused an irreversible disaster. And then Hans had intervened and had "heroically" put an end to it. In other words, Naveen had just done what she, Elsa, had feared doing for half her life. If Naveen, who was not even a glaciatous, could easily lose control of ice related magic and nearly kill something as a result, who was to say that she wouldn't do the same? This whole accident seemed almost prophetic to her, especially the part about Hans intervening.

End of Chapter