YEAR OF THE SNAKE

DISCLMAIMER: Standard. I don't own it. I'm not trying to profit from it. This is a hobby, not a job, so I'm in it for the fun, nothing else.

A/N: Yes, it's still the first week of school. My only defenses are that I needed to establish a baseline and H.P. took a bit to start. That said, bear with me, it's not too much longer.

Chapter 6

"It was brilliant," Hatley's high pitched laughter had a hard time merging with the noise in the great hall, but he shot it out there anyway. "It was like... like dropping a ping-pong ball into a room full of mousetraps."

Regina rolled her eyes when Jones jogged her elbow. He and Whale were cackling almost as madly as the obnoxious storyteller. This was why she hated eating with the other removes. Somehow she always managed to find herself saddled with the terrible trio.

"And... and the best part was the end," Hatley wheezed. "She looks up at Lockhart and says 'please sir, I know a charm,' and she sounded just like that kid from Oliver Twist..."

"The one from the workhouse?" Regina made no effort to keep the sarcasm from her voice. "That would actually be Oliver Twist."

Hatley waved her off without stopping. "So she waves her wand..."

"Did she kill anyone?" Whale asked as he wiped a tear from his eyes. "She nearly arrowed poor old Flitwick in Charms today."

"Oi. My story first," Hatley's red-faced mirth morphed quickly into something more menacing.

"So what happened, Jeff?" Jones' tone held little fear.

Regina put a meticulously cut bit of chicken into her mouth and tried not to smirk at the easy fracture of the trio's bonhomie. She really didn't want to hear about Reina's misfortune anyway, so rather than pay attention; the girl began to look around the long murmuring hall. The scattered drifting ghosts far more interesting than the noise of her fellow Slytherins anyway. It was then that she finally saw Reina come in. The girl looked angry. Even the normally brilliant little lizard on her shoulder seemed ominously dark.

"She cost her house five more points," Hatley continued, no longer happy. "Lockhart gave them to her for showering half the class with ink from the spell she botched."

Regina knew that Reina wasn't the most social at the best of times, but now she didn't seem merely aloof. Her concern grew as the girl moved along the Ravenclaw table, stopping occasionally to put a bit of this or that into an opened handkerchief. When she reached the end of the table, she folded her bundle closed and headed towards the doors. No one had even acknowledged her existence. When she left, she strode through the ghost everyone called the Fat Friar without even slowing.

Regina hurriedly stuffed an ill-cut cube into her mouth and rushed to follow her friend. When she reached the hall, she saw that the dark girl had already put substantial distance between herself and the noise of the big room. Reina might not have running, but she was certainly walking as if she meant it.

"Reina?" she called. "Reina? Wait, for me."

The angry girl stopped and fixed her with an inscrutable expression. Regina recognized 'the mask' at once. It was the same one she wore when her mother was nearby.

"Reina," she trotted quickly over, "I heard what happened in your classes today..."

"And you came to poke fun at the inbecile too?"

Regina's brow rose. "You're not an imbecile." The girl's acid tone stung and it took real effort not to bite back. Instead, she reached out and laid her hand on one robed shoulder. "I came because you're my friend and I didn't feel like listening to Hatley's obnoxious gloating."

"Hm," she frowned. "He was in my Dark Arts class. Did he tell you what happened?"

"Yes. He thought it was funny. I thought it was unfortunate."

Reina gave her a look and stalked off.

"Wait," Regina hurried after her. "Don't be angry, please. The mundopurium charm isn't as easy as it looks. It takes time..."

"I don't have time." The other girl whirled and Regina was surprised to see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "I have to able to cast spells so that I can stay. If I can't, they'll kick me out."

"Reina, Reina, Reina," she wrapped her arms around her friend, copying the gesture and tones her father used when she was upset. "It's your first week here. Mistakes are expected. That's how we learn."

"But you can do it so easily..."

"I've been practicing that particular charm since I was eight years old," Regina said. "I still don't do it well enough to please my mother."

"You don't?"

"No." She held Reina out to arm's length, looking into her eyes with her best supportive expression. "Now, let's go back to the hall and finish dinner. Together. Afterwards, I'll teach you the neatness charm."

"No. I-I don't eat with anyone else..."

"Ever?"

"Never." Reina glanced down the hall uncomfortably. "Let's go find a place to practice. Somewhere no one can see me mess up."

"Okay. Lead on."

Reina started walking. "I'd rather learn levitation, if you don't mind..."

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Regina bit her lip pensively. Things were definitely not going as well as she hoped. Not ten feet away Reina stood stiffly, staring over the old battlements towards the still black waters of the lake. Outwardly she was cool, calm and collected, but Regina was beginning to know the dark-skinned girl well enough to guess that, despite her appearance, she was about to explode.

"That didn't go well..." Regina observed quietly.

"No." Reina agreed.

"I think..."

"Please don't tell me to think lighter thoughts," the dark girl growled. "I've done nothing but think light thoughts since we started and it just gets worse and worse." She turned her eyes on Regina. "You said that dead leaves were attuned to air, that they would float. So far all they do is crush, turn to dust, catch fire and explode." She clenched her jaw and looked back up at the early evening sky. "Gina, this isn't working. What if I can't do magic? They'll throw me out."

"Don't think like that. If you couldn't do magic at all, then you wouldn't have been able to fly a broom..."

"And we see how well that went..."

"Yes," Regina broke in earnestly. "We saved a boy's life. Not bad work for a pair of first years." She waited a moment to see if there would be any rebuttal and sighed when none came. "Let's look at this objectively. We know you have magical ability. Leaves don't put themselves to all the trouble of exploding for any muggle that happens to wave a stick at them..."

"So you're saying I should be grateful that they're blowing up?"

"Well, it is rather spectacular, isn't it?"

A faint smirk replaced the scowl on Reina's face.

"So you obviously have the ability to make this work," Regina smirked as a low, roiling grumble rattled through the air. "So it's either because you're hungry, or there's just something about the process that we're not doing correctly."

The dark girl ignored another growl. "We're not doing correctly?"

"We're both out here, aren't we?" Regina retorted gently. She thought for a few moments more before continuing. "What were you thinking when we went after David?"

Reina shrugged. "Nothing really. I just wanted to get to him before he fell..."

"Were you thinking about flying at all?"

"No. Not really," Reina's dark brow furrowed with the effort to remember. "I just kept wanting to go faster and faster... I remember that I couldn't figure out how to slow down for the turns. There really wasn't time to think about anything."

"Okay. That could be something." Regina laid another dried leaf on the crotch of the old stone crenel. "Every time you've failed, you've gotten angrier. At first the leaf shot away like a missile. Then it crushed. Then..."

"I see what you mean," Reina interrupted tersely.

"So try not to think of anything at all. Try to do what you did when you first raised the broom," she prompted. "Imagine it done and it will be."

Reina nodded, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Another breath. "Wingardium leviosa." She opened her eyes and the leaf was gone. "Did I do it?"

"Mostly," Regina grinned broadly. "Your leaf shout out that way," she gestured absently towards the lake, "but it didn't burn or explode, so we've solved part of it."

"I suppose so," Reina's nod wasn't enthusiastic. "So we're back to where we started."

"Perhaps, but we're also better informed than we were when we started." She put up a new leaf. "Do the same thing again, but slower this time."

Reina nodded, unable to argue in the face of her friend's hopeful conviction. She took a breath. Another.

"Wingardium leviosa." The leaf was gone again. She looked over at her friend. "Well?"

"I think I've got it." Another leaf went onto the stone. "This time do it very slowly. And keep your eyes open."

Reina obeyed and this time the leaf skidded off into the twilight as if pushed by a stiff breeze. She gasped.

"Aha."

"Aha?"

"Aha," Regina repeated. "I think it's really several things."

"Oh yes?"

"You had Professor Flitwick's class this morning, right? Did he tell you about attunement?" Regina grinned when the dark girl nodded. "Now do you remember what Mister Ollivander said about your wand?"

"I suppose..."

"Your wand is Lignum Vitae. It's one of the heaviest woods there is. I think it makes your magic heavier, after a fashion," Regina said. "That and the way you hold it make the force of your spells push very hard."

Reina blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"Everything about the way you cast magnifies strength," Regina drew her own wand from beneath her robes. "Your wand is heavy, strong and you hold your wand as if you can use magic to beat the leaf into the air. Remember, leaves are attuned to the air..."

"You hope..."

Regina ignored the self-conscious jibe. "...So you don't need to use force. You need control. Like this." She gripped her wand like a conductor's baton. "Wingardium leviosa," swish, flick. The leaf tumbled upwards. She followed it with her eyes, lost for a moment in the gentle motion. "You see? Bounce it with your wrist. Imagine pretend you're tapping it with the tip..."

"Hey."

Reina's voice broke into Regina's lesson. She looked back and grinned as she saw a chicken leg floundering in the air between them. Behind it, the dark girl was staring, steadying her wand with both hands and moving the tip in tiny circles.

"Take it, would you?" Reina asked. "This isn't easy."

Regina took the proffered wing. "I thought you didn't eat with others."

"I don't," Reina returned. She sat down beside the opened handkerchief. "When I was... When I lived in the mountains, I had a different family. With them you got what you could get..."

"Were you being punished?" Regina sat down on the stones nearby.

"No. Mother always said that it was a life lesson," Reina replied as she rummaged in the bundle. "She said that the strongest and the fastest got the best of everything. Everyone else got what was left. It wasn't until I lived with Paulus and his family that I learned differently." She reached into the bundle and brought out another piece of chicken and began eating.

Regina was very careful only to take the next bit of food after Reina. "There's a lot of meat."

"There's bread and cheese too," the dark girl shrugged. "Besides, vegetables are yucky. They're either like leaves, string or mud."