Chapter Ten

Virginia woke up early and fed Gigi. Then she wrote a letter telling everything that happened yeasterday. She then gave it to Gigi and sent her off to her home.

She knew she had to be quick to have breakfast and then go to a prefect to take her class schedule. She tried to recall the right way to her classes but was stilled afraid of getting lost. After all, this is Hogwarts, and you cannot guarantee anything.

Virginia was satisfied to have ended up in Ravenclaw, and she is most fortunate to be living alone. The room is in a bluish fasion, with dark blues matched wonderfully with light ones. The room looks pricess-like, and quite dreamlike.

But she realizes that she needs to be extremely careful out of this room.

She tried to smile to herself to make her confident and in high morale. "Breakfast, I'm coming!" She said in a low whisper.

Muggle Studies has become compulsory this year. Though there was only two classes each week, it was still a terrible experience. The Death Eater Alecto Carrow was completely a git. She is malicious toward all and always emphasized that Muggles are filthy and are not suitable for living on Earth. She devotes herself in tortuing the students, and no house distinction, although compared to Gryffindor, Slytherin apparently received relatively mild insults. Once she called Virginia in class. The timid look of Virginia seemed to have pleased her much, and she didn't tortue her too severely.

Amycus Carrow was a much more horrible case. He enjoys to do experiments on the students. He loves using any reason to give attention to the students and them use the Cruciatus Curse on them. He often asks the other students to perform the Cruciatus Curse, and if they refuse, they become the victims of another Cruciatus Curse. Virginia couldn't understand why Voldemort wished to have these two at Hogwarts. Well, maybe he wanted to have someone coordinating with him when he attacks here. This was exactly what the two loyal Death Eaters would love to do.

The first Defense Against the Dark Arts class skipped Virginia, who tried her best to keep a low profile among all Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students. But then she began to unerstand that just by keep a low profile won't help her through all the classes during the entire year. She has to take some measures. Although Professor McGonagall did send her some document that testifies her wizarding blood relations and she has already recited all of it to her heart, she still couldn't relieve her nevousness. Afterall, she is a hundred percent a Muggle-born.

So during time she has no classes, Virginia buried herself in Ravenclaw's private library or the school library. She needs to enrich her mind with all the knowledge she could master, even though she knew that as a firt-year student, many advanced magic are beyond her master. But then after some time she began to notice that perhaps due to a mature soul, her magical power wasn't so scarce as the other young witches and wizards.

And then she is often found beside Professor Flitwick, the head of Ravenclaw House. She often consults him for many advanced spells. As she said, though she may not be able to master much, she still could get an understanding of these. Flitwick often answers in a shrieking little voice and at the same time praises her for being hard-working.

So Virginia mastered a few useful spells in a very short period. The Neglecting Charm, which she thinks is what she needs most. She is worried to be noticed by others, so she keeps giving herself Neglecting Charms once every hour out of her dormitory in case of being noticed.

So at first Ollivia Hill kept giving her valuable advices but then she seemed to have forgotton that she ever exists.

She also learned the Disillusionment Charm by herself. After several trials she was satisfied with its effect. It is within the field of Transfiguration, and she did consult Professor McGonagall, who gave her a meaningful look and just stated some main points. Then Professor McGonagall told her not to rush for quick results and do things she couldn't.

Today Virginia went out to head for the office of Professor Flitwick, which was on the severnth floor. She wished to learn more about Apparation, but she understands that she could never practice it without somebody guiding her beside, unless she wished to die a rather painful death with her body ripped apart.

But she didn't reach her destination. Instead she nearly crushed with the headmaster, Severus Snape, who was striding across the floor. They stopped an inch from each other. "Oh, Ms. Wichester, Ravenclaw." He seemed to be sizing her. A second seemed to have stretched into a year for Virginia. Then, Severus Snape said in a strange voice, "It is said, that you are related to a German wizard."

That wasn't a question, Virginia was sure about that. She was too afraid to look up or even raise her head. It was such a stupid mistake not to put a Neglecting Charm on herself before going out.

Oh maybe this is fotunate, because if she did, she must have walked straight into him.

"Raise your head, Ms. Winchester." His voice was colder than death.

"I must look up! I must! Now look up!" Virginia demanded herself, but she still kept her head down, for she had no choice. She didn't dare look at him in case he saw something. She began to tremble from head to feet. The man opposite her had waited in silence for a long time; he seemed to be appreciating her disconcert. Finally he said, "Seven o'clock in the evening, Po-…Headmaster's Office, Ms. Winchester, for your irreverence toward the headmaster."

Then he strode away in his long black robe, away from her.

Virginia's mind began working when she returned to her dormitory. She was soaked in sweat. She finally gained her strength and started to mock herself, "oh I now see how timid I am. Coward!" Virginia said to herself through her teeth. If only she had acted more naturally, behaving obsequiously and following his demands, she might have been able to escape all these. She hit the ground with her fists fiercely. No it shouldn't be so!

She stretched her body and took out the letter from the drawer. She looked through Daddy's words. Her parents asked her to take care of herself and stay careful, and they told her to tell them anything she wished….. Her tears dropped down, and she took the letter away hurriedly. She put the letter near her breast and inhaled deeply.

"I can't cry!" She told herself. "It's not time for crying yet!"

She has to come up with what to do tonight at the headmaster's office. She certainly had to go there, but she couldn't guarantee that she would get herself into a similar situation. Ever since she came to school she had been afraid of looking at the eyes of adult wizards. She was worried about Legilimancy. She knew for sure that she couldn't bear the consequence of letting others see her memories.

As to the learning of Occlumency, it was her impression that studying Occlumency was similar to being beaten numerous times until you develop thick skin. She had no chance of receiving a beat, for she would be dead if she was beaten, so she could only learn it through her own trial and error. But she still had no idea how Occlumency should be performed. If no one performs Legilimency on her, she would never know how well she had learned it.

She had only one lesson in the afternoon, and that was Potions, which, very fortunately, is taught by Horace Slughorn. She couldn't even bear thinking about tonight.

For every problem there must exists a reasonable solution, she thought.

Then she wasn't focused at all during the entire lesson. She was able to explode with the slightest bit of fire. She was bursting, but she had to refrain herself from doing so.

She did remember to add a Neglecting Charm this time, but she didn't know how her feet carried her to the front of the headmaster's office. When she passed the Room of Requirement on the eighth floor, she began circling around the floor, saying under her breath, "I need a place to hide things." Unluckily, nothing happened. In fact it was not only because she was on the wrong spot but also because she wasn't concentrating at all. Her mind was fully occupied with scenes of cruel punishments later at the headmaster's office.

A dark shadow overshadowed her. "Obviously you had some inexplicable fascination of lingering at the corridors," the voice rang behind her, "Ms. Winchester!"

Professor Snape seemed to have come back only just, and Virginia found herself woeful because she was afraid of looking at him again. But the headmaster seemed failed to notice all these. He strode forward and bellowed, "Follow up, Ms. Winchester!"