Chapter 9

He stared down at the yellowed roll of parchment with disgust and an unreasonable amount of hatred toward something that had never directly done anything malicious to him. Maybe if he stared hard enough, his study of ancient runes essay would magically appear. It's possible isn't it? Am I special but just not that special, Aidan wondered half bitterly and half comically.

He lifted his elbow off his desk and the paper rolled up into a scroll. He gritted his teeth in aggravation, unrolled it again, and wrote his name in the top left hand corner, the long, gray feather on his quill tickling his chin because he was sitting so close.

Maybe I have chosen too heavy a workload, Aidan contemplated as he started to tap the tip of the quill in the corner of the roll, causing red ink to come out a little bit every time the metal tip and the parchment made contact. He was taking defense against the dark arts, charms, transfiguration, astronomy, study of ancient runes, potions, and herbology which he really only decided to take for another year because it sometimes correlated with potions. He was seriously considering dropping it for a third year's beginner's course in divination but he wasn't sure if he was allowed to do that. The near perfect scores on his OWLS should mean that he could have graduated already but he wasn't about to complain. He enjoyed learning; it was the homework he detested.

"Could you please stop tapping? It's really hard to concentrate when you do that." said Brody, who was sitting on his bed with a book that clearly wasn't for school in his hands and his dark brown, curly mop of hair covering more than seventy percent of his face.

Aidan looked down at his parchment and saw a large red splotch that resembled a blood stain marring his essay. His quill had run out of ink long ago but he hadn't noticed.

"Sure." he said, almost patronizingly. He was hoping he would have the dorm to himself but anti-social Brody just couldn't get out and face whatever event was keeping Bradley and Patrick away. Aidan had also been hoping that Brody would somehow woo Essy and become her new slave, er, boyfriend and have less time to brood in the dorm with his countless amount of books but his insurmountable shyness had become a social hindrance to him in every way.

"Have you finished the charms paper yet?" Aidan asked, expecting it to remind him that he hadn't so he would leave to go to the library and let him be alone.

"Nope." Brody said dismissively, turning the page. "It's a ridiculous topic that I intend to protest if given the chance."

Aidan clenched his fist. It wasn't that he strongly disliked Brody or anything; he just couldn't tolerate him when he immersed himself in the fullest extent of his naturally pessimistic attitude. Sure, all the boys irritated him at one time or another, Patrick for his lack of individual thinking and Bradley for his occasion cockiness that was actually quite similar to Chad's, but Brody just seemed to hit an entirely different nerve with Aidan.

"I don't know why you're getting all bent out of shape." Brody started, making it look like he could read and talk simultaneously. "You're the one with a girlfriend."

Aidan spun around in his chair and faced him challengingly. "How did you know that?" he demanded coldly. He and Bianca were trying to keep their relationship secret since they had only been together for two weeks although he was sure she had told all her friends since her friends seemed to harbor a strange respect for him that was still an enigma to him. As far as Aidan was concerned, there weren't many people he would tell: Chad of course, Bradley too probably, and then Patrick and Brody would end up finding out through Bradley.

"I saw you two kissing three days ago in front of the dorm around midnight." he said casually.

"So you were up at midnight keeping watch in front of the dorm just to catch people making out?" Aidan said annoyed.

"No." Brody snapped. "I was waiting for Bradley and Patrick to come back from that party with the Hufflepuff girls and . . ." Brody voice trailed off and Aidan knew it had something to do with Essy so he stopped caring and went back to staring at his unfinished essay.

"Holy mother of all that is holy!" shouted Bradley as the door to the dorm was slammed open. The ancient beds shook, making Aidan wonder how close they were to falling apart. Probably soon if Bradley keeps opening the door like that. Bradley had an overjoyed expression plastered on his handsome face and little, blonde Patrick behind him was grinning like a kid in a candy store.

"What is it?" Aidan asked, since he was clearly looking for someone to be interested.

"Well," Bradley started enthusiastically (he was quite the raconteur), "Pat and I were walking back from the party at the edge of the Forbidden Forest when we overheard Professor Dippet talking to someone whose voice we didn't recognize. Since I know pretty much everyone in the school, I had no choice but to find out who it was. From the wisps of conversation we could catch we deduced that he was talking to a professor. They used words like 'curriculum' and 'staff meeting' and the voice of the other person was too mature to be a female student. However, it was also clear that this professor was new and had just finished training for her job so we knew it had to be the professor who's taking over for Sluggy!"

Aidan lifted his eyebrows, searching for a point to all of this detail. "And?" he asked, losing patience.

"The new professor is . . . whoa; a major upgrade from Sluggy. She's just . . . whoa, and she is going to start tomorrow. You guys want to go see her? She's still talking to Professor Dippet right around the corner."

Aidan weighted his options quickly: go see new professor versus stare at the parchment for another twenty minutes in hopes that genius strikes me and I finish it tonight. It was a split-second decision as far as anyone was concerned. He put down his quill and stood up.

"Thatta boy!" said Bradley, clapping him on the shoulder. "Brody, you coming?" he asked the boy huddled up to his knees on his bed in the corner.

Brody looked blankly at Bradley for a few seconds before silently shutting his book and walking over to them.

The four boys exited the room and maneuvered through the hallways for a while before Bradley stuck out his arms like a crossing guard to keep them from walking any farther. He placed his index finger to his lips and hushed them quiet before peeking around the corner and giving them a nod of clarification.

Brody looked first and responded with a simple, "Hm, she's pretty," very objectively and matter-of-factly. Bradley almost looked offended.

"Aidan, you judge." he whispered, moving out of the way to give him a clear view of the new professor. Aidan stepped forward and his jaw dropped to the ground when he saw her.

"Mum?" he murmured quietly. Magdalena heard and looked towards the doorway, smiling instantly when her ice blue eyes fell upon her stunned son.

"Aidan!" she shouted, running over to give him a hug. "It's so good to see you!"

"It's good to see you too." Aidan said, hearing the boys behind him mumbling in shock. "What are you doing here?" he asked, even though he knew the answer.

"I'm the new potions professor. I wanted to surprise you. I think it's safe to say I succeeded." she said, loosening her grip on him.

"You have no idea." he said starkly, his body completely immobilized.

"So, who are these guys?" Magdalena asked, motioning to Aidan's roommates who quickly shut up when they heard her address them.

"Uh, these are my roommates." Aidan said, finding it awkward to introduce his mom to a bunch of guys his age who clearly would jump at the chance to have sex with her if the opportunity arose. "This is Brody Craightton, Patrick O' Keefe, and Bradley Gallagher."

Magdalena shook the hand of each boy, Bradley a bit longer than the others because he was unwilling to let go so quickly.

"It's nice to meet you. I hope I will see you all in class tomorrow." she said, smiling at the boys who blushed, except for Bradley who gave her a slightly arrogant grin. "I have to get back to my place. I'm staying at the freestanding house number seven over there." she said, pointing behind her. "Bye Aidan. I love you. " she said, giving him another hug.

"I love you too, mum." he said, embarrassed as she walked away, humming a jovial tune to herself under her breath.

Once she was gone, Bradley slowly turned to Aidan and practically screamed, "Mother! She's your mother! How in bloody hell . . ."

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"So what's this I hear about you dating a Ravenclaw?" asked Bianca's roommate, Evelyn, as she entered the dorm to see Bianca taking off her make-up in front of her large mirror. She had just finished with all her foundation and was moving downwards towards her lips.

"Well, I'm dating a Ravenclaw." Bianca said, wiping away her dark red lipstick. She had been wearing it for so long that her lips were almost permanently stained a darker than natural hue as a result. "There's nothing more to it." she said nonchalantly as she tossed the tissue she was using into a wastebasket by her desk.

"Nothing more to it?!" Evelyn shouted, putting her hands on her curvy hips. "Why the hell are you dating a Ravenclaw?! They are all bookish, quiet types who wouldn't know fun if it bit them in the arse."

Bianca calmly moved a few strands of hair away from her face and sighed. Sure, Evelyn was a good friend of hers but she could be such an idiot.

"Well, the guy I'm going out with is a nice guy and cute and he may like books but he knows damn well how to have a good time." she said, with a self-satisfied smile as she reflected on the times they had gone swimming in the pond and made out in the Astronomy Tower, which was apparently his secret hideout. "And, he came to that meeting you missed."

"Wait, a Ravenclaw came to a meeting?" Evelyn said floored, lowering her head.

Bianca grinned a little wider. "Yep, and when he made an offering to the pot, it turned black. Almost instantly too."

"The pot or the potion?" Evelyn asked with a spacey look as she straightened her posture.

"The potion." Bianca said like it should be obvious. The pot is black dimwit, she thought to herself.

"Oh wow." Evelyn said, cupping her hand over her gossipy mouth. "But . . . how?"

"I don't know yet." Bianca said, her smirk returning as she stood up and laid down on her bed. "But I intend to find out."