Notes So here I shuffled a bit with cannon. Hope you guys don't mind it.
This story stands only because of the beautiful world J.K. Rowling created for us. She owns everything in it.
All the way up to Halloween
Professor Sprout kept her word. Al teachers got of her back, except Snape, but he had hated Gemma before he knew she was afraid of magic, so she didn't bother about it much. Most teachers tried to encourage her, giving her points for answers she knew.
Gemma went to the Hospital Wing nearly every day. She and Madam Pomfrey had started with exposure therapy, and at the end of the week, Gemma was able to open the box with her wand in it and to look at it.
'Why don't you pick it up?' Madam Pomfrey suggested in her usual, soothing voice. Gemma liked her immensely. The Healer was always encouraging her to move beyond her comfort zone, without putting ever too much pressure on her. Gemma felt save with her there.
'I can't' she therefore answered with a steady voice, 'I remember what it felt like.'
'What?' the Healer asked.
'I felt powerful and happy' Gemma admitted, 'and I don't want to. I'm afraid of what it will do to me.'
'Gemma,' Madam Pomfrey said while looking intensely at the girl, 'we talked about it. It will not drastically change you. You are your own person, with or without magic abilities.'
Gemma looked into the blue eyes of the witch and breathed in deeply before nodding. She stretched her fingers, touched the wand and the feeling she had in Ollivander's shop rushed through her again. She backed off as if she had burned herself, and her fingers felt all tingly. 'That will be all for today' Madam Pomfrey said, without betraying any emotion except kindness in her voice.
Other than not being able to pick up her wand, Gemma was enjoying her time at Hogwarts. Her fellow students had heard about her incapability of performing any spell, and some of them, mostly Slytherins and Gryffindors, teased her about it. Jupiter was just plain mean sometimes, but Gemma had learned a long time ago to ignore her snares.
And every time someone said something truly hurting, Hannah would stand up for her, or Justin or Megan, and Gemma had seen Cedric hex at least two of her biggest bullies. Even Ernie stood up for her against the Malfoys when they kept going on about her weakness.
'Pathetic' Draco hissed in her ear when he walked past, slowing down next to her so he could continue to bully her.
'You're worse than Weasley' Jupiter said loud enough for the twins, who were in the hall as well, to hear. She shoved Susan aside to walk on her other side, so she was sandwiched between the two blond kids. 'They are filthy blood traitors, but at least they use magic. You should be living with pigs and muggles instead of us' she continued, and even from where she was standing she could see the Weasleys go red.
'Shut up and walk on if you've nothing useful to say' Ernie said to Gemma's great surprise, and the Malfoy twins shared a look before they shoved him down and walked on.
'Ernie!' Gemma shouted concerned and she helped him to get up.
'Horrible people' the boy mumbled and he patted Gemma on her arm. 'Don't listen to them Gem, if anyone should go, it would be those two.' Gemma smiled gratefully at him, and together with Susan they continued their way to the library, where they were going to study.
So her weeks continued, and it was almost the end of October when Gemma realized something was off with Hermione. They never spoke anymore, and Gemma only heard her voice when she was answering a question in class. More distressing though, was her behaviour in Herbology. Hermione didn't seem to mind so much any more if Gemma got involved or not and she let her touch and even take charge.
The first time, Gemma thought the girl finally saw she could do some things, but after a while she realized Hermione just didn't pay attention at all. There was not much she could do though. They only had Herbology and Transfiguration together, and the only other time she saw the girl was in the library, where the girl was buried in books. So she shoved it to the back of her mind, and tried to focus on her friends and her therapy.
'Let's go!' Megan was super excited, although Hannah and Gemma could not decipher if this was because of the feast or because of the food.
'Coming' Susan replied, giving a final touch to her hair.
'Yes, you're a beauty, no come on' Megan said impatient. Susan shot one look at the mirror before she followed the other girls out. As soon as they had left their corridors, Megan putted her hand through Susan's hair and then took off, cackling.
'Megan! I'm going to kill you!' Susan shouted and she took off after the girl, whose afro was bouncing on her head. Hannah and Gemma shared one look before they went after them.
Megan and Susan were already in the Great Hall, and Gemma stood still at the sight of it. Next to her, she heard Hannah gasp and she couldn't agree more. Instead of candles, thousands of pumpkins were floating through the air, their grins throwing scary shadows on the tables, the people and the walls. Bats were flying and trying to avoid the pumpkins.
Gemma saw one crashing at the Ravenclaw table, covering Terry Boot and Padma in pumpkin pieces from above. Gemma laughed and pinched Hannah, but the golden haired was looking at the walls with a look Gemma knew far too well. There were spider webs covering the stones and Hannah confessed that she was very happy theirs was one of the middle tables.
Gemma snickered and pulled her friend opposite of the others, the furthest side of the wall. Megan was straightening Susan's hair, and everything seemed fine again between them. Food hadn't appeared yet, and Gemma turned around and got up to speak to Padma, who still looked a bit orange.
'Try Scourgify' she told the girl, and she felt satisfied when Padma was clean afterwards.
'Thanks Gemma! Are you also excited for tonight?' Padma asked with sparkling eyes.
'Sure thing' Gemma replied.
'I only hope I will spent some time with Parvati. She and Lavender are a bit upset, I think' Padma told her with a sight.
'Why, what's wrong?' Gemma asked, a little bit worried. She was not surprised when Padma told her that they had found Hermione crying on a toilet, but that she had sent them off.
'She was quite harsh' Padma said offended, clearly feeling for her twin sister.
'You happen to know which toilet?' Gemma asked, as casually as possible.
'Yeah, on the second floor, West Wing' Padma replied, with a look that clearly stated she didn't understand this question at all.
'See ya' Gemma waved and she quickly whispered 'will be right back' to Hannah before she took off and left the Great Hall. She had no problem finding the toilet and she could hear Hermione sobbing, so even finding the right cubicle didn't prove to be difficult. 'Hermione?' she asked carefully, and the crying stopped abruptly.
'Gemma?' Hermione's voice said surprised Gemma nodded and then added: 'yeah, it's me. What's wrong, Hermione?'
'Oh sod off' the girl said rudely and then went back to sobbing. Gemma gave a heavy sight and went into the cubicle next to her.
'Hermione, I'm not leaving unless you tell me, and we're both missing out on a splendid dinner, so I suggest you speak up' she said sternly, thinking of all the times she had sat in a rather uncomfortable place with someone crying.
Why on earth would you go to a toilet when you could have your whole Common Room by now? Surely everyone was at the banquet by now. Although, Gemma thought, in this instance it was a lucky thing, for she would never have been able to go to Hermione in the Gryffindor Headquarters. She hadn't the faintest idea even were to find those. And, when she thought a little bit more on it, it hadn't been a long time ago when she had been crying in a bathroom as well. Maybe it was not such a weird place after all. You at least could lock yourself away.
The crying continued, but slowly died out.
'Gemma? Are you still there?' Hermione sounded very unsure.
'Yes, I told you, I'm not going anywhere' Gemma answered, trying to hold in a yawn.
'I am sorry. It's just, I thought it would be better here' Hermione sniffed, 'I had never many friends, but I thought at Hogwarts everyone would be like me. But today, I heard Ron say no one wanted to be friends with me. It's school all over again.'
'Don't listen to the redhead' Gemma answered, now holding in a laugh. She wanted to continue, but then she heard the door opening.
'Hello?' she asked when she heard footsteps entering.
'Shhh' she heard from the cubicle next to her.
'Why?' she replied in a clear voice.
'Gemma! Those footsteps are way to heavy to be a girl's' Hermione whispered and Gemma could hear the fear in her voice. She tried to open her door quietly, but before she even touched it she heard a splintering sound and there was no door left to open.
She instantly let herself fall down on her knees, ready to jump out of the way from whatever might be there.
'Hermione, you ok?' she asked, before looking up. A giant troll was standing there, and Gemma knew none of them was ok.
'I'm stuck' she heard Hermione, in a sobbing voice again, and Gemma went for her wand which she, thanks to her therapy, was carrying at all times now. She took a deep breath, shook her head and then conjured a lightening spell, which send an itchy feeling all the way from her arm to her heart, where it left new strength.
The sparks distracted the troll long enough to get out of the cubicle and to help Hermione out from under her door. When she looked up again, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley were standing there.
'Hermione' they shouted, and the fuzzy haired girl tried to get to them. This attracted the troll however, and the two girls ducked just in time.
Then, Harry Potter jumped on its back and stuck his wand in the nose of the giant monster. He could better have used the thing to cast a spell, Gemma thought irritated. This feeling quickly turned into fear when the troll now went for the black haired boy with such ferocity Gemma was sure he wouldn't survive it.
Suddenly, the troll had lost its club and it was hanging in the air, before it fell down on its head and the troll crashed on the tiles. Gemma looked up and saw Ron Weasley standing there, shivering, but with his wand held high and a determined look on his face. Gemma decided to never call him "that redhead" ever again.
Before anyone could say something, teachers finally arrived. They were McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell and all three of them were astonished by the sight of them and the unconscious troll.
'Could someone tell me what happened here?' the witch finally asked, focussing mostly on her own students.
'We' Ron started, but Hermione interrupted him in her usual manor.
'It is my fault, professor,' she said, and Gemma and the other two looked at her in utter surprise. 'I thought I could take down the troll myself. I've read about them' Hermione continued, 'Harry and Ron were just in time to save me.'
'Well' professor McGonagall said, clearly trying to recollect herself, 'that was very foolish of you, miss Granger. I expected better of you. I'll take five points of Gryffindor.' Hermione looked at her feet and Gemma couldn't believe her ears. 'And as for you two, not many first years have encountered a troll and lived to tell the tale. Five points for Gryffindor each, for shire luck' the professor went on, and Harry and Ron looked excited at each other. Gemma felt happy too, the boys so totally deserved it, although if it was up to her, the points would be much more. 'And as for you, miss Black, eh.. What exactly are you doing her?' The witch asked, and suddenly Gemma felt all eyes on her.
'I eh, I already was here' she said.
'You were here? Didn't you hear about the troll?' Snape said in a disbelieving voice.
'No, I didn't' Gemma said desperately.
Snape looked at the other professors. 'Miss Black must have been here for quite a while then' he said, 'clearly this is a false statement.'
'No, I was' Gemma now almost panicked, 'that's why I went to this far away bathroom. I eh, needed some time.' Everyone looked at her in disbelieve, but Gemma managed to keep her face straight. The blush was not faked, she felt it creeping up her cheeks and hoped it would only make the story more believable.
'Right, all of you, back to you dormitories' professor McGonagall said, breaking the tension.
'So, what'll be her punishment?' Snape asked, pointing at Gemma.
'Really professor, I see no need. I can hardly punish her for using this particular bathroom' professor McGonagall answered, and Gemma used their focus on each other to slip out after the others.
'Thank you,' Harry Potter said after a few corridors.
'Thank you' Gemma said, looking at the two boys, 'I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't..' Ron Weasley stepped forward and offered his hand.
'Ron,' he said, and Gemma introduced herself as well. They walked together to the main staircase, where the three Gryffindors went up and Gemma got down.
'Gemma! Where were you?' Hannah cried out when she walked into their bedroom.
'Why do you always take off?!' Megan sounded angry, and Susan just got up and hugged her so tight Gemma almost tripped over.
'Calm down' she laughed, 'I just met a troll. Now' she said before the others said anything, 'I will explain all.' Before she did though, she took her wand and with a broad smile she putted it on her night stand.