When he reached the top of Ravenclaw tower, he was confronted with the sight of around twenty people standing in front of the knocker, looking infuriated and confused. This was a common occurrence in Ravenclaw, especially when the knocker had its bouts of impenetrable profoundness. A girl with wavy blonde hair pushed through the crowd and knocked the knocker. After a few moments, Rowena Ravenclaw's voice issued, as always. Although this time Io could swear she sounded exasperated. Could the knocker tell it had been knocked many times and that no one had produced an answer?
'Prove to me that you are not a figment of my imagination.'
'What the..' the girl turned to him, and Io recognised the seventh year chaser on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, clearly confused at the knocker's latest bout of insanity. This sharpened their intellect and all, but at times like this he was tempted to ask Flitwick to just give them passwords. Sweeping her blonde hair out of her face, she spoke to the knocker, 'Uh, Rowena, sorry, but could you rephrase your question? I'm afraid I don't understand.'
'Prove to me that you exist,' articulated Ravenclaw. Melody threw her hands in the air with a wry laugh. 'She's all yours, I don't get this one.' Io walked slowly up to the knocker, wracking his brains. How is anyone meant to prove to a knocker, of all things, that they exist? If he doesn't exist then anything he says wouldn't exist either, would it?
'Well,' he started, unsure as to how he was going to phrase this, 'any answer we give may also be a figment of your imagination, so there's no way to prove our existence to you. The real question is, I suppose, prove to us that you're not a figment of our imagination.' A long silence followed, during which the twenty something people trapped outside looked intently at the knocker, awaiting any sign of an answer.
'Very well, I can't fault your reasoning,' she spoke in her tinkly voice once more, all hints of exasperation gone, 'you may enter.' They entered, glad that they didn't have to wait any longer. Melody collapsed into one of the armchairs by the far windows and started working on an essay in silence. Io took a chair by the fire and started reading the chapter about Hippogriffs.
The diet of the Hippogriff consists mainly of insects, birds and small mammals such as ferrets. When breeding, Hippogriffs build nests on the ground, and lay only a single, fragile egg. The egg usually hatches in twenty four hours. Infant Hippogriffs are capable of flight within a week, but it takes many months before they are strong enough to accompany their parents on long journeys.
Io packed up his things and made his way to his dorm as watercolours began to streak the steadily darkening sky. As his stomach rumbled, he unceremoniously threw his books into his trunk and made his way back out into the common room. He strode towards Melody, who still looked engrossed in what was fast becoming a three foot long essay.
'Mel, are you gonna come down to dinner? I'm heading there now.' He murmured quietly, trying to disturb her as quietly as possible. She had been twirling her quill furiously, one hand clutching her hair. She looked up at him with a wry smile.
'I'll probably stay here a while longer,' she gave a large huff and glared enviously at a group of first year chattering brightly, 'this is insanity, the amount of work Potions is in NEWT level, and it's only the first day for Barty Baggin's sake!' Io arranged his face into a sympathetic smile, NEWTs sounded like a nightmare. Although thankfully, he would have to get through OWLs and another year, before he was even faced with that hurdle.
As he placed his hand on the door knob, Melody's voice rang out behind him.
'Oi Sonorous!' Io turned, bemused, to the girl now grinning at him, 'save me a seat will ya?' He only managed to nod quickly before he was shunted out by the people behind him. They hadn't been too amused at his decision to turn against the current of people filing out the door.
Io had arrived at the Great Hall slightly early, only a handful of people were seated at the House tables. As he made his way to the Ravenclaw table however, something collided hard with his shoulder, shoving his side into the corner of the table. He spun on his heel, feeling his anger bubble.
'Oi watch it!'
He found himself confronted with Bellatrix Lestrange, another demented soul housed by this castle. She was sneering at him, her tangled black hair seemingly pulsating with glee, as she bounced on the balls of her feet, clearly highly amused at something. He did not care to find out what this comic marvel was. He turned on his heel, but was stopped as she burst out with what she wanted to say, her large mouth contorted in delight.
'So I hear, from Lucius, that my dear cousin has not only been thrown out, but has been bunking with the goat charmer Dumbledore.' She seemed to be struggling to hold back tears of laughter as she continued, 'so not content to eat out of the trash of muggles, you fancied a bunk in the goat hub of the Northern Hemisphere. DID YOU FANCY YOURSELF FIDDLING WITH GOATS TOO SONOROUS?' This last part she had blurted out so loudly that the people now sitting at the tables- and many more had arrived since he'd entered- turned to watch. Io felt a hot prickle of anger, and a wave of heat, travel up his face. Bellatrix moved closer to him and laughed raucously in his face, he felt her hot, stale smelling breath on his face and grimaced. She turned and bounced on her heel.
He stood rooted to the spot, shaking, aware that many were now laughing, staring at him as he stood there, speechless. Io grabbed a bowl of chicken soup and hurled it as hard as he could at Bellatrix's turned back, imagining it as an oddly shaped quaffle. The soup drenched Bellatrix's back in steaming yellow liquid, and she was covered in odd bits of chicken and corn. He'd only realised what he'd done when the image of Bellatrix drenched and steaming registered in his brain, and he gave a shocked chuckle. He was simultaneously awed and shocked that he had just done that. As Bellatrix turned to him in rage, he whipped out his wand, still grinning.
'Try me Bella, it's been a long two months I haven't jinxed you, I'm kind of missing it.' She responded with a jinx, which he hurriedly avoided. He sent a jinx right back at her. It didn't land on her; instead, it deflected and a cry rang out across the hall.
'ENOUGH!' McGonagall had just stridden into the hall, and was blazing towards them, looking fearsome. 'WHAT-what in Merlin's beard is going on here? Miss Black, why are you doused in-in...Is that soup?' She looked from Io to Bellatrix, to the cracked soup bowl on the ground, her mouth becoming thinner by the minute and her eyebrows disappearing into her hair. She was speechless for a minute, but then unfortunately, regained speech quite quickly. 'Detention, the both of you, in my office tonight-no Mr. Sonorous, I will not hear it. Twenty points from each of Slytherin and Ravenclaw for this. A further ten points from Ravenclaw for the soup! Now kindly return to your tables' she stormed off, looking haggard, towards the table at the head of the hall.
Io walked off to the tables, glad he had gotten away with just one night's detention. The hilarity of what had just happened struck him more with every step he took towards his seat, so much so that by the time he had reached it, he was laughing fit to burst and trying in vain to pass it off as a violent coughing fit. When he'd sat down, he realised Morph was already there, was surveying him in mingled amusement and horror. Io felt it was safe to laugh loudly if he was with someone else, and stopped trying to pretend he wasn't laughing. His laughter rang out in his ears and he didn't try to suppress it. This moment would be forever be imprinted in his memory and he would've gladly taken detention every night this month to have that memory in his head.
When he'd recovered, he found himself joined now by Oliver and Melody, he and Morph started filling them in on what had happened. Oliver kept his face straight and didn't comment in the beginning, no doubt trying to live up to his prefect status, but succumbed to laughter soon after. Melody was hooting with laughter, her eyes streaming. Morph however had stopped laughing a while ago. He was aware of Professor McGonagall staring at them with such intensity that he felt as though he might shrivel up. He was the only one to notice the boy now walking towards them.
A tall, athletic looking Ravenclaw with close cropped brown hair, two shaved stripes out of his left eyebrow and many piercings in his ear, appeared next to Morph as the pudding appeared in front of him. Morph smiled widely at the Ravenclaw Quidditch team captain, Dirk Creswell, who gave a tight smile and sat down to next to the talented keeper, amidst a raucous greeting from the now euphoric crowd.
He waited quite a time for the boisterous outbursts to subside, and as they fell back into yet another outburst of laughter, Dirk threw Morph an amused glance, at which Morph simply chuckled nervously.
'Alrigh',' growled Dirk in his thick Scottish inflection, 'will yer' all jus' shut up and listen fer' two minutes, I wanna sleep some taime thais caintury.'
'Oh, sorry Dirk,' muttered Melody as they turned, rubbing the tip of her nose and grinning apologetically. Io had frozen, his spoon in mid-air, nodding for him to continue. It had just occurred to him that he was meant to be at Quidditch tryouts tonight. It felt as though a stone had dropped in his stomach.
'Righ',' he started, looking at the team who'd rearranged their faces into expressions of seriousness, 'wael thain, it seems we'll be one player short tonight coz of yer detaintion Io -yer must've sait a raicord- so I'll have ter cancel tryouts. Bu' now, I'd laike ter' pick the players on the team as soon as possible. Whaen are yer' all free?'
'I reckon anytime would be good with us,' murmured Morph quickly, the others nodding in agreement, 'the sooner the better. Set your time and we'll all be there.'
'Wael thain, I'll pick an afternoon before thais weekend, and I'll saind out word to yer' all, with thaim papers again.' He rose, a cavernous yawn stretching over his face, 'Ah, an' tray ter avoid detaintion Io, its only the firs' day fer God's saike.' he added loudly. With that, he turned on his heel and loped off.
After a pleasant dinner, Io waved the group goodbye and made his way to McGonagall's office. He had no idea what his detention would be like, but he was not worried. McGonagall was certainly strict, but she was fair, and unlike Filch, wouldn't breathe down your neck or wheeze at you. When he reached her door, he found Bellatrix standing there, looking sulkier than her heavy lidded eyes usually made her look. She threw him a poisonous glare but said nothing. Neither of them dared start any trouble right under McGonagall's nose. After a few minutes, McGonagall stepped out, held the door open for them, and wordlessly ushered them inside. Once inside, she handed them thick dragon hide gloves, like the ones they would use in Herbology and drew their attention to a set of boxes sitting in front of her. They were all plants used as potions ingredients, but different from what he was used to somehow. He looked at McGonagall, bemused.
'These are plants and animals which Professor Sprout and Kahina have collected and collected for the Potions department. However, before they can be used, they must be refined. I was delegated this task. However, since you felt the need to turn the Great Hall into the scene of a common pub brawl,' here she paused, her eyes boring into each of them, 'I have delegated this task to you. Each potions ingredient has a description of what needs to be done. I will half the ingredients amongst you and expect you both to work in silence. You may leave once you are done, and I expect no such misconduct in the future or you shall bear the brunt of my displeasure. Are we clear Miss Black, Mr. Sonorous?' They quickly nodded and set to work.
The first box Io was set with cleaning was labelled; Aconite. (The leaves are poisonous, but the flowers are valuable. Remove the leaves, leaving the rest in tact). Io had what looked like two dozen flowers. They were quite small so it was fiddly work, teasing off the leaves without injuring the rest. He placed the leaves into a box which was labelled, waste, and moved onto the next box. This box was labelled; Ashwinder eggs (extremely hot and flammable, employ a freezing charm to freeze them, and then place in the sealed box labelled 'frozen A.E'). Io set about using the freezing charm (using the incantation 'Glacius') on each of the eggs in turn. He then placed each of the eggs into the box. The next box was labelled; Asphodel (Remove the roots, wash them and grind them to a thin powder, then put into the jar labelled 'powdered root of asphodel'). Io cut off the roots, employed the cleaning charm he had seen Aberforth use, and reached for a mortar and pestle. He ground the roots to a fine powder, and then placed it in the jar as instructed. The next box was labelled; Shivelfig (Skin and then collect the purple liquid inside in the vial labelled 'shrivel fig juice'). Io carried on like this through another dozen ingredients in front of him, with McGonagall scratching through reams of parchment, and Bellatrix doing the same as him. When he had finished, slightly later than Bellatrix, he presented his work to McGonagall, bade her goodnight, and set off for the long walk up to Ravenclaw tower.
No one was there when he returned to the tower, after midnight. He dragged himself up the stairs changed reluctantly and fell into bed.