I decided to post this tonight since I won't be able to post much tomorrow. I have a lot of things to do. I will be able to post tomorrow evening though. So expect an update by then. Thank you Grey-Rain-Cloud and Dark Princess for your reviews. Yes, Nina will cure Mooney she will send him the mix over the summer with Skittles. I hope you like the short letter Poseidon sends to Nina, there will be a few of these through out her Hogwarts career. Nina is going to speak Italian randomly from now on because I just remembered how she said she sometimes switched into that language instead of English. Sorry for forgetting. Duratuss is Latin for freeze. Idiota means idiot for anyone who can't figure it out. Ragazzi idioti means idiot boys. If I forgot a word, look it up on google translate or ask me in a review. Same goes for the rest of the chapters.
Chapter Twenty Five: More Lockhart and Mudbloods
The next morning, Harry filled me in on how he and Ron drove a flying car to school. I didn't think the detention was enough, so I slapped him upside the head. I did the same to Ron. When the mail came, Skittles swooped in and stole an English muffin. She perched on my shoulder to eat it. I scratched the top of her head. The Weasley family owl made a crash landing in Hermione's jug of pumpkin juice. I made a face as some landed on me. I hate juice with a burning passion. At camp, when I ordered water for breakfast, everyone looked at me funny. I told them that juice was tasted worse than a skunk smelled. No one ever questioned my ways again.
"Errol," said Ron, pulling the now dripping owl from the jug. Skittles mentally laughed and I berated her through our link. She stopped immediately when I threatened to feed her actual owl pellets for a week. Ron pulled a red letter from the owl. All of the people who were raised by wizards looked terrified. I was confused until Neville whispered in my ear what it was. Ron was stupid to fly the car to school, but I thought Mrs. Weasley was the one stepping out of line when she decided to embarrass her son in front of the whole school. That was uncalled for. It was even worse when she dragged Harry into it. It's bad enough publicly embarrassing your own child, but to bring someone else's into it is just wrong.
Ron opened the Howler-STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY HAD EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TIL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHEN YOUR FATHER AND I SAW IT WAS GONE, LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED-ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED- YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME.
Everyone was staring at Ron and Harry. I knew they deserved punishment, but that was plain cruel. I looked at Fred and George. They had this look on their faces that told me this wasn't the first time Mrs. Weasley had done something like this. I growled and Neville looked at me funny. I waved him off. One look at Vati and Lav told me they agreed with me. Not even Ares was that bad. Hermione told Ron and Harry how they deserved that. No they did not, brillante una.
When Professor McGonagall gave us our schedules, we saw we had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs first. Lav, Vati, and I raced each other to the greenhouses. Lockhart was giving Sprout a lecture on how to properly care for a Whomping Willow. "Fa quell'idiota mai smettere vantarsi?" I asked Lav and Vati. Lavender giggled and I realized I'd said the phrase in Italian I had gotten so mad. I had been doing really good on not switching to other languages too. "I meant, 'Does that idiot ever stop bragging?"
The girls giggled and Neville just shook his head. "We'll be in Greenhouse 3 today, chaps," Professor Sprout said in a faux cheery voice. Only Lav, Vati, Nev, Harry, Hermione, and I had noticed the grumpiness. People are so unobservant. The Slytherins aren't, though. Lockhart asked to borrow Harry and before Professor Sprout or Harry could complain, had whisked the poor boy away. Once again, poor, poor Harry.
We were working with mandrakes today. That's the most dangerous plant we've worked with yet! When asked what mandrakes were, Hermione gave the perfect dictionary definition. You don't learn anything unless you can put it in your own words, and you don't know anything well unless you can teach it to someone else without confusing them. Hermione just confused half of this class. When Harry walked in, we broke off into pairs. Lav and Neville worked together and I worked with Vati. I had purple earmuffs, Lav had bright yellow, Nev had a fluffy, pink pair, and Vati had a blood red set. We set to work. I pulled the thing out, Vati grabbed it and put it in her pot, and we both started shoveling dirt on top of it. Neville's ear muffs were not completely on and the shrill shriek rendered him unconscious. Professor Sprout just left him there and Lav came to work with Vati and me. By the end of class, all the mandrakes were repotted and everyone was fully awake.
In Transfiguration, everyone was having lots of trouble. I turned my beetle into a button on my first try. It was a blue button with sea green waves etched into the outside. I pocketed it after showing it to Professor McGonagall. I would owl it to my dad. Luckily, because she was my familiar, Skittles could breath underwater. I thought my dad would get a kick out of the button. Hermione managed to change hers about half way through the class. She was followed soon after by Vati and Lav. There's were both pink with purple sparkles. Hey, there's reflect their Olympian parent too. Funny how that worked. A few minutes before class ended, Neville managed to change his. It was the color of wheat. That is odd.
Ron's wand was snapped by the Whomping Willow when the two ragazzi idioti flew to Hogwarts. It wasn't working very well. Ron smashed his beetle with his elbow when his wand emitted sulfuric smoke. The reason I knew it was sulfuric, was because of the rotten eggs smell. I covered my nose and mouth and gestured for my friends to do so as well. Sulfur made some bad acid. I didn't want that stuff in my body.
At lunch, I sat with Harry, Ron, and Hermione so they could fill me in on their summers and Dobby. They apparently thought we were a lot closer than we actually were. Even Hermione didn't seem to hate me anymore. Oh well, I still think she's a little know it all. I hate people like that. "So what about your friend, Morgan?" Hermione asked me. Why did everyone have to ask about him? I was still so mad at him. How could he do something like that to me?
I glared at Hermione as tears began to prick at my eyes. "We had a fight. I refuse to speak with him. Don't mention him in front of me." The Golden trio nodded. They seemed freaked out. I looked into my spoon. Oops, my eyes started to glow again. I quickly calmed down. When my eyes were green again, Harry asked Hermione what we had next. I was curious, I hadn't checked my schedule that far. She said DADA. Ron looked at her schedule and saw that DADA was outlined with little hearts. Harry and I both started cracking up and Hermione blushed. She didn't realize what a dirty piece of garbage Lockhart was. After I finished, Lav, Vati, and I joined arms and walked out of the Great Hall.
When everyone was outside the class, I noticed we had this lesson with the Ravenclaws. Padma waved and walked over. We began to giggle about how hard Beckendorf was crushing on Vati, Padma, and Lav's half-sister, Silena. It was really funny how such a buff guy could turn into a pile of pudding when she was around. We teased him so much about it.
Finally, Lockhart let us in. He had single desks, so I sat with Lav on my right, Vati directly behind me, her sister on her right, and Neville behind Padma. We rolled our eyes when Professor Lockhart told us our assignment. I cringed whenever someone said his name. We were to complete a quiz that was all about him. It disturbed me that a dude, that wasn't a son of Aphrodite, could be so self-absorbed. There were like a billion questions on the parchment. I groaned, my dyslexia had decided to be really bad that day. I looked at the questions. They looked something like this...
1: thaW si liGreoyd ckahrt'sL avfeorti lrooc?
2: htWa is Glidyore kaLchrts' cretes abmtiino?
3:aWth, ni oryu poninoi, si lGidroye oLkcrtahs' egraetst hcaevinemt ot teda?
All the way down to...
54: heWn is liGeory Lkocarh'ts ritbhyad, dan hatw oulwd shi dilea ifgt eb?
Eventually, I made it out with the help of Lav, who was ADHD but not dyslexic. Vati and Padma were both dyslexic but not ADHD. Lucky idiotas, not having to deal with both disabilities. Lockhart came around and collected all our parchment. Hermione and I both achieved perfect scores. The only reason I knew the stuff is because I always go through my textbooks before school. It grossed me out that a man would like the color lilac. I shuddered.
Next, Lockhart brought out some cornish pixies. Aw, there nothing more than little trouble makers. How dare Lockhart call them dark creatures. Pests, yes. Dark creatures, definitely not. Lav, Vati, and Padma rolled their eyes. Sofia, the two-year-old daughter of Demeter was more dangerous than a cornish pixie. I raised my hand.
When Lockhart pointed at me I spoke, "Professor," I hated calling him that, "my two-year-old cousin is more dangerous than a pixie. They're just little jokesters, peats if you must." Lockhart smirked at me. I just raised an eyebrow.
"Well, Miss Jackson, let's see how you fare against them." And just like that, Lockhart lifted the door and the pixies flew out. They pulled on peoples hair and when Lockhart tried to stop them, one took his wand. Great defense teacher he is. I stood up on my desk and whisked out my wand.
"Duratuss," I ordered. My wand tip glowed a soft pink and all the pixies froze. The students began going around and plucking them from the air. We all stuffed them back in the cage. I shot a smug smirk at Lockhart as the bell rang. I stuffed the books in my bag.
A few days later found Ron, Hermione, and I out on the Quidditch pitch. I sighed as I watched the players all zoom out onto the field, wishing I could be up in the air with them. Thanks to my uncle, I would be blasted from the sky if I got even more than five feet off the ground. I was very jealous, but hid my feelings by rereading the letter my father had sent me with Skittles about the button.
Dear Nina,
I find it rather amusing that you decided to send me that button. Unfortunately, my wife saw the button and went into a rant about how unfaithful I was. May I remind you how many stepsiblings you have done here in Atlantis. And she's yelling at me. Besides, that's the first time she's come within 10ft of me in millenia. Enough about my complaints...
How has school been for you? You are the first magical child I have ever had. You are a lot of firsts for me and I couldn't be more proud of you. I'm proud of your brother too. Don't tell him, but you have a half-brother. He is an 8-year-old cyclopes named Tyson. Your brother is friends with Tyson at school. I find that very funny. I'm thinking of sending Tyson to camp. Would you like that?
Love,
Dad
I loved that he signed it Dad. It made me feel like there was actually someone who cared about me. It made me feel special. I couldn't wait to meet my brother. I definitely wanted him to come to camp. "Hey, Nina, Hermione," Ron interrupted me from my musings.
Ron pointed out the Slytherin team walking up on the pitch. Ron, Hermione, and I made it down to the field just as the Gryffindor team landed. Malfoy had bought the position of seeker with Nimbus Two-Thousand Ones for the whole team. What a disgusting way to bribe someone. Just shows how much skill he has. I rolled my eyes at him. He glared at me. "You have no place at this school mudbloods." I stuck my tongue out at him, but Hermione was very upset by what he had just called her. Grow up, it's just Malfoy showing how immature he actually is. He apparently had forgotten the stunt I had done in the Great Hall last year because he was very angry at my lack of reaction.
Ron took out his broken wand. He pointed it at Malfoy, shouting, :Eat slugs, Malfoy!" The spell backfired and hit Ron instead. Harry and I grabbed him under the arms and rushed him off to Hagrid's hut. Hermione trailed after us. Once we got there, Hagrid gave Ron a bucket. We told him the days events.
Hope you enjoyed this longish chapter.