[Esmeralda POV]
Esmeralda sat in a corner of the room, exhausted. Cornelia was on the bed with a pensive expression on her face. Above them, 3 planets tried to kill each other in a fight that clearly could only have one winner. Distractedly, Esmeralda noticed that Pluto and Mars had allied against Venus. She asked herself is they had become sentient.
Suddenly, Cornelia was on her feet «Come on Venus, I know that you can win. For women power!» she screamed and fell back on the bed laughing.
She looked around the room and groaned. The disaster that was Cornelia's bedroom was the product of her good intentions and Cornelia's manipulative ability.
When she had offered to help make her bedroom more comfortable, Esmeralda had imagined taking a blanket and a few of her fluffy pillows to her friend's room. Maybe changing the color of the curtains too.
What followed instead, was an incredible magical display that lasted through the night until the first hours of the morning.
First, Cornelia had to expand the room, because "even my horses have larger stables". Esmeralda had tried to explain that that level of enchantment was well above their skill and in fact was one of the last charms that miss Cackle taught to the girls about to leave the school. Three years from now.
Cornelia had merely sniffed, declared that measuring one selves by the standard of the masses was pathetic and proceeded to enact the enchantment.
Esmeralda had almost gone for the door, Cornelia's arrogance getting on her last nerve. The thought of what could happen to her fellow student if something went wrong, was the only thing to hold her back.
Then, Cornelia had begun chanting and Esmeralda's lungs filled with magic. The room expanded in front of her stupefied eyes to two times its size, while at the center of it all the green eyes of her fellow student were wide open and radiant with power. Only her heavy breathing, betrayed the strain of the enchantment.
It was so impressive, that Esmeralda forgot everything about her previous annoyance and the imminent curfew. Her heart beat wildly, divided between studying the enchantment and waiting for what came next.
«How do you do in runes and transfiguration? » asked Cornelia. It was the question that opened the doors of some of the more grueling hours of her life.
They transfigured the old bed in a canopy double bed fit for a princess, with a matching wardrobe; the desk was expanded and made to look ancient, with an ornate mirror hanging above the wall. Cornelia had insisted for 2 cushioned chairs set comfortably in front of the desk, so they could study together in her room.
Then it was the turn of the sofa, the armchair and the rich purple and heavy curtains. Looking around, it looked nothing like a Cackle's room.
The curfew had already passed and Esmeralda had no doubts that the other students were already in bed. Miss Hardroom would be making her rounds to make sure that everyone was in her bedroom. She would have to be careful in going back to her room and hoping she wasn't caught.
She bid goodnight to Cornelia, promising that she would see her at breakfast tomorrow. Cornelia looked at her affronted and said nothing.
«What?» Esmeralda said exasperated.
«You said you would help me with the room! » Cornelia said angrily.
Esmeralda couldn't believe what she was hearing. «What do you think I have done so far?»
«Well, it's clearly not finished» Cornelia protested angrily
Not even Ethel, at the apex of one of her tantrums, could rival Cornelia right now. Her flaming cheeks, in sharp contrast with her pale complexion gave her a feverish appearance. Her crossed arms and the feet that slammed petulantly against the floor made her seem like more of a child.
But it was her glassy look – like she could barely hold back the tears – that made Esmeralda reconsider her angry retort.
Instead she sighted, defeated. «I think it's perfect, but it's you room. So, what's missing? »
Cornelia regaled her with a bright smile and immediately the glassy look disappeared, making it apparent that she had fallen for her trick.
«Magic, obviously» Cornelia exclaimed, grabbing her hand and twirling together. «Now it looks so … muggle». Esmeralda said nothing but noticed that Cornelia said "muggle" like someone said "worm" with a not so hidden disgust.
Cornelia opened her trunk and together they removed the gigantic persian carpet inside.
«It's one of my favorite items» Cornelia revealed, stars in her eyes. «Do you want to try it?»
«I … guess» she responded, perplexed.
«What are you waiting? Come here! » Cornelia indicated the center of the carpet, while she herself stood. Not one second later, the carpet was … flying!
«Oh merlin, you have a FLYING CARPET!» screamed the normally unflappable head of year and let out a giggle while the carpet made a sharp turn to the left.
«I can't believe you have a flying carpet. They are so expensive and so difficult to enchant, not to mention illegal in England»
«I am fifthly rich. Very little of what's prohibited to other people is prohibited to me»
«It sounds unfair»
«It's privilege at its finest, my dear» said Cornelia, emphasizing her posh accent and the 2 friends started laughing.
«So, what do you think is missing from the room?» Cornelia asked
«Lights» was Esmeralda's immediate response. «There should be fire's ball in every corner of the room»
«I think it would be magical!» Cornelia agreed.
So they made the magical lights, enchanted the mirror to compliment them and charmed the cushions of the bed to stop bed dreams.
She was having so much fun! No one of her age understood the wonders of magic or had the powers to do some serious enchanting and she was always commended by the adults and envied by her peers. The only real friends Esmeralda had, were her sisters but Cornelia … she really got her.
She knew that tomorrow there would be consequences and she actually was amazed that miss Hardbroom hadn't already caught them out of bed and doing magic, but she would think about it tomorrow. Tonight was all about magic.
And then … Then came the request of doom.
«I want a small solar system flying through the room» Cornelia said decisively.
They had conjured 8 balls, enchanted them to appear like planets, that were animated and made magical resistant.
They lied on the bed for a while, looking the planets orbit peacefully.
Esmeralda looked around the room, marvelling at the magic she contributed to create.
«What are you thinking?»
«The leak» Cornelia answered.
Turns out that even with all of Cornelia's powers and knowledge she had no idea how to fix it.
«Leak aside, the room really is wonderful»
«Yeah … the planets however-»
«What about the planets?» Esmeralda thought that the solar system was one of their better projects.
«They are too slow … It's so boring!»
Esmeralda looked at them. «We could maybe make them a little bit faster…»
«Yes, we could!»
This time the enchantment failed miserably. Esmeralda still wasn't sure what they had done wrong, but when they tried improving the enchantments, the planets became malicious. They had begun a fight to the death between each other and no countercharm had worked.
Instead when Esmeralda had tried to countercharm Neptune, the planet had abandoned the fight against its brothers and tried to attack her.
She was so stupefied that she hadn't moved. If Cornelia hadn't exploded it and declared that the next planet who tried to hurt them would have a worse end, she would have been on her way to the infirmary.
Interesting, the planets hadn't tried to attack them again. The rest of the furniture wasn't so fortunate. Earth crashed against the magical mirror, making it 7 years of bad luck for the 2 witches. Uranus had pushed Saturn out of the window breaking the glass panel, but its path intercepted a fire light and combusted. Saturn returned in the room wobbly and promptly was disposed of. At the end only Venus, Pluto and Mars remained.
In a few hours, she would have to report to miss Cackle the existence of malicious and possibly sentient planets. Esmeralda groaned.
On the canopy bed, Cornelia whispered «I think they make for good protection of the room. As long as they don't hurt us, I don't see why they should be countercharmed».
«If someone who isn't us entered this room-»
«They would rip the consequences of their actions» Cornelia said
«Miss Hardbroom makes weekly checks on all the rooms»
«Oh, well. I guess we have to train the planets then»
Esmeralda laughed. «So, I'm actually surprised that miss Hardbroom didn't come to check this room. I guess she is more lenient the first night back at the castle, but we made so much noise» Esmeralda said.
«Does she? I have silenced and warded the room. No one can enter against my express permission».
«She is going to be so pissed!»
«I guess» Cornelia shrugged
«You don't seem upset»
«The contrary of love isn't hate but indifference. Now, I would like a couple hours of sleep before facing the dragon».
[Cornelia's POV]
Cornelia groaned. It was like a few minutes had passed since she fell asleep. Gradually she opened her eyes to the wreckage that the planets had created. Broken glass and damaged furniture aside, it wasn't as bad as she thought it could be. Over her, the planets had apparently reached a truce and now floated around calmly.
She cast a tempus charm and she realized that she had actually slept for less than half an hour. She groaned again in her pillow and barely registered Esmeralda, fast asleep beside her.
After a few minutes in which she tried to locate the disturbance that had woken her up, she had almost fallen back asleep. Then she had felt it again.
Her wards! Someone was dismantling her wards.
Her planets, as if they had sensed that someone was trying to invade the sanctuary of their dominion, were nervously flying from one part of the room to the other. Cornelia observed them with a grin.
If she hadn't been half asleep, she would probably have guessed that only a select few people would try to dismantle her wards when dawn had not yet come.
But Cornelia's mind was still resting on the pillow and she thought that whoever had roused her from a very invigorating sleep deserved to receive to scare of her life.
So without further delay, she threw open the door and 3 very angry magical resistant planets were set free against a very angry miss Hardroom.