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Cinder

At Hogwarts, Cinder's least favourite subject was History of Magic. She'd lost count of how many times she had to cram for a test because Professor Binns' droning made her fall asleep.

At Artemisia, her least favourite subject used to be Astronomy. Not only was it pretty much useless as far as she could see, but Professor Park was the stuff of nightmares! And the way he treated some of the girls…! An involuntary shudder ran through Cinder's spine just thinking about the way he leered and touched the unfortunate witches. It made her glad for her boyish angular figure.

The only lesson that trumped Astronomy was a more recent addition that required her to sneak down to the Potions classrooms on weekends. Lunar Manipulation.

"It's very simple." Professor Erland told her. "You just need to will someone to do something, think something, feel something, see something, whatever, and it will happen. It'll be a bit awkward at first, and the recipient will probably be able to tell that something's off, but with practice they won't even notice the manipulation."

"What if I don't want to practice?" Cinder grumbled rebelliously.

"I'm afraid that's not an option. Now that the magic suppressing your gift is damaged, you might not be able to get away with neglecting your gift without suffering the consequences. The only way out of it is to practice."

"Can't you just fix the magic?"
"Not without knowing more about it, and I doubt I'd gather any of that necessary information from examining your particular broken piece."

Cinder huffed and crossed her arms. Despite Professor Erland's many (and probably exaggerated) warnings about lunar sickness, she was still tempted to try her luck and go without the so-called "gift". Honestly, who's stupid idea was it to call this a gift anyway? Since when is being able to brainwash people a gift? Nero Blackburn must've been one seriously power-hungry arrogant jerk. And was Cinder the only one who wondered about why the power was passed on so quickly?

Professor Erland sighed and peered at her over the top of his glasses. "Look Cinder, I know you're not happy about this, and I don't blame you. After all, you've been taught your whole life about what nasty, evil creatures lunars are and how they evilly use their gift to do whatever they want and hurt old ladies and such, but I assure you, it's not like that. True, the nature of the gift might be a bit unethical, but most lunars only use it to pull harmless pranks on each other, like making their friends trip over their own feet."
Cinder glared at him. "And you expect me to take a lunar's word for it? Oh come on," she said, noticing his shocked expression, "it doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out when you know so much about this "gift" and the way lunars supposedly act!"

The old teacher raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, so you won't take my word for it, but will you take Winter's?"

Cinder blinked at him. "What?"
"Winter is your friend, yes? And she's a lunar. In fact, I have a very strong suspicion that she's suffering from lunar sickness. Jacin Clay is also lunar. His gift is very weak and it's inconsequential whether he uses it or not, but surely that doesn't matter if all lunars are inherently evil."

"Hold on-" Cinder tried, but Professor Erland cut her off.

"And Ze'ev. I've seen you talking to him on occasion. I happen to know the village he's from. A very poor settlement, and more than half its inhabitants are lunar. And they coexist perfectly peacefully with their human neighbours. And…" he hesitated briefly, clearing his throat before he finally said, "Crescent. She's lunar as well. A shell, to be precise. That's a sort of lunar that has no gift and is immune to manipulation by the gift."

Cinder groaned and rubbed her temples. Winter, Jacin, Wolf, Cress. They were all lunars? But that's… they can't be! Winter liked to make trips to the owlery to pet the owls. Jacin was fiercely protective of her and seemed to have a very strong sense of loyalty and justice. Wolf might be a bit violent, but on the whole, he was quite gentle and awkward. Cress was a sweet little bookworm who had a crush on Thorne and enjoyed singing. Try as Cinder might, she just couldn't see any of them as lunar. They just didn't fit with what she heard about the magical people her whole life. Then again, her whole life she'd thought of herself as a normal human being, and that was apparently false.

Attending Artemisia was just bringing on revelation after revelation.

Professor Erland peered at her sternly over the tops of his glasses. "So you see, lunars aren't evil as a species. I won't deny that we have a fair few rotten eggs, but so do normal witches and wizards. Have you ever heard of Grindelwald? He was one of the most powerful Dark Wizards of all time, and he was perfectly human. And have you heard of Logan Tanner? A very successful physician who saved countless lives during his career, and he was a lunar."

"Well excuse me for believing the only thing I've ever heard about lunars over the course of my entire life." Cinder grumbled.

"And I understand that. All I'm saying is that just because you have the lunar gift doesn't make you evil. Do you understand?"

Reluctantly, Cinder nodded.

"Good. Now let's get on with practice."

He took a step back, probably so he could see her better. "We'll start with something simple. I want you to make me do an Irish jig on the spot."

"What if I don't know what an Irish jig is?"

"Just make me do a funny dance then."

Cinder sighed and focused on the old man standing in front of her. She had a vague idea of how an Irish jig worked. She'd seen a picture of a leprechaun doing it in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Shutting her eyes, she tried to force the image out of her mind and into Professor Erland's. You want to do an Irish jig. You want to do it more than anything else right now.

The sound of feet tapping merrily on the stone floor prompted her to cautiously open her eyes. And stretch them even wider at the sight of the stern, serious Professor Erland kicking his legs out in easy, practiced movements with a big smile on his face, humming happily to himself.

A grin broke out over Cinder's face. If only she had a camera. This would make an amazing picture.

The lapse in her concentration (unfortunately) broke the spell. The teacher scowled. He looked down disbelievingly at his jerking legs and hurriedly stopped the dance. Standing still as a pole. A very embarrassed pole.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, um, well done. It seems your gift is much more advanced than I originally thought it would be. The urge to… to do an Irish jig was very seamlessly planted into my consciousness."
"Good to know I'm a natural manipulator." Cinder replied, but she couldn't quite hide the smile still tugging at her lips. "Can I go now?"

"Yes, you're free to go. Oh, and one more thing."

Cinder sighed. Here comes another speech about the morals of the lunars. "Yes?"

"Do you know anyone who'd be willing to spend practically every waking moment with Carswell? The headmistress' latest punishment is making him very prone to making a right mess in Potions class."

A/N: [Lunar manipulation power is now available]

Cinder is learning to use her lunar gift. But will it be enough to help her get through the school year? And who would ever want to spend every day with Thorne (subtle wink to Cresswell lovers)

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