The enchanted ceiling was awash with dawn light above the sparsely populated hall, most of the castle still asleep this early in the morning. Even still, however, the tables were full of food, from toast to cereal.
It was a shame that she had no appetite. Staring at the hoops floating in her milk, all she could do was rub the bridge of her nose as she breathed her anger down.
Honestly, what sort of child snored? Hannah, that's who. The little brat was clearly trying to provoke her; smothering her in her sleep would be fully justified. She'd be doing the world a favour.
She slumped into her chair, the wood digging into her back. She'd just… have to put up with it. One of the many detriments to living in a shared dorm. At least when it was just Su all she had to deal with was some clinging and a bit of cover hogging, but this was on a whole different level.
And there was so much she needed to do, she really didn't want deal with this on top of all that.
A couple minutes later, after she had started on her cereal, she saw Su enter the hall. Hmm, if anything she looked worse than Morgan felt. She still had her bed hair and was biting her lip anxiously, a tiredness to her eyes.
She perked up as Morgan waved her over, hurrying to her side and hesitating as she looked at the seat next to her.
Morgan rolled her eyes. "Sit down" she said.
Su quickly did so, scooting her chair so close they were touching, followed by scooting herself half onto Morgan's chair, until their hips were pressed against each other.
"Am I allowed to sit here?" she said, looking around at the few other Hufflepuff students, as though she hadn't just sat down and stole all her personal space.
"I shouldn't see why not. If anyone has a problem, well, I could do with blowing off some steam." Preferably on Hannah.
Su eyed her, eyes narrowing. "You're angry again. What's upset you this time?"
Morgan blinked, then scowled at her. "Why Su, whatever do you mean by 'this time?'"
Unfortunately, the girl seemed immune to her annoyed glare. "You always get angry" she shrugged.
Morgan's face soured, lips twisting like she had swallowed a lemon. Angry? She did not always get angry. This uppity...
"Eh?" said Su, eyes roaming Morgan's face from inches away due to how close she was sitting. Then her eyes widened, looking at Morgan sorrowfully. "You're… You're not angry with me, are you?" she said, pouting.
Faced with that, Morgan did as she always did, folding like a wet card. She wrapped her right arm around Su, sighing as Su burrowed into her, head resting against her neck.
"No, just didn't get as much sleep as I wished" she grumbled, relaxing under Su's body heat.
When Su questioned further, she went into a long rant about how she wanted to smother Hannah in her sleep, to which Su was a strangely happy audience.
"Anyway" she said, stopping her angry rant. "What about you? You don't look too good yourself." Su didn't look that bad but there was a definite tiredness to her eyes. "The Slytherins aren't bullying you, are they?" She'd taught Su how to deal with bullies, but those were wretched orphans without wands. If they were bullying her…
"No, none of them have even talked to me, just…" she mumbled, burying her face into Morgan.
"Just?" she said coolly. Something was wrong with her and she would find out what.
Su mumbled into her neck, face red. Morgan's hand tightened slightly, squeezing her shoulder.
"I just… Didn't like sleeping on my own."
This girl was going to kill her with such adorableness. Still though… "You managed just fine when I spent the night with Maria."
Su pulled away from her, something very ugly flashing across her eyes. Turning to the table, she pulled some bacon towards her, grabbing a fork and spearing it viciously.
Hmm, guess not.
The sound of flapping wings caused her to look up. A brown owl was flying down from the ceiling towards her, a paper clutched between its talons. Swooping, it dropped the paper in front of her before sweeping away.
The Daily Prophet, pretty much Britain's only newspaper. It was… not expensive, but cost far more than it would have had it some decent competition.
The front article was about a new decree by the Minister, allowing him to set up… Huh, he was creating his own secret service, staffed directly by him for his own protection. All SS employees would have to swear binding oaths to protect the Minister. Something very serious. Vows weren't illegal by any stretch, but there was such a huge taboo against them...
The decree was actually rather interesting. She noted that the SS would be sworn to the Minister for Magic, not Lucius, until a new Minister was appointed. Baby steps, eh Lucius?
Far more interesting - in the immediate future, anyway - was an article by Rita Skeeter about Harry Potter.
Morgan grinned sharply as she read. It really was a good article, talking about his placement among Gryffindor, just like his parents. And then…
It talked about his wand, the twin of You-Know-Who's own wand, and my wasn't that tragic? Harry Potter, Wizarding hero, forced to live with an ever present reminder of his parents murder. And oh, how she, Rita, offered only her full support to this tragic figure.
Oh Harry, if only he could see the jaws slowly closing upon him.
"Alright class, say it with me now. Lumos!"
Morgan watched as the other students tried their spells, some wands lighting up while others did nothing or sputterred. Her own wand was glowing with a faint light; Su's was glowing a little brighter.
The Wand-lighting charm. Of course it was, she didn't know what she was expecting from this lesson.
"Bravo! Bravo!" squeaked Flitwick from atop his stack of books. "To those that didn't manage the spell, we'll soon have you caught up!"
His high-pitch voice grated on her ears. Her wand light faded as she closed her eyes, breathing deeply. It didn't help that she hadn't gotten as much sleep as she wished.
She opened her eyes, looking annoyingly at the tiny Professor. She couldn't remember the truth, but she wouldn't be surprised if the rumours were true and he did have some Goblin ancestry. Hagrid was half Giant, so Goblin-Human children shouldn't be impossible.
For a moment, she drifted as she realised she couldn't remember who was the human one of Hagrid's parents. The horrid images were quickly banished before she could do more than wince and cross her legs. Just… Ouch.
"Well then!" came Flitwick's voice, causing Morgan to grip her wand tightly as she focused on him. "To those that succeeded, I'll be passing around some material for you to look at. I want you all to read through it, then try the spells and exercises listed. I shall award points to any that impress me, so try hard now!"
She saw students across the room perk up at the mention of points. Fortunately, Su wasn't one of them. Thank God at least one person saw how stupid such things were. All points did was earn a house the cup at the end of the year, that would then spend the year in a cabinet in a Head of House's office somewhere.
"Susan, did you hear that! We can earn some points!" Hannah chirped to her left. Morgan sighed. Why did she have to sit next to her? To her disappointment, even Susan looked enticed by the prospect of points. Such a shame, she had seemed more mature, but she supposed she was expecting too much.
Su was also glaring at the girl, eyes beaming a hateful glare at her from Morgan's right. Understandable.
Stacks of papers were floating around the room to all the students that had managed the charm. Reading through the sheaves of parchment, she actually found herself growing more interested in the lesson. Written down were the incantations that would perform the spell in a different colour, along with the wand movements, all of which were very similar.
There was also an exercise for, she assumed, increasing one's control over magic, by trying to change the intensity of the light from the spell. Child's play really, but she might as well try it.
Well, she was stuck in this classroom for the next couple hours, so she supposed she should get on with it. "Lumos" she said, feeling the thrum of her power through her veins, the flow of strength calmly sitting beneath the surface, come to life as it merged with her wand, white light brightening the tip of her wand.
She channeled more power into her wand. This spell didn't even cause her the faintest of mental strain thanks to the simplicity, low power requirements and how much she had practiced it, and her wand obediently brightened. Her power was more controlled now, she could now throw around much more power before her magic fought her, especially now she had a wand.
A flash of light interrupted her, eyes wincing shut, though she noted with some pride that it hadn't caused her to stop her spell. From across the room she saw a Slytherin girl rubbing at her eyes and glaring at her wand.
"Oh ho! Careful now! Even the most simple spells can cause problems if you don't handle them properly!" shouted Flitwick, bouncing enthusiastically.
Hmm, interesting. She couldn't recall ever actually overpowering her spells. Most of her wandless training had resulted in underpowered magic, if anything, and when she finally got a wand her control was enough to perform the spell properly, when her wand allowed.
She turned to the other spells provided. Below each spell was some simple theory, followed by the wand movements. "Lumos Roseus" she said. And it worked first time, thankfully, the light turning a deep red.
The spell felt… slightly different, as though an extra note had been added to the spell. She flicked through the other spells, the light shifting into different colours as she went through them. The notes of the spell, or perhaps the taste of the spell, or even perhaps the adding of another strand to the tapestry of the spell… It was difficult to describe, but it shifted slightly each time she changed spell. They all felt so similar to each other that the difference was almost unnoticeable.
"Well done over there! Twenty points to Hufflepuff!" Flitwick's voiceturneto awareness. Looking around, she saw the other students all still trying the wand-lighting charm. A few students had faint, sputtering coloured lights flashing at their wand tips, but that was it.
Good. She refused to be lesser than a child, not after all her hard work. She couldn't afford to.
The lesson ended soon after. Seems she had been more absorbed with the magic than she expected. But…
As she walked down the hallway, practicing the different spells, she couldn't help a nagging feeling clawing at her. She just felt like she was missing something, something obvious, and it was starting to frustrate her.
"Absolutely not!"
The Hogwarts library was just as incredible as she had been told. Thousands, tens of thousands, even, of books stretched across the room, corridors branching off the main aisle and leading deeper into the library, surrounded by bookshelves. Tables were placed at points throughout the room, usually in one of the side paths, out of the way of the main corridor that stretched from one end of the room the the other.
It would have been perfect, an endless resource for her to learn from, were it not for this… uptight lowlife.
"Do you know what can happen!? The owl could drop the book, weather could tear it apart, students might not return them!" screeched Madam Pince, the librarian. A truly unfortunate woman that… Well, if she was turned into a Veela, Morgan still guessed that she wouldn't know how to look good. She should get a dictionary and put her picture next to the word 'plain'.
"Some of these books are hundreds of years old! To take them from the castle, without my care, who knows how badly they could be damaged!" said the shrill harpy.
"I see" said Morgan, glaring at her. "So, if you won't grant me permission, who will?"
A mad glint entered her dim eyes, sparkling behind her square glasses. "No-one, you hear! This is my library, my books, I have the final say! And I will not allow them to leave this castle!"
This woman was clearly far too attached to her books. Morgan would not be surprised to find her rutting with one of the books spines at night.
She shuddered. That was not an image she wanted to see. "Is that so? And if I looked through the Hogwarts rules, would they say the same thing?"
This was all rather frustrating. She'd promised Penelope access to the library and she would get it. If she had to, she'd use the Room of Requirement, it would just be easier to use the library. She didn't really want to go near the room much when Voldemort was in the castle, especially when she had yet to acquire the map.
Pince looked like she'd bitten something rancid. "The Headmaster… may… give you permission."
Morgan brightened, smiling sweetly at the nut job. "There, was that so hard? So I'll need Dumbledore's permission, huh?" she mused. Another annoyance, but she would deal with it, as with all things.
Pince sneered down at her. "As though the Headmaster would ever allow it. Go ahead, ask him, see what it gets you." Turning, she walked through a door to the side of the main entrance, slamming it shut.
Well, that was a woman who desperately needed to get laid, assuming her vagina hadn't sealed itself up from disuse.
She turned to the library, walking amongst its towering bookshelves. There were sections for animation, inanimate transfiguration, invisibility… Practically every type of magic was within these walls, all neatly divided to make the books easily findable.
Hmm, if there was an magic she had a particular interest in, it would be transfiguration. To her, that seemed like the branch of magic in which mastery was truly required in order to reach the upper echelons of power. Rita was rather good at it, had they not managed to destroy that concrete transfiguration attempt then things could have been very different.
She grabbed a book entitled Matches to Needles: A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration, sitting at a table to read. She'd already had her other lesson for the day, herbology with the Gryffindors, so she had the rest of the day to herself.
But, as she was cracking open the book, she sighed. If she started, she wouldn't stop and the rest of the day would be gone. It was no good putting it off.
She stood, shoving the book into her bag. There was a book on a desk near the main door, filled with names, times and book titles. She quickly filled it in before heading off into the castle.
The corridors were filled with moving paintings, the occupants watching her as she walked, from old men with great white beards to a small black bird that followed her from painting to painting. It was rather incredible, that the lives and memories of so many people were recorded within this castle. Just these paintings must have enormous educational value.
A quick question to one of the occupants had them showing her the way to Dumbledore's office, to the stone gargoyle standing before an alcove.
Well, this would be sooner than she expected, but it had to happen eventually.
