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Cress

Cress frowned at the feather lying on her desk. Just a simple levitation spell to start with, that should be easy.

She raised her wand over the feather swished her wrist to one side before flicking the tip of the wand down at the feather. Wingardium leviosa.

Just as Cress hoped, the feather rose into the air. Only, instead of the nice, slow float she'd been anticipating, it shot into the air like a Firebolt, bouncing off the ceiling and speeding back down to her desk with a dull thump. Cress winced at the sound. Okay, so maybe non-verbal spells didn't require that much concentration.

A light-hearted chuckle sounded next to her. "Who knew feathers could move so fast?"

Cress blushed and didn't meet Thorne's eyes. "I think I just concentrated too hard."

"I can see that." Cress could hear the suppressed laughter in his voice. Change the subject, change the subject!

"What spell are you practicing with?" Cress blurted, then immediately felt like slapping herself. Thorne doesn't like talking about school stuff, he talks about pranks and (to Cress's dismay) girls he finds hot.

She chanced a glance at him, expecting to see a frown, or maybe a raised eyebrow at her pathetic attempt at conversation, but he was just grinning easily and leaning back against his chair. "I'm not practicing at all. My wand's dogwood, and they completely refuse to do non-verbal spells, so I'm off the hook for this lesson."

Cress nodded and bit her lip, trying to think of another conversation topic. Merlin's beard she was bad at this.

I'm a pop star hosting a party and talking to other people is effortless to me.

Cress wrapped the fantasy around her like a blanket, allowing it to pull her spine up from its awkward hunch, letting it guide her hands as they confidently flipped one of her braids over her shoulder and allowing it to pull a relaxed smile across her face.

She glanced at Thorne, who was studying her with one eyebrow raised looking a bit confused. The sight of him almost made her lose grip on the fantasy.

"You were at that centaur attack yesterday weren't you?" Her voice sounded clear and strong to her ears. "What was it like?"

Thorne puffed out his cheeks and exhaled sharply. "Well, it all happened pretty fast. One minute I was just goofing around with my kneazle, Boots, the next a bunch of horse guys armed with bows and arrows were charging all over the place."

"It was my fault."

Cress and Thorne both started at the soft voice. They turned to see Winter fiddling absently with her wand regarding them with her big beautiful eyes. Cress could see the guilt brimming in their warm soft depths.

"I was playing with Ryu when I ran into the centaurs. I hadn't meant to enter their territory, but they still thought I had to be punished for my insolence. My legs started running and I decided to trust them, but they took me to the rest of the class, leading the centaurs right to them."

Cress reached over to put one hand over Winter's. "Don't think like that. You were panicking at the time, and from what I've heard the centaurs consider the entire forest to be their territory. They probably would have discovered your class sooner or later, even without you."

"Yep. Blame the teacher, not yourself." Thorne put in. "That's the rule I live by anyway. And you've gotta admit, Jael was being seriously careless by having us take the lesson in the forest."

"Maybe you are right Thorne." Winter murmured. Cress couldn't tell if she was speaking to Thorne, or herself. "Maybe I should blame the teachers. The centaurs said they were poisoning the forest with savage beasts."

"The forest is already full of savage beasts." Thorne replied dryly.

"It does not have all of them though. Professor Park is nothing if not a beast. I have seen his fangs and claws during class. I think they might be venomous."

Normally, a comment like that from Winter would make Cress stare at her in complete and utter bewilderment, but not this time. She was too busy thinking about the stone that had settled in her stomach. Because, if Winter was telling the truth, the centaurs were angry because the school was putting new creatures in the forest, creatures the centaurs didn't want there. And Cress thought she might have an idea as to what they might be.

The recess bell rang and Cress shot up from her seat, nearly knocking over her chair in the process. That was probably the longest Defence Against the Dark Arts class she'd ever had, thought the ever-growing stone in her gut certainly hadn't helped things along. She practically charged out the classroom door and down the hallway. She ran up several moving staircases and through several hidden passageways concealed behind paintings and statues, finally coming to a stop in front of a set of double doors. Above them was a gold plaque, engraved with elegant script that said: Professor Sybil Mira.

Cress tensed her shoulders and inhaled deeply, though she had a lot of trouble exhaling. The stone in her stomach turned cold. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she had a funny feeling it wasn't from all the running she had just done.

It took every ounce of courage Cress possessed to raise her fisted hand, and several ounces she didn't have to knock on the doors. A cold, imperious voice spoke from behind them.

"Enter."

Cress pushed open one of the doors slowly, wincing at the loud creak. Sybil sat at her ebony desk, frowning at her. Cress gulped. What in the name of Circe had she been thinking? She couldn't do this! But if the centaurs kept attacking people…

I am a brave knight who is about to go and slay the dragon.

Stepping into the room, Cress let the door close shut behind her. Sybil regarded her disdainfully. "Well Crescent? What is it?"

"W-well, you remember the centaur attack that happened yesterday."

"Of course I do. It was only yesterday Crescent."

"Um, well, you see, one of the students who had been present said that the centaurs said they were made about, um, savage beasts in their forest."

"Get to the point Crescent Moon, I haven't got all day!"

Cress imagined her face bone-white with fear. She steeled herself. "You-you-you've got to take those beasts out of the forest!"

The words tumbled out of her mouth in an almost incomprehensible jumble. Cress found herself wishing that Sybil wouldn't be able to understand, only her narrowed eyes clearly said otherwise.

"Crescent Moon Darnel," Sybil's voice was quiet, like a snake's hiss. "did you just give me an order?"

Cress's eyes widened and she shook her head fervently. "No, no Professor Mira."

"Because it sounded a lot like you just gave me an order."

Cress didn't dare move as Sybil opened a drawer in her desk. A small whimper escaped her lips at the sight of the gleaming scissors Sybil pulled out of it, but other than that she was a statue.

Getting up from her desk, Sybil closed the distance between her and Cress in two great strides. "You don't give me orders Crescent." She snarled, "You are, and always will be beneath me. I give the orders. Not you."

"Y-yes Professor Mira. I understand."

"Oh you will. I will see to it."

And with those words, Sybil grabbed a fistful of Cress's hair and raised the scissors to it.

Cress stayed hunched over her cauldron during Potions, not looking at anyone. Grabbing her mortar and pestle, she dropped some occamy eggshells inside and started grinding them into a fine powder. Around her, she could hear student's chattering and groaning with frustration at the difficult potion they were preparing, but Cress paid them no attention. All her focus was on her task.

Once she was satisfied with her grinding, she tipped the eggshells into her cauldron. She then picked up her ladle and stirred the potion slowly and carefully.

"Hey Cress?"

Cress didn't look up at Thorne's voice.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine." She whispered.

"Are you sure? You're being really quiet."

"I'm just concentrating, that's all."

Cress blew a little on the flames of her cauldron, trying to get them to rise. She had to heat up her potion.

"So it has nothing to do with your new haircut?"

Cress couldn't keep herself from flinching. Her hair, her long, golden hair that she'd loved and cared for and almost reached the floor. Sybil had cut it. It now barely grazed her chin and the ends were jagged and choppy. It felt strange, unnatural, wrong.

"I'll take that as a yes." Thorne said, obviously noticing her reaction.

Cress sighed and sprinkled some powdered common rue into her mixture. The potion was almost ready.

"Cress, come on, what happened? I can't help unless I know what's going on."

Cress finally looked up at Thorne. He was sitting backwards in his seat so he could face her. His beautiful blue eyes were narrowed with concern and worry.

Cress looked down at her cauldron again, picking up her ladle and stirring the potion vigorously. "Professor Mira cut it."

"Professor Mira cut it?" Thorne echoed incredulously. "Wha-why would she do that? I mean, I know she's a total banshee but what would she get out of cutting your hair?"

"I was insolent. She was punishing me."

"She was-that doesn't give her the right to cut your hair without your permission!"

"It doesn't?" Cress blinked up at him, feeling confused.

"No, of course it doesn't! Why would you think it does?"

Cress shrugged. "Sybil always said that she could punish me however she saw fit."

"What gives her the right to do that?"

Cress blew on the flames of her cauldron one more time before answering. "She's my guardian."

A/N: Cress's backstory revealed! And her hair's been cut (I originally planned to keep it long until around the middle of this story, but here we are!)

Do you guys have any idea what potion Cress was preparing? I swear it was a real one and the steps she was following belonged to the actual recipe. Tell me your guesses in the reviews!

So Cress knows what the teachers are doing that is ticking the centaurs off. But what is it exactly? What are these savage creatures? And what revenge will Thorne enact on Sybil? Please review!

P.S: Warning: My exams are coming up, so I won't be updating while I'm studying (or at least I won't be updating as much).