The sound of a ceramic pot cracking on the stone floor awakened the entirety of Hufflepuff House. The culprit, a First-Year called Philip, had the good graces to look apologetic and hurried away to the nearest bathroom to wash the dirt off of his pajamas. It was almost six in the morning, too late to fall back asleep in Jinx's mind. So she stayed back in the Common Room with the other students who had also decided it wasn't worth it to try to sleep again. Besides, she did have to finish revising her Transfiguration essay after Aiden accidentally cast Incendio on her original essay in a failed attempt to practice the Charm. Of course McGonagall had been less than pleased that Jinx had submitted a half-burned essay, and was even more displeased that Jinx had hovered around her classroom door for the entirety of the Fourth-Years' Revelio lesson just to wait for the perfect opportunity to argue for the chance to rewrite the essay.
"Do you have any advice on how to deal with Professor Snape?" Jinx heard another First-Year anxiously ask someone who looked like his older sister.
"Yeah, don't do what Philip just did," the older girl snorted as she reclined on the couch.
"Has he been bothering you, Jimmy?" Daniel asked, a Prefect-ly tone entering his voice. Jinx noticed that he had seemed to be taking his Prefect duties more seriously this year, much to Lenny's disappointment as that meant he couldn't get away with sneaking out to the Kitchens anymore.
The boy, Jimmy, nodded. "Last class-"
"I heard that Merula is plotting something with her friends," a new voice interrupted Jinx's eavesdropping. She glared up at the perpetrator. Then her face softened as she saw it was just Diego. "You might want to be careful," he warned, patting her shoulder before going back to his dorm.
Well, that was wonderfully foreboding, Jinx thought to herself as she brought her attention back to the Charms essay. She didn't want to ruin her perfect homework record, but it seemed that she was the only one who wanted this for herself because just a few minutes after Diego left, Rowan had plopped herself down on the seat next to Jinx.
"I had trouble coming up with a plan until I remembered the Shrinking and Engorgement Charms!" Rowan announced.
Jinx looked down at the essay she had been frantically writing. "I see where you're going with this…" she said, her lips turning upwards.
"And, the big Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch match! Everyone will be at that match-"
"Except for us," Jinx finished. Then, looking around the still half-filled Common Room, Jinx raised a finger to her lips to remind Rowan to keep her volume down.
"When the Slytherins leave their Common Room, you can shrink, sneak inside while the door is open, and re-enlarge yourself," Rowan whispered. "The Common Room should be empty; you know how much the Slytherins hate the Gryffindors. You'll be able to grab the Black Quill and leave without anyone knowing. It's brilliant, isn't it?"
"Brilliant, but dangerous," Jinx whispered back. "Isn't it risky to use the Shrinking and Engorgement Charms on a human?"
"I thought about dressing up in Slytherin colors, but your face is too famous," Rowan explained. "Then I thought of Polyjuice Potion, but that takes over a month to brew."
"And Ben might not have that long. I understand."
"But don't worry because I stumbled upon something during my research," Rowan said, taking a book out of her bag. "It looks like there's actually a way to revise the charms to cater specifically to humans."
Jinx took the book from her friend's hands. "I'll start researching the charms and their variants. Thanks!"
"And there's one more thing…" Rowan's voice trailed around. She pushed her glasses up nervously as Jinx sighed.
"What now?"
"I overheard Felix Rosier, one of the Slytherin Prefects, say that he was worried that Gryffindor might try to sabotage the Slytherin Common Room while everyone is distracted," Rowan said. "If he comes back while we're sneaking in, we'll be in big trouble."
Fortunately for them, if there was one thing Jinx was good at doing, it was creating distractions and talking her way out of trouble. Hopefully they would only have to rely on the first skill, but Jinx was confident she would be able to take care of Rosier just fine.
"That's a large parcel," Sebastian remarked one Sunday morning as he bit into a pumpkin muffin. Now that it was October, the breakfasts were made with more autumnal foods. Jinx loved all things autumn; after all, her birthday was in autumn as well. And speaking of birthdays, that was exactly why Jinx had received a large package full of books and sweets from her family that morning.
"It's Jinx's birthday!" Rowan announced, her voice echoing in the Great Hall.
Jinx blushed as she was met with a sudden chorus of "Happy Birthday Raider"s from the students surrounding her. Lenny and Aiden laughed at her discomfort as Diego twirled her in a surprisingly elegant spin for two thirteen-year-olds.
"October thirteenth - thirteen is an unlucky number," Stella remarked as she passed by Jinx to sit with Audrey and Tonks.
"It's fitting though, don't you think?" Jinx laughed, still slightly dizzy.
"Very," Stella said dryly, helping herself to a pumpkin muffin as well.
"You know, I was actually born on Friday the Thirteenth," Jinx told the group cheerfully.
"Wicked," Tonks chimed in, "I wish I had a cool birthdate. It's January eighteenth for me."
"Hey, mine is December eighteenth," Rowan said excitedly. "We're exactly a month apart!"
"There I go, having a birthday exactly one month after the great Rowan Khanna," Tonks laughed. Jinx couldn't always tell when Tonks was being sarcastic or playful, but perhaps the bright blue color taking over her hair indicated the latter. Tonks was correct though, that Jinx did have what she thought was a "cool" birthdate. Jacob had always teased her about it, saying that she had been jinxed since the day she was born, and so the nickname "Jinx" was born. Her smile faltered for a moment at the memory of her brother, but the smile returned when she realized that this was the first time in years that she organically thought of something happy related to Jacob.
It seemed that the universe was on Jinx's side as just a few days later, Flitwick announced that they would be learning how to cast both the Shrinking Charm and the Enlargement Charm. The timing could not have been more perfect: learning the spells in mid-October would give Jinx plenty of time to perfect the human variations she had read about in her book.
"This class just doesn't feel the same without Ben's nervous energy," Tonks announced once the class had settled in.
"Life just doesn't feel the same," Charlie sighed dramatically. "I can't believe he's been missing for six weeks, and there's still no sign of him."
"Quiet down, class!" Flitwick tried to yell. He waved his arms around frantically and gave a pointed look at Tonks and Charlie. Jinx patted Charlie's shoulder sympathetically: she knew very well the fear and worry Charlie must've felt seeing one of his roommates and Housemates disappear for so long. Which was why she was even more determined to pay attention to today's lesson.
Apparently Rowan was also dedicated to this cause, as she asked questions that Jinx couldn't even have imagined. And the cherry on top was when Rowan stayed after class to ask Flitwick about the human-specific variants and if she could write an extra-credit assignment on it. Flitwick was even more delighted than he had been when Jinx nailed the Shrinking Charm on her third try earlier in the class.
And although she was more than happy to receive the new information on how to safely apply the size-changing spells to herself, it seemed that the opposite had happened to Rowan. During dinner, Rowan did not even want to eat her favorite Shepherd's Pie. Instead, she only took periodic sips of her Pumpkin Juice and wore a perpetual apprehensive look.
"Are you okay, Ro?" Jinx asked when Rowan did not even react to Jinx pushing a slice of apple pie towards her.
"I'm starting to get worried now," Rowan admitted.
"Is it about the plan?"
"No," Rowan shook her head, "I'm feeling surprisingly confident about it. It's about Ben. I have this feeling like it's already too late. Like, we've already lost him."
"Ben's going to be fine because we're going to find him," Jinx said firmly. In truth, she said it more to convince herself. After seeing just how shaken up Charlie looked today in Charms, it finally dawned on Jinx just how serious this situation was. A student was missing and there was no indication that anybody knew what had happened to him. Hell, his poor family were Muggles and probably had no idea where Ben was. And if they did, they'd only be even more worried and distrusting of wizards and…
"I wish I was as confident as you," Rowan sighed.
"Well, the way I see it, if we don't believe that we can find him, then why do we keep on trying?" Jinx reasoned out, her voice stronger than what she felt inside. "In trying to find him, deep down that means we do feel hopeful that he will be found. And I suppose outward confidence only confirms that belief."
"Thanks," Rowan finally relented and gave Jinx a small smile. "I feel a bit better about finding Ben," she said before taking a bite out of the previously untouched apple pie, "even though I can't help but wonder what he's been doing."
"It's certainly strange," Jinx agreed. "Do you think he was hiding it from us the entire time?" Only after she finished speaking did Jinx realize she had no clue what she had meant by "it" - but now she could only think about why Ben seemed so nervous the previous year.
"It would explain his constant nervousness," Rowan nodded, as if she understood exactly what Jinx had been insinuating. "Promise me that if you ever have a secret like that, you'll tell me."
"Of course I will," Jinx said quickly, still unsure of what Rowan meant by "a secret like that." But if Ben was harboring some dark secret, that would explain his jittery behavior. Or perhaps his behavior was the secret, and his anxiety was just manifesting into more anxiety which manifested into even more….
"Jinx, dinner's over," Penny said to Jinx, nudging her with her shoulder.
"Oh, oh thank you," Jinx smiled at Penny as they left the Great Hall together with Rowan. As they got back to their dorm, Jinx could see that both Penny and Rowan looked like they wanted to ask her a question, but she was not in the mood to speak so she immediately tucked herself into the bed.
The thing about going to sleep at seven-thirty at night was that you then felt compelled to wake up before sunrise. And that was what Jinx discovered the next morning at five in the morning. She grumbled softly as she dragged herself out of the dorm room, unable to fall asleep again. Perhaps she could get ahead with some Potions reading….
"Psst, psst," a quiet voice came from behind the couch that Jinx was reclining on. Jinx turned around to see the wide-eyed stare of the pot-breaker.
"Philip?" she asked, her brain still not quite awake enough to be sure of the boy's name.
Philip nodded happily before saying, "I have a big favor to ask, Jinx. Do you have any sweets?"
Jinx blinked. Sweets? Why would this child believe she had sweets right now? And perhaps even more importantly, why did he expect that she would give him her precious sweets? That was what Jinx thought. But what she said was a lot kinder: "I would give you some if I did, but Rowan and I ate all of ours."
"That's a shame," Philip sighed. "I really wanted to give someone sweets to repay them for their kindness."
"Kindness for not getting you into trouble for breaking Sprout's pot last week?" Jinx teased. Philip's face reddened, so Jinx quickly reassured him that she was just joking. Then, in a more serious tone, she said "We can look in the Common Room. I'm sure someone has sweets."
Philip's face brightened at this. "Where should we start looking?"
"It would help if I knew what this person's favorite sweet is," Jinx babbled, as if she had any idea how that would help her with her search.
"I love Cauldron Cakes and Ice Mice and Bertie Botts," Philip rattled off, "but this person loves Jelly Slugs."
Jinx nodded. She had no inkling where she would find Jelly Slugs at this hour, but underneath the tables seemed as good a place as any to start looking. She directed Philip to start looking there while she turned over the couch cushions. Chiara said that she had once found a whole box of Moonbeam Tea under the couch cushions, and perhaps Jinx would find similar luck with the Jelly Slugs.
By now the bright sunlight streaming through the round windows indicated that it was a more reasonable time to be awake at. Jinx could see that there were some early birds already studying in the Common Room when-
"I found some!" she announced as her hand hit upon a squishy thing.
"Brilliant! Where were they?" Philip asked, bouncing over to the couch.
"Strangely enough, they were under the couch cushions."
"Well, as long as they're clean," Philip said, inspecting the candies. "Thank you. I'm going to tell Professor Sprout that you're the most helpful Hufflepuff I've met. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to deliver my surprise gift."
Jinx watched as Philip made his way over to an even smaller First-Year. Merlin, did someone spike every First-Year's Pumpkin Juice with Shrinking Solution?
"Are you studying for Charms, Chauncy?"
"As a matter of fact, I am," the other First-Year - Chauncy - replied. "Do you need any help studying for another Charms exam?"
"I actually wanted to give you a gift to say thanks for helping me last time. Look, I got Jelly Slugs," Philip said shyly, holding out the slugs.
Chauncy's eyes lit up. "Thanks! Have a seat, and we can share." At this point, Jinx was fully prepared to leave when Chauncy's innocent rambling turned out to be a goldmine of information. "I could really use some candy now," he said dramatically, "because Peeves hit me with a water balloon last night, so I didn't sleep too well."
"That's rude of him," Philip frowned.
"I know! And what's even more rude is that he's planning on attacking the House-Elves in the Kitchens during the next quidditch game!"
Was he now? Jinx smiled to herself…. This would certainly be helpful.
When the last green-and-silver-clad students scampered out of the hallway, Jinx stealthily slid out from behind the suit of armor. Rowan was already down in the corridor leading up to the Slytherin Common Room, but Jinx had to hide it so no one would recognize her. The morning of the Slytherin-Gryffindor match came sooner than she had expected. But after weeks of practicing the human-specific variations of Reducio and Engorgio, she felt as ready as-
"Hey! What are you doing here?" Felix Rosier demanded. Jinx gulped. She didn't expect there to be anybody else left down here.
She took a deep breath to try to stop her pulse from being so audible. "I wanted to wish Slytherin good luck for the upcoming match," Jinx managed to say brightly.
"Thanks," Felix said, but his eyes still narrowed in suspicion. "Though I've never known another House to wish us luck in anything."
"Well, I'm in Hufflepuff, so it's natural for me to wish everyone good luck. I've already talked to the Gryffindors."
"Why me though? I'm not even on the Quidditch team."
Jinx shrugged. "Well, you're the first Slytherin I've actually talked to today."
"I hope you're not wasting my time here, Raider. I've heard that the Gryffindors might be trying to sabotage us which is why I'm here."
Ha! Jinx had him right where she wanted. "Oh, I'm surprised you believed that," she began to say nonchalantly. "I heard that Peeves started that rumor to try to keep you guys away from the Kitchens where he's planning on- Oh crap. I shouldn't have said that."
"Wait what? What's going on in the Kitchens?" Felix's eyes immediately snapped to the door leading to the corridor to the Kitchen.
"Nothing, nothing," Jinx waved her hand dismissively. "Anyway, do you know where I would happen to find Professor Snape? I have a complaint to file about a grade I got on my essay."
"Oh, that's why you're really down here," Felix nodded his head in understanding. "No, I'm sorry I haven't seen him. I better go see what's going on in the Kitchens. Thanks for the heads-up."
"You're welcome," Jinx said cheerily. And as soon as she was certain she was out of his range of sight, she sprinted down the corridor.
"Did you take care of Rosier?" Rowan's head popped out from behind another suit of armor.
"I don't think we need to worry about him," Jinx grinned. "Peeves will keep him occupied until we're done."
"I'm really curious about what you did, but we'll save it for later."
"I didn't think about it until now, but I don't even know what the room looks like," Jinx said to Rowan. "How will I know where to search for the quill?"
Rowan seemed to ponder this when her eyes lit up with worry. She pulled at her hair and spoke in a hurried voice. "Quick, change now. I overheard Victoria Burke tell her boyfriend to meet her out here in 5 minutes!"
"Alright, alright," Jinx said, taking out her wand, She inhaled deeply, making sure to ground herself. "Reducio hominum," she whispered confidently, rotating her wand above her head as if she were tracing out a curtain. Without opening her eyes, Jinx could feel the golden light coming from her wand. Its warmth flowed through her fingers and - wait, her fingers! Although her wand shrunk with her body, her fingers had a tingling sensation as they seemed to retract back into her body. That probably happened because Jinx was now about as tall as Rowan's Oxford shoes.
"It worked!" Rowan gasped. "I mean, of course it worked. It was a well-formulated plan, and you're an amazing witch. Now go find that quill."
Jinx herself couldn't believe that the spell had worked either. After climbing up one of the silver door hinges (which proved to be more difficult than she expected), Jinx finally entered the Slytherin Common Room. This is some impressive stonework, she thought to herself, eyes glazing over the intricately carved stone ground ahead of her. Salazar Slytherin must have commissioned a skilled artisan to have created such a masterpiece.
But she had no time to dwell on the intricacies of the Slytherin Common Room decor as she had to cast the Engorgement Charm to search the room. She began her search with the surprisingly messy center table. Stacks of half-finished essays, potions scribblings, sweet potato pie recipes, love letters to multiple lovers, Chocolate Frog Cards - wait, love letters to multiple lovers? Jinx picked up a rose-scented piece of fuschia paper. It was written by Thomas Warrington, Victoria Burke's boyfriend, to…. not Victoria Burke. Well, whoever this "Emily Tyler" Gryffindor girl was, she would surely be getting a, er, lovely surprise.
The Ice Mice wrappers littered around the table reminded Jinx of Philip's candy expedition, which in turn reminded Jinx of the endless possibilities under couch cushions. To her surprise, hiding sweets under cushions did not seem to be unique to the Hufflepuffs, as the Slytherins also seemed to amass a black market's worth of sweets. There also didn't seem to be a shortage of quills, but all of them were the wrong color. That is… there! Wedged between the wooden frame and emerald velvet, barely visible, was the tip of a Black Quill. Jinx snatched it up triumphantly and hurried back to the door of the Common Room.
When she left, Jinx was met by the welcoming sight of a trembling Rowan and two very angry Sixth-Year Slytherins.
"I tried to warn you, Jinx, but I was frozen by Rosier's cold stare," Rowan whispered.
"That's enough, Khanna," Felix said sternly. He pushed his long black hair out of his eyes before continuing to speak. "Victoria Burke told me that Khanna was acting suspiciously and immediately alerted me. I, unfortunately, had to depart from the Peeves-water-balloon situation to intervene. Explain yourselves."
Jinx sighed. She might as well tell Felix a bit of the truth, if only to throw him off a bit. "You know how Ben Copper, one of my close friends, is missing?" Jinx bit back a laugh as she watched Rowan's eyes widen. "Well, I know this sounds stupid, but I was hoping he was hiding somewhere inside the Slytherin Common Room."
"Why would he be hiding in our Common Room?" Felix pinched the bridge of his nose.
"It's one of the only rooms that we haven't checked. Besides, it's a good hiding place. The stonework provides a lot of good hiding spots I realized," Jinx smiled charmingly.
"I assume you didn't find him," Felix said bluntly.
"No, I didn't," Jinx sighed. "I'm sorry for breaking in, but I swear that I didn't do anything or steal anything. Except maybe for a few Rainbow Toffees I found under the couch cushions, but I promise that that was all."
"You're not going to punish them?" Victoria gave Felix an incredulous look.
"Didn't you hear them? They were only looking for Copper. I have better things to do than deal with a bunch of Hufflepuff second-years." Was Felix truly going to let them off that easily?
"Ugh, I'm going to tell Snape then," Victoria huffed. She flipped her blonde hair and began to march down the hallway. Felix started to walk after her as well.
But for Jinx, desperation kicked in. "Wait! Don't tell Snape; he'll kill us!"
"Why should I care?" Victoria sneered, not even bothering to look back.
"Because I found a note that your boyfriend wrote to one Emily Tyler," Jinx blurted out, brandishing the note she had nicked from under the couch cushions. At the name "Emily Tyler" Victoria skidded to a stop so quickly that Felix had to hold onto her elbow to keep her from falling over.
"What? Give it to me," she demanded, sprinting back down the corridor.
But Jinx had already prepared for this: she ripped the letter in half five times, and shoved thirty-one of the pieces into an inner pocket of her robes. Then, wrapping her robes tightly around her body, she waved one single piece of the letter in Victoria's fuming face. "Here. For every week that you don't tell Snape, I'll give you another piece of the letter."
Victoria snatched the small piece of parchment out of Jinx's hands, only to see the entirely-unhelpful-and-infuriating words "Emily, my vixen." She stomped away back into the Slytherin Common Room. And as she did, Jinx couldn't resist yelling, "So, do we have a deal then Vicky?"
Rowan let out a rather undignified snort at this. Even Felix seemed to be biting the inside of his mouth to prevent a laugh from escaping.
"You're a clever one, Raider," he finally managed to say. "Just be careful during your search."
"Thanks, Rosier," Jinx grinned. "See you around." And with Rowan's hand tightly grasped in hers, she ran down the dungeon corridor.
If Jinx had turned around, she would've seen Felix chuckling softly. He would've let them off easy anyways, but when Jane Court demanded that he look after Jinx Raider, he didn't dare refuse her. Perhaps it was her soulless eyes or the fact that her father was one of the largest underground suppliers of Hellebore in the wizarding world, but Felix felt compelled to listen to Jane. But now, as he watched the two Hufflepuffs practically skip down the dungeon hallway, he could only think about how Hogwarts was headed down a strange, strange path.