Quidditch try-outs were that evening. No one new wanted to try for the team so it was a formality for them all to show up. Ford Krinkle, the captain, did have a speech in store, though.
'Gather around,' Ford announced, leaning on his broom. Bagsy, Teresa and Jon shared a look. The three of them remembered what Ford had said last year – that they couldn't win then, but that they could improve enough to win this year instead.
Bagsy felt pressure mount on her shoulders.
'Last year was one of the best Quidditch years for Hufflepuff for…. ages. For as long as I've been at this school.'
'And he's a seventh year,' Greenda added, elbowing Ford in the ribs. 'Isn't that right, old timer?'
Ford laughed. 'Sure is. My point is,' he continued, ignoring the glare Emmeline was shooting at Greenda for daring to speak in her presence, 'we can win this year.'
'We came last,' Emmeline cut in. 'Hufflepuff had their best year ever and we still came last. What's the point, Ford? We're not going to win this year. You know that.'
Ford clenched his jaw, looking at the ground in front of him.
'I know it'd be really nice for you to have a win before you leave but be real,' Emmeline continued. 'Maybe we can get third place, or if we're lucky scrape second, but first is impossible.'
Ford closed his eyes and stood silently. Bagsy shuffled uncomfortably from one foot to another.
Greenda was shooting daggers at Emmeline. 'We still have to try,' she said harshly. 'Maybe we would have won last year if you'd done better as a keeper. I don't have enough fingers or toes combined to count how many goals you let through.'
'You're one to talk,' Emmeline shot back. 'Your fingers and toes combined couldn't catch the snitch if it had two broken wings and a massive handle attached to it. You're bloody useless and no one likes you.' Frustration seemed to overcome Emmeline. 'We'd all be better off if you'd been born like your brother.'
Kat looked at Emmeline in shock. 'Emmeline!'
A vindictive rage seized Greenda's face as she clenched her hands tightly around her broom. 'Has anyone reminded you how much you look like Primrose recently?' Greenda retorted hotly, a look of malicious satisfaction crossing her face that Bagsy really didn't like.
Ford's head snapped up. 'Greenda!' he said loudly, anger stretched across his face. Greenda looked silently at Emmeline, fuming, hints of regret seeping into her features at what she'd just said, whatever it had meant. Emmeline, however, had a different expression.
Kat took a step towards Greenda. 'That was vile of you to say, Greenda,' she growled. 'Apologize.'
That only seemed to anger Greenda more. 'What's the point? My apologies mean nothing to her.' Bagsy looked from one person to another, completely lost as to what they were talking about now, and why everyone looked so angry about what Greenda had said.
'Team!' Ford roared, stamping the end of his broom harshly on the ground. He fixed Greenda, Emmeline and Kat with harsh stares. 'I am sick and tired of this squabble. Greenda, you did wrong and, evidently, you aren't really sorry about it.' Greenda took a step away from Ford and crossed her arms angrily. 'Emmeline, what happened was terrible, but it was an accident and you could definitely be more forgiving, and if you really want to be angry at someone, if you really want someone to blame, you know it shouldn't be Greenda.' Emmeline responded in much the same way Greenda had. Ford rubbed his temples with one of his hands. 'If you can't move past this I'll kick you both off the team and replace you.'
'What!?' they both exclaimed.
'You heard me. Sort it out or you're both off the team.'
'You wouldn't,' Emmeline responded coolly, having recovered from her shock. 'There is no one else.' She turned away from them and the pitch, walking back up to the castle. 'See you all next practise,' she shot over her shoulder as she left.
For once, Kat didn't follow her. 'I'm sorry about all this,' she said, pushing her short, brown hair self-consciously behind her ear. 'I'm not going to get involved from now on. I'm just going to focus on Quidditch.' Kat glanced at Greenda purposefully. Greenda shrugged, not saying anything. Kat left, then, too.
Teresa and Jon were full of theories as they walked back to Hogwarts with Bagsy in tow.
'I reckon Greenda read Emmeline's diary to everyone,' Jon murmured conspiratorially.
Teresa nodded seriously. 'Or maybe, Greenda cursed Emmeline to look like that stuck up Primrose.'
Bagsy didn't feel like guessing what had gone down between Emmeline and Greenda to cause such levels of animosity. She trusted Greenda would tell her when she wanted to, if she ever wanted to. Bagsy may be nosy about most things, but sometimes she felt there were some things she shouldn't stick her nose into.
As Bagsy was peeling off from Teresa and Jon, having entered back into the castle, Ford caught up to her.
'Bagsy,' he breathed, slightly out of breath. Bagsy glanced behind him and saw Greenda headed in the other direction looking tearful. Bagsy reckoned they must have been discussing what had happened. 'I really would like the win this year,' he confessed. 'I know we have some… troubles on the team, but I believe if we solve them, and if we have some top-quality brooms, we can win the trophy this year.'
Bagsy nodded.
'Listen…' Ford trailed off. 'Kat said she didn't want anything to do with what's going on, Greenda won't listen to me, and Emmeline isn't too fond of me right now either. I guess, what I'm asking is if you wouldn't mind trying to fix things between Emmeline and Greenda?' Bagsy's mouth hung wide open. 'Of course, you can continue modifying the brooms as you were doing last year,' Ford rushed on as if it was a gift to her. 'In fact, that would be amazing, honestly. It's just, all the modifications you'll be doing to our brooms won't be much use if the people riding them haven't got their heads in the game.'
'You want me too-'
'It would mean so much to me, Bagsy,' Ford cut over her. 'It's my last year and I really want at least one win for Hufflepuff before I go…' Bagsy looked away, unconvinced. 'Or even second place,' Ford added.
'Why me?' Bagsy asked in a small voice.
Ford sucked in a breath. 'Because Greenda sees you like a little sister,' he explained, which made Bagsy feel very odd, indeed. She already had an older sister, but she did like hanging around with Greenda a lot. Bagsy briefly wondered if that was some kind of betrayal to her relationship with Bontie. 'And Emmeline, despite appearances, is still very grateful to you.'
'Me? Why?'
'Goodness, Bagsy, don't you remember?' Ford laughed. 'You saved her life last year when her flight modulators disappeared. People don't forget things like that quickly.'
'So, you want me to fix a festering, many years running feud between two girls who don't want to be friends?' Bagsy clarified. 'As well as making our brooms the best possible brooms in the world?'
Ford smiled. 'Exactly! Wonderful. I knew you'd come through.' He patted her on the shoulder. 'Keep me posted on your progress. I'm counting on you, Bagsy,' he added as he hurried away, before Bagsy could express her discontent with the job he'd given her.
Bagsy's shoulders sagged. She was excited to modify the brooms as much as she could, and she would love for Emmeline and Greenda to stop fighting, but she already had so much she had to do. But, it was Ford's last year, and the rest of the Hufflepuff team deserved to have good brooms and teammates that weren't always at each other's throats…
Bagsy realised she'd already internally decided to take on the tasks, and gave in.
She returned to her private room that evening. Bill didn't wake from her sleep at first, and Eldritch was fluttering his wings in worry, and Bagsy fretted that Bill had died, only for the old girl to let out a massive yawn and chirp expectantly at her for some food. Bagsy let out a laugh of relief, wiped her eyes, and fetched the yummiest rat treats she had, feeding them to Bill so she didn't have to get up from her cosy hammock. She'd been trying to find someone else who owned more rats to take Bill in but wasn't having any luck. She knew rats shouldn't be kept alone, they were very social creatures, after all, and even if she'd miss Bill dearly she didn't want her to spend the last parts of her life feeling lonely. The only trouble was, Bagsy was really struggling to find someone who had their own rats and could take Bill in, and resigned herself to having to continue her search.
That evening, with her owl jumping from one of the thousands of perches to another, and her rat snoozing with her eyes lazily following Bagsy's movements, she worked on all she had to accomplish.
She had the means to sneak around Hogwarts effectively, by crawling along the ceilings, so now she had to begin her collection of the things she'd need to brew Mezrielda's Animagus potion. Glancing at her timetable, Bagsy saw that she had Astronomy on Wednesdays after lunch and, crucially, at midnight as well. If she was quick she could slip away during the midnight lesson, sneak to the greenhouses, steal some mandrake leaves and grass seeds, and be back before anyone noticed she was missing. Checking who she shared Astronomy with and seeing it was the Ravenclaws, Bagsy decided she could try asking Winifred to cover for her. With that planned, and placing the spider slippers and gloves into her bag so she wouldn't forget them on Wednesday, Bagsy turned her attention to Tod's problem.
She had to find out what ingredients Opius Pepsini had used in the potion he'd given the doppelgangers. It took Bagsy a moment, now that she was paying it full attention, to realise she recognised that name. Then, with mounting excitement, Bagsy grabbed the book Professor Fitzsimmons had gifted her in her first year. The cover of Unseen Connections stared up at her. The authors name below it, Opius Pepsini, sent a thrill of exhilaration through her. Bagsy had found nothing else in the library that had such parallels to Tod's power than the incident with the doppelgangers. Pepsini's potion seemed to be her only hope so, ready for the impenetrable book to confuse her once more, Bagsy cracked it open and began to read.
It took Bagsy far too long to realise the sun was starting to rise and sunbeams were working their way through the high windows in her room, highlighting the dust dancing in the air. With a yawn, and without changing into her pyjamas, Bagsy clambered into her bed and managed to get a couple hours of sleep before she had to wake once more.
It was the second night in a row where she'd had little to no sleep and as Bagsy trudged to the breakfast hall she couldn't for the life of her remember what lesson she had first.
Thankfully, Teresa slid eagerly into the seat next to her. 'Guess what we have today?' she chimed in a sing-song voice. Bagsy turned, like a rusted skeleton, to look at Teresa with blank eyes. 'Oh, god,' Teresa gasped. 'You look worse than the bloody baron.'
Bagsy glanced over at the Slytherin table, where the bloody baron was ominously hovering, his sunken eyes and sagging features horrifying to behold. Bagsy turned back to her food sadly. 'Guess I do,' she said.
'Ah, get over it,' Teresa breezed on. 'You can't be sad when we have care of magical creatures today! Eat quickly, I want to get there early.'
'We do?' Bagsy asked. Her arms felt too heavy to reach into her robe and check her own timetable.
'Sure do. First thing.'
Once Bagsy had finished eating she felt only a little better; about as awake as Bill usually was. Teresa, meanwhile, was practically skipping as they walked over the castle grounds.
Care of Magical Creatures was held in a hut off to the side of Hogwarts castle, half-way between the massive structure and the looming forbidden forest.
'I wonder who teaches us,' Bagsy trailed off, her feet dragging in the grass. She was keeping an eye out for Mezrielda amongst the other students on their way down to the hut – she had also chosen Care for Magical Creatures.
'Isn't it obvious? It's got to be Belta Zotova. That woman looks made for taking care of magical creatures!' Teresa beamed, puffing out her chest. 'Zotova knows how great I am with creatures, so this class should be an absolute breeze for me.' As they kept walking, Teresa was most disappointed to notice Zotova off in the distance planting large, overgrown hedges around the edge of the forbidden forest as they walked towards the hut. 'That can't be right…' she muttered, looking this way and that for an explanation, her ginger hair swishing like a horse's tail as she did. 'She can't be over there if she's going to teach us…'
Once they reached the hut Bagsy found it was much larger than she expected. It had an extra section that looked newer than the rest of the cobbled stone and mortar building. The extension was made of wood, painted a shiny red, and resembled a barn, and was hap-hazardly attached to the main circular structure.
'Come in, come in,' a man's voice came from inside. Bagsy only just spotted the top of Mezrielda's head as she was forced inside by the surge of students and found, with frustration, that she couldn't get to her friend.
Settling with standing next to Teresa, Bagsy found herself, crammed on all sides by other students, inside the circular hut. The smell of hay and sweat filled the humid air, and the wooden shelves high above their heads were filled with bags of food and strange metal implements that looked to be for creatures much larger than themselves.
'Welcome to my class,' a man of average height with tan skin and big, muscly arms said to them. A panel of coloured glass floated in front of his eyes, strange writing moving across it that he was reading. The writing disappeared, and the man looked from student to student, his eyes growing larger or smaller behind the panel of floating glass as it magnified or zoomed out from whatever he was looking at. Bagsy noted his legs were very skinny compared to his arms, and his very short, dark hair had white stripes from its slowly greying strands. 'I'm Professor Mephit, or just Mephit, and I teach Care of Magical Creatures here at Hogwarts, as well as a few other subjects, but that's not important right now, or I suppose it is as I am quite busy, but then again that isn't really your concern. Anyway, in my class I want you to be careful, as magical creatures have minds of their own and are dangerous, but to also really go for it, and embrace the creatures, because they aren't too different from us. Besides being incredibly dangerous and worthy of fear, of course.'
Bagsy nodded slowly, wondering what it was Mephit actually wanted his students to do.
'Follow me, now,' Mephit said, crouching down and walking through a small barn door in the side of the hut. Bagsy followed, hearing snorts and rustlings and whinnies from the next room and wondering how all the students and the creatures would fit into the barn.
Bagsy's worry was answered when she entered the barn and found it far larger on the inside than it had been on the outside. There were many staircases moving between each layer and section. Steps led down to deep pools, swamps and shadowy pits, whilst others led up towards seemingly roofless expanses of sky, towering jungle trees and vertical cliff faces. All the mini environments were separated by thick metal meshing that kept the students out, and the creatures in.
Most of the warehouse-sized barn seemed empty, but Bagsy caught glimpses of spiny tails, clacking claws, fluttering feathers or snapping jaws, and supressed a small shiver at all that could be hidden within there.
'Firstly,' Mephit began, 'under no circumstances are students to enter this room alone. Unless, of course, you'd die otherwise. I don't know, maybe there's a fire in the hut and this is the only escape and you don't know any water charms. But if there is no fire don't come in here alone. Unless, maybe, you're hiding from an intruder with malicious intent and this is the only place you can think to hide. Just. Don't come in here alone. Unless you have to. Okay?'
Bagsy found herself nodding slowly again. Teresa folded her arms. She didn't look impressed and a scornful expression had filled her freckled features.
'Today,' Mephit continued, 'we will be looking at fairies.'
'Ooh!' a collective gasp went through the class.
'Now, to all you non-wizard borns…' Mephit stumbled, 'that is, not to be impolite, but those of you who are… You know…'
'What?' Teresa spoke up testily. 'You mean muggle-born?'
'Now, now,' Mephit cautioned, 'let's not use such terms here.'
'What's wrong with the term muggle-born?' Teresa asked, looking confused.
'It might be a tad insensitive, is all,' Mephit explained. For the briefest moment, Bagsy agreed with him. She would have hated to be muggle-born – she doubted she would've made it to Hogwarts if she wasn't already a part of a wizarding family – there was no magic in her for muggle parents to notice.
'How? I'm muggle-born. It's just what I am. It's not a bad term,' Teresa insisted.
Mephit looked stunned at that. 'Moving on,' he blustered, walking down the corridor between the enclosures. He led them to a small terrarium crammed with tiny, winged creatures like specks of white dust flittering about. Mephit tapped the terrarium harshly with one of his rough fingers. 'These fairies are from Boorping, down in Brighton. We call them Boorping fairies. Take a good look, now.'
Students pressed their faces up against the glass. None of the fairies seemed to notice. They just hovered in the air silently. Some were stood on the floor, some hanging onto the edges of the empty terrarium.
'How come they aren't talking?' Teresa asked. 'Or showing off their outfits?'
Mephit blinked at Teresa in confusion. 'Why would they do that?'
Teresa looked indignant. 'Because they're fairies! They're known to be vain and to make little buzzing noises as they talk with each other. They're social creatures, after all.'
Mephit laughed. 'Now, now, just because fairies can talk doesn't mean they always do.'
Mephit spent the lesson telling them about fairies and their habits and agreeing with Teresa when she interrupted and corrected him on his mistakes. 'Ah, yes, of course,' he'd say, 'I was just testing your knowledge.'
When they moved to leave the barn a thin, twig like creature with long limbs that was as big as a tiger was crawling up the side of its enclosure.
'No touching the mesh!' Mephit boomed, taking out a bottle and spraying the creature with its contents. Bagsy heard a sizzling noise and the poor creature jumped off the mesh with a twittering of pain, recoiling into a nest of twigs, where it became impossible to see the creature as it blended in so well. 'Blasted twiglets,' Mephit cursed, holstering the bottle on his belt. Teresa eyed it furiously.
'He's an incompetent sack of dung!' Teresa hissed as they walked back towards the castle. Bagsy couldn't help agreeing, though she hated bad mouthing a professor.
'Yes, he does seem rather foolish,' Mezrielda announced loudly, catching up to them. The students walking in small groups on either side of them heard Mezrielda and nodded appreciatively. They clearly agreed, too.
For once, Teresa and Mezrielda managed to hold a civil conversation by talking about how much they detested Professor Mephit. Bagsy felt relief that their fight from last year seemed behind them.
Soon it was midnight on Wednesday.
'Why do you need to sneak off?' Winifred asked sceptically during Astronomy. The two of them were sharing a telescope.
'I helped you on the train, is it possible you help me with this? I can't tell you why. I'm really sorry but you'll just have to trust me,' Bagsy pleaded. Winifred looked unconvinced but, agreeing that she did owe Bagsy, said she would, of course, cover for her.
As Bagsy pulled on her spider gloves and slippers Winifred nodded at one of her Ravenclaw friends who deliberately knocked over his telescope, creating a diversion for Bagsy to sneak away without Professor Jones noticing.
Bagsy had already memorised the route and didn't need her map. She was nothing but a shadow in the night-time castle. Even the paintings didn't notice her. Crawling along the ceilings as quickly as she could, her inventions holding true against the stone, keeping her in place and muffling the noises of her movements, getting to the greenhouses was easy. Getting into them, however, was impossible. Someone, presumably Professor Wattleseed, had padlocked the doors and Bagsy had no means of opening them. Feeling desperate, she pointed her hornbeam wand at the lock. 'Alohomora!' she whispered hopefully. Her spell unsuccessful, and finding herself unable to break into the greenhouses, Bagsy returned empty handed to Astronomy.
'Any luck?' Winifred asked. Bagsy shook her head sadly, and Winifred gave her a commiserating pat on the back, before catching her up on the work she'd missed while sneaking off.
The rest of the week flew by. Bagsy found herself amongst the familiar struggle of being unable to cast spells in all her least favourite classes, and the familiar relief of her competency in Potions and Herbology. At least she didn't have to worry about Thaumathletics as Professor Kim, who was the instructor for the elective, was preoccupied with safety checking the stands on the quidditch pitch, and so hadn't run any of their lessons yet. Or so that's what they'd been told. Maisy Jewel claimed she'd seen Kim hanging out with Professor Wattleseed walking around the grassy grounds instead. No one had believed her, though.
Muggle studies turned out to be taught by a muggle. A certain Mr Barnsley who came from the muggle government in the muggle world, which was a popular subject for the majority of their first lesson.
'How did you find out about the magical world?' Arice Allthorn asked. Mr Barnsley had given them a long and fun anecdote about his wife and his growing suspicion over how quickly she could travel from place to place, and how any time they had multiple guests over chairs seemed to appear out of thin air.
'To be honest with you,' Mr Barnsley admitted, 'it was her fashion sense more than anything that gave it away. But we'll discuss that more when we get to the fashion section of the course. I make sure all of my students know how to actually dress like muggles.'
Mr Barnsley must have been very likeable, Bagsy decided, because despite not having an ounce of magic in him not one student had ever tried to jinx or hex the man.
'How did his wife travel so fast?' Bagsy asked Mezrielda towards the end of the lesson. 'He didn't say anything about floo powder.'
'Apparition,' Mezrielda explained.
Bagsy hit her forehead with her palm. 'Right, duh,' she said to herself.
Mezrielda let out a long-suffering sigh. 'I'd like to already know how to apparate myself, given how useful it is, but you're not allowed to learn until after you've graduated.'
Bagsy frowned. 'That feels like a long way off.'
'My parents said it used to be sooner,' Mezrielda responded, before taking a second to think. 'I can't remember why it was changed, though.'
Itsuki, who'd been sitting in the row in front of them, turned around with excited eyes. 'I can tell you why!' he whispered. Bagsy and Mezrielda looked at him expectantly. 'There was a series of very nasty splinching incidents about a decade and a half ago and the Ministry decided it would be best to restrict who could learn how to apparate both in terms of their age and their skill. Now, rather than being taught in our sixth year, you have to graduate with a certain number of NEWTS and then pay for the privilege to learn.'
Mezrielda's eyes narrowed. 'Yes. Now I remember,' she said. 'It was around the time the MBM was gaining a lot of traction that they changed the rules. How convenient that was the time the Ministry made such easy movement so inaccessible.'
Itsuki looked at Mezrielda with a tad of confusion, evidently deciding to leave the topic there as, instead of responding, he simply turned back around to pay attention to Mr Barnsley. Bagsy would have asked Mezrielda what all that was about, if Barnsley hadn't abruptly brought out a spinning chair to demonstrate how his wife had once whisked him from their home to a local restaurant in two seconds flat.
After muggle studies Bagsy was distracted again by Arice who approached Bagsy with a sheepish look in his eyes that unsettled her.
'Hi, Bagsy,' Arice said politely.
'Hello,' Bagsy responded. Mezrielda seemed to appear from nowhere, standing at Bagsy's side and shooting Arice the strangest look.
'Another time,' Arice muttered, dashing off.
'What was that about?' Bagsy wondered. Mezrielda shrugged. Bagsy had the feeling Mezrielda knew but didn't want to say.
