Bagsy didn't need her parents' permission to stay over Christmas – she doubted they'd notice she was missing. In summer it had been her sister, not her parents, that had noticed she hadn't been home for two weeks. That led to Bagsy's current dilemma. None of the owls were delivering her letters to Bontie, the one person she did need to notify about her staying at Hogwarts. They would fly over the lake and hover for a bit before returning. She still didn't understand why.
Bagsy let out a sudden yelp of excitement as a genius idea hit her.
'What?' Mezrielda asked, placing her pumpkin juice down demurely on the table. It was breakfast and the great hall was far emptier than usual as many students had gone home for the holidays the previous evening.
'I can write a letter to Griffin and get him to tell Bontie I'm staying over Christmas!' Bagsy exclaimed.
'Chew with your mouth closed,' Mezrielda chastised her. 'But yes, that does seem to be a reasonable solution to the issue. I'm astounded your mind managed to stumble upon it.' Mezrielda glanced at the jam on Bagsy's other side. 'Can you pass that to me?' she added politely.
'I don't know,' Bagsy teased, 'I'm not sure my puny mind can manage such a complicated manoeuvre.'
With a roll of her eyes and a sneer that Bagsy was half-sure showed nothing but affection, Mezrielda simply leaned over Bagsy, forcing her to sharply move backwards, and grabbed the jam herself.
When Bagsy handed her neatly written letter for Griffin to Eldritch, he dutifully took the message and swooped off in the opposite direction of the lake. Feeling victorious, Bagsy hurried back to the castle. She would miss spending time with her sister this year, but she couldn't deny that she was excited to spend it at Hogwarts with Mezrielda instead. Besides, it would be nice to walk around Hogwarts without the numb worry that she'd see Tod or Arice and have to avert her eyes or avoid sitting near them in the lessons they shared.
The first thing Mezrielda and Bagsy did was set up shop in their favourite nook of the library. The library, like the rest of Hogwarts, was dressed in fragile, glimmering stars and tinsel. Massive fir trees filled the corners of most rooms, making Bagsy feel like she was huddled in a cosy underground den. As a Hufflepuff, she couldn't deny it was a nice feeling.
Mezrielda wasn't as keen. 'These bothersome pine needles keep getting in my hair!' she moaned as she arranged cushions on the window seat that overlooked Hogwarts lake. They had decided that, given they were the only people in the library, besides one or two other students, they could turn their little nook into a home base for the holiday. The window seat was adorned with grey pillows, Mezrielda having insisted that any more Christmas colours would make her physically ill, and Bagsy had fixed a comfortable cage and large hammock for Bill to enjoy as she lazed away in the winter sun that streamed through the window. Mezrielda had tried to lug her massive owl perch up the stairs to the library, but it had been too heavy for her. She'd deferred the task to Bagsy, who'd laughed tauntingly at her friend when she found lifting the heavy thing a breeze in comparison. Mezrielda and Crimson, her eagle owl, had teamed up their glares against Bagsy, who'd very sensibly stopped her laughing.
The tall bookshelves that enclosed the nook made it feel like it was a little room, separate from the rest of the library. It was the privacy, more than anything, that the nook offered them.
'So,' Mezrielda murmured as they settled into their seats, 'what's your plan?'
'My plan?' Bagsy furrowed her brow.
Mezrielda rolled her eyes as if she was an idiot. 'I've known you for two and a half years now, Bagsy. Of all the witches in the world, you are the least capable of sitting still and relaxing.'
'Ooh,' Bagsy responded. 'You mean that kind of plan.'
Mezrielda nodded, and then jolted when Bagsy slammed a heavy notebook onto the table. It was filled with odd bits of crumpled paper, sticky notes, photos, doodles, and it seemed not a single page had escaped Bagsy's need to dog ear its edge.
Mezrielda mumbled, glancing over the notebook, 'You know if you fold the corner of every page it rather defeats the purpose.'
'But everything in here is important!' Bagsy protested, opening the filled-to-brimming book. With all the projects she'd been juggling, all her notes and thoughts had gone into the one large notepad. She skipped over a few pages and, after five minutes of struggling to find the notes she was looking for, spread her designs out on the table in front of her. 'Right, so,' Bagsy breathed, pointing at one of her doodles first, 'I want to work on my wand training wheel. If I can perfect my design, I may be able to finally cast spells.'
'That seems a sensible project to prioritise. Who knew someone with a notebook like that could have any organisational skills at all.'
Ignoring her comment, Bagsy continued. 'I then want to get your weather machine up and running-'
'A bold goal, but I wouldn't have set it for you if I didn't believe you could achieve it.'
'-and I want to become the best quidditch player in the school.'
Mezrielda stalled. '…Repeat that last one?'
'Emmeline and Greenda aren't getting any better,' Bagsy explained, 'and I don't know how to get them to stop being so angry with each other. If Hufflepuff are going to win the quidditch cup I'm going to have to make it happen myself.'
'Hold on.' Mezrielda held up her hands in confusion. 'What's this about Hufflepuff winning the cup? You're Hufflepuff. You never win the cup and besides, you've already had one monumental loss.'
'I know,' Bagsy sighed. 'Which is why I have to become the best quidditch player. Then I can make up for Greenda and Emmeline and their inability to focus on the game instead of arguing with each other.'
Mezrielda sucked in a breath. 'I don't have much faith in that project, but I have a feeling I won't be able to dissuade you.'
'No, you won't,' Bagsy agreed, turning back to her notes. 'I better get started if I'm going to get through all this stuff…' She paused. 'What's your plan for the holiday?'
Mezrielda blinked at Bagsy for a solid minute as if she'd shapeshifted into a dragon in front of her very eyes. 'What am I going to do?'
'Yes,' Bagsy laughed, finding Mezrielda's mental crash amusing. 'You're at Hogwarts, not with your parents, so you get to decide what you should do.'
'I suppose I should work…' Mezrielda trailed off, her eyes narrowing. 'When I'm at home that's what my parents make me do.'
'What do you do when you're not studying?' Bagsy said. Mezrielda blinked at Bagsy again, who let out a groan. 'There must be something,' she insisted. 'A hobby, an interest, something.'
Mezrielda shrugged. 'I read or sleep or…' She cut off awkwardly as if embarrassed, though it was always hard to tell what she was feeling.
'What?'
'I like to go looking for… things.'
'What things?'
'I told you, remember?' Mezrielda pointed out sourly. 'I like collecting small things that are shiny or intriguing or have a certain… atmosphere to them.'
With a nod, Bagsy recalled this. Mezrielda's bag was often filled with strange objects; marbles, shiny pieces of metal, lost coins or buttons.
'It's more fun to transfigure items that already have an inquisitive quality. It makes the finished project more striking,' Mezrielda explained haughtily.
'Well, do more of that, then,' Bagsy suggested. Mezrielda considered her for a silent moment, before decisively nodding and pulling a handful of strange ornaments from her bag. 'Do you always carry those on you?' Bagsy asked.
'That's none of your business,' Mezrielda murmured testily as she considered a small gem, twiddling her white wand in her other hand in deep concentration. 'What to do with you…?' she muttered to it, glaring at the tiny stone as if she wanted to set it on fire.
Leaving her to it, Bagsy turned to her own work. She was inspecting the singed, broken parts of her wand training wheel and wondering how to rebuild it so it wouldn't explode when used. She'd carried her bottomless tool box to their nook of the library and unlocked it with the password twiddle diddle before fishing out a selection of hammers and metal. The difficulty with making wand training wheels was working with metal that wasn't hot and malleable. It made the wand training wheel uneven and jagged where Bagsy was trying to make the ring a smooth, even circle.
'Twiddle diddle?' Mezrielda questioned, looking up from a coin she was turning into a strange spiked bird shape that fluttered creepily from one of her finger tips to the other.
'You try guessing that password,' Bagsy retorted.
'I don't need to guess it if you say it within earshot,' she snorted in response.
Bagsy pouted, before a devious grin spread across her face as Mezrielda turned her attention back to her transfiguration.
'What are you planning?' Mezrielda muttered as she narrowed her eyes on a shiny bottle cap and gentle tapped her wand to it once, twice, then thrice.
Bagsy grinned more but said nothing, instead choosing to wait. Just as Mezrielda stopped paying her obvious scheming attention, and was about to cast her transfiguration spell, Bagsy shot out her arms and grabbed onto Mezrielda's shoulders. 'Boo!' she cried loudly, giving her a shake.
Mezrielda startled and dropped the bottle cap, which shifted from her transfiguration spell into an exclamation mark that swelled to the size of a book. 'Bagsy!' Mezrielda grumbled angrily, before seeing the exclamation mark. Her face did an odd dance as she fought a very evident urge to laugh.
'Gotcha,' Bagsy teased, returning to her work. 'I can't believe you're so easily startled.'
Mezrielda let out an annoyed noise before saying, in a low voice, 'Watch your back… this means war.'
'What was that, Mez?'
'Nothing,' Mezrielda drawled her words menacingly. 'Nothing at all, my dearest Bagsyllia.' Her voice was ice and a scary madness was in her eyes. Bagsy held back a bought of giggles.
More students remained at Hogwarts than Bagsy had first expected. Sure, the castle was deserted in comparison to how it usually was, but there was still a small handful of students and staff who remained. Most of them Bagsy didn't know, like some of the first years and second years who she'd never spoken to. Others, though, she vaguely remembered. Howe, a now second year Ravenclaw student who'd duelled with Bagsy in the Eagle club the year previously, was still there. Maisy Jewel had stayed as well, along with Killian and Fiona, all of whom she knew from her Thaumathletics lessons.
Kat Hawkins, who Bagsy had once thought of as Emmeline's minion but now as simply a friend of Emmeline's, was there also. Bagsy reckoned traveling back to America, magic or no, was a hassle that Kat preferred to avoid as much as possible. Thankfully, Professor Starrett no longer seemed present, so Bagsy had little worries as she worked on her wand training wheel and other inventions.
'Morning, Bagsy,' Mezrielda greeted her one breakfast with a self-important swish of her sleek hair. The breakfast over the holidays had far less variation but Bagsy didn't mind only eating cereal and porridge.
'Morning,' Bagsy responded pleasantly.
'Would you like some hot chocolate?' Mezrielda offered, Bagsy failing to catch the odd kindness of it.
'Hot chocolate!' Bagsy exclaimed – it wasn't served over the holidays except for on Christmas day, which was in a week and a half. 'I'd love some!'
'Here you go,' Mezrielda said as she handed Bagsy a mug, her expression worryingly empty but, again, Bagsy failed to notice this; she was so enamoured with the delicious drink before her.
Overcome with excitement, and naïve trust, she drank deeply from the cup. Bagsy smiled contentedly and placed the warm mug on the table with a happy sigh. 'So yummy,' she breathed, before stalling at the suddenly terrifying expression on Mezrielda's face. She was grinning widely, teeth bared, with a dark and wild triumph lighting her eyes. It was a face straight out of a horror story, Bagsy decided.
'I told you to watch your back,' Mezrielda whispered so quietly Bagsy barely heard it.
Before she could react Bagsy let out a loud and unstoppable hiccough. 'What – hic – did – hic – you – hic – do!?' she squeaked. Bagsy had only ever seen Mezrielda laugh once. Now, Mezrielda wasn't laughing. She was outright cackling like the evil witches in muggle children's stories. 'It's – hic – not – hic – funny!' Bagsy protested, forcing her words around her uncontrollable hiccoughing.
'I told you,' Mezrielda's cackling abruptly stopped, 'this is war.'
'Truce?' Bagsy managed around her current state of spluttering.
'Did I win?'
'Win?' Bagsy gasped, hiccoughing again. She was fumbling through her trouser and jumper's pockets. She didn't have her school robe on, it was the holidays after all, but that didn't mean she left her casual clothes without a multitude of hidden, useful compartments.
'Yes.' Mezrielda tossed her head pompously to the side. 'Evidently I am the victor. Admit it, and I'll release you of your torment.' With quick hands Bagsy uncorked a small vial and drank the contents. 'What are you-' Mezrielda began.
'Never,' Bagsy sighed in relief as the hiccoughs left her. It was her turn to smirk at Mezrielda. 'If it's a war you want – it's a war you've got.'
Mezrielda frowned, but the corner of her mouth was twitching.
The war between them was a silent one – it was forgotten except for the few moments an attack was launched. Mezrielda wasn't above using her magic to make Bagsy trip over, as she had once done in their first year, and Bagsy wasn't above sticking her own leg out to physically trip Mezrielda in return. The only difference was, when Bagsy was tripped, she laughed and vowed revenge. When Mezrielda was tripped over, she'd slowly turn her head around to glower at Bagsy like a ghoul before rising to her feet. In those moments, Bagsy knew she had minus six seconds to get as far away as possible. It wasn't uncommon for the other poor residents of Hogwarts to see Bagsy, giggling madly, rush past them before a raging, red faced Mezrielda would speed after in hot pursuit.
On Thursday, Bagsy felt particularly foolish when Mezrielda told her to place both of her palms flat on the table. She'd naively obliged, without even a moment's hesitation. Almost immediately, Mezrielda had magicked a pair of full glasses of water onto the top of Bagsy's hands, balanced precariously. For ten minutes Bagsy had sat, staring at her hands, wondering how she could remove them without spilling water all over her important wand training wheel blueprints. Meanwhile, Mezrielda was stalking around her like a panther, offering to remove them if only Bagsy would yield and accept defeat.
'Give in,' she had hissed, like a demon on Bagsy's shoulder. 'Go on. It would be so easy, so quick to do. Just three words… 'I give up'… speak them and I'll release you… otherwise you'll be here all evening…'
Defiantly, Bagsy had suddenly jerked both her hands upwards. The glasses flew up into the air, hung for a moment, and crashed back down towards the table. Deftly, Bagsy caught both of them before flinging the contents backwards over her head onto Mezrielda, who was too stunned to repel the liquid. 'Nice tryyyyyy,' she'd teased, mimicking Winifred's taunting voice as Mezrielda sulkily dried herself off with the teporiem charm, grumbling the entire time. 'You look like a drowned rat.'
'I'll turn you into a drowned rat!' Mezrielda growled. Bagsy didn't doubt it, and this time the other residents were treated to a chase that included the squelching of Mezrielda's drenched shoes.
Bagsy reckoned if it wasn't for the thinned population, Mezrielda wouldn't allow herself to appear so out of control. She certainly didn't take to chasing Bagsy this much during term time – and that was precisely why Bagsy enjoyed it and laughed despite the tornado of anger on her heels. She knew this was all a game, and that below the aggression, though she may never admit it, Mezrielda was enjoying it too.
Bagsy had given up on remaking her wand training wheel as she'd realised that without something to properly heat and cool the metal at will she simply couldn't shape it precisely enough to make good, functioning products. The attempts Mezrielda had made to transfigure it into the right shape hadn't seemed to work, either. Like how you couldn't magic water into Polyjuice, some things had to be done the hard way.
As for Mezrielda's weather machine, Bagsy had inspected the tiny jars Pepsini had given her. Each of the three contained some miniature form of weather. In one, Bagsy saw a swirling storm with tiny crackles of blue lightning racing up and down it. In another, she saw gentle drifting snow, as if the jar were a little snow globe. In the final jar was a raging tornado of wind.
'Those are highly peculiar,' Mezrielda's voice murmured curiously from next to Bagsy's ear.
'Merlin!' Bagsy cursed in surprise, dropping the jar she was holding. Her heart plummeted with it – she had no clue what would happen when it broke, but she could make an educated guess, and Bagsy didn't fancy summoning a tornado in the middle of the library.
'Arresto momentum!' Mezrielda cast suddenly.
The jar slowed, and Bagsy's hand shot out with the speed of a cat's swipe, snatching it out of the air. She let out a relieved breath. 'Thank the stars…' she muttered.
Mezrielda sat down next to Bagsy, looking the kind of awkward she was when she felt guilty. 'You startle easily,' Mezrielda commented sullenly. 'I'd forgotten this.'
'It's okay,' Bagsy assured her, seeing Mezrielda relax at her words, and put the jar back onto the table.
Mezrielda picked one of the small jars up and peered at it. 'Weasleys' Weather Wonderments,' she quoted, squinting at an old, rusted indent in the jar's lid. 'I wonder who they are?'
'Who who are?' Bagsy asked. Mezrielda tilted the jar towards her. Bagsy leant forward to peer at the old writing. 'Weasleys,' she echoed.
'I've never heard of them,' Mezrielda commented. 'At least, I didn't see any of their merchandise purchased by the students who visited Hoohsair,' she explained, referencing the joke shop in Hogsmeade. Bagsy cringed at the mere mention of Hogsmeade – she'd thoroughly not enjoyed her visit. She worried for a moment if Arice expected to go with her again next time – she hoped not.
Bagsy shrugged, 'Well, whoever they are, I owe them. These little things are the key to the weather machine.'
'Oh?' Mezrielda raised an eyebrow in interest.
'I need to run a few tests on them,' Bagsy explained. 'I've constructed a sort of clamp with a little needle attached to a screwing mechanism to poke a small hole in the lid. I'll have complete control over the size of the hole, so I'm going to make it tiny and have some of my sealable substance on standby should it be needed.'
'Sealable substance?' Mezrielda questioned, glancing at the floor around Bagsy which was littered with different sized clamps, screws, bolts, nails and other tools.
'Yeah. I also called it solidifying liquid.' Bagsy sighed. 'I tried to create a substance that expands and hardens when put into a lock so that it could form into the shape of a key and allow me to unlock it.'
'It didn't work?' Mezrielda sounded surprised. Bagsy shook her head. 'To be fair,' Mezrielda reasoned, 'sticking an expanding substance into a key hole won't make it shape into the correct key shape, it will simply jam the lock.'
'Yup. Wish I'd realised that from the get go. Would've saved me a lot of time.'
'Common sense is a mystery to you, isn't it?' Mezrielda jibed.
'At least now I have something to seal these jars over with when I don't need their weather effects leaking out. All I need now is to judge exactly how much weather is released depending on the size of the hole, and how to ensure that I have a way to stop the weather effect when needed.'
'And you're going to do this how, exactly?'
Bagsy shrugged. 'The usual way. Spend a lot of time trying stuff until something works.'
Mezrielda nodded her head acceptingly. 'Sounds somewhat reasonable,' came her glowing compliment.
'Hey,' Bagsy piped up, as Mezrielda turned back to her own work. In the days approaching Christmas she'd stopped working on transfiguring her little ornaments.
'What?' Mezrielda grumbled as she was interrupted. She'd been waving her wand and narrowing her eyes in focus, as she had been for the past few days, but oddly she wasn't saying a word.
'What are you doing? Why aren't you saying any spells?'
Mezrielda grinned menacingly. 'You'll see soon enough. Don't worry, it's going to be very impressive.'
Somehow, that made Bagsy worry more.
