Omninihil, Chapter Six - And This Was Odd Because

Dedicated to the baby mice that had to endure my little brother petting them.


Odelia rushed her friends through lunch.

"Look," Liam grumbled, "I have a hard enough time finding non-meat food, let alone actually eating. What's the big hurry?"

Odelia tore off a piece of a roll and began to butter it. "I want to stop by the gamekeeper's cabin and visit Aura before Potions. We absolutely can't be late to Potions; Professor Snape is stricter than McGonagall except to Slytherins." She paused a split second to breathe and then took a big bite of bread.

"Well, why do we have to come too? You hurry through lunch and make yourself sick, I take my time and digest my food properly, and everyone's happy." Liam snatched the remaining roll; Kira glared at him and selected a potato instead. Odelia waited until she'd swallowed her food to speak.

"I can't wander around the grounds alone; Odette's spurned admirers will take me hostage until she agrees to go out with them. Then again, she can't go out with all of them; I guess it'd be just one admirer and some of his friends." Having lived with Odette for eleven years, Odelia found this a credible excuse, but Liam and Kira didn't.

"What is it with your sister anyway?" Kira craned her neck to glance at the Hufflepuff table, where Devin Nero was staring hopelessly at Odette. "Everyone acts like she's perfect or something."

"Is she part-Veela?" Liam chimed in. Odelia shook her head in disgust as she observed the third year Dorian Sloan, a starry-eyed Ravenclaw dreamer who gazed at Odette with a look of sorrowful resignation.

"That's the worst part," the younger Delwin sister expressed bitterly. "It's all real. She barely even wears makeup. She's just one of those naturally perfect people." Odelia lowered her voice to a murmur. "I can't stand it. I can't stand /her/. And it makes me hate myself." Only her strict training kept her shoulders from slumping.

Kira leaned forward and patted Odelia's shoulder. "She'll probably grow up to be really ugly. Lots of good-looking kids do."

"And you've got to admit," Liam added, "It's awfully funny to see all those boys mooning over her." He indulged himself in a snide chuckle over an older Hufflepuff boy who handed Odette an apple with a charming smile as a bonus.

"I don't know," Odelia replied with a sigh. "I worry about some of them. Especially Dorian - he's the boy over there. He never tries to flirt with her or anything, just looks at her with those sad, sad eyes. I'm afraid he's in love."

Liam snorted. "Thirteen-year-olds don't fall in love." Kira looked as if she would beg to differ, but apparently decided not to pursue the subject. Odelia merely shrugged.

"Be that as it may, I worry. Maybe I could convince Odette to take an Ugliness Potion for the good of the community." Her face took on a hopeful expression. "She might do it; she's horribly nice."

Kira grinned. "You can always try."

Although the Omninihils didn't finish lunch as early as Odelia had hoped, she judged that they would have time to pay a quick visit to Aura. After gathering textbooks and supplies, she barreled down the front stairs with Kira and Liam following at a more leisurely pace. They proved to be wiser; Odelia tripped on the third-from-last step and tumbled ungracefully to the ground in a flurry of swirling robes.

Kira and Liam hurried to help her up, but she brushed them aside and looked around quickly to make sure no one had seen her literal faux pas. As luck would have it, there was only one observer: Fairfax Garland, who was leaning up against a nearby tree. His serene gaze betrayed no amusement, or any other emotion for that matter. Odelia pretended she hadn't seen him and hurried along, urging her friends on.

Hagrid's cabin was near the greenhouse where Herbology had been taught. It was a small edifice and Odelia felt a brief pang of anxiety as she wondered how Aura was faring. She rapped rather more sharply than she had intended on the door and took a moment to soothe her smarting knuckles. "Come in!" called a voice from inside; Odelia's unease increased when she noticed that the voice lacked Hagrid's distinctive accent. She shoved the door open immediately and burst into the cabin, wand in hand.

"Whoa!" Ignatius Anastas, who was sitting on the cabin floor with Aura's head in his lap, put his hands up defensively. "Having a bad day?" Odelia lowered her wand with a sheepish grin.

"Oh, sorry." She glared to silence Kira and Liam, who were snorting behind her. "I noticed that you weren't Hagrid-"

"Observant, isn't she?" remarked Liam.

"Quiet, Mr. Elbow-in-the-mashed-potatoes. And I knew Aura was in here, and I guess I got defensive…" she shrugged one shoulder and dropped to her knees, scratching behind Aura's ears. "You know the rest."

"Ooh, your Kneazle's gorgeous," gushed Kira, joining Odelia and Ignatius. Aura purred smugly, clearly pleased at all of the attention. Liam came forward to let Aura sniff his hand.

"Yeah," Odelia agreed fondly, "she makes friends wherever she goes. Speaking of which, where's Hagrid?" There was no sign of the friendly half-giant.

"He went to teach a class," explained Ignatius. "Told me I could stay here with your Kneazle. He really admires her; you should've seen the way he lets her chew on his knuckles."

Odelia chuckled. "I'm glad they're getting on well. I was a little worried at first; she likes a lot of attention." Aura rolled over and tilted her head so that Ignatius could scratch her chin. "I think she likes you. That's a compliment, you know; Kneazles are supposed to be able to judge character."

"Yeah, I know," Ignatius replied, his eyes still on the indolent feline. "My grandmother has one."

"It must be so great to have magical pets." Kira looked wistfully at Aura. "I have rabbits at home, but…"

"I have a Fwooper," Liam volunteered quickly. Odelia was about to speak about why it was sad that Fwoopers had to be silenced when the door banged open to admit Hagrid.

"'Ello, 'Nashus!" The gargantuan beamed jovially as he shut the door behind him. "And little Odelia! Come ter visit yer Kneazle?" Odelia nodded and let Aura's whiskers tickle the back of her hand.

"Yeah. These are my friends Liam and Kira," she gestured at each of them, "they're in Omninihil too." Aura stood and wove her way to Hagrid, twining around his tree trunk-like legs in a sign of welcome.

"Ah, right, yeh all got Sorted into that new House," Hagrid reminded himself, a puzzled expression upon his honest face. "Change everything, it will."

"Talking like Yoda, you are," Kira muttered, but Hagrid didn't seem to notice the words spoken at a volume so much lower than his own. Liam, Ignatius and Odelia frowned in bemusement. Odelia's eyes flickered to her pocket watch.

"Potions time!" she yelped, startling everyone, including Aura. Ignatius instantly leapt to his feet and dashed out the door. "We have to get to class or Professor Snape will make us wish we were never born," Odelia explained to Hagrid in a rush. With a final pat of Aura's head, she gestured to Liam and Kira before beginning the jog back to Hogwarts.

Robes billowing in the breeze and hair streaming behind her, Odelia could hear the footsteps of her fellow Omninihils. She scanned the area for Ignatius as well, but he was nowhere in sight. He must be a fast runner, Odelia mused as she took a flying leap over a stone. She quickly developed a stitch in her side, but took the steps to the building two at a time anyway. Through the Great Hall, down the stairs, into the dungeons with gasping breaths.

--

Odelia stopped at the door, certain that she would find the sinister-looking Snape scowling at her. By some rare act of grace, the professor was late to class and only the Slytherins and Ravenclaws watched, mildly interested, as the three tardy students entered the bleak room.

Ignatius was seated, composed and not in the least disheveled, next to (Odelia winced) Selena. The latter smiled saccharinely at the Omninihils and poked Ignatius in the ribs. Ignatius looked at her questioningly and she glanced again at the Omninihils. Ignatius's normally benign expression settled into a sneer.

"So here we have the Omninihils, the All-Nothings. The name fits, actually, you're all a bunch of nothings." He sniggered unpleasantly as Selena's smile grew wider; a few scattered students laughed uncertainly. Odelia felt such confusion that she only stared, hurt, at the boy she had considered at least civil. Ignatius laughed harder, his face twisting, at Odelia's expression.

Liam glared in disgust at the two Ravenclaws, and Kira clenched her fists although her face remained serene. Odelia sat at the nearest desk and rallied herself enough for a retort, though hardly up to par with her usual ones. "You've got a problem with Omninihil?" She shaped her own face into the cold mask her mother wore when angry. A detached part of her noted that Fairfax Garland watched the scene intently from a corner.

Ignatius shrugged coolly. "Me? A problem? I'm not the one who couldn't fit into any of the proper Houses. I would say it's certain other members of this room who have problems."

"There's nothing wrong with being different," Odelia snapped instantly. All of her reflexes were responding now. "It's the different people who make the world different, and almost every great person was misunderstood during childhood. The Muggle scientist Albert Einstein was even expelled from school."

"Several times," added Fairfax in a monotone. "And he played the violin, and he was Jewish."

Fairfax's enlightening remarks were lost on Ignatius, who merely sneered. "If you'd like to get yourself expelled, Odelia," (he managed to make her name sound like an insult), "I'm sure the school will be quite willing to oblige you."

"And if I'd like to be treated with civility, will /you/ be willing to oblige me?" Odelia was somehow standing again, one hand on her hip and the other in her pocket, clutching her wand. Small and outspoken, she was no stranger to conflict and had full confidence in her ability to defeat Ignatius in a verbal battle.

"Civility," asserted Ignatius with another maddening shrug, "is given to those who deserve it." That boy, Odelia decided, was going to rue the day he was stupid enough to insult her. He was going to pay. Right now, in fact, or as soon as that girl who had just stood up got out of the way…

The girl in question was speaking sharply to Ignatius. "Cut it out, would you? You've never even met these people and you're insulting them the minute they get in the room." Flicking a lock of hair out of her way, she sauntered over to the Omninihils. Another girl with purple ribbons in her light brown hair followed.

"Twits will be twits," concluded the first girl. "You seem like the sorts who've figured that out." Startling blue eyes smiled in a cocoa-tinted face. "I'm Linnet Hamilton, by the way, and my partner in crime here is Hyacinth Starling." Hyacinth, a smoke-eyed girl with a willowy form, half-grinned and dropped a curtsey.

"We're history in the making," explained the second witch cryptically as her ribbons, fluttering from the curtsey, calmed down. Odelia could recognize question-fishing when she heard it and said nothing, but Kira had no scruples about doing what the mysterious duo wanted her to.

"How are you going to make history?" she enquired, pulling her glasses from the pocket of her robes.

"That's for us to know…" Hyacinth began in a low voice, but Linnet shushed her friend.

"Don't bother with the mystery stuff, Hy. Hogwarts School has a proud tradition of fearless, clever pranksters," her voice dropped to a whisper, "and the two of us intend to take that tradition to new heights!" A grin of anticipatory triumph lit Linnet's face, and Hyacinth struck a dramatic pose.

"Prepare, my friends," continued Hyacinth, "for the most glorious pranks ever pulled off. We, the Birds - Linnet and Starling, you know - shall usher in a shining new era of mischief."

"Cool," murmured Liam with a tone akin to reverence.

"Can't wait to see," Kira added, looking more confident than usual as a result of the Birds' charismatic speech. Odelia was deep in thought. A duo of pranksters could prove very useful indeed.

"Don't suppose you could give our friend Ignatius a bit of a surprise?" queried Odelia sotto voce.

"I think we could fit him into our schedule," mused Linnet with the sweetest of smiles.

"As soon as we snare that supercilious snob, Selena," Hyacinth said, suffusing her speech with what seemed suspiciously like a smirk - Stop alliterating! Odelia told her brain. After all, she'd practically been promised her nemeses' heads on a platter.

"Better and better," she assured the Birds blissfully. It was on this note that Professor Snape swished into the room.

The student body of Hogwarts had a reason to fear the man, Odelia decided, as the Professor in question stalked to his desk and turned, sharply, to scrutinize the students with maliciously glittering black eyes. With his hooked nose and relentless stare, he could easily have been a vulture in a past life. When he breathed, he seemed to suck all of the chatter and noise out of the room. After a moment of silence, the greasy wizard spoke in a low, menacing voice.

"So." Snape's forceful diction reminded Odelia slightly of Fairfax. A jittery young wizard who Odelia vaguely recognized as Erik So of Ravenclaw jerked to attention, attempting to fix his slightly disheveled robes and hair surreptitiously.

"Yes?" Erik responded, sounding as though he wanted to stutter but was keeping himself from doing so through sheer willpower. Snape's head swiveled like that of an owl to lock eyes with the recalcitrant student.

"'Yes'?" If the teacher's glaring was intimidating before, it now increased tenfold. "What are you babbling about, boy?"

Erik clutched his quill tightly, barely maintaining eye contact with Snape. "That's my name. Erik So. I thought you were talking to me." Several of the braver students chuckled, but Snape whirled to face the rest of the class and all was silent once more. Erik took a deep breath during his momentary reprieve, but Snape had not forgotten him.

"You thought I was talking to you," the professor repeated. Odelia winced, pitying Erik and envying Snape his amazing sarcasm. "Of course, being the presumptuous child you are, you assumed that I would switch the alphabet around so that you were first on the roll call." Snape's tone was such that Odelia wondered how long he could use such irony without exploding into a roar. Erik shook his head vehemently and opened his mouth to speak, but Snape extended his neck toward the students in a motion reminiscent of a bird of prey. "Don't talk back or I'll take ten points from Ravenclaw before you can speak three foolish words."

Erik, to his credit, remained stoic and nodded coldly. Odelia found herself impressed by both antagonists and took mental notes for use in future conflicts. Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed her housemates' reactions to Snape; Kira's eyes were wide behind her green-rimmed glasses and Liam looked disgruntled.

"Since you're all so /eager/ to begin…" Snape oozed, "Anastas!" The ooze abruptly became a militant rap.

"Here!" replied Ignatius instantly.

"Raising your hand will suffice, Mr. Anastas, though I've no doubt you find your own voice pleasing," Snape sneered in a glacial tone.

Ignatius turned red and lowered his head, causing locks of hair to fall in his eyes and looking far from menacing. Odelia was so pleased with this that she beamed at Snape, rays of sunlight that would have melted Snape's frozen barriers if emotions followed the laws of physics. As everyone ought to know, they don't.

"What are you doing, Miss Delwin?" The surly professor's eyes narrowed as he swiveled from Ignatius to Odelia, who could see Selena smirking smugly.

"Just smiling, sir," Odelia responded, carefully treading the coating of ice over the inferno. "I didn't mean any disrespect." The line between courtesy and subservience is blurred, and Odelia struggled to keep her balance.

"Good intentions, I see," reflected Snape, a glimmer of amusement - benevolent or cruel? - in his eyes. "Don't let them pave any roads or you'll find yourself in trouble." Odelia nodded silently, unsure of how to take the advice but grateful that it wasn't anything more severe.

Roll call continued with no more incidents; Odelia was relieved to find that someone - probably Professor Flitwick - had informed Snape of Fairfax's true name. Although, she thought, an argument between those two would really be something. Snape moved through the list of names slowly and detachedly. Odelia assumed that he was stalling to avoid actual teaching, especially when he launched into a long and surprisingly poetic speech about the importance of Potions.

Every class is the most important, or the most challenging, or the most under-appreciated, Odelia mused sardonically. These professors, with the exception of Lupin, had apparently bought a pack of one-way tickets for an ego trip. Still, Snape's metaphors and vocabulary were distinguished. Potions class was hardly the most lyrical of topics. Odelia stifled a giggle as she decided that Devin Nero could learn a lot from Snape.

Odelia was relieved when the requisite speech was over and the actual lesson began; she wasn't sure how long she would be able to maintain the façade of polite interest. Snape instructed the class to partner up in a manner that would have better suited the order "Impale yourselves with a bicorn horn." The normal chaos that would have ensued was tempered by Snape's ominous presence - students scrambled more quietly than usual to seek a friendly face.

Glancing subtly at Liam and Kira, Odelia was unsure of how to split the trio. Any combination would leave one of them out in the cold. Most of the other students were drawn to a working companion as north pole to south: Hyacinth and Linnet, Ignatius and Selena, Cynthia Bagshot with Lana Verde, Samuel Swenson and Helen Morrow, Edward Berry and Donovan Harper… Fairfax was asking Snape something in a harsh whisper, probably begging permission to refrain from lowering himself to his peers' level. In a sudden rush of kindness, Odelia hefted her books and paced swiftly to Erik So.

"Mind if I work with you?" the martyr requested. Erik, looking slightly surprised, nodded and cleared a workspace on his desk. Odelia noticed, among the papers pushed aside, a few sheets with what looked like floor plans of buildings. "Did you draw those?" she ventured with a non-pointing gesture.

"Yeah, while Dracula there was singing the glory of Potions," Erik replied in a hushed voice. "I like designing buildings in my spare time," he added by way of explanation.

Odelia nodded slowly and traced a finger over the wall of a blueprint. "They're good. Maybe you could go into architecture." Erik only had time to shrug before Snapula himself passed their desk and, with claw-like fingers, deposited the ingredients for a Waterproofing Potion. He took a split-second to shoot them a warning look, and Odelia felt her stomach flutter with the fear that he had overheard her and Erik talking. If such was the case, he showed no further sign of it and continued his circuit.

"Good grief." Odelia exhaled sharply in relief. "I don't usually let people intimidate me, but he's like some villain out of a fairy tale." Dancing in front of her eyes was the mark of Snape's cold stare, like the afterimage of a light bulb.

"He's just a prick on a power high," Erik declared with startling boldness. "He can't do anything to you unless you let him by cowering and all."

"Easier said than done, oh great hero," his partner replied with gentle sarcasm. Odelia remembered how nervous Erik had been at the beginning of class; confronting Snape seemed to have increased the boy's confidence.

Erik only shrugged and began dexterously sorting the pile of ingredients. "If I can do it, you can do it; I'm not the bravest person in the world and you seem pretty tough. Gave that Ignatius what he deserved."

Flattery, when sincere, pleased sibling-shadowed Odelia to the highest degree, and she chopped her spicy-scented herbs with enthusiasm. "You don't think Omninihil is some sort of reject house then?" she queried, more than a hint of mischief in her tone.

A shake of Erik's head sent strands of hair as straight as Odelia's own fluttering. "My cousin says nature doesn't create rejects; people do. And the Sorting Hat isn't a person." At this bit of wisdom, Odelia smiled and tipped the shreds of herbs into her cauldron, causing a jet of hot water to squirt onto her hand.

"Ow!" she yelped. Snape abruptly turned from his position, where he was scrutinizing the Birds, with a questioning glare; Odelia busied herself with uncorking a vial of plant extract. She would, of course, stand up to Snape when she needed to do so, but what was the use of inviting trouble?

The rest of the period passed quickly enough in the two-tone experience of whispered conversations hidden beneath the convenient charade of Potions making. By the end of the lesson, all of the students had completed a Waterproofing potion within a varying range of success. Helen Morrow suggested using the potions to protect the pupils' shoes from wet weather, and Snape, after a moment spent in contemplation of the idea's possible flaws, agreed gruffly - "But please control your instinctual clumsiness when it comes to my classroom floor."

Odelia smeared the deep blue potion, which smelled like ice-coated diamonds, onto her wand. As soon as it touched the wooden surface all traces of the cobalt substance vanished. The same phenomenon occurred on Erik's boots and folder, in which he kept his drawings. "See you in Defense Against the Dark Arts," Odelia muttered to her newest friend before leaving the room, under Snape's watchful eye, with Liam and Kira.

--

There was no doubt about it: History of Magic was boring. The textbook was written in a dry, pompous tone, and the lesson consisted of listening (or pretending to listen) to the Professor give lectures on historical events, which he described in such a stark manner that all story elements were eradicated. Even the Professor's looks and demeanor afforded no amusement; despite being a ghost, Professor Binns was devoid of all personality and interest in his surroundings. Odelia found herself wishing that the Omninihils shared the class with the less predictable Gryffindors or Slytherins; even arrogant Ignatius would relieve the monotony.

Kira had folded a piece of parchment into a square-like shape and was intently inscribing phrases on it, looking the ideal student with her serious face behind oval-shaped spectacles. When Odelia looked over her friend's shoulder, Kira shooed the other girl away. Deprived of material for observation, Odelia stared in utter ennui at her desk.

"Pick a color," Kira hissed suddenly. Odelia raised an eyebrow; the curly-locked witch was supporting her paper sculpture on her thumbs and forefingers. The surface of the object was divided into four squares, each a different color. Odelia chose orange - close to salmon, an Omninihil color. "O-R-A-N-G-E," muttered Kira, opening and closing folds in the origami as if it were a bird opening its beak. After "E," she opened the "beak" to reveal four more squares, each with a number. "Pick one."

Odelia was rather confused at this point, but picked three, the number of students in Omninihil. Kira twitched her fingers three times and unfolded a flap of the paper. Beneath the flap was a small phrase.

"This is your fortune," Kira explained. "It says… hey, I didn't write this." Odelia craned her neck to see, written in purple ink, "Heed the auracle."

With a blink of her eyelids, Odelia shrugged. "Whoever wrote it couldn't spell. They either meant oracle - you know, a foretelling - or auricle, a part of the heart."

"But I made this thing myself! I wrote in all of the fortunes!" Perplexed, Kira tried to pull open the other flaps, but they couldn't budge. "It's come alive or something! It was only supposed to be a Muggle game." Kira's voice was in danger of rising in panic; Liam made a shushing sound as he examined the fortune-telling piece of paper.

"Well," the young wizard surmised, "Either you used a magic pen, or magic paper, or something weird happened. Here, try it again." Kira repeated the procedure with Liam choosing colors and numbers. The trio waited with breath caught and baited as Kira opened the flap to reveal the fortune. "'There's always a choice,'" read Liam.

Odelia gave a small shudder. "Put it away. It might be dangerous. I know; we'll show it to Lupin." The thought of finding security in a trustworthy adult was comforting, but the cootie-catcher's very presence seemed a threat.

In light of this new menace, the Omninihils could barely get through the rest of History. Kira kept staring at the pocket in which she had put her eerie creation, glasses suddenly making her eyes look large and frightened. Liam repeatedly ran his left hand through his hair. Odelia clenched and unclenched her hands, watching the thin lines of muscle contract and relax. Her emotions, however, all seemed to be contracting at once. It was incomparable relief when the class was finally over and the Omninihils hurried to Lupin's classroom.

A class of fifth-year Ravenclaws was just leaving; Liam flattened himself against the wall at the sight of Tolkien Girl. Odelia made a mental note to ask her friend why he was so wary of the older witch, but all traces of the idea were washed away in the rush to talk to Lupin. Their House Head was standing near the doorway, bidding his class good-bye.

"Professor!" Despite the impoliteness of the gesture, Odelia tugged on Lupin's sleeve to be heard amidst the bustle of students. He looked down and smiled, seeming to take no offense.

"Oh, hello Odelia. Is everything all right?" The professor was remarkably calm for the first day of class, though there were shadows beneath his eyes. Liam and Kira crowded behind Odelia; the worry in their faces made Lupin take on a puzzled expression.

"Something weird happened in History of Magic, and we're worried about it," Liam explained.

"Kira made a cootie-catcher - that's a Muggle toy made out of paper for predicting fortunes - and it started working on its own," Odelia added in a rather unclear clarification. Lupin, however, understood the gist of it and turned to Kira.

"May I see this thing?" he requested quietly; Kira nodded and offered the cootie-catcher for inspection. Indeed, she looked as if she had been relieved of a weight greater than a piece of paper. Lupin turned the object over in his hands, examining the texture of the parchment and the ink. When he tried to unfold it, he was as unsuccessful as the students have been. "Are these predictions in your handwriting?" he inquired of Kira.

"Yes, and the ink is just like mine too," she replied. "But the phrases aren't the ones I wrote at all." She began to twirl a strand of hair around her finger as the first-year Ravenclaws trickled into the classroom. "So is it Dark Magic?"

Lupin frowned slightly at the innocuous-looking toy before shifting his attention to the students. "It seems harmless enough, but I'd better keep it - I'll see if I can perform some studies on it later. Thank you for bringing it to me; I hope you'll do the same thing if you find any other objects behaving strangely." He looked down at them, solemnly, and Odelia tried to analyze his eyes. Was that trust? If so, she would not betray the first adult to treat her as an equal.

As the last Ravenclaws entered the room, the Omninihils seated themselves in front of the Birds and diagonal from Erik. Ignatius and Selena camped in the farthest corner, the former pausing to glare at the Omninihils. Odelia countered this with a sarcastic wave. Lupin moved to the front of the room, standing patiently until all but the most raucous of students were quiet. Cynthia Bagshot glared at the rowdy remainder, who stopped their chattering.

"Thank you, Cynthia," uttered Lupin, suppressing a chuckle. "I'm sure you're all tired since it's the last period of the first day of classes, but I hope you can concentrate for just a little while longer. As you might know, I'm Professor Lupin. This class focuses on studying and protecting oneself from evil creatures and magic, hence the name. I hope you'll never have to use most of the things you learn here, but…" he shrugged. "It's better to be prepared."

A sense of mercy must have been present in Lupin, for he did not launch into a long speech but gave a short explanation of the day's lesson, the Disarming Charm. The students were asked to take turns trying to use the most basic Defense charm on each other; most of them were eager to try.

Odelia clutched her wand and focused on the current of power flowing through her and the mystery core beneath the wand's silky surface. She turned to Kira, who sat beside her. "Ready?" Kira nodded as she held her own wand, slightly nervous. Odelia inhaled deeply and concentrated, causing her taut muscles to tremble. "Expelliarmus!" Through slightly blurred eyes, she viewed Kira's wand wrenching itself from its owner's grip and clattering to the floor.

"Good job," Kira remarked, her mild face surprised and relieved that the spell hadn't been frightening. She retrieved her wand, dusted it off with the hem of her robe. "All right; my turn." Odelia gripped her wand tightly, then loosened her fingers so as not to make Kira's task unreasonably difficult. With a nod, she signaled her friend to try the spell. Kira bit her lower lip and drew her eyebrows together. "Expelliarmus!" The charm was successful.

Odelia had never experienced a sensation quite like this. She truly felt, as the charm's name implied, disarmed, as though she were completely exposed. I never felt like this before I carried a wand, she reminded herself, but it was with shaking hands that she knelt and recovered her wand. "Nice," she told Kira with a trembly smile. "It jumped right out of my hand."

By the end of the class, Odelia had Disarmed a number of classmates and been Disarmed by them in turn, learning to fight the shaky feeling that resulted. Last of all she let Erik practice the charm on her.

"Okay, ready?" Erik stood straight, wand in position. Odelia nodded and decided to try something new. With every muscle coiled, she waited for Erik's cry - "Expelliarmus!" The charm came flying toward Odelia's wand, but she dodged it, causing the spell to knock Ignatius's wand away instead. Ignatius's eyebrows shot upward as he shouted for aid.

"Professor! Professor Lupin!" he called. Lupin hurried over to the protesting boy, who jabbed a finger at Erik in accusation. "He did the charm on me and I didn't say he could!" Lupin turned a questioning gaze toward Erik.

"I'm sorry," Erik explained, "I was aiming for Odelia."

Odelia nodded quickly. "He was practicing it on me. I dodged it." At the last sentence, she couldn't help smiling proudly. "Sorry, Ignatius," she added as an afterthought, sounding polite if not totally sincere.

"Actually, we were going to work on dodging spells next class," Lupin stated. The corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement. "Five points to Omninihil for being a step ahead." Ignatius sputtered in fury, but was cut off by Liam remarking that class time was over. "So it is," Lupin replied. "Good work, all of you; I'll see you tomorrow."

Still grinning at the happy turn of events, Odelia gathered up her supplies and led her friends back to the dormitory to drop off their books before dinner. The satisfaction of one-upping Ignatius almost made her forget the sinister cootie-catcher.
--


Well well, we have the emergence of a Plot. What's up with the cootie-catcher? Why is Ignatius suddenly so mean? How many more boys are going to fall in love with Odette? Keep reading to find out!