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Chapter 10: Cleaning Charms or Lack Thereof
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It seemed to Adrienne that one day she was begging to leave and the next she was watching the leaves change in the Forbidden Forest. Adrienne had fallen in love with Hogwarts. She loved the mystery and the excitement that always appeared at the most unexpected moments. She loved her classes and most of her teachers. Most of all, she loved the fact that she had Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Adrienne watched them eat, studying them, trying to remember everything about them so she'd be able to describe them in full color when she returned to Salem for the winter vacation.
There was Hermione, who always sat with perfect posture, a smile always on her face, especially when talking to Harry. Adrienne laughed silently at how the two behaved. They were always smiling and teasing, sharing food and laughing, and whispering in each other's ears.
And then there was Ron, whom Adrienne couldn't smile at without him blushing and stuttering. Adrienne thought he was cute: He was always talking to her, complementing her, and asking her questions, which Adrienne always responded to with a smile. However, she did notice that his cheery attitude seemed to change every time she talked with Harry.
"Of course he acts funny, Adrienne, he's afraid you'll go for Harry and not him," said Hermione one October night when the two were alone in their dormitory.
"But I don't like Harry," said Adrienne, running a cloth over her wand, wiping off the smudge marks. "I'm not attracted to him at all. Eww, no way! I could never, ever like him like that," she added as an afterthought.
Hermione looked at her, a little surprised: Every girl she had ever known since the age of eleven had at one point been madly infatuated with him.
"Oh come now, Adrienne, he is cute, and he's famous; you never ever once as a child opened a book about him and been overcome with a bad case of puppy love?"
Adrienne looked up quickly. "First, have you noticed we look alike. It's like looking into a mirror, except my face is more feminine, I don't have glasses, my hair is long, and I don't have battle scars adorning my face. No one ever likes what they see in the mirror; he isn't cute. Secondly, I never heard of Harry Potter until I got to Salem, so I never had the opportunity to develop a bad case of puppy love, Hermi," said Adrienne hotly.
Hermione didn't move for a moment, then she stood up and walked over to Adrienne's bed. "Are you Muggle-born too?" she asked.
Adrienne stood up and walked over to the open window. "I wouldn't know, I'm an orphan," she said quietly.
"I'm sorry, Adrienne, I didn't know."
Adrienne turned around and smiled, although it was obvious it was forced. "Doesn't matter, they say you can't miss what you never had," she said, but Hermione didn't buy it.
She took a deep breath. "Do you know what happened to them, Adrienne?"
Adrienne looked straight at her, and Hermione felt as if she was looking right through her, as if she wasn't there. "My mother died giving birth to me, that's what the orphanage said. I didn't have a dad on my birth certificate, just my mom, Heather Miles." Adrienne didn't stop there. "Yep, they said my grandmother brought me to America and left me at the 5th Street Orphanage in good ol' NYC, saying I would remind her too much of her daughter, and that would be too painful."
Hermione didn't say anything, thinking Adrienne was going to say more, but Adrienne was done talking. An awkward silence filled the room, and Adrienne turned back to the window.
"I promised I'd help Ron with that locating charm; I'll be back later," said Hermione finally, grabbing her wand and walking out the door.
Adrienne turned back around, for the first time in her life she didn't feel like crying after revealing she was an orphan. Somehow, the fact that her grandmother had deserted her didn't anger her anymore. Adrienne only felt confused now: "Miles," the one thing that she thought had been the only connection she had to her family, suddenly for no reason had no meaning to her at all.
* * * * *
Adrienne didn't sleep well that night, nor did she have any nightmares, but she did have a dream. In her dream was a young brunette sitting outside a hospital room, holding her stomach in pain, waiting for the contraction to pass. She couldn't have been much older than fifteen. After a short while she stood up and began walking again. She took small steps down the hospital wing; they had said walking was supposed to help, but she was beginning to think all those people had been lying. The girl stopped at the end of the corridor and turned around to walk back. Two people exited a door next to her, whispering.
"Lily, was there a reason you insisted on a Muggle hospital? This would have been a lot easier at St. Mungo's," said a black haired man, holding the pregnant woman's arm.
"First off, you know my mother, she wouldn't hear of it. Second, I want Dr. Hatcher. I've known her for a long time and I want her, not some wizard I've never met before in my life."
The girl listened closely, wishing someone would be there to walk with her, but her boyfriend, that blonde-haired punk, had left her, and her mother was on the verge of disowning her.
"Lily," she whispered thoughtfully, "what a pretty name."
And at that moment, outside of room 243 in London, England, Heather Miles finally decided on her unborn daughter's name, Adrienne Lily.
* * * * *
Adrienne kicked Ron's leg slightly under their table in charms.
"Ouch," he muttered, casting a questioning glance at her. Adrienne smiled a mischievous smile and turned her attention to Professor Flitwick, who was standing atop a mound of books.
"At the foot of each table you will find a box filled with various dirty objects. You will be using the charms discussed yesterday to clean them. You can begin now," he said in his usual squeaky voice. Adrienne set the box onto the table.
"This'll be easy," said Hermione, reaching for the filthy towel at the top, "I bet we can use a basic cleaning charm on most of this."
Harry reached over for a stained Muggle coffee cup. "It may be easy, but how safe is it? You're not going to fill the classroom with soap bubbles or anything are you, Adrienne?" he laughed, ducking as Adrienne threw a grimy sock at him.
"How many times must I tell you, I only mess up in Transfiguration and when I'm not thinking about what I'm doing. What dope messes up cleaning charms anyway?" asked Adrienne, looking into the box.
"Wow these are dirty. Look, dishes, a rug with grease stains, I'll do that one," she said in disgust, pulling out the pale blue rug with black streaks. Adrienne set the rug, dirty side up, in her lap. "Wouldn't it be great if I could just snap my fingers," said Adrienne, snapping her fingers, "and it would just be clean again instantaneously?"
Ron nodded his agreement, his tongue poking through his teeth in concentration as he used a scouring charm to de-rust a metal pipe.
Adrienne flicked her wand at the rug on her lap, muttering, "limpia." However, had she been paying attention to her rug and not staring starry-eyed at Ron, she would have noticed her rug was already clean before she cast the cleaning charm.
* * * * *
Adrienne followed Harry out to the Quidditch pitch, her precious Firebolt over her shoulder.
"Chaser, eh?" asked Harry as they drew nearer to the pitch, where the rest of the Gryffindor team was standing.
"Yep. Are you sure they're going to let me on without a tryout?" asked Adrienne, swinging her broom off her shoulder and transferring it to her left hand.
"I already talked to Alicia. She said that if she likes how you fly at this practice, she'll give the position to you. We need to practice anyway; we can't spend all the time watching tryouts," said Harry, waving to Fred and George, who were about twenty feet in the air, holding onto their broomsticks with only their legs, their hands locked in front of them in what looked like a new version of chicken-fighting.
"If you two don't get down here right now, we won't have any beaters, unless you can play with broken necks!" called a frustrated Alicia, standing below them, "Don't make me come get you!"
Adrienne smiled at the twins and watched as they made their descent, landing on either side of Alicia, grinning from ear to ear.
"You just don't want us having any fun, Alicia," whined Fred, shaking his head dejectedly.
"Quidditch is supposed to be fun, Alicia, or did you have something else in mind to entertain me," smirked George, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend's waist. She pushed him away and turned her attention to Harry.
"Hey, Harry, is this your chaser?" she said as Harry and Adrienne approached.
"Always got to be the center of attention," said George sarcastically, playfully punching Harry on the arm.
Harry cast him a patronizing look. "Alicia, this is Adrienne Miles, and Adrienne, this is our Captain, Alicia Spinnet."
"Nice to meet you, Adrienne," said Alicia her eyes flicking toward the broomstick in Adrienne's hand, "And a Firebolt! Excellent, two unmatched brooms, that'll even up the odds even more against Slytherin." She turned around a couple times, counting the people. "Three chasers, two crazies . . ."
"Hey!" interjected the twins. "a seeker, and what, we're missing our keeper! Where is he, I told him six. It's six!" Alicia said angrily.
"Who is the keeper anyway Alicia?" asked Harry, looking around, "You haven't mentioned anyone."
"That's because I just heard he could play today; here he is!" Everyone turned, walking out of the castle, very slowly and unsurely was Colin Creevey, minus a camera.
"Colin, where have you been, we've been waiting," called Alicia.
Colin broke into a run, reaching the midpoint between the castle and the group, and then tripping headlong over his robes, landing in a heap at the edge of the pitch. Fred and George groaned.
"You have to be kidding us, right Alicia?" whispered Fred; Alicia stepped on his foot.
"Shh. You all right Colin?" she said, walking toward the embarrassed fourth year.
"Yeah, yep, perfect, just fine, thanks," he mumbled, dusting off the dirt.
"Ok then, this is our Gryffindor Quidditch team!" said Alicia, looking around. The gleam in her eyes reminded Harry of Oliver Wood, and Harry hoped that she wouldn't become as obsessed as he had been. "So, let's start practice!"
Adrienne and Harry were first into the air. Adrienne threw back her head and let the wind pull her hair out of her scrunchie. She rose straight up, stopping a hundred feet above the ground. She hovered in mid air, waiting for Alicia to let the quaffle go. They were playing a free for all. No teams, you just tried to score for yourself, and all Harry had to do was practice looking for the golden snitch. With a whoosh, the red quaffle flew into the air. Adrienne dived, letting gravity, along with the quick acceleration of her broom, rocket her towards the ground. Katie Bell grabbed the quaffle and headed towards the goalposts closest to the castle, the only goalposts they would use that evening.
Harry watched, wondering how Colin would hold up. Colin watched her barreling towards him and began to predict what she would do. However, he never got to test any of his predictions. Just as she prepared to throw, a blur sped past her, grabbing the quaffle, flanked hard to the right, barreled upwards, and with a quick toss, sent the quaffle soaring past Colin into the goal on the far right. Adrienne turned and flew back to Alicia at lightening speed, stopping a foot away from her.
"So, do I make the team?" she asked, smiling smugly.
Alicia hovered there for several seconds and then broke into a wide smile. "Of course you do, kid. We have it in the bag for sure!" she yelled, punching the air with her fist.
Adrienne looked past Alicia to Harry, who was beaming.
* * * * *
Adrienne and Hermione sat at a table in the slowly emptying common room, pouring over their Arithmancy homework.
"I'm pretty sure this is right…" muttered Hermione, as she and Adrienne were checking a particularly tough problem that had taken them twenty minutes of collaboration (if you call Hermione doing all the work and Adrienne pretending to check it, collaboration) to finish.
Adrienne looked at the paper closely, whispering numbers and shaking her head. "Boy, this was a tough one," Adrienne sighed, pushing the paper towards Hermione, "My brain is fried, I can't do any more, Hermi."
Hermione reached her arms above her to stretch. Harry and Ron looked up from their Divination homework, smiling very smugly.
"I bet you're wishing you didn't drop Divination, Hermione," said Ron with an air of superiority. "All we had to do was predict how the moon would affect the Cornish Pixie population of Eurasia in the next week."
Harry cleared his throat. "Due to the shape of the moon over the next seven nights, the Cornish Pixie population of Eurasia will undergo a massive epidemic of Glasian Flu," he read, nodding his head like one of those male models on Muggle suit commercials, a half smile playing on his face.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You guys just made that up," she said impatiently, pulling out her Potions text.
"What do you think the point of Divination is Hermione? It's definitely not to learn how to actually read crystal balls," said Ron.
"Yeah, it's to learn how to broaden our imaginative abilities," said Harry with a tone of mock seriousness.
"I hated Divination... never was good at it," sighed Adrienne, shaking her head exasperatedly. "That's why I switched to Arithmancy; I may not be any better at that, but at least the incense doesn't make me nauseous."
"What are you good at?" Ron asked in a joking voice.
Adrienne raised an eyebrow. "Dueling," she said matter-of-factly, turning back to her homework, "and I can fly decently... that's about it."