On the sharp autumn wind was carried the scent of burning leaves, a husky, smoky smell that set the edgy tone Hogwarts was enveloped in. Maura closed her eyes and enjoyed one last breath of the wild moors before turning her face away from the flung open window and towards her sleeping roommates. The role of the watcher was one she had often played. She was the last to sleep and the first to wake, a light sleeper and keen observer. These four other girls that slumbered in her chamber where going to become her surrogate sisters and best friends. Maura was determined to at least know them well enough so they could look out for each other on their first day of classes.
In the quiet retrospective of the early gray dawn, Maura looked back in wonder. She was a bloody witch, and she was going to a bloody school for witches. Not only was it a school, but it was a school that admitted both sexes. Maura had always attended an all-girls school, as had, she learned, all her other roommates. Mixed-gender schools were usually only for the public schools, and even then only in the younger grades. Hogwarts seemed progressive and revolutionary in comparison.
Lotty stirred. "Mmmm... Maura? Shut the window, would you dear? Its cold." The blonde shivered and wrapped herself tighter in her blankets. Maura checked the clock that rested on the dresser.
"Actually, Lotty, I think we'd best be up. Breakfast in a half hour." She moved to shake the others gently, repeating the time. Lotty groaned and tossed the pillow on top of her head. "Lotty, come along," Maura pleaded, "no good can come of being late for the first day of classes." Eve Hathaway was the quickest out of bed, rising from it and stretching gracefully. She glided to her trunk and opened it, looking inside.
"I've always wondered," she mused with a smile, "must we wear our corsets under our robes?" The five girls exchanged silent glances, and even Lotty climbed over the bed to look at the wire and whalebone contraption in Eve's trunk. Eve lifted it out and sat it upright on the bed. Maura tossed open her trunk lid and yanked out her own corset.
"They are extraordinarily bothersome," she agreed.
"Yes, but Maura, you don't need a corset. You've got such a bone-thin figure. I , on the other hand..." Lotty trailed off, examining her own voluptuous curves. "I fear I shall be chained in forever."
Eve tugged on the laces of her own corset. "I'd rather not, but Lotty is right. There must be some reason why our mothers wore these." She sighed. "Lace me up, Lotty."
Maura had brought along her extensive collection of undergarments, including all the petticoat layers, but Lotty had insisted there was no need for them. "I was raised as a witch, Maura, I know you don't have to wear those." Without them, she felt rather exposed, even though the robes decently covered her arms and legs. But, as Lotty reminded her, if she wore all three layers of petticoats, her lower half would be so bloated she wouldn't be able to make it from class to class on time. Maura had to agree. The day before on the train she'd worn her traveling clothes, which were easily adjustable for movement, and she had enjoyed the freedom it had given her.
Without the excess worriment of aligning petticoats, the morning ritual took half the time it normally did, and so, without too much more fuss, the five Gryffindor girls made it down to the common room. Many of the older students were there, laughing and saying hello to old friends they had not seen the night before. Bobby McCaffry emerged from the boys' tower and grinned a hello to Maura. She smiled back at the older boy weakly. Lotty noticed and giggled as she elbowed Maura. "He's too old for you, if that's what you're thinking, but he is rather charming, if loud." Maura huffed in exasperation and laughed. Keith appeared at her left elbow.
"Good morning Maura, Lotty, girls" he nodded to the other three, whose names must have slipped his mind. "Ready for breakfast? For classes? For life?"
"No..." moaned Maura, burying her face in her hands, just as Lotty chirped "Absolutely!" The two looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Yes," Maura amended. "I'm ready. Hello Greg, Baxter, where's Jonathan?" She queried the new arrival. Greg and Keith exchanged a glance.
"He went on ahead" Greg cleared his throat, giving Maura the impression that Jonathan had abandoned the other three boys. "Let's go to breakfast."
Maura found the suggestion to be a splendid one.
The Great Hall looked nothing like it had the night before. There were still four separate tables, but the elaborate banners and hangings had vanished. The Great Hall looked about as ordinary as the Great Hall in Hogwarts would ever look. It was almost comforting. Maura had had all the grandeur she could take for awhile. The term's schedule, copied in immaculate handwriting on numerous scrolls, was circulated by Professor Jade, a still rather young man with a hard face and warm eyes. Maura gathered all her books for the day together. Today the young Gryffindors (who were not given much choice in what classes they wished to take) had Transfiguration with a Professor Bramble in the morning, and in the afternoon they were assigned to Charms with their own Professor Jade. Jonathan, who had been found sitting with his tray of breakfast food, seemed to be deeply engrossed the Transfiguration book, From Teacups to Toads; A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration by Wendelin Worth. Maura looked at his uncombed soot-colored hair and smiled. He was rather sweet, like a lost puppy. "Is it a good book?" She asked, attempting to engage him in conversation. Jonathan looked up. His eyes were clear and gray, like a frosty morning.
"Fascinating. I think I'm going to enjoy transfiguration very much. I heard Professor Bramble is rather tough, however." The volume was soft, the tempo even. Maura beamed, then formed the question in her head.
"What precisely is transfiguration?" She asked meekly. Jonathan raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you know? A well-brought up and pretty witch like you does not know what transfiguration is?" Maura frowned. That was a complement. Or was it?
"My parents are not, you know, magically affiliated." She stammered, trying to decide whether a blush was the appropriate response to his gorgeous eyes piercing hers.
"They're Muggles." His voice was flat, but still gentle. There was a long silence. "It's hardly your fault. Mine are Muggles as well. We cannot help the accident of our births." No, Maura wanted to say, they're my parents and I love them, Muggle or not. But she couldn't bring herself to contradict him. Luckily he decided to explain transfiguration before Maura burst. "It is the art...or science, if you will, of changing one object to another. It's supposed to be extremely difficult." Maura smiled demurely and stood up, taking her tray to place it on the stack of other dirty dishes. Jonathan was confusing her. In the same breath he commented on her physical appearance and condemned her parents to a place of rejection with his own. When she returned, he had reburied his head in the oversized book, sparing Maura any more painful conversation.
The relative peace of the Great Hall was suddenly shattered as two trays clattered to the floor. Keith and a taller, bigger boy were glaring at each other. Maura recognized him as a Slytherin, a second year, one who had been staring at their table earlier. The nonverbal language was screaming with adrenaline and anger. "Mudblood," Keith spat on the Slytherin's dropped tray, landing the wad neatly on his fried eggs. "I'll show you Mudblood." The Slytherin sneered, and just as the two began to circle each other, Professor Armstrong, the Potions teacher, grabbed the two by the ear.
"Not in front of the ladies, gentlemen. We shall settle the dispute in the usual matter. Follow me." He stalked away out of the Great Hall, dragging Keith and his adversary with him. Keith imparted one last fleeting glance at Maura, and unmistakably mouthed "Lotty". To hammer the point home, Lotty tugged on Maura's sleeve and asked the inevitable question.
"What's going on? Where are they going? What were they fighting over?" Maura sighed at Lotty's quizzical expression.
"I don't know," she responded, "Keith said something about a muddyblood, and then he mentioned your name." Lotty's eyebrows shot up to the ceiling.
"He was defending me? That Slytherin called me a Mudblood?" She tittered. "He needn't have bothered. Its completely obvious I'm pure. Not that it matters to me, of course" she added as afterthought. At Maura's bafflement, she explained "Mudblood. Someone whose parents aren't from the wizarding community. Its just slang of course, but some people find it rather offensive." Mudblood, thought Maura, that's practically what Jonathan called me. Maura was curious now. Where had Keith been dragged off to? What was 'the usual matter'? Maura carefully took her leave, making sure she had her books. In reflection, she realized she ought to pick up Keith's, and added his duplicates to the stack in her arms. She exited the Great Hall in the same direction as the professor and soon found herself in a small antechamber leading to the outside. Standing on her toes, she could just see out the window that led to an abandoned, leaf-enshrouded smallish courtyard. And there, in the middle of it, were Keith and the other boy, stripped to their pants and wearing cumbersome gloves, boxing. Maura watched for a good two minutes before the Professor halted them and returned them their robes. Keith and the Slytherin boy shook hands, and then the teacher took the Slytherin boy with him while giving Keith a small jar of ointment. Maura couldn't hear the exchange, but she rather thought it included Keith promising not to start more fights. When the professor was gone, Maura opened the door and slid outside. His back was to her.
"Hello." She said simply. He turned and grinned.
"Hallo Maura. Spectacular fight, eh?" His grin was lopsided. It fit his face. Maura frowned at him. His eye was looking a little swollen. Keith looked at the tube labeled Bruise B Gone, which Maura took away.
"You could have been hurt, Keith. More than just a black eye." Her words were harsh, but she was careful to keep her fingers gentle as they applied the peach colored cream to his puffy eye.
"Professor Armstrong was there. He wouldn't have let us get out of hand. Haven't you ever seen a fight before?" Maura shook her head. "Most boys schools, you're expected to box out your disagreements."
"Well, I think it's silly" Maura sniffed, finished with the cream and recapping the tube. Keith looked her in the eye.
"Silly?" he asked softly. Maura thought back to what Lotty had said.
"Well, appreciated but wholly unnecessary." Keith grinned and took both their books from her.
"Its nice to be appreciated. Let's get to class Maura."
Amazingly enough, Keith and Maura managed to be just on time for Transfiguration. The rest of the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws, with whom they shared the course, were already present. Professor Bramble turned a steely eye towards them as they took the last two seats in the back, but said nothing. "I am Professor Bramble" she said in a controlled voice. "I am the head of Slytherin house and the only Transfiguration professor at this school. Transfiguration is the study of the metamorphosis of one object to another. As first years, you will learn the basic elements of transfiguration and for the final exam you shall be able to perform a number of these yourselves. Today we turn our attention to the simplest of the alchemist's elements. Can anyone tell me the four elements I am referring to?" Maura and Keith exchanged a glance that clearly spoke volumes of ignorance. Jonathan, apparently, did not suffer the same. "Yes, Mr. Stanford." Jonathan stood.
"Earth, fire, water, and air." He intoned quietly.
"Precisely. Five points to Gryffindor. Earth, fire, water and air were believed to comprise everything the world was created of. A plant, for example, was believed to be a blend of earth and water. While we know today these primitive assumptions to be false, they still provide us with our classification of transfiguration." She picked up a piece of chalk, and began scrawling a diagram on the board. Maura frantically copied it onto a parchment. "Earth and air are the stable elements, and fire and water are unstable. Can anyone tell me why? Mr. Stanford, yes."
"Earth is immovable under your feet, and air is similarly always present. Fire can appear or disappear according to the conditions, as will water."
"Thank you Mr. Stanford. Five points. Thus we come to the Laws of Transfiguration. There are three basic types. Homologous, as in a water object to another water object, Quasihomologous, as in a stable object to another stable object, or Heterologous, a stable object to an unstable object. While these three types have no actual bearing or influence on the actual transfiguration, we still adhere to these archaic types. This is the Aristotilian Classification System..."
After class, Maura felt the urge to run and check the bathroom to see if her head had exploded yet. She complained of this to Jonathan, who laughed. "If you'd read the first chapter in your book, you'd have known that already."
"But what about all that homework we've been assigned?" Maura demanded, indignant. "The fifteen inches on why Aristotle was incorrect in his assumptions?"
"No worries, Maura dear. Page twenty-four has all the information you'll need. Don't fret your pretty self into a fluster. I'll lend you a hand if you need it." Maura was again puzzled. It was a compliment, buried in an insult. She stopped walking and let him carry on. Keith and Lotty came up from behind her, laughing.
"Hullo, Maura!" Keith grinned, "ready for Charms?"
"My mother's favorite class was charms," Lotty remembered, "maybe I'll take after her. I need one good class. Did you find that last lesson as incomprehensible as I did?" Maura nodded.
"I'm glad I'm not the only one," she muttered, staring off at Jonathan. Keith observed the look on her face and then laughed.
"What am I, Toad-in-a-Hole? You knew I was completely baffled about all that fire-air nonsense." Maura frowned, but didn't meet his eyes.
"It's just that Jonathan, he acted like..." she watched him turn the corner, "never mind." Lotty and Keith exchanged a glance, and, in perfect agreement, they split. Keith dropped back to speak with Greg, and Lotty shortened her stride to catch up with Maura.
"Maura, dear," she began, but a sudden explosion turned the hallway into chaos.
Maura opened her eyes. The walls were spinning, she briefly saw Keith and Lotty hovering over her. She tried to take in a deep breath but her lungs felt congested. She vaguely thought she heard someone talking before she closed her eyes and surrendered to the enveloping darkness once more.
Maura opened her eyes, and there was Jonathan. "Gah!" she exclaimed, startled. His face quickly disappeared from view and was replaced by Keith and Lotty's. "Maura, are you all right?" Lotty asked. Maura blinked and looked up at the concerned blonde.
"I... what happened?" She asked dazedly. It was the second worried exchange between Keith and Lotty that day. Maura was really starting to fear that look.
"We were sort of hoping you could tell us, Maura." Keith replied quietly.
"The explosion, the...the blackness." Lotty's eyes widened. Maura frantically tried to remember what had happened. "Do you mean to tell me..." She looked around her. Other students with expressions of varying degrees of concern were gathered around her. "But, the explosion... I don't understand." A matronly gray haired woman whose face Maura associated with the name Madame Wells shoved the assorted students out of her way to reach Maura.
"Right then, carry on, the lot of you," she waved everyone else away, "now, lass, what the bloody bagpipes are you doing down here on the floor?"
"She just sort of collapsed while we were walking, and she..." The ever-helpful Lotty, Maura smiled inwardly.
"Thank you lass. Trot along, nothing to see." Madame Wells attempted to shoo the two Gryffindors away.
"I should hardly think," Lotty began loudly, "that I should abandon my dear and beloved friend when she has just ever-so-recently suffered a dreadful spell and..."
"Alright!" Madame Wells exclaimed, "you two can accompany her. Are you Charlotte Blackwell, by any happenstance?" Lotty smiled. "Your brother and sister warned me about you. Separately." She turned her attention to Maura. "Now, dearie, can you stand on your own?" Maura nodded. "Then we shall make our way down to my office. You!" She gestured to Keith "Come on then, lad, give the lady a hand."
In Madame Well's office, Maura was given a cool cloth to lay across her forehead. "I'm afraid there's not much more I can do for you, lass. Rest a little while before your next class. It's impossible to determine the cause. Has anything emotional traumatic happened to you?" Maura shook her head. "Then just relax a bit, and try and stay calm. No worries, of course." She directed her steely gaze towards the angelic faces of Lotty and Keith. "And you two!" She barked gruffly, "Stay out of her way. Don't cause trouble, or I'll boot you out so hard you'll stay off your brooms the rest of the term!" And with that implied threat, Madame Wells stalked away. The second the door clicked shut Lotty and Keith crowded around her bed.
"Well?" Lotty asked,, her eyes bugging out with excitement "What happened?" Maura frowned.
"As best I can recall, there was an explosion, and darkness, and it was hard to breath and then I saw you two and then I blacked out again and I saw Jonathan and then you were asking me if I was okay.
"Jonathan?" Keith asked quietly.
"He wasn't anywhere near us" Lotty insisted, "he'd already turned the corner by the time we started talking." Maura frowned again.
"He was there, I swear it. It couldn't have been anyone else." Maura shook her head, trying to get the last of the murkiness out. The heavy darkness that had permeated the air, however briefly, seemed lodged in her brain. "I just... I don't know." Lotty shook her head slowly.
"Well,:" she finally said, "at least its shaping up to be an interesting year."
AN: Lalala! Well, more to come... I've got a pretty good idea about where I want to take this, but its so incredibly hard to try and write this sort of thing...writing so y'all don't know what's coming (even though I do!). Anyway, as I believe I mentioned before, I've got finals (oh yay) so while I have less homework, I know I should be studying (yuck). So right, who knows when the next chapter will come?
Also, big THANK YOU to my beautiful first two reviews. I LOVE YOU GUYS! It is the encouragement that we struggling authors need to make us continue. To the rest of you, review! You know you want to!
Love and a Peanut Butter Sandwich
Meitora
In the quiet retrospective of the early gray dawn, Maura looked back in wonder. She was a bloody witch, and she was going to a bloody school for witches. Not only was it a school, but it was a school that admitted both sexes. Maura had always attended an all-girls school, as had, she learned, all her other roommates. Mixed-gender schools were usually only for the public schools, and even then only in the younger grades. Hogwarts seemed progressive and revolutionary in comparison.
Lotty stirred. "Mmmm... Maura? Shut the window, would you dear? Its cold." The blonde shivered and wrapped herself tighter in her blankets. Maura checked the clock that rested on the dresser.
"Actually, Lotty, I think we'd best be up. Breakfast in a half hour." She moved to shake the others gently, repeating the time. Lotty groaned and tossed the pillow on top of her head. "Lotty, come along," Maura pleaded, "no good can come of being late for the first day of classes." Eve Hathaway was the quickest out of bed, rising from it and stretching gracefully. She glided to her trunk and opened it, looking inside.
"I've always wondered," she mused with a smile, "must we wear our corsets under our robes?" The five girls exchanged silent glances, and even Lotty climbed over the bed to look at the wire and whalebone contraption in Eve's trunk. Eve lifted it out and sat it upright on the bed. Maura tossed open her trunk lid and yanked out her own corset.
"They are extraordinarily bothersome," she agreed.
"Yes, but Maura, you don't need a corset. You've got such a bone-thin figure. I , on the other hand..." Lotty trailed off, examining her own voluptuous curves. "I fear I shall be chained in forever."
Eve tugged on the laces of her own corset. "I'd rather not, but Lotty is right. There must be some reason why our mothers wore these." She sighed. "Lace me up, Lotty."
Maura had brought along her extensive collection of undergarments, including all the petticoat layers, but Lotty had insisted there was no need for them. "I was raised as a witch, Maura, I know you don't have to wear those." Without them, she felt rather exposed, even though the robes decently covered her arms and legs. But, as Lotty reminded her, if she wore all three layers of petticoats, her lower half would be so bloated she wouldn't be able to make it from class to class on time. Maura had to agree. The day before on the train she'd worn her traveling clothes, which were easily adjustable for movement, and she had enjoyed the freedom it had given her.
Without the excess worriment of aligning petticoats, the morning ritual took half the time it normally did, and so, without too much more fuss, the five Gryffindor girls made it down to the common room. Many of the older students were there, laughing and saying hello to old friends they had not seen the night before. Bobby McCaffry emerged from the boys' tower and grinned a hello to Maura. She smiled back at the older boy weakly. Lotty noticed and giggled as she elbowed Maura. "He's too old for you, if that's what you're thinking, but he is rather charming, if loud." Maura huffed in exasperation and laughed. Keith appeared at her left elbow.
"Good morning Maura, Lotty, girls" he nodded to the other three, whose names must have slipped his mind. "Ready for breakfast? For classes? For life?"
"No..." moaned Maura, burying her face in her hands, just as Lotty chirped "Absolutely!" The two looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Yes," Maura amended. "I'm ready. Hello Greg, Baxter, where's Jonathan?" She queried the new arrival. Greg and Keith exchanged a glance.
"He went on ahead" Greg cleared his throat, giving Maura the impression that Jonathan had abandoned the other three boys. "Let's go to breakfast."
Maura found the suggestion to be a splendid one.
The Great Hall looked nothing like it had the night before. There were still four separate tables, but the elaborate banners and hangings had vanished. The Great Hall looked about as ordinary as the Great Hall in Hogwarts would ever look. It was almost comforting. Maura had had all the grandeur she could take for awhile. The term's schedule, copied in immaculate handwriting on numerous scrolls, was circulated by Professor Jade, a still rather young man with a hard face and warm eyes. Maura gathered all her books for the day together. Today the young Gryffindors (who were not given much choice in what classes they wished to take) had Transfiguration with a Professor Bramble in the morning, and in the afternoon they were assigned to Charms with their own Professor Jade. Jonathan, who had been found sitting with his tray of breakfast food, seemed to be deeply engrossed the Transfiguration book, From Teacups to Toads; A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration by Wendelin Worth. Maura looked at his uncombed soot-colored hair and smiled. He was rather sweet, like a lost puppy. "Is it a good book?" She asked, attempting to engage him in conversation. Jonathan looked up. His eyes were clear and gray, like a frosty morning.
"Fascinating. I think I'm going to enjoy transfiguration very much. I heard Professor Bramble is rather tough, however." The volume was soft, the tempo even. Maura beamed, then formed the question in her head.
"What precisely is transfiguration?" She asked meekly. Jonathan raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you know? A well-brought up and pretty witch like you does not know what transfiguration is?" Maura frowned. That was a complement. Or was it?
"My parents are not, you know, magically affiliated." She stammered, trying to decide whether a blush was the appropriate response to his gorgeous eyes piercing hers.
"They're Muggles." His voice was flat, but still gentle. There was a long silence. "It's hardly your fault. Mine are Muggles as well. We cannot help the accident of our births." No, Maura wanted to say, they're my parents and I love them, Muggle or not. But she couldn't bring herself to contradict him. Luckily he decided to explain transfiguration before Maura burst. "It is the art...or science, if you will, of changing one object to another. It's supposed to be extremely difficult." Maura smiled demurely and stood up, taking her tray to place it on the stack of other dirty dishes. Jonathan was confusing her. In the same breath he commented on her physical appearance and condemned her parents to a place of rejection with his own. When she returned, he had reburied his head in the oversized book, sparing Maura any more painful conversation.
The relative peace of the Great Hall was suddenly shattered as two trays clattered to the floor. Keith and a taller, bigger boy were glaring at each other. Maura recognized him as a Slytherin, a second year, one who had been staring at their table earlier. The nonverbal language was screaming with adrenaline and anger. "Mudblood," Keith spat on the Slytherin's dropped tray, landing the wad neatly on his fried eggs. "I'll show you Mudblood." The Slytherin sneered, and just as the two began to circle each other, Professor Armstrong, the Potions teacher, grabbed the two by the ear.
"Not in front of the ladies, gentlemen. We shall settle the dispute in the usual matter. Follow me." He stalked away out of the Great Hall, dragging Keith and his adversary with him. Keith imparted one last fleeting glance at Maura, and unmistakably mouthed "Lotty". To hammer the point home, Lotty tugged on Maura's sleeve and asked the inevitable question.
"What's going on? Where are they going? What were they fighting over?" Maura sighed at Lotty's quizzical expression.
"I don't know," she responded, "Keith said something about a muddyblood, and then he mentioned your name." Lotty's eyebrows shot up to the ceiling.
"He was defending me? That Slytherin called me a Mudblood?" She tittered. "He needn't have bothered. Its completely obvious I'm pure. Not that it matters to me, of course" she added as afterthought. At Maura's bafflement, she explained "Mudblood. Someone whose parents aren't from the wizarding community. Its just slang of course, but some people find it rather offensive." Mudblood, thought Maura, that's practically what Jonathan called me. Maura was curious now. Where had Keith been dragged off to? What was 'the usual matter'? Maura carefully took her leave, making sure she had her books. In reflection, she realized she ought to pick up Keith's, and added his duplicates to the stack in her arms. She exited the Great Hall in the same direction as the professor and soon found herself in a small antechamber leading to the outside. Standing on her toes, she could just see out the window that led to an abandoned, leaf-enshrouded smallish courtyard. And there, in the middle of it, were Keith and the other boy, stripped to their pants and wearing cumbersome gloves, boxing. Maura watched for a good two minutes before the Professor halted them and returned them their robes. Keith and the Slytherin boy shook hands, and then the teacher took the Slytherin boy with him while giving Keith a small jar of ointment. Maura couldn't hear the exchange, but she rather thought it included Keith promising not to start more fights. When the professor was gone, Maura opened the door and slid outside. His back was to her.
"Hello." She said simply. He turned and grinned.
"Hallo Maura. Spectacular fight, eh?" His grin was lopsided. It fit his face. Maura frowned at him. His eye was looking a little swollen. Keith looked at the tube labeled Bruise B Gone, which Maura took away.
"You could have been hurt, Keith. More than just a black eye." Her words were harsh, but she was careful to keep her fingers gentle as they applied the peach colored cream to his puffy eye.
"Professor Armstrong was there. He wouldn't have let us get out of hand. Haven't you ever seen a fight before?" Maura shook her head. "Most boys schools, you're expected to box out your disagreements."
"Well, I think it's silly" Maura sniffed, finished with the cream and recapping the tube. Keith looked her in the eye.
"Silly?" he asked softly. Maura thought back to what Lotty had said.
"Well, appreciated but wholly unnecessary." Keith grinned and took both their books from her.
"Its nice to be appreciated. Let's get to class Maura."
Amazingly enough, Keith and Maura managed to be just on time for Transfiguration. The rest of the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws, with whom they shared the course, were already present. Professor Bramble turned a steely eye towards them as they took the last two seats in the back, but said nothing. "I am Professor Bramble" she said in a controlled voice. "I am the head of Slytherin house and the only Transfiguration professor at this school. Transfiguration is the study of the metamorphosis of one object to another. As first years, you will learn the basic elements of transfiguration and for the final exam you shall be able to perform a number of these yourselves. Today we turn our attention to the simplest of the alchemist's elements. Can anyone tell me the four elements I am referring to?" Maura and Keith exchanged a glance that clearly spoke volumes of ignorance. Jonathan, apparently, did not suffer the same. "Yes, Mr. Stanford." Jonathan stood.
"Earth, fire, water, and air." He intoned quietly.
"Precisely. Five points to Gryffindor. Earth, fire, water and air were believed to comprise everything the world was created of. A plant, for example, was believed to be a blend of earth and water. While we know today these primitive assumptions to be false, they still provide us with our classification of transfiguration." She picked up a piece of chalk, and began scrawling a diagram on the board. Maura frantically copied it onto a parchment. "Earth and air are the stable elements, and fire and water are unstable. Can anyone tell me why? Mr. Stanford, yes."
"Earth is immovable under your feet, and air is similarly always present. Fire can appear or disappear according to the conditions, as will water."
"Thank you Mr. Stanford. Five points. Thus we come to the Laws of Transfiguration. There are three basic types. Homologous, as in a water object to another water object, Quasihomologous, as in a stable object to another stable object, or Heterologous, a stable object to an unstable object. While these three types have no actual bearing or influence on the actual transfiguration, we still adhere to these archaic types. This is the Aristotilian Classification System..."
After class, Maura felt the urge to run and check the bathroom to see if her head had exploded yet. She complained of this to Jonathan, who laughed. "If you'd read the first chapter in your book, you'd have known that already."
"But what about all that homework we've been assigned?" Maura demanded, indignant. "The fifteen inches on why Aristotle was incorrect in his assumptions?"
"No worries, Maura dear. Page twenty-four has all the information you'll need. Don't fret your pretty self into a fluster. I'll lend you a hand if you need it." Maura was again puzzled. It was a compliment, buried in an insult. She stopped walking and let him carry on. Keith and Lotty came up from behind her, laughing.
"Hullo, Maura!" Keith grinned, "ready for Charms?"
"My mother's favorite class was charms," Lotty remembered, "maybe I'll take after her. I need one good class. Did you find that last lesson as incomprehensible as I did?" Maura nodded.
"I'm glad I'm not the only one," she muttered, staring off at Jonathan. Keith observed the look on her face and then laughed.
"What am I, Toad-in-a-Hole? You knew I was completely baffled about all that fire-air nonsense." Maura frowned, but didn't meet his eyes.
"It's just that Jonathan, he acted like..." she watched him turn the corner, "never mind." Lotty and Keith exchanged a glance, and, in perfect agreement, they split. Keith dropped back to speak with Greg, and Lotty shortened her stride to catch up with Maura.
"Maura, dear," she began, but a sudden explosion turned the hallway into chaos.
Maura opened her eyes. The walls were spinning, she briefly saw Keith and Lotty hovering over her. She tried to take in a deep breath but her lungs felt congested. She vaguely thought she heard someone talking before she closed her eyes and surrendered to the enveloping darkness once more.
Maura opened her eyes, and there was Jonathan. "Gah!" she exclaimed, startled. His face quickly disappeared from view and was replaced by Keith and Lotty's. "Maura, are you all right?" Lotty asked. Maura blinked and looked up at the concerned blonde.
"I... what happened?" She asked dazedly. It was the second worried exchange between Keith and Lotty that day. Maura was really starting to fear that look.
"We were sort of hoping you could tell us, Maura." Keith replied quietly.
"The explosion, the...the blackness." Lotty's eyes widened. Maura frantically tried to remember what had happened. "Do you mean to tell me..." She looked around her. Other students with expressions of varying degrees of concern were gathered around her. "But, the explosion... I don't understand." A matronly gray haired woman whose face Maura associated with the name Madame Wells shoved the assorted students out of her way to reach Maura.
"Right then, carry on, the lot of you," she waved everyone else away, "now, lass, what the bloody bagpipes are you doing down here on the floor?"
"She just sort of collapsed while we were walking, and she..." The ever-helpful Lotty, Maura smiled inwardly.
"Thank you lass. Trot along, nothing to see." Madame Wells attempted to shoo the two Gryffindors away.
"I should hardly think," Lotty began loudly, "that I should abandon my dear and beloved friend when she has just ever-so-recently suffered a dreadful spell and..."
"Alright!" Madame Wells exclaimed, "you two can accompany her. Are you Charlotte Blackwell, by any happenstance?" Lotty smiled. "Your brother and sister warned me about you. Separately." She turned her attention to Maura. "Now, dearie, can you stand on your own?" Maura nodded. "Then we shall make our way down to my office. You!" She gestured to Keith "Come on then, lad, give the lady a hand."
In Madame Well's office, Maura was given a cool cloth to lay across her forehead. "I'm afraid there's not much more I can do for you, lass. Rest a little while before your next class. It's impossible to determine the cause. Has anything emotional traumatic happened to you?" Maura shook her head. "Then just relax a bit, and try and stay calm. No worries, of course." She directed her steely gaze towards the angelic faces of Lotty and Keith. "And you two!" She barked gruffly, "Stay out of her way. Don't cause trouble, or I'll boot you out so hard you'll stay off your brooms the rest of the term!" And with that implied threat, Madame Wells stalked away. The second the door clicked shut Lotty and Keith crowded around her bed.
"Well?" Lotty asked,, her eyes bugging out with excitement "What happened?" Maura frowned.
"As best I can recall, there was an explosion, and darkness, and it was hard to breath and then I saw you two and then I blacked out again and I saw Jonathan and then you were asking me if I was okay.
"Jonathan?" Keith asked quietly.
"He wasn't anywhere near us" Lotty insisted, "he'd already turned the corner by the time we started talking." Maura frowned again.
"He was there, I swear it. It couldn't have been anyone else." Maura shook her head, trying to get the last of the murkiness out. The heavy darkness that had permeated the air, however briefly, seemed lodged in her brain. "I just... I don't know." Lotty shook her head slowly.
"Well,:" she finally said, "at least its shaping up to be an interesting year."
AN: Lalala! Well, more to come... I've got a pretty good idea about where I want to take this, but its so incredibly hard to try and write this sort of thing...writing so y'all don't know what's coming (even though I do!). Anyway, as I believe I mentioned before, I've got finals (oh yay) so while I have less homework, I know I should be studying (yuck). So right, who knows when the next chapter will come?
Also, big THANK YOU to my beautiful first two reviews. I LOVE YOU GUYS! It is the encouragement that we struggling authors need to make us continue. To the rest of you, review! You know you want to!
Love and a Peanut Butter Sandwich
Meitora
