Chapter 12: Travel


Morgana sighed with relief. The Easter Holidays were almost here!

She'd nearly gone crazy from Quidditch deprivation, not to mention missing her cats and Sky the falcon. Morgana had repaired Sky's wing the summer before last, but even when healed the bird was loathe to leave. She would never dream of caging him, but her kept coming back. Maybe it had something to do with her other identity. Anything with feathers seemed to flock around her, but birds of prey especially enjoyed her company.

"Pay attention, Morgana," snapped Snape, breaking into her thoughts. "Five points from Ravenclaw."

Morgana groaned. Anything was better than the Potions dungeon. Morgana, claustrophobic and marginally afraid of the dark, had always hated it. Every drip from damp walls made her jump. Every second, she had to fight the nauseating fear of not seeing the sky, of running out of air and wasting away in this terrible prison. And that was just the room. No mention of the course, the bubbling concoctions that seemed so dreadfully underhanded to Morgana. If you were going to do magic, then why not do it with a nice, honest charm or hex?

And no mention of Snape himself, who amused himself by taking points off Ravenclaw if she so much as breathed. She'd heard from her friends how Snape hated Gryffindor and how much favoritism he showed the Slytherins, but she doubted even that could be worse than the way their class was. For fun, Hannah Abbot and she would keep track of the number of points Snape took off their Houses. The average was about 20 points a class each, but when Snape was in a bad mood it could easily skyrocket. The record was 80 points off Hufflepuff and 75 off Ravenclaw. Morgana wondered if Snape was aiming to duplicate that feat today as he took ten points from Hufflepuff for Ernie McMillan chopping his slugs lengthwise instead of widthwise.

End, stupid class, end! Morgana thought forcefully. Almost immediately after, Snape announced the class period finished.

A collective murmur of relief spread through the classroom, but-

"... and I want you all to write me a ten-page paper on the uses of dragon's blood over the holidays," Snape added.

Groans and grumbling ensued.

"The next person who complains will receive fifty points from their house and detention!" barked the professor.

Dead silence hung heavily over the room as the class walked, single file, out the door.

* ~ *

"Newt, where are you?" Circe called, peeking behind her dresser.

"We don't have time to look for your lizard, Circe."

"How can you talk, Morgana? Your pet's big enough to never get lost."

Merlin fluffed his feathers importantly from his perch on Morgana's head.

Padma Patil did a double take. "Sure you'll fit through the doorway?" she asked Morgana skeptically.

"Probably not." Morgana smiled as she adjusted her owl so his talons didn't scratch her forehead.

"Gotcha!" exclaimed Circe triumphantly. "There you are, Newt!" She held a small lizard by the foot. It dangled there precariously until she put it back in its cage.

"Then let's go," replied Morgana.

Grabbing their trunks, the two strode out of the room. They didn't look back.

* ~ *

"Yeah, mum, we'll be coming on the Knight Bus," Morgana told the phone.

Uric and Cassiopeia, unable to restrain themselves, burst into song.

"We'll be coming on the Knight Bus when we come, we'll be coming on the Knight Bus when we come..."

"Oh, jeez." Stormy covered her ears.

"Maybe one day we'll get used to it," Morgana mouthed, still on the phone.

* ~ *

"So, what's it like to live in a family of wizards?" Uric asked Circe curiously.

The six of them (Kiri would leave later) had managed to get their own compartment on the Hogwarts Express. They would ride the train to London, then catch the Knight Bus to Morgana's house.

"Hmm?" Uric pestered.

"Well," Circe replied, "we get owl post all the time. My little brothers periodically cause small explosions.... and my big brothers act like all big brothers do, only with real snakes, spiders, and other things you don't even want to know about. Cooking's a lot easier. I guess we have it a lot more unusual than most. Six kids that can all do magic is a real ruckus."

"I'm sure," Uric agreed. "I still wish I had your family. My parents are Muggle through and through. They try to understand me, but they can't, really. I mean, I could float them up in the air, turn them upside down, and shake them silly any time I wanted to. They just don't understand that kind of power."

"Power?" Stormy said. "You don't know what real power is!"

Morgana cleared her throat and averted her eyes. Circe, trying to save Uric some face, intervened, asking, "So what's your family like, Morgana? I don't recall you ever telling me."

"Oh, I suppose some would say I've got the best of both worlds," Morgana stated. "I mean, both my parents are magical, but Muggle-born. My mum has a job as the mayor of the town, so we get Muggles visiting all the time. It was a real hassle until my dad hit on the idea of putting his principles to work. You see, he works for the Ministry, finding new ways to magically expand things. So he and mum- I was just a baby, or with my help it wouldn't have taken half the time- split the house into two identical halves, each a house in itself. One's Muggle, and the other's wizard."

"But what about your family?" asked Circe. "That's just your house."

"Well, I already told you about my parents. My brother..."

"You have a brother?" interrupted Uric.

"Yeah," replied Morgana. "You didn't know that?"

"None of us did," put in Kiri.

"I do have a brother. A little pain in the butt he is, too."

"They usually are," agreed Cassiopeia wryly.

"Hear, hear!" shouted Circe and Stormy in unison.

A/N: Well, I didn't really want to end it here, but I had to in order to have this version ready to post in time. Oh, just to let you know, the voice-in-the-head thing is really important. It's in there for a reason, although the "object" being a spider is just another meaningless coincidence.

I'm sorry, I just read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy over again.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Maybe I've had a little too much sugar.