Chapter Sixteen

Diversions

After class, Jennifer had lunch in Filius' office. Filius told some of the best stories she'd ever heard of students and events over the years, giving her plenty of reasons to chuckle. Filius was also rather interested in the overzealous removal spell, so Jennifer gave him a partial accounting of the wand situation, which he listened to with great interest.

"You know, I think I can help you test your magic. Perhaps we can come up with a routine for you to practice every day until you're comfortable with the change," he suggested. "How about we walk over to the gym after I finish my next class, so that we can test some spells and see what we can come up with?"

Jennifer quickly agreed, then decided to use the time in between to run down to her office to get a better look at the cursed ring, for the incident with Draco had been bugging her since she left the classroom. But before she was able to really get started, she heard a quick rap on the door and she waved it open. Rolanda came in, smiling at her warmly.

"Hi there! I was wondering if you had any plans yet after our lunch tomorrow?" Rolanda asked.

"Not really," Jennifer said.

"I was thinking that maybe we could go to the pitch and go over the rules and such for refereeing a Quidditch game, and then I could show you where everything is…"

"You don't mean to imply that you think I should referee?" Jennifer said with suspicion.

"Well, Jennifer, I know you have to go to the games with me every week anyhow to help with the security sweeps, right? There's no reason that you have to sit down there and be bored all the time," Rolanda said cheerfully.

"But I'd have to ride a broom…"

"Do you need a broom? I have a good one you can borrow…"

"No, no, I received a broom last year for Christmas."

"Very good then! Really, it's not as big a deal as you may think. Mainly you just keep track of the balls, watch for stray Bludgers, and make sure nobody gets killed. That's all." Jennifer stared at her. "So lunch then. We can hang out on the Pitch before the houses practice."

"I can use my own broom, right?" Jennifer asked slowly.

"Sure, why wouldn't you be able to?" Rolanda smiled at her puzzledly.

"All right, fine, I'll give it a go," Jennifer said at last. "But I do have an engagement at Hagrid's later."

"Ah, yes, he'll be back from the giants tomorrow, won't he?"

"Yes, it'll be interesting to find out what's been going on," Jennifer agreed.

After her talk with Rolanda, Jennifer decided the ring would have to wait until morning. She went to the gym, getting a few practice waves in. Her mirror image looked at her suspiciously as if seeing her for the first time, and Jennifer realized that the training mirror would probably be useless until she got used to the wand.

Filius came in and had her practice quite a number of spells from different disciplines, from Charms to Transfiguration, attempting to uncover any natural tendencies that might have been hidden from the cursed wand. Jennifer felt she was gaining the best control over enchantments, but couldn't quite tell if it was due to her own influence or her instructors. Quickly they worked out a routine for her to practice in the mornings for a few weeks, one that covered a little of everything. Even during the routine, the enchantments she cast on a small stone she was using tended to be too strong, so much so that Filius mischievously challenged her to a Light enchantment duel.

Jennifer knew from the beginning she was no match for him. He was too quick to think up a new spell as if he'd already had a winning combination worked out, while she spent more time diving than casting. Colored rays flew through the room, creating strange shapes along the walls when they missed. The colored diversions came in all sizes, and morphed into different shapes and figures and even different voice pitches, designed to trip up her attempts to cast spells. Finally Filius turned her upside down from her ankles, then stopped and laughed at her good-naturedly.

"Not too bad, not too bad, for a new wand. Your spells really pack a punch! You do need more practice on speed thinking, though," he added, slowly putting her down. "Come and see me anytime you want a rematch."

Jennifer went to her rooms completely worn out and was barely able to drag herself out of bed the next morning. She'd almost been tempted to sleep in, except that she really wanted to get a good look at that ring before lunch. Feeling a bit more confident with her spells, she went down to her office and got the ring out, wearing a pair of light gloves to keep her from putting it on by mistake. What was the ring's condition, she wondered? Why did it single out Draco? The spells they had used in the class hadn't revealed anything unusual. Digging out one of her larger reference books, she tried a few other more archaic identifying spells, but they didn't work either. She decided that it was probably something put into the ring when it was made, much like with her wand. She turned the ring over in her hand, looking at it through a magnifying glass to see if there were any physical signs that she had missed before. It was then that she noticed something odd with the inside of the ring, as if someone had used a spell to erase a mark but it didn't quite fade completely. It was, she was fairly sure, a family crest, and it hadn't been completely erased because, as she suspected, it had been put in at the time the ring was made.

Her mind shot back to last year when Malfoy had taken her mirror from the dance, cursing it so that she'd fall into Voldemort's trap. Could it possibly be that this was the evidence she was looking for? Would he be so careless as to sell it, thinking that nobody would buy it who could make that connection?

She took her Pensieve out with excitement, bringing up the image of the memory and diving in. As she stood and watched the strange dance where she had been passed back and forth, stepping up to the image of herself and Malfoy. There on his hand, without a doubt, was the ring. Jennifer just couldn't believe her luck! Her mind came out of the Pensieve and she drummed her hands on her desk, wondering what to do next. Perhaps another trip to Knockturn Alley was in order, she thought, to try and get some records to back up the case. She knew she wasn't going to have time to do it then, it'd have to wait until tomorrow, she realized, frowning with frustration as she put the ring back in her Puzzle Box. Was it just her imagination, or was everyone trying to keep her busy on purpose?

In any case, she quickly hurried off to meet with Rolanda for lunch. Then they walked over to storage area behind the Quidditch gates for a quick run down of where all the equipment was.

"There really aren't that many reasons to call a game. There might be a delay if both Seekers are put out for serious injuries or for a death, which hasn't happened in years. Of course, any game will have a fall or two, and you're in charge of making sure they're all right and calling in the medic team if you need to. Most of the injuries will probably be Bludger related. Are you ok, Jennifer? You look a little pale."
"I'm all right. Just listening."

"School rules are that students don't play now for longer than six hours at a time, so if the game goes over that you'll be in charge of seeing that replacements are sent in. We haven't had any long games for a while, especially any involving Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Theirs usually don't even last an hour. Sometimes the Quaffle gets lost in the crowd and you have to throw it back in. Usually the crowd will do it for you, though. What kind of broom do you have, anyhow?"

"An Eaglewing," Jennifer said sheepishly.

"An Eaglewing? Someone gave you an Eaglewing as a present?" Rolanda's lip twitched. Her face very firmly revealed what she thought of automatic brooms.

"I'm not a very good flyer," Jennifer admitted.

"Don't worry, it's probably not your fault. Whitebridge starts you out on those horrid tri-handle training brooms, don't they? We go to the real thing here. Those American schools seem to have everything backwards when it comes to flying; their Quidditch rings are even spaced wrong. Well, no matter, I can help you get over that. I have a Starchaser you can borrow to practice on."

"A Starchaser? Er, well I don't think that's a good idea. I'd rather-"

"Let me be the judge of that. Come on, let's see how you do," she said getting in the cabinet and taking out a Starchaser and her new Starchaser Plus. "Head on out to the center of the Pitch while I lock all of this up," Rolanda said, putting away the rest of the equipment. Jennifer headed out reluctantly. As Rolanda paused to close the gate, Severus walked up, staring at Jennifer walking out onto the Pitch.

"You're not really going to put her on that broom, are you?" Severus frowned at Rolanda. "Trust me, that is not a very good idea."

"You do your job and let me do mine, Snape, she can't possibly be as bad as all that," she snorted at him, sitting on her broom and flying over to Jennifer. Severus shook his head and then stepped inside the gate.

"All right, Jennifer, just take it nice and slow," Rolanda said cheerfully, circling around her. "I'll meet you up near the rings," she said, taking off.

"Okay, fine. I can do this. No, really," Jennifer muttered to herself as she got on the racing broom. It shakily floated forward, going at a much faster speed than Jennifer normally liked. She attempted to ease it to the left then ended up making a wide circle around the rings, still trying to get the broom to slow down a bit by leaning back.

"Loosen up, Jennifer! You're too tense. Come on over here," Rolanda called to her. Managing to slow it down, Jennifer was able to even up with her. "See? That's not too bad then, is it? How about we do some dives so you can get used to the broom."

"Uh, no thanks, honestly I'd rather not," Jennifer said. Diving on a winged horse that would pull up on its own was one thing, having to do it on her own was quite another.

"Just a couple of small ones, just follow me," Rolanda said reassuringly. Rolanda had never seen Jennifer this on edge before, but she was fairly sure that Jennifer would get over it with enough motivation. Jennifer began to dive towards the field, watching Rolanda in front of her, her cloak flapping in the wind.

It was then she was struck with a strong flashback that blinded her thoughts even in the light of the day; a vision of her mother's cloak flapping ahead of her and nothing below but the blackened ocean, for hours and hours… the ground below her began to start to sway up and down.

Jennifer suddenly panicked, pulling up so quickly that she went into an upwards spiral. She tried to regain control, leaning heavily to one side, and straightened the broom only to realize that she were flying upside down! She leaned the other way and threw herself into a spin, finally managing to get upright just as she realized she was going to crash into the seats in the teacher's box!

Jennifer closed her eyes and braced herself before she flew into a fluffy, sticky, gooey mess that had suddenly filled the interior of the box. Cautiously Jennifer opened her eyes to find something white in front of them, and used her hands to spread the thick, sweet substance out of her face, attempting to look out onto the Pitch.

Rolanda pulled up to the goop, quickly spotting a sprawling white figure trying to stand up in the pile with Rolanda's spare broom in hand.

"Ugh! Marshmallow! I'll never get all of that out of the bristles, even with magic," Rolanda scowled. "No, no, it's not your fault, Jennifer. I should have listened! Feel free to ride your own broom. The kids will be coming out for their practice soon, so you might want to try to work your way out of here and put yourself in order. Look at this tower! I should make him clean it up himself."

"Who?"

"Never mind, you just head on down and get cleaned up. I'll get with you later about a referee cloak, and then you can assist me for a few games," she said, taking the broom that Jennifer held out to her. "What a mess!" she said again, scowling at the broom as she lowered herself to the field.

The marshmallow cream had worked its way down in glops to the bottom of the stairs where Jennifer came slipping out, hearing a couple of gasps and also some chuckling.

"Professor Craw?" Ginny asked curiously. Jennifer quickly cleaned the goo off with a spell, the cream oozing off of her as she waved distractedly at the Gryffindor team who had just showed up for practice. "Where did all of that come from?"

"I have no idea," she said, stepping out of it try and clean off her boots. "But one thing is certain: that's the last time I let anyone talk me into getting on a racing broom." The team chuckled softly.

"You can ride my Firebolt anytime you want, Professor," Harry grinned, hovering above her head on his broom.

"Not for all the money in Gringotts," Jennifer swore.

"Looks like Snape is heading this way," Ginny warned everyone, nodding over to where Severus was coming out of the gate.

"Well, I am not about to try and explain to him what I was doing in a tower of goo. I'm going to go see if Hagrid is back yet." Jennifer decided, waving to them.

"See you in a bit, Professor," Harry waved, watching Jennifer make a hasty retreat off the field just as Severus managed to catch up to the team.

"And just which one of you was responsible for this?" Snape asked, scowling at them.

"It was here when we got here," Harry said defensively. "Ask Madame Hooch, I'm sure she saw the whole thing."

Snape squinted at Harry, then walked back towards the school instead of where Madame Hooch was standing talking to the Ravenclaw team.

"I guess he didn't want to find out that badly after all," Ginny shrugged.