Episode II
A Secret Shared
Monday:
9:00 Herbology
Lunch
1:00 History of Magic
3:00 Transfiguration
Tuesday:
9:00 Potions
Lunch
1:00 Defense Against the Dark Arts
3:00 Care of Magical Creatures
Wednesday:
9:00 Charms
Lunch
1:00 Transfiguration
3:00 Arithmancy
Thursday:
9:00 Herbology
Lunch
1:00 Care of Magical Creatures
3:00 Potions
Friday:
9:00 Divination
Lunch
1:00 Charms
3:00 Defense Against the Dark Arts
It was a relief to Pandora as she compared her schedule to Harry's that she had all the same classes with him except for one. Hermione would be in her Arithmancy class with her though, so it was alright. The other choice classes seemed interesting, but Divination seemed very amusing. Besides, she certainly didn't need to take Muggle Studies, and Ancient Runes just didn't strike her fancy too much. The only other one that she really would have liked to take was new this year, Incantation, but it was only open to seventh years due to the level of difficulty.
Harry laughed and said, "You'll love Divination, you'll probably die about ten times a week."
"Consider yourself lucky, though," Ron interrupted. "Harry dies about ten times a day!"
Pandora giggled at both of them and checked her watch. "We'd better be off to Herbology soon. We're meeting outside supposedly. I need to run back to my room really fast and get something."
"Want me to go with you?" Hermione asked.
Pandora bit her lip nervously. "No... really... I'll be right back..." She ran off before Hermione could start asking questions, which is what she did best until she knew absolutely everything.
When Pandora entered her room, a very strange creature was lying limp on her bed. All of her roommates thought it was a stuffed animal, but she knew better. Luckily at that moment no one else was in the room, because as soon as it saw her walk in, the creature fluttered off of her bed and into her face, saying, "Hey-hey-hoo!" in its rather annoying Cockney accent.
Pandora snatched it out of thin air and looked around frantically, just to be sure. "Rangi, if you really want this to be kept a secret, you have to stop hopping about like that! Someone will surely see you!"
Rangi folded his eagle wings back over his badger body, tilting his lion head curiously. "It's really your first day of magic school? We do have a long way to go..."
"Hey, I know what I'm doing! Besides, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this Cardcaptor stuff anyway..."
"You have to! No one else in the entire world is capable of it!"
She rolled her eyes as she pulled a biscuit out from one of her pockets and handed it to him. His eyes got big as saucers as he dashed over and ate the whole thing in one bite, an amazing feat for a creature the size of a bean-bag toy. "Next time put more sugar on it."
"Sure. Well, I really ought to be on my way!" Pandora turned to the mirror and quickly fluffed her silvery blonde hair before grabbing her bag and running out of Gryffindor Tower out to the grounds where she was to have her Herbology class.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione beat her there, but they didn't have ancient Hogwarts' Beasts to feed. A few of the Hufflepuffs, the house that had Herbology with the Gryffindors, lowered their voices to whispers as she passed by. It made her feel a little self-concious, but she wasn't upset. After the oddities of the night before, she didn't blame them.
Herbology went on with few challenges, though Harry did have to help Pandora out with the names of some plants. Since she had missed the first four years of education that everyone else had, she needed a little extra help. The History of Magic was as boring as everyone promised it would be, but Transfiguration at the end of the day was a bit more entertaining. Pandora managed to turn her book into a quill pen and back again. It was a very nice first day of school.
She prayed that the next day would prove to be as fulfilling as the first, but unfortunatly it started off with Potions. She had hoped that Snape might be nice to her because he was always nice to her brother, but she was still a Gryffindor, and that ended up being what Snape picked up on quicker. He asked her everything on the first day back, and if there was one thing that Narcissa Malfoy had neglected to teach Pandora at home, it was Potions. She single-handedly managed to get Gryffindor house -20 points to start the year off.
After the class was over and they headed to the Great Hall for lunch, Harry told her not to worry much about it. "He used to do that to me all the time, it was kind of nice today to have someone else around that he likes to pick on!" he said, none to encouraging for her.
After they had eaten a full meal, but still a while before she had to go to her next class, Defense Against the Dark Arts, she grabbed one of the sweets off of the table and hurried to the Tower before any of her friends noticed her absence.
Rangi was waiting impatiently as always, floating around and upside down, very bored. "You really should be more careful," Pandora scolded. "People could walk in at any time, you know." She sat down on her bed as he fluttered over, looking eager for his new treat.
As Rangi began munching on the dessert, he watched Pandora sigh heavily, seeming none too happy. "Something happen? You're not nearly as happy as you were yesterday at this time."
"That's because I started this day off with Potions and Professor Snape hates me."
"Why? You do something wrong?"
"Not really, I just couldn't answer any of his questions. Because of that, he took twenty points from Gryffindor, before we even earned any."
Rangi's wings fluttered irritably and his snake eyes flashed. "That's not fair at all! He can't do that to you, you don't know anything about Potions yet! He knows that! I'm gonna go right down there this instant and talk to him...."
"Rangi, no!" Pandora yelled
after him as he flew to the door... but he was far ahead of her.
*************************************************************************************
Pandora wandered in to Defense Against the Dark Art ten minutes late. After following Rangi all the way to the Potions room, then into Snape's office where she finally caught him, she too got caught. She also managed to catch Gryffindor another -20 points and a detention for herself for Friday night. Snape promised her that she'd probably get the wonderful privelege of doing some chore or another in the Forbidden Forest. Apparently some sort of bird had been sighted there, and Hagrid needed some extra help catching it.
She took a seat next to Harry, who looked at her, puzzled. "Now that everyone is here," Professor Tamarah Black said, eyeing Pandora with a slight smirk on her lips, "we can continue with our lesson."
The rest of that day was uneventful, as well as Wednesday. Her biggest problem was getting Rangi to stop whining when she refused to feed him lunch the rest of the week for getting her in trouble. Thursday was almost as good, except somehow Harry managed to get himself in trouble with Snape as well (probably just by being himself and breathing the same air as Snape) and would be serving a Friday detention with her. At least something good would come of it, she thought.
Friday at lunch Pandora sat with Harry, Ron, and Hermione as always. Harry was relating to her one of his previous detention adventures from his first year when he had to go out into the Forbidden Forest to search for unicorns. Then Hermione said something about another adventure of the year when the three of them had defeated a troll together.
"Troll?" Pandora asked shakily.
"Yeah," Ron said, grinning. "Trolls are all over the Forbidden Forest, didn't you know that?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to him, Pandora. They're out there, sure, but you'll smell them long before you'll be in any danger. Besides, Hagrid will be with you, and he won't let anything bad happen."
"I'll be with you, too!" Harry said.
"That's reassuring," Pandora grumbled playfully.
Suddenly the Weasley twins ran in from who knows where, talking loudly and quickly back and forth as they came over. "You're obviously not scheming, or you'd be acting a little more suspicious, so what's up?" Ron asked.
Fred... or maybe it was George... Pandora never could tell the difference... said, "We just got out of Incantations, with Professor Eva Everest. Our first lesson started out by her confiscating our wands and putting them somewhere out of reach."
"Next we have to learn how to chant or sing or something of that nature," the other said, "but that's not what we're talking about! As soon as class was dismissed, we started out and saw that Snape was heading for the Incantations room."
"So we ducked into one of our little... um... hiding places... and sort of spied for a few minutes."
"To make a long story short, we think Snapey's got a little crush on someone."
The other four made disgusted faces. "Poor woman," Ron said, shaking his head mournfully.
"You might not be so wrong," Hermione said suddenly, staring past Ron and Harry to the table where the professors sat. "Look who just walked in."
They all turned to see Professor Snape walking up to his usual spot... Professor Everest smiling and blushing on his arm.
Ron turned slightly green and Harry shivered. Pandora smiled and said, "Oh, how cute! Now maybe he'll be nicer!" That made everyone cheer up a notch.
Of course watching the happy couple together every lunch from then on became a bit nauseating...
Anyway, that evening finally rolled around, and they met Hagrid at his home at seven. It was then that he told them of their mission. Apparently a very large bird had just recently been seen flying around the castle, but mostly sticking to the shelter of the forest. It was long and black with blue eyes, but that's the most Hagrid could tell them of it. He didn't even know what kind of bird it was, which was surprising because Hagrid usually knew everything about any animal.
So Hagrid and Fang led Harry and Pandora into the forest, careful to pay attention to all signs of life, not just those that flew. It hadn't been very long before Pandora felt some strange sense about her, and stopped. Hagrid looked back at her curiously. "Yeh doin' a'righ' Li'l Malfoy?" he asked.
She nodded but looked around carefully, sniffing the air for any troll stench. "I think I'm alright, thanks. I just... thought I heard something... I guess..."
Hagrid nodded and turned to continue on the trail when suddenly a cry sounded from the sky, and the biggest bird they had ever seen swooped down on Hagrid and pecked him on the head. Hagrid was out before he realized what was going on, and Fang quickly ran away. The coward.
Harry ran over to Hagrid, making sure he was going to be okay. "Pandora! What do we do now?"
But she was hardly paying attention to him. The feeling had come back, and was much stronger this time. It grew stronger as the bird came closer. "A Card... It must be..."
"What are you talking about? What cards?" Harry asked, very confused. "This is no time to be thinking about games, Pandora! We've got to help Hagrid."
She looked into his eyes, not quite sure what to do next. "Harry, can you keep a secret?"
He nodded. "You act as if we're about to die or something..."
"No, not yet. Not if... if I can help it... Just... stay out of the way for a minute and don't ask questions until I'm finished."
Pandora stood clear of any trees or foliage, hoping to get the bird's attention completely on her. "Rangi..." she whispered, "I hope I can do this right..." She closed her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her, then began speaking as if in prayer. "Hear me and find me, spirits and guardians of the North, South, East, and West...." The green gem on her forehead lit up, which immediately grabbed the bird's attention. "Here I am, your Center. See me.... Hear me...." She opened her arms wide, and a dim blue misty light stretched from one hand to the other. "Fill me with your magic and power..." The light burst into her body, creating a haze around her, which seemed to surprise her as her body jerked, but she kept her concentration. The bird turned and prepared to dive on her. "Create your central point of wisdom, loyalty, courage, and cunning in my outstretched hand.... the staff... Release!"
The blue light that had surrounded her now became blinding, until finally it dimmed once more. There stood Pandora where the light had been, but instead of her Hogwarts uniform, she wore a black and blue robe and a very long pointed hat that folded and hung down her back, a silver jingle bell at the tip. In her hands was a long black and blue staff, with the head of a raven. This she raised as the bird came closer, but when the bird saw what she now wielded, it flew back into the sky with a loud cry. It turned once more, looking for a new, more vulnerable target... Harry.
Harry jumped to his feet and yelled some spell or another as he waved his wand at the bird, but the spell bounced harmlessly off of it and continued its dive. Pandora's heart jumped, so afraid of what it might do to him. She wasn't exactly sure what to do, but had to figure something out, or Harry could be gone forever.
As the bird came ever closer, she stood back from it, and as it reached a certain height she dashed over to it as quickly as she could and lept on its back. This distracted it from its current destination towards Harry, and it quickly returned to the air, rolling and flapping its large wings violently in hopes of shaking Pandora off. But she clung to its feathers with all of her strength, trying to think quickly. "Okay... so now I'm supposed to use a card that can somehow capture this one... I don't know what in the world Hufflepuff could do with this thing... But what about Wind? Birds need the wind to fly, and if I can control it..." She closed her eyes with a determined nod, trying to ignore the fact that she was kilometers away from the ground by now and that one wrong move could kill her. She lifted her left hand and touched the green gem on that wrist to the one on her forehead, whispering, "Wind... With your power... Bind this creature's wings so that it may not fly... and gently return us to the ground... Release!"
A pale blue woman appeared out of the wrist's gem, and soared gracefully about the bird, leaving strands of some sort of magic behind her as she passed, which reached around the bird and began dragging it slowly back down. Pandora was more than relieved when she was once again on the ground. As soon as she was close enough, she lept off of the bird's back, turned back to it, and raised her staff in front of it, shouting, "Come back to the Center, your master awaits. Hogwarts Card! Return!"
The bird cried loudly once more, but was beyond the point of escape as it slowly dissolved down to its card form, and Wind quickly returned to the gem. Pandora walked over to it and picked the card up carefully. "Fly... And it's a Ravenclaw...."
"What are you talking about? What just happened? Panda!!" Harry whined, clearly having been just a bit unnerved by the past half-hour.
Somewhat reluctantly, Pandora told him the whole story of the Hogwarts Cards and a bit about Rangi. "I'll introduce you later, he'll be really mad when he finds out someone else knows. But if you bring him something sweet from lunch, he'll like you a lot more, I promise."
Harry nodded. "I know this was probably a big secret... And I would have died if you hadn't been willing to share it.... So I've got a secret for you. It's about my god-father that... well... likes to visit me every now and then.... and his wife, who happens to be our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor..."
"Tamarah Black?"
"Yes... My god-father is Sirius Black..."
Harry and Pandora talked for a few more minutes about their secrets until Hagrid finally woke up. "Where did i' go?" he asked, blinking about him.
Pandora smiled and said, "I don't know really, it just up and flew away a few minutes ago. Maybe it won't be back."
"Tha's good, now maybe i' won' go divin' after people for food." Hagrid called Fang and the four returned to his home.
After nearly another hour there, it was rather late, about eleven. No one was out on the grounds as Pandora and Harry slowly began their trek back to the castle. Harry looked at her curiously and said, "So what do you think that card does?"
Pandora shrugged. "Wanna try it out? I don't know if I'll do it right, I've just had a little bit of talking-through from Rangi, but we can try." She called upon the staff and the Fly Card, which appeared on the ground before her, still in its card form. "Fly Card, bestow upon my staff your power... Release!"
Large black wings grew from the side of the raven's head, and suddenly the staff was lifting off... Pandora and Harry riding on it and flying ever higher. True, it postponed their return to the castle another hour or so, but it was the best time Pandora ever remembered having her entire life.
((Kira commentary: I had no idea what
to do with the schedule, and that was the best I could come up
with ^_^; If you have any better ideas, please tell me! Email:
kiraashkelon@hotmail.com))