Title: Lusitania (8)
Author name: siriuswhite
Author email: siriuswhite@schnoogle.com
Category: Romance
Sub Category: Mystery
Keywords: Artio Sperios Patrick Dolphin Lusitania
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF, FB, QTTA
Summary: Artio is a girl who goes to a magical school, like Hogwarts.
She is going for the first year and very strange things happen. Patrick is a
boy who people don't like. Why?
DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and
owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury
Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is
being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author notes: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter:
Queenkakia, Gemma, Nentari, ElfinKat, Mary and Lil hermie girl!
Special thanks to my beta-readers Jo, Lilly Jackson and Trinity Black.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Lusitania
BY S I R I U S W H I T E
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
EIGHTH CHAPTER
THE GLUMBUMBLE
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
At the same moment Artio felt a shock of pain in her left arm.
She looked at it to see what had happened, on her arm she could see an image of a snake. She hid the image beneath her clothes, not even Cho saw it, and it disappeared when Harry looked away...
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cho looked at Artio. At the moment Cho was asking Artio something, Dumbledore sat up and started talking about the events that would happen that year.
He let them know that this year the Triwizard tournament would be held at Hogwarts, and therefore, the Quidditch Cup would not be played for this year.
Quickly Artio realized that Cho didn't like the idea very much...
"I don't like this. I prefer Quidditch one thousand times more!"
"Well, maybe it'd be good, think on it from another angle..." Artio tried to calm Cho.
"How? Do you anything good coming from this Triwizard Tournament?" Said Cho.
"We'll meet new people, from other schools, and that's good!"
"Is it?" asked Cho, "I am a seeker, I must train, I want to be a Professional Quidditch Player and if I stop training I will lose some of my skills."
"I know. But you can practice, I think you can practice, at least on weekends and in the holidays..."
It would be a difficult task for Artio to try and convince Cho that the Triwizard Tournament was a good thing.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Cynthia walked to the third floor, she needed to talk to Captain Dolphin in his office, and she didn't have much time, students had to be in the dormitories before eleven o'clock and it was getting late.
She knocked at the door and entered when a "Come in" was heard.
"How are you?" Asked Captain Dolphin when she entered his office.
"I'm good, thanks. I..."
"What?"
Cynthia stared at him. Normally she didn't fail; she had done what she had to do almost every time. She didn't know how to act now.
"I couldn't do it, I didn't win enough points."
"Oh, that?" He said, "I didn't tell you anything, but I almost knew that you wouldn't get it... You'd have to get the most points ever seen. That's not a problem. Don't worry."
"I'm sorry but I did my best..." She told him about the points she had won, which were lost later.
"Professor Josh Darkwater is that way, he doesn't like Dolphin students... many things have happened." He explained.
"And what can I do now?" She asked.
She wanted to fix the errors of her ways.
"Well, as you know we can only cast the spell when you've learnt how to do it. And I can't teach you, if I did it, it wouldn't work. You must learn by yourself. When you get enough points you'll borrow the book and you'll learn how to cast your spell."
"It will take too long, Artio may be in danger."
"It depends on you." He said. The calm expression he ever had was gone, his eyes started to turn darker than they were. "I can't help you with your knowledge! You may find other ways to get it, that's the only thing I can tell you. Now I have many things to do." He looked at a watch.
Cynthia understood the Captain's clear message; go away.
"Well" She said, "I'll see you tomorrow night during the Astronomy class."
She went out of the room, he didn't say anything. She had never seen Captain Dolphin that way before, he seemed like he couldn't be outsmarted, but he could.
When she went out, Anaras was coming in that direction but she turned in the corner of a corridor and Cynthia thought she hadn't seen her.
Quickly she walked to the Dolphin Common Room, only Rosan was there.
"Hi," Rosan said, "You OK?"
"Hi, I'm tired..."
"Oh, I know what that's like... hurry up, it is late, the caretaker mustn't see you up..."
Cynthia took her wand and wrote the password on the wall, between the two portraits. A door opened and she entered the Dolphin Common Room.
Inside there weren't many people up, only some third year boys.
She walked to her dormitory; all the other girls were already there.
"Cynthia!" Monica said, "Where were you? It's late."
"Yes, I know, I had to go to... Captain Dolphin wanted to talk to me."
"What?" Said the Brazilian girl "Do you have any problems?"
"No, he just wanted to tell me about Artio, the girl who went to the other school."
"Oh, I didn't know her..."
Cynthia went to her bed; in her bag there was a book. She took it and went outside their dormitory, "I'll be right back," she said.
She put the book on one of the desks in the common room and took a quill that was for anyone's use.
It was a Diary. Cynthia didn't usually feel any need to write in a Diary. But suddenly she was full of things and the way she found to return to her normal state was to confide in the parchment of the book.
Sitnalta Island, Lusitania Academy, 1st September 1994.
Dear Diary,
This is the first time I use your parchment.
My sister Carmen was right when she bought you for me, she said I'd need you, and she was right.
I want to tell someone all the things I have in my mind. It'd be better to use a pensieve, but as I don't have one…
Everything began three days ago. Artio talked to me because she wanted to find Strimmy, something she thought could be an animal.
Oh, I forgot you haven't ever seen her. I must describe what she looks like; maybe I will need that description if I don't see her again...
She's a blonde haired girl, blue eyes... well, actually I don't know if they're blue or green, it's a mix of the two colours. Her eyes tend to hypnotise us, they're beautiful, I'd like my eyes to be like that! She's a normal girl, tall... well, I'm taller than her.
She's a bit ingénue; I think she's very fragile, which brings a lot of problems to her life.
She told me about everything. Today I still don't know why she did that, she confides a lot in people she doesn't know...
She was a target of some kind of spell, a Dark Spell, I don't know why...
Patrick was something that cast the spell on her, in fact Patrick was in Jeremy Craig's body, a boy in the first year, just like Artio and I.
Jeremy told Artio that he wanted to find her. The way she had to contact him was via Strimmy, and that's why she got to know me.
When we went to Laxus we found Jeremy and his friend, Walter. Artio and Jeremy went outside and in the Ship she told me they had kissed.
They kissed!
Jeremy is a handsome guy. I think he's the most gorgeous boy of all the first years. He's got soft brown hair, and it's long, not very long, just longer than the other boys'... his black eyes seem to take us into the night even when the sun is shining on a summer day.
But they're in love. Artio Sperios and Jeremy Craig, the perfect pairing!
Artio's parents divorced, and that's where all trouble began.
Artio's away from here, her father wanted Artio to go live with him in London.
She sent me a letter saying she'd go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I must reply to her owl.
She asked me to tell Jeremy that she loved him, and he was angry because she didn't say anything to him. She hasn't told him that she was going away.
Then I talked to him and it was me who heard his sadness.
I am angry, I haven't said anything else to Jeremy since yesterday afternoon.
I think... I must apologize to him, I have no reason to be angry, we must be friends, and I'd like to talk to him like...
Friends.
Do you think Artio will be angry if she knows that Jeremy and I are seeing each other?
Well, we aren't. Forget that.
Captain Dolphin asked me to cast a group spell on Jeremy. Captain Dolphin and I will cast two different spells. He said that Jeremy would be sleeping for some days.
He doesn't know about Artio and Jeremy being in love. I won't tell him...
I have to learn how to cast the spell by myself. I have to find it in a book, at the Library. For that I need points, which I don't have... Oh this is driving me crazy! I have to help Artio, she can't be controlled by the person who cast the spell on her and Jeremy. She may be in danger.
Today I failed. Maybe that's the reason why I let you know all these things. Captain Dolphin wasn't the same person as he was on other days. I've never seen him that way before.
I must get those points as soon as possible.
I will write an owl to Artio.
Tomorrow I will let you know how my day was.
Thanks for letting me explain my thoughts.
Cynthia T.
Cynthia took her eyes away from the book. She closed it. Its green cover was old, it seemed as though it had been three hundred years old when it was made.
Cynthia wrote at least seven pages in the diary. She simply imagined that it was a person, a friend, who wouldn't tell her secrets to anyone.
She took some other parchment and wrote a quick letter to Artio. She'd send it by one of the school's owls.
Now she was tired, all the other girls had fallen asleep as she was writing her diary in her bed. The others couldn't see what she'd been doing; the curtains of the bed were thick enough that they couldn't see through them.
Cynthia fell asleep.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
In the morning Cynthia and the some of the other first year Dolphin girls went downstairs to have breakfast.
When they finished, Cynthia told Monica that she'd go to the owlery, so Monica could tell Professor Slibel, if she was late to Transfiguration.
Cynthia put the letter on a black owl, with green eyes. She stared at it flying off, until she couldn't see it anymore.
The owl would arrive many hours later at Hogwarts, where a group of fourth year Ravenclaws were talking with Artio.
"Sperios?" Said a red haired girl, "I haven't heard that name, I don't think I know your family."
"Yes" Artio agreed, "Most of my family lives in Portugal, I lived there until last week, when I went to Lusitania. Then I found out that my parents had divorced and I came here to live with my father."
They were going to the fields, the first class would be Flying, with Madam Hooch, who had yellow eyes.
The grass was cold, in Britain the night was much colder than in Portugal, where the sun shone on almost all days and September was a very hot month although it was the beginning of autumn. It was summer still, Artio thought, imagining how it'd be in Lusitania Academy. Lost on those thoughts Artio followed the other Ravenclaws and they'd arrived near the flying coach.
"Welcome to another year!" She said, smiling, "I hope you've trained in the holiday time. As I think you already know, there is a new student in our class. Her name is Artio Sperios."
Suddenly all the others looked at Artio.
She didn't do anything, and Professor Hooch continued.
"Well, you'll be throwing and catching the quaffle as I'm going to teach Artio how to fly and see what she has to learn. Artio come here, please."
The others took their brooms and went up into the sky, which had some clouds.
"Do you know how to fly?" Asked Madame Hooch.
"Yes," Artio replied, "My father taught me three years ago, I know how to fly although I don't practice much..."
"Good," The woman opened a box and let a red ball, the quaffle, come out. "Catch it!" she said.
"Up!" Artio said, and the broom left the grass and stopped at her hand. She mounted the broom and flew up into the air.
She turned a few times, flew up and down and finally caught the quaffle. She got back to the grass.
"Good, you'd be a good chaser..." Madame Hooch let a black ball come out, it was a bludger. She gave Artio a stick and she went away following the bludger. It wasn't hard; the black ball just came flying in her direction. When it was near her broom, Artio beat the ball and it went away.
When she came down again, Madame Hooch exclaimed "Not bad too!"
The Snitch test was easy too, although Artio took a bit more time than the other balls, but she scored quickly. Madam Hooch was surprised.
"Artio, I didn't know you were so good at flying! That last catch was fantastic! Cho Chang, our actual seeker, is a bit better than you. I'll think to have a test between the two of you to decide who takes the seeker position! Although this year we don't have the Quidditch cup, you may train and be part of the team next year."
"My father played Quidditch" Artio explained, "He taught me some things and well, that's the secret..." she smiled, she was happy for being good in one subject. She didn't know how the other classes would be; she'd never been in a school like that.
She joined the other students catching the quaffle, it was easy to her, and the morning passed quite quickly.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
The Transfiguration class, in the morning, wasn't very boring although Professor Slibel passed the entire class talking about class rules.
Cynthia won ten points during the class, she knew about the remote origins of Transfiguration. Natasha Bizecuit scored eight points so far, and she was bored because she knew that she was much smarter than Cynthia.
Cynthia had lunch with her friends, they were almost a group of friends, it was made up of Cynthia, Monica, Natasha, Ariane, Amanda and Sarah.
"Cynthia," said Amanda, the girl who didn't like Cynthia very much that night, but now she seemed to forget everything, "You like animals very much, right?"
Ariane raised an eyebrow and listed attentively, interested, she liked animals too.
"Yes... why?" Asked Cynthia, who didn't understand why she was asking that.
"Yesterday night, I woke up and I saw a Glumbumble in our dormitory, near your bed, and I caught it for you, I thought you'd like to have one." She showed a bottle with a grey insect inside, it was flying happily although it would have liked to be outside. There was a small nettle inside the bottle, the Glumbumbles ate those plants.
"Cool!" Cynthia said, she'd like to have more animals, Chintz ran away when Cynthia came to the academy, her cats were living somewhere outside, maybe in the owlery, "I like insects, I like the way they're so complex while they're so small too, it seems impossible to have such a complex animal with this size..." She took the bottle, and Amanda was happy for giving Cynthia a gift, that was a kind of apology for being a bit mad with her the other night.
"I'm glad you liked it," said Amanda Finn.
"Thanks!" Cynthia said. Ariane walked to the place where Monica was, she sat between Cynthia and Monica, and started talking to the owner of the Glumbumble about that strange insect.
That day Cynthia went to the Library for the second time since she arrived at the academy, she had not enough points yet, she knew it, but she went there just to talk with the librarian. Cynthia had a good opinion of the librarian, she thought she could be a good person and could teach Cynthia some interesting things about books, she must be the person who knew more about books than everyone else in the academy. Cynthia would like to learn some of those things, and the way of getting what she wanted was being her friend.
"Good afternoon," Cynthia said to the librarian, "How are you?"
The librarian smiled, "Oh, isn't it our new fast points winner? I'm fine, thanks."
"Well I had no luck..." Cynthia explained, "Well, what's your name, I can't just call you 'the librarian'"
"I'm Anastacia Saroupolis, call me Tacy" she said, it seemed she also liked Cynthia.
"Tacy, okay, I'm Cynthia,"
"I know." Said Tacy, "I mean, I've heard your name, your friend called you..." she had a strange necessity of explaining, which Cynthia didn't understand, but she didn't pay attention.
"Well, I have scored ten points," Cynthia said, she knew they weren't enough.
"Ten? So you didn't win any more points during the classes?"
"No, Professor Josh Darkwater took ten points from me, I only scored ten points in the Transfiguration class..."
They were talking for about two hours, Tacy let Cynthia know that she had to get much more points, but she didn't desperate.
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
The rest of the afternoon was passed in the Dungeons, Artio and the other Ravenclaws were having Potions with Professor Severus Snape.
The other students told her that Snape didn't like non-Slytherin students, he was always taking points from the other houses' students, including the Ravenclaws.
"You must bring your cauldron to the class, we'll keep them in our classroom, you won't need them in any other class..."
Some minutes later, the Ravenclaw house had twenty points taken from them when they entered the Dungeon...
Artio didn't know why but when he talked to her, he was a completely different person, he was a sweet man, his words were soft.
Cho Chang was in the Ravenclaw Common Room; she said she'd help Artio doing her homework.
Artio entered the room after the Potions class, the other students were unhappy, Professor Snape had taken many points from the Ravenclaw house. Artio wasn't affected by that points stealing wave, and the other students started to look at her in a different manner.
"Artio!" exclaimed Cho Chang, "Professor Hooch told me that you would be a good seeker!"
No, Artio thought, Cho Chang would be sad, Artio could take her position on the Quidditch team; certainly she didn't like the idea...
"Yes, I... I won't accept to train with you, you're much better than me, don't worry, you are definitely the Ravenclaw seeker."
"No, I want to train with you!" Cho said.
"What?" Artio didn't understand.
"Yes, this year we won't have the Quidditch cup, the way we have to play Quidditch is training for the seeker position, you must accept Professor Hooch's proposal."
"But..."
"Please, Artio, let's train, I want to play Quidditch. The best one will win!"
Artio was surprised. In fact she liked the idea of being part of the Quidditch team, but she didn't want to start a war with Cho Chang for the position. She liked Fair Play.
"Well, I'm in charge of the students who will help you. I'm tutoring Potions, okay?"
"How many people will teach me?" Artio asked, interested.
"I'm teaching Potions, flying and Charms. Well, I think I won't teach you how to fly..." she grinned, "Michael Cloud will help you in Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration, Andrew Malton is in charge of History of Magic and Herbology and finally, Cedric Diggory will help you in Astronomy and Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Are they all Ravenclaws?" Artio asked.
"No, Cedric is a Hufflepuff, Michael is Slytherin and Andrew is a Gryffindor. Hermione Granger was supposed to help you in History of Magic but she's a fourth year Gryffindor and so the Headmaster Albus Dumbledore didn't tell anything to her as she's in the same year as you."
"Good. I hope I can learn faster so that I will be a fifth year and not a fourth..."
"Let's start, what did you learn in Potions today?" Asked Cho.
"Nothing special, Professor Snape just reminded us of the rules and other such things, he talked about the History of Potions a bit, just for my own interest."
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
After dinner, Cynthia went to find Jeremy.
"Jeremy, I want to talk to you," she said.
"What?" He was smiling, he'd been joking with someone, the other boys were also grinning, "Okay."
He stood up and they walked outside the castle. Although they had already had dinner, the sun was still visible, the sun would set soon.
They sat in the grass.
"What?" He asked.
"I want to tell you that I have nothing to do with you and Artio's problems, I have no reason to be angry with you." she was determined.
"Good, I also think so." He said, he looked down to the grass; "I've tried not to think about her." the happiness that Cynthia saw in his eyes inside the castle when he was with the other boys was there no more.
"Jeremy, have you sent an owl to her?" Cynthia asked.
"Why me?" He said, "she's the one who is gone and I have to send her an owl? She is the one who must send me an owl explaining everything. I know that we're young and that the only thing that happened was a simple kiss. But I feel that she's the girl of my life, I really love her."
"Jeremy, one of you must do it first, you both can't just wait until the other sends an owl. If you think that way she may also think the same way and so you'll never see each other again."
"You're right, but it's her duty to let me know how she is."
"No, it's your duty too. I know she loves you too, but she isn't sure if you are certain of your feelings, I think that's the problem. Try to understand, her parents divorced, she's sad. Please, Jeremy, send her an owl."
"Okay, I'll think about it," finally he agreed.
"Good." Cynthia nodded; she wanted to tell him about the spell. But she wasn't authorized. She had to control her will; she knew that if she told him the spell wouldn't work.
"I'll forget our discussion the other day, we must be friends, Artio needs our friendship above all." said Jeremy.
"That's why I came." Cynthia said.
"I'll write a letter to her," he said, "And I'll do it now. Cynthia," he stood up, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay" she said, happy, he finally listened to her, "I'll be here for a while."
He went away and entered the castle.
The sunset was magnificent! Cynthia had never seen a sunset like that, the sun was reflected in the dark blue water of the sea.
She took the bottle, which contained the Glumbumble. She opened the bottle, Cynthia didn't like animals in prisons.
The insect flew out of the bottle and didn't fly away as Cynthia thought it would do.
Instead, it stopped in the grass, about one meter away from her.
Suddenly the animal started growing, Cynthia was scared and prepared to stand up and ran away. But she didn't, she realised that it was an Animagi.
A blonde woman with beautiful blue-green eyes stared at Cynthia.
"Finally you released me from that prison!" She exclaimed.
She was dressed with a long soft purple dress, with short sleeves, she'd certainly come from a hot place, she was dressed for a summer day. On her left arm an image of a skull could be seen.
Cynthia looked at the strange woman who was arranging her clothes, "Who are you?".
Before the woman replied to Cynthia's question, she turned her head and looked into Cynthia's eyes. Cynthia felt a cold shiver down her back.
Read? Review!
****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****
Next Chapter: Who is the woman who transformed from a simple Glumbumble? What was that skull on her arm? Is she going to hurt Cynthia? And Jeremy? Will he really write the letter to Artio? Do you think Artio will adapt to the new school and class methods? See you in the next chapter! ;)
***
Lusitania is at AstronomyTower, part of the FictionAlley community. Join us here; see Art at Lusitania Website and post reviews here.
***