Chapter 11: Going Down
Uric watched the bird carefully. It had a drab, brown body, but its wings were edged in a brilliant green. Every time it flapped its wings, the sun caught on the green feathers and burned a glowing 'v' onto his retina. Uric flipped over on his broom and watched the bird flap a few more times. The upside down 'v's reminded him of a row of mountains on a map, or perhaps a forest. He craned his neck to view the Forbidden Forest far below and in front of him. It looked as dark and mysterious as it usually did.
He hadn't seen the woman since that night, nor had he seen the masked wizards. Dasha hadn't allowed him back in the forest again, not even to water Mr. Oak and his friends. He had served out his last two detentions in or around her cottage. The fog had disappeared, as had all signs of the masked wizards themselves. Dasha had returned his shoes and socks the next day all the while muttering about muggles and ploughing. Uric wondered if ploughing had to do with growing dirt. Perhaps he should write his parents again and ask.
"What are you doing?" said a voice. The bird soared away from him and Uric looked further up. Mena was hovering above him on her own broom. The edge of her robes were just brushing the top of his broomstick.
"Watching the birdy," he answered, though he noticed it was flying further and further away.
"You just had to watch it upside down, didn't you?" she asked. Mena didn't sound as annoyed as usual, but she loved to fly and it would take more than Uric's usual antics to put her in a bad mood. "Madame Bocce has been calling for you for the past ten minutes. You better get down there before she remembers to take away points." Madame Bocce was the youngest of the Hogwart's teachers. She tended to forget that she was a professor now, not a student, much less that she could take or give away points.
Uric nodded his head at Mena, than told his broom to go down. It dropped like someone had cut the strings holding it up and Mena screamed. Uric frowned from his upside down place on the broom. His body felt strange, like his stomach had been left somewhere up above. He decided he would be more comfortable falling while he was right side up and tried to roll over. The broom continued to fall, but now it was spinning him around like a corkscrew.
He could hear Mena and the others yelling, while far away the bird shrieked. The sensations in his stomach increased and Uric screwed up his face in concentration. He wanted to stop.
"Ugh," said a voice above him. The sensations stopped. Uric opened his eyes and saw that he was hovering less than a foot above the ground. Someone shoved him roughly off the broom. He sprawled on the ground and saw Mena sitting on her own broom, one hand still on the handle of his now empty broom.
"Don't you ever do that again!" she yelled at him, pushing her hair angrily out of her face. She took a few breathes, ignoring the others approaching on their brooms or on foot. "Flying takes concentration, Uric. You can't just tell the broom what to do and expect it to do it without your help," she said in a slightly calmer tone. The rest of the class caught up with them.
"That was some fantastic flying, Mena," said Jasper. The rest of the class voiced their agreement though the Slytherins were markedly silent. Mena looked pleased at the compliments and forgot to continue yelling at Uric. Louis flew over to Uric unnoticed and helped him to his feet.
"You do a nice impersonation of a rock. Good thing Mena decided to catch you before she yelled at you," he said, and he would have continued, but Madame Bocce hurried over. Louis broke away, and quickly rejoined the rest of the class.
"Are you alright, Uric?" said Madame Bocce anxiously. Her curly black hair stood up in a halo around her head, framing the distressed look on her face. Uric took a moment to examine himself. He bent over and stared at his feet.
"Are you alright?" he asked his toes in a loud voice. A few of the class began snickering, but Uric was listening to his toes, not them. He looked back up at Madame Bocce and smiled.
"They say they're alright and I am as well." She was staring at him.
"That's…good Uric." She took an involuntary step backward, than seemed to come to herself. "Mrs. Kurze has summoned you to her office. You're to go immediately." Uric nodded. A cloud passed quickly over the sun. Uric gazed up at the sky for a moment, than over at the castle. He seemed to come to a decision and turned around so that his back was facing towards Hogwarts. With a practiced ease, he walked backwards towards Hogwarts, not even noticing when the entire flying class fell silent to watch him go.
*****
Headmistress Kurze's office was right where Uric thought he had left it. He walked up to the gargoyle and started petting and talking to it. After a few minutes, the gargoyle moved aside and Uric looked up to see the Headmistress standing on the bottom step of a staircase looking disapprovingly down upon him.
"The gargoyle, Mr. Beaufolle, is not named Snuggly or any other name you would care to give him. It has been nearly half an hour since I sent for you, and I suspect you have spent the majority of that time chatting with this statue." She gestured disdainfully at the gargoyle and Uric frowned. Poor Snuggly.
"Professor Stewart talked to Snuggly and the door opened," he said, doing his best to explain himself. He kept his eyes firmly on the floor however, since she was glaring at him again. When she spoke, it was with a controlled fury.
"If you had read the notice in the entrance hall like you were told to at the beginning of the year, you would have known that taping three times on Sn-" Her glare increased in intensity if that was possible. "the gargoyle with your wand and saying your name, would have informed me of your presence, allowing me to let you in." Uric continued to stare at the bare stones beneath his feet, his mind working furiously. The stones in this corridor were made up of hexagons, while the ones in the corridor outside the potion's dungeon were made up of rectangles. Hexagon's and squares formed a pattern at the top of the astronomy tower. There were strange 's' shaped stones in some of the south corridors, while the entrance hall was lined with triangular stones. Yet in all his wanderings of Hogwarts, he'd never found circular stones. He was sure this meant something, but…He realized Professor Kurze was speaking to him.
"I'm sorry?" he said and she stared hard at him for a moment.
"Apology accepted. Don't let it happen again." She turned and went up the steps. Uric stared after her for a moment, trying to comprehend what had happened, than shrugged and followed her up. He stepped on every third step and only on the right side of each without conscious thought.
Headmistress Kurze walked across her plush carpet and sat down in her customary chair. When Uric reached the top of the stairs, she motioned for him to sit in a chair in front of her desk. Misunderstanding the gesture, Uric walked up to her desk and examined it thoroughly. He seemed to remember a pretty glass ball had been there last time. Nothing was to be seen, however, except for a single piece of parchment. He reached out to pick it up and her hand came down on it with a loud thump.
"May I see it, ma'am?" he asked, remembering his manners. She regarded him for a moment, than took her hand away. Uric gave her a smile, than sat down. Luckily, there was a chair behind him.
"I called you here because I have received a letter from your father, the same one which you hold in your hand." Uric looked at his hand, than looked at his other one. Sure enough, there was a piece of parchment in it. It was amazing what his hands would do when he wasn't looking.
"What did Father say?" he asked. His hands moved to fold the parchment in half. Professor Kurze looked offended.
"He seems to think that I have not been taking your safety into consideration."
"Safety?"
"Your so-called encounter in the forest," she practically sneered. "I had Dasha comb the forest. There is no proof of your mysterious assailants or your helper." She took a deep breath to calm herself. "Be that as it may, your father has heard of the incident and requested that I take measures to prevent a recurrence. Out of respect for his position, I have decided to accede to his wishes. Therefore, from this day forth, you are not to set foot outside of Hogwarts without the presence of a competent wizard or witch. This includes visiting Dasha and detentions. I shall be informing all the professors of your situation…" she continued to speak, but no longer had Uric's attention. He wondered why they called it butterbeer. It certainly didn't taste like butter, and he should know, he had eaten a whole bowl of butter once. It did taste a bit like butter on fresh bread though. Perhaps that was what it was made of?
"Is that clear, Mr. Beaufolle? Mr. Beaufolle? Uric!" Uric's hazel eyes focused on her. His hands continued to fold the parchment. "Have you heard anything I've said?" she demanded. The steel was back in her voice and he was aware of her glare again.
"Yes, ma'am. I'm not to leave the castle." She relaxed a fraction.
"You must learn to look like you're paying attention, Mr. Beaufolle. I want you to make an effort at it." She gave him a rather cold smile of encouragement. Uric didn't know what she was talking about, but gave her the answer that seemed to have worked before.
"Yes, ma'am." She nodded approvingly.
"Very good. That will be all," she said. Uric continued to sit in the chair, and the slight smile slipped from her face. "You are free to go, Mr. Beaufolle." Her teeth were clenched. Uric watched her curiously. The Headmistress was a strange woman and he would have liked to watch her more, but it was nearing lunch time and Uric had planned a massive foray against the turnips for noon. He stood up, placed the parchment on the desk and left the office. Headmistress Kurze sat rigid in her chair, staring in a mixture of disgust and wonder at the folded creature of parchment that was ambling gently across her desk, making snuffling noises as it went.
*****
The Christmas holidays came quickly and Uric didn't even notice that he was confined to the castle. Professor Stewart was forced to come up with a new type of detention for him and had taken to assigning him to help other teachers with their more dangerous projects. This worked until the professors started refusing to even consider giving Uric detention, which is why Uric found himself helping Mr. Kurze repair portraits early in the morning of the first day of the holidays.
At six Mr. Kurze walked into the room and found the portraits all crowded in a circle around Uric. They were yelling and screaming at each other while Uric watched happily, his head turning from side to side as he focused on each speaker. Mr. Kurze sighed. He should have known better to go on a patrol of the corridors while Uric was up and about.
"Uric!" he yelled. The portraits fell markedly silent. Uric turned and grinned cheerfully at him.
"Yes, Sir?" Mr. Kurze remembered the issue at hand.
"Have you been out of this room?" he asked.
"Yes," Uric answered, though he looked confused. Mr. Kurze was about to reprimand the boy when he realized what Uric meant.
"I mean, have you been out of this room since I left it?"
"No, Sir."
"And has anyone else been in this room?"
"Other than the portraits?" asked the boy in an innocent tone.
"Portraits aren't people Uric and neither are statues. Don't think that I haven't heard an earful about your little chat with the gargoyle." He had heard more than an earful unfortunately. His wife was not one to be trifled with. "Has anyone been in here?" Uric shook his head.
"No, Sir," he answered. Mr. Kurze sighed, and decided to make one last stab at trying to get information out of Uric.
"You wouldn't happen to know how someone broke into my office and stole that invisibility cloak I took off of you?"
"Alohomora, a common unlocking spell can be used on nearly all locked contrivances. One must take account of the additional barrier spells that a more suspicious wizard or witch might place around an object or room. In that case-"
"Yes, thank you, Uric," said Mr. Kurze. He was sure that somewhere up in the library, there was a book with the exact words that Uric had just parroted at him. "If the portraits are done, than you can go. You wouldn't want to miss your carriage." He surveyed the room unseeing, until he noticed the tug on his robes. Uric was looking up at him, an earnest look on his face.
"If fruit were sentient, which fruit do you think would be their king? I like cherries, but they're too small. Maybe they could be foot soldiers. How about a banana as king? Are we allowed to have bent kings?" Mr. Kurze started chuckling, than progressed into full laughter at the puzzled look the boy was giving him. "Excuse me, but-," Uric started to ask, but Mr. Kurze waved the question away.
"Go get ready to leave, Uric," said Mr. Kurze in between his chuckles. Uric shrugged and walked out of the room. The portraits started yelling again.
*****
Well, I can guarantee Christmas in the next chapter.
Thank you to all my reviewers: Zadesko, Em, Gred Weasley, Mad Potter, Tess, Kirkusmaximus12, Tidmag, Thistlemeg, Ozma, AkinZR, Giesbrecht, NM (Narcissa Malfoy), Amberdulen, AniMourner and Unknnown.
Well, everybody seemed to ask the same question about why the masked wizards want Uric. There will be clues on that in the next chapter, actually there was a clue in this chapter, but it was rather subtle…This chapter just ended up being mostly filler, though hopefully it wasn't too bad:)
Please review.