Chapter 49: Spells of Two Kinds

"Of all the sicknesses, maladies, and ailments in all the world, none has worse symptoms than unrequited love."

            -Anonymous

"A.J., what are you doing?" Julie asked her brother. He was lying in his crib and making cute noises. "Are you talking to your stuffed animals? Yes, you are." She tickled the baby on his tummy and he laughed. "Do you want your bunny? Do you want Monsieur Lapin? Yes, here you are."

A.J.'s favorite stuffed animal was a rather floppy rabbit made of soft blue velvet; a present from the Delacour-Davies. Julie placed it on A.J.'s tummy and he laughed and held the thing. He was so cute and so small, it was sometimes a problem for Julie not to simply pick him up and hold him for hours on end.

"Little guy, little hands, little eyes, and lots of time…
What you gonna be, what you gonna see
When your eyes are level with mine?
I'll be level with you, I don't know what I would do
If I had to face the things that you've got coming down the line
If I had to face the things that you've got coming down the line…"

"Singing to Albie?" a voice inquired.

"Hey, Mitch."

"You know, if you're going to sing to the baby, you need a guitar."

"Can't play one. But you're here. Start playing, wolf." Mitchie did just that, continuing the song:

"Lots of luck, lots of heath, lots of wealth,"

"And little pain."

The two girls began to sing quietly to their small brother.

"That's what I want for you, though there's little I can do
To put you on the gravy train.
I'll be level with you; you always end up coming through,
Though you find yourself lost in space now and again.
Though you find yourself lost in space now and again."

"I think he's sleeping," Mitchie whispered.

"Is he?" Julie checked. "Yeah."

"He's so little, and not furry."

"Not furry? He's a baby!"

"Sometimes babies are. I was born on the seventeenth, you know."

"And that would signify?"

"Full moon."

"So you were a…a wolflet?"

Mitchie laughed.

"The term is 'cub,' but yeah."

"We have to ask Jen today, you know."

"Oh, really? When are we going again?"

Julie sighed.

"March tenth."

"Aren't you like, looking forward to it at all?"

"Mitch, we could die."

"We could every day."

"No, I mean really, Michelle, de Diablo could kill us and we'd never come back. Don't you get that?"

"I get it, Julie. I'm just not going to let it get to me. I take risks all the time for the fun of it. You've got to learn to live a little bit." As the girls left the dungeon room where little Albie slept, Mitchie pulled her guitar around so that it hung across her back like a strange axe. "You've got the American Aurory, the English Auror Office, the German Aurorscheidt, and gods-know-what else to back you up, plus Malfoy and Mr. Weasley, and me, plus Jen. De Dyablo can't hurt you without getting through us."

"Can you at least make the effort to pronounce it right even if you insist on enough bravado to kill an elephant?"

"Bravado? Me? Never," Mitchie remarked sarcastically. "Julie, you've got to lighten up."

"What have you got to lose, Michelle?"

"Everything, same as you. But I've already had to give up everything to get the new everything, just like you had to give up your everything, y'know?" Julie gave her a blank look. "Okay, what I mean is that you had to give up what good you had at the orphange, with no certainty of what you'd have, right?"

"Right."

"And it turned out splendidly. I had to leave a few friends and the city I love, but that tuned out splendidly. I found a good foster home, a sister, and Donaghan. And now we've got Albie as well to look after. We can only lose what we've got by dying, and I'm pretty certain noone'd let that happen to us. And we might get some more to the everything by going. We'll be the saviors of countries and all will admire us. Do you know what that means?"

"What?"

"Imagine the way people act toward your Uncle Harry here. Bigger."

"Isn't it incredibly easy to be famous in America?"

"Well, easy to get famous, but not to stay." Mitchie shrugged and pulled a magazine out of her padded black guitar bag. Did you know more Americans recognize your dad by sight than your uncle, Jules?"

"Why?"

"Americans live for a love story. And not to put too fine a point on it, your dad and mum are a damned sight more interesting one than your uncle marrying his best friend's sister four years after the war ended. Think about it. It's the difference between 'My Fair Lady' and a one-sided war movie. Which would you rather see?"

"You've been waiting for that since you got here, haven't you?"

"Waiting for what?"

"The comparison of Dad to Henry Higgins, you wicked Yank."

"And Minister Dumbledore as Colonel Pickering. Yes."

"Remind me to avoid the American cinema in it's entirety."

"You don't want to see any of the ones about your dad and mum?"

"I sincerely hope I never do. Let's find Jen."

"Alright, but there's a new one in production with you mentioned."

"Great! I can sue and buy a house in the countryside." Julie surreptitiously glanced at the magazine. "Who's playing Dad?"

***********************************************************

"Today we will be practicing the Granitius Curse," Professor Snape announced. "Anyone whose partner turns to stone gets five points to their house. There are Pygmalius Potions on each of your desks in case someone masters it. Simply pour the contents of the vial on the statue's head and they will return to flesh. I don't expect any of you dunderheaded half-wits to master it, but on the side of safety-"

"Waah!" a voice interrupted from behind Snape's desk.

"Pardon me a moment." The class watched in awe and shock as the Professor picked up his month-old son and patted him on the back. "As I was saying-"

But it was useless. Every female in the room and a good many of the males were now either 'aww'-ing or remarking on how cute baby A.J. was. Several others, especially Slytherins, could be heard whispering the dark rumor that Snape occasionally used his son as a test subject; not an unlikely idea, given how often he made his daughter or Tyler be the guinea pig in class. If Julie and Mitchie hadn't given so much appearance of liking it, the Ministry might well have had to deal with a few letters of suspected child abuse from students about their abrasive demagogue. Snape sighed and turned A.J. around to face the class.

"Perhaps another lesson would be better for today," he said sourly. "This is an infant human of the male sex, commonly referred to as a 'baby.' Does anyone know the specific term for this example?"

Jen Blodgett and a lot of other kids raised their hands. "Yes, Miss Blodgett?"

"This particular baby is called Albus Julian Snape."

"Precisely. This is a perfect time to explore the research of Gregor Mendel, something I had planned to introduce in a few months. What is it now, Starcatcher?"

"Mendel wasn't a Muggle monk?"

"How often do you have to be surprised before you learn that almost nobody of importance was all-Muggle? Mendel, as you others well know, was an Austrian student at the Vandthauser Academy and later taught Herbology at Hogwarts as an associate for a time. Really!" Snape summoned A.J.'s baby chair up onto his desk and carefully buckled his son into it so that the class could see him. A.J. found this amusing and blew a sizeable spit bubble. Some students found that funny, but Snape looked unamused. "That is a common behavior of babies, class, however undignified. Yes, Miss Stern?"

Lately, Snape had taken to calling the females especially by last name and title and demanding the boys do the same in his presence. Julie was, however, plain 'Starcatcher' and Mitchie just 'Tyler' to him in class, but that only showed he was lightening up a bit toward them. Julie deeply suspected the insistence on respect was because of Jen's brother.

"Is Mendel's theory of dominant and regressive traits how come Julie has dark hair and the baby doesn't?"

"An excellent question. Actually, not quite. A.J. does not have dark hair because he does not have enough hair to discern its color yet. However, drawing a table of traits, can anyone make any predictions as to how A.J. will look in later years?" Snape drew out a Mendel table on the board and began to accept suggestions.

"He'll either haff straight hair like you, sir, or …vell, not, like his mother does."

"Good example, Mr. Malgryevic. Anything else about A.J.'s hair? Tyler?"

"Well, sir, it seems to me that straight and brown hair are the recessive traits, and bushy and black hair are the dominants, at least by the evidence sitting next to me."

"An adequate observation, but how do you know that Starcatcher does not exhibit the recessive traits?"

"It is unlikely?"

"The chances are one in four for each recessive trait. Starcatcher, you have something to add?"

"I think A.J. has inherited a recessive trait."

"Which?"

Julie grinned a bit cheekily in vengeance at how the lesson was going.

"Why, our nose, Daddy. Almost all of the ancestors in the paintings at home have it."

Snape raised a finger to make a point.

"Yes, that is true, Starcatcher, but are you also considering chromosomal patterns? The er- distinctive nose we share has indeed appeared frequently in the Snape family, but it has heretofore been very unusual for a female to inherit it. What can be therefore deduced from that? Mr. Blodgett?"

"Professor Granger had an ancestor with a nose like that as well?" Jem asked.

"That would be one theory. Does anyone have another? Yes?"

"Neither Professor Granger nor Julie has the same nose as her maternal grandparents. Julie's mother, therefore, had a regressive trait for her nose, and the dominant one transcended chromosomal tendency."

"Good, Tyler. That is indeed the most likely theory. Can you provide an example from your own family?"

"Yes. My father wore glasses and my mother did not, so for years I assumed it was a dominant trait."

"And what drew you to change your opinion?"

"My parents' Aurory files, sir. It was recorded that at the age of eighteen, my mother, who was Muggle-born, underwent a procedure of corrective laser surgery to counterract her nearsightedness. My spectacles are therefore a case of dual regressives, and assuming I marry a man who wears no glasses, my children will probably not need them."

"Excellent. You are excused from the evening's homework, which is to prepare an example of dual-regressives such as the ones provided by Starcatcher and Tyler. Recognizing people for their parentage is still considered an important part of Defense Against the Dark Arts, as it is useful to know what kind of home your suspect comes from, especially if he or she has changed their identity. Americans commonly forget the importance of genetic study due to their blended nationality and fear of racial prejudice, but being color-blind doesn't help you when your enemies are green. Remember that. Class dismissed."

The other students filed out as usual, some remarking that they would have to owl their parents at lunch or look at their photo albums for help. Julie, Jen, and Mitchie stayed behind, as was often their wont. Snape produced a bottle and began to feed his little son his lunch. "I trust you understand the reson for that particular lesson, ladies?"

"It's awfully considerate of you to put mission training into class for us, per'fessor," Mitchie remarked. "But do you have to be so down on Jules to do it?"

"I have to maintain the appearance of teaching everyone, not just you three, and humiliating, or attempting to humiliate Julie is the most commonplace action I could think of."

"Besides taking off housepoints, that is," Julie scowled. "Actually, it wasn't  so bad today. The explanation of my nose was lovely. I'd been wondering."

"No, you weren't cursed that way as an infant."

"Yes, today's discussion has restored my faith in a benevolent Creator, even if he does have his damn nerve sometimes." Mitchie eyed her disproportionately larger but otherwise unobjectionable hands. "Really, a wolf only needs one set of paws."

"You seemed a bit distracted today, Miss Blodgett," Snape observed. "Does the homework present some problem to you?"

"Oh, no, sir, I just…have you ever been sort of asleep with your eyes open while you were trying to pay attention? It was sort of like that."

"Ah. I suggest you partake of some of Hermione's valerian root potion and ignore that ridiculous git you call a twin brother."

"Your bastard cousin, too."

"Tyler!"

"Seriously, Jen, non illegetemi carborundum."

"You're little better with your Latin, Starcatcher. You two watch your language around A.J."

"Yes, Julie, no more Latin. Stick to French and Greek," Mitchie joked. Professor Snape breathed a heavy sigh.

"What have I done to deserve teenagers?" he asked the ceiling. All three females laughed and Julie gave him and Albie a hug.

"The ceiling may answer you someday, Dad. See you tonight after classes."

After leaving the Potions room, Jen leaned over and inquired somethingof her two friends:

"Is it just me or does he worry about you two?"

"No, it's the three of us he's paranoid about," Mitchie said. "When's the last time you saw Lyff Grudgett in the halls? He's looking out for you."

"Isn't it nice?" Julie remarked.

"I suppose," Jen agreed quietly. There was a long pause of her staring into space even while walking before she spoke again. "Slytherins are like that, only it's more 'nobody hurts this one but me' and such."

"Tell me all Slytherins aren't that bad," Julie begged jokingly, a serious look in her eyes. Jen smiled her typical nervous mouth-only grin.

"No, the girls are generally alright and there are a lot of good guys from there. Your dad and Professor Malfoy, for example."

Mitchie, of course, stifled a very unladylike and wolfly snort. "Has he punished you as well?" Jen inquired.

"No, I just…must be because he's blond," the American covered. "When'd he punish you?"

"I had a hand in the last little Slytherin tabloid project a couple of months ago. Professor Malfoy turned me upside down until I agreed to apologize."

"Cool!" Mitchie said, causing Jen to cringe.

"Your worst fear's being held upside down?" Julie asked

"Don't you hate it?" Jen asked, cringing. "I can't stand the idea of being dropped on the head. Lyff's just as bad about rusty nails and Jem's so claustrophobic he had to take the curtains off his four-poster. Do you guys have any weird fears like that?"

"I positively detest things getting near my eyes," Mitchie said. "I never have them open without my glasses on ever since I got a bit of gravel in one when I was younger."

"Gravel?"

"Just the tiniest piece. I was running on a rock driveway. It was getting it taken off with the eye doctor's tweezers, though, that was hell. One sneeze and I'm blind for life, you know."

"I'm not sure what I'm really scared of," Julie said. "I mean, there's dying, bu everyone's nervous 'bout that, or Tim and Tom spiking my drink with Veritaserum."

"Would they really do that? Jen asked.

"Don't know."

"I would be fun at parties doped-up on that," Mitchie observed. "Not so much that I have many secrets of my own, but I kept some for other foster kids."

"Let's just face it, Mitch, you're fun at parties doped-up on anything. The Benadryl was funny."

"Last time I ever take Muggle pills."

"Your nose hasn't bothered you since, though, has it?"

"You know Matt Flint takes a potion for his allergies?" Jen revealed. "Mustard, any kind of pear, and radishes could kill him."

"I must remember that. Fancy Flint dying of radishes?"

"Do Americans poison each other often?" Julie inquired, in disgust that they were even discussing Flint. "The 'Radish of Death' sounds a bit too Yankish to be a proper invention."

"I've always gotten a nasty rash from certain nuts, actually," Mitchie announced. "Amd I like them so, it's really a tragedy."

"Try eating them instead of rubbing them on your skin," Jen joked, hand twitching.

"Merlin's sainted aunt Margaret! Jen made a joke!"

"She's funny enough if you tie her up, Yankee." Lyff Grudgett was leaning lazily against a column, partly hidden by shadow. "Or has she been holding out on you Gryffindors?"

"I suggest you crawl back under the rock from whence you came, Lyfften," Julie threatened in a steely voice.

"Oh, astonishing! The Seeker-slut knows my name!" Lyff crowed, only to be cut short by an inhuman growl from Mitchie, who lunged, wolflike, trying to tear out his throat with her teeth. It was as if in total rage the Yank became a wolf in a human's body, and it was all Julie could do to hold her friend by the shoulders away from Lyff. It didn't help that the professors' daughter was the shortest of the three. "Better get a muzzle for that thing," Lyff taunted.

Jen walked up to him as boldly as she could with her neck twitching and smacked him solidly across the face.

"Leave my friends alone, you bastia castrati!"

"That's not the only Italian word you know!" Lyff fumed. "How many Gryffindor cocks did you have to suck to-"

"Petrificus Totalus!" a voice yelled, paralyzing the Slytherin into a stiff cardboard cutout of himself. Julie didn't even need to turn around to recognize that voice; low, but like nails on a chalkboard just the same. Raspy. Vile. And most importantly, cruel.

It was Matius Flint.

"Dare I even ask why?" Jen asked him in surprise and fearful shock.

"I don't approve of my man's methods." His use of the word 'man' was clearly in the old Elizabethan sense, meaning 'servant.' "I also think you ladies deserve an apology."

For only eighteen, Flint had started a beard of surprising quality for his age and kept it neatly trimmed into a style that made his antique terms seem just a bit less eerie coming from him. Jen was clearly afraid of him, however Julie managed to hide it better. Mitchie was only starting to realize she was human dizzily on the stone floor. With an oddly silent tread, Flint walked over in a courtly manner and kissed Jen's trembling hand. He glanced at Mitchie and absently patted her head once in passing to just behind Julie.

"What is it you're after, Flint?" Julie asked coldly.

"You forgave so readily once upon a time. What happened?"

"I'm not an orphan anymore. I don't need to avoid grudges."

"And yet, Grudgetts would not be a bad move on your part."

"Don't threaten me. I'm less scared of flobberworms."

"May I at least have an answer to a few questions?" Flint whispered, close to Julie's ear. "First of all, how much do you like that wolf? Second, is Jen your charity case or your effort to impress Daddy?" Julie bristled and came close to smacking him. Flint caught her hand. "Fine, then, if you want to be difficult, how does this feel?"

Flint whispered a spell –or curse- so softly and quickly Julie couldn't even distinguish it, and actually touched her chest near the heart with his wand to administer the mind-bending magic. Julie suddenly felt a kind of jump as her heart went from several to what had to be thousands of beats per second, and waves of something that hurt and felt good at the same time seized through her, making her whole form tremble. She saw Jen's shocked expression and Mitchie's terrifed look, just before Flint's serenely cold and slightly amused stare. He bent his neck and whispered in her ear: "Tell me?"

The pulsing feeling suddenly exploded into an insane peak, making Julie's knees weaker than she could remember. Flint held her up. For a moment she considered answering; as either 'bad' or 'amazingly, madly good' would work. As it was Flint, the last scrap of rationality kept her from saying a word, even as he hissed "Later, then," and gave her neck a gentle kiss.

And then he was gone. Finally.

"Uh…Julie, are you okay?" Mitchie asked.

"That insufferable-" and Jen reeled off another long Italian obscenity as she moved to Julie's side and lifted the other girl's arm over her shoulder. "Come on, Starcatcher."

"What did he do to me?" Julie inquired, still dizzy from whatever the spell had been.

"It's a kind of spell they don't teach at this school. He's done it to me once or twice."

"That bastard didn't use a Defibrillatus, did he?" Mitch asked.

"No, the use of that spell's far from medical. The effects wear off in a few seconds."

"Jen, was it supposed to…well…?" Julie couldn't think of a term for it.

"Yes. It'll wear off as long as you don't get hit with it again."

"Omigod, he didn't-!"

"Sh!" Jen silenced Mitchie. "Flint hit Julie with a curse. That's it."

The Yank looked startled for a moment, and then nodded, understanding why Jen wasn't telling Julie what the spell was. To a Muggle-raised student it could be construed as a nasty curse, offensive but not uncommon, provided one didn't know what the intention of the spell was. To a wizard-born female, however, that particular bit of fairly elementary sex magic was just short of rape. Fortunately, their friend had grown up with Muggles and could be kept in ignorance to protect her feelings. Jen and Mitchie looked at one another in silent agreement; for the first time keeping a secret and defending the Dark Lady.

"I wonder if Donaghan could teach me that curse," Julie wondered. "Or maybe Malfoy."

"Starcatcher, I would pay money to see you ask Professor Malfoy to teach you that." The emergency passed, Jen was back to her no-first-names rule. Mitchie developed a severe case of the giggles from her remark and had to excuse herself for a moment.

"I understand he worked with the Auroriè Français for awhile, he would probably know it," the Yank observed. Jen shot her a positively vemomous look behind Julie's back.

"I'm okay, really," Julie protested, seeing her friends were acting as if she'd gotten hit with a Cruciatus. "Whatever Flint did, it sure didn't hurt worth a damn."

"Okay," Jen said, reluctantly taking Julie's arm from her shoulder. For a few moments it had been nice to have Julie be the confused one instead of her. It was incredible how lightly Starcatcher could take a spell like that, even if she didn't know the ramifications. Why, Jen had been out of her right mind for long enough afterwards the first time Flint used that curse on her for him to…nevermind. It wasn't worth reliving now, and the stress was making her hand shake.

**********************************************************

"Are you taking your guitar along to America?" Hermione asked Michelle in the hallway outside of 'rehearsal'.

"Nope. Something might happen to it. I'll just buy another when we stop off at Site One before New Orleans."

"Your hometown?"

"City," Mitchie corrected. "Yep, it's there. Besides, I sort of want a different kind to blend in to the style down South."

"Oh, some kind of a bluegrass Cajun sort?"

"Yeah, like maybe a chrome-bodied resonator body with thirty-fret neck, that'd be better. Especially if there's any physical combat, a chrome body's better for hitting with."

"You've got to be joking. Surely the American Aurory wouldn't permit-"

"I mean between Jules and Malfoy. I might have to break 'em up." Mitchie made a gesture indicating herself in the middle of two arguing wizards. Hermione smiled.

"Really, I don't think it's all that bad. They've been getting better since the beginning of the year." Mitchie smiled and resumed tuning her instrument as her professor wiped her foster brother's face. The convenient bench outside the Muggle Studies room was perfect for all three to wait until they were needed on, even if Hermione was only sticking around to get an idea of what her daughter would face in the Colonies. "Actually, Michelle, there's something I'm kind of curious about."

"If it's about the giant squid, I did not do it."

"No, seriously, Michelle, …what happened to the giant squid?"

"Tom and Tim were out of ink, so they tickled it with a quill tied to a broom until it did the inky squid thing and then got some in a jar for class, but the letters got up and crawled off the parchment. 'Least that's what I heard."

"Oh. "

"So what were you curious about with me?"

"Well…ever since Jen Blodgett got moved into Gryffindor, maybe even earlier," Mitchie thought she knew what was coming and nodded with a grin. "Do you know if Julie's dating anyone?"

Uh-oh. That was not the question Mitchie'd expected.

"Well, actually, Professor Granger, I haven't seen her with anyone." That was true. The Brit was damn careful not to let anyone catch her with her secret boyfriend, Mitchie included.

"Doesn't she tell you about stuff like that?" Hermione persisted.

"Uh, well, yeah, but…you know how …teenage girls and all are."

"You have to keep it a secret?"

"Uh, sort of, yeah," Mitchie replied lamely.

"Oh. But she does fancy someone?"

"Yeah."

"And that someone's …a he?"

"Uh, yeah, per'fessor, why are you asking me this?"

"Oh, no reason. Just wondered."

"Does this have something to do with the Slytherins?"

"Why would it have anything to do with Slytherins?"

"Well, today in the halls…" Mitchie briefly related the events of the past afternoon. "Don't worry, she thinks it was just a curse. Jen and I figured she'd take it better that way."

"That was very clever of you to keep it from her. As much as honesty is the best policy, Julie doesn't need that a month before you four have to leave. How did Chloe take it?"

"Take what?" the first-year asked, appearing from around the corner.

"Oh, something after Defense Against the Dark Arts today, nothing major," Mitchie covered. "I need to get this guitar tuned up, though."

"About that, Mitch, I was wondering if you could teach me to play sometime?" Chloe inquired.

"Oh, sure! How 'bout after rehearsal, in the Common Room?"

"Merci beaucoup. I've always been curious about guitars, Mamà only lets me play the piano at home."

As the American and part-veela began a discussion of comparative musical styles, Hermione took A.J. into the Muggle Studies room, where Julie and Malfoy were happily engaged in practicing imperiosity and servitude respectively as Ron role-played de Diablo to small effect. The professor took advantage of the female Slytherin's studious reverie to return the book she had confiscated from her cousin.

Lyff Grudgett had stolen his ex-girlfriend's diary earlier in the day and then made the supreme mistake of reading passages out loud while poor Dean fixed a student who had spilled undiluted bubotuber pus on their arm in Potions class. Unfortunately for Lyff, Professor Granger had returned to get something from her office and neatly 'ripped him a new one,' as the American was wont to say, in addition to taking the diary. Normally Hermione would never be so dishonest as to read a student's –or anyone else's- private thoughts, but what she had heard from Lyff was dangerous enough that it justified the means of finding out what Jen had been dealing with.

As the professor watched the Slytherin memorize her lookalike's mannerisms, she knew full well that the look Jen gave Julie was not merely scrutiny to learn.

It was the gaze of a full-fledged hopeless crush. Hermione only hoped Julie would wake up to the situation before Jen got up the nerve to make a move and prevent it gently, or the already-fragile Slytherin would get her heart broken on an oblivious and already taken –not to mention straight- Gryffindor.

Really, things had been much simpler when her husband went to school. Hermione could only remember two girls in her House with crushes on others, whereas poor Severus was shocked by reruns of Muggle MTV sometimes. Ah, well. At least Hogwarts did not have the Muggle Internet.

********************************************************

"This is 'C major,' and then you move first and second fingers to third through first string, second fret, good, third finger on second string, third fret, that's 'D'. Switch between those three chords on the tab sheet here."

"Oh, I see, the numbers are the4 frets and the lines the strings?"

"Exactly. Try it." Mitchie began to sing the words along with Chloe's shaky playing to keep her on track. "Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today, madam…Miss Otis regrets-"

"Hey, I know this song! It's Cole Porter!"

"Yeah, want to try singing?"

"Could I see you play it first?"

"I can do it with notes and chords, that okay?" Chloe nodded and Mitchie slung the strap over her shoulder and started playing, expertly and very fast. "Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today, hmmm…
And she's sorry to be delayed, but last evening down in Lover's Lane she strayed,
Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today."

It was a sordid and enjoyable little ditty, rather cheerful in tune, and Mitchie proceeded to relate the tale of Miss Otis' shooting her lover and eventually being hanged for it by an angry mob in song. Chloe and a few others knew the song, and it was to a chorus of first-years and an American werewolf that Jen opened the portrait hole, trembling. Julie was not far behind her.

"Jen, it's nothing so important as all that. I mean, really-"

"You didn't have to live with those bastards! Why the hell would you want to risk doing that?"

"Alright, I won't do it! It just seemed like a fun idea, that's all."

"Her idea of fun is going to get you hurt someday! I'm not saying you don't need to lighten up, but gods, Julie!"

"What did you call me?"

"Julie, that's what you like to be called, isn't it?"

"You've always called me Starcatcher before."

"I know."

"Jen, you're shaking, what's-"

Chloe had suddenly straightened, eyes wide, staring suspiciously at Jen.

"I don't feel so good…"

The Slytherin slumped to the floor in a dead faint and then began twitching spastically, eyes rolled back to the whites. Somebody yelled something incoherent about her being possessed, and Tom Weasley rushed over and tried to hold her down, only to be shoved away by Chloe, of all people.

"Back off! Get 'zhese chairs moved back! Move it!" Mitchie and Julie, not to mention everyone else in the common room, shot her a look of awe. "It's only a seizure. She's not possessed."

"Only a seizure?" Julie asked, a hair from hysterical. Chloe seized a cushion from one of the fat red chairs and put it beneath Jen's head.

"My friend Colline's epileptic. 'Zhese things 'appen." The first-year stomped her foot. "Well? Go get Madam Pomfrey! Don't just stand 'zhere!"

A good many of the students left through the portrait hole and a few scampered off to their respective dormitories so as not to be in the way. Within minutes, only a few fifth-yers girls plus Julie, Mitchie, Tim, Mack, and Donaghan were there following the first-year's orders and waiting for Jen to return to normal. Sure enough, the convulsions stopped and the dark-haired girl appeared to be unconscious. It was then that Madam Pomfey arrived on the scene. Chloe and Julie told her what happened.

"Yes, that sounds like a seizure, right enough. She's lucky somebody knew what to do!" The nurse quickly amplified Jen's pulse and checked her pupils for dilation. "Definitely seizure. Good thinking, Chloe."

In moments, Jen was gone, having been lifted by Donaghan and Mack onto the stretcher the nurse conjured and levitated away to the hospital wing. The rest of the Gryffindors simply stood there, shocked by what had happened to their new comrade. Chloe shook her head in disgust and stomped off to her room.

"'She's possessed!' Honestly! You English!"

Mitchie and Julie were the only ones besides Aldous who knew the first-year was on the verge of tears. Some of them were as well. It was strange how it affected all of them, but suddenly it felt like Jen had been a Gryffindor forever and they were all worried.

It was February eleventh, two-thousand nineteen.

Noone had any idea it was somebody's birthday.

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A/N: Dark stuff ahead in the next chapter…and then some lovely Valentine's Day fluff to balance matters out. Reviews for the plot gerbils? (if reviews work…)

Sorry ff.net's been out so long!

-J. McN.