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Chapter 12 - A Strange Peace

After the weird suit of armor incident, Steven's days passed by without further interference. Herbology came early in the morning. Steven and his fellow students opted for longer sleeping instead of breakfast. As they trudged into the greenhouse, there stood Professor Sprout. "Hello Ravenclaw, Professor Flitwick. Slytherin's already here if you'll all take your places."

Ravenclaw filed onto one side of a table filled with plants while Slytherin students stood on the other. Steven filed all the way down to the end, across from Brittney. They smiled at each other as Madam Sprout began, "Alright, before I ever introduce you to magical plants, we need to go over basics. In front of you are standard muggle daisies. What you'll be doing with these is to ensure that these plants survive. These daisies will be your first grade in this class. You may take them with you to your dorms after class, but let me give you some directions."

Professor Sprout spent the rest of the time going over how to care for the daisies. Steven and Brittney caught a few furtive glances from the other during the class. Once Madam Sprout had dismissed class, the Slytherins stole away to lunch and Brittney went with them.

At lunch, Steven's friends asked him about last night and all of the other strange occurrences. They reassured him that everything would be okay and Megan apologized for not having shown him how to use Rictusempra. "I think I'm going to see Professor Flitwick," Steven said as he stood from the table. "I'll see you all at History of Magic."

Steven walked through the halls continually looking over his shoulder until he reached the safety of Flitwick's class. "Professor Flitwick, are you here?" Steven called.

Out of one of the cabinets came a strange squeal and out popped Flitwick, "Hello there, Steven. Anything I can help you with."

"Well, I was wondering if you could teach me a charm or two to help me just in case I get into more..."

But Flitwick cut him off, "Yes, Severus told me about last night. Let me think for a moment," he said as he walked to his desk. Finally he chuckled to himself, "Well, of course, the most obvious charm is the disarming charm. I suppose you have your wand with you?"

"Yes, here it is," Steven said as he pulled it out.

"Not anymore," Flitwick said. "Expelliarmus!" Flitwick said as he pulled his wand out. Steven's wand flew out of his hand and into Flitwick's hand.. "Now, you try it."

Steven took his wand back, closed his eyes to think, and then he opened them. "Expelliarmus!" he yelled and pointed his wand at Flitwick. The professor flew off his feet and his wand went spinning onto the floor.

Flitwick got up absolutely exuberant, "Perfect, perfect. I've never seen anyone catch on so quickly. One other and you should be set. How about ... yes, yes, that will do." The professor waddled over to one of his many cabinets and opened it. Out of it he pulled a frog. "Now then, Steven. Once I release this frog, point your wand at it and say, "Impedimenta!" That spell will slow it down, or stop it depending on how strong the charm is.

Flitwick released the frog and Steven went into action. Unfortunately, the frog wouldn't stay still. As soon as he would cast his charm the frog would jump out of the way. After about a minute of fruitless labor, the frog jumped and Steven got it in midair. The frog thumped onto the ground, unable to catch itself fast enough. It sorta waddled along as Flitwick picked it up and put it back.

"Very good, Steven. Those should be sufficient to protect you. The teachers have been alerted to your situation and they will keep an eye on you during suspicious times, such as at night. Anything else you need help with?"

"No, that helps a lot, professor. Thanks a lot."

"No problem, Steven. I'm always here to help."

Steven got his History books out of his dorm and found his way to Professor Binn's classroom with the guidance of a third year Ravenclaw named Amanda. On the way, the two got to know each other.

"Well, Steven, ever seen an America Quidditch match?" she asked.

"Quidditch?" he said.

"Oh, I suppose you're not familiar. Quidditch is a wizarding sport played on brooms on a giant field. I'm one of the beaters. You'll see soon enough how much fun it is," Amanda said as she left him at History.

Ahem, time for another aside. Poor Steven. Didn't know what waited in History of Magic. We'll just leave it at the fact that Professor Binns drones on and on about goblin revolts. Needless to say, Steven and his friends found this to be a good time to catch up on sleep.

Well, after History, they had no problems getting back to sleep in the dorms and Steven's day ended peacefully. However, the next didn't start so. He awoke to find Jasper sitting on his chest pecking him on the chin.

"I'm awake, I'm awake. What do you want?" Jasper waddled over to the side of the bed and allowed Steven to get up and prepare for the day. Jasper went to breakfast with Steven and his friends and Steven figured out what Jasper wanted - food. "Didn't Nana feed you?" he said as he gave Jasper some bacon.

The owl looked at him rather funny and went on eating. Fred was looking rather sad as he told Steven that they had flying today.

"You're not looking forward to flying?" Victor said.

"Not particularly. It's alright, I guess. But I would still rather stay on the ground."

The other seven Ravenclaws tried to comfort Fred as they walked outside to meet Madam Hooch.