Hufflepuff Concerto
You'll never see Hufflepuff the same again. Set in the year of the TriWizard Cup. A reluctant student comes to Hogwarts, is not a Mary Sue, and meets other OCs who are also not Mary or Marty Sues. I promise. Give it a try.
DISCLAIMER: That Harry Potter Universe and Characters are not, alas, my own.
A/N: A bit long awaited, I'll admit. I hope to have the next chapter, after this one, out in less time than it took me to get this one out. Which means I've got over a year to work with! Woohoo! Hope it was worth the wait.
Chapter Six: Falling is Like This
Whatever happened in that hallway didn't last long. Hannah heard shouting, but all she found was Jaci standing alone, staring down nothing but empty corridor. She was too late to help. Was it rude to feel relieved?
"You came back," Jaci observed without turning. She sounded surprised, but less than impressed. And, Hannah noted uneasily, somehow, less than thrilled.
Her heart had already been beating hard from running through the corridors to catch up. Now, it pounded with uncertainty. "I thought," Hannah tried, you might need my help? As though she hadn't just proved how useful she could be by running away, and her change of heart was useless now. Who's to say she hadn't watched whatever had happened--obviously not much had, though-- and waited to come out until it was all over. A new direction, "I didn't know," if you'd be alright? Jaci was many things unknown, but known was that she could stand her ground without help from Hannah --"I wanted," an explanation. But Hannah wasn't sure she wanted to know. Eloquence was obviously not her finest skill today. She swallowed back the beginnings of six more half baked thoughts for the most important one, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, fine," Jaci said in a tone that somehow managed to blend stoic sarcasm with hysteria, "Today my friends. Tomorrow my father. When the mail comes...," she forced a laugh, "but I'm fine. Just fine."
What do you say to that, anyway? Hannah wondered. Several reassuring but useless nicities played through her mind. She dismissed them but she felt she had to say something. Tomorrow morning the mail would arrive with news from home. For her, that probably meant a nice little note saying how her mom had made it back from the train station with minimal hardship and some vague tidbits about her father and brothers getting ready for resuming classes at Holyoke next week.
For Jaci those letters would be very different. One of the girls from the train--their names were quickly blending in with all the other names she'd been told so far--had mentioned that some students got howlers from their parents when they got in trouble. Howlers, she remembered, were wolves that jumped off letters. They literally bit your head off, so you had to walk around for weeks without one until the spell wore off. Frightful.
"Do you think you father will send a howler?" Hannah asked. Whatever she was supposed to say to Jaci--well, that wasn't it.
To Hannah's relief, Jaci shook her--for now--very well attached head, "Howlers aren't really my father's style." She seemed to be pulling herself together. A forced smile pulled at her lips, "Strange thing for mage spawn to know about, isn't it? I thought your people prided themselves on living like muggles?"
"Muggles with House Elves and trips to Diagon Alley, maybe," Hannah allowed, opting not to take "mage spawn" as an insult and glad for the change of subject, "We don't have alot of this stuff. Howlers I heard about on the train. What I don't get is what you would do without your head."
"What do you mean?"
"They bite it off!"
This time, Jaci really did smile, "Very funny. Come on. We'll be late for Charms."
Hannah, bewildered, followed half a step behind.
"Now," Professor Flitwick announced once he finished the rolecall and a brief introduction, "Today we will be learning a simple spell. I am passing around a box of feathers, you are each to choose one and wait for my instructions."
Owen Caudwell picked a big spotted feather and handed the box to Hannah. After a moments indecision, Hannah set a small fluffy brown feather on her desk and Jaci took a sleek black one. The box moved on down the line until everyone had a feather.
"Wingardium leviosa!" Flitwick said and, with a wave of his wand he lifted his feather in the air. It made a quiet little hum that wasn't quite there that lingered even after Flitwick released his spell. "Repeat after me: Wingdarium," he paused to get a chorus of approximations of the word, "Leviosa."
"Leviosa," repeated the class.
"Wingardium leviosa."
"Very good." A few repetions later, Flitwick announced it was time for everyone to take out their wands.
Hannah's was still in the nice hinged box Olivander had put it in. She set the box on her desk and flipped it open. Next to her, Owen set his wand carefully in front of him and Jaci held hers loosely, whispering, "Wingardium leviosa."
The last time Hannah touched her wand was in Olivander's shop. It hadn't liked her much then and she hadn't given it much reason to like her any better now.
"The motion is simple," professor Flitwick explained. There was more humming now than before, "Swish and flick. Swish and flick."
Cautiously, Hannah prodded her wand. It didn't seem like it was going to bite her, so she picked it up.
It started slowly at first. Red, like last time, swirling up through her fingers into her hand. That was where it stopped last time. Up, up, up to her elbow. To her shoulder, and tingling down her spine to the floor. Past the floor. Through the dungeons, into the earth. Further. Deeper. Into the molten core of the earth.
"Swish and flick."
It's just grounding, she told herself, It's okay.
"You alright?" Owen was asking, his wand was in his hand now. Swirling just like hers, down, down, down. Her arm was numb. She nodded. The swirling was everywhere.
"Come on, Ms. Korvil, swish and flick. Wingardium leviosa."
She waved her wand and flicked it, but was too distracted by the sparkling energy vibrating up her arm to remember to say the words.
"Wingarduim leviosa," Jaci swished and flicked and a spout of glittering popped out the wands tip to roll the feather over. The hum was getting louder. Now that she knew the feeling, it was everywhere. Whole classes with their wands at ready. Classes waving them and intending things to happen, bringing their inner magic out, draining the extra.
"Earth to Hannah?" Owen's voice, Jaci's hand. Hannah tried very hard to concentrate. Too many out of place particals. "You dropped your wand."
"What?" Hannah looked down. Jaci was holding out her wand to her. She recoiled, "Just put it in the box." The almost Slytherin exchanged a glance with Owen before placing the wand in. Hannah snapped it closed.
It didn't help.
They think I've gone mad, Hannah thought, but her attention was quickly arrested by one of the Ravenclaws. The same swirling, but a swooshing built up as Stewart Ackerly's particals danced dangerously fast.
Swish, "Wingardium leviosa!" And flick! Hannah covered her ears as a crashing roar of rolling magic filled the air. Feeling like she was caught in a wave tumbling toward the shore, she let her ears go to grab her desk before she fell over. The feeling didn't ebb. When she looked up, it seemed like she was seeing the world through a reflection in a stirred up pool.
It was too much. She closed her eyes. Falling, falling, falling.
