Chapter 11: The Water Elemental
It was the second Friday since the start of school. Harry and his Gryffindor Quidditch team mates had decided to let Janieve play Chaser for them. She did not think she was extraordinarily good, but she was passable. Harry had told her she was showing alarming talent in flying for someone who had never heard of Quidditch barely three weeks ago.
"Guys! Guys!" Harry yelled. Janieve caught the Quaffle that Katie threw to her and turned to Harry. "That's all for today! You guys are doing great!"
They flew back to the pitch and alighted from their broom. Janieve had borrowed hers from Madam Hooch. She raised her arm and wiped the perspiration off her forehead with the back of her hand. She was dying to get into the showers.
"I'm hitting the showers!" she announced and headed for the changing room.
"I'm with you," said Ginny, as she hurried after Janieve.
Janieve stepped into one of the cubicles and stripped out of her clothes in one instant. She hit the knobs and cool soothing water cascaded down her smooth creamy shoulders, her hair doused. She stood there with her face towards the shower, her eyes closed, her mind relaxed. The water was icy but it was comfortable on her sunburnt skin.
"Hello."
Janieve snapped her black wary eyes open. There was no one in the shower. Still, she could not shake the feeling of being watched from her.
"Hey!"
She spun around at the high-pitched, sugary dripped voice. To her astonishment, she saw a tiny creature… No, not creature. It was just water – water in the shape of a… a fairy? Or was it a butterfly? She could not make up her mind.
"I am Melody," said the creature in her girlish voice.
"What are you?" Janieve asked fearfully. The creature merely looked at Janieve with amusement in her transparent eyes.
"The Water Fairy," she replied, "I'm surprised you did not figure that out. You are the slowest Water Elemental I've had the fortune to come across."
"What are you talking about?" Janieve questioned in a hostile tone.
"Good Lord, you really are slow, aren't you?" The Water Fairy exclaimed.
"Well, care to make yourself clearer then?" Janieve asked blatantly.
The Water Fairy sighed dramatically. Janieve was surprised that she could even make any noise at all, with the type of molecules she was made up of.
"The Water Elemental is the Dictator of the Water Element. In other words, he or she is able to control all types of water… Well, nearly all. The power to command does not come to Elementals easily, but if they practised enough, they will be able to make the Element they have an innate ownership over, obey them. However, not everyone is an Elemental. They are born, not made."
Janieve gaped at the transparent, floating fairy before her. "Are you telling me I'm an Elemental?"
"A Water Elemental to be exact. You can only control water. Fire Elementals can control the fire while Air Elemental can control the air and so on and so forth. Well, you get the point," she explained.
Janieve continued to gape at her.
The Water Fairy spoke up again. "Haven't you found that you have this special connection with water? How many years has it been? It took you long enough to see it."
"You're crazy," Janieve stated. "No, I'm crazy," she corrected herself. "I'm crazy and I'm hallucinating."
"Maybe I am," the Fairy replied, "but you're definitely not crazy. You're just living in denial."
Janieve turned the knob off and the water stopped running. She watched the Fairy disappeared into droplets of water as they fell onto the tiled floor and seeped into the open drain. Janieve dried herself up quickly, changed into new, clean clothes and exited the changing room quickly.
"You sure took your time," commented Harry. He was sitting on the benches outside the ladies changing room.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Waiting for you. Ginny ran off with Dean so I thought I would wait for you," Harry answered. They shouldered their brooms and gym bag and headed across the pitch back to the castle.
"Harry…" Janieve considered telling Harry about what she had seen in the showers but thought the better of it.
"Yeah?" he asked mindlessly.
"I think we should walk faster, I'm famished," she lied. Harry would probably think she was a raving lunatic if she had told him about the Water Fairy. Experience from her old life taught her never to reveal too much of herself to other people, not even her friends, or she may find herself with her guard down, judged, betrayed, and hurt.
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"I want you to be in pairs and take turns to transfigure each other. You'll picture the animal that you want to transform your partner into in your mind and read the incantation I just taught you," called Professor McGonagall.
Harry had paired up with Ron, while Hermione with Janieve. Harry had his wand ready and pointed it at Ron, whose eyes were so wide they were almost popping out of their sockets.
"Anything but a ferret, Harry," he said. Harry just grinned at him evilly.
The class murmured the incantation incoherently.
Ron turned into a parrot with red feathers.
"Merlin's…" said the parrot.
Harry looked at Janieve who had just been turned into a beautiful black mare by Hermione. The horse was tuttering and Hermione was stroking her long black hair admiringly.
"Well done, Miss Granger!" said Professor McGonagall and Hermione beamed at her generous remark.
After Harry and Hermione had un-transfigured Ron and Janieve, Hermione was transformed into a furry brown cat that looks uncannily like Crookshanks by Janieve while Harry was transformed into a dog with human body by Ron. The cat looked at the half-transformed Harry distastefully and hissed at Ron intermittently.
Harry reached up his hands and felt his face. He nearly recoiled at the length of his jaw and his sharp grazing teeth. It felt weird to have a hound's face sitting on his head.
After gales of laughter coming from the class which was mainly contributed by Janieve, Harry felt his head contracted and his own face replaced the dog.
"That was interesting, wasn't it? Human transfiguration," commented Hermione after their Transfiguration class. The four of them were heading towards the Great Hall for dinner.
"That's only for you," retorted Ron, "I bet you'll be the only one who'll pass this class."
"Well, Harry and Jan did a good job too, didn't they?" argued Hermione. Then she added nastily, "if there's anyone who'll fail, it'll be you."
Ron's ear turned pink. "Well, I don't recall Krum doing a good job either during the Triwizard Tournament," he snapped.
"Well, it's easy to transfigure someone into a dog than into a shark since dog and human are both mammals," reminded Hermione.
"I'm only sixteen, Hermione! He was eighteen!" Ron yelled angrily.
"Whatever, Ronald!" Hermione shot back, her temper flared.
But Ron did not look like he was about to let up. "Right, nothing I do is good enough compared to Krum. He's young but he's already an aspiring Quidditch star player whilst I'm just a nobody who can't even jinx anyone properly."
"In case you forgot, Ronald Weasley, you were the one who brought Viktor up in the first place," said Hermione angrily. Then she turned to Harry and Janieve who were watching their exchange tentatively and said, "Guys, I don't really feel so hungry. I think I'm going to skip dinner." She strode away quickly before they had any chance to reply.
"What's her problem?" Ron muttered and Harry shrugged though he knew exactly what her problem was. He was not about to tell Ron that though. Ron should figure that out by himself.
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Harry woke up in the morning, feeling an adrenaline rush pumping through his veins. It had been two weeks since the quarrel between Hermione and Ron. They had made up after a week of cold war. Ron was the one who made the first move because he need some help with his Potions essay.
Ron and Harry were dressed in their Quidditch robes, their broomsticks slung over their shoulder as they walked down the Gryffindor Tower to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"I wonder what anti-Gryffindor cheer the Slytherins have come up with this year," thought Harry aloud. He immediately regretted his slip of the tongue upon seeing Ron's horrified face.
"You don't think they are going to do the 'Weasley is our King' cheer, do you?" Ron asked apprehensively.
"No of course not," Harry assured quickly, "Last year you've already shown them who's King in the match against Ravenclaw. I doubt they would be stupid enough to use the same song."
Ron looked visibly more relieved from hearing Harry's words. They reached the boisterous Great Hall and joined Dean, Seamus, Ginny, Katie, Neville, Hermione and Janieve at the Gryffindor table.
"Hey guys! Ready for the big day?" asked a keyed up Janieve. Harry took a seat beside her when Ron replied her.
"I wished."
"What's wrong Ron?" asked a concerned Hermione.
"Other than the fact that I'm not going to save a thing and be made a sport of by the Slytherins? Nothing's wrong, really." He said dejectedly.
Janieve gave Harry a weird look but Harry shrugged it off. He suddenly felt nervous by the way Ron was acting. He knew better than anyone else that when Ron feels unconfident about something, he would most likely screw up his performance. He suddenly saw the need to persuade Ron to believe that he is an excellent keeper before the Quidditch match start in about an hours' time.
"Ron," Harry said impatiently, not quite the tone he had wanted to project, but he could not help himself, "you will do great. Now is your time to show me and Hermione what we missed out on last year when you kicked Ravenclaw's ass."
"I guess," said Ron, still not quite convinced. But he decided to keep his mouth shut when he saw Harry's tense expression.
"You know, I think we'd better get going to do some warm ups," said Dean when Harry put his last piece of waffle into his mouth. The Quidditch team murmured their agreement as they got up and bid Hermione and Neville goodbye.
They walked out onto the pitch, the air chilly from the late October wind. In fact, the wind was so strong that Harry could actually hear it howling. They found an unoccupied spot on the field, dropped their broomstick, and began their warming up. Harry felt like he had waited for this moment his entire lifetime. After being banned from Quidditch by Umbridge last year, he had been itching to be back soaring in sky in front of a thousand spectators again. He had to admit that some types of attention are still enjoyable.
A whistle blew and the Gryffindor players stopped their warming-up and walked single filed up to Madam Hooch, their referee. Harry saw the Slytherins already waiting for them near Madam Hooch. No crown batches, Harry thought and he breathe a sigh of relief. But it was short-lived for he reminded himself that the Slytherins always managed to come up with something mean year after year.
"Captains, shake hands!" ordered Madam Hooch. Both Harry and Draco Malfoy glared at each other as they reached for each others' hands. They did not shake it but just held it there, their eyes transfixed on each other with an unspoken dare. It is time, Harry thought.
The whistle blew and all fourteen players kicked off the ground and took their places in the sky. Another whistle blew and the game began. Harry hovered around in his position and scout for any signs of the golden snitch. When he did not catch sight of anything golden, he circled the field. He spied on Malfoy but he too appeared not to know where the snitch was.
He got bored looking for the absent snitch and started watching the match below while looking for the snitch unenthusiastically. He saw that Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be on a deadly mission to knock all the Gryffindor players off their brooms. They were hitting bludgers everywhere and once, it narrowly missed Ginny's face. A slytherin chaser that Harry recognised by face had the quaffle in his hand and was heading straight for Ron. He dived towards the left but immediately throw to Marcus Mith, a fifth year from Slytherin from behind who caught it and headed straight for the right hoop. However, Ron was too quick for their trick and dived right just in time to hit the quaffle away with his fingertips. Harry let out a quiet cheer for Ron.
Harry wondered what the score was now. He was too far on top to hear the new commentator taking after Lee Jordan. Ginny was now in possession of the quaffle and she passed it to Janieve who was flying straight for the goal post. She was moving so quickly that all Harry could make out of her was her black hair flowing behind her. And that was when he spotted the snitch. It was just a few feet from where Janieve was seconds ago and it was staying quite still there.
He sneaked a glance at Malfoy and saw that he too spotted the snitch. However, Harry who was almost vertically above the snitch was nearer and hence, had an advantage. He wasted no time and immediately made a dive for the snitch.
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"And Weasley has the Quaffle now. She is such a promising chaser I tell you. She is zooming in for the goalpost now… and she scores! This is her twelve out of the twenty-one goals Gryffindor had earned tonight. This is definitely one of the best batches of players for Gryffindor…And Barlow has the Quaffle now. Nice fake but a great save by Ron Weasley!" Janieve heard the commentator saying. The commentator sounded biased to her but it suited her just fine.
Ginny passed her the quaffle and she headed straight for the goal post but dropped it purposefully a few feet below before turning a hundred eighty degree around. Her legs were circled around her broom while her hands reaching for the quaffle again and she threw it towards the left ring. This caught the Slytherin keeper by surprise and he was too stunned to block it.
Janieve let out a triumphant cheer still dangling upside down. She tried to swerve her body over but suddenly all she felt was a sharp pain on the back of her head. There was a loud cheer erupting from the stands while she plunged fifty feet down onto the pitch.
