A/N: Ok, this is the last chapter before the beginning of the Yule Ball setup. I know Arilan has ben waiting forever to start it. Enjoy.
She had finally hit a wall and it was time to do something about it. Books and articles could only do so much when compared to hands-on experience or research. Tania lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She had her hands tucked behind her, trying to puzzle out one of the more interesting and complicated pieces of her project. If she could just figure this out, everything else would fall into place… or at least she hoped they would. Problems often kept Tania awake at night, her mind whirling with information and nonsense. Some of the things she thought about were utter lunacy, until two weeks or months later when it would suddenly make sense with some other bit of insanity.
Sitting up with a sigh, she pulled back the curtains of her four-poster and placed her bare feet on the rug below. She wasn't going to get anymore sleep tonight, at least until she settled some of these questions she had. Quietly making sure her Year-mates were still sleeping, Tania found a robe and walked over to the offending problem. Her trunk stood at the end of her bed and it was the source of her current dilemma. How? How did her trunk work? Grabbing her wand, she levitated the chest and began to walk down to Common Room.
A fire created shadows that danced on the stone walls. It brought some warmth to the otherwise cold room. Since it was the middle of the night, there was no reason to keep this room warm. Professor Snape knew his House well, though. Slytherins were often nocturnal in habit, so made sure they would be comfortable. Settling into an out of the way corner that was hidden from all entrances into Common Room, Tania opened her trunk and began to pull out everything in it. Books, school supplies, a few spare robes, and a letter from her mother were soon in a small pile next to her.
Tania found her wand again and began to probe the inside of the trunk. Something had to have the answers. Detections spells revealed nothing. Examination spells provided a little information, but none of it really useful. Growling at the offending object, Tania just stared at it, trying to WILL it to give up its secrets.
Suddenly the sound of laughter echoed in the room. Tania's heart dropped as the rest of her froze. Someone was coming to take her work! Someone was going to destroy it! Hurriedly looking around, the Slytherin girl spotted Alex Bellmonte having obviously just come down from the Dorms.
"Hi, Tania." The older girl began to walk closer. "Sorry about laughing. But the look on your face…I'm guessing a Project isn't going the way you've planned?" Project… That's right, Alex had her own Projects. Surely she'd understand better than most. Tania forced herself to relax. It's not like she could just attack her or something stupid like that.
"No. Uh…I mean you're right." She responded, her mind going back to the problem at hand and remembering how annoyed she was. That trunk! Why oh, why was this so hard for her to understand? Everything else was easy… usually. Alex dropped her bag on the closest couch and returned Tania's attention to her.
"Do you mind if I join you for a bit? I have some extra work I need to get done…out of sight."
"Of course." Tania could not politely turn her away, though she would have to be careful to make sure Alex saw nothing. Glancing at her notes to make sure they were still there, Tania resigned herself to company. She liked Alex, that was certain, but she didn't even like Hunter around when she was working.
"Never fear, my dear. I won't peek at your notes…though if you do need some help with whatever it is in your trunk that has you stumped feel free to ask." Tania looked up. She must have shown her emotions on her face again. She was surprised that Alex was able to pick up things so quickly about her. The other girl seemed to be able to see right past all her walls. Not that Tania was going to take help. She was a Slytherin.
"Thank you." she refused politely and turned back to her trunk. Alex seemed to accept that She pulled a book and some paper from her bag and settled on the couch without another word. Both girls worked in silence for a while. Tania was still having no luck dealing with her rebellious trunk.
"Oh, bloody blustering…" Tania realized that she was swearing out loud and trailed off, so as not to disturb Alex. It would be beyond rude. What was she going to do now? She had run out of ideas, but she wouldn't be able to sleep yet.
You could ask Alex.
No, that would mean that I would have to tell her what I'm doing.
Maybe not. Besides, you don't have any other ideas.
Tania coughed. "Umm…Miss Bellmonte…?"
Alex obligingly pulled her nose from her book.
"I-I…I…umm…if you have a moment…perhaps you could help me with something?" As she finished Tania blushed fiercely. This is stupid. I shouldn't have to ask for help. I'm a Slytherin and a Dethart.
"If I'm not interrupting…"
"Not at all, Tania." Alex changed her tone to sound older, "You're too young to know the value of interruption." Tania gave her a quiet snort, mostly of amusement."Anyway," Alex closed her book, slid off the couch, and grinned. "what're we working on?"
You can't know! It's mine. Tania barely kept herself from moving her notes out of Alex's reach. How could she expect Alex's help if she didn't tell her what Tania was working on? Was she supposed to divine it?
"Never fear," Alex assured her, "I give you my most solemn promise as a Bellmonte and Slytherin that anything related to or involved with your Project that is discussed will never go beyond us two. Furthermore I swear that I will personally torture anyone trying to steal or use your work without your permission. And besides, you don't have to tell me why you need the information you're asking about."
Her promise was exactly what Tania needed to hear and she relaxed again. "I want to know everything you know about Wizarding Space."
The other girl blinked. "Do you know how long it'll take to get through all of it?" she asked, then frowned a little. "We can do it that way, but, I'd hate to waste your time covering things you already know. If you could give me a tiny little hint as to what you're looking for…well, it'd all go much faster."
Tania scowled, trying to decide what to say. She had thought that Alex could give her a bunch of information that Tania could sort through later to get what she needed. Could she, would she, did she trust Alex that much? She had never shared her work with anyone, except Hunter, and he never saw much.
"Okay." And with that one word Tania realized she did trust Alex that much. How or why, she didn't know, but there it was. "What do you know about the formation of Wizarding Space?"
"Making it? Umm…well, supposedly the original owners of Never-Ending came across the perfect formula, which has remained a closely guarded secret ever since. But I find it unlikely as there are reports of things that could only have taken place thanks to Wizarding Space from long before the store existed."
"I do know that the amount of space per inch ratio in the Never-Ending inventory is vastly higher than most normal shops…which is what makes it so expensive. In fact…" Alex scrambled up over the couch and grabbed her bag. "Here, look at that. It's a birthday gift from my parents. A Never-Ending. I've fit most of the contents of my trunk in there before."
Tania did as asked and took the bag. She stuck her hand in it and felt the presence of Wizarding Space inside. It was clearly an Never-Ending. After a second she pulled it back out quite impressed with the work, but her mind had found the one piece of critical information in Alex's explanation. "What did you mean by 'space per inch ratio'?"
"Oh!" Alex looked over in surprise. "Well, you can't create something from nothing even with magic, especially not on this magnitude. What happens is they take existing space, such a as bag or a trunk and use magic to stretch and expand it. So, your trunk isn't any bigger but it can hold more per inch than it could originally."
Tania nodded slowly, understanding dawning over her face. "Which means it's not a separate area attached to the trunk to keep it in the physical but just the trunk itself!"
"Does that help at all?" Alex asked, though Tania's mind barely registered it. She was already adding this new knowledge to the other pieces she was working on. Yes, this might be exactly the missing puzzle piece. She stuck her head back in the trunk, inspecting it in a new light.
"Mm-hmm." She muttered, already neck deep inside trunk.
"If you like I'll clear out my bag and you can have it, either for research or to store your stuff while you work on your trunk." Alex offered, interrupting Tania's thoughts.
She pulled herself back out and stared at Alex. "You…? Oh, I couldn't. You need it to-"
"No, not really. I have other book bags, and I'll be deep in this particular text for weeks and won't need any of my other references. Here." Alex grabbed the thing off the floor and stared pulling things out of it. Tania watched as Alex pulled pile after pile of things out of the bag. It seemed to go on forever.
"Heh. You know maybe I'll clear it out and let you have it tomorrow."
"Alright."
"Good." The pile disappeared more rapidly than they'd shown up. "I'd hate to have to carry all that upstairs." Tania smiled. She could image the annoyance of that.
Looking from the empty table to the satchel Alex suddenly frowned. "What was I doing?"
"Your book?" Tania pointed helpfully.
"Oh yeah. Thanks."
But Tania was already lost to the world again and didn't respond. Maybe she could get some sleep tomorrow night. Right now, there was too much to do.
Tania walked with Christina and Faith down to lunch. They had just finished another stimulating session with Demon Moody, as the twins called him. The other girls had offered to run back to Common Room and drop off all the books if seats would be saved for them. The Third Year girls had decided that there were only three logical times for the first Challenge to occur: right after breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Otherwise it would either be a complete pain to make sure everyone got there or it would interrupt classes and all the Professors hated that.
Merging with the other streams of students in search of food and information, Faith picked up the conversation that had started earlier, pranking Blaise. It was there most talked about subject the past weeks.
"So, we've done the homework switching, the noises in the middle of the night and I think every girl knows the story of Blaise and the Featherfern. What should we do next?"
"Color his hair?" Christina suggested, pushing past a Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff. They glared at her, and she glared back, but better.
"How about lime green with silver streaks?" Tania replied, getting into the idea. Both girls grinned, giggled, and nodded vigorously.
"That's bloody brilliant, Tania."
"See I knew you were a genius!"
Tania shook her head, trying to tone them down. "It wasn't that great. It's just our House colors." A smile broke over her face, "Oh, look girls, It's Blaise." All three Slytherins gave Blaise identical innocent smiles and little waves. As they giggled, Tania caught a very confused look on his face as he watched them walk into the Great Hall. The youngest Dethart felt a twinge of guilt. Blaise had just been obeying the manners he had been taught to observe and here they were punishing him for it. Besides, he was sweet and nice and… The girls drew her attention away from Blaise and to the food in front of them.
She hated crowds. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them. People pushing and shoving and stepping on toes. She jabbed an elbow into the gut of a Hufflepuff and slammed her foot down on a Gryffindor's toes. Teach them to mess with her. She was a Slytherin.
"Have you no respect?" A male voice came from her right and for a brief moment she though maybe Blaise had come to her rescue. A solid, familiar presence came into her view.
"What a bunch of rabble!" Charlie's voice was more easily discernable. The first voice belonged to Mark. "Let's teach them a lesson." She looked over to see the second Slytherin pulling his wand out of a pocket.
"Now that would be obvious, Charlie," Miles appeared from somewhere. "Let's save it for when we have their undivided attention. It wouldn't do for them to miss the lesson due to too many distractions."
"Besides, we have another task," Now it was Eddie's turn to 'magically' show up. "We have escort duty, and duty to a pureblood lady take precedent over pranking some lowlifes." He sketched Tania a half-bow. She inclined her head back.
"Well, I certainly appreciate the assistance. Apparently our classmates are a herd of beasts when excited," she retorted with a drawl. All four boys broke out laughing.
"Now you know she's a Dethart. That was exactly what Hunter would have said… only better." Charlie assured her.
Tania arched an eyebrow at the comment. "Oh, really? There was doubt that we were blood related?" All the boys exchanged looks and shook their head quickly.
"Oh, no, no," Mark was quick to defend his friend, "We only meant that we can't see how Falon is related to you both. The latest poll is either switched at birth or dropped on his head from a flying broomstick."
"Yes, and both of those theories are very logical," Hunter joined his friends, with a quick look at his sister. She seemed to be alright Tania caught Blaise standing on the stairs, then he vanished back up the stands. She wondered what he was doing, when the Marauders pulled her attention back. Soon they were climbing the stairs themselves to settle in for the first challenge.