Chapter 10: Revenge is Best Served Magical

On Wednesday morning, I received a letter from Professor Flitwick:

Miss Morgan,

Due to unacceptable actions witnessed over the past weeks, I would like for you to meet with your prefect as well as myself for a private meeting on the Training Grounds later this evening at seven o'clock. Feel free to bring your friend, Miss Rowan Khanna, if she is able.

Professor Flitwick

Later that night, on the way to the meeting, Rowan was a bit nervous. "What do you think Professor Flitwick wants to talk to us about?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I hope it's about Merula," I said distastefully, like the mere mention of her name had literally left a bad taste in my mouth. "She's bullied us for too long. It must end."

"Hopefully, he has some ideas on how to stop her," Rowan said. "I've got a few myself, though I'm not sure if it would be right to share them with Professor Flitwick, or any teacher, really."

I shrugged. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Mum once told me Professor Flitwick was once a dueling champion. Maybe he could teach us some dueling tricks. I've personally been wanting to learn to duel for a long time, and Professor Mormon isn't exactly the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, to be honest."

Rowan nodded. "Agreed. With the way that she teaches—or rather, doesn't teach and just cringes at the mere mention of a ghost or dangerous creature—I'm sure she's gonna be thinking of quitting her post soon. I'm honestly surprised she hasn't done that already."

A few minutes later, we arrived at the Training Grounds, spotting Professor Flitwick standing in the middle of the mostly vacant field, as well as our prefect, Angelica Cole. Seeing the two of them together brought a flock of butterflies into my stomach.

"Ah, Miss Morgan, Miss Khanna," Flitwick greeted us, surprisingly warmly, upon our arrival. "Thank you for meeting us here."

"What's this about, Professor?" I asked nervously. "Did we do something wrong?"

"Quite the opposite, Miss Morgan," Flitwick said. "Miss Cole has been keeping a close eye on you these past weeks, and she's decided to take immediate action."

"I confess I have been watching you and Rowan," Angelica spoke up, "but not in the way that you think. I've been observing how Merula Snyde has been treating you, and I don't appreciate how she is treating my fellow Gryffindors. That is exactly why I have arranged this meeting, and I have asked Professor Flitwick to give us a few suggestions on how to handle the situation."

"You will not be learning any dueling spells until term resumes after Christmas," Flitwick explained, "but considering the current circumstances, I am giving your prefect permission to teach you a handful of dueling spells. Though it is against the rules to duel in and outside the castle, I believe it is necessary to teach you how to defend yourself."

"Did you find the dueling book I suggested that you find last week?" Angelica asked curiously.

As well as receive disturbing visions that may or may not hint at Hogwarts' doom? I added in my head. We sure did.

"Yes, we did," Rowan said in genuine excitement, obviously not mentioning my visions. "I read about three particular spells that I think would be quite useful against Merula. I told Jane all about them."

"Which spells?" Angelica asked.

"The Shield Charm, Protego, the Disarming Charm, Expelliarmus, and…" I paused, suddenly feeling uncertain whether to share the last spell with Flitwick present. He was a professor, after all, and I wasn't sure if these spells would be appropriate for this particular situation, or any situation, really, since dueling was technically forbidden on school property.

However, Rowan went ahead and shared the last spell anyway. "And the Tickling Charm, Rictusempra." She then paused, glancing at me uncertainly. "Although, that one might be a bit much…"

Angelica shook her head and admitted, "No, it's a good spell, just…painful. But I'll be happy to teach you all three of those spells tonight…" Glancing to Flitwick, she added, "With Professor Flitwick's permission, of course."

"Of course, Miss Cole," Flitwick said with a smile. "You can teach them as many spells as you feel is necessary." His smile then disappeared when he glanced at me and gave me a serious look. "But you should know, Miss Morgan… Unauthorized dueling is against the rules at Hogwarts. Only use these spells to defend yourself and nothing else. If caught using these spells for anything except self-defense, you will receive serious punishment and possible expulsion."

I didn't like the idea of expulsion, especially when I felt like I had only just gotten to Hogwarts, but at the same time I didn't want to upset the one professor who was starting to become my favorite one of the lot, so I nodded and said, "I understand, Professor." Although, even after saying those words, they sounded like a lie to my own ears, but I wasn't sure if Rowan or Angelica caught on to that fact.

Luckily, Flitwick didn't seem to, because he smiled, said, "Good. Goodnight to you all," and walked back inside the castle, leaving Rowan and I alone with our prefect.

"Okay," Rowan said eagerly. "Shall we get started then?"

"Shortly," Angelica nodded. "I want to talk first." She then turned to me and said seriously, "Jane, I know we haven't seen eye-to-eye lately, and I know you miss your brother, but it is very important that you stay out of trouble while you're at Hogwarts. I'm not trying to act like your mum; I just don't want you, nor your fellow Gryffindors, getting hurt. I am hard on you because I care for you, because I see great potential in you, and I don't want you wasting all of that over some imaginary vaults. You can do great things here, just as long as you follow the rules and stay out of trouble." She then paused. "Also…I would like us to be friends. I want to help you in any way that I can; it's why I became prefect. Will you allow me to help you, not as a prefect but as a friend?"

I sighed. After the poor first impression I received from Angelica when we first met, I wasn't willing to accept her help. When telling me to stay out of trouble at the start of the year, it was like she didn't care about my brother, no matter what condition he might've been in—no matter what condition he might still be in. Now, it seemed like she changed her mind to help me find him, not just because it was a prefect's job to help students in need but because she wanted to be my friend, and I suddenly found myself believing her and wanting to feel the same way about her.

"Of course," I nodded. "I know you're not my mum, and you don't want to be, but you want me to succeed, just like my mum had always wanted for me. You're like a big sister to me, Angelica, and to everyone else in our house." Of course, if she were my actual elder sister, she'd be encouraging me to stay out of trouble in the same manner. That was what Jacob always used to tell me before he went looking for trouble—that 'trouble' being the Cursed Vaults.

Angelica smiled and said, "Please, call me Angie." Those words immediately made me think back on the first words she told me when we first met: Only my friends call me Angie. It was nice to know she had finally decided to add me to her 'friends' list.

I suddenly heard a sniffle from Rowan, and I turned to her as she said while wiping her eyes with her robe sleeve, "Well done, you two; now you just made me cry. It's gonna be a struggle focusing on these spells with tears in my eyes."

"Speaking of which, we should get started right away while the night is still young," Angie said, taking out her wand. "We don't have long before curfew."

We spent several hours learning the spells Rowan had insisted on using against Merula, and when we were reaching the time that was almost curfew, Angie decided that Rowan and I had learned enough, and it was time to put them to the test.

"Alright," Angie said. "Now that you've learned the basics, let's begin your first duel. Who would like to go first?"

"Jane, you go!" Rowan said excitedly, which made me feel surprised that she didn't volunteer to go first, what with how eager she was to get started earlier in the night. "I want to watch you and imagine you dueling Merula instead of Angie."

"Okay, Row," I chuckled. "You're dueling after me though."

"Fine," she shrugged indifferently. "I just want you to go first so I can see what I'll be doing when it's my turn."

"You'll be dueling in the exact same way as Jane, Rowan," Angie admitted. "You just might cast the spells in a slightly different order."

Regardless, I was still nervous. "I don't want to hurt you, Angelica—I mean, Angie," I said, correcting myself at the last second.

"You won't hurt me…" Angie assured me, "at least not too much. I want to see your posture, and maybe we can continue this another time, maybe with Professor Flitwick as a witness."

"Yeah, he did give us permission," Rowan pointed out. "Maybe he could score us and give extra credit to whoever duels the best."

Angie laughed. "That's highly doubtful, but a brilliant idea. Let's get started. Ready your wand, Jane."

We spent a few minutes casting Rictusempra, Protego, and Expelliarmus at each other, and toward the end, I felt pretty confident that I would easily defeat Merula in a duel.

I was especially confident when Angie exclaimed after a fit of giggles after I had hit her with Rictusempra, "Blimey! That…was…brilliant, Jane! You're a natural-born dueler!"

"Thanks," I smiled, feeling proud of myself. "I gave it my all."

"As you should," Angie said, genuinely impressed. "Always give it your all. You'll have a better chance of defeating your opponent that way. It also will save your life, but that's a matter that should be saved for another time, perhaps when you're older. It's getting late; we should head back to the Common Room very soon."

When Angie said the bit about how giving a duel my all would help save my life, I instantly thought of my brother, particularly the Death Eater version of my brother I had seen in my dream the night before Halloween. Maybe the dream could've ended differently if I had known at least one of the new spells I had learned just now. Could I have somehow changed Jacob back to his old self, or would he have stayed the same murderous Death Eater that he was? Would I have been able to deflect his Killing Curse?

"Thank you, Angie," I suddenly felt the need to say. "Dueling has been something that I've wanted to learn for a long time since arriving to Hogwarts, and you've helped me a great deal tonight. These spells should be perfect to use against Merula."

"I don't disagree as a friend," Angie admitted. She then went all serious again and said, "But as your prefect, I would advise you to only use these spells to defend yourself. Don't go using these spells on Merula like she's a punching bag. Like Flitwick said, if you're caught dueling on school grounds, you will likely be expelled right away. Seeing as we just became friends, I don't want to see you expelled anytime soon. In fact, I think you'd make a good prefect."

"Really?" I said, evidently shocked, seeing as that was literally the nicest thing Angie had ever said to me. "Thanks! That'd be brilliant!" Even Mum had said a few times that she could see me as a great prefect, because I was caring and willing to help people in need.

"Maybe we can be prefects together, Jane," Rowan added, seemingly feeling left out of the conversation. "I have a dream of becoming a prefect myself."

Angie chuckled. "Yes, you'd make a good prefect too, Rowan. Come on, we should get inside before Filch locks us out here."

"Has Filch actually done that before?" I asked, suddenly feeling nervous, knowing very well how much the caretaker, Argus Filch, hated children. "Locking students out of the castle?"

Angie laughed as if that was a joke. "No, but I always warn people of that so they don't think to sneak out after curfew. It's dangerous to be out at night. You never know who or what could be lurking on school grounds. It's not very common that magical creatures come out of the Forbidden Forest to take a stroll through the castle grounds, but I've heard it can happen from time to time, which is why you shouldn't stay out after dark."

Rowan nodded thoughtfully. "Good to know. There are loads of magical creatures that live in the Forest. Centaurs, Unicorns, Werewolves…" She then continued rambling about werewolves as we entered the castle, suggesting how there could be a student in Hogwarts that could secretly be a werewolf, which sounded ludicrous to me. A werewolf in Hogwarts? I thought incredulously. Come off it!

I then thought about Jacob, and whether he may have been bitten by a werewolf after he disappeared. The idea of having a werewolf for a brother sounded terrifying to me, but even if that actually happened, I would still love him and help him anyway. I hoped that wherever he was, he was safe, just as long as Voldemort hasn't gotten to him first.

#####

The Saturday before end-of-term exams, I was on my way to the Black Lake to do my usual leisurely reading in the sun when I came across an unusual commotion in the Courtyard. There were students gathered in a large circle, faces filled with genuine curiosity.

Suddenly, Rowan ran up to me from the crowd with a panicked look on her face and sweat beading her forehead. "Jane!" she cried. "Thank God you're here!"

"Row, what's going on?" I demanded nervously.

"Merula is threatening Ben Copper," she explained. "He keeps trying to walk away, but she won't let him."

I sighed. Of course she wasn't. "I'm so tired of this. This ends today!"

I immediately shoved my book in Rowan's hands and stormed toward the crowd, pushing my way in to the center where Merula the Menace was threatening a quivering Ben Copper.

"You're an embarrassment to everyone in our year!" she was yelling at him.

"Just leave me alone!" Ben begged, sounding desperate and terrified.

"Disgusting Mudbloods like you shouldn't even be allowed in Hogwarts," Merula continued, ignoring Ben's pleas completely. "Leave the magic to real witches and wizards!" I couldn't believe she was still using that filthy word toward him, even since Day One.

I'd had it! I ran in-between the two, shielding Ben from any spells Merula might cast at him. "Hey!" I screamed at her, wand in hand. "If you want to fight someone, fight me!"

Upon being interrupted, Merula sighed, rolling her violet eyes, "You never learn, do you, Morgan? Why don't you be more like your mad brother and go missing?"

"You're the person everyone wishes would just go away!" I snapped back in annoyance. "Leave Ben alone. He's done nothing to you."

Merula snickered. "Oh, on the contrary, he has done something to me. He merely came within my line of vision while I was just minding my own business, and Mudbloods aren't allowed anywhere within my line of vision. Therefore, he should pay for it."

I was in total disbelief at what Merula was saying, how she was treating this poor, innocent boy—a boy who just wanted to fit into the Wizarding Community, just like the rest of us. "He doesn't have to pay you anything! No one has to pay you anything! Just leave him be! I don't want to have to fight you." I was prepared to defend myself, as well as Ben, and I wasn't afraid to do so.

Merula laughed, then taunted, "Oh, yeah? Why don't you try it, Morgan? You'll lose again like the loser you are!" But I didn't move one inch. I just stood, glaring daggers at her. When Merula noticed this, she smirked and said, "You can't, can you? Because you're too scared; scared you'll end up expelled just like your freak brother."

I shook my head seriously. "No. I choose not to fight because I don't want to end up a psychotic egomaniac like you."

My words seemed to set her off the wrong way (good riddance, I thought), because she yelled angrily, "Ugh, that's it!" and cast the one spell I figured she'd cast. "Flipendo!"

However, I was prepared for her strike, and I blocked it immediately with one of my new spells. "Protego!" Several students behind me exclaimed in awe at the invisible shield that appeared and prevented Merula's spell from hitting me.

Merula suddenly gasped, just as shocked. "What? How did you—?"

She clearly didn't expect me to have learned any new spells, except for the ones we'd learned in class. I snickered and explained, "I did as you suggested. I learned a few spells; ones that'll stop your tyranny once and for all." I heard a few students cheer at my words.

But Merula was having none of it. "No!" she screamed. "You can never stop me! I'm unstoppable!" She then cast Flipendo again, but I deflected her spell again.

"Is that the only spell you know?" I scoffed. "Clearly you need to learn a few more spells." I then cast another of my new spells. "Rictusempra!"

Once the spell hit her in the chest, Merula instantly doubled over, laughing uncontrollably, and I could see tears in her eyes, like she was in serious pain, but I honestly wasn't fazed, because she deserved it, and everybody else around me knew it. Once she composed herself, Merula cast Flipendo again (no surprise), and I deflected it yet again. At this point, I had sensed that Merula was starting to lose focus, what with how much in awe she was at how many more spells I knew since the last time she challenged me to a duel.

That was when I took the opportunity to cast the last new spell. "Expelliarmus!" Then, Merula's wand came flying out of her hand, like an invisible force yanked it out of her grip. That was when I knew I had won and Merula had lost.

"What?" she exclaimed in total shock, staring at her fallen wand on the floor. "How'd you learn that spell already? No fair!"

"That was amazing, Jane!" Rowan cheered, and many other students cheered as well.

"You can't be better than me!" Merula screamed in an attempt to bring back more fame to herself. "No one can be better than me!" Clearly it wasn't working out for her, because the other students continued to praise me instead.

"It's over, Merula," I said in a tone that suggested that there was no changing the facts, especially with so many witnesses that had seen the proof, "you've been beat. Now apologize to Ben Copper and promise to stop bullying everyone." I said that last bit in a way that I was willing to fight again if I had to.

"I'll never apologize to you losers and Mudbloods!" Merula screamed almost exactly like a whiny five-year-old.

It wasn't until she had started speaking that I noticed that the other students were glancing toward the end of the courtyard. I turned to see what they were staring at, and that was when my heart stopped cold. Professors Flitwick and Snape were walking toward the crowd and stood right behind Merula, who just kept ranting, totally oblivious to their presence.

"I'm Merula Snyde!" Merula continued her outrage. "Fourth generation Slytherin! The greatest witch at Hogwarts! I do what I want when I want! I run this school! I—"

"Ahem," Snape cleared his throat loudly in an attempt to get Merula's attention, which worked, because Merula gasped and stood back.

"P-Professor Snape!" she stuttered, at a complete loss for words.

"I suspect this is your fault, Morgan," Snape said to me in a 'not surprised' tone. "Are you aware of Hogwarts's policy on unauthorized dueling?"

Knowing I couldn't lie my way out of this, knowing I'd been caught, I just nodded and said, "Yes, Professor."

Of course, Professor Flitwick was the most disappointed in me, since he specifically told me not to duel ever, and I had clearly disobeyed him. "Did you cast the first spell in this duel, Miss Morgan?" he asked in a sad but serious tone.

I knew I had to be honest, or I would get in even more trouble. "No," I said. "Merula hit me with Flipendo first." I then saw Merula glare daggers at me from the corner of my eye, but I knew even she couldn't lie her way out of this either.

Surprisingly, Flitwick seemed to defend me in front of Snape. "Miss Snyde cast the first spell, Severus," he said. "Miss Morgan was only defending herself."

To be honest, it was true; everybody saw it. Merula was threatening Ben while I was defending him, and she took it a step too far and struck me with a spell. If I hadn't stepped in when I did, it would've been Ben who would've gotten struck, and for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

But Snape didn't seem to believe him. "And I wonder where she learned the Disarming Charm, Filius." He said Flitwick's name in a tone that suggested that he was the one who taught me the spell, even though it was actually my prefect that taught me, but he gave her permission.

"Miss Morgan is one of my most skillful first-year students, Severus," Flitwick said, seemingly still in my defense. "I would not be surprised if she had learned that spell all by herself." I knew that was a lie. He gave Angie permission to teach me that spell, not him, but he didn't want Snape to know about it. Of course not, or Angie would be taking the hit too, but she had no involvement in what happened just now between me and Merula.

However, Snape didn't seem to care one way or another. "Regardless, it is against the rules to duel on school grounds," He said. "Clean yourself up and see me in the West Towers after dinner to face the consequences of your actions, Morgan. You as well, Miss Snyde." A part of me was still annoyed that he only used the prefixes before a surname with Slytherins and not anyone else who wasn't, but I didn't want to argue with him about it, since I was already in enough trouble.

I glanced hopefully at Flitwick, hoping he'd continue defending me in front of Snape and talk me out of trouble, but he just shook his head in disappointment and walked away without a word, which made me feel shameful, knowing I deserved it. In that moment, I felt like I had broken a promise between us—that I had broken a promise to my favorite teacher in Hogwarts—and he was disappointed that I had, and it was going to take a long time for him to forgive me. I saw Merula smirk at me one last time before entering the castle with the rest of the students. Even though she had been caught, Merula seemed to know that Snape wouldn't punish her as much as he was going to punish me, just because she was in Slytherin; he almost never punished his Slytherin students, even though at times they should deserve the same punishments as the rest of us who were not in Slytherin.

"Thanks for stepping in to save me, Jane," Ben said appreciatively after everyone else had dispersed. "I don't know what Merula would've done to me if you hadn't."

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter anymore, Ben. What matters is that Merula's tyranny is finally over. Hopefully, from now on, she'll think twice before she threatens you again." I was pretty sure she didn't want to be beaten in a duel again either.

"Speaking of which, what do you think Snape will do to you for dueling Merula," Rowan asked nervously, "even though Merula should deserve the worst punishment since she started the duel?"

"I don't know," I said, suddenly feeling a shudder run down my spine at the thought, "but I sure hope expulsion isn't on the table." With my luck, that very well might end up being the case.