Word Count: 2,561
Former Word Count: 2,300
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What Might Be Called a Misadventure
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[September 1, 1994: The Atrium, Altair Institute of Magic]
"So!" Sei called cheerily as he joined the table, "let's talk about the Hogwarts Students!"
Reid sighed almost mournfully as he rested his head in his hands. "Could you have possibly chosen a worse topic of conversation?" he asked tiredly.
"They're free entertainment!" Sei rebutted, "Did you hear what happened to Malfoy?"
There were collective snickers from the other students at the table. Of those sitting there, only Sei and Reagan had actually been present, and they had both taken the liberty to recount the obnoxious pureblood's attack by a non-magical hawk in vivid detail to anyone who would listen, much to their disbelief.
"Yes, and it's hardly funny, Sei." Reid replied, "Did you consider for a moment that these are the students joining our ranks? Since when has Altair been a charity case for people who don't even want to be here! For idiot children that don't even meet the gods-damned qualifications!"
"I'd have to agree with Reid," Marcus said. "I'm not…" he sighed, looking for the right words to say; "I'm less opposed to them as a lot of us here are, but still, out of twelve students how many have done anything moderately resembling the skill level of Altair? One? Two if you count Lovegood's half-corporeal patronus? That's pathetic. We applauded them because they're fifteen-year-olds with minimal training, and they surpassed our very low expectations. That doesn't change the fact that they are fifteen-year-olds with minimal training!"
"Oh no, I didn't mean that as a good thing," Sei backtracked. "I agree completely. They're useless. They shouldn't be here. I agree with all of that. Issue is, they are here, and Divine Mandate has decreed that we can't off them or start as actively cruel. It would be so easy to harass them until they leave, but the Headmasters don't want that. So let's find some enjoyment where we can — in their suffering!"
"'Divine Mandate.'" Reid quoted miserably, "I was surprised at how stringent Admin was about that. Yeah, they're leaving a lot of things fair game, but they usually let us harass even other Altair students out of staying if they're shit matches."
"To be fair, it's not like they're expected to last even without us harassing them," Reagan commented. "And Admin has guaranteed us at least a relatively normal year, other than the poor souls who get assigned to mentor them. They actually said they'd make an effort to get more seminars this winter and summer for us to enjoy."
"Bribing us with seminars, then?" Marcus joked. "Yeah that'll work."
"I can't help but think Admin is drastically underestimating how obnoxious they're going to be," Reid said. "If you recall Sei's wonderful account from not-twenty-minutes ago," he started sarcastically, "they think us in-human monsters are psychotic, uncontrollable, beasts. They are completely unaware of the natures of magical beings other than human witches and wizards. More than that, the perspectives they do have are disgusting."
"Is it fair to group them all into that?" Reagan asked.
"Yes." Reid said automatically before thinking about it. "Yes, and no, I guess. Most of them have said things already that are actively hostile or belittling. Malfoy is a great example, and so is the red-head kid's group, and one of the ones in the 'Saviors' group. I'm hardly about to say all of it's intentional, a lot of it is just ignorant. But why are we obligated to correct that ignorance?"
"How else does someone learn?" Reagan asked, "I'm human, obviously, and up until the year or so before I came to Altair I really only heard the stereotypes of other magical beings. That was just the nature of growing up in majority-human areas. There aren't typically large vampire enclaves, and even so they keep to themselves. That goes even more for fae, daemons, and werewolves. They don't —and don't put words in my mouth and say I think they should— they don't allow humans access or awareness of what they are or what they're doing.
"Unless you grow up in a community with a big mix of different beings —something that exists in what, less than ten places?— humans are going to be completely unaware of the faux-pas they commit or the stereotypes they parrot," she explained. "Do I think they should have known about magical beings before they came to Altair? Yes, of course, that's what magical education is for, but we all know Hogwarts education is shit so why use that as an attack?"
"So we should be patient and teach them all they need to know?" a fae sitting with them asked mockingly.
"No, that wasn't my point," Reagan said. "Look, Admin says that they're giving them a class on different being's cultures. I think it's somewhat fair to be moderately patient as they have to sit through that. If they're assholes to magical beings? Be assholes back, I'm not saying not to. Just, I don't know, answer them if they have genuine questions? How else are they going to know anything?"
"They could have tried to do some research before coming to a known majority non-human magical beings school."
"With what resources? What books do you think they have access to? Have you read the Divine Eye lately? Or the Setting Sun?" Reagan asked incredulously. "Both have been doing reports on education disparities in different countries, not to mention the difficulties of overcoming that misinformation gap. Britain is somehow the worst overall. You really think they're even going to be aware of anything happening outside of Magical Britain? It's not just a Hogwarts problem, it's their whole fucking society!"
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[September 2, 1994: About 90 kilometers from the Altair Institute of Magic]
Susan flicked her wand again, repeating the motion she'd been making every five minutes the past hour. 3:47 AM read the glowing letters, and Susan barely resisted throwing herself backwards onto the ground before remembering that she was the current sentry and was supposed to actually pay attention to their surroundings.
Their very boring surroundings. All it was was cold, and dark, the only defense from which was Azalea's grim-wolf patronus that was somehow still hovering protectively around the edges of the clearing. Hannah had taken the first watch for four hours, eight to midnight, before waking Susan to take her place. Susan had only started to tire an hour ago, but she'd get to wake Azalea to replace her soon.
Susan had decided a long time ago that it was very boring to have to sit and look around for things in the dark. The only interesting thing she'd seen was this wicked owl that glowed the same brilliant silver as the half-moon that had risen over the mountains. The moon, at least, lit up the surrounding areas, lighting the trees with eerie white light. Eerie white light that illuminated the outline of a person stalking through the edges of the woods. They had not been there a moment ago.
"Tintinabula," Susan cast under her breath, pointing her wand at the tent. The charm tinkled like an invisible bell, barely loud enough for Susan to hear from outside. It was the spell her Aunt had always used to wake her up, and Susan found it one of the least miserable ways to wake up in the early morning.
Susan kept her eyes trained on the person's shadowy outline as she listened to the sounds of her friends waking. Azalea pulled the tent flap back ever so slightly to look over at Susan, who was doing her best to act like she hadn't just woken them up, before focusing on Susan's hands. She was walking the fingers of one hand up the forearm of the other. It looked mostly like a nervous gesture, but it was one of the many signals the girls had worked out to sneak around Hogwarts.
This one, walking the fingers of one hand up the forearm of the other, meant that someone was coming. They had signals for things like "prat coming" and "cute boy" and even some actually useful ones, like "be careful" or "be quiet."
Azalea, now suddenly aware, pulled out her wand to summon her invisibility cloak from her bag, even as she quickly repacked the things she'd taken out to sleep, grabbing some of the other girls' things as well.
"Do either of you know the Disillusionment spell?" Azalea whispered to the two girls still inside the tent. She got two negatives in answer, and handed them her cloak as she disillusioned herself. "Sue says someone's coming. We're just going to leave, instead of getting in a fight we might not be able to win."
"What about the tent?" Hannah asked, concerned. "Or footsteps? Susan said her aunt often found invisible people by looking for footsteps."
"We'll have to leave the tent," Azalea looked at Luna, forgetting for a moment that she was disillusioned "Sorry, Lu, but our lives are more important than a tent."
"It's okay, I have another!" the cheerful girl said, slinging her bag over her shoulders, pulling a second cork necklace around her neck and putting in cork earrings.
"Lu, can jewelry wait?" Hannah hissed.
"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "Nargles can see through invisibility spells, and cork repels nargles, so it'll keep me safe!"
"Right," Hannah said with a nod. "Come here, Luna."
Hannah pulled Luna under the invisibility cloak, and both of them vanished easily. The tent looked completely empty except for Susan's bag, which Azalea took the moment to disillusion as well.
"What about the footsteps, Azzie?" Hannah reminded the other girl.
"I got it," Azalea said. "I'm basically vanishing them, I'll explain later. Let's go."
Azalea looked out the tent door, feeling Hannah's hand rest on her back to make sure they knew where each other were. She studied Susan's position and the exact look of the land on the way to the trail headed out of the clearing, before casting an illusion. Effectively, it would make anyone looking at the area think nothing had changed.
(Illusion magic was one of the first kinds of magic that Azalea was really good at. It just came easily to her, and with all of the comments about her not getting her father's Transfiguration talents, or her mother's Charms skills, she'd clung to something that felt like her own. Issue was, Illusion Magic wasn't taught in Britain, so Azalea had to learn entirely from the barely-legible books in Sirius' family library.)
She stepped out of the tent, feeling Hannah and Luna stumble after her, tapping her finger against Susan before disillusioning her, silently telling her to go towards the trail. The four girls quietly made their way down the trail, staying as quiet and invisible as they could.
(The only illusions that had really taught her to do were the ones that made it look like nothing had changed. Thus, making it look like there were no footsteps, or that Susan wasn't moving. It's what she'd used briefly to make it look like Buckbeak had still been there before the ministry officials realized. One thing the books had highlighted, though, was that it was not the best method. For one, it didn't replicate movement.)
Azalea was absolutely certain they were being followed. She'd made an effort to conceal their footprints, both with illusions and careful gusts of air to blow over the dust, but there was only one trail out of the clearing, and Azalea was not nearly confident enough to go off the trail.
"Come out, come out, whereeeee-ver you are~!" came the call from a ways down the trail. Azalea couldn't help but think it was a terrible method if the guy actually wanted to catch them, as he'd immediately given away that he was nearby.
The four girls moved to the sides of the trail, hiding both under their invisibility and in the shadows, making sure they each knew where the others were. Susan and Azalea, both under disillusionment spells, were close together, while Luna and Hannah were on the other side.
"Shut up, John," came the quiet response as the first man came into view. Four others followed him, all wearing dark cloaks with scarves wrapped around their mouths and heads, and all with wands drawn. "We're getting paid good money to do this, so just shut up and do your job."
Azalea waited, off-hand touching Susan's arm, for the men to get closer. There were only five of them, which meant that, if they managed to catch them by surprise, there was a chance of beating them… unless they were Altair students. It did sound like they'd been hired externally, though, so the chance remained.
"They should be just over here," the lead wizard said, moving closer. Azalea rested three splayed fingers on Susan's arm, then two. "Right—" one.
"Reducto!" Azalea cast the spell, demolishing the ground at 'John's' feet, sending dirt flying into the air and flinging the man backwards. "Concussus!" Susan shouted a moment after, the spell lighting the air with brilliant light akin to a flashbang, disorienting the closest attackers.
Two of them managed to send cutting hexes their way, both easily deflected by Susan's quick shield. "Confundus!" Azalea cast the first spell to come to mind, the confounding hex working well to disorient the attackers further. She repeated the spell quickly.
Across the trail, Hannah was flinging knockback jinxes without abandon, one in every five landing solidly and flinging the attackers into the air. "Tarantallegra," Luna cast dreamily, the Dancing Feet jinx taking total control of two of them, forcing them to spin and trip over themselves. Azalea followed it up with Levicorpus, pulling one high into the air even as Susan hit the same man with the tickling hex.
Azalea and Susan stunned and bound the attackers as fast as they could, grinning at each other. The disillusionment spell had fallen near the beginning of the fight, but the best part? Those had all been first-year spells that Luna and Hannah cast.
"That was anticlimactic," Azalea said breathlessly. "At least I'm very awake now, though!"
"I'm not," Susan grumbled, even as she picked up the wizards' wands and threw them into the forest as hard as she could.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Azalea consoled her friend, throwing an arm over her shoulder and summoning her invisibility cloak back from the ground to shove it back into her bag. "That was good. Well done, everyone! Now: where's the compass pointing? Do any of you know how far we've got left?"
"I'm guessing 80 kilometers or so," Hannah said, pulling the compass from her pocket and pointing roughly up the trail. "Compass is pointing that way. What's the time?"
"Five-ish," Susan answered, checking with Tempus.
"That's what, twenty, thirty hours? Very approximately?" Azalea asked.
"Very approximately," Hannah agreed.
"Alright, we've got around 14 hours of hiking left, right?" Azalea asked, continuing at Hannah's half-nod. "We should be fine. Remember though, loves;"
"The quicker the better!" Susan and Hannah chorused teasingly, Azalea having repeated the line more than enough times on their walk so far. "Honestly, Azalea," Susan started, "we know, we'll be fine. We just have to keep going."
Azalea's grin was brilliant as she skipped forward to catch up with Luna, linking their arms together. "Let's get going then, girls!"
…
a/n: Sorry that this is a week late. Last week was final project week, this week the last week of school. On the bright side, I'm graduating on Tuesday! Anyways, sorry for missing the schedule, the next update should be in two weeks and on time. And now that it's summer, I'll have more time to write and get ahead! :)
Thank you to the guest reviewer who asked if I was alright, I really appreciate your concern. I'm fine, just busy!