Bagsy was lost, she was sure of it. Or was she? Maybe she wasn't so sure, perhaps this corridor led where she thought it did. Or maybe the one she just passed was the right way? Had that wall been there before? Bagsy was certain that suit of armour had moved.
It was her fourth day at Hogwarts and the layout was still a mystery to her. Hogwarts had stairs of all sizes and widths, made from stone, wood, or strange substances Bagsy had yet to identify. Its doors ranged from so large and heavy Bagsy couldn't hope to open them, to so small and creaky Bagsy couldn't fit through. Some doors had no handles, some had so many it was unclear which ones to turn in which order, and some spat you back out with an unpleasant gagging noise. Some portraits were helpful and told Bagsy where to go, but others delighted in misdirection, and it was impossible to tell which was which. Even the rugs, that would abruptly wrap around your feet or trip you up, were causing her considerable trouble.
Bagsy fished the map all first years had been given out of her satchel and unfolded it. Her small arms could barely stretch it out to its full size, so she laid it on the floor for inspection. Looking at all the corridors, classrooms and passageways made her feel dizzy and more confused than before, and the compass in the bottom right corner kept spinning, so she folded it up and put it away, defeated.
'Are you alright?' A low voice came from behind Bagsy. Snapping up to her feet, Bagsy turned to look at who it was, but her robe tangled around her legs and she flopped back onto the floor. In front of her was the head professor, Fitzsimmons, who tilted their head and blinked those magnified dark eyes at her.
Bagsy got back to her feet and brushed dust off her robe, stammering over her words. 'Yes, miss, just lost.' Bagsy paused. 'Is it miss?' she asked in a small voice.
Fitzsimmons smiled thinly. 'No.'
'Oh! I'm so sorry, sir, I meant no offense.'
Fitzsimmons smile turned in to a frown. 'No, not sir, either,' they spoke quietly.
Bagsy looked blankly up at them. 'Then what is it?' she asked in confusion.
'Professor will suffice.'
Bagsy thought for a second, then nodded. 'Okay, sorry professor, it won't happen again.'
'Worry not.' Fitzsimmons waved their hand dismissively. 'Now, where is it you're off to?'
Bagsy scrambled through her bag for her timetable – in all her searching she'd forgotten where she was headed. 'Uhhh…. Charms,' she said, tracing her timetable with her finger. 'Yes. Double charms.'
'Follow me.' Fitzsimmons walked past Bagsy, their brown and white robes were tied with a cream coloured sash, and the ends of the material moved across the stone floor with soft noises, dust falling off them in clouds. Bagsy got the distinct impression she was walking alongside a human sized moth. Fitzsimmons was much faster than they looked, and Bagsy's shoes tapped across the floor as she hurried after them.
'How are you finding Hogwarts?' Fitzsimmons asked as they turned a corner.
Bagsy hesitated. 'Wonderful. I love it,' she lied.
Fitzsimmons smiled slowly. 'Good. I'd hate for any of my students to feel lonely.' Fitzsimmons suddenly stopped as another student turned the corner and appeared in front of them. 'Seems you aren't the only one who's lost. Miss Glint,' they greeted the student, who Bagsy was starting to recognise. Mezrielda Glint's posture, which was already tall and stiff, tightened even more. Fitzsimmons raised an eyebrow. 'You must have become lost on your way to charms as well.'
Mezrielda's eyes narrowed as she stared down Fitzsimmons, then became slits when they laid on Bagsy, glinting maleficently, giving her the same feeling she felt whenever she was in a dark room, or going to a new location she wasn't familiar with. 'Yes,' Mezrielda said at last.
'Wonderful. Why don't you escort Miss Beetlehorn there? I trust you won't take any detours.' It wasn't a suggestion as the next second Fitzsimmons was walking away from them.
Bagsy ducked her head low and walked over to Mezrielda. 'Sorry,' she said, out of habit. She wasn't sure what she was sorry for. For becoming a Hufflepuff? Maybe.
'Don't apologise,' Mezrielda snapped, then set off at a fast pace down the corridor.
'Sorry-' Bagsy cut herself off. Mezrielda shot her a glare. 'Wait, if you're lost as well, how are we going to find the Charms classroom?'
Mezrielda snorted. 'I wasn't lost. I memorized the castle's layout days ago.'
'But the professor didn't know that,' Bagsy pointed out. Mezrielda arched an eyebrow and shot Bagsy an are you dumb? look. Bagsy stared back silently.
'They certainly did. Didn't you notice the way they were speaking?'
'Oh,' Bagsy murmured as they began climbing some steps. 'Not really.'
'I'm just surprised by how naïve and trusting they are. They have no way of verifying whether we are actually reporting directly to the lesson.'
Bagsy frowned. 'We are going straight there though,' she pointed out, starting to recognise the dented, ancient walls and staircase that she reckoned led to the Charms classroom.
That seemed to make Mezrielda grumpy and she huffed, looking away from Bagsy. 'Nearly there,' she muttered.
'Hold on. If you already knew where Charms was, how come you weren't already there?' Bagsy asked. Mezrielda didn't answer, only pushed open one of an old, double set of wooden doors and entered into what Bagsy assumed was the Charms classroom.
A small, dark skinned, skeletal woman comprised more of gold robes than person was pacing up and down the class with her back turned to them.
Mezrielda grabbed Bagsy's hand and hauled her over to the right side of the class and shoved her onto one of the benches, following swiftly. As if she'd been there all along, Mezrielda sat her head tiredly on her hand and faked a bored gaze, whilst Bagsy's eyes were wide in shock. Some students sniggered, but most seemed not to have noticed.
The room was long and rectangular, with benches on either side that got higher the further back they went. Bagsy could see why the room needed to be so large, as every first-year student, throughout all the houses, was present. She saw the Hufflepuff boy with the Mohawk and she saw Arice Allthorn, who she remembered had been sorted into Gryffindor. There was also a girl to her right who had blue Ravenclaw robes, and Mezrielda was, of course, in Slytherin. Bagsy gave the Ravenclaw girl to her right a second look. Like the Hufflepuff boy she also had an unusual hairstyle; she was bald.
Finally, Bagsy turned her attention to the professor, who was still pacing, her back turned to the entrance, her shrill voice filling the space. 'If you are prepared to put the work in, I can help you through your years here at Hogwarts. I didn't become the Deputy Head for no reason.' As the professor spoke, Mezrielda let out a sharp breath of dread. Bagsy followed where Mezrielda was staring and saw the door they'd entered through was still open. With a muttering under her breath, and a wand wave below the desk, Mezrielda shot a charm at the door. 'To achieve the quality skills this school is famous for-' The professor cut off as she turned, her eyes landing on the door as it closed with a creak and a final click.
The professor produced a long, bright red wand with a white tip. Holding it lightly in her stick-thin hands she flicked it with speed and precision Bagsy's eyes couldn't make sense of. 'Maior priori incantato,' her high-pitched voice called out. Before anything could happen, Mezrielda fearfully thrust her wand into Bagsy's hand, looking panicked. Confused, Bagsy looked at the new wand in her hand, and then the wide-eyed Mezrielda. Then, blue puffs of smoke that formed into different shapes burst out from every wand in the room. It all happened so quickly Bagsy felt entirely mesmerized.
'What do we have here…?' the professor said triumphantly, her eyes landing on a door-shaped smoke pattern lifting out of Mezrielda's wand – in Bagsy's hand. She felt Mezrielda stiffen next to her.
Bagsy looked down at the wand in her hand in amazement. Was she doing that? Was she making blue smoke come out the end? Her heart lifted in hope but when she realised the class was silent, and all staring at her, her heart dropped.
'Care to explain why you were casting a locomotor charm, Miss…?' the Professor asked. Bagsy opened and shut her mouth. A few students giggled. The woman walked closer, the click-clack of her incredibly high heels echoing throughout the class. She peered at the smoke, stirring her wand around it. 'Very impressive indeed. What is your name?' she asked, peering closely at Bagsy.
Bagsy couldn't look her in the eyes. Everyone in the class was staring at her, judging her, turning their noses up at her. She realised now that the blue smoke was a result of the professor's magic and felt foolish for thinking she could have summoned it.
The professor tilted her head down, taking an even closer look at Bagsy. 'Don't be shy. What's your name?'
Bagsy gulped. 'Bagsy,' she said in a shy voice, feeling very small indeed.
'Pardon?'
Bagsy squirmed in her seat, her nerves stealing her voice from her. The silence stretched painfully on, the eyes of the other students fixed on her. She hated it.
'She said her name is Bagsy,' Mezrielda said for her, folding her arms and flicking her sleek black hair out of her face with a confident swish. Bagsy nodded in agreement, internally grateful that she hadn't been forced to try and speak herself again. 'And it's not her wa-' she began to say, but the professor cut her off, holding her hand sharply up for silence. Mezrielda bit her tongue, mouth quirking down in annoyance.
'Bagsyllia Beetlehorn, correct?' the professor checked, something dark twisting in her words. Bagsy gave a muted nod. 'What a pleasure. Another Beetlehorn graces my classroom.' The professor didn't smile and her cold expression made Bagsy's stomach turn. 'Would you like to show the class how you cast such an impressive charm, Miss Beetlehorn?' Bagsy didn't think she'd ever felt so terrified – she couldn't move her shaking arms. 'Before I die of boredom, perhaps.'
Bagsy nodded. She subtly slid her own wand beneath her thigh, then swapped Mezrielda's wand to her right hand. Taking in deep breaths, she sat up straight, her heart thudding loudly in her ears. She raised her shuddering arm and pointed the wand tip at the door. She gave it a flick, praying for something, anything, to happen, but nothing did.
The professor tutted. 'Until you've got the charm down, I'd recommend saving it for after I've finished teaching.' Bagsy nodded miserably, her hands falling to her lap. The professor held out her hand expectantly and Bagsy looked at it in confusion. 'Use that brain of yours, Miss Beetlehorn. I presume you have one. We don't have all day.' The professor's tone was becoming more impatient by the second. Bagsy hoped she'd assumed correctly and placed Mezrielda's wand in the professor's hand, who's fingers closed tightly around it.
The professor strutted down to her desk at the end of the classroom. 'Seeing as Miss Beetlehorn has demonstrated either a first year's insatiable need to act before learning the theory behind a spell, or a pathological decision to hide her talent for Merlin knows why, it seems clear we need to spend the lesson focusing on the basics of magic, not practicing its casting.' The professor placed Mezrielda's wand on her desk, then pointed her own at a blackboard behind the wooden table and began flicking it this way and that, writing her name on the display. 'Wands away.'
A collective groan was released throughout the class. The Ravenclaw to Bagsy's right shot a glare at Bagsy and someone muttered 'nice going, idiot,' behind her.
Bagsy's eyes were so filled with tears she couldn't read the professor's name on the board. She wished she had a spell to rid her of her crying and her slowly blocking nose, but her sleeves would have to do. Bagsy paid no attention during the lesson and when it ended she grabbed her things, shoved past a quiet Mezrielda, and ran out of the room, her tears breaking free.
'Your wand!' she heard the professor snap after her, before another voice piped up.
'I'll take it to her.' It was Mezrielda, the last person Bagsy wanted to talk to right now, besides the Charms professor herself.
Bagsy's shoes thudded down on the stone floor of Hogwarts castle as she ran down one corridor, then the next. A portrait of a man in a massive sun hat yelled after her indignantly, having spilled his iced tea on his Hawaiian shirt at her sudden passing.
Avoiding toe tripping rugs, Bagsy found a set of spiral stairs and hurried down them. Down and down she went, wiping her face with her sleeves and sniffing furiously. She knew she was a mess, which was why she didn't want anyone finding her. It was also why it took her so long to notice something wasn't right.
She stopped suddenly, hand on the wall to balance her as, with a sinking feeling, she wondered how long she'd been walking down these stairs for, and how odd it was that she hadn't seen an exit since she'd first set foot in them. She slowly turned to look back to way she'd come, and began walking upwards, her mouth drying.
She climbed, and climbed, and climbed, and couldn't find the place she'd entered. The firelit torches on the walls seems to mock her as they flickered and she swore they were laughing, but no matter how long she ascended, there was nothing but spiral staircase before her.
'Oh, no…' she breathed, when the situation she'd landed herself in truly hit her. After what felt like hours of walking, she sat down on a step, head in her hands, and cried some more. Now her theatrics over the classroom incident seemed silly compared to her current predicament. She was sure things couldn't get any worse. Somehow, she was trapped in a spiral staircase.
Then, the sound of slow footsteps echoed around her, growing closer.
Bagsy's cries caught in her throat, and she got to her feet as silently as she could, trying to calm her breathing and resisting the urge to sniff. The footsteps grew closer, and a shadow fell upon the wall in front of her. The laughing torches were suddenly quiet, and Bagsy's heart was in her throat as she stood frozen to the spot.
When a foot appeared on a step in her view, Bagsy ran up the stairs as fast as she could, stumbling and whimpering as she went.
'Who's there?' A voice, young, sounded from below. Bagsy halted, her chest hammering. They sounded the same age as her. 'I'm Tod Alden, I'm just another student,' the voice called. 'I'm assuming you're also a student, too, of course.'
Bagsy stood silently. The footsteps were getting closer again but Bagsy felt so tired she didn't bother running when a foot appeared once more. The foot was followed by a leg, then a hip, then a shoulder, and finally the face of a light skinned boy.
He smiled crookedly at her with a comforting confidence. 'Don't you look a state,' he laughed, coming to the step below her. Bagsy recognised him – he had been sorted into Slytherin, though she could tell that from his green robes. He tilted his head, his brown eyes even with hers despite being the step below. 'What're you doing here?'
'I got lost,' Bagsy said lamely, sniffing again and wiping her eyes that must be redder than turnips.
Tod squinted at her. 'Lost. Are you sure?'
Bagsy's face scrunched up. 'Y-yes!' she exclaimed, clasping her hands together tightly and averting her eyes. 'Why else would I be here?'
Inspecting her sceptically for a few moments, Tod's expression faded back to his friendly, crooked smile. He laughed again, and Bagsy felt herself joining in, the tension leaving her. 'Great way to start life at Hogwarts, getting lost, isn't it?' he said, walking past her.
She nodded, following him. 'Um… Only… do you know how to get out?' Bagsy asked, feeling safer by the minute.
'I sure do, follow me.' He walked on ahead of Bagsy, chuckling to himself every now and then. Bagsy knew she looked pathetic and had somehow lost her way on a spiral staircase, but Tod's laughter felt cruel all the same. 'I'm not judging,' Tod said after a minute, as if reading her mind. 'I just can't help but find it a little funny.' Bagsy nodded. That was fair enough. She was a rather pitiful thing.
Natural light was spilling onto the steps ahead of them, and the way Bagsy had entered came into sight. Bagsy was grateful for the assuring pat on the back Tod gave her, only adding to her relief.
'I don't think we've been gone long, Bagsyllia,' Tod explained. 'I believe the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs have History of Magic now. Shall we?' Tod started walking at a leisurely pace, one Bagsy didn't struggle to keep up with. Tod seemed nice enough, Bagsy thought, he had saved her from the endless stairs, and he was very well spoken. She certainly didn't mind walking alongside him and listening to him talk about… whatever it is he was talking about, whilst she processed what had happened to her in the past hour.
'-of course he's boring, he's been alive… well, not alive, but he's been undead for who knows how long. Though, apparently, he was rather dry when alive, too.'
Bagsy snapped out of her thoughts. 'Undead!' she squeaked in alarm.
Tod blinked. 'Why, of course. Professor Binns is a ghost. It isn't fitting to call him alive, per se. It's hard to even name the man sentient, the way my brother speaks of him…' Tod trailed off. Bagsy was silent – she wasn't sure she wanted to be taught by a ghost.
When they arrived at the class room and entered they seemed to have been right on schedule – Tod hadn't been lying, those stairs really had messed with her sense of time. Tod offered Bagsy the seat next to him, at the back of the class. Bagsy, realising she might have found the one person in the school who didn't dislike her, took the offer eagerly. There was a hush as Bagsy walked up the steps to the top seats. She was certain every set of eyes followed her, and whispers echoed around the room.
'Why did she rush out like that?'
'Such a cry baby.'
'Don't show off if you suck at magic, that's what I say.'
Bagsy tried to ignore it, but her pulse was already rising.
Tod rolled his eyes as they reached their seats. 'Ignore them, if they think what happened in Charms was anyone but Professor Starrett's fault they're less intelligent than a snail,' he joked, smiling a crooked smile, his dark hair falling in his eyes.
Bagsy's eyes scanned the other students nervously. 'Professor Starrett?'
'That's the one,' Tod confirmed. 'Weirdly, she's more infamous outside Hogwarts than in.'
Bagsy frowned at Tod, her nosiness piqued. 'What do you mean?'
'It's rumoured she's one of the most powerful spell-casters of our age. We're talking stronger than Moro Loget, the Minister for Magic.' Tod pulled a face. 'Then again, Loget is as strong as… as an empty puppet,' he decided, looking more amused with his choice of words than Bagsy thought made sense. 'Magnus, that's my brother, he said Starrett pulls something like that every year – likes to set the tone. Though, I must admit,' Tod leant back in his seat and examined Bagsy, 'you didn't make things much better for yourself running out like that. I don't think anyone's had such a dramatic reaction in years at this school.' Bagsy sunk into her seat. 'But not to worry, I don't mind needless antics – I'm the sort of person who can look past such… mistakes. I'm trying to say I'm a friend, Bagsy,' he finished. Bagsy nodded, feeling both worthless and grateful at the same time.
'Thanks, Tod,' she smiled, then her face paled at the sight of the ghost professor entering through the blackboard.
Tod held back a laugh. 'You won't find him scary once he starts teaching, the boring old sod.'
And Tod was right – almost as soon as Professor Binns began to speak Bagsy's eyes demanded to be shut. Tod kept poking her to keep her awake, smirking all the while.
Bagsy was very much awake when Mezrielda Glint slowly pushed the door open and snuck her way in, trying to avoid Binns' attention. Mezrielda scanned the classroom, spotted Bagsy, and began heading towards her and Bagsy's stomach froze at the thought of Mezrielda sitting next to her, wondering what cruel trick she'd play on her this time, but fortunately Professor Binns chose that moment to look up.
'Miss Bint, please take the nearest seat, thank you,' he drawled out. Mezrielda Glint looked over her shoulder, aghast at Binns' poor attempt at her name, then huffily sat down in a seat near the front of the class.
Bagsy didn't feel like sleeping for the rest of the lesson, and once it was over spoke a swift goodbye to Tod before hurrying for the exit. Once she was out in the corridor she quickened her pace, her robes flying out behind her, as she rushed towards where she thought the Hufflepuff common room was.
'Bagsy!' Mezrielda's voice called after her. Bagsy didn't stop, quickening her pace instead.
No one followed her.
