Chapter 7 - The Dark Lady
The first thing Regina wanted to do before she went down to breakfast was visit Ronnie in the hospital wing. She quickly woke up Tutra, packed her book bag, and the two of made their way downstairs.
"Veronica!" Madam Benbow sang in her high-pitched voice, leading Regina and Tutra to a bed covered by a curtain. "You have some visitors!" Next to the curtain was a little table, with a few flowers on it, but Regina couldn't imagine who they were from.
"Who aw dey?" A muffled voice came from behind the curtain.
"Umm… your cousins Regina and Tutra!" Madam Benbow replied.
"Nooo! Do not wet dem in!" The voice said again.
Apparently Madam Benbow didn't hear this, because she opened up the curtain for Regina and Tutra to see Ronnie. At first she was unrecognizable, and she looked like a balloon. A large inflated ball with little limbs and a head sticking out. She looked, in a word, ridiculous…
But her scowl was still there, although it was enlarged. "Wut aw you doin hewe!?" She yelled with her swollen lips. "Dis is aw yo fawt!" She weakly attempted to point at Regina.
Regina couldn't hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing, a hand on Ronnie's bedside table to stop herself from falling over. This was pretty much her revenge for years of tormenting, even though this was accidental. Eventually Tutra started laughing too. Madam Benbow noticed this and shoved them out of the Hospital Wing. It made sense; that curtain was there for a reason, but if only Madam Benbow knew the things Ronnie had done to her…
Today's breakfast was multiple platters of Belgian Waffles. As Regina poured syrup over her waffles, a flock of owls burst in from the top windows. She had imagined the morning mail moment many times, but she never quite imagined having feathers fall on her head and into her breakfast. She carefully plucked them out, hoping to be ready when her mail came.
"Gina, where's Dewey?" Tutra asked, looking up at the crowd of owls, trying to find hers.
"Oh." Regina turned pink.
"What did you do?"
"I may have… very possibly… sent him to America?" Regina responded.
Tutra facepalmed. "Why would you do that?"
"That's where my pen pal lives…" Regina said, taking a bite of her waffles.
"Great. Now it'll take him a while to get back. Poor Dewey! How will he stop to rest in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean?" Tutra asked, very close to freaking out.
"Boats?" Regina answered unsurely, waiting for Tutra's response.
Tutra grabbed a book out of her bag, and lifted it high in the air, as if she was about to hit Regina over the head with it. Regina flinched, but Tutra stopped at the last second. "Just wanted to scare you. Now, if you ever do that to my owl again…"
Regina was saved as a jet-black owl swooped in and landed right in between her and Tutra, getting more small feathers in her breakfast. It was Eris, her family's owl. Eris bit Regina's finger because no treats were given to her, dropped a letter in her lap, and flew away to the Hufflepuff table to give a letter to Dorothy.
It took Regina a moment to realize that the envelope Eris had given her was bright red. She shakily tore open the tiniest bit off of the envelope. She had barely done this when the Howler opened itself and screamed: "REGINA HAILIE POTTER!" It was her mother's voice.
"YOUR FATHER AND I ARE SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!"
"I'm not disappointed, Amy! Gina, I'm so proud that you fixed the poti-" A second voice butted in." Her father's.
"Albus, don't encourage it! She disrupted the class, and do you know what the potion did to poor Veronica?"
"Ronnie's a demon and you know it, Amy."
The Howler was meant to scold her, but it turned out just to be her parents arguing, and Annie's voice constantly asking, "I want to say something to Gina!"
Regina was super embarrassed and so were all of her sisters. She saw one of Ellie's Slytherin friends ask her quietly, "That's your family, right?"
Finally, after one last scream, the howler tore itself into pieces.
"Thank goodness Ronnie's still in the hospital wing." Tutra said, patting Regina on the back, trying to comfort her. "She would have laughed about the howler but have been humongously offended that your dad thinks she's awful."
"What's first on our schedule today?" Regina asked.
"Umm… it looks like we've got flying class."
"I already know how to fly a broom…" Regina groaned. Regina had been practicing her flying since she was 4 years old. Besides, both of her grandparents on her dad's side were excellent Quidditch players. Harry was a great Seeker for Gryffindor, and Ginny had been a professional player for the Holyhead Harpies. Her father, Albus, on the other hand didn't like Quidditch. Regina supposed it skipped a generation.
"Same. This'll be boring." Tutra said. Tutra's mum, Rose, played Quidditch at Hogwarts when she was young.
"I wish that they would let first years play. After my Grandpa, you'd think they'd be more open to it," Regina thought aloud.
"Well, that's just not the way it is, I guess." Tutra had finished her food and was now picking up her bag to head to the Hogwarts grounds. Regina soon followed.
They stepped onto the grounds, where they saw a group of kids trying to lift their brooms off the ground with Madam Hofmann, the flying instructor.
"Wait, are we already late?" Tutra was very confused.
Regina looked a bit closer and saw Daniel in with the crowd, all the students wearing yellow ties with their robes.
"Hufflepuff?" Tutra snatched Regina's schedule out of her hands, and read it. She scowled. "You've read Friday's schedule!" She yelled at Regina.
"Oops."
They turned around to go in the opposite direction to History of Magic. Tutra looked as though she wanted to smack Regina on the head for this.
"So, what do you think our first history unit will be about?" Tutra asked as they walked around the castle, trying to find the right door.
"I dunno. Claire says that when she was a first year, that old ghost, Professor Binnes was still the teacher. I mean, it makes sense. He's a ghost, he can't die again, but Claire says that he finally quit, and that we have a new teacher this year. She has no idea what we'll be learning about with the new professor. They could have a completely different way of teaching things."
Finally, Tutra pushed open a large door, and they found a professor that looked like the least history teacher-like person in the world. She didn't look that much older than her cousin Comgall (who was 22), and her face was covered in makeup. She had a smile that was definitely phony, and a high pitched voice that made it sound like she was talking to a bunch of young primary schoolers. "Hello!" She squeaked.
"My name is Professor Meyers, and I will be your History of Magic Professor for your first year at Hogwarts!" Regina and Tutra nervously took their seats. "What are your names, dears?"
"Er- I'm Regina Potter."
"And I'm Tutra Gran-"
She was cut off as Professor Meyers seized Regina's wrist and squealed, "Ooh! A Potter! Excellent for our first unit on the Battle of Hogwarts!"
Regina thought it was rather strange to start off the year with a relatively recent event.
Henri, who had already arrived before Regina and Tutra along with a few other students, blurted out, "There's practically a Potter and Weasley in every year! What's so big about this?"
The Professor looked at him in disgust. "Malfoy. Do not speak when I am speaking." She turned to Regina. "So, miss…"
"Regina."
"Yes, of course. So, how much has your dear old grandad told you about the battle of Hogwarts?"
"Not much. All I know is that my Uncle Teddy's parents died, and so did my Great Uncle Fred." She said in a rather depressed voice.
"Well. How sad." responded Professor Meyers, not seeming sad at all.
Tutra raised her hand.
Regina awkwardly said,"Excuse me Professor Meyers, but my cousin Tutra's grandparents are Ron and Hermione," she pointed to Tutra with her hand raised, "and I think she might know a bit more about the battle than I do."
Professor Meyers ignored this. "Are you sure you don't know anything, Rena?"
"Regina." She corrected, but she did rather like the name Rena.
"Oh, my apologies." She answered blandly, and sent Regina back to her seat.
Henri snickered.
"SHUT UP, Mr. Malfoy!" Professor Meyers screeched. Her 'pleasant' face seemed a bit terrifying now. "Take after Draco, don't you?" She sneered. She whipped out her wand and vines started growing, binding Henri to his seat. "One more sound, and they grow thorns, hear me? Knife-sharp ones."
Tutra was shocked. She turned towards Regina and whispered, "She's not allowed to do that, is she?"
And then suddenly, a jet-black owl swooped through and broke the window, flying into the classroom. "Eris!" Regina exclaimed while the whole class screamed as glass flew everywhere, Henri among them.
It seemed that Eris had forgotten to give Regina a letter at breakfast, and had gone to extreme lengths to find her. She landed on Regina's desk and dropped a letter down.
Meanwhile, Professor Meyers was angry with Henri for screaming when Eris crashed through the window. She pulled out her wand and aimed it at the vines wrapping around him.
Without thinking, she picked up Eris and sent the owl flying in Professor Meyers's direction.
The next few minutes were filled with black feathers flying everywhere, and the Professor screaming, "Get this owl off of me!" as Henri wriggled free from the vines on his chair. The whole class of Ravenclaw's first years ran from the room.
She assumed the best thing to do would be to find another Professor and report it. Thankfully it wasn't super hard, because Andrea Rhodes, who was in the front of the group, crashed into Professor Lovegood.
"Hello, children. What are you all doing out of class? I do hope you aren't searching for Nargles. I had to learn the hard way that they didn't exist."
"Profesor Meyers threatened a student!" Tutra called from the middle of the crowd.
"We don't have a Professor Meyers here."
"The History of Magic Professor?" Andrea prompted.
"No, that would be our new Professor Lawren."
The students led the Deputy Headmistress back to their classroom, where Eris was flying off out of the window, and the so-called "Professor" Meyers was sitting on the floor looking thoroughly disheveled, feathers flying around her. She shot Regina a nasty smile and said, "The Dark Lady sends her regards," and passed out on the floor.
Some students were terrified, some (including Tutra) looked shaken and worried, and Professor Lovegood's face was filled with dread as she ran off to the Headmaster's office urgently.
But Henri seemed a lot friendlier from then on. He thanked Regina for saving him, and somehow managed to worm his way into her and Tutra's friend circle. It was nice.
