Chapter 3: Settling In

A/N: Lot of schoolwork but I finally posted this. I don't think my writing on these chapters is great, but part of the reason for writing this fanfiction (I've been very slowly writing my own stories for a couple of years) is to just write out without constantly second guessing how it sound and looks. My plan for the story was rather vague starting out, but I've got a good general idea of the overlying plot now and I would enjoy carrying it out. This fanfic borrows ideas/concepts from other fanfictions, so far taking the Interdict of Merlin from HPMOR (will take more ideas from this universe) and taking inspiration from "hexem" in Alexandra Quick.

Myles woke to a soft intentional cough, and blearily opened his eyes to see Ms. Lenore smiling slightly at him.

"Shower when you're up, there's no hurry." She said, walking off to begin preparing the custom order potions.

He rose blinking, realizing that he had overslept and killed the pretense that he was sleeping at his home. The hot water in the shower was refreshing, he hadn't taken a shower in over three days and being clean felt good. Myles was less thrilled about putting on his robes, which smelled after three days of being constantly worn and three days before that of daytime wear. Nevertheless, he put them on and went to see if Ms. Lenore could use help. She handed him a note and a check and told him to go to Malkin's Robes, saying he needed to look presentable to work the desk.

Malkin's was not as bright or colorful as many of the other places on Diagon Alley but it's darker tones and organized appearance gave it a more serious and respectable tones. He was not surprised to see a pair of children his age standing inside. They were dressed in some of the finest robes he'd seen and stood in a rather imperious fashion, with their heads up high and looking around the shop with vague disinterest and entitlement. He wondered if they were twins, the boy's hair was white while the girl's was dark brown but they stood like they were a pair and looked to be the same age.

Myles approached the deck and gave his note and check to the clerk, who told him to wait and that "We'll be with you shortly." The twins wrinkled their noses at him as he passed, though the way his robes smelled he could hardly blame them.

"Are you getting Hogwarts robes?" the boy asked, in a superior but not unkind manner.

Myles nodded, certain that claiming he wasn't going to Hogwarts would raise more questions than it answered. "You as well?" he replied, a little surprised the boy was talking to him even if only out of boredom.

The boy nodded back and held his hand out to shake. "Ambrose Malfoy." He pronounced the Malfoy with particular pride and looked at Myles expectantly as he said it.

"Myles." he returned.

"This is my twin sister Ambrosia, we'll be attending Hogwarts next year." Ambrose said, clearly perturbed at his complete nonreaction and short introduction. Ambrosia nodded to him in greeting and then Ambrose and Ambrosia were called to the fitting rooms.

Myles didn't think much about his encounter with the Malfoy twins, except to wonder if children were the same outside of the Orphanage. He got fitted for a pair of robes, not as fancy as the Malfoy's but certainly nicer than the old robes he had been wearing and returned to Beth's, feeling a bit guilty that Ms. Lenore was now feeding, clothing, and housing him and he was of so little help in return.

The bell rang as he entered and Ms. Lenore approached him as he made his way to the back. She smiled wide, wider than he had seen smile before and crouched down in front of him.

"You're a very handsome boy you know, all cleaned up and properly dressed." Myles blushed, looking down and Ms. Lenore's feet. It seemed She fussed with his hair, arranging it into neat curls with her hands and a light buzz of magic on her fingertips. Myles almost brushed her hands away at first, but the genuine smile on her face stopped him and a part of him realized how much he had enjoyed the attention afterwards.

He began the short list of chores he could do while Ms. Lenore saw to clients, taking a particularly long time with a patient who had somehow managed to cast a charm that produced bubbles inside herself, posing a critical threat to her lungs and brain.

When Ms. Lenore went on an "Urgent" house call (a meter above the fireplace eater house calls request from "At Convenience" to "Emergency"), minded the desk and, having only a brief encounter with one customer, returned to reading the Introductory healing book he had begun last night. Myles was still reading it, wand out and practicing the wand motions for healing spell intended for splintered bones when Ms. Lenore returned. He quickly put away his wand and moved the book aside, unsure if Ms. Lenore wanted him studying while minding the desk and aware he hadn't even asked permission to read the book.

She noticed him putting the book and wand away and smiled while he mumbled apologies. "Nonesense, a healer's assistant should learn to heal. Let me see what you've read so far."

Myles showed Ms. Lenore how much he had read and she seemed impressed, if a little skeptical. "Well," she said, flipping to one of the simplest spells in the book which healed small cuts. "Let's see if you can cast some of these spells."

Myles's eyes widened with surprise and excitement and Ms. Lenore went to fetch a healing practice prop, a construct in the shape of an arm that imitated skin, bones, and muscles for the purpose of practicing healing. He hadn't never practiced real spells before, with matching incantation and wand motions and was excited to both use his new wand and learn magic.

"Okay, now recite the incantation to me without using your wand." She instructed.

"Nits" he pronounced.

"Very good, but shorten the s just a smidge. Try again."

"Nits" he tried again.

"Excellent, now show the wand movements without the incantation." Myles performed the small downward facing crescent motion followed by the slide to center required for the spell. Ms. Lenore looked at his wand interestedly, but didn't mention it's odd appearance.

"Perfect," Ms. Lenore said, drawing a knife and nicking the arm. "Now let's try combining the two."

Myles pointed his wand at the cut and executed the spell. It sewed back together in the blink of an eye, leaving him ecstatic in his success at casting his first real spell.

"Well done Myles," Ms. Lenore said. "Few wizards or witches your age can learn spells on their first try. Let's do some more."

Myles practiced more spells from the book with Ms. Lenore tutoring him on the motions and incantations. He performed almost every spell on his first try, after Ms. Lenore checked his wand motions and pronunciations. She was surprised when he managed the Bone-Setting and Bone-Mending Spells, asking if he had experience with healing magic before. Their tutoring session was interrupted when the the entryway bell rang, signaling a customer entering the shop.

"That was extremely impressive Myles." Ms. Lenore said earnestly. "We'll continue later. Would you put the practice arm in the back by the Restricting Bandages and clean up the cauldron and counter for me?"

Myles thought about the different feel of casting magic with real spells and a functional wand. Livian and him had discovered they could cast magic non accidentally and with greater effect when they intentionally cut themselves, though oftentimes nothing happened at all. Casting blood magic had felt like guiding a river he couldn't see or hear and that was filled with a liquid far slippier than water.

Magic with the wand he had made, and without real incantations or wand motions, had failed more often than not. When it did work it felt like the river was being roughly thrown into the wand and haphazardly traveling through it.

Myles could barely feel the magic casting the spells detailed in the healing book with his new wand. The river was neatly guided into the wand, and channeled flawlessly through, its flow so subtle it was barely indiscernible. It felt odd, after struggling with magic for so long, to perform it so easily, as if the spell was doing the magic for him and he was only a spectator.

Ms. Lenore was occupied treating clients until lunch time, when a late middle-aged woman arrived. She was carrying, or rather levitating, a large dish of shepherd's pie in front of her and held a friendly smile on her face that covered for the dark black scar that ran down her cheek.

"How are you Jay?" she asked, setting the dish down on the desk.

"Splendid, Myra." Ms. Lenore replied, smiling back at the older woman. "Is Lyla still well?"

"She's never been better, you're a miracle worker. Joseph and I can't thank you enough for what you did. If you ever need anything from us, just ask and we'll be there."

"I was just doing my job." Ms. Lenore said dismissively. "This is my assistant Myles, Myles this is Mrs. Laughlin. She brought those sandwiches yesterday and her daughter Lyla is your age."

"The sandwiches were amazing." Myles said enthusiastically to Mrs. Laughlin.

"I hope you'll like my pie has much." She laughed, seeing the look he was giving the hot dish on the desk. Ms. Lenore invited Mrs. Laughlin to eat with them but she politely refused and Myles and Ms. Lenore ate, enjoying the shepherd's pie that was every bit as good as sandwiches and more.

The rest of the day passed much the same as the day before, with the exception that Ms. Lenore and Myles did not go out for ice cream. Myles did minor work around the shop and minded the desk when needed, and Ms. Lenore taught him a Heating Charm he could use on the leftover pie.

This formed into a routine in the next few days. He learned potions basics so he could fetch ingredients and help prepare them, scourgify and other household spells, and continued reading and practicing healing from the textbook he had begun reading (which was much slower going as it became much more difficult). Myles was fascinated watching Ms. Lenore treat patients, who had all sorts of magical and physical ailments: from giant glowing green blisters covering their body and a scaly tongue to the wizards flu. She worked wonders, transforming their bodies back to normalcy in mere moments. It motivated him to improve at and understand the intricacies of healing magic.

He got his first chance to attempt a healing spell for real one afternoon when a young girl walked into Beth's. She was in a state of total disorder: her hair wild and tied carelessly back, her robes dity, her hands scraped red, one ear was twice as big as the other and looped over itself, and a rash of red ran down her face on the same side as the overly large ear. She held a large color morphing cat in her arms, which were shaking from the weight of it. The girl was looking down at the rainbow of fluffy with a combination of worry and devotion.

"Ms. Lenore!" she exclaimed. "Scufy took a fall and now he won't walk right."

"Well, set her down then." Ms. Lenore gestured to the desk and looked at the girl with a mixture of amusement and fondness. "You know your mother doesn't approve of you playing hexem with the local boys Lyla."

"I won though!" Lyla said with a fierce stubborn pride.

"And is that how Scufy became hurt and your face lost its sense of proportions?" Ms. Lenore asked severely, thought Myles could see she was hiding a grin.

Lyla now looked suitably abashed. "It wasn't Scufy's fault though ma'm. Please heal him, something's wrong with his leg and he can't walk. I won't get him involved in hexem again." Myles noticed that she did not include herself in her promise.

Ms. Lenore cast a diagnostic spell on the Scufy's blood matted leg and then called to Myles. "This is perfect for you, he has a neatly fractured tibia and an easily manageable cut on the side of his leg. Lyla, you're going to need to hold him down while Myles heals him."

The girl nodded and looked at him with absolute confidence, which greatly heightened the nerves building in his stomach at the prospect of healing a living creature for the first time. Nevertheless, Myles approached the large cat (now gray with the ends of it's hair flickering amber) and drew his wand.

"Let's heal the bone first." Ms. Lenore instructed. "Let me hear you incante and see the motions before casting."

"Meithis" Myles nervously but firmly pronounced.

"Very good, now the motions." Myles demonstrated the wand motions. "Perfect, now together on Scuffy's leg."

Myles took a deep breath, and then another, before pointing his wand at Scuffy's leg clearly stating the incantation and performing the tight swirl and flick of his wand that the bone mending charm required. He was alarmed at the cat's resulting screech but relieved at Ms. Lenore's proud smile. "Very well done, now treat the cut."

"Nits." Myles cast, much more confident in the simpler spell.

'I couldn't have done better myself." Ms. Lenore declared, cleaning the blood out of the cat's fur with a wave of her wand, and rising from her chair. "Now come here dear, I can't let you walk around with your face in such a mess."

Ms. Lenore's wand waved three times, and Lyla's ear shrunk back to normal size, her skin returned to its normal complexion, the scrapes on her hands disappeared, and, in the midst of these changes, her hair and robes arranged themselves in an orderly fashion. The process looked discomforting for Lyla, but she bore it without flinching, looking as if this happened often.

"Thank you ma'm, Scuffy and I won't forget it." she said, caressing her cat's fur and whispering soft reasurrences into its ear. Scuffy gave Myles the evil eye, apparently deciding to blame him for the pain of the healing spells but not the actual healing.

"Myles and I were about to go out for ice cream if you'd like to join us Lyla." Ms. Lenore said, catching Myles unawares and lighting up Lyla's eyes.

"Ice cream!" she exclaimed, before remembering something disappointing. "I don't have any money though."

"It'll my treat." Ms. Lenore informed the girl. "Just give us a moment to clean up."

Lyla beamed up happily at Ms. Lenore and the four of them, including Scufy (who was still giving Myles mistrustful looks), left the shop a few minutes later and headed to Florean's. Mr. Florean was absent from the shop, and they ordered ice cream cones of varying flavors. Myles tried out Typhoon, a light blue cream with brightly colored fish shaped sprinkled swimming through it, while Lyla ordered Snapping Strawberry, despite the clerk's warning that some found the "snap" to be unpleasant on their tongues, and Ms. Lenore had Witch's Ice, a rather plain appearing white ice cream.

They found a table outside, having decided to enjoy the fair weather

An old witch hailed Ms. Lenore as they found a table outside, and, in greeting, was pulled into a conversation, leaving Myles and Lyla sitting across from each other. Scuffy situated himself on Lyla's lap, his gaze shifting back and forth from Myles to the ice cream cone in his owner's hand, his color changing from the dark black and red tones of his suspicious watchfulness, to softer pink and yellow hues as he eyed the ice cream cone.

"What's hexem?" Myles asked Lyla, wondering about her oversized ear and large rash before coming into Beth's earlier. The girl gave him a look that managed to be disgruntled, worrying, accusing, and indignant all at once.

"Hexem," Lyla declared, straightening up in her chair and tilting her head imperiously. "Is war. A trial of valor and skill, in which only the last standing proves victorious." Scufy, either agreeing with which on the importance of hexem or simply mimicking its owner's attitude, reared his head and flared it's coat purple and white. Lyla shifting in her seat, however, had brought the ice cream cone dangerously close to Scuffy's mouth and he, with his coat flaring red, licked the snapping strawberry confection. Lyla devolved into giggles as the multicolored cat, unprepared for the "snap" of the treat, pawed at his face while his coat became a light show that would have shamed a rainbow. Myles joined in on the laughter, drawn by the ridiculousness of the scene before him.

"But what do you actually do in it?" Myles asked once the Scufy's tongue had recovered (he was now giving the black and red suspicious gaze to Lyla's ice cream as well as to Myles).

"You find your enemies," Lyla said seriously, pausing to lick her ice cream. "And then you hex them. Every kid with a wand in the Lower Alley plays, 'cept some of the girls, and the older boys play separate, of course. I won today, even though Oli and Thomas played; and they're second years at school."

Lyla got into an animated description of how she and Scuffy had conquered the streets of the Lower Alley, an entertaining endeavor that fully explained hexem. Hexem was a game that the kids in the Lower Alley played, a neighborhood wide free for all in which hexes were exchanged and you lost when you surrendered or could no longer move or cast spells. It was bound only by chalk marked outlines considered outside of household premises where the Trace magic wouldn't be registered to a wizarding household. The way Lyla explained it, dodging in and out of chalk lines was a high stakes part of the game, and performing spells outside of them forfeited the game and risked a visit from a Ministry official.

Her victory today had involved rooftop chases and a number of won duels, some of which had left her in much worse shape than she had come into the shop with. She had dealt with reversed knees, had shed her shoes due to a sticking charm cleverly aimed at the floor below that she didn't have time to clear (she was still shoeless), and severely enlarged toenails. The rule was that if you threw a hex you had to be able to cast the counter-spell afterwards to clear the effects, but Lyla had run off to get Scuffy's leg healed before getting some of the hexes treated. Scuffy's injury had come from jumping onto an opponent that was sneaking up behind Lyla from a rooftop and Myles interpreted that the use of pets was a legal grey area in Lower Alley hexem.

"Did you enjoy the ice cream?" Ms. Lenore asked as she joined them at the table, having extricated herself from conversation with the overly talkative witch that had called her over. Their ice cream was all but gone and Lyla had finished the story of her hexem game.

"It was amazing ma'm," Lyla beamed at Ms. Lenore and Myles nodded in agreement. "Thank you!"

They left a couple of minutes later. Lyla, excited about going to Hogwarts in just a couple of weeks, pestered Ms. Lenore with questions about the school the whole way back. She didn't seem to mind, however, answering each question patiently:

"What house were you in at Hogwarts?"

"Hufflepuff."

"What's Hufflepuff like?"

"It's a house of lasting friends and great times. I couldn't imagine being sorted differently."

"Is the common room big?"

"Large enough, though I never saw the other common rooms."

"Do you really get to fight against trolls in Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

"I don't know where that rumor started."

"Does the Defence professor really die every year?"

"They don't last more than a year as a teacher, but few of them die."

"Did you fight in the Battle for Hogwarts?"

"I was there." Ms. Lenore responded to the last question after a pause, in a tone that brokered no further questions and a grim mood.

Myles was learning a lot about the world outside of the Orphanage, details and wonders that hadn't been described in the few texts he had read in the long bookshelf of the Library. But he still felt constantly out of the loop and knew nothing about the battle Lyla had referenced and little about the often mentioned Hogwarts.

The rest of their walk passed in silence and Lyla said her farewells when they reached Beth's. She gave Ms. Lenore a hug, darting into her arms, and the composed woman let out a rare full and genuine smile as she hugged the young girl back. Lyla thanked Ms. Lenore again, then released from the embrace and looked Myles in the eyes.

"By Scuffy's hue and witch's word, we owe you one." She said solemnly, holding out her hand for him to shake. Myles, quite confused by the girl's dramatics, shook her hand. He guessed that she was referring to him healing Scuffy, though Ms. Lenore would have done a much better job. Lyla left, Scuffy and her walking energetically down towards Lower Alley. Ms. Lenore gave Myles a knowing and slightly mischievous smile, her eyes twinkling with amusement, and Myles blushed without knowing why.

The re-entered Beth's, the sign magically flipping from closed to open as Ms. Lenore entered the shop. They fell into the comfortable routine they had formed over the past few days: tutoring in healing, treating clients, and managing the store. Myles was beginning to feel comfortable here, beginning to feel at home in the herb scented shop. The situation, however, would not last through the upcoming weekend.