Teresa looked from Bagsy, cowering in the corner, to the guilty looking Mezrielda, and her face turned almost as red as her hair. She stormed over to Mezrielda, pulling herself to her highest height, and grabbed the dead worm from Mezrielda's hand. Glass crunched below Teresa's feet as she paced in a wordless rage.
'Teresa-?' Bagsy tried. Teresa held her hand up for silence and Bagsy, gulping in fear, found herself unable to speak.
'You force Bagsy to let you into our dorm,' Teresa roared suddenly, rounding on Mezrielda. 'You levitate myself and Neve out of the room, dropping us on our heads, and then you break my worm farm and scare the daylights out of Bagsy!'
Mezrielda, who was gingerly getting to her feet, shook her head. 'No. You have misunderstood the events,' she said flatly, all the emotion drained from her voice to be replaced with a cold, harsh logic. Her brown eyes, though, betrayed a panicked mind.
Teresa spun around, baring her teeth at Bagsy. 'What does she mean, Bagsy?' Bagsy stuttered, trying to find the words to explain what had happened, but the rage in Teresa's face was making that very hard, and she couldn't get a single syllable past her lips. 'Have you set a tongue-tie jinx on her or something?' Teresa spat at Mezrielda.
Mezrielda was looking very coldly at Bagsy. 'Tell her what happened, Bagsy.'
Bagsy scrambled to her feet, her eyes darting from Teresa to Mezrielda to Neve to Mistress Foncée. At last she settled them on the floor. 'It was crows,' she explained in a small, quavering voice. 'We wanted to look at your worms, we thought they were cool, when suddenly a bunch of crows flew in and attacked us. They destroyed your worm farm and ate all the worms…'
'The crows did it.' Teresa put her clenched fists on her hips. 'Are you kidding me right now?' She gestured at the windows angrily. 'And how do you suppose the crows came in when all the windows are shut, huh?'
Bagsy and Mezrielda looked at the windows then each other. Teresa was right, all the windows were shut. How had the crows come in?
'Stop covering for her, Bagsy, what really happened?' Teresa said, stalking over to Bagsy and poking her chest.
'I t-told you!' Bagsy stammered, raising her hands in surrender. 'Crows!'
'I think that's enough, students,' said Mistress Foncée. Teresa plainly did not think it was and turned to Mezrielda with a clenched fist. She was inches from giving her a solid uppercut when they were both flung far apart from each other and suspended, completely still, in mid-air. Bagsy and Neve found themselves similarly restrained. 'I said that's enough,' Foncée pronounced, holding a wand out that glowed blue at the end, the violet of her eyes glowing like faded lamps, and the cloak of feathers on her back ruffling for just a moment. 'Teresa, I shall see to it you are refunded for the damage.'
'You can't put a price on life!' Teresa hissed.
'What? But I didn't destroy her worm farm!' Mezrielda grit out. Both of them were jolted painfully in the air and shut up.
'The professors are very busy as it is, I hope I don't need to inform them about this incident and cause them more trouble.' Foncée gave Mezrielda and Teresa harsh looks.
'But I've done nothing wrong!' Teresa protested.
'Neither have I!' Mezrielda snapped.
They were both jolted again.
'Miss Aviry, you attempted to assault another student. Miss Glint, it very much appears you destroyed Miss Aviry's worm farm.' Foncée dropped her wand, the blue light faded, and the four students were each lowered gently to the floor and released. 'Do you want the professors involved?'
Teresa sent a glare at Mezrielda and crossed her arms furiously. Mezrielda was shooting daggers back with her icy brown eyes.
'No,' Teresa said at last. 'I can't have any more disciplinary letters sent back to my parents… they'll have a fit.' Bagsy, having known Mezrielda for nearly a year and a half now, could spot the immense relief in the tiniest of changes on her face. She guessed Mezrielda didn't want another term of working the kitchens for detention.
Thanks to Mistress Fonccée, the altercation, and potential punishments, stopped there.
Bagsy knew if it weren't for the potion of dreamless sleep, she would have been tossing and turning all night. She was scared for her life and, now, felt horrible about what had happened with Mezrielda. Sure, Mezrielda made the silly decision of levitating Teresa and Neve out of the room, but she hadn't broken Teresa's worm farm, nor killed the worms, yet both Teresa and Neve firmly believed she had. Teresa had made it her mission to inform anyone who'd listen that Mezrielda was a rotten piece of work.
When Mezrielda came to sit next to Bagsy for dinner, cries of protest sounded from the angry Hufflepuffs and Mezrielda was heckled away with a surprised expression and hands raised. This, combined with Foncée's supervision of Bagsy, had made it impossible for them to discuss the worm's message right away, given how little time they now had just the two of them.
Bagsy tried to convince the other Hufflepuffs Mezrielda was innocent, but no one believed her, and with every attempt at explaining what had really happened she got the sense people liked her less and less. Soon, she gave up on defending Mezrielda at all and instead sat in silent misery when the topic arose.
'She nearly killed Emmeline,' Teresa whispered conspiratorially one day at Lunch. Bagsy glanced back at the Slytherin table, where Mezrielda was sitting alone.
Jon, who was sitting to one side of Bagsy, nodded his agreement. 'Yeah, she made the uh… the… Bagsy what were they called again?'
'The flight modulators,' Bagsy droned unhappily.
'Yeah, she made the flight modulators disappear,' Jon finished.
'Exactly! And then she attacks Neve and I-'
'Um… it's 'Neve and me',' Neve sheepishly informed Teresa.
Teresa looked angry. 'But you're always telling me it's 'Neve and I' not 'Neve and me'.'
Neve ducked her head apologetically. 'Usually it is, but for that sentence you want to use a 'me' instead of-'
'As I was saying,' Teresa breezed on. 'She attacked me and Neve and then killed all my worms. She's seriously deranged, that girl.'
'What else do you expect from a Slytherin,' said Jon, Teresa nodding her head in agreement. Bagsy looked at her food and wished she wasn't there. She could go and sit at the Slytherin table with Mezrielda but she was terrified of what both the Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs would do to her if she did.
Mezrielda didn't sit with Bagsy during the personal study sessions that Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Bagsy, sensing Mezrielda wasn't feeling very happy and worried she was upset with her, included in her weekly letter to her sister, Bontie, a request for her to send all the small, shiny objects she could find in the house. On Thursday Bagsy had received a letter from her sister and a package that she could just about hold with one hand. Enclosed were marbles, paper clips, ear rings and glistening pebbles Bontie had gathered. She'd made it clear she had no clue why Bagsy wanted them but that she trusted it wasn't for anything against the rules.
During personal study that evening, Mezrielda sat down next to Bagsy in the library nook, who felt relieved at her return.
'I have a gift for you!' Bagsy announced quickly. Mezrielda looked surprise. Bagsy handed her the package of little, shiny objects and Mezrielda, opening it and looking inside, seemed overwhelmed.
Quietly, she rummaged through the different, glinting objects. 'These are spectacular. Thank you,' Mezrielda breathed before putting the package carefully away in her bag, which was already crammed with shiny objects. Then, Mezrielda cast a glance nervously in Mistress Foncée's direction. Foncée had pulled a stool over to sit within ear shot of their little nook in the library.
Mezrielda lowered her voice to barely a whisper. 'Sorry I've been missing,' she murmured. 'I was doing some research on…' She cast Foncée another glance. Foncée smiled gently at the book she was reading and Bagsy couldn't tell if she could hear them or was simply enjoying her story. Mezrielda lowered her voice further. 'The corvid trials.'
'What did you find?' Bagsy asked.
Mezrielda looked frustrated. 'Nothing.'
'I asked Professor Binns about it,' Bagsy added. She'd asked the professor if he knew about the corvid trials after her lesson on Tuesday. 'He's never heard of them. Did you check the book of beasts?'
'Of course, I did.' Mezrielda swished her hair knowingly. 'There was nothing in there, either.'
'What do you think the worms were going to say next?' Bagsy pushed. 'They told us not to trust something, or someone. Who or what do you think they were going to say? Before, you know…'
'Whatever it was, it began with an M.' Mezrielda narrowed her eyes, glancing at Mistress Foncée.
Bagsy shook her head. 'It's one letter to go on, Mezrielda. They could just as easily have been about to spell your name.'
Bagsy and Mezrielda's research of the blood eyed beast, her apostles, the great wizard kind decline and the corvid trials seemed to end there. They had no books, no leads, and no living or dead soul who could tell them about anything they were interested in.
Quidditch practise, which was that evening, was something Bagsy had been looking forward to for a while though. The sleeping potion certainly helped but Bagsy found sometimes she didn't want to sleep. And, unlike her rumbling stomach, Bagsy was very good at hiding the noises of her work from the other inhabitants of the girls dormitory.
Still too scared by the boggart from the start of term, Bagsy couldn't bring herself to work in her private room, so she twiddled with her broom whilst sitting crossed legged on her bed with a lantern casting a warm orange light on her hands. Besides improving the steering, response time, breaking and acceleration, she had found, in the depths of her sleep exhaustion, the strangest of ideas coming to her. She'd left her broom cast to the side, for now, and set on her new invention, feeling that, for once, she could bring it beyond just a blue print.
Standing on the Quidditch pitch, Mistress Foncée sitting off to the side knitting, Bagsy hauled a massive duffle bag to where the other Hufflepuffs stood, ready for practise. Ford, Emmeline, Kat and Greenda's surprise at having Quidditch practises with all members present had changed to growing excitement.
'I think we may have a real shot this year, Ford,' Greenda had murmured excitedly just last week. Ford had nodded, hope in his eyes.
This week, Bagsy's feet felt light from what she was about to present to them.
'What have you got there, Bagsy?' Ford asked, his eyes lighting up. 'Have you made more brooms for the team?' Teresa and Jon looked at her hopefully. Bagsy had upgraded the school brooms the team had been using last year, greatly increasing the team's ability to play, but there was still more she could do. Bagsy, however, had not done much broom work besides maintenance so far that year.
'Sorry, Ford, um… no it's not more brooms…' she apologized. Ford's shoulders sagged.
'What is it?' Kat asked curiously. Bagsy pushed the bag open to reveal her new inventions. Kat frowned. 'Bats.'
'Bats!?' Teresa squeaked excitedly, leaning over to peer inside the bag. She looked disappointed to see Kat had meant the kind used for hitting balls, not the flying, furry ones.
Bagsy took one of the bats out. A ball, the size and shape of a bludger, was stuck to its side. 'I've upgraded each bat with a mag-net,' Bagsy explained, referring to the wizard equivalent of a muggle magnet. She'd had a few in her tool box.
She swung the bat and the ball shot off the end. It went a few feet, hovered, then soared back towards the bat with a whoosh. 'Watch your heads,' Bagsy warned, drawing the bat back and preparing a hit. With a swift swing, she sent the ball away again but, this time, Teresa had the idea to jump and try to catch it. Instead, the ball pulled Teresa along with it, easily carrying her a few feet before it hovered and moved back towards Bagsy.
Teresa let go, landing on the ground with a wide grin on her face. 'There's a lot of power in that movement.'
The other Hufflepuffs tracked the ball with their eyes as, once more, it moved back towards the bat. With a whack Bagsy hit the ball and it shot away from her again. 'I added momentum-amplifiers to the balls so they fly further and stronger than usual and return faster, too. That way, they'll behave more like how-' Bagsy paused as the ball shot back towards her and she caught it rather clumsily with one of her hands and attached it back to the bat. 'Like how the real bludgers behave. And because they're magnetically drawn back to the bat, you don't have to waste time fetching them. They'll come straight back to you.' Bagsy handed the bat to Teresa. 'I thought Teresa and I could make good use of them, seeing as we're both to be the beaters in the match this weekend.'
'I think it's meant to be 'me and Teresa', actually,' Teresa cut in, inspecting her new bat inquisitively. Bagsy frowned. She was pretty sure it was 'Teresa and I' in that instance but she wasn't about to challenge her on it.
'As for the chasers,' Bagsy continued, reaching back into her bag. 'I made you these.' Bagsy pulled out some gloves and handed a pair to each of the chasers. One for Ford, Kat and Jon. 'I worked groves into this rubbery material that I stitched onto the palm side of the gloves, so they should have better grip than the standard gloves,' Bagsy sheepishly explained.
'We don't even have the standard gloves,' Ford breathed, turning his pair over in his hands wondrously. Kat was trying hers on, stretching her fingers out to see how they fit.
'Anything for the keeper?' Emmeline asked, looking down her nose at the bag with mild interest.
'Yes, actually!' Bagsy said excitedly, to an appraising brow raise from Emmeline. She rummaged around, pushing aside the spare broom parts and tools that were in the bag, she had yet to sort them into her bottomless tool box. Eventually, she found the headgear she was looking for. 'I folded some foamy bits and pieces together into this… uh… head piece. It should protect your head from direct impacts with anything – quaffles, bludgers, the goal hoops, the… uh… ground?' Bagsy awkwardly handed the head gear to Emmeline, who inspected it.
'It's ugly,' Emmeline commented, pulling it over her head. It looked a little odd, Bagsy had to admit. 'But, it feels good,' Emmeline admitted. 'Better than my current one. Thanks. I guess.'
Greenda glanced at Bagsy expectantly.
'Sorry, I couldn't think of anything for the seeker…' Bagsy trailed off. In truth, she'd run out of time to make something for Greenda and hadn't deliberately left her out. There were only so many hours at night Bagsy could use to work.
Greenda shrugged, averting her eyes. 'It's okay,' was all she said. Bagsy felt as if someone had doused her with freezing water.
'Right, well…' Ford coughed awkwardly. 'Let's practise.'
Teresa and Bagsy spent the first ten minutes on their brooms with the bats Bagsy had made practising their swings. Bagsy, who'd taken rather well to hitting objects with a bat, found that the more she practised the better and more natural the action felt, and decided mentally to practise more on her own.
Kat, Ford and Jon were running through drill after drill. Kat and Ford had a plethora of manoeuvres down and Jon was struggling to learn them all.
'No, Jon, that was meant to be the crocodile spin, not the snake coil!' Ford hissed in frustration when he'd thrown the quaffle and Jon had been too low to catch it.
'Can't you just look where you're going to throw it?' Jon shot back angrily. Kat looked from brother to brother, worrying her lower lip.
'No, Johnathan! That's the whole point! If I look the pass is telegraphed. We need them to think I'm passing to Kat, so I can then pass it to you and you can score a goal!'
Bagsy ignored the argument to focus on her own practise. Hearing people squabble made nervous bubbles form in her chest.
Greenda was shooting around the pitch on her own, following a snitch, desperately trying to catch it. Bagsy watched – Greenda could do it, she could tell, yet whenever she got close and tried to grab the snitch her hand shot fearfully back to her broom and the golden ball escaped.
Bagsy flew over to Greenda when she paused to catch her breath. 'Hi, Greenda,' she said.
'Sorry, Bagsy, I've got to practise…' Greenda breathed tiredly, casting a glance towards Emmeline before setting off after the snitch again. Bagsy watched her with a clenched jaw and an unhappy scowl. She heard her parents voices in her head telling her not to disturb them and found herself hitting the mag-net ball with her bat harder than usual. It shot up high into the air above her, going further and further and hanging at a great height for what felt like forever before shooting back down. Bagsy briefly had the thought of letting it hit her – if she got injured then Greenda would be worried about her and talk to her again.
Realising what a stupid idea that was Bagsy moved her bat towards the ball at the last second, letting its magic mag-net settle the ball onto the bat's side with a clink.
