Back again after something of a cliffy (not really though) last time out.
Now as with most of what I write, this fic is going to divide opinion when it comes to Albus Dumbledore and that's okay, I actually encourage the debate. Having said that, I don't believe that any but the most ego-maniacal monsters of history (Hitler, Stalin, Donald Trump etc.) are truly all bad, or all good for that matter. Most people are varying shades of gray and I tend to write them to reflect this.
Ron Weasley is one of my very few exceptions to this rule. I really hate that boy and will 'bash' the bastard at every conceivable opportunity.
Big love to the mighty Tenzo51 without whom this story wouldn't have even happened, let alone be anywhere near as good as it is.
Enjoying yourselves yet? I know we are.
I'm not JKR and I don't make any money from this. Which is a bit of a shame.
DtR xx.
.
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
The Excellent Adventure of a Wolf, a Loony and a Very Bored Heroine.
.
7. Heroes and Villains.
.
The four Hufflepuff Marauders were sitting in hard backed chairs in the Headmaster's office in front of Albus Dumbledore, swinging their legs and giving out their most innocent looking expressions. Nobody in the well appointed office was fooled for an instant.
The little monsters' Head of House certainly wasn't.
Pomona Sprout hadn't known the sainted Potters as well as most of the other staff, neither of them being overly good at or even very interested in her subject, but she did know Shelley. Even after a brief week's acquaintance it was abundantly clear to the Hufflepuff head of House that the 'girl-who-lived' was veritable maelstrom of mischief and would, no doubt, be the catalyst for all the chaos that would likely occur here in the next seven years.
She looked around at and gauged the reactions of the other two occupants of the office.
The headmaster was there, twinkling away and smiling in his habitual grandfatherly way, although she did sense a more than a little perturbation behind it if the slight furrowing of his brow was any indication. Not surprising really since the 'girl-who-lived' hadn't exactly been living up to her 'humble heroine' reputation that the old man had been touting to anyone who would listen for the last ten years.
And of course, as predicted, Snape was there, glowering at her little Badgers with barely suppressed rage while pacing in what he probably believed to be a menacing manner in front of the window. He had far too many bad memories of James bloody Potter and the hateful, bullying, bastard's rule breaking and sometimes violent nature to dismiss his equally horrible daughter as a suspect in the hospitalisation of six of his Snakes. Plus, he had pulled the details of their embarrassing defeat directly from their minds so he knew full well that it was her doing.
Shelley Potter may have her mother's eyes and delicate bone structure but she was proving to be just as irritating, arrogant and uncontrollable as her bastard of a father. And then there were her little group of friends. The four of them. Just like the four of them. The original and much hated marauders. Only instead of Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew, it was Potter, Bones, Amarok and Abbott. They were the very image of that group of Gryffindor gits and seemed just as prone to causing as much violence and mayhem as possible.
He for one was not about to let them get away with it.
"I know you did it."
"No, we didn't."
Of course, it the Potter brat who answered him back. Instantly and without even the slightest hint of remorse. As always when faced with the girl he struggled to contain his anger.
"Yes, you damned well did, Potter and I'll see you expelled for it. All of you."
"This would be a lot simpler if you just went to the Hufflepuff common room, where we have been all day, and confirmed our presence there at the time of the alleged incident, you know."
"Alibis can be faked. Besides ... I know you did it."
Ah, Shelley thought, he had read the minds of the 'victims' then. A change of tack was required. While they might be a rather dreary and uninteresting read there could be no doubting the usefulness of books on Wizarding law. Especially in a situation like this.
"Then, if you are so confident in our guilt, you should take the matter to the board of governors and indeed have us expelled for a violent and unprovoked attack on these Slytherin paragons of virtue, Master Snape ..."
Two of the four girls went slightly rigid with nerves at this point. Susan and Hannah weren't so sure that telling the horrid man to expel them was exactly the right way to go here. Neither of them were at all confident that he wouldn't push for just that. Only Artemis was relaxed as she was totally confident that her ridiculously smart new BFF had a plan. And indeed she did.
"... Provided you have the appropriate evidence of course. That is to say evidence that has not been gained through the illegal use of leglimency on a minor obviously."
This abrupt shift in the atmosphere of the office was extremely noticeable as everyone stared at Shelley in shock, although she didn't really understand why they should be so shocked. It was obvious to her.
Things like Snape's habitual mind raping of his students and his prior association with the Dark Lord were easy enough to pick up on if you paid attention and asked the right questions around the castle. And Shelley always asked the right questions. The way that his and the headmaster's heads had snapped up, as if slapped, at her not very subtle insinuation made it clear that they thought that their secrets were undiscoverable by anyone, let alone a lowly, muggle raised, first year.
Morons.
Shelley despised people that didn't use either their common sense or the brains that they were given and too many of the magicals that she had encountered thus far fell into this category. Slimy Snape definitely did and Grandpa Gandalf was a maybe but she was prepared to hate them both equally for not utilising their obvious intelligence to it's full capacity just on principle.
She did have some exceptions to this rule, her new friends weren't exactly blessed with an over abundance of brains to start with but they were only eleven so she was prepared to let it slide in their cases. Mainly in the hope that they could be taught some good habits over the next few years while in close proximity to her own special brand of extreme but warped genius. But even if she didn't manage to drag all of them up to a respectably decent level of 'less stupid', it didn't really matter. It was always handy to have a few dull-witted minions around to do all the messy stuff and who wouldn't ask too many awkward questions.
Her attention was brought back to the present situation by old man Gandalf having to separate the two Heads of House who were now squaring up to each other, following Snape's accusation, with wands drawn. She felt an unfamiliar warmth in her chest at the sight of professor Sprout jumping in to defend her little Badgers from Slimy's sour invective. They didn't really need defending but it was sweet of her to try. It also made for a very good show.
Having suspected that it could go this way, Shelley moved her and the girls chairs to face them and pulled out a pre-prepared box of popcorn from her satchel. She took a handful and passed it along as they sat back to watch the performance. They 'helped' the flagging argument to re-ignite with much cheering of Sprout and equal amounts of booing and hissing at Snape in true pantomime style. This was noticed by the participants resulting in a wide grin from their Head of House as she began playing up to the audience and the throwing of a massive Diva strop from the Potions teacher. Who then ended it in true Diva style by storming out of the office in a huff.
"Oh no, Severus don't go, it was just getting fun."
Professor Sprout's unhelpful plea went unheard. It was too late, he was already out of the door with his black robes billowing behind him as he stalked off moodily muttering about bloody Potter and bloody Puffs. The four girls' disappointed cries of 'boo' and 'stay' hadn't even helped to keep him there. Unsurprisingly enough.
.
By this stage Dumbledore had realised that he wasn't going to get anywhere with this lot. He was a little worried about their 'light' credentials as far as their 'Snape baiting' antics were concerned but he couldn't really blame them, he supposed.
His Potions Master was, to put it mildly, a bit of a git.
Of course, he couldn't let such an inconsequential thing as the truth get in the way of his grand plan. He needed Severus. More to the point he needed his Potions Master to be just as unpleasant and unreasonable as he had always been. It was one of the ways that he had hoped to keep young Shelley Potter downtrodden and pliable enough to be open to the suggestion of sacrificing herself for the greater good. Keeping her humble and grateful to him for the scraps of attention and affection that he would give out on occasion.
Humble and grateful.
Hmm. These were two words that could most definitely not be applied to Miss Potter. Unfortunately, she seemed to have been blessed with the more undesirable traits from her parents' gene pool. That was a highly inconvenient inquisitive nature from her mother and a rather nasty and somewhat brutal, vindictive streak from her father. Neither of which was, in any way, good for his future plans of martyrdom for her. And then there was her intelligence.
Shelley Potter's intelligence was fearsome in it's all too apparent capacity. Fearsome enough for her to have by-passed both the binding that he had placed on her magic when she was a baby and the wards of Hogwarts itself. While it was terribly amusing how she had set up her entertainment area in the Hufflepuff dorms, he could think of at least a dozen, less amusing, things that she could have done with that knowledge. Like setting land mines in the Slytherin common room, for instance. The fact that she hadn't done this (yet) gave him hope that she was still 'light' but didn't solve his main problem.
It had given him quite the quandary.
What was he going to do with her now? Obviously, he couldn't carry on with his original plans for her as she would, no doubt, see the pattern that would emerge and move to thwart it at the first opportunity. He needed a new way to deal with her. His frustration and impotence at her terrifying logic as she continued to use it to verbally demolish the reputation of his school over the next twenty or so minutes, grew to a whole new level.
By the time she had finished taking him to task, his 'grand plan' was in tatters. Albus Dumbledore was left alone, slumped in his chair and staring glassy eyed about him at all of the doodads and thingumies that told him about Shelley Potter's health and well-being. For the first time since he had set them up, he really wished that they would all just stop. Or spontaneously explode.
Unless he found a new way to deal with her, he was sure that the 'girl-who-lived' was going to give him an aneurysm before the first term of her first year was finished. Albus really wasn't having a good day.
.
Shelley, on the other hand, was having an absolute blast. She had enjoyed watching an extremely feisty and entertaining argument between two supposedly mature Heads of House. And now she was going to get to give a lecture on the purpose of education in general and the detail of how that related to Hogwarts.
If she did it properly, it should really put old Gandalf's nose out of joint.
"Number one, the House system."
Excellent start. The old git's face had already dropped any pretense of amusement and she had barely started yet.
"The House system is actually quite a good idea for promoting competition. However. This, once worthy, idea seems to have deteriorated and descended into 'win at all costs' mentality which now only encourages over-prideful behaviour and bullying which all of the Houses participate in. Apart from Hufflepuff of course."
Dear old professor Sprout smirked at her for that one.
"Number two, blood status."
Virtually everyone in the office went very still. Blood purity was a very uncomfortable subject for all of them.
"Where are the introductory classes for those new to the Wizarding world? Muggle born and muggle raised children are plucked from their mundane lives, unceremoniously dumped into the deep end of wizarding Britain and simply left to either sink or swim. We come up against situations when interacting with our magically raised peers where our ignorance of their beliefs can cause serious upset or offense. I would actually hypothesize that it is this, more than any other single thing, that has caused the ongoing tension and hostility between the purebloods and the muggleborns."
Her rapt audience were all goggling at the small, black haired witch as she laid into the long held 'wisdom' that such classes were an un-necessary extravagance.
"It's the kind of situation that could be easily avoided if more comprehensive information was available to both sides, perhaps as a compulsory unit in our first term here at school. The best way to fight bigotry of all kinds is with the clear and concise delivery of the facts. I'm not, for a minute, suggesting that it would make all of the problems disappear but it would certainly be a good start."
Shelley hid her grin as she saw Gandalf's eye twitching and his fingers starting to worry at his impressive beard. Oh she did hope that he pulled some of it out. Susan just looked a bit shocked at the simplicity of the solution. Sprout had a very proud look on her face while Hannah was just doing whatever Artemis was, which at the moment consisted of leaning back in her chair and smiling in appreciation at Shelley's unassailable logic.
"Number three, teaching standards."
There was now an audible groan from behind the headmaster's desk.
"What subjects are taught are done so with mostly acceptable quality. With a few glaring exceptions that is. There is one class that needs some work and two that require nothing less than a complete and utter overhaul at the most fundamental of levels."
Now she had them all leaning forward in their seats.
"History of Magic. I don't actually have a problem with this class ... at the moment ... but I understand that I have somewhat different requirements to most of the other students here. And even while it is currently interesting to me I cannot honestly see this situation lasting for long if the older girls are to be believed. Perhaps some updating of the course material, if not the actual professor, is long overdue."
She paused briefly, all the better to anticipate the moment.
"Next, and one of the more serious problem areas, is Potions. Potion Master Snape may be a certified genius in his field but as a teacher he leaves an awful lot to be desired. I would go so far as to call him an almost total loss as a professor of this or any other subject to which he might want to turn his attention."
Albus blinked at the deliberate bluntness of Shelley's statement, delivered without any emotion but his denial was quickly shut down as the girl continued on.
"You were a teacher once, were you not Headmaster?" He nodded. "And tell me did you simply write a list of instructions on the board and then stalk around your classroom saying nothing other than to insult or intimidate your pupils?"
"He really does that?"
The words had escaped before Albus could stop them. He hadn't realised how much like Minerva the portly and mostly genial woman was until she began tearing strips off him for not knowing just how piss poor Severus' methods really were.
"Lastly. Defence Against the Darks Arts or DADA."
Shelley paused to let her most tragic sigh out and glare at the old man.
"As far fetched as it seems professor Quirrell is and even worse teacher than Master Snape. At least he can speak ... not that you really want him to, mind you ... but he is physically able, professor Quirrell can't even do that."
"A little harsh don't you think Miss Potter?"
She could tell his heart wasn't really in defending either himself or his teaching staff at this point but it didn't stop her from giving him both barrels.
"Not really, no. Everything, and I mean everything that I've learned about Defense I read myself over the summer. It says a lot about how crap your teacher is when someone who has only been here a week could run the class better than they can. And that's only the first year classes, I dread to think what kind of state the OWL and NEWT students will be in come examination time."
Take that beardy weirdy Gandalf.
"Oh, and it also doesn't help that the tedious git gives me an enormous bloody migraine every time he turns around."
She hadn't meant to let that particular piece of information slip out but when she saw Gandalf's reaction she was rather glad that she had. The very audible crack that her headmaster's neck made as his head whipped around to stare at her after her last statement was witnessed by everyone but only Shelley put the reaction together with how the DADA professor affected her. She narrowed her eyes at him, beginning to suspect that Albus Dumbledore knew a great deal more than he was letting on.
.
The image on Shelley's laptop was clear and crisp, since it was a really high end one, and Artemis had never been quite so glad that she had made friends with the scary smart 'girl-who-lived'. All of the insanity and apprehension over their attack on the Slytherin quidditch fanboys and it's possible fallout had now disappeared with her black haired friend's offer to set up a dedicated skype connection for her.
Destpite Shelley's brilliance in all things, Artemis hadn't really believed that she could do it what with the restrictions of magical interference and no phone lines but somehow the mad genius Miss Potter had made it happen. The little wolf realised by now that even if she did want to know how Shelley had done it, she probably wouldn't understand the explanation anyway, so she contented herself with giving the girl a rib cracking hug and a heartfelt 'thank-you'.
As the image of her family popped up on the screen, smiling tearfully and waving at her, Artemis knew that this was not nearly a big enough reward for her, newly titled, best friend forever. Something for her to think about later though because right now there was some serious chatting to be done.
"Hi Grandma."
"Artemis, it's so good to see you. How are you sweetheart? Are you settling in okay? Have you made any friends? How exactly did you manage to get a computer to work, by the way?"
"Uh okay." She ticked them off on her fingers as she answered the old Alpha's questions. "I'm really well, I'm settling in fine, making loads of new friends and we can Skype like this because one of my new friends is crazy brilliant. Want to meet her?"
The three true wolves on the other end of the connection sniggered among themselves as their treasured pack princess dragged a clearly unwilling black haired girl with stylish oval glasses into her lap following a brief physical struggle. Which Artemis won of course.
"This is my friend Shelley Potter."
The Amaroks had to bite back a chorus of ahh's as the adorable, green eyed girl squirming in Arte's lap gave them all a shy smile and a small wave.
"She's the one who set all of this up, along with our dance studio and our entertainment centre and she knows loads of spells already and she speaks frickin' Japanese as well as English and French and Latin and ..."
"Oh, stop it."
Shelley didn't usually get embarrassed by people saying how clever she was, since she thoroughly deserved the praise and all, but as Arte' continued in her excited rant about how great her new BFF was and all of the cool things she could do, the redness crept into her face. There was something about the piercing gaze of the Alaskan wolves as they smiled (calculatingly if she was any judge ... and she was) at the girls' interaction that had her blushing away like a novice nun in a brothel.
When she did finally manage to break away from their intense 'chat' it was in just as an embarrassing manner as Susan literally pulled her out of Arte's grip and forced her to dance to the redhead's 'most favourite song ever'. To which event, Artemis then immediately shifted around with the laptop so that her relatives could watch the resulting insanity for themselves.
Susan Bones had been 'born again' into the church of dance and her joy in it's rituals and revels was unparalleled even among the fun loving members of the Hufflepuff girls' dorms. She approached this wonderful new world of muggle entertainment with the serious enthusiasm of a true convert and took every opportunity to exercise her new passion. This evening's exercise necessitated a partner and she had selected the most talented and experienced (but still weird and more than a little creepy) dancer in their group, Shelley Potter, to assist her.
Since seeing her little performance in Transfiguration earlier in the week, Susan had found her preferred musical genre and become the undisputed Seventies, disco, soul-funk queen of Hogwarts. Which was why the Amaroks now found themselves watching in fascination as a pair of small witches grooved on down, rather expertly it had to be said, to the opening strains of 'Carwash'.
Hannah had, meanwhile, emerged from the bathroom, spotted the now vacant lap of her wolf and had run full pelt in order to leap in and fill it with an enthusiastic shout of 'mine!'. This lead to a roar of laughter from the other end of the international video connection as Roald saw his daughter's unintentional mate attacking his little girl with tickles and cuddles and, most interestingly, kisses.
"Hannah Banana!"
No matter about their 'situation' Roald Amarok had formed a great bond with the girl over the course of their back and forth letters over the latter part of the summer. It helped that she was pretty (looking to be full on gorgeous in later life) and bubbly and a lot of fun. He was so very proud of his daughter. A real chip off the old block.
"Hi Mister Amarok."
The blonde in Arte's lap took the time to greet the other two people on the screen before launching into a long and extremely biased account of their first week at Hogwarts and how 'naffing great' it was. He smiled at the image of his daughter resting her chin on the animated witch's shoulder and staring adoringly at her mate. He was exactly the same way with her mother. Sooo cute. And in for sooo much teasing when he could finally get a word in edgeways.
.
She snapped awake instantly, sensing another person looming over her and shifted with a quiet growl to instinctively protect the deeply sleeping Hannah lying next to her. Artemis groaned quietly so as not to wake her cutely snoring bed-mate, as she looked up into the glow of a dimly shining sunflower atop an all too familiar, back and yellow chequered, crooked top hat. The madly grinning face of a clearly excited Shelley Potter stared back at her from underneath the hat.
Oh balls.
Having got to know Shelley pretty damn well in the past week, Artemis knew that she didn't really have a choice in this. If her eccentric, genius friend had decided that they were going to have an adventure then they were going to have an adventure whether she liked it or not. Sighing heavily, she extricated herself from Hannah, replacing herself in the girl's arms with her own pillow, and got dressed with a silent efficiency.
Ten minutes later she was not nearly so silent.
"Where are we going and why the holy hell are we doing it at two in the god-damn morning?"
Shelley's reply that the first was a secret and secondly, did she really want to end up in the headmaster's office again, if not, then that was why they were doing this now, shut the wolf up. Briefly. Artemis wasn't much of a whiner but being roused from her very comfortable bed and dragged along through cold corridors by her lunatic little friend seemed to have temporarily cured her of both her self respect and her manners. So she whined ... and moaned ... and grumbled ... and even bitched ... right up to the point that they emerged onto the quidditch pitch.
An unlocking spell and a summoning charm later and a broom came shooting across the grass to smack into Shelley's hand as she turned to face the wolf who was now sniffing the night air with her eyes closed. They snapped open again at the black haired girl's next words, even the beauty of the star studded night sky dimming in comparison to how her strange little friend made her feel.
"I know that your wolf hasn't had a chance to have a good run around yet so I thought you might like to have a game of chase with me."
Shelley waggled her eyebrows which made some of the weirdest shadows Artemis had ever seen appear on her face, bathed as it was, in the light of her illuminated sunflower. From her mad headwear to the bulbous ends of her steel tipped boots and all the colours of the rainbow that were represented in between, Artemis thought that this heroic, but extremely odd, girl pirouetting before her might just have been the best thing to ever happen to her. And she just could not contain herself for a moment longer.
She brought the 'girl-who-lived' down with ridiculous ease.
They hit the ground hard, rolling around and ended up all tangled up in each other. As ever, when any kind of physical effort was involved, Artemis came out on top and sat astride her friend with her hands on Shelley's shoulders, holding her tight to the grass. And, as ever, the crazy, brilliant witch with the lightning bolt scar on her forehead knew exactly what to say.
"Watch the hat you clumsy tart."
Artemis laughed and shook her head, flinging the sudden moisture from the unexpected and unbidden tears from her eyes.
"Best. Friend. Ever."
Shelley giggled, kissed her on the nose, rolled the wolf off of her, scrambled to her feet and then ran for the broom. Artemis watched her mentally suspect friend as she snatched up the battered old broomstick and took off, flying so low that her feet skimmed the short, well kept grass. She touched a finger to her still tingling nose, not able to keep the already huge grin from widening, then leapt into the air, transforming into her full wolf form and bounded off after the cackling oddball. By the Great Wolf, she loved that girl.
.
Hedwig and Bulvar sat in their positions at the small window in the very top of the owlery and gazed out at their human/wolfy pets playing on the quidditch pitch far below them. Round, amber eyes tracked their movements as the two, seemingly inexhaustible, small figures chased each other around the large playing field, occasionally tackling each other to the ground with yips of pleasure and infectious laughter.
It did look like a lot of fun.
She shook herself from the mesmerising little light that bobbed about wildly on top her strange pet's strange top hat and shot a glance at her companion. It had taken Hedwig a good few days to establish herself at the top of the owlery pecking order and another two to break the proud eagle owl in again, but she had finally got it done. She had found it necessary to employ more peaceful methods than she usually did, due to the sheer size of the annoying, but fierce, raptor and his easy acceptance of his secondary position had her frustrated that she hadn't done it this way back in Eeylop's Emporium.
No great battles were required, she had simply been nice to Bulvar, or nicer than she usually was anyway, and the huge beast was turned to putty in her pale and beautiful wings. This was a lesson that had been quickly and amazingly learned from her pet. The girl always picked the fiercest and strongest of her peers, demonstrated her dominance over them and then turned them into a valuable bodyguard/enforcer. It was as devious as it was effective and Hedwig loved and admired her for it.
The snowy, Queen of the roost and her hulking subordinate glanced briefly at each other before taking off from the window ledge and gliding silently down to join in the play. They swooped in with their natural hunter's instinct each taking their target with total surprise. Shock and awe at it's finest.
They brought their respective prey down in a gentle flurry of battering feathers and carefully retracted talons, not wanting to damage their pets too badly. Even so the small yelp from the wolf and surprised 'whoof' from the witch as the two were swept off of their feet, or more accurately, paws and broom, made Hedwig cringe internally.
Thoughts of their pets fragility, however, were brought to a swift close by the wolf rolling around back onto her legs, tongue lolling in happy confusion and her human sitting up, spitting out some grass and subjecting Hedwig to a 'hard stare'. It wasn't even close to giving an owl a run for it's money but Hedwig appreciated the fact that she had tried. Shelley then checked and re-adjusted her mad hat and cracked a small smile.
"Well, well. Look who else has decided they want to come and play."
Hedwig flew perfect synchronisation with her laughing, raven haired human, the two of them banking and turning in tight changes of direction a mere foot above the well manicured grass. Elbows and wingtips brushed the blades once more as they swivelled and accelerated, gaining ground on the scampering, white wolf and her feathered passenger. Laying across her back like that all that the stupid Bulvar was doing was slowing the wolf down and making for a bigger target for the flying hunters.
Their game went on and on, through the remainder of the night and only stopped when the dawn chorus rose from the Forbidden forest and alerted them to the time. Even then the two tired witches couldn't quite bring themselves to call an end to this, most magical of nights.
.
Sunday morning dawn rise was always Aurora Sinistra's favourite time of the week. The dark skinned Astronomy professor, perhaps strangely for someone of her highly specialised and nocturnal profession, was quite simply in love with the quiet break of day that she got to see in at the weekends. It was always fantastically peaceful and the view from her tower was always absolutely stunning.
Except for today apparently.
Today there was an obstruction to her view of the heavens in the form of two small bodies stretched out side by side across the thick glass dome of the Astronomy tower. There was certainly no mistaking the identities of her visitors. The pure white hair of Artemis Amarok and the distinctive, colourful clothing and top hat of Shelley Potter made them instantly recognisable.
She was just wondering how the bloody hell they had gotten themselves out there when she caught sight of the two distinctive owls hopping about on a very dilapidated old school broom. Having heard about their flying skills from the extremely proud and extremely smug Pomona Sprout she was in no doubt that they could have flown up here, but was just surprised that they had made it all the way on that old clunker. Broomsticks weren't exactly designed for going 'two up' in the first place let alone the badly outdated and heavily careworn ones that they had available here at school.
It was still a beautiful sight. The two friends bonding in the dawn rise, hand in hand, seemingly revelling in the chill of the crisp, Scottish early morning. She remembered her own early friendships, forged in this very tower two decades ago with two witches who these funny, clever little witches resembled so closely. The thoughts of Pandora and Lily, both gone now, brought liquid to her eyes and misted her vision. Those bright, shining stars who had brought so much joy into her life and whose light was now forever gone.
And that's when Aurora heard it, at the very moment of her sorrowful reminiscence. The singing. As the sun finally peeked above the low mountains in the East, two small voices rose to greet it with the perfect tune. Muffled by the glass as it was, it made the two voices seem even softer and more ethereal. Even the quiet hooting of the two weird little girls' equally weird owls seemed to be in time with their efforts. It was insane ... and utterly enchanting.
"Here comes the sun, here comes the sun.
And I say ... It's alright."
The smile that spread across Aurora Sinistra's face as she watched the two first years greeting the new day in their own special way was wide and held a brightness to rival the rising sun itself.
If they were going to be making this a regular thing (and she sincerely hoped that they would be) then she wanted them to at least be safe. Well as safe as they could be lying on a glass domed tower, two hundred feet up in the air, without the luxury of a safety rail. She would at the very least make sure that they had something capable of getting them up and, perhaps more importantly, back down again without breaking their damned fool necks. Professor Sinistra summoned parchment and quill and sat with her morning tea to compose a letter to Gringotts.
She wasn't by any means a wealthy woman but she had enough for this. Enough to ensure that her two new favourite students had the proper equipment for both their early morning joy rides and to help consolidate their positions on their House quidditch team.
Aurora Sinistra might well have been a proud alumni of Slytherin herself, but even she thought that the much ignored and ridiculed Hufflepuffs were well past due for a winning season. Something that she was going to aid and abet to the best of her meagre ability even though it would probably be to the detriment of her own House. Something that she would be looking forward to with baited breath.
"Hufflepuff for the cup."
Unknown to the popular Astronomy professor, her whispered, hopeful, proclamation would be much repeated, though much louder and more vehemently, by many at Hogwarts this year. A new power was rising within the school and it's colours were the brightest of yellow and the deepest of black. The Badger revolution was about to begin.
.
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
.
Ah random fluff, my favourite way to end a chapter.
Reviews are our cookies and you wouldn't want us starve now would you. Seriously though the feedback would be very helpful on this one guys so do let us know how we're doing with it, and I promise that I will try and answer all of your questions. Of which I am sure there will be many.
.
DtR xx.
