Chapter III: Sidelines

For the rest of the week, Ren mostly kept to herself. She missed her dad and her brother. She wasn't nearly as outgoing as anyone else, which confused her. Wasn't the Ravenclaw house supposed to be really studious and nerdy? She thought she could fit in in this house, in ways she hadn't in her old school, but so far it wasn't working. The train ride hadn't helped at all. Everyone she had met on the train had been people who were either related or already knew each other.

Rose was one of those people. She never stopped being annoying about school, but Ren kept hanging out with her for some reason. Maybe because Rose would at least talk to her a little about classes. Ren just sort of hung around Rose in the hopes that someone would talk to her. Ren was the silent member of the large group. Well, except for Albus. He spent some time being quiet as well, because other people talked to him too much. From what Ren could garner, his dad was famous or something. But Albus didn't behave like she thought famous people's kids did. Instead of enjoying the attention, he stuck as much to the sidelines as he could.

After dinner on Saturday night, she decided to leave the group's meeting in the tower common room, and go for a walk. She was supposed to live in the castle until May, so she figured she'd better learn its layout.

The castle was huge. The Ravenclaw tower was so far away from the Great Hall and the classes, and she wasn't sure if she could find her way back. She wandered down hallways and looked in classrooms. She didn't find anything really interesting, until she met Professor Xavier on the eighth floor outside his classroom.

"Hello, Ren!" He said cheerfully. He was carrying some old-looking scrolls, which Ren stared at. They looked really cool, with interesting symbols inscribed all on the parts she could see. "How are you this fine first evening of classes?"

"What are those?" Ren asked, pointing to the scrolls.

Professor Xavier looked down at them in surprise, then chuckled. "They're my research."

"What do you research? And what are those weird marks?"

He smiled. "It's a long story." He motioned toward the classroom. "Do you want to have that conversation now? To talk about what happened in class?"

Ren hesitated. She didn't want to admit that it had happened, really. It was too scary.

"I promise, Ren, I can help you." Xavier smiled kindly. "I know it's scary, but I think I know what's happened to you. If you talk to me, I can figure out if my suspicions are right."

She nodded. Somehow, he seemed to know exactly what she was afraid of. He jerked his head to the classroom door. He guided her inside, to the front of the room where his desk was. He set his scrolls down on the desk, then he conjured a chair out of thin air just by waving his hands, and motioned for her to sit down in it.

"How did you do that?" she asked. "Don't you need a wand?"

"I tend to be very good at doing things without a wand," he said, pulling his own chair around the desk and sitting down in it with a sigh. "Much like you will be, I think."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you observe how other people made sparks appear?"

"They shot the sparks out from their wands, like me, but I was the only one who made too many."

He chuckled again. What about her responses were so funny? "You're almost there. I'll tell you, shall I?" She nodded eagerly. "Everyone else's sparks came from their wands, but yours didn't. They came directly from your hand. Now tell me that's not unusual."

"I don't know what's usual or unusual, I just got here," Ren said. "I'm muggle-born, or whatever they call it. I never knew magic existed until my dad told me I was going to a special school for it."

Xavier's brow furrowed. "Didn't you get a letter?"

Ren shook her head. "My mom reads all our mail. She says she likes to know everything. She gave the letter to my dad."

"But if you're a muggle-born, didn't a Hogwarts professor come visit you to tell you about the school? That's normally how things work. I did a fair few visits myself this summer."

Ren shook her head.

Xavier shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, well. I'll figure it out. But back to our original topic. You are different than your peers, I think."

Ren sighed. She should have known she wouldn't fit in here. There was always something.

"What's wrong?" Professor Xavier inquired.

"Why am I different?" she asked. She looked down at her shoes. They were her own shoes, not the uniform ones, because they didn't have a size small enough for her when her dad went shopping.

"I'm sure I can't tell you now," he said, "but when I find out, I'll tell you. I promise."

She looked up, into his eyes. "Do you promise me that?"

He nodded. "I promise you, Ren Smith. I'll tell you. Until then, in my class, you can just sit out and I'll work out a time when I can teach you independently. It won't seem weird, because I announced that's what I can do during class today."

Ren thanked him and left his room, intent on continuing her walk. She had about an hour until it was curfew, and she wanted to find out where the library was on her own.

She walked down the stairs, passing more students as she got down to the lower floors. She didn't like being around more people. It was just another opportunity to remind her of how alone she really was, and how small she was. People kept staring at her, whispering like they'd never seen a short person in their lives.

"Excuse me?"

Ren turned around, fully expecting to have to explain why her parents' tall genes hadn't kicked in yet. She expected it to be an older, taller student, ready to make fun of a little first year.

It was one of the boys from her year, though. Ren recognized him as Scorpius Malfoy, a fellow Ravenclaw who was in all of her classes so far. He stood a few stairs above her, but he stared at her just like all the others.

"Yes?" she said. "What do you want?"

"Um...you're..." He couldn't seem to figure out the simple words to tell Ren you're short, and it was making her mad.

"I know I'm short, okay?" She blurted out, louder than she'd intended it to be. Speaking quieter, she said, "just leave me alone, please." She started to turn around, but the boy interrupted her.

"You're glowing."

"I'm what?"

Professor Xavier was still in his classroom, sitting at his desk. He had his old scrolls all spread out on his desk, and he was tracing them or writing new ones, Ren couldn't tell. She didn't really care at the moment, either.

"Hey, professor?" Scorpius called. They were rushing up to his desk. He saw them and quickly stood up. "She's kind of glowing."

"I can see that," Professor Xavier muttered. He whispered a few spells, moving his hands over Ren's and over her face. His palms glowed gold with some writing while he was muttering.

"What are you doing?" Scorpius asked.

"Fixing her," Professor Xavier said. "What's it look like?"

"I dunno," Scorpius said. "You aren't using your wand."

"I don't always need a wand. What's your name, anyway?"

Scorpius lowered his head. For the first time, Ren really noticed what he looked like. He was taller than her, had a sharp angled face, and he had silvery blond hair that shimmered in the moonlight in Professor Xavier's office. His face was pale, too. The boy mumbled something.

"What was that? Couldn't hear you." Professor Xavier said, then continued muttering incantations.

"My name's Scorpius, Scorpius Malfoy." He spoke boldly, but Ren thought he sounded a little scared.

"Pleased to meet you, Scorpius, but I can't imagine why you'd be scared of your last name." He turned to face the boy and looked him straight in the eye. "You're not anyone else in your family. You're your own man. So act like it." Then he turned back to Ren and kept muttering.

"What's wrong with me?" Ren asked nervously. "Am I going to blow up?"

"No, of course not." Professor Xavier stood and looked down at her. "I think you'll be fine now."

"Why was she glowing, though?" Scorpius asked.

"Hmm," the professor responded. He didn't offer any comment, but merely looked at Ren. She looked back at him, nervously. After a moment of silence, he waved them away and said "get out of here, now. Go explore the castle some more. There's lots of interesting things to find out."

When Scorpius and Ren were outside the classroom, they looked at each other.

"I think I want to go back to the dormitory, actually," Ren said. "I'm kind of tired."

"Yeah, I bet you are," he replied, "from all that glowing." He poked her arm. "You're sure you're not going to just blow everyone up?" he said playfully.

Ren smiled and gave him a playful nudge. "You won't tell anyone about that, will you?"

Scorpius shook his head. "No. Glowing objects are normal for wizards. Glowing people? Not so much."

Ren grinned. "Thanks. Now do you know how to get back to Ravenclaw Tower?"

A/N: Next chapter will come either Saturday or next Wednesday.