Hi, this is Minkx! I'm updating Chapter 6, which Night wrote. I hope you'll like it!
I'm extremely sorry for this late update. It's been a couple of weeks since the last one, but hopefully you guys don't think that we've abandoned this story. We most certainly want to keep this going.
Disclaimer (as usual): The Harry Potter series was written by J.K. Rowling, not Night, Mare, or me. Our OCs are original, though.
Chapter 6
Silence reigned through the air for a while longer, shocked students straightening from their slouching positions, glancing about to find the source of the scream.
There was the scraping of chairs as students stood up abruptly, their path of action chosen, the fluttering of ink-splattered paper drifting to the ground, knocked over by careless movements, even a few quills lying, discarded, on the cold stone floor.
The students ignored Professor Binns' protests as one of the more curious Ravenclaws threw the door open and ventured out into the hallway, peering this way and that, followed by a group of three more students.
Andrea hesitated, glancing down at her paper and then back up at Professor Binns. He was now making an active attempt to stop the students from getting through the door, but with little success.
She watched as he reached his ghostly hand out towards where his wand lay, dusty and ancient, though his hand continuously passed through it, dissipating into blue-gray mist as it reached the object and reforming after another failed attempt.
In her entire four years at Hogwarts, she had never really seen Professor Binns in such an animated state.
"Students! Stop!" he yelled in his hollow voice, his tone not his usual monotone sounding almost as if he were…panicking?
He drifted in front of the mass of students now, waving his ghostly arms desperately.
"Please! Do not pass!"
What could be so important that even Professor Binns would be upset? She studied him carefully. This was the first time he had ever even seemed to be more than a robot.
Some of the students passed through him, one accidentally dropping their bag in the rush, causing his foot to disappear into a cloud of mist before reforming as the bag was retrieved.
"Don't-"
Andrea watched as his entire form shuddered for a minute, almost like one of those old-fashioned muggle televisions when their transmission was bad. His shape wavered, blurring even more than before until he seemed to be just a floating cloud of bluish mist, rapidly drifting apart as the students disturbed it.
She took in a sharp breath at this, her hand gripping the desk. Despite her house's reputation for resourcefulness and intelligence, she had no idea what to make of the situation. None of the other students had even appeared to notice the Professor's unusual circumstance, since they were all too busy shoving and pushing to get out into the hallway.
"P-professor Binns…are you alright?" she asked, hesitantly, raising her voice over the crowd, sliding her things into her bag and standing on her tiptoes at the edge of the crowd, watching the mist fade away in the air while her hands shook as she held the bag.
What had just happened?
Andrea stood there, shivering for a moment despite the warmth radiating from the crowded mass of human bodies a mere few inches away from her.
She watched it dumbly for a while, staring at the space where the ghostly professor had been as she was shoved here and there by the crowd, stumbling about on her feet.
"Move it already!" a brown-haired boy said, pushing her aside.
What was his name again? Barry? Hilbert? At this moment, she could barely remember, her gaze still fixed upon that spot where Professor Binns had disappeared, watching it as it bobbed in and out of view.
Andrea allowed herself to be swept out of the classroom and into the hallway, where many Gryffindors, true to their house's reputation of bravery, had already gathered to scout out the source of the scream, and many Ravenclaws had also already arrived, succeeding in outsmarting their teachers and sneaking out of their classes. A few teachers were also in the hallways, yelling for order as their classes fought to get to the door.
Looking around, she didn't see Marcus or the Slytherins anywhere. She leaned against the wall, her breathing quickened by the sudden picturing in her mind again of the professor as he had disappeared and her helplessness.
Suddenly, a small hand grabbed her wrist lightly.
"Kiya," she heard someone beside her whisper insistently.
Andrea looked up to see Wambleeska, noticing, a bit surprised, that he was perhaps a few inches taller than her.
"The wana gi. You saw him…" he searched for a word for a bit, pausing, "go away?"
She nodded, slightly relieved that she hadn't been the only one to see him vanish.
"I couldn't do anything," she blurted out rapidly, "Professor Binns just became mist and he vanished."
Andrea shuddered again, feeling helpless in this sudden occurrence, something she'd be unprepared for and couldn't have possibly predicted.
"Iwastegla!" he said, throwing his hands up, "Slowly! Not your fault."
"Oniya," Wambleeska said, "Breathe. Wana gi will return. Binns is not in Wanagiyata, so he is here."
The boy sympathetically helped her sit in an empty spot at the corner of the hallway, sitting down himself as well, folding his long limbs awkwardly.
"How do you know he'll return?" she asked, attempting to steady her breathing.
"He is not in Wanagiyata. He must be here. Nowhere else," Wambleeska smiled again, tapping the side of his head, "I know. Trust me."
Andrea grimaced back, rubbing her arms in the places where goose-bumps had risen.
"Thanks," she said.
They sat there, sitting cross-legged on the cobblestones for a while, a little bubble of tranquility. Andrea sighed, rocking back and forth, when suddenly a very familiar mop of auburn hair appeared, the owner of the hair grasping her hand and pulling her up roughly.
"Come on!" Marcus said impatiently, "The action is at the Training Grounds!"
"Hold on!" Andrea protested, slightly exasperated at how often Marcus seemed to believe he could drag her off to do whatever his heart pleased.
"You've forgotten Wam-Wam-bleeska!"
She hoped she hadn't butchered his name too badly.
"Oh, alright," Marcus said, grabbing Wambleeska's hand as well, "Wamby or whatever your name is, you're going to have to come along."
Marcus proceeded in dragging them through the courtyard and various other locations in the school until they reached the Herbology greenhouses, in which he was forced to slow down.
"Honestly," Marcus declared, throwing his arms in the air as he finally let go of Wambleeska and Andrea's hands, "You get a perfect excuse to escape from class AND you have the old Dustbin as your teacher, who can't even stop you, and I find you sitting on the floor with Wasabi!"
"Marcus!" she scolded, falling into their usual, yet odd schoolmarm and bad student roles, "That's impolite!"
"So?" he turned his attention to Wambleeska, and he looked slightly indignant as he noticed their difference in height, the top of Marcus's head only reaching Wambleeska's eyes.
Andrea smirked as she saw him attempt to straighten up in his cowboy boots nad attempt to look taller.
Marcus told him, rather bluntly and with a hint of jealousy sparking in his eyes (probably about his height), "Your name is too long!"
Wambleeska shrugged, ignoring his rude remarks, "You can call me Wabi. You are Kiya's friend?"
Marcus, in turn, ignored what Wambleeska had said and declared decisively, "I'll call you Wasabi."
He shrugged once more, though this time, there was a small grin on his face, "I will call you Gnaye."
"By the way, could you make a Language Charm?" Andrea asked.
Marcus had a pained expression on his face as he looked at her.
"No 'hello' or 'good to see you'?" he asked.
"Oh come on Marcus," she said, and in a slightly more wheedling tone, "You're the best at charms…"
"For what language?"
"Native American to English."
"Then no. It's for the Wasabi guy, isn't it?"
"Well…what's so wrong with making Wabi a Language Charm?"
"I hate him and he's calling me 'gay'. And why is he so tall? He looks like some giraffe from a muggle zoo…"
"He didn't call you 'gay', he's calling you Gnaye, a Native American word. And it's your fault for not eating a proper diet, don't go blaming poor Wabi."
"I've been your friend for centuries, he's only known you for seconds!"
"That's an exaggeration!"
"Shhhh!" Professor Mcgonagall hushed them as she drifted by, lifting one of her transparent, bluish-gray fingers up to her lips. She had taught here many years ago, and with no children or grandchildren to become attached to, she had stayed here after her death as well.
Andrea caught sight of a large crowd in the Training Grounds ahead of them, and they made their way into the crowd.
Andrea listened to snippets of the murmurs and the beginnings of mumbled rumors.
"-broomstick just stopped working right underneath him."
"Who knew that could happen?"
"-never knew a broomstick could malfunction."
"Nothing but scrap wood and straw left-"
"First year too-"
Then, the murmurs stopped suddenly, the crowds parting and Andrea and Marcus hurriedly moved to the right side of the crowd. They watched as the school nurse, Ms. Vera Primrose, walked through, an enchanted stretcher floating beside her, a person's outline vaguely visible under a white sheet.
"Out of my way, please," she said sweetly, her unnaturally sky blue eyes looking up through her thick, blonde lashes at Wabi, who obviously hadn't learned the danger of opposing the school nurse yet.
Andrea quickly grasped his wrist and pulled him to the side, and holding him there until the danger of the school nurse passed.
"Hopa," Wabi said, a glazed look in his eyes, which still followed the school nurse as she left, "lila wiya waste."
Andrea followed his gaze to see the nurse, a young woman with pale, silvery blonde hair and large, doe-like blue eyes.
"Wabi," she said, waving a hand in front of his face, "she's half-veela. Trust me, don't bother her. She's got a horrible temper."
"Stupid Wasabi-boy," Marcus remarked, grumpily staring at the floor, "Just let Veela Vera beat him up."
"Hey!" Andrea protested, then added, "As I recall, you tried to flirt with Ms. Vera in your first year."
She snapped her fingers in front of his face and then clapped her hands together as well, trying to bring the boy out of his stupor.
Finally, sighing, she brought out her wand, an eleven inch hazel wand with a core of dragon heartstring.
"Accio, water."
A bucket full of water from the well clanked down beside her, and she picked it up, muttered an apology to Wabi, and tossed the bucket's contents in his face.
The results were almost immediate. He sputtered, swallowing some of the water, and he stumbled, sitting down on the ground.
He grunted as he fell, shaking his head as if to clear it.
Andrea repeated slowly, "Ms. Vera is part-veela. She has a really bad temper, so don't bother her."
Wabi looked up sheepishly.
"Cate sice."
He ran his hand through his soggy hair, and then he placed the hand down on the ground, only to wince and pull it away.
"What is it?" Andrea asked.
"Sharp stick…" he replied…running his left hand over his right hand to carefully remove a small splinter of wood and toss it aside.
He got up, brushing his robes off, and as he did, Andrea noticed even more splinters of wood lying around in the glass, ranging in size from small ones the size of toothpicks and long ones that were about half the length of a broomstick. There was also a lot of yellowish straw, the kind that were used in broomsticks, scattered about, a few birds already taking some to make nests.
"Some kid probably just fell off of their broomstick," Marcus said, already bored.
Andrea leaned down carefully, to pick up a piece of wood, turning it this way and that to examine the brown coloring and grain. The wood was reddish, almost. Perhaps it was mahogany wood? She dropped it onto the ground, and as she lifted her hand, she noticed something staining them.
Blood.
The reddish color wasn't paint or mahogany…it was literally blood-soaked wood.
I hope you liked the story! Next chapter, my character, Krynne Malfoy, is making her first substantial appearance. I'm so excited!