Okay I originally had a much longer author's note but then I pressed one of those pesky little Fsomething buttons and it dissapeared...why? :(
This is my first update and I wrote the chapter- Mare
I hope you enjoy it! I think it's this story's longest chapter to date :)
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling, the only things we own are the plot and our OC's.
The enchanted sky glowed a deep cereulean as Andrea slowly chewed on a mouthful of instant oats. She was waiting for Shani to fly in with the newspaper and hopefully with a letter or two from her Muggle friends- though she didn't know exactly how her owl would have found them. Andrea felt lucky to have Muggle friends because of her mother, a muggleborn witch, although she had to lie to them about where she went at the end of the summer. Usually boarding school made a good lie, although she realized she had never mentioned where Hogwarts, technically a boarding school- said her guilty conscience, was. As her fellow Ravenclaws settled down, chattering away, she turned her thoughts to the broomstick "accident". Andrea had felt slightly unnerved about how urgent the situation seemed to her, but none of the teachers, nor the headmaster for that matter, had seemed to indicate alarm. When Kyrnne revealed her Metamorphagus power, Andrea had been shocked into suspicion, and her mind raced along now with what other secrets her friends might be concealing from her. Now that she was friends with Krynne she understood why the secret had been so well kept though, and then there was-well, there was Marcus- he never talks about his past, she thought- so how much did she know about him anyways? She started listing facts in her head and ran out fairly quickly. She knew Marcus' age, lineage and height and a whole lot about his personality…but before the year she she had met him, she knew nothing about his childhood. And then there was the possibility that this whole broomstick incident was just another inside joke of another person? The thought sickened her, not an inside joke, she amended, but a organized plot of some creep… A cloud of doubtfulness pervaded into the crisp morning as Lorelei nudged Andrea, pointing towards the window.
"Shani's a rather large owl isn't she?" Lorelei said. "What do you think you'll get in the mail?
Andrea shielded her eyes with one hand as she squinted into the sun-filled windows, locating her owl amidst a mass of wings and feathers that suddenly overtook the hall, filling every corner and table with hoots and caws.
"Maybe I'll get some letters from my Muggle friends- but usually it's just the paper- what about you?" Andrea said.
"My mum's mailing me some Dirrigible Plums, I hope they're not squished." Lorelei mused.
Andrea muffled a laugh in her robe's sleeve as her owl divebombed, stopping right by her bowl of oats. A gray newpaper tightly rolled up and bound with magic unfurled at the touch of her wand.
"Thank you, Shani." Andrea cooed as Shani nuzzled her cheek briefly and flew off, exhausted, to the Owlery. She opened to paper and began to read the first page, but was soon interrupted.
"The Minister bans decorative dress robes in private magic schools, ehhh sounds like a snore." Marcus' voice came from over Andrea's shoulder as she spun around. Marcus had somehow snuck over again unnoticed from the Slytherin table and was casually standing behind Andrea, unperturbed by the glaring Ravenclaws surrounding him.
"Apparently there have been too many cases of 'questionable attire' that 'distract from academic pursuits'" Andrea read as she warily continued scanning through the article. Andrea said indignantly, "I sincerely hope you don't get any ideas from this, Marcus." She looked pointedly down at Marcus' flamboyant cowboy boots.
"Oh, believe me- my next outfit is already in planning from what I've seen from that picture- what is it?" said Marcus, pausing in his tirade as Andrea frowned noticeably and brought the paper closer to her face and gave it a few firm shakes. "What are you doing?"
"Look at this!" Andrea exclaimed.
"I can see it from here. What's the big deal?" Marcus said.
"Take a good, long, look at it." Andrea insisted, her hands holding the newspaper taut for Marcus to look.
"Okay…" After a moment of prolonged silence, Marcus shoved his fist through the paper, making a loud whapping sound. "It's just a picture, come on Andrea, a picture, we've all seen those before, haven't we?"
"That's the point, though!" Andrea said, "It's just a picture, exactly like from the Muggle world -it's not moving at all."
Before he could suggest it, she flipped to the other pages first, reasoning that it could have been just that picture. Flipping one page after another, Andrea's suspicions were confirmed. By the last page she only paused for 10 seconds to make sure that the picture on the page, was undoubtedly still. Andrea felt like she had just quickly flashed into the Muggle world and it took a second for her to reassert to herself that pictures always moved in the wizarding world. Marcus looked at her, raising his eyebrows very slightly, as always, not one to overreact to things. Before Andrea could give Marcus the paper to see for himself, a pale hand shot out and grabbed the paper.
"You shouldn't bother with that- it will do you no good to work it out." Lorelei said matter-of -factly.
"The prophecy, you mean?" Said Andrea shrewdly.
"Come on, Andrea- this prophecy again? You don't still think it's actually real."Marcus said, pointedly rolling his eyes at Lorelei.
"Well, there's certainly no proof that it isn't." Lorelei said with a smile at Marcus disbelieving expression.
"And the proof that there is, then?" Marcus challenged, his chin jutting out in a confrontational gesture. "Why should we care about a fake prophecy, Loreliar"
"Of course we should care!" interjected Andrea.
"Why not?" Lorelei said simply, and with another smile and a wave, she headed off her class.
"Was she talking to me?" Marcus muttered, looking questioningly at Andrea. Andrea shrugged, just as mystified as he was. Then, rubbing the back of his head with one hand, "I've got Quidditch now anyhow, I just came over here to tell you- after the last class, me, you and Kyrnne-let's go to the secret hideout we discovered."
Andrea nodded and then said, "Wait a second- you hiccupped when you said Krynne's name." She said accusingly.
"Kyrnne." Marcus repeated and then flushed a little. "I so did not hiccup."
"You so did! Oh my god-" Andrea said, smiling gleefully. "You like her!"
"I did not! I did not!" Marcus protested loudly and this came to no avail as Andrea was laughing now, so he said, "And so what if I did? Huh? It doesn't mean anything." As Andrea grinned at him in reply, Marcus made a huffing sound, offended, and turned heel, making sure to hit Andrea in the face with his robe.
"Later!" Andrea called, her mood lightened as she watched Marcus stomp away.
After a morning of double potions with Professor Wimblecort, Andrea was feeling great about the rest of the day. The fact that she also had double Arithmatcy didn't even dampen the afterglow of successfully creating an original color changing recipe in potions class. The popcupine quills had been a nice touch, really, gave the color changing progression a nice shot of neon pink…The corridors were clogged as always but she spotted Marcus surrounded by a group of his Slytherin friends from the otherside of the stairwell. Waiting until Marcus was alone, she caught up with him as he was about to enter the Great Hall.
"Hey Marcus." She said as the doors opened and students started to file into the hall.
"Andrea!" Marcus exclaimed, "You're dry!" He grabbed her into a suffocating before she could protest. "Ahhh…freshly laundered robes- is that lavender I smell?"
"Idiot!" Andrea said indignantly, pushing Marcus off her, "You're soaking wet!"
"I know…" Marcus bemoaned, "Our captain still had us ride on our brooms can you believe it- quite slippery round the- well I won't bother you with the details."
"Why would you suffer the rain just to play a sport?" Andrea said, looking automatically up at the enchanted ceiling as they walked in. "Well, look at the ceiling, it's not raining anymore…"
"Wait- what the hell?" Marcus said, tilting his head, "It was not about to stop when we came in."
"Tough luck." Andrea said and they headed off to their respective tables. As she sat down at the Ravenclaw table, the chattering died down to murmurs and then silence. All four houses swiveled to face the front of the hall where the teachers' table was.
I wonder what the headmaster has to say, Andrea thought.
The headmaster, Professor _ had stood up and was clearing his throat now, the hall was abuzz with anticipatory silence.
"As you are all aware, recently, Hogwarts has had a minor accident." His eyes glanced briefly over the Hufflepuff table where there seemed to be the most recognition. After all, not all classes had been out when the boy had fell off his broom.
"Because of this mishap, although slight, precautions must be taken-so," He continued, "Quidditch games will temporarily be postponed until further notice-" A clamor arose at this as the students began to talk amongst themselves. Andrea saw Marcus raise his first in the air and shout "Objection!"
"I ask that all Quidditch captains understand that there will be no practices scheduled until the ban on Quidditch is lifted. Also, no student is to enter the Quidditch field in light of the current situation." A boo began to arise from the students and the headmaster tugged at his beard, aggravated.
"And what about the house cup?" shouted someone from the Gryffindor table. Andrea could see Krynne sitting there, looking thoroughly irritated by the news. At this shout, Andrea's Arithmatcy teacher, Proffesor Richter stood up and whispered something into the headmasters' ear.
A look of epiphany came over the old man's face, "Ah yes," He said suddenly, "We are in the process of scheduling some festivities with the Ministry of Magic anyways, so regardless of accident or no, there might not be time for Quidditch anyways." His eyes tinkled at this and the students were appeased enough to fall silent. They were not about to hear more about the mysterious plans though, apparently, because the headmaster suddenly waved his hands and food appeared on the tables. "Enjoy your lunch!" He said, concluding his speech amidst clatters of silver plates and cookery.
"What d'you think it means? Maybe they're organizing some kind of school dance or something…" Andrea's friend Priscilla said as they leaned across the table to discuss.
"Ugh, I hope not-dances mean dates and definitely not anyone I want to go with." Andrea said.
"Well," Priscilla began mischievously, "I'd love to go with that Marcus of yours if you don't."
"It's not like that!" Andrea moaned, "We're just friends. I think I caught him crushing on this other girl though-"
"Oooh, who?" Priscilla said.
"A Gryffindor, let's just say." Andrea said, not wanting to bring attention to Krynne's name.
"A Gryffindor and a Slytherin?" Priscilla said, her eyes widening, "He's got some nerve, doesn't he? Maybe he likes the heroic type- well of course he likes you Andrea, but I mean after that-"
"I don't like Marcus, you idiot!" Andrea said, whacking Priscilla with her Potions book.
Their conversation was cut short as the hall suddenly pulsed with flashing light. Andrea turned in her seat to look for the cause and her eyes shot to the ceiling. A crooked black line had appeared in the enchanted ceiling and she saw the two separate sides created by the fissure momentarily flicker between darkness and blinding light. After several seconds, the ceiling returned to normal, however, the dark line remained. Andrea felt a slight twinge of panic as the words of the prophecy ran through her mind. She looked around for her Marcus and Krynne, to see how they were reacting. She scanned the crowd quickly for them but the teachers seemed to busy so she directed attention towards them instead.
"Lunch is dismissed!" Said the headmaster quickly, waving his hands again even though the lunch period had been relatively short. The noise level rose again in the hall and the teachers' table was soon obscured and students got up to go to their classes, but when Andrea passed their table she saw them whispering to each other, huddled in deep discussion.