Apparently Carver was only magical on his mother's side. She was a professional Quidditch player while his father was a professional at some Muggle sport called 'Football', which was apparently rather popular. It was something like Quidditch but on the ground and with only one ball. It sounded a bit boring to Virgil, but still much more interesting than what either of his parents did.
And it - sadly - probably made Carver a bit too 'cool' to be his friend.
"Here we are." Carver slipped into the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, Virgil quickly following suit. In the air above the room hung an enormous dragon skeleton, which certainly beat out the unicorn skeleton in both size and grandeur. Not to mention, it didn't make him feel an icky chill in the pit of his stomach.
Virgil kicked himself for forgetting to ask Professor Black about that, though he figured there'd be plenty of time to do so during detention. The thought of chewing up all that gum was rather disgusting and made his jaw feel like it was cramping up already.
He'd never liked gum.
Angus Strangeways - the Professor for their Defense class - was the orange-bearded man Virgil had seen at breakfast, though at the time he'd failed to appreciate the ridiculous size of the man. He must've been seven feet tall or so, with the muscles of a viking warrior. He was squeezed into a fur-lined coat that looked far too refined for him despite its undoubtedly rugged appearance. He looked like he should be wearing a bear pelt and warpaint, not a vest with a pocket watch in it.
His eyes were wide, his smile was wide and his stance was wide. If his lessons were all about how to defend yourself against the Dark Arts by beating the stuffing out of it, Virgil wouldn't be surprised.
"Now!" Professor Strangeways declared, his booming voice resonating all through the classroom, "I know what you're probably all thinking. Yes, I am very tall! Thank you for noticing, yes!" he beamed, "It comes quite in handy for reaching things that are very high up! Now, I've got a question for all of you: raise your hand if you've ever encountered a magical creature of any kind!"
The Professor raised his own hand, nearly seeming to reach the ceiling. Virgil could safely say he'd never encountered anyone quite so tall. He barely seemed to come up to Strangeways's knees, which was rather intimidating and made him not want to get much closer to the behemoth. Thankfully, the giant man didn't seem too scary.
He raised his hand, joining the entire rest of his class.
"Excuse me, Professor." the tired boy Virgil recognized from earlier that morning raised his hand, "That wasn't a question."
"Oh! Keen observation, Mr. Ayers! Points to Ravenclaw, I think!" the Professor stuck his enormous paws in the pockets of his fur-lined jacket, "Seems that all of you have encountered a magical creature at some point. That's good, that's good! Brilliant! Who's encountered the biggest one? We'll go around the room, name the biggest magical creature you've ever encountered!"
Students began to think, one of them - a Hufflepuff - eventually raising her hand. She had strawberry blonde hair in a bun and freckles, with rather droopy eyes that gave the impression of always being tired.
"I saw a Sasquatch when I was visiting America!"
"Daring!" Strangeways stroked his beard, "What were you doing there? And meeting a Sasquatch? Maybe he was a relative of mine! Hah!" he barked a laugh, "Only a joke!"
"Just on vacation. There's this lovely park there we wanted to visit and there was a whole society of Sasquatch living in it!" the girl seemed to brighten up at the memory, "It was brilliant!"
"Brilliant, indeed, Ms. Ogden! Can anyone beat a Sasquatch? They can be quite big, you know? Bigger than me! Anyone?" he searched for hands as if they might be hiding. A few people were hesitant, but clearly thinking. Finally two hands shot up.
"A Troll!" the Slytherin crossed his arms, sounding suspiciously like the rat-voiced boy who'd been troubling Carver earlier, "My father took me on a hunt once."
He was clearly proud of himself even though it sounded rather cruel to Virgil.
"What manner of troll?"
"Forest!"
"I see. Big indeed." the Professor turned away, clearly feeling that there was still room for more. Immediately the Slytherin boy began thinking again, clearly desperate to have seen the largest 'thing'.
Virgil swallowed. He'd met a Sphinx on vacation with his family in Egypt, but he was hesitant to bring it up. What if Sphinxes had been completely wiped out in this timeline? He'd either look like an idiot or a liar, and he didn't want to deal with either possibility.
He could still remember that Sphinx. It'd been the gatekeeper at their resort and would only let them through if they could solve its riddle. And it was a new riddle every night. And they were there for three weeks. An amazing creature, but after so many riddles it was hard to look back fondly on their time together.
"Got anything?" Carver nudged him as another student put forward 'Manticore' and another tried 'a really large dragon toad'. Virgil bit his lip. Honestly, the Sphinx he'd met was rather enormous, but he also couldn't say he had too much of an investment in winning this little competition.
"Not really." Virgil shrugged.
"I seen a dragon before." Carver spoke up.
All eyes turned to him, the Professor's lighting up.
"Have you now?" he asked, "Do go on!"
"Just a Hebridean. Saw it while I was out flying with me mum." Carver shrugged, as if it were no big deal, "Pretty far away, but probably thirty feet or so from tip to tip."
"I saw one that was thirty-five-!" the Slytherin boy from earlier was cut off as the Professor clapped his hands together, the sound bouncing around the room before dissipating.
"Well! It sounds like most of you have seen some truly large magical beasties! But, of course, size isn't everything! Lookit me! I'm enormous and I wouldn't hurt a fly! You could encounter something forty feet tall that was less dangerous than something half your own size! Personally, I would rather face down a Mountain Troll than... say... a Lethifold." he slapped a nearby desk, "Which is why I don't want you to be alarmed at what you see next:"
The Professor then returned to the front of the classroom and waved his wand in the air. Instantly, a creature appeared next to him; one that hadn't seemed to be there before. It was a slimy, gaunt and lumpy humanoid with a bald head and glowing, green-yellow eyes. It sat on the ground, wearing what seemed to be old pajamas.
"A ghoul?" one of the students asked.
"A ghoul, indeed! Spalding is his name! And your assignment for today's lesson is to get him to move from this spot." Strangeways pointed towards the squat creature. It was still easily Virgil's size, likely bigger. He knew better than to be intimidated by a ghoul - the worst it might do is lob something at him - but it was still rather big and brutish looking.
He didn't like the idea of trying to talk to it, even if he knew in his heart of hearts that ghouls really weren't very dangerous.
"Are we going to go over ghouls at all?" Mr. Ayers - the Ravenclaw boy - asked, confused, "Or are we just going to try and get it to bugger off?"
"Him, Mr. Ayers, him. Get him to bugger off." Strangeways corrected, "Mr. Spalding over here is a valuable member of our staff and I don't want him being referred to like he's nothing but a common piece of LINT!" the bearded man slapped a desk, causing the students to jump, "Points to Ravenclaw!"
"What?!" the ratty Slytherin boy looked positively crestfallen, "You can't just give him points for asking questions! That's not fair!"
"Excellent point, Mr. Spittle! Points to Slytherin!" the Professor turned and quickly scribbled a few things on the blackboard:
GHOULS:
HARMLESS (GENERALLY)
NO NEED FOR VIOLENCE
ADORABLE
He turned back to the class, "Any questions?"
"Is he mad?" Carver whispered, "Not that I'm complaining, but..."
"No? Good!" he clapped his hands together, "Form an orderly line, you'll get one minute to try and get Mr. Spalding to leave. You're not allowed to use force. Just use your words. Your wits!"
The students quickly assembled themselves into a line, some fighting to be upfront and show off, while others - like Virgil - tried to hang back. The Ravenclaw didn't much like his odds. He'd never been terribly good with people and this wasn't even really a 'person'. What was he supposed to do to get it to leave? Normally he might try to bribe it with some food, but he didn't have anything.
From what he knew about ghouls, they usually just hung about in attics and occasionally made some horrible noises. They weren't dangerous, but they also didn't really 'want' things. It wasn't as if it were a raven that could be easily lured away with the promise of frog legs. How was he supposed to motivate something that didn't want to do anything but sit around and eat bugs?
He at least had time to think. The first few students up were a mix of Slytherin and Gryffindor. The Slytherin typically tried to scare it away - to which they were met with a look of confusion - while the Gryffindor tried to very obviously trick it away, to which they were met with a look of confusion. Each student got a minute, usually giving them a chance to switch up their strategy partway through if it didn't seem to be working.
"Got no idea, mate." Carver admitted, "We had a ghoul in our attic back home. We just liked to put funny hats on him and stuff when we were bored."
"We had one, but my father had it removed." Virgil tugged a bit on his bottom lip as he spoke, "Felt a bit bad for the poor thing."
The line kept progressing forward, each minute pushing Virgil closer to his inevitable confrontation. Virgil - not being a very confrontational person - found this deeply troubling. A major part of the problem was the inability to see why it mattered. Other than it being the assignment, why did you need to get rid of a ghoul? They didn't do anything! How were you even supposed to relocate them without just using magic. You could do it without even hurting them, really. Just float them out. They probably wouldn't even care.
Another student failed to get the ghoul to budge.
Then another.
"What do you s'pose counts as 'force'?" Carver asked, "Could I just drag him away, you s'pose? Is that too much force? He said something about 'wits', didn't he?" the Ravenclaw sighed, "Bloody hell..."
When it finally came to be Virgil's turn he had no real idea what to do. He just approached the malformed, pale creature and stared at it for a few seconds. Mr. Spalding really was just sitting there. He was utterly minding his own business, often completely ignoring the students. Virgil scratched his head, his mind still blank.
"Go on, lad!" the Professor urged, "What've you got?"
"Well..." Virgil sighed, "Why does he need to move?"
"Because that's the lesson!"
"I know." Virgil fidgeted, "How are you going to move him after class? Does he just live in your office or something?"
"He does! I plan on carrying the little angel back there!"
"Then..." Virgil winced, "I'm just going to leave him alone, if that's alright."
The Professor's face fell, "You're not even going to try?"
It was silly, perhaps, but Virgil just really couldn't bring himself to do it. Maybe it was lingering guilt about their old family ghoul, or maybe it was just because he was too bloody shy, but either way he couldn't help but just feel like the ghoul was better left alone.
"Sorry, I just... don't want to bother him." Virgil took a step to the side.
The Professor was momentarily silent.
"How peculiar! I like it! Points to Ravenclaw!"
"Hang on!" Mr. Spittle protested, "You're giving him points for doing nothing?!"
"I am!" the redheaded Professor beamed, "Well spotted, Mr. Spittle! Astute!"
Carver stepped up, "Honestly, I don't really feel like messing with him either. Can I just-"
"Humph! Derivative! Points from Ravenclaw!" Strangeways wagged a finger.
"Oi!"
"Oh, fine. Some points from Ravenclaw."
"Professor!" Spittle protested.
"Next!"
A few more students tried to get the Ghoul to move, but it was useless. Talking to it did nothing and the thing was basically impossible to 'frighten' or 'intimidate'. Not even the sourest looking Slytherin could get the thing to so much as flinch. Heck, most of them could barely get it to look at them at all.
The second to last student stepped to the side.
Second to last? Virgil's brow furrowed. He hadn't actually seen anyone after them before they stepped away, he was just sort of suddenly aware of another person lingering at the back of the classroom. They'd been completely silent the entire time, never saying a thing or bringing attention to themselves.
"Mr. Bainbridge! Care to take a crack at it?"
Virgil's eyes widened. The Lumenlock boy had been in the class the entire time without him noticing. He slid off the short bookshelf he'd been sitting on, approaching the Ghoul wordlessly. Virgil couldn't say he liked the boy, particularly. He felt so... wrong. He never spoke, he never even seemed to blink. An aura of gloom hung around him, making him constantly seem like a condemned criminal being escorted to his execution.
It wasn't how any child should behave all the time. Especially not one who was meant to represent the 'best' House. Lumenlock was all about excellence, and yet Morgan never spoke up during class. There was no attempt on his part to seem superior, which Virgil couldn't really say was a 'bad' thing. It was just surprising.
The gloomy boy walked up to the Ghoul, stopping only a foot or two from it. This immediately seemed to earn the creature's curiosity as it looked up at him with wide, filmy eyes. For a moment, the two just stared at each other. Then the creature shivered. Visibly.
A shudder ran through its body before it quickly scooched backwards, disappearing behind a large chest and dropping out of sight. Morgan had managed to get the thing to move without even saying anything.
The display wasn't exactly inspiring. It wasn't daring or ostentatious or even really... impressive. It left the class silent, not quite sure of what to make of what they'd just seen. Morgan turned silently and took a seat near his fellow students, but distinctly away from them. He sat with a rigid posture, like some sort of doll.
Virgil swallowed.
"Spooky." Carver whispered to him.
"How unexpected!" Strangeways stared, clearly a bit taken aback, himself, "Nobody's ever made Mr. Spalding move before! Points to Lumenlock, I'd say!" he wagged a finger to the rest of the class, "But you needn't worry! You all still pass!" he clapped his hands, "Because, of course, this was not a lesson in 'how to get rid of ghouls'. Getting rid of ghouls is almost astoundingly easy! Watch!" he reached down and hoisted Mr. Spalding up like he was a giant, weird baby, "See? Simple. This was just a way to get you comfortable with facing magical beasts! The very act of encountering a magical beast can be quite a shock to even an experienced wizard, you know! It's important to be familiar with them so that you don't freeze up when you run into one!"
The bell rang.
"Dismissed!"
Virgil's gaze lingered on Morgan for a moment, but the boy didn't really do anything out of the ordinary. He just stood and made to leave, ignoring the few people who actually tried to interact with him. He felt cold. Distant. Virgil couldn't imagine trying to talk to him, as he made it so obviously clear he didn't want to speak to anyone.
Carver fell into step next to Virgil as the blonde boy left, letting out a deep sigh as he did. The two were clearly both thinking similar things: Morgan was more than a bit 'spooky'.
"Not all Lumenlock are like that, but that doesn't mean they aren't all a bit creepy." he said, his voice slightly hushed, "I get the feeling we're gonna need to get used to hearing 'Points to Lumenlock' a lot."
"What is it about them?" Virgil scratched his cheek.
"Just how they're raised, I guess." Carver shrugged, "When everyone expects you to be perfect, it probably messes with your head pretty bad. Most of them just seem like twats. Bainbridge is..." he trailed off, "Definitely different, idn' he?" Carver then gave him a quick slap on the back, "'least we're out for the day, eh? What're you doing after this?"
"Detention."
"Oh, right." Carver smiled, "Nice one, that!" he gave the blonde boy a friendly punch on the shoulder, "Good luck with all that, killer! I've gotta go study!"
He jogged off before Virgil could even say 'goodbye', leaving the Ravenclaw boy with his hand lingering in the air. He only had a moment to feel reproachful before remembering that he was due to meet Genny there. He felt his heart skip a beat as he realized the green-toothed girl could've gone through absolute hell and might need someone to talk to.
He jogged off towards the Duelist's Wing, suppressing a shiver as he re-entered Lumenlock territory.