"Ow! Would you bloody-!" Genny grit her green teeth as a familiar raven pecked at her head. The second Virgil saw the bird perched on her shoulder, obviously bothering her, he hurried over.

"Corkfoot!" he scolded, "What're you doing? Be nice to Genny!"

"SQUAH!"

The Ravenclaw sighed as his loyal bird flapped into the air and fluttered over to his shoulder, where it began nipping at his curly, blonde hair. It didn't really bother Virgil, but it reminded him quite a bit of being 'fussed over', which he wasn't overly fond of. Especially not from a bird.

"The silly thing flew right up to me during Flight Class, nearly knocked me off my broom!" Genny explained, haughtily, "It's been following me around ever since. Must've been looking for you."

"I don't have any snacks for you, you-" the bird pecked at his head, "OW!"

"Professor Sambrook thought it was attacking me. Just about Stupefied the thing right out of the air." Genny went on, "I don't suppose Professor Black will be thrilled with us trying to bring a live raven into detention, will he?"

"Doubt it." Virgil sighed, "Corkfoot?" he and the raven made eye contact, "If you wait here I'll give you plenty of snacks later." he looked for any hint of recognition in the cold, blue eyes, finding none, "Understa-"

"SQUAH!"

Virgil jumped a little, before catching himself.

He sighed.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'."

Carefully, he removed Corkfoot from his shoulder and placed him on a nearby suit of armor. The bird stepped sideways this way and that a few times before giving the helmet a good few taps.

Whether it responded or not, Virgil wasn't sure. He was already a minute late to detention, which certainly wasn't a good look. The two Ravenclaw entered the Dark Arts classroom once again, finding it even less welcoming in the waning hours of evening. Professor Black sat behind his desk, setting another, smaller stack of gum next to the original box.

"Ah. Pity. Just a moment too late, I'm afraid." he sat back and interwove his fingers, "If only you'd been just a bit quicker, you could've avoided having to chew up an entire extra brick of the stuff."

He rose to his feet as the students arrived, silencing Genny's protests with a sharp tapping on the new gum box. It was a fraction of the size of the first, but still equated to a good extra hour of work.

"Chop chop."

Virgil caught Genny on the verge of an outburst that would've - no doubt - earned them another box of gum to chew. Best to just deal with it. Detention on his first day was already bad enough without managing to make it worse. He was just glad nobody had mentioned anything about contacting his parents. They would - undoubtedly - be unimpressed by the display. With any luck, they'd never need to find out about it and this would be his last time getting a punishment of any kind.

"Git." Genny sat heavily in the chair at the desk, hissing the word out as Black disappeared into his office, "We were late by - what - one minute?" she tore the box open and pulled out a wrapped cube of pink chemicals, "You know, I'm glad he's not the Headmaster."

She popped it in her mouth and began chewing, Virgil immediately realizing the problem with this scenario: he really hated the sound of chewing. It was just disgusting to him. Even if Genny was his best friend and a girl and everything, it just made his skin crawl.

He knew instantly that this would be torture.

And it was.

Not only was the sound 'upsetting' to say the least, but his jaw was tired less than ten pieces in. And it was a box of two hundred. Each piece took about ten seconds of rapid chewing to get properly 'chewed up' at which point - if the 'spit-out' step occurred with maximum efficiency - a single piece would only take about 15-20 seconds from pick up to spit out.

Genny was good enough to get it in 10, but there was another problem: speed decay. Each piece took just a little bit longer as jaws cramped and it became necessary to take breaks. Doing multiple pieces at once was a time sink, since with each additional cube of gum they became harder and harder to chew properly. Not to mention, that tended to meld them into pieces that were likely too big for Waddiwasi to work with.

The unspoken rule between them was that they'd do anything to avoid ever having to touch 'the pile'. They didn't need to say it, just one look told them that was not an option.

Thus, what started as optimistically a thirty minute activity stretched on and on and on as their jaws rapidly became too sore and tired to finish a single piece in less than thirty seconds. Soon the 'sound' was nothing compared to the cramping.

Genny resentfully spit another piece into the pile.

"I never want to even see another piece of gum for the rest of my life..." she muttered to herself, "I never even liked the stuff."

"Me neiveh..." Virgil massaged his jaw, "He shaid weh c'n go at dinnah time, wight?"

"I hope they're serving soup..." Genny took a minute to completely unwind, stretching back and letting out a sigh. Virgil was impressed by her ability to still talk pretty normally after all the chewing, which he certainly couldn't say about himself.

"Hobefuwwy..."

Eventually, they finished the main box, leaving just the smaller one. If Virgil hadn't been late, they would've been able to just leave. The Ravenclaw was achingly aware of this fact as he groggily tore open the final box, throwing his friend an apologetic look. Genny was practically vibrating from anticipation and - quite possibly - sugar.

She obviously just wanted to get it over with.

The second she got a cube she began chewing like mad, tearing through the smaller supply with a renewed gusto that Virgil did his best to mimic. Still, his jaw was aching so bad it had evolved into a complete headache, and his mouth had gotten some funny, sugary burning sensation in it. Genny squeezed his shoulder, her foot tapping impatiently as she finished piece after piece.

"Ftoo!" Virgil sank back in the chair as he spit out the final wad of gum, letting exhaustion momentarily take him. He had never thought of chewing gum as being an effective torture method before, but he now had first-hand experience with it.

It was really quite unpleasant.

Genny yanked him to his feet, staring into his dazed eyes with a burning intensity, "Come on, Virgil! We'll be late for dinner if we don't hurry!"

She took his hand and dragged him away, the Ravenclaw boy having only a moment to wonder if they should let Professor Black know they had finished. Logically, though, he'd find the evidence of their triumph on his desk and that would speak for itself. As soon as they were out the door, Corkfoot flapped over and landed on the boy's shoulder.

The bird rode him all the way down the hall, occasionally letting out an irritated squawk if Virgil bounced too much. The Duelist's Wing was relatively empty, which wasn't much of a surprise seeing as how Lumenlock was the smallest house. They would probably be some of the only people there, seeing as how it was where their Common Room was located.

Not that Virgil knew exactly where it was. Though the thought did make him a bit curious. What was their Common Room like? And how did you get in? They seemed like the sort who would guard it with a riddle, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was something even more complicated like an advanced Arithmancy problem.

The pair arrived at the dining hall to find it already mostly packed with students. Genny insisted they sit next to each other - not that Virgil was complaining, her pushiness was just a bit funny to him - finding a pair of seats amid some other First Years.

Mostly First Years. The girl next to Virgil was a few inches taller than him, which was certainly not an inherently unique trait, but something about her just felt older. She didn't have the excited buzz of the other First Years. She threw a quick glance to Virgil before turning her attention back to her book.

"Do you recognize him?" Genny hissed directly behind Virgil, startling the boy terribly. He turned to find Genny's face surprisingly close to his, though she was in no way looking at him. Instead, her gaze was fixed on the very front of the dining hall.

The Headmaster.

"You mean...?"

"I mean, do you think he's... 'new'?" she asked, "Or do you suppose he was just a file clerk or something in our time?"

Virgil couldn't help but feel like he would've remembered the man if he were from the original timeline in some way. He simply looked too important to have ever been some unknown entity. Virgil had to believe he was from this new timeline exclusively. It was an upsetting thought, but there was always the possibility that Lumenlock had had children after going to the past.

"But he was so old!" Genny said, visibly disgusted.

"It's still possible!" Virgil defended himself.

"What're you two whispering about?" the older girl next to Virgil turned to them, her eyes scrutinizing and worryingly confrontational. Her dark eyebrows were scrunched down into a look of impenetrable suspicion, instantly causing Virgil's face to go sheet white.

"Secret!" Genny snapped, holding her hand over her mouth.

"What sort of secret?" the older Ravenclaw girl asked.

Virgil was desperately thankful that Genny was there, as he got the feeling he would've been completely unable to not answer her truthfully. He had no doubt she was a good few years older than him, her presence alone radiating 'adult authority' like a bonfire.

"What do you mean 'what sort of secret'?" Genny answered, snootily, "The secret kind!"

Instead of losing interest, the older girl just turned to them more fully, her eyes blazing with worrying-levels of interest. She slowly leaned in, obviously singling Virgil out as the weak link between the two of them. The Ravenclaw boy leaned back, eyes immediately diverting. The only color in his entire face was the burning red of his cheeks.

It didn't help that the girl was that worrying kind of pretty that made one want to tell them things. Not that he really had any interest in girls in that way, but it was still quite intimidating.

"This is about Professor Binns, isn't it?" she said, her face hovering about an inch from his.

"Yes!" Virgil blurted out, before realizing she had not - in fact - guessed correctly. Genny instantly put a hand over his mouth and pulled him back before pushing his head under the table. Virgil pulled it back out again, nearly bashing it against the older Ravenclaw girl.

"What's happened to him?" Genny looked confused.

"He's disappeared." the girl whispered, adding an unnecessarily sinister edge to it, "I was there in his class first hour, you know? He just snapped. Cracked. Went utterly bonkers! They had to end class early and drag him out!" she whispered, "You know what I think happened?"

Virgil stared at her, silently pleading with her for an answer.

"I think he remembered that he was murdered." she hissed, "It would be just like the first book of the Detective Murdlebock series, where he investigates his own murder!" her eyes gleamed in a new way, "Wouldn't that be something? To realize you were actually-"

"That sounds stupid." Genny said, snidely, still keeping Virgil in a headlock from behind. The blonde boy got the feeling he was one slip-up away from getting throttled into silence. "What sort of an idea is that?"

The Ravenclaw girl bristled with irritation, sliding a little closer to whisper all the more secretively. Her eyes were now fixed on Genny, who pushed Virgil a bit forward to - potentially - act as some sort of shield from the older student's wrath.

"When the Professor snapped, he started screaming all sorts of stuff." she hissed, "About how it was 'all wrong'. Started throwing books all about the place! It was scary!" Virgil felt his blood run cold, "Just went proper mental right then and there, while trying to explain how Leicester Lumenlock was killed." she tapped her head, "I bet it reminded him of his own murder!"

Virgil's eyes widened, the older girl seeming to take that as a sign that he believed her. Really, her words just made Virgil's stomach turn. Had Professor Binns remembered?! Did he remember the original timeline, too?! Was it just that he couldn't handle the pressure of the world changing and lost it?

"What else did he say?" Virgil mumbled.

"He said... 'What is this?!' a load. And 'What happened?!' and 'It wasn't like this!'. He was just starting to scream something about Lumenlock when some other teachers came in and silenced him." her eyes narrowed, "With a Silencio spell, I mean. It was strange! One of the teachers just told us not to worry about it or something." she winced, "He was very old, after all."

Virgil's heart sank. Professor Binns had known. He'd known that the timelines were wrong, and he'd probably known since yesterday when everything got all scrambled up. Suddenly, Virgil couldn't help but wonder if the Professor might have found... something. He was the History of Magic Professor, what could he have figured out about the world in just a few hours?

The idea made Virgil's brain itch.

"Where... is he?" the Ravenclaw boy asked, finally.

Just as the older girl was opening her mouth to respond, she was interrupted. Their attention was snatched by a loud 'Ahem.' that managed to reach all the way across the room. A magically enhanced voice; the one belonging to the new Headmaster.

"Congratulations to everyone on completing their first day of the new year." he spoke, his voice devoid of emotion. Not overly cold, just precise and clean and clear and completely neutral. It was rather like a finely cut diamond, matching perfectly his overly-refined appearance. Not a hair out of place, not a blemish on his finely wrinkled skin, not a speck on his immaculate robes.

"As I'm sure many of you have heard, our dear Professor Binns is not feeling well. We've insisted that he take a break from his duties until such time as he feels fit enough to resume his post." the Professor's words chilled Virgil to the bone, "In the meantime, a new Professor will be assigned to the class. We have a candidate in mind already, and the replacement should be in before the first week is concluded."

"This sort of reminds me of the situation in A Parliament of Wands where Detective Murdlebock investigates the death of an Auror who was killed by his own replacement." the girl in front of Virgil whispered back to him, "Not that I think that's what's happened here, obviously, but it would be pretty bloody interesting if it was!"

No, Virgil didn't think Binns had been driven mad by anything but the truth. The ghostly professor probably just couldn't handle living in a world that was so completely altered. At least, that was what Virgil had to assume. It hurt his head not being able to know for sure, despite it making perfect sense.

The Headmaster concluded his speech and took a seat, signaling for dinner to start. Instantly, food appeared in front of the group, Virgil feeling distinctly less uncomfortable next to the older girl now that he knew she was a bit strange. It was comforting, really. Certainly more comforting than thinking she was somehow 'onto them' in some way.

"Athena Lensby, by the way." she nudged him, "I already know who you are, though." her eyes narrowed, "Both of you. You've already made a bit of a buzz around the House. Dueling Slytherin, breaking curfew, trespassing on castle grounds. And it's not even your second week!" she leaned down towards Virgil, who shrank away awkwardly, "Interesting."

Virgil gulped. She returned to her dinner, allowing the younger boy to return to his. Not that he was able to eat too terribly much. His jaw was still achingly weak from all the chewing, meaning anything harder than 'bread' was too much work. He mostly filled up on soup and stew, as well as a load of soft tarts they brought out for dinner. He ate until his stomach hurt, never quite able to get the taste of gum out of his mouth.

It was nice to leave the dining hall with the rest of his class. It made him feel more like a proper student, not an outsider. Though, the feeling of 'not belonging' still lingered all the same, just for a far more primordial reason. This wasn't really his timeline. Some of the people were the same, some of the events were the same, but all of it was subtly wrong.

His Housemates should've been terrified of Lumenlock, they shouldn't have seen him as some hero of the Wizarding world. Lumenlock was a deranged killer who wanted to become a living nightmare, he wasn't some venerable genius of magical talent! What they remembered was wrong.

The world they'd grown up in was wrong.

They were all wrong.