Chapter 4

"So, this is it, Gash," Nell said drowsily. She stretched and slowly sat up in bed. "We're off to Hogwarts today."

"Well, hopefully you will. Good thing you got up early today, Nell," Gash said, a touch of humor entering his voice. "You have just a bit more packing left to do."

Nell rubbed her eyes and then focused her sight in on the room around her in horror. There were several piles of clothes, dirty and clean, tossed on the ground and all around open closet. Books and pens and notebooks and loose pieces of paper were scattered everywhere. Her large trunk in the corner was wide open and completely empty.

"Umm, Gash? What time did you say it was?" Nell said, giving a nervous laugh.

"Still early. It's 6:12 a.m."

Nell's eyes widened and she dove into the pig sty without another word. She spent the first thirty minutes hurriedly folding her clothes and jamming them all into the suitcase. The next twenty were spent finding all of her school books and dumping them all on top of her horrendously organized clothes; her older and more precious personal books were placed neatly into the jumbled mess of clothes while the other uninteresting ones required for school had been merely tossed in. After that, she spent another thirty-five minutes hunting down everything else she needed or might possibly need in the next several months at the school. With the rest of her belongings she decided not to bring, she shoved them under her bed and into her emptied closet in order to give her room the impression of being at least somewhat orderly.

By 7:37 am, Nell was standing panting in the middle of the room. Her trunk was closed up and lying by door with the bird cage sitting on top of it. In the bird cage was one of the frogs she had transfigured into a crow the previous day to act as a decoy until Gash would take its place.

She stumbled back onto the bed. Maybe I can get another half-hour of sleep...

Just a few minutes later, she heard a series of soft knocks at her door.

"Nellie! Nellie, wake up! Breakfast is ready," Andrew yelled through the door.

Nell groaned into her pillow. "I'm coming." At least he has the sense not to intrude on my room, like everyone else in this house seems to take the liberty of doing. She reached for her wand and then stood up. "I'm sorry, Gash. We might as well get this over with," she said.

"No, I won't," Gash protested stubbornly. "Those frogs you transfigure into birds are pretty convincing, you know. I don't see why I can't just hide in your pocket, and let one of those dumb amphibians play dumb bird in my stead. And plus, you know how I hate cages."

"Those frogs make terrible birds, Gash. Haven't you seen them? They try leaping around and flicking their tongues out at everything. And once they figure out how to caw, they never shut up. I wouldn't be asking you if I didn't think you could do a better job."

"They're pretty convincing to me, at least…," he said. "And how can you really think that I, a creature who has no limbs, will fare better than those four-legged frogs in pretending to be a bird, a creature with a pair of legs and wings?"

"Yes, you can do it," Nell replied insistently.

Nell walked over to the cage and pointed her wand at the thing inside. She muttered a spell and the awkward bird perched inside turned back into a frog. "They're too stupid to figure out that they're not frogs anymore. I assume you might be smart enough to acknowledge it. And you don't have to do much—you don't even have to stand up, if you don't want to. Just let out a caw or two once in a while and try to act like the typical dumb bird. C'mon, whaddya say, Gash?"

Gash glared at her for another second and then silently made his way across the floor. He slithered past the disoriented amphibian and up into the cage, where he coiled up. "Please, just hurry up. I want this to be over as quickly as possible."

As she had practiced earlier on several frogs, she pointed her wand at him. "Avifors," she said confidently.

His physical body wavered and then stretched and morphed into that of a raven. He ruffled his wings and slowly tried to make use of his knobby legs.

"Not as bad as you thought?" she said.

"Shut up," he hissed in Parseltongue, and then let out a deep, throaty caw.

Nell smiled and shut the door of the cage. "I promise I'll change you back as soon as we reach Hogwarts."

She opened the door to her room and then made her way downstairs to the kitchen. When she entered the kitchen, she saw a breakfast of toast, a few pieces of bacon, and a couple of eggs already served up on a plate in front of her place at the table.

"Hurry and eat up, Nellie," her mother said, as she set a glass of milk down beside Nell's plate. "We're leaving in thirty minutes."

Just as Nell picked up her fork, Andrew slid into the seat next to her with a bowl of cereal in hand. "So, are you excited?"

"For going off to Hogwarts?" Nell shrugged. "I suppose I am a bit."

"Oh, come on," he said, taking a bite of his breakfast. "You're going off to a school for magic. I get to go off to a school for Muggles. You'll learn about spells and magical creatures, I'll learn about math and history."

Nell took a sip of milk. "I don't think that the stuff at Hogwarts sounds all that exciting. I've been studying magic since I turned six. I've never been to a Muggle school. What are they like?"

"Can I tell you a secret?" He leaned forwards a few inches. "I might pretend that I'm content with my Muggle life, but I'm not. I wish I could hold a wand and cast all sorts of spells. But I can't, and I never will."

"I don't take my magic for granted, Drew," she said between bites. "I was just being curious."

He paused, and then reached behind his chair and pulled out a box. "Say, want to play one more quick game before you leave?"

Nell smiled and nodded. "Of course." Playing chess was one of the only things she genuinely enjoyed doing with anyone in this family.

Andrew opened his mouth again to say something, but his mother came into the room again. "Sorry, but we should get going now. In the car, now, you two."

"But it hasn't even been close thirty minutes yet," Nell protested.

"Well, you don't want to miss the train, do you?" she said, and promptly left.

Nell sighed and got up with her cleared plate and empty glass in hand. "In a second. Let me go get my trunk from upstairs first."

"Your sister already brought your things down from your room for you. Now, hurry up into the car."

"In a minute," Nell said irritably.

She placed her dishes on the counter and hurried upstairs. She managed to fish a clean outfit from underneath her bed and quickly changed into it. She ran out to the driveway and quickly took the remaining back passenger seat of the minivan. And then they were off.

As soon as they reached a main road, Andrew, sitting next to her, pulled out the box and smiled. "It won't be another hour until we reach the station. Enough time for one good game of chess, like I promised, don't you think?"

With quite a bit of difficulty, they set the board up between their laps. They managed to keep the pieces upright and within their squares with the use of a few small strips of tape.

"Your move first," Nell said.

Andrew paused a moment, and then struck out his hand and moved his pawn piece forwards a space. Nell mirrored with a similarly benign move.

The game went on slowly, at first, and then picked up rapidly as their hands began sweeping across the board, moving some pieces forwards and taking others off. In an unexpected move, Andrew's knight suddenly struck out and took the place of Nell's rook.

Nell studied the chess board carefully again and again. The climax of the game was approaching. She saw several paths set before her, but only one or two of them could lead her to achieving the winning checkmate—she just had to find the right one. She took the plunge and reluctantly moved a piece forwards.

They carried on playing. But it was only half a dozen turns later that Nell realized her mistake.

Nell's eyes flicked from one end of the board to the other. There were no other paths, just one. It branched off into half a dozen possible moves, but they all ultimately ended the same way. She could feel her heart pounding in panic and her arms and legs begin to tremble.

Andrew immediately moved one of his own pieces and swiped her last bishop off the board.

Nell immediately retaliated with her queen. "Ch-check," she stuttered.

Andrew calmly moved his king away, delaying her for two more turns. Nell moved her queen again with trembling hands. The older boy moved his bishop into place.

Nell shoved her queen forwards again. "Check!"

Andrew moved his rook, and Nell's queen was gone. "Enough of that, sis," he said.

Nell glanced furiously over the board again. How could I have missed that?! She was down three pawns, a bishop, a rook, two knights, and a queen. She took a moment to calm her nerves somewhat, and then slowly took his last bishop with her last desperate move.

"Checkmate," said Andrew, knocking over Nell's king.

The car coasted to a stop in front of the King's Cross station and Gash cawed again loudly.