Cedrella's Third Year

1930

Cedrella's third year at Hogwarts proved to be exceedingly interesting on a number of levels. Scholastically, she found herself happily challenged. She had chosen Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and to her family's shock and no little amount of horror, Muggle Studies as her electives.

When Father discovered that she intended to take Muggle Studies, she had immediately been called into his study, and taken to task.

"I do not know why you waste your time and talents on such a useless subject." Father said. "But I shall be writing the Headmaster and informing him you will not be attending that so-called class."

"I will attend it, Father, whether you will or no." Cedrella said firmly.

Internally, she was shaking in fear at defying her father's commands for the first time in her life, but she wasn't going to back down from this. At least, not unless he forced the issue by going to their Head of House. Not for the first time did Cedrella find herself grateful that her father wasn't that august personage - it made it so much easier to do as she wanted, rather than what her father wanted her to do.

"I agree with you that Muggles are foul creatures. I am not taking the class because I *like* them." She insisted. "I am taking the class because it is prudent to know the enemy – and one's prey."

While she had absolutely no intention of ever going Muggle-hunting, she knew that intimating she might actually do so would help to placate her father. It also helped that two truisms - 'know thine enemy' and 'knowledge is power' were as well known in the Wizarding world as they were in the Muggle.

"When one is in pursuit of a dragon, or a werewolf, or any other magical creature one desires to hunt." Cedrella said. "Or has enmity with, one is *wise* to learn all one can of the creature's habits, habitats, strengths and weaknesses. In doing so, one is less likely to come to harm in the pursuit of the creature. This is no different. In that class, I will learn a great deal about Muggles, and thus be better equipped to … deal with one. For instance, I am given to understand from conversations I have overheard that Muggles have a variety of weapons. While I am sure such crude constructs can do little to no harm to the prepared witch or wizard – I can only be prepared if I know what those weapons are, what they do, and what they look like."

Father contemplated her for several long moments before he relaxed minutely. "There is wisdom in your argument, Cedrella." He finally admitted. "Very well. You have my leave to pursue this."

"Thank you, father." Cedrella said, and then got while the getting was good.

In truth, Cedrella was taking the class because between her yearly encounters with Muggles in Diagon Alley and conversations she had indeed overheard, her curiosity had been piqued. She was still quite sure that Muggles were uncouth, violent creatures, but the claims of several of her classmates needed to be verified at the very least, and Muggle Studies was the best place to do so, short of venturing into the Muggle world. That, she was not prepared or willing to do.

The first thing she discovered in the class was that what was taught did not quite tally with what she was hearing from the Muggleborns in the castle. For instance, in the Muggle Studies class, 'horseless carriages' were presented as a brand new Muggle invention, and claimed to be very rare. From what she was hearing from the Muggleborns, however, that wasn't quite true. The things were fairly new, yes, but they'd apparently been around a few decades. They were also rapidly becoming anything but rare. And that was but one point where things differed, though apparently they didn't differ by too terribly much.

Cedrella was forced to decide that whoever wrote the books for the class only visited the Muggle world occasionally, rather than living there. She was also forced to decide that whatever else Muggles might be, they were clever creatures, capable of inventing the oddest things in rapid succession.

Most of the things Muggles invented proved to be work-arounds for things that a witch or wizard could do with a wave of a wand. Those carriages, for instance, were the Muggles' answer to traveling long distances. Where witches and wizards had brooms, floos, portkeys and apparation (among other choices), Muggles had their horseless carriages. They also had some rather odd flying … things, apparently, as well as boats. While the work-arounds were bulky, crude, and inelegant, they nevertheless worked.

Arithmancy fascinated her. Arithmancy was the backbone upon which new spells were formulated. Its sometimes exceedingly complicated mathematical formulae provided the answers to how much power a new spell might require and the optimal wand movements to accomplish the required task. Balancing the two frequently proved to be entertaining, as the power level changed with the wand movements. It was possible to lower the power requirements by changing the wand movements, but this also frequently changed the spell's effects slightly, or decreased the length of time the spell worked. Too far in one direction, and it wasn't the spell you were wanting to create. Too far in the other, and only a handful of people might be able to cast the spell.

Ancient Runes was slightly less interesting, but no less important. Runes formed the backbone of all semi-permanent (lasting one to five years) and permanent wards, transfigurations, charms, or conjuring, among other applications. Runes could be used by anyone with so much as a spark of magic. Some squibs could even use them - those that had enough magic to perceive magical creatures but not enough to perform any actual spells.

Third year was proving to be interesting outside of academics as well. By the end of second year, Abraxas had seemed to at least partially learn his lesson when it came to hounding her, and had become more circumspect. He still pursued her, but he had learned not to cross the line in the sand that her cousins and the Gryffindor boys had drawn. That improvement in behavior continued into her third year. The relief from his attentions was welcome, even if having a triad of Gryffindors defending her honor would never cease to be odd.

She was amused to note just before Yule break her third year that Harfang Longbottom and Callidora had begun to spend an unprecedented amount of time together, given their Houses and Families. It was creating *quite* the stir in the school. While cross-House romances were pretty much expected after graduation, even between Gryffindors and Slytherins, such things happening *in* Hogwarts was cause for massive amounts of gossip and no little amount of shock, horror, and dismay from a variety of parties. Callidora and Harfang seemed to be rather enjoying the notoriety, and took a perverse pleasure in flaunting their relationship in the presence of the most vocal objectors.

The thing of further interest – and a great deal of intense amusement – was the so-called Marauders. Knowing who they were actually increased the amusement, mostly thanks to the entire student body trying to figure it out. Even Septimus, Harfang, and Charlus got in on the 'who are they' shenanigans.

And that was the source of the rest of her amusement as regarded that group. Because for a triad of Gryffindors, they were being very Slytherin indeed about how they went about making examples of their targets. There was no crowing, no indiscreet discussion of targets in places they could be overheard, and they even had the wit to join in on guessing who the Marauders were, rather than keeping silent and thus bringing suspicion onto themselves. The pranks themselves were well thought out and executed, and in many cases specifically tailored to a known weakness of the target, for maximum effect.

Cedrella continued to keep a casual eye on Septimus. It didn't hurt that she was of an age now to really notice that Septimus was … rather good looking, really, with the promise of becoming more so as an adult. Having something pretty to watch made keeping an eye on him that much more pleasant. The more she watched him, the more she became impressed with him. He was the quintessential Gryffindor – courageous, chivalrous, and determined. He also seemed to be largely without that House's worst vices – arrogance, pride, and leaping into situations without any forethought whatever. Oh, he wasn't perfect - Cedrella wasn't putting him on that sort of pedestal - but his faults were far outweighed by his good points.

He was surprisingly careful and methodical for a Gryffindor, and very protective of everyone younger than him. For that, Cedrella was grateful, because without his assistance and that of the Marauders, she would likely have faced an increasingly uncomfortable tenure at Hogwarts thanks to Abraxas and his persistence in pursuing her. He was intelligent, hard-working, charming and personable without being over-the-top about it. Yes, if he continued thus, he would make a not-bad choice for husband. Not bad at all. He could use a lot more cunning and ambition, but that could be developed with the right handling later.

School was otherwise quiet the rest of the year. To her surprise, her father pulled her into his study the day after she returned home for the summer.

"I find myself curious as to what you learned in Muggle Studies." He confessed. "I never took the class myself, as the creatures were of no interest to me, nor have I encountered them outside of the yearly Diagon Alley trips."

Cedrella laughed. "You were in no way wrong about them being violent and uncouth, father." She said. "One of the first things we learned is that they have a surprising and distressing number of ways to kill each other despite not having magic, and they employ these methods frequently, and for little to no cause, both en-masse and on an individual level." She gave her head a shake. "And they seem to take pleasure in being quite rude to one another as well. Truly, I cannot comprehend how there are so many of them, the way they go about things. As violent as they seem to be you'd think they'd have wiped themselves out long ago."

Father made a wordless sound of amusement and waved a hand, encouraging her to continue.

"Despite that, they are surprisingly clever beasts." Cedrella admitted. "They seem to constantly be inventing things, creating ways to muddle along without magic, and improving on those methods. Granted, the methods are crude and bulky and generally far slower than magic, but they do still work." She gave her head a shake. "There also seems to be a discrepancy between what we learn and what is real. I think because whoever writes the book does not live in the Muggle world, only visits it occasionally."

"Definitely a strong possibility." Father agreed. "And how was the rest of your year, then?"

"Quite tolerable." Cedrella said. "The Malfoy heir seems to have come to understand his attentions are neither appropriate nor welcomed finally. He still makes it plain he would have my hand the moment I am of age, but he no longer attempts to waylay me to express this." She smirked. "Callidora and the cousins have been … quite thorough in expressing their displeasure at his presumption, and assistance in this matter has come from a rather unusual source."

"So the rumors would have it." Father agreed. "Something about a band of miscreants starting trouble?"

"Pranksters targeting bullies." Cedrella corrected, knowing full well that father would by now know nearly as much about what was going on as she did. "Callidora certainly seems to approve of it."

Father cocked an eyebrow at her. "It would be a felicitous match for her, if things continue to develop that direction."

"I don't disagree, father. Harfang is a personable, principled boy. I just find it amusing." Cedrella said.

"You will find yourself similarly distracted in time." Father pointed out. "It is the way of such things."

Cedrella wasn't so sure about that, but knew better than to disagree with Father. She well remembered that a few years ago, Callidora had been thoroughly uninterested in the male of the species. So it stood to reason that she would become more interested as time passed, and to claim otherwise would only see her made a fool of later on.

"At any rate, your mother has expressed an interest in traveling to Germany this year. As we have no other plans, I have agreed to indulge her wanderlust. You should make plans accordingly."

"Yes father." Cedrella said.

The news was quite pleasant. Family trips had been nonexistent until after Charis, her younger sister, had begun attending the Children's Ball. That next summer, they'd gone to France for part of the summer. They hadn't traveled since, so going abroad for a week or so sounded fun and exciting. For all the people they met were invariably strange, it was nevertheless fascinating to meet witches and wizards from outside of Britain and discover differences in how they performed and viewed magic.