"Do you know what self-discipline means, Hermione?" Ari asked Hermione during their next Transfiguration lesson. They were sitting together and working on turning cups into goblets.

"Yes," said Hermione. "It's when you can control yourself so you can overcome obstacles and achieve your goals. Calixescens," she said, waving her wand. There was a flash of orange light, and the cup in front of her turned into a shiny gold goblet with rubies on the sides. Then she looked at Ari, who had been watching this whole thing with wide eyes. "Why do you ask?"

"'Cause I wanted to test you," Ari answered. "I already know the word, Snape told me. He made me write a hundred lines during detention about learning self-discipline."

"Good for you," Hermione said, rather suspiciously. "And have you actually learned to become more self-disciplined? Just from that one detention?"

"Of course!" Ari said triumphantly, straightening in her seat. "I mean, just look at me. Look at how much self-discipline I have! I've worked on all my homework even when I wanted to play with my stuffed animals instead. And lookie now! I've used my self-discipline to master turning cups into goblets!" And with a big grin, she said the incantation and flourished her wand like Hermione. Only Ari's cup, instead of turning into a big fancy goblet fit for a king, transformed into a misshapen blob of dull metal.

"Well, I'm still working on that last part," Ari conceded, as Hermione raised her eyebrows. "But I'm getting better. And now I'm working on my Potions essay. I'll turn it in on time in my most beautiful handwriting and show Snape I've got self-discipline. He won't have any reason to give me a zero anymore!"

"That's wonderful news, Ari. I'm so glad that you're finally becoming more motivated now," Hermione said with all the air of praising a housetraining puppy for peeing in the right spot. "I'm also glad that you took such a worthy lesson to heart — and when the lesson is from Professor Snape, no less. Especially since you were always stirring up trouble in his class and complaining about him earlier." She gave Ari a pointed glance. "But now you've set your differences aside and learned to behave yourself, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," she said thoughtfully, toying with her wand. "Snape's not too bad when he's not threatening to kill us and taking off points and throwing a fit. Well, I did talk to Professor McGonagall to watch over him, so he might be being nicer 'cause of that. Let's just hope his nice mood lasts."

As Hermione started to respond, there was a sudden loud snort behind Ari. "Wait a sec. Did you just call Snape nice?!"

Ari turned to the desk behind her and saw the dark-skinned boy she had made potions with on the first day of class — she had forgotten his name — and another sandy-haired boy sitting were both staring at her with wide eyes. "Yeah," she said. "He's been nicer these days."

"Really?" exclaimed the sandy-haired boy. "But all he does is have a go at our potions and suck up to the Slytherins."

Ari shrugged. "Well, he's still mean during class, I guess, but he was nicer when I had him for detention. He wasn't yelling at me or insulting me. He was pretty normal, actually."

"Wow, really?" gasped the dark-skinned boy. He exchanged awed glances with his friend. "Snape, acting normal? What is that even like?"

"Hmm..." Ari said thoughtfully as the boys gaped at her. "Well, he just sat at his desk and worked. He was pretty quiet. Didn't yell at me or whip me or anything. It was pretty nice. But also kinda weird. It's weird that he's weird when he's normal. That was so hard to say. Did I say that right?"

"Oh, please!" Hermione scoffed as Ari pondered her weird word dilemma. "What are you even implying? That Professor Snape's not normal? Just because you don't like him—"

"Oh, no, I don't not like him," Ari enthused, cutting over Hermione's babble. "He's a really interesting person, honestly. Because he's not a person at all! He's a vampire!"

"What?!" the boys exclaimed in unison, while Hermione flashed Ari a disgusted look.

"Yeah, he's a vampire," Ari repeated solemnly. "Just like Quirrell always talked to us about. Ugly, bloodthirsty, dark, they die if they see sunlight— and Snape's always pent-up in his stinky dungeon all the time. I bet he sleeps in a coffin, too. Or maybe he turns into a bat and hangs from the dungeon ceiling."

"By golly!" chortled the sandy-haired boy. "I always got the feeling Snape was a bat in his past life. But a vampire, wow — that's just something else!"

The dark-skinned boy grinned. "Do you think we should bring some garlic to class next time and see how he reacts?"

"Oh, please!" Hermione snarled again, her hair inflating like a hot air balloon. "Stop it with your ridiculous tales! Professor Snape is not a vampire, and he is definitely not a bat— he is a human! I never thought that I'd have to say this, but—"

But she was cut off by Professor McGonagall coming to their table and demanding to see their progress. Hermione whipped back to her desk and quickly transformed her goblet back into a cup, then the cup back into her jewel-embedded gold goblet. Professor McGonagall was seriously impressed, and awarded Gryffindor five points. Ari wanted to impress Professor McGonagall too, and tried to turn her metal blob back into a cup. But all she managed to do was create an even bigger blob of metal.

She smiled sheepishly at Professor McGonagall, who pursed her lips and told Ari to keep practicing. And for the rest of the class period Hermione lectured Ari how to say the incantation the right way and how to move her wand the right way, which just grated on her nerves more than anything else. But by the end of class she managed to produce a metal blob that resembled more of a goblet shape, so that was something.


Ari spent the weekend writing another letter to her dad. These days she was so busy with homework and classes she barely had time to sit down and write any letters. But when Saturday rolled around she had enough time to write an extra-long letter talking about how Snape was being nicer these days and had taught her a good life lesson during detention. That would put her father's worries to rest, she hoped.

Speaking of Snape, she spent Sunday working on their latest Potions assignment: a twelve-inch essay on horned slugs and their uses in potion-making. Twelve inches sure was a lot, but Ari was determined to get it done. She had noticed that ever since she had been forced to write those one hundred lines, it was a lot easier to write in quill and ink. She didn't even splotch ink over the page anymore, and all her letters looked neater than they ever had. She was very pleased. Looked like that detention had taught her yet another valuable lesson.

Even though it was easier to handle the quill now, it didn't make the work any less tedious. Her hand kept cramping up, and her eyes hurt from straining so long. Multiple times, Ari wanted to just give up and take a nap, or do something more fun.

However, she used her self-discipline to ignore the temptation and continue writing through the pain and exhaustion. Her fingers felt like they were going to fall off, and her neck was starting to hurt. But all her efforts paid off hours later, when she finally finished all twelve inches in her neatest, prettiest handwriting. That would show Snape! Now he wouldn't ever be able to complain that he couldn't read her writing, and she would show him she had gained self-discipline!

"This is the best thing I've ever written!" Ari declared proudly once she had dotted the last i and measured out the twelve inches with her ruler. "I wrote everything in my bestest, most neatest handwriting, and it's big enough for the bat's blind eyes, too. It's wonderful! I'd like to see him give me a zero now!"

There was a loud sniffle from the armchair beside her, and Ari tore her eyes away from admiring her beautiful parchment to Hermione, who was eying her beadily. "I still can't believe you got a zero on that assignment," Hermione said, wrinkling her nose.

"I know, right?" Ari scoffed. "It's so unfair! Snape thinks he's so great, being a big meanie and giving people zeroes — but it'll all change with this essay! Yeah, that's right, it'll be so good he'll be totally blown away, and he won't have a reason to call me a dunderhead anymore."

Ari smiled dreamily as she pictured Snape conceding defeat once he saw her beautiful essay and giving her a noble prize in essay-writing. Hermione on the other hand, who had been reading Ari's essay from the corner of her eye, grimaced like she had swallowed a whole lemon. "Well, you've done it all wrong," Hermione said all snottily. "The best time to use horned slugs in potions is when they've reached adulthood, not when they're larvae — and besides, slugs aren't even able to turn into larvae in the first place!"

"Nuh-uh! They can!" Ari snarled, flipping her essay over so it was shielded from Hermione's view. "I read it in the textbook! It said lava slugs are best to use in potions. So don't you dare try to correct me!"

Hermione glared fiercely at her, her tumbleweed hair quivering. "I was just trying to help," she snarled back, "but if that's how you're going to respond, then fine! You'll be paying the price for your ignorance sooner or later, so it doesn't matter to me anyway!"

"You're right it doesn't!" Ari growled. "Go and mind your own business!"

"Oh, I will," Hermione said coldly. With that, she buried her scruffy head back in her parchment. Ari hadn't noticed it before, but Hermione's parchment had grown so long it almost touched the ground. And it was growing longer still as Hermione scratched her quill furiously, her hand moving so fast it was just a blur.

"Why are you writing so fast?" Ari demanded. "And why's your parchment so long? What in the world are you writing?"

Hermione looked up, her eyes tiny cat slits. "It's my Potions essay."

"What?!" Ari shrieked, and Hermione jumped. Ari leaped from her armchair and peered over at Hermione's scroll of parchment. It was at least three feet long, and every last inch was filled up — and what was more, the writing was so small and cramped they looked like tiny little ants crawling on top of each other. "That's your Potions essay?! Are you serious? Why's everything so tiny? Are you trying to write an essay, or a textbook?!"

"It's an essay, obviously!" Hermione scoffed. "If I wanted to write a textbook, I would need even more explanations and details!"

Ari squinted at Hermione's gargantuan essay. Just trying to make out the microscopic words made her head spin.

"Well, Snape's not gonna read that," Ari declared, smirking. "Your words are so tiny. And we all know that bat's way too lazy and blind to read things that are any smaller than his nose. So I guess you should prepare to get a zero, too."

"Oh, please!" Hermione snarled. Her face muscles spasmed violently like Snape whenever he was about to explode. "You can get as many zeroes as you want, but don't you dare drag other people down with you. Unlike you, you see, I actually do my work. I research to get the most accurate data, and I most certainly don't make up information that goes against all observations of the natural world!"

Ari scowled. She wanted to fire a good retort and give Hermione a nice dose of her medicine, but she was distracted by a bunch of excited voices behind her. She whipped around and saw glasses boy and one of the redheads coming out of the dormitory staircase carrying a giant broomstick. At once everyone in the common room seemed to have gotten up and crowded around him, oohing and ahhing over the broomstick.

"Wow, it's amazing how Harry got on the kwitchditch team, huh?" Ari exclaimed to Hermione, their argument forgotten as this new spectacle claimed her attention. She had learned of the news just a few days ago, and it had taken all the Gryffindors by storm, since apparently Harry was the youngest player on their kwitchditch team in a gazillion years. "Who knew he'd be so good flying around on a broomstick! And it's even better 'cause Malfoy was trying to get Harry in trouble, but it totally backfired when Professor McGonagall came and saw how good Harry was at flying!" Ari snickered heartily as she thought of the mole rat, who always looked like he was in the middle of passing a big turd whenever he saw Harry these days.

Meanwhile, Hermione gave an expression remarkably like Malfoy's, screwing up her face and glaring daggers at all the excited Gryffindors. "I still can't believe Professor McGonagall rewarded him for breaking the rules and almost killing himself," Hermione growled, gripping onto her quill so hard Ari could hear it cracking. "First she gave him a broomstick, and now a spot on the Quidditch team! It's outrageous! And the fact the other students are actually supporting him after what he did is even more appalling! Do they have no shame for encouraging a flagrant rule-breaker?!"

"Relax, bighead," Ari rolled her eyes. "I know you want to be annoying and find a problem with everything and everyone, but just let him be, okay? Harry's good at flying and Professor McGonagall's a nice person who gives everyone a chance. Not like Snape, who's always trying to kill people whenever they annoy him, even the teeniest bit. If Snape was our head of house, he wouldn't give Harry a broomstick — he'd probably kill Harry and use him for some of our potions ingredients. So I guess we should just be glad that Harry's still alive, huh?"

"Oh, please!" Hermione snapped, lightning bolts zapping up her hair. "He won't be alive for much longer if he stays on the team! There's a reason why there's an age limit on the Quidditch team. I've read there were deaths way back when Quidditch was created because literal toddlers were trying to play. And because they were so small, they fell off their broom or got taken out by a Bludger — it was so horrible! And yet here we are thousands of years later, ignoring history and the laws that have granted us protection for so long. All because wizards want to win more Quidditch games — even if it means risking lives and rewarding people for breaking the rules! This is no longer a sport, it's an obsession! A path for insanity!"

"Insanity?" Ari repeated incredulously, cutting over Hermione's incoherent raving. "You're joking, right? If anyone here's the insane one, it's you. You're like Snape whenever he's in one of his moods, screaming and spitting and acting like you've broken outta the mental hospital—"

But Hermione wouldn't hear any of it, and gave one last possessed snarl before getting up and stalking out of the portrait hole, giant toilet paper roll of parchment in tow. Ari tossed her eyes to the ceiling. What a relief now that Hermione was finally gone. Ari had dealt with enough crazy people lately. She didn't feel like wasting any more of her energy on them than was necessary.

Thankfully, that was when Fred and George came over and invited Ari to come and watch one of their kwitchditch practice sessions. And Ari, who was pretty exhausted after spending the whole day pent-up in the common working on Snape's stinky essay, felt that a change of scenery would be much deserved.

And so Fred and George, with their decked-out gear and uniform and broomsticks, led Ari out of the common room and onto the pitch. Along the way, they explained the rules of kwitchditch to Ari, which sounded really long and complicated, and most of it flew over Ari's head. But Fred and George explained that they played the position of Beater, which was basically the player that used bats to hit balls called bloodjers.

The actual kwitchditch stadium was humongous and had huge sticks with big loops on the top. Fred and George explained to her that they were the goalposts. Ari asked what goalposts were, and they explained it was where they threw waffles to score. Ari wanted to ask why they had to throw waffles of all things, but the interrogation came to a close when Fred and George said they needed to go onto the field and start playing.

And Ari said goodbye to the twins and took a seat in one of the empty stands. Fred and George's redhead brother was also there. He was in her class and usually sat next to Harry, but Ari forgot his name.

"Hello," Ari said, and the boy lowered his binoculars to look at her. "You're Fred and George's brother, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am," the boy responded. "My name's Ron. And you're Ari, right?"

"Yes. I've come to watch the kwitchditch practice."

He snickered. "You mean Quidditch?"

"Yeah, that," Ari said. "Have you come to watch, too?"

He nodded vigorously. "Yeah, I've always wanted to see the team play in real time! It's not enough just watching Fred and George zoom around in our backyard at home throwing a bunch of apples across the yard. Oh, and yeah, I wanna watch Harry on his Nimbus 2000, too."

"What's a Nindus 2000?" Ari asked.

"The Nimbus 2000, and that's the model of his broom," Ron explained. "And it's a real beauty. It just got released this year and it's the best broom on the market by far. Outstrips the old model by a wide margin, and let's not even compare it to the Shooting Star. And to think that Harry was able to get his hands on one… it's amazing." He sighed and trailed off with a dreamy look on his freckly face.

"Well, Hermione didn't like the broom very much," Ari said pointedly. "She said she hated Harry getting one and it was outrageous he was being rewarded for being a rule-breaker. And then she blew a fuse and said you were all shameless for supporting Harry."

At once, Ron's peaceful expression morphed into a deep, feral scowl. "Oh, I'll say!" he snarled, flexing his fingers. "She's just an annoying know-it-all, always stuffing her nose into other people's business and acting like she's so great. She threatened to rat us out to McGonagall, you know, when she saw Harry got his new broom. And when we told her that McGonagall was the one who gave Harry his broom in the first place — Merlin, the look on her face! It was priceless! Priceless, I tell you!" Ron howled with laughter and slapped his knee.

"Good for her," Ari snickered. "She's so annoying, it's about time she got put down a notch."

"I know, right?" Ron enthused. "I don't know how anyone can stand her, honestly. McGonagall's a saint for putting up with her for so long."

"Yeah, she's an angel on earth," Ari nodded fervently. "And Hermione's a little demon. Exploding all the time and having the nerve to tell me what to put on my essay! And then she said I got all my facts on horned slugs wrong!" She gave a massive eye roll just thinking about the experience. "Can you believe it?"

"Yeah, like I said, she's a horrible know-it-all," Ron growled, clenching his hand into a fist. "She's always trying to correct people and their problems, but in reality she's the biggest problem!"

"But she just can't realize it, huh?" Ari scoffed. "Weird, how someone so smart can be so stupid!"

They were so busy exchanging insults against Hermione that they totally forgot to watch the Quidditch practice until excited screams from the pitch drew their attention back. Apparently Harry had managed to catch the golden stitch or whatever it was called. Ron whooped and clapped his hands together, and Ari got excited and tried to focus on the practice, too. The other six players were throwing red balls to each other while Harry circled around in the background, looking for the golden stitch. Ron cheered when Harry caught the golden stitch a second time, but it all happened so fast that when Ari blinked, she totally missed it.

Thankfully, she had loads of chances to rewatch it. Again and again Harry whizzed and spun around and grabbed the tiny golden ball right out of the air. It was such a smooth and satisfying process, and left Ari feeling super impressed. Hermione had no idea what she was talking about when she said Harry shouldn't be allowed on the team, or that he was in danger of dying. Up on his broom, he was as carefree and elegant as a bird, soaring through the air like it was second nature.

All of the players were like that, in fact, flying through the air on their broomsticks, completely uninhibited with their emotions and bodies. Ari watched him with a mixture of awe and jealousy, only wishing that she go up there and do the same. Sure, Ari got to fly during their flying lessons, but she wasn't very good at it and her broom would always jerk up and down in the air. But here, everyone was zooming around and flying as high as their heart would take them. And Ari wanted to be like that. She wanted to know what it was like, to feel what it was like to be up so high, with nothing but the wind and clouds and all the possibilities of the world at her fingertips.