Chapter 7 - Confrontation
Harry looked back up from his bowl of cereal and peered at his sister. Said girl was currently happily chattering with Tracey across from him at the Slytherin table, while munching on her third helping of pancakes. She seemed to have her good spirits back, at least judging by her appetite. Harry was still confused though. The day before, it felt like the whole school had singled her out after her incident in Defense, and the whole thing had really gotten to her. She had barely eaten anything at dinner, and disappeared without a word after. But now, it seemed like the mood of the castle had changed, and he had no idea why. He had either expected the comments and whispers to continue, or slowly die down, but instead it appeared like at least the Slytherins had completely shifted their behavior.
They seemed to keep their distance, give her nods or even smiles, and none of them had even so much as batted an eye at his presence as they had moved to sit at the Slytherin table. Neither Iris or Tracey had mentioned anything either. Harry was really tempted to just ask, but he didn't want to make Iris feel like he didn't trust her, and she seemed to be doing better anyway. He just hoped she hadn't done anything that would get her into trouble.
"So... what's your first class?" Harry asked.
"Free period!" Iris proclaimed happily.
"You're lucky. We've got History first thing," Harry grumbled.
"You make that sound like it's a bad thing," said Tracey with a quirked eyebrow.
Harry paused and his eyes slowly slid from Tracey over to Iris with a questioning look.
Iris smirked. "Tracey here is a bit of a history-nut."
"Hey! I didn't hear you complaining yesterday," Tracey said with mock indignation.
"That's because you were doing the voice and everything!" Iris said with a grin. "Way less boring than in school."
Tracey grumbled something, much to Iris' amusement. Harry couldn't help the smile on his face.
Then Iris spoke up again. "I think I'm gonna check out the library after this. It's supposed to be massive!"
Tracey perked up. "Are you gonna look for something to try and figure out your light magic?"
"Yeah. We have Charms class in the afternoon, and I'd really like to get at least something working until then, so I'm not completely behind from the start."
Harry looked between the two of them wide eyed. He hadn't thought Iris would discuss her strange magic with anyone. He wasn't sure why he had assumed that, but it still came as a shock.
"Uh... You've been doing magic then?" Harry asked hopefully.
Iris nodded. "Turns out I can do... well, at least something, if I put my light into my wand, and make it a single color."
Harry felt something warm spread inside his chest at that statement. So, her magic really might be just strange; different, after all. He had been terrified of the possibility of his sister not being able to do magic. Of her being sent back home to them alone. He really hoped she was onto something.
~V~
Iris hummed to herself as she walked past another shelf. What was she doing again? Right, research. After discovering the massive labyrinth of books that called itself a library, and more importantly, its lack of any organizational system, Tracey and her had set out to find any books they could on how spells worked, light magic, magic in general, and anything to do with the levitation charm. So far, Iris had found one book on general magical theory, and then had gotten sidetracked by a swarm of books flying (yes, flying, flapping like a flock of birds) through the corridor of bookshelves she was currently in. She had tried to follow them, but ended up in a circular corridor made up of large pillars filled with books, that were slowly moving downwards and rotating. The pillars seemed to stretch upwards forever, and the books just disappeared into the ground as soon as they rotated down low enough. She wondered where they went. Would the books just be lost? Did they repeat?
She turned another corner, and frowned. She had turned right six times in a row, but had yet to cross her own path. The current corridor still held books, but most of them were about boring topics like clocks and time. There were even several physical clocks interspersed between the bookshelves, and-
Hang on, what's that? One of the grandfather clock doors was slightly ajar, but while through the glass window it looked just like a regular pendulum clock, through the gap of the open housing she could see... well not a lot, but it definitely wasn't the inside of a clock. Intrigued, she stepped closer and carefully pulled open the door of the grandfather clock. It was mostly dark, but instead of the inside of the clock, there was a narrow wooden passageway.
Iris looked to her left, then to her right, spotting nobody around, and before she could further think about it, stepped into the hidden passage. The door slowly creaked close behind her, until she was stuck in darkness. There was only the scruffy sensation of old wooden walls beneath her fingers, a distinct smell of dust and metal, and the loud ticking of the clock which seemed to come from everywhere at once. As if on instinct, Iris produced her light and held it out in front of her.
The wooden passageway seemed to get narrower, or rather, its ceiling got lower and lower with every step. At some point she had to crouch down to make progress. The ticking slowly changed the further she went. It became somewhat lighter, quieter but also more precise in a way. Finally, she could make out the end of the passage. It was another wooden wall. Great.
She crawled her way to the very end. Thankfully, she was so bloody short, otherwise this would be really annoying. When she reached the end, she held out her hands and braced herself against the wall. It gave way with a click. Iris let out a yelp as she tumbled forward, and fell through, and down. She crashed into the ground luckily only a few feet below.
Groaning, she slowly got to her feet and gathered her bearings. She was surrounded by books again. But this place was definitely different. The books were a lot sparser. Mostly empty bookshelves, covered in dust, or other strange utensils. She turned around to see the opened front panel of a rectangular wall mounted clock, hiding the passage she had just come from. It was the only clock in the area, as far as she could see. Also, none of the torches on the walls were lit here, it seemed to be a lot darker in general. Actually, it would probably be pitch black if it wasn't for her light.
Curios, she made her way over to a bookshelf, picked up a random book and looked at the cover. The lesser-known uses of Animal Eyes in Potion Crafting - Volume 2.
Iris shivered and dropped the book. Yuck! What the hell was that about? She'd better steer clear of that shelf. With a frown, she turned around and walked along the corridor for a bit, finding more books. She could make out various old music instruments interspersed between bookshelves. What were those doing in a library? Finally, she passed a dusty grand piano at the end of the corridor, and turned a corner. The bookshelves seemed taller here, in fact, she couldn't see where they ended with just her light. She glanced over the spines, reading some titles. Most of these seemed to do with magic, or magic theory?
Curiously, she picked out one of them. Its title read: Polarized Magic - Empowering or Corrupting Spells
Corrupting? What kind of book was this? She frowned and put it back. This seemed like the sort of magic she really didn't want to get mixed up in, not to mention be caught with. She had a strong feeling that she once again had somehow ended up somewhere she really shouldn't. She started quietly humming to herself, this time not because of her mood, but to keep her mind off the strange area she had found herself in. Also, really, what the hell was polarized magic supposed to be anyway? Magic from the Arctic? It sounded like-
Hang on. She had heard that word somewhere before. But where? Iris stopped and racked her brain. Polarized magic...
"You see, when You-Know-Who attacked your family ten years ago, when he left you with that scar, there was an eruption of polarized magic of sorts. I don't know the details, but your sister got caught up in it somehow."
That was it! The hospital nurse had said something about that!
Iris whirled around and dashed back to the shelf, furiously looking through the titles until she found the book again. Could this hold the answer to what was wrong with her magic? Eagerly, she plopped herself down onto the dusty piano seat and flipped the book open to the first page.
Unlike the division of magic into its seven aspects, the polarization of magic describes its attunement towards either Light or Dark. Most regular spells can be attuned towards either Light or Dark or both, in an effort to either empower them or alter their effect. Some spells require a certain level of polarization to be cast in the first place, and there are a rare few true polarized spells, which are not aspects of magic empowered by polarized magic, but instead pure polarized magic guided by an aspect; most famously the three Unforgivable Curses.
Iris paused to process this. First, she was right to be wary of this book, it had mentioned the Unforgivables literally in the first paragraph. But also, some things now clicked together in her mind. Hagrid had told them that Harry had survived the killing curse. If polarized magic was required to cast the killing curse, it made sense that there was polarized magic present at that day. Now if she could only figure out what-
There was a clattering noise, and then steps coming closer towards her. Her eyes went wide. She didn't have her bag with her. There was no way to hide the book. She didn't want to be caught with it, but she also didn't want anyone else to potentially take it before she had a chance to read it. Thinking quickly, she closed the book, got up, shoved it inside the piano case and shut the lid. Finally, she cut off her light, leaving her in darkness. And not a moment too soon. The steps turned a corner, and she was looking right into the surprised face of Draco Malfoy, who was carrying a book in one hand, and his wand in the other, its tip alight in a brilliant white glow.
"Wha- Iris? What are you doing here?"
"Right back at you, Draco," Iris countered.
"I have a pass! Somehow, I doubt you have a pass for the restricted section," he said and frowned.
Iris blinked. The restricted section of the library? Was that where she had ended up?
"Why would you have a pass? You're a first year." Iris asked indignantly.
"That would be none of your business," Draco replied just as obstinately.
Iris frowned, but didn't respond.
"Well, whatever. I need to talk to you anyway."
"What? Me? Sure, what's up?" Iris asked.
Draco walked closer to her and peered at her intensely without saying anything.
Iris started to nervously shift under his gaze.
Then, he took a slow breath and said in a low voice, "I know what you did."
He stared at her unblinkingly, but Iris was just confused. "What are you talking about?"
"About yesterday in the common room," he simply said.
Iris' eyebrows raised. Was he talking about when she had made fire? "Well, yes? You were there for it?" Iris replied in confusion.
"That's not what I-" he cut himself off, took a breath, and began again.
"You may have fooled everyone else with your little wandless magic show, but I know the truth."
Iris swallowed. Was he talking about her broken magic?
"I- I don't know what you mean," Iris replied shakily.
"Of course you don't. Can't have anyone find out that what you did was actually free ritual, after all," Draco said sharply.
Iris blinked slowly. "Free- what now?"
Draco growled. "Don't play dumb with me, Potter. I looked it up," he said seriously and held up the book in his hand.
Iris just stared, completely lost.
"You put us all in danger, and for what? Just to show off?" Draco yelled accusingly, pointing his wand at her.
Iris was now shifting uncomfortably. She was missing several important details here, but she had no idea where to begin.
"Are those the kind of things Dumbledore teaches you? I knew he was insane, but that's a new low."
Draco was now glaring at her.
Iris held up her hands defensively. She had to say something to keep this from escalating.
"Okay, back up. What? What are you talking about? What does Dumbledore have to do with anything? I've never met the man!" Iris exclaimed.
"You've never-" Draco sneered, but then stopped. "You're serious? So he didn't teach your brother and you?"
"Why would the barmy Headmaster come to Surrey and teach us anything?" Iris asked incredulously.
"Huh, I thought- Well no matter. Who was it then? Was it your magic tutors?"
Iris stared, dumbfounded. "Come again?"
Draco rolled his eyes. "Your magic tutors. Merlin, you're slow." At her blank expression he continued. "You know? Evening classes for the last year, all about basic magic theory, first year spells, any of this ring a bell?" he sneered.
"Draco," Iris began carefully, then paused. "We grew up with muggles."
That yielded no response. Apparently, she had successfully broken Draco.
"Huh?" came the intelligible reply.
"Our muggle relatives. They really really didn't like magic," Iris said dryly.
"You... you're actually serious?" he asked quietly.
"The first time I ever heard about the magical world was when Hagrid of all people broke down the door to hand deliver our Hogwarts letters."
"But but that's... How? I mean you are Potters! That's just- AND he's the Boy-who-Lived. Merlin's arse, what was Dumbledore thinking?"
Iris couldn't help but giggle. She had never imagined Draco would physically be capable of cursing.
He gave her an incredulous look, but then shook himself and asked, "But if that's true, then how do you know about free ritual?"
Iris gave him a deadpan stare. "I don't. What's free ritual?"
Draco's mouth was opening and closing, but no words came out.
Finally, he managed, "You... But how did you know what to do then? With the fire?"
Iris shrugged. "It's just the way I do magic. Figure out what I need, find things that fit the bill, put them together, and boom. It's like talking to magic to tell it what you need, except it can't understand your words. I really don't know how else to describe it."
Aaand yep, she had broken Draco again. That couldn't be healthy in large amounts.
"Hello? Earth to Draco?" Iris quipped.
"Give me a minute. I don't know how to even start with this," he said absently minded.
Iris shifted onto one foot, and asked, "So, what's the big deal with the fire? I've done things like that all the time back home, it's perfectly safe."
"I... No, Iris, it's not." He paused, and looked her into the eyes with a serious expression. "It's really not safe. Free ritual is incredibly dangerous. Not to mention illegal."
"What's free ritual? Please don't make me ask again..." Iris lamented.
Draco sighed, then began, "Well, I don't know much, all I know is what I've just read, and what my parents told me. It's a way to use ambient magic, or free magic, without requiring power from the caster. The problem is that ambient magic doesn't listen to our intent like our own magic does, so you need to imprint the intent using symbols, objects or the like. The most important thing my parents told me is that it's very dangerous, and it was banned fifty years ago, and for a very good reason. Apparently, lots of people died when several rituals went wrong."
Iris listened intently, then asked, "Okay, so it's banned, because it went wrong. What was the issue? It's always worked for me so far... I mean if what I did was actually free ritual?"
Draco frowned. "I wasn't sure that's what it was, because from everything I've heard, and also most of what this book says, free ritual always uses just one focus, that is an object or a symbol, in combination with a chosen location, that either provides power, significance, or further direction. What you did was very different from what I've heard, but I've looked through the book, and it mentions that it's possible to use free ritual with several foci to refine the intent or increase its potency. However, it's not commonly used because it introduces further risk of unknown intent entering the ritual, whatever that means."
"So... you're saying what I did was actually even more dangerous?" Iris asked carefully.
"I- I don't know, I'm not an expert. I-" He cut off, as they heard a sound from somewhere down the shelves.
"You know what, Iris, here," he said, and pressed the book into her arms. "Take this and read it, you'll see what I mean."
With that, he whirled around and sprinted down the corridor, leaving her in darkness once again. Iris swallowed, then called her light again. She let it float above her head and took a look at the book.
The Noble Art of Free Ritual - Updated 1923 Edition.
Well, if it was banned fifty years ago, it made sense that the book was a bit older. Draco's footsteps could no longer be heard, but suddenly she heard another noise from the other direction again. Whoever was there was coming closer. This time, she couldn't risk being spotted again. What if it was a teacher? She frantically looked around, then spotted the still open clock face down the corridor she had come from. Quickly she ran over to it, heaved herself onto the shelf below it and climbed into the wooden passageway. She heard the clock face click closed behind her, and let out a sigh of relief. She crawled through the passageway, book in one hand and her light in the other. Finally, it got tall enough to walk upright and she started all but sprinting towards the end, and burst out of the grandfather clock.
"Yes!" Iris jumped in triumph, having finally made it back to safety undetected, her contraband clutched in her hand. She quickly extinguished the light, put the book under her robe and started to look for Tracey. Only halfway there she realized that while she had successfully retrieved the ritual book, she had completely forgotten about the book on polarized magic. She would have to come back for that one some other time.
"Iris! Where've ya been? I was lookin' for you, but this place is like a maze!" Tracey called out from the desk they had found before.
"Uh, I got a bit off track, might have ended up in the restricted section by accident, ran across Draco, almost got caught, long story," Iris said sheepishly.
Tracey goggled at her. "I let you out of my sight for ten minutes."
"Hey, how was I supposed to know that secret passageway inside the grandfather clock leads somewhere I'm not allowed? I only realized I was in the restricted section when Draco told me. Oh, and he also gave me this book. Better put that in my bag before someone sees, I guess it's from the restricted section as well."
Tracey took a breath, and asked, "Why does your brother put up with you again?"
"Because he gets hugs of course!" Iris beamed.
"It was a rhetorical question."
"So, you don't want hugs?"
Tracey sighed, but a smile remained on her face.
~V~
Two hours later, the mood had turned again. The two girls were sitting at their desk, surrounded by various books on magic and levitation spells they had found, and had made no progress.
"I don't get it," Iris lamented. "The only thing I can think off with how this book describes it is that my wand motion is off. There is no way I mispronounced it, we checked. And according to the book, focus, intent or whatever only play a tangential role."
"Wanna give it another try? I'll check if it matches with the drawing," Tracey asked.
Tracey had been eager to help, but she had so far not attempted to cast the charm herself. Iris wasn't sure whether it just hadn't occurred to her, or if she was deliberately holding off on it in order not to further dash Iris' hopes in case she succeeded.
Iris sighed, withdrew her wand, looked around to see if the coast was clear, and produced her iridescent light. Focusing for a moment, she forced it into a single color again. Then she leveled her wand at the unhelpful advanced charms book in front of her, swished and flicked the red glowing tip, and incanted once more: "Wingardium Leviosa."
The tip of her wand flashed, there was a bang, and the book tore itself apart into thousands of pieces in a small explosion. The pieces crumpled into dust before they even hit the ground. Both girls gaped at the remains of the innocent charms book. Before any of them could even attempt to voice their thoughts, there was a sharp yell.
"Magic in the library? Well, I'll be- What in Merlin's name are you doing?"
Iris jumped and whirled around to face the incensed visage of Madam Pince, their resident librarian.
"I'll not have it. No! I cannot risk you damaging any books, I can't. Out with you! Both of you. Now!" she barked, her eyes furiously searching for any books that might have been damaged.
Iris and Tracey hastily grabbed their bags and hurried out of the library, a sternly glaring librarian hot on their heels. Only when they stumbled through the main entrance did the woman relent, staring at them from the doorway like an alert guard dog.
They kept running, turning a corner, then another. Finally, they stopped when they reached a corridor with several seats and benches along the wall.
"Geeze, she's almost worse than Aunt Petunia..." Iris grumbled.
Tracey raised an eyebrow. "Just be glad she didn't realize you actually blew up one of her precious books."
Iris groaned and sat down on a chair. "Yeah, what was that about? That shouldn't have happened. The last two times it seemed to be consistent when I made it a single color..." she said as she tossed her hands into the air in exasperation.
"What color did you make it last time?" Tracey asked.
"Huh, I... oh. I guess that could be it," Iris frowned.
With newfound determination, Iris put down her bag, withdrew a fresh piece of parchment, and repeated her spell, this time using a blue light once again. The parchment jumped up, shot down the corridor, and clanged into a suit of armor with so much force that it knocked its helmet clean off.
Iris' eyes went wide as the metal clanging sound echoed through the corridor, and Tracey buried her face in her hands as the now decapitated suit of armor started stumbling around, searching the ground for its head.
"Okay, so blue seems to do the trick more or less, red blew it to bits for some reason..." Iris began in a thoughtful tone, as she started pacing.
Tracey groaned and looked at Iris. "You're a terrible influence."
Iris turned back to her with a gleam in her eyes, a grin forming on her face.
"Before you ask, yes. Against better judgement, I am kinda curious what's gonna happen if you try the other colors. But if it's anything like red, we'd better find an empty room somewhere..."
"Knew I could count on you," Iris quipped.
~V~
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The latest piece of parchment promptly turned blue this time.
Iris was both excited and frustrated. Every attempt had resulted in different things happening again, yet there seemed to be some method to the madness. Violet light had turned the parchment into all kinds of different colors with every attempt, including slightly translucent. Green had made the parchment fold itself into a bird shape and fly off once, but hadn't done anything on the repeat attempts. Red seemed to cause all different kinds of destruction to her poor writing utensils, and Blue constantly made the parchment erratically fly through the room as before. Yellow and Indigo both hadn't done anything. Orange had been the most interesting. On the first attempt it had caused a gust of wind, that had made the piece of parchment float much like the book had described, a lot more calmly than anything she had managed with blue. On her second attempt however, it had instead set the parchment on fire. In the end, she hadn't made any actual progress on casting the spell correctly.
Tracey checked her watch. "Huh. I guess we better pack it up if you wanna grab anything to eat before Charms."
If Tracey could stop being so damn reasonable, that would be nice. This was much more interesting right now. Iris opened her mouth to say she wasn't hungry, but she was betrayed by a loud grumble from her stomach. She closed her mouth again and blushed. Fine. She guessed she could go for a quick snack.
One thing led to another and before she knew it, she was late for Charms. In her defense, the stew had been too delicious not to have seconds. Luckily, this time, they didn't get lost on the way, and made it into the class just at the same time as the professor, who had apparently also been late. Talk about a lucky break. Or at least she assumed he was the professor. He was just as bloody short as her, but he also had a beard, so she was pretty sure he wasn't a student. The tiny man waved his wand, causing a few books to levitate from the shelves on the walls—That was the spell she had been trying to do! —towards the front of the class, where they stacked into a neat pile. He then walked up to it, and with a sudden lurch, jumped into the air, did a bloody backflip and landed on top of the stack, bearing a huge grin. Iris really wanted to learn to do that, too. Although, hopefully she wouldn't stay this short forever, so she'd revisit that. The whole class broke into oohs and aahs and gave an excited applause while he bowed exaggeratedly to both sides, before he cleared his throat, and started talking in a very animated voice.
"Greetings class, I am Professor Flitwick, and we'll be spending the next seven years together exploring the mysteries of charms and spells of all kinds, magical theory, as well as lots of other exciting topics to do with wand waving. Now, I hear that some of you have already cast your first charm in Defense, right? Don't worry, Hufflepuffs, you haven't missed anything. The way that one specific spell is cast has very little to do with anything you'll learn in this class after all."
Iris frowned at that. That one spell was something she'd rather not think about.
The professor then started lecturing, running down the basics, like the importance of proper pronunciation, the various terms for different wand motions and how to read the wand diagrams. Iris looked at Tracey, then at the rest of the class. It seemed like at least half the class was just as bored as she was. Whether they had read ahead like her, or had some kind of magic tutor as Draco had called it, she was sure that most of the students already knew all this. On the other hand, she felt like most of the others were simply not paying attention just because. She had almost forgotten how annoying students could be, especially after McGonagall had forced their attention through her sheer presence, and their defense class had been so bloody exciting that not even a hyperactive monkey would have gotten bored.
However, this, sadly was much closer to how she remembered her previous schools. While the professor undoubtedly was very excited about his subject, as well as teaching in general, he seemed not quite as able to draw the students into his lecture as the other two teachers had been. Sure, his entrance had been very promising, but as soon as he had started lecturing, he took a deep dive into explaining all the intricacies of all the magical theory he was talking about, without giving them any proper context on what or how that would be relevant in practice. She really hoped the class would pick up once they started casting spells.
"Okay, now for the final part of this lesson, please open your books to page seven. We will be performing our first spell together. This is one of the simplest spells out there, almost as simple as the flame freezing charm I might say. It is, after all, magic in its purest form."
That caught Iris' attention. Magic in its purest form? Iris flipped through the pages of the book, found page seven, and gaped.
Lumos.
Gears started to turn in her mind. Lumos? The light spell? She had never attempted that one, since she could already make her own light. However, she had a sinking feeling of what would happen if she did.
Nervously, she watched the other students read the page and ready their wand at the instruction of the professor.
"Now, everyone, as you see, the incantation is Lumos. If you are all ready, I want you to all perform it with me. The wand movement is just a small jab forward like this."
There were several groans from the class. Apparently, there were several students who had already performed this spell with their magic tutors. Once everyone had their wand out, the professor held up his wand, grinned down at them and said, "Alright, now everyone say it with me... Lumos!"
The whole class intoned "Lumos!" at various levels of excitement.
All of them except for Iris. She had been reluctant to join in, wanting to see what the spell would do first, before she would inevitably get disappointed by her magic again. Brilliant white light filled the classroom, emitting from the tips of almost all the students at various levels of brightness. One Hufflepuff student had a slight tinge of green to his light, and two of them hadn't managed the spell at all. Iris glanced at them, hoping to share her inevitable disappointment, however on the second try, they both managed a dull white glow as well. The tiny professor was clapping in excitement. Iris was now the only student whose wand remained unlit, still sitting reluctantly, unwilling to face her inevitable reality. Some students' lights were already fading.
Finally, she sighed, and decided to get it over with. Of course, she had thought to just try cheating with her light, but had decided against it in the end, not wanting to cause any further chaos. She held up her obsidian wand, jabbed it forward and half-heartedly said: "Lumos."
Of course, in retrospect, she should have guessed that if any spell would work for her on the first attempt, it would be this one. However, the result was still quite different from the other students.
Blinding iridescent light burst out of her wand, engulfing the room in an instant. Students turned as one and gasped, as they were drenched in all the colors of the rainbow. The motion of refracted magical color was entrancing, reflecting in their eyes as they gazed back at her unblinkingly, while Iris sat frozen in shock. The air was shivering; almost singing to the dance of shining rays of light.
Magic in its purest form.
Somehow, no matter how magical the sight, she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach all the same.
She slowly pulled back her light as usual, which seemed to end the spell. Stunned silence blanketed the classroom. A mixture of shock and awe plastered onto the students faces, as they slowly blinked and shook themselves as if coming out of a trance. Then, the professor spoke up.
"Ah, yes. Well done, everyone! Well done indeed. Now, for your homework, I want you to write seven inches on the Levitation charm, we'll be covering that one next lesson. Any more questions? No? Good, then off you go. Oh, and Ms. Potter? Please see me in my office, if you would?"
Iris swallowed. She had hoped to get through at least one lesson without getting into trouble, but apparently that was not how things worked. Reluctantly, she packed up her belongings, gave Tracey a shrug and started to make her way to the door in the back of the classroom.