The Gathering: The New Order of Merlin Book 1

Bearded goat

The school was abuzz with the newest excitement - another attack on a Muggleborn student. The news affected Elsa as much as the "weather" of the Great Hall. It would be scary to be caught in the unforgiving storm the ceiling reflected, but as it was an illusion, she could ignore the flash of lightning and carry on as usual.

After taking Jack to the Hospital Wing, Elsa was ordered to attend her remaining classes. She barely paid any attention in them and doodled swirly patterns in her notebook instead of taking notes. She couldn't make herself care.

When evening came, she followed Luna to the evening feast automatically but wasn't even hungry. At least Luna had the decency to respect her wish for silence, unlike some others who thought she should be talking, or smiling, and most definitely should be her usual focused and strong-willed self. Wasn't she allowed to feel whatever she was feeling?

Her brother was unfortunately in the latter group. He found her in the Great Hall, limped over and attempted at pleasantries which she ignored.

"Are you okay?" When she didn't answer, he continued, "You didn't even do your hair."

Her hair was not only unbraided, it was tied lazily at the nape of her neck. She didn't feel like bothering with a braid and was not in the mood for a ponytail. She honestly only bothered to tie it because it was uncombed.

Jack put his hand on hers but she shrugged him off and pretended to eat in order to claim the use of her hands.

"We can still find him," Jack kept talking, not recognizing that she was in no mood for a conversation. "We have a clue, Elsa. It's not the end yet."

"I know that," she said through gritted teeth.

Just because she was in a bad mood, it didn't mean that she was stupid. Instead, she was just mentally exhausted.

"So, you probably heard - another boy was petrified this morning. Can you imagine, Merlin thought that I was the Heir of Slytherin, that I was doing that!"

This finally got her attention. She stared at him and couldn't think of a proper response.

"Exactly." Jack threw his hands up in exasperation and leaned in to whisper. "He said that it's because I'm keeping secrets. Well, so does he. I know that he's hiding something."

Elsa swallowed, starting to fully understand just how bad the situation was. Did anyone else suspect her brother of these attacks? Did anyone suspect her? This wasn't good.

"How's your leg?" she asked, remembering that he limped over to her. "Do you want me to heal it for you?"

"It's not that bad now. It will be suspicious if I'm healed too quickly." He huffed. "Yeah, like I need more suspicion."

Jack's plan for a reasonable excuse for their absence assumed that Madam Pomfrey could heal his self-inflicted wound but for some reason, her spells did not work on him. Any other time, Elsa's mind would've gone into overdrive to start analyzing why, but today, she couldn't find the energy to.

"So, the fairies," Jack started babbling again. "Do you want to visit them after classes one day or should we wait until the weekend? There's a game though so I'm not sure if it's the best timing."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. His priorities were really contorted to put the game before everything else, but maybe it was better to wait. She didn't want to visit the fairies in this mood.

"We'll go when we both have the time," she answered to dismiss him.

Peeves the poltergeist floated over to them. Instead of his mischievous self, he looked... was it worried? It was hard to tell. His facial features weren't meant for expressing such human emotions.