There was a loud grumble in the girl's dormitory that night.
'Bagsy, go eat something, I'm trying to sleep,' Teresa hissed unsympathetically, putting a pillow angrily over her head to help block out the sound.
'You're being louder than Bagsy right now, Teresa,' Paloma muttered.
'Sorry,' Bagsy murmured guiltily. She'd missed dinner and her rumbling stomach wasn't keeping just herself up anymore.
'Eat some of Teresa's ants,' Primrose snickered. 'It's probably better than whatever gruel your family affords.'
Rebekah, from her bed, laughed.
Bagsy curled up beneath the sheets, clenching her fists angrily as she pulled the quilt her sister had made for her tightly around herself. She didn't bother telling Primrose her family were actually rich. For one, Primrose wouldn't believe her, for another, Bagsy didn't want people to know. She didn't think it was very fair that her family had so much money when the Glints' home was barely standing.
Mezrielda would be back tomorrow. Bagsy told herself this over and over again. Tomorrow was Sunday, the last day before lessons began, and she'd be able to hang out with her all day. They'd chat, or play games, or practise flying, or, as Bagsy had been longing to for a very long time, discuss the blood eyed beast. She had hidden the book Mezrielda had given her earlier that day. Or, yesterday, depending on how late it currently was. The book was tucked away below her bed.
Someone tapped Bagsy on the shoulder and she let out a yelp.
'Shut up...' Teresa mumbled sleepily from her bed in protest.
Bagsy widened her eyes in the darkness to see who'd come over to her.
Neve smiled empathetically down at her, holding out a chocolate frog. 'I didn't eat all mine on the train,' she explained.
Bagsy nodded her head gratefully, taking a bite and letting out a sigh of relief. 'Thanks, Neve.'
'Don't mention it,' Neve whispered, tip-toeing back to her own bed.
The next morning sunlight hit Bagsy's face and roused her from a deep sleep where she'd been floating below Hogwarts lake, unable to get back to the surface.
Teresa, a ball of energy, was already dressed and bouncing on the balls of her feet as Neve tiredly got ready. 'Come on, Neve, I'm hungry,' Teresa whined. Neve, pushing large round glasses onto her snub nose, nodded and followed a chipper Teresa out of the dorm. Paloma, Rebekah and Primrose were already gone.
Bagsy quickly dressed and hurried to the great hall, her stomach rumbling again. Once inside, her eyes instantly turned to the Slytherin table, but Mezrielda wasn't there. Bagsy sank into her seat sadly, pulling a croissant onto her plate.
By mid-day, she was sitting in the courtyard, head resting on her hands, waiting for her friend to arrive. The noise of water lapping gently in the fountain, the smell from the freshly cut grass she was sitting on and the sunlight bathing the whole picture in an amber glow didn't make her feel any better. She just wanted Mezrielda to be there already.
'Aaawwww,' a voice mocked from behind Bagsy, who felt her breathing tighten. She looked over her shoulder to see Primrose, Rebekah and a boy whose name she didn't remember. 'No friends or money,' Primrose teased. Bagsy looked away, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Maybe if she ignored Primrose she'd go away.
'Don't feel like talking?' Rebekah's low voice asked. Bagsy felt someone poke her left shoulder, and she let out a yelp of pain and shot to her feet. The scar the blood eyed beast had left on her shoulder stung like hot wax and Bagsy clasped it with her right hand, tears pricking her eyes. 'I didn't poke you that hard...' Rebekah trailed off, a guilty look briefly taking home in her eyes.
'And I didn't cast an exhaustion jinx on her yesterday, either,' Primrose growled, hands on her hips. 'But I still got a detention for it, didn't I?' Bagsy opened her mouth to say something, like how really Primrose was being punished for what she'd done to her in Diagon Alley, but her words didn't want to speak. She knew, deep down, it hadn't been the best or kindest idea to lie and say Primrose had jinxed her and Tod. 'Cat got your tongue? Maybe I'll get my cat to get one of your rats, while I'm at it.'
Bagsy didn't know when she'd drawn her wand, but suddenly she was pointing it at her.
Primrose looked at Bagsy in surprise, then a smirk spread across her pretty face. With a toss of her perfect blonde curls Primrose drew her own wand, holding it lazily at her side. 'Go on,' Primrose encouraged Bagsy. 'Or was I right? Are you really just a squib?'
A crowd was beginning to form.
'I'll bet you three wheezing toffees Bagsy throws a punch,' Bagsy heard Winifred say off to the side.
'You're on,' Robin responded eagerly.
Bagsy felt as if she had been hit by an exhaustion charm. Her arm lowered and she looked at Primrose's feet glumly. She was right – what was she going to do? Say words until Primrose was intimidated enough to leave? She couldn't beat Primrose in a duel. As if Bagsy could cast a spell that would do anything but make her look more magically incapable.
'I think you need a reminder of what you are,' Primrose snarled, taking a step towards her. 'It seemed last time I didn't leave a deep enough scar. If you're going to report me to teachers anyway, I may as well do what you're snitching on me for. Rebekah, Logan, keep an eye out for professors, will you?'
The boy, Logan, looked uncertain, but Rebekah elbowed him sharply before he could speak. Cowed, the boy glanced around warily, whilst Rebekah craned her neck to lookout for adults. Plenty of students were looking at the trio with disapproving glares but Bagsy noted none of them were stepping forward.
'First, the exhaustion charm you claimed I'd cast on you,' Primrose said, a bright light shooting towards Bagsy. In an instant, Bagsy's muscles felt as if they'd been hollowed out, and she swayed from side to side, unsure she could stay standing she felt so deliriously tired. Primrose's wand snapped up to point at Bagsy's face. 'Flagrate!' she hissed with malice. Sparks of fire shot towards Bagsy's forehead and she stood, frozen to the spot, unable to move.
'Colliquify,' someone cast. The sparks of fire hit Bagsy's face, but when they did they were cold and wet. Bagsy gasped as freezing water splashed off of her forehead. The crowd that had grown to quite a size now let out a collective ooohh. 'Anguis!' Mezrielda stepped forward, standing at Bagsy's side. Her long, white wand shot a thin line of green at Primrose's hands, who shrieked as her fingers grew scales, forked tongues and lidless eyes. Her wand dropped from her wriggling, snake fingered hands, and Primrose screamed again.
Winifred and Robin were doubled over laughing.
'Implexio.' Mezrielda sounded almost bored at this point. A small ball of yellow light shot to Primrose's hair which turned into a mass of blonde knots and tangles. Primrose looked terrified.
Rebekah drew her own wand. 'Locomotor Mortis!' she hissed, sending the leg-locking jinx in Mezrielda's direction.
Bagsy stepped in the way. 'No!' she hissed, anger fuelling her words as she swished her hornbeam wand to counter the jinx. There was a sensation in her chest, like a balloon squashing down and forcing itself through the veins of her arm, her exhausted muscles finding themselves squeezed harshly as whatever it was tried to shove its way out. For a moment, it was excruciatingly painful, but whatever the feeling had been, it vanished back up her arm and into the recesses of her ribcage, with only a light tingling sensation at her fingertips.
Bagsy felt her right leg seize up and stiffen and disappointment coiled in her belly. She had thought that, just once, she'd be able to block a spell.
Mezrielda's wand appeared in the corner of Bagsy's vision, right next to her head. 'Petrificus Totalus!' Mezrielda's voice cast from behind her, the spell shooting by Bagsy's ear, ruffling her hair. Rebekah's legs and arms snapped to her body like magnets and she fell forward. 'Arresto momentum,' Mezrielda added as an afterthought, slowing Rebekah's fall so she didn't hit her face too hard. Logan went to help his friend but didn't seem interested in fighting Mezrielda or Bagsy.
'Wooo!' Winifred cheered, jumping up and down, Robin joining in. With a flick of Mezrielda's wand, and a casting of teporiem that felt like glorious sunshine against Bagsy's skin, the exhaustion Primrose had cast on her vanished.
The crowd dispersed. Some seemed pleased at the result, but an overwhelming majority had turned their disapproving looks from Primrose and her friends to Mezrielda and Bagsy.
Mezrielda grabbed Bagsy's arm and hauled her away from the scene of the crime, and Bagsy followed with an awkward limp, her right leg refusing to bend. Once they'd turned a corner Mezrielda slung her arm over Bagsy's shoulder and smirked at her. 'Miss me?'
'You arrived just in time,' Bagsy breathed in relief. 'She was about to-'
'I saw.' Mezrielda's frowned, her eyes dark with loathing as she released her. 'Unpleasant, that girl is.' Bagsy nodded her agreement. Mezrielda was silently looking down.
'What's wrong?' Bagsy asked.
'Bagsy,' Mezrielda murmured. 'Move your legs.' Bagsy did so. Her right one was stiff and unresponsive, but she could bend and stretch her left one like normal. Mezrielda looked back up at her, stunned. 'You did it.'
Bagsy furrowed her brow. 'Did what?'
'Your legs aren't locked together. You have full mobility in your left one.' Mezrielda looked like she was fighting very hard not to jump up and down and, after a moment, gave in to rising and falling on her heels. 'You partially blocked the jinx!'
Bagsy's eyebrows shot up into her forehead, her mouth hanging open. Slowly, she looked down at the wand clasped in her hand. 'Oh my stars...' she gasped. 'I did! I did!' Now she was hopping up and down too, on her one good leg. It took only two hops for her to trip and fall onto her back side. Instinctually gabbing Mezrielda, Bagsy took the her down, too. Laying on their backs, the two looked at each other in stunned silence, then burst out laughing.
'I've never felt...' Mezrielda wheezed around her giggles. 'So happy! This is amazing!' She laughed and laughed and laughed and Bagsy found it was infectious. Once they'd calmed down Mezrielda flicked her wand and unlocked Bagsy's right leg before helping her to her feet.
'I've never seen you laugh like that.' Bagsy grinned, her face flushed with excitement. What a day it had been.
'I've never laughed before. Not true laughter,' Mezrielda said, then froze, her face falling into its usual scowl. 'I didn't say that,' she corrected herself swiftly. 'Forget I said that. In fact, just forget I laughed at all.'
Bagsy nodded mutely, holding back a smirk. 'Sure.'
'Mezrieldaaaaa!' a third voice called. Bagsy and Mezrielda looked around and saw Winifred, bald and with her blue and black robes flying out behind her, skipping towards them. Robin, her younger sister, was close in tow.
'Who are you?' Mezrielda asked, raising an eyebrow as Winifred and Robin came to a stop in front of them.
'It is Mezrielda, isn't it?' Winifred asked, her eyes alight with fiery schemes.
'What's it to you?' said Mezrielda, her eyes narrowed suspiciously, her arms crossed.
'Hi, Winifred,' Bagsy said awkwardly, wondering if Winifred was still mad at her for not sharing the matured stampelia with her last year. Winifred ignored Bagsy, which answered her question.
'I saw what you did out there.' Winifred nodded in the direction of the courtyard, where Bagsy could hear Primrose loudly complaining to a professor. It didn't seem like Primrose was naming any names, though, just asking for the jinxes to be reversed.
'And?' Mezrielda's eyes narrowed even further as she crossed her arms.
'I have a... club,' Winifred explained, sharing a look with Robin. 'We think you should join it.'
Mezrielda snorted. 'I'm quite alright without some silly club wasting my time, thanks,' she said, adding, in a murmur to herself, 'how childish.'
Winifred seemed taken aback. 'It's not some silly club, oh no. It's for people like you and me. People who are good at spells and want to get better. People who need a more hands on approach. More than our lessons offer, that is. It's all about learning, but not fake learning from books, real learning from experience.'
Bagsy felt her heart quicken. It sounded like just the kind of club she wanted to join but, given her poor magic ability, couldn't.
'Who'd want to join a club like-' Mezrielda began but cut off when Bagsy softly elbowed her in the side. Mezrielda looked down at her. 'Really?' she asked. Bagsy nodded, averting her eyes.
'She's not allowed.' Winifred glared at Bagsy. 'We don't want people in the club who take credit for things they didn't do.' Last year, Winifred and Bagsy had worked together on their Herbology project. Winifred had done none of the work, so Bagsy hadn't felt too bad about taking the matured stampelia for herself. Winifred seemed to remember things differently.
'Bagsy joins or I don't,' Mezrielda declared, folding her arms. Winifred looked up at her, face blank, then breathed out of her nose like a dragon disturbed from its slumber. Bagsy swore she saw smoke, Winifred looked so annoyed.
'Fine,' Winifred said. 'Next personal study come find me. I'll be waiting in the library for you. I'll lead you to where we meet.' With that, Winifred and Robin sped away in the other direction.
'Why would you want to hang out with those losers?' Mezrielda asked Bagsy, who shrugged. 'You want to practise spells, don't you?' Bagsy nodded. Satisfied, Mezrielda left the subject there.