𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
GAIA WAS NOT BOTHERED IN the slightest by the fact that she was missing Potions class, nor by the fact that she had earned herself an, admittedly, well deserved detention. At the moment, her sights were set solely on finding Hermione.
She started by peaking inside the Hospital Wing, but saw only a fifth year boy with a three missing fingers and a second year girl crying on a mattress, likely due to the green pigmentation of her skin. Madame Pomfrey stood to the side, hurriedly collecting a plethora of materials from the cabinets mounting the walls. Gaia excused herself and continued searching for several minutes. She had nearly given up when she crossed the doorway of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Stifled cries came from within. Anyone who had been at Hogwarts as long as she had knew what Myrtle's sob sounded like, and this was not it.
She quickened her pace to a job and entered the bathroom.
"Hermione," she called once she arrived at the stalls. The crying stopped quickly - too quickly for her to distinguish from which stall they had come from.
"Pst!" Gaia turned quickly on her heal to find a giggling Myrtle rising from the inside of a sink.
"Hi Myrtle," the girl sighed. She was quite familiar with the annoying habits the ghost had. Her constant mood swings and guilt trips were exhausting to go through, particularly for Gaia. Myrtle had always seemed to dislike her more than other students, for reasons unbeknownst to her. Gaia sighed and reminded herself of the reason she was there. "Did you see anyone come in here?"
Once again, the ghost laughed both sweetly and condescendingly. "Oh, the girl with the terrible teeth, you mean? Hermione, isn't it? No, I didn't see her. I just heard her whining about them through the pipe. Thought I'd come see how bad it was."
At this, a particular whimper came from one of the stalls behind Gaia. She flicked her head around rapidly and placed the noise to have come from somewhere towards the end of the stalls on her right.
"Hermione," she said cautiously as she approached the stall she believed the cry came from. "Don't listen to her. She's got worse teeth than you, to be honest."
A chuckle came from the behind the door in question while a scoff escaped Myrtle's mouth. The ghost's lip quivered for a moment before letting out a defined wail, as always, and plunging back into the sink from which she came.
Was it a mean comment? Yes. However Gaia had never had much sympathy for Myrtle. And given the circumstances, she'd say it to anyone if it helped her friend feel better. She finally faced the door she now knew Hermione was behind.
"Hermione Jean Granger, you are so far above crying in a bathroom stall," the younger girl started. "Don't get me wrong, I've been there. But you deserve better... And God, the next time I see Malfoy, I swear I'll stick his wand so far up his-"
Before she could clarify where she intended to place his wand, the door creaked slowly open and stopped halfway. Hermione was sitting on the toilet, arms wrapped around her knees but wide smile filling her face. It took Gaia a moment to get past the teeth, which were now just past her chin and appeared to have stopped growing, but when she did her mouth broke into a wide grin as well.
A pause was shared between the two, it was comforting and expectant, as if they both knew what they were feeling but didn't feel the need to express it.
"His arse," Gaia finally finished. "I'll shove it right up his arse."
Hermione threw her head back and let out a strong burst of laughter. Her arms fell from their protective position and she took her feet off the seat to set them firmly on the ground. She rose from the toilet and stared at her friend for just a moment, before stepping forward and wrapping her in an unexpected embrace. Gaia quickly returned the gesture, feeling a sense of euphoria spread through her as she felt she had, at last, completely connected to Hermione.
When they pulled apart, still holding each other by the arms, they looked at each other for just a moment before letting out simultaneous fits of laughter. The reason? Who was to say. It could have simply been the elephant in the room of Hermione's teeth. Or perhaps, it was the start of a much deeper, synchronized bond forming between the two girls.
It took several minutes for the two to calm down, but when they finally did, Gaia said, "Let's go to the Hospital Wing now, I don't want to get used to this."
She reached into her bag and rummaged around for a moment in loose sheets of paper and broken quills before pulling a gold and crimson scarf from the very bottom. She handed it to Hermione, who graciously accepted and wrapped it strategically around her neck and mouth to hide the protruding teeth.
They walked in silence to the Hospital Wing by virtue of Hermione's teeth and scarf making it difficult to understand her. They arrived shortly and Gaia opened the door and allowed Hermione to walk in, then followed behind. Neither of the students there minutes prior were still present, leaving it empty aside from the two girls and the matron.
Madame Pomfrey bustled forward towards them. "What's the issue, girls?" she asked.
"Hermione was hit with a spell that, well..." Gaia instead let her friend unravel the scarf and show the the healer herself. Madame Pomfrey, without so much as a flinch at the overgrown teeth, gestured to the nearest bed. "Have a seat," she said before walking to her desk.
The girls walked over to the bed. Hermione sat on the edge of the mattress while Gaia stood to her side. After a moment, the matron returned. In her hands were a handheld mirror and a small vial of bubbling purple liquid.
"Right then," she started as she set the potion down on the night stand and stood in front of Hermione. She pulled out her wand and handed the mirror to Hermione. "I'm going to use a simple shrinking spell. Just look in the mirror and say 'stop' when they return to their normal size. Ready?"
Hermione nodded and the matron flicked her wand before moving it very slowly upwards. Gaia watched her friend's teeth become shorter and shorter by the second. As Gaia watched the shrinking process, she noticed that Hermione's signal that her teeth had returned to their normal size did not come until several seconds after the younger girl anticipated that it would, leaving her teeth ever so slightly, yet still noticeably shorter than they naturally were. At Hermione's indication, the healer made the same flicking motion, and the girl's front teeth stopped moving and remained the size they were. A size which, Gaia was fairly certain, was smaller than original.
"Lovely," the woman said as she tucked away her wand and reached for the potion. Extending the vial to Hermione, who was still occupied admiring her returned teeth in the mirror, explained, "This will make sure they stay in place, come by the next two nights before dinner to take it, then you'll be fine."
The two girls thanked her, and Madame Pomfrey had to snatch the mirror from Hermione's hand when she nearly walked out the door with it absentmindedly.
As they walked, Gaia braved the question tickling her mind. "Did you make your teeth shorter? I mean, shorter than they were before the spell?"
Hermione sighed and hung her head, but nodded. "I've always wanted them shorter, and I told my parents that a few years back. You know, they're dentists, so I figured they'd be open to shaving them shorter a bit, but all they said when I asked was that I was beautiful the way I was. I just thought, now I'd actually be able to feel beautiful."
Her tone was ashamed and somewhat apologetic, causing guilt to pang Gaia's chest. "Hey, I wasn't criticizing. I mean, yeah, I've always thought you were beautiful, but it's the self-love that really counts. If you're happy, I'm happy." Hermione lifted her head and grinned, showing off her new smile.
"I heard what you said to Professor Snape," she said after a moment.
"Oh, yeah." In all honesty, Gaia had completely forgotten about the event with the teacher and the detention she was to serve later that night. "Sorry, kind of delayed me getting to you."
Hermione just laughed and looked sideways at her friend. "Gaia that was brilliant!" she proclaimed. Gaia scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. Never in her life had she imagined Hermione Granger would compliment her on the way she brutally insulted a professor.
"Huh?" she said indecently.
Hermione laughed again. "I've just never seen anything like it! And, of course, I could never do something like that!"
Gaia took a moment to process the compliment, then laughed herself. Truly, this was an interesting day.
The girls' original plan was to make their way to Gryffindor Tower for the free period that had started just when they left the Hospital Wing. Instead, they made random turns and paid no attention to their path as they strolled through the castle halls, unbothered by the troubles in their lives for that brief moment, as they shared stories and laughed together. They asked questions; 'What's your favorite ice cream flavor?' 'Who do you fancy?' 'Do you have a favorite muggle book?' Gaia preferred mint chocolate chip and Hermione always found herself more focused on school than boys. Gaia had never been permitted to read any books not written by wizards, and Hermione had read Little Women nine times over.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Hermione asked as they finally decided to settle on a bench in the courtyard. A large tree stretched its limbs out above them, though the leaves had fallen and laid scattered at their feet.
Gaia thought for a long while. She had asked herself the question so many times, but she never really knew the answer. Her family would likely want her to become a Ministry worker, but she found that path rather bland.
"A mum," she finally answered. Hermione appeared, at first, perplexed, leaving her to elaborate. "I mean, yes, I see myself having a job. But, more than any profession, I want to raise my own kids. I don't mean I want to be a house wife, or stay-at-home-mum. I'm far too much for that. But I do want to be a mother."
When she looked up, she saw Hermione grinning. She stared at her with a soft gaze and a certain expression that told Gaia she wanted the dream to come true for her.
"I think that's beautiful," she resolved. "You can go out and conquer the world and still have feelings at the end of the day. You know that right?"
"I do," Gaia answered. And she meant it.
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
That night the girls joined Harry for a pleasant dinner in the Great Hall. He explained that the lesson they missed was rather boring and assured Hermione it was simply a review and she hadn't missed any important content. Hermione was visibly relieved by that, and for one of the few times during recent days, no one brought up Ron during meal time.
An hour later, they were sitting in the Common Room starting homework when Gaia let out a heavy sigh.
"Hermione, is my essay in your bag?" she asked, frustration evident as her arms tore more violently through her bag by the second.
"No, why would it be?" the bushy-haired girl asked, glancing up from her own parchment.
"Can you just check, please?" her friend replied exasperatedly. "I think it may have slipped out in the bathroom earlier. I don't want to go all the way down there if there's a chance it's still here."
Hermione thought it was highly unlikely Gaia's paper had ended up in her bag somehow, and looked up again from her writing to point that out. However, she saw the scattered contents of the girl's bag sprawled across the floor as she angrily pulled out a cushion from her chair looking for the paper. She sighed and pulled up her own bag and began searching through for a minute or so before declaring the essay was not there.
Gaia looked close to pulling her hair out, but instead took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment to clear her mind. When she opened them, she stood and started to walk towards the portrait hole.
"Where are you going?" Harry asked before she made it.
"To get that essay," she answered as she turned back around. "I only had an inch and a half left, I'm not giving up and redoing it."
Her two friends conceded and bowed their heads towards their work once more as she turned back to the exit. Harry contemplated for a moment about offering to go with her. He did like the idea of getting to spending time alone with her.
Just as he worked up the nerve to suggest it and looked up, he heard the portrait slamming shut and realized she had already left.
Somewhat deflated, he sunk deeper into the arm chair and stared at the star chart in front of him.
Beside him, Hermione kept her head down as a smirk grew on her face, knowing exactly what was going through his mind.
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
Gaia was now close to punching something, as she made the return trip to the Common Room empty-handed. Not only had her essay been nowhere to find, but Moaning Myrtle had heard her grunts of frustration and come running to mock her.
She stopped for just a moment on her walk back, seriously debating whether or not to go back simply to give the damned ghost a piece of her mind. Before she could decide, however, an abrupt noise distracted her.
At first, she panicked, thinking it was Filch, who would surely bust her for something even though she was breaking no rules. But when she heard something else, a sort of cry, a different kind of alarm was set off in her mind.
She followed the sound immediately. It came from the alcove off the side of the corridor where a door to an unused classroom was. She closed the small gap between her and the source of the noise until she was facing the alcove. In front of her was a boy in Slytherin robes, who appeared at first glance to be her age, towering over a small boy in oversized Gryffindor robes. The Slytherin wore a cocky grin and had his wand pointed at the Gryffindor, who was in a small ball on the ground against the wall, clearly frightened.
"Hey!" Gaia called, as she pulled her own wand and stood directly between the two. Getting a closer look, she found that the Slytherin was Adrian Pucey, a sixth-year she had seen several times but never directly encountered before. Despite being two years older than her, they were of even height. In situations like these, Gaia was thankful for the height she had inherited from her mother. It helped give her the intimidation factor.
"Get outta the way, Lestrange," Pucey snarled haughtily.
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size, Pucey. Or did the first-year hurt your feelings?"
"I'm warning you, Lestrange."
"And I'm telling you to leave. Now."
He quickly lost his temper and sent a spell of green sparks from his wand, but Gaia had been expecting it. She was ready to rebound with a shield spell that sent the jet of light back at him, hitting him the arm and singeing his uniform slightly. He winced and gripped his bicep, taking his attention away from her for just as long as she needed - she flicked her wand at his feet. As his shoe laces tied themselves together, she gave it one more flourish, pushing him forwards to the open hallway, where his laces tripped him and he fell forward to the ground.
"I take it back," she stated, stepping forwards to approach him. She crossed her arms over her chest, allowing her wand to point at an upwards angle as she smirked. "You actually can't take on someone your own size."
He scowled and stood up. "I'll get you back for this," he snarled before stalking away. Gaia couldn't help but laugh at him taking humorously short steps to keep from falling.
"Hey, you'll wanna see this kid," she called to her side. The boy peaked around the corner to watch his tormenter's retreating figure take short, hop-like steps and giggled loudly. Gaia finally turned to see who the victim was. Thankfully, he appeared unharmed.
"Ben?" she questioned when she could make out his face. Ben Sawyer flushed and stood to his full height, which wasn't much, and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Yeah."
"Hey, do you remember me? I'm Gaia."
"'Course I remember you! We rode the train together."
Gaia felt some part of her shine with joy at his response.
"How have you been? I haven't talked to you since the Welcome Feast. And what had Pucey's wand in a knot?"
Ben flushed and looked at his feet. "I'm not sure."
Something inside of her made Gaia doubt his answer. She stepped forward slowly, kindly, and knelt down in front of him.
"Ben?" she pressed softly. "Do you know why he was after you?"
After a moment, he nodded. "Earlier today I was practicing Lumos with a couple friends. Adrian and his friends were nearby, and they were making fun of us for some reason. I didn't really mind, but my friend Isa stood up and told them it wasn't okay to pick on me just for being Muggle-born. I didn't know that was why they were laughing in the first place..."
Gaia contained her anger in a stiff sigh. "Then what happened?" she asked calmly.
"Nothing really," Ben responded. "It wasn't until a few minutes ago when he saw me in the hallway and wanted to 'finish what he had started,' or something. That's when you showed up."
There was silence for several moments before either of them spoke again. "I'm really proud of you," Gaia declared. Ben finally looked up, clearly confused.
"For what?" he asked.
"Well, first of all, I'm proud of your friend Isa. Sadly, she was right about what those kids were doing. But the things is they're wrong. And you proved that. You faced a real life bad guy."
"But you're the one who saved me," he protested, appearing almost guilty.
"You're not wrong," Gaia said with a slight chuckle in hopes of making him feel better. "But even then, you still did the smart thing. Even if you don't feel like it. You stayed out of a fight that you knew you weren't prepared for. No first-year should be jumping between a fourth-year and a sixth-year."
Ben seemed to have cheered up a bit by her words. Gaia smirked as she thought of what to say next.
"So... tell me about this Isa girl."
Ben smiled brightly and started to laugh. "She's just a friend! That's it!"
"Okay! Okay! If you insist!" she said in tone that was clearly unconvinced.
"She is!" he insisted.
"Hey, I agreed," she said, putting her hands up in mock defense. "We should probably get back to the Common Room before curfew rolls around."
Ben nodded in agreement and Gaia made it back to her feet.
As they started walking she grinned one more time.
"Is she in Gryffindor, though?"
"Gaia, stop!" Ben hooted. Gaia chuckled too.
The essay she would have to restart was the farthest thing from her mind.
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
a/n: ok so this is as much as i had already written of this book so now we are in uncharted waters! kind of scary but i definitely have a lot of ideas and plans for these characters and dynamics that i'm very excited for! we'll definitely be seeing more of mikhail in gof, as well as pucey. and in the later books i'm really excited to write bellatrix and sirius, and maybe some oc's that i don't even know yet. either way, i hope some of you are along for the journey as well because i feel like it's only going to go up from here! (maybe not in how often i'm able to write, but we shall see!) love you all endlessly!
<3