Over the next week and a half Wren settled into her new life at Hogwarts, juggling classes, caring for the Hogad in the mornings and keeping up with the mountain of homework that seemed to pile up every day. Although each day was exhausting and in stark contrast to the homeschooling she had had before, Wren enjoyed her lessons and found herself being one of the top of her class in most subjects along with Rosewaine and Erris. The top mark was always generally allocated to one of the three.
Rosewaine and Wren grew closer every day, never spending a minute apart other than Wren's secret walks and they liked it that way. It had become so apparent to everyone else that they came as a duo that when people invited one of them to an activity, it was a given assumption that the invite had been aimed at both of the girls.
Wren awoke at her usual five Am on a friday morning and donned her adventure gear. A well rehearsed routine at this point. She wandered along the deserted corridors greeting some of the early waking portraits and then slipped out of the side door. It was an overcast morning with grey clouds cloaking the sky, becanning in a more autumnal feel onto the summer parched landscape. Wren ambled across the dew slick lawns and down the hill towards Hagrid's Hut. However, as she approached she saw that Hagrid was standing outside in the garden holding a spade which wasn't the usual sight she had grown used to. Most mornings he answered the door with a teapot in hand.
'Good morning Hagrid. Hows our little warrior today?' Wren called cheerily. However when Hagrid turned around his face told her everything she needed to know and her stomach fell like a stone. The giant of a man had red puffy eyes and tear stains down his ruddy cheeks as his colossal hand wiped his nose with a polka dot handkerchief.
'I'm sorry, Little 'en. He fought the best he could but..... But he decided to move on las' night.' He explained through a sob.
Wren couldn't quite believe what she was being told. The hogad had been improving. He had been eating better and raising his head up. He had even stood up several days ago. For all the world it looked as though he had turned a corner.
Wren walked with led weighted legs over to where Hagrid was standing and looked down at the hole he had dug. She didn't say a thing as a tear rolled down her cheek and her heart broke quietly.
'I thought you would want to say goodbye before i buried him. You know you did everythin' you could have. There weren't no better tender that that creature could of had.' Hagrid said comfortingly as he pulled aside a tartan blanket to reveal the Hogads body.
To Wren, it looked as if the creature was simply sleeping as she bent down and stroked its face. 'I'm sorry the world wasn't kind to you. I gave you all the love I could.' she whispered then kissed the top of its head between its horns.
'And that's jus' what it needed to move on in peace. You gave it dignity my girl and that's all we can ever ask for.' Hagrid said before blowing his nose loudly. Wren nodded solemnly as she stood and watched Hagrid cover the hogad up once more and lower it into the grave. Together they filled in the hole spadeful at a time until only a mound of earth between the pumpkins marked the hogads resting place.
After saying a few prayers and sending the Hogad off in the right manner, Wren had to return to the castle for the start of school though it was the last thing she wanted to do in her current state of grief.
'Your very quiet this morning.' Rosewaine commented as the girls combed their hair in the bathroom mirror. 'Bad night?'
'Bad morning.' Wren replied in a hollow voice. Rosewaine looked at her friend quizzically but when Wren didn't elaborate she decided not to push the subject. She knew Wren well enough by now that if Wren had wanted to share her thoughts she would have and so it was best to leave it alone.
Their first lesson that day was double potions. An interesting subject but never a great start to the day when taught by a snippity, gloomy man who enjoyed humiliating his students as if it were a sport. The fact that his insults were delivered in his dry, callus tone almost made you believe his words yourself. And this day Wren was already too much of an emotional wreck to steal herself for such an assault.
As the first years filed into the dungeon classroom and impacted their cauldrons and ingredients at their stations, Professor Snape stood at the top of class with his arms behind his back and his eyes narrowed. The pale glow of the candle light glistened off the top of his greasy hair and cast an unflattering hue over the man's sallow skin. His beak-like nose and dark billowing robes always made Wren mentally liken him to a vulture or a bat. Neither of them were particularly comforting creatures.
Once the class had readied themselves, Professor Snape began his lesson. He instructed the class to make an antidote to common poisons which included ingredients such as finely chopped moss, splashes of cobra venom, dried and ground jewelweed and diced dandelion root.
'I expect to see bright red liquid in your cauldrons by the time it has simmered for ten minutes.' Professor Snape said as he prowled around the classroom, his robes billowing behind him.
Wren had buried herself in her work as best she could, cutting and grinding the ingredients just as the recipe instructed, adding them to the bubbling cauldron carefully and stirring it clockwise. As the liquid began to turn a vivid cherry red, Wren couldn't help but be reminded of the Hogad's gleaming red eyes and she felt emotion well up inside her. She tried to push it down the best she could but as her eyes watered between her furious blinking a single tear escaped and fell into the bubbling redness below. To her horror, the potion began to darken to an iridescent indigo.
Within a second, Professor Snape had swooped down on her mistake and as he saw the purple liquid bubbling away in her cauldron he exclaimed in a scathing tone,'What on earth are you doing, you stupid girl,'
These words opened the flood gates to Wren's emotions, shattering the last bricks she had built to keep them in and more tears rolled down her cheeks as she shook with shaky breaths. As the tears landed in the cauldron the liquid turned a darker and darker purple until the waters were a deep plum colour.
'I thought you were a Ravenclaw, not a leaky tap, five points from Ravenclaw, get out.' Professor Snape spat in disgust as he brandished his finger to the door.
Mortified and shaken, Wren gathered her things through tears that flowed freely now and stumbled out of the classroom. As she left, she heard Snape address the rest of the class,'I will have no snivelling in my class, that is for you to do in your own time.'
Wren practically ran from the class room all the way up to the entrance hall, desperately wiping her eyes. Her vision was so blurry from her tears that she didn't quite see the bottom step of the staircase. Her foot slipped as she began to climb and she landed on the cold stone hard, her knees taking most of the force. As she had fallen, her bag had smacked on the ground beside her causing her ink pot to roll out and smash on the ground covering her and the contents of her bag in dark ink.
This was all too much. Wren just sat there on the ground and sobbed as the portraits around her rattled, their inhabitants steadying painted flower pots and candlesticks in their scenes.
When the bell rang, Zed packed up his things and strode out of his Transfiguration class. He wanted to beat the crowds to get to the library to finish up his homework so he set quite a fast pace. However, as he reached the landing in the entrance hall he saw a sight that made his heart sink. The familiar small form of his cousin with her dark wringlet locks sobbing, absolutely beside herself at the bottom of the stairs covered in ink. Zed rushed down the stairs as he pulled out his wand. As he squatted down beside her, he said in a calming and comforting voice, 'Hay, hay. It's ok, it's ok. Just a little spilt ink. Easily fixed.'
He looked around at the rather traumatised paintings and realised that time was of the essence. He had to calm his cousin down before crowds of students began to fill the halls. He worked quickly, vanishing the ink spill from the little girl and her possessions then took her to a corner of the hall out of the way. He hugged her tightly and began to repeat the soothing mantra he had seen her parents do countless times. 'Focus on your breathing, deep breaths, that's it. Goood, good.'
The shaking subsided as Wren buried her face in her cousin's robes hiding from the world.
'Now, what's this all about?' she heard her cousin ask as she lifted her head to look at him, her eyes red and puffy. She could still only get out one word, 'Snape.' she whimpered, though in truth that was only the tip of the iceberg but she couldn't find the words to explain about the Hogad and a small part of her didn't want to because vocalising what had happened would somehow make it more real and irreversible.
Zed exhaled angrily and visualised punching that venomous man in the face, forgoing any notion of using his wand. He remembered how scary Professor Snape had been to him in his first year. He still felt uneasy around him now. 'Don't pay any attention to that sadistic old fart.' Zed said in a serious tone as his cousin looked up at him with her big, watery amber eyes. 'Don't take to heart whatever he said, he just likes to feel powerful in a world that has forgotten him, ok?'
Wren nodded solemnly as the tears began to dry up and she felt stronger in herself once more. Students had begun to walk past, looking curiously at the pair. Zed nodded at a group of his friends who had begun to approach.
'I'm ok now,' Wren said glumly.
'Are you sure?,' Zed asked in a disbelieving tone.
'Yes, thank you. Go with your friends, Rosewaine will be out in a minute. I will be fine.' Wren insisted, in part because she didn't want to be seen as Zed's pathetic little cousin to his friends.
'Alright but if you need anything, and I mean anything, even if it's just company, you come and find me ok.' Zed offered kindly. Wren smiled weakly as she nodded before Zed left, ruffling her hair affectionately as he did.
'Wren! Wren!' Rosewaine's voice travelled over the congested entrance hall as she battled through the crowd towards her friend. 'Are you ok?' She asked in a worried tone when she finally reached her friend.
'Yes, i'm ok now.' Wren sighed.
'What an absolute monster! I've never met anyone so vile.' Rosewaine huffed angrily in defence of Wren.
'Sadist,' Wren replied in agreement, copying what her cousin had said.
The girls followed the crowd out into the open air and found a sitting spot on the lake bank to spend their break. Rosewaine produced two apples from her bag that she had taken from breakfast for later and handed one to Wren.
'An apple a day keeps sadness away.' Rosewaine grinned as she bit down into the fruit.
'I'm not sure that that's how the saying goes.' Wren queried, her own smile playing on her lips.
'Meh,' Rosewaine dismissed Wren's point with a woft of her hand. 'Seemed fitting.'
The girls giggled together as they munched away on their apples and took in the view. Although Wren's heart still hurt deeply she felt a lot of relief being able to laugh with her friend.
The next class was double charms which was always an occasion to smile about. Wren loved learning new spells and now that she was getting the hang of controlling just how much will to put behind her incantations, she found that she was very good at it. She never had trouble getting things to work like some of the other students. She knew that her battle was always going to be ensuring that her spell work didn't go overboard and work too well. She had found that out the hard way when her unlocking charm had not only unlocked the mechanism in the door but disassembled the door entirely, bolts and all, leaving an empty doorway in front of them.
'Well that's one way tae solve a problem.' Rory had mused beside her. looking at her handiwork with a maniacal delight.
In today's class the students were set to work repairing broken drinks glasses, each time they succeeded, breaking the glasses again so that they could have another go. Wren found this to be a most therapeutic task, smashing the glass in front of her only to watch it assemble itself when she flicked her wand and uttered 'Reparo.'
Rory on the other hand had not been having such luck, having approached the spell so gung ho that he had reverted his glass to a pile of sand. It was evident to Wren that Rory was a clever boy, the pranks he pulled around the school took a great level of planning and his conversations were always very witty but it seemed that that same electric energy that made him so likeable rather hindered him in spell casting. He never did anything by halves and always approached his spells with full force but in his enthusiasm he lacked the finesse and precision to achieve the outcomes he wanted. Wren always tried to help him in tempering this inner exuberance as she always had done herself and by the end of class Rory had always managed to achieve the assignment. It seemed that though Wren had sworn never to make friends with such a troublesome boy, she too, like everyone else, had been swayed by his charms. It's hard to dislike someone who has such a sunny disposition and zest for life. Rosewaine, on the other hand, was not so keen. Possessing a rather strong and hot headed personality herself, Rory's friendly teasing often ended up with them bickering and name calling. Wren always found herself stuck in the middle of the two as they tried to reach around her to pinch and poke each other. They seemed to fuel each other's most childish sides.
When the bell rang, Wren and Rosewaine headed down to the great hall for lunch. Today's offering was a hearty dumpling stew with buttered bread on the side. As the weather was beginning to turn a tad more chilly than the balmy temperatures that high summer had brought, stews were beginning to be rather well received. Once filled with warm fuel, the pair ventured out into one of the courtyards that many of the first years frequented to spend the rest of their free time.
As Wren walked over to her friends, she walked past a gaggle of first year slytherins, including Prudence. Thankfully Wren and Prudences paths had not passed all that much in their few weeks at Hogwarts. They had a few classes together but they had kept themselves apart. Wren wanted nothing to do with her as she had observed just how mean the girl truly was. Prudence's favourite hobby was picking on and belittling her weaker or less accomplished classmates. However, this day it seemed that it had finally come around to Wren's turn to be the victim of Prudences choice.
As Wren walked past, Prudence stuck out her foot, catching Wren's leg as she took another step so that for the second time that day, Wren landed hard on her already scuffed and bruised knees.
'Oh my my, and here I thought that a Ravenclaw was smart enough to look where they were going. I guess the sorting hat does get it wrong sometimes.' Prudence purred maliciously to her friends' rapturous laughter.
As Wren picked herself up from the ground she felt heat spreading from her core and along her arms. It was almost as if Prudence had heard what Professor Snape had said to her and decided to rub it in, no doubt passed on by her little minion Felicity Crew who had been in class with her.
Rosewaine took a step forward towards Prudence, her fists balled ready to strike in her friend's defence but before she could carry out her motion of punching Prudence in the face Wren had turned on her heels and begun to run.
Wren heard her friend calling after her as she tried to wrestle the heat that was nearing her fingertips back towards her core. She sprinted as fast as she could towards the trees of the forbidden forest, desperately trying to get clear of everyone before the inevitable happened.
Rosewaine chased her friend as they entered the forest. 'Wren, stop. We can't be here.' she cried after her. Then, as they lost sight of the castle, Wren turned around and yelled back. 'Stay away!' Her voice was desperate and fearful.
Rosewaine couldn't understand what was happening, or why her friend was seemingly trying to escape her. She took a step forward then something smacked her in the chest hard, flinging her to the ground as the trees swayed violently around her. Rosewaine lay in the dirt fighting to regain the breath that had been pushed from her lungs then as she sat up, she surveyed the scene around her. As the trees began to calm, Rosewaine watched as her friend collapsed in the middle of a ring of bare earth, the forest litter and leaves having been pushed away from the explosion point.
'Wren!' Rosewaine whispered as she crawled over to her friend's curled up body. As she drew closer she could hear her friend sobbing quietly. At that moment, she didn't know what to do or really what had just happened so she lay down beside her friend and held her.
'Yo..you're not afraid of me?' Wren stammered weakly.
'No.' Rosewaine whispered back honestly.
'But I hurt you.' Wren sobbed.
'You didn't mean to.' Rosewaine replied as she stroked some of the hair away from Wren's soaked face. 'I remember hurting people when I lost control when I was little. Maybe not as big as this,' she clarified as she looked around at the wide ring of leaves that had been pushed aside around them and put the pieces together in her mind. 'But I remember how unavoidable it was. And no one was ever angry with me.'
The girls lay there for a long time before Wren tried to push herself up to sit. Seeing her friend was struggling, Rosewaine propped her up before asking. 'Does this happen a lot?'
Wren nodded solemnly. ' my parents always hoped that i would grow out of it but it's just gotten worse as i got older. They hoped that being able to use a wand would stop it all....but it seems not.' she said looking around at the devastation for the first time. Several of the sapling trees around her had been snapped in half.
'And this is what happened when your aunt wrote about you, calling you a menace?' Rosewaine clarified as she recalled one of their first conversations.
'She was going to take Eremial away and she made my mum cry.' Wren explained.
'Seems a reasonable response to me.' Rosewaine replied with a mischievous grin then her expression settled into a more serious expression. 'It seems we can help each other now. You explain the wizarding world to me and I can help keep you calm or get you somewhere safe when you can't.'
Wren looked up at her friend with new tears in her eyes, but these were not of sadness, these were produced by joy. Joy of being accepted. 'Your my best friend.' Wren said sincerely
'And you are mine.' Rosewaine smiled, speaking with the same tone. Then after a minute her brow furrowed.' What is really going on Wren. You have been out of sorts since you woke up.'
'Noth-' Wren began, about to lie but then sighed deeply. It was time to tell her friend what she had been doing. 'Nothing anymore. He's gone and there was nothing I could do.'
Over the next fifteen minutes Wren explained to her friend the entirety of what had happened with the Hogad and the mystery of where it had come from. Rosewaine listened intently, secretly amazed at her friend's dedication towards the animal and enthralled by the mystery that the creature had come with. When Wren had finished her story Rosewaine pondered for a moment. 'You are very good at keeping a secret. I had no idea. I never suspected once that you were sneaking out of the dorm.' she said with a closed lipped smile. 'You know you did everything you could, right. Sometimes animals decide that they want to go to a better place because they are tired of fighting.'
'Like heaven?' Wren asked hopefully.
'Yes. my grandma told me there is a place in heaven for all creatures. I'm sure that covers magical ones too.' Rosewaine explained with a thoughtful expression.
Rosewaine tried to help Wren up to her feet but when she realised her friend was too weak to walk she hauled her onto her back and piggy backed her to the edge of the forest so that they wouldn't get into trouble. Once out of the out of bounds zone, Rosewaine pulled out her wand and fired red sparks up in the air. It had been one of the first spells they had learnt as in such a large campus a distress beacon was very useful.
Within a few minutes Professor McGonagall and the Defence Against the Arts teacher, a rather young man named Professor Beckett came running out of the castle towards them.
'She fainted.' Rosewaine lied as McGonagall looked at the rather limp girl with her sharp gaze then looked towards the forest. If she had ascertained what had really happened she did not say because she simply turned to Professor Beckett and asked, 'Would you carry Miss Novelle up to the hospital wing, Professor. She is in some serious need of rest and the watchful eye of Madam pomfrey.'
Professor Beckett scooped Wren up with ease and began to carry Wren towards the castle. A well built young man with sandy blonde hair and a kind face, he only looked as if he had left Hogwarts five or six years ago. In his classes, it was evident that he knew his subject well; however, he was less skilled at keeping control of his class. He had made the mistake of trying to befriend his students and as first years always do in a new school, they had been testing his limits.
As Wren was carried away, Rosewaine began to follow until Wren heard Professor McGonagall beckon her. 'Miss Swift, A word.'
It took two days of rest in the hospital wing before Wren was allowed to return to her dorm and classes. Madam Pomfry had fussed over her and plied her with a lot of pick me up potion. She had only allowed Rosewaine to visit her in the evenings which was rather torturous for the inseperable pair. Rosewaine always made sure to bring new books for Wren to read during the day and all the notes from classes. When Madam Pomfry had been out of the room, Wren had even attempted a few of the spells covered in class but soon found that she didn't yet have the strength to execute them.
On Rosewaine's first visit Wren had asked what Professor McGonagall had wanted to talk to her about.
'She made me show her where it had happened.' Rosewaine explained.
'Are we in trouble?!' Wren squeaked anxiously.
'No, in fact she was rather impressed that you had had the forethought to get yourself away from everyone. She was even more impressed when she saw the mess you had made.' Rosewaine grinned at her friend.