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Chapter 16 – The new normal
by Maeryn Lamonte – Copyright © 2021 |
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Apologies for the delay, but I ended up rewriting a lot of this. It’s about 5000 words longer than the original, but I think it works better. |
Hortensia was gone when they woke the next morning. She wasn’t usually an early riser so her absence gave Lori and Anneka some cause for concern. She wasn’t in the Great Hall at Breakfast either which worried them more.
The Slytherin table seemed low on numbers — another oddity after the weeks in which it had been the only table not to be missing a significant number of its occupants. Those that remained turned hate-filled glares in Lori’s direction as she passed.
“What do you think that’s about?” She murmured to Anneka.
Ani shrugged and found a seat facing away from them. “I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough,” she responded. “In the meantime, we don’t need to look at them.”
Lori sat beside her friend, but the continued glowering from behind her made her feel uncomfortable, so she rushed through breakfast and stood to leave as soon as she could. Anneka took a couple more quick mouthfuls of porridge and followed.
A group of Slytherins stood up and blocked their path. She recognised Efina from the previous day as well as a few of her friends. This time they looked less appreciative.
“Excuse me,” Lori said, “I need to get ready for class.”
Elfina stepped close, scowling into Lori’s face from close up — and winked.
It was the briefest movement — barely a twitch — but it was accompanied by the thin witch holding up a small envelope in the enclosed space between them. Lori took it and Elfina stepped back.
“Watch your back,” she hissed, making it sound more like a threat than a warning.
Lori and Anneka rushed back to the safety of their dorm where Lori opened the envelope.
“What are you doing?” Anneka tried to stop her, but she was too late.
The envelope rose up close to Lori’s ear and spoke in a whisper.
“Sorry about the act.” The paper spoke quietly with Elfina’s voice. “Quite a few of our housemates were taken out of school yesterday evening, in a lot of cases by Ministry officials. We’ve heard some of their parents were arrested and the rumour’s going around that you were involved. Really watch your back today,” this time the tone was concerned rather than aggressive, “I’ve heard a number of my housemates muttering about payback.”
The envelope drifted over to a wastebasket and quietly tore itself to shreds.
“Sorry,” Anneka said. “I thought it might be a howler or something worse.”
A spectral cat walked through the wall and jumped up on Lori’s bed. “Please come to my office,” it said in McGonagall’s voice.
Anneka’s eyes widened. “I’ve never heard of a Patronus being used to summon a student before,” she said. “You’d better go.”
Lori stood up, grabbing her book bag. “I suppose. You be careful as well. They might try to get at me through you.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“Do you think this is one of those ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ situations?”
Anni managed a weak smile. “I think this might be a good time to use your cloak.”
Anneka had been right. The corridors were dotted with small groups of Slytherin students lounging about looking not the least bit innocent. Lori made her way past them without too much difficulty, though her mismatched legs made it hard to keep quiet. Even so, she reached the headmistress’s office without incident. She reversed her cloak and raised a hand to knock.
“Come!” the command came before she could complete the gesture. She opened the door and stepped in.
McGonagall stood at the window looking out at the comings and goings in the school. She had visitors — two men conversing quietly by the portraits of previous heads. One in green robes she didn’t recognise. The other…”
“Uncle Harry?”
McGonagall turned. “You left before announcements this morning Lori. I’d appreciate it if you’d wait around for them in future, especially since you seem to feature in so many of them.”
“I’m sorry professor.”
“This is Marcus Pawsey from St Mungo’s. He specialises in inadvertent magical seepage and will be working with you this morning with your current condition. Before he does so, your uncle would like to talk to you about last night in more detail.
“Gentlemen, my office is yours. I have a class to teach.” With that, she walked out.
“This won’t take long,” Harry said, talking as much to the healer as to Lori. He led his niece over to a leather sofa and sat her down before working through a list of questions relating to her recent adventure. All the while they were talking, a quill scratched away on a piece of parchment paper beside them. Lori eyed it nervously.
Harry noticed and smiled. At a gesture, the quill stopped writing. “Hermione gave it to me for Christmas this year. She knows how much I hate writing reports and she got the idea from Rita Skeeter’s Quick Quotes Quill. This one’s different in that it writes exactly what you say.”
He waved again and the interview continued. True to his word, the interview lasted no more than fifteen minutes, after which Harry stood and collected his quill and parchment.
“Uncle Harry?”
“Yes, Lori.”
“The people you arrested the other night? How many of them were parents of students here?”
“Quite a few, it turns out. You noticed some empty seats this morning?”
“Mainly Slytherins, yes, but I was wondering if I could have a look at the list.”
“I’m sorry Lori, that’s Ministry business…”
“Was there anyone named Skunk on the list?”
“Why do you ask?”
“One of my friends. Hortensia Skunk.”
“I probably shouldn’t say, but yes, there was a Grayson Skunk on the list.”
“Just one person with that name?”
“Your friend is with her mother right now.”
“Okay, thank you.”
“Lori, it’s not your fault that your friend’s father was arrested. It was his choice to join the Order and become a part of this conspiracy.”
Lori smiled weakly.
“Okay. I’ll leave you in Marcus’s capable hands. Marcus.” With a nod to the other man, Harry left.
“So what do you think?” Lori asked. “Might you be able to do anything about this?” She indicated her face.
Marcus had been healer for long enough to have seen far worse. He had a practised easy smile. “Probably not immediately, but maybe in time. We have more urgent concerns for today.”
“Oh?” Lori felt a shiver of disquiet run down her spine.
“Imagine a dam, Lori. An enormous wall holding back immense quantities of water…”
“I know what a dam is.”
“Of course you do. Now, imagine a crack forming in the side of the dam so that a slow trickle of water starts coming through. What do you think might happen if it’s left alone?”
“It’ll get worse?”
“Yes, but not just that. With a dam, a small leak can seem almost harmless right up to the point where the whole structure collapses very suddenly.”
“That doesn’t sound very good.”
“It isn’t. Lori, do you know what an obscurus is?”
“No.” It didn’t sound very good either.
“It happens rarely — far more rarely these days in our more open-minded world — but occasionally a child with magical abilities will be forced to suppress his or her magic. It’s not something that can be sustained. In time the build-up of unreleased magic inside reaches a point where it bursts out in the form of an obscurus — an immense shadowy cloud with unimaginable power and utterly no control. An obscurus is one of the most powerfully destructive forces known in the wizarding world.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“An obscurus comes about as the result of the unfettered release of magical power. The circumstances are different in your case, Lori, but the weakening of the inner walls holding your magic in check could result in a collapse with very little provocation. The release isn’t likely to be as powerful as with an obscurus, but it will be just as wildly chaotic. It could cause a lot of harm, so the most important thing we need to do today is to stop that from happening.”
“How?”
“Well, ultimately we’ll need to repair the fracturing that the Patronus Maximus spell caused in you, but that’ll take time. In order to give us that time we need to find a way of allowing that trickle of magic of yours a safe release so that it won’t cause any more damage.”
“I was hoping we could plug it so we could stop what’s keeping me like this.”
“And we will try to do that in time. If we attempt it now before we’ve strengthened your barriers, it could cause enough of a build-up of magic to cause them to break down.
“I’m afraid you’re stuck with this partial transformation for now. In time — and to be realistic we’re talking years here — you should be able to strengthen your walls enough that we can look at capping the trickle, but we’ve a long way to go before we get there.
“First things first. This morning I’ll ask you to cast some very minor spells like Lumos. It’ll enable me to see the extent of the fracturing and poke a few holes through the weaker parts.”
“Won’t that make them weaker?”
“It does sound a little backwards, but the magic is currently forcing its way through cracks and causing them to grow. The holes let it flow more easily so the damage doesn’t increase.
“I’m not going to lie, what I have to do today will be unpleasant, but our future sessions won’t be anywhere near so gruelling.”
Under the healer’s direction, Lori removed her blouse and camisole. Despite there being nothing to show, she felt uncomfortably vulnerable with her torso exposed. For the rest of the morning, she cast various spells as directed while Marcus examined her through various instruments and made sheets of notes. Every now and again he’d pause and warn her of a little impending discomfort before pushing the tip of his wand slowly into her chest.
It didn’t hurt, but it felt extremely unpleasant, a bit like poking at the skin on rice pudding until it gave, except that she was the rice pudding. She could feel the wand moving around inside her until he withdrew it leaving her skin unblemished and the trickle of magic inside her flowing more easily. Eventually, after several hours he stepped back and smiled.
“I think that should do for today,” he said, much to Lori’s relief. “You’ve been extremely brave and I’m pleased to say that the worst is over. However, I’m afraid you’re not going to like what I’m going to say next.
“Lori, I need you to give me your wand.”
“What? Why?”
“It is absolutely imperative that you not cast any magic right now. It’s extremely dangerous for you in your present condition.”
“But I’ve cast quite a few spells recently. Professor McGonagall said it was alright as long as I didn’t cast them on myself.”
“Professor McGonagall doesn’t have my expertise in these matters. As for your casting spells, your uncle told me about the Patronus you produced a couple of days ago. I’m sure everyone’s told you how impressive that is, but what’s more of a wonder is that it didn’t cause a full rupture.”
“I didn’t feel any different to normal.”
“No, I wouldn’t expect you to. Remember the dam? Everything seems almost normal right up to the moment when it bursts.
“The stomata I’ve put in you today will stop things getting worse and they’ll prevent any build-up of magical power, but you can’t risk putting any strain on it.
“I’ll be back in a day or two when we’ll start on the long journey of repairing the damage, but until I say, no more magic.”
Very reluctantly Lori offered up her wand. She hadn’t been without it since her parent’s had bought it from Olivander’s before school had started. It left her feeling far more naked than her lack of blouse. Reflexively, she reached for them and dressed quickly.
“What about my invisibility cloak?” She asked as she picked it up.
The healer held out a hand and examined it closely.
“No problem,” he smiled handing it back. “This has its own magic so won’t draw on yours.
“Now, unless things have changed dramatically since my days here, I believe it’s about lunchtime.”
They headed for the Great Hall where Marcus joined the professors. He handed Lori’s wand to Professor McGonagall and spoke briefly into her ear. Lori found Anneka and slumped down next to her.
“That bad?”
“Worse. I’m not allowed to use magic. He took my wand.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know. We have another session later in the week. Maybe I’ll learn more then.”
“Well, you shouldn’t need it this afternoon; we have potions then history of magic.”
“Oh joy. My two favourite lessons.”
Potions was both better and worse than usual. Lori found her mismatched limbs a mixed blessing. Raphael’s greater strength in her right arm made crushing ingredients easier, but it felt awkward leaving her with the choice of doing the finesse tasks like stirring either with her non-dominant left hand or her clumsy right. She had to rely on Anneka to provide the small amount of magic needed, and by the end of the lesson the contents of her cauldron, whilst not being an unmitigated disaster, were decidedly not right.
Oddly, Professor Mugglewump offered up none of his usual scathing criticisms but instead nodded in a subdued manner. “Not quite, Lori,” he said. “Close though. A passable effort.”
“What was that?” she asked Anneka as they made their way to Professor Binns’ classroom, but her friend had no answer and just shook her head.
History of magic was no more stimulating than usual. Even reading the relevant chapter as the ghostly professor droned on didn’t seem to help and by the end Lori was in as much of a daze as her classmates.
“Scamander, a word if you please.”
Lori glanced across at Anneka who shrugged. In all their past experience, Binns had ended each of his lectures by drifting off through the wall. Lori walked up to the front of the class.
“Hmm, yes. Special research project for you,” the professor said. “Headmaster’s instructions. Something right up your alley — you are still interested in those magical creatures of yours aren’t you, Newton?”
“Lori sir. Yes sir.”
“See what you can find out about the history of house elves. Spend some time in the kitchens and talk to a few. Facts only though, Newton. No flights of fancy, eh?”
“Yes sir, and it’s Lori sir.”
“Alright, you can go now. Spend a few weeks on it, find out as much as you can.” Binns was halfway through the wall before he’d finished talking.
“So? What was that about do you think?” Anni asked.
“Extra homework. Something that doesn’t need me to use magic. It’s fine, I was planning on heading to the kitchens after dinner anyway. I have a promise to keep. You can come too if you want.”
“Sorry, I’ve an appointment with Mugglewump this evening.”
“How come? I thought you did okay in potions — certainly better than me and he didn’t have anything nasty to say about my efforts.”
“No, it’s not like that. It’s… it’s something else.”
They stopped at the dorm long enough to change. This was something Lori had looked forward to, but since her disfigurement she found no pleasure in her clothes. Some inherent magic caused them to adjust to her altered frame, but nothing could hide the freak that looked back from the mirror.
Dinner was wonderful as usual, but ordinary for all that. Lori prodded at the contents of her plate and mused about how it was possible to get used to pretty much anything whether good or bad. She didn’t want to get used to the way she was now though. She wanted to fix it — not that she could do much to help that along right now.
Anneka finished her plate, then rushed through a desert before jumping to her feet.
“I’ll see you later,” she said and headed out.
Lori shook her head, wondering what there was about an evening with Mugglewump that could have her friend so eager to go. She poked at her food for a while longer, but her mood had robbed her of her appetite. Eventually she pushed the plate away and stood up herself. Time to head for the kitchens.
“Master?” a quavering voice enquired. “Young master?”
She’d raised her head to find Cringe standing nearby. He looked cleaner in the Hogwarts house elf livery made from a school tea towel, but otherwise he seemed just as miserable.
“No, I’m sorry,” she replied. “I made myself look like him for a while and something went wrong with the spell, so I’m stuck like this. I said some mean things to you before, Cringe, and I'm sorry.”
“You tricked Cringe,” the house elves voice turned querulous. “You tricked Cringe into taking you to the prisoners and now master is angry with Cringe.”
“They were my parents, and their lives were in danger. I’m sorry I tricked you, but what your master made you do trapping them like that was wrong.”
“Cringe doesn’t care. Cringe doesn’t like you. Cringe doesn’t want to talk to you.” With that he scuttled away.
“Mistress must forgive Cringe” The voice came from a shelf above Lori’s head where a smaller than usual house elf lolled with a half-consumed bottle of butter beer held loosely in one hand. Unlike the other house elves, she wore a red dress that might once have belonged to a porcelain doll. Once pretty, it was now torn, stained and distinctly grubby.
Hello,” Lori said brightly. Here was a chance of a little research.
“Cringe is not long at Hogwarts,” the house elf continued, ignoring the greeting. “He is very sad because he is losing his job with his family. It is hard for house elves to lose their families, Winky knows this very well.”
“Is that your name then? Winky? I like your dress.”
The house elf burst into tears. “Mistress is very kind,” she sobbed, “but for Winky to wear clothes is a disgrace. Winky does not wish to wear clothes, but she is a free elf, so she must.”
“I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to be free. I mean, I know conditions here at Hogwarts are pretty good, but why would you choose to serve someone who is unkind to you?”
“My master is not being unkind!” Winky snapped. “My master is being the best master a house elf could wish for!”
“I didn’t mean you, Winky. I don’t know anything about your situation. I was thinking of Cringe. He worked for a very cruel family and I can’t think why he would want to keep doing so.
“They kidnapped my parents, you know, and left them chained on the top of a hill where they were going to feed them to Dementors. They were trying to conjure a mist that would have killed every non-pure-blood wizard in the world! That’s billions of people!”
“What humans is doing to each other is their business. A house elf’s duty is to serve his or her master.”
“That makes no sense. House elves know right from wrong, so you must know when your masters are evil.”
“House elves is being magically bound. House elves is having to obey their masters no matter what.”
“But that makes no sense either. If you’re being forced to do something you know is wrong and are then given a chance to be free, why wouldn’t you take it?”
“Mistress wouldn’t understand.” Winky took a long drink from her bottle. Nearby house elves variously directed looks of pity and disgust in her direction before turning back to their work.
“I’d like to try,” Lori said earnestly.
“Winky can’t say,” came the slurred reply. “Issa secret. All house elves is promising never to speak of it.”
“Oh.” For a moment Lori had felt she was getting somewhere, but she knew better than to try and force a house elf to act against a promise it had made. “Well, thank you for talking to me anyway, and please tell Cringe I’m sorry.” She turned, looking for the part of the vast kitchen where the meat was prepared.
“Winky is promising never to speak, but she isn’t promising not to show.”
Lori turned back to find herself almost eye to bloodshot eye with the tiny creature. A long bony finger reached out and touched her on the nose
The kitchen vanished and Lori found herself standing outside in an open field of long yellowed grass with the occasional shrub or tree. A range of mountains faded to blue almost encircled her. A circle of rough hewn stones stood nearby and everywhere the place was filled with house elves. They were different though. All of them wore some sort of tunic or dress, intricately embroidered and richly coloured. The eyes and ears were just as large, but here they were filled with a grim intensity of purpose.
In the centre of the circle of stones, on a raised platform stood a group of about a dozen elderly elves. One particularly wizened individual stood just ahead of the rest and lifted his arms.
“We is agreed,” he said, his mouth moving out of sync with the words. “Humans is becoming too dangerous and we is having to do something about it. They is not all having magic and it is not strong magic, but they is crafty and is already finding ways to make it stronger. They is also quarrelsome and the more they is making their magic strong, the more they is looking to fight.
“If we is leaving them, they is becoming more powerful which is not being good for all magical beings. We is not liking it, but we is having to fight!”
However little the leaders liked it, the crowd roared out their approval. Everywhere Lori looked she saw anger and determination in the expressions about her, far different from those of the house elves she knew.
The scene faded and changed into one of a vast battlefield. Hundreds of witches and wizards were retreating before an army of thousands of elves. The wizards fought valiantly, firing off spells at two or three times the rate of the elves around them, but they were being overrun by sheer weight of numbers. Elves would pop into existence in the midst of the retreating throng. Many would die before they could do anything else, but most would fire off one spell or another, burning, freezing, petrifying, bringing all manner of attacks before attempting to vanish as they had come. More elves were dying than humans, but still the human numbers dwindled and still the elves pressed their attack. Lori was horrified to experience death on such a scale and wished she could have been anywhere else.
Mercifully, the scene faded again, returning them to the stone circle on a different day. Many of the elves present bore wounds and other signs of battle, and their numbers were reduced by a half. The same dozen elders stood within the stone circle, the same eldest among them stood apart with his arms raised. This time a second group of elves stood behind him, younger, black robed.
Silence descended on the scene as the elder elf’s raised arms bid them listen. He waited until it was absolute.
“The war with humans is costing many lives,” he said, again his mouth forming different words than those spoken. He looked around at the depleted numbers surrounding him. “But it is nearly won. For every ten humans who is beginning this fight, there is only one who remains!”
The crowd of elves cheered, a great roaring sound of vindication for their immense loss. But the elder elf’s hands remained raised, his face grim.
“It is making what I is asking now much harder.”
Silence fell even more profound than before.
“We is being visited by the Seer of Everwinter,” the elder continued, “and she is having dreams of the future. She is dreaming what is happening if we defeats the humans.
“She is saying that for many years we is having peace, but there is coming a day when all the world is burning, and all life is turning to ash.”
“How is this happening?” The cry came from somewhere in the crowd.
“The humans is crafty. They is finding ways to destroy without magic. And they is quarrelsome enough to destroy themselves and all other things as well.”
“How is we stopping this?” It was a different voice but it asked the question they all wanted answered.
“The Seer of Everwinter is dreaming other dreams. If we is allowing the humans to win this war, they is becoming too powerful and they is enslaving all the magical world.
“She is dreaming many dreams and they is all ending bad. All except one.”
“What is this dream?” yet a third voice called out from the crowd.
“We is surrendering to the humans. We is saying to them we is losing to many lives and we is wanting peace. We is telling them to bind us with magic so we is being their servants.”
“How is this making things better?”
“This is being a good question, but we is not knowing the answer. All we is knowing is this is the only dream the seer is having that is not ending in either the enslavement of all or the ending of all life.
“We is thinking if they is binding us as servants, maybe they is not needing to make slaves of all things. Or if we is close to them and showing them how we is living, maybe they is learning to be better. But we is not knowing.”
“How long is we being their servants?”
“Maybe until we is understanding. Maybe until they is freeing us. Maybe both of these things.”
The questions continued, but the sound and scene faded. Lori found herself lying on the kitchen floor looking up into the concerned faces of several house elves. Winky lay passed out on her shelf, the empty butter beer bottle still grasped in her hand.
“Is mistress alright?”The largest of her onlookers asked. He seemed be the one in authority.
“I think so. What was that?”
“It is… history. It is not good for Winky to show you this, but she is not happy. Not since Master Crouch is sending her away. She is doing her best, but he is not understanding. She is feeling this is unfair.”
“It is unfair though. You shouldn’t have to be servants to people who don’t appreciate you.”
“This is what it means to be a house elf, mistress. We is happy to make the sacrifice because we is knowing what is being saved by it. It is a good thing to give what you have to be making things better for everyone. But it is a hard thing also, and hardest of all when you is doing what is good and you is being made to suffer for it.
“We is asking that you is not telling this to anyone. We is offering to give you a wish if you is agreeing.”
“I don’t suppose you could undo this could you?” Lori indicated her deformities.
“We is sorry, mistress. Elf magic is not like human magic. We is thinking we is making things worse if we try.”
“That’s alright. It was worth asking though. I think I understand why you don’t want people to know the truth. I have to write something though. What would you want me to write?”
“Mistress has to wish. It is binding the promise.”
“Is that what you did when you agreed to become our servants? Did you bind us so we couldn’t do the horrible things you were afraid we’d do?”
“We doesn’t know. It is possible, but we doesn’t understand why what we is doing is working.”
“Alright.” Lori thought carefully. She didn’t really want anything for herself other than to be made right. Since that wasn’t possible, she found her thoughts drifting to the misery she’d felt in both Winky and Cringe. She had an idea which seemed appropriate to the situation. “My wish is that you do whatever you can to make Cringe and Winky feel better about themselves and about being here. I know it’s not what they would choose, but this seems like a good place for a house elf to be.”
The house elves nodded. Their leader spoke once more as he held out a hand to help her to her feet. “Mistress is wise and kind. We is encouraged when we is finding humans like this. We is doing as you wish.
“If you is writing about house elves, you is saying what is being said in your vision, that we is surrendering because we is not wanting any more elves to die. We is binding ourselves to their service so we is not able to be fighting them still. It is truth, but not all truth.”
Lori thanked them. “I wonder if I could have some scraps of raw meat,” she said. “I owe a great deal to one of the thestrals in the forest.”
“Of course, mistress,” the head house elf said and went to fetch a bowl full, not of scraps but fine slices of tenderloin.
“Thank you. Won’t you get in trouble for giving me this though?”
“It is no trouble, mistress. We is in service to all here at Hogwarts. We is bound to be giving whatever is being asked for.”
“Is there a reason why Winky won’t wear the same things you’re all wearing? I mean I know she said something about being a free elf, but I didn’t understand.”
“A house elf is freed by being given clothes. This is what is happening to Winky and afterwards she is being bound to wear clothes to show she is a free elf.”
“Perhaps I could have one or two of your spare tea towels then.” Lori wasn’t sure if it would do any good, but she had an idea that she hoped might help. “Would you mind leaving them on my bed with my laundry?”
A few minutes later, she limped out of the kitchen with an odd sense of bemusement. The house elves had been utterly accommodating and she realised how easy it might be to take advantage of them. She resolved never to do so as she made her way towards the Forbidden Forest.
She’d been worrying about whether or not she’d be able to recognise her mount. Apart from size, the thestrals all seemed pretty much identical. It didn’t turn out to be a problem though. As she entered the clearing, one of the beasts tossed its head and trotted over to her.
“It is you , isn’t it?” She asked, stroking the top of its nose. It didn’t have the same felt-like feeling of the unicorns, but had more of a hard, scale-like quality . “I’m surprised you recognise me looking like this. I’m sorry I left you the other night, but things went a little bit out of control.”
She offered a piece of steak which the thestral downed with considerable relish. When she offered a second, it shook its head and indicated the rest of the herd, so Lori handed out what she had, surprised to find there was just enough for every creature to take a piece.
She turned back to her former mount. “I owe you so much,” she told it. “Without your efforts, I don’t know what would have happened to my parents. I’ll see you again, but for now I have some homework I need to be getting on with.”
The thestral bowed its head and turned made its way back into the throng. Lori tried to follow it, but before long she wasn’t sure she knew which was which. Homework awaited, so she turned back towards the castle.
She was nearing the edge of the forest when she heard a twig snap in the undergrowth. Her vision had adapted to the dark enough that she could make out the path from the trees, but beyond that she couldn’t see a great deal. She longed for her wand and the comfort of a simple lumos spell.
“Who’s there?” She called out.
A rustle of leaves and she could make out a shadowy, cloaked figure in front of her. More noise from around her and she was surrounded.
“Lumos.” The spell wasn’t quite as comforting as she’d thought it would be. By the newly formed light she found herself surrounded by perhaps a dozen figures, each wearing a green trimmed cloak. The shape in front of her was larger than the rest.
“Goyle?” It wasn’t hard to guess. There weren’t many students his size.
“It’s your fault,” he snarled.
“What?” It wasn’t much of a comeback, but she could feel the fear numbing her mind, weakening her knees.
“All our friends being taken out of school, their parents arrested.” This from a heavy-set witch to her right. It was her wand that currently lit up the path.
“You’re a freak, Scamander,” a young wizard with a long nose said from her left. “You have been since the moment you arrived, and never more so than now.”
“We’re going to make you wish you’d never been born.” Lori spun to face the fourth voice. It belonged to a handsome boy with bleach blond hair.
Lori recognised the faces, but apart from Goyle she couldn’t think of a single other name.
“Wands at the ready,” Goyle said.
Lori spun around, looking for an escape route, but they were too close to one another; she’d never make it through. She rounded on Goyle who was sneering at her.
“This is going to be so much fun,” he said.
Lori did the only thing she could think to do. She reversed her cloak and dropped to the ground underneath it.
“Oh no you don’t!” Goyle yelled. “Stupify!”
Jinxes and curses flew over Lori’s head, fizzing through the air. It lasted a few seconds then all was silence, apart from the odd whimper. She raised her head, still hidden under the cloak, and looked around her.
Most of her assailants lay sprawled around her. Several stood or sat moaning, sporting various magical disfigurements. Goyle bent over vomiting slugs. The heavy-set witch’s face was covered in suppurating boils.
Lori rearranged her cloak, pulling the hood over her face so she could see without being seen, and made her way as swiftly and silently as she could out of the circle and down the path, thanking whatever source of fortune had persuaded Goyle to surround himself with a gang of individuals as hard of thinking as he was.
“What’s going on ‘ere?” A voice sounded from ahead.
With a sob of relief, Lori ran towards it, throwing her arms around one of Hagrid’s enormous legs.
“Wha’?”
Lori pulled off her cloak.
“Lori? Wha’ yer doing out here? Wha’ was all tha’ noise?”
“I was visiting the thestrals,” she said. “I kind of got scared in the dark.”
“But I thought… Didn’t I hear the sounds of magic just now?”
“I’m not allowed to cast magic at the moment,” Lori said. “See? No wand.”
“Well, best you get back to th’ castle,” Hagrid said. “There’s things about in th’ forest you wouldn’t want to meet without having a wand handy.”
“You don’t have a wand.”
“Yeah, well, it’s different for me. They all know me in here. Come on, let’s get you back inside.”
“How are the fire crabs?”
“You heard about tha’, did you? They’re fine now. Maybe a bit yellower ‘n normal, and one of ‘em has this crest of yellow feathers I don’t think it’ll ever lose, but I reckon they’ll do alright.”
Lori wasn’t sure what had kept her from telling about her attackers. It wasn’t as if her reputation could get any worse, but maybe that was it. Maybe if it became known that she’d defeated a dozen Slytherins without her wand, it would make folks more wary of her. Her next encounter was likely to be with someone more competent, so any edge would help.
The dormitory was empty and she didn’t care for how vulnerable she felt. The tea towels she’d asked for lay on her bed and looked a good size for what she had planned. She dumped her book bag and headed back out into the common room where Professor Sprout sat by the fire with her needles clacking away beside her as usual.
“Professor Sprout?”
“Good evening dear. Not often we see you out here with the common folk.” As ever, her wrinkly smile blunted any barbs hidden in her words.
“ I was wondering…”
“Yes?”
“I was wondering if you could teach me to sew.” She held up the tea towels and explained her idea.
As with potions, Lori found her right hand to be oversized and clumsy, but under Professor Sprouts patient tutelage, she found a technique that worked. The project she’d set herself wasn’t that hard, and she’d just about finished when she spotted Anneka coming in through the entrance. She finished off the hem she’d been sewing and held it up for the professor to examine.
“Good enough,” she nodded. “Not as good as it could be with a little more practice, but definitely fit for purpose. Would you like me to finish it off for you?”
Lori smiled her thanks and handed the piece of work across before following her friend into their dorm.
“So,” she said to Anneka’s back, “how was extra potions with Professor Mugglewump?”
“Surprisingly not awful actually.” Anneka glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “How was your evening?”
“Surprisingly educational. Do you want to talk about yours?”
“Not really.” Anneka collapsed back on her bed. “I’m kind of tired. Tell me about yours.”
So Lori described her experience with Winky, leaving out the parts the house elves had made her promise not to tell. She felt like she could if she wanted to, but she didn’t feel it would be right to break her word so soon after giving it, even with her best friend. She wondered if that in itself might be a part of the house elf magic, that it changed your desires subtly so that you wanted to do what was agreed rather than being blocked from not doing it.
They discussed the vision Winky had shared and where the house elves might have gathered. From Lori’s memory, there didn’t seem to be that much to go on, so she resolved to ask when she was next in the kitchens. After about half an hour, Anni yawned widely and stretched, then smiled apologetically.
“It is getting late,” Lori said and started changing for bed. “Maybe we should get our heads down. Have you heard anything more about Hortensia?”
“Nope, nothing.”
“I feel dreadful about that, you know? I mean, it’s kind of because of me that her dad was arrested. You know, I know it was her dad’s choice to join the Order, but even so…”
“And because of you there’s a world full of Muggles, Squibs, Muggle-borns and half-bloods like me who don’t have to be scared any time it’s a bit misty outside. I think on the whole you’re doing okay.”
“I suppose you’re right.” They doused their lamps and settled for the night.
The Slytherin table was even more sparsely populated the following morning. Lori was still on the receiving end of hostile stares form those who remained, though in many cases they were held in check by hints of begrudging respect. Even so, in light of her encounter the previous night Lori decided she should try not to be alone.
That was easier said than done though. The morning’s classes were due to be charms followed by transfiguration, neither of which she was required to attend as they would involve practising spells. Instead she headed off to the library to research house elves in greater detail.
In one of the books she found a number of beautifully painted images, including one that showed the meeting place Lori recognised from her vision, the grass swaying gently in the foreground. The caption below it read, “Meeting place of the elven tribes, Southern Georgia, near the border with Azerbaijan.”
She approached Madame Pince, who’s permanent scowl of disapproval softened slightly in her presence. She held up the image.
“I’m sorry to disturb you,” Lori started. “I’m not allowed to use magic at present and I was wondering if it would be possible somehow to make a copy of this picture. It’s for a report I’m writing on House Elves.”
The librarian took the offered book and looked at the indicated image. “Leave it with me, Miss Scamander. Do you need this book for anything else just at the moment?”
“No, I have others I can be reading.”
The morning passed slowly enough, but the research kept her going. Around break time, a couple of Slytherin girls slipped in quietly, noted her presence and slipped back out again. Nobody would dare confront her in here she knew, but she’d have to be careful when she left.
Madame Pince returned with the book and a piece of parchment that held a smaller and slightly cruder version of the image. Lori smiled her thanks, very much aware of Pince’s insistence on csilence most of the time, and continued her writing. By lunchtime she’d written up half her report. She transferred her work into her bag and left the books opened on the table where they were, intending to come back after lunch.
The library’s only occupants were herself and Madame Pince, and Lori was pretty sure there would be someone from Slytherin keeping an eye on the door for when she left. She reversed her cloak and settled by the door to wait.
She guessed all of Slytherin would know she had her invisibility cloak back by now, so seeing the library door open and close by itself would be too much of a give away. She figured that sooner or later someone would come into the library to work over lunch, or perhaps her those tailing her would poke there heads in to see if she was still there. Either way this called for patience.
Patience is its own reward, but few are satisfied with it. Lori decided she was entirely satisfied with her’s when five minutes later the library door opened and the same two Slytherin girls stepped inside and stopped less than three feet from her.
“She’s not here,” one of them whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, see for yourself.”
“Maybe she’s hiding under her cloak.”
“Yeah, right. Why would she do that in here?”
“What should we do?”
“We need to let the others know.”
“They won’t be happy.”
“Whatever. It’s not our fault. We’ve been standing outside since break, so she must have found some other way out.”
They hurried out leaving Lori barely enough space to step out with them before the door closed.
She followed them up to the fifth floor of the castle where they approached a small, nondescript door. Instinct held her back as they knocked lightly, which was just as well since when it opened a cloud of steam billowed out into the corridor.
Lori had to give them credit for ingenuity. It couldn’t have been pleasant in there, but as a counter measure against invisibility it was pretty effective.
Serendipity chose that moment to smile on Lori. She’d been about to head for the Great Hall and lunch when Mr Filch drifted through the wall beside her.
“Mr Filch,” she said quietly, still hidden under her cloak.
“Who’s there?” Filch looked around suspiciously.
“The Grey Lady,” Lori said. “That door opposite…”
“The prefect’s bathroom? Yeah, what about it?”
“I have observed quite a large group of students entering in the last few minutes. Perhaps you would be so good as to make sure they’re not up to some form of mischief.”
“Why can’t you do it?”
“Mr Filch! It would hardly be appropriate for a lady to step into a bathroom unannounced?”
“Oh, but it’s alright for someone like me is it?”
“I should say so sir. Is it not your place to maintain order in this castle?”
“Right. Er, yes. I suppose so. Prefect’s bathroom then. Let’s er, let’s have a look.”
He drifted away giving Lori just enough time to back up the corridor and into a sheltered spot beside one of the many statues before the door burst open and a stream of Slytherin students ran out into corridor, scattering in every direction with Filch in hot pursuit.
Lori headed for the Great Hall, turning visible shortly before entering. She noticed Filch’s ghost talking urgently to Professor McGonagall as she settled into the seat Anneka had kept for her on the Hufflepuff table. McGonagall gave her a knowing look as she sat and twitched an eyebrow in her direction. Lori offered up an apologetic grin in return.
“So how was your morning?” Anneka asked.
“Oh, mostly boring but with some highlights. How about yours?”
“Much the same I suppose, but we have defence against the dark arts after lunch, which is something to look forward to.”
“Yeah, if you’re allowed to cast magic,” Lori grumbled. “I’ll be working on my house elf project while you’re all casting spells at boggarts and stuff.”
“You’ll be joining us for herbology though, won’t you?”
“That’s the plan.”
They chatted over lunch, then Anneka walked Lori back to the library before heading off to her own class.
“Would you mind dropping by to pick me up on the way to herbology?” Lori asked.
“Sure. I’ll see you later.”
“It looks like you’re working hard.”
Lori jumped and turned to find Professor McGonagall peering over her shoulder.
“I’m sorry professor, I didn’t hear you.”
“One of the many advantages of being a cat animagus. I’m sorry I startled you.
“You’ll be pleased to know that I’ve assigned some extra work to those members of Slytherin house who seem, by their actions, to have too much time on their hands.”
“That’s… a relief to know professor.”
“The Grey Lady, you should know, has a reputation for being seen but not heard rather than the other way around.”
“It was all I could think of at short notice.”
“Fortunately, Mr Filch continues to be unaware of this. Dare I ask if you were in any way involved in yesterdays little fracas in the forest?”
“It wasn’t my fault, professor. I just went to feed the thestrals.”
“You know you’re not supposed to be using magic.”
“And I didn’t. How could I? You have my wand. Besides, what that healer told me the other day really scared me.”
“As well that it should. Which brings me to the main reason for my visit, Lori. Mr Pawsey will be visiting the school again tomorrow morning in order to work with you, so I would be grateful if you would come directly to my office after breakfast.”
“Yes professor.”
“Carry on with the good work. At this rate, I shall have to find something a little more challenging for you to work on.”
“Yes professor. Professor?”
“Lori?”
“Is Hortensia alright?”
“To my knowledge, both she and her mother are coping as well as might be expected. You can ask her yourself when she returns this evening.”
“She’s coming back already?”
“There’s no reason why she shouldn’t. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, thank you professor.”
“Very well. Have a good afternoon, Miss Scamander.”
The rest of the afternoon passed without incident. Anneka turned up as promised to accompany Lori to herbology, which turned out to be one of Professor Longbottom’s more interesting classes, exploring the properties of a cactus-like plant called mimbulus mimbletonia. He warned them not to be too violent with the plants, then demonstrated how the more mature specimens made a crooning noise when stroked gently. They then spent most of the lesson attempting to get them to sing in tune with one another — unsuccessfully, but it was a lot of fun.
The lesson overran slightly and at the end he told them to pack up and stand by the door where a group of Slytherin first and second years were already lining up. Lori recognised some of them from her forest encounter the previous evening. None of them looked particularly happy.
“Alright, class,” Professor Longbottom addressed them. While they’d been lining up, he’d put on his full set of protective clothing. “Earlier, I warned you not to be too vigorous with these beauties. Before you go I’d like to show you why.”
In one hand he held a wide necked flask and in the other an ordinary stick, with which he poked the nearest specimen. It wasn’t a hard prod but the plant responded by squirting a foul-smelling green liquid at him, most of which he caught in the flask.
Over noises of disgust from those nearest, the professor explained about the plant’s defence mechanism then added that the sap possessed medicinal properties which made it well worth collecting. He dismissed the class and invited the Slytherins to join him, their disgruntled expressions turning to looks of dismay as it dawned on them just what they’d be doing in their detention.
Anneka and Lori were still laughing and talking about the lesson as they entered the Great Hall. They spotted Hortensia at the Hufflepuff table, already half-way through her meal.
“Hi H,” Lori began as they approached. “I’m really sorry about your dad.”
“Yeah, well, it is what it is.”
“You know, if there’s anything I can do…”
“Sure. Just leave me alone, will you?”
Hortensia abandoned the remains of her dinner and strode out of the hall, Morgana close on her heels.
“You can’t fix things for everyone, Lori,” Anneka said.
“I know, but she’s my friend and I feel kind of responsible.”
“Well, that’s because you are, dear,” Professor Sprout’s quiet voice in her ear made Lori jump. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to give you a start. I saw you come in and thought you’d like this.” She handed across a small package. “It’s that sewing project of yours. I finished it off this morning.”
“Thank you professor. Is Hortensia…?”
“You might want to give her some space for now. She is quite understandably working through some issues. She asked to move back to her original dormitory. I’ve checked with her former room mates and they’ve agreed, under the circumstances.”
“What do you mean, under the circumstances?”
“That you currently look like a mixture of the two people she associates most with what happened to her father — Raphael, whose family invited him into the Order, and you who orchestrated his arrest.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t take it personally. She’s feeling rather than thinking at the moment. Give her time; she’ll most likely come around.”
Sprout returned to the professor’s table.
“Mmm. Toad in the hole.” Anneka said from beside her. She began loading up two plates.
“I’m not that hungry,” Lori replied, sitting beside her.
Anneka chose to ignore her friend, placing two overfilled plates in front of each of them. “Do you ever wonder, given where we are, if they might make this with real toad?”
Lori smiled bravely and picked up her knife and fork. After the first bite, she realised she was quite hungry after all.
After they’d eaten, Lori persuaded Anneka to accompany her to the kitchens. Anni said she only had a few minutes to spare as she was due for another session with Mugglewump.
“What is it with that guy?” Lori asked. “I mean why can’t he leave us alone?”
“It’s okay Lor. I’m actually learning stuff.”
“Maybe I should come along as well.”
“You probably wouldn’t get much out of it, not having your wand and everything.”
“Fine, but don’t let him bully you.”
“I won’t, I promise. Anyway, what’s this about?”
They’d arrived at the kitchens where Lori was looking about. “We’re looking for a house elf in a grubby red dress.”
“What?”
“Over there.” Lori had spotted Winky slumped in a dark corner with bottle of butter beer in one hand. She headed over with her friend close behind.
“Hello Winky.”
The elf looked up through miserable, bloodshot eyes.
“I brought you something.” Lori handed over the package.
“Mistress is giving Winky a present.”
“It’s not much. I just thought you must feel different from everyone else here because you’re not dressed the same.”
“Winky is not being able to wear the Hogwarts tea towel because she is a free elf and she is having to wear clothes.”
“I know, which is why I made you a dress out of a couple of Hogwarts tea towels. It’s still clothes, but…”
Winky tore open the package and held up the dress. It was rather shapeless, reflecting Lori’s sewing skills, but the size looked good. The elf stared at the garment, her small mouth hanging open.
“I hope it’s alright. I’m not very good at sewing, but…”
Winky turned shining eyes towards Lori, then abruptly vanished, leaving the half finished bottle of butter beer and the torn wrapping.
“Well, that was a thing.” Anneka said.
“Yeah, not quite the response I was looking for. Another disaster for Team Lori.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re trying, and that’s what matters.”
“I’m messing things up, and that’s what matters.” Lori was about to turn and leave when Winky reappeared with a loud crack. She was wearing the new dress and her entire face was shining with joy.
“Mistress, oh mistress! This is being the happiest day of Winky’s life.” The small creature threw her arms around Lori’s left leg, rooting her to the spot.
Lori disentangled herself from the small creature and crouched down next to her.
“Can I ask you to try something, Winky?”
“Oh, anything mistress! Anything at all!”
“I’d like you to try and join in with the other house elves working here. No more butter beer, no more sulking in the corner.”
“Winky is a free elf. She doesn’t have to work.”
“She doesn’t… I mean you don’t have to not work either. Being free means you have a choice, not that you have to do the opposite of what you were doing. You may find that if you choose to be a part of something, you’ll end up feeling better about yourself. Please, just try. For me.”
“Winky is not being able to say no. She is so happy.”
“Well, try and fit in.” The larger elf Lori had spoken to the previous time stood quietly to one side, a look of approval on his face. “Do what… I’m sorry,” Lori said to the newcomer, “I didn’t ask your name last time.”
“I is called Mani, mistress.”
“Thank you Mani. Winky, try doing what Mani asks you to do. I know being free means you don’t have to do what you’re told, but choosing to do something worthwhile brings a whole lot more happiness than you’ll find in a bottle.”
“Winky will try mistress. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“I have to go,” Anneka said. “Thanks for bringing me down here though. It was fun watching Team Lori’s latest disaster.”
Lori gave her friend a dirty look, but Anneka had already turned her back.
The rest of the term settled into something of a routine. With the threat from the Slytherin students neutralised — none of them wanted to risk another evening collecting stinksap — Lori felt safer wandering around the castle by herself. There were still rare occasions when she felt the need to disappear under her cloak, the most notable when the remainder of the Slytherin students returned, but apart from a renewal of the angry glares at mealtimes, there was no resurgence of the threat.
Anneka continued with her evening sessions with Mugglewump, disappearing after dinner almost daily and refusing to say anything more about them. Hortensia remained aloof. Lori bumped into her from time to time, usually with Morgan or some of her dorm mates, with whom she now seemed good friends. Lori would usually smile and say hi, following which there would be a few seconds’ awkward silence before they went their separate ways.
In the absence of her two closest friends, Lori became something of a recluse. To almost every other student in Hogwarts she was a hero or — in the case of most Slytherins — a villain, and she didn’t feel ready to fight her way through either opinion in search of a new friend who’d be normal with her. She continued her visits to the forest, usually on her own but sometimes accompanied by either Lysander or Hagrid. Mostly she spent time with the thestrals, whose clearing was nearby, but she hadn’t forgotten the debt she owed to the unicorns. The unicorns’ home was too deep into the forest for her to visit though, so all she could do was wait for them to approach her.
Twice a week Marcus Pawsey would come from St Mungo's and work with her on repairing the damage inside her. As he’d promised, it wasn’t anywhere near as unpleasant as their first session, but it was hard work and frustratingly slow in producing any results.
She still wasn’t allowed to use magic either during or outside of the sessions, but instead was given projects to investigate the theory behind the different magical disciplines. Binns had been uncharacteristically enthusiastic about her report on house elves and gave her a number of additional topics to look into, including one on Ekrisdis and Azkaban, which she particularly enjoyed as it allowed her to include the information she’d gleaned from both Randolph’s journal and her experiences with the Order of Purity. Binns was particularly taken with this and suggested to Professor McGonagall that it should be sent to the publishers of the History of Magic for inclusion as an addendum in future editions.
The other professors gave her topics to investigate as well, starting off with easy topics but making them more challenging as she proved to be quite a capable researcher. It meant she ended up spending more time in the Library then even her brother, and on rare occasions was even granted limited, supervised access to the restricted section.
It was a lonely time though. She’d spent most of her life in solitude, or rather he had when he’d be Lorcan. This was familiar in some ways, but not so sad. Before, when she’d been alone, her life had consisted of enduring the weight of the wrongness in her life. This time she missed her friends, continued to hate her mismatched body, but somehow still found a degree of contentment in the way she was. Ugly, patchwork monster perhaps, but still a girl.
More time passed. Lori’s continued sessions with the Healer from St Mungo’s began to show fruit, and he finally pronounced her ready to start practising magic once more, if only gently to start with. Under his observation, she cast lumos and felt a new strength within herself surrounding the part where the magic flowed. He likened her to a storm-damaged tree seeping sap from its wounds until it covered the weakened parts and hardened. She could sense the increased strength within herself and realised for the first time how fragile she had been before.
The leak that maintained her disfigurement remained, and Marcus expressed his regret but felt it unwise to cap it just yet. Likely she would have to live with it for many years to come and possibly even the rest of her days. In time she might be able to learn how to redirect the constant flow, but for now it still acted as a safety valve, preventing pressure from building and threatening the structure they continued to reinforce.
It was a blow, but one she’d been preparing herself for. In the long weeks she’d grown accustomed to her new shape. Most of her schoolmates stood more than ready to offer her a helping hand any time she needed. They weren’t phased by her appearance, and if they weren’t then she had no reason to be.
Towards the end of the term, Anneka, Hortensia and a whole lot of her girl friends suddenly shot up several inches, dealing one more blow to the differences between her and her friends.
“Girls tend to grow earlier then boys,” Anneka had told her. “I mean er, if you’re physically a girl, sort of. Sorry that came out all wrong.”
“It’s alright,” Lori said, looking for all the world as though it really wasn’t. “I mean tell it how it is.”
“I will then. You’re a girl where it matters, and if your body hasn’t figured that out, it still doesn’t change what matters.”
It brought her conversation with the house elves to mind. You couldn’t afford to ignore the everyday influences around you, but at the heart of the matter, it was what was inside you that defined who you were. There were some bits inside that you could change, but there still remained an immutable core at the heart of how you defined yourself, not just to yourself, but to other people too.
It didn’t help much. In a couple of weeks the Easter Holidays would be on them and Lori had to choose between going home looking as she did or remaining at the school for two weeks without Anneka or Lysander for company.
She had spell casting practice to catch up on which wizarding law wouldn’t permit her to do at home. Her parents would probably be disappointed, but it felt like the right thing to do. It seemed the professors were conspiring to fill up the holiday with homework anyway, so it wouldn’t make that much difference where she stayed. Chances were she’d be spending most days slaving over a piece of parchment.
“I could ask Mum and Dad if you could come stay with us,” Anneka offered as the last week plodded towards the end.
“It’s okay. I’m not sure it would be any better wandering around your neighbourhood looking like this than it would mine. There’ll still be a few people around the school, and I’m kind of used to being on my own anyway. Not that I’m likely to have much free time, but I was thinking of having another crack at Randolph’s journal if you still have it.”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if I took it home with me. Like I said, I have a friend in the local library who’s into genealogy. I thought we might use some of the later entries to see if we could find out a bit about Randolph’s, or rather Arabella’s family tree.”
“I guess all I’d do is stare at the pages and wonder what he meant. At least you have a plan.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“No. I have a bunch of spells I need to practise anyway. With that and this mountain of homework we’ve got, I doubt I’d have time anyway.”
“At least we’ll be able to send owls this time.”
“Too right, and I want to hear about everything you find out the moment you do.”
Lysander also made an offer. “Easter won’t be the same without you, sis. It’ll be weird with just Mum, Dad and me. Why don’t I stay up here as well? Then the ‘rents can come visit us as often as they want.”
Lori smiled. “It’s a great offer Lye, and thank you. We don’t see much of each other during term though. You have your Ravenclaw friends and I have my Hufflepuffs. What makes you think things’ll be different if you stay up. Besides, you have mates back home. This is the only chance you’re going to get to play footing the ball.”
“Football, Lori. Honestly, I think you do it on purpose.”
“What if I do?”
Lysander gave his sister an appraising look for a moment. “I’m worried, Lori. It feels like we’re losing you all over again.”
Lori managed a weary smile. “I don’t think so, Lye, but thanks for worrying. This is… it’s a bit the same ‘cos I’m kind of stuck being different from how I want to be, but at the same time it’s not as bad, ‘cos the me inside is still getting out. In some ways I don’t know if it’s easier being so much of a freak on the outside, because it kind of hides the bit of me that’s a freak on the inside.”
“Lori, no-one thinks you’re a freak.”
“Maybe not here, what about back at home? What would those kids call me if they saw me coming down the street looking like this? ‘Oh look, here comes Bride of Frankenstein.’ Not much different from just calling me Frankenstein if I wore trousers instead of a skirt.”
“I didn’t realise you knew anything about Frankenstein.”
“I do listen to Dad sometimes, you know. But you do understand, don’t you?”
“I suppose,” Lysander sighed, “and I guess you’re right. It’s not going to be the same without you though.”
End of term came and most of the students left. Lori found it oddly unsettling waking up to an empty dormitory. It gave her a sense of isolation that drove her into herself so that, despite the assurances she’d given her brother, she found herself withdrawing deeper and deeper.
Aside from practising her spell casting, which she did under the tutelage of any available professor, she wandered the castle and grounds aimlessly. Well almost so. Several times a day, her lumpen stride would carry her up to a certain seventh story corridor, where she would walk back and forth until a member of staff would come by and suggest she needed some fresh air.
As fresh as the air might have been, it occupied a space beneath leaden skies and, more often than not, shared it with some form of precipitation. Lori still braved the miserable weather on a daily basis in order to continue visiting the herd of thestrals, and the one in particular who’d acted as her mount.
She was on her way back to the castle one day early on in the break. A steady drizzle had been falling all morning. The canopy of leaves provided some protection, but at the same time combined the fine drops into large ones which conspired to aim down the back of her dress. She’d been trying to dodge them when she noticed a light off to one side of the path. A slight diversion to find its source revealed a unicorn mare standing amidst the trees.
She approached it and bowed as Hagrid had shown her the first time. When the gentle beast had acknowledged her, she picked up a handful of grass and set about grooming. It took her about an hour, and when she’d done, the beast nodded its thanks and turned back into the forest.
The next day the same thing happened, though with a different unicorn. Once she’d finished her ministrations, she passed by Hagrid’s hut to tell him what had happened and to ask if she could borrow a curry comb or grooming brush, or both, in case it happened again.
As the week progressed, she settled into a routine. Breakfast then a laborious climb up to the seventh floor corridor where nothing continued to happen. Mid-morning, she’d head down to the kitchens and pick up a basket full of raw meat from the house elves. This she’d take to the thestrals and share among them. On her way back, she’d always find a unicorn and sometimes two, and would pause long enough to give them a good rub down before heading back to the castle in time for lunch. The afternoon she’d spend with one professor or another, practising the magic she’d not been permitted to use during most of the previous term, then in the evening, once she’d toiled though some of her homework, she’d find a comfortable spot in the Hufflepuff common room with Professor Sprout where they would knit and talk into the night, or on occasions when Lori wasn’t feeling very vocal, just knit. Using magic was tricky, but potentially easier than doing it manually when one of her hands was half as big again as the other.
She’d written to Anneka in the first days of the holidays, but as she settled into her routine, there seemed to be less and less to report. Anneka’s replies were short and not very informative, and by the end of the first week, their commitment to write daily faded and the letters became less and less regular.
On the Friday afternoon, she practised casting more advanced spells with Professor Longbottom. Her Patronus remained as the fiery winged unicorn she’d conjured since her time in the forest, and she found she could conjure it easily enough even without feeling particularly happy. Hope was a choice, she told herself and chose to be hopeful.
At the end of their session together, Neville invited her to lunch on Easter Sunday, the Sunday in the middle of the holiday. “We’re having a few friends over, including your parents and your brother, so don’t say no.”
Lori managed a genuine smile. “Thank you, I’d love to come.”
“Good. We’ll leave after breakfast if that’s alright with you? Hannah will appreciate a little help getting things ready, assuming you don’t mind lending a hand?”
“Of course not.”
Saturday she didn’t have any magical training scheduled so, once she’d completed her rounds of the seventh floor corridor, the thestrals’ clearing and the inevitable unicorn grooming, she settled at her desk in the dorm and wrote Anneka a long overdue letter.
Hey you, she wrote, I haven’t heard anything in a while, but not sure who’s turn it is? I know I haven’t written as much as I said I would, and I’m sorry, but there hasn’t been that much going on. Still visiting the thestrals in the morning. Still finding unicorns to groom on the way back. Still practising magic in the afternoon. Still knitting in the evening. It’s peaceful and relaxing and probably just what I need right now, but I can already feel a bit of an itch to get on a do something different.
How are you? I hope you’re well and enjoying whatever you’re getting up to this break. I miss you and am looking forward to term starting again, even if we’re going to be spending most of it working towards end of year exams. The school seems kind of empty without you in it.
Oh yeah, one piece of news. Professor Longbottom’s invited me to lunch tomorrow. Mum and Dad will be there, so I won’t be on my own on Easter. Would love to hear your news.
All my love,
Lori.
She read it through, folded it into an envelope and headed down to the owlery to send it. On her way back, her feet took her one more time up the long staircase to the seventh floor corridor where, in a fit of petulance, she shouted at the wall.
“A lot of good you are,” she yelled, surprising herself with the with the intensity of her own feelings. “You’re supposed to be the Room of Requirement. You’re supposed to give me what I need. You did it before, so why don’t you do it now?”
The bricks moved. It was as thought they’d been waiting for her to ask, or maybe they’d just been waiting and responded because she asked. The familiar blue door appeared with the familiar sign above it. Tentatively she reached for the door and tugged. It opened.
Inside was a vast empty room. Bare stone walls, high vaulted ceilings and nothing else. Or no, there was something. A regular ticking. She turned and found above the door, a grandmother clock attached to the wall. The pendulum swung slowly back and forth, ticking gently at the furthest reach of its swing. The clock face seemed to show the correct time, but other than that there was nothing special about it.
“So what’s this supposed to mean?” she yelled. “You’ve given up helping me have you? You wait until I’m stuck looking like something out of a horror story, then nothing?”
“Lori?” A familiar voice sounded from the other side of the door.
Lori took a deep breath and pulled herself together. Wiping away the angry tears that streaked her face, she pushed her way through the door.
“Are you alright?” Professor McGonagall asked, her eyes soft with concern.
Lori felt her resolve crumble away. She burst into tears and collapsed on the floor.
With a sigh, McGonagall lowered herself down beside her young charge. Her old bones protested at the abuse, but this wasn’t a time to listen to their complaints. She reached comforting arms around the young girl and waited for the flood waters to ebb.
“Well, it’s about time,” she said in a gently petulant tone.
“What?” Lori snivelled.
“You’ve been through such a lot, Lori. You had your parents kidnapped, you were nearly killed in the forest, and if those weren’t enough, you’ve had to come to terms with this… unfortunate alteration of your appearance. There isn’t a soul alive could go through all that unscathed.
“Lori, you’ve been incredibly brave through the past few weeks, but it was bound to catch up with you sooner or later.”
“But.. It’s not… It’s the Room of Requirements.” She waved at the wall behind her, now once more concealing the door. “It’s…”
“It’s what, Lori?”
“It’s what started all this. It gave me what I needed to begin this journey and it’s given me what I’ve needed at different stages along the way. Since I’ve been like this, though, it just hasn’t been there. Not until now, and then there was nothing in it! Just a big empty room!”
“Completely empty?”
“Well, there was a clock over the door, but…”
The professor arched an eyebrow.
“Really?”
“The room always contains only exactly what the person who called it requires. I should hope a clever girl like you won’t need this particular message spelled out for you.”
“Nothing but time,” Lori mumbled.
“Quite so. Well, if we’re done for now, perhaps you wouldn’t mind helping me back onto my feet. These stones are a bit chilly.”
Lori stood and held out her hand. Helping the elderly professor proved to be considerably easier than she’d anticipated. She must have been a lot lighter than she seemed, unless…”
“Stand straight for a moment, would you?” McGonagall asked.
Lori did so, finding she was holding her shorter, right leg bent a little.
“Let me adjust that heel a little.”
The professor waved her wand briefly and Lori felt her legs adjusting to match. She looked down at her right shoe which had now considerably reduced in size.
“It appears you are catching up with yourself, and doing so quite nicely. Perhaps it could still do with a helping hand, so if you’ve nothing pressing on your schedule for the moment, perhaps you’d follow me.” She strode of down the corridor leaving the young girl to follow with a somewhat reduced limp.
“Professor Longbottom’s here, dear,” Professor Sprout’s head appeared around the door to Lori’s dormitory.
Lori, who had been standing in front of her wardrobe repeating a spell over and over, smiled her thanks. She couldn’t see any difference in her appearance since earlier, but McGonagall had told her not to expect instant results.
After a considerable amount of deliberation, she’d settled on the first dress she’d worn off the rack for the party. The many buttons had presented a problem until she’d thought to go find Professor Sprout, but it had proved to be the right choice. The full sleeves went a long way to hiding the difference in her arms, a difference which had diminished somewhat in the same way as her legs, which in their turn were well enough matched under a pair of thick, white tights.
She moved aside the curtain of hair and examined her face. The part that still resembled Raphael seemed a little less at odds, but not enough. She let the curtain fall and gave herself an appraising look. Certainly not hideous. Either she hadn’t grown much or the clothes the Room of Requirements had provided her had enough magic in them to adapt to her changing form.
She decided she’d do and headed for the door.
“I always wondered what it was like in here.” Professor Longbottom stood in the middle of the Hufflepuff common room staring at all the plants. “I think I would have liked being in Hufflepuff.”
“Well, you know there’s nothing to stop professors from coming into the different common rooms,” Professor Sprout said, “and you’d be welcome here any time. You never know. When I retire, you could take over as head of Hufflepuff.”
“Really? Wouldn’t there be some objection?”
“About a Gryffindor being head of Hufflepuff? There’s no hard and fast rule as far as I’m aware, and I can easily see you fitting in.”
“Well, something to consider I suppose. But we should be going, Lori. Hannah won’t be pleased if I end up holding things up.”
They made their way to Merlin’s gate, Lori walking almost without a limp. Outside the castle’s protective spells, Neville took Lori’s hand and she went through the same squeezing and pulling feeling that had accompanied her uncle Harry’s apparating her back to the school. She decided it wasn’t her favourite method of travel.
They appeared behind the bar at the Leaky Cauldron. The saloon was already half filled with people, including…
“Mum! Dad!” Lori cried. She found the gap in the bar and ran across to them, finding it oddly disconcerting to run without nearly matching legs, and throwing herself into her father’s embrace.
He held her for a while then pulled her back to arms length. Pushing the hair to one side he took in her full features, his eyes turning stony as he did so. He directed his anger over Lori’s shoulder. Lori twisted out of her father’s grip to look and found her uncle looking sheepish and uncomfortable.
“It’s not Uncle Harry’s fault, Dad,” she said quietly.
“He let you take that cursed stone out of the Ministry, didn’t he?” Her father’s tone was grim and unforgiving.
“Yes he did. And what would have happened if he hadn’t?” Lori found herself unable to stop her voice rising. “How long would it have been before anyone found you and Mum? Do you think you’d have lasted out against those Dementors? And where would that have left Lye and me?”
The last words came out almost as a shout. The room had fallen silent and every pair of eyes turned on Lori and her father. Rolf had the good grace to look a little ashamed.
“Okay everyone,” Neville stepped into the middle of the tension, an affable smile on his face. “We’re here to celebrate the Spring, the season of new life, of new beginnings. Whatever’s happened in the recent past, can’t we focus on the future for tonight? On the future?
“We’ll start.” He looked over at his wife, handing out drinks from behind the bar. “Hannah’s decided to become a Healer. There’s a training post come up at St Mungo’s, and we’re hoping in a few years, when she’s completed her training, she’ll be able to take over from Madame Pomfrey as Hogwarts’ nurse.”
It was enough to distract the crowd. Hannah and Neville disappeared under a flurry of congratulations, leaving Harry and Rolf a patch of relative quiet to approach one another.
“Lori’s right,” Rolf began. “If she hadn’t been able to get to us with Lysander’s wand, we wouldn’t have survived those Dementors. I should really be thanking you.”
“No,” Harry said. “You should be thanking your daughter, and you have every right to feel angry about what happened to her. I’ve felt awful about it. Lori, I am so sorry.”
“It’s alright Uncle Harry. I mean I’m still mostly me.” It surprised Lori how easily she was able to smile. “Besides, I’m beginning to grow into the changes and Professor McGonagall’s given me a spell that will help me even everything out eventually. I don’t look that bad, do I?”
“You look stunning. You know you don’t need to hide your face, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but I like it better this way. I don’t really want everyone staring at me.”
Harry laughed. “I get that.” He touched his own slightly longer than tidy fringe covering the scar over his eye. “You might want to try not shouting though, if you don’t want people staring.”
He stood up and turned his attention back to Lori’s father, who held out a hand. They shook and at least one thing was better.
Lysander appeared and took hold of Lori’s hand. It turned out they weren’t the only children there and the younger contingent had their own party going on in a different room. James Potter was playing a game of gobstones with Hugo Weasley while the rest of the group looked on. Lori recognised Lily and Albus Potter standing behind their brother while Rose Weasley’s red hair marked her out from everyone else. It was Hugo’s turn and he played a superb shot, knocking three stones out of the circle and spraying a healthy squirt of liquid towards James, who might have avoided most of it had Lily not ‘accidentally’ tripped and nudged him directly into its path.
“Yuck! Lil, some of that went in my mouth!”
“Oops, sorry,” Lily said with a quite grin. “I was distracted, thinking about all that butterbeer me and Hugo had to make.”
Hugo’s next shot cleared two more stone and sent a squirt of liquid into James’s eye. “Yeah,” he said. “I think this stuff actually smells better, don’t you think, Lil?”
“Alright!” shouted James, as he wiped the foul goo off his face with the corner of his robe. “Look, I’m sorry about the witch’s statue, but I thought everyone knew about that.”
“Yeah, right!” Lily said.
“You owe me one more game,” Hugo said, gathering the gobstones together.
“Or,” James said loudly, then more quietly, “or I could show you the map.”
“I knew you nicked it,” Lily said.
“Don’t tell Dad. He thinks it’s still in his desk.”
“Why would we tell anyone?” Hugo asked. “I mean as long as you share it with us all, it’s in our best interests to keep it a secret, isn’t it?”
James let out a resigned sigh and pulled a piece of parchment out of his robes. “I solemnly swear I am up to no good,” he said as he touched the parchment with his wand. It unfolded and for the next half hour, he showed everyone the remaining undiscovered secret ways in and out of Hogwarts Castle.
Nobody paid Lori much attention, which suited her well. She scanned the map for the seventh floor corridor, but it looked like all the others.
“We’ll be eating in ten minutes,” Hannah announced from behind them, making a good number of them jump. She turned suspicious. “What are you up to?”
“Just planning a mass breakout from Hogwarts next term,” Lori said casually, earning herself a few sharp looks from her peers.
“Best not to get caught then,” Hannah laughed. “Which you’ll manage better if you don’t look so guilty. Go on, wash up and come join us in the main saloon.”
The meal rivalled a Hogwarts feast and was only slightly marred by the adults insisting on asking their kids what they thought they might want to do when they left school. There were a lot of I don’t knows. Lysander’s announcement that he intended to become a teacher met with considerable approval and was followed by a range of vaguely biased advice on what subject he might choose. James inevitably declared his intention of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming an auror, and then it was Lori’s turn.
“What about you, Lori?” Harry asked. “You’ve the making of a fine auror yourself.”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure I’m all that ready to pay the price.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I met someone recently. Sheldon Landys. He said his father’s an auror and he’s, er… He’s lost a few limbs over the years.”
“Well, it’s true it can be dangerous, but you’re not guaranteed to lose bits. I’m still intact.”
“Because he knows what I’d do with him if he came home missing any parts,” Ginny said, prompting a round of polite laughter.
“How about teaching?” Neville asked. “You were at least as good at your brother when you were showing everyone how to produce a Patronus.”
“I don’t think I was. I mean I probably managed to teach about as many people, maybe, but I’m not as enthusiastic about it as Lye, and that’s what inspires people to learn.”
“Maybe follow your great grandfather then,” Lori’s dad suggested. “You have an easy way with animals.”
“I don’t know. I was thinking, but I’m not even sure if it’s a thing.”
“What?”
“I was thinking about maybe working with house elves. See if I can find out a bit more about them, sort of thing.”
The room fell silent for a while. A sort of uncomfortable silence that suggested an uncomfortable subject had been raised, one that most people were choosing to ignore. Only Hermione, Hugo and Rose’s mother, showed any amount of interest.
“Well, if you still feel the same way when you graduate from Hogwarts, you should make an appointment to see me,” she said. “I actually have an announcement to make as well. After the mist incidents at Hogwarts and the ministry, Kingsley Shacklebolt has decided to step down as Minister for Magic. I only heard today, but they’ve offered me the post.”
It prompted a round of congratulations, drawing the attention away from Lori, for which she was grateful. In the midst of it all, she shared a long and highly communicative look with the newest Minister for Magic. She was serious about having that talk with Lori, it seemed.
The meal ended with a magnificent array of cakes and sweets, after which the children sat back with overfilled stomachs and watched a series of spells make short work of the cleaning up. When all was done, the different families started disapparating back to their homes.
Neville, of course, was home, so it was down to Luna and Rolf to look after their children. It was late, so they decided to divide and conquer. Rolf took Lysander back to their home leaving Lori and her mother to head back to Scotland.
Somehow Luna managed to make apparating gentler than either Lori’s uncle or her herbology professor. They appeared, as they had when Luna first brought them, just beyond the covered bridge, close to the forbidden forest.
“Do you mind being different?” Luna asked her daughter.
“Not really,” Lori answered after giving it some thought. “You get more people staring at you, which I could happily do without, but overall I think I’m happiest just being me, even if it does draw people’s attention.”
Luna removed her shoes and stockings and wiggled her toes in the grass. She smiled at her child. “You should try this some time. I don’t know if it’ll do the same for you, but it makes me feel more connected, to the world.”
“Maybe I will, when my legs are closer to being the same.”
The smile turned sad. “I’m sorry that happened to you, love.”
“Me too, but I’d do it again, Mum.”
“I know you would, though I wish there had been another way.”
“I love you, Mum.” Lori threw her arms around her mother’s neck.
“I love you too, but it’s late, so maybe you’d better be getting to bed.”
High in her office, Minerva smiled down at the two small figures, watching as they parted, one to limp — if only very slightly — across the covered bridge, the other to disappear into the tangled mess that was apparition.
It was getting late and she could hear her old bones calling her to bed. Her inbox was closwer to empty than it had been in a while, but it would fill again tomorrow. There was always something calling for her attention. The trick was knowing when to stop listening for a while.
Morning came. Lori arrived early for breakfast and had nearly finished eating when an owl swooped down and landed on the table next to her. It dropped an envelope next to her plate.
Lori absent-mindedly picked up a rasher of bacon she’d decided not to eat and offered it to the bird. She recognised Anneka’s writing and tore the envelope open.
Hey Bestie,
Thanks for your letter. I know what you mean about not much to write about though. My days seem to be filled with reading and homework. I am going shopping with Mum next week though, so if you need me to get you anything from Diagon Alley, do let me know before Thursday.
If the weather forecast is right for once, I think we’re having better weather than you, but not by much. The sun did come out for a bit yesterday, but mainly it’s been grey and drizzly, so no real incentive to go outside.
My mum's been pestering me to start my revision. I tell her it’s only first year exams and they’re months away, but she keeps saying I should start as I mean to go on. She wants to know what you’re doing, and I suppose with all the spell practise you’re getting that probably counts as early revision, but it still feels too early to start.
Maybe when I get back we can talk about putting together a revision plan between us. Maybe even persuade H to join us, though i suspect the only way that’ll happen will be if MM comes too, and then I doubt they’ll end up doing much revision.
Anyway, reading and homework awaits, so I’d better finish this and go find our owl. I miss you I’m counting the days.
All my love,
Ani.
Lori gave the owl a gentle tickle under the beak by way of saying thank you and set off about her morning routine. She didn’t bother passing by the seventh floor any more. The Room of Requirement had made it quite plain how much help it was prepared to offer, and it wasn’t worth chasing after more. Instead, she picked up her curry comb and grooming brush and headed down to the kitchen for her daily scraps of meat for the thestrals. As usual, they gathered to her as soon as she arrived. As usual, they patiently waited their turn as she handed out the meat. They certainly didn’t need to eat every day, but they were equally as happy to do so. Besides, it amused Lori who kept looking for any signs of any of them fattening up a little. They remained as emaciated as ever.
With feeding time over, she spent a little special time with the one that had carried her. It didn’t have any distinguishing marks as such, but she’d learned to recognised it from the way it carried itself.
When she was done, she made her way back out of the forest, looking for and finding the expected unicorn. She doubted she’d ever tire of grooming them. They were such magnificent beasts, and she owed them so very much. That being said it was pleasure at least as much as gratitude that prompted her actions.
Her morning routine done, she watched as the brilliantly glowing unicorn trotted off back into the forest. On a whim, she removed her shoes and socks and pressed her feet into the soft soil. Her feet were distinctly different in both size and appearance still, so she wiggled them back and forth until they were covered by all the detritus that makes up the forest floor. She closed her eyes and reached beyond her feet with her mind. As her mother had suggested, she felt a connection. Perhaps it was imagination, but she was sure she felt the presence of the herd of thestrals behind her, of the unicorn making its leisurely way to its home deep in the forest, of the trees and plants around her. She chanted her way through the spell McGonagall had taught her and allowed the peace of her surroundings suffuse her.
After lunch, she practised some of the incantations necessary in the production of potions with Professor Mugglewump. He pushed her hard, but he praised her fairly when she performed well enough to merit it. As a last task for the session, he had her prepare a beautification potion using the recipe in the first year book of potions.
He took a small sample from her cauldron, and instructed her on the correct amount of ginger and ground boomslang skin to add. He pronounced the small vial of sparking golden liquid fit for use and invited Lori to drink it.
“How long will it last?” she asked.
“A small amount like this? Perhaps three days. Certainly no more than four.”
“Won’t it make me look like a boy?”
“It is likely to enhance your masculine traits more than your, er, feminine ones, yes. What it will also do is even out the length and appearance of your limbs and merge the different influences in your face. Whatever else its effects, it’ll make you look a little less unusual than you do now.
“Combined with the growth you’re currently going through and the spell Professor McGonagall taught you, it’s likely to end up with you looking a lot more like you brother than you do now. I know it’s not really what you want, but it is what was going to happen to you anyway, and it is an improvement on your current predicament, I hope you’ll agree.”
Lori brushed her hair away from the hidden part of her face. She had to admit, looking like her brother would be better. She unstoppered the vial, raised it to her lips and paused.
“Do you have a mirror?” she asked.
“Oh, for goodness sake.” He rummaged around in his office for a while before returning with a hand mirror. “I use it to check for breath in someone who’s taken a draught of living death,” he said as though he felt need to explain why he possessed one.
“Thank you,” Lori said without further comment and drank the potion.
It tasted unsurprisingly of ginger with very slight floral hint to it. It made her skin tingle all over and she could feel herself change. Her right shoe began to pinch so she kicked it off gently. She reached for the mirror and pulled her hair aside so she could watch her face altering. The part she still had from Raphael blended into the whole until she once more looked like herself, although a recognisably older and less delicate version of herself. The only evidence that remained of Raphael was a green tint in her right eye, which was markedly different from the silver blue she had inherited from her mother.
Her arms and legs were the same length and her left foot now felt a little small for the shoe she’d been given from Raphael’s wardrobe. She tried holding the mirror at arms length, but it didn’t give her enough of a view of the overall effect. She was worried it left her looking even more like a boy in a dress than her mixed up appearance had, but she couldn’t tell. She turned to look at Mugglewump, searching his face for any trace of humour or malice. She didn’t find them.
He nodded. “Not what you would prefer, I’m quite sure, but an improvement nonetheless. You should continue chanting Professor McGonagall’s spell, but I have hopes that this will be an improvement you can live with more easily.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have a number of influences working in your body right now, Lori. You are naturally growing into your adult self, something which would have happened regardless, I hope you realise this. You have that… I prefer not to think of it as a leak, but rather an alternative channel that provides a constant flow of magic to you. Formerly you directed it, however unwittingly, to maintain the likeness of Raphael, something which his mother only partially undid. This channel is malleable to a degree while you undergo your current changes, and Professor McGonagall’s spell is intended to focus your subconscious to influence it and hopefully change it to maintain an alteration more to your liking, and now you have this, the effects of the beautification potion. Professor McGonagall and I discussed how it might influence your changes. We both agree that they should have a more positive influence than otherwise, but to be sure, we decided it would be best to try a small amount to begin with and review the effects once it has worn off. Once it has done so, please come and find either Professor McGonagall or myself, and we’ll decide what is the best course of action to take from there.
“In the meantime, you are to be commended on your capacity for brewing a beautification potion. Should you perform as well in your end of year exams, I will have no choice but to award you a mark of outstanding.”
“Thank you, Professor Mugglewump, but I’m a little bit confused. I didn’t think you liked me very much.”
He remained still for a while, holding an impassive expression on his face. Once he felt able to maintain it, he responded. “Miss Scamander, this has nothing to do with my feelings towards you. I hope that I would extend what help I could to any student under my care who had endured the sort of disfigurement forced upon you. As for your potion making, I could not fault it even if I wished to.
“Remember, once the effects of the potion wear off, come and find me or Professor McGonagall immediately. You may find you don’t revert entirely to your former appearance, but you will see some change. Now, good day to you.”
He took the hand mirror back and turned towards his office.
Lori removed her other shoe and made her way through mercifully empty corridors back to her dormitory. Her reflection in the full length mirror in her wardrobe informed her that there was something of a boy in a dress to her appearance — broader shoulders, less delicacy about her face, more hair everywhere — but it wasn’t so bad. A little makeup would go some way to keeping her looking feminine, though there were certain of her clothes that wouldn’t look right any more. She tried a few outfits and confirmed that they did seem to be adjusting size to match her body. She tried a pair of shoes and was relieved to find they fit without pinching.
With a considerable amount of time before dinner, she set off for the headmaster’s tower and McGonagall’s office where she found the professor bent over a piece of parchment. She looked up as Lori entered.
“Well, it seems that has worked quite nicely. I hope you showed your appreciation.”
“I did, and thank you as well.”
“You understand this is not a permanent solution, but hopefully a step towards one.”
“Professor Mugglewump did explain things, yes.”
“So what is it I can do for you, Miss Scamander?”
“I was hoping you might be able to suggest a way to get rid of all this extra hair.” She pulled back a sleeve. “My legs are the same and my body as well.”
McGonagall fought to hide a smile. “I’m sorry Lori, this isn’t a problem that has concerned me either in the past or the present. Perhaps you might ask your friend. I believe her mother is a hair witch, is she not?”
“Er, yes, but I was hoping to have a solution a little sooner than that.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you. On the plus side, I believe the weather we are due to face for the remainder of this week is conducive to long sleeves and thick leggings, so you shouldn’t have to worry about displaying your hairy self to others.”
“Oh. Well, er, thank you.”
“Good. Now, is that all, or are you perhaps at a loss for something to do. I’d be quite happy to give you an essay to research and write.”
“No, that’s alright professor. I’ll see you at dinner.”
“You shall indeed.”
Lori high-tailed it down to the library, where she sat to write a letter.
Hi Ani,
Thanks for your letter. I think putting a revision plan together when you get back is a good idea. I’m not sure Hortensia has forgiven me yet though, so maybe just the two of us.
I had a fun Easter. Professor Longbottom invited all of Dumbledore’s army for a meal at the leaky cauldron along with their kids, so I got to spend it with Mum and Dad and Lye. I wish you could have been there too, but I’m not sure it would have worked. I found out that Hermione Granger-Weasley is being made the new Minister for Magic and that Hannah Longbottom is going to train as nurse so she can take over from Madam Pomfrey in a few years. Apart from that it was just food and games.
Anyway, there was something I was hoping to ask your mum. I’m kind of starting to change — you know puberty and stuff? I kind of have lots more hair growing all over my body, arms, legs, chest, back, everywhere. It’s kind of gross and I was hoping your mum might know something I could do about it. If it means picking something up from Diagon Alley, then maybe you could do that and maybe send it by owl?
McGonagall’s given me this spell to chant to try and encourage my body to change into something a little less patchwork, and Mugglewump had me brewing a beautification potion from the book. He got me to try some, so I have a few days of being, well kind of good looking in a manly sort of way. It should wear off before you come back and whether they get me to take more depends on the effect it has on the change, so you won’t get to see it. Sorry about that. I’ll ask Professor Spooner if he has any camera equipment — Muggle or magical — so I can have a picture to show you.
Anyway, got to go. I want to get this to an owl before dinner. So looking forward to being back together.
Love
Lori
The last bit wasn’t entirely true as she had loads of time to send it. She folded it into an envelope and wandered across to the owlery where she gave it to a willing bird. That done, she stepped out onto the grass and took of her shoes. In the middle distance it looked like students from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were playing a friendly Quidditch match, not that she was particularly bothered. She’d never been able to get excited about sport — any sport, even Quidditch left her cold and uninterested.
As she made her way around the grounds, she sensed what felt like a heartbeat coming up through the ground. It turned out to be nothing of the sort though. As she rounded the north tower, she found the womping willow, apparently bored without something to womp, beating out a very slow rhythm into the ground. Lori gave it a wide berth and re-entered the castle via the greenhouses. She caught sight of Professor Longbottom in greenhouse one and, on a whim, dropped in to say hello.
“Hello Lori,” Neville smiled at her. “You’re looking a bit back to your old self, I’m glad to see. I like the eyes. Something of a unique look.”
“Thanks. This is only temporary, I think, but I did wonder if you might have something to help get rid of body hair, only I have rather a lot of it and it feels kind of uncomfortable in these clothes.”
“Nothing springs to mind I’m afraid, but I’ll give it a think. If you have some time to spare, I could use a hand. We went through almost my entire supply of mandrake when we were dealing with the effects of the mist, so I’m having to grow a whole new batch. They’re not at all dangerous at this stage, and actually kind of cute. You just have to grab hold of the leaves like this and pull very gently.”
He demonstrated and a tiny face appeared above the soil. It started crying the moment it broke the surface, but Neville was ready with a tiny pipette which he placed into its mouth and squeezed a couple of drops of liquid into the mouth. The plant started sucking at it immediately, all but finishing it several seconds later, at which point, the Herbology master very gently eased the root back underground.
“As you can see, it’s rather delicate and very time consuming. I would be really grateful for some help if you could spare the time.”
Lori could, and she felt her own gratitude towards the young professor, so she took a seat, accepted a little extra instruction and set about a task that kept them both going until dinner time. Neville kept the conversation going, telling Lori all the stories he remembered about his time as a student, especially the ones that involved her mother.
The Peasbottom owl swooped down on Lori ash she was eating her breakfast again the following morning. Tied to its leg was a moderately sized — in proportion to the owl — cardboard box and a letter.
Mum says we don’t have anything half so good as the Muggles use. She says to be careful and try it on a small patch of skin first, ‘cos it can cause a rash. If it doesn’t you’re okay to go. Next time you take a shower, you need to wipe this all over the parts of your body where you want to get rid of the hair. It stinks really bad and you have to leave it on for about ten minutes — no more or you’ll probably get a rash anyway — then stand under the shower and wash it all off. Hope this helps and looking forward to the pics.
Love,
Ani
She had time, so she headed back to the dorm for a second shower. The place was deserted so the smell of the stuff didn’t raise any complaints, and it worked. She felt so much better with the hair gone. Her skin was more sensitive and felt better in her clothes.
The rest of the week passed quickly enough. She continued to help Neville in the greenhouses. She didn’t mind the work, but she really liked the stories the young professor told. He was such easy company, she could see how her mother might have developed a soft spot for him.
Friday morning, she sensed a change in her appearance. She opened her wardrobe door and looked in the mirror. Raphael was back, or at least the parts of his borrowed appearance she’d been unable to get rid of. Her face had gone back to looking misshapen and her arms and legs no longer matched. Lengthwise they were now pretty much like one another, but otherwise they were quite different. Skin colour, muscle tone, even the hair which had regrown on the Maledicta-like limbs.
She didn’t feel much like making the climb up to the headmaster’s office, so washed quickly and headed for the dining hall instead. She’d be able to catch both the head and the potions master there, if she was lucky.
“Ah yes,” Mugglewump said as she limped up to the top table. “I was expecting a visit from you today. Professor McGonagall, perhaps we could spare a few minutes?”
Professor M looked across and nodded, leading them all into a side room where Lori was poked and prodded and asked a barrage of question, most of which seemed to have little relevance.
“It’s definitely helped,” Mugglewump said.
“Has it though,” McGonagall replied. “Do we have any idea how much the two parts would have merged without the potion?”
“But if you look here,” Mugglewump said indicating a place on Lori’s body, “and here and here, you’ll see evidence that the channel is supporting the structure introduced by the potion rather than the original spell.”
“Oh, I agree, but those are parts which would look very much the same in Lori the girl and Lori the boy. The, er, channel as you call it responds to Lori’s subconscious, so when the change is in her favour, when it works towards what she feels she needs, then the change occurs, otherwise it reverts to the default partway stage imposed by Septima’s partially effective spell.”
“Mm. I see what you mean.”
“I don’t.”
“One minute, Lori,” McGonagall said.
“On second thoughts, I believe you’re right,” Mugglewump said. “It’s a shame, because superficially the potion did a good job.”
“Sadly, Lori’s subconscious disagrees.”
“Please, will someone tell me what’s going on here?”
“I’m sorry, Lori. The professor and I have been trying a few things which unfortunately haven’t worked out quite as we hoped. It’s probably not a good idea to tell you much more than that because your conscious mind can influence your subconscious in unpredictable ways. For now, I’m afraid you’re back to looking like this.”
It was a disappointment, but she’d dealt with those before. It did affect her mood though and she remained withdrawn for the rest of the day.
Comments
It was obviously important to
It was obviously important to the original story that Neville Longbottom be in Gryffindor, but I doubt that anyone would begrudge him wondering what Hufflepuff would have been like. As for Sprout's own comment about there being no hard and fast rule, it feels interesting that the rule doesn't exist. And yet, who else would do the job. Having a professor from a more advanced subject feels like it would leave the 1st years at a disadvantage (and I assume that Miss Mitchell is Gryffindor, much like Mcgonagall and Dumbledore before her). I could certainly see Longbottom doing a good job as Hufflepuff head.
As for Lori, she has seen that a Beautification Potion can handle her situation and she has an idea about how to maybe get it to work better for her based on Randolph the Rash's journal. She also knows that Mugwump will be more professional when the topic of discussion is regarding handling her mismatched appearance. So she has plenty of reason for optimism that she may be able to get what she wants out of this.
Mugglewump
I didn't want to comment on this until chapter 17 was out, but there's more to his change of attitude. Not saying anything more in case this is being read by someone who hasn't read the next bit yet.
Novel
This work is a very professionally written novel and deserves to be published when it is finally complete. You certainly deserve any benefits that this may bring. Thank you for an outstanding and enjoyable story, I look forward to the next chapter.
Glenda Ericsson
Thank you for the compliment
This is a derivative work though. I'm keeping inside JK's guidelines as best I can (no pornography in fact trying to keep it pg throughout, so no bad language and nothing off colour) and I have no intention of seeking remuneration for this work. Please enjoy it for what it is.
Well done. Nicely written.
Well done. Nicely written.
I note one editing mistake. When you wrote "rather he had hen he’d be Lorcan" I think the 'hen' needs to be 'when".
Thanks for the correction
All sorted