mirror, mirror tell me something - - who's the loneliest of all?

Peter kept unfolding the birds as he spoke, putting the stack of papers on the table as he walked around Glenda’s table to retrieve any more of the birds that fell to the ground. “I  was uh, tryin’ to teach it to Remus, but. Well it did work, of course. But they all flew away and uh. Found you.” The boy gave another sheepish grin as he picked up the stack of papers, “Is any of this yours? They might’ve picked some of your papers up…” He held them out to Glenda. 

“Oh, right, thank you,” she said, and placed the folded bird onto the table before grabbing the stack of of papers. She started to shuffle through, looking for her handwriting between the creases and pages. She was, however, somewhat distracted by her thoughts.

         “What other sort of spells are considered party spells?            Are there certain ones that are just... expected to be at wizarding parties?            Or is it more dependent on the host and occasion?”

“I told you mate, you’re not sayin’ it right, ‘s not gunna work–” Peter tried to correct Remus as the other boy very muttered a spell at his notes in a frustrated manner. Suddenly the papers all sprung to life and folded themselves into little birds, causing both boys to jump back in surprise. Both Peter and Remus were laughing by their startled reactions and the spell actually working. Peter started to laugh enough more as the paper birds started swarming around Remus’s head and the other boy had to swat at them like flies. 

It was funny enough until the birds did the same to Peter who nearly tipped himself backwards out of his chair trying to swat the paper cranes away. They quickly left the boy and in a little flock took off, “O-ohoho shite.” Peter chuckled and looked to Remus. He snatched his wand off the table to chase after the birds.

Unfortunately they were already fluttering around someone by the time he caught up, the birds flitting around Glenda’s head and stirring up the papers on her table, “Sorry! Sorry!” Peter called as he approached, waving his wand at the birds and causing them to drop to the ground. He walked over with a sheepish smile, picking one up off the ground, “Sorry Glenda. They got a bit excited.” 

Slightly dazed from the onslaught, Peter’s words barely registered in her head for a moment. She knew of him because of Potter’s infamous little gang and immediately thought that this was just one of their little pranks that she’d been on the unfortunate end of this time. And perhaps she should be more annoyed by that, but instead her attention was on the many small birds now scattered around her. 

Snatching one up and inspecting it for a moment, holdings the folded paper by the wings, she looked back to Peter and held it up.

              “What spell was that?”

              There is a ghost of a smile on Emmeline’s face,                a rare occurrence lately, and particularly in light                 of recent events.

It was hard for her time imagine a world in which she had never known any of this existed, yet she knew their society essentially hinged on the fact that there were those in the world that were oblivious to the magic that lived and breathed alongside them. The fact that there were these two different worlds existing in one yet not always existing together was one that was hard to wrap her head around.

Talking like this though…It’s good. It makes Emmeline feel almost relaxed. Almost like she can forget what’s happened. Almost like she can breath again.

          “None of us and none of this is going anywhere,            Glenda. I promise.”

It was all still here. Even in the early hours of mornings where she forgot where she was and what she was, it was all still here. A world of the impossible, right before her eyes. A world where she had friends like Emmeline, who she could just talk to. She’d had... friends in the muggle world as a child. The other children of doctors and researchers that her parents were friends with that would be dragged to events – but those visits were few and far between, and the most they had in common were talking about whatever experiment their parents wanted to try on them next. The kids at her muggle school had been put off by Glenda’s obsessions, how she knew maths and sciences long before they did and the few children that had been friends with her long enough to make it to her house usually stopped being friends with her after meeting her parents. Here, at Hogwarts, the other students didn’t need to know about her parents or her home life. Without Roger and Sora to chase them off, it made friendships a little easier.

               “Well, it hasn’t disappeared yet, so I’ll believe you.                           For now,” she smirked, glancing toward her friend.

I would hurt you or use you. | you unsettle me. | I dislike you or you annoy me. | I would like to get to know you better. | I pity you. | you confuse me. | I feel indifferent towards you. | I would be friends with you. | I would fight by your side. | I would hug you or hold your hand. | I would kiss you. | I would sleep with you. | I would lie for you. | I would protect you. | I would fall in love with you. | I would kill for you | I respect you. | you are my family. | I don’t know you.

Hogwarts House Aesthetic: Ravenclaw

“There are a few I’ll select. They must’ve known the password to every common room or they were a gang of four, each member from another house,” she said, her thoughts wandering through all those who were categorized as such. She couldn’t come up with a certain gang and the only wizards who knew the passwords were the professors, Augustus and Helena herself. She shook her head and returned to Glenda with a smirk. 

“I want to test the serum on all those who’re curious enough to overheard or overseen enough. I only need witnesses, not really those who caused such chaos. Maybe if we’re quick enough we can find someone whose mind still has some information for us.”

But, surely, with the entire student body already on edge there was bound to be some backlash toward the situation. Especially if Helena’s targets were more popular students, whose friends could make things difficult if they truly wanted to. While she trusted the other seventh-year, could she really do it all alone?

        “Is there anyway I can help you?”

It was strange for Emmeline to think like that. She had read many fairy tales, of course, both of muggle and wizard origin, but she could never quite see them the way that Glenda probably did. To her, all of this was completely commonplace. The magic, the creatures, the castle…all of it was just the way the world was to her. There was nothing really extraordinary or fantastical to her. In some ways, it made her jealous. She wished that she could see her life in such a way that Glenda did rather than having to turn to her books to find that feeling.

                                    “You shouldn’t think like that, Glenda.                                        of course it is real.”

She was jealous. No, beyond jealous. Of Emmeline. Of purebloods. Of half-bloods who grew up knowing about this world. Not that she would ever admit to this. Glenda had grown up being told that she was a product of science, that science, math, and logic governed the world and that the books she “wasted” her time on was just that, wasted time when she could be learning. Then she’d turned eleven and suddenly magic also helped govern the world. And yes, at first, she just couldn’t understand. Merlin, there were days she still didn’t understand how magic worked and some part of her needed, had to know how it worked. And yet, she almost wished she didn’t know about all of the deeper sciences because it would make everything so much easier.

                                           “I know.               But there are times when I really do need that extra pinch,              just to be sure,” she said, smiling. “I'll admit I fall asleep sometimes              thinking that this isn’t all going to be here when I wake up.”