Natty Fenimore

Prompt - Desire

Of course she’d called in the first favor without warning.

Mercifully, Mikey could summon enough coffee from the kitchens to sustain him through the night. It was a terribly Muggle habit—there were numerous Wizarding alternatives with much better effects—but he’d have needed Addie for that, and that was too much work. There was also tea, but coffee gave him that jittery feeling that tea didn’t. Coffee wired him, and he needed that buzz to get through the night. After all, patrols were never fun because nothing ever happened. A student or three out of bed maybe, but that ate up half an hour at most.

He drained his fourth cup of coffee as he entered the Great Hall and dropped the mug before he could vanish it.

He didn’t notice the crash of ceramic on stone. Instead, his eyes were glued to the girl suspended in the air above the head table, her arms outstretched, her eyes opened and cloudy.

"Oh my god…" he breathed, stepping forward cautiously, barely processing the other students standing around, looking equally unsettled. "What happened to you…?"

As he approached, he began to feel weighed down, as if the air were heavier, and his movements seemed slower. Indeed, she was completely motionless—even her hair, which was floating above her as if she were in water, was completely still. It was as if time around her had stopped.

He pulled his wand out and extended it, but he knew this was well outside his capabilities. This was very dark magic—even a Muggle could have felt that—and for that, he needed the expert. “Expecto Patronum!” he said, and a silvery hedgehog appeared at his feet and looked up expectantly. “Sarah, a student is in trouble in the Great Hall,” he said with his wand to his throat. “And there’s Dark magic here. Very dark. Please hurry.”

He pulled away the wand, and the hedgehog sped off.

He repeated the process to summon the other Heads, then turned his attention to the door of the Great Hall. More students would be arriving soon, and Mikey didn’t want them to see this. He needed to keep them out, get the stragglers out too, and buy the faculty time to deal with this problem. With a few flicks of his wand he created sentinels, half a dozen clay men with instructions to keep all students out of the Hall. Some headed toward the doorway, and others approached the students who were staring at the girl, with the directive to carry them out forcefully if necessary.

Cool was her first thought. Finally they were going to learn some real tricks, instead of the little things they’d been doing? True, it was all a bit more than the card tricks that she’d been expecting, but it was still felt boring and beginnery. Hanging upside down, now that was something.

Then she noticed the other girl was entirely too still and that she and the other kids were being rushed out. Things began to click together, and Natty did not like the conclusion. She took Marty from her pocket and held him close, so he wouldn’t accidentally see, his long tail dangling from between her fingers.

“It’s okay” she told him.. “It’s all going to be okay. Just don’t look, all right?”

And now she was out in the hall with the others and other kids were being turned away from the Hall and herded back to their Common Rooms. Still there were no explanations.

Prompt - The Mysterious Box

It’s early—very early—and you are one of the first up for breakfast. It should be sunny, but the day seems…heavy. Foggy.

Dark.

You move toward your House table but notice a small cube on the head table. It looks ancient and is covered in strange yet fascinating symbols. No professors are around yet, and it won’t be long before more people notice the strange box or a professor arrives…

It could be anything. Is it worth anything, you wonder? Is it dangerous? Should you leave it alone? Ask a professor? It’s entirely up to you. But if you want to take a chance, do it fast.

“ Look with your eyes, not with your hands.” Her Grandmama had always said. Daddy had said that was nonsense. He believed in handling things, learning all the variations in texture. There were key differences in with the grain and against the grain that the eye could easily miss, but were vital to what you made. A kink in a curve could be costly. At the same time a well done texture transform a piece of furniture into pure beauty. Natty had always believed Daddy when it came to wood, and this looked to be an old wood box. She looked around, then looked back. There was nothing it saying which professor it was for, but there was no Do Not Touch symbol on there either. And she had never seen a box that old or with such interesting things on it. She formed a quick plan: Pick it up, turn it over, memorizing as much as she could to look it up later, then put it back down. It obvious wasn’t hers for taking and she knew most grown-ups would refuse to actually tell her about it.

She touched the box.

In the end it was decided that her Dad would bring her to shopping. They started early, so that mom wouldn’t wake up and stop them. Natty slept in the car on the way over. Dad was usually really good at finding places, so she was a bit confused when they walked by the run down building three times before he noticed it.

She had never been in an actual inn before, but she knew Mom would have turned around and marched them right back out if she’d come. It smelled like Dad’s workshop and fireplaces. She noted all the other people wore cloaks or big swooshy jackets. Dad took this in stride, asking for enough help to lead them to the back of the place and through

It was a door.Obviously. Some sort of door that was activated by a keypad that all looked like bricks to prevent burglars or something. 

For a moment he’d thought it was an adult—shoulder height an all—but no. A first year.

He smiled. “Hey, yeah sure!” He bent over to look at the directions. Robes first. He didn’t disagree—the most boring part should get out of the way, and then she could get to way more interesting things.

“ Watch where you’re going Nat. You could get seriously lost out here.” He told her, a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry Dad, but look. This is Mr. Starkey he teaches Transportation at the school and he said he’s going to help us.”