Crash!
“Fifteen points from Gryffindor, you three!”
Hermione shivers involuntarily; it’s hardly the second class of the year, and Bonbon’s already not bothering to state the three troublemakers’ names- and, she’s pretty sure she didn’t even look before she took the points. The addition of a buffalo to the room had been… actually, somewhat expected.
She shivers again- hardly the second class of the year, and she’s already expecting disasters from those three! Though, to be fair, this ‘second class of the year’ is taking place on the Friday of the second week, and she’s had plenty of time to get to know their destructive energy outside of class. And, the entire first class had been taken up by their disasters. This time, Bonbon’s gotten tired of it, and is dealing them point deductions on a hairpin trigger. And making it a point to give everyone else points for helping stop or prevent their disasters, or for doing as they were told.
But she’s in the middle of helping another student right now.
“It’s Wingardium Leviosa,” she reminds the rainbow-haired speedster in front of her. “Make the ‘gar’ nice and long.”
“Wingardium Leviosa!”
Hermione sighs; the feather hadn’t moved at all, and Rainbow hadn’t really done what she was asking… and is now getting a little irritated. Which she’s not looking for; last week, Rainbow had added to the excitement once it really got started. This week, Bonbon’s been able to keep it to just the three troublemakers.
“No, it’s-!” She pauses. “Here, let me show you. Pay close attention to how I say it. Wingardium Leviosa!” The feather floats into the air, before dropping back down. “Did you get that?”
“Huh?” Rainbow mutters, tilting her head. So… Wingardium Leviosa!” She still spoke it quickly, but it carried the correct pattern- mostly. The feather wobbles up a little before falling back down.
“Better,” Hermione states, and pockets her wand again. “Say it with me: Wingardium Leviosa!”
Rainbow successfully follows along, completely accurately.
“Yes! Now try it on the feather.”
“Uh… Wingardium Leviosa!” The feather rises calmly into the air, and Rainbow’s eyes grow larger, her breath building for a shout.
“Five to Gryffindor, Rainbow. Nicely done.”
“YESS!”
“Yowch, don’t make me take them back!”
“Sorry!” Rainbow looks back towards the feather. “Magic is weird.”
“Yeah, it is,” Hermione sighs, before moving on.
Back on day one, twenty minutes before breakfast, Fluttershy had approached her in the Gryffindor common room to ask her a question. She’d expected the question to be something simple, but no- it had been a shocker.
There had been a couple questions leading up to it, about a couple of her textbooks- but the final question had been if she wanted to help teach her fellow first-years Charms.
“I- I- I don’t- I don’t know Charms…” she’d answered.
Fluttershy had shrugged. “Neither does Bonbon. But, both of you are very fast learners, and good at passing on what you know.” How the pink-haired, radio-wearing girl had figured that out so quickly, she still has no clue. “If you agree, you’ll be attending Charms with Professor Flitwick, then following up by teaching what you learned there to a class of your fellow first-years, alongside Bonbon. Are you in?”
“Ahh…” she’d muttered. “Can… Can I answer you later?”
Fluttershy had winced. “I’m afraid not,” she’d muttered. “We’re going to need your answer within the next… ten minutes or so.”
So she’d said yes, figuring it was a prank of some kind. Who knew, it could be fun.
Then, ‘Teaching Charms with Bonbon, Classroom C-7’ had appeared on the schedule Professor McGonagall handed her at breakfast, even though ‘Charms with Professor Flitwick, Classroom C-1’ could be found on the day prior.
She’d checked it in as many ways as she could before that time slot came about. As near as she could tell, it was genuine.
And yet, throughout that entire week, she hadn’t been able to find who ‘Bonbon’ was.
She’d found out when Fluttershy had guided her helpfully to classroom C-7.
Bonbon’s a Slytherin.
And unlike her, Bonbon has the authority to give and take points.
Bonbon also doesn’t seem to favor either house, so that’s nice.
… Her taking points off the self-proclaimed ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’ doesn’t count, she’d take points off them herself if she could. And often more than Bonbon takes, at that.
She glances up at the Slytherin as she steps up next to Mr. Weasley; he’s also having a problem with his pronunciation, though it’s a different kind of problem than Rainbow: Rather than trying to say it too fast, he’s forgotten to stress the correct syllables. Unlike Applebloom, his result is the same as Rainbow’s: Absolutely no function.
… Exactly how Applebloom survived the buffalo on her chest without getting hurt, she’s not sure, and might have to ask her- or Bonbon- later. Probably Bonbon; she’s the first Equestrian, aside from Fluttershy, to really talk to her- and the first one to talk very much.
As her schedule had noted for her to do, she’d shown up at the classroom half an hour early on both days, and met Bonbon.
Bonbon had spent that half hour, on day one, discussing the various troublemakers in class- who to keep her eyes on, for her safety, and so on. Today, Bonbon had checked briefly to be sure she was on the same page as far as the lesson plan, and spent the rest of it simply chatting.
And she still needs to ask Bonbon how she gets her hair to hang- and curl- just right like that.
“Expelliarmus!”
“Good job, Neville!” Harry congratulates, while his wand floats back to him in the light blue aura of Rarity’s strange, totally-not-cheating levitation. He hadn’t realized what he’d agreed to, before breakfast on Monday, when Lyra had asked him. She’d described it well enough that he should have known, but he hadn’t stopped to think, simply agreed.
Then, of course, ‘Teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts with Rarity, Classroom E-4’ had been on his schedule, and his head had hit the table.
Regular ‘Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Quirrell, Classroom B-2’ had been a little earlier on his schedule; he’d spent that class… not really doing anything. The class was a bit of a joke- and one of his classmates, he’s not sure which, had informed him of a very different plan for the rest of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. That evening, he’d met up with the rest of that class- and similar-sized groups from each of the other three houses- in the library to discuss the plan. After that, the entire party had studied up on a few spells, all of which he had mastered fairly quickly.
That’s when he’d found out who Rarity is- and while he’d expected she’d be a Gryffindor like himself, she’s not. She’s a Hufflepuff.
Not that it bothers him. The part that does bother him, as he picks his wand out of the air before moving to help the next student having trouble, is that she has this strange ability to simply make things float. She’s called it ‘levitation’; he’s called it ‘cheating’. She disagreed with that one rather quickly.
He’d asked her this morning, during the half-hour prep before class, if she could teach him how. Unfortunately, she’d then explained that he wouldn’t be able to- something about Equestrian magic being different from his. Rarity had refused to tell him any more on the topic, blanketing all of his questions about that difference with ‘Ask Lyra’.
So, he plans to do exactly that.
After class.
It shouldn’t be too hard; Lyra’s been spending a lot of her time in the common room, running over papers or chatting animatedly with the Weasley twins. She’s done some pouting since the flying lesson on Thursday, but she hasn’t changed that pattern, that he’s noticed.
But that doesn’t make it any easier to pretend he’s not irked by Rarity’s casual use of her exclusive magic to catch and return every wand to its owner, before it has time to hit the ground, despite being visibly distracted by something else or even disarmed herself.
If she can do that with Equestrian magic, and the Equestrians’ magic is similar enough for them to perform British magic, there simply has to be a way for him to do something similar with British magic.
He can only really say he’s pleased, Filch decides. Not that he’ll ever actually say that, but still- for as many classrooms as the Equestrians’ plan is using, each and every one of them is left spotless when they’re done. Even the potions class he’d heard a bang from as he walked past- absolutely spotless.
Very suddenly, Mrs. Norris arrives in front of him, looking up with her reflective eyes, and gives a single, short meow, before taking off again.
His mood deflating, he races after her. She’s spotted a violation.
When she stops, he stops right behind her, looking around.
The corridor is empty.
They got away.
“Oh, uh, hey, Filch,” a voice calls from above his head. It sounds very much like a student, not one of the ghosts.
He looks up.
Four girls are there. One of them is almost casually hanging on a torch bracket on the wall; two of the others are holding onto the first fairly casually. The last, the only non-Equestrian, has her arms wrapped around the first for dear life.
The really strange part about it is that they’re hanging upwards. Everything from the knees down or, on the bushy brown-haired girl, the waist down, is lost in the ceiling.
“Can you, ah, get Lyra, or Twilight?” the redhead holding the bracket continues. “I don’t think any of the teachers know how to fix physics, and I’d rather not fall through this here ceiling.”
He nods slowly. “Alright. How did you get up there?”
“Ahh…” The redhead glances up at her companions. “We had a question for Instructor Granger here after class, and while we were talking, everyone else- including Instructor Bonbon- left. Then, she had us try it one more time, and… I don’t know what went wrong, but it was three floors below. Turns out we don’t fall through iron.”
He sighs. “Really?”
She nods. “Yeah.”
“This was not how I envisioned flying,” the purple-haired one states.
“And we weren’t even trying for our cutie marks,” the purple-and-pink-haired girl adds.
Filch shakes his head disappointedly.
“It was probably a good thing Mrs. Norris spotted us,” the redhead continues. “We’ve been here for almost twenty minutes. I’ve got Instructor Granger’s arm if she loses grip, but she’s not like us- it might hurt her.” She glances up at the bushy-haired girl. “And I’m not sure if she’s already been hurt from when I caught the bracket.”
He shakes his head, and starts heading off. “I’ll be right back,” he promises. Neither name she’d asked for- Lyra and Twilight- is familiar, but he does know someone that will probably want to hear about this kind of spellwork. He sets his course for Professor Dumbledore’s office.