//------------------------------// // Fireworks // Story: Three Werewolves, a Pony, a Seer and a Skepticist walk into Hogwarts... // by SamuelK28 //------------------------------// Limestone awoke the following morning at her standard time of half past five, rolled out of her bed and headed to the toilet. As she washed her hands she stared in the mirror and her eyes widened, any remnants of sleep swiftly evaporating. A gorgeous looking princess slathered in makeup and in a beautiful pink dress stared back at her. “Oh right,” Limestone deadpanned as memories came flooding back of the night before. “So that happened,” she sighed splashing water onto her face to wash the makeup of. It did not come off. She tried again. Still, it did not come off. She began to desperately scrub her face. Nothing. And that was when another memory from the night before thrust itself to the forefront of Limestone’s mind, one of Scoti and Susan snickering at something the former held in her hand. Limestone closed her eyes and took several deep breaths to quell the boiling rage that was bubbling inside of her. It did not work. * Scoti awoke with a start as the door to the bathroom she had wisely opted to hide out in shattered. “She’s pissed. Really pissed,” a naked Susan groaned from where she now resided on the bathroom floor after just being utilised as a makeshift battering ram. Considering the door had been fifteen-centimetre-thick solid oak, it had hurt, a lot. “It’s bath time!” A voice cackled from the doorway of the bathroom. Scoti looked up from the bathtub where she had made her makeshift bed and gulped nervously at the wild look in Limestone’s eyes. Will you accept an apology for applying twenty-four-hour magical makeup to your face? She pleaded already knowing the answer. “No,” Limestone replied coldly. * Alastor Moody opened the door to the Hufflepuff first year girls’ dormitory and peeked his head around the door. He was a touch surprised to see that the candles had already been lit. Maybe his actions the morning prior had had a bigger impact than he expected. “Morning Mr Moody. If you are wondering why we are already up, Susan and Scoti decided to use twenty-four-hour magical makeup on Limestone last night. She did not take it well when she woke up this morn and proceeded to use Susan as a makeshift battering ram too break into the bathroom Scoti had locked herself in to give her a bath. I do not think Limestone has drowned Scoti, yet,” Leanne explained from where she was reading a book in her bed. Moody knew he should intervene so walked over to the bathroom that was now missing a door and, diverting his eyes, called through the open doorway. “Miss Pie, I shall give you and your friends thirty more minutes to get ready and meet me in the common room for your second lesson, understood?” “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” Limestone replied politely. “Excellent. Now, I shall just repair this door and be on my way,” Moody stated pulling his wand from his tatty leather jacket and doing just that before turning and preparing to leave. Leanne and Lavender looked on in astonishment. “Are you not going to stop her?” Leanne queried as Moody headed back to the door to their dorm. “What happens in your dorms stays in your dorms,” Moody replied emotionlessly without even turning his head back to look at Leanne as he spoke. “Besides, she won’t kill her, and Scoti sometimes needs to be reminded that her actions have consequences. As for Susan, even in human form werewolves are extremely resilient. I doubt she will have suffered anything more than a few bruises.” “Scoti did the same to you in the past, didn’t she?” Leanne retorted in return. “That information is classified,” Moody droned exiting the dorm before Leanne could push the matter any further. “Totally did,” Leanne grumbled setting her book to one side and rising from her bed to get ready for their next DADA lesson. She had already figured out that there would almost certainly be no breakfast until after the lesson had finished so the sooner they began, the sooner she could eat. * At a quarter to seven a rather motley group of five girls stood on the training fields awaiting further instructions from their teacher, Scoti still blowing bubbles from her earlier drowning, sorry, bath at the hands of Limestone. “Listen up because I shall not be repeating this,” Moody boomed opposite the girls. “Every week from now on I expect you to meet me here at six am sharp.” Groans erupted from Limestone and her friends. Moody chose to ignore them. “Tardiness shall not be accepted no matter what may be the reason. You shall also only be released for breakfast when I say so.” More groans, Susan enviously eyeing up the massive bowl of food Teeth was currently devouring a little way away. Moody chose once more to ignore them. “Afterwards, if there is any remaining time, I expect you to utilise it wisely completing that week’s assignment on a chosen dangerous creature in the library. You shall all be receiving a further textbook in the mail today to assist with this task.” Even more groans. “Furthermore, you can forget about your free period on Tuesday afternoons. Yep, you guessed it, more groans. “Now that we have that covered let us move on. To simplify for you, I am here to prepare you for the future by teaching you how you can defend yourself against both dark creatures and charms, which will require three key components, defensive and offensive magic, combat training and knowledge of your opponent. The first two will be my responsibility, the third will be down to you and how much extracurricular studying you do. Moving on, this year our main focus shall be defensive magic. This will include mostly protective enchantments that have a variety of effects from concealment to shielding yourself from a magical attack. We shall begin though with something easy. Vermillious,” he cried pointing his wand into the air. A stream of red shot high into the sky before exploding and showering the early morning sky in red. It did not go unnoticed by Limestone that three of her friends winced at the loud noise. “Ah, so that’s why you had me put those on Teeth,” she exclaimed referring to the peculiar fluffy pink ear muffs Teeth currently sported. Her dog had not flinched even a little and contentedly continued finishing off his breakfast. “Good observation Miss Pie. And might you also like to inform us of a circumstance where such a spell might prove useful,” Moody replied. “I am guessing the most obvious would be to inform others of your location in an emergency,” Limestone suggested. “The loud noise it emits might also be a deterrent for certain creatures such as werewolves.” “Perfect, and excellent observational skills. Now, I shall repeat it one more time and then it shall be up to you all. Pay particular attention to my wand movement and pronunciation of the spell. Plus, remember that the sooner I see progress, the sooner you can eat. That motivation should keep you concentrated on the task at hand,” Moody stated before manoeuvring his wand once more and crying, “Vermillious.” * “Well, that is a surprise. Outstanding work from all of you,” Moody bellowed. In only an hour, all five girls had managed to successfully cast the spell. True, Scoti’s sparks were green, Limestone’s were more an ominous dark red than bright red, and Susan’s liked to perform several loop de loops in the sky before exploding, but overall Moody could not have been happier with how their first lesson had gone so far. “Does this mean I can have breakfast now?” Susan asked as her stomach emitted a very loud grumble. “Vermillious” Moody cast pointing his wand directly at Susan. Susan had no time to react as the spell hit her square in the chest. Scoti slammed her head into her right hand. Leanne and Lavender looked shocked as Limestone cackled only to be hit herself a moment later by the same spell. To be fair to both girls, neither even flinched despite the small hole in their clothes and clear smell of burning in the air. “That bucking hurt. You had better have had a good reason for that,” Limestone groused glowering at Moody. A second bolt hit her, this time without any warning. Again, she did not flinch. “Certainly. Spell resistance is another vital skill you must learn and Vermillious can also double as a...” Moody paused as a bolt of red magic headed his way. He easily blocked it and sent one back in Susan’s direction. “Nice try but you will have to do a lot better to catch me of guard. Where was I? Ah yes, Vermillious can also double as an offensive spell. It will not cause major damage and some species, such as werewolves, may have some form of natural resistance to certain spells but I feel it is a smart starting point for raising your pain thresholds. So, form a circle and let us begin.” The girls reluctantly did just that. “You may begin,” Moody instructed. “Begin what?” Lavender queried before going wide eyed as Limestone to her right was hit by a bolt of green magic. “Oh, it is on,” Limestone cackled like a deranged lunatic. Lavender watched on in horror as bolts of red magic, and a few green, started flying all around her. Even Leanne was letting loose at will and it was one of her misdirected bolts that caught Lavender in the shoulder. Lavender cried out in pain. The chaos ceased in an instant. “Not cool Leanne, not cool,” Susan chastised, her robes for the third time that week now little more than rags. Agreed,Scoti stated looking just as dishevelled. “For once I would have to agree with those two. She did absolutely nothing to you,” Limestone chipped in with a disapproving look at Leanne. “What! I didn’t mean to hit her; it was an accident. And you three started…” Leanne never finished her defence as she was sent flying by a massive explosion of red magic. Scoti, Limestone and Susan all stared at Lavender in disbelief. Lavender stared back at them with an equally disbelieving look. “It was self defence I swear!” the girl exclaimed before letting out another yelp of pain and leaping into the air. A raw red wound had appeared on her right knee. Scoti, Limestone and Susan turned their attention back to Leanne. “It wasn’t me?” Leanne clearly lied before rolling out of the way as another blast of red magic hurtled her way. “Oh, it is on,” Leanne cried leaping to her feet, “Bring it!” Lavender hollered in return, adrenaline coursing through her body. “It is always the timid ones you need to watch out for,” Moody muttered under his breath whilst quietly observing the developing situation, which now also saw a very angry pony chasing his goddaughters across the training fields after a double surprise attack. “ENOUGH,” he shouted just as Leanne and Lavender both fired at each other simultaneously. Both girls ended up on their backs in a daze whilst across the training fields Scoti and Susan had been ensnared by branches of the tree Limestone had magically grown several days prior and lifted of the ground. Limestone herself was just preparing to seek her revenge when Moody called out to her. “Miss Pie, that includes you to. Release them immediately.” Limestone turned with a look of thunder but quickly realised she was out gunned so stomped a hoof on the ground. The tree immediately released its prisoners. Susan landed with a thump whilst Scoti was caught by Teeth. “Good boy Teeth,” Limestone announced as Moody directed his own disapproving glare upon her. “You never said I had to lower them to the ground first,” Limestone clarified. “I suppose not,” Moody stated solemnly. “Listen up all of you. I have been impressed with your progress today and as such you have completed today’s objectives sooner than I anticipated. Therefore, you are free to go. Please head back to your dorm and clean yourselves up before breakfast. Then head to the library. This week’s essay should be an easy one for most of you. A minimum of two pages of parchment on werewolves please. I will allow you to choose the title and focus of your essay. Finally, although you should be proud of your efforts today, do not let your early success go to your heads. This was a simple starter spell. There will be a lot harder and tougher challenges to come. Class dismissed.” And with that Moody turned and headed back to the castle, not waiting to see if any of the girls had any questions to ask him, or even bothering to see if Leanne and Lavender were okay. “Scoti, I’m starting to wonder if this was a bad idea,” Limestone asked her friend as the adrenaline from the mock battle began to wear off and be replaced with sharp pangs of pain across her body. I tried to warn you.