The current Hexy level is Green

---

There hadn't been an exact date as to when this version of the Room of Requirement had come about. Well, it had to be a date after late November, because that's when Casey needed it. Or rather, Hexy needed it, as a space to occupy after wandering the castle.

While changing into the female alter ego might be more difficult, as 'Casey' was built from two pieces of magical clothing now instead of the lost amulet, there was something much more comfortable about slipping into the Hexy persona. Casey kept loosing core principles of his character. The amulet, the ancestral wand. Dingy was also distant, in the sense of if Casey still wanted the elf to be able to fulfill his secret duties, it required less direct interaction with the elf. The family had been occupying more of Dingy's time than ever. Master and elf could only meet at prearranged times instead of Dingy being summoned whenever Casey wanted.

Thus was the attitude that led to the excursions as Hexy when he was pining over the lost things he held dear. Just walking around in casual wear, a face lost in the crowd. It was surprising how much the students didn't pay attention to each other if they weren't peers. But with infrequent Gwyllion Fae meetings or Hogsmeade visits, there wasn't much to do at the castle.

Which brought up the room. Hexy had been to the seventh floor, not really knowing what she wanted when she spotted the door she didn't recognize. It brought her into the space. That first visit, there were red couches built into the walls, three sets forming borders of a spongey, slightly raised floor. There were poles along the walls with rotating candles and torches and colored filters, spreading a myriad of unnatural lights about the room. At one corner, closest to the door was something like a bar. Counter, stools, but the bottles behind on the counter weren't drinks. An inspection of the substances determined that the powders were simple medicines that helped some of her allergies.[1]

Opposite this was a giant victrola with several more funnels and speakers. It was flanked by two sets of shelves filled with records. Hexy took one, not recognizing the details, and placed it on the turnstile to play. When the music was magically amplified to vibrate every molecule in the high ceilinged room, when the lights began moving and flashing in vibrant patterns, Hexy recognized what the room was supposed to be. And smiled. She had nearly forgotten the experience over the summer, sneaking into the teen nightclub[2] but the room had taken it as a need.

The first visits, Hexy danced herself sick several times, crashing onto the (thankfully not leather) couches sweat soaked to her red hoodie. A conjured water to an empty glass provided by the room and topped with a medicative powder helped combat any feelings of being ill. She would dance without any form or plan, nothing but unrestrained movement in time with the beat. Even when fatigued hearing the music was invigorating.

In a way the visits were making her stronger. Had Casey exerted this much energy he would be sick for days. The dancing left her winded and sore, yes, but even pushing herself to her limits showed slight progression of what her limit was, an increase to her stamina.

As such, there were variations to the room. Every other visit would bring a slight addition. No longer just for the release of dancing, the space became a training ground of sorts. The room got bigger. There would also be dueling dummies that moved on tracks in the floor or by ropes on the ceiling. Heavily damaged dummies that showed signs of spell fire, meaning she wasn't the only one using them. Targets along the walls. The walls, once brick, had smoothed sections which held experimental graffiti from when Hexy was spraying Tagger Paint. The artwork would sometimes crawl to a different section of wall. Refreshing moist towels to cool off with.

Having a dedicated space to relax and train at during nights or weekends made Hexy's schemes bolder, the room making minute changes to comply. Of course, it was also different for what Hexy brought herself...

---

There were two wands in Hexy's hands. The dominant was Hornbeam with an unusually rare core. In the offhand, an unusually resilient Pear that seemingly acted of its own accord.

The ancestral O'Doherty wand could not be reclaimed after the family had taken it away.[3] But that didn't mean it couldn't be borrowed as long as grandfather didn't know about it. Paranoid as he was about goblin attacks he was still a foolish old man when it came to his vices and not being the healthiest of wizards he and his wife were early to bed like many senior citizens. It had taken much layering of geas to have Dingy retrieve the wand when available and be on alert for when it had to be returned straight away. They had a system, the moment Dingy appeared in warning Casey would stop whatever he was doing and return the Hornbeam wand. They had two close scrapes but nobody suspected the wand's absence.

So for few and brief hours, the ancestral wand could be used. Owing to the indefinite allotment of time to train with it, it wouldn't be efficient to lapse back to the more powerful wand. The replacement Pear was suitable and energetic.

And that's when the idea had come to mind...

Hexy's hands moved in synchronization. "Flipendo!" Two teal blasts of light shot out of both wands. Only one spell struck a dummy that flinched, the other missed. She had been aiming for both to strike the same target.

Dual wielding was a lot harder than Occlumency and Professor Storm was barely kept at bay during Occlumency sessions as the challenge increased. The more simple minded might suggest it wasn't possible. The wand chose the wizard and that was a single bond, the optimal tool to channel one's magic through. Using another wand was always more difficult, as was casting offhandedly. That was why Hexy kept the Pear wand to the non-dominant hand. It was an impulsive wand, a mitigating factor to the awkward control once the intent of wand and owner aligned.

But most difficult about dual wielding was having to relearn everything about magic. She felt like less than a first year, having to give firm incantations to each spell she cast. Currently she could only cast the same spell from each wand simultaneously. She had dreams of being able to cast different spells at once, one or both non verbal. If it worked, she would push back learning to do magic wandlessly.

She ran a moist towel over her face then threw it crumpled to a spot on the floor. The room always opened up with freshly prepared towels. Then she focused, taking a deep breath. A flick from the ancestral wand set the music playing and that set off every movement in the room. Lyric-less rhythms pulsated[4] as the lights cast in colored beams while the dummies traveled along the tracks.

And then Hexy herself spun. "Infligo! Flipendo! Flipendo! Infligo!" She was alternating fire and alternating wand, teal blasts and invisible punches striking a high percentage of the dodging dummies in rapid succession. Not always in time with the music but the beat was the deadly beat of battle.

1.	The RoR can't make food but Dobby can get butterbeer antidotes when Winky is sleeping off a hangover--go figure
2.	Spellpunks - June 26
3.	Disarmament - Nov 13
4.	imagine this but without the lyrics

Zoe had started use of the Room of Requirement a good week ago, sneaking off during the hour periods she didn't have a class to Hogsmeade. The time she went was to see the wandmaker her grandfather had found to make her a wand with the Puck Fairy hair she had so carefully collected. Two days ago, upon receiving her wand[1], the Ravenclaw had sought it out for another purpose: to practice her wandwork.

The only thing odd Zoe found of the previous uses of the room was the features. Colorful lights, loud music, it seemed as if whoever had last wanted a room for the same use had danced as they practiced. The girl couldn't help but find this the slightest odd. Her own visit to the room had added personal decorations. A few flower pots, torches on the walls lit with bluebell flames, nothing too noticeable unless one looked for them.

Deciding to use the last day of the weekend to her full advantage, Zoe filled her book bag with all of the text books needed to study for the upcoming exams as well as the two wands, though her Puck Fairy hair wand took her usual wand's place in her wand pocket. She brought along Rose, as she always felt better casting alongside the creature that had provided her core, as well as Snowy to look after the fairy.

Zoe performed the usual walking and thoughts needed to get to the room she used. As she opened the door, the Ravenclaw heard blasting music and a voice yelling spells. She cringed at first, covering her ears, and swung the door open wide to see what was the cause of this. Snowy, of course, entered the door before the girl, hissing before the cat saw the source. Through the moving dummies, the girl saw someone she recognized. Was that, no, it couldn't...

"Hexy?" Zoe yelled over the music. "Is that you?!" The movements of the girl were fast and fluent, a side the girl would have never guessed existed in the Hufflepuff. Even more impressive, she was holding two wands! Casting with both! How was that even possible for a third year?! One of the wands Zoe thought she recognized, though, as she could only see the wand from a distance, she made nothing of this. Had the young witch been able to see the wand up close she would have been in a state of shock.

Rose, lying on top of Zoe's head, shrieked and clamped her hands over her ears. Snowy by now had quite a gain in distance on Zoe and stood quite near the dummies. Perhaps the cat could now get clear vibes of who she was looking at, no longer tricked by a magical force but now simply a wig.

Paying no attention to her cat but instead her fairy, Zoe drew her closest wand, the one in her wand pocket. The wand Hexy had never seen before. She pointed it at the victrola. "Silencio!" she bellowed, her voice rivaling in amplitude the music. The sudden loss of sound seemed to leave the room with an ear-piercing silence, only broken by Rose buzzing angrily and taking off for the Hufflepuff, who, by her little bits of logic, was the cause of the loud noise.

"Rose!" The sharp tone of Zoe's voice made the fairy pause midair. The human made a gesture for the fairy to come back, Rose unhappily obliging. "Didn't actually think that spell would work..." she mumbled to herself as she crossed the room to the victrola and removed the record. She had never tried a charm of that skill with her new wand, but, seeing as she discovered the wand responded well to emotion, it wasn't a huge surprise.

Finally, Zoe turned back to Hexy. "Sorry about that. Hexy, it's good to finally see you again. I've looked for you at the Hufflepuff table before but I've never actually found you. How have you been?"

1.	New Day, New Wand

Hexy never expected visitors. The walls were soundproofed and whenever she used the room she felt cutoff from the rest of the castle. A welcome bit of privacy because she would be self conscious about how she was dancing should others witness her random gyrations.

At first she thought she heard something but her brain didn't register the call that reached her ears. Her frenzy of rapid fired spells was reaching its peak. Then the music stopped. Hexy spun about not to fire but to see what had happened and crashed into one of the dummies.

It was Torret plus her little menagerie! Recovering from running into a dummy, she quickly pocketed the Hornbeam wand when Zoe was distracted by her fairy. The Pear wand was tossed and caught in her other hand, twirling it with her fingers. Hexy was breathing audibly, winded but not tired from the interrupted workout.

The little sprite Zoe called Rose flew close to her head. She ducked as the fairy buzzed around one of the arial targets.

"You don't pay enough attention, Zoe." Hexy shrugged. "But then more often than not I'm in here. Been busy as you can see." She gestured to the elaborate use of the room as she walked between the still dummies. She hadn't yet decided whether she wanted Zoe in here or not.

"How'd you get in?" she asked, reaching to massage the elbow of her right arm, wand clutched in the fist of the sore appendage.

So Hexy had been the one using the room! It certainly seemed as though she had pretty elaborate needs for all of this to be supplied by the room. The Hufflepuff's reply did seem a bit odd, one couldn't spend their whole day in the Room of Requirement, much less meals as the room didn't provide food. Zoe's brain was focused on other things, so she didn't mull over it much.

"I've been using this room the past few days. Same reason as you, wandwork." Zoe held up her new wand. "I just got it two days ago, custom made and works great." Settling Rose back on her head, she walked over to Hexy. "Don't tell anyone, but it's made with Rose's hair." Zoe motioned to the fairy. "I don't think that Hagrid would like to know someone else made a profit off of my Creatures project."

"It used to be a Torret family tradition that each member of the family had a fairy hair wand, but that was broken off a while ago. I thought, as, I guess, heir to the family, I might as well restart it." Zoe ran her fingers along the owl handle, feeling every carving of the wood. "Grandad didn't want me to use it in classes until I was used to using it, so I've been coming here."

The white cat still sat on the other side of the dummies, looking at Hexy. Her tail swished back and forth. "Oh, Snowy, come over here. Maybe you can keep Rose from trying anything on Hexy." Snowy looked to her owner, getting to her paws and padding over to the Ravenclaw. Snowy rubbed against one of Hexy's legs on the way.

The cat stopped at her owner's feet, rubbing affectionately at her shoes. Zoe carefully brought Rose to her feet and onto her hand, lowering the fairy onto the cat's white fur. "Rose's always so eager to prank people she doesn't recognize," Zoe explained as she faced Hexy once more.

"That was pretty cool what you were doing back there. Two wands, I've never seen someone cast with two wands before. You must be really good at casting to pull that off." Zoe looked to the one wand in Hexy's hand, seeming a bit confused. "Where's your other wand?"

"Fairy hair for a core. And that's made from...that fairy?" How strange. Hexy liked more uncommon types of wands but it was a real rarity to have ties with the very creature that supplied the core. It was also odd hearing about someone else talk about family tradition and inheritance. The Torrets were nothing like the O'Dohertys on several spectrums, both financial and behavioral included. Zoe sounded lucky for having her family take an interest with giving her a new wand, unlike having the ancestral O'Doherty wand dangling like a carrot before it was snatched away.

When the cat brushed by Hexy made a mental effort not to sneeze. Though if she did there was probably something for sneezing behind the bar. "Your cat doesn't mind being the mount for a fairy?" It was the most bizarrely funny thing she had ever seen.

"Thanks. But it's brutal. I've only just started with it and it's nothing spectacular at this point. It takes a lot of effort." She massaged her arm harder for emphasis. "Oh, just storing it. I'm trying to treat the wands carefully when not in use. You can sometimes find things other people have placed in here. That's how I got the idea when I found someone's discarded wand. Trying to cast with two wands at once isn't just hard on yourself, it could be hard on the wands too. I don't want one to break on me."

Hexy was tempted with curiosity towards Zoe's wand. "Could I, maybe, see it? Just for a moment? I've never known someone to get a new wand when they already have a decent one." There's some kind of irony in there. "It must take several fairy hairs to make a long enough core. Is that an owl? Who did the craftsmanship? Ollivander only works with three cores."

Zoe laughed at Hexy's question. "I think it's because Rose never tries anything funny around her, as she has claws and all. Snowy's actually been very useful in making Rose well behaved. She's surprisingly tolerant of things, she's really only aggravated by things that go after me."

Snowy was lying at Zoe's feet, Rose on her back with her wings stretch out. The fairy made a few silly faces at Hexy before flipping over onto her stomach, buzzing and pointing at one of the flower pots. The white cat turned her head to look at the tiny creature, not getting to her feet right away, daring the fairy to tug at her fur or jump on her. Rose simply buzzed louder. Finally, Snowy got to her feet and walked over to the flowerpot. Rose disappeared into a patch of buttercup.

"Ah, yeah, don't want to be to hard on them." Zoe knew little about wandlore, though she did know that wands had personality and 'feelings' of sorts. It seemed cool that Hexy bonded with a wand that she had just found, probably was one of those that could change affinity easily. There were ones like those, right?

Hexy had a good point. "It was sort of an impulse decision on my part. I started out just collecting the hair from Rose's hair brush, then I had a wand. I guess it worked out. I've sure bonded with it better than I did when I first got my Ollivander wand." Perhaps Zoe seemed to enjoy this wand just because of its rare core, but the girl did really like the wand.

Zoe seemed a little hesitant to hand over her wand. "I guess you can touch it, but don't try to cast anything. I doesn't seem to react well to new people, like the real creature." Mr. Magewright had included in his letter how it backfired the first few times he tried to use it. However, the Ravenclaw guessed the worst that could happen to Hexy was the wand shocked her. She held out the wand for Hexy to take.

"Sallow Magewright made it, a custom wandmaker. His shop's in Wales. It's in the truck of a willow tree, larger on the inside than the outside. He said it took fifteen hairs, tied together of course, to make the wand. Honestly, I have no idea how he managed to tie them all. And yes, the handle's an owl." She tried to remember what Magewright wrote in the letter about the handle, something about it helping the wand in being quicker to learn.

Looking from her wand to Hexy Zoe smiled. "Pretty neat, right?"

Not being able to cast a spell with it was a shame. What really would happen if she did, Zoe getting pissed? But for once, to anger Zoe Torret didn't seem appealing. Mainly because Hexy was fascinated with her wand, a draw that if denied might turn into an obsession. She couldn't tell why but hearing Zoe talk about her own new wand, one made from an unusual core, made it sound irresistible. Hexy had previously thought that there was only one ultimate wand, before the privilege to the ancestral O'Doherty wand had been stripped. All other wands had been considered inferior. Most still were, but getting the replacement Pear had proved suitable, opening her eyes to the variations there were to be had with wands.

The Pear was also pocketed before Hexy took the wand, held gingerly. Her right hand cupped the handle while her left tested the flexibility of the tip. Instantly there was a kind of force from the wand. The moment she touched it Hexy didn't feel fatigued from the workout anymore. Her dry throat had threatened to turn into a sore throat but that felt better as well.

No spells were cast but she gave it an experimental swish, pacing through the motions of several different spells. The wand seemed to vibrate in her hand like the shrill buzzing of the fairy riding the cat. Clearly it didn't like her, had she actually tried magic it might backfire or cast the wrong spell. But...

But...

Why couldn't she? There was a little bit of a mischievousness to it Hexy could use. It was surprising to consider that quality would be reflective of Zoe. It was almost, but not quite like, the Pear wand she had pocketed. Quick to react, quick to learn, maybe quick to defend. Though flexible it had resilience. It vibrated harder when she mimicked harsher hexes, or maybe that was from what Hexy was thinking for how to apply said hexes. There was also a lot of 'fluff' Hexy couldn't place, couldn't understand as to what the positive ambience from the wand all meant.

But I could use the wand. Only as offhand, even if only for the medicative boost, if that happens all the time or not. But definably a primary wand for Zoe. She would get everything to work. Why is that?

"The owl probably makes you get faster post," she half joked. She was sorely tempted to hold onto the wand, figure out all its mysteries. If she could change enough to use it. And would giving it back hurt, when holding it made her feel so much better?

But it wasn't her wand. It was Zoe's. "I can tell it likes you." She held the wand out in her open palm, handle pointed back at Zoe for her to take. "I think you'll find it's pretty durable, the varnish will hold up if it gets wet." That was more of a hunch but something about Zoe's wand was just like the Pear from the crash in the lake, it had dried up pretty quick. "Thanks for letting me, you know..."

Why wouldn't it completely work for her? Hexy had felt the wand half in agreement to her personality, half in opposition. Any other time she had tried her hand at another's wand her magic had been able to dominate it. Like when briefly possessing the half mer LeJean she had the wand adapt to her purposes with ease. Though the fish for brains Hufflepuff was a notorious space case.

"Do you like me?" The question was sudden and abrupt. Hexy hadn't even gone through the process of formulating the question but it had burst out of her mouth when contemplating that LeJean was like her wand, that normally most people were similar to their wand. "I don't mean, like. Well, I don't really know what I mean. Ugh. Forget I said something."

Zoe watched as Hexy pretended to cast spells. The Hufflepuff sure seemed fascinated with the wand, though the young witch figured Hexy had never seen a wand made with that particular core before. Prior to the Creatures project, the Ravenclaw had no idea Puck Fairies existed, only regular fairies and other kinds of small human-like creatures with wings, like pixies and doxies.

After a watching Hexy for a good minute, Zoe wasn't sure if she'd ever get her wand back or if she'd have to pry it from the hands of a girl a year younger than her. However, the younger girl held it out for her to take just moments after this thought crossed her mind. Zoe took the wand, feeling a wave of warmth wash over her. It seemed as though the wand was glad to be back to its master.

"Oh yeah, you're welcome." Hexy seemed to know more about wands than she let on, though what she told Zoe after playing around with it may have just be made up. "You seem to know your wands to recognize things like that."

The girl swished her wand through the air, suddenly feeling a pulse that compelled her to cast something. A faintly glowing pink line was drawn in the air by the wand tip, as if the wand was showing off. It disappeared after a few moments, dissipating into tiny glowing sparkles that flickered out. The wand core was certainly a dominant one, like Mr. Magewright had said in his letter, if it could pull off little spells like that on its own.

Hexy's question caused Zoe to give her a momentary odd look, before bursting into a short fit of giggles. They weren't mocking giggles, more amused. "No, no, I get what you mean. It's alright, you just could have worded that better." She shot the Hufflepuff a bit of a teasing grin.

Zoe paused for a moment, as if contemplating her answer. "Yes, I mean I only have talked to you one other time, but from what I have been with you yes. We're friendly enough for us to be considered short of friends in my opinion, if that's what you're asking." The question was rather odd, and Zoe could only wonder why Hexy would ask such a thing.

"Well, I know enough about wands to get a feel for them. That must have come from dad." Hexy was improvising out into new territory here. No idea where she was going but the pieces came together as she cycled through the limiting parameters. "My dad was in an apprenticeship under a wandmaker. Use to show me raw shafts of wood and exposed cores. Then he set off on a world wide walkabout seeking out wand quality trees. That's when I came to live with my aunt. Last I heard from him he'd nearly lost his hand trying to harvest a flesh eating tree for a prototype."

Reasonable with the right twist of magical eccentricity at the end.

She watched the odd ribbon of light come from Zoe's wand. It made her think of the breadcrumb sparks, ones that rained from her wand to litter the ground. But that had been with both wands, the old and the new, so how much of that was her own doing?

Something made her look away, embarrassed, instead of hexing Zoe on the spot for teasing her. Torrent was at least being genuinely friendly. Laughing with, not laughing at. Or if she wasn't...

Still, there was something about sharing with Zoe in this moment. Hexy figured she should come up with some kind of payment for the gift Zoe had lent her.

"You've got two wands now. Did you want to learn how to do it?"

Zoe smiled at Hexy's story about her family, completely unaware that she was being given lies. At her side, Snowy shifted and mewed to get Zoe's attention. "That's really interesting!" the girl exclaimed as she pocketed her wand and bent to pick her cat up. "My father works at Wizenmagot. He's not an elder yet, just a normal member."

If Hexy's question was to make her set down Snowy it worked. Zoe hesitated for a moment at the thought of dual wielding before setting the white cat down and drew her new wand. "I don't know..." she said, looking at it. "I don't think my wand would like being used with another, it seems pretty independent."

Still, she opened her book bag and drew her other wand with her free hand. It didn't feel right for that wand to be in her left hand, she had never held a wand in her left hand to cast spells before. The coordination, the swift movements she had seen Hexy perform, could she?

"I'm still learning spells with my new wand as well, I just got it two days ago." Zoe tried to move her arms in a way that she could envision casting with both wands at once, but her movements were robotic and unnatural. She frowned and stopped. "Maybe you could show me a little, I can try to copy your movements."

"Just watching won't tell you what to do. And I stink enough as it is." Hexy was thinking about casting two spells at once, instead of alternating. Her aim was worse with the double casting. "It's really about finding balance and learning how to cast with your other hand. So given your circumstances..." She pointed to each of Zoe's wands. "You'd want the most dependable wand in your dominant hand. That would be your old wand. If your new one is a bit more independent that can help you learn to cast with your offhand. Letting the wand do more of the work instead of choking yourself on movements with the new wand."

"But if you haven't adapted to your new wand yet, it wouldn't be advisable to try too much with it." She shrugged. "Maybe do what I did, work on going through the motions of a spell without casting anything."

Hexy was feeling tired, even though Zoe's wand had left her a bit of a boost. For once, it wasn't physical exhaustion making her lethargic. "I've been meaning to take a break anyways," she said as she stepped off the platform to sit on one of the red couches.

Zoe's words were playing through her mind. Yes, I mean I only have talked to you one other time, but from what I have been with you yes. We're friendly enough for us to be considered short of friends in my opinion, if that's what you're asking. It was an oddity Hexy couldn't unravel. It wasn't like Alvis liking Casey, who could shoehorn goodness into anybody as long as they weren't idiots like Ambrose Pepper. Alvis stuck by the friendship even when it wasn't favorable for him, when the unpleasantries happened. Whereas Zoe...did not like Casey for how he was commonly presented. Yet that one time, one Hogsmeade Weekend back in the fall was enough to place 'Hexy' in her good graces.

But what had been done differently? Both turning points to each social pairing were similar. Analyzation of runic armor enchantments and security of Darla's cottage, both martial actions tied to acquiring and protecting might. Though had it been Casey headed off Zoe at the cottage no doubts she would have been more suspicious. Was a mask and a good cover story just enough to sell the same person as somebody else?

She pulled her legs up onto the edge of the couch although she didn't need to worry about avoiding leather, like the time at the club the room was partially based off of. Hexy came to realize she didn't know that much about Zoe that wasn't based on predisposition.

"Say you could learn how to cast magic using two wands at once. What would you use it for?" A simple question for their discussion but it might also reveal Zoe's character.

Zoe switched the wands in her hands as Hexy suggested, though felt her new wand vibrate slightly in protest. She waited while Hexy spoke to see if the vibrating would cease, but it didn't. "I think I should do this right now. My new wand doesn't seem to like being in my offhand." She switched the wands in her hands, which made her wand stop protesting. "If you're not good at it..." There was little hope for her.

Grateful for a reason to go to a different topic, Zoe pocketed her old wand and followed the Hufflepuff to the couch, sitting beside her. She went through some basic spells with her wand, lighting the tip and causing the glow to disappear, severing a cut into the fabric of the couch before mending it.

Hexy's silence made the Ravenclaw wonder what was taking place in her mind, though she didn't ask. After the four incantations Snowy leaped into her lap, and Zoe stopped her wandwork to pet her cat. The white cat purred and settled herself, at ease so close to her owner.

Finally, Hexy spoke. Zoe looked over to the Hufflepuff. "That's a good question. I've never thought about that." She paused to think. "Well I know I wouldn't use it during Dueling Club, that'd give me an unfair advantage. Unless, of course, everyone used two wands. Other than dueling, I don't really see what good it'd do. Classes are fine with one wand, you're supposed to use one wand in them."

"Maybe I'd use it to enchant things. I'm sure things like enchanting would be easier when you could cast multiple things at once, or cast the same thing with both to make it stronger. If I tried hard enough I might even be able to have spells perform a special different effect by combining them." This was all theoretical, as Zoe didn't plan to try casting with two wands anytime soon.

It seemed like it was her turn to ask a question. "What would you do if you became really good at it?"

The duel advantage was really the greatest draw to developing dual wielding. You could fire attack spells at multiple targets or maintain an offense and defense spell at the same time. That was what interested Hexy the most. Zoe saying it would be an unfair advantage would have earned a O'Doherty styled snide remark about her apparent weakness for not embracing power and advantage. But it really showed that Zoe didn't mean to be aggressive or nasty. It really seemed Casey had been the only one to bring that out of her.

Hexy could hear the throaty purr of Zoe's cat throbbing across the couch. The back of her neck tickled as a new observation entered her head. Were her allergies tapering somewhat? Normally it took seeing a cat to trigger the fits of sneezing and itchy red eyes and now she appeared fine if weary of directly touching the cat to avoid dandruff.

"I hadn't thought about enchanting." Working two spells into an object at once, or doubling the potency, that was something Alvis might do with it. Though Hexy couldn't see Alvis being aggressive enough to adapt to two wands at once. Zoe, possibly, if something was aggravating her.

But what did Hexy really want to do this for, trailblazing an unfathomable path of two wand casting? It was the impossible type of challenge Casey would struggle for, certainly. But the notion let alone the circumstances that brought two wands, however briefly, into her possession had been during events that diminished the concept of 'Casey:' quick witted and angry Slytherin prude suffering from half the contents of a Healer's malady encyclopedia. What made Casey strive for the impossible?

To prove strength of self, to accumulate magical might, to be the next greatest name in the annuals of magical history.

And one of the deterrents from that goal was figuring out how to get everyone's acclaim or respect, without actually caring about other people to reciprocate their approval.

Or simply, approval from the most despised family ever.

So what could Hexy say to Zoe? To make a name for myself, to reach the top of a dueling circuit, to banish my idiotic grandparents and relatives out of the manor and take over the family enterprises myself? None of those could be said, let alone that the ability was nowhere near strong enough yet.

"I mainly want to prove that it can be done, with enough hard effort. I guess that's the Hufflepuff in me." Her lips twisted into a smirk at that, the sarcasm giving away to genuine surprise. "I guess that's the only Hufflepuff thing about me. Sometimes the house system kinda stinks, you know?"

Not really Hufflepuff at all, whatever group love things the other house in the basement did behind closed caskets. Hexy stared out at the square of the room, silent for all the still battle dummies. Being populated only with glorified mannequins it did look kind of empty. Clubs, as far as she had come to understand, were supposed to be filled with a mass of moving people.

"Bleeeeh." Her mouth yawned open to stick out her tongue and sigh out a great quantity of air she hadn't realized was in her lungs. "But it's going to take a while. I'd rather talk about more immediate futures." Something that wasn't so depressing or making herself scrutinize every moment of her existence.

She got up to find some less energetic music from the racks around the gramophone. "What are you doing for the holidays?"

Zoe nodded to Hexy in agreement. "I get where you're coming from. The house system is meant well, to help establish a community that you can belong to, but you don't always fully fit in. That and the house rivalries and house biases it creates, I can say I'm guilty of the latter." Had she known who she was talking to, the Ravenclaw had might not so willingly admitted this.

She looked down at the hem of her robe, then back up to Hexy. "Can't say I'm proud of it, nor that I like it, but it's hard to change a belief you've had for three years and began on the first train ride to Hogwarts, the first true taste I ever had of the school." Zoe was careful not to mention Casey's name, just for the sake of 'I don't want to name any names'. It was the polite thing to do, not talk dirty behind someone else's back.

Talk of the holidays instantly made Zoe get into brighter spirits, given how excited she was to go back home as see her house and family again. "Going home. My family always has a big Christmas dinner at my house. We put a special really big circular table in our dining room, we have a large dining room, for everyone to sit around. We only use that table for the Christmas dinner. We put up tons of decorations and a big tree that reaches the ceiling, I get to help set up it all." Just the thought of it made her smile.

"The dinner's always so much fun, everyone from my mum's side of the family comes," Zoe continued, beginning to describe the yearly traditions. "So ten other people. One of my uncles always brings a new litter of crup puppies, he's a crup breeder, and they're so much fun to play with. Everyone brings a bunch of presents, more of less one for everyone else, so the carpet our tree rests on is always stacked with wrapped gifts. And we have this big meal, oh, it's just wonderful. There's also usually a Christmas celebration in my village we occasionally go to."

"I'm trying to decide if there's anyone I'd like to come over for the holidays, we have this nice sized guest room at my house and my parents allow me to have one person stay per holiday." Zoe looked over to Hexy, now looking through records. "So if you aren't going home you're welcome to come to my house. I'm sure my family will be happy to have you stay." Another thing she wouldn't have spoken if she had any idea who she was talking to.

Hexy pawed through records. "I just don't like the labeling with the house system. Hufflepuffs are pathetic diligent team builders, Gryffindors are idiotic do gooders, Slytherins are nasty pricks." That was a lump to swallow! "I mean..." I don't get close to other people. But there was no point to reiterate what Zoe already knew. "...you probably tire of words to the effect of 'Ravenclaw egghead.' Sticking us in houses is telling us who to be."

She paused in her examination of a record sleeve. Her ears pricked. Hard to change a belief. Three years ago. First taste of Hogwarts on the train. Zoe was talking about the day she had met Casey, before they had even been Sorted.[1] But she couldn't have realized...! No, it was just a coincidence. There was nothing she had done to suggest she was Casey and she wouldn't slip that up in front of Zoe. She felt sick in the back of her throat, rising acidic bile.

The moment passed. Zoe changed to her new topic and Hexy swallowed, continuing to look for music as if the pause was only to read the track contents. Zoe's holiday traditions we're sounding...sappy was better than cheesy but she still didn't say anything. For all the mushy schmaltz defined it did sound inviting.

The last time another student left an opening for visit, even directly to Casey, the offer had not been taken up. And Zoe was being outlandishly generous like when she left a welcome basket at Darla's cottage. What Hexy really needed to do was to keep Zoe off the game by doing the must un-Casey like thing she could after hearing the Torret celebration.

Hexy turned to face Zoe. Her hands held a record to her chest all the way up so her head was supported by the fists. She smiled until she was beaming and let her eyes open wide and doey like. "If I can take you up on that offer I will come! Are you sure it's all real? That sounds more like a Christmas card." She giggled. "Though if your holidays are always that picture perfect, I bet you already have a date for the Yule Ball!" Spoken with the right amount of cheer to beg for the juicy details.

1.	The Affront - Sept 1 2006