Thursday 19th April, 2012
7am


Aoide woke to the sound of the others in the dormitory. Tempest and Natasha were already awake from the sound of their whispered conversation, beyond Aoide’s yellow bed curtains.

She checked the time on the little alarm clock beside her bed, a present from her father for her eleventh birthday. It had a small crescent window in the face which showed the weather. There was a drizzly grey cloud showing, which seemed to be the norm up at Hogwarts. Testing the temperature, Aoide wriggled her toes out from under the blankets.

There was the usual distant smell of breakfast, which made Aoide’s stomach rumble. Her body seemed to be eternally hungry lately, despite all the food the Hogwarts house elves provided. Her mother suggested Aoide was going through a growth spurt, which was only natural for her age. She was looking forward to breakfast. She wondered if there would be eggs.

It had been lovely to see her parents over the holidays, but it was also exciting to be back for summer term at Hogwarts. Second year was were weeks away, seven if she remembered correctly. Seven weeks was simultaneously ages and also no time at all. How much homework could the professors give them between now and the summer holidays? Hopefully not enough to keep Aoide from enjoying as much sunshine as possible that reached the grounds.

She wriggled her toes and stretched. Homework. There was something nagging at the corner of her mind. Homework. Aoide sat up with a start, threw back the covers and leapt out of bed in her pyjamas. They were navy, covered in stars and moons. Her bare feet disliked the cold flagstones beneath the soles, but there were more important matters to solve. Aoide thew back the curtains around her bed with a look of dread, and hurried to the door, followed by curious voices of her dorm-fellows.

“Homework!” Aoide exclaimed.

Marmalade the cat woke Ivy. Fishy kisses on the end of nose. Ew! Ivy squeaked. She petted Marmalade. Told him she was awake. He purred. Curled up on her tummy. One of his favourite places. He was warm. She would have gone right back to sleep. But someone sprang out of bed. Ivy heard Aoide's voice. Homework? Homework! Ivy's warm tummy dropped. She thought she had done all her homework?!

"Sorry Marmalade." Murmured Ivy. Kissed her cat on the head. Crawled down the bed. Her head popped out of the curtains at the end of her bed. Saw the open dormitory door. She reached into her trunk. It was at the end of her bed. Her school bag inside. Inside that was her diary. She grabbed it. Ran her finger down the list.

• Potions
• Herbology
• History
• Defense
• Charms

They had not got Astronomy homework yet. What did Aoide mean? Ivy was worried now. She climbed out over her trunk. Carrying her diary.

"Aoide?" Asked Ivy. Forehead lined with worry. "What homework?"

Aoide was searching the table she was sat at the previous evening. She had been sitting at this communal table to work on the defences essay, with her text book. But as she’d neared the end, she’d been invited to play exploding snap by friends. So she’d hurried the ending and left if in the middle of the table while they played.

At the end of the game she must have forgotten to pick it up, and now she couldn’t find it. Panic had begun to set in, and Aoide was moving books and leftover parchment trying to search for a piece with her own handwriting on, instead of a strange assortment of cartoons and SAWS flyers.

“Where is it?!” Aoide exclaimed, feeling her chest tighten. She had Defence Against the Dark Arts first lesson that morning, and it was due in. Professor Storm would surely incinerate her with a spell! “Aoide Shacklebolt, didn’t even get to the end of first year…” she moaned as she went round the table.

It was then she saw Ivy who had followed her in. “Professor Storm’s essay for first lesson!” Aoide explained, “I was writing it here last night but now it’s vanished!” Which was an actual possibility at Hogwarts…

"Vanished?" Ivy's frown disappeared. Surprised instead. "You know how to do that spell?" She had done her homework for Professor Storm. Yes. Definitely. She had ticked it off. It was in her bag. Packed last night. "I will help you find it." Ivy hurried. Checked the things on the table again. Put them together in a neat pile. "Are you sure you did not take it to the dormitory?"

“Positive,” Aoide replied to Ivy. She was under the table now, scrabbling on the flagstones on hands and knees. Someone's  pet rat scampered away from her to beneath a nearby sofa. “I finished it just before we played snap. I bet someone’s thrown it out…” She despaired and retrieved a piece of parchment covered in Runes from under the table. Aoide crawled out, slapped the Runes notes on the table and pushed herself to her feet, turning to face her friend.

“What am I going to do Ivy? It’s just first thing and if I get detention my mum is going to kill me… right after Professor Storm does. I’ll be doubly dead!”

"Bats!" Yelped Ivy. "Do not worry Aoide. It is not even breakfast time. We will find it. Or you can copy mine if we cannot." Ivy wanted to help her friend. Wanted to make her feel better quickly. The panic she had when Aoide had run out the dormitory had passed. But now she was sure Aoide had it loads more. So Ivy began to feel it too. "I know!" Ivy jumped. "I will get my wand."

She ran back to the dormitory. Her long blonde hair a messy cloak on her shoulders. She shoved her diary back in her bag. Fetched her wand instead. Raced back. "A-Accio essay!" Nothing. Ivy waved her wand. "Accio essay!!"

... "OH NO!"

Aoide did feel slightly better for having help to search. But they were no closer to finding her essay.
“I can’t copy yours,” she moaned, “you know what he did when Albie and Archie did that, and they’re twins.” Aoide put her hands to her face and pulled down on her cheeks in despair.

Ivy raced away to their dormitory for her wand, and Aoide continued to search, extending to the nearby bookshelves, armchairs and even under a rug where several spiders scuttled out. She shuddered and dropped the corner, darting away with her bare feet.

“A-Accio essay!” Ivy was back, and doing what a logical, sane witch would do, using magic.
“Why didn’t I think of that?” Aoide grumbled, but more at herself, actually grateful for Ivy’s idea.
“Accio essay…. OH NO!!”

Ivy had attempted to cast something way beyond their years[1], which had a similar incantation to another spell which Professor Storm had taught them for duelling club.

Aoide hit the floor without grace, hands sprawled out ahead of her.
“Oof!”

1.	(A fourth year canon spell)

"Aoide!" Ivy rushed to help her friend up. "I am so so so sorry!" Her face was red. This was turning into a nightmare. She only wanted to help. Now Aoide would be angry with her. Ivy was not helping. She had hexed her best friend.

"Bats and rats!" Ivy cursed. "We could get my sister but she is not allowed in our common room. Or one of our prefects?"

As the morning's minutes ticked by, the Hufflepuff commonroom's activity ticked up notch by notch as well. Hufflepuffs of all genders appeared from their relative dormitory wings in differing stage of consciousness, clothing, and readiness. They weren't supposed to leave their personal effects in the commonroom over night, but things had gotten a bit lax of late. Zeta Pepper had come out in a towel, fresh from a shower, her bright red hair slick and stuck to her neck.

"Who's got my eyeshadow palette?" she called out. "I require glamour!"

"Pepper, put your bum away! You'll scar Iccus[1] for life!"

"Hey, don't you talk about my bum!" Zeta laughed back. "That's harassment!"

"You're the one who's naked!" came the indignant reply.

Zeta had come upon Ivy and Aoide.

"Oh, good lord, it's happened! Ivy Abbot has finally broken bad." Zeta teased. But after a second look, Aoide did seem to be sprawled out. "Aoide, you alright?"

Zeta adjusted her towel.

1.	Icarus Grimlish, 4th Year

"I did not mean to!" Wailed Ivy. Worried Zeta thought she was a bully. Sixth years had powers. They could report you. "I was trying to do the summoning charm on Aoide's homework." She scrunched up her messy bed hair in both hands. "It is due this morning!" It was not even her homework but somehow Ivy felt like it was. Her stomach was tying a knot. She dusted dust off Aoide's pyjamas. Too enthusiastically.

“Don’t you talk about my bum!”

“It’s ok, Ivy, it’s ok!” Aoide assured her friend who was fussing as ever. She put on a brave face, because actually it had hurt to hit the floor so early on a morning. Normally one had to mentally prepare for that sort of thing in a charms, defences or flying lesson.

“Bats and rats! We could get my sister but she is now allowed in our common room. Or one of our prefects?” Ivy was problem-solving out loud. Despite the fact Aoide’s homework was still nowhere to be found, she felt a bit better for knowing Ivy was on the case. Everything was better when you had a friend to help.

“Oh good lord, it’s happened! Ivy Abbot has finally broken bad.” Zeta Pepper towered over them both as Aoide grasped Ivy’s hand and got back to her feet. “Aoide, you alright?”

“Yeah-.” Aoide barely got the start of the word about before Ivy worried all over it.
“I did not mean to!” Aoide winced. Perhaps she had been too generous in feeling better because Ivy was helping. Ivy seemed to be more worried about Aoide’s homework than Aoide was suddenly.

“It is due this morning!”
“I don’t want to lose Hufflepuff a load of points either for it. It’s Defence Against the Dark Arts,” Aoide filled in for Zeta. “Could you try and summon it?” She asked, hopefully, but then awkwardly looked Zeta up and down in her towel-clad state. “Er, um I guess you don’t have your wand…”

First year drama was adorable. The world just ended over a bloody nose and missing schoolwork. Zeta smiled in a flat line, patiently. It was Storm after all who seemed to have it out for house points, slashing them to bits at every opportunity.

"Erm, sure... Hang on. I need clothes" Getting pulled into a snitch hunt over - gosh, what did first years get assigned, coloring pages - was not something she wanted to do, but as a sixth year she felt obliged to help. She padded back to her dorm, leaving wet footprints on the well-worn rugs, to get dressed and grab her things.

In the sixth year dorm...

"I was not such a disaster in my First Year," she declared to her roommates as she closed her bed curtains to put on underwear. "They're a proper menace. What were you doing with it to lose your homework?"

Her long red hair was still wet and clinging to her neck. She'd dry it with a charm later. For now, she just clipped it up.

Skirt, shirt, tie, jumper, and robe. Her socks and shoes, she grabbed in hand along with her bag and wand. The whole thing took about ten minutes, which was about three times as fast as she normally spent.

"Wish me luck."

Ivy took cover behind an embroidered armchair. She peeked out and hid again. The common room fire had blown out. There was a strong breeze churning about but there were no windows to allow one. A portrait was yelling. Someone's owl was hooting manically. Books and parchment from every corner had raised into the air. Along with two scarves. A pair of shoes. Someone's herbology project. And a box of Bertie Botts. Every loose item was now sucked into a magical tornado. It reached the ceiling. Tore across another rug.

Zeta Pepper had been gone ages! Aoide needed to find that homework or she was going to have to redo it in like minus ten minutes. Despairing that the sixth year was not to return and help them, the first years had continued their pyjama-clad search. Ivy, ever wanting to help but not always the best at charms, had attempted a few more spells, none revealing the essay. Then at last one had rustled paper - it seemed like an accio might work after all, but then all the paper had come to life.

“Ivy!” Aoide exclaimed, clutching someone’s cat in her arms, paler by the minute at the sound of the rug tearing, “Ivy! Use Finite!!”

"Oh my god!"

Someone nearly ran into Zeta as Zeta made her way back to the commonroom. They were fleeing from something, hands on their head. What in the world...?

When Zeta came into the commonroom she found a disaster scene! And in the middle of the chaos were Ivy and Aoide!

"What did you do!?" Zeta cried over the din. A Daily Prophet sporting section smacked her full on in the face. "Oophf!" She pulled it off and fumbled for her wand. How was it that first years were always stumbling into brand new horrible magic spells? They weren't supposed to learn tornadoes until second year.

"Finite incantatum!" Zeta cast, but without a target all that happened was a weak reparo spell on a lamp in her wand-line dissolved and stem broke in half again.

"What spell is this!" she asked again, taking cover behind a chair.