A Survival Class?

10. Arithmacy

“We have to teach Arithmacy. It’s like Muggle Studies, or Ancient Runes. Students need to know it.”

The four founders were jut having a meeting about what subjects to teach. Of course, as almost every meeting, it was full of disagreements.

“Muggle Studies is certainly a waste of time,” Salazar snorted disdainfully. “Dark Arts would be better…”

“As is Arithmacy. We should replace it with something more useful… like a survival class,” Godric suggested.

“And have students what, venturing into that Forest? You barely escaped it alive yourself the other day,” Helga reminded. “No, I agree with Rowena. Arithmacy stays.”

No Other Choice

11. History of Magic

“He’s terrible,” Helga muttered out of the corner of her mouth to Rowena.

“He’s the only one who wants the job, though,” Rowena replied with a sigh.

They were attending one of the tutoring sessions of, supposedly, the best History of Magic tutor in England. He was also the only one who was interested in exchanging the high fees gained from private tutoring to lower ones he’d get in a school.

“So why are we still here? Employ him already, let’s go,” Helga made to stand up. “I just feel sorry for all those kids who’ll have to endure him.”

I Told You So!

55. Egg on

“I still don’t understand the fascination with this game,” Rowena muttered when they took their seats in the stands of the new Quidditch pitch, for the first game of Hogwarts.

Her three friends only smiled, quite sure she’d participate in the excitement once the snitch was let out.

They were right. Half an hour later, Rowena’s eyes were glued to the sky.

“Come on, throw that Quaffle… no, not to the other team!” she yelled, egging on her house.

“Enjoying it now, I see,” Salazar grinned at her.

“Just don’t say…” Rowena began.

“…I told you so!” all three chorused.

Pincushion

54. Dare

“I don’t do dares.”

“Sure you do. Come on, I’ll give you an easy one. Transfigure Ravenclaw’s chair into a pincushion before our next class.”

“She’ll kill me!”

“No, she’ll be impressed that you can do advanced magic like that in second year.”
“Well…”

“Scared of your own aunt? Well, I guess you really are just a Ravenclaw bookworm at heart, despite being placed in Gryffindor…”

“Fine, I’ll do it!” Elinor huffed.

She just didn’t think about the fact that as she was the brightest witch in her year, her aunt would immediately guess only she could be the prankster.

Checking a Class

91. Future

“You know I don’t believe in this.”

“Divination is a true branch of magic, though.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it is,” Rowena muttered, as she and Helga took their seats at the back of the class. They were checking on all the Professors to see who was and who wasn’t performing their job adequately.

“What’s wrong with her eyes?”

“I think she’s having a fit!”

Rowena listened to the students comments as she watched the teacher’s eyes roll into her head. Suddenly, the teacher looked straight at her.

“You four shall split up by the end of the year, you know.”

Down to Three

89. Past

Rowena sat in the empty Great Hall, a week before the school opened again for a new school year. Her head was full of the memories of the previous term, when Salazar and Godric had had that huge fight which left their snake-talking friend to disappear from their lives altogether.

It had destroyed the good humour in the castle, there was no more cheerfulness in the corridors. The remaining three felt as if there were something missing all the time, but even thought Godric had tried to find his friend to make amends and bring him back, with no luck.

Smoky Eagles

38. Patronus

“A Patronus? I’m going to learn to conjure a Patronus?” The thirteen year old looked at her tutor, bright-eyed and eager to try her strengths.

“Indeed you are. Now, I taught you the incantation before, Expecto Patronum…”

Brandishing her wand, Rowena thought of when she had received her wand. When she had first felt like a true witch.

“Expecto Patronum!” she exclaimed, and a flutter of smoky wings appeared at the tip of her wand.

By the second time, she saw a bird. At her first try, she saw an unmistakable eagle fly around her head before dissipating into smoke.

Worries

90. Present

“What will happen next year? We don’t have a Potions Master, or a Head of House, we can’t continue like this…” Helga observed, worry etched into her frown.

“We can’t focus on next year right now, we need to figure out what we’re doing right now,” Rowena replied. “We still have two weeks left until the end of term. I’m sure we can divide his Head of House duties among us, the students will just have to do without Potions class…”

Rowena looked at her two remaining friends, privately agreeing with Helga; what were they going to do without Salazar?

Firewhisky

81. Depression

“Godric? Godric, open up,” Rowena demanded, standing outside her fiancé’s door.

“Wha’?” he asked, keeping his balance only due to holding onto the door handle.

“Have you… been drinking again?” she asked with worry, pushing him back inside and onto a chair.

“Just a lil’ bit…” he slurred.

“Oh for Merlin’s sake, Godric, we all miss Salazar, I know you were best friends, but you can’t continue like this. Firewhisky won’t help in the long term, trust me. You have to get your act together and get out of this depression you fell into… come on, here’s some sobering potion.”

Searching for Secrets

83. Fearful

Rowena inched into the dungeons where Salazar’s old office lay. If she were to be honest with herself, she was quite fearful of what she might find. Godric had let slip about some old plans Salazar had had about constructing a chamber within the castle which only pureblooded students could access…

…and knowing Salazar, there would be something hidden in that chamber that would help rid the school of those less than pureblooded. Rowena’s bet was a snake, perhaps a Basilisk – her friend had freely conversed with them, after all.

But what would she do if she did find something?

Needles and Match Sticks

82. Careful

The needle the first years were supposed to be transfiguring into matches had somehow left the student’s desk and flown over to his neighbour, only to get stuck in her bottom.

“Oh, Longbottom, you really need to be more careful when you’re attempting spells like this…” Rowena extracted the needle and turned it into a match stick. “Try the other way round, transfigure this into a needle for me.”

She shook her head as she walked off – Jeffrey Longbottom was always having problems of one sort and another. If only he had a little more faith in his own abilities…

Patrolling

62. Lope

Rowena flew over the trees, watching the school grounds below her carefully. It was her turn today to check for any unwelcome visitors; she and her friends had not yet managed to create any protection charms around the castle that was quite strong enough for its purpose. And so, they took turns patrolling the grounds each night, in their Animagus forms, of course.

A movement suddenly caught her eye, and she hovered in mid air above the creature, but flapped her wings again a moment later. It was only a lone wolf, loping down the hill in search of food.

Aurochs in Lessons

63. Mooch

Rowena passed by the Muggle Studies classroom, but quickly backtracked and looked inside.

“Professor… is that a cow?” she asked, rather shocked to see the animal standing in the middle of the chamber.

“An auroch, actually, and her name is Mooch,” the professor replied, looking at her as if she had just committed a grave mistake by referring to Mooch as “it”.

“I see… and I presume it will not stay here after the lesson?” she asked. She didn’t want an aurorch running down the corridors.

“No, just outside in one of the huts there. I bought it, you see.”

Careless and Clumsy

64. Nap

“What is wrong with you?” Helga asked Godric, as he managed to drop his third glass of water.

‘Nothing, I’m just a little tired.”

“A little? I’ve never seen you so careless.”

“Godric? Careless?” Rowena walked into the staff room, and gave her fiancé a book he’d been looking for earlier.

As expected, he dropped it. Rowena stared at him with concern, but he seemed not to notice.

“Sorry,” he muttered, but sat down instead of picking it up.

Rowena and Helga exchanged looks.

“Looks like he missed his afternoon nap,” Rowena observed drily, picking up the precious book herself.

“Danger! It bites, it stings, it explodes!”

16. Dragonhide Gloves

“I have to wear these?” Rowena asked, staring in bafflement at the gloves Helga had just given her.

“Yes, for protection. They’re Dragonhide gloves, I think one of the best pairs the school has.”

“Why would I need protection from something as small as that?” she asked, looking into one of the boxes.

“Because they sting and bite and their behinds explode at times,” Helga answered, showing her friend a burn she’d recently acquired while helping out with the creatures.

“And you just happened to forget to tell me what they’re called…?” Rowena prompted, looking at Helga expectantly.

“Blast-Ended Skrewts.”

Stuck!

17. Cauldron

“You think you cold fit into there?” Rachel asked her six-year-old sister Rowena, pointing at their father’s cauldron.

“Yes,” Rowena replied, because she’d never give her sister the satisfaction of beating her at anything. And Rachel, although two years older, had just emerged from within. But Rachel was admittedly smaller than her sister.

“Let’s see, then,” Rachel demanded, standing back and crossing her arms, a sly grin on her face.

Rowena scrambled inside, and made sure her head was below the rim and then…

“I’m stuck!” she called out fearfully, realizing she couldn’t move. She heard Rachel laugh from outside.

Dreams

18. Whomping Willow


You shouldn’t be doing this, a voice in her head said.

Rowena ignored it, and continued running at top speed towards the flailing tree. It was isolated on the school grounds, which were much larger than the grounds she knew.

She was dreaming of the future. When someone would plant a flailing willow in the grounds. What sort of Headmasters would this school have?

Wake up, the voice commanded – her consciousness, she supposed. She did.

But not before noticing a werewolf right by the tree’s trunk. Flanked by a stag and a huge dog with a rat in its mouth.

Invasion

79. Author’s choice – Ladybird


They were everywhere. All over the tables in the Great Hall, consuming any food that appeared at an alarming rate. In the corridors and on the walls. In all the classrooms Rowena checked. In her bed, for Merlin’s sake!

She had never had anything against ladybirds. They were usually harmless and pretty to look at. But she certainly did not appreciate mutants of the species appearing at Hogwarts and simply plaguing it. There were ladybirds everywhere.

She only hoped they wouldn’t find the library and discover hunger for parchment before they figured out a way to get rid of them.

New Discoveries

65. Ooze

The viscous liquid oozed from the stem Helga had just cut, emitting a foul smell.

“What on earth is that?” Rowena held her nose.

“A new plant I discovered on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. I don’t think there are any records of it. Yet,” she replied with a smile. “Can you imagine? I might have just discovered a new type of plant! And I told you to bring a mask.”

“I didn’t think you were serious,” Rowena replied. “Perhaps you should call it Oozer, that would it. I think I’ll just nip to the castle for that mask…”

Tension

66. Pace

“Sit down, walking up and down now won’t help,” Helga directed her words at Rowena, but her eyes were still glued to the door behind which Godric and Severus were trying to overcome their differences. Judging from the level of noise, it wasn’t working – they were most probably dueling.

And the witches knew that it would not be wise to try and interrupt them – they didn’t think either of the wizards would try to truly hurt one another. They had always been the best of friends, after all.

“I can’t. Pacing helps.”

“It’s annoying.”

“Look, the door’s open, they’re done!”

Too Many Glasses

80. Author’s choice – Bookmark

Rowena sat down at her desk, feeling utterly defeated. She had just failed to find her bookmark, the one her mother had given her before her death. It had immense sentimental value for her, and she’d lost it.

“No luck?” Godric asked, coming into her office.

“No. And you’re hair’s still purple,” Rowena observed the remnants of his earlier class (about dueling) and pointed her wand at him.

“Finite Incantatum!” Godric’s hair turned back to brown, and his glasses suddenly turned into her bookmark.

“Hmm, someone must have transfigured it… I wondered where that second pair of glasses came from.”

Translator needed!

67. Quell


“Potter, what happened?” Rowena stared at her student, as he walked into class ten minutes late and with a bleeding nose.

“’Al’oy,” the fourth-year replied, staunching the blood flow with a tissue.

“I think he means Malfoy, professor,” William Weasley translated, glancing at his friend with concern.

“I see. Well, I’ll deal with you right after class, the two of you. For now, Weasley, take him to the Hospital wing. Wait for me there, Potter, I don’t want you disappearing.”

“Quell,” the injured boy managed as he turned to leave.

“I think he means, swell, Professor,” William followed him out.

Travelling by Pipes

74. x-tinguish

Rowena walked down the corridor in the direction of her bedchamber, wondering why she kept tripping. Something was different now; it hadn’t been this dark when she’d been leaving for her late-night walk by the lake…

She stopped short, looking up at the candle holders. All were dark..

Waving her wand, Rowena illuminated her path

“I wonder what extinguished them in the fist place?” she said to herself, but concluded it must have been a gust of wind.

She’d never have thought the chill of the Basilisk passing in the piping would have had anything to do with the darkness.

Christmas Competitions

75. Yodel

“You want to organize a yodeling competition?” Rowena repeated, looking at her two Head Students as if she were seeing them for the fist time.

“It would be interesting, and give us all a good laugh before Christmas,” the Head Boy argued.

“Besides, it’s something new, we haven’t had anything like that before,” the Head Girl added.

“No, we most certainly have not. I have no intention of going deaf early,” Rowena said.

Perhaps putting two Ravenclaws in the position of head students, and one of them being a Lovegood at that, had not been the greatest idea after all.

Spell Unknown

76. Zap

“What is it with your wand, Elinor?” Rowena asked, as for the third time during that dinner her niece’s wand sparked blue.

“I don’t know, Aunt, perhaps you could check?” Elinor asked, handing over her wand with a sly smile.

The moment Rowena took it… ZAAAP! she felt a small shock go through her, soon followed by Elinor’s loud laughter as she saw her Aunt’s shocked expression.

“Oh, you really are a Gryffindor all right,” she said drily, returning the wand. After a moment’s pause, Rowena allowed her curiosity to get the better of her. “What spell is that, anyway?”