Minerva Gold and the Wand of Silver Pt. 07

"I wasn't worried," Minerva said.

She ached as Kat ambled from the room.

***

Minerva's dreams were of the glass overhead cracking, of water rushing down stairs, pressing against the wooden door, spilling beneath the frame, creeping around the bed. She woke as it rushed down her throat and jerked upright, gasping and panting and trembling. Bellatrix kept snoring loudly. Minerva glowered at her, then looked around for her alarm clock. The glowing hands said it was four in the morning. She frowned.

Radium tips.

Minerva laid back, eyes closed.

She was wrenched from sleep again by the screaming of her alarm clock. She smashed it to sleep again, while Bellatrix groaned and rolled out of her bed. Both girls headed for the bathroom at the same time - Minerva gestured Bellatrix forward. She rubbed her palms against her face as Bellatrix started to brush her teeth, floss, then use the toilet, all as slowly as possible it seemed. Once Minerva had a chance to use the facilities, she was near to bursting.

The two girls dressed in their student robes. This was the first time Minerva had worn this garb since she had bought it, and finding it recolored in dark blue with orange highlights, with the House Sildanus pin already on the breast. The fierce looking rearing griffon made her frown slightly. Glintfaire used a lion, Sildanus used a griffon. That seemed repetitive to her. She shook her head and started out towards the common room. She found the door to Kat's room was open and Kat was sliding out, her roommate emerging. Kat looked...shockingly un-Kat-like in her house robes. She had even cast aside her jaunty hat. Their eyes met and Kat grinned. Butterflies bloomed inside of Minerva's belly.

The entire House set out as a group, and Minerva found that she was walking beside Millie, who chattered cheerfully and gaily as they moved through the corridors of Hexgramatica.

"I hear they're allowing clubs this year - there was some debate it with last year, but a bunch of students argued quite hard in favor of it. I do love school clubs, have you ever been in a school club? I think I want to join the chess club, do you think any boys might join the chess club? It is a rather boyish game, but I'm sure I can at least do passably well! Do you think they'll be serving waffles or pancakes for breakfast?"

Minerva gave her a thin smile. "W-We'll see," she said.

The banquet hall was a blessedly warm and convivial place. House Sildanus, House Glintfaire, House Ravelorexu, House Harrierette and House Wainscove each had their own tables. Minerva caught sight of Gina and Harry, in Glintfaire green and black, sitting at the corner of House Glintfaire. She made a note of setting as close to them as she could, putting her at the corner of house Sildanus. She looked over and caught Gina's eyes. Gina saw her, then her face twisted slightly. She mouthed the words 'tough breaks, old chap' at her, and Minerva gave her a little smile.

Breakfast, brought out by the fae, was a delirious arrangement of every type of food one could imagine. Including, of course, waffles and pancakes, which delighted Miliee to no end. Minerva skimmed her gaze around, looking for any sign of Selene, and spotted the odd girl was perched among House Wainscove, her bright red and blue robes looking several sizes too large on her. As she spotted to her, Gregory asked: "Uh, what are you looking for?"

"Where the other first years got sorted," Minerva said, turning back to her meal.

"Ahh," Gregory said. "Want any bacon?" He asked, holding up the strips in a set of tongs that had come with the silver tray that the breakfast was brought on.

"No thank you, I prefer to eat light," Minerva said, smiling at him. He was trying to be polite, he had no idea after all. "So, um, what are the classes like?"

"Oh, they're ever so much fun!" Milicent said, her eyes shining brightly. "First years begin with some potions, then you do beasts, oh, I do love beast studying. There are so many interesting creatures. Then-"

"She has a schedule just like the rest of us," Penny said, her voice sharp as she dug into her waffles with a fork.

"I...I actually don't," Minerva said, a bit sheepishly.

"Check your pocket, first year," Penny said, rolling her eyes. "God, you're Sleeperborn, not an idiot, right?"

Minerva slid her hand into her pocket, glaring at Penny. There was nothing there. Then, quite suddenly, there was. It was a folded piece of parchment, which she withdrew and unfolded, to find it listed all of her classes, as well as their locations, with a sprawling map listed on the back of the paper. Somehow, despite being compacted and shrunk down to be small enough to fit on the parchment, the map seemed to swim before her eyes and unfold and unfold and unfold, until it seemed six times bigger than it should have been. When she glanced away, then glanced back, it was small once more.

"Penny!" Millie said as Minerva did her rummaging. "Don't be so rude."

"I'm not being rude, she's being an idiot," Penny said.

"Being Sleeperborn means I don't know all the things magic can do," Minerva said, her voice thin. "I'm going to not know things that seem obvious to you."

"You didn't do any reading?" Penny asked.

"She's a first year, Penny, calm down," Gregory said.

"If we lose the House Cup again..." Penny muttered, glaring down at her waffles.

"Again?" Minerva asked.

Millie shifted in her seat. "House Sildanus hasn't won the cup for...a while."

"But we're going to do it this time," Penny said, her voice grim.

"Does it matter that much?" Minerva asked.

"Yes!" Penny said. "Do you think I want to work raising magical reagents in one of the farms up the Midlands? Or maybe I could work in a factory putting together gizzers and tops and fucking spindles! Or, I know, I could spend my life trying to marry some wizard who has a job in the MInistry? Wizards with top marks and the best school records get the chance to have jobs worth having. And we're finally out of this damn Depression. Things have to get better for us."

"You're a wizard," Minerva said, frowning. "How could a mundane stock market crash impact you?"

"Well, show what you know," Penny snapped. "How'd you end up here, while my parents had to pull some bloody strings to get me into Hexgramatica and not St. Darrows or the Bowery or Middleton!"

"T-...The what?" Minerva asked.

Penny gaped at her as if she had started drooling. "Okay, now I know you're a fool," she said. "Did you think every wizard in Britain went to one school?" She pushed her food around with a fork.

"I-" Minerva blushed. She...she actually had rather thought that. Everyone had spoken about Hexgramatica as if it was the only school worth talking about. She looked down at her plate as Penny shook her head.

"Idiot Sleeperborn," she growled.

"Penny!" Millie glared at her. "That's enough."

The two twins - the half-sister twins - glared at one another.

Once breakfast was over, everyone began to split up for their classes. Minerva was trying to work up her nerve to ask someone - Millie, she supposed, was the best choice - why exactly everyone had muttered about House Sildanus. But before she could Millie was whisked away and Minerva found herself walking alone, following the map towards potions. But as she walked along, she saw Gina ambling along, her own nose in her map. "Gina!" she said, jogging to her side.

"Oh, hey," Gina said, wincing slightly.

"What?" Minerva asked, then glanced down at her robes. "Oh come now, it's not like I've become a Hun or something."

"...yeah," Gina said, nodding. "I...sorry."

"No, it's okay," Minerva said. "I say, we're still friends, though. Screw houses, right?"

Gina considered. She bit her lower lip. "I mean, you're House Sildanus though..."

Minerva felt her belly flop.

Then Gina snorted. "Eh, hell with it! Still friends."

Minerva frowned. They came to the potions classroom - it was situated high in a tower, requiring them to go round and round and round a stairwell before at last coming to a wooden door that opened into a room full of pale white desks. Minerva found that the map actually guided her straight to a desk that had been marked off as her own, and she saw that the...the fae had moved her alchemical gear right into the room, placing it there before she had even arrived. That was who had to be magically moving luggage about, the fae. Her stomach knotted at that thought, but there wasn't...anything she...

Her thoughts trailed off.

There was her alembic, her philosopher's stone, her cauldron. But there, also, was a small white feather sitting on her desk. She reached down and picked it up. "What the?" She whispered - then blinked. Her skin was starting to transform, turning yellow moment by moment as the feather glittered and turned to dust in her fingers. "What the!" She exclaimed again as the yellow swept along her whole body and, before she knew it, she was yellow from her head to her toes - she lifted her robes to check her shoes, and saw yellow ankles. She let the robes drop as the entire class started snickering and snorting.

Gina scowled. "Well, that's a...that's a mean trick!" she exclaimed.

"Looks like someone's gotten the new Silly off to a great start!" A voice called from the other students - Minerva snapped her head around, trying to see who it was, but no one announced themselves. Then the door opened and Professor Ravenwood walked into the room, her golden eyes narrowing as she saw Minerva. She walked forward as the room's chuckles and guffaws faded to silence.

"Who did this?" she asked, her voice grim. The entire classroom went silent. "Schorss-Sableknight, what, exactly, happened here?"

Minerva felt every eye on her. She felt awful. Points and house cups and House Sildanus swirled through her brain and she realized that Professor Ravenwood would hit whoever had pranked her for negative points - which would make Minerva's reputation even worse than already being in...House Sildanus.

White feather.

White feather.

Minerva hadn't been old enough to ever see it. But she knew the story: Back in the Great War, girls not too much older than her had given men who were fit and able and not at the front a white feather - a sign of cowardice, for shirkers and pacifists.

She knew House Sildanis' sin. They had, of all the Houses, stood against the Great War.

Minerva's sighed. "I...spilled some of my reagents on me," she said, her voice wooden. "It was my mistake."

"I see," Professor Ravenwood didn't believe her. "Wif Kemb Wif." She flicked her wand - and the yellow color vanished instantly. "Pathetic curse work. Whoever made it should be docked ten points for that alone." She walked away from Minerva who sat down, her chin lifted, head held high.

I will not squeal, she thought.

Professor Ravenwood, despite the disruption, began to teach the class. Despite the shame burning on her cheeks and the feeling of other people's eyes on her back, Minerva began to write down notes. Her pen - a relatively expensive fountain pen that she had borrowed from the Blythe townhouse - flew across the page as she wrote down diagrams and formulas that Ravenwood began to explain. The first demonstration potion that they had to work on came halfway through the class. Minerva's reading served her well. Half the class didn't seem to understand that one had to use a Philosopher's Stone extract extremely carefully when performing transmutations - they used much too much and half the class was swimming in broiling, hideous fog that stung the eyes like woodsmoke. Professor Ravenwood banished it with a wave of her wand and a barked spell, then began to upbraid students and hand out demerits by the pound.

When she came to Minerva's desk and eyed Gina's orange-red vial of glittering liquid, then eyed the pure ruby of Minerva's potion. That caused her to arch an eyebrow. "Virgina Blyhte, why is it that you are sitting next to a Sleeperborn and your Philter of Warmth has the hue of a diseased kidney?"

"Well, cause she's better at it than me," Gina said, cheerfully. "She's a grand old wizard!"

"I see," Ravenwood said, then picked up the Philter of Warmth. "I believe if I were to drink this, I might not drop dead within the minute." She set it down. "Five points to Sildanus."

She turned and started off.

Gina beamed at Minerva. "Looks like sitting next to you is gonna be my ticket to passing these classes, eh?"

Minerva smiled back.

She felt maybe she might make it after all. Her eyes drifted down to where the feather had rested on the desk.

Maybe.