Susan Vitalis and the Orb of Flame

Mary busied herself cleaning and feeding the young babes. They would all be sent off to new homes with loving adoptive parents with any luck, but she took good care of them while they were hers, as if they were her own children. Her kids were long grown and gone now, and had children of their own.

The door opened and Mary looked up from what she was doing to see the couple who had entered the adoption agency. They were clean and well-dressed, although there was something a bit odd about their clothing, like it went out of style decades ago. "Hello," said the man a bit stiffly. "We're here to adopt a child."

"Of course, of course," Mary said. "There's just some paperwork to fill out, and you can choose which one you would like..."

But the couple was intent upon the oldest child in the batch, a girl almost two years old. She had been here for almost all her life, and had been pointedly avoided by all the other prospective parents and the other children. "We would like that one," said the man, pointing to the girl. "What is her name?"

"We call her Susan," Mary told them. "You could, of course, choose another name for her if you want--"

"No, Susan will do just fine," the woman said firmly. The man proceeded to get the paperwork filled out as the woman went over to the child. "Hello there, Susan. How are you?"

Susan glanced up for a moment from the blocks she was playing with. She was a cute child, with short blond hair and blue eyes. She didn't bother to reply, however, simply going back to what she was doing before quietly. She had carefully arranged the colorful blocks into a little tower in front of her.

---

"I have a little sister now?" said Timothy the day that his parents came home with Susan.

Susan clambered across the room to observe her new big brother curiously. Their father, Frederick Vitalis, said, "Yes, Timothy. Meet your new sister, Susan."

"Does this mean I have to share my room?" Timothy complained.

"No, Timmy, Susan will sleep in the spare room," said their mother, Alicia.

Frederick pulled off his coat and hung it in the closet. "I'm going upstairs to change. I can't wait to get out of these tight pants. How can Muggles stand to wear them? Are they all poorly endowed or something?"

"Fred!" scolded Alicia. "Not in front of the kids!"

Fred smirked and disappeared up the stairwell. Alicia said, "Now, I'm going to go fix us some dinner. Play nice, kids."

Timothy sat down in front of the staring toddler and stared back at her intently. He was seven years old, and this little one couldn't be more than one and a half or two. "So," he said to her. "Do you talk yet, or do you just look at people funny?"

"Yes," Susan said, a little indignantly and pouting a bit.

"Oh, you do talk," Tim said with a bit of a smirk. "Well, I'm Timothy, and I'll be your brother, I guess." She continued to look at him funny. He thought for a moment and said, "Hey, watch this," and pulled out his father's wand that he had pilfered while he wasn't looking, and waved it around a bit. Colored sparkles cascaded from the tip of the wand impressively. Susan's eyes went wide and she clapped in approval.

"Timmy, you aren't doing magic again are you?" called his mother from the kitchen.

"No, mother," Tim said with a sigh, furtively putting the wand away with an innocent look.

---

"Why can't I go to school too?" Susan complained.

"You're only five years old, Susan," her mother explained patiently. "You can't go to Walton Academy of Magic until you're eleven."

They walked down Fifth and a Half Street in downtown Eugene, a section of the city dedicated to wizards and witches, which the Muggles couldn't get to or even knew existed. Shops lined the street offering all manner of things that might be useful to people of magical inclination. Alchemical components, enchanted items of all sorts, broomsticks, books, clothes. Finally they came to the shop selling wands, and Alicia ushered them inside.

"I want a wand too!" Susan pleaded.

"Not until you're eleven," Alicia told her firmly.

As Tim was fitted and tried various wands, Susan stood back watching absently, but more staring at the collection of different wands. Long ones, short ones, thick ones, narrow ones, made from different types of wood, and each one seemed to have its own feel that she could tell without even touching it. Not that her mother would let her touch them anyway. But one of them seemed to call to her, a shorter one made of pale-colored wood sitting on one of the lower shelves.

"Ah, an excellent choice," the shopkeeper was saying to Tim. "Eleven and three-quarters inches, pine and griffin hair. That'll be six galleons and five sickles."

As her mother was distracted counting out the coins, Susan saw her chance, and snatched up the wand. As she waved it in the air triumphantly, brilliant golden sparks exploded from the end of the wand and around the room, showering the little wand shop in yellow light. "Susan!" her mother scolded, almost dropping her coin pouch in surprise.

"It appears that that wand has quite the affinity for the little girl," said the wand maker with interest. "Maple with a core of unicorn hair, seven inches long."

Susan sat on the floor holding the wand in her hands, grinning like a cat who had just eaten the goldfish. Alicia sighed in frustration, but gave in, saying, "Fine, I'll buy that wand for you too, but I'll lock it up and you aren't to touch it until you're eleven. Understand?" Even as she said it, though, she knew that it would not be obeyed regardless.

Susan reluctantly surrendered her wand to her mother, who paid for the two wands and herded the children outside to collect the rest of Timothy's school supplies. There were books to be bought, robes to be fitted and equipment to be purchased.

"And neither of you are getting your own broom, period," Alicia said firmly. "Maybe next year if you're good, Timmy."

Susan longed to touch her wand, to hold it in her hands, but she consoled herself to waiting until they had gotten home, lest her mother change her mind and take it back to the shop while they were still here. Obtaining the rest of Tim's school supplies went uneventfully, and they returned home again via Floo.

But Susan's hopes were dashed when her mother deliberately locked away her precious wand in the chest where the family valuables were kept, the ones that they kept in the house and not the bank at least. "Nice and safe," her mother said. "Now, how about some dinner?"

---

Susan was determined to learn what she could as she could, and from the minute she could read she was poking through her parents' books on every subject she could find. She didn't understand most of what she read, and they kept the actual spellbooks away from her, but she absorbed what she could. Sometimes she even managed to locate their real magic books and pored over them, at least until they caught her and moved them somewhere else.

They tried to keep her busy with chores, since they didn't have any house-elves, and studying basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, but she still found time to poke around the house for things that they might be hiding. There was only so much space in the house, after all, and even if it seemed awfully big to a little girl, there were only so many places things could be hidden.

She was seven years old, however, before she finally located the key to the chest in the attic, hidden away so neatly that she stumbled upon it while cleaning almost by accident. It was hidden between the cushions of her parents' bed. With excitement, she realized what the little brass key must be, and scrambled as quickly as she could up to the attic before anyone noticed she wasn't cleaning the bedroom.

Susan put the key into the keyhole of the old chest and tried it. It clicked, and she pulled it open to reveal numerous interesting pieces of jewelry and magical items, but the only one she was interested in was her wand. She snatched it up and just held it beaming for a moment. But realizing after a moment that her mother might check back in the bedroom and notice she wasn't there, she turned away and locked the chest again, and tucked her wand carefully into her sleeve, then went to place the key back where she had found it.

Hurriedly finishing up the cleaning, she heard her mother call, "Have you finished cleaning yet, Susie?"

She hated when her mother called her Susie. "Yes," she called back. "I'm going to bed now."

"Sleep well, honey." Just as well that her mother did not come up to check on her or tuck her in, but nonetheless she curled up in her bed and waited for at least half an hour to make sure she wouldn't anyway.

Susan crawled out of bed and pulled out her wand. She was too excited to be tired. She brought to mind some of the spells from the books she had been reading, thinking to finally have a chance to try them out. "Lumos," she whispered, and obediently the end of her wand lit up, casting a pale light upon her room. Susan smiled broadly. It worked!

Hearing her father's heavy footsteps up the stairs, she tried to figure out how to put the light out, but couldn't remember the word. She sighed softly and clambered for the window, and climbed out onto the second-story balcony. She looked nervously to the door, but it showed no signs of opening, and the curtains to her parents' room were pulled shut.

"Lumos," she said again quietly, and the light on her wand brightened. She quietly scampered for the stairs and climbed down into the backyard. "Lumos, Lumos, Lumos!" she said more boldly now, and the yard was lit with bright light. She giggled cheerfully, but she couldn't remember any other spells. She'd have to go back inside and find her parents' spellbooks again. Susan darted for the door to the kitchen, but found it to be locked.

Wait, she thought, wasn't there a spell she had seen to unlock a door? How did that go again? "Loramora!" she said, pointing the wand at the door. The wand made a popping and fizzling sound that definitely didn't sound like a door opening. Frowning, she tried again, "Lolomoro!" Foul-smelling black smoke erupted from her wand, and she coughed and waved her hand vigorously. This wasn't working, she thought. One more try. "Lomilori!"

An explosion knocked her off her feet and sent her to land on her back in the grass, and her wand, still glowing, went flying from her hand. Stunned, she stared up at the stars for a long moment. She thought she could hear the frantic sound of running from inside the house. She didn't feel like moving. She wondered if anything was broken. She couldn't feel anything.

"Oh, Susan, what have you done..." Susan was hardly aware of her father picking up her wand and taking it off somewhere, or her mother performing healing spells on her and carrying her back upstairs.

---

Afterward, they'd locked up her wand even more securely than before, and she didn't go trying to find it again. It took her a week to fully recover from that, but at least the door had been more easily repaired with a spell. Her parents hoped she'd learned her lesson about playing around with magic like that, and at least she hadn't been too badly hurt in the process.

Even if she didn't try that again, she diligently kept up her chores and her studies on the hopes that soon she would be able to go to Walton. When Timothy came home in the summer, she asked him all manner of questions about what things were like at school and what he had learned. But while he told her a lot of fabulous stories that were no doubt exaggerated, he would often tell her, "Wait and find out for yourself," teasingly, with a mischievous grin.

So she waited. The years rolled by agonizingly slowly. She was eager to finally really learn magic, and to meet other people her age. She didn't talk much with the Muggles that lived near them. Their neighbors thought they were a bit odd and tried to avoid them whenever possible. The family next door raised horses, though, and Susan would occasionally go over and take carrots or sugar cubes to them secretly, but when the Muggles caught her they would shoo her home again.

Then, finally, upon her eleventh birthday, an owl arrived with a letter addressed to her. She almost tripped over herself running to tear it open and read it in eagerness.

"You have been accepted to Walton Academy of Magic," she said slowly, reading the letter aloud herself. "Yay! I'm going to Walton!" She did a pirouette and danced around the room, hugging her parents and brother excitedly.

---

They went off to Fifth and a Half Street to purchase supplies for herself and Timothy. It was Timothy's seventh year, and he was wearing a T-shirt that said, "My wand is longer than your wand." Their mother had rolled her eyes disapprovingly of the shirt, but didn't say anything or demand that he remove it.

"Oh, look, mom!" Timothy said excitedly, pointing. "They've got a new model of broom out!" He darted over that way.

Alicia smiled in exasperation at the teenage boy and said to Susan, "Here's the clothing shop, go on in and get fitted for your robes, we'll be back in a few."

Susan strolled inside confidently. She'd been to Fifth and a Half Street many times before, and it was as familiar as her own backyard. There was another girl who looked to be about her age getting fitted right now. The seamstress glanced over to her briefly and said, "Another one for Walton? I'll be with you in a moment, dear."

She nodded to the seamstress politely and smiled to the girl who was being fitted. "Is it your first year too?" The other girl nodded nervously. "Me too," Susan said. "Do you know what house you'll be in yet?"

The girl looked confused and shook her head. "No."

"I guess nobody knows for sure, but I know I'll most likely be in Mevrasi or Handene," Susan said. "My brother's in Handene." The other girl continued to look at her as if she were speaking a foreign language. "Oh, my name's Susan. Susan Vitalis. How do you do?"

"There you go, all finished up," said the seamstress. "Now for you," she said, motioning up Susan.

The other girl didn't immediately leave, though. "I'm Penny," she said to Susan.

Susan held out her arms and let the magical tape measures do their job. "Nice to meet you, Penny. Do you like Quidditch much? My brother plays. He's a pretty good Chaser. But my parents won't let me have a broom until I'm older. I guess they're afraid of me hurting myself or something."

Penny just stood there quietly looking at her as if thinking of what to say. The seamstress proceeded to get her robes ready. Penny looked away and glanced over toward the street nervously.

Susan went on, saying, "Are you here with your parents? My mom and dad went off with my brother to look at the new brooms."

"No," Penny replied quietly. "They just dropped me off."

"Well, you can hang around with me if you like," Susan said. "I'm sure my parents won't mind. We can be friends!" She'd never had a friend her age before, and there weren't many wizards around where they lived just outside Eugene.

"Okay!" Penny said, smiling for the first time.

Alicia returned shortly, without Fred or Tim, and went to pay the seamstress and collect Susan's clothing. "Mom, this is Penny, my new friend," Susan said brightly.

Her mother looked down at the other girl, who took a step away shyly, and said, "Ah, it's good that you're meeting people your own age! Do you need to get your school supplies too, Penny?" she asked the girl. "Where are your parents?"

"They just dropped me off here," Penny repeated softly.

"Well, Susan knows her way around here," Alicia said, pulling out some money from a pocket and handing it to Susan. "We'll meet you back at the ice cream parlor at one. Have fun with your new friend, and don't leave the main street now." She went off to the next shop to look at some enchanted teapots that were for sale.

"Come on," Susan said. "I've got my books to get next, and the bookstore is just down the street."

Penny said, "Yeah, I've gotta get my books too..." She let Susan drag her along down to the bookshop.

As they went and looked up what books they would need for their first year in school, Susan continued rambling, heedless that Penny didn't seem to be understanding half of what she was saying and just glad for someone to talk to. "I always wondered what my real parents might have been like. I'm adopted, you see. Maybe they were great Aurors, or maybe they were Death Eaters from Europe, or something..."

"My dad's a lawyer," Penny put in. "My mom's a teacher."

"Wizard law must be very interesting," Susan said. "What does your mom teach?"

"Biology," Penny replied flatly.

"Biology?" Susan repeated with a touch of puzzlement. That wasn't a term she was familiar with. "What sort of magic is that?"

"It's not magic," Penny explained. "She's not a witch."

"Oh, she teaches in a Muggle school then?"

Penny looked puzzled. "Muggle?"

"You know, people who aren't like us, the ones who don't have magic," Susan said. "Strange thought, isn't it? I wonder how they get on without it. But your dad's a wizard lawyer, isn't he?"

Penny shook her head. "My dad's not a wizard. He's a -- Muggle lawyer," she explained, hesitating over the unfamiliar word.

"Oh!" Susan said. Suddenly it all made sense. "You must be a Muggle-born then. No wonder you're so confused. You don't know anything about any of this!"

However, a cluster of boys nearby had overheard her and approached. They looked to be about their age as well. "Oh, we've got a little Mudblood here, then. How cute!"

"Hey, you leave her alone!" Susan piped up.

"And who are you, girl?" their apparent leader demanded, glancing over at her with a smirk.

"I'm Susan Vitalis, and she's my friend. Leave her alone, or I'll hex you."

"Blood traitor, then," he replied, spitting on the ground. They wouldn't do anything to them on the open street here, she figured. Not that she knew any hexes severe enough to really deter them, nor had really tried casting them before.

Susan snorted at them and took Penny's arm. "Come on, let's get our books. They aren't worth our time."

The boys jeered at them as they walked off. "Haha! The little girls are scared! They're running away!" Susan didn't give them the dignity of looking back at them and pushed inside the door to the bookshop.

"Who were those boys?" Penny asked once they were inside. "And what were those nasty things they were calling us?"

"I don't know who they were, but I imagine we'll find out soon enough," Susan said, looking over her list and going to locate the books they'd need for Walton that year.

"They wouldn't have actually done anything to me, would they?" Penny wondered, sounding a bit scared.

"I don't know. Maybe," Susan said with a shrug. "I doubt it, with all the people around. My mom did tell us to stay to the main street. Who knows what they might've done if they'd caught us in the back alleys? Jinxed us halfway into next week, no doubt."

They finished up collecting their school supplies and went over to the ice cream parlor and enjoyed some ice cream. Alicia offered to pay for Penny's ice cream cone, but she politely refused and insisted on paying herself.

"My dad gave me plenty of money," she said dryly, and added almost inaudibly at the end, "About all he gave me." She packed up her things and got up and headed for the door. "Thanks for being my friend, Susan. I have fun today. I'll see you at school next month." She waved happily and left.