Magic in Shadow

Magic In Shadow

Chapter Two

It Would Appear We Have A Problem...

A faint glow of morning sunlight reached through the high dungeon window, devoid of curtains. Jocelyn lay motionless in the bed, gazing at the light as it crept across the bed towards her. This dorm, the third year girls' dorm, was one of the few Slytherin dormitories with a window, and the early easterly sunshine was barely able to steal through the long, narrow window that stretched from one end of the wall to the other, least of all during the un-godly morning hours, for which Jocelyn was extremely thankful. Blaise's curtains were also, she noticed, drawn tight shut to keep out the unwanted wake up call that might take her by surprise.

When the stream of warm sun ran slowly over her face, she happily closed her eyes, smiling slightly, and stretching her right arm, accompanied with contented groans and murmurs. Then her good mood Disapparated as she remembered the Sorting from the previous evening.

Gryffindor. Cassie, a Gryffindor. It was against the laws of nature. It was disgusting. And it had come as a hell of a shock. Even Blaise had commented on the absurdity of Jocelyn befriending someone who was destined to that House. But only Jocelyn herself knew how strange the situation really was. Only she had known, as she had surreptitiously watched Cassie gradually relax at the Gryffindor table during the feast, talking to Fred and George Weasley, Lavender Brown and Dean Thomas (none of which was a good sign) that Cassie was a runaway member of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

Feeling unusually troubled, she rolled off the bed and headed to the bathroom. A hot shower and she would feel fine. It was just the back-to-school blues.

Yeah, just keep telling yourself that, Spearpent.

"Shut up, Malfoy," she muttered reflexively.

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She headed down to breakfast alone, quite early. As she sauntered up to the Slytherin table, she passed by the Ravenclaw table. What she heard did not put her in the best of moods for a Monday morning:

"Isabella, no. I've been here for two years more than you have and I know what Slytherins are like. They're the vilest filth you'll ever encounter and I forbid you to associate with them."

"But Ellen, one of them was really nice to me on the train--"

"Which one?"

"Blaise Zabini."

"You were talking to that tart on the train! I knew it, I knew I shouldn't have left you alone..."

"Ellen, I'm not a baby!"

"Of course you're not, sugar," Jocelyn said smoothly to Isabella McCann, as she sat down next to Ellen at the Ravenclaw table. Ellen stiffened and focused fiercely on the tabletop.

"What do you want?" she said to her toast. Jocelyn ignored her and addressed Isabella, helping herself to Ellen's coffee.

"So, you're the girl Blaise was talking about? She said you seemed smart," she said, voice honey-coated, face smiling appealingly. In truth, Blaise hadn't mentioned anything about Isabella, but Jocelyn knew when to take a gamble--Ravenclaws weren't smart, they just hung out a lot in libraries. Isabella beamed, taking the bait. She nodded.

"So, you're new? Well, you already know Blaise, and any friend of Blaise is more than welcome in the Slytherin common room anytime they feel like it."

She shot a smirk at Ellen.

"Go back to your own table, Jocelyn," she said through gritted teeth.

"How rude," she murmured, sipping Ellen's coffee. "Tell me Isabella, now that we're such good friends. What did you think of Blaise? Is she a tart? Is she filth?"

Isabella shook her head earnestly.

"No! She was really...cool. She talked to me the whole time on the train and was really..."

"Cool?" Jocelyn suggested with a smile. She received an eager nod in return. Satisfied, she leaned back and placed Ellen's coffee down in front of her. Turning to Ellen, she kept the smile fixed on her face while she spoke so only Ellen could hear.

"Listen to me, you little cow. If you dare talk about Blaise, or me, or any other Slytherin like that again, I'll see to it that not only will your name be mud, that you will suffer far beyond school marks or friendships." She paused maliciously. "You leave us the hell alone, Ellen. It's not worth your sister getting hurt."

Ellen's eyelids fluttered uncertainly.

"Jocelyn! Hey hun, what the hell are you doing there?" Blaise's voice rang clear and confidently across the hall. Jocelyn flashed the Ravenclaws one last charming gaze, before standing up and following Blaise to the Slytherin table.

"Hi Blaise!" Isabella called cheerfully as they walked away.

"Er, who..." Blaise replied uncertainly, having no clue as to who she was.

"Apparently you talked to her the whole train journey," Jocelyn supplied, steering her back to the Slytherin table.

"Oh yeah," Blaise said airily, plonking herself in front of the teapot. "About Harry Potter, since the little twat was so desperate to know about him. So you can imagine how that fascinating conversation had held such a lasting impression." She stirred in half a jar of sugar lazily. "Add to that the fact that it is now first thing Monday morning and I haven't had my Lady Grey and I am just a leetle cranky on account of this." She produced a swollen set of fingers: a souvenir from the twenty minutes she had spent forcing The Monster Book of Monsters into her bag--complete with spellotape and a hefty belt. "So I'm not in the mood to dredge up musings over the Boy Wonder, let alone keep track of his fan club."

"Milk?"

"Ta."

"So, what's the torture for this morning?" Jocelyn asked, pouring herself some more coffee.

"Ravenclaws. Arithmancy. Lovely."

Jocelyn checked her own timetable as she stirred in her sugar:

9 o clock, Divination

9 o clock, Arithmancy

9 o clock, Herbology

"Right," she conceded, sipping her coffee. She looked up, and against her better judgement, her gaze led her to the Gryffindor table. There. Cassie was conspicuous only by her absence, yet a moment later she walked through the door with Oliver Wood, looking irritatingly cheerful. Wood looked smitten. Jocelyn grimaced as the two of them were greeted loudly by the Gryffindor table as they sat down, and when Wood said something to Cassie that made her laugh out loud. Jocelyn turned her attention back to her timetable. After lunch she had Care of Magical Creatures--with the Gryffindors. Today just didn't seem to be her day.

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Hurrying down the corridor, bag gaping open under the weight of all her books, palms sweating, Jocelyn had just pulled her Time Turner out from under her robes when she turned into an alcove and saw Hermione Granger: turning her own Time Turner. The two girls just had a second to acknowledge the other when Hermione vanished in front of Jocelyn's eyes. Feeling vastly irritated and not a little depressed, Jocelyn turned her Time Turner, waited for the world to stop zooming backwards and made her way to Arithmancy. She was not surprised to see Granger sitting down as she entered the room, nor was she surprised to find that the last remaining seat was beside Granger. But she was surprised when, after she had sat down, Granger turned to her and whispered,

"What did you think of Divination? Load of nonsense, I think personally."

Jocelyn eyed her for a moment before settling back in her chair and replying.

"Couldn't agree more. And it doesn't help that we have a praying mantis as our Professor." Hermione smiled.

"So do you have Muggle Studies after this?"

"After this we have Transfiguration, as you well know, Granger," she said conspiringly in an undertone, shooting her a sideways glance beset with condescension. "However, I do have Herbology sometime today. And I didn't think you were one to talk in class," she added.

"I make exceptions," she replied, in the same aloof manner.

"Should I be flattered?"

"Very much so." Her smile faltered. "Er, are you going to...that is to say, I'd rather you didn't...say anything to...well, anyone, about my...exceptional lesson plan." Jocelyn paused. This would be a wonderful form of blackmail...but only if Granger couldn't do the same to her if the notion ever crossed her noble mind.

"Your secret dies with me," she said eventually. "And you--"

"I won't say a word."

"Thank you." Granger seemed shocked at the gesture. She scowled. "We're not all a bunch of callous gits you know."

"Sorry," she said hastily. Jocelyn shrugged, deciding to bite the bullet, and that she could befriend worse than Hermione Granger.

"Some of us are polite gits."

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After lunch Jocelyn and Blaise slowly made their way to Care of Magical Creatures.

"...bloody moron couldn't give us normal books, could he?" Blaise grumbled as she beat the book to the bottom of her bag in order to reach her hairbrush. She pulled it out and found the handle had been bitten off. She threw it over her shoulder in disgust and kept walking. Jocelyn said nothing.

"Okay, are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Jocelyn shrugged. "Course not," she said with a worked-up nod. "That would take all the fun out of guessing."

"Give me a break, alright? I'm fed up because of school."

"No you're not."

"Oh, and how would you--"

"You're stressing over that Gryffindor chick." Jocelyn stared straight ahead and kept her face blank, fully intending to proclaim her flat out denial and outrage.

"Yeah," was what came out. But they'd reached the class by then and she was spared having to say more when Pansy bounded up to them, blonde hair swinging madly in bunches.

"Can you believe the groundskeeper is teaching us?" she exclaimed, skipping the prelude.

"You know, the shock just hasn't sunk in yet," Blaise replied, fixing a sincere expression on her face. Jocelyn looked away to prevent a smirk, and her eye caught that of Draco's. The held each other's gaze for a brief moment before she turned away; she didn't have the energy this morning for a clash.

Turning swiftly she was greeted by Cassie's happy face.

"Hi, you alright?" she said breezily. She was happier than Jocelyn had ever seen her. In fact too cheery.

"I'm light, giddy, and if my feet are touching the ground, I am deceived," she said airily. "Yourself?"

"Trying to show some enthusiasm," she said.

"Change tactics, you look like a mug."

"C'mon, now, get a move on!" Hagrid called. "Got a real treat for yeh today!"

Cassie turned to the voice and choked on her own surprise.

"Bloody hell. Is that the teacher?"

"Lost your enthusiasm yet?" Jocelyn asked. Cassie didn't reply, eyes widening as the class moved towards the hut.

Blaise was just behind, picking her way around mole hills in her stilettos.

"Try and show some enthusiasm," she muttered in Blaise's ear.

"Oh well, let's play pretend..."

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"You just don't do that kind of thing," Blaise complained on the way back, meeting her old nemeses the mole hills with renewed aggression. "Does anyone else think he's soft in the head? I mean the entire class was a shambles and there was bloody Potter sitting in the middle of it, looking very ruddy pleased with himself, oh there he goes, the bastard..."

Jocelyn looked vaguely in Potter's direction. He looked pretty crap, to put it lightly.

"Jocelyn." Jocelyn rolled her eyes heavenward in a silent plea but it was no good, Cassie had caught up with her and had her gently by the sleeve. "Can I talk to you?"

"Well, yes, in theory. In a purely physical sense--"

"Stop being a pain in the arse," Cassie cut her off. Blaise looked murderous, tripping over the lumpy grass in her heels.

"Alright," Jocelyn said hurriedly, speaking so low that Cassie had to crane forward to hear. "Meet me, er, right here, nine o' clock."

"Here? We can't be outside after--look, could you just meet me inside? How am I supposed to leave the castle?" she snapped, off Jocelyn's withering look.

"Cassie: you, criminal hobo for a good many of your pre-pubescent years. I'm sure you'll think of something." She turned quickly and walked off. Cassie glared at her retreating back, gritting her teeth.

"She's following us," Blaise complained after a moment.

"Of course she's following us. It's dinner time, the entire class is going the same way."

"Let's go a different way." She pulled her off the path and wound around to the left, then a bit to the right. As a result, the girls made their way back to the castle in a meandering fashion, Jocelyn gaining back her dignity by the time she'd sat down to her steak and kidney pudding, finding herself engrossed in the huddled conversation concerning Professor Hagrid's imminent sacking.

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Cassie was a peculiar girl in several respects. For one thing, she was a raging kleptomaniac, the symptoms of which were becoming apparent now that it wasn't necessary to nick anything. She'd walk past people in corridors and find herself getting shifty at the sight of every shiny, tacky bauble adorning the wrists and necks of a fourth year Potions class. Every item of moderate value became a tempting objective. She started eyeing up people's abandoned History essays with interest.

"I've lost it," she remarked that evening to the rain splashed window. Twirling a brown quill in her fingers, she thunked her forehead against the glass.

"What have you lost?" asked an interested voice. A girl, leaning back on her chair from an adjacent desk, smiled politely. She was the sort of person Cassie felt was easy to befriend: not remarkably pretty, bit plump, bit poncy, concealed desire to be very popular and have Harry Potter fall desperately in love with her.

"Oh, you know," she said airily. "The plot, my marbles..."

"You're the new girl, aren't you?"

"How did you guess?"

The girl grinned, fiddling with her hair, coiled in a plait that twisted over her shoulder. "It was a bit embarrassing, wasn't it? Where do you come from?"

"I lived in London. I was home-schooled," she added. Then, deciding that was a bad direction to take, asked, "What's your name?"

"Hannah."

"Hi." She waved vaguely.

There was an expectant silence. Cassie took the time to notice the thick fog which had overcome the sky beyond the window panes, and blurred the setting sun.

"What are you doing?" Hannah asked.

"Er, just reading. Stuff I've missed." Hannah nodded. Cassie nodded. A cricket chirruped somewhere nearby.

"Well, I've gotta be off," Cassie said, standing too suddenly and throwing the chair backwards. "Bye, then," she said, and scampered.

"Bye," Hannah called after her.

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Cassie stood for forty minutes at their agreed meeting spot, stamping up and down against the cold. Jocelyn walked languidly towards her after night had completely settled, a thick black coat belted up around her.

"I said nine o' clock," Jocelyn reiterated, after Cassie had poured out exactly what she thought of her and her time keeping with reference to her rear end, a telescope and Big Ben. "It's not my fault you took a moonlit jaunt in a T-shirt."

"You could have been dead for all I knew. Some tragic accident following a suspicious rendezvous with the Giant Squid. Thought it best to make sure."

"I'm flattered." Jocelyn took her hands out of her pockets and folded her arms. "So what did you want?"

"I wanted to say sorry. I know this House thing made it difficult with your friends--"

"It doesn't matter," Jocelyn interjected.

"So why are you avoiding me?" she asked pointedly. Jocelyn smiled slightly, and shook her head.

"We have a problem, you being in Gryffindor. There's an animosity between the houses. It's big and it's unavoidable. We have another problem in that...me and you being friends is only going to get you unwanted attention."

"You are talking crud," she replied.

"You are not taking this seriously," she retorted, her temper rising.

"It's not like you shagging Draco Malfoy in the broomstick shed under a Slytherin banner, we're just friends," she said mildly. Jocelyn's eyes stretched to the size of dinner plates as, fittingly, she digested that.

"I'm too grossed out to even think about answering that stupid remark," she said bitingly. Cassie sniggered. "You sort out this mess, because, because--bloody hell, you--you. Goodnight." She turned with a deliberate flick of her hair and stamped off.

"Oh come on, come back!"

"Grow up," she called angrily over her shoulder.

"You need to get over this, Jocelyn--look, don't make me run after you!" Jocelyn's gestured reply was lost in the dim light. "Oh very mature," Cassie told her sarcastically. The shadowy form flickered within the black claws of tree branches, diminished, and then vanished.

The door of Hagrid's hut banged open and out the imbecile came, Harry Potter struggling under one enormous steering hand. Granger and Ron Weasley came trotting out after them. Concealed as she was in the darkness and foliage, Cassie watched the procession in still amazement.

"I'm takin' yer all back up ter school," Hagrid roared, "an' don' let me catch yeh walkin' down ter see me after dark again. I'm not worth that!" The group took a direct path to the castle at high speed. Clearly some impetuous, romantic tryst gone awry.

"And she thinks we've got problems," Cassie remarked, watching them.