Briallen Bevin and the Snatcher's Cave

Chapter 13: Her Worst Day Ever

Briallen only had flying lessons once a week: on Mondays, the very first thing in the morning. That fact alone automatically made every Monday a horrible day.

After her first flying lesson, during which she had crash landed in a greenhouse, Miss Winsome, the flying instructor, simply ignored her. In the last few weeks, however, the teacher had started picking on Briallen again. She would purposely ask difficult or impossible questions, knowing Briallen didn't know the answers, or she would ask Briallen to demonstrate some sort of broom trick that only a professional would know. Miss Winsome had re-started her torture of Briallen by making it seem random but today she wasn't even attempting to pretend that she didn't single Briallen out on purpose.

"Horrible form, Bevin! Ten points from Withers!" screeched Miss Winsome. Normally, Mara Winsome was polished and pretty. Today, she looked older than usual with visible lines around her eyes and mouth, her coloring was uneven, and gray streaks made her normally fiery red hair dull. She was obviously not having a good day either.

Briallen held her tongue and went to the starting line again. They were practicing their quick-starts and stops today and Miss Winsome had told the class they needed to get from one line to the other with perfect form. Everybody else in the class had accomplished this surprisingly simple task over ten minutes ago but Miss Winsome refused to approve Briallen's form so that they could move on.

"Your grip is all wrong! Obviously, talent is not genetic, and from what I've been told, in your case, magic isn't either," taunted Miss Winsome.

Again, Briallen held her tongue and simply flew back to the starting line to try again. She knew Miss Winsome was just trying to break her and, honestly, she was starting to crack. Even the Platts, who were watching her from the sidelines with Briallen's Withers housemates, were starting to look sorry for her. Briallen noticed that Lucan kept his eyes on Miss Winsome the entire time and she couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking and if he was going to help her like he had in the past.

"I didn't think it was possible but you've actually managed to get worse, Bevin! It's as if you have hooves instead of hands! Which I can easily arrange if you don't do as your told!"

Finally, Briallen snapped. "I'm doing everything you tell me to do and my form is perfect! I've done a dozen quick-starts and stops ten times better than half this class! Noelle - no offense, Noelle - fell off her broom and you approved her starts and stops! Why do you keep picking on me?" screamed Briallen from the finish line. She was sick of Miss Winsome's unfairly cruel treatment of her and refused to do one more quick-start and stop.

"I'm not picking on you; you're just the worst flyer I've ever seen."

"That's a lie! You're just a miserable old hag who has nothing better to do than pick on kids: get a life you freak!"

"I AM NOT A HAG! I AM NOT A FREAK!" screamed Miss Winsome so loudly that the third year Care of Magical Creatures class nearby had stopped what they were doing to watch the fight. The small teacher was shaking and red with anger and every word she spoke was followed by strings of spit.

"YES YOU ARE! YOU'RE AN UGLY LITTLE WOMAN WITH A SHRIVELED OLD HEART AND YOU SMELL LIKE ROADKILL AND MANURE!"

"DETENTION! DETENTION! I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD YOU SPOILED, ELITIST, MONSTROUS, LITTLE BITCH!" Miss Winsome roared. Briallen jumped off of her broom and threw it so hard that it flew clear over Bergamot before she stormed off towards the school's front doors. "I'LL HAVE YOU OUT OF BERGAMOT BY TONIGHT!"

Briallen ran to her room where she threw herself on her bed and spent the next half hour crying harder than she'd ever cried. Just last week she celebrated her birthday with all of her new friends and now she just knew she'd never see any of them ever again. She knew she should have just put up with Miss Winsome's taunting, the class had been nearly over anyway, but she couldn't keep her mouth shut. Screaming at a teacher, insulting them and calling them names like she had just done, was surely grounds for expulsion.

But she didn't want to go. Bergamot had become a home away from home and she knew she'd never be able to go back to a Surry County school again, knowing about the magical world and that she belonged in it. Briallen wondered if it was too late to go to another magic school for a fresh start. She would miss her friends but at least she would still get to learn magic.

"Briallen?" said Cass Elwood hesitantly from the doorway.

"Come to say goodbye?" asked Briallen, her voice muffled by her pillow.

"No... I just wanted to tell you that everybody feels really bad for you. And we all think it's really good that you stood up to Miss Winsome and that she deserved to be yelled at like that."

"Fantastic. Is there anybody willing to switch places with me and be expelled in my place?"

Cass Elwood took a seat on the edge of Briallen's bed and patted her back in a comforting manner. "Unfortunately, no. I really don't think you'll be expelled, though. Maybe suspended... and if you are, you can stay at my home. I live just down the street in a very big house. My parents wouldn't even notice you're there." Briallen rolled over and laughed lightly before wiping her nose on her sleeve. "I have to go to class now but I'll talk to you afterwards, okay?"

Briallen nodded and Cass disappeared out the door. She sat up and looked at her empty trunk at the end of her bed. It had taken her almost a month to completely unpack, which was time she didn't have to do the reverse. Resigned to her fate, she got up and opened the trunk before going to her dresser where she started to grab clothes and throw them in the trunk.

"What are you doing, Briallen?" asked Professor Morra from the doorway. She didn't speak to Briallen as if she were angry or upset, nor did she address Briallen as she normally did students.

"I'm packing. I screamed at a teacher. I called her names and stuff and," Briallen paused to sniff and focus on preventing tears from flowing. "I know I've been expelled."

"Who told you you'd been expelled?"

"Miss Winsome said she'd have me expelled. And I've already made a bunch of other mistakes over the semester. Once my Grandpa finds out... he can't keep me here without playing favorites and he wouldn't do that."

Professor Morra almost smiled. "The situation has already come to the Dean's attention. As your head of house, however, your punishment is ultimately up to me. I decided a months' worth of detention is a satisfactory punishment for your behavior and the Dean agreed."

Briallen stopped throwing her clothes in the trunk and turned to her Spell-Working professor. "I'm not expelled? Or suspended?"

"Taking circumstances into account, no, you're not suspended, and believe me, it takes a lot more than screaming at a professor to be expelled."

"But..."

"Your classmates immediately went to their heads of house to explain the situation, which was then relayed to the Dean and supported by Professor Kuntz, who witnessed the argument from her Care of Magical Creatures class," Professor Morra paused and took a step closer to Briallen. "Miss Winsome was out of line today, Briallen, and I apologize for her but you cannot speak to people like that. And I'm not just talking about teachers or elders - I'm talking about everybody. I know I'm not a parent but I am responsible for you for the seven years you go to school here and in that time I hope to guide you, and all my students, to becoming a good person."

"Don't lower yourself to their level," said Briallen sullenly. "Marisol told me that to help me deal with Miss Winsome. She really is unfair Professor Morra. She - "

"I know. We all know," Professor Morra replied quickly. "It's being dealt with, trust me... why don't you unpack now. I'll let Professor Trajan know why you were absent but I expect you to attend your afternoon classes. We'll discuss your detention after dinner tonight."

"Alright," Briallen mumbled, staring at the ground as Professor Morra left. She unpacked her trunk once more, quickly this time, and then looked around the room. She still had half a class period to herself before lunch, which she wasn't sure she wanted to go to anyway, and she had already finished the homework she had due that day and tomorrow.

Finally, Briallen decided to just go to the library and see if it had any fiction books like normal libraries. The common room was strangely empty, as was the portrait hall. The library had a few kids scattered about studying by themselves but for the most part there really wasn't anybody around. She had never seen the school look so empty before and she was glad. Even though Cass made it seem like everyone was on her side, including the Platts, Briallen was still humiliated by her tantrum and the fact she had cried in front of dozens of her peers. The last thing she wanted was to be surrounded by people who, by now, had heard all about her fight with Miss Winsome.

She brushed it off the best she could however and started to wander down the rows of bookshelves, looking for fiction books or anything interesting at all to take her mind off of the very bad day she was having. A book on dragons caught her eye and when she walked along the bookshelf, down the aisle to the window, she realized that there were hundreds of books there on dragons. Briallen had been fascinated by the idea of dragons since her grandfather first told her they were real, many months ago. She pulled out a random book and began to flip through it.

She had been reading for several minutes when she noticed the voices behind the bookshelf, in the next row over.

"Well then why'd you do it?" asked a strained, feminine voice that Briallen didn't immediately recognize.

"Miss Winsome is horrible to all of us - I thought if we said something to Professor Stalkes about her behavior today then maybe she'd be fired or put on probation," replied another, slightly deeper voice. Briallen was able to recognize it almost straight away - Lucan Stone. She wasn't surprised to learn that he had been one of the Platts to complain about how Miss Winsome had treated her in class, though she wished he had said something during class and not after.

"But she wasn't! She just got lectured is all and she knows it was us who complained to Professor Stalkes about her! That's exactly what I told you would happen, Lucan. I think you just wanted to say something to help that girl!"

"That's ridiculous! Why, in the name of Merlin, would I want to help Bevin?"

"I don't know - maybe you have a crush on her! You seem to be awfully obsessed, that's for sure!"

"I'm not obsessed! She follows me!" Briallen scoffed loudly and the voices paused for a moment. A few seconds later, apparently deciding the noise didn't belong to anything or anyone important, they continued. "I don't like Briallen Bevin at all. She's mean, rude, patronizing, completely stupid, possibly illiterate, she looks like a burnt orange, she's bratty, and she's absolutely annoying! Not to mention, her mom is a Muggle and her dad is a squib... she's pathetic and I can't stand her."

Briallen had spent most of the semester convinced Lucan Stone had a crush on her and she had almost come to enjoy that fact, even though she despised him. And while she could list just as many reasons, if not more, for why she despised him, hearing him tell some stranger exactly why he hated her, hurt her. It hurt more than she thought it would and she didn't even like him, but she had had so many cruel things said about her that day that hearing Lucan say those things made them sting more than they would normally.

Realizing he and whoever his friend was had stopped speaking and so had ended their conversation, she decided to get out of there before they noticed her and her tears. She dropped the dragon book on the floor and ran as fast as she could out of the library and into the girls bathroom near the dining hall.

There was one other girl in the restroom but Briallen didn't care. She leaned over the sink and punched the faucet handle until she saw water. It was cold but she splashed it on her face to wash away the tears.

"Are you sad you're leaving?" asked the girl.

Briallen sighed; she didn't want to listen to or speak to anyone at the moment. Unfortunately the other girl was Morana Tenebros - one of Dante Garcia's good friends and someone who definitely wasn't nice enough to just leave Briallen alone, even if asked kindly.

"I'm not expelled," muttered Briallen, dripping water over the sink.

"You attacked a teacher. That's expulsion."

"I didn't attack her. I called her some names and that was it. I've got a month detention... Sorry to disappoint you and Dante."

Morana scowled. "You should do more next time. Pull your wand out on her or something. That way you don't disappoint anyone."

Briallen rolled her eyes, prepared to say more, but Morana left. Thinking she was alone finally, Briallen held her breath and put her entire face in the sink full of cold water. Seconds later, however, she felt a hand grab the back of her robes and yank her roughly out of the sink.

"It's not worth it!" screamed Marisol, tears running down her face.

"What are you talking about?" sputtered Briallen, slightly alarmed and surprised by her friend's sudden appearance.

"I saw Morana Tenebros on my way to lunch and she said you were in here trying to drown yourself!" Marisol threw her arms around Briallen and held her in a vice grip. "But I won't let you hurt yourself! It's not worth it!"

"I wasn't! I was just splashing cold water on my face! You know... to get rid of my puffy eyes... "

Marisol released Briallen and looked her in the eye, searching for the truth. Finally, she forced herself to giggle. "I was so scared, chica," said Marisol as she wiped her eyes. "I know it's Morana - but I'd heard what happened in Flying and I just - oh, the very worst came to mind! And then I come in here and you've got your entire head in a sink full of water!"

"It's okay, really. Professor Morra just gave me a month of detention. Nothing too serious. I'm not that upset. It's just been a really, really bad day."

"Well, don't scare me like that!" said Marisol as she playfully swatted Briallen's arm. "Come on, I'll get us cleaned up with some of the beauty charms I've been learning from Young Witch and then we'll walk into the dining room, looking gorgeous, and acting as if nothing happened and we haven't a care in the world!"

"What about Morana? I'm sure you're not the only one she told 'Briallen's drowning herself.'"

"Well... when everybody sees how happy you are in a few minutes, they won't believe it!"

Briallen grudgingly agreed to let Marisol clean her up and once the two girls were done, Marisol unlocked the bathroom door and they headed into the dining hall. Marisol, keeping her arm linked around Briallen's arm, didn't let her friend stop long enough to notice all of the stares she got, and led her directly to a spot at the Withers table next to the intimidating Conall Lonigan.

Marisol took a seat on the other side of Briallen and leaned forward to look over at Conall, who had been eating alone until she and Briallen showed up. "Hey, where's Benjamin?"

"I'm not his keeper," Conall replied gruffly before shoving a handful of french fries into his mouth.

Marisol frowned and looked across the hall to the Almerick table, before shaking off whatever unhappy thought it was that bothered her and made a plate of food for herself and Briallen, who just stared at the table. "Oh, well. How are you today, Conall?"

Conall narrowed his eyes at Marisol. "Do I know you?"

"Not technically. But we have some common friends. Like Briallen and Ben."

"Who's Briallen?" Marisol gaped at Conall as Briallen shook slightly, obviously trying to hold back her tears. Conall looked at Briallen and then smiled a large, toothy, and slightly frightening grin. "Just kidding, Bevin."

Marisol and Briallen looked at each other, surprised to learn that Conall Lonigan actually had a sense of humor. They laughed.