The Raven's Tail

2. (Un)Settling in.

Ash drummed his fingers on the common room table.

"This whole 'friends' thing can only be taken too far, Ship," he said to Alastair. "I'm starving. Can't we just go without them?"

Neither Tess nor Alice had appeared from their common room yet.

"No," replied Alastair, wearily. "At least, I'm not going to."

"Fine," said Ash, tapping the table more insistently. "But if we miss breakfast, I'm going to disown them."

Alice walked down the steps to find both boys gaping at her. She flashed a smug grin as she sat in a regal manner across the table from them. They were staring at her hair, which was, instead of the blonde of yesterday, an almost-black shade of brown; and at her eyes that were, instead of blue, a deep-green colour. Her hair was done up, and the blue and bronze ribbons hung serenely down her back.

"Good morning," she said.

"You look..." Ash tried.

"I know a spell or two for changing your appearance," Alice replied, cheerfully. "I don't suppose either of you feel in the mood for a change?"

Alastair and Ash shook their heads.

Tess appeared a few minutes later, looking bedraggled. She appeared exhausted; Alastair wondered how much sleep she'd gotten. Before he even had the chance to wish Tess a good morning, Alice had leapt from her seat and dragged the protesting Tess by the arm, saying that it simply would not do to go down to breakfast in that condition.

Tess looked angry, but allowed Alice to take her back to the dorm.

"Back in a minute," called Alice over her shoulder.

The boys sat quietly for a few moments, alone; the rest of the house had already headed off down the stairs.

"Tess must really be tired if she's letting someone push her around like that," remarked Alastair, a little worried that he was the cause of Alice's concern over Tess' appearance.

"Especially someone she doesn't like," added Ash.

"She couldn't have hated Alice so much as to lose sleep over her though," said Alastair. "I hope not, anyway, they'd just met."

"I don't know," replied Ash, as the girls returned. Tess was now looking fantastic. Her hair - which had been a tangled mess before - was now beautifully done, and shined in the light. Her eyes were no longer puffy and half-closed. Her lips seemed fuller, and redder.

"Wow," Alastair could not help saying, though he managed to keep his voice to a mutter. Tess was pretty but she had never really bothered to make much of a fuss over her appearance. "Good morning," he said to her.

"Good morning," Tess replied as she brushed past the table, head held high.

"Well, I think we're ready now," said Alice, happily. "Shall we?"

As they descended down the Ravenclaw tower, both Alastair and Ash were thinking that they looked quite shabby next to the two girls, who seemed to be glowing slightly.

~~~~~~~

Many envious heads were turned when the four students entered the Great Hall. Alastair and Ash couldn't help but smile at the amount of boys alternately staring at the girls and wondering how the two nerdy boys had got to be associated with two gorgeous girls like Alice and Tess. There was also a lot of whispering over the identity of Alice, who few outside of the Ravenclaw common room had seen.

"So which is Harry Potter?" asked Alice, after they had taken their seats.

"Oh, he's at the Gryffindor table," replied Alastair, pointing. "That's him over there."

"You don't mean that boy with his eyes nearly falling out of his head, do you?" Alice asked.

"No, that's Ron Weasley, Harry's best friend." Ron had been gawping openly at Alice, and had jumped when Alastair had seemed to point him out to her. "Harry is next to him, with the glasses."

They watched Hermione slap Ron on his shoulder. Ron looked away, trying to fix an innocent expression on his face.

"Well," said Alice, surveying the table. "The food here is certainly better than at my last school."

"Where was that?" asked Ash, helping himself to some bacon.

"I spent some time at Durmstrang, recently. Terribly cold it is there, too." Eyebrows were raised all around her at that. "I spent most of my time trying to find a decent spell to keep my nose from turning purple. Well, that and fending off advances from the boys there." By this point, every student within earshot was listening to her. "Before that I spent some time in Wizarding America, and before that in Australia."

"Australia?" asked a second year student.

"Oh yes," replied Alice. "Quite a small school there, and tremendously informal."

"Wish it was like that here," muttered a Gryffindor student, whom nobody had seen wander over to the table.

"Only if you like being woken in the mornings, doused by a bucket of water that was somehow accidentally conjured directly over your bed, or being turned green on the first Tuesday of the month. The teachers there allow a certain amount of pranks to be played. They feel it helps develop a keen eye for defense." Several students sniggered. "I suppose I have been to a few exotic schools."

"How very flash!" gushed a young Hufflepuff boy.

Alice looked around her. Everyone was staring at her in awe except one blonde Ravenclaw girl who was staring at the ceiling. Alice looked up curiously and gasped. She had expected to see rafters and grotty stonework, but instead saw several layers of clouds and patches of blue sky.

"Oh wow," she murmured.

"That one reminds me of my Aunt Mildred," said the girl, pointing at one of the clouds. Alice could see nothing resembling a person, and looked at the girl instead. She was staring upward with a dreamy expression.

"Is that girl... alright?" Alice whispered to Alastair.

"Oh, that's just Luna," replied Alastair. "Luna Lovegood. She's in our year."

"Is she, well, loony?" asked Alice, still whispering.

"No, she's just..." Alastair trailed off.

Alice looked back over at Luna, who had stopped cloud-gazing and instead fixed her gaze on Alice.

"Hello," said Luna.

Alice hesitated.

"Hello," she replied, before turning away.

"You don't seem to have picked up an accent from any of those places who've been to," Tess commented to Alice.

"No," said Alice proudly. "I worked hard to keep sounding like myself, no matter where we lived."

Luna kept studying Alice, and, after a few seconds, Alice frowned and excused herself, leaving the Hall briskly.

"I don't think she likes me," said Luna, to nobody in particular.

"That's because you kept staring at her, Loony," said Michael Corner, harshly.

"You were staring at her too," said Ash.

"Everyone was," agreed Tess.

"Yeah, but Loony has that strange look that makes you wonder if she's thinking that you're a Spak-Winged Dirgebat in disguise or something," Michael retorted. "It's weird and spooky."

"Leave her alone," said Alastair, louder. He had become quite fond of Luna recently. She grew on you as a person, if you let her (though not many people did). She was friends with Harry Potter, which Alastair felt had to count for something, and there had been a rumour that she had been a part of the group that had battled with Death Eaters in the Ministry, when Voldemort had been seen. Luna didn't talk about that, though, and neither did the Gryffindors, other than to say, "See, Harry was right all along," - as though anyone still doubted.

Luna sat quietly while the others argued, though she did smile at Alastair for defending her.

~~~~~~~

The first lesson of the day was Charms, with Gryffindor. Alice showed up to the lesson with ginger-coloured hair, which set Ginny Weasley to frowning. Alastair noticed that her green eyes now had flecks of gold in them.

"How often do you do that?" asked Tess about Alice's new appearance.

"Oh, just whenever I feel the need to," replied Alice happily.

"You're okay then?" asked Alastair. "You left breakfast in a hurry."

"Certainly," said Alice. "I'd forgotten something and didn't want to be late for my first class, so I hurried off to get it."

Her smile dimmed a little when Luna entered the room, but she recovered quickly.

"Don't like Luna then?" asked Ash, without subtlety.

"Well," replied Alice, leaning in conspiratorially. "She is a little strange."

"Yes, she is that," agreed Ash.

"She's nice though," said Alastair. "She's really not so bad once you get to know her."

"No doubt you're right," said Alice, smiling. "I'm sure I'll get to like her in no time."

"Ah, Miss Darlington," said Professor Flitwick, entering the room. "Welcome to class. How are you finding Hogwarts, so far?"

"Oh, it's wonderful here, sir," she replied. "Everyone has been so nice to me."

"Wonder why?" said Ginny, smirking. Several Gryffindors laughed.

"Now, now," Professor Flitwick admonished. "That's enough of that sort of talk, Miss Weasley. I like a friendly classroom." He walked to the front of the room and sat behind his desk, looking dwarfed by the furniture. "Now, today we shall be learning how to charm our wands to perform a nice little song-and-dance routine at a specific time. Perfect, I think, to be used as a wake-up call for the heavy sleepers among us who are liable to have an impromptu lie-in on week-day mornings."

The task required the students to split into pairs, as it was easier to perform the spell-work onto another's wand. Alice immediately grabbed Alastair's arm.

"You'll work with me, won't you?" she asked, causing a number of sniggers from nearby Gryffindors.

"Oh, please say you'll work with me, do," said Ginny to the girl next to her, mimicking Alice's voice. "I'd be ever so grateful."

Alice pointedly ignored the mocking and sat waiting for Alastair to respond. Ginny and her friend waited for him as well.

"Oh sure, I guess," replied Alastair, which set Ginny and her friend to cheering.

"Of course I will, Ginny darling!" exclaimed the girl.

"You do love me!" replied Ginny.

"Miss Weasley," Professor Flitwick broke in. "I have asked you to be civil in my classroom. That is enough. Please don't make me take points from Gryffindor."

Ginny and her friend stopped mocking, but they still cast smirking-glances toward Alastair and Alice.

Tess had stalked off, looking angry and sat next to Luna, who was smiling. Most people didn't pair with her by choice. Ash was left sitting by himself and was paired with a spotty Gryffindor boy.

"Don't listen to those girls, Alastair," said Alice, as she removed her wand from her bag. She had wrapped a black ribbon in a zigzag pattern around the handle end of her wand, leaving both ends of the ribbon hanging. When she moved the wand, the ribbon fluttered about after it. It was nice looking, though Alastair had never seen anyone decorate their wand like that before. Both Ginny and Tess rolled their eyes at it, but if Alice noticed, she gave no sign.

As the lesson progressed, it became apparent that Alice was better with decorating than with complicated spells. After a few tries, Alastair managed to cause Alice's wand to hum a Weird Sisters tune and bounce about on the desk in an uncoordinated manner. By the end of the lesson, however, Alice had only managed to make Alastair's wand roll around on the desk slightly and only immediately, rather than at any set time. Worse, in her opinion, was that Luna was able to perform the charm quite well.

With Ginny's continued, occasional mocking, by the time the lesson had ended, Alice's cheeks were slightly pink and her lips were pressed tightly together. She looked like she was holding back tears.

"Hey, it's alright," said Alastair quietly. "Ignore them; they're just jealous of you. Don't worry about the spell either, it's a difficult one."

Alice attempted a smile.

"You were able to do it though," she replied, quickly wiping away a single tear that rolled down her cheek.

"Yeah, but I'm a nerd. I spend all my time studying," Alastair said, with a shrug.

"Oh, don't say that about yourself," said Alice and touched his arm. "Thank you for cheering me up."

"Come on, guys," said Ash, walking over. "Let's go. I'm a little worried about what that Aberford guy did to my wand. It certainly wasn't the task. He couldn't make it sing OR dance."

"Where is Tess?" Alastair asked, looking around.

"She left already," replied Ash. "She didn't look happy, either."

"I don't understand what's wrong with her lately," said Alastair.

"She feels ignored," explained Alice. "Or worried you guys will like me more than her. It's my fault, but I think you should talk to her."

Alastair thought that was a good idea. He hated the thought of Tess being upset, especially with him. He caught up with her in the corridor, but she just glared at him.

"I think your Alice Darlington needs cheering up, Alastair. You should talk to her instead of me. I'm sure you'd prefer to anyway."

She turned and walked away, quickly.

"No, I wouldn't," he said to her retreating form, but she didn't hear him.