Twilight to Dusk

Chapter 7

October had arrived, bringing very cold winds and an uproar within Ravenclaw house.

"We have to do something for Halloween!" shouted Joey Moralez one night.

"Like what?" snapped someone from the corner where he was apparently trying to work. "No one pays any attention to Halloween."

"That's the point," put in Ema. "We should start a tradition. Like the whole house in one costume, or something..."

Jamie laughed, looking around that the crowded Common Room and trying to imagine them all under one costume.

"Trick-or-Treating around the other houses!" suggested a third year who Jamie thought was called Lucy.

"I think there is a reason why no one does that," said Ronnie pointedly. "Can you imagine Colin Weasley and his friends Trick-or-Treating? It would be all the Tricks, none of the Treats!"

"What if we had a theme for costumes?" said a fourth year, Erin Rosenberg. "Like, animals, or something..."

"That's cool!" said Sarah. "We could all be..."

"Witches and Wizards!" said Ari, laughing.

Jamie laughed again. In truth, it almost felt like they were in Halloween costumes every day to her.

"Ha ha ha," said Joey sarcastically. "I like Erin's idea, though. All dressing up in a theme."

"Like what?" asked Kaya Hollins from where she, Marianna, and Sarah were attempting to play Exploding Snap while none of them knew the rules.

"Like...I don't know," admitted Joey.

"We could vote," said Marianna, who seemed as though she was determined to allow the first years to have a say in this.

"Yeah!" said Jamie enthusiastically. "We could make a box, and first we would think up the themes to vote on then people would drop their votes into the box, and we could count it up, and..."

"You think too much, DeLingues," said someone.

"Excuse me," said Ari. "I am DeLingues. That's Lastroni."

"Whatever," said the boy, who Jamie thought was called Harrison. "You both think too much."

Everyone laughed.

"In any case," said Joey loudly. "We need time to make our costumes, so that's out. But what should our theme be?"

There was a rare silence in the room. Then a loud explosion came from the corner where the first year girls were and everyone laughed.

"Musical instruments?" suggested someone.

"That really play," added Erin.

"Zoo animals," said Jamie.

"And their dung," said someone else, rolling their eyes.

"Birds of prey," said the seventh year prefect, Joe Robinson.

"Because the Ravenclaw Eagle!" said Erin, jumping up and down.

"Brilliant!" exclaimed Joey. "Does everyone agree?"

There was a murmur of assent.

"Everyone has to participate," said Ari adamantly. "Or it won't work."

"And no one tell!" said Kaya shrilly. "Or the Slytherins will all show up in serpent outfits, the Hufflepuffs will turn into badgers and we'll have a pride of lions at the Griffindor table!"

"Okay!" shouted Joey. "Does everyone agree that they will participate or die trying, and that they will not tell?"

Heads nodded and the Ravenclaw Four put their heads together to plan their costume.

~

The next day an owl came for Ari. She read the letter and promptly burst into tears.

Ema stared at her, then realized who it must be from. "Er...are you alright?" she asked tentatively.

"I'm fine," said Ari, still sobbing, and she ran back up to the Common Room.

"Why does this seem to be a theme for us this year?" said Ema, staring at the ceiling, which was bright, pearly white.

"What?" asked Jamie, clearly confused.

"Someone bursting into tears during breakfast and running away, on Monday when we have Potions first thing," said Ema.

"Ema," said Jamie sternly. "That was about as insensitive as I've ever heard you be."

Ema looked at her, highly offended. Then she realized that Jamie was right. "I'm sorry," she said, looking at her plate and feeling very ashamed.

"Come on," said Jamie calmly, apparently seeing Ema's remourse and deciding not to mention the matter any more. "Let's go tell Flitwick that Ari's not going to be in Potions. Let him deal with Snape."

"Sure," said Ema, smiling, and deciding that sulking was not going to bring any sympathy from the other two. "Ronnie?"

"I'll stay here," said Ronnie shiftily. "I - er - need to talk to ... McGonagall..."

"Ronnie, that was the most pathetic lie you've ever told," said Jamie. "We're not going anywhere except up to the teachers' table, and McGonagall is there too."

"Um...okay...I need to go...to the dormitories, if you must know. I have some homework I need to do." She dashed off.

Ema and Jamie exchanged astonished looks.

"Do you get the feeling she might be hiding something from us? Or is that just me?" asked Ema, bewildered.

"For once, you're not completely insane, Potter. But let her be. We do need to talk to Flitwick."

They walked together up to the teachers' table.

~

While Ema disliked Potions because of the teacher, she found it hard not to enjoy the time she spent with her cauldron, feeling as though she were making something. In truth, she did manage to produce something, but - she found it hard to think up the words - it seemed more satisfying to brew up a difficult potion than to Transfigure a teabag.

When they walked into class that day, Ronnie still hadn't appeared. Snape glared at Jamie and Ema as they sat down as though daring them to tell him why their friends were not present.

Ema avoided his eyes. She knew Snape loathed her, but she couldn't see why. She had made an effort to be polite to him since the previous year, and she certainly showed talent in the potion-making area. She didn't understand why he would be so sour towards her when she was nothing like her father...well, she was like her father in many ways, but she knew, from what Harry had told her, that she was nothing like her grandfather, who Snape had really loathed, and she wasn't as hot-tempered as Harry.

Okay, she told herself, yes, I am. But that wasn't the point. She made a special effort not to lose her temper around teachers, not least because she was supposed to be single-handedly allowing Ravenclaw to win both the House and Quidditch Cups.

Ronnie rushed into class just as Snape started taking role. He scowled heavily at her, but, as she was not technically late, made no comment.

"Today you will be brewing a Growing Solution. This is less complex than a Shrinking Solution, which you would not usually attempt until third year, but it is nevertheless complicated enough to be going on with, especially with some of the idiots in this class." He looked meaningfully at Amy Longbottom who turned beet red and stared down at her cauldron with tears in her eyes.

Snape made no comment on Ari's empty seat, but walked past the remaining three Ravenclaw girls, as though hoping to hear their conversation.

~

Snape had passed by the Ravenclaw girls' table five times, making only short trips around the rest of the room to take points from Hufflepuff. He had not managed, yet, to hear what the Ravenclaw's were saying.

Until the sixth time he passed. On the pretense of making Andrew Finnigan nervous by staring over his shoulder at his potion, which, under the influence of Snape behind him, started to turn steadily from yellow to orange, to red, to green...

"Where were you, Ronnie? And don't give us any of the bloody homework crap, either," said Ema.

"Nowhere," Ronnie said evasively.

"Did you see Ari?" asked Jamie. "Was she in the dormitory?"

"Er...yeah," said Ronnie shiftily. "She...was still...kind of...down..."

"Yeah, sure, right," said Ema, snappishly. "If you don't want to tell us, just tell us!"

"That made no sense whatsoever," said Jamie.

"You know what I mean. Ronnie, seriously. It's so much easier just to say, I'm not telling you, Ema, get lost, than it is to say, I was just doing homework, I mean, seeing McGonagall, I mean, blowing my head up."

Ronnie and Jamie both laughed, though Ronnie seemed a bit nervous.

Snape moved down to bother Amy Longbottom, still keeping an acute ear on the Ravenclaws.

"Okay, fine," Ronnie was saying. "I went to send a letter to my dad."

Snape's eyebrows rose involuntarily. Luckily, he had good reason to do so as Amy's potion had just created a small tidal wave which had put out the flames below her cauldron.

"Why?" said Ema, sounding incredulous.

"He started it," was Ronnie's curt response.

"We're not your preschool teachers, Ronnie, you don't need to start a he started it, no she started it argument," said Jamie.

"Sorry," said Ronnie. "Look. You guys can't tell anybody about this. I'm serious. I wrote him because he did write me first. Last night. He was saying that if I wanted I could go to one of your houses during the holidays, that he doesn't really care. It's more than he has ever done for me in my life."

"What, saying that he really doesn't care about you at all?" said Jamie incredulously.

Snape shook his head as he circled the classroom again. How tactless could that Lastroni girl be, anyway?

"No," said Ronnie, sounding close to tears. "Saying I didn't have to come home, and that I could stay with my friends, even though he doesn't approve of you guys."

For once, Ema seemed to be more understanding than Jamie. Perhaps, thought Snape, this was because she knew how her father had been brought up. "That's great, Ronnie."

"Well, I don't know," said Ronnie, now sounding thoroughly choked. "I've always just wanted him to love me, you know? Well, I guess he did before. Well, maybe. Till he found out what I am really like. So now I don't know what I want, because I don't want to admit that he'll never love me. But I don't want to go home again."

Snape spun around in time to see Ronnie break down completely over her cauldron. "Miss Malfoy should go to the hospital immediately and get a calming draught," he said curtly.

The three Ravenclaws looked up with such shocked expressions that told him that they knew he had been listening to every word. They didn't comment, whatever they thought.

But Snape felt horrible as he watched Veronica Malfoy walk out of the room in tears. He remembered crouching in a corner while his parents fought with each other, always afraid that they might stop hurting each other and start hurting him. He knew all too well about family troubles. He just wished he could convey that to Ronnie.

~

"Why the hell did he listen in?" ranted Ema after the lesson.

"It wasn't overly nice," agreed Jamie. "Though, you can't really blame him."

"You mean, I shouldn't. I know perfectly well that I can, and, what's more, I will. How would you feel if we'd been talking about your family and he listened to every bloody word?"

"Well," said Jamie tentatively. "I'm not defending him, but -"

"Yes you are," interrupted Ema. "Go on and defend him, but you can at least say that's what you're doing."

"Shut up," snapped Jamie. "As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted by a goat -"

Ema made an indignant noise in her throat, but Jamie ignored it.

"You shouldn't blame him because Val's in his house, isn't she? Don't interrupt. What I'm saying is, Val's not the most pleasant person, is she? And he knows Ronnie well enough that he might like her more than he likes Val. Anyway, you can't ... fine. You shouldn't blame him for taking an interest in Ronnie if he likes her."

"I guess," said Ema, not looking like she guessed at all. "Doesn't stop me wanting to blast his guts out. Now shut up, so Ari doesn't hear. She's upset enough."

"Who's talking?" said Jamie pointedly as they entered the Common Room.

~

Ari sat in the dormitory reading over and over her mother's letter.

My dearest Ari,

I want nothing more than to see you over the summer. I love you more than anything in the whole wide world. See you at Christmas, love.

-Mum

The door to the common room opened and Ari stuffed the letter under her pillow, looking up just as Ema and Jamie came in, hissing like angry geese.

"What's up with you two?" asked Ari, smiling in spite of herself at the sight of them.

"Nothing," said Ema, a little too quickly, glaring at Jamie.

"Just Ema being a bloody git," snapped Jamie, glaring just as hard at Ema.

"What?" asked Ari more urgently. Jamie hardly ever used the word bloody so she was suspicious of any nothing that might be going on.

"I've told you, nothing. We should go to lunch. Come on," said Ema shiftily, starting to hop from one foot to the other. Ari recognized that action as the lying dance. Ema had not been driven to it in years, but Ari remembered that Ema's parents could always tell when she was lying because of the lying dance.

"Fine," said Ari shortly. "No need to tell me. I guess it probably doesn't concern me anyway. Nothing does these days, right?" She stormed out of the room.

~

"Um, so much for not giving anything away," said Ema, staring after Ari. "I guess we shouldn't have acted so angry at each other."

"Really?" said Jamie sarcastically. "I never would have guessed."

Ema sighed. "We're idiots. We should have just told her."

"Yeah," agreed Jamie. "We kept it from her to avoid upsetting her, and now we've upset her even more."

"Damn it," was Ema's muffled response, causing Jamie to flick her ear. "Come on," said Ema. "Let's go down to lunch. And let's tell her, okay?"

~

"That's not good," said Ari after listening to Jamie's and Ema's rapid explanation of what was happening with Ronnie.

"Well, maybe," said Ema.

"Why do you keep acting like it's fine?" snapped Jamie, glaring at Ema.

Ari sensed the tension between her friends and tried to break in, but Ema beat her to it.

"Because," she hissed, "Ronnie has never had any space in her life, and now her dad's giving her some. And, yes, he's not being exactly nice about it, but at least he won't be in control of her this summer."

"He said he doesn't care about her!" exclaimed Jamie shrilly.

"He admitted that he was wrong to keep her there all the time!" responded Ema loudly.

"He did not and you know it," snapped Jamie.

"New topic, please," said Ari.

"If you think it's okay for a father to do that to his daughter -"

"She said a new topic, Jamie."

There was silence while Jamie and Ema determinately stared anywhere but at each other. Ari looked intently at the teachers' table, watching Professor Flitwick laughing at something Professor Katkin had just said. She found it hard to believe that anyone could be cheerful today.

"Jamie," said Ema, cutting through Ari's thoughts. "I'm sorry."

It was quite unusual for Ema to apologize first and Ari looked up in surprise. Not only had Ema apologized before Jamie, but Ari had not had to yell, scream, or plead with her to do so. She looked at Jamie to see her reaction.

Jamie too looked shocked. "It's okay," she said. "I guess we're both a bit on edge."

"You've set a record," said Ari, raising her eyebrows.

"What?" said Ema.

"Only -" Ari glanced at her watch "- three minutes that you didn't talk to each other. And I was expecting a full-blown dual."

"Shut up, DeLingues," muttered Ema sounding embarrassed.

"Hey, idea," said Ari, ignoring Ema. "Why don't we get to work on our costume tonight? Everyone else has."

"What are we going to be?" asked Ema, apparently quite over her three seconds of embarrassment.

"I don't know," said Jamie. "I thought Joey told people what was left. Let's ask."

"Oy, Joey!" shouted Ema at the top of her lungs.

"Shush!" hissed Ari exasperatedly. "We're not supposed to tell what's up in Ravenclaw, you idiot."

"Sorry," whispered Ema, who did not know how to whisper.

"Joey," said Jamie quietly as Joey approached them. "What are we supposed to be?"

"We need..." Joey looked around quickly then checked a list. "Can you put two to a costume? That's what most people are doing." When the three of them nodded, Joey continued. "Okay, we need two of you to be a bald eagle and two to be a turkey vulture. Okay, fight amongst yourselves now."

"How unfair is that?" asked Jamie as Joey walked away. "Two of us get to be a great beautiful majestic eagle, and the other two a turkey vulture? Where is the justice in the world?"

"Nonexistent," said Ema, digging into her lunch at last. "We'll have to play mercy for it."

"What's mercy?" asked Jamie.

"You're kidding, right?" asked Ari. "Only the best game in the world."

"Ari and I used to play it whenever we argued about something. Our parents killed us afterwards, of course, but it was fun."

"Oh, great. I don't even want to know," grumbled Jamie. "I have a better idea. Why don't all four of us work on each costume and then we can switch off who wears each one?"

"I still think we should mercy for it," muttered Ema.

"Good idea, Jamie," said Ari. "Let's go. Can't be late for Herbology."

~

Ronnie reappeared halfway through Herbology looking pale but pretty cheerful. "What'd I miss?" she whispered, sitting between Ari and Jamie and picking up dragon dung fertilizer.

"This," said Jamie, "is a..."

"I don't think that's what Ronnie meant, was it?" asked Ema.

"Right," said Ronnie, grinning.

"You missed Jamie and Ema not wanting to tell me about what happened in Potions, hissing like geese, and nearly causing the third world war to break out between them," said Ari.

"Interesting," said Ronnie, nodding serenely.

"Very," agreed Ari. "How you doing?"

"Fine," said Ronnie looking away.

"Fine?" said Ari skeptically.

"Fine...ish," said Ronnie.

"That's not fine," said Ema.

"Fine with an ish," snapped Ronnie.

"More fine or more ish?" asked Jamie.

"For the love of God! Leave me alone!" said Ronnie, laughing in spite of herself. But Jamie and Ema wouldn't let up, and only stopped during dinner when Ronnie flicked a large spoonful of mashed potato and gravy into their faces.

~

Late that night saw the four Ravenclaw girls tangled in spellotape and feathers, with Magic, Ronnie's eagle, soaring gleefully around them while they tried without success to make a shape out of the ridiculous pile of materials.

"If we manage to make anything out of this," said Jamie, laughing hysterically, "it will be a miracle, let alone making an eagle and vulture."

Ari looked thoughtfully at the pile - or as thoughtfully as was possible when she too was nearly crying with laughter - she thought somehow that if she could just tape those two pieces...

"I got it!" she shouted, making everyone jump. Practically swimming through the rubble, she reached the pieces she wanted and, with much difficulty, managed to tape them together. "Look! We've got wings!"

"Good going, Ari," Ronnie said in a muffled voice from under a pile three feet high.

"Will you four keep it down?" asked a tired voice. They looked around to see Joey Moralez glaring at them.

"Hey, this is your costume," said Ema.

"She means we're doing this for you," said Ari.

"As in, you told us to," said Jamie.

"But maybe we shouldn't," said Ronnie threateningly.

"You four are impossible," muttered Joey. "Really impossible. Carry on...quietly. Some of us are trying to sleep."

She stalked back upstairs. The second years waited until she was gone, determinately avoiding each others' eyes, before bursting into laughter.