Eshu's Daughter

Ch. 9 - Borrowed Time

For a moment Kit considered turning right around and pretending she hadn't seen Ellie sitting there. But then, as she watched the way Ellie's shoulders drooped as she rested her head dispiritedly against the stone balustrade, anger coursed through Kit, pressing her feet forward. Before she knew it she was standing in front of Ellie and glaring down at her.

"We agreed." Kit snapped. "We said that was it. No more waiting around for her. No more trying to talk to her. We were just going to let it go."

Ellie jumped guiltily. "I'm not waiting for Verity," she said not meeting Kit's eyes. "I was just - tired and wanted to sit down for a minute."

"And the fact that it's one o' clock on Sunday is a coincidence?" Kit said, firing the words at her. "The fact that you've just happened to be sitting here for the past three Sundays in a row is a coincidence?"

Ellie's eyes narrowed. "You're here."

"I miss Verity as much as you do," Kit said, the words quiet and lethal. "But she obviously doesn't miss us. You can wait here every Sunday for a year and she still won't be coming through that door. Let it go! We've got better things to do than wait around for some stupid Slytherin to stop being a sulky brat."

"She's our friend," Ellie said stubbornly. "We can't just give up on her. It hasn't been that long, she'll change her mind."

"She was our friend and it's been a month."

"You don't have faith in anyone at all," Ellie accused.

"I have plenty of faith, but I save mine for people that matter," Kit hissed. "You're too ready to throw yours after someone that doesn't deserve it."

"Maybe I think she does deserve it!"

"She's a Slytherin!" Kit shouted, wanting to storm and rage and shake Ellie until she understood.

"And you're a Hufflepuff, but where's your bloody loyalty!"

Kit threw up hands. "Fine! Waste your afternoon here. When you get tired of staring at the walls, I'll be in the library." Before Ellie could answer, Kit stomped up the stairs refusing to look back.

***

Kit stared at her transfiguration book. It was as if the words had suddenly become a foreign language. She'd been trying to read the first line of chapter five for fifteen minutes now without success. She kept getting hung up on easy words like 'the' and 'basic.' She had stared at them so long that they were no longer words, just a rough collection of letters mocking her and whispering back every syllable of the fight she and Ellie had just had. Was she wrong?

No. There was no way. Ellie hadn't been in this situation before perhaps, but it was a familiar one to Kit. People turned on you, friends, classmates, teachers even; they were all just waiting to turn their backs and walk away the second they learned you were different.

So what if Verity wasn't one of the ones sneering at them in the halls? She wasn't speaking to them either. Perhaps she was calling them names in her dorm with her snarky, stuck-up friends. Yah, they were probably all sitting around laughing at the stupid little Muggle-borns hanging out in the entry hall every Sunday like pathetic losers.

Why couldn't Ellie see that? Why couldn't she just accept that Verity was never going to be their friend? Suddenly, Kit was jerked out of her thoughts as a snapshot was shoved under her nose. She blinked and looked up to find Colin beaming at her.

"Hey Kit! Good luck running into you, huh?" Colin slid into the seat across from her. "I thought I'd have to wait till Potions to give you and Ellie these but you can have them now." He grinned as though bestowing a great gift and eagerly pressed several more photos toward Kit.

She glanced down at the first photo, bewildered. Her expression changed to one of shock and then horror as she finally understood what she was looking at. Kit stared as she watched a miniature version of herself being chased around one of the potions tables by a line of animals. Snape stood nearby his face apoplectic with rage as the bizarre race continued. Finally, the miniature Kit fell against the desk panting for breath and the animals clamored at her feet, the cats raising on their back legs and pressing paws to her robes, the owls settling on the table beside her and the rats nibbling at her shoes. Miniature Snape stormed over and made a slashing movement with his hand scattering the owls and sending the other animals reeling back. Kit flipped the photo over before she could see anymore.

"It's great, isn't it?" Colin exclaimed, bouncing in his seat. "Brennan showed me a potion to make them move. Don't you want to see the others?" He pulled the other photos out from under the first and eagerly showed Kit another.

"Here's Orva getting hexed," Colin said with glee. Kit stopped trying to ease away and peered with interest at the photo. Spencer was bent over with laughter, one hand clutching his belly, the other clinging to the wall, his wand still in evidence. Orva stood nearby with her schoolbag discarded at her feet. She was trying her best to cover her face, but it didn't seem to be doing much good. Every single inch of her appeared to be covered in thick brown fur.

Kit whooped so loudly that Madam Pince sprang up from her desk sending a pile of books crashing to the floor. "This is a library!" the librarian snarled.

"Sorry Ma'am," Kit called earning another glare. She ducked her head quickly and tried not to burst into laughter again as she glimpsed Orva's furry face.

"That's awesome, Colin," she whispered.

His smile grew impossibly wide. "There's one more," he said pulling another photo from under Orva's. "I was taking pictures of the lake and didn't even realize I'd gotten you in the frame until I developed these."

Kit's laughter was snatched right out of her chest. There, sitting on the banks of the lake and laughing together, were Ellie, Verity and Kit. It was the first meeting of the Jelly Bean Society and the three of them looked so happy that Kit wanted to cry. This was why Ellie was waiting in the entry hall every Sunday. This was why Kit was still mad. Because, even if they had only been friends for two precious weeks, they had been close. They had laughed and played and shared secrets. And Verity's silence had ripped all that to tatters.

"Thanks, Colin," Kit choked out.

Standing, she took the picture from him, as the three girls fell in a laughing heap at some joke one of them had told. She shut the photos in her Transfiguration book and shoved it unceremoniously into her school bag. Homework would have to wait; she needed to find Ellie and apologize.

***

Toby was waiting for Kit when she arrived in the great hall Wednesday morning. He sat in a happy, windswept heap beside the cutlery and eyed the doors expectantly. A contented rumble rippled through him as Kit slid into her usual spot.

"Morning," Kit said, stroking his cheek and edging her goblet away from the wing tips he was stretching out importantly.

"He's got a letter," Ellie noted, sliding onto the bench beside Kit and glancing mechanically at the Slytherin table. Verity's back was facing them as it always did.

Kit pulled the ribbon bound notebook paper from Toby's leg and passed the ribbon absently to Ellie.

"Keep it," Ellie said, looking dolefully at the bright yellow hair ribbon. "You'll just borrow it again tonight when you send your parents another note."

"Hmmm," Kit muttered, not paying attention at all. The ribbon fell to the table, one end trailing into a bowl of porridge. Ellie made a disgusted noise and drew it out, saying a quick Cleaning Charm to repair the damage.

"You know," Kit said after a minute, "this is the first letter they've written me since we've been here. You'd think they'd have a bit more to say than 'We're doing well.' And look," Kit thrust the paper under Ellie's nose making her slide backwards to avoid being smacked, "Mom's scrawled 'Are you sure you don't want to come home?' across the bottom."

Ellie nodded her head unhelpfully and attempted to look sympathetic.

"Honestly," Kit grumbled. "You'd think I was five the way she goes on. As if I don't write them every day telling them how much I like it here. Do I want to come home!" She stared moodily at her porridge and ignored the hopeful way Toby was eyeing her toast.

"Ahem," said a stern voice behind Kit. "I would like a word Miss Ellsington."

Kit wheeled around to find Professor McGonagall regarding her over the top of her spectacles. Her mouth was drawn in a thin line and Kit tried desperately to recall what she might have done to warrant a visit from the Transfiguration teacher. She was still having trouble in class, but she didn't think she'd been doing that badly.

"Yes Professor," Kit said, jumping to her feet.

The Professor nodded at the other Hufflepuff girls and then marched out of the hall with Kit trailing behind. Annemette and Ellie were both staring after her and theirs weren't the only curious eyes following Kit. For a moment her eyes locked with Verity's. Kit wrenched her gaze back to the professor's pointed hat, determined not to acknowledge the concern she'd glimpsed.

Professor McGonagall and Kit wound through the entryway and up several staircases to what Kit could only presume was the professor's office. It looked as if the room had been attacked by a mad kilt. Tartan material peeked from trinket box tops on the bookshelves, lazed on stately chair cushions, and hung in a discreet swath across the fireplace mantle framing a gleaming house cup. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and Kit's attention snapped back to her.

"I must speak with you about your use of the school owls Miss Ellsington," the professor said, motioning her to a seat.

Kit settled on the very edge of the cushion so that she wasn't sitting so much as crouching. "The owls?" she asked.

"Yes, the owls. We seem to be having some difficulty with one of them."

"Not, Toby?" Kit guessed wildly.

Kit thought she saw the professor's lips twitch as though holding back a smile. But her face looked much too forbidding for that.

"We most certainly do not have any owls named Toby," Professor McGonagall said. "I am speaking of Pericles, the owl sitting beside your place setting this morning. Although if you've been calling him Toby that might explain why he is refusing to answer to his name any longer."

Kit stared at her. "But I haven't been using Tob- uh - Pericles very much. He's only done a couple of deliveries to my parents for me. I have to use a lot of different school owls, because my parents want a letter every day."

"While that may be Miss Ellsington, Pericles has been at the Hufflepuff table every morning since you arrived here. He will no longer carry deliveries for other students, or even," she said with a grimace, "faculty members. He will not answer to his name nor remain in the owlery between deliveries. He has been caught twice trying to sneak into the Hufflepuff dormitories."

Kit looked stricken. She'd had no idea Toby was acting so strangely. In truth she'd gotten used to seeing him beside her breakfast each morning and often used other owls, not because of the length of the journey, but because she missed Toby when he was gone. And now they were both in trouble.

"I'm so sorry professor. I haven't asked him to do any of that. I've been calling him Toby because I didn't know his name. He seemed to like it."

"Apparently so," Professor McGonagall said. "Frankly, I'm at a loss as to how to rectify this situation."

"I could talk to him," Kit offered, feeling foolish. Could you reason with an owl?

"Unless you have learned to speak owlese, or Pericles has developed some higher brain functions I am unaware of, I can not see how that will help. I presume neither of those is the case?"

"No," Kit mumbled into her chest.

"Owls are smart creatures and can understand simple instructions. Human logic and reasoning, however, are quite beyond them. Talking with Pericles will accomplish nothing. Given that, I don't see any other course-" Professor McGonagall said.

Kit looked up, alarmed. "You're not going to toss us out or something are you?" she asked.

"Don't be ridiculous," the professor said dryly. "Pericles refuses to perform the functions of a school owl, therefore he will cease to be one."

"But-" Kit interrupted, leaping to her feet.

"Please allow me to finish. If your parents do not object I propose that you undertake Pericles' care."

Kit didn't understand at first and when her brain finally caught up with the professor's words her lips were even slower to do so. "I can have Toby?" She rasped out after a long pause. "To keep?"

"I trust you have no objections?" Professor McGonagall said, raising her eyebrows.

Kit fell back into her chair and grinned at the professor. "No, I'd love to have him. I'm sure my parents will say yes. I'll owl them right now." Kit shot back to her feet and was halfway through the door when the professor's voice stopped her.

"Miss Ellsington, please try not to let this happen with any of the school's other creatures. We would prefer to keep a few of them."

***

Life changed very little for Toby now that he was Kit's. She didn't have a cage for him and there were no windows in the Hufflepuff dorms, so he had to remain in the owlery. He seemed to understand though when she told him that he could be her owl if he liked. Rather than standing beside her plate, he spent many mornings resting on her shoulder. At first Puck objected to Toby's new perch with his usual jealous snarls and growls but after a week he gave up and took out his frustrations on Kit's pillows at night. She was a positive expert on the Repairing Charm with all the practice she was getting.

Toby wasn't the only one Puck was unhappy with. He seemed to have developed an aversion to certain individuals. He insisted on snarling fiercely every time Lockhart came within two feet of Kit. She couldn't understand how Puck could remain silent as a stone when Snape was sneering over her cauldron but erupted into a battle cry at the vaguest hint of Lockhart's self-congratulatory voice. Stupid knarl had no taste. Lockhart may have been more puffed up than a pouter pigeon but at least he didn't have the sadistic need to reduce his students to tears.

Kit was studying so hard in an effort to keep up in Potions and Transfiguration that she didn't have as much free time as she would have liked. Still, she managed to sneak an hour or two each week to practice flying in the largest room of the Sett. There were a dozen school brooms that had been "borrowed" over the years for just that purpose. Kit selected the straightest of them and flew up into the air.

She loved the feeling of hanging suspended there, of feeling the air moving over her face as she flew forward. Problem was, she wasn't very good at flying even if she did love it. The darn broom seemed to get in her way and always shot left when she wanted to go right or up when she wanted to go down. Just now she found herself hanging upside down with her robes billowing below her as she clung desperately to the broom handle. She'd been trying to do a barrel roll and gotten stuck halfway around.

"If that's the Sloth Grip Roll you're attempting you might want to add some more roll. But I'd say you've got the sloth grip just about right," called a hearty voice from below her.

Kit couldn't resist a groan. Graham. Of all the people to find her like this why did it have to be Graham? "Just wanted to see the ceiling from this angle," she said sweetly.

Her face felt flushed from the blood rushing to it and she glared down at him, a rather large bleary outline as sweat was running into her eyes. It wasn't easy fighting gravity and maintaining her grip on the broom handle.

"You know you're holding that handle all wrong?" Graham said.

Kit ground her teeth. "Graham would you mind passing out tips later, I'm a tad busy here." Puck growled as though to second that. His pouch hung away from her body like a charcoal raindrop.

"I can see that. Need some help then?" Graham said, tilting his head back to get a better look at her.

"No, it's OK. I want to hang here all day, it'll build up my arms you know," Kit snarled, doing an excellent imitation of Puck.

"Ohh, well if you're serious then," Graham said, sounding bewildered. He moved as if to leave the room and Kit had to bite back a shriek of frustration.

"Graham, I am going to become a large splat on the floor if you don't get up here and help me."

"What? But you just said you didn't-"

"I was joking!" Kit yelled, losing the slim pretense of civility she'd been clinging to. She could feel her hands becoming slick and slipping slightly on the handle. Real fear was beginning to replace her annoyance. "Just get me down, and hurry!"

"Why didn't you just say so," Graham grumbled, snatching a broom and flying up beside her. "People should say what they mean. Stupid not to, how's anyone supposed to know when to take you seriously if you don't. It's a lack of manners, that's what it is," he rambled. His round face was screwed up in a scowl so that he resembled an angry cherub with its blond hair lightly mussed.

"Graham, if you're done telling me off do you think you could flip the broom over?"
Kit said in an even voice. She had the maddest urge to remove both hands from the handle and slap them over his mouth. Didn't he ever shut up?

"There's no need to get shirty with me," Graham said, scowling even more. He grabbed the end of her broom and gave it an agile spin. In seconds Kit found herself upright - the blood rushing back into her numb limbs.

"Thanks," she said, righting her robes and tucking Puck's pouch back against her hip. "I appreciate the help."

"You really ought to keep both hands on the broom handle when you're in the air, you know," Graham said. He was back to smiling now that she'd thanked him. "According to the Office of Magical Mishaps, 30% of flying accidents are caused by people not gripping their brooms properly."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kit said. She was trying very hard to remember that Graham had just helped her out. His pompous know-it-all manner always tweaked her temper and making an idiot of herself just now wasn't helping either.

"Well that's alright, you can't be expected to know these things. You're new to the magical world. But see here, there really are a lot of things you need to pay attention to and basic flight safety is one of them. Now I know that Madam Hooch didn't cover it in class but you should always have a flight mate with you when you're just learning to fly. Helps avoid nasty accidents like the one I walked in on. Lucky I was passing really." Graham looked at her earnestly and sat straighter on his broom. "You can ask me next time you want to practice. I know loads about flying, been in the air since I could walk. You couldn't find a better flight mate I'll wager."

Kit's face had gone slack with horror. Willingly spend her free hour listening to Graham lecture her on how not to fly? She'd rather waltz with Snape. And he was still talking. He didn't even appear to pause for breath, just kept up one long endless stream of babble until Kit wanted to scream just to make him stop.

"Graham," she interrupted, "I'm done in. I'm going back to my dorm room and having a rest."

Graham looked as if she'd stolen the last lollipop. "But I thought you wanted to practice flying?"

"I've had enough tonight." Kit tilted her broom handle down. To her relief she only stumbled slightly on the landing and managed not to fall over.

"You're holding your legs too stiff when you come in," Graham called from behind her.

Kit threw a harassed smile over her shoulder, tossed her broom into a nook with the others and dashed out of the room before Graham could catch up with her. She didn't stop running until she'd reached the girls' dorm and collapsed on her bed.

Ellie looked up from the magazine she'd been reading. "What's with the Billy Whizz impression?"

"Graham," Kit said, knowing she didn't have to add anything else.

Jynx giggled, laying aside her Charms book. "And you escaped? You have to teach us your secret. Did you hex him, use a Silencing Charm, bind his shoes to the floor?"

"Actually, I used an old Muggle trick I'm rather fond of," Kit said, smiling. "I ran, and didn't stop for anything."

Ellie laughed, "Do you suppose the teachers will wonder why we've started dashing around the castle all of a sudden? But I mean, if that's the only way to avoid a lecture on how to properly grind scarabs," she shrugged, "what's a girl to do?"

***

"So is anyone dressing up tomorrow?" Kit asked at dinner Friday night.

"You don't have to wear dress robes to the feasts, nobody does," Merrilee said between bites of kidney pie.

"No, for Halloween."

"Don't have to wear dress robes for that either," chimed in Jynx, considering the platter of drumsticks in front of her.

"Not robes. You know, a costume. People do dress up in costume for Halloween over here, don't they?" Kit asked.

"Yeah, Spencer and I use to dress up sometimes. We're a bit old for it now though, don't you think?" Ellie said. She slid the platter of drumsticks out from under Jynx's poised hand and snagged one for herself.

"Why would anyone dress in costume for Halloween?" Merrilee peered at them as if they'd gone crazy.

"Well, for fun I guess," Kit said. "And candy of course."

"Come again?" Merrilee choked.

"On Halloween, Muggle kids go around their neighborhoods in costumes and people give them candy," Kit said.

"I do miss that part," Ellie said, resting her elbows on the table and staring up at the enchanted ceiling dreamily. "Chocolate almond bars," she sighed, "I used to snitch all of them before we got home. Spencer never did figure it out."

"But why would people give you candy?" Merrilee persisted.

"Because it's what you do on Halloween," Kit said. "So I guess it's not like that in the wizarding world?"

"No, we just have parties and stuff. There's always loads of candy and desserts there." Jynx said. "It seems like a lot less work than your way."

"And a lot less fun," Kit muttered, staring moodily at her carrots. OK so maybe she was a little old to be dressing up, but there was just something about slipping into a costume that was magic. Score one for the real world, Kit thought. Course right now it was like one to a hundred thousand so the magical world was still winning.

"What did you dress up as?" Calliope asked, breaking her usual silence.

"Lots of things. Last year I dressed as a-" Kit paused and looked at the others with a blush, "well I dressed as a witch actually. Had a little broom and everything."

Ellie giggled. "You didn't?"

"Afraid so," Kit confessed. "I had the most lovely spider web cape too."

Ellie paused in her giggles to throw an appraising look at the other girls. "Well, what if we sort of … adjusted ourselves some for tomorrow?" she asked. Seeing their confusion she continued, "Not full costumes or anything because we don't want to look like prats, but we could do up our hair and stuff. I've some skeleton earrings someone can borrow, those butterfly hairclips would be great and I think I may have a bat pin somewhere. We can improvise the rest. Anyone up for it?"

"I'm in," Kit said with a grin.

"I suppose," Annemette said, trying to look bored and ruining the effect by leaning so far forward her hair was in the soup bowl.

"It might be fun," Merrilee said with a happy bounce. Calliope nodded her head like the good little marionette she was. Really, Kit thought, would it kill Calliope to have an independent thought?

"Sure," Jynx added with an eager smile. "I could look up some charms to help things along." She didn't seem to notice everyone's smiles grow strained.

Kit leaned close to Ellie when the others were engrossed in their food again. "We'll spend the whole night trying to reattach our hair after she's blasted it off if you don't come up with a plan to keep her wand out of commission."

***

In an effort to placate Jynx and spare everyone her special brand of magic the girls decided to each look up a charm for that night. To that end they were clustered in the library flipping through books with titles like Glamours for the Modern Witch. Ellie had managed to borrow a stack of magazines from one of the older students and Kit was searching the pages of Which Witch for inspiration.

"Here's one," Kit paused on a page showing a smiling witch whose head appeared to have been dipped in a vat of glitter. "Perhaps with a little less - erm - sparkle but this Stardust Charm looks good."

Ellie leaned over and glanced at the beaming photograph. "No," she shook her head. "Too obvious. You'd blind everyone in the great hall if you arrived looking like that."

"Well fine. What have you found then?" Kit huffed, pulling her book back from Ellie.

"How about this," Ellie replied, flipping her own book around. A witch with her hair twisted into tiny loops with silver spiders artfully arranged throughout looked up at them serenely.

Kit hated to admit it, but she was impressed. "Yeah, I like that," she said. "It's very - witchy. In a classy way."

Ellie marked the spell with a spare quill and returned to flipping pages. Nearby Jynx had become engrossed in a book of fire curses and appeared to have forgotten the reason they were in the library all together. Beside her, Merrilee and Calliope were huddled over another book and Annemette paged idly through a magazine on enchanting hair treatments.

That night it was hard to hear the various spells being cast around the room amid the flurry of giggles. They kept messing up and having to redo each other's charms. Jynx had managed to turn her hair an inky black, which was fine except Kit knew she'd been trying for pumpkiny-orange. Ellie refused to help her switch it back.

"Black is perfect," Ellie insisted. She swatted Jynx's hand away from her wand. "Look how well it goes with these skeleton earrings. Orange wouldn't work nearly as well." The skeletons danced and kicked, grinning miniature toothy smiles as Ellie held them out to Jynx. Jynx eyed them uncertainly.

Kit stopped watching the two of them and turned back to her bed. Puck sat in the middle watching the girls hurrying about the room and lazily shredding a ribbon. Sidling closer, Kit kept her hands well hidden behind her back. When she was right beside Puck she sprang, moving so quickly he never had a chance. In moments she had the black and orange ribbon tied in a jaunty bow around his neck. He didn't react at first but then with a snarl he swiveled and did his best to grab the offending bow, to no avail. He spun and leapt, even flipped right over with his little paws kicking at the air. No matter how he contorted, however, he couldn't reach the bow and he finally lay panting amid the rumpled bedcovers. Kit grinned at the adorable picture he made. It was worth losing a pillow or two.

"You better take him with us or there won't be a piece of furniture standing when we get back," Ellie said, jogging across the room to begin tormenting Annemette. She had assumed the dubious role of fairy godmother tonight and was dispensing hair bobbles, charms, and a whole lot of opinions.

Ellie threw a look over her shoulder at Kit. "Hadn't you better get started? We've only got an hour till we need to be upstairs."

Kit dragged herself to the mirror over her dresser. Her hair hung limply on her shoulders, offering little inspiration. Deciding to try the Silver Spider Charm Ellie had discovered earlier, Kit snatched the book off Ellie's bed and found the right page. It was a complex spell requiring two separate incantations. Kit read them through twice before saying the first. A silver jet of light shot from her wand tip and fell over her head like a glittering net. Her mouth rounded in an "oh" of surprise as she watched her hair twist it self up in a complicated mass of curls and loops. Finally the silver mist faded.

Kit tilted her head to the side. The curls didn't budge. She rocked forward so that her forehead was almost touching the glass of the mirror. Her hair looked more like a tangle of blonde ribbons than the elegant curls of the picture, but overall the effect wasn't bad. She said the second incantation and watched silvery spiders appear throughout the curls. The spiders shifted and crawled, liquid starlight with too many legs and too many eyes. It was creepy. Smiling happily she spun around to see how the other's were faring.

"Do you think this is too bright," Annemette asked, motioning to her hair. She was wearing the tiger lily barrette Ellie had given her their first night. Except, it looked as if the barrette had melted, sending a black and orange streak streaming down one side of Annemette's pale hair.

"It looks cool," Kit said. "Really exotic."

Annemette beamed. "Thanks, I like yours t-" her eyes flicked to Kit's hair and she stopped dead. "Are those bugs?"

"Spiders," Kit said with a laugh.

"How - um - unique" Annemette gave her a pained smile and scuttled quickly away. Kit had a feeling she wasn't very fond of spiders.

"Brilliant!" Ellie exclaimed, bounding over to pirouette in front of Kit. "What do you think of mine?"

Her hair glimmered and caught the light, tiny butterfly barrettes perched haphazardly throughout. Their wings fluttered, reflecting jewel bright colors that danced and flirted with the candlelight. Ellie looked like some fey woodland sprite caught briefly straying into the mortal world and so pretty that Kit would have been jealous if it had been anyone else.

"Perfect," Kit said.

"Well then, we should all be ready. And just in time to," Ellie added with a glance at her watch. "We don't want to be late."

Ellie sent a last look at the mirror and then began shooing everyone toward the door. She paused when she passed Merrilee, making a fretful noise and fingering her wand. "Wouldn't you like just a little less orange," she pleaded. Merrilee waved her off with a smile.

Unlike Jynx, Merrilee's Color Charm had worked so well that Kit was reminded painfully of an orange traffic cone. Jack-o-lantern earrings swung from Merrilee's ears cackling evilly and she'd even charmed a twining pattern of pumpkin vine to curl down one cheek and around her neck like a choker. It was a fashion statement no one was likely to miss.

Ellie sighed and muttered something under her breath as she followed Merrilee to the door. Calliope followed close behind, looking upset at being ousted from her usual position on Merrilee's heels. Of all six girls, her appearance had changed the least. Her hair was as yellow as ever and her only concession to the night was a discreet pair of bat earrings and a matching barrette holding back one side of her hair.

Kit decided to risk Puck's wrath and snatched him from the bed, putting him in his pouch before he could retaliate for the bow. "Be good," she whispered "and I'll let you out at the feast. They'll have lots of yummy things to eat," she wheedled.

Puck growled, but only half-heartedly, the promise of a treat overcoming his need to mangle something.

***

When the girls entered the Great Hall they elicited a spate of snickers from the Slytherin table. "Look at her hair, she looks like something a pumpkin puked up."

Ellie and Kit glared at the hard-faced Slytherin girl that was sneering at Merrilee. Merrilee, however, tilted her nose in the air and sailed past the Slytherins as though she hadn't heard a word. Calliope was glaring too, but she was quick to follow Merrilee to the Hufflepuff table.

"Wow, I love your hair," Hannah Abbot said with a smile that encompassed all six of them as they slid into their seats. The girls smiled back at her. Hannah was all right, Kit thought, never too busy to help one of them with homework or give a bit of advice. Sure, she hung out with Ernie Macmillan, who was almost as much of a pompous blow-hard as Graham, but that was only a minor character flaw. Justin Finch-Fletchley seemed okay, so her taste in friends wasn't totally off.

While the others chatted Kit stared around the Great Hall, admiring the decorations. Candles glowed overhead as they always did, but tonight they cast sinister shadows over the house tables as hundreds of live bats wove in and out of them. Giant pumpkins that entire families could have comfortably lived inside floated around the hall, their faces carved into grotesque leers. Cobwebs, something Kit had never seen in the normally spotless Great Hall, hung from the ceiling arches like enormous folds of gossamer cloth. Kit shuddered for a moment, imagining the size of the spiders that must have spun them.

Much later, as Kit finished her fourth candy apple and passed Puck another piece of caramel popcorn she decided this had to be one of the best Halloweens ever. She needn't have worried about missing out on candy tonight, the tables were filled with so much of it that dentists everywhere must have been crying themselves to sleep. Kit took another sticky bite of her apple, feeling the candy coating tap her nose and leave behind a sugary splotch. She rubbed at it with a fresh napkin, having already reduced her first to an unusable mess.

Someone bumped into Kit from behind and sent her face first into her apple. She peeled the apple away from cheek with a squelch and turned around, ready for the inevitable apology. Her hand froze halfway to her face as she found herself looking up at Orva's smirking face.

"Oops, so sorry," Orva murmured over her grin. Her eyes moved with relish to the candy still stuck on Kit's cheek.

A tremble began in Kit's feet and worked its way up her body until she was shaking with rage. That hadn't been an accident and they both knew it. Just as they both knew that Kit couldn't retaliate with the teachers sitting so close by.

Orva's smirk grew wider. "Oh dear, you seem to be wearing your dessert. I do hope it comes out of your hair. Wouldn't want all those lovely little spiders to get trapped."

Ellie had turned around by now to see what was going on and she opened her mouth to yell at Orva. Kit could just imagine the insults Ellie was likely to say, and they weren't anything the teachers should be overhearing. "Leave it," Kit hissed at her. "We'll get her back later."

"Oh I'm so scared," Orva simpered. "Is the little freak gonna-"

Whatever Orva might have said was cut off abruptly by her scream as a dozen bats swooped down and began dive-bombing her head. She flung her hands over her head and cowered, still screeching, which only seemed to make the bats more ferocious in their attack. At the same time, Kit had had to seize Puck. He had launched himself at Orva from the table and would have hit his mark if Kit hadn't caught him in mid-air. He struggled and snapped, snarling as fiercely as an enraged lion in his efforts to get to the other girl.

"Stop," Kit ordered him, watching several of the teachers rounding the head table and making straight for them. Puck fell limp in her hands with a last angry snarl. Quickly she tucked him back into his pouch and turned her attention to the bats. It almost seemed a shame to stop them really. They were having such fun snatching at Orva's hair with their clawed feet, sending her into increasingly ear splitting screams. But unfortunately…
Kit threw a glance past Ellie and saw Professor McGonagall storming toward them. Kit sighed. She'd definitely have to stop them.

Focusing on the bats, Kit closed her eyes for a moment. That's enough, she thought, return to the ceiling. The screams didn't stop and Kit's eyes snapped open. The bats hadn't even slowed their dives. That's enough, stop it right now, Kit demanded silently. Nothing. "Stop it," she voiced the command this time. And still the bats refused to halt their attack. On the contrary, with a tiny thrill of fear she watched one of them wheel in the air and focus on the silver spiders still moving lazily through her curls. Its eyes gleamed and the bat fell into a dive heading right for her.

Kit opened her mouth to scream, but before she could utter so much as a squeak a blast of light shot from behind her and sent the bat crashing to the table. Quick as lightning more blasts of light shot into the air stunning each of the enraged bats and sending them plummeting to the floor. Kit found herself staring dumbly at their crumpled bodies, like tiny smashed umbrellas. Orva was huddled in a heap beside them sobbing into her robes.

"What is going on?" demanded an angry voice above Kit. She tore her eyes from the bats and looked up into Professor McGonagall's furious eyes. Professor Sprout was right behind her and looking no less upset, although much less likely to blast someone.

"I don't know," Kit said, trying to understand, herself. "They wouldn't listen," she added quietly, staring again at the bats. "I told them to stop and they wouldn't listen."

Kit looked back up and the Professor's eyes seemed to have sharpened upon her. She didn't speak for a moment however, instead her eyes moved to Kit's hair and took in the spiders still skittering through the curls.

"That is a most unfortunate adornment Miss Ellsington, given the live decorations used for the feast," Professor McGonagall said. "Clearly the bats thought those spiders were real. I suggest we fix your hair before it provokes the rest of them." The professor's eyes caught her's again and Kit had the oddest feeling that the professor didn't believe a single word she'd just said. But she couldn't possibly know what had really happened, could she?

"But professor," Ellie said, her forehead wrinkled earnestly, "those bats w-"

Kit kicked her, using the fullness of her robes to hide the sudden motion. Ellie's eyes grew wide but her mouth snapped shut immediately.

"Yes, Miss Spencer?" Professor Sprout said in her gruff, kind voice. "You have something to add?"

"No, ma'am." Ellie said, shooting Kit a sideways glance.

"Very well. Finite Incantatum," Professor McGonagall said, tapping Kit on the head with her wand. Instantly Kit felt her hair fall in straggling clumps around her shoulders, the elaborate curls and tiny spiders gone. With a final stern glance at Kit the professor turned her attention to Orva, who had been sniveling on the ground, ignored by all.

"Hospital wing, Miss Sibley," Professor McGonagall said, stooping to help Orva to her feet. "I'd say you could do with a nice Soothing Draft. Can you take her, Pomona?" she asked, turning to face Professor Sprout.

Professor Sprout, who'd been looking absently at the bats clustered on the floor, gave a small start. "What? Oh, yes, yes indeed. Poor dear," she said taking Orva's arm and patting her consolingly on the back. "You just come right along with me, then."

Professor McGonagall used a Levitation Charm to send the unconscious bats hovering into the air. She swept away, the bats gliding along like a tiny thundercloud in front of her. Kit slowly turned back to the table and the shocked eyes of her housemates.

Ellie laughed nervously. "There's candy on your cheek, Kit," she said.

Kit picked up her napkin and dabbed mechanically at her cheek.

"That was exciting," Merrilee said cheerfully. "I'm definitely not borrowing any bug barrettes for next year though."

Kit looked at Merrilee's smile in disbelief. All in all, she was grateful when the end of the feast finally came. The Hufflepuffs moved with heavy, candy-coma induced steps out of the hall. In the entryway, Kit thought she heard a commotion coming from just up the stairs but she was too tired and shell shocked to care. Ignoring the muttering, like an angry buzz of bees, she and the other Hufflepuff girls dragged down the steps to their common room.