Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Thorned Gauntlet (The Bagsy Chronicles 1)

Eight and a Half Hours

Bagsy's eyes flew open to find herself sitting at her desk in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Fitzsimmons was sitting on a chair opposite her, their big, dark eyes fixed on her. Bagsy's strange dream began catching up with her. She felt shocked, thinking over her own actions, at how un-Bagsy they had been. If she didn't know herself better, she'd say she'd acted... competently. Then the image of that creature appeared in her mind again, and panic rose up her throat like bile.

'Drink this.' Professor Fitzsimmons offered her a vial. Bagsy didn't question it and drank. 'Very trusting,' they commented.

'Sorry.'

'It's not a bad thing.' Fitzsimmons stood up and walked over to one of the windows, the world beyond it dark. Bagsy felt something like jetlag hit her and looked cautiously at the empty vial she'd just drunk from. 'What you're feeling isn't because of what you drank,' Fitzsimmons explained, as if reading Bagsy's mind. 'It's a side effect of the spell I put you under. Your mind has experienced a few minutes, maybe half an hour at the longest, when in reality, eight and a half hours have passed.'

'Eight and a half!?' Bagsy gaped at them.

'Eight and a half, indeed.' Fitzsimmons turned around. 'That vial contained a draught of peace. Your friend, Mezrielda, told me you were prone to panic and suggested I have something prepared for your awakening.'

'F-Friend?'

Fitzsimmons sat down opposite her, their brown and cream robes splayed around them. 'You, Bagsyllia, are an exceptional child.'

Bagsy was still dreaming. She had to be. There was no way Professor Fitzsimmons, the Head Professor, was calling her exceptional. 'There must be some mistake – I can't... I mean...'

Fitzsimmons waited patiently as Bagsy stumbled over her words, blinking their large, dark eyes. 'I will explain more next week, Bagsyllia. For now, you have an Astronomy class you're late for. Thankfully, you only missed a Personal Study period. Not the most disastrous absence, I must admit.' They stood up, ushering Bagsy out of the room with them.

Bagsy let herself be led to the Astronomy tower, dumbfounded and silent, unable to bring herself to ask the questions chasing around in her mind.

'Professor Jones! A late arrival,' Fitzsimmons called to the Astronomy Professor. Professor Jones nodded and directed the star-struck Bagsy to a telescope two Gryffindors were looking through.

'Do your best to catch up,' Professor Jones said sympathetically. Bagsy didn't miss the odd look he shot Fitzsimmons before the Head Professor disappeared down the stairs and back inside the castle.

Bagsy heard whispers around her.

'Why did she take so long?'

'Did she fail?'

'I heard Fitzsimmons had never seen a performance so bad they made her take it three hundred times before giving up!'

Bagsy sat and let the two Gryffindors do the majority of the work, despite their best efforts to get her to join in. Eventually, they seemed to realise she was too stunned to move. One of them, Arice Allthorn, offered her his scarf and Bagsy couldn't decline. She didn't care about having the Gryffindor colours draped over her shoulders, scrunching the material in her hands and feeling the fabric helped ground her to the present.

When Astronomy ended, and the students tiredly milled out of the tower and to their dormitories, Bagsy had deep bags under her eyes and a gaunt, ghostly expression plastered on her face. She trailed at the back of the group and didn't notice, as she approached the Hufflepuff common room, someone following her.