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

The Plan

Bagsy spent at least three of her personal studies looking up the term 'silver tongue' in the school library. There wasn't a single mention of them anywhere, and when she looked where the books under the category should be there was only empty space, or unrelated textbooks. When she tried to ask the old librarian for help, the woman simply turned away from her as if she hadn't heard, keeping her head buried in a book and out of sight, whilst the young librarian was too busy and flustered with work to be of much help, either.

Bagsy also spent all of her evenings working on upgrading the school brooms, sometimes skipping sleep entirely. She realised how clueless she really was about broom work and how much ground she had to cover before the next match, which was only four weeks away for the Hufflepuff team, when they'd be facing Ravenclaw. Building a broom from scraps turned out to be much easier than successfully and safely dismantling and upgrading an existing broom, especially when the existing broom was as poor a quality as the school brooms were.

With the work she was putting into upgrading the school brooms and the planning she and Mezrielda were making for finding the gauntlet, Bagsy was doing even worse in class than previously. Before Professor Starrett had been threatening her with remedial Charms – now she insisted she attend. Bagsy had yet to cast a single spell, let alone in Charms class, and Starrett was getting meaner by the day. In remedial classes Starrett was even worse, and it was making Mondays Bagsy's least favourite day.

'Anyone would think you have a broken wand,' Starrett spat in frustration one day, snatching Bagsy's wand out of her hand and examining it. When she found no fault she opened her palm and let the wand fall to the floor, a clumsy Bagsy trying to catch it but missing. 'Pity, I guess you're the broken one,' Professor Starrett muttered, walking over to another of the students, her high heels clacking on the wooden floor. 'Or, as I suspect is actually the case, a deceiver.' Bagsy picked up her wand and rubbed her wet eyes with her robe's sleeve.

Professor Hilkins had been kind enough not to give her remedial Transfiguration but she knew she was standing on thin ice even with the soft-spoken professor. To make matters worse, Bagsy's Astronomy was slipping, given how little time she now had to study it, and Professor Jones had told her she had to pick up doing homework again until her performance returned to normal, which only added more work load to an already overwhelmed student. At least Professor Binns didn't pay any attention to his students and Bagsy used History of Magic as an extra study period to prepare for her other classes. She ignored whatever Binns was droning on about, and madly turned from a Charms textbook to a half-written Defence Against the Dark Arts essay, whilst practising wand movements for Transfiguration below the desk. Mezrielda would look at her, bewildered and with a pinch of fear in her expression, as she worked.

Thankfully, Herbology and Potions were continuing as they always had, and acted as a respite from the frustrations Bagsy encountered in every other subject. Professor Wattleseed had been surprised Bagsy's, and technically Winifred's, living stampelia hadn't transformed over Christmas but assured the pair it was only a matter of time, and that when it did they could both expect a reward from the stampelia and from him.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was as challenging as the other subjects that required spell casting, but for the first few weeks Professor Fitzsimmons had cancelled their private sessions with Bagsy.

'I sense you are overworked,' Fitzsimmons had said after one lesson, peering through their large glasses at her. 'Keep reading that book I gave you. I have a feeling the best way for you to improve is under your own steam. Perhaps we will resume lessons one day, perhaps not. Until your other subjects improve, our sessions shall remain cancelled in favour of you getting time to rest.'

'But I need to learn spells!'

Fitzsimmons' enlarged eyes had pinned Bagsy to her seat. 'You cannot learn if you are overwhelmed. Your mental wellbeing must always come first, Bagsyllia.'