Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Corvid Trials (The Bagsy Chronicles 2)

A Single Feather

Thanks to Greenda's prefect powers, Teresa was helpless to stop Mezrielda coming into the Hufflepuff common room and sitting in an armchair opposite Bagsy as the two took one of the rare evenings Mezrielda didn't have detention to discuss the corvid trials.

It wasn't long before they were interrupted. Neve rushed into the room and over to Teresa, who was working at one of the desks. Her eyes were red and tears were streaming down her face. She was a mess of sniffs and sobs.

'Neve!' Teresa exclaimed in surprise. 'What's wrong?'

'I-it's... it's g-gone!' Neve wailed, putting her face in her hands.

Bagsy stood up and walked over urgently. 'What's gone, Neve?' she asked, looking at Teresa worriedly.

'My d-dress!' Neve cried, pointing to the corner of the room. Bagsy saw the torso mannequin Neve had been working on a few weeks back and all the oxygen seemed to leave her lungs at the sight. The torso was bare, a few scraps of paper clinging onto the sides, most of them singed at the end, as if the whole dress had burnt into smoke.

'Oh, stars...' Bagsy breathed.

'Merlin's beard,' Teresa cursed.

Bagsy's eyes suddenly fixed on the small, black feather on top of the mannequin and she instantly marched back to Mezrielda. 'You need to leave,' she murmured in a low voice, glancing nervously towards Teresa. Mezrielda, seeing the feather on top of the mannequin, and fear sparking in her eyes at the sight, nodded and rushed towards the exit. They both knew who Teresa would assume the culprit.

'Hold it!' Teresa hissed, her wand pointed at Mezrielda, having noticed the feather as well, and instantly jumping to the conclusion that Mezrielda was responsible. 'Fix it!' she demanded, Neve a state at her side.

'I didn't touch her silly dress,' Mezrielda growled.

Teresa's eyes ignited. 'Alohomora!' she cast, pointing her wand back towards her room.

Bagsy heard a set of clicks and turns and her stomach dropped. 'Mezrielda, run!'

Mezrielda sneered. 'No spell she can cast can hurt me.'

Teresa let out a low whistle. The door to the second-year girls dorm was open, and through it came a bat, two hopping toads, three scuttling spiders of various sizes, two slithering snakes and a horde of racing ants.

'Ah.' Mezrielda winced, turning as quickly as she could towards the exit. Teresa pointed her wand at Mezrielda and her familiars chased after her.

The Hufflepuff dormitory broke into a chorus of panicked yelps and cries of disgust. Neve looked the most terrified, hiding behind Teresa. Students hopped onto armchairs and stools, trying to get away from the animals filling the room whilst Teresa stalked after her familiars in the direction Mezrielda had left.

Walking around the school with Mezrielda proved to be an intimidating affair after that. The story of Neve's destroyed dress, that she'd spent the better part of two years making, spread like the fire that had presumably destroyed it. It didn't help that rumours of Mezrielda trying to kill Emmeline, and ruining Teresa's worm farm, were resurfacing. Bagsy knew Mezrielda hadn't done any of what she was accused of, as Mezrielda told her so, but the rest of the school was unconvinced. Neve was small, timid and nerdy, and ludicrously wholesome, so the sympathy the rest of the school felt for her was shockingly strong, as was its anger towards the cruel Slytherin who would so needlessly pick on her.

Glares were shot at Bagsy and Mezrielda as they travelled from one class to the next, people scooted away from them when they sat down, or openly stood and left the table. No one paired up with them in classes, and Teresa was refusing to speak to Bagsy until she'd "left that hag of a girl behind". It made practical Herbology an awkward and difficult affair.