Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Inferno Conscription (The Bagsy Chronicles 3)

A Vow of Silence

The remainder of the Christmas Holidays were a flurry of activities. Bagsy forced herself to rise early every morning to practise quidditch. At first, it had been difficult. Her bed was so warm and Bagsy was in the habit of staying up late. It was good, then, that at some point Bagsy couldn't remember, she had decided to stay in the Slytherin common room for the rest of the holiday. Unlike herself, Mezrielda was early to rise, and also unlike Bagsy, she was very willing to force others out of bed.

'Get up,' Mezrielda's cold voice cut into Bagsy's comfortable dreaming. Bagsy groaned in protest only to find herself tugged off the bed and into the air by her ankle as Mezrielda cast a jinx on her. She was wide awake after that.

Forced to wake early every morning, Bagsy would be dragged outside by Mezrielda, who'd sit to the side of the quidditch pitch and practise wand movements without saying a word. Bagsy was still confused what use that would be.

'What are you doing?' Mezrielda asked one morning. Bagsy had set up a pole in the dirt and was hitting a ball at it over and over again. She was trying, and slowly getting better, at making the ball spin once hit with her bat, curving it through the air to hit the pole.

'Why are you waving your wand around without speaking a word?' Bagsy shot back at her friend.

'Touché...' Mezrielda trailed off, still not telling her why.

After lunch time, Bagsy would either unfold her forge out on the lawn to work under the cold but beautiful winter sun, or have the forge form as a trap door in the floor where she could huddle in the warmth as she hammered away. Blueprints were splayed on the floor around her. She slowly made progress learning the basics of smithing and, once she got the hang of that, she set straight to work on her wand training wheel and the weather machine. Her designs were intentionally simple whilst she got the hang of metal work, and she may have gained a few small burns from splash-back here and there, but all things considered, it was going very smoothly.

'Mezrielda!' Bagsy chimed one morning, 'look!'

Mezrielda placed her spoon delicately down, pausing in her consumption of cereal, as Bagsy imagined she'd describe it. 'What has you so... exuberant this morning?'

'Exuberant?' Bagsy paused, not recognising the word, then shook her head. 'Whatever, forget that. Look!' She held a perfectly smooth, perfectly formed, thin silver band out to Mezrielda.

Mezrielda frowned. 'I'm too young to marry,' she said plainly.

Bagsy flushed, then flustered over her words. 'It's n-not a wedding ring, you dolt! It's a wand training wheel.'

'This looks very official,' Mezrielda murmured, taking the wand training wheel and turning it over in her hand.

Bagsy, feeling impatient, snatched it back and slotted it over her hornbeam wand. 'Let's see how it does!' she cheered excitedly. She was finally going to be able to cast a spell, after all these years!

'Bagsy, are you sure–'

'Lumos!' Bagsy's wand vibrated dangerously for half a second before there was a bright, uncontrollable flash. She found herself thrown backwards and onto the floor, letting out a cry of surprise.

'–that's the best idea...' Mezrielda finished slowly, looking with concern down at her. Bagsy propped herself up on her elbows and let out a sigh. Even with a perfect wand training wheel, and she just knew it was perfect, she still couldn't cast spells.

'It's useless,' Bagsy grumbled, the sounds of crying edging into her voice as she tore the wand training wheel off and chucked them angrily away onto the floor by her feet.