ALENA WAS THE FIRST TO WAKE UP IN HER DORMITORY THE NEXT MORNING. She laid for a moment watching the dust swirl in the ray of sunlight that beamed through her window. Judging by the silence and the freshly minted look of that beam of sunlight, it was just after daybreak. Getting out of her bed, she headed out of the dormitory and towards the common room.
She knew better than this. Alena was smart, but not in this instant. The Codex had clouded her mind and suddenly, all she knew was the temptation of reciting those spells.
Before she knew it, she had settled herself downstairs in the common room, reading these spells. Half an hour had passed and Alena's focus wasn't on anything except for the book of spells. Her body had slowly levitated itself, hovering over the carpet floor. Purple spheres of magical energy filled her hands, the book floating in front of her. Her irises turned the same shade of purple as violet wisps surrounded her.
"The Eternal Mage is not born, she is forged," Alena muttered, her wrists moving slowly in a figure-eight fashion. "She has no coven or need for incantation. Your power exceeds that of the Grandmaster—"
Before she could finish, Harry descended from the boys dormitory.
"Hi, darling," he greeted, seeing Alena floating absentmindedly above the ground in the common room.
Alena snapped out of her meditation state, blinking a few times, she floated safety onto the ground. "Hi, love," she greeted, absorbing The Codex into her hand, streams of purple energy trailed with it.
"What're you doing down here so early?"
"I could ask you the same," the witch chuckled. "I just had to get up before Lavender and Pavarti, and I wanted to work on some new spells."
Harry settled himself down comfortably and unrolled his parchment whilst looking around the common room. The detritus of crumpled-up bits of parchment, old Gobstones, empty ingredient jars, and sweet wrappers that usually covered the common room by then end of the day, was gone, as were all of Hermione's elf hats.
