Elffire: Volume One - Secrecy and Sorcery

2nd Year - Professor Fraser

Now that I was in my second year of Hogwarts, I noticed how the atmosphere of the castle changed with the season, as October passed slowly the amount of students in the library increased and the amount of students out in the grounds went down with the temperature. The cold outside was unbearable as the warm summer blew away quickly with the wind.

The Slytherins were holding a huge grudge against the entirety of Gryffindor house after their common room erupted with frogs. There was no way to prove it was us, however the second years immediately knew who the culprits were. Fred and I had to outrun Warrington (Carter's body-guard) in the third floor corridor after he spotted us apparently following him. We escaped with as little as singed robe-hems, he was clearly in a rage and undoubtedly bragged about almost setting us on fire.

"Alvarrr..." Fred cried. "It's been weeks... We're deprived. Please give us the map back."

I rolled my eyes. "You're so over dramatic."

"Hey... It is ours. We found it fair and square." said George.

"You sound like children."

"Hello! We are." said Fred.

"Fine... I'll give it back to you, on one condition." I said.

"Anything!" cried George.

I grinned mischievously, looking out onto the shore of the black lake. "Jump in the lake, both of you."

"No way." spat George.

"Alright then... you won't get the map back."

"You yelled at us for being irresponsible and losing the map... and now you want us to do something irresponsible to gain it back?" said Fred, dumbing it down.

"Sounds about right." I nodded.

"No, not doing it. You know she'll give in eventually." George said, folding his arms.

"Ok, fine." I said, turning back to head back up to the castle as George called suddenly.

"Al! Watch out." he cried as something harsh had hit me in the back, my legs went numb, I was on the ground before I could look over at who cast the spell.

"Jelly-legs jinx," said Fred, running over.

I squirmed where I lay on the damp grass, not able to keep still. Laughter was heard surrounding us as Fred and George attempted to reverse the spell.

Once I had regained the feeling in my legs, I sat up to see Fred with his hand outstretched to help me up. There was a group of Slytherin girls and at the centre was Alicia Carter, her wand still in her hand, sniggering mischievously.

In a situation such as this, I hear my mum's words, and just walk away. However the Slytherins hadn't given me a break all term, and they just had humiliated me in front of all of these people. I felt a sudden surge of annoyance and anger.

I withdrew my wand quickly, pointing towards Carter, who didn't have an opportunity to realise what I was doing...

"Flipendo!" I yelled, the spell emitted an incredibly loud bang, Carter had flown back as if she had taken a huge blow to the stomach and landed at the foot of the tree behind her group.

Fred gasped, "What was that?"

I stared, the rest of the Slytherins and other students began to gather around her... she sat up in a daze from the tree, touching the back of her head and wincing.

"Knockback Jinx... I think I've over-reacted." I said, breathing heavily.

"Oh no..." said George.

Snape was almost flying towards the scene, his robes billowing in the wind. A Slytherin boy thrusted his arm upwards, pointing at the three of us. After ordering Carter to the hospital wing he dragged us down to his office.