Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Another vision

The Hogwarts grounds never looked more inviting than when Kirra had to stay indoors. For the next few days she spent all of her free time either in the library with Jasper, Theo and Mattheo, looking up hexes, or else in empty classrooms, which they sneaked into to practice.

Kirra was concentrating on the Stunning Spell, which she was already really good at. The trouble was that practicing it involved certain sacrifices on Theodore and Jasper's part.

"Can't we kidnap Mrs. Norris?" Jasper suggested on Monday lunchtime as he lay flat on his back in the middle of their Charms classroom, having just been Stunned and reawoken by Kirra for the fifth time in a row. "Let's Stun her for a bit. Or you could use Dobby, Kirra, I bet he'd do anything to help you. I'm not complaining or anything" — he got gingerly to his feet, rubbing his backside — "but I'm aching all over. . . ."

"Well, you keep missing the cushions, don't you, you idiot," said Mattheo with a small smirk, rearranging the pile of cushions they had used for the Banishing Spell, which Flitwick had left in a cabinet. "Just try and fall backward!"

"Once you're Stunned, you can't aim too well mate!" said Jasper angrily. "Why don't you take a turn?"

"Well, I think Kirra's got it now, anyway," said Mattheo hastily. "And we don't have to worry about Disarming, because she's also been able to do that for ages. . . . I think we ought to start on some of these hexes this evening."

Mattheo looked down the list they had made in the library.

"I like the look of this one," he said, "this Impediment Curse. Should slow down anything that's trying to attack you, Kirra. We'll start with that one."

"Come on guys, is this really necessary? I know so mu-"

The bell rang. They hastily shoved the cushions back into Flitwick's cupboard and slipped out of the classroom.

They headed toward North Tower, making their way to Divination. Broad strips of dazzling gold sunlight fell across the corridor from the high windows. The sky outside was so brightly blue it looked as though it had been enameled.

"It's going to be boiling in Trelawney's room, she never puts out that fire," said Theodore as they started up the staircase toward the silver ladder and the trapdoor.

"Tell me about it. I like the warm, but its even too much for me," Kirra complained with a small sigh

He was quite right. The dimly lit room was swelteringly hot. The fumes from the perfumed fire were heavier than ever. Kirra's head swam as she made her way over to one of the curtained windows. While Professor Trelawney was looking the other way, disentangling her shawl from a lamp, she opened it an inch or so and settled back in her chintz armchair, so that a soft breeze played across her and her friends faces. It was extremely comfortable.

"My dears," said Professor Trelawney, sitting down in her winged armchair in front of the class and peering around at them all with her strangely enlarged eyes, "we have almost finished our work on planetary divination. Today, however, will be an excellent opportunity to examine the effects of Mars, for he is placed most interestingly at the present time. If you will all look this way, I will dim the lights. . . ."

She waved her wand and the lamps went out. The fire was the only source of light now. Professor Trelawney bent down and lifted, from under her chair, a miniature model of the solar system, contained within a glass dome. It was a beautiful thing; each of the moons glimmered in place around the nine planets and the fiery sun, all of them hanging in thin air beneath the glass.

Kirra watched lazily as Professor Trelawney began to point out the fascinating angle Mars was making to Neptune. The heavily perfumed fumes washed over her, and the breeze from the window played across her face. She could hear an insect humming gently somewhere behind the curtain.