Wonder

Chapter 4: Rousing revelations

'Password?'
'Clausura pandemus.' The Fat Lady smiled and opened as I climbed through. The common room was filled with little groups of students hanging around, chatting, or finishing some homework. In the far right corner, Jesse, Kaylee and Cameron sat at a small, round table. They were not speaking. Cameron and Jesse appeared to be writing the Charms essay, while Kaylee was leaning back with her eyes closed. She was not sleeping; she always did this when she wanted to concentrate on reading other people's minds. I walked up to her silently and wanted to nudge her, but she already opened her eyes and leaned over to me. 'Don't talk to Jesse right now,' she whispered. 'He is grumpy. The comment that Isabella made hurt him quite bad.'
Jesse had only told us about his dad last year. His father had had some dark years in which he would suddenly go rogue. He'd do crazy stuff, be incredibly angry or sad. Mrs Davis was devastated; Jesse had only been five years old and the twins three. One day, when Mr Davis had caused a great scandal on a Muggle market, some Aurors caught him. Luckily, a few had some knowledge of human psychology. That is one thing the Wizarding World really needs to improve on: their knowledge on mental health. They always believed it was a Muggle thing, but truly, it was something human. Though it was not officially declared, Mr Davis was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. During the trial at the Ministry, they said he had been under the influence of a Dark spell. It saved him from a sentence of two weeks in Azkaban; that would have destroyed him. Mr Davis secretly went to see a Muggle doctor after that and has been on prescription medication since then. No one except some friends knew that. All that came out was a couple of sensational stories by Rita Skeeter in the Daily Prophet about the event and the trial. She did not believe that he had been under a Dark spell and wrote that in the papers, but nobody would ever be able to prove that, since every official documentation said otherwise.
'He is doubting whether the rumours about his dad could be true, although he knows it's stupid,' Kaylee continued. 'Pretend not to notice, but he is writing a letter home right now.' I glanced over at Jesse and quickly averted my eyes to Cameron, as Jesse looked up. Kaylee leaned backwards again and I took a seat next to Cameron.
'Hey, patriot, what are you doing?'
He sighed and looked up. 'That horrible Charms essay. It bores me to my core. Did you already finish yours?'
'Of course.'
'Can I have it?'
'No.'
'Can I be inspired by it?'
I tutted and said: 'Maybe.'
Cameron grinned widely as I took the piece of parchment out of my school bag. 'You're a gem.'
Meanwhile, Jesse had been staring straight at Kaylee, who sat in her still position, her eyes closed, suspecting nothing. He narrowed his eyes and called her name. She started up right and looked at him blandly. 'Are you reading my mind?' he asked, dangerously monotone.
'No,' she said and smiled. But Kaylee was a terrible liar.
Jesse frowned angrily, snatched his stuff from the table and threw them in his school bag. 'You're lying. At least tell me the truth when you do. Ever heard something of privacy?' he growled.
I exhaled silently. I understood his anger and I wanted to soothe his pain somehow. 'Jesse,' I said and wanted to smooth things over, but it only set him off more.
'And she probably told you everything just now, huh? That whispering?' He took my silence as a yes. 'That is not fair!' he yelled at Kaylee. A couple of fourth years turned their heads and Jesse shot them an angry look.
'I'm sorry,' Kaylee muttered guilt-ridden.
'Stay out of my head,' he snapped, before stomping up to his dorm.
We all looked at the staircase on which he disappeared for a few seconds before returning to our occupations. 'How was detention with Stainton?' Cameron asked. I shrugged and told him what I had to do. I also told him about the weird letter that I had to write at the end, but Cameron shrugged it off. He said it was too vague to mean something. 'Maybe he was invited to join a tea club, but was offended by the members that were already in the club. It was probably some British quarrel.' Laughing, he dodged my elbow to his side.
'Cameron?' Kaylee sat up. She had continued reading minds, and apparently had ignored Jesse's request. 'Could you go up to your dorm in a bit and distract Jesse with talk about something light? I think he needs that to cheer him up. Maybe insult me as well to show him that you're on his side. And Lila, let's go to bed.'
Cameron and I were both surprised by her instructive attitude. She only did that sometimes, because she found it rude to act on other people's thoughts because of her ability. Only when she deemed it necessary or thought she could do good, did she undertake action with her knowledge. And so we did what she asked. I picked up my schoolbag and walked up the stairs to our dormitory with Kaylee. Cameron stayed seated for a bit and continued on his essay, with mine next to it.
'Is something wrong?' I asked Kaylee.
She frowned and said dreamily: 'No, but you confuse me.'
'You read my mind too?'
'Yes.' She did not apologise for it. 'You have a strong aura of being in love with someone. You have had that from the beginning of the year. But I can't seem to figure out who it is. From your behaviour, it would seem obvious that you have an eye on Cameron...' I made a surprised sound, '... but when you talk to him, you view him as a friend. With Jesse, it is the opposite way around. You seem to like him as a friend, but when you talk to him, you're thoughts are very different from how you think about Cameron. It could be neither of them, but I can also not figure out who else it could be. The only other possibility I see might be Noah, but I'm not sure about that. It seems as if you're hiding your feelings from yourself. Care to enlighten me?'
We had sat down on our beds. I had to take in what she had said for a second and all I could do was raise my eyebrows. 'What job do you want to have later?'
'I was thinking of becoming the world's first Wizarding Psychologist. I'm currently practicing a little to see if I enjoy it.' She smiled.
'I think you'd be very good at it,' I said, still in awe of the sudden analysis of my behaviour.
'Thank you! You still haven't answered my question, though.'
I hesitated whether I would answer directly and decided differently. 'What about Jesse and Cameron?' I asked. 'How do they think about me?'
'Can't tell you that. That is far too private to share with you.'
'But you shared with me how Jesse was feeling about his father just now!'
'Yes, but you aren't his father, are you? I do not share feelings of someone with the person the feelings are about. Strict rule,' she said resolutely.
I looked at her for a few seconds, slightly annoyed, and exhaled. 'Are you reading my mind at the moment?'
'Trying to.'
'What are you picking up?'
'That you definitely have an eye on someone.'
'Then that's all you'll find out,' I said and took my shoes off to change into my pyjamas. Kaylee whined disappointed. 'Please?' she asked. I shook my head and focussed on switching my thoughts between Cameron, Noah and Jesse, so she would not find out who of the three it was. She pouted and said: 'I'll find out soon enough.'
'Sadly, yes,' I sighed and pulled my covers close around me. 'Goodnight.' I chuckled as she did not say it back.

Friday afternoon had arrived and I walked up the stairs to the office of my Head of House. Jesse and Cameron had gone to the Hospital Wing to welcome Noah back, as his casts would come off now. I had apologised to Claire and she had apologised too, though it had been rather reluctantly. Kaylee still had an hour of Divination with some Slytherins. The office was close to the Prefect bathroom on the third floor. I knocked on the door and it swung open.
'Good afternoon, Lila,' said professor Longbottom. 'Please, take a seat.'
His office had the same shape as professor Stainton's, but it was much different. It was quite messy. Books were scattered in a corner, a trunk was covered with three coats. A sideboard filled solely with plants stood opposite of the small desk, which bent a little under the weight of several books and a large pile of assignments. I smiled and sat down on the simple chair in front of the desk.
He saw my gaze and said: 'I don't have much time, as you can see. I've got a lot of checking to catch up on.' He put the piece of parchment he was writing on to the side and laced his fingers together in front of him. 'I wanted to talk to you about the incident with the Bludger.'
'Yes, you said you believed it was not my fault? So the Bludger was bewitched?'
'No. I believe the Bludger was perfectly ordinary. I checked with other spectators and the Bludger had been hit around multiple times already, without actually harming anyone.'
'Okay, so... was it the bat?'
'Neither.'
'So it was me?' I didn't understand what he was getting at and it riled me up.
He sensed my irritation and apologised. 'I'm sorry, it must sound confusing. I have a theory, but it would be slightly troublesome and I do not want to concern you unnecessarily. I have discussed this matter with Harry and he too...'
I cut him off. 'Hold up. Harry as in Harry Potter?'
'Yes. He is a good friend of mine and an expert in uncovering what caused an accident, since he is the head of the Auror Department.'
'Yes, of course, I'm sorry. Continue.'
Professor Longbottom sighed. 'We believe that some magical force might have been involved. Whether it is good or bad, remains unknown. What it is exactly and what caused it, is unknown too. But we are fairly sure it either comes from inside of you or has manifested itself onto you.'
I didn't fully comprehend what he had just said. 'What?'
'Have you had any incidents like this before, that you outed an unusual and possibly unintended amount of power? Or that you felt some sort of pressure inside?'
I thought for a moment and then said: 'Well, I have asthma. So sometimes I feel like I can't breathe. Then I feel a sort of pressure on my throat.'
He stayed silent for a moment and looked at me, biting on his lip. Then he asked: 'Anything else?'
'Not that I can think of,' I responded honestly.
Professor Longbottom sat back and exhaled. 'Well, let me know if you do think of something. In the meantime, don't worry about it. And this might sound contradictory, but I'd rather not you tell your friends about this. It might cause unnecessary uproar and I think after a summer like that, we can all use some peace.'
I nodded. Over the summer, many witches and wizards had suddenly dealt with the measures the Muggle world had taken against that coronavirus. The pandemic had not affected the Wizarding world much, as we still lived quite separated from Muggles. The few who did get infected by the virus, did not get very ill. Especially Hogwarts was not endangered of an outbreak, since it was as far away from the Muggle world as possible. But during the summer vacation, we all had gone home naturally, and we suddenly lived under a strict lockdown. It had not been fun. I had been happier than ever when the end of July arrived and we could finally go back to a normal life.
I walked back downstairs and bumped into Kaylee. She did not seem to notice that I had a lot to think about and pulled me towards the Quidditch pitch. Apparently, Jesse, Cameron and Claire had gone there because Noah wanted to fly again. Kaylee joined on the stands and I fetched my broom out of the changing rooms to continue the game that we had never finished.

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This one was slightly cheesy, but I felt like I had to put in a more fun chapter. 

Also, I hope you stayed safe from the virus until now. Hold on just a little longer, better days will come :)