Love Potion

Meeting Hester Lullaby

The following time was a blur. I was piled with robes and books and maps and timetables and directions before I could comprehend any of it. I couldn't be sure whether Spigte was making sure I didn't fall behind or actually trying to crush me with books. She made no sugar-coating in telling me the fact that I had a lot of catching up to do, and ordered me to read the five fat books of 'basic magical studies' she gave me by the end of that day, though they looked like they would take me a year, and that I would start real lessons tomorrow, and that I was in bedchamber number four of the blues doors on the sixth step landing, for sixth years, and that it password is 'random sherbet'. I also remember asking Hwelpum whether the monsters in the Maze of Discovery would truly injure a student, and how they got fed, and whether they were just stuck in there; I had been worrying about it all day. He only laughed and told me I'd get my answer in one of the books Spigte had attempted to break my spine with.

And now, I find myself once again in the east tower, outside the large metal door to the Snellicary commonroom, where the withered little creature perches.

"Hello," I faltered, "It's me again."

The creature looked up at me with the faggedest eyes, and sighed a timid shake. "Hello..." it soughed, "So you're in Snellicary now..."

"Yes..."

It lamented.

"Hey, I'm sorry about... crushing your face..."

"It happens..." it sighed.

I opened my mouth, then closed it. "You- what's your name?"

The creature looked extremely taken aback. Either that, or it suddenly very badly needed the loo. Its tiny black eyes were popping out and its wrinkly face was stretched to crumple on the corners of its mouth and forehead. "N-no one- no one ever asks- for Pedbort's name!"

"Oh- well- that's a bit rude," I replied. "Your name's Pedbort, then?" It didn't say anything, but a muscle in its frozen face did twitch considerably. "Well, uh, hello, Pedbort... you can call me Cosmo... and, uh..." I held my hand out then took it back. "C-could you ask me a question- so I can get in? Or just open the door for me? It doesn't have a handle..."

The door swung open before I even finished my sentence. "Oh... thank y-"

There were two people already in the commonroom.

A girl and a boy sat on a sofa by the fire. And the girl had wings and great feathered legs.

They had obviously been in prior conversation, but at my arrival, had fallen silent. The both of them looked at me, this stranger who had interrupted them. Silent brooding and judgement. I swallowed.

"Hello," I said.

"Hello," said the winged girl; she had a low, boldy voice. She was a pretty girl in a jaded way, tall and brawny with a stormcloud of black hair that boomed shaggily from her head, and petite features apart from her nose. She had several small tattoos on her face, of keys and skulls and knives, and mascara that had bled down the side. Her feathered legs (which ended in scarish, thick sharp talons) were crossed and her tipped ears twitched. She had a large build, so that the boy beside her - less outstanding-looking, banally brunette and awkward-eyed - looked particularly shrimpy.

"What are you doing here?" the girl asked stoutly. She rested her large chin on her hand; like me, she had quite manly hands, and tiny little nails bitten to the quicks.

I found I couldn't keep eye contact with her. "Isn't- isn't there class right now?"

"Yes," said the girl. She smiled without lip. "We thought no one would be around." She stared at me with her hard eyes. Like Fae, she made me feel quite small; unlike Fae, I felt that it was deliberate.

"Right- yeah. I'm new here - I just joined today." I tried a smile but the girl's eyes were daring it to flounder. 

There was a pause. Although it was awkward for myself, she only spent it steadily staring at me. Then she ordered, "What's your name?"

"Cosmo," I told her.

"I'm Hester - Lullaby. You're a sixth-year too?"

"I suppose," was my reply.

She didn't say anything else then, though she still held that heavy gaze. I guess our conversation was over.

"I'm- I'm going to go unpack," I said, and then briskly went past her. My bulking bag of books bumped painfully against my side as I did so, but I tried not to show it.

After a harrowing mount of the spiral staircase, I came to the sixth landing, stumbled down the curving corridor, and awkwardly squeezed into the fourth sixth-year Snellicary girl's bedchamber (having awkwardly muttered the password) - my new home I guess.

As the door reeled open, I was dazzled with decoration and colour. 

It was a big, segment-shaped room, and completely unlike Viper's cold, dark one: there was mismatched adornment covering every inch of the room, every bed bedecked with its own unique elaboration so that sections of the room jumped between jumbles of personalities, girly to gothic to sporty to rockstar to naturalist to nerd and so on... There were book pages and star charts and bulletin boards on the walls, rugs on the floor, plants wrapping around beds, candles cemented on every surface... I could tell so much from the girls who slept in each bed just from their choice of trimming. There wasn't a section of wall or corner that wasn't squeezed dry for decoration, apart from the very last four-poster bed, tucked into the farthest corner of the room - I guessed that was mine.

I dumped my bag of books and spare robes (my only possessions, I realise) onto its purple duvet, where the mattress sunk inwards considerably. Then, after kicking off the clompy, battered pair of Mary Janes I was provided, I followed. I dug out 'Beginner's Magic for Beginners', sniffed into it deeply (mmmm old boock smel) but, as excited I would have been to read it, I found that I couldn't absorb a word of it. My mind was soaked by other things: like the fact that had portalled somehow into a world of magic - and perhaps could never go back.

But I didn't want to think about it. I turned onto my back, and focused instead on the lovely purple canopy of the four-poster. It was a deep translucent violet, sewed with little silver stars. I exhaled deeply.

I was really in Greamelts. I was really going to learn magic. And I was a Snellicary! Who would've thought? From all the Buzzfeed quizzes I'd done at the house, I had generally got Creepseek. I was dreading bumping into Viper again... 

I turned over with a groan. The wand they'd given me, very standard-looking and not properly 'bonded' (I would get a better wand when the castle next arrived at a magist town), had been tightly fisted in my grip ever since I left Hwelpum's office. Thanks to the books, I knew a large arrangement of spells... I pointed its blunt tip at one of the fat books. "Fleotan!" I muttered, and gave it a round swish. The book should have floated into the air, followed by my wand's guidance. What it did do was zilch.

I tried this until I got bored of it. The best reaction I got was its cover flapping violently - progress!

I also attempted "baelblaese", "smedan", and "borg forgrowos", to create a flame, soften something, and make a plant grow faster: none of which worked. Expected.

I spent the rest of my spare time engrossedly reading. I already knew most of it, I was actually well intelligent from my obsession with the Greamelts books. A new thing I did learn was that the monsters in the Maze of Discovery are illusions!

I was a third way through 'Beginner's Magic for Beginners' when the bedchamber door swung open and a chorus of girls came giggling into the room. I snapped up from the hoary pages, panicked. The giggling stopped as the girls each realised me and silence fell.

"Oh!" the front one cried, "I heard there was a new girl joining!"