Starry Nights

Tensions Rise

In the nine or so weeks that had passed, Cathleen and her friends had fell into a routine of sorts. They'd meet up after breakfast but before their morning classes in the Courtyard every day. On Mondays and Thursdays that usually meant they'd have a half hour to talk or play gobstones before classes. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays both the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first years both have a free period. So Cathleen, Erin, Cleo, Nora, and Oliver would explore the castle, it was huge and ever-changing, as if you'd never be able to explore the entirety of it.

And on Friday mornings the six of them would walk together to the owlery to send letters home. Nora and Oliver both sent letters home more frequently, Cathleen suspects it has to do with them being muggleborn, being exposed to a whole other world. She imagines she'd want to feel connected with her parents and share the wonders with them. Cathleen had decided it was easier to send a long letter at the end of the week to keep her dads in the loop than a letter every other day with nothing interesting to report. The same could be said for Cleo, Izzy, and Erin's parents. But Joseph, Cathleen was sure he only sent letters home out of obligation.

And of course they had certain classes together. They have Flying, Transfiguration and Double Potions with Hufflepuff. And with Gryffindor they have Defense Against the Dark Arts and Double Herbology. Then of course, every Wednesday at midnight all the first years have Astronomy, which is Cathleen's favorite class.

She had made an O on all her Astronomy and Charms work. She was making a mix of grades in History of Magic, but the stuff she already knew did reflect well in her essays, which made her wonder how Professor Binns grades their papers. Defense was going well, Professor Rakepick didn't assign a lot of work in her class and what she did assign was usually group work. As it happens she'd only made two Es so far out of maybe six assignments.

Same could be said for Transfiguration, which she struggled more and had to try harder in than the other subjects, but she was still doing well enough. Herbology wasn't a favorite subject of her's but Professor Sprout was a good teacher and everyone seems to be passing Herbology. Which leaves Potions, needless to say that class was frustrating. If she did a potion perfectly, E. If she messed up even a little, P.  Snape always graded her assignments a grade lower than what she'd actually earned.

But after class she let her worries go. Her and her friends would all meet up at 4 o'clock at their spot and they hang out for at least an hour or two until, inevitably someone would get hungry and they'd go to dinner. Whenever they were in the library or their spot studying, Cathleen would take it upon herself to read up on more advanced charm work, her Dads had wrote to her recommending that she learn some common dueling spells just in case Ivy decided to mess with her. And her Papa had specifically added that a good silencing charm could be really helpful if you're hiding from a teacher or prefect. "A disillusionment charm is even better," he had wrote, "but that's a fifth year spell so it might take a while to pick up."

Speaking of Ivy, things had only escalated in their feud. Sometimes in Charms class when Professor Flitwick wasn't looking, a piece of parchment would hit her square in the back of her head. And Andrea, the muggleborn girl in Slytherin, she wouldn't even partner up with Oliver or Nora in class because she didn't want to be associated with Cathleen. It was as if she had a target on her back and everyone in their year knew it but no one said anything. Like they were waiting for something big to happen. Cathleen had retaliated though.

In fact, about a week ago, after Charms class, in the middle of the crowd she'd sneakily cast the tickling charm on Ivy, who fell over with laughter. Everyone looked around not knowing where the spell had came from, this was the charms hall after all, students in all grades had their wands out practicing magic. There weren't any prefects around and most of the older students didn't seem to care because it was a particularly harmless spell. But almost every first year eyed her as the crowd dispersed, they knew were the spell had came from, and Ivy knew it too. Of course, that meant war.

On this particular day, it was a couple days before Halloween, a Saturday. Like most Saturdays her and her friends would all sleep in or just hang out in their common rooms, then they'd meet up with everyone else after lunch. If they had a lot of homework sometimes they'd go to the library instead, but usually they saved the homework for Sunday. And as it was Halloween, a lot of the teachers had laid back on the homework.

So Cathleen, Erin and Cleo had slept in late and then once they'd actually got up and ready, Cathleen wearing the blue blazer and bronze skirt her Aunt Andromeda had bought her; they went to the hidden door in Ravenclaw tower and tried again to open it, to no avail.

Things had seemed perfectly normal when they met up with their friends for lunch. So normal that when all her friends had finished lunch they walked out into the entrance hall guards down. All the Slytherin first years were on the grand staircase chatting, but that came to a halt as Ivy caught eye of her and stepped out from the group. Cathleen reached for her wand but it was too late, Ivy's wand was already raised and casting a spell.

(A/N)
Sorry this chapter is so late but I'm gonna roll out a lot of chapters over the next couple weeks so hopefully that'll make up for it.