(1) Lux Brumalis (R. Weasley)

Chapter Forty-One

Pixie's quill scratches at the page of her notebook in her lap. She's perched cross-legged on the floor in a hallway on the second floor. Hermione sits on the floor with her, a huge book open in her lap as she reads. Pixie concentrates on her notebook as she scribbles down equations and alterations. Ron and Harry walk along the hallway towards them. Because they are not allowed to be in each other's common room, and there is literally nowhere else to go, they have to spend time together in cramped, dark, cold hallways or the library, but that's not always an option for conversation. Harry holds out a letter to Pixie who lifts her eyes from her notebook.

"Dude" He offers with a small snort. "He got confused again, was waiting outside in the courtyard"

"Thanks," She tells him as she takes the letter from him. "It's because of the move" She offers. "He gets confused with the change in distance and stuff...." She opens it up and flicks out the parchment to straighten it.

"What is all that?" Ron asks, peering over her shoulder to look at all the jargon and squiggles on the page.

"Mathematical equations" She argues, Ron pulls a face. "Sometimes the books don't have the information I need" She admits, not looking up from the letter. "But Dad does" Harry nods a little and leans against the wall next to her.

"It sucks that we have to sit out in here in the cold" Ron complains as he slides down the wall. "Just because we can't go into other common rooms"

"Did you know that was a rule?" Harry asks Pixie.

"I thought of it more of a suggestion" She answers with a smirk, he snorts.

"Did you get in trouble for being in the Gryffindor common room?" Hermione voices from behind her book. Pixie hums and nods before she pulls a face.

"Lost some house points" She mumbles. "But" She shrugs. "I'll get them back" She sets her letter down and picks up her notebook from her lap to open a new page.

"What did Dumbledore want yesterday?" Harry asks her. She pauses her quill and wrinkles her nose.

"Oh, urm....well" She closes her notebook and lets out a breath. Dumbledore didn't say she couldn't talk about what happened, or about the arcane magic. He didn't say she couldn't tell them about it. "During the holidays" She starts. "Hermione told you that my house was blown up"

"Right" Ron draws out with a frown.

"It's more complicated than that" Pixie admits. "There was this figure, this bad guy figure called the Mandarin who had been using bombs to cause damage, and to hurt people....all over the US. But no one put them together, no one connected the dots, until my Dad's friend Happy...he got caught in one of them. After that....my Dad started investigating...He found the connection, and he threatened the Mandarin....soooo the Mandarin blew up our house" She takes a deep breath. "See the Mandarin wasn't actually using bombs..." They frown at her. "He was infecting people with Extremis, it's nanotechnology that alters brain activity and other things" She waves it off because they are too, not stupid, but it's not really their fields and they are only eleven years old. She's not sure how much they would understand. "But there were some severe side effects...."

"Like blowing up?" Hermione realises. "Imploding?" Pixie nods.

"Yeah, it wasn't bombs...it was people infected with Extremis...they were going...poof" Ron pulls a face. "Their bodies rejecting the technology...After the house was blown up...I was kidnapped by Killian, the Mandarin" She whispers. "I was injected" Ron scoots away from her. "I'm not going to blow" She scolds Ron with a look. "My dad fixed it..." He stops and shrugs a little. "But there were other issues" She motions to her eyes. "Couldn't get rid of these..." She blinks a little. "And..." She turns and digs around in her bag before she finds the book that she wants. "It apparently unlocked some ancient magic in me" She holds out the book. "Dumbledore showed me the books I need....so I can control my new abilities"

"Arcane magic?" Hermione reads and takes the book from her, Pixie nods. "I've never heard of it"

"Yeah, I hadn't either" Pixie agrees. "It's been...extinct for centuries from what I've read. People just stopped using it"

"Why?" Ron draws out, believing that there has to be a reason why people stopped using it. Pixie shrugs a little. She's not really gotten too far into the books yet. Not the history side of it anyway, she has looked into what she could be expected to be able to do, she wanted to know what to expect, limit wise.

"So what can you do with it?" Harry asks. Pixie smirks at him.

"This" She stares at the book in Hermione's hand, concentrating on it.

"What's she doing?" Ron asks.

"I don't know" Harry whispers. "But I think there's a potion for it" Ron smirks as Pixie punches Harry's arm. The book is suddenly wrapped in an orange sheen before it lifts from Hermione's hand. Pixie lets out a victorious laugh and smirks at them as she catches the book out of the air.

"The books say it should get easier to do and there are other things but..." She shrugs a little. "It's going to take some work...and practice...but I think in a couple of weeks I'll have a handle on it, I can't imagine what I could do with it...." She's clearly very excited about the prospect of new magic that she barely notices when Ron finds himself wrapped up in an orange sheen and he begins floating upwards from the floor.

"Pixie!" Ron shouts and she snaps her head around at the urgency in his voice, but he's not where she thought he was, he's now hovering six feet above them.

"Ron!" She lets out a surprised noise. "I'm sorry" She rushes out as she holds out her hand to help, steadying him as she lowers him to the floor. The orange sheen pops, audibly, and he drops to his backside on the floor with an oomph. "I will learn how to control this..." She promises them.

"We know" Harry assures her. Out of all of them, she actually is probably determined and intelligent enough to actually do it.

.......

Cross-legged in a meditation position, Pixie sits in the centre of the potions classroom taking deep breathes. She can't practice in the common room or her dorm room so Severus has allowed her access to his classroom after dinner whilst he marks homework and prepares for the next day's classes as long as she doesn't disturb him. There are unlit candles scattered across the desktops. Some lit ones on his desk and behind the desk on some shelves. The arcane book had meditation practices that might help her focus the magic inside of her to then release into orbs. Not spells, not really. It's just something she can focus her magic into, then adjust for varying effects. That's the basics. There are deeper mechanics involved, but right now, she is focusing on controlling her outbursts. She could have hurt Ron. She could have burnt her home down. She could have done some real damage. She needs to control it before she learns what she can do with it. Two orbs, one in each of her palms, start to form, though small and flickering at first, it only takes a few breathes for Pixie to have them fully formed, the size of baseballs. The orbs are a little darker than the other orange-tinted orbs she has created. Her eyes glow the same red. Severus has stopped focusing on his work, more interested in what she is doing. He's never seen someone excel so fast through sheer force of will. This is old magic, impossible, extinct magic. And it's been a day since she found out about it. Only weeks since Extremis. He was expecting a little more trouble. She smirks and moves her hands upwards, the orbs hovering above her hands, moving with them, the flames rising with them. At least he knows his faith in her hasn't been misplaced.

"I think that's enough for tonight," He tells her, she lowers her hands, the orbs seeping into her skin as it floods through her, her hair fluttering behind her as it passes. The candles remain lit though as she stands. She grabs her bag and her book from the table nearby then glances at Severus, he nods and she then leaves his classroom a hum under her breath. She pulls the door shut and heads along the corridor towards the dungeons. She glances at her hand as she produces an orb, watching it light up in her palm before she smirks, curling her fingers into it, it disappears and she lets out a breath. She can do this. She really can do this.