The Art of Magical Mayhem

Twin Terror

September 1935

"Star!"

Several death threats popped into my head immediately at the interruption. None of them left my mouth, of course. The quiet of the library was a sacred thing.

I ignored the voice in favour of scribbling down a couple more calculations in my notepad.

"Star," the voice called again, as if I hadn't heard her the first time.

I turned to the source of the all-too-familiar voice, a monster of black hair and yellow trim.

"Yes?" I asked Vanessa.

I wasn't sure how I felt about her showing up in my corner of the library—and it was mine, a fact proven by the sheer amount of both firsties and older students I'd shoo-ed out of the section.

"Just checking up on you. Gotta make sure you haven't drowned in books or something." Vanessa eyed the mess lying about the desk. A stack of books sat off to the side. "What are you doing, anyway? You didn't show up for lunch."

I had, in fact, gone to the Great Hall for lunch that day... until I'd spotted Anemone among my fellow Slytherins and decided I could just ask an upperclassman to show me to the kitchens later. Much more convenient than dealing with adolescent drama.

That was before I'd gotten caught up in my current preoccupation.

I contemplated the scattered paper before me. Half the table was covered in crumpled wads, and some looked slightly charred. I scowled.

"I'm trying to figure out how to animate paper."

Lya had encouraged the endeavour, and I'd seen fit to pursue it. The idea had stuck in my mind all summer, ever since paper cranes had begun shooting across the halls of Hogwarts with mild frequency. There was little doubt who had created the cranes—them being a gang of Gryffindors I'd thought little of up to that point. Their names escaped me.

Vanessa frowned. "That doesn't seem difficult enough to warrant... this."

"I'm not only trying to animate them. I also want to add intent, and on top of that weave in durability charms," I explained, "The intent is the most difficult part, especially if I want it to be present enough in the paper to actually be of use. With the right amount of intent, it should be able to take commands such as staying discreet or travelling by ground, or only showing up when the recipient is alone, etcetera, etcetera... Hopefully, I can get the enchantments down to just a rune sequence—then I'll have a much more convenient form of communication than running up to the owlery every time I need to send a short note a long way."

I pulled the notepad towards myself once again. Runes and numbers littered the page, a few diagrams adding breathing space to the cramped, frustrated text.

Vanessa blinked. She looked confused, an expected reaction for a mere third-year.

"That seems a little ambitious," Vanessa said after a moment.

I looked at her, exasperated.

"How do you think the Sorting Hat decides houses? Randomly?"

Vanessa laughed. "I suppose not," she said, "Do you need help with your little pet project?"

"Surely you aren't offering."

"Oh no, absolutely not, but I do know the perfect people for the job."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course you do."

"So," said Vanessa, "Is that a yes?"

"I suppose help would be appreciated."

The offer was suspicious, and I highly doubted that these people would truly be "perfect for the job," but I was also rather curious...

—————

The people in question, as I would soon find out, were a pair of older, violet-headed twins. The colour clashed rather horrifically with their blue-trimmed robes.

Vanessa had dragged me all the way up to the Ravenclaw Tower where we'd been greeted rather grumpily by a prefect, told where the twins had gone, and promptly ended back up in the library. I'd been quite out of breath by the time we completed our journey, and the castle seemed to be in a rather aggravating mood that day. The walk down back to the library had felt twice as long height-wise as the previous walk up to the Tower.

That was when we'd finally found the twins, to both mine and Vanessa's endless relief.

"Hey Yui! Hi David!" Vanessa greeted, chipper as ever. She turned to me. "Star, Yui and David Abiko. They're sixth-years. Yui and David, Star Yueng. She's a fourth-year."

"Right." I plastered a polite smile onto my face. "It's nice to meet you, Yui, David. Vanessa told me you might be able to help with a little project of mine."

Yui quirked an eyebrow. "An unexpected choice of house... I'd thought maybe-"

David, smiling back a little awkwardly, cut Yui off. "It's lovely to meet you too, Star."

His smile was too sudden and too tight around the edges. I wasn't fooled. "Have you a problem with me? If you do, I'd rather sort this out now than deal with it later," I said, mirroring Yui's raised eyebrow.

Yui looked startled, and a flush spread over her pale face. The abashed expression seemed genuine enough. "Oh no! You misunderstand, I didn't mean it like that at all. I only meant-"

David put a hand on her shoulder and Yui shut her mouth. His fingers dug into her shoulder just a little too much for it to be a casual move.

They were hiding something, and on top of that, were not being the slightest bit subtle about it. Either they were being deliberately obvious, or they were simply morons.

Most, I had found, tended to end up being the latter.

"So, about that project," David said quickly. Yui's flush quickly faded as she perked up with interest.

The mysterious twins, it seemed, would have to be left for pondering at a later time.

"I've been attempting to design a runic sequence that animates paper while also imbuing it with the caster's intent while also making it convenient to draw," I said, " My main goal is to optimise the process of sending short notes a long way."

The Abikos had matching glints in their eyes. I felt slightly threatened and hoped my project wasn't about to be monopolised by a couple of keen Ravenclaws.

David hummed thoughtfully. "Have you got your notes with you? Perhaps we could adapt what you have into a runic circle, as opposed to a sequence. It'd be more flexible that way, and it may be easier to create something based on geometric arithmancy, rather than limiting yourself to a grid."

I'd have cracked the problem on my own eventually, but a little help could prove useful.

"Not on me, no, but I have been working in the library..."