The New Marauders and the Password Panic

The Lion and the Eagle

Logan laughed as they sped down the hallways of Hogwarts. Molli screamed from his place on the back of her skateboard, desperately clinging on for dear life.
"This is NOT what I meant when I said I would show around!" He screeched.
"Come on! Where's your sense of adventure!? Your hunger for the unknown!?"
Molli pressed a hand to his mouth as they whipped around a corner.
"I think I lost that a few hallways back with my stomach and my pride." He groaned.
Logan laughed loudly and waited for the board to slow to a stop.
"Alright, mate." She said, jumping off. "We can walk the rest if you really want."
He grabbed her hand to steady himself before stepping off as well.
"Thank you..." he sighed.
She laughed again and kicked her skateboard into her hands.
"So what's that?" She pointed.
"That's the greenhouse." Molli explained as they continued their journey on foot. "It's where we learn Herbology and occasionally they'll take you there to pick out your own ingredients for potions class."
"Cool cool cool... And what's Herbology?"
Molli rolled his eyes with a fond smile.
"Magical plant studies."
"Ah."
They giggled to themselves as they carried on down the hall.
"And THAT." Molli pointed to the door. "Is charms class."
"Oh! So I'll get to learn stuff like that color change charm?" Logan asked, excitedly. "And all the other stuff in my book!?"
"K-kind of..." Molli told her. "Charms are classified as a spell that changes the nature, behavior, or surface level feature of an object or person but not the shape. Not all illusory magic are charms."
"Oh." She didn't sound disappointed. In fact she sounded even more intrigued. "You know a lot about magic!"
"I-I know a lot about magic THEORY." He corrected. "I-I've never been that good at spells to be honest."
He jumped when she scoffed LOUDLY.
"Yeah right!" She laughed. "It only took you like THREE TRIES to learn an entirely new spell!"
"An entirely new BASIC spell!" He countered. "Any competent wizard should have been able to do that right away!"
"Getting something right on the first try isn't NEARLY as impressive as you think it is, Molli." She told him. "If anyone could get any skateboard trick they wanted perfect the first time they tried, it would be boring to learn."
Molli hesitated and looked at the ground. He thought back to all the times he watched Maverick dishout a new spell seemingly effortlessly. He'd always tell him it was easy and that anyone could do it. And that made him feel increasingly put down when he'd try the same spell again and again and could never seem to get it just right. Maybe it wasn't as easy as he made it out to be.
"A-anyways... you said something about charms being your first class?"
"Oh, right!" Logan recalled. "What's yours?"
"Transfiguration."
She deflated.
"Oh..."
"B-but we'll see each other later!" He told her. "I'm pretty sure I have potions with Gryffindor in the afternoon."
"Yeah, I thought I saw something like that on the timetable too." She smiled. "See ya then, Molli."
He smiled too.
"... Yeah..."
...
Her first class was with the Ravenclaw first years it turned out. Professor Quitlit was a short, slim, woman in her mid twenties to early thirties and she was quite an interesting witch. What with her large, star shaped, glasses and enormous crooked hat that was almost the size of her entire body. Her charms class was super exciting. Literally one minute into her witchcraft journey and she was already learning spells.
"Repeat after me: "Wingardium Leviosa!". Again "Wingardium Leviosa!"."
Logan raised her hand. Professor Quitlit raised her big bushy eyebrows but called on her regardless.
"Yes! Ms. Plasifer?"
"Where do the words for spells come from?" She asked. "Like, who sat down and decided that "Wingardium Leviosa" means floating spell?"
"An excellent question!" Quilit exclaimed. "Now you see, the incantations are very very old. Why, they're as old as magic itself!"
"So magic has only been around as long as Latin?" Another voice spoke up.
Logan turned to her right to discover the source. There was a Ravenclaw right next to her. Dark brown hair, eyes to match, and copper skin. His long hair was pulled back in a ponytail and his eyes were bored as if all this were obvious and he already knew everything he was being told.
"Pardon Mr Williams?" Quilit asked.
"Many of the spells I've heard have Latin origins." He stated. "Wingardium Leviosa has many roots in the Latin words "high" "raise" and "fly". Your statement doesn't make any sense. Are you telling us that magic only came into existence when humans started speaking Latin?"
Instead of looking offended or embarrassed by this statement, Quilit looked amazed.
"Twenty points to Ravenclaw! I have to say Mr Williams, I am impressed! Not many full grown wizards know that spell incantations come from Latin origins, much less a first year. And you are correct, this would make very little sense in relation to my previous statement. Please allow me to explain. The words have only been used since the time of their creation. But the incantations have been used since the beginning of magic."
The class murmured in confusion.
"No one said the incantations have used the same words since the beginning. Everything changes. Magic is no exception."
"Then why haven't the words changed from Latin?" A Gryffindor with jet black hair asked. "Latin hasn't been a primary language for centuries."
Quilit smiled.
"That is a question for your history professor." She told them. "NOW. Raise your wands."
The class did as they were told but the murmurings didn't stop. Logan turned to the Ravenclaw again. Mr Williams.
"You speak latin?" She asked.
"No." The student replied. "My grandmother does. Wingardium Leviosa."
He flicked his wand and the feather in front of him raised into the sky.
"Well done! Well done!" Professor Quilit cheered.
Logan turned back to her own feather and began practicing. Swish and flick.
"Wingardium Leviosa." She chanted.
Her eyes widened. It moved! It didn't move much but it moved!
"Wingardium Leviosa!" She commanded again.
The feather lifted into the air. She gasped. Her first spell. The Ravenclaw next to her gave a small smile as he continued to stare up at his levitating feather. Logan turned back to her own feather and realized it was still flying. She lowered her wand and it stayed put. She deciphered from this that charms didn't need concentration to keep going, didn't wear off typically and had to be undone. What was that counter spell again?
"Fini." She said, pointing her wand at the feather. "No, that's not right... finit?"
Still nothing.
"Finite."
Logan turned around again and realized that the Ravenclaw's feather had gentilly fallen down to the table. He turned to her.
"Simple disenchantment spell." He explained. "Pronounced Fi-nee-tay. Origin: "To finish". Useful in undoing simple charms, hexes, and jinxes. Try it again."
"Oh... okay!"
She pointed her wand back at the feather.
"Finite!"
Down it floated. She laughed loudly.
"Thanks!" She whispered to him.
He smiled and turned back to his feather to cast it again. Logan thought about doing that too but she wanted to try something else. She visualized the bright emerald green she had been planning on turning Molli's hair had he taken her up on the offer. She pointed her wand and muttered:
"Colovaria."
A small green flash escaped the tip of her wand and coloured the white feather green. It was a little lighter than she'd meant it to be. More of a mint than emerald but she was proud of herself regardless.
"Finite."
It turned back to white. Logan frowned.
"Hey!" She whispered.
He shushed her.
"You coloured the stem too. Control. Try doing just the bristles this time."
Logan was still slightly irritated but understood what he was saying. You don't just do a trick once and then assume you have it perfected. Always look for the next thing you can do better. She turned back to the feather and visualized just the bristles. She chose a deep forest green this time and focused very hard on keeping it away from the stem.
"Colovaria."
She frowned. This time the color was too dark. It looked like tar and the stem had once again been coloured.
"Finite." She chanted before the Ravenclaw had the chance.
And so she tried again. And again. She levitated it a few more times too. She tried to see if it was easier or harder to stack charms on top of eachother (it was harder). And her sixth try she had managed to perfect her colors and her control. She ended with a feather that was forest green on the tip, bright emerald in the center, and mint green at the base. It was rather pretty and the stem was still bright crisp white. The ravenclaw nodded and once again turned back to his own work.
Logan looked at her feather. What else could she do? She thought about what Quilit said. How words changed and whatnot. She swirled her wand around for a second.
"I wonder..." She mumbled to herself.
She almost laughed at the thought but... what the heck? Logan pointed at the feather and whispered:
"Yeet."
In an instant, the feather flew across the room and slammed into the far wall before falling rather gracefully to the ground. Everyone watched in awe as the feather flew right into the small trash pale next to the blackboard.
"Who did that?" Quilit called.
Logan sunk in her seat and, of course, no one else spoke up. Logan liked to think that she would have owned up if she hadn't been in shock that her inside joke to herself had actually worked... but she honestly wasn't sure. She wasn't going to get expelled for moving a feather but... the way that Ravenclaw was staring at her as if she'd blown down a wall made her... uneasy.
Quilit picked the green feather up out of the bin and grumbled to herself.
"Class dismissed." She said.
...
"How did you do that!?" The Ravenclaw whispered vigorously as they walked out of the classroom.
"I uh... I don't know." She admitted, also keeping her voice down until they were out of earshot. "I was just messing around, I didn't think that would actually work!"
"Well what spell did you use?!"
"I don't know that either! I think... I don't think it even WAS a spell until just now... or just didn't have a name, maybe?"
"You INVENTED a spell?"
"No I mean- I think it always existed, I just don't think anyone knew its name until I made it up so no one could use it until now..."
The Ravenclaw became silent... and then chuckled fondly and straightened up.
"My name is Ceril Williams." He told her. "Based on what I have just witnessed, you are a" he cleared his throat. "'chaotic bean' and I find this endearing. Therefore, I: the boring responsible one, as some may say, have taken it upon myself to ensure that you are happy, cared for, and most importantly, don't get yourself killed."
Logan paused at Ceril's speech.
"... What I'm getting at is that I just got adopted by you."
"Exactly."
Logan grinned.
"Neat."
"What is your name?"
"Logan."
"Wonderful." He took out a phone with a clear phone case. "May I have your number?"
"Sure!" Logan took out her own phone and began opening it up until it dawned on her. "Wait... you have a phone too!?"
"Of course." Ceril stated as he took her phone and entered his information into both.
"So you're muggleborn too!?"
"No." Ceril stated, passing back her phone. "But me and my siblings grew up with my muggleborn grandmother in the city. We were homeschooled but I still feel as though I am, ahem. "current" enough. At least from a technological standpoint. But, if I'm being honest, it doesn't take much for one to be more technologically current than most witches and wizards, nowadays."
Logan groaned.
"Ugh! I know, right!?" She said. "And everyone's so STINGY about it, too! All I have to do is hold my phone and everyone will either give me the stink eye or look at me like I'm holding Medusa's severed head! Did you know this place doesn't have wifi? It barely even has cellular service, I almost wasn't able to call my parents last night!"
Ceril nodded along through all of this.
"It is rather irritating." He agreed. "And do you know the REASON behind it? At least the ones I'VE heard from my peers? They say it's to "distance ourselves from the muggles". BAH!"
"Are you serious!?"
"VERY. You would not BELIEVE the things wizards used to ban in the name of "keeping us separate". They wouldn't touch a SINGLE thing muggles created, it's why Hogwarts doesn't even have electricity."
Logan scoffed loudly.
"Who's gonna tell them muggles probably invented torches and quills as well?"
"Exactly. Are they going to start sleeping on the floors when they realize muggles use matrices too?"
"Or start running around naked when they find out muggles have been using fabrics for CENTURIES?"
They smiled at each other.
"Hm. While I rather enjoyed our talk, I'm afraid I have another class to get to." Ceril informed her.
"Yeah, me too." Logan sighed.
"See you at lunch, Logan."
"See ya, Ceril."
The two of them grinned as they walked off in different directions.