The Morrigan, Mysterious Goddess
The Mórrigan, usually referred to with the definite article, was a great warrior-queen goddess in Irish-Celtic mythology. She was most associated with inciting war, then stirring up the fury and frenzy of battle, and...
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Morrigan had never believed she would meet a boy she hated more than Dudley, but that was before she had met Ronald Billius Weasley. Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Weasley much. Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Slytherin common room that made them all groan. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday – and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.
"Typical," said Morrigan stated blandly, her eyes distant. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of the idiot Weasley."
Morrigan had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else. Wanting to feel the freedom, of the wind in her hair... and maybe she wanted to cause a little mayhem, for some.
"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," Regulus said reasonably. "Anyway, I know Weasley's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk. His family doesn't exactly have the money to afford a broom. I'm sure his older brothers, the twins, worked to buy their own brooms."
Weasley certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters. He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Weasley had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, about soccer, in the Great Hall. Weasley couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly.
"True." Morrigan had whispered, so she shook it off, and smiled. She could not wait for the flying lessons to get started. She had never been on a broomstick before, being raised by a Muggle family, who hated her for having magic, but she was one of the ones most eager and excited to get on a broomstick.
Regulus had told her about his time on the Slytherin team, he had enjoyed being on the team, but this time around he was not going to be joining. Morrigan had said to him she wasn't going to do it either, she was more excited about being free and... she wasn't sure if she could keep her... violent tendencies to herself. Regulus was happy to hear that his sweet Phantom Queen didn't want to be a part of the Slytherin team. She was going to be safe on the ground beside him.
Morrigan had only met Hermione Granger once and she left a sour taste in her mouth. The muggleborn girl was almost as nervous about flying as Neville Longbottom was. This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book – not that the girl hadn't tried. At breakfast on Tuesday, she had bored all of Gryffindor table with stupid flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called Quidditch Through the Ages. Neville Longbottom was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.
