Elliot Tanner and the World's Curse

Portrait of the Fat Lady on Fire

We ran out of the hallway and into the corridors of the castle. Everyone should be at the feast right now, so we expected the corridors to be empty. They were, but there was an unsettling silence reigning over things as we waited for one of the staircases to swing our way so we could get back to the Gryffindor common room.

"What was that?" Amit said. We all panted, trying to catch our breath.

"The spell," Asia said breathlessly. "The same ... spell ... we saw ... in Lupin's ..."

"You all heard ..." Amit wiped sweat from his brow. "She called me ... a pervert."

"Delinquents," Asia said.

"You." Amit pointed at us. "Delinquents. Me." He pointed at himself. "Pervert."

While I was certainly winded, I wasn't nearly as tired as I would be in Elliot's body. Olivia/Rowena was in impeccable shape, and I was thankful to not have any sweat to ruin my hair and makeup. I knew that was a silly thought — especially after being accused of being in drag — but it helped me from panicking that the curse was no longer content to let us hide in Myrtle's bathroom. It was hunting us now.

Once the stairwell aligned with our landing, we hopped on it and continued towards the Gyffindor common room. We didn't keep the breakneck speed we had before because Madeline didn't seem to be following us. She couldn't if Amit's spell held, but then again, she was clearly doing more than she should have been capable of.

As we jogged through the corridors, we caught sight of Mrs. Norris once, and while Amit aimed several stupefy spells at the little spy, the cat dodged gracefully, looking at us with an almost bored expression before she rounded a corner and disappeared. Filch was going to be on us whenever we felt safe — probably go to Dumbledore or McGonagall and then visit us when we were asleep. That was a minor problem if Madeline Snapfire, Madame Pomfrey, or whomever else the curse could grab was going to barge into any room we were in and blast us with bombarda spells. Where did she even learn that one?

But before we could get to the common room, we were stopped by a massive traffic jam in the hallway leading up to the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Feast must be over," Amit said bitterly. He was excited about all the pumpkin flavoured sweets, while I was hoping there would be leftover carrot cake tomorrow. Assuming there were leftovers. It wasn't quite clear how the conservation of energy and/or mass worked with magic.

"It's something else," Asia said. She was too short to see over the crowd, and now that I was Olivia's height, I was too short too. "Here," I said. I picked her up as best I could to get her head above the crowd, but I couldn't hold it for long. For all Olivia's stamina for running, she lacked the physical strength to lift Asia for long.

"Thanks," Asia said when I almost dropped her. She moved her bangs out of her eyes, and it looked like her cheeks were a shade darker, though that was probably the light being blocked by all the bodies in the hallway.

"What's going on?" Amit asked as he glanced behind us. We hadn't seen Madeline since she blew up our cauldron, but sure Filch would be on us at any moment.

"Something's wrong with the Fat Lady, I think," Asia said. "It's hard to see, but no one seems to be able to get in."

I tried to press through the crowd to get a closer look. It was a feat that would have been easy for Elliot, but it was impossible for slender Rowena. "Excuse me," I said as I tried to wedge between two seventh years.

"No," one of them said to me.

"Rude," Asia said.

"Let me try," Amit said. He rolled up his sleeves and charged valiantly into the throng of Gryffindor students, pressing between students and their elbows to get to the front. Once he was out of sight, something spread over the crowd. Whispers erupted everywhere, and students looked at each other with concern or confusion, as though they weren't sure if they just heard each other right, as though what was being said couldn't possibly be true.