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FIVE STICKS AND STONES
(MAY BREAK HER BONES)
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THE CLOCK IS one minute and thirty-four seconds late, Holly has realised by this point in the term, having spent enough lessons comparing the clock in the Defence Against classroom to the watch around her wrist. All of the lessons have been a different experience to the Dark Arts lessons taught at her old school, but still, she's struggling to shake the feeling that every lesson with Moody is the same as being transported into the world of an Alice Cooper music video. Welcome to Holly's nightmare.
Every second brings her swirling back into a cold classroom within an equally ghastly castle, where the novelty of breath transforming into that of a dragon's wore off months ago. There she is, in a classroom surrounded by children transfixed to the blackboard, worried that if they turn their heads, they'll be shouted at for being weak, for being incapable of such simple tasks. Resist Imperius. Cast Cruciatus. Stop the spider's suffering.
Harlow managed to get the flu the day before, so he's sitting peacefully up in the hospital wing. If anything, Holly wishes Madam Pomfrey would let her visit him more, so she could pick up on some of the germs, and get out of the Defence lessons. At least, until they stop practising the Curses. Romanticising them. Making them seem beautiful. Isn't it amazing, how powerful they are? Not, isn't it horrific, how powerful they are? How powerful they make you? How much power they place in your hands, whispering for you to apply more, rev the engine until there's nothing but a crawled-up thing with tears of pained desperation wetting the stone ground.
So Holly's snagged the empty desk next to Pansy and Millicent, who looked over the moon when she announced that she'd rather sit with them than the boys. It makes sense to Holly, because she knows that she mostly spends her time with Harlow. She wishes she could have a longer weekend or something, so she didn't have to worry about keeping up with homework and spending time with her new friends. She's still an outsider to all of them, isn't she? She still needs to make an effort, to get herself in.
They've already realised, through Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil (she's learning names!) that it's impossible to talk in Moody's lessons. Which is a shame, because the rumours floating around the school are all connected to the arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students, and to be honest, Holly isn't going to complain if her friends are so fascinated by her old school. It's giving her brownie points, it's making them want to spend time with them. Now, if she just makes them fall in love with her personality, she'll be accepted, regardless of her old school. Durmstrang, shmurstrang.
This means that Holly's stuck in her own head, with the addition of Susannah sometimes appearing, performing a beginner's gymnastics routine mid-air. Often her somersaulting include insults towards those that can't see — or hear — her, and wild cackles, that make you wonder if she doesn't have at least one drop of magical blood in her. But, they always provide some form of entertainment for Holly, who like many people, dislikes sitting alone in her head for too long. Often her mind wanders from how nice Hawaii looked on the television advert for a swimwear collection to do you remember Durmstrang? Which is pretty terrible, really. All she wants to do is fantasise about going somewhere sunny on holiday next summer. Not recollect that beast of a school. Come on.
