Travelers

Chapter 16 - The Song

Jacob walked into the courtyard and looked up into the sky. He wasn't sure why he had, but he knew he had a reason. It was one of those moments when you do something and then forget why you did it. Suddenly, there was a whooshing of air above him, and he remembered where he had been going. How he had forgotten about the quidditch match, he wasn't sure, but he hurried along anyway. As he crossed the bridge, a group of three Slytherins laughed and jeered at him.

"Are you lost? Forget your way back home?" they called. Jacob ignored them, knowing they were only jealous of him and his friends, but they continued as they began to walk a little ways behind him, "Why don't you follow the hat's advice? Go home, you don't belong here." This made him stop walking. He turned suddenly on them and gave them a stern remark.

"Maybe I don't belong here," he began, "but how Hogwarts admitted three idiots like you, I'll never know." The three looked stunned by his comeback, so he simply turned away, and they didn't follow him further. He reached the end of the bridge and began walking to the quidditch pitch, when he heard just what Richard had described. It was a single pitch, monotonous and screeching, and he found himself running to get away from it. He sprinted until the noise only rang through his memories, rather than through his ears. He found himself only a few meters away from his destination. Today match was Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw, so he didn't expect to be sitting with Richard today. He sat with Cat in the Griffyndor seating area, but they cheered for Hufflepuff together. Jacob watched as Mal seemed to effortlessly deflect bludgers that seemed to be more focused on her team than the opponents. They cheered for her together as she saved several of her players ad even managed to nail on her opponents with a well timed swing of her bat. Soon the Hufflepuff seeker managed to grab the snitch out of a steep dive. The game was finished and Hufflepuff had won. Now they had something to hold to Richard.

Jacob began descending when he heard a voice he knew he would hear again, but not so soon. "Oi, Sessions!" He turned and found himself face to face with the brains of the Slytherin triplet. He had wild brown hair, dark eyes, and stood a few inches shorter than Jacob. His scowl told Jacob that this was only going to end in one of two ways. Either the boy thought he could beat Jacob at a duel and attacked him, or a teacher discovered him before that and separated them. While he knew the latter would be wiser, he couldn't deny his wish to show the short boy up. Jacob began to simply walk away this time, when he felt a hard push from behind, and he was flung forward, multiple people saw it and began to crowd around them. Jacob got to his feet, and looked the boy in his eye. "I'm not going to fight you, I don't feel like breaking the rules today," he told the boy, but the boy continued to attack. with another knockback jinx Jacob was on the ground again. This time when he stood, he drew his wand, ready to defend himself. He realized that flipendo might be the only harmful spell the boy actually knew. He simply blocked his next attack and deflected it with his own protego. Immediately, he fired off a disarming charm as the boy fell from his own jynx. He caught the wand and lifted the boy from the ground and called for the nearest prefect or professor. It was his own prefect who arrived first, and Jacob explained the situation. He handed the boy and his wand over, and began to walk away confidently. He was almost untouchable.

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Cat found herself walking down the seemingly endless aisles of the Hogwarts library. Around her, the books seemed to simply blur into one wonderful display of knowledge. She found herself in a section she had not yet explored, so she reached up and grabbed a book off the shelf. It was a heavy blue volume and imbassed on the cover in black ink were the words, "Charms and Spells for a Master Wizard". She put the book back, as she expected that many of the spells would be far beyond her. She looked again at the shelf in front of her, and noticed a bright yellow one near the very top of the shelf. She knew she could wheel over a ladder and grab the book herself, but she decided to pull out her wand. She pointed the tip straight at the book then cast a spell she had yet to try. "Wingardium Leviosa!" She said, swishing her wand through the air and flicking it down, just as she had practiced. The book floated off the shelf, into the air, and down to her as she lowered her wand and ended her focus. It plopped into her open hand and she put her wand back in the folds of her robe. She looked at the bright yellow book and ran her hand over the title. She whispered the title under her breath, intrigued by it. She had found "Animagus: Advanced Transfiguration". She found only a few more books, including a few for her friends to take a look at, then went back to her common room. She gave the portrait in front of her the password and plopped onto one of the couches and opened the yellow book.