Pyrrhic Victory

nine.

Year One
nine. Rainy November

Quidditch was in season, and Magnolia loved watching her brother's play. November was a very rainy month this year, and Magnolia didn't really mind it. She enjoyed the rain, and found it calming. She shared her interest with rain with Lucille who just looked at her like she was crazy, Lucille loved the warm summer. Lucille would go on and on about the beaches in America, especially Florida. Her mother's sister lives there, and Lucille trends to visit her. Lucille gushes on how much warmer it is in Florida in the summer than it is here, and how she would love to live in Florida. To which Pansy told her she would be happy if she just left here, and went there instead.

The Ophidians were doing their last minute work in the library on Friday, and it was raining cats and dogs outside. Magnolia dipped her quill in the ink, and wrote on and on about ghost. Magnolia didn't really mind Professor Quirrell only that he was a bit weird, and wore a purple turban all the time. His classroom also smelled a little weird, but then again, he was a weird bloke.

"You would really like it in Florida, Maggie." Magnolia was listening to Lucille go on and on about Florida. She was talking about the beaches, and the humidity. Now she was talking about how it rains pretty much everyday, and how Magnolia would love it because Lucille knows how much she enjoys rain.

"Is there a wizarding school in America?" Magnolia looks up at Lucille. She interrupts her paragraph about Florida, but Lucille nods to answer Magnolia's question. Magnolia has cousins who live in American, but they don't have contact so she doesn't know.

"It's Ilvermorny, second best wizarding school."

"You've been there?" Magnolia stops writing, and gives her full attention to Lucille. Other than a Lucille and Magnolia's voices, the small other voices throughout the library, and the small pitter patter of the rain. Lucille shakes her head no, and then gets up from her seat. She motions for Magnolia to follow her, and Magnolia follows Lucille until they reach one section. She pulls out a book, and sets it down on the desks in front of the book case.

"I've never been there, my aunt has though, her children go there now." Lucille flips through the pages, and a very old pictures of a huge building, with castle like features, and printed words '𝙸𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚗𝚢.' Magnolia eyes scanned the pages, they offered the same classes as Hogwarts, with an exception of a few.

"They have the house system, like us," Lucille turns the page to where it introduces the houses. They weren't creatures Magnolia was familiar with. Hogwart's house animals were based on animals Muggles were familiar with, but Ilvermorny had animals not even Magnolia were familiar.

"There's the Wampus, Pukwudgie, Thunderbird, and The Horned Serpent," Lucille points to each other house crest, and names them. Lucille must know a lot about Ilvermorny.
"They were named after the founder's favorite mythical creatures, not like the founders last names like ours."

"Brilliant." Magnolia breathed out, and Lucille smiled as she shut the old book and slide it back into the shelf along with the other dusty old books. The both of them headed back to the table were the rest of their group was sitting. Everyone was so engaged in their work they didn't even questioned where the two girls went. Magnolia dipped her quill back into the ink, and continued writing about ghost. Lucille just sat there as she had finished all her work with the help of Cedric the night before.

"Who are your cousins?" Magnolia asked Lucille after she finished her essay. Lucille perked up since she had been quiet for the past fifteen minutes waiting for the Slytherins to finish their work.