Metanoia • Harry Potter • Book I

Chapter Four

Ellis's face was dropped in shock as Keziah grinned toothily.

"So you have normal subjects," he asked shakily, "and you have Botany? And Astronomy? The year 9s get to learn to take care of exotic creatures! You have an aviary?"

"I'm not saying no," she hummed.

Daphne came into the garden at that moment, carrying a plate of sandwiches. As soon as she heard the conversation, she came sprinting up the grass.

"Keziah!" she said sharply. "What have you been telling him?"

Keziah and Ellis both smiled innocently at Daphne, though mischief shone in their eyes.

"Nothing terrible," Ellis said. "Keziah was just telling me all about your school's curriculum."

Daphne's face hardened and her lips thinned.

"What did you say?" she repeated.

"I was just telling Ellis about our Herb — Botany classes and our Astronomy ones," Keziah smiled.

Daphne sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"You're ridiculous," she sighed. "I can see why you're getting along so well."

Keziah and Ellis gasped in mock-offence. Daphne looked even more tired.

"You should give us a chance, Snow Queen," said Ellis. "Fire Sage and I are perfectly normal."

"Debatable," Keziah sing-songed and Daphne scoffed.

Ellis smiled at them.

"You know, Fire Sage, it feels like I've known you forever," he said. "This summer's gone by so fast! Now you two are going back to your prissy private school and I'm stuck here with my fellow peasants."

"You've still got Anna and Finch," Daphne reasoned, referring to some of their other friends who Keziah had met over the summer once or twice.

Ellis nodded sadly.

"But it is not the same as the icy Snow Queen and her fiery Sage," he cried dramatically.

"This is why you got an award for theatre," Daphne sighed and shook her head fondly.

*

The first of September dawned dark and gloomy, the rain pattering miserably on Daphne's window-pane as her alarm jolted them into consciousness.

Keziah stared at the metal gadget with sleepy anger as she buried her head in her pillow. Seconds later, a stuffed animal knocked the alarm off into a pile of dirty clothes, effectively silencing it.

The girls enjoyed a full two seconds of silence before Astoria burst into the room, singing at the top of her lungs.

"Wake up!" she hollered.

Daphne mumbled incoherently and threw a different stuffed animal towards the door frame. However, Astoria wasn't deterred. Dodging the fluffy missile, she marched across the room and wrenched the covers from her sister's bed and Keziah's air mattress.

"What did you do that for?" Keziah groaned, curling in on herself to retain some sort of warmth.

"You have to wake up," Astoria insisted. "It's already eight o'clock!"

With a lot of grumbles and half-spoken swears, the girls did get up and Astoria carried on with her song.

Despite having packed up almost everything over the last week, there were still things to do. It took Keziah and Daphne a stupidly large amount of time to sneak the old record player into their trunk.