Chapter 10
Strong enough to break a curse? A rousing thought flitted through Anna’s mind.
The snowy in turn said nothing, nor could Anna sense anything from her. Which was hardly surprising. She had always been a hard read, making it nigh impossible to tell what she was thinking. But there was a considered tilt to her head as though she was lending thought to the dark-haired beauty’s words.
“Really. Aren’t you a little too old for that dewy-eyed spew?” Anna heard a humorless scoff behind them. “One would have thought that you’d grown out of reading those pointless books by now.”
“Oh, but it’s my favourite story!” Pages rustled as Belle riffled fondly through them, seemingly oblivious to the souring expression on Professor Scathach’s face. “Look…here’s where she meets Prince Charming, but she won’t discover that it’s him till chapter three!”
That seemed to touch a nerve. A scowl contorted the Professor’s face, her glare turning positively murderous as she shoved the offending tome aside, stalking past them into the store.
She didn’t miss the chance to cast a vitriolic glare at Anna, who did her best not to flinch. Even Nix seemed to quail a little, something she never did aside for when she thought Anna was mad at her.
“Don’t mind her.” Belle shook her head. “She’s just…”
“…a curmudgeon who makes a Blast-Ended Skrewt look friendly?” Anna supplied, once the Professor was out of earshot.
Belle surprised them with a small chuckle, discreeted with a hand over her mouth, though her tone was faintly admonishing. “Now, that’s no way to speak of your Professor. Although I don’t deny she has her moments. I hope she hasn’t been terrifying students or reducing them to nervous wrecks in class.”
“Well…” Anna could feel Rapunzel’s sidelong glance at her. “Anna does seem to cop the worse of it.”
“Is that so?” Belle turned to her, brows drawing together in a frown.
Anna shuffled her feet. She couldn’t very well reveal that the reason for the Professor’s seemingly irrational grudge against her was the ‘dangerous magical creature’ that she was ‘secretly keeping as a pet’ at Hogwarts. Of course, the dislike and distrust was very much mutual. But for her owl’s sake, she could put up with a few snide remarks and disdainful sneers, as well as the scornful looks that seemed to be reserved solely for her.
“I’ll have a word with her. But I suppose I can see why she might feel that way. You…remind her a lot of herself when she was younger.” Belle chuckled again at her incredulous look, her hazel eyes finding Anna’s.
“Trusting, innocent…”
“…hopeful.”
“Don’t you mean reckless with a streak of stubborn a bloody mile long?” Rapunzel quipped, eliciting another dulcet laugh. Even Nix tittered a little, from her perch on Anna’s shoulder.
“Oh, now you’re laughing.” She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest, while the floofball simply tilted her head, blinking each eye innocently.
“Ahem.”
A pointed clearing of a throat had her wheeling around sharply, prompting a hoot of protest from Nix as she tottered on Anna’s shoulder, flapping her wings.
Scathach glared coolly at them. She obviously hadn’t found anything remotely funny about their joke. Her roving gaze lingered a fraction longer on the snowy, who made an entirely hopeless attempt at hiding behind Anna’s braid.
A weighty tome bound in faded black leather was clutched in the Professor’s arms–one of her arms, that is. The other was clenched at her side, as though she had to consciously restrain herself from thrusting it out.
“Well, this has all been quite delightful.” Anna didn’t know how Belle could say that with a straight face. “But we should be go–”
She didn’t need to finish that sentence. Scathach was already half out the door, all but tearing it off its hinges as she wrenched it open.
Anna winced as a loud bang reverberated through the shop.
“She’ll get over herself.” Belle gave a wearied shake of her head. “Eventually. You three toddle off now, and don’t go sticking your nose–or beak–into trouble.”
With that she hurried off after her compatriot, leaving the two Gryffindors to share a nonplussed look between them.
“So. That just happened.” Rapunzel stared. “Honestly, I don’t see why Belle puts up with her. The woman is an exploding cauldron waiting to happen.”
Anna couldn’t agree more, especially after her little eavesdropping escapade in the hospital wing. “You don’t say. I don’t think she’s all there in the head.”
There was a moment’s silence.
“We should be heading back too. Nix has had a little too much for one day, I think.” Anna ran a soothing hand down the owl’s puffed up plumage. “Poor baby. Did that scary lady get you all nervous and fluffed up?”
The snowy pulled her wings in, looking decidedly abashed.
“Yea, let’s.” Rapunzel hefted her stack of books up to her chest.
“Oh, you can put those books in here.” Anna rummaged in her robes, pulling out a small drawstring bag.
“It’s got an extension charm on it.” She added hastily, on realizing how silly it must look. “You know, like a Niffler’s pouch.”
“But how did you––huh, what’s this?” Frowning slightly, Rapunzel pointed to an ornate monogram crest embroidered on the reticule’s woven fabric.
“It does look familiar…” Anna mused aloud. “I could have sworn that I’ve seen it somewhere before…Nix? What happened, sweet girl?”
The snowy was starting to look a little fluffed up again, hooting fretfully in her ear. Anna petted her absently as they stepped out of the bookstore.
There was little light left in the sky, even the ones in the shop windows were dimming, the streets emptying of students. With a stiff wind nipping at their heels, they set off for the castle, following a faint trail which skirted around an open meadow.
A dark shadow crept overhead.
Anna looked up to see a gather of ravens circling aloft, cawing portentously and making an awful racket, which seemed to unsettle Nix greatly, her talons digging further into Anna’s shoulder.
Even Anna couldn’t help the goose-bumps erupting on her skin, the slightest quickening of the blood in her veins––just as one of the dark silhouettes broke off from the fold, swooping down on them with a hair-raising CAAAW and snatching at the drawstring pouch in her hand.
Rapunzel’s shout was drowned out by a shrill screech as the snowy dove forward, fears momentarily forgotten in her urge to protect her human.
“Nix, no!”
Incited, the other ravens had now joined the fray, showing no fear of the larger owl as they descended on her with heckling calls and vicious pecks.
“No! Get away! Leave her alone!” Anna took a wild swing at them, wielding the drawstring pouch like a beater’s club as though she was trying to fend off multiple bludgers at once, while the mobbing birds continued to strafe at Nix, forcing the snowy to take to the sky, desperate to get away.
CAAAW! The thieving raven was back again, making another grab at its bounty amidst the mayhem, only to be thwarted by a swipe of talons from Nix.
Furious at being foiled for a second time, it snapped its thick bill, flying at the owl and seizing her in its clutches. Together, they tumbled through the air.
“Stupefy!” Anna finally had the sense to whip out her wand, right as Rapunzel shouted out “Impedimenta!”
An icy blast struck them full on, with enough force to hurl them into the air.
“Oof!” Anna grunted as she hit the ground with a crunching thud and an explosion of stars in her vision.
All around them there were several more dull thumps.
“Nix!” Still winded with the stuffing knocked out of her, but utterly beside herself with worry, Anna staggered to her feet, wincing involuntarily as more bruises announced themselves along her back and limbs.
“They’re…frozen.” She heard Rapunzel’s shaken voice.
Anna exhaled a misty breath. Through the dissipating swirl of white, she could just make out the feathered forms lying motionless where they had dropped, like dead weights, to the ground. “I know, good thinking on that freezing charm, Punz.”
“No, I mean they’re frozen. All of them.”
Anna froze mid-step, still trying to gather her wits about her, and suddenly feeling chilled to the marrow. But as she stole a glance at one of the stiff, inert figures, there was no mistaking the glazed frost and glittering rime that clung to its once glossy black feathers.
“Did you do…that?” Rapunzel spoke again, haltingly.
Anna could only stare numbly, an icy surge of horror and panic welling up within her at the stark realization of what she had done.
Wait––these were Nix’s thoughts, not hers.
“Nix!” She shouted at once. There was a quiver of movement in her vision, along with a plaintive whimper that made Anna’s heart lurch painfully in her chest.
“There you are…”
The snowy was in a deplorable state. Every inch of her was trembling, her normally immaculate feathers in utter disarray as though she had just flown through a snow squall, with some of the primary flight ones even appearing to be broken or hanging loose.
And she was fighting so hard just to keep a tenuous hold on her magic.
Don't feel, don't feel, don’t feel, don’t feel. Stay in control. Please. Stay in control.’
Hot tears stung Anna’s eyes as she gingerly reached a hand to the plainly distraught snowy, who scuffled away from her like a small wounded animal. Her blue eyes remained tightly lidded, refusing to meet Anna’s, as though afraid of what she might find there.
But at least she hadn’t attempted to bolt for the hills.
“Anna, what’s wrong? Is she hurt, your owl?” Rapunzel had come up behind them, still keeping a wary eye on the macabre scene around them. “I don’t get it…why would those ravens…it was almost as if they’d been cursed…”
Every current and vapor in the air froze, casting a shroud of thin white mist over the meadow.
“Nix!” Anna lunged forward, grasping wildly at the frozen air, but all she came away with was a stray white feather that floated down as Nix took off like a shot, flying raggedly in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.
Panic surging in her chest, Anna tore after her.
“Anna, wait–” Rapunzel tried to snag a hold of her arm, but Anna shook her off.
There was a splitting CRACK, and then a shout. “IMPEDIMENTA!”
Anna stopped short, as though every muscle in her limbs had froze.
“What the––lemme go Punzie!” She yelled heatedly, struggling with all her might against the invisible bonds––but Rapunzel too appeared to be ‘frozen’.
“What is going on here?”
There was not a shred of a doubt in Anna’s mind who that acerbic voice belonged to––and she had to be the very last person that the Gryffindor wanted to see right now.
“I’m waiting.” Professor Scathach snarled again, acidity dripping from each syllabus. “The two of you had better spit it out, or else–”
“We were attacked…” Rapunzel began before Anna could muster a response.
“No! Don’t tell her anything!” Her feelings must have shown on her face, just like the bafflement on Rapunzel’s, but Anna took no care to hide it.
Fathomless eyes narrowed as they took grim stock of the situation before turning, unblinkingly, toward her. “The owl. Where is she?”
“Who else was here?”
Anna clammed her mouth shut, holding the Professor’s gaze unflinchingly as she glared back in seething silence. The woman could kick rocks if she thought she was going to tell her anything.
A muscle in the Professor's jaw twitched, but her face remained unreadable as she regarded her student condescendingly.
There was a tingling at the base of Anna’s spine. Her head felt woozy, like there was a nebulous fog descending over her, a murky presence lurking at the edge of her mind, compelling her to…
“Anna!”
It took a second for everything to come back into focus, like a light flickering on. Anna blinked and inhaled sharply, just in time to see Professor Scathach cringe, her cheeks colouring slightly.
Blades of frozen grass crunched as angry footsteps stormed up to them.
“We. Do. Not. Use. Magic. On. Students!” Belle rounded on the still scowling professor, looking as cross as two sticks.
“I can if they are being impenitent little brats! Acting like bloody fools. Willfully putting others in danger.”
Belle ignored her. “Anna, Rapunzel, will you please explain what happened here?”
Anna bit her lip, doing her best to keep her face blank. She knew that she trusted Scathach as far as she could throw her. But what about Belle? Surely she of all people would be able to see that Nix was just a badly traumatized owl who was afraid of her own powers. Who wasn't dangerous so much as neurotically worried that she was. Who couldn’t hurt a flobberworm…well that part wasn’t exactly true, Anna supposed, as she cast a grimacing look around her. But this was hardly Nix’s fault, even if she was going to have a bugger of a time convincing the snowy of it.
“It was those ravens.” Rapunzel said slowly, as though she was still struggling to wrap her head around it. “We weren’t doing anything, just minding our business really, when they came out of nowhere. And then this–” She made a slight motion with her hand. “–happened…”
The spell’s effects seemed to be wearing off, though not fast enough for Anna. Every agonising minute they wasted dallying here was time she should have been spending looking for Nix. The snowy couldn’t have gotten too far, her flight hindered by her tattered feathers.
“And there was no one else here?” Belle interjected.
“No, it was just us and–” Rapunzel paused heavily. “–and Anna’s pet snowy. She must have gotten scared and flew off, towards the forest.”
Belle nodded to herself, as if everything Rapunzel had said made perfect logical sense. “First off, we need to get you girls back to the castle. Look at you, you’re shivering like kittens. A spot of tea will warm you right up, while we figure–”
“No! I have to find Nix! I’m not leaving her all alone in the forest!” Anna insisted vehemently. But her angry protests once again fell on deaf ears.
“Absolutely not. You’re not taking one step into the forest.” Belle said at once. Even Rapunzel was looking at Anna like she was barking mad. “Professor Scathach will take you back. I’ll look for your owl. She's a flighty one, isn’t she?”
“I wasn’t aware that it was any of your business telling me what to do.” The Professor spat, her tone making it emphatically clear that there was a snowball’s chance in hell of any of that happening. “Take the little whelps back if you wish. I will look for the owl.”