Chapter 6
Ginny awoke the next morning and dragged herself to the library. If some of her teachers were going to be rubbish and her housemates were going to lick Draco Malfoy’s boots, she might as well get some studying in. She pawed through her bag and realised she had left her stack of parchment and notebooks in her room. Sighing, she was just about to get up when she saw the black diary that had gotten mixed in with her things. She pulled it out and flipped through it. The pages were blank. Ginny shrugged and pulled out a quill and ink and began taking notes.
To her shock, when she looked back at the journal, the last of her words were fading into it and a word in a tidy script lay beneath it—a word she most definitely hadn’t written.
“Hello?”
Ginny stared at it for a moment and then wrote, “Hi?”
“Who is this? And how have you come to find my diary?”
“I think it was in a bargain bin in Flourish and Blotts and got mixed in with my stuff. You tell me your name first.”
“It’s on the cover…”
Ginny flushed.
“Okay Tom, I’m Ginny.”
“Hi Ginny. Are you studying first year defence?”
“Trying to. A magical book ate my notes.”
Her notes appeared back on the page and words appeared below them.
“I can help you. I was quite good at defence in my time.”
“Learning spells from a magical diary seems… unwise.”
“Up to you.”
Ginny tapped the end of her quill against her chin.
“Fine. Let’s see what you got.”
“Alright. List the spells you know currently.”
Ginny did.
“That’s… quite a lot of curses.”
“My oldest brother is a curse-breaker in Egypt.”
“Ah, that explains the scarab skin curse.”
Ginny raised her eyebrows. That curse was extremely rare. Bill had told her he had found it in a a Grimoire from a raid he’d been on. She was surprised the diary recognised it.
“Do you mind if I ask what your wand’s elements are?”
“Wood: Yew, Core: Dragon Heartstring.”
“I also had a yew wand. Yew and Phoenix feather. Your wand is practically made for Dark Magic.”
“Ollivander mentioned something about that, but my mother wasn’t too happy about it and cut the conversation short.”
“Are you prejudiced against Dark Magic, Ginny?”
“I don’t know much about it, but its reputation precedes it.”
“I could give you an overview.”
Ginny stared at the line. He talked about it like it was History of Magic or Charms. Just another subject. Not something that could land you in Azkaban. But hadn’t she been frustrated with the Defence teacher? Even with McGonagall? And here she had someone offering to teach her. And she was so frustrated. So angry. She wanted to learn. Wanted something for herself.
“Okay.”
Words sprang forth onto both pages and she began to read.
“The category of magic, colloquially called Dark Magic, is really a subset of different arts. These include Rituals, Blood Magic, Soul Magic, and Curses. A defining feature of the Dark Arts is a cost required as part of the magic or negative intent…”
It went on to summarise each branch of Dark Magic with some of the more well known examples of each one. Ginny’s eyes widened at the font of information. When she’d finished reading, the words faded into the diary and Tom’s script replaced them.
“Would you like to learn?”
Ginny frowned and ignored the question for now.
“What’s wrong with the Dark Arts if they just require negative emotions or your own blood? Why are they illegal?”
“The Dark Arts, as they are now defined, encompass a lot of magic that was practised by the druids, long before the invention of staves or wands, before the Roman Conquest and the standardisation of magic in Britain. While, for obvious reasons, magic that intends to kill or permanently maim is illegal, much of what is known as Dark Arts is dangerous to the caster or too powerful to be controlled by a governing body. Magic as a whole has been suppressed in Western Europe and the Americas, as a less powerful and educated populace is easier to control.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It is. While they are likely in the Restricted Section of Hogwarts, look up A True History of the Druids, Morgana: Legend and Fact, and Magicke Moste Evile. Compare the magic described there to your syllabus at Hogwarts.”
Ginny bit her bottom lip. And then a thought occurred to her.
“I noticed that while everyone I knew before Hogwarts uses Merlin’s name, most people in Slytherin say Morgana. Why is that?”
“I think you’ve given me a clue as to your surname, or at least narrowed it down. Witches and wizards that lean toward the Dark Arts, or dislike some of Merlin’s more abominable sins, especially toward women, will pay Morgana respect by using her name. Merlin is also blamed by many for abandoning the druidic ways and manipulating events with his Sight to produce a king of roman and druidic blood in the form of Arthur, who then began the process of erasing druidic culture.”
Ginny glanced over at the restricted section. Its dim lighting and iron gates were foreboding, but she really wanted to know more. Then she heard a loud sigh near her. She turned and saw a black haired girl in rumpled robes rubbing her face in clear frustration. When she removed her hands, Ginny saw the girl’s eyes were rather watery.
“Hello?”
The girl jumped and looked at her. Ginny saw she wore a Ravenclaw tie.
“Are you alright?”
The girl looked at Ginny for a moment, as if breaking out of a trance and glanced at her parchment.
“I just… I can’t do this…”
Curiously, Ginny moved over to look at the parchment.
“Oh, that’s the transfiguration assignment. Want help? I could explain—”
“I know how it works,” the girl snapped. There was a pause where Ginny shifted slightly away and the girl suddenly looked apologetic and spoke in a more conciliatory voice. “Sorry. It’s just… I already know how it works, why do I have to write an essay explaining it?”
“Better understanding of the practical aspects?”
The girl rolled her eyes, drew her wand and transfigured her quill into a needle and then a matchstick… silently. Ginny’s mouth fell open.
“W-what? How did you do that?”
“Honestly, silent spells are easy,” she said, not without a trace of pride.
“No they’re not. Sixth years struggle with them,” Ginny said, remembering her brothers’ many complaints. The girl waved her wand and, rather smugly, changed the color of the desk blue.
“What on earth are you doing!?”
Both girls cringed and turned to see Madam Pince approaching in a fury.
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll change it back!” the girl said and waved her wand. The desk turned a slightly darker shade of brown. The girl frowned, ignoring the irate woman and glanced over to another desk for reference. She waved her wand again and righted the color.
“Out!”
“But I changed it back!” the girl said, now equally outraged.
“No magic in the library!”
“That’s ridiculous! It’s a magical school and this is where people study! How are we supposed to study without using magic?”
“Out! And a two week ban, for both of you!”
Here, the girl looked stricken.
“She didn’t do anything! Give me her ban too!”
“Get out!”
“Not until you take away her ban.”
“Fine, four week ban for you then, today for her, go! Get out, both of you.”
The girl glared as ferociously as an eleven year old could at Madam Pince and stomped out of the library, Ginny at her heels.
“That hairless shrew!” the girl raged, stomping her foot. Finally she calmed down and turned to Ginny. “Sorry for getting you kicked out.”
“Don’t worry about it, you also just took on my punishment,” Ginny said, eyes slightly wide at the unexpected events. “What do you mean hairless?”
“Oh come one, that has to be a wig.”
That surprised a laugh out of Ginny and the girl grinned at her.
“Ginny Weasley,” she said, offering her hand.
“Astrid Cole, you’re kind of well known,” the girl replied, shaking it.
“How so?” Ginny said, apprehensively.
“Well, everyone’s heard about you punching Draco Malfoy…”
Ginny groaned and then changed the subject.
“Can you teach me how to do silent spells?”
The girl eyed her. “I don’t know if I can teach it. It’s the same as casting a spell. Just try it.”
Ginny did, trying to change the color of her textbook. Nothing happened.
“What are you thinking about when you cast it?” Ginny asked, remembering her conversation with Flitwick and suspecting that there was more than one way to approach spellcasting.
“I’m not really thinking about anything,” Astrid said. “I mean… it’s more of a feeling. I get excited about magic…” She blushed, as if admitting this was some great vulnerability. “I guess I imagine whatever the spell will do and…” She trailed off and waved her wand, changing Ginny’s textbook pink. Then she looked thoughtful. “It’s kind of like… everything falls away for an instant and I’m just focused on the spell. Does that make any sense?”
Ginny shrugged. It sounded a bit like when she played Quidditch. She waved her wand, trying to keep that mental headspace in mind and change her textbook blue. Nothing happened again. She sighed. The girl shrugged.
“Just keep practising I guess… we could practise together?”
“Sure! So, is transfiguration your favourite subject?” They started walking down the hall together. Astrid shook her head.
“Herbology and Potions. I could write essays on those for days.” she said with a bit of a far off look. Ginny made a face.
“Why those two? Wand magic is so much more fun.”
“Because almost all of the most impactful discoveries in the past thousand years have been in Potions!” Ginny looked at her dubiously. “Name a spell you think has been incredibly important.”
Ginny thought for a moment.
“Levitation charm. It’s really useful for loads of different stuff.” The girl rolled her eyes.
“Blood Replenishing Potion has saved countless lives over the past five hundred years.”
Ginny looked at her thoughtfully.
“But defensive magic saves lives too.”
“Defensive magic is a weapon that is used to take lives and save them,” Astrid corrected. “Not that it’s not useful or that the Auror force is bad, but Theophilus Grimmaker saved thousands upon thousands of lives with his discovery. And it will continue to save thousands more. How many has a single auror saved?”
“But very few people actually make discoveries like that,” Ginny pointed out.
Astrid shrugged. “Even if I never discover anything like that, I can do a lot of good as a healer.”
“Wow, you already know what you want to do?”
“Well… for now at least. I kind of change my mind a lot. But definitely something in the field of Potions… Anyway, want to see something cool? I’ll probably end up studying there for the next four weeks. It’s a bit far away.”
Ginny, who had been meaning to explore more of the castle and grounds, nodded immediately. Astrid led her to the sixth floor, then to a section of the school she had never been to. Astrid then pulled her wand and pointed it at an old door.
“Err, step back.”
Ginny did. The door exploded in a rain of wood and splinters. Ginny gaped at the girl, who was stepping gingerly through the door.
“Come on.”
Ginny followed and saw it led to a very dusty looking stairwell. Astrid waved her wand and the door repaired itself. Noticing Ginny’s stare, she smirked.
“That’s how I’ve been getting into off limits areas. They usually place high level locking charms on the knobs, but don’t reinforce the doors. And you can just cast repairo on them after you blow them up.”
Astrid led her up ten flights of stairs and then blew apart another door. They stepped through it, repaired it, and then Ginny took in her surroundings.
“Merlin…”
They were high up—very high up on what appeared to be a large stone balcony with a low barrier at the edges. There were a few armchairs and a large table.
“The table was here when I found it, but the armchairs have been a project of mine for the past few days.”
“How have you had time to learn to transfigure armchairs? I’ve been swamped.”
“Well, mostly by skipping Astronomy and History of Magic. Plus I don’t turn in my homework for Lockhart.” She made a disgusted face.
Ginny had to admit, Lockharts copious amounts of homework that was mostly an auto-biographical quiz, took a lot of her time.
“So what do you do here?”
“Mostly get away from my roommates. Besides Luna, they’re not nice… we come up here a lot, Luna and I.”
“Do you… mind if I come up here?”
Astrid rolled her eyes—she did that a lot. “Of course not, that’s why I’m showing it to you. But if you end up being horrible, I’ll lock you out.”
“I won’t,” Ginny said quickly, hating how desperate she felt for a friend. Then she leaned out over the parapet.
“Get away from there!” Astrid squeaked. Ginny turned to her. The girl looked pale.
“Are… are you afraid of heights?”
Astrid nodded.
“But you have a secret balcony hundreds of feet up in the air…”
“It’s fine as long as I don’t look over the edge.”
Ginny grinned and took a step away from the edge.
“Teach me that blasting curse?”
***
Living in Slytherin had gotten intolerable, and even her roommates, with the exception of Aurellia, were eyeing her in a way Ginny didn’t like. Aurellia had stuck by her almost every second of the day. Not knowing about Pansy’s chat, she had also been equally cold to her adoptive sister, something Ginny knew hurt the girl. But Pansy had insisted she not tell anyone in case word got out.
Ginny wasn’t sure she would have been able to deal with it all if it hadn’t been for the balcony. She quickly got permission from Astrid for Aurellia to come up, and, being rather good at household spells, Aurellia had the balcony feeling warm and cozy. How she had installed a fireplace into it, Ginny had no idea.
She had spoken with Tom on and off over the past couple weeks, but was still wary of him. It? He hadn’t brought up his offer to teach her magic directly, but had answered all of her questions. He seemed knowledgeable about anything magic-related she’d asked of him. Her only reservations were that most of his information was unverifiable and that he was a sentient diary that seemed fixated on the Dark Arts. The first, Ginny was making a plan to fix. The second—well, she would have to just trust her instincts… and Astrid.
She showed Astrid the diary. The girl, like Ginny, was equally interested in the wealth of information it could provide and used it herself to learn more about restricted potions and plants. But she seemed far warier of it once Ginny described her interactions.
“My father said once that the easiest way to be manipulated is to have all your information come from the same source.”
Ginny stared at her friend.
“What does your father do?” she asked, wondering what kind of person said something like that.
“He’s a solicitor. Works at a really cutthroat law firm. Anyway, we should find as much as we can… have you told Aurellia?”
Ginny shook her head, embarrassed. “I thought you might be more… cool with it.”
Astrid rolled her eyes.
“Just because I wear heavy eyeliner doesn’t mean I’m some dark witch.”
Ginny flushed.
“But we should ask Aurellia to see if she can read up on what Tom told you. She has access to the Parkinson library.”
“I didn’t think of that…”