Stellarlune

Hogwarts had introduced two new classes for the eighth years, a compulsory psychiatric counsel, and an interspersed therapy, kind of.

It was called EDT, an acronym for Empathic Destitutional Therapy.

Once every week, for an hour, we had to sit in pairs, secluded from each other, and have counsel from other houses. To protect identity, the students had to disillusion themselves, sometimes even going so far as to change their voices.

Animosity still ran deep in our veins, and cordiality between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins had long since come to a standstill.

I think McGonagall underestimated just how smart we all were.

We created code names with each other, often testing them out to see if the other responded. If they didn’t respond, the hour would be spent in silence. But if they did, then the disillusions would be removed, and the hour would be spent in amiable company.

Nobody wanted to talk about their worst experiences.

They weighed the pain and pleasure ratio and acted accordingly. That was all.

Harry was Caelus, the Latin word for the sky, and Ron, Amelia (don’t ask me why). Luna had chosen Roena, Ginny took on the name Draconis, and I was Fidelis, for faith.

My first ‘session’ happened on a Tuesday.

It took place in one of the few intact halls on the far side of the castle. Old, weathered and crumbling with rocks. Moss had crept up over the crumbling structure, extending its tendrils like a beautiful flowering vine. Fluorescent algae bloomed in the far corners where moisture had accumulated, their pores releasing this earthy-like smell.

Multiple walls had been conjured by the professors, forming seventy five or so cramped rooms to accommodate all the students at one time.

I think silencing spells had been weaved into the framework, for it was quiet save for my partner’s harsh breathing.

I had disillusioned myself and changed my voice to a deep baritone.

I leaned against a wall, curling myself up against it and hugging my knees. I made myself a bubble of warmth around me, softly murmuring my codename.

“Fidelis.”

I waited for one breath, two breaths, three…

“Roena”

The voice was strong and clear, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was Luna.

I removed my disillusionment, and she did the same.

“Crazy, huh?”

“Yes, I do think that they might’ve started off too gently, though. My Wrackspurts could easily tell you apart.”

I huffed a laugh. “Maybe I might need some of those then.”

We sat in quiet silence for a bit, each lost in her own thoughts.

Lazily, I sliced my wand through the air, swirling a pattern that produced silver shimmers and the trace outlines of a vague feline creature running trails in the forest.

I think that might have been me.

The first fight broke out two weeks after. None of the teachers had been there, choosing to trust the students. I had barged in with Cho, my partner for that day, only to find Harry raging in the cramped room with Goyle.

Hexes were flying left and right, Shattering jinxes and ‘Immobilius!’ and curses and red and green flashes of light. I think they were really out to kill each other.

Cho stumbled beside me, crying out in pain at the Flipendo Maxima that had been cast at Harry, but deflected towards her with the Protego he had cast.

She was thrown bodily across the room, and then hit with an ‘Ebublio!’.

That snapped me out of it.

“No! Stop it! Stop acting like children!”

Harry was panting, his eyes and hands heavily swollen.

“Don’t look at me! It was his fault!”

Goyle was furious, cuts along his face and arms, like hundreds of needles had torn through him at some point.
“How very typical Gryffindor-ish.” He jeered. “That’s all you scum are good for. Blame, blame, blame.”

“Shut up, both of you! Look at what you’ve done!”

I gestured to the bother side of the room, at the wall partially blown off.

My shouting drew the students from their rooms, hushed whispers and gasps echoing among one another as they took in the sight before them.

There was a huge bubble floating near the ceiling. It had been the ‘Ebublio’.

The explosion had thrown shards of glass and shrapnel into the water bubble along with sharp bits of rock and the venomous snake that Goyle had flung at Harry earlier.

It was twisting vigorously in the water, spinning, and coiling and hissing and spitting, jaws open wide, fangs ready to strike. The scales on its back shined dully as it flashed through the water and struck the edges of the bubble, unable to escape.

And in the very center, an unconscious Cho floated. Blood trickling out from the side of her head was slowly turning the water red.

Very soon, we wouldn’t be able to see shit.  

And I didn’t think this was the normal version of the spell that expired after half a minute. It would last an hour, at the very least.

The water was getting darker and darker.

Twenty pairs of eyes turned towards the water, towards the bubble. Twenty brains.
Two minutes.
A hundred ideas could’ve been concocted and implemented to save Cho. And yet, twenty hands did nothing but clench their wands in despair.  

The last thing we were able to see before the bubble went completely dark was the flash of the snake's fangs as it bit into her.

Fuck all this.

I whirled on Goyle.

“Quick, what’s the counter-spell?”

His eyes were whizzing frantically from the bubble to Harry, mild panic showing on his face for a quick second before it was quelled.

Harry, meanwhile, had not moved. At all.

“Goyle, now!”

He waved his wand in a jerky S shape and muttered something.

We all turned from him to the bubble. Nothing happened.

I think Harry was full on panicking, now. He started casting all sorts of blasting spells at the bubble, probably hoping to evaporate the water to get to Cho.

I clutched my wand tighter, almost shaking with fear.

Cho was gonna die.

“Tell me the spell, I’ll do it! Which type of snake was it? Is the poison lethal?”
“Someone get Pomfrey, run!” I shouted among the commotion, trying to mimic Goyle’s movements.

Someone burst through the crowd.

“PRUINA TEMPESTATIS!”

The bubble froze, a dull frost creeping over the room. And inside, Cho froze with it.

And…so did the poison flowing through her veins.

Shit, why hadn’t I thought of that?

“She’ll die! Melt it!” Someone screamed.

The caster shoved me aside and I went careening to the floor. “Impedimenta. Flagratiende.”

His voice was calm now, having immobilized the sphere. Strips of red fire shot out of his wand, wrapping around the bubble like an ethereal time globe.

The ice hissed where the fire touched it, melting quickly.

“Careful,” I heard myself saying. “You touch her with that spell, and you know she’s dead.”

He scoffed in reply, twisting his wand. Instead of pressing into the ice, the thin wires now wrapped themselves around the bubble, not touching it, but creating an outside barrier whose residual heat melted the rest of the ice.

Cho’s face appeared, bit by bit, her skin slowly changing from blue to a hot red.

She was burning up.

That was not good. Half of her body was still immersed in the ice. She was experiencing frostbite and heat burn at the same time. Her blood was frozen and running faster in two different halves of her body every second.

The entire room was quiet.

Nobody had seen any spell like this. Nobody knew what to do.

I grabbed my wand.

“Locomotor.” I guided the majority of the flames over to where the thickest of the ice still remained. The boy shot me a look, but I ignored him. There was no time for that.

Two minutes later, Cho was freed, and promptly levitated over to where a frantic Madame Pomfrey hovered like an angry mother bat.

I blinked; the echo of those eerie flames burned almost permanently on the backs of my eyelids; they had been so bright.

Now that the imminent danger was gone, I whirled on the boy. “Teach me…”

Only to start in surprise as pale grey eyes stared at me in indifference.

“How crude of you to ask. No.”

“No, what?”

“No, I won’t teach you.”

I scoffed, then.

“As if I would ever want to learn anything from you.”

And that was that. The mess was cleared, the students dispersed, and the room reconstructed. We all were sent on our way, and yet still I could feel my blood roaring in my veins with the heat of the fire that had accompanied that bit of magic.

The curiosity in my mind had reared its head.

I knew I would be desperate to learn more about it.

And so began the tailing.