...Except for One
"Hey, I appreciate playing hooky as much as the next witch, but this is taking it way too far," Tonks grumbled through her scarf. Ben had been absent for yet another History of Magic class. He hadn't shown up to any of his classes at all. Stranger yet, Penny had gotten Pippa Macmillan to tell her that the Gryffindors hadn't even seen him in the common room or dorms. According to Corey Hayden, he had come to the feast, but vanished on the way to Gryffindor Tower.
Meanwhile, Hogwarts felt like midwinter had come early. Frost had formed on the windows faster than Mr Filch could wipe it off, obscuring the outside world. The air was so cold, nobody could bear to traverse the corridors without at least two layers of clothes under their cloaks. Scarves, hats, and earmuffs were everywhere, usually accompanied by red cheeks and noses. It was as if Ben had evaporated and taken all the warmth with him.
Penny fidgeted with one of her plaits, though she couldn't twirl it around her finger due to the fact that she was wearing thick woollen mittens. "Professor Dumbledore was seen taking a portkey out of the castle. There's a rumour that he's gone off to look for someone. Do you think it's Ben?"
"Honestly, no," said Maya, who had two layers of jumpers and trousers under her robes. She'd also exchanged her glasses for a large pair of goggles usually reserved for Flying and Potions classes—not because she wanted to, but because someone had stolen her glasses and she didn't have the time to look for them. "Last year, he told me that he was looking for an expert in breaking curses. I bet he's left to continue that search."
Unlike Dumbledore, Maya and Rowan were dedicating every moment outside of class to looking for Ben. They were dedicating quite a few moments in class, too.
"Miss Shafiq? Miss Khanna?" Professor Flitwick said wearily, making Maya and Rowan look up from their notes. Said notes were, of course, not about Charms—they were a list of all of Ben's known hiding places, complete with pros and cons of each spot. The Slytherins were trying to deduce how, where, and why Ben was hiding. "If you could focus on the lecture, please."
"Yes, Professor." Maya and Rowan put away their notes dejectedly.
Professor Flitwick continued his lecture, but he was lacking the vibrant energy that the students had come to associate with the tiny wizard. And it wasn't just because of the layers and layers of cloaks he was buried under.
Several Transfiguration classes had been cancelled because Professor McGonagall's husband had recently fallen ill, so the other professors had to fill in for her. As if that wasn't enough, patches of ice would randomly appear, freezing any unlucky students on the spot. Professor Flitwick had been especially unlucky, having to break the students free of the ice more than anyone else. Nevertheless, he continued to educate them on their current subject.
"A spell requires four main factors in order to succeed. Now, who can tell me what they are?"
Professor Flitwick scanned the classroom, but no one seemed to have revised on that particular chapter. Except for Rowan, who was sitting on her hands, trying to look inconspicuous. Pippa was muttering something under her breath with furrowed brows, but she seemed to be struggling to remember the fourth factor. And Maya...
"...Miss Shafiq?"
Maya jolted. She'd been trying to look at her Ben-finding notes under the desk. "Yes, Professor?"
"The four factors of spellwork, if you will."
"Right. They're wand movement, incantation, concentration, and... uh..."
"Intention," Rowan whispered under her breath, hitching up her multicoloured scarf to hide her mouth.
"Intention!" Maya repeated, mentally thanking Rowan for her help.
Professor Flitwick nodded. "Correct. Five points to Slytherin. Now, among those four factors, wand movement is the one that can be simplified for faster spellwork, and sometimes even omitted entirely."
He went on to explain that such skills were treated as the absolute baseline for a qualified witch or wizard, and how that they would be expected to cast spells with simple waves and flicks in other classes as well. They practised with Reducio, the first spell that Professor Flitwick had taught them as second-years, shrinking cauldrons with varying levels of success. Maya managed to get hers to the size of a teacup by poking it.
The bell rang, and students hurried out of the classroom. Their next class was Additional Defence Against the Dark Arts, held by Professor Quirrell.
While they had been apprehensive of the young wizard's competence at first, one class was all it took for them to see why the older students spoke so highly of him. He opted to teach students from all four houses together, much like Professor Binns did. However, unlike the dreadfully dull Professor Binns, Professor Quirrell was fun, active, and actually remembered his students' names. Naturally, there wasn't a single student who wanted to miss his classes. The horde of children waddled down the hall as fast as they could manage, like a flock of very odd and enthusiastic penguins.
Maya, on the other hand, was not waddling down the hall as fast as she could manage. Even after arriving at the door, she wasn't in a hurry to run inside; she was busy transcribing her notes onto a spare bit of parchment when she heard a familiar snicker behind her.
"What are you doing, Shafiq? Writing a heartfelt letter to your dearly departed brother? Or are you drawing some sort of portrait to put next to your bed?"
Maya nearly broke her quill in surprise. Although she narrowly avoided that fate, she was pretty sure she had noticeably flinched. As calmly as she could, Maya responded, "They're notes for Ben, actually. Charms is his favourite subject—he'll be heartbroken to learn that we've come so far without him. The least I can do is help him catch up once he comes back."
"If he comes back. Are you sure you didn't scare him off with those freaky eyeglasses of yours?"
Maya suppressed a groan. She'd already heard enough snide remarks about her goggles for a lifetime. "If you're not going to make yourself useful, then just stay away from me, Merula."
"How rude. And foolish, considering that the two aren't mutually exclusive. To think I was just wondering whether you'd had any luck finding that whimpering mudblood friend of yours."
Maya's head turned so fast she could almost hear a snap. "Do you know what happened to Ben?"
Merula rolled her large violet eyes. "I know more than you, as I always have. For example, I know that sometimes, even when people are missing, they're exactly where they're supposed to be."
"What are you talking about?" Maya snarled. Knowing Merula, that didn't sound good.
"Copper is just like your brother, Shafiq. It's better if he's not found."
Without warning, Maya lunged forward and seized the front of Merula's robes while using her free arm to stop the self-proclaimed Most Powerful Witch at Hogwarts from raising her wand. Merula struggled, but she was still very skinny and Maya had gotten her weight back over the summer. It wasn't much of a contest.
"What did you do to Ben?" Maya growled in a low voice.
Still struggling, Merula hissed, "I didn't do anything."
And with that, she freed herself from Maya's grip, turned on her heel, and stormed away, leaving Maya to think about what had just happened. Even after sliding into the seat that Rowan had saved for her, Maya couldn't really pay much attention to Professor Quirrell's class, no matter how interesting it was. She only started listening after Rowan elbowed her in the ribs.
"And remember, you're not allowed to duel unsupervised," said Professor Quirrell. "We're reopening the club for the sake of teaching you to defend yourselves, not to send our students home in stretchers. Now, why don't we spice things up with a few mock duels of our own? You're allowed to use whatever you have in your arsenal, but do try to use that Water-Making Spell we covered last time. Alright, who should go first..." Professor Quirrell's eyes skimmed over the huddled-up students, "Aha! Miss Haywood and Mr Winger! Come up here, please."
"Yay!" Penny grabbed a dark Ravenclaw boy who had been brooding in a corner and dragged him along with her. "Let's go, Talbott! Promise to go easy on me?"
Talbott Winger mumbled something under his breath that was apparently a "yes".
As Penny and Talbott raised their wands, Maya continued her previous line of thought. She had momentarily suspected Merula as the culprit behind Ben's disappearance, given the bully's history of trying to secretly murder him, but it didn't seem likely. The way Merula had denied it, emphasising that she didn't do anything... It made Maya think that even though Merula did know what happened to Ben, she didn't dirty her own hands. And she certainly wasn't going to tell Maya what she knew.
Her cronies, on the other hand...
...were completely useless, as Maya soon found out. Okay, maybe not completely, given that Tulip Karasu didn't spill so much as a drop of information whilst naturally answering every inquiry Maya threw at her. Diego Caplan danced around Maya's questions and Ismelda Murk simply threatened to use the Killing Curse on her if she didn't shut up. But Barnaby Lee was by far the strangest, given that Maya had no idea whether he was telling the truth or not.
"Ben Copper? He's missing?" asked the burly Slytherin boy, finally turning away from the window he was stubbornly wiping with a gloved hand.
Maya stared. She opened and closed her mouth, wiped her goggles, and said, "Yes, he's missing."
Barnaby scratched his head. "Huh. I didn't know that..."
"How can you not know?" Maya demanded. She couldn't decide if Barnaby was a good liar or a bad one—he sounded extremely sincere, yet what he said made no sense. "Everyone's been talking about it!"
"They have? I thought they were talking about the Quidditch tryouts. Skye Parkin joining the team and all..."
Maya huffed. He wasn't entirely wrong, but to think that people would be discussing the Quidditch star's daughter joining the team more than a student inexplicably going missing was... infuriatingly realistic. It reminded Maya of how all investigation into her brother's disappearance had stopped after You-Know-Who's defeat at the hands of Harry Potter. And while it wasn't fair for Maya to be angry about that, she was pretty sure she could be angry about this.
"...Huh. What're they doing?" said Barnaby to no one in particular.
Maya glanced in the direction he was looking at. Penny was dodging Talbott's spells while pouring the contents of several small phials into a slightly larger flask. Once she had her thumb pressed against the stopper, the blonde Hufflepuff started shaking the flask as if she were making a magical cocktail. Talbott started backing away. Smart.
"Oi! Barnaby!" Ismelda snapped. She made a bunch of strange motions with her hands, which only confused Barnaby further. When it was clear that he wasn't getting the message, she growled two words through clenched teeth. "Your. Job."
"Oh. Right. My job, that Merula gave me to do. That job."
Ismelda facepalmed as Barnaby turned back to the window. He wasn't very subtle about looking through it at... something.
Maya leaned against the windowsill to get a look, but Barnaby's massive frame effectively blocked her entire line of sight. She tried standing on her toes, pressing her cheek against the glass (it was terribly cold and she regretted it immediately), and even asking him to move.
Then she had a better idea, and she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it sooner. She drew her wand, aimed it at her cloak, and whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa."
It worked! Maya rose up, wobbling but still in midair, just enough to see over Barnaby's head. It didn't take long for her to topple over and crash, earning plenty of strange looks (the cursed crazy kid's at it again, said a voice), but she managed to catch a glimpse of some long, swaying limbs.
"Are you okay?" asked Rowan, helping Maya back up.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Pulling her friend in, she whispered, "We need to go check the Whomping Willow."
"I can't see a thing," Rowan whispered. "I wish we could use Lumos."
"Any spell that creates light, which is almost every one we know, will probably result in us getting caught and we can't have that," said Maya. She suspected that Barnaby, or any one of Merula's gang, was still keeping an eye on the Willow.
Rowan sighed. "We're already breaking eleven school rules, and will potentially—er, most likely break fourteen more within the next hour. So, yes, you're right, but that doesn't mean I can't complain about it."
"Hey, I'm not thrilled either. But we have to do this, for Ben's sake."
Maya's plan was simple and admittedly quite mad. She would keep the tree occupied, ideally without damaging it (Professor Sprout had told them, quite fondly, that it was a very valuable tree), while Rowan searched it for clues—neither of them using their wands. They had prepared batches of Wiggenweld Potions and even a pair of Strengthening Solutions from Penny, but Maya still wasn't convinced that she could stop the Whomping Willow from squashing her flat. Not even the most potent Dittany would save her if she got turned into a grease spot.
Rowan had exchanged her glasses for a pair of goggles like Maya's and tied up her hair. "Have you considered that Merula might have considered Barnaby the weak link, and purposely given him a pointless job for the sake of throwing us off? She's attempted murder with a plant before, and the Whomping Willow is just as, if not more dangerous than Devil's Snare."
"I know, I know," Maya replied. "But if watching the Whomping Willow actually is important, then we can't afford to not investigate."
Their eyes adjusted to the darkness as they trudged over the grounds to their destination. It was actually warmer outside of the castle, even with the wind making their hair and robes flutter and billow. In fact, Maya was sweating almost as much as Rowan by the time they arrived.
Standing out of the Whomping Willow's reach, Maya took a deep breath.
"Okay. I distract, you search. One question—how do you distract a Whomping Willow?"
Rowan stared at her incredulously.
"What? You're the expert in magical perennials, how do I distract something that doesn't have eyes or ears?"
"You didn't think to ask me this sooner?" Rowan hissed in exasperation.
Maya raised her hands defensively. "To be fair, I was a little distracted by the prospect of getting bludgeoned by a tree."
Rowan rubbed her temple. "Alright, Whomping Willows don't sense their surroundings the way we do. It doesn't have to focus, it's aware of everything around it. To put it simply, if either of us get too close, it will know. 'Distracting' it isn't possible, at least not in the literal sense."
Maya puffed out her cheeks before exhaling slowly. "Okay, so 'distract' isn't the right word. Do I have to, like, hold it down or something?"
"Given the current limitations on what actions we can take?" Rowan's voice trembled, though she was doing her best to appear fearless. "I'd say... Yes, that is literally what you have to do."
"Well, thank the founders for Penny and her Strengthening Solutions," Maya muttered, uncorking her phial as Rowan did the same. The girls downed their potions together. Maya felt nothing, no surge of power, but tried not to worry about it anyway.
Maya took a step forward. Got to hold it down... she thought to herself as the thick, arching branches creaked and swayed. Each step she took seemed to reinforce the idea that the tree was warning her not to come any closer. Approaching it was forbidden—and for good reason too—but here she was anyway, steeling her nerves as she got ready to grapple with the Whomping Willow.
"Oh, and each branch is roughly as strong as a fully grown bull, so be careful!" Rowan added.
"Wait, wha—?"
WHACK!
The Whomping Willow lashed at Maya, uppercutting her towards the sky with so much force that she couldn't tell if the stars were real or just dancing in her eyes. She only managed to avoid flying away by grasping the thin, swishy branches that would have been swaying gracefully on a typical willow tree. But of course, the Whomping Willow was not a typical willow, so those branches showed off their flexibility by twisting themselves around Maya's jumper. It didn't squeeze her like Devil's Snare, but the tree swung her around in an upward spiral. Maya had just enough time to think, I really should have thought this through.
She heard the sound of another heavy limb hurtling towards her, leaves rustling as they ripped through the air. Maya instinctively raised a hand before she got squashed—
—and managed to stop the branch in its tracks. The potion was working! Her muscles felt like they were on fire, but her arm was matching the Whomping Willow's branch in strength. Maya grabbed the thin, leafy twigs before they could pull back. Now there were two branches occupied with her.
The Whomping Willow did not like that. Maya felt herself still for a moment as the tree suddenly changed the direction of its swing, now aiming to slam her into its thick, gnarly roots. But Maya landed feet-first, miraculously absorbing the impact with her legs. Nothing felt broken, but she could tell that she was going to be very sore after this.
Maya hooked her legs on the Willow's roots before it could lift her back up again. Now her entire body felt like it was on fire—she was surprised that there was no smoke. Or maybe there was. Her vision was too blurry to tell. And yet, probably thanks to her Inner Eye, she could tell whenever the Whomping Willow was about to lash at her. Maya grabbed branch after branch, pulling on them with her magically-enhanced strength so that Rowan could search freely. Soon enough, she had locked the Whomping Willow into a lethal game of tug-of-war.
"That's it, Maya!" Rowan whisper-yelled encouragingly from somewhere near the trunk. "Keep it up!"
Despite the excruciating pain and the screams from her muscles, a devilish grin grew on Maya's face. She could hardly believe it—she was fighting the Whomping Willow and winning! But alas, her strength came from a potion and was therefore temporary. The burning sensation in her body was starting to subside, yet the Whomping Willow didn't seem to be nearing its limit. Did it even have a limit?
"I don't think I can keep this up for much longer!" Maya said, her grin now long gone. "It's—!"
The Whomping Willow creaked and groaned louder than ever before... And then, with a deafening SNAP, the swishy branches were ripped off the tree. Maya fell backwards, entangled in the now-limp twigs and leaves. She couldn't feel her arms, but she was still able to sit up and yell,
"Rowan! We've got to get out of here before the tree kills us!"
But Rowan was already running. She stuffed something in her pocket with one hand and pointed towards the castle with the other. "Forget the tree—if we're caught, Sprout's going to kill us!"
Sure enough, the plump figure of Professor Sprout was running to the Whomping Willow, which now looked like it was balding. She was illuminated by the light of her wand, but Maya could sense a fury that sent chills down her spine. She ran after Rowan, arms trailing limply behind her.
Force-feeding Maya a Wiggenweld Potion was enough to get rid of the visible cuts and bruises on her skin, but the Whomping Willow's branches posed a much bigger challenge. They were too tough to rip now that the Strengthening Solution had worn off, and they were stubbornly clinging to Maya's jumper as if determined to end her even in death. While getting away from Professor Sprout took priority, they would definitely get in trouble if they couldn't find a way to dispose of the swishy twigs.
But first, they needed to reach the safety of the dorms. Maya and Rowan raced down the stairwells as fast as they could, slipping and sliding whenever the opportunity showed itself.
"Hurry, hurry! Hide in the—oh, why now?!" Rowan cried as they were stopped in their tracks right outside the common room entrance. Glowing ice had encased their feet, and was now growing up their legs. "Flipendo! Flipendo! Flipendo!"
Rowan had muffled her voice with her scarf, but the shattering ice had caused a ruckus anyway. Professor Sprout's footsteps were getting closer and louder, Maya and Rowan ran for their lives...
And barrelled into one very confused Felix Rosier.
Felix's eyes darted between Maya, Rowan, the approaching shadow of Professor Sprout, and the willow branches on Maya's jumper. He trained his wand on Maya, who felt her heart skip a beat...
...and Felix's soundless spell seamlessly merged plant with cloth, turning the branches into leafy green patterns. Before Maya and Rowan could fully process what had happened, they were thrust into the common room.
"Why. In the name of Merlin. Would you fight the Whomping Willow?" Felix demanded.
Maya flinched. "We were looking for Ben..." she said. Her voice seemed to crawl back into her throat.
"Ben... Copper?" Felix clarified. "You did all this for Ben Copper? Merlin's beard... If that's the case, I shudder to think of the lengths you'll go for Jacob..." He shook his head. "Look, I'm not going to ask why you thought you could beat answers out of the Whomping Willow. But know that this is the last time I cover for you. Am I clear?"
"Crystal clear," answered Rowan. Maya nodded in agreement.
Felix let out a long sigh. "Alright. No more... life-threatening ventures in the name of Slytherin loyalty. Got it? ...Got it?" he repeated, a little more forcefully.
"Got it," Maya and Rowan said in unison.
"Good." Felix jerked his head towards the girls' dorms. "Bed. Now."
They didn't have to be told twice. Maya and Rowan scurried into their dormitory, breathing sighs of relief when the door was firmly closed.
"Next time, I make the plan," Rowan said.
Maya didn't have the energy or reason to argue. "Sure. So... Did you find anything?"
Rowan nodded, but she averted her eyes. Slowly, she pulled a feather from her pocket.
Maya waited for Rowan to surprise her with something else, but that was it. Just a feather with a black vane and a pointy white shaft.
"We did all that... for this?" Maya muttered. The feather seemed so small compared to the fact that she could barely lift her arms.
Rowan hung her head. "It was all I could find."
"...Hey, I'm sure it's worth something," said Maya. There was something off about the feather, but she couldn't place her finger on what. "At the very least, it means we got out of there alive." She looked down at the new patterns on her jumper.
Rowan let her hair down, replacing her goggles with her usual glasses. She took a closer look at the feather, squinting at the shaft.
"It's a quill," she said. "Maybe it's Ben's, but I don't remember him using a quill like this."
Maya blinked. "A quill?"
"Yeah, look at how the shaft's been cut. It's a quill," said Rowan, handing it to Maya.
Maya studied the quill intently, running her finger along the weathered vane. Now she knew what was bothering her.
"This quill looks rather old, doesn't it?"
Rowan nodded, shoulders slumping. "And cheap."
"Well, isn't it strange that such an old, cheap quill has clearly never been dipped in ink? I mean, I might be able to understand if it were an expensive quill, but—"
Rowan suddenly sat up straight as if she'd been electrocuted. "It's clean? It's clean!" she exclaimed, wiping her glasses. "The shaft—it's completely spotless! But... what's the point of having a cheap quill if you're not going to use it?"
Maya grinned. "What if... it's not a quill at all?" She drew her wand and pointed it at the quill. "Reparifarge!"
The quill spun, turning into a piece of wrinkly parchment. Maya and Rowan smoothed it out, letting out small gasps upon seeing the words written in black ink.
You have until the 10th of November. Transfigure this letter back into a Black Quill and return it to the Whomping Willow. Do not allow it to fall into the wrong hands. Your next instructions will be hidden in the Gryffindor common room on the aforementioned date.
Failure to follow your instructions will result in severe punishment.
-R