Revenge of the Bird

Herbology class was over for another day and no dirt was needed to be dug. Pruning only, something which the third year could handle. Hands did not need to get dirty and this particular plant did not require the wearing of those hideous looking dragonhide gloves. Christine hated those on her hands. Thus she was able to walk out of the class confident in the knowledge that no detention had been earned that day.

She walked daintily across the grounds as she headed back to the palace. A smile was etched upon her face and she thought this day would end in a most wonderful way. With her focus not on her surroundings she failed to hear the swish of feathers until a bird suddenly swooped low over her head. "HELP!" she shouted, "I am under attack," and dropped to the ground as the bird came back over her again, even lower this time.

Serah was on her way to Herbology. She found the class to be highly obnoxious and completely worthless, but she would never tell anyone but Milan that.

Serah was halfway to the class when she heard a bloodcurdling scream.

Serah was suddenly afraid. She could only imagine what fate could have befallen one of her classmates.

But she found herself sprinting to the source of the scream anyway. Christine (or at least that's what Serah thought her name was. She had met her in detention) was screaming. A small bird was flying around her, trying to get something in or out of her hair.

"Immobulus!" Serah shouted pointing her wand at the bird.

The bird fell, leaving the older girl safe. "Are you okay?" Serah asked.

Christine was kneeling on the dirty ground with her hands over her head and her books scattered on the ground. She didn't register the younger girl, the spell or the bird no longer dive-bombing her head. Not at first. Not until the other girl spoke.

Slowly the third year lifted her head and looked up in the face of a girl she recalled from one of her detentions the previous year. "Oh thank you ever so much," she said as she stood. "I am ever so grateful and in your debt." Then she looked down at her lovely blue silky uniform and grimaced. "Ugh. I am to go to divination looking like this?" Miss class or go it grass stains on her uniform. It was a most dreadful dilemma. She bent down and gathered up the books along with the bag they'd fallen from. "Oh. I am so sorry for not giving reply to your question. I am much recovered thank you very much."

"You're welcome. And you don't owe me anything," Serah replied, shrugging. "I wasn't going to let you get attacked by a bird with a thirst for human blood."

Serah was mostly joking, but looking at the facial expression on the frozen bird and she had a feeling that she was correct about the bloodlust.

"I'd let you borrow my robe, but I think the Montagnard crest would look out of place on a Cerisier," Serah said with a smirk. "Stand still," she ordered.

Serah pointed her wand at Christine's robe. "Scourgify," she pronounced.

The spell didn't do much, but it at least got enough of the grass and mud to prevent staining. "Don't tell people I know that charm. It's something that a second year isn't supposed to know."

"I'm Serah, by the way. The last time we met, I was screaming," she stated stated, smiling uncomfortably.

"Yes it did appear to be rather blood thirsty," she agreed. The third year then looked upwards and back down at the frozen bird. "I wonder. Perhaps there is a nest nearby. I have read of birds and their wish to protect their young." But then she shook her head. "No. It is not spring." Spring was supposed to be the time when the animals and their young and the plants were supposed to spring up was it not?

Christine wrinkled her nose at the mere thought of wearing anything with the montagnard crest upon it. She was a very fiercely loyal student of the house of Cerisier. Her eyes widened at the pronouncement of a spell she had never heard uttered. How much longer before she were to be officially taught a most useful spell? "I promise upon my honour this will never be mentioned," she promised.

"And I am Christine." She nodded in acknowledgement. "Yes. I do recall that but I also recall you were not the only one to be screaming or arguing. He is a most disagreeable boy." Of Harley, Christine had not formed an opinion either way having not spoken with the girl since their first meeting in La Petit Dragon back before their first year.

Serah let out a sign of relief. "Phew! That's good. I don't want to be put into an advanced Charms class." Serah shivered at the thought. She was good at Charms, but she had terrible marks in everything else.

"It's nice to meet you. I promise that there will be no yelling involved. I'm still suficiently embarrassed about the experience." Serah flushed at the memory of her yelling. She could barely even believe that anything so rude could escape from her thoughts. "Do you know if those crystal balls are dirty again?"

"Yeah. Ryan isn't the nicest guy," Serah agreed. "But he's got his problems, I s-suppose."

Serah really hoped Christine didn't see through the sympathy, there. the last thing she needed was for everybody to know about her very irrational crush.

Christine nodded. "Oh yes. When they are used fingers touch them and leave smudge marks. I try not to put my hands on mine in class but it is very difficult when you are looking within to see what is there." And alas, so far Christine had failed to see anything within her ball or the tea leaves for that matter.

"But does not everyone have their problems?" she queried. "It is not right to be mean to others just because you have problems. I have no mother but I do not act jealously or be mean to others because of it." She had no clue what these 'problems' Ryan had but she did know he was extremely arrogant and could not take constructive criticism. She had only been trying to help him improve his song and he was thoroughly offended.

Serah shrugged. "I agree with you. It's not right or fair to be rude. I don't know what problems he has. But he does have to live in his older brother's shadow. Maybe he's trying to stand out? Kind of a stupid way to do it, but it does work."

Ryan was completely different than Stark, for sure.

Serah really didn't know. But ever since Milan had put a hex on him in the library, she had felt some sort of sympathy toward him.

"Gosh. I have detention again. I hope we don't have to clean them again. I would be very upset," Serah said, laughing. The detention she had most recently received was very worth it.

Now that was the most ridiculous reason anyone could have. "If he is in his brother's shadow it is only because he allowed himself to be there. I have two older sisters, one of them who is prefect and a Quidditch captain right here at Beauxbatons. I do not stand in either of their shadows without being mean or nasty to anyone." She may wish to emulate her sisters in one aspect or another but never would Christine allow herself to be overshadowed by either of them.

"You do? Only one?" She wrinkled her nose. "Cleaning is always the worst punishment. I hate it so much. Whatever happened to writing lines?" Certainly ink was messy but Christine found she could tolerate it as she'd found ways to make sure she did not get ink all over her hands.

Serah nodded. "But if Ryan is trying to be out of his brother's shadow, he's definitely doing so," she replied. "They are completely different."

Serah was hoping that their conversation about Ryan would stop. She had recently (like, four seconds ago recently) decided that she wasn't going to fixate over him anymore. Or as much as she had been.

"I don't know what I would do. I don't have any siblings. Or cousins or people who are similar in age to me. I don't have anything to deflect light from myself."

"Writing lines is too easy, I guess," Serah said, shrugging. Writing wasn't really a punishment for her. She wrote all the time. That was her childhood. Journaling, drawing and getting into trouble. "We are witches and wizards. Knocking purebloods down to Muggle status is what detention is all about."

Serah sighed. Her dad didn't use magic in the house. But she didn't complain. She had Muggle servants.

"One day he may learn the right way of standing out," Christine replied. The entire conversation surrounding Ryan Green was beginning to bore her but it was rude to ignore the words spoken by the other girl.

Christine's eyes widened in surprise. "I am not certain whether I should be envious or sorry for you. Without my sisters or cousins I would have more time for me but I also would be lonelier." She had a flighting thought of what would have become of her father if Christine had been the only child but soon dismissed that as a waste of energy since it was not the case.

She did not think much of the explanation given by the other girl. "Then it is a waste for muggleborns such as myself. I do not need knocking down since I already go back to live amongst muggles every holiday. And all of us have our chores in the house. Poor Marie has to do it all on her own whilst Stephie and myself are here at school."

"I didn't mean that Muggle Borns are bad," Serah clarified. She was starting to get embarrassed. She really hadn't meant just certain witches and wizards. "I meant that some Purebloods act spoiled and get into trouble because of it. I'll claim the spoiled behavior. I am Pureblood."

"And I suppose it is a waste on the Muggleborns. At least normal things like cleaning and cooking. Magic saves a lot of time, I've noticed. Maybe that's why they had us clean something uncommon in detention?"

"All I have is time for me. And trust me, it gets old after a while. It always seems to go that people with siblings have wanted to be an only child and people without siblings want them. I have friends though. I suppose I could consider them siblings since I live with them for ten months each year.," Serah finished. She felt like she was rambling a little. Maybe that's why she had only two friends. Because she never shut up.

It really didn't make sense to Christine. All this talk of bloodstatus and punishments to match them. Well maybe not quite that. Just to get the purebloods and everyone else having the same punishment with them. That was how Christine was interpreting the explanation. Of course she didn't understand why bloodstatus was so important in the first place. It wasn't like royalty or nobility. Yet for some odd reasons some wizards seemed to put that level of importance up on it.

"I suspect the professors deliberately keep items dirty to punish students," she said whilst her brain was still processing all the silliness of bloodstatus and purebloods apparently being spoilt. That stopped her mid thought and she abruptly changed the subject slighty. "You do not have to be a pureblood witch or wizard to be spoilt. I know a muggle girl who is spoilt." Knew. Christine considered any holiday in which she did not see Celeste was a good holiday.

Christine could feel her mind wanting to shut off at the wall of words coming out of the other girl's mouth. Something though did strike her and she suddenly said, "it is not the same thing. I do not see Marie for ten months of the year but she will always be my sister. My friends here whom I see here for much longer stretches will never been anything more than friends." Nothing anyone said would ever convince Christine that anything else could be comparable to true siblinghood.

Serah laughed. "They probably do. I can't imagine any of the professors scrubbing the floors with a toothbrush or sweeping the floor manually. Can you imagine Professor Cox cleaning a bathroom? He's terrifying!"

"I know," Serah answered, knowing that her point had not been a good one or very clear. "I think the people who are terribly spoiled don't realize it. It's very annoying."

Serah tried to wrap her mind around siblings and friends being different. But she couldn't. "I guess I can't realate, then. I'll never have siblings. My dad has no desire to get married again, so that means no babies," Serah answered. Her father getting remarried seemed like a stretch of even the wildest imagination.

Christine smiled at the mere idea of their Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor cleaning a bathroom the muggle way or even cleaning a bathroom with magic. "He would tell someone else to do the cleaning even if were to be done with a wand." She could very well imagine him ordering everyone around and was thankful none of her detentions so far had been with him.

"I do not let it bother me," Christine returned with dignity. A terrible lie, she knew. Celeste's face always loomed largely in her mind when it came to the topic of spoilt children. Some had dared to call herself spoilt but Christine could not see how that were possible.

She nodded with understanding. "My father would never marry again either. My mother was so..." She trailed off, the old frustration of never being able to remember her returning. "Oh, I must be moving onto class. It was lovely to chat with you but I must move onto my next class." Christine gave Serah a parting nod and hurried off back toward the palace and a class in which she would work on her inner eye.