When Giselle went up the steps to the fifth tier of desks in the huge Charms classroom, she was determined to clear her mind of everything. She sat at her narrow little desk at the end of the row, her face stiff with this determination to focus all her energy on doing better, much better, at casting charms.
The two sets of tiered school desks faced each other across an expanse of polished wooden floor, a lectern at one end where Professor Flitwick stood on a pile of old books, his longish wand in hand, and his cheerful face beaming around at all the students.
It was such a large room that it could accommodate the fourth years from three houses. Today it was Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Gryffindor.
"As we discussed Thursday last," Flitwick was saying, "this year begins your studies at the Intermediate Level. Today we begin with a reminder about the difference between Transient charms and Immanent charms. Who whould like to explain it?"
Hermione, who sat across the room from Giselle, in the bottom tier, half rose from her seat and stretched an arm as high as she could without dislocating it.
"Yes, Miss Granger?"
"Transient charms are those that are cast upon other people. Immanent charms are cast upon oneself."
"Very good. Two points to Gryffindor."
Draco muttered something to Goyle, but Giselle was not going to let anything distract her from the lesson. Not even the sour looks that Ron was giving Harry; no, nothing was going to get in the way of her concentration. A 'Poor' in Charms last term, just awful! She really must bump her grade up to at least an 'Acceptable.'
"Now, this morning we will be learning an Immanent charm called 'faerie feet' magic. A most delightful charm that you can use to move at great speed or with complete silence upon any surface. Also, we will use faerie magic to defy gravity in walking up walls and across ceilings. Let me demonstrate."
This was always fun, watching demonstrations, but a bit disconcerting also, because you were expected to do these things yourself. Giselle watched intently.
The first charm had Flitwick going around the room so fast that he was just a blur.
Then he sprinkled a lot of fragile items on the floor, cast the second charm on his booted feet, and walked upon the items so that they crunched and shattered, but without the slightest sound being heard.
Lastly, with a rather wild flourish of his wand, he went strolling up the rear wall, then upside down across the very high ceiling (which made Giselle shiver), and down the opposite wall.
As was customary when a teacher performed an impressive feat of magic, the Hufflepuffs applauded, the Gryffindors nodded, and the Slytherins looked bored. (Had Ravenclaws been present, they would've tapped their chins thoughtfully.)
"Now we shall spend the next twenty minutes or so practicing the cantos and the flourishes. Turn to page twenty-eight of your textbook."
Giselle read each sentence twice. She hung on every word Flitwick said. Her flourishes were nicely fluid; no jerky movements.
She pronounced the three cantos fairly well, not having perfect pitch. She knew that this was the reason she had trouble with charms. She sometimes was off key, intoning a G flat, for example, instead of a G natural. But usually she was close enough so that the charm worked pretty much as expected.
Today she was lucky. The three cantos were all in the key of C, the easiest one of all.
Flitwick stepped down from his books and, flicking his wand, had the books and the lectern floating off to a corner. "And now that we're done with Theory," he said, "on with Practical."
The class practiced the charms one row of students at a time. Giselle was nervous watching the attempts. Some were skidding around on their butts, some were uncontrollably tap-dancing, some were having to climb back in through the open windows.
But there were a few who did quite well. Pansy Parkinson was good at going fast, Giselle noticed, but her 'silent' walking was a thunderous noise that had everyone covering their ears.
Hermione made the fast and the silent walks look quite simple, but Giselle could see that she was uneasy about scaling the walls.
This last charm, Scaling, was practiced separately, after the 'floor walks.' Giselle, to her immense relief, did splendidly at the fast walk. It was strange moving at such a speed when it didn't seem to be fast at all, just a slight feeling of vertigo. But Flitwick was there with his stopwatch, saying, "One and a half seconds round the room, Miss McGonagall. Excellent."
Her silent walking wasn't exactly silent, but Flitwick nodded and said, "Not bad for a start. Next time try not to step on your shoelaces."
Scaling was next. Everyone was breathing nervously and fidgeting. Giselle told herself to just relax and think of it as a walk uphill. This didn't help much when she saw that the attempts often ended with Flitwick shouting out, "Arresto momentum!"
The exercise was one student at a time. Most walked up the rear wall for just a few meters before turning around very carefully and coming back down, or falling down, while the class stood in lines getting themselves psyched up.
Harry walked about halfway to the ceiling. Ron matched him and then took a few more steps until he wasn't far below the balcony, where members of the Board of Governors would sit during final exams.
Hermione satisfied herself with a brief walk up and a rather nerve-wracking walk back down. Deidre, Lori, and Bea all fell screaming from a short ways up, and Felix wasn't able to make a single step up before falling over backwards.
"A tutorial this weekend, Mr Franklin," Flitwick said to him.
Draco bested Pansy's effort, but came down a little too quickly and had to be arresto'd. Neville took a few steps up and fell on top of Crabbe, to the delight of Seamus and his girlfriend Angela.
And then it was Giselle's turn.
She performed the extravagant flourish well, and her canto, for once, was pitch perfect. A wonderful feeling of confidence came over her. This was a rare thing for her in Charms.
With bouyant steps she started up the stone-block wall, her eyes staring just a little past her feet. She didn't want to think about heights. Just keep walking, she told herself. She was determined to go higher than Ron had gone.
"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Flitwick.
The class began whispering. Bets were made on whether this bold Hufflepuff would fall or not.
Hermione had her fingers crossed and Ron was grinning. Harry did a thumbs up. Draco had bet that Giselle would fall, and the longer she lasted the more he scowled.
She kept going, her confidence growing with each step. She even noticed the names that had been scratched on the stones from years back: Sirius... James... Remus... And further up, in deeply scratched letters filled with mold, Thomas Marvolo Riddle.
From the corner of her eyes Giselle saw the balcony. She was a good twenty meters above the floor. This put a tiny crack in her confidence. So high up! But there's nothing to worry about, she said to herself, I'll just turn round slowly...
When she began her turn she could see over the railing of the balcony. The seats were empty. In the back was a large framed painting that a shaft of light from a high window opposite had lit up, and for a moment it mesmerized her.
The painting showed two young women sitting side by side on a garden bench. Both had reddish hair and the one on the left had eyes that reminded Giselle of Harry's eyes. The other woman looked very much like the witch in the forest.
Then Sanguino entered the scene carrying a small wicker cage. The woman with Harry's eyes shrank back from him, prompting the other woman to take firm hold of her companion's, or captive's, wrist and squeeze it brutally, as if she thought the frightened woman might try to flee.
The sight of the painting had surprised Giselle just enough to weaken the charm. When she saw how the two women acted, and heard the reptillian bird in the cage hiss in a strange timbre, it all became too much for her.
With a gasp of horror Giselle fell head-first toward the floor far below.
"Arresto momentum!"
"YES!" said Draco, pumping his fist.
In the Great Hall at lunch time, Aunt Minerva came down to the Hufflepuff table and motioned to her neice to follow her.
Giselle had no appetite anyway, and was glad of the opportunity to have a talk with Auntie about what she had seen, and... well, about how good she did in Charms.
They went into the teachers lounge off the Hall. This was an austere chamber set with silver and gold leaf, high-backed armchairs, white damask drapes at the tall lancet-arched windows, and bouquets of flowers in Egyptian urns on the meeting table.
Professor Sprout stood up as they came in and met Professor McGonagall at a book-lined alcove. Giselle stood to one side a little bashful, gazing about the room that she had never seen before.
"Albus confirmed that it was a feather from the Roc that Charlie observed in Transylvania," Sprout said. "Not the same Roc, probably, but a feather from one just like it. Bea Swiddle seems to think that the Bloodwort leaf changed into this feather! When I mentioned this to Albus, he explained that a Roc has a shape-changing ability, though Charlie says it's a limited ability."
Giselle was all ears. Her Auntie cleared her throat and asked, "Is Albus still with Charlie in the forest?"
"So far as I know," said Sprout, and, lowering her voice to a whisper, added, "he says Charlie thinks he might have sighted the monster last night! He can't be sure. They're looking for a possible lair. There are caves, you know, deep in the woods. Of course, this situation could cause a cancellation of the Tournament."
"The wicker cage!" said Giselle suddenly.
Auntie looked at her, frowning, and said, "The cage you saw in Charlie's room last night, with the fledgling beast in it? Charlie says he's totally unaware of it. It certainly wasn't there when he got back. Nor did Professor Snape see any such thing."
"Yes, but I meant to say that I saw Professor Vector carrying a wicker cage yesterday after sixth period, out by Hagrid's hut. I just now remembered. The cage was empty. And then in Charms class, in the balcony--" Giselle described her experience.
Her mention of Sanguino intrigued Auntie and Sprout, but when she described the woman in the painting who had eyes reminiscent of Harry's, Auntie was quite clearly shocked. Sprout seemed merely puzzled.
"Never mind," Auntie said in a flustered, anxious tone. "You say the Arithmancy teacher was carrying a wicker cage, like the one you saw in Charlie's room?"
"Yes. I'm sure of it."
"You have Arithmancy after lunch?"
"Yes."
"I'm excusing you from her class. And fifth period, also. I can run over the Transfiguration lesson with you this evening. For now, I want you to finish your lunch and then go to Hagrid's hut. You've his class at sixth period, haven't you? Take your books with you. You can catch up on your homework while you're waiting for sixth period. And I should tell you," Aunt Minerva continued in a softer voice, "that Charlie Weasley is staying in the hut for a few days, or until it can be determined if a Roc is roosting in the Forbidden Forest. Perhaps you'll see him today."
"Ah," said Giselle in a near faint.
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