The Miraculous Effects of Darkness

Chapters Seven

"You know Professor Dumbledore advised against going near that tree," Anika told Mary as the two girls strode across the lawn towards the angry Willow whose branches were swaying in the wind. 

"But I want a closer look!" Mary insisted. The two girls had spent the whole morning exploring the inside of the castle and had barely scratched the surface of it by lunchtime, although they did feel as though they would be able to get to their first Potions lesson on Monday morning without getting lost. After they had eaten Mary declared that she wanted to explore the grounds. The first went to the owlery and Anika gave her letter for Mr Borgin and Mr Burke to Stanley the owl, who seemed rather pleased to be given his first letter to be delivered, which was a refreshing break from his normally grumpy personality.

They had then proceeded to walk along the shore of the lake until the Whomping Willow came into sight and Mary declared that she wanted to go and take a closer look. Anika's protests fell on deaf ears.

"You have to admit that it's cool!" said Mary as they stood just out of reach of the tree's branches.

"It's dangerous too though," said Anika, "when you've spent as long around dangerous magical items as I have you learn to respect them."

"You're such a killjoy," Mary complained, "it's magic, which makes it awesome!" 

Anika sighed and looked at the tree, "I wonder why they planted it this year, there must have been a reason that they decided this year was the time to plant it."

"This is a magic school, it's a magic tree," Mary offered as an explanation.

Anika did not voice her thoughts, but they continued to dwell on the tree as they continued their tour of the grounds. She was sure that a violent tree would not be planted on the grounds without good reason, but she was not one to question Albus Dumbledore's motives behind the things that he did.

*

Sunday passed similarly, most of the Gryffindor first-year girls spent Sunday exploring more of the castle. Anika found herself chatting with Marlene McKinnon, who was more excited than anyone for flying lessons as she had been flying for many years under the tutelage of her mother, an ex-England Quidditch player. 

"It's a joke that first years can't play quidditch," said Marlene as the group climbed down a hidden staircase, "I think my mum is going to write to the school and see if they'll let me try out, I'd be the best beater that Gryffindor house has ever seen!"

"Why do you have white in your hair?" Lisa extended the conversation that she had been having with Lily to the rest of the group.

"I don't know, I have always had it," said Anika, reaching up to run the strand of white through her fingers.

"It looks kind of weird, couldn't you get rid of it with magic or something?" asked Lisa.

"I think it's really pretty," said Lily, offering Anika a smile.

Anika said nothing but looked down at her feet, focusing on not tripping and falling down the stairs. 

"I think that it's cool," said Mary, seeing Anika'a discomfort.

"Thanks," said Anika.

"I mean yeah, but if I had it I'd hide it. And there must be something that you can do about your eyes, they're creepy!" Lisa continued.

"Shut up Lisa," Mary advised. 

Lisa didn't say anything else, but her words stuck with Anika. They bounced around her head, confirming all that she had ever thought about her appearance. She had never hated it, but she had always known others would find it odd or offputting. This being her first time amongst those of her own age and Lisa's comments had only proven what she had only suspected to this point. 

*

Anika found herself enjoying every lesson that she was in, but none caused more anticipation amongst the first years than the impending flying lessons. All of the Gryffindors would be together for this class, which Sirius Black could be heard across the common room talking about sounding extremely pleased about being reunited with his three new friends in class.

The Gryffindors were paired with the Slytherins for this lesson, so Lily was preoccupied with her friend Severus, who she headed to class with. Mary and Anika headed down to the training grounds by themselves, trailing behind the James, Sirius, Peter and Remus. James was almost as excited as Marlene had been about flying lessons. As they walked he was regaling his companions with a story about how he almost got caught by some muggles in a helicopter as he flew around the neighbourhood in which he lived on his dad's Shooting Star.

"He's so up his own arsehole," said Mary, "and the others are only feeding his ego."

Anika laughed. The two girls sped up their walk to overtake the four boys.

"Hey MacDonald!" shouted Sirius Black as Anika and Mary walked past them. 

"What do you want Black?" Mary asked. Anika thought that she saw Sirius shudder slightly at the use of his surname.

"I was wondering if you had any flying stories to tell us? James' are getting boring."

Mary narrowed her eyes at the boy, "I'm a muggleborn you twat."

"Oh," Sirius said, "I forgot, I'm sorry."

"You'll be sorry when I learn how to jinx you," Mary replied. 

The boy began to try and apologise further, but Mary had grabbed Anika's arm and the two girls had strode off towards the quidditch grounds as fast as they could.

*

Unfortunately, James' boasting about his quidditch talents seemed to be somewhat justified. Although most of the students could hardly mount a broom, James was showing off very early on, doing loop the loops the moment that Madam Hooch turned her back.

Marlene caused quite the commotion when she became annoyed at him and kicked off the ground only to fly straight into him, knocking him off of his broom. This caused the whole class to guffaw and Madam Hooch to take 10 points each from Marlene and James.

"it was totally worth it," muttered Marlene to the first year Gryffindor girls once Madam Hooch's back was turned, causing them all to laugh again.