Illuna woke just like before early, her internal clock not allowing her to sleep further. Her eyes opened to the pale blue gloom of early dawn, the dormitory still wrapped in the hush of sleep. The heavy curtains around her bed muted the faint breeze whispering through the high tower window.
She sat up without hesitation—no snoozing, —her limbs folding into a stretch that sent quiet pops down her spine. The quiet was hers, and she guarded it.
Sliding out from under the covers, she padded to the small desk tucked against the stone wall. The castle's stones exhaled night-time chill, the air tasting of parchment and damp wool, the floor cool against her feet.
She lit the lantern with a whispered spell, the flame casting a honey-coloured pool over the table top. Her Transfiguration book waited, marked with a ribbon. Next to it, A Beginner's Guide to Magic History, its cover scuffed from travel.
She opened Transfiguration and began reviewing the chapter on elemental transformation. Her handwriting filled the margins—neat, efficient, her quill scratched like a mouse in the walls—the only sound besides her breath. Occasionally, her mind would drift, to yesterday and to what today might offer, who knows.
Outside the window, the first blush of morning warmed the far edge of the sky. The mountains were soft silhouettes, wrapped in gauzy mist. The castle felt half-asleep. Illuna liked it better that way.
57 minutes until the dorm stirred at 7:30.
A soft grunt. The clatter of a kettle. Mira was awake.
Illuna didn't turn around. She heard the other girl move with practiced ease—bare feet on stone, a click of cupboard doors, and the faint shimmer of a warming charm. The kettle gave a faint bubbling sigh, and then the scent reached Illuna: clove, honey, and something faintly citrus.
Mira, humming lightly, held a tray of steaming mugs.
"Rise and shine, sleepyheads," she called, voice still syrupy from sleep.
Beth groaned, dramatically flopping over. "I was having the best dream…"
"Was it about dragons again?" Nellie asked, her voice muffled behind a pillow. "Or about food again?"
"No," Beth said, then paused. "Actually, yes."
Mira placed a mug beside each bed, then paused in front of Illuna's desk. She didn't say anything—just set it down gently and moved on.
Illuna stared at the steam curling up from the mug. She hadn't asked for it. Hadn't even wanted it. But the smell was oddly grounding. Not sharp like ink or dust, but soft and warm. She wrapped her hands around the ceramic and let the heat seep into her fingers, realizing just how cold her hands were before the warmth seeped in. The scent alluring in its subtlety.
"Thank you," she murmured—barely audible.
Mira didn't reply, but Illuna wasn't sure she heard anyway.
By 8:30, the four of them had trickled into the Great Hall. Illuna stuck to the edge of the Ravenclaw table, letting the others chatter without trying to wedge herself in.
Beth animatedly recounted her dream again. Nellie smiling along adding her two sent on how the dream could be interpreted in signs.
Illuna offered a faint smile but said nothing. She nibbled toast with quiet deliberation. Her thoughts were already turning to wand movements and the theory behind controlled transformations.
By the time they reached Transfiguration, she was already scanning the room for Lily.
She spotted her in the second row—hair tied back, notebook aligned to the edge of her desk, ink bottle uncorked and ready.
"Morning," Lily said, scooting over. "I practiced last night. Want to sit?"
Illuna gave a slight nod and slipped into the seat beside her. The classroom seemed to missing their teacher McGonagall, all that was at her desk was a striped tabby cat perched atop her desk , its tail flicking in slow, deliberate arcs. It regarded them with vivid green eyes— knowing, patient.
Illuna paused in the doorway. "Odd."
Lily tilted her head. "What?"
"The cat." Illuna's gaze didn't waver. "It's… positioned."
Indeed, the tabby sat like a sentinel, paws neatly together, staring at the door as if waiting.
Lily grinned. "Maybe it's the class pet?"
Illuna shrugged, that seemed like the most logical explanation, but this is the wizarding world, this fuzzy looking cat can be their professor for all she knew.
A beat. The cat blinked, slow and deliberate.
Then—footsteps . Loud, chaotic, accompanied by breathless laughter.
James Potter and Sirius Black tumbled into the room, robes askew, hair wind-tossed.
"—told you we'd make it!" James crowed.
Sirius slung an arm around his shoulders. "By sheer luck, mate—"
They froze.
The cat was now standing, tail lashing.
The air shimmered.
In one fluid motion, the cat stretched upwards its form melting into the stern, towering figure of Professor McGonagall, her mouth a thin line.
"Ten points from Gryffindor," she said crisply. "Each."
James opened his mouth—
"Each," she repeated, and he snapped it shut.
Lily's jaw dropped. Illuna's expression didn't change, but her grip on her textbook tightened. Fascinating.
McGonagall turned to the rest of the class, now filtering in. "Today, you will attempt to transfigure a matchstick into a needle. Let us see if some of you can manage punctuality as well as precision."
Her gaze lingered on James and Sirius.
Lily leaned into Illuna's space, whispering, "Did you know?"
Illuna's lips twitched. "I had a hypothesis." In sarcastic Joke counts still right?
"And you didn't tell me?"
"Had to cover my hypothesis before revealing potentially inaccurate information"
James meanwhile sat at the back of class slightly sheepish, next to him Seruis, grinning slightly.
Class began.
McGonagall swept into the room like a gust of wind, and the classroom snapped into silence.
"Today," she said crisply, "you will attempt your first transformation. A matchstick"—she flicked her wand and one appeared on each desk—"into a needle. Simple in appearance. Complex in theory."
Illuna picked up her wand. Lily was already squinting at her matchstick with intent.
"Focus on the material shift," Lily whispered. "I think the key's in the density."
Illuna raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
They cast. Lily's matchstick shimmered, trembled, and failure.
Illuna's didn't even move.
After some time of trying; Lily's match stick as if she snapped, turned into a full needle, she beamed with pride
Illuna's matchstick jerked. A silver sheen began to crawl across its surface like ice, but it stopped halfway. It looked like a badly iced biscuit—half-wood, half-metal, and definitely not useful for sewing anything.
McGonagall came by, complementing Lily "well done lily, you and James are the only once that have completed the task so far, perhaps I'll have some talents in my class this year. "
Lily blushed a bit at the praise and thanked the professor.
Professor McGonagall looked at Illuna and explained "too much force, check the spell and try again"
Illuna's lips were drawn into a thin line, her mind racing.
But somewhere under the logic, something twisted. Just a bit. A quiet flare of annoyance.
I taught Lily the Lumos sequence yesterday. She didn't even know how to hold a wand beyond story books.
She wrote it off. Data point. Everyone excels differently. Still…
Her mind spun a quick daydream; imagining herself react to praise that would never come.
She blinked it away. Unhelpful.
Class soon ends, As Illuna packs up after class, Lily hesitates—she sees Illuna's half-needle but doesn't comment. Instead
"Hey, want to practice in the courtyard later? I'll bring snacks."
Illuna pauses. Why is she offering? Pity? But Lily's smile is warm.
"…Yes. After my next class we'll meet up."
The stone corridors hummed with the aftertaste of Transfiguration. Illuna moved through the chatter like a ghost, her fingers still tingling from the failed spell. Ahead, a flash of red hair—Lily walking away, already surrounded by new friends, their laughter bouncing off the arched ceilings. Something sharp and unexpected pricked beneath Illuna's ribs.
She stopped mid-step, pressing a hand to her chest as if she could physically remove the feeling. This was… inconvenient. The sensation clung like cobwebs, stubborn and illogical. With deliberate care, she began going over what she was feeling, closeing her eyes, trying to put it into words, when that failed she used pictures.
Jealousy? Was she really feeling jealous of Lily's ease—with spells, with people? That wouldn't do. Lily was her friend… friend? Yes that is what she is. She shelved the thought. Envy or jealousy—she'd dissect the difference later.
"Lost again?"
The voice startled her from her thoughts. Tessa stood beside her, a stack of books threatening to topple from her arms. Morning light caught in her wild red curls, making them glow like copper wire.
"I know where I'm going," Illuna said automatically.
"Then why are you standing in the middle of the hallway like someone's vanished your kneecaps?" Tessa shifted her books, sending a quill tumbling to the floor. "Blast."
Illuna picked it up. The feather was chewed at the end, teeth marks pressed deep into the shaft. "Your quill appears to have been… tasted."
"Bertie's teething." At Illuna's blank look, Tessa added, "My kneazle kitten. He thinks everything's a chew toy."
The ghost of a smile touched Illuna's lips. She handed the quill back, their fingers brushing briefly. Tessa's hands were warm, ink-stained along the knuckles.
"You're heading to History, right?" Tessa fell into step beside her without waiting for an answer. "Brilliant. I need someone to poke me when I start snoring. Vi says I sound like a dying grindylow."
The comparison was so absurd Illuna actually paused. "That's… specific."
"Twin things." Tessa grinned, her black eyes sparkling. "You wouldn't believe the things we…. "
"Watch out. " Illuna said suddenly.
Tessa's tripped over a shifting stair. Illuna's hand shot out to steady her, sending three books sliding to the floor with a sound like startled birds taking flight.
"Sorry! I'm a bit of a walking disaster."
Illuna knelt to help gather the scattered pages. One book fell open to reveal not notes, but a detailed sketch of the Great Hall—every student rendered in tiny, perfect caricature. Sirius Black mid-yawn, James Potter balancing a spoon on his nose, Lily…
Illuna's breath caught. The drawing captured Lily perfectly—the way her nose scrunched when she laughed, the flyaway hairs that escaped her braid. Even in pencil, she seemed to glow.
"You're staring," Tessa said softly.
Illuna snapped the book shut. "Your artwork is… precise. Why draw them."
"Thanks." Tessa tucked the sketchbook away with surprising gentleness. "I wanted to capture the moment when everyone was happy"
Illuna raised an eyebrow, intrigued, but didn't continue her questioning.
Professor Binns' voice droned like a faulty wireless, his ghostly form drifting through the blackboard as he recounted taxation policies of the 17th century. Around them, heads nodded like sunflowers in a slow breeze.
Tessa lasted seven minutes before her chin hit her palm. Eight before her eyelids fluttered shut.
Illuna watched a shaft of sunlight creep across her freckled cheeks. She should wake her. That's what a proper study partner would do. Instead, she found herself studying the classroom and all the half asleep students, it was rather comical how many where asleep.
A soft snore escaped Tessa's lips.
With a sigh, Illuna reached out—then hesitated. She could:
Jab her with a quill effective but cruel
Shake her shoulder standard but intrusive
… what to do?
Her fingers hovered, then gently tugged a curl. "Tessa."
"Mmph." Tessa blinked awake, a line of drool connecting her to her parchment. "Wazzat?"
"You were dreaming."
"Was I?" Tessa rubbed her eyes, smudging ink across her temple. "Anything good?"
"I wouldn't know, goblin tax reforms? ."
Tessa groaned, resting her forehead on the desk. "I'd rather take another bludger to the ribs."
The corner of Illuna's mouth twitched. "Quidditch player?"
"Beater, when they'll let me." Tessa peeked up, her cheek still pressed to the wood. "You?"
"I prefer my bones unbroken and my feet in the ground. "
Tessa laughed—a bright, startled sound that earned a glare from a nearby Ravenclaw . Binns floated onward, oblivious.
When the bell finally rang, Tessa stretched like a cat, her robes riding up to reveal mismatched socks—one striped, one dotted with tiny snitches.
"Meet you here when we have History o magic again?" she asked, gathering her ruined notes.
Illuna found herself nodding. "Bring better quills."
"And you bring the poking stick." Tessa winked and disappeared into the stream of students, her red hair a flame among the grey stone.
Illuna stood alone in the emptying classroom. And just like that, the walk to meet Lily didn't feel like a trek through stone anymore—but something softer. Lighter.
As she stepped into the corridor, she realized the tightness in her chest had vanished. In its place, something warmer, quieter—like sunlight pooling in the hollow of a stone. Hufflepuffs really do have a unique effect on people, she thought.