Magical Hogwarts

It had been a tiring few weeks and were it not for his determination to be a future world champion, Ruslan might have considered slacking off class or skipping some practises. The latter was unthinkable though, and the former...well, what if he were to be interviewed and had to admit to having less than stellar OWLs simply because he'd been a bit tired? So he continued to push himself, never missing the deadline for an assignment, even when he missed social activities and often found the only people he talked to outside of class or mealtimes were his fellow athletes.

He was glad Evelina was in his year. Her energy and work ethic were similar to his own and there was the added bonus that she was a girl, so they weren't in direct competition with each other so could actually be friends rather than just friendly rivals.

Today, while none of Ruslan's officially scheduled activities were running, he had decided he could use some charms practise. He would have preferred to spend a couple of hours flying, but he had turned his wrist slightly the previous day and while one of the older students had healed it, he knew better than to take the risk of flying again so soon. Better to rest for the day, particularly as Evelina had agreed she wanted to spend some time on her wandwork. It was a fine afternoon, so they headed out into the forest and pulled out their wands. As soon as they reached a pleasant clearing, a rustling in Ruslan's pocket told him his little black mouse Makar wanted to take advantage of the outdoors too. "Fine, but don't get lost" the boy said, placing the mouse onto a nearby stone where it immediately started looking for tasty flowers. 

"What shall we try first? Cheering charms?" Ruslan suggested, brandishing his wand in far too enthusiastic a fashion as he immediately cast the first charm. Despite his inexperience, it was clearly a powerful effort, though unfortunately it ricocheted off a nearby tree and hit him with full force and he immediately doubled over with laughter.

"That was...I didn't mean... Lina! Do you know the... counter-charm?" he gasped helplessly.


@Evelina Mishina

Ruslan was probably Evelina’s best friend for life. The girl was extremely happy to share so much with her distant cousin. They had played together as young kids, made progress in artistic flying together, pushed each other not only in the sport but also at school. They got along splendidly and sometimes Lina wondered how sad her life would be if it hadn’t been for him. Her siblings were okay, of course, but they were older and not so very interested in what was going on in her life. Ruslan, however, was at the same stage of his career and it was a bonus that they were still competing in different categories as that meant that they weren’t immediate rivals (although Evelina very much compared her own progress to his).

She had agreed to join Ruslan for some Charms practice, but, truth be told, the girl was eager to find some time to get onto her broom. She had tried out a new handstand position the other day and wanted to perfect it so it would be safe to include it in her new routines for the summer.

As they reached a nice spot outside for their wandwork training, Evelina watched how Ruslan’s mouse left its owners pocket to sneak around and then pulled out her wand, twirling it indecisively in her hand. She nodded at Ruslan’s suggestion of doing cheering and then things happened quickly. Ruslan cast his spell, it hit a tree and fired back at the boy himself who burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Eyebrows raised, Evelina watched her friend for a moment before giggling herself. He asked for a counter-charm and the girl just shrugged helplessly. She didn’t know a counter-charm, but she opened her textbook, trying to find something useful in there. “I don’t know a counter-charm,” she explained as she browsed through the book, “but doesn’t the charm wear off after a while?” A while, however, was a very imprecise term.

"How long is...a while?!" he snorted, clinging to a tree to keep from collapsing completely. Part of Ruslan's mind was worried that he would end up going back to the castle cackling with amusement, but the greater part just wanted to give itself over to how hilarious the situation was. He watched Evelina flicking through her textbook but even that seemed hilarious. Makar scuttled over with a violet stem in his mouth and the flower over his head like a little umbrella, and the sight of that was so funny that the young Klyk gave up and slid down the tree, leaning against it and howling with laughter.

"Don't you want...to try?" he asked his friend when he managed to get his breath "it's so...funny!" Ruslan closed his eyes and laughed until his stomach ached, oblivious to anything else that was going on around them until a loud thump shook the ground around them.

"Wh..what was that?" he giggled, trying to turn and look in the direction of the noise as it sounded again. A flock of startled crows had flown up from the trees where they had been roosting and he watched them, managing to stop laughing for long enough to take a much-needed deep breath. Ruslan felt hapy and relaxed, in the manner of someone who had laughed loud and long, though every few seconds he would burst into another round of giggles.

Another thump, and whatever it was was coming closer. "Should we go..?" he asked, his voice almost sounding normal now, but at that moment a huge, lumpen being, easily eight or nine feet tall, pushed it's way into the clearing. It was humanoid in shape, with an oversized head, an unsteady gait, and what appeared to be a filthy discarded sheet wrapped inexpertly around it's nether regions. Ruslan got to his feet, snatching up Makar and dropping the mouse safely back itno his pocket .

"Mama?" rumbled the oversized newcomer as it approached.

“I don’t know…” Evelina admitted, flipping through the pages of her textbook, hoping to find an answer to the questions at hand. She was pretty sure that the spell would wear off soon enough, but maybe Ruslan hadn’t done it quite the way it should be and that might change the effects.

The girl chewed on her lips and shook her head as Ruslan asked if she didn’t want to try it herself. Just now Evelina didn’t deem it a very clever idea. She wanted to understand the whole concept better before risking being caught in endless laughter.

The noise was hard to ignore and so Evelina wasn’t surprised when Ruslan, too, noticed it despite him still giggling. The girl spun around to check what was coming up to them and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw a giant approaching them. Okay, it wasn’t a fully grown giant by the looks of it, but it was still a giantesque creature that Evelina had no desire to meet.

“I… think it’s too late to go,” she said, her voice brittle. She, too, hastened to get to her feet and looked around for shelter just as the young baby bowed down and said ’Mama’.

“I’m not your mama. Go away!” Evelina shrieked and jumped backwards. “Let’s get out of here,” she told Ruslan as she hastily grabbed her textbook and her bag. To her great dismay the baby giant now wailed ’Mama…’.

“Umm… do you think we need to help it… him?” Evelina asked, hoping that Ruslan would say that they should run for it and leave the giant to itself.

The surprising appearance of the baby giant stopped Ruslan's laughter as he realised the severity of the sutiation, though he did giggle at how ridiculous the creature looked, just for a moment. Clearly it's mother had attempted some sort of care, as evidenced by the clumsy diaper.

This thought was enough to chase the vestiges of laughter away altogether. "We should help...but it can't have gone far away from it's mother. I say we run and tell a professor" he said "and keep close to the trees in case there's a fully grown giant so it can't follow us!" Actually, the thought of an adult giant this close to the school was quite frightening, and it was all Ruslan could do to take off running right then.

"Have you got everything?" he asked quickly, as the baby giant stumbled to it's knees and began to wail. It was too much. Ruslan spun around and started running, certain that Lina would be close behind and might even overtake him. After all, they didn't have to run too quickly so long as there was no baby giant around. Thanks to his training, the boy was barely out of breath once they reached school grounds and he skidded to a halt.

"Right. Now we find a professor and let them deal with it!" he said. Suddenly an afternoon in the school grounds sounded very appealing indeed!

[out]

Ruslan’s suggestion was followed by a relieved sigh by Evelina. She was grateful that the boy did not want to go looking for the baby giant’s mother. Who could guess how the mama giant would react to them accompanying the child? While they would technically try to help, Evelina didn’t trust giants to be too clever and to understand their real intention. Maybe the giant would mistake their kindness for a case of kidnapping and beat them up.

“Yes,” Evelina breathed, feeling more tense than she ever had before any artistic flying competitions she had ever competed at, when Ruslan asked if she got everything.

The boy got a head start but Evelina almost caught up with him and reached the school grounds just a few steps behind her friend.

“Good plan,” she said, but suddenly frowned. “Or maybe… we just leave it be?” The prospect of having to explain to a professor why they had left the grounds didn’t seem too appealing. In the end they might get punished for trying to help the baby giant, after all.

[Out]