Magical Hogwarts

23. Characters meet after being transported to the top of a tree by a malfunctioning Portkey
12. Characters accidentally enchant everyday an object, leading to chaos

It was several months since Oksana had visited her parents. It was true that she had always been closer with her sister than her mother and father, but she nonetheless tried to visit them fairly regularly despite each visit leaving her feeling...somewhat lacking. Even now she was well into her forties, Oksana still felt like she was something of a disappointment. Galya was a respected professor, while Oksana...the thing was, she had been a professor too, and that should have been enough. But dragon flying wasn't a 'real' subject, or something... she was unsure, but never wanted to ask.

This time though, she at least had something that might impress them. Over the past months the woman had been researching the reasons for the Antipodean Opaleye's endangered status. A layman would assume it was habitat destruction or muggles encroaching on their territory, but Oksana had realised the species' reproduction rate was far lower than that of other dragons. She had written a paper and presented it to the heads of several preserves, and now there were steps underway for a dedicated captive breeding program. How successful it was going to be, given how difficult dragon pups were to raise, but she was hopeful.

A copy of the paper was tucked inside her favourite leather coat as she entered the portkey office. Oksana was quite capable of apparation, but she preferred portkeys for longer distances. The office was busy, not unusual for a Saturday morning, and she heard two officials discussing a malfunction they had just heard about from the Rybinsk office as she took a firm hold of the old sock. The dragonologist took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she felt the familiar jerk that told her it was time. The world seemed to swirl around her, and then there was a cool and unexpected breeze.

Oksana opened her eyes and shrieked in surprise. Oksana never shrieked. But then, discovering herself clinging to the uppermost branches of a majestic fir tree, face to face with a random woman about her own age  was also entirely out of her sphere of experience. She adjusted her position so she was feeling more secure, and then, offering a sardonic half-smile, asked "I suppose your portkey malfunctioned as well?" 

@Alyona Tikhomirova

The artistic flying season had already started a while ago, but the big competitions were still a few weeks away. For Alyona this was the busiest time of the year. She had to make sure that all athletes from the flying school in Rybinsk were in the best physical shape and she also tried to work with them on their mental state but how could she do that, really? Alyona herself was struggling quite a bit and she felt that whenever she tried to prepare the athletes mentally for the challenges they’d be facing she was actually kidding them. She was an example of someone who didn’t get a grip on herself.

She had an appointment in St. Petersburg for exactly that reason. The witch wanted to talk to an expert about how she could teach athletes to focus on the essential things and not let their nervousness ruin their performances and, maybe, she’d also get a chance to find out something helpful for herself. How she could function better under stress.

Although there were several ways of getting from Rybinsk to St. Petersburg for a witch, Alyona chose to take a portkey straight from the portkey office. It felt like the safest way of travelling, especially given that she hadn’t been able to resist a glass of ‘breakfast vodka’ earlier.

The familiar sensation of travelling by portkey felt strangely comforting. It always made her feel ever so slightly sick, but that feeling was mixed with the anticipation of travelling fast to her destination. Soon enough she’d find a fellow graduate from healing school and talk to him about psychology.

However, things weren’t quite as she had expected. Instead of landing somewhere in the magical centre of St. Petersburg, Alyona found herself on the top of a fir tree. Another woman had the same misfortune, it seemed, as she asked her if her portkey had been malfunctioning as well.

“Yes,” Alyona said, “seems like it.” Then she slid a hand into her handbag to check if her belongings were still there. She could feel the wood of her wand, but didn’t pull it out. Instead she retrieved a flask. “I need a drink because of this shock. Fancy a sip as well?”

Now the initial shock had subsided, Oksana was quite amused by the situation. Making sure she had a firm grip on the nearest and sturdiest-looking branch, she reached inside her coat to reassure herself that the paper was still there. It was, so there was really no harm done. She'd be writing a stern letter to the Portkey company of course, but aside from that it was simple matter of apparating safely to the bottom of the tree and then a spell to check the direction of the closest wizardng town... she was sure she'd remember that one in a moment.

Then the other woman pulled out a flask that looked like it help something far more interesting than pumpkin juice, and Oksana decided she wouldn't mind staying in the tree a few minutes longer. "I'd love a sip...hang on, I think I've got..." she reached into a deep pocket and extracted a tiny goblet, about the size of her thumbnail. Oksana's pockets generally contained several such useful objects, deliberately shrunk so they wouldn't take up much room. Then she pulled out her wand and cast "Engorgio!", which caused the goblet to increase in size so it would easily hold a couple of mouthfuls of whatever she was being offered.

That was the theory, at least.

Unfortunately, as she cast the spell, a gust of wind blew through the trees and Oksana let out a colourful swear-word halfway through the casting, which was a pity because instead of simply enlarging the goblet it also caused it to turn purple, start emitting large quantities of purple smoke and sprout a large pair of batlike wings into the bargain.

"Don't worry, I'll get rid of it" she announced confidently, as she started to cough from the smoke and the goblet started to dive-bomb both women.

Alyona was still pretty much in the process of trying to comprehend what had happened. Needing a drink seemed like the automatic choice and she didn’t even feel in the slightest embarrassed until after she had voiced it. Her new acquaintance, however, didn’t seem in the slightest taken aback by her need for alcohol in a situation of stress.

On the contrary, she pulled out a tiny goblet from a pocket and wanted to enlarge it so they wouldn’t have to share the flask. A good idea that should have occurred to Alyona, too. She was impressed by the other witch’s quick mind, but her admiration didn’t last for too long. The witch pulled out her wand to cast the enlargement spell on the tiny goblet and from that moment everything went wrong rather quickly.

“This…” Alyona stopped before she even knew what she had wanted to say and lost the thread as the goblet, now an angry purple thing with batlike wings that seemed to breathe smoke like dragon breathed fire, started to attack them.

Either she was far more drunk than she had realised or this was really getting out of control. The other woman had stated to be getting rid of the out-of-control goblet-bat, but Alyona wasn’t confident that this was actually going to happen given that she had produced the chaos in the first place.

“Wait,” she said, pulling out her own wand, “I’ll do it.”

As purple smoke surrounded her now, too, she couldn’t help but cough as well and doing so, she waved her wand unconsciously, causing a little storm that had the positive effect of getting rid of the smoke but sadly also made the whole tree shake.

This wasn´t turning into the morning she had planned.

It was way more interesting than that!

Oksana felt gulty to think it, but she was far more comfortable stuck up a tree with this random woman than she would have been talking with her parents and feeling like she was the one family member who wasn´t quite good enough. The promise of a drink just completed the adventure...or at least it did until things started to fall apart. If the wind in the trees hadn´t been so strong she wouldn´t have miscast the spell, and if she´d had just a moment longer she could have put everything right, but she really couldn´t blame the other woman for wanting to help. And really, almost anything would have been more useful than the storm that started to shake their tree, coming as it did at the worst possible time given that she´d just let go of the branch she´d been holding.

 "Really, I can..." she had started to say, and then as if in slow motion her feet started to slip and, while the woman had experienced any number of falls from dragons during her training, she was entirely unprepared for this. Inevitably she reacted as anyone else might, arms pinwheeling as she sought to get a grip on something and failed, beginnng to crash down through the branches. Oksana kept her wand firmly clasped in one hand, but before she could cast anything a particularly hard encounter with a thick branch knocked the breath out of her and she gasped.

Then she was falling, the ground coming closer and closer. She pointed her wand and thought "Arresto momentum" as hard as she could, knowing even as she did that was one spell she had never before successfully cast wordlessly...

As Alyona stopped coughing, the other woman was not anymore where she had been a split second before. It at once dawned on her that she must have fallen. Her wand still in her hand, she looked down and screamed “arresto momentum”, hoping that she was quick to prevent any injuries.

“I’ll come down,” she added, putting her wand back into her bag. For a moment Alyone considered climbing down, but just looking for the nearest branch below the one she was sitting at, reminded her that she hadn’t climbed a tree in over forty years. It was not sensible to attempt this kind of physical challenge now. It would not help the other woman either if she lost her balance and fell onto her.

“I’ll be right there,” she unnecessarily repeated. Apparating from one point on the top of a tree down seemed to be another challenge. She had to focus in order to muster it.

Moments later she materialised next to the other woman. “Are you okay? Does anything hurt?”

Cushioning charm...cushioning charm... Oksana thought frantically as the ground swooped up to meet her, but despite gripping her wand so tightly her knuckles turned white no incantation came to her. She felt real, visceral fear. Oksana had heard of your life flashing before you in this kind of situation but now she realised that wasn't quite accurate. She didn't see her own life, not exactly, but in the split seconds as she fell time seemed to stretch out exponentially and she had time to think with crystal clarity of how she wouldn't be there to see Daniil graduate, get married, have children...

And then the ground stopped hurtling towards her, instead gently rising so she met it with no more force than if she'd tripped over a loose cobblestone in the street.

As she lay there, cheast heaving as she caught her breath, Oksana began to laugh. Nothing was particularly funny - it was just relief that she was alive - and then there was a pair of shoes in her line of vision and she laughed even harder.

"Thank you" she managed to gasp, dragging herself into a sitting position with all the grace of a baby erumpent and trying to answer the questions the other woman was asking. Yes...I mean no... I mean yes, I'm okay and I don't think anything hurts..." as she spoke, Oksana got to her feet and swayed slightly, but that was only dizziness resulting from the shock. Aside from that (and ignoring the lurid bruise that would later develop on her knee and the slight graze on her cheekbone) she felt fine. She laughed a little once more and voiced the thought that had just come into her head.

"Are you still offering that drink? I think I could really use it right about now" she said with a grin, and then stuck out a hand "Oksana Viktorovna. Good to meet you!"

The fact that the other woman laughed was not reassuring. Alyona was worried that she had hit her head and was feeling utterly confused. When she began to speak, that impression didn’t fade straight away either. A worried expression on her face, Alyona looked at the other woman, ready to examine her for any injuries that the incident might have left her with.

She noticed the graze on the cheekbone and immediately pulled out her wand to fix it. “You don’t mind, do you?” she asked, already flicking her wand to use a quick healing spell. “If anything else hurts, tell me, I’m sure I could help.”

The drink. Alyona smiled and nodded. “Yes, certainly,” she said. As the woman introduced herself, Alyona held out her hand to her. “Alyona Igorovna. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Oksana Viktorovna.”

She pulled out the flask again and then flicked her wand to conjure two small crystal glasses which she filled with the clear liquid. “I hope you like home-distilled vodka,” she said, letting one glass hover in the air in front of Oksana Viktorovna.

The good thing about working with dragons was that you didn't tend to dwell on scary situations for very long. Half a minute earlier Oksana had been imagining herself laid out in a hospital bed for weeks, but now the danger was passed her heartrate was already returning to normal and she was beginning to relax and think normally again. Thus the graze on her cheek was fixed before she'd even become aware of it. She reached a hand up and touched the now-perfect skin.

"Thanks. Are you a healer then?" she asked "and no, I'm honestly fine. I train dragons, this was..." well, obviously it wasn't nothing, but a little fall was all in a day's work "It was a surprise, but it's done with now -" as she spoke though, her eyes widened in concern and she reached into her coat, checking the scroll was still in there. "Really, all fine. Just checking. I had an important paper to deliver. It's still here" she said. Her tone was rapid, clipped and almost businesslike, a sure sign that Oksana's mind was racing.

Now they were introduced, it would have been rude not to take a drink. Bring it on, Oksana thought eagerly, lifting the closest glass out of the air and taking a sip. "You distilled this yourself? It's wonderful" she said, taking another taste because draining the glass wouldn't be polite. Then she let the glass hover in the air for a moment while she performed a quick point me charm. She reclaimed the glass and nodded in the direction her wand had indicated.

"Well North's that way...but I'm not sure that helps us very much. I suppose we're somewhere in Russia now, so apparating to our intended destinations might be sensible. Were you heading for St Petersburg as well, Alyona Igorovna?"

“Yes, I am,” Alyona confirmed. “I’m working with athletes.” Sometimes the woman wondered how her life would have turned out to be if she hadn’t married Anton. She’d have become a healer anyway, but she wouldn’t work for the artistic flying school in Rybinsk. She’d likely be head of a ward by now.

Surely her everyday life would be hectic but she wouldn’t be so personally involved, but was that better? She felt on the edge most of the time now, but wasn’t that better than just being in a hamster wheel, doing her duty every day for people who wouldn’t even remember her name when they were healed.

“I’m glad,” Alyona said, still looking carefully at Oksana Viktorovna in case she wasn’t as fine as she claimed to be.

“I did, yes, it’s a hobby of mine,” she smiled. Her home distilled vodka was strong and she loved it. She loved the process of creating it, but the best part was when she could try a new concoction.

Oksana Viktorovna asked if she was heading for St. Petersburg as well and Alyona nodded. “Yes, I was. I guess with the portkey not working that means that we’ll have to apparate there now.” She paused. Drunk apparition wasn’t exactly advisable, but she’d manage. She wasn’t that drunk yet anyway. There was a chance she’d arrive in St. Petersburg in one piece. Hopefully Oksana Viktorovna felt as confident as well. She would hate it to learn the other woman getting injured on the way.

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Oksana Viktorovna,” she said. “I should get going now. I’m running late. I hope we’ll meet again sometime. Have a good day.” With that said, she put away her flask, took a deep breath and focused on her destination. Then she disappeared from view only to materialise in St. Petersburg a moment later.

[out]

Now that her feet were back on the ground Oksana felt rather cheerful about the unexpected interlude. She wanted to ask more about working with athletes - she assumed Alyona Igorovna must be affiliated to a Quidditch team and wondered which one - but she was already late and didn't want to cause the other woman to delay an appointment either. So she drained her glass and offered another compliment on the quality of the vodka.

This was hardly the place to stand around talking, anyway. There wasn't a house or fence in sight and they seemed to quite literally be in the middle of nowhere. At least she could be fairly confident that she was a lot closer to her destination than when she'd started out, so St. Petersburg would be safe to apparate to.

Oksana wondered if she should suggest a dual or side-along apparation; not because she thought the other woman would struggle but it seemed...polite? Besides, she wanted to know that Alyona Igorovna had reached her destination safely. But before she could voice the suggestion, the other woman was taking her leave and a moment later had disapparated.

Oh, well. Time to get going. With one final check that the scroll was safely tucked inside her coat, Oksana vanished the now-empty glass, turned on the spot, and only a curious crow was left to fly down and inspect the ground upon which they had been standing.

[out]