Author: Gemma
Category: General, Supernatural
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling. Characters and situations are used without permission,
no infringement is intended.
Summary: An 11-year-old girl by the name of Jaime Traspe accidentally discovers the old mirror of Rowena Ravenclaw, and brings her back in the form of a spirit. There's something fishy going on, and it's up to Jaime and her crew, Atalanta Mahalia and Jaques Flumogel to figure it out.
Author's Notes: PG-13 for mild swearing and a tad bit of snogging. I recommend altavista.com Babelfish translator for any French that you might need translated. 50 points for whoever figures out what Atalanta's full name means (And yes, it does have a meaning!). Additional Disclaimer: JK Rowling is the goddess who created Harry Potter. Warner Bros. is the company that owns Harry Potter. I am the nothing that created the Traspes (Jaime, Zanir, Jacklyn, and Mark), Bonnie, Hinky, Atalanta (Lanta) Mahalia, and Jaques Flumogel. The title of this chapter is spoofed after Angus, Thongs, & Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison and published by HarperCollins Children's Book Group. Any quotes are noted with the title of the film, TV show, or song and the year. Don't sue me now. Credit has been given where credit is due.
For: Kat and Hazel.
* * *
Jaime stood next to her mother on the Muggle side of Platform 9 and 3/4. She stared at the brick wall that was slightly worn from having wizard students and their parents passing through since the Hogwarts Express had first started taking students to Hogwarts. Instead of the bright red brick color of most of the walls, it was starting to fade into a chipping greyish-red. It was a bit of a wonder that the Muggles hadn't noticed that one part of the wall was fading away, while the others were still bright red, but then again, they weren't very observational to begin with. Each day they passed the famous portal with no knowledge that they were one step away from another incredible world. It all made Jaime a little wistful, and she was very glad that she had ended up being a witch so that she wouldn't miss out on anything. She spotted several families with owls and large trunks, and they were discreetly slipping onto the wall, and out to the other side.
"Go on dear," Mrs. Traspe whispered to Jaime, and gave her a nudge. Jaime casually walked towards the barrier, and with a small leap, she crossed to the platform. Her mum appeared several moments later. She insisted that Jaime allow her to help get her trunk on the train. When that was done, they stood there looking at the chaotic mess around them. There were 2 red headed boys who were offering cookies to a group of skeptical looking girls, and many younger children were playing tag, weaving in and out of the legs of the adults and students who didn't move out of the way quickly enough. Jaime was fortunate enough to have one of them run smack into her stomach, and it gave a lurch.
"Sorry!" the boy squeaked, and then ran off to tag another one of the young children. Jaime's mum gave her a giant hug, and made her promise to write owls every week.
"Do I have to write something to Zanir, too?" she asked.
"Yes. I don't care if it's 'I'm having a good time and I bet you're not', you will write your sister."
"Fine. I love you mum."
Mrs. Traspe's eyes filled with tears, "I love you too, darling. Write me soon."
The first whistle blew, so Jaime gave her mother another hug, waved, and hopped on the train, tripping on the bottom of her pants, which were a tad bit too long.
"Damn," she spat, under her breath. A small, brown haired boy cocked his head to the side when he heard this, and turned around to look at her, "Not very much to see over here, little boy," she whispered. His eyes grew wide, and he went back to staring out the window. Oh, I'm just so intimidating, she smiled to herself. The train had started moving, and she was having trouble keeping her balance. She wandered throughout the compartments, which were lavishly decorated in different colors and fabrics. There was a black silk room that she thought might have been nice to sit in if a bunch of ugly, mean-looking people hadn't already occupied it. She strode through the cabin silently, and they paid her no attention. The next room she entered was a light yellow cotton room with some friendly looking fellows. It too, was full. She went from compartment to compartment, black book bag in tow, trying to find a place to sit. When she was nearing the back of the train, she finally found a compartment that was partially filled, and sat down next to a boy who was immersed in a book.
"Bonjour, Jaime," he said without looking up from his book.
"Bonjour, monsieur... wait... how did you know my name?"
He looked up from his book, his brown eyes twinkling, "Oh, Jaime, do not break my fragile coeur. Surely you remember this roguishly handsome man."
Jaime grinned, "Well you said we'd be meeting again. I don't know why I'm surprised."
Jaques scrunched up his nose and smirked, "I have never yet been wrong."
A girl sitting across from them let out a snort of laughter, "You? Jaques? Never wrong? Ha!"
Jaime raised an eyebrow, and then winked at the girl, "The all-mighty powerful Jaques, eh? We'll see about that."
"You should bow down to me, faithful servant. Especially since I speak better French than you do."
"Oh, indeed. That's the greatest reason of them all, 'I speak better French than you do'... I thought you were better than that all-mighty powerful one?"
"I have loads more where that came from--ranging from mild to extremely insulting. In your case I believe the latter would be necessary, although I have been taught not to insult girls. It is considered rude."
"I already consider you rude. Take your best shot, Flumogel."
"Are we on a last name basis, Traspe?"
"I don't know, I could let you know later."
"Stealing my lines, are you? How original."
"Better than 'I speak better French than you do'."
"At least I have the brain to make something up and not copy other people's witty one liners."
"Awww, is little Jacky-Wacky getting all maddy-waddy?"
The boys and girls in the compartment started chuckling, but Jaques, not about to be outdone by a first year, "Don't flatter yourself. Provocation doesn't work with me, " he smirked, "unlike some people I know who let their little tempers get the better of them."
"Ouch... was that a flobberworm bite?"
"What? Your insults? Oui, mademoiselle. Vous insultez comme un papillon."
"Les papillons ne peuvent pas insulter des personnes, imbécile."
"Imbécile? Est-ce que c'est le meilleur que vous pouvez faire?"
"Oubliez-vous. C'est un argument stupide et une perte de temps."
Jaques smirked, " La victoire est la mienne."
"It's not over yet, Jaques."
He smiled again and muttered, "I would be very disappointed if it were."
* * *
The rest of the kids in the train compartment were third and fourth year Ravenclaws. They were quite impressed with her Battle of the Wits with Jaques, and thought it was brilliant how she insulted him in his own language. After a while, the subject got boring, and Jaime got a good chance to look around the room. The window hangings and seat cushions were decorated and upholstered in plush red velvet. It was partly cloudy outside, and the sun had been covered by a white cloud. Inside the compartment a quiet truce had been called. The Ravenclaws were either reading or practicing spells out of their new copy of The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 3 or 4). Jaime herself had Grade 1 in her book bag, along with a notebook of parchment, a quill and some ink, some money, and robes to change into on the train. As she was about to doze off, she realized that in her excitement she hadn't been talking to Rowena.
Rowena? she asked silently, Are you there?
I'm here... not necessarily awake. Is something wrong?
No, I was just wondering... oh, never mind. You're fine.
Rowena fell back asleep, and Jaime felt fidgety, so she put her bag in the possession of the girl who had teased Jaques earlier and went to leave. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
"Where are you going?" came a heavily French voice.
"Exploring. Maybe I'll run into that witch with the food cart---I didn't eat anything this morning," Jaime opened the compartment door, and stepped into a blue room.
There were some boys playing Exploding Snap in the corner, and some girls looking at "Teen Witch Magazine" pointing and giggling at something. She walked into the next compartment. The seats were filled with some people chatting, and behind a potted plant were a boy and a girl snogging. Jaime was chuckling to herself when those twin boys she'd seen earlier, the ones with the bright red hair, came barging into the compartment and looked around.
"Lee? Where are you?" one of them shouted.
The boy disentangled himself from the girl, and in his haste to answer the redheaded boy, he knocked the girl over. She fell to the floor mumbling, "Ouch." The two boys stared at Lee and the girl.
"LEE?!" they gaped at Lee in amazement, and then goggled at the girl, and yelled, "GINNY?" at the same time.
Ginny turned bright red, as did the boy. The twins seemed speechless for a moment, and then burst out laughing.
"Lee, I've gotta hand it to you, that's the most..."
"Ridiculous..."
"Hilarious..."
"Really STUPID thing..."
"But with Ginny!"
The twins seemed torn between laughter and being brotherly, but soon they were laughing so hard that they were wheezing and coughing. The girls reading the magazine flashed thumbs up to Ginny, who turned even brighter red, if that was at all possible.
Jaime started laughing quietly, and backed away slowly. She reached the door, opened it, and retreated back to her compartment on the train.
"Back so soon?" Jaques said sweetly.
"Oh, indeed. I missed you so much that I couldn't stay away for another two minutes," she scoffed.
He chortled as she sat down, and pulled out her parchment notebook. He scooted over to sit next to her.
"What's that?" he inquired.
"What does it look like?"
"A notebook."
"Bravo! 10 points for the all-knowing Jaques."
He put his hand over his heart as though he was having a heart attack, "Wow! Compliment... I believe I'm going to die now," he slumped into the seat, and she pushed him on the floor where he landed with a thud.
"Yes!" she cheered, "He's dead! Woo-hoo!"
Jaques opened his eyes, "I'm not dead yet!" (A/N: Quote from: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1974)
"Damn," she muttered.
The entire compartment fell out of their studious haze, and started laughing. The mood was considerably lighter as the witch with the food cart entered the room. Just about everyone jumped out of their seat to get snacks. Jaime grabbed a sandwich, bottled pumpkin juice, and a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and paid for it. She could see several people with armfuls of snacks and junk food. She wasn't really one for sweets, except for Bertie Bott's. She'd stomached dog poo, rust, dust, and ceramic glaze easily, but ended up spitting out the few that tasted like cigarette butts, dirty sock, burned plastic, and moldy cheese. Actually, she'd spit them at Zanir, but no matter.
Jacques and Jaime sat next to each other, chatting through their food. She found out that he lived with his mum, and that his dad had left them when he was 6. He had 4 adopted brothers and 2 adopted sisters. One of his sisters, Alice, attended Beauxbatons, but the rest of his siblings were Muggles, and knew nothing of magic. His father had disappeared, and later resurfaced as a respectable Daily Prophet author, with a new name and identity. Jaques confided that he kept a scrapbook with all his father's articles, but had never shown them to anyone. Jaime told him about Zanir, and he commented that she sounded like a feisty young feline.
"Shut up, that's my evil sister you're talking about," she punched him hard on the arm, and withdrew as though she'd been burned, "OUCH! That was like hitting stone."
He smiled proudly and rolled up the arm of his sweater and flexed, "It's called muscle."
"Ooh, a big manly-man, aren't we, Jaques," she laughed, massaging her knuckles.
She told him about the Sunset room and her childhood, but refrained from telling him about the mirror. For some reason, she didn't want anyone to know she had it. When she finished eating her lunch she gathered her trash up and threw it in the garbage can. It was already overflowing with wrappers and unwanted cards from Chocolate Frogs. One of them giggled at her and winked. She plucked it from the pile and examined it, with a gasp of recognition she realized that it was none other than Rowena Ravenclaw.
Er, Rowena, she said awkwardly, Did you know that you have a Chocolate Frog card?
Really? Rowena sounded warmly pleased, Do you think I could see it?
I'll show it to you when we get to the school.
Fine by me.
Jaime turned over the card to read the short biography:
Rowena Ravenclaw
Born c. 995, Died c. 1021
Rowena Ravenclaw is one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was a master of fighting the dark arts and transfiguration, and was the last recorded Animagi to transform into a magical creature. She was killed during a battle between the ancient Dark wizard Übeleins when he tried to attack Hogwarts. Godric Gryffindor later avenged her, but her body was never found, and her ghost never resurfaced.
She tutted and mumbled, "Rubbish," but shoved the card in her book bag anyway.
Jaques looked at her bag intently, "I didn't know you collected Choco-cards! I have approximately three hundred twenty-six of them. I've been collecting them since I was eight. Well, technically since I was 9. My little brother ate part of my collection at one point, and used the rest as coloring paper. So I lost about thirty, then. And then there was this one time..."
Jaime cut him off, "Take a dose of shut-up juice. It'd be good for you."
He laughed, and got out his half-empty bottle of pumpkin juice, "Cheers."
* * *
Jaime and Jaques talked for a little while longer, and he introduced her to the girl who had teased him earlier. She was another first year, and a friend of the Flumogel family. Her name was Atalanta Mahalia. Atalanta was short, and somewhat chubby. She had medium brown skin, and dull brown eyes. She was of obvious Indian heritage, with very short black hair. The whole effect of her appearance was very friendly and warm.
"Don't tell me--Jaques paid to sit next to you, and then bought you lunch so that you'd talk to him," Atalanta laughed cheerily.
"Nah, he's not that chivalrous. He just sat down next to me without any pretense and proceeded to show me his half-chewed lunch."
Jaques looked mortally offended, "Half-chewed food? No, ma chere, it was completely chewed."
Jaime and Atalanta were dissolving into a fit of giggles as a magically amplified voice announced that they would be arriving at Hogsmeade station in 15 minutes. Everyone who didn't already have their school robes on scurried to slip them over their clothes. Jaime arranged her robes around her feet and tried to fasten her cloak under her neck. She fiddled with the clasp, but couldn't get it closed. Then, on accident, the clasp just broke off.
"Goddamn!"
Jaques smirked, and picked the clasp up off the ground, "I'll fix it for you. Chofleidia."
The clasp re-attached itself, and he smiled. Jaime and Atalanta sat next to each other nervously. Jaime was twiddling her thumbs and Atalanta was chewing on her fingernails. The compartment was devoid of noise as the train screeched into the Hogsmeade station.