Legacies

Rising Spirits

Being it a windy day, nearly all students took to staying inside the castle. Many of them messed around but others actually went ahead and did some homework. Since the first quidditch game was coming up, no one wanted to be stuck behind doing essays when the games started. Romina and her friends were no exception and so they all agreed to meet at the library later in the afternoon to do some work. Miraculously, Romina arrived first.

She was trying to keep up with her work for the most part. Every now and then, she slipped but now she was trying to put in some effort and she supposed that's what counted in the end.

Now she was truly regretting not paying attention in her Potions class. Why did one little potion that only lasted for a couple minutes require so many goddamn ingredients? The math wasn't adding up.

"So you just make a habit of pulling your hair at this point?" Draco unceremoniously dropped his book bag on the table, immediately instigating Madame Pince's shushes.

Romina dropped her hand from her hair and kept it right on her lap. "It's becoming a bit of a thing, I'll admit, but nothing I can't handle."

Draco didn't seem to think so judging by the look on his face. "Keep it up and you won't have any hair by the end of the year. You already cut it so short, why go for the worst thing in the first place?"

"I didn't actually cut it, you know," Romina said, and her smirk drew his curiosity in.

"If you didn't cut it...what did you do?"

Romina motioned him to take the seat beside her. She cleared her throat and lowered her voice, but nobody would take away the smugness in her voice when she spoke. "I used transfiguration on it."

Of course Draco didn't buy it immediately. In fact, he snorted. "Right."

"I'm not kidding," Romina said, "I used transfiguration."

"That's not — Oswell, that's not possible. Transfiguration is used to change things—"

"Into other forms, yes," Romina nodded, "I take the class with you, Draco. I know what it does. Turns out, I'm really good at Transfiguration. I read about it during summer and even bought a couple books at Diagon Alley. There's so many things you can do with Transfiguration and it's sad that not a lot of people know about it."

"I don't know if I should pity you for sounding so much like McGonagall right now...or be impressed..." Draco was still thinking about it as he said it.

Romina made it easier for him by telling him the answer. "You should definitely be impressed."

"But...you can't do magic at home," Draco said, "And Arden swears you did that haircut before Summer."

"I didn't," Romina said easily, propping an elbow on the table. She rested her cheek on the palm of her hand. "I waited till my aunt and uncle dropped me off at the train station and did it once we got moving."

"So you did it, for the first time, on a moving train?"

"And got it right too! Aren't I a genius? Tell me a genius." Romina's smirk only widened as she watched Draco's mouth practically fall open.

There was no denying anymore that he was, indeed, impressed. Draco couldn't help it. He looked at her with his own smirk. "Alright, you win. Gotta say, never thought I'd see you gloating about something. This is a version of you I can get on board with."

"I'm not gloating and look who's talking!" Romina rolled her eyes. "You're the king of gloating. I'm just taking credit for something absolutely fantastic and genius that I did."