It was just after dinner. Everyone was hanging out in the Common Room. The Common Room looked like a circle. Four segments (one for each house) ensured that each house had its own area, but that they could mingle. Indira walked up to Equity.

"Hey, do you want to try out for the C.I.S.F team?"

Equity cracked a grin. "Well, that really depends on what the C.I.S.F team is."

Indira laughed. "It stands for Competitive Inter-School Spell Fencing team. I'm auditioning. There's even a place for us to practice here on the school grounds."

Equity nodded. "I'll find a spell for the audition, and meet you in the practice room tomorrow during free period."

That night, a memory hit Equity. She remembered that her parents had left her a book. She reached into her trunk, but all she found was a load of school books and robes and old mouldering socks. She was fairly annoyed, and she tried to rip away a piece of the trunk (Equity was not very good with anger management). When she did, a small book tumbled away. She grasped it and opened it. On the first page were the words:

'To our darling Enviette: We wish that you could still be ours, but we will be dead when you read this. You must remember to trust no one, and never, ever tell anyone that we are your parents. There is already so much cruelty and horror surrounding this, you need space to bloom, time to allow your potential to sprout. Love, your dear father and mother (Bellatrix L and Lord V).'

Equity looked at the page in horror. She had never known that her name was Enviette. She liked Equity far better. But besides that. Never trust anyone? But Indira seemed like such a sweet friend. Her sisters were nice, too, but distant. Almost everyone she had met so far was nice. Why couldn't that be true for everyone?

She closed the book, opened her window, and pitched the volume into the night.