“Dessi!”
Professor Ezor, the Charms teacher, roared in my general direction. See the
thing about him was that he was near sighted and a student had placed a lasting
charm on his glasses a few years ago so that he saw everything through a slight
fog.

  “Dessi!”
he shouted once again. My head instantly snapped up and out of my bored stupor
only to realize that the entire class was watching me in amusement, excluding
Professor Ezor who, as expected, faced me with his already ugly face a boiling
red.

  “I’m
sorry!” I chirped in alarm and quickly pulled out my textbook and opened it to a page that was apparently about curing toe fungus…and the
illustrations on the page weren’t at all concerned about giving poor
sixteen-year-olds nightmares.

  I felt
a sudden nudge in my side when Juniper elbowed me roughly and my eyes looked up
to see that Professor Ezor was turning purple with rage. From across
the room the only sounds that could be heard were the snickering of the
Slytherins and, if you listened closely enough, the rapid beating of my heart.

  “Atlantana,
that is the third time this week you’ve fallen asleep in my class and this cannot carry on!” the Professor spat in
my face. “If you serve only to distract the rest of the class from learning,
then I suggest you drop it altogether.”

  My eyes
widened in alarm and I quickly cut him off from continuing. “No, sir! I’m
sorry, I will pay more attention, I promise!”

  “Ten
points from Gryffindor and detention!”

  I winced
at his sharp tone and nodded. Jeez, the year has barely started and I already
lost ten points for Gryffindor. As if to punctuate the punishment he had given
me, Professor Ezor spun with a billowing of his cloak and stalked angrily back
to the front of the room to continue his lesson. Begrudgingly, I pulled out my
quill to begin taking notes and for the rest of class it was a constant
struggle to keep the lids of my eyes from slipping heavily over my ordinary
brown irises.

xxxx

  “He
really hates you Atlas,” Juniper chuckled as we left the classroom. I scowled at
her and nudged her gently with my shoulder. Juniper was shorter than me by half
a head with piercing blue eyes and the perfect heart shaped face.

  “I
prefer the terms ‘dislikes with a passion’, thank you very much.”

  “It
doesn’t matter- he’d still give you a detention either way,” she pointed out
with a grin. Grimacing, my lips twisted in wry agreement. It was true- it doesn’t
matter if I was just dropped my wand by accident because Ezor will always find
away to call me out in front of the class. You’d think I had murdered his
family and snapped his wand in half for all of the hatred he shows me.

  “I just
hope he doesn’t make me reorganize the library books again,” I muttered,
cringing at the memory. Everyone loves Harry Potter but reading his name over
and over again would make ANYONE question their alphabet!

  “I
wouldn’t mind reorganizing some of the library books,” Juniper thought
wistfully.

  I
laughed at her lovingly. She was one of the smartest pupils in our year and as
a result, all of the professors loved her. She hardly ever got in detention not
because she never stepped out of line, but because she never got caught. If you
asked most people about Juniper, they wouldn’t be able to say much else than
the words “Gryffindor prefect with the pixie cut and blue eyes.” In fact, next
to her I might as well be mistaken for the Bloody Baron because that’s just how
beautiful Juniper was.

  “Junior!
Atlant-ass! Out of the way!”

  As soon
I heard the dreadful voice my smile instantly fell off my lips and my eyes
narrowed in irritation at the four Slytherins that shoved their way between
Juniper and I.

  “What happened
to your face Atlant-ass? Did your pet ogre sit on it again? It’s
looking especially ugly today,” Kiran taunted down at me. He towered over me
menacingly and I stepped back to put space between the two of us.

  “Shut
up Kiran. I’m just glad I didn’t get stuck with YOUR face,” I snapped. A shrill
laugh sounded to my left and I turned to see Josie and her wicked turquoise
eyes.

  “Oh
please,” she giggled prettily, “don’t act like you’re ALL THAT, mudblood.”

  I
frowned back at her in amused confusion. Mudblood doesn’t carry the same weight
that it used to…so either Josie was running out of insults or she was taking
things easy today.

  “Why
the look, Atlant-ass? Did you finally realize the extent of your hideousness?”
Kiran asked with a sneer.

  “No,
only yours,” Juniper butt in, her cheeks rosy with anger.

  “Control
yourself,” a voice whispered in my ear, “or your disease might infect the rest
of us.”

  “Leave
me alone!” I growled and spun around to hit Dmitri in the gut, but missed by
only a few centimeters. “And the only disease you’ll catch is the one your mother gave you.”

  Dmitri
laughed with a wicked mirth and opened his mouth to say something, but was
interrupted by a prefect.

  “Aye! No
fighting in the halls!”

  He shot me an amused glare before disappearing with the other Slytherins. Josie
was laughing as though someone had just told her the funniest joke but Kiran
was too busy glaring at me to notice that Dmitri, Josie, and the other
Slytherin whose name was Rahul, were already walking away.

  “Kiran!”
Josie called out to him with a smirk and a flip of her glossy black hair, “Forget that mudblood let’s go! We’ll be
late to lunch!”

  With
one last piercing glare Kiran finally turned away and hurried after the other
three.

  “I dislike
them with a burning passion,” I muttered to Juniper as we too made our way to
the Great Hall.

  “It’s
okay,” she assured me. “I’m sure it’s mutual.”