Chapter 274: They Aren't Planning a Prison Break, Are They?
Endless streams of water gathered on the empty chair, slowly sketching out the shape of a girl.
She had long, pale-gold hair that fell like silk, and a face so delicately beautiful that one glance made it hard to look away.
The noise in the Great Hall died instantly the moment she appeared. Every student, boy and girl alike, stared blankly at the sight before them.
The charm of a spring nymph could bewitch even a troll; none of the young witches and wizards present had the slightest chance of resisting it.
At Evans's side, shock was written across his face. He even forgot to cough out the water he'd inhaled.
He finally understood why the professors around him had wordlessly shifted their seats and left this place open.
As the water flowed away, the girl opened her eyes. She drew a breath of relief and pressed a hand to her chest, murmuring in a voice only those nearest could hear:
"That scared me. Thank goodness I made it in time."
She had been meant to arrive before the feast began, but Professor McGonagall had dragged her off for a brisk tour of the castle's main layout. Then old curiosities had tugged her toward the Great Lake for a quick look at the giant squid Evans had mentioned to her so many times. By the time she hurried to the Hall, the feast was already underway.
Fortunately, Professor Dumbledore had been quite accommodating, suggesting a more dramatic entrance to spare her the embarrassment of turning up late.
Once her expression was suitably composed, Sothia rose, bowed to the students below, then sat again and turned to the young man beside her, who was still staring in stunned silence.
His dazed face made her chuckle. She lifted a hand and waved it in front of him.
"Well? Was that surprising enough for you?"
At the Gryffindor table, students craned their necks for a better look at the new arrival on the staff dais, some forgetting entirely about the food in front of them.
"She's gorgeous," Oliver Wood breathed, then nudged Percy at his side. "What do you think?"
"Very impressive," Percy said distractedly, eyes fixed on the new professor as his mind raced.
Water streams forming a human body clearly weren't a standard Apparition or illusion. Had she cast some advanced Disillusionment Charm and then used Aguamenti to hide her entrance? No, the Hall was far too brightly lit; a Disillusionment Charm would have shown some flaw. It had to be something else.
The truth was, for someone whose head was full of study and advancement, even a spring nymph's entrance couldn't stir much beyond academic interest.
He did notice she was strikingly beautiful. That didn't stop him from wanting to reverse-engineer the spellwork.
Sharing a similar mindset, Hermione watched with shining eyes not far away.
"That water just now shouldn't have been conjured with Aguamenti," she thought aloud. "Conjured water needs a counter-curse or some other means to disperse it, and Professor Sothia didn't cast anything like that at all."
Her curiosity was blazing. Unlike Percy, she wasn't thinking about marks or advancement—only knowledge. Such an elegant piece of magic. She very much wanted to learn it. Would Professor Sothia teach something like that in class?
Penelope Clearwater, true to her house, was neither as single-mindedly studious as Percy nor as purely knowledge-hungry as Hermione.
She'd been watching the new professor as well, but when she noticed the way Percy was staring at the staff table, her expression soured slightly.
She could admit it: this new professor's allure was undeniable. Even as a girl, Penelope had found herself sneaking a few extra glances.
All the same, the Percy she knew wasn't the sort to gape at a pretty face.
Just as a faint, unfamiliar jealousy began to stir, Percy turned back to her, expression intent.
"Do you think what she did just now could be a form of Transfiguration?"
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Aside from Transfiguration, no branch of water magic he knew of could construct a human body that way and then vanish without a trace.
If Professor Sothia really had transformed something into flowing water like that, her command of magic had to be extraordinary.
He was starting to look forward to her classes.
"Er…" Penelope blinked, then relaxed as understanding dawned.
Of course. This was the Percy she knew. As if he'd be the type to lose his head over appearances.
But as for the new professor's water magic… she considered it briefly, then glanced up at the staff table where the girl was chatting with Professor Kahn.
"I don't think she's a witch at all," Penelope said quietly.
A few days earlier, while researching the Sea of Wraiths, Penelope had come across an intriguing legend.
It claimed that the Sea of Wraiths had once been a mighty spring nymph, and that the sea itself was formed from the malice that lingered after her death. Curious, Penelope had dug a bit deeper into the lore.
Judging by what she'd just seen, Professor Sothia might well be one of the very beings those stories described.
"Not a witch?" Percy thought it over, then nodded. "That does make a lot of sense."
Realising he probably wouldn't be learning a new spell from this, he lost interest in analysing the magic itself and instead began talking with Penelope about their plans to visit the Sea of Wraiths in Norway over Christmas and search for Penelope's mother.
As the conversation went on, the gap between them shrank until Penelope simply slid off the Ravenclaw bench, marched over, bodily pushed Wood aside, and took the seat next to Percy.
Wood, who had just recovered from the new professor's entrance and was raising his fork to finally eat something, stared.
"What?"
Just like that? Shoved aside? While I'm still sitting here?
You two aren't even pretending I'm not here anymore.
Or am I literally not a person to you? Am I?
Once again questioning his own existence, Wood took a long moment to recover. When he did, his mind drifted back over Percy and Penelope's earlier conversation and snagged on a detail that hadn't seemed quite right.
Spending the Christmas holidays in Norway. And visiting… where, exactly? The Sea of Wraiths?
As the son of an old wizarding family, Wood had, of course, heard of the Sea of Wraiths—and that was precisely why he was so confused.
He wasn't remotely surprised that the two of them planned to spend Christmas as a cosy little trip for two.
But choosing the Sea of Wraiths as a honeymoon destination was more than a bit avant-garde.
Aside from Azkaban, it was the most feared wizarding prison in the world. Some even said it was worse than Azkaban.
Dementors might drain joy and leave people in unending misery, but at least their victims usually stayed alive.
Get thrown into the Sea of Wraiths, though, and life or death genuinely came down to fate.
So why, in Merlin's name, would these two decide to go there of all places?
Turning their earlier words over in his mind, Wood stumbled onto a terrifying possibility.
They weren't planning a prison break, were they?
The new professor was forgotten in an instant. Wood eyed the pair, who were now leaning close and murmuring together, with deep suspicion.
No. He'd have to find a way to get more information. If those two really intended to break someone out of the Sea of Wraiths, he would absolutely have to stop them.