Even many older Macaws, who had completely ignored all of the first-years before, now took notice in the common room of the homeless Muggle-born who was afraid of nothing.
“That little street girl that looks like she’s nine years old?” Marissa overheard one teen asking.
“Yes,” confirmed another. “The one the Condas wouldn’t take at house selection.”
She had hoped that the Boggart would not be mentioned again, but that was not what happened. In the bedroom after classes, her roommates had gathered at Serafina’s bed to recall the whole event. All the girls agreed that Jaci was a hero for standing between Leila and the creature. Then every one had shared with the others what frightening thing each thought she would see if a Boggart faced her. Marissa did not see how each girl could reveal herself so easily. Reveal her weakness.
Last night the girls had also told Alika Escuro and Tatiane, who had in turn told everyone. By the morning, all of Macaw House had heard of the Boggart in the first-year Defense class. Other students were not surprised by the idea that the Anacondas may have set it loose on a Muggle-born, but were in disbelief that the creature had taken no shape when it confronted Marissa. Most would not even accept that fact until every first-year had sworn it was true.
“I hope they leave her alone soon,” Alika said as they led the first-years from Macaw House. “Watch out for fruit!” she called back.
“She can handle it. She’s tough” Tatiane replied while the entire line sidestepped a papaya that lay on the pathway to Witness Stone.
“Yeah,” Alika agreed. “A Boggart can’t scare her? That’s tough!”
At breakfast Marissa felt the Anancondas watching her too, as they had at dinner last night. She could tell they also had learned of what happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts. From across the Great Hall, Cecelia Bella de Barros and Sol Braganza eyed her scornfully. Marissa knew it couldn’t be Celestia or Cristiano and Fer who had left the box on her desk, but believed Jaci that it could have been placed there by the mean Anaconda House Leader. They had wanted to use the Boggart to find what she was afraid of and show she was weak. But it hadn’t worked like they wanted and now everyone saw Marissa was strong.
Rosaria had tried to warn her, but she had still fallen for the simple trap the Anacondas set. She had never been that careless in Santa Efigenia when protecting the boys and herself from gangs and police. She had sat apart from the Anacondas in class as Alika Escuro had suggested, but she would still have to be more careful to avoid their trouble.
In the excited activity after breakfast, her thoughts of Anacondas were forgotten quickly. The native boy Tiquinho stood with Caspar Varnhagen from Woolly House at the center of the Great Hall. Each held a silver shovel as Jaguars and Woollys cheered loudly.
“The wager is set,” Professor Galhos declared from the raised level. “If Woolly House collects the most, they receive a five spell lead in the Jaguar/Woolly Duelling match.”
“Woolly! Woolly!” his House tables shouted as Caspar raised his shovel. Marissa wondered what it was they were collecting, but all the older students seemed to know.
“If Jaguar House collects the most,” Galhos continued, “they receive a five goal lead in the Jaguar/Woolly Quidditch match.”
“Jaguar! Jaguar!” the native students yelled for Tiquinho.
A dirty whirlwind came rushing down the aisle and suddenly Saci stood with his own rusty shovel between the boys. “If Saci House wins, they get five pranks without being chased!”
“You are not going on the field trip,” Professor Galhos told the dark one-legged boy.
“Ohhh… hmph!” His shovel clanged loudly on the floor as Saci departed in swirls of dust. Professor Parreira from Herbology then led all the Jaguar and Woolly first-years out from the Great Hall as the laughing houses shouted and cheered for their groups. The professors at their tables joined in the applause as the first-years departed.
“He cannot prove someone meant to leave it there, Grace.”
“It didn’t become a Dementor, sir? I would think that is the most terrible thing she’s seen.”
“Guerra swears there was nothing there,” replied Professor Katupya. “Absolutely nothing.”
-------------------------------------------------------------
The morning classes passed quickly as everyone awaited their own field trip that afternoon. Charms class was more wand movements, a lecture, and an assignment of more reading. In Potions Rosaria only screamed once, and Eva again silenced her quickly with the pillow.
“I think the idea is for this to remind you to cover your scream,” said Eva, “not me.”
“I’ll try,” Rosaria promised. “But you’re much faster.”
In History of Magic, Professor Esquecido was dressed in a hooded woolen cloak and thick layers of musty robes like old wizards called ‘Droods’. The Anaconda boys waited after class to tease Marissa about the family tree assignment.
“I found a family name for you,” Cristiano taunted in the hallway. “Marissa de Aleia.”
“No. de Calha!” corrected Fer, and both boys laughed meanly. The cruel names meant ‘Marissa of the Alley’ or ‘of the Gutter’.
“Maybe you can interview some rats in your dumpster about your family history.”
“Yeah!” Fer Ribeiro agreed. “Sol Braganza says your dumpster stink made the Boggart too sick to change to anything.”
Marissa made herself ignore them and followed after the guide frog to her next class.
In Transfiguration she hoped to practice spells, but Professor Merrythought gave a long lecture. After class the professor tried to talk with her about Boggarts, but Marissa would not share what she had seen. She was fine with letting everyone believe nothing at all scared her.
“Hello, Asuoby,” she said to the large hyacinth macaw, but he just stared with no response. There was a small pile of uneaten palm nuts in the little cup on his bronze perch.
“I think Asuoby is feeling sick today,” Professor Merrythought told her.
“He doesn’t look sick,” Marissa replied. The bird seemed as wary and alert as before.
“Birds aren’t like people,” the professor replied. “Appearing sick would be a signal to predators that they’re weak and easy prey, so they try to hide any sign they’re not well.”
“Oh,” Marissa said as she did notice that the old macaw stood tall but very still today.
“It’s in their instinct to not show vulnerability,” Merrythought explained. Then she tilted her head and smiled at her young student. “Perhaps they are like some people.”
Marissa was unsure what she meant, but before she could ask what vulnerability was, a sharp tapping sounded on glass. Outside, three blue shapes joined the dappled brown one.
“There’s Tesimal!” the professor stated. “I wondered where he had went.”
“Um… I think Fides and Amor are teaching him to fly,” Marissa said.
“I believe he knows how to fly, Marissa.”
“To fly like swallows, I mean,” she explained. As if to demonstrate, the tiny pygmy owl glided after one of the nimble swallows and followed it in a perfect loop-the-loop.
“Wonderful!” Merrythought declared with laughter as all four birds swooped into the small tree on the terrace. She walked outside with Marissa and gave Tesimal an owl treat before he fluttered back into the sleeve of her robe. The swallows would not try the little treats at all until the professor magicked them into little flying bugs which they gulped up happily.
“I want to learn that for them.”
“You will one day,” Professor Merrythought assured her. “But Transfiguration is among the most difficult magics, so I don’t want you to be discouraged if it’s not your best talent.”
“Maybe I’ll be gooder at Charms when Professor Galhos starts showing us those,” she replied. So far they were still only practicing wand movements and she did not know yet what her long blue feather was for.
“I’m sure you will,” the professor agreed as they walked back into the classroom. “Now I believe it’s time to join your class in the Great Hall.” The Herbology field trip would leave from there and last all four afternoon periods.
“Will Macaws and Anacondas have a contest like the other houses?” Marissa asked.
“No,” the professor smiled. “The Condas think that contest is too crude. You’ll see why.”
-------------------------------------------------------------
Lunch had ended when Marissa reached the Great Hall, and students hurried off to their next classes while the Macaw and Anaconda first-years formed lines. Professor Parreira, in her leafy green garden smock and a matching headscarf, led them out the south hallway and down the outer staircase. Something glided past Marissa’s head and she looked up to see Spero, Fides, and Amor following along above the boys and girls. She noticed Rosaria far ahead of her in line waving up to them until Celestia pulled her hand down.
The sky was clear today, yet everything around was moist and humid from days of rain. The children followed a rainforest path and gathered shortly at a place familiar to Marissa. The humble stone stables stood in the forest clearing with twenty wheelbarrows and many shovels lined up in the field before it.
“We need some drivers, young men,” Professor Parreira directed. Soon ten Anaconda boys began pushing wheelbarrows along an uphill path further into the rainforest, followed by the other Anacondas, ten Macaw boys with wheelbarrows, and the other Macaw first-years. Marissa peered inside the darkened stables as she joined the end of the line, but could not glimpse the magic horses or the ghostly boy. A pen behind the structure held a small herd of curious pig-like animals with strange shapes of writing patterned in their fur.
“Hierotapirs,” stated Jaci Erasmi, who walked just ahead of her with his friend Mario.
“Why aren’t you pushing?” she asked. Unlike most of the girls, the boys would talk to her.
“We’ll push the heavy full wheelbarrows back,” Jaci explained. “And Mario is back here to protect you from being eaten by a jaguar.”
“I am?” Mario asked, unaware of such a plan.
“Yes,” Jaci confirmed, “by letting it eat you first.”
“Well, you’re walking back here to protect yourself from Leila hugging her hero again!” Mario replied. Marissa smiled as Jaci blushed.
The stone-laid walkway they travelled on was a much narrower, less used path that those close by Witness Stone. The wheelbarrows pushed through overgrown palms and vines, and two persons could barely walk side by side. The swallows retreated to her shoulder as they moved deeper into the dense, shadowed rainforest. Marissa liked being deep under the forest canopy again, among the thick leafy foliage, hanging vines, and hidden wildlife. Sometimes she could see birds high in enormous trees or in branches just above her head. Jaci Erasmi knew names of many of them, though just as many others he did not know. They saw a colorful toucan, parrots, hoatzins, uirapurus, and a even fat wattled curassow. Marissa recalled Professor Merrythought saying there were so many hundreds of kinds of birds in the rainforest that she could never learn them all. She thought it was true.
It was a full half hour until the winding trail reached its end. In a small clearing at the base of a steep rocky cliff, a gaping dark hole opened before the assembled first-years.
“Each night,” Professor Parreira explained, “ninety thousand bats fly from this cave to consume their evening meal, then return and provide something very useful for our class.”
“Bat poop!” said Mario Domingues. That was what they were filling wheelbarrows with. Marissa had heard the boys talk excitedly about bats on the way to the cave, even though the proper Anaconda girls had complained before how disgusting the entire field trip was.
“Bat guano,” stated the professor, “is the fertilizer for all of our greenhouse gardens. By long tradition, each new first-year class refills Herbology guano bins at the start of term.”
“Ma’am,” Celestia stated. “I think the school should have little ones do this menial work. Proper girls should not shovel bat guano.”
“Ah, but then you would all miss this learning experience,” Professor Parreira smiled.
“There’s nothing to learn from poop!” Celestia responded. “And bats are not plants.”
The professor simply laughed and shook her head as if Celestia had understood nothing. “The wizard tribes of Amazonia believe deeply in the bond of all life. All magic rises from nature, and all things in nature are interdependent. How are bats an example of this?”
“Because we use parts of them in Potions?” Eva Paranhos offered.
“That is one way,” the professor nodded in approval. “But how are they part of… a circle?”
It was Jaci Erasmi who gave the answer. “The bat guano feeds the soil, the soil feeds the plants, the plant leaves feed the insects, the insects feed the bats, and bats make more guano.”
“Precisely,” commended Professor Parreira. “All the nutrients that pass from one life to another eventually return to start the entire circle again.”
Marissa smiled as she realized that what the professor was teaching them was an idea like she had found on her own in Astronomy class. Like each thing she learned was connected to other things to learn, each thing alive was connected to other things alive. So interdependent meant they all counted on each other to live.
“Our ninety thousand bats have no idea they’re part of this cycle, any more than bees know they are part of a pollination cycle. Just like plants and animals, even wizards are a small part in forces greater than their own. All life is bound to other life, sometimes in ways we do not even understand. That is what you and your friends may learn from poop, Miss Bella de Barros.”
First-years all took shovels and lined up to enter the huge cave as Professor Perreira continued. “There is to be no talking, yelling, or shouting within the cave,” she noted. “Now, I was warned that one of you is sometimes upset by insects. Who is that?”
Rosaria raised her hand to admit her guilt, and was permitted to wait outside because bugs were on the guano piles. The professor didn’t want her screams to wake the ninety thousand bats.
“Well, I don’t really like insects either,” Celestia declared, but was not excused from the cave. Her Potions partner Eva was chosen to sit with Rosaria and sketch plants while all the others rolled their wheelbarrows into the darkness to collect bat guano. The swallows left Marissa’s shoulder as she entered the cave last, and Rosaria smiled as they landed beside her.
Professor Perreira guided the group along the dark floor of the cave with her lighted wand. The wheelbarrows spread out, each assigned to its own small hill to shovel. The bat poop looked like piles of loose dirt and didn't really smell as bad as everyone had said it would.
“Where are the bats?” someone whispered. The glow of Perreira's wand rose up to barely illuminate a ceiling high above, where countless tiny creatures with folded wings hung upside-down in the craggy shadows. “Wow,” Marissa uttered quietly at their vast numbers.
Marissa discovered the wheelbarrows were magicked to hold an endless amount of poop. They shovelled for an hour before the professor led the rolling line of carts from the cave. Marissa wished they did have a contest, because she knew her Macaws had collected far more guano. Celestia and the proper girls had each shovelled one required scoop, then let Anaconda boys do all the work of filling their cartloads.
Professor Perreira was at the far end of the clearing directing the wheelbarrows when Marissa came from the cave. She saw Cristiano waiting and jumped back as he flung a shovelful of guano at her feet.
“Hey!” she shouted when it spattered her new shoes.
“Here's some perfume to make you smell better,” he said loudly as the Anacondas behind him laughed. The swallows were flying to meet her, but as Amor landed on her shoulder both Spero and Fides circled about to deliver their droppings directly on Cristiano's head. Now the Macaw boys and girls laughed.
“Stupid birds!” Cristiano snarled, and took a wand from his robe to aim at tiny Spero.
Without thinking, Marissa leaped towards him with her hands raised to grab his arm.
“Expelliarmus!”
Marissa saw the wand flying from his hand but could not stop herself from crashing into his chest. She knocked him into a wheelbarrow, which tipped over, and she landed upon Cristiano in the spilled load of bat guano. The surprised boy barely struggled as she pinned his arms, forced him down, and spoke in fierce anger. “Don’t… you… ever…”
“…EVER,” came a voice from behind her more furious than her own, “point a wand at an animal in this forest!”
“I … was teasing,” Cristiano fearfully admitted to the smoldering Professor Parreira who stood above the two with her own wand. “I don’t even know a spell to do on birds.”
The professor helped Marissa from the top of Cristiano, then yanked the boy to his feet. He was covered in bat guano and his hands were soiled more as he brushed off his robe. Marissa shook with anger, and thought for a moment maybe Anacondas could make her hate them. Then she remembered what Sister Angelica said. She should feel sorry for him.
Professor Perreira took a moment to calm herself, then addressed Cristiano very strictly. “Witness Stone has a rule, a rule four hundred years old, that you should have learned your first day in Charms! Could someone please remind this foolish boy of that rule?”
“Never harm a rainforest creature without need.” Marissa was surprised the two voices that stated the rule almost in unison came from Jaci Erasmi and Celestia Bella de Barros. “Idiot!” Celestia added harshly as she glared at Cristiano, not at a puzzled Marissa.
“Now, let me clean you both…” Parreira raised her wand, but then paused. “No, I think I will let you walk back just as you are. Pick up your wand, Mr. Ferreira.”
The professor’s spell reloaded the spilled guano and Cristiano pushed it to the trailhead.
“We’re going ahead this time,” Celestia declared as she passed boys with wheelbarrows, “so I don’t step in any of this filthy mess when you spill it again.”
Professor Perreira and the proper Anaconda girls led the way back down the stone path. The Macaw girls also went before their boys, and Marissa walked just ahead of Jaci with his overfilled wheelbarrow. The three swallows perched safely on her shoulders.
“Um…why was Celestia mad at Cristiano and not me?” she asked as Jaci rolled along.
“The rainforest belongs to the wizard tribes and they care for all creatures that live here. They have sanctions for harming animals. Even little birds.”
“What’s sanctions?”
“Like a punishment,” Jaci explained as they walked. “Grandfather says a wizard killed a Glyptodon once and the tribes cut the magical plants harvest in half for a whole year.”
“But why would Celestia care if…”
“Because Bella de Barros Exports loses thousands of Galleons any time the source of potion ingredients is cut short. Her family knows that harming animals costs money.”
“Oh, I see,” Marissa said. Celestia didn’t care about animals, she just cared about herself.
The line ahead of them slowed, then came to a standstill. Jaci and the others pulled to a halt and Marissa squeezed past the single file line to find why they had stopped. The last Anaconda wheelbarrow was parked and blocked the narrow path. A chubby Anaconda boy, sweating and half-exhausted, sat on the ground behind it.
“I’ll give you a Sickle to push for me,” he weakly offered a Macaw boy who just laughed.
“I’ll push it,” Marissa responded to the chance to earn money.
“A little girl can't move a heavy wheelbarrow,” he said.
“Yes I can,” she declared firmly, and held out her hand to be paid. “So?”
The chubby boy hesitated, but handed her a silver wizardings coin from his pocket.
“Don’t tell Celly,” he told her as he slowly lifted himself up.
Marissa joined the end of the train of wheelbarrows after letting everyone waiting pass. The load was heavy, but it was really keeping the cart balanced that took the most effort as they rolled downhill. After a time they finally wheeled into the stables and emptied the loads on a great mountain of guano. Marissa gave a tired, satisfied sigh. It was good to help the greenhouse plants have food to eat.
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Tatiane,” Marissa asked the older girl ahead of her, “where do I wash my clothes at?”
The uniforms piled at the bottom of her wardrobe now included a very dirty witch robe.
“The little ones do that for us ,” Tatiane replied as they crossed the swaying rope bridge.
“I thought first-years were the littlest,” she said. The older girl smiled at her puzzled look, then began to explain something no one had thought to tell Marissa about before.
“Eeww! Don’t put that bat poop stuff in with our clothes!” Serafina cried out a little later as Marissa brought her things to the little restroom where the laundry hamper was kept. Some of the Macaw girls had started being nicer to Marissa, but Serafina wasn’t one of them. She still wanted to be snobby and better than everyone else like Ananconda girls, and liked to accuse Marissa of stealing every time someone misplaced any little thing.
“But this is where Tatiane said I had to put my uniforms for the little ones people to clean.”
“Leave them out in the entry,” Serafina said. “I’m sure they’ll find them by the odor!”
Marissa read ‘Spirits of Witness Stone’ after taking her dirty clothes back by her wardrobe. She sat by the glass where the swallows could see her, because they still liked her to keep them company as they nested in for the night. Long after the other girls had gone to bed, there on the smooth wooden floor was where she again fell asleep.
“Huh!” With a sudden start, Marissa awoke in the darkness as she felt something near her. Instinctively she backed away, then found she wasn’t on the floor, but floating in midair. Her movement set her loose of whatever held her, and Marissa tumbled back to the floor. She jumped to her feet to face the sight of her clothes pile, standing by itself on two legs. And it was talking.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” a worried voice whispered. “Dozza has woke up the last firstie.” Two large round eyes peered out timidly from the middle of the small heap of uniforms. “Lifted girl to mop floor, but can’t put her there.”
“Are you,” Marissa asked in amazement as she raised a shirt from its head, “a little one?” Tatiane had said she might never, ever see one because they worked when students slept.
The clothes pile shivered as the very short being very nervously nodded yes.
“Um… I’m Marissa,” she said quietly to it. “What’s your name?”
“Dozza. Dozza the bad, bad house-elf. MyRissa can please smack Dozza with her book.”
“Smack you with… No,” Marissa refused. “What did you do bad?”
“Dozza has made MyRissa’s bed wrong,” it sniffed as tears began flowing from its eyes. “MyRissa has not sleeped in it all week, and is Dozza’s fault little girl hates her bed!” Suddenly the house-elf crumpled to the floor and started sobbing as if someone had died.
“I… I don’t hate it!” Marissa said, afraid its outburst would wake everyone. “Please, shhh.”
“Don’t hate bed?” Dozza asked hopefully, wiping tears on a rumpled robe.
“No. Um… It’s a very nice bed. I just… my friends never had a bed to sleep in, and…” She couldn’t explain to a little house-elf the mixed feelings she hadn’t faced herself.
“MyRissa only sad friends not here to shares.”
“Yes,” she admitted very, very softly.
“Friends want MyRissa to sleep on hard floor?”
“No. They would want…” Want what? They boys had wanted her to have a white shirt and new shoes when they didn’t have any. Wanted her to go to school when they couldn’t. The boys had been happy for her to have that chance. “…want me to sleep in a soft bed.”
“MyRissa sleep in bed and dream soft to them,” the little house-elf urged.
“Okay,” Marissa agreed. “I will.”
-------------------------------------------------------------
Marissa rounded the bushes as she walked to the Great Hall on Saturday morning and saw it was true. In the center of the stone pathway stood a large thirty foot tree that had not been there before. Milo Timbira had warned everyone in the common room about it after Jaci and Mario raced to breakfast early and crashed into the unexpected obstacle.
“How did a big tree grow in one day?” Marissa had asked him.
“It didn’t,” he replied. “Travelling trees move to different spots. Sometimes they appear ten miles from where they usually grow, then move back a few days later.”
“Do they walk?” she had asked, and pictured a magic tree striding along on its roots.
“No one knows. They just show up by surprise.” It had surprised Mario with a bloody nose.
Marissa walked alone because House Leaders didn’t take them to breakfast on Saturdays, but happily she found Sakura and Anna headed up the wide stone stairway just above her. Fides, Spero and Amor glided along as she caught up to them.
“Hi, Marissa,” Sakura greeted her. “Did you really bury a Conda boy in bat guano?”
“Um… we kind of both fell. But he was trying to hurt the swallows.”
“I wish Celly Belly de Barros fell in,” Sakura said, and quiet Anna giggled with her.
As they entered Witness Stone, the three birds flew off towards the top of the pyramid. The Great Hall was only half full, so Marissa was invited to sit at the Woolly House tables with the Japanese girls. She had toast while they both had fruit slices with cream.
“Marissa!” squawked a voice beside her as a flurry of feathers landed upon her shoulder. She recognized its colors and turned to see Tiquinho following his bright scarlet macaw. Potira held his hand, and her sleepy sloth Ker was wrapped around her.
“No school today,” Potira smiled as she pointed to Marissa’s book bag on the bench. It only held ‘Spirits of Witness Stone’, which she wanted to keep dry if it rained.
“I know,” Marissa said. “I’m going to the library.” She wanted to turn in her book and check out one about Amazon birds, or house-elves, or maybe travelling trees.
“No library today,” Tiquinho ordered as he lifted Flap-Flap back to his own forearm. “You’re coming with us.”
“Where?” Marissa inquired as Flap-Flap simply flew back to her again.
“You want see pink dolphins, yes?” Potira asked. The three girls at the table all smiled.
The path to the pools led right beneath the lupunas of Woolly House, where Sakura and Anna met them again after getting bathing suits. Monkeys in the branches followed them through the treetops almost to the edge of the river, where a tall waterfall poured into a series of small pools and one very deep one that Indian boys were diving into from a cliff. The pair of pink dolphins swam about playing, sometimes leaping from the water to splash the children. Marissa enjoyed wading in the small pools before climbing up the rocks to a high ledge, then met a dolphin up close when it lifted her out from the water after she began sinking.
“Don’t take my dare to jump if you can't swim!” Tiquinho scolded as she coughed up water.
“I… thought I’d… just learn.”
“Or learn to drown,” he shook his head but smiled. “It’s better you learn that fearless shouldn’t mean foolish.”
Heavy rains sent them from the river after a few hours. Tiquinho went with some native boys, Potira took furry Ker to lunch, and Sakura had promised to help Anna with spells. Marissa said goodbye and raced off to the library.
The swallows took shelter on a ledge outside again as she entered the ancient building with its three towering bookshelf trees. Many older students sat with books and schoolwork spread out on study tables. As Marissa approached the librarian’s counter, she passed Cecelia Bella de Barros, who sat with another teen girl and seemed not to notice her at all. Marissa overheard them talking while she waited for Mr. Argiletum.
“…much more space for our dresses,” said Cecelia.
“If native wizards are so wise,” said the other girl. “how come they never discovered walk-in closets?”
“Mother says they still haven’t discovered proper clothes,” Cecelia replied sarcastically, and both girls laughed quietly. Cecelia drew things on a parchment between them.
“Think how spacious the common room will look without those ugly stone columns.”
“Can we really do that, Cece?” her friend questioned.
“Of course. I have Principal Absencia’s permission to redecorate any way we want.”
“But, I mean, that’s very difficult magic.”
“Aren’t I the best witch in school?” Cecelia asked, and waited for the girl to nod agreement. “I’ll just read an Archimancy book and learn the spells.”
“Oh, Anaconda House is going to be so wonderful, Cece. You’ll probably win best spell!”
“Probably,” she agreed confidently.
Marissa turned in ‘Spirits of Witness Stone’ to Mr. Argiletum and went to find a new book.
She searched for a section about animals, and at the far end of the rows of Magizoology found ‘Birds of the Amazon: An Illustrated Guide’. Footsteps approached behind her.
“Petrificus Totalus!” a voice whispered sharply, and the heavy book thudded to the floor. Marissa tried to turn to see who had spoken, but found she could not move at all. Her arms had pulled to her sides and her whole body felt tightly bound.
“Look what I’ve found,” said someone unseen.“The brave gutter girl with a picture book.” Cecelia Bella de Barros stepped forward into Marissa’s view. She slowly circled around her, then stood looking down with disdain.
“Celestia’s little friends are convinced that you’re not scared of anything,” she remarked. “But I think you were just too feeble-minded for a Boggart to read your simpleton thoughts. Maybe you’re not afraid of snakes, or even Cristiano, but you’re not smart enough to know what you should be afraid of.”
Marissa could not speak to answer back, or force herself loose of whatever magic held her. Cecelia placed her wandtip firmly on Marissa’s chest and looked into her unmoving eyes. How did Cecelia think she could tell if she scared someone if she had frozen their face?
“Aren’t you afraid that you’re helpless right now? Afraid I can cast any hex I like on you? You might get Saci to help you embarrass us, and defend yourself against firstie pranks, but you have no idea how to protect yourself from magic. How about a burning hex? Or I could just turn you to a lizard right now and feed you to my owl. Does that scare you?”
Maybe Cecelia could make her a lizard, but Marissa had been threatened many times before. She thought Cecelia was just bluffing to prove she was stronger. And she also realized that Cecelia surprised her in an empty, secluded aisle of the library. Just like with the snakes and the Boggart, the Anacondas always tried to hide it was them who had done something.
“I’ll let you go,” Cecelia said with pretend mercy, “but only if you stay in your treehouse of mudbloods. The plaza belongs to purebloods, and we don’t want to smell you in the library anymore. Books are no use to an ignorant beggar anyway.”
Cecelia wanted to scare her, but her words about the library made Marissa very mad. The giant wizards on Witness Stone had let her come to school, and Mr. Argiletum said all the books were hers to learn from. She would not let the mean House Leader say they weren’t.
Because if Cecelia kept her from all the things to learn, she might as well be a lizard.
“Cece!” called an urgent voice from far up the aisle. “He’s coming!”
“Finite!” whispered Cecelia, who quickly rushed around the shelf and was gone. Marissa felt herself able to move again, and turned to see Mr.Argiletum at the front of the aisle.
“Have you found what you need?” he asked.
“Um… yes,” she replied. Cecelia was unwilling to act on her threat if teachers might find out. She had found what scared the Anacondas.
Marissa walked up to the front entry and saw that Cecelia had gone back to her study table. The Anaconda girls turned and watched to see if Marissa would run away from the library.
Checking out a book wouldn’t be enough to show Cecelia she was too strong to be scared. Marissa had to confront her, and show that she wasn’t afraid to do so in front of everyone. Quickly she took out her wand and stepped right up to Cecelia’s table. With her left hand she heaved it up while she raised the wand in her right.
“Petrippitus ToadAlice!” she pronounced loudly as the small table toppled over. The two surprised Anacondas jumped back from falling books and ink-splashed parchment pages, and a roomful of students turned to look as Mr. Argiletum heard the noise and rushed over.
“Vile little…” Cecelia held her words as she saw the librarian.
“What is all this?” he asked sternly of the overturned table.
“I was just practicing the spell Cecelia taught me,” Marissa said calmly. “I guess it don’t work on tables.”
Mr. Argiletum turned to Cecelia, who looked stunned and said nothing.
“Duelling curses in the library, Miss Bella de Barros? Is this a proper place for lessons?”
“No, sir,” she replied, and turned to glare at Marissa as a small crowd watched.
“Follow me,” he ordered firmly, and led the two girls to a small room away from others.
“You may both apologize now or I will refer this to Professor Guerra,” he told Cecelia.
Marissa knew the House Leader was relieved not to speak her curt apology in public.
“I’m sorry,” Marissa said in turn. “I’ll stay away from you. But not from the library.”
-------------------------------------------------------------
Marissa was on library probation after the incident, and Alika Escuro told he she could only go there now with other Macaws, not by herself. But she did get to go back to the river with the Jaguars on Sunday. Potira gave her swimming lessons.
At breakfast Monday morning, Marissa was surprised when scores of owls began gliding into the Great Hall, and concerned they might all land by her like they did at the owl tree. Then she saw they delivered mail, and one swooped down to drop a letter in front of her. She saw it was the pink parchment letter she had sent Mr. Palito. Had the owl not found him and brought it back? She worried maybe something had happened to Mr. Palito, then saw her name written where his had been. He had reused the same paper to write back.
Hey kid,
The scruffs are doing good and Pipio is keeping them fed. Glad you like the professors. Make sure you learn everything they have to teach you. Don’t slack off like some kids do. Boys and I are waiting to hear lots of stories about school when you get back.
See you later.
Marissa was pleased to get a letter, but puzzled by the pink parchment. She had written to him with a quill, not a pencil. How had Mr. Palito erased ink to write on the paper again?
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Petrippitus ToadAlice!”
“Petrificus Totalus!”
Marissa smiled. The old macaw Asuoby had repeated the spell correctly, even though she had said it wrong. She didn’t use her wand, but spoke the words to see if he’d talk. Now she knew the potion from the Cares for Creatures professor had made him feel better. All the days that he was sick Asuoby hadn’t said a word.
Marissa sat by his perch in Transfiguration classroom. Professor Merrythought monitored the Great Hall all this week, but had allowed her to spend the lunch hours here as long as she kept a safe distance from Asuoby and promised to eat something. She had an orange.
The second week of school had been less eventful than the first. Except for their constant whispered insults that she ignored, the Anacondas had not done anything more to her yet. Maybe because professors were watching now, like Mr. Argiletum’s ghost librarians did.
The week was disappointing though, because she had still not made magic with her wand. In all of her classes she was learning many things, yet her magic wasn’t doing anything. The other children had almost all performed more changing spells, but she still couldn’t make a needle. All she had done with her matches was light Saci’s pipe when he asked. Some of the first-years even knew more spells that older brothers and sisters taught them. Marissa hoped she would do better with the magics that Charms and Defense would teach. Maybe her wand was waiting for a kind it liked more, like the swallows liked the tastes of some bugs more than others.
In Brooms class some others flew slow and unsteady, but only Marissa could not fly at all. It was difficult to keep trying with no results and still show no feeling from Conda taunts.
Professor Merrythought said her magic would come in time. Why was it taking so long?
“If you didn’t bite I could take you by the window and the sunshine,” she said to Asuoby. The hyacinth macaw no longer lunged to warn her away if she came too close, but never let anyone pick him up. And the professor said he got very upset if his perch was moved.
“See all the other birds,” she said as she stepped to the glass wall. Outside a flock of scarlet macaws passed in the distance and the three swallows rested in their favorite tree.
Marissa heard the stone wall moving open and turned to see Professor Merrythought enter.
“Hello, Marissa,” she smiled.
“Marissa!” echoed another voice, and with a strenuous beating of wings the aged hyacinth macaw flew across the room to the girl’s shoulder. Marissa was startled and Merrythought gasped.
“Be still or he’ll take off your ear,” she said urgently. She slowly approached Marissa with her hand half raised as if to knock the bird away.
“No!” Marissa warned. She calmly walked Asuoby back to his perch. “He won’t be mean. I’m his friend now.”
The old macaw brushed his large beak against her cheek before she lifted him up to the bronze pole. “Marissa,” he squawked, then turned and snapped as the professor came near.
“We thought he was too weak to fly anymore,” Merrythought said as she moved back.
“I think it hurts his wings,” Marissa replied She gently smoothed down his feathers, then stepped back beside her professor. “See. Asuoby likes me.”
Merrythought shook her head in disbelief as Marissa then hurried off to Herbology.
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Are you going to Rio next week too?” Marissa asked her two native friends as they talked in the Great Hall after dinner. Sakura and Anna were going to Carnival with their family. It wasn’t a school activity, so only students whose parents picked them up at the Floos or at something called Portkeys went. But that seemed to be everyone in school except Marissa.
“No,” Tiquinho replied. “The tribes have our own celebrations.”
“Jaguars go home villages feast,” Potira added as she rocked her sloth like a baby.
“Oh. I’ll have Witness Stone all by myself,” Marissa said. She could explore places then. She wanted to learn the changing hallmaze as well as she knew streets in Santa Efigenia.
“Little ones stay you,” Potira smiled, then whispered something to Tiquinho.
“We’ll have to ask,” he replied to her.
Across the aisle two fourth-year girls from Macaw House were doing schoolwork for a class called Divination. Marissa remembered them as the black girl and the brown-skinned frizzly hair girl she had bumped into on the train.
“I see my dad buying me a Nimbus 2000 for my birthday,” the black girl said.
“Nina! That’s a wish, not a vision,” replied the other. “Be serious.”
“Okay, okay. I see it raining… so hard it floods Anaconda House and ruins all Cecelia’s dresses!” Nina giggled as she wrote down her prediction.
“That’s not nice.”
“Your turn, Constanca. What do you see?”
“I see…” she looked into the crystal ball from class, “parents. Parents.. crying?”
“Your parents?”
“All the parents. Crying,” she repeated as her own eyes welled with tears. She began to shake and her voice trembled. “Because… because all the wizarding children are gone. They’re all… no. NO!” She cried out, then fainted to the bench.
“Constanca? Cons? Professor Galhos!” Nina shouted out to the nearest teacher she saw. Galhos rushed over, saw the unconscious student, and knelt down beside her.
“What happened?”
“We were doing our assignment. She started acting funny and crying for nothing, then…"
“Rennervate,” the professor passed her wand over Constanca who began to wake.
“Are you alright, dear?”
“I think so. I… saw. I really saw.” Her eyes began to tear again.
“Alika!” the professor called to the House Leader standing in a group that had gathered to see what was happening. “Take Miss Estrelafala to Galaxia's office. Quickly please.”
Alika Escuro helped Constanca up and guided the shaken girl away down the hall.
“She’s had a vision, dear,” Professor Galhos explained to her worried friend.
“A real vision?”
“Ms. Estrelafala's great-aunt was a powerful seer. It is a very rare gift, but if a young woman inherits the ability it begins to display itself at about your age.”
“She'll really be able to see the future?”
“Possibly. Professor Galaxia will try to help her draw out a full prophecy.”
“What… what will Constanca see?”
“That is unknown. Hopefully something more meaningful than a ‘team of destiny’.”
-------------------------------------------------------------
After class on Monday, Asuoby tried to fly to her again, but swooped to the floor in pain. Professor Merrythought had said he had an illness called arthritis that made his bones ache. Marissa had gently lifted him back to his bronze perch and talked to him. The professor showed her how, with requests of ‘next’, Asuoby would repeat every spell word he knew.
On Tuesday the aged bird was again unable to beat his wings strongly enough to reach her. He fell to the floor, then slowly stepped up Marissa’s arm when she kneeled down to help. It was sad that Asuoby was old and weak and could no longer fly free like other birds, and he must be lonely kept inside all by himself.
“Can't I just hold him a little while?” she asked. “He won’t hurt me.”
“He seems determined to reach your shoulder,” Merrythought observed. “I suppose he can rest there a bit if he stays calm.”
Marissa took the large hyacinth macaw to the tall glass wall where he could look outside. A steady rain drizzled down on the plaza far below and Asuoby seemed to enjoy the view.
“Students will leave for Carnival this Saturday,” the professor reminded Marissa.
“I don’t have parents, so I can't go,” she replied flatly.
“Not to Rio. But Professor Katupya has approved a field trip you may take.”
“A field trip where?” she asked curiously.
“To a village. Would you like to go with Tiquinho and Potira and visit their home?”
“Yes,” Marissa smiled.
“Perhaps Gran Arating could help with your History. Or do you already have a subject?”
“Um… no,” she replied. It was too awkward to ask someone to let her borrow their family.
“Marissa, it’s okay to ask for help,” Professor Merrythought said kindly. Marissa made no reply to that. Something inside always said that needing help meant she wasn’t strong.
“If everyone goes to Carnival and villages,” she asked instead, “who will care for Asuoby?”
“The little ones look after him. He bites them too.”
Marissa travelled to their village with Tiquinho, Potira, and four other Jaguar first-years. Tiquinho let her paddle after the canoe had magically risen over the waterfall at the pools, and they followed a fleet of the boats filled with native children. The little rainforest town was as wondrous as Witness Stone, with entrancing music, costumed dancers, and strange delicious foods served not on dishes, but on leaves. Most amazing of all was the long day they spent with the ancient storyteller, drawing the family tree for her History assignment. After four days, Marissa was almost reluctant to return to school.
“Isn't Professor Katupya coming?” she asked Tiquinho as they floated off. She had thought he might join them in the last canoe.
“No. He returns a different way.”
“On a broom?” she guessed.
“Watch,” Tiquinho instructed. She turned back to see the Potions master remove his robe. It disappeared from his hand as he dove from the dock. Before his body reached the river, Professor Katupya was not a person anymore. Marissa gasped. The shape that sliced into the waters with hardly a splash was that of a pink dolphin.
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Marissa, do you have anything at all?”
“I went to Warring River village and learned stories about a native family,” Marissa said. “A long, long time ago they helped Jaguating prison the dark pajés in the lost cities.”
“And who told you the stories?” Professor Esquecido, in the shimmering gown of a Greek priestess, asked as she submitted her History assignment.
“The chief man.”
“Professor Katupya’s brother?” Esquecido asked doubtfully.
“Um… not him. The old, old chief man, his grandfather.”
“She’s lying!” proclaimed Celestia, who had just finished her own family presentation. ‘That’s why everyone in America and Europe knows the Bella de Barros,’ it had ended.
“Young lady,” the professor addressed Marissa sternly, “you can't think I would believe you had an audience with Grand Chief Ubirajara! He hasn’t been seen in thirty years.”
“My father says he isn't even alive anymore,” Celestia declared.
“Um… I have a picture” Marissa offered. Displeased at being called a liar, she thrust the magic photograph Gran Arating had taken into Professor Esquecido’s hand. The moving scene showed her, Potira, and Tiquinho at the feet of a very ancient man tracing radiant symbols in the air.
“Incredible,” murmured Esquecido. “And what part of his family tree did you learn?”
“All of it,” Marissa said as she spread out the scroll.
“Extraordinary!” The long parchment unrolled fifteen feet across the classroom floor.
“I still don’t believe her!” Celestia protested. “She stole it all from a book.”
“No, Miss Bella de Barros. These are the same symbols carved into the tallest stelae on the plaza. They trace the Katupya ancestors for sixty generations.”
Marissa smiled. She had felt something very powerful the day she drew the picture names. Sometimes she had a secret thought that the boys might forget her if she was gone a year. Jaguating’s people had remembered their families, remembered him, for a thousand years.
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Asuoby is sick again, isn't he?” Marissa asked as she lifted the quiet bird from his perch on Saturday afternoon. She had come to visit him as she did each day now.
“Yes, I’m afraid he is,” Professor Merrythought said sadly.
“Maybe the little ones should give him more of the Cares for Creatures potion.”
“They have, Marissa, but it hasn’t helped. It may just be Asuoby’s time.”
“Time for what?”
“To pass on. We spoke about this before.” Merrythought knew her young student had become attached to the hyacinth macaw. She opened up to him as she wouldn’t to people, and his acceptance of her eased the frustration of having not yet displayed her powers.
“Maybe if he gets fresh air he’ll feel better,” Marissa suggested hopefully. “Can I take him outside?”
“If it doesn’t upset him.,” Merrythought allowed. “Only here on the terrace, though, and keep him away from other childen. He’s still strong enough to bite.”
Fides, Spero, and Amor circled about catching insects, but glided over when she came out. The sight and sounds of many children in the plaza below seemed to disturb old Asuoby, so Marissa took him around the corner to the pyramid face that looked down on the rainforest.
Professor Merrythought had not said where on the terrace she must stay, and she decided Asuoby might like a walk around all of Witness Stone.
“Look, Asuoby,” she said as two bright shapes caught her eyes. “There’s ones like you.” There were many scarlets, but it was rare to see hyacinth macaws flying near the school. They caught Asuoby’s attention and he let out a loud call which completely surprised her, then swayed back and forth excitedly.
“No, you can't go see them,” Marissa laughed. “Calm down before you hurt your…”
With a piercing screech and furious beating of wings, Asuoby suddenly set off into the sky.
He swooped past the edge of the terrace and down along the steep slope of the pyramid, then rose up to follow after the hyacinth macaws moving off over the treetops.
“Asuoby, no! Come back!” she shouted, but he was already far away.
She began racing down the steep staircase of the pyramid, taking steps in leaps of three. The swallows flew alongside as she rushed after Asuoby. Halfway down she passed by Tatiane Timbira, who noticed her frantic pace.
“Marissa, where are you going?” Tatiane called.
“Asuoby flew away! I have to find him!” she cried back. “Tell Professor Merrythought!”
She continued running and came down to where she could no longer see over the trees. “Spero, find Asuoby!” she shouted, and the swallows shot into the sky over the rainforest. She reached the ground and ran off on a pathway in the direction the old macaw had flown.
“Asuoby! Asuoby, where are you?” she called out loudly as her eyes scanned the forest. Had he landed in a tree or fallen to the ground? Either way the bird would be in danger.
He would be so weak after flying so far that if wild animals found him he might be killed.
The swallows came diving down from the canopy and Spero led her into the underbrush. She flung off her robe when it caught on branches. She quickly tore past tangled vines, ignoring cuts and scrapes on her bare legs. Following after the swallows, she finally sighted a bright blue form perched in a tree.
“Asuoby, you crazy bird. Why did you…”
Asuoby gave a great screech and a loud call answered from somewhere high in the trees. She heard frightened birds flying off and looked up to see something plummeting through leaves and branches to the ground. Asuoby’s wings shuddered, his head drooped, and he fell from the branch. Marissa rushed through the bushes to where he lay only a few feet from the other fallen creature that needed her help too. It was a featherless baby macaw. She scooped it up to protect it, then kneeled beside Asuoby. He lay on his side and was shaking.
“Oh, Asuoby,” she said, placing her hand gently on his wing. She didn’t know whether to lift him up or let him lay and rest. Something might be broken and he was surely in pain. She had set the baby down and it hopped next to Asuoby, peaking its beak at him. Its insistent attempts to wake Asuoby even made a small cut on his chest. Marissa lifted it to cradle it in her arm and it reached out and poked its little beak to her lips. She tasted blood from the cut it had made on Asuoby.
“Marissa! Marissa!” She heard two voices shouting for her and turned to see Professor Merrythought and Tatiane approaching through hanging vines and brush.
“Over here!” she called out. When she was sure they had seen her she turned back to Asuoby. His exhausted body convulsed a few moments, then was still.
“Help him, please!” she said as Merrythought arrived beside her. The professor’s wand passed over Asuoby’s silent form, then paused. Marissa began to fear the worst.
“Change him. Change him back alive!” she pleaded desperately. “You made the desk a glyffadon, so you can make…”
Marissa looked to Merrythought and Tatiane and saw the tears forming in both their eyes. She turned away quickly and bit her lip very, very hard.
“I can't, Marissa. He’s gone.”
Marissa and the Wizards by JCCollier
Chapter Notes: Marissa grows closer to a feathered friend, and comes a little too close to some foes.