"What do you all know about ancient magic?"
It was an odd question to open class with, even odder was the teacher who had spoken it, the gaunt, old ghost never talked about anything interesting, he just droned on and on about the history of wizardry. This came across as extremely random, especially since school had only been in session for about a week.
For a brief moment, silence filled the classroom as the class seemed to stir to life, looking at each other, trying to figure out what he was asking.
No one was surprised when the first hand up belonged to a brown-haired girl, but they were surprised when she didn't answer the question, but asked one of her own, her voice carrying a slight British accent, "Professor, hasn't wizardry always been fundamentally the same, even since before the time of Merlin?"
"That would be correct, Miss Granger, but that is not what I asked, what do you know about ancient magic?"
For a moment, she just stared, everyone seeming a bit stunned that she hadn't known the answer.
With a sigh, the ghost continued speaking, "I suppose you couldn't be expected to know this, the last known wielder of the ancient magics died nearly three thousand years ago. These magic users, known not as wizards, but as mages, drew their power in a way that is fundamentally different from what we do here. A modern wizard draws on magic through incantation and wand, but the ancient mages could wield magic by the force of their will alone."
Everyone in the class looked at each other, trying to figure out how he had managed to change topics like this, the class before this one he had been talking about some wizard who had done something tricky at some point…no one could really remember…well, no one except possibly 'Miss Granger.'
"Another fundamental difference in the power of a mage is that their power is something that cannot be taught, for every one of them, the way they used their power was a little different. Similarly, it is stated that there was nothing that could match a mage's ability to cause destruction."
A skinny, red-haired boy spoke up, "So they were more powerful than wizards?"
"Not more powerful, Mr. Weasley, different. A wizard possesses a far wider range of abilities than a mage does, possessing their strengths in many different fields. For example, mages are not capable of transmogrification, alteration magic, flight, and many other powers. However, their skill in combat oriented magic is unmatched, and many mages, rather than work with the subtlety that a wizard is capable of, would much rather simply blast the problem away. They also possessed skills in defensive magic and restorative magic, but tend to possess particular skill within the use of a single elemental field rather than the range of magic we use."
For once, the entire class was paying attention, this was something interesting, most of them had heard of mages at some point, but the way they had been presented made them seem like the stuff of fairy tales.
"Now we will look at the effects that mages had on the wizarding community."
The class snapped into murmers, totally ignored by the spectral teacher.
He then promptly launched into an increasingly boring discussion, talking about different wizards and how they had interacted with mages. Almost instantly, heads hit the desks as students returned to being thoroughly bored. Occasionally, they would perk up and listen as he would tell about different battles. It seemed that unlike the more modern wizards that lived in peace, mostly using their magic in constructive ways, the history of mages was awash in conflict.
Just before the class time ran out, another boy spoke up, he had brilliant green eyes and unruly brown hair, but the most distinguishing mark on him was a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt, "Professor, what ever happened to the mages, why aren't any of them still around? Were they all killed off or something?"
"No one really knows, Mr. Potter, it seems like they just ceased to exist, vanishing without a trace."
At that, a tone sounded, signaling the dismissal of class. As everyone filtered out of the room, the three students that had spoken up in class met up in the hall, the red-haired boy speaking first, "Did it seem odd at all that he switched from talking about wizards that lived about a hundred years ago to talking about these magic users that died off three thousand years ago?"
The girl cut in, "I have to agree, but the strangest part is that none of us had ever heard anything about them before. You'd think if they were as powerful as they sound, that we'd have heard of them at some point."
"Well," added the green-eyed one, "I suppose if they went extinct that long ago, they may not be that important any more."
"Be that as it may, I'm curious now, especially on why he decided to switch to that topic so abruptly, so after class I'm going to go to the library, see if I can find anything."
"Alright, well, let's go Hermione, Ron."
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Afternoon found the brown-haired girl, Hermione, rifling through the school's vast library, searching through books. She had been here for a few hours now, and seemed to be getting frustrated.
A voice cut in, "Any luck, Hermione?"
She turned around to see the green-eyed boy standing behind her, "Hello, Harry, and no; it's really strange, I can't seem to find any books on them anywhere. I can't help but think that there has to be some somewhere, but the only place I haven't looked is the restricted section."
"Or maybe there really aren't any books on them. From what they sound like, they sound more like soldiers than scholars, so I could imagine that they wouldn't keep too detailed of records of themselves."
She turned a frowning look towards him, "But you see, I've found books from that time period, I've even found records of some of the wars that were described in class. But there is no mention of mages anywhere. But here's the weirdest part, there are gaps in the stories, gaps that were filled in by the stories that were told in class today. It's almost like…someone intentionally removed all mention of them from the books we can get to."
"Have you asked the librarian?"
Hermione glanced aside, "I did, and she told me that there were no records of them in the entire library, but she didn't seem surprised at all that I was asking about them."
Abruptly, Ron, the red-haired boy, came rushing into the library, as fast as he could move and not get in trouble, "Harry, Hermione, something's going on out in the nearest courtyard."
Setting the book she had down, Hermione followed the two boys out of the library, down a few flights of stairs, and out another door. The three of them stepped out onto a grassy courtyard. Just ahead of them were three people that they knew all too well; one thin, blonde boy with a cold sneer on his face, and two other boys that flanked him, both considerably taller and heavier than him. The blonde was standing right in the face of another boy who had dark brown hair, and a pair of very bright blue eyes, such a light shade that they could almost look white if viewed in the right light. He was a little shorter than the blonde he was standing toe-to-toe with, was dressed plainly in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, and had a slightly irritated look on his face.
"I'll ask again!" the blonde boy growled out at the unknown boy, "What is a filthy Muggle doing at Hogwarts!?"
It seemed like this was the first time the blue-eyed boy spoke back, meeting the angry blonde's gaze, "I'm going to hazard a guess that you might be Lucius Malfoy's son…Draco."
Draco narrowed his eyes, stepping forward so he was right in the newcomer's face, "How do you know my father, he'd never associate himself with the likes of you."
Placing his right hand on Draco's shoulder, first bringing a look of anger and disgust to his face, promptly followed by Draco pivoting his head to stare at the hand on his shoulder in shock, the blue-eyes spoke, "Things aren't always as they seem, Draco Malfoy." As he spoke, anyone around would have sworn that the temperature in that area dropped like a stone.
The boy let go and the temperature seemed to flash back to normal; he pivoted around and calmly walked away. Behind him, Draco still stood there, staring at his shoulder in shock. Well, not specifically at his shoulder, but rather at the frost that now coated it.
The three friends looked at each other, Ron speaking first, "Did you see that?"
"See it?" Hermione shivered, "I think I felt it."
"So you felt the temperature drop too? I thought it was just me."
Harry shook his head, "But…Malfoy was right…I didn't sense any magic either, not even when he made the temperature drop and frosted over his shoulder. But it was obvious that he was the one who caused it. And, he didn't use a wand…that's just too weird."
Ron spoke up again, "Well, if he's a student here, he'll be around more and we can figure this out later, right now, it's dinner time."
The other two agreed and, leaving a still befuddled Draco behind, headed for the great hall.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
The great hall was truly magnificent; four massive rows of tables ran the length of the enormous room, one for each of the houses. At the front of the hall stood another bank of tables where all the instructors would sit, and at the center of it, in a larger chair, sat the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. He was quite old, his snowy beard and hair running long enough that they could be easily tucked into his belt and a pair of bright blue eyes were partially hidden behind a pair of half-moon glasses that were perched on a long, crooked nose.
As everyone gathered into their seats, Dumbledore rose to his feet, causing the entire hall to fall silent.
"I would like to introduce you all to a guest that our school will be playing host to for some time. The Ministry of Magic, believing this would be an ideal place for him to stay for some time, sent him here. If you could all welcome Mr. Kale Jeremiah."
Off reflex, the entire hall started clapping, expecting to see an adult wizard step through the doors. Rather, a single, young person stepped in, his pale blue eyes surveying the hall, his clothing having not changed at all since his little run-in with Draco Malfoy.
Almost immediately, the applause was replaced with rapid whispering, everyone trying to figure out what was going on.
Dumbledore continued, "I cannot stress how unusual of a situation this is, but I believe that all of you learned something about Mr. Kale during class today."
Murmering ran through the entire room as people were trying to figure out what every one of them had heard about in class that day.
As 'Mr. Kale' reached the raised front platform, the old headmaster spoke again, "Mr. Kale has requested that I not directly state exactly why he is here, or what his special case is, but rather is curious to see how quickly you all figure it out." Albus looked over at the bright-eyed young man and nodded.
The young man stepped forward, picking up an apple from the end of the Slytherin table. His blue eyes closed as he seemed to focus. For a moment, nothing, then a bluish tint overtook the apple and the people closest to him felt the intense cold that was coming from it. Then Kale's hand opened, dropping the apple to the ground, shattering into countless pieces on impact. He stepped back, and the temperature snapped back to normal.
Dumbledore spoke up, "Any guesses as to what Mr. Kale's special case is?"
A muttered bit of speech came from the Slytherin table, "A freak…"
The comment was soundly ignored, then tentatively, Hermione spoke up, "He's not…a mage…is he?"
"Very good, Miss Granger, five points to Griffindor; as was said, Mr. Kale is, in fact, a mage, the first confirmed mage in three thousand years. This is why I requested specific teachers inform you of their prior existence so that you would know something about our guest. Depending on which teacher instructed you on mages, you will most likely know different information ranging from their history, to even their different abilities."
The young man seemed to shift uncomfortably as he glanced around the entire room worth of people staring at him, obviously not too thrilled about being up in front like that. His displeasure at being up front was made even more obvious when he looked over at Dumbledore with a look on his face that said 'That's nice, can I leave now?'
The old wizard didn't look over to see the expression, and kept speaking, "For the moment, he will be staying in guest quarters, but we plan to insert him into one of the houses eventually."
That said, he offered a nod at the young man and, without another word, he disappeared out a side door.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
A few days later and the weekend had come, the memory of the arrival of a mage having simply become an accepted fact, and the school had more or less moved on. Especially since the young mage didn't go to any classes, picked up his food at the Great Hall to take back to his quarters, and was generally a very scarce sight. However, there were a few people that had been transfixed by the idea of something that hadn't been seen in three thousand years living in the same place as them, and were always trying to catch him to drill him with questions, but every time they tried, he always managed to evade or lose them before they could corner him. And since that first demonstration, no one had seen him use magic at all.
However, a new occurrence had quickly distracted the school from their unusual guest, an occurrence by the name of Delores Umbridge. Despite that, life moved on at the school, despite all the new complaints about the Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
"I don't understand that at all!" exclaimed a girl, pivoting to look at the other girl she walked with, her shoulder-length brown hair flaring out as she whirled, "How are we supposed to learn with nothing but a theoretical understanding of defense against the dark arts? I mean, so what if they ministry says there's nothing to worry about; just speaking academically, you can't learn something like that just from a book."
Her friend shrugged, looking down the grassy hill they walked along and out at the lake, "I don't see any use complaining about it, it's not like it'll change because we don't like it."
The first girl made a face that twisted her nose slightly to the side, "But it's annoying! If she's still here next year, how're we ever going to pass our OWLS?"
"This from the girl whose worst subject is Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Believe me, I know…and this isn't going to help the matter."
The two were cut short in their conversation as a high-pitched voice yelled from up the hill a little way, "Hey Rayburn!"
The brown-haired girl looked uphill at the source of the voice to see a blonde girl with a wand drawn, aimed right at her.
Frantically, the girl's hands dove into her robes, going for her wand…only to be a little too slow as a spell sprung from the lips of the blonde, her wand emitting a flash of light.
The brunette felt the heavy impact of the spell against her chest as it threw her backwards. She came down on her butt, hard, and would have stopped there if it weren't for the steep slope of the hill she was on. Instead, she pitched backwards, tumbling head-over-heels down the hill, headed straight for the lake. She set her teeth as she tumbled down the hill, bracing for the shock of the lake's cold water.
A dizzying moment later, it occurred to her that she wasn't falling anymore, but was sitting on something smooth and flat and became aware of a slight pressure against her back. A brief moment passed as more of her senses managed to get re-oriented, registering the sound of someone breathing hard and then realizing how cold whatever she was sitting on was.
A voice came through the panting, spoken softly, "You okay?"
She nodded, "Y-yeah." As she spoke, her eyes slid open a little, only to snap open as she recognized the shoreline of the lake some twenty feet away from her…but she was on the wrong side of it. Panning down, her mouth fell open as she registered that she wasn't sitting on ground, but on ice that extended ahead of her in a narrow fan-shaped field of ice that connected to the shore. Staring, she noticed one spot in the ice, off to the far left of her, right by the shore, that looked like the water had been frozen mid-splash. Slowly, she looked up and over her left shoulder…nothing there, she looked the other way to come eye-to-eye with a pair of pale blue eyes.
For a brief moment she just stared, not immediately recognizing the person that held her; but it came to her quickly…the mage.
He was silent for a moment, then asked another question, "Can you walk?"
Still stunned, she nodded.
He gave a little smile, "Good, cuz it's really hard to keep the ice from breaking like this; sooner we get off of it, the less likely we end up swimming."
At about that moment, she realized that the heavy breathing was coming from him and started a little, "O-oh, okay." She got her hands under herself and carefully pushed herself to her feet, only slipping once as she got up. Immediately, she started walking towards shore, testing her footing as she walked to make sure she wouldn't break through when she stepped down.
In only a moment, she'd made it to the shore and, still slightly in shock, turned around to look out at where she had been; the ice was already breaking up into chunks and starting to float away, melting quickly. A moment of silence passed, then she looked around, trying to locate the person that had been out there with her, only to find that he had walked off and was already a good thirty yards away. Her indecision only lasted an instant before she broke into a jog, chasing after him, "Hey, wait up!"
He paused, looking back at the girl; he was dressed in the same style as he had been in the first day he came, blue jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, the only real difference being the color of the sweatshirt and the fact that the sleeves were shoved up.
A moment later, she caught up, stood still for a moment, and then took a quick, but deep, breath, "Thank you for catching me."
He was silent a moment, looking a little surprised, then, despite still breathing a little heavy, offered a smile, "You're welcome."
A moment passed as she returned the smile, then a thought occurred to her and she wheeled around to see her friend coming down the hill towards her, the blonde girl that had attacked her nowhere in sight.
The young mage spoke again, drawing her attention back, "Well…see ya."
She turned back towards him as he turned to walk away, tucking his hands into the pouch-pocket on the front of his shirt, "Wait…your…name is Kale, right? I'm Eva, Eva Rayburn, it's…it's nice to meet you."
He glanced back at her over his shoulder for a moment, getting a good look at her face, "Nice to meet you too…Eva. See ya." With that, he turned back away and walked off, continuing on his way.
When he was a good twenty yards away, Eva's friend caught up, "Oh my gosh, are you alright!?"
"Y-yeah…" her gaze still hadn't left Kale's back.
"I'm sorry, she ran off before I had a chance to get her back for you."
Eva jerked, looking back at her friend, "H-huh? Oh…that's alright, we can get her back later."
"But…wow, I didn't know that a mage's magic was on that much of a scale. We only ever saw him freeze an apple, I didn't know he was able to freeze a big chunk of the lake"
Eva looked back out at the lake, the last few chunks of ice drifting away and melting quickly, "It seemed like doing that much was hard on him…he was breathing pretty hard."
"Huh, I guess I did overhear another student say something about that…using magic drains their physical energy, so they train their bodies as well as learning magic."
"Yeah…so how in the world did he get out there to catch me?"
"I didn't see him at first, and didn't recognize who he was when I did. But he must have heard the fight and saw you falling down the hill, because all I saw was him take off running to try and intercept you. At first I thought he was going to end up in the lake too because he wasn't really watching where he was going. But when his foot hit the water, it splashed a little bit, then everything started to freeze and the whole chunk that got frozen froze really fast. Then, well, you went skidding out onto the ice and he caught you. And that's about when I realized that Pole had run off."
Eva turned, looking back towards where Kale had gone, "Getting back at Pole aside, I never really thought about it before, He seemed like he was antisocial or something, but he seems like he could be a pretty nice guy…"
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-