QLFC submission

Season 6: Caerphilly Catapults

Round 11, Chaser 2: Grimm

Prompts: (object) broken mirror, (word) pattern, (location) Durmstrang

Word Count:1070

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The castle was always cold at night.

Whether it was in the middle of the summer, in the middle of winter, it didn't matter. If you left the dorms after the sun went down, you would see your breath forming as you walked.

I was used to the cold, often caught in it as I walked the corridors of the massive building. The school gave us a walking stick after third year when we had to start adventuring out in the snow for classes. It was usually my only companion besides my wand and the ghostlight I would conjure as I walked.

But tonight, I wasn't in the corridors, patrolling like I was one of the teachers instead of a seventh year student. Not that the headmaster minded all that much. I offered more protection than they did anyway. He had even asked me to cover the mediwizards patrols now that there was a constant patient in his medibay.

Tonight, I was standing in the communal bathroom of the fifth year boys. I had found my cousin from my father's side, who had been in the bathroom before it had been demolished. He was dazed and bleeding, and I was waiting on the nurse to come and patch up his head. He sat on the floor, pieces of glass ringed around him. The mirror that his head had collided with was shattered, broken into the pieces on the floor. What was left of the long, wall length mirror was reflecting the torch lights in the bathroom at odd angles due to the cracks and missing pieces. The sink was busted and leaking where his sternum had collided with it. The unnatural chill - the bathrooms were always almost uncomfortably warm - came from a shattered window whose glass was also sprinkled along on the ground.

"Victor, stay awake," I tell him, crouching even as I continued to scan the room.

"I'm awake Vlad," he mutters, his face scrunched in pain. I shake his shoulder when his head lolls to the side and I flinch with him as he groans. I glance around again. This was the most damage done to a room so far in an attack, But that didn't surprise me. The only thing that Victor was more vicious about then defensive magic was his quidditch position.

"Misters Krum! What do you think you are doing out this late at night?" the school mediwizard's voice was breathless as he crouches next to me.

"Victor was attacked, In the bathroom, at night. I called you immediately, but Karkaroff should know," I tell him carefully. He glances at me even as his wand moves to mend Victor's head.

"The window?"

"Busted open."

"Go see Headmaster Karkaroff. Now," he tells me as he turns back to Victor. I glance around one last time before moving away, touching the Durmstrang pendant on my neck so that the headmaster is aware of me headed his way. I knew by the time I made it back that the bathroom would be spotless.

This was the third time in two weeks someone was attacked and it was creating a disturbing pattern. The first kid was out cold in the medibay still, in a coma that no one can wake her out of. The second kid, and now Victor, had shot off defensive hexes and scared off whoever was breaking into bathrooms. The first window was opened for whatever reason, but the last two were busted. They were always attacked after midnight, alone, and it was always fifth years. Victor was the first male, but it didn't escape my notice that it was attacking students at the age that some creatures came into their inheritance.

The grimm descendants, from my mother's side, hit their inheritance at that age.

My mother had been born in America, descending from a race of warriors known as grimms. In North America, grimms specialize in tracking down Warens, half creature humans bent on killing muggles. In other countries, we can specialize in almost anything. The gene skipped her. Instead she was born with magic.

Up until she married my father and had me, no one had ever been born magical and a grimm.

"Mister Krum, come in." Karkaroff's weary voice reached me before I reached the door, and I roll my eyes. He always tried to act superior, but I could see the dark magic curled up his arm and I knew that he was a death eater. Any superiority he may have had was now moot.

"Victor was attacked this time. Do you have any idea what's going on yet?" I ask, even though I had a very good idea.

There was only one creature in Bulgaria that could put a child in an unending coma, after all. And the fact that it was a 15 year old implied they were trying to kill off their hunters before they hit majority.

"A soul stealer," he says grudgingly.

"Are any of the fifth years related to the Vaddici's? They're Italian, but if they married into a family…"

"No one is registered, but the Vaddici's stopped registering when the last male died nearly 100 years ago. The sword is in a magical museum, you know that. A soul stealer, a child's soul eater hasn't been seen in thousands of years," he tells me as he goes to his window and looks out. I couldn't see anything but white. There was a storm going on that blocked out everything else.

"You're dismissed from classes, so long as you keep up your work. You're not a Vaddici, but you are a warrior. It keeps attacking children so it's either here, or traveling here every night. I'm going to give you permission to go anywhere, and you sleep in your cousin's dorm. It will try to attack again and I want you there," he tells me finally. I blow out a slow breath. It was what I was expecting, but not what I wanted to hear.

"Yes, sir," I bite out. I didn't need a detention on top of this. He glances my way and waves me off.

"Go to your cousin. He's dismissed for tomorrow as well. Take care of your family, Mister Krum."

It sounded like a warning, more than it did a suggestion.