I got this idea by watching Avatar: The last airbender and I wanted to give it a whirl and see what you guys thought. Obviously this won't be canon, but it will keep a hold of the major parts that happen in the books. This has been in my mind since last year but I never really got the time to actually write it out until now. I hope you like it.
…...
Harry Potter was conversing with his friends. It was another day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He looked around and noticed sadly that there were a noticeable amount of people missing from the school this year. There was less than half of the first year students than regular amount. After Voldemort was revealed last year in the department of mysteries, everything had changed. People were solemn and scarcely had he seen anyone smile or talk about things like Quidditch.
Dumbledore rose from his seat and silenced everyone. He started with a speech and the usual rules. When he got to the part where he usually ended, harry asked Hermione a question but it was drown out by the doors flying open. He looked and saw a Japanese woman walk through the doors with her head held high, but it wasn't her ethnicity that caught his attention. Her hair was paper white. It looked strange on her young looking face. She looked about 20. She wore a simple blue kimono and her hair was tied back into a high pony tail, her hair still reaching the top of her bottom. She had two pieces of hair on either side of her face hanging loosely in front of her.
The woman walked confidently and he noticed she was only wearing socks that went to her ankles. Dumbledore's face lit up at the site of her and he walked around the high table to meet her in the middle of the hall. He smiled at her and lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles. Harry could just barely make out what they were saying.
"It was so nice of you to come my dear."
The woman nodded, not smiling. "You called in a favor that I could not ignore." She looked around at the students who were eyeing her with interest.
"Are these the children?"
"Yes but you will only be teaching 5 years and up the arts extensively."
She nodded and Dumbledore rose to full height spreading his arms wide. "Students! This is our new Professor for this year. Her name is Luna Shinzokimu and she is going to be giving you students a demonstration of what you will be learning this year if you wish to sign up. Now only 5th year students and up will be learning this extensively. Now please listen to everything she says. If you wish to sign up afterwards, you may come to my office when you have time. Her classes will begin next Monday."
He nodded to her and walked back to his place on the high table. The woman looked around before saying sharply. "Everyone get up and against one of those walls." She pointed to the wall closest to the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins." Everyone hesitated for a moment, which only served to irritate her as she said icily "Now!"
The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs gathered against one wall as the Ravenclaws and Slytherins gathered against another. Harry had a hard time finding a space when he was pulled against the wall by Hermione and Ron.
"Hey, what do you think she's going to teach us?"
Hermione shook her head signifying she didn't know. "I bet its something to help us in the fight against You-Know-Who."
The woman walked up to the high table and Dumbledore waved his wand, moving the tables together and melding them together. The woman nodded to him and she jumped up on it, looking like it took no effort at all. She turned to Dumbledore and said "Do you have them." He nodded and waved his wand yet again, bringing forth 2 bowls and setting them in front of her. They were quite large and were mahogany in color. Harry's eyebrows screwed up in confusion.
One was filled with dirt. Another with water.
The woman nodded to Dumbledore before saying towards everyone "The four main elements."
The woman stomped her foot backwards and the dirt raised in a big clump before she took her hand and closed it into a fist, making it turn into a rock. She raised her other leg and towards the rock and swung herself around. It followed her until she stopped, but kept going forward until it ran into the doors, crumbling into various sized pieces.
"Earth."
She pointed her hands down and raised them towards her chest, the water following her and coming out of the bowl. She thrust her hands out and around her, the water spreading around her being.
"Water."
She pulled her hand back to her chest and pushed the water back into the bowl slowly.
Pointing her toes, she spun around, fire coming down from the candles to swarm around her. It looked as if it would burn her entire being. They could barely see the white shine of her hair beyond the orange flames.
"Fire."
She pushed herself upward and was propelled out of the fire at an impossible height before she twirled herself around, and crossed her hands, wind blowing around her in a sphere and blowing out the fire, leaving only the candles small to light the room. It hurt their eyes as they adjusted to the new lighting. She landed softly on the wood surface of what used to be their tables.
"Air."
She closed her eyes and interlocked her fingers together. There was a stunned silence amongst the students before they all broke out into whispers of excitement. The woman turned around at them and practically hissed out "Silence!" Her voice was chilling to the bone and needless to say, they all went quiet. She took a deep breath and walked around the edge of the table before stopping in front of the golden trio. Pointing to them she said "You three. Get up here."
They all looked at each other with nervousness and excitement as they struggled to get up on the large table. She didn't say anything else but continued on, pulling up three other hufflepuffs, ravenclaws, and, they couldn't believe it, Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, and Crabbe. She spread them out in a wide circle before making them sit down.
"Now to find your element, you must concentrate on each to see which one you are most comfortable with. This is called Element Bending. Do not try to bend an element that does not want to bend, and I know most of you like fire. Believe me when I say, if that is not your element…You. Will. Be. Burned." She nodded to Dumbledore and they watched as he waved his wand and made a total of nine candles, and 18 bowls sit in front of them, half of them water and half of them earth.
"Now everyone close your eyes."
They did.
She walked around the circle, making sure they were doing as they were told.
"Now imagine all of the elements in your mind. Do not associate me with them, just take them as pure as they are."
She watched their facial expressions relax.
"Now try to bend each of them and decide which one is the best for you. Do not try to bend something that doesn't want to bend."
She turned as a hufflepuff cried out as the fire in front of her practically blew up in her face and the woman's face contorted in anger as she stalked over to her. She took the candle and blew it out before saying menacingly "I told you not to bend something that doesn't want to bend." She turned to the others "That is but a taste of what will happen. Now go back to concentrating!"
Some of them were shaking as they closed their eyes again. Luna sighed and turned back to the sobbing girl before kneeling down in front of her. She placed her hand over the water and turned it over slightly, the water pulling up to her. Raising her hand, she concentrated on making the water swirl around her hand, it started to give of a glow similar to moonlight and touched the girl's burnt hand softly. The water left her own hand and swirled over the girls, healing it completely. Pulling the water back into the bowl, she said "Fire is something not to be trifled with. You need to see that there is good and bad in each element. Find the one that works best with you, not the one you want to work with." The girl nodded and took a breath before concentrating again.
Luna got back up and walked around the table, looking around at the students, glaring at the others who were complaining that they didn't get to come up. She stopped in front of Draco Malfoy, and looked at him. He looked as if he were concentrating hard on something, but was scared at the same time. Taking a seat in front of him, she folded her legs underneath her and watched as expressions flew across his face. She looked at each of the bowls in front of him before looking at the candle. It was being blown different ways. So his element was air.
She nodded to herself and extinguished the fire with two fingers. Getting back up, she started to walk across the table towards the Gryffindors. The candle in front of the boy with the scar on his face was flaming upwards, circling down, and around the candle slowly. He was fire, she concluded.
Looking towards the girl with the rather bushy hair, she saw the earth in the bowl swirling as if something was digging its way out of it. Kind of like a water fountain, but with earth. She looked towards the red headed boy and was surprised to see the water stretched out like a string in front of him. She had thought he was air. Hmm…
She looked towards the hufflepuff student who had burned herself to see chunks of earth floating up before her. Everyone had found their element. Walking towards the middle of the circle, she instructed them to all open their eyes but keep their focus. Most of them gasped. Some of them rose their hands, including Draco and she turned to them and said "Those of you with your hands up, your element is air." Their hands slowly went down.
She turned to them "Those with fire as your element gather at the top left corner. Those with earth top right. Air, bottom left, and water, bottom right." She saw them gathering together, some glaring at each other.
"These are your peers, and, if you take my class, they will be the ones you are working with in groups from now on." Most of them looked at her in horror, and started mumbling words of outrage.
"Quiet!" This was said venomlessly. They had the impression she didn't like it when they talked out of turn.
She turned to everyone who was standing, including those who weren't on the tables. "You will most likely be paired up with people you don't like but if you truly want to learn this, it shouldn't bother you. You do not choose your element, it chooses you. If you try to choose an element, it will backfire and you will get injured. The elements are not to be trifled with and if you try to make them do something they do not wish to do for you, it will end in despair for you."
The hufflepuff from earlier raised her hand and Luna nodded towards her.
"How come you can control all of them then?"
There were murmurs of agreement and she looked towards all of them before snickering.
"First of all, I do not control the elements. If I tried to do that, then I would probably end up dead or worse. Which one of you knows what the elements actually are?"
Nobody raised their hands. Not even Hermione Granger.
She guessed as much. What were they teaching kids these days, she wondered to herself.
"The elements are spirits. Next question, why is it bad to try and control a spirit, especially an elemental spirit?"
Hermione timidly raised her hand, and Luna nodded to her.
"Spirits have no sense of time so if you do something bad to them, they will remember it for a long time. Possibly your whole life."
"Exactly. We need the elements to survive."
A boy with a ravenclaw emblem raised his hand in the crowd and she nodded to him.
"Why do we need fire to survive?"
"Good question. Anyone have the answer to that?"
Hermione Granger's hand shot up in the air once again, with much more enthusiasm this time, and Luna nodded to her, seeing as nobody else had the answer. "Fire could warm you when your lost in a snow storm or help you in a battle, or light your way in a dark place."
"All good answers but let me ask you something. A forest is dead and a fire breaks out, completely destroying it. What good could come of it?"
Hermione didn't know the answer, but a hufflepuff did. The same hufflepuff that got burned. She nodded towards her. "It fertilizes the earth so that new plant life may grow from it."
She nodded to her and the young hufflepuff beamed.
"That is true. You see there is good and bad in the elements. Sometimes they work together to help one element bring another back to life to flourish. Now back to the original discussion. The way to bend your respective element is to ask the spirit for permission to temporarily bend that element to your will to help you in whatever endeavor that you may have taken on."
Pansy Parkinson's hand shot up in the air and Luna nodded to her. "Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" She asked in a voice that made it seem she was superior to everyone here. Luna smirked and crossed her arms loosely over her body before slowly walking towards the slightly shorter girl. The girl gulped.
"Because this was simply finding your element. You weren't trying to bend the element, simply trying to find which one would accept you."
She walked back to the center of the circle and said "That is it for today. If you wish to sign up, do, but be forewarned. I do not care about your social lives, so leave that behind when you walk in my doors. You will only be learning about yourself in my class. For people who wish to take the advanced course and learn offense and defense with the elements, that will be a rigorous class with no drama allowed. You will need the best focus, and determination you can muster. You will be injured in that class, but you will learn how to deal with that pain. You will learn how to work with handicaps and advantages. It will not be easy, and it will not be fun for most of you. That is all." She turned and walked out of the Great Hall with her head held high, jumping down from the table as if it were just one surface and another step.
The broke up and walked off the tables before talking to each other excitedly. Dumbledore called for their attention.
"You may come to my office during your free period if you wish to sign up. I am not taking sign ups right now." He smiled kindly and spelled the tables back to normal and dismissed them. As they walked out of the Great Hall, Hermione talked excitedly about taking the advanced course.
She smiled happily as her eyes lit up. Ron, Hermione, and Harry agreed that this was going to be an interesting year.
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So what do you think? Good? Bad? Review and tell me! I hope you enjoyed it and there will definitely be a new chapter up soon. I love this story and have great plans for it.
