AN: As always, I own nothing.
Also, there's a little omake at the end of this chapter, just a silly little thing (not officially canon) my friend suggested that I just couldn't let go. Enjoy!
CHAPTER 3 - Attrition
It turned out that Hermione was willing to sacrifice her breakfast to keep Chandra from skipping classes, so they went on the third floor for Transfiguration.
On the way there, the stranded pyromancer could see many animated portraits and paintings, which marvelled her to no end. It was like being back home, with dad tinkering the day away and creating weird and incredible things just to make her smile. It simply felt good to see magic and ingenuity used only to make someone happy, it was right.
Once in the classroom, Chandra guessed that ignoring the offered uniform made her stand out like a sore thumb, and that was without even considering the dust, ashes, grime and blood on her armour. She cared little anyway, but she couldn't avoid noticing the fact.
She also noticed that the students wore slightly different uniforms, with some kind of colour coding, and that nobody seemed to want to sit next to Hermione, not even those of the red group like her. The redhead simply shrugged and sat with the girl. It wasn't like she knew anyone else after all.
She didn't have to wait long for the professor, the strict looking woman from the previous evening, to arrive and start the lesson. Had she been more academically inclined, she might have found it fascinating, maybe.
While the students were trying, some more fruitfully than others, to swap the contents of two vials by waving their wands and muttering nonsensical words, the professor inquired about her uniform.
"Since I'm not a student, I have no uniform," replied Chandra tearing her eyes from some redhead's failed attempt that sent one potion under his desk and on his shoes "I'm here only because Hermione insisted it was important and I decided that checking wasn't going to hurt."
The woman looked sour at her reply, as if she had eaten something bitter. On her part, the pyromancer didn't particularly care. One learns pretty soon that people's opinion are fickle and biased anyway when in the slums of Ghirapur. Friends' opinions mattered, up to a point, but anyone else? She wasn't going to try to please every single individual she met. Also, she was simply direct like that.
"You can still try your wand at the swapping spell, Miss Nalaar. It would do you good," insisted the professor.
"Ah, that would be hard, since I don't have a wand," replied Chandra slowly, no need to actually antagonize the woman since she was only doing her job "And me being a pyromancer, practicing this particular spell would do me no actual good since there's no fire involved."
Now, people had reacted in many ways when she had introduced herself as a pyromancer: some got scared, others showed interest of various kinds, and a number of them got annoyed, particularly if they worked in the law enforcement like Baaral. But nobody had ever scoffed in her face. Scoffed! As if she was no threat! Not even Nicol Bolas himself had done that!
"You find me funny?" she asked in a tone that promised hurt as her hair started floating upwards, ready to ignite.
No one dismissed Chandra Nalaar as of no consequence. No one laughed of her. No one looked down on her as no threat. No one. Not anymore.
"There is no such thing as a pyromancer," stated calmly Minerva ready to try to stare the redhead into submission like she was used to do with unruly students.
The redhead was no unruly student though. Chandra didn't even hear her words. She jumped up, hair and fists ablaze in brilliant orange flames, ready to slug the woman in front of her. Sure, torrents of fire were all around better, but being punched with burning fists was just as effective and she found it oh-so-satisfying.
"Aresto momentum!" said a voice that, in her enraged state, the pyromancer recognized as the headmaster's, and she was stopped mid-punch, her clenched fingers mere centimetres from the woman's face.
An instant later, she regained control of her body just as a jet of cold water doused her.
"What in the blazes?!" she demanded spluttering as the nearby people scuttled further away from her.
Nobody dared to laugh at the drenched girl.
"It seems that I came looking for you just at the right time, Miss Nalaar," jovially responded the old man while still holding his wand at the ready "Would you please follow me? We have much to discuss. You too, Minerva. Class is dismissed."
"Now that we're all comfortable, I'd like to know what happened in your class Minerva," said Dumbledore sitting behind his massive desk in a throne-like chair.
The headmaster's office was big, but still felt cramped. It was simply cluttered with an unbelievable quantity of stuff. Animated portraits visibly listening in on their conversation, bookshelves fit to burst any moment, an assortment of unknown magical items, a big ornated cabinet, a red bird on a perch, a dish full of yellow droplets, and tons of parchments. Chandra was honestly surprised the man could find anything at all in there, let alone work.
"She attacked me Albus, you saw her! And for no reason too!" explained the slightly panicked professor sitting as far away as common decency permitted from her assailant.
"No reason?" interrupted Chandra, her arms crossed on her chest in an effort to avoid getting drenched again "You laughed in my face! Pyromancers are respected in all the Multiverse if only because they can turn people into ashes!"
"There is no such things as pyromancers or multiverses!" retorted the woman.
"Now Minerva," said Albus trying to calm down both females "I'm sure that those are labels used wherever she's lived till now that have another name here. Try not to antagonize her too much, please. As for you, Miss Nalaar, I assume you know that harming one of my faculty or my students like you almost did earlier will be met with far harsher methods than earlier, is that clear?"
"Sure," said the redhead shrugging.
At least, the headmaster seemed to take her seriously, he even stopped being eternally jolly just to deliver that warning. She wasn't sure what he meant by harsher methods, and she wasn't about to try to find out, but at least that was some respect and she could accept that.
"Good, now that we have cleared this misunderstanding, we can get to the reason I was looking for you," said the old man returning to his jovial self "Since you are participating on behalf of the Gatewatch, you'll need a faculty member to act as your judge."
"Ah... Dunno about faculty since we're more of a band of guys trying to keep the planes safe, but I've been trying to contact Jace, our telepath and de facto leader, since I arrived. I fear he's still out of it after... Well, after yesterday's fight."
"I see... Anyone else you might send an owl to?"
"An owl?" asked Chandra honestly puzzled "Why would I want to send anyone a bird? We're talking of birds, right?"
"Yes, owls are birds. Don't they deliver letters for wizards where you're from? Kaladesh if I recall correctly."
"No, they use tophters in Kaladesh," she replied automatically trying to grasp the idea of delivering letter trough owls "I was using telepathy actually, for I doubt any creature can traverse the Blind Eternities."
"Blind Eternities?" asked the professor a bit hesitantly.
Chandra had almost forgotten about her, if she had to be honest. She was about to respond, for clearly these people had never heard of planeswalkers, when a voice rang in her head.
Are you there Chandra?
It was unmistakeably Jace's voice, even if weak and distant.
"About time!" she muttered before explaining to the other two "Jace answered me, do I need to tell him about that judge thing?"
"It would be much appreciated, yes," said Dumbledore observing her intently.
I'm here Jace, she replied in her mind Can barely hear you though.
Sorry, you're pretty far away and I'm still weak after Bolas' attack. Are you ok? The others?
I'm all healed up, but the blasted dragon pulverized us. After you went down Liliana ran away, might have betrayed us to Bolas too, then I was dragged away by some guys that forced me in a tournament. Last I saw, Nissa and Gideon were still fighting.
Woah, slow down there. Liliana betrayed us?
She took Bolas' deal of running and getting contacted later. Might be a bluff to save her hide though, you know how Liliana is.
Ok, I'll talk with her later. What about forcing you in a tournament?
Chandra explained what she had gathered since arriving at Hogwarts.
I see, was Jace's only response.
Chandra really hated the mind mage when he did this cryptic answer thing. Was a clear answer too much to ask for? She sent him a mental image of her burning his cape.
Very funny Chandra. I'll try contacting the others, and then I'll send someone. I'd come in person but I'm still too weak: there's no decent mind healer on this backwater plane. It's also some kind of planar well supposedly impossible to leave, but I'm working on it. Try not to get killed till then, ok?
Stay safe too Jace.
And with that the link went silent.
"He said he'll send someone," was the planeswalker's only answer to the wizard's expectant face "Dunno who or when though."
"Splendid," was the man's reply.
He seemed to always be in an awfully good mood. Thanks to that, the pyromancer didn't thrust him one bit. No one was always cheerful for no apparent reason, not even Lorwyn's inhabitants, and they literally lived in a plane that was all sunshine and rainbows. It just had to be a ruse.
"Now," continued Dumbledore assuming a more relaxed position "I hope you'd indulge an old man's curiosity and explain me some of those terms you used before, could you?"
"A question first, if you would. You too professor, maybe you know something the headmaster ignores," said Chandra raising a hand to stop him "Has any of you ever heard of anybody leaving this plane, this very world, and going to another or vice versa?"
"I suppose you're not talking of ghosts here, so I'll have to say no," admitted Dumbledore while the professor only shook her head.
"No, ghosts and undeads are up Liliana's alley. I'm talking about whole other words, with humans and countless other races thriving on them," she explained with a faraway look "Kaladesh is one such world, so very different from this one from what I've seen."
"Fascinating," breathed Dumbledore in awe with the idea.
His words snapped Chandra back to reality. She glanced at her audience and said: "It's obvious you've got no idea of how things actually are out there, across the Blind Eternities, but this is a school, right? A place where you learn things? Then I'll teach, you and whoever else might be interested. In exchange I'll follow only those lessons I think might be interesting, is that acceptable?"
"We have a deal, Miss Nalaar."
"Great!"
"Dumbledore!" said one of the portraits, a stately man with grey curly hair, looking alarmed "There are a woman and a weird creature at the gate claiming to be here on one Chandra Nalaar's behalf!"
"Let me guess," interjected said girl getting up "Tall, leonine looking, covered in white fur with a big, golden axe-thingie?"
"Yes," said the scared painting "What in Merlin's name is that thing?"
"That's not a thing, he's old man Ajani."
OMAKE - Planar chaos
"You shouldn't be here."
It was far from the first time Chandra had been addressed with such words, but since coming to Hogwarts it had been a first. It was almost like everyone had accepted her presence as something natural, to be expected, and therefore felt she was exactly where she was meant to be. Everyone except the unknown speaker, that is.
The pyromancer stopped eating and turned around to see a Gryffindor student possibly younger than her, a short bespectacled boy with messy black hair and bright green eyes, staring at her with a cross between jealousy and loathing.
"As much as I'd like to leave, I'm forced to participate in this tournament of yours," replied the redhead holding the unfamiliar student's gaze "So while it's true that I shouldn't be here, I cannot be anywhere else."
"It should be me in the tournament! I'm the main character!" whined the boy pointing to the familiar lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
Chandra narrowed her eyes. Nobody should have known of her scar, she always hid it under her goggles, at least not on that plane.
"Who are you?" she asked narrowing her eyes.
"I'm Daniel Rad- I mean, Harry Potter!" claimed the boy before pointing at her and adding "And you're stealing my role in this story!"
Chandra blinked. Was he a relative? But then what was he talking about? What story?
As she often did when confused on the finer points of a discussion she turned towards the smartest person she had at hand, who was Hermione in the specific case.
"Don't look at me, I've never seen him before," stated said girl shaking her head.
"Don't lie 'Mione, we're the best of friends! You're practically the sister I never had!" insisted the boy gesturing wildly between the two of them "Last year we used your timeturner to save my godfather, remember?"
"No, and I don't have a timeturner," replied Hermione in an exasperated tone "Whatever that is."
Chandra started to wonder if Daniel -or was it Harry?- was completely sound of mind.
"Look kid," said the pyromancer cutting his latest attempt at jogging Hermione's memory "She doesn't know what you're talking about, nor do I for that matter, and as I said earlier I'm stuck in the tournament, so unless you have something intelligent to say you should leave."
The "before I lose my patience and turn you into cinders" went unsaid, but many of the closer students heard it loud and clear and, after the episode with McGonagall, scooted away from the volatile girl.
"But if you don't go away the production won't pay my astronomical paychecks!" He whined stomping a foot "How will I keep my costly lifestyle?"
It was then that an unknown redhead came into The Scene and grabbed Daniel by the arm. Whoever it was though, Hermione went rigid at his appearance so Chandra guessed he was bad news.
"Come on Daniel, we've gotta go," said the unnamed redhead trying to drag the other boy away "I'm sure we'll find some other story for you to star in, ok mate?"
"Don't wanna!" whined Daniel even as he followed the other boy "I'm the real Harry Potter! Not her!"
"Yes yes, now come this bloody way!" grunted the other before turning towards Chandra, winking and adding "See you in some chapters ladies!"
And with that, they exited The Scene, leaving behind a thoroughly confused pair of girls.