Chapter 4: Problems, Solutions and Assignments
Khyana was perplexed. And with good reason. Things were not turning out the way they were supposed to. This class…what had started as a simple alternative to Auror School was now consuming all her free time. And as much as she was enjoying it, she couldn't keep the course load for both that class and her Auror classes. She sighed. It wasn't going to be easy to drop the course, either…and she had paid for it already… "ARGH!" she cried. The cry resounded throughout her small house, and echoed back to her. She slammed her fist down on the table, which resulted only in a sore hand. "Come on, Yana, think!" she muttered.
And think she did. For days, all she did was think. It caused no end of grief for her friends and the members of her assignment group.
"KHYANA!"
Khyana snapped out of her reverie and took in her surroundings. She saw the faces of all her friends, and recognised the voice that had yelled at her as that of the team leader.
"Sorry, James, what?"
James glared at her. "Khyana," he said, with forced calm, "Do you have something you'd like to share with the class?"
Khyana considered it. "Actually yeah. I need to drop my course at the university, but I've already paid for it. What do you think I should do?"
The comment had the desired effect. Suggestions came from all over the table, and James lost complete control of the situation. He yelled loudly and stalked out of the library; Khyana smirked, and began to pay attention to the things people were telling her.
After the library incident, Khyana kept her musings to her own time, and started paying more attention to their assignment. James no longer asked her to share her thoughts aloud, something she was sometimes disappointed about, as she had the most interesting thoughts…and would have loved to have seen the looks on her friends' faces when the thoughts were put into words.
Despite this fact, the problem of her university course was still not solved. It was not as easy as her magic friends had assumed it would be.
"You could just Obliviate them all," Kelria suggested one day, as the two friends were having lunch at the ever popular Marty's Diner.
"Can't do that," Khyana replied, dragging a French Fry through her pile of ketchup over and over.
"Stop doing that, Khyana, it's disgusting," Kelria said finally, wrinkling her nose. "I'm sure you'll come up with something."
Khyana sighed and dropped her fry entirely in the ketchup. "I can't just Obliviate them all and have no one remember me. It would be like Obliviating you and Sirius and Alice and Lily and everyone else. Just because they're muggles doesn't mean we're not still friends."
"Okay, okay, sorry!" Kelria replied, raising her hands in surrender. "I'm sorry for suggesting it! I'm just trying to help."
Khyana sighed and dug her fry out of the ketchup, popping it in her mouth, and earning herself another disgusted look from Kelria.
"You are disgusting, Khyana, you know that?"
"Thanks."
"Why don't you ask your friends from your course what you should do?" Kelria suggested.
Khyana shook her head. "Not going to happen. They'll all want to know why I'm dropping, and I can't exactly tell them, can I? Oh, sorry, guys, I need to drop the course because it's getting to be too much work when mixed with my magic school courses." She raised an eyebrow and grabbed another fry.
Kelria pulled Khyana's plate away from her and motioned for the waitress to come and take it away.
"I don't know how much more of your eating habits I can handle, Khyana," she said when the waitress had disappeared. "Why don't you just drop the course and forget about the money? It's not like you're poor or anything."
Khyana cocked her head in agreement. "I know…I probably should."
"And it's not as if you need to pay for your Auror Schooling or anything like that."
"I know, Kelria! I just said I agree with you!"
Kelria held up her hands in surrender. "Okay, Yana, relax! If you don't want my help I won't give it."
Khyana sighed and put money down on the table. "We need to get back. Put down some money and let's go."
That night, Khyana approached her teacher at the university and explained that she needed to drop the course.
Her teacher looked dubious. "Are you sure, Khyana?" Professor Laurent asked. "You're doing very well."
Regarding the woman before her earnestly, Khyana nodded. "It's just getting to be too much," she explained.
Professor Laurent nodded. "Very well. Well, Khyana, it has been my pleasure to teach you these past few years, and I wish you well in your future endeavours."
"Thank you," Khyana replied, and gathering her things, she left the building.
She did not go far however, and her suspicions were rewarded. A few moments later a lone figure hurried out of the night class building. Spotting Khyana standing alone under a street lamp, the figure approached.
"Professor Laurent said you'd dropped the class."
"Yes," Khyana replied, nodding.
"Why?" Lezly Mayli asked, utterly confused.
"It's just getting to be too much work, Ly. I can't handle it anymore."
"But you're doing so well! Your French is improving so much…" Lezly attempted bravely to make her friend see reason.
"I know, and I'll try not to lose it. But French has never been my passion, Ly. I only took it as an alternative, you know that."
Lezly nodded again, her face still showing her confusion. "Yes, you've always been awfully vague about that, Yana."
Khyana shrugged. "I know, but I told you everything I could without putting you in danger. And besides, it's not like you don't know where I live. You can always stop by and see me. And we can make lunch plans and stuff, just like we've always done."
Lezly gave Khyana a stern look. "That's not the same and you know it."
"No, it's not, but it's the best I can do right now, Ly. Now I really need to get going, Kel is waiting for me."
Lezly sighed. "Alright. If you're sure this is really what you want."
Khyana nodded. "It is."
Lezly shrugged. "Then I guess this is it."
"Yep."
"I'll see you around?"
"Of course."
The two friends embraced, and then Khyana made her way downtown to Kelria's house, and Lezly went back into the night school building.
As Khyana walked to Kelria's house, she began thinking about everything that had happened to her over the past few years. Having been diagnosed late in her seventh year with Mora Menda, she had been told that she would never be able to be an auror. Thinking about this now, she smirked, remembering how she'd shown Professor Dumbledore and Madam McKenna and everyone else who'd told her it wasn't possible. At any rate, since she couldn't go to Auror School, she'd signed up for a French class at the muggle university, thinking if she could learn another language, she could at least get a different job at the Ministry.
Everyone had told her it was foolish; "French isn't an easy language to learn," Remus had warned. But she had disregarded it all and taken the course anyway. And, subsequently, she had taken the proffered French course at the school for the following three years. French was not, as Remus had said, an easy language to learn. But she had persevered, and her efforts had been rewarded. She had made some good friends over the course of her three years, and even if it wasn't the easiest language, French was certainly an interesting language, and she had enjoyed it immensely.
When she reached Kelria's house, she found everyone else already there.
"How'd it go?" Emily-Hope asked.
"Pretty good," Khyana replied. "The teacher was fine with it."
Kelria shot her friend an "I-told-you-so" look, to which Khyana made a rude gesture, and James shut them both down with a loud "ALRIGHT THEN! Let's get started."
The group had agreed to meet at Kelria's house for some serious work on their assignment.
"So, who has any information?"
For the next hour or so, different members of the groups talked about information they had discovered in regards to the different Death Eaters known to be participating in the ring they were trying to dismantle.
Finally James sighed tiredly and looked around at everyone.
"Okay, everyone. This has been really good. I'm going to assign everyone a Death Eater or Death Eater couple to investigate further, and we're going to see if we can't take this ring down member by member."
"James, there are more than nine Death Eaters in this ring," Lily pointed out.
James nodded. "I know. But we need to take down the key players first, and then we'll focus more on the lesser minions."
Khyana snorted. "So who are you assigning Voldemort then?"
James glared at her. "Enough cheek, Khyana. We're not assigned to take down Voldemort. I meant the key players in this ring. And just for that comment, you're getting assigned the Lestranges."
Khyana smirked. "Oh, my pleasure, James dear."
James looked a bit uncomfortable, and turned away from Khyana's creepy grin.
"Kelria, I want you on Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy."
Kelria nodded. "You might have to help me with this one, Yana."
Khyana shook her head. "Not a chance."
"Frank, I want you on Rookwood, okay?"
Frank nodded. "Sure, Cap."
"Emily-Hope, I want you to take down Rabastan Lestrange. You can go to Khyana if you need any help, or if you have any information about Bellatrix and Rodolphus. You two can share information."
Emily-Hope nodded. "Right-o."
"Lily, you're going to work with me, and we're going to take down the Rosiers."
Lily nodded, her mouth a thin line.
"That's smart," Khyana hissed quietly so only Kelria could hear. "Lily knows that neighbourhood like the back of her hand."
"Maybe James isn't such a blockhead after all," Kelria agreed, and the two broke down in silent giggles.
James ignored them, only deigning to cast them a contemptuous look before moving onto the last three members of the group.
"Kennedy, I want you on Regulus Black, since you seem to know the most about him."
Kennedy nodded his dark head solemnly and rose.
"In that case," he replied in his low bass voice, "I'll be off. Black is supposed to be doing something key for the Ring tonight."
James nodded his consent. "Great."
Kennedy left, grabbing his cloak quickly from the hall closet, and leaving silently through the front door.
"Kennedy's always creeped me out a bit," Kelria confessed under her breath to Khyana.
"Me too," Khyana agreed.
James cleared his throat, knowing better than to offer Khyana a penny for her thoughts. Both girls shot him innocent smiles, and he rolled his eyes, and turned to the last member of the team.
"Harvey, I know people say Nott is just a minion, but he's not stupid. Voldemort will know this, and use him for his own gain. I think Nott is a key player, and someone will need to bring down, and quickly. I want you on him."
Harvey nodded.
"And Aaron, I need you on the Travers girl…what's her name?"
"Miach," Khyana replied.
"That's right. Miach. I want you to watch her."
Aaron nodded. "I'll do my best."
"Great. Now that that's done, I think we're finished here, and I will see you all tomorrow bright and early." James said, and everyone stood to leave.
"Thanks for having us, Kelria," Emily-Hope said as everyone was getting their things.
"Not a problem," Kelria replied. "I'll see you all tomorrow."
Once everyone but Khyana was gone, the two friends sank down into chairs and heaved heavy sighs in unison.
"Well, that's that." Kelria said.
"What's what?" Khyana asked.
"The day's finally come," Kelria replied. "Of course, I always thought James would assign Lucius and Narcissa to you and Bellatrix and Rodolphus to me, but there you go."
Khyana glared at her. "I would never have taken Lucius and Narcissa. Never. And James knows it. I'd probably hex him into next month if he tried to assign them to me."
Kelria nodded. "I suppose so. Still though. I wanted the Lestranges."
"I know you did. And I can't for the life of me understand why. You never knew Bellatrix!"
"But I've heard things," Kelria replied. "And none of them good."
"Well, that's because there simply isn't anything good to be said about Bellatrix," Khyana replied. "But I'm glad James assigned her to me. And I think I might be able to help you out a bit, too. I think Andi keeps tabs on her sisters and what they've been doing lately. We can stop by her place tomorrow or the next day and ask her about it."
"Sounds good," Kelria replied.
Khyana looked at the clock and jumped to her feet. "Merlin, is that the time? I need to get going, I have to write an essay for Professor North."
"Another?" Kelria asked.
Khyana nodded. "Yeah. He wasn't happy with my first, so I have to rewrite it."
Kelria shook her head in disbelief. "That man is insane."
"Yep," Khyana agreed, grabbing her cloak. "See you tomorrow."
"See you."
A/N2: There you go. And don't expect another until exams are over! Which is next Wednesday...well, that's when I'll start the next one prolly. So yeah. And I realise that Lezly had an extra "e" in the previous chappie, but I like it better the way it is. So ha. That's all.
