Chapter Four – Blood and War
Summer was officially finished for another year; the cool weather was a sure sign of that. The students of Hogwarts were so deep into their school routine and homework that they barely had time to take note that the first month of their school year had already passed them by. Like many other students, Avalynn woke up mildly surprised that it was already October first and she groaned deeply when she realized that the first dueling sessions in her Defense Against the Dark Arts class were today. All morning she would have to dread the upcoming show because she knew that the majority of her classmates would use this opportunity to unleash all of their special talents. Being in seventh year, they had leniency to demonstrate any (appropriate) magic that they saw fit, but because this class is a seventh year NEWT level course with Gryffindor's and Slytherin's, well, Avalynn could already see the blood flowing.
"Get up!" A voice called out into Avalynn's ear and then a pillow was slammed over her head, "we're going to be late!"
"Flower," Avalynn groaned and then stuffed her head under her pillow for protection, "just let me skip Charms today."
"No!" And the covers were pulled off of Avalynn's body, leaving her to curl up into a ball for warmth.
Lily huffed from over by the door, "if you don't get up Ave, I'll douse you with water."
At the sound of water, Avalynn dragged herself up from the bed, her hair forming a messy halo around her head.
"You'll want to wear pants today, it's chilly," were Lily's parting words and Avalynn heard the door snap behind her, and then her footsteps going down the stairs.
Avalynn immediately woke up when her bare feet touched the cold floor and a shiver pulsed up her spine. She quickly moved over to her trunk and pulled out her pants and pulled them on before she could get any colder. Her socks went on the wrong feet and her shoes went on untied, and she headed down the stairs blindly as her uncombed hair was all over her face. Avalynn fumbled with the buttons on her blouse which happened to be wrinkled in a few places and headed down the stairs, her shirt was not tucked in and her tie hung around her neck.
"What'd you do, sleep in your clothes?!" Lily implored angrily, her wand at the ready to exterminate the wrinkles and Avalynn smirked.
"You of all people should know that I don't sleep with clothes on," She said, catching the eye of a couple of fifth year boys in mid blush and she winked in response.
Lily sighed heavily and shook her head, "at least do something with your hair!"
Grinning, Avalynn walked past her best friend and removed the clip that held up Lily's hair.
"Hey!" Lily yelled, her hands going to catch her falling locks and Avalynn laughed loudly taking off through the Portrait entrance. "You told me to do something with my hair, mind if I borrow your clip!" She shouted over her shoulder and Lily ran out after her, willing to pursue the game of cat and mouse that Avalynn loved to instigate. The two girls wove in and out of sleep ridden students and followed their usual path to the Great Hall by means of the Grand Staircase, both girls were careful to keep an eye on the moving ones as they counted down the minutes before the one they were on would change directions.
Avalynn burst through the doors to the Great Hall well ahead of her friend, but of course, Avalynn was at an advantage due to her longer legs. Out of breath she walked slowly towards her table, laughing and wheezing at the same time while she gathered her hair and twisted it up in Lily's clip. Alice looked up from the textbook she had been consumed in and Frank Longbottom turned in his seat across from her, his goblet of pumpkin juice raised to his lips. Avalynn waved and quickly joined them, she had already served herself a piece of toast, a soft boiled egg, a serving of mixed fruit and a dollop of thick yoghurt when Lily came traipsing in, her face as red as her hair.
"Lily, what took you so long?" Alice chirped as she took a sip from her own pumpkin juice.
Avalynn sniggered from behind her goblet and Lily growled in return, "Avalynn Crane you are such a menace."
"What'd you do?" Frank drawled, an eyebrow raised and she shrugged.
"I did her a favor."
Lily glowered at the back of Avalynn's head, "and what favor would that be?"
Avalynn flashed a knowing smile at Alice as she pictured her redheaded friend with her hands on her hips, "Flower, you never leave your hair down because you're too busy stressing out over everything else in your life – from classes, to homework, to exams and then you worry about what you're going to do after this year. You never give yourself time to relax!"
"It gets in my face!" Lily protested while she reached over to grab her clip back but Avalynn pulled her head out of the way.
"I don't care, today, you're leaving it down."
Lily huffed in frustration and resisted the urge to stomp her foot like a child would. When she realized that she was not getting her hair clip back she reluctantly combed her fingers through her hair, split it into two sides and then pulled each side down to frame her face. It was then that Avalynn stood with her bag on her shoulder and she turned to face Lily with a smile.
"You look fine, Flower. Now let's get to class."
Lily's lips lifted a little at the reassuring comment and in turn grabbed her bag from her feet and then followed Avalynn to class with Alice and Frank whispering a few feet behind.
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Frank walked Alice, Lily and Avalynn to their class after lunch and then he began sprinting down the hall in order to make his charms lesson on time. Lily and Avalynn led the way in to the room and found that most of the seats were taken, one seat was available at the front of the class and two were available behind Sirius and James, second last from the back. Avalynn dropped into the seat directly behind Sirius and he leaned backwards in his seat, the chair balancing on the back legs.
"Thought you girls were never going to get here."
Avalynn shrugged while Lily dropped her bag onto the table and sat down with a hard thud in her seat, glowering at Avalynn for choosing these seats.
"Easy for you to say, Black, you're never on time," Lily jabbed at the boy and Avalynn elbowed her hard in the ribs causing her to jump.
"Yeah," Avalynn spoke an overly pleasant tone while shooting Lily a nasty look, "we didn't see you at breakfast this morning, or at lunch for that matter."
"Wasn't hungry."
Avalynn raised her eyebrow and then James turned around and smirked, "what he means is that we over slept this morning – didn't have time to eat."
Avalynn nodded and shoved her hand into her bag to grab her wand and a note book and placed them on the table. She leaned in her seat and looked between Sirius and James to watch Remus talk to Peter, when Remus turned his head to look back at James who was telling a joke, Avalynn saw a trio of red lines crawling up the side of his face and she winced, remembering that it had been the full moon the previous night. The four boys didn't know that she knew about Remus, they also didn't know that they weren't the only Animagi in the school.
Sirius had turned in his seat to ask Avalynn a more serious question. "You ready for today's Duels?" He asked quietly.
Avalynn nodded and rested her head on her hand, "ready as I'll ever be."
Sirius didn't get a chance to answer when their Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor walked in from the back of the class, his cloak billowing out behind him.
"Everyone rise please," Professor McLaurin spoke in a deep booming voice that caused students to jump in their seats if they were not paying attention.
The students stood in a massive wave, collecting at the front of the class and with a single wave of his wand, Professor McLaurin had all the desks and chairs neatly piled on either side of the classroom. At this the students filtered away and recollected in small groups at the desks, finding places to sit with friends or stand awkwardly alone.
Professor McLaurin stood at the middle of the room, contented with being the center of attention. "As you are all well aware, today is our first physical test of the year where I get the privilege of watching you perform your skills and flaunt what talents you may have. I will pick the dueling matches at random, there will be not trading and I hope you are all well prepared," He cast warning glance around the room where a few students straightened at and a few others – including Avalynn – shrunk away from.
"Good luck."
The first two to pair off were two Slytherin students and then two Gryffindor's were paired off. Each duel was to last five minutes, not a minute more or less as there were a fair number of students and only so many minutes in the class. The first of their group to go up was Peter, Professor McLaurin had paired him with Wilkes, a member of Snape's clan. Neither of these wizards was very talented, and so it seemed to be an equal match, but Avalynn had a feeling that Peter would not be coming out on top. The duel progressed and neither opponents seemed willing to make and drastic advancements towards the other, they were both too preoccupied with not tripping over their own feet, however, because Wilkes was a part of the group that he was, he managed to aim a tripping jinx at Peter's feet in such a way that it almost appeared not to be on purpose and Peter was sent sprawling, his face bouncing off of the floor and when he sat up, blood was pouring out of his nose, coating the bottom half of his face. He was immediately sent to the Hospital Wing and Wilkes was declared the winner.
A few more duels went by and then Alice was paired off with Rodolphus Lestrange. Unknown to everyone in the room but Avalynn, Alice was working to pay back the Slytherin student for the dirty hit from behind on Frank Longbottom the previous year. Rodolphus had wanted revenge on Frank for giving him detention on the day of an important Quidditch game. Alice had in turn extended the one day detention to an entire week, and the Slytherin Captain had to step in before Rodolphus could retaliate. The Slytherin Captain was as much of a git as any of his other Housemates but he cared more about Quidditch than their house's rivalry.
At Professor McLaurin's call, the five minute duel began and Alice immediately acted with a perfectly aimed stunning spell causing Rodolphus to fly backwards and tumble over the desks. It was not a particularly strong spell, as Rodolphus jumped to his feet after a few seconds, but Avalynn knew that Alice had no intention of finishing the fight just yet. Rodulphus fired a Body Binding curse at her and she easily dodged it, retaliating with Rictusempra. Rodulphus fell in convulsions to the floor, holding back laughter and Alice finished it with a disarming spell.
Again, a few more other duel went on before Lily went up against Rosier, after the five minute mark, it was declared a tie as neither student could disarm the other. Remus lost to an unfair hit from Mulciber that earned the Slytherin Student a 15 point deduction. James had no issue in annihilating Rabastan Lestrange, the lesser of the two brothers and then Sirius stepped up to duel Bellatrix.
The entire class waited at the edges of their seats, their breaths held in anticipation of the blood fall during this duel with the Black cousins. Everyone knew that both Gryffindor Prince and Slytherin Princess were haughty, sharp and ruthless in a fight and if the previous duels had been any warning of what was to come, this duel would be the nastiest of them all.
It was Bellatrix who attacked first with the precision and venom of a cobra, the twist and snap of her wand was barely visible and Sirius had barely enough time to catch the yellowish stream of light and send it blindly back towards his opponent. In contrast to Bellatrix's hardened precision and vindictive intent that everyone in the class knew all too well, Sirius moved with blithe movements, taking his time to send his most powerful spells but also making sure to aggravate his opponent with his controlled movements. The cousins were matched fairly for the most part, sometimes one would overcome the other but it did not take long for the pair to even out the match. Avalynn watched with contempt of the Slytherin Princess as she moved with fluid motions, barely having the time to take a breath because Sirius was reacting just as harshly and just as quickly. Avalynn's fist clenched when a red jet of light narrowly missed Sirius' cheek and she shook her hand out, silently scolding herself for feeling like this. In the seconds it took for the spell to shoot past Sirius, his face hardened into one of fury and his wand arm came swooping down and a stunning spell hit Bellatrix squarely in the chest causing her to be blasted backwards into the wall where she then slid down unconscious.
James let out a whoop of delight and high-fived his best friend while Remus slapped him on the back in congratulations. Sirius grinned and shrugged his shoulders as if it were no big deal but when he came to stand beside Avalynn, she saw the bead of sweat trickle down the side of his temple. He shot a lazy grin at her and she smiled awkwardly back, but it quickly froze on her face when she heard her name being called followed by Severus Snape's. Avalynn heard the raucous laughter from the Slytherin's and the icy jabs towards her and what would be an obviously talentless attempt to duel Snape. Everyone in the room knew the outcome of this duel, including Avalynn and she swallowed hard, willing her feet to move and get the humiliation over with.
When she looked up at Snape she saw his sinister smirk and the confidence in his eyes that he already had this mark in the bag and she stood up straighter, willing the sweat from her palms to go away. Six years of this being nervous thing and she had all the symptoms at her command. Her feet moved slowly of their own accord and her wand shook in her hand, but before she could clear the circle of students Sirius grabbed her wrist and tugged her back.
"Remember what we did before," he whispered into her ear and her eyes shifted inquiringly towards him, "pretend I'm the only one here. You performed a perfect, nonverbal vanishing spell for me, and you didn't bat an eye."
Avalynn looked at him and he smiled encouragingly at her, "Snivellus is a prat, just syphon the grease out of his air and he'll run away screaming."
Avalynn giggled and he let go, giving her a gentle shove between the shoulder blades, "C'mon Ave, you've got this!" He yelled encouraging and James whistled. Similar encouragements were echoed by Lily and Alice, and Remus gave three short but loud, encouraging claps.
Avalynn stepped into the middle and faced Snape who was already in a battle position, his wand held out in a firm, but threatening position and Avalynn turned to the side, squaring her shoulders and then lifted her wand to wait for Professor McLaurin's signal. When it came, she barely had any time to think before she was knocked off of her feet, her back slamming into the Professor's desk at the front. She groaned deeply and stood with her hand pressing into her back and she quickly blocked the second stunner that Snape sent at her, deflecting it back at her where he narrowly dodged it; not expecting her to react in time. Avalynn rolled her shoulder, hearing it crack and she gripped her wand tighter before sending an awkwardly aimed bat-bogey hex at Snape which he easily avoided and in turn, knocked her off of her feet again. The Slytherin's erupted into laughter, Bellatrix's being the most grating, and Avalynn's jaw twitched in frustration before she stood again and stepped out of the way of a nicely aimed tripping jinx. It seemed to Avalynn that Snape was not interested in showing off or even displaying any kind of talent, he was only trying to humiliate her further – as if being paired with Snape and being knocked on her ass twice in less than two minutes wasn't humiliating enough.
Avalynn violently lashed out with a stinging jinx that wasn't perfectly aimed but Snape was not anticipating the retaliation and caught the spell with his wand hand. He jumped back, shaking his hand out to cool off the stinging sensation causing red and blue sparks to jump out of the tip of his want and he then gritted his teeth, sending a series of stunning spells, tripping jinxes and a number of body part tampering spells at her where she was able to avoid most of them except a tripping jinx and a stunner that sent her tumbling over the other side of the Professor's desk. She remained on her stomach for a few seconds – even though they felt like a few hours – feeling the utmost defeat she laid her head on the floor trying to think through her deteriorating thoughts. However, soon enough, encouraging shouts from her friends managed to find her, but above all else it was Sirius' voice that got her to her feet.
"C'mon Ave, you've got to beat him! Don't let the slime ball get the best of you!"
Avalynn stood up and glanced quickly at the timer to see she had less than a minute left. At this thought she gritted her teeth hard and her jaw set firmly, her wand hand stopped quivering a while ago and she gripped it even tighter at Snape's look of early triumph in his eyes. Suddenly a rush of frustration and rage flooded through Avalynn, she was sick and tired of being laughed at, sick and tired of being weak, and she was sick and tired of losing. Snape was ill prepared for the sharp string of attack spells that Avalynn violently fired at him, one after another so as to barely give him enough time to retaliate. First she send a tongue locking curse at him, keeping him from speaking, then a sharp flick of her wrist brought his wand out of his hand and made it soar across the room where it fell with a clatter behind her, and then to finish it off, a precise flourish of her wand sent him flying back in the air and into a cluster of desks.
She cried out in victory, her fist coming up and she grinned widely at her friends. The Gryffindor's were cheering loudly for their Housemate while the Slytherin's grumbled in the background. Avalynn then made the mistake of turning her back on Snape who had nonverbally called his wand back to him and in his anger of losing, and his embarrassment of being thwarted by Avalynn he stood up quickly with a murderous look on his face. Avalynn barely had enough time to react when Sirius yelled for her to watch out, she turned to see what was wrong and was hit with Snape's unknown spell. She was sent flying backwards and into the desks behind her where she lay amongst the overturned objects unmoving, with ominous red liquid creeping towards the students. A few of the girls screamed while Sirius and James shoved desks, chairs and book bags out of the way to get to Avalynn. Sirius dropped down beside her in shock at the sight of all the blood that was pouring out of the slices in her chest, Professor McLaurin jumped in and began syphoning the blood away while simultaneously trying to stop the blood flow. Lily stood there shaking, her hands covering her mouth before she came to her senses and dropped down to help her professor.
"She needs to get to the Hospital Wing, Professor!" Alice cried out.
Professor McLaurin ceases his spells and agreed, "Right! Black, Potter, get Miss. Crane to the Hospital Wing immediately. The rest of you, class is dismissed – oh not you, Snape! You will remain with me after class and I will be calling Dumbledore down to discuss your punishment."
As Sirius and James cast levitation charms on Avalynn and guided her down the halls towards the Hospital Wing, Lily ran to keep up with them under the weight of two book bags. Both Lily and James were too nervous about the wellbeing of their friend to notice the dangerous look in Sirius' eyes. Silently, he had just declared war on Severus Snape.