Characters, settings, and story relating to the Harry Potter series of novels are copyright J. K. Rowling, along with Bloomsbury Publishing, et al. "Spirit of Fear" is not an officially published work, nor is it in any cooperation with J. K. Rowling or Bloomsbury Publishing. "Spirit of Fear" is entirely (with the exclusion of the aforementioned characters, settings, and story) a work by Thomas Holman.

Chapter Seven

Inhibitions

Spring had slowly arrived, and tension was building in the Durmstrang Castle. Over the proceding weeks, Andrey began to regret ever splitting up with Mariya, and began his attempts to win her back. However, there was a slight obstacle: Sergey.

"Sergey, man, you should be careful around that Andrey character," Chey warned one afternoon. "He seems a little more unhinged since he lost Mariya."

"I broke up with him," Mariya tried to explain, naturally taking a portion of the blame to protect Sergey.

"It's way more simple than that: he doesn't care," Chey said. "Andrey has lost something and he won't stop until he get's it back."

"That's so...primal," Sergey observed.

"Exactly. He's pretty much become the infantile monkey who's lost his pellet." This was the sort of analogy that left his friends in the dark, so Chey had to come up with a new one so they would understand. "Uh...the buzzard had his meal snatched by the hyena." Now all understood, except for Mariya who had a look of annoyance.

"Are you saying I'm nothing more than a meal?" she said in a rather haughty tone.

Chey was in trouble. He knew from others' experience that saying the wrong thing would incur a fury that would make a pre-menstrual Horntail proud. Fortunately, Chey knew it would be best to say nothing: "Mariya, it might be best to rethink the context of my words," which, in a sense, translated into saying nothing.

"So do you think Andrey will try something drastic?" Nikolay wondered. They were all shocked to hear from him. The veelas had still not moved out of the inn, and Nikolay had spent much of that time starting out that window. Occasionally Viktor would join him in staring at the women, but only when he was sure no one was paying attention to who was near the window. News had spread about the inn's residents rather quickly, and the popular opinion regarding the view in that direction had increased dramatically among males.

"I don't think he's foolish enough to do anything in plain sight," Viktor responded, "or even in a way that Mariya would find out. But you may want to watch your back when you're alone, Sergey."

"Yeah, walk with a buddy, man," Chey agreed. "Or better yet, with Viktor. No one's going to mess with rising Quidditch superstar Viktor Krum."

Viktor shot Chey a look that said he preferred his privacy, and Chey responded with an expression stating that his friend's safety took precedence.

It was a few days following that conversation, and the five of them were in the town, though Sergey and Mariya decided to split off from the others to spend time together, so it was down to Chey, Viktor, and Nikolay. During their walk down the main road, they suddenly lost track of Nikolay. Chey caught a fleeting glance of him entering the restaurant, and signaled Viktor to follow. They hardly had to search for him once inside, for he hadn't made it much past the door.

"What was that about?" Chey confronted him once inside. "If being in our company is that bad why didn't you say so?"

"They came in here," Nikolay said in a slight daze.

"Who?"

"Over there." Viktor pointed out the veela girls who were staying at the inn. Now that Chey had a closer look at them, they couldn't be much more than eighteen years old, perhaps fresh out of schooling. They had apparently stopped by for lunch and taken a table near the window, laughing at the men who tripped over their own feet upon seeing them.

"You know, that reminds me," Chey began to recall. "Whatever happened that night you and Viktor went over to meet them?" There was a moment of hesitation, and Chey could only imagine the two of them were debating whether to tell Chey the truth, when finally Viktor recanted the story.

"We got to the front door of the tavern and Nikolay decided to bail. He turned right around without a word. I didn't see any point in going by myself, so I followed him back to the castle."

Chey could do little but sigh and berate them. "Didn't you guys learn anything from when I was hooking Sergey up with Mariya?"

"How did you do that, by the way?" Sergey asked.

"Easy: get her to know me. Then, I become likeable enough to talk to, just not dateable. Then, offer to meet her for lunch while she still has doubts about me, and she shows up at the agreed upon meeting spot wishing she didn't have to talk to me and she finds Sergey's shining face waiting with instructions to put the bill on my tab. They strike up a delightful conversation and afterwards I show up and offer to make a rain check with both of them. I wind up never showing up for that rain check, and they don't care because they are together."

"What were we supposed to learn from that?!"

"In order to get the girl," Chey explained, "you have to talk to the girl."

"But that's just it, Chey," Nikolay pleaded. "We can't talk to them. It's impossible for us."

"You two seem to have an interesting reaction to the veela charm," Chey began to wonder. "Rather than commit pathetic acts of public exhibitionism as an effort to garner their attention, you two are scared out of your pants. No matter. Just leave that to me."

"What are you going to do?" Viktor asked while staring at the girls.

"I am going to demolish your inhibitions. Take a look: the bar's full and the only table out there with three empty seats is currently occupied by those three girls. Table for three!" Chey called out to the host.

"I'm afraid there are no more tables, sir," the host responded.

"Oh, we don't mind sharing a table with someone, do we, guys?" Silence from Chey's companions. "How about over there?" Chey suggested while slipping a preemptive tip into the host's hand.

The host seemed to think this over, then "Just one moment, sir." He approached the girls' table, and after speaking with them a moment motioned for Chey's group to approach.

"And that, gentlemen, is what we call taking life by the horns," Chey explained as they neared the table. "Good afternoon, ladies."

They seemed somewhat delighted by Chey and his companions. The three veelas were sitting next to each other, halfway encircling the round table. The three remaining empty seats were all in a row opposite the girls. Determined to eliminate both Viktor and Nikolay's fears as quickly as possible, Chey took the center seat, forcing Viktor and Nikolay to sit next to a girl each. Chey proceeded to introduce himself.

"I'm Chey, and this is Viktor and Nikolay."

"I am Natalia," said the center one of the group, clearly the more decisive of the group, "and this is Catherine," she indicated the one next to Nikolay, "and Alexandra," indicating Viktor's seating partner.

"We've seen you ladies around lately. It's nice to finally meet you. Oh, have you ordered yet?" Chey had to keep control of the situation, and the best way to do that was to offer to pay for the meal.

"Not yet," said Catherine. She was rather quiet, almost mousy. Alexandra, on the other hand, simply followed the conversation with her eyes in a reserved manner.

"Well, in return for putting up with us, lunch is on me," Chey announced. He was sure there was no way for the girls to get out of a free lunch.

"Oh, we couldn't ask that of you," Catherine lamented. Impossible! She found a way. No matter, Chey could rebound this and still segue into conversation that played up his friends' positive qualities.

"Perish the though. It would be like asking me to get something off the top shelf. Besides, Viktor needs his strength. All that Quidditch training really takes a toll."

"You play Quidditch?" Alexandra asked, looking at Viktor.

"Yes he does," Chey answered for the still silent Viktor. "In fact, he just signed a deal with the Bulgarian Team." A look of awe came over her face, meaning she was very interested in him, so Chey no longer had to worry about him. Now to focus on helping Nikolay. Trouble was, there was nothing remarkable about him that Chey could think of. Chey racked his brains, but he couldn't think of anything. He wasn't much at flying, his grades weren't the best, and he had such a distant personality.

"What about you?" Catherine asked, clearly already interested in Nikolay and under the impression that talented people tended to travel in groups. Chey had to think fast: What did Nikolay do? All he ever did recently was schoolwork and stare out the window. The clock was ticking, and Chey had nothing.

"I...I'm a writer," Nikolay suddenly chimed in. It seemed he had overcome his inhibitions a lot quicker than Chey had expected. Wait a minute...Nikolay is a writer?

It didn't matter. Catherine was fascinated by him.

Turned out Nikolay was a romance fiction writer. (There would be time later for Chey to hassle him about that.) Catherine just devoured it all up. Chey never counted on "romance novel writer" being a list of careers that women adored. Nevertheless, Catherine insisted that she see Nikolay's latest work, as well as his previous writings.

Alexandra and Viktor engaged in an intense conversation about Quidditch strategies, clearly very interested in one another. Natalia, however, only seemed to like Chey enough to let him pay for lunch, but it was of little consequence. At least Viktor and Nikolay had gotten some backbone.

After lunch Natalia announced she was going to depart from the rest of the group, and seeing as Chey would become the fifth wheel on the cart, he elected to go it alone as well, leaving Viktor with Alexandra and Nikolay with Catherine. And so, Chey made his way down the main street.

Chey had been walking for quite a while, and had followed the road near to it's end. The road was devoid of pedestrians, and the only shops around seemed to have been closed for years. Waking up to these facts, he turned around and saw the only other person on the street.

"Pleasant day," Chey addressed the figure, "wouldn't you agree, Andrey?"

"The last time I knew what a nice day was like," he responded very darkly, "Mariya was still talking to me."

"Well that's your own fault, isn't it? Certainly not Sergey's."

"No, it's yours."

This surprised Chey? He hadn't counted on Andrey enacting a revenge upon him. On one hand, now Sergey had nothing to worry about. On the other hand, however, now Chey was in the line of fire.

"What makes you say that?"

"You show up and she leaves me. Then, just like an American, when you were done with her, you tossed her aside to your good for nothing friend."

"Where did you get the idea that I had even started with her?"

"What do you mean?" Andrey asked with far more contempt than curiosity.

"I mean that I did nothing to her. Besides, blaming me for your loss is hardly fair. It's not my fault you're such an ass."

"Watch what you say."

"Actually, I'm surprised she didn't leave you sooner."

"Shut up, you-"

"Ah, well. I guess she felt sorry for you. That seems to be the only logical explanation."

"Incarcerous!" Now Chey was no longer the aggressor. Andrey let loose an imprisoning charm, which Chey deflected easily due to his quicker draw, owing to the strap on his arm that held his wand.

"You got quite a temper, Sparky," Chey said in a chastising tone as he walked towards Andrey. "If you listen to only one thing I say, let it be this: Leave Sergey alone. I don't care if you attack me in the halls, or down a dark corridor, or even from behind me. Just leave Sergey and Mariya alone. If you don't, you'll wish you'd never come to school this term."

"Hey, Viktor, I want to talk to you a sec," Chey said that evening.

"What is it?"

"Over here. I don't want Sergey to know. Listen, Andrey isn't after Sergey for revenge."

"Why shouldn't Sergey hear this? This is great news!"

"I know it's wonderful, but there's still a possibility Andrey was lying."

"Wait, you talked to him?"

"Yeah. He said he didn't care about Sergey. He's blaming me."

"Well now you've got to be careful!"

"No, I'll be fine. It's Sergey I'm worried about. If he hears this, he'll stop looking over his shoulder. You understand?"

"Yes, it makes sense. But listen: I heard Andrey's father taught him some Dark Arts."

"I'll be fine. Just watch Sergey and Mariya. Anything happens to them, call me and I'll take care of Andrey. And tell this to Nikolay when you see him later."