Chapter 10: War is Hell, But School may be Worse
No sooner had the Slayers gotten back to their beds than they fell asleep in the clothes they were still wearing. When they got up, they got dressed and went to the Great Hall, where they found Mordred and Dawn eating a breakfast.
"Morning sleepy heads," said Dawn, "you should be so greatful that we didn't have school this week, or else you'd of missed a day already."
"It's Tuesday already?" asked a surprised Buffy, "we slept for an entire day?"
"Yeah," replied Dawn as she ate part of a pancake, "you guys hungry?"
"Famished," replied both Slayers, tearing into the food before them with gusto. Since neither had eaten since Friday, they were starving, so Dawn filled them in while they were gorging themselves on food.
"Some Aurors came by after the fight," said Dawn, "but Dumbledore managed to smooth things over by claiming it was just a Demon who had to be driven into the water below. He then sent Spike off during the night to help out Hagrid, so we won't see him until Hagrid comes back sometime in November. Oh," she said suddenly, almost spilling her drink, "we've got our timetables for school this year. Here they are."
She gave them her list, and after taking another forkful of her pancake she read off it in case they didn't understand what it meant.
"We've got History on Monday mornings, followed by a break," said Dawn excitedly, "then we have Double Potions, followed by lunch, then us girls have Divination while Mordred has Ancient Runes, then we have Double Defence Against the Dark Arts, which is what DADA means," she added as an aside, "and then dinner. On Tuesday we all start with Double Charms, followed by a break, then Double Transfiguration, lunch, then Care of Magical Creatures, -"
"COMC." Interrupted Mordred, after he had wolfed down an entire plate load of waffles, "not comics. We don't have any courses dealing with Marvel or DC superheroes, unfortunately."
"And then Herbology," said Dawn, "and then dinner. On Wednesdays, us girls have Divination again while Mordred has Arithmancy, then Transfiguration after a break and Double Herbology after lunch. Then we have COMC again, then dinner and then Astronomy. Us girls have only Potions on Thursdays, but Mordred has Double Divination class after lunch on Thursdays, and a Muggle studies class right after that."
"You're really booked this semester Mordy," said Faith between bites of food, "how do you plan to do it all?"
"I don't need to sleep," replied Mordred, "so doing homework will be easy. And I figure the more time I'm working at school stuff, the less time I can get in trouble, although I plan on doing that too, along with Quidditch."
"What position do you plan on going for?" asked Buffy curiously.
"I'm thinking Keeper," replied Mordred, "as I am pretty good at flying right now, all I have to train for is catching one ball while dodging the others."
"Hey," Buffy asked suddenly, "what does the book say Harry is doing now?"
"Let me check," Dawn said as she pulled out the book and skimmed through it, "it's in 'The Woes of Mrs. Weasley' in Chapter Nine. Here, Ron and Hermione become Prefects, Mrs. Weasley's Boggart is revealed, and the booklists come in the mail. We should be getting our books as well."
No sooner had she spoken, than four owls carrying bags filled with books flew through the air and dropped them off at the table for the four students, along with notes for the Slayers and Mordred for their nightly Patrolling duties.
"Ask," said Mordred after swallowing some food whole without even chewing, "and we shall receive. At least know we know what we're getting."
He then grabbed up a dozen sausages with his hands and stuffed them into his mouth, adding more until his jaws were stretched wide enough to make a crocodile choke, then he swallowed them all whole while the others looked over their books. They finished off their breakfasts and read over some of their books. When Buffy and Faith's Monster Books of Monsters dove off the table and began biting at everything they could, Mordred and Dawn only sat back and laughed while the Slayers tried to capture their books without destroying them. After the two Slayers had captured and bound their Monster Books, the four of them then began researching the history of the Death Eaters so as to gain a better plan of attack against them.
"It says here that their original name was the Knights of Walpurgis," stated Dawn while reading from one of the books, "but it was dropped in favour of the name 'Death Eaters' as it was thought to be an easy name to say and remember, therefore making it an easier thing to fear. That kinda makes sense, as the words 'Death Eater' has a better ring to it than 'Knight of Walpurgis'."
They then spent rest of the day, as well as the final four days of the week practicing spells in the Room of Requirement, Patrolling the forest (minus Dawn), practicing fighting techniques, and generally getting ready for school to begin. By the time Sunday arrived, they believed that they would be ready for whatever was to come their way, as Mordred had copied everything from the Half-Blood Prince's book before giving it back to Snape. They also noticed that Slytherin already had about a hundred points in its hourglass, due to Snape liking the idea the Triumvirate had of putting the Basilisk's head in their Common Room. On the Thursday McGonagall complained a bit about the extra points as school had not begun yet, but Snape brushed it off as he reminded her that he never took points off of Harry before school began despite all the hijinks he pulled.
The rest of the week played out with the Slayers and Mordred eating like crazy when they were in the Castle, Patrolling every night to take out whatever stragglers were still going around the caves, and helping Dumbledore clean up the mess that the Balroglord had made when it burst out of the ground. By the time Saturday night came around, they were too tired to go party one last time so they just had a large meal after Patrolling before the girls went to sleep.