Chapter Fourteen
The kitchen was magnificent. No, magnificent was an understatement. The kitchen was far, far more than magnificent. It was Holy. A place of God. Pure beauty. It was extraordinarily large, the ceiling was much higher and much more intricate than what they had imagined it would be. Mounds of haphazardly stacked pots and pans made from glittering brass were heaped in shining masses against and around smooth stone walls, which were dully reflecting the warm light radiating from a large bricked fireplace lit with gently flickering flames.
However, it was neither this benevolent vision nor the mouth-watering aroma, surprisingly, that caught Sasha and Connie's attention more thoroughly than the petite, large-eared, creatures tottering about the kitchen on their spindly legs. In their arms were trays of exquisite and expensive-looking food – the sorts of which Sasha expected to find being neatly served onto the pristine white tablecloth before the King and other noblemen.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice broke Sasha out of her reverie. She turned to see one of the boys who'd brought them here smiling wistfully into the distance. Either Fred or George, though she had no idea how to tell which he was. Her gut tells her Fred.
"Oh, my dear brother," other twin wiped a none-existent tear from his eye, "come now; let us leave these younglings to their feast!" Connie reached to grab a hold of possibly-George's arm as he made a move to leave back through the peculiar painting they'd entered through.
"H-hold on a second!" Connie exclaimed rather loudly, causing one or two of the bat-eared creatures to flinch at the sudden startle.
"A second will be held," said possibly-George, ceasing his large strides. Possibly-Fred also halted, crossing his arms over his chest and looking to Connie.
"Whatever is the matter, my young friend?" Asked possibly-Fred, uncrossing his arms only to place a hand on Connie's, near-hairless, head; Sasha smothered a giggle behind her sweaty hand.
"G-get off me! What's the big idea?" He hurriedly slapped possibly-Fred's hand away from him with a scowl, he sighed in annoyance before speaking again. "I was going to say; what if we get lost? I mean, me and Sasha don't know our way around here yet!"
A squeaky unfamiliar voice replied, "Dobby will help yous!"
"Wah!" Sasha cried, snapping her hands to her chest as she visibly jumped away from the voice.
"Here, Dobby'll help you!" Possibly-George supplied, gesturing down to the elfish being. Then, with a further few words of parting, the twins exited the kitchens and left Connie and Sasha in the capable hands of Dobby. Connie furrowed his eyebrows and crouched down to make direct eye-contact. Sasha was quick to follow his lead, also squatting down, bracing her hands on the wooden floor beneath her.
"So," Connie instigated in a questioning voice, "Dobby, huh?" Dobby's head nodded repeatedly at a hurried speed, making his large ears flap like a sheet in gale-force winds. Sasha asked another question to save Dobby the trauma of having his head fall off from the unnecessary nodding.
"What exactly are you, Dobby?"
Ceasing his nodding, Dobby replied in an anxious voice. "Dobby is a proud house-elf, who serves his masters here at Hogwarts!"
"A house-elf?" Connie hummed, "So . . . is that like a servant or a slave something?"
"No! Dobby is no slave! Dobby enjoys his days at Hogwarts! But, yes, Dobby does serve his masters. But Dobby doesn't mind, Dobby likes to be of help!"
Looking about the kitchen, Sasha noticed other house-elves peering at them, their eyes bulging as they watched; it was hard to determine what they thought of them. Although by no means did they appear hostile, so Sasha pressed on.
"Hey, do you guys prepare the meals here then?" She lifted her right hand from the floor and patted her grumbling stomach, "'cause I'm starving!" Another house-elf approached them, standing close to Dobby's side as their stick-thin limbs trembled beneath the rags they wore as clothing.
"Y-yes, we d-do!" Its voice was distinctly female. She was shorter than Dobby, though her ears were considerably longer.
"Well, do you think we could grab something to eat?" Connie's face split into a wide smile as he spoke, overjoyed that he was finally going to get some food in his system.
"Of course!" The female house-elf replied, bowing slightly. She smiled in return, revealing a mouth filled with darkened teeth, looking as though they'd never once been brushed. "W-what would the young masters like?"
"What would we like?" Connie echoed thoughtfully, placing a hand over his chin as he thought. Sasha quickly asked what the house-elves had, which led to a mouth-watering list of foods she'd never tried. All-in-all, it was safe to say that both Sasha and Connie left the Hogwarts kitchens content and with full-stomachs.
Dumbledore nodded his head slowly in understanding as Levi, Erwin, and Hange each took turns in speaking. Once again, Levi found himself in Dumbledore's office. He was pretty sure he'd spent more time here than any other place in the school – between them, he and Eren had more than likely visited Dumbledore more often than the members of staff here at Hogwarts.
"So it is definitely fine if we use this 'Quidditch' field for training when it is not in use by the school?" Erwin asked, his right hand scrawling notes down with a greying quill onto a sheet of parchment. Levi watched for a few moments as his Commander pushed the parchment back down to the desk as it attempted to coil back around itself.
"Yes, so long as there are no lessons or practices going on at that moment in time." Dumbledore agreed, "I'm sure we can make a timetable or something of the sort,"
Hange suddenly leaned further forwards in her plush seat. "What about that grand-looking forest? You know what I'm on about right? I saw it from the dormitory window and I must say that it looks quite mysterious!"
Dumbledore sighed, gently stroking his silvery beard as though lost deep in thought. The skin between his thin eyebrows creased slightly as he furrowed them. "I think it would be best if, for now, you stayed out of that forest. It is not called the 'Forbidden Forest' for no reason, after all."
"I heard from the kids that there's all sorts of creatures in there," Levi added, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned further back into his dark, leathery chair.
Dumbledore hummed, "yes, there are indeed many different creatures. Although not all are dangerous, I'd much rather prefer it if you stayed away. The Centaurs, especially, may not take kindly to foreign peoples stepping foot in the forest. I'd also like to minimize the injuries acquired whilst here, and though I do not doubt your abilities, these are magical creatures, and so, of course, they have different properties. I hope you can understand."
Hange slumped down a little, appearing downcast for a few moments before another idea took its place. "These 'creatures', would I ever be able to see one?"
"I am sure, if you have the time, you can go and observe a 'Care of Magical Creatures' lesson," Dumbledore smiled warmly. He rubbed his hands together as a grim expression once again crept across his wrinkled face. "Now," he began, "about the titans." Levi felt his stomach clench at the mention of them but his face remained a mask. Despite the attack being not too long ago Levi had found himself becoming much too relaxed in this setting, he needed to be alert at all times.
"Yes," Erwin rolled the parchment up and tucked it neatly into a pocket on the interior of his military jacket. "I believe we should issue a protocol in the case of another attack. We must minimize the risks of any student or staff injury or fatality as much as possible." Dumbledore's lips pursed tightly at the mention death, even though Levi was positive this man before him had witnessed some terrible things in his time, he was almost sure the prospect of having both students and staff alike killed and devoured by man-eating beasts had to rank near the top.
"How do you warn people of the dangers where you're from?" Dumbledore questioned as he clasped his hands together on top of a pile of papers at his desk.
"Ah, well you must understand that until roughly six years ago, we had been safe from threat due to the walls. However, we are nowhere near advanced as your people must be, especially with magic, so we issue a warning through the use of bells." Erwin explained slowly, making sure to include all the details. "However our methods are not the most effective. Due to the limited area of human territory, even if the bells were to ring ten minutes in advance, humans would still perish due to lack of supplies – such as food and clean water."
"That sounds terrible." Dumbledore kept eye contact with Erwin for a few moments. "Is there any other methods you use?"
"Only when we're outside the wallsscouting." Levi stated.
"Once we're in Titan territory we use a signal system Erwin came up with," Hange supplied, pushing her glasses up her nose. Erwin nodded gravely.
"Yes, we use signal flares to determine what the squadron does next. We have different coloured signals for each event. Although that system has many flaws and would most likely be ineffective here." Erwin glimpsed at Levi as he spoke, Levi looked away.
Hange gave a low hum, "There's always the Garrison . . ."
"Garrison?" Probed Dumbledore.
Hange gave a single, slow nod, her eyebrows pinched together as she thought. "We have a branch of the military that patrol and maintain the walls. . . But I don't think there's enough of us to patrol the entire school all the time. Or there might be if we use our brains in how we station each soldier,"
"I see where you're coming from, four-eyes," Levi agreed, "I think if we strategically placed soldiers in the most likely points of attack, then we should be able to pull it off."
"For now at least," said Erwin. "I think that if needed, we may have to change that method – although it should work for now."
"We're also going to need a safe point for students. A place to evacuate them to if needed."
Dumbledore sighed deeply. "I would rather like to have all the students sent home, it appears much too dangerous for them here. I doubt the Ministry would hear of it, they'd probably presume it was all a ploy-"
There was a sudden knock on the door. "Come in!" Dumbledore called, looking past Erwin, Hange, and Levi to the direction of the door. It creaked open and a horribly familiar face darted from the space between the open door and the wall.
"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything!" It was none other than Umbridge. Levi hadn't seen her around for a while, not like he wanted to; he could gladly live the rest of his life without having to see her face again once.
"Not at all, Dolores. What is it?" Dumbledore forced a jovial smile.
Umbridge then pushed the door open a little further and held up a thick handful of papers. She had the most disgusting look on her face, like she was about to do something that she knew everyone would hate.
"I think you know what this is about, Albus."
"Ah," came Dumbledore's terse reply. "I'm afraid we shall have to continue our discussion at a later date. Please go ahead and get yourselves accustomed to the school and take a look around before settling your stations out."
Erwin was the first to rise to his feet, looking down at Umbridge as she stepped through the doorway and up to where Dumbledore was seated at his desk. They bid him goodbye before exiting the office, the last thing Levi heard before the door closed was Dumbledore tiredly telling Umbridge to take a seat.
"Amazing," Armin exhaled as he craned his neck to peer around yet but another grand bookcase. The shelves were full to the brim with books, some more so than others. There were also piles of books magically returning from a dusty pile on the floor black to their original places on the bookshelves. Armin found it extremely difficult to grasp that magic was, in fact, real – despite the fact that there was some being performed right before his eyes.
It was just after classes and whilst Harry and Ron had taken their leave to attend Quidditch practise (which Eren, Mikasa, and Jean had gone watch out of curiosity), Hermione had kindly allocated herself into the role of a tour guide to show Armin to the library. However, Armin had long since ceased listening to Hermione babble on about facts and myths and legends and God knows what else regarding the library, and had instead focused his attention on how exactly so many books had been condensed into one room.
Armin was almost positive he had entered Holy territory.
"So," Hermione swivelled around, turning to face an awestruck Armin, her face broke into a smile at Armin's reaction to the Library, "what do you think?"
"I-it's amazing!" Armin ran a hand through his hair, momentarily feeling a cool breeze tickle his forehead as he lifted his fringe away from his face before it fell back down again. "I don't think I've ever seen so many books in one place! I have no idea where to start!"
"Well, I can always give you some recommendations, though I'm not too sure whether you'll be able to understand some of them – I-I'm not saying that you're stupid or anything like that, but many of them discuss complex magical theories and being as you've only just learned magic was even real I just thought that-!" Armin rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, using the other to wave his hand in a motion meant to reassure Hermione it was okay as he cut her off.
"It's fine! I get what you mean, don't worry!" He thought for a moment, deciding what to say next before a sudden thought struck him. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any books on the 'outside world', would you?"
"The… 'Outside world'…? What do you mean…?" Hermione questioned curiously. Armin gave a light laugh. That's right, this is the outside world, or at least their version of it, so of course she wouldn't have a clue what he was talking about. Keeping that in mind, Armin tried a different approach.
"What about books about the world? Maybe about the fiery water or the fields of sand? What about the sea? Isn't it full of salt? And I read that it covers up most of the Earth's surface! Is that true?" Armin babbled on.
"Fiery water? fields of- Oh! You mean like deserts and lava?" Hermione asked once it clicked in her mind. Armin's face lit up.
"Is that what they're called? Please could you tell me more?" He asked eagerly.
"Let's go and sit at a table then."
"Okay, how about over there?" Armin pointed out a small table near a window. Thin streams of light wavered in as the sun steadily continued its descent. It was still relatively light outside but it probably wouldn't be for much longer. This sort of thing was really messing up Armin's internal clock. Nevertheless, the two walked over and each took a seat. Armin found it reasonably difficult to get situated in the chair with his gear constantly getting caught on the corner of the table. It clanked noisily as he settled down; earning a rather sharp shush from a passing woman who Armin presumed was the librarian.
"Can't you just take your gear off for now? It must be so uncomfortable to sit like that," Hermione looked to Armin with confusion.
Armin grimaced as he hit his knee off the underside of the table, the pain ricocheting through his leg for a moment. "I can't," he answered simply, "I have orders to ensure that I wear my gear at all times just in case of an emergency."
"But I really doubt that anything is going to happen now, whilst you're in the library," Hermione countered, seemingly bent on getting Armin to remove it. Armin wasn't sure whether she was just concerned or whether the weaponry was causing her to feel uneasy.
"Eren was at a detention with Harry the last time the titans attacked, I'll bet nobody was expecting that either," Armin didn't intend for it to come out as harsh, so he quickly backtracked. "What I mean to say is; titans could attack at any given time. Although it's unlikely seeing as we aren't back where I'm from where the chances of an attack are much higher. Here, there isn't a giant fifty-metre fortress to keep them out though, so it's pretty much constant vigilance."
"Oh. I understand," Hermione looked down, knowing when it was time to drop a subject.
"Anyways, could you explain to me some more about the lava, the deserts and the sea?"
"I would love to, Armin."
"How was practise?" asked Hermione as Harry and Ron climbed through the portrait hole, followed by Eren, Mikasa and Jean, into the Gryffindor common room.
"It was terrible," Ron said with a sigh, in a hollow voice. He slumped down into a deep chair, scowling, next to Hermione and sighed again. Hermione looked over to Ron, she gave a small hum and chewed on her bottom lip before replying.
"Well, I guess it was only your first one," she said somewhat consolingly, "it's bound to take time-"
"Hey, he wasn't the terrible one!" Eren quickly snapped, clenching his fists in anger. It was then that Hermione seemed to realise that he was there. Eren pursed his lips to keep a lid on the rest of his burning anger as Hermione looked past him and towards Mikasa and Jean. She shrunk back in her chair a little. Eren unclenched his right fist and ran his hand through his birds-nest of a hair-do, a hairstyle that made him appear as though he'd ran through a few bushes. "I'm sorry," Eren suddenly reconciled, "I shouldn't have snapped like that. I'm just . . . I'm just really mad right now."
"M-mad?" Hermione ventured, discreetly raising an eyebrow. Eren brought his hand down across his face, as though making an effort to physically wipe the anger from himself.
"There were some boys," Mikasa spoke, Eren turned his head to the right slightly, so that he could see Mikasa out of the corner of his eye. She was fiddling with the fraying edge of her red scarf, not looking at anyone in particular. Her dark eyes seemed blank and devoid of emotion, but Eren could tell that she wasn't happy with what had happened back on the Quidditch pitch. Those bastard Slytherin were absolute bastards. Eren began to bristle with anger again at the thought of them.
"Yeah, they were singin' idiotic songs and shit about how Gryffindor were losers and how they thought Ron's broom was crappy," Jean filled in simply.
"Slytherin," Harry growled. Hermione gave an 'ah' of understanding, before reassuring Ron and telling him to just ignore them. Stuff he probably already knew, Eren thought. He noticed a blond bob of hair, illuminated by the glowing fireplace, a figure seated on a large cushion on the floor. That reminded him, Eren wanted to ask how Armin's trip to the school library had been. Judging by the thick book bound in tattering brown leather settled across his legs, it went rather well. Armin had a small smile pulling at his lips as his wide eyes scanned frantically across the text – thank God for translating charms or whatever it was these wizard people used. Noticing how the others in the common room were eyeing them up, Eren could tell his presence was unwelcome. Although, he didn't want to go back to their dorm without Armin, so he mustered up the heart to break him away from his book for a while.
"Armin," called Eren as he approached him. "Armin. Hey, Armin!" Armin always used to get like this when they were kids and he'd had managed to steal a book away from his grandparents. The times when everything was peaceful and their only fears were things like having Armin's grandparent's books confiscated by the Military Police—the times when bullies were the only threat to their wellbeing. It made him wonder what had happened to them. He was no big believer in God or deities or any of that sort of thing, but Eren's gut told him that Karma had swung round and hit them in the face once the titans breached the walls.
Eren gently placed a hand on Armin's shoulder, giving it a light shake to get his attention. He smiled as Armin flinched and came back to the world of the living.
"Must've been a pretty interesting book. I was calling you for a while," Eren laughed, any residue anger he possessed dissipating into nothingness.
"What are you reading?" Mikasa asked, still standing near the sofa which Harry was now sat on.
Armin grinned, "it's all about the outside world! Hermione's told me all about it, too!"
"What? Really! You gotta tell me all about it!" Eren leaned forwards in excitement.
"Yeah, I guess I'd like to know what it's like out there," Jean chuckled in agreement.
"You know, our world is still probably much different from yours," Hermione said, although she smiled as she spoke which meant she wasn't seriously trying to start anything.
"That doesn't matter!" Armin shook his head, "I'm sure your world may be more developed, but I'd bet the rural areas are pretty much the same! It's just that humans have inhabited here much longer than we've inhabited the walls. As long as it sounds, one-hundred years is nowhere near enough time to get anywhere near as structurally developed as it is here."
"It doesn't hurt to learn about a place that's never really been infested with man-eating giants though. You know, a place that humans have always pretty much had free-range in," Eren didn't miss the hints of jealously that accidently leaked from Jean's words. He couldn't blame him though.
"Anyways, let's get going back to our dorm, I'm sure I heard Sasha and Connie in one of the corridors earlier, they're loud enough. But they're probably in our room now, we should all go down there and talk for a while before we have to go back to the Great Hall to grab some food," Eren stretched his arms above his head before reaching his hand back down to help Armin up. Armin tucked a scrap piece of parchment in between the slightly stained pages of the book before closing it and tucking it under his arm. His hand met Eren's and he allowed himself to be hauled to his feet.
Armin groaned as he stretched, placing his hands on his back as he leaned backwards, the bones popping back into place. It seemed he'd been sitting there for a while.
"Yeah, let's go," Armin agreed once he'd finished stretching. "Thanks again, Hermione! You're the best!"
"I-It was really nothing, Armin, any time!" Hermione blushed at the thanks. "We should go to the library again sometime."
Armin nodded frantically, "yes, definitely! I'd love to! It's the best library I've-"
"Okay, enough book talk, come on, Armin!" Eren pulled his friend good-naturedly away by the arm and out of the common room. The four of them bid Harry, Ron, and Hermione goodbye, with promises to talk at dinner now that they'd somewhat renewed their friendships again. Eren still couldn't keep up with what was going on between them, especially with Harry, but he'd found that they'd somewhat bonded watching his Quidditch practise. Eren decided that he was going to have to tell Armin all about it once they reached their dorm, flying, science-defying, broomsticks were always worth the mention.