Still don't own it. J.K. Rowling still does own it. Props to Miranda Flairgold. Read and Review, greatly appreciated.
The next morning came all too soon for Markus. He had been able to recover slightly, and hopefully would be able to perform to the best of his ability during the aptitude and placement tests. Hopefully.
Getting themselves ready for what was possibly the most important day of their lives was not a difficult process. They had all showered and taken care of hygiene as they had been unable to, for the most part, while they had spent the past week traveling. Markus was on his third to last bottle of blood when they left their room for breakfast. They completely packed all of their belongings again, a simple process as they only unpacked the basics, if anything, the night before.
They could take the tests whenever they wanted to, it would only take a few hours to finish the final steps in the process. They would eat, take the tests which they were confident they would pass, and then select their courses, which were due by sunset that day. They would be able to meet up after their tests were finished, and consult each other for advice and debate on which classes each should take, however each person already were fairly sure which classes they would be taking.
As they ate they looked around the room, seeing hundreds of other magical beings and species of various origin. They could see many goblins, some werewolves, about half a dozen vampires in their immediate vicinity. A few centaurs could also be found milling around, mostly everyone in the room were nervously eating their breakfast. A few of the students were confident that they would make it through, mostly the vampires and a few of the werewolves seemed most confident, but that came with the species.
Finishing their meals as Markus finished his goblet of animal blood the three separated, they would be able to locate each other somewhat accurately through the links now present between the three of them. The bridges created by the bond were beginning to stabilize, and take hold. Soon the information provided by the bonds would transmit directly into their own subconscious, and they would innately know where the others were located, at least the general direction, their magical status, and their basic physical wellbeing.
But the bonds were still about a week away from stabilizing to that extent, now they could only really tell the vaguest of locations, but it would be enough to help them find each other later in the day.
The three friends split up into three different lines that were moving their way through the aptitude testing portion of the acceptance process. They were all confident in their abilities and confident that their potential would be seen and recognized by whoever was administering the test.
Shadowknife was the first of the three to be taken and processed through the aptitude tests. His administrator was a grizzled old witch with scars covering her face and arms, with a hard glint in her eyes. She had seen plenty of hard times in her life, and seen her fair share of combat, it seemed. She had been reasonably impressed by the rune work and enchanting work on Shadowknife's gun, and it's capabilities. She had also seen potential in Shadowknife, and while he was slightly above average in power that was nothing that he could rely on. But however he had managed it he had shown great potential during the test, and was one of the few who left with a guaranteed spot at the Academy. This was rare, usually they would be informed by sunset that day, when class schedules were due, but the testers were allowed to guarantee a certain number of potential students who they believed showed true and sizable potential. This was a very good thing for the goblin, and he worked his way back to the room they had stayed the night in, and began to decide on the classes he wished to take.
Markus was the next of the three to be taken through. He began his tests just about ten minutes after Shadowknife began his. His tester had been an elf, one from one of the forest elf tribes. He stood slightly taller than Markus, and somewhat skinnier, less defined muscles. This was typical of elves, a tall slender frame, they were master archers, and usually were quite powerful with elemental magics. This particular elf was incredibly skilled with fire magics, he had an innate control and understanding of what fire was at it's core, and it made him very powerful. He had graduated from the NAAA about a century ago, not that Markus knew any of this. He had passed his tests as well, also walking away with a guarantee of acceptance. His bloodmagic potential alone had been enough to give him a considerable shot of acceptance, and coupled with his ambition, and sheer power, among other factors he had been given the same guarantee Shadowknife had received.
Warren was last in their group, indeed he was one of the last to be processed in the entire day. His tester was a fellow werewolf, not an alumni of the Academy, but one of the higher up pack members from one of the few packs that operated on the Magical Reservation. Warren had also managed to receive the final guarantee that the werewolf was allowed to give, if only barely. Warren obviously was a passionate person, with a powerful, large magical core. He clearly had ambition, and if his passion could be refined it would be quite beneficial for him. But those factors alone had not been quite enough to secure the guarantee, but as his tester was a werewolf, and high up in a respectable pack he had been most impressed with Warren's inner wolf. He could sense the fierce independence that the wolf required, but also the sheer strength and rage the wolf had just below the surface. With some work this strength could be utilized fully, and brought out to it's full potential. This would make Warren a real force to be reckoned with among the werewolves, should he pursue training and learning more control over his inner wolf.
And thus the three allies had all secured guarantees to receive schooling at the Academy, and all made their way back to the room to meet up. The North American Academy of the Arcane offered a very wide selection of courses and subjects to take, and at many different levels.
The Academy was not purely education nor purely research based, but it had found a delicate balance that managed to keep the students education and preparation at the top. Many of the alumni went back to work for the Academy in some way, or went into less than legal, or less than savory lines of work. Because of this the teachers and professors did their best to prepare the students, after all if they were going to teach at all they would teach as best they could.
And the Academy offered so many different courses for so many different topics it was mind numbing. They offered nearly every conceivable subject, and if it was not an official class then usually a professor or master on the subject could be found around campus.
All three of them would take courses in mind magics, probably all advancing through to at least intermediate level courses, after all they had big secrets to keep.
Markus and Warren were both planning on taking bloodmagic courses, steadily advancing through the regular courses throughout their time at the NAAA, many master bloodmages and experts were in the employ of the school, and the school had many different chambers ready for student use at any time.
Markus would also continue into Necromancy. He had been running his own experiments, and he would be going into both kinds of Necromancy. Necromancy was divided up, at its most basic level, between the more powerful, more complicated Necromancy, and the simpler, spell based Necromancy. Markus would go into both, and after a term or two consider his options, he was probably going to go further into the more complicated Necromancy, that utilized death magic, as opposed to the regular magic used in the more simple Necromancy. The more complicated side typically incorporated soul magic and death magic, as well.
Warren would probably not go into Necromancy at all, perhaps he would take the beginner level of the simpler side at some point, but he doubted he would. Shadowknife felt the same way. Shadowknife also doubted he would go very far into bloodmagic, he would take enough courses to give himself a strong base, if just to stay on par with the other students, many of whom would be taking bloodmagic courses, or at least doing basic bloodmagic work and pieces.
Markus was very much so looking forward to being able to work on his bloodmagic some more, the last piece he had done had been months ago, and in his various journals he had planned about half a dozen pieces, varying from increased resistance to sunlight, some to still increase his physical attributes, and one piece that would began a set that would ultimately make shadow traveling slightly easier. Markus was looking forward to being able to work on his bloodmagic year round.
Warren would not be taking bloodmagic quite so far as Markus would be. He was not so naturally inclined as Markus was, and was using bloodmagic primarily to mesh and meld better with his own magic, in hopes that it would give him greater control and precision over his magic and possibly his inner wolf.
Shadowknife would be taking classes about disguise, document forging, counterfeiting, concealment, and deception. He would need to take as many classes as he could, and get as proficient as possible in the business of espionage and assassination. He was also planning on taking courses in warding, at least the basics, and enchantment. He had a natural skill and talent in enchanting, and between Markus and Warren they had been able to convince Shadowknife that to let such a talent go to waste would be unacceptable. Muggle fighting classes would also be included in Shadowknife's schedule, as would a few basic survival classes, most likely. Finally Shadowknife would also be following his proficiency in healing with a wide selection of basic courses, and possibly a few intermediate or advanced courses.
Warren would be also be taking an animagus course, and courses in offensive and defensive magic, muggle fighting, wilderness survival courses, and mind magic courses, which they would all be taking, to ensure their secrets stayed secret. His schedule would not be quite as rigorous as it could be, but it would leave him time for independent training and research that could be aided by many different professors, in many different areas. That would allow him a broader range of possible subjects, that he would be able to research as he desired. This gave him some flexibility, and he would always be able to change it when he selected classes in later terms.
While having a more open schedule was worthwhile for Warren Markus could and would not be taking a similar course load. He would be taking a much more difficult, strenuous, and rigorous course load, at least eventually. This coming term he would be taking introductory bloodmagic, Necromancy (complex), necromancy (simple), combat, offensive and defensive magics, mind magic, and basic warding.
Keeping up with all of these classes would be time consuming, and Markus hoped he would have the chance to add a few more in the coming years and terms, he wanted to research deeper into wand-making, in fact he was already planning on doing that this year on his own time, enchanting, and also wandless magic, among other, more obscure branches and areas of magic. Markus was planning on accumulating all of the useful knowledge and skills that he could in the coming years. He would need them, after all, not just to achieve his own plans, but to achieve continued survival.
He supposed that now with Shadowknife and Warren standing by him, pledged together as allies, and bound together by friendship, that dealing with Voldemort, the Ministry, and even Dumbledore, when the time came, would be easier. Markus had considered completely giving up on magical Britain, and leaving it to rot, but he could not just leave his home country out to dry like that. Besides he would be eliminating threats that posed a risk or danger to him, and that would be beneficial to him. The three Knightly Orders that had pledged themselves to combat would be a different beast altogether. While the Ministry, Dumbledore, and Voldemort were all parts of a splintered and fractured power balance and continual power struggle all taking place in magical Britain, and the area immediately around it.
The three Orders had no such problems, they were all world wide organizations, between magic beings and also muggles. They had vast networks and resources at their disposal, not to mention strict hierarchies that left little friction in the decision making processes, usually. They would be harder to deal with than his other foes, but he had plans that he had been working over, and that would need much refining before Markus could even begin to think about implementing them.
It was all a very dangerous, very complicated game that Markus found himself continuously being dragged closer and closer to the edge of, and he could only hope he would not drown when he fell in.
