Chapter 2:
4 introductions, each over 1000 words, pretty proud of that…
Professor Marlows large Eagle-Owl, Barneby, soared above the second largest tower at Hogwarts, a wax sealed envelope secured to his claw as he searched for the right window to land at. It had been two days since Professor Marlow got permission to send out invitations for his defense against the dark arts club, but he had to wait until the weekend had ended in order to find the perfect opportunity to send his letters.
Barnaby landed quietly next to a window in order to peer in. Inside sat a girl dressed in Ravenclaw robes with dark brown hair that sharply contrasted her light skin. Knowing he found the right girl Barnaby gave a light tap on the window with the same claw that the letter was attached to. The girl looked up, confused, and moved to open the window. Her brown eyes studied the bird as he stuck out his leg in order to pass off the letter.
"I thought you normally delivered at breakfast," she murmured, a hint of a french accent peeking through her words, while untying the string wrapped around the envelope.
After she fully untied the letter the golden brown bird hopped away and took off. She followed him with her eyes until he disappeared behind the astronomy tower. Closing the window and looking at the envelope she sat at her desk.
The front of the envelope read, Anne D. Marseille, Ravenclaw tower, dorm 86. Flipping it over Anne fingered the wax stamp keeping the letter closed and saw the Open in private note written small in the corner. Looking around to assure herself that her roommates were gone she turned back to the letter. Breaking the red seal with practiced ease she pulled out the letter inside and started to read.
Dear Miss Anne Marseille,
You have been selected to join the new defense against the dark arts club here at Hogwarts Wizarding School. At this time the club is required to remain unknown amongst the general Hogwarts population, and as such requires no talk outside of known members. Our first meeting, if you choose to accept, shall begin at 8pm Friday, October 2nd in the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom on the second floor. Any questions shall be brought up with Professor Marlow in private, or at the meeting itself. Be sure to remember this information as this letter will burn away approximately five minutes after opening.
Regards,
Professor T. Marlow
Defense Against the Dark Arts
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Rereading the letter once more Anne committed the date to memory and moved to the window where she tore up the paper and tossed it out in order to keep the smell of smoke off her robes. Gathering up her homework for the next class she made her way down the stairs into the sparsely occupied common room.
"Move, I need this desk" she said with a fake smile and a hard look, setting her stuff down loudly on a desk occupied by two second years.
"Oh, yeah, sure." One of them squeaked, grabbing her stuff and pulling her friend along whispering furiously. Anne watched them walk away and gave them the evil eye as they turned to look at her. Turning back to her work Anne tried to busy herself with school, but her thoughts kept drifting to the club. Professor Marlow was never her favorite teacher, his bright, bubbly personality and ADHD tendencies ran circles around her. A club where he handpicked each and every student could not be a good thing.
Glancing up at the clock through dark eyelashes she started gathering her papers. Five minutes would not give her enough time to get to class, but she never cared for rules. Her mother discarded every Hogwarts letter addressed To The Parents Of…, and her fellow Ravenclaws could care less about a small dip in their points when every right answer in class gained them five.
Carefully placing her books back into her bag she made her way out of the common room and down the spiral staircase on her way to Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Stopping on her way in the third floor bathroom she used the extra minute she had to brush out her dark brown hair and apply a new layer of lip gloss. Turning to leave she gathered her things and walked into the nearby defense classroom.
"Ahh, Miss. Marseille, three minutes tardy, three points from Ravenclaw," a murmur was heard from the crowd of sixth years, "though, I think that's your fastest time so far this year." Chirped Professor Marlow from his perch atop his desk, where a large covered cage stood ominously.
Anne rolled her eyes and took her seat next to one of her roommates, Allison.
Getting her quill out Anne heard Professor Marlow chattering away in the background, "Now I have seen all of you eyeing this little cage I have here. Though, I would like to know if anyone can guess what I have under this fine cloth?"
"Erkling? Ghoul?" Questioned a few students.
"Neither, but good guesses nonetheless." Marlow said, hopping off the desk to pace the room with ill contained excitement. "Erklings, while fascinating, are illegal to show in schools due to the beast's taste for children. Fun right?" He paused to laugh, "And ghouls, some of my favorite creatures, are mostly harmless and easily defended against. As such they are not taught as part of our curriculum. Any final guesses?"
No hands shot up immediately and Marlow continued, "now before I unveil this creature please keep in mind he was domesticated by the Ministry and has been cleared for school demonstrations. Without further adieu, here is Paul!" He yelled gleefully ripping off the tarp to show an empty cage.
While the cage seemed empty Anne noticed a glimmer of light just next to one of the bars surrounding the cage.
"It's a Hidebehind." She said, catching the attention of Marlow as he folded the tarp. He gave her a soft smile before addressing the class.
"Indeed it is. Everyone say hello to Paul, our Hidebehind."
A quiet tap on the bars revealed a small bear-like creature with silvery hair. He looked around at the class before turning and giving an annoyed look towards the professor.
"We're good buddies, aren't we Paul?" Marlow questioned the beast. Paul blinked once at the class and shimmered out of sight. "Eh, he loves me. Anyway, Hidebehinds were created when Phineas Fletcher attempted to smuggle a Demiguise into the United States, it escaped and inbred with a Ghoul."
A clatter of quills was heard as Ravenclaws took out their quills and papers to copy down this information. Sighing Anne tucked her brown hair behind her shoulders and went to do the same, she would rather take note now then in an hour during lunch.
...
Lunch was almost over and a lone Hufflepuff was making her way down the hallway towards the kitchens. Waving at a house elf as she passed the pear that marked the entrance to the kitchen, she stopped in front of a stack of barrels. Locating a barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row she carefully tapped out a familiar rhythm. One of the larger barrels opened up enough to let her in, and she made her way up the earthy corridor into the Hufflepuff common room. Walking underneath the hanging ferns she startled when one of them tickled the top of her long, braided, blonde hair.
On her way to her dorm she passed only two other Hufflepuffs, the rest most likely at lunch. Making her way into her room she sat next to her sleeping black cat, Milo, and bent over to search her trunk for her backup quills. Digging through the mess that was her yellow Hufflepuff tops and the few red shirts she owned she grabbed the box. Moving to stand and leave she jumped at a tap on the window. Turning confused she saw Barnaby, Professor Marlows owl, that she recognized from class.
"Hello Barneby." She said opening the window, "what brings you to the Hufflepuff dorms."
In response the bird stuck out his claw and she noticed the envelope attached. She took it from him and gave a smile as Barneby took off and flew away.
The outside of the letter was written in elegant calligraphy and read, Quinn M. Taylor, Hufflepuff cove, dorm 104. Confused Quinn flipped it over and ripped off the red seal keeping it closed. Turning to make sure her roommate hadn't walked in she pulled out the letter, unfolded it and began to read.
Seeing Professor Marlows signature on the bottom confirmed her suspicions on him being the mastermind behind this, though she was confused why he chose members for the club. Choosing to ignore that for now she discarded the letter on her bed, pulled out her notebook and jotted down the date and time.
Getting up with her new quills she moved to leave the room but did a double take as she saw Milo pawing at the very flammable letter. Moving to place the card on her kitty proof desk, she stopped to adjust the blonde braids in her hair before getting up to leave again.
Making her way to Potions class- combined with the Gryffindors on Mondays- she passed the Great Hall just as a group of red dressed students left. One of them gave a wave and a shout and Quinn turned around. Noticing the fiery red hair the student sported, Quinn smiled. Her cousin Peyton ran up and bumped elbows with her, turning to call back to her friends.
"I'm walking with Quinny here today, you guys go ahead." Quinn smiled and gave her cousin a light shove.
"What's with walking with me today, you always walk to potions with them. Do you need something?"
"Why would you think that! Am I not allowed to talk to my favorite cousin?" Quinn raised an eye at that. "You know you would still be my favorite if nothing had happened."
Continuing to chat as they walked down the stairs, Quinn bumped into a large Slytherin boy at the bottom of the stairs who gave her a huffy glare.
"Oh, sorry I didn't notice you." She said with a smile taking a step towards the Potions hallway.
"Dumb Puff bitch." Murmured the boy as he frowned at the duo.
"Excuse me," Quinn said, stopping and turning around.
"Seriously dude, she bumped into you. You're going to escalate this?" Peyton echoed.
"If you're going to be a bitch about it then I will. Learn to take an insult Puffy."
"Learn to be a better person, you Slytherins are the reason no one can get along here." Quinn spoke up, her voice raising in anger. She could see some of her fellow Hufflepuffs watching as they walked, whispering among themselves and that only made her more mad.
"What are you going to do Puff, punch me? Your words can't even hurt me, if they could, you'd be a Ravenclaw."
"If you had anything other than crickets in your head you'd know I don't need a fist to hurt you, but it seems all you Slytherins share the same brain cell."
Peyton moved in front of Quinn and she looked down at her cousin confused. The red head gave a smirk and a quiet, "trust me."
"I'd like to see your punch," she asked innocently, "to prove your all mighty holiness and all that."
The boy stepped closer and Peyton moved to defend, but Professor Tampey ran in at just the right time.
"Stop, get away from each other. I want to see no fighting," she yelled slightly out of breath from running. "All of you come with me now."
Annoyed, Quinn moved to follow the Potions teacher and felt Peyton at her side.
"I got your back," She whispered. "Just tell them it was my fault, you'll stay out of trouble."
"I'm not doing that, plus it's Tampey, she loves me." Professor Tampey was the head of Hufflepuff house, and had a strong bond with many of them. Sitting at her desk she offered the three a seat.
"Now, I need the truth, all of it. Lie and I will not be nice to you." Quinn decided to stay silent for now but hearing the Slytherin boy refusing to step up she straightened and began to explain.
"Professor he bumped into me at the bottom of the stairs and insted of ignoring it he decided to escalate the situation by calling me, and I quote, a 'dumb Puff bitch'. We argued and he threatened to punch me." Professor Tampey raised an eyebrow and turned to the Slytherin boy.
"Anything to add, Marcos?" He said nothing and shot a glare at Tampey. "I will inform your head of house what happened, for now you are free to go. Peyton as well seeing as you were a bystander, though I assume you will want to stay with Miss. Taylor here?" Peyton nodded and Tampey continued turning to Quinn.
"Now, understanding the situation and your reasoning for this fight, I will not be handing a punishment to you today. I know how you are, this was not something that would have been easy for you to ignore and I agree, if I was in my Hogwarts days I would do the same. I do have to ask you to tame your temper. Any more incidents and teachers will suspect I'm playing favorites."
Quinn smiled in relief and gave her thanks.
"Now you two better hurry along, my class starts in two minutes." Tampey stood to leave, Peyton and Quinn following her action, smiling at each other.
...
"Make sure you focus on what you want to happen, the spell won't work as well if you're focused on your dinner." A fifth year Gryffindor said to a young Hufflepuff student.
"I don't get it. I thought this spell was supposed to be easy, you do it all the time at home."
"It will be after you practice, Adrian, one more time then we can finish for today." The young boy stared at his wand, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
"Lumos." He muttered, moving his wand slightly. A flicker of light, then it was glowing. "I did it, I did it! Rye did you see that I did it!"
"That was awesome Adrian, I'm so proud of you." Riva Galica said with a bright smile to her younger brother, "you better turn that off and get going soon though, I'm sure your friends are waiting."
The sibling got up from their table in the practically deserted Great Hall, the two had been working since dinner had ended. Walking out the two split ways, Adrian walking to the Hufflepuff dorms, and Riva upstairs to the Gryffindor dorms.
"Occampy scales." She said to the portrait covering the Gryffindor common room. Walking in she greeted her two roommates working at the fire and made her way up to her dorm. Grabbing her towels she decided to take a shower with her extra time but was interrupted by an owl at her window.
Moving over to open it she undid the letter from the golden brown owls leg. Giving her thanks he flew away leaving her alone in her room. The letter was addressed,
Riva Galica
Gryffindor tower
Dorm 148.
Tearing off the top of the envelope she took out the letter and let the envelope fall to her desk. Scanning through she smiled, a DADA club was a future cure-breakers dream. As long as it taught her defense, if it was more writing and reader Riva wasn't so sure she would like to join. 'Well it's better to know now rather than find out at the meeting' she decided, getting up to go meet with Professor Marlow.
Lucky for her the stairs seemed to like her that day, staying still as she made her way to the third floor. Knocking on the classroom door she heard a crash and an owl hooting, before Marlow opened the door.
"Ah, hello Miss. Galica. I presume you have gotten my letter?" Marlow said a suspicious smell of smoke coming from the room behind him. Riva raised her eyebrow at him, "I'm in the middle of moving one of our Mooncalves to the class for my first years, my owl, has some sort of phobia." He said letting Riva in, where she saw the bird in question fluttering above her head, the small Mooncalf following him nervously with his large eyes.
"Do you mind helping me a little first, I need more hands for this."
"Yeah course." Riva replied, excited.
"I just need you to see if you can lure Barneby down from the very delicate skeleton I have up there, here's one of his favorite treats. I'll be over here trying to figure out what to do with Marley."
Riva took the treat in her hand and pulled out her wand, casting Ascendio on the treat she had a little trouble getting her stubborn Hornbeam wand to cast it before slowly floating up the treat. She brought it up enough for the owl to see it and she quickly lowered it to her height in order to coax the owl down. Dropping it out of the air she moved over as Barneby landed and began to devour the treat. Marlow walked over, seemingly done with the Mooncalf, and smiled.
"Nice job, he's normally pretty stubborn once he gets up there, especially when there's new creatures in here. He seems to like you though."
As if he knew they were talking about him Barneby looked at them and puffed up his feathers at Professor Marlow before fluttering up to Marlows office.
"Well now I know for sure he is pissed at me." Marlow said with a frown. "Whaddya need?"
"I wanted to know more about the club."
"Ah, the club. I assumed it would be that, you're the first one to come ask about that."
"Who else was invited?"
"Can't tell you that."
"Ok, well then what are we going to be doing?"
"Might be able to tell you that."
"Then do tell." Riva responded confused.
"What do you want to know? I can't give away all my secrets."
"Will this be anything like class, the writing and papers take all the fun out of class."
"I'm shocked you would say that." Marlow said, feigning a disappointed expression.
"If you enjoy writing about these extraordinary beasts, when you could very well be working with them hands on, with spells and magic. I'm sorry Sir. but I think you would be alone in that thought."
"I personally believe I would not, my mother for example is deathly afraid of anything that moves. But to answer your question, no. We will be doing the exact opposite of what you consider boring, and I know it must be extremely boring to bore you, Miss. Future Curse Breaker." He said, sending her a smile. Of all the teachers to somehow know of her dreams to follow in her parents footsteps it was Marlow. "But, I am afraid I need to send you out. Mooncalves are very picky beasts and I need to get Marley here ready for the terrifying first years tomorrow."
"I'll have you know my brother is a first year, and he is anything but terrifying." Riva said with a frown, "but thank you for helping me."
"See you Friday." Marlow said with a wink, waving from where he stood next to the Mooncalves.
Riva made her way back to her dorms satisfied with her answer, and excited for Friday. Hopefully they would be doing some sort of fun spell work, maybe a duel after the dueling club was banned in her third year.
Walking back into the common room for the second time that night she heard a shout from one of her roommates."
"Riva, wanna play cards. My friend Kalina just got a new deck from town."
"Always, do you even need to ask?" Riva said walking over to the mixed group of Gryffindors, watching the deck as it shuffled itself and passed each player their cards. "Prepare to lose, I am a God at cards."
...
Far from the main Hogwarts castle a lone figure was walking along the water's edge, his steely grey eyes a contrast to his light olive skin. He turned when he heard the sound of a large bird, similar to his own Great Horned Owl. Surprisingly it was not his own Alistaire but another similarly large golden owl with a letter held in his claw. The bird landed on a low branch near where the boy was standing, and he made his way over. Checking the letter was addressed to him he undid it and fingered the elegant script reading,
Blaze McMorigan
Slytherin dungeons
Dorm 32.
Watching as the owl flew off in the direction of the castle he turned his attention back to his letter.
He eyed the Open in private line with suspicion and took out his Hornbeam wand as a caution, using the thin tip of his wand, he peeled open the letter. Assuring himself the letter was harmless Blaze put his wand back into his robes and took out the card inside. A quick read through left him confused, though he figured this was a way for Professor Marlow to help improve the skills of some of his students.
Tearing the letter in half he discarded it in the Black Lake, making his way back up to the castle, where advanced Transfiguration class was starting in ten minutes. Wednesday morning Transfiguration was shared with the Ravenclaws, a group Blaze had mixed feelings on. Many were high and mighty, taking the brilliance trait Ravenclaws shared as a personal compliment.
Classes started in fifteen minutes giving Blaze just enough time to find his target. Walking up to a girl standing alone on the bridge, looking into the Black Lake, he greeted her with a simple,
"Maeve."
The fourth year Gryffindor turned around, "Blaze, I got the thing, just please you cannot tell Marcos. He would be so mad." She said a scared look on her face when she saw him.
"He will not be told, at least not yet." He said, taking the small package from her. After finding out the girl had cheated on her long term boyfriend, he decided to use her close relationship with the Herbology Professor to his advantage. A dried Fluxweed plant would provide advanced magical healing. It sells for a lot outside of school.
"I did what you asked, don't tell him."
"You should not have cheated, then I would have no way to be doing this. You brought in on yourself." Huffing Maeve turned and speed walked back to the building, not wanting to be seen any longer with Blaze. Most people knew that him talking to you, meant he knew something. And if he was using that something against you he needed something from you.
Satisfied with his dealings he turned and walked back to the main part of the school where Transfiguration would be starting in five minutes. Passing Maeve on his way to the first floor classroom she gave him a dirty look from where she stood wrapped up in her Slytherin boyfriend.
Taking a seat at an unoccupied desk in the back of the Transfiguration room Blaze took out his paper and quills and scanned the room. A cluster of girls sat in the front chatting, looking towards one of the Slytherin guys every two minutes. Three Ravenclaw boys sat in a huddle looking at a book and talking over each other. The teacher, Professor Bell stood watching the clock as it neared lesson time.
Just as the bell was about to ring a Ravenclaw girl walked in, her brown hair done into a bun, and expression haughty.
"Next time that's points lost Miss. Marseille, please take a seat next to Mr. McMorigan and I can begin our lesson."
Noticing the empty seat next to him was the only one left unoccupied, Blaze moved his important things to the side to allow the girl to sit. He recognized her, their mothers were friends and they were forced to get along while the parents chatted, but he lost contact after his sister became ill. He lost contact with most of his former friends after that, his dad forced him to cut almost all contact with anyone he didn't like, which included the French pureblood family.
"Now if everyone could pay attention, this is an important spell and requires intense focus, one wrong move and everything will fail, we are summoning birds not removing limbs." Professor Bell raised her wand and conjured a flock of golden birds, which flew around the heads of some students before leaving through the open windows.
"All of your focus must be on the birds, I know of too many severed heads to risk anything."
The teacher continued lecturing for a while before setting them loose to attempt the spell themselves. While Blaze considered the ability to conjure a swarm of birds unnecessary he needed to successfully do the spell to keep the teacher from growing suspicious.
"Avis." He muttered and with a flash of blue light three birds appeared and fluttered around the room, inner mixing with other students conjurations. Professor Bell gave him a nod and a smile for his work.
Blaze continued to halfheartedly summon birds, many of the important transfiguration lessons would be happening later in the year. Human trasfiguations provided extreme amounts of power that Blaze wanted. After his fourth year he started focusing only on spells and classes that could improve his wizarding power, in order to help his mother and sister.
If he could just talk to his sister again he would be happier, he supposed. Catherine McMorgain was six when she got sick, the last time Blaze was able to hold a full conversation he was nine.
"If everyone could focus up front please." Professor Bell called to the class. "Most of you have gotten the hang of this spell. I want all of you to practice on your own time, but please make sure you do not disrupt anyone studying, I would recommend going outside. You are dismissed."
The one good thing about Professor Bell was her shorter classes, most of the work was done outside of class, which means she ended much earlier then most.
Leaving the class with his things Blaze moved back to the Slytherin dorms where he planned to spend his free period reading his newest book, Magical Defense and Attack by Ronoldo Hornato.
I won't introduce everyone the same way I swear, maybe one more chapter introducing people then I will get to the meeting, where everyone I didn't separately introduce will show. Though each character will get their own section, introduction or not. I aim to write the next few characters by next Wednesday- keeping Wednesdays as my average upload date… well except for today- in order to keep a schedule, though that all depends on the amount of submissions…(Pls send in characters-boys!- I have nothing to do but read them right now). Also a new update, try to have character forms done by April 15th, though I will most likely still take them after then.