You finally get to start seeing plot happen in Eden's time. YAY! (yes, I'm a little tired and mocking my own story).

Guys, this chapter should be split into two. The only reason it's not is because I don't want to write another Location Undisclosed. Although, we can all admit to know where most of those happen, am I right?


Monday, May 29, 1995

Ancient Runes Classroom

"Class is dismissed!"

The once quiet room erupted into a cacophony of noise as most of the fourth-year students rushed to leave the room. Out of the 23 students who took the class, there were only five who lingered. One to talk to the teacher, and four others.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Theo demanded softly as Eden closed her bag.

"Yes, I'm sure. We need to speak with her. This is the only class other than Arithmancy that we have with her that Bunny and Weasel aren't in either."

"Potty's going to kill us," Draco stated drily as he too, finished packing his bag.

Ambrosia and Eden scoffed. "I'd like to see him try. Come on." Her two male friends groaned before she silenced them with a look. "Join me if you want, but we're doing this with or without the two of you."

"No, no, we're coming," Draco started.

"We're just complaining about it," Theo finished. Draco emphatically nodded, and she felt like jinxing them both.

Instead of jinxing, she fondly rolled her eyes before she placed the experimental Cloaking Spell that Sirius and Remus created for her—they all assumed that Harry and the Weasel used the Map, and that's what prevented her from having a decent conversation with Hermione.

The four made their way over to their target as she finished talking to the Ancient Runes professor. "Hermione!" she greeted kindly.

The girl flinched before she turned around with a bright smile that dimmed slightly when she saw her friends standing behind her. "Eden. Malfoy, Nott, Smith," she greeted kindly, despite the obvious unease she was in.

Slytherins usually traveled in small packs like they currently were, and while most of the school thought it was so they could gang up on other students, most of the Ravenclaws—who were observant enough—and some of the Hufflepuffs—who had close friends or siblings in Slytherin—knew that it was for protection from those who wanted to do them harm.

"Can we speak with you?"

"Uhm . . . I don't . . ."

"Please? I have something for you." Hermione looked to Draco, Ambrosia, and Theo.

"Oh, don't worry about them. Think of them as clingy puppy dogs," Ambrosia said airily with a wave of her hand

The lion snorted and reluctantly smiled as Theo and Draco complained. "What if Harry and Ron come find us?"

Eden smiled. "They won't. At least, not with how they usually do." The girl didn't seem surprised that she knew about the Map. "Please?"

She sighed. "I usually go to the library after class, so, we might want to start heading there if you've really found a way to block the four of you from being found."

Eden grinned, nodded her head, and the four snakes dutifully followed the lion to her den.

Hogwarts Library

Once the four were sequestered in a table near the Restricted Section, she smiled at Hermione. "Hello," she said in a strange accent, that was less communication and more choking on her tongue.

She needed to work on it.

Hermione smiled softly, still a little nervous. "Hello, Eden, Malfoy, Nott, Smith," she repeated.

"Please, call me Theo," the dirty blonde insisted immediately. His cheeks were slightly red, and she, Draco, and Ambrosia exchanged identical looks.

She leaned over to the two of them. "Matchmaking?" she whispered softly.

Draco nodded. "I thought you'd never ask."

"This is going to be so fun!" Ambrosia squealed softly.

"Theo, then," Hermione hesitantly said.

"I'd be pleased if you called me Draco, Granger," her brother in all but blood insisted smoothly. Hermione looked at him with wide eyes, and an open mouth. "Eden likes you," he answered the unasked question.

"Call me Ambrosia," the final snake insisted.

Hermione's eyes widened, and while Eden had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing, she understood why she had that reaction. There were two Pureblood families who went by the name Smith at Hogwarts. One was descended from Hufflepuff, and the other was rumored to have descended from Ravenclaw.

The Smith family that Ambrosia came from—the one thought to have come from Ravenclaw (which was false)—frightened most people.

It was the coloring.

Everyone who was born of Smith blood, had deep black hair, pink eyes, pale white skin, and bright red lips.

When they were in first year, Ambrosia gathered all of the first years together to tell them that she had creature blood, and that she didn't know what it was, and that if anyone asked her about it, she would hex them to the moon.

Maybe if Eden asked Ambrosia's grandfather, he'd tell her . . .. Though, she'd have to corner him first, and that was difficult in any time.

"Please, call me Hermione." The softly spoken words brought her out of her mind.

The boys smiled and repeated her name, to which the lion blushed softly. Had Bunny and the Weasel really not treated her with basic kindness before . . . that basic curtesy made her uncomfortable?

If she were still on speaking terms with her brother, she'd smack him and tell him to make their ancestors proud.

While upset with Hermione's friends—and by consequence her brother—Eden was fairly pleased with the interaction and left the four to chat amongst themselves while she grabbed the items that she wanted to give Hermione.

She lifted her bag onto her lap and pulled out a shrunken book that she had sent—asked begged plead requested—Narcissa to five different stores on the Continent to find.

It was a stupid expensive book, but it would be needed for her plans to work—especially if she wanted Hermione to focus on healing people and not creatures. She placed the large, ancient tome that was currently the size of a muggle mass-market-paperback book—Sirius and Remus both had them—before she enlarged it to its original size—a foot thick, eighteen inches wide, and two feet long.

It was also stupid big.

She pulled out three other books, placed them on top of it, and Ambrosia put seven books by her grandfather on the pile, and together they pushed the books over to Hermione. "Here you are."

"The small ones are by my grandfather. He's the leading expert in healing Dark creatures, and Dark type witches and wizards," Ambrosia explained.

Hermione nodded and quickly looked them over, excitement bubbling on her face as she squealed softly. She opened the first one, saw that it was signed, and covered her mouth as a laugh left her throat. "Healer Smith is one of my idols," she gushed.

Ambrosia and Eden shared shocked faces. That was something they did not know.

After three minutes of gushing over the books by Healer Smith, she finally turned to the books that Eden had gotten her. As she looked at them, she read the titles softly under her breath. "The Olde Ways, Keeping Magic Alive by Blaise Willow—I've heard of him, actually. He's some kind of Pureblood Historian, right? Neutral Healing Magic by Lilith Nox—" She squealed softly. "She's my idol. The whole reason that I want to be a healer!" she gushed. The snakes laughed, and she blushed brightly before she continued to read the titles. "Healing Magic(k) of the Cosmos by Marse—I haven't heard of him. Who is he?"

"He was an expert in a branch of Healing Magick that used Astrology and Solar Magick, who died about 500 years ago. He's still one of the leading experts in that branch of Healing," Eden explained.

Hermione nodded. "And last, but not least—" Definitely not the least. "Healing Magic, Magick, and Magik by Utrix Lestat—" Hermione gasped before she looked at Eden accusingly. "Do you know how rare and bloody expensive this book is?" she hissed as she stroked over the cover and stared at the four snakes in horror.

Eden grinned and nodded. "If you consider the fact that Narcissa had to look in five very obscure places outside of Britain, and paid for it myself, yes. I'm aware of how valuable that book is. Really, it's the only surviving First Edition, handwritten by Utrix, and over 2,000 years old. It's not a surprise."

She gaped and looked like she wasn't breathing anymore. Ambrosia stood and moved to the other side of the table and sat down next to Hermione and started to rub her back. "You spent five million galleons to get a book? One of the rarest, if not the rarest, book in the world?" she demanded weakly.

Honestly, she looked like she was either about to explode, or faint. Would she do either when she learned of the true price?

"Well, between the five of us, I used the Potter Vaults, so, technically my parents spent seven and a half million galleons on the rarest book in the world," she answered flippantly.

It wasn't a surprise to Eden—or any scholar (or someone who knew their books)—that Healing Magic, Magick, and Magik was that expensive, as books that had anything to do with Magik were automatically expensive. Each full page was at least 1,000 galleons; half pages were 500; and if it was only mentioned it was 250 galleons.

The price was due to the amount of research and strength required to actually use the Aether. And well . . . since a third of the book was information on Aether Magik, it wasn't a surprise. Not only that, the pages of the book were about the same size as four put together when it was in its full size, which made each page about 4,000 galleons.

However, people couldn't get away with just mentioning the Aether. It had to be useful information for it to be priced. If it was useless—which basically meant if it didn't match up with Utrix's information, or just didn't make sense compared to what Utrix wrote—or just had the words Magik or Aether and nothing else, it was priced the same way any other book would be, especially if it was a work of fiction.

All in all, if it was a book that had something on Aether Magik, and it was stupid expensive, there was a high probability that it was useful information.

Really, it baffled Eden that people would try to even bother with the Aether when they weren't strong enough.

But Utrix . . . he was quite possibly one of the strongest wizards to have ever lived, and he was the leading expert on the Aether, even 2,000 years after his death. There were rumors that Merlin, Mordred, and Morgana had harnessed the Aether to protect Wizarding Britain from muggles, but it wasn't truly known.

Hermione's mouth flapped, and she looked shockingly like a fish out of water—for a moment, Eden wondered if her animagus would be a fish. "I can't take this!" She saw the pain in the lion's eyes, and heard it in her voice, at having to say that.

"You can," Eden started softly, "and you will."

She firmly shook her head. "No. I refuse."

Eden looked to the heavens to Pray, and noticed Hermione watching her with extreme interest. "Lady Eir, give me patience. Please. I ask this in exchange for a portion of my magic," she spoke in Latin. She lifted her hand, and a small ball of white light rose from her palm before it disappeared, and her tense muscles relaxed.

"What did you just do?"

"She Prayed to Lady Eir, the Olde goddess of Patience," Ambrosia explained.

She looked to Hermione. "Why can't you take the book?"

"Because I'm not worthy to even be looking at it."

"Don't you dare say that," Draco snarled. Hermione's eyes widened, and Eden and Ambrosia crossed their arms over their chests before they leaned back to watch with identical smirks. "You are the most brilliant witch of our age. You will make the best healer in the entire world, Hermione."

The lion scoffed. "Have you met, Eden?"

"You don't understand," Ambrosia said softly.

"Eden is Magically strong, wicked smart, and has deadly reflexes," Theo started to explain. "But, because she's a Pure Dark Core, she can't do much outside of Dark type and Neutral type Magic. She can cast some Gray Magic, as long as it's on the Darker end of the spectrum. But Light Magic? That physically hurts her to cast. You, however? You have the rare advantage of being a Neutral type Core. You can cast all types of Magic with ease—"

"You aren't safe from the Dark Addiction if you cast too Dark of Magic though," Eden quickly interjected. It was important that she know this now. She suffered the playful and frustrated nudge from her friend, and a shocking hex on the forehead from Ambrosia before he continued.

"—and because of that, you could heal anyone and anything. Lord Smith, Ambrosia's grandfather, he can only heal Dark Class because he's a Dark type Core. Hermione, with the four of us in your corner, you will go far in whatever career you decide. Further than if you only had Potter and Weasel-y. Weasley. You said you wanted to be a healer, so we're trying to help you. If you decide that you want to become a politician instead, we will help you."

Reluctantly, but they would.

"Why?"

"Because you saved me," Eden said softly. "You helped me and made me go to Madam P when I would have just waited for the pain to go away or talk to Snakey-Snape about it."

"Also," Draco started, "you're bloody smart."

"And Eden genuinely likes you, and she doesn't like a lot of people. Especially if she doesn't know them that well."

Hermione blushed and looked down before she stroked the cover. "I'm not strong enough for Aether Magik," she quietly bemoaned.

Draco scoffed. "Name one person other than Utrix and Merlin who is strong enough to use Aether Magik."

Something stirred in the air, and Eden tilted her head to the side as her left brow furrowed. "Do you guys feel that?" she asked softly. She straightened in her chair and looked around for a moment.

"Feel what?" Ambrosia questioned.

Her lips pulled down into a frown for a moment before she shook her head. "Nothing. I don't know what it is." The air stirred once more. "I can't explain it." She slumped back into her chair.

Soon you will know, my child.

Fingers ran through her hair, and she quickly stood, knocked her chair over, turned around, and saw a fading royal blue nebula for a brief second before it was gone.

"Eden?"

She shook her head as she thought of the brilliant purple mist she had seen when she was talking with Snakey-Snape about the Draught of Starlight. "Either I'm going crazy, or someone just ran their fingers through my hair."

She didn't want to mention the nebula she could no longer see nor the voice that she could no longer hear.

"Someone probably just shot a spell at you. Perhaps one of the Devil Twins," Theo soothed before he pulled her down by her wrist.

"Hey, they're nice."

"Says the girl who had her hair burned off after a prank gone wrong."

"They gave me a really nice and expensive hair regrowth potion!"

"And they said sorry," Ambrosia added on.

They all eventually to decide that someone had indeed cast a spell on her, and all agreed to disagree on who did it. She turned to Hermione. "If you won't accept the book as a gift, as it's meant to be, would you read it if it was on loan?" she demanded softly.

The lion thought for a moment before she nodded. "Yes."

"Good. The book is yours to read—Circe woman, just to read not own—calm down! The book is yours to read for the next foreseeable future."

"All of them?'

"Nope. The other three are yours, along with Lord Smith's books. I will not let them be on loan, and Lord Smith signed them for you. Take them, or I'm spelling them to follow you around until you give in and claim them."

"You're crazy," she laughed softly before she pulled the books closer to her.

Draco groaned in the back of his throat before he draped himself over Eden. "Trust me, dear, you don't know the half of it." Hermione blushed.

Eden laughed. "It's your fault for being my Enablers."

"It's your fault for making us your Enablers."

She looked to Hermione. "Do you want to become an Enabler? The pay is quite good, I assure you." She elbowed Draco and Theo when they snorted and kicked Ambrosia under the table when she snorted.

The lion laughed softly. "I don't think I'd be a very good one."

Eden flapped her hand at her. "Don't worry, you'll learn."

The five laughed, and the girl reluctantly agreed after Eden started to send parchment animals to 'attack' her—really, they were just really cute things that made the girl coo and keep them.

The group of five did many things after that.

They continued to study, which unfortunately didn't last long, as they were more interested in getting to know Hermione, and Hermione them.

After they gave up on studying, they started to make parchment animals, and even got into a competition to see who could make the cutest and most realistic—Ambrosia won most realistic, and Hermione won cutest when she made a bonobo monkey that would hug the nearest finger it could get to.

Theo tried to flirt, and even with the other three helping them, failed miserably as Hermione didn't seem to realize that that was what he was doing—Eden quickly began to suspect that Hermione wasn't into him that way.

Her mouth had many sores from trying not to laugh.

After Theo gave up on flirting, they all decided that an army needed to be made, and so they all used far too much parchment, ink, and blood—paper cuts sucked—to make an army of animals that all wore various types of armor, and wielded various types of weapons—to Eden's amusement, one of the monkeys that Draco made kept stealing quills and using them as swords against a serpent that Hermione made.

As they played and worked—kind of—they got to know one another, and were having quite possibly the best time, as they had each fallen out of their chairs many times laughing.

Eden was grateful that Tom had showed her how to place Privacy Wards.

It was amazing, until Bunny and the Weasel found them nearly three hours after class had finished.

"What are you four doing here? You're not supposed—" Weasel stopped speaking and turned a vibrant shade of red that clashed with his hair.

Eden tilted her head to the left as a smirk tugged on her lips. "Not supposed . . . to be here?" she finished for him. Weasel paled at her innocent tone. She pulled her wand and summoned a wooden box from her Trunk. She opened it, placed an extension charm on it, and waved her wand. The warrior animals that she had made started to march into the box. "Well, we were working on an Ancient Runes group project that the five of us were assigned to do together." She summoned another box and levitated it over to Hermione after she placed an extension charm on it. "Here you are."

"Oh yeah? What was it?" he demanded, obviously not believing the 'nasty little snake'.

"We had to write Runes on parchment animals to imbue them with a semblance of life," Hermione seamlessly answered as her own animals marched into her box.

Ambrosia, Draco, and Theo stood along with her when their animals were cleaned up as well. "We'll try and find another time to work on it. See you later dear," Ambrosia said as she inclined her head at the lion in respect. Eden grinned almost viciously when Theo and Draco kissed her hand in parting—like all Purebloods.

Eden moved around the table and pressed a kiss first to Hermione's right cheek, and then to the left cheek—just like she would with any of her close friends. "Don't let them kill your dreams," she whispered just before she stood next to her friends once more.

She waved to a Weasel that sputtered, ignored Bunny, and left before he could hurt her more than he already had.

She missed the dangerous look exchanged between her brothers.


Tuesday, May 29, 1945

Head Dorms

"Today we'll be doing something slightly different."

Eden's head was still slightly fuzzy from their morning kiss, so it took a moment for his words to process, but when they did, she perked up. "I can play with Abyss?" she asked while she bounced on the balls of her feet.

Tom laughed and fondly rolled his eyes. "Kind of. You're going to be reading about five Curses that I have chosen, and then you're going to practice in the Arena until you able to successfully cast each five times in a row, and then you're going to go into the Labyrinth where you and Abyss are going to practice against the creatures in there."

Her head tilted to the side. "Are you sure? I remember quite clearly that you said I was never allowed in there without you."

He stroked her face with the back of his hand. "That was before Abyss Claimed you. Do you remember what I told you about a Magic Born's Human?"

She nodded. "Yes. The official name is Sacrificial Human because they willingly Sacrifice a portion of their magic to keep the Magic Born alive and sane."

He curled his arm around the back of her neck and pulled her close. Her chin rested on his chest as she looked up at him. He pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. "Correct. You're Abyss' Sacrificial Human."

"Really?"

That made so much more sense now. Ever since she met him on Sunday, she had been in the Trunk with him and Tom, and he would barely let Tom touch her.

"Yes, and as such, he will die before he will let anything harm you." His grip tightened on her, and she leaned into his touch and wrapped her arms around his waist. "It's the only reason that you're going to be going in there without me," he muttered petulantly.

Eden snickered while he glanced at his watch behind her head. He cursed under his breath and pulled away from her. He waved his hand and five thick tomes landed on the coffee table. "I've marked the pages that you'll need to read. I'm so sorry, love. I have to go."

He ran to the door, and she chased after him. She grabbed his hand and cut off his reluctant protests with a quick kiss. "I love you. Sorry I was so late today."

He grinned and softly kissed her. "It's fine." He stroked her cheek. "I love you, too."

He left, and once she heard the portrait to the Head Dorms shut, slumped and rubbed at her aching stomach. She pulled her hand away and cursed when she saw it was covered in a thin layer of blood. She rolled her shirt up and tucked it into the fabric of her sports bra before she rolled the waistband of her yoga pants down until they rested low on her pelvis, and the small Adonis belt she had developed showed.

She took a deep breath and held her right hand out, and a small white flame appeared on the tip of her pointer finger. She curled the rest of her fingers before she held the small flame to the long gash that went from just below her right bottom rib, across her bellybutton, and to the top of her iliac crest—the spot just before the Adonis belt started.

The room was soon filled with the stench of burning flesh as she used the Cure of Fire to cauterize the wound. Once she got it to the point that she was able to heal it to—she had just learned the Cure, and wasn't very good at it—she untucked her shirt, and reached into her pearl bag and pulled out a pain relief cream that smelled like sweet lemons had a baby with lightning.

Once the throbbing agony in her stomach was reduced to a dull ache, she sat on the floor in front of the coffee table and laid the books out in front of her.

Curses of Emotions, Curses of the Sky, Curses of the Dead, Curses of the Seasons, and Curses of the Body were all thick tomes. All were written by Bartholomew Ferlet, and Dark Magic oozed from the thick, luxurious pages.

She sighed before she pulled the first book towards her and opened it to the strip of metal that acted as a bookmark.

When her eyes landed on what it was, she grinned. It was fairly plain, just a metal strip, but embossed into the inch-wide strip of metal in Tom's handwriting was I love you, Eden. A silly grin crossed her face, as it made the prospect of reading about soul-destroying Curses much easier to stomach.

She slipped the metal into her pearl bag, and decided that if Tom cared about it, he shouldn't have done it.

The first Curse she read about was called the Terror Bane. As she read, she hummed in the back of her throat.

Perhaps this task wouldn't be as bad as she thought it would be.

The gist of the Curse was that it scared someone. Being able to scare someone to death seemed like it could be useful, especially since she could choose how badly she scared someone—whether that was just piss-your-pants scared, or actually scare someone to death. She read over the instructions a few more times—until she was sure that she had them memorized—before she moved on to the next.

The Hex of Midnight was similar to the blinding jinx that she used on Krum—bastard (she still hadn't gotten over the fact that he Cursed her)—during the Second Task, only instead of it being caused by a bright light that had absolutely no concept of personal space, it caused the victim to suddenly see nothing. Unlike the jinx however, it lasted until the counter, the Cure of the Sun, was cast. There was, however, the slight drawback that there was a high chance of death with the Cure of the Sun.

When she had the instructions memorized, she moved on to the next book.

The Ghost Curse made her think that that could be one of the leading causes of ghosts. The Curse extracted someone's spirit from their body for 24 hours, and the body went into a deep sleep, similar to that of a coma. If the body was killed while the spirit was off exploring—or whatever it is one does while in spirit-form—the person was turned into a ghost until the end of time.

The Winter Night Curse was pretty self-explanatory in the name. It caused the effects of being outside in the middle of the night in the dead of winter. In small bursts, it caused varying levels of frostbite, but, if applied for too long, the victim would freeze to death. It was similar to the Terror Bane, and the Cruciatus in that it had to be actively cast, and you needed to concentrate on the amount of power put into the spell.

The last Curse, the Mind Curse, was a hard nope as it put someone into a coma.

After she finished reading and was sure that she remembered how to cast all of the spells, entered the trunk.

Compartment 1—Training Arena

"Really?" she demanded after the lid closed, and just before she slid down the railing,

Logic had made her lazy.

Or was it laziness that made her logical?

"I hate whenever you do that," he muttered once she safely made it to the bottom. "What are you so upset about? You were happy before I left for class."

She fondly rolled her eyes. "It's amazing what reading about Curses can do to a person," she cheerfully stated as she started towards the dummies.

"Which one upset you?"

He was genuinely confused. She paused and laughed for a moment before she continued on. "The Mind Curse." She stopped in front of a dummy, and it stepped towards her. She had to swat Fred away, who had decided it was an amazing idea to be extra vigilant and hover in front of her face.

See?

It was in love with her.

"What about it?" She scowled at the dummy, and he sighed. "Fine. Why does it bother you so much? It doesn't put them into a Magical Coma."

"You don't know that. They didn't decide what classified a Magical Coma until 19—and there's no way to reverse it." She pinched herself at the fact that she nearly revealed that it hadn't been classified until the early 80's.

He sighed—he most likely noticed the save of the slip. "Do you have issues with any of the others?"

"No. It's just the irreversible coma that I struggle with. I'm not trying to kill my competitors. While I will admit, that were I to be in real danger, the Mind Curse could be useful, I don't want to risk getting thrown in Azkaban because I cast an illegal, irreversible spell."

"You're right. I apologize. From now on, I will only give you spells that won't be easily Traced back to you."

"Thank you, love."

She cast a silent concealment charm on her stomach and pulled her shirt off. She stuffed it into her bag and flinched when Tom started to choke. "What's wrong?"

"Your clothing."

"I always wear this. What's wrong with it?"

She looked down and saw that she had forgotten to roll the waistband back up, and he was seeing far more skin than he was used to—even her swimsuits had covered more of her stomach than what was currently being shown. "Oh. Sorry." She started to unroll it and stopped when he protested. "What?"

"Don't. It's fine. If you're more comfortable like that, leave it," his voice was deep and husky and created goosebumps on her legs and arms.

She really was, to be honest. It was nice to not have the fabric rub against the once-cut-now-burn. "Are you okay with it? I know you have different standards than I do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, in your time it's common for girls to not show a lot of skin, isn't it?"

"Yes," he started hesitantly.

"Well, in my time, this is very common, and not really considered inappropriate unless I'm in the middle of the great hall." He cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable. "So, shall we get started?"

"Yes."

An hour later, and 182 casts—which consisted of 62 successes (and that was just barely meeting the requirement of being able to successfully cast each five times in a row)—she was flying out of the trunk to practice on something other than a dummy.

Compartment 10—Labyrinth

"Eden!"

She grinned and hopped onto the railing and was caught 30 feet from the ground when Abyss jumped and picked her up in his mouth. How he was able to grab her by the skin-tight t-strap of her sports bra, and not injure her, she didn't know, but was infinitely impressed.

"Abyss!" she cooed excitedly. She coated her hand in Raw Magic before she ran it along his fur. He laid on the ground, and she was released, and she immediately turned around and hugged his face.

"How was school, little one?" He nuzzled her stomach with his very wet nose, and eyes narrowed when she whimpered when he bumped the wound on her stomach. She put her hand on his muzzle and pushed some magic into him. He relaxed, scented nearly her entire body when he rubbed the side of his face against her, and then licked her face with his too-large tongue.

She laughed and wiped at her dripping face; clear saliva stuck to her arms before Tom banished it. "Thanks, love. It was good, mostly. I got cornered by my brother's best friend and a couple other students on my way to dinner, but, other than that I'm okay. How are you?"

"Were you hurt?" he demanded with a growl that shook the tall, stone walls.

"Not by them, no. I was able to defend myself against them well enough." She scratched the fur between his eyes and tunneled more magic into him in an attempt to get him to not think about her wording.

She shouldn't have even tried.

"Is that why you are wearing a concealment charm?"

"H-How did you know about that?"

"I smelled it. How were you injured?"

"Yes love, how?" The tone was thick and acerbic, and she winced at Tom knowing. "Remove the charm, or I will."

She groaned in pain when Abyss nudged her stomach with his nose—if it wasn't for the sticking charms or balancing spells, she would have fallen over. She dropped the concealment charm, and spoke over Abyss' low, guttural growl.

"One of the spells I used to defend myself backfired and hit me instead of them. It's why I was so late. Dragon, Sunshine, and Snakey-Snape had to heal me. It took them about five hours alternating between Medela Aer, the Cure of Obsidian, and the Cure of Glass. It looks like this because I used the Cure of Fire on it right after you left."

Abyss roared, and black flesh-eating saliva ate at the walls above her head—apparently it was more than flesh-eating (it also appeared that he could turn the deadly saliva on and off at will). He stood over her, as if that would protect her from something that wouldn't happen for another fifty years.

She understood why he—and a cussing Tom—were both upset. The Cure of Glass was only used when someone was covered in so many lacerations, there was almost no undamaged skin. It was similar to the Cure of Obsidian, where it healed them completely—the Cure of Obsidian was used for broken bones and less extreme amounts of lacerations—but it was like Medela Aer in that no scars were left. There would be phantom pains, but other than that, it would almost be like the cuts had never happened. The reason she still had a gash on her stomach was because the three had Drained themselves to the point they couldn't hold their wands anymore.

That was the problem with being a Pure Dark Core—it honestly had more drawbacks than it did advantages. The only healing spells that truly were effective used so much magic that it was almost dangerous to be healed by someone who wasn't as strong as the person injured was. She would have told them to leave it and would have waited for Tom if she wouldn't have potentially bled out waiting on Dark blood-replenishers to be made so she could wait for Tom.

She'd also have to explain Tom . . ..

"How did that happen?" She barely heard the newly composed Tom over the violent roaring of Abyss.

"A few windows shattered on top of the backfired spell. It was almost like it was Lash-Back, but considering I'm still alive . . ."

She didn't hear his response, as Abyss went on another spitting rampage. She wrapped her arms around a thick leg, and instead of feeding the Hellhound a small bit of magic like usual, she pushed a good portion of her Core into him.

His butt immediately fell to the ground and he gently nudged her out from under him before he laid down and nosed at her until she was nestled between his leg and neck as he purred contentedly. She relaxed against him and closed her eyes as she tried to will herself to stop shaking.

"Love, you need to unBind your Core," Tom insisted, "it's the only way that you're going to be able to continue. You gave Abyss a little too much with it Bound the way that you do."

"But, my roommates—"

"Will be fine. You're fairly calm right now. Do it, love."

Abyss groaned and nuzzled her, apparently eager to feel what she had hidden. She sighed at the insistent and annoying alpha-males before she did as demanded. "My Human," Abyss growled once her entire Core was flowing free around them. The air around them was thick with her magic and was heavy with the scent of ozone. Abyss started to snuffle and curled closer to her.

"You have three fourths left, love."

She nodded her head, and she and Abyss stayed cuddling as she Adjusted to her Core once more, and Abyss basked in its strength. She wiped away five Magical Tears before they stopped.

About ten minutes after she unBound her Core, Abyss insisted that she climb on top of him. She stood and stepped back five steps before she ran and jumped on top of him. He started to stand, and she was grateful for it, because falling ten feet would have been painful—she still needed to work on that particular Battle Magick Spell—even if she would be landing on a fluffy Hellhound.

Not that Abyss was fat.

He was very lean.

Granted . . . it still kind of hurt landing on him. The air was knocked out of her before she started to laugh. Once she had her composure back, she sat on him cross-legged between two of his six spinal horns, and at his command, had a firm grip on his soft fur before he started to stroll through the maze—for some reason, he always insisted that she hold onto his fur instead of one of his ten horns.

"I'm dropping the Attraction Spell."

"Alright."

"Your Mate has informed me that we will be practicing new spells today," the Hell Class Creatures casually started.

"Yes." She dearly hoped that she wasn't blushing, but by the way her face burned, she assumed that she was.

"You can cast them?"

She smiled. "Yes."

He inclined his large head and turned right when they reached an intersection. "I will allow no harm to come to you, as long as I am with you."

She leaned forward and kissed his head, and he purred while Tom grumbled. "You better not steal my witch, Abyss."

"She is my Human; thus, she is mine."

"I made you!" he sputtered.

"And I Chose her."

She was eternally amused. One was pissed, the other was as cool as a cucumber. "Abyss—" It was the tone of voice that spelt death to whomever it was directed towards.

Abyss crouch low and growled, and she had no doubt, that had Tom been there, he'd be Very Dead. "She. Is. Mine!" he snarled.

"I can be shared!" she quickly cut in before anything could be said between the two.

The two grumbled before they both reluctantly agreed to share her. Merlin, they were insane. She was the only one who actually had the right to be upset over being treated as if she were a mere object.

Although . . . when she considered Tom's magpie tendencies . . . and the fact that he Created Abyss . . .. It was understandable. Unfortunately.

But still.

The duo walked for a few more minutes before they came upon something that confused the absolute hell out of her. "What is that?"

"A War Flamingo."

She bit her lips as she tried to keep from laughing. "Pardon?" she squeaked.

"It is a War Class Creature. They are typically used as a mount when in a war setting due to their size and some of their . . . abilities."

She nodded as she looked down at the creature whose body was about the same height as a horse's head—and then its neck—and then its head—which made it three feet shorter than Abyss was tall—excluding his horns. "I can see why."

The bird stood on one leg—as was typical of a flamingo—and stared right at them. Its eyes were bright red and had no pupil. A thought occurred to her as she tore her gaze away from the dull, yet intelligent orbs. "Do War Class Creatures have their own language?"

"Yes, the War Language. I imagine it would be as unpleasant for you to acquire as the Dire Language." She shivered at the memory, and he growled. She ran a magic-coated hand along his fur, and he calmed near immediately.

The Flamingo stared at her and Abyss for a moment longer, before the foot that was tucked came down, and the ground around them shook. Abyss easily readjusted his stance, as if the sudden quaking didn't bother him, and she tightened her grip on his fur as her legs fell to either side of him to better grip—kind of.

He was too wide, and she too small for it to be called astride, so it was more like she was just doing the center splits on a fuzzy surface that curved. "I'm fine," she answered his growl.

"Love, cast one of the spells. It doesn't matter which. If it dies, it'll just disappear, and I'll create a new one after classes let out for the day."

She nodded her head, tightened her grip on her holly wand, and pointed it at the bird. It opened its mouth as she started to cast the spell, and she was forced to stop when her ears started to ring. She covered them with her forearms as she shook her head, and when she uncovered them, ignored the hot liquid that seeped down her neck.

She shook her head once more and started to cast a different spell than the one she had originally planned to cast. The ringing in her ears got louder, and she continued to cast, despite the blood that oozed down the sides of her neck due to the screeching that echoed violently around the Labyrinth.

A bright, white light left the tip of her wand, hit the bird, and it dissolved—much to her confusion. "Why'd it do that?" she asked after a moment.

Her ears still bled, but they didn't ring any longer.

"Because it's Conjured, it doesn't have a spirit to leave the body," Tom explained.

"Wait—does that mean Abyss and Thorin don't have spirits?"

"We do, as we are real."

She relaxed, and her sudden panic faded. "Good."

Abyss huffed and purred, and she got the distinct impression that he was both very pleased, and extremely amused. "Are you ready to continue?"

She nodded once more, and the duo continued to walk and talk until they came upon a creature that made her want to hit Tom, and then hit her face against a wall. "Really?" she demanded in a deadpan tone.

"Really."

She rolled her eyes at the smug man, and stared at the hydra, and began to debate which spell would be best to use. "Might I offer a suggestion?"

"Of course."

"I suggest not cutting off its heads," he commented somewhat sheepishly.

"You sound like you're speaking from experience," she commented with a smirk that tugged at her lips, and slightly narrowed eyes as she thought and planned while she stroked his fur.

He made a strange sound, almost like a growling whimper. "That is because I do. You see, Eden, it originally only had three heads."

She snorted. "And now it has—" she quickly counted "—eleven heads." She laughed long and loud. "What did you do, Abyss?"

"It encroached upon my sleeping space. I had to exert my dominance," he answered in a haughty voice that told her exactly who created him—yet again, more proof that Tom was a sociopath, and that their children would most likely be sociopaths as well. "It didn't go as planned, however."

Eden snorted, and covered her mouth with both hands to hide her laughter from the suddenly Very Insulted Hellhound underneath her. Her laughter quickly turned to a scream when she slipped off of Abyss when he jumped to the side to dodge the hydra that had suddenly lunged at them. Her scream was cut off as she landed against his right neck horn and had the breath knocked out of her, which was knocked out again when she landed on the floor.

"Eden?"

"I'm fine," she scowled.

She rolled to the side when a head tried to eat her and pushed her hands into the floor. She took a deep breath and tried to center herself, and ignore the three heads that lunged for her, and the growls and whimpers of Abyss, and the frantic shouts of Tom telling her to move.

Her eyes snapped open, and a sickly green glow filled the space, and she launched herself high into the air. Her hair brushed the ceiling, and as she fell, long necks with snapping teeth reached for her. She began to cast a spell, and a dark blue light left her wand, hit the ninth head, and the hydra fell limp.

She was caught in a slimy mouth and was almost swallowed before she was dropped on the ground and snuffled by Abyss while he whimpered. She coated her fingers in Raw Magic and rubbed it along one of the tears in his face. "Abyss, I'm fine."

He whimpered again before he curled around her. "You were injured because of me. I am regretful for what I have done."

Eden sighed and pushed more magic into him—it seemed to be the only way to get him to calm down. "Abyss, it's my fault because I wasn't holding onto you. Please don't feel guilty."

The beast howled and snuffled her again. "Love, he's just going to beat himself up about this for a while. It might just be best to move onto the next spell without waiting for him to cheer up."

She frowned before she nodded her head and fought her way out of Abyss' comforting—soothing warming enveloping smothering—embrace. The moment she did so, she tensed and quickly shot a white spell from her wand, and the red and gold serpent turned to a cube of ice.

"Hey! The book never said anything about ice cubes!" she groaned, "besides, I was aiming for mild frostbite, not ice cube. What the bloody hell happened?"

Tom laughed too hard to answer.

"You overpowered the spell," Abyss explained, still very upset. He nudged her, and she giggled softly before she climbed onto his back.

The duo explored—well, wandered—for twenty more minutes, and as they did so, she practiced the three spells she had already cast on the other creatures. She practiced on not overpowering them, and so far, had failed.

Miserably.

When they came across the conjured basilisk, she decided to try one of the remaining two spells—she also chose to try and ignore the similarity to Azteca. A pitch-black spell left the tip of her wand, and collided with the basilisk, and it dissolved into nothing. "Why—did I overpower it again?"

"No, you didn't overpower it. The Hex of Midnight can't be overpowered," Tom started, "a basilisk can naturally heal most damage done to its eyes, but when its sight is suddenly taken away like that, they die because it's something that they can't naturally heal."

"Ahh . . . okay. Note to self, don't hit Azteca with the Hex of Midnight." Tom laughed, and she sat silent on top of Abyss for a few minutes as she thought the implications of the Curse over before she cast tempus, and saw she had about fifteen minutes before she'd wake up.

Sadly, it didn't matter that she had gotten there nearly an hour late, she still needed to wake up at five to keep up appearances. "Do you have anything in here that would be interesting to cast the Terror Bane on?"

"Nightmare," Abyss immediately answered.

She snorted. "That could be very entertaining."

"Indeed."

Before Tom could voice his protests—because surely he'd have some—she and Abyss were on top of the Labyrinth as they searched for the fiery black horse. Once they found it, she climbed on top of Abyss' head and knelt, and braced herself on one of his horns with her left hand.

She pointed her wand, and shot the spell at the demon, and made sure to barely put any effort into it so she could see what a small 'dose' looked like.

As soon as the dark blue spell collided with the creature, the beast fell onto its side and curled into itself as heartbreaking shrieks left its huffing lips. She quickly canceled the spell and wiped at her eyes, and the Nightmare huffed, looked right into her eyes, before it stumbled to its feet and ran away.

"Does anyone else's heart hurt?" she asked after a minute.

"Nope," Tom said softly.

"While I can see as to why that would upset you, my Human, it was not something that upset me."

She nodded her head and tried to shove the memory into the back of her mind. She didn't think that she'd be using that spell again, anytime soon.

She yawned, and Abyss laid down and she slid off of his head, and he curled around her, and she fell asleep between his paws as he snuffled her.


Tuesday, May 30, 1995

Potion's Classroom

"Miss Potter, stay behind."

Eden tilted her head to the side and shrugged when her friends sent her concerned looks and waited for the other students to filter out of the room. She smiled at a worried Hermione and waved her off. Once the room was empty, she stood and moved to stand in front of Snakey-Snape's desk.

"Yessims?"

The man fondly rolled his eyes before he flicked his wand, and the door closed while extremely strong privacy wards were erected around the room. An opaque dome appeared around them and, considering the fact that she could no longer hear the faint bubbling from Weasel's exploded potion, she assumed that it was another strong silencing ward.

"I need to speak with you."

Her left brow furrowed. "If it's about my Core, I stopped Locking it. I've been meditating every morning with Siri and—"

"You are messing with very dangerous spells, Eden."

She froze. "What do you mean?" Fear filled her. "How can you tell?" she hissed, "I've been Clearing my wand!"

"Calm yourself, child. Dark Magic leaves a mark, of sorts, on those who practice it. Even those with Dark type Cores."

Her brows furrowed. "What type of mark?" She started to look at her hands and arms.

"Not that kind of mark, Eden. The mark that it leaves just gives off a certain feeling. It makes those around you intuitively feel that you are more powerful. Now, I know that for right now, you can blame it on the Forced Expansion of your Core, but, after that outburst a few weeks ago, everyone is expecting it to be settled down within the next week or two, and you'll go back to feeling like a normal student again."

"Well . . . what should I do about it?"

"I heard from a certain mangy mutt that you and it practice for an hour Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the mornings, and five hours on Saturdays, and two hours on Sundays. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, I'll be training you to Veil your Core. I've already cleared it with the bane of my existence."

She giggled at the fondness in his voice. "I thought that was me."

"No. Your mangy mutt of a godfather has won title that after he got me drunk last week and took Remus and I to a strip club."

Eden snorted, and wiped at her face. "Did you have fun?"

He glared at her. "No. I did not have fun."

"I'm surprised that you let Sirius do that. He's typically a pushover."

"I was drunk. Now, about the Veiling of your Core—"

"What does that mean? Is it similar to Masking something?"

"Yes. It's very difficult, but I have faith that you will be able to learn it quickly. I suggest you use this—" He handed her a slip of parchment with permission to use the Restricted Section "—to research Core Veils, and how to do it."

She nodded and tucked the parchment into her pocket. "Thanks for the warning, Snakey-Snape."

He inclined his head and opened his arms for a hug. She quickly ran to him and sighed contentedly when he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"Of course, my little princess."


Thursday, June 1, 1995

Room of Requirement

"The first thing that you need to do in order to Veil your Core, is to unBind your Core."

Eden breathed deeply as she tried to nip the apprehension in the bud and nodded her head before she did as she was told. Once her Core was completely free of its tight confines, she looked to the ground and shuffled her feet. Partly to hide the Magical Tears that still formed after she unBound it, fear, and to hide the shaking that having her magic unBound caused. Her hair fluttered around her head just as her heart fluttered around her chest.

She hoped that tata wouldn't think her strange.

She hoped that he wouldn't think her magic—who she was deep inside—strange.

"What's wrong?"

She bit her lips, and normal tears spilled out of her eyes. "I'm a freak," she croaked.

"Why would you say that?" he demanded. His words were thick with pain; he placed his hands on her shoulders and shook her slightly.

"Because of how big my Core is."

It didn't matter how many times she compared herself to Tom. It didn't matter that even though her Core was stupid large, his was almost triple the size of hers.

What did matter, however, was what people in her time thought. She was aware that her Core was much, much larger than those in her year, and even those in fifth, and quite possibly even sixth year. She was also aware that Dumbles was aware of the true size of her Core, as evident by the fact that he would randomly show up and ask her about her studies while he 'inconspicuously' Scanned her Core.

She was pulled out of her mind when Snakey-Snape spoke and shook her again. "Eden, your Core is beautiful, it is perfect for you," he avowed. She felt his familiar—recognizable tranquilizing soothing comforting—magic prod at her own a few times, from every direction. Her body became so taut that she was sure she would snap any moment. "I will admit, however, that it is . . . larger than I had originally anticipated. Poppy said it grew by two-fifths, right?"

She nodded. "Like I said, I'm a—" Before she could finish insulting herself, a metal gag wrapped tightly around her mouth and lower part of her head.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence." She glared at him, and her magic started to solidify into a type of sharp projectile behind him against her will. "I have only seen one other Core as strong as yours. You are not a freak, Eden. You are special. So, so special."

The projectile behind her tata vanished, and her magic Banished the muzzle, and her hair started to float threateningly around her head, and her heels lifted off of the ground. "Who?" she snarled, "who has a Core like mine that doesn't make me freakish? Who else is a freak?" she demanded harshly.

She was completely unaware of the way her magic hummed threateningly in the air, the way her eyes glowed, and the way her hair started to wrap around her neck, as if it was about to choke her as her feet came completely off of the ground.

Snakey-Snape remained unfazed, and just stared at her as he calmly, almost . . . reverently answered. "The Dark Lord."

Everything paused, and the room was silent as she stared at him, with her magic waiting for the next shoe to drop. She still hovered a few inches off of the ground, her hair still wrapped around her neck, and her eyes still glowed, but her magic was as still as a lake in the winter.

"What?"

"Yes. Your Core is nearly the same size as his—was." Her eyes narrowed, and before she could question him on the slip, or the sudden stroking of his left arm, he continued. "We don't have much time. We need to work on your Core." Her magic released her, and she landed lightly on the ground and her hair went back to floating serenely around her head. "Now that your Core is unBound, I want you to try and bring forth something called Raw Magic. What you do is—" he cut off with a choked gasp when she brought forth a ball of Raw Magic, roughly the size of a large pumpkin. "How—"

She shook her head as she smiled grimly. "Don't ask."

It was all Tom's fault.

He stared at her for a moment longer before he reluctantly nodded. "Do you know what a Dome Shield is?"

"Yes." She conjured one, and he breathed deeply.

"This will be easier than I anticipated," he hummed softly. "Basically, in order to Veil your Core, all you have to do, is put two Dome Shields around it, and that will hide the Stain of whatever Magic you're practicing, be it Dark Magic, or Black Magick."

"Okay."

For the next hour, they continued to practice, and she still hadn't been able to Veil her Core. Surprisingly, for as similar as it was to the way that she chose to Lock her Core away with, it wasn't the same at all. It was the same concept, nearly the same end goal, but it was the completely different fulfilment of the middle portion that made it so much more difficult.

Oh well.

She still had two more weeks before severe questions would be raised. Perhaps Tom would be able and willing to help her.

(he would)

Riddle Manor

NOAH POTTER: A DARK LADY IN THE MAKING?

Voldemort didn't get much further than the headline of the newspaper, as right underneath it was a picture of the once babe-now-girl who had defeated him with acidic tears.

A pressure built in his head.

"Eden," he whispered softly.

Noah—

Yes, Tom?

What?

I'm sorry, say that again?

I was talking to him. His name is Noah. Noah Smith. Why? Do you know him?

No. No, sorry.

He should have figured it out. It was so obvious now. He had said her name when he was fifteen years old—granted he had to erase Noah's mind since he hadn't been introduced to Eden at that point.

His head began to pound as a bony hand reached out and stroked the face of the girl who stood squished between two other children her age. The trio laughed, and shoved each other around, and it appeared they were on the shore of the Black Lake, before a girl who looked surprisingly like Noah Smith jumped onto Eden's back, even though she was much taller than the raven-haired girl.

The loop reset with . . . Ambrosia, was her name, wasn't it?—slipping off of Eden's back before she ducked out of frame. His eyes selfishly drunk in the face of the girl he had loved for over fifty years. The top three buttons of her shirt were undone, and her hair was in a high ponytail with long wisps of hair that framed her face. Her face was lit up with a smile so bright, his heart burned.

His eyes flickered to the words underneath the picture.

Pansy L. Parkinson (left) Noah E. Potter (center) Draco A. Malfoy (right) Ambrosia T. Smith (back) enjoy a rare, nice day at the Black Lake at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in early March.

The names even made sense.

How had he not noticed?

Something in his head snapped.

NOAH POTTER: ALMOST DIED IN TASK!

No!

His Eden.

NOAH POTTER: IN MAGICAL COMA

No!

His love.

What had he done?

Anguish ate at him, and mourning howls, and desperate shrieks filled the small, dilapidated room.

The girl—Noah—first year—she wasn't a dream.

NOAH POTTER: CHILD ABUSE VICTIM?

Why? No! No!

She was real.

NOAH POTTER: THE TRUTH!

Erase it!

She was alive.

NOAH POTTER: HOGWARTS HOUSE LOVE FOR THE UNEXPECTED CHAMPION

No!

The name—her friends called—her—not his imagination.

NOAH POTTER: AWAKE FROM MAGICAL COMA!

Wormtail! Erase it!

His heart.

NOAH POTTER: ALMOST DIED IN TASK! AGAIN!

Why, why, my Eden, why, WHY!?

His mind.

His soul.

His Eden.

No. No!

Wailing moans echoed around the abandoned property as he let his sorrow out for the entire world to hear.

The memories . . . every single time he had figured out that Noah Potter was his lovely Eden, raced around in his head, and the guilt and despair ate at him once more. He was the reason she went through all of that pain.

No. No. No. No.

What had he done?

"No!" he screamed. The trunk vibrated as Thorin and Abyss tried to leave their confines, and he did nothing to free them.

He hadn't done anything to free them the other times either.

He was—the reason—that she had all of those—scars on her—beautiful body.

He was—the reason—that her mother—hit her.

He was the reason her life was Hell.

No. No. No. No. No! NO!

He couldn't take it anymore—the guilt—the pain—the love—the hate—

"Wormtail!" Hurried footsteps climbed rickety stairs, and still he stared at the newspaper in his small hands. "Not my Eden. My sweet Eden. My love, my life, my soul."

Nagini wrapped around him and stared at the newspaper in his hands. She flicked her tongue out. "Is this the girl that Abyss speaks so highly of?"

"Yes," he moaned to his future Horcrux. He had tried to turn her into one before September but had quickly figured out that the homunculus form couldn't handle the magic needed for the Ritual.

"She is beautiful."

"The most beautiful woman I ever met. In mind, body, and soul."

The door creaked open. "M-M-Master?"

"Burn it! Erase it!" He threw the newspaper away from him and ignored Nagini's pleas that he stop. "Now. All of it."

"Again, my L-Lord?"

He sniffed and wiped at his eyes. "The last hour. Banish it from my mind. Now, Wormtail." His servant said nothing about the desperation that colored his tone.

He hadn't asked since the third time he had him erase his mind.

Voldemort closed his eyes, and when he opened them once more, he wondered why Abyss and Thorin were attempting to break out of the trunk and wondered where his precious Nagini had come from.

He only vaguely recognized the scent of ash upon the air.


I hope you guys liked it! Also, I fully expect most of you to stop reading after that last little bit.

I wanted to let you all know, that I will not be going back to my weekly update schedule until I have most, if not ALL of the rough draft for the second part done. I will try and update at least once a month, and it will only be when I have the time and desire to do so. (Your comments help tremendously when it comes to getting the desire to write and post again).

Anyway, with all of the COVID-19 stuff going on, stay safe, healthy, and happy. I know a lot of us are affected by it and my thoughts are with all of you who have been affected.