AN: I had a concept for a multi chapter fic, but I'm not sure about the commitment, so I'm writing a prologue for it right now and we'll see how the muse flows. So I hope you guys enjoy this!
"Seven" by Taylor Swift is a good track to play with this.
CW: Murder and blood.
The halls and corridors of Hogwarts were so big and great in number that Rey was certain she would never learn how to find her way around the castle. She sprinted up the steps to the tower where Magical Theory was taught, after hastily thanking the portrait that had given her directions.
Right before the Clocktower rang out nine times, Rey burst through the door of the classroom and nearly tripped over her robes before slamming her books down on the desktop where Finn, Rose, and Poe were waiting.
"What took you so long?" Rose asked. She raised her eyebrows, but they couldn't be seen through her thick jet-black bangs. "I thought you said you wouldn't be long at breakfast."
"I wasn't." Rey set her Magical Theory textbook aside and pulled her quill and stopped bottle of ink outside of her patchwork schoolbag she had purchased from a secondhand shop in Diagon Alley. "I got lost."
"You should've left the Great Hall with us, we would have made sure we all got the right place," Finn said.
The Gryffindor had an impeccable sense of direction, Rey had learned throughout their first week. If only she had been so lucky.
"Don't feel too bad about it, the teacher isn't even here," Poe added.
Rey glanced around.
Indeed, all the seats had been filled with the students of their first year, despite the classroom seeming impossibly tiny from what Rey spotted of the tower outside.
But that was the way it was with the Wizarding World, Rey was learning. Nothing was as it seemed.
As Poe had said that, the energy of the classroom had shifted. Children turned around in their seats to chat or fiddle with Wizard Wheezes and other contraband.
"It's unprofessional," muttered a Slytherin boy with large ears poking out between cropped black curls. He also had his notebook and quills out and ready to go."I came here to learn, not to wait."
Rey glanced at him—it was Ben Solo, she remembered now. Hufflepuffs had Charms, Potions, and Flying with the Slytherins—although the latter two were classes that the entire year visited together.
She'd made a note of him in Charms class on Monday, for he had been raising his hand just as often as she had. He had also been taking notes so quickly and intently that he'd splattered ink onto his large, awkward nose, blending it into the dark freckles on his pale face.
"Looking forward to the lecture, then?" Rey asked, as a means of small talk.
He blinked, taking her in with those brown eyes, as if he'd never seen her before. "You're Kira Grey, aren't you?"
"Everyone calls me Rey." She nodded to the rest of her friends at the bench. "You also didn't answer the question."
"I am—I heard this class is good preparation for Arithmancy and Alchemy, and I hope to take the first in my third year and to be able to take Alchemy in my sixth and seventh."
"Wait, we can pick our classes later?" Rey glanced back at her friends.
"I hadn't mentioned that yet, did I?" Rose slapped her forehead. "I'd meant to—Paige couldn't dump many of them, though, not if she was to be an Auror."
"An Auror?" Rey frowned, stumbling over her pronunciation of the unfamiliar word.
"A dark wizard-catcher," Ben informed her coldly. "Don't you know anything?"
"Not for lack of trying," Rey shot back, mimicking his tone. "I can't help that I only found out about magic last December."
"You're a Muggle-born?" Ben frowned. "I was certain you were one of us."
"You should be more careful about how you say it," Poe warned. "Others might get the wrong idea about what you meant, Ben."
Ben turned pink and looked away, mumbling about his intentions.
"What're you talking about?" Rey asked, her voice dropping to a whisper.
Finn, Rose, and Poe all exchanged a nervous glance.
"He meant that you didn't grow up a witch," Poe said. "But some might think that he meant that you weren't really a witch. That you stole magic, or—blimey, it's complicated."
Rey was only more confused. "What did that have to do with me stealing magic?"
"We keep forgetting how little you know about the Wizarding World," Finn admitted. "And how little you would n about the past few years. They've been very different for us than they've been for you."
"And?" Rey prompted.
"I can't believe it hasn't come up before now," Rose muttered. "But basically, there was a far until last May, actually. Between the good wizards and witches, and the bad ones. The bad ones beloved that muggleborns weren't the same as witches and wizards who could trace their family back to always having magic, and didn't deserve it."
"It's a simplification, but we'll tell you more later," Poe promised. He then looked over his shoulder. "What's taking our professor so long?"
A tall woman with a flowing scarlet robe over her shorter black dress with clunky black boots strode in through the door. There was an aura of power around her, in her softly glimmering jewelry and the way she carried herself.
Much like McGonagall, this woman was a witch in every sense of the word.
There was something familiar about her, something that Rey could not quite place.
"I apologize for being late, class, I'm afraid I had a matter to resolve in the staff room. Won't happen again!"
She stood at the pulpit shaped like an owl at the front of the classroom and drew her wand from a pocket hidden in her scarlet robes. She then adjusted her hat, which had fallen askew, and began waving her wand about.
The chalk lifted itself from the dusty little tray and began to trace words over the blackboard.
"Welcome to Magical Theory!" The witch turned on her heels and smiled as the words appeared on the blackboard in a beautiful script. "I am Professor Valeris, I am usually the Arithomancy professor, but I also teach Magical Theory and other subjects regarding the intricacies of magic."
Rey hurried to scribble down the notes on the blackboard appearing along with detailed illustrations of various diagrams and wands and such objects.
"I see many of you are eager to learn!" Professor Valeris scanned their faces, smiling at Rey and Ben in particular. "That is good to see. We'll need bright students like you—the magical world will still be broken after the last few wars. Where death occurs, there is a chance for new life. Where fire burns down the forest, new seeds can take root."
She placed her wand on the pulpit and stepped forward, toward Rey and her friends. "We need the brightest minds and the strongest hearts to heal and come back stronger than. Ever before. I only hope that your year will pave the way."
She then looked to Ben. "We still have many shadows and scars from the war we need to work past. It's unfair, what you kids will have to face."
She stopped, surveying the first-years once more. "But forgive this old witch's musings—you've come here to learn about Magical Theory! Besides, there will be plenty of time to debate philosophy later!"
With a wink, Professor Valeris got to work, starting with the definition and very nature of magic.
"Magic is the very force we command that can bend the laws of reality, that blurs the line between life and death, dreaming and waking, reality and illusion," Professor Valeris said. "You have been blessed with the ability to draw on that force and act as you please with it."
Professor Valeris's expression then turned quite grave. "This is a very serious responsibility, what you've been given. Scholars have argued and studied all their life, and there is still much we don't understand about this current, magic, that unites us all."
She pulled her wand back out, twirling it in her fingers. "Magic can hurt. Magic can heal. It is a tool—and all disciplines are, despite what reputations certain schools of magic have."
She regarded them, a shadow passing over her face. "Hopefully we can unravel some of those mysteries in our class together."
Rey glanced around at her year, her cohort, as Professor Valeris launched into her lecture.
She felt a belonging for the first time, a camaraderie, even with more prickly peers like Ben. The idea that they would discover these secrets of the universe together thrilled her—it was beyond what she could have ever expected from the schools closer to home.
This was all that she had ever wanted.
She could only hope that this would never change, that their bonds would never break.
The first month of her education came and went so quickly that the leaves had changed before Rey had even noticed. She noticed them now that she and her friends were sitting outdoors under a grove near the Black Lake. The scarlet and gold leaves kept drifting onto their parchment, leather bound notebooks, and crisp textbook pages.
Still, Rey couldn't wipe the grin from her face no matter how hard she tried. Finn and Poe were talking about the upcoming Quidditch match, Slytherin versus Gryffindor, and the merits of the various brooms the teams were using. Kaydel, Jessika, Rose, and Tallie had thrown aside their homework by this point and taken to braiding each other's hair.
That left only Beaumont, Ben, and Rey really trying to do their homework.
"Give it up," Rose called. "It's only going to be beautiful like this outside for a few more weeks. Then it will be miserable and rainy, then miserable and snowy—"
"I rather like the rain," Rey interjected. Not just because it was a good day to sit inside, reading her old mythology books or playing with her toys as she did at home. She'd also liked to put on her rubber boots and go puddle-stomping in the rain, letting it soak through her clothes and looking up to what seemed like the sky falling.
Her mother was amused by it, but had always worried about a chill—
"What's wrong?"
Rey blinked, she realized her face had fallen. And that Ben was watching her with those brown eyes again.
"Nothing," she lied. She hadn't told anyone yet about the circumstances of her Hogwarts letter, or the truth that it had revealed—that her guardians were muggles and that her true parents were worthy witches and wizards. Her parents had admitted as much when she cornered them with the emerald ink, proof of their lies.
The problem was, she'd gleaned from Rose, who as her roommate was privy to more of her questions, that the previous school administration had sent it. Meaning the Death Eaters.
And her own place in this world seemed so precarious, that letter a changeling fantasy out of the movies her adoptive mother liked and the books that Rey herself liked to read.
Still, that letter had turned her world upside down in more ways than one. Everything had been changed and she was still just getting used to the witchy part of it all.
"Alright then," Ben finally answered. His expression told her enough, that he saw right through her but would not confront her on it, at least not here and now.
Rey looked back down to her textbook as she brushed more fallen leaves off. She was determined to finish the readings for Professor Solana, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
He was a charming, studious man that half the school had a crush on. Professor Solana in particular had taken to Rey and Ben, often asking them to help with demonstrations and little tasks like taking out the wastebaskets. But everyone liked him. He was patient, did interesting lessons, and so far seemed to be avoiding the peculiarities that haunted the previous professors.
The Defense Against the Dark Arts post was infamously cursed.
And yet, Professor Solana was holding his own.
Rey finally closed her book. Rose was right—she wouldn't get to enjoy a day like this forever.
She leaned back, taking in the light on the water, the gentle breeze rolling through the trees. Nearly half of Hogwarts was out by the lake, studying, playing, and otherwise just hanging out. Just existing in an idyllic bliss.
If only this belonging could last forever.
Suddenly, Ben scrambled to his feet, stuffing his things into his bag.
"What's wrong?" Poe asked.
"Late for a meeting with Professor Solana, I have to ask him about—about something." Before anyone could ask any more questions, Ben darted off.
"What's up with him?" Finn asked.
Poe and Kaydel shrugged.
"He's always been like that," Poe said.
"He's got his head in the clouds or his nose in a book, and forgets about things." Kaydel smiled. "He's weird sometimes, but he's our Ben."
That's when one of the shiny hardcover textbooks caught Rey's eye. Or rather, the glint of the textbook in the afternoon sun.
"He forgot this." Rey picked up the textbook. "I'll just go find him and give it to him. Be right back."
Rose waved a quick goodbye before the girls took sides in Poe and Finn's discussion about the upcoming Quidditch match.
Rey learned very quickly that she would be running all the way to Professor Solana's classroom, as she couldn't keep up with Ben Solo and his impossibly long strides.
"Stupid Solo, being so tall and all—" Rey just barely swooped away from Mrs. Norris's discerning scarlet eyes and hissing form. "Sorry, Mrs. Norris!"
The cat responded with a particularly vile hiss.
Rey continued on her way to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She'd just turned the corner onto the fourth floor at the correct corridor when a scream pierced the air.
Rey didn't know she could run so fast—she was certain that this was what it would be like, to fly on a broomstick when Madam Hooch's class started.
She dropped her book when she saw the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
Crumpled on the floor was Professor Solana, most certainly dead, with blood and—
And Ben Solo standing over him, gaze blank and crimson, covered in his professor's blood.
The edges of Rey's vision were turning black—she was certain she was going to vomit—
Ben turned towards her, his face aghast.
Rey couldn't help it—she screamed.
She couldn't quite remember how she ended up in the hospital wing. All that she knew was that it was dark now outside, and the lights were only on at the far end of the hospital wing. Starlight filtered through the tall, paneled windows. A blanket covered her, and there was a mug of hot chocolate in her shaking hands, that wouldn't stop shaking.
All she could see, even when she closed her eyes, was the sight of her professor's corpse—
At the next bed over was Ben, in a change of pajamas made of green silk for Slytherin, staring out at the sky.
At the far end of the hospital wing, Professor McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, and two people Rey had never seen before were talking.
"Quite frankly, Madam Organa, Mr. Solo, is that we do not know if Mr. Solo did in fact attack his teacher in any way," McGonagall said with a weary sigh. "Understand that I hope—daresay as much as you do—that this is not the case. Enough killing has happened in these halls in the last few years. But I have to take the evidence very seriously."
"What evidence?" The man was tall, with brown hair that was turning gray and a pirate-like swagger. He was not wearing the typical wizard robes, instead donning a leather jacket and muggle attire that was old fashioned but not completely out of place in the streets of London. "You've got nothing—"
"It is true that there is very little evidence," Professor McGonagall admitted. "The Aurors are on the scene right now, and to be fair, the lack of it does point to it not being Mr. Solo that killed Aleister Solana."
"Well, what do you have?" The short witch in white robes crossed her arms over her chest. "Because our son would never do this."
"I personally agree with that, Madam Organa, but—" McGonagall coughed and straightened her brooch. "Unfortunately, Mr. Solo was the only one in the classroom and he was alone at a meeting with Professor Solana, which does look very bad. And there is the business about his personal history, with that kidnapping by dark wizards—"
Rey could not even see Madam Organa's glare, or even her face, but she was certain that if she had caught the merest glimpse of it, she would be six feet under.
"That said, we did check his wand and he did not cast any of the spells necessary to have that effect," McGonagall continued. "Unfortunately, Professor Solana's wand was snapped by the perpetrator, so we cannot examine it. There was also the broken window. Other than that, there is not much either evidence for either way."
As the discussion turned to argument, Rey looked back to Ben.
Fear crept down her spine. Could one of her classmates, her close friends at eleven have done this?
Still, she set her hot chocolate aside and crept over to where Ben was waiting, approaching him like she might a dragon.
He did not look at her, not until she spoke his name.
"Ben?"
His eyes were wild—and brown, she noticed.
"I didn't do it, I tried to save him, you have to believe me—"
She hesitated. What she saw—she had heard McGonagall. But there was something unspeakably wrong about this. What had happened to Professor Solana?
But looking at his pale, freckled face, Rey's resolve tightened. For all of her doubts and fears, she knew a friend more than her own heart, no matter how close they truly were.
And Ben was a friend.
"I believe you," she said as she sat beside him. "Cross my heart."