A/N- If I had to pick one moment where this story starts becoming more exciting and just overall better, it would be this chapter, and specifically, meeting Manakin. So, in the correct spirit of things, enjoy this 12k word chapter, and we will never look back and slow down again from this point onwards.
"And that is how Uric the Oddball- no, Emeric the Evil- died in a duel against Egbert the Egregregious..."
Albus sighed and reduced his eyes to half-open slits, thinking more about what Sevorian had told him while simultaneously trying to relax his brain. They would be meeting with Professor Lang the following morning, and he and all his friends had been sleeping early and eating extra servings and practising extra over the past two days to make sure they were in good condition for it. Scorpius was apparently continuing to rest in their History of Magic class, if his snoring was any indication of things.
"For the rest of the lesson, I will give you time to start planning your essay projects… please come over if you need any assistance… or I will be going to take a nap…"
Cassie raised her hand.
"...Yes?"
"Is it any part of Magic History, and can we talk to each other?"
"...Yes, and yes… Any more questions?"
The class shook their heads, and Professor Binns floated to the corner where he himself seemed to go to sleep, unmoving and in a somewhat reclining position. Albus tapped Scorpius on his shoulder to get him to wake up, which he did with a groan, before Luca told him what they were going to do.
Albus had been thinking about the project, actually. He knew he could just ask his father for any information about recent British Wizarding history, so he thought that he would not do anything close to his current home and time. Of course, he also knew he wanted to know more about Wandless Magic, so his path was pretty much already decided.
"Are you still going to do Newt Scamander, Cassie?" Albus asked.
Cassie shrugged. "Not so sure anymore: I was definitely going to do him but then I realised those two Ravenclaws in our year are his great-grandchildren. I kinda don't want to do someone's great-grandfather to be honest."
"Maybe you can just study the customs and methodology he introduced instead of the man himself? You'll probably still be able to get a lot of detail into a presentation on that."
"Maybe… that might work actually, yeah!"
Albus smiled at her but was interrupted by a devilish voice in his ear the moment she turned away.
"If your eyes get any more romantic they might just become liquid Amortenia!"
"Shut up, Scorp!"
The latter laughed loudly, causing the class to turn their heads briefly before ignoring them again.
"What are you going to do, anyway?" Albus asked curiously.
"I might do something related to the Mind Arts. You're just doing Wandless right?"
"Yeah, probably." said Albus. "Is that okay with you?"
Scorpius nodded. "That's fine."
"-I'm doing Non-Magical combat in the Wizarding World." butted in Ken, who was the only one- apart from Luca- who had stayed entirely conscious for the whole of Binn's lesson.
"Non-magical combat? That's a bit Muggle, isn't it?" asked Scorpius, but not in an unkind way. "Will you be able to find enough material to research and talk about?"
"I dunno. Professor Lang seems to think it is related to Magic, so I don't see any reason why I shouldn't research it further. I think we can use wandless magic to make normal physical strikes much more powerful, as well as to artificially increase speed and agility of movement which would be useful in any magical fight."
Albus considered it, and actually agreed. Surely being able to move around faster through using magic to provide extra strength to one's physical body would be useful in a duel- and perhaps not even that difficult? He saw that Scorpius also seemed thoughtful.
"What about you, Luca?" he asked, turning to their mousy-haired friend who was currently reading a book, apparently looking for a subject.
Luca turned his large brown eyes up at them. "I'm not quite sure yet... It's a weird one, but I think I might do Transportation?"
"-Transportation? Like… the Knight Bus?"
"No, you idiot!" Albus slapped Scorpius on the back of his head. "Apparition and Portkeying is what he means!"
Scorpius sulked. "You didn't know that!"
"It's obvious!"
Luca smiled. "Unfortunately, Scorp, Al is correct here."
"Ha!"
Albus was distracted from his smugness by a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see that some of the Hufflepuffs, as well as Eva from Slytherin, had gathered into a mini-queue. They were all eyeing him nervously.
"Uhh…why are you looking at me like that…?"
There was a moment of silence.
"Can we do Harry Potter?"
"-I want to do Hermione Granger actually."
"-I want to do Dumbledore!"
"Can more than one of us do Harry Potter?"
"Please!"
Albus put his red face in his hands in embarrassment, and mumbled through his fingers. "...Do whoever you like. Just… just make it historically accurate and not too exaggerated or dramatic please…and definitely don't read Rita Skeeter by the way."
That seemed to please the Hufflepuffs and Eva, who all consequently went back to their workplaces with Ken openly sniggering at his side.
With that, the lesson was over, and Albus and his friends walked towards their next lesson, Transfiguration. Scorpius nearly tripped on a trick stair- to the mirth of Ken and Albus- and they were regarded with a strange look by an older Slytherin by the name of Saul Montague. The four of them quickly moved away, as they were unnerved by his blank stare with him being a member of the supposed Trads, and entered their classroom.
"Slytherins! Speed race on today's practical!" cried Pallidus Nestor, one of the most outspoken Ravenclaws, as soon as they walked in. The Ravenclaws and Slytherins had generally grown quite close in Albus' year, so he grinned.
"You're on!"
"-I will time you then, students."
The class whipped their heads around to look at McGonagall, who had just entered and had a wry smile on her face.
"Go on then. You know what we are doing today, after all, and your woodlice are already on your desk. First House with five successful transfigurations will win this… Inter-House jostling… you seem so fond of."
And they were off. Even Garrett and Corman and Benjamin seemed like they were going to try, even though everybody knew that they were probably not going to be in the fastest five out of the Slytherin students.
"Remember, do not rush, students. I appreciate a bit of friendly competitive spirit as a motivator to get better at your spells, but failing to produce any transfiguration at all would be… rather counterproductive."
The double passed quickly. To his delight, Albus finished first this time, having gotten in his opinion slightly lucky in that he mastered the feeling of the spell quite quickly. But he had been swiftly followed by Cillian Osprey, the Ravenclaw who had originally been frightened of them but who had eventually warmed up in those classes which Albus had missed while in hospital. Not to be outdone, Scorpius, Luca and Pallidus all finished almost simultaneously, which left the score at 3-2 to Slytherin.
"Yes!"
That was Janet Aberall, from Ravenclaw. She beamed as Pallidus and Cillian whooped, showing her finished work to an approving McGonagall. That made things even at three to three, with each House needing two more to claim a victory. Unfortunately though, Albus became quite worried when he realised the Scamander twins could easily become the last two to help Ravenclaw win, for they were also quite close and just generally good at spellwork.
Across him, Ken was using his Crosslingual (as he had been doing frequently in those recent days) to try to read out loud and decipher the instructions, with his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Albus, Scorpius and Luca said nothing so as not to distract him; they saw that slowly but surely his extra diligence in his subjects was paying off- Ken's spellwork was improving across the board to match his potential.
"YES!"
"-Mr Scamander, I'm afraid I cannot accept a piece of wood which still has legs. You are supposed to transfigure it into a piece of tree bark, not a moving object."
"NO!"
But they were close. Cassie had managed to get the spell right, but only on the top half of her woodlice, as the bottom half was still woodlice and the back legs were wiggling around.
"Finally!"
"-Garrett?!"
"What!"
"How!"
The long-haired American put two fingers in the air and turned them towards himself, swinging his hips wildly in some sort of victory dance. McGonagall's eyebrow pulled an interesting manoeuvre behind him, to the amusement of all who saw.
"YES!" Ken jumped up, and with that, Slytherin became the winner. They all cheered joyfully, and even the Ravenclaws clapped amicably.
"The rest of you, please try to finish the task. Anybody who is done may do any work from other lessons which you have and we will discuss at the end our progress today- in ten minutes." McGonagall smiled.
Ten minutes later found the entire class having finished the task. McGonagall continued to look pleased.
"Well done everybody. It is very rare that I ever get a full class all mastering a spell in the allocated time, and your competition also showed me all your motivated but more importantly good-natured working attitudes. 20 points to both Houses Slytherin and Ravenclaw. I must say that both of your First Year cohorts for your respective Houses seem to be the ones who are most hard working and high achieving academically, and it is certainly very impressive to me as a teacher. Well done."
The class grinned, before Janet Aberall put her hand up.
"Miss Aberall?"
"This is a bit off-topic… but I just wanted to ask- will we be seeing the Chamber of Secrets soon?" she asked, finishing her sentence excitedly. Albus' ears perked up.
"Yes, you will. You will be visiting very soon, actually. It should only be a matter of days from now until you reach your notification. Please remember that it is non-compulsory, however, despite the fact that there are no dangers lurking there anymore."
"How long will we be staying there?" asked Pallidus.
"You will miss the second half of your lessons on the day you visit. It will just be a routine activity after all, only to celebrate history which has passed and has been buried as part of the heritage of this school."
History which has passed, and heritage which would be forever buried. Albus wanted to see the basilisk skeleton and understand his father's incredible achievements, but other than that surely- surely nothing else eventful could happen down there.
Right?
It was during lunch break that Albus remembered his dad had requested that he visit Hagrid: something he had not done at all for the whole of the term. He shot up immediately from his bench as soon as he realised, earning an incredulous stare from Scorpius.
"Where are you going?"
"I just remembered- my dad told me to visit Hagrid!"
"-To visit Hagrid?"
"Yeah! You guys should come as well!" he said, addressing his three best friends.
Luca exclaimed a quick "Sure!", with Ken nodding lazily next to him while he chewed the sandwich he had just stuffed his face with. Scorpius however frowned.
"I don't think he wants to see me."
"Come on, Scorp- he won't mind."
"-Easy for a Potter to say!"
"You're my friend!"
"That excuse barely worked last time at the train station! I'm sure he doesn't want a Malfoy in his house."
"That was because it was the start of the year! If he sees you are still my friend don't you think he will trust you more? You're coming with us, and that's final. I'll give you the sweet Professor Creevey gave me."
"-That man is the most unbelievably biased teacher to ever exist-"
"-I know, but still! Come!" Albus pulled Scorpius' shoulder eagerly, not wanting to wait any longer for lunch break to approach its end point. Scorpius glared at him through the corner of his eye.
"...What sweet did he give you anyway?" he asked slowly and contemplatively.
"A Pepper Imp." said Albus, popping the 'p'. Scorpius looked torn for a second after that.
"...Fine then, let's go before lunch break ends."
So the four of them rushed off, with Albus and Luca both dragging the considerably heavy Ken with one arm each as he tried to reach for another sandwich.
"Where is Hagrid's house anyway?" asked Luca. Albus pointed down at the vague shape in the distance near the Forbidden Forest.
"Down that way. It's the small brown one." They continued to walk quickly towards that direction, making sure not to trip on the somewhat soggy grass of the downwards-sloping hill. As they were nearing it Ken piped up again.
"Al?"
"Yeah, Ken?"
"Why are there small coats hanging on the hut door? Those surely can't be Hagrids."
They could see said coats better now that they were getting quite close. Indeed, they did not look like the Gamekeeper's size at all. But suddenly, with a jolt, Albus recognised a red velvet chequered scarf which was also there.
"That scarf is my cousin Rose's!" he whispered loudly, not wanting to be heard by people in the hut. "Of course! I shouldn't be surprised that I was really the only one who forgot to visit Hagrid."
Before long though, a voice carried through to where they were standing and caused them to inch closer to the hut. It was very clearly Rose's voice.
"So Albus hasn't come to visit you yet, Hagrid? Still, even now?" she was asking.
"Er… no, no, he hasn't yet. I'm sure he's jus' busy and forgot. Have you been seeing your cousin around recently at least?"
Albus and his friends frowned. There had been no amicable meetings between them and Rose's Gryffindor friends either before the Hospital Incident, or after the Hospital Incident.
"-No she hasn't. I keep telling her she's being unnecessarily unkind about it, but she's too stubborn." came the high-pitched voice of Alice Longbottom, Neville's daughter.
"It's- it's not that I'm unkind…-And it's definitely not like he's trying either is it!"
They could hear Hagrid shuffling around, creating a loud rumbling added to for some reason by the sounds of porcelain clinking.
"Yeh really should've seen him, Rose. Didn't you hear? He was injured in a fight with some nasty ol' Death Eaters' children. All the professors was talkin' about it. Professor Sevorian was not happy, oh no he was not happy at all! Got inter' a massive fight with Professor Creevey abou' it. Said there was no way he was goin' to throw Albus back to Gryffindor." After those words floated over to the ears of Albus and his friends, they began to feel quite bad for eavesdropping, but their curiosity was overwhelming too so they remained silent.
"He doesn't want to go back to Slytherin." said Rose quietly. They had to strain their ears to hear her. "He's completely changed. There's nothing left of what he used to be. Him and his three friends- including a Malfoy of all people- are completely obsessed with keeping to themselves, and trying to be the most powerful."
Albus blinked. He didn't really think they were, and the confused expressions were mirrored on his friends' faces- apart for Luca that was, as the latter just looked thoughtful.
"I keep telling you Rose, they aren't doing anything abnormal. They are just hard working and talented. You are making things up just because of the past history of the House." said Alice.
"-No. Rose is right, Alice. Haven't you seen the way Sevorian teaches them, like they are not even in the same year as us? Or how Lang is extra strict with them as if he too also has much higher expectations for what they can do? Have you seen how many Slytherins talk to them at meal times? Come on! It's obvious that Malfoy and his old Death Eater pals have sent their children to Hogwarts to corrupt more people again, and it's working- even on a Potter!" came an unfamiliar boy's voice. He could practically feel the anger of Scorpius now, and also felt annoyed at the unjustness of those statements, narrowing his eyes as if he was staring them in the face rather than looking at Hagrid's door. "Come on Annie! Back us up! Aren't they too arrogant for their own good?"
"-Huh? Oh… yeah, they are very handsome!" came a distracted voice.
"-Not handsome, Annie, for Merlin's sake! Arrogant!"
"They are very handsome though!" came the reply. Then Alice Longbottom entered the conversation again.
"-First of all, that's your imagination working. And plus! How is the way teachers treat them any judge of their own personalities? As far as I can tell they are just doing well and getting the rewards for it. And Malfoy shouldn't be treated so badly just for the actions of his grandfather: I don't know why Gryffindors are so rude about it."
Albus decided that he appreciated Neville's daughter a lot more than he ever had before.
"I dunno, I don't thin' Albus would be evil. And teachers don't normally show favourites like tha' either. Yeh shouldn't push people away in these times, Rose. It won't be good fer anyone-"
"-Then why hasn't he visited you? How can he turn his back on his whole family and not speak to a single one of us except Vic and Dom? Maybe I could expect him to do this to us, but I never thought he would betray Uncle Harry. Him and his dad have always been very close!"
Albus clenched his teeth in anger. How did she dare say he would betray his father? Boldly striding up, he knocked on the door without thinking and before his friends could react.
"Who is it?" They heard the thunderous footsteps of Hagrid once more, and it wasn't long before the door was opened in front of his face.
"Oh, it's you, Al! How come yeh came here?"
Albus started to speak, locking eyes with Rose, but Luca interrupted, having caught up with Scorpius and Ken.
"-Sorry Hagrid! We realised we got caught up with our fight and all and that we never came to visit, so we just ran here as soon as we remembered! We can go back outside though if you are busy, since we didn't realise you already had people here."
"Oh! How nice of yeh! Of course you can come on in! I'll bring yeh some rock cakes an' tea!"
Albus was about to get angry at Rose again when Scorpius stamped hard on his shoe, stopping him in just enough time. Only then did he realise that it would be unfair to Hagrid to start an argument in his own house before they had even had a proper meeting, and he tried to calm down a bit even though he was extremely offended by what his cousin had said. So they stood in the doorway silently, eyeing Rose and her friends on the massive circular table which did not look fit for human use.
"Hi, Al!" Alice said after a brief moment's pause. "Hi Luca, Ken, Scorpius!"
The four of them tried their best to smile without showing the fact that they had overheard the conversation, and Albus waved awkwardly.
"You haven't spoken to any of us at all, Albus. We're your family for Merlin's sake!" cried Rose suddenly.
Albus scowled and bit back an insult before settling with, "I seem to remember my family telling me to get away from them for being a Slytherin."
"-Now, now, come on 'ere, don' argue..." Hagrid interrupted, beginning to look slightly flustered.
"Don't worry, Hagrid. We'll go now since we have something to do in our Gryffindor dorms. We'll see you next time!"
"Oh- okay then… see yer next time, Rose, Alice, Daniel, Annie!"
Scorpius snorted as they passed. "Well, at least she still has some brains left not to be friends with Garland."
Rose stiffened but ignored them, with only Alice having a hint of a smile and waving back as she left. Hagrid closed the door behind the Gryffindors and ushered Albus and his friends in.
"Sorry it's been so long, Hagrid. I completely forgot that your house was on grounds and that we could visit." said Albus, deciding he would ignore the tension altogether.
"It's alrigh', I'm very happy to see ya, Al! And Ken and Luca… and Malfoy, I guess."
Despite Hagrid's awkward trailing off, Scorpius just seemed to be amused by things, for the moment.
"I can go if you do not want me here. I understand my father was not very pleasant to you at all."
"No, no- yer dad wasn' too bad, he was jus' a wuss when he wer' younger. -Actually he did help kill Dumbledore… but you're fine 'cause yer friends with Al."
"...Did you just call my dad a wuss?"
"Uh, yeh I did. He changed a lot, yer dad did. When he was a First Year I had to take him inter the Forbidden Forest for a detention, an' he was screamin' the whole time. Said he would get his parents to fire me. But Harry says he's fine now so that makes him fine in my book too, I guess."
"Screaming?"
"Yeh. He made me give him my dog Fang, an' when Fang was peeing behind a tree he though' Fang had disappeared an' he sent sparks straigh' into the air."
Albus was horrified, looking nervously at Scorpius' face, as the last thing he wanted to see was an explosion between his best friend and one of his family's closest friends. But he realised quickly that he had little to fear, as Scorpius was looking like he found it funny rather than offensive.
"My father never told me he was that bad when he was younger!"
"Well yeh, I don't think yer dad was ever really evil. My da used to say that when yer look aroun', yer see far more people who never escape pressure than people who do. Yer dad's dad was wher' the evil really was, and Draco had no other choice agains' that pressure. But it looks like he has become a lot better now, so that's good that he found his courage in the end."
Silence met the unexpectedly direct and heavy statement, but Scorpius was apparently fine with accepting it. He himself changed the subject, to the surprise of his friends.
"Do you know Professor Sevorian well by any chance, Mr Hagrid?"
"Huh? Don' call me Mr or Sir, I don' think it sounds righ'. But yeah, I should ask first, how has everythin' been, Albus? You learnin' new stuff?"
Albus nodded. "I've been very good, thanks Hagrid. We've been learning a whole load of things- it's quite a lot to remember! I can barely remember the start of term anymore!"
"Uh huh. Yer dad said the same thing when he firs' came to visit me. I hear you've been doin' well."
"Sorry Hagrid, but do you mind if I just interrupt and ask how you know?" Luca questioned innocently. Hagrid scratched his beard, handing over a plate of his famous rock cakes.
"Here, have a bite. But yeah, Luca, it was jus' mentioned once or twice in staff meetings. It ain't surprisin' to be honest that they are bein' extra careful with yeh, considerin' that, er, some people in yer House are still… er, quite…dangerous. But all the teachers have been sayin' good stuff, very good stuff. I never heard it for yer father or brother to be hones', Al. You four are doin' excellent accordin' to what I've heard."
Albus couldn't help but feel a rush of pride, especially when he heard the part about his brother. His friends were also in a lighter mood, perhaps helped unexpectedly by far too strong tea and teeth-breaking pastries which, despite their lacklustre taste, did set the scene to be very relaxed and familiar.
"And Professor Sevorian, sir?" asked Ken.
"Oh yes, Professor Sevorian. Well I can' say I've had too many private conversations wit' him, but he does ask a lot for stuff from the Forbidden Forest an' its beasts, so I do know him fine. He used to be a damn good fighter, yer know? He even duelled yer father a few times, Al, and yer dad used to say that if it was on a battlefield instea' of at a party Professor Sevorian would have won many more o' the fights. He was a pure combat wizard, wit' his friend who's now yer Professor Lang. They were very famous, back in the day. I think yer dad and Uncle Ron worked with 'em a lot in his Auror raids, 'cause they never lost any fights, and together they captured all the main Death Eaters left after the war in the end."
"How come they started teaching here then? Professor Sevorian said it was because they were injured but why couldn't they just go back? They seem perfectly healthy now."
Hagrid scratched his head again. "Yer see, no-one quite knows that. When yer mother and Rose's mother were pregnant wit' you two Sevorian quit his job and protected the Weasley-Potter family full-time, yer know Al? It was when lots o' the ol' Death Eaters like the Lestrange brothers had not been caught yet, and yer parents and Ron and Hermione were very scared that somethin' would happen, but they couldn't jus' quit their jobs as Ministry leaders."
Albus shared amazed looks with his friends. They had not known exactly how important and clearly trusted Sevorian had been in the past.
"Then not too long after yer were born Sevorian and yer father and Ron were able to catch Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange in one go. Then everythin' was much much safer so Sevorian didn't need to help anymore for Lily. So he wen' back to service, and we rarely saw or heard from him for the next five years. Apparently him and Lang were chasing some secret assassin group or summin like that, an' were constantly being tailed themselves, so they had to distance themselves completely from their ol' friends. Then, one day, news came out abou' a massive fight in Italy. Five of the mos' dangerous Dark wizard and witch assassins across the world wer' dead, and three more wer' captured. But Sevorian and Lang wer' injured badly in the battle, and nearly died. When they finally did recover, everybody expected them to go straigh' back into service, but they split up and wen' back to their ol' schools instead. It was big news when Sevorian signed up for Defense teacher."
"And he wasn't accepted?" asked Luca.
"No, no, he wasn't."
"Why?"
"He didn't get on well wit' the governors at all. They said it was not safe for a person like Sevorian to teach combat when he had been so powerful against enemies on the battlefield. So he could only become Potions professor two years after recovery when Al's father finally helped him get it. Nobody really knows what he was doin' in those two years, 'cause he basically disappeared again."
There was silence as the four boys digested the strange mysteries to the teacher who had undoubtedly been paying extra attention to them so far. Blocking wands, fighting secret assassin societies and standing in the path of authority. It was finally clear to them that whatever Sevorian had in mind for them, it wouldn't be simple.
"Hey, hey, let's not talk about those kind of things. Come on, I'll tell you all the story of how I met lil' Harry for the firs' time the year he joined Hogwarts."
Albus was happy for the subject change. His father had never told him what happened to Cousin Dudley when Hagrid came in, stating that it was Hagrid's story to tell.
"Whoever would have thought I would be here listening to Hagrid tell stories about eleven-year old Harry Potter?" mused Scorpius out loud.
"Just listen and enjoy it." suggested Ken in return. "It's not like we have anything to do until later, and I'm sure Hagrid will have a lot of stories to tell us."
"-Yer know what Harry said when I told him he wer' a wizard? He told me that I must have gotten the wrong person, and that he couldn't be the one who wer' a wizard! Wha' a long way he's come since then to save the Wizarding World, hasn't he?"
Silence.
The acrid smell of burning flesh invaded one's nostril as they stood in the remains of what once had been a bustling and indeed very large Squib settlement. Houses had been reduced to nothing but charred wood and rubble, and the trees were blackened and the earth itself scorched.
Harry Potter looked around warily at the eerie quiet of the ruins. There was absolutely nothing moving: like everything had been killed and only the people who had just apparated in a few hours ago were left.
"-Head Auror Potter, we've found one of the suspects behind the arson attack." Jeryll Faustus, one of Harry's longtime Auror partners, said, holding an old man with a feral gleam in his eye by the neck. Ron would have been the first port of call as partner, but Harry had completely rejected that idea this time as he was still furious over things Ron had said about Albus' Sorting.
"We caught him looting houses and killing some of the escaping women with a knife." said Faustus. Harry frowned, looking at the old man in disgust. He gestured for the tight grip to be released, and seconds later the man slumped roughly to the ground.
'Incarcerous'
Rope sprung all over his body and locked him in place. Harry normally did not like doing interrogation himself, but circumstances were dire and they desperately needed more information quickly. Fires- magical fires- had been starting all over Europe, and always in small magical or muggle villages, killing huge numbers of people at a time. The casters unfortunately were very clearly exceptionally powerful, as magical analysis quickly revealed that most of the fires started had easily reached the peak temperature of Fiendfyre: something which even the average wizard could never hope to defend themselves against.
"-Veritaserum." Harry ordered. Faustus looked surprised: they generally tried not to use it much outside of the legal court. But Harry had a home to return to this Christmas, especially wanting to talk to his son Albus, so he had no intention of returning without progress but at the same time had no intention of stalling things out passively.
The golden potion, watered down somewhat to save money, was applied to the old man's mouth. The latter leered in return, showing misshapen and yellow teeth. Harry felt goosebumps suddenly for reasons he didn't understand. Why was he the only sign of life left? Normally people who took advantage of others in times of dire destruction came out in droves, rather than there being only one person to think of doing so.
Something was very wrong here.
"Were you involved in the attack on this village, or were you being opportunistic?" Harry asked, not bothering to control his tone.
"...The old man… had little to do with the attack. He was just a predator, a vulture picking off innocents. -I have much to do with the attack, however." said the old man, sneering grotesquely. Harry's eyebrows furrowed, wondering why the old man referred to himself as a different person.
"What did you do then?" he asked.
The old man stayed silent for a while. Then, without warning, he reached out a very long tongue, which somehow managed to touch his eyeballs, and licked them slowly before retracting it again.
"Well… I WAS THE ONE WHO BURNT THE VILLAGE DOWN, OF COURSE!"
Suddenly, Harry noticed that the old man's mouth was bubbling froth, like a hot stove on fire. Golden fumes were being given off. The man was burning the veritaserum away in his own mouth.
"RUN, FAUSTUS! GET AWAY FROM HIM!"
The old man was laughing hysterically now. Before Harry's horrified eyes, his skin began bubbling like mud and peeling away.
"It's polyjuice potion!" shouted Faustus.
Soon, the bubbling was over, and Harry saw an Asian man with a ponytail emerging. The man's eyes were narrowed and slitted like a serpent's, and his nails were sharp as claws and black like they had been burned. But to his greatest shock, the man's skin seemed to have ugly patches of scales on it, and the rest were covered in mottled red burn scars.
"Go Pen Loh."
Harry didn't need an introduction. The fires across Europe were generally believed to have been from multiple wizards since they were so numerous, but one of the most infamous and most likely among suspected arsonists was the elusive wizard Go Pen Loh, a sadistic psychopath who originally hailed from Hong Kong. His monstrous appearance, almost like that of a dragon, gave him away instantly.
"Harry Potter! It is truly an honour, you know. You have been much more effective at tracking me in Britain than the aurors of any other country- I had to disguise myself as a wildfire far too many times: it's very uncomfortable!"
Suddenly the ropes around Go Pen Loh began to catch fire, and before they could do anything, they were instantly incinerated just from contact with his body. He stood up, and stretched his arms.
"These ropes were not very kind of you either, you know."
Harry kept his wand raised high. "Check if there's anyone else around." he whispered to Faustus. The latter quickly muttered a spell under his breath and shook his head.
"How many of the fires in the last year have you started, Mr Go?"
The latter laughed hysterically, showing triangular and yellowed teeth.
"Hmmmm, about ninety percent of them?" he said, grinning at them as if they were to be impressed. Harry only felt his heart sinking. There had been over 50 different fires in different countries; each time at least five to ten innocent people died.
"Why?"
"Why not? I love the smell of burning flesh: it conquers the heart and soul. I love the sound of children screaming as their parents are burned in front of their eyes- hence why I always try to keep them alive by the way. And most of all- it's in my blood! Dragon blood, that is!"
Harry felt nauseous already. "It's… in your blood?...How is that possible?" Go Pen Loh just shrugged exaggeratedly.
"Ask my father. Oh no, wait! I killed him when I was thirteen… oops!" he started laughing hysterically again, before he sobered and continued.
"Well, to answer your question, my father, Go Ko Zeng, was a legendary bounty hunter. I grew up with him, hunting and hunting people and magical creatures alike. Whichever prey fetched more money, he killed: including when he was sent on missions to kill human children. He relished the killing process! I believe he once murdered a newborn- scarcely two weeks old. -Some Indian family inheritance feud I believe, but that is irrelevant of course."
Harry felt sick to his stomach. Go Pen Loh continued.
"But one day, he found a new prey. He had killed a Chinese Fireball dragon by himself. The problem was, that the people of Asia pay a fortune for the body parts of a dragon on the black market, since they are so protected in all corners of the world so they are hard to obtain. So not only was it a battle he enjoyed greatly, being a man who loved to kill all things strong and beautiful- but it was also completely worth it for the money- money which overshadowed all he had earnt before. So, unbeknownst to me until much later, he injected dragon blood into my veins under an old transfiguration ritual. His own son! He wanted to turn me into a dragon so he could kill me for the money!"
Go Pen Loh laughed a booming laugh, and continued cackling until he was hunched on the floor with a hand on his stomach. Harry gripped his wand tighter than before, keeping it trained on the prone figure. To his right Faustus looked like he was ready to be sick. Again though, Go Pen Loh's face went from hysterical to just minorly amused immediately.
"But that was not enough for him! He continued looking for dragons, scouting their nests until, one fateful day, he found an egg. And what did he do? He stole the egg, bringing it back home. That night, when he was out collecting some payments, the egg's mother dragon came to our house. She set everything on fire- including me, the ten year old boy who was lying with incredibly high fevers in bed alone due to the side effects of the transfiguration ritual. I should have died, but I guess the blood saved me somehow, and I survived after days of agony. Of course, when I came back three years later I killed my father. I breathed fire in his face until his whole body melted completely into just putrid fats, and put that puddle right onto the pile of gold he had worked so hard to get!"
Harry said nothing. Go Pen Loh looked at him with a sombre expression, opening his mouth to say something-
Wait…
TEMPORARY ANTI-APPARITION WARDS!
"-PROTEGO MAXIMA!"
There was a huge eruption as the white-hot flames Go Pen Loh had breathed clashed against Harry's shield. The temperature was so insanely high that Harry felt his own skin burning even through the shield, and nearly dropped his wand. Go Pen Loh laughed louder and louder, sending another wave of blazing inferno rippling through the space between them.
"YOU DIE TONIGHT, MR POTTER!"
Harry deflected the next wave out, and in the one second he had between attacks he sent out a Stupefy. To his great dismay, Go Pen Loh blocked it away like it was nothing- without even using a wand.
"FAUSTUS, UNRAVEL THE ANTI-APPARITION WARDS!"
"UNDERSTOOD!"
And they were back at it again. A reducto smashed towards Go Pen Loh, but he dissipated it using a column of fire. He sent a whip of blue fire in return, which Harry barely ducked. Harry knew he had no choice- the wandless capabilities of Go Pen Loh made this life or death.
"SECTUMSEMPRA! SECTUMSEMPRA! REDUCTO!"
Three successive offensive spells flashed towards Go Pen Loh, and he only managed to block two, yelling out as a Sectumsempra tore a significant bite into his left calf.
"FAUSTUS!"
"NEARLY DONE!"
Go Pen Loh directed his eyes at Harry, and the latter could feel the pure rage emanating from him.
"FIENDFYRE!"
And, before Harry's horrified eyes, Fiendfyre broke out everywhere, controlled in a way Harry had never seen, exploding and completely filling the clearing they were standing in. Trees and rocks were incinerated in seconds as the billowing heat charged them in a vicious swell.
"ACCIO FIREBOLT!" Harry barely snatched onto his broom in time, drawing up and dragging Faustus by his collar to avoid the flames which had consumed the ground.
"I CAN CONTROL MY FIRE, MR POTTER! I BET YOU'VE NEVER SEEN MAGIC LIKE THIS BEFORE, HAVE YOU?!"
Go Pen Loh whipped his hands across. Arrows of flames smashed towards them.
"AGUAMENTI-"
"-NO!"
The water jets had no effect, and Harry barrel-twisted his broom downwards, barely escaping their trajectory.
"SECTUMSEMPRA! STUPEFY!"
Go Pen Loh raised walls of fire to counter the spell, but Harry was not done.
"GRUNDIS!"
Underneath them, the earth began to rumble uncontrollably. It was a spell Harry had learnt long after the war- the earthquake spell. Most wizards weren't used at all to fighting on such uneven ground.
Go Pen Loh snarled up at them as he tripped up and fell onto his knees. Harry saw his chance.
"NIVIS ETERNA!" First, a snowstorm spell. Around them, the air became cold immediately, finally putting out some of the Fiendfyre.
"FLIPENDO! REDUCTO!"
The spells were aimed true, and hit Go Pen Loh, throwing him brutally back onto his own fires. Harry flew lower, knowing that he had to bring him back for questioning.
There was no one there.
"Where's he gone? I haven't finished disabling the wards yet! He can't have apparated!" said Faustus. Harry narrowed his eyes.
'I had to disguise myself as a wildfire far too many times…'
"-AARGH!"
White hot pain, searing and continuous, burst into Harry's back. Sure enough, a flame had risen from the ground and impaled itself onto his shoulder, spreading down his spine. He screamed in agony, whipping around to throw it off, before it materialised into Go Pen Loh, hovering right next to them.
"FIENDFYRE!"
Finally, Harry felt the familiar tug of side-along apparition, and everything went black.
Albus blinked as he opened his eyes again slowly to light, which flooded through his eyelids as he woke up. He saw Scorpius already flicking his wand around in one hand while brushing his teeth manually with another. Luca was reading on his bed, and was also already fully-dressed, save for his cloak. As Albus got up, he tapped Ken on the shoulder; to his relief the latter seemed to have remembered that they would be meeting with Lang soon so he was not as difficult to get out of bed as he usually was.
"Should we get breakfast now?" whispered Luca, as it was still only 7 o'clock in the morning so the rest of their roommates were asleep.
"Sure. Just let me put on my tie and cloak."
"Yeah, don't forget to wear the charcoal jumper too. It's quite cold outside." said Scorpius.
Soon they were slipping out of their dorm silently. The common room was completely quiet as they descended down the stairs, so they didn't expect to see anyone there. But Albus nearly screamed when they saw one person sitting on the couch in the centre of the room.
Saul Montague was there again, sitting stock still and regarding them through his grey eyes without saying anything. As they anxiously walked past him, his eyes flickered curiously to follow them out, but he did nothing more other than tap his chin twice with two fingers for some reason. Albus and his friends all but threw the door open to get out of the Slytherin chambers as they scrambled out as fast as they could without appearing too suspicious.
"That guy gives me the complete creeps." said Ken.
Scorpius shivered. "Agreed."
But Albus began to feel quite nervous for some reason. They had been waiting for the wandless lesson so long that it was now becoming quite stressful the moments before it took place.
"Guys… I don't feel like eating that full of a breakfast to be honest."
"Yeah, let's just take some toast." Luckily, it seemed that his friends agreed with him. So they did just that, all spreading extra fruit preserve for energy from the sugars, and going on their way to Lang's usual classroom, which was on the Third Floor corridor.
When they got there, the air seemed to have a life of its own for a moment, flitting through their ears and rustling their hair alternately, and as the door slowly opened by itself, there was a feeling that this was a moment which would change their lives. They were not wrong.
"-Welcome, students. Our time over the past few weeks has been curtailed by incidents out of our control, but we are in no significant rush so that is not a huge issue." Professor Lang beckoned for them to come to the centre of the room, which was empty with the tables and chairs all in neat piles in the corner of the room.
"This meeting today is not a lesson. It is an administrative one."
Albus and his friends looked at each other confusedly.
"There is much to discuss before we decide how to move forward. And as I am an altogether blunt person who dislikes using too many words, I will be very clear about the bottom line of myself and Professor Sevorian, who will be equally important in overseeing your progress. The proposition is as follows. We have trained many elite combat wizards in our past careers, but we have never been able to train them so early on their journey to mastering magic. There is a big difference between learning wandless magic when you only know Wingardium Leviosa with a wand, versus learning wandless magic when you are already a proficient and high-ranked auror by using your wand. And, as you will see in the following chart, your four all have incredible potential with the art."
Professor Lang unrolled a piece of parchment which was written in Chinese characters. He waved his hand, and the characters became English letters.
Rough Guidance for Average Qigong Unit Bounds
"Qigong, pronounced "chi-gong", is our word for the study of wandless magic. It is borrowed from muggles, since their study is so similar to ours."
11-12: 0 - 40 (The most variation will be found here, as students start at vastly different levels)
12-13: 40 - 60 units
13 - 14: 60 - 100 units
14 - 15: 100 - 130 units
15 - 16: 130 - 160
16 - 17: 160 - 190
17 - 18: 190 - 240 (students have matured differently by this time)
They gasped as they read the parchment successively. "So…" started Ken.
"-So you three, Malfoy, Handa and Miniati, display the talent of a midrange third year."
"-And Albus is a midrange sixth year?"
"In potential, yes. Mr Potter, you clearly have a strange affinity to Qigong. I don't know how it happened, or what it will mean, but can I ask you how you feel about being strong at it? Do you still think it is an inferior art?"
Albus knew he did not. "To be honest, sir, I don't really know anymore. I know the flow of energy felt different to anything I have ever felt before, and I realise that wandless magic is nowhere near as weak as I once thought it was." Professor Lang nodded. "-But I don't know whether it will be stronger than wand magic. I am definitely interested in pursuing it, though."
"Good, and the rest of you three?" he looked to Scorpius, Luca and Ken, who seemed surprised to be called on.
"Us? I think it's very interesting too, but at the same time, we can't compete with Albus, so do we belong in the same conversation?" asked Scorpius.
Professor Lang nodded once more as if that was what he was expecting them to say.
"There is something I must tell you now. Professor Sevorian and I sense in all of you a potential to learn this powerful art, and perhaps one day push beyond the boundaries. But, Mr Malfoy, what do you think the very highest qigong practitioners are like in terms of their development?"
Scorpius blinked. "Well… obviously well trained in their art, and probably with strong mental control? They have to dispel the energy after all. Just like magic with wands, you need training and concentration."
"No." Professor Lang interrupted. Scorpius raised his eyebrows inquisitively.
"This is what I need you to understand, boys. 'Wandless magic' is far more complicated than wand magic, because of the lack of a premade object to aid you. You are your only weapon, so you need many qualities, not just those two. The first is physical training- or you will run out of energy too quick and never be able to have an impact with your power. Furthermore, wandless magic works best when you use it to embellish physical moves, as you will save energy and yet deliver massively destructive bouts of power in combat."
"The second is mental training, as Mr Malfoy says. Concentration is key to any wandless magic. And boys, when young ones hear the word 'concentration' they think that it's the same as the concentration your mother asks them to give when she wants you to read a book in silence. That is completely wrong. This concentration is something none of you have ever even come close to unlocking up to this point. The state of flow, where your energy goes exactly where you want it and is not wasted or caught up in mental blockages."
"The third is magical training. Naturally, there are different ways to use your qigong. Form training will be very important to help you understand how to use your magic, or you will be useless. Magical energy is in this category part of this- talent, so to call it."
"The final component, nearly always missed, is emotional training. Wandless magic is uncontrolled magic, in many senses. The only person who can rein your power in is yourself. There are three usual situations for warriors training in the art of qigong without proper emotional strength. The most common is that they fail, and often go mad trying. The emotions form a blockade, and they can never pick anything up. Many kill themselves. Qigong is the only practice where you can consume your own life force. Completely."
The four of them shivered.
"The other two scenarios are much worse. One is that you become too powerful, and having lack of emotional control means you end up attacking yourself as your energy seeks to come out. It often happens to Qigong students when they are alone- out of nowhere. They burn up in flames, usually, and die."
"The final scenario is probably the worst. You lose control in a public area, and the magic explodes out your body and kills all those around you. You then are left as a murderer, with all that murderous energy unable to be removed as it is yours."
"Now, I don't tell you this to scare you- although it should be a true warning. Why do I tell you this?"
"Because we are completely underdeveloped. Not just in lack of form training. But, more importantly, in mental training, physical training, emotional training." said Luca.
"Very good, Miniati. Now, Mr Potter, you achieved 173 units in the energy test. Does that mean I should start teaching you complicated wandless spells?"
"No!" Albus realised now, and he felt somehow elated- he knew he would not be alone. "I understand now! My energy was strangely high- but that means nothing, as you said. I really need to work on focus training, and form training, or I guess I won't be able to do a single spell?"
Lang smiled now for the first time. "Correct. Right now the most you can do is a random burst of energy, like the one you performed under duress in the attack, but that would only ever happen uncontrollably and only in times of great stress. In fact, Mr Potter, you will soon encounter your own difficulties which will come with your unusually high potential, and these will be difficulties you must deal with alone and which will undoubtedly slow you down."
"Why?" asked Scorpius before Albus could do the same.
"Wandless magic and wand magic skills are initially incompatible for beginners. It has been often observed in Asian schools- so much that nowadays they only start wand magic in second year at the main Chinese school. When we have taught Aurors in the past they've always had huge wand magic reserves but low wandless magic reserves, which has caused them to reach hugely time-consuming roadblocks in trying to pick up wandless. But Mr Potter, if he chooses to train wandless magic, will have too much power to initially control and I expect his wand magic might take a huge hit in an effect which is opposite to what we have seen with previous trainees. I will be honest: this is likely going to happen to all of you to some degree, and may well be worse even if you don't train and improve your wandless art heavily this year. At least under our watch we will help you manage this conflict and can get you to a desirable balance of power under both fronts as soon as we can."
"How bad will it be?" asked Albus nervously, not wanting at all to suddenly become bottom of the class in subjects like Transfiguration and Charms and look like a complete idiot who had forgotten how to do magic.
"Not so bad, hopefully, because you are still young. But you will need extra wand magic training to cope with the change: which we will give you."
Scorpius put his hand up.
"Yes, Mr Malfoy?"
"Sorry sir, but if we aren't here today for a lesson what are we here for? And why are you teaching us anyway?"
"-He wants us to choose." interrupted Luca. Professor Lang nodded.
"Choose?"
"Choose whether to go forwards with the training or not."
"-Of course we want to go forwards-" began Scorpius, Ken and Albus all at the same time.
"-The reason why it is a choice is because it's not so simple as just getting a lot of extra power for a little bit of time. By going forwards with this training, Al and Scor will be completely taking themselves off from the path that their parents and ancestors have all taken before them. We will become Wandless Magicians, at least to start off. And it will change our path in conventional Western wand magic forever, removing a lot of the support we have even before we could ever use it."
They all closed their mouths. Professor Lang continued on Luca's point.
"Furthermore, I want to be very clear. Not only is this an irrevocable change to your identity as magicians, but it will be immensely, immensely difficult. At your age it is virtually impossible to pick up something which requires so much patience. For every one hour I spend teaching you, you will need to spend at least one to two more alone training: I think to start off this level of commitment is realistic. And Miniati is right, it will not be quick results: for only after hours and days of high effort and low results will you finally see the wandless world open up to you, because there are a lot of basic structures to form which you simply don't need to learn with a wand but which you cannot do without as a wandless practitioner."
They said nothing, contemplating it much more carefully now that they understood Professor Lang's words.
"It's a simple enough decision for me. I'm a Muggleborn so it makes no difference to me anyway. I'll do whatever the others do, so long as it makes us strong in the long run and isn't a waste of time- which of course it won't be!" said Ken.
Professor Lang smirked, and responded simply. "What I can do is guarantee that by the time we are done training you- if the programme is successful and you have committed to it properly- there will be no one in this country who would not call you strong. But more importantly, there will be very few people in this world who will be able to defeat you in a full magic duel."
Luca also nodded. "I don't mind too much either if it's the decision of the others, but I would like to do a little bit of research if that is okay? I'm not necessarily convinced wandless magic is better than wand magic yet."
"It is a big decision, and, just like in the field, a big moment always requires oneself to be the one who has researched it rather than just preparing for it by listening to others give you their information. This is acceptable."
But Scorpius it seemed had the clearest idea out of all of them.
"Can we try the training regime first? The Christmas holidays are nearly here so can we train until then under your schedule and then decide after the holidays? I… I want to talk to my father before I make the decision, but I also want to see how tiring it really is."
"-Me too." interrupted Albus, who wholeheartedly agreed with the parent consultation bit. When he had been young and secretly pretending to be his father and reenacting the best stories while alone, his favourite thing to do was to take sticks from the garden and wave them around just like he imagined his father had done years prior with his wand. He smiled when he realised he still remembered his old movement routines. He would point his chosen stick straight while holding it in two tiny hands for the Stupefy, hold it to his chest for the Protego, and flick it quickly upwards for the Expelliarmus.
Now, he was close to making the decision to leave that all behind. Everything he had imagined his father to be- and which he therefore used to dream of becoming- would be unreachable to him from that point onwards. He knew he had to ensure he had his father's view on things before he committed to something so drastic.
"-Then the best way, is to pretend you have said yes." said Professor Lang. "Useless pretences will not emulate the whole thing well, and will also be a massive waste of time. That means we will move forwards with the programme prepared, and you will be committing yourselves to practising everything properly. I will not be offended if you drop out at any point from the training. But I refuse to ever spend time training lazy children. I hope that is clear."
They all nodded firmly.
"So, we move forwards like you have said yes?"
"-For now." said Albus.
"For now." agreed Professor Lang, who then thrust his hand into the air quickly and said, "Expecto Patronum." A silvery wolf appeared, as opposed to Professor Sevorian's tiger.
"Find Seth Sevorian for me, and tell him to come as we prepared."
The wolf seemed to nod quickly, and left the classroom.
"The next part for today will be purely administrative. It is crucial you have a fully organised schedule, for training without structure is training without reaching one hundred percent potential. You will meet all your four teachers now, though you obviously already know myself and Professor Sevorian."
"Four?!"
"Wandless, wand, physical and mental." smirked Professor Lang. "I already said that we would not be making any lazy attempts, didn't I? Now, while we wait for them to arrive, I will go outside to make some preparations. I have a simple task for you in the meantime. I have prepared very simple sheets, one for the group and one for each of you. First I want each of you to rank your own affinities, in your view, for each of these areas, against each other. By affinities I do not mean current skill and training- I mean how compatible you think you would be with these areas at a high level. Next, when you are done, you will come up with a consensus rank together of how you stack up as a group in each of those categories. One is the best overall, fourth the worst. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. I will be back in five minutes, and Professor Sevorian will arrive shortly after. You may and should discuss everything together."
With that and another wave of his hand, papers landed on their desk and he left the room.
"Merlin, I never thought it would be this… serious." said Scorpius.
"Yeah same here. But I suppose it's a good thing."
"I think you're right with that, Al. There's absolutely no point going about it with half effort. Then we will end up isolating ourselves from the system while achieving useless results… I think."
"But Luca, don't you fear that the commitment will be too high?" asked Ken. "My academics can't hold up as well as yours, to start off with."
"I think they will be prepared for that. And Ken, you really should stop putting yourself down! You came fifth in Transfiguration today, and it's clear you're only getting faster!"
"Yeah!" said Scorpius. "I think the training will help with that, especially considering your work rate."
Albus nodded. "Definitely. Should we complete this exercise then?"
"Okay then..." said Ken, who turned to it while picking up the quill which had also appeared. Albus looked down at his own.
Name: Albus Potter
Areas
Wandless Magic Rank:
Wand Magic Rank:
Mental Training Rank:
Physical Rank:
"Do I put wandless magic first or wand magic?" he asked his friends.
"I think wandless. You don't seem to have freakish sixth year affinity for wand magic before even starting, for all that you are good at it." noted Scorpius.
"I guess that's true..."
"-What even is mental training anyway? Just focus?"
"Probably focus and emotional." said Luca. "I wonder if Lang or Sevorian will be teaching us?"
"Oh yeah! Who do you reckon the other two teachers will be? Just Hogwarts professors?"
Albus shook his head. "But then those professors would have given some sign they knew we would be training together. It doesn't seem to be Professors, but then, who could it be?"
They had no answer to that yet, but they did finally have four filled Individual Ranking sheets, which they exchanged with each other.
Name: Albus Potter
Areas
Rank 1: Wandless Magic
Rank 2: Wand Magic
Rank 3: Mental Training
Rank 4: Physical Training
Name: Scorpius Malfoy
Areas
Rank 1: Mental Training
Rank 2: Wand Magic
Rank 3: Wandless Magic
Rank 4: Physical Training
Name: Luca Miniati
Subjects
Rank 1: Wand Magic
Rank 2: Wandless Magic
Rank 3: Mental Training
Rank 4: Physical Training
Name: Kenichi Handa
Subjects
Rank 1: Physical Training
Rank 2: Wandless Magic
Rank 3: Wand Magic
Rank 4: Mental Training
"Mental training as first, Scorp?"
"Yeah. I've always liked the idea of Occlumency and stuff and I think I'm a pretty calm person who suits the kind of thing."
"Fair enough. I'm surprised Luca has it as three though. You're probably the smartest person here!" said Albus, turning to Luca now. Luca flushed.
"First of all, no I'm not! Second of all, I panic too easily, which I highly doubt would be useful for wandless magic. I think it's the right ranking for me considering what we are supposed to be learning- especially when it comes to the emotional side of things."
And just after he said that, one more sheet appeared.
General Rankings
Wandless Magic
Student rank 1:
Student rank 2:
Student rank 3:
Student rank 4:
Wand Magic
Student rank 1:
Student rank 2:
Student rank 3:
Student rank 4:
Mental Training
Student rank 1:
Student rank 2:
Student rank 3:
Student rank 4:
Physical Training
Student rank 1:
Student rank 2:
Student rank 3:
Student rank 4:
"Well the ones should be easy to fill." said Albus, putting 'Kenichi Handa' for Physical rank 1. Scorpius put Albus under Wandless Magic rank 1, and moved to Wand Magic.
"Definitely Luca." he said. Albus agreed, but Luca argued against it.
"I'm a muggleborn! You know more customs and spells than me! It should be you, Scorpius- or Albus!"
"Pfft. Customs don't make a difference. Especially for affinity instead of current level: you are better than us and we have our family advantages so that means your potential is even higher."
Albus decided to make the decision for them, and put Luca Miniati under Wand Magic rank 1 with Scorpius Mental Training rank 1. Luca pouted, but said nothing more.
"For Wandless, it's difficult to tell the differences between all of us apart from Al. Should we just put the rankings as the order of our Power Unit scores? I highly doubt they care about the accuracy of this one anyway." said Ken.
"Yeah, I think that makes sense."
So it was now:
Wandless Magic
Student rank 1: Albus Potter
Student rank 2: Kenichi Handa
Student rank 3: Scorpius Malfoy
Student rank 4: Luca Miniati
"For wand magic the order is obvious. Luca one, Scorp two, me three and Ken four. That seems to be our speed order most of the time."
"...Yeah, that makes sense. I'll write it down."
Wand Magic
Student rank 1: Luca Miniati
Student rank 2: Scorpius Malfoy
Student rank 3: Albus Potter
Student rank 4: Kenichi Handa
"Mental training?" Albus asked.
"Put Albus two, Ken three and me four." said Luca.
"No way!" said Ken. "Look Luca, I have big concentration problems. You definitely aren't worse than me overall no matter how nervous you say you get!"
Luca looked like he wanted to argue, before Ken stubbornly filled the name list before he could react, sticking his tongue out like a child.
Mental Training
Student rank 1: Scorpius Malfoy
Student rank 2: Albus Potter
Student rank 3: Luca Miniati
Student rank 4: Kenichi Handa
"Okay, so that leaves Physical training." said Albus. "Me and Scorp are basically identical, but he's a tiny bit taller than me so I guess he can go Rank 2? No offense Luca- but you're probably four."
Luca laughed. "No offense taken!"
"Then we're done?" asked Ken.
"I think so, everything's complete."
General Rankings
Wandless Magic
Student rank 1: Albus Potter
Student rank 2: Kenichi Handa
Student rank 3: Scorpius Malfoy
Student rank 4: Luca Miniati
Wand Magic
Student rank 1: Luca Miniati
Student rank 2: Scorpius Malfoy
Student rank 3: Albus Potter
Student rank 4: Kenichi Handa
Mental Training
Student rank 1: Scorpius Malfoy
Student rank 2: Albus Potter
Student rank 3: Luca Miniati
Student rank 4: Kenichi Handa
Physical Training
Student rank 1: Kenichi Handa
Student rank 2: Scorpius Malfoy
Student rank 3: Albus Potter
Student rank 4: Luca Miniati
"-And in good time." Professor Lang was back. "And your physical teacher is now on his way too." The four friends locked eyes curiously again, wondering who it could possibly be.
"-My apologies for the delay. I was tidying up some old manuscripts." Professor Sevorian strode into the classroom, holding a strange midsized rectangular package wrapped up with cloth. Professor Lang nodded familiarly at him.
"That's no problem. Ready to start introducing the arrangements then?"
"After you."
"Very well. Now students, as I have said and the sheet suggests, there are four crucial components to the training we will give you. These are, wandless magic, wand magic, physical training, and mental and emotional training."
Professor Sevorian continued. "Each subject will be taught with a mixture of lead lessons and auxiliary lessons on a per week schedule. Lead lessons will be taught with you as a group, and will be where most of the weekly content is. Auxiliary lessons will be on a one-to-one basis, and are designed to help you get extra training to help balance out your abilities faster with your friends who have better initial affinities. I hope you will agree with our opinion that you will work best when the differences between your abilities are smaller and you can work as a more compact, supportive and self-competitive group. Therefore, our priority will not be stretching each of you where you are already good- it will be giving you extra help where you are weaker."
They all nodded. It seemed very sensible and they definitely liked the sound of a compact unit more than one where they each tried to be good at one subject they had initial affinities to, and left the others behind.
Professor Lang spoke again. "Training is crucial, but rest days are also important given the scope of your challenges. So the lead lessons will all be dispersed to give you ample time to rest your energy reserves and refocus your attention every day. If you feel tired at any time do not waste the time of your teacher and just say so, and you will be able to get extra rest. This is not a cowardly thing to do- but rather an important and intelligent solution to monitor."
They nodded again.
"On Mondays you will start the week off with your Physical Training lead lesson. It will be the most draining physically, so it will be followed on Tuesdays by Mental Training, which is more difficult yet far less taxing on the body. It can and should be treated as a rest day physically and a day to instead concentrate on your thoughts and flow of energy ahead of your upcoming magical sessions. On Wednesdays you will have your first Wandless lead lesson, on Thursdays you will have your Wand lead lesson, and on Fridays you will have a rest. On Saturdays you will have another Wandless lead lesson and then your auxiliary lessons. Then you have another full day of rest on Sunday, and you are hereby forbidden to practise on Sundays as it will slow your body's recovery for that week."
Scorpius raised his hand.
"Yes, Scorpius?" answered Professor Sevorian.
"How long are lead and auxiliary sessions? And how many auxiliary sessions will we have?"
"Two wandless area lead sessions, and one lead session for each of the other three areas. One lead session will take one hour. Then you will have three auxiliary lessons a week, each of which will be thirty to forty-five minutes long. As your energy will wane as the day progresses, we will need to manage priorities in each subject for your auxiliary timetable, which is why we asked for your rankings of yourselves and each other. Auxiliary lessons overall though, as short one-to-one sessions, are very flexible as long as your teacher isn't busy. Now, your auxiliary timetable can be evaluated now if you would like?"
"Yes please." said Albus.
"Of course." Sevorian looked at their sheet, and tapped it with a spell. It seemed that he had already prepared most things, as it was done almost instantly.
Kenichi Handa:
Auxiliary session 1: Wand magic
Auxiliary session 2: Mental training
Auxiliary session 3: Wandless magic
Scorpius Malfoy:
Auxiliary session 1: Wandless magic
Auxiliary session 2: Physical training
Auxiliary session 3: Wand magic
Luca Miniati:
Auxiliary session 1: Physical training
Auxiliary session 2: Wandless magic
Auxiliary session 3: Mental training
Albus Potter:
Auxiliary session 1: Mental training
Auxiliary session 2: Wand magic
Auxiliary session 3: Physical training
"So we are each missing the subject we're best at. Wow! We're quite spread out in our affinities!" noted Luca.
"-It does seem thus, and that is no bad thing, as you can see. Do you have any more questions before you meet your teachers? We will send timeslots and relevant information to you as soon as these are confirmed."
They began to feel a strange anticipation now- not altogether an unpleasant feeling.
"No."
"Very well." Professor Sevorian spoke once more. "You know me and Professor Lang of course. I will be teaching you wand magic lessons, and Professor Lang will be teaching you wandless magic lessons." He adjusted his dark-tinted glasses. "But you do not know your mental training and physical training teachers yet."
He paused, as he was taking the cloth off his rectangular parcel. Albus gasped suddenly as a portrait he had seen just a week ago stared at him once more.
"Your mental training teacher will be Professor Severus Snape, former Headmaster of Hogwarts, and Housemaster of Slytherin during the Second Wizarding War, and master of Occlumency and Legilimency."
To his surprise, Professor Snape actually inclined his head slightly to them. He could see that Scorpius' mouth was wide open too.
"Good morning, students. I do hope that teaching you will be worth that extremely cumbersome process of being moved off my usual wall to attend this meeting. I suppose, however, that a congratulations for now is in order for your contributions to our otherwise troubled great House. I will allow your Professors to continue with their arrangements now and introduce myself as is necessary to you in our lesson."
At this point, Professor Lang stepped in again. "Now, without any more delay, I would like to introduce… your physical training teacher."
The door slammed open, and in walked in something they had never expected.
And they certainly weren't to have known that this thing, not a person, in front of them would become one of their most important teachers in the future to come.
This vessel spirit was the same as all the others: seemingly wooden and looking completely like a life-sized drawing figure with the almost cylindrical featureless face. It turned to them and waved its wooden hands wildly and childishly, speaking in a voice with both a very excited and infantile tone and also a strange robotic tinge to pronunciation.
"Hello students! It's a pleasure to meet you! I will be your physical teacher over your training."
It put its thumbs up aggressively once more, seeming to do a happy dance, before moving so fast that it was almost like it had Apparated behind them from five metres in front of them. The four students startled at the lightning pace, as they turned around to face the Vessel Spirit once more.
"You, students, can call me Manakin."
A/N- Now, readers, we move into the next important part of the story. I guess you could call it, very crudely, the action part.
This is going to be a fun one. I hope you're ready.