Chapter 20: First Kill
Tension rose between the Hogwarts students, not by Houses this time, but by blood status.
Pure-bloods and mudbloods were particularly enemies within the school, while half-bloods chose their sides. The Slytherins and Ravenclaws were mostly on the wizards' side, but there were some Ravenclaws with most of the Hufflepuffs on the Muggles' side. While Gryffindor thought they could solve the problem without fighting and pretended like they were still the god-chosen saviours.
The Houses were kind of scattered because of Clearance out there. He had another name that people call him these days, Blood Devil. It was a suitable name for him, because he sucked pure wizard blood.
Sylvia asked Loki for help by calling his illusion in the RoR, but he was shutting himself down ever since his meeting with Thor after the final battle.
They've made the RoR as the Headquarters of the pure-blood side, which mean people on their side could come in whenever they wanted, and they've filled in the loopholes of the room so that the other side couldn't come in.
"So, tell us, what's going on at the Malfoy Manor these days, Roddy?" Sylvia looked up from the notebook she was writing on, asking. The Ministry got all the information locked up so that only people who took part in the things that happened would know what happened.
"Lucius' dead." Rodfort sighed darkly, "The others are fine, I guess."
"What do you mean, 'you guess'?" She pressed, "I need to know what happened, they're our kin, Scorpius, Draco and Narcissa."
"They're frightened, but not hurt." He replied uneasily.
"Don't lie."
"Alright, they're badly hurt but alive."
"How did he die?" She continued, "I mean, Uncle Lucius."
"He was killed by something other than Killing Curse, but we're not Muggles so we can't really tell." Rodfort answered, "Mother's gonna kill them for sure."
"There are traces of magic and blood on the wall. 'Pure-Blood Party' written, in blood." Richard Rochefort added in disgust.
"Who do you think did it?" Asked Tim, who has been listening carefully.
"It's likely to be Blood Devil himself," replied Sylvia, "the Malfoys are a very old pure-blood family, their whole family is magical, it's not like they're gonna be killed that easily by normal wizards."
"Speaking of old pure-blood families, we're really dangerous in this." Rodfort blinked at Sylvia. Lestrange and Black, both pure-blood families with long histories.
"This is supposed to be dangerous." Dormine Rosier pipped up.
"This is a battle we have no choice but to face." Richard growled.
Their lives in Hogwarts continued as lessons got harder and harder for some of them, but none of the seventh-year students cared about it. All they were worrying about was what they were going to face after their graduation, instead of what they were going to do about N.E.W.T.s. The wizarding test didn't mean much to them at this point, not only because they were sure that no one in their year would fail their tests, but also that they didn't have enough energy to think about tests while having their lives at risk.
The professors in Hogwarts were a bit nervous about the situation as well, just that they didn't show it very obviously. The younger students weren't aware of the battle ranging and continued to joke and play all the way down the corridors. Tim and Sylvia, the Head Boy and Head Girl, gave up on trying to stop the young children from being so ignorant, and used their rounds to search for dangers around the castle.
June came fast with the warm breeze, followed by July.
They left Hogwarts behind, and into the dangerous world.
Sylvia remembered what Professor Bowen told them about the "real world" in their first year. He sacrificed himself for them to get away from the werewolves safely and went away forever. But his words still stood, like a huge stone that would never fall.
Danger loomed over them like a shadow. Blood Devil was quiet for a few months since the attack on the Malfoys, but they all knew that it was the silence before the storm.
Sylvia stayed in Grimmauld Place, waiting for signs of Clearance's return. She had no idea why she was here helping the Wizarding World instead of aiding the Avengers, but still, these were her friends, unlike Loki, who was her only friend in her past.
Grimmauld was messier than she remembered, but not as dark as it had been when she first came here when she was in fourth year. She suspected that someone else has been here but didn't find anything useful because she told Kreacher and Hayley to clear everything that could have been the evidence that someone still lived here.
There was the flattering sound of wings coming nearer and nearer. It was not possible for normal people to send letters to Grimmauld, because there were wards and stuff. It must be someone she trusts, or trusted.
Hoot landed neatly on the windowsill and poked out a leg for her to untie the letter. Matilda. Knew it.
Opening the letter, she kind of guess what it would be about before she even looked at it.
Dear Sylvia,
Meet me at the mine three days after you received this, we need to "talk".
Yours,
Matilda
Ah, the abandoned mine. It was a place they found during an outing with the orphanage when they were both little. She knew why it would be there. There were metal and earth there, it would be fair if it comes to a fight between the two.
No, not if. She sighed. It's got to be a fight.
And there was a fight.
The three days slipped away from her hands like water she was unable to control. She could do nothing but to attend their meeting.
It was supposed to be unpleasant, but she never knew it was so well planned.
"Alumy, what is there left to be said?" She Apparated to the mine and saw the golden-haired girl.
"There isn't, Gloomy." Matilda responded.
"Right, I know I outshone you and I'm really sorry about it, but I'm not that good at family and emotions and stuff like that and I can't help it." She explained why she was always the "Miss Ollivander" and Matilda was always the shadow.
"If someone dies, will you have any feelings for them?" Matilda suddenly asked.
"Don't think so. Death is gonna happen on everyone someday." Sylvia said without emotion.
"Then I hope you won't have any." Matilda slashed out her wand like Sylvia used to when she was young.
"I didn't duel as much as I did back in first-year doesn't mean I don't have the spirit for it now."
"I haven't been doing nothing in the RoR, you know."
"Yeah, I know, you've been making Time-Turners." She slashed out her wand as well, "Apart from that, I'm pretty sure you haven't been there."
"The Hufflepuffs, they know a lot of magic you don't."
"Well, I don't think you'll know my magic since you won't admit that you're of Asgard."
"Three…"
"Come on, Alumy, you really think you can defeat me?"
"Two…"
"Seriously?"
"One."
Two spells clashed between them, making a blast of sparks.
"I hope you're not aiming to kill me, because I know what the outcome of that will be." Sylvia said darkly.
"You don't know me as well as you think you do." Came the reply and a hex.
Matilda pulled metal from the ground and formed them into sharp pieces to fly towards Sylvia. They were blocked by rocks and ice.
Sylvia made the earth whirl and forming large pillars to make a complicated 3-dimensional maze. She used her earth powers to let herself move freely in the mine and blocking Matilda's charges.
She didn't want to hurt her sister, but her sister wanted to hurt and perhaps kill her.
Making another duck to avoid the flying metal knives, she couldn't stand it anymore. She wasn't a mouse. She was the cat.
Suddenly, she shifted to where Matilda was standing and shot a ball of fire flying towards her. This was getting worse, but she didn't really care about it. Every inch of her body was in for the fight, she couldn't even stop herself from attacking. She was born to fight, not hide.
Matilda took steps back as Sylvia gained the upper hand of the fight. Sylvia's eyes turned dark purple, but she wasn't aware of that.
A bright green light hit Matilda right in the chest before Sylvia even realized what she was doing. Her green eyes were full of shock before they closed forever.
"NO!" She snapped back from her dark self and fell to the ground, her mind racing faster than it ever did. Her powers went beyond her control and the earth around her shifted randomly.
She had to admit it. She was lunatic even in her current live on Midgard, but she thought it had gone for good. The devil in her heart, the dark side of her mind, the evil curse for her powers, they were still here, right inside her.
She didn't know that she would lose control of her own devil after keeping it asleep for so many years.
It had to be Hela. She woke the devil when she fought her.
She knew what her dark side was like, now that she remembered everything.
When her mind had a dark thought, even for a second, the dark devil in her would poison her heart. Sometimes it was a slow process, but sometimes it was fast. She would lose her real self and maybe her sanity to the dark, then her powers would become dark and more powerful.
She had no idea where the dark devil came from, nor why it was in her mind, but it was evil.
She killed Matilda.
She killed her sister.
She killed a person, for the first time.
Never did she kill anyone. She tried her best to lock the devil up in her mind and used magic to make her eyes purple when the devil woke so that she would know when to hide away from people, avoid hurting anyone but herself. That was why she made the chamber in her room in the first place. The blood on the chamber walls were not animal blood. It was her blood. The devil had nothing to harm, so it harmed herself.
It was here again. She has to think of a way to deal with it.
But before she could get her mind cleared, a silver light appeared in front of her as she got up. The light formed into a silver hippogriff. She recognized it was Tim's Patronus.
"The Farleys are attacked." Tim's voice came as the Patronus spoke, "Come to the Second Headquarters."
Sylvia stared up to the sky, thinking about what to do now that her dark side was fully back to her. Then, she decided to handle to things right in front of her.
The Second Headquarters was the Shrieking Shack. The First was the RoR, but since they were graduated it wasn't very appropriate to go back to Hogwarts castle.
"What's the news?" She asked as soon as she got there.
"Jenny's dead." Rodfort said heavily, "Same way as Mr. Malfoy."
"Is Karen alright?"
"She is, physically, but not mentally." Tim sighed, "Jenny was her twin."
"The same 'Pure-Blood Party'?"
"Yes." It was Richard who answered this time.
"Where were you at before Tim called you?" Rodfort asked, frowning.
"Don't be too surprised, but Matilda tried to kill me and failed." Sylvia bit her lips.
"Failed…?" Tim echoed.
"Dead." She responded.
The few people in the shack all looked surprised. "You killed her?" Dormine asked first.
"If you take it that way." She replied, "What are you not telling me?"
"I don't think you should know about this," Rodfort hesitated, "but Mora's not likely to come back."
"What do you mean?" Tim stared at his friend, shocked.
"Her parents are on the Muggles' side and demanded that they're going with them too." Richard continued Rodfort's words, "Which means, Michael, Mora, Musa and Mike are our enemies now."
"And so are Luke, the mudblood, and his pal Joey." Dormine added.
"If Joey on the opposite side, then the werewolves could be against us as well." Sylvia froze at the thought.
"What?!" Tim shot her a stare.
"He's a werewolf since first-year, thought you all knew." She shrugged, "There's no point to keep the secret now that he's the opponent."
"Damn." Rodfort used Muggle swears for the first time.