Mate
Timeline:
Grindlewald's Reign: 1891 – 1955
Peace/Tom Riddle Travels: 1955 – 1970 's
First Blood War Stared: 1970's
Marauders Born: 1972
Marauders Era: 1983 - 1990
Cantha was Born: July 31st 1992
Parents Died: October 31st 1993
Cantha Started Hogwarts: September 1st 2003
War Ended: May 1st 2009
Moved Mystic Falls: September 2nd 2009
Chapter 2: First Day
Cantha shot up, gasping for breath, she always had nightmares now, but they were more memories than make believe; memories of her life. She never got a good night sleep anymore because of that unfortunate little problem.
It was Cantha's first day at Mystic Falls High School; she hated it, she had already graduated school so why did she need to do this again? Right, because Hermione had bullied her into it, always talking about the importance of education and why it was important she get a muggle education as well. The end result was that Cantha became a junior.
The raven haired teenager got up, mentally choosing what to wear while walking to the bathroom: sky blue skinny jeans; a dark blue beaded waterfall top with 3 inch dark brown gladiator wedges; a rubber chain bracelet and sunglasses on the top of her head. She had put on dark blue nail polish the night before and an elegant navy blue glitter phone cover on her new phone; she had bought it from England so that she would have a link back home.
Cantha's house was more like a manor, or mansion in America, though it was nothing compared to Hogwarts. It was in the middle of the woods near a rundown house at the town border, so no one would bother her or see her practice magic. She had about 12 large bedrooms and 5 smaller ones each with a king size bed and attached bathrooms, a replica of the prefect's bathroom from Hogwarts; thankfully they didn't have Moaning Myrtle in them. A living room; front entrance; a kitchen; swimming pool and a playroom for her godson Teddy, were also built in.
Having finished her shower, she grabbed a fluffy white towel and walked into her bedroom; the full body mirror, present in every room, caught her attention, mentally thanking Mrs. Weasley for pushing her to eat third helpings as she saw a strong, independent and curvilinear teenager had replaced the scrawny and clearly malnourished girl. Her height had also improved, so now she was 5"5 instead of 4"9.
Acantha looked through her walk in closet, picking out her clothes and getting dressed. She put on her beloved necklace; it was made out of pure goblin gold, shaped like a heart with tiny emeralds dotted throughout and the Potter and Black family Crests on it. She looked into the mirror again and decided to leave the raven curls loose, her hair reached mid-thigh and was always a source of nagging for Mrs. Weasley. Fred and George had overheard Hermione talking about Rapunzel and had taken to calling her that for fun. She had gotten red, gold, purple and blue highlights in her hair for Gryffindor and her favorite colors.
Cantha went down to the garage, finishing off her toast, and getting into her new BMW Alpina B7; she had bought it after landing in Virginia. Mr. Weasley had given her the old Ford Anglia but no matter how many times it had saved her life, it wouldn't hold up with how she fast she drove.
Pulling up to the half full parking lot, she grabbed her bag and made her way into the school building. She was getting stared at by everyone and smirked; she swayed her hips a little and could practically see the girls turning green in envy as boys turned to her. Acantha was used to people staring at her all the time and learnt to ignore it but now she wanted to make an impression. Cantha found the front office with no problem but waited for the boy in front of her to finish up before getting her schedule.
"Thanks you" the boy said as he took the schedule the receptionist was handing him. Cantha saw a lapis lazuli ring as her turned around, hand still extended; either this was a family stone or he was a vampire.
"No problem, have a good day and come find me if you need any help Mr. Salvatore." The lady said. The dirty blonde haired boy nodded absentmindedly as he moved out of the way and saw her, smiling as she moved passed him.
"Acantha Potter-Black, new student, I need my schedule." Cantha introduced herself, the woman's eyes widened briefly at the sound of the thick British accent, before she began typing on the computer.
"My name is Mrs. Robert. Here is your schedule and your locker number, if you get lost your welcome to come to me for help." She said, leaning over the table, a few papers held in her extended hand. 'Yeah, like hell' the teen thought to herself.
"Or I could ditch and say I got lost, but thanks anyway." Cantha retorted, walking out with her head held high as the receptionist's mouth dropped open behind her. She heard a shocked gasp and some giggling past the door, coming from three girls as they walked up to her.
"Hi, my name is Caroline Forbes, this is Bonnie Bennett and Elena Gilbert. That was awesome, by the way, but aren't you worried you'll get into trouble? Like, if I ever did that, my mom would kill me" the tall blonde said, gesturing to a dark skinned girl with green eyes and a pale skinned brunette with brown eyes; she was getting a weird vibe from Bonnie and a bad feeling from Elena but shrugged it off before anyone could notice. All three were looking at her as if she was their role model for standing up to a teacher like that.
"Hello, I'm Acantha Potter-Black, nice to meet you. Um, no, honestly I don't care" she shrugged as she handed her schedule Caroline, who kept trying to get glimpses of it. A loud squeal made her wince as Caroline saw all four of them had the same time table.
"First period is with Mr. Tanner. Good luck and keep your head down or hell chew you out. He's an ass" Bonnie warned quietly as Elena and Caroline nodded along. Acantha smiled but shook her head, as if to say 'no chance in hell'; she had never given any teacher a break, not even Snape or McGonagall, she wasn't going to let muggle school ruin her track record.
"That's funny, I've never given any teacher a break or an easy time, I'm not about to start now just because I moved countries." She retorted.
They walked into the classroom and Cantha sat down next to Elena and Bonnie, Caroline was in front of her and Salvatore was next to Elena. God, why did she agree to this, she should have let Mya rant, anything was better than this.
"Okay, let's get started. First, new students stand up." Mr. Tanner said, Salvatore stood up while Cantha remained seated, causing Tanner to look around for another new face. The teachers were informed beforehand as to how many students would be joining his or her class.
"There are two new students, where's the other one? Stand up now!" he snapped, looking around. She sighed dramatically, standing up and crossing her arms, shooting a bored look at Tanner; he scowled at her, not that it was having any effect.
"Who do you think you are? You are the student, I am the teacher; next time I say to stand up, stand up!" he barked. Cantha gave a look, plainly asking 'are you an idiot?'
"Acantha Potter-Black, new student. You just asked me to stand up" she said slowly, as if explaining things to a toddler. A handful of students snickered while the rest watched, anticipating their teachers reaction. Mr. Tanner, on the other hand, didn't seem to appreciate the sass, evident by his darker scowl; Cantha was not affected at all, she had survived Snape's class and he had a personal grudge against her father, uncles and her; Tanner didn't have any reason to hate her beside being disrespectful. The teen sighed, sitting down with her feet on the table, taking her phone out with sunglasses perched on the crown of her head.
"Feet off the table and sit properly, put your phone away! Since you're so smart, tell me this" he waited, gesturing at Salvatore to sit down, until Cantha looked up from her phone, though she still didn't take her feet of the table. The rest of the students had cell phones in hand, ready to film, some already filming the spectacle about to happen.
"The Battle of Willow Creek took place at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls. Do you know how many casualties resulted from this battle?" Mr. Tanner asked, everyone was looking at Acantha now, silently waiting to see what would happen.
"Yes" she said, looking down at her phone and typing something, apparently she was texting someone.
"Well, how many" asked Tanner impatiently, making Cantha look up with a raised eyebrow in mock surprise.
"You asked me if I knew the answer, you never said you wanted me to tell you how many." Cantha pointed out, not paying any attention to the cameras or the students. Her sole focus was on her phone or Tanner. "Either way, there were 346 casualties, unless you're counting the local civilians, then there were 373." A few people looked impressed, thinking she was just messing around, while some just looked back at Tanner, already guessing that she knew.
"That's half correct as there were no civilian casualties in this battle, that means pay attention and don't mouth off to your teacher Ms. Potter-Black." Mr. Tanner said smugly, walking back to his desk.
"Actually there were 27. Confederate soldiers fired on the church believing it to be housing weapons; they were wrong. It was a night of great loss. The Founder's Archives are stored in civil hall; if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mr. Tanner." She retorted smoothly. Now a lot of the students looked impressed, understandable, she was from London and Mystic Falls was not very well know, being such a small town.
"World War 2 ended in…." Mr. Tanner asked, trying to change the subject, looking sourly at the raven headed teen. The rest of the class were either looking at each other or at Tanner like he had spoken something in Latin. Clearly Tanner paid too much attention degrading his students then teaching them anything.
"1945" Cantha replied when it was clear the rest of class was not going to. Salvatore was too busy looking at her curiously, than to answer the question to something he was present in and may be even fought in. Apparently not knowing history was something that was common in teenagers, however for a pureblood History was everything since it showed family lineage and hers was connected to the wars. The Potters were actually brilliant at potions if they had the correct guidance; they had helped in quite a few muggle wars and many of the potions they had invented had been inspired from those wars. Skele-Grow for example was one of these.
"Pearl Harbor" Snapping back to the present as she heard Tanner direct the question to her. Being showed up was pissing him off so like any typical alpha male, he tried to prove he knew best. Looking at the rest of the class, Cantha could see that he had never encountered a student who actually knew what they were taking about and instead of being happy someone finally took an interest in his subject, it seemed Tanner lashed out at losing his spotlight.
"December 7th 1941" She replied putting her phone away but still keeping her feet on the desk. Everyone was still recording this on their phones and Cantha hoped they ended up on the internet. These were the type of people she hated, teaching was such an important job yet people like tanner ruined it for everyone and destroyed any interest that a few budding students might have shown. It was why she had disrespected Snape so much, he destroyed the potential in his students, the man had no aptitude for teaching yet was forced to but that didn't mean he should take it out on his students.
"Very well, The Fall of the Berlin Wall" This was just before Grindlewald's Reign, combing through Dumbledore's past showed this was the reason they had started out in the first place, why Gellert had decided to rule muggles like World War 2 had been for Tom.
"1989, I'm good with dates" Cantha said. Considering these wars were example used by the two previous Dark Lords of why muggles should be ruled/exterminated, she had to be good with dates if only to get an idea of their reasons. Tom had actually started out well but then went insane because of the horcruxes.
"Are you? How good? Keep it to the year." He said. She nodded, by now everyone was looking back and forth at them like a tennis match and recording it out in the open, their fear of Tanner destroying their property long gone in line of such a good show. Several people were already posting clips about it in class while others waited to get the full show before posting it online.
"Civil Rights Act"
"1964"
"John F. Kennedy Assassination"
"1963"
"Martin Luther King"
"1968"
"Lincoln"
"1865"
"Brown vs Wade"
"1973"
"The Battle of Gettysburg"
"1863"
"Korean War"
"1950 – 1953" By now, Tanner had walked the length of the classroom and was standing right in-front of Cantha's table looking as if he was about to shove her feet of the desk but the 8 inch heels pointed straight at him stopped Tanner. Acantha had a look on her face as if just daring Tanner to go there and see if he would like her then but fortunately for him, Tanner seemed to have some sense after all, glaring down at her in way that would make Snape proud.
"Ha! It ended in 1952" he gloated in her face, finally a smirk appearing at his assumed victory. "Arrogance is not welcome in this class, once again, I am the teacher and you are student, I teach and you listen-"
"Actually it was 1953" Cantha interrupted while yawning, not so subtly telling everyone how bored she was and that this was a huge waste of her time. A smirk broke out when the look on Tanner's face grew even more ugly and twisted with hate, he looked like was actually contemplating if stabbing her with her own heels would be worth the jail time.
"Somebody look it up! Quickly" he said. After some time a student said that it was 1953 and the bolder students cheered while other clapped at Tanner finally being given a dose of his own medicine. Stefan and the other girls, Bonnie, Caroline and Elena, looked both amused yet awed (the girls) but also curious as to how she knew all of that. The bell rang and everyone made a break for the door, eager to spread the story around and show the video to their friends.
***Lunch Time***
Acantha walked outside to the courtyard, ignoring the lunch trays and cafe, school food was completely disgusting and how they passed that off as food she didn't know but Cantha was in no hurry to try it. She found a sandwich prepared for her on the kitchen counter this morning just as she was leaving for school and grabbed it knowing Kreacher was keeping an eye on her, she had no doubt that the elf would have supper and dinner prepared as well even though he still primarily stayed in London, looking after Number 12.
Snapping out of her thoughts at the sound of her name, the 18 year old saw Bonnie, Caroline and Elena waving their hands to get her attention, sitting at a table with Stefan. Walking over, she slid into place in between Bonnie and Caroline while Stefan and Elena sat opposite her.
"Hey Acantha" Bonnie grinned at her. This morning in the car, she had told Elena that she had a good feeling, which had only intensified when she met the raven haired girl. For some reason, Bonnie felt like she could trust her. She wanted to ask Grams what it meant but then decided she didn't want to hear any other freaky stuff about witches and warlocks and magic.
"Hey guys, call me Cantha, Acantha can be hard to pronounce for some people" Acantha responded. They nodded to her request while she split her sandwich in half and began eating. Elena and Bonnie looked towards Caroline, obviously waiting for something while Stefan turned his confused gaze to the blonde as well.
"So, when did you both move to Mystic Falls? And Cantha, how did remember all those dates and will you please teach me?" Caroline asked, the other two girls smiled knowingly and muttered something about the interrogation starting, too low for Caroline to hear but this had clearly happened before and the girls were a lot closer then they let on as the blonde shot the other two an annoyed but fond look as if telling them to shut up.
"Monday, last week" Stefan replied, switching his gaze to the pale raven head before him, it was not common he came across someone who knew history that well if they hadn't lived it and Cantha wasn't a vampire. The only reason he knew those dates were because he had lived through them.
"Last Friday" Cantha indulged the peppy blonde. "As for knowing those dates, its basic family history. My family has a habit of fighting for what they believe in and some of them joined to fight in those wars, they left behind their journals for the family and they seemed interesting" Finishing her lunch and crumpling the foil in her hand she threw it in the bin next to Elena while the others looked impressed.
"So your family are all soldiers?" Caroline questioned further while the others gave her their full attention, wanting to hear what it was like for people who actually lived through it. Too bad for them, Cantha had no intention of giving away any of the details they actually wanted to know, those thoughts were strictly for the family to read.
"In a way, yes. They weren't actual soldiers with the military or anything but they did volunteer to be trained as a part of a response force that helped soldiers in case of an attack. They weren't on the front lines but more if any area close to them was attacked then they would help while the soldiers fought on the battlefield." In truth, the Potters mostly joined as Hit-Wizards when needed, as to protect their identities from coming out and in turn their families from becoming out right targets. It was reason why her Grandfather Charlus or Great-Grandfather Fleamont didn't join the DMLE when asked even though they could have advanced to the head of the Department, instead deciding to pursue Potions as a career and using their experiences in the wars to invent new potions.
Before anyone could say anything else could be said, the bell rang announcing it was time for class. Caroline and Elena said their goodbyes walking to English Lit while Stefan and Cantha went to Math and Bonnie went to Chemistry.