Chapter 15
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, 9th September 2011
The sun shone through the cracks in the curtains and directly onto Sam's face. His eyes opened slowly, not used to seeing it due to the dreary weather of the Scottish countryside. He and Dean spent their first weekend at Hogwarts getting to know the lay of the castle, which seemed impossible due to the constantly changing staircases. But if they got lost there was always a helpful student ready to help get them where they wanted to go.
Sam got up with a groan, still not used to sleeping on the fluffy mattress. If he had to be honest, it beat the hell out of sleeping on beat-up crappy motel mattresses. But it still took some time to get used to. He threw an arm over his eyes, attempting to block the sunlight out of his vision. He looked at the small old-fashioned clock, discovering it was 8 a.m. Sam pushed himself up and passed into the nearby bathroom. After a quick shower, he pulled his robes on. He rubbed the towel against his skull and left his hair to dry of its own accord. He walked to the window and stared out, still not used to seeing so much green countryside. The views that this Castle had… it really was beautiful, even for early September weather.
He stretched, stiff from staying up till 3am due to the time change. It may have not been the best idea to stay up that late. But Sam used the time to plan for the next lesson. Sam thought that they'd rushed into the theory too fast. Dean tried to reassure his brother's worries by bringing up the logical point that the kids needed to be trained as soon as possible. Calling the Voldemort situation, a "powder keg ready to explode any minute." Sam agreed, but a part of him thought the kids required a more in-depth understanding of how dangerous this was; in case any of them got any ideas.
He shook his head clear of the thoughts ravaging his mind and took in the view before him. The grass was picturesque green even with the clouds that threatened rainfall. Everything had a red hue as the sun rose. He took up the parchment on his desk, notes for today's lesson. He picked up the heavy book beside it, one from Bobby's personal library.
Opening the book, Sam was greeted with the word Wraith in large block letters. Today's class. Something else that was relatively easy to learn about. Sam looked over his notes, his father's journal propped open on the Wraith pages. It seemed like a good place to start, seeing as they originated in Scotland.
He could hear movement in the next room and knew his brother was up. He got the books and the papers he needed and moved to the adjoining door between their rooms and knocked. A moment passed, and it opened. Dean's hair was still a little chaotic, and he ran his fingers through it with a yawn.
"Hey," he greeted.
Dean grunted in response, still not used to early mornings. Ironic, considering he was used to getting up early back home. Either he was getting old, or lazy. Maybe both.
"Damn, I need coffee… or booze…" Dean groaned.
"Preferably coffee," Sam answered, appraising him with a raised eyebrow.
Dean grumbled something unintelligible. Sam rolled his eyes.
"Come on man. It's not that bad. You probably need to go on a detox."
"Don't be a dick," Dean frowned. "So, Wraiths today?"
"Yeah," Sam sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "I'm just looking over my notes, and I wanted to get ready for the class rather than just go in guns blazing."
Dean rolled his eyes and closed John's journal. "What's wrong with guns blazing?" Sam looked at him pointedly, Dean hated research, but he knew how much it helped to save their asses in a pinch. "Okay, okay. I hate it when you're right…. I'm hungry, let's get breakfast.
⸸
They walked down the seemingly endless hallways, quickly reaching the Great Hall. Dean frowned, "Great, we're late." The kids were all seated at their respective tables and watched them. They walked to the Head table and sat down. Mindful of the time, they ate quickly.
Pomona leaned over to Dean whispering rather loudly. "Late night, eh?" She grinned widely.
"Don't worry, you get used to the time change. I have a niece that moved to America a few years ago. She loves it there, but the time change was murder."
"Oh really?" Sam spoke up after spreading jam over his toast.
"Yeah, the lucky girl got a job at MACUSA, the US government as an Auror." The plump witch beamed proudly. "Were all very proud of her."
The bell soon rang. Both Winchesters finished their food and walked to their classroom. Dean sneaked some pastries in his pocket when Sam wasn't looking.
"Dean, I was thinking that we should talk with the kids, answer some questions," Sam said when they reached their classroom.
"Like a Q&A?" Dean asked which Sam answered with a shrug.
"I think it's a good idea. It can be a lot to take in," Dean agreed. "So, we have the Gryffindors and Slytherins this morning?"
"Same as every Thursday morning," The younger Winchester snarked back.
"Shut up. We're in a magical castle. Time has no meaning anymore."
"This isn't Alice in Wonderland," Sam rolled his eyes.
Dean's reply was cut off as the students began to file into the room. They were talking amongst each other as they sat down in pairs. Ron, Harry, and Hermione were the last to come in, sitting near the back of the class.
"Hey guys," Dean spoke, and the room fell silent. It amused him that some students seemed terrified and would be as quiet as a mouse. But he also wanted the kids to actually like them, so they wanted to work to lessen the fears. Stupid newspaper, he thought. "So, I'm sure that you guys have some questions after our first lesson, we figured we'd answer a couple of them. Well, as many as we can. We still have a new creature to talk about." Sam smiled. "The topic is light today, not as intense as last week."
One of the boys in the middle row raised her hand tentatively. Sam nodded at him to ask his question. "Um… Professors, why did we have to do so much physical training last week?"
"It's important. We kinda touched on this in the training session, but you guys gotta have some knowledge of combat skills. Nothing too intense, but you have to know how to protect yourselves. It isn't all wandwork."
"No offence guys, but some of you wouldn't last five minutes on a hunt." Dean crossed his arms against his chest. Some girls in the class seemed to be eyeing the brothers up. "We're not expecting you guys to be experts, so don't worry," he added, trying to put them at ease.
"Any others?" Sam prompted.
Hermione raised her hand.
"Ms Granger?" Dean asked.
"Yes, Professors. I was looking over the curriculum, will we have a former exam?" She asked, causing some other students to groan.
"Short answer, sort of. There will be exams, but probably not as formal as your other ones," Dean answered.
Hermione's face fell, as the rest of the students cheered. Sam smirked but made no other comment. "These questions don't have to necessarily be about the course. Like it could be about some favourite cases, things like that."
"Don't be shy," Dean added. Just keep it PG, he was tempted to add but held his tongue. His gaze travelled around the room, noticing how a few of the girls were staring at them. That's creepy. Damn horny teenagers…
A Slytherin girl with long scraggly dark hair raised her hand and asked her question without being called on. "Do you really think what you're doing makes any difference?" She sneered at them.
"We think so," Dean answered cooly, not letting her obnoxious question affect him. "These things don't care who or what you are. All they want is blood and death."Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw Draco squirm slightly in his seat. The blond boy was sitting near the back with his cronies. His fringe was falling into his eyes. Sam noticed deep shadows under his eyes.
"At the end of the day, we aren't doing this, so we can get a pat on the back. We do it because people will die if we aren't there to stop whatever it is that is going after innocent people," Sam clarified and touched Dean's shoulder before he could add something that would get them into hot water with the girl's parents.
"The majority of people don't know what's out there," Dean added. "We'd like to keep it that way for the most part."
A Gryffindor hand shot up. "So why tell us, Professor?"
"We don't want you to be afraid of the creatures. We're not here to scare you, we want you to be prepared." Sam told them.
"What we're looking to do is find a balance," Dean continued. "As my brother said, we don't want to scare you, but we want you to have a realistic outlook. These monsters aren't going to take it easy on you because you're kids."
There were a few murmurs amongst the students before Neville raised his hand.
"Yeah, ah, Neville?" Sam nodded at him.
"H-have you ever been… scared?" he asked, his voice slightly hesitant.
"Yeah," Dean asked simply. He took a moment before continuing. "Course we have… We've mainly been worried about each other. When you go after these creatures, you want to have someone that has your back, like Sammy here, I trust him with my life. Your trust in your partner has to be bigger than your fears, then you're set."
"As much as I want to strangle my brother sometimes, he's right," Sam quipped, smirking at Dean.
"Yeah, yeah whatever Sasquatch…." Dean rolled his eyes. "Alright, enough of this sappy show of emotion…." He cleared his throat. "Is there anything else anyone wanted to ask before we begin?" The students stayed quiet.
"Okay, then so here's today's topic." Sam wrote 'Wraith' on the chalkboard behind them in big capital letters.
"Has anyone heard of a Wraith?" Dean asked. Most of the student's shook their heads no. Hermione raised her hand. "Right Hermione, go ahead and start us off."
"Wraiths are humanoid creatures whose true nature can be seen only in a reflection, which looks like a sagging decaying corpse. They appear human except for the long, organic spike that they sheathe in their wrist and use to feed on their victims," Hermione quoted the text perfectly, if not a tad bit disgusted.
"Blimey, that's disgusting…" Ron grimaced.
"It's not the worst thing, trust me." Dean frowned. "You're right. Wraiths can also crack open skulls and drink," he grimaced before continuing. "Brain juice. The wraith that we took on in this case took to feeding on victims in a mental institution to avoid discovery."
Ron's eyes widened, asking incredulously. "You were in a nuthouse?" Then added quietly.
"And I thought Lockheart was bad."
"We had a friend, Martin, that called us for help. He was a hunter who worked with our Dad once upon a time. He had a breakdown, checking himself in for his own sake. A few years later, patients started to be killed," Sam explained.
"So, we needed to get in, and the easiest way? As patients. So, we went to a shrink… and we told the truth about some things we'd gone through. Instant admittance pass," Dean grinned. "Which I wouldn't recommend."
"It was the easiest option," Sam reiterated, a little sheepish. "We talked to Martin and eventually discovered that one of the nurses was the Wraith."
"But not after it started to mess with our heads. It started to make us think we were actually cuckoo for cocoa puffs."
"So, let's go over strengths and weaknesses." Sam went back to the board.
"A Wraith's true reflection can be seen in a mirror," Dean continued as Sam started to write. "And you can kill it with silver, so silver bullets, or a silver knife. If you can, hit them with a blunt object in the head, aka brain them."
Sam picked up. "Our friend, Bobby killed one by throwing a hatchet in its head."
"Ew…" one of the Slytherin girls grimaced, wrinkling her nose.
Dean looked to her sympathetically. "We didn't do that on this case. Their strengths are their ability to blend in with humans so well."
"So, the memory that were going to show you is when we actually caught up to the Wraith," Sam told the class. "Everyone line up."
All the students rose from their seats and got in a line. They entered the Pensieve one by one. Dean and Sam followed them in. They landed in a hospital room.
Dean and Martin were standing in a hospital room. A woman screamed, and they hurried off. Dean kicked in the door to find Wendy on her bed, her wrists slit. Sitting on the bed over Wendy was a nurse. Dean looked over in a mirror to see that the nurse looked like the wraith. He looked back at the bed.
The kids looked in the reflection and one girl screamed and a Slytherin turned as green as his tie.
"Is this real?" Dean asked.
The Wraith withdrew its hand from Wendy's head. There was a skewer sticking out of its wrist, which entered Wendy's head. The Wraith brought it up and licked it off before it went back into its wrist.
"Oh, it is, Sugar. It's very real," the Wraith smiled.
"Here comes the supernatural strength part." Sam noted calmly as the events unfolded.
The Wraith threw Dean against the wall. Martin attacked the Wraith with his blade, but she threw him into the hall. The Wraith pinned Dean to the wall by the throat and punched him a bunch of times. Martin, meanwhile, grabbed his blade and attacked The Wraith. She released Dean and put a hand up to shield herself. Martin cut its hand, and she yelled. Dean slid to the floor. The Wraith's cut burned and crackled, and she shut the door, locking them in with Wendy. Martin saw that Dean was disoriented, and he got up to check on Wendy. After a moment, Wendy blinked.
"She's still alive," Martin told them.
The Wraith was heading down the hall, cradling its hand, and spotting two orderlies.
"There's two patients in Wendy's room. They attacked me," it cried. The two orderlies rushed off, and the Wraith watched them go and smiled. Its hand dripped blood as it headed down the hall.
In Wendy's room Dean tried to get his bearings against the wall.
"I was pretty out of it," Dean frowned. "It was messing with my head."
"Dean? Can you hear me? Dean!" Martin urged. Dean looked up and had a fragmented vision of Martin standing over Wendy's bed, talking to him.
"You've gotta get out there and kill that thing. I'll take care of her," Martin was still talking, voice echoing in Dean's ears.
"I can't." Dean muttered.
"You have to. You have no choice, son."
The two orderlies walked in and grabbed Martin, who fought back. The orderlies were distracted by Martin.
"Go. Dean, run! Run!" Martin yelled.
"It makes things that bad?" A Gryffindor girl asked. Sam nodded.
"That's why you don't let them touch you or its game over." Dean added. "I nearly died. The hallway was spinning, and the lights were really intense. The only thing that kept me going, was knowing that Sam needed my help."
Dean struggled to his feet and ran out the door. He fell against the wall and sat there for a few seconds before he pushed off from the wall and began to follow the blood trail. He fell to his knees against the wall.
The scene shifted around them again.
Sam was lying on a bed in a padded room. His ankles were strapped down, along with his wrists. The door opened, and the Wraith walked in.
"Hey! Let me go!" Sam yelled.
"No. You are far too angry to be out there in the real world." The Wraith wheeled in a simpering voice. Sam and the Wraith look up at a mirror to see that it looked like the Wraith.
"You." Sam realized with wide-eyed shock.
"Of course, it's me." It looked back at Sam. "I gotta say, you hunters don't exactly live up to your rep." It continued as it circled the bed. "I mean, Martin's a wreck. He's harmless."
Sam began to fight the restraints.
"And you and your brother come in here, talking tough about killing monsters… kind of made you easy to spot. Then all it took was a touch…." It watched as Sam's eyes grew wider with realization. "…and you were mine. Oh, I love it in here." It knelt down at the head of the bed. "This place is my own personal five-star restaurant." It trailed a finger across Sam's forehead, and he jerked his head away from it. The Wraith stuck its finger in its mouth and licked it, moaning.
"I wouldn't let that bloody thing come near me…" Ron muttered, looking disgusted. "I thought the troll bogies were bad enough. Ow!" He exclaimed as Hermione hit him with her book.
"Pay attention!" She whispered as she went back to taking notes.
"Crazy brains." It continued on as Sam struggled. It trailed another finger across his forehead. "They get soaked in dopamine and adrenaline and all sorts of hormones and chemicals that make them…delicious." It licked its finger. "And the crazier they are, the better they taste."
"You did this to me!" Sam growled.
"Well, I helped. But that rage?" the Wraith mused. "No, no, no. That's all you." It stood, walking to the side of the bed. "I don't make crazy. I just crank up what's already there."
The Wraith sat beside Sam. "You build your own hell, but I give you the Legos. And when you're ripe…" the Wraith smiled, the skewer popping out of its arm next to Sam's head. "I make all of your problems disappear."
The Wraith turned Sam's head to the side, sticking the skewer closer to his head. The door flew open, and Dean stumbled through.
The Gryffindors cheered when Dean burst into the room.
"You get away from him," he groused, trying to sound threatening.
"Do you really think this is gonna end well for you, kiddo?" the Wraith mocked as she turned to face him.
"No," Dean answered, taking out a silver blade. "But I'm crazy, so, what the hell?"
The Wraith chuckled and raised its hand. Its skewer went back into its arm. Dean swung the blade at her, but she ducked and threw him into the wall. Dean went after it again, and she grabbed his arm, throwing him into the wall. He dropped his blade.
Sam watched, helpless from the bed. The Wraith threw Dean into the other wall, pinning him by the throat. Dean grabbed its hand as she raised its other one. The skewer jumped out and was aimed at Dean's forehead. Dean took hold of the other arm, trying to hold it away from his head. He grunted as he tried to push it away. Dean grabbed the skewer with his other hand and broke it off. The Wraith screamed as it backed into the other wall, holding its skewer hand, which is now spurting blood. Dean held the skewer for a moment and dropped it in revulsion. He ran over to the blade and picked it up. The Wraith turned toward him, yelling in rage. Dean stabbed the blade into its heart. The silver burned it as she hit the wall and slid to the floor. Sam and Dean stared at her.
"Brilliant…" Harry muttered.
The memory faded and the students and Winchester brothers were back in the classroom.
"Alright," Dean started, clapping his hands together. "Any questions about today's lesson?"
There was silence from the class. A student raised his hand.
"Fire away," Dean smiled
"Ah… how did you get out of the hospital?"
"The alarm was raised, and we escaped, Sam answered. "In the mayhem they didn't notice we were gone."
"Most of the time it's best for hunters to disappear," Dean clarified.
"What about the Nurse?" Hermione asked.
"Most likely she never existed in the first place." Sam twiddled with the chalk in his hands.
"Some monsters have a habit of slipping in somewhere where they can go unnoticed," Dean told them. "It's best to always be prepared."
Hermione nodded and started to write.
Sam put his book away and spoke up. "So, if there aren't any more questions, then I guess you should hand in your homework."
There was a rummaging as the students got out their parchment.
"What's the assignment for today?" A random student asked, as Sam went around collecting the homework.
"Ah…. Write up a paper on what you would have done in that situation," Dean told them. "Remember what you learned in the first class and the training session last week. "Oh, and by next class have a partner, we're doing things in teams from now on."
"It's always good to have someone watch your back."