Violet was quite disoriented when she woke up alone in a comfortable and soft bed for the first time in her life. It took her a bit of time to recall how she had arrived here. Yesterday had truly felt like she had entered a whole new world, with giant mystical castles, talking hats, and moving paintings. She of course had already seen most of this in Jasmine's memories, she had even felt the echo of the emotions she felt when she first came to Hogwarts. However, nothing could quite compare with seeing the castle with your own eyes. Feeling the warm and ancient magic of the castle greet them when they were crossing the lake was something she could have never imagined. Jasmine hadn't been able to sense it when she first came to the school so it took her completely by surprise. It had felt similar yet distinctly different to when Jasmine had used her magic to envelop her after Euryale's death. As if the atavistic fortress was promising that it will be there to protect her. The inside was as magnificent as the exterior seemed to indicate. Violet was mesmerized when she entered the Great Hall with its ample walls and its enchanted ceiling showing a sky full of more stars than what she had ever seen in her life, all of it illuminated by a thousand floating candles.
Interacting with her future classmates had been much less enjoyable. Despite the fact that Jasmine had already warned her about how she could experience blood purity discrimination, especially among the members of the darker aligned noble houses, she didn't expect it to be so subtle. Violet had imagined that it was going to be just like in the orphanage angry stares and mumbled insults said at her passing. However, she hadn't expected to just be dismissed, ignored in favor of her friend just for her lack of "pure blood" or open relationship with a noble house. She had to grit her teeth at the calculative look that Malfoy had when she did her small demonstration. They only saw her as far as she could be useful for them, and that made her insides boil.
What Jasmine had said last night was true, she was special even among magicals. No one other than Jasmine had half of her talent and intelligence, and thanks to her she even knew most of the fundamental knowledge that the other wizard-raised kids had. Not only will she demonstrate her superiority, but she will also make them bow before her. Though, it will take time, so for the moment, she needed to ignore her pride.
She quickly took a shower and changed, luckily no one else seemed to have woken up as early as her. As expected Jasmine had been waiting for her in the common room reading a book in one of the comfortable looking couches near the fireplace.
"Good morning, did you enjoy your cloud?" asked Violet with a fond smile.
"Of course, I hadn't even noticed how much I missed those beds." she answered with a wide grin.
They didn't have any trouble finding their way to the Great Hall, Violet had been taking attention the previous night to memorize the way. Learning the layout of the castle would be her first priority. Violet was sure that the castle was designed to be confusing and she couldn't rely on Jasmine to always guide her.
The Great Hall looked much like it did yesterday, although there barely was anyone there yet. They took a seat near the head table, and as soon as they sat down a plate full of an English breakfast with a toast by its side and a glass of orange juice magically appeared in front of them. Violet wasn't even sure if she could eat all of that food but she started to eat it in comfortable silence. She barely noticed when Malfoy and a few other first years sat beside them. They started to happily chatter with her friend, once again not giving her a second glance. She was absentmindedly hearing their conversation, making a short comment each time she had the opportunity to do so. It was dreadfully boring and she was considering just leaving for her room when the fat short man she had seen last night on the head table approached them.
"Good morning, it's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Horace Slughorn, head professor of Potions and more importantly your head of house. I'm pleased to see all of you well rested. Now here I have a few things for you." he chirped before handing them a small book and a single piece of parchment with their schedule.
"Oh but you must be the young Potter heiress, isn't it? I must say my condolences to your parents. They were two of the most exemplary wizards and witches I ever had the pleasure to teach. Especially your mother, she may have preferred charms but she was no slouch in potions either." he said, while watching Jasmine, his high expectations were clear for anyone to see. Violet knew that it was what they were searching for, as the man was one of the most well connected wizards you could find. Nevertheless, she had to contain her anger at how he was watching them almost as if he was assessing the value of a painting.
Jasmine smiled shyly at the praise "Thank you, professor, I hope that I'm able to meet your expectations, this year has much competition."
"Oh yes Heir Malfoy, your father was a great potioneer, I suppose that you must share his talents." he asserted with confidence. The blond boy tried to hide his squirm, if what he said on the train was true, the professor would find himself disappointed.
"Professor, we also wanted to ask you if we could get in the dueling club?" inquired Jasmine while tilting her head.
"Oh yes, of course, the notice for the admissions should be posted in the notice board in the common room next week. Are you interested in dueling?" said the professor, Violet didn't like the way he asked as if he was just indulging them.
Jasmine nodded eagerly, "Yes, Violet and I have been practicing since we got our wand. I think we would like to continue, we already learned most of the spells in the DADA book." she said, looking towards Violet, who gave a short nod for an answer.
"Hmm, you may have a talent for it then, although knowing the spell is just half the battle. I will be looking forward to hearing good things about you two from Ms. Herrera. But don't be too disappointed if you don't get in, heiress Black can be really demanding." he said with a wide smile before continuing his way through the table.
Shorty afterwards, Jasmine finally took her book as they said their goodbyes before exiting the great hall. The moment the two of them left, Jasmine turned towards her with concern clear on her eyes.
"Sorry for that, if I had known that Slughorn already had an eye for me I would have left earlier." she explained, making Violet smile despite herself at how considerate she could be.
"Don't worry I know you are doing it for me. You have the best chance to enchant them at the moment." she said with a small smirk.
The classes weren't particularly interesting. In charms, the tall and scrawny junior charms professor had been rather dull. Gave a long, and in Violet's opinion over complicated lecture on some basic concepts in charms, as if he was more interested in filling the time with words than with actual useful knowledge. Violet was sure that Jasmine and she weren't the only ones who had been more occupied doing almost anything else other than hearing the lecture. Herbology had been marginally better in the sense that at least it was a practical lesson. Basic norms of safety, regulations while in the greenhouses, and a few regular procedures. They were starting by using normal plants to practice what they were going to be doing with more dangerous plants later on. However, to her frustration, Violet discovered she definitely didn't have a green thumb, as apparently, she had been able to kill the damn plant in three different ways just in her first class. Jasmine was going to tease her about this forever, she grumpily thought.
However, the most enjoyable class for Violet much to her surprise was the two hours she had with Dumbledore out of all people. Sure his lecture was as useful for them as the charms teachers had been, however she could tell that it had much more useful knowledge for your average first year. More importantly, it was much more dynamic and energetic than the one the tall man had done, frequently asking questions to the class and giving them what Violet knew were snippets to future lessons. Because of their current plan of attack, Violet had decided to prove her intelligence by answering a couple of the most difficult questions, preferring to show quality over quantity.
During the second hour, Dumbledore gave them all a matchstick to transform into a metal needle, Violet decided to do it on her first try just to see his reaction. Sadly, he was the same as you would expect from any professor, a congratulation followed by the first points earned in the year. Jasmine replicated her "feat", a few minutes later, leaving the two with almost an hour of just doing the same transformation over and over again trying more complicated designs.
They made it some kind of competition trying to one up each other with more and more complicated designs, they ended up with two intricate needles more decorative than practical. Jasmine had made it into a tiny copy of Violet's wand with an intricate relief of leaves over it. At the same time, Violet had made hers into a metal spiral trying to imitate Jasmine's own curly hair with the head of a snake at the end of it and scales all over it. Jasmine had argued that her piece could never be used as a needle therefore that she had won. Violet was of the opinion that her wand design wasn't much more useful with how thick it was at the top, but they wouldn't settle the argument just yet.
They had gotten a few stares for their little competition but it was partly why they were doing it, and because it was fun of course. They weren't particularly nervous that Dumbledore saw them perform this kind of magic. The transformation of the form of the object was pure intent, after all, they weren't doing anything more complicated than transforming them into a normal needle.
At last one nervous looking Hufflepuff, who was seated beside Jasmine, approached them to ask them for help. Violet let Jasmine do her magic, if she had learned anything today was that Jasmine was a much better teacher than she had given her credit for. Soon a flock of students nearby started coming toward them for advice. Violet herself couldn't quite understand why the classes were so big, there were over fifty students in there. Of course, the professor couldn't keep up with everyone.
When the bell rang once more, she was sure she had explained the idea of intent to at least a dozen buffoons who she hoped were muggleborns. She didn't want to think what was wrong with the magical world if the idea of intent wasn't taught in magical households. An ugly dark haired girl had been the most disappointing, she had been exhausted after casting the spell a couple of times. Violet was astonished by the fact that they had invited someone with such a small magical reserve to Hogwarts at all.
Dinner was a quick affair, as it seemed Jasmine had something she really wanted to show her. Immediately afterward they darted to the main staircase, to the seventh floor. She took her across the left corridor until she stopped seemingly at a random place. Having seen Slyherin's common room, Violet tried to see if she could spot the hidden entrance. Then suddenly in front of a weird tapestry of dancing elephants a big intricately decorated wooden door appeared. As they entered an ample room with couches and pillows put around a fireplace, Violet raised an eyebrow, silently questioning her companion. It was definitely a nice room and it was hidden well enough that she didn't need to worry herself with warding it each time they came. But considering how quickly they had gone up here Violet was just expecting more.
"Don't you recognize it?" said Jasmine with an excited smile. "It's the room of requirements!"
Suddenly Violet understood much better her excitement. She had heard Jasmine's stories of the room. She had used it extensively when she was preparing for the war, practicing dueling and dark arts in here with the help of her closest friends. Immediately she started connecting the dots on what Jasmine wanted to do.
"I think we should spend our mornings here, practicing dueling, studying and improving our Occlumency. We already wake up much earlier than the rest of our classmates apparently so we have the time." proposed Jasmine. "We can go all out in here and I can teach you a few of the war spells I learned last time." Violet grinned at the idea, this was going to be fun.
The days quickly passed by, Violet hated that she needed to spend time with the rest of the Slytherins, but she knew that they needed to socialize. Stories about their natural talent in the wizardry classes quickly spread around the first years, some had even started to approach them for help. Jasmine had quickly proposed the idea of creating a study group where they tutored many of the first years who were struggling after just a few weeks of classes. Violet was especially concerned when even a few second years showed up. Was the material really that difficult for them?
However, the effort was doing the trick, they had quickly gained a reputation of true prodigies in magic always ready to give a helping hand to their fellow students. The witchcraft classes were a little more difficult, Violet apparently seemed to be hopeless in the practical side of herbology. Luckily for her Jasmine was quite good, apparently, she had done a lot of gardening during her time with the Dursleys, adding a few chants and small rituals didn't make it much more difficult. Astronomy was relatively easy and boring. They wouldn't be using it in any practical sense for a few years at least according to the Profesor Natt, because they didn't have the knowledge in runes or potions to incorporate the celestial bodies into their rituals. So for the moment, it was just identifying stars, constellations, and planets.
On Monday, during their first class of potions Jasmine was able to surprise the plump professor by answering a question about a third year potion. The few cutting techniques that Jasmine had taught her while preparing dinner in the orphanage, proved worthwhile as he congratulated them for their perfect potion. By the end of the lesson, Violet was sure that the jolly professor had his eyes firmly on the two of them.
Soon it was time for their admission duel to get accepted into the dueling club. There were over sixty students reunited around a long elevated platform in a long black stone chamber, with a high ceiling from which there were hanging golden spheres of light. There were two sets of seats on each side of the wooden platform on which they were going to be dueling. At the other end of the chamber, there was a small white tent where a couple of white robed nurses were waiting. The thirty members of the dueling club were on the platform waiting for the flood of students to finish pouring into the chamber.
At last when no one else entered the doors closed by themselves and the tall raven haired prefect from their first night stood forward.
"Welcome everyone, I'm heiress Lucretia Black today we are going to select the future members of the dueling club. Now if everyone could take a step away from the seats." with a flick of her wrist the seats disappeared and the platform lowed itself to the ground leaving the ample hall completely empty. "Now there are sixty four of you here. I want you to divide yourself into pairs, you are going to duel and be observed by one of the members of the dueling club, then if you prove yourselves interesting enough, you are going to duel against your referee."
The students started to scramble following the members of the dueling club that were warding small arenas for the students to duel. Violet stared at Jasmine and with a quick silent understanding, they divided themselves. Violet didn't care too much about who she was going to duel so she went directly towards the closest of the free warded arenas.
Her opponent seemed to be an older looking student, she may be in third or fourth year "First one to lose their wand or be unable to continue loses the duel. Each of you bow." said the member of the club, Violet noticed the form fitting robes and she wondered if those were dueling robes. "One, Two, GO!"
At the signal, Violet's opponent immediately threw a red spell at her. Violet quickly sidestepped it while casting a chain of spells one after the other. Her opponent silently created a shimmering blue shield. Violet lifted her wand preparing the next chain when the older girl yelled
"Aguamenti! Glacius! Depulso!" A burst of water came from the tip of her wand closely followed by a bright blue spell and another red spell. The water splashed on Violet's feet, she jumped just before the water got turned into ice but the effect of the banishing charm almost made her topple on her landing. However, she was able to steady herself enough to send the next chain of spells.
"Protego!" yelled the older student, again a shimmering blue shield appeared in front of her. Before the first chain hit Violet cast again. "Saxum! Depulso! Stupify!" The first chain hit the shield making it flicker. Before the girl had time to retaliate, a rock was conjured in the air and the banishing charm hit it, sending it rocketing against the shield shattering it. The girl jumped to avoid the flying rock only to fall right into the path of the stunning spell. She immediately collapsed.
"We have a winner!" exclaimed the referee, he woke up the fallen student before sending her to the medical tent to be checked over.
"Now you have to duel me, do you need a moment to replenish your magic? Conjuration can be taxing for your reserves." said the referee. Violet knew that for most first years conjuring a rock would be borderline impossible, for her while taxing it was something she could easily tolerate. However, this new opponent had actual practice in dueling, she couldn't afford to underestimate him.
"I would like to have a breather." she said.
"You have twenty minutes." responded the older student.
Violet took the opportunity to watch the rest of the potential members. For the first time, she noticed that she and Jasmine were surely one of the few first years that were here. Most seemed to be considerably older than any one of them. She also noticed that most shared the same problem that her own opponent had shown, they were repeatedly using shields when they could have moved to try to dodge incoming spells. Even worse, they were using their wands to cast their shields and they doubted too much. She guessed that for most this was the first time they were actually dueling.
At least she was a little more at ease knowing that the quality of her competition was so lamentable. The twenty minutes quickly passed by and it was time to duel the member of the dueling club. She immediately knew that this was going to be a much harder fight, even now her opponent was tense as a bow, his eyes carefully watching her.
"You can do the backward count."
Violet nodded and slowly said "One, two GO! Lumos Maxima!" she yelled, closing her eyes the bright light visible even behind her eyelids. However, before she even could cancel her spell and open her eyes she felt the build up of magic in front. Quickly ended her charm just to see a powerful spell quickly approaching her. She jumped to avoid it, but she saw that even before she touched the floor, three new spells were already in the air towards her. She quickly conjured a spell trying to make it look like she used her wand. The spells crashed against her shield but it proved strong enough to resist the barrage.
Her opponent was already preparing his next chain of spells. Knowing she didn't have time, she pointed to his feet before silently sending a leg locking curse. Her opponent of course saw it coming and sidestepped it. However, that wasn't her objective. She quickly transformed the wooden soil into uneven ice closely followed by a banishing charm. When her opponent tried to cast his chain of spells, he slipped giving Violet enough time to go into the offensive.
She immediately started to transform the terrain, creating ice spikes in the ground, before sending a couple of stunning spells. Unable to simply evade them, her opponent cast a shield. The spells hit the shield without even making it flicker. Violet gritted her teeth before sending a blasting spell. She was about to continue her chain when she had to dive to her side when a spike of ice was sent towards her! So the kiddy gloves were off, and she grinned to herself.
Her blasting curse was able to take down the shield, so she started to send some of the nastier curses that Jasmine had taught her. The older teenager's eyes widened at seeing the ugly yellow spell leave the tip of her wand. He narrowly evaded the spells, occasionally trying to send some curses her way. She easily dodged them and she started to create more ice spikes on the floor between curses. That's when her opponent started to cast fire as if his wand was a flamethrower, melting away the ice and covering himself behind the raging flames. Making it impossible for Violet to know where to cast.
She was barely fast enough to cast one of her most potent shields when she saw spells suddenly coming from the blazes. But then she saw in the corner of her eye that the light flickered. Recognizing a disillusionment spell she spun around, but she was too slow as a new barrage of spells was coming her way.
"Saxum!" she yelled, a wall of rocks was created in the path of the quickly approaching spells. She jumped back when she saw the rocks crack and start falling back against the impact of the unknown spells. But she had time, concentrating and picking as much magic as she could. She cast the strongest banishing spell she could. The wall of rocks was sent flying everywhere. She saw a blue shield being cast, away from the now dying flames, knowing where her target was she sent a new barrage of spells. The shield proved strong enough to resist the impact of one of the rocks, but not strong enough to resist the combination of an overpowered cutting curse and a bone-breaking curse. Her opponent screamed when the second curse hit him in the arm, breaking it. Using the distraction, Violet had sent a new stunning spell getting him out of the fight.
She was panting heavily, her magic reserves almost completely empty after the fierce fight, conjuring so many rocks was too much even for her. She stumbled a bit before she was caught by the small hands of her best friend.
"Did you really need to break his arm!" she hissed clearly not impressed by the display. Violet gave her a weak smile, she found it cute how stressed out she had gotten for her.
"He sent an ice spike towards me!" she tried to defend herself.
"He sent it towards your leg you idiot! An ice spike could have been easily healed!" she yelled.
"A broken arm too." argued Violet.
"But a bone-breaking curse is a sixth year spell!" hissed Jasmine quietly, trying to not be overheard.
"At least I didn't use wandless magic." whispered Violet, Jasmine groaned at that.
"Yes you did a great job at appearing to not have any experience at all." she said pointing towards the crowd of onlookers that seemed to have watched the whole fight. She asked herself when had they come, she hadn't noticed them at all.
"Well done," said a voice breaking her away from her musings. "I must say I'm impressed it isn't every day a first year beats a sixth year. It isn't the first time you have a duel I suppose." The tall black haired girl said, Violet thought that she had said that her name was Lucretia but she was too tired to remember.
"Emm it is her first time actually dueling but she has practiced before with me." responded Jasmine for her.
The older girl hummed in acknowledgment before turning back and raising once more the elevated platform.
"Everyone, thank you for coming, you will receive a notice from the house elves by next week if we think that you are ready to join the club." she announced. "Those who still feel too hurt to leave can stay in the medical tent until you are moved to the infirmary, the others you can go."
After the dismissal, Jasmine pulled her towards the exit, following the rest of the students. She sluggishly came along, she really didn't want to walk all the way back to her room. She was ready to fall asleep right here.
