Night of the Broken Glass
C6: Smashed
[A/N: The first Quidditch match of the year has finally come! And Darkness is following…]
[Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the original stuff. I own whoever and whatever I make up. Don't steal and don't sue.]
Kendra stared at her hands as they burned suddenly. The night before, she learned that scars like hers and her father's would give some sort of warning against the person that had scarred them.
Darkness…
Ron gave a hard blast on his whistle and the brooms rose. Kendra snapped to attention and the game began.
"And Ward takes the Quaffle for Gryffindor!" the commentator, James Jordan (the infamous son of Lee Jordan) shouted through the microphone, "To one of the Weasley girls, to the other! A pass intercepted by Stone of Slytherin! Speedily taken towards the goal—oh the Bludger just hit him in the back! Painful, but he drops the Quaffle!"
Kendra flew around the field a few times, trying to ignore the burning in her hands. It was making her hands twitch uncontrollably, and she was starting to wonder how catch the Snitch with her hands like that.
She slowed, looking about for the Snitch as Raven threw the Quaffle in for a goal. A Bludger came pelting towards her and she leapt off the broom for a moment. The Bludger flew harmlessly by, narrowly missing her legs.
"Go on and find that Snitch!" Catherine Gray shot by and hit the Bludger in the other direction towards the Slytherin Chaser with the Quaffle, "Go on now!"
Kendra looked about, seeing only the glint of gold watches in the crowd and the Slytherins. It was close to impossible to see any gold glinting with all those watches…
A thought came to her. The Slytherins had worn gold watches to throw her off. A cheap tactic, but quite effective. Kendra frowned angrily.
Virgil and Rima sat in the crowd, keeping their eyes on Kendra. The news of her scars burning as her father's had long ago had come as a disturbing thing.
A wolf's head suddenly poked out beside Virgil's legs. It looked up towards Kendra, and then turned into Seal.
"Sorry I was late." she pulled herself out from between the benches and sat beside the two, "Pressing matters."
"Right." Rima muttered, "Your hair is ruffled." Seal looked at her gray hair and laughed a bit, and then looked back towards the match.
"Kendra's hands are twitching a lot." she sighed, "I hope nothing's wrong."
The crowd let out a gasp as Kendra rolled over in midair and sped towards something, the Slytherin Seeker Nathan Tehran following behind. The game went on, as Gryffindor scoring another goal.
"And the Seekers have seen the Snitch!" Jordan shouted, "But Potter has a better position to take the Snitch! And she nearly—that was deliberate!"
A Slytherin Beater had come around and grabbed Kendra's broom by the tail. Kendra jerked to an almighty halt and was nearly thrown from the broom.
"Penalty to Gryffindor!" Ron shouted, "Take your shot!" One of his daughters put the goal away easily, making the points thirty to zero.
Kendra had gotten back to her feet and was looking for the Snitch again. With a scowl, she reasoned that staying still while the Snitch flew around the field wasn't going to be a good thing.
And then the Lightning Bolt jerked. She looked at it as it bucked under her feet and threw her upwards. She managed to keep her feet on it, but only for a few seconds. She swiped at it with one of her severely pained hands, but it jerked away and a whistling filled her ears.
"Kendra!" Seal shouted at the top of her lungs as the Gryffindor crowd rose as one in shock. Rima stared in utter shock, and Virgil's expression became dark.
Kendra stared as the sky fell back and grew larger and the whistling in her ears grew louder. The jerking mad broomstick in the sky suddenly became still, and then fell towards her. Kendra swiped at it again as it got to her reach, and caught it.
It stopped falling, stopping Kendra and wrenching something in her shoulder. However, Kendra noticed something that no one else did once more. She ordered the broom forwards, to move, and it jerked to move. She held onto the broom with just one hand, skimming the ground and holding out her other hand. The burning in her hands grew even worse, but at the moment it became almost unbearable, she grabbed the Golden Snitch.
The air was ringing was cheers as Kendra let go of the broomstick and fell to the ground, laying there sprawled out and smiling.
"That's just wonderful." Seal remarked sarcastically, "So your scars started hurting when?"
"The first night in Gryffindor Tower." Kendra replied, rubbing her shoulder (recently popped back into place by Madam Pomfrey) ruefully, "It's stopped now, but it happened all through the match."
"Oh yay." Seal sighed, "Just like your father. The exact same thing happened in his first Quidditch match. The being thrown off his broom part."
"So what does that mean exactly?" Rima questioned, "If her scars were caused by Darkness—"
"Please call him Anton." Seal muttered, "Being scared of him just popping up at the mention of his name is really rather dimwitted."
"If they were caused by Anton, then wouldn't they be a warning for him?" Rima finished.
"It would certainly seem so." Seal replied, "But I hope it isn't."
The Quidditch match was well celebrated by the Gryffindors for a good long while. Winter had come before any of them had stopped being happy over the win.
Hogwarts was covered in many feet of snow by mid-December, and everyone was getting ready for the holiday. Despite the cheer that the break was bringing on, it was somewhat stunted by the chill filling the castle. Castles weren't exactly the best places to live in the winter, but Virgil and Rima had signed up to stay at Hogwarts for the break.
The last Potions class before the holiday was a bit bad. Many people unintentionally burned themselves and others by sitting too close to their caldrons, and Snape was in a fairly sour mood when he was teaching them.
And of course, the very bad thing happened just as Kendra was picking up a fragile vial of dragon's blood.
Professor Arcanorum poked his head into the room and Snape walked towards him. Kendra's hands burned suddenly and she dropped the vial. The next immediate thought she had was fifty points from Gryffindor and a week's worth of detention from Snape.
The vial stopped a few inches from the ground and hovered there. Virgil had his wand out discreetly and had it pointed at the vial. He looked at her and raised his wand. The vial floated upwards from the ground and landed without a sound on the table.
Kendra stared at Virgil for a moment. They had learned the Levitation Charm before Halloween, but he had used it without the vial being still on something and without words. It was near impossible for a first-year to do.
The bell chimed and the class began to clear out for lunch.
"Virgil, how did you do that?" Kendra questioned as they sat playing each other in wizard's chess. The day had ended and they were out onto break.
"Do what?" Virgil asked in reply as one of his pawns wrestled one of Kendra's off of the board.
"Use the Levitating Charm without saying anything." she replied while looking for a safe spot to move.
"I've been practicing." he replied simply as he took a bishop.
"Even Ron has to say something." she sighed, frustrated with the game, "What makes you so special that you don't have to use words?"
"You try." he grabbed one of the beaten pieces and held it up over the table, "Get out your wand and see if you can do it without words."
Kendra pulled her wand from her pocket and looked around the common room. No one but Rima was there, and she was reading a book while listening to some music player. Virgil waited for a moment, and then let go of the chess piece. It fell and Kendra pointed her wand at it, thinking of the concept and incantation of the charm. Abruptly, it stopped falling a few centimeters from the table and hovered there.
"See?" Virgil smirked, "It's not that hard. Why don't you try that in the first charms lesson after break? We'll probably learn something new."
"All right." Kendra put the piece onto the table. She looked sideways at the board and finally spotted something.
"Checkmate." she smiled.
Christmas morning was a very nice morning. Kendra awoke to a gentle shaking on her shoulder and Rima smiling at her.
"Come on." Rima said, "Virgil asked if we could open our presents in the common room together."
The presents were an exceptionally fun part of the morning. Because nobody had wish lists, they had gotten each other gifts on what they thought was a good idea. Virgil received a book from Rima about Dark Arts—his favorite subject—and (as Kendra blushed a very light pink) a book of music for a flute.
"You've heard me playing when everyone's gone to bed?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow in shock. Kendra nodded sheepishly as Rima stared at her, smirking.
Rima received a book of history of Aurors from Virgil and small necklace with a tiny character hanging from it from Kendra. The character read 'Toorima', to anyone that could conveniently read Japanese.
Kendra received Hogwarts, a Revised History from Rima. As she flipped through the pages, she noticed one picture in particular. It was a picture of a tall sixteen-year-old boy with untidy black hair, a sixteen-year-old girl with bushy brown hair, and what looked to be a sixteen-year-old Ron Weasley.
"Harry Potter," Rima pointed to the black-haired boy, who waved back genially, "and Hermione Granger. Your mum and dad. I thought you'd like to have at least one picture, even if it's in a book." Kendra was speechless, but it was obvious to understand how she felt about it.
Virgil—oddly—gave her a book of music as she had to him. Kendra looked at him oddly, but he just smiled in return.
The rest of most the day was spent playing in the snow and being at peace, admiring the snowy castle and grounds. The Weasley girls and their father were seen running around the grounds having a snowball fight. Ron was more pasted in snow than Erika and Lisa were.
The Christmas banquet was wonderful. Glimmering lights hung around the dozen perfect pine trees, occasionally flitting out to the tables to prove themselves to be little imps and to steal a bit of food. Wizard crackers were all around the tables, letting off bangs loud as cannons.
Christmas that year was very…pleasant.
"So why did you get me that book?" Kendra asked as the day shifted to night and the other Gryffindors had gone to bed.
"Dante and Seal asked me if I could play the part of gift-giver." Virgil replied, "Seal got you this—" He handed her a violin "—And Dante told me to give you this."
Virgil handed Kendra a carefully wrapped box and then stood up.
"From what I can guess, I think I should let you be alone for a while. Have a good rest. Merry Christmas."
He stood up and strode up the stairs to the boy's dormitories. Kendra stared after him for a moment and then set to the task of opening the gift.
Three things lay inside the box: a piece of parchment with writing on it, a piece of ragged parchment, and a silver-colored cloak. The writing on the first piece of parchment read:
Kendra, these items used to belong to your mother and father. The cloak is an Invisibility Cloak. The other is a map devised by your grandfather. Tap the parchment and say "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and it will show you the entirety of Hogwarts. Wipe it clean with the words "Mischief managed" and it will become blank. I'm giving these to you for two reasons. Dumbledore told me to. Seal was the one that managed to convince me. Use these in the proper way, or I'll personally come in the middle of the night to take them back. Merry Christmas, Dante Ascarte.
Kendra smiled serenely and lifted the Cloak from the box, looking at it carefully. It felt as soft and smooth as silk, lighter than a feather. As it covered her hands, everything vanished. It did exactly as one thought it would.
Kendra smiled more broadly, picked the items up, and headed up to the girl's dormitory.
The courtyard was lit with bright sunlight. It wasn't the courtyard of Hogwarts. It was some other grand castle in a place that seemed blurred to the sight.
Kendra looked about, seeing the sky above strangely yellow and red, pulsing and swirling around the blood-red sun. It was…eerie. She sat down at the edge of a large fountain and looked down into the water.
In the reflection, Kendra saw the sky begin to pulse rapidly and she straightened up. Four people had appeared, three on her left and one on her right.
Virgil, Rima, and a white-haired woman with a sinister-looking weapon on her back stood on Kendra's left, and a tall man stood on her right.
"Hello again, Kendra." the man said, his crimson-colored eyes glinting, "We haven't seen each other in ten years. How've you been?"
His eyes caused Kendra's throat to tighten. She remembered that deep voice from somewhere, somewhere very far back in her mind.
"Do not try to side with her!" Rima said, "Kendra, he's—" She let out a shout as she was blown backwards into a wall, crushing the stone back from the hard blow. She fell to the ground, bloody and not moving.
"Silly little child." the man lowered a hand back into his robes, hiding the wand in the cloak-like garment covering his shoulders, "Auror's children never make much sense, do they, Kendra?" He was pushed back by some sort of spell, but didn't fall.
"Kendra, don't fall for anything!" Virgil looked enraged, "He's An—" He too was blown backwards, landing alongside Rima, bloody and not moving.
"The worthless and undeserving son of my mentor." the raven-haired man sighed, "He shouldn't have so much power. Tell me Kendra, do you trust the Riddle boy? The son of the first Dark Lord?"
The woman was standing before the man now, her huge blade clashed against a narrow blade the man held. Her lightning-blue eyes were locked on the man's crimson eyes.
"Be silent, Anton." the woman said in a soft voice, "You have no right to try and speak to this child. Now DIE!"
The man, Anton, forced the woman backwards, but she slashed from a distance and a bolt of electricity flashed from the end of the sword. Anton deflected it, and raised his wand again. The woman was struck with a spell and landed a few feet away, bleeding from multiple gashes and not moving.
"Make a choice, Kendra." Anton turned to Kendra, "Don't waste your life like these fools did. I can make every dream of yours come true, if you fight alongside me. The Dark Lord Anton rewards all those that help him."
He lifted his wand, pointing it at the three lying on the ground.
"Don't waste your life like your mother and father did." Anton smiled a smile darker than any shadows as he looked at her with red eyes, another vertical eye opening between his other eyes.
And then Kendra woke up. The dormitory was silent, moonlight streaming in through a window and glinting off the tears streaming down Kendra's face.
—to be continued—
