Sorry for the long delay. I was busy with assignments and life in general. To those of you who are enjoying my writing, thanks a lot. It would mean a lot if you are willing to review so that I can improve and know your opinion in general. And to those who hate it, I have no hope to torture you with my terrible craft, so please feel free to stop reading and I sincerely apologise for your wasted time.

If you are not Apple89123, please skip the next part. And I am so sorry for the rant below if you do stay and read it.

And to Apple89123, I am sorry you only enjoy really quick and flashy stories, but I suppose your underdeveloped mind is incapable of a proper comprehension of short text, such as something known as the blurb or tags. If you had expected a romance looking at the adventure tag, you would be rightfully sorely disappointed in my opinion. In my story, a character cannot simple spontaneously create power without, you know, gathering power, hence the slow pacing so far. The whole concept of amorality is blurring the line between good and evil. If you believe 16-year-old is a wonderful time to start a family as you have commented, I highly question your sanity and intelligence, no wonder you are pathetic enough to believe misogyny is 'gender realism'. You have my deepest condolences if you truly believe the portrayal of a horrific nunnery for the sake of a psychological arc in the plotline is so much beyond your comprehension that your mind has resorted to primitive sexual perversion as your sole explanation.

I do not mind if you do not enjoy my story, many people don't, but at least have some class as to not embarrass yourself with your idiocrasy.


Chapter 28 OWLs Owled

1898

Albus POV

The summer holidays, one of the most annoying months in the year. I ignored Aberforth's whining as I excused myself from the table. I had a few letters to read and reply to, especially seeing how Seraphina discovered a gold mine of a bookshop with an incredible amount of books on warding. Not to mention essays and my paper on trans-species transfiguration. Just as I stood up, a large brown tawny owl came flying through the window. It was carrying a square envelope with the ministry seal stamped on it on its leg, sticking it out towards me as it stood on the table. I untied the letter, my heart beating loudly, my long awaited OWLs are here.

I sliced open the envelope with the letter opener on the mantelpiece, pulling out a sheet of heavy parchment, while a smaller sheet drifted out onto the floor. I read my report first.

s

Pass Grades

Fail Grades

Outstanding (O)

Poor (P)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Dreadful (D)

Acceptable (A)

Troll (T)

Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore has achieved:

Ancient Runes:

O*

Arithmancy:

O*

Astronomy:

O

Care of Magical Creatures:

O

Charms:

O**

Defence Against the Dark Arts:

O

Divination

O

Herbology:

O

History of magic:

O*

Muggle Studies:

O

Potions:

O**

Transfiguration:

O**

That was not too bad. I placed the report down on the table, bending over and picking up the second sheet. It was a note from the ministry.

Mr Albus Dumbledore,

Congratulations to performing the best spellwork ever seen by OWL markers since it has been conceived. You have won the Barnabus Finkley Prize for Exceptional Spell-Casting Prize.

You are invited to attend the award giving ceremony on the 13th of August in the British Ministry of Magic to receive your medal. I look forward to seeing your contribution to the magical world.

Griselda Marchbanks

The Barnabus Finkley Prize. According to the Ministry, I am the best spell caster they have marked this year in all exams including the NEWTs and Auror trainees.

"Albus, is everything all right?" Mother asked, concerned.

Aberforth snickered, "Maybe he got an E instead of an O in one of his subjects."

"Aberforth!" Mother snapped. Ariana whimpered at her show of anger, curling her arms around herself, Aberforth dropped his spoon as he instantly went to her side, shushing and soothing her.

"For your information, Aberforth, the worst I've gotten in my entire schooling career is an O. Mother, I got the Barnabus Finkley Prize for exceptional spell casting. I am expected at the Prize giving ceremony on the 13th of August."

Mother smiled. She ruffled my hair, ignoring Aberforth's over dramatic eye roll. "I'm so proud of you, my son."

I smiled. "Mother, may I be excused? I can't wait to tell my friends."

She smiled and nodded. Grabbing my OWLs report, I walked out of the room, behind me, I heard Aberforth muttering under his breath, and mother's exasperated voice.

"Aberforth, why can't you be more like your brother?"


Seraphina POV

I was just done with my breakfast and was putting away the dishes when the tawny owl flew into my window, almost knocking into the walnut table. Great! My OWLs are here. I had been wondering how I did.

I grabbed the heavy square letter, letting the string holding it to the owl's leg fall to the ground. The owl ruffled its feathers, pecked under its own wing before flying back out into the light drizzle. Tearing open the envelope, I grabbed the letter inside, to my surprise, there were two letters, one was heavy parchment, the other was a much lighter note. I quickly scanned through the first's contents.

s

Pass Grades

Fail Grades

Outstanding (O)

Poor (P)

Exceeds Expectations (E)

Dreadful (D)

Acceptable (A)

Troll (T)

Seraphina Antares Astrum has achieved:

Ancient Runes:

O*

Arithmancy:

O**

Astronomy:

O

Care of Magical Creatures:

O

Charms:

O**

Defence Against the Dark Arts:

O**

Divination:

O

Herbology:

O

History of magic:

O

Muggle Studies:

O

Potions:

O

Transfiguration:

O**

Nice! I took the OWLs for Muggle Studies and Divination just for giggles, so did Albus just because he could and because, here I quote, "There is literally no way to fail that class, Seraphina." He had deadpanned, they were ridiculous anyway. Besides, how could a seer like myself even get a bad grade in divination? I am pretty sure I got the arithmancy extra marks by writing down the calculations required for magic to remove a ghoul without using runes, instead using transfiguration on energy fields to create the containment necessary. The ghoul exorcism was originally part of a necromantic ritual, but then again, that detail is not exactly well known, since the part of the ritual exterminators commonly use is also in Magical Pest Extermination: A Guide, and magical pest exterminators exist and are part of the ministry the last time I checked. I had checked the energy transfiguration theory with Albus and his penpal, the famed Adalbert Waffling, so I know the theory is logically sound. In fact, I sent my paper on it to Transfiguration Today just last month, and they sent a letter to confirm their review of my paper along with four galleons just last week, so I am most certain that my article will be published in this issue.

Ironically, the only subject Albus and I had to actually study for, was Muggle Studies. Not because we lack knowledge on what muggles are. No. It was because of how blatantly wrong and outdated the stuff on muggles were, we almost died laughing at the idea that muggles had household mummies, which, according to the textbook, were used to keep evil at bay.

Yeah, the wizarding world needs to check their facts.

I picked up the smaller note and read it.

Miss Seraphina Astrum,

You are invited to attend the award giving ceremony on the 13th of August in the British Ministry of Magic to receive your Transfiguration Today Most Promising Newcomer Award. Congratulations on your success.

Bluebell Travers

My eyebrows flew up my forehead. The award given by Transfiguration Today is meant to be one of the most prestigious transfiguration awards in Europe! Okay, I did not expect that, I thought my idea of transfiguring energy directly would just be a new paper worthy thing, not this important!

Just then, another owl came flying into my room. It was a barn owl, Hermes from Albus'. It stood on the back of my chair in front of my table and stuck its leg out. I quickly untied its letter as it hooted impatiently. I wonder if Hermes is much stronger than normal household owls, considering how during our more heated discussions, Albus likes to reply to my letters the minute he gets them, making Hermes fly back and forth between Swanley and Godric's Hollow. Albus is many things, patient is not one of them. Now that I think about it, I do feel a bit bad for the poor bird.

I quickly unrolled the letter.

Seraphina,

I have achieved ten OWLs as expected, all Os obviously, with stars in Rune, History and Arithmancy, double stars in Charms, Potions and Transfiguration. I have also received the Barnabus Finkley Prize, isn't that great news! What about you? How did you do in your OWLs? Did you get any awards? How many chocolate frogs do you owe me now?

And as you have suggested, I wrote an article on Trans-Species Transfiguration's effect on animals compared to animagi and have just sent it in to Transfiguration Today. You were right, from the arithmancy, transfiguring animagi into other animals would be significantly more draining than transfiguring a normal animal, with an exponentially large potential for messing up.

Albus

I smiled, how typical of Albus, counting his occamies before they even hatched! But the good news is that I will get to see Albus again before school if he is going to the award ceremony as well. Barnabus Finkley Prize, on the other hand, I am not sure whether to feel jealous or not. Afterall, if I showed off my necromancy or elemental magic in the charms exam, no doubt they would have the same reaction, I know that my wandwork is at least on par with Albus's…even if it may be more focused on the darker side of magic as defined by the ministry. It is funny, really, how much the ministry bans, over half the books in Hogwarts library are restricted or banned. But magic is too interesting and useful to be just left alone, defined and regulated by human laws. So to achieve my goal of learning as much magic as I can, I have elected to acknowledge and ignore the ministry guidelines on banned magic. They are more like twisted rules anyway.

But there is one thing I won't touch, not even with a ten foot pole, and that is splitting my own soul. Because there are too many unknown dangers, and I prefer to not die a horrible death yet, or, you know, ever. Even if it promises immortality, the soul is fragile. I would never willingly split it, especially given that it would decay and lose fragments over time, like a piece of cloth, if you do not cut it, it will not fray for a long time, but if you do, it will eventually be completely destroyed. The ritual sounds too dodgy anyway. Who calls for not one, nor three, nor seven, but two sacrifices in the final component? I mean, technically, the second sacrifice must be a sentient magical creature with intelligence at least on par if not superior to humans as their souls are the only ones powerful enough to provide fuel to cut through a mortal's soul. But the number two is arithmetically weak, even combined with a witch or wizard's soul, so logically, it would be like cutting yourself with a dull blade when you can make a sharp precision scalpel with just a single more magical sacrifice! Whoever even thinks of doing the ritual would have to be a masochist. Even with that, the sealing of one's soul in an object is risky, even the slightest regret will cause excruciating pain that makes the cruciatus look like a walk in the park. And despite Albus's accusations, I do not have a strong desire for death.

I quickly penned a reply to Albus with my grades, not mentioning my award in Transfiguration and congratulating him on his paper and prize, quickly sprinkling some pounce on, barely giving the powder enough time for the drying charms to fitz and dissolve, trying the barely dried letter onto Hermes' leg. I want to surprise Albus at the prize giving ceremony. The owl hooted in annoyance, staring me down.

"I know, I am sorry for not letting you take a longer break." I smiled, stroking its feathers, it has quite a personality. Last time when I had just tied the letter and let it go, it pecked at me before leaving.

It hooted at me once more before diving out the window. I am willing to bet it would be back by the next day at most. In the meantime, I will sort through my trunk. I am pretty sure some potion ingredients in my trunk need replacing and new quills and ink, and getting my items early helps beat the school rush.


I picked up my outer robes and emptied my pockets onto my desk, which was already littered with my quills, books and trinkets, like the rest of my room. I need to wash it and have been putting it off for a bit, not to mention taking an overdue trip to Gladrags, I need to get new dresses along with robes, seeing how the dresses I brought while I was still in the orphanage barely fit me anymore, even with extension charms. A few bottles of ink and my quill came tumbling out, along with a few textbooks and one heavy, old tome. It slammed onto the table, almost breaking some of my ink jars.

I stared at it blankly for a few seconds before recognising it. I can't believe I forgot about Myths and Legends of the Wizarding World, the book I got from the Room of Requirement! Placing it onto my bedside table, I continued moving onto my other items. As much as I want to read it right now, it will have to wait till at least tonight. When I no longer have an appointment with Madame Tattling, the seamstresses at Gladrags. I checked the time, I am almost late already! Quickly grabbing my wand, I apparated to Diagon Alley.

As I walked in Diagon Alley, people stopped to stare and whisper. I sighed. I guess I really should have gotten my dress let down earlier. In my rush, I had forgotten to glamour the edge of my dress. But in my defence, it is very annoying to walk with a dress that is long enough to be a trip hazard.

"Mommy, mommy! It's her! The girl on the paper!" A child cried enthusiastically, while tugging on her mother's sleeve.

Alright, I have experienced more than my fair share of weird things, but the newspaper? I didn't even remember doing anything weird enough recently! I regret not having a subscription to The Daily Prophet during the holidays, thinking that I can get the news in time anyway by heading to Diagon Alley once a week. I changed my path and walked to the newsstand.

"One copy of the Daily Prophet, please."

"One knut." The man said without looking up from his copy.

I paid the fee and grabbed my copy of the Daily Prophet. Opening the paper, I did a double take. On the front page was a photo of Albus and I. The ones they used for identification for the OWLs. What did I even do? Why am I on the news? I quickly read the heading.

STUDENTS BREAK OWL RECORD. ALBUS DUMBLEDORE AND SERAPHINA ASTRUM SECOND COMING OF MERLIN?

…Well, that explains the stares. But really? Their record really was not that hard to break. And why on Earth did they authorise the use of student's photos in the news without asking for permission? At least the picture is barely recognisable as me. The fame should fade quickly enough…At least I hope.


"Good afternoon, my dear." Madame Tattling greeted me as I opened her door.

She waved her wand, the model with the unfinished dress in front of her instantly banished itself to a corner of her studio. She looked me up and down, a frown marring her face, no doubt from my overly short dress in her opinion. To be fair, it showed my ankles…and shins.

"You must be here for a new fitting, Miss…Astrum." She confirmed while checking the list of appointments on her wall.

I nodded. I needed new dresses and with a special request. "Do you mind doing custom orders?"

She looked offended at me. "I am a seamstress, of course I am willing to make clothes tailored to the customer's needs!"

Jeeze, wow, I am just asking because I want to add attachments to my dress that are unconventional. I put on an apologetic smile and a look of embarrassment. "I'm sorry, it's just, my request may sound a bit…unusual."

She snorted. "Trust me, dearie, if you are trying to hide a baby bump under your robes, I have you covered."

Wait, what? I froze for a minute as her implication became clear. How dare she imply that I have been sleeping around! I only showed my ankles! It's not like I was walking around naked or wearing lingerie! I pushed my emotions to the back of my mind. Calm down. Don't let her see your anger. You still need her help. I forced a smile back onto my face, one that was more like a grimace or a snarl than an actual smile.

"I'm sorry, I am not sure what you are implying, but my request is still very unusual. You see, I wish to not have a petticoat in my dress, the shape of the dress being held by levitation charms." I explained.

It is an idea I had for a while, it is ridiculous how heavy a petticoat is, and that magicals still wear them. I mean, just use a levitation rune! Madame Tattling stared at me unreadably for a few minutes. Oh, right, she probably did not study runes in school. I stuck my hand and wand in my pocket to discreetly conjure a slip of paper with the levitation rune inscribed on it.

"Umm…Can you embroider this rune onto the underside of the top of the dress? It will help with the petticoat problem." I offered.

She sighed as she took the slip of paper. "That is a very unusual order. But I will be able to do it. I assume you would like to have the typical temperature regulation charms in the pants as well for summer and winter. Anything else?"

I nodded. I am glad she is willing to make such an order. "One set of formal dress robes, two senior Hogwarts skirts and a few corsets. I would like to let down the helm of my Hogwarts robes too."

She nodded. "Step onto the platform and I will get you measured. You can pick out a style for your formal robes afterwards."