A/N: And there's more... No disclaimer here. All characters are covered. I'm a few chapters ahead, so you shouldn't have to wait long. Just have to code the html for them.
Red rays of the morning sun leaked into the room through the cracks in the shades, filtering through the uniform darkness that filled the room. A girl slept silently in that room. Her blankets were disarrayed about her bed. Soft snores filled the complete silence of the abyss. She did not move at all. In fact, the sun didn't have any affect on her as she slept, except maybe that it ran small goose bumps up and down her arms.
The room wasn't very large, though it was not small. Coming through the door, the bed was in the back left corner. In front was a tall bureau with a television on top. Symmetrically placed on the back wall were two windows. Beneath them a long chest stood. There were many things placed on top of it. It appeared to be used only as a table. In the right corner there were some more toys, and along the wall was a small bookshelf. There was a room extension to the right of the bookshelf. It was a narrow room, and it was filled with toys and objects of all sorts. Next to the door to the hall, there was one more bureau. It had a small shelf on top, and there were a few night lamps placed here. The wallpaper was striped pink. It was obvious the girl didn't like this, though. The wallpaper next to her bed was all torn away.
The girl stirred, opening her large, brown eyes. They were a deep dark brown, and seemed to take in everything they saw as they looked around. She yawned, the slightly tanned skin on her face stretching. She sat up, pushing off what was left of the covers. She stretched for a few second, slipping her bare feet into a pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle slippers. She wore a long t-shirt for pajamas, and appeared to be fine in that. Long brown hair, not exactly dark, but not overly light ran down her back, but it was pulled up. He hair annoyed her when it was down.
She shook off the last bit of sleepiness and ran out the door and into the hall. She jumped down the stairs, taking them two at a time. This caused those few living pictured a bit of annoyance, but she ignored them and ran into the living room. Here, her father sat reading a copy of the newspaper. Pictures on the front waved to her, and she waved back.
"Good morning, Wolf," he said as she passed the fireplace and moved into the kitchen. In the kitchen, her mother was standing at the counter, watching muggle news and drinking coffee.
"I have a question," she announced to her mother, in the way that children did.
"Ohh?" Her mother smiled, "What is it?"
"Are you gonna teach me more today?" she had her mother's accent, not her father's. He was clearly British.
"More what? About the dragons?"
Wolf folded her arms across her chest, frowning slightly. "We did that yesterday. I want to learn the other stuff."
"Are you sure?" Her mother frowned. Wolf seemed to be taking too great an interest in the Dark Arts.
Wolf nodded eagerly.
Her mother sighed, but said. "Ok, but you have to go get dressed quick."
"Can I eat first?"
"Of course, what do you want to eat?"
"Pancakes."
"How about Frosted Flakes?"
"Ok." Wolf blinked.
Penny blinked as she got Wolf the cereal. She set the bowl of dry, sugared flakes before her daughter as the girl ate. "Come and get me when you're finished getting dressed."
"Ok." Wolf grabbed the remote (or clicker, depending on where you're from) and put on Voltron.
Penny walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. She sat down next to Jeff. "You're daughter has taken on a liking to the Dark Arts."
He looked up from his paper, placed it down on the table, and put his arm around Penny. "She gets that from you. You were always better at me than it."
"That's not the point. Should we be worried?"
"She's not going to go over to him. Besides, her interest will help her in two weeks."
"I still don't like that."
"Me neither, but we made the decision almost seven years ago, now. She will do well."
"That's what I'm worried about."
"Why?"
"Nevermind, Jeff. Nevermind," she sighed.
"Ok." He didn't seem convinced.
"What am I supposed to teach her, though? I said I would, but she learned all I knew months ago. She learns this faster than anything else."
"You could finish necromancy. You've got two weeks."
Penny closed her eyes, and Wolf ran past them. "I don't like necromancy, but since there's nothing else…"
Wolf bounded up the stairs, arousing the pictures yet again. She ran into her room and shut the door. It was dark again. She could almost see the shapes moving around. Wolf hit the light switch, spilling lamp light into the room. She moved to her drawers and pulled out a t-shirt and some sweat pants. She quickly changed into them, and ran to the door. She stopped short, though, remembering that she had forgotten her robes. Wolf turned around, stepping over toys as she went to the drawer beneath her bed. She pulled out a pair of navy blue robes and threw them on like a coat. She also grabbed a baseball cap off the door and put it on.
Wolf jumped down the stairs again and went into the living room. She faced her parents. "You ready?"
Penny stood up. "Yes. Come on, we're going to work on some more necromancy."
"Cool!"
"Tie your robes, Wolf," Jeff called after them as they left the room.
Wolf rolled her eyes at him as she followed her mother into the other room. She didn't like robes much. Too much like those dresses her mother tried to get her to wear. She hated those. There was no way she was going to make the robes seem any more like them. Wolf blinked.
As she opened her eyes, she looked next to her. Sara had just got on the bus and sat in the seat across. Wolf moved over to the edge of the seat. They always got their own seats in the morning.
"Hey."
"Hi."
"You bring some of your candy today?"
"Yup. Did you?"
Wolf nodded. "And I brought some of those beans I got from my Dad."
"Awesome! I love those!"
"Unless of course you get the bad ones."
Sara made a face. "Those are gross."
"Don't eat them, then."
"How do you know?"
Wolf shrugged. "I don't know. Guess?"
"Uh-oh," Sara said as the bus stopped.
Wolf looked at her friend as they both stood up and walked down the isle of the bus. "What?"
"Kristen's out there."
Wolf sighed. "She's going to try to steal my bag again to look at my books… Run for it?"
Sara nodded. "Let's look away too."
"Meet at the swing set?"
"Yup." They dashed off the bus, but Wolf tripped.
Pulling herself up, Wolf dove out of the way of another ball. She liked dodgeball. Sometimes, she wished she could play it all day instead of go to classes. She didn't like not being with her friends, but she already knew what they were learning, so being with them would put her to sleep.
Wolf picked up a ball, and took that one step that brought her into No Man's Land. She aimed a ball at a boy halfway across the court. Miraculously, it hit. She knew why, but others would claim it was skill. The boy had been trying to hit Sara. Sara was cart-wheeling to tease the kids on the other team. Sara just liked gymnastics. It had been Wolf's idea to tease the others with it.
As the boy left the court, Wolf bent down to pick up another ball. Luckily, a shot aimed at her missed because of it. She had no chance to retaliate, though, because the bell rang. Wolf grinned as she headed to the next class. She liked dodgeball. It was the best part of school, besides lunch, of course.
Wolf yawned.
She would have gone back to sleep, but a voice from downstairs called her. Wolf rolled out of bed, threw on some robes, and ran down the stairs.
Penny watched as her daughter entered the kitchen. She kept on a warm smile, but it was to hide her pain at what was about to happen. She did not like the training, but it was necessary. Her poor daughter. What am I about to do?
A man stood in the back of the kitchen. Six-foot-two, raven hair, searching blue eyes and tanned skin marked him as one of a kind, and one to be watched too. He wore dark green robes today with a black muggle baseball cap. Not many wizards wore those. He must be of muggle heritage, or at least interested in them. Not that heritage mattered, Wolf's mother was muggle born, and it did nothing to her ability to do magic. The hat was just something peculiar. It's too bad. So young… the tall man thought.
"Who's that?" Wolf asked. There had been a short awkward silence, and Wolf had wanted to interrupt it.
"My name is Ted," he said, stepping forward.
Wolf hadn't expected him to answer, but now there was no avoiding talking to him. She didn't like his voice. It seemed far away, almost. "I'm Wolf." She seemed a bit uncertain as to how to respond.
"Wolf," her mother spoke up, "Ted is going to take over teaching you. They want you to go through Auror training." Wolf was silent. Penny took this for fear or shock. "You don't have to be afraid, Ted will make sure you do well. Do you understand…"
"Sure."
The response came as a shock to Penny. She had almost expected Wolf to say no. Wolf knew what happened to most that underwent Auror training. "You sure?"
Wolf nodded. "I have a question."
"Yes?"
"When does it start?"
"Now," Ted spoke up. "Come with me. We're using floo." Wolf just followed.
Wolf coughed the soot out of her lungs. Floo powder was more trouble that it was worth sometimes.
"Come on, Wolf, they'll be here any minute!"
"What?"
"Everyone else. You can't wear robes when they're around."
"Ooopps," Wolf dashed up to her room. She yelled back on the way, "I'll be back Sara."
Up in her room, Wolf performed a quick cleaning charm, one of the few simple spells she knew. Her parents had inadvertently left out simple spells from all the magic they taught her. First years at Hogwarts knew more in that respect than she did.
Wolf threw on a pair of loose jeans and a black t-shirt. She ran back downstairs, and was stopped by her mother and father.
"Good job on completing the first half of your training today," her father said.
"Most take at least two years, Wolf. You've done it in one."
Wolf smiled, "The dark magic helped. I knew that already."
"Good. Now hurry. Your friends will be here."
"Yup."
She ran back into the kitchen. It looked like a normal muggle kitchen now, no pans washing themselves, or owls sitting at the table.
Sara was already putting her gift down. No one else was there yet. "How'd you hide the dragons?" she asked.
Wolf shrugged. "My mother did it. She hasn't taught me yet. I've been busy with that training."
"Do you like your teacher?"
"Mrs. Bullard? Not really."
"Not her! For your training."
"Oh! Didn't at first, but he's better now."
"Can you wait for it to end?"
"Nope. Then I don't have to go away all the time."
"I'd be wicked tired."
"I am." The doorbell rang.
The sound buzzed in her ear. She had narrowly missed that curse. Wolf dodged another. She was grinning now. This was too much like dodgeball for it not to be fun. Close up was easier, though. You could fight hundreds when you were close, but at this distance, that same hundreds were deadly. She glanced at the group left. Five hours of this and she was only three quarters of the way done. It would be another two at least. She sighed as she dodged more curses. This was tedious. She was grinning, but that was more to taunt them now. She'd have to do it again, she knew. Seven hours was much too slow. Five would have been better. If only I could finish it now, she thought, Duh! I can!
She dodged curses and shot no more, concentrating fully on what she was muttering. The dodging would do itself, she found. She muttered steadily, and if it were louder, it could have almost been a song. Not two minutes later, the ground beneath her enemies exploded, tossing them everywhere.
"You waited too long to do that," Ted appeared before her eyes, "Why not do that from the start?"
"I couldn't have dodged the spells."
"Or you hadn't thought of it?"
"I had," it was only half a lie. She had thought of it and forgotten in the first hour. "You would have accused me of cheating."
"Maybe, but we could have gone on to defending yourself against a necromancer quicker."
"Why bother?"
"What do you mean?"
"You haven't figured it out? I love studying the Dark Arts."
"That was obvious, considering you used some of it now, but you did necromancy too?"
"Things in the ground have always worked well for me."
"Probably because most people are buried."
"Maybe."
"Show me some of what you can do."
Wolf lifted up her sleeves.
"Are you ready?"
"Hmmm?"
"I said, are you ready? I shouldn't have to repeat myself, Wolf," Ted stood before her, in aqua robes, looking exactly as he did when she first met him two years before.
"I know. Nervous."
"It won't help you."
"I know."
"Don't worry about it, Wolf," Penny smiled.
"You're going to do fine," Jeff agreed.
"Ok," she didn't sound so certain.
"Time to go," Ted spoke, taking Wolf's hand. "We'll be back before you know it."
A bright light enveloped them.
"I hope so…"
Wolf opened her eyes when she felt her feet hit solid ground. She had closed them because her eyes - especially the left one for some strange reason - had hurt when she and Ted were engulfed in the white light. A feeling of weightlessness had overcome her when it happened, and she was free of her body's confinement, although only for a few moments. It was a wondrous feeling, and she would have loved to make the trip over and over again, but deep down, she felt that she would never experience the trip again.
"What was that?" She asked Ted, still squinting because the glow had not faded from around them.
"A special traveling spell," he replied as the room came into full view. Wolf looked around. They were in a dungeon. Well, sort of.
The dungeon was decorated to give it a homey feel, probably to comfort her nerves, but this did more to increase them than anything else. A red fire, magical of course, lit the room. It cast eerie shadows everywhere.
A woman sat in the large chair towards the back, she appeared to be reading a book. She was in her early forties, still pretty, though slightly plump unlike in her childhood years. She wore a red robe. Almost everything seemed to be red here. Her hair was long and dark, and her eyes matched it perfectly. The woman seemed kind, but there was something odd about her. Something similar to what was odd about Ted, but Wolf could never put her finger on it.
"This is Cho Chang, Wolf. She will take care of you from here. I will see you later. Follow her directions, Wolf. It's important. Follow them, no matter what." The last words bothered Wolf. They had an eerie air, not mentioning the fact that when she turned to say something, he was gone.
Wolf turned back to the woman before her. "Hello?"
Cho looked up. "You're Wolf?" she seemed surprised. "I heard you were young, but I never suspected you were that young. How old are you? Ten? Eleven?"
"Nine."
"Amazing, but we will have to discuss this later. Now, for your last test, all you have to do is keep the following poem secret."
"That's it?" It was Wolf's turned to be surprised.
"That's it. Now listen carefully:
"Three powers will rise to fight
Those whose hearts are dark as night,
Chosen by eternity
To fulfill a destiny,
Rubies in the eye and shoulder
Glowing a peculiar color
Then the four with powers untold
And others who, the world did mold
All hidden in children young
Who holds all three? Only one."
"Weird."
"Never tell it to anyone until all has been revealed. Remember that above all else. You must keep it secret, no matter what."
Wolf was about to say something, but Cho was gone. Weird. Both gone in the same way.
The bookshelf at the back opened, revealing a door. Must be for me. Don't like it, but where else could I go? Wolf readied her wand. Here we go. She stepped into the room.
Everything went black.
Everything was black. That was the way he wanted it. She couldn't see a thing in that room. No one could, not even if your eyes were used to it. Complete and total darkness. This would be the test to end all tests. This was where the final damage was done. No longer a child… All that would be left behind.
It was a sad thing, really. Nine years old, and already too much of an adult, but not enough. Sometime I wish I didn't have to do this. She's going to go mad, if I don't kill her first. He shook off the thought as he carried her limp body to the chair.
Magical bonds held her hands and feet, keeping her securely in the chair. He took her wand, placing it deep in his pocket. A flick of his own wand and a few muttered words had her drenched in ice water.
Red rays of the morning sun leaked into the room through the cracks in the shades, filtering through the uniform darkness that filled the room. A girl slept silently in that room. Her blankets were disarrayed about her bed. Soft snores filled the complete silence of the abyss. She did not move at all. In fact, the sun didn't have any affect on her as she slept, except maybe that it ran small goose bumps up and down her arms.
The room wasn't very large, though it was not small. Coming through the door, the bed was in the back left corner. In front was a tall bureau with a television on top. Symmetrically placed on the back wall were two windows. Beneath them a long chest stood. There were many things placed on top of it. It appeared to be used only as a table. In the right corner there were some more toys, and along the wall was a small bookshelf. There was a room extension to the right of the bookshelf. It was a narrow room, and it was filled with toys and objects of all sorts. Next to the door to the hall, there was one more bureau. It had a small shelf on top, and there were a few night lamps placed here. The wallpaper was striped pink. It was obvious the girl didn't like this, though. The wallpaper next to her bed was all torn away.
The girl stirred, opening her large, brown eyes. They were a deep dark brown, and seemed to take in everything they saw as they looked around. She yawned, the slightly tanned skin on her face stretching. She sat up, pushing off what was left of the covers. She stretched for a few second, slipping her bare feet into a pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle slippers. She wore a long t-shirt for pajamas, and appeared to be fine in that. Long brown hair, not exactly dark, but not overly light ran down her back, but it was pulled up. He hair annoyed her when it was down.
She shook off the last bit of sleepiness and ran out the door and into the hall. She jumped down the stairs, taking them two at a time. This caused those few living pictured a bit of annoyance, but she ignored them and ran into the living room. Here, her father sat reading a copy of the newspaper. Pictures on the front waved to her, and she waved back.
"Good morning, Wolf," he said as she passed the fireplace and moved into the kitchen. In the kitchen, her mother was standing at the counter, watching muggle news and drinking coffee.
"I have a question," she announced to her mother, in the way that children did.
"Ohh?" Her mother smiled, "What is it?"
"Are you gonna teach me more today?" she had her mother's accent, not her father's. He was clearly British.
"More what? About the dragons?"
Wolf folded her arms across her chest, frowning slightly. "We did that yesterday. I want to learn the other stuff."
"Are you sure?" Her mother frowned. Wolf seemed to be taking too great an interest in the Dark Arts.
Wolf nodded eagerly.
Her mother sighed, but said. "Ok, but you have to go get dressed quick."
"Can I eat first?"
"Of course, what do you want to eat?"
"Pancakes."
"How about Frosted Flakes?"
"Ok." Wolf blinked.
Penny blinked as she got Wolf the cereal. She set the bowl of dry, sugared flakes before her daughter as the girl ate. "Come and get me when you're finished getting dressed."
"Ok." Wolf grabbed the remote (or clicker, depending on where you're from) and put on Voltron.
Penny walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. She sat down next to Jeff. "You're daughter has taken on a liking to the Dark Arts."
He looked up from his paper, placed it down on the table, and put his arm around Penny. "She gets that from you. You were always better at me than it."
"That's not the point. Should we be worried?"
"She's not going to go over to him. Besides, her interest will help her in two weeks."
"I still don't like that."
"Me neither, but we made the decision almost seven years ago, now. She will do well."
"That's what I'm worried about."
"Why?"
"Nevermind, Jeff. Nevermind," she sighed.
"Ok." He didn't seem convinced.
"What am I supposed to teach her, though? I said I would, but she learned all I knew months ago. She learns this faster than anything else."
"You could finish necromancy. You've got two weeks."
Penny closed her eyes, and Wolf ran past them. "I don't like necromancy, but since there's nothing else…"
Wolf bounded up the stairs, arousing the pictures yet again. She ran into her room and shut the door. It was dark again. She could almost see the shapes moving around. Wolf hit the light switch, spilling lamp light into the room. She moved to her drawers and pulled out a t-shirt and some sweat pants. She quickly changed into them, and ran to the door. She stopped short, though, remembering that she had forgotten her robes. Wolf turned around, stepping over toys as she went to the drawer beneath her bed. She pulled out a pair of navy blue robes and threw them on like a coat. She also grabbed a baseball cap off the door and put it on.
Wolf jumped down the stairs again and went into the living room. She faced her parents. "You ready?"
Penny stood up. "Yes. Come on, we're going to work on some more necromancy."
"Cool!"
"Tie your robes, Wolf," Jeff called after them as they left the room.
Wolf rolled her eyes at him as she followed her mother into the other room. She didn't like robes much. Too much like those dresses her mother tried to get her to wear. She hated those. There was no way she was going to make the robes seem any more like them. Wolf blinked.
As she opened her eyes, she looked next to her. Sara had just got on the bus and sat in the seat across. Wolf moved over to the edge of the seat. They always got their own seats in the morning.
"Hey."
"Hi."
"You bring some of your candy today?"
"Yup. Did you?"
Wolf nodded. "And I brought some of those beans I got from my Dad."
"Awesome! I love those!"
"Unless of course you get the bad ones."
Sara made a face. "Those are gross."
"Don't eat them, then."
"How do you know?"
Wolf shrugged. "I don't know. Guess?"
"Uh-oh," Sara said as the bus stopped.
Wolf looked at her friend as they both stood up and walked down the isle of the bus. "What?"
"Kristen's out there."
Wolf sighed. "She's going to try to steal my bag again to look at my books… Run for it?"
Sara nodded. "Let's look away too."
"Meet at the swing set?"
"Yup." They dashed off the bus, but Wolf tripped.
Pulling herself up, Wolf dove out of the way of another ball. She liked dodgeball. Sometimes, she wished she could play it all day instead of go to classes. She didn't like not being with her friends, but she already knew what they were learning, so being with them would put her to sleep.
Wolf picked up a ball, and took that one step that brought her into No Man's Land. She aimed a ball at a boy halfway across the court. Miraculously, it hit. She knew why, but others would claim it was skill. The boy had been trying to hit Sara. Sara was cart-wheeling to tease the kids on the other team. Sara just liked gymnastics. It had been Wolf's idea to tease the others with it.
As the boy left the court, Wolf bent down to pick up another ball. Luckily, a shot aimed at her missed because of it. She had no chance to retaliate, though, because the bell rang. Wolf grinned as she headed to the next class. She liked dodgeball. It was the best part of school, besides lunch, of course.
Wolf yawned.
She would have gone back to sleep, but a voice from downstairs called her. Wolf rolled out of bed, threw on some robes, and ran down the stairs.
Penny watched as her daughter entered the kitchen. She kept on a warm smile, but it was to hide her pain at what was about to happen. She did not like the training, but it was necessary. Her poor daughter. What am I about to do?
A man stood in the back of the kitchen. Six-foot-two, raven hair, searching blue eyes and tanned skin marked him as one of a kind, and one to be watched too. He wore dark green robes today with a black muggle baseball cap. Not many wizards wore those. He must be of muggle heritage, or at least interested in them. Not that heritage mattered, Wolf's mother was muggle born, and it did nothing to her ability to do magic. The hat was just something peculiar. It's too bad. So young… the tall man thought.
"Who's that?" Wolf asked. There had been a short awkward silence, and Wolf had wanted to interrupt it.
"My name is Ted," he said, stepping forward.
Wolf hadn't expected him to answer, but now there was no avoiding talking to him. She didn't like his voice. It seemed far away, almost. "I'm Wolf." She seemed a bit uncertain as to how to respond.
"Wolf," her mother spoke up, "Ted is going to take over teaching you. They want you to go through Auror training." Wolf was silent. Penny took this for fear or shock. "You don't have to be afraid, Ted will make sure you do well. Do you understand…"
"Sure."
The response came as a shock to Penny. She had almost expected Wolf to say no. Wolf knew what happened to most that underwent Auror training. "You sure?"
Wolf nodded. "I have a question."
"Yes?"
"When does it start?"
"Now," Ted spoke up. "Come with me. We're using floo." Wolf just followed.
Wolf coughed the soot out of her lungs. Floo powder was more trouble that it was worth sometimes.
"Come on, Wolf, they'll be here any minute!"
"What?"
"Everyone else. You can't wear robes when they're around."
"Ooopps," Wolf dashed up to her room. She yelled back on the way, "I'll be back Sara."
Up in her room, Wolf performed a quick cleaning charm, one of the few simple spells she knew. Her parents had inadvertently left out simple spells from all the magic they taught her. First years at Hogwarts knew more in that respect than she did.
Wolf threw on a pair of loose jeans and a black t-shirt. She ran back downstairs, and was stopped by her mother and father.
"Good job on completing the first half of your training today," her father said.
"Most take at least two years, Wolf. You've done it in one."
Wolf smiled, "The dark magic helped. I knew that already."
"Good. Now hurry. Your friends will be here."
"Yup."
She ran back into the kitchen. It looked like a normal muggle kitchen now, no pans washing themselves, or owls sitting at the table.
Sara was already putting her gift down. No one else was there yet. "How'd you hide the dragons?" she asked.
Wolf shrugged. "My mother did it. She hasn't taught me yet. I've been busy with that training."
"Do you like your teacher?"
"Mrs. Bullard? Not really."
"Not her! For your training."
"Oh! Didn't at first, but he's better now."
"Can you wait for it to end?"
"Nope. Then I don't have to go away all the time."
"I'd be wicked tired."
"I am." The doorbell rang.
The sound buzzed in her ear. She had narrowly missed that curse. Wolf dodged another. She was grinning now. This was too much like dodgeball for it not to be fun. Close up was easier, though. You could fight hundreds when you were close, but at this distance, that same hundreds were deadly. She glanced at the group left. Five hours of this and she was only three quarters of the way done. It would be another two at least. She sighed as she dodged more curses. This was tedious. She was grinning, but that was more to taunt them now. She'd have to do it again, she knew. Seven hours was much too slow. Five would have been better. If only I could finish it now, she thought, Duh! I can!
She dodged curses and shot no more, concentrating fully on what she was muttering. The dodging would do itself, she found. She muttered steadily, and if it were louder, it could have almost been a song. Not two minutes later, the ground beneath her enemies exploded, tossing them everywhere.
"You waited too long to do that," Ted appeared before her eyes, "Why not do that from the start?"
"I couldn't have dodged the spells."
"Or you hadn't thought of it?"
"I had," it was only half a lie. She had thought of it and forgotten in the first hour. "You would have accused me of cheating."
"Maybe, but we could have gone on to defending yourself against a necromancer quicker."
"Why bother?"
"What do you mean?"
"You haven't figured it out? I love studying the Dark Arts."
"That was obvious, considering you used some of it now, but you did necromancy too?"
"Things in the ground have always worked well for me."
"Probably because most people are buried."
"Maybe."
"Show me some of what you can do."
Wolf lifted up her sleeves.
"Are you ready?"
"Hmmm?"
"I said, are you ready? I shouldn't have to repeat myself, Wolf," Ted stood before her, in aqua robes, looking exactly as he did when she first met him two years before.
"I know. Nervous."
"It won't help you."
"I know."
"Don't worry about it, Wolf," Penny smiled.
"You're going to do fine," Jeff agreed.
"Ok," she didn't sound so certain.
"Time to go," Ted spoke, taking Wolf's hand. "We'll be back before you know it."
A bright light enveloped them.
"I hope so…"
Wolf opened her eyes when she felt her feet hit solid ground. She had closed them because her eyes - especially the left one for some strange reason - had hurt when she and Ted were engulfed in the white light. A feeling of weightlessness had overcome her when it happened, and she was free of her body's confinement, although only for a few moments. It was a wondrous feeling, and she would have loved to make the trip over and over again, but deep down, she felt that she would never experience the trip again.
"What was that?" She asked Ted, still squinting because the glow had not faded from around them.
"A special traveling spell," he replied as the room came into full view. Wolf looked around. They were in a dungeon. Well, sort of.
The dungeon was decorated to give it a homey feel, probably to comfort her nerves, but this did more to increase them than anything else. A red fire, magical of course, lit the room. It cast eerie shadows everywhere.
A woman sat in the large chair towards the back, she appeared to be reading a book. She was in her early forties, still pretty, though slightly plump unlike in her childhood years. She wore a red robe. Almost everything seemed to be red here. Her hair was long and dark, and her eyes matched it perfectly. The woman seemed kind, but there was something odd about her. Something similar to what was odd about Ted, but Wolf could never put her finger on it.
"This is Cho Chang, Wolf. She will take care of you from here. I will see you later. Follow her directions, Wolf. It's important. Follow them, no matter what." The last words bothered Wolf. They had an eerie air, not mentioning the fact that when she turned to say something, he was gone.
Wolf turned back to the woman before her. "Hello?"
Cho looked up. "You're Wolf?" she seemed surprised. "I heard you were young, but I never suspected you were that young. How old are you? Ten? Eleven?"
"Nine."
"Amazing, but we will have to discuss this later. Now, for your last test, all you have to do is keep the following poem secret."
"That's it?" It was Wolf's turned to be surprised.
"That's it. Now listen carefully:
"Three powers will rise to fight
Those whose hearts are dark as night,
Chosen by eternity
To fulfill a destiny,
Rubies in the eye and shoulder
Glowing a peculiar color
Then the four with powers untold
And others who, the world did mold
All hidden in children young
Who holds all three? Only one."
"Weird."
"Never tell it to anyone until all has been revealed. Remember that above all else. You must keep it secret, no matter what."
Wolf was about to say something, but Cho was gone. Weird. Both gone in the same way.
The bookshelf at the back opened, revealing a door. Must be for me. Don't like it, but where else could I go? Wolf readied her wand. Here we go. She stepped into the room.
Everything went black.
Everything was black. That was the way he wanted it. She couldn't see a thing in that room. No one could, not even if your eyes were used to it. Complete and total darkness. This would be the test to end all tests. This was where the final damage was done. No longer a child… All that would be left behind.
It was a sad thing, really. Nine years old, and already too much of an adult, but not enough. Sometime I wish I didn't have to do this. She's going to go mad, if I don't kill her first. He shook off the thought as he carried her limp body to the chair.
Magical bonds held her hands and feet, keeping her securely in the chair. He took her wand, placing it deep in his pocket. A flick of his own wand and a few muttered words had her drenched in ice water.