By the next day, Eries realized that she should thank Folken. This was done
grudgingly at breakfast, when Eries had approached the High Table. "I thank
you," she formally told Folken.
He nodded. "May I ask why you were falling off a high tower, passed
out?"
"There was this little floating man who dropped something on my head."
Folken's eyes widened as he came to the conclusion that Peeves had made Eries
fall of the tower. He arose, and gestured for Eries to follow him. She
unwillingly did, and he led her to Dumbledore.
"Hello, Folken," he greeted. "What might the problem be?"
"Peeves has gone too far with his mischief-making, Albus. In fact, he
almost killed Eries here." Folken turned towards Eries. "You told
me there was a little floating man who dropped something on your head in the
tower?" Eries sullenly nodded, and Folken continued, "You see, she
fell off the tower due to this, and could have died."
Dumbledore looked up determinedly. "The arrangements will be made to expel
Peeves. I shall inform the students of this right now." He stood up at the
table, and attracted the students' attention. "As many of you will be
grieved to know-" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled here- "Peeves has to be
expelled this week."
It was very comical to see the reaction of Filch. He took great gulping breaths
in joy, and started doing a little jig throughout the hall, muttering
ecstatically to Mrs. Norris. In fact, he was even giving points to students in
the hallway for no apparent reasons. The students were very curious about the
suspension of Peeves, and asked all of their teachers that day.
They didn't get a response from most of them (as most of the teachers didn't
know anyway), but the fifth years were lucky when they asked Folken. "He
made someone fall off a tower," he told them while scribbling notes
furiously on the board.
"Who? Are they dead?" asked the girl who shared a dorm with Selena,
Lady Angewomon, who was greatly interested in the
affair.
"She's not dead, but it's not for you to know. Five points off
Gryffindor." And that was all the class found- Peeves had pushed a female,
from the tower, but she was alright.
"Luckily, Folken's keeping his mouth shut," muttered Eries.
In the morning the next day, a gray Tuesday came a Divination lesson. The class was rather crowded, due to
all the parents (along with Allen and Eries) in the room. "My dears," Professor Trelawney started
off mistily, "today we have a very special lesson for all of you. Professor
deFanel has invented what he calls an Invitaspiritus throughout the year. It is very rare, as it is new, and we have tested it out to be
flawless. Therefore, all of you will be lucky enough to see this for the first
and possibly last time ever."
Lavender raised her hand enthusiastically. "Professor, can you tell us
about it?"
"Very well, Lavender. It is a device that will show you the life of
someone, running through the most important events, and skimming through the
everyday happenings."
"To go into more detail about this, the Invitaspiritus will take a person's
life, and others will be pulled into it from the beginning of that person's life
as the surrounding air, facing that person; at least from what I've been told. The most important events will be played through again,
while the everyday life will be in a fast-forwarding mode. When the person's
life is ended, the Invitaspiritus will go black. We can stop it at any time."
Mr. Weasley's eyes gleamed. "You say a teacher at this school invented
it?" he called out avidly. "Can you tell us more about that? How did
he do it? Did he use anything Muggle?"
Professor Trelawney turned her highly magnified eyes to Ron's father. "I
cannot know for sure, although my Inner Eye tells me many things about this. However, you may want to ask Professor
deFanel yourself, later
on." Mr. Weasley nodded eagerly. "I shall be choosing one of our
students to let their life be revealed. Any volunteers?"
For the first time ever, Parvati and Lavender failed to support Professor
Trelawney. Every student in the class looked uneasily at each other, and even
more so at their parents.
Professor Trelawney viewed the room tersely, most unlike her usual self.
"Shall I choose one of you?" she asked, rather sharply.
"I'll go," volunteered Harry wickedly, as he knew the professor would
never want to see the life of the Boy Who Lived.
He was quite right at that. "No, dear, I'm sure you wouldn't want to see
your suffering all over again." Trelawney scanned the class once again,
deciding to pick one of the uncontroversial students, who were not dubious of
her Inner Eye. Perhaps one of the new students? They had not caused any trouble,
and seemed almost wary of her psychic powers. Yes, she'd pick the girl.
"Miss Schezar?" she finally asked. "Would you be able to come up
here?"
"No!" broke out Allen violently.
Selena glanced at her brother. "Don't worry, brother; it'll work out perfectly."
Allen stepped up with Selena to the front of the room. "Excuse me, I'm
afraid I can't permit this to happen."
The professor looked at him. "Who are you?" she asked with great
interest, not completely professional.
"I am Selena's brother, and her guardian, Sir Allen Schezar, miss." As
usual, Allen bowed.
"I grieve to tell you this, sir, but the class must go on, and Miss Schezar
must participate," said the professor in what she hoped was a charming
voice. Allen felt very angered by this, but decided that he should be
cooperative to a lady.
"Shall we start, class?" asked Professor Trelawney, extricating a
peculiar machine that resembled an old-fashioned camera from a drawer.
"Now, just put your hand on the middle of this," she told Selena.
"And everyone else has to have contact with this in some way," she
told everyone else in the class. "...Ready?"
__________
With that, the people were swirling, and they found themselves in a sunny room,
where a baby was being cleansed. A young boy was bouncing around the room
jubilantly. A woman lay in the
bed, looking tired. "Name the girl Selena," she murmured in
exhaustion, then fell into a sleep.
A short while accelerated through, until the scene shifted to a picnic outdoors.
The young Selena was going to get flowers, when she was picked up by a machine,
which most of the viewers could not identify. This machine carried her to an
unrecognizable city, where she was dragged, sobbing, to a room. Her pretty blond
hair
was cut off, and she was dragged to a dungeon cell.
"Don't leave me alone! Please, take me home!" she cried, but to no avail. Later on, a hybrid
dog-man came into her cell and talked to her, bringing her food.
"Eat something- I'll be in trouble if you die," he pleaded with the
young girl quietly, then noticed her hair. "Poor thing; your hair was cut off."
The next while was fast- forwarded through again, but a scene emerged later on.
The dog-man was being restrained and beaten, while the young Selena was dragged
away, screaming, "Jajuka!" A servant took her, and she was taken to a
room. In the room, a young man was sitting at the desk, writing something. He
turned around when he saw the servant and the girl enter. The class could see
that this young man was handsome, with the same colored hair as their Defense
Against the Dark Arts teacher, and he kept one arm under his cloaks.
His face creased with concern at that moment. "What are they doing to the
poor girl?" he asked the servant vehemently.
"Another 'speriment," the servant told him. "They ask me tell
young fellow they have save, tell him he can come too. He always stuck in room,
too much studying from books. Is very, very, very, very, very smart, they is
saying, but need more hands-on work. Too much stuck in room with the little
twins he save, need more socializing."
"I'm not joining in," the younger man told the servant firmly.
"How can they do such thing to little children? It's terrible!"
The servant grinned insolently. "Oh, you wishing to try stop these people.
Hah! Hah! Hah!"
"My brother is the same age as this little girl," the teenager told the
servant sadly. "What is your name?" he asked Selena kindly.
She gave him a toothy smile. "My name is Selena," she told him.
"I wish you great luck, Selena. Try to remember yourself- if you can,"
he told her.
The servant was getting impatient. "We is supposing to get back, little
brat! Come on, hurry!" As she stumbled and nearly tripped, the servant
raised his hand to hit her, predictably violently.
"Hey!" the boy shouted, and a metal arm suddenly encircled the
servant's wrist, making him choke with pain. As both the servant, the little
Selena, and the Divination class looked apprehensively at this metal
contraption, they seemed to understand: that was where his right arm had
once been.
"Don't touch the poor girl," the student snarled at the servant, and let go
of his grip. This seemed to make an impression on the servant, for he gently
carried the girl out of the room. From that point, the servant brought the girl
to a white room. A man in a laboratory coat smiled sinisterly as he lifted up a
needle to inject into the young Selena. She screamed with pain, but as
more needles were injected into her, the view that the Divination class had
blacked out.
There was a faint humming sound in the background, and this kept up for a while,
until the scene came onto a sun-lit hallway. A young girl, unmistakably the same
Selena, was wailing next to an odd plant on the ground. The same young man
they'd seen before was walking through the hallways, whistling an odd tune that
stuck in their heads. His
hair was extremely messy, as if he'd just got up, but despite this he'd taken
the time to cover up his bionic arm. He had several bandages on his face, partly
covering his eyes and right cheek. Scratches could be seen on his real left arm,
which he held out to Selena.
"Hello," he greeted her in recognition. "Are you lost?"
"Yes," sobbed the young Selena, "I can't find Jajuka, and I just
found myself here."
He looked concerned. "Did you? Here, just tell me who Jajuka is, and what
he looks like, and I'll go find him, alright?" He smiled. "You can
wait in my room- I found some cat girl twins several days ago, and you can play
with them."
Selena looked up, slightly cheered at this. "Jajuka, he's a dog-man, and he
has light brownish hair, and it's really long," she described Jajuka.
"What are the cat girls called?"
"They won't tell me their names, but asked me to give them new ones.
Do you want to help me name them?"
Selena looked very excited. "Really?" The man nodded. Selena squealed,
and clapped her hands. The man then hoisted her in his arm, carrying her
down another hallway. They went inside a room with a black door, where little
half-cat half-people were peering mistrustfully from behind the curtains. The
man set Selena down gently, asking the cat girls to be gentle, and left the room.
Selena ran up to the curtain. "Who are you?" the cat with silver hair
asked her. Selena introduced herself, and, as kids do, became great friends with
the cat girls in the span of several minutes. When the young man came back with
Jajuka several hours later, Selena ran to him to whisper something.
"I know what you can call them! You can call one of them Naria, like my
middle name is, and you can call the other one Eriya, after the princess of my
homeland, princess Eries. She visited us before with her mother, when I was
really really small, but I still remember."
The man smiled, and nodded. "So you're from Asturia then?" The little
girl nodded, shiny-eyed, and the man continued speaking. "Myself, I came
from Fanelia. It's such a beautiful country." Selena smiled, reached up to
hug the young man before leaving with Jajuka.
The scene skipped a span of time before fizzling out into the
pitch-blackness which was supposed to signify the end of the person's
life. An older Selena in a grassy area, although the hair
was the same length and silvery
hair. She did not seem
to be stable of mind, and was examining a snail on a leaf. She brought it up for
a closer look, and her mouth opened- wider and wider as the snail came closer
and closer. As she was about to put it in her mouth, the same dog-man that had
been seen before arrived in time to stop her. He shook his head sadly at her,
and guided her towards a building.
A man could be seen coming out from the building. He was unmistakably the class'
Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and he glanced
towards Jajuka, who started to bow down to him. Folken prevented this by helping
the beast man up with his left arm. "Please don't bow down, it's only I," he requested
with a pained expression. "You are Jajuka, are you not?" The dog man nodded.
"What would the matter be?"
The dog-man's head jerked to indicate Selena. "The girl has to be taken in for a
test- nothing serious, of course. As you can see, she's not quite well. The
sorcerers will help her." The dog man looked very nervous, as if
waiting impatiently to see if Folken would believe him.
Folken nodded, looking at the girl with concern. "I certainly hope she will
be alright," said he with sincerity. "For a reason, she looks familiar to
me..." He gave a brief but kind smile to the two, walking past Jajuka and
Selena.
He started to whistle the same haunting tune that the boy with the metal arm
earlier on had been whistling.
Selena
was taken into an operating room, and the needles poked into the skin again as
the screams got louder and the scene once again blacked out. When it came back,
Selena was standing in a tent, wearing a dark tank top and black pants. She
seemed to be in a trance-like state, and her eyes were glazed.
She walked out of the tent, swaying slightly in the meantime. She climbed into
an odd machine, which a pillar of light caused to end up near a house.
Selena climbed out, took off a set of red armor, and began to walk to this
house. Inside, her brother could be seen sitting at a desk, talking. Although the mute
Selena said nothing, he turned around in an instinctive manner.
"This can't be... Selena!" he exclaimed, and rose to greet her.
She swayed unsteadily, and Allen proceeded to find a dressing robe for her to
don over her ensemble. This being done, he left her with Gadeth, and departed.
After a zoomed-through amount of time, the class found themselves looking at
Selena kneeling at a grave in a graveyard. Her brother and another woman
(several observant students noted her as the woman who'd arrived to greet
Selena) were
looking over her.
"Is she really Selena?" Eries asked.
"Yes. It's been ten years, but my sister has..." here Allen trailed
off, but continued, "I wouldn't mistake her for another. I wonder where
she's been," he mused. "The poor thing has lost her memory."
"Memory...?" A butterfly flew in front of Selena.
"Princess Eries, while I'm gone to war, please take care of my sister.
You're the only one I can ask." The butterfly flying in front of Selena was
caught, and she smiled eerily, crushing it in her hand.
Eries nodded. "I see; she's the sister of a Knight of Heaven. I'll take care of her at
the palace." Selena suddenly screamed, and her brother hastened to see how
she was.
The view fizzled out once more, blackening out and humming. When it rose to
occasion again, Selena was in another odd machine, wearing the same red armor,
but with a circlet on her head. She looked out onto a scene of war, and climbed
out of the odd machine. When out, she removed the circlet from her head,
pocketing it. Looking out on the duel before her eyes, she seemed to be
appraising it.
"Brother!" she called out. "Brother!" She repeated the call
again, and one of the machines turned her way, about to lose. Before anything
violent happened, the machine collapsed to the ground. Out came Allen Schezar.
"Selena!" he hollered, running over to her. As he reached her, he
said, "Selena," again.
"Brother," she addressed him, and fainted. Allen caught her, and she
seemed to awaken.
"Selena! Do you recognize me?" he asked, embracing her.
"Brother, I wanted to see you." Allen pulled Selena
into a tighter hug.
"Selena, I'm glad that you're back. I won't leave you
alone," Allen promised. After this touching scene, the life went into
fast-forward - with no breaks this time. It slowed down a while later, in the
house seen before. At this house, Selena was mercilessly lecturing a healthy and
sturdy, but thoroughly hassled
maid. Lady Selena's rant was peppered with frightened responses of "Yes, Lady
Selena," "No, Lady Selena," "Whatever you wish, Lady
Selena," and "Of course not, Lady Selena!"
"What, you expect me to wear this? How, shall I bother to ask you? It's horrendously out of style,
inappropriately skimpy, nor
does it fit. Much too short. Whose is this? Do not tell me this piece of crap
was my mother's. Encia Schezar was not a midget, nor was she wearing
clothes fit for a pub dancer. Nor will you give me your talk about how of course we will
have to manage! We truly don't. Are we not a rich family? We've got these huge
honking acres of land, not to mention people like you, who rip Allen off
by getting paid. But we're as of yet not bankrupt. Therefore? We have money.
Money buys cloth, you swine of a beggar's toy. Cloth makes clothes. However, the news isn't even out that I've
returned yet, that I know of- I've been going down to the marketplace. Until I'm
'presentable for public duty', as that old lady housekeeper says, I shall wear any items of my
choosing anyway. That matter you have no choice in. You do get paid after all,
against my economically-friendly wishes. Maybe I should fire you though? Since you are not at all needed.
Due to this fact, you will go now, to the kitchens where you will
complain about how harsh the new mistress is. And yes, I know you will. In fact,
if I followed you, I know exactly what you'd say. I do not care what some filth
like you says though, luckily. I'm rambling now, evidently; you have not left!
Why are you standing there, again? Have I not just commanded you to leave? GO,"
roared Selena at a volume that would match Dilandau's strong, high voice,
"before I slap your teeth out, and you don't want me to verify that theory
for you!
The maid scampered away gratefully, and Selena smiled. "It's awfully fun to
bully people, and have such power," she mused aloud, then slipped away to
what must be her brother's room. When here, she took several outfits, and left.
Going to her own room, she pulled out a set of clothes (the exact same ones
she'd been wearing in a trance), and changed. Her change of attire was
conveniently speeded through, and resumed when she emerged out in the hallway.
She walked around the house, and stopped at a room where voices could be heard
to eavesdrop.
"So the boss' lecturing us here, about his sis, eh?" chortled one of
Allen's men. The other men nodded, murmuring agreement. "And I'm here
thinking that she's a freak! Doesn't matter if we tell because the world will
find out anyway! Not hard to tell: for a lady, she ain't talking or eating
right- although she's a right looker! Wouldn't mind having her for a night, if
she was older- or even now, if I wouldn't get in trouble! But I bet you the palace ladies are
tearing her up the second they meet her! Heh, the hair'll be the first thing
they swipe at! She's all frank & crude-"
"Just like you, Pyle," Selena interrupted him. The men gawked at her
nervously- while looking her up and down- because of her outfit. "Although
I believe my brother would be most displeased if he heard you speaking?"
This the men knew to be true, and looked uneasily amongst one another.
"Therefore, you wouldn't want it to happen again, of course- who knows who
could be listening behind the other side of the door? It's likely to be my dear
sibling instead of I, won't it?"
Pyle
gulped, along with most of the other men. They seemed to be communicating
through looks, all rather apprehensive.
"I would advise you to keep a log book instead, assuming you know how to
write?" Selena said coldly, and the life was once again zoomed through. It
arrived this time at a rather extravagant ballroom, where Selena was standing
next to the drinks, as if just waiting for a reason to drink. She had a pretty,
elaborate dress on, a red and white ensemble. In her hair was a flower chain,
and she was picking at it while looking at her surroundings with a smirk.
In a nearby corner, several girls with large teeth, contorted noses and long
hair were nodding and listening to an attractive girl talk. "...and you
know that handsome general that usually showed up several months ago? Can't
remember his name, but most termed him the Diabolical Adonis. Anyway, he seemed
to turn down his nose at most girls; didn't find them good enough for him, I
suppose. But the last time he showed up-" here the girl's voice altered to
a loud whisper, so all could hear, "he spent the whole evening with me.
Kept smiling at me like he was clean gone. He'd never done that to anyone else.
I suppose it was only I that he considered fine enough."
Selena giggled loudly from where she was listening, and the girl turned to her
with her followers. "What's so funny?" she snapped in a very blasé
manner.
Selena managed a sympathetic smile. "Dilandau Albatou only stayed with you because
you had a rip in the rear of your dress, which he found quite funny. What was
even funnier to him was that you had a piece of fruit stuck in between the
rather large gap
of your front teeth." The pretty girl gasped loudly, and her supporting
friends imitated her reaction.
"How would you know?" asked one of the friends with a hooked, bulbous
nose and crooked teeth. "You weren't even in our presence at the time, but
gone which-Gods-know-where."
Selena's answer came with ease. "Dilandau told me everything, and I knew
everything there was to know about him." This as close enough to the truth.
"Really?" sneered a girl with remarkable resemblance to Pansy
Parkinson. "Where is he then?"
"Lurking," said Selena, and looked away, bored. The females with the
other girl, however, looked very eager to start on Selena as a new target...
The life fast-forwarded through the social pettiness towards Selena that she
scorned and laughed at.
It ended up with Selena being in a Hogwarts' room with Dilandau Albatou. They
looked warily at each other. "So," said Dilandau finally, "we
meet, face to face, for the first time ever." Selena nodded, and looked as
if she was silently trying to get a message across to Dilandau. It turned out as
if she had, for Dilandau jumped, and burst out, "How did you do that
freakish act?"
Selena shrugged, and seemed to continue their conversation, silently. A heavy
silence went through the room, and this lasted for a while, as if a Muggle
photograph. When the inhabitants of the room stirred later on, this photo seemed
to break, and at breakneck speed, the life of Selena Naria Schezar speeded
through. After this short moment, the scene clicked, hurling the people back
into the Divination classroom
_____
The people in that classroom looked rather dazed. During their moment of
recollection, Professor Trelawney checked a clock, then immediately after asked
Selena if her life could be used for the next classes' presentation.
"Why" Selena asked, puzzled.
Professor Trelawney sighed. "My dear, it is not through my choosing, nor
that of the stars' choosing, but I am very limited in the time I have to impart
my knowledge to the other classes. And..." Professor Trelawney shrugged
helplessly, "your life just happens to be short enough to show them,"
she explained.
Selena fought back peals of laughter at this, but willingly consented to allow
her mangled life to be shown to the whole of Hogwarts. Allen, on the other hand,
seemed troubled by something. When the morning's share of classes was through,
he scanned the unfamiliar heads of the Great Hall for a familiar one.
When he saw who he was looking for across the Hall, he broke into a run,
yelling, "Folken, Folken Fanel! Strategos!" Upon hearing these
salutations, Folken Lacour de Fanel turned around, and walked to greet the man
rapidly approaching him.
"Allen Schezar," the prince addressed the knight.
Over at the Gryffindor table, the good-natured Neville Longbottom whispered
loudly to the others, "Fanel? But isn't his name deFanel? Rather
confusing, don't you believe? I'll be worried about what to call him next!" Before Neville turned to tuck in to his
meal, he remembered to ask urgently, "What's the tower password?"
Shesta obligingly hissed the answer to him.
Where Allen Schezar ran up to Folken Fanel, he shook hands with the latter.
"I want to thank you," voiced Allen.
"Thank me? Why?" Folken asked in great surprise, not thinking any of
his deeds worthy of thanks.
"You've helped my sister in the past; watched over her thoroughly; made me
discover who she really was; redeemed the world in the end, Prince."
Folken smiled slightly. "It wasn't as much as I could have done."
Allen shook his head, irritated. "Don't you see?" he spoke loudly.
"It's not as though your acts of goodwill don't count until they cross out
any evil you've done. And you have done your share of havoc, but you have to
remember to always cherish the fact that you've helped someone, sometime,
somewhere in the world." With this little philosophical composition , Allen
Schezar bowed to the Prince of Fanelia and walked off, leaving more than one
person alone with their thoughts.
A/N: This chapter is fourteen pages; read
it & weep!
Yeah, the same things apply for the
reviewing of this chapter. A Boggart is this creature that will turn into a
person's greatest fear; think of what some character's Boggart would be. A
Patronus is this happy-cloud that will repel a Dementor, and will be different
shapes for each person. And yeah, any name at all- female, male, and surname-
that sounds authentically Gaean (or just sounds cool!) And, of course, any
cool pairings AND your opinion of this story & why.
Inklings of Celebrity
By: ellequoi