Shitza: Hi again, sorry for keeping you all waiting. This is Thursday in the story and things are soon yet again about to happen. I just want to warn you all, this is just the beginning, so we have a really long way to go. If you remember Heirs of the Founders, I think this will just be much longer than that.
Seeeza: Pointless information, don't they already know that?!
Shitza: (drags the cat to the nearest pool of water and throws her down in.)
Seeeza: (gets up) Is that necessary?!
Tári: (giggling) Shitza don't own Harry Potter, any of the characters or things described in the book. She's half owner of Blaze and she really hopes you'll enjoy her simple little fic'.
Shitza: Here's chapter 14, please read and review.
Chapter 14 The Calm before the Storm
After a short day, the six teens decided to split before heading of to get some early day in. They had an early day tomorrow and would need all the sleep they could get.
"I can't believe them, making up a schedule like this. 5am in the morning, that's like in the middle of the night." Ron said.
Harry, Ron and Hermione, the old trio of unbreakable friendship made their way towards Hagrid's Cabin. Draco had retired to his dorm in order o do some work. Cassandra once again had returned to the library, before going to Ravenclaw Chamber, in order to get some peace and quiet. Neville too had retired for the Hufflepuff Chamber, collecting and brewing some new potions for future uses.
Hagrid seemed to be in a cheery mood and served them some tea and rock cakes. None of them touched the cakes, they new what they tasted like. The half giant asked them several things, how they had it, how things were. Also if they had started preparing themselves for future battles.
They left his cabin around five, heading back towards the castle for dinner. Hagrid told them he would catch up, he just had some errands in the forest. By the noise they sooner heard, they knew what these errands were.
Night slowly fell. Inside the castle everyone slept peacefully, except for the ghosts, the Caretaker and that horrible cat, Mrs Norris. Outside though two characters stood looking at the castle.
"Do you think they stand a chance against the future?" Rowena Ravenclaw asked.
"What they stand and do is not our doings. We must leave now, we are no further use here then as for doors to the dead." Salazar Slytherin answered.
In a bright flash the two of them disappeared to remain among the dead in legends.
The sun hadn't even risen, the dew still filled the grass. Yet in this early hour, 4:30am six souls awoke for their morning classes. They went to shower, get dressed, and to head towards their first lesson of the day. Advanced Curses, which would take place in one of the loneliest classrooms in the whole school.
It was the most depressing sight to watch them. Draco sat on a chair, Hermione in his lap. The inheritor of Morgan le Fay's power was silently asleep. Ron stood by the wall, head down, almost falling asleep. Cassandra sat by his right side, on the cold stone floor. Her hair was loose, falling down covering her face, yet they could easily hear her slow breaths. Harry yawned, but he at least wasn't going to surrender for sleep. Neville on the other hand did sleep, on the floor. They were lucky no one was up, it all would have been quite laughable.
The door opened and a pale witch told them to enter. She surely looked like a vampire, her skin was even whiter then snow, except for red, pale blue lips. Blood red eyes and raven black hair.
It was freezing cold in the classroom she had chosen. There was a fireplace in it, but looked as it hadn't been used for several years.
"Good morning and welcome to your first Advanced Curses class for this year. My name is Lucille Adamant I am here to teach you the noble, most horrifying curses the Wizarding world ever has experienced. Now..."
She stopped seeing Cassandra have her hand in the air.
"Yes, Miss Ridgeback?" she asked.
"Master Adamant, I just wanted to know what curses we are going to do for this year?"
"Well, Miss Ridgeback. I'll come to that once I've finished my speech, so please do not interrupt again."
She cleared her throat and continued.
"Now, you probably wonder what kind of dark, mysterious, terrible things we are about to do here, well... We are about to unfog the darkness, heed the nigh and even awaken death..."
"But that's impossible!" Hermione said, who was copying down the Masters words onto a parchment.
"No mortals, it's not. You will learn how to bring back the souls from the living dead."
She opened a small suitcase and pulled out a wine bottle of some gooey liquid. She opened it and to their horror they saw that from the opening, screaming souls appeared. Souls of people that had been dead. These could not say anything, they just stared openly, screaming out their pain for being back on the earth. Lucille pulled back the cork and the screaming vanished.
They looked back at Lucille, she looked even paler now, and however that was possible.
"This term we will concentrate on are Death Experience, Soul Escape and Burning Hell. Next year we will proceed on Heart Strike, Devils Claws and Soul Awakening. All though Soul Awakening will only be one lesson. It is too dangerous else way."
"How come?" Harry asked.
"You suck a soul from hell, it sucks your life. That's how. You saw how many souls I've taken, we'll sooner or later I will pay that with my life. The devil doesn't like it when outsiders take his precious souls. They soon pay with their lives."
The lesson continued with her telling them all about the six new curses they would use. They copied down everything, thinking these might come in handy when the Dark Lord probably would return again.
Yet through all these minutes Neville didn't mind listening at all. He was thinking, thinking hard. Thinking of retrieving something he had almost lost forever.
The spooky lesson ended and the six teens headed up to the sixth floor, for Ancient Spells. They arrived five minutes before the master, just as a few students finally went out from their dorms. Most of their sleepiness had worn of during their first lesson, so when people passed them, they admired them for being so awoke. They didn't know how sleepy they had felt just some hours ago.
Ancient Spells was held by a tall wizard with a even longer beard, which he had tied round his waist as a belt. He informed them on passing this, they would need to find at least ten new Ancient Spells and write them down. They would do this individually, no looking in others papers. Hearing this Cassandra was the first one to disappear, heading for the great library in the Ravenclaw's Chamber. The others had to go to the library, the Restricted section. They were lucky, all of them, had been allowed to look in every book there, as long as they didn't use it against the rules.
During this, they examined a various curses, which could affect books. There were books that screamed, snapped, disappeared, stank, hexed and blinded. They used every single counter spell they knew, before even dreading to look at the pages, since everyone of them had received some kind of nasty blow from a book. Ron for example opened one and then found himself in its pages, from a book called In a world of pages. Draco on the other hand received a nasty bite in Dark Creatures and their Spirit forms. Harry was lucky, having dodged before his book threw up ink on him. The ink instead hit Neville. It smelled old and rotten. Hermione, the more cautious one just received some scratches, yet the book she had been scratched about hadn't even been taken, it just fell out from its shelf and started tearing with its sharp pages.
They were really happy once they were through, having written down their ten spells, in Hermione's case twenty. They met Cassandra outside the classroom, seeing her unhurt they asked her about the books she had. She told them her books were as innocent as kittens. She laughed once she heard their story.
Class ended in relief, for most heirs. They went straight to the Great hall for breakfast. Some students looked questioning seeing their bruises and in Hermione's case cuts.
"You know" Ron told Harry as they seated down round the table. "I've heard so many wishing they were us. I often wish I was normal again."
"Welcome to my world" Harry said sarcastically. After all, Ron had once envied him by being famous. Harry had more envied Ron for being normal.
The post soon arrived, together with hundreds of owls carrying The Daily Prophet. Two of these arrived at the Heirs' table delivering the copies to Hermione and Cassandra. The two of them looked very much alike, reading, being magically bound too the news. Suddenly Cassandra spoke, sounding rather miserable.
"I would really love to get my hands on that Fudge. Listen to this...
'Minister of Magic's new Laws
Last night the Minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge claimed that the Wizarding world would need new laws, since the so-called Dark Lord has now taken his place at the Minister, as sponsor. The Magical world looks horrified, as You-Know-Who slowly, yet powerfully has taken more and more of the Magical world. It is also many believes that the Minister has given in on certain points as the curses of Muggleborns and the glorious side from the Purebloods. How much we do dare believing of this is a question yet to be answered. Over the whole country new rebellious groups are forming as we are expecting what could soon become, a new magical World war never been seen since the last time the dark Lord ruled.
1, All Muggleborns, in some reasons even half bloods, they will have no rights on any interference with the higher powers.
2, All Muggleborns have no rights of higher positions.
3, No wizards, Purebloods, Half bloods or Mudbloods have rights on marrying outsiders in any occasions.
4, No Purebloods have any rights on marrying Muggleborns at all, in case of befouling his/her own blood.
5, Mudbloods who disobeys any rules are banned from the Wizarding world and has to return as a simple Muggle. Half bloods will still be allowed staying, but must be treated as dung. As for Purebloods lawbreaking earns either two months in Azkaban or a life bond to the Dark Lord.
Signed Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic'
Four faces stared at Cassandra. Hermione was rereading the article.
"This is awful!" Ron said.
"Disgusting!" Draco agreed.
Harry shook his head and looked over to the other tables. He saw that more then them had read the article, and everyone reacted negative. Even the Slytherins.
"It's the calm before the storm." Neville said. "The last battle is nearing, the time for magic is ending."
There was a silent pause, then he spoke.
"But still, we don't know when things will happen, so we should hurry. We need the last pieces of the prophecy and we need them soon."
Everyone looked at him, knowing he was right. The first signal of the bell rung, telling them Herbology would soon begin. They would have to wait with the researches till later.
Draco went together with the Slytherins for his lesson, together with Cassandra, who would have lesson together with him, double Defence Against the Dark Arts with both Ravenclaw and Slytherin.
In the meantime the rest of them went to the Greenhouses where Professor Sprout waited with a venomous looking cactus. Well one thing that made it look different from others was that it was all black, with red thorns. It didn't look nice, especially with vines filled with these thorns.
"Wow" Neville said, who practically knew everything about plants and their properties. "It's a Fayblood."
"A what?" Ron asked.
Professor Sprout who had overheard them smiled. "Thirty points for Gryffindor, Mr Longbottom. I didn't know your plant experience overdid these examples."
Neville blushed. "There's a picture of one in a Herbology book in the Hufflepuff chamber, but it looks like Helga didn't have one of her own. I actually saw a note saying all plants she took care of grew there, but I didn't see one of them. Guess it was a bit too far to travel."
"I didn't know there were books in the Hufflepuff chamber." Ron said.
"Well, Gryffindor obviously wasn't known of reading. Draco told me that once there had been books in the Slytherin Chamber, but nowadays the few that's left are in the restricted section of the library." Hermione said.
They were each given a sample of one of the thorns. To their surprise the thorns planted themselves in the dried earth and began growing. Professor Sprout told them that the Fayblood were named after Morgan le Fay, since they had been one of the few plants, which copied her evilness and her black heart. The Fayblood was one of the most rare plants in the world, so rare it was almost extinct, yet Hogwarts had since three hundred years back always had a sample for their own uses.
Ron looked confused at the different thorns, which by themselves grew wildly. He wasn't the only one who was surprised. Seamus and Dean looked stupidly around, Lavender almost fainted as one of the thorns actually tried to scratch her arms. Blaze tried to steal some, for joke products, yet to everyone's surprise and horror, the thorns didn't respond as plants, they responded as predators.
"Aah!" Hermione said as one of the vines tried to grab her arm.
Professor sprout tapped the plants with her wand and everything stopped. All the students sighed in relief, well except for Neville. When he had seen the plants he had put an anti-blood-smell charm on himself. So when everyone else got scratched the vines left him, believing he was something else then food. Fayblood lived on blood, that was one of the main reasons for them dying. There isn't much blood to get in the warm desserts.
The lesson ended with the students having learnt more then usual, for a lesson and that meaning a lesson in caution. Never before had a class returned like pale sheets, well except for Mr Know-It-All-In-Herbology. Yet Neville just laughed when people told him so. From once having been the zero in class he was now more of a hero, well at least for the teachers.
Afterwards they once again met the others, who at least hadn't experienced the cactuses. Hermione gave out the warnings. Draco shook his head and Cassandra asked Neville if she could borrow the book he had. He leant it to her, yet just over the night. He would need it later in order for some potions he had in mind.
Advanced Duelling too became a nightmare for everyone, and read carefully the following line. Professor Riverside never turned up for the lesson. Instead chaos erupted as the Slytherins decided on making short story with the Gryffindor heir Ron, trapping him in the middle. What they hadn't thought of was that if you challenged one, you challenged everyone. Even the students stood in the way for the snakes' plans.
"You all surely disappoint us," Pansy said laughing menacingly. "I mean heirs, honestly! There's only one heir left from the Founders and that's my Lord."
"Surely Pansy, have you really sunk that low. Please, my dear father even made a better death eater than you would ever be."
Sparks erupted from all the angry wands, yet still no one did anything. The Heirs and the other three houses, with a few Slytherin's stood on one side of the room, the rest of the Slytherins stood on another.
Slowly they raised their wands, ready to strike on anything that stood against them, that was when the bell rung and most people left.
"I never want to go through a thing like that ever again!" Cassandra complained sighing heavily.
"Then we just have to work on this" Harry said looking after the direction the Slytherins had left."
Half past eleven once again everyone went to the Great hall for lunch, yet with the tension between the Houses it was unusually silent. The Heirs all looked worried, especially the ones who had sworn to protect their Houses. Ron looked at Draco, the two of them would have the hardest time to make sure that their Houses didn't attack each other.
It didn't turn better with Blaze and the other two Marauders pranking Grabbe and Goyle, who looked ready to kill as they removed the dried nettles from their backs. Still the tension hadn't risen too high, but soon, very soon. They all feared the upcoming war, inside Hogwarts.
It was a relief to return to one of their more private lessons, Snake Breeding. Their master, who turned out to be a Muggleborn who knew what he thought everything about snakes. It turned at the end of the lesson to prove it was he who knew nothing. Being Parselmouths both Harry and Draco knew practically everything about the serpents. Harry also took his own Emerald Cobra, which purred content in his hand. Their master gave in the end up, and instead of teaching them, they had to teach him for the upcoming year.
During the day, on to astrology the heirs decided to keep as quiet as possible, in order to wait and see. They would do nothing until they knew from where the real dangers lay. Indeed the rivalry had existed for a long time, but for now, this time it was more then just rivalry, it was hatred, and they were pretty sure who lay behind all of it.
Because of all this, they nearly failed Weather Control, where their Master asked them to create storm clouds, which almost turned out to become rain clouds instead. They were so unfocused on the task, that the master almost thought of sending them all to the Hospital wing. That's when they all awoke and seriously began training.
Next they had swords, for two lessons after each other. The reason for this was that it should have been one lesson, but they needed some dinner, so it got split into two. Once again they had the little dwarf sized man, who first of all wanted to challenge Ron in a duel, which ended making Ron the winner. The swords master bowed telling them that they would practise their first lesson and have theory their second lesson. Practise this day was hard, since they hadn't done so much over the summer. They didn't only practise fighting, they also had to run lengths, sit-ups, and much more. It was a relief for everyone when the bell rang. They changed from the thin light robes they wore and went to eat, just to wait for another two hours of torture. Yet from theory, they learnt one important thing. Don't run after them, let them come and meet you. This would be an important thing for the future.
Their last lesson for the day was Magical Control, which was the easiest lesson for the day, since they already knew everything. They weren't even sure on why they had to continue it since they had been practising it for over a year, or so it felt.
Lastly, before being able to go to bed, they had astrology, where they hadn't started with the lesson, but they received a long speech about the twelve houses, the planets and the different constellations. Yet through the rest of the lesson, the six teens were half asleep.
They didn't know what awaited them.
Stars that shine before the battle
Glimmer like a thousand eyes
The same eyes will close forever
Green flames, take them away.
To reviewers: I know I wasn't that much for the descriptions of the lessons, flame me for it if you want, but it was hard to write this. Hope you enjoyed, please review.
Nightwing: this may not have been so glorious, yet I hope you enjoyed.
gary: is this fast enough? Oh well, hope it was because now I'll need a break from writing. Besides, just got MSN, sorry to say I don't have Aim sn as you asked for.
midnight-fox-55: Practise, over and over again. Yet most of this comes from imagination and ideas I get by the bus. Yet for now, you probably won't hear from me for a while, unless I get one of those brilliant ideas. Hope you liked it.
robo22: I am trying to improve, yet it's harder then I thought. Oh well, thanks again for keeping your eyes on this.
Star of Dawn: Oh, it was so close to 100th it was actually 101. Oh well, anyway, thanks for reviewing.
blaze potter: Hope you have checked for it in your mail, mail back if something went wrong and I'll post it here. Thanks for reviewing, but I'll take a short pause from this for a while.
End Notes: Okay, I'm heading off, my head is spinning, probably since I received a blow to it only a few minutes ago. Stupid door of that tumbler. Ooohh, my head!
Won't update for a while, need a rest after this. Of two reasons. Please review, see you all when I get back. You can expect an update on Spirit Lives and With the Founders after this.
Shitza