Merry Christmas to all!
This chapter is for Ava Monroe, who's reveiws consistantly rock!!!
Chapter Four: Love Lost
There was a teachers' meeting in Dumbledore's office, with Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy there as special guests, given the subject matter of the meeting.
"Each event will be covered by local and international media," Harry informed everyone, "Draco and I have made backstage passes for all non-students to tell who is competing in what event, as well as who is allowed into certain areas. As you know Hagrid has doubled security efforts around the school for the duration of the hunt, and he's doing a bang up job."
Hagrid blushed deeply, "Well, it wasn't too hard to get them trolls from the Ministry, and the magic wards only took a couple o' weeks to get working."
"Thank you, Hagrid," the mutter went around the meeting.
"Thanks also to Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall and Madam Hooch for organising the extra Quidditch pitch and for helping with updating the hunt trail. And also those who volunteered to be on hand for the set-up of the Quest trail," Draco added. Again, thanks went around the meeting quietly.
"Thanks also to Professors Sinistra and Lupin for setting up the balls and organising musical items from each school; remember to brush up your duds, this is going to be on TV," Harry smirked. "And thanks again to Madam Hooch for calling up Oliver Wood to being the second Quidditch referee."
"The Hunt and Dressage judges will be Professor Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts, Mrs. Greengrass, British Hunt Champion and Madam Maxine of Beauxbatons. Professor Severus Snape of Hogwarts will be the judge of the duelling. The Mystery Tours will be announced when the time gets closer and all the schools have gotten back to us," Draco continued.
"After vast negotiation with the Acromantulas, we have secured a treaty to use their land for the duration of the hunt and their leader will draw his legions back into the furthest part. We do have to waning however that we are not, under any circumstance to pass into their territory."
"As we know the Centaurs have been posing a problem for the past two years, and we must take them into account."
"So, in three days the schools will all be here and enrolling, the teachers have to sponsor one of the schools each to make sure that they have everything that they need," Harry said. "We've made a draft list, with the different schools and who we thought might work …"
He put a piece of paper on Dumbledore's desk with a neat list, clearly written by Hermione. "The only school not on there is this Kallaix Academy place, because they don't seem to be coming."
At that moment there was a rap on the window, and an owl was seen outside. Severus recognised it immediately, after all, he had been the one who'd bought it. "Nahnook!" Severus muttered, and hurried over to the window. Everyone looked at one another. Snape was receiving mail? He had friends?
Severus opened with window and took the letter from the owl, which remained where it was, awaiting an answer, as its mistress had directed. Snape took the little cream envelope with a green dragon seal and opened it. His eyes scanned down the green writing, then he folded the letter, tucked it into a pocket and turned to the meeting. "Kallaix will be attending," he said, sitting down again.
"So, who's with who?" Sprout muttered obviosly as perplexed by the sudden mail as the others.
Hogwarts – hosts.
Villefort – Sinistra
Thundreds – Firenze
Beauxbatons – Hagrid
Grendwell – Charlie
Nhi-Lon Fohs – Flitwick
Durmstrang – Snape
Kallaix Academy – McGonagall.
"Fine with me," Sinistra remarked, and agreement followed by each of the rest of the teachers, until it came to Snape.
"Durmstrang?" he demanded coolly, "No, I think not. I will be seeing to the Kallaix Academy students."
"But, Severus, everyone else is in agreement with the list," Dumbledore said, "Which was very well put together. I think that Minerva would work better with the Kallaix students."
"No, they tend to be quite a… spirited group," Severus remarked, "I have met them before. Besides, my niece is one of them. I believe Draco and Harry have met her before – Justine."
"I suppose I can swap, since it's for family," McGonagall remarked.
"Good. Now I am in agreement with the list. If that was all this meeting was about, I should send the official information to Kallaix," Snape stood up and left before anyone could say anything else.
Back at Kallaix Academy, Australia. (same day, but due to time differences it's the morning
"Everyone packed?" Justine asked as her friends gathered around her in the library. The smell of old books filled the air, and Adam was looking around as if he had never seen the place before.
"So many books," he muttered to Saul.
"I know dude, and the scary thing is, I've been here before," Saul replied.
"Everyone?" Justine repeated.
"What? Oh, yeah, packed," Saul said, and held up a tiny bag. "Plenty of chocolate," he said patting it.
"You only packed chocolate?" Alyson demanded.
"No, I've got a change of clothes somewhere …" Saul replied.
"You'll be needing a tux and two suits, and your formal uniform, and your Quidditch gear, and pyjamas, stupid head," Justine told him.
"Tux? Suit? What be these things?" Saul demanded, and then turned serious, "You really expect me to wear a tux?"
"No, I expect you turn up naked at the balls we have to attend."
"Hang on, you said balls, as in plural of ball?" Saul demanded.
"That's what Uncle Sevie said in his letter, I dunno why we need all that crap …" Justine replied. "I haven't actually looked through the booklet to see anything else … I thought I'd wait until we got here."
It was the day after they'd left Tanya's house in a hurry, and tomorrow at midday British time they would be at Hogwarts. Things were being a little rushed at present.
"OK, so we're here, let's open it already," Tegan said impatiently.
Justine took an envelope from her bag and opened it, inside was one load of forms, and a small booklet. "Uncle Sevie says that the forms are what we need to sign and shit before we enrol for the Hunt, and to make things easier, he sent them over for me."
"OK, so what's in the booklet?" Jacque reached over and took the booklet, flicking quickly through it. "Oh shit," she muttered.
Everyone looked at her. "I don't know if you guys didn't realise it or something, but this 'United Youth Conference' is a little more than we thought it was. Not only do we have the Hunt, which we'll nail anyway, but there is a knockout round of Quidditch, something called the Quest for the Best, a whole heap of conference crap where we basically get to have bitch fights with the Brits, plus a whole bunch of balls and a duelling comp and the Mystery Tours."
"What the hell? We have to decide who to enter into everything in three hours?" Justine demanded. "Ax, Kris and I already arranged to meet Severus then!"
"Shit," Saul remarked eloquently.
Adam looked up, "Well, at least we know who's on my Quidditch team."
Kris leapt to his feet, "Go the Knights!" he yelled. The school Quidditch team was the Kallaix Knights.
"So helpful. That means we need duelling…"
"You and me and baby all the way," Ax remarked to Justine.
"…The Quest…"
"I'm in!" Kris and Ax yelled at once.
"…The Conference speaker guys …"
"I'm up for a bitch fight with anyone – it's that time of month," Tegan muttered.
"And these Mystery Tours."
"Actually, the Mystery Tours are random, the Duelling requires three members, as does the Quest. There are quite a few people we'll be needing for the Conference," Jacque remarked, still reading through the pamphlet.
"Oh … who else can wield a sword?" Ax wondered.
"I've used one before," Tanya volunteered.
"You and me, after the meeting, I'll make sure you're up for it," Ax said decisively.
Tegan nodded.
"Justine and Kris, you'll need to be on the debating team. The rest of the people we'll have to chose as the arguments are announced, I'm afraid."
"Well then it's easier than we thought," Jeffery said, "We'll just all of us go and we can handle anything they throw at us."
"I'm in for the Quest," Tegan added, "It sounds fun."
"Wow, all organised. So, we just have to fill out this form, and then you'll need to go and pack the rest of the stuff you need, and get it all aboard the Starstream," Justine said.
Form filling only took them about half an hour, and then they were separating again. Ax and Tanya headed for the duelling courts with Justine deciding she'd better go along … just in case Ax tried something.
Tanya came out of the training room, and Ax's jaw nearly hit the floor. She was wearing a tight black asymmetrical crop top and fairly loose red pants. Man she looked hot. Then he saw the sword in her hands.
It was a thin, light metal sabre with a wicked curve and sharp looking edge. She carried it easily in her hands, her body perfectly balanced. This wasn't someone who'd used a sword before; this was someone who practiced quite regularly with one. Justine was cackling on the sidelines. Ax turned to look at her. "What?" he demanded.
"The look on your face," Justine gasped, "Priceless … you haven't paid any attention to her before, have you?"
Ax glared at Justine, then turned back to Tanya. "Let's see how good you are then," he said, bringing his sword up.
Tanya just smiled, and then quick as a fox she made the first move. Although surprised by her speed Ax neatly blocked the blow with one swing then with a second fluid motion he disarmed her. He gently placed the tip of his sword at her throat.
"I win." He said, his eyes laughing at her.
"Here, let me fight," Justine said, "I'm not a sword mage so it might actually be a fair fight."
"It was fair," Ax protested as he lowered his sword. Ax was born with unnatural skill with a sword, and as he grew and his powers developed he realised he could actually channel his magic through his sword, meaning he could use it like a wand or a weapon.
Justine gave an inelegant snort as she walked past him handing Tanya back her sword. Since she was already dressed for a fight in white loose silk pants and black singlet, all she did was pick her sword from the rack. It was a beautiful piece of work, with a long slender blade and wrought silver inlaid into the hilt. When she held it, it seemed so natural on her, just a deadly extension of her arm, the emeralds in the hilt glinting and flashing in the sunlight.
Tanya was trying not to laugh at Ax as Justine pushed him to the sidelines. His protest was that that it was a fair fight and as the winner he was entitled to his prize, of course the prize was of his own choosing.
"Ax. Shut up, you're not getting any prizes," Justine said with exasperation. Ax pouted and Tanya was hard put to not burst out laughing.
"Are you ready?" Justine asked Tanya. Tanya nodded.
Justine stood opposite of Tanya. She raised her sword and Tanya raised hers.
"Get ready, get set," Ax said, "GO!"
Tanya made the first move again this time. She sent an exploratory thrust at Justine who easily blocked it and countered with a thrust of her own, which was turned away by Tanya. She quickly swung again forcing Tanya into the defensive.
After a few more blocked moves Tanya managed to send a chopping swing at Justine who blocked it just in time to stop it slicing her midsection. Tanya now had her chance to go into the offensive, striking at her again and again, looking for an opening in Justine's defences.
Justine blocked each move with grace, leaving no opening for Tanya to use. With a clash that left sparks they were locked hilt to hilt. A dangerous position for Tanya because Justine now used her height to slowly force Tanya down. Then much to Justine's surprise, Tanya slipped to the side and out of the hilt lock ducking around behind her.
Justine managed to turn and block a well aimed swing, following through in the direction of her block Justine brought her sword swinging around ready to stop it before it sliced through Tanya's throat.
Much to her surprise again Tanya ducked sliding her sword downwards and brought the flat side of the blade up to bang the funny bone on Justine's sword arm.
"Ow, cheating," Justine said. Tanya just grinned and brought her sword swinging to disarm her.
This time it was Tanya who was surprised as Justine switched the sword to her other hand and blocked the blow, then with a quick fluid motion she brought the tip of the blade to Tanya neck. Tanya grinned, "Yield," she said.
"I'm thinking we need her on the Duelling team," Justine remarked to Ax.
"She couldn't beat me," he pointed out.
"Let's face it, who can? You're a sword mage honey."
"This is true."
"We have this event in the bag … and the actual hunt too," Justine decided. "Welcome to the team, love," she added to Tanya, who smiled.
"We should win the Quidditch too, and I don't know what this Quest thing is, but me and Kris'll bag it easy," Ax added.
"Let's face it, we are the best, and completely unbeatable," Justine agreed.
"Don't you think you guys are a being a little overconfident?" Tanya asked.
"Sweetie, what part of 'bag – in the' don't you understand?" Ax enquired.
"Whatever," Tanya sighed.
"Not answering question."
"Not trying to answer question, as question stupid," Tanya told him.
It was Ax's turn to say, "Whatever."
Justine sighed, "Break up the flirting people."
"I wasn't flirting!" Tanya said immediately.
"I was," Ax said happily.
Justine tossed her sword absently at the rack. Tanya was about to say that perhaps she should take better care of it, when it suddenly slowed down and settled lightly on the rack, perfectly positioned. "Wow, neat charm. Can you teach me?" She asked Justine.
"What charm?" Justine asked, and then froze momentarily. "Oh … that charm … um, it came with the sword," Justine said, and left quickly.
Tanya glanced at Ax, but he just shrugged and jogged after Justine.
"Why doesn't anyone ever explain things to me?" she wondered out loud, "Take that bloody photo shoot when we met Mark. If someone had told me he was a famous guy in a public place, I never would have gone near him! 'Oh, we're just going to go and see a new movie with Tegan's older brother, wear something pretty,' 'oh, didn't we mention that he's the most popular teenage actor in the world? Whoops, sorry! We didn't realise you didn't know that we're in the newspapers every five minutes.'"
She put her sword on the rack – like a normal witch would – and stalked off to find somewhere to sit by herself. 'What's wrong?' a soft voice enquired in her mind, and with a slight whoosh, one of the castle's two miniature dragons landed beside her.
"No one ever tells me what's going on," Tanya sighed to her first friend, Aiden the dragon. Most people might prefer to seek human company when trying to deal with something major, but Tanya had found Aiden first. They had been firm friends, despite the species gap since her second week in Kallaix, when she'd been hiding from some boys who were teasing her about her dress sense … or noticeable lack thereof.
'Some things aren't ready to be explained when we ask for them,' Aiden pointed out. 'But while you're waiting for someone to explain something to you, could you scratch me please? I can't reach, and it's driving me insane'
"Well, we couldn't have a sane little maniac black dragon flying around the school, could we," Tanya smiled, sitting down and allowing Aiden to clamber into her lap and settle himself comfortably for a good scratching.
"Tanya!" Ax had returned, "Come on, we have to pack the boat, remember?" he noticed that she had Aiden in her lap. "He needs scratching again?" he asked. Over time, everyone had become accustomed to the two small dragons that inhabited the castle, and approached random students demanding scratches. It was an ancient excuse in the school for those who came late to class to say, "One of the dragons needed scratching", and was usually accepted by the teachers, better yet. But since Tanya and Tegan had arrived in the school, the two dragons came mostly to them, Aiden attaching himself to Tanya, and his mate, Rhiannon, a tiny bronze thing, following Tegan around like a puppy.
"She has to go now," Ax addressed the dragon, "We have to pack the boat so we can go beat some British ass."
"Oh, don't give me any choice in the matter at all," Tanya muttered.
'But who is going to scratch me?' Aiden demanded, looking imploringly at the male Peterson prefect.
"I promise I'll give you a good scratch later," Ax offered.
"Oh, and when will you find time that I won't?" Tanya demanded. "Look for Jenna, she'll give you a scratch, you know that."
'Oh fine,' Aiden picked himself up and flapped off.
"Here," Ax offered to help Tanya up, but she sprang nimbly to her feet.
"Gymnastics does wonders," she informed him, "To start with, it means we females no longer need males to help us up."
"You are the most difficult woman in the world!" he cried, and flounced off.
"I think you're forgetting Justine," Tanya muttered.
"At least she's affectionate, if a little spirited," Ax said, spinning around and fixing her with a glare. For a second, Tanya was almost scared, wondering if she'd gone too far and actually pissed the sword mage off.
"I can be affectionate – just not with guys who are only trying to get me into bed with them," she flared, her temper getting the better of her. "You never noticed me before! I go to a hairdresser and suddenly I'm bedworthy? I used to like you Ax – now I realise you are so full of shit it's a wonder you can't smell it!"
"How do you know that?" Ax demanded, "How can you say that you know me? Have you ever spent any time with me at all?"
"I loved you from the moment that you walked into this school with Justine and the rest of them, and now I just couldn't care less! You had your chance Ax, and you wasted it, chasing every pair of pretty legs. I started all this changing for you, to try and make you notice me – but now I realise I was so much happier being invisible. And I'm over you Ax, for good. Stay away from me, please."
There were tears in Tanya's eyes as she turned away and dashed off as fast as she could.
Ax just stood and stared after her, mouth gaping. It was Justine all over again … only worse. He hadn't actually loved Justine, she was just … beautiful to him at the time, now he loved her differently – she was his sister… Wait, did he just think that he loved Tanya? That wasn't possible!
"So, you found her," Justine walked over to him, obviously having come looking for Tanya herself.
Ax paled. "How much did you see?" he demanded.
"I'd say … just about all of it," Justine said, smiling dangerously.
"I didn't really treat her that bad did I?" he asked.
"Ax, for two years of Prefect meetings she adored you. Every time you said anything, even that crap about all chicks should wear hot pants, she agreed with you!"
Ax looked as if he still didn't get it.
"OK, look at it this way – the moment she met you, she signed up for sword classes. Last year, if you had beaten her, it would have been the happiest moment of her life," Justine said, trying to get her point across. "Five minutes ago she was repulsed by the thought of touching you … are you seeing my point yet? Have I answered your question?"
"Too well …" Ax muttered, realising what he had done.
"Making it up to her isn't going to be easy, and you needn't think I'm going to help you. I'm not going to see her hurt by you again. I might love you, but that doesn't mean I don't see your faults." She turned and walked away, leaving Ax feeling more than a little bewildered.
"Justine!" he called after her. "Can I ask Tanya if she wants to come with us to meet Severus?"
Justine turned, "Why?"
"Because … um … because once I thought I heard her say … uh, something to, oh, who was it? Someone … about not liking boats?"
"If you can tell me what she actually said, then yes," Justine was interested, this had to be the first time she'd heard Ax being at all considerate of someone except her and Alyson.
"Oh crap!" Ax said. "She said … she said that … that being on boats made her, um, anxious?"
"Who did she say it to?" Justine asked.
"You said…"
"Whom did she say it to?"
"Um … you?" he hoped it was right.
"Good, now you just have to find her and convince her to listen to you," Justine smiled.
"Any ideas?"
"Try Saul."
"Saul?"
"Saul."
"OK … thanks," Ax dashed off, and Justine smiled slightly after him. She wondered how long it would take him to admit that he could actually love someone.
He searched through the castle. "God! How hard can it be to find the one person in the castle who loves attention almost as much as I do?" Ax wondered aloud.
"Saul?" one of the younger students asked.
"Yeah," Ax replied, "Have you seen him?"
"Saw him and Tanya heading outside. She looked pretty upset," the student replied, and Ax bolted for the castle entrance.
He pushed the doors open and nearly fell face first onto the grass as something hit him from above. He threw himself sideways as Aiden dove at him again. "Hey! Buddy! Watch out!"
'You made Tanya leak! Her eyes were wet!' the little dragon shrieked in his mind, a few sparks flying from his mouth. 'You leave Tanya alone!'
"I'm trying to apologise!" Ax cried.
Aiden looked at him. 'If you make Tanya leak water again I'll set fire to your floaty-scales,' he warned, and zipped off somewhere.
"Why is no one being at all helpful?" Ax wondered, and walked for the Quidditch pitch, figuring that it would be deserted by the main body of students at this time, and that was where Saul and Tanya had most likely gone.
Saul and Tanya … who would have thought? Saul being nice to someone? Not just mucking around like normal … this was odd.
The moment he walked into the Quidditch pitch he spotted them. They were in the top box, the highest point in the whole stadium. He looked at the huge amount of steps he would have to climb to reach them, then sighed and raced forward.
When he reached the top box, he realised quickly that they hadn't seen him coming at all. Tanya was curled up in Saul's lap, sobbing as if the world was about to end. "There, there love, it's alright," Saul was saying to her. "Ax just doesn't think of other people. Everyone knows that Ax has never thought of anyone other than himself – and perhaps Justine and Alyson – he's a self-centred little bastard."
Ax froze. Was this true? How could anyone not like him? He was funny, and he was charming, and he was nice, and he was lovable and he … was using the word 'he' far too much for comfort right now. Could Saul actually be telling the truth?
"Look, I'm really sorry that I advised you to see that damn hair-dresser," Saul added, "It seems that maybe you were better off with him paying no attention to you at all. At least it was better than realising he's fallen in love with you too late."
Tanya didn't speak, she just cried and cried and cried. Ax felt absolutely awful. Justine was right. Saul was right. And worst of all, Tanya was right too. He was a self-centred bastard and he'd never even realised it. But how could he change? Did he even want to? Was she worth it?
He'd have to wait and find out. But right now, he had to talk to Tanya, to try and make up for before.
"Hi, can I talk to you Tanya?" Ax said, and was grateful when Saul looked up and smiled and nodded, before leaving the room.
Tanya shot him a murderous glance and started to sniffle and turn away, Ax could see the desperate look on her face to try and stop crying.
"Tanya, why are you so upset?" He tested the waters…
She turned so fast and with a look so mean that Ax recoiled. "I am upset because you're conceited enough to follow me!" she yelled.
Ax saw red. "I'm conceited, you're the bloody one who has this self-righteous spiel going on because I've supposedly done you wrong! All I've ever done or ever been is me! I'm sorry if you fell into thinking I could be a better person, but what you see is what you get!" He was glaring at Tanya so hard that when she cringed and sat as far back from him as she could he realised his Sword Magai powers had activated by his anger. He was now glowing a faint purple.
He softened and forced himself to calm down. He knelt before her and took her hand "Tanya, I don't know what I can say to you except I'm sorry, and kind of grateful that you thought I could be those things."
She sniffed. "Tell me that I'm no different from Justine and the others, that I can be one of the girls who you don't just see as sex objects."
Ax looked down at the girl, she was so forlorn that he just had to answer, "Friends." He held out his hand.
"And I can have respect? And you'll not try and get in my pants?" Tanya said glaring at Ax.
"Hey," he mock punched her chin, "Not even Justine get's that kind of guarantee, but I can try to think more of you as a person than an object. Oh! And I remember that you once told me that you hated travelling, so I asked Justine and your going to Floo over with us!"
Tanya smiled at Ax and leant over to kiss him on the cheek. "I think there is something good inside of you Ax, you just don't want to show it." Tanya got up and left the room.
Ax was left with heavy thoughts.
The students of Kallaix academy stood on the shore of the lake to farewell the six students aboard. The Dragons were present, the McEwan dragon in the lake, preparing for the magic needed by singing her beautiful whale song. Steelwell, who was overhead like a spectre, roared, and Wentworth was purring nearby. Petersen was with the students.
The song suddenly intensified and the water around the boat began to bubble more and more rapidly. Suddenly the water roared to life and sped up around the boat, imploding back around the boat to form a bubble. The students go their last look at the Starstream, the gleaming white cabin cruiser, as it sank beneath the waves, and the song died away.
(Princess sneaks over and whispers - YAY - next chapter we go to Hogwarts, but wait, there's a twist! )
Well, this is WolfMoon, stealing the keyboard from Princess for this chapters set of thank you's. Thought I should do them at least once in awhile (although Princess absolutely loves answering your reviews, so I probably won't be a killjoy and do it myself all that often), and the elusive Lupine Shadows will get around to answering some reviews sometime, but that may take awhile, she isn't given to swift action with things like this, but anyway, here we go:
Alaranth-88 – OK, basically Justine went to Kallaix until third year. In her fourth year, she transferred to Hogwarts for a year. She stayed a couple of months into fifth year as well. At Hogwarts she met Ax, and at the start of fifth year she was driven away and went back to Kallaix, but Ax came with her because they'd become good friends.
That Idiot – Totally appreciate your feelings on camphor's, my mum is a gardener and is trying to get rid of all the ones at our place, but at the same time, you can't just get rid of them all. There are too many, and if you got rid of them all at once, the landscape would be totally bare until the new trees could grow (we live on a slope, if we got rid of all the camphor's, there would be no root network left, and the slope would just collapse). Besides, given the era in which Kallaix was founded, camphor's would have been what they planted at the time, and they would have kept some. (Also, Princess like's camphor's, because they are reasonably pretty trees, after all).
Ava Monroe – Kallaix is in Australia, and we have an entirely different set up year wise. For us, school starts in February, and our summer holidays go over Christmas (so we are on them at the moment). April is our first set of holidays, and nothing much happens around them. Our holidays that we study through are in September, when you guys are pretty much just starting for the year.
goDDarknes – Great to see you here at this story also, and I'm happy that you are enjoying it, and getting the characters. Kris is crazy, that's what he does –laughs- and Justine is cool isn't she? Don't worry, Ax will change (to an extent) in time … a fair bit of time … but oh well. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.