IIIA 3019 January 16
I awoke once again to Angmar, though this occasion was quite different from the last. Not as romantic. It went something like this.
"Bella." came a voice into my dreams.
I rolled over and grumped.
"Bella my love." It came again, more insistant.
"Yes, Aggie?" I answered, expecting to wake up to a kiss. When none came, I opened my eyes and sat up in bed. Angmar was no where to be seen. But I had just heard him. "Where are you?"
"I am down here." came the voice with a definite twinge of impatience, beside my bed.
And I noticed a small black robed figure on his tippy toes peeking over the edge of my bed. Natually, I let out a small shriek.
"Angmar! What have they done to you? Did my Lord S. get angry at you for being out so late last night? Did you eat the wrong vegetable at Lobelia's? Did..."
"NO!" He cut me off with one word that would have been thunderous had he been full-size. As it was, it sounded more like the squeak a toad lets out when you squeeze it.
I tried not to laugh, for that is never a good idea when the subject of the hilarity is a dark lord capable of numerous tortures. Instead, I did the only sensible thing. I slid off the bed to see if there was anything I could do. Imagine my surprise when my feet touched the ground and I was not towering over him, but looking up at him. I was just as small as he was!
Then I remembered. The spell I had cast on us so that we could fit inside that hole. I was so dazed from food and love on the way back that I must have forgotten to undo it. That was why both of us had fit into the saddle. But how in Middle Earth had Angmar managed to tuck me into bed? Maybe he was floating as well. I had to smile at that thought.
"Bella?" Angmar's usually dreamy but currently irritated voice broke my reverie.
"Oh, yes. I am so sorry. Won't happen again." And I muttered the counter spell. Instantly we were back to our normal imposing sizes.
"I hope I wasn't too rude, but I have to address the troops in five minutes and it would just not do for their commander in chief to be the size of a toddler orc. I would never get any respect. As it is, I don't think I am ever going to live this one down with the other Riders." Angmar tiraded.
I raised my eyebrow in askence.
"Six caught me in the hall, and you know he is the prankster of our merry little band," he explained.
"Well I did give him quite enough ammunition to last a while," I chuckled.
Angmar replied with a low laugh, a good sign that he was over his fury. "But I don't think it would be a good idea to give him any more," he said seriously.
"What do you mean?"
"I want you to start giving me lessons in your magic. I have always found other world's magic interesting and I should not waste your expertise."
'Magic lessons?' I thought. "Uhm, when do you want to start?"
"As soon as I am done with this troop review. I have cleared my calendar for the day." And he swept magistically out of the room.
I sank down on the bed. Magic lessons? This did not seem like a good idea. A few days ago, I had been afraid that my magic had not followed me, but when I had found out that it had, I had thought that it would help make me indisposable. I knew that beauty would only get me so far. If I was going to help with their quest for destruction I needed to be able to do some glorious destructing myself. And being able to do it with magic...well let's just say that imagination is my only limit. If I taught it to Angmar, then I would no longer have the monopoly on scrumpcious torture. Providing of course, that he could.
I stopped myself from this train of thought, but quickly started the engine rolling again. Of course he could learn my magic. A dark lord such as Angmar could do any magic he set his mind to. I must remember that I am not from this world, as comfortable as I was becoming in it. I needed to keep an ace up my black silk sleeve. I knew I had power and beauty, a deadly combination in most circles, but this was not most circles. I could not allow myself to become the token female to balance out the power.
I mused and fretted all through breakfast about what to do. It certainly did not help that he made my insides like boiled brains. On top of that there was the whole evil-guys-always-betray-you syndrome I wanted to avoid. Not that I couldn't handle myself, just that it usually proved to be an unnecessary distraction. Yes, I was going to have to have a plan before the lessons started.
I couldn't teach him false spells; that would be suicide. I couldn't teach him knitting spells either; that would be amusing but also suicide. But, aha...I didn't have to teach him every spell I knew. After all it took me seven years of formal schooling and quite a few unformal years to learn all of the ones I knew. I just had to teach him enough to satisfy his curiosity. I quickly decided not to teach him the Unforgivables...those would be my secret weapons. And the ones I would teach him I would not give up easily. He would have to teach me something in return. Swordfighting would be a comprable skill, I thought for this world.
When Angmar returned from awing the troops with his speechifying, I was ready with my proposal. He cocked his head and stared at me for a moment, no doubt wondering what I was scheming, but in the end he acquiesed to my request. We began with wrist technique. I handed him a "wand" which was just a stick of firewood, but it would do.
"Now I know that this world does not require a wand, but if you was going to learn spells, it is worth learning properly. Don't roll your eyes at me." I scolded.
"Yes, Teacher," Angmar replied properly, though with a twinkle in his eye.
"Ok. First lesson. Swish and flick." I demostrated graceful wrist movement.
"Swish and flick." Angmar attempted to imitate. However, due to the fact that his wrist was several hundred, perhaps thousand years older than mine, the result was not the same. But all things improve with practice and by tea time he was swishing better than a silk dress on a belle at a ball.
After tea, we started on spells.
"They are done by pronouncing correctly a word or words. Combined with the power that you have within you brings about the desired result. Now I don't think your power is the same as mine, so I am not sure if the magic will respond in the same way it does for me."
"I would have never mistaken you for a scientist, my dear."
"Normally you are right, but this is my area of expertise and we are on new territory here. Now, swish and flick and repeat 'wingardium leviosa'."
Angmar did so. Unfortunately, I forgot to point out what it was exactly that he was supposed to be leviosa-ing. He had his attention and his 'wand', naturally, focused on me. I began levitating. Not just any kind of levitating, quickly heading in the direction of a very hard obsidian ceiling. I was centimeters away from a headache before I murmured the countercurse and floated back to the ground.
"Whoa. That was great." Like all boys, Angmar was easily impressed by his own power.
"That almost knocked out your teacher." I had to bring him back to the ground as well.
"I mean, I am so sorry. Did you get hurt? Do I need to kiss anything?" He winked.
"Tempting, but no. I caught myself before you killed me. But that does remind me that focus is very important in magic. What you are focusing on is where your curses and hexes will be directed. So I as much as I appreciate the attention, I need you to not look at me when you are practicing."
"Now it gets hard." Angmar pouted. "You are just so cute when you are being all serious and teachery."
"Thank you." I batted my eyes at him then gave him a gentle shove. "Back to work."
After that first bit of fun, Angmar was a quick student. By dinner he had learned a dozen spells. They were relatively harmless ones, levitation, boiling water, etc., but I stressed the importance of learning the simple ones first. That useful ones were generally more difficult and I would need more time to prepare the correct environment in which to learn them. It was an excuse, but it was also the truth. I could just imagine getting hit with a petrifying spell from him without a mound of pillows behind me.
He wanted to learn more after dinner, but I said no. I was just too tired, and I wasn't faking. Doing all that magic on top of trying not to be distracted by Angmar's beautiful wrist technique drained me. I went to bed early, partially because I was tired...I must be getting soft. I need to start my magic workouts back up.
My promised sword lessons are to start early in the morning. I am looking forward to them. Mother never let me join a fencing class, probably because the only ones around were for Muggles by Muggles. As much as I am ashamed of this, I admit that I was disappointed. But now I would have a chance to learn to draw blood, that fulfilling result that killing by magic rarely had. Perhaps I could combine magic with swordfighting...what kill that would make! With that happy thought, I closed my eyes and slept.
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No notes this time. Just a big sorry for not posting in a really really long time. Brownies for the reviews. And death threats work just as good as begging. :-P