Chapter 7: Dark Magic Revealed

The group quickly made their way to the DADA classroom, Phoenix looked seriously on edge and the girls had looks of fear on their faces. Once they reached the classroom, Phoenix locked the door and began pacing for a few minutes.

"This doesn't make any sense, why were those Dementors here?" He muttered to himself, "Did someone send them? If so, then why?"

When he finally got his thoughts together, he turned to the obviously confused and slightly frightened group of witches.

"I think you deserve an explanation. Take a seat,"

They did so, but they were still wondering why he was so shaken.

"Let's start with what those things that attempted to attack Akko and Diana were and why everything became cold when they arrived. Those were the Dementors I mentioned earlier, they feed off of positive thoughts and emotions, they leave sorrow and the feeling of emptiness in their wake, and they mainly guard the wizard prison Azkaban, where they roam the most and only leave if they are commanded to by the ministry."

The girls were intrigued but also scared by what the Dementors were described as.

"So, they sap you of your happiness?" Akko asked,

"Not just happiness, happy memories too. But that's not the worst part, if they get too close they can suck out your soul, killing you."

That last fact made the group freeze up in their seats, even Sucy, who was imagining what it would feel like to have her soul sucked out. It chilled her to the bone.

"Constanze, you asked if there was a creature that couldn't be killed, Dementors was what I respond with, do you remember what I also said?"

Constanze thought for a second, before she finally got her answer, "You said they could only be fended off, and there was only one charm that could do it."

Phoenix nodded, "Correct, and that one charm is the Patronus charm."

Phoenix pulled out his wand to explain and demonstrate.

"The Patronus charm is like a shield or guardian between you and the Dementor. It requires the caster to think of their happiest memory and a full, perfect Patronus takes the form of an animal."

He then spoke the incantation "Expecto Patronum." And a soft light escaped his wand and took the form of a Wolf.

Everyone was amazed but also curious about what their Patronus might look like.

Sucy got Phoenix's attention to ask a question, "Is it possible to have more than one animal for your Patronus?"

Phoenix thought for a second, "No, each person has one animal, though the animal can be normal or magical, you'll just have to find out for yourself."

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a loud banging on the door, along with a voice,

"Prof. Kingston! Please, open the door, it's an emergency!"

Phoenix quickly unlocked and opened the door to his class and to his surprise, the person speaking wasn't another professor, it was a 2nd-year student, two in fact. It was the Trane Twins, Richard and Rochelle, and they looked extremely worried.

"Prof. you need to come quick, dementors found a way into the castle and they're attacking people!"

"Ok, stay here, I'll take care of it." Phoenix said running toward the Grand Staircase.

As he made his way to the stairs, he felt the air around him grow cold, even spotting a thin layer of frost on the walls. He increased his speed, hoping he could, at the very least, prevent any deaths.

"Why'd it have to be now, why did it have to be this year?" Phoenix thought to himself.

Once he made it to the stairs, he was awestruck by the amount of Dementors lurking about. He quickly surveyed the area to see if there was anyone on the stairs, thankfully, there wasn't. He pulled out his wand and focused on casting a large Patronus, to fend them off.

But before he could cast it, he was hit with a spell. He switched his attention to the caster and saw someone in a black cloak, they were quite small. When they realized they were spotted they made a run for it, but Phoenix quickly casted a special jinx, "Locomotor Mortis". It was a direct hit and the mystery caster fell to the ground. After resuming his Patronus cast, and driving the dementors in the staircase away.

He made his way down to the person that attacked him, they tried to crawl their way down the stairs but he caught them before they could escape.

"You are coming with me." Phoenix said with a hint of anger in his voice.

But before he could make his way back to his class with the others, he heard someone behind him scream,

"Wait, wait for me!"

He turned around and saw a man, around the age of 40, running toward what appeared to be a large dove.

Phoenix flicked his wand and said "Petrificus Totalus", and the dove froze up and fell into the man's hands.

"Much appreciated, this was my pet lizard but I turned him into a dove as a little experiment."

"My pleasure, now if you'll excuse me, I have a suspected criminal to interrogate."

And with that, Phoenix made his way up to his class, while the man he helped made his way down the hall on the ground floor.

After entering the room, he threw the person he had caught onto the floor, the sound got the attention of the group that was already in the room,

"I've taken care of the dementors, and I think I've found the person responsible." Phoenix said gesturing to the person hunched over.

The group of students gathered around the person and readied themselves for who could be under the hood. Phoenix quickly removed the hood revealing the person's face, the person was a young girl, around the age of 13, she had a dark blonde hair, light green eyes and a scar on her cheek.

Rochelle was the first to speak up, "Who are you?"

The girl looked up, was a small smirk on her face, "It won't matter when the heir of the Dark Lord rises up."

This confused the LN gang, but the twins and Phoenix were shocked,

"What are you talking about? Who are you talking about?" Richard said with fear in his voice.

"I won't talk, you can't make me."

Phoenix looked at her with a smile on his face,

"We'll see about that."

He made his way up to his office and grabbed a vile of something. He grabbed her face, forcing her mouth open, and pouring some sort of clear liquid into her mouth. She instantly swallowed it to avoid choking.

"Now, who are you?"

"Eve Lumen." She answered without hesitation, surprising everyone.

"Who sent you? Was it another student?"

"Yes, I don't know her name, she wished to avenge the dark lord."

Phoenix knew she was telling the truth.

"What was that stuff you made her drink?" Akko asked.

"Veritaserum, basically truth serum. And we now know someone at Hogwarts wishes to continue the work of...well, I'll explain some other time."

Phoenix escorted Eve down to the front of the castle, where members of the Ministry of Magic were waiting. He handed her over for further interrogating, after, he returned to the DADA class for, hopefully, the last time today.

When he reached the class, he noticed that the twins had left, and the girls were talking with each other. They looked slightly scared and he even noticed that some were in deep thought, wondering something.

"I wanna start by apologizing, I never expected this year to start on such a low note. I know you all probably want to leave Hogwarts, return to Luna Nova where you can be safe." Phoenix looked down in both despair and disappointment.

His head suddenly shot up when he heard Amanda yell, "Are you kidding? Why would we ever wanna leave? This place is great, way more exciting then bland, old Luna Nova."

The others nodded in agreement,

"While we definitely understand that the wizarding world has many dangers, we still wish to learn about them, we still want to know more about this world." Diana said with a content smile on her face. Akko hugged her close with a huge smile on her face.

Phoenix was surprised by their response, "So, let me see if I understand this, you get attacked by a dark creature, nearly witness the death of some students and even after me explaining how dangerous this world is...you STILL wanna stay?"

The group looked at each other and said "Yes!"

Phoenix was both confused and awestruck, "Heh...you girls really are crazy, but you're also talented in your own ways."

Phoenix walked up to the front of the room, and grabbed a book,

"This is a book of defensive spells and charms, head to the room of requirement and study it for a bit, I need to check in with McGonagall first."

The girls agreed and Lotte took the book from Phoenix.

*Amanda's View*

After we left the DADA classroom, I started to think a little more about what my Patronus could be, as well as what my happiest memory would be. But my thinking would be cut short by the sound of a familiar voice,

"Hey, girls!"

It was Ross, but he seemed concerned, he ran up to us and took a second to breathe.

"Thank god I found you, I heard what happened with the dementors and didn't see you in the Great Hall."

While the others were happy to know there was another student that cared about them, I was ecstatic. When I first saw Ross, there was something about him that I liked, maybe it was his interest in flying, maybe because I wanted to be a part of Quidditch, or maybe because I liked his voice. Whatever the reason, I just felt something strong about Ross.

"H-hey, Ross, how have you been?" I said, clearly in a panic to say something.

"I'm fine, I just came from the Ravenclaw common room after giving my sister her punishment. Trust me when I say, she shouldn't bother you girls anymore."

We were very clearly relieved by that news, Rose definitely had an instant grudge against anyone who got close to Ross.

"Ok, sounds good, we were just on our way to the Room of Re-"

My sentence was cut short when Lotte covered my mouth with her free hand,

"Amanda, we're not supposed to tell anyone about the 'You know what room'" She whispered into my ear, sounding slightly frightened and angry.

"Room of Requirement, right?" Ross said out of nowhere.

We were surprised he knew about it, but then again, Phoenix said people know about it, but don't know where it is.

"Yeah...you know where it is?" Lotte asked,

"7th floor, think of what you want and it will appear. I found it on my 2nd year, spent most of my 2 extra years in there."

We were surprised he knew where it was, but that last part made us confused.

"Wait 2 years? How old are you?" Diana said,

"16, why?"

"You said you were in your 4th year, right?"

"Yes, my 4th 'school' year, I've been here for 5 years total."

I was taken aback, he loved flying, was a kind-hearted person and wasn't very studious...he's a lot like me.

"Are you single?" I quickly blurted out randomly.

Ross and the others were surprised by my sudden show of romantic interest.

"I am, I've never really had a girlfriend, mainly because of you know who."

I knew exactly who he was talking about, his sister must really have attachment issues. "Why do you ask, hmm?" Ross said giving me a skeptical look,

"Uh...heh...no reason, not like I like you." I said crossing my arms and pouting with a deep blush on my face.

The others gave me a similar look as Ross,

"Right, well, if you're going to the RoR, mind if I come along?" Ross said attempting to change the subject,

I look to the others to see what they think and they nodded toward me giving me the ok,

"Don't mind at all." We then proceeded up the stairs, toward the 7th floor.

Once the group reached the place where the RoR would appear, Akko stepped forward and focused on summoning the door. After a minute or two, the door started to appear, as the final part of it appeared the door opened revealing what they had seen earlier that day. They all walked in and spread out to different corners of the room, some had practice targets waiting to be used, some had benches, the others were clear of anything.

"Now, let's see what we can start with," Lotte said flipping through the pages of the book.

She stopped on one, "Expelliarmus, the Disarming Charm. That might be useful. So, in order for it to work, you have to make a quick motion with your wand while saying the incantation."

She made the motion shown in the book without saying the incantation. Akko grabbed one of the dummies and rolled it to the other side of the room and placed a fake wand in its hand.

"Ok, let's see how it works, mind demonstrating Lotte?"

"Don't mind at all." Lotte said moving in front of the dummy.

The dummy moved to a duelling position, and Lotte readied herself, "Expelliarmus!" and the wand in the dummy's hand flew out of its hand, impressing everyone but Ross.

"Not bad Lotte, who's next?"

They continued to practice some defensive spells, learning Expelliarmus, Stupefy, Protego, and Episkey for healing small wounds. After about 45 minutes of practice, and some minor healing, they decided to stop for the day.

"That...was fun, I can't wait to do this more often," Amanda said resting on the nearby bench.

"I wouldn't get too excited, you do know that these are still private 'Lessons', Phoenix is going to be expecting us to take this seriously." Chariot said moving the practice dummies back in the corner.

"I'm taking this seriously, doesn't mean I can't enjoy it. Speaking of Phoenix, I wonder how he's doing with the Head-honcho."

Back with Phoenix, he made his way to the headmaster's office, where McGonagall was waiting, speaking to the portraits to be sure that all the students got to their common rooms safely.

He walked up to the Griffin statue, and spoke the password, "Mango Sundae."

And the statue spun clockwise and upwards.

"Heh, still using those food-based passwords like Dumbledore, eh Minerva?" He said walking up the steps to her office.

As he opened the door, he noticed that McGonagall was pacing in front of her desk, looking both worried and in deep thought.

"You ok Minerva? You look like you're about to lose it."

This caught her attention, snapping her focus toward Phoenix, "I feel like I'm about to drop from stress, Dementors in the castle, strange whispers, and students running around, vulnerable…"

One of the things she listed caught his attention and made him flinch,

"Wait wait, I know about the Dementors, I expected students to most likely freakout, but I never heard anything about any whispers. Who said anything about whispers?"

McGonagall looked at Phoenix in slight fear,

"One of the 1st year students mentioned it to a Portrait, they said that it said 'We shall continue his mission, all of non-magic heritage will perish, all who opposed him will fall.' I'm not sure who they're talking about."

"I do. I just so happen to have caught someone who told me something...well...honestly concerning. She mentioned that there was a student that wished to continue, Voldemort's legacy. She didn't know who she was though, I used the Veritaserum so she was telling the full truth."

"We should lock down the castle."

"NO!" Phoenix screamed,

"That's exactly what she wants, to trap her targets in the castle. We need to act natural, pretend we're not afraid, remember, she's still a student, she's bound to reveal herself when the time comes, for now, notify the other professors, make sure they know what's happening. We just need to stay prepared and alert, she'll slip up and show herself. I just hope no one gets hurt in the process, or worse."

END OF CHAPTER