Draco cursed as he was hit by the Cruciatus curse again. For the thousandth time today, he cursed his father, the Death Eaters, and The Dark Lord himself. Why did Voldemort have to exist? Why did his father have to be a Death Eater? Why couldn't the other Death Eaters just leave him alone?
"Why don't you just give up, Draco? Become one of us!" Bellatrix laughed, as another wave of pain hit him, and he cried out in pain. His mother looked down at him coldly. He knew what she was thinking: That he was a failure. That he deserved all the punishment he got.
"I will not!" I snarled back, trying to hide the pain he was feeling through a mask of anger and resentment.
"We'll see about that. Crutio!" Draco began to drown in pain.
…
"Where were you?" Potter was suspicious. Brilliant. Spend the first half of the day getting tortured physically, and the second half of the day tortured mentally by Potter's nagging.
"It's none of your business." Draco lied down gingerly on the bed. He didn't have class today. He could sleep. He'd catch up on my schoolwork later. Even as he thought it, he knew he wouldn't be able to do that. But he did resolve to bring his studying hours down to only four hours today. He needed some rest.
"Not my—it bloody well is my business! You were with Death Eaters, weren't you?!"
"Could you not talk so loud? I have a headache."
"What, the screams of the people you torture hurt your ears?" Ugh. He was irritating. Normally, Draco would just insult the kid's parents or something. Make him cry. But He had just been tortured for three hours, until he finally gave in and became a Death Eater. He wasn't in the mood to fight with Potter, and he wasn't in the mood to listen to him say one more word.
"You know what? You have no idea it's like to be the son of a Death Eater, do you? You want to know where I was? I was getting tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange, all because I was stupid enough to trust my own mother when she lured back to my house. Just so you know, I don't get protected by Dumbledore, like the precious Boy Who Lived! I get thrown into the snake pit with people like Bellatrix and my father! If I didn't give in and become a death Eater, I would have been tortured until they stopped having fun, and then they would have killed me. Period. And don't try saying I can just stay at Hogwarts. I'm forced to go home during the holidays. And if I don't listen to everything they say, I'll be looking forward to a holiday full of torture. You have to look forward to a holiday chumming it up with your friends. So, please, spare me your self-righteous judgments!"
It was blissfully silent in the room for a long while, until Potter finally broke it. "I'm sorry Draco. You do have a difficult life. I'm sorry for doubting you."
"That's it?" Draco answered "No mocking, no, 'But you could be doing x, y, and z?' No, 'oh, look, I was right! You are a death eater!'?"
"I'm not evil. You were tortured. I mean, would anybody blame you?" Harry turned back around, shoving his nose into a giant, ancient book.
Huh. Draco lay back down, completely without words.
….
Today was a good day. I was completely over that moron, Satoshi, and his little insults. Completely over it. I definitely did not picture his face as I showed my new students the proper way to perform a left hook. Any damage to the walls or general property is completely coincidental. Because no matter what anybody says, I didn't care that the rat called me pathetic. Definitely not enough to hit anything with all my strength. The collapse of the men's restroom definitely had nothing to do with me.
But by now, even if it had upset me, which it hadn't, I'd be feeling pretty decent. So far today, I was able to kill three minor demons, and one major one. It was great. I'd almost forgotten how great it was to feel their flesh give way to my claws.
Then in my classes, all of them were too terrified to talk back. So I could just give my lesson, with no interruptions. Have you any idea how great that is? To manage to teach them how to make a basic fireball from their wands without anybody nagging at me that it 'wasn't school appropriate'? It was awesome.
My fighting class had started up. It consisted of a handful of Ravenclaws, one Hufflepuff, half of all the Slytherins, and almost all the Gryffindors. Apparently, there had been a group last year called Dumbledore's army, so most of them joined my fighting classes this year.
Some of them were surprised when they learned we wouldn't be learning magic.
"Why are we learning to fight? I mean, if we were trying to use this against Voldemort, wouldn't he just Avada Kedavra us before we could hit him?" Hermione Granger asked. I was surprised to see her there. She never struck me as the athletic type.
"First of all, this isn't really for use against Death Eaters." Inuyasha said, and he heard murmurs of surprise. Phrases like 'then why are we learning this?' Jumped out at him. "If you notice, there has been a recent demon infestation. I want you guys to be able to defend yourself. Just magic won't be enough against them. Most of them are defended against charms like stupefy and petrificus totalus. Their too big for it to have any effect. Even if your spells did work against them, a lot of them are fast enough they'll be out of your line of fire before you can finish the spell. And in practical terms, what are you going to do after you lose your wand? Surrender? Writhe on the ground as the Death Eaters torture you? No. You—" I struggled for words a bit. There were about thirty seven options, but it was hard to describe most of them, and six of them were physically impossible for humans to do.
"Here, let me show you." I said. "Can I have three volunteers?" Nobody raised their hands. They'd learned that from my DADA class. Volunteers tended to receive the brunt of whatever spell I was teaching them at the time.
Sighing loudly, I picked Draco, Harry, and Cho Chang. I would have chosen the Hufflepuff, too, just to make it even between the houses. But he looked like he was going to wet himself, or maybe have a seizure, so I decided against it.
"You guys are Death Eaters. Feel free to try to hit me with any curse, even the Unforgiveables." They stepped back, startled, but I just smiled at them. "3-2-1. Start."
"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled immediately, and my wand shot from my hand.
"Stupefy!" Cho said, but I dodged it effortlessly. With a sweeping kick, I kicked dirt and dust into their eyes. They coughed, trying to dispel the dust, but I had already got my wand.
"Petrificus Totalus!" I said, waving my wand. Of course, I didn't need the wand, but it was for demonstration. Cho Chang was out of the picture.
"Crucio!" Draco hit me with the curse, and I felt pain radiate through my body. I gritted my teeth, as I had done when Sesshomaru had punched a hole through my stomach.
Harry sent another spell in my direction, but I was smart enough to dodge this one. I jumped over them, making sure to kick more dust up to block their vision. Behind them, I could technically break Harry's neck with a single motion, then move on to Draco with deadly efficiency, decapitating him before he could say a word, but instead I used petrificus totalus to off the Potter kid, jumping out of the way before Draco could hit me with another curse.
The pain was building, if that was possible. It coursed through each one of my veins, and I was hit with an urge to go into fetal position. Instead, I ran towards Draco, so I was right in front of him. I grabbed his wand hand, twisting it behind his back.
"From this position," I said through gritted teeth, "I can interrogate him, without being in danger of getting hit with another curse." I pulled his arm farther back, and he cried out in pain. "Also, I can manipulate his pain to make him do what I want. Now, break your little torture curse"
"I-It worked?" He seemed surprised.
"Yes, it did! Now, I want you to stop it from working!" finally, the pain was gone. I released him, and I freed Cho and Harry from their spells.
"So, tell me how I used martial arts to give myself an edge."
Neville Longbottom raised his hand. "You kicked the dust up into their eyes."
"Correct, any others?"
"You were, like, super-fast." This came from Pansy Parkinson.
"Yes, Studying Martial Arts will increase your speed, which is crucial in a battle. Any others?" there was silence. "Okay, well, one of the big things was just the mentality. Neville hit on a good point when he said that I kicked the dust up into their eyes. Using your surroundings against your foe is very important. It can be the difference between life and death, in some cases."
"How about when you jumped over their heads? I was sure one of the brats would point that out." A wolf demon said, walking up to the group. Panicking, Neville spun around, yelling,
"IGNIS!" I laughed as the wolf yelped; only barely dodging his student's fireball. Then, the wolf did a little dance as he tried to put out the fire on his boots.
"Thirty points to Gryffindor!" I said, earning cheers from the Gryffindors. I looked over the wolf demon. There was something familiar about him that I couldn't put my finger on. He looked about forty or fifty, with grey streaks in his black hair. That said, he was still good looking, despite the light creases in his face. His blue eyes were the kind that pierced through people's souls. Where had he seen this guy before?
"Oi, fleabag! Control your kids!" The wolf snarled.
"Kouga?" I looked at him, shocked. It was! "I take that back. Fifty points to Gryffindor! Well, done, Neville."
"Would you stop that?!" Kouga said angrily, standing up. "Here I am, trying to visit an old friend, and I get blasted by his students! Geez, How messed up can you be?"
"Old friend? Have you gone senile in your old age, Kouga? I'm pretty sure we were never friends." I retorted, smiling at him.
"Shut up. Rivals, then, who cares? How are things going with Kagome?"
"Not going. Anyways, I'm going to finish up this lesson, so if you could just—" Kouga set his hand on my arm.
"What do you mean, 'Not going?'? I gave up on her because she chose you! How could you just throw that away?"
"She left me, Kouga." There was silence in the courtyard, and I flushed with embarrassment. "Now, let me finish my lesson, and then I'll talk to you." He nodded, and I went back to my class.
Most of them picked up the techniques I taught them relatively quickly, which was good. After about an hour, I let them go, telling them to make sure to practice.
I went back to where Kouga was sitting. "You actually make a surprisingly good teacher." He commented idly, "I didn't think you would."
"Thanks." I said. "She got old. That was it. She got old, and got sick of people thinking I was her child."
"Yeah, what's up with that? You haven't aged at all." Kouga asked. "It's irritating."
"I don't know!" I answered angrily. "It's not like I want to be stuck looking like I'm twenty my whole life!"
"You don't even look like you're two hundred. You look you're 170. Maybe 180, but that's pushing it." In demon years, that was 18. I growled.
"Shut up!"
"Just telling you how it is." He answered. "So when was this?"
"Twenty years after the Divide."
"Just twenty years?"
"Humans don't live long, Kouga. Miroku only lived to one hundred, and he lasted the longest by far."
"What?! That's insane!" Kouga lay on the ground. "What were you doing for the last five hundred years?"
"I just kept to myself, mostly. Anyways, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to warn you about the things that are happening back in the demon world. That Kagura lied to you, at least partially. While they had been debating whether or not to renew the barrier, they still should have had at least two years before holes started opening in the barrier. Apparently, the students of Ahkimastabifherzhad have been picking away at the barrier. There was some controversy as to whether Ahkimastabifherzhad was the root of it, or if it was one of the teachers, specifically Mahershalalhashbaz. In the middle of their trial, though, the both of them disappeared, transporting themselves who knows where. But not before Ahkimastabifherzhad confessed to being the cause of it. Because, get this, he wants to mate you. Apparently, he became convinced that you were some sort of creature of legend, and if he mated you, he'd gain your powers."
"That's ridiculous. I'm a guy." I answered.
"I admit it isn't socially acceptable, but it's still possible. So now, there are a bunch of debates going on about who is going to mate you, to prevent Ahkimastabifherzhad from doing it. Nobody wants to. Imagine that." He smirked. "But it started looking like Satoshi was going to be forced to take one for the team. Just when they were about to decide on him, he announced that he would be your body guard instead. So, he'll be coming around soon. From what I understand, you two don't get along."
"Not even close. But I have to say, I'm grateful he managed to get me out of having to mate with him. Ugh."
"Yeah. Also, if Ahkimastabifherzhad or Mahershalalhashbaz comes over to you. Don't bother playing games. Kill them as quickly as you can."
"What do they look like?"
"Mahershalalhashbaz is tall, more than seven feet. He's thin as a reed, too, with black skin and bright red hair that goes to his shoulders. He also has white tattoos all over his face, arms, and back. He won't be too hard to pick out. Ahkimastabifherzhad is short, maybe about your height, and is bald, with thick black mustaches that are braided with rings at the end. He has a thick neck, and is very muscular. Most importantly, his eyes are completely black, without any whites. Either one could disguise themselves as anything they wanted, though, so watch out for their speech patterns. Ahkimastabifherzhad has a low voice he won't be able to conceal. Also, he has a lisp. Watch out for anyone that blinks overly much. If he can disguise his eyes, it won't be comfortable, and he'll probably blink and rub his eyes a lot. Mahershalalhashbaz calls everybody 'darlin' so watch out for that and anyone that combs their hands through their hair overly much."
"That's not too much to go off of."
"That's all we have. Sorry." Kouga answered. "One more thing."
"What is it?"
Kouga looked back at him, an unrecognizable expression on his face. Finally, he shook his head silently, "Never mind." He said, turning away.
If the wind hadn't told him, Inuyasha wouldn't have heard his next words, murmured under the wolf's breath. "He'll figure it out soon enough."
Actually, did you know that Mahershalalhashbaz is a real name? It was the name of one of Isaiah's sons, meaning "destruction is imminent." My religion teacher wanted to name his son that. :) I thought it was funny, so I made it the name of one of my characters. ;)
Thank you those who reviewed. :D You make me so happy.
Yami Bakura: Thanks! And, yes. I split up the first chapter into two parts and the second into three parts. I'm hoping it makes it more readable. When I was rereading it, I found myself wanting to skim it, just because I couldn't take how long the chapters are. So to fix that, I made the chapters shorter.
ILuvFluffySama: Aw, thanks. :) You make me smile. And, yeah, I know Inuyasha is out of character. It's actually surprisingly difficult for me to keep him in character. I keep doing things like making him cry, or random stuff like that, and I know it's OOC, but I can't stop myself. :/
Opinr: Thanks! I get pretty nervous about my grammar, so your review meant a lot. :)