The chimera's tail came flying towards Raven.

"Impedimenta!" The girl bellowed, brandishing her wand. The tail was hit, bouncing off course, and instead of causing severe damage, it only knocked the wand out of the teen's hand.

Defenceless, Raven backed away quickly as the monster jumped forward, teeth bared and roaring. She ran behind a column, but the chimera's tail beat her to it and smashed it to pieces.

Dust filled the room and rubble rained down as the teenage girl tried to find a place to hide. Lis was flying around, dodging the occasional attack with a caw, looking for her master's wand, which seemed to have disappeared under the smashed column. The bird was desperate to help its human, knowing the girl would perish without her magic against such a monster.

With her back against the wall, Raven found she had nowhere to run anymore. Triumphant, the beast marched towards her with heavy footsteps, roaring, ready for the kill.

Sure that her final hour had come, the teen raised her arms over her head in a final attempt at protection. But a piercing, angry cry attracted her attention, and she looked up.

Arleen was running towards the chimera, eyes full of tears and hands raised in front of her to attack. She dodged the monster's swinging tail and jumped on its back, causing it to roar and buck angrily, annoyed. The little girl was biting, clawing and kicking, trying to bring the monster down.

"I won't let you hurt Raven!" She screamed, digging her small nails into the creature's back. The teen stared, startled, as the little girl gave away quite the fight.

Arleen bit the lion's head's ear, sending it into a frenzy, bucking harder than ever. The tail came flying at the girl again, and since she didn't see it this time, it hit her full blast, sending her limp body into a wall. The chimera rounded up on the child, teeth bared furiously.

"NO!" Raven yelled, jumping forth.

She had no idea what she was doing; all she felt within herself was a terrible fury, and an immense, burning power rising within her chest, ready to overflow. She didn't even try to stop it: she just let her anger take over, and threw out her arms in front of her.

A black fire flew out of her open palms and hit the chimera on the flank. It bellowed frighteningly as the flames take life on its body and began to spread. Naturally, the burning of the fire sent it into agitation, and it began to jump around, crying out in pain.

Its tail was hitting everything in sight; columns, boxes and walls, splintering and breaking everything in its path. It also hit Raven right in the chest, knocking the air out of her body and leaving her on the ground, coughing.

With a final, deafening cry of pain, the monster fell to the ground and stayed limp, its body charred and burned from the black flames, which had suddenly disappeared.

Before she passed out, Raven saw Arleen getting up slowly, gasping for air, Lis digging around in the rubble and Macnair walking towards her with a blank expression on his face.

Then, everything went black.

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She had only passed out for a couple of minutes when Macnair raised his wand and using a spell, called Raven back to the conscious world. Arleen was walking forward, clenching a bleeding arm and supporting Lis on her shoulder, who had a wand in her beak.

Raven sat up gently with the little girl's help, looking at her teacher.

"What happened back there? What were those flames?" She asked, confused.

Macnair looked grave. "It was Black Fire. The most devastating and dark magic there is. Only the greatest Dark Wizards have been able to use it without it backfiring on them, so it is truly incredible that you are still alive. It is fire that cannot be blocked, extinguished or dodged. Once it hits you, it will burn you until you die, vanishing along with your last breath; it can consume anything, including Dragon skin and magic barriers, but it almost always burns its user to death as well. Be very careful with that, because it is most likely that it will happen again."

Raven stared at the man, standing next to Arleen, who had helped her up. Lis cawed softy and gave its human back its wand, before settling on her shoulder.

"Is there a way to control this Black Fire?" The teen finally asked.

"Of course there is, but it can take dozens of years to learn. You shouldn't waste your time with this." Macnair paused. "Well, I think that this lesson is over, so you should head back to your room, and wait until Lucius gets back from his work so you can attend your next class with him. Good day to you, then."

The girl nodded and left the dusty room with Arleen's help.

(0)

"That was some fight!" The little girl said enthusiastically, grinning up at he teen, who seemed exasperated.

"Hold still, already, so I can fix that arm of yours!" Raven said, pointing her wand at the fairly deep cut. Arleen stayed quiet and still for a moment, as the teen tried to remember the spells she had to use.

"Episkey." She finally mumbled, haling the cut perfectly. Arleen immediately began to babble again.

"I mean, I really helped you out there, but you beat that thing so easily after! It was really cool! That Black Fire stuff is really great; I've never heard of it before. It must be pretty dark magic, but it totally saved out lives!" The girl nodded wisely.

Raven looked put down. "You heard what Macnair said; that stuff can kill me, if I loose control."

"Yeah. . . but it can save your life if you stay in control."

The teen shrugged. "I'd rather not take too many chances. There's too much at stake for me to die right now."

"What do you mean?" Arleen asked, puzzled. She got a very grave look from Raven.

"Well, I have so much to learn, and so much to do. I've got to run out of here and help Harry Potter, for one. And I've got to defeat my father. I can't risk using some power that might backfire on me, no matter how powerful it really is."

There was no arguing with that. Arleen fell quiet, and started to read books that could help them in their fight against evil, while Raven finished up her essay for Snape, which was due for God knows when.

They worked long before they finally got up silently, and headed for the lesson with Malfoy.

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Lucius Malfoy covered several subjects with Raven; anything from Dark spells to Dark beasts, and sometimes a combination of the two. So neither of the girls were surprised that when they came into his classroom, it was freezing cold and a tall, menacing figure covered in a thorn, dark cape and hood was floating behind the man.

Raven immediately felt a suppressing misery grip her heart, as though nothing good could ever happen again. Arleen felt the same way, and even Lis gave away a frightened caw, rustling her wings restlessly.

"Welcome. Today, we will be studying dementors."

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Sorry for the long wait guys. Will try to update sooner.