Title: Reviving the Black Name: The story of Shawn Black
Chapter Title: What do you expect?
Disclaimer:I doubt I really need this, but if I do, um...I don't own Harry P. Though I'm certainly flattered if you thought I did ;). Umm...If I was JK Rowling (which I'm not...) then I wouldn't waste my time on a Fanfic site under the name of Live2Sk8...i'm pretty sure that Mrs. Rowling doesn't skate...but I guess you never know. Um...right, later! OH! And read the Authors Note at the end!!
--------------------------------------Last Time----------------------------------------------------------
The trio nodded and went up to the dorms to place their stuff away. Shawn went up the staircase and to the right and found a room that said 'Shawn Black' on it. Nodding slightly she opened the door and was greeted by a lovely site. Inside was a king-size bed with an emerald canopy, the window over to the side had silver hangings and the wardrobe and drawers were made of ebony. The room reminded her of the Snake burrow and she sighed a content sigh. 'Yes.' She concluded once again, 'It's good to be home.'
---------------------------------------Onward-----------------------------------------------------------
The next day, a Tuesday, Troy, Nick, and Shawn were making their way down to the Mess Hall for breakfast. It was 8:00 and they were all yawning and rubbing the tiredness out of their eyes.
"So, how'd you guys sleep last night?" Nick asked cheekily.
"Fine." Troy answered monotonously, still annoyed from this morning.
"Eh..." Shawn said annoyed as well from what had happened a few minutes before.
-----------------------------------------Flashback------------------------------------------------------
'BEEP!' Shawn was jolted from her slumber by the sound of her infernal alarm clock blaring into her ear. She glared at it forcefully before sending a silencing charm at it, before allowing her head to drop down on her pillow. A few moments later she resolved to get up and get dressed.
After tripping and stumbling countless times on her way in and out of the bathroom, she came out fully dressed. She stood in front of the mirror in her wardrobe as she brushed out her gorgeously long black hair. She was dressed in a pair of soffee shorts and an old 'Nirvana' wife-beater. She pulled her hair up into a high ponytail and examined her charcoal gray eyes. She nodded at her reflection before tiredly stumbling out of the room, but not before taking in the Snake-like décor. Thinking she was still in the snakes burrow, she went to where the steps normally were and began to walk up—before she realized she was walking on air. This caused her to tumble down to the ground in an un-graceful heap. She fell with a squeak, and just lay there until she heard laughter from above her. Just as she turned to look up, another body fell on top of her, stealing the air from her lungs. She groaned in pain as the laughter increased 10 fold. The body above her immediately apologized profusely before getting up and pulling her to her feet.
"You guys are idiots." The laughing voice, which she realized was Nick said grinningly.
"Shut up, I thought I was still in the burrow!" Shawn cried out indignantly.
"And I thought I was still at the nest!" Troy said in the same tone.
"And in the burrow, we climb up, because the dorms are below the living room."
"And in the nest we go down a ladder, because in Eagle tower, the dorms are literally held above air, so we've gotta climb down to get to our living room." The two angry teens said simultaneously. They turned to give each other a look before glancing back at Nick who was now doubled over with laughter.
"Shut up so we can go." Shawn said irritably. And with that, the three teens made their way down to the Mess Hall, one of them bursting into giggles every few seconds.
-----------------------------------End of Flashback---------------------------------------------------
A few minutes later the three magical teens arrived in the mess hall. They looked at each other slightly before launching open the doors and walking in. Inside, one long table was set up in the huge room. The room was tall and wide, enough to fit 1000 people comfortably. It had tall glass ceilings and large windows lining the walls. The hall was painted in gold and black, giving off a slightly dark, yet happy feeling. At the table sat seven chairs, three on one side and four on the other, at four of the chairs sat four people. One of them Shawn knew to be Madame Johanson, but the other three were unfamiliar. There were two men and one woman, one of the men seemed tall, and had long red hair that was pulled back in a pony-tail, also from what she could see, he had a fang earring in his left ear. The other man seemed as tall as the first one, and had black hair that was cut in a normal boy cut, she couldn't see his eyes though, as his bangs swept over them. Finally the girl was the first one to get her attention, she had bright bubble-gum pink hair that was spiked up in the latest 'punk' fashion, her face was heart-shaped and Shawn could see a bit of blue in her eyes from the profile view she had. She looked over to Nick and Andrew who were both studying the three new comers as well, who still hadn't noticed them, and nudged them both. They looked at her and she nodded her head over to them, at which they shook their heads promptly and stood back.
'Jeez, Nick is supposed to be a lion...aren't they brave? Bloo—no I did not just try to use the word bloody...good grief I'm going insane.' Shawn thought before sighing as she took a step forward. The boys still looked at her with distrust so she shook her head and walked up to the table. It wasn't until her tall frame was casting a shadow over the table that the four of them looked up.
"Ahh, and this was the girl—ahem—young lady I was telling you about. Salem's star pupil, Shawn Black." Madame Johanson gushed. Shawn's eyes widened as she blushed slightly at the praise.
"Oh, no, there are loads of people smarter then me." She said modestly, her hand flying to the back of her neck as she scratched it awkwardly.
"Oh from what Madame Johanson tells us, you really are one of the finest Salem has seen." The black haired man said. Now that Shawn could get a good look at his face, she saw that he was young looking, about in his mid-30's and had dark brown eyes, and slightly tanned skin, his voice was laced in a thick Scottish accent.
"Now Owen, be nice, can't you see the poor girl is about to burst?" The female said, her bright blue eyes looking at Shawn's bright red face. It was true, the look on her face made her seem as though she was going to burst.
"Owen Farlers, ward setter for the Ministry of Magic and for Gringotts." Owen said as he stuck out his hand. Shawn looked at it with a raised eyebrow before thrusting hers forth as well.
"Shawn Black, auror for the American Ministry and rising 6th year here at Salem." Shawn said politely.
"Nymphadora Tonks, auror for the Ministry. I'll be here to make sure the school is in ample protection while the wards are being worked on." The girl said with a grin, "Oh, and call me Tonks."
"Shawn." She smiled pleasantly, it would be good to have a girl around who wasn't the age of 60.
"Bill Weasley, curse breaker for Gringotts." The red-head said. He had bright blue eyes and loads of freckles on his face, she noticed that he, along with Tonks, had a strong British accent...much like—
"—Charlie Weasley's older brother?!" Shawn asked excitedly.
"Erm...yes, you know him?" He asked skeptically.
"Know him? Yeah, him and I were on opposite teams at Quidditch camp for the year we were both there. I managed to break his arm with a bludger...hope he isn't too upset about that." Shawn blushed at the last part.
"Bloody hell! You're the girl that broke his arm! Damn, he was moping around for weeks after that, going on about how a 12 year old girl managed to smash his arm into smithereens!" Bill looked just as ecstatic as Shawn was feeling.
"Yeah, that's me." Shawn grinned. She looked over at her two best friends, who were standing at the door looking awkward. She rolled her eyes and motioned for them to come over. Once they did, she introduced the two of them.
"Guys, this is Nick Winters and Troy Andrews, they're both auror's and 6th years here at Salem. Guys, this is Nymphadora Tonks, Bill Weasley, and Owen Farlers. They're here to help do the wards for the school." They all exchanged greetings as the three teens sat down, tucking in to their breakfast, none of them paying attention to the conversation. Once they were all done, Madame Johanson flicked her wand and the plates and food disappeared. Instantly, Shawn went into 'question mode.'
"So what exactly are we to be doing?"
"Like I said before, you will be strengthening the wards of the school."
"What's in it for us?" Shawn challenged.
"Extra credit, free reign over the Herbology lab, and allowance to go to Hogwarts for the tournament." Madame Johanson asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Like I need the extra credit. I hate Herbology, and I'll be old enough to enter the tournament anyway." She smiled lazily.
"Extra credit, entrance to the Herbology and Potions labs, and free passes to the restricted section?" Madame J. asked hopefully.
"Make it extra credit, free reign over the Herbology, Potions/Chemistry, Transfiguration, and Auror training facilities, and entrance to the restricted section of the library, and you've got yourself a deal." Shawn said with a determined look.
"Fine, you drive a hard bargain Miss Black, but agreed. Should I assume that you two want the same benefits?" She raised her eyebrow to Troy and Nick. Both of them looked up before answering.
"No, we'll stick with the first deal. Neither of us will be old enough to enter the competition, so we might as well watch our best friend get slightly disappointed, right?" Their grins faltered as Shawn smacked them in the back of the heads.
"So...shall we get started on the wards then?" Shawn asked with a grin after a moment of awkward silence.
Ten Minutes later the odd group found themselves outside of the large castle. It was haunting, made of brick, and had a dark, gothic look about it. It had many towers on the upper levels, and at least 10 floors going up. The school was wide as well, stretching the length of at least 3 football fields. It was quite the size of a school that only suited to approximately 84 students and a teaching staff of about 12 professors.
"Okay, you all know how to take down wards. But the first thing I want you to do, Shawn, Nick, and Troy, is to feel the wards with your core. I want you to examine them, find the ones that are out-of-date, un-used, mistreated, or diminishing. I want them detangled, because you're not going to be able to take them down with them tangled, and then I want you to work on getting them down. Now, only you three can do this, because you three are the only ones with a connection to this place, Salem will do the rest." Madame J. said with a nod of her head. The three teens mentally jotted down what she was saying as she explained everything else to the rest of them.
"It will take them at least an hour to examine the wards, I would expect another 2 hours just to detangle them and to mark down the ones that need repairing. So while they are doing that, I'll show you around and to your quarters so you can get settled in. Shawn, I'm leaving you in charge. Come get us when you're done!" And with that, Madame J, Bill, Tonks, and Owen were off, leaving the teens to decipher something meant for people twice their age.
"Okay, how about this? The three of us take some time looking at the wards, in a bout 30 minutes, we'll stop, discuss what we think needs to be done. After that, Me and Nick can work on mentally stripping and repairing the wards, while Troy, you can work on mentally detangling them. Then we can get to the magic? Okay?" Shawn asked looking to her two companions for approval. The two boys nodded and Shawn conjured up a bench with her wand.
"Might as well sit down," She sighed, "this could take a while."
The three sat down quietly and took a few moments of meditation. Shawn looked down, her eyes focusing only on the blades of grass. After a few moments of searching for her nirvana, she got to it, and set out to find her inner core. Normally this didn't take long, as she occasionally had to draw into her inner core for power reserves, mostly at auror training sessions, where she expelled too much of her energy. It could take hours, even days, for her core to recover, but each time it did, it was stronger than ever. Which was why Shawn's core was fairly large once she found it. She imagined herself falling into the sea of fire that was her core, basking in the warmth of her magic. She looked around, trying to get a feel of the wards. She was instantly hit with a wave of color and raw power that she almost fell over. Above her was a rainbow of strands, mixed to make an ugly brown, which she assumed were the tangled wards. She drew into her core even more, trying to look past to the separate strands. She saw one—bright red—that indicated an anti-apparation ward. She guessed that it was from the 1850's, about 50 years after the school was built. She could tell by the lack of blue specks that were found in later versions of the anti-apparation wards. This meant that these wards allowed people with certain magical signatures to enter/exit the school. She mentally noted that one as one to be re-generated. She followed another strand, this time a pale blue, she saw that this one was a protection ward, a basic ward that was to prevent you from falling out of the windows. This one was centered around the owlry, as students tended to sit on the windows to get a good view of the fields around it. That one looked in good shape, and there wasn't a newer version of it, so she forgot about it and moved on. After doing this until she was certain she was done, having passed over many wards (anti-portkey wards, anti-aging wards, anti-rust wards, etc...) she came up with a pretty extensive list on what was to be done. She came out of her trance-like state, to see the boys coming out of there's as well.
"Did you guys get everything?" Shawn asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I think so." Troy nodded, Nick did the same.
"Okay, so what needs to be re-done?" Troy asked.
"Anti-Apparation, anti-portkey, anti-rust, the Quidditch wards are all out-of-date, weathering wards, shielding wards, and the anti-aging wards, all need to be re-done." Shawn sighed as Nick wrote all of them down.
"I didn't think that the anti-apparation wards needed re-doing." Troy stated looking thoughtful.
"Did you see how the anti-apparation wards lacked blue specks? The ones you see now-a-days have blue specks, which prevent everyone from apparition, the plain red ones mean that certain magical signatures are aloud."
"Yeah, I noticed that too." Nick nodded.
"Okay, so we've got everything we need to re-do listed, right? Now all we need to do is figure out how we're gonna re-do them. And then, re-do them. That sounds like fun doesn't it?" Troy asked in mock excited-ness.
"Alright, so Nick and I will see what we can do. And you can figure out how to untangle them. Cool?" Shawn asked. Troy nodded and went back into his trance-like state. She turned to Nick, and pulled the notebook closer to her.
"Alright, here's what we need to do: these two wards," She said pointing to the anti-apparation wards and the Quidditch wards, "will have to be done first. Because they take the longest, and we'll need to fully take them down, since you can't just magically upgrade them."
"Yeah, I agree. But while we're doing that one of us will need to be manning it, since the anti-rust wards are right on top of them, you don't want it to collapse." Nick said thoughtfully.
"Good point, so whoever's taking down those wards will need to be fast, because it'll take a lot out of whoever's holding the wards up." Nick nodded.
"It should be one of the adults who take down the wards, so don't worry about that. But I think you should hold them up. You've got the largest magical reserves out of us, and I know you'd be able to keep up continuous charm work for at least 5 hours before you even begin to dip into your core. So no worries, right?" He asked with his eyebrow raised high.
"Yeah, no worries." I sighed distractedly.
"What's up?" Nick asked quietly.
"Hmm? Oh, I was just thinking, why not just pull the bottom ward, in this case, the anti-apparation ward, and just let the rest collapse on themselves?" Shawn asked inquisitively.
"Because when wards collapse, they collapse hard, and we don't want any unnecessary risks here. You should know that once a ward collapses, it's impossible to repair." Nick said in a questioning voice.
"I know that, but why not just collapse all the wards in the school and start from scratch?"
"Do you have to always take the easy way out?" Nick joked, "Not all the wards need re-doing, if we did that, we'd be working well into next year." He sighed. Shawn agreed with him, he made a good point, but then again, this is Nick Winters, the smartest guy in their year, what did you expect?
AN: done.
Sorry that that wasn't a long chapter, I just wanted to get it done. The next few chapters should include re-warding, some pranking, the world cup, and hopefully the guys heading back to school. I'd expect to have all those done within the next 3-4 chapters, after that we can get into the fun stuff!! Please review, I've only had one review so far, and I love it when I get them, so please let me know what you think!!! Also, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to update that often (not that I'm updating often as it is...) I just made my high school volleyball team, and we've got two practices a day, so hopefully I can get some writing time in between then, but I've still got summer homework that I've been putting off...Oh, and I'm thinking of turning this into a first person POV story, if you guys disagree with that, lemme know!
-Shawn .
Disclaimer: I dont own this!
