Disclaimer: don't own.
Hermione took her seat next to a hard-faced blonde girl who nodded coldly to her as a greeting. Ginny looked apologetically at her, but didn't say anything. They had just had a rich breakfast and Hermione was bursting full.
Hermione shook her head and looked at the teacher who looked like Snape but with blue eyes. The height and probably similar weight, his black billowing robes, his dark hair and – well – his sexy voice reminded her of him and she paid close attention. This teacher had as well as Snape the gift to keep a class interested and quiet without much effort.
"Today, we are going to learn how to duel!" Professor Mikhail announced in a quiet, though dangerous voice. Hermione raised an eyebrow. She knew various hexes, curses and defensive and offensive spells. This wasn't anything new.
She exchanged a quiet glance with Ginny who looked back at her, thinking the same.
"Now partner with the person next to you. You all have learned Expelliarmus, Protego, Stupefy, Rictusempra and Reducto. Is that correct?" Mikhail asked the class and everyone nodded, Ginny and Hermione now raising their eyebrows in approval. It looked as if the Durmstrangs knew as much as them. Were it not for the DA, Ginny and Hermione would now be more or less clueless. "Now, I would ask you to perform these spells in front of me, just so that I know how good you are in that area and if it needs more practice! You are ONLY allowed to use those spells. … Danijel and Victor, you are first."
The two boys in the front row got up slowly, reluctantly and stood in front of the students, pointing their wands at each other.
"Now, you know the correct position – it is called the combat. Yes, that's right. Now, attention! One, two, three."
Danijel shot an Expelliarmus at Victor who dodged it expertly and threw in a Protego instead, which almost threw Danijel off course and almost knocked his wand out of his hand. Victor used this chance to fire a reducto at him though Daniejl ducked in time and the cupboard behind him burst into dust at that. Hermione noticed with a slight pang, that they were in fact quite apt in duelling, probably as good as the DA in their last stages and this disturbed Hermione slightly.
Could she and Ginny really compete with that? She honestly didn't think that the Durmstrangs were that advanced.
"Very well!" the professor clapped into his hands after the colourful display of "fireworks". Danijel was sporting a small cut above his right eye on his forehead and Victor's hair was a bit burned. "And now two ladies, yes, Natalija and Yana."
Hermione and the girl next to her got up and stood themselves in the middle of the room as before. Hermione started shivering a bit, and gripped her wandtightly, though her hand seemed to be sweaty and slippery.
"Now concentrate girls. One two three!"
"Stupefy!" a gleam of red light shot out of Yana's wand, but Hermione reacted quickly. "Protego." She cast a powerful shield, which warded the curse of completely. She knew she could do that and suddenly felt as if she were back on the battlefield. "Expelliarmus." Yana smirked and stepped away to her left.
"Reducto." Hermione jumped to the right, holding her wand tightly and cast: "Impedimenta." Yana caught her surprised breath in the last minute. "Rictusempra." she called, stumbling slightly. Hermione waved her spell off nonverbally. "Reducto." Hermione called instead, sending the red light straight to the girl's chest, who warded it off easily with another Protego.
Hermione was astonished. The people here in Durmstrang really seemed to be much more advanced and not afraid of anything. Not that she minded -. in fact it was a great challenge for the Ravenclaw and learning something new was always top on her list.
"Stupefy!" Hermione tried again but the girl dodged them expertly. It seemed as if she WAS back on the battlefield and the opponents weren't death eaters but very skilled Durmstrangs. Hermione regained back her confidence and assurance. "Expelliarmus." the wand flew out of the girl's hand and landed directly in Hermione's. But before Hermione could even smirk or triumph over her won wand, the girl reacted fast.
"Accio!" the wand flew back into Yana's hand and caught Hermione by surprise. Her eyes and the eyes of the audience widened. Clever move, Hermione had to admit disgruntled.
"Very well! Well done, both of you. Especially clever by getting your wand back, Yana. I therefore cannot estimate a winner. Both of you are on even footing. Next pair, Katya and Vladimir."
Hermione and the girl sat back down on their seats, both panting and sporting minor injuries.
"I underestimated you, Yana. Very clever move, when you accioed your wand back." Hermione complimented, smiling at the ice-cold witch next to her. Yana turned her head and fully looked at Hermione, obviously astonished by her compliment.
"Thank you, Natalija. But you aren't half-bad yourself! I had to pull all strings to keep you off my back!" she suddenly smiled. "Especially when you threw in the expelliarmus after the stupefy. I was caught off guard, I have to admit."
Hermione smiled back at the suddenly friendly and open girl and concentrated on the next pair. Ginny and Vlad stood themselves in the middle of the hall. Hermione shook her head. Ginny seemed to have an even harder partner, but she was somehow fighting her way out of it.
Ginny's face was getting redder and redder – from anger, embarrassment or strain, Hermione didn't know. Suddenly Ginny mumbled something and Hermione almost wanted to close her eyes in agony. They weren't allowed to do that.
The bat bogey hex hit Vladimir straight in his chest and all the girls – which weren't that many – screamed. "Katya! What did you think you were doing? You are not allowed to use that hex! ONLY the curses, I told you to. One more time, and you are disqualified from the MDA." the Snape-double snarled.
Ginny went even redder and mumbled an apology. "I'm really sorry, professor. It won't happen again. I didn't mean any damage."
"Very well." the professor seemed to debate with himself. "You are forgiven. But this behaviour is not tolerated anymore. The rules in Durmstrang are much stronger than in Hogwarts. Now take Vlad into the hospital wing." he said in a much kinder voice and even gave her a friendly smile.
Ginny nodded and took Vlad by the hand and they walked out of the classroom quickly.
Hermione and Yana shook their heads at the same time. Ginny was such a klutz!
THTHTH
Tom counted the number of his followers. No one black cloak was missing! Perfect! Poliakoff had fulfilled his task correctly. He had proven himself as a more loyal follower than Krum, although he seemed less Slytherin than his blonde-haired colleague.
"Good evening, death eaters!" Tom's cold clear voice must surely have been heard in Durmstrang as well. Harry's eardrums throbbed and he looked at the man he had learned to hate.
"Good evening, Tom!" the crowd murmured.
"I have some questions to the new members. Krum and Poliakoff!" Tom's icy voice broke Harry out of his hateful thoughts.
Poliakoff and Krum stepped up towards Tom, both cowering like scared little puppies in front of him.
"Krum, Natalija told me that you passed the MDA, is this true?" Tom imperiously asked the blonde boy.
The Abraxas double swallowed in fear and nodded slowly.
"Give me a proper answer when I ask you something! Or do you want to have a healthy dose of crucio right now?" Tom smirked evilly.
"Sorry, my lord. Yes, Natalija spoke the truth. I passed the first MDA." why Hermione had told that, Draco was not sure. But he was getting angry. Why did she do that?
"Very well. And you, Poliakoff – you failed?"
The death eaters around sniggered and Harry's face purpled. "I didn't pass the first MDA, my lord."
"And why is that?"
"My mother suffered from the spattergroit and I couldn't just leave her."
Tom's face inched closer towards him, looking him into the eyes dangerously. "I think you are lying. Poliakoff, I haven't shown you, what it's like, suffering from the cruciatus curse, just because I am being a merciful lord. This time, I might not be that gallant. Answer me! Why did you fail?"
"I don't know why. I forgot all the answers." Harry said in a small voice, looking shamefully onto the ground and putting up his occlumency walls.
Draco, Abraxas, Tom, Black and most of the others looked at Harry astonished.
"Really?" Abraxas called out, his face sneering.
"Malfoy!" Tom called out sharply and unfortunately Draco turned around towards Tom as well as Abraxas. This time, Tom had noticed – to Draco's bad luck.
"Why did you turn, Krum? I didn't call your name! Since when are you called Malfoy?" Tom spat. Draco reddened as well but chose to remain silent. Which was a mistake, obviously.
"Crucio." Tom yelled and Draco had to endure five seconds of pain before Tom released him again. His hair dishevelled, his face pale and lying as a disgruntled heap on the ground, he glanced up at Abraxas as if he were begging for help and Abraxas almost gasped.
Abraxas had known for a long time that there was something strange about that boy. He was not easily fooled. But this boy was hiding something – he had always wondered what his secret was. Now, he had an answer – though not to his question – and this answer just led him to more questions. This boy was now very obviously related to him. But he didn't have any relatives in the East, or did he?
Tom sneered at Krum disdainfully. "If you ever decide not to answer me, you will feel the effects of the curse again! Now stand back!"
Draco hastened to obey and left Harry standing in front of the Dark Lord. Alone.
"Now all of my death eaters. This boy has failed. A test. A mere test. But that doesn't mean that he cannot be an expert in the Dark Arts. Durmstrang is famous for its Dark Arts courses. I am sure, Poliakoff has more knowledge than us – even though he didn't pass a stupid test – I think, he will be more than happy to assist us in teaching Dark curses. Is that right, Poliakoff?"
Harry nodded, his eyes wide open. First he was teaching the DA, and now he was doing the opposite? Teaching the opponents? Teaching DARK curses?
"Yes, my lord." Harry answered, clearly surprised. Draco had the MDA-certificate (according to Tom) and he, Harry, didn't have a clue, but then was inexplicably used as a teacher.
Harry stepped back next to Draco when Tom had waved him back. "Another thing, death eaters. In the future, you will kneel in front of me as a sign of your loyalty." Tom leered, his eyes glinting evilly.
The death eaters didn't dare exchange glances. "As a greeting or always?" a boy, Draco and Harry had never heard speak in meetings asked timidly.
"Do not question me! And speak only when you are asked to, Avery. For you it is always kneeling then and for the others as a greeting only." Tom said dangerously, directly in front of the cowering boy.
"I therefore call this meeting to a close. Tomorrow same time and place! You are dismissed!"
THTHTH
"I'm really sorry." Ginny said to Vlad when they were outside. "Don't you know the countercurse?"
"Well – no – actually I have never heard of this spell before. It's brilliant though." Vlad grinned.
Ginny grinned apologetically and murmured the countercurse. "There you go. Hmm, Mikhail said that we should go to the hospital wing…" Ginny asked doubtfully.
"Or maybe, we could just nip off towards the grounds." Vlad grinned broadly and took her hand. "Let me show you. No one will mind that we are gone 15 minutes. Besides, everyone is just rehearsing and we were like the crème de la crème."
Ginny laughed loudly. "Yeah, let's go."
Meanwhile, Hermione was watching the other pairs duel. They did it with confidence, grace, determination and self-confidence. Hermione wondered what she looked like when she duelled when the last pair of names caught her attention. Her head snapped up in unpleasant surprise.
"Lena Takova and Antonin Dolohov."
A rather petite girl with long light brown hair and a tall, well-built boy, handsome really, made their way to the front. Hermione watched the future death eater closely. He looked nothing like the twisted man who had shot a dark curse at her in the Ministry. Nothing whatsoever.
Antonin and Lena held themselves with the grace of typical Durmstrangs. They waved their wands in almost synchronisation, causing a stream of colours to fly by, all of them being either expertly dodged or fired back. Antonin's blonde hair hung into his handsome face when the duel got faster and more strenuous. His eyes had a certain excited gleam that Hermione had never seen before. A gleam that was certainly not there when they had fought in the ministry.
Much too soon, this duel was finished as well and Hermione had to stop staring at the future death eater. When Antonin made his way back, his eyes met hers briefly, though intently. An unasked question was visible in his eyes, confusion, and something like interest.
"Very well, now you all know the basics of normal duels. I expected that much. Therefore we can proceed to the next stage. Vladimir, you are back? Katya, you helped him. Very well, take your seat."
Hermione turned her head to look at her friends. She then saw Antonin's eyes staring at her from the back and Hermione turned around to face the teacher again. Strange. He couldn't know something, could he?
"What are dark curses exactly?" the teacher stood, chalk poised, to write onto the blackboard.
Yana's hand shot up immediately. "Dark curses are 1. all the curses that can hurt another person when being used in an offensive way 2. the three unforgivables and 3. all the curses used with frog's liver."
"Correct, Yana." Mikhail smiled and wrote the three points down. Hermione was surprised – Frogs liver? She copied down the points and saw that Yana wasn't taking any notes.
"I have the old copy from my brother." Yana explained the unspoken question.
Hermione nodded and listened to the spells that the professor explained. A strange feeling told her that she was being watched from the back of the room.
THTHTH
Tom slammed his books onto the table. He was angry. Really angry. Why did Dumbledore – the old codger – send the two girls to Durmstrang to do such a dangerous test.? If anything happened to Natalija, he would make Dumbledore's life hell.
Not only did he miss her terribly, he also felt really concerned.
Tom sat down on his bed and smiled grimly. Okay, change of plans. Yes, he knew what he had to do. His death eater meetings were much more important! They would keep his mind off the girl. And they were his original plan anyways. No girl could destroy his plans. Not even Natalija.
And with that, he lay down on his bed, opening a book about the MDA-test.
THTHTH
"Incendio, Aguamenti, Furununculus, Tarantellagra, averte statum. Ginny, if I didn't know better, I would say that we learned most of them in Hogwarts in our time." Hermione looked at the Gryffindor, completely surprised.
They had a fifteen minutes break and Hermione and Ginny were walking in the grounds, enjoying the rare sun, although it was bitterly cold.
"Yes, I thought the same. Though, it's good. We don't have to learn these spells anymore. Well, except averte statum." Ginny rolled her eyes.
"Not learn, but practise." Hermione reprimanded her friend. "I don't think, I've used averte statum too often. Mind you, Malfoy used the spell on Harry in our second year at the duelling club. I wonder where he learned that from."
Ginny giggled and Hermione joined in. "By the way, Ginny, when you went to the hospital wing with Vlad, I saw someone very interesting."
"Oh?"
"Antonin Dolohov." Hermione said with relish and Ginny's eyes widened in recognition.
"The death eater who used this dark curse on you in the ministry?" her eyes narrowed.
"Yes. But he looks soooo unlike Dolohov! I was really surprised. He is over there, by the way." Hermione pointed discreetly towards three male people, who were laughing loudly. "The one with the blonde hair, who is facing the wall."
Ginny grinned. "Revenge?"
"No, not revenge. He hasn't done anything bad yet. I think it is our job to keep him away from Tom somehow." Hermione said.
"Goody-two-shoes." Ginny murmured. "By the way, don't look, naughty boy is coming over."
"Is he?" Hermione asked and suddenly felt very nervous. She wasn't too happy about the fact that the man who had injured her badly in the ministry was about to talk to her.
"So, Natalija, want to practise the new curses during lunch break?" Ginny asked innocently, trying to usher Hermione away somehow. But Hermione stood rooted to the spot.
"Good morning, ladies. I don't think, we have been introduced." a pleasant voice, that sent shivers down Hermione's spine, said smoothly.
"No, I don't think so. My name is Natalija Karkarova and this is Katya Krum." Hermione said just as smoothly. She had been around Slytherins for quite a long time and knew their tactics.
"Nice to meet you, ladies. I am Antonin Dolohov." Antonin took their hands and kissed them.
THTHTH
"Once golden boy, always golden boy." Draco sneered at Harry when they walked down the stairs towards the Slytherin common room.
"I didn't ask for this to happen." Harry said quietly.
"Great circumstances for you!" Draco shot back acidly. "I had to endure the crucio AGAIN this time. And you swarmed up to him like you always did to the teachers."
"Excuse me, Malfoy, but I think you are mistaking me for somebody else who looks remarkably like you… Look, I don't know any dark curses, in case you haven't noticed. I will endure the curse more times tomorrow than you have ever done in your life! And you know why? Because I don't know any spells!" Harry spat back.
Draco looked at him closely and his face softened slightly.
"There you go. I have to teach him tomorrow and I only know one." Harry was simply lost.
Draco furrowed his brows. "YOU know a dark curse? YOU? Which one?"
Harry smirked mischievously. "I think you should know best, if you remember the time in the ladies bathroom. Sectumsempra."
Draco paled. "You are going to teach him that?"
"It's the only one I know. Do you know anything else?"
"Well – yes. Two more. But I should teach them to him. I am sure, he will ask me as well."
"Good point! I guess, I should look up some curses by tomorrow evening. What about the unforgivables?"
Draco looked at Harry with his mouth open. "What? You can't teach him the unforgivables. Are you now completely out of your mind, Potter? And would you know any?"
Harry bent his head. "Yes, I know two of them. Thanks to your aunt Bellatrix…"
"WHAT?"
"Well, she told me how to cast the crucio. It was when Sirius had died, I so badly wanted to curse her but it only worked for a few seconds. She said that you have to really mean it, to really induce pain. Downright anger won't help you there. And well – Imperio. Moody had shown me." Harry looked at Draco closely, who was gaping at him like a fish.
"What? Auntie Bellatrix never showed you how to use proper Dark spells?" Harry smirked.
Draco shook his head and pulled Harry roughly towards the near mirror. Harry saw his own reflection. Though this time, WITH his scar as clear as ever.