Edited as of 9/22/15

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater or Harry Potter. Alana is my own creation, as is Dirk and the 'Hufflepuff Army'.

Whoops. Last chapter I said that lunch wasn't mentioned. I just realized it was. Well, at least I managed to make the scene fit anyway. I'm really slacking in typing up my notes for this story. I have tons of scenes typed up, but my outline has a big empty space for chapters 8-11. And I already created an inconsistency there because of the Tuesday-Monday error, so I don't know if I have to bump something up or back a chapter. And then that further complicates things because of an event that must take place on specifically chapter 13. There is an inconsistency here, so pretty much the calendar skipped over a day at some point. I've accidentally made it really complicated.

-THAT NOTE WAS BEFORE EDITING. As of this editing, those 'tons of scenes' aren't even in my files anymore. They got lost at some point in the last few years.

Eyes of Gold

"A-Alana?" Soul spluttered, his face an ashen white. Maka's mind reeled. Her lazy and cool Soul didn't stutter. Even when Maka occasionally caught Blair 'playing' with him, she had never seen Soul as discomposed as this. "What are you doing here!"

The girl, now dubbed Alana, refused to release him from her clinging hold. "I got my letter two years ago. Is that why you left? Mommy and Daddy took the news very well, ya know."

Something about that answer had Soul scowling. "They thought one of their precious trophies deserved a prize? They didn't want another trophy to leave them for good?" The venom he put into the word trophy stuck out to Maka. This side of Soul was a new revelation to her. Smiles slipped from the faces of spectators.

Alana's smile faltered and her arms slackened. "Soul, I-"

"No! I'm not about to believe they had a damn change of heart!" Soul pushed her away and stormed past Maka, kicking open the great doors of the Great Hall. He kept his head down, deep betrayal seeping from his soul to his Meister.

Alana and many of the students watched him go. A few stood to offer comfort, but were returned to their seats with shaking heads by their Housemates.

Dinner was a gloomy affair.

Liz stumbled into the Common Room, willing herself not to fall asleep on the carpet where she landed. She groaned. So many classes, and professors worked their students as if each class was their last! Each one had quizzed her and Tsubaki relentlessly, drilling them on spells they had only heard of a mere week ago, in consecutive levels of complexity. On theory she had managed to score the majority of the questions correct, but fumbled with her wand when it came to casting. In Liz's opinion, Tsubaki had done well in both parts, but the multi-weapon was too stressed with the workload to notice.

Liz was just glad they didn't have to take Potions. Instead, they had a free period to catch up with the rest of their classmates. And study, of course. But after all that, sitting in a daze was preferable. Liz used that time to see what they were missing, and found a dungeon cell darker and creepier than any room in Gallows Mansion, headed by a vampire stalking through the rows of scared silent students, imposing such a threatening aura that the students worked to the bone lest they displease such a creature. Liz declined to loiter long.

Liz dragged herself up to her feet, noticing that the Common Room had emptied of everyone higher than first years, save herself, Soul, and Tsubaki. One other exception sat near the fireplace, a friendly smile directed to all of them, although the fire dancing along the shadows made it seem like a mad grin.

Dirk clapped his hands and called for all first years and transfers. A spell had been cast to enhance his voice (Liz would wearily inform the writer that it was sonorous), and the first years trickled down from the dorms at his announcement.

"Alright. Now, midgets and ladies-" Soul muttered an insult right back. "-you are about to be revealed Hufflepuff's biggest secret. The secret itself has a spell on it, so it's impossible to tell anyone not in our dorm or isn't a Hufflepuff about it. As the prefects told you, we're building an army here. That's part of the secret, but don't worry; we don't plan on going to war against anyone. Despite what everything might imply, we're just readying you for dangerous situations in case you ever find yourself in one. Follow me."

The students followed Dirk a short distance to a portrait of a seventh year student from 1639 of the name Aubrey Elwin III. The plaque below gave no information about him other than a name and year. They'd passed this portrait a few times already, right next to the cork board of parchment information pamphlets.

Dirk introduced him, "This is Aubrey Elwin the third, winner of the Hufflepuff competition in 1639, and for the five years prior to that."

Aubrey smirked at all of the gathered students, lording over their gazes with all of the cheek he probably believed the roman numeral after his name entitled him to.

"He acts like a Slytherin at times, but he's worked hard to get his picture here." Dirk pulled on the side of the portrait, pulling it from the wall like a door with a slack handle. "There's no password, so if you need to burn off some energy in the middle of the night or Aubrey's taking a nap, you can go in whenever. That piece of information may seem useless to you, but portraits with passwords are common in Hogwarts. The entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room is a portrait, and the only way in is a password or many threats while the portrait inhabitant is awake and present."

Dirk led the way in, down a winding staircase, and in to a well-lit room. A first year mumbled a, "Wow," and it echoed off the stone walls, but ended swallowed up in the rest of the noise.

A training room. A running track a mile long made up the majority of the space, surrounded by exercise machines, weights, dumbbells, and every other piece of exercise equipment one could think of. On one wall, lined up on racks, was a wide array of pointy and blunt weapons. To the side of that was what Liz assumed to be practice wands, staves, and wooden blades. Targets were scattered randomly, some of them moving, some of them even disappearing and appearing elsewhere. Liz could spot a few on the walls and the ceiling. The missing Hufflepuffs, their hiding place discovered, smiled at the appearance of the group, momentarily distracted from their exercises. There was no exercise none of them were currently immersed in. Surprisingly, quite a few of the older students trained with the weapons. Two of them dueled with dulled swords, and one took the chance when everyone was distracted to knock his partner to the ground.

Dirk directed their attention back to him. "This is where we train our army. The others will help you and instruct you. Now, about Sunday." A mean glint entered his eyes, and the friendly smile turned menacing. "Sunday is 'every man for himself' day. Every Hufflepuff is forced to participate. Other Houses aren't allowed to know about this. We hold a competition, lasting the whole day, and whoever meets with Professor Sprout at midnight in the Common Room wins. That's your goal on Sunday: stay not-disfigured, uninjured, awake, and aware enough to meet with Professor Sprout without making any of the other Houses aware of anything. I am the current title holder of winner, and won almost all of the competitions in the second half of last year. We'll tell you all of the rules on Sunday. First years are exempt until after Christmas break, but you'll still want to know everything ahead of time."

The first years relaxed at the last sentence, relieved that they didn't have to fight without knowing any spells or martial arts. Soul looked put out that he couldn't participate. "Of course, the foreigners have to compete for the first half of the year."

Soul perked up again. Liz wasn't too worried, but glancing to Tsubaki, she knew that at least one of them would be worried about it being on a school night. The professors piled them with work.

Dirk stared at them, his face suddenly the picture of confusion. "Why're you all standing there?" A smile twitched at his lips. "You should be training!"

The students ran off to play on the exercise machines. They ambled mindlessly at first, then the older students directed them to locker rooms, where they changed into clothes they could easily move about it. Soon the only students left in their uniform were the ones practicing magic or practicing with long-range weapons. With teases at Dirk for 'not telling the little firsties about warm-ups', the older years corralled them into a group again to explain stretches to them. After stretching their growing little muscles, some of the first years left to go to bed and look at their books. The rest of them finally milled about to look at the machines and whatchamacallits, receiving instructions from the older students. There were several yelps of pain as little-used muscles were pulled. The three DWMA students made a beeline for the wall of weapons after an extended warm-up session. Their blood pumped in their ears, bringing manic smiles to their faces. The past few weeks had near driven them stir crazy with no physical outlet. They lifted weapons off the racks, the blades dulled by age and lack of sharpening.

Dirk joined them, taking a dagger in one hand and his wand in the other. Soul pulled away a scythe, easily testing the balance of the heavy weapon, scaring a few of the nearby wide-eyes Hufflepuffs. Liz smiled as a grin made its way onto his face. This was the perfect way to cheer him up after the fiasco at dinner. Tsubaki found a pair of chain-scythes, and was suddenly regarded with much more respect than at the feast the previous night.

Liz grumbled a bit at the selection, bemoaning the lack of modern firearms. She supposed she could deal with firing bullets from a wand for any fights if Patty wasn't around. That is, when she learned how to do that. She sighed, and searched the racks for anything Kid had made her wave around before this. Liz finally lifted a rapier from its rack, after staring dubiously at an ancient sword inlaid with so many jewels it should have been impossible to lift. Her classmates did not stare long, having expected something like that. Her fellow weapons, however, stared at her, not expecting her to pick up such an elegant weapon. Liz snorted. "What else did you expect me to choose?"

They considered her question seriously, their eyes running through the variety of weapons before coming back to Liz, still confused.

"I live with Kid," she stressed the name, and comprehension dawned on them.

"Hey, Soul!" The three looked at Dirk, who'd already worked up a sweat sparring with Hannah. "Up for a spar?"

Soul kept grinning. Dirk gave him a minute to get a feel for the scythe. Soul spun the scythe like a windmill, and swung it a few times, easing into the same stance Maka would take with him in hand. Liz's shoulders shook with laughter in amusement. Despite that the Meister would do the fancy acrobatics, the weapon learned alongside their Meister. The tool carried the same weight of duty as the master. The position of master was unfamiliar to the tool, but Soul had a great shadow to imitate.

Meister: German for master.

So we have a mystery about Kid's sleepiness and curiosity in the second chapter to find out. No, of course I'm not purposely introducing a side plot about Soul to distract you, who do you think I am? No, don't look back at the story summary - you still need to find out Stein's secret!