Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me.
A/N: Thank you Rosalind Fairchilde for being the first to review. (Sorry it took me so long to post this, but I was asleep until like 10 minutes ago) Anyway here's the chapter as promised.
The next morning Dante woke up to a face full of water courtesy of a grinning Raven. "What the hell?"
"You never said how to wake you guys up." Dante shook his head. He'd never understand vampires. Did they really need to be told not to wake someone up with water? Dante cast a wandless spell at Raven to fluff up his hair like Einstein's, gave him a devil's tail and turned his skin the same color as his eyes. Raven narrowed his eyes at him, "What'd you do?"
"What do you mean?" Dante asked a little too innocently.
"Whatever, we're heading off in 20 minutes, get ready." Raven walked out of the tent and Dante started snickering, a few seconds later he heard the vampire's undignified screech.
"DANTE BLACK YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!" He just snickered at the vampire's attempts to open his tent and strangle him. Eventually he heard the others drag him away to fix his appearance. When Dante finally came out of his tent Raven's hair was back to normal, his skin was back to ridiculously pale, and the devil's tail was gone. That did not however prevent him from lunging at Dante. Remy grabbed a hold of Raven before he could attack Dante.
"As interesting as I think a fight between the two of you would be, I'd like to get to school sometime today." Raven glared at Remy.
"What are you implying Lebeau?" Remy rolled his eyes.
"C'mon Chevalier, get your head out of your arse. You're a vampire, how powerful does Dante smell?" Raven sighed.
"Yeah yeah I know. Sorry for going all vampire lord on you Rem." Dante was confused,
"How powerful I smell?" Remy nodded and explained,
"Aside from drinking blood, vampires can also tell how powerful a non-vampire is by smelling their blood. You got a couple of cuts yesterday that you haven't healed up." Dante nodded at his explanation wondering how he could hide his scent. As if he'd read his mind Remy continued, "You won't be able to hide it, or at least you won't be able to hide your scent from a powerful vampire. Now let's get going." The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Lila told them their next and final obstacle lied just before the doors, and she was right. Unfortunately she was also right when she said it was a rather dangerous monster.
"Lila for future reference what you call a 'rather dangerous monster' the rest of us call 'so ridiculously dangerous why would they even have this thing guarding the doors monster'!" Willow said gestured at the awakening dragon. "How on earth do they expect us to defeat a Ukrainian Ironbelly?" The giant dragon snorted a stream of fire at a panicking Willow. Dante waved a hand in front of her face,
"Stop panicking Daisy! They wouldn't have put this in front of the door if they didn't think we could get past it. Put your brain power towards a strategy."
"Right a strategy, a strategy, how about this? Run!" As she said this the dragon beat it's tail down at the group and they scattered. She turned to face Dante with a smile, "Hey Green Eyes I've got a plan!" Dante looked at her expectantly,
"Alright let's hear it."
"It will be virtually impossible to kill the dragon, so all we have to do is incapacitate it. You hit it with as much lightning as you can. Manny and Blake match his fire with their own. Raven aim the wind currents down to the ground. Remy yell a bunch of insults at him, distract him from the others. Maybe together you can knock it out of the sky. After that Aurora, Lila and I will try to encase him with plants. If that doesn't work we'll figure out a plan on the fly. Go!" Dante ran to a spot where he could see the dragon who had taken to the skies. It tried flaming Remy, who was coming up with some pretty colorful insults, but Manny and Blake fought it's fire back with their own streams joining into one. Dante used this time to strike it with all the lightning he could.
"FULGURIS!" Several thick lightning bolts hit the dragon at the same time and Raven stopped the air currents so the dragon dropped like a stone. When the dragon hit the ground Aurora, Lila, and Willow grew vines out of the ground to wrap them around the dragon. In a minute Dante couldn't even see the dragon. With their final obstacle out of the way Dante and the others turned to the gates panting. Remy threw an Alohomora and the gates opened wide. Past the gates they could see all their Professors and the Headmistress standing in a half circle facing the new students.
"Welcome to Aether School of Magic, Dante Black, Raven Chevalier, Dmitri Belkov, Willow of the Mnemosyne, Manolo Rodriguez, Remy Lebeau, Aurora of the Wood Elves, Leon Zabini, and Lila of the Dryads." She glanced over each of them. "I am most impressed with your skills, that Ukrainian Ironbelly wasn't supposed to be guarding the doors. We will be disposing of it in a few minutes, we'll send you the scavenged materials."
"Scavenged? Isn't the dragon still alive?" The Headmistress smiled.
"I do believe your lightning storm was more than enough to kill that dragon Mr. Black. It was already weakened from trying to roast you and your friends. The lightning storm, followed by the 1,000 foot fall certainly finished it off." She glanced at Willow, Aurora, and Lila, "If you would unwrap those vines, we'd like to finish this before the next group arrives at the gate. As it stands you were the first group to reach the gates. I believe you should speak with Cyrus about that little matter we discussed earlier now." Dante looked back at his new friends apologetically.
"I'll see you guys at breakfast." The professors were milling about, enjoying their last few days of freedom. Dante approached the djinn Headmistress had pointed out. Cyrus' skin was light blue, his hair was a natural looking red, and his green eyes were focused on Dante.
"You're Evans and Potter's kid aren't you. I saw your light show earlier, it was fairly impressive, for a mortal." Dante nodded.
"When I went to get my wand Jahan gave me this note to give to you. He also told me to take your class." Cyrus motioned for Dante to hand over the note. After reading it over he asked to see Dante's wand. His eyes widened and he read over the note again.
"Well the bloodsucker was right as usual. Your wand is made out of black walnut wood and an electrically charged Hungarian Horntail's heartstring. Both have a strong connection to lightning. I also know you were struck by lightning when you were a baby, your mother told me a month before she died. You'll be an excellent elemental once you're trained up properly. I'll see you in class." Cyrus turned away from him abruptly, effectively ending the conversation.
"Don't worry about him. He still can't accept the fact that not all mortals are scum. Your mother and the Headmistress are pretty much the only humans he's ever really liked." Harry turned around to see yet another vampire. "You're in my class as well Mr. Black. I'm Professor Alexei and I teach Cruor Sorcery. I believe you're also in my tower." Professor Alexei was tall and light haired unlike most vampires. The difference was that his eyes were purple instead of the usual vampiric red.
"I'm looking forward to classes Professor. Your tower? And why are you teaching a first level class aren't you the Head Cruor Sorcerer?" Alexei smiled, inadvertently showing off his fangs, or it could be intentional Dante was unsure about him so far.
"That's right the Headmistress hasn't explained yet. The tower system was devised so that students would all be assigned to a professor to come to if they ran into any problems. The first favor is free, but after that we set a price on every favor. As for teaching a first level class, I was politely requested by the Headmistress to take on a first level class this year." He made a face at that and Dante supposed the Headmistress was forcing him plain and simple. "You and some of your allies 'just happen' to be in that class. You can read between the lines yes?" Dante nodded.
"You just said the Headmistress is up to some nefarious plan that involves you and my group of allies." Alexei patted him on the back and Dante tensed slightly hoping the vampire hadn't noticed.
"Glad you caught on. Now scurry off to the tower before she comes over here and convinces you that you're just imagining things, she's rather good at that. And here's a free piece of advice use every kind of ward you know, and create a few new ones. There's a very interesting first day of school prank the older students pull on the first-form students."
Dante ran off to ward his room shouting a 'thank you' at Professor Alexei as he ran off. Cyrus approached Alexei after Dante left.
"That was nice of you Alexei."
"I'm capable of being nice. You're the one who said vampires weren't nice."
"No actually I said vampires aren't nice unless they want something. Which begs the question why are you being nice?"
"Can't I just be nice because I feel like it?"
"You? You don't do nice because you 'feel like it' ever."
"When will you let that go? I was young and stupid, and I had almost no control. Jahan's long since forgiven me."
"Answer the question please." Alexei sighed loudly.
"He's got power rolling off him in waves and Morgana put him in my class. Does that answer your question?"
"You want him to join your clan under the guise of an apprentice?"
"No, I'm not sure yet. I haven't even seen him do cruor magic yet. For all I know he could be a complete failure at it. Still he's got potential."
"You want him indebted to you?"
"No Cyrus, I want to wait and see if he has any potential in cruor magic. If he does I want him as an apprentice. I won't turn him, actually as he is right now he can't be changed anyway."
"He can't?"
"No, he has a kitsune soul. I can see the magic flows around him; they curl around like a fox tail. Let's just hope he turns out better than the last one."
"James and Lily's son a kitsune? I can definitely see that. His godfather was one of your favorite students once upon a time. A shame what happened.
"I forgot that they didn't tell you about their plan. You were away, I'd ask the Headmistress before you make a comment and upset the boy."
"Hmph. I will ask. I still don't trust you, but if you truly have no shady intentions I'll let it go."
"Do you really care so much for a mortal human?"
"He's Lily's son. I will always watch over his line."
"Careful Cy Cy, you almost sounded like you had actual emotions for a minute there." Cyrus glared at him. "Don't worry about him too much, he's chosen strong allies. They took down a dragon together, and they haven't even been trained properly yet. Imagine what they'll be able to do once they've graduated."
"That is if they survive to graduation. One will die before the year is up." Alexei studied Cyrus' face.
"Your freaky djinn gift?" When Cyrus nodded Alexei shook his head.
"He's already been through many hardships."
"How can you tell?"
"He flinches from touch." Cyrus looked ill.
"Excuse me."
Meanwhile Dante was up in his room throwing wards at his door, walls, and windows. At Hogwarts students assumed the twins didn't prank him. The truth was that after the first prank he'd started warding his bed and belongings. The twins had taken this as a declaration of a war and had doubled their efforts to prank him. No one else knew about the silent war, and the twins had given up this past year being too far away and far too busy to try and prank him. Of course along with that came the understanding that if they were ever under the same roof they'd use every prank they knew to humiliate him. As a result Dante had quite the arsenal of wards to place on his suite.
After he was finished warding his rooms he set to decorating. The suite was surprisingly spacious. There was a living room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a sunny balcony, which was a real pain to ward. He started with painting the walls. He just flicked color charms at each wall. In the living room he put a couple of really fluffy clouds as a sofas and made a couple beanbags just in case. In his bedroom he put a water bed, conjured a dresser, and spent the next half hour squishing his bed. As the bathroom was already finished he spent the rest of the time lounging on his sofa with a book about the fae.
Ding-dong! His doorbell rang and he wondered what Raven could possibly need now.
Are you going to answer the door?
Could you?
I'm a snake.
But aren't you the one that said snakes were vastly superior to all other creatures? I'm sure you're capable of opening a door handle.
I see what you're doing and I'm not falling for it. Get up and answer your door. Dante pouted and opened the door to be greeted with 8 familiar faces.
"Um hey guys? What are all of you doing here?" They all shouldered past him to sit on the couches and beanbags. Lila answered,
"We're all in this tower together. It's actually rather odd considering there are 50 towers and each has almost 30 suites. Together we take up 9 of those suites." Dante nodded, he wondered if what Professor Alexei had said earlier about the headmistress and her plans applied to this as well.
"Professor Alexei seems pretty cool. He said he'll be teaching us this year, something about the Headmistress requested he take on a single class of first-form students." Raven snorted.
"I'll bet he just loved that. Professor Alexei may be one of the oldest vampires in existence and he's been around since the founding of the school, but no one turns down Headmistress Le Fay's polite requests." Manny looked over at him,
"You bloodsuckers actually keep track of how old you are compared to the other bloodsuckers?" Raven sneered at him,
"Contrary to popular belief a vampire's world does not revolve completely around blood and sex. I couldn't say the same for weres and the moon," Manny just laughed.
"Your world may not completely revolve around blood and sex, but your society certainly does." Raven after thinking for a minute had to agree,
"Well technically our society revolves around power. Blood and sex for a vampire is mostly about power. Blood increases our power, and sex is just a form of dominance. Why are you so interested? Want to become a vampire's toy?" Manny shook his head.
"Give it up Raven, you may be an heir, but you and your clan are well known for protesting that form of slavery." Dante cut in.
"Infinitium Reality has slaves?" Remy explained,
"Where did you think Earth Reality came up with the idea? Vampires have always had slaves. It's only been in the last few centuries some clans have started to think it's wrong. If the vampires progress at this rate slavery will disappear in the next century or two, but yes we do have slaves." Willow snorted,
"Speak for yourselves, vampires and humans are the only cultures that have ever had slaves. Even the goblins won't stoop so low." She turned to Dante, "You have to understand that Infinitium Reality shaped Earth Reality. Most big advancements can be tied back to us, so calling it muggle culture would be incorrect. Honestly purebloods can be so thickheaded, talking about how muggleborns are polluting their bloodlines and traditions. Now enough heavy talk, did anyone bring any video games? I promised Dmitri I'd kick his ass at Runespoors." Leon produced a video game console Dante had never seen before and Remy conjured a TV so that the two could go head to head in their new favorite fighter video game. As promised Willow beat Dmitri and the rest of the evening was spent cycling between the others until Lila beat Willow. Manny eventually beat Lila, and Raven beat Manny. Dante failed at the game epically, and Aurora had sat out pretending to be a sports commentator.
"And Raven enters the ring. He chose an Ashwinder against Remy's Occamy. I would've gone for the Basilisk, but Raven's only a half decent strategist at best."
"That's it! After this round is over I'm challenging you Miss Prissy Wood Elf!" Aurora laughed,
"Don't get too cocky Raven, there's a very good chance Remy will beat you. Ooh and look at that Occamy go. He bit straight down the middle of the Ashwinder, but oh was that part of Raven's strategy? He's throwing Ashwinder eggs at the Occamy and its health is down. Now the Occamy activated it's special power and Raven lost!" At around 11 PM he kicked everyone out of his rooms.
"Alright everybody party's over! Out of my rooms, I'm going to sleep. Out! Out! You too Noir! I'll see you guys in the morning!" He slumped against the door activating his wards as he did so. "Time for sleep," he muttered to himself as he straightened out and made his way towards his bed falling into it with a sigh. He was asleep before he hit the mattress.
He woke up groggily to the sound of an alarm clock he was sure he hadn't put in his room. He cast a tempus and saw it was 6:30 and then rolled over to where the sound was coming from. As it turned out it wasn't an alarm clock, but the alarm that sounded when someone tried to break into his wards. Key word being tried, his wards were obviously holding so he went outside to figure out who was trying to break into his suite a half hour before breakfast. Everyone was standing outside his door, Lila was the one poking at his wards.
"Morning, now what are you guys doing awake and stuff? Or rather what are you guys doing awake and poking at my wards?" Lila answered,
"Don't worry I can't break your wards despite actually knowing how many there are and which wards you used. I doubt any of the students can either." Dmitri answered,
"We're here to wake you up and crash on your couch while you get dressed. So hurry up and get dressed." Dante stared at them all and decided to leave it while he took a shower. When he came back out everyone was asleep so he conjured a fog horn to wake them up.
Five minutes later they were all making their way down the stairs glaring at Dante who was making an excellent Cheshire Cat impersonation. They grabbed trays of food and sat down at a round table with seating for 9. In the rush they'd all forgotten their schedules, not that it really mattered today was just a free day. A female vampire approached Raven,
"Hey Raven! I heard that you were part of the first group to reach Aether. Is it true you guys killed a dragon?" Raven nodded and she continued, "Awesome! Mind introducing me to your group?" Raven introduced her to everyone.
"Guys this is Océane Bourdeaux, Océane meet Dante Black, Dmitri Belkov, Willow, Manolo Rodriguez, Remy Lebeau, Aurora, Leon Zabini, and Lila." They all smiled and nodded at her as their names were called.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all. It's a pretty diverse group you have Black, never thought I'd see the day a Chevalier vampire was led by a human." She smiled at him pleasantly and walked off to chat with another one of her friends. Dante stared at Raven and Remy expectantly.
"It's a vampire thing. What do you know about vampire clan structure?" Dante shrugged, "Right back to basics then. Vampires organize themselves by one of two things, either they join the clan of their creator, or they join the clan of a specific area. The most powerful vampire is of course the clan's leader. In France most of the clan leaders were also nobility at one point. Clans are also ranked against each other. My father is the head of the Chevalier clan, the most powerful clan in France. Father is like the vampire king of France, which makes me a prince in the eyes of other vampires. Chevalier vampires are known for their skill in battle. Basically what Océane did was acknowledge you as a ridiculously powerful human."
"But how does she figure I'm the leader of the group?" Remy sighed,
"Remember how we told you yesterday that we can smell power in blood? She can smell you. You have more raw magic than any human sorcerer we've ever met and that includes your old headmaster Dumbledore. Aside from that you're sitting at the head of the table, and we congregated in your room; to us vampires, weres, djinns, fae, and elves those actions mean something." Manny and the others nodded in agreement.
"This is a round table. How is this the head of the table?" Willow laughed,
"You'll do anything to get out of the spotlight won't you Green Eyes? Your seat has armrests, ours don't and don't conjure us armrests. You're the leader of this group whether you like it or not." Dante shook his head,
"Let's talk about something else please?" After a little more teasing they acquiesced to his request. Dante wondered about how he'd ended up in the leader position again. He remembered his family motto and decided not to protest too much. Later on the way back to their rooms Willow drew him off to the side.
"Why do you hate being in the spotlight so much Green Eyes?" Dante shook his head.
"The problem isn't so much being in the spotlight. It's just the wizarding world always praised me for something I didn't even remember doing. After that my fame was always a problem, some people call me an attention seeker, while others call me the next dark lord. I'm tired of it." Willow smiled at him sympathetically,
"Green Eyes you're special, you draw people to you. Yes you were famous for something you don't remember doing, but they don't know your real name. Actually, as of yesterday you aren't Harry Potter anymore, that's just an alias. Here you're going to be praised or criticized for your actual talents and shortcomings. It's a good thing to be recognized for your talents and accomplishments isn't it?" Dante nodded. "Glad you understand Green Eyes, otherwise I figured I'd just knock some sense into you." Dante playful put up his fists and the two went over to the sparring room to burn off some energy. Sometime after lunch they went back to his suite to wait for the others. Just outside he could hear the sounds of all of them playing video games inside. He opened the door and sure enough they were sprawled over his three couches.
"How did you get past my wards? And where'd the extra couch come from?" Raven grinned up at him,
"Your familiar opened the door. As for the extra couch Remy conjured it." He glared at Mer who was lounging on the couch next to Raven.
:: Traitor! ::
You never said I couldn't open the door while you were outside.
:: From now on you're coming with me when I walk out the door. ::
That was the idea. Dante shook his head.
"You are one devious snake." He turned his head to Raven, "Where's your familiar?" Raven waved a hand at the balcony.
"He said he wanted to feel the sunshine. He's not the only one out there either. You'll see," Dante passed the living room and walked out on his balcony. There was of course Raven's familiar, Noir, but there was also a Will o the Wisp, a Pegasus, a lemur, a hell hound, a griffin, a fire salamander, and a black phoenix basking in the sun. Dante shook his head left Mer to join the other animals and returned to the living room to sit on his couch.
"Which animal belongs to who?" Remy answered somewhat distractedly,
"The Will o the Wisp is Dmitri's, her name is Stella. The small Pegasus belongs to Willow; his name is Arion. The magical lemur belongs to Manny; her name is Lulu. The hellhound is mine; her name is Jackie. Darn it Willow you can't keep using that move over and over again it isn't fair! The griffin is Aurora's; his name is Rex. Shit! I'm never playing against you again Willow! The fire salamander is Leon's; her name is Fieri. Aww that wasn't cool man! The black phoenix is Lila's; his name is Scooby. You'll see why at dinner." Remy threw the controller at Lila.
"Here you're pretty much the only one who can beat her in these games anyway." Remy looked over at Dante, "The girls decided to redecorate your suite while you were out. Hope you like the modifications." Dante looked around and realized that there was now an actual color scheme and a variety of knick knacks strewn about carefully.
"S'Alright, it was a mess before, but I'm not good with that kind of stuff." Aurora snorted,
"No kidding, my 5 year old sister could've put together a better design." Dante blushed,
"Oops?" Aurora mussed his hair,
"You're lucky you're cute. Hey is your hair naturally this color? I've heard glamors and hair dyes not originating from Aether will disappear as soon as you step inside and your hair was white before we arrived." Raven butted in,
"It's his Animagus mark, any chance you'll tell us what your form is?" Dante shook his head. Raven booed, but let it go. Aether students had a competition of sorts, whoever could figure out the animagus forms and names of the most students by graduation won a prize. What the prize was they weren't told until 3rd year, but guessing by the way 3rd years tried harder than any other year to figure out other students' forms and names it must be pretty good.
"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," Raven said in a lecherous vampire voice. Dante and the others laughed at him, "What? I thought that was pretty spot on, wasn't it?" Dmitri nodded.
"It was perfect bloodsucker, absolutely perfect!" Raven sat back challenging anyone else to start laughing at him. Remy accepted the challenge,
"You're the perfect vampire you know? You dress all in black, value power above all else, you're obsessed with blood, and you're a total slut." Raven looked down at him playfully.
"Don't be jealous because I'm better at being a vampire than you are. It takes a special level of skill to be a vampire. A skill you seem to lack Lebeau." Willow shook her head at him,
"Not funny Raven, not funny at all." She looked at Remy questioningly, "Your last name is Lebeau? Is your brother the one who was in the mess hall declaring that vampires were superior to all creatures and that we should all bow down to him?" Remy groaned,
"That sounds like him. What have the older students done to him?"
"Nothing so far, but a few of the humans looked particularly angry when he started raving about humans and how they should be excluded from the school. I wouldn't be surprised if he dies before the year is up." Remy nodded,
"I told Papa, but he insisted that he should come as well. Mama was torn, but she said that if he was stupid enough to spout off his beliefs at school he should die. If he wasn't my brother I would've killed him long ago, then again if he angers me sufficiently I'll kill him anyway."
"Why are the two of you so different? I mean you actually like Green Eyes and Leon, and your brother just blindly hates mortals." Remy rubbed his eyes,
"Have you ever met Lord Lebeau? He's one of Papa's brothers, but that's besides the point. Theodore was found and turned by Lord Lebeau and then given to Papa and Mama. Ever since he idolizes him, but Lord Lebeau only started to notice him when we got into Aether. Lord Lebeau hates humans, back when he was still human he was tortured by a few muggles and nearly burnt at the stake. Theo tries to emulate Lord Lebeau, but he also probably believes that muggles and humans are trash."
"That's kind of sad. Are any of the other Lebeau clan vampires here?" Remy shook his head,
"They weren't accepted. We're the first Lebeau vampires to get into Aether this century. Which is probably why Papa wouldn't listen to me when I told him Theodore will get himself killed here. Aether doesn't tolerate bullies, and the Headmistress herself is sort of human." Willow realizing Remy didn't want to talk about it turned the conversation to the start of classes tomorrow.
"Hey do you guys have your schedules with you?" Everyone pulled out a schedule and Dante ran over to his room to get his class list.
"Looks like we're all together for Elemental magic and Healing. Why am I with the vampires and were for Cruor Sorcery?" Lila answered,
"Cruor Sorcery classes tend to be mostly vampires and weres. Humans are too afraid of death, and fae magic tends to react badly with Cruor Sorcery. Djinns on the other hand consider cruor magic unholy and a freak of nature. Professor Alexei takes that as a compliment, they call him a freak of nature as well." Not for the first time everyone wondered how her gift worked. "We should get going. Meals will be sent to our rooms tonight. I'll see you all at breakfast. Follow along Scooby!" The others filed out bidding their adieus to Dante. He stretched out on his couch next to Mer.
What do you think of them?
They are sensible allies. Maybe they'll prevent you from getting into trouble.
I don't get into trouble that often.
Says the human who killed a dragon yesterday.
Whatever, that wasn't an answer. What do you think of them?
I think you will grow attached to them, so I will like them.
You make it sound like a chore.
Go get dinner hatchling. You tire me with your constant chitchatting. Dante straightened out grumbling about bossy snakes. He wondered what classes tomorrow would be like.
What do you guys think of Mer? And this was my first time writing a piece of a scene without Harry. The Marauders aren't going to show up again until winter break, but I'm thinking of doing a little ficlet about Padfoot and Talon. I'll tell you if I decide to post it.