Hey, everyone! Merry Christmas. Sorry for the delay, but here's a nice little present for you. Also I would like to say that after NaNoWriMo, I have realized just how much five thousand words is. So sorry for that promise that I will not be keeping, I will make sure to have at least two to three thousand words a chapter. And maybe occasionally you guys might get a five thousand word chapter. Anywho, enough of my babbling. Enjoy!
Chapter 4:
The School Year Begins! (With a Few New Faces)
Severus pulled at his robes as he headed towards the great hall, looking over a few letters while doing so. Why were his robes so itchy, the Weasleys hadn't arrived yet. Unless they had done something before they left last year. So was now even the summer wasn't safe from those two?
He glanced at the nearest clock, just a few more hours until the students arrived. Just a few hours and Severus would be stuck teaching Potter for the next seven years. Fate couldn't possibly be any more horrible. No, wait, it probably could.
Severus looked over the last letter in his hand, reading through it as fast as he could. As soon as he finished it, he burned it with a quick spell. Not even Dumbledore himself could read that.
A few moving staircases and an infuriating encounter with Peeves later, Severus arrived at the great hall with just a half hour to spare. He took a glance over to Quirrell and wondered what had made him so jumpy. He didn't buy the story about an encounter with a vampire. He also wondered where the head of the Slytherin house was, there was no sign of the woman anywhere.
He took his seat, and twenty minutes later the the second to seventh years students filed in and went to their respective tables. Severus gave a warning glare over to the Weasley twins.
Minutes later, McGonagall came in followed by the first years. Severus heard most of them talking quietly, especially those who came from Muggle families. He looked down the line, judging each of the students.
His gaze lingered upon three students. The first was Potter, who was glancing around nervously and curiously. Second was a boy with bright ginger hair, undoubtedly another Weasley. And finally was a girl with bushy brown hair, who walked with confidence and seemed to know everything that was going on.
Severus looked between the three of them, and he got the feeling that they were going to be part of something very interesting.
All three of them ended up in Gryffindor, the Sorting Hat taking quite a bit with Potter. Severus wondered what took the hat so long to figure out where to place Potter. He had figured it would be a near instantaneous decision thanks to his parents.
"Silvia, Amarantha," McGonagall called out.
The girl, who was one of the last ones to be sorted, began running up to the hat. She had long red hair tied into a braid that was draped over shoulder. Her eyes were pure black, like oil, and shone with wonder at her surroundings. Severus got the funny feeling that he had seen her before.
She walked up to the hat after her name was called, and closed her eyes once it was placed on top of her head. Their mental conversation went on for a while, her eyebrows scrunching up several times.
"SLYTHERIN!" The Sorting Hat finally yelled out, a loud clapping coming from her new housemates. She quickly walked to her table and sat in the nearest available seat, which happened to be right next to Draco Malfoy.
The two began talking animatedly before Dumbledore said a few words about where not to go. Along with the Forbidden Forest, there was also a door on the third floor that no one was supposed to enter. Severus knew that there was probably going to be more than a few students who got too curious. Of course, anyone in their right mind would quickly get out once they saw Hagrid's pet.
Then the feast began, and conversations began erupting all throughout the hall. Severus ate his food slowly and carefully, unlike many of the children who were trying to stuff as much in their mouths as possible.
He directed his gaze over to the Slytherin table, and to the latest additions to its population. Especially that one girl. He knew of no wizarding families with the Silvia name, which meant that this Amarantha girl was either muggleborn or first generation half blood. But despite that, she would still be judged by the other houses simply because of what house she was sorted into.
All because of the actions of a few. It reminded Severus of his past life and how the other clans had thought of the Uchiha as bad due to the actions of Madara.
He then glanced over at the Gryffindor table, where Potter was glancing over at the Slytherins as well. The newest Weasley was whispering something to him, and Severus instantly knew that the seeds of distrust were being planted into the malleable boy's head.
As the feast began winding down, Severus tried striking up a conversation with Quirrell in an attempt to get the other professor to divulge information. To no avail.
Then the prefects began leading their houses to their respective dorms, singing that blasted school song that Severus personally thought was written by a tone-deaf goblin. But there was no changing the song. Not yet, anyway.
Severus himself headed down to one of the old, unused dungeons of the castle. There he waited patiently for the three who had been sent to aid him in his mission. He hoped that this time Ministry had sent wizards that were actually good. He could still occasionally hear the ringing in his ears.
A few minutes later, Severus looked behind him.
"You finally showed up," he said to the two. "I'm glad that the Ministry sent you, at least you two are used to my training methods."
The two stepped forward into the light, revealing a witch and wizard with whom Severus was well acquainted.
The first was a young man, the young man he had talked with in Diagon Alley a few weeks ago, in fact. He had short, chestnut brown hair and light grey eyes. His arms were folded in front of him. He wore a pair of jeans and dark black shirt with long sleeves. He had dark skin, and he wore a dark cloth armband just below his shoulder
"Yeah, well I heard that the last group they sent you nearly blew you to kingdom come. I volunteered since they didn't send anyone else with any skill."
"Hey, be quiet, Amadi!" The other shouted, her hair a violent crimson and Amadi backed up slightly. But her hair quickly began to change into a bright, bubblegum pink color. Her eyes were dark, and seemed to twinkle like a pair of stars. She wore a sleeveless black shirt and a pair of loose pants.
"I'm glad to see you again, Tonks," Severus greeted, deciding against using her first name, Nymphadora, since she seemed in an especially explosive mood today.
"Same here, Teach," she replied. "I'm just glad to finally be on my first real mission as an Auror!"
Severus looked down at his energetic former student, noting the gleam in her eyes. However, this still was only two out of the three promised members. "Where is the final member of this team?"
Tonks and Amadi looked at each other nervously.
"Well," Tonks began, "we don't know. We have no idea who the third person who came with us is, Caelestis didn't even tell us a name."
"But they did say that whoever it was definitely arrived with us," Amadi added, slipping his hands into his pockets.
Severus sighed in annoyance and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had a funny feeling in his gut about the other person, and that they would probably be a lot of trouble.
"Very well," Severus said. "You two will just take the test now, and the other one will just have to it alone later."
"Wait, test?" Tonks questioned, and the corners of Severus's mouth twitched ever so slightly upward.
"Of course. I have to make sure that you are ready for this mission."
"We can pass any test you throw at us!" Amadi exclaimed, a confident expression upon his face. He grabbed his wand, red sparks lightly dancing around the tip.
"Are you sure about that?" Severus asked as he pulled a lever on the wall. A thick iron gate, which was reinforced with magic, began disappearing into the ceiling as it was raised higher and higher. The sound of grunting and heavy breathing could be heard from inside the dark cell.
"Uh, what exactly is in there?" Tonks asked nervously, and even Amadi was beginning to look a little worried.
"Your test," Severus said as a large hulking creature stepped into the light, "is to take out this graphorn."
As the titanic monster stepped full in the light, Amadi sucked in a nervous breath and Tonks began sweating profusely. The skin on the graphorn's humped back glistened in the low light, and one of its horns had broken off about halfway down.
This would be a good test, since graphorns were highly resistant to spells it would take a lot of power to take one out. Severus couldn't wait to see their power, he was especially curious as to how much Tonks had grown since leaving Hogwarts.
"You're insane!" she yelled, quickly taking out her wand and pointing it at her foe.
"Perhaps, but insanity just means seeing what sane people do not," Severus stated sagely.
"Lay off the fortune cookies, man!" Amadi replied, and then aimed his wand toward the graphorn's head. "Bo-"
Before he could cast the spell, the graphorn charged at the two of them. As they tried to dodge, the graphorn managed to knock the wands out of their hands. Tonks looked at her empty hand and then at the graphorn, before she took off in an attempt to outrun her pursuer. Amadi tried to dash in to grab his wand, but the graphorn quickly intercepted him.
Suddenly the door began opening, and Severus was prepared to see the final person the Ministry had sent him. Instead, one of the first years came through, Amarantha Silvia.
Tonks waved at her in a desperate shooing motion. "Don't come in here!"
The young girl stood frozen as the graphorn set its sights on what was obviously the weakest one in the room. Severus grabbed his wand and prepared to cast a spell, but the girl's expression turned stony. She pointed her wand at the charging creature and yelled out, "Everte Statum!"
The graphorn looked like it was struggling against something for a moment before it was violently thrown back against the wall. As the creature struggled to stand back up, growling angrily, Tonks and Amadi rushed to get their wands.
"What the-" Amadi muttered as he looked at the young girl.
"I was sent to help you with your mission by the Ministry. Sorry I'm late, but it was hard to get away from everyone on the first day." She looked back at the graphorn. "Is this some kind of test… I've never actually fought a graphorn before."
"He's coming again," Amadi exclaimed and aimed his wand. "Bombarda!"
A series of blasts exploded around the creature, and it collapsed again. Amadi smirked victoriously, but the graphorn began standing back up.
"Incendio Maxima!" Tonks called out, pointing her wand at the struggling monster. A burst of flames shot out from the tip of her wand and consumed the graphorn in a blazing inferno. The charred creature collapsed and made no move to rise back up. Severus looked at the three, before turning to the fallen graphorn.
'Sectumsempra,' Snape muttered in his head as he slashed his wand as if try to cut across the graphorn's neck with a blade. Seconds later, a large gash appeared on the creature's neck and it bled to death not too long after.
The other three looked at the grisly scene with a morbid look in their eyes, but didn't ask any questions. Severus quickly cleaned up the mess, before turning to his team.
"You three have passed," he congratulated, putting his wand away. "To take down a graphorn with magic alone is nothing short of incredible. It proves that all of you have the power needed for this mission."
"You couldn't have tested that in a less life-threatening way?" Tonks said questioningly, and slightly annoyed.
"But then you might not have used your full power," Severus replied, and Tonks pouted slightly and began walking away. She managed to get ten feet before tripping and rolling into the nearby wall.
Severus sighed. "Well, some things never change."
"I'm okay," she said, sounding somewhat dazed as Amadi helped her up. Once she was back on her feet, Severus began his explanation of why he had called for their help.
"Along with another reason that I am not allowed to disclose without the permission of Headmaster Dumbledore, I have asked for your assistance because several weeks ago I had an encounter with someone very dangerous.
"He told me that he is going to try to kill Harry Potter sometime during the year. I believe that he is a former follower of Voldemort who has come for revenge. It is our duty to stop him and any others who are with him."
"Right!" All three exclaimed, and then took their leave. Severus watched them leave, before he left for his own room.
The entire way his thoughts stuck to Amarantha. Just who was she? Her power was unnatural for her age, especially for someone not from one of the ancient wizarding families. This year was full of strange things.
However if the Caelestis trusted her, then Severus would too. She certainly had enough power, and having someone in with the students could be enormously helpful when it came to gathering information. Severus knew all too well that children never told adults everything.
Severus got a few of his supplies ready for tomorrow's class. He was now glad more than ever that the Slytherins and Gryffindors had almost all the same classes together. Now Amarantha could protect Harry in the other classes.
Suddenly, a loud crash came from outside his door.
"Got your konk, Nymphadora!"
"Peeves! Get back here! And don't call me Nymphadora!"
Severus sighed. A hectic year, indeed.
To be continued…
And Chapter 4 is done. I hope you guys enjoyed. And now to get some little information out of the way.
New Characters: Amarantha and Amadi are two characters I created specially for this series, and whom I took a great amount of enjoyment out of creating their backstories and personality. They both will be pivotal to the story all the way to the end. And I hope you guys like me bringing everyone's favorite metamorphmagus (Did I get that right?) and klutz into the fray.
Graphorn: For those that don't know, because as far as I know the graphorn isn't mentioned in the main seven books, a graphorn is a highly aggressive bull like creature with hide said to be as tough as dragon scales. Also, as stated in the chapter, they are highly resistant to magic.
Severus's position: Severus is now the Head of Hufflepuff since that is now his house. Sorry, Pomona Sprout, but you are still a very important member of the Hogwarts staff. As for who the new Head of Slytherin is… You'll get to see veeeery soon.
Action: The action in this series will be different in this series, not on the level of Naruto, but much more than the books. I've also felt that the action in the books gets pretty stale: point wand, cast spell, dodge opponent's spell, repeat. Other than quidditch and any action involving broomsticks or flying, those tend to be pretty nice. Gah! I'm babbling again! Silencio!
Caelestis: And the final object on today's agenda is the Caelestis term that's mentioned several times in the chapter. This is a made-up term that I created for the series, and is a title that will be fully explained later, so try to have patience.
"Do or do not, there is no try."
Yoda! where the heck did you come from?
"Travelled from a galaxy far away, I have."
Oh... So how about that twist in Force Awakens?
"See that coming, I did not."
It's reassuring to know that you can still surprise a 900 year old Jedi master. Hey! Watch where you're swinging that lightsaber! Ow! You're surprisingly nimble for someone so old. I meant that as a compliment!
See you guys next time… Hopefully...