The knock on the door interrupted Valkyrie from her thoughts.
"Come in." Skulduggery said clearly, and the door tilted open before three boys strode in. Valkyrie recognised them from the classes, but couldn't remember their names.
"Can we help you?" Skulduggery asked. He had his jacket off (it had been slung over the back of a chair) and his ribs were slightly shadowed against his shirt from the windows behind him.
"Yes actually" the first boy seemed to snicker slightly. Valkyrie recognised his white blonde hair and his Slytherin robes, but not much else. She had the faintest feeling that the Weasley's, Harry and Hermione didn't like him much "My father has sent me a letter demanding to know why you're here and where you're from."
"Demanding?" Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. The boy's head turned to her slightly.
"Father's high up in the Ministry. He's concerned about why Dumbledore has made you teach here." The boy continued. Valkyrie glanced to Skulduggery. Hadn't he told her not to tell the Ministry anything about them or the Sanctuary?
"We're just here as a favour to Professor Dumbledore, to make sure you can all protect yourselves without magic. As for where we're from, I think you can tell by our accents."
"I'm not familiar with what the muggles call 'accents'." The boy said, his snicker turning into a slightly disgusted frown.
"The way we talk. We're Irish." Valkyrie said bluntly "What's a muggle?"
"Someone who doesn't have magic." Skulduggery said, making Valkyrie turn her head to him "Isn't that right?"
"Yeah" the boy said, snickering again "There's a lot of their kids here. Filthy mud-bloods." Skulduggery straightened his back sharply.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't insult people without their defence in my classroom." Skulduggery said, his voice stony. The boy frowned, then nodded sharply.
"Let's go boys." He muttered, striding out of the classroom. Valkyrie watched as he and his two 'boys' left. She closed the door behind them.
"What's a mud-blood?" She asked.
"It's an insult directed at wizards or witches who don't come from magic families. They learn magic through books and practise. It literally means 'unclean' blood, 'unpure'. It's used by the kinds of people who want 'pure-bred' wizards and witches."
"What, like pedigree dogs?"
"Yes, it's similar."
"So, not all the kids in this school, have wizard families?"
"No. There are also half-bloods. People born from one witch or wizard with a muggle."
"So 'muggle' isn't an insult, but 'mud-blood' is?"
"Yes. Muggle is a general term used by-"
"I get it Skulduggery." Valkyrie furrowed her brow. "So, my parents are muggles?"
"Your dad has the blood of the ancients."
"But he doesn't practise magic."
"I think he's an exception Valkyrie. Your mum probably is."
"So, I'm either a half-blood, or a 'mud-blood'?"
"It's usually wizards, Val, not Sorcerers."
"Yeah but, do I know anyone whose a mud-blood?"
"I'd imagine so. Try asking the Weasley's, although I wouldn't use the word 'mud-blood', it's quite offensive."
"Yup."
"What are you thinking, Val?"
"Thinking?"
"That's your thinking face."
"Really, I thought I only had one face." Valkyrie said sarcastically before sighing. She ran her fingers through her hair "I'm just wondering, how did they tell their parents that they had magic? They must have had to tell them to be able to get here."
"Thinking of getting some pointers?"
"Maybe." Valkyrie murmured. She did want to tell her parents about everything, if she was sure it wouldn't result in them getting hurt. She wondered how many kid's parents had reacted in a bad way to the news their kid was a witch or wizard. Would it be so different for a Sorceress? Valkyrie was snapped out of her thoughts by Skulduggery talking to her.
"Sorry what?"
"I said we have a class next." She was sure if he had eyes, he would have been rolling them.
"Ok. More attack?"
"Yes. I think it's time they were properly introduced to the difficulty of attacking."
"Why, what are you going to do?"
Harry sat and stared at the old hard-back book. The paperclip was balanced delicately on the cover, not having moved in the whole 30 minutes Harry had been staring at it. He furrowed his brows even more, eyes feeling like they could pop out of their skull, trying to focus his 'magic energy' onto making the paperclip move, but it was proving difficult… and frustrating.
"What are you doing Harry?" Hermione's voice broke his line of thought. He leant back in shi chair and sighed.
"Trying to move a paperclip."
"You're not going to get anywhere by staring at it." Hermione chuckled, picking up the paperclip and putting it on the table next to the book. Harry scowled.
"That's the point. I'm trying to move it without touching it, but it just isn't working."
"Without a wand? That's silly Harry, no one can do that."
"Valkyrie and Skulduggery can." Harry sulked, pouting. Hermione scowled.
"Don't sulk Harry. I bet they can't do wand magic. Besides, what use is moving a paper clip with your mind when you can just pick it up?"
"That's not the point Hermione. The paperclip is just the start, then you can move bigger things and bigger things and bigger things. But all it's doing is giving me a headache."
"Well stop it then. We have a class with them next anyway." Hermione frowned, taking the book Harry had been using to rest the paperclip on, and opening it to a random page, sinking into the chair opposite him.
"Hermione?"
"Hm."
"Why don't you like them?"
"What?"
"The Detectives, Why don't you like them?" Hermione lifted her head out of the book and scowled.
"It's just senseless violence. There's no point in it. It's not like" he voice dropped "not like training in DA."
"Hermione, are you honestly saying that we shouldn't do it, even if it could help us?"
"But it won't help us."
"If I had known it, I might have been able to save Cedric." Harry's words dropped to a whisper before trailing off in his own realisation. Could he have been able to save Cedric? If he had known how to defend himself sooner? If Cedric had known how to defend himself? And what about Voldemort? Harry bet that he would love punching Voldemort square in the face for all he had done to them: killing his parents, making him live with the Dursley's, nearly killing him and his friends, killing Cedric…
Hermione's face dropped, and she sighed.
"Harry, I just don't like them, ok."
"They're not that bad." He muttered.
"They just seem too… sinister. They're hiding something."
"Everyone has secrets." Harry whispered darkly.
"Well yeah, but I get the feeling theirs are bigger. Like, really important. Maybe even dangerous."
"If Dumbledore thought they were dangerous he wouldn't have invited them to the school. You just need to connect with them over something."
"Oh, and you've connected?" Hermione scoffed.
"Yeah" Harry nodded, making Hermione frown.
"Over what?"
"I had the Cruciatus Curse put on me. They've both been tortured too." Harry muttered. Hermione dropped her head.
"Harry, I didn't know-"
"S'ok, Hermione, I know you didn't know. Just give them a break ok? We have to take their lesson, so we might as well enjoy it, or at least get something from it." Harry paused "Speaking of which, we have to get going if we're gonna be there on time. Where's Ron?"
The students waited impatiently as Valkyrie leant against the wall, arms folded. Skulduggery had a plan, albeit, a very rough one. He had put extra padding in the limbs, head and torso of the dummies, and had lined them up, four in a row. He seemed to think it was a good idea. Valkyrie didn't care much either way. She was too focused on the idea of muggle-born wizards and witches telling their parents they had magic, to pay any attention to what Skulduggery was doing.
She raised her head slightly as he began to talk to the students.
"Ok, we've decided that it's about time you show us how much attention you've been paying." Skulduggery gestured to the dummies behind him. "You're going to attack and defend yourselves against the dummies behind me. Four at a time for 2 minutes. I warn you they will attack back and they will not be hesitant. If I feel any of you are in trouble I'll call them off, but that's a last resort, ok. I want you to try. Understood?" There were murmurs from the students, but no verbal protests.
"Alright then. Line up." After a second of processing what the living skeleton had just asked them, the hurried into a straight line that spanned the width of the classroom. Valkyrie caught Harry's eye and sent him a reassuring smile before she turned her attention to what Skulduggery was doing. He ushered the first four students forwards, lining them up before the dummies. The expression was similar across all of them: nervousness and fear.
Skulduggery pulled his pocket watch from his shirt pocket and began to countdown.
"Everyone ready? 3… 2… 1" He clicked his fingers and the dummies sprang to life. One lunged at a student who screamed and threw a punch that very nearly missed, but it was enough to make the dummy stumble slightly. Another of the dummies seemed to observe its opponent for a moment before the student made the first move, and the dummy ducked. In the first two minutes there were no serious injuries to the students or the dummies, but even to Valkyrie the four students looked out of their depth. She wasn't sure if Skulduggery noticed it or not, but it didn't reassure the students left to go.
The four that had already participated went to Valkyrie, who smiled sympathetically at their white shocked faces. She doubted they'd ever had to deal with anything like this before. Two sat on the floor near her feet, the others standing next to her, watching the next four students to go up against the dummies.
Before long the group of people on Valkyrie's side was larger than the group waiting to go up against the dummies, and it was Harry's turn. And Hermione's. And Ron's. And the pale haired boy's who had the father that worked in the Ministry. Valkyrie watched with more interest as Skulduggery began to count down.
"3… 2… 1. Go." The dummies sprang to life once again and Valkyrie immediately noticed the hard look of determination on Harry's face. His extra lessons seemed to have been for this, even though the idea was only thought of less than 30 minutes before the lesson started. He lashed out with clenched fists, hitting the dummy on the shoulder. It stumbled slightly, but quickly recovered, striking at Harry. He blocked it with his arm successfully, and struck the dummy's stomach with his other arm. Ron was doing only slightly worse, seemingly letting out some internal anger on the dummy, although it fought back well. Hermione and the pale boy, were another story. Hermione lashed out with a good right hook, but missed, allowing the dummy a few seconds to punch her shoulder. The pale boy was a shambles, the dummy striking successfully again and again.
"Skulduggery" Valkyrie muttered. He looked to her and she tilted her head to the pale boy. He clicked his fingers and the dummy collapsed to the floor. The pale boy was shaking as he tried to comprehend what had just happened.
"Val, you mind?" Skulduggery gestured towards the boy, and Valkyrie nodded, stepping through the many students now sitting on the floor. Valkyrie pulled the boy back gently, trying to keep a straight face at the look of shock on his own. She took him to the corner towards the other students.
"Are you hurt?" He shook his head slightly, still in shock. "What's your name?" Valkyrie asked, looking him up and down.
"Draco Malfoy." He muttered.
"Ok, Draco. Did the dummy hurt you?"
"No."
"Good. Pay attention in class next time, yeah? Go on, go and sit with the others." He nodded sharply and sat next to a group of Slytherins that had already been up against the dummies, one of which immediately fussed over him. Valkyrie rolled her eyes. Some girls. Skulduggery clicked his fingers again and the dummies that were still fighting stilled, collapsing into heaps on the ground. Harry seemed pleased with himself as he walked to the other students. Valkyrie walked over to them and leant against the wall.
"Well done guys. The extra lessons see to be doing you good Harry." He smiled at her, forehead slightly sweaty, as Valkyrie noticed how pale Hermione had gone.
"Hermione? You ok?"
"Yeah, fine." She grunted. Valkyrie walked to her side and crouched down.
"Did it hurt you?" Hermione looked to the floor.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"…yes." She didn't meet Valkyrie's eyes as she spoke. Valkyrie sighed and stood back up, leaning back against the wall.
"Well done to you too Ron." She said, nodding to him, smiling. He grinned back, only slightly pale.
The last two groups seemed to go by quickly. Skulduggery put away his pocket watch and looked at the students who were either stood against the wall or sat on the floor.
"You did well today. You should be proud of yourselves. You can relax for the last ten minutes, have a chat with your friends or whatever it is you do." Valkyrie smiled slightly – Skulduggery always had been bad at speeches. She walked over to him, picking up one of the dummies as she did so, putting it in the corner.
"And we did that why?" She muttered.
"It's a good progress indicator." Skulduggery said defiantly "It's shown we obviously need to do more."
"Well duh, it's not even Christmas yet, it's still November." Valkyrie rolled her eyes "There's still half the year left."
"I know" Skulduggery protested "I just thought we could see how everyone was doing."
"Well we know who's not paying attention." Valkyrie said, raising an eyebrow. Skulduggery nodded in agreement.
"Hopefully it's been an eye-opener for them as well." Skulduggery muttered.
"Harry's doing well though."
"Yes I noticed that." Skulduggery nodded, looking over Valkyrie's shoulder subtly to where Harry had been sat, before realising that Harry wasn't there anymore. Harry tapped Valkyrie on the shoulder, making her jump slightly before turning to him.
"Hey Harry." She smiled slightly.
"Hey. Um I was just wondering, how long does it take for the sorcery stuff to actually work?" Skulduggery chuckled at the tone of Harry's voice.
"It's different for everyone." He said, humour in his voice.
"Well, how do you cope with staring at a paperclip for hours on end?"
"I had good motivation." Valkyrie shrugged.
"Really? What was it?"
"Someone was trying to kill me."
"Oh. I don't think I like that motivation." Valkyrie grinned.
"It worked though. Well, kind of."
"Kind of?"
"I didn't accomplish proper magic until after he tried to kill me. A few weeks after."
"Did you get hurt?"
"Um" she glanced to Skulduggery "It's probably accurate to say yeah. I ended up with a broken leg but all the torture stuff is just too complicated to go into."
"So that's when you were tortured."
"Correction, that was the first time I was tortured."
"You've been tortured more than once?"
"Saving the world from evil psychopaths is a dangerous job." Skulduggery shrugged. "I'm going to put away the dummies."
"Ok. Do you want help?" Valkyrie asked.
"Nope, I'm fine." He replied quickly. Valkyrie rolled her eyes.
"So, it's not working for you." Valkyrie said quietly.
"I don't think so."
"It takes a while Harry, you just have to be patient. Try conjuring fire if you're bored with air." Valkyrie raised her hand "The trick is to get a good click." She clicked her fingers and a ball of fire erupted into her hand, curling around her fingertips but not burning her. "See?"
"Yeah. Doesn' it hurt."
"It'll hurt someone else – so don't throw it at anyone – but it won't hurt the conjurer." Harry smiled tiredly.
"Ok, I'll try that." He looked as if he were about to walk away, so Vakyrie quickly carried on talking.
"Harry, I don't wonder if your know anyone who ahs muggle parents?"
"Muggle parents?"
"Yeah."
"Hermione does. Seamus is a half-blood… the Weasleys are all pure bloods, Neville lives with his grandmother…"
"So Hermione?"
"Yeah."
"Right, thanks."
"Why?"
"Just wondering if I can talk to her." Valkyrie muttered, thinking.
"What's your blood-status?" Harry asked.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm not a hundred percent sure. My mum's non-magic, but my dad has magic blood. He's never practised it though. I doubt he even knows he has it."
"So you're a muggle-born."
"I guess so."
"Cool." Harry smiled slightly, and Valkyrie smiled back, but it was an awkward smile.
"I'll just go and talk to Hermione then." Valkyrie muttered, moving away.
"Ok. Bye."
"Bye." Valkyrie muttered, walking to Hermione ho had pulled a book out of her bag and begun reading.
"Hermione? Could I talk to you?" Hermione looked up and frowned slightly, but closed the book and nodded. The walked away to an empty corner and Valkyrie stood, slightly nervous? How was she going to phrase this?
"Harry says you're a muggle-born." She said nervously.
"Yeah" Hermione bristled instantly "What about it?"
"I – I was just wondering… how did you, you know, tell them?"
"Tell who what?"
"Your parents, how did you tell them you had magic?" Hermione's face turned thoughtful.
"I got my Hogwarts letter. It said everything they needed to know. And I showed them what I could do, all of my books and everything."
"How did they… react?"
"They thought it was a joke at first, but once I showed them, they were, proud of me I guess."
"Proud?" Valkyrie smiled slightly "Sounds like a good reaction."
"Yeah, I guess so. Why?" Valkyrie bit her lip.
"My parents are muggles. They don't actually know about… this. Or me."
"So, they don't know you're here?"
"No."
"Do they know you have magic?"
"No."
"Well what about him" Hermione jutted her head in Skulduggery's direction.
"No, they don't know about Skulduggery either. Or our work. They've only met him once, at my Uncle's funeral and will reading. It's how I first met him."
"How can you get away with something like that? Don't they wonder where you are?" Hermione's eyes were wide.
"There's a spell on my mirror. Whenever I touch it, my reflection comes out and takes my place. I've been leaving the reflection at home instead of me for 4, maybe 5 years now."
"Oh."
"But I'm going to tell them" Valkyrie said defiantly "I've been planning to for while now. I just… don't know how to do it." Valkyrie sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "I guess there's no point worrying about it now anyway. The reflection will make sure they're safe until I go back, and who knows how long that'll be." Valkyrie muttered. "So, your parents are ok with all this?"
"Yeah, I think so. They know I'm safe, so, yeah."
"And there's my problem." Valkyrie sighed "I'm not safe. Ever."
"But you have Skulduggery."
"Skulduggery can't be with me 24/7. Here, yeah, 'cos he has no where else to be. At home, well, there are lots of cases, and he can't always be there. It's strange to think how many times I've nearly died… I don't think mum and dad would want me going out everyday to catch criminals, you know? Not to mention that if a criminal found my parents, and knew they knew anything… " Valkyrie leant back against the wall, her gaze running across it instead of looking at Hermione. "Anyway, thanks for the advice." She smiled, finally turning her head to Hermione "Um, keep practising your right hooks. They're pretty good." Valkyrie walked away towards Skulduggery who had finished piling up the dummies in the corner.
"Hey." She smiled, trying to push the depressing mood from her shoulders.
"Hello again," he said, tilting his head – he was smiling.
"You know, I had almost started getting used to you having a face." She smiled. He scowled.
"Shut up."
"Do you miss you façade?"
"Considerably." He said, sulking. Valkyrie grinned.
"If we supervise next week's Hogsmead trip you can have it back."
"Are you sure you don't only want to go so you can have a tour with the Weasley twins?"
"Shhh." Valkyrie grinned.
"It's about time they were going to their next lesson."
"Yup, I'll shoo them out." Valkyrie sighed, turning.
"Ok guys" She yelled, catching everyone's attention "you all did well today, but it's time for your to go to your next lesson, so, off you go!" The students slowly stood up and filed out. Hermione, Harry and Ron were the last to go, and Valkyrie saw Hermione give her one last glance over her shoulder before disappearing.
On their way to their next lesson, Harry noticed that Hermione was strangely quiet.
"Hermione? Is something wrong?" Harry asked. They were at the back of the crowd moving to Transfiguration.
"No, not really." Hermione said quietly.
"Those dummies didn't hurt you did they?" Ron asked quickly.
"No, it's not the dummies." She said quietly.
"What is it? Hermione, we know there's something wrong, so you might as well say it." Harry said. Hermione sighed.
"It's just, Valkyrie's parents. They have no idea about any of this, about anything she does. They're muggles and she's kept everything from them so they don't get hurt. I can't begin to imagine how hard that must be…" her voice trailed off.
"You know Ron, I think Hermione's finally bonded with Valkyrie."
