I may not be able to update for a while as it's the final weeks of exam season and I have 5 exams left that I really need to study for, so I don't know if I'll have time for writing. My last exam is on the 24th of June so expect updates after that. Sorry. This might seem like a filler chapter, well, probably because it is, but there's some important stuff in it, so watch out fro that. Probably going to make more sense after I update the climax. Thanks for reading!
It felt good to punch the dummy square in the face, at least from Valkyrie's point of view. She thought to herself that if the dummy had feelings it might not be so happy. Not that that wouldn't be understandable, being punched in the face is painful and incredibly rude – at least when you're on the receiving end of the punch. But Valkyrie couldn't show that she was enjoying it to much, not when the students were in the room anyway – they'd think her some kind of freak, not that a lot of them didn't already, but why add to the numbers? Not to mention Dumbridge was in the room, a clipboard and quill in her hand as she scribbled down notes, occasionally smiling that sickly sweet smile, although Valkyrie thought she saw it waver when the dummy was first clicked to life and Valkyrie had punched it square in the gut.
She hadn't slept at all the previous night, kept awake by creaking noises and the low whisperings of Darquesse in the back of her brain. She was always there, providing that low hum in the background, but she seemed to get louder at night, or maybe it was because everything else was so quiet she seemed loud in comparison. Either way, it wasn't helping.
The dummy was called off and Valkyrie stood at full height, moving away to the room's edge. She leant on the wall and noticed how Hermione's face seemed to have an expression that was a mixture between utterly miserable and an intense death-glare. Valkyrie noticed a lot of things while she was leant on the wall, her arms folded, observing them all. She noticed how Umbridge's quill kept moving at a leisurely pace, as if she had all the time in the world, how Harry seemed to be paying as much attention as he could muster, deep rings under his eyes, and how Ron kept slowly tilting his head, as if he wanted to nod off but was too scared to do so in the same room as the Skeleton detective. Valkyrie noticed how the dummies seemed to have been chuckled messily in the corner, before realising that she had been the one to do that, and how there were splinters of wood on the floor towards the end of the room along with a rogue broken chair leg, before she realised she'd done that as well. Then she tilted her head towards the window and glanced out at the hills and forest in the distance as they burned like an endless pit of fire and thick black smoke rose into the air. Her breath hitched – for a brief moment she could feel the heat of the fire on her skin, feel the smoke clawing at her lungs – and then she blinked, and it was gone. The hills were green and grassy, the sky a light grey with some darker clouds rolling in.
"Valkyrie?" She turned her head to where Skulduggery was looking at her.
"Hmmm?"
"Are you going to demonstrate, or stare out of the window all day?"
"Shut up." She muttered, stepping up to the dummy. Skulduggery clicked his fingers and it sprang to life, lunging at her immediately. She dodged and slammed her shoulder into its chest, throwing a punch that on a person would have broken their nose. It stumbled backwards slightly and tried to hit back, but she dodged, kicking its feet out from under it and sending it sprawling to the ground. As soon as it had started it was over, and Skulduggery had called it off.
"You have redeemed yourself." Skulduggery said cheerily.
"I didn't need to redeem myself." She muttered under her breath, but she didn't feel like moving back to the window, so she moved back to the wall, a little further away. 'One of your little tricks?' she thought to herself, but Darquesse didn't seem to want to talk and left the thought hanging.
Skulduggery had put the students to work, practising their punches – non contact while Dumbridge was in the room, obviously – and he walked over to her.
"You ok?" He asked. Valkyrie nodded.
"Yeah, just tired. Daydreaming a bit I guess. You might want to carry on with them though, I think Umbrdige is watching you." She said, and after a brief moment Skulduggery nodded too and moved away, instructing the students and readjusting their postures, occasionally slipping in a bit of praise here and there, mainly to Harry who seemed to be taking it very seriously. But then again, in the time Valkyrie had known him, it seemed Harry was a pretty serious person overall. Then again, if you had survived a killing curse and been targeted and tortured by a dark wizard, Valkyrie supposed you were likely to be serious.
Valkyrie was reminded of the posters in Skulduggery's room, and walked over to Harry.
"Hey Harry, hi Ron." She smiled slightly, and they both smiled briefly back, although Ron quickly returned to a mid-scowl.
"What's wrong Ron?" Valkyrie asked.
"I'm hungry. Why won't lunch hurry up?"
"I'm sure the food will be happy to see you too." Valkyrie said before she turned to Harry "Have you got time after the lesson? We have something you might be interested in seeing."
"Yeah sure. What is it?"
"You'll see after the lesson. You can come too if you want Ron, or is the food calling?" Ron thought about it briefly, and then scowled.
"Will it be quick?"
"Probably."
"Then I'll come." Valkyrie grinned.
"Great. I'll see you guys after the lesson. Best get back to work – Dumbridge is glaring at us." Valkyrie sauntered away, watching Umrbridge as she scrawled down notes while Harry and Ron got back to practise-punching each other. She pulled Skulduggery away lightly to one side.
"I'm going to show Harry and Ron those posters after the lesson. Where are they?" She asked.
"On the desk." He replied quickly before moving away again "Mr Goyle you're not actually supposed to be punching your adversary!"
Valkyrie felt almost useless. At the Sanctuary there was always something to do, whether it was a new criminal on the loose, checking the cells, training or even researching she never felt like she didn't belong. In the classroom, there was nothing to do but stand around and correct the kids when they needed correcting. It was very boring. At first it had seemed cool, but now she didn't get any enjoyment out of it, save for the demonstrations. She wondered how normal teachers coped, and why anyone would want to do the job she was being forced to do. She would rather be at home, steering her parents off the trail of Valkyrie Cain and back to everyday life with perfectly normal, perfectly average, Stephanie Edgely.
The hour dragged by before Umbridge left the room, quickly followed by the students who all veered left down the corridor towards the Great Hall for lunch. Harry and Ron met Valkyrie outside.
"Come on, let's go." Valkyrie smiled slightly before leading the way down the corridor, the wall parting to Valkyrie's touch to reveal the teachers hallway.
"Wicked" Ron grinned, momentarily forgetting his hunger "Not even Fred and George have been in here before." Valkyrie led the way to her own room, knowing Skulduggery's would be locked from the inside, and closed the door behind them.
"Cool room Val" Harry said to her.
"Thanks, but the stuff is in Skulduggery's room."
"Skulduggery's room?" Harry frowned "Is he ok with us going in there?"
"Yeah sure." Valkyrie waved it off and led the way inside, Harry and Ron following curiously. Skulduggery's room was plain, with no furniture save for a wardrobe, desk and a single chair. On the wall opposite Valkyrie there was a large map displaying Ireland that was covered in push pins, notes and the odd small photograph. Next to it was another map displaying Britain, with a similar layout of push pins and notes.
"He's added stuff to it since I was last in here." Valkyrie muttered to herself.
"What is that?" Harry asked, walking up to the maps.
"Skulduggery's system. Hey, Ron no touching." Ron took a step backwards from where he had been about to pull out one of the push pins. Valkyrie walked to the desk where the three posters she had seen were laid. She picked up the one with Voldemort on and handed it to Harry.
"Here. Is this what he looks like?" Harry paled instantly.
"Where did you get this?" He asked.
"We had someone make it based on your description. Is it any good?" After a moment, Harry pursed his lips and nodded.
"Yeah, it looks like him." He handed it back to her as Ron picked up the other posters on the table.
"Who's this?" He asked. Valkyrie looked to see he had picked up Billy-ray Sanguine poster. Wanted: Dead. Billy-ray Sanguine. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight. Valkyrie's face darkened as her scarred fist clenched.
"Billy-ray Sanguine. He's an assassin."
"Why do you have to kill him?" Ron asked "That seems harsh."
"He's incredibly dangerous. He can't be controlled or contained, he could break other convicts out of prison if he wanted to, he could kill almost anyone if 5 seconds flat and leave no trace of himself. He's been part of several organisations to try and destroy the world."
"Why can't he be contained?" Harry asked, looking at the poster and drawing his attention away from Voldemort.
"He can tunnel. He's an adept sorcerer, meaning he can only do one type of magic. Unfortunately for us, he chose to move the ground to his will and tunnel through it. We'd have to put seismographs everywhere if we wanted to even try and monitor him, but I don't think even that would work. If he wasn't such a maniac I'd be impressed. But trust me, its better if he's dead."
"Are people looking for him?" Harry asked at the same time as Ron asked:
"A seismo-what?"
"We're trying, but he's really difficult to track. He could tunnel halfway around the world and we wouldn't know about it until he resurfaced and killed someone, and even then we might not know it was him. Personally I'd like to be the one to kill him," wait, had she just said that? No, she didn't want to see Billy-ray Sanguine ever again, why had she just said she waned to kill him. Harry was looked at her strangely. "he's nearly killed me way too many times. And I'm more experienced with him, so I know what he sounds like when he's tunnelling. Some of the other sorcerers have never met him, so wouldn't know what to expect. He might kill them while they have their guard down."
"Who's that?" Ron asked, pointing to the last poster of the desk. Valkyrie picked it up and bit her lip. Did Tanith really look like that now? It had been so long. She realised Harry and Ron were looking at her and quickly turned the poster over so they could see. Wanted: Alive. Tanith Low. Warning extremely dangerous. Proceed with caution.
"That is Tanith Low. I met her when I first started working with the Sanctuary. She's an amazing fighter, skilled swordsman – or swordswoman – and one of the bravest people I've ever met. She helped stop the destruction of the world several times. She was a good friend." Valkyrie's voice went quiet.
"So why is she on a wanted poster?" Ron asked. Valkyrie ran her fingers through her hair.
"I've told you about the remnant attack? We were finally managing to catch all the remnants to put back where they belonged when one escaped. It tried to get to me, but… Tanith jumped in the way and got the full force of it. The remnant possessed her and disappeared. When a remnant possesses you, if it isn't removed within four days it bonds to your soul, permanently. The remnant hid and after four days, came out of hiding knowing we wouldn't hurt Tanith to get at it. It changed her soul into something dark and twisted. She even came to my house and sat having tea with my parents, pretending to be one of my teachers from school. She's working with Sanguine now to organise the release of Darquesse so the world can be destroyed."
"A lot of people you know seem to want to destroy the world." Harry said, looking at the poster. Valkyrie's thoughts turned bitter as the hum of Darquesse got louder in her mind.
"I know. Never a dull moment."
