V2

Potions and Dueling

"Ah, Miss Nelson, how nice of you join us," came that wry voice that grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. I looked up to see that a large man with half of his dark hair missing was looking at me with disgust. He had an overly large nose and small, beady eyes. "I was just about to ask what these potions were that I had here."

Professor Sampson, how I wish you were here and not Plum. Professor Plum had taken over Potions as well as Dueling since some of the Professors had to stay behind at the Academy. He hated my guts and tried to make my days a living hell. It probably doesn't help that I've been late twice now, either.

"I apologize for my tardiness. That should be the last training session with the General for the next few weeks." I moved into the dimly-lit room and walked towards the large group of Army soldiers and Marine males in front of me. The room was foggy and un-aired, smelling of many different potions. It was dark and bare, with the large head of what looked like an Acromantula and its fangs hanging above a rather unkempt desk.

"Because you have had the pleasure of interrupting me, Miss Nelson, why don't you tell the class what these potions are?" the professor sneered, gesturing towards the many pots beside him. Him not using my rank was an insult that I wasn't going to forget.

I stepped closer hesitantly, trying to ignore the smug looks from the Marines. The first potion was in a very small cauldron. It was swirling different colors, creating multi-colored bubbles. "This one is a Beautification Potion. Makes the user beautiful to others even if they're not. And ah, this one…" I moved to the next one to see that it was a murky green color that smelled distinctly of dirt. "Mandrake Restorative Draught, to get rid of petrifaction.

"This is obviously a Wolfsbane Potion, used to help werewolves retain control durin' their phases." I moved out of its way before the faint blue smoke could color my face. "And lastly…with the mother-of-pearl sheen, and the characteristic spirals of steam…it has to be Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in the world. To each person, it smells different as to what they are attracted to. For example, I smell… Fleetwood's High-Finish Handle Polish, a Quidditch pitch before a game, and…ah, well, you understand my meanin'."

And winter. Does winter have a smell, like snow?

The men instantly snuffed their laughter when I sent my glare their way.

The professor frowned deeply at me. "Grab your cauldrons and move to separate desks. Get our your ingredients and start on your own Polyjuice Potion. No teamwork. You have one chance to prove yourselves today—the first day is one of the most critical in the brewing process."

As if a well-oiled machine, every single student moved to their own table and started working. It was one of the classes I didn't have problems with. It was like cooking, but with ingredients that could kill you or turn you blue if you ate them or breathed them in. Like making a cake. Easy as cake.

I pulled my cauldron onto the table and grabbed out all twelve of the lacewing flies that needed to be stewed for twenty-one days, and threw half of them into the ounce of crude Antimony. The three drachms of pulverized Sal Ammoniac and blades of knotgrass were added, and then I stirred thrice to the right, and four times to the left, and let it sit for an hour as I started unsucculating the four leeches needed.

I pinched out my powdered horn of Bicorn. I took the iron and set it aside, (also called filings and rasplings of Salpeter, Mercury, and Mars.) As soon as I added the powdered horn and the leeches, and set aside my already-skinned-and-shredded skin of the boomslang to be dried.

"Let me see!" came a sudden booming voice, and I looked at my pocket watch to see that it was already nine-thirty. I'd been up since five, which was the only time the General had been available to teach me. Today's lecture had been wandless magic and it hadn't gone well.

I looked down to see that my potion still was—of course—unfinished as it had to brew for another thirty-one days that month. It was a light orange color, slightly thick.

Plum stood over my potion and took a deep sniff with his large nose. "Every potion must be flawless. Every potion, even the ones you haven't even started yet!"

My tired mouth opened before I could stop it. "Well, sir…considering that this potion still has to brew for the other thirty-one days, I do believe that it will be a slight while before I even get to the next one."

The man's face had turned red: a definite sign that I had crossed a boundary. Hah, his face matches his robes. Though that probably isn't an appropriate thought. "Kitchen duty! Seven o'clock!"

"I have Apparition Training," I said, frowning deeply. I'd never gotten in trouble before, even with that kind of comment. I'd heard worse from the Marines. "I don't think that the General would approve of kitchen duty." I looked up at the clock to see that it was time to leave, waving my wand and packing everything in less than a second, moving out the door before the befuddled man could say anything else.

Viktor Krum

He started watching them more. The Americans. He learned what classes they took (quite a bit of Muggle classes as well as Muggle/Magic classes that merged the two, as though magic and non-magic peoples could really work together) and watched their training schedules. They were well-oiled machines even though they spent too much time on Muggle nonsense.

He definitely studied his competition. He wasn't intimidated by the Hogwarts champions because they taught traditional magic, like Durmstrang. They didn't learn near as much in the Dark Arts, either. And the part-Veela was weak. Viktor could sense her magic and felt nothing like he felt from Leigh Ann.

Leigh Ann, though half Muggle, had magic as strong as a pureblood's. The aura around her had nothing to do with her commanding nature and everything to do with the power she held. There was something inside of her that was frightened, though. Something that her commanding nature covered up. It wasn't her weakened hip, which she'd disclosed to him in a moment of trust. That was physical. Something in her mind was keeping her from letting him in. It had something to do with Quidditch and her mother, whom she obviously loved but was overshadowed by.

He didn't understand. Yes, her mother was famous and quite popular in the Quidditch world, but Leigh Ann was entirely different from her mother. She was forging her own path and didn't need the validation that her mother gave her to make it in the world.

He discovered her power on a cool day, one where the Army was having class outside, practicing dueling. They were in green, brown, and black camouflage pants with tan boots and brown t-shirts. Igor had been teaching a Dark Arts class, taking the fifteen men out towards the forbidden forest. Leigh Ann had stepped up and was ready to fight one of her fellow classmates when Igor decided to pass by.

"My, my, Professor Plum. How wonderful to see you again."

Viktor looked from Igor to this "Professor Plum" man and noticed that they were glaring at each other, though only slightly. "Igor. See you've moved up in the world." There was a slight accent in Plum's voice—it sounded almost Romanian.

"And you, still teaching dueling classes? Why don't we see how your students are doing? Let's say…the Champion against one of my better duelers?"

Leigh Ann looked slightly taken aback, lowering her holly wand and staring at her Professor, dumbfounded. "Sir, I'm not so sure if that's a good idea." She also looked slightly perturbed. Viktor felt the same way—why hadn't Igor let him duel Leigh Ann?

"Scared?" one of the men behind Viktor asked. Erik Gogil was standing there. He was as tall and broad as Viktor but with a better accent and lighter hair, eyes, and skin.

"In your dreams," she scoffed, reaching up to tighten her ponytail and wrap it up in a perfect bun. "In America, I could get sent to prison for fighting a civilian. I guess I'm not in America though. Professor?"

Plum looked apprehensive as Igor started whispering to Viktor about watching for weaknesses. Watching for common tactics and techniques. "Pick your target, Lieutenant."

She stretched her arms above her head. It made her breasts rise up tantalizingly under her nondescript brown t-shirt. "You—the one who asked if I was scared, I'll battle you, then." She tucked back in her shirt from where it had come out from her stretching, pulled out her wand, and stood in the clearing nonchalantly, looking slightly uncomfortable. "Are you consenting to combative training with a student from the American Academy of Magic? Do you understand that there will be no lawsuit that can be held against me with your consent?"

Erik would never back down from a fight and yet he looked hesitant. Igor roughly pushed him into the ring, making him stumble slightly, and he stood at the opposite end of the dueling space. "Da. Let us fight."

"You consent," Leigh Ann specifically said, cocking her head to the side.

"Yes, I consent."

"On my mark," Professor Plum said sharply, in a wimpy kind of voice that grated on Viktor's nerves. "Three…two…one…FIGHT!"

"Alarte Ascendare!" she barked in a bell-like tone. Erik dodged her move, sending a silent spell her way. A simple shield charm blocked it before she sent a curse at him, which caught on the edge of his cloak and exploded. The shield around her even seemed to keep out the bits of ground that flew her way—it was as if a giant bubble kept her safe. Even as she moved, smoke was pushed out of the way of her path.

Viktor watched with interest as they threw curses towards each other. He noticed that, even when she needed to be sneaky, she couldn't use nonverbal spells. It was a lesson taught in his third year—was she not in her fifth? It was very fast-paced, almost like this was more than practicing. Like it was real life combat. She held up well under pressure.

His eyes never left her body. He didn't let her voluptuous body ruin his concentration, he merely admired it as he watched. When she fought, her eyes were narrowed as if she were constantly anticipating anything and watching the entire battlefield. Sometimes the tip of her little pink tongue peeked out between her lips at the same time that her eyebrows came together. When she spoke an incantation, she dictated each word perfectly. She'd been trained well.

Leigh Ann pointed her wand at the sputtering Erik and barked, "Aqua Eructo!" The fire around him went out instantly and he was thrust into the air on a waterfall, staying airborne. Erik tried to fling his wand for a spell. She negated it with, "Finite! Glacius!" And, with that last spell, the entire pillar of water was frozen. Small wisps of ice tried to surround him and they succeeded as he could barely throw out a few more curses her way.

Fluid muscles moved in her legs and back as she rolled across the ground, dodging his curses with ease. "Bombarda!" she cried with a disgruntled look on her face, making the pillar of ice collapse, covering Erik completely. "Confun—"

"Enough!" Igor cried, and Leigh Ann crouched, throwing a shield around herself in panic. When she realized that she wasn't on a battlefield anymore she relaxed and stood . Erik, when he came out of the rubble irritably, was frosted over. He looked furious. "You've proved your point, Miss Nelson."

"That's Second Lieutenant, Headmaster," she said softly, seeming upset with herself. "I take my rank seriously, even if you and your men don't." She mumbled a spell that made a small towel come out from the end of her wand. She wiped her face to be rid of the gleam that had appeared during the conflict. Then, she looked at the position of the sun and said, "Now, if you'd excuse me, I have Study of Ancient Runes and Professor Boyle won't be too happy with me if I'm late."

She then waved her wand, gathering all of her things, and she trotted off towards her next class.

"Well I've never," Igor scoffed, and Viktor noticed that he was slightly red.

Me, either,Viktor thought, watching her hips sway enticingly as she walk away. Erik, soaked now and standing next to him, started grinding his teeth. Viktor looked over and said, "She warned you, Erik."

"Did you actually take her seriously?"

If she had been any other woman, then the answer would have been no. "Never doubt a woman in uniform."

"I ap-pologize for her h-horrible behavior, Headmaster," Professor Plum stuttered, looking paler than normal. "She's unruly and a behavioral issue!"

She followed her school's protocol and did what she was told. How does that make her unruly?

"With too much time on her hands, it appears," Igor growled as he too watched her walk away. "Perhaps you need to do something about that, Professor?"

"I can't take her out of any class. Her spare time is filled with homework and the Tournament, and as per the General's orders, I cannot take her away from Tournament duties. Believe me, I would have her working noon, night, and day if it were up to me, but it isn't."

Viktor noticed that some of Leigh Ann's fellow classmates didn't agree with this. They were glaring murderously at the Professor. It seemed that he wasn't a very well-liked man. They all started packing up and leaving, just like Leigh Ann had.

"We will be taking our leave now," Igor growled out, turning around. He then stormed off, as apparently that was his goodbye. He barked orders for the rest of them to follow. As soon as Viktor caught up with his Headmaster, Igor started talking. "Viktor, stay with me. Everyone else, leave us." He waited until they were all gone before speaking again, not looking at him. "She is more powerful than I would have thought from watching her."

Viktor instantly knew that he did not want to have this conversation. The dread that filled him told him as much. "I already knew that, Headmaster."

"You have been watching her, then, as well?"

Every chance he got. "Yes, sir." He hadn't bedded a single girl since he'd met her. He had tried to get away from all of the girls and focus on his studies. (One of those studies happened to be Leigh Ann.)

Igor didn't seem to notice his distraction. "Good. I have taught you well. Keep your enemies close, especially her. Use your charms to get under her skin. Try to befriend her."

He felt a cold sweat appearing on the back of his neck. "Sir, I—"

"I know that you have already tried. Though I noticed that you took a walk with her before Champions were announced. Attracted to her, are you?"

He hated admitting anything to his Headmaster. The fact that he could read so well into Viktor's strange attraction infuriated him. "She is very...beautiful."

"If you say so. Just make sure you can get all the information you can out of her. Make her think that she feels safe in your company. I want to know everything about her, every weakness, every…ah…Achilles Heel that you can find. Do you understand?"

Viktor contemplated telling Igor about her hip injury, but he knew that he had promised Leigh Ann that he wouldn't tell a soul or use it against her and Igor definitely would. And technically it isn't an Achilles Heel, right? It isn't the worst possible thing about her. It wouldn't be lying not to tell him. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Now leave me. I have work to do."