Alina
"The Mandrake plant has been used since ancient times and remains to be one of the most grown magical plants in Europe to this day. Can anyone tell me why the Mandrake is such an important plant," Durmstrang's herbology professor asked the class.
Yes, I could have told you what a Mandrake was used for in the first week of my second year! She screamed at the professor mentally.
"The Mandrake root contains a number of minerals used for painkillers and sedatives sir," a girl from Beauxbatons answered the professor.
"Right you are Miss Everest! Now, today we are going to learn about planting Mandrakes. So if you could all put on your earmuffs." Alina picked up the, stylish, earmuffs from the workstation and put them over her ears.
In their lesson on Mandrakes back at Hogwarts two people had passed out because of the Mandrake's cry and their neglection of their earmuffs. She secretly hoped it happened to someone again today, she could use a good laugh.
"Good, now watch me first and then follow my lead. First you want to throw a light amount of soil into your pot. Then you want to pluck the Mandrake out." Immediately every hand in the greenhouse went to cover their ears. Even with the earmuffs the sound of a Mandrake's cry was not a pleasant one.
Alina scanned the room to see if anyone looked pale or had passed out. Unfortunately people in this class seemed to all have a higher IQ than the two blokes in her class at Hogwarts had. Damn, oh well.
The professor continued, "then you just stuff the Mandrake into the pot and fill the rest of your pot up with soil! Now, go on and try it yourself."
Alina reached her hand into the barrel of soil at the center of her workstation, taking two large handfuls of dirt and tossing it into her pot. She made her way over to the garden the baby Mandrakes were currently planted and looked to see if any of them had three leaves.
Her potions end of year project last year had used a lot of minerals from Mandrakes last year and she knew from all of the time she spent dealing with them last year that the ones with three leaves grew much better than the ones with one or two. After a few seconds of scanning she found a small cluster of three-leafers and plucked one out of the ground.
The cry of the baby Mandrake was annoying but you quickly learned to put the sound out. She carried the small plant over to her station and tossed it into her pot before it managed to bite, wiggle, or scream itself away from her.
Kinda looks the professor. She thought to herself, and immediately found herself giggling a little at the thought. Durmstrang's herbology professor was about as ugly and dirt covered as any of these screaming Mandrakes were. If you stuffed him in a pot it might actually take a while for people to figure out he wasn't a Mandrake.
She reached back into the soil bag and slowly filled her pot up to the brim, thankfully quieting the screaming Mandrake inside. Around her other students were following suit and after few minutes the greenhouse was quiet once again. That is outside of the complaints and whimpers of a Durmstrang girl who had been bit in the finger by her baby Mandrake.
"Well done everyone! You will now be in charge of watering, changing soil, and grooming your Mandrake on your own until they are ready to be harvested. Any plants that die before harvest will see you a drop on your grade so be diligent! That will be all for today, you are dismissed!"
She tossed her earmuffs into the bin and pulled her bag over her shoulder before heading out of the greenhouse and onto the castle grounds.
It was a quiet dreary day outside, the literal calm before the storm. A blanket of grey clouds hung overhead, looking as if they could burst at any second. Normally on the crest of the hill that Durmstrang castle sat perched atop it was windy, but today the trees leaves stood still and the many flags on the castle hung un-waving. Both of them waiting for the winds of the storm looming to kick up.
Out of fear of the possibility of rain it appeared that the normal crowds of students that made camp out on the lawn in between and after lessons had decided to stay put inside today. Today only the few scattered trees, fountains, and crows could be seen out on the grounds.
She followed the stream of students making their ways from the greenhouse up towards the castle. She bumped her way through the crowds at the front entrance and squeezed through a group of Durmstrang students to get inside the dining hall. It appeared her class had been a little later getting out then everyone else's. Hermione, Harry, Marik, and Fleur were all already seated at their usual spot and already looked lost in conversation. Begrudgingly, she made her way over to them and headed down the side of the table Harry and Hermione were on.
"Hey," she mumbled as she took the seat next to Hermione. An empty plate appeared in front of her and she immediately started piling food from the nearby bowls onto it. Nothing made you hungrier than a boring Herbology lesson.
"Hey Alina, how was herbology?" Hermione asked her.
"Boring as usual. I swear I haven't learned a single new thing from any of these Durmstrang classes."
"I'm sure that's not true. And if it is then that's why you have all of our old notes," Harry replied.
"Yeah yeah, although you and Marik's penmanship is so bad that I'm spending half of my free time learning to read your writing instead of learning what you wrote about."
"Hey my penmanship is not that bad!" Marik tried to argue.
"Marik hun, a troll could write more legible than you," Fleur laughed.
"Wow! Let's see if I ever let you look at my notes again then!" Marik proclaimed, overly exaggerating the crossing of his arms in defiance.
"That's fine. Hermione will let me use her notes still," Fleur added, her usual flirtatious smile plastered on her face.
"So!" Alina interjected. "Are you all going to the our practice room after this?" she asked, changing the topic. She could use a could afternoon with her friends today.
"Oh sorry Alina I can't," Hermione said apologetically.
"What why not?"
"Fleur promised me yesterday that she would show me the antifire potion that she has been working on and afterwards I told her I would help her find a book for her charms project," Hermione answered.
"Me and Marik won't be able to make it to the room today either. We rented the viewing room today to watch the replay of the second task again. You're welcome to join us there if you want though," Harry added as he forked a bit of steak off his plate.
"What! Didn't you all watch the replay like two days ago?"
"Yeah we did. This time though we are only going to watch the other school's perspectives. We want to get a few more notes taken down," Marik answered her and grabbed a roll off the table.
"Watch as much as you like, there is no way you are beating Beauxbatons!" Fleur challenged.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, enjoy number one while you can!" Hermione quipped.
"So you going to come with?" Marik asked her as he stood up from the table.
"No thanks."
"Your welcome to come with me and Hermione if you want," Fleur offered.
"No thank you. I'll just see you all later," she sighed.
"Alright then, see ya later cuz," Harry bellowed with a wave as they all stood up and left her alone at the table.
Now alone, she craned her neck to get a good view of the Durmstrang table where Dedrick normally sat but did not see him there either. She had seen her boyfriend only sparingly since the end of the second task. Any free time Dedrick had was allocated to preparing and training for the third and final task of the Triwizards' Tournament. Their entire relationship by a week after the task was limited to quick kisses in the hallway between classes or a fast meal at the dining hall.
Looks like i'm flying solo today. . . as usual. She pushed herself up from the table, having lost her appetite, and slung her bag around her shoulder again as she left the dining hall.
With most of the castle's occupants in the dining hall the hall's of Durmstrang were just as quiet as the grounds of the castle were. Each sound of her footsteps echoed off the walls as she headed up the center stairwell of the castle and made her way to their usual practice room.
She closed the door to the room behind her and threw her bag onto nearby table before she sat down on the couch on the window side of the room. She had been looking forward to today for a while now. She had been putting off adding the next layer of her animagus ritual until after the second task, so that her friends could watch her without hurting their chances in the task by cutting into their preparation time.
However, finding free time with them even after the task was over was an impossible task and getting all of them together in the same room an even tougher task. Hermione and Fleur had apparently become best friends since the Yule Ball. Everyday they were either working together on something, going to the library to research something, or here in the practice room showing each other a new spell they had learned in a lesson.
The few times Hermione wasn't with Fleur she was with Harry. The two of them had become even more inseparable now that they were official and even though she was happy for the both of them she hated that their relationship and dates took away from the time she normally got to spend with them.
Harry was never free either. If he wasn't on a date with Hermione, he was either in class or preparing for the third task with Marik. Even with three months until the third task they weren't wasting anytime. Again, she was happy for them, and understood what they were doing, but still, she hated that the tournament was stealing them away from her so much.
And Marik, well, she didn't want to hang out with Marik. He was glued to the hip with Fleur and the more she was the two of them together the more pissed off she got. Even if she was supposed to be happy that her friend was happy with his new girlfriend, she wasn't.
So all in all you could say that Alina's life had become a lonely shade of grey, just like the clouds outside. Her third year was slowly starting to feel a little like her first year had. Most of her time throughout her first year, when she wasn't completely possessed by Voldemort, she had spent locked inside a practice room like this one, all alone.
"Well no since just wasting time feeling sorry for myself," she sighed out to herself and pushed herself up from the couch. She took out her wand from her robes and moved over to the center of the room.
She had been ready for the fourth layer of her animagus ritual for just about three weeks now. She had been preparing for it since adding the third layer shortly after the first task of the tournament and was confident that she could do it without any hiccups. Seeing Harry do his animagus transformation and rituals a countless number of times had only added to her confidence in comfortability with the magic.
Today she would be adding the body layer to her ritual. So far she had her arms, legs, and tail completed and down to where she could do it consistently. From all of her reading, research, and help from McGonagall and Harry she knew that the body layer was especially difficult because of all the animal instincts it released.
She would have to fight the natural instincts of a jaguar throughout the entire process and would have to keep her composure once she conjured this layer if she wanted to transfigure back without any injuries. With a final deep breath she cleared her mind of everything but the ritual, dropped to her knees and raised her wand.
Immediately the familiar sensation of her arms changing into their jaguar form swept over her and she allowed the magic to flow through her hands into the now present glowing ring around her body. As soon as her claws poked out and the last few hairs stood up she pushed her magic out further and drew out the second ring underneath her.
The always uncomfortable feeling of bones bending took ahold of her as her legs shortened themselves and shifted in their form. She focused on calming her breathing and maintaining her energy and focus as her legs quickly finished shifting. Next was the tail.
Even with having practiced this layer hundreds of times, growing a tail from nothing was something that was hard to get used too. As the third layer of her ritual drew itself under her she braced herself for the feeling. She did her best to maintain her focus as her tail sprouted out and slowly extended outwards and down to the floor. When it reached its peak length she took a few more moments to relax herself and prepare for her fourth ring.
With nothing but the image of a jaguar in her mind she began drawing the fourth ring, making sure to keep absolute focus on forming the ring. Quickly her body temperature began to rise as she felt millions of thin hairs trying to poke themselves through her skin. She could feel ribs bending and even her organs moving inside her stomach.
It took every ounce of strength she had left to keep herself from cutting off the ritual then and there, but she didn't. She stayed strong and grunted as the pain increased. Slowly her body molded into its animagus form. She could already feel the primal instincts quickly shooting messages into her brain and her senses changing their attunements. With each second it became harder to maintain her focus but thankfully she was nearly done.
The ring beneath her feet slowly came to a full circle and completed itself and with a final bright glow signaled that the fourth layer of her ritual was completed. With a sigh, groan, and a straining release of magic she ended her ritual and felt her body quickly alter back its form. With a soft 'clap' she fell from her knees to the floor, and lay there for a few moments just trying to collect her breath.
"I did it!" she announced to the empty room, her voice exasperated and full of heavy breaths. Both of her hands shot up towards the ceiling victoriously before falling back down to her sides.
As happy and proud of herself as she was the satisfaction of completing the fourth layer of her ritual it was a little watered down without the congratulations of her friends.
"Well. . ." she muttered as she sat upright, unsure of where to go or what to do from here. Adding her fourth layer to her ritual had been her only real plan for the afternoon. This was usually the spot where one of her friends would step in and start another project or something. She stared at the door of the room half expecting Hermione or Harry to bust in with a new spell that she needed help practicing. The door remained closed however. "Guess I should let McGonagall know at least."
She stood up and took a second to regain her center of balance. Too many times she had fallen flat on her ass from trying to move around too much after doing an animagus transfiguration. After she felt confident enough that she could keep her balance she grabbed her bag from the nearby desk and left the practice room.
Judging by the light shining in from all of the windows lining the hallways her time in the practice room had been short, which meant she still had a lot of time to kill today. Yay.
She made her way through the still empty halls of the castle towards the center stairwell again. Slowly, she progressed up the stairs to the owlery. Hundreds of owls of all shapes and colors were either perched in their nests grooming themselves or fluttering about around the large room. A particular pair of energetic owls seemed to be racing through the arches lining the side of the room, looping inside and outside each pillar they passed by.
A large grey-feathered barn owl hopped across the straw and stick covered floor of the owlery over to her. She opened up her bag to find a treat to give the owl. "Accio treat." A small owl treat flew out from somewhere in the darkness of her bag out into her hand. She crouched down to get closer to the owl and let it nip the treat out from her fingers. With a grateful hoot, almost as if the owl was saying thank you, the owl hopped closer to her.
"Give me one second to write the letter please," she pleaded to the owl with a soft smile. The owl gave her another hoot in response and began licking at its feathers while it waited patiently. She took out a piece of parchment and one of her quills and scribbled out a quick letter to McGonagall. She had promised the transfiguration professor to keep her posted of any progress on her animagus ritual.
McGonagall and her colleagues book was apparently coming along quite smoothly and both witches seemed to get excited at every bit of information they were given on her animagus progress. She was sure as soon as she got back on Hogwarts soil McGonagall would ask her for copies of each of her two new layers memories so that they could examine them over. She of course would oblige, after all, a book on animagus written by McGonagall had to be a gold mine of information.
After adding her signature she stuffed the letter into an envelope and gave the letter to the eager owl, who grabbed it in its beak. The owl instantly jumped off the floor and spread its wings wide as it flew out through two columns. She watched the owl as it grew smaller out in the distance, it's grey feathers blending in easily with the storm clouds.
"Now what?" she found herself mumbling the question again. She stood rooted to the floor of the owlery for a brief while, just staring at the owls around her.
All of the owls looked so peaceful, as if all was right in the world and not was wrong. They all seemed to have lovers or friends to nest with and each owl that flew in from outside seemed to have another owl anxiously waiting for them wherever they landed. Her already sour mood only seemed to sour more when she realised that she was standing there feeling jealous of owls. Shaking her head and her thoughts she turned towards the door of the owlery and headed back into the castle.
On days like today trying to kill time studying, practicing, or reading was pointless for her. During days like this one her mind was stuck in overdrive-overthink mode, with an endless stream of thoughts entering and leaving her mind every second. She knew that the best thing to do during days like today was to just hurry up and get to the next day, and the best way to do that was sleep.
She quickened her pace down the many flights of stairs leading from the owlery and made her way towards the Hogwarts quarters. The rain clouds outside seemed to have finally succumbed to the weight of the water and let loose. The sound of the pitters and patters of rain sounded from the sills of the windows lining each hallway's sides, muffling the conversations of the few students making their way through them.
She loved the sound of rain outside a window and was upset that her room here at Durmstrang did not have a window like the girl's dorm at Hogwarts did. Nothing beat laying under the covers and falling asleep to the sound of rain. At Durmstrang all she got to fall asleep to was the sound of her roommate, Renee Tailor's whispers as she read her books on the other side of the room late into the night.
Thankfully, for now, their room was empty. Renee, a Hufflepuff in the same year as her, had a cousin that went to Durmstrang and spent most of her time somewhere in the castle with him. Hopefully, she would be out for long enough that Alina could fall asleep.
Alina tossed her bag onto her desk and took of her school clothes. She found one of her favorite longsleeve Hogwarts shirts, that was about three sizes too big for her and donned it. After pulling back the covers of her bed and extinguishing all of the candles in the room she tucked herself in and pulled the covers over herself.
Going to bed before dinner time, how cool am I. She thought sarcastically to herself as she pulled her pillow tighter into her face and got comfy. Yawns came soon and before long the sleepy weights weighed down on her eyelids; soon after, sleep came.
~O~
The wooden floor creaked beneath the weight of the footsteps as the figure headed down the hallway. Each of the figure's footsteps was heavy, like they were walking with an intent and purpose. At the end of the hallway the door stood ajar, creaking a blindingly bright yellow light into the dark hallway and illuminating the shadows around the figure.
The figure's footsteps slowed as it approached the door and eventually stopped dead, only a few feet from the escaping light of the doorway. Like stone the figure stood still, waiting for something maybe? Or perhaps listening to something.
A sound other than the creaking of the floor echoed into the hallway. It was voices talking, words being exchanged from the room ahead. The figure cupped its hand around its ear and pressed it up against the door, trying to take in the conversation being exchanged on the other side of the light.
"So the plan is finally finished then?" one voice seemed to ask another in the room.
"We have prepared everything we can at this point," the other voice answered, its voice calm and unwavering.
"Is there anything else you think we need to cover?" another voice questioned.
"We have covered everything, come on it's time!" the first voice declared.
"Should we tell her?" the third voice asked, its voice almost a whisper.
"Why would we tell her?" the second voice asked in an almost jest.
The statement seemed to anger the figure listening at the door. Its grip tightened around the wand in its clutch. In a flash the figure swung the door open and illuminated the entire hallway in a flood of blinding green light. Wretched screams emerged from somewhere in the room beyond the light. Three flashes of bright green light momentarily illuminated the room and hallway before all of the light in the area seemed to disappear.
Only blackness remained. A small speck of white light appeared at the center of the room, hovering at the room's midpoint. The light was emerging from the figure's wand and was barely illuminating the now dark room. A satisfied smile could be seen under the hood of the cloak the figure was wearing as it looked down towards the ground, pleased at whatever it saw.
A long mane of twisted black hair ruffled itself down the back of the figure as it took of its hood and began laughing a sadistic type of laugh. Slowly the figure crouched down onto one knee, lowering its wand closer to the ground. Beneath the wand light three bodies lay sprawled across the floor, their eyes lifeless and unwavering, their bodies motionless. Dead.
~O~
"Holy shit!" she wailed out into the room, her voice full of panic and her body out of breath. Her hands were shaking violently and she could tell that her skin was soaked in sweat.
"You okay?" a voice asked from somewhere in the room, startling her even more. She turned her head quickly to see that it was Renee who had asked the question. That meant that she was in her room right now.
It was just a dream. It was just a dream Alina. She forced herself to take a few big gulps of breath to calm her nerves and put a stop to the shaking.
"Yeah, just had a bad dream," she stammered her reply out, her voice was still a bit shaky.
"I could tell. You were mumbling a lot under your breath and turning a lot in your bed. I was just about to come over there and wake you up," Renee replied, closing the book in her lap.
"I was mumbling? What was I saying?" she asked.
"No clue. Here." Renee made her way across their small room and handed her a towel and a glass of water. "Drink," she ordered. Alina followed Renee's orders and took a big sip from the glass. The water felt cool as it went down her throat and seemed to calm her down a bit.
"Thanks," she started as she wiped her brow with the towel, "what time is it, do you know?"
"A little after nine," Renee answered her and made her way back over to her bed and opened her book back up, "so you still have plenty of time for more sleep."
"Yeah, no. I think I'm done with sleep tonight." She downed the rest of the water Renee had given her and set the glass on her nightstand. Her shirt was sticking to her sweaty skin as she moved. "I'll be right back, gonna take a quick shower." She got out of her bed and grabbed her shower bag off of her nearby dresser. She felt gross from all of the sweat.
There was no way in hell she would be able to fall asleep after a dream like that. Never had she had a nightmare as real as that one. Whatever her brain had dreamt up in that dream it had mentally shook her in her core. Her hands were still quivering and her mind was still racing. No, for the rest of the night she would be forcing herself to stay awake with a book or something, which of course was the 'perfect' way to end a 'great' day like today. Yay.
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