Harry Potter and Big Sister
Chapter 7: First Night and First Day
After the opening feast, Aisha was led by McGonagall to her personal quarter in the castle. The chamber was on the third floor, barely high enough from the ground to enable the occupant to glance from window over the castle wall and see the Forbidden Forest looming in the distance. Inside the chamber itself is quite small, devoid of any decorations save for one empty bookcase, one suitcase, a working desk plus few seats and one couch, a fireplace for communication with other staff member and some Wizarding house out of Hogwarts.
Interestingly, most of the staff member have accessed to their own bedroom and shower, however, for Aisha's room, there's only shower but not bedroom, not because the Ministry's meddling or bias toward the background-less teacher she is, but it's just personal request to Dumbledore from habit instilled upon herself during the darker day that never died out after the war in her homeland. As a reminder of what she has been through during her youth, of all the suffering and pain that bring about world peace at the end, so that she'll never forget.
For other teachers, as well as any students who saw her room would've called it Spartan, but for Aisha, this made her feel right at home…
After McGonagall leave her to her own devise and went back to her own room, Aisha observe the long couch at the side of one wall, it was long and comfort enough to be her makeshift bed, finding a blanket and it's good to go, something that she already has in her backpack…
Suddenly, her body tensed up as her sharp sense detected something that shouldn't belongs to Hogwarts or Wizarding world so far, but something familiar with her many years ago. She whirled around in her room, eyes narrowed down peered the dimly lit room with only candle on her desk illuminating the chamber until she found the abnormality in question…
Right in the center of her room there was a whirlpool of darkness and glowing faint blue light emitting from it, it was about the size of a fist at first before started expanding outward until it's roughly the size of small desk, then a metallic-white-cylindrical object slowly rising up from it…
Instinct told Aisha that this's one form of instant transportation, or teleport, something which shouldn't be possible to do inside Hogwarts, let alone from outside into the Hogwarts itself without using floo network, this proving fact in front of her will sure make whoever wrote the 'Hogwarts: History' rolling around in shame, however that's not her concern right now.
The short-cylindrical object rose up fully seconds later, revealing its full body for her to see, four metallic crab-like limbs extended from its underbelly on four sides standing on the now normal stone floor after the strange portal disappeared, there's one green 'eye' dotted on its otherwise smooth surface of its upper body which height around her hip, turning around in full circle as if to collect details of its surrounding, before it finally fixate on Aisha herself.
Slowly, its spider limbs started crawling toward her, the green orb that was its eye looking at the kneel down form of the only living in the room the whole time until it was right next to her.
Aisha quirked her eyebrow curiously, not that because she never seen this thing before, but she curious as in how could it come here in the first place. But before she can contemplate more about it, the metallic spider opened its flat-top surface like a hatch, revealing a glass, or rather camera, pulling up with mechanical lever to level with Aisha's face, then from its hatch, a light shine out, forming a colored picture of a woman's head in the air, judging by her facial structure, she looks like teenage girl with blue markings on both of her cheeks right below her pair of golden eyes, a large, blue crystal-like orb encased in gold on her forehead peeking out from her short white-grey hair which tied up in two buns around where her ears supposed to be, and a silver tiara on top of her head.
Aisha gasped in surprise as the puzzles about this machine's appearance pieced together, she smile at the picture-hologram of the white haired girl, who, for some reason, as if she acknowledge the Defense Professor's action, smiled back, before a woman voice in her own language laced with both uncertainty and curiosity come out from the machine-spider's speaker as the lip of the woman in the hologram moved. '-Greetings, Aisha, can you hear me?-'
Without hesitation, without caring whether this chamber has any observation contraptions around or not, (well, she doubt it, as she's quite a good judge of character after all the experience she had, Dumbledore wasn't someone to do this. And if other party tried to eavesdrop her conversations, well, they won't understand a single word anyway as they're now using their own language.) She replies with a mocking smile. "Yes, I can hear your sound clearly, Your Highness…"
The smile widen a little, the golden eyes peered into Aisha's purple orbs examining each other before the woman in hologram speaks again, this time her voice carried joy of success and relieve along. '-I'm glad that this experiment is a success, the probability of failing was so high that I really had to programmed this Nasod scout drone to recognize you on its own and assist you autonomously if the commands and communications from this side cannot reach it, but I guess I'm worrying too much when what I did just expand what you already succeeded in making it happened, you have my regards, my friend.-'
'-Oh, and by the way-' her face turned into a small frown before it vanished second later, replaced with a small mocking smile '-You don't need to call me that, I may be the Empress of the Nasod now, but you're still my friend, and that'll never change. Call me Eve as same as you and everyone always do during our adventure… would you please?-'
Aisha chuckled a little when recalled what 'high probability' means in Eve's definition… 33% percent is considered 'high risk' for her already, still she shook her head and answer. "OK Eve, but for throwing all the credit of this creation to me I cannot accept that, not when you're as much responsible for making it this far, perhaps you haven't realized that this conversation between us in real-time means you just successfully created a trans-dimensional communication device. Something that shouldn't be possible considered the massive energy involved…" She trailed off, looking at the hologram of her old friend curiously "Speaking of which, how could you done it?"
The white haired girl let out a smirk before replies vaguely, but still enough for genius like Aisha to grasp what she was talking about. '-Just putting some space-time magic study notes that you did halfway through before you go down the Adept of Nature's path to use, it's quite energy conservative I might add, I thought that you still able to use some aren't you? Else how could you get there…-'
"I see…" Aisha nodded in understanding before her friend's words sparks another matter to ask the other side. "How's the alternative energy project's going there after I left? And how's your subjects' doing, your Highness?" She couldn't help but giggled a bit.
Eve's face now changed expression into that of a prideful leader at the question and stated proudly, ignoring the honorific Aisha called her despite telling her not to just a while earlier. '-As smoothly as one can get, the alternate sources to the El crystals proved more sustainable and renewable, particularly the sunlight and Cold-fusion reactor which will never run out for many millions years to comes…-' Then her smile dropped a little. '-But our Nasod technology still in its infancy regarding harnessing the power of the sun, or any renewable energy sources for that matter, however, as our works poured into this branch of research instead of military like in the past, we're expecting to see more better cost-effective solution soon.-'
Aisha replies back, starring at her friend's hologram in awe, from the last battle they fought she changed so much, even though they still saw each other many times during the post-war recovery, it still impressed her whenever she think about it, that this Nasod girl will turned into such benevolent leader of her entire race in such a short time, and her claim that she doesn't have emotion got thrown out of the windows despite how she behaved the first time they met. "That's the far-sight you have there, Eve, such energy source means conflict over such matter will not arise again."
'-Your praise flattered me, Aisha… but it because we all worked together that finally bring peace to our world at last which made such large scale R&D possible, I won't dare to claim that it was entirely my doing.-' Eve replied honestly, her pale face had a shade of pink as if in embarrassment, which somewhat ridiculous, for she's synthetic and not organic being.
"Indeed, Eve… indeed…" Aisha muttered, her face brighten with happiness at the thought that at least the sacrifice they've made during the darker day will not be in vain anymore, seeing that the dead's loved one can lived their live their life in harmony, not anymore they'll have to hide whenever siren went up, not anymore their children be drafted into military due to shortage of manpower and the battle drew close, her homeworld was finally in peace…
But not Harry's world…
'-So, can you tell me more about this… 'world' you and my little Scout on?-' Eve's question snapped Aisha out of her thought, she looked back at the hologram only to find that the Empress of Nasod now has a curious look on her face while peering around the same time that the scout drone moving its eyes around the room. '-Sensors from the Drone indicated some kind of energy reading, magic if the sensor did not malfunctioning, it's not yours signature at all, so…-'
"Wait…" Aisha interrupt, cause the Empress to turn to look at her. "…you say my magic signature is it? Is that how you could track me down this fast and send the Scout Drone exactly where I'm at?"
Eve blinked a few time before replies '-Yes, I tracked your magic signature from this side before inputting coordinates to get the scout through, is there anything wrong with that?-'
"No… just, I never thought that you can even sense that and applies it for practical use…" Aisha sidestepped the question because answering them would bring out more worms from the can, her friend haven't realized yet that she just made whoever created the defensive mechanism of Hogwarts rolling in their graves within the span of less than a minute the moment she sent this Nasod Scout Drone to her, and said Drone still functioning in front of her without alerting anyone in the school ground at all is even more of a testament to that achievement as well!
'-We Nasod never sense,-' Eve chided with amusement in her voice '-I've told you before, we simply detect, collect data, analyze and then produce result… but enough of that discussion…-' she cut the teasing short and went back to where they left off '-If my memories was correct, you said that this world you trapped in seven years ago do not have any form magic? Then why there is this magical signature on the drone's sensor? Yes, I know it is…-' her slender hand with gold-silver bracelet on the wrist showed up on a hologram signified Aisha to held back her question and let her finish explanation first '-Nasod Scout Drone is called Scout for a reason Aisha, it can distinguish every types and forms of energy with advanced sensor array installed on them, since the data it sent back to me now isn't any conventional energy, be it heat, chemical, I can only presumed that it's magic.-'
Her golden eyes narrowed down on Aisha who never once averts her friend's gaze even under such inquisition. '-So, what's going on out there? Did you find your long lost little brother yet? And can you show him to me?-'
The purple-haired girl sighed, one hand started nudging her forehead as if she had a headache, but to Eve, she know that her friend now forming an answer in her mind and from the frown on her face she somehow has a strange feeling that this might not be a good one, which was proven true once Aisha opened her mouth once more…
"Eve, it's in the midnight on this side, everyone were sound asleep already." Aisha stated, lowered her hand and started rubbing her ponytail absently "As for the question regarding magic earlier, it's a long story, you better free up some processors and memory core, this will take a while… and I want your opinion on the matter as well… as the old saying 'Sharing the problems to your friends and you might find some better solutions you never thought about'…"
'-Despite it was not even two months after you departed there and you've got yourself into another mess again hmm?-' The Nasod Empress mused while closed her eyes, before opened it again, looking at Aisha with interest and replied in sing-song voice. '-I'm all ears, bring it on…-'
It was an hour later and one in the morning that Aisha finally finished her story regarding Harry and the state of this world she currently in, she was so thirsty from the explanation that she had to excused herself to get a glass of water, which, of course, the Nasod Drone decided to followed her obediently, not her order, but the Empress's…
Not that Eve particularly interested in Aisha's thirst for water though, she just want to keep an eye out for her friend because she know all too well that in such relaxing atmosphere and the security of Hogwarts castle, even the most venerable soldier will drop their guard, although Aisha herself may not be that careless, but as a friend, she still felt that this's necessary when her friend was inside unknown territory.
Right now, the Empress of Nasod brought her hand to her chin, her eyes did not stared at anything in particular, deep in thought from information she just received, until Aisha finished drinking her water and called her out that she returned to the reality.
The first word came out from one of the most powerful woman, or rather, robot, on Elrios, their homeworld, was not advice, but mocking laced with amusement. '-Perhaps you should consider revaluating your… as human called it, luck? Because so far it seems to give you nothing but thrown you into the worst situation you could've imagined if you keep using this criteria.-'
Aisha sarcastically laughs back. "Ha,.. Ha… that's really funny Eve…"
Eve's face turned serious in an instant, her golden eyes shone a light of wisdom fitting for ancient being such as her, signifying that she's not fooling around anymore but going to give Aisha straight-to-the-point opinion, from logic-driven machine race's perspective, because that's what Aisha always relied on her, well, mostly at least... '-For now, your movement will be limited, unless the Wizarding world opens their eyes to face the truth, there's not much you can do on your own… not even with this Dumbledore backing you and your little Harry up-'
Aisha remained silent and started contemplating on what the Nasod Empress just said, while also listening to more and more comments coming from the other world '-As for the teaching, I heard that there're some of the well-known enemies' spawns among the students, it may ruined your reputations a little, but I suggest that if you really determined to go along with this Professor Dumbledore's request, teach them basic, nothing advance like what you could do, or even their own magic arts… yes, I won't be surprised that you've acquired some of their arts already, from what I heard from your stories, these arts are much, much weaker than ours, or yours, but that's what made it widespread and accessible to many people not limited to selected few like us right?-'
Aisha nodded at the question but says nothing.
Eve chuckled a little and then continues with a thoughtful look. '-Furthermore, they're like what Elrios's magicians in ancient time were, where the man grew arrogant with their gift of power, when ancient Nasod were at war with human, they'll be… what should you call?... hmm…-'
"Squishy Wizard? Glass Cannon?" Aisha offered her opinion.
'-Yes, that's what even ancient Nasod like us called them during that time…-' Eve nodded in approval of Aisha's word, which is quite ironic, because that's what Aisha EXACTLY was long ago.
But now? Because the insistence of her boyfriend, Elsword, along with everybody else in their group during their journey that convinced her to started practicing martial arts regularly along with arts of arcane she already learned.
Now, at least she can hold her own in CQC despite being a magic user. Of course, she still cannot compete with Elsword or Chung, Ara and Raven when it come to a real fight, but for someone who neglected physical training during younger day where it can affect the growth of human body and in turn, any ability that required physical strength and body flexibility, this's an achievement in itself already, not mention that at least even though those examples above still win against her, it still a stiff fight where one mistake or underestimation and they'll be down by Aisha as well.
Still, back to the subject at hand, what Eve said is true, statistically, in term of raw power alone, Aisha already outclassed most of Wizarding World by a wide margin, and that's before Eve factored in her ability to lend the power of Nature to aid her.
Unsurprising for the Nasod Empress to reached such conclusion, since every single books Aisha read up until now (and passed along the knowledge to Eve in the earlier conversation) included those from restricted section of the library, and not even one contained any subject regarding 'concept' of the magic itself, relies only on individual's power and talents which was the cause for some incredibly talented people among their ranks to become nigh-unstoppable like Voldermort and Dumbledore since no one ever care to push their study of magic further, they only know that it worked but know not why it worked or what the principle behind its mechanism.
Those resulted in limited power and creativities of applying their magic, which in turn limited their capabilities to unable to surpass what their predecessor who invented those spells and charms or potions for use as well.
And if the part about 'magic in the air disrupt technology and electricity's function' in Hogwarts is true, then even Eve and any Nasod were included in the list of 'outclassed Wizarding magic practitioners' as well since the Scout Drone here defied the part that 'technology doesn't work in Hogwarts' already.
Aisha then said "So, I guess I can only teach them the basic of the basic, maybe like P.E. class to improve their body and then practice quick thinking, or tactics, and mental disciples after all…"
'-You already thought it out, weren't you, then why asked my opinion again?-' Eve asked back, her eyes showed a little curiosity.
"Well, I never thought about those reasons you mentioned before, just that the curriculum were all messed up in the position I took that I basically have to start from scratch, else the students might as well never learn anything at all once the year ended." Aisha explained and adds. "But then again, thanks for that, Eve, else I would've overlooked them…"
"Still…" Aisha continued "…what about our friends in Elrios? How did they fare in this past month?"
The Empress let out an assuring smile before replies in pleasant tone. '-Do not worry much, my and Pongo people just finished another solar plant aimed to increase the power output for everyone here in Alteria, Raven showed up time to time with his Black Crow to resupply their air fleet patrolling and quelling any monster rampage all across the world… good thing is, even when he forced to overextend his fleet to save two cities from monster attacks once, they still managed without casualties… Seems he still retain those experience of leadership and command…-'
'-Chung and his Hamel city is fine, from the latest message he sent me periodically at the end of the month, the city have rebuilt nicely, thanks to the video feed we invented… Rena still travelling around Elrios, searching and preserving any non-hostile non-corrupted wildlife… she still wrote to us by parting message to any travellers she came across though…-'
The lists of her old friends went on and on, one by one, concluded with Eve finally promised she'll relay her message to tell their friends that she's fine on this world, but before the Empress could cut the feed, Aisha suddenly noticed something that Eve forgot to tell her.
"Wait, what about Elsword? How's he doing now?"
The Empress of Nasod raised her hand to cover her mouth and started giggling at the expense of Aisha's face turning into a shade of pink '-Ah, worrying about your boyfriend?-' noticing the girl now flushed red, she stopped teasing and give Aisha an honest answer, while still suppressing her laughter to a mere annoying smirk. '-Don't worry about him, he's fine, still practicing swordplay all the same…-'
Aisha's face turned a bit sad before Eve continues with a slight hint of pity in her voice. '-But that's because it was the only thing that could occupied his mind and stopped him from worrying about you.-'
That made the girl perked up at the comment and pays more attention to the Empress who started to explain. '-You know, even though he's the one who's the most steadfast in telling you to keep promise to the boy you all met, he didn't expected you to went there alone, and it was foolish of you to leave such a note stating that the procedure to transport you there were untested so you're the only one who'll risked your life, it only made him worried more, not the opposite.-'
Aisha's face sunken lower and lower at each word from the Empress, but then Eve did a 180 degree turn and decided to tease her friend again. '-You know, it seem what Rena told me was right, you're still amateur when it comes to liking someone…-'
The one who get teased huffed in annoyance before shaking her head and breathed in and out hard until finally calm down, and then she smiled back at Eve who saw everything but not saying a word, not even changing her expression, and replies the Empress with a sigh of defeat. "I guessed you and Rena were right, heh… I'm really amateur when it comes to admit… that… to Elsword…"
Eve let out a sigh of haplessness at the girl, of course, even machine like her knew that this isn't the topic that can solve by a third party, Aisha and Elsword must do it alone without interference, so she decided to cool down a little '-Never mind about him, I'll pass along your message telling him that you're fine, oh, and since the first test of sending my Scout Drone there a success, the research must continue further until we can repeat the same feat with human or organic without consequence. I'll notify you when it was ready, and when to send Elsword to…-'
She trailed off, the hologram became blurry and stuttered, the white haired Empress quickly says one last parting word '-It seem the reserve energy is running low, don't worry about the Nasod Scout, its other function still fine, only cannot contact me until the reserve energy built up again, Good bye, Aisha, I'm sure everybody here miss you…-'
With that, the hologram fizzles and vanished, then the transmission ended, the Nasod Scout slowly close the communication hatch while Aisha, still starring at where the image of her friend once there, muttered softly. "I missed you all too…"
The Nasod Scout Drone looking at the purple-haired girl, its emotionless mono eye gaze upon the longing expression marred its new master's face asking for further instructions as its true master placed it under her care, and it'll continue to stare like that had Aisha not wiped off her tear and gave it its first order, or rather, first question. "OK, what's your name?"
"-TK-421, Sir…-"
Aisha yawned, and then instructed TK-421 Nasod Scout Drone in sleepy voice while pulling out a blanket from her backpack and move to the couch. "You may explore this castle of Hogwarts if you feel like it or if its Eve's order, however, do not venture outside the castle wall… Do not let someone else see you… they might panic and call security… oh, and try saving up energy too, we may need to contact soon."
"-Understood…-" was all Aisha could heard before she plummet into the soft, warm makeshift bed and fell fast asleep into the dreamless night… uncared where the Drone will venture out anymore, since she know all too well that it'll come back to her room eventually… and confident that it have enough intelligence to not get caught that easily…
Confident that born from her own experience regarding them… the long scar covering the entire length of her right arm which covered with her long, white sleeve jacket is one of such proof…
The next day…
Harry's mood couldn't get any worse once the time passed until lunch break, first Seamus, then nearly every single Merlin-be-damned student of Hogwarts trying to avoid him like he was a plague, some of them huddled up together in his presence as if they were school of fish trying to fool the shark into not attacking them, gossips everywhere he went, and from the glares they shot at him, it was probably something regarding those articles in Daily Prophet.
Harry now realized that it was one thing to know that you've been targeted by someone who wished to ruin your reputation, but to witnessed its effects on the populace, especially his former friends who shunned away from him thanks to believing in those lies made him furious as much as, if not more than insulting him directly in his face or hearing the insults of his friend.
The only thing keeping him from retort back at those who reacted to his presence like he'll spring up and attack the one nearest to him was what his Big Sister Aisha told him earlier on the train yesterday to not let his emotion controlling his actions, something he regret doing after a 'little' quarrel session with Seamus Finnican last night, now even some Gryffindor had a weird look whenever he appeared within their earshot.
It was clear right now how secluded the Wizarding world toward others in general are, as they're ready to believed whatever Daily Prophet and their government told them without suspicion, no asking questions about whether what they told them are true or not because there's no other sources for them to ask around, it somewhat made him angry, but at the same time, feeling pity to those who enclosed themselves in the Wizardkind.
His musing was cut short, once nearby seat was taken by Ron, who begins complaining about their loads of homework that, just over the span of first half of the day, began piling up to proportion never before seen, Snape's potion essay, Binn's war with the Giants essays which isn't any shorter, let alone easy, until Hermione sat down near the redhead and shut him up by telling them to better study hard least they'll fail O.W.L.
Then another redhead of the Weasley, Ginny took seat opposite of him which reminded Ron about her schedule that she has Defend Agaist the Dark Arts this morning, so the first question out of his mouth was "How's the lesson with Aisha, Ginny?"
Now that Ron mentioned it, Harry glanced at the teacher's table where many of the teaching staffs were eating at the moment, he never saw Aisha during this morning at all, not even once she appeared in any hallways or walking around the castle, as if she just disappeared from Hogwarts, or that she doesn't wanted to associated herself with him, since it still plausible after all considered that she's now teacher, not Big Sister anymore, doing so will only convinced her students that she'll bias toward the house of Lion. But that didn't stop him from worrying about her since she never showed up at all.
Ginny didn't notice the worrying look on Harry's face, so she just replies to her brother. "Well, it's unfortunate that she can't teach any spell thanks to Fudge's meddling, heck, she even showed us the Decree from Ministry as a proof to shut some classmates from Ravenclaw up! And it worked…"
Hermione snorts in anger at those words. "How long Ministry going to keep doing this? Its education of their own children that's suffering, is this price worth paying for chasing out Dumbledore out from Hogwarts?"
Harry contemplated it a few second before replies back bitterly. "I guess that it worth it in their eyes since they thought that Voldermort is truly gone…" he lowered his voice a little "… so they were convinced that there's nothing that require self-defense or DADA, so Dumbledore cannot use it as a façade to build up his force, wait… I thought we all went through this subject before, when Sis showed us that letter…"
Ron sighed before turned back, focusing his mind on munching the boiled potato as hard as he could, while Ginny just shrugged and continues where she left off when she saw that most of the group has cool down enough to listen. "Back to Professor Aisha, I can't say much, only that she'll likely subjected you all to a test first…"
"Test!" Ron exclaimed in desperation, accidentally throwing potato in his fork up in the air and landed on one of the student who just entered the hall, as if all hope in the world crashing down leaving only bad luck for the poor soul like him. "As if we don't have enough homework, now test from that girl, in the first day no less?"
Then he breathing in and out, as if to calm himself down, meanwhile, Harry didn't let the opportunity to slip, as he quickly asks the redhead girl "Ginny, what kind of test she's going to let us do?"
That earned him a disapproval look from Hermione instantly, she glared in disdain while scowls at him. "Really? Harry, have you ever thought that 'test' is an objective that you must achieve by yourself, and that doing this is cheating right?"
"Yeah, look at when we tried to get to the sorcerer stone in year one, like it's a test that designed for one man to pass…" Harry countered, earning himself a satisfied smirk when he saw Hermione worked her mouth but no voice because she know all too well that it was true, the traps Dumbledore and his school's staffs set up will be unable to pass alone, unless cheating like Quirrel and Voldermort who resorted to asking everyone who had a hand in designing it in the first place.
Ginny tried to sooth the tension by assuring the Prefect of Gryffindor "Don't worry, even if I wanted to tell you what she tested, I can't anyway…"
"Why?" Ron exclaimed in surprise.
"Because the test…" Ginny frowned at that word, her eyes narrowed down as if she couldn't form up an explanation and then resorted to replies vaguely "…you've to see it by yourself, I cannot described it, because even now I still don't understand one bit about what she aimed to asked us in the paper, it's not any DADA subjects, or any subjects we've learned so far at all, I assured you that."
"Is it some kind of magic theory?" Hermione asks, suddenly looked worried and glancing around as if she was about to break the rule or something like that, earning the redhead girl's giggle.
"It's not that Hermione…" replied Ginny after she calmed down "…like I said, you've to see it yourself, that is, if she's going to test you at all, but one for sure is that she made up for the lack of books by asking us to get optional reading regarding hexes and curses, that's all I can say now, well, we better hurry, class will begin in 15 minute now, we don't wanted to be late right?"
Looking at the clock in the main hall, Hermione grasped when what Ginny said was true and quickly indulge herself into what she need to eat, Harry, although doesn't minded that much about his class since the next one for him is Divination where Professor Trelawney will guarantee to give him a prediction regarding his death, something which he found ridiculous and regret about why he select this subject during second year in the first place, and Ron also not thought about Trelawney in a much better light either, something that both of them agreed…
The hour spent during Divination passed slowly, they have to read the stupid book regarding interpreting dreams, and then decided to let students put it into practices which doesn't yielded much result. Worse still, Trelawney insisted on giving them homework of recording their own dream for 1 month straight, as if the homework from Professor Snape and Binn not already piling up on them.
At least, the next class is something that might be more bearable, Harry thought optimistically, she's his Big Sister after all, so she might not be too harsh on student right? Apart from this 'Optional reading' there shouldn't be much to learn, as she's redundant to part her arts, and Wizarding arts are forbidden by the Ministry itself.
It seemed that the trio was the first one to arrive at the DADA class, the first one literally, as the room was empty at the moment save for a pile of paper on teacher's desk, and one purple haired girl sitting there, eyes closed, like a statue waiting for her students to arrive…
Unsure whether to wake her up or not, Harry and Ron, who still standing outside classroom, looking at each other before turning to Hermione as if to ask for her opinion, something that she didn't have, so they all agreed without the need to communicate that they should proceed to the student desk and wait.
However, once they were about to enter, Aisha suddenly speak up while her eyes still shut "Madam Umbridge, if you're really here to observe my class then please don't sneak up on my students, that's unacceptable for the representative from Ministry of Magic."
Harry, Ron and Hermione nearly jumped at those words, they turned around only to meet with the smiling toad-like face of the woman from Ministry behind them, in her usual ugly pink dress no less! As quickly as they can, the trio moved away from the woman as if she's a plague or something undesired, but Umbridge paid them no heed while she greet the current DADA Professor with her pretended-to-be-sweet voice that couldn't fool anyone. "Ah, I'm sorry about that Miss Aisha, but you see, I just arrived and noticed that you're sleeping, so I decided to wait in nearby room until these children come about…"
"I'm not sleeping or napping if you're suspecting it, Madam…" Aisha explained slowly while opened her eyes to look at the trio who sat down next to each other at one side of the room, ignoring Umbridge's giggle. "… 'Meditation' is what I was doing at the time…"
"I'll still call it napping, Meditation is just an excuse for someone to nap after all." Umbridge chided, while looking at the oncoming students of fifth year for support of her claim "Right Students? Meditation is napping…"
Unfortunately for the Toad lady, the students who just entered the room in dozen has no idea what she was talking about at all and turned to asked their friends, something along the line of "Medic what?" or "Madation, what kind of spell is that Madam?" And the questions would've continue for hours if not because the sound of metal ramming into stone floor, the same noise they heard during the opening feast, echoed throughout the hallway again.
All students look upon teacher's desk and gulped at the long-smooth, metallic silver staff that unwrapped from the rag that once covered in their soon-to-be teacher's hand, while the teacher herself glancing her purple eyes around and slowly speaking "You're nearly late for the class, please take seat so we can begin… You too Madam Umbridge…"
Even though she looked younger, the students mass can only complied, even Slytherin's fifth year, the one which shared the same class as Gryffindor who detested someone as background-less as her decided it would be wiser to shut up and do as she asked. Umbridge sat on the furthest seat while giggling without respect to the young teacher.
Seeing that the room now filled with students Aisha raised up on her feet behind her desk and declared "Welcome to Defend Against the Dark Arts class, as you may recalled from yesterday, my name's Aisha, your teacher regarding this subject for this year…"
Noticing several students from house of serpent that seem to not caring or paying attention to her, Aisha narrowed her eyes down on them, and their friends decided to alerted them once they noticed the glare in seconds, which quickly averted the girl's gaze, and then she continues. "…You may call me Professor Aisha, even I don't mind if you'll just call my name, but doing so mean that you don't have any respect toward someone who's going to give you knowledge…"
"Speaking of Knowledge, I'm going to teach you how to defend yourself from danger outside this castle wall, regardless whatever it may be… what is it, Madam Umbridge?" Aisha suddenly paused once she notice the pudgy, short stump that is the hand of representative of Ministry shot up in the air behind all other students, causing them to turned their attention toward her.
"Ahem, I think you're mistaking, Miss Aisha…" Umbridge spoke with a sly smile "…What Exactly this danger you're talking about? There's nothing out there that threaten us…"
Aisha shot the woman a glare of steel, something that even Umbridge cannot stand up to and like everyone before, avert her gaze, before the teacher explain slowly to the Ministry representative. "Right now, your Aurors or officers may do well to contain and stop the treats, creating this safe haven for these children, but they're people, people get old, sick and die eventually, and once they're gone, who will replace them to continue protecting your world if not one of the many children sitting here in this room? Your argument that teaching them self-defense is useless… is invalid Madam…"
Umbridge's eyebrows quirking a little, her mouth closed shut, gritting her teeth, she decided to lowered her hand and said in defeat, only because she couldn't counter without making a fool of herself. "I've nothing to ask anymore, Miss Aisha, continues…"
Harry, who was nearly jump up and retort to the Toad lady, which was surely get him into a detention or some punishments silently smirked at the beat down his Sister delivered to her, knowing it or not, Aisha just made the Toad Lady took her words back, the words that tried to shut down DADA class and make children become incompetent fool when the situation that require whatever they need to learn from this subject arise.
"This class may have almost no wandworks or I can teach you any spells, thanks to the Ministry's decree…" Aisha scowled at that, clearly made her opinion about it known to the class. "…but that doesn't mean you can neglect researching and reading about curses and counter curses in the list that I'll provide to all of you, these books can be found in the library of Hogwarts, in enough number for you all to borrow, just make sure you return them after you've done reading them, or I'll not responsible for any punishment Madam Pince will carry out on you."
Then the entire class let out a collective sigh once Aisha rise one paper titled 'Optional reading for year 5 student of Defense Against the Dark Arts' for the whole class to see, but that doesn't continue for long as Aisha slammed her staff down again before continues. "And I'll check your progress by asking you to perform it in front of the class regularly, as I said before 'your action today dictated the future' so it'll show if you've done what I ask or not." She smirked at the grunting sound from the student bodies, and the widen eyes of Toad… Umbridge as if she didn't expect her to sidestepped the Decree by such method of self-study.
But there was nothing she can do at the moment, so Umbridge grudgingly let Aisha continue her speech while mentally noted that she must owl the Ministry ASAP.
"And that did not mean you can skip my class either!" Aisha's voice echoed through the chamber, drawing attention back to her once more "…even you have to self-study regarding spells, there still more matters for us to learn, and practice, even you cannot practicing spell in my class due to the Ministry's Decree, you still have to strengthen your bodies, think of it like a Physical Education class… and also, you have to train your mind to become focus, these two is what we're going to work on this year, any question?"
No one dare to question her, no voice came out, not because they're busy laughing at the diminutive Professor, not because they do not listen to her, but her voice of authority and confidence drowned out any complains, any suspicion completely that they cannot do anything but nodded and accept her word.
However, one certain student, Draco Malfoy, did not take it well with those many ridiculous orders she told them, especially ordering someone of nobility as himself around! So he rose up from his seat quickly gathered stares from everyone, then questioning the supposedly Mudblood teacher loudly and disrespectfully despite already getting stare down by the same teacher before. "So, that's what you're supposed to teach us? You're just some Mudblood child with no background sent to teach us… that Decree is just an excuse for you to not casting spell in front of us right?"
Cried of anger arose in the instant, most of Gryffindor students present do not take it well for such blatant disrespectful Malfoy displayed, let alone calling their new teacher Mudblood! which never once occurred before. While Slyterin quickly rose to support Malfoy's claim, jeering and insulting the teacher for her heritage despite knowing absolutely nothing about her! As they thought that someone as influential, as noble and pureblood like Malfoy house wouldn't lie about something important like this, they, as one of the oldest pureblood Wizard, knew who's pureblood or not.
Aisha slammed her staff down the floor once more, silencing everybody there in an instant, before she looked at Malfoy, who quickly avert her gaze, but still glare from the side defiantly while she asks. "I heard enough of this 'Mudblood' 'Pureblood' things, is that really important for what I'm about to teach you?"
"Of course, you're not of pureblood wizards family, whatever you can teach us is all crap in an instant! We pureblood don't need such teaching for we are already superior!" Malfoy caught on and quickly use that question to his advantage, knowing not that he's about to fell into a trap.
The Gryffindor ready to stand up and start another session of quarrel again, but seeing that glare from their teacher prompted them to shut up and let her handle the situation.
"So tell me, Mr. Malfoy…" Aisha asks in a dangerous sweet tone which send shiver down everyone's spines, leaning on her desk, she follows up with her question. "…did 'pureblood' wizard do not die when they are killed, unlike normal human, or Muggle-born wizard? If you can prove that you do not die when killed, then I'll allow you to skip my class without consequence… or… perhaps, your purity may make drunken wizard think a second time before he assault you for your insult? If you can prove that, then I'll add 10 point for Slyterin as well…"
Malfoy worked his mouth, but no sound came out of it. Of course, if he answer any of her question, like that the pureblood do not die when killed, it basically a lie that nobody will buy it and ruin his reputation in an instant. And that her argument leave no room to counter without the one who tried it being look upon as a fool him or herself. And Malfoy has grudgingly acknowledged that what she said was true, purity of blood mean nothing at all regarding this…
Nonetheless, as one of the noble house, his pride and ego cannot take a blow so he reverts to the earlier reason, something so lame that only made him look even worse without him realizing it. "We pureblood held supremacy when it comes to wielding magic that Mudblood like Professor, cannot hope to match!"
"Well, if it has that much meaning, then why not prove it…" Aisha shot Malfoy a sharp glare, daring him to take up the challenge she's going to tell him as she already bored at the brat's bragging about pureblood supremacy now. "…Mind if you try to cast any spell on me? Any, as long as it's not the unforgivable curses or some Dark magic described in the book you all learned during the past four years. I don't think this's more than pure blood could handle, don't you think?"
Malfoy couldn't believe his luck! He know that this's the greatest opportunity ever occur in his life! As his father already gathered from Fudge, this teacher not only younger than him, cannot cast a single spell or curse, and also hopelessly naïve to think that she have a chance against pureblood like him! Any spell would strike her down for sure, and that means the end of this joke of a teacher so that Umbridge, or other pureblood of Malfoy's liking, could take over and improve this subject.
As for Umbridge herself, she smirked at the purple haired girl, as she thought that this girl just dug her own grave, as she doesn't even had a wand, no way to defend herself at all, the spell will hit for sure, and Umbridge can use this as a reason to get someone else in her position, preferably… herself.
So heir of the noble house Malfoy waste no time, as the entire room still shocked at the exchange and teacher's challenge, he stand up, draw his wand, pointed its tip at the teacher who was looking at him with her arms crossed, and shout loudly "Stupefy!"
That's when something that everyone unexpected happens…
Instead of red bolt of light shooting out from his wand streaking across the room toward Professor Aisha, there's nothing… no red bolt of light, no sound of it sailing through the air… nothing at all but a fizzle of red spark glowing on the tip of Malfoy's wand for a split second, before it disappear entirely in a split second.
Entire class was startled for a moment then the fifth year Gryffindor started laughing at the failed spell Malfoy attempted to cast on their teacher.
"So much for a noble pureblood, can't even get a spell right, eh?"
"Noble house can't even get a simple stunner charm to work…"
"Silence! It's just a miscalculation!" Malfoy's face red with rage when he shouts at the class to shut them up, he then aimed his wand once more at the teacher and cast another charm instead. "Expelliarmus!"
This yield the same result, instead of a bolt of light released from the wand, nothing happened beyond fizzle of red spark on the tip of his wand and vanished. The class laughed even harder than before and keeps growing as Malfoy tried, and failed to cast any spell at Aisha in quick succession.
Then, Aisha signals the class to stop again (by her staff) and proceed to speak with them, or rather, more like giving Malfoy an advice. "If you think that I sabotaged your wand, which isn't likely since we just met for the first time here, then borrow someone else…"
Malfoy did just that, he asked for Crabbe's wand before trying to cast spell at her again, the result… no spell casted, nothing happen… he then changed his wand again, this time Goyle's while trying to not look at Aisha's eyes directly, and still no success…
While Malfoy still contemplating about what went wrong for his spell cannot successfully cast since he took up her challenge, Aisha spoke to the masses again "So, while we are waiting for Mr. Malfoy to successfully cast his spell…" some of the Gryffindor laughing at this, and then shut their mouth once they hear the next sentence "…Mind if some representative of Gryffindor take up a challenge? Try to cast spell on me? Maybe you…"
Everyone followed the fingertip of Aisha's to see who she pointed to and grasp, as she just asked Hermione, the resident genius and bookworm of the entire year, to cast spell on her! The bushy haired girl look nervously at the smiling Professor, unsure whether she should do it or not, before Aisha nodded at her and said "Just do it, Miss Grangers, perhaps you could show Mr. Malfoy how it's done…" She glanced at Draco, who still tried to cast any single spell out from his wand in vain.
Seeing no way out of this, even Ron and Harry who seated beside her shook their head, telling her not to do it, Hermione slowly stood up, drew her wand, pointed it at her teacher, and yelled "Stupefy!"
…Nothing… only fizzle of red spark on the tip of her wand before the spell that gathered on it vanished, shattered into nothingness… Hermione failed to cast a spell she learned during forth year! Something that fellow Gryffindor never saw before! And now the entire room noticed that something must went wrong around here, Malfoy failing to cast spell is one thing, but in this much rapid successions and even Hermione couldn't do it? It's definitely wrong even they know not what was wrong here.
"So, why not you ask your friends to help? Maybe Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle might have some success… if any of you successfully cast a spell, I'll award each with 5 points for your house…" Aisha asks those that sat nearest to the two who still trying unsuccessfully to cast spell with the same dangerously soft voice.
Harry and Ron looked at each other before stood up, not hoping much that their spell casting will make a difference while preparing to do as she asked…
And so, for the next couple of minutes, both Malfoy and Hermione, along with their own respective housemate, while still hated each other's guts, tried and tried again to cast Stupefy on Aisha without caring what their rivals were doing, but the result still the same as when they tried separately, no red bolt shooting out from their wand, only a fizzle and small red cloud form at the tip of it which vanished within seconds afterward.
"Well, I'm still waiting for your Stunner charm, everyone…" Aisha said in sing-song voice, clearly amused with the display, sometime she let out a fake yawn which irritated the six students who tried their hardest to harm her even more. While the whole class stared disbelievingly at the diminutive Professor… more or less suspect what she was up to…
However, all the adversaries decided that they had enough humiliation for the day, so collectively and simultaneously, all of them deny her offer "No, Professor, we don't think we can continue anymore…"
The class was silent, even Umbridge stopped her giggle a while ago since six of the students from both houses failed to cast any spell on the purple haired girl at all and stared at the teacher in question inquisitively. Aisha did not care about the toad woman, but proceed to tell the 'representative' to stop and back to their seats first, which then they plummeted down in an instant, let the exhaustion from continuous failed casting take control once more.
"So much for saying physical training is useless for Wizarding huh?" Aisha said sarcastically, ignored the glare of hate from Draco who still panting heavily as if she was the cause for his humiliation, which is true, in a sense. "This's what I'm talking about, the importance of physical training and exercise…"
She turned to speaks with students, who now have their attention on her. "…there will be a situation where your magic just don't work, or failed to do anything at all, and when that happens, if you didn't train your body and exercised enough, you're basically useless and become the load during a dangerous situation, even Muggle will be more useful than you…"
"Such things as magic doesn't work don't exist…" Malfoy still tried to argue, which quickly shut up once Aisha's eyes was on him again.
The girl raised her eyebrow a little, then remarks with amusement. "Oh… and how are you going to describe what just transpired earlier? Isn't that the situation I'm talking about? Where magic become useless, or when you've to fight someone who can negate your magic with ease… like… rampaging magic resistance beast, having a fit, healthy body will at least help you run away, isn't it?"
Entire class now speaking with each other, asking questions after question whether what their Professor was talking about, or whether it's true or not, but one certain bushy haired girl caught wind of a clue faster than other despite not flipping a single page on the book she brought with her, she rose her hand up catching Aisha's attention.
"Yes, Miss Grangers?"
Hermione peered into that unyielding purple orbs and hesitated a bit, then ask her new Professor directly and quite loudly so everyone could hear it. "Did you sabotage our spell castings, Professor Aisha?"
Everyone looked at Hermione as if she was mad, including Gryffindor fellow, but she didn't care, her eyes met Aisha's who stay silent for a few moment then asked her back "Why did you made such conclusion, care to elaborate a little?"
Hermione drew in a deep breath, ignoring the stares from classmates, she begins to explain. "Normally, when Wizarding failed to cast a spell, there's only two possible outcomes, first, is there's neither spell nor effects materialize. Or second, the spell will cause unpredictable result…"
Aisha now slowly sat down on her chair and nodded for Hermione to continue. "…But from my observation, our spells did materialized as intended, but dissipated the moment before it can be release, if we cast it the wrong way it's either nothing or at least some effects on something else that we did not intended it to do, not sudden… erm… dispersion of the gathered spell energy like this… I think that's what I saw, with that spark flying out split second before spell dissolved completely, so I guessed that there must be outside force that can affect the spell itself… forcing it to stop…"
Aisha chuckled, hand rose up to halt Hermione's attempt at explanation, and proceeds to reveal the truth herself. "You've earned your house Five point Miss Grangers. Indeed, I deliberately sabotage your spell, forcing a phenomenon called 'Spell Break' on them…"
"Spell Break… what is that, Professor?" Hermione asked, while the rest of students seem to forget to shut their mouth, as their jaw now dropped in disbelieve and surprise.
Aisha nodded a little and explains. "Each spell, curses, or hexes, all have their own structure of energies pattern, forming and intervening by the caster's will combined with the help from magical core of your wand and hand gesture which somehow affect the forming process… if you exert your magic to disrupt it enough, the spell will unable to form and… nothing happen… that's what normally happen if the caster isn't that proficient as well… not because he has low magic or not suite for magic…"
Hermione's jaw dropped "What's this theory Professor? I never once read it anywhere even in seventh year spell book!"
The crowd muttered to each other, surprised at Hermione's claim that their teacher just spew out something that never written in the book of Wizarding World before more than the fact that Hermione took initiative to the point of reading 2 years ahead.
"It didn't, but then else how can I describe what I did to your spells?" Aisha questioned back, but seeing no one answer, not that she expected one, she continues. "What I did is just applies my own magic at the right moment, right amount into the spell forming on your wand to forcefully self-destruct it, nothing more nothing less…"
"But… you have no wand… no hand gesture… no incantation… how can you cast…" Neville, who somehow get over his shock and tried to point out the oblivious, but no one cared, as his word only adds fuel to the fire when the students and Umbridge realized what that implied.
Aisha turned to Umbridge, asking her "Madam Umbridge, if you're to asks whether what I did was Dark Arts or not, I'm not sure, because I never once has teacher to teach me…" this was a truth, technically as she indeed never had teacher who taught her in Wizarding magic at all, but her word instill even more shock to the students and Umbridge, whose jaw seem to hanging down permanently. "…all I did was what I get from self-teaching, self-learning…"
Then she returned to the topic at hand that get halt since Malfoy 'challenge' her, ignoring the sympathy look from some of Gryffindor who realized that she practically self-taught into this position alone. "This's what I can do by having a strong concentration and mental focus. For you, at the very least this will help with your spell casting by making your spell less likely to fail as you exerts the right and appropriate magic pattern and amount also with proper wand gesture every time… On the advance level, this's what required for wandless casting or nonverbal spell… and that's what I'm going to teach you all this year alongside physical training."
"Er, Professor, you'll not teach us to negate magic like you did?" Hermione asked with curiosity and disappointment.
Aisha shot her hope down in an instant with sad smile. "I started practicing magic since I was four, and I achieved this 'Spell Break' technique at sixteen… it's not a fast process that you can read up in the book and instantly able to do like these spell you Wizarding World use… no shortcut on this one Miss Grangers… now…"
She then gestured toward a stack of paper on her desk while instructing the students, who now stood attention on her even more than before. "We've wasted so much time, well, not quite much, as I had expecting this for the first class of the year anyway… now, Miss Grangers, if you would distribute these papers to the students please, one for each person…"
As Hermione used her wand and chat the spell to flew those paper to every fifth year students of Gryffindor and Slytherin, Aisha continue to instructs them "These paper is a test, fill in the blank with your answers that you think is the correct one…"
She then look at the groaning students who all now received their own sheet of paper for a test, some complain about they have yet to read anything to properly do a test despite not even once look at the questions in the paper itself, and slammed her staff once, silence them. "You have thirty minutes to do it, and now you may begin…"
Author's note:
And I'll just left off a cliffhanger here, guess what questions in the 'test', as Ginny pointed out that it's not ordinary test at all.
Next, the issue that I thought needed to elaborate…
'Spell Break' technique Aisha used comes from one of her in-game technique, namely Abundance of Energy and Aura Shield Accelerator combo. It drops enemies' offensive strength as well as improving your own defensive strength. I just adapted it and changed some details into this…
But this's not broken, as Aisha pointed out indirectly, she has to concentrate on one's spell in order to disrupt its formation and self-destruct it. If she can't focus, like having to maneuver around in real battle, then it'll be more than likely to not work, especially on someone on Dumbledore's caliber. That's why it didn't saw action during her skirmish with The Order earlier, there's too much going on for her to keep tracks, so she couldn't use it. "Awesome but Impractical" only useful when fighting one on one… or situation like this chapter where she has nothing to worry about but keep sabotaging casters' spells.
Another thing, regarding power level in this story…
Eve judged Aisha's power level as such because all she had was second hand information, she have yet to witnessed the wizard's magic herself, only sensor reading from the drone she sent (which wasn't anywhere close to seeing magic users in action.) and Aisha's stories was all she had at the time, thus she just evaluated like what you saw.
And if you're curious how I divided the power level, here's the rough version of it… Alphabets arrange.
Please take note that only magic and capability to wield them was accounted for in this power level sheet, Elsword maybe lower on the list, but that's because his forte is sword skills, not magic in the first place…
Uber Tier: Aisha, Dumbledore, Eve (I know she's a robot, but then again, advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic… heh, heh…), Flamel (if he still alive that is.), Grindelwald, Voldermort
High Tier: Hermione, House-Elf in general (they're bounded by contract so I can't get them higher than this), most Inner Circle Death Eaters, like Lucius Malfoy or Bellatrix, some Elite Aurors, like Moody in his prime
Middle Tier: Chung, Elsword, Harry, Raven (same reason as Eve, though only applied to his arm), Ron, most of Hogwarts Students past year 3 and most Wizards in Wizarding world.
Low Tier: Most Hogwarts students before year 3, some less strong Wizards
Muggle Tier: Muggle and Squib, of course!
God-know-what-Tier (I'm not sure where to place them, can't properly gauge it): Ara, Rena and Elf in Elsword in general
And lastly, some of you asked whether other Elsword characters will appear or not, and what classes they are, I said just wait and see… Though after you read this chapter, you'll know "Who get what job class." at least two now, namely Eve, which was so oblivious that she's Code Empress, and Raven... there's hints already there in the chapter, but you may have to do some research.