Well, second chapter and I am free from classes. I expect to be able to update a bit the rest of the stories when I have the time, so don't worry. Apart from that, it's a bit difficult to narrate the thoughts of a child, but I try my best, and some suggestions in that part would be good. As always, reviews are welcome, and I am looking for a Beta Reader for this story, to check grammar mistakes and give some ideas too. Now, enjoy
Aran POV
Today was a stressful day, since I normally don't have to be around children, even though I like them around. But the sight of Harry Potter set my alarm at the moment I treated him in the Chamber of Secrets in Hogwarts, as he was rather skinny for a child of his lifetime. When I was young I was rather skinny too, but not at the same calibre of him. And when I saw how other kids were in Hogwarts, a paradise for them instead of being in the hell of their families, was rather clear that my king Nasher made a good choice in taking over everything. Now the kids were sleeping soundly; even though the twins tried to open the door magically closed without success. Now that I had the time, I had to take care of everything and then, I would return to the side of my king, to resume most of my duties. My way was directly towards the cleric of Pelor, which had a dark look in the normally cheerful man.
- "What did you see on the boy?" – I asked, serious while taking a seat. Xavfire nodded, while taking a bit of his drink, surely trying to find words to explain and reorganise his thoughts. – "We need to call a priest of Kelemvor." – He said, as I nearly stared him in shock. Everybody knew that the faith in Kelemvor was one that always take the people to embrace the death when it came, and had the undead in the first top of the list of enemies. – "You don't mean that that boy is an undead or cheating the death, right?" – I asked, trying to think how a boy of twelve years old was doing that, but then Xavfire shook his head, negating that trail of thought. – "It's more like someone is using him to host a part of his soul to avoid dying. It will be enough if the Kelemvor priest only remove that soul part. And after I saw the extent of damage, most priest would take the arms to kill the one who took after him." – He said, as a feeling of relief washed over me, I wouldn't want a dead kid right now, but if Xavfire was saying these things, surely the ones who treated the kid that way will be going to pay a lot. I wasn't for torture, but one thing I couldn't stand was child abuse, and that someone was using him as a part of necromancy was making it worse.
- "Well, now we have to take care of him, and the students here. I will make sure that the ones responsible be brought here, to their punishment. Anything else that we should worry?" – I asked, but as Xavfire shook his head in negation, it meant that the reunion was finished, as I stood and left after cordial words, I went directly to inform my king, and to rest a bit. This was going to be bigger than I thought, but with an effort it will be gone sooner than later, but then, normally you don't have to deal with a stupid government that was clearly corrupted to the core.
Harry POV
I woke up, feeling rather refreshed and comfy, but then, my mind started recalling all the things that happened yesterday… The basilisk, Tom Riddle, the close of Hogwarts… I opened my eyes and saw the bunk bed in top, with a snoring Ron. I smiled as I got up, feeling rather hungry. I pushed a bit the bed of Ron, and with a push, he started to grumble, as he was waking up. Soon the rest of the room started to make the typical noise of people waking up and preparing themselves to a new day, even if that day was going to be anything but normal for the moment. Then, when everybody was dressed up with their school tunics; that was a bit of a task since the girls nearly hexed them to avoid being seen changing, someone knock the door, and the door opened revealing a woman that made all the people; at least the boy's part including me, drop their jaws, as the woman was stunning with her presence. She was wearing a leather armour with a sword in the hip, and a flute in the other part, and her hair was red like the fire, that went down toward her hip in a ponytail and her face was soft with youth, but had those pointed ears. – "Good morning, I suppose that you don't know that I am an elf, and that is a typical reaction when people first see us, but now please, close your jaws, I have five hundred years." – She said, making us look like fish now… and this time the girls joined. At this point, the woman laughed heartily.
- "Come on, let's go to a class, where we will eat and I will show you how things work here. And my name is Loraenna, and I am one of the teachers here. I teach mostly to the bards, but I also impart some diverse knowledge." – She said with a smile, as we followed her through the hallways, now with more people. After a few moments, we reached a classroom that was empty with some food in the tables, mostly meat with some vegetables and bread. Hermione started the barrage of questions, but was interrupted by the smile of the teacher while saying that she will open a round of questions after everything is explained. When everyone ate; and in my case I had to take a potion that tasted like strawberries, we seated in order like in a class, with her at the front.
- "Now, this school is very different from Hogwarts in term of learning. First off things, we work in an elective system of subjects. That mean that you will be the one responsible of going to these classes. But there are a few that are mandatory. I will begin on these." – She said, while giving each of us a parchment with a list of what appeared a lot of subjects that vary in a good range of knowledge that was even ridiculous in comparison to Hogwarts.
Mandatory Subjects:
Basic Combat
Physical Training
Theology
Basic History and Background
Optional Subjects (Must select at least 3 of them, max 8).
Theory of Arcane Magic
Alchemy
Forge
Natural Magic
Advanced Combat
Ranged Combat
Advanced Theology and Divine Magic
Pick locking and Disarming
Heal and Treatment
Magic Combat
Traditions
Runes
Arithmancy
Music and Magic
Investigation
Sneak and Eavesdrop
Plants and Animals
Hand to hand combat
Rage and how to control it
Almost all the eyes went towards Hermione, at least mine with Ron and the twins were looking at her, which was now clearly frustrated to not being able to select all the optional subjects. But there was even one of how to control your rage, and that was very strange at most. When a moment passed, Loraenna decided to speak again.
- "Well, as you see, there are a lot of subjects, but most of them won't be very helpful until you decide clearly what you want to do. Most of you probably have some aptitude for the arcane magic, but others have other talents that are to be exploited and developed." – She said, smiling as Hermione's hand was held up, probably wanting to speak and start her barraging of questions in a second. She sighed, before gesturing at Hermione to start her questions.
- "Why it classify the magic into Arcane, Divine and Natural?" – She asked, clearly confused. That was another one, since we only knew that there was one only magic, the one that we make with our wands. But then, the guards that silenced the entire Great Hall of Hogwarts without a wand was enough proof that there is another type of magic in play, and that was something that made everyone pay attention; not like in History of Magic back in Hogwarts that most of the people started to bring their pillows to class.
- "Well, mostly because the Arcane Magic is reachable by anyone with enough dedication or have the facility of accessing it since inside have some part of a magical creature long ago. But the Divine magic for example, require that you follow one of our deities and that he grant his favour to you for you to be able to do that type of magic. The natural magic consist mostly in the connexion with the nature, for it to help you fuelling the spell. You can try, and if you don't seem to do well, you can always drop the subject and change it for another." – She said, hearing some sighs of relief made by some students, including Ron and me in those, as we wouldn't be obligated to continue something that we didn't like.
- "I will let you have an hour to discussing the electives and I can give you suggestions on where to go." – She said, and as soon as someone started to speak to another, Hermione was already in an internal furious debate of what subjects she should do or not. I started to cross the ones that I won't be doing, like control of the Rage, or Music, but still, there were a lot of interesting subjects, even though Arithmancy wasn't one for my liking, and Runes wasn't too, so that meant two less to select. I looked up, and saw Ron having the same problems as me, and Hermione looked right up to a panic attack. The twins were discussing it too between themselves, and Neville was looking as faint as a ghost.
Loraenna POV
Things were actually funny, most of the future students were looking a bit distressed, and one of them; the girl that asked me, was nearly to a panic attack. But my gaze went downright to a student that was nearly a ghost, looking at the paper without knowing what to do. Probably he had something in the mind, like some stupid rule that in here would be a problem to his development, so I got up, and reached him, sitting in an empty chair and looking at him.
- "Well, what's the problem?" – I asked, making that boy look at me. Then, he returned to the paper with all the subjects. – "I don't know what to do…" - He said, still looking at the paper, but she could see how there were some subjects underlined, all the ones related to nature… - "Do you like the nature?" – I asked with a smile, but inside I was feeling rather surprised. Most of the people would go to the Arcane magic, since they were more familiar with it, but this kid selected entirely a different type of magic and subjects, related mostly to druids and explorers.
- "Herbology was my favourite subject. It was the one that I could be good, but I fail at the rest. Everyone can say it, that I am always so near to a squib." – He said in a whisper, and by the tone, it was better to speak it in private. I took him to outside of the class, to be able to speak with him without nobody eavesdropping the conversation, and I was aware that some people would use things like that to blackmail between other things.
- "Okay, what's a squib?" – I asked, trying to get to the point. It was clear that he felt insecure, but that was expected by the fact that all the new students here would be under a new studies program, and their future was uncertain at most for them. But in this case, it was something else entirely, as this was one of the students who came here willingly, and that showed some courage.
- "It's a person who have magical parents, but don't have magic. I am clumsy, always end up making all the mistakes possible, and I only started to use my magic when my grandfather threw me by accident through the balcony. He was keeping me from falling using a spell, and became distracted, and luckily I just bounced all the way in the street." – He said, and I saw red for a moment. Who could do that to a child!? What the heck was in the mind of every wizard in that plane!? This would be something I will have to speak to Aran, but for the moment, this was more important.
- "Listen to me. It's normal to be a bit clumsy and fail a lot of times. Do you think that magic works always when we want? Normally it takes sometimes months to do correctly a single spell, and accidents included. For example, when I did my first spell, I ended up without eyebrows for two months until it grew back." – I said smiling, and laughing a bit at the end. He started laughing too, a timid giggle, but it was enough for now, after all it was going to be a long way before things started to settle.
- "Now, I recommend you to take it easy. Take the Natural Magic, Plants and Animals and one or more courses you will like. In here, it's you that matters, not the rest. Now, breath and relax a bit before continue giving a thought." – I finally said, entering again in the classroom, letting the boy have his time to think about everything… Would there be more of those cases in here? Well, I expected that Xavfire was already including everything to his prayer to Pelor, as it was going to be a long way and if we had his blessing things would go smoothly, and if not, better to have the gods on our side.
Harry POV
- "Hermione, as Ron and I said before… Stop trying to actually try out all the subjects here." – I said, trying to avoid what would be a panic attack from Hermione, which had her quill ready to mark every subject possible, even with the limitation of eight subjects. Ron had selected his subjects already, and I had some already selected, but everything was interrupted when we saw how Hermione selected every subject except the subject about Rage. Now, Ron had the paper out of the reach of the eager hand of Hermione, and I had her wand to avoid her starting to use hexes to have her way.
- "But…" – Hermione tried to say, but Ron interrupted her. – "Hermione, if you select all of them, you are going to die even before you start!" – He said while starting to check the subjects again. – "Argh, alright! I will select only eight of them!" – She said, giving up and catching the paper and the quill, starting to select the ones about theory like Theory of Arcane Magic or Investigation, and selecting some practical subjects too, like Magic Combat. When she finished, Ron caught the quill and I returned her wand, focusing myself in my own subjects.
After a few moments, I already selected everything I would do. I selected the Theory of Arcane Magic, Forge, Alchemy, Magic Combat, Advanced Combat, Investigation, Traditions and Sneak a bit more focused in trying to survive than other things as problems always came to me in one way or another even if I didn't pursued it. Ron caught the same as me, but he dropped the Alchemy and Traditions, and Hermione caught instead of Sneak&Eavesdrop and Advanced Combat, Runes and Ranged Combat. Then, we went to see what the others selected, and it was no surprise when Fred and George selected Alchemy and Pick locking&Disarming, and Neville to our surprise instead of Theory of Arcane Magic, selected the Natural Magic, Plants&Animals and Heal&Treatment subjects, apart from the Advanced Combat and Magic Combat subjects.
When taken all the papers, Loraenna smiled at them. – "Well, now you will be able to wander a bit until lunch, and then you will receive your schedules for this summer, and will have your first classes. Don't worry, we will go easy on you." – She said, going out of the class, letting us to do freely what we wanted. As soon as she went outside, the twins excused themselves and started running through the academy, surely trying to learn every corner of the building for their pranks, and soon we started to walk around the building with Neville, who was smiling a bit by his choices, but a bit worried about what his grandmother would say with his choices.
The walk wasn't eventful, except to drag Hermione out of the library when she saw all the different books stored in there, and Neville when he saw the classroom of Plants&Animals, that was covered with trees inside the classroom. We saw too that the people in the academy were much older than us, even some adults were studying in this academy or practising their skills, and seeing how one possible classmate was a man of twenty years old with muscles as big as our heads wasn't very reassuring. Soon, lunch was ready and we went directly to the canteen, where we saw how different people were eating, and seeing what it seemed an orc from the Lord of the Rings eating without manners wasn't easy to maintain the hunger.
We seated with the twins, eating some bread, meat that was very good; it was venison as the cooker said when he gave it to us, and some vegetables and fruits. There wasn't any sweets as Ron desired, but the cooker explained that it was a luxury most of the time that kind of food. When we finished, Loreanna approached us, with some papers that she gave us, and were the schedules. – "What do you have now?" – I asked, while I was seeing mine, that was very busy as it was packed until nearly the curfew at Hogwarts, with only half an hour to eat, in designated places.
- "I have Plants&Animals, and later I have Alchemy and Heal&Treatment." – Neville said, while finishing his last piece of fruit. – "I have Forge, later free time and finally Theory of Magic." – Ron said, smiling a bit after eating a lot, nearly the same amount as the orc that was giving looks of approval of having a fellow eater in the place. – "Almost the same, but I have Alchemy instead of free time." – I said, and by the looks of Hermione it was the same, except that she had Runes instead of Forge. The twins were silent, but when we looked at them, they weren't there anymore… - "Well, at least they are practising early for their Sneak classes." – Hermione said, surprised that the twins were able to do that, and she left the table to her class of Runes, giving a quick goodbye before running toward the class. Soon, everybody else started to move, going each of us to each class.