A/N: I'm very sorry for the delay in uploading of new chapters. But not that I have finished my first year at the university, I will be posting new chapters weekly. I am also working on my other story so that will be continued in a couple of weeks as well. Please let me know what you think of this chapter.
Chapter 8: The training from hell begins
Knock. Knock. Knock.
My eyes snapped open, and I narrowed them immediately in annoyance.
I hate to be woken up forcibly, and as I glanced up to read the time from the old grandfather clock that sat on the right side of my bed I only grew ever more annoyed. It was 5 30 in the bloody morning. Someone better be dying.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
I got up, grabbing my wand and snatching my night robe from the foot of my bed. The room was modestly decorated, and I fashioned it similarly to my room in the Kersey manor, so I found no need to lit the candles that adorned the walls to provide me light.
I opened the doors of my room in the blasted trunk a creek, only to see Salazar on the other side. He was a rather short man, but I still had to peer up to get a look at him, annoying me all the more.
"Death eaters better be pounding on the doors of this trunk" I grumbled out, my wand pointed at the hallway, a couple of steps away from him.
"You have your first class at six, I thought you would want to be notified." Spoke he, a snarky tone to his voice. He must have been annoyed by my appearance, and the way I had spoken. "And I assure you, after you are done, death eaters will seem like a good option. Be ready at five to six, I'll take you there."
"Yes sir" I grumbled, slamming the doors in his face and walking straight past my bed, waving my wand, opening the taps of the tub and undressing. I hated this day, and it had only just begun.
We walked to the training grounds in silence, and I noticed that all of the hallways of the blasted trunk looked the same. How bloody convenient.
We arrived in front of some heavy oak doors and Salazar waved his hand casually, opening them. Show off.
The sight that greeted me was very familiar, although I could not remember what it reminded me off. It was a Quiditch pitch, with the golden polls gleaming in what appeared to be sunlight. The light seemed so real, that I wondered briefly if he had exited the trunk, but as I turned around, I could still see the hallway we had just arrived through, marked off by the wooden doorframe. Even the grass we walked upon seemed so soft, and as it moved slightly on a light breeze, I frowned at my feet. The feeling of familiarity was still present, and as I glanced up and my gaze fell on the gleaming blue surface I would recognize anywhere, I wished to hex myself for being so stupid. It was Hogwarts still that we walked through, and even though there were no stands there, and there were no locker rooms, the path was familiar for I had walked it countless times in the past. The hillock was the same, and as I craned my neck, I could see that there in the distance also seemed to be a representation of the Hogwarts castle itself.
I was not normally this dense, and I decided to attribute this instance to the morning. After all, who would ,assuming that they were in their right mind, get up in 5:30 in the morning to go and practice or what not. This sounded suspiciously like Gryffindor business, and as we approached the six figures that already stood at the centre of the field, my suspicion was confirmed.
No one in their right mind could have enjoyed this, and therefore, Arielle was grinning like a maniac.
"Good morning sunshine!" yelled she, more like bellowing, making poor Clo flinch beside her. Clo, unlike my treacherous sister who was standing serenely to the side, was no morning person either, and seemed to be barely able to keep her eyes open.
"Shut it Hayes" I hissed, coming to a stop a couple of steps away from her, and turning to the founders expectantly. There better be a good exercise in store for us, or someone would end up hexed.
"Good morning girls" smiled Gryffindor, and received a rather varied response. Arielle grinned at him, exclaiming enthusiastically "Morning!", most likely to annoy me, my sister replied the same, but in a much more dignified manner, Clo seemed to be dozing to the side and I only nodded in response. I wished that he'd just get on with it already.
"For your first exercise, you'll do some running." He said, and I sighed. Of course, it was only natural to have us run in 6 o'clock in the morning. As I turned towards the beginning of the track Rowena was just in the process of drawing out with her wand, I heard Godric call my name.
"Rosalind!" he called, and I turned towards him, raising an eyebrow. "You won't be needing your wand in this exercise."
He held out his hand and I bit the inside of my check to stop myself from making a rather rude remark, which involved my wand and one of his intimate regions. What was it with old professors and confiscation of my wand lately?
I walked up to him grudgingly, ignoring the smirk that Salazar had plastered across his face, and gingerly placed my wand in the oaf's big palm.
I then walked back to the start line, joining my friends.
"Come on sis" I heard Melody say and as I turned to her she gave me a small smile, "you always liked running. This should be right up your alley yes?"
I bit back a nasty comment, acknowledging that she had a point. I was always rather good at running, surely this should pose no problem for me.
It turned out that I was wrong.
I was fine for the first lap, only warming up. The second lap turned out to be more difficult for Clo, as she had grown pale. By the fourth, Melody was half a track away from me and Arielle, with Clo lagging even further behind her. Arielle fell behind by the eight, and I was ready to hex any living thing by the tenth. And that's when I found out why Gryffindor had taken our wands. He was hexing us to make us move, and I wished to hex him back, but alas, I could not. I was good at wandless magic, but not when I was barely able to run. Curse him one thousand times over.
As it turned out, being woken up before dawn and forced to run like an idiot before any normal person would even consider getting up was only a prelude to what I would experience for the rest of that day, and what was more, for the rest of my involuntary stay in this blasted trunk.
After the run, my friends and my sister staggered, while I walked with as much poise as I could muster with my every muscle screaming in protest, to breakfast.
As soon as we arrived in the warm, fire-light basked room, Arielle staggered past me, tottering at a point and promptly fell down on one of the benches placed around a short, worn looking table. Her head hit the table with a soft thud and a moan from her, and she looked as if she had been through hell and back.
Clo wasn't much better off either, her usually slightly tanned complexion turning very pale as she walked up to a chair, her hands hanging limply by her side, and fell on it, her chest rising steadily up and down as she gasped for breath.
Finally, my sister walked through the doors of the dining room and I frowned at the way she was walking. She had her shoulders slouched forward, her head bowed slightly, her eyes fixed on the floor. She limped to the chair and sat on it heavily, throwing her head back in her seat and closing her eyes tightly.
"Keep your back straight Melody" I chided, and she opened one eye to peak at me as she turned her head slightly to glance at me.
"I swear Linds, you're the only person in the world that would worry about poise after being worn out and chewed out this bad on her first day of training!" moaned she, turning her head back and squeezing her eyes tightly shut.
"Just because you're a little bit tired sister dear," I snapped in reply, sitting up straight in my chair and serving as an example to my words "you have no excuse to sit like a low born ape!"
With that said, I reached forward, taking a plate from a pile and putting some scrambled eggs with some bacon on it and pulling it back towards me, waving my wand then and having a jug fill my goblet with pumpkin juice and having the goblet slide towards me on the table, not a single drop of the beverage spilt.
"High born, low born…. I don't caaaaaaaare" moaned she in response "it's all the same to me. I don't care if I'm pure or mud blooded. I just want to go to sleep."
"I do care" I snapped in response, at this point very cross with my sister and her nonchalant way of treating what was given to her. Discarding the name, the influence, the power that she had was beyond stupid. I raised my wand and cast a mild stinging jinx her way, making her jump in her seat and sit up straight. "and you will not behave as if you had just crawled out of some Merlin-forsaken hole!"
"Was that really necessary?" demanded she, and I could hear the exhaustion in her voice. Normally, I would hear an earful of how blood didn't matter, how it was a pointless matter to discuss, but today, she settled for a few words and an exasperated look. She must have been rather tired to forsake her usual preaching.
"Of course." I spoke, taking a bite of my bacon.
"Linds…." I heard from beside me, and I ignored the suffering voice Arielle had produced when calling out to me. It was irritating beyond measure.
"Liiiiiiiiiiinds" called she again "Liiiiiiiiiiiinds"
"Oh what is it you obnoxious little feline?" I inquired, too tired to do much more.
"I'm sorry I called you a brutal teacher" spoke she, surprising me.
"That's alright" I spoke, taking another bite. I wasn't upset about that, Merlin knew if I was, they'd feel it.
Out of all the subjects we had in Hogwarts, Charms would surely be my favourite, closely seconded by Defence against the Dark arts. I thrived in the power that consumed me as my wand danced through the air, moving, destroying, changing, creating. I found no greater joy.
So, it was obvious that I had rather high expectations from the charms class taught by one of the greatest witches known to the wizarding kind.
And she did not disappoint me.
For the first lesson, she chose to make us try various curses and charms on each other. It was a good choice in my opinion, and I was pleased with what I saw. Arielle was better than us, due to having been through one more year of education, but I was right behind her, and I knew, all false modesty aside, that I was mere weeks behind her.
At the moment, a smirk pulled on my lips as incantations spilled from them easily.
"Consolcreo!" called Arielle, her brow slightly furrowed as she moved, trying to hit me.
The cheering charm was good, I could see it from the intensity of the light, the shape of the beam and the speed of the charm, but I was better.
"Verspetilio lacrimo! Muffilato!" I spoke, dodging her spell easily.
Unfortunately, Arielle was able to just barely dodge the Bat-boogie hex, but my silencing charm hit her spot on.
I smirked as she opened her mouth, trying to get the words to form. Her brows furrowed in annoyance at that, and I chuckled outright at her expression.
"You know what Arielle? I like you better this way. It's a lot quieter." I spoke, a smirk gracing my features.
The death glare I received in response was simply hilarious in my opinion, and I was amused that I ignored the exasperated look I received from my sister or the roll of the eyes I received in response from Clo. They really had no sense of fun in their lives.
"Finite Incantatem" I heard Ravenclaw whisper to the side, subtly ending the spell and freeing the moron. How utterly sneaky. I liked it.
"And I was getting to like the silence" spoke Arielle and I raised an eyebrow at that, surprised that she would say such a thing. However, Clo and she seemed to find it pretty damn near hilarious and they were bending over with laughter. Lunatics.
"Sorry, sorry" spoke Clo, noticing the odd looks from Melody and Rowena and the annoyed expression on my face. "It's a muggle thing" Figures. Only muggles could think that something that mundane was hilarious.
Clo seemed to fight back her laughter, but Arielle was on the floor, crying her eyes out from laughter. I was ever so tempted to hex her right then and there. She was annoying me even more than usual.
"You know it's really not that funny" spoke Clo but seemed to be unable to refrain from chuckling slightly at the bemused expressions on the faces of my sister and Ravenclaw.
"It's not that" gasped the woman on the floor, and my wand etched up on its own, my annoyance brimming over. How long was she going to make a fool out of herself for? "I can't… " gasped she "Help myself….."
I was about to respond, before I heard another, equally annoying voice speak, as two men entered to room.
"Easy there chump, you wouldn't want to choke to death!" spoke Gryffindor and I rolled my eyes in response.
"And that would be such a shame" responded Salazar, taking the words out of my mouth. The obnoxious man was rather more tolerable in my eyes after the comment.
"Are you ready for runes?" asked he, his eyes searching over the room and coming to rest on me a second longer than on the others, calmly assessing, calculating, judging. He reminded me of Snape, but for this man I had no contempt. The man had power, and that's all that I needed from him. I didn't need him to "guide" me, to "counsel" me, to "lead" me. All I needed is to improve, and I knew he would help me. So I stared right back, lifting my chin in defiance. If he thought that I would lower my gaze before him or shrink back he was dead wrong. I bowed to no one.
He smirked at the exchange, turning his back to us and clearly expecting us to follow. I stayed where I was for a moment or two, waiting for Arielle to pick herself up from the floor before walking after the short, stubby man, the three of my friends following.
We entered a long, tall room with the windows at the very top of the walls, allowing some faint rays of sunshine to enter the room, obviously bewitched. It was modestly decorated, but the wood of the chairs and desks that sat in front of a blackboard and Salazar's desk were made of high quality wood, adorned with silver engravings. It was very tasteful and I slowly sat down at the very end of the row from the left side, raising my chin up and staring at the old professor.
"Just so we are clear" spoke he, his voice rising slightly in volume, filled with power and demanding attention and respect instantly as it reached out ears " There will be no laughing, no joking around in my class, such behaviour will not be tolerated. You shall have your wand out at all times, and you shall always be prepared to fight. This is not a time of peace and I will not have you sit around on your wands. You are witches, born with power in your blood, you will very well use it. In this class I shall teach you about the fine art of rune reading, the very basic skill for any witch or wizard wishing to learn more about this power than simple cleaning spells or…" spoke he, as his eyes met mine "silencing charms."
I glanced at my friends and my sister at that as Salazar turned his back to us for a second, and we all exchanged a look. We knew he would be strict and that Runes were a subject that would require our attention to be at its peak, but none of us honestly expected this to happen.
"Are all Slytherin teachers like this?" asked Clo, her voice in the faintest of whispers, and I had to strain my ears to hear her. But it seemed Slytherin could hear her as well.
"What did you say clever girl?" asked the man, or rather, the memory of a man, turning around, his narrow eyes focusing on Claudia, anger clear to my eyes.
"N- nothing sir." Stuttered she, blushing scarlet and bowing her head in embarrassment. The man's gaze lingered on her face a moment longer, before moving to the blackboard and observing how the instructions were being written on its surface.
The lesson was indeed interesting, and Salazar showed no favouritism, and it showed the difference between us. Arielle, being the oldest one out of all of us had a clear advantage, and Clo suffered, for, as immense as her intellect was, it simply could not match up to the years of experience the lot of us had over her. Salazar had no restriction to give her a mounting load of homework to catch up to us, and I had faith that my young friend would be able to do just that. But what kept my interest was the way Salazar looked at me. There was something in his eyes when they met mine. Recognition, anger, frustration, disgust, and something else, those were all the emotions I could read from him before he'd realize that he was caught and quickly avert his gaze from mine. My mentor did not like me, that much I could tell, but that was irrelevant. I did not need him to like me, I needed him to make me stronger. I wanted power, and he could, and he would give it to me. Any means necessary.
Next up was a class I found patently ridiculous, and the fact that it was taught by the overly- cheerful oaf was not helping. What in the world were they thinking when they appointed us a Weapons class of all things? What in the name of Merlin's baggiest pants would I need to learn about my wand that I did not already know?
As I walked into the broad room that was shown to us during our initial tour, I realized that I had gotten it wrong. They were not confused, they were downright stupid. The room was circular in shape, and everywhere around us stood shelves, filled to the brim with weapons, muggle weapons of all things. Swords, bows, random pointy things, random short and sharp looking things, razors, knifes, daggers…. You name it, it was here. Why was it here?
"Ah ladies, welcome to your Weapons class" greeted the oaf, grinning like a complete lunatic. I liked him less and less with every weapon I found in the room. What were we supposed to fight as? Bloody mercenaries?
"To start off with, I'll give each of you your initial weapon, and when we see how well you're doing with it, you'll switch, ya know, to give ya a chance to practice all styles" he said, scratching the back of his neck and grinning at us, and blinding us with the amount of teeth he showed. I swear, he and Arielle were related. Both as annoying and undignified.
He marched off to the nearest table, and I scrunched up my nose in distaste. He was holding a monstrously huge sword that was half my size. It must have been heavy as Merlin knows what, and I was glad he moved past me, handing it to a grinning Arielle.
"Here ya go my lady" grinned he and she grinned in response, stumbling slightly as she took the sword and Gryffindor asked, worry in his voice "Too heavy for ya?"
"Nah" grinned Arielle, although obviously having some trouble with it "I love a challenge."
What. An. Idiot.
Gryffindor didn't seem to share my opinion and he simply beamed down at her, before turning and snatching another small sword and turning to me, meeting my eyes with a grin and causing cold sweat to pour over me. He walked over to me and handed it to me with a happy expression, just like an overgrown toddler.
"For you my lady" he spoke, and I hesitated in taking the hilt in my hand.
"It won't bite Linds" called Arielle and I gave her a death glare to which my sister responded in a serious tone, not joking at all, instead being slightly worried: "It won't, but she might."
Arielle almost choked from laughter, as did Gryffindor. Once again, thanks sis.
I snatched the stupid sharp stick from the laughing oaf, holding it away from me as if it were something rotten my cat had drug in.
I held it as far away from me as I could and observed it with loathing as I heard the oaf speak again: "And a single edged sword for you my lady" said he and I looked up to see my sister holding a sword a bit different from mine, but I couldn't tell what "single edged" meant. As Claudia received her dagger with a small, interested smile, Gryffindor walked back to stand in front of us.
"You'll have to hold that sword a bit tighter if you want to win lassie" grinned he my way and I felt my lips stretch into a sardonic smile.
"I'd rather clean a dirty toilet with my bare hands" I responded, and he looked baffled by my response. Arielle laughed outright at my response, and Clo giggled alongside with her while my dear sister sent me a reprimanding glance.
"Alright… "spoke he, giving me a wary glance. "Do you have any questions?" asked he, addressing the lot of us with a crooked grin.
"I have one" I drawled out, ignoring a voice on my right whispering : "Don't Linds".
My sister simply did not understand my way of thinking as it seemed, and I wondered if I could ever understand or achieve her level of tolerance for this stupid way of fighting. I was a witch, and I would fight the Death Eaters like one.
"Yes my lady?" he asked, smiling at me, but I noticed some hesitance in his words. He understood that I was not pleased with this course and I noticed that he was wary of me, seemingly being baffled as to what he could expect from me. Good.
"What is the purpose of this course?" I asked and the girls reacted immediately.
Melody was on my side in a moment, pulling on my hand and whispering "Stop it Linds".
Clo drew out her wand, her hand gripping it tightly, ready to attack if it need be. They acted as if I were a rabid animal gone out of control. As if I couldn't control myself. Please. Besides, what in the world did she think that she could do that the great Godric Gryffindor couldn't? I knew I couldn't win against him, and saw no reason to initiate a duel I couldn't win.
"Rosalind.." drawled Arielle, anger in her voice. I could see why she would be angry, since I was being disrespectful of her mentor and her head of house, but this concerned her as well. A knife would only make the Dark Lord laugh.
Gryffindor didn't seem at all offended and I raised my eyebrow at his response.
"Aren't these sorts of weapons used in your time?" asked he, confusion in his voice.
An image of a black haired woman flashed through my mind, her leering face staring at me through the picture. The woman laughed like a maniac and then lashed out, fighting against the shackles that bound her wrists. She was a pitiful shell of a great witch, her wand taken away from her, and her locked up into that lonely island prison, guarded by the horrendous creatures. But she was still dangerous, and she would still get out. I was sure of that. And I had done my homework. She loved her wand, but her other favorite weapon of choice was a dagger. Just like the one Clo was holding. And she used it that night, the bitch cut my mother with it. I would never touch such a filthy, sadistic thing.
"They are, aren't they Linds?" hissed Arielle, in a tone that said clearly: apologize; now.
"Oh, they are" I hissed "Only, they are used by complete lunatics. Tom Riddle will not use a knife when he comes after us. He will be throwing curses left and right, but I assure you, he will not be waving a sword in our faces!"
Gryffindor's face became grim, and he stroked his bear with one hand, seemingly in deep thought.
"Yes, yes, I suppose that's right" spoke he, and the girls gaped at him "That's reasonable… "he muttered.
"But Professor!" tried Arielle, but before she could say anything more, the man looked up at me, all playfulness gone from his features. "But tell me Rosalind, what would you do if your magic were gone?"
I stared at him, uncomprehending. What does he mean, "gone"? Where would it go? What a stupid thing to think.
"What would you do if you had no wand, if you were wounded and you only had a knife beside you? If your opponent knelt beside you and you could stab him, but do not know how to? What would you do if someone threatened your sister, and you only had my sword to use as a means of attacking? If they destroyed your wand? If there was no wand in your vicinity? You do not know the meaning of the word war child. It is bloody, and dirty, and you must do all you can to help yourself and those around you. Even by using a muggle weapon. Your friends know that, your sister knows that, I wonder if you could realize that as well?"
I looked down at that and willed my fingers to curl around the hilt of the sword. He was right, I had no choice.