Tension and Strife
Life was certainly more interesting since he had begun teaching at Phoenix Academy. When Headmaster Asher approached him all those years ago with his invitation to become a teacher of students from all over the world he had to admit he was somewhat hesitant. A project this size would be extremely challenging to pull off. He had pressed the young looking man that seemed deceptively delicate. The man contained an enormous amount of power within him. As a fey that held mastery in soul magic, Corriandar could tell that the man was much older than he looked. His soul told the tales of a man who had fought and lost a great deal and still managed to somehow come out on top. Out of curiosity to find out more about the only man he had met who emitted a fiery burning avian signature, he had accepted the man's proposal. Corriandar now considered it to be one of, if not the best decision he had ever made. The sheer scale of what Hadrian had achieved still blew his mind. The school itself was otherworldly; the sheer sense of magic and power in the air was like walking from a smoke filled room into the outdoors just after it has rained. It still took his breath away every morning when he woke and got to watch as teens and young adults worked together no matter what their backgrounds were. He regularly saw wolves, vampires and elves talking and studying together happily and calmly.
The sheer scale of education offered at the academy was breath taking. Thanks to the phoenixes being the ones who chose the candidates the academy didn't have to worry about what they taught being used for nefarious purposes. The students understood what they were being offered at the academy and applied themselves to their studies accordingly. Corriandar had great respect for Hadrian; the man did so much for everyone for so little. It was a worry that he and the other professor's shared as the man didn't eat even close to the amount that they felt he should. It was as if the man felt he wasn't worth the effort. It was something that everyone tried their best to change whether it was making sure he ate to making him go to bed.
He smiled at the eternally young headmaster as he prepared to report with the other teachers as to the status of their future students. Alice arrived next, she had hip length blond hair and blue eyes that held no pupil. Her ears were 6 inches long as they came to a point near to back of her head. She stood about 5'4" tall with spiraling runic tattoos on her arms. Combine with her lean and tone body she looked quite fierce and deadly. Joseph Cambell arrived two minutes later and stood leaning against the wall next to the door. He stood 6'7" tall and was built like a rock, his body being covered in nothing but muscle covered in scars. He had blood red hair cropped to just above his ears, framing a sharp chin and high cheekbones. His eyes were a pool of liquid gold with a black slit pupil. Perenelle Flamel arrived with Joseph and to be honest Corriandar never lost his surprise that the ancient couple had come out of hiding to teach at the academy.
Adaline Novent arrived last but only a minute behind Joseph. She was tall standing at 5'11" with long silver hair and purple eyes. Her face was elegant and you could almost feel the grace and power she carried. Her fair was kept in a tight braid tied at the base of her skull, she had three daggers strapped to her person at different points, and Corriandar knew that there was another four that they couldn't see.
"Alright, let's get this going. Adaline how was your trip?" Hadrian asked with a fountain pen poised to take any relevant information down.
"It went well, Mr. Chambers is like most of our students very eager to begin his studies however, and he is very shy and withdrawn. The family that he currently lives with is not very accepting of his creature status. We will want to make sure that he sees one of our healers to make sure that there is no health issues. Miss. Borney will be somewhat of a challenge. She is very smart however; she is very active and prefers to be outside rather than behind a desk. We will need to watch to make sure that she keeps on track with her studies. Mr. Ramirez is very quiet and thoughtful and is extremely intelligent. He may find parts of our curriculum simple but he may struggle when it comes to the subjects that require more intuition that pure smarts." Hadrian nodded and finished his notes on those students. Later they would be added to the students files and sealed. After a few seconds Hadrian glanced up and nodded at me.
"Surprisingly, everything went well. Despite our worry that Dumbledore or Voldemort's Death Eaters would cause issues we didn't see any of them. Ivanna Potter is going to go far the amount of determination rolling off that girl is immense. She apparently decided to go for a dual Mastery in Healing and Death Magic. She went absolutely nuts when buying books although that may be a trait as I noticed that her mother was in fact in the same state of mind. Judging from the look on the husbands face this seems to occur quite often. Mr. Longbottom shows none of the traits one would expect from someone who deals with his kind of fame on a daily basis. He is quite calm and intuitive to the emotions and actions of those around him. He has decided to go for Mastery in Blood Magic and I believe he will go far in the area. He was quite close to Miss. Potter although he showed the same closeness with Mr. Lupin-Black probably due to their families being extremely close. Mr. Lupin-Black has decided to go for Mastery in Warding. He is very reserved around strangers but when with someone he knows he seems to remain comfortable. He seems to be content to fade into the background so we will need to work with him on that so that he will be comfortable taking the lead when needed. Mr. Ameal interacted well with the others although there was a bit of awkwardness to begin with between him and Mr. Lupin-Black, as I believe this was the first time they interacted with their 'rival' race so to speak. However, after a few moments they were quite comfortable around each other. Mr. Ameal wishes to pursue Mastery Arithmancy and Spell Creation." Corriandar could see the relief of Hadrian's face when told that there had been no issues with the escort. After another minute of note taking, he looked up and nodded at Alice to begin her report.
"Miss. Trouver is intelligent there is no doubt about that but she is also very fashion focused. I find that to be somewhat humorous since she wished to pursue Mastery in Battle Magic. She is very grounded and cunning. If we can channel that she will be a very deadly warrior when she graduates. Miss. Daniels wishes to attain Mastery in Soul Magic. She is very compassionate and gentle, however she the most intelligent of the students I escorted today. She was able to see all the little hints I dropped about the different classes when I was briefing them. Miss. Emmer's is the very personification of her species. She is intelligent, cunning, and flighty. She delights in giving people headaches with her rhymes and riddles. She had decided to gain Mastery in Warding. Mr. Natare is determined to gain Mastery in Blood Magic. He is very calm and level headed with a serious gift in Intuition that will serve him well in his hopeful career. He is very serious about his education with an odd fascination towards creatures of all kinds. All in all it was a very successful trip." Alice finished her report and stepped back and Hadrian finished writing his notes. Corriandar had to admit he was impressed; so far all of the prospective students showed a large amount of determination to succeed in very difficult careers.
After he finished with those four students, Hadrian nodded to Joseph to begin.
"Mr. Satchen is aiming for Mastery in Potions and he is well on his way to achieving it. He is already brewing potions that many other schools would consider 2nd year potions. He is very creative and has a steady temperament that will serve him well. Mr. Vox desires to start a worldwide Herbology Business; the little one holds a large fascination for plants and may in fact be a descendant of one of the green mages, as he shows a serious gift with caring and crossbreeding plants. Mr. Vorrell wishes to have Mastery in Transfiguration. He is very hyper and yet oddly focused at the same time. He is constantly on the lookout for how everything can be tied to Transfiguration." Hadrian easily kept up with Joseph and once he placed the notes on the three students in the correct folder pulled the last four folders and placed them in front of him and nodded at Perenelle to begin.
"I picked up Mr. Weasley first and filled him in on our scholarship program. That young man holds a serious desire for learning that I haven't seen since my husband. He is very calm and intelligent and seems to be one of the few to think ahead as he was the only one of the ground to purchase furnishings for his Talan here. He is going for Mastery in Alchemy and I honestly think he will excel beyond the norm at it. Miss. Granger is very intelligent but seems to hold books as the ultimate authority. We will need to work on that and getting her to understand that books do not have all the answers and that they may actually be wrong. She wishes to attain Mastery in Runes and if we can get her to stop thinking so literally, she would be quite good at it. Miss. Venerre is very…childlike in her view on the world. She sees the good in everybody and loves to explore and discover new things. She is going for Mastery in Soul Magic. Mr. Veras wishes to attain Mastery in Death Magic and he is a very calm, level-headed individual. All four of my group clicked with each other and promised to write each other over the summer. If they do so they will be very good friends when they arrive here at Phoenix Academy." Hadrian smiled to himself and finished the last of his notes.
"My thanks all of you for escorting our new students, I shan't keep you much longer. As you all know magic has been surging wildly these last few months and yesterday I found the lynch point of the surge. Magic seems to be calling several people from a different time and is building to achieve that. I don't believe we need to worry as I cannot imagine magic itself bringing a dark lord or lady through time. Nevertheless, we still need to be aware. Those being pulled through time may not be aware of their future displacement and may be extremely wary and confused when they arrive. Thank you all for your reports and as always be prepared." With that, we left Hadrian to his work and went our separate ways.
Ron could already tell that he would continue to grow closer to his Nicalago cat called Spectre. His familiar had already saved him from several pranks from the twins as it was. For once, he actually felt safe in his own room as he poured over his books. Ron wanted to be the best and as such, he made sure that he read a little from each of his books every day. He had already read at least 3 chapters from all of his books and made sure that he shuffled them around each time so as to make sure each book was read. As he read, he made sure to take detailed notes that referenced any other books that clarified the topic and may have had more details. He had 15 never-ending notebooks, of which 12 were currently in use for his notes, one per class/subject. He had grabbed spares for any side projects and a journal.
Percy had yet to stop with his incessant sniping, but Ron knew that it was from jealousy not just pure hatred. Ron was actually surprised that Percy had not ended up in Slytherin; Merlin knew the prat had the ambition for it. Ron was careful and made sure that everything was kept in his trunk so that Percy didn't help himself to Ron's things. The other major change was that Ron had started trading owls with Hermione, Silay and Emily. They talked about their ideas and knowledge that they were gaining about their studies and more than once he or one of the others had learned something that the others had not yet realized which pushed their studies even further. Ron had picked up quite a bit of flak from the twins because of his summer studying. However, Ron didn't care. Not only was he learning more than he ever thought possible but Hermione, Silay and Emily were fast becoming his best friends.
Percy had made the mistake two days ago of reading one of Ron's letters from Silay that Ron had set beside his plate so that he could continue breakfast. Ron had been facing his dad as he gave Ron some advice for the upcoming school year and as such missed Percy grabbing his letter.
"So now you're consorting with beasts and half-breeds? Such a shame, just when I thought that you couldn't sink any lower." Percy sneered as the conversation in the dining room ground to a sudden halt in surprise. Shockingly the one to reprimand Percy was his dad not his mom as Ron expected.
"Well, now we know why you were not invited to attend Phoenix Academy Percy, you're a bigot with no respect for others or their things. First, that letter belonged to Ron. If I ever catch you, see or hear about you stealing someone else's mail I will personally hand you over to the DMLE. Second, Silay is the Royal Prince of the Vampires; he is not some beast. Emily, is the Princess of the High Elves. Since you are incapable of controlling your jealousy I will contact Professor McGonagall and have her remove your status as a Prefect permanently. Since, you want to act like a five year old that's how I will treat you. Don't think I've missed your constant snipping and mean comments to Ron. Your owl will be used by the family since I cannot trust you to be nice to 'animals'. When you behavior changes we may revisit the possibility of you owning a pet."
Percy had been outraged at his punishment and had protested for almost 12 hours in vain before retreating to his room to sulk. Ron had been heart broken when his mom fought with his dad over the harshness of Percy's punishment. Did his mom not care that Ron was her child as well? Lately, Ron was having a very hard time trusting his mom. He knew that he held a grudge for the way she treated him compared to his siblings. This protest of hers on Percy's behalf just made things worse. She always made him feel like he was the one in the wrong.
Ron clenched his fist as he remembered the row between him, mom and dad over his new expense account. She asked Ron to let her hold onto his card for him so that he would not have to worry about misplacing it. Ron had thanked her, but said that he was keeping it secure in his trunk and that even if he did lose it nobody but him could use it anyway as it was locked to his magical signature. His mom had gotten irate and said that he was to young and inexperienced to be handling his funds so he should let her help him, and besides wouldn't it be nice to spruce up the house a bit with his left over money?
Ron had never seen his mom so angry as when his dad told her that the vault was for school expenses only and was tracked to make sure that it was only used for such. His dad sent him to his room as his mom continued to throw a fit that put the howlers she sent to Fred and George to shame. The entire family could hear her screaming throughout the entire house. Ever since it had come out that Ron had quite a lot of money for his school there had been a palpable tension between Ron and his mom. Now it was like ice; frigid, stiff and sharp. Thankfully he would leave for school tomorrow because he honestly felt like an enemy whenever his mom or Percy was around.