Albus had exchanged his robes for a tan-brown coat and pants – something about them being more comfortable. With a wide, enthusiastic smile, he paced back and forth across the elevated, wooden platform set up in the great hall, addressing the students beneath him. "Dueling is an ancient tradition going back further than even the founders of this esteemed institution. In times past, duels were used to solve discrepancies ranging from tests of honor to more far-reaching situations such as rightful lordships."

A blonde-haired boy from Hufflepuff, I recognized him from my classes as Rufus Green, raised his hand. When Albus motioned for him to speak, Rufus looked around uncertainly and said, "Aren't duels also how wizards fight?"

"Yes." Albus said.

At the very same moment, I said, "No."

Not long after I spoke, I felt the eyes of the entire room on me. It was a surprisingly sizable crowd containing students from all years. There were fewer first and second years than older students. All told, around one-hundred-fifty students, and Albus's furrow-browed gaze, were all fixed on me.

I too stood on the elevated platform in the center of the hall, arcane symbols, crescent moons and stars scribed in gold on the dark canvas laid atop the wood. My staff made a dull thumping sound as I stepped up next to Albus, addressing the students and him as I said, "Duels have rules. Throughout a traditional duel, decorum is observed and strict protocol is followed. In a true battle, these rules do not apply."

I took my job seriously. When I had agreed to assist Albus with this club, I researched wizardly duels extensively and found them wanting. They were a performance, a dance through which wizards could show off. Only magic was permitted to be used, which in true combat was a hindrance. Magic was powerful, but relying solely upon it would spell your end the moment you encountered something resistant to, prepared for, or immune to magic. Rarely in actual combat would one find themself standing in a direct line over an open space with their opponent, unable to utilize the environment, weapons, or anything other than their wand. Be that as it may, I would comply with my purpose here and instruct the students to duel. Though, I would certainly add flavors of legitimate combat to prepare them for a true battle. Grindelwald had already risen after all.

Alice Grace, the Slytherin girl I'd saved from vampires a short while ago, raised her hand.

"Yes, Ms. Grace?" I said, directing my attention towards her.

"Will the skills gained from this club not translate to combat?" She seemed to be determining whether or not this club would be worth her time. I had not noticed a desire to fight in her, but she was one of my more studious students. Perhaps she wanted to be as varied and skilled as possible. I could respect that.

"The skills will certainly translate, but we are not training you to become soldiers here." Albus said, stepping forward. "There won't be a need for any of you to seriously fight other wizards. This club is primarily to provide a practical place to test the spells you learn in class. It is also a space to see if any of you possess an aptitude or desire to excel in professional dueling. This is a space to test your aptitude to the field and learn in a safe environment."

I nodded. "It is as Professor Dumebldore says. You are at this institution so we might help you realize your potential. Our purpose is not to teach you to do battle against one-another."

Clapping his hands together, Albus said, "Now, why don't each of you find a partner of the same year. If you cannot find someone from your own year, try to find someone from a single year above or below you. Those of you who were members of the club last year, try to group with someone new so you can help them."

The students shuffled around the floor, awkwardly mumbling to each other in search of partners. Some students obviously paired with friends. Others blushed as they paired with an obvious crush. Some stood next to their partner with slumped shoulders, having not acted fast enough to pair with someone whose company they would enjoy.

"Professor?" a brown-haired Gryfindor girl, I recognized her as the first year Petunia Prince from my class, asked her hand raised.

"Yes, Ms. Prince?" Albus said, smiling warmly.

"I've never seen a duel. What are they like?" She titled her head to the side, blinking curiously. If she had never seen a duel, her parents were either poor or non-magical – perhaps both.

Albus chuckled at the display. "I suppose I've gotten ahead of myself, haven't I? Would everyone like to see a demonstration?"

Enthusiastic nods and excited whispering commenced, prompting Albus to chuckle once more.

"Very well," he said. "Are there any students from last year that would like to volunteer for a demonstration?"

Students looked between each other, shrinking down and making themselves small so as not to be called on.

Frowning, Albus looked over the crowd and said, "Are there no volunteers?"

Silence greeted his question.

"If I may, professor? You and I could give a small demonstration." I suggested. This was a friendly setting, and as such I and Albus both would not attack with any true malice. Still, it would be interesting to gauge the strength of Britain's, and perhaps the world's, strongest wizard prior to my arrival.

Albus gripped his chin in thought for a moment before nodding. "I believe that is a splendid idea. Students, if you would be so gracious as to allow some space between yourselves and the dueling platform, we will begin. I would be most sorrowful if our magic were to catch any of you accidentally."

The students animatedly conversed, some even quietly placing bets, but I understood what Albus was really saying. He was informing me to be careful and hold back significantly. I had already planned to do so. This was not a true fight, simply a meager demonstration to entertain and inspire our students.

Albus took a position across from me and held his hand aloft, a long, thin, brown wand appearing in it.

Smiling at Albus's theatrics, I bowed at the waist. Albus returned the gesture.

"Professor Beolfag and myself just bowed to one-another as a sign of respect. When you partake in a duel, it is common courtesy to bow before and after the match. Traditionally, it is also expected for those partaking in a duel to have a second who may take your place in the duel should you become incapacitated, though that practice is more for duels taking place outside of a professional setting. As this is a demonstration, a second is unneeded." Albus lectured as he turned to the students, meeting eyes with several of them to ensure they heard his words, though the students seemed too fixated on the impending duel to heed much of his words.

Huffing, Albus turned to me and took a dueling posture. "Are you prepared, professor?"

I positioned my right foot a shoulder's distance behind my left and said, "I am prepared. The duel shall commence on your mark."

Albus nodded. "Begin." He made an exaggeratedly slow show of casting a stunner at me. The red beam of energy scattered against an invisible shield in front of me.

I made a show of hefting my staff into the air and a blue beam of energy shot out of the top.

Albus easily deflected the spell and sent another.

We traded spells for nearly a minute, stepping forward with our attacks and retreating as we defended to give the student's a display of good footwork. Both of us were careful to keep our spells minor and simple enough for the students to both see and track. Albus sent nothing outside of a stunner and a disarming charm. For my part, I sent nothing but the same, blue energy bolt I'd used initially. It would do even less damage than Albus's stunner if anything went wrong.

It was hard to properly measure Albus's skill and power in these circumstances, but what I could see through this limited lens impressed me. His stance was practiced and relaxed. His motions were fluid. His eyes beheld all before him, focusing only when he detected a threat. More than anything else, this duel increased my desire to truly test Albus in combat. It was clear he was well-practiced, but how would his magic and upbringing compare to my own? Were we to truly fight one-another, would he be capable of offering me a proper challenge?

After a full minute of spells, I decided the duel had progressed long enough and allowed one of Albus's stunners to connect with my robes. While my current garb was not enchanted with battle-field defenses, the simple enchantment I had equipped them with was sufficient to displace the stunner, though I felt the enchantment fade with the hit. I would need to replace it.

I fell to a knee to make a show of my loss for the students, and they all erupted into cheers and groans. Some students grudgingly forked over gold coins to smugly smiling classmates.

Albus, who clearly knew I had taken the hit, walked towards me with a raised eyebrow, lowering a hand to help me to my feet. "I certainly hope I did no permanent damage, professor."

I allowed him to help me to my feet and smiled, saying, "I am sure I will be alright. Well fought."

"Well fought indeed." He dipped into a respectful bow which I copied. Turning back to face the students, Albus said, "Does that give you a better idea of what a wizard's duel is, Ms. Prince?"

The young girl eagerly bobbed her head, her eyes wide as saucers, the display she'd just witnessed seeming almost mythical to her.

Standing a few students behind Ms. Prince, I noticed Alice Grace with a confused frown on her face. She was intently focused on me, seeming disappointed and almost disbelieving. She quickly schooled her expression when she noticed my eye on her and started up a conversation with her cousin.

That was interesting.

"Now, students, return to your partner groups and find a clear space in the hall to stand across from one-another. We will not be casting spells at each other today, but we will be ensuring everyone understands the proper protocol and safety precautions. We will begin applying spells you've learned in class to dueling when we meet next week." Albus said, ushering the students around with practiced ease.

"What do you intend to start them with next week?" I asked, stepping up next to Albus as he surveyed the students.

"Defense," he responded. "I doubt the majority of them will be able to manifest a proper protego charm, but dodging, footwork, and strategic positioning can be taught without need for higher magical learning."

I nodded agreeably. "Very well. I will construct a plan and present it to you soon. I have a few ideas for drills."

Smiling warmly, Albus said, "Thank you, both for your work and for agreeing to assist me. I believe this will make for an interesting year."

"You do not need to thank me. So long as I am here, I will teach the students to the best of my ability."

Albus and I spent the next hour walking between pairs of students, answering questions and ensuring they knew what they were involving themselves with in the dueling club. It was clear based on how the students stood and moved that the majority had never done anything resembling this before. The only ones to move with even a semblance of grace were those who Albus had informed me were members of the club in past years. It seemed the two of us would have our work cut out for us over the next year.

X

I was home, making use of the time away from my students. Draip had prepared wine and left me to my studies.

Anastasia Romanov had kept her word, sending a small library's worth of history texts to my home by owl. That alone showed vampires, at least those skilled in magic like herself, were able to use the wizard's communication method. Draip had organized a number of my other servants and made copies of all the books, sending the originals to the cave where I stored Hogwarts's copied library.

It was possible Albus or Armando would happen across them there using the rod I have given them, but I did not see a large problem with that. Wizard's information regarding vampires was lacking. From what I could find in Hogwarts and Diagon Alley, vampires were to be avoided. They were considered monstrous and unable to be conversed with and as such wizards were discouraged from actively seeking them out or engaging with them in any capacity. The consensus was if a wizard left vampires alone, vampires would leave wizards alone. That was the extent of the public knowledge.

To learn more about whatever agreement Anastasia had alluded to, I would likely need to burglarize the Ministry of Magic. I was not willing to make an enemy of Wizarding Britain to find their signed agreement when I could extrapolate well enough from what Anastasia had provided me and from what I had gathered. Whatever official agreement existed between the two groups was likely a more official variation of the mandate to leave vampires alone and trust they would do the same. Open conflict benefited neither group, and both enjoyed their privacy. It was a simple enough conclusion to reach that they agreed to not bother one-another and left it at that. Why the wizards chose to keep their general populace in the dark about the agreement was not of much interest to me. I knew, and that was enough.

Anastasia's tomes covered everything from her clan's rise to her own personal journey. There was no Book of Nod, but whether that was because it did not exist in this strange world, because Anastasia withheld it or simply because she didn't conform to its religion was unknown. No matter. I already knew the majority of its contents. I would know what to look out for should it become necessary to make preparations against the Noddists, not that I thought it would be.

Even lacking the Book of Nod, I was left with a substantial collection of knowledge to read through and retain. The books confirmed much of what I suspected. Cain, the first murderer who slaughtered his brother Abel, was the progenitor of vampirism in this world. Powerful beyond measure, Cain had torn a swathe of destruction across the land before he mysteriously vanished one day far in the past. Whether he was dead or in isolation was unknown, a puzzle that frustrated me. I had fought entities of Cain's caliber before, but I was aided by powerful forces and organizations in each of those encounters. Alone as I was, should Cain target me, my only recourse would be to flee through my as yet unpredictable planar array. I had yet to determine what was causing planar interference in this world, and until I could account for it, I would remain at the mercy of this world lest I foolishly attempt to hurl myself into the space between.

Aside from Cain himself, the children of those he directly sired were largely believed to still be alive. Whether they were actively influencing the world or slumbering in long forgotten crypts was another mystery. What was known for certain was they were powerful. The less vampires removed from Cain one was, the stronger. The majority of vampires in this day ranged between generations 10-13 – a generation denoting how many sires removed from Cain a specific vampire was. It was commonly accepted that anyone of the seventh generation or higher was to be avoided at all costs lest they smite you out of boredom. Anastasia, being of the sixth generation, was one of these vampiric titans.

I now knew more about the woman who had approached me than I expected. Accounting for the possibility that much may be fabrication or hyperbole as it came from the woman herself, I had a general history of her life. Evidently, she was royalty. The bastard great-grand-child of Ivan the Terrible and named for his deceased wife. She was turned shortly after she was banished when the truth of her parentage came out and had been tracking down magical secrets across Europe and Asia for the majority of her unlife. She came to Glasgow during turbulent times and unseated the then current Prince, allowing Clan Tremere a sturdy foothold and proving her clan more than their peers believed of them.

While the politics of the different clans did not interest me, Anastasia did provide a general overview of their strengths which matched what I remembered from the fiction I knew. A fiction separate from that which Hogwarts originated which itself was separate from Hellfire. This world was far more complex than I had expected. There were more organizations, entities and problems than I had anticipated when arriving in Diagon Alley. If Hellfire was here, then…

Hellfire…

I gently closed the book in front of me and left it to rest on the table. Standing, I held my hand to the side and called my staff to me. With a wave of my hand, a portal appeared in front of me.

I ignored the shocked gasps and hushed conversations that followed me down the cobbled streets of Diagon Alley. It was rare, by mortal standards, that I came here, so it was always a major event. Since accepting a position at Hogwarts, I drew an even larger crowd as parents attempted to bestow upon me gifts of poorly crafted potions and rudimentary spell books to give preferential treatment to their children. I had not been to Diagon Alley in a full month as a result of the incessant attempts at blatant bribery.

A trio of publicists attempted to interview me, but I passed them by. I needed to determine whether I had successfully solved a rather annoying problem that had plagued me since my arrival in this world.

I exited Diagon Alley though the magically shifting wall and quickly walked into the streets of what the wizards referred to as 'Muggle London', a simple illusion spell cast over myself to force others to perceive me as uninteresting, assuring my strange garb would be unmarked and unremembered.

Walking briskly through the streets of London, I reached out with my mystical senses. I smiled as I felt something other than the muted wall behind the Leaky Cauldron. The other source was faint, fainter even than the entrance to Diagon Alley was enchanted to be, but it was there.

I rushed through the street as quick as I could walk without drawing so much attention so as to risk my illusion failing, making for the magical signature. Soon enough, I came into sight of the source.

It was a tall building ivory in color with Victorian architecture. There were many windows, but one specifically drew my attention. It was circular with several intersecting, curved lines like a two-dimensional image of a shifting gyroscope. I recognized the image. It was one of three havens used by a group of sorcerers a neurologist would join in the future. Assuming, of course, I did not have so great an impact on events to negate his accident or his birth.

With a grin, I turned around and returned the way I had come. When I was away from any mortals who would notice, I apparated – it was faster than opening and closing a portal and therefore less likely to be noticed by the muggles. Now safely returned in Diagon Alley, I opened a portal back to my manor and closed it before anyone could speak to me, already making for my planar laboratory.

Thanks to my otherworldly knowledge, I now knew what was making my summonings so difficult. In truth, they should have been impossible. It was only my mastery of the craft and my patience that allowed me to persevere through the barrier surrounding the world. I had learned from masters so great as Lamae Bal, Blood-Matron; Vanus Galerion, the Great Mage; Shalidor first Arch-Mage; and even Divayth Fyr, Master of Secrets.

Divayth Fyr's teachings specifically were, as I assumed, the reason I was able to bypass the barrier at all. When a mortal mage was so powerful as to casually travel between the planes of Oblivion, a student learned more than any institution could teach simply by watching him work his craft.

Now that I knew what was blocking my summoning and planar manipulations both, I could account for it. It would be some time before I was able to create a reliable work-around, but, so long as I was able to finish copying Hogwarts's library within the next few months, I would have plenty of time to work on the issue while I finished my year teaching at Hogwarts.

Soon, the planes would be open to me once more. Otherworldly knowledge broached concerns about whether or not I would be able to travel to Tamriel itself, but I would banish these worries until I was properly equipped to process them. Constructing a travel method was my primary concern.

An excited smile I couldn't fight grew on my face as I began my work. It would not be complete immediately, but I had time.