Gateway 11
The first part of the day was the usual from the time I've been here: wake up, have breakfast, tend the garden, and practice magic.
Apart from Conjuration, Luna and I are mostly focused on 3rd-year spells, with the general counter-spell, banishing charm, and freezing spell being the standouts for that year.
One of the things that grabbed my attention was the knowledge of animagi, the ability to turn into an animal, but I left reading into it for later when I noticed the book didn't have any instructions on how to do it.
It was late afternoon, and Luna and I were in the garden close to the back porch taking turns using the hardening charm and counter-spell on a banana, with freezing spells and banishing charms thrown in every now and then to keep it interesting.
It was great practice to ingrain the spell on our memory and, according to Xeno, it also serves to whittle away at the need for wand movements.
When I asked about that, all he said was that a person's magic remembers, so I also added it to my reading list.
As our practice kept going, our competitiveness increased, to the point where we stopped casting at the banana and started casting at each other in an impromptu mini-duel.
Of course, Luna was having a hard time at it. Even with me limiting myself to casting only red sparks and holding back my strength and speed as much as possible, she was still not the best at aiming, and even in the case she hit me, I was still immune to the effects of her spells.
But the challenge seemed to light a fire inside of her because she kept trying, every exchange using a different tactic and every spell cast being more precise.
And then, she caught me by surprise.
It was a simple thing, a freezing spell I thought she missed landed right by my feet, a verdimillious charm to explode green sparks in front of my eyes so I had to blink, and a fast seize and pull spell so she could use the light rope to pull one of my feet and make me slip on the ice her freezing spell made.
As I lay on the ground parsing through what she did, I heard clapping coming from the porch, as I turned my head to look I saw Xeno and Severus, Xeno excitedly clapping and Severus smirking at me.
As I got myself up, I couldn't help the beaming smile as I looked towards Luna.
"That was great! I didn't see it coming at all!" I told her with a few small claps. "Great work, Luna."
"Thanks." Luna said with a bashful look and a flushed face.
"Indeed. That was quite the progress, Miss Lovegood." Severus said while approaching us with Xeno. "It was clear to see your skills and strategy improve as the duel progressed."
Luna's already flushed face grew redder and her smiler larger.
"So, how long have you been watching?" I asked to divert attention from how embarrassed she was getting.
"Severus arrived a little bit before you started, so when we heard the commotion we stepped out to check." Xeno replied
"Yes, I came to inquire about the events of the World Cup, and to keep you abreast of the effects you had with your, show of displeasure." Severus might have said it with a sneer, but the feeling I got from him was of a deep amusement at what I had done in the World Cup.
"Well then, let's get this over with." I said with a sigh, repeating this story is getting annoying.
We quickly moved to the living room but, differently from yesterday, Luna wouldn't let herself be left out of the conversation and, surprisingly, it was Severus who came to her defense.
"We are the only current members of this new faction so, despite her age, she must be kept informed so she isn't caught unawares." Severus said, and neither Xeno nor I could object to that reasoning.
After another explanation of what happened, I looked expectantly at Severus to see what he got, although part of me was worried about Luna's pale face at my recounting of that day.
"I see." He said with a nod. "Well, I'm glad to say that you eliminated quite a few high-ranking members of the Inner Circle still free. The Carrow siblings, Rowle, Macnair, Avery, and Yaxley." He finished the list with a nod at Xeno. "And the rest are in quite a panic, afraid that the 'Blood Demon' is hunting them."
"Do you believe any of them will do anything drastic because of it?" Xeno asked.
"No" Severus replied with a shake of his head. "The prevalent thought is that everything was fine until they decided to take up their wands for the cause again, and that the best course of action is to lower their heads and pretend they have nothing to do with it."
"And you had nothing to do with that, did you?" I said in a teasing tone.
"I may have expressed annoyance at their inability to just accept the good life they live and constant need to complicate it." He said with a smirk.
"So, how much will they keep their heads down, and how long does this give us?" Xeno asked, his brows furrowed in thought.
"One or two years, I'd say." Severus replied with a contemplative look. "The more politically minded will slow down their most egregious positions in 'sympathy' for the next few months and after around a year they'll slowly start them again to see if it's been long enough or not.
"And if I give them something more interesting to think about?" Xeno responded with a smirk.
"And that would be?" Severus asked with interest.
Xeno quickly got up a grabbed a few papers out of a drawer in his 'office' on the other side of the room, it's the drawer where he kept the article about me.
"Here." He said, giving the papers to Severus.
Severus stared wide-eyed at the papers for a moment before he started reading like a man possessed. After he finished, he started at Xeno in shock for a few moments before he finally decided to speak.
"Xeno- no, Xenophilius, do you understand the repercussions of this?" He asked, tightly holding the papers and waving in Xeno's general direction.
"I do." Xeno calmly responded.
"Do you? This won't just make you and Miss Lovegood targets of the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters but of every faction in Great Britain and more than likely from outside the nation as well!" He exclaimed.
"Oh, I know," Xeno replied, a nasty smile forming on his face. "But Luna will be at Hogwards under your protection and it'll take more than that for anyone besides my readers to pay attention. I'm just a loony, after all. And as you said, the Death Eaters will keep their head down for the moment, so I doubt they'll make the connection until it's too late."
Severus' incredulous stare at Xeno slowly turned into amazement, and that amazement quickly lost its way to laughter.
While my future Potions Master went completely insane, I tried to grab the papers from his hand, only for Xeno to summon them to his.
"I'll give you a copy to read before you leave, but not before!" He told me.
"What about me Daddy?" Luna asked, doing her best innocent little girl voice with a perfect sad puppy look.
It looked for a moment that he'd cave, but with a shake of his head, Xeno stood firm in the face of such an attack.
"No. You will only read it together with the public." He said, making Luna look as if she was about to cry.
With one raised eyebrow from him, she gave up that tactic while pouting at him.
As Severus' laughter subsided, he eyed me and Luna for a moment before stating.
"You need training in fighting, both of you." He said before looking at Xeno. "What do you think?"
"I agree." He said, staring at us. "Luna will be easy, she's already shown the beginnings of it earlier, but Alex?"
"What about me?" I asked, honestly confused.
"You have too many advantages." Severus said.
"So you'll use them as a crutch instead of actually developing skill." Xeno completed with a nod.
"Fuck." That was all that I could say.
Because they were right, the only reason Luna managed to catch me unaware was that I was just playing around, and my focus was mostly on underpowering the red sparks and seeing her aim improve. If I was paying attention like I would be in actual training I doubt even the three of them working together would be able to land a hit or affect me at all, which is bad as Gods won't have the same problems.
"Well, the best we can do right now is have you watch us teaching Luna and hope you learn enough from that so you at least know what to do the next serious fight you have." Xeno sighed while Severus nodded before getting up.
"Xeno, I'll try to come in the afternoons to help with Miss Lovegood's training." He said before turning to me. "Alex, I'll procure some books in magical combat so you'll have something better than just what we'll be teaching Luna in these next few days to go over when you return home."
I nodded in thanks.
He had just grabbed the Floo powder when he turned back to me with a smirk.
"Oh, and you better prepare yourself, I managed to acquire some live specimens for your people to breed when you return home, some of them can be quite, troublesome." He said before getting inside the fireplace and vanishing in the green flames.
"Well, that wasn't ominous at all." I said while Luna started giggling uncontrollably.
"Think on the good side, Alex!" Luna said mid-giggle.
"And what's that?" I asked.
"At least you only have to take them there." She said, calming down a little before going back to giggling.
"That is true." I conceded. "But why are you still giggling, it's not that funny."
Luna just pointed at Xeno, who in the meantime had sat down in his 'office' and was going through some papers.
"Xeno? Why is Luna laughing?" I asked, now feeling concerned.
"Most potion ingredients have some form of magic when alive, and while most magical plants' effects are subtle…" He stopped, looking as if debating how to properly phrase his next sentence. "Well, let's just say animals' are very much not."
"What does that mean Xeno!? It can't be that bad, right!?" I asked as my light concern quickly turned into worry.
"Alex, one of the most common ingredients, Salamanders, not only need constant fire to survive, they are so hot they set anything flammable on fire by just touching it." He said seriously.
Luna lost the battle against her giggles and started laughing uproariously while I felt despair on how I'll deal with that.
"Alex, calm down," Xeno said while approaching me. "Severus is sure to have them contained, and worst case scenario I know enough of magizoology to do so myself."
"Aww Dad! I was planning to keep Alex in the dark about that until Professor Snape brought them here!" Luna stopped laughing and just pouted at Xeno.
"And you believed that Alex wouldn't figure it out before then?" Xeno asked her with a raised eyebrow.
"It'd still be funnier than you just telling him!" Luna exclaimed while Xeno just sighed.
"Wait," I said, finally thinking things over. "I'll have to set up containment for them when I get home!"
Luna gave a small giggle while Xeno snorted.
"Are you two fucking with me?" I asked incredulously.
"A little bit." Xeno freely admitted.
"What part of all that was even real?" I asked with a sigh.
"The specimens aren't really that bad," Luna said. "You'll just need to know enough about them so they're happy to be in your care."
"Yes, I doubt Severus managed to procure some of the more difficult ones on such short notice." Xeno agreed.
At that, I finally relaxed.
"You guys will be the death of me" I groaned.
"But you love us anyway!" Luna chirped from my side, draping her arm across my shoulders.
And I did, I really did.
A/N: And that's that. Sorry for only one chapter this week, but work was not nearly as calm as the last two.
This chapter was supposed to delve into Snape's backstory, as I did some slight modifications there, but I had a much better idea for that so I'll leave it for when Alex comes back next summer.
If you want to support me or read a full two chapters ahead, check out my P a treon . com (slash) NickKane.