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I am SO sorry for taking so long with this chapter! School, homework, school, homework <- blame them not me... :d But anyway, here is chapter 8, which is mega-super-ultra long, so that makes up for it right? THANKYOU everyone for reading and commenting <3
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Chapter 8 - Durmstrang
‘Ten to seven already!’ Mr Burke exclaimed, glancing at his wristwatch. ‘Oh dear, you may actually be the last to arrive.’
Amara saw him smirk out of the corner of her eyes. Indeed, no one else was standing at the open gates, and despite her woollen uniform, she was freezing, and for the first time she couldn’t wait to enter the school, where at least it would be warmer.
The gigantic front doors opened and a feeble orange light shone onto the otherwise dim morning, outlining the figure of someone standing in the entrance. Whoever it was started making their way towards them.
‘Ah, that should be Professor Karkaroff,’ said Mr Burke, nodding as he approached them.
‘Good morning, Mr Burke,’ the Headmaster said, inclining his head at him.
Mr Burke returned the greeting, then turned to Amara with a sneer. ‘Well, I must be off, Amarantha. I will leave you to Professor Karkaroff’s assistance, then.’ He nodded at the Headmaster again and disappeared with a twirl.
‘Well, well,’ Karkaroff said, looking down at Amara with a cold smile. ‘Not very punctual, are we? Students usually arrive half an hour before the gates close. I would have thought you’d know that.’
Amara stared determinedly back into his spiteful face. It’s not like it was her fault; why was he telling her what he should have told Mr Burke? Karkaroff suddenly took out his wand, and for a fleeting second Amara thought he was going to jinx her, but he waved it lazily at the trunk and it disappeared.
‘I do not normally have to greet the laggards myself,’ he went on, pocketing his wand. ‘And I assure you laziness is not put up with in this school. Now let me not keep you waiting any longer.’
He strode off towards the gates and Amara followed grudgingly. It was even colder inside for some reason. The entrance hall was vast, with empty marble walls and a lit chandelier dangling from the ceiling. There were staircases in corners, and corridors leading off on all sides.
Karkaroff steered left and went down a dark hallway lit only by a few torches hanging in their brackets. Every now and then they passed a portrait with the occupant either snoring or mumbling to themselves, but they met no ghosts, no trick steps, no walls pretending to be doors.
The sound of talk soon reached their ears and sure enough, they soon arrived in a large hall with multiple tables standing vertically, and another one standing horizontally at the far end. It was brighter in here, but still as cold.
A few students looked up from their food as the two entered, but otherwise went on with their talking and eating. Karkaroff motioned Amara towards one of the tables, and she gladly sat down and pulled a plate of meat pie towards her. She looked up at the staff table, where Karkaroff had re-seated himself at the centre.
She’d read that at Hogwarts, students were sorted at the start of term, but there was no sign of any Sorting Ceremony here. Maybe they did it later? People often complained that at Hogwarts they were sorted too early, after all...
Looking up and down the table, Amara saw that everyone was already sitting with their own group of friends, talking in Baltic languages, sometimes in others, and she caught a snatch of what sounded like Welsh at the table opposite her, but no one spoke to her. She guessed none of them were very good at English, and of course, there was the fact that she was new here.
The start-of-term feast finished in silence for Amara, and then the Headmaster got up and addressed the school with a smile, but his eyes showed no sign of warmth.
‘Welcome, welcome back,’ he said, looking at the students as if he’d much rather be sending them away. ‘So, for all the newcomers, I would like to make clear a few things:
‘Firstly, you should know that lessons here start at seven straight away, every day except for the start of term, of course. You will go to your first lessons right after I have finished – Professor Kysely, if you would hand out the timetables to the students? Now, all the basic school rules, you should also know – no duelling in the corridors, being on time for lessons, and not forcing clothes onto the house-elves are some of them. I assure you, any crook who wastes time trying to oppose the school regulations will be disciplined – and by that, I do not mean dusting the library books or cleaning bedpans.’ He bared his yellow teeth at them when he said this, and a sort of unanimous shiver ran through the hall.
‘The last thing I wish to inform – or remind you of,’ he continued, ‘is the most important. We all remember Stanislav Videnov, who was dared to swim in the Lake Gjende. No one ever saw him whole after that. The Kraken that lives in the Gjende is not to be disturbed, and as all of you know how much I would hate if it got you in its clutches, I advise you not to go near it.
‘Now, you’ve all gotten your timetables, have you? You have ten minutes to prepare for your lessons. You may go.’
There was a scrape of wooden benches on stone floor as everyone got up to leave, and Amara was pulled into the throng of students now making their way out of the hall.
Soon the crowd parted in two as the girls made their way to the East Wing and the boys to the West. A group of older girls with haughty looks about them pushed through the first-years. One of them pushed Amara particularly hard to the side, and she went pelting into another girl.
‘Hey!’ the girl said indignantly, turning round and holding her fists out in a martial arts-sort of pose.
‘Er – sorry,’ Amara said, raising her eyebrows in surprise.
‘Oh,’ the girl said, letting her hands fall to her sides. She brushed her short blonde pigtails behind her. ‘Sorry, I thought you were one of them,’ she whispered, glancing at the older girls who were continuing their pushing and shoving. ‘That was my defence pose, see, I use it to scare the bullies off.’ She nodded knowingly.
Amara smiled, unsure what to say, as they made their way to the East Wing.
‘So – they don’t sort us into Houses here, then?’ she asked.
‘No,’ the girl replied. ‘There are only two “Houses”, one for the girls and the other for the boys. But you knew that, of course?’
‘No,’ Amara said, wishing she’d known a bit more about the school before coming. The Burkes’ library hadn’t seemed to have had any books about the school.
‘How come?’
‘I was supposed to go to Hogwarts, since I’m from England but my – adoptive parents decided they should send me to Durmstrang instead.’
‘Oh, really?’ the girl said. ‘There are only about five other students from England here. My sister told me, she’s a fifth-year, see, so she knows a lot.’
Amara nodded, again not sure what to say, but the girl seemed eager to tell her all about the school now, so she listened quietly as she told her about the Kraken that lived in the lake nearby, the magical creatures in the dungeons, where they would have their Magical Creatures lessons, Quidditch teams at Durmstrang... until they arrived at the door to the common room.
‘...the common rooms and all the dormitories have passwords,’ the girl was saying, as girls went in and out of the common room in a hurry.
They somehow managed to get through the busy doorway after another clump of girls (who uttered the password, One-eyed Troll) and into the common room. It was a circular area; the cold stone floor and walls were as plain as the rest of the castle, but years of having been occupied by girls made it just that much brighter. Posters of famous Quidditch players and musicians winked down at them, a few instruments lay in one corner, there was a bookshelf covering half a wall, a picture of a cat with ‘LOST, 10G REWARD IF FOUND’ scribbled underneath was already pinned to the notice board, colourful beanbags littered the floor, and a few decorations still hung around from some previous party.
‘Nice, isn’t it?’ the girl said. ‘My sister says there’s...’ Her words were drowned out by a loud rumble of thunder, followed quickly by a flash of light and more thunder. It started to rain.
‘We’d better hurry,’ Amara said, as they went through a door and a narrow corridor to their dormitory. ‘What’s your first class?’
‘Magical Creatures. Are we together?’
‘No, mine’s Dark Arts,’ Amara replied, as they reached their dormitory and, spotting their trunks, started fishing in them for their books and quills. ‘Know if it’s any good?’
‘Well, my sister doesn’t really like it, but...’ The girl shrugged, emerging from her trunk with a load of books.
‘Good luck, then,’ she added, looking worried for some reason, as they reached classroom 106, where Amara had Dark Arts. She made to go in, but she remembered just as the girl with short pigtails was at the end of the corridor.
‘Forgot to ask your name!’ she called across the corridor, attracting a few scandalised looks from portraits with their occupants trying to sleep.
‘Karina,’ she called back.
‘Mine’s Amara. See you around.’
Amara knocked on the classroom door, uncomfortably aware that she was late for her first lesson. The door opened with a slight creak, and a tall, sallow-faced man in a black overcoat stood there. He had neck-length black hair cut precisely and dark shadows under his grey eyes, which gave him the slight look of a deprived vampire. Amara recognised him as Professor Kysely.
He gave Amara a stern look, and just when she felt her face would melt from the staring, he said, in a curt voice, ‘You are late.’
‘Sorry, sir.’
‘The Headmaster clearly told you, before the feast, that laziness and straggling is not put up with at this school.’
Unnerved at how he knew this, Amara said nothing, but stared determinedly at her feet, aware that everyone in the class was listening on intently. Professor Kysely allowed a few moments to pass in embarrassing silence for Amara, then went on: ‘I do not accept students into my class if they are late, and I will make no exception for you. You will stay outside until the next lesson, and you have detention.’
Feeling her face burn, Amara looked up at him, hating him, and said, ‘Yes, sir,’ just as curtly, and moved out of view of the rest of the students, standing with her back to the wall as the Professor closed the door.
Detention. And she hadn’t been there an hour. Amara could already see it, a trophy bearing her name and saying “Failure as a Witch on Her First Day of School”. She’d be written down in history.
And not to mention, she felt like Levitating that curt look off Professor Kysely’s face (since the only spell she could fully perform yet was the Levitating Charm). She glanced at the timetable in her hand again: she had Dark Arts everyday! How could she survive seeing his face every single school day?
For a moment Amara considered running away, to the East Wing at least, but then her detention would be worse, and the Headmaster had already said detentions were much worse than cleaning without magic. She wondered what kind of detention it would be, imagining all kinds of torture and hoping she was only over-imagining things.
The bell rang what felt like hours later, and not wanting to face the students’ reproving looks or Professor Kysely again, she dashed down to the dungeons and classroom 37 – Magical Creatures. Karina was still piling up her parchment, quill and books when she entered the classroom.
‘Hey,’ she said, seeing her. ‘How was Dark Arts?’
‘I got detention.’
Karina stared at her, wide-eyed. ‘What?’
The teacher gave them a sharp look, and Amara lowered her voice. ‘Because I was a bit late.’
‘But – no one ever dares to get detention here, they say it’s too bad.’
‘Well, it’s not like I asked for it, did I?’ Amara said grumpily, putting her books down.
‘I’m so sorry!’ Karina suddenly said. ‘It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have told you good luck!’
‘What?’ Amara looked at her, confused.
‘It’s me, whenever I tell people good luck, they’ve been getting bad luck, lately!’
Amara couldn’t help laughing a little at this. ‘Karina, what—? Come on, don’t be stupid.’
‘Are you two done chatting?’ the teacher snapped, a podgy woman with a ruddy face. ‘Anyone who doesn’t have Magical Creatures now – out.’
Karina hurried out after one last wide-eyed look at Amara, and Amara sat down and leafed through An Encyclopaedia of Magical Beasts as the rest of the students filed in. She presumed a lot of them had had Dark Arts class just before, as they were giving her a lot of weird looks as they settled down.
The teacher introduced herself as Professor Stach and told them to put everything back inside their bags before telling them to line up and follow her to the beasts’ cages. A whisper ran through the class at this, and everyone looked around cautiously at the dim-lit corridor as they made their way to the sound of chirping, hissing, growling and calling.
At a point they arrived at a fork – four corridors led to different sounds, the right ones much harsher and angrier than the ones from the left. They followed Professor Stach through the first one on the left.
She halted at a cell, lit her wand and raised it over her shoulders. Everyone peered around and stood on tiptoe to get a closer look.
What looked like two dwarf-like creatures sat on a bench, grumbling and scowling. They wore red hats and their fingers were long with sharp claws. A few feet in front of them lay what looked like a carcass of a dead animal.
‘These are Redcaps,’ the Professor explained. ‘Very dangerous to any lost traveller, especially in ruins and castles. Redcaps kill and dye their hats with the victim’s blood. They kill frequently. Anyone know why?’
A particularly tall boy with dark hair raised his hand. ‘Because,’ he said, in a thick Russian accent. ‘If the blood on their hats dries off, they die.’
‘Yes,’ Professor Stach said, raising her wand higher. ‘See those claws? Not very nice to get caught in them, eh?’ She laughed derisively. ‘Now, come over here.’
She showed them two other creatures: Landvættir, spirits of the land which looked like a cross between a badger and a lump of rock, and Qilins, unicorn-dragon hybrids which despite their fearsome appearance, were a sign of peace-keeping and did not eat living things. They split into three groups and inspected the creatures’ behaviour as they fed them different food.
The bell rang for the next lesson and Amara traipsed upstairs to the second floor for History. Karina was already sitting at a desk when she arrived, and Amara gratefully took a seat next to her, glad that at least someone in this class didn’t look at her like she was some kind of contamination.
The teacher, a middle-aged, balding man with a bored expression, didn’t even introduce himself. He told them to open their book and read out whole pages with minuscule writing throughout the whole lesson.
At twelve they somehow managed to find their way to lunch, then they rushed to room 102 for Spells.
Professor Ecklund, who looked around her late-twenties, turned out to be the nicest teacher Amara had come across that morning, and she even hinted how she’d actually preferred to have taught at Hogwarts. They started on an easy Reducing Charm, and by the end of the lesson almost everyone had managed to empty their glass of water.
After Spells came Runes. The teacher, Professor Langenberg, was less than five feet tall, wore overlarge robes and spoke in barely more than a whisper, so that when the bell rang for Potions Amara already had all her Rune translations muddled up.
Professor Siroth, on the other hand, was quite the contrary; his voice carried all across the corridor when he spoke, and no sooner had they started a simple Preserving Solution had he shouted his head off at someone who had turned on the fire before putting in his chopped Flobberworms.
All in all, Amara was glad when the day was finally over; she already had an essay on the House-elf Treaty and three diagrams to fill in for Magical Creatures, and Karina told her they had a Dark Arts essay for the day after as well, and with all that and the detention on her mind, she happily flopped down onto her bed after finishing her homework and having dinner. Not noticing how cold or hard the bed was, she fell asleep quickly, to the whistling of the wind outside and the low lament of the Kraken swimming in the Gjende.
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Last edited by Lady Mouldywart; 08-03-2012 at 11:59 AM.
Reason: some mistakes...
Wow, Durmstrnag really stinks! And what country is Karina from? Can't wait for more! Pleez keep writing!
And, I also have a question for you. It's a great conversation starter. Have you ever heard of the great and famous magical school of Pigfarts? LOL!
Hey great chapter!
It is very descriptive (that's a good thing ).
I feel so sorry for Amara, I would hate to go there. Then again, I couldn't imagine going to a bording school anyways, I am dying to go home by 5th. But, going to Durmstrang seems like it would really suck. First of all, there's the cold, and then there's the teachers... ick. Although, Professor Ecklund (?) seems nice enough.
Great job!
-Rachel
Wow, Durmstrnag really stinks! And what country is Karina from? Can't wait for more! Pleez keep writing!
And, I also have a question for you. It's a great conversation starter. Have you ever heard of the great and famous magical school of Pigfarts? LOL!
Karina's from Norway And yeah, Durmstrang stinks like unwashed socks worn by a ghoul for a year xP
Hmm... I should consider if Amara should go there *scratches imaginary beard*
Thankwoooo for reading&commenting Sarah
Quote:
Originally Posted by narnia_potter
Hey great chapter!
It is very descriptive (that's a good thing ).
I feel so sorry for Amara, I would hate to go there. Then again, I couldn't imagine going to a bording school anyways, I am dying to go home by 5th. But, going to Durmstrang seems like it would really suck. First of all, there's the cold, and then there's the teachers... ick. Although, Professor Ecklund (?) seems nice enough.
Great job!
-Rachel
Hey Rachel! Thanks for the comment
Yeah, me too, I don't go to boarding school and I still get kinda homesick at school sometimes And yes, it's Ecklund - sorry for the weird names in this chapter =p
Thanks again!!
Now, because I can and because you deserve it, time for an uber long comment!! (I mean, it's so long, I doubt you want to read it all!)
SPOILER!!: commenting fun!
Quote:
I am SO sorry for taking so long with this chapter! School, homework, school, homework <- blame them not me... :d But anyway, here is chapter 8, which is mega-super-ultra long, so that makes up for it right? THANKYOU everyone for reading and commenting <3
It definitely makes up for it! (Though, we'd have forgiven you more if victor had been involved..}
Quote:
‘Ten to seven already!’ Mr Burke exclaimed, glancing at his wristwatch. ‘Oh dear, you may actually be the last to arrive.’
Amara saw him smirk out of the corner of her eyes.
Of course he would do it on purpose, **grumbles under breath about prats**.
Quote:
The gigantic front doors opened and a feeble orange light shone onto the otherwise dim morning, outlining the figure of someone standing in the entrance. Whoever it was started making their way towards them.
Ooooh...all creepy. Perfect mood!
Quote:
‘Ah, that should be Professor Karkaroff,’ said Mr Burke, nodding as he approached them.
**stabs Karkaroff** Never liked him...
Quote:
Mr Burke returned the greeting, then turned to Amara with a sneer. ‘Well, I must be off, Amarantha. I will leave you to Professor Karkaroff’s assistance, then.’ He nodded at the Headmaster again and disappeared with a twirl.
With a sneer?! Is he actually being nicer to Karkaroff than his own adoptive daughter?! I can't believe this! (Well, I can, but I don't want to...)
Quote:
‘Well, well,’ Karkaroff said, looking down at Amara with a cold smile. ‘Not very punctual, are we? Students usually arrive half an hour before the gates close. I would have thought you’d know that.’
AND HOW COULD SHE HAVE POSSIBLY KNOWN THAT YOU LITTLE...er-....TWIT!
Quote:
‘I do not normally have to greet the laggards myself,’ he went on, pocketing his wand. ‘And I assure you laziness is not put up with in this school. Now let me not keep you waiting any longer.’
Don't you dare call my Amara a laggard!!
Quote:
He strode off towards the gates and Amara followed grudgingly. It was even colder inside for some reason. The entrance hall was vast, with empty marble walls and a lit chandelier dangling from the ceiling. There were staircases in corners, and corridors leading off on all sides.
I bet it was colder because of all the cold hearts there....(I am being very biased against Durmstrang aren't I?)
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Karkaroff steered left and went down a dark hallway lit only by a few torches hanging in their brackets. Every now and then they passed a portrait with the occupant either snoring or mumbling to themselves, but they met no ghosts, no trick steps, no walls pretending to be doors.
Love the way you keep bringing Hogwarts to her mind. Durmstrang sounds so...well, empty and cold.
Quote:
The sound of talk soon reached their ears and sure enough, they soon arrived in a large hall with multiple tables standing vertically, and another one standing horizontally at the far end. It was brighter in here, but still as cold.
Love the imagery!
Quote:
She’d read that at Hogwarts, students were sorted at the start of term, but there was no sign of any Sorting Ceremony here. Maybe they did it later? People often complained that at Hogwarts they were sorted too early, after all...
I had wondered about that...
Quote:
Looking up and down the table, Amara saw that everyone was already sitting with their own group of friends, talking in Baltic languages, sometimes in others, and she caught a snatch of what sounded like Welsh at the table opposite her, but no one spoke to her. She guessed none of them were very good at English, and of course, there was the fact that she was new here.
I hated that, when I started at a new school, every one had their own friends and were very unwilling to share them...
Quote:
The start-of-term feast finished in silence for Amara, and then the Headmaster got up and addressed the school with a smile, but his eyes showed no sign of warmth.
Le sigh... this makes me want Dumbledore.
Quote:
‘Welcome, welcome back,’ he said, looking at the students as if he’d much rather be sending them away. ‘So, for all the newcomers, I would like to make clear a few things:
Make things clear? Like what? The fact that your a dirty little Bass Tart?
Quote:
‘Firstly, you should know that lessons here start at seven straight away, every day except for the start of term, of course. You will go to your first lessons right after I have finished – Professor Kysley, if you would hand out the timetables to the students? Now, all the basic school rules, you should also know – no duelling in the corridors, being on time for lessons, and not forcing clothes onto the house-elves are some of them. I assure you, any crook who wastes time trying to oppose the school regulations will be disciplined – and by that, I do not mean dusting the library books or cleaning bedpans.’ He bared his yellow teeth at them when he said this, and a sort of unanimous shiver ran through the hall.
he makes me think of filch.
Quote:
‘The last thing I wish to inform – or remind you of,’ he continued, ‘is the most important. We all remember Stanislav Videnov, who was dared to swim in the Lake Gjende. No one ever saw him whole after that. The Kraken that lives in the Gjende is not to be disturbed, and as all of you know how much I would hate if it got you in its clutches, I advise you not to go near it.
A kraken!? I want one! But poor Stanislav....
Quote:
‘Hey!’ the girl said indignantly, turning round and holding her fists out in a martial arts-sort of pose.
She just became my instant favorite of students at Durmstrang (aside from Amara)
Quote:
‘Oh,’ the girl said, letting her hands fall to her sides. She brushed her short blonde pigtails behind her. ‘Sorry, I thought you were one of them,’ she whispered, glancing at the older girls who were continuing their pushing and shoving. ‘That was my defence pose, see, I use it to scare the bullies off.’ She nodded knowingly.
Defence? Do you mean defense or is this another one of those words that can be spelled differently?
Anyway, how often does that actually work?
Quote:
‘I was supposed to go to Hogwarts, since I’m from England but my – adoptive parents decided they should send me to Durmstrang instead.’
You'll be there Amara, you'll get to Hogwarts somehow, but apparently not in this chapter...
Quote:
Posters of famous Quidditch players and musicians winked down at them, a few instruments lay in one corner, there was a bookshelf covering half a wall, a picture of a cat with ‘LOST, 10G REWARD IF FOUND’ scribbled underneath was already pinned to the notice board,
yes, out of that whole paragraph, all I got was the poor lost cat...
Quote:
‘Nice, isn’t it?’ the girl said. ‘My sister says there’s...’ Her words were drowned out by a loud rumble of thunder, followed quickly by a flash of light. It started to rain.
She must really look up to her sister...
Quote:
‘No, mine’s Dark Arts,’ Amara replied, as they reached their dormitory and, spotting their trunks, started fishing in them for their books and quills. ‘Know if it’s any good?’
It's dark arts, of course it's no good!
Quote:
Professor Kysley allowed a few moments to pass in embarrassing silence for Amara, then went on: ‘I do not accept students into my class if they are late, and I will make no exception for you. You will stay outside until the next lesson, and you have detention.’
my point exactly, never a good class...
Quote:
Detention. And she hadn’t been there an hour. Amara could already see it, a trophy bearing her name and saying “Failure as a Witch on Her First Day of School”. She’d be written down in history.
I bet you're not the first one to feel that way!
Quote:
And not to mention, she felt like Levitating that curt look off Professor Kysley’s face (since the only spell she could fully perform yet was the Levitating Charm). She glanced at the timetable in her hand again: she had Dark Arts everyday! How could she survive seeing his face every single school day?
DO IT!!!!
Quote:
For a moment Amara considered running away, to the East Wing at least, but then her detention would be worse, and the Headmaster had already said detentions were much worse than cleaning without magic. She wondered what kind of detention it would be, imagining all kinds of torture and hoping she was only over-imagining things.
They could possibly make a detention like that right?
Quote:
‘But – no one ever dares to get detention here, they say it’s too bad.’
Who says that? And uh-oh....
Quote:
‘I’m so sorry!’ Karina suddenly said. ‘It’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have told you good luck!’
‘What?’ Amara looked at her, confused.
‘It’s me, whenever I tell people good luck, they’ve been getting bad luck, lately!’
Oh Karina....
Quote:
What looked like two dwarf-like creatures sat on a bench, grumbling and scowling. They wore red hats and their fingers were long with sharp claws. A few feet in front of them lay what looked like a carcass of a dead animal.
I felt bad for those animals, until I discovered about the hat things...
Quote:
A particularly tall boy with dark hair raised his hand. ‘Because,’ he said, in a thick Russian accent. ‘If the blood on their hats dries off, they die.’
It's just gross...
Quote:
The teacher, a middle-aged, balding man with a bored expression, didn’t even introduce himself. He told them to open their book and read out whole pages with minuscule writing throughout the whole lesson.
Sounds like my math teacher...
Quote:
Professor Ecklund, who looked around her late-twenties, turned out to be the nicest teacher Amara had come across that morning, and she even hinted how she’d actually preferred to have taught at Hogwarts. They started on an easy Reducing Charm, and by the end of the lesson almost everyone had managed to empty their glass of water.
My favoritist professor at Durmstrang now!
Quote:
Professor Siroth, on the other hand, was quite the contrary; his voice carried all across the corridor when he spoke, and no sooner had they started a simple Preserving Solution had he shouted his head off at someone who had turned on the fire before putting in his chopped Flobberworms.
sounds like my science teacher..
Quote:
All in all, Amara was glad when the day was finally over; she already had an essay on the House-elf Treaty and three diagrams to fill in for Magical Creatures, and Karina told her they had a Dark Arts essay for the day after as well, and with all that and the detention on her mind, she happily flopped down onto her bed after finishing her homework and having dinner. Not noticing how cold or hard the bed was, she fell asleep quickly, to the whistling of the wind outside and the low lament of the Kraken swimming in the Gjende.
Eerie noise to fall asleep too....
I love it!!! (As usual)
Keep it up, I mean it! (though I understand if it's latw 'cause of school and stuff...
oh sorry i got distracted while i was about to comment
But anywayz!!! AMAZING
*dances with you*
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!!!The next chap should be up either this weekend or maybe in a few days
Quote:
Originally Posted by LillyJames
SPOILER!!: uber long commentingness and replyness
I have arrived!!
Now, because I can and because you deserve it, time for an uber long comment!! (I mean, it's so long, I doubt you want to read it all!)
AAAAH, it's THE LONG COMMENT *flails* Of course I'll read it all Seriously I appreciate all you guys so much for liking my story, I mean obviously if it wasn't that I wouldn't have went on writing it duh Btw you all need to remind me your real names [if you don't mind, obviously] I can't remember them all. I know there's Taz, Sarah, Kira, Rachel... aaah names are scary to learn by heart =[[ but anywayy...
It definitely makes up for it! (Though, we'd have forgiven you more if victor had been involved..}
I hate turning readers down, but he won't really be in the story, like, he will more or less be like in the HP books, a minor charrie...
Of course he would do it on purpose, **grumbles under breath about prats**.
Hmm... *nods*
Ooooh...all creepy. Perfect mood!
=D
**stabs Karkaroff** Never liked him...
I HATEHATE him and his yellow teeth -.-
With a sneer?! Is he actually being nicer to Karkaroff than his own adoptive daughter?! I can't believe this! (Well, I can, but I don't want to...)
AND HOW COULD SHE HAVE POSSIBLY KNOWN THAT YOU LITTLE...er-....TWIT!
Yep, it's true. The little-- *grinds teeth* OK I think we'd better not say any adjectives out loud huh?
Don't you dare call my Amara a laggard!!
*joins you and stabs karkaroff*
I bet it was colder because of all the cold hearts there....(I am being very biased against Durmstrang aren't I?)
No, have no doubt that Durmstrang sucks next to Hogwarts =p But nothing is all-evil or all-good, so there would be good people in Durmstrang too
Love the way you keep bringing Hogwarts to her mind. Durmstrang sounds so...well, empty and cold.
Love the imagery!
:nod: Yaay I actually did good imagery!! [I had a descriptive essay for French and I did horrrribly...
I hated that, when I started at a new school, every one had their own friends and were very unwilling to share them...
Yeah I could relate to that too, when I first started secondary I only knew like 2 people, but until you get to know everyone else right
Le sigh... this makes me want Dumbledore.
Dumblydorr, ou est-ce que vous allerrrr?
Go on, I know you want to use google translate now unless you know french...
Make things clear? Like what? The fact that your a dirty little Bass Tart?
BASS TART hahahh good one
he makes me think of filch.
Do you think I should make a caretaker for durmstrang? or caretakerS? I was thinking just the house-elves...
A kraken!? I want one! But poor Stanislav....
You remind me of Hagrid Have you ever seen pics of a kraken? Or 'Clash of the Titans'? Maybe you'll change your mind after that
She just became my instant favorite of students at Durmstrang (aside from Amara)
Defence? Do you mean defense or is this another one of those words that can be spelled differently?
Anyway, how often does that actually work?
I think it's like 'colour', and 'realise'. Different spellings meguesses.
Here's a little about Karina She's naive, REALLY superstitious, and is allergic to cats
You'll be there Amara, you'll get to Hogwarts somehow, but apparently not in this chapter...
You'll have to wait a few more chapters :evillaugh
yes, out of that whole paragraph, all I got was the poor lost cat...
Oh, sorry! Did I write it so bad?? I'M A FAILUUUREEEE
She must really look up to her sister...
Oh, that too. Yeah, she also believes everything her sister says.
It's dark arts, of course it's no good!
my point exactly, never a good class...
No, I'd bet not...
I bet you're not the first one to feel that way!
DO IT!!!!
They could possibly make a detention like that right?
Who says that? And uh-oh....
Oh Karina....
Do you have any ideas what detention may be?
I felt bad for those animals, until I discovered about the hat things...
It's just gross...
Yeah, I read up on it on wikipedia
Sounds like my math teacher...
Mine too, he's exactly like that. And it doesn't help at all when I feel like jumping out the window from all the continuous babble and calculations and equations... Rather not think about it.
My favoritist professor at Durmstrang now!
sounds like my science teacher..
Thank God none of my teachers are like that, this year.
Eerie noise to fall asleep too....
That part's my favourite
I love it!!! (As usual)
Keep it up, I mean it! (though I understand if it's latw 'cause of school and stuff...
*wipes sweat from brow* Long comments are hard work :O
Loving this story, you're a really good writer! Bit worried when you say Amara will go to Hogwarts EVENTUALLY you mean that one day she'll visit or something and not go there (eg. torture us!)
Loving this story, you're a really good writer! Bit worried when you say Amara will go to Hogwarts EVENTUALLY you mean that one day she'll visit or something and not go there (eg. torture us!)
Thankyou Ash! [if you don't mind me calling you that] Seriously, you guys make my day whenever I read your comments
So, yes! Finally, another chapter, after what - a month? I'm sorry for the lateness, you know, what with school and tests and an exam soon, I wasn't really in a writing mood, but enough excuses. I just hope this chapter is good enough to be forgiven
Beware of the gloomy gloomgloom in this chapter - well, at the end. Next chapter will be really nice and bubbly happy though, most of the time
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Chapter 9 - Detention
The first week passed like a slow breeze of wind. It stretched out longer than Amara would have liked it to, but when the morning of Saturday the twenty-fourth came, she wasn’t sure if it had passed at all.
Her first thought when she woke up was the reminder that she had detention that day. Drawing the bed curtains aside as she sat up, Amara saw the now-familiar gray sky through the window. Droplets of rain still hung onto the glass from the night before, racing each other to the window frame. The dormitory was quiet, the only sound the scurrying of a mouse underneath a bed or in a corner, so Amara sat still for a moment, savouring the few minutes of silence before the castle woke up. The clock on her bedside read twenty to seven.
Something made a loud splat against the windowpane and Amara jerked out of her daze suddenly. What looked like a mass of brown feathers was beating against the glass.
Crossing the dormitory in a quiet sprint, Amara reached the window and opened it cautiously, trying not to let too much wind and cold inside so the others wouldn’t wake up. The owl swooped in clumsily, landed on Mina Shishmanova’s bed, and within a few seconds seemed fast asleep. Amara dashed to it and picked it up cautiously, not wanting to imagine the fuss Mina would do if she woke up to find an owl sharing a bed with her.
This particular Mina was in fact possibly the most irritating roommate anyone could have. She complained about everything and anything, blamed everyone for every missing sock and quill, snored in tremendous exaggeration, fought to shower first in the morning, confused her bed with the others’, and had even attempted to jinx Fizzy once when she found a few black hairs on her pillow (which turned out to be her own).
Frowning as she remembered, Amara plopped back onto her bed and, with the owl chirping sleepily next to her, she untied the letter from its legs and unfolded it:
Hey Amara,
How’s it going there? I’m sorry I haven’t written a lot lately but I’ve been really busy with school stuff. I even got detention yesterday, just because I forgot my Transfiguration essay! Well, OK, for the second time running, but still... I had to clean the floor of Greenhouse 3 this morning, and believe me, that isn’t really anyone’s ideal morning...
By the way, this is Faye. She’s a cute little owl, isn’t she? But she likes to sleep a lot and doesn’t like travelling much. DON’T wake her up if she’s asleep, she gets real angry when I do that. I had to have someone else write notes for me last week because my hand was full of pinch-marks.
I’m really missing you here, but I’m sure it’s great at Durmstrang too! Write soon.
Dita
Amara sat staring at the letter for a while, then she reached under her bed for her trunk, took parchment and quill and wrote a reply, about what a good time she was having at Durmstrang and how she didn’t miss Hogwarts anymore; it was great here too. It was quite convincing, she thought, as she read her reply and put it under her pillow for later. She got up, tucked up Faye in her quilt, changed and went to the common room to finish some homework.
The common room was almost empty; a few older students were in a corner talking amongst themselves, a few others were playing Exploding Snap or Wizards’ Chess, and some, like Amara, sat down and buried their noses in books and parchment.
The clock read a quarter past seven when Karina finally came down, yawning and rubbing her eyes and still in her pyjamas. She flopped down next to Amara, her hair ruffled and sticking out, still yawning like a sleep-deprived lion.
‘God Morgen,’ she said, leaning on her elbow on the table and watching Amara write.
‘Morning,’ Amara replied, still trying to decipher the meaning of a hard sentence in A Guide to Practical Use of Hexes and Jinxes. She stared at it for a while, reading it repeatedly and not taking in a word, then finally gave it up as a bad job, and turned to her Potions essay.
‘I’m bored,’ Karina said suddenly. ‘There’s still about half an hour for breakfast, and I don’t feel like doing my homework either... there’s nothing to do outside, my pack of Exploding Snap burnt up a while ago, and I’m not that good at Chess either—’
She was cut off as a girl with chalk-white skin and equally white hair came in and went up to them. She was wearing her uniform, despite it being the weekend, and she had a badge pinned to her robes, with a large, blood-red ‘P’ on it.
‘Are you Amarantha Burke?’ she asked Amara, who nodded. She gave her a reproving look. ‘Professor Kysely would like to speak to you, now.’
Karina looked cautiously at Amara, who didn’t meet her gaze. They’d avoided talking about detention the whole week, even though Karina had said she had no idea what it was exactly, because students were forbidden to say anything except that it was horrible. Apparently in the past years, a few daredevils had even got themselves into detention on purpose, just to find out.
‘And you,’ the pale girl said, turning onto Karina. ‘Fix your hair, and don’t sit around doing nothing.’
Karina gave her a dour look as she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to flatten it out, and Amara followed the Prefect out of the common room, an ominous feeling in her chest. The Prefect girl walked in a quick pace, so Amara almost had to jog to catch up. Down stairs and past corridor after corridor, but they didn’t go sideways to a teacher’s office as they came in the entrance hall, but went straight up to the front door, where Kysely was waiting, looking as curt as ever.
He nodded at the Prefect and she left rather hastily, as if she didn’t want anything to do with Amara.
‘So,’ he said coldly, turning to Amara. ‘Your wand?’
He held out his hand, and Amara noticed how long and skeletal his fingers were.
‘I left it in the dormitory. Sir,’ she added hurriedly.
‘Good. Follow me now.’
Wondering how many times she was going to follow people around the castle, Amara did so and to her surprise, they didn’t cross the hall to one of the corridors or the stairs, but he opened the door and motioned her outside. The icy air met her like a thousand knives and, wishing she had worn something thicker, she followed the Professor as they walked a long way in the wind and the freezing silence, until she could see the whole outline of the castle when she looked back, her jumper pulled up to her neck and her hands wrapped around her shoulders.
Professor Kysely stopped suddenly, and Amara peered around nervously.
A trapdoor, in the snow.
‘In,’ he indicated, as he pointed his wand and opened the trapdoor. ‘I will lock you in, and don’t even bother looking for a way out. I will come back in a few hours.’
At first Amara did nothing, and stared at the dark hole in the ground.
‘Now,’ Kysely said quietly, his voice a threat.
‘No.’
‘How you dare—’ he hissed, pointing his wand at her. Amara took a step back, but he grabbed her arm and forced her into the hovel as she fought to no avail. The hole was a few feet deep, just enough for her to stand up straight.
‘You’ve earned yourself a few more hours in that pit,’ the Professor laughed nastily, as he shut the door in her face. Amara fumed with anger, but knew better than to retaliate. She waited until she was sure he had gone away, then sat down on the ground and hugged her knees, wondering if she would freeze to death there after all.
It was colder and more humid down here. From the crack of morning light slitting in, Amara could see moss growing on rough, carved-in walls. Words in Runes and languages she didn’t understand.
Her heart stopped beating for a fraction of a second. She felt her arms freeze around her legs, her mind growing heavy and numb, and suddenly she wasn’t there anymore.
A woman with unkempt black hair was standing next to her, a glint of insanity in her large eyes. Amara looked down at the floor, where a girl no older than five lay, sobbing and holding her wounded hands over her head. Three other people lay a few feet apart: a middle-aged man and woman, and a boy who looked in his teens, dead. Amara was screaming, but the woman waved her wand and Amara went on screaming, mutely.
‘Shut up,’ the woman snarled. ‘Filthy Muggles, they deserve this.’
In another place and time she was running, her short legs not fast enough, her heart pounding and pulsating with fear so strong she couldn’t breathe properly. Claws tore at her shoulder, before the werewolf was thrown backwards in a burst of light from a wand.
And in another fraction, a face so distorted and burnt and inhuman surfaced into her memories, grinning nastily down at her.
Amara gasped as she came to, her hands shaking, breathing in the cold air as the temperature suddenly went very clammy and fever-warm.
There was something at the end of the pit, shrugging off a shroud of moss as it formed out of it. She’d seen one of them, in one of her spellbooks. A dementor.
She shivered and backed away to the far end, but the dementor didn’t follow. Maybe it hadn’t fully formed yet, maybe there wasn’t enough moss for it to born. Amara pressed herself against the jagged corner, willing herself to be smaller, to disappear. Those weird memories she couldn’t even recall, they kept forming, and as she stared warily across, she realised it would be a long time before the trapdoor opened again to let her out.
-----
Hope that wasn't too much sadfaceangst. Well as long as you guys like it it's ok with me
No, this is an awesome chapter, it really shows how she feels about all this!
PAMS!
Kira
xxxx
Really? That's a coincidence But I love the name Faye, I wish I was called that actually
Oh, phew, glad that it wasn't too much then! *wipes forehead* I kinda feel like I'm not good at writing sad stuff, like I overdo it or something, so that's good to hear
Thanks for reading&commenting! And being so patient
That was awesome! Poor Amara! Thatwas the worst detention ever! You know, Amara is so nice and sweet, I sometimes forget get that she's Bellatrix's daughter! Well, it's amazing as always, and I'm can't wait to see more!!!!!!!
AHMAZING i thought it was the twins writing to her and as i told you it would be scary if that hole caved in
I felt like it would be too much, two letters in one chapter, since F&G's letters tend to be quite bulging with, uhm, anything but letters hintyhint
If it did, you'd be stuck with a dementor for the rest of your life :S Who knows, maybe it would learn to be civilised and become your partner-in-food-scavenging, playing checkers with rocks, singing operas... *looks at clock* 1:07...right, I'd better sleep
THANKS for reading&commenting
Quote:
Originally Posted by XenoLongbottom
That was awesome! Poor Amara! Thatwas the worst detention ever! You know, Amara is so nice and sweet, I sometimes forget get that she's Bellatrix's daughter! Well, it's amazing as always, and I'm can't wait to see more!!!!!!!
Glad to hear that I like the concept, or whatsitcalled, of 'it's not who you were born, but what you become' Thankyouthankyouthankyou Me too, I can't wait for chapter 5 of Hobbit at Hogwarts Bytheway, if anyone's reading. go read Sarah's fanfic here, it's awesome
Great chapter! Poor Amara, she really doesn't deserve a detention like that. Those are some freaky memories she's got. Would they possibly be from when she was extremely little, before Bellatrix gave her to Cissy?
Post again please!!
-Rachel
Great chapter! Poor Amara, she really doesn't deserve a detention like that. Those are some freaky memories she's got. Would they possibly be from when she was extremely little, before Bellatrix gave her to Cissy?
Post again please!!
-Rachel
Yes, they're from before she lived with the Malfoys and was sent away But you know, stuff like that, from when you're still a toddler, it's hard to remember, so she didn't remember any of it before...I did write that
Great chapter but REALLY freaky! (You can probably tell I get scared easily!) Need to know what happens! Half the time I can't believe that she Bellatrix's daughter.. and I think I finally worked out why the Burkes' adopted her...
Great chapter but REALLY freaky! (You can probably tell I get scared easily!) Need to know what happens! Half the time I can't believe that she Bellatrix's daughter.. and I think I finally worked out why the Burkes' adopted her...
:O You read between the lines... hmm, but I wonder what you worked out exactly? Meheh, you might be wrong you know :evillaugh Thanks for reading
Glad to hear that I like the concept, or whatsitcalled, of 'it's not who you were born, but what you become' Thankyouthankyouthankyou Me too, I can't wait for chapter 5 of Hobbit at Hogwarts Bytheway, if anyone's reading. go read Sarah's fanfic here, it's awesome
Oh my gosh! Thank you Diana. You're so sweet. I'm going more scarlet than Ron's ears! *blushes* You're awesome!
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THANKYOU everyone for reading and commenting <3
And yes, it's Ecklund - sorry for the weird names in this chapter =p
Dumblydorr, ou est-ce que vous allerrrr?
i thought it was the twins writing to her
