Noctis Evermore and The Master of Tarot

-Chapter Nine- The After Class

Noctis leaned in towards the keyhole and whispered in his most sincere voice, 'Professor Clive, are you there?'. Wooden clunks echoed from his knuckles on the door but nothing had been reciprocated. No sound of life within the room could be heard.

In the painful silence that followed, the slightest sound of rustling wood could be heard from behind the door but still, no response from Professor Clive had been returned. The quietness had seeped into his veins as if it was suffocating him with suspense. Although not too far-fetched, Noctis had a bizarre idea that Professor Clive might have been scaling on the roof of the castle again or 'working in the clouds' as he preferred to say.
'Professor Clive? Pardon me but I'm coming in.'
The last time Noctis had been through the doorway, he had to squeeze through several other students but this time it was peaceful enough to even hear the door creak on its rusty hinges. Just like it had been before, the room was clear of all the sentient tables and chairs, revealing the spectacular shine of the glossy floor. During these times, the curtains had been shut tightly and the glass ceiling, blocked with a canopy to shield the room from any sunlight possible. He kept his eyes locked on the ceiling just in case of any plummeting professors, neglectful of his surroundings. He felt his nose press onto something bony and a shriek of fear escaped his throat. He had accidentally walked into the hand of the dementor model, leering down at him with its cloaked face. Within the darkness that overtook every crevice of the room, the dementors almost looked as if they were prepared to spring to life and relish on unsuspecting children.
'Sir, are you there?' repeated Noctis in a clearer voice. He felt cold sweat run down his spine as he glared at the jars of grindylow's rustle on the shelves. They were without a doubt far more feisty when the sunlight had abandoned the room, squirming around their jars and bearing their crooked teeth.
Noctis paced around the room with anxiety surging through his veins like a force of dark energy. It was a completely new room from before which was teeming with curious children in each corner. The absence of human life was unbearably eery and the soles of Noctis' leather boots could only be heard squeaking as he crept along the wooden floorboards. Finally. To his relief, a response did arrive but from a rather unusual place.

'Good afternoon there Noctis, do you need something?' muffled a voice. It came from a pile of large barrels in the corner.
'Err yes, but Professor Clive, where exactly are you right now?'

'I'm currently in no position to talk. Could you come a little bit closer?'
Noctis walked over towards the pile and was almost stunned to see that Professor Clive had squeezed his body into a barrel with enough room for his snowy hair to poke out of the top. Odd enough as it was, Professor Clive looked more relaxed than unsettled by the strange position he was in.
'No thanks. But may I ask why you might be in a barrel, Professor?'
'Hiding from somebody... Hey Noctis, if you see Professor Cecelia coming, could you warn me?' he whispered in a slightly frightened voice.
There was no time to waste and certainly no time to be hiding. Noctis attempted to detach Professor Clive from his barrel but he clung onto the inner walls with an iron grip. His pupils had shrunken to a size that suggested real fear and his clutch on the sides of the barrel only grew tighter with more resistance. What could Professor Cecelia be capable of to make him this scared? Noctis couldn't help but believe that Professor Clive associates with all sorts of people, including those he irritates and those who enjoy his strangeness. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if he somehow managed to anger Professor Cecelia.
'Professor, I was wondering if you could um, help-p me with-,' stuttered Noctis. At this very moment, a new fear had emerged in Noctis as he realized asking for help felt strangely embarrassing. He fiddled with his fingers but still struggled to put his desires into words without sounding too desperate.
'I have a duel and I would like some help on it!' he finally managed to say.
Professor Clive poked his head out of the barrel with a hint of intrigue and surveyed Noctis from head to toe, 'I would love to but there are certain conditions that must be fulfilled.'
Noctis' pupils flickered with ambition as his hairs began to stand on end with excitement. From the depths of his heart, he could feel an indescribable spark of hope that dispersed throughout his entire body.
'What might those conditions be?' asked Noctis eagerly.
Professor Clive's usually carefree grin was now replaced by a stern but comforting smile. In a deeper tone than usual, he declared to Noctis,
'You have to win. That's all.'
The room was still absent of light but it had felt that the entire world around him was a cloudy paradise. It was simply unbelievable. Noctis could not imagine that it was this easy to get lessons from the first rank Celestial Mage and was enthralled to the point he felt his bones quaking. The excitement was more than enough to nearly make him jump up and down but he resisted the temptation to do so.
'Is that really it?' he asked once more.
'Yes. Well actually, maybe you could help me carry around some boxes of apples around. Nothing too heavy.'
Professor Clive finally abandoned his barrel of concealment and brightened the room with scented candles that smelt strangely like home. Jars, fossils, and the packed away chairs from the shadows began to reappear in vivid sight as the candescent light shows no mercy to any darkness in the room.
'Well, let's not dilly dally and get on shall we?'
Noctis nodded his head energetically in a doting manner. For his entire life, it had always been about giving help to others and not necessarily getting any in return. Perhaps, Professor Clive may have been the father that he had always wished he had.
'Now Noctis, is there a spell in particular that you need to learn? Preferably one that could be mastered in a few weeks.'
'Well, I do have an idea from a friend of mine. I need something to create a smokescreen from the sand so maybe the blasting curs-'
'Impossible. The blasting curse will take you years of prerequisite knowledge to master so your efforts will be all to pot,' interrupted Professor Clive. 'How about for now we focus on essentials such as the disarming charm. You can't win a duel without it.'
'Thank you, Sir. But is there really no way to create a smoke screen though? It's just that my friend, Law, thought of the battle strategy for me and I would hate for it to go to waste.' Noctis twiddled with his thumbs wondering if he may have sounded too defiant and ungrateful. Just getting help from Professor Clive was more than sufficient to be content.
'How caring of you. No need to fret because fortunately, there is a niche charm that just so happens to meet your needs. It's called the swirling charm, an inferior spell to its predecessor, tempest.'
'Do you think I could master both in three weeks?' asked Noctis worriedly. He stared at his wand knowing that for a while, he would have his sweaty palms clutched around it trying his best to master the spells.
'In all honesty, I have no idea. From my perspective you're an outlier' replied Professor Clive.
Those words hit Noctis harder than they should have as he felt his hopes plummet to new depths. Noctis thought that perhaps he was destined to be just as unrefined as a squib just like the sorting hat had foretold. His hands began to tremble in fear that they may remain at the level of a first year's forever, only able to cast the most basic of spells to lift laundry or clean dishes.
'Hey, hey. Don't get me wrong here. You see, I've been cursed and blessed with these eyes right here,' explained Professor Clive as he poked the edge of his starry eyes. 'I perceive the world in an entirely different way to those who normally see it. You've heard about mana from Professor Fidelis, correct?'
'Yeah,' answered Noctis in his downtrodden tone.
'I can see it. In other words, I am able to see the flow of mana which is emitted like a cloak of energy. In wizards, witches, creatures, and places, you can list them.' He paused as if he were to say something that has triggered his curiosity.
'But you. You're different from anything I've ever seen, Noctis.' Professor Clive's pupils fixated intensely on Noctis and seemed to have a hypnotic effect as he stood in a stupor staring at the starry patterns on his iris.
'Everything that has mana also has a unique colour, but you're the first..'
'The first I have ever witnessed without a trace of colour.'
This must have been Professor Clive's kindest way of revealing to someone that they were a squib. Waves of disappointment and misery swirled through Noctis' head, thinking that he had been invited to this school to simply be a caretaker. First, the sorting hat and now Professor Clive had reminded him of his weaknesses. His differences. His deep black hair and grey eyes were already a daily reminder to him, he didn't need any more signs of his variances. He could feel his dreams of becoming a part of the celestial mage alliance rotting before he had even begun trying.
Just before Noctis felt his tear glands almost flooding his eye sockets, Professor Clive continued his explanation.
'However! I still sense mana from you, just not visually, which means you can do magic just fine. You know, It's such an unusual phenomenon that even I have yet to comprehend myself,' affirmed Professor Clive who had noticed an upset Noctis.
'So that means I'm normal, right? I'm not a...squib?'
'Absolutely not! I would know right away if you were one.'
Noctis sighed in relief at the thought that he could fit right in with his fellow first years. For a boy that didn't hold a resemblance to his family of pale blondes, nothing hurts more than standing out in a crowd, especially if it were for bad reasons.
'Seems we've gone off tangent there, let's start with the gritty parts,' suggested Professor Clive as he gave a comforting pat on his shoulder.
'I don't give mercy you know, so expect blood, sweat, and tears along with your improvement.'
--
--
'So how'd it go? Did he get you to jump through the roof as well or...maybe pluck some apples?' asked Law who had finally mastered the levitation charm. He would often perform it whenever he could, both for his self-flattery and actual use.
As Noctis described the bizarre sight of Professor Clive in a barrel, Law was puzzled by what context would be needed for one to be in a barrel. The strangeness of Professor Clive only grew more with speculations and theories, one including where he was a hybrid of vampire that lives on apples.
'Honestly, I didn't achieve much today. He just told me to memorise the wand movement for the swirling charm and then I had to help him carry his boxes.'
'Wait, so you've essentially signed yourself up to be his assistant. Tough luck, I'd hate to be you,' replied Law in a voice that suggested pity.
The thought of carrying boxes for the upcoming weeks had felt completely inferior to what Professor Clive had been able to teach within a short time frame. He was concise and thoughtful with his choice of words and focused immensely on practical work. Seventy attempts in total, of pure sweat and efforts to get a gust of wind that was strong enough to lift a leaf. Even then, it had felt worth it. Noctis had attempted the spell until his hands had chapped with creases as Professor Clive would observe and incorporate his comments of advice.
"Your posture is too stiff," "Tighten your grip" and "smoother wand work" were lines that echoed through Noctis' memory on replay. With each spell of swirling air, he grew more comfortable and could see the light beyond the undefeated Edith's shadow within his reach. 'Win. I have to win and show her the true power of my ambition,' he repeated to himself as sweat dripped from his forehead as he readjusted his posture for another spell. He did not need to have the slightest tint to his mana or even his father to guide him, he just needed the essence of hope at its finest quality to keep on moving forward.
"Are you watching me from above, mother? You said this to me once and it's forever burned into this very heart of mine. If you say an empty canvas has all sorts of colours then I'll become that empty canvas.'
-
Two Weeks Later:
-
For over two weeks, Law had been borrowing an inked copy of the Hogwarts map to continue his late-night patrols in hopes of finding something. Each night, Noctis who pretended to sleep would have to witness him gloomily slouch back to the dormitory just as hopeless as the day before.
'I know there's something off...I can just feel it,' he would whisper as he irritatedly tucked himself to bed.
During these nights of Law's absence, Noctis spent the time to reflect. He wondered what hope is there to find anything new in a musty drunkard's chamber. To the agreement of many students, it wasn't any more than a place for children to dangle from the walls whilst the horrific paintings tormented them. However, nobody liked to either think or even talk about it. Thankfully it seemed that September was a fairly chaotic month in Hogwarts and both his and Law's "session" with Carpe had been postponed to 3 additional weeks. In a sense, it must have been Carpe's best attempt at making the fear build up over the wait whilst also allowing for time to continue his bribery.
To burn the time whilst waiting for Law to safely return, Noctis made an effort to bond with his cat, Linx. It was no more friendly than it had been when he first bought it a few weeks ago. With every attempt to get a reaction, Linx would ignore his hand as if it was not up to standard and leapt away on its paws into the shadows of the room. Its black fur made it look as if the cat's pupils were floating orbs of orange in the darkness.
'Come on Linx. It's been weeks and you still don't even look at me,' whispered Noctis to not wake his dorm mates up. He had never been troubled with a single creature before in his life, being able to handle the neediness of a fairy and even the playfulness of baby hippogriff from the forest, but this mere cat was more stubborn than expected. Even then, something was undeniably charming about the way the cat did not give a single ounce of trust to those around it. It felt like it was a reflection of himself or who he used to be.
As Linx sat by the window, staring at him with it's soul-piercing eyes, Noctis had felt that it was the right moment to let out thoughts from his heart. Perhaps it wasn't just to the cat but a way to comfort himself as well.
'You know, Linx. I can relate to you. We're both lonely creatures that wanted to turn our backs to everything. From family, dreams, and even hopes to achieve something.'
Noctis paused for a moment to question why he was talking to a cat but decided to go along with it.
'Even then, I met so many amazing people. Law, Agnes, Pedro, Professor Clive and Edi-no not her. Linx, if you would only open to me then maybe we could be there for each other,' he whispered in a desperate tone.
Linx's ears flickered with a jolt of interest but then drooped back down into boredom.
'My sister could give you endless pats and we could even worship you!' he added. Noctis felt regrettably miserable at his pathetic attempts to charm a cat but then almost shrieked to see that it had pounced from the moonlight in an affectionate leap. He could finally feel the weight of his furry friend on his lap whilst it purred at the touch of his fingers running through its back.
'So you did wanted to be worshipped. I should have named you royalty cos it's written all over you,' he said trying his best to hold back his happiness in the middle of the night.
That September night, Noctis shared a peaceful slumber with his cat as they both slept away the moon's presence until the sun had come to claim its place.
-
-
'Hey! Your cat isn't scratching you anymore!' noticed Law.
'Wait, for real?' added Agnes and Pedro simultaneously as they peaked their heads from the fitting room. 'Hasn't it been like 3 weeks of it not even looking at you? What's the sudden change?'
Noctis gave a smirk that had been overwhelmed with a sense of achievement and beckoned for Linx to climb his arm.
'We just had a talk I guess. You will find I'm rather great with creatures,' answered Noctis as his cat perched itself on his shoulder.
'You guys move like your one and it's kinda creepy if I'm being honest,' commented Law as he glared directly into the hazel eyes of Linx. It hissed at him with disgust. 'Yeah, I'm talking about you, furball. I still remember when you scratched me.'
Although not visible, it was clear that a spark of distaste had emerged between Law and Linx upon the first encounter. Perhaps the war between boy and cat was because Law was under the impression that it was friendly and went in for a cuddle. To the failure of his predictions, he was met with a barrage of sharp claws.
'Come on, Linx. Play nicely or he might throw an orb at you or something.'
'Hey! Those things are precious you know,' retaliated Law.
It was a rather bright morning filled with cackling and playful banter as it was a Saturday. The weekends were often laidback unless there was an assignment due or school clubs to attend to, but only two of them had places to be.
'Anyways, I'll see you guys at one o'clock. I've been selected for the pre-training regime for the Ravenclaw quidditch team,' said Agnes as he threw a bag that looked as heavy as bricks over his shoulder.
'Good on you, Agnes. But let us know when you're actually on the team,' commented Law. If sarcasm were a spell, Law would be a grandmaster of it.
'Ha. That's a good one, Law but so far I'm expected to be fully applicable by next year. They said I'd make a fine beater,' rebutted Agnes who seemed to never get offended. Noctis had a feeling that even if Agnes were to upset, he would go out of his way to conceal it from anybody close to him. It was just who he was. Responsible and unwilling to let others worry for him.
'Reading club it is for me. See you lot,' added Pedro as he too left the dormitory but in an uncoordinated and panicked fashion. From the sound that followed, he didn't make it too far outside of the dormitory until the stack of books that towered over his head toppled over into a mess. His muffled voice of constant apologies cold be unheard under the cracks of the door, 'AH! sorry!'
Noctis and Law glanced at each other as if they knew they both had nothing to do on their Saturday morning. It felt somewhat guilty that they were not busy like everybody else who rushed off towards their own destinations with a purpose.
'I think I'm going to see my sister for a bit and maybe practice some charms in the duelling grounds. How about you?' said Noctis in the dead silence of the room.
'Well if that's the case, I reckon I'll check out the divination tower. Father told me that the prophecy material here is rubbish. I also heard the three sisters are not that great at their job.'
'I wouldn't know much, it's not my strong point,' confessed Noctis.
It had nearly been a month with living with his dorm mates and the feeling of "homesickness" had somewhat faded away. Noctis loosely referred to it as homesickness but it was moreover just the yearning to talk to his mother through the canvas once more. He spent his days in his first week at Hogwarts missing the view of the portrait with his mother surrounded by blossoming flora and luscious green grass. At least he had Delphine to accompany him in his free time.
-
'Noct! It's felt like weeks since we've seen each other and I see you've even brought your cute cat along with you. Aw, come here little kitty.'
As Delphine robbed Noctis of his cat who preferred the slender and softer fingers, they sat atop a tower gazing at the distant town of Hogsmeade and its lively residents. The distant chirps of birds beyond the clouds and the gusts of winds were the only noises that penetrated the serenity at their height.
'You'll be there in a few years. Most likely, nipping on a sugar quill in Honeydukes because that's where everybody goes.'
'You've been there right?'
'Yeah, but only once because it's only until you're a third year when you can go. Speaking of which, I've actually bought you something from there and no, it's not candy. You're going to absolutely love this,' blurted Delphine with a giggle of exhilaration.
She pulled out a strange device that appeared to be a wristband with a complicated compartment fitted on top. The face of the device was designed to have the effect of being hollow and pitch black but when in use, the image of its renowned inventor, Caroline Enilorac would appear. She would move when interacted with and the realistic details were accurate down to the creases of her face.
'This is a ticket-ticker. I know it looks rather strange but it's useful for when you need to mark important things so they don't get lost. You just whisper "rise and shine, Caroline" and then she will disperse a ticket from the screen. Stick it onto something and you'll never lose another one of your trousers again!'
Noctis took the device from Delphine and rotated it, analysing the metallic linings on the wristband's screen and the funky design of its screen. He didn't know what to make of it but was grateful nevertheless.

'Thank you, Delphine,' he said with a genuine smile.
Delphine had always been there for him. Whether it be the catastrophic times, happy times, or just melancholy times such as now, he could always turn to his left and see the flowing blonde hair of Delphine in the gusts of winds. It was as if she was a reincarnation of their mother, reborn to be able to walk once more, to feel the sands of summer, snow of winter, and leaves of autumn.

'Did you just..YOU SMILED!'
'What? No, I did not,' snapped Noctis as he blushed.
'I saw that! Since when could you smile, Noct?'
It was a question that sounded so simple yet it felt so much deeper than intended. Noctis does not remember when he could smile, but instead when he couldn't. He paused for a moment to think of an answer with depth but only simple words could describe his thoughts.

'Since I got here.'