Part Two / Chapter Forty-One
There was one thing Venus did not expect when leaving with Corinne and Castiel for the summer: how exhausting Nephilim training was. Since the night at the Tonks residence, Corinne and Castiel have been working Venus' powers nonstop (cosmically and physically).
The situation wasn't particularly easy for the angels either, the first time Venus managed to levitate a feather, she caused an earthquake so strong, it cracked the ground. Venus was banned from levitating until further notice. They still had three more months before Venus was set to leave for Hogwarts again.
"One more time, Venus." Corinne coaxed watching the younger girl stand in front of her, eyes glued shut.
In a flutter, Venus had vanished.
"She did it!" Corinne applauded waiting for Venus to arrive.
Venus managed to fly back, soaked in water from head to toe. She stood there shivering with a grim expression on her face. Corinne cringed and quickly ran to her aid.
"Where on earth did you fly to?" Corinne asked, drying Venus with the snap of her fingers.
"The middle of the bloody ocean," Venus said coldly, still shivering as if her clothes were still soaked with the salt water of the Pacific Ocean.
Castiel set a small desk for Venus up inside their hidden cabin. Once she caught sight of it, she groaned.
"I didn't come to learn, I came to train," she said. Castiel merely blinked at her. Venus quickly sat down in the chair, slightly intimidated by Castiel's bright blue eyes peering into her soul.
"So, is this like Angel 101?" Venus said, tapping her fingers rhythmically against the top of the desk.
Castiel looked down at her. "Please stop doing that," he asked. Venus stopped tapping her fingers and sat upright in her chair. "No, this is not Angel 101, it is Nephilim 101. You're most important powers are listed here on this board." Venus leaned forward in her desk to read what Castiel had written:
𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔
𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑢𝑙𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦
ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟
𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ
𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
Venus raised her hand.
"You are not in school, there is no need to raise your hand," said Castiel frustratedly.
Venus sent him a grimace. "You have me sitting in a desk." Castiel gave her a warning look. "What the hell is illumination?"
"Illumination means you can draw out enough energy to obliterate cars, buildings, skyscrapers, even galaxies."
"Well, I don't want to obliterate galaxies," Venus said soulfully. "Maybe buildings should be my limit."
For the first time since their arrival to the cabin that summer, Castiel gave her a small smile, nodding his head along to Venus' words. The two spent the afternoon working with Venus' powers, Corinne entered minutes later covered head to toe in snow. It just so happens Venus was trying out her weather manipulation skills, another ability she was banned from doing until Corinne said so.
"Induced Sedation," Corinne started. "The ability to touch a Human's forehead and intentionally make them slip into unconsciousness."
"Oh! I've done that before!" Venus cheered. Corinne snapped her head toward her giving her a look that Venus could read as: tell me then. "It was the night before you two came, it actually came to me pretty easily."
"Well, that's good!" Corinne gleamed. "It's progress!"
For her next training session, Castiel and Corinne stood on opposite sides of Venus, with silver knifes in their hands.
"Er— why do you guys have knives?" she asked worryingly.
"These are Angel Blades," Corinne said holding up the dagger toward Venus. "The one weapon that has the ability to kill you, and the Angels have it."
"You need to be prepared for any sneak attack," Castiel said.
Venus opened her mouth to say something when she was grabbed by her arm and thrown against the ground, the cold steel of the Angel Blade sitting on her neck. Castiel stood up and helped the girl up.
"Okay, what the actual hell was that for?!" Venus said angrily, rubbing the arm Castiel had grabbed.
"Sneak attack," the blue-eyed Angel responded. His piercing blue eyes following Venus. "Like I said, you need to be ready."
For the next two months, it was nonstop training for Venus Rosario. She woke up, ate, trained her mind then trained her body. Over and over until it'd become routine for her. The one thing she struggled with was being able to heal herself. Corinne would make a small cut on her forearm and Venus wouldn't be able to close it on her own.
"Why can't I heal myself?" Venus asked the two other angels. "Shouldn't it be easier?"
"Tapping into something more emotional helps Nephilims trigger more energy," Castiel informed.
"How do I do that?" Venus said; eyes following his every move.
"That's all up to you and your subconscious, Venus Rosario," the Angel answered. "Training time."
Venus was back outside, cornered by Corinne and Castiel with Angel blades. The girl tapped into her previous training, immediately balling her fists as the angels began closing in on her. Corinne swung the blade at Venus first, instead of allowing herself to be stabbed, Venus dodged the blade. With her left hand, she twisted the dagger out of Corinne's hand and with her right, punched her square in the nose and faced Castiel.
The other angel made a swishing motion at Venus with the blade, again, she dodged it. She began punching, but Castiel would block every one. She needed a different approach. Venus swept her foot across his feet, but Castiel caught on to her moves, grabbing her foot and throwing her against the ground. Venus took her foot and kicked Castiel in the knee, dislocating it. Hastily, she brought herself up and kicked the angel on the ground as he did to her.
Her hand, without delay, found another dagger being slashed toward her from behind. She snatched it out of Corinne's hand, who'd been trying to sneak up on her, performing a back kick and thumping Corinne in her chest. With the blade in her hand, she pressed it against Castiel's neck. Finally, for the first time in weeks, she'd won.
"Physical training is complete," Corinne smiled; healing her broken nose. Venus grinned brightly taking the Angel blade off from Castiel's neck, only to be met with a swift elbow to the stomach. Venus was on the ground again.
Castiel brushed himself off and stared down at the girl. "Never let your guard down," he brought his hand down to help Venus up. She accepted it and swept Castiel on his knees with her foot, kneeing him in the head. Now, they've switched places.
Venus wiped sweat from her forehead and let an exaggerated sigh out. "Who said I did?"
The next three days had gone by quicker than Venus expected. She sat in her bedroom and stared at her keyboard-model like present she received from Harry, Ron and Hermione that she'd named her: Friend Finder.
She picked it up and scanned the names of all of her friends, her eyes lingered on Harry's name for a while before she clicked on Tonks.
"Wotcher little sis," her sister answered on her own device, static making her voice sound like a bad video.
"Hey Dee," Venus said into the device. "How have you been?"
Tonks was silent for a minute before responding, "Good, tired because of work. How are you? How's training?"
"Intense," Venus sighed looking out from her door to Corinne and Castiel who hovered over the board of what they've completed with her. "but they mean well."
"Yeah..." Tonks trailed off. She wasn't registering Venus' words.
"Dee, are you alright?"
Tonks set on a fake cherry tone. "Yeah! Of course, er— Mum is calling me downstairs—"
"Bring the Friend Finder with you I want to say hi," Venus insisted. Tonks hesitated.
"I have to clean the bathtub—"
"But—"
"Okay bye love you!" Tonks stopped the signal and ended their call. Lately, their chats have been getting cut shorter and shorter ever since Sirius had died. Venus waited for Tonks to call her back but she never did. She knew Tonks blamed herself for Sirius's death, but so did Venus. Every night, she looked down at her hand. She should have never let him go. Saddened by her sisters behavior, she shoved the device back into her desk. Venus felt a familiar sensation in her stomach. A sinking feeling, a plunge. Oh no. The plunge. Venus recalled the Voice from the previous year and shot up from her seat running toward the two angels in the living room.
"Castiel, Corinne. I have something to ask you."
After explaining everything to the angels (from the emptiness, to the voice, to her predictions) they glanced at each other with a look of anguish. Venus wanted to know what they were thinking; refraining form using her newly found skill of Mind Control.
"Venus," Corinne began patting an empty seat beside her, telling her to come sit. "Your mother was not an only child."
"Azrael?" Venus said foreknowingly.
"Yes— yes," Corinne said repeating herself and looking down at Venus, gobsmacked. "How did you know that?"
"I have a really smart friend." she said, thinking of Hermione. "And books exist in the mortal world."
Corinne brushed off what Venus said.
"Azrael and Ariel were balanced siblings. Ariel was the archangel of creation and Azrael was the archangel of—"
"Death," Venus cut her off.
"Yes," Corinne said dangerously low. "What mortals would say, Azrael is your maternal uncle. He knows about you—"
"Really? Well, can I meet him?" Venus asked, cutting off Corinne another time. Finding out she had another family member made her grin in expression of exuberant energy. Compared to her grimace before, Corinne gave Venus a sympathetic look.
"Venus..." she trailed off, but she didn't finish her sentence; more like she couldn't.
"He is in the Angel's side," Castiel stepped in. "He wants you dead."
"Oh." said Venus. "Shocked, but not surprised."
"Family isn't always blood." Corinne whispered, she gave the girl a warm smile.
"Actually family is blood, that is how genetics work," Castiel informed. Venus sighed.
"It's not literal, Castiel. It's a metaphor," she explained.
Castiel looked confused and stared down at his fingers. "Well that just changed my entire perspective."
"Goodnight guys." Venus said tiredly, stifling a yawn behind her hand.
"We don't sleep," Castiel pointed out for the 67 time since their arrival at the cabin in the beginning of the summer.
"Yeah, but I do." Venus said annoyingly. She closed her door and sank into the mattress of her bed. Ready to sleep, Venus began to situate herself before spotting something on the floor. The Friend Finder.
I guess I didn't put it back in the desk, she thought to herself kneeling down to grab it. Instead of placing it on the desk and going to bed, she stared at it and remembered. . .
Venus settled her trunks into the bedroom Corinne led her to. She pulled out three frames: her with Tonks, Andromeda and Ted, and her friends. She hadn't told her friends about the summer time training. As soon as she'd settled herself, she pulled out the present Hermione, Harry and Ron gifted her for her birthday the night before.
She pressed on Constance's name. No answer.
She pressed on Hermione's name. No answer.
She pressed on Ron's name. No answer.
She pressed on Harry's name. "Hello?"
"Hello Harry," Venus said through the device.
"Hi Venus," he said uneasily. Venus noticed the awkwardness in her own voice.
"I won't be able to join you guys at the Burrow this summer."
"Oh, how come?"
"I'm training." She answered vaguely.
"For?"
Venus took a deep breath and recounted the events of the previous night after the fight at the Department of Mysteries. Harry was silent. "Harry?"
Silence, until he answered back. "So, Hermione was right about the angel stuff?"
Venus gave a soft 'mhm!'
"Oh, we'll never hear the end of it," Harry joked. Venus chuckled. The boy went silent again. "Are you sure about the training?"
Venus made a face, forgetting that Harry wasn't really in the bedroom with her she said, "what do you mean?"
"Well, I don't know— you'll probably found out something you don't want to know," he said truthfully.
"I need answers, Harry. Whether I like them or not."
"You think that now, but when you find out, it will change you forever."
Venus felt a wave of agitation flood over her.
"Last time I checked, I'm not you, Harry," she spat. She didn't even catch her attitude change, unknowingly offended at Harry's calm words.
"I didn't mean anything bad by it—"
"I need to do something for myself for once, Harry. I deserve it, I deserve to know what I am and what I'm capable of."
"Venus—"
"Because for some reason, I find myself helping you all the time. Helping the famous Harry Potter, the son of Sirius Black, deceased." Venus' voice was dangerously loud.
"I wasn't Sirius' son."
"He sure treated you like one, now didn't he?"
Venus slammed the device back on her desk and turned over in bed. It's been three weeks since Venus' outburst. She didn't regret it until after she cut off the signal and ended the call. Venus had no idea what happened, she had no idea what was happening to her.
Not only was she improving, she was changing.
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【 AUTHORS NOTE! 】:
this is the first chapter of the half blood prince series! drama drama drama and uncovering secrets about the past, get ready.