𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍. For the first time in over two years, it had decided to pay her a visit.
She was standing at the edge of a pit, the ground angled dangerously towards it. Gravel caught in her Converse, pebbles slipping down and into the pit. Gripping the wall, Raya tried to maintain her dignity. She had a feeling she didn't want to fall in that pit... even if it was only a dream.
"We meet again," Kronos laughed cruelly. "I told you that I could give you power, give you glory... but you refused."
"I'm not interested in turning everyone into your slaves," Raya scowled.
The vision he'd shown her years ago — of how Camp would look — came to mind. Monsters lurking in the corners, Campers afraid to look each other in the eye, and Kronos the ruler of it all.
"See, that's your problem," the voice of Kronos sneered. "You don't choose to listen to what I say. You choose to stick to one idea, the idea that everyone's going to be a slave, instead of focusing on what you'll have."
"And what's that?" Raya asked.
"The chance to get back at the Gods," he said. "Luke recognized that the Gods don't deserve the position they have. It only took a failed quest and a broken relationship for him to turn to me. I haven't even visited him as often as I have you. I should thank you, however, for delivering my greatest asset right to me."
Raya's blood chilled.
Kronos chuckled darkly, "Ah yes. I've been trying to get him to join since that failure of a quest you two had. I could feel his resistance breaking every time I visited him. One of the only things keeping him away was his thoughts of you. He didn't know how you were going to react, and he was terrified of disappointing you."
Kronos' laughter echoed in Raya's ears. If she hadn't broken up with Luke, he might've still been against Kronos instead of with him.
"You should've seen how fast he came to me once you crushed his little heart," he continued. "I didn't come to him for the first few nights, but slowly afterwards. He was ready to do anything for me. And now, it's your turn to join me."
Raya shook her head, gripping the wall tighter to steady herself. Blood ran down her palm.
"I won't," she whispered. "I'm not going to join you. Not ever."
She was going to be stronger than Luke. She had to be.
"And you'd rather side with the Gods?" Kronos sneered. "They've done nothing for you. Has your father tried to get back to you about your failed quest? Has he ever deigned to give you a second glance? The Gods are the same. They're corrupted, and so is the West. It's time to take it down, to start anew. You could lead, right next to me."
A phantom touch trailed down Raya's face. She shivered, swatting the invisible hand away.
"I don't want to," she scowled. "You're no better than the Gods. They may not give a crap about us, always sending us to fight their battles, but it's not like you're much better. You're only using us to restore your own power. Now, leave me alone."
"As you wish," Kronos laughed mockingly. "But you'll be calling me to return, I know it. Before I go, I'd like to bestow one more thing to you."
"I don't want it."
"It's only a bit of knowledge." Kronos was silent for a bit, before he whispered, "The memories I showed you, the ones that called to you all that time ago... they belong to your father, Regulus Black."
Raya twirled her spoon in her cereal, not necessarily excited to get on with the first day of classes. She listened to her friends' conversations, mainly in an attempt to distract her mind from last night's nightmare.
"Here are your schedules," Professor Flitwick handed them out, giving it to the sixth and seventh years by name.
"Thanks, Professor," Raya said automatically, taking it from him.
Now in sixth year, Raya had the option to take and drop whatever courses she wanted to. Most students took courses relevant to their career interests, but since Raya was still undecided, she took almost everything, deciding to drop any classes she no longer needed.
"I've got Herbology, Charms, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Ancient Runes," Cierra said, reading out her timetable.
"I got Charms with you," Raya said, "and Defense, and Care of Magical Creatures, and Ancient Runes... and that's it."
"You dropped Herbology?" Cierra looked offended.
Raya shrugged, "I got an E in Herbology, but it wasn't interesting enough. I need space for all of my classes."
"Which classes did you keep?" Thomas asked.
"I've got Potions, Muggle Studies, Defense, Charms, Transfig, Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes, and Astronomy," she read out. "Dropped two classes: History of Magic, and Herbology. I might drop Ancient Runes... now that I think about it."
"Please don't," Cierra muttered. "I'll have no one in that class."
"You have me," Nathaniel said.
"I'll have no one in that class," Cierra repeated.
Raya laughed, shaking her head to herself, "We'll see. We'll see."
"We better hurry if we want to make it to Potions on time," Nathaniel said, packing his things. "Who's still taking the course?"
The Ravenclaws froze, staring at Nathaniel.
"You — Nate, Snape said you need an E to continue the course," Cho told him.
"I know," he told her, showing everyone his schedule. "I've got to get to Potions. If no one else got the grade, I'll be on my way."
"Wait, wait," Raya said. "You're telling me you passed Potions?"
"Not sure why you're in Ravenclaw if it's taken you that long to figure it out," Nathaniel muttered.
"No, it's not that," Elias said. "It's just... you passed Potions? You don't even pay attention, and you're always calling him Mr. Snake. I'm surprised he passed you."
"Guess with what grade," Nathaniel smirked.
Raya blinked. Snape had set the grade to Potions at E, but the way Nathaniel was gloating...
"You got an O," Thomas muttered in shock. "How the hell did you get an O? Snape hates you!"
"And I hate him too," Nathaniel grinned. "I was totally prepared to fail that class, but then I realized I'd have to give up bothering Snape. Not sure I was ready for that, I decided to study my ass off and make one of best Potions Snape had ever seen. Apparently, it worked!"
They stared at him, unable to form words.
"Are you guys coming or not?" he asked, shouldering his bag. "I don't want to waste any time bothering Snake."
Still in a daze, Raya, Thomas, and Cho followed him down to the Dungeons and into Snape's class. She went ahead to sit in her usual spot, freezing when she realized Cedric wasn't going to be next to her. Five years together, and this was going to be her first class without him.
"Raya," Thomas said softly. "Let's go sit somewhere else."
"In the front," she whispered.
She didn't want to see Cedric's empty chair. She didn't like how it caused her brain to malfunction and her eyes to sweat.
"Yeah, of course," he led her to one of the desks near the front.
The two of them sat next to each other, pulling out their textbooks and trying their best to focus. Raya ignored the feeling that something was wrong. Cedric would be fine. He was wearing her shield, and he was healing. Slowly. But he was healing.
Jaiden — a Hufflepuff that Raya shared Muggle Studies with — froze slightly at the sight of her and Thomas in his normal seat. At the sight of Thomas' meaningful look, understanding dawned on his face. He nodded briefly, squeezing Raya's shoulder as he took a seat at another desk.
Raya ignored their interaction, straightening out her books.
"Considering the abysmal O.W.L. grades I had to hand out last year, I'm not surprised at how small this class is," Snape began, shutting the door with a flick of his wand.
A few students looked around, counting how few kids were in the class.
"As it's your second last year," he continued, walking around the class, "you'll all be finding that your class sizes have shrunk greatly. The most important classes — such as Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and this class: Potions — will be affected the most. This will allow us to go through harder potions and a greater quantity, considering we won't have to be cleaning the messes of those who're no longer with us."
He met everyone's eyes, sneering at the sight of Nathaniel. Nathaniel grinned, waving mockingly in Snape's direction.
Not in the mood to deal with him, Snape continued, "Open your textbooks to page fourteen. Miss Newbrooke, tell me the effects of the Draught of Living Death without reading the book."
"It's classified as a Sleeping Draught," Raya immediately answered, once again in her comfort zone. She ignored the fact that Snape had figured out her heritage partially through how well she brewed a potion. "However, it's the most powerful one ever. It's called the Draught of Living Death because it renders the taker to fall into a deathlike slumber."
"Correct. Five points to Ravenclaw," he nodded in her direction. "The instructions to brew this potion are in your book. Pay attention, and brew them alone, not in pairs. I don't expect any of you to finish, or even get half of it right — considering how low the knowledge is with you students — but for the person who manages to brew it the most correctly, they will be receiving ten house points. You have an hour and a half, begin now."
Raya put her open Potions textbook to the side, making her way to the cabinets to collect the ingredients. Having no real job besides being stuck as mediator for Kreacher and Sirius' fights, Raya had gone through the textbook quite a few times. With the advanced pace they were set to take this year, she'd began prepping for her all of her classes over the summer.
She set the ingredients in front of her, placing her Pewter cauldron on low heat. Adding the ingredients precisely, she adjusted her Potion from the textbook a bit. After spending some time in Regulus' brewery, she'd come across dozens of textbooks and notebooks, filled with notes on how he tweaked potions to make them more effective.
Following his advice, Raya shook the infusion of wormwood slightly before mixing it with the powdered root of asphodel. She diced the sloth brain instead of slicing, and crushed the sopophorous beans instead of cutting them. Mixing it together slowly, adding in a few extra stirs, and a few more drops from the infusion of wormwood bottle, Raya watched, in slight awe as her potion turned a pale lilac, before becoming clear.
"Miss Newbrooke," Snape appeared behind her.
Raya jumped, gripping her cauldron to make sure nothing splashed out of it, she looked up at him. "Yes, Professor?"
"You're done?" he looked at her potion, almost as if he couldn't believe it.
"Uh, yeah," she shrugged.
Checking the time, she saw that the class was almost over. That should be enough time for her to have finished the potion. She didn't understand why Snape was acting so shocked.
"Has anyone else managed to finish their potion?" he addressed the class, still watching Raya's potion.
No one raised their hand.
Raya looked around, seeing a few kids trying to relight their fires, blow the smoke off of the top of their cauldrons, or get the flames out of their robes. Apparently, no one else had as much success as her.
"Well, it seems you've earned Ravenclaw ten points, Miss Newbrooke," Snape said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Tell me what Miss Krane did wrong."
Raya looked over to Nora Krane — a Hufflepuff. She had just batted away the last of the flames from her robe, and judging by her missing eyebrows, the potion had caught on fire. Raya wondered how she'd missed that.
"She stirred clockwise only, instead of counter-clockwise," Raya answered. "Stirring clockwise only with this potion causes it to go up in flames."
"Correct," he said, though he didn't look very happy about it. Striding to the front of the class, he flicked out his wand, and instructions began to appear on the board. "Hand in your potions, labeled with your name. This is the level of complexity most our potions will have. If you find this difficult, I suggest speaking to your Head of House to drop the class."
Raya met up with the rest of her friends near the Great Hall, walking along to Defense Against the Dark Arts together.
"We're sabotaging, aren't we?" Elias asked, linking his arms through Raya's as they walked through the halls.
"It's going to be quite fun," Thomas smirked. "I've already got a list of ways we can begin—"
"Is this what you do in your free time?" Raya asked him.
"Says the girl who reads the Potions' textbook."
"Thomas, I swear—"
"Guys, I've been thinking..." Meredith started awkwardly.
When she didn't continue, Nathaniel tilted his head and said, "...Congratulations?"
"Shut up," she swatted his arm. "The point is, I don't know if I can do the whole sabotage thing this year. Professor Umbridge is from the Ministry. I don't want her to come after my mom for something I did."
Thomas nodded, patting her shoulder, "It's alright, we get it. You don't have to get involved. Are the rest of you guys still down?"
Cho shrugged, "I mean, I'll do it a bit, sure. But I've got to work extra hard to keep up with this year's N.E.W.T.s workload. I don't know how much of a help I'll be."
The rest of them: Elias, Nathaniel, Cierra, and Raya, nodded affirmatively to Thomas' question.
"Ooh! More bothering the shit out of her for us!" Elias grinned happily.
They entered the class, Raya and Thomas taking their usual seat right at the front. The Gryffindors they shared the class with filed in, everyone silent as she was already waiting for them. No one knew just how strict she was, but after her speech yesterday, they were ready to execute their plans for sabotage if she became too much to handle.
"Well, good morning!" she said when finally the whole class had sat down.
Raya and Thomas, along with a few other people mumbled, "Good morning," in reply.
"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good morning, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good morning, class!"
"Good morning, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her.
Raya and Thomas exchanged annoyed glances. The way she was dressed in her frilly pink cardigan and acting as if they were five year old kids was not something they were enjoying.
"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."
Many of the students exchanged gloomy looks; the order "wands away" had never yet been followed by a lesson they had found interesting.
With a sigh, Raya shoved her wand back inside her bag and pulled out a nice pen and parchment.
"I said quills out," Umbridge said to Raya, her smile too sweet to be real.
"This is a pen," Raya held it up slightly. "It basically does what a quill does, except you don't have to keep refilling it."
"Well, that's quite the invention!" Umbridge smiled. "Did you make it yourself?"
Raya blinked, "Uh, I bought it from a store."
"Do tell, which store?" she leaned forward.
"It's called Muji," Raya shrugged. "It's a Muggle store."
Immediately, Umbridge's attitude shifted. The smile became more snakelike, and Raya was quite sure she was thinking of slapping her across the face.
"Put that away," her voice didn't hold that breathy tone it normally did. "Bring out your quill, and use it. I'll let you off with a warning now, but if I catch you using it again, it'll be detention."
"Detention?" Raya raised a brow. "For using a pen?"
"Are you questioning me?" Umbridge leaned forward.
"I am, yes," Raya nodded. "Being in my final years, I understand the workload is quite high and most teachers understand this fact too. They refrain from giving detention to the older students because they know they have a lot on their plates. I just don't understand how using a pen instead of a quill deserves a detention. In fact, using a pen is more time saving, it makes sense."
"What wonderful questions you have. Unfortunately, I didn't get your name," Umbridge tilted her toadlike head.
"Raya," she answered. "Raya Newbrooke."
"Well, Miss Newbrook. Perhaps I'll explain it to you on Saturday," Umbridge said. "During your very first detention."
The entire class reeled back, multiple kids whispering furiously amongst themselves.
"Professor, I don't understand—"
"—We do not speak without our hand raised," Umbridge said sternly.
Thomas rolled his eyes, raising his hand in the air. Without waiting for Umbridge to call on him, he began, "I don't understand why she's given the detention. In our sixth and seventh year, you're clearly not allowed to give detentions without proper reason."
"Are you saying that's not a proper reason, Mr...?"
"Pegas. Thomas Pegas," he said. "I'm not saying your reason isn't proper. All I'm saying is that none of us know it. You saw Raya's pen, asked what it is, you even sounded excited about the concept. And then the second she announced it was a Muggle thing, you forbade it. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I'm getting the idea you're not big on Muggle artifacts."
"Mr. Pegas, are you suggesting I'm discriminating in this class?" her voice held a hint of a challenge.
Raya tapped Thomas' foot under the table, silently telling him to drop it.
Clenching his jaw, Thomas shook his head, "Forget it."
Umbridge smiled, revealing her pointy teeth. "Now that that's settled, let's begin."
She opened her handbag, extracted her own wand, which was an unusually short one, and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once:
𝒟𝑒𝒻𝑒𝓃𝓈𝑒 𝒜𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀 𝒜𝓇𝓉𝓈:
𝒜 𝑅𝑒𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝐵𝒶𝓈𝒾𝒸 𝒫𝓇𝒾𝓃𝒸𝒾𝓅𝓁𝑒𝓈.
"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" stated Umbridge, turning to face the class with her hands clasped neatly in front of her. "The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in the year after you O.W.L.s"
The class half-listened, half plotted her murder as she continued.
"You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please."
She rapped the blackboard again; the first message vanished and was replaced by:
𝒞𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒 𝒶𝒾𝓂𝓈:
𝟣.𝒰𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓃𝒸𝒾𝓅𝓁𝑒𝓈 𝓊𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓁𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝑒𝒻𝑒𝓃𝓈𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸.
𝟤.𝐿𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓇𝑒𝒸𝑜𝑔𝓃𝒾𝓏𝑒 𝓈𝒾𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝒸𝒽 𝒹𝑒𝒻𝑒𝓃𝓈𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝓁𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒷𝑒 𝓊𝓈𝑒𝒹.
𝟥.𝒫𝓁𝒶𝒸𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝒹𝑒𝒻𝑒𝓃𝓈𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸 𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓍𝓉 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓅𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝓊𝓈𝑒.
For a couple of minutes the room was full of the sound of scratching quills on parchment.
Raya twirled her quill in her hand absentmindedly, reading the course aims over and over in her head. Something was missing, but she couldn't actually place what it was.
When everyone had copied down Umbridge's three course aims she said, "Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"
There was a dull murmur of assent throughout the class.
"I think we'll try that again," said Umbridge. "When I ask you a question, I should like you to reply 'Yes, Professor Umbridge,' or 'No, Professor Umbridge.' So, has everyone got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"
"Yes, Professor Umbridge," rang through the room.
"Good," said Professor Umbridge. "I should like you to turn to page five and read chapter one, 'Basics for Beginners.' There will be no need to talk."
Raya opened her book, her gaze still on the course aims Umbridge had written down. Next to her, Thomas was narrowing his eyes at them, reading them to himself.
"We're not gonna be practicing anything?" he muttered to Raya.
Raya read over the course aims again, blinking as she realizing Thomas was right. Nowhere had Umbridge mentioned actually using defensive magic.
They were supposed to begin nonverbal spells this year — which Raya was already adept in — and would require lots of practice from the other students. The Patronus spell was also supposed to be practiced nonverbally, which Raya couldn't see many people getting through without some practice.
"Shit, man," she muttered. "There isn't anything there."
Thomas raised his hand immediately, pursing his lips as he waited for Umbridge to notice. She ignored him for a while — which was a little hard, considering the two of them were sitting right in front of her — but as the entire class began to watch Thomas wait for Umbridge's attention, she pursed her lips.
"Yes, Mister Pegas?" she looked at him. "Do you need to ask something about the chapter?"
"No, not about the chapter," he took her instructions quite literally, speaking with his hand still raised in the air.
"Well, if you have a question about anything else, you can ask me after class," she told her. "I'll be here."
"It's about the course aims," Thomas said. "I'm pretty sure you're missing one."
Umbridge looked taken aback, "Of course not. The course aims are quite simple. You should know this is all we will cover this year."
"What about actually using the spells?" Thomas' hand was still in the air. "We're not going to do any of that?"
"Using defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Mister Pegas. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"
Raya raised her hand, speaking without waiting for Umbridge to call on her, "This is sixth year, one of the final and most important years. We're doing the basis for non-verbal and wandless magic. I don't see how we can get through the year without practicing the spells. In the case of an attack—"
"I repeat," said Umbridge, smiling in a very irritating fashion at Raya, "do you expect to be attacked during my classes?"
"No, but—"
Umbridge talked over her. "I do not wish to criticize the way things have been run in this school," she said, an unconvincing smile stretching her wide mouth, "but you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed — not to mention," she gave a nasty little laugh, "extremely dangerous half-breeds."
"If you mean Rem — Professor Lupin," Raya cut in, her tone dangerously steely, "he was the best we ever—"
"Hand, Miss Newbrooke! As I was saying — you have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to your age group, and potentially lethal. You have been frightened into believing that you are likely to meet Dark attacks every other day—"
"No we haven't," Thomas said, "we just—"
"Your hand is not up, Mister Pegas!"
Thomas put up his hand; Umbridge turned away from him.
"It is my understanding that my predecessor not only performed illegal curses in front of you, he actually performed them on you—"
"Well, he turned out to be a maniac, didn't he?" said Elias hotly. "Mind you, we still learned loads—"
"Your hand is not raised!" she snapped. "What is your name."
"Elias Kane," he answered, glaring at her.
"Well, Mister Kane, and all those who are skeptical," she glared at Raya for a second longer than the others, "it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about."
Following Thomas and her lead, Nathaniel raised his hand, speaking with it raised, "The exams have a practical portion. How are we supposed to just perform the spells without practicing? Nonverbal and wandless spells?"
"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions," said Umbridge dismissively.
"Without ever practicing them before?" said Cierra incredulously. "Are you telling us that the first time we'll get to do the spells will be during our exam?"
"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough —"
"And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" said Thomas loudly, his hand in the air again.
Umbridge looked up. "This is school, Mr. Pegas, not the real world," she said softly.
"So we're not supposed to be prepared for what's waiting out there?"
"There is nothing waiting out there," her voice held the unmistakable note of a challenge. Waiting for someone, anyone, to contradict her.
"Then someone explain what the hell happened to Cedric," Raya's voice shook with anger.
The entire class silenced, sitting forward to try and figure out what was happening. No one from the outside knew Cedric's current condition. Whether they were truly worried, or just wanted some gossip, Raya didn't know. She was too interested in hearing Umbridge's justification to care.
"Mister Diggory's condition is the cause of a terrible accident," Umbridge said simply.
"A terrible accident, caused by You-Know-Who," Raya repeated. She was tempted to say the name, but a part of her hadn't outgrown the childish habit. "He's back, and you can't cover it up. Nothing else is powerful enough to leave Ced in that condition."
Umbridge pursed her lips, tilting her head high. "Miss Newbrooke, you already have detention this Saturday, do not make it worse for yourself."
Thomas tapped her foot, warning her not to take it any farther. They could bother her all they wanted this year, but they had to take it slow. And she was reporting back to the Ministry. It was best for Raya to keep her head down as much as she could.
She pursed her lips, choosing to cross her arms and not respond.
"Very well," Umbridge said. "Continue with your work."
Raya wondered how much a few extra Nosebleed Nougats would cost.
REY WRITES!
thanks for reading!
in the first book, there's a few chaps where kronos gives
raya a bunch of memories, and she gets one where she's
drowning, and another of like little snippets of a life -
that's all reggie !
thoughts?
comments?
headcanons?
questions?
theories?