"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."
― Edgar Allan Poe
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"Come on you fat arses! LINE UP!" Sabra demands, making us line up more quickly.
"I will be examining each of your capabilities one by one to see how much more lessons you'll need," Sabra exclaims, as her wife Waiola makes her way over to her side.
"You will be assessed based on Auror terms." She says, eyes flitting over to myself and Tom for a brief second.
"Yeah, sounds great," I grumble, crossing my arms.
Waiola raises a hand, and a target appears in the middle of the field. "Destroy the target with your most powerful spell. If you can use wandless magic or nonverbal magic, use that." She demands.
"Who the hell can use nonverbal magic at our age?" I hear Myrtle gape in shock.
"Not to mention wandless magic," Greta grumbles, agreeing with her friend.
"Greta, why don't you go first," Waiola calls out to my friend. She goes a dark red, contrasting heavily to her white hair.
She steps up to the middle in front of us all, pointing her wand at the target. Her fingers twitch slightly as her raised arm tilts to cast her spell.
Unconsciously, my eyes take in her form. It was off. Completely off. If she sent out a powerful spell, she'd be knocked off her feet.
"Bambarda!" She shouts, flicking her wand. The freaking target flies back at the same time she does.
"Greta!" Gideon catches his twin before she could break her neck, falling at the awkward angle.
We all look up to see the target intact around fifty feet back. Greta groans.
"Ms. Ollivander. Your form was completely wrong. You were shaking so bad I thought you were going to collapse." Waiola snaps at the girl.
"Hey! She tried her best!" Pan snaps back, defending her friend.
"Well, her best is going to get her killed."
Everyone cringes at that.
"Greta. Again." Sabra summons the target back and grabs the girl, planting her in front of the target. "Go again." She says in a kinder tone than her wife's.
"I don't want to." She admits, eyes glistening at Waiola's rough words.
"You gonna let her talk down to you, Grets?" I muse, making my way in front of my friend. Pan nods, narrowing her eyes on her form.
"You're powerful. Don't let her be right." She snaps.
"Come on, Greta!! You've got this!" Myrtle cheers her on, smiling kindly.
"This is a waste of time." Mulciber groans.
"At least you can manage to cast a grade three spell without almost killing yourself in the process." Tom sneers, looking down at Greta.
"Bombarta!" Greta's voice silences everyone, and so does the loud explosion that causes the target to explode into a million pieces.
"That a girl." Waiola praises her, smiling slightly. "Myrtle. You're up." She turns to my friend wearing glasses, who pales. She starts to shake her head desperately.
"No. No. It's fine. I'm fine with watching everyone else." She states.
"Watching? If one of them is getting attacked, are you going to sit and watch them be killed?" Waiola scoffs.
Okay, Waiola was definitely the bad cop here.
Myrtle looked ready to burst into tears.
"Come on, Myrtle." Sabra eases her gently.
"Is this therapy?" Tom sneers. "Why are we easing them into destroying wood?" He grumbles.
"Accio." She sends the target flying into her hands and breaks the damn thing in half over her knee.
Everyone flinches at the loud crack sound.
"Shiteeeee." Rosier whistles, staring at Myrtle with his jaw agape.
"Myrtle... I don't think-" Sabra starts and then at seeing the lethal look on Myrtle's face, she clears her throat. "That...that was very creative, Myrtle." Sabra decided to say.
"Thank you," Myrtle demands, adjusting her glasses and crossing her arms, glaring at Tom.
Guess Tom pissed everyone off.
"Tom. You're up." Waiola shakes her head, sighing.
Tom doesn't even move an inch, and still makes the newly made target disintegrate into a pile of ashes.
"Is that your signature move? Turning things to ash?" I muse, asking Tom unimpressed. My expression stood out as the only person not shocked in our group.
"He-HE just USED NON-VERBAL MAGIC!!!" Claude screeches.
"Very observant, Zabini, really." Nott sneers at the redhead, making Claude glare at him.
"Yes, actually. Doesn't take much effort." Tom retorts back at me.
"That's so lazy." I groan, making him raise a brow.
"You go next, then Dumpling."
"Gladly, Thomas." I sneer, snapping my fingers, and the target that had just appeared goes up in flames. With a flick of my fingers, the damn thing explodes.
"Why are things always on fire around you??" Avery gives me a look.
"Says YOU!! You put me on fire last time! If you summon fire, make sure you can damn control it!"
"We would've died! Did you see the undead army!? Abby was bleeding out."
"Yeah, and you almost scorched Nagini and me!"
"He has a point. You're addicted to fire." Tom muses, giving me a look, and I scoff.
"Nah bitches. I'm addicted to power. I think Riddle knows what I'm talking about." I wink at him cheekily, and his face contorted into one of disgust.
"Never do that again, Dumbledore. You looked diseased."
"EXCUSE-"
"Thank you for that demonstration, Tom... Valentine. Claude hun, why don't you go next?" Sabra smiles tightly, interrupting us. Waiola was freaking done. She was already sitting in a chair, staring at us in anger.
"Yeah, munchkins. Go ahead." Chris grins, making everyone burst out laughing. Everyone except Tom. He looked like the Grim Reaper, as always.
"Stupefy!" Claude snaps and the wooden target blasts into the air.
"Good! Mulciber, you're next!" Sabra says.
"Reducto!" He whips his wand out, blue eyes flashing and red hair flinging back in the breeze.
The two redheads nod at each other. They were total opposites. Claude happy and bright, whereas Mulciber was grim and quiet, just like Tom. The only difference between Tom and Mulciber was that Mulciber didn't always have a damn stick up his arse as Tom did.
"Nott."
"Confringo." He copies the spell I'd cast nonverbally, turning back in tune to the enormous explosion he'd caused. His eyes meet mine, and he smirks slightly, grey eyes twinkling in glee. I raise a brow in return, watching as he made his way back to Rosier's side.
It continued like that for the rest of the afternoon. Just us showing the two Aurors what we could do and the limits to our abilities. Waiola called us in for dinner after a couple of hours, and then we were all charging inside, ravenous. We were like a pack of wolves, devouring everything in sight.
"That was impressive what you did back there, Val." Rosier compliments me, brown eyes kind. I stare up and smile. "Thanks! Nott cast the same spell I did. Wasn't bad, though."
"Pffft Nott wishes he was as good as you. You controlled Avery's stupid Fiendfyre." Rosier scoffs and I shrug.
"I survived it if that's what you're insinuating." I pile some mashed potatoes on my plate, watching as Claude tried to make Mulciber laugh. Chris was helping, and Myrtle was cheering them on from the corner like their personal cheerleader.
Gavin and Greta were enjoying themselves immensely, with Pan talking animatedly with her best friends. Rosier and Nott were conversing with me, and I laughed along with Abby and Avery, who sat beside each other to my left. Tom sat to my right, munching on some of Waiola's pot pie.
Waiola brings over a plate of spring rolls. I grab three and place them on Tom's plate unconsciously, moving to continue eating my mashed potatoes. I look up to find the people near me staring at me weirdly.... including Tom.
"What? Tom likes spring rolls." I say defensively, and I turn around to look at Tom, who was staring at me in question. His gaze softens at my words, but he goes back to eating as if nothing happened.
I smile, picking a spring roll for myself and munching on it.
"I give it a month before they start dating." I hear Abby grumble to her boyfriend. I smack her shoulder hard.
"OW!" She squeals, but I ignore her.
"Good. She was annoying me immensely." Tom muses, giving me an approving nod as he ate his own spring rolls.
"Any time," I smirk back.
"Correction.... two weeks." Abby scowls at us.
We both decide to ignore her this time.
"It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane."
― Philip K. Dick