Magic and Hellfire

Chapter Two: Magic and Dragon Attacks

The amount of magic that I have in me doubled by the day. It got to a point where I felt like I needed to scream just to let some of it out. Hellfire didn't feel like this. The fires in hell are colder than you'd expect but still just as dangerous.

Two weeks after getting the letter, my fraternal human twin brother and I fought over something stupid. I could not control the magic inside of me as much as I needed to, and it exploded out of me before I could stop it. I did not mean to hurt him. He became ash in an instant. My parents saw the light and came to find a pile of ash where my human twin stood. They tried to discover what had happened, but the magic kept erupting outside me. The ground was scorched five feet around me. My parents were just piles of bones in an instant. I did not want to hurt them. I had not felt power like that before. The fire from hell was one thing, but this beast was entirely different. It scared me. "Help me... control this!" I screamed as Professor Sage apparated onto the scene. Professor Sage had seen what happened, and he helped me calm down. He cleaned up the mess and helped me learn how to control this new magic.

He gave me a wand to borrow to get used to having one. The first lesson I was given was how to do primary cast. Professor Sage taught me what I needed to do to catch up with the rest of the fifth-year students. The rest of the summer went by without anything crazy happening. The older man wanted to escort me to Raven's Crest personally. I appreciated his willingness to help me. He had become my mentor in the past few months. I never wanted that to end. I was happy to have Professor Sage take me to Raven's Crest.

September the 1st could not have come soon enough. One of Professor Sage's friends from the Ministry decided to come along for the ride. George Leoric appeared out of nowhere. The carriage seemed to move independently when Mr. Leoric turned to face us. His face lit up as he focused on Professor Sage. "Ah! There you are, Sage!" Professor Sage smiled. "Sorry for the vague location." Sage said, "You never know who is these days." Mr. Leoric looked very excitedly at me. "Is this the young friend Professor Sage wrote me about?" I smiled back, saying yes. "I believe it is time to depart." Professor Sage, Mr. Leoric, and I climbed into the carriage without another word.

Mr. Leoric took something that looked like a canister with a symbol. The Symbol was glowing slightly. "What's that glow?" Mr. Leoric had given the canister to Professor Sage. "What glow?" Sage asked, handing me the canister. It flew open, showing a key. The clouds under the carriage darkened like an unknown creature at that second. A dragon bit the carriage clean in half, killing Mr. Leoric instantly. Professor Sage and I scrambled to stay in the half of the carriage that still existed. Looking behind me, I see the creatures pulling the carriage. They looked like black skeletal horses with wings. The dragon had a collar with swirling red on it. 'Why put a collar on a dragon?' I thought, feeling almost sorry for the poor beast. I was pulled back to reality when Sage told me to jump. We jumped to save ourselves. I let myself fall even though I knew I could have saved myself from the pain I would experience.

Prof. Sage grabbed my hand and the key at the same time. The next thing I knew, we hit the ground harder than I hoped. Professor Sage handed me a vial with a green liquid in it. "Here, it's Healing Potion; it will help you be right as rain." Professor Sage waited till I could stand to look around to find out where we were. We found ourselves in a cave by the ocean in the Scottish Highlands. I was unsure where we were; we were far from the Dragon and the carriage. I hoped the winged horses were okay. Professor Sage asked me to allow him to go to our found ruins. I was honestly curious myself and obliged. With the distinct levels of ledges and one fixed bridge later, we found ourselves next to a wall with the same symbol as the canister in the middle of it.

Putting my hand on the symbol, Professor Sage and I passed through it to the other side. We heard faint snoring as we turned around. Walking up to a podium-like desk, we found a peculiar-looking being. He had big, pointed ears with dagger-like teeth. He smiled at us and asked for our key. After Professor Sage handed it to the small man, a whistle blew out of his mouth, calling a cart. The kind little man climbed onto the cart, motioning for us to sit on the seats facing us. The next thing I know, we are blasting off down the tracks. The carriage slowed as another small man held up one oddly long arm to find out the vault to which we were headed. He had been wearing a police uniform but had an armband with the same red swirling pattern. "Momentous day; Vault 12 is being opened today." The driver said timidly. The guard just grumbled and waved us through. As we started back up, I leaned over to Professor Sage and informed him that the guard had the same red glow coming from his armband as the collar on the Dragon that attacked us.

We got to the vault without any problems. After getting to the door, the little man opened it with our key. Professor Sage and I stepped through the door, and just as Professor Sage was about to ask a question, the little man explained, "The instructions for this vault are self-explanatory. I am to grant access and close the door." With that, the door slammed shut. "Good luck!" At this point, Professor Sage decided that now was the best time to teach me the revealing charm. Detego came easily. I cast the charm and saw the outline of a door. I got closer, per Professor Sage's instruction, and only after casting it again did the door finally come into focus.

After I placed my hand on the door, it opened to show what I can only describe as an expansive void with pillars to hold up a ceiling that could not be seen. Professor Sage had his wand produce a small bulb of light at the end of it. There were more pillars than I thought possible. The room's vastness made me feel like a mouse in a cathedral. Professor Sage looked at me and asked that I stay close to him. We walked toward what we hoped was the other side. I saw the light on the floor a few feet away from us. On instinct, I walked to the centre, and with a flourish of my wand, I activated something, and the force of the magic the pool had in it brought me to my knees. "Are you all right?" Professor Sage asked after noticing the room change. The floor became mirror-like. There looked to be a knight kneeling with a sword under the floor but not above it. Using Detego, the knight on the floor came into focus. The knight under the floor faced Professor Sage's wand's light, and as he moved, he moved too.

Professor Sage decided now was the best time to teach me Ad Lucem. "Practice the wand movement first, and then try Ad Lucem." After trying a couple of times with no results, I tried again, and the third time was the charm. The light erupted at the end of my borrowed wand. The knight underneath the mirrored floor faced me, and as I lined the knight below to the one above, a light line came from his sword to me. Once the knights lined up, the one above stood up, and after tapping the tip of his blade to the ground, it swung at us. "Scrios!" Professor Sage cast the first attack. 'What have we gotten ourselves into this time?' A voice asked me from somewhere deep inside me. I noticed four more knights jumping to the floor to join the fight. I threw cast after cast at the knights, just trying to stay alive. After the final knight broke into a million tiny pieces, a wind I had never experienced roared to life around us like no other. "Stay close; we don't know what will happen next." Professor Sage said before he vanished without a trace.

"I have to find him," I said aloud to myself. More knights reflected on the floor. Casting Detego had the knights appear above the mirrored floor. "Well, I guess I'm alone," I said. I had the light appear at the tip of my borrowed wand again to start the fight as the reflections matched the originals. I hit the knights with everything I had. The wind stopped after the final knight exploded into a million tiny pieces. The room became pitch dark again. The silence became deafening. I took a few steps forward, and my footsteps began to shoot little wisps of light out of them. They all went in the same direction. On a whim, I followed them. I found a pool on the floor of white magic.

On impulse, I drew the magic in the middle of the pool. The colossal symbol sculpture changed into a puddle before leaping into the form of an archway. Inside the archway was a slight blue haze. I looked behind the archway to find more pillars and an endless void of darkness. Looking through the archway, I found a hallway. 'Creepy void, or weird room? I will take the weird room.' I thought. I ran through the archway, hoping against hope that I wouldn't have to face any more of those knights. Thankfully, fighting the earlier knights alone was not as difficult as protecting Professor Sage and myself had been.

Behind the archway, I found a room with an odd basin in the centre. I walked quickly to it, and as I reached it, I saw Professor Sage walk through a door to my left. He looked just as confused as I felt. "How did you get over there?" He asked. "I have no idea," I replied. "I found this weird basin. It had a floating vial of white liquid inside. Professor Sage looked excitedly at the floating vial, then the basin, and back at me. "This is not an ordinary basin. It's a... Memory Viewer. Follow my lead." Sage had grabbed the vial and poured the contents into the basin. The liquid in the basin began to change from an almost black to a swirling grey. Sage had placed his face inside the basin. After taking a deep breath, I followed his instructions and put my face in the basin. I saw a couple of men creating the room we were in, talking about what kind of people would end up walking through the doors of this room and the responsibility that comes with the magic they shared. The same magic I had. The scene ended, and I was shot back into my own body.

"We have a Housing Ceremony to get to." After entering the Grand Hall with Professor Noir, the Headmaster, I was sorted into Serpent House. The Professor who put the sorting hat on my head introduced herself as Professor McCarthy. She walked me to my dorm and told me the password to enter. I walked down the stairs and took a different flight to my pod. The bed had beautiful green and silver sheets and blankets. The mattress was stiff, but I fell asleep quickly due to the day's events.

That night, I re-lived the dragon attack. I woke up at two in the morning screaming. One of the girls just told me to stop crying. "We have class in the morning, and I need my beauty sleep if I'm going to get a boyfriend by the end of the day." I just grabbed my boyfriend-style sweater and wandered the common room. The candles in the chandelier looked like the wax dripping off would fall to the floor. Looking closely, you could see the shielding magic that contained the wax. I wondered what incantation was used. I bumped into the back of a couch. I was so focused on the fire I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. 'I'm such a klutz. I have a sixty-foot wingspan and can weave through trees like it's nothing, yet on my feet, I can't stop from bumping into shit.' I thought. I heard a chuckle and noticed a boy sitting on the other couch in front of the fire. "Hey, can you not sleep either?" I said aloud. The boy looked toward my voice but did not say anything. He was focused on the book in his lap. I sat on the couch and stared at the fire till sleep overtook me again. Fire always had a way of calming me. The boy must have noticed that I was falling asleep. He picked me up and walked up the stairs carrying me. The smell of cedar, cinnamon, and black cherries filled my senses. I snuggled into his chest on instinct alone. I was placed on my bed, and my bunny slippers were gently taken off my feet. My covers were placed over me. I heard the door open and close. I did not have the energy to find out who put me back in bed. I hoped I would meet them tomorrow. My dreams were filled with a boy I couldn't place. His eyes were chestnut brown. His hair was a curly copper brown. His smell was as comforting as a warm hug. The only drawback of this dream was that I couldn't see the boy's face. I hope I meet him in person soon.