Begin to Hope

"So, I heard my name on the intercom, right? And I was with Kristy at the time so she told me what was on the Ninth Floor and I was kind of scared, but she convinced me that it would be okay, so she left to go find her cousin, who also lives here, and--"

"Is her cousin a hot single female?" Maverick interrupted, looking quite eager to get some lovin' of his own.

"No, her cousin is a nine-year old boy. Anyway, I made my way up to the Ninth Floor by myself, where I was conveniently greeted by two rather buff ready to eat me alive Death Eaters. They grabbed me by the arm and practically dragged me down a hallway towards a dark scary room. There, they chained me up and stuck metal rodes up my anus."

"What?!" Maverick and I cried together, looking at him in alarm.

He gave a high-pitched giggle. "Just kidding, that didn't happen. But you both looked so serious I thought it would be funny to --ahem, anyway, they chained me to a chair in this dark room and told me to wait, for I would be getting what was coming to me soon enough. Oh, which reminds me, the three of us need to practice Occlumency to be good enough to fight back any Legimency attacks that they may throw at us on Friday."

"Continue with your story!" I cried impatiently, throwing a pillow at him.

He ducked the pillow and glared at me. "I am! So I wait in there for about twenty minutes, sweating my balls off because I basically have no idea if I'm going to be shot in the face or questioned or what, when finally the Dark Lord himself appeared in front of me."

I was taken aback. The slack-jawed, buggy-eyed expression on Maverick's face told me he was too.

"It was the Dark Lord? Himself? You-Know-Who? In the flesh?"

"In the flesh? I don't know. Who knows what he's made of... and I don't think I want to know. But he was standing in front of me."

"What does he look like?" I had to interrupt, I was on the edge of my seat, teeming with questions about Voldemort.

"He--he's very tall, with a grotesque face. He had a black cloak on, with the hood up, so I only ever caught glimpses of him." He shuddered involuntiarily. "Being with him--just by the reactions of the others in the room, I was terrified. His henchmen, the Death Eaters... even all of them cowered in his shadows."

"What did he want?" Maverick asked in a hushed voice, eyes wide, completely spellbound.

"He asked me questions. He wanted to know what we were doing here. He said someone had tipped him off that we were in favor of the old ways. He wanted to make sure we weren't."

"And you passed his test?!"

"Apparently so, if the three of us are still living, don't you think?" He stood up from where he had been sitting and wandered over to the bed farthest from the door. On the nightstand next to it someone had placed a bowl of fruit. He grabbed an apple from it and bit into it, making a face as he did so.

"This is rotten," he exclaimed, throwing it down under the bed and sighing.

"How did you ever manage to fool Voldemort?"

Klaus looked up at us peculiarly.

"I know magic, Kerry." he replied irritably. "I know Occlumency, you know."

"But, when did you ever learn that? I sure as hell didn't."

Klaus shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. "I may have taken some private lessons."

"Private lessons?! From who?" Maverick asked angrily. "Why didn't we get them, too?"

"Well--McGonagall gave them to Farley and me--she knew this day was coming, obviously... and she wasn't the best Legimens, so doing it on us wasn't that hard, but Farley and I used to practice on each other. And I could read his mind without even trying, sometimes without him even noticing."

"Wow..." I whispered. "Klaus, that--that's really powerful."

He nodded solemnly. "We'll have to practice up until our interrogation on Friday. In the meantime, I'd suggest getting some sleep." He yawned and fell backward onto his bed. "I'm tired." He snuggled up into his pillow and whispered a goodnight to the two of us.

I turned to Maverick, ready to make a tantalizing comment, until I realized that Maverick had already fallen asleep on his bed as well.

Sighing, I cozied up and tried to fall asleep myself, but sleep didn't come easy. I kept drifting in and out of consciousness, having fitful dreams of the Dark Lord finding us out and killing us.

And even though I was impressed with Klaus' Occlumency ability, I was also slightly irritated. I was his best friend, and he had never told me he had been getting any extra lessons! If I had known, I would have been interested in taking them as well. One would think that Hermione Granger and McGonagall would wanted to have everyone know as much as possible so we'd all be well prepared. But teaching the two oldest males Occlumency was a stupid move on their part, I thought. One of the guys had already died, and if Maverick, Klaus and I were killed on Friday, immediately preceding our interrogation, none of the rest of our group would ever know it.

I had just about dozed off when Klaus shook me roughly awake.

"Time for school!"

I groaned, got up, and got dressed. Klaus and Maverick both went off to take showers, but I wanted to avoid it for as long as possible. There was twenty communal showers, and that was it. Men and women were expected to take showers together, something I was not looking forward to. The screams of girls being sexually harassed could be heard all the way down the hall, and I didn't want to be just another ringing scream in someone's ears.

When they were done showering, I took a step outside our room into the hallway, where clumps of students could be found waking and making their way down to their first classes of the day.

Pulling out my schedule for the day, I was disappointed to find I had Legimency, Dark Potions, a break, Muggle Torture, Trailing a Muggle, and then off the rest of the day.

"What are you two going to do all day?" I asked Klaus, realizing that Mondays were one of his free days, when he had no classes.

He shrugged. "We'll probably explore, or go to the library."

Maverick popped his head out of our door. "Or scope this place out for hot chicks!" He winked at a particularly old fat lady as she waddled by.

I made a face at him and he went back inside to finish getting dressed.

"Well, I'll see you later, then, I guess."

Klaus waved goodbye and headed back inside the room, probably to torture Maverick in some way.

I took a deep breath and looked around at the flowing mounds of students heading every which way.

I stopped a pudgy, non-threatening-looking boy by tapping him on the shoulder. He turned around to look at me, acting very surprised, as if no one had ever talked to him before.

"Um, excuse me. Could you help me find my first class?"

"S-s-sure." He took the schedule from my outstretched hand and glanced at it. "You have L-L-Legimency! I have that too. I'll show you the w-w-way."

I took my schedule back from him and tucked it into my pocket.

He started to shuffle off down the hallway. He kept his head down as he walked, and I noticed a few other kids sniggered and pointed at him behind his back.

"So--what's your name?" I asked awkwardly as I followed behind him. He didn't seem to hear me, as he kept plodding slowly along with his head down and his eyes following his feet on the floor.

"Hey--what's your name?" I repeat, thinking that maybe he could be a bit deaf.

"S-S-Sam." he replied, finally looking back at me over his shoulder. "My name is Samuel Bannister."

I nodded at him. "Nice to meet you, Sam. My name's Ria."

He didn't respond and I didn't try to continue the conversation, thinking that it would get me nowhere.

After what seemed like forever of walking back and forth corridors, up and down staircases, we ended up in front of a heavy wooden door that was shut securely.

"H-h-here we are," Sam stuttered monotonously.

He pushed the door open to reveal a crowded musty classroom. It reeked of dead animal, and the various assortment of objects lying unused on shelves around the room look as if they had been used to kill that animal.

I wrinkled up my nose as I stepped inside, immediately greeted by a long-nosed freak jumping in front of me.

She informed me that her name was Kershwitz, and that she was my Legimency professor.

"Take a seat!" she commanded in a powerful authorative voice. She pointed towards the back of the classroom, where there was an empty table for two.

I shrugged at Sam and followed him back there. We settled ourselves down together at the table. Sam immediately got a book and began reading, leaving me to sit there by my lonesome.

I took the time before Kershwitz began to examine the rest of the classroom. There were precisely twenty-two other students in the classroom, and I supposed we were only waiting for one more.

Most of the other students were preoccupied themselves, most of them talking quietly in groups of two or three, and some of them studying dilligently. I wondered for a moment whether any of them knew more about Legimency than I did.

After a couple minutes of waiting, a small blonde girl rushed in the classroom, carrying a mountain of books and breathing hard.

"Sorry!" she squeaked to the professor. She nearly tumbled onto the table nearest mine, spilling her books all over the table and floor. She smiled in spite of it and looked around the classroom.

The professor peered over her desk in front of the room, trying hard to glare at the blonde girl, but failing miserably. The girl was looking about the room brightly, doing her best to avoid meeting the professor's gaze.

Finally the professor straightened up and shuffled some papers around her desk, as if she was purposely postponing the start of the class. I watched her struggle up there for another minute, aware that nobody else in the room but the blonde girl was paying attention to her.

"Ahem--" the professor finally spoke, clearing her throat, "My name is Professor Kershwitz, and I teach Legimency."

The class stopped to look up at her, but she didn't say anything else. I turned to Sam.

"Is she a new professor here, or something? Why isn't she--"

"Shh!" Sam hushed me, holding up a hand to silence me.

I turned back to the professor.

"I am here, to be your Legimency professor. I am not here to teach you Occluemncy, as the Dark Lord wishes that none of you know it, for then you would be able to block your minds to him, and he does not want that. Instead, you are going to be looking into each other's brains. The first step is--"

The blonde girl sitting at the next table over raised her hand and looked up at the professor expectantly, waiting to be called on.

Professor Kershwitz looked down the rows of tables toward the girl. "Yes? And your name is?"

The girl stood up to speak. "My name is Marcie Blakeney, and I have a question." She glanced around the room, as if wondering who she should direct her question to. She finally decided upon speaking towards the windows on the right side of the room. "Why wouldn't we want to learn Occlumency?"

The professor closed her eyes before speaking, signaling that she got extremely irritated with girls who asked stupid questions. "Occlumency is a branch of magic that concerns itself with closing one's mind against external penetration, thus preventing others from breaking in and reading another's emotions or memories." She opened her eyes just wide enough to stare Marcie down. "If the Dark Lord wanted to find out something from you, and you tried to deny him, because you knew Occlumency, that wouldn't be very good, now would it? On the other hand, however, he wants you to be able to read others' emotions and memories, in case you ever catch one of those filthy Mudbloods or blood traitors. He would want you to be able to cut them down and determine what use they hold." She paused, taking a breath. "Do you understand?"

Marcie remained standing, but she cocked her head to the side, as if looking at Professor Kershwitz like she was an interesting painting. "If I wanted to--hypothetically--look up how to perform Occlumency, where would I find this information?"

Professor Kershwitz waved her hand at Marcie. "I don't know. Nobody here knows Occlumency except for probably the Dark Lord, and goodness knows he isn't teaching it to anyone."

A mutter of agreement and a few laughs went around the room, and Marcie sat down, still not looking completely satisfied.

"And now I ask, are we done with interruptions? Then we will begin the lesson." She paused for emphasis before flicking her wand at the wall behind her. Several paragraphs appeared on it, which she told us to copy down. "Legimency is not--as one might think--about reading someone's mind. The mind is a most complex thing." She pointed to a boy sitting in the front row. "You! What are you thinking about?"

The boy hesitated before replying, "I was thinking about food."

"Ah ha! During that time you paused, you also probably thought that you were caught, how bad that was, what your punishment might be for not paying attention, what your reply should be, and if it should be truthful, or a lie. Am I correct in thinking all those thoughts went through your mind?"

The boy nodded, looking astonished.

"Of course I am. The mind is complex, and one may have dozens of thoughts, all in less than a second. However...some of us are simpler than others." She smirked at herself.

I decided right then and there that I hated her. Her stupid smirk, the way she thought she knew everything, the way she glared at that Marcie girl--

"It is, of course, not easy to break into someone's mind. It is a complicated process, and as beginners, eye contact is completely necessary. As you--"

My mind started to drift as the teacher went on and on, blabbing about Legimency, which I wasn't so keen to even learn in the first place. I wondered how we would learn Occlumency, especially the kind powerful enough to keep out Voldemort. Klaus could be good at it, sure, but good enough to take on the most powerful wizard of all time? I didn't think so.

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. It was hot and stuffy in the room and these robes were making me itchy. I turned to the left, stretching, and Marcie caught my eye. She was frantically waving at me. As soon as we made eye contact, she smiled and leaned over the aisle to whisper to me.

"How long have you been here?" she asked, completely unaware of Professor Kershwitz still talking at the front of the classroom.

I had to lean over Sam's side of the table to talk back. "Only a couple of days. Why?"

She beamed, as if she had been expecting that answer. "I just knew it! You look nervous, like you've only been here a few days!" She reached a hand over Sam's body towards me. "My name's Marcie Blakeney."

I took a nervous glance at the Professor, but she was still chatting away. Sam, however, looked extremely anxious, as though he wasn't sure he should be between the two of us trouble makers. I ignored him and shook her hand anyway.

"Ria Truth," I told her.

"Say, you look friendly enough! Want to meet me for lunch? You're pretty much the only other girl I've seen in a while. I have off third period. How about you?"

I pulled out my schedule and examined it. "Same here."

"Great! I'll meet you in the cafeteria for lunch then, alright?" She smiled again and nodded her head, to signify that she was done talking. She turned back to the teacher and gave a large heaving sigh, as if it pained her to listen any longer.

How nice! Finally a girl to talk to, that seemed normal enough. I hoped she wasn't a huge Death Eater supporter. Maybe just a small one. But she seemed nice, and it would be good for once to hang out with someone that wasn't Maverick or Klaus.

Professor Kershwitz hadn't even realized we had been talking, but had rather continued her lecture like she had noticed nothing. I tried to listen for the rest of the class period but the anticipation of a new friend that wasn't a hoe or a boy was dragging me away from her monotone voice.

Near the end of the class period, she asked us to pair up and try and break into each other's minds. She told us it was okay if we couldn't do it, for we were all beginners and such, but nevertheless she wanted us to try our best.

Sam turned to me timidly and asked, "Do you--er--will you be my p-partner?"

I had been hoping to pair up with Marcie, but I shrugged and followed Sam to a corner of the classroom.

Standing with his back to the corner, looking about nervously, he took out his wand and spread his legs in a stance that just looked silly. I held back a laugh.

"I'm going to look into your mind, and you t-try and get into m-mine." he stuttered. I nodded in agreement and got out my own wand. This stuttering little guy wouldn't be able to do any damage at all, I thought.

Before I was ready, Sam flicked his wand and entered my wand. The classroom began to haze over and dozens of memories flashed before my eyes, most of them from my early childhood, some of them I hadn't even realized I still remembered. Pictures of playing games with my parents, riding a crude broomstick with Humphrey, studying for hours with Hermione Granger, hundreds of things came back to me--but I couldn't let him see the newest stuff--all our plans--

With a huge grunt of effort I pushed him out of my mind and the classroom came back into focus. I was on my knees on the floor of the classroom, my head in my hands. My wand was thrown out of my hand, lying on the floor near Sam's feet. My head was pounding and I only barely managed to stagger to my feet.

I weakly looked up at Sam, and he grimaced. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet.

"S-sorry!" he squeaked. "I didn't know--I didn't mean to do that!"

"S'okay," I replied, taking my wand back from him. "But let me do the Legimency from now on, okay?"

He agreed, and we went back to practicing for another forty-five minutes. By the end of the class, my head felt like it was split in two. I had been trying desperately to invade his mind, but I couldn't grasp a single one of his thoughts. He claimed he hadn't a single barricade put up, but it was just so hard.

Not many of the other students managed Legimency like Sam had, and the teacher said it would come to us in time, but I still felt like a failure for not being able to do it at all.

When the bell finally rang, dismissing us, I nearly ran out of the room. We had fifteen minutes in between classes, and I was feeling so sickly.

I only managed to stumble into the bathroom, throw myself over a sink and glance at my appearance into the mirror. I looked terrible. My hair was messed up, my eyes were bloodshot, and my face had turned pale.

I bent over the sink and splashed some water on my face, trying to bring color back into my cheeks. I inhaled slowly, trying to calm myself (and my stomach) down. Why was I getting sick like this all the time now? What was wrong with me?

I spent the next ten minutes in the bathroom, attempting to feel better. By the time the first bell rang for my next class, I was already feeling a bit better. Maybe it was just the nervousness of being alone in all of these classes on the first day.

I was hoping that Potions would be better. Maybe the teacher would be more interesting, and I would have Marcie in this class, too. And I had always been a good student at Potions. Why would I fail this?

It turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. Most of the stuff we were brewing was extremely difficult, Dark Arts stuff. It was things that I would never in a million years have attempted making. I was pretty sure even the teacher didn't know what he was doing half the time.

We all got cauldrons at the beginning of class from the professor.

"Professor Bying-ton." he pronounced it very stiffly and straight-backed, as if he might be the most Pureblood of us all, if only from his name. His eyelids fluttered as he talked, I noticed. It was irritating.

He appeared to be reading his instructions to the class from a book behind his desk the entire time. He didn't get out of his seat once to help any of us, but rather, just sat in his chair and watched us struggle. When someone had a problem, he would tell them to step up and ask him, as his old legs were tired and he didn't want to move.

He couldn't have been more than forty-five, and there wasn't a grey hair on his head; it was just that he was just a lazy bitch.

I was exhausted with trying by the time the class ended. My potion had been sizzling nicely up to that point, a pretty shade of turqoise, just like the instructions called for. I was just about to put in the last ingredient when the bell rang, causing me to become startled and knock over a bag of Sopophorous Beans. My cauldron burst into flames and nearly fizzled to the ground. Only with the help of Professor Byington did I finally get the fire under control and then put out.

As a result of the fire, he assigned me an essay on "Why We Should Be More Careful With Dangerous Objects." He lectured me all the way to the door, where I told him "thank you" very impolitely and stormed away.

I headed straight for the cafeteria, not willing to see Klaus or Maverick in this state. I wasn't in a good mood. I just hoped Marcie would be able to cheer me up.

I carefully walked into the cafeteria, glancing around the room, looking for Marcie. I finally spotted her on the far left, sitting with a slightly taller, manlier version of herself. They were whispering quietly to each other when I walked up, but Marcie immediately greeted me and jumped up to make room for me to sit.

"Hi, Ria! This is my twin, Aiden. Aiden, Ria."

He looked up at me with crinkled brown eyes and a soft, easy smile. He was gorgeous. Under any other circumstances, I would have fallen in love with him right then and there. Except at that moment, I was fuming.

I slammed my books down on the table and took a seat across from them.

"I hate this stupid school."

"Oh, none of that, now." Marcie nibbled daintily on a carrot. "What has made you so upset?

"Legimency was horrible. I couldn't penetrate Sam's mind at all." I put my head in my hands and moaned. "And then Potions--it couldn't have been worse. The teacher was a bitch; I have no friends. This stupid school--if Kla--I mean--if my brother hadn't dragged me here, I would be back at my house, cuddling up with a book, not worrying about anything. Instead--"

"Where are you from?" Aiden examined me carefully over the table. He had a book open in front of him which I read upside down to spell out Ancient Runes.

"I--well--I'm from far away from here." I didn't want to tell them where I was really from, obviously.

Marcie looked at me curiously. "America?"

"No--I mean, yes!"

Aiden looked at his twin. "She doesn't have an accent."

"Darn tootin', I does!" I tried to attempt an America accent, but they both just laughed at it.

"No--really? How did you happen upon this school?" Aiden took a sip from a cup that was sitting next to me and peered over it. "Was your family ever Death Eaters? Maybe some of the original members?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that. My brother--Will--he's interested in the--er--Dark Arts." I didn't like the way both of them were watching me closely, like I was a specimen in a laboratory.

Marcie broke the spell, shaking her head and smiling at me. "Of course. Well, we didn't really want to be involved. We just thought we'd come check it out, and everything--"

Aiden nudged her in the ribs and she stopped speaking.

He smiled up at me. "We've been very sheltered, all our lives. We just thought it would be good to get out into the world. Where things are happening, you know?"

I nodded. "Are you here with family, or--?"

"Nope. Our parents are dead. Just little old orphans, we are."

"I'm sorry. I'm an orphan, too, if that's any condolence."

Marcie shrugged and smiled. "We barely knew our parents. It's just the two of us, and that's perfectly fine with us."

We spent the rest of lunch in quiet conversation. Marcie and Aiden were really nice, if a little awkward and eccentric. They were funny, and we had a good time. I was glad I had made some friends.

We said goodbye an hour later, and we parted ways to go to our next classes.

I was eagerly looking forward to talking to Klaus and Maverick about how my day went, and about the twins. I was sure they would be thrilled that I had made friends with some nice new people.

But as it turned out, I didn't see either of them the rest of the day. My classes only got more difficult as the day went on, and by eight, when I was finally finished for the day, I was exhausted.

Without even bothering to stop by the cafeteria for dinner, I stumbled into our dormitory room, found it empty, and threw my stuff down on the desk inside the door. Neither of the boys were present in the room, and I guessed they were both still scoping the castle for hot chicks.

I fell asleep long before either of them returned to the room for the night, and thankfully they didn't disturb me.

I was hoping for a better day when I woke up the next morning. New classes, new teachers, and hopefully not any more homework.

Unfortunately, the next day didn't go as well as I'd hoped.