Chapter 64

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Allen was circulating his magic through his dantians at the same time he was building the foundation for his mindscape in the shape of Hogwarts but he was getting nowhere, his thoughts were interrupted by intrusive memories from the past and the present.

One of them was the talk he had with Professor McGonagall regarding the Weasley twins, it got so out of hand that he came so close to making them pee themselves out of fear. Of course that was the last resource if nothing really got resolved, afterall, he didn't really want to do something like that.

'At least no to first years, it would be funny if a seventh year peed his pants it tho…'

He nodded to himself with such dumb thoughts.

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"Professor McGonagall, can I ask you something?"

The professor raised an eyebrow as she set aside the materials for the next class. Allen's friends had already left the classroom and were on their way to their defense class.

"What's the matter Mr Lionheart?"

"Well… I don't know if you've heard, or seen, but the Weasley twins-" He got interrupted mid-sentence.

"Ah, them again, what have they done again?" She asked exasperatedly.

Allen turned his eyes away from the professor. "Um… If it's not a good time I can always come back later?"

"No, no. It's fine Mr Lionheart, but ever since they became Gryffindors…" A sigh left her mouth. "Suffice to say that I get one complaint a day at minimum.

What did they do?"

"They've…" He paused for a second before continuing. "Been a bit overbearing with their pranks, it feels like I'm their sole target in these last couple of days. I managed to evade them, but it gets tiring, professor, and I don't want to do anything too extreme that may earn me a detention for a full month again or something similar."

Allen finished by shrugging his shoulders.

"Understood, Mr Lionheart, I'll have a talk with them to make sure they stop this nonsense. To be quite frank, a lot of other students have come to me with the same plea, even their roommates." She took off her glasses and looked his way with a warm smile. "Thank you for coming to be before doing anything, now, off you go, before you are late for your class with Professor Dikshit"

Allen nodded, taking his leave. A chuckle left his mouth as he ran towards his next class. 'Pfft, Professor Dikshit. Hahahaha.

Dammit, stupid five year old humour.'

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"So, are you sure about this?" Armand asked.

"Of course I am, we are second years after all! Haven't been surer than ever!" William tapped his chest proudly with his fist as they walked towards the quidditch field.

"But just because second years can apply, it doesn't mean anyone gets chosen, and besides, we are talking about Slytherin! From what I remember, they don't even let girls in the team for some reason." Explained Allen. "I remember the quidditch matches from the previous year, all dudes."

William raised an eyebrow. "But I'm not a chick?"

"That's not the point, there weren't any second years either."

"Well, they are holding tryouts for something, are they not? Even if it's not the house I wanted, it's the want I'm in, and I want to play quidditch! That's why you helped me all summer, Allen! Cuz you know I wanna be part of the team.

And 'sides, I heard the captain it's not such a pure blooded supremacist, there are one or two muggleborns, so I should be fine." He beamed at his friends a radiant smile which made them stop arguing.

His two friends let out defeated sighs before agreeing with him.

"Second years, over here! Don't push! I said don't push!" A tall teenager shouted, showing his crooked teeth.

"Oh, that's my call! Just watch me!" Cried William as he turned around and ran towards the small group of kids that were forming in the field.

From the looks of it, the other two boys from their dormitory also wanted to try their hand at quidditch.

The two boys were looking to be the beaters of the team, while William was hoping to be either a chaser or the keeper, whichever worked for the team.

One after another, the boys did as told with the exercises shown to them to see how they would fare, William managed to do all of them but it tired him a lot in the process. After seeing which ones were capable of handling the exercises, the team captain moved on to the next part of the tryouts. Actually handling the balls in a small training session.

The first part of the session was for the students looking to be chasers, divided in two, the students who were also looking to be keepers had to stop any quaffle coming their way from their fellow trainees.

After their scores were registered, the second part of the session was doing the same, but this time with the actual keeper of the team, since results may vary with an amateur vs someone with experience.

In the end, William managed to score little over half of the shots he shot and block a little less than that trying as a keeper.

The whole time, Allen was trying to stay awake. 'I… always thought that quidditch was something really exciting from the books… but what is this? I mean, we did watch one or two matches in our first year… But was it this boring?' He wondered as the tryouts continued.

In the end, no one was chosen and they kept the same seven members, making the tryouts a complete waste of everyone's time.

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"Have I ever told you kids about the time I managed to fend off a hungry pack of pixies with only a stick, posing it as a wand? No? Okay, it went something like this…" Said the professor, twirling his beard with his index finger.

Currently the Slytherins and Gryffindors were taking the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, but ever since the school year started, it's been like this, the professor tells a random, unbelievable story which the students then need to discern if it's true or not and how they would go about it if it's true.

"YOU!" The professor pointed at the Gryffindor boy who challenged Allen to a broom race.

The boy jumped out of his seat, not expecting to be called out. "Ye- Yes?!"

"How would you deal with it, boy?! How did I survive such a frightful thing and lived to tell the tale?!" He shouted, making a dramatic pose, raising his arm towards the ceiling in the form of a claw.

"Uh- Umm, I guess…" His eyes darted from left to right, trying to find a solution. "I guess you hit them with the branch- I mean, stick! Really far away, and ran away to look for your wand?"

Professor Dikshit walked towards the boy's desk, crouched until he was at eye level with him and squinted his eyes looking at the boy, grabbing the desk from the sides. The Gryffindor tried to look away but for some reason he felt like it would be worse if he did, so he maintained eye contact with the professor.

A guttural voice left the professor's mouth. "You…" Then his tone of voice jumped towards a high-pitched tone at the same time he jumped out of the crouching position he was in. "Correct!"

He pointed at the Gryffindor with an accusatory finger, then turned around and walked towards his desk.

"That is what I would have done in that situation without a wand, but!" His voice dropped again. "Doesn't it occur to you that magic doesn't come from the wand, but rather from ourselves?" A frown appeared on his face as he finished talking.

Then he raised his voice again to a chirpy tone. "Oh, well! Can't' be helped since you kids are still first years."

A Slytherin girl put up her hand. "You, yes, what's the matter?" He asked.

"Umm, we are second years, sir…" She railed off as the stern look on the professor became more and more profused.

"You are right dear! My bad!" He smiled from ear to ear as if his previous look wasn't there from the beginning. "Oh, look at the time, I guess we will need to continue class next time." He said looking at his wrist watch and turning his beard around his neck.

"DISMISSED! NOW, GET OUT OF MY CLASSROOM!"

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"Isn't professor Dikshit… batshit insane? Am I the only one who thinks that???" Exclaimed William looking at his friends.

Allen hummed in response while Armand chuckled. "William, I think you would find it hard to find someone in the school who thinks that Professor Dikshit IS a sane individual."

"Ugh, I don't understand how Dumbledore lets him teach us." Groaned Sophia.

"Hmm, I'm more curious about where he found Professor Dikshit. He's the living image of a crazy warlock from fairy tales." Said Elsie, raising an eyebrow, a smile popped out on her face without meaning to.

"But… have any of us gotten a bad grade in his class?" Allen raised a question to his friends.

"Now that you mention it." Armand looked towards the ground, pondering on what Allen said.

"He actually knows how to teach, even if it's like this." Allen gestured all around him, trying to get his point across.

They all stayed quiet for a moment. "I understand what you are saying but… He's still insane." Finished Elsie.

"Hmm." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Of course." "Yeah."

"Then, should we do the homework for his class?" Sophia raised the question.

William shrugged. "I guess so."

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Two redheads were currently escaping from a black haired kid with threatening green eyes. He walked, and they ran. Whenever they thought they managed to get away from him and get a breather. "There you are." A hand touched their shoulders, making them scream in fear as they ran away again.

"Wha- What the hell, how can he know where we are?!" Screamed one of the twins who was currently running.

"I don't know and I don't care!" Exclaimed the other in between puffs of air.

They've been running for almost three hours now, and while they are surprised that they haven't been found by Flich or any of the other professors, right now they wish for any of them to catch them, maybe that would stop this crazy cat and mouse game.

Alas, for some reason, whenever they tried to run towards a more populated area, a sense of uneasiness would wash over them, making them turn back to a deserted place, after they turned around, the uneasiness disappeared as if it was never there.

Fred and George were currently trying to catch their breaths, they stopped for a while in a dark corridor with no paintings nor armors until footsteps could be heard in the distance.

"Wait- do you hear?"

"Shh!"

Tap, tap, tap. One after another, the sounds came from where they came from but also on the opposite side of the corridor.

"!!!"

Cold sweat dropped from their backs and the only dim light from a candle in the corridor was extinguished by a gust of wind.

The steps got closer and closer until it was right in front of them…! Or not. Nothing, nada. No one was in front or behind them.

The twins released their grips from each other's uniforms as the candles around the corridor suddenly lit up one after another, illuminating the whole corridor.

"Aahhh." Fred let out a sigh of relief. "Bloody hell, that was insane." His legs gave out and he dropped on the floor.

"You can say that again." George was barely standing up, supporting himself with his knees.

They looked at each other with a smug grin on their faces before laughing their asses off, trying to get rid of the scary atmosphere.

"I hope you learned your lesson." A voice spoke from their backs.

"AAAAHHH!" The two of them let out a guttural scream before looking back and seeing the same feral green eyes that were following them all day.

Fred and George fainted right as they were about to get up and run away from Allen.

A puff of air left his mouth as he thought over the events. '...Maybe I overdid it.'

Were his last thoughts as he levitated both redheads towards the infirmary.