Bored Wandering

[Teagan]

Outside, the doors were nearly frozen shut. While trying to let some new students in, Teagan had discovered that the only way to open them was to melt some of the ice (which froze soon after) and physically push open the the doors or use magic to help blast them open; magic could also help with blasting off the larger chunks of ice, but the doors were still more of a hassle than normal. Fortunately, she was sure that that had been the last train to come by. Of course, if they had any more surprise visits, she was intending to let someone else deal with it; she really didn't want to hang out in the Entrance Hall for the entire day. After all, she had already had to help Renatta get to the Hospital Wing; that had been about the time she learned how cold it was outside. When you have to help a girl with a broken ankle at the graveyard get to the Hospital Wing inside the school that's not too short of a distance, you notice the temperature and weather fairly quickly.

Now, she had begun to venture to one of the places she hardly ever went to; the Dueling Hall. Teagan had wandered there often, but she usually found it to be rather empty. At most, there was a small mess there caused by something; an actual duel or someone freaking out and knocking over stuff, overly anxious trying to find out who else was in the hall with them. It could be pretty pathetic when you see students overly exerting themselves by thinking that everyone was out to attack them even though the student would the only person in the entire area. Their eyes would be obnoxiously wide and they would be shaking throughout their entire figure.

Teagan suspected that a person's nerves weren't usually that uncontrollable. Of course, she knew that there were probably several charms capable of making someone act that way; she even knew a few of them. Some of those spells were taught at their school, but they weren't any of the more harmful ones. Actually, they were less lethal ones like the Jelly Baby Curse, a curse with rather entertaining effects. The Jelly Baby Curse causes its victim to see Jelly Babies, a candy, everywhere. The victim also developed a phobia involving the candy. After a while without stopping the curse, the victim would begin to believe that the Jelly Babies would take over the world. Teagan had found it to be more long-term, and it was something good to use at the beginning of a duel or to terrorize someone. Of course, she didn't have much practice, usually preferring to talk things out, and those she would have wanted to curse with it were no where near the school. She hoped they weren't near the school, anyway.

Now, her reddish eyes glanced around the hall again. Once more, it didn't appear as if anyone was nearby. It was kind of ironic how no one really bothered coming here. Even though many of the students were very feisty and would jump into a fight without even thinking, very few of them actually visited the Dueling Hall. Many fought--or met with lycans or demons which nearly always started fights--without being in more legal areas like the Dueling Hall; certainly, some of them would have the sense to visit this part of the school to have their fun instead of dangerously going into the forest.

Many people who came back with horror stories to tell to others had visited the Forbidden Forest. Teagan had even gone into it before; of course, she had only ventured in there twice, and, compared to the more adventurous students, that wasn't very much. The first time she had gone in because Makira was worried about Ark. The second time was because of the arrival of a new species; Teagan had be fortunate or unfortunate enough to be able to "greet" the new dragon on their grounds.

At least, she usually tried to avoid fighting others, even though it was for reasons she'd rather disclose. Generally the pacifist, she had even attempted to be peaceful with the dragon. Of course, she had more incentive than usual due to the fact that he had been very hungry and very willing to chomp on any human that came near him. Fear was easily a very good persuader for someone to do their very best in a situation, but it was unlikely that anyone actually wanted to have their choices motivated by such a thing. Anyway, they tended to be even angrier at what had caused their sudden adrenaline rush.

Now, though, the hall once again appeared empty. Since it didn't look as if anyone was nearby, Teagan quietly turned back toward the entrance that she had come from. After all, there was little reason for her to remain.

[Adhara Naunet]

"Going so soon Miss Monolayre? You've only just arrived," Adhara leaned against the doorframe and smiled at the Prefect before dusting some stubborn sand off the hem of her bell-shaped sleeve. She'd finished cleaning up from Roan's test earlier that day, and was waiting for an old friend to come by.

Frankly, she'd been wondering when Teagan would show. The girl had been prompt about her request to join the class, but had yet to set up a time with her. However, there was no time like the present and...oh yes, that idea would do nicely.

She smiled again at the Prefect, and walked over to her, "Do you have time now for your test? It should only take about a half hour; although I'm waiting for someone to come."

[Teagan]

After Teagan had turned around, her eyes were met by the sight of someone who had apparently not been there since she had entered a few minutes earlier. Either that, or Teagan had not seen her for some other kind of reason. Perhaps, she wasn't the only one who liked to walk quietly through the school? Of course, that was little surprise after seeing who she was facing. In front of Teagan, Professor Adhara Naunet was casually leaning against the stone door frame and smiling.

The professor had once been a Gryffindor student at the school, and, like Professor Stevens and Professor Windwaltz, Teagan recalled that Professor Naunet had decided to come back and teach after graduation. It was interesting how these students all decided to come back and teach at their school. Yet, the little rumor that they used to hang out together when they were students was not as much of a pleasant thought that one might have expected; Teagan had been here while Professor Naunet was a student, and she heard that the new professor had often teamed up with Hayzie while pulling pranks. There was also some kind of thought about some students turning the Prefects' Bath into a little pig pin... Of course, that was only what a student had told Teagan after she had become a prefect, and she still hadn't seen anything like that happen in the Prefects' Bath.

Professor Stevens was their new divinations teacher and Professor Windwaltz taught history of magic, a subject Teagan wasn't too interested in. Surprisingly Professor Stevens had been kidnapped earlier in the year and Professor Windwaltz hadn't been seen for a while. Professor Stevens had been kidnapped during her first divinations lesson; Teagan had been witness to some of it and knew that a demoness had been working together with one of the larger and older lycans. The lycan, whose name was now rumored to be Fenris Fenrir, had done most of the work while the demoness had played as back-up. Supposedly, Professor Stevens had come back to the school, but, since no more divinations lessons had been started, Teagan still hadn't seen the teacher after her kidnapping. Without taking history class, Teagan had only heard that Professor Windwaltz had gone missing, but the professors' table in the Great Hall had been with his seat empty for quite a while.

Teagan wasn't interested in history for what she considered acceptable reasons. First of all, history was usually only about memorizing facts from the past. The few interesting teachers she had had at her old school of history went by a motto they taught that said, "Those who don't learn from the past are bound to repeat it," or something like that. Actually, Teagan believed that statement was very true, but most of their teachers didn't bother with it. Unfortunately, the boring teachers only made you memorize useless notes that wouldn't help you anywhere in life unless you became a history teacher when you graduated, or you met a cynical old troll that suddenly decided to question you and was prepared to beat your head in if you answered incorrectly. Of course, the troll probably wouldn't have managed to remember the answer to its own question, anyway. The history lessons that could help you later were the ones that taught you other people had thought that made them victorious or why they failed; those things were actually worth paying attention to.

As for divinations, what Professor Stevens taught, Teagan had always had that class acting as more of a hobby that something more hard core, such as the preciseness of potions. Of course, it was an enjoyable class. Though, it had a tendency to be rather uneventful, excluding the time Professor Stevens was kidnapped and when Professor Azrael--their old teacher who was now thought to be fired--taught, due to the fact that few students were actually capable of Seeing. Before she had come to Magic Horizons, a Seer had helped Teagan in learning how to see parts of her past that she may have forgotten. Still, Teagan was not a Seer, so it was unlikely that she'd take the class as a main focus for her as she grew older.

Charms was one of Teagan's favorite subjects for the mere fact that it actually came to be useful. Before her parents and sister were killed, she used to charm objects at her school for the fun of it. Generally, this would take place during their tiring history lessons with the boring teachers that held no ounce of creativity in their brains. At Magic Horizons, Hayzie and Adhara had many stories about them talking about their jokes. Teagan had even heard some wacky story about people charming the Prefects' Bath to look like a pig's pin; of course, this was only something she'd heard soon after she'd become a prefect, and nothing like that had happened recently. Still, it was quite entertaining to watch Hayzie's antics during their classes. Then, Professor Adhara was supposed to teach advanced charms, so Teagan was definitely interested.

The professor asked if Miss Monolayre was leaving so early, considering she'd only arrived. After some more hidden thought, the professor walked over to her, and asked whether Teagan had time to take her test now; after all, it would only take about half an hour, by Professor Adhara's estimation. Then, she also said that she was waiting for someone to come. The prefect didn't bother with being annoyed by the fact that her last name had been used.

Well, Teagan had been intending to leave, but there was no reason for her to postpone the test asked of her. Since she was younger than a sixth year student, she was required to take this test in order to be able to take the advanced charms class rather than her regular charms class with Professor Divine. Charms were always helpful in a very good variety of situations, and it was one of the more important classes students were supposed to focus on. Anyway, the normal charms class was already very easy for her, and who wouldn't want to study charms more in depth?

The professor said that the test would probably only take half an hour: thirty minutes. Teagan still wondered what this test would include; surely, a written exam would have taken longer. The Ravenclaw Prefect was curious as to what she was supposed to do that would be in the time range. If she were to fail, then it probably would have taken longer than that. Perhaps, they she was to do something more physical with magic instead of writing down answers? That would have been a lot less uninteresting. Teagan had some experience with things like that, except they weren't tests. Generally, they involved her messing around with her pure-blood family's things; of course, they didn't exactly appreciate it if or when they found out.

Who could Professor Naunet be waiting for? Chances were that it would be Hayzie or Professor Stevens from her old group. Otherwise, it could have been some official business that Teagan didn't know about. At least, it would be good if she was able to finish this test early. That way, there would be many less interruptions for them to worry about; Teagan didn't feel too enthusiastic at the thought of someone interrupting her test and possibly making her fail.

"Yes, Professor Naunet. I could take the test now," calmly replied Teagan. Underneath her usually soft voice, there was a little more tension than usual, even if none of it showed very clearly. Teagan chose to try to not be nervous about everything, and was deciding to focus on whatever she had to do for the test, avoiding other matters that weren't a part of it. Distractions, no matter how small, would be bad, so she was going to try to ignore them entirely.

[Nefastus Eurus Caelestise]

A low growl came from the shadows that hugged the corners of the room, touching the surfaces with a silken black sheet where the light did not warm. At once, the room seemed darker, colder, bigger, and at the same time, it seemed suffocating. All around Teagan the shadows seemed to gather and the light fade.

"Is this the lil' spot o' sunshine, love?" Came a melancholy voice from all around them, a figure forming out of the shadows leaning against the wall with arms crossed, head lowered and eyes closed. The growl had turned in the instant he spoke to a chuckle, matching the wide grin he held on his features.

It had been a long time since the demon had been here. Too long, it seemed. Since the graveyard, the red-haired demon suffered too many harsh memories of this place. Despite the remarkable other-wordly strength the demon had, Eurus suffered greatly from emotional damage that anyone scarcely ever saw. but the monster that resides in him now was asleep, and for now, it was just play.

Elbows pressed against the stonework to push him off the wall and into motion as he started to casually walk over to Teagan. "I remember the rules you gave me, Addie," Eurus said with his trademark devious grin, looking the girl up and down and studying everything including her eyes. He stepped behind her, placing one hand on her shoulder and the other in a loose fist by his own head with his little finger up into the air.

"I promise I'll be nice to this one and keep the accidents to a minimum."

The hand dropped, his focus changed from the Professor to the student as he leaned over and locked eyes with the young girl, still grinning madly. His red orbs flashed gold for a few moments, before shimmering back to a brilliant red. The cross that had melted into his cheek caught a reflection of the candlelight and gleamed as he tipped his head into a bow.

"Now, sweetie, I'll be taking you from your dear professor's hands for however long it takes, and your objective will to be to kick my ass. If you don't, kiss this class good-bye.

"And there'll be no safety nets in this game of tag. Ready, sweetie?"

[Hayzie]

Hayzie had been following Teagan around for a while, poised ready with an invisable can of whipped cream, her wand, and an invisability spell. The silencing spell was always her favorite and allowed her to be completely hidden and silent while she sneaked around.

Just as Hayzie was about to squirt the cream, however, Adhara showed up. Ooh, was it time for another test already? The blonde haired girl listened in on what was being said and it only confirmed her thoughts. Teagan wanted to join the Charms class her friend was running.

Though the test was one even Hayz wouldn't want to take. Addie was letting her play games with Eurus?! In shock, the Head Girl squirted a bit of the cream which hit the Demon's shoe and almost exploded there, leaving a huge white patch where it had previously been clean.

Oops.. Hayzie thought to herself, silently wheeling her chair backwards a few metres. She was here to watch the test, not interrupt by attacking Eurus with whipped cream, as much as the thought amused her.

[Teagan]

After Teagan had stated that she could take the test now, something slightly little less than expected happened; it seemed that her test would be even more physical than she had thought. Professor or not, Professor Adhara Naunet continued to be full of surprises; the Ravenclaw supposed that it may have been better if the teacher giving her the test was to be one of the old, boring ones she usually had to deal with at her old school. They may not have been creative, but that made them be only easier to predict and deal with. Those that were unpredictable were often successful as well. Of course, the professor’s job wasn’t to beat Teagan; it was merely to test her, and it would definitely be one of the more exciting and difficult tests that she had taken at the school. With classes that had tests like that, who would want to take a regular charms class?

This type of test would certainly test you in ways more various than those of written exams. This kind of test would challenge all of you instincts, thoughts, and skills; like real life, it didn’t matter if you memorized all of the facts, but were unable to deal with them while in action and pumping with adrenaline non-stop. In the end, notes didn’t matter unless you had them memorized and were able to manipulate them to your advantage. Here, it only mattered that you could take your knowledge and use it. It was kind of like someone studying dragons to be a dragon tamer and then taking his or her skills to the field; they probably wouldn’t last too long if they knew everything but didn’t know how to play the facts with the game.

The light around Teagan seemed to suddenly dim as some kind of hidden growl gently slithered through the darkness. The prefect’s instinct forced her to tense. A few drops of adrenaline slipped into her blood stream. As the light lessened, heat also appeared to slink away, following its creator. Omnisciently, the fading light seemed to make the room ease itself into a larger shape; of course, this was probably only a trick of the darkness. Still, things like this didn’t happen on their own. Teagan’s breathing became more controlled as she didn’t think it would be very good if she suddenly started inhaling and exhaling too quickly. After all, she wouldn’t have been able to focus as well.

Too bad for it, Teagan liked the dark; she found the soothing lack of light comfortable. It was relaxing to nerves, and it could be used to relax a person. In fact, some Muggle stores even used dimmed light to relieve their customers so they’d purchase more items; surprisingly, it worked. Happy consumers meant more things bought, so that caused the shop owners to be happier. Teagan could usually see pretty well in the dark, but now was not one of those usual times; the darkness wasn’t exactly what one would consider “natural.” It would be easy for the prefect to handle the darkness and easily deal with what she was doing, but what came with it was something she would definitely not consider easy to deal with.

It appeared that a demon had been the one to cause the sudden light change. His voice was like a mocking chime. He coolly asked Professor Naunet, “Is this the lil’ spot of sunshine, love?” Obviously, he was poking fun at Teagan; generally she was not considered a “lil’ spot of sunshine.” Then, he calmly walked over to Teagan, leaving the wall where he leaned blank once more. He told the professor that he remembered the rules given to him, put his hand on her shoulder, and observed Teagan in a way that made her curious to what he was planning but kept her on guard at the same time. After moving his hand, he also said that he promised to nice to Teagan, and keep accidents to a minimum. Next, his eyes quickly flashed golden before melting back into a red. After dipping his head in a bow, he calmly cooed that she would be taken from Professor Naunet to “kick his ass” with no time limit and with no “safety nets.” He said that failing would mean that she would not be able to take the advanced charms class. Also, he had begun taunting her by calling her “sweetie.” As for that, she completely left that out of her mind; she had already decided to try and avoid all distractions.

The prefect did not want to be touched in any possible way, even if it was only someone setting its hand on her shoulder. Perhaps, her pure-blood family always trying to do stuff to her was the cause of it? After all, she had discovered that she had magical ability only one of her cousins shoved her in a river; they were very shocked when a half-blood like her suddenly appeared by them on shore rather than drowning in the river. Though, being only five years old at the time, she didn’t realize what had happened until later on. Then, they always started trying to do something troublesome for her, so she had quickly learned that them being near her was a no-no. Of course, her sneaking after them to cause a little trouble was different case; that was fun.

Still, the demon indicated that he had already “tested” some of the other students; Teagan didn’t believe him too much on that part. Chances were that he would have been a little more excited to be able to teach a student a lesson about why they should leave demons alone, though he was already a little too excited for her tastes when it came to the test. Fortunately, the demon spoke of rules; unfortunately, the prefect had no clue what they were, so she was partially blind-sighted on what to expect and the demon was, for most part, not blind-sighted. That would be a little disadvantage on her part.

At least, there wasn’t a time limit. As for Teagan being able to beat him, she most certainly appreciated that little unlimited time fact. She believed it was possible, since he was going to “be nice;” still, it was unlikely that they had equal definitions of what “nice” was, and it didn’t seem as if she was going to like what he meant by it. Of course, it didn’t appear that there was any other way for her to go into the advanced charms class, even though it seemed like a test more suited for someone from Gryffindor.

Gryffindor… A little un-coaxed thought bubbled into the Ravenclaw’s mind. Perhaps, the students taking the test were being tested by what houses they were in and the skills they held? After all, even though Teagan could fight okay, she had always acted as more of the pacifist at Magic Horizons; she tried avoided all fights possible, even with a dragon in her face. Rather than just doing something with her mind like she was more used to, she would need to become more physical than normal. Being physical wasn’t something she had grown so used to, so this was a simple challenge that seemed to be about testing her weakness. A Gryffindor, who was supposed to be brave and daring, would probably have taken a test that involved the mind or being steady and patient. A Slytherin would probably have a test involving keeping his or her word and gaining loyalties of some sort that would allow the student to pass; possibly persuade something to do something and gain trust by it through fair justice. A Hufflepuff, a member of the house similar to Gryffindor, would most likely have to deal with a trickery of some kind. As for a Ravenclaw, such as Teagan, they would have to take a test that involved more daring than what the students would normally allow when making decisions. So far, Teagan didn’t know of any other Ravenclaws that were deciding to take this test; Persephone, along with several others, was already old enough to join without bothering with the testing.

Before the Ravenclaw prefect could reply to what the demon said, though remaining still, she noticed something weakly squirt some white cream onto one of the demon’s shoes. Oddly, no sound that Teagan noticed had been made; that meant that it was either created by magic or someone had used some kind of can for it. Of course, after the slightly unpleasant smell reached her, she realized that it had been whipped cream and was probably squirted out of a can. If someone had used an unseen and unheard whipped cream can, then the can was invisible and silent with the aid of charms. Still, why would someone behind Teagan be invisible, sneaking, and carrying a whipped cream can? Whoever it was had probably been intending to use it on her, otherwise, the person probably would have been sneaking around invisibly and inaudibly with a whipped cream can near her. Suspects were easy to narrow down with the obvious clues: the cream had been squirted by an area much lower than what most students would have squirted by unless they were half-crawling, the person had actually been carrying around a can of whipped cream, and the person was old enough or experienced enough to know how to successfully pull off an Invisibility charm; it had to be Hayzie. The only other person Teagan would greatly suspect would be Aylen, but he was only a fifth year. It wasn’t too hard to tell how tall or high the person was because, being relaxed from being so unnoticed, the person would have squirted the can at their regular height which would have been about as high as their thigh. Hayzie, being in a wheelchair, would have accidentally squirted the can lower than someone else. Still, Teagan continued to try and ignore her amusement and little accusation as her mind silently schemed about how useful that would be.

Now, she glanced at Professor Naunet. “I’m supposed to fight him, professor?”