Sumptuous dinners and deserts were quickly dispensed throughout the room as the teachers all settled into their chairs. The sorting for the year had just finished once more and all the new first years were settling into their new houses.
The enchanted sky above sparkled with the stars of the Orion cluster and the Cancer cluster whilst blazing comets soared past and vanished as they reached the edge of the magic's scope. The candlelight seemed to mimic the fiery suns displayed above as they flared into small little globes of flame that sputtered every now and then. Most would consider this beautiful, yet magic knew something to come that was beyond even its' beauty...
Few noticed the view above, many of the Wizarding World's denizens having become too used to the displays of wonder and power that magic supplied. Muggleborn students weren't very different after a time of staying inside the 'hallowed' halls of Hogwarts. Most grew a disdain for the world that the witches and wizards had carved for themselves whilst simultaneously discarding the concept that magic was superior to technology. It was the hubris of both sides that ensured the separation between the two aspects of reality.
As if to exemplify this divide the light in hall split between pitch black and the brightness of the sun as the enchantment above flared into an umbral and luminescent mixture that spun in place, a distinct patch of grey hanging between the two diametrically opposed forces.
Small murmurs broke out amongst those that were paying attention, the vast majority of the room staying completely oblivious. The teachers did not notice much of any change except for one divinations professor that went bug-eyed and collapsed onto the floor, a bottle of vodka grasped precariously between her fingers. Snape slowly levitated her up onto her chair and sneered before going back to his meal. It was a regular happening for the drunk diviner.
The display above shuddered for a brief moment as vague footsteps could be heard once more from beyond the grand hall's door. Dumbledore, Flitwick, Pomona and McGonagall reacted with a malaise of differing expressions. The former was frowning in concentration, as if straining to hear what was going on beyond the doorway. The latter was slowly standing, her eyes just now identifying the strange symbol seemingly burned into enchantment above. Both of the other teachers were stuck between surprise, at something, and a giddy excitement... They knew what was most likely happening, somehow... Snape registered this before the doors ways rocked back and forth with an eldritch wind that powerfully whooshed through the entire hall.
Enchantment though it might be, at this moment it was akin more to a portal than an image or display of illusionary magic. The wind howled through the gaping, webbing, hole that had punctured from the grey of the symbol. It was a visible mist-like substance that spun in a vortex and swept away hundreds of plates and enchanted candle. Screams should have been verbalised at this time as the students rushed away from the centre of the room, striving to seek shelter at the edges of the room, clinging to the hope that the teachers would save them from whatever was occurring.
Such a dramatic turn of events never came to be however as the portal slowly clamed down, like a simmering pan within a fire. The wind all but vanished and the symbol faded away. Calm slowly restored itself to the students, Harry and Hermione included. Confusion, worry, anxiety, fear and a multitude of other complex and baser emotions filled all people within the room, except for two teachers.
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---[1]
---[2]
The lack of sound was perforating to the ears. Many dared not breathe lest the portal once more, detecting their presence, spew forth more air. Nervous glances and grimaces were plentiful as Harry and Hermione looked into one another's eyes, sharing a small moment of calm as they communicated telepathically; a school of magic personally trained into them by Freya.
~This is Freya~
~Mhm!~
***BANG***
The doors slammed open, bringing forth the light of the sun itself. At any other time one would be questioning how the sun could shine at night time and yet the brightness all but blinded people to thoughts and vision currently. No one was unaffected within the hall.
Many dropped to the floor in panic-induced fear whilst the majority averted their gaze and covered what they could to keep out the all-piercing light. That effort was affronted however by the mischievous chuckle of the woman who had summoned said luminescence.
"Weak, the lot of you. Not as weak as Dumble-dweeb though..." Said 'dweeb' was blinking away the sparking fragments of vision that trickled down the vision-centres of his brain.
The woman stepped out of the light and with a clench of her fist she snuffed it out as if she were the darkness incarnate... The hall was pitch black except for the wave-like patterns of faint light that shimmered down from the enchantment above.
"Hehe, I like her honey! She's got spunk and knows how to pull off a prank." The chirpy voice of a man echoed from behind her, the newly encompassing darkness swallowing all physical evidence of his presence.
"Hush you, you need to let the woman have her Gandalf moment." A feminine voice dripping with sarcasm followed the man's own voice as he began laughing.
Students across the room were recovered by now, their eyes having bled away the dribs and drabs of speckled lights that drifted through their vision. House elves emerged in alcoves off to the sides, their large eyes watching the theatrics of Hogwarts new guests from the sidelines. Portraits in the hall behind them leaned closer to the bounds of their paintings to allow for better hearing. Neither group knew what was happening but it would surely liven up their dreary existences.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!!!" Dumbledore said calmly.
Freya, the Gandalf-copy-cat, laughed immediately and with such ferocity that it caused each floating candle that had been quenched in darkness to alight with flames once more.
" 'wHaT iS tHe MeAnInG Of tHiS...' " She mockingly spoke back with an intentional inflection on her tongue to make it out as if he were a young child and mildly retarded. More cackles resounded from the people behind her that no one could yet see.
Some of the students broke down into chuckles and snickers as they registered the fact that the person who had just flash-banged them was their DADA teacher. Snape was on his feet regardless however and half way down the steps, his wand raised high and his arrogant nose higher still.
"I told you she would be arrogant and prone to dalliances with fraud!" His tone was utterly serious despite the rictus of laughter spreading through the students around him.
Freya scoffed as behind her a snort could be heard.
"I see Snivellus hasn't changed at all."
A horror-filled expression slowly consumed the arrogance upon Snape's face as he went pasty white; even more so than he was already. His wand-hand shook wildly as he stared behind the sceptre wielding woman that irked him so thoroughly.
"No...no...th-this can't be happening..."
"Hehehe." Soft tinkling giggles followed the man's break down.
"Oh, it's happening Snivellus and I think we have some major things to talk about!" Stepping out from the shadow behind Freya a man with sturdy-looking glasses stepped out, his strong aristocratic jawline and soft brown hair standing out amidst his pasty-white skin and the bright gold eyes that he had received after his Animagus transformation.
Snape's eyes billowed with hatred, revulsion and an enormous amount of conflicting emotions. This only increased as a red-haired woman with bright emerald eyes and a soft facial structure stepped out, her magical aura flaring out in an explosive manner as she stared at her former friend, turned traitor.
"Yes, it's definitely happening Severus." She whipped out her wand and shot out dozens of spells one after another that picked him up and flung him up and over the teacher's table. James whistled as his wife unleashed her fury upon the man he had personally disliked for, well, forever.
"ENOUGH! THERE WILL BE NO VIOLENCE IN THESE HALLS WHILST I STAND HERE!" Dumbledore said calmly, once more.
A beam of light smacked towards him in an instant and he was flat on his ass before he could continue on his tirade.
"You're no longer standing so shut it Dumb-as-a-door." All the students were retreating now, clinging once more to the cloistered shadows at the edges of the walls. The smarter students were getting closer to the house elves.
The old man groaned as he tried to stand once again, his right hand holding his hip. Meanwhile, Snape was sluggishly pulling off each curse and charm that had been flung at him and had hit, his wand whisking through the air in a warbled flicking motion. By the time he had completed said cleansing the red-head was upon him once more, his Protego spell only barely deflecting an incontinence hex.
"YOU! You betrayed us!" A screeching wail of pure anger, fuelled by a decade of torture at the hands of Mephisto, poured through her wand like a tidal wave.
He desperately deflected as much as he could, his cape and robes being singed by Incendio spells and various other flame based curses that would have sought to eat his organs from inside out.
"Despite the apologies of my HUSBAND and his FRIENDS you betrayed us to VOLDEMORT AND DUMBLEDORE!" The voice gained an overlapping echo that was further amplified by the slowly growing cloud of intense magic.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR IT!!!" Spell after spell started smacking against his shields, his wand catching a few but dispelling them instead of attacking with them, a testament to the sheer speed of the former Unspeakable.
In the background James was just nodding and smiling as his wife unilaterally decimated an entire wall and was slowly beginning to do the same to his arch-nemesis. Freya, in the meantime, had reached the top of the room and was facing down Dumbledore who was glaring at her with monolithic levels of hatred.
"YOU-" He didn't even get the rest of his words out as her sceptre turned into a full staff and smacked down onto his wrinkly old nose.
"Uh-uh-uh... Only we get to speak, my boy..." She smirked down at the old man as Flitwick and Pomona barely held back their giddiness; they had been free of Albus's illusions a long time ago and were just waiting for a time to jump ship.
The wall shattered behind the table as the night-time air of North Scotland punctured the warmth of the hall in equal measure. Bright purple, pink and brass spells soared out of the newly made hole in the magical school, the man standing at the precipice of the freshly made balcony sweating bullets whilst nursing a wound to the side of his torso.
"Lily... I never... I didn't mean... I would never betray you..." His wheezed words slipped out between ragged breaths and salty tears that spilt down his cheek and down onto his robes.
"THEN HOW DID VOLDEMORT LEARN OF THE PROPHECY SERVERUS!!??" Her wand spun around her in a clock-wise direction, all of the rubble collecting around the tip of her wand and outwards in the shape of a stone-sword of giant proportions.
"I..." She snarled at him and with one final swing of her arm she launched the debris straight towards him, the tip of the earthen sword plunging towards him through the crisp evening air.
Panic consumed him and he grit his teeth, converting the sword into a faint mist that drifted past him and then faded back into mortar and pestle in the sky behind him. He collapsed to his knees with the effort of his previous defence, his opponent, the one he still loved to this day, narrowing her eyes and summon all of the flame from the chamber.
With one final huff of effort he stood, straightening out his robes as he looked onwards at his one true love. He watched as she collected the flamed with her right hand, collecting it and compressing it into a miniature orb of Fiendfyre. It was then that his head throbbed and he clutched the side of his head... The headmaster had charmed him once more with his enchantments...
He dropped to his knees and shattered into pieces mentally. He had promised himself that he would never fight Freya or his love's son. James was a pain in the ass and a massive bully, but his child was one of the best students he had ever seen in potions... And he was Lily's.
The Fiendfyre sprang forwards in rapturous hatred, its shape resembling the Basilisk that Potter had been reported to have killed. Sorrow filled him as he stared down his demise, the eyes of his love piercing into him and through his mind; his mental shields all but dispersed.
In that instant she gasped as the flames sparked... Flame and stone alit in a magma-esque sludge that quickly fanned out from the spell she had unleashed...
It was that moment where she realised something.
He was manipulated and spelled to do what he had done.
He was innocent.
And it didn't matter... The fire was free now.
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[1] Trying a new thing out, hope you all like it...?
[2] Also, I'm trying out new prose structure (Somewhat), any feedback would be appreciated!