The weeks flew by at the school of Durmstrang. Potions were brewed, duels fought and charms casted.
It was now early may, snow had melted. The trees were green, and the weather outside was warm.
Inside the duel hall however…
"Bombarda!" Sigrun shouted out across the hall. The spell missed Linus as he had sidestepped to the right. Behind him the spell hit the wall making dust fly out.
Linus didn't waste the moment. "Fulmen" the lightning shot out from the wand, the white lightning howled as it flew across the room towards Sigrun.
With practiced moves she threw herself to the side. The spell still touched her foot making it sting and burn. The rest of the spell hit the hell and dissipated. While laying on the ground she aimed her wand.
"depulso! Stupefy" the spells flew right after each other. This would be hard.
Linus focused on the spell. Flicking his wand up on the first spell making the spell fly up and hit the ceiling. The second spell dissipated in mid air right in front of Linus.
Sigrun stood up. "That move is not fair!" she said with a pout.
She's so cute Linus thought for himself.
"Neither are the wizards who actually seek to kill you." They are much more unfair than I am right now. They would have shot her while she laid down, I waited for her.
All students were training for the end of the year exams. The stress was all over the school right now.
The end of the year exams in the first year wasn't hard if you did what you should on the lessons. The hardest was potions, but since we have trained a lot this shouldn't be a problem.
The exams started next week, around 2 weeks before the school ended before summer.
Linus wasn't worried, he was more worried about if the others would be okay.
Stepping into the common room revealed the absolute mess, books laid scattered, Cauldrons brewing potions. It was both lovely and horrific to see.
Nikolai sat on the floor reading elemental magic. Erik was practicing charms and Armin was sleeping. Yup all is as it should.
"You guys ready?" Linus said as he stood in the middle of the room.
Nikolai looked at him. "If I could beat you right now I would" he said
They love me.
Exam week is here, and everyone is tense. The tension in the dinner hall could be cut with a knife. Everyone sat silence during breakfast.
First exam was charms, first a written the practical.
Linus sat with his parchment, 15 written questions about different charms and how to use them. 'Easy' Linus thought and well it was.
After the written part was done, the students were gathered in the practical chamber a wide, bright hall filled with floating candles and target dummies. Professor Tordenheim, a sharp-eyed woman with silver hair bound tightly in a braid, stood at the front, her wand resting behind her back.
"Charms is not only about reciting words and flicking your wrist," she began, her voice echoing off the marble walls. "It is about control. Precision. Purpose. Every spell you cast must mean something. Now, begin."
Students lined up one by one to demonstrate their spells. The air quickly filled with a mix of light, movement, and the occasional minor explosion. A first-year accidentally set their own sleeve on fire attempting a Lumos Maxima, another froze their desk solid instead of summoning their quill.
Linus stood calmly at his station, wand at his side.
His first task a simple levitation charm. Wingardium Leviosa. Easy. The feather rose, perfectly still in the air. Then he was instructed to charm a candle to float and follow him as he walked he didn't just make it float; he made five orbit around him in smooth circles, glowing like small stars.
Professor Tordenheim raised a brow but said nothing, simply marking her parchment.
Then came the final test: conjure a defensive charm that could withstand three spells in a row.
Sigrun, of course, volunteered to cast at him. "Let's see how you handle this, lightning boy," she said teasingly.
Linus smirked. "Go ahead."
"Expulso! Confringo! Bombarda!"
The three spells tore through the air, light flashing across the hall. Linus held his wand steady, murmuring, "Aegis Glacialis."
A shimmering ice-blue barrier erupted around him, each impact crashing against the surface in a storm of frost and thunder. When the smoke cleared, Linus stood untouched in the middle of the circle the barrier still faintly glowing, crystalline cracks pulsing with pale light.
The professor nodded, "full marks Mr. Gray"
The day after was potions exam. This one had most very worried as professor Arkadi was very, very stern about precision. He was known to fail students for small mistakes.
"Welcome to the exam in potions, there won't be a written part only practical. You will brew a potion of Draught of peace. You may begin."
The potion wasn't difficult, and t was also very useful to have, it did relive stress and such making it useful as in right now.
Linus brewed his potion. It was pretty straight forward. And it didn't seem like the rest of the class had any trouble either, Arkadi even seemed slightly impressed.
The afternoon would be the duel exam. No one really knew what we would do here. it was random every year.
Stepping into duel hall, there were dummies set up all over the place. Volkov stood in the middle of the chamber.
"Welcome.." he said loudly, with the deep voice he had. "To the exam in combat magic. Today you will eliminate 3 targets as fast as you can." He looked around at the students. "Line up and lets get started."
The students formed a line, one by one they entered.
Sigrun, stood in front of the three targets. She raised her wand, aimed. "Confringo! Depulso! Bombarda!" the three spells flew out, one towards each dummy. The first spell hit right in the chest of the dummy. The second one made the made the dummy fly into the wall behind it. the third dummy was blown in half.
"Well done, Sigrun." said professor Volkov while writing in his notes.
the line got shorter and shorter. Spells flew and the hall smelled like burnt wood and dust.
"Gray, your turn" said Volkov. "Just don't destroy the hall." He said with a smirk
Linus stepped into position, he was still thinking about what spell to use here, he wanted all three to go down at once. Linus smiled 'Yes this will do nicely' he thought.
He raised his wand. "Echo Mjolniris" he said calmly, barley above a whisper.
A small ball of lightning shot out, quiet. The spell het the first dummy and…
A violent scream shouted out. The lighting bolt had erupted and spread to the two other dummies. The lightning was violent, loud, bright. The spell vanished after just one second. But nothing remined of the dummies other than the stand they had once stood on, smoke raising from them. lightning residue still lingered.
Volkov stood silent. As did the rest of the class.
"Well…" Volkov began, unsure of what happened. "Full marks gray…"
Linus stepped away and sat down on the spectator seatings. Sigrun who sat there already looked at him with a shocked expression. "Show off…" she muttered.
The exam came to an end. The results were good, nothing really surprising since everyone had dueled a lot.
The other exams went of without a hitch, the elemental magic class could have gone bad for Nikolai but he passed from the looks of it.
Sitting in the dinner hall on that Friday after all exams where over felt nice. Everyone could breath out in relief. You could feel the tension just disappearing. Some still looked down, probably worried about results. The results would be sent during summer break.
Everyone ate in peace for the first time in weeks. The next week wouldn't hold any regular classes. Just a lot of duels for those who wanted to fight it out. This was mostly done by the seven years as it was their last time here.
But everyone could duel if they wanted too.
'I really want to duel." Linus thought to himself.
Nikolai and Erik looked at each other.
"Look, he has that psycho look in his eyes again" Nikolai said quietly to Erik
Erik nodded and looked a bit worried.
'should probably do it next term' Linus sighed with defeat.
After the dinner, the four sat in the common room. Seated in front of the fire place, they were discussing summer break.
"We should meet up during the break." Said Armin.
The other looked at him then at each other. "Sure, sounds fun" said Erik giving an approving nod.
Nikolai just gave a thumbs up.
"Alright, just send an owl." I said casually. But It did sound fun hanging out with them somewhere else other than school.
Armin stood up, "Alright, I will send letter. We could go to France or Germany."
"I'm okay with either" I said taking a sip of tea.
The four talked late into the night.
The great hall was filled with students, as it was their last day before summer break. Some were excited, and some were sad.
The headmaster stood and gave a speech about the year that had passed.
"I would like to say good work to everyone this year. You have all done what is expected of you." The headmaster said, his voice sounded kind bored.
The ceremony continued with more speeches, and a feast. And then finally it was done.
The ship laid peacefully in the harbor outside Durmstrang. The ships sail waved lightly. Students boarded it with a sprint, all wanting to get home as fast as possible.
Linus sat on the deck enjoying the sun with Sigrun.
"Can we meet up this summer?" Sigrun asked casually
Linus didn't hesitate. "Yeah, of course we can."
She looked happy with this answer, really happy.
The ship sailed off, and soon dived down into the deep Baltic Sea.
I like Sigrun, she's like me, feisty, not afraid and wants a challenge. I can see myself being more with her but, maybe not just yet. There are still things I want to do, and having someone worry that much about me when I don't know what could happen, that don't feel right. And I'm just 12 years old, mom said I should wait until 15 at least.
The ship emerged in the harbor of Stockholm, the sun laid low as it was now late into the night. The wind blew gently and the smell of summer smelled wonderful.
On the pier stood Astrid nearby the Gray family carriage.
"Welcome home Linus." She said with a smile.
Linus smiled back, "Good to be back, lets get home."
They both stepped into the carriage and soon flew away. Stockholm disappeared into the distance.
Astrid handed Linus a letter. "You received a letter this morning, it seems important."
Taking the letter into my hand revealed a vax symbol of the veil. Linus opened the letter and sure enough.
"Looks like I'm going to France this summer." The letter had been from Lyra D'Aubigne, the French knight I met during the new year meeting. The letter told me she wanted me to meet someone and also train me. I wont say no to being trained by another knight.
Linus wanted to focus the summer on training, there were also some things that needed to be done with the gray family's businesses, expanding and so on.
But he had one thing he was most excited about. The port key he had gotten. It said that it would transport him where enemies were. So, a lot of action and maybe even some good info or items.
The carriage landed with a soft thud against the gravel road of the gray manor.
Alaric and Hati greeted Linus as he stepped out of the carriage. Hati had grown a lot.
Hati laid on his side as I rubbed his belly, he might be a huge scary wolf but still acts like a total baby.
The manor stood silently in the forest. The lake behind it laid still.
The manor was the same, not in a bad way. It felt welcoming.
Linus laid in his bed, thinking about everything. School was good, but there is this feeling I want, an itch so to say. I want to go out and explore, fight and just live. I just need to finish school first.
The upgrade Linus had gotten on his trait allowed him to use curses, but he didn't know any curses. Sure he had heard about them, cursed items and such. There are also the unforgivable curses.
'I need to learn more about this.' Linus thought as he drifted of to sleep.
The next morning Linus sat in his office, he was going through paperwork on the businesses. Astrid had sent him letter to school where she talked about expanding to other countries. This isn't a bad idea, the problem is the other family-owned business. They will try to sabotage us if we try to open anything.
He leaned back into his chair. A smug smile appeared on his face.
The solution? Make it impossible for them to do anything without it causing other problems.
Now I just have to think about what that business would be.
Linus stood up from his chair, its time to use the portkey. I need action.
Stepping out into the hallway he saw Astrid. "Astrid I'm going away for a bit, don't know how long. But I will be back before June 24 since I need to go to France on the 25th."
Astrid looked surprised. "You just got home, and where are you going?"
"I don't know, I got this portkey. No clue where it leads" Linus said as he waved the portkey.
"And you're just going to use a random portkey?" Astrid said with a serious face.
Linus nodded. "Yes"
Putting on his Veil clothing, he stood before the mirror in his room. It was black making it optimal for this, and it had armor in the sleeves, legs and chest.
He stood in the middle of his room, holding the portkey.
"Alright, lets do this." Linus said out.
Focusing on the key made the world spin, his room disappearing in a twirl.