章 22: The Dark Saints
~20th of October, 1991.~
It was your typical afternoon at Hogwarts. The skies were somewhat dark, cloudy and gloomy. The air was humid and still, giving the Hogwarts castle a quiet, and detached ambience due to the absence of winds. If an observer were to gaze at the scene, they would surely think that the castle was desolate and empty, completely falling for an illusion since the majestic castle's interior was anything but that.
As it was a weekend, the interior was bustling with the chatter and noise of students, though not as loud as it could be since quite a few of the students above the second year had gone to Hogsmeade. Some students were at the great hall, some at the library, some at their common rooms and some in empty classrooms either studying, practicing magic, or…well, doing what teenagers usually do.
In one of such classroom's, two boys could be seen standing opposite a wooden dummy. One of the boys was holding his wand out and pointing it at the dummy, while the other was facing the boy, with a lazy smile on his face.
"Expelliomartus!" the boy holding the wand out suddenly shouted, producing no reaction from his wand.
"It's Expelliarmus Bran, Expelliarmus, not Expelliomartus." The other boy who was facing the boy corrected, with a chuckle.
"Here, watch." The boy added, gesturing for Brandon to step aside.
Brandon stepped aside and watched the other boy intently.
"Expelliarmus!" the other boy, none other than Gavin, shouted as he flicked his wand towards the wooden dummy.
A jet of bright red light flashed across the room at breakneck speed and struck the wooden dummy, sending it and the wooden object it was holding flying across the room. The wooden dummy hit the wall and immediately broke into pieces.
"Blimey Gav, you're a natural…" Brandon praised, looking at Gavin.
"I suppose.." Gavin chuckled as he straightened his robes.
"You're pretty good too, you just have to pronounce it right and flick your wrist correctly." He added, looking at Brandon.
"Right, thanks." Brandon hummed and said flatly, before proceeding to practice the wrist movements for the disarming charm.
'Though he's not as talented as Estelle, he's actually pretty gifted at magic.' Gavin thought as he watched Brandon practice.
Him, Brandon, Estelle, and Daphne had pretty much become a group at this point. They did everything together; from homework to meals to classes, they had spent a lot of time together and became great friends. Gavin loved every second he spent with them.
There was never a dull moment with the quartet, from Brandon's childish pranks to Daphne's funny comments, it was always a blast for Gavin. Estelle was slowly coming out of her shell, occasionally making a few funny remarks, but most of the time she was quiet.
Gavin had honestly forgotten that the three of them were 11 year olds because they were extremely mature for kids…well, except Brandon, but aside from his pranks, he was actually a pretty level headed and intelligent kid.
Gavin had decided to practice magic with all of them, so they started coming to a specific empty classroom on weekends, to revise their subjects and practice spells and dueling. Gavin didn't trust them enough to tell them about griffins and his briefcase, which was why they used classrooms.
He had taught them all the basic defensive and offensive spells, as well as common utility charms like colloportus, the door sealing charm, and alohomora, the door unlocking charm. Daphne was a natural at dueling; Her reflexes were superb and she just had a knack of knowing how to respond to spells, which impressed Gavin.
Estelle was the most magically gifted person Gavin had seen since coming to the wizarding world, even more so than Cass, his brother. She absorbed whatever he taught them like a sponge and was excellent at spell casting and dueling. Coupled with her abnormal intelligence, she was simply a prodigy.
Brandon on the other hand was gifted as well, more than Daphne, but less than Estelle. He was quick-witted, and learned stuff quickly. His only problem was his forgetfulness of spells, which was why it was only the two of them in the classroom today. Estelle and Daphne had already mastered the disarming charm.
"Expelliarmus!" Brandon shouted, sending a stream of red light to the wooden dummy, effectively disarming it.
"Nice, you finally got it nailed." Gavin said, nodding his head in approval. Brandon had just cast the spells correctly 10 times in a row.
"Yeah, took me a minute," Brandon chuckled.
"A minute?" Gavin smirked and teased.
"Oh shut up will you." Brandon laughed.
"Heh…well, now that we're done here, I guess we can head back to the common room." Gavin responded as they walked out of the room.
"Yeah..Say, were you able to deal with Pucey?" Brandon suddenly asked with an evil smile, as they walked.
"Yeah, I don't really understand why he was so upset about getting taken off the quidditch team because of us. He was simply worse than us. Hell, my brother is better than he is and he doesn't even play chaser!" Gavin scoffed, irritated at the sudden memory of it.
Gavin and Brandon had replaced the old Slytherin chasers after they tried out for the team. They demolished the two other chasers and got into the starting lineup, joining Harry in holding the title of the youngest quidditch players in a hundred years.
Because he was smacked by two 11 year olds, Adrian Pucey, one of the Chaser's got heated and decided to bully them, attempting to make them his servants and force them off the team. Alas, he was in for the shock of his life, as Gavin and Brandon were no pushovers.
Brandon had used the bat-bogey hex on him in the great hall, which sparked some outrage amongst the third year slytherins. Gavin was sure that Pucey would take it out of proportion so he had a little 'chat' with him and kindly asked him to stop his 'lunacy', as he called it.
Pucey was so frightened after the encounter and almost all the third year Slytherins steered clear of Gavin and his group after that.
"Hah, he had it coming." Brandon laughed.
The two continued to make small talk as they made their way towards the Hogwarts dungeons.
"D'you reckon Daphne and Estelle are in the common room right now?" Brandon suddenly asked as they neared the entrance to Slytherin dormitories.
"Dunno, why? You fancy a wager?" Gavin replied, smirking at Brandon.
"Read my mind Gav…read my mind. How about the winner does the loser's homework for week?" Brandon responded.
Gavin laughed.
"Fine you lazy arse, just say you're looking for someone to do it for you." he said.
"Where's the fun in that?" Brandon chuckled.
"Right…I say they're in there. What say you?" Gavin said, pointing towards the common room.
"Fat chance, I say they aren't" Brandon replied, smiling faintly.
'I've got him. Estelle told me earlier that she was probably going to nap, so there's no way she's in the common room.' Brandon thought excitedly, having no idea that Gavin could feel their magical energy fluctuations behind the stone statue entrance.
"Let's see then, shall we?" Gavin said as he walked towards the statue and said its password.
The duo then walked through the passageway and entered the common room, which was half empty. They scanned the room and saw Daphne and Estelle laughing and chatting on the sofa in front of the fireplace.
"It seems like you'll be having extra work next week." Gavin laughed, as he faced Brandon, who had an ugly expression on his face.
"Shit." Brandon muttered, aggrievedly.
Thus, a typical weekend of the quartet that would be later known as 'The Dark Saints' concluded.
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