บท 30: Chapter 30: A Letter
After the Troll incident, Hogwarts experienced several changes. For example, a few Aurors of the minister's choice were instated along with other security measures. And alarm systems were installed, so that the others can be informed if such a thing happens again and prevent a troll from going on a Killing spree.
But it wasn't actually that big of a deal. Hogwarts is relatively safe compared to other magical schools.
And the student who was in the middle of all of it, Axel Hunt, was having his own share of complications.
"What the fuck? Is this woman crazy or something?" He thought as he looked at the Letter from the Minister of Magic herself.
After the recent events, he had expected many things, but never did he expect this… Like, it doesn't make sense at all.
"Dear Axel,
I know that I'm probably your most hated person in the world, and I know that almost anything I do to remedy that might only make you resent me more, but… I just wanted you to know… that I have really regretted what I did to you that day.
I know that nothing I can do to remedy that but, there are certain things that can be remedied. I have been trying to search for a way to heal you. There isn't much I have found yet, but… there is still a good chance that I might find something. Meanwhile, there are other things I have sent so that you don't have to… associate with someone to get something. I know I can't take back what I said, but I'm trying to make up for it.
Please consider joining us for the Christmas holidays. I'd like to tell you some things about your father.
Waiting for your Response
Best Wishes
Bellatrix Black."
*Rip*
The only thing this letter managed to do was rip open the weak band-aid he had managed to put over the wound he could only remember as the Blackest day of his life.
"Bullshit," he muttered as he crumpled the letter and threw it in the corner of his bag along with the small purse she had sent him without even checking its contents.
He already has felt so much reluctance and repugnance just by using what Andromeda had sent him. And that woman could be considered a saint if compared to BBWWBB, Biggest Bitch WorldWide Bellatrix Black. So, he didn't even consider using it. He was a thief with principles.
And what was she implying anything when he said he didn't have to associate himself with…? She is only sending this after seeing his picture with a rich girl sleeping next to his bed. What could be the implications? That he's some gigolo? He is not!
And what would it make him if he accepted any help from the woman who has metaphorically stripped him naked and taken his dignity as a person just for her amusement? Accepting her help would definitely make him someone much worse than a gigolo.
And she knows about his father? Well, this is somewhat new.
Axel recalled the dream he'd seen on Halloween eve.
Right after seeing that dream, he had been attacked by the Troll right after he woke up and then saw a girl blow it's head off, right after which the teachers came and he ran and got attacked by Dementors, and woke up to find himself in trouble due to a photo. So, he couldn't be blamed if he forgot most of the dream and couldn't recall it.
The only thing he could recall.... was a man and a woman, who were definitely his parents, leaving him with the caretaker of the orphanage.
So... he also couldn't be blamed if he didn't want to know about his parents.
He just wanted to have nothing to do with this woman until the day he makes her kneel in front of him as he does things to her that are a lot worse than things she'd done to him. Thus, for now, he went out of his way and instead of just a few words, wrote her a 'polite' and 'detailed' response that'll hopefully keep her out of his goddamn life until that time.
[That... is quite brutal, Axel.]
Axel shrugged,
'I wouldn't know. But... I do feel better after writing it,' he thought that to the system. He had ranted everything in the letter.
…
After that, almost everything had gone back to normal, except some people still had some problems.
"What are we going to do about him?" Asked a fourth-year student in a somewhat heated tone. He had blond hair, styled in a fauxhawk, and handsome features.
"Don't be an idiot, Damien. He's under that girl's protection now," said Alaric Malcolm, the head boy. He also had blond hair, but his hair was combed back neatly.
"But brother! You know… and everyone knows that I've liked her for three years! And I didn't even get to talk to her properly all this time. And now some brat comes and gets so close to her?! We cannot let this pass!"
"Get over it, Damien. If we can't have the connection with that family through you, then at least don't make them our enemies! Are we clear?" Asked Alaric seriously.
Damien's hands clenched into fists but he still nodded,
"I'll be careful."
"You'd better. You're not a child anymore, so you should start using your head now," saying that, Alaric walked away.
And Damien, who was about to show more frustration suddenly stopped as he...used his head.
They just couldn't offend the Valentino Family, right? But what if no one knows who did it?
Now, the question was… when to do this. He'll have to wait for the right opportunity.
***
Time Skip: One month.
"Position, Aim, Fire!"
"""FLIPENDO!""""
"Position, Aim, Fire!"
"""FLIPENDO!""""
"Position, Aim, Fire!"
"""FLIPENDO!""""
It was early morning and Dueling class for first years was going on in the Arena with numerous Training Dummies Lined up and students practicing on each of them in groups.
"Position, Aim, Fire!"
"""FLIPPENDO!""""
On every firing command of Professor Alice, the students, standing a fair distance away from the dummies would chant the spell and try to hit the Training Dummies in the small circle drawn on the center of their chest.
This wasn't the first time this drill was taking place and very few students were able to properly hit the target from such a distance.
"Don't exaggerate the wand movements! It'll only deviate from your aim. Keep your hand, shoulder, and wrist firm or the kickback will shift the trajectory and in such a long distance, it'll be enough to miss the target," said Professor Alice as she repeatedly tapped her wand on her palm, looking stern.
"Hey Hannah, you're doing it wrong, you're supposed to keep your hand extended out completely, elevated up to the eye level for better aim," said Hermione Granger, who was in the same group as Rose's friends. Well, the loner girl had made new friends in the past few months.
Hannah, who had been trying her best and was a bit happy with her progress, immediately got deflated at that.
"Hey, it's not necessarily wrong. And she's doing just fine, alright?" Spoke Susan, Hannah's knight in shining armor.
"Rose, you have to beat the evil Slytherins in the match today, alright?" Said Neville as he fired a spell and missed.
"Shut up, Neville. Not all Slytherins are evil," said Daphne who was also in the same group.
During these months, Daphne had become better friends with Hermione rather than the other Ravenclaws and due to that, Hermione had gotten on friendly terms with the rest of the Golden Quintet.
Today, they were practicing their aim and Professor Alice had divided the students into groups of seven due to the limited number of training dummies. And since all the houses were here, these six friends had gotten into the same group.
Daphne looked around the huge arena, searching for other groups and Rose was also secretly doing the same.
'Where the fuck is he?' (curious)
'Now where did that guy go?' (annoyed)
And at this moment, the guy in question finally showed up at the door with dark circles beneath his eyes and his long hair looking disheveled.
Due to his nightly activities, which included sneaking into people's bedrooms, along with his endless training, he had been unable to get much sleep at night and was dead tired due to the exercises. And this goddamn Dueling class is being held in the early morning, even before the normal class start.
"You're late, Mr. Hunt. We're training in groups of seven. You can join little Nevi's— I mean Mr. Longbottom's group. It has a vacancy,"
In Neville's group, Rose gave Neville a questioning look.
"I thought your mum said all Slytherins were evil?" She asked sarcastically. If she had taught him so, then why would she send a Slytherin to his group? Personally, she still couldn't decide whether Axel Hunt was a good guy or the evilest of them all.
Neville looked away,
"Well, my Gran, dad, and Uncle think to say it all the time. Mum should also think the same, right?" He said in puzzlement.
When Professor Alice recommended him to join Neville's group, Axel, who was just searching for a group, paused in his steps as he looked towards Neville's group.
'... Is this hell?' He thought when he saw the people in the group. Except for Daphne, he was on bad terms with everyone else in that group.
Professor Alice didn't seem to have plans of continuing before he joined the group. This woman had treated him fairly until now, so he didn't want to just openly defy her suggestion in front of hundreds of students.
And most importantly, he couldn't even find other groups with vacancies in such a short time.
Thus, with a sigh, he decided to just join the group he was assigned.
"You look like a mess," commented Daphne as soon as Axel came beside her.
"Yeah, good morning to you too." He muttered with a yawn as he took out his wand.
*Hum*
His wand hummed as it shot out small pink sparks to greet him. Axel just squeezed it a little bit in return. As for his greetings to the wand, Daphne wasn't someone who'd mind, but he didn't fancy talking to a wand in front of others.
Taking a deep breath, his eyes focused and his slouching posture straightened.
Taking a stance, he fired his shot at the Dummy.
*Dang*
And the spell hit near the center circle.
"... Hey, how'd you do that?" Asked Rose as she looked at Axel's constantly shaking hand which loosely held the wand. There was no way anyone would be able to be accurate with that kind of hand. She wondered if it was a lucky shot. They were standing quite the distance away from the dummy.
"Yeah, you used to suck bad at this," commented Daphne. This wasn't the first time this activity had been organized. The last time she had seen him shoot, he was pathetically bad at this. His spells were so weak that they wouldn't even form properly sometimes and his aim would always be a mile off.
Axel shrugged,
"I practiced," he said dismissively.
His aim was shit due to his injuries and his power output was so weak that spell-beam-type spells were inaccessible to him. Even in his duel with Draco, he had only used one spell and that spell was also something he had to charge two times to give some damage.
But due to his hard work and the information and the knowledge he had gotten from the system, he had improved a lot in the past three months.
With the diet of magical ingredients and exercises, his body is much more attuned to magic, making it easier for it to be channeled even through his damaged nerves and the bond with his wand was stronger than ever. Due to this, his power output was now strong enough that he could use the beam-type spells.
As for his aim, his body did heal a little bit during this time and—
[Wand Aim: 8%]
He had made progress in this skill. It wasn't much of a complex skill either. His mastery would be quite high if he wasn't crippled.
Axel's short answer didn't satisfy anyone, especially as they looked at the trembling hand.
"Come on Rose, it was just a lucky shot. It's not possible to be accurate in that condition," said Neville.
Axel just ignored everyone as he shot out a few more spells, almost all of them hitting the Dummy.
"How are you doing this? You aren't doing the wand movement and also, the Professor said we can't hit the target without keeping our hands steady," questioned Hermione who couldn't take it anymore.
She was quite jealous that he was under the protection of her idol, Martina Valentino. Hermione had thought that she'd be the only one to receive Martina's attention but after Halloween, things had changed.
*Sigh*
Seeing that they weren't practicing and only disturbing him, he decided to satisfy their curiosity and be done with it.
"It's not a big deal. I'm just holding my wand straight up and have it pointing at the Dummy—" he said, holding out his wand and aiming at the Dummy's midpoint.
"Now, if my hand doesn't shake, the spell will directly hit the bullseye. But, since it's shaking so much, it'll definitely deviate in some direction which will totally mess up my aim.
So, I just need to anticipate which direction it'll shift and move my hand in the other direction to some degree to cancel it. Now, the only problem is that, my hand doesn't really respond well to whatever I want it to do, so before even shifting my hand, I also have to calculate how much deviation will be caused due to my hand not responding exactly as I want it to be and move my hand after taking these two factors into consideration.
Now, if everything is correct, I should be able to hit the bullseye, but as you can see, I still need a lot of practice.
That clear enough for you?"
"...." ×6
The whole group went speechless at that. Some because they didn't understand everything and some because they understood everything he had said.
"Just… how would it be if he was completely healed?" Asked Hannah, looking a bit terrified. Hearing that, everyone had goosebumps looking at Axel firing away at the target.
Axel just shook his head. He hadn't even included how he also has to take the kickback/recoil caused by the spell into consideration. With his weak wrist and fingers, it's already a struggle to keep the wand in hand and not drop it.
But, he has to say, it's not that bad. He wouldn't have been this good at certain things if he'd been completely healed. For example, he'd never have worked on his aim and power output since it wouldn't have been a problem.
Yes, he'd have been a much much better magician, duelist, and fighter than he is right now, but he wouldn't have had many things that he had enhanced now.
And now when he's healed, he'll have all the things he's supposed to have AND the things he's gained due to this urgency of improvement due to his weaknesses.
'Though, I'd still rather avoid being a cripple if given a chance,' He lamented. After all, three months was such a small time. He may have improved faster than anyone, but all things considered, he's still quite weak in a fight. That's why,
"Flipendo!"
He began training seriously.
Though, the same couldn't be said for the rest. The students of all four Houses were quite distracted today. Because, today noon, it was Gryffindor V/s Slytherin, the start of Quidditch Season. And also, the meeting day.
Normally, it wouldn't have been this much of a big deal, but several factors have led to increasing the hype by a lot.
First of all, the Girl-Who-Lived is going to be participating in this match, getting selected in her very first year.
Then there was a different reason as well. A bigger reason. Apparently, the conflicts between the Slytherins and other houses have been slowly escalating for some reason, making Slytherin quite hated by the other four houses. And now, most of the Hogwarts population wanted to see Slytherins getting their ass beaten.
As they practiced Daphne turned to Axel.
"Would you like to come and see the match with us?" She asked.
Axel looked at her absurdly,
"You're going? Didn't you find it quite 'meaningless'?" He asked.
Daphne shrugged,
"Have to cheer for my girl Rose. At least tell me you're coming so that I won't have to suffer alone."
Axel shook his head,
"Not coming," he answered. Sure he was a bit interested in Quidditch, but he didn't want to waste his time.
Daphne sighed. She didn't try to persuade him otherwise since, for Axel, no means no. Unless...
"I had hoped that it wouldn't come to this, but it seems I have no choice. I'm calling in my favor for doing a majority of your homework for the past month. It's your choice now,"
Axel looked at her in annoyance,
"Seriously? This is how you waste that favor?"
"Hey! I think it's worth it,"
Homework wasn't that big of a deal since they both had the same homework, only different times of submission. And she didn't even have to write his homework since he was allowed Self-writing pens.
"...."
On the other hand, Rose listened to the banter between the two speechlessly. Axel could actually willingly talk that much? AND... is that a hint of a smile she's seeing tugging at the corner of his mouth?
Susan was much more vocal about it,
"Hey! How come you're such good friends with her but not with me? This is unfair!"
Axel and Daphne rolled their eyes,
""We're not friends.""
***
A.N.: Flags. What does meeting day mean? Find out in the next chapter. Axel's response to Bellatrix also in the next chapter.
Next Chapter Title: Reunion
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