Larkspur

Chapter 3

When I got back to my room, Lissa's door to her room was closed so I figured I wouldn't bother her. It had been a long trip and I knew she wouldn't be able to truly rest until her room was set up the way she wanted it to be, so it was either all set now and she was tired out sleeping or she was still setting it up. Either way, I should leave her to it. I still had my room to set up and I wanted to get it done since I had my first classes with Snap and Belikov tomorrow.
I went into my room and saw that my bed was on the floor in the center of the room. I pushed the boxes all by the door to my room, so I would have more room to move my bed around. I ended up pushing it against the wall, next to the window. I made the bed with my sheets and blankets and went over to the pile of boxes to take everything out and make the place feel like home. Once I placed the mirror in its spot above my bed and placed my fake plants all around the room, I put my clothes away.
It felt like I was decorating my room for hours and hours, but it was only an hour and a half. Once I started, I couldn't stop and was pretty focused through the whole thing, making sure I got it done in record time. Which I did.
I was too tired after decorating and from the flight earlier, so I decided to take a quick shower and then go to bed.
I went into Lissa and I's shared bathroom and turn the shower on, waited a second and then got in.
After the shower, I went to bed, trying to make sure I would go to bed before my anxiety kicked in. Shooting up in bed one more time to make sure my alarm was set for tomorrow and then I went to bed.

The next morning, my alarm woke me up with a fright. I was used to my aunt waking me up gently or even Lissa when I wasn't in the same living space with my aunt. I wasn't a fan of alarms since I was scared that it could cause a small outburst of power to shoot out from me from me being startled.
This time it didn't and I got out of bed with no problem. I made my way over to my dresser and got out a pair of jeans and a simple sage green v-neck tee shirt. I didn't know what the day would be like, so I wanted to wear something casual and comfortable to move in.
I then went to the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth and fix my hair. I was done with all that pretty fast and decided to get dressed and wait for the time to go.
Lissa was still asleep and I didn't wanna wake her, so I quietly sat on my bed and grabbed a small journal that I placed by my bedside and decided to draw. I found myself drawing Snape's dark eyes. He intensely stared at me all day yesterday in that small office and I couldn't stop thinking about them.
I looked up at the clock after a couple of minutes and decided to make my way to the building for Snape's lesson since I still didn't know where the building was and it would give me time to figure of where I'm going. I quickly looked through my top dresser drawer, grabbed my wand and then grabbed a small canvas tope bag I had hanging on the door handle to head out the door.
I actually didn't have a hard time finding the building. It was a small stone, building beyond Elon Hall, the building my dorm room was in. It was a quick walk, but with my slow pace walking, I was just making it there on time. I pushed through the front doors and Snape was right by the entrance. He looked at me and then turned to walk down the hall of the building. It took me a second to realize I had to follow him and he was waiting to show me where to go. I quickened my pace to follow a step behind him. He took a sharp turn on the right of the hallway and we made it to a small classroom in the back of the building.
As soon as he stepped in the room, he gestured me to stand on the left side of the room, while he continued to walk to the desk in the back of the classroom. He put his wand and a small bag down before turning around to face me as I took my position, leaning against one of the desks by the door. I placed both hands behind me to lean back on them as I kicked my legs out in front if me. All the desks in the room were either chair-less or turned in a sideways position. I was leaning against the only desk that was facing forward towards Professor Snape in the back of the class. 

"The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible. Your shadow-kissed ability comes from the dark part of our wizard universe and the unnatural. I will do my best to make sure at the end of your time here, you will be about to control your outburst and use them as a weapon to fight against the dark arts and the darkness that surrounds you." Snape said to me, sternly. He stayed put in front of the desk he put his things on as he spoke.
"Ok, so what's first." I said, now pushing myself up to sit on the desk now and crossing my arms over my chest as my legs hung over the desk.
"We start with Jinx, minor dark magic, irritating but amusing effects. Then Hex, moderate dark magic, caused moderate suffering and lastly curse, The worst kind of dark magic, caused immense suffering to the victim." Snape said as he turned around and headed to his desk to get his wand.
"But I already took a dark arts class in high school and know those kind of spells anyway." I said in almost a whining voice.
"You know the basic spells made to protect you from an attack, not curses within." Snape says. "I know this because no school teaches children how to deal with this since it's... rare."
"I'm not a child." I snapped at Professor Snape.
He gave me a look that pretty much said, are you sure about that.
I sprang up from the desk, taking my wand out.
"No." Snape said to be as he stood up right.
"What do you mean no." I asked.
"Sit back down. I have a book for you to look over with some spells. I'm going to spend our first couple of lessons discussing them. I need to make sure you understand them before we work on them." Snape said to me. He went over, back to the desk, and pulled out a book. Then walked over to me and stopped when he stood right in front of me.
I reached out and grabbed the book from him, our fingers brushing each others.
"I'm going to teach you everything I know to control your darkness and Professor Belikov will work on how to correctly preform them. I will do that too, but he is a well know combat fighter." Snape says to me.
We then spend two hours going over spells in the book and certain ways to move your wrist.
I didn't get to really use my wand, but I was still tired from constantly getting yelled at by Snape that I wasn't either trying, when I was, or that I wasn't doing it right. He was way harsh.
I was so happy when he finally let me go, but then I remembered I had to go see Dimitri. At least I knew he was nicer and he was also good to look at.
The building was next to the one I was in with Snape, so I was so happy to have an easy commute between classes. I walked in to see Dimitri sitting in the back of the classroom, reading an old western book.
I cleared my throat awkwardly to draw his attention on me before I spoke.
"Snape ran me ragged with all these new spells I'm gonna have to learn. Who knows how these are going to help me control anything. What do you say we go easy today?" I ask Dimitri.
"Perhaps discuss a bit of theory." I continued to joke when he looked up from his book and gave me a small smile.
"Of course, Larkspur. I understand." He said as he put the book down and stood up.
"Call me L." I said returning the smile that stayed on his face.
He in fact did not go easy. He made me cast all the spells that I had learned in high school. I hadn't been in high school for 3 years, so it was hard to remember spells I didn't cast everyday. He would go over the ones that I didn't remember and that ones that I messed up, which was pretty much every single one.
"How do you say "what a dick" in Russian?" I said once we finished.
"Did you even keep up your studies? Just because you don't have to take the classes anymore doesn't mean you shouldn't practice?" Dimitri said as he goes over to throw his stuff in his bag that was in the corner of the classroom, next to where he was reading his western.
"My aunt had me practice a couple of times some days... or months. But it was never the dark arts peels and shit like that." I said back.
"Do you really think bringing me down is gonna help me get my confidence up with using these spells?" I said, turning around and heading over to my bag in the opposite corner of the room from Dimitri's stuff.
"After your performance today, I hope I embarrassed you enough to make you think twice about missing practice." Dimitri said with that beautiful accent teasing me.
When I looked over my shoulder to shoot him a cold look, I could see him playfully smiling to himself which made me smile too.
"You know, this country has a concept called positive reinforcement." I say back as I pick up my bag from the floor.
I heard him let out a small laugh as I reached out to open the classroom door and head out.
"See you tomorrow." I called out as I closed the door behind me.

As I got closer to Elon Hall, I saw Lissa jogging up to the entrance. Summer classes didn't start until next week, so Lissa had time on her hands and she seemed to chose exercise. I pulled the strap of my bag back up on my shoulder as Lissa looked over and noticed me coming in her direction. She waved as she then leaned over and placed her hands on her knees to catch her breath.
"Ow! Wow." I called out to her.
"You look how I feel." Lissa laughed at me. I looked down and saw my clothes were a little messed up from the constant movement of spell casting.
"I look how I feel." I teased back.
We headed into the building and went up the elevator to our room.
As the elevator door closed, Lissa spoke.
"I'm probably going to go back home for the rest of the week. I forgot some things and I wanna be home for my mother's birthday." Lissa said.
I only nodded in response.
"Since your lessons have already started, we probably won't be spending a lot of time together and classes for me don't start until next week." Lissa continued and repeated.
"Liss, it's really ok. Go home." I said, nudging her shoulder as the elevator doors open to reveal our floor. We then headed to our room so we could both took a nap.

The next morning I was 15 minutes early to the lesson. I didn't see Snape in the hallway, but I doubt he would have waited to lead me to class everyday.
Lissa had left last night after her nap to go home. I knew she was close with her family and I always appreciated them treating me like a long lost daughter when I would stay over.
Since my lessons here with Snape and Belikov started sooner than anyone told us or we expected, I was glad her parents were letting her come home for the week. She would have been really bored. Since she didn't have the money from Durmstrang that had paid for our flight here, she took the train.
As I rounded the corner in the hall of the building, I heard footsteps pacing inside the classroom I was heading too. The door was opened just a bit and I could see Snape walking around. I cautiously opened the door, but the creaking of the old bolts holding the door to the doorframe snapped his attention to me.
"Miss Volkov." Professor Snape said as he straightened himself out. He then practically flew over to me, getting up close to me before I could even respond back to him saying my name.
"Let me see your wand. I found something last night that could help us."
I reach around and grabbed my bag that hung from my shoulder, pulling it to the front part of my body. I then reached in with a claw shaped hand and dug for a second in the bag while still making eye contact with Snape.
I had finally found it and pulled it out, only for him to quickly snatch it away and walk to the center of the room before turning back around to me, still studying the wand.
"The suitability of a wand to perform dark magic depended on its core. Dragon heartstring, phoenix feather, and rougarou hair have a reputation for being suitable for dark arts magic." He said to me.
"Its a dragon heartstring core." I say to him.
"Dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. While they can change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bond strongly with the current owner." Snape informs me with the straightest face as he hands back my wand.
"The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord." I add to Snape's ramble. He gave me a look as though he was impressed until something seemed to pop into his head.
"It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental." Snape says, getting the final word.
We then start the lesson. We went over a couple of new spells Snape found while reading over the multiple textbooks he had acquired from Dumbledore. We also worked on the Patronus charm since they did not teach me it at my wizardry school. Since it involved positive energy and we still didn't know where this dark energy that shot out of me came from, this was our best bet to help me out for now.
I knew that only the pure heart could cast the spell and Snape was nervous that the dark energy in me might confuse the charm, so we only worked on the motion and the phrasing of the spell instead of actually using my wand.
Dimitri's lesson later on was just as boring. He had me work on all the spells I had done the day before again. It was high school all again. We joked a couple times and I got to see and hear that beautiful laugh and smile he had that I didn't get to see when we were around authority figures.
Dimitri and Snape were completely different, but I there own ways they were captivating.