The Tale of the Black Knight: The Mark

The Crowns

The moment his steed took wing into the skies, the young wizard had to hold on for dear life with the precious bundle held in his other. The other hand gripped around the belt about the beast's throat and each wing beat made it more difficult to keep from slipping off. Hagrid had agreed to stay behind to await the help being sent by another whom they both trusted dearly with their lives.

They had to put to rest somehow on this night but the bundle of which he carried was trembling in his arms. All the while he had to keep balance on the back of his steed. The great avian tried as she might to keep her eyes forward but she could feel the agony of both her riders. The small one was harmed by a dark force and the wizard who held her had a spirit so broken that it began to blind her to where she was meaning to go. As hours seemed to pass them by, the Great Lake came into view, which was a beacon of hope for the broken man mounted. The moonlight lit it up with a bright white and the mighty hippogriff kept her sights locked onto it... It as if their lives depended on it, and they did... Even further when two ominous shadows proceeded to follow them.

They draped over like curtains over a moonlit window and bellowed terrible huffs from their nostrils. The young wizard was then made to feel uneasy at first. Their wings were as wide and as mighty as the night sky that blanketed them all in a shroud of hidden secrecy. The young man with eyes as wide as the moon's form glanced at each as they took their rightful place beside them, shielding them if the worst should come to the worst. At that moment, the wizard's own emotions were all over the place, ranging from utter self-loathing to outrageous tears.

Coming from someone keeping them in their range of sight, they soared overhead towards a distant stronghold all the while a storm was begging to brew itself in the night sky. Sharp eyes of the color of the purest sap locked on, a sorrowful gleam coming over those orbs.

As a first impression on her first class, among her new pack of Gryffindors, left her, without a doubt, speechless for the first half-hour of the lecture. The look on that golden boy's face was more priceless than she cared to admit. Served him right for berating Ron in front of her... Although, this could be mean something else later if she was blind to it, so she had best to keep her own wits sharpened.

If Prince felt a genuine need to have a go at this Malfoy lad than it had to mean that he had a knack for some mischief, one way or another, besides stealing other student's familiar for sport. Without a doubt though, the class had to go on, onto something that particularly curious. As soon as he made a note upon his scroll, the Potion's Master soon stood up and graced before the silenced class who now knew better than to start mingling in his presence.

"Now then, now that we understand each other, allow me to get to the fond point as to why you are all here in the first place. It would seem that you have brought your texts with you. In this event, I must let you in on the fact that I do not always follow through with what it says most of the time. Call it a . . . bad habit, if you will. My solutions will, from this day on, be settled on the black board that you see. As you work on your recipes, you must consider what I have written here, instead of your books. Perhaps, writing better solutions besides the original ones in those pages will assist you during your study periods."

Some students had begun to mutter, although quietly. That demeanor was not to be trifled with, not now when the year had just been born for them. Best not to begin with shenanigans at this rate. Lyra slowly hid one hand down as she wrote down a few tips as the lecture drew on, very interestingly. As it so happened, they were all expected to actually make something today before the class would be adjourned.

It was the matter of making their own Cure for something as 'lighthearted' as boils, which was an understatement given the issues that might very well ensue if one had gone slightly astray from the recipe, in any way. Even with one grain was out of sorts could cause someone a far nastier result.