The snow outside the school piled up high as the blanket became thicker and thicker. The freezing cold became harsher and the teachers gave more and more assignments.
Linus was just now in a fierce chess game with the famous Krum, he and Linus had begun talking a little during duels and they decided not to duel but to game it out over a chess match.
Krum rubbed his chin as he looked down at the board. They both sat in relative silence only occasionally exchanging simple sentences.
He moved his knight and took out a pawn which was used as a sacrifice.
"dammit" Krum muttered, "I yield." He leaned back in his chair.
Linus smiled. "good game."
Krum stood up and tossed the chess board to the side it feel to the floor with a crash and the pieces scattered everywhere. He seemed to regret it directly after as he used his wand to clean up the mess he made.
"I heard your team will play in the quidditch cup in England, you excited?" Linus asked, he didn't even care about what had just happened.
The question seemed that have made Krum calm down a little. "I am, its going to be fun, but a lot of training ahead." He answered.
While Linus didn't really see the appeal of quidditch there was no doubt that it was famous and a hard sport to master and even get into.
Krum looked out of the windows, the snow still fell hard and it seemed like we were going to be snowed in at this point, not that it worried anyone. "Why do you like dueling so much?" he asked.
Linus stood up and took a seat in the more comfortable couch instead.
"I like the adrenalin and fear of not knowing what will happened, the same as in quidditch, no one knows what will happened until its over." Fear and addiction almost went hand in hand with each other. While most would stop doing it because of fear, some like the fear and takes it as a signal to keep going. That's what separates people, the disciplined against the weak, not always but most of the time.
Krum chuckled. "Fair comparison." With that the two went separate ways as they both had things to do.
Linus was now heading into the potion classroom the check his lucky potion.
He entered the classroom while another class was going, the whole class looked at him when he entered but he didn't pay it no mind. He just walked to his brewing potion and stirred and documented the progress.
Once the students had started doing their own thing, Professor Arkadi had come up to Linus and looked into the cauldron.
"tell me Linus, what do you see.?" He asked.
This was a test, he wanted to see if I really knew as much as I think, Arkadi had seen it as well, the potion was doing really good. So good that it had made double the progress then it should.
"its progress is fast, almost double." Linus said as he also wrote it down.
Arkadi nodded approvingly. "what did you do to it?" he asked.
Linus looked at him, "I followed the steps from my families potion book, they are different from the normal method."
The Professor knew that Linus wasn't going to tell him the method so he just dropped it and went to watch the students.
He stayed in the classroom for as long as he was allowed to before exiting and going to the dark art class.
He arrived at the classroom where his classmates already had picked their seats.
Volkov stepped inside the classroom and closed the door with a bang, the class went silent. He stepped in front of the class and his gaze swept over.
"Today we will focus on intent." He started, he sounded serious. "Intent is the difference in a open wound and a bee sting. If your spell doesn't have intent, you wont do anything."
He walked to a table that had been placed here for this lesson, on it laid thin chains.
"Now, pair up two and two, one person will hold the chain. And your goal is to sever the chain without hurting or hitting anything else." He exclaimed to the class.
Everyone looked around and a worry started going around, could one trust another person so much in this instant. But pairs still made their way to the chains and spells started going out. Suddenly a cry could be heard or a little scream.
Linus now stood still and held the chain not to his side like he was told, but right in front of his face. Niko who was going to sever the chain was nervous, and everyone was looking at them, even the teacher.
"Focus Niko, you have done this before in duels. just don't think about me" Linus said to him. Easier said then done but it was the truth in the way you had to think.
He waved his wand and a spell hit the chain and cleanly cut it in half.
"Good job flirt boy." Erik screamed from the back which made the class giggle. After Niko had asked the girl out and gotten his ass whipped by her boyfriend his unofficial name had become flirtboy.
Niko now held the chain the same way Linus had. "Please Linus be…" before he could finish the chain feel to the floor.
Volkov nodded. "good, everyone somehow made it with only some minor errors."
With that the class ended.
When the bell finally rang, chairs scraped softly against the stone floor and the tension drained out of the room almost at once. People started talking again, voices low but relieved, comparing mistakes and near misses rather than successes.
Niko flexed his fingers as if checking they were still attached. "I swear," he muttered, "every time I do that exercise, my hands forget how to exist."
"You did fine," Linus said as he picked up the fallen chain and set it back on the table. "You hesitated less than last time."
"That is not comforting," Niko replied, but he was smiling.
Erik clapped a hand on Niko's shoulder as they headed for the door. "Progress is progress. One day you will almost look competent."
Linus followed them out into the corridor, the air cooler here, the stone faintly damp from melted snow tracked in by boots. Volkov lingered behind, speaking quietly to another student, his voice low enough that it blended into the background hum of the castle.
They walked for a while without much direction, just letting the crowd carry them. Someone mentioned dinner. Someone else complained about an essay. Normal things.
At a junction, Niko peeled off toward the staircases. "I am going to eat everything in sight," he announced. "Nearly dying makes you hungry."
"You were never nearly dying," Sigrun said, appearing beside Linus as if she had always been there. "You were mildly inconvenienced."
"Cruel," Niko said, and left anyway.
Linus and the others went back to the common room before going to dinner.
As they sat and enjoyed another dinner, there were commotion happening at a table a little further away, not unusual but for some reason this got their attention.
Armin who loved drama had already stood up and walked over to see what was going on.
"Can they just shut up, I'm trying to eat my mystery stew in peace." Jennifer said who sat next to Sigrun.
Armin soon returned with a confused expression. "some fifth year are picking on first years for sitting at their table."
Linus and Niko exchange the same expression, they knew who it was and they both stood up. There was only one person who insisted on having a table reserved for them.
"you guys need to leave or else I will blast all of you…" Galvid screamed at the horrified first years sitting at the table. But before he could say more, he was hit with a spell that made his knees buckle and he fell to the floor.
"Who bullies first year for a table you absolute waste of air." He heard a voice saying.
He turned his head still on the floor to see who the voice came from. "I will make you pay…" then he saw who it was.
Standing over him stood Linus and Niko, Niko wasn't a threat to him but Linus who duels seventh years for fun, that was a different thing.
"im sorry…" yet again he didn't get to finish his sentence before a kick was delivered right into his stomach. The force of the kick made Galvid vomit on the spot.
"Dude, you got vomit on my newly polished boot." Linus said annoyed by the nasty sight on his boot.
For a moment, the entire dining hall went quiet in that strange, stretched way silence sometimes did, like everyone had inhaled at the same time and forgotten how to breathe out. Even the clatter of cutlery faded, replaced by the soft crackle of enchanted torches and the uncomfortable sound of Galvid retching on the stone floor.
Niko grimaced. "That… is unpleasant."
Linus stepped back half a pace, lifting his boot and flicking his wand with a short, precise motion. The mess vanished in a swirl of dull light, leaving the stone clean again. He glanced down at Galvid, who was still curled slightly, coughing and clutching his stomach.
"Next time," Linus said calmly, not raising his voice, "use your words. Or better yet, use a different table."
Galvid looked up at him, pale and furious and very clearly unsure what to do with himself. His mouth opened, closed again. Whatever threat he had been planning stayed trapped behind his teeth.
Linus looked at the first years still sitting at the table. "No worries, don't listen to someone like him, there are no table placements or anything." They looked terrified but seemed to have calmed down slightly
"What is going on here!" they heard a shout come from the entrance.
Niko and Linus turned to see the charms professor Elara Holm storming their way.
Professor Holm came to a stop a few steps away, her robes still swaying from how fast she had crossed the hall. Her sharp eyes took everything in at once. The first years huddled at the table. Galvid on the floor, pale and very still. Linus standing a little apart, wand already lowered. Niko beside him, hands behind his back like he had nothing to do with any of it.
"What," she said evenly, "is the explanation for this."
No one rushed to answer.
Galvid opened his mouth, thought better of it, and closed it again. One of the first years shifted in their seat, clearly torn between fear and the urge to speak.
Linus broke the silence. "He was telling them to leave. Said the table was his."
Professor Holm looked at him. "And your response to that was to knock him to the floor."
He thought about how to answer this but just went with a simple. "Yes"
That seemed to give her pause. She studied him for a moment longer than necessary, then glanced down at Galvid. "Get up."
Galvid struggled, but managed, leaning heavily on the table. He did not look at Linus.
"You," Holm said to Galvid, "will apologize to these students. Now."
Galvid hesitated, then muttered something that might have passed for an apology if one was generous.
"Louder," Holm said.
He repeated it, this time clearly, eyes fixed on the table rather than the people he was addressing.
She nodded once. "Good. Sit somewhere else. If I hear your name again tonight, it will not end with words."
Galvid did not argue. He grabbed his tray and left quickly, shoulders hunched.
Professor Holm turned back to Linus and Niko. "As for you two. Walking away is also an option."
Niko opened his mouth, then thought better of it. Linus met her gaze. "They were scared."
"I noticed," she said. "That does not make kicking someone acceptable."
Incidents like these weren't uncommon but a professor that would do something about it was uncommon, usually they would just keep walking and not care. But Professor Holm was a anomaly, she usually intervened in these situations just to remind everyone that she could.
Another pause. Shorter this time.
"Finish your dinner," she said at last. "Both of you. You will talk to the headmaster tomorrow."
With that, she turned and walked away, already addressing another disturbance further down the hall.
The noise slowly returned. Forks scraped plates again. Conversations restarted in careful tones.
Niko exhaled. "Well. That could have gone worse."
Sigrun looked at Linus, her expression unreadable. "You did not even try to talk first."
Linus sat back down, adjusting his chair. "He was not going to listen."
Later he found himself yet again in the potion chamber, he wanted to see if he could make the potion even faster, if he couldn't he would have to stay here over Christmas.
The Cauldron hummed as he stirred the silver looking liquid. It was beginning to turn clear as it should but it was at least a few weeks away.
'I really want this done now.' He sighed while turning page after page in his family book. He stopped at the recipe for liquid luck trying to see if he had missed something, there had to be something different since the potion was going double the speed then normally.
While comparing the standard recipe he noticed that the family recipe recommended more focused wand movements and power infused into the liquid.
Did he want to risk sticking his wand into it now and risk making it blow this whole chamber up? No but was he growing impatient? Yes. But not today, he finished his documentation and added the ingredients necessary and left the chamber.
He took the slow way back to the rooms just to rinse his thoughts a little, the cold fortress stood silent in the snow covered valley as he looked out one of the windows.
During these days his mind often wandered to what he had read about in the book professor Volkov had given him, and more times he wondered why he gave the book to me. But it didn't matter why he gave me the book, what mattered was that I liked what I understood.
Linus straightened and continued walking.
Back in the common room, only a handful of students were still awake. Someone had fallen asleep in an armchair with a book slipping from their fingers. Another pair whispered over homework, heads close together, their voices low and unimportant. The fire burned steadily, casting soft light across the stone walls.
Sigrun was there, sitting cross legged near the hearth, braiding and unbraiding the same strand of hair out of boredom. She glanced up when Linus entered.
"You are late," she said, not accusing, just noting it.
He shrugged and dropped into the chair across from her. "Lost track of time."
"You excited to talk with the Headmaster tomorrow?" she asked
Linus had forgotten about that and his mood turned sour in an instant.
And sure enough, the day after right in the morning he and Niko stood in the office of the headmaster.
But not much had been said so far, no yelling or punishments.
Igor looked at the two students in front of him, he knew why they were here. and he knew they were only here because that one professor happened to see what happened. They didn't really do anything wrong according to Durmstrang rules and unwritten rules.
"Did you two think about what you did, im looking mostly at Linus here since you are the one who kicked him." Igor asked, he was asking if the reflected on what they did, not if they regrated it because he knew the didn't.
Niko agreed without hesitation, but Linus stood firm and didn't say anything.
The headmaster looked at the boy, the thought that he would agree and just have this over with. He signaled for Niko to leave since he already said he wouldn't do it again.
"What's going on Gray?" Igor asked.
Linus had this cold expression on his face, almost like he was tired or in his own thoughts. But he wasn't angry. "Headmaster, what was Grindelwald like in school?"
The question made the office quiet and only the fireplace in the corner made a sound. Igor leaned back in his chair.
After what felt like forever he finally spoke. "Grindelwald." He began, his voice serious but not in the bad way. "He was, how do I say this. a genius, brilliant but dangerous." His face seemed to go through memories. "he had this idea that the world owed him answers, that he should be right to have the power over the muggles and so on."
Linus stood for a moment and thought about the headmasters words.
"But remember Gray, he hurt a lot of people, a lot of innocent people… you may go but think about it more, not only the words but the meaning of the words." With that he finished and Linus exited the office.
Niko was waiting outside, "What happened?" Linus didn't answer and just went towards the training halls. He needed to let of some steam.
Niko stood left I the hallway looking confused.