The new year began with a whisper and a scream.
Two more students—Justin Finch-Fletchley and that insufferably loyal ghost, Nearly Headless Nick—had been found in the corridor near the library.
Both petrified.
Both wide-eyed, mouths open mid-breath, as though the fear had caught in their throats and never left.
And so, the whispers returned.
They always did.
It didn't matter that the Chamber's so-called "monster" had gone silent since before Christmas.
Everyone viewed everyone else with suspicion, while greater amounts remained on Henriette oh i mean Harry Potter.
By mid-January, letters began flooding in from parents demanding to withdraw their children.
Even the governors were restless.
Hogwarts, that "safe haven" for magical youth, was once again a den of serpents and shadows.
Watching from within the castle as the mood turned to suspicion and paranoia all thanks to my own meddling.
had tom not been incompetant in creating his horcrux's i wouldnt need to go this route, but without the attacks i could not weaken Dumbledores powerbase further than i already had.
when February came and snow began to melt along the Black Lake, I decided it was time to act leaving the cold surroundings within the castle behind for a change.
Not for the school.
Not for Dumbledore or McGonagall or the Ministry.
But for my girls.
House Draconis.
If the world was going to drown in fear, they needed to learn how to swim in it.
"Combat exams?" Daphne repeated, one brow arched as she crossed her arms. "You're joking."
We were in the Draconis common room, the firelight casting serpentine shadows across the walls.
My subordinates—my girls—sat in a semicircle before me: Cho Chang, Hermione Granger, Daphne Greengrass, and her little sister Astoria.
"I don't joke," I said flatly. "Not about this."
Hermione frowned. "You mean… actual dueling?"
"Actual combat," I corrected. "Controlled, of course. Real spells, real reactions, real consequences. I'll be there. You won't die."
Astoria blinked. "That's not reassuring."
"Good," I said. "Fear sharpens the senses, you'd be a fool not to be afraid."
Cho, ever the calm one, leaned forward slightly. "And where exactly are we doing this?"
I smiled in resposne.
~
The afternoon sun was beginning to sink by the time we reached Hagrid's hut.
The ground was damp and uneven beneath our boots, the air heavy with the scent of wet pine.
A few stray snowflakes drifted through the trees, melting before they touched the earth.
"Forbidden Forest," Daphne muttered. "Of course it's the Forbidden Forest."
"Daylight," I replied casually, stepping over a root. "Barely counts as forbidden right now."
Hermione adjusted her cloak nervously. "Cassius, are you certain about this? Professor McGonagall—"
"Would have a heart attack if she knew," I interrupted. "That's why she won't."
"Fantastic," Cho murmured. "We're accomplices now."
"You're students," I corrected again. "Learning."
The deeper we went, the thicker the forest grew.
The light dimmed, the trees rose taller, their roots like claws grasping the earth.
It was easy to forget we were still near the school—the silence was that complete.
Astoria was the first to notice. "It's getting dark…"
"Good," I said softly. "That means we're nearly there."
"Nearly where?" Hermione asked.
I raised a hand. "Quiet."
The group froze.
A faint skittering sound drifted through the trees.
Then another.
Then a dozen more.
Cho's wand flicked up instantly, light flaring from its tip. "Lumos Maxima."
The clearing ahead burst into pale illumination.
The ground seemed to move.
No, not move—crawl.
Hundreds of spiderlings, each the size of a man's hand, swarmed across the roots and underbrush.
Their carapaces glistened in the light, and their tiny eyes reflected it back like pinpricks of glass.
Hermione paled. "Cassius… tell me those aren't—"
"They are," I said cheerfully. "Acromantula broodlings. Newly hatched. Harmless—mostly."
Astoria squeaked. "Mostly?"
"They bite," I admitted. "But it won't kill you, its only the mature one that carry venom."
Daphne shot me a glare. "You brought us here for training?"
"Precisely." I drew my wand, twirling it lazily between my fingers. "Lesson one: don't wait for permission to survive."
I flicked my wand skyward, and a pulse of blue flame erupted into the air like a firework.
"Begin."
The forest exploded into motion.
Spiders poured from every shadow, skittering toward us in waves.
Cho was first to react, blasting a cluster apart with a well-placed Depulso.
Hermione followed, conjuring a ring of fire that flared around the group, forcing the spiders back.
Daphne's spellwork was sharp, efficient—freezing webs midair before slicing through them with clean Diffindo strokes.
Astoria, though trembling, cast with surprising precision; her Lumos beam focused like a blade, blinding the creatures long enough for Cho's follow-up blasts to strike true.
I stayed near the edge of the clearing, wand at my side, watching.
They were good.
Raw, but good.
Nothing tempered ones battle skills better than real battle afterall.
The air filled with the smell of singed hair and scorched dirt.
Spells crackled and hissed through the trees.
The forest echoed with the shrieks of dying spiderlings.
Then the ground trembled.
A shape emerged from the shadows—larger, heavier.
An adult Acromantula, her body greater than my entire body, rose from the underbrush.
Her fangs dripped venom that hissed when it struck the snow.
Cho's spell faltered. "Oh… oh, no."
Astoria took an involuntary step back. "That's not a baby."
"Cassius!" Hermione snapped. "This is insane—"
But she didn't stop casting.
None of them did.
Seeing the variable i acted, using my drawn wand to cast forth a spider killing charm.
"Aronia Exumai"
The spider lunged, legs cracking branches as it moved, but the white-blue spell caught it mid lunge blasting its hulking form back, until it landed on its back, legs curling up in defeat as it remained stationary.
With the immediate threat dealt with the examination continued as even more spiderlings joined the battle against us.
Some medium sized ones tried to recover the fallen, others were rebellious enough to attempt feasting upon the dead even as the battle continued to rage around them.
By the time i called it quits, erecting a flame barrier in a wide arc around our weary selves causing the arachnids no means with which to proceed attacking us, a disillusionment charm later and we were on our way back to the castle for a debriefment.
But much to the horror of the girls this was only the first assault against the spider infestation of the great forest.