Chapter Text
When Beatrice Bluelake first received her letter inviting her to a school of magic, she wasn’t as surprised as one might think. For as long as she could remember, she was convinced she had been a witch, even before she found out those did indeed exist.
Growing up, Bee was always the child on the outskirts of the playground, looking at bugs in fascination, rather than joining in on games of tag with the other kids. On rainy days, she went out and looked for frogs, hoping to find a familiar. After bringing one too many frogs into her grandparents home, they had finally gotten her a cat instead to satisfy her desire for a pet.
She had named said cat “Frog”.
Every year on Halloween, she would make her own costume, whether it be a unicorn, or a fairy, or some other magical creature or being. And every time they had career day in elementary school, she would always say the same thing: she wanted to be a witch.
She would dress up in pointy hats and star-knitted cloaks that were too big for her and often caused her to trip. She brought around interestingly shaped-sticks with her, insisting they were ‘real wands’– not like those fake, plastic ones you bought at stores. She would attempt to ride brooms; though she developed a fear of heights after she tried jumping off a tree on one to try and fly, only to crash and break her knee.
Needless to say, this set her apart from her peers, who were more interested in playing house than tromping around in the muddy woods to look for potion ingredients. As she got older and her fixation on ‘witchcraft’ continued, her grandparents began to get concerned, worried she might be picked on for her odd interests. Sure enough, they were right.
After one particularly rough day in fifth grade, when she had come home crying and covered in mud, they’d decided to pull her out and educate her at home for the rest of the year. It wasn’t until the later years of middle school that she returned, as they didn’t want her to be too isolated from other kids.
She didn’t face any more bullying, but she now faced the very real problem of invisibility. She’d already had trouble with talking before she’d pulled out, but after that long absence, she now found trying to start conversations was about as easy as trying to sing while chewing sticky taffy. She spent most of her late middle and early high school years alone, save for a few friendly acquaintances she spoke to here and there.
When she’d gone home for the summer after her first year of high school, she had been fully expecting the next year to be the same as the last when a letter arrived at her window via owl.
“Dear Beatrice Bluelake; We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a fifth-year student.”
She hadn’t quite believed it at first. She read it once. Twice. Three times. She then watches as the letter shut on its own before her very eyes.
Magic…….
….It was real….!
After recovering from her initial shock, she’d rushed to show the letter to her grandparents, who wouldn’t believe her at first until they too saw the words on the letter begin to glow.
It wasn’t long after that a man by the name of Professor Fig had arrived at their door and told them he was to be her instructor during the summer to prepare her as a late-start student. It took a few hours of explaining before everything finally sunk in for her frazzled grandparents, by which point she was practically vibrating from excitement. She remembered massaging her cramped hand after, as she’d been diligently taking notes on everything Fig had spoken about.
To her delight, instruction didn’t begin long after. Words couldn’t describe the ecstasy that filled her when she held a wand– a real wand– for the very first time. Nor could she quite describe the sensation she felt when it made contact with her skin; a sort of tingling, fizzy, electric feeling.
Professor Fig showed her the basic motions one could make with a wand, then proceeded onto the lecture, which she made sure to take plenty of notes on. For quite possibly the first time ever, she was excited to do work during the summer.
By the time the first hands-on lesson came around a few days later, she was ready. It didn’t take long at all for her to cast her first spell: basic cast, which she practiced on an apple. She remembered squealing in glee as she watched her spell explode it into red and golden chunks, much to Fig’s approval. They had practiced the spell some more, honing and refining it until it was neither too weak nor too volatile. Within only three hours, she could fire the spell from fifteen feet away at an apple smaller than her hands; and land it. An extraordinary feat for someone who’d had terrible aim her entire life.
Fig too seemed to pick up on how fast a learner she was; and decided he’d speed their lessons along a bit so he could teach her more before the term started. Over the next few months, he taught her several more spells: revelio, lumos, protego, and stupefy. All of which were an absolute blast to learn, though she got the feeling that pretty much any kind of spell she’d learn would be incredible.
Besides spells, he also taught her a great deal about Hogwarts and the wizarding world itself. She learned about the magical beasts, the ministry, the wizarding society and its laws. She learned about plants she’d never heard of before, and about actual potions she’d be able to brew there. She learned about the classes she would be taking; and visibly perked up at the mention of a Care of Magical Creatures class.
On the night before term began, she found she simply could not sleep. Her mind raced with thoughts of everything she would get to experience tomorrow. Of everything she would learn that year, and all the people and amazing animals she’d meet. Her pet cat Frog dozed on in her lap as she tried not to bounce out of bed to pace in her restless excitement.
For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel anxious about something new. No– if anything, tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.
.
.
.
.
.
Well, as excited as she was to meet a magical creature for the first time, getting attacked midair by a dragon wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. Neither was arriving at an unknown location in the Scottish highlands via portkey. After she and Professor Fig got over the initial shock of the attack and the tragic sudden passing of his friend Mr. Osric, they’d set off toward castle ruins in the distance.
As soon as they were on-site, Bee knew there was something special about the castle. Her magic, which she had only recently begun to tap into, surged within her as though awakened by the castle alone. A warm, tingly sensation spread through her and settled into a kind of buzzing as she explored. While Professor Fig looked around, she followed the strange pull, which seemed to be leading her somewhere. She followed it to a wall, which revealed itself not to be a dead end as it began to glow when she approached. The solid wall gave way to something glassy, reflecting not the ruins behind her, but a sort of room. But when she looked behind her, she was still within the castle.
Perplexed and more than a little bewildered, she’d called Professor Fig over, only to find he couldn’t see what she saw. In her curiosity, she’d reached out and touched the glowing rune on the glass, and their surroundings faded away and transformed into the room she had seen in the reflection.
Professor Fig too seemed alarmed and baffled by this whole situation, and seeing as she herself was new to the magical world, she proceeded with caution. They’d met a goblin banker who worked here; evidently, this bank was none other than Gringotts, which she recalled learning about during her summer studies. The banker seemed to have been expecting them, though for what purpose, they were not yet sure.
The three got into the famous Gringotts cart system, which was even more terrifying than she’d imagined while reading about it, and set off for ‘vault twelve’. Throughout most of the ride; she found herself too scared to do much other than clench tightly at the rails and pray she didn’t fall off. They made a brief stop to be redirected by another goblin who worked at the bank, and she noticed something that sparked her interest.
On his arm was a curious sort of glowing red band, which, now that she paused and thought about it, she could’ve sworn she also saw on the collar of the dragon that attacked their carriage. Even stranger, she could feel her magic once again drawn to it despite the different color. This felt different though. Familiar but….tainted somehow.
The cart resumed its journey before she could think much more about it.
When they finally arrived at their destination, they found vault twelve to be completely and totally empty; and themselves locked in by the banker. It didn’t take long for them to find a way forward, however, as Bee once again noticed a rune on the wall that brought them to another location when she touched it. This one, however, was pitch black and looked to be in the middle of nowhere.
“Stay close. There will be no disapparating if things go poorly– not out of Gringotts,” Professor Fig instructed, and she hooded, following him as he lit the path forward with a Lumos spell.
They walked mostly in silence, allowing her some time for her mind to catch up with everything that had happened. First there was the dragon attack and poor Mr. Osric. Then they’d been brought here via portkey. And then there was this strange magic of hers….
While it’s true she’s only been practicing magic for a few months now, she’d used it enough to recognize that the way her magic was acting now was different than before. Something about those runes on the glass walls; about the portkey container: about the band on the goblin’s arm…..
As if on cue, she saw a familiar violet glow up ahead, this time on the floor. “Professor….I see a glow again. It’s on the floor this time,” she says, warily approaching the glowing light. As she steps closer to it, the magic reacts to her presence, flaring into the air like a fire stoked. Before she can think about it, she instinctively reacts to it, pulling it in with her wand and activating the source.
A wave of magic shoots out and sends her to the floor as Fig stumbles back. “Lumos!” His wand once again illuminates the room, still pitch black but now with a glass floor. “What happened?” Fig whispered sharply, looking around. “When I moved towards the glow, it suddenly seemed as though the ground was...swirling about,” she says, trying to wrap her head around it as well.
“Are you alright?” He asks, helping her up, and she nods. “Yes, sir, I’m fine.” He looks around the new area and says, “You seem to have caused the floor to change.” She too looks around, then notices something odd. A sort of…knight statue in the floor. Like a reflection on ice. But there was no statue present, just as the bank hadn’t truly been behind her when she’d found the reflective wall in the castle ruins.
“That statue,” she says, moving toward it, her brows furrowing. “What statue?” “There’s a….there’s a statue here. But only as a reflection in the floor,” she says, stooping down and running a hand over the reflection in the glass. An idea comes to her mind and she steps back, casting revelio. The same statue reflected in the floor appears on the surface, though their positions don’t align.
“I presume this is what you saw reflected in the floor,” Fig says, looking over the statue with wide eyes. She nods. “Yes, but…the positions don’t match.” Fig begins to pace around the statue, trying to examine it at different angles, and she says, “wait! When you moved, the reflection moved in the direction of the light. Maybe…”
She moves to the front of the statue and casts Lumos herself. She watches as the reflection moved with the light, just as she suspected, and aligns with the position of the statue.
“Now the reflection is turning towards me…” she says in wonder; awe filling her as she watches the reflection change before her very eyes. “It does follow…the…” her voice trails off as she watches the statue begin to rise.
The statue fully rises to a stand and slams its sword against the floor. In an instant, the room changes, the darkness replaced by swirling magic encircling the room like a hurricane. Six more knights drop down from the sky all around them, surrounding her and Professor Fig. She doesn’t have much time to react to this development before Fig shouts, “LOOK OUT!!”
She turns back just in time to see the knight in front of her swing its sword. Panic seizes her and she puts up a protego shield just as the knight’s sword hits, the force of the impact sending her stumbling back. She doesn’t get a chance to breathe as she hears Professor Fig begin to dispel the knights within only a matter of seconds. However, it isn’t long before more knights drop down from the sky, swords already drawn.
She scrambles to her feet and hurries over to Professor Fig’s side, heart already racing as she realizes she’s actually in a fight now. She does her best to keep up, firing spell after spell at the knights, which only seem to multiply with each passing second as more and more drop from the sky.
“DEPULSO!” Fig’s spell whizzes past her ear, knocking back a knight that was about to strike her from behind, slamming it into two more and reducing them to rubble. She returns the favor a few seconds later, putting up a frantic protego just as a knight from above is about to do them in. Fig blasts it back with a diffindo spell, breaking apart the knight into useless stone frgaments.
“There’s so many of them!” She shouts over the ruckus of the battle, screaming as she just barely dodges another slice of a sword. “They can’t keep coming forever!” Fig shouts, sending away two more with a ventus and exploding a third with confringo, “just stay close!” She tries not to let her heart throw itself out of her chest and manages a shaky nod, hands shaking as she fires another spell at the seemingly neverending onslaught of knights.
While it seems to last forever, the onslaught finally ends as knights stop dropping down from the sky. “Keep your guard up!!” Fig shouts over the howling winds of magic. Before she can manage a reply however, the room once again goes dark, and when she casts Lumos herself, she finds Professor Fig is gone.
“Professor?!” She shouts, already on the verge of panicking as she looks around frantically. “Professor Fig?!” She casts revelio. Nothing. She begins to run through the darkness with only the light of her wand to guide her. “Professor!!! Professor; where are you?!” Her breath comes in quick bursts as she runs, more out of fear than exhaustion.
Keep it together. Don’t lose your head. Remember what he taught you. Keep your guard up, have your spells ready, don’t–
She notices the floor beneath her begin to glow as she moves, as though running on glowing water. As she continues to run, she notices wisps of magic beginning to travel in the direction she’s going. She wasn’t sure what to make of it; but with nothing else to go on, she followed them, hoping they would take her to her Professor.
She follows them to another glowing spot on the floor. She casts revelio again. He’s still nowhere in sight. She lets out a shaky sigh and steps toward it, that buzzing sensation filling her again as she approaches the glowing spot. “I hope this isn’t a mistake…” she mutters, before once again harnessing the magic with a motion of her wand.
Just as before, the room gives way to a glass floor….with several knight reflections in the ice.
No no no no, not again…!
She looks around desperately, hoping for some other way she can get out of here. She casts revelio; but the only thing that appears are the knight statues, still in their resting state.
Please no, no, no, no…. She lets out an upset whine, begging the universe for an alternative. There’s no way she could fight them on her own…! She could barely survive the fight with Professor Fig by her side!
But the universe offered no mercy. She explored the room, and found nothing; no exit, no escape, and no Fig. She was on her own. And she was out of options.
“Okay…okay….this is fine. You’ll be fine,” she mutters to herself, beginning to pace in her anxiety. “You can fight them! You’ve gotten really good at basic cast over the summer! You can take them, you– you just need to stay focused.” She takes a shaky breath and looks back up at the knights; three of them. And she was certain more would drop down from the sky, just like before. Just looking at them heightened her anxiety.
“S-stay…..focused…” she says, clutching her wand so tightly she was sure it would snap. She swallows, but it does nothing to alleviate the anxiety that weighs her muscles down as she forces her way to the front of the third knight, standing at a far distance. “L…Lu…” She takes another shaky breath.
‘Do the multiplying game,’ she thinks to herself, recalling the advice her grandmother gave her when she asked how she dealt with anxiety.
She raises her wand. ‘One times one is one.’
“Lumos,” she whispers, her wand lighting up.
‘Two times two is four.’
The knights begin to rise from their kneeling positions.
‘Three times three is nine.’
One by one, their swords slam against the floor.
‘Four times four is sixteen’–
The knights move. She quickly raises a protego, just as one of the knights charged with its sword. Her heart slams in her chest, but she forces herself not to lose her nerve as she quickly fires back a spell or two before putting up another protego just as another knight rushes her.
‘Why do they have to be so fast?! No– don’t panic, uh; five times five is twenty-five.’
She stumbles back a few steps, and jumps as she feels the ground shake from behind her. She automatically shields her head, a forcefield rising unbidden just as the knight that had landed behind her swings its sword down. She shrieks and scrambles away, firing quickly at every enemy she can see.
‘Six times six– th-thirty six!!!!’ She tried to ignore how there were six of them now.
She blasts one to pieces and two more land close by.
Scratch that– seven.
The waves never seem to end, and everything feels even more overwhelming without her mentor watching her back. She fires spell after spell, countering and blocking and dodging like her life depends only; because it does. She blasts away one knight but is unable to dodge another, its sword slashing her shoulder. She cries out and falls from the sheer force of it. It raises its sword to strike again when she hits it with a desperate stupefy, followed by a basic cast, blowing it to pieces.
‘Seven times seven; fourteen?! No!! Forty-nine! Stay calm! Stay calm!!!!’
She puts up another shield as the knights attempt to rush her while she’s vulnerable, a potion falling out of her bag as she quickly scoots back. She recognizes it as wiggenweld and grabs it, chugging it down in one gulp. The pain in her shoulder fades and she scrambles back to her feet just as the forcefield shatters. They close in.
Terror shoots through her and she once again fires stupefy, the force of it more powerful this time and sending the knights stumbling backwards. She takes the split seconr to her advantage, wildly firing spell after spell at them until there’s nothing left but flying rocks.
She doesn’t lower her guard, looking around quickly and keeping her wand raised if any more knights appear. Luckily, none do, as the room once again fades to black.
“Lumos!” She wastes no time now, following the wisps of magic, worried that if she stays in one place too long more will appear. “Please, don’t let there be more knights, please, please, please,” she prays as she runs toward the source of light on the floor.
This time, when she interacts with it, the room itself doesn’t change, but a giant swirling statue nearby transforms into a sort of glowing door; a portal, by the looks of it.
The room around her seems to disappear as that tingling feeling within her surges to new heights, pulling her toward the portal with a magnetic force she finds herself unable to resist. She swears she hears whispered voices calling to her from inside. Calling…her name?
“Beatrice….”
Her breath catches in her throat, that whispered name awakening something old and unfamiliar within her
“Beatrice…….”
Unable to resist its call, she steps into the portal. The world turns white.