51.6 Defense Club

Susan opened her eyes to a familiar world not so different from her own. The presence of the towering castle was a dead giveaway. But the scenery around wasn't. Dead bodies, missing limbs, burnt faces and a bloody soil was all her eyes could see. Not a trace of blue could be seen in the sky, instead, it was a pitch black color, as if all the happiness had disappeared from the world, even though she could tell somehow it was morning.

Ice shards could be seen everywhere, yet it was clear it was unnatural; even more, she could see someone standing in the distance, but when she approached him, he was frozen solid. Susan noticed that all of the dead bodies she saw so far wore black cloaks, their faces hidden behind a silver mask.

She didn't notice a single trace of life, at least not until she heard a heart wrenching scream, her head immediately turned to the source. She thought the world around her couldn't get any worse, but it seems it was set on proving her wrong.

There, sitting next a motionless body, was a blond girl she was too familiar with. The only difference was that instead of her usual calm countenance, her face was twisted in grief, eyes streaming a river of tears. Susan herself started crying, her legs grew week. She couldn't bring herself to see whom she was grieving over, but her body moved without her permission.

She sat down next to the crimson haired boy, who was breathing so weakly it was barely noticeable; what she assumed was no doubt his last breath judging from the countless gashes he suffered. She found herself sitting next to him on the ground, just as he suddenly opened his eyes and offered her a weak smile. He took her hand in his with great difficulty, his lips moved, but no words came out. His other hand went to his own neck, to reveal a green locket with an S pattern, which he clasped. It suddenly emitted a green glow that disappeared almost instantly, before her whole world faded to black.

"-an.. Susan… SUSAN!" she was jolted awake by her roommate, who was looking at her with worried eyes.

"Hannah…?"

"Are you alright?" Hannah asked her. "You've been crying for a while… Wait, were you asleep?"

"Yeah…" She said softly, the images still fresh in her mind. "It was just a bad dream…"

"Do you want to talk about it?" Hannah offered, but Susan noticed how early it was and felt guilty about waking her friend up.

"It's silly, really. Don't worry about it." Hannah noticed Susan was uncomfortable, so she just shrugged it off to not embarrass her any further and went back to sleep. Susan, however, couldn't for the rest of the night. She couldn't stop thinking about her most recent dream.

It was still five in the morning; not a single student could be seen in the Hogwarts' corridors at that hour. The very few Ravenclaws that were up were studying in the privacy of their rooms. Obviously, there was an exception to this rule.

"Susan?" she was startled out of her thoughts by a familiar voice.

Kaiser did not expect to see her of all the people awake at this hour; he knew how much she liked her sleep. He got worried when he saw her out of the common room in his map, and decided to see what was up with her.

"Hello!" She said 'cheerfully', but Kaiser knew her enough to notice the difference. Susan, for her part, did her best not to think about her most recent dream, years of Occlumency training seemed to pay off.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just had a nightmare, and couldn't sleep afterwards." Kaiser could sympathize, having experienced the same thing countless times already. "What's your excuse?"

"I usually get up at this hour." He shrugged.

"Seriously?" She asked incredulously. "Why?"

"It's just a habit I picked up. It also helps me get a few hours of practice before lessons." Her eyes widened in realization. Of course he would get up to practice. A war was brewing, and there were already numerous attempts at his life. She felt ashamed of herself for taking it easy while he suffered silently.

"Do you mind if I join you?" she asked softly.

"Sure, why not." He wouldn't be practicing any dark magic, so it shouldn't pose a problem. Not that practicing dark magic was bad, mind you, but he wouldn't feel comfortable performing any spells in front of her. At least, not yet.

They walked together towards the lake, exchanging small talk.

"How do you practice exactly?" Susan asked curiously.

"I cast a set of spells every day, until I'm completely comfortable with them, then I move on to the next." He explained.

"Well, if you've been doing this since your first year, which I have no doubt you have…" she gave him a knowing look. "Then you must have mastered dozens of spells already!"

"Um, yeah." He said awkwardly. "But my magical reserves have increased a lot recently, and I've been trying to adjust my spells." She nodded, purposely not questioning how his 'magical reserves' suddenly grew, as she already knew the answer.

"Let's start with the stunning spell, shall we?" she nodded. Kaiser was impressed to notice she could cast it nonverbally as well, but he could clearly notice she still used wand movement, meaning she didn't reach full mastery of the spell just yet, or was it a force of habit. He voiced her thoughts to her, and suggested she starts reducing the movements little by little, until she doesn't need them anymore.

She spent two hours, practicing the very same spell, making tremendous progress. Kaiser was surprised by how talented she was: he knew first hand how difficult it was to free oneself from the shackles of wand movements and verbal incantation. Little did he know, the true reason for her progress was a shift in her mindset. She wished to avoid the vivid scene she experienced at all costs, and the only way to do so was to get stronger.

========================================

The news about the club were kept secret, they've all agreed that only a select few should be invited at first until they established themselves. They had no doubt that blood supremacist students would try to sabotage their progress once they got wind of it, and it's not like they could refuse every Slytherin student. They did plan on accepting members from all the houses, but not without any foundations.

The plan was for each one of them to reach out to their year-mates in the same house, individually, and convince them not to spread the information, promising that the need for secrecy would be explained once they attend the first meeting.

The Ravenclaws were the easiest to deal with, as the idea of a club where they get free help for practical spells was already alluring for them. As soon as Michael asked them, they agreed immediately, to come to their first gathering, at the very least.

The Hufflepuffs were a bit trickier. When they got approached by two popular girls of their year ( namely Hannah and Susan ), it was very difficult to refuse. However, they needed to be selective about whom they should invite. While the majority of Hufflepuffs were "hard working", it was only limited to their official courses, preferring to spend the rest of their times on other fun activities instead of practicing boring spells. Not to mention those who tended to gossip were scratched from the list early on.

The Gryffindors, however, were the most challenging. It was no secret that they were the laziest house at Hogwarts, and unless you invoked how courageous a Gryffindor should be, you could hardly get anything done with them. Not to mention, they weren't the most brilliant bunch, as the previous years have clearly demonstrated, at least the whole Chamber of Secrets incident. Therefore, they decided to ask the more studious ones, like Dean Thomas, or the more loyal Gryffindors like Neville Longbottom. The twins invited their partner in crime Lee Jordan as well.

As for where they would practice, Kaiser thought about the Room of Requirement at first, but eliminated it afterwards. Even though no one but him could access it since he came to Hogwarts, he wanted to keep the knowledge private for now. Also, accessing a room the headmaster had no idea about wasn't very clever.

They settled for an abandoned classroom at the seventh floor, for now, which they had cleaned with the house elves' help, and have equipped with training dummies and everything else they'd need. It was very spacious, and could easily hold fifty students comfortably, especially once the extension charms were cast on it by professor Flitwick.