Bloody Books

Durmstrang Library, April 15 th

Placing his book on the table, Harry cast the tempus spell and casually gazed at the time. He suddenly felt his blood run cold. It couldn't be that late. Harry repeated the spell twice just to make sure he hadn't done anything wrong before groaning and smacking his head on the table.

Calypso was going to kill him.

He was supposed to help her with some of the charms for her final project over an hour ago. By now she had probably given up waiting, banged on his door a few times, and started searching the school so she could drag him off somewhere to hex him in private.

Harry doubted that Calypso would understand the excuse "But I was reading a really good book and forgot." While she wasn't averse to spending time in the library, Calypso was a firm believer that one only got better at magic through practicing spells. As she had said the last time she had dragged him out of the library, "Having an encyclopedic knowledge of spells won't help you if you can't cast any of them."

"I wonder just what's going to happen to me when she finds me," Harry asked himself as he left the library. "She'll probably nicely ask me to show her how to charm the knife to dice again only to use the spell on me."

He and Calypso had grown a lot closer as of late, but that still didn't mean he wasn't a little wary of all the Dark Magic the girl knew. After all, it was a little difficult to be someone's friend when one minute you were joking, and the next she was cursing a third year.

Hoping that Calypso would have had enough time to calm down, Harry turned around and walked back into the library. It would be better if he had some witnesses for when Calypso eventually caught up with him. Calypso wasn't stupid enough to attack him in the library, at least not in front of Lady Doktor. The old librarian had been keeping a very sharp eye on Harry ever since he had been attacked at the start of the spring term.

As Harry was about to sit down at a table near the entrance, he heard someone shout an incantation from behind him. Remembering what happened in January, Harry flung himself out of the chair as a nasty purple spell with yellow swirls passed over his head.

Harry watched in horror as the doors to the library flew open and Calypso snarled out, "Alright, Potter, where are y-"

The spell struck Calypso in her chest, causing her to scream and fall to her knees. Not a second later, Calypso's head snapped back and blood seemed to erupt out of her mouth, soaking the area around her. There was a mad rush as people began jumping out of their seats and turning tables over to avoid being hit.

Enraged, Harry turned to where the spell had come from. He didn't see anything at first, but then he noticed a slight haze quickly moving away from him down the history aisle. Recognizing the work of a poorly cast Disillusionment Charm, Harry jabbed his wand at the visual distortion and began casting. "Stupefy! Diffindo! Stupefy!"

The first spell missed and hit a book, showering the area in paper fragments. The cutting spell was stopped by the attacker casting a shield spell, but Harry's third spell managed to break the shield and give a partial hit. The Disillusionment Charm faded away, and Harry saw a blond haired boy stumble into the nearest bookshelf, but remain on his feet.

"Stupefy," a sharp voice snapped.

A red Stunning spell came from behind Harry, hitting the blond boy and dropping him to the ground with a loud THUMP. Harry turned around and found a livid Lady Doktor stalking over towards him. The librarian's wand was pointed at the unconscious boy. Unable to help himself, Harry fired another stunning spell at the unconscious student.

"Do you know him?" Lady Doktor asked angrily.

Harry could only shake his head. The boy looked to be in his fifth year, and Harry had never seen him in his entire time at Durmstrang. He certainly wasn't in any of Harry's classes. Growling in frustration that some random student had tried to curse him behind his back, Harry raised his wand to send another curse. Before Harry could finish his incantation, Lady Doktor snatched his wand out of his hand and sent him a purposeful look that screamed 'do nothing.' Quickly Lady Doktor bound the boy tightly with ropes and levitated him away after returning Harry's wand. Harry followed discreetly behind her, wanting to check on Calypso and to make sure the boy got severely punished.

As Harry followed Lady Doktor, the crowd that had gathered parted to let them pass. When Harry made it back to the front of the library, he saw that the Highmaster had arrived along with Professor Rosemburg and Lady Shluga. While Calypso was no longer vomiting blood, none of the blood around the front of the library had yet to be Vanished. The sight of so much blood made Harry's stomach turn uncomfortably. Pushing a fourth year to the side, Harry emptied the contents of his stomach under a nearby table. He felt a hand on his back, and he looked up to see Viktor looking at him in concern.

"Is she okay?" Harry asked, gesturing to Calypso.

"I don't know," Viktor replied gravely.

"Highmaster!" exclaimed Lady Doktor. "This is the little shit who sent the curse. Harry Potter was able to Stun him before he could get away."

"Armando, take him to the dungeons!" Karkaroff snarled, spit flying from his mouth. "I must alert Ms. Rosier's father of the situation."

With a sharp nod, Armando Kosarev, the Charms professor, levitated the boy out of the library while Professor Rosmeburg levitated Calypso to the hospital wing, Lady Shluga casting spells over her body as they walked.

Harry walked forward and locked eyes with the Lady Doktor. "What will happen to him?"

"He will be punished most severely for this, Mr. Potter, of that I can assure you," Lady Doktor growled. "I doubt very much that you will be seeing him for sometime after this."

Viktor placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. "We should go."

"Yes, Mr. Potter," Lady Doktor agreed. "Go check on your friend."

Knowing a dismissal when he heard one, Viktor guided Harry out of the library.