Preparations PV Phae

Borrowed sheet music in hand, Phaedra hummed a tune as she entered the rehearsal room. This was not a place the twelve-year-old girl visited often, and she wanted to put the room more to her personal use. A relaxing hour or so with a piano was a welcome one; a reminder of her home miles away. Closing the door behind her, she let her eyes adjust to the room's brightness. There sat a piano, gleaming and inviting, but someone was in the way.

Her gaze snapped to the only other person inside, a familiar boy huddled over what looked like, from the distance, a bunch of junk. The thought of turning back around to leave was at the forefront of her mind, but her legs kept her going in the general direction of the piano. As Phaedra wordlessly drew closer to pass him, she took a moment to look over him and discovered that the large mass composed of netting, boards, nails, knives... If she did a double take any faster, she without a doubt would have gotten whiplash.

Halting immediately in place, she blinked and then turned around to face him. Her head tilted to one side as she eyeballed the pile a second time to ensure that she wasn't mad. What a sight. Besides Kaegen's haggard appearance and the items surrounding him, she noted that he was sketching something out— what exactly; she had no clue. She also noticed that he was wearing some kind of defensive harness which was only distinct to her because she found it ugly against the blue and grey of his uniform. She didn't bother to make sense of the situation, because she realised there was none to make out in the first place.

Despite being in the same house, never had Phaedra needed to speak with the Dhampir. It was a simple fact that she had learned to be thankful for, considering the gossip of his tendencies. Unfortunately, she knew her growing list of People to Avoid would have to lose one if she wanted an explanation. Perhaps humouring Kaegen would serve as the entertainment missing from her studious life. Perhaps not and she'd find herself regretting it. Regardless, she decided she just needed to see his delinquency in action. Who knew how much longer the opportunity would be up for grabs? Soon enough he'd get expelled for being a disturbance and that would be the end of his fabled legacy.

Maintaining a wary comfortable enough distance between them, Phaedra exhaled through her nose. She placed two hands on her hips to stare down at him, a flicker of amusement creeping at the corners of her mouth. “Alright, I'll bite. Who do you have it out for this time?” Her eyes scanned more over the heap, lingering over the knives once more.

The young pure-blood knew little when it came to combat or aggression; not as much as she liked to pretend she did. But it didn't take a genius to know those sleek pairs of knives and nails as a threat. His collection would have been impressive, had it not carried such a dangerous implication. Phaedra continued on, her nose crinkling as if something stunk. “…You weird, crazy bastard,” she muttered from under her breath, dropping her hands to her sides.

Should she try taking the items away from him? No, of course not. That would be stupid, but Hogwarts was still a school, her school and her friends' school. Her time as prefect had passed, but she always tried prolonging order whenever possible. Someone had to do it until a new administration could swoop in to save the place. She did not need or want a repeat of her previous year for anyone.

Phaedra yanked her book bag over her shoulder and placed it against the wall with the booklet of music. Before standing straight again she slipped her wand into her robe pocket. "Kaegen, yeah? Well, I have several questions, my first being— Why."

It was surprising when someone actually came inside the room, usually the rehearsal room was pretty quiet and out of the way. It was even more surprising when he realized that the girl was someone he knew. Back when he followed Eris around, she was one of the little red head girl's friends. Her name was Fairy, or something similar. The fact that he knew her did mean that his guard didn't go up quite as fast as it usually did, assuming that she was just going to walk on past.

Most of Eris' friends didn't have much to do with him, which made sense. He was still working on that book he was going to use to prove himself useful, the fact that he hadn't come close to finishing it yet bore testament to the rather obvious reason why he wasn't part of that friend circle anymore. Or maybe he never truly was. Still, dwelling on things like that wasn't helpful, wasn't doing anything for him now, in the present. You didn't die in the past, you died in the moment. So it was the moment he was going to focus on.

His plan to ignore her was harshly snapped in half when the girl threatened to bite him. He launched to his feet, up and backwards, out of biting range. His hands vanished into his sleeves, leaving them loose and hanging. He was getting ready, ready to respond to dental combat, dished out by someone strong enough to regularly talk with the likes of Eris. In all honesty, he didn't like his chances.

And not only did she not lunge at him, but she kept talking. She asked who he had it out for? What was it? His eyes, which moments ago were wide with fear, now showed confusion.

"Do you mean, who am I planning to kill?"

It seemed like a pretty big leap, but what else could she be referring to? Maybe to who he was protecting? But he wasn't protecting anyone at the time, no one was really bearing his name, and no one had allied themselves with him for quite some time. The whole school, more or less, was deep in denial.

Then she smelled something, he wasn't sure what, and proceeded to call him weird and crazy and some word that reminded him of baster. Like the kind you used to cook turkeys with.

"I'm not crazy."

A lot of people had been calling him that, or some version of that recently, and it was starting to make him a bit less than happy. What was wrong with everyone, what made them decide that he was the one that didn't know what he was talking about? He was the one making life easier for everyone, he was going above and beyond the tests given by the professors. He was defeating them, he was going to go down in history as the one that saved hundreds. But did they see that, at all? No, he was crazy, he was weird and alone.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he answered her last question. He wasn't really that surprised anymore, or even that scared. He knew she wasn't a death witch, so she was mortal, and killed as easily as any of the other weak first year students that bumbled their way through the hallowed halls of Hogwarts.

"Why all of this? Because maybe I'm not just going to sit by and hide forever. Sooner or later, someone is going to have to fix this. why not me?

His voice was quiet, hoarse. More of a loud whisper than an actual voice. Besides the fact that his voice usually sounded like some auditory variation of a little boy who was supposed to be asleep and wanted to keep talking anyway, his throat was sore, and he was trying to keep vocal activity to a minimum.

"Wh—" Her hands flew to her temples. How he could proclaim his plans so casually? How long had the boy gone unchecked that his behaviour (which Phaedra once thought to only include minor transgressions) was now breaching into homicidal territories? Where was that funny little slingshot he carried around? Upgrading from a children’s toy to knives and genuinely wanting to kill others was a sure sign that interference was necessary.

When Kaegen continued and stated that he wasn’t crazy, Phaedra tutted in objection. Who was he kidding? Clearly, he was! These were not the words and actions of a well-adjusted individual. And besides, the deranged always denied such accusations when directly confronted. Kaegen’s defence of his mental state— despite the evidence contrary to that directly in front of him— was confirmation enough for her. She would not have herself fooled.

“Why not you? Why not you? Oh, please—” Phaedra laughed, though the sound had a frustrated edge to it. “Because this is... none of us are...”

Dangerous and stupid, she would have blurted out. None of us are cut out for this; we’re all just kids, she wanted so desperately to tell him, but she couldn’t finish her sentence. She was too bewildered, and not to mention, did not want to not offend him too much. She wasn't sure how he'd react to getting insulted a second time.

Phaedra exhaled through her nostrils and tightened her jaw. She turned around abruptly and walked back towards her belongings with her fists clenched. But as suddenly as she began, she paused, changed her mind and spun back around to march back towards the weary-looking boy. There would be enough time later to angrily wear a hole in the floor by pacing. "You know what?"

She was not entirely sure what it was exactly that Kaegen was trying to “fix”. She certainly had her theories, but in her eyes, none of them came even close to deserving death. Not even the Eckenrode boy from the previous year whom she since had moved on from. “Fine, what exactly are you trying to fix? Explain it to me.” Phaedra crossed her arms and glanced down at the pile again.

She hoped this was a joke. One big, elaborate joke in action since the past two years.

His response seemed to surprise her. Or enrage her, maybe? Make her afraid of him? What emotion would cause you to say "whuh" and then place your hands on your head, anyway? He might guess having to go to the bathroom, but that didn't seem like it fit quite right. She was just confusing, but he didn't care enough to bother with being upset about this minor problem, this little bit of gibberish that he couldn't decipher.

She started to talk in broken sentences, none of them with a solid ending. She didn't know what she was talking about, and kept interrupting herself. She sounded maybe anxious, or frustrated. It was pretty clear what was going on. This girl was too stupid to speak, but just barely smart enough to realize that her intelligence was so very lacking that it made human interaction virtually impossible.

Kaegen briefly considered what a pitiable existence she must have, to be barely smart enough to realize just how worthless she really was, just how pathetic. He almost wondered if he should mercy kill his house mate, but decided against it. She was Eris' friend, after all. She was human, you didn't kill those randomly, even when it was for their own good.

When the girl left, he went right back to untangling the pile of straps in front of him. It was no concern of his what she did, and her angry storming off didn't affect his behavior until she decided to turn around and come back, asking him if he knew "what", but again not finishing her sentence. What was with her and not having the mental capacity to say something coherent? He could feel his frustration rising, although he wasn't sure what the feeling was.

There was no name that the boy had attributed to frustration, Kaegen simply associated it with rage, called it a kind of anger. She asked what he was planning, however, in the first real sentence she had said in a full two minutes. His eyes narrowed slightly as he complied. She wanted to know what she was too stupid to find out herself? Fine, wish granted.

"The death witches, monsters that hide among us, hide everywhere. More are let in every day, some hide in plain sight, others in the dark corners. The professors laugh as the students die, are eaten. They orchestrate all of this, to see who is strong, to see who gets to live. Far worse than the death witches are the dark places. Are you scared of the dark? Do you feel like you're being watched by the shadows, feel the heavy glare of a predator breathing down your neck but when you turn you find nothing?

The dark places are real, what you feel, assuming you're smart enough to notice any of this, is real. Death is real but I will kill Death and I will kill the dark places and the professors and every last death witch that was ever conceived. I already know how to kill a few of them. My knowledge will grow and with it my strength. And all you have to do is stay alive until I'm done."

It would have been defiant, had his throat not sounded as if he had spend the previous week screaming and coughing into a pillow while trapped in a coffin. His voice sounded more sick than brave, more weak than glorious. But his eyes were steady, aside from the twitching, inhuman spasms that his pupils were performing.

Because as far as he was concerned, he was right. Everything he had said was the untarnished truth and anyone who said otherwise was trying to deceive him. A harsh truth to be sure, but one he had learned to accept.

She stood stiffly, holding her breath. Phaedra didn’t buy the “death witches” or that the professors were even behind them. Sure, she didn’t exactly trust the higher-ups, but she still felt that Kaegen wanting to kill them just for their association as Hogwarts staff was not only unjust but also laughably stupid. This boy was absolute bonkers believing that he could take on adults with years of experience over him. If what he was accusing them of was even remotely true, well, he wouldn’t get close to slaying a single one.

However, this was all based on her assumption that his skill level was that of a twelve-year-old. She did not truly know Kaegen’s history other than unreliable rumours. Maybe he was some other-worldly master of destruction; unlikely but possible. But that precisely was what was so frightening— Phaedra didn’t know for certain whether he was just mostly harmless and saying these things for attention or if he were a real and true threat to herself, her friends, and her school.

She had a good guess, but either way, his revelations concerned her.

Throughout the rest of his monologue, her eyes glanced down to the book by his feet. He was no longer reading it, but it must have related a great deal to the subject of death, what else? Phaedra doubted herself immensely after a fleeting thought of running off with it. Her forte was avoiding trouble altogether or reasoning her way out of it; not impulsive moves against someone clearly unhinged. The Stavrou took a long, deep breath and looked up again to hold her eyes on him by the time he finished. 

“Okay,” she stated briefly, her hands held up defensively. “You have a point. I have gotten stalked by something unexplainable. Luckily, I was not alone, and the death witch who attacked us has since earned his comeuppance.” Could a boy be a death-witch? She didn’t know or care, but she knew that there was a visible hit to Ben’s reputation before his disappearance. It was the talk of the year. “I’m sure you’ve heard all about that.”

Suddenly, she clasped her hands tightly and pressed an arm comfortably against the wand at her side. “Now, you said you know how to get rid of the professors. Are you certain? Is that book where you keep your information? The Headmaster is the one everyone seems to want gone the most, which means he’ll fight back the hardest. You need to prepare for anything he has under his sleeve. Have you researched any education or work history to get a glimpse of what you're in for?” 

After an attempt at smiling reassuringly, she added, “... I’m sorry I called you a crazy bastard, too. I should’ve known better. You know how it is, being a Ravenclaw. Others are so quick to judge when our ideas deviate from what’s expected of us. Can I get a closer look at whatever’s in the book?”

She had gotten stalked? He had known none of that, but the fact that a death witch had tried to attack her didn't surprise him in the slightest. Of course a death witch had tried to attack her, they tried to attack almost everyone. They were evil, it was kinda what they did. They were mostly expendable, from what he could tell. Or else the professors just didn't care about their lives.

Maybe they were part of some other school, maybe the death witches and the students of Hogwarts were competing against each other. It was a possibility, sure, but a possibility that didn't carry much weight with the ravenclaw boy. If they weren't on his side, then their lives didn't matter. If they weren't like him then they were prey, creatures to be slaughtered and defended against. Monsters.

He didn't change much when she told him about the death witch, it simply wasn't surprising, it was like telling him that the sky was blue, or that stairs were evil. They simply were those things, there wasn't much there to be surprised about. What really shocked him was her mood shift. Suddenly she seemed to agree with his plans, she was troubleshooting them.

Kae's eyes didn't know if they should narrow in mistrust or widen in surprise, so they did some odd mixture of both that ended up more or less staying at the normal wideness level. He had sat back down to untangle, but now stood up, using his hands to spring himself to his feet, fingernails making a loud 'clack' on the hard floor as he did so.

She wanted to make sure he knew how to get rid of the professors. Well, yes he did. He knew pretty much exactly how to get rid of most of them. He nodded his head carefully when she asked that, a slow up and down motion that kept his eyes trained on her, suspicious, interested, careful. He was starting to nod to the question about the book, before he stopped himself, deciding instead to use his voice.

"Yes."

She told him how the headmaster was going to be the hardest, told him how he really did have to prepare. He knew all that already, preparing was all that he had been doing for the longest time. But he didn't get very frustrated by it. His tumultuous mind reminded itself that she didn't know, she was trying to help, this was what helping looked like. Well, it was probably what helping looked like. Had anyone actually helped him with this before?

"I've done my research, but fights against death witches aren't recorded. At least not in the main section."

His eyes narrowed, lips pressing together to form a thin line. The restricted section, the stupid part of the library where all the interesting books were. He could vaguely feel the muscles in his hands tensing at the thought of all that knowledge. No, knowledge wasn't the right word. The more appropriate term to use would be power. All that power locked away, just out of his reach.

He didn't really know what she meant with the comment about being a Ravenclaw. Were the houses really that different? He saw them more as arbitrary tribes with color coding, and less as houses with individual personalities. He was in blue house because the hat decided there was an empty bed, who cared about the details? But there was something in the boy that liked having someone he knew wasn't entirely evil try to help.

He didn't want to endanger the little bit of good feelings that the conversation invited in to his little raisin of a heart, so he didn't mention what she had said as weird. He didn't even notice that he didn't feel the need to ask about it.

The book was meant as a present anyway, he was alright with sharing some of what was inside. Picking up the book, he flipped through it a bit before passing it across to the girl, although the second it left his hand, assuming it did, he would instantly become far more uneasy, muscles visibly tensing beneath his thin, almost translucent skin.

The page he had opened it to read 'Fairy' in large letters near the top, along with a brief synopsis

'Confirmed human

Power level: probably high, is a friend to Eris

Status: Neutral

How to kill: Although Fairy's offensive powers are presumably decent, she tends to be busy, or preoccupied. Fairy often sits with her back exposed. Her weakness is her back, and being snuck up on, although this is not obvious at first, as she will, on occasion, check behind her, she usually looks over her left shoulder, and occasionally will even twitch in the direction she is thinking about checking before she actually checks it, allowing for a relatively easy unseen approach. As she is human, a knife will do the job satisfactorily.

Other powers/abilities: Unknown'

There were a few extra notes scribbled about here and there, such as 'mostly uninteresting' or 'people will occasionally find her unusually interesting, usually guys. Reasons unknown.'

He had opened to this page more to prove to her that the rest of the information was as accurate as this was than anything else. To show that he did actually know what he was doing.

Phaedra had to stop herself from practically snatching the book out of Kaegen’s hands, his sudden switch to uneasiness left unnoticed as she instead glued her eyes onto the leather-bound journal. At the top of the open page was the word “Fairy” in large letters, but it did not register until she resumed further down that the “Fairy” in question was referring to her. Her simpering expression fell, almost immediately, and she raised both eyebrows in shock.

She would have laughed at the nickname had the rest of the page not contained such in-depth musings about her weaknesses. There wasn’t much, but those included were fairly accurate. Phaedra knew she favoured her left side, and without a doubt, she was always busy; her marks depended on it. However, she never cared before about her back being exposed to Merlin-knows-what, but she’d care now. As disturbing as it was, these were valuable tips.

Her mouth pressed in a thin line, Phaedra continued reading. There was a scribbled section about her being mostly uninteresting, in which she brought her face closer to the pages, now offended. Even more so after continuing on and seeing that implication of his— that she was “sometimes unusually interesting” to some, mostly boys. Was Mr. In-Everyone’s-Business now taking the piss out of her? It certainly felt like it to her. At that moment, Phaedra was thankful she wasn’t paler because her face felt hot. “Very funny,” she said after a tsk.

Closing the book, she held it back out for Kaegen to take. Afterwards, she would brush off her hands as if tainted from it take a step back for the second time.

"Impressive. You've really surprised me today. But sadly, I have somewhere to be and time's a'ticking for this plan of yours. I'll leave you to it."

Her heart pumping, she didn't wait for any response and walked back to her pile to pick up all of her slumped-over belongings. Flinging her book-bag over her shoulder, she speed-walked to the rehearsal room door and pushed it open to step into the corridors. It could have been much worse, she supposed. Now which was the fastest way to the Headmaster, again?

Phaedra leaves the thread.

Well, no ally there. She left as soon as she came, and if he didn't miss his guess she seemed almost sick? Maybe just feeling ill, probably poison in the food, he would have to make a note that she was susceptible to that. But it didn't really matter, in the end. She was human, he knew she was. So yeah, mostly uninteresting. And yet he did feel a desire to write a little bit more about her, or talk to her maybe? It was a small desire, a desire that his entire being crushed as soon as he had identified it. That was not conducive to survival, not at all. She would die one day, and he would not know, or care.

Kneeling back down, Kaegen continued to sort out his stuff, preparing himself. The brief interruption passed through his mind as quickly as it had entered it, and his focus returned with reinforcements. He would plan a bit more, and then proceed. There was a small fear that she would report him, but she was eris' friend. That was extremely unlikely, after all, reporting him would be helping the death witches, and why would eris hang out with someone who would do that?

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