Luna left and soon returned with a bright blue potion in a tiny bottle. "Here it is."
"What is it?" "It is anti-doxy bite potion."
Alex looked at the blonde haired, gray eyed witch, incredulity seeping from every pore on her young face. "You had this just lying around?"
Luna's face remained as dreamy as ever. "It is very important to be prepared for anything that might happen, and me and Daddy do go hunting occasionally."
Alex stared at Luna for another moment before shrugging, opening her mouth wide, and making an 'Ahhhhhh' sound.
Luna tipped the potion in, not letting any liquid fall off her outstretched tongue.
Alex snapped her mouth shut, gulped it down, and immediately started to feel a reduction in soreness in her leg and hand. She let out a sigh. "Thanks, Luna."
"That is quite all right, Alex. Would you like to start occlumency training now?"
Alex's hesitated, briefly thinking back to her as yet unexplored birthday inheritance, and then remembered that, for the time being, she had no way to get to it. Then she thought back to what had happened yesterday, when Luna had blown through her occlumency barriers like they were tissue paper, just because she'd gotten special lessons from Lord Slytherin. Lessons that she could have had, but had thrown away in a fit of childish arrogance. Her eyes firmed. "Yes."
If Alex thought that Lord Slytherin's special lessons would be easier than her previous occlumency lessons, then she was sorely mistaken. She'd never ever done anything so hard. Everyday, for hours and hours, Luna ripped through her head like a hurricane, destroying everything in her path and building it back up as she went. Her brain ached and she went to bed every night exhausted, only to wake up the next morning with a thumping magical toxin hangover — a hangover that she somehow had to hide from her father, every single day.
August came and went and soon enough September the first rolled around.
"How much longer are we going to do this?" Alex groggily asked a faintly smiling Luna. They were sitting opposite each other on Alex's bed.
"A few more months yet. Your body should be getting used to the magic soon and you won't feel so bad in the morning."
"Good." Alex clutched her head. "I feel like… horrible."
"Here, drink more water."
Alex grabbed the offered bottle and gulped it down.
"You know, Alex, you are doing quite well. I think we're ready to start on wandless magic, although we do still have to continue on with the occlumency for a while yet."
Alex raised her head to look at the annoyingly chipper vision in front of her. "Eghhh… do we have to? I still don't see the point of learning wandless magic."
"Oh, Alex." Luna shifted closer and took her unresisting hands in hers. "There's so much to look forward to once you learn wandless magic. It's not just about casting spells without a wand. You'd be missing out on so much."
"Like?"
"Well, there's magic sensing, and all the girls are going to become Animagi the year after next, and it does give you a last line of defence if you lose your wand. I love knowing that if any boy tries anything with me, even without a wand, I can still swat him away like the annoying pest he is."
Alex frowned. That did sound attractive, although the point was fairly moot since she had a boy's strength anyway. She'd never wanted to be an animagus before. It was something her father had done and, therefore, not something she'd wanted to do, but if it was with a whole bunch of other girls…. 'All the girls'? Alex frowned and opened her mouth.
"And then of course, there's the fact that wandless magic is sort of the badge of honour for those Lord Slytherin trusts."
Alex slowly closed her mouth. Oh. She opened it again. "So, it's like a test?"
"Alex, with Lord Slytherin, everything is a test."
Alex's eyes widened. Oh, damn. It was just like last time, when she'd turned away Harry. Damn damn damn. She shook her head. Her violet eyes firmed."Right. Let's do it then."
Alex sat alone in the Black Library reading a book from one of the sections her dad had forbidden her from entering. Her eyes widened as she skimmed the pages.
And of all the necromantic arts, the most basic, nay, the most elemental, is the raising of a magical being under the binding of the raiser. The raised, known as inferi, will obey the will of the raiser to a certain degree in the large numbers, and to a greater degree in the small numbers. A total control can be attained over a single inferius through a method similar in the practise to that most potente of all dark mind magics, the imperius curse.
Images of mighty undead dragons flew through Alex's mind.
The ritual required to raise inferi requires a moste powerful wizzard and much practise and deliberations. The ritual in the first phase animates the corpse, and reconciles its core with that which has passed on. The ritual in the second phase binds the now animated corpse to the wizzard's will, but only in so much as the wizzard be powerful and the corpse be fresh. If the wizzard fails in this phase, beware, for the beast will run riot across all in sight until the ritual's magics run down and die out. The ritual in the third and final phase opens the now inferius' core to the aether and allows the being to exist apart from the now master's magic.
So you needed a magical core to be an inferius? Didn't that meant that muggles couldn't be inferi? She looked back and forth across the book but couldn't find anything that might confirm or deny her question, although many pages seemed to have conspicuous burn marks all over them, including several passages that dealt with the ritual itself. She re-read the passage again.
'A moste powerful wizzard and much practise and deliberations…'
Alex sighed. If there was one thing that her lessons with Luna had driven home, it was that she was 'behind'. She'd unwittingly rebuffed Lord Slytherin and was now in a position of having to prove herself if she wanted what her friend was already getting. This sounded like just the thing to prove she was more than ready to learn more. She was sure she was powerful, but it wasn't as though she had a horde of people ready for her to… practise… on…
A lightbulb went off in her head. She grinned.
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