The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna

Chapter 28

Getting Ready for Term

"We will have more students than we've ever had." Helga looked around the kitchen table, where it was now a habit to gather to discuss school business.

"Four hundred and thirty two, my goodness," Kista murmured. "Will we have enough wands ready?"

"We should, the older students will be fitted with their wands and the younger can use the old ones from the upper classes until we have a fit for them. I will work it out with what we have," Temin said.

"The creatures, are they safe enough to offer the classes you want?" Rowena sat with the lists spread out in front of her, checking off each duty.

"He plans on taking the older students up to the mountains to see the dragons," Kista hissed. "He delights in them. I think his mind is addled."

"He will do fine, Kista. It will be a good outing for them, and a good time for the older defence class to gain experience." Gryffin laughed at her and winked at Temin.

"Helga? How are you coming?"

"Since Hanson has managed to use the new spell on the hogwarts," she paused to shoot Erwin and Gryffin looks, "I should have enough time for the Herb lessons and the household lessons."

"She does too much," Hanson said, scowling at her. "Last year she was awake until the last star appeared and up again before the sun. She needs to be out of the kitchen."

"Hanson, I enjoy work here. It is ... it is like home," Helga said, looking around at the fires and hearth ovens that lined the wall.

"He is right, Helga. With all the children we will have this year it would be too much," Alya said. "She is not a servant here, she is a teacher. I am teaching the lessons to the girls, to teach them when it is time to hide their magic in the non-magical world. However, she will still not have enough time."

"To hide their magic?" Gryffin frowned at her.

"To live, if they must, with Muggles. They must learn how the Muggle money works, and how to ride a horse. Other things we have no use for will be taught as well," Alya said.

"I have purchased two horses with trade from wands, it is taken care of," Temin offered.

"Helga, they are right. It is far too much," Rowena said, looking at her lists. "Perhaps if you want to help with celebrations, the first night the students are here, and one before they leave, it would be enough."

"Then you need to add a lesson on the healing stones, and casting into the mirrors." Helga folded her arms and leaned back in her chair, giving Hanson a hard look.

"Elmira will teach the stones," Salazar said. "I spoke to her this morn and she will take one lesson a day. She is old, she cannot do more, but her knowledge is too much to lose."

"Marcus and Karra are copying her stories and Healing songs to parchment to be saved after she leaves us." Rowena looked around at the table and saw the nods. "I will teach the spells and wards, and how to find the thread to unwrap wards already set."

"You should also take Conjuring," Salazar said. "Transfiguring sometimes overflows to spells and charms. It would be best to keep them under the same roof."

"Salazar, I have you giving far too many lessons in Potions and Dark Arts. Do we need them? Do you think it right to teach the dark part of magic?" Rowena asked.

Gryffin looked at Bretta and saw her redden under his gaze. "Perhaps our guest Bretta would like to offer her expertise."

"We cannot expect our students to protect themselves from what they do not know, Rowena." Salazar frowned at Gryffin. "They need to learn as much as they can of the Dark Arts and make their own decision on it."

"Not all of the Dark Arts should be banned. Not all Dark Arts should even be considered dark in these times,' Bretta said, glaring at Gryffin.

"Rowena has developed a list, made by reading blood. If we were to follow all the old ways we could not even use this, it is Dark as it uses blood. It is the intention, not the act that should decide," Alya added.

"Yes." Gryffin sneered and stood to leave. "The intention should be more important. A spell is dark if it affects more then just the caster. If perchance another life is at..."

"I am done here." Bretta stood as well. "I planned on taking the younger students again this year. Perhaps I shall move to the town instead. I thought perhaps of opening a shop... a shop for... for things the students may need... perhaps... I do not know yet."

Bretta picked up her robes and pulled them up as she ran from the table and up the steps to the dining hall above. Not stopping, she ran through the room and down the hall, headed for the doors. She had felt his anger and his hatred and needed to leave the room, a room too close and underground. She needed to be outside on the meadows where she could look up and see the sky.

"Gryffin! What was that about?" Rowena looked at him in shock. "What did you mean by that? If she leaves, you will have to take over all the lessons and there is not enough time in the day. Even with Karra helping with the youngest there is not enough time."

"Milt and Rossia are moving to town. They will open a shop for cloth," Salazar said. "They have ordered looms and Helga has found spells to speed them. Rossia will be able to make robes. Bretta has not thought of this before now, Gryffin, she thought it as she stood here."

"Our meeting is done," Gryffin said, seeing each face looking at him.

"No," Erwin said. "We still have to go though one more list I see Rowena has brought. Sit down, Gryffin. She is gone outside by now. Leave her be. Whatever it is you have done, it has angered her."

"The only thing left is the text tomes." Rowena looked around the table worrying her lip. "Milt is still fearful of approaching Mave. Is there no way around this?"

Salazar looked at Gryffin darkly, then scowled and shook his head. "Rowena, Mave is not what you want her to be. You worry of Dark Arts and you talk of Mave at the same time? She has turned darker than the Black Arts themselves. She seeks power, and only the power of night."

"I will tell Milt and Rossia that the copies must be made here and that the rest of the texts are lost." She looked at Salazar and shook her head. "She has parchments from the hand of Merlin himself, and parchments from beyond the tribes of the north. She has so many things I have heard, that she can not fit them all in two rooms."

"Now," Erwin said, looking at Gryffin. "What of Bretta? What will her lessons be?"

"I could use her to teach the healing songs," Helga said somewhat hopefully.

"I am sure she will do as she is told." Gryffin spat out. "She has no place else to go, she must fit in here or be on her own."

"I will not have you fighting her, Gryffin." Helga stood and put her hands on her hips. "She seems a good witch. The children respect her and she does whatever work we ask her to do."

"Then you ask her for help. I do not need her in my lessons."

"You need to get off whatever stone you sat on and start to..."

"Helga?" Hanson cautioned. "That is enough."

Rowena looked at Salazar and saw his smirk, and saw Kista and Alya move their chairs away from the table. "Helga?" she said weakly.

"Don't you tell me it is enough," Helga said, pointing her finger at Hanson. "Don't you even take that path with me. I know him, I know him well and if you think I will let him get away with treating Bretta like that you can go sit on the same stone he does."

"I am only saying to cool your temper." He scowled at her. Hearing Salazar's snigger, he turned his eyes for just a moment and missed the bucket that was dipping into the stream behind him. "Helga, it is not..."

That was as far as he got before the water poured slowly over his head. He stared at Helga and saw her snarl as her wand set the now empty bucket down.

"Shall we talk of who needs to cool down?" She stepped closer to him, jabbing her finger to his chest. "I don't remember your complaining of my heat before. I don't remember you saying "Stop Helga,", "Do not say that Helga" or "That is enough Helga," when you want something, so don't..."

She stopped and looked around when she heard the guffaws, then saw Hanson's red face. She turned to Salazar and pointed her wand at him.

"You tell him and tell him now that whatever is between him and Bretta that he is to settle it and settle it quickly. She will take the younger students, no matter what he says." She then turned to Gryffin.

"What have you done to her? You act like...," she said, then paused, lowering her wand. "So that is it. You are taken with her, or you have taken her, whichever it is."

"Helga!" Gryffin tried to silence her. "For a witch not known for a subtle tongue I would suggest you dry off your husband and leave this."

Hanson had already started toward Helga, and snatched the wand from her hand, angrily holding her wrist and pulling her to the steps.

"We are leaving now. I think she has said and done quite enough." Hanson felt his lip twitch at the look on Gryffin's face. He knew that look. He believed he had worn it for at least a year before he had claimed Helga.

They watched Hanson and Helga leave and Gryffin stomp up the steps after them before Salazar threw his head back and laughed in earnest.

"My gods, how I have missed my old Helga. The summer seemed long without her."

Alya grinned and slapped his arm, then stood and started to leave as well. "I see this will go no further. Until the students come in a few days I plan to work on making the dungeons in this place more livable."

"She has brought half of the city back with her and enough frames and paintings to start covering the walls. She will break my accounts at the rate she is spending." Salazar smiled as he watched her walk up the stairs. "Rowena, she needs to see Helga once a week. The Slytherin Healer told us that she is fine. However, my mother says she is too old to practice the art of the stones, and I trust no one else but her and Helga."

"Once a week? Do you think she is made of glass?" Rowena laughed at him. "I will tell Helga to make it seem like a visit so as not to alarm Alya. If she is told to go to a Healer once a week you will only succeed in scaring her that the child she carries is not well."

"I lost one family Rowena, I will not lose another," he said softly so only she could hear as he kissed her cheek and took his leave.

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Gryffin headed toward the new town on foot rather than on a broom. He needed time to get the memory of Bretta's anger from his mind. That she would threaten to live in town to put more distance between them infuriated him and made him want her even more.

He had said nothing as she had avoided him by taking to sitting at a different table in the dining hall. He had said nothing when she would turn the other way when she saw him approaching her in the hallways. He had said nothing in the evenings when he had gone outside and seen her walking alone, as was her habit, avoiding the others and keeping to herself.

He thought he would not say anything to her now. He would keep busy and put her from his mind. He tried to think of Lara but only Bretta's face would come to his mind.

He entered the town and went first to the inn, seeing the flickering of a candle from the upstairs window. He was angry that Hengest waited until so close to the students' arrival to come and meet with traders.

"Hengest!" Gryffin thundered when he was able to enter the inn finding no wards set and no one on the lowest floor. "I need you down here and I need you now."

"I am not used to taking orders from teachers at a school." Hengest spoke from the top of the stairs. "I am busy. Speak your mind and be gone."

"You were to be here a moon ago. What of the supplies you were to put in this year?" Gryffin looked around the room he stood in, seeing no trace of business.

"I have traders coming tomorrow." Hengest shrugged as if unconcerned. "Tonight I have a private guest."

"Private?"

"Yes," Hengest said, jerking his head to indicate the rooms above. "My wife does not join me until tomorrow and I thought I would pass the time with a witch that is being most difficult."

"And the witch's name, Hengest? What would her name be?" Gryffin fingered his wand that he held in his sleeve.

"Mara, or is it Wila? I do not know which is which." He laughed and turned to go back upstairs. "Two unattached witches and I with only one night. I must ask you to leave. I have much to do this night if I am to welcome them both."

Gryffin took the stairs two at a time, pushing Hengest aside and looking along the floor until he saw the flicker of light coming from under a door. Striding over he pushed on the door to feel the wards push back.

"Open it Hengest, open it now." He pulled his wand and pointed it at Hengest's chest. "It is warded from this side, to keep her in. Now open it before I use this on you."

Hengest shrugged and flicked his wand, releasing the ward and allowing Gryffin to enter the room. "Two witches living in a pub, what do you think they are?"

Gryffin found Mara standing by the window, pressing her back against the wall and staring at him with tears running down her face.

"Gryffin!" She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. "I came to welcome him to town. I came to be polite and friendly."

"Right." Hengest laughed. "I have heard of these northern witches and how friendly they can be. I wanted to find out my self."

"Go," Gryffin said to Mara softly. "It is fine, Mara, you have not been hurt."

"Gryffin, he meant to keep ..."

"I said go, Mara, I know what he intended." Gryffin looked at Hengest darkly.

"Gryffin, you can't do this. He is a wizard, it is against our laws." Mara moved behind him, but did not leave the room. "He was a lord of much land in the Muggle world. He will be missed by them, if they come looking it will be bad for all of us, especially the witches."

"He meant to ... to hurt you, Mara." Gryffin did not believe she would defend him.

"If he had then I could kill him, but Gryffin, he did not. If you kill him you will have done so for only what might have happened." Mara pleaded with him. "Punish him, that is your right, but do not kill him."

"Mara, leave." He reached behind him with his free hand, pulled her forward and pushed her toward the door. "He owes you his life. Quite a debt for a once lord to owe a mere witch of the north. Would you not say the same, Hengest?"

"I owe her nothing," Hengest spat as Mara fled the room.

"Yes, you owe her a life debt for a life still in my hands. Give her the debt or you will not see the sun rise yet again."

"What debt would you expect me to pay a whore of a witch?" Hengest saw the wand rise to the throat and saw that Gryffin did not flinch as he flicked the wand. Hengest felt his feet leave the floor and his back slam into the wall behind him.

"You bastard," Hengest sneered as he started to rise only to feel the blast of magic, and again he slammed into the wall.

"I warn twice," Gryffin sniggered. "You have felt my warnings. Shall we see what happens next or shall you make an oath? One more countless death on my back will not matter tomorrow."

"You would not dare." Hengest staggered to his feet, glaring at the wizard who now smiled at him.

"I have been out of battle a long time, Hengest. I miss it as much as you miss your whores."

Hengest looked at Gryffin and his cold smile. "Fine, she will have my oath, I am in debt to her."

"I am not sure that is quite enough as I do not like the way you talk of her." Gryffin again flicked his wand, this time watching him fall to the ground and wither in pain. "You will not touch any witch here. If you do, remember, this is your second crime."

"My second?" Hengest gasped for air as the curse lifted.

"Yes, I believe your first was selling your daughter. This is the second. You will not survive a third."

"You cannot do this. You have no right to come in here and ..."

"The go back to Vortigern, or shall I go find him for you?"

Hengest blanched and sat down heavily of the edge of a bed, watching the wizard walk out, and stayed without moving until he heard the footfalls fade, and the door open and close from the first floor. He knew Vortigern would kill him.

Gryffin left the inn to find Mara. She needed to know not to travel alone while traders were in town. If Hengest was any indication of the company he kept, he feared for the witches. He would speak to the others about forcing them to come back to Hogwarts and not allowing them here alone.

He looked up at the sign over the door the witches had put out advertising the fact that the mead was here. He shook his head, grinned, and thought that Alya needed perhaps to start with these two, naming their shop after what was inside. The sign proclaiming "Hog's Head" was crudely made. It hung by iron hinges, squeaking as he opened the door, then falling against the side of the building when it closed.

"Willa, you need to fix the sign. I will have Hanson or Milt come to move it higher so not to hit the door," he shouted out to her as he walked into the pub, seeing her behind a long table where she was stacking empty pint containers.

"Gryffin, what happened?" She put down her cloth and walked over to him. "Mara came in and ran up stairs. She will not talk to me."

"Hengest gave her a scare." He grabbed her elbow when she turned to flee up the stairs. "No, she is fine, she was scared but she is fine. I only came to tell you not to travel alone. Not to Hogwarts, not to Helga's sweet shop, or to buy cloth. Make sure you two are not alone when a trader is in town and stay away from the inn."

"She should know better. She is too trusting." Willa looked back up the stairs. "Gryffin, she is young, she thinks only the best of people."

"She should not be working here, Willa. As soon as another can be found we will move you back to Hogwarts. I will speak to the others, but this cannot continue."

"I will stay here if I like, Gryffin. I will do things differently, and try harder to watch over Mara but I am not made to sit at a school and copy with a quill." She shook her head. "No, this is where I stay."

"We shall see."

"I have heard the students speak of their families wanting to come here to live. It is safer, and out of the sight of men."

"We do not want to encourage too many until the madness is behind us. We do not yet know who to trust." Gryffin heard footfalls behind him and turned to see Bretta.

"So, Bretta, this is where you run?" He walked over to her and stood close enough to touch her but did not. "I will walk you back."

"I have a broom."

"Leave it." He smirked.

"It is cold."

"I will make sure you are warm." He ran his thumb over her lips. "I think we need to make our peace with one another."

"I don't think it is peace that you want."

"Will you walk with me?" he whispered and was glad to see her nod.