Magical Hogwarts

It didn't feel like the end of term, much less like an exciting beginning to the summer. Ruslan had enjoyed the anticipation, even hadn't minded terribly when Klyk had lost the Quidditch tournament (though he was very glad he hadn't taken part, given the amount of scrapes and bruises that were inflicted on and by both teams), but then... Well, he didn't really know what had happened, just that somene had died and there were to be no end of year celebrations. There was a feast of course, because that was traditional and if you were going to eat dinner you might as well eat a good one, but there were no decorations, no speeches and honestly, Ruslan had no idea how to behave.

He knew people died of course, but those were old people who had lived long lives, not students just a few years older than himself. It was sad but it was also scary...what if he messed up a spell and the same thing happened to him? Ruslan didn't stop to consider that freak accidents were just that, and in the past couple of days he had started to feel afraid of casting any spells at all. Maybe, if he did really well in the junior championships this summer his parents would agree he could stay home and train full time. He could do theoretical studies at home and not have to use his wand at all. Yes, that would surely be the safest plan.

As he approached the Grand hall he slipped a hand into his pocket, feeling slightly happier when a small whiskered nose nuzzled his fingers. There was probably some rule against bringing pets in to feasts, but he had never bothered to ask and Makar was small enough that he wasn't noticed. Reaching the door, he stopped dead and bit his lip. He'd heard the no decorations part, but hadn't realised the whole school would be in mourning. It made everything seem even more real, and he stopped where he was, not wanting to go any further.

The end of term wasn’t just the end of term for Zhenya. This particular end of term marked the end of her time at Durmstrang. It felt both relieving and frightening to know that her time at school came to an end. She had been eagerly waiting for this day and at the same time dreaded it and wished it would never come. 

Her N.E.W.T. exams had gone rather poorly. Zhenya seriously doubted that she had passed any of them. The oral and practical exams had felt particularly awful. Returning an almost blank piece of parchment was embarrassing for sure, but nothing was worse than being questioned from eye to eye and not being able to give any satisfying answers. She had stuttered some bits of information and had ultimately told one of the examiners that he should give her the answer already as she didn’t know it and would never be able to answer herself.

Given her academic failures during the years of her magical education, Zhenya should have been looking forward to the time after school, but the young athlete felt that more disappointments were waiting for her outside of school. Having been stuck at Durmstrang for the past months, she was certain that she missed out precious training time which meant that she would hardly be competitive as a senior athlete. Her family surely expected her to do well and compete for the spots on the international team, but how could she do that? There were Aglaya, Svetlana, Larisa who also came from the family and were far stronger and more experienced. There was a girl named Maria who had almost made the team last year and there was Yelizaveta who was graduating from Durmstrang this year as well and who seemed in better shape - physically and mentally.

To make Zhenya’s mood even worse, a student had died at Durmstrang and everybody was still in shock and grieving the poor kid. Everything just felt wrong and the young woman would have loved to hide and just try and process everything, but there was no time for that. She had to attend the end of term dinner and then, soon enough, she’d be at Rybinsk, facing her new challenges.

As she made her way to the Grand Hall, she let her fingers run over the cold stone walls of the building, feeling not in the slightest sentimental that she wouldn’t return here after the summer. Reaching the door, she saw her younger brother and approached him, grateful for the distraction.

“Lanchik,” she said and put a hand on her brother’s shoulder, “what are you standing here? Don’t you want to get in? Aren’t you hungry?” She could understand if Ruslan told her that he’d rather go elsewhere as she was tempted to avoid the dinner herself.

Were end of term feasts compulsory? Ruslan didn't know, and he couldn't remember anyone ever mentioning it before. He had just assumed that it was one of those things you had to go to, like classes, but really, how would he get into trouble if he wasn't there? Would anyone even notice? If someone was sick and in the hospital wing, they were hardly going to be wheeled out in their bed and parked beside one of the tables. Perhaps if he pretended he was feeling ill he wouldn't need to go in either.

He jumped at the feel of a hand on his shoulder, even as he recognised his sister's voice and knew he hadn't been caught loitering here by a professor. He knew his face displayed a guilty look though, even as he tried to conceal it. Not that it would make any difference. Big sisters always knew things like that. He shrugged and stared down at his shoes, not wanting to say anything. If he could just sit with Zhenya maybe he would feel a bit better, but they were in different houses so didn't see much of each other at school. He should have walked down with Lina, he realised, but she was probably already in there.

Zhenya was still standing there, still waiting for an answer. Ruslan managed a small shrug that was supposed to convey - well whatever his sister took it to mean. And then, after a pause, he added "I'm not hungry." What he really wanted to say was that he didn't want to go in there at all, that he wanted her to make everything alright and suggest a walk in the grounds. Anything, really, that meant he didn't have to think about that fact that someone had died.

“Not hungry…” Zhenya echoed. End of term dinners were usually something to look forward to. Maybe not so much for athletes, though. The artistic flyers had to watch their diet, especially considering that the summer was competition time and they needed to be in their best shape.

“I get that,” the seventh year said, offering her little brother an encouraging smile.

“It all feels wrong, doesn’t it?” Zhenya asked. It was more a rhetorical question than one she expected to get answered. “I can’t believe that this is my last day at Durmstrang.”

The mixed feelings that came with the end of her academic career at Durmstrang were hard to process. Zhenya was relieved to leave the school that she hated so much behind, but the prospect of being an adult now and competing among the senior athletes freaked her out as well. She didn’t feel ready and, truth be told, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever feel prepared for what lay ahead.

Rodion had managed quite well, it seemed, but then her elder brother had also been tsar for Klyk Vampira and was generally just better at everything. He had transitioned fairly well into the senior ranks of their sport. Zhenya, on the other hand, felt that she could never compete with the likes of Aglaya or Svetlana. Anyone who thought differently was delusional in her opinion.

There was a scuff on his right shoe. Ruslan frowned at it; he liked his clothes to look neat at all times, as was fitting for a future champion, and he was irritated that he hadn't polished it properly this morning. Just another item to add to the list of things that were dampening his mood.

He forced himself to look up to his sister's face, and realised that he didn't have to look quite so far now. How come he hadn't noticed himself growing this year? He hoped his costumes wouldn't need to be adjusted! And with that thought, at least a little bit of the despondency was chased away. Ruslan matched his sister's smile.

"Yeah. It's going to be weird without you here next year."

Suddenly he knew for sure that he didn't want to go in there, didn't want to listen to the speeches, to hear about the deceased student and how good they'd been at everything (even at his young age Ruslan had noticed there was no such thing as a bad obituary). He shuffled his feet, then stopped when he remembered that would scuff his shoes even more, and said "Can we just... go somewhere else? Will something bad happen if we don't go in there?" 

“Yeah…”

The next year would be weird for sure. Suddenly the realisation that she would be a full time athlete struck her as quite weird. Did her family really expect her to do nothing but train and work on new routines? Coming straight from school this seemed so odd and, frankly, rather tiring. Was she really supposed to focus on artistic flying all day long? Seven days a week?

Her year mates were going to study (which was an impossible thought for Zhenya who never wanted to have to sit an exam again and was relieved that she had survived seven years at school) or they were starting a job which would guarantee them a regular income. Of course, her family wouldn’t let her starve if she didn’t win prize money in her first season among the seniors, but she would be dependent for as long as it took her to be a successful athlete if she’d ever manage that at all.

Suddenly she felt cold and shivered. Maybe the time at Durmstrang hadn’t been quite so bad after all. At least she had been a relatively normal teenager whose main task was to go to school and, well, train artistic flying in every free minute.

Her brother’s question interrupted her train of thought before it could spiral out of control and leave her totally freaked out.

“Oh… hmm,” what did she know about it? Zhenya wasn’t sure what happened if you skipped the end of term dinner. So far she had always gone because that was expected of her. However, breaking out of that seemed rather intriguing.

“I say if we sneak out somewhere and nobody sees us, we should be fine,” she whispered and immediately thought that she needed to be more responsible. Maybe nothing bad could happen to her at Durmstrang anymore, but Ruslan still had a few years of school ahead and he might get into trouble. Still, the prospect of, for once, not doing what was expected of her kept her from rectifying her initial statement.

Neither spoke for a while, and Ruslan wondered what would happen if they just stood out here and didn't go anywhere. Would one of the professors come out and ask what they were doing and tell them they had to go in and sit down? That might not be so terrible if it was one of the nicer professors, but it would still mean walking in there, and he supposed nearly all the other students had gone in already... Ruslan was perfectly comfortable performing in front of hundreds of people, in fact he looked forward to it, but walking into a crowded hall of fellow students where he didn't really want to be anyway was another matter entirely.

Oh, good! Zhenya had said it was okay...she'd given him permission...well no, that was exactly right. That wasn't what she'd said at all, in fact, but it was good enough for him.

"Okay. Where did you want to go?" he whispered back, and just the fact they were whispering felt somehow exciting and dangerous. Ruslan had already taken a couple of steps away from the Grand Hall, his feet feeling light once again. And then he had a brilliant idea. Zhenya was leaving, but although she'd been here seven years there was one place she had never seen.

"Zhenya..." he whispered in a hopeful tone "did you want to see the Klyk common room?"

Zhenya shrugged. She was still shocked that she had told her younger brother that they could skip the end of term dinner. It wasn’t right. Attending that dinner was a rule they had to follow. If Zhenya had learned anything in her life it was that people were expected to follow rules. The whole life was an obstacle course of rules.

Ruslan seemed relieved, though, and the girl couldn’t bring herself to revise her prior statement. If anything happened she’d just have to take the responsibility. She was the older one. She was actually of age now. On the paper she was an adult even if she still felt like an unknowing kid most of the time.

Her brother’s idea to visit the Klyk Vampira common room seemed so venturous, so impossible and yet… It was terribly tempting. The girl smiled nervously and looked around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping on them.

“Do you think that would be possible?” she asked in a hushed voice. Her brothers were both Klyk Vampiras, Rodion was a graduate by now, though, but she had never really considered that she could get into their common room. It had been out of bounds for her. It was trespassing, if Ruslan led her in and yet… “I mean… what if we’re caught?”

Ruslan felt a thrill of excitement, but it wasn't the normal kind he felt when he had just accomplished a new move or was waiting to go into the arena and compete. It was like a jolt in the pit of his stomach, delightful and a little frightening at the same time. They were actually going to skip the dinner. And that was okay, because there wasn't a roll call or anything and if anyone noticed they were missing - well, Evelina could be relied upon to say Ruslan had some mild illness and had wanted to lie down. He expected Zina would do the same for Zhenya. Probably nobody would even put two and two together and realise they were both missing, even if anyone saw.

He nodded, and grinned. His eyes also made a circuit of their surroundings, checking once more that nobody was there. They he looked directly at his sister before turning and walking quietly away from the Grand Hall and slipping around the nearest corner.

"I guess so. Unless there's some sort of charm or hex that stops you getting in" he mused thoughtfully. Then he grinned.  "We won't get it trouble, though. I mean, I'm not doing anything wrong, I'm just entering my own common room. And they can't punish you, you're a graduate! What will they do, send a letter to our parents?" Ruslan grinned up at his sister.

"So what about it? Do you want one last adventure here?"
 

Ruslan definitely had a point. Zhenya was clearly tempted to see the Klyks’ rooms, but something also felt very wrong about her little brother’s suggestion. He was right, he probably wouldn’t get into trouble for entering his own house’s common room. As for herself - well, Zhenya still had to get her N.E.W.T. results. What if she got thrown out of Durmstrang last minute? All the work, all the stress, all the struggles would have been in vain…

Again the usual question occurred to her - what if she had to repeat the school year if she wanted to pass at least some N.E.W.T.s? Would that mean that she’d stay in the junior circuit of the artistic flying scene for longer? That was embarrassing but at the same time not the worst thing that could happen because she definitely wasn’t prepared to compete as a senior athlete yet.

“One last adventure,” Zhenya echoed, still feeling very torn. “Well, lead the way and… we’ll see about it when we’re closer to the entrance.”

Maybe a professor would catch them on the way and ask them to go back to the Grand Hall. That would spare her the decision making.

Any moment now Zhenya was going to be the sensible big sister, tell Ruslan they couldn't possibly go sneaking off when everyone else was at the feast, and he would have to walk in late and feel the eyes of the whole school on him. It would be horrible, and he just knew there wouldn't even be a seat next to Evelina and he would end up next to some grumpy sixth year. Ruslan felt his shoulders start to slump (and he quickly reminded himself of the importance of good posture and forced himself to stand up straight) when Zhenya...

Agreed?

His heart leapt in a way which might have been happy delight and might have been something akin to fear. Now his own doubts began. What if they were caught? What if not all the professors were in the Grand Hall and someone was patrolling just in case of students wandering the corridors? What if...

It would still be better than the whole school staring at him for a reason that wasn't a flying routine.

"Okay! This way..." he said, turning around and starting to walk down the corridor. He glanced back twice, once to check that Zhenya was close behind him, and a second time a moment later to double check nobody else was following. Partway along the corridor the space opened up to a staircase leading upwards. Ruslan took it without hesitation, and a moment later they were on the first floor. He walked more quickly now, confident that they weren't going to be seen. Before long they reached the far end of the first floor and a pair of matching deep alcove. Ruslan chose the left staircase and fairly began to bounce down the three floors that led down to the Klyk quarters.

"Did Rodion tell you it's underwater?" he asked unnecessarily and he practically ran on ahead, quite forgetting about the relatively recent damage to the Klyk common room that had caused the students to be temporarily rehoused "I saw a shark swim past once..!"

As soon as Zhenya had agreed, she regretted it. This wasn’t good, not at all. They likely got caught, maybe they didn’t let her graduate and expelled Ruslan. No, this would be way too extreme, wouldn’t it? This was Durmstrang, after all. Stranger things had happened here.

Ruslan seemed excited, though, and Zhenya couldn’t bring it over herself to disappoint her little brother and ask him to go to the feast he most definitely didn’t want to attend. Besides, she didn’t feel like attending it either. Was there really anything wrong with them meandering through the corridors of Durmstrang on her very last day at the school? Wouldn’t even professors understand that she felt sentimental and wanted to walk around one last time? She didn’t feel sentimental for that matter, but it would be a valid excuse, wouldn’t it?

She followed her little brother and, while Ruslan seemed to pick up speed the closer they got to the Klyk quarters, she slowed down more and more.

Ruslan asked her if she knew that the Klyk Vampira quarters were underwater and Zhenya nodded.

“Well, Lanchik, I think I should probably not proceed any further. It does feel wrong. We should probably go elsewhere.”

If anyone caught them now, she would tell them that her brother had forgotten his tie and that she had walked with him to keep him company. That was hardly a punishable offence.

Although he was going somewhere he'd been a thousand times before, this felt like an adventure because Zhenya was with him. Ruslan was actually grinning now because something interesting was happening, something that wasn't just speeches and the end of term feast. Though now he thought of it, he was quite hungry and it would be nice to eat something soon. He wasn't going to disappoint his big sister though. She deserved to see his common room, and now they were so close, and...

She'd changed her mind?

Ruslan felt his heart sink, but it was hardly surprising. He sighed and nibbled his lower lip, thinking hard.

"Okay. I guess maybe there's some kind of charm that means you wouldn't be able to get in but...the entrance is just down there. You can see it from here, look..." he said, hopefully. If we just go to the end of the corridor, I can open the door and you can look inside. And...and then we can go to the feast if you want to" he added, trying to make it sound as if he would be happy with that plan.

Well, he would be happy with that plan, he decided, just so long as he could persuade Zhenya those last few steps. Before she could respond he jogged to the door and pushed it open, standing just inside so she could see the furniture and layout. Just so long as she came close enough to look, of course.

Naturally Ruslan wasn’t happy with her backing out. It wasn’t surprising. What did surprise Zhenya, though, was that her little brother didn’t give up yet. His determination would get him far in life, certainly he’d become an outstanding artistic flyer as nothing could really hold him back when he had set his mind on something.

“Lanchik…” she said exasperatedly but he was already marching on to push the door to the common room open. She took a tentative step forward and could see a little from afar. By now, however, she had made up her mind. She wouldn’t be caught rulebreaking on her very last day at school and she wouldn’t let Ruslan get into trouble either.

“I got a glimpse alright. Now, please, come back.” Being the responsible older sister felt strange. She wasn’t really the kind of person who told others what to do. She usually needed guidance herself.

“I don’t really want to attend the dinner either,” she admitted again, “but I think there’s hardly a way around it. At least, coming in late, it won’t last for too long anymore?” She tried to sound confident and hopeful, but, truth be told, she was worried that getting in late would already get them into trouble. She was trying hard to come up with a sensible explanation that she could say to keep them both out of trouble. However, she realised that, probably, her younger brother was the wittier of them both and would be better at faking innocence and saying something believable.

“Now come on, we gotta go,” she said and turned walk back to the Grand Hall.

[out]

The adventure was over and reality was looming, but Ruslan clung to their weird little side-trip for as long as he could. That wasn't going to be for much longer though, because he could see Zhenya was getting frustrated with him, and she could get stressed and annoyed when he didn't do things quickly enough.

He honestly was about to come back out of the common room and retrace their steps, when a thought occurred to him. "Wait! I'll be really quick, I promise!" he said, and dashed inside and up to his dorm. Although most of his things were packed, it only took a moment to find what he was looking for. When he returned, he had a handkerchief wrapped around his knuckles.

"See?" he said, holding it up proudly so Zhenya could see. If anyone asks, I tripped and grazed my hand on a wall, and you followed me back here to check I was alright. And then you healed it so we could both attend the feast!"

At that moment, his stomach growled. Suddenly following his sister back to the Grand Hall seemed like a fine plan. As she said, it would be half over by now and they wouldn't have to listen to the end of term speeches.

[out]