vicious [d.m]

nine: castles & knives

The trek up to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is a long one.

Khione lags behind, still clutching that talon tight. She'd unwrapped the tourniquet a while back after it'd grown so drenched with blood that it had kept slipping off.

Malfoy is only a few steps ahead of her, early morning rays illuminating the pale expanse of his back and the constellation branded into his skin. When they finally cross the long stone bridge, Khione's already memorised the shape of it with her eyes.

She's never been anywhere near Hogwarts. Born and bred in their isolated little cottage in Norway, she'd never longed for much more as a child — and her mother had been adamant on teaching them magic at home rather than sending them to Beauxbatons or Hogwarts.

Cal had resented it — he'd always dreamed of attending a boarding school — but Khione had crept into his bed the night their mother had said no and curled up beside him. He'd sniffed away his tears and they'd fallen asleep side-by-side in comfortable company.

Cal. She shakes his name out of her head as she limps after Malfoy who's passed through the main archway leading into the courtyard. It feels like years since she last saw her twin — an eternity since Cain and Mina.

The castle is exactly how she remembers it from the pictures. High archways and towering turrets, gargoyles and knights, dark cobblestones and winding wisteria. She can't imagine studying here — living here. It's something out of a fairytale, a castle so enormous and beautiful, it nearly steals her breath away.

And she certainly can't imagine what the General ahead of her feels right now — his home of several years, a home he turned his back on.

But funnily enough, Khione thinks she understands. Thinks she feels the very same sentiment swirling deep in her chest. After all, she'd turned her back on Cal too.

"Has it just been lying here?" she murmurs, her pain nearly forgotten at the vastness of Hogwarts. "The entire war, it's just been here?"

"Was it supposed to go somewhere?" Malfoy responds, dryly as they cross the courtyard. She leaves blood in their wake. "The Dark Lord's had a hold on it since the Battle of Hogwarts. He's never let any of us near it—I guess this is why."

"For the Duellum."

"I was wondering why he was so secretive. Why he wouldn't use it as his base instead of Malfoy Manor."

Khione quietens, content to take in her surroundings as they make their way up the steps to the looming doors that swing open with a deep groan that's oddly reminsicent of the Cetus. She nearly flinches.

Malfoy strides right in — like he's just returned for another school year. Khione, on the other hand, is more cautious, her paces slower as she enters, holding her breath.

The inside of the castle is just as impressive as the outside and she finds herself standing in a large foyer, several staircases branching off in different directions, leading up to platforms which then lead to additional staircases, on and on and on. The floor beneath her feet is marble and an enormous statue of Rowena Ravenclaw stands just a few metres from here in the centre of the foyer, brandishing a torch that lights up as soon as they step in. The gargoyles burst into motion, rising from their sitting positions and then freezing once more. The suits of armour slam the hilts of their swords down into their pedestals twice before becoming inanimate once more.

It's a greeting — to the first two survivors of the Duellum.

"Welcoming back a traitor," Malfoy muses, silver eyes skating over the high rafters, the staircases, the statue. "How things have changed, Hogwarts."