Vampires at Magic School

xv

My forehead was glistening with sweat as I leaned my back against a sink in the girls changing rooms. Dimitri and I had done a training session after curfew so nobody was around and despite the freezing air, the work out still made me boiling.  

I unstrapped the gloves that were wrapped around my knuckles and tucked them under my arm. We were doing physical fighting tonight - hand to hand combat rather than with stakes. I walked out into the night and onto the Quidditch pitch where Dimitri was waiting for me. He was wearing all black, beads of sweat coating his forehead. Seeing him standing there made me think of a few weeks ago in the first lesson the Academy brought to Hogwarts. 

As demonstrators, we, including Guardians, novices and Moroi, were to teach lessons on physical combat, endurance and 'other' forms of magic. The first session had focused on combat, or - essentially - fighting. Dimitri had completed a variety of actions on me, headlocks, punches, flooring. All required him getting exceedingly close to me. Despite this, his eyes had remained stationed on the group of magical students gathered around the raised platform, stature solely professional. Watching him now brought back those memories. The heat from his body and breath on my neck as he pulled me into a tight hold, indicating the ways you can get out of a chokehold.

"Ready?" His arms were crossed across his chest, the equipment we had used next to him. "Yep," I replied. We fell into step beside each other, walking in silence for a few moments. 

We generally do our training sessions at the Quidditch pitch, thus, at nighttime, it was completely dark. There was little light going up to the castle and we followed the path close beside one another. Having vampire blood running in our veins gave us significantly better eyesight than the average human. 

"How are your arms?" Dimitri asked me. 

"Fine," We had focused on arms, using stakes in a mock battle. 

Continuously training every day for months builds up a sort of tolerance to muscle pain. The air was getting fairly cold, especially at night. The wind had gotten noticeably stronger since we'd first arrived. We walked in a comfortable silence up to the castle and entered through the deliberately unlocked doors and into the Entrance Hall. I glanced at Dimitri moving beside me, once again taking in his physique. 

"What?" He sighed. 

"Nothing," I turned my face back to the front of me. "How are you liking Hogwarts?"

"It's fine," He shrugged. "A change." 

 I hummed in response. "Except these stairs. I hate these stairs." 

 Dimitri nodded. 

"Absolute bullshit," I shook my head in mock disappointment. He grinned over at me. 

 "It's kind of less eventful too," I started walking in front of him, moving backwards so our eyes remained locked. 

"Than St. Vlads?" He questioned thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess it is." 

"It definitely is," I persisted. "I mean, there are loads of parties and drinking and smoking and sex and-" I trailed off realising that Dimitri was staring at me with his 'teacher face'. "And the homework clubs," I swallowed.   "The safe sports games and whatnot." 

"Right," He looked at me sternly before breaking off into a grin. I smiled sheepishly and shrugged my shoulders. 

We rounded the corner near the top of the castle where Gryffindor Tower was and stopped in our tracks. I pushed Dimitri back around the corner. 

"Rose," He whispered. I hushed him. "Rose, we can't eavesdrop." 

"Shh," I put a finger over his lips and peeked back around the corner. 

A couple were kissing fiercely against a wall, a blur of tongues and hands. Of bright red and spiky black hair. 

"That's Lily and James," I looked back at Dimitri. It was only then that I realised my hand was still over his mouth and his eyes were looking down at it. I removed it and repeated what I had just said. 

"I know," He rolled his eyes. "I can see. Come on." 

He pulled my arm to go back in the direction we had just come from. 

 "What?" I stared at him. 

"We'll go the other way round," He indicated towards another direction the Fat Lady could be reached. I let him guide me around, slightly shocked at what we had seen. 

In the short time that we had been in the castle, three particular things had become apparent. One, James and Lily were on a last name only basis. Two, James was totally and utterly in love with Lily. And three, she would rather go out with the Black Lake's giant squid than she would with him. 

For those reasons alone, the idea that the two sworn enemies were making out supposedly unbeknownst anyone else was unheard of. 

"Well," I licked my lips. "That wasn't expected." 

"Yeah, well you wanted to watch," Dimitri nudges me. 

"I did not," I huffed. "I was just confused." 

"Sure," He drew out. 

"Thought they hated each other."

"It's not really any of our business, though," Dimitri said. "So maybe don't mention it to anyone else." 

"Oh no, I will for sure be mentioning it to someone else," I laugh.