The Sun and Moon: Chapter 11

Killing spiders was indeed something that was very much smiled upon by mom. After several weeks of work, I had slain over eighty-nine of the things. To which I was quite richly rewarded with various ‘level ups’. In which my stats would occasionally rise in response.

There didn’t seem to be any correlation to which stats were raised, to which stats weren’t. Leading me to speculate that they were randomized. After several level ups, the stats that seemed to be the most focused on was Endurance, and Charisma.

I was thankful for it.

Endurance didn’t seem very important, but due to my Charisma gradually dwindling down, it was nice to see it go back up.

After several experiments, I believe I’ve figured out why my Charisma kept falling. It has something to do with the fact that I was getting older.

From prior experience, I knew that Charisma entailed how I looked and presented myself. Thus it was tied to the concept of how I ‘looked’. But it obviously didn’t stop at just clothes. Whether or not I had washed up recently also factored in, which meant my physical wellbeing and hygiene were important.

Which meant if my Charisma stat was dropping, it was due to something about me gradually changing. Thus, the answer became quite clear that it had something to do with my age.

It isn’t a secret that the younger someone is, the more affectionate and tolerant adults will be towards them. Whereas those that are older are held to a different standard.

This had to do with both the child’s actual age, and its physical characteristics. Chubby cheeks, baby fat, etc. Combined with the fact that they are still immature leads to people being more forgiving.

And due to me aging, those characteristics were fading away.

For a brief moment, I considered that perhaps this was mom’s way of attempting to stop me from aging. Or worse, perhaps due to said aging, the love she had for me was fading.

Both were of course rather silly ideas now that I think about them. Mom would never do anything like that. But in the moment of those thoughts…

They were quite haunting.

Eventually I realized the truth. It was a way to push me towards getting better for my family. If my Charisma was lowered, obviously I’d feel the need to bring it back up. It was only natural after all.

After this realization, I began to attack the spiders of the forest with renewed vigor.

It had been rather easy at first. Especially after learning the severing charm in Professor Flitwick’s class.

We had only been using it on rather small and weak objects, but it was quite obvious that it could go much further than just cutting parchment or quills. Which is how I started to use it to sever the limbs of the spiders I encountered.

The spiders weren’t too much of a problem. They had an alarming size, and they could be rather quick at times, but that’s all. They weren’t very intelligent. Nor did they have any sort of ranged attack to hit me with.

Though they were rather resilient.

My severing charm never once failed to slice cleanly through their limbs, but even that didn’t seem enough to immediately kill them. Their strange almost see through blood would leak out of the stumps, but they still clung to life.

It was rather impressive in a way.

For most people, I believe simply losing just a hand would be more than enough to force most people to their knees. Either in pain or shock of what just happened. But a spider?

They simply would continue on like nothing happened. Either trying to attack, or run away.

Eventually my curiosity got the best of me, and I severed all of a spider’s limbs in order to see how long it would take for it to die. Which was about fifteen minutes.

Something I don’t think could be said for most humans.

Oh, and my little fairy familiar also helped out during these events. Attempting to shock the spider’s legs as they ran. Thankfully it seemed they too couldn’t see the fairy, otherwise it would have probably been eaten.

It didn’t really contribute much to a fight. I could count on one hand how many times it had actually tripped up a spider by doing so. It would also get tired after attempting to shock a spider repeatedly. Causing it to fly to the top of my head in order to sleep.

I wasn’t sure why it felt that my head was the best place to rest. I couldn’t imagine it was that comfortable. Nor did I go out of my way in order to make sure the fairy didn’t get nodded off.

Which would normally wake it back up and have it become a lot more irritable.

Despite having ease in dealing with the first few spiders, it eventually became more perilous as time went on.

The spiders had gotten more and more wary. Pulling farther and farther away from Hogwarts. Which forced me to go deeper and deeper into the forest in order to hunt them down.

As I did so, things started to get progressively more dangerous. Instead of rustling in bushes, there were several spiders that came down from the tops of trees. One had even fallen on top of me.

Causing my wand to go flying as I struggled to keep it from biting into my head with its pincers. Fortunately, there was a sufficiently small but sturdy enough stick that allowed me to run through the spider before it could kill me. Shoving the entire stick through its body completely.

If the stick had broken or if there had been a second spider on the scene, I would have likely perished.

And yet, with the death of that spider I had been granted the biggest number of stat rewards so far. It was starting to become evident that I was being pushed further and further in order to under go more trials. Which would in turn make me stronger.

I…think I was beginning to understand what was expected of me.

*~o~*

“Ah! This is impossible!”

Tim groaned before tossing his papers away from him. Cho panicked and attempted to stop the papers from getting scattered everywhere. Showing much more interest in Tim’s homework than Tim himself.

Whereas Victoria simply gave Tim an exasperated look, and Marie seemed somewhat taken aback.

“Great idea, maybe if we throw all of our papers up our homework will magically write itself. Honestly…”

Victoria sarcastically commented before focusing back on her homework with a roll of her eyes. Brushing back several strands of her velvet red hair out of her way in order to do so.

“W-well, I can understand his f-frustration a bit. I-it’s not that easy to do…”

Cho shyly spoke up, placing the previously discarded papers back near him. Causing me to hum in response. Was this work particularly difficult for the others?

“What? No, the work isn’t hard. It’s just so…tedious. When are they going to teach us the cool spells? Like teleporting, or turning into animals?”

Marie blinked in surprise. Adjusting her Slytherin colored uniform as she spoke.

“Apparating and becoming an animagus? I’m surprised that you know of such things, considering you’re a muggleborn.”

Tim smiled and puffed out his chest with a self-satisfied smirk.

“Of course, I do. When introduced to magic, who wouldn’t want to know just about everything that has to do with it?”

“Except during your homework, apparently.”

Victoria chimed in without looking up from her parchment. Continuing to write with her quill unabated. Tim scoffed and looked away, while Cho seemed quite worried. Eventually Tim opened one of his eyes.

“Well…everything about magic that’s actually interesting.”

“And there it is…”

Victoria pointed out before tapping her knuckles on the table. Eventually frowning and putting away her quill. Giving everyone her full attention.

“So…is this all we’re going to do? Homework in an empty classroom?”

For some reason everyone’s eyes then turned towards me. Causing me to blink in response before raising my own eyebrows.

“…Why are you all looking at me?”

“Well…you’re the lynchpin of this operation. I came to just hangout, Cho’s our roommate, Victoria actually wanted your advice to help with her homework, and uh, Marie…”

Tim’s voice fell into an uncertain silence as he gave a perplexed look to the only Slytherin in the room. To which she nodded before putting a hand on her chest.

“I came to…inquire as to Sol’s owl! I haven’t seen him in the owlery for some time, so I was worried. …For the owl, I mean.”

Marie tacked on, leading to a round of nods around the table. It made sense. Now that I think about it, it has been a while since I’ve seen Marie in the owlery, hasn’t it? Still, it wasn’t as if Athena was gone from it for long periods of time. So, it was somewhat odd that Marie hadn’t seen her.

Eventually I opened my mouth.

“Is there something else you want to do, Tim?”

He seemed to have been waiting for that question, as a large grin spread across his face. Tim started to lean forward onto the table, before giving looks to either side of the empty room. Looking for some sort of disturbance before speaking out loud in a quiet tone.

“Well…I did notice that Hooch didn’t lock the room where they keep the broomsticks for flying lessons.”

Hmm? His words didn’t really mean much to me, but Cho seemed quite excited at his words. Victoria gave him a raised eyebrow before resting her head on her hand. Despite her expression, he had her attention.

Marie scoffed and waved her hand with a smirk.

“Those dusty old things?”

Tim rolled his eyes.

“Sorry, your highness. I didn’t realize you were picky about which enchanted broomstick you sat on.”

Marie blinked rapidly before frowning.

“Well…!”

Victoria looked over to Marie with a calculating look before gesturing.

“Do you know where a group of higher-class brooms that would be feasible to be borrowed?”

“Er…”

Marie sheepishly answered, causing Victoria to quickly lose interest in Marie. Tim shook his head before leaning back out of the table.

“So…who’s in?”

Ah, I see. They were intending to grab the class brooms in order to fly around unrestricted. Either for fun or…to train.

That…wasn’t exactly a bad idea.

The only problems I could foresee was if we were caught. But as long as I was careful, like how I was when I went into the edges of the forbidden forest…

It was unlikely for a problem to spring up.

I noticed Cho seemed excited, but was waiting for me to respond before doing so.

“I’m in.”

I stated easily.

In a way, it could be thought of studying. Students weren’t punished for staying up to study, so why should this be any different? Of course, the rules clearly stated it was, but the rules only mattered if we were caught.

“I-I’m in!”

Cho excitedly stated, quickly following me up within a second of my answer. A hopeful look gracing her pudgy face.

Victoria hummed for a few seconds as she seemed to deliberate over her answer. Before finally nodding her consent.

Why she did so I wasn’t sure. It had been quite obvious that she had decided a while ago.

Marie was the last person to give her answer. To which she looked at everyone in shock before finally sighing. Crossing her arms with a rather displeased look before answering.

“…fine. I’ll allow it.”

Victoria gave her a smirk.

“Well, it’s good that we have her royal highness’s approval.”

Tim laughed while Marie gave Victoria a scathing look.

“You…! You guys are just as bad as Sol!”

Hmm? Wait. Why was I suddenly getting brought up? And in such a negative connotation as well…