Practice in the room of requirements

It was friday evening, slytherin common room was full of students hanging around and planning ahead to some event that has been rumored to take place some time in the future. There was some happy chattering around and one particularily noisy trio of girls were trying to get the attention of Barnaby, which annoyed the two girls sitting near him.

"I wish these maggots would stop fawning over him." One of the girls said. She had slick black hair, that she lazily kept from covering her face with a hairclip. She wanted to look like she didn't really care about it, but in reality she spent a lot of time in the morning brushing her hair and clipping it perfectly. "He doesn't really exhibit any qualities you want in a man." the dark haired girl whispered to the other girl, a brown haired girl with violet eyes.

"Why do you care, Ismelda?" The girl asked. "What do you think are desireable qualities in men?"

"Well, they need to be pureblooded, naturally, ruthless and powerful." Ismelda said smiling her usual creepy smile. "Someone who is not afraid of making the world theirs."

"Whatever you say..." The girl said and went back to reading a pile of parchment that she got earlier.

"Knowing dark arts is a must." The blackhaired girl continued. "Oh, and they have to be cute."

The violet eyed girl stopped reading her notes in surprise. But decided she absolutely would not want to know what the Ismelda considered cute. The girl went back to her notes and was bothered by the feeling something important was being omitted from them. She had started to realize there was a deeper meaning to the necklace her rival was always carrying with him.

"Speaking of cute, what about Ymous?" The morbid black haired girl asked and brushed her hair out of her face. "I heard you humiliated him properly recently."

"He's not a threat to me. I have a plan on how to beat him once and for all and even better, use him." The girl scribbled her thoughts on the parchment.

"We should seriously use cruciatus curse on him. I keep telling you, he'd make a great pet." The black haired girl said smiling her usual unfeeling smile. "He's cute, pity he's weak and intent on becoming a lousy auror. He'd never make a good mate for a true witch."

"You don't know how to cast any of the unforgivable curses, Ismelda. Stop pretending like you do." the girl said annoyed and rolled her violet eyes. "I'm also going to ignore the fact you just called that maggot cute."

"I could learn. I know I have an affinity for the dark arts. I am sure I could use the curses, if I had a reason to. Watching him squirm in pain is a good enough reason for me."

"Enough, Ismelda, I don't want to listen to you talk about this subject again." The girl said and put the pile of parchment away. She started lazily scanning around the room and spotted her rival's best friend go slinking back to him. Apparently they had a bit of a falling out during a study group, but Khanna couldn't bear stay away from his best friend. The boy in question just nodded at his friend and snuck a glimpse at Merula. Realizing that he was staring at her the girl quickly wiped her finger around her throat giving the boy an angered look.


The slytherin boy turned his look back on the book he was reading. His friend just sat near him and appologized for acting like a jealous wanker.

"It's fine, Rowan."

"I saw Penny earlier, she told me what you did after I left the library."

"I see." The boy said while absentmindedly scribbling more notes on a parchment.

"You really aren't interested in her, or you're the most responsible person I've ever met. I swear if you didn't have balls to stick your head in all these dangerous situations, I'd think you were an eunuch." The boy wearing large glasses said.

"Well, you know what they say, you have to think of the future, what better time for that than present?"

"You need a break, man. Seriously, the only time you're not studying is when you're getting into squabbles with Merula. It's unhealthy." Rowan said annoyed.

The boy stopped scribbling and put the book away for a second, taking a break mighht not be a bad idea. "Yeah, you're right, I should take a break every now and then."

"So..." Rowan asked. "What about the ball then, have you thought of who to ask?"

"Ball, what ball?" The boy asked confused, thinking of quidditch.

"You've seriously not heard the rumors, I bet Penny wants you to ask her. Hell, she might even go against tradition and ask you."

"...To practice quidditch? Penny never struck me for someone who played sports, and neither am I."

Rowan was speechless, he stared at his friend, who he previously considered a very intelligent person. "You don't know what a ball is?"

"Ah, fuck, you mean a dance then?" The boy finally realized. "I didn't know we had dances."

"Well, it's just a rumor, nothing confirmed yet. But it hasn't stopped girls from ordering dresses and trying to get boys they like to ask them out." He said while uncomfortably awkward, no one had made any moves on him, he expected as much. But the more infuriating thing was that his friend was popular and he didn't even notice girls trying to get his attention.

"Well, I am not interested in speculation." The boy looked at a clock and gathered his papers. "I'm going to go take a walk before heading to bed, catch you later, mate."

Rowan tried to stiffle his feeling of jealousy, when he realized infuriating amount of girls stopped what they were doing when his friend got up, expecting him to pick a girl to ask out. Instead he walked out of the common room. Rowan just snorted and walked to the dorms.


Ymous arrived at the seventh floor and sat down in an alcove, waiting. He didn't need to wait for long, until the person he knew followed him arrived.

"Did Murk come with you?" He asked the girl who had followed him.

"No, she went into the dorms before you left and Barnaby was busy with those three airheads."

"Alright, let's get to it then."

the two started walking back and forth in the corridor, until a door appeared, They went trough the door and locked it behind them. The room was decently sizeable and was furnished in a comfy way, There was a  sofa with some tables and some shelves. The boy took off his robe and tie and hung them on the clothesrack in a corner. He then pulled out his notes and dropped them on the table infront of the sofa and sat down.

"well then, notes first then, any thoughts?"

"You're leaving things out from your notes" The girl immediately accused.

"I am." The boy agreed. "But you have to forgive me, carrying anything like that written down runs huge risks of someone realizing something was up and telling the headmaster."

"And the necklace?" The girl asked angrily.

"I was confused and lacked resolve."

"You felt threatened by me."

"I did, But I have a better vision now."

"I want to believe you..."

"Alright, forget the notes, I think the mood is right." The boy placed his wand on the table and leaned back. "If you want to get anything else out of me, you're going to have to get it by force."

The girl smiled with her violet eyes sparking and stood infront of the boy and pulled her wand out.

"Crucio!" She said and pointed her wand at the boy, Who was unfazed. She lifted her wand in frustration.

"Your incantation is correct and you know on paper how to cast the curse, but it's impact is weak."

"Shut up, I am trying to concentrate." The girl snapped and pointed her wand at the boy again. "Crucio!"

The boy yawned and tried to rile the girl up a bit. "Don't stop, see if you can make me stop talking."

"Crucio!"

"The inherent problem with this is the fact, You don't really want to hurt me, it's something of a weakness of yours."

"Shut up, I really want to see you in agony. CRUCIO!"

"Now you're just trying to shout the incantation louder, you can't expect to get this to work with such weak resolve.

"Crucio!" she said with a demanding voice.

The boy felt uneasiness, it was definitely pain this time. She was getting closer to a tangible result. "Good, I felt that one, but I'm still talking."

"Crucio!"

The boy felt like she needed a bit more of a push to get her to realize how to use the curse effectively. "So... Have you heard the rumors? Don't stop, just answer me."

"What rumors?" She asked while trying to focus on wanting to cause pain. "Crucio!"

The pain was weaker, she could be easily distracted. "About that ball thing, Rowan told me about it."

"Crucio!" She said while raising her eyebrow. "What ball, like a dance?"

"Yeah."

"I don't care about rumors about dances, but yeah, I heard about it when those idiots were talking about it in the common room." She said slightly annoyed at the subject. "Crucio!"

"I was thinking I'd ask Penny, since we're not going out on public, and I feel like dancing."

The girl lifted her wand and stared at the boy, who started smiling smugly. The girl was absolutely livid. She pointed her wand at the boy and smiled. "Crucio..." She whispered.

The pain was intense, the boy dropped off the sofa and felt like his veins were full of acid and his bones turned into ice. He started screaming. "YES, YES, YES!" He tried to turn his eyes to look at the girl and stared her straight in her eyes. The girl immediately lifted her wand.

"NO!" He shouted. "Keep going, learn that feeling, make it your weapon."

The girl pointed her wand at the boy again "Crucio"

The boy started screaming in agony again, but didn't take his eyes off hers.

Finally the girl relented and put her wand away, she felt terrible, is this what Ismelda wanted? She looked at the boy who got up shaking and opened her mouth to say something but she was interrupted by the boy pressing his lips against hers roughly and pushing her on the sofa. She moaned and tried to push the boy away. she still felt guilty, but she was only resisting half-heartedly. Causing pain on the boy had been exciting for the both of them, but she still needed reassurance.

She pushed him away from her. "Why did I have to practice on you?"

The boy stopped unbuttoning her shirt and got off her. "It would've been easy, if we kidnapped someone else, like Penny. But the risks are too great."

"I kinda enjoyed the feeling." She admitted. "Does that sound wrong?"

"No, this is an important tool. Arguably the least useful and most mundane of the unforgivable curses. But nevertheless being able to use it is an important step." The boy said while looking the girl in the eyes. "Think of it this way, if you can use it on me, you can use it on anyone. That is why we were doing this."

"I want to use it on Penny and Tulip and a lot of other people."

"We can't go around using the curse though, but I promise you, we'll get to it later."

The girl knew he was right, they had to keep a low profile. They still had two years of school left and there was still much to do. She then remembered what the boy had said. "What about the ball, are you seriously going to ask Penny to avoid suspicion?"

"No." He said while still staring her in the eyes. "I don't care about the ball, even if it turns out to be real."

"People have started to talk, you brushing off the most popular girl in Hogwarts like that, people have noticed something off about your behaviour."

"Penny doesn't really like me, she likes the idea of going out with me more. That kind of superficial thing doesn't interest me."

"Fine, but you really need to start keeping a lower profile."

"I'm fine, people just think I am determined to become an auror." He said and smiled his horrible crooked smile.

"I'm sure you'd make an excellent auror..." She said dryly. "Fine, but I still have one more thing."

"What is it?" He asked.

"What about your cruciatus?" She asked.

"Do you really want that question answered?"

"Yes!" she said angrily, I can't be your torturer.

"Alright." He said and picked his wand from the table and pointed it at the girl.

"I want you to know that I love you..."

"Just do it, you idiot." She started getting angry.

"Crucio." He said calmly.

The girl screamed as the most intense surge of agony she had ever felt surged trough her.

The boy put his wand away.

The girl just looked at him. "You said you didn't hate me."

"I don't, I can't explain it, but I don't need to be angry to use the curse, You will get there eventually, but now you just needed a push."

"how did you learn the curse yourself then, who did you use it on?"

"Myself."

The looked at the boy in disbelief. "You used cruciatus curse on yourself?"

"Yes, not out of angst and desire for self-harm, it was practical. I do have some degree of hatred for myself, but who doesn't? That is why I can use the curse while distancing myself from it. Sure, neither of us can reach the levels of famous death eaters like Lestranges or..."

"Go on, this subject doesn't bother me, unless you were going to say something about my parents."

"You know I wasn't."

"Don't be so naive, they both probably used the cruciatus curse, but neither were famous for it." The girl scowled out of annoyance and grief.

The boy sat next to her and wrapped his arm around her. "It's alright, Merula, we'll figure something out."

The girl just laughed forcedly. "My parents were fools, if you were going to suggest we go and rescue them from Azkaban when we get more powerful, you're a bigger fool."

"Heh, well..." The boy said pulling the girl closer and started buttoning her shirt back up. "We'll just consider them a warning on what happens if you're unprepared then."

"Exactly." She said and kissed him.