Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Also a cheeky little discount– more information on that at the bottom AN.
"Here is a special exemption granted by the Director of Education permitting you to use spells rated as up to Class Five dark magic within this exam and for the purposes of this exam only" The man across from me said, red eyes gleaming. The red eyes had been getting to me since the minute I'd stepped into this room, and only the knowledge that Voldemort would rather be gelded than take a job as a paper pusher for the ICW had me keeping my wand sheathed. His complexion, so pale that he might as well not have any blood at all, did little to increase my estimation of him.
Duelling exams were the only ones remaining, and even with one left I was already filly convinced that the ICW needed to take the Nastily Exhausting moniker from the NEWTs and grant them to this exam because what in the actual hell had been the past few days. That first charms question had been a drop in the ocean of bullshit heading my way pretending to be exam questions. I'd done everything from inventing new runic scripts on the fly to allow me find the second half of the Runes exam to blind tasting potions ingredients in opaque bottles for use in deadly potions— that one was less fun than it sounded, trust me. Then there was this exam. This was the first practical exam since Charms where I was not the only one in the room.
Firstly, there were ICW Enforcers in the room— four of them stationed at every corner. Secondly, there were four other examinees and to be honest, they were without exception on the creepy end. Each of them pale as snow and shaking in their boots like they could not stand still for the few minutes we'd been here for.
"This exemption means there should be no hesitation on your part to using the magic I will ask you to demonstrate. Any hesitation will be interpreted as difficulty casting the spell, and please keep in mind that the ease of using the magic, not just the ability to use said magic, is being graded here." He said next, levying the shivering four with a flat look.
"Any questions? No? Good. Now we'll take this in alphabetical order. Mr. Abdussatorov, you first" The examiner said, turning to one of the four that had been shivering with an intense look ion his face.
The man stepped forward, and I could swear that he honest to gods moaned when he grabbed a hold of his wand. The first spell he was asked to use, the organ liquefying curse, was sloppy as it left his wand in a sputtering blast of acid yellow. Still, it brought him some form of sick pleasure as he gasped at using the spell. The examiner seemed even more disappointed as he ran him through a series of spells he was forced to complete, and then for the last bit, the examiner produced a spider from a drawer and placed it on the table.
"The imperius curse" He demanded, and the man responded with the most pathetic imperius curse I'd ever seen. The pronunciation of the incantation was nothing to write home about, the jab of a wand movement was less sharp than it ought to be, and perhaps most damning of them all was the fact that the spider just ignored all his instructions and kept doing as it willed.
"Jump, damn you. Jump." He screamed at the thing, losing even the vaguest pretense as to composure. I watched the whole thing, feeling a shiver creep up my spine. This was what dark magic did to those who lacked the willpower and skill to keep a lid on things.
"That's enough" the examiner said, stepping in.
"No. I can do it. Just let me" He said, and pointed his wand at the spider again. Except this time, the imperius curse was even worse.
"Oh, fucking fuck you" He said, and then the spider was nothing but goop from an overpowered organ liquefying curse.
"Okay that's enough now" Examiner again.
"No. No. Let me try again".
"There's no spider left" The examiner pointed out somewhat sardonically, and that was all our desperate junkie needed to turn his wand on the examiner himself.
"Give me another one" He commanded.
"No" the examiner stated, not even trying to go for his own wand.
"Ignis—" He began, but before he could complete the spell, the examiner moved. And the word moved needed to be capitalized in that sentence because even with enhanced senses like mine he was a blur in how he moved to the side, out of the line of fire and then grabbed the man's hand before pulling him closer, dislocating the arm in one movement and then latching on to the side of his neck with his mouth. A vampire. Of course, the Dark Arts examiner is a fucking vampire.
"Let him go, Lucien" One of the enforcers said, pointing his wand at the vampire. Interesting. They hadn't reacted in the proctor's defence, only in the Candidate's.
"I don't think I will" He said, biting down. The man moved to fire, only for one of his colleagues to deflect the spell he sent with one of his own.
"The rules, Cassius. Don't forget the rules. He gets to do as he wishes with the candidates that break the rules" The other enforcer said, even ass he tossed a disgusted look in the Vampire's direction.
Said Vampire did not look up until he had finished draining the body of every drop of blood it had. Even as pale as the idiot had been before being caught in the vampire's grasp, it did not hold a candle to how he looked now.
"So, in case I forgot to mention, those application forms you signed to partake in these exams included a caveat that on failing to obey lawful directives issued by the proctor then you would submit to a penalty of the proctor's choice. In this case, that penalty is death. Now, who next?" He asked, before suddenly remembering himself and reaching up to wipe some blood from the side of his lips.
"I think, continuing alphabetically, there is a certain Mr. Erkar on my list" He said next when his words were met by nothing but silence and stunned looks. The requested wizard stepped back, but it was clear that watching his friend die like that had shaken his resolve. He performed even worse than his friend had, wand shaking all the while and struggling to get more than one or two spells correct to a degree of accuracy. In the end, he failed the unforgivables, and when the Proctor, Lucien, asked if he had anything else to volunteer for the exam, he shook his head and walked back.
The next wizard was given a different set of spells to work on again, but his test still ended with the unforgivables. He cast a mean cruciatus, and his avada needed two attempts to kill the spider, but altogether he was the most impressive of the lot by quite a wide margin. And then came the last of them. He failed most of the spells, but shockingly enough, managed perfect unforgivables, moaning as he cast the cruciatus in a way that sent me staring at him with disgust running through my veins.
"Now, Mr. Potter, it's your turn" The Proctor said. I noticed that he had abandoned the alphabetical arrangement after the second guy and just pointed at the other two, almost like he just wanted to be done with the lot as quickly as possible. That was a sentiment I could get behind, to be honest.
"Are you ready?" He asked. I nodded.
"Good. Both blood boiling and blood freezing here please" He said in a polite tone that belied how his sharp teeth glinted in the light.
I started without hesitation, spinning my wand into the blood boiling curse, and then twirling into the blood freezing curse immediately after. The way he hummed at the maneuver told me that I'd taken him aback with the speed at which I'd executed both of the spells, especially as they were both silent and without the complete wand motions for either spell.
"Ahem. A bone breaker then" He said, and with a snap, the model's arm snapped around to the other side in less than a second after he had asked.
"Entrails expelling curse" He dictated next, and with a slash of my wand, the model's fake stomach slashed open in one clean motion and foam began to spill out for a few seconds before it seamlessly repaired itself. That had to be an interesting enchantment, with how easily it fixed itself from the dark magic.
"Next, I hope to see an organ liquefying curse along with an ear shriveling one" He asked next, with a challenging glint in his eyes. I could see the challenge he intended here. Both spells were quite different, with the first being some serious dark magic, and the latter being a more tame kind of spell. The issue with that is that when the ear shriveling spell was used with too dark an intention— just like what the organ liquefying curse required— it could turn into an ear rotting curse instead.
Still, with my grasp of the mind arts, it was a breeze, switching between the mentality required for the first spell and that needed for the second. The dummy glowed red for a second to show the success of the organ liquefying curse, before its ears began to dry off and shrivel.
"Hmm" Lucien said before dictating the next set of spells. "A statue curse, a laughing curse, and then Gwendolyn's loneliness, if you would" He said, and I obliged him. The first two spells were easy enough. And the third I was only familiar with because it had been on the primer for the exam.
"Now you should curse this necklace to burn whoever touches it" The examiner said, producing the necklace from a cupboard. I raised an eyebrow. He hadn't asked any of the others to produce cursed objects. But then again, that should have been the surprising part because the primers said the ability to curse and uncurse dark objects was a requirement for the Dark Arts AWL.
I considered a few options before deciding to keep it simple, incanting fragrante within my head and tapping my wand against the necklace. The vampire looked at it with his eyes for a second or two before taking out some glasses from within his suit jacket.
"Fascinating. I daresay I've not seen one that good in decades. Now, let's see if you can do something fascinating. Let's see Gwendolyn's Loneliness tied to a blood malediction placed on this hairpin please" He said.
I furrowed my brow for a second before I began. A blood malediction was an interesting kind of curse in that it was supposed to pass down the bloodline of the person initially cursed, and a perfect one would get worse over time until it ended the entire line. That was why the curse tended to be attached to other curses that tended to fall into the more minor part of the dark magic spectrum. Well, not just that. There was the fact that a curse that was too powerful or detrimental would fail to take and attach itself to the target's bloodline.
Their innate magic would fight it more desperately and in that case, it would be harder to ensure inheritance of the curse itself. That was why weaker curses were used so that as they got stronger over generations, the innate magic of the future victims would stand less of a chance as soon they would not even know to fight the curse most of the time as it had been there since conception, and even if they did, the curse would have grown at a speed too fast for the magic to keep upping with when it was present from birth and powerful enough.
I slashed my palm open and, with a wave of my wand, commanded my blood to splash upon the comb. The Vampire's eyes narrowed at the blood flying about, but his control did not seem to be affected much. Good, it would have been a shame to have to do this whole thing again because the proctor got it into his head that I was somehow easy prey. I added the curse next, weaving Gwendolyn's Loneliness in with my blood sacrifice and making it so the first person to wear the hairpin would have a minor version of the curse, and then it would pass down their bloodline. Hopefully. It was my first time casting a blood malediction, and even as I put the spells together, I could tell some things were not quite right.
"Hmmm. Gwendolyn's Loneliness is well done, but this would struggle to make it past two generations." The Vampire said, peering at the spell with his special glasses that had to be enchanted to see magic somehow.
"Now let's see you identify and dispel the curse placed on this comb" he said, and dropped a comb on the table. I looked at it consideringly before reaching out with my magic. I actually didn't know many identification spells. Learning how to use them was the kind of thing that took sustained efforts, and it was not like I was ready to need to use them in the first place. I reached out and felt a vague sensation of tiredness within the comb.
"A lethargy curse?" I asked questioningly.
"Indeed, but which one?" He asked with a smirk on his face.
Now, that was a harder question. The primer for the exams had four different lethargy curses, and from my studies I knew another three. The exam wasn't limited to only the things on the primer, however. So I had to assume it could be any of the seven, but then there was a chance it was one I didn't even know. That would suck. I felt it again, trying to feel for nuances in how the tiredness felt, but it was all muddled, so in the end I decided to guess.
"Kinvara's restful sleep?" I tried. It was one of the more powerful lethargy curses.
"No. A good try, however. It is Manfred's eternal rest." He said, before gesturing for me to dispel it. Knowing the spell meant that it was just a simple matter of a counter-curse. At least that was the case when the curse was placed on a person. When placed on an object, however? The calculations were fundamentally different. It was why cursebreaking was such a hallowed profession and why they were always in demand.
Regardless, this would b easier than actual cursebreaking. For one, there was only one curse on the comb, and for the other, it hadn't been there long enough for the magic to begin to metastasize and transform into something more complicated, as often tended to be the case with the objects and places that real curse-breakers tended to be called in for. Give a curse enough time, and even a simple ear shriveling curse can turn into a deafness, blindness, and paralysis cure in time. Those things evolved.
I felt at the comb with my magic, searching out where the curse was anchored. Cursing an object required an anchor of some sort. In this case, the anchor was in the shaft. At the edge of the shaft, right where the first and last of the teeth met it. I pulled at that with my own magic before using the counter curse and breaking the curse itself.
"Well done. Now for the last bit, Mr. Potter" Lucien said, fishing out the spider.
"Imperio" I said, and I felt a rush in my mind as the spider's will fought mine for half a second before I crushed it. Then I began to direct it to make movements as Lucien specified them.
"Crucio" I said when Lucien nodded at me to indicate the first bit was over and done with. And the spider's screams echoed through the room as I briefly found myself lost in the sound.
"That's enough, Mr. Potter . Now for the last one." He said.
"Avada Kedavra" I whispered, and in a flash of green, the spider was put out of its misery.
"How curious. Curious is the word you British use, right?" Lucien said.
"What's curious?"
"Your killing curse sings in a way I've only seen with one other. Tell me, Harry Potter, when was the last time you died" He asked with an uncomfortable intensity, getting into my space. Our eyes met, I suddenly felt myself thinking of my life as Doom, and in a flash I tossed him out of my mind. That had been fast. Too fast.
"I apologise, Harry Potter. I lost myself in my curiosity for a second" he said.
"Apology accepted". I said, even as my wand ached to turn him to dust.
"Come along, Vampire. Back in your cell" The Enforcer that had tried to stop him from draining the other guy stepped in, grabbing a hold of the Vampire and pushing him backwards.
"Cell?" I found myself asking.
"Oh yes, Harry Potter. I let your ICW think they have me under their control and in custody. In exchange, they let me assuage my curiosity here and there and keep me fed as I wish".
"So you don't usually administer these things, then"
"Why would I? You are an interesting one, Harry Potter. I cannot wait to see the chaos you will bring. The Doom you shall leave in your wake, if you would" He said, winking in my face as he was led off.
A/N: We jump through the exams to the most interesting one of the lot. Next chapter moves us up to the third task so things really get going from that point as we finally leave Hogwarts. I've come to realise that writing the school portions of this led to the least interesting scenes. Next two chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early. Also, there's a cheeky discount available for monthly plans (public) and a secret one for yearly plans with the code- CHEEKY20 for 20% off yearly plans