First Year [6/6] The Beginning

Weeks came and went since the time Echo had offered to help. Winter had come and gone just as quickly as it had arrived. During winter vacation, Echo had gone home expecting to learn more information. At the same time, Damien stayed at Hogwarts, not having a home or family to visit. When Echo had returned, Damien couldn't get much out of her, and soon spring had made an appearance.

One day in the middle of spring, close to the end of the school year, he sat in the great hall, eating breakfast, when he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He looked up to see Verim looming over both him and Echo, "I'm heading down to the lake. You guys should join me. A mind needs rest before it can be expected to do hard work."

Damien nudged Echo with his elbow with a hopeful expression. After all the research and failing most of his classes, he felt like he needed a break to relax by the lake. Without waiting for Echo to say anything, he said, "Sure, why not."

He spared a glance towards Echo to see if she would join them before following Verim. "I can't wait to be out of here," Verim was saying as he walked, "As much fun as it is to learn, there are some teachers that are quite dreadful."

Damien shrugged slightly. He could agree with Verim on that last line, but with no home to go to, Hogwarts was all he had. Echo had presented the opportunity of spending the summer over with her. Still, he had to keep his mind open that that might not actually be a possibility. After all, her mother could easily say no.

"I get that, with how many classes I've been failing. I know you both have been trying to help me, but magic... just seems to be out of my reach," He gave an exasperated sigh, just as they reached the lake, before taking a seat against a tree. "I mean, I've been doing well in Potions... and I have made a small improvement in some other fields. Although something tells me I'm always going to be behind everyone else."

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Of course, Echo followed. Damien gave her that hopeful expression, and well, she could feel the hope just radiating off of him as well. So she got up. She followed him and Verim down to the lake. Echo sat beside the tree, leaning back on her hands and looking up at the sky.

It had been so long, she felt since she had enjoyed a beautiful day. Right now, Echo was consumed by her research. Just last night, she had broken into the Restricted section after hours. There she found a book that seemed to help crack the case wide open. It mentioned a spell that Echo suspected could have been involved. But she didn't have time to read it thoroughly, as the caretaker was doing his rounds. She ripped out the page, stuffed it in her journal, put the book back, and left.

All day, she was itching to get back to her notes. - Which quite frankly wasn't that long; she only been up an hour or two. Still, Echo felt she was close to something. She just needed one more thing to click. One little, last thing.

It was then Echo realized she had spaced out on the entire conversation. Echo blinked back into reality. "There's more to magic than... performing magic, Damien. You don't need to be practically good at magic to be an excellent wizard. You could be amazing at herbology, or you could have a penchant for Magical Creatures. You could become an Astronomer. Or as you said, you're very good at Potions. Or," Echo wrinkled her nose, "You can become a con artist and study Divination. I have zero ideas why this school still teaches Divination. It's clearly fake, and those claiming to have prophecies are just attention-seeking maniacs." Echo had a strong distaste for Divination. Her mother consulted a seer when she was sick to find any solution that would save her. Instead, she nearly bankrupted her mother.

"Anyway. Good things happen to good people." Echo poked Damien in the shoulder. "And you're the best person I know. So don't worry about 'being behind.' I don't think that'll always be the case. You'll just have to learn how to be more creative with your solutions, and I'll help with that too. I'm always going to be here to help."

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Damien nodded along to Echo's words, not quite believing them fully. From what he'd seen of this world, everything was about magic. If you couldn't perform magic, you were worthless to magical society. He only had to look at the treatment of squibs for an example of that. He had often wondered if he was a squib in his first few months of the year but eventually ruled it out when he cast (although poorly) his first spell.

This doubt flooded his emotions, paired with his distaste for what he's heard of Divination, mainly through Echo. His thoughts were interrupted by Verim, "She's right, you know. Some of the most influential people in history either weren't as powerful with magic as the rest or were late bloomers."

Damien let a sigh escape his lips as he brushed the hair from his eyes in the habit of annoyance, "Yes, but..."

He never got a chance to finish his sentence, as he suddenly felt agonizing pain in his head before crumpling to the left on the ground. He knew what was happening almost instantly. He didn't want to believe it, as it would mean that Lucedio was real, but he could hear the voice underneath the surface. "I'm... fine..." He tried to throw worry off of him, as he hoped this pain would go away, or if Lucedio was real, he could keep control.

Slowly his world faded to black, and when he could see again, it felt distant. As if he were watching from afar, unable to move his own body or even speak.

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A chuckle escaped from Damien's lips, one cold and harsh. A tone that could never belong to Damien. Grey eyes, tinted red, stared down Echo and Vemrin. Friends of his. If Damien had just let him free, even now and then, everything would be fine. And yet, instead, there was a constant rage burning within, fiery and threatening. His hand slowly moved towards his wand as his mind furiously tried to remember the spells Damien had read of while sneaking into the Restricted Section of the library. His eyes lit up as three spells came into his mind. Ones that had been said to be illegal. Lucedio didn't care.

He quickly moved his wand towards the female, sending a Crucio spell her way, before sending another one towards the male.

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It wasn't pain Echo felt first. No, it was... emotion. Echo always compared herself to drowning in an ocean of emotions, head barely bobbing above the water. This was the first time she truly felt a wave. As Damien's emotion pulled back, a truly sinister one came forward. An angry one, a burning one. One that genuinely smothered Echo.

And then, after she was caught under the wave, she felt the pain. It was as if fire- no poison, pulsated through her veins. The thorns she felt on Damien's heart left his for a brief moment only to pierce her's. A scream couldn't even escape her lips. That would take too much energy. Her body just collapsed into herself as she writhed in pain.

Finally, her eyes raised, and she confirmed her theory. Red eyes- this wasn't Damien. This was Lucedio. His brother.

What was that spe- ah yes. "Expelliarmus!" she shouted, pointing her wand straight at him. "Stop, Lucedio!"

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No matter who he'd been prior. No matter what he initially wanted. The moment he cast that curse, his anger welled up within; he felt this twisted satisfaction. Learning the curse had been one thing. Releasing it was another. There was a rush of euphoria as the girl writhed on the ground before him, pain causing her to twitch and leaving her unable to scream.

Whatever part of him that had been kind or polite. Whatever part that wished to reason with his brother that had dissipated over the months. That version of him was completely gone. Eradicated forever. Left in his place was a man who would stop at nothing to make his brother suffer for not granting him freedom.

And fair enough, he had freedom now, but it was fleeting. He could only keep control for so long, with Damien fighting him. And with Damien as the dominant mind, he had no chance of holding forever.

But even if this freedom was fleeting, he could enjoy it. The clear, crisp spring air, the smell of grass. All things he had not once experienced in his remembered life, he could experience now.

He took a couple steps closer, allowing the spell to drop. He watched as the girl pointed her wand at him, casting a disarming spell. He flicked his wand towards the oncoming attack, "Protego."

As she spoke his name and asked him to stop, he bent known almost kneeling before her. His hand reached out, snatching the wand from her hands. "So you know who I am." He gripped her jaw, forcing her to look up at him.

"In that case," he spoke slowly and clearly, each word exuding hatred. But not of her; he was merely curious by her. He was only taking his anger for Damien out on her. "Let me tell you something. You will die this day. And in death, your sole purpose would have been for me to hurt my brother. In other words, your life was pointless."

He flicked his wand again, verbally casting the incarcerous spell, binding her hands and feet together. He wanted to make sure she couldn't run from death. He released her and stepped back, raising his wand at her. "Any last words? Don't worry, I'll make sure no one remembers them."

He waited to hear if she would speak, and if she did, or if she didn't, he would flick his wand at her one last time "Avada Kedavra!"

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Just like that, Lucedio began to ebb back into the confines of Damien's mind, giving Damien control again. Damien had been distraught the entire time, watching and fighting so he could try to save his friend. After a certain point, he knew there was no hope, but he still tried desperately to break free. A futile effort.

When the darkness receded and the window to the outside world became a reality, Damien fell to his knees. His wand was dropped and was forgotten on the ground next to him. He brought his hands to his face as tears ran down his cheeks. He could see their friend who had been there the entire time. The one who had invited Damien to join him out on the beach of the lake. The boy was utterly shocked, and there was a look of fear on his face that chilled Damien to his bones.

Verim didn't know about Lucedio. He had no reason to believe what he said was factual. So that fear wasn't directed to anyone else. It wasn't directed towards Lucedio. Verim was afraid of /him/,

And at a glance around, his eyes could see similar scenes all over the grounds. The children who had just now gathered around the scene. The professors were trying desperately to gain control over things.

One of the professors had begun shouting at him, and he could feel ropes binding his hands together. These were all distant to him. Actions that felt as if they were happening in a foreign country. At some point, the shouting stopped, and he felt himself being lifted up and dragged off to the castle.

Minutes later, he sat in an office with several professors around him, somberness on their expression. There was also a man Damien had never seen before in his life but who looked important. Some kind of government figure.

They asked him questions for hours, but all Damien could give them were short answers. 'Why did you kill that girl?' 'I didn't.', 'We all saw you do it!' 'It was Lucedio.'

Several new men and women were brought in at some point, and the important-looking man ordered them, "Take him away for the murder of a fellow student."

The new men approached, but one of the professors stood up, "I will vouch for him. From what I've seen, he would never hurt a soul. The only explanation is some outside force."

"Very well. But should the boy do anything else in Hogwarts similar, You'll go to Azkaban too."