Pyram stood just outside a door which, when opened, would reveal a huge dog with three heads and, from what Pyram knew, a terrible temper. Instead of being afraid, Pyram was…excited? Determined? Some emotion that just screamed, “READY!”

He gripped Sicarus and smiled. Pyram had chosen the 17th of February, midnight sharp, to test his spells against Fluffy the three-headed dog. To say he wasn’t nervous would be a complete lie, but Pyram was definitely going to try and fight it. Neither Quirrell nor the Troublesome Trio would truly fight against it anyway; they would just play some music for it.

During his time off to study magical creatures and spells, he knew that they recovered a lot more quickly than normal muggle animals. If Pyram was lucky, Fluffy would even heal before June. A few months would be plenty time to recover from curses, for a magical beast anyway.

Despite everything, Pyram was still a little afraid of doing this. He didn’t know whether the staff checked on Fluffy regularly, and if they found him in bad shape they’d only secure the stone better. If that happened…wait. Wouldn’t it just stop Gryffindor from getting the house-of-the-year cup or something and have an old “immortal” couple die?

Oh, and there was the fact that Pyram was already set on doing this. Should there be any consequences…well, there would be consequences and he’d have to deal with them.

Sicarus reminded Pyram of why he was there with a small point of magic into his palm.

No more thinking about any consequences, let’s go fight a three-headed dog already!

Pyram opened the door to find…oh. Wrong door, the inside is just an empty classroom. With shame, Pyram moved a door down and opened the door to loud snarling that almost sounded like ten thousand chainsaws going off at the same time.

He dashed into the room, closing the door behind him and shooting a blinding, “Lumos!” into the middle-head’s eyes, making it whine a little and throw off the other heads’ coordination as the middle head attempted to wipe its eyes with its paws when the others tried to run towards Pyram.

This resulted in a very large and very heavy cerberus tripping over its own paws and thudding onto the cold stone ground, the middle-head even landing chin-first and biting its tongue–evident from the large droplets of blood that fell to the floor when the three-headed dog stood up again.

This is one dumb animal, Pyram couldn’t help but chuckle a little as he sent his next spell towards Fluffy, “Expulso.” As it was a spell he specifically made to be more deadly, it slammed into Fluffy and exploded into its shoulder, making the right head yelp in pain.

The beast then recovered and, growling with far more gusto than before, pounded towards Pyram, causing him to have to quickly cast his stealth spell that Sicarus had taught him and slink away. As soon as he was out of range, he canceled the spell and saw a now frozen three headed dog.

Pyram stopped running and sighed, That was far too easy–

His monologue was interrupted by three thunderous barks that went off at the same time, nearly bursting Pyram’s eardrums from how loud it was. By observing this, it took a few seconds for magical creatures–or at least, powerful magical creatures– to break the spell.

The huge dog bared three alarming sets of teeth at Pyram. Before, it had been on the offensive, but now…now it was almost scared. He could tell how much its confidence had dropped by it’s lowered tail and rounded hind end.

After Pyram and Fluffy just watched each other for a few minutes, Fluffy finally decided to back down and brought its muzzles over its canines once more, heads dropping and stepping back. How pitifully annoying.

Pyram’s eyes darkened as he looked at the cowering dog that was still at least three times his height. Sicarus reacted to his disappointment by sending sharp yet empty pulses through Pyram, all intending to put down the dog further and show it its place in the hierarchy.

The towering creature let out a whine and lowered itself onto its belly and then onto its back. Pyram furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “Why are you so…scared?”

The dog only whined again, the sound echoing throughout the spacious room. Why is everything so easy? When was the last time I struggled with something? Pyram contemplated, almost missing, no, definitely missing the feeling of working towards a difficult goal. Maybe I just need to reach higher…yeah, that definitely sounds like something Sicarus would say..

Pyram gave the quivering dog a sad smile, “I just can’t do this any further,” Pyram sighed, “Alright, tomorrow I’ll make it up to you by…giving you a huge steak! How does that sound?”

Fluffy lept to its paws and gave three simultaneous–and very excited– yaps, almost breaking Pyram’s eardrums again. “It’s a promise, then.” Pyram walked up to Fluffy who lied down obediently and patted the middle-head’s nose. When the other two heads whined mournfully, Pyram gave in and pet them too, smiling at the sudden change in the beast’s attitude.

“You know, I came here because everything was boring and I wanted a challenge,” Pyram proceeded to explain himself, “but I’m sort of glad that I didn’t kill you. You’re a very friendly three-headed dog.”

When he saw Fluffy about to maul him with licks, Pyram held a hand up to the middle-head’s nose, “No. We will be setting boundaries- HEY!”

What then commenced was a very sad tale about a poor boy who could not get a certain three-headed dog to stop licking him, resulting in drenched clothes and a now very irritated–but still poor– boy. This wasn’t even mentioning that the middle-head’s tongue was still cut and bleeding, so he was both covered in slobber and blood.

“Get off me! No, that was not an invitation for more–no, seriously! I’m very serious!” Pyram couldn’t help but laugh as Fluffy continued to bombard him with slobbery laps of his tongue, but eventually the huge dog did settle down enough to sit down.

Pyram sighed and cast Scourgify over his clothes and then himself, “You’re damn lucky I learned this. If I didn’t, I might have just taken away your steak.” Hearing this, Fluffy whined.

“Now, I need to go to bed. Around this time tomorrow, I’ll be back with my promise and we’ll be square. See you later, Fluffy.” Pyram waved back at the huge three-headed dog as he walked out of the room, still feeling his clothes for any slobber or blood his charm could have missed despite his diligent practice of the charm.

The next day went as planned. Get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to morning classes, eat lunch, go to afternoon classes, and finally eat dinner and go to Fluffy. Watching Fluffy tear into a huge steak that fast was…unnerving for Pyram at least.

Needless to say, Pyram didn’t visit Fluffy after that because he honestly didn’t like such a rowdy animal that couldn’t listen to basic commands. That day, Pyram decided that should he ever adopt an animal, he would have it properly trained.

Moving on to the next subject; exams were far too close for Pyram’s comfort. And when Pyram was uncomfortable for the future to come, he prepared for it a little differently than others. This was self-evident as it is, but his legion seemed to have not figured that out quite yet.

“Claraflam, why aren’t you eating? You must be hungry, right?” Boot asked Pyram who sat next to him on the Ravenclaw house table.

Pyram thought of an excuse before he just went for the truth, “I’m not hungry at the moment.”

For a couple seconds, Boot just gave Pyram an “Anything else?” look, but Pyram never explained further to sate his curiosity. “So it has nothing to do with you waving your wand at your robes?”

Pyram put Sicarus aside for a moment and looked at Boot with disdain, “No, end of story, Boot.” In response to this, Boot rolled his eyes and went back to eating with a slight frown of irritation.

Naturally, Pyram was just practicing an incantation-less Scourgify charm because that honestly was an extremely useful spell that he couldn’t afford not to have. As for why he was trying it incantation-less, he just wanted to make sure he could use it in different situations effectively.

This would go for all of Pyram’s spells when he decides to use the Will-Do Room again, although for his more offensive spells, he would be going about silencing them differently. Differently as in he would cast them over and over again and be actually confident about being able to use them incantation-less.

He didn’t exactly need to do this with his more utility-based spells because those, unless he was extra creative, couldn’t spoil his entire future with a little mistake.

Now Pyram was in the Will-Do Room in late March after Sicarus had urged him to go there. He was met with three wooden dolls that all had wands in their hands. “Sicarus, what are these for?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Do you want level one, two, or three?” was Pyram’s wand’s helpful response.

“For what, Sicarus?”

. . .

“Fine, level one I guess.”

Immediately, the middle doll sprouted a mouth, jabbed its wand in front of it, and shouted, “Expulso!” in a voice all too like Pyram’s. Pyram, acting on instinct, leaped out of the way just before a concentrated explosion launched into the wall behind where he used to stand.

Before Pyram could react, the doll then roared, “Impedimenta!” and Pyram felt like he had been put into a terrible bog that wouldn’t let his feet rise.

While Pyram was still stuck in place, the doll spoke in a barely audible voice, “Persum Sendere.”

Pyram’s world shut down. Everything had no color, no sound, and no smell. He couldn’t even feel the ground beneath him. In this blank place, Pyram stilled. Even the constant shifting of air Pyram usually heard but tuned out wasn’t there.

His senses were gone. But wasn’t this a spell Sicarus had taught him? How would the Will-Do Room be able to replicate that? Didn’t all the spells Sicarus gave him have no incantation?

Pyram blinked once. He blinked twice. The world was back, and along with it, a loud, “BZZZZZT!”

“I suppose that would be acceptable for someone who hasn’t tasted combat before…” Sicarus mused as Pyram sat, confused on the stone floor of the Will-Do Room.

After two hours of fighting just the level one doll, Pyram returned to the Ravenclaw common room feeling exhausted, but he was also strangely refreshed and placid, so he happily tutored an academically challenged, for a Ravenclaw, that is, member of his legion in the dormitory.

All he really had a problem with was Charms, something that came completely natural to Pyram. He obviously wouldn’t tell the guy that he was already able to use non-verbal spells, but he did fix his main problem which was flourishing his wand to the point that the entire wand movement was thrown in the trash.

“No, Corner, I’m not saying that your ego is the problem, you’re just-” Pyram reasoned before being rudely interrupted.

“You totally are, you git! This whole time, you’ve just been finding new ways to tell me I’m stupid and egotistical–stupidly egotistical!” the indignant Michael barked.

Pyram pinched his nose and flicked his wand, just asking Sicarus to shut Michael the hell up so he might stop and listen to some goddamn reason. So Sicarus, like the good thing it was, promptly started to use the levitation charm to “pull” on Michael’s tongue to the point that even Pyram would’ve winced. Quickly canceling the spell like nothing had happened, Pyram then began to explain to Corner what he was trying to convey throughout all the of 10 wasted minutes of his whining.

“The problem is not your big head or your ego, and no I am not saying you are either of those; it’s the way you move your wand when you try to cast a spell. It’s a little like…driving a living car. If you turn the wheel the opposite direction you want to go, you obviously you won’t go that way, so the car would be confused and try to do what you want to do, but also what you told it to do. Same goes with a wand.

“Now, what you’re doing is waving your wand in such a way that causes this to happen: miscommunication. When you try to cast the Light Charm, instead of simply flicking your wand,” he flicked his wand for an example, “you…flourish it about and it ends up as a twirl instead of a flick. Wands can sense your intentions, so when you ask it to light up and want it to light up but you don’t let it do any of that, it’d be confusing, right?”

Michael thought for a bit then nodded sheepishly, “I never thought our wands were actually alive…just some mumbo jumbo that Ollivander made up.” He looked at his wand curiously.

Pyram nodded with understanding, “The only reason I really care about it is because my wand is very clear about it’s awareness towards my intention. It also doesn’t take any shit from me and will refuse to cast a spell if I don’t use proper form.” Pyram smiled wryly, remembering all the times that Sicarus had pretty much screeched at him during the first few years it knew him. It didn’t do that anymore, but all the same.

Obviously, that last bit was a lie. Sicarus didn’t get confused, like regular wands. Simply because it wasn’t the intellect of the average domesticated animal, but instead closer to a human’s: it could recognise Pyram’s intentions and solely on them. If Pyram flicked his wand, said “Lumos,” but intended to cast Sectumsempra, it would go for Sectumsempra. It was a perfect trick during the doll fights, but, sadly, it didn’t last more than two tries.

Pyram’s legionnaire tried the spell again, managing to produce a light, and even though it was pretty dim, Corner lit up and thanked Pyram, “Woah, you were right! Thanks, mate, I think that was it.”

Pyram, rather embarrassingly, didn’t catch the hint to leave, so he continued to sit there and stare at Corner expectantly.

“Uhm, you can leave now Pyram.”

Pyram scratched the back of his neck and cleared his throat,“I’ll leave you to yourself then.”

He then left Corner and went down to the common room.

Some sixth years were gathered around a nice game of wizard’s chess, and Pyram watched from a distance as a knight, pretty viciously, beheaded a bishop that began to yell at him even as he was swept off the board. When it began to shout slurs one of the sixth years threatened to transfigure it into a chamber pot, effectively shutting it down.

Everyone else was in a study group for their year or playing some other game, so Pyram just sat on a comfortable couch-chair and fell asleep in the nice atmosphere. The moon was already rising, and Pyram didn’t think it would be terrible to sleep out here just once.

Hurried steps could be heard, and a boy with dark brown hair and amber eyes quickly descended the stairs, students scurrying out of his way as to not be bowled into.

“There is no need to reveal yourself, Pyram. You already know what a dragon looks like.” an insistent voice growled at him inside his head.

“And what need is there to start practicing dueling at 11, huh, Sicarus? I’ve been doing what you asked for a while now, and you’ve never given me any reason whatsoever.” Pyram muttered to his wand, “I believe I’ve earned some choice by now, and even if I’m seen, it’s not like I really care about disrupting the timeline anymore.”

Sicarus twisted Pyram’s magic, not in a hostile way, more as in a, fine, but just this once, way. Pyram snorted and continued down the stairs till he reached the great hall and briskly walked outside, looking around for the Malfoy boy. He had a good idea of what to do, after Harry and Hermione get their detention, at least.

He wouldn’t be able to see it unless he was up close, so he swiftly cast Sicarus’s stealth spell, “Frito Furgus,” causing a sort of cloak of invisibility made of pure magic to fall onto his being. As it turned out, Sicarus’s spells did have incantations, but Sicarus had manipulated Pyram into thinking his spells were demonic or some shit like that, so Pyram ended up being better at them than he would have been if he started with incantations.

Pyram had been particularly pissed when Sicarus told him about this, hence why he was now paying him back with some good old insubordinate behavior. This wasn’t to say he wasn’t grateful, but nonetheless; Pyram was still angry with Sicarus.

Soon enough, Pyram was standing outside Hagrid’s window, peering in. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Hagrid were all gathered around what Pyram knew to be the dragon egg. It was hatching, or at least it was partially cracked. If Ron would just move so he could actually see it…

Finally, Ron moved a step to the side and Pyram laid his eyes on the newly hatched dragon. There wasn’t anything particularly special about this tiny thing, but it gave Pyram a sense of familiarity, of family, if that made any sense. Observing the dragonet, Pyram knew she was a female; the already fiery temper proved that quite easily.

The little thing was black with a snout resembling that of a young crocodilian. Two stubby reptilian wings protruded from her back, just behind the shoulders with slightly more brown webbing. Little ridges ran along her spine, which was where her species got its name: the Norwegian Ridgeback.

Pyram’s wonder was interrupted when Hermione shouted, spotting Malfoy who had snuck up next to Pyram at some point. Pyram was this close to using the Impediment Jinx on Malfoy but stopped himself, remembering that Malfoy and the others needed to get their detentions before he could hex the damn brat.

As Malfoy hightailed it to the castle, Pyram lousily watched him trek halfway up the hill before looking back to the dragonet. She was hidden away now, and all those who had gathered around “Norbert” dispersed, whether that be to chase Malfoy or to conceal the very illegally hatched dragon.

As much as Pyram would have liked to go inside and see her again, he already knew that he had been here long enough. He had gotten what he wanted, anyway. Still under his magic “cloak” of invisibility, Pyram stalked up after the trio and Malfoy.

It was a cool spring night, the Forbidden Forest’s trees rustling in soft winds, creating a sound comparable to the rushing of a river after winter. Pyram was propped up against a tall pine tree at the edge of the wood.

This time, Sicarus didn’t even try to interfere with Pyram’s latest plan, opting to sit out in exasperated silence. Currently, Pyram was waiting outside the forest so that the moment Malfoy’s detention was over and the little brat was out of sight, he could test a new spell of Sicarus’s out. For science, if you will.

Malfoy was, after all, quite similar to a convicted federal prisoner that has just recently escaped prison scott-free, and for some reason, completely legally. Now, how could Pyram let something such as that slide?

Pyram’s thoughts came to a momentary standstill as red sparks could be seen jutting out of the forest. Pyram sighed, leaning against a tree and waited. And waited, and waited–a twig snapped in the shadows of the trees.

They’re not supposed to be coming out of the forest yet, so what is that? Pyram speculated, peering into the darkness to see a creature much taller than him, staring down with milky white eyes and no pupils. It resembled a skeletal horse with a reptilian face and dark, leathery wings, a little like that of a bat’s.

He couldn’t quite tell what it was, but one thing was for sure, it was eery. Not exactly scary or intimidating, Pyram was pretty sure it didn’t have violence in mind, but just…strange. It tilted its head at him and moved closer. Pyram, in his wonder, let it.

It was close enough now that any sort of aggression could end badly, but Pyram was still quite sure it wouldn’t harm him. It put its nose into Pyram’s chest and sniffed. Seemingly curious, it sniffed again.

Then its entire demeanor changed and it reared, lashing out with sharp, claw-like hooves and raked them viciously at Pyram, who couldn’t hope to avoid the slashes and therefore was met with a bloody gash running across his torso. It let out a terrifying shriek, angry and wicked.

It then slammed those hooves down onto him, pinning him down into the ground. Its mouth was now wide open, revealing no teeth but instead the serrated edges of its “beak”. The hooked end pierced into his shoulder, and it bit his arm cruelly, jerking its head as a dog would to a squirrel it had caught.

Pyram grasped his wand with his left hand and pointed it shakily at the creature, “Subris Tenebito!” he screamed, voice laced with visceral pain.

It fell down limply, but it wasn’t dead. It was just deprived of all its senses, and it would undoubtedly be confused and disoriented when it woke up, but Pyram wouldn’t be there for when it did.