Demitria couldn't think straight. She could not take another week of studying late into the night just to avoid having to go to sleep. She had been forcing herself to stay out the Room of Requirement after curfew because it was getting too dangerous. If she went there too often, someone might begin to get suspicious.

Since she didn't have her piano, studying was all she could do.

As a Strelnikov, she should have been embarrassed to be running away from her problems, but Strellie could have cared less. No one knew anyway. She was the Queen of Diamonds and nothing could change that. As long as she kept her mask on and let no one see inside, there was no way for anyone to judge her.

She swept a hand over her immaculate eyes, trying to rub them open and not smudge their make-up simultaneously. She wasn't wearing much, but even a little could smear. Unconsciously, her hand moved down the long scar on her face to fall back to her page.

Merlin how she hated History of Magic. Nothing practical, nothing to keep her fingers dancing as they would on keys. Well, that is if one didn't count the horrid essay that could have, and should have, never existed. It was worth giving to a fourth year! Just silly, busy work that required no brain power whatsoever. Just hours of tedious research.

She lifted her head and looked around her. Near her was Hogwarts' resident lurker, who Demitria knew was highly intelligent, but far more veela than she could ever be. Amara Bathory looked eerily similar to the Russian, but Strellie assumed it must be a Veela thing. While she had gotten the social, love to be loved card, the younger Slytherin seemed to want to be left alone most of the time.

Too bad, konfetka, Strellie thought with a small smile on her rosebud lips. Picking up her textbook, she moved to a seat next to Amara.

"Sorry, to bother you, Konfetka, but I have a really stupid question that I cannot seem to find the answer to." She tossed the well-worn book down. "It's not even that relevant to my essay, but I just need to know what year the Triwizard Tournament was instated."

She kept flipping through the pages muttering to herself. "Why on earth can I not find it?"

Demitria Strelnikov was ready to smash her head into a wall. 

By the time Amara was finished with dinner, she was in a foul mood. The student body had been overly loud tonight. She decided to go and cool off in the library with a good book. She didn't particularly visit the library at this time of day, since most of her colleagues were the type to do their homework and research at the last possible moment, usually right the night before they had to turn their assignments in. She entered the library cautiously but with sure steps, going to the last aisle of the Reference Section, where it was more isolated and chances were, less populated. Picking a random book on counter-courses, the girl sat down at the nearest table, tucking her legs under her and started reading intently.

After ten minutes or so, Amara noticed some movement in the aisle and also a familiar scent, or feeling, she could not quite exactly describe it. She raised her eyes to her right and noticed the other part veela she had sensed around the school, she took a few moments to access her memory and remember the blonde. Her name... it was something Slavic... what was it? Ah. Demitria Strelnikov. Russian. Pureblood. Seventh year Syltherin. Only other part veela in the school.

She watched her as she sat down,  completely ignorant of her surroundings, seemingly, fully lost in her own thoughts. Amara considered moving to an empty aisle; the girl was heavily using her Veela charm, she did not seem conscious of it however. The idea that half of the boys in the library could swarm over in the aisle they occupied suddenly frightened her. But Aunt Elena would tell her to stay and fight her impulses; her assignment this semester was to get used to the company of others, no more than five people, to start with.  Miss Strelnikov was just one person. She had to stay.

Some time after, Amara felt her silent companion watching her. She ignored it, hoping it would was just a stray look, but soon the girl was sitting on a seat next her, only one chair away. Amara was suddenly contemplating getting up and leaving before the blonde had any chance to open her mouth, but it was too late, she had already addressed her a question, a good informative question, the answer to which should've been common knowledge by now, but, still, one that would require an answer. She raised her head to look at the girl, as she was taught to do when addressing a person, waited for her to stop flipping pointlessly in a book Amara knew she would not ever find the answer and replied drily:

"1294. Discontinued in 1792. Restarted in 1994."

She hoped the answer had satisfied the Russian and she would leave her alone, moving back to the table she was sitting at before. Seeing as she had no intention of doing so, Amara took a deep breath and returned to reading her own book. Happily, however, the other girl remained silent.

She had only read about five pages more, when the silver-haired girl felt an intensity in Miss Strelnikov's veela ability.  Amara raised her head from her book and turned to look at the girl, she seemed frustrated by something in the page she was reading. "This is unacceptable", she thought to herself. Doing something highly unusual for herself, Amara opened her mouth and called out to the girl.

"Excuse me saying, but if you are not going to get your entrancing glamour under control right this instant, we will find ourselves in the midst of a frenzied group of young, hot-blooded males, sooner than we could both get up and  try to run out of here. And I, for one, would like to avoid that at all costs, Miss Strelnikov"  she told the blonde, in her deep monotonic voice while watching Miss Strelnikov with a stern expression that contradicted her respectful phrasing.

Demitria's ethereal green eyes flashed over the other veela. Amara Bathory had always been a mystery to the Russian. She didn't understand her tentative nature or her monotony. Everyone in the school knew that she was a Veela, but instead of reveling in the fact, the other Slytherin seemed to keep to herself.

Still, Strellie could see why. The past few months had been tiring beyond belief and she was more or less done with humanity. Between Xavier and Kitty and Huck, and just about everyone else, she couldn't stand the sheer amount of drama that Hogwarts could churn out in a day. Bathory seemed like a relatively drama-free choice to ask homework questions. Especially ones that she. should. know.

"Thank you." She answered and scribbled it down with her colorful quill. She considered moving back to where she had been seated previously, but decided against it. She had moved her books over with her and it just seemed like a hassle to use any more of her already depleted energy. She knew that Bathory was uncomfortable, but she could deal with it for a little bit. Just another foot of that Merlin-forsaken essay...

"Excuse me saying, but if you are not going to get your entrancing glamour under control right this instant, we will find ourselves in the midst of a frenzied group of young, hot-blooded males, sooner than we could both get up and  try to run out of here. And I, for one, would like to avoid that at all costs, Miss Strelnikov"

Demitria's attention immediately flew to the other veela. Wait what? Her ghost eyes narrowed and she couldn't help but purse her lips. Well this was certainly embarrassing. Mortifying, more like. She had been managing to keep a tight reign on her charm all summer and most of the fall. Her Grandmother had taught her how to at least know what using her charm felt like.

Mortifying.

"I can't believe it." She muttered. Surely enough, now that she was focusing, she could feel the charm leaking out of her. It was a good thing that she and Amara were more or less secluded or else the other Slytherin's predictions would probably come true. "I've been practicing since the summer and I still can't always tell when it's happening," She sighed. "No wonder I feel so magically depleted today." 

 

Amara watched as the girls face slowly turned into an expression of frustration, wondering what might be the cause. Her mind swiftly went through all possible social interaction scenarios she had experienced or learned, trying to find a correlation with the one that was now in progress. Her search was inconclusive, so she was left somewhat befuddled.

"I can't believe it. I've been practicing since the summer and I still can't always tell when it's happening. No wonder I feel so magically depleted today."

Amara listened to the girl intently, she vaguely remembered how it was for herself when she first started her training. And the frustrations and exhaustion of her retraining from her second year were still vivid, She knew exactly what Miss Strelnikov was talking about.  She again remembered Elena's request and considered the blonde to be a good start, they might not have much in common personality-wise, but they did share a rare special ability...

"Since our conversation has reached more words than a random normal dialogue, social etiquette dictates I formally introduce myself, despite the fact that I believe we both know each others' name, approximate age and some family background given both of our somewhat Slavic ancestry." She took a long breath and straightened her posture. "I am Amara Ecaterina Báthory" Amara said while extending her arm. "I am your underclassman in Slytherin, 4th Year to be more exact" she contemplated showing her a smile, but  her smiles sis not manage to look the least bit normal, often making for quite a twisted, disturbing sight. "You may call me Amara, Ecaterina or Miss Báthory, nothing else. I, however, prefer Amara. Charmed to meet you" she finished with her normal, usual expressionless face and tone of voice, that neither seemed charmed.

"You may find it easier to keep track of your somewhat rampant ability by training it's starting point. If you  manage to start it, or call it, as I've been taught, eight times out of ten, your magical essence or core, as well as your mind will be forced to develop it's awareness to the glamour" she explained while making small gestures. "Mind you, training is something you should be doing everyday for no more than an hour at the level you seem to have, or else you might find that what you have learned, soon isn't as responsive. My grandmother said, that opposed to full Veelas, the ability somehow conflicts with our magical nature and causes an imbalance" Amara said while moving her sight to the window, as if remembering the image vividly and trying to concentrate on it.

She turned to look at her again. "Ho-How" she tried to say something, but the words wouldn't come out, so she stopped to clear her throat. "I am sorry, I don't believe I have talked so much in one day for some weeks. I was trying to ask you how much Veela blood do you have in you? I'm sorry if the question might seem impertinent, it has, however, a purpose."

Her last sentences where said in a more raspier voice than her normal one, she wondered if she should entertain more conversations with Freija, her cat, to avoid something like this happening again.

Demitria listened quietly to the silver-haired Slytherin. Yes, she was undoubtedly strange, but this could be very beneficial to her. One summer of being chewed out by her grandmother that hated her was not enough to control her power. It wasn't her fault that Jaska hadn't gotten the trait! Her father had inherited the trait, so it was highly unlikely that her eldest brother would have as well, but no. Nika had to take it out on her.

"Well, if we're doing introductions, I'm Demitria Slaave Strelnikov, sixth year Slytherin," Strellie smiled effortlessly at the other girl. She noticed an awkward twitch around Amara's lips that she assumed could have been a smile. Perhaps the other girl had decided against it. "You may call me Demitria, Strelnikov, or Strellie. I really have no preference, Amara." A much more comfortable greeting for the outgoing Russian would have been the double cheek kiss, but from how mechanical Báthory seemed, she decided it wouldn't be a good idea. She may cause the Romanian to go into shock.

When Amara asked her how much of a Veela she was, the Russian pursed her already round lips. It wasn't a good idea to lie about her heritage especially when the other Slytherin was potentially going to help her. But there were already far too many people who knew that Darya Strelnikov nee Volkov wasn't her mother. As of August, the grand total had been five and she wanted to keep it there. Of course, Amara probably knew very little about her heritage and it didn't matter anyway. Who was to say that Darya wasn't a veela? Names didn't need to be mentioned...

"I'm not sure what the exact numbers would be, but my father is at least three quarters. My grandmother was full and my grandfather was half. My mother is half."

There, that was innocuous enough and could give the machine-like Slytherin a better idea of the strength of her abilities.
 

"With your father three quarters and your mother half, it would be safe to assume you are about 1/2 part Veela. You should at least be able to get to the second level in about a year, with rigorous training" she paused and looked the girl deep in the eyes "Demitria, using your powers as often as you do, regardless whether it's intentional or not can cause you serious damage. We are only part Veelas, we cannot overuse our powers. You might try to contain your emotions in the future; any sort of emotional imbalance can cause the charm to activate, and, obviously, its power is directly proportional to the intensity of the emotion."

She looked away to to the window and seemed to slip into a deep thought for a few moments, her eyes twinkled... maybe with regret? She got up and took the book she was reading, "We should be going, it's five minutes to closing time". She walked around the table and put the book back in its place, "My curfew is also just around the corner, I'll be doing some reading with Freija in the common room until 10 o'clock" she took two steps forward towards the main aisle of the library and turned to look at  Demitria.

"I'm training five days a week, except for Wednesday.  Theoretical, mental and magical core training from 5:30 AM to 6:30 AM, Monday and Tuesday, on the days mentioned before in the Room of Requirements, when it is so kind as to work and practical applications, Thursdays and Fridays from 9:00 to 10:00 AM. Occasionally I test myself in public in the chaos before lunch. I expect to be notified by owl a day before if you are going to join me. Coming to the dorms?"

Demitria watched Amara with interest. The other girl was so different from her veela ancestry. She was ultra detached and seemed to have very little, if no emotion. Her family certainly had emotions, even if they were limited to the destructive and sociopathic. Honestly, the Russian wondered whether she would have preferred being like the fourth year?

Cold with little to make her human. Ethereally beautiful with little else to recommend her.

No. She couldn't have done it. She felt too much. Maybe they were different veelas. Was that possible? All she knew is that her veela ability added such a sense of emotion to everything. It seemed opposite. However, there was the fact that the past fall, she had fallen into a bit of what Amara was. It was easier to be emotionless. Rationality was her defense mechanism.

So, it couldn't hurt to see what the other girl had to teach her. She couldn't be worse than Nika, may the hag soon go to hell.

When the other girl mentioned the time, the Russian cast a quick tempus charm. It was five minutes to closing. My how time flies when one doesn't sleep. "Yes. I don't have anything else to accomplish here."

She stood and gathered her books with another quick flick of her blood red wand. "So what does your training consist of?"

Strellie looked at the other girl as they walked. There was a strange feeling there. She couldn't quite put her finger on it. 

She turned her head to look at the witch next to her and for a fleeting second she thought  she had quite a lovely face and, perhaps, quite a familiar one at that, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. If not for the eye and hair color they could even pass for sisters, or blood relatives anyway. It was odd and discomforting, but she gave it no more thought as she started explaining her training.

"The first thing you need to learn is control. I am sure, with a full veela in your family, you must know they can be quite the... harpies," the corner of her mouth raised slightly, but suddenly dropped into her unmoving daily mask, surprised at her own attempt at a joke  "and obviously have quite the temper. We, descendants of veelas, inherit some of their rather hot-headed personality, and as their emotions are directly proportional to the power of their feelings so is ours. The problem here, however, is that, as opposed to pure veelas, our feelings and emotions can trip our charms to activate. So, as I said, control is the first thing on the list. One of the best ways to achieve control over our powers is to achieve control over our bodies and minds. I am not sure if you're familiar with a muggle meditation technique called yoga? That covers the beginning stages of mental and physical training. As for the magical core training, which covers the next half hour of training on Mondays and Tuesdays, wandless magic or in your case, preparation for wandless magic does the trick. After you learn control over your emotions you need to learn control over your magic, and wandless magic requires the most concentration as far as your magical core go. As I already said, from my family's experience, our magic, —the wizarding kind — seems to somehow clash with veela magic, so you need to be able to balance them flawlessly for successful attempts at veela charms. So this is Mondays and Tuesdays, location varies from the ROR to the  more desolated places on the shore of the lake, since it helps with meditation, but it's getting too cold for outside training" she stopped as she realized they were already at the dormitory entrance and her brows raised slightly, the time sure had flied, she might've even... enjoyed this conversation, which was a bit disturbing and made her nervous for a minute.

She turned back to Demitria and gave her a slight smile, that almost came out naturally. "Would you like to continue the conversation in the common room or leave it for another day? It seems I have talked the entire way down here without even asking for your input... Pardon my rudeness, Demitria."

Demitria listened with interest to the younger girl. This was something that she had never heard before, even from her Babushka. It was extremely structured, and extremely formal. Despite Amara's attempt at a joke about all full veelas being harpies, Strellie could easily believe that even if the power of different lines of veelas were one and the same, they had different ways of harnessing them. Nika had had her practicing meditation, so that was a common factor. Controlling mind and body was important for the Putilov veelas too, it was where her chilling rationale had come from. However, there was a key difference.

The eerie calm that Amara put off was nowhere to be found in her entire ancestry. No matter whether the first born boy or the youngest born girl, full, quarter, half, or more, Strelnikov or Putilova, there was not a single case of a perfectly sane veela. Not even she possessed the traits of perfect sanity, working herself to the bone night and day to keep rational thought and action, always resorting to a cold calculation of fact to keep emotion from overtaking her. Instead of having her deny it, Nika had begun to cultivate it. To use. To manipulate. To make every person simply a tool. From dawn to dusk, it had been training on how to falsify her emotions, how to get people to listen to her. Once Nika had figured out her charm had a strange affinity for plants, not just humans, their training had switched to how to make them grow, move, and become deadly. Strellie had hated that part. The plants were not supposed to used that way and she could practically feel the betrayal. Nika's totalitarian methods worked an worked well... until the werewolf attack. After seeing the scars the beast had inflicted on her granddaughter, the veela had left her to her own. Her Babushka had said that no matter how much charm she possessed, no one could overlook the fact that Demitria was a transfixing monster.

Her face had not given away any of her internal confusion, keeping interest at the front of her features. Amara was socially awkward enough that it was unlikely she would have noticed anyway, but it was better safe than sorry.

"There's no problem at all, Amara," Mimi smiled at the nervous girl as they stopped by the entrance to the Common Room. "It is interesting to hear how different families train their children, that is all." She entered the common room and turned back to Amara. "It is still too early to sleep, but I need to try and get some more reading done. Still, I do have a few questions before I go to bed. First of all, what are the levels? And secondly..." Demitria hated to bring up her precious ability, what most just assumed was lots of hard work in Herbology," have you ever heard of veelas being able to work with non-human living organisms?"     

"Ah, yes, of course. How silly of me, I should've started with that" she admonished herself, as two red spots appeared on her cheeks. "The charm has three possible stages. The basic level involves simply activating the charm and regulating it's strength. It simply attracts some attention -usually positive- over the witch-veela. For example people might look closer, listen more intently, even make the courage to approach us for conversation if they are usually a shy person. It is the most harmless and also the least dangerous for the half-veela herself, as it requires little to no effort. The second level, involves singing while the charm is activated. Veelas are naturally gifted with beauty and a talent for the finer arts, so you should make sure you cultivate those skills. When you start to sing, people might go out of their way to come and see you singing, others might experience a sort of instant liking - something much less powerful than a love potion, for example. And if, and only if, you're already on good-standing with the afflicted you might get them do to some menial task for you, as long as it does not contradict their principles. At my level, for example, keeping it up for more than an hour at a time can cause a temporary magical depletion and some physical weariness" she took a deep breath and paused for a moment.

She didn't really know that much about Demitria, and she didn't trust her as much as to share the entirety of the family veela secrets. But only having contact with the veelas and half-veelas in her family was exhausting. However, having another veela that could understand what she was going through and that could also provide Amara with her own family's take on the veela abilitiess seemed like a very intriguing idea.

"The third and last stage is the most useful, but also the most dangerous one. However, it only work on males. Adding dancing to the equation, causes a very interesting response in the males in your effect area. It induces a trance-like state in the victim, causing them to do some unbelievable things in order to get closer to you and to gain your acceptance. I suppose you could compare it to a blend of Amortentia and the Imperius curse. Yet, not as dangerous and hazardous. For us, part-Veelas it's almost impossible to keep up for a long time, but it is enough to get you out of a life and death situation. At my level, I can only keep it up for five minutes maximum. If you go over your limit it causes a severe magical drain and also critical fatigue, going as far as a temporary comatose state. It's your body's way of replenishing your magical source. I don't know how serious it can be, I was only out cold for a week after keeping the charm up for two second over my limit, and it took me three weeks to get back control over my magic."

"It's all rather relative, however, since the victim's character and personality can cause the charm to act differently for each individual. Because of the charm's nature to force out actions on the victim, the afflicted may or may not remember their actions under the influence of the charm, like I said it depend on the victim. For example if they have a very weak personality and constitution, and may be considered more as "followers" than leaders, they will be more easy to charm and they might remember the entire incident, because they are more predisposed to being forced to do something. While stronger personalities may have an inner battle, the brain refusing to compute the overtaking of its abilities to make choices, and the charm might prove difficult to use" she smiled slightly at the older witch. "Which is why you need to learn control, first and first of all. While your charm may affect all humans in your effect area, you might need to make tweaks for each individual under your charm so that it has the desired effect."

She pondered on Demitria's question and wondered if that was something her veela abilities could achieve. "In a way, yes. But in our family, it doesn't get passed to part-veelas. My grandmother's charm works on all beings, whether humanoid types or not. As long as they are sentient, they can be affected, the gender also doesn't matter. For a while I thought my way with animals might be caused by my charm, but apparently it's just my... way of being" she said in a rather disappointed tone. "I hope that answers your questions. Now, if you'll excuse I have some reading to do" she said serenely before turning to leave.