Forming of the Imperium Squad

Vincent made a small announcement to call up students with good records. They probably thought they were in trouble, but far from it. Vincent needed a few students to keep law around Hogwarts, and he had chosen a few particular students. He waited for them to come up.

The Headmaster's Office. An old favorite of James Wake. Ace could not possibly imagine why the new Headmaster would call him up, besides his close relationship with the past Headmaster. The crazy one that forgot that James was his employee, first and foremost. He moved in from Durmstrang, and could perform magic far better than most of the students. In Durmstrang, Magic was a source of survival- nothing more, nothing less. In truth, James had never moved away from that fact. In fact, he came to cherish it, as he was one of the few that truly believed in it. Instead of using magic as a tool to perform the most medial of tasks, James used it as a weapon, and never truly came to depend an anything. No wand? James could alchemize. No Alchemy? James still had his alchemic arm.

But with people, James was less than an expert. He was a complete stranger to love, but no foe to animosity. He understood people, in theory, but he never tried to understand himself. Every time he engaged in the introspective research of finding "one's self,"he would always be annoyed and barraged by souls within his alchemic arm. At times, they worried him. Could they take over his body? Maybe, but James found their company somewhat soothing- their voices meant that he could differentiate himself from their thoughts. Did the Headmaster know about the Alchemic arm? It was a very dangerous tool. It was one step away from becoming a Philosopher's stone, after all, and was increasingly desirous of completion.

He entered the office he had once entered often, and despite all the familiarities, he found the office lacking a certain... spirit. His eyes turned to the new Headmaster. He took a quick polite bow to the Headmaster. "James Wake at your service. Sir."

Amelia was hesitating outside the door of the headmaster's office, even though she knew it threatened to make her late. She was nervous about why lay behind the gargoyle statue, whose eyes seemed to be following her as she paced back and forth.

Amelia was not usually so nervous when she had been summoned to the headmaster's office. She had been there many times in the past, mainly because of prefect meetings or to come and fetch a member of her house who had been caught offending the rules of the castle and needed an escort back to the common room. But the purpose of her presence in the headmaster's office had never been in question, which was the reason she was now vacillating at the foot of what she knew to be a moving spiral staircase.

To be completely honest, Amelia had some idea of what this meeting might entail. She had scarcely seen the new headmaster since he had been appointed, but there was one time that stood out specifically. Amelia had been out on the lawns, hiding in her usually place on the south side of the castle that rarely saw much light, which prevented it from being an overtly popular place for students to convene.

Amelia had conjured bluebell flames on a nearby stump to keep her warm - though she was perpetually cold, so she really didn't know why she bothered - and had been practicing a few of the spells she had read about recently. Often feeling she was not challenged in the classroom, Amelia had taken to privately researching and practicing spells which fell outside the usual domain of what was taught in the sixth year. Most recently she had come across one that had particularly intrigued her, and it was this that she was practicing when Headmaster Majere had come upon her.

Her attempts at successfully casting the Tempestas had been dismal at first, but when the professor and headmaster approached she had successfully raised the snow from the ground around her and was beginning to swirl it above her head, the makings of a proper storm. Before she could see where this would go, however, she had noticed his presence and immediately cut short her attempts, not knowing what his response would be to her attempting this advanced and technically difficult magic.

Instead of chastising her, however, the headmaster had merely smiled at her knowingly, a gleam in his eye that suggested he were planning something. It was then that he extended the invitation to her to come to his office at this time, which was how she found herself making company with the gargoyle now.

Well, it's now or never, Amelia figured, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves before providing the gargoyle with the password Headmaster Majere had given her. She was still unsure as the staircase deposited her in the headmaster's office whether he intended to discipline her for her earlier practice session, but she could not obey a direct order from the headmaster to come to his office. Her respect for authority was too great.

As Amelia stepped more fully into the room, she saw another student from her house standing off to the side. Amelia recognized him at once as James Wake, though they had never been formally introduced. Nodding once in his direction to indicate she had taken note of him, Amelia turned her attention to the headmaster.

"You requested my presence, headmaster?" Amelia inquired, though there was no question about it.

Elijah opened the door of the Headmaster's office and slipped inside, not wasting time to knock seeing as he saw Amelia disappear up the stairs before him. He closed the door behind him and leaned back against the wall, tucking the pencil that was between his teeth, behind his ear. He tugged at his black t-shirt and brushed off a bit of dust before walking over to stand beside Amelia. Whatever this meeting was about Elijah hoped it would be something interesting for once instead of mundane drivel the teachers usually spouted.

After announcing the names, Vincent got off his chair and walked over to the window. It was one thing he liked about the room, the view. From this height, you could see the forest stretching as far as you could see, the lake on one side - frozen from the cold, the stadium on the other. He could even make out shapes of quidditch players practicing there. He hoped none of the people who he had announced were there, or else they had a long walk to get back to the castle, and Vincent hated waiting. He was used to things going fast, and thats how he liked it.

The five people he had announced were ones with good records, and students he had seen who had performed well. They were all in his alchemy class, and they were all from his two favorite houses, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. It wasn't that people from the other houses couldn't be in the squad, it was just that they were less likely to do well in it. Not to mention that it was usually Ravenclaws and Slytherins that had the better students.

The first to arrive was James Wake. Vincent turned away from the window as he heard a student enter his office through the open door. Wake was something of a mystery to Vincent. He had definitely made a good impression in the first alchemy class, and like Vincent, Wake was an alchemist. But still, being an alchemist didn't automatically guarantee you a place in the squad, Vincent was most interested in putting Wake here to see his loyalties. He had heard that Wake had been close to Shacklebolt, somewhat. And Vincent wasn't sure what their relationship was, perhaps Wake had some good information about Shacklebolt, like his current whereabouts.

The second, Amelia Lyons. She was here because of three things. One, she had been a prefect, and excelled in every single class. Secondly, she had been by far the best student at his NEWT class, and had been polite. Something you didn't find in adolescents nowadays. Lastly, she was magically talented, and ambitious. He had seen her perform a spell that most her age couldn't even think of doing. The fact she even knew the spell was shocking, the fact that she had been successful in doing it, very impressive.

The last to arrive, Elijah Krum. He had made a good enough impression in Alchemy class, and was a Slytherin with a rather good record. Slytherin's had qualities needed in the squad, being ambitious they were usually polite and obeying to people more powerful then them. Even if it was for their own sake. They could also be trouble makers of course, and he really hoped Krum wasn't one. But still, it didn't really matter, as long as Krum was loyal and did what Vincent asked him too.

The other two had not arrived yet, something which was slightly annoying, but not totally unexpected. The last two members were probably the most unimportant of them all. Scorpius had done a pretty good job at alchemy class, and was talented, but lazy. The only reason he was in the squad was because Vincent was sort of friends with his father, Draco. Lastly, Hafizdeen Diggory, well he was just in the squad because he had been a prefect. Really, it was hard to find good students at Hogwarts now, the only good ones were those who were lined up in front of him right now.

"Welcome Mr.Wake, Mr.Krum and Ms.Lyons, I suppose your all wondering why I called you here?" asked Vincent calmly. "Well, I have been looking at your records, and from what I have seen you are the umm.. more ah.. talented students at Hogwarts," Vincent explained. "I demoted all prefects last week and I plan to replace them with more promising students like yourselves. Two are missing, but I am sure they will arrive soon."

"The five of you will replace the prefects, and be the Imperium squad. I will explain what you have to do as soon as the others get here."

Amelia was slightly surprised when Elijah stepped into the headmaster’s office as well, joining James and herself as the student population of the room. The situation was beginning to look less and less like a detentionary meeting, and more like a meeting of the minds. Amelia could not begin to imagine what herself, James, and Elijah had in common that the headmaster would have called them here at the same time, but she would find out soon enough.

The silence in the room was beginning to grow thick as the headmaster eyed herself and the other students, seemingly waiting for something or someone, but when the situation had not changed after several minutes the headmaster greeted them formally. He hit it right on the nose when he guessed that she was wondering why she had been called to the office, but he wasted no time in informing them of his reasoning. Amelia blushed and looked away from him when he mentioned that she was among the more talented students at Hogwarts. It was not that Amelia was unaware of this – on the contrary, she worked hard to ensure it – but she did not exactly advertise her expertise. She continued to listen as he furthered his explanation, providing not only reason for why she was here now but also why her prefect badge had been taken from her last week.

Amelia hadn’t put up much of a fight when she had been demoted from prefect. She hadn’t been all that enthused about the job in the first place, having to chase around trouble-making first years instead of using that time more productively, but her parents and the former headmaster had convinced her it would be beneficial to her, which was code for “you’re going to do it, whether you like it or not”. Her curiosity, though, had not been satisfied until just now. It seemed her freedom from prefect responsibilities had been short-lived, she found, when Headmaster Majere announced that the three of them – plus two who were still missing – informed them that they were to be the replacement for the prefects.

Oh joy of joys… Amelia thought to herself, not letting her sarcasm show on her face. She knew that her parents would never allow her to turn down a direct decision from the headmaster, not to mention the fact that her authority complex would never be able to say no to someone as powerful as the headmaster. Instead, she merely nodded, waiting on the arrival of the other students who would form what the headmaster had called “the Imperium squad”.