One month after her so called talk with her ancestor she didn't need to know she had.
On top of a hill she stood against the wind, blowing cold air through the valley that the school resided in. dressed in a long red robe with her pelt tightly tied around her to keep some of her warmth.
"Fila? Why are we still here?" a boy asked her just under her. His name was Kalle. One of her teammates in a skirmish the school had as a "Training exercise" more like a deathmatch to see who couldn't handle it.
Fila looked down at him and then to the others. "Patience, they will come. Just make sure you're ready ones they do."
He nodded and didn't ask any further questions.
Since being here, Fila had grown within the school. Not just in knowledge and strength from the relentless training, but in a way of leading.
Her name had gone around and around the school after winning duel after duel. He achievements in classes also stood out as someone to look up on instead of just being filled with envy or thinking she was cheating. Such envy didn't exists here, everyone knew the stern professors wouldn't allow it to any degree.
Witches and Wizards as well as just normal no-majs often tended to be drawn to the people with talents, something they could look at and lean on. Which leads to them following, and that in turns makes in this case Fila a natural leader.
And in this skirmish she had been chosen to lead her team to victory, and she wasn't about to make herself fall down by loosing.
The trees around them stood like silent guardians, watching for anything coming towards them. Fila who could look through them all could see everything, already having her eyes on the incoming team.
A small smile crept on her face as her little minions she had created harassed the team. The Caipora, something she had brought with her from Castlebruxo. They are small and furry little creatures known for creating mischief wherever they are. Now made of wood and covered in moss and a little more aggressive as the fed on Fila's emotions directly.
She could see her little creatures jumping on the team and their frantic waving of spells and clumsy steps, tripping on laid out snares just to be attacked by the caipora.
"Anis, take your team and flank right. They are coming right towards us." Fila told in a stern but calm voice to one of her group leaders.
The girl just nodded and gathered her group.
Fila's team was divided into two groups, a team and b team. Each of them having a group leader, the group leaders carried the orders that Fila gave which they made the group do. A very effective way of leading a group of more than ten people.
Soon enough she could both hear and see the two groups clashing deeper in the forest. Big flashes of magic made the evening forest light up slightly, and loud bangs echoed of the trees.
Fila remained still on the hilltop, the cold wind tugging at her red robe and the heavy pelt around her shoulders. Below her, the forest lit up in brief, violent bursts of colour as the two groups collided. Spells cracked against trunks, sending showers of bark and snow into the air. The Caipora darted between the trees like living shadows, their wooden bodies clicking and chittering as they pulled at cloaks, yanked ankles, and scattered the opposing team's formation.
She could see everything through the dense branches. Magic sight cut through the dark like a second set of eyes, painting the battlefield in clear lines of heat, motion, and intent. The enemy team was larger than she had expected, at least fifteen students, maybe more, but they were scattered and frustrated. The little wooden creatures had done their work well.
Kalle shifted beside her, wand already in hand. "They're pushing hard toward Anis's flank. Should we drop down?"
"Not yet," Fila answered, voice calm. "Let them commit. Anis knows what to do."
A bright blue shield flared in the trees to the right, followed by a sharp cry and the sound of someone hitting the ground hard. Fila's mouth twitched.
Her plan or what could be said to be a plan was just to wear them out as much as possible, by changing out her attacking force she could send one back to rest while the other fought and wore out the attackers.
She raised two fingers. The remaining Caipora answered at once, peeling away from the main fight and circling wider. Through the bond she felt their excitement of sharp, playful, hungry for more chaos. She fed them a thin stream of focus instead of pure aggression, guiding them toward the enemy's left side where three students had started to regroup.
"Kalle," she said without looking at him. "Take the rest of B-team and cut them off when they try to fall back. Quietly. No flashy spells until you're on top of them."
He gave a short nod and slipped away down the slope, the other members of B-team following in a low crouch. Snow crunched softly under their boots before the trees swallowed them.
She remained on the little hill, overlooking the fight like a hawk.
The attacking team had now been trapped in a corridor, on the left and right stood two groups shooting spells as they tried to advance towards the hill. Either they would continue forward right into Fila or they would have to retreat. Which they wouldn't, she knew their leader well.
Yngve, a hot-headed girl from fifth grade. She had a grudge on Fila for taking the role of this team instead of her friend. Her plan to win this fight easy had been erased by this sole reason. Everyone knew that Yngve would use her friend to win easy points and grades, but that meant that the teachers also knew. Gossip isn't the best at this school one you understand that the teachers also hears them.
A stray spell flew past her head, making her hair flow in the wind that followed.
The fight had turned a bit too intense for her liking, and some of her team had already fallen.
With a loud pop she disappeared from the little hill leaving just a small twirl of leaves and flower petals.
Deeper inside the forest covered in snow, loud bangs and gusts on winds cut thought the air from stray spells hitting trees and students alike.
"Watch out on your left Sanna!" one of the boys shouted to his teammates.
Sanna who stood on his right ducked and counter spelled the student which had apparated closer to them. "I cant believe this is working." She said while throwing another spell down towards the trapped enemy team. "Fila really knows what she is doing."
Fila hadn't just gained the respect of the students, but of the professors aswell. By being forward and doing everything she could to come out at top she made her way up the invincible ladder of respect at the school.
Fila reappeared in a swirl of leaves and petals just behind the enemy line, the cold air biting at her face as she straightened. The corridor of trees Yngve's team had been forced into was a mess of scorched bark, scattered snow, and the sharp smell of spent magic. Her own people held the high ground on both flanks, spells flashing in controlled arcs. A few of her teammates were down, but the formation still held.
Yngve stood near the centre of the trapped group, face flushed with anger, wand already swinging toward the nearest Caipora. The wooden creature darted aside with a sharp click of its limbs, only for another to leap onto her cloak and yank hard. Yngve snarled and blasted it into splinters.
"Enough games!" she shouted. "Push through them!"
Fila didn't give her the chance.
She snapped her finger, and from the trees surrounding the branches came down swinging hard. Hitting the students hard, throwing them into other students.
The rules of the skirmish said not hurt the others students unless by accident… such a Durmstrang thing to have as a rule, everyone knows you will be hurt when doing this. broken bones and twisted arms and legs weren't uncommon and almost a guaranty here.
Yngve spun, finally spotting Fila standing calmly at the edge of the newly formed wall.
"You," she spat. "Of course it's you."
Fila tilted her head slightly, the silver flower pendant catching a brief flicker of distant spell-light. "I know, isn't it great. To meet like this so you can get on your knee and kiss my ass, its perfect." She said with a wide grin.
Yngve didn't like that and casted several blasting curses in her direction, none of which did anything as Fila just blocked them all with thick branches coming from the trees.
A loud warning shuddered though Yngve's head as she could feel the desperation slowly creeping up on her. Her team is falling fast, and in front of her stood the dueling champion who used magic no one else could even come close to.
Yngve's face twisted with pure frustration. She fired another barrage — cutting curses, a sharp blasting hex, even a wild attempt at a freezing spell that cracked the air with ice. Fila didn't move from where she stood. Thick branches whipped down from the surrounding trees, batting the spells aside like annoying insects. One branch caught a stray curse and simply absorbed it, the wood glowing briefly before returning to normal.
"You're wasting energy," Fila said, almost conversationally. The grin was gone now, "Your team is done. Look around."
Yngve did.
On every side her people were either on the ground, pinned by living wood, or being forced back by Anis and Kalle's coordinated pressure. The Caipora still darted through the chaos, small and relentless, knocking wands from hands and yanking cloaks over heads. The corridor that had once looked like a path to victory had become a cage.
One of Yngve's remaining teammates dropped his wand and raised both hands. "I yield!"
Another followed. Then two more. The fight drained out of the group in a slow, reluctant wave. Only Yngve still stood, chest heaving, wand trembling in her grip.
Fila took a single step closer. The silver flower pendant rested against her collarbone, catching the last light of the evening.
"Yield," she said quietly. Not a taunt this time. Just a statement.
For a long second Yngve looked ready to keep fighting anyway. Pride and anger warred across her face. Then the last of her strength seemed to leave her. Her shoulders slumped. The wand slipped from her fingers into the snow.
"…We yield."
Fila smiled, "What a relief. I thought I was going to have to blast you, that wouldn't have been very nice."
It didn't take long for other students to come and help the wounded, and some started reparing the forest to their best ability. Fila stood with her arms crossed looking over the area, not to look over her comrades or the enemies. But she looked deeper, trying to see what she could have done better.
Her plan in no way failed, but it needed to be more aggressive according to herself. The best defense is a good offense as they say.
The professors who had been watching the little skirmish all hovered on their brooms just over the tree line.
"She's a natural in every sense of the word." Professor Agetha said. The transfiguration professor had been watching the young girl for some time now. She knew the Grindelwald granddaughter wouldn't become just a nobody here, but even this exceeded what she had thought would happened.
"She hasn't just gained the respect from the ones at her age and below, but also the senior years have started listening to her. Its troubling and I don't know what we can do about this." One of the Professors added.
The headmaster himself hovered beside them and looked down on the girl standing, observing the playground she had before her. "Her ability to adapt and to gain the upper hand even in situations when she is… at a disadvantage, that is something everyone should have yet only few does." He started, his mind had been flowing with how to approach this for days now. "I'm going to ask an old friend of mine, keep looking at her and send anything my way."
Back at the ground.
Above the treeline the professors still hovered on their brooms, black silhouettes against the darkening sky. Fila could feel their attention like a low pressure in the air. She didn't look up. There was no need. She already knew what they were seeing: a thirteen-year-old girl who had just coordinated more than a dozen students, used living constructs no one else could create, and forced a larger, older team into surrender without ever raising her wand in a conventional duel.
Let them watch.
Kalle jogged up, a thin cut on his forehead already half-healed. "Healers are on the way. Anis is rounding up the last of our people. We lost two wands and one cloak, but everything else is accounted for."
Fila gave a short nod. "Good. Tell everyone to form up. We're walking back. No Apparition. I want them thinking about what just happened on the way down."
Kalle grinned. "Yes, Captain."
She almost corrected him, then decided against it. The title had started as a joke among her team. It no longer felt like one.
As the group slowly gathered and began the long descent toward the distant lights of Durmstrang, Fila walked at the front once more. The silver flower pendant rested warm against her collarbone beneath the layers of robe and pelt. The ring on her finger felt heavier than usual, as if the things stored inside it had grown denser with every day she spent in this place.
The school had become this brutal kind of home which in a very strange way felt more home than home. Even the friends she had gained here felt more like friends than most at Ilvermorny.
A wonderful thing about harsh environments is just that, its easier to gain a connection deeper than just calling someone a friend. Here we share something, and that is the harsh school of Durmstrang, harsh professor who don't really care for you. call it trauma bonding in a way.
Upon arriving back at the castle she was met with a collection of friends and others who just wanted to know the outcome.
"By the look on your face, I would say you won but your not happy with it." Aleksei said while he looked on her blindfold.
Fila just shrugged. "Well im happy about it, but could have done things different… a fuck it yeah I kicked ass."
Aleksei huffed a quiet laugh, the sound low and warm in the cold evening air. He fell into step beside her as the rest of the team filtered past them toward the castle doors, still buzzing with leftover adrenaline and the usual post-skirmish boasting.
"That's the version I expected" he said. "The 'could have been better' part. You never just take the win and leave it alone."
Fila side eyed him hard, until she let it go because she knew he was sort of right. Always finding ways to never be happy about the outcome had been something she tried to change about herself. Got an answer wrong but still passed the test? Instant mood change, why didn't she get it right. It's a normal thing to happened when ambition and ego collides.
And Ego was something she had plenty of, ambition? Maybe.
Gaining that victory in the skirmish did a lot for her image in the school. Beating a fifth year wasn't something unheard of, but for her to beat her as she did was.
"So you didn't cast a single spell?" Sofia asked from her right. The common room had been turned into a small meeting of interested students who wanted to her everything about the skirmish.
Entertainment didn't come often here, and when it did everyone wanted it more than candy.
Fila shrugged, "I just made my little monkeys jump around on them, the team handled the rest. I just point."
The fireplace crackled, and the windows of the room clashed against the wind trying to enter the room form outside. Winter is ending shortly, and the rainy fall comes closer with each day.
"You have any tips?" Krum asked with his normally deep voice.
Krum was one of the few ones chosen to be in the skirmish aswell, he wasn't a very good leader in dueling. Quidditch on the other hand he would destroy everyone in this school.
The same could be said for the rest of the group, most of them couldn't lead but all had something they ruled in. Aleksei on the other hand is a very good leader, probably learnt early from his royal polish blood.
As for Fila, it had come as a shock. Her voice carried something that everyone could listen to, something close to fear but in a good way. like a warm hand leading them through the cold forest around the school.
This wasn't just something that had happened… her determination to gather people to her side had grown in a very short amount of time. her grandfather as a inspiration had made her think of ways to make the common mind follow her. He had lead with the cold truth that the no-majs would come for them one day, with weapons able to defeat them over and over again.
Her approach to this would be a bit different. She didn't see anyone as a threat and just flat out wanted to gather people. But did this work?
Well it wouldn't work in any other school, not in the scale she wanted. But Durmstrang? A school filled with children who has done nothing but follow orders their whole lives felt like picking candy from a kids Halloween bag.
But in what way could or would she need this?
The answer is so obvious that it hurts, she is a Grindelwald and a black of course. And her short life had already shown that she needs to be stronger to fight things bigger than herself.
Next time someone came for her she would not just take it laying down, she would meet them at the door swinging.