What The Fudge? (Char and Cobie)

Charlotte sighed, she knew where the room of requirement was now and she needed to use it again, pacing three times in front of it she smiled gently when the door appeared and she entered the room. It was different from last time, the walls were mirrors, there were several training dummies scattered around and as well as all of this there was a bed on the other side of the room, for when Charlotte drained all of her energy.

She took out one of her branded paintings and bit her thumb lightly, Charlotte was just about to place the blood along the canvas when her ears pricked up, walking to the door she opened it with a scowl. Why did she always get interrupted in here?!

Cobalt had been following his nose, as he often did when he was bored. He'd picked up the scent of blood and had been following the scent to the stretch of seemingly blank wall. And then the little girl had opened the door in front of him, the door having appeared out of nowhere. He arched an eyebrow and stepped past her, into the room, confident that the girl wouldn't be aware of him, even if he was only using one of his weaker disillusionment charms. He looked around the room before making himself visible in the centre,

"An interesting room Miss...?"

Charlotte looked very confused at the blank space outside of the room, she must have been hearing things, moving back into the room Charlotte licked the trail of blood that ran down her hand and began once more to draw a symbol on her canvas when she heard a voice. Turning around Charlotte's eyes widened.

"How did you...?"

Stunned for a moment Charlotte shook her head and placed the picture down on the floor walking a little bit closer to the man who had now appeared.

"Charlotte, Charlotte Matthews. Are you a Professor Sir? I haven't seen you around..."

Smiling at the slight irony at her statement Charlotte waited for his answer.

Cobalt shrugged slightly,

"I'm not known for being seen Miss Matthews." he commented idly as he wandered over and picked the picture back up. He raised an eyebrow but otherwise let it gently fall back down as he began to look around the room, "This is a strange room Miss Matthews... how was it that you came across it?"

He paused and smiled a little,

"I'm sorry... where are my manners?" he nodded a little, "My name is Cobalt Smith. I'm one of the two new potions professors."

Charlotte looked on as the man picked up her picture and she almost wanted to rip it out of his hands, it was important and had taken her so long to complete. She relaxed when he put it back down, her hair, now in a pixie crop splayed across her pale face partly obscuring her red eyes, but you could still see them through the fine strands.

"It's the Room of Requirement Sir. If you walk past it three times, thinking of something you want, the door will appear and you can use the room. I needed somewhere to train, so it gave me this."

Charlotte smiled when he told her his name.

"Pleased to meet you Professor Smith."

Cobalt looked at her with a raised eyebrow and an amused expression,

"No need to lie Miss Matthews." he sniffed the air a little, "You're cautious of me, wary. Respectful obviously... but something about you has tensed about something to do with me. Perhaps..."

He cast the picture a glance before locking eyes with her,

"Or perhaps the picture means more to you than it would to me." he sniffed the painting a little and frowned, "Odd smell about it. Seems... odd."

Shaking his head a little he looked around the room, noting the bed and the training dummies,

"May I ask what kind of training you've been doing here?"

Charlotte gritted her teeth and picked up the painting tapping it with her bleeding finger so it shrunk to pocket size where she slipped it into her jeans pocket away from Professor Smith's prying eyes. Charlotte did not want to tell him about her powers...what would he do to her?

"Endurance."

She answered simply.

"With my speciality, I can't keep it going for very long, I need to try and train myself to make it last longer, it's no use of it only lasts a couple of minutes."

Charlotte blushed and her eyes lightened to a pink colour, what she had said, sounded kind of wrong.

"OH the double entendre." She chuckled.

Cobalt chuckled a little,

"Glad you said it rather than me pointing it out." he smiled a little, "It's worse when it's your teacher picking you up on these things."

He raised an eyebrow again,

"You have a speciality?" he took a couple of steps closer to her and leant down to look deep into her eyes. After a few seconds he frowned a little, "You do appear to have a certain spark about you..."

Smiling, he held up a hand in front of Charlotte's face,

"Tell me Miss Matthews... is it anything like this?" he asked, his hand fading instantly from view. But what Charlotte didn't know was that the hand wasn't just invisible. It was intangible.

Charlotte raised her eyebrow, could this guy seriously smell her? If so, that was a little weird, cool, but weird. She smiled, happy that she hadn't been teased too much about what she had said. Charlotte watched as his hand changed in front of her, now she knew how he had gotten into the room.

"I have two. Actually. But they aren't anything like that...although to most people I'm invisible anyway."

She grinned, Charlotte sat on the bed and played with the ring on her finger, moving it up and down to try and distract herself.

"I am better at one than the other."

Charlotte looked up carefully at Professor Smith, not sure if she should trust him or not.

"If I show you...can I trust you not to tell anyone? Of course not...I can't really trust anyone...but...will you promise all the same?"

Cobalt raised an eyebrow,

"Don't knock being unnoticed Miss Matthews." he smiled a little, "It does wonders for some lines of work."

He frowned a little before sitting down in a simple wooden chair, which the room had provided,

"Alright. I won't tell anyone. In fact..." he raised his hand with his wand now in it, "I, Cobalt Smith, do swear on my magic that I shall not reveal the secrets of Charlotte Matthews unless either given her express permission or to save her from mortal peril."

Charlotte raised her eyebrow, she gave a rare wide smile and with that she stood up from the floor walked over to where Cobalt was sitting and swiftly paced around the chair measuring him up. With a sigh she closed her eyes and felt a warmth rush through her body, and before she knew it, she looked exactly like Cobalt.

"I'm a shape shifter."

She said simply, in her own voice, which would be rather weird for him she presumed. Charlotte turned into herself again and smiled softly at him.

"I haven't got the voices down yet...but I'm hoping I'll do that soon. And I have my other talent...which is more complicated to explain."

Cobalt's eyebrow rose again and a sly smile slowly formed on his face. Standing, he leant in to inspect Charlotte's work in imitating him. Pulling down her collar slightly he noticed that she didn't have one of his more distinctive scars. In fact... it was like looking at a generally softer version of himself, all smooth and unblemished skin where he had calloses, scars, burns and old bullet wounds. He sniffed her and he couldn't help but grin. The girl smelt exactly like him. His grin grew,

"You Miss Matthews... are perhaps the best Metamorphmagus I have ever encountered!" he chuckled a little as he continued to circle her, "Yes... yes you've almost got it perfect! You have missed many of my scars, probably because you have never seen them, but what is most remarkable is that you have matched my scent perfectly! And that is a skill worthy of interest in itself."

When she returned to her original form he sniffed her again and, sure enough, there was no trace of his scent anywhere on her. He smiled a little more, his slytherin side kicking in. Turning his smile into a smirk he coughed a little to clear his throat before speaking, but sounding exactly like Charlotte,

"There's a technique to the voices." he told her in her high-pitched, girly, tones, "The trick is a very hard one to perfect, but well worth the effort."

He coughed a little and drank from the glass of water that the Room had provided,

"Sorry..." he muttered in his own voice, "Doing the little girl voice really kills the throat."

Cobalt smiled a little,

"Complicated usually means interesting. Please, continue Miss Matthews."

Charlotte stared slack jawed at Professor Smith as he imitated her voice, she grew a little jealous, but then again, he was so much older than her it made sense for him to be able to do things that she herself couldn't yet. He seemed like an interesting man at least...Professor Smith seemed to be able to smell things...which was creepy. But awesome.

"Oh Merlin. I don't really sound like that do I? I might make an effort not to speak unless I have to..."

She shook her head, to Charlotte her voice sounded really annoying.

"Well...I suppose I could explain it."

Taking out the picture from her pocket Charlotte re-opened her cut and traced a symbol on the frame, concentrating a little she poured some of her energy into the picture so the man within it stepped out from it and walked towards Professor Smith solid as anything. Gritting her teeth Charlotte pulled back her energy and the man disappeared back into the painting.

"You see? If I infuse my blood into the paints I use to make these pictures I can work blood magic to make them become solid, they don't last long though...the longest was about 10 minutes and I slept for hours afterwards."

Charlotte growled.

"It's simply not good enough."

Cobalt nodded his head with a small smirk,

"I'm afraid you do indeed sound like that Miss Matthews... my voices haven't been wrong yet." he winked a little and drained the water before the Room vanished the glass. He looked at the man for a little bit and sniffed him a little more. As soon as he'd smelt the 'man' his nose crinkled,

"Ech." he stuck his tongue out childishly, "He smells of slowly decaying paint..."

He sniffed the air a little as the 'man' disappeared before sighing in relief,

"Don't take this the wrong way Miss Matthews, that is a wonderful talent, but..." he stuck his tongue out again, "To someone like me it wreeks to high heaven."

He chuckled a little and patted Charlotte on the head,

"Don't worry little soft soft... endurance comes with practice." he smirked, "How many times do you think I went intangible... only to wide up half stuck in a wall? Or to only be able to turn my body invisible, leaving a disembodied, floating, head?"

Charlotte yawned a little and stretched herself out a little, she was right, it did always make her tired but she needed to get a whole lot better at it, she needed to push herself harder so that Charlotte would be able to be useful for a change.

"I'm sorry about that, maybe you should stop being creepy and smelling people all the time hmmmm?" Charlotte joked

Taking off her jacket Charlotte lay it down on the bed and moved her hands up her scarred arms hoping that she would get better, lightly her fingers traced the bite marks which stood silvery against her skin. Charlotte frowned lightly.

"I need to get better, and fast."

Her eyebrow rose a little, what did he just call her? Soft Soft? Why the hell....? Laughing lightly at her new nickname Charlotte came to actually like it, it was quite nice, better than ones she could have had.

"I need to be able to defend myself...I need to have the upper hand."

Cobalt thought about it for awhile, sitting back down in the simple wooden chair so that he could consider Charlotte in relative comfort. He was getting older. He'd know this for years now, and he knew what it meant. It meant that he was slowly but surely losing his edge. And a knife without an edge was useless.

Of course there were options open to him because he had not yet reached that point, in fact he'd only just reached the apex of his skill. He was as good now as he was likely to ever get due to the physical limitations of his body. One of the options was to simply continue his line of work. He could still poison a person with grey hair after all. The problem with this was that, right now, he was the best of the best. Every assassin looked to him as the person to beat. So as soon as he tried to climb back down the ladder into a slower pace... he'd be their biggest target.

Another opton was to simply run away and disappear. And while Cobalt was uniquely suited for this option... he had already thrown it out the window a long time ago.

The final option was fiendish, almost Slytherin-like. He'd train an apprentice, perhaps more than one. That way they would be able to protect him from anyone trying to make a name for themselves by killing him and his legacy as an assassin would be continued. Hell, he might even be able to set up his own agency if he got enough recruits. But it had to start somewhere, and this little girl, frightened of being weak, had given him his first potential apprentice. He smiled a little and stood up. Walking over to Charlotte, he extended his hand,

"You want to stop being weak... you want to be the hunter instead of the hunted." he paused, "I can help you with that."

Charlotte raised her eyebrow when Professor Smith walked over to her, she looked at his hand for a moment before she took it gently in her own paint covered ones with a small smile on her face. She would do anything to get stronger, anything to defend herself...and the people she held dear.

"You can...? What do you propose to do about it...?"

She kept herself skeptical, there had to be a motive for why Professor Smith was offering her help, and she might not accept it depending on the conditions he placed upon it. Charlotte still kept the smile on her face and wondered if she should ask him...deciding it would be best to she coughed slightly;

"And, if you help me...what must I do in return?"

Cobalt smiled easily,

"Checking the terms of the agreement before even entertaining the idea... very Slytherin." he nodded a little, "And another reason to offer you this deal."

He flicked his wrist slightly in a very simple movement. What was different from a regular person flicking their wrist was that Cobalt now held a throwing knife by it's tip. With barely any movement of his fingers the knife flew through the air to slam into the head of one of the practice dummies. He glanced back at Charlotte,

"I need an oath from you Charlotte. I want you to swear that you will never reveal my true occupation to anyone unless it will either save my life or I ask you to." he gave her a piercing stare, "Fair's fair Miss Matthews. I swore an oath from you and now I need you to trust me enough to do that same."

Charlotte gulped softly when she saw Professor Smith throw a knife into the head of one of the dummies, she hadn't even known that he had a knife in his hand. She nodded lightly and prepared an oath that might be suitable for Professor Smith, she decided that she would mimic his own one from earlier.

"I Charlotte Ruby Matthews do swear on my magic that I will never reveal Professor Smith's true occupation to anyone else unless it is to save him from death or he asks me to do so."

She hoped that would be enough for the Professor and he wouldn't ask for a blood bonding ritual, with her powers, they hurt more than anything else.

Cobalt looked at her through calculating eyes for a little bit longer before he smiled a little,

"That will do Miss Matthews." he waved his hand and the Room provided two armchairs beside a new fireplace, "Please... take a seat."

He sat down in his own seat and steepled his hands together as he looked over at Charlotte,

"Miss Matthews... as you may have guessed, I'm not a Potions Professor through choice." he paused for a moment, "My... business offers a service to people from all ends of society, as long as they can pay. It is a very old business and it has, in some shape or form, always existed. And it falls to me, and a few others, to make sure that it continues into the future with the best people possible."

Smiling slightly, he leant back in his chair a little,

"My name is Cobalt Smith. I am a professional assassin. I am a master of poison, bullet, blade, infiltration and stealth. And my business is that of dealing death for money." he pointed at her, "And you Miss Matthews... are exactly what I'm looking for in an apprentice."

Charlotte took a seat, a little bit nervous now, she wasn't sure what he was going to say, Charlotte played once more with the ring on her finger it was something she always did to take her mind off what was happening in real life. She was definitely anxious to hear what he had to say to her, how he was so good at what he did.

Her mouth curled slightly up at the sides into a small smile, Charlotte now could make sense of the reason why Professor Smith was so good at throwing knives and why he was a new potions teacher.

"Well...that makes a lot of sense." Charlotte mused

Ears pricking up and a faint blush crossing her cheeks Charlotte crossed her ankles and threaded her fingers together.

"How so Professor Smith?"

Cobalt shrugged a little,

"Simple really. You have the drive needed." he gestured at the painting, "You have an inate desire to improve your skills and to no be weak. To need no one's protection. That is needed in my business. You will constantly have to improve or you will be over-taken and perhaps killed."

Now looking up at the ceiling he yawned a little,

"You have two specialist abilities, one of which will be supremely useful once you've been train up a little bit. The other..." he paused for a second before shrugging, "Well it will make one hell of a surprise weapon. After all, no one expects the Mona Lisa to come to life and straggle a man to death."

Looking back at her he slowly pulled a pistol out of his jacket,

"I must ask this now... do you have a problem with using some Muggle technology?" he waved at her a little as he placed the pistol on the ground, "I'm not a muggle lover or anything but I acknowledge that sometimes the best way to kill a wizard is with a muggle weapon. Most think that they are no threat until they're bleeding to death rather rapidly."

He paused,

"Do you have any questions?"

Charlotte nodded at everything that he said, it all made sense and of course her specialist abilities would come in very handy when she had trained them up a bit, it was her greatest desire to be able to make all of her paintings come to life at once...partly because it would look cool...and partly because the person would die...horribly.

"No...no...I don't have any except when do we start?"

With a slight smile Charlotte yawned softly and nuzzled her head into the armchair, resting it on the arm, she was so sleepy right now. She shouldn't have used up that energy demonstrating to Professor Smith, Charlotte yawned again but tried to keep herself awake. She didn't want to fall asleep...what could happen to her?

Cobalt flicked his wrist again and a plain, short, knife appeared in his hand. He spun it around his fingers idly for a for moments before extending it to Charlotte handle first,

"This knife is your life now Charlotte." he told her seriously, "You will not leave this knife behind. Where you go, the knife goes. You will not neglect the knife, as you would not neglect your life. It must become as important to you as the air your breathe."

He reached into his pocket and held out a vial to her with his other hand,

"Pepper Up Potion. The first lesson begins now and I can't have you falling asleep."

Charlotte took the knife from Professor Smith and ran her finger along the blade, a long thin cut appeared on her finger and she smiled licking up the blood, the blade was nice and sharp which was good. She raised her eyebrow but Charlotte took the vial and drank the potion, swallowing it in big gulps.

"That. Is disgusting."

She muttered, but now at least she felt wide awake and able to get up and train once more, Charlotte thought this potion might come in handy later on in her training.

"So...what are we doing then? Knife work?"

Charlotte asked curiously.